Just posted some new pictures of the family. Looking through the pictures realizing that I'm hardly in any of them. Must be a mom thing. :)

We have had a lot going on this last several months.

I went to parent teacher conference a couple of weeks ago. Courtney's teacher said she is very motivated to get everything done she needs to. The teacher also said that the boys in Courtney's class all have googly eyes at Courtney and she has no idea. That's my girl!! We have been watching the Bachelor together and she can see that boys/men just complicates life. She pointed that out. I know that she will have a good head on her shoulders as she gets older. She also told me that boy/girl dances start for her next year. OH BOY!! That is going to fun to hear about. I hope that she will let me go and chaperon the dance. I'm sure she will be happy if I go with her. She is growing into a beautiful young lady and she makes us so proud everyday!! :) It's hard to believe that she is 11 years old and will start Young Women's this year. What a big step!! Courtney has the best teacher, it's so great to see a teacher so excited about Courtney and her education.

Kendra is such a sweet spunky girl. She is so FUNNY and makes everything more fun. It's a lot of fun when Courtney, Kendra, Maliyah, and some friends of theirs all gather in the kitchen to talk about things that they have learned about. We always end up laughing. I love having such great girls. Kendra may need a big surgery coming up. The bones in her pelvis are so sharp making it difficult for Kendra to use her robot leg. Last time the girls were admitted to the hospital I ran into their plastic surgeon. I told him what the problem was, I asked if he could injected fat to better cover the bone. He said that wasn't possible because she didn't have any fat to take. I said that she could use some of mine, he just laughed and said I didn't have enough either. So now we need to find a plan that will work for Kendra. I wish there was a better way to fix this problem. The surgery would be very dangerous, so I don't really care to do it. I would rather look into different things and try those first.

Maliyah is doing very well without her feeding tube. It's incredible how much Kendra and Maliyah look alike again. She has to drink 40-50oz of water a day to keep her kidney well hydrated. She has had several bladder infections these last couple of months, they have been such a pain to get rid of. It's scary to think she only has one oral antibiotic that could work for her to fight off the different infections. So difficult to think about.

Each of the girls are getting new crutches, walkers and "robot" legs within the next couple of weeks. They are each doing very well with physical therapy and getting stronger every day.
We just celebrated their 9th Birthday. I had originally planned on having a vintage tea party for them. But they said that wasn't what they wanted. They both asked for an animal. I thought that it would be fun to have a turtle, but then started to think of something that no one really has. I thought it would be great to get a hedgehog. We named it Prickles and got a mansion for it. Coolest pet we have ever had. The kids feed it worms and they think that it's really neat. Alli has been a little sad since we got Prickles, so we have become better friends.

Austin and Justin are endlessly playing video games, namely Mario Brothers and Lego Star Wars. The boys started having a hard time focusing in school, and Justin was complaining of headaches, so I unplugged all video games consoles. They can learn to just play those on the weekends. They seem to be doing better, but Justin is still getting headaches, so I will be taking him into the doctor on Monday.

Jake and I are doing very well. I'm busying getting us ready for our cruise, being a mom and student. Which is a lot of work, but I'm always up for a great challenge, makes life more fun. Jake has been intent with watching BYU and the great season the basketball team has been having.

We are just so blessed with life right now. Everything going so well. There are some bumps in the road, but for the most part things are looking better everyday. Jake and I are enjoying the time with our family right now, and understand that it won't last forever, they are going to get older and move away. So we have to make as many lasting memories with them as we can. We are very lucky parent to have each of them in our life.

A lot to catch-up on. But hope you all are doing well.

Lots of the love from the Herrin's :)

2011 is going to be even better than 2010!! We are so excited to see what this new year holds for us. So far the year has started off just right with Maliyah getting her feeding tube out. It's been a week, she had the feeding tube for about 8 years. It's so much easier getting her ready for bed now. So now all of the kids are even more independent and it makes Jake and I even more happy. Life just seems to get easier every year. :) Hope it stays that way as the kids start to get into their teenage years. Maliyah's friend Brooke came over and Maliyah was so excited to tell her all about her tube. Brooke was excited! She has a little brother with health issues and so she understands how big of a step it was for Maliyah.

All the kids are getting really excited for our family cruise to the Mexican Rivera. I'm going to be making a chain to count down the days until we leave for Los Angeles, California. I'm sure I will be talking more about it as the days get closer. Disney Cruise here we come!! I wasn't sure if it was going to be a good idea and was nervous about taking everyone, mostly because of how expensive it was going to be. But realized the kids are only little once and we need to take advantage of everything we can do with them now. These trips will make good memories, even when it put a huge hole in the bank account. We are going for Spring Break for a 7 day cruise, but we'll leave a couple days before so the drive isn't as long.

