The last week or so I have been feeling and immense amount of gratitude to many people in my life, my husband, my kids, and mostly to my Father in Heaven.

At the beginning of this month I was fortunate enough to be able to sell "my company".  Ethan and I have worked on Preferred Transcription Services for over 12 years and it was truly a blessing in our lives in many ways.  Although at times it consumed my life and took me away from my family and other things, looking back, it also took us to places we would have never been able to go.  We are now opening a new chapter in our lives and I am beyond excited.  I will admit that the first two weeks of this month I was ready to become an employee to the company who bought me out.  I didn't know what to do with myself and I felt a sense of loss of self worth (pathetic, I know).  Sticking it out a few extra weeks has changed my vision entirely.  I feel so much more at peace with the decision that was made and carried out.  I will grateful to a Heavenly Father who sees the big pictures and gently nudges and guides us to do things that we don't think we can.

I can't stay that I am going to sit still though, I just don't think that is in me.  I am currently studying to become a real estate agent to assist my dear husband in his business adventures.  I'm not sure he is as excited as I am that we will be able to work side-by-side, but I hope it will grow on him.  The classes to get your license are EXTREMELY boring and it takes all the focus I can muster to complete even one class a day, but I am plugging along.

On this vacation I tried to update the iPad everyday on our adventures and the following is what came out of it -

We started out our adventure at around 6 am. The kids are doing great and we have about a half hour until arrival.  The car is quiet besides Cody’s usual sounds and Rylee asks,

“Mom, how does a mom get pregnant?”

I tell her we will have to go for a hike to talk about it, but no, she doesn’t like hikes.

I proceed to ask her if a mom can do it all by herself and she knows there needs to be a dad involved!  Cody is rejecting that we have this discussion at this point so it seems that Rylee and I will have to have a talk.

Okay, so we set up camp yesterday and we were off to Zion National Park!  We took the shuttle up the canyon and took our first hike to the Emerald Pools!  It was beautiful.  Trail buddies, Aly and Justin were gone at the beginning.  We hiked under waterfalls and to all three levels of the emerald pools. Rylee was a trooper and Cody was a silent type hiker probably soaking in the scenery!  The wind really picked up towards the end, and we were glad to be done!  We got some ice cream and stooped at two pathetic cones when we realized they were $3.50 each.

Hotdogs for dinner never tasted better and then the boys and Ethan headed up a game of colors in the pool.

Friday, we are headed to St. George to meet up with Neiderhauser’s and Montgomery’s for a day of miniature golf and pool fun!

Friday was a blast! We ended up at Fiesta Family Fun Park in St. George. We bought unlimited passes so the kids roas go carts and bumper boats most of the day. Aly, Makelle, and Brittney took a liking to the go carts and had some fun with the employees and other acquaintances!  They probably went about 15 x.  Cody and Clayton did a little of everything, including miniature golf. Justin and Chad were huge fans of the bumper boats.  They formed a truce, more of an allegiance, to not get each other so the poor souls that were in the pool at the same time.  Rylee did a little of everything as well and thoroughly enjoyed herself.

We ended the night with a mini BBQ at Niederhauser’s condo.  Everyone played a game of volleyball except Rylee was pretty adamant about  the spa!

Today, Saturday, is supposed to be the warmest day of out trip.  We are off to Zion’s again for some shopping and hopefully a little hike against everyone’s will!

Well, no hike!  We shopped the shops, had a little ice cream, and then headed back to camp for some lunch. We hit the pool for several hours and all got quite a bit of sun. We enjoyed a nice dinner and Rylee participated in the campground Easter Egg Hunt.    Rylee, Cody, Ethan and I enjoyed a campfire.  Justin was blind for the night so he hit the hay. His eyes were burning from the pool we think. Aly decided to play the iPad for awhile and learn a few new signs on her quest for learning sign language.

We are headed home on this beautiful Easter morning.

It has been an eventful few months and I thought I'd fill the blog in.  At the beginning of February Ms. Rylee had her annual Well-Child-Check.  I am pretty good about making sure my kids have these every year and especially her.  It's been a routine thing for the last few years, in and out with no problems, steady growth, a little weight gain, etc.  This time was a little different though.  The pediatrician spotted some curves on her little bony body this time and she was sent for some x-rays of her itty bitty spine, which confirmed scoliosis.  Because of the degree and the curvature in two locations it was recommended that she see a specialist down in SLC and so the appointment was made….two months out!  Wow, it is really hard for me to wait that long I have learned, but as usual time goes by with lots of things to fill it and we were able to see a pediatric spine specialist who confirmed the scoliosis.

