End of 2009

Where do I start to catch up 2009? Here we go in order from our last post:

Will was a Zebra for Halloween. He was happy, as always, but obviously is too young for candy. That didn't stop his brothers from collecting candy for him--they just didn't share it :)

As holidays approached, Angie made the cutest gingerbread houses with the kids. She even had some of our friends over. She is amazing!!

In early December Chandler ran his first Triathlon with Chris (Chris' second). Chandler was second in the pool, top 10 on the run and did awesome!! He wants to keep doing them with Chris.

On Christmas Eve we have our own weird traditions: big dinner, talent show, nativity, singing carols and of course, desert! We used to mix in bowling and a movie but we've had to spread Christmas Eve over a couple of days. It was too exhausting as it was. Angie's talent this year was making jam for people (last year she compiled a Christmas caroling song book). Jackson and Chandler baked (cake and cookies, respectively), while Chris and Christopher both did stand up routines. There were jokes ranging from knock knock jokes (Christopher) and material about "Mrs. Claus is so lazy" (Chris). Jackson enjoying some dinner:

Will got to be baby Jesus for the Nativity. Chandler was Joseph, Jackson was a wise man and Christopher was a shepherd.

Christmas day brought wonderful presents for all. They all loved opening presents!

This week Will's adoption was finalized in Utah. Here we are with the Judge that approved and finalized the adoption. We are so grateful! It was more of a hearing than either of us knew. We testified, the adoption agency testified and the Judge asked a few questions. In the end we both got a little misty-eyed when the adoption agency and the Judge both said they found it was in Will's best interest to be with us. Here we are with the Judge after the hearing:

Finally the boys got to enjoy playing in the Utah snow. Here is Chandler sledding with a cousin (Hinckley):

Here is Jackson taking a nasty spill:

Here is a link to a youtube video of Christopher taking a big jump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nIKtrqVh_U

See you all in 2010!

Our Beach Vacation

We had a great beach vacation for fall break. It was one of the first times I was sad to come home. It was such a relaxing week. The boys spent 4 days boogie boarding and playing in the sand, Will spent 4 days sleeping on the beach and I spent 4 days reading on the beach. We also spent some time at Sea World and caught the BYU and San Diego State football game. It was a fantastic vacation!!!

Our Month of August

August was such a fun month for the Miners. It started with the boys going back to school. That is always a good thing for Mom:). Chandler is in 7th, Jackson is in 5th and Christopher is in 4th. Will and I are spending lots of quality time together.



Chris participated in his first triathlon up in Show Low. He swam 25 laps, biked 12 miles and ran a 5k. I think he did great. We loved watching the race. Me and the boys sat on a hill by our hotel and watched him bike up this huge hill.

Chandler is loving 7th grade. He said it's really easy (luckily his grades are all A's). In his math class he has only missed one point so far. He also got his reading level tested. No surprise- he is reading at a 12th grader in his 9th month of school. I don't know where he gets his love of reading.


Jackson is loving 5th grade. His teacher is great and he is being really diligent in his homework. He also earned his Webelos badge this month. He worked really hard over the summer and earned almost all of the Activity badges. He only has 3 left.

Christopher is doing great in 4th grade. He is really getting older. He has also finally got the reading bug. He has been finishing a book a week since school started. I am so happy. I love our house full of readers.



Will is such a great baby. He was 14 lbs 1 oz at his two month check-up. He is also sleeping great. He is usually sleeping through the night which has been great for his "older" parents who were having a rough time with the multiple nighttime feedings. He is so cute and really talking up a storm now. The boys are amazing with him. We are very blessed that he is in our family.


Now that August is over- the craziness begins. Soccer every night and on Saturdays. I hope we are up for it :)!

The End of Summer

Summer is officially over. Chandler started Jr. High today and Jackson and Christopher start on Wednesday. We had a great end of Summer! Chandler experienced his first summer scout camp. I got the call that every parent dreads getting. "Hi, Chandler was in an accident and they are taking him to the hospital"--my heart droped and I started hyperventilating. Chris then finished his sentence"he cut his hand and they think he may need stitches." My heart started beating again and I thought- no big deal only stitches. He ended up with 5 stitches.

Jackson has been trying a new sport this summer. He has started fencing. He has been begging us for 2 years to try it so we finally found a fencing club for him. He has really enjoyed the new sport and is really starting to get into it.

William has become the center of our family. The boys run into his room as soon as they wake up and most of the family fights now revolve around who gets to hold Will. He has 3 great big brothers who are very helpful.

Will loves to sit in his new high chair while we eat dinner.

Christopher holding Will so Mom can have a little break.

Will and his favorite look. He has started smiling and talking to people.

Jackson loves holding Will.

Will is getting bigger and bigger. He is now 6 weeks old and weighs about 12 pounds. He loves to eat!!!

