Car crash

August 16th I was driving on the way to church and stopped before turning left into the church parking lot because there was a car coming the other direction. I had been stopped for several seconds when we got hit from behind. I got out and tried to open the doors to get the kids out, but the sliding doors wouldn't open, so I climbed back in from the front doors and got them out. By that time people from church had run over to help us, so I handed the kids out to them. The kids were all crying, but were ok, not hurt. Jacob had something hit him in his face, maybe his hand, which made his glasses cut into his face by his nose, but other than that he was ok, just a little dazed.

We got out and it looked like everyone was ok. Someone called 911 and they said they wouldn't send anyone out to the accident since there were no injuries. So we decided to head in to the foyer to exchange our insurance information since it was already hot out even though it was just 9am. Some young men took the other lady's kids in to the nursery to play and some people from our ward took our kids in to sacrament for us. A police car that seemed to just be driving around on patrol stopped to see if we needed anything. They talked to us, then the lady that hit us, and ended up doing a sobriety test on her and taking her in. Apparently she was on meds that she shouldn't have been driving with.

 When we got home from church (thanks to some friends who gave us a ride), I realized we never did get the lady's insurance information. All we had was the police report number. It was a pain in the neck to get the insurance information. After several calls, an unproductive trip downtown, and a few messages left, the detective investigating the case finally called me back on Thursday and got me the insurance information. I was very happy to find out that they had Allstate, too. I know from experience that claims through them are relatively painless.

Anyway, by the following Monday we got the news that they had declared the car a total loss. They gave us $1000 over blue book value for our car, and we got started looking for a new car. Which is to say we called a friend who shops auctions to find us a car.

 We had to go sign the car over to the insurance company, and while we were there I got out the rest of our belongings that were left in the car and took a few pictures.

 This was the most disturbing.

 Annie was sitting in that seat (in a booster) and it was a bit disturbing to see how close the car's crumpling had gotten to her. We said many prayers of thanks for all our protection. Even tonight, 2 1/2 weeks later, Ryan included in his prayer, "Thankful that we were kept safe when our car crashed."

Saturday we got our new car delivered. It's a 2011 Sienna. We named it Sally and I have high hopes that in a year or two maybe we'll get around to painting it a lovely shade of light blue. :)

It drives real nice and we're enjoying the new car. But sad for the money that we weren't planning on spending on a new car yet. Oh well. Such is life.

Looking back, we can see some blessings that came through this experience. There is no better place to get in a crash than right outside our church when our whole ward is there to help. We felt the true meaning of "ward family" that day. There were so many helping hands and offers of help.

That night when I was helping Ryan with his prayers before bed he said, "I want a priesthood prayer. But I don't want you to do it. I want Dad to do it." So Jacob gave him a blessing of comfort. Then Rachel asked for a blessing. After her blessing she told me, "That blessing made me feel loved." I told her that was the Holy Ghost comforting her. Sometimes trials are great for spiritual experiences.

One other blessing I realized in hindsight was that the day before we had driven up to Mesa to go to the temple and visit with Susie and company, so we had changed Megan's car seat so it was facing forward instead of rear-facing so she would be happy for the long drive. That morning before we left I thought maybe I should turn her back around, but just left her seat forward facing and buckled her in. At first I was kicking myself for not turning her around because rear-facing is safer, until I realized that rear-facing is safer for a head-on collision, but forward facing is safest when you're rear-ended. So having Megan forward facing probably saved her from any whiplash or injuries that would have been sustained had she been rear-facing still.

And now my kids pray for safety with more faith, knowing that God does answer our prayers for protection. :)

Since school started

We've settled in to the routine of the school year now. Annie likes school now and started going for the whole day last week. And they started letting kinder kids out 15 minutes early so we can escape the horrible after school traffic since we HAVE to get out of our car to sign the kids out in their classroom and can't just wait in the parent pick up loop. It's way better than when we had to pick up at regular let out time and it we'd be leaving her school 20 minutes after school got out. Now we're gone 5 minutes before school gets out. :)

With Rachel and Annie at school I get some one on one time with Ryan when Megan is napping, and with Megan when Ryan is at preschool. And some much valued solo time when Ryan is at preschool and Megan is asleep. We also get a few adventures with just the three of us. We went with Grandma to the playground at the mall when it was still too hot to go to the park to play.

