THE FOREVER CIRCUS

Happy Birthday Lacey!!!

2010-08-08T22:33:00.003-06:00

I want to wish Lacey a happy birthday by giving her a shout out with one of my fabulous blog posts.
The first picture was on the night Lacey and Dewey saw each other for the first time after he got off his mission.
The second picture is of Lacey after she sat on Charlee's hat..

This cute little thing came into my life about 5 years ago. She immediately stole our hearts. We all love her so much..
I wish that I could say that she has never caused me any trouble, but if I did it would be a lie.

I new from the start that she was meant to be a part of our family.
That's why I acted like a crazy syco lady when I thought she might not be ours.

I love how Lacey is always concerned with how everyone is doing.
I love how Lacey takes care of Dewey.
I love how Lacey puts up with all the crap all of us dish out to her.
I love how Lacey tries to tolerate out impromptu nature.

I love you Lacey.

Sweet 16

2010-07-31T00:16:00.013-06:00

Happy Late Birthday Blog.
My Beautiful baby girl is finally 16.
And to all the potential suitors.
GOOD LUCK

This amazing person came into my life July 16th 1994 at around 5:30 in the morning, after being in labor for a little over 24 hours. I thought that since Charley-Anne's birth had been relatively easy the same would be true for this baby. NOT! she was however about three weeks over due, the Dr. was sure I was wrong in my counting because of the fact that I hadn't gained back the weight I had lost at the beginning. Anyhow, when she finally decided to join us you can only imagine the Doctors surprise to see the size of this baby girl. 9lbs and all I can say about that is OUCH!

She definitely left a big impact on me, she was my most memorable birth.
She had a whole head full of black hair long enough to put curlers in, she looked like a little Indian.
We were sent home about 5 hrs later and she slept clear through that first night. The next day We had an appointment back at the Dr. to make sure things were OK, and we ended up spending three days in Primary children s Hospital because of a strep virus she got from me. It was so sad to watch them put the IV into her little head.

Jamee, you were so cute, I loved it when you would sing to me while I did your hair.

Jamee has always had an attitude!

Jamee loves her dog digger, In fact we lost Digger in Idaho just after we got him and Jamee and I cried all the way home and then we finally got in touch with the animal shelter in Boise they new who had found him and Me and Jamee drove all the way back up to Boise to get Digger and then right back home. Needless to say that wasn't the last time we lost him or left him somewhere. But the tales of bad dog ownership are for another time.

Jamee when on a trip with me and Charlee a few years back to Switzerland to see Grandma who was turning 103. It was a fun trip, Charlee kept telling us that if we were his greenies we would be in deep trouble. (We had a hard time with the food) So if there was something we didn't like we would just push it over for him to eat.
One afternoon, There was a party for her and they served her favorite cake. Charlee had just threatened us that we had better eat all our food cause he wasn't gonna cover for us. So we sat down and started eating our cake, let me tell ya there was nothing sweet about it, I could hardly gag this cake down. I decided after the first bite that I would have to eat the rest in big bits to get rid of it and get it over with. That lasted about three bits, by this time we had been sitting there for about a half hour, I started feeling a warm tingling feeling come over me, just like after you take a big swig of NyQuil. Ya well, I realized that I was in fact drunk, Luckily Jamee had only barley tasted it. But not Charlee, he had licked his plate clean so he finished up mine and Jamee's and he drove us home.

Jamee and Ashlee have been friends since they were just babies.
Jamee loves the fact that they can have such different interest and still be best friends.
I think that they will be friends forever.

James and Chuck!

Jamee, I love you so much.
I'm glad that I'm your mom.
Thanks for being my daughter and my friend.
P.S I am so glad you have your drivers license. Love mom

Yay!!! Charley Anne!

2010-06-03T08:14:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday Charley-Anne!!!

2010-06-01T23:07:00.014-06:00

Oh my goodness What to say about Chuck!

I have said several times that my life was totally changed when my third baby came. I can safely say that I haven't fully recovered from it. Mostly because of the fact that I only had two hands. I am however glad to report that things didn't get worse as the other two came along.