It has been an amazing summer and we feel very grateful for everything that has happened. I am also very happy that the boys get to experience a new year in school :)

What A Month

Here is a quick recap of the last 4 weeks in the Miner family. My Grandmother passed away on June 15th. I think she was very happy to go. The timing led to a tricky situation. We had a scheduled vacation at the end of June and so I decided to drive up to Utah and stay an extra week. Chris was able to fly back and forth so he didn't have to miss too much work. It was wonderful seeing all of the family at the funeral. My Grandma had 56 grandchildren and 53 were able to attend. It was quite a sight. After our time in Idaho we headed back to my parents home for a quite week before our vacation started.

On Wednesday, June 24th, I got a call around 5:00pm. It was the adoption agency that we have been working with. They had a baby being born the next day. Was there any way we could come to Utah for the baby? Everyone was a little shocked to learn that we were already in Utah. The birth mother was induced at 7:oo am and William Hand Miner was born at 1:35pm. He weighed 7 pounds 1 oz and was 21 inches long. We signed the paper work on the 26th and brought him home(to my parents house) on the 26th. While we waited for all the legal stuff to happen, we went ahead with our vacation. A week at Aspen Grove. This was heaven! The boys had activities planned for them for the whole week, there was a great cafeteria, Chris got to play lots of sports and I got to play with Will for a week. It was the perfect way to spend our first week together.

After Aspen Grove finished on the 3rd we found out that all of our paperwork had either been finished or was not going to be necessary so we could leave as planned on the 5th of July.

So after 2 1/2 weeks in Utah we attended a funeral, had a baby, spent a great week on vacation and spent time with 6 of my siblings and all 3 of Chris' siblings. It was an action packed trip!

Trip with the girls

Just wanted to give a quick update of my trip to England. Most people who know me know that England is my favorite place on earth. I certainly enjoyed this trip. I got to drive on really narrow roads, see Stonehenge, eat digestives, eat English sausage, see lots of castles and old buildings, travel to Paris and see Wicked.

Stonehenge

Roman Baths in Bath


Abby in Bath



Notre Dame


Eiffel Tower




Parliment in London




Yeomen at Tower of London

Angie is in England!!

Angie is touring around England this week with some friends and I am attempting to manage the boys by myself. If you are a wife and giggling at the thought of your husband trying to do it all you may be on to something.

I am beginning to suspect that there is a lot more that goes on at home than I am aware of. Apparently there is no a meal fairy that cooks meals, or dishwasher fairy that emptys the dishwasher or homework fairy that tutors the boys through their homework. I think Angie may do some of that stuff!?!?!?

Little things have already stopped working right. Angie was gone less than one hour when I looked up at church and noticed our oldest passing the sacrament with white ankle socks underneath his suit pants. Clearly something that someone (Angie) would have noticed and fixed under normal circumstances!

This morning was our first school morning on our own. I had to make executive decisions about after school activities (yes), book reports (next week when your mother is back) and whether or not batting practice in the backyard could take the place of piano practice this week (yes again--sorry Angie!).

Luckily for me, I have low expectations of myself this week. I will consider the week a success if we can make it through the week with the boys wearing clean clothes to school every day and without starving one of the pets (goldfish or Shaggy the dog). I am going to give myself bonus points for anything else that gets done such as laundry, boys making it to scouts on time, boys playing less than 2 hours of Guitar Hero per day or us eating out no more than once per day.

So if you see my boys wearing the same clothes this week, you will know I have failed miserably and there is a good chance that one or more pets at our house needs to be replaced.

Thank you in advance for your prayers!!

-Chris

A Busy Month

First I apologize for the lack of pictures. My laptop is broken and I am too lazy to transfer the pictures to my desktop.

We started the month off with a fun trip to Las Vegas for my nephews blessing. The boys loved playing with the Shaw boys and I loved holding baby Jacob. He is a beautiful baby.

Jackson turned 10 and had a fun birthday. For his party he wanted to have a nerf war. So we got some boxes and duct tape. The boys made forts and played steal the flag using their nerf guns. It was a fun but easy way to entertain the boys for a couple of hours.

We also finished up our basketball season. Christopher and Jackson both had a good time playing and Christopher was very happy to beat his scoring record from last year.

Chandler turned 12. I don't know how I feel about this but there was nothing I could do about it. He was very excited to turn 12, receive the priesthood, go camping with the scouts, and have his mormitzvah.

My parents came to Arizona for Chandlers big day. We were very happy to have them and keep trying to convince them that Arizona is a great place to retire. I was very happy to have them here. During their visit they got to see they boys pinewood derby, 2 basketball games, 2 baseball practices, Chandler's mormitzvah, a day of church and a nice Sunday dinner.

Chandler's mormitzvah is a fun little tradition that we have started. When a child turns 12 we have a little party and call it a mormitzvah. He had to do some fun things: feats of strength, a blind taste test, shave a balloon, recite 5 generations of his lineage, recite a Hebrew phrase and sing a song in German. He did great!!! We are really proud of who he is and the decisions he has made in his life.

