Author: Rebecca

Yesterday was our 7th wedding anniversary. Kyle took me out last night to see Bolt ( a new Disney movie) in 3D. We got some popcorn and realized as the movie was starting that it was just WAY too salty. I kept eating it hoping further down the bag it would be ok, thinking that maybe they poured the salt on the top of the bag so the rest should be ok. It wasn’t. It was salty all the way down the bag. I couldn’t make myself finish the bag. Kyle kept munching too probably because it was there to munch. But I think he gave up on it earlier than I did. We ended up telling them that it was too salty and they refilled our bag with popcorn that wasn’t so salty and we took that home. After the movie Kyle took me to Red Lobster for dinner, since we had a gift card. We decided to do the make your own dinner and split it. Dinner was really good, but we were definately all salted out and really sensitive to salt for the rest of the evening. Kyle ended up with a bad headache and I needed to drive us home. (Kyle slept almost all the way home, which provided a pretty boring drive home for myself) But we have been married for 7 years and that’s a good thing and that’s what counts. 🙂

Granny, Laurel & Roine and the cousins came over for a Christmas dinner tonight. The kids always love playing with their cousins. I was just finishing up with the dinner/dessert preparations when they arrived, so we ate first. And the food was delicious (if I do say so myself 😉 ) The turkey turned out moist as usual, the stuffing was delicious and not soggy at all since we had cooked the rice to just barely done before making the stuffing and putting it in the bird. Kyle was amazed at how well the ham turned out having been just thrown in the crock pot to warm it up. The rolls turned out super fluffy and just perfect, and everything else was just yummy.

After dinner Kyle whipped out Lego Star Wars to show to Alex and they played a couple levels. Then Ethan, Lars, Alex and Sylvia took turns playing various levels of the game.

Then we opened presents. Ethan had already opened his (since Granny had already handed it to him and we didn’t have time to tell him to wait until after dinner, he just ripped it open) So Tyra, Jeremy & Dinah got to open theirs. Wendy got a book from Karen, and Laurel & Roine gave us an emergency potty. Laurel wanted to give us something for emergency preparedness, but didn’t want to give us something we already had……sooooo ya. 🙂 We gave Laurel & Roine and family an ice cream maker and we gave Karen a box of swiss colony petits fours.

After presents, Kyle turned Monkey ball on for the kids to play so that more than just 2 kids could play at a time and they had so much fun doing that. Although Lars and Jeremy were NOT sharing very well. When I took the controller from Jeremy after a race to hand the controller to Lars, Jeremy had a huge fit. Then when that race was over and it was Jeremy’s turn again Lars was the one to throw a huge fit at being told to hand the controller back to Jeremy.

Dessert was delicious, chocolate mousse in chocolate bowls. Very yummy, so yummy that Jeremy had a second kid sized bowl. Dinah LOVED it:

Well the last of our baby bunnies died today. 🙁 Actually he wasn’t a baby anymore, he was almost 7 years old.

We found his mama just roaming Kyle’s parent’s neighborhood one night in February 2002 after visiting his parents. Liesl was driving Kyle and I home, and we saw the rabbit just sitting there by the side of the road. I said to Kyle “I dare you to go out and pick it up.” Liesl stopped Kyle got out and the bunny didn’t even try to run, she just sat there. So Kyle had no problems with picking her up and brought her to the car. The next day while Kyle was at work, my mom came over to visit and to bring a bunny cage for our new pet. She picked up the bunny and was petting her and said “Uh, she’s pregnant.” Since I didn’t know how soon the bunny was going to have her babies, and mom didn’t bring a nesting box because this was kind of unexpected, I decided to put the bunny in our bathtub with some towels so that she would be comfortable and have a place to have her babies. THAT DAY, later on, she had her babies. EIGHT of them. As they got bigger and started to show personalities, I named them. We called the mama Esther (because it kind of sounded like Easter bunny), and the babies were Rolly, Spot, Spaz, Nippy, Turbo, Blinky, Precious, and Jewel. Spot was the only girl of the bunch (aside from Esther). The bunnies grew and were lots of fun. They were our first babies. Our babies before we started having babies.

