Pinewood derby

Hayden had his second pinewood derby on Tuesday April 30th.  He and Kev worked hard to get his car ready.  He painted it blue with Eagle and star decals on it.  Hayden's car was recognized for being the "most patriotic".

Hayden earned a couple more belt loops. Erik Lindsay is a great cub scout leader and makes things fun for the boys. You got to love those crazy cub scout cheers they come up with!

Hayden watching the races with his friend Brody.  Parker also got to help again this year.

Hayden's car was fast.  He won every race by several car lengths.  It was fun to hear Parker cheering loudly for him. 

Hayden won first place for the second year in a row!  His friends Justin Hatch and Tom Lindsay got second and third place.

Hayden with all the boys in his cub scout troop.

Parker brought his winning car from years earlier.  He raced Hayden at the end.  Hayden's car won him.  

Mckenna decided to photobomb this pic.  It was nice of her to come and support Hayden.

It was another big night for Hayden.  We love our brown eyed boy!

Chondromalacia Patella

My left knee started hurting me at the beginning of January.  In the past when my knees started to hurt I knew it was time to get some new running shoes. This time I put off getting the shoes and my knee got worse.  I finally went and spent the 120 dollars for new shoes.  The next time I ran I was fine and thought that I was back to normal. But then my left knee started bothering me again. In early February I talked with my brother-in-law Spence about it.  He has been going to school to be a physical therapist.  He told me to massage the area of my knee where it was bothering me, stretch before I ran, and to ice it afterwards.  I really appreciated his advice and it did help temporarily.  I kept running and by March it was getting worse.  My knees hurt walking up and down stairs, when I was wearing heels, and I could no longer kneel down.  It was really frustrating!  I seriously felt like an old woman.  I began to worry even more because my side of the family is notorious for having bad knees.  My Dad just had double knee replacements this last year.  It got to the point where I couldn't run anymore.  I finally decided to go see a doctor by the end of March.  My Uncle Mark is an orthopedic surgeon that is no longer practicing.  He gave me some names of a few surgeons I could go see.  I chose one that had his office in Provo.  They took some x-rays of my knees while I was there. The surgeon said that my knee bones were not damaged. I was relieved to hear that.  He did say that my patella on my left knee was at a slightly different angle than normal.  He recommended that I have an MRI on my knee.  His prediction was that I might have a torn meniscus.  I went to have my MRI on March 28th.  I was a little nervous because I didn't know what to expect but also was ready to get some answers.  I got to wear these scrubs for the MRI.  They were really comfortable!  I had to be in the machine up to my neck.  I only had to lay there for about fifteen minutes. The technician put a warm blanket on me and I actually felt really comfortable. I  almost could have taken a nap if it wasn't for the loud noises from the machine.  They told me to wait a few days and the doctor would contact me. It ended up being a couple weeks before I heard anything. The first time I called the doctor hadn't made any notes yet.  I called several more times before they finally called me.  I didn't have a meniscus tear.  I was somewhat relieved that I wouldn't have to go through surgery.  They told me I had Chondromalicia Patella and would need physical therapy.  I was really discouraged at this point.  It had been a couple months since I could run and overall I just felt awful.  I started Physical Therapy at a clinic about 10 minutes away from where I live.  Physical therapy ended up being a really positive experience for me.  It did take me out of my comfort zone though.  The therapist explained on my first visit that I had fissures in the cartilage around my patella.  They were going to have me come two times a week for the next four weeks.  The plan was to teach me exercises to strengthen my hips and upper thighs.  Which in turn would take some of the pressure off my knees. I usually felt fine after physical therapy.  It wasn't until later that night I would realize how sore I was.  Some nights I would be moving around like an old lady! They also taped my patella to align it in the right place.  I didn't mind the taping and felt that it gave me more support.  I was really impressed with all the people that worked at this office.  They were encouraging, helpful, educated, and really make a difference in their jobs. A couple weeks after I started the PT decided to let me try running on their treadmill.  He filmed me running and then gave me some advice.  He told me that I'm what's called a heel striker.  He said that I take really long strides when I run and that was putting extra strain on my knees.  He explained that he was going to retrain how I run.  I was a little skeptical when I first heard this. He put on a metronome at 165 bpms and had me run to the beat.  I was surprised when I could run without any pain in my knee.  I started being able to run again for about 10 minutes at home as well.  I'm now working on getting back to running how I was before all this.  I just ended my four weeks of therapy and was told I'm finished. I now have a great respect for people working in this profession.  I'm very grateful that the pain has gone away and I can run again!

