Hinckley... Prophet, Seer, Revelator

I am so grateful for this amazing prophet and the influence he has had on so many of our lives. He has been and will always be a source of spiritual strength and direction. I have a wonderful picture of Evan shaking his hand when he was 5, but it was pre-digital era and can't post it. If I can get the photo scanned I will post it later. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hinckleys. He will be sadly missed!

Breckenridge, Bens Birthday & Best Friends

Trying so hard no to brag.... I just have to say, we just had the most fabulous weekend in Breckenridge with 5 other families. We rented a beautiful cabin, some went skiing, while the rest of us sat around, ate yummy food and walked the cute ski town of Breckenridge and saw ice sculptures. The adults played games at night, "Who, What, Where" (a hilarious charade game) one night until 2:30am and then the next night played "Mafia" until 1:00am, we giggled ourselves silly! Basically we had to call it a night because all our faces and cheeks hurt too bad. Evan said to me on Sunday morning... "you grownups don't have any respect... didn't you know we (the kids) were all trying to sleep?" He is so observant LOL:) The kids played games, played outside in the snow, went hot tubing, watched movies in the theater and the basement of this cabin had air hockey, pool table and Foosball so they had PLENTY to do.


It was Ben's Birthday on Sunday, he is the most special, sweet, gentle, funny, sugar face ever! I love him crazy like and am so grateful he was birthed, thanks Jolene! January 27th 1975 stands as a day in history that brought ME the greatest gift, EVER! I thank my Heavenly Father everyday to have him as mine forever and to be so happily united, he is a triumphant human being. Ok that is a different post, anyway we went sledding at a really great hill near the cabin. We just down right had a blast and I am so grateful to have been able to spend this splendid time with these wonderful families, SO DANG FUN!

Welcome Back Sammy

Sammy is ALL better now, fully recovered. He is back to his happy, sweet, gentle, loving and playful little self and we are SO grateful! Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers and to our Doctor who knew just what to do to help him recover :)

Sammy Sick

Just so you all know, our little Hamburger Face has been very sick. I took him into the doctor yesterday after 7 days of a respiratory illness/cough and 3 solid days of progressively worsening comatose behavior. He did nothing other than lay on me for 3 days, finally yesterday he was white as a ghost, drinking and eating very little and very non responsive, extremely lethargic. So I took him in to see the doctor and he immediately took him in and tested his blood oxygen levels and it was 78-80, at the time I didn't know what that meant. After the exam and an x-ray they hooked him up to the fibulizer (sp?) at which point I had a nervous break down and started freaking out inside. I was alone in the room (Ben's been out of town since Sunday and gets back LATE Thursday night), Sam's eyes were going in all different directions, rolling back and crossing and his breathing was totally erratic and was limp all over, I am sure I was over reacting but I thought I was gong to lose him right there in my arms. After about 10 minutes of that the Doc came in and they tested his oxygen levels again and they had gone up to 88. I asked him what does "low" mean and he replied by saying that "generally when he sees them in the 70's he usually sends them straight to the hospital". He had pneumonia and a blazing ear infection. They gave him a mega dose shot of antibiotic and prescribed a oral antibiotic and a steroid for him to take for 4 days. Needless to say, I got in the car and started bawling, Tyler was bawling too... I can always count on his tender heart. Anyway we got home and had the home teachers come over and give him a blessing in Ben's absence and then I held him for hours and slept right next to him, I just couldn't leave his site.

VERY glad to report he is doing much better today! He has improved to a point where he is very irratiable which is a huge improvement from yesterday. He is mobile and fussy but at least active and is getting the pink back in his cheeks. Thanks to a dear friend Stacey, she took Daidy today for a LONG play date and brought me LUNCH and DINNER... oh I love her. Poor Daidy, she has destroyed my house the past few days short of burning it down and needed some attention. And in addition the boys are off track, so basically I have sat and watched my kids ransack the place, while I sat handicapped, holding my helpless little baby boy. I keep telling my self "I'll get it back" meaning my house, the past few days the mess was the least of my worries and I know one day, I will "get it back". Please keep him in your prayers.

Announcing a New Hurst Baby

I am sure a few of you either pastout or jumped for joy, (I'd rather not know which) after reading the title of this post but we are please to announce a new baby.... PUPPY! Of course it is a Bichon Frise... we are Bichon loyal although she is a Tiny Tot = meaning she won't get to be larger than 7 or 8 lbs. We named her Maggie and she is a sweetie. It occurred to me that we know a lot of "m" named dogs... Megan and Marli (Chris), Maddie (Chad), Mazie and now Maggie. As things are around here, it is inevitable that we adopt a myriad of nick names, she has already happily responded to a few such as; Maggers, Magpie, Maggie Moo, Maggie Monster and Ben's latest inspiration, Maggot. Sam calls here "Pup" and though Daidy can say all the names she came to me this morning and said " Mom, where is the Pupo". Maggers is sweet and happy and adjusting super good her new home.

Happy 10th Birthday Evan

It was Evan Meringues 10th birthday on Saturday, he invited some friends to come with us to Jungle Guest, an indoor adventure park (a little overrated but still fun). They all got harnessed up and climbed rock walls, went zippy on the zip line, swung from long ropes and had a blast. Afterwards we braved it at Sweet Tomatoes where the boys pigged out on all you can eat yummyness. We sure love our little Evan (not so little anymore) he is gentle, kind, loving affectionate and simple (in the good way). He is happy, mild mannered and eager to please. We are so grateful to have him, he is such a great kid!

Crazy Hair Day

This hardly seems note worthy but I have had a few request to post these photos.It was Crazy Hair Day at the boys school on Friday, really not that MUCH different than any other day. I shaved stripes in Evans hair, later to shave the whole thing, did a very stiff green mohawk on Tyler (Elmer's glue is the trick)and ponytail plethora on Ryan. They had a fun day.

Christmas... Home for the Holidays

Christmas was PICTURESQUE! We woke up to heavy snow and it didn't stop all day, still snowing when we went to bed. It was SO much fun, by night fall we had 8 inches. The boys were in Utah this year for Christmas and were missed terribly but we made the best of it and enjoyed the holiday differently this year and it was wonderful. Being that the babies are still quite young it was slim and was very nice. Although I have to say, prior to Christmas morning when the elf's are doing inventory, it always seems like Santa made a haul until you see it on the couch and you're like... "is that it?" Oh well, it is not about the presents anyway, well that is at least what I think. This year I told Ben that I didn't want "things", all I wanted was a love letter, he wasn't sure about that idea and replied "but I want presents", yep... still a kid. Anyway I got what I wanted at least, my sweet precious sugar bear wrote a long, juicy, involved love letter, he was a bit overdue and it was worth the wait, thanks love bug!





December brought the conclusion of the boys indoor soccer season, which their team quite frankly did terribly at, not because they didn't try nor their bad coaches (sorry Ben and Scott) but there are some really amazingly good soccer kids out there. I guess it does really pay off to start them early. They had fun anyway and they get an A+ for fighting hard.


Hope you all had a very memorable holiday! Hard to believe the year (2007) is gone and we are on to a new year and new adventures. Good luck to you all in the New Year, it is going to be a GREAT one!
Thanks Haley Smartie Pants for the "blog" lift, looks cute huh :)!!