I was very excited to have another baby, but this pregnancy was much harder than the previous two. I was so sick. By the time I was about 3 months along I found myself checking into the hospital for dehydration, they kept my there for 4 days hooked up to an IV. And was everything ok at home you ask? Well, The first thing I discovered was that someone had cut his own hair, I found proof all over the bathroom and somehow Charlee didn't seem to notice the bald spots on Dewey's head. Thank heaven for clippers.

Charley-Anne Was born June 1, 1992 In the Tooele Hospital at 5:30p.m. She was my first natural birth so I was quite nervous and by the time I had past my due date by two weeks I was quite out of patience. My labor was only about 8 hours and when Charlee told me The baby was a girl I was so happy to finally had a little princess to dress up. We didn't know her name until we saw her. But Charley-Anne seemed to fit.

From the time she was a little girl she has been real good at demanding our attention. When she was real little if she wanted our attention, which was often she would knock on our leg of some other part of our body and say "knock, knock, woo,woo,.." It was cute.

Charley-Anne was a good baby, and a good easy going little girl. She loved to play dress up and get her hair done, but Don't let that fool ya, she could get as dirty as any boy.

I'm happy to report that Chuck and I share a love for girls camp.

A true Blonde!
She started off in this life with alot of beautiful honey blonde hair. It turned white as she got a little older then when she was 6 or 7 it started to darken up. Now days she likes to color her own hair, which about 3 months ago didn't turn out so well and it cost ME about $120 to get it fixed.

She went though a little bit of an gawky stage but the results are spectacular.

Charley-Anne is quite independent and I love the fact that she is so easy to get along with.

She is a hard worker. Up until a month ago she worked for her dad cleaning up the job site and she always did a great job. Her new job is out at the Miller Sports Park on the janitorial crew. I am real proud of her decision to sick with the job even when it looked like she might not be able to attend her seminary graduation. Cleaning up after drunk people could not be that fun but she come home from work with a smile on her face and a story to tell.

When she gets laughing you can't help but smile, and some times She gets in trouble because she doesn't know were to draw the line on her giggles.

I've said before that she reminds me of Erica, Like the sound of her voice her looks and her determination. But she also has another cousin that several times Charlee and I have looked at each other and both said ah Kristy Bledsoe. This is who she gets her giggle fits from. If Charley-Anne can Grow up to be just half the women that these two are I will be very proud indeed.
Charley-Anne, being on the younger end of both sides, has many good examples to lead the way. Thanks to all of you.

Charley has also been blessed to have good friends.

I always hoped that Charley-Anne And Jamee would be friends and they are. They fight like sisters and always have each others back.. I love seeing them together.

Annie I love you like crazy.

Happy Birthday Erica!!!

2010-05-01T22:28:00.004-06:00

I love working on projects!
Especially when they have a purpose or meaning.

Right now I am working on a project for my mom.
Several years ago she quilted a Hawaiian Quilt and said that she would like to do one for herself one day. Russell and Christy purchased an appliqued quilt top from a lady in HI and when it got here it wasn't finished it was only basted on. Mom has asked different people over the years to applique it but no one would or could.
I have been trying to get down to Levan to visit with her more. I try to take something to work on while we visit and and helped her get a few little quilts put together to do on her lap, but she isn't truly happy without those frames set up.

Durring my visits the subject of this quilt always came up, and to tell you the truth it looks quite intimidating, but I could tell that it bothered her not having it done. So, I took of the challenge, It's not as hard as I thought it would be, and my goal is to have it finished by fall so she can quilt it.
My most favorite project So far has been for my sister.
Patty called me not long after Erica had passed away, and asked me to help her with a secret mission. I would make Teddy Bears out of Erica's Pajama pants. I was honored to be doing this, and let me tell you there were a lot of tears shed while I sewed and stuffed.

