A Morales Minute

Since we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family we planned a second turkey feast with Jaime's family on Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had turkey, potatoes and gravy, and the usual. Only we were missing Jaime's family. Jaime's parents had come down with something so they stayed home and Bel wasn't feeling that great either. We enjoyed the delicious food but we really missed the others. 

Tuesday night Emily and Jeremiah got into town from California. My kids were so excited to see and play with their cousins. Wednesday was an early release school day for Thanksgiving Break. I had planned on sending them to school but then Jaime and I thought we'd just let the kids stay home and play with their cousins. I'm sure they didn't miss much in the 3 1/2 hours of school they didn't go to. The kids were happy to stay home and play. :) We left the four older ones, Lindsey, Jacob, Olivia, and Emma, at home while Emily, Jeremiah, and I and the 4 younger boys (Aidan, William, Tyler, and Wescott) went to the church book store.  The kids played in the play room at the store. This is William's "style" as a tree. His hand is the star and Tyler is putting "bunny ears" on William's head. :) They liked making "styles" as Will called it and posing for pictures.  After shopping we went home and got the other fou...

It seems like the last three weeks have been a whirlwind. It seems so weird that so much has changed in three weeks. Bel's life has been turned upside down. She no longer can work and has begun treatment. We all keep track on when Bel's appointments are and who will go with her to which appointments. It seemed that with each new update we'd get worse news. From her tumor being a stage 2 to a 3, find another growth in a lymph node in the arm pit, to growing so fast that one of the doctors said they had never seen this type of cancer be so aggressive, she's the youngest breast cancer patient they've had, to moving up her chemo by one week, we just were looking down a dark tunnel of the worst case scenario. We keep her in our prayers, put her name on the temple prayer roll, and keep tabs on how she's doing regularly.  For FHE on the 23rd we put together a chemo care basket for Bel and drove to her house to take her dinner and the basket and spend the evenin...

Last weekend was a good weekend and went fast. On Friday Aidan and Tyler got to spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa Morales. I was performing in a community concert that our stake was putting on. There were many different music groups and a good variety of music. I sung with the Pasco North Stake Choir. Jaime and the girls came to watch.  It is a very well attended event. This was the second year our stake put it on. I've done it the past two years. I enjoy it but I don't always enjoy going for the practices that are 30 minutes away. :) After the concert we let the girls stay home and watch a movie and Jaime and I went to hang out with Sarah and Brandon. It had been a while that we were able to get together so this visit was way over due. We couldn't believe how fast the time went though. We stayed kinda late.  On Saturday, the 21st, we went to Grandview for Grandpa Noble's 89th birthday celebration. Uncle Dick and Uncle Darrell and Aunt Mel and my m...

I went with Bel to one of her appointments today. It took 3 hours for this. She received info from some tests, Dr. examined her, talked about what's next, met with another doctor about the surgery for her port when the chemo will be administered, signed paperwork for the surgery, made an appointment for another test. I can see why she feels so overwhelmed. Trying to remember which doctor for what, what each test she needs is and why, remembering which days are which appointments. PET scan, MUGA test, genetic test, MRI, blood work, etc.  I had to write it all down, day by day, to be able to feel like I had a grasp on scheduling. Tomorrow she goes in to surgery at 11:30am, after an appointment with the radiation doctor at 9am, so the port can be put in. It's a routine operation that she will feel fine shortly after but will have a good week and a half to recover at the surgery site so she can start chemo. She finds out tomorrow when she will start radiation. To look at the silv...

Chicken was on sale real cheap so Jaime, being the sweetheart he is, ran down to the store in the evening to get me 23lbs. The next day I canned it all up! The last batch had 10 minutes left to go but I had to leave to take Lindsey to the orthodontist. I needed someone to keep an eye on the pressure gauge to keep it at 11 pounds. Olivia was a bit nervous to do it but Aidan had no problem stepping in. He pulled the stool up to the stove and watched it like a hawk. Olivia sent me this picture while I was gone. :) When the timer went off Aidan turned off the stove and I got home shortly after that. I appreciate that my children are becoming more able and helpful for things.

Tyler LOVES eggs. This morning he said he wanted to make his own scrambled eggs for breakfast. He got the stool to get the eggs out of the fridge. He cracked the eggs into a bowl on his own. I lit the stove and he scrambled up his eggs! His enthusiasm for it just had me smiling. He was so proud of himself for making his own breakfast. 