Easter

We dyed eggs on the Saturday before Easter.  Two of the Baker girls, Paige and Maddi joined us.

We love having lots of hard boiled eggs to eat.  Halle's favorite is when I make egg salad sandwiches for them.

On Sunday morning the kids went searching for their Easter baskets.  Some were more awake than others.  Mckenna and Halle just wanted to stay on the couch.

Halle was surprised to see that the Easter bunny brought her a stuffed bunny.

We got all dressed up for church and took some pictures.

The kids looked cute in their Sunday best.

I'm glad we took pictures before church because it rained the rest of the day.  I was grateful to be able to sing with our ward choir for Easter.  

It was wet and cold so we had the egg hunt inside this year.  The kids still had a great time though.

The kids had fun seeing what they got in all their eggs.  We had to remind them to not eat too much candy before dinner.

We had a nice dinner of lamb and ham.  It was fun talking with my cousins.

Addy had fun eating with Elle, Hazel, and Charlie.

We are grateful to Grandma for having us all over.  It is one of our favorite family traditions with her.  I am thankful for Easter Sunday and the chance to be able to focus on the life and resurrection of the Savior.  I'm grateful for the hope he brings to me. I look forward to the day when I can be together with my mom, grandma, and other family members who have passed on.

Feels like Spring!

Addy and I had some time on a Monday so we drove to the Mount Timpanogos temple. It is our closest temple to our house.  I realized that I don't take Addy often enough to the temple grounds.  

It was a nice day and the temple spring flowers were beautiful!  I took some pictures of my cute Addy!

She even offered to take one of me too.  I thought it turned out good and even have it as my profile picture on Instagram.

We even took a mother-daughter selfie.  It was nice to have some time to just spend with her. 

We walked around the temple and found this beautiful tree with spring blossoms. 

Addy looked so small standing next to the temple.  I can't believe she will be 8 in just six months.  She is really looking forward to getting baptized like all her friends!

Spring break

The kids had their Spring break on April 1-7th.  Kenna's friend Abby works at Crumbl cookie and surprised us with this box of cookies. The Nutella one is my favorite and I even ate one for breakfast!

Kev took the girls four wheeling by our house.

We spent a couple days at the cabin.  It still looked like winter up there.  Kev and the kids went snowmobiling around Smith and Morehouse.

They had fun kicking snow drifts off the outhouse.  This picture was taken right before Kenna ended up kicking Hayden in the head.

I came down with a bad head cold while we were there.  Kev got me some Nyquil so I could sleep through the night.  This was not the way I wanted to spend spring break. 

We went to eat at Hi-Mountain Drug for dinner one night.

Parker ordered this giant frosted mug of rootbeer.  The food is always hot and fresh there.

We headed North from the cabin to Crystal Hot Springs.  It was pouring rain most of the time we were there.

It was nice to stay warm in the pools.  The steam even helped with my congestion.

The kids enjoyed going down the waterslides.  Kev reminisced about the last time he went there as a teenager.  He slid into a larger mans back and broke his nose.

Kev ended up having to work some of the week.  He was excited about the rocket static test fire that they had. We were able to watch it streaming live from Facebook. The kids and I hung out at home the rest of the week.  There were a couple nice weather days where the kids played outside.

Hayden had fun riding scooters with his friend Mason.  Mckenna went with her friend Brooke to Arizona for the rest of the week.  It was fun hearing about her spring break adventures when she got back.