 Megan and Ryan loved it, but this is the only picture I got that wasn't blurry. Ryan ran constantly the whole time we were there. :)

Jacob's cousin, Susie, invited us to bring our kids with us when we go to the temple so our kids could hang out with her kids. She also invited their cousin Ben who also has kids the same ages. We all had a good time visiting and the kids had a blast getting to know their second cousins. This was a rare sight that day, having everyone was sitting still in the same room:

 It was fun and we look forward to doing it again in a few months. The kids didn't do too bad on the drive, but where Megan normally has two 1 1/2 hour naps, she fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of our drive up, then took a 10 minute nap a while later when we sneaked out to head to the temple. Thankfully I left under the impression that she would sleep for an hour, so I didn't worry about her being cranky or nervous around new people while we were gone. I enjoyed our time at the temple and came back to a happy Megan (and other kids).

Rachel's teacher, Mrs. Curtin came for a home visit. Rachel showed her around, played some piano for her, then they spent the rest of the hour playing games.

 I really like her teacher this year. She's been teaching for many years and seems to have a good grasp on how to challenge Rachel and keep pushing her. Rachel is loving school.

Megan is protesting her high chair. She is much more likely to eat when standing on a chair at the table than when sitting in her high chair. And even more likely to eat when she finds a bowl of food that is meant for someone besides her. Here she is eating Ryan's yogurt that he had left unfinished.

 Annie's class has a class pet. It is a guinea pig named Elsa. Mrs. Xochitl lets the kids take Elsa home over the weekend sometimes, so we brought her home last weekend. The kids loved it.

 The spent the entire weekend around the cage. Poor Elsa. But she survived.

 And we had a pet for 2 1/2 days, which should be sufficient for another 2 years. :)

Jacob took Ryan on a man-date. Ryan kept calling it a daddy-daughter date. Jacob tried to correct him: it was a father-son outing. I don't think it sunk in for Ryan. :) They went to the Pima Air and Space Museum and had a great time.

 Ryan's favorite places were the air control tower with all the buttons and lights and switches,

 and the cockpits where he could play with all the levers and buttons and pretend he was a pilot.

 Apparently the chairs that were placed around for waiting for kids to get done playing/exploring were also a big hit for Ryan. He liked that the seats went up and down.

 The boys came back happy from their outing. And Annie was very sad to have missed out. Not necessarily because of the cool stuff they saw. She just wants it to be her turn for a daddy-daughter date every time. :)

That's just a few of the things we've done since school started.

Silly kids

Megan's personality is starting to shine through. She likes to make people laugh and knows a few tricks that will always work to get a laugh. She likes to tease. And she likes to get dressed. If she finds a shirt that's hers on the floor she'll often pick it up and try to get it on her head. If she sees her swimming suit she immediately tries to take off her clothes because she wants to go swimming. And then there's the most beloved pony skirt.

 Annie borrowed a My Little Pony skirt from Grandma Knight's stash of clothes for kids one day. After Annie had changed into her pajamas that night, Megan found the sparkly skirt and tried putting it on her leg. I helped her into it and with the help of the diaper and skirt she was already wearing, the pony skirt stayed up and she walked around so happy the rest of the night until bedtime. The next day she again found the pony skirt and tried to put it on. 10 minutes after I helped her get it on I heard her screaming in frustration in the other room. 30 seconds later she walked in to the kitchen where I was holding the skirt that had apparently fallen off, grunting and holding it out to say "put this back on me, please." She's very fashion conscious for a 1-year-old. :)

Rachel's fake beard/mustache:

 Speaking of beards...

 Megan's favorite food is beans. She likes to eat and wear them.

 Remember how I said that Ryan is a terror when he has a nap?

After he woke up from that nap it was not a pretty sight. The only thing that can head off a tantrum after a nap is watching a show, or going to Grandma's house. 

End of July

Once Rachel started back to school we stillhad two more weeks before Annie started, so we had a few adventures in that time.

Megan hit that point where she decided it was easier to walk all the time rather than crawl sometimes and walk when she felt like it. She also has decided she's a big girl and needs to sit at the table. She much prefers sitting on the bench at the table to sitting in her high chair. And she'd rather be on top of the table than anywhere else.

 Ryan is always happy to help Dad run the BBQ.