February was exhausting and I am hoping that March will be a little calmer.

I miss summer....(vacations)

I ran across this picture of Christopher on our computer and it made me really antsy to be done with winter. I love how fun and carefree Christopher looks. It's hard to look like that in winter!

I know that Arizona has pretty mild winters and it is 1,000 degrees (Farhenheit, only 600 degrees celcius) in July, but summer has vacations and sneaky three day weekends that involve getting out of town.

That was all I had. Oh, and I took Chandler to the Suns game the other night and he got to high five Shaq, Nash, Amare and all the players. He was very excited.

I was a little surprised they handed out packs of cards to us when we walked in. I thought it would be normal playing cards but they were Suns Dancers cards! Can you believe they handed these out?

I had to get 3 packs just to make sure they are all the same inappropriate cards.

Just a little update

I know- it's about time. It has been a month since our last update-but it seems like it was just a couple of weeks. I can't believe it is already February. Things are a little busy around here- but as always we cope. Jackson and Christopher are in the middle of basketball. Both are doing great. Christopher has improved about 1000%. He has some great coaches and they are very supportive.

Jackson always has to be doing something. This week he met with the principal of his school to try and start a new school club. He wants to start a "Green" club. He created the hand-out and he and his friend met with the principal to present their ideas for the after school club. I was very proud of his ingenuity.

Chandler is counting down the days until he turns 12. He is going on his last 11 year old camp out next week and he is very excited. He is preparing for his birthday and is really excited to receive the priesthood.

I am just trying to keep my planner updated and make sure I don't miss anything.

Angie is throwing up and we visit a hospital!

So Angie woke up feeling sick yesterday. Around 1 pm she began throwing up and did that several times an hour until 8 pm when I threw her in the car and we went to my new favorite hospital, Gilbert Hospital.

Before I go on, I know what you are all thinking: "What? Chris, the FedEx BCS National Championship football game was going on and you stopped watching to take care of Angie? You are a Saint!"

I appreciate your kind thoughts, I really do, but nothing is too good for my Angie! Plus she was puking a lot! I knew our good old friend, Dehydration, would be coming for a visit soon.

The people at Gilbert Hospital could not have been nicer! They gave me a nice chair, they put the football game on a nice small flatscreen in the room for us to watch and they have a soda fountain right there in the ER! Free Diet Cokes all night long! And as an added bonus, they took really good care of Angie.

We were there for a total of 5 1/2 hours with all kinds of tests, IVs, doctors, nurses, etc. The long and short of it is that she was really dehydrated, had a nasty virus and has to stay in bed on various drugs for a couple of days.

The only sketchy part of the whole evening was near the middle of our stay in the hospital when she was dehydrated and starting to go in and out of being lucid. I knew she was totally out of it when she turned to me at halftime of the game and said "If I die, you can remarry."

This was not what I was expecting to hear from my poor sick wife. She wasn't THAT sick, but she felt like dying. I copy the exchange below. Now all you women with perfect husbands can cast the first stone. If not, don't pretend your husband isn't the same!

Angie: If I die, you can remarry.

Chris: Don't worry, I wouldn't remarry.

Angie: Seriously, it's ok and I know you--you can't be alone.

Chris: I didn't say I would be alone, I just said I wouldn't get remarried.

Suddenly it was like a flash of white hot energy went through her entire body. She had a heaven-sent source of adrenaline! It was a hospital miracle! She was going to live!

When the doctors pulled her off me she was still screaming "I am beating you on behalf of all women" over and over. Luckily the drugs kicked in soon after and she was able to rest.

If she asks me about it today I will tell her she was dreaming and that the entire night was a blur of pain, drugs and football.

Jackson the Day Trader and Future Wall Street Baron

A quick one while Angie recuperates:

I usually make the boys school lunches (unless they get hot lunch but they are all so picky and for some reason the school doesn't offer pizza every day). This morning Jackson made his own lunch before I got up.

Christopher, sensing an opportunity, immediately alerted me that Jackson had not made a "normal" lunch. Here is the exchange:

Chris: Jackson, what did you pack in your lunch?

Jackson [confused by the question]: Nothing.

Christopher [running up to me]: He only packed cookies! He only packed cookies, He only packed cookies!

Chris [turning to Jackson]: What? How many cookies?

Jackson: 8.

Chris: [only sputtering noises came out of my mouth]

Jackson [very defensively]: What? Do you know what I can trade those for? I can have the best lunch in the school.

Sensing he was correct, I let it go. I admire his business acumen. Plus Angie was asleep so I couldn't get in trouble for letting him leave the house with a lunch consisting solely of 8 Oreo cookies.

I'm sure somewhere a mother or two or three lovingly packed some nice lunches that were all eaten by my son Jackson. It's not all a loss, though, as your son(s) and/or daughter(s) probably got a couple of Oreos out of the deal.

The street value of this pile of Oreos can only be calculated in an elementary school lunchroom:

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Jackson's future employment: