Miracles

I would say we had a miraculous weekend. Adam went to the REI garage sale and on the first mtn. bike ride of the season on Saturday. The kids and I planted some seeds and enjoyed looking at the first spring flowers. I had the young women over on Saturday night for a fondue party and to watch the Young Women General Broadcast. We had 9 girls, one mom, and two leaders. We had two fondue pots for oil, one for cheese and one for chocolate. It turned out delicious, but it went quickly and I'm sure they all left hungry. The Broadcast was wonderful. There was a sister who talked about being in the Boston Marathon and coming to mile 20, nicknamed "Heartbreak Hill". She talked about how alone she felt, even though she was in a big city with thousands of people around her. She was able to pray and found the strength to finish the race. We all feel that way sometimes and we are always able to turn to our Heavenly Father. There were some other great stories, but the best was Elder Eyring's talk. He said, "Because you are so valuable, some of your trials will be severe." Those words really struck me. I kept repeating them in my mind for the next 24 hours during which time a family in our ward went through a severe trial. Right after the broadcast, Sister Annette Tillemann-Dick (shown in photo in bottom left) got a call that her husband was in a car accident and was on a Flight-For-Life to St. Anthony's Hospital. She left quickly with her two daughters. At almost the same moment, Adam and our kids were at the park with two other families flying kites at a park right next to St. Anthony's. They watched the Flight-For-Life helicopter land at the hospital and received a call moments later that Timber had been in an accident and needed a blessing. They even saw Annette and her daughters pull into the parking lot and were able to talk with her and offer comfort. It was a miracle that they were so close because after they gave the blessing Timber had to get in the helicopter again to go to University Hospital's burn unit. Timber was driving in the mountians, his tire blew out and his car rolled down an embankment and caught on fire. Two men witnessed the accident, pulled a fire extinguisher out of their car and used it to save Timber's life. He has severe burns over 70% of his body, broken ribs & collerbone, and a bruised brain. He went in for surgery right away. We found out today that his lungs look really good. He will probably have to spend months in the burn unit, but he will most likely make it through. The Tillamann-Dick's have 11 children. There were many more miracles that we've witnessed that I don't feel I should share right now. I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who helps us be instruments in His hands and provides a way for us to "morn with those that morn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort" (Mosiah 18:9).

Another Sick Day

Poor Tristan started running a fever yesterday, so we canceled our plans to go up to my mom's. He likes to dump the crayon box out and carefully put them back in while I do stuff in the kitchen. I saw him trying to put a crayon between his big toe and second toe. He then tried to walk around that way, but it didn't really work out for him. Then Sierra made a big "nest" in the living room and Tristan joined in. My two little sickies. I suppose Kaia is next. Something to look forward to next week.
Something about this cold makes me lose brain power. I went to make a double batch of waffels this morning and left out four eggs. They were awful waffel.

Sierra's Artwork

Sierra took a picture of the painting she made a few months ago (below the painting are some flowers Adam suprised me with a few days ago). I found this canvas on sale at Michaels and I couldn't pass it up. Sierra did all the painting, I just helped with the mixing of paint and position of a few objects. The next picture is Sierra's "popcorn tree". We got the idea from Aunt Darla and Cole. Sierra was trying to keep Kaia from getting into the picture, but Kaia didn't want to be left out.

Sierra's Ear

Poor little Sie-bear had her ear drum burst on Monday.I feel like she's been on the couch for a week. I took her to the doctor on Monday afternoon while my friend Marisol watched Tristan and Kaia. The doctor really downplayed it and said that ruptured ear drums happened all the time and it would heal up fine with or without antibiotics. But my sweet grandma talked me into getting the antibiotics. If you ever have to pay out of pocket for prescriptions, check out Costco, they have great prices.
The good news is, she is feeling much better, almost normal. We ventured out to the grocery store. Kaia has returned to the world of instant melt-downs. Today we are inches from entering the store when she decides she is cold and needs her sweatshirt, which was back in the truck. I told her she'd be fine because it was nice and warm inside. That didn't work and the first half of our trip involved a lot of crying, feet stomping and whining. During check out, there was another kid having a melt down in the next isle over. The checker, who appeared to be child-less, made a comment about how all the kids were losing it today. What happened next goes down as Reason #52 why Tristan is Adam's Mini-Me. Adam usually deals with crying and whining by mimicking the noise back to the victim. When the crying kid passed by Tristan, Tristan turned on him and made the same noise, a long dramatic whail. I saw about five people bust into laughter, including the mother of the crying child. It was pretty funny.