The day of Unvailing had arrived Sunday, May 2nd 2005 Erica' Birthday Five years ago today to be exact. I was so excited to let everyone in on the surprise, and also to see Patty's face when she saw the finished product. She hadn't seen the pants since I took them from her house three months earlier. I think she liked them, and I think the girls were also surprised. I think Alisha said she had been looking for a pair to wear but couldn't find them.

But before I boxed them up, I sat all 24 of them together and took their picture.

I remember this day like it was yesterday!

I miss Erica so much, oh I love that special girl.
But, I do get to have glimpse of her quite often because Charley-Anne looks a lot like her and she also has the same sound in her voice and laugh. I think anyway.

I can't believe he's 20

2010-04-28T14:55:00.005-06:00

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

You are my little Hawaiian baby!

We seriously considered naming him Kona, after the Hawaiian winds,
it would totally explain his personality.
Jeremy was born April 26th 1990 on the Island Maui.
Charlee was discharged form the hospital a few days before after being there for two weeks due to his appendix rupturing. Jeremy was born at 11:30 in the morning, and soon after the doctor had him cleaned up Charlee went over to the airport to pick up Grandma Mangelson and Aunt Marilyn, who came all the way from the mainland to lend a helping hand.
Charlee brought the straight to the hospital, to see us, but there was just one little problem, the maternity ward was under high security which means no visitors. They couldn't come back to my room or see the baby. so you guessed it I had to travel out to the waiting room to see them just a few hours after having Jeremy. What was the big deal? Well, first of all it had been about 6 months since i had seen my mom, and second I had just had major surgery Jeremy was born C-section. The painful journey was short but worth it.
The two of them quickly became very useful. While the hospital staff insisted on starving me until my stomach" recovered" from surgery I sent them home to whip me up some chocolate chip cookies, by that point I hadn't eaten for about 4 days and I was hungry so they smuggled me in a snack. They did a great job holding down the fort and taking care of Dewey until I was released from captivity. We then spent the next week and a half touring around the Island, with a new baby in tow. needless to say I didn't get much rest until they went home. I felt bad that they came all that way to just tend me, and We were in Hawaii for heaven sakes I could rest later. May I add my house was never cleaner all 800sq. ft of it.

Jer never has required alot of sleep from the time he was little he was the last in bed and the first one up. I got tired of staying up with him so I taught him how to turn off the tv and he went to bed when he was done. (Pic in the rocking chair) was one of those late nights
Jeremy provides us with 24hr. entertainment he is quite the clown.

We have several Jeremy stories but i don't have time for a novel.

1. He stomped on a spray paint can to see what would happen
2. He got hung up in the basketball hoop and hung by his teeth after a slam dunk went wrong.

Jeremy loves spending time with his buddies
he loves motorcycles and trucks.

I worried alot over this kid and I'm sure that will never end, he struggled to get through school and I have wanted to strangle him several times, but in the end we are usually laughing.
I love you Jer,

Handsome as ever!

Spring Break projects

2010-03-31T14:34:00.004-06:00

This is a Quilt that I made for Netties' Cute little baby girl!
This is the first time I have used a quilting machine and it's harder than it looks. I want one so much.

Jamee needed to do a project for YW and she wanted to make herself a quilt. Jamee and Charley-Anne chose the fabric and the yarn. I helped them get things started. We completed the two quilts in about 12 hours, they did a great job.

The pink one is Jamee's

And the lime green is Charley-Anne's

Time to Race!

2010-03-25T13:41:00.003-06:00

Last night was Robby's second Pine Wood Derby
Sorry to say his car didn't lead the races, and I'm pretty sure he cane in last place at know fault of his.
Charlee helped with his car last year and it didn't do so hot so this year it was left up to me and he did worse. I guess that's the down fall of having two of the most uncompetitive parents ever. One of the dads did put some of that grey powder stuff on the wheels and that helped alot but the races were already over. so in the play around races he did better. oophs
Lucky for us he is so easy going, he just said,"ya they sure don't make very good wheels for these things do they". and I said "NO THEY DON'T"

All I can say is that Robby's car would of made Grandma Mangelson very proud indeed.
Can you guess which one is Robby's?

