August 2015

Mooker (Michael) and Emily got married in August.  We were able to take all of our kids on a plane to Boise, Idaho.  The girls had really been looking forward to going on a plane for a long time.  However, the day we left Andrea and Steve had a fever.  They didn't throw up, but they did not feel well and Jessica was absolutely horrible.  I (Tausha) stood in the back of the plane with her for almost half of the flight.  But we made it to Boise.  We stayed our first night in the Hilton Hotel with mom, dad, and Matt and Melanie.  Then the next day we went to a fun park with Matt and Melanie and then out to eat. Then we went to my cousin Sara and Ryan's house.  It was so good to see her and her family.  We went to the school play ground and played, painted finger nails, had delicious dinner, and watched a movie. It was a fun girls party while Steve went to Dave and Busters to celebrate Mooker's last night of being single.  The next day was the wedding and it was perfect.  The weather was gorgeous, the sealing room was so beautiful, the luncheon was wonderful, and the reception was absolutely gorgeous.  The girls sang "LOVE" at the luncheon and held up their letters.  Rachel cried through most of it because she was so tired.  Steve held Jessica while Jessica held her letter.  It was really adorable.  The parents each gave a speech and each sibling gave little gifts to the new in-law to help prepare them for their new spouse.  We gave sunscreen, cold stone gift card, ice cream scoop, and a bent golf club.  I made the LOVE letters by wrapping yarn around each letter.  It was way more time consuming than I thought it would be, but they turned out really cute.

At the end of the month Rachel started Preschool at Packer Preschool. Chris Packer is her teacher.  Mom got to volunteer and help out the first day of class which was nice.  Jessica decided that she wanted to start going potty on the toilet like her sisters, so we got often now.  She still can't talk, but she gestures that she needs to go.  We had an Open House for Mooker and Emily here in Arizona.  We helped daddy clean his office because it was a horrible mess. Mom went to a crafting day and made a clip board to help us stay more organized. We watched So You Think You Can Dance outside by the pool.

One of the most memorable things that happen in August was that Andrea fell onto a cactus.  I went out to lunch at IHOP with my friend Katie and her kids.  I took the bigger kids outside while Katie finished up with her two younger kids.  While I was helping Jessica on the grass the older girls were running and apparently jumping on the rocks.  Andrea slipped off of one of the rocks and caught herself on a big saguaro cactus.  3 needles went right into her forehead and several others went into both hands and up her left arm.  She let out a blood curtailing scream and I knew she was in real pain. I rushed over to her and saw about 10 needles still poking out.  She was so traumatized that I couldn't get her to hold still so I had to pin her between my two legs and just hurry and yank each one out.  Then I tried to walk her quickly to the car so we could get home to wash the rest out.  She screamed the entire time.  Katie came to the house to help me.  We sprayed her hand with the spray they gave me at the hospital after I had Jessica which is a type of witch hazel to try and numb her hand.  Then I used some tweezers and tried for a half hour.  Then we decided to give her a little break.  I called the doctor and they said they could get us in. Steve came home from work to watch the other two girls for a couple hours while I took Andrea to the doctor.  The doctor didn't numb it or anything. I just took some tweezers to her hands and dug around for 30 minutes.  She was very traumatized be the end of that visit, so we decided to wait until the next day to get the rest out.  The next day I had her watch a movie and I held a piece of ice on one sliver for a few seconds then dug to pull it out and I did this over and over for 2 hours until I got most all of them out.  She still had a big one in her forehead though.  A few days later after and hour of trying to get it out, Steve finally got a big sliver out of her forehead.  She was a trouper through the whole thing.  We will definitely be sure to watch out for cacti in the future.

Highlights from the month:
Andrea went to Big Surf with Sadie.  She had so much fun. She even went down the scary dark rides.
Dad got called to the Young Men's. Mom got called to be a primary counselor.
Jessica folds her arms now.
Rachel made a deer out of blocks. It was incredible!
Jessica went pee in the toilet and was so excited that she started flapping her arms up and down and screaming her high pitched scream.
The girls took a whole box of Reeces pieces into their room while playing with Sadie and they ate the whole thing then came and told me later.
Andrea's permanent tooth is coming in behind her bottom front tooth and it is really hurting.
By the end of the month Jessica can go pee on demand.  She also likes the slide.
Andrea practices piano now and Rachel wants to play too.