Late September to November 2010

There have been many great happenings at the Eagar household in the last few months. I hope I remember each of them as I rack my brain of the past.

The Doubling of the Priesthood
In mid-September Jabon received the Melchizedek Priesthood. In October, Cody received the Aaronic Priesthood. It is great watching my son pass the Sacrament each Sunday. A week or so ago Jabon helped bless the sacrament and Cody passed it. It's so cool to have them hold something so sacred together!

The Birthdays
We've had many b-days. I turned 30, Cody turned 12, Ashton turned 2 and Jabon turned 31. It's scary when your oldest is almost a teenager! I am hoping the horrors I gave my parents when I became a teenager are not going to happen with Cody! And, they probably won't. He's a good boy and wants to do good. I hope that doesn't change.

The Polar Express
One of the many perks we get with Jabon working at Intel are raffle tickets. This year, he won tickets to take the family on the Polar Express. We drove up to Williams, AZ just south of the Grand Canyon to meet the train. It was AWESOME!! The train crew wore the white chef outfits like on the movie, Christmas music was playing, there were Christmas lights and decorations galore. We boarded the 100 yr old train and took off for our '3722-mile trip' to the 'North Pole'. While traveling, we got cookies and hot chocolate and listened to the story of Polar Express. After an hour on the train, we came to a stop at the North Pole and waved at Santa through the windows. When it was time to return to the depot, we rode past where Santa had been standing , but wait! He's no longer there! Where has Santa gone??? He climbed aboard and sat and talked to each child on the train, giving each one a sleigh bell of their own. It was such a fun night and I am so glad Jabon's work does things like this and we got the opportunity to go.

The New Job
I know, I know. Another new job for Tara. But this one I am sure I'll keep for a long time to come! I am now working at a periodontics office and am their Treatment Coordinator. I have my own office (yay!) and am getting the hours I need. My last job was more part time and it was just not cutting it when it came time to pay the bills. This new job gets me 38-40 hrs a week, the doctors are stable, and everyone is actually nice! I am really enjoying being here.

The Sealing
November 23, 2010 will forever be a day of rejoicing for my heart, and not just because it's my dad's birthday. :) On this day, our family was in St. George, UT. My best friend and I were sealed as a couple for all eternity. No longer will our bonds of marriage be dissolved at death. Our 3 wonderful sons were also sealed to us, transforming our earthly family into an eternal family.

We were so happy to have as many members of our family (and some friends) spend this special occasion with us.

The 5K
In August, my sister Shelly introduced me to the C25K program. It's a training program for getting from your couch (the 'C') to (the #2) a 5k run. It's a great program I would advise anyone to use if they want to start running in preparation for a race or just to get in shape. You are supposed to run 3 times a day for 9 weeks and each week you move onto the next week in the training, which means longer runs. I haven't been able to do it consistently like that--sometimes only running once every week and a half. But I have vastly improved as a runner and actually ENJOY it!! For the last 4 years a neighborhood close to ours has hosted the 'Turkey Waddle'. It's a 5k run/walk where all the proceeds go to someone in need. This year the program chose a young girl named Breanna Pena. She is in our ward and was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia this summer. I wanted to test my new running abilities and as soon as I learned the run was benefiting Breanna, I signed up for it. I was pleasantly surprised to see my sister Shelly the morning of the run, as she decided she wanted to help benefit Breanna as well. As sisters, we took off and ran side-by-side. 34 minutes and 44 seconds later, we crossed the finish line together! I was super impressed with myself, as the longest time I had run yet was only 25 minutes and Shelly and I didn't stop or slow down once. In fact, as we got closer we increased our speed and then had an all-out race to the finish line. It was so much fun!


Inbetween all these great events Jabon and I still were working and going to school and taking care of our boys. Life is crazy and is not looking like it will slow down anytime soon, but I hope it doesn't take me 2 months again before I can at least blog a little. Maybe a little at a time will be better than a lot at a time? I don't know.

Luck Ran Out

As parents, we want our children to grow up as strong, good, and well-rounded individuals. So, we make sure to take them to church, set up play dates, encourage good friends at school, and sign them up for sports or karate or dance classes. Four years ago after we moved to Arizona, Jabon and I decided to sign Cody up in full contact football at the suggestion of my uncle. My uncle had been coaching my cousin's football team for a year or so (this particular cousin of mine is about a year older than Cody). Cody was 8 at the time. He was excited to play but has always been a little nervous about getting hurt. If you caught what I wrote up above, I said full contact football. That means full pads, helmet and tackle.

