Overnight Babysitting

When Chuck's little sister chose to get married in Salt Lake it was a very good day because that meant that the Izatt's were forced to drive to Utah and therefore visit us for a little bit.

We also took these two little rugrats to our house with us overnight so Chuck and Jana could attend the temple and dinner without having to worry about the little guys. It was a little different going from 1/2 a baby to 2 whole boys in one night but we semi managed it.

Like for instance we kept them alive, fed, and their diapers clean, but as for clothes, well they had to wait for their Mom to pick them up the next morning to get those.
There is a lack of toys in this house, but we do have stairs which can be very fun. Until little Wilbur loses his footing and stumble rolls down like 6 steps and almost plummets to the tile floor only to miraculously stop seconds before his head hits. No injury or crying, but I am pretty sure it scared the crap out of him (not literally thank goodness).

We don't have a designated time out rug, but when little boys are bad we can cage them under our bar stools. It worked rather nicely.

Luckily after just 20 hours or so Jana and Chuck were back to save their children from us. And sorry again for not taking them to church. Our Clyde alarm clock was a little broken that morning. For some reason it waited until 10:20 to come tell us it was day time and we needed to wake up.

We had fun hanging out with you, even if it was for just a short while.And thanks Amanda and Steve for making it all possible. Congratulations guys!

A Rachel Baby Birthday!

Our little Rachel Baby had a Christmas birthday. Good thing she is the spoiled youngest so she doesn't really get the shaft like most Christmas babies :)

I just wanted to let you know I forgive you for choosing my seat and pillow to comfort you when you turned green, were feeling really car sick, and were on the verge of puking. Last time I leave my door open.

We will just call it even because now this is on the internet...

but that is what happens when you are the youngest and your older siblings have their own cameras to take pictures of you.

Remember when Sam and I came to watch your third grade Wizard of Oz play? It's kind of weird to think when I did this play I was also the wicked witch, but you were not even alive yet. Crazy. Well you did a great job with the character...

possibly because you have had a lot of practice in real life :) ...
I am very glad you are in our family. You were a good guinea pig for me to practice my mothering skills.
My wedding dress would have gotten super dirty without you there...

You keep me skinny from laughing at all of your weird jokes.

And you test my patience with all of your mini-Janet quirks...

Happy Birthday Rachel. Life wouldn't be the same without you. We love you a lot!!!

A Chuck Birthday!

One time every year a special day rolls around, and that day is Chuck's birthday. Chuck is more than just your friendly neighborhood arms specialist, he is a family man.
For example, when his firstborn said that he wanted to be an astronaut....
....he flung him into orbit to see if he liked it (which of course Clyde did).

And when young William asked where babies come from....
...he took him to the zoo to show him the apes that humans evolved from.

He taught me that no matter how many continents you hold in RISK, none of it means anything without Australia.

And if I remember correctly these pictures told a story that went something like this...
Jana-"Just pretend I'm not even here."

Jana-"CHUCK! Now I have to take another one. Smile right this time."

Chuck-"What?! Its not really a candid photo if you tell me exactly what to do."

Happy Birthday Chuck! We love you!

Police Beat

Halloween started a little early for us, like 4:30am early, when I was lovingly awoken by my drunk neighbor shouting he was going to kill some guy. I believe his exact words were "I gonna kill you real quick, man. I gonna kill you real quick." Hearing this shouted over and over peaked my curiosity, so I immediately crawl over Sam (trying to wake him up) and look out my bedroom window. And what did I see? A guy holding a gun, shoving it in some other guy's face as he continues to shout he is going to kill him. Awesome, I am about to witness a murder.

I turned and jumped on Sam, shouting for him to wake up and call 911 because there was a drunk guy about to kill someone. Now the good thing with waking Sam up in this scary fashion is he gives you an immediate reaction full of jumping up grabbing the blinds and mumbling incoherent words. The bad news is sometimes his nightmares ignite similar reactions so you can never tell whether he is truly awake or just sleep talking/moving.

After getting Sam under control and on the phone we watched out the window for the next hour as the cops showed up, diffused the situation, and arrested one guy. The dispatcher told us to go outside and give the officers our statements, but there was no way I was going to let the hooligans know it was us that called so we chose to stay anonymous and hide out in our house while we spied on the situation.

The Good News: No one got killed, we got some good entertainment for a few hours (even though it affected prime sleeping time), and I don't think anything got traced back to us!

The Bad News: I am tired, my nightmares that deceased after cutting out law and order from my TV watching have now come back, oh yeah, and my crazy neighbor has a gun.

It was a Brandon Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to Brandon. Here are a few reasons why we are big fans:

He is brave. I remember growing up I wouldn't even let Connie practice french braiding my hair because I didn't trust her enough to not pull or tangle it all up, and here he is being numero uno guinea pig with the whole I can sew up large fresh wounds. What a trooper:)


He is forgiving. He still likes us (or at least we think he does) even though we bailed on the Moab trip last minute because of the whole studying for the MCAT thing. Silly Sam.

He volunteers so I don't have to. Like that one time when Connie ran that all nighter race and wanted me to be the volunteer, and then I volunteered Brandon to do it and he agreed even though he probably didn't really want to. Thanks again for that.

He is a very good mountain biker.

And he is very smart. Even though he didn't think Connie and I were sisters upon first meeting, but that sort of thing could happen to anyone, right :)

Happy Birthday Brandon!!! We love you!!!

It's my Mama's Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to the best Mom in the world! I want to be just like you when I grow up.

Like for instance be beautiful and happy while raising three kids under three. On second thought, I don't think I could pull that one off so lets just say I will try to happily and beautifully raise one.

Learn how to cook as good as you. Which probably involves making a larger variety than three meals and four desserts.

Maybe I can have kids one day that love me so much they like to follow me around wherever I go, even when they are grown adults. Unfortunately, this probably means that I will never get to sit next to Sam during church so we might have to rethink this one as well.

And I know for sure that my kids will never get pets like we did. No Humphrey, Clyde, Ruffy, or Sapphire's for my babies. You and Sam are wrong for thinking I will change my mind.

You sacrifice your hatred for camping and wrangle the troops to live in the dirt every once in awhile. Something I consider very praiseworthy.

Plan my entire wedding because I am too lazy to do it.

And make a twelve hour trek to come to a graduation that I did not even care about.

Mom, I love you so much and don't know what I would do without you. You are the best Mom, and the seven of us could not have asked for anything better.

Happy Birthday!!! We love you a ton!!!

Happy Birthday Papa Galeria!!!

Happy Birthday to my favorite Dad, and the best Police Officer I know. We really appreciated you coming all the way to Utah so you could celebrate the special day with us! And a special thanks to Dana for starting school on yours and Dad's birthday so he didn't have a choice in coming.

Of course there are other uniforms that you look snazzy in as well, whether it be a a white jumpsuit at my baptism...

...or a black tux at my reception.

I know that you are starting to see the retirement light at the end of the raising 7 kids tunnel, but just remember that it won't be long till grandchildren arrive!

What is important is that even though you work very hard, you still find time to play hard.

Whether by land...

...or by sea.

I am grateful for all the experiences we have had together over the years,

and I'm looking forward for many more to come.

Happy Birthday Dad, we love you!