Easter

We missed out on a big, festive Easter this year because we all have some sort of cold/flu. Adam made us ham, green beans, rolls, stuffing, and "marshmallow yam cake". It was fun. The videos I took of Kaia and Sierra explaining what Easter means didn't really turn out, but I'm sure you can imagine. On Saturday, Adam took the girls up to Regis University for an Easter Egg hunt

. Sierra won the golden ticket and came home with the biggest Easter basket I've ever seen. It came with a giant pillow, mirror, cosmetic case, feather pen, photo frame, fiber optic lamp, door hager, lip gloss, and hair scrunchie. I managed to hide the lip gloss and now I cannot remember where I put it, which is a good thing. Kaia was pretty jealous, but I think she got over it because Sierra is a fairly good at sharing. After that they went to a swim birthday party. Tristan and I spent most the day at home, sleeping, trying to get over this cold.
I know it is annoying that our pictures have a palm tree shadow behind them. But if you click on the pic, you can see it better.

Videos

I know these videos are short and seemingly pointless. But to me they represent something far greater. Moments missed on film, only the horrible reenactment to share with others. The other day, Tristan climbed onto the rocking chair (which used to be mine), started rocking and saying "weeeee". When I grabbed the camera in hopes of a repeat, Kaia had to get involved and showed how gentle she is with her little brother. Then the next video is Tristan discovering his shadow, for the second time. The first time was hilarious. He kept hitting the wall and talking to the shadow. But maybe I'm getting cabin fever and thinking strange things are funny and delightful.

A walk in the park

Liesl invited us to walk around Sloans Lake with her and Marisa and the kids this morning. Sierra was sick the past two days so I insisted that she and Kaia ride in the double stroller. This led to a lot of fighting about who snatched whose grapes, and who was squishing who, etc. Tristan rode on my back in the Mai Tai and didn't fight with anyone. One thing the girls did agree on was that mom should run each time we crossed a bridge. I always find it difficult to run, let alone when I'm pushing two and carrying one on my back. At one point Kaia said, "Are you walking?" when I was doing my best to run. That's when I knew I better just stick with walking. Here are some pictures of our day.

Utah Trip

This is my wonderful sister-in-law, Ellynn the Professional Hairstylist. Here are the before and after shots. This is my fourth donation to Locks of Love.

Here is Tony and the amazing baby Indie. She turns one tomorrow! See their family link under Tony and Jessica Smith.
We drove out to Utah this weekend for Rob Epperson's funeral. It was a bitter sweet trip because we also got to enjoy the company of so many family members. We stayed with Ryan and Jacki Beecher (only Ryan was riding his motorcycle in the California Baja) for two nights. Then we headed up to Kaysville. Above is a picture of the fondue party at the Rigbys. No fires this time.
Here are all the kids that were running around at the Rigbys. I think there are 12 in this picture.

I should post more, but I've been trying to get this on here all day. More later.

Joy School

A day in the life...
We have Joy School at our house every Tuesday. Sierra, Kaia, Riyan, Josslin, & Lafaitauetele (I totally spelled that wrong, we just call him Lafai). It is quite the scene and I plan on making a weekly post about the festivities.

Numero Uno

This is a very exciting day. Our very own blog. We have no intention (I say "we" as though I will not be the sole family poster on this here blog, hummm...) of slacking on our first family blog (www.beechfamilytree.blogspot.com). Only to add more embellishments, friend links, etc. I named it "Blog Out" because that is my favorite blog related saying. Similar to "peace out" or "over and out good buddy", etc.
The first blog story that I'd like to post is a little diddy about how the table caught on fire at our fondue party on Saturday night. Adam is an avid, die-hard lover of fondue, and luckily the two couples we pal around with are too. We had four pots going: two with oil, one with Cory & Meagan's fondue cheese, and the other with chocolate. We had chicken (pre-boiled which we discovered we prefer), steak, Liesl and Jeremy's handmade apple wantons (with caramel to dip them in), lots of fruit, and some bread. It was a heavenly spread. The only problem was that the little stoves kept requiring more denatured alcohol. During one of many fill ups, Marcus found himself holding a stove that was entirely on fire. Poor Marcus was unable to hold onto that little, round demon of flame for long. He dropped it onto the table where many things suddenly burst into flame. The Styrofoam bowl of chicken, several bowls of dipping sauce, a fondue wand, and the paint on the table were all burning. It was exciting, but fear started to creep in once Marcus discovered he couldn't just blow it out. There were also 11 kids in the back ground, running amuck with ketchup on their fingers, some wisely made the suggestion that we call 911. I'll never forgive myself for not grabbing my camera at that moment, but I was pondering how I could collect the kids and evacuate. It wasn't that bad and after a little more blowing and some baking powder, all was well and we were back to eating. The following picture is Adam, Marcus and Jeremy keeping things under control with a near miss on fondue table fire #2 later that evening.