Cody has been steadily getting a little more aggressive each year, which is hard for him. Not only is he scared of getting hurt (he was never one to be on the bottom of the pile) but he is just not an aggressive type of person. He doesn't like conflicts or fighting. This attitude, thankfully, has allowed him to escape from injury besides the occasional bruising, sore ankles, and scrapes. Sometimes, not being aggressive enough can get you more hurt, so he was lucky. This year, for whatever reason, he has started to really let his vigor for football come through. Instead of hearing the coaches call out things like: "Eagar, where were you with that one?" or "Eagar, stay on your man!" we were hearing shouts of praise like: "Good block, Eagar!" and "Alright, Eagar!" Cody has been working hard and he loves when he can throw his teammates around and is known as one of the stronger guys.

So, naturally, it came as no surprise to me last night when I went to pick him up for football practice and found him standing on the sidelines with an ice pack on his hand. (I will insert here that normally either Jabon or I stay at his practice to watch but we were both at our church for a talent show). Upon inspecting his left hand, it was very easy to see where he got hurt. His thumb was so swollen that it looked like he shoved a golf ball under his skin in the palm side of his thumb. As I was determining whether or not Cody needed to be taken to the emergency room, I drove us back to the church house. I had taken Ashton with me to get Cody, so I knew whatever I had decided to do I needed to drop Ashton off. There was no way if I was going to pull an all-nighter at the ER that I wanted to drag along my 2 year old.

Cody and I showed up at the ER by 9:00 last night. We got through triage and x-ray in no time at all--30 minutes--and I was hoping that was a good sign. I was wrong. Way wrong. He was officially discharged at 12:30 this morning after waiting for hours to see the doc and have a splint made for his hand. I got to see the x-rays as they were being taken and it was pretty clear to me where the break was. I think x-rays are so cool!

I have to tell you this funny story: Cody and I were led into triage where the nurse took his vitals. Then the doc came in to determine his needs. He walks in the room and says, "Hi, Cody. So, what's going on?" Cody replies, "Oh, not much." I told Cody, "I think he wants you to tell him what happened." This made the doctor laugh and I heard a nurse on the other side of the curtain giggle. So we were teasing Cody by saying that we had just come in to say hi and see how their night was going. It was pretty funny, but you probably had to be there.

So, by the time we left the ER, went to the 24 hour Walgreens and got his pain med rx, and went to Walmart to pick up the half time snacks for his team's game today and got home, it was a little past 2:00 this morning. And of course, Ashton came in my room at 7:30 this morning to wake me up. I love getting almost 5 hours of sleep. It's so stinking refreshing. Do you feel my sarcasm? Hope it doesn't hit you too hard.

We will call the hand specialist Monday morning and schedule a follow up with him for this coming week. We hope all will go well and his bone will heal correctly and quickly. He may be out for the rest of the season, which is a bummer since their first game was last Saturday.

Cody with his splint on.

Here are the other two boys. I had to take a picture of them since a camera was out. They are not shy.

I know you've read a novel here, but I will tell you that Brett is really enjoying kindergarten. He loves to learn. I think his biggest fault is the fact that he doesn't want to do anything wrong so he is too hesitant to try to spell words for fear that it "won't be perfect!" Ashton is progressing with his talking. We can mostly figure out what he wants. He is really good at saying please, though sometimes it sounds like 'peas' and sometimes it sounds like he is letting air out of a balloon: 'psss'.

I just love my kids!

Random Eagar Tidbits

I have seriously slacked on my blog postings, I know. Considering my life, I don't feel too guilty. Tighten up your seat belts, because I am going to take you through a whirl of Eagar happenings!

Let's start with today. The boys and I went with my sister Shelly, her husband Josh, and their kids to the Saturday Kids Workshop at Home Depot. They made mini Foosball tables. They are really cute and the boys had a lot of fun! Once we got home, they decided to paint them. I don't have a pic of that, but please enjoy these:


All the kids with their projects (Brett, Cody, Nephew Matt Niece Abby, Niece Emma):


Now let's reverse to 8 months ago. Cody turned 11!! Yay!! It is amazing to think that I have an 11 year old child! When I meet new people and they ask me if I have any kids, then ask their ages it is fun to see them stumped when they hear I have an 11 year old. Makes me feel like I still look relatively young. I'll take that! Anyway, back to Cody. He really liked how I 'creatively' decorated his cake. I thought it was heck-a smart. I drew an 11 on a piece of paper, cut it out, then laid it gently over the icing and sprinkled a ton of sprinkles in it. Simple yet impressive. He will be turning 12 in just 4 short months and he is excited to become a Priesthood holder. He has also found a new interest in horses. See this post if you'd like to read more about that.

Now that my older sister is living just a few houses down from us, it is fun to have our families together and we do it often! Here is a picture of two of the youngest great-grandchildren of my Grandma Pearl (my mom's mom). She lives with my uncle about 15 minutes away. My Ashton is on the left and my niece Millie is on the right. They are exactly 2 months apart, Ashton being the oldest. This picture is a few months old:

Ashton and Millie love to play together. This is picture will take us back to the present time. This was taken in our backyard just a few days ago. Here, Ashton is pulling Millie in our old wagon.