Robby and his best buddy Seth Beckett

Robby and his non-award winning car.

Last but not Least

2010-03-17T10:37:00.029-06:00

Can you believe it, two post in one month! yay me.
Robby, Robby , Robby,
I can't believe how time flies, It seems like yesterday.
I have to admit I was less than excited to find out that I was pregnant, I thought that I was much to old to be having another baby,I was the ripe old age of 34.
I remember the day It dawned on me that I might be expecting.
I had been sick for a few weeks and I was extremely tired from preparing for girls camp. While loading up my stuff the thought popped into my head I hadn't once thought of it before. suddenly I felt sicker..
Off to camp I went, I almost made it the whole time without any breakdowns on the last night I was so sad because I new that it would bethe end of YW camp for a while.Did I think they would keep me in forever? Yes. I told a good friend my suspensions and she started telling me all the people who had had a latter baby. The afternoon we got home from camp she showed up on the door step with the pregnancy test and I called her a short time later with the results.
That night we went to dinner at Denny's with the kids and right before I had told Charlee of my suspicions. Boy was he ever proud, which totally ticked me off. I was expecting him to be as devastated as I was. Charlee ask the kids if they would be excited to get a baby and of course the response was complete hysteria.
Could know one feel my pain.
Yes!!! there was one person!
Charlee broke the news to my mom a few months later after I refused to tell her.
He simply said one day while working on her house," Your daughters pregnant" and she's not very happy about it.
My mom could feel my pain and I love her so much for the sympathy she gave me.
I couldn't talk about it without crying until I was about 7 months. And of course Charlee and the kids rejoiced the whole time..
On March 12th at 7:10a.m. a beautiful baby boy was born. when we called grandma to tell her I talked to her on the phone and she told me that I sounded different, and that she was glad I was finally ok.
Golden Robert McNeill
Golden after my dad and charlee's Grandfather and Robert after my cousin Bob and Charlee's Mothers maiden name Roberts.
Robby pretty much takes care of himself. He's always been very easy going
All of the kids loved taking care of him for at least two months.

Robby loves spending time with friends

Robby's baptism was a real special day, he had first asked Jeremy to baptize him but then had second thoughts when Jer threatend to hold him under. So, Dewey Baptized him and Charlee Confirmed him.

Robby loves to be outside and be active

He loves scouts

On His Birthday last Friday we took him and a few friends Ice skating, Now that's entertainment. They had the whole rink to themselves.

Robby, Ammon, Peyton,and Seth

Needless to say because of his health issues I am just a tad bit over protective with him, and he doesn't appreciate it sometimes. Ok all the time.
What a blessing this little guy has been to our family. I can't imagine my life without him.

Ok, lets try this again!

2010-03-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

I am going to start off slow and try to at least post something for everyones birthday.

So with the exception of Lacey, If I didn't give birth to you, don't be expecting me to be blogging about you.

I know that I will get crap for starting with Dewey because everyone thinks he is my favorite, but his birthday happens to be the first one of the year.

February 24, 1987
After being on bedrest for almost 2 months the Dr. said time for a baby. I guess I was to young to realize that I should of been scared that he was going to be born 6 weeks early. Teresa convinced me that the c-section was no big deal, and she was right. At 4:30 in the afternoon we had a baby. Although, I wasn't crazy about it, his name was going to be Dewey. Aunt Patty said she wouldn't speak to Charlee if he named him Dewey but that didn't last long.
Dewey Spent 2 weeks in Primary Childrens Hospital and when we brought him home he was on oxygen until he was 6 months old.
Dewey has always been very easy going.
He was given a lot of responsibility at a young age. He took care of his brother and sisters while we took care of what ever church calling we had at the time. He only lost his sister once and it wasn't for very long, he was however in quite a panic when we got home and he still had not located Charley-Anne. She had decided to play hide and seek by her self and fell asleep under the couch cushions.

Grandpa McNeill Gave Dewey this hat for his first birthday.

he was

such a cute little boy.

He's a great big brother.

He's always been a fabulous dresser.

