We WON the SNOWMOBILE

We won the snowmobile at the fundraiser on Saturday night. I could not belive it, we NEVER win anything. Our luck was on the rise because we won both the blanket and the snowmobile.
I would have thought it was rigged but, little Easten was the one who pulled the winning raffle tickets. He must be our little lucky charm.
This is so great because now Ben has someone to go snowmobiling with. I can't wait until Kason can try it out on the snow.
Thanks again for everyone who made the fundraiser a sucess!!!!

We have conquered the Impossible

OH YES!! This is a picture of my daughter using the big girl potty!! YEAH!
Okay the story is... One day last week I got Kenzie out of the bathtub and put a diaper on her. I asked her to go get her pajamas on. I watched her walk into her room and to her dresser, suddenly she made an unusual face and I watched as she quickly removed her diaper and pee on my carpet. It was then at that moment I realized she knew that she needed to pee and did not want to do it in her diaper.
I was determined to get this girl potty trained. Thursay I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a potty and some new panties for her. I called her on the phone to tell her of my new purchase and I was hung up on. This was going to be harder than I thought.
Still determined When I got home Thursday night I put my plan into works. I put the panties on her and had her watch as I threw away all her diapers. Thursday was hard but, we got through it.
Friday came and there were several accidents. I was ready to buy another bag of diapers after I cleaned her car seat out... for the second time.
I travel with the potty in the back of my car so if we are somewhere and she needs to pee or do the other I don't have to have her use the public potties. (I have huge phobies of public bathrooms.)
Then on Saturday it happened it clicked she realized she can hold her pee to make it to the bathroom and she realized she does not want to walk around in wet panties and pants. Saturday was a huge sucess and there were no accidents.
Today was even better. She lets me know when its time to pee and she even poops in the potty. I am so glad I didn't give up! I think she was really ready this time.
Yeah for me. No more kids in diapers.

SUCESSFUL FUNDRAISER

Thank You, Thank You!! THe fundraiser was a great sucess. Thank you to all my wonderful friends (you know who you are) that came to support my sister and her family. I was overwhelmed by your generousity to give. It was a sucess and we raised over 6 thousand dollars for Easten. Thank you again to everyone who took time to come. I love you all.
I will post pictures soon!!!

Eastens Fundraiser

Just a quick reminder! Eastens Fundraiser is this Saturday Sept. 6th at the Lions Lodge in Smithfield. The fundraiser starts at 7:00pm and goes until 9:00pm. The cost for dinner is $10.00 a plate and there will be a silent auction, raffle and a live band. Please mark your calendar and try to make it. Thanks Everyone.:)

Labor Day Camping Trip

YES!! I went camping. Those of you who know me really well, know that I HATE, HATE camping. This is not a new thing I have hated camping since I was young. The bugs, the camp fire, the smell of camp fire on EVERYTHING you own for DAYS and not to mention the squatting. What is fun about this? Kenzie I think may have the same feeling about camping as I do.
We went to Bear Lake and met Bens cousins from Sandy there. It was fun to see them and there kids. We usually only get to see them once a year at Christmas time. We planned this for weeks and I was willing to go only because Ben quilted me into it. Ben said that Kason needed to experience camping being a boy and all. So I put my feeling of camping aside and decided to go.
We slept in the back of our Expediton because there was no way I was pitching a tent. It was really warm and I didn't even hear the wind blowing or the rain.

This is Kenzies idea of camping. Sitting in her princess chair and YES eating Raspberries.

Okay Kenzie has had enough. I felt like she looks right here.

Kason was in heaven. We took his four wheelers and Kason and Dakota rode the heck out of them. Kason thought camping was the greatest. Too bad mom and Kenzie felt differently.

All of the litlle girls. I was so happy that there were girls for Kenzie to play with. By the time we were ready to leave I think all the girls were glad to see Kenzie leaving. Left to Right Paige, Kenzie, Bree and Ashley.

These are the women of the camping trip. I do have to say that the women didn't really have to do much while we were camping. The men cooked and cleaned up and played and entertained the children. Left to right Jen, myself and Kim

These are Bens Twin cousins. Starting left to right.. Bruce,Ben and Brian.

Poor Kenzie

These pictures don't do Kenzie any justice. He face looks so terrible right now, I know people want to call child protective services on me.
Okay you can't see in the picture but she has a left black eye this was a result in a fall on the stairs. She hit her eye on the corner of our stairs that are hardwood. I guess I should be grateful it didn't split her eye open.
Okay next the chin scrap was a fall at Aunt Holly's house (my sisiter) Holly watches Kenzie on the days that I work and on Wenesday I called to check on her at about 2:00and when Holly answered the phone I was greeted with children screaming. She proceded to tell me that Kenzie had fallen out of the battery operated truck and hit her chin on the cement. Kenzie got on the phone and in tears asked me to come get her.
When I got to Hollys house Holly was holding her and singing to her. She had a band-aid on he chin and her mouth wide open. Drooling everywhere!! I told her she could close her mouth that it was her chin that was hurt not her mouth. The whole ride home she held her mouth open not making a sound.
I came home and tried to get her to take a nap but, she would not drink from her sippy cup. She said that her mouth hurt. I opened her mouth and saw blood on her tongue. I looked on the roof of her mouth and behind her two front teeth there was a huge scrap. Then I realized that her two front teeth were pushed back. OH CRAP!!!
I called her dentist and he wanted to see her right away. It ended up that when she feel she must of have hit her front teeth. The dentist was baffled at the injury. He had to reposition her front teeth and he did this without and numbing. Yes there was screaming and Yes there was blood but, her teeth are looking good and so far no permant damage done.
She is unable to bit into anything hard for the next couple of days and he said they would be sore for awhile. Poor Kenzie.
I hope there is no permant scaring on her face from all her slip and falls.