And here is just a random pic of Brett and Ashton in their church outfits. I think they are so handsome!

What Once was a Shaggy Kid

I forgot to take pictures of Ashton's first haircut, but when I was cutting his hair the other night I had Jabon take some pictures. I have always cut all my kids' hair. Cody would not sit still for anything. I would have to enlist the help of people around me in order to hold him still. Brett and Ashton enjoy getting their hair cut and will sit as still as can be.

Except Ashton kept wanting to touch his hair as I was cutting. To fix that issue, I
gave Ashton a comb:

The Power of Prayer

Brett is learning the power of prayer. Earlier today he was helping me fold his clothes. He wanted to fold his socks and was searching for them through the rest of his clothes.

Let me paint a little picture for you first. Imagine a huge pile of clothes on the bed. It looks like laundry hasn't been done for a good month. They all happen to be Brett's, even though I just washed and put away his clothes last week. How could he have such a gigantic pile of clothes for me to wash and put away today? When I asked him that question he simply replied, "Mom, once they touch the floor they are dirty." So I say, "Just because the shirt fell off the hanger and landed on the bottom of your closet does not make them dirty." He quickly corrected me.

So we have an incredibly large pile of his clothes to sort through and he is searching for his socks. He told me that he needs to pray to Jesus so He can help him find his socks. He leaves my room (because I had the t.v. on), says his prayer and comes back in. Meanwhile, I had found some socks and pulled them out into the middle of the bed. He sees them and is really excited his prayer worked, so he sticks his head under Jabon's pillow (to block out the t.v.) and I hear him mumble a prayer of thanks. It was incredibly sweet to see my little guy demonstrate his spirituality like that for such a simple thing like finding socks!

This is not the end of it. No, this keeps repeating. He needs to find a matching sock, says he needs to pray to Jesus, buries his head under the pillow, and says his prayer. He comes out from under the pillow, and like before, I have found more socks and placed them in sight. He gets excited and then says his 'thank you' prayer. This repeated itself probably a dozen times. Finally, I had to tell him that he is technically praying to Heavenly Father through Jesus and he seemed to be able to understand that.

At one point, he had only two socks left, and neither of them matched. He said his prayer and pulled his head out from under the pillow. He sees that no new socks had arrived to make the matching sets and exclaims, "WHAT! Didn't He hear me?!" I said that of course He did, but He won't make socks magically appear. I had just happened to find socks each time he prayed, so Heavenly Father was helping me help Brett. Thankfully, he was happy with that.

I remember one of Brett's first night time prayers he asked for bananas. Guess what he got the very next day?

Kids are funny, but I think it is so cute to see their faith grow and to watch them experience it.

One Step at a Time

Ashton is starting to take his first independent steps. It has taken him a while to go from not walking, to holding both of my hands, to holding one of my hands, to trying on his own. Yes, I know he is not walking completely by himself yet, but this is such a big step for him (pun intended)!! When my parents were here for Thanksgiving, my mom said I learned to walk with our shopping cart. So, when Brett wanted one for Christmas, I petitioned Santa to provide it secretly hoping Ashton would learn to walk like I did.

Eagar Update

So, it has been at least 6 weeks since my last post. I figure it is about time to write on the happenings of the Eagar household.

Thanksgiving: We had a great Thanksgiving this year! My brother-in-law Brighton made his first trip down to see us since we moved to Arizona. He and Jabon have a lot in common and had a great time together. It was wonderful, since Jabon was able to have the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving off so he got to actually hang out with all our guests. My parents flew in from Montana and my littlest brother Peter and his wife Genica drove down from Utah. We went to many places and did a lot of things! On Black Friday, mom, me, Shelly, and Genica went shopping at Wal-Mart. We didn't go too crazy. We got there at 5am, so we were late. I wasn't getting much for myself but I did help Shelly score BIG TIME on her girls' Christmas gifts. That story I can not expound on since I was more of 'Santa's helper', if you catch my drift. Later that day, we went and walked around a bird preserve in Gilbert and then ended the day going through the Gilbert Museum. Saturday we all headed up to the Phoenix Zoo. With Sunday came church and Peter, Genica, and Brighton all heading back home. Monday, me, Jabon, Brett, Ashton, and my parents went up to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum to the east of Phoenix. It is a really cool place to see a ton of different plants. The main trail is about 1-1/2 miles long. Off this trail were many different areas: tropical, desert, herb garden, etc. We didn't see much of it (since it is so vast) but Jabon and I hope to return at another time and see other areas. Mom and Dad got to hang out until the Thursday after Thanksgiving. It was so great to spend so much time with our family. One of our funnest activities to do together was play Guitar Hero. We were all selfish adults and made the children go to bed before we pulled the game out. One night we had a competition between the guys and the gals. Needless to say, girls won 4 out of 5 times. Yes, we truly do rock. Beatles style.