Nippy was the first of the bunch to pass away. It was summer time and he just got too hot. Kyle and I were out of town at the time and some of my family were taking care of them while we were gone. When we came home there was one less bunny. 🙁 When we had to move out of the house in Fullerton, we took our bunnies over to my parent’s house because we couldn’t take them to our apartment, and I went over to do laundry about once a week and visit the bunnies. And then time passed on and Kyle and I (and now Ethan) moved to Utah, and we left the bunnies with my parents until we could get a place where we could bring them up to be with us. Every time I went to California I would go out and check on my rabbits, and feed them and spoil them. One by one, over time they all died, except Jewel. Which was interesting to me because Jewel was the only one of the bunch that had been neutered (that is another story). When Jewel was the last one, I decided that I would just put him in the van and bring him home with me. And he lived quite happily with us here in Eagle Mountain since then. He was completely content to stay in his cage. He didn’t care too much to be loose, I guess he felt safer in the cage. He had a bunny litter box in his cage and was very good at using it.

The past few days he just hasn’t been acting normal though. I would look over and he would be in a weird position, looking up and breathing slow and his teeth would be showing. When I would go over to look at him he would hop over and snap out of it though. Today he didn’t. Kyle took him out of the cage so he could just sit on the floor and strech out and he just flopped on the floor. The back half of his body wouldn’t cooperate with the front half of his body, and he was kicking and sqeaking (which he hasn’t squeaked since he was a baby). Then he just stopped breathing. 🙁 Kyle picked him up and asked Ethan to go get a towel to wrap Jewel in, and he just held him for awhile. I was just so sad, and in tears. I knew he was a senior rabbit and someday he would go, just as I have had the thought that Chewy is getting pretty old and won’t be with us forever. I just started calling vets to see if I could find one in today that could help. But the ones that could help weren’t in today. After calling around to find out what we should do with his body we have decided that the best option that we have been given is to just bury him in the backyard. Of course there is a lot of snow out there and the ground is most likely frozen, but that beats taking him to the animal shelter and paying them to take him. I am so sad, and I just can’t believe my bunny is gone. So Jewel bunny born 27th February 2002, died 27th December 2008 around 2 PM, 6 years 10 months old. Goodbye our cute fuzzy friend.

I woke up quite early this morning. I think I woke up around five and decided that I shouldn’t get up that early because the kids wouldn’t be waking up for a while still, and then I woke in the 6 o’ clock hour and heard someone in the living room. So I got up to go see. Ethan was in the living room and had been taking things out of stockings to see what was in them, the little stinker. I had Kyle take him back to bed, since Ethan wouldn’t cooperate with me and he is too big for me to physically pick him up and take him to bed, and Kyle ended up sleeping on his bed with him. I, then, decided to lay down in the hallway so that when anyone else woke up I could have them sit with me and wait for the rest to wake up. After a very little bit the only people still asleep were Kyle and Wendy so we woke them up, I got the camera and the day began. The kids were so excited to see what was in their stockings and Ethan apparantly had been sticking candy canes from the tree in the stockings too. I put some turnovers in the oven to bake while we were going through stockings. Then we broke for breakfast, and when breakfast was over we started opening presents.

The kids loved their gifts. Ethan got Star Wars toys from Grandpa & Grandma and a Transformer hoodie from Great Grandpa Tom & Great Grandma Kathy (among other things) and he just loves those gifts. Tyra got a Care Bear from Grandpa & Grandma and a really cute sparkley shirt with butterflies from Great Grandpa Tom & Great Grandma Kathy (among other things) and she just loves those. Jeremy got Star Wars toys from Grandpa & Grandma and a yellow shirt with some pants from Great Grandpa Tom & Great Grandma Kathy and a set of scriptures in a yellow case (among other things) and he just loves them. He pulled the yellow shirt out of the box and yelled “Me want wear dis!!!” He’s so cute. He was also carrying his scriptures around the house all day. 🙂 Dinah got a couple of Star Wars potato heads from Grandpa & Grandma and was carrying them around all over the place. She also got a really cute blue snow type suit from Great Grandpa Tom & Great Grandma Kathy and it’s just the right color blue to make her eyes really stand out. Dinah also got a cute toy where you push the buttons and the animals pop out and she just LOVES it. She gets so excited when they would pop out.

The day was quite relaxing as we had postponed the get together with the extended family until Saturday, due to a bad snow storm that had been predicted. I don’t know how bad the storm got in Orem and on that side of the mountain, but on our side it really wasn’t that bad. But that’s ok it was nice to just relax and enjoy the day. Debby didn’t get the e-mail about postponing dinner and came out with Jeff anyway, which is fine. We had lunch meats and rolls and cheeses to make sandwiches and had a nice simple dinner. It was awesome and just so relaxing. It has been a really long, but really good day. 🙂