And now he is a husband.
I hope this next year is a great one!

I am glad that I'm you mommy.

Love you, Dewd

2009-10-28T17:04:00.000-06:00

Okay, Charley-anne set up this blog using her e-mail (don't ask me why) I finally recovered the password to gain access to our blogspot,should I just start a new one, or continue with this one. Or does anyone know how to change it over to my account?

Faith in God

2009-02-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday at church Charlee and I were asked to teach Robby's primary class at the last minute. Right before Primary started I went out into the hall and there i found Robby's friend, Seth was really upset, crying and I asked him if he was Okay and he very bluntly told my that his mom and dad had acted like jerks that morning. I in turn told him that it was our jobs as parents to behave badly sometimes. After a little persuading he came into primary.

This is how the rest of the conversation went.

Me: So, Seth why were you so sad this morning? Are you Okay now?

Seth: My mom just started yelling at me and said "You've lost your faith in God"

Me: In my mind I was thinking, Gee Tracy your being a little harsh on the 8 year old don't you think. I didn't say anything more on the subject to Seth but for the next two hours all i could do was think of what this kid (Who had just gotten baptized a week ago) had done to provoke his mother into telling him he had lost his faith in God.

So after church I Talked to Tracy, Seth's Mom and I had to tell her about the conversation me and Seth had had that morning but be fore I had the chance to tell her everything Seth had said, she said, Seth was having such a hard morning because he lost his Faith in God (BOOKLET) And it all made sense!

We had a good laugh over it!

Jamee Learns to Drive!

2009-02-03T15:47:00.000-07:00

Think back to the first time you drove a car. I think I might of been around 7 when i learned to drive. I remember driving the truck (stick shift) out in the field while the guys loaded it with hay. This led to an obsession with joy riding. At first it entailed driving the little white car down through the creek up to the cemetery turning around and going back down though the creek and to the house. We also had no problem driving anything, the only requirement was does it have keys or gas. We might of been 11 or 12 at the time. Now this was ok and not illegal, for we were on private property. This short distance joy ride as you can well imagine got quite boring and Stefanie Gina and myself decided that making directional changes in the route would be beneficial. It seamed that each time we left my yard we would end up having to out run Big Dave the county sheriff, (we called him Big Dave cause in Levan there was also a Little Dave) so as to now which Dave you were talking about you had to say big Dave or Little Dave it pretty self explanatory. We could usually get the car parked and get into the kitchen to pretend there was nothing out of the ordinary happening, before he knocked on the front door to tell us to quit driving. That was enough to scare us in to not driving for the rest of THE DAY!

I was lucky enough to have to wonderful neighbors growing up that cared deeply for my safety so it was they, who every time we left the yard, would be of the horn to Big Dave. Thanks Pat and Florene for helping us learn and sharpen our defensive driving skills.

Ok, Now back to the reason for this post, Jamee was asking driving questions Saturday on our way home from SL, and saying how she way never going to learn how to drive. So we stopped out on sheep lane just after we turned off the Hwy. I say to her ok get up front and you can drive home. Charley-Anne gets in the back and there we sat Jamee wouldn't get in the drivers seat, she had a panic attack. so charley drove down sheep lane around the corner to Erda Way. Jamee finally gets into the drivers seat and asks, What if I'm left footed? OY are we in trouble or what! She drives us down Erda Way and around Gunderson Circle and in to our driveway, without incident.

Jamee was the first of my kids to be a little skiddish about driving. She can drive a 4-wheeler no problem but just the thought of going so fast scares her a little, she drives like I ski, cautiously.

The story of Robby

2009-02-03T12:12:00.001-07:00

Sorry I did'nt realize that there were so many that did't know what was going on with Robby. Its just such an every day thing to us that I don't mention it in every day conversation. So if your not around you miss out on the drama. Lucky You.

The saga started November 5th 2005 that was the day Robby was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome, Minimal Change Disease.