Kids: Cody had his first band concert last night. He plays trumpet and has really picked up the instrument quite well. He is doing great in school and is enjoying his classes. His football team finished the season in 2nd place. Somehow, they got to go all the way. I say 'somehow' because it wasn't the best year of playing. Brett has been confused lately. My sister Shelly and her family have been living with us since Aug/Sept and Brett is now under the impression that he has two moms. One that goes to work and school and is home only an hour before his bedtime (me) and one who is with him 24 hours of each day, cleaning up his throw up, playing games with him, making his meals (Shelly). Oh, I am sorry! Did I sound a little bit jealous? Guess what, I am. That is okay. I love my sister and am so glad she is here to help us out! I have also seen Brett grow into what I call the 'Second Child Syndrome'. If you have children, see if this fits yours: He is bossy. He likes to tell all the kids, including the ones that are older than him (oh, wait-that is all the kids except for the two babies) what to do and what they just did. It is exasperating! I am the second child, so I can relate. You need to be in control over something, and being bossy accomplishes that. Ashton is getting closer and closer to walking. Yes, my baby is now almost 14 months old. He likes to take each new phase as slowly as he can. He feels no rush to develop. If you want more on that subject, just look in my history for the Lazy Gene post. He will stand up, but only while holding onto someone/thing. He is barely walking along the end of the couch. That is okay by us, though. It is helping extend the baby phase, and I kinda like that!

My sister: So, as mentioned before, my sister Shelly, her husband Josh, and their four kids (Emma, 8, Abby, 7, Matthew, 5, Millie, 1) have been living with us. Josh came down in August and Shelly and the kids came down late September. This has been an adventure for all of us, I think! We have an 1800 sq ft home and own a lot of stuff. A wonderful thing about our tiny home is the fact that there are 5 bedrooms. So we have had one room with it's private bath for Shelly, Josh and Millie, Cody, Brett and Matt shared one room with all the toys, Emma and Abby shared one room that was halfway filled with my junk, and we moved Ashton into the master bedroom with Jabon and I, leaving one room to be used as our office. It is tight quarters and with 7 crazy kids, it was a challenge to keep the peace. I think we did alright. As I am typing this, Shelly and Josh are moving into their rental house. It's a definite mixture of emotions. I love their family so much and will miss seeing them at any time but I am also glad to be able to get our house back to 'normal'. Before Josh moved down, my mother-in-law was staying with us, so we have had someone living here since July. But, we are very glad that we have been able to help Shelly and Josh make their transition to Arizona easier.

My new job: I was offered a Front Office Manager position with a new dental office. This office is located in Gilbert and is about a 30 minute drive into town for me. It opened in March and has had a few people through its doors as manager. However, none of them really knew what they were doing. I started here on November 16th and quickly realized that I have some major organizing that needs to take place. I have been super busy getting the patients accounts fixed, insurance payments in, and the office finances resolved. This economy is hard, but it is even harder if you have people working for you that are idiots and they are in charge of making y0ur business succeed. I have accomplished a lot of things so far, but have much more to do before it is not so shaky. I enjoy the doctor, the assistant, and the hygienist. They are all wonderful people and together I think we can make his office a great place.

My surgery: Since I was probably about 9 yrs old or so, I have had pain in both my knees. Around age 11 I saw a doctor, who thought it was Osgood Schlater's Disease (where the ligaments in your knee pull away from your bones. It happens a lot in young boys because they are too active during their major growth times) and was told it would go away when I quite growing, about 18 yrs old. Well, I am 29 now and still have knee pain. I went into the hospital yesterday for surgery. My doctor thought there might be some damage behind my kneecaps (or so the MRI seemed to say) but when he got in there, everything looked very healthy. There was a little inflammation, which he removed, but no damage. It turns out that the tendon coming down from my kneecap is not positioned right. It should hook to the tibia directly below the kneecap, but mine are attached to the outsides of me tibia. This must be were the pain is coming from. However, the only way to fix it is by breaking my tibias right below the attachment (since it is like this in both knees) and repositioning it. Major surgery, major recoup time. I say, "No, thanks". I do not think I want to try that. I don't know. Maybe I do. Right now I am sitting on the couch, both knees wrapped up propped on pillows. It's a sight. It will be a bigger sight in a few days. I cannot shower until Sunday when I get to remove my wraps. Yay.

If you made it through my post, pat yourself on the back. Since I suck at routinely posting, I have to do incredibly long posts every so often just to catch up. Good job getting through it.