Alicia & Ben » Blog

They say bad things come in threes.  We’ve had 3 broken bones, 3 split heads, and 3 knocked out teeth in the last 3 Years.  So, I’m pretty sure we’ll be good for a while now!!

I thought it would be a bit therapeutic to review the past and lay it all to rest.   **Warning to any with hemophobia.  Proceed with caution.**

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#1 Broken Bone – This kicked off the bad luck!  McKay, at around 18 months, was running in the family room with a toy baseball bat in his hands.  The bat got tangled up in his legs and tripped him, resulting in a broken fibula and tibia.  We were shocked!  Actually, I’m still shocked.  It was such a benign fall.

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#2 Broken Bone – I wouldn’t say the kids are big risk takers or dare devils.  Most of our injuries are bad luck.  All?  No.  This injury falls into the category of Poor Decision instead of Bad Luck.  We were at my parents house and Jax jumped from the sofa onto an exercise ball.  A bad, bad decision! For which he paid the price.

Actually, I paid the price.

Lesson learned.

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#3 Broken Bone –  Apparently the lesson wasn’t learned.  He broke the other arm almost exactly a year later.  The kids were jumping on the trampoline as I was swinging in the nearby hammock.  Jax was down on all fours, bouncing, and came down weird on his arm.  I watched it happen and it didn’t look dramatic, but sure enough, x-rays said it was broken.  Trampoline bounce gone wrong!  Darn.

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Time for the teeth…..

#1 + #2 Knocked Out Teeth – This injury still pains me to this day and wins the award for The Worst of All Johnson Injuries.  Sadie and McKay were playing in the family room. Sadie was tickling McKay and he fell off the sofa.  No big deal?  Lots of kids laugh and fall off sofas unscathed.  Maybe?  I think???  Anyways, he was laughing so hard he never got a hand down to break his fall and landed on his face.  I heard the cry and ran to him. I knew from the cry this was a bad one!  His tears were flowing, his blood was gushing, and when I wiped the blood away I had two teeth in my hand!  I’m usually cool under pressure but my heart dropped with this one!  I had to sit down because I was a little shaky.  I had Sadie call Ben at work with the message of, “Come home now!”  We sent the dentist pictures but there was nothing that could be done.

Took me a while to recover from this one!  I grieved for days for the loss of that perfect little smile.  We had a retainer made for him with two fake teeth but it always falls out.

I still miss those teeth :/

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#3 Knocked out Tooth – This falls into the category of Poor Decision Making again.  I was at my brother’s house helping him move and the boys were upstairs playing.  Using the lid from a bin, Jax thought it would be fun to replicate the scene from Home Alone when Kevin slides down the stairs on a sled and out through an open door.  Jax was successful in his attempt so McKay decided to give it a go, too.

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McKay was not successful, unfortunately

He went tumbling forward and face-first into the railing.  His tooth was knocked backwards and he split his frenulum.  The tooth was wiggly for a while and it’s a little discolored but it did reattach, thankfully!

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#1 Stitches – McKay was running and fell into the corner of a desk.  Stitches.  That child had THE most perfect smile and plump little baby lips.  Tore me up inside to see it ruined.  The scar has faded, and though I still see it, no one else seems to notice it.

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#2 Stitches

Park.

Swing.

My Head.

Ouch.

There’s a little more to it, but that’s the just of it.  I did what I’ve told my kids a thousand times not to do – moved in front of a swing.  So dumb!  I learned my lesson.

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#3 Stitches – McKay was riding his bike, lost control, and the handlebars met the underside of his chin.  It was a pretty jagged cut so we had it stitched up.  He never shed a tear after the initial 3 minute cry when it happened.  My mom took him to have the stitches removed (we were in Thailand) and he never cried that time either.  My brave little accident-prone soldier.

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That’s it!

At least I hope that’s it.

 

 

 

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  • April 10, 2016 - 11:16 pm

    Desiree - goodness! Mckay has had the bulk of the pain but they all look pretty nasty. We haven’t even startedReplyCancel

Back in mid-January Ben’s oldest brother, Troy, and his family came to visit.  Our kids are similar ages and they had a fantastic time playing together.  This is a blog post from the last time they visited: http://aliciaben.com/?p=288.  A lot has changed since that time!

I wasn’t great about picture taking but I remember a zoo visit, Grimaldi’s pizza, two beach visits, dancing to What Does the Fox Say?, lots of bike rides to visit our horse friend, fishing in our neighborhood park, stake conference with my parents where Joseph got called as Bishop, Sunday supper at the Homestead, Chuck E Cheese, and Sadie’s birthday festivities.

