"Amen! We're Done!"

So Daryl left for Amsterdam on Saturday morning, and the one thing that is the most stressful for me while he is gone is going to church.  Emma has really become a great kid during sacrament meeting, but Gabe is another story.  It's usually like a WWF match and usually Daryl takes care of it. Which I am so very appreciative.  Yesterday was a special day because two of the young men who've been such a huge part of our lives  spoke.  One is leaving to Argentina and one was coming home from Argentina.  So I really wanted to listen to their talks.  During Ryan's talk Gabe was pretty good.  But when Ryan said Amen at the end of his talk Gabe yells out (he has no volume control) AMEN! WE'RE DONE! Needless to say most people in the chapel started laughing. 

This comes after three weeks ago when I was wheelchair bound at church, Gabe got away from Daryl and ran up the isle with Daryl trying to reverently speed walk.  Gabe continued up onto the podium and across the choir seats to the other side.  Luckily one of Daryl's deacons was sitting there and stopped Gabe.  Again everyone laughed as Daryl and the delinquent went out the side door.  What can I say we provide entertainment at church.  But we really are working on these things everyday! Oh the joys of parenthood.

For better or for worse

I'm so thankful for this man.  He has made my life so much better.  Since August he's had to do my job and his and has done it without complaint.  I love him so much.  Yesterday was Thanksgiving and Daryl prepared our whole meal.  It was wonderful and I was thankful and am thankful that he was just so willing to jump in and cook our dinner.  He also took care of me and the kids all day long.  He has done the laundry and for some reason both kids have been wetting the bed a ton in the last couple of weeks so he's had to wash the sheets for the kids several times.  He has been completely busy with his job and has seemed to find a way to make things work and stay on top of the work load.  He is my super hero.

But looking beyond the last two months.  He has supported me and been my shoulder to cry on. He has helped me to reach my goals and is my constant support, through many a trial.  I love that he still makes me laugh and that he is tender with me and my kids.  I'll probably be in trouble for writing this as he will see it as ruining his tough guy image.  But I just couldn't stand not writing about him.  

One of my favorite things is to watch Daryl play with our kids.  It seems to me that adding children to our family has in so many ways changed him.  He's so protective and playful.  He looks for every opportunity to spend time with them.  I love that Daryl will take all of us on individual dates and make sure that we each feel his special love for us.  

He loves to give gifts and I might add is very thoughtful and usually picks the best gifts.  The best gift he has given me is the way that he leads in our home.  He fulfills his Priesthood duties and makes sure that we have family home evening, scripture study and family prayer.  I love that he has studied other men in the church and the prophets and tries to emulate them in the way he cares for our family.  

I love that he is a service junkie.  When we were first married I thought we would spend every Saturday of our lives helping people move or lay sod, or put in sprinklers.  But moving out of a singles ward helped that some.  But my husband is always aware of service that needs to be done and engages our family in that service.  

I think it's great the amount of time he spends with the youth.  They love him and they love Sports in the Park.  I love that he takes the opportunity to love, play and teach them.  I hope some day the youth will realize just how much Daryl loves them.

So to my sweetheart I love you.  You amaze me and I thank Heavenly Father each day for you. Thanks for everything. 

New Knees

I HAVE NEW KNEES!  Now I just need to learn how to walk on them and stuff.  On Wednesday we got to the hospital at 9:00 am.  I was supposed to go into surgery at 11:00 but I was delayed until 3:00pm.  I didn't get up to my room until 8:00pm.  It was a long day and I hadn't eaten anything so we immediately started on ice chips.  The ice at St. Als is like Sonic ice.  I love Sonic ice. So I just keep getting more. After ice comes jello and then some toast.  I started doing exercises during the night.

Yesterday I had to walk two feet to my chair.  ARGH that was painful.  It's amazing to me how hard it is to get my legs to work. The walk back to bed was not as bad but I didn't have any pain killers, so I was really hurting.  They had to take me off of them because my blood pressure was too low, and so I was light headed.  Right now I'm going to physical therapy.

So now it is the end of the day and I'm pretty tired.  They took out the catheter and so now I have to get up to go to the bathroom. Such a bummer when that happens.  I've walked the halls twice and I'm hopefully going to be stronger tomorrow.  

As I'm pretty wiped out I think I'll  be going to bed now.  Thanks for all of your prayers and support.

Surgery AGAIN!

For those of you not in the Boise area and those who are but don't recognize the picture...this St. Alphonsus hospital where I'll reside this week from Wednesday to Sunday or Monday.  