I don't have a lot of pictures of when my Grandpa Hyrum Dean Naylor was younger so when I see pics of him on Facebook that other family members post I save the images so I can "have" them. Happy Veterans Day. I'm grateful for the service of my Grandfather and so many others. This Veterans Day, November 11th, also worked out for us to get together for an early dinner. Marcus didn't have school, Bel and Chris didn't have work (Chris took the day off to take Bel for another biopsy), Jaime didn't have work, kids didn't have work. Martin and Diana worked but got off by 3. We all met at Red Robin for dinner at 4:30. Perfect time. We only waited about 10 minutes for them to get our table set up. Dinner was great, we enjoyed getting together to visit. We were there for 2 hours! This week also marked our 1 year anniversary of going to Disneyland last year. We all enjoyed talking about and reminiscing about the trip. It was so much fun rel...

Last May, Bel found a lump in her left breast. She had it checked out. The dr. said they'd do a biopsy and an MRI. Her biopsy came back negative so the dr. cancelled the MRI and said they'd just need to keep an eye on the lump. Fast forward to the end of September. Bel and Chris went on a trip to Italy. While she was there her breast got swollen and sore. After she came home it just kept getting worse. She'd have to ice it and take Ibuprofen for the pain. In October she was able to get it checked again and another biopsy was done. She got the news on Tuesday, November 3rd that she does indeed have cancer. This hit us all like a ton of bricks. Marty and Diana were out of town in Texas for their anniversary. Bel, being the sweetheart she is, didn't want to tell her parents the sad news and ruin their trip. Bel asked Jaime to tell them for her when he picked them up when they got home. They flew in the next evening. Jaime picked them up from the airport and right away Dia...

Some women from my ward have started a hiking group called Badger Beauties. The hike is every Saturday morning. I'll admit I don't go every Saturday. Especially when they were going super early in the morning. It's changed to mostly 7:30am now. My internal clock pretty much wakes me up on it's own every morning about 6:50-7am.  One morning I woke up to thick fog lingering in the streets. I was thinking we'd be hiking Badger Mountain in the fog. But just before I got to the base of the mountain I drove out of the fog. It was so sunny and beautiful! Then on the hike up I enjoyed visiting and exercising during a nice easy hike. When we got to the top the and looked out it was gorgeous! The sky was such a bright blue and the fog looked like a soft fluffy blanket just covering the cities.  Many say it's not the prettiest place to live. But I'm grateful for the blessing I have of being able to see the beauty that God created here in our rolling ...

October has really gone by fast. Before we know it it's going to be Thanksgiving! Many have been asking me what it's like not having kids home during the day. Friends say they want to live vicariously through me and ask me to tell them what I do. :) I've been trying to make good use of my time. I exercise about every day, read my scriptures, get some regular cleaning done around the house. I have weekly Relief Society Presidency meetings. I make visits to sisters in the ward. The best part? Being able to get in the car and go where ever I want, when I want, and without having to help kids gather socks and shoes and hurry and get in the car. I also enjoy being able to help out on field trips and school events during the day now without needing to find a babysitter.  One afternoon I drew Goliath on some large paper. Looks like I needed to make the paper wider though as his arms wouldn't fit unless I made them skinny. Yep, that's what I did. So yeah, it'...

I invited Darin, Christy, Elizabeth, and Jon over for dinner Sunday evening. It was the first time Elizabeth was able to see him since they flew in. We wanted Lori and Stuart to come but they weren't able to make it. Mom and Dad were out of town or they would have been there too. Well at least invited. It was a later Sunday dinner since we don't get home from church till almost 6 and then I had to get the dinner all ready and dished up it wasn't till 6:30 we ate. We had a great time visiting. I'd like to get together with my family for dinners a bit more. Once a month maybe?! Love you guys!!

As our kids get older we seem to have more Halloween events each year.  Olivia was invited to a friends birthday/halloween party. She makes a pretty wicked pirate! These two are peas in a pod. They are the best of friends. Emily and Olivia. Emily is at our house a lot. She's got a soft spot in my heart as well.. Aidan and Tyler got to dress up for school. Aidan was going to be the dinosaur again but with some kind reasoning he let Tyler take a turn to wear it. Aidan wore it two years in a row. He liked the skeleton costume as well. I'm grateful for his desire to be a peacemaker and let Tyler have a turn to wear it.  They were both extremely happy boys for Halloween.  Lindsey wanted a costume to go with the mask Aunt Bel brought her from Italy. She came up with a Peacock Princess on her own. I wasn't the least bit surprised. She has been some sort of princess many times for halloween.  She wore it the first time at her scho...