I'm taking school full time, so I hope that this trip doesn't interfere too much with my studies. I really need to keep up my grades, so I can get into the program I want. It's very competitive. Jake's very supportive with my decision, but hates the fact I'm gone 4 nights a week and Saturday mornings at school. I hope all the sacrifice will payoff in the long run, Jake's sure it will. He's incredible with how much he believes in me and my dreams.

Courtney is taking RAD kids at school, Ed Smart put this program together and it's taught at the kids school. We have to get Courtney's height and weight along with other information. She is 4ft 9 1/2 inches tall. Almost as tall as I am.

Justin and Austin really love playing video games. We have XBox 360 and the Wii. When they were playing it yesterday Justin was bouncing on the couch. Austin looks at him and says "you better stop that because you can get brain damage". I had to laugh. Austin has the best information. We have been working really hard on the sounds for letters. Austin is picking up on them really easily, but Justin is having a harder time. They have a great teacher, so I'm going to talk with her about what needs to be done.

Kendra is doing really well. She is turning into the boss of the family. I don't need to say anything to the kids because she beats me to it. Which is good and not so good.

Hope you all had a great start to the New Year!! :)

P.S. If I repeat myself in these blog entries just disregard it. ;) I don't reread what I've posted previously.

So far our Holiday's have been really good. Maliyah has been sick for several days with a UTI, but is starting to feel better. She had a fever of 105.2, I couldn't even imagine how she felt.

We get Netflix and had gotten the newest Twilight movie in the mail. On the way home from school with the kids I told them that we were going to be watching a movie together. Especially because Jake doesn't like watching the Twilight movies a second time. He gets brownie points for taking me the first time. So Courtney had a friend that called to see if she could play. She told the friend that she couldn't play because she was watching a movie with her mom. I hope she feels that way when she's in high school. A parent can only hope. We are still waiting for the day when she is embarrassed of us. So far so good. Maybe it helps that I know most of her friends by name and they call me mom. I hope that is why.

Justin has been saying some pretty funny things lately. He loves to talk about the mice we had, he says they had gravy's, he means rabies. We also read as a family before bed and after each word he reads he adds "of". It's pretty fun, but takes a little longer to get through. He also says cause instead of pause.

Austin has come up with a phrase he says, easy peasy lemon squeezy. The first time we heard that was right after his wrestling match. We were laughing really hard. They are both such witty boys. I need to carry around a book and write down all there clever phrases.

Now about our kitchen fire. Yes, everyone is fine and no damage. Thought I would get that out of the way first. I was making steaks and baked potatoes for dinner. Jake and I were talking in the kitchen and teasing Kendra and Maliyah about the oven blowing up(we always tease the kids and they do the same to us). And while we were doing that I saw out of the corner of my eye a fire that had started in the oven because of the grease. I yelled fire and probably shouldn't of looking back, but I did. The girls freaked!!! Kendra went running out the garage door as fast as she could, it was 30ish outside. Maliyah took off downstairs with a mouth full of food, crying. Courtney ran up the stairs to see why she was crying. She spit out the food on the carpet. To tell her there was a fire. By this time the fire alarm was going off. I controlled everything why Jake was laughing. Brought Kendra back in the house screaming and crying. We always have such a great time! :) It's funny everything that happens on a daily bases here. Just wish I could remember all of it.

I have one final and a final paper due in school and I'm done for several weeks. I 'm doing more than full time next semester. I really want to get done with school soon, at least with my generals. I have along way to go for my degree. It's interesting trying to take care of everything and find time for school and studying. But it worth it to set a good example for my kids. I just hope they get through with college or whatever they need to before having a family. It's much easier.

Here hoping for a good rest in the coming weeks. Wishful thinking I'm sure. Hope you are all enjoying the holiday's. Be safe!

The boys have one more meet and the wrestling will be over. I'm so glad!! I hated them doing it. But it was cheap and the boys wanted to try it. The last practice the boys went to a kids punched the boys in the stomach well wrestling. I had a feeling that was going to happen. Jake was the one that really wanted them to trying it. I wanted something more like karate that would teach them discipline, so they can learn at an early age to be driven.

We have had a lot of drama with mice in our house. Trying to figure out the best way to take care of them. The kids didn't want to kill them, so I thought we would see if that was possible. So the first day we just caught and released them. I didn't want the kids to see us kill something.