More Raspberries PLEASE

Okay my daughter has a huge love for Raspberries. Ben mom has a garden and planted some Raspberries, everytime Kenzie was visting Grandma she would go and pick the Raspberry plants clean.
We made a trip to Brigham and stoppped at the fruit stands to get some fresh fruit. Of course Kenzie had to have some Raspberries. We bought to 2 cartons of Raspberries we thought this would last her awhile.
By the time Ben and I got back into the car from loading the other fruit, Kenzie had already finshed off a carton of raspberries, an entire carton. I thought for sure she would have a serious tummy ache later.
Then on Monday morning I was getting Kason ready for school and walked upstairs to find her eating the other entire carton of raspberries. OH MY HECK!! The love she has for these things are unreal. By the way she never complained of a tummy ache.

Hill Air Force Base

Last weekend we took a trip to Roy to visit Hill Air Force Base. We are a little late on the summer trips but, this is the time when it slows down a bit at the shop and Ben is able to take some time off.
We thought this would be really intresting for Kason and peek his intrest in Airplanes. Oh how we were wrong! For a few minutes he thought it was neat but, he kept asking "When can we go home and go to the Aquatic Center?" I mean really, we take the time to try and take him somewhere neat and that he had never been to and Kenzie is more intrested in the planes than Kason is.
It was fun for us all to be together and go somewhere fun.

First Grade

Oh my heck!! Summer is over and Kason is now a first grader. I think this year was harder for me then when he started Kindergarten. The night before his first day Kason was really nervous and he thought he had forgotten where his classroom was. I asked him if he wanted me to walk in with him and make sure he got to the right class. That night he was okay with that but, the next day I parked the car and started to get out and Kason went crazy on me. "You don't need to follow me in, I am fine!" WHAT? All of a sudden my little man was very independent. I walked him to the door for my final picture and watched him walk away.
I hate this seperation thing. Why is it so hard? Kason loved his first day and everything went really well. His teacher (Mrs.Buttars) is really great! The only complaint Kason had was SCHOOL LUNCH! "It wasen't all that great" he said. He now wants to try taking his own lunch. (GREAT)
Sorry about the neighbors car in the background.

You of course have to have the new back pack. Last year for Kindergarten my mom bought Kason a Spiderman backpack. Apparently Spiderman was cool for Kindergarten but, not for First grade!!

This was the hardest part of the whole day. Watching my baby walk into school all by himself. WOW! Will it ever get any easier?

Fund Raiser for Easten

I wanted to take a minute on a personal note and tell you about a fund raiser my cousin Sherydon is having for my nephew Easten. This is my personl plee for all my friends and anyone who knows the Karren family to help raise money for Eastens Liver transplant.
For those of you who don't know Easten he is now almost 15 months old. At Easten's two month check up he was diagnoised with a rare liver disease called Biliary Atresia. Bascially Easten was born without a Gallbladder and I know you are all thinking that you can live without a gallbladder at least this is what I thought when I first heard. It turns out that the gallbladder is very importent in infants. Easten did not have any bile ducts to his liver, which caused the liver to form scerosis.
Easten had a six hour procedure on Aug.20 of 2007. This procedure they went in and formed new bile ducts from the liver to the small intestine to allow the bile to flow freely. This procedure unfortunately is just a band-aid. The only cure for this disease is a liver transplant.
Easten had been in and out of Primary Childrens Hospital his whole life. He is doing very well right now weighting in at 17 pounds. Easten is a energetic 1 year old little boy who is now just starting to crawl.
There are certain signs of liver failure and Easten is starting to show those signs. Holly and Rusty are not sure when the transplant will be needed but, depending on Eastens age and weight he may be able to have a partial liver from a live donor. This would be our hope because he wouldn't have to wait on a donor list.
The money we are raising is for the testing of the live donor. Holly & Rustys insurance will only pay so much for the process of finding a donor. There are so many expenses that will occur while Easten will be recovering in the hospital after the transplant.
Rusty may need to take time off of work and he will be traveling alot from work to home to the hospital. There is the expense of food and gas as well.
We have scheduled the fund raiser for Sept. 6 from 7:00 pm to 9:00pm at the Lions Lodge in Smithfield. There will be dinner served and the cost is $10.00 a plate. There will be a live band and a silent auction.
Please come and help raise money for this special little boy. Your support will be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions please feel free to call me any time.

Family Reunion

This past weekend we had our Bennett family reunion. Every year we go to Mink Creek (I hope I spelled that right) it is in Idaho. There is a really nice camp ground that is all grass and big pavillion to sit and eat under. This year my Aunt Jane and Grandma bought a waterslide for the kids to play on. We went up Friday afternoon and Kenzie went right to slide and played on that slide until we shut it down at dark. She didn't even get up the road on the way home and she was sound asleep.
When we got back up there on Saturday morning at 8:30am Kenzie wanted back on the slide. She played again on the slide until it was time to go float the river. This year was really fun at the reunion, my kids and Ben & I had a great time.

And Kason played bad mitten until he couldn't see the birdie in the dark. Kason is in the black shirt!

Holly & Kenzie getting ready to float the river.

On Saturday we floated down the Oneida narrows. I wasen't going to go at first but, when Ben was insistent of Kenzie going I thought I better go to keep her alive. Kason rode down on his own little black tube, He was to big to ride with mom & dad.