 Annie found the camera. Many times. We got lots of hilarious videos.

 And she figured out how to do special effects.

 It's always an adventure to unload the camera and go through the pictures.

A friend called one morning when it was overcast to invite us to go to the zoo and take advantage of the (momentarily) cooler weather. When we got there they were training the tiger and it was pretty cool to watch.

 Good times at the zoo. :)

 Ryan has been taking naps off and on after not taking any for many months. Most of the time he just falls asleep in the car and gets a 10 minute nap and it's great. But sometimes he can't wake up or falls back asleep.

 Usually when he sleeps for any longer than 10-15 minutes it is HORRIBLE. He wakes up SUPER cranky and screams or is easily set off for a tantrum for at least an hour after he wakes up. And bedtime is horrible. I try not to let him nap at all so Mr. Sleep Monster remains dormant.

I got a new pineapple cutter. I never knew what I was missing. It is awesome. So much easier to cut a pineapple with.

 Rachel got a thing of bubbles from a birthday party she went to and we had nice overcast skies from a monsoon that had blown in, so we enjoyed a lovely time in the back yard playing with bubbles.

Annie's first day of school

Annie started school at Sonoran Science Academy on August 3.

 

 She was pretty excited. She was less excited about the uniforms as she is a bit picky about shorts/skirts/pants, but we have found one pair that she likes and wears almost every day unless I'm washing them. Maybe I could just return the other 3 shorts/skirts I got for her. We'll see how it goes when it's too cold for capris and she has to wear pants...

 Annie at school on the first day.

She came home from her first day excited to tell us that she got to play on the playground FOUR TIMES! She didn't remember anything else they did all day. And it is full day kindergarten, so that's a long 7 hours of doing nothing except playing on the playground 4 times.

At bedtime I said something about school tomorrow and she got this look on her face and said, "I have to go tomorrow, too?! But it's sooooo loooooong." She wasn't all that happy about it. They only way I could convince her to get dressed the next morning was to promise to email her principal about having her do half day kindergarten, even though the rest of the kids would stay all day. I emailed, then didn't hear back that day, so I called the next day (Wednesday) and he agreed that we could do a trial period for a month or two where I could come pick her up at lunchtime. He told me the teacher would call me by Friday to make arrangements and we could start the following Monday.

Thursday afternoon when I picked up Annie I mentioned it to her teacher, Mrs. Xochitl (pronounced So-chee), and she hadn't heard anything about it yet, but promised to find the principal that afternoon to talk to him about it. She emailed me that night to see if I could come in for a meeting Friday afternoon. At the meeting they said they were concerned that Annie would fall behind if we did it for too long, so they said she could be picked up at lunch for August, with a goal of being full day in September, and checking in weekly on progress. We'll take what we can get.

Annie was very happy to get picked up at lunch time, but still was not having great things to say about school last week (her second week of school). Monday and Tuesday she kept begging me to be able to go back to preschool. Jacob and I had known that we might pull her out and have her start kinder next year with those her age if it doesn't work out, but we decided to give it at least 2 weeks before we made any decisions to give it a chance and see if it was just regular problems adjusting to kindergarten that any kindergartner would have, or if she was actually too young. By the end of the week she was doing a little better (not begging for preschool all the time), but still complained that she had no friends at school.

Friday I went to eat lunch with her at school so she would stay through lunch (she wanted to get picked up before lunch last week) and so I could see how she was with the other kids. She joked and all the kids seemed to like her and be buddies with her. I think she just hasn't found a "best friend" or even any specific friends that will play with her every time they have recess. She mostly played by herself on the playground when I watched her on Friday, but I think that's pretty typical for her age, judging by how all the other kids were playing.

We'll see how this week goes. We're having her stay through lunch this week to give her a chance to make more friends and get some of the fun time at school in, too. She's doing great in class and gets moved up to blue for good behavior almost every day on the behavior chart.

Here's a book Annie wrote after we got back from Seattle. We flew on Alaska Airlines, and they had pamphlets about Alaska that inspired her, I guess.

Annie's Notebook

Sum dey I wil flie (Some day I will fly.)

I wil fli to ulasku (I will fly to Alaska.)

It wil bee long ugo (It will be long ago.)

I wood (heart) it f I wr in ulasku. (I would love it if I were in Alaska.)

I just wood (I just would.)