I'm going in to have both of my knees replaced on Wednesday.  I'm thrilled to get new knees.  I'm told I'll feel like a new woman.  But I'm not looking forward to the recovery.  We'll get through it though.  

I've been overwhelmed with the out pouring of love and concern and I am so thankful to all of you have and will help.  Thank you so much.  It takes a village to keep the Conley's going I swear.  It's been hard to be excited about this but last night Daryl gave me a blessing and I feel much calmer and ready for the challenge ahead.  I should qualify that with I feel more emotionally and spiritually ready.  Physically there's a lot that has to happen in the next couple of days.  So I will be back when I get home.  As I will mostly be laying around I'll be happy to be blogging all kinds of stuff.  Till then thanks again to everyone.

Gabe

This week Gabe celebrated is third birthday.  I has made the best of the last few months of being a  terrible two.  So we'll see what this year brings.  I am constantly reminded of the miracle it is to have him in our family.  Way back to when we were adopting Daryl lost his job.  Which delayed our adoption just long enough for Gabe to become available to be adopted.  It was a trial at the time but enduring has brought the greatest blessings.  So we have had him for almost two years and in that time he's grown and changed so much.  This is a picture of our first night together.  This was taken after his traumatic first bath.  The best part was that I bathed him first and he screamed the whole time and then I dressed him.  Emma was next and he screamed the whole time for her.   It had been a big day.  

When he was in the orphanage and we would visit he wanted nothing to do with me.  In fact when they tried to hand him to me he wouldn't come.  All he wanted was Daryl.  And if Daryl moved Gabe moved so that he was touching him.  But the day we got them Daryl had to leave right away to go get their travel documents so we bonded right away.  The poor guy got sick and stayed that way for most of our first year together.

  Here he is in his traditional Russian clothing and with his first stitches.  He endured surgery within two months of coming home and was as tough as nails.  He has an extremely high pain tolerance. I was, and am amazed.  He can totally crash and jump up and continue on.  

Gabe is so loving and thoughtful.  His sister might disagree but he is constantly aware of others feelings.  And I love this sweet side of him.  I love this picture because he loves to give kisses and I love kissing him.  I've told him several times that I'm just making up for that first year of his life when I didn't get to kiss him at all. 

I loved the day that we were sealed as a family and will forever treasure the temple and the blessing that we receive within it's walls.  The kids were really good that day and when they walked into the sealing room there was such an amazing feeling there. And I couldn't stop crying just looking at him because he looked like a mini missionary getting ready to leave for his mission.

So Happy Birthday Gabe we love having you in our family  you are a ton of fun.  Thank you for all the fun memories. You are an amazing kid and I'm so glad I get to be your mom. 

Happy Halloween

We of course carved pumpkins and the kids had fun.  Last year Emma kept just eating the pumpkin but this year not so much.  I guess her tastes are becoming more refined.  

Gabe hated the feeling of the goop inside the pumpkin and would not pull that stuff out.  Maybe next year.

Emma actually carved most of her pumpkin this year and that was fun.  Maybe next year I'll get to carve one too.

Daryl and the kids had a fun time trick or treating.  I was the lame sheep who stayed home to hand out candy.  Literally I'm lame I can hardly walk right now but that's for another post.  We had a great day.  The best part of Halloween was the fact that Emma spent the afternoon over at her friend's house walking along the wall and practicing trick or treating.  It was pretty hilarious.  Even after all that practice she would just knock and say "we need some candy."  That's my girl direct in all that she says.  Let's not beat around with this be nice and polite stuff but just get down to why we're really here.  Give me the candy and we'll get out of here.   

Gabe on the other hand was not satisfied with just one piece of candy so he came home with a ton more 

candy than Emma. He was not happy about being a sheep. As we were getting dressed he just kept saying 

"I don't want to wear that sheep shirt. I don't want to wear those sheep pants." But once he came to

terms with the fact that he had to wear them to get the candy it was like a totally different kid. "okay

I'll wear that just get me the candy."

Feeding the ducks

This fall has been full of lots of fun activities. So here are some highlights. We went over to HP one evening and fed the ducks.  They have a park there so we got some good pictures of the kids playing. 

Gabe and Emma both LOVE to climb things.  So he is so proud of himself whenever he climbs up on anything at the park.  I love this picture of him because it is his true personality shining through.

Emma loves to swing and finally figured out how to swing all by herself.  I've never been happier.  I think she could just swing all day long.  She really has just been so full of life and been one happy little girl.  The best part of this is there is a ton less crying. YEAH!