Weekend photos

The look of determination! Hayden shaved 2 1/2 minutes off of his PR this weekend running a 5K!

Brittan really is getting better! I cringed when she did the handstand!

The Dr. said "let pain be your guide". I guess that means that jumping on the trampoline is ok?

Happy Birthday Ruben! Ximena loves you! We do too!

Mom practicing with her new camera! You can't go wrong with pictures of your own kids right?

Wacky hair day

Today was the elementary school carnival and wacky hair day! The girls had a great time getting ready for this fun event!

Hayden

Hayden has been running cross-country! He has already run in two meets and is having a good time. We like to tease him about his short-shorts. Go Haydo!

Update on Brittan and Olivia

Brittan is doing amazing!  She can actually walk without crutches for a short period of time.  We learned in this process that it takes 8 weeks for bones to completely heal and she just passed the 5 week mark on Saturday.  She was able to start school on time- although she is taking it easy and only attending her core classes.   She had two weeks of physical therapy where she went twice a week and this last appointment the PT said she was doing so well she only needed to come once a week.  She is bright and happy and feeling so much better!  

Olivia is also making great progress!  She is doing amazingly well and claims she understands almost everything being said.  We talk to her once (or twice if needed) a week via Skype so that we can see her beautiful face.  She told us today that she told Fatima (her Mexican sister) a story in Spanish last night.  I thought that was pretty cool!  She has bouts of homesickness but is getting it figured out.  She loves the Muro family and is having a wonderful experience.  I have had many of you inquire about contacting her.  If you would like to email her- email me for her email address.  She would love to hear from you!  

Pancake Breakfast

Brittan and her BFF Grace flipping pancakes!  

We had quite a crowd.  250 maybe?  

It was a bit chilly at 7am so Grace warmed her toes up with a couple of pancakes!  

Now you know how we collected so much money!  Could you say no to them?  

Cook for 250 people?  Sure, why not?  Brittan's cousins were rock stars!  

 

On Labor Day our family hosted a pancake breakfast for the 3 Rivers volunteer fire department that helped Brittan when she had her ATV accident.  We tossed the idea around  for a few weeks but it wasn't until Brittan and I were reading though her Personal Progress book (a goal setting tool from church) that she got excited about the idea of raising money for the fire department and counting it as one of her 10 hour service projects.  

We were able to raise $1504 flipping pancakes!  We owe a huge amount of thanks to Kati and Jay for putting together a great flyer and posters and to the Newsom family for their generosity in printing all 800 flyers!  

Ximena all bundled up after wakeboarding!

Isabelle opted NOT to wakeboard!  Too cold! 

Britty enjoyed the boat ride so much she fell fast asleep!  

We are trying to squeak out the last bit of summer.  Brittan has been doing extremely well and was up for the drive so I loaded up the kids on Wednesday and headed to the cabin. Michael joined us after class on Friday night and brought Brittan's BFF Grace with him.

We plan to have a pancake breakfast fundraiser for the 3 rivers volunteer fire department to show our gratitude for all that they did to help Brittan.  We plan to do this on Monday (Labor Day) so hopefully it will be a success!  Michael's sister Kati and her husband Jay were kind enough to put together flyers and posters and POA (The Newsom family) was once again generous and did all of the printing for us.  We are so lucky to know such great and talented people!  

 

Olivia email

 

Hi dad how is everything going?

Is law school hard still?

Oh my goodness i have so many things to tell you. Mexico is awesome and i am so glad that i am with the Cors family. I think i MIGHT want to stay for Christmas but that is three months away from now. I am such a lucky girl and i am so grateful that i don`t go to a boarding school. The classes that i am taking right now are tennis, gymnastics, and Fabiola wanted me to ask you about a math class and if you think that i should do it?  I want to do it because i love math. The only thing i would be worried about is i feel like i am really only smart in math when i am with you in your office doing fractions. I don`t know why?

                                                                                         * Olivia

Brittan is doing awesome!  She went to physical therapy today and made huge strides.  She is getting better with the crutches and using the walker less and less.  I took the kids to Target to pick up some school supplies and she pushed the cart around!  She didn't want to ride in the wheel chair and the crutches were killing her armpits so we had her push the cart as a support.  Hooray Brittan!  

Olivia is doing great in Mexico.  She chatted with Michael while he was in class and informed him that she is "totally over the crying thing!"  

Isabelle and Ximena are having a great time together.  They come up with all sorts of fun things to do.  They went around the neighborhood yesterday and sold water bottles for 55 cents.  Today they played school in the laundry room-  they do lots of cooking too!  

Hayden is great.   He is going to run cross country this year to get ready for wrestling.  

Michael is enjoying Law school.  He comes home at night and needs a brain massage.  

Life is good.

Isabelle is 8!

Yesterday was a big day!  My baby girl turned 8!  We are lucky enough to share our birthday so every year we have some sort of mommy/daughter day.  We talk about our birthday for weeks and weeks trying to out-do the last.  This year we met Shelly and Delaney for lunch (thanks Shell) then blew a wad of cash at Claire's. Happy Bday Bella!  

Email from Liv

hi mom, school was great. I wanted to cry a couple of times but i had a great time. I have been thinking about what i would like for my "care baskets" and i would like the following things:

1. lotion

2. new moon

3. shampoo & conditinor

4. the batteries that my camera holds

5. all white tennies

and any other things you can think of.

p.s. tell dad that if he gets the cell phone that fabiola has (the nextel radio) that we can talk to each other with out it costing 200 bucks a call. Tell everyone that i love them and i am working on the "whole picture thing" and spread my love throughout the whole family

love, Liv