On to the pictures which are not in chronological order…..

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Since Sadie’s 8th birthday was on a Sunday we decided to celebrate the day prior.  She was extra lucky since her cousins, Jadyn and Jace, were staying with us at the time!  Troy and Becky helped us decorate the house the night before her ‘birthday’ and she had presents waiting for her when she woke up.

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After presents we sang to her and she ate her crepe cake.

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Midday, everyone went to Chuck E Cheese – the kids’ favorite place on earth.

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That evening we met at the Seminole ward building for her party.  There are so many family members now I thought the extra space at the church would be refreshing.  And it was!  So nice to have space for the kids to play and everyone was able to sit and eat.  We had pizza, salad, and fruit.

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Ben and Matt helped organize some balloon games in the gym. They were great fun to watch. We had one adult game too, and boy, was that entertaining! Julie and Kimmy were our finalists and had a face-off. In the end, we declared it a tie.

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We sang to Sadie outside since no flames are allowed in the church 🙂

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Saved the best for last – present opening!

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I think she had a pretty fantastic 8th birthday!  Thanks to all those that helped us celebrate her!

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  • March 19, 2016 - 12:14 am

    Ben - Our kids are so lucky to have you! You are always putting forth the effort to make sure their birthday is a special day. Fun memories! Thanks for doing so much to document them. Love you!ReplyCancel

The little lady turned 8.  Still shocked she’s that old.  The days are long but the years are so short. Eight means baptism for Mormons. Her birthday conveniently fell on a Sunday.  It was a really beautiful, special day.  We felt the love and support of family and friends.  Christy and Matt’s family and Cliffie came all the way from Utah to be a part of it.  Sadie knew she was loved!

Talks were given by both grandmothers.  Ben performed the baptism and confirmation.  Christy conducted the music.  A friend, Keska, played the piano.  Kimmy and I gave prayers (I cried).  We enjoyed ice cream sundays for dessert and mingled afterwards.

Sadie was positively adorable and radiant.  Grandma Cliffie gifted her with a white dress and pearls and I think she felt like a princess.  So sweet and small and loving that child is.  A good soul.  Good, good, good.

For those interested, Mormons baptize children at the age of 8 because we feel that’s when children are accountable. They’re baptized by complete immersion as Jesus was by John the Baptist which is symbolic of a spiritual rebirth. For us, baptism is a two way promise or covenant with our Father in Heaven. We promise to obey his commandments, take upon ourselves the name of Christ, and to always remember Him and he promises to give us a forgiveness for our sins and his spirit to guide us.

 

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  • March 21, 2016 - 8:15 pm

    Jess - Love these!! I can’t believe she’s 8!! The pictures are adorable. I especially love the ones of you & Ben and all the kids, and the one of Gramma Meyers with Sadie. Too cute!! Miss you all!!ReplyCancel

Christmas this year was HOT! Hottest on record, I believe? The high was 86, which, incidentally, was the same high as July 25th, 2015.

Christmas Eve afternoon, while I was cleaning and Ben doing yardwork, the kids were outside playing in the sprinklers.
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My mom wasn’t feeling up to hosting Christmas Eve because she was recovering from gallbladder removal surgery and pancreatitis so we hosted. Made me feel so grown up 🙂  Wish I had taken more pictures! (common statement lately)  Joe and Julie’s family was sick; we missed them.

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“Who’s excited for Santa to come?”

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The nativity presentation went well.  The kids were still reluctant to participate but they seem to have fun, nonetheless.

Someone recorded it and Michael was supposed to take pictures while I was helping but all I have is 30 different versions of this:

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Where’s that video, Mike?  Hmmm?

After everyone left the kids linked arms and went dancing around the house.  They were giddy with excitement.  I let them stay up way too late but they were so happy and I was too tired to care.

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After the kids went to sleep we watched a little Once Upon a Time while I did some final wrapping and Ben assembled a bike.  Such a parental thing to do – assemble a bike on Christmas Eve.

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Morning came all too quickly!  The kids were thrilled to rip open their Santa gifts.  Sadie asked Santa for a Barbie princess doll set.  Jax asked for a lightsaber.  McKay asked for a boat transformer.  All wishes were granted.  I’m not a big fan of Barbies but Santa must have a softer side than me. 🙂

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After a quick mid-morning nap we went to Mike and Sarah’s house.  He flew his new quadracopter in a field across from his house.  Here’s some video he took.  Our family comes in the scene around minute 8.

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We had a relaxing raclette  dinner with my parents at our house that evening.  The kids played outside with their new toys while we ate slowly and chatted around the dinner table.

It was a perfectly relaxing, wonderfully warm Christmas!

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