Robby had a little cold maybe two weeks before Halloween and it really was nothing big he got over it and life proceeded as normal. NOT! Abi took Robby down to the church to watch the girls play basketball and then brought him home. She said to us look at Robby's tummy. It looked like he had a basketball in there. We took him up to the hospital pediatric clinic that night and the doctor checked him out listened to his tummy and said he constipated. What! It didn't sound like him so i started with the questions and Robby said "I just Pooped before we came" the doctor gave him a laxative and we waited and waited nothing so we went home thinking he was full of gas. That was a Thursday night. Sunday during Sacrament meeting I was looking at Robby and I turned to Dewey and asked him if his face looked different, He had a lump under his jaw area. I talked to the doctor on call he said if he didn't act sick he would be okay until tomorrow to see our Regular doctor. So, Monday his face was a little mire puffy and when Dr. Beazer seen Robby he said oh he looks nephrotic and in my feeble brain I thought CRAZY I don't think he looks crazy. He thought he had some thing wrong with his kidneys. At this point I'm still on crazy it takes me a minute. Any way we were sent straight to Primary Children's. I kept myself in check until I hit the fresh air, then I lost it!

Robby's kidneys don't filter right, normal kidneys filter like a piece of cheese cloth very fine, Neghrotic kidneys are like a honey comb and he pees all the protein right out causing him to retain all the fluid that he should be getting rid of.

One thing we have learned is that when his Kidneys quite functioning thing go down hill real fast.

by Tuesday he was unrecognisable and there were time he could barely breath because of all the fluid he had retained he didn't pee for six days but, look out, when the prednislone kicked in he couldn't quit peeing.

Since the first diagnosis it has been a up and down battle. He had never beenable to come off the pred. we would do the taper thing and then he would be dumping again. So September of 2008 the statis was that Robby was Pednisone dependent and we could do a more aggressive treatment which was the chemotheropy to see if it would kick him into remission. How do you dicide if it's okay to poisen your baby? I talked to Patty in that same week and she told me that sometimes you just have to have the faith that the doctors really know what they are doing. I was real scared. But Charlee gave him a blessing the night before he started it and things went good one the second day he blacked out at scool durring recess but he came to and continued playing. I took him out of school for a week because of a cold around thanksgiving and he drove me crazy. Durring the 8 week course we had blood drawn once a week to make sure his white blood cells didn't drop to low. we finished it on the 5th of Dec. and finished the pred. on the 28th of Dec. He has been doing great for about a month now no dumping. Until yesterday Robby came down with a cold and is spilling some protein now the big Question is??? can he pull out on his own ??? The Kidney doc. says WAIT AND SEE! I HATE THOSE WORDS.

2009-01-29T19:43:00.001-07:00

Do you see this! I changed the paper all by my self!

This last year!!!

2009-01-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

This year has been a crazy ride. In March we had our oldest son return for a 2 year long mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was one of the most rewarding experiences for our family that brought many wonderful blessings. We are so grateful to have him home. Our 2nd oldest son Graduated from High school and is enjoying every second of it. Right now he is just working with Charlee until he decides what he would like to do. Our middle child Charley-Anne turned 16 in June, and had enough luck to get her drivers license and is enjoying all of the freedoms that come with it. She is also excited to Graduate in 1 1/2 years. Jamee has just started high school at Grantsville and she loves it. Allthough both of the girls are not excited to have their school split up, due to the recent Stansbury High opening in August, and loosing a lot of wonderful friends there. Robby is in the 2nd grade, and enjoys being with his friends, and his dad. Robby Finished a 8 week course of chemothreropy the first of December we are hoping this will be enough to push him into a remission. His little body sure deserves it. Despite all, he is a trooper. We had a great summer boating although we didn't get away as much as we would of liked. This fall we had a addition to the family. Lacey joined the ranks on November 1st. so far i don't think she is sorry, but then again they do get to go home when it gets to wild. We ended the year with a family ski trip. It was a blast. We stayed up at Bear Lake and skiied Beaver Mt. for four days it was great to have the time with the kids and be away from the phone and worries of world. Despite some challenges, we count ourselves blessed.