The day I found out we had mice was so funny now looking back. I was in the half bath and saw the stupid mouse run out from the corner where it was stealing Allie's food. I called Jake crying, which he thought was really funny. Later on he would figure out how unfunny it really was.

Jake woke-up to do his morning P90X and opened the pantry and saw something drop. He started pulling stuff out. And finally found the mouse. But it ran under the refrigerator. Jake pulled it out but was never able to find it. He also saw another one in our mud room. He woke-up Courtney because he knew I would be no help in him catching it. Courtney and Jake were trying to catch it, Jake said it was like playing hockey. He said it was really sick and scary to have this thing run at you. I told him he shouldn't have laughed when I called him crying about the mouse in the bathroom. :)


But after several days of doing this I decided it wasn't going to be possible. Mainly because of one incident.; I was doing Kendra's hair on the floor in the bathroom. Jake was taking care of some of the traps before he left for work. He was filling the nasty traps with food. All of the sudden he yelled mouse. And out of the corner of my eye I see this mouse run by my leg, it was so close. I FREAKED OUT!! I jumped on the toilet screaming and Kendra was grabbing the counter top screaming and trying to get up on it. I felt terrible leaving Kendra on the floor. I jump down grabbed her and held her on top of the toilet with me. I was very mad at Jake for letting the mouse out, of course he had no idea it was in there so I couldn't stay mad at him long. My dad came over when Jake was at work to help me setup the real traps, I had also gotten DCon, which is poison. I couldn't handle being scared and grossed out in my own home. So within 2 days we caught and killed all of them. The kids were so mad, they cried. Justin yelled at Jake for killing them. He said that "they help us live." I have no idea where he got that idea. So after they saw the first one dead, we decided it was better if we were really quiet about when we caught another one. We got a totally of 6 mice, 3 we let go and 3 that were killed. Glad that is over.

Kendra and Maliyah's physical therapist is incredible. This last Wednesday she talked about taking the girls to the swimming pool to better learn to use there legs. They are able to walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes without anything to hold on to. They are able to walk with their crutches on the floor with there "leg"as well. But the goal really is for them to walk unaided. They get closer everyday. Miss Jess at school is working really hard with them on walking and physical therapy. She is so good with them and they can't stop talking about her. She makes their day so much better. They had great teachers and instructors too. This year has been great so far.

Courtney dance and school is going very well. But the boy stuff is funny to listen to. The boys notice her more then I would like. She has a "friend" that has a crush on all the boys that either like her or she likes them. It makes me mad because this "friend" isn't a real friend. Hope Courtney will take my advice and stop talking to this "friend". I'm worried that when she starts middle school next year, this girl is going to be a nightmare. Girls are just weird!!

Jake has roped me into doing P90X with him. It's really not as hard as he and others have made it out to be. It's a great workout, but some of the classes I take at the gym are a lot harder then P90X. I love working out. Jake is liking it too. I weigh less than in high school and feel so good.

We are doing really well and everyone for the most part is healthy. Couldn't ask for anything better then that. We are also not sure if we are still going on the family cruise we had planned. We are still trying to figure that out. We have until January to figure that out.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to add I disinfected everything in the house. Also threw away a lot of stuff just in case the mice were in, by or touched it. Just SICK!!

I had taken the kids to Carl's Jr for lunch and a play date with my friend Melissa and her kids. I had fed the kids before we went because they are never ending pits. I also got them chicken nuggets and fries with drinks when we got there. Kendra came up to ask me if she could have some more fries. I told her no because she has had enough to eat. Needless to say when I wasn't looking she got into my purse and took my credit card and ordered herself more french fries. I was SHOCKED!!! Not that Kendra would steal my credit card, but that Carl's Jr would accept it from a child. When kids want something they will do whatever they can to do it. I was really stern with Kendra at the time. But when she walked away from her timeout Melissa and I couldn't help but laugh. It was very funny!! Good thing it was only a couple of dollars. I think she learned her lesson.

Courtney had her MASSIVE birthday party. She was really worried about not inviting someone and hurting their feelings. So the list grew to around 32 kids. There was only one kiddo that didn't come. I was surprised that everyone came. I was counting on about half the kids not showing up. We normally do pizza, but Courtney hates pizza and our family was really into soup. So I suggested that we make homemade soup and tomato soup. Then we added more to that. The once small planned party slowly turned into a LARGE event. We couldn't just have soup for the soup we needed to have bread bowls. Then Courtney's favorite things I've been making a lot of is banana bread and pumpkin chocolate cookies. So we took two days of baking to make her favorites. She was in heaven baking with me. The kids were so excited for Courtney's birthday, they talked about it for weeks before it happened. It turned out so good for everyone and Courtney had a great time. Jake and I were exhausted. He was such a big help through the whole party. It was a group effort. I think he knew how much I needed his help and didn't even need to ask, he just jumped right in. He was even great about getting all Courtney's favorite music on an Ipod for dancing. After the party was over I asked Courtney if she had a good time and if she ate a lot of food. She said that she had a great time, but never ate anything. I was a bit mad about that, but knew she was busy with all of her friends.