For now, she has been diagnosed with early onset, scoliosis with a curve of 28° in the thoracic spine and a 26° curve in the lumbar spine.  The doctor did some x-rays on Tuesday and has recommended that we wait six months to monitor the curve, to see how fast it progresses, etc.  At that point we will go back for more x-rays and then I understand there are three options at that point, continue monitoring it, bracing it and lastly surgery.  We feel very lucky at this point that we are just going to watch it and Rylee is thrilled she doesn't have to wear a brace through this summer at least.  

Well, there is the latest and greatest in the Poppleton life.  A Justin update to follow shortly.  

He really is doing fantastic with a few glitches if you would call them that. 

He did really well after his Cytoxan for about a month and right around the holidays his little body decided to start spilling protein again. 

His doctor happened to be the one on call so I was able to stay in contact with him on a daily basis, giving updates, and discussing options.  Thankfully the doctor took a leap of courage and let me just watch him for a few days in hopes of his protein levels going down and low and behold with some intervention from on high his levels have been dropping. 

He has been spilling for a couple of weeks now, but there is no swelling or at least not a lot as of yet so we are good to just keep monitoring him.  

He was also lucky to experience a fracture in his foot so the little man is wearing a cast shoe for a few weeks.  He has to miss a few basketball games, but that is really his only limit.  He thought it was really cool for the first day and I think the newness and excitement of something broken is beginning to wear off.    

It was a fun day.  My parents were in town and were able to participate in our many festivities.

On the kids birthdays they get to pick the meals for the day so we started the day with a breakfast of pumpkin squares.  I took Aly to the mall a few days before her birthday and she was able to pick out all of her "presents".  I decided a few years ago that it was a waste of time to try to find things she liked and then spend more time returning them all.

We headed over to a local favorite "Mo Bedah" for some Hawaiian delight and then proceeded to the Division of Licensing where she barely got her permit!

We ended the day with some sweet meatballs, rice and broccoli (yes she picked a vegetable) as well as a few friends and Oreo pie.

Aly is a beautiful girl both on the inside and the outside with many talents.  I truly believe through watching her that when you utilize your talents you will be blessed with many more.  We love you Aly.

She got an American Girl doll for her birthday.  We figured since we “never buy them for her because they are too expensive and only Santa will bring them to her” we would get her one this year!

I know, I know it’s so much money for a doll, but she just adores them and takes really good care of them.  I just can’t help myself!

She also chose to be baptized as well and was able to be baptized on the same day as her cousin, Ella.  It was a wonderful day full of love, family, and fun.

Hard to believe our baby is “8″!

Anyway, I think patience is something I am going to be trying to learn my whole life.

Justin’s appointment went fairly well yesterday up until they checked his urine screen. He is on a strict water intake regimen for the next three months as there was blood and protein found this time. The doctor informed me that he will worry about the blood and the only thing I need to worry about is the protein. He said we will do nothing but the water regimen for the next three months and we will go from there.

I am learning in life that nothing comes as fast as we would like it to. I am trying to remember that if we are patient and learn from the journey, we will be able to find blessings that come from trials and become better people from the things we learn.

Every year my parents, sisters and brother and their families get together and have a Gingerbread House Showdown!  We live too far away and we haven’t been able to participate, but this year some of the kids really wanted to decorate one and so the journey began.

I think next year I may try to make the gingerbread myself so each of the kids can decorate their own.  Maybe we can have a little showdown of our own.  It seems like when you get going your creative juices start flowing and everyone has their own ideas of what should go where.

It was a “sweet” Family Home Evening for sure!

We were honored to be able to head to Wellsville for a nice dinner and some fun games.

I only wish I could have gotten some pictures of game time.  Four the boys played Four-Man Chess (my least favorite tradition) while the rest of the gang played a great game of “Curses” (great family/friend game).

Thanks to Travis and Helene for hosting this year.  Looks like I’m up again for next!

His protein count has been steady at “trace” for almost a full week and although I would prefer “negative” – I’ll take it.

Thank you for all the prayers in his behalf!