The girls are slowly getting over their surgeries and getting stronger everyday. Their physical therapist is planning on taking the girls swimming in about 3 weeks. That will be when the girls incision can be submerged. The prosthetics can be submerged and that is the reason they are going to start with the swimming.

Justin and Austin just finished soccer, we were proud of how hard they tried, but they really weren't that into it. So we got a flier about a wrestling class they could take, so we thought why not have them do something they do everyday anyway, over and over and over and over. So they started wrestling this week. I don't think they knew how hard they were going to work. The coach had them do 100 pushups during practice, and showed them actual wrestling moves. They really liked it. Jake helped coach their little group. One of the kids in their group started hitting another one while they were wrestling, so Jake had to make sure he knew that was not allowed. We will try it for a month and see how well they like it.

Jake and I were also going to the BYU vs Wyoming football game the day after the party. It was freezing and there are two things I hate, being cold and football. So as you can understand I wasn't excited for this date. We dressed warm and headed off for the hour drive to Lavell Edwards Stadium. Jake has to get there an hour and a half before the game starts so that we don't hit traffic. I started getting sick in the car, I hadn't eaten and was so exhausted from the day before, things just weren't going my way. We finally get to Orem and I'm very sick. We stop to get some food because I'm sure that's why I wasn't feeling well. We got parked and ate in the car. The rain and wind was really heavy, but my stomach was feeling much better. We bundled up and started walking toward the stadium. Before every game there is an alumnus that will come and talk for the pre-game. It's just happened to be in a really warm room with nice bathrooms. We warmed-up and waited for the game to start. We had blankets that turned into ponchos, but really have never used them before. But this day we had to use them. Jake was so sweet!! We were sitting in the pre-game room and he wrapped me up with these blankets and making sure I was warm. He even told me how glad he was that I come with him to these games, and how he knows that I hate football. It was incredible to have such a great man making me feel like I'm his world. It was a great day to freeze. We had a great time.

We have also tried to have cheaper ways to have our date nights. We have a place called Hopekids that is a life saver for our family, but there was recently a event for the parents to go learn how to ballroom dance. Jake doesn't really enjoy dancing, but he knows how much I love it. So he RSVPed for this event. It was such a fun night with other adults that have children that are sick or dying. It was really fun to meet these neat parents. The parents of Ellie were there, and we learned about their challenges. They told us that there little girl was diagnosed with cancer when she was 2 months old and when she was 6 months old they found out that she has a bad heart and needs a transplant. Ellie is 2 years old now and they have been through so much with her. Many times almost loosing her. What an amazing couple that have stuck together through thick and thin. Ellie is unable to have chemotherapy or radiation because of her heart, so I'm not sure how they are going to help her. But the paren'ts faith will help them and their family through. It was neat to share our story with them and to hear theirs as well. Life is so short and hard at times, but if you have a strong enough support you can make it through anything. Thanks to Hopekids for making life easier and finding support through other parents.

Tis' the season for everything to break! Everything seems to be going up in smoke. Jake's car really needs to be fixed. His car is 14 years old and we really want to have his car another 14 years. I HATE car payments!! My car needs new tires before the snow comes or I will never be able to make it up the hill. And of course the cars need to be registered. But there is always an upside to things. Hope that comes soon.

Kendra and Maliyah just had surgery on the 14Th of October. Maliyah seemed to just pop back to normal until we took her home from the hospital and she was doing too much playing. Kendra had some bleeding issues that seem to be getting worse with each back surgery she has. She was in a lot more pain than Maliyah was. Maliyah returned to school today and Kendra stayed home in bed. Both the girls are able to wear their 'legs' all day. They both are using their crutches more.

Justin and Austin are really needing to get their aggression out, so I'm putting them in karate or something that will work for them. Boys have such a hard time with their feelings, they can just hold everything in for so long. That can't be healthy.

Courtney is getting ready to celebrate her 11Th Birthday with a BIG party. I'm really excited to of planned this whole event for her. Should be really fun! The kids are excited to wear their Halloween costumes. I'm even going to dress-up for her party as a cowgirl. Easy and already have a shirt that will work.