The McGarys : Outrageous October...second try

One time at gymnastics I overheard this mom talking about her daughter with hip dysplasia. She said they didn't find out her daughter had it until she was two years old. By that time it was so advanced that she's had four surgeries, worn a cast from her chest down to her feet, and has two more surgeries scheduled (each six hours long).

I couldn't believe it.

Taylor's pediatrician caught her hip dysplasia when she was two weeks old. All she had to do was wear a diaper cast for nine weeks and she was cured.

Words can't express my gratitude for hearing about that woman's daughter so I can be even more grateful that Taylor recovered from hip dysplasia so fast.

At church the primary kids had their sacrament program. Before it started Kallie's teacher told me she hadn't practiced her part yet in front of everyone (she went up to the podium but wouldn't say anything) so I figured she definitely won't do it in front of the entire congregation.

When I saw her in line I expected her teacher to go up and help but Kallie walked right up and recited her part from memory. Brad and I instantly looked at each other with a huge smile on both our faces. I was so happy for her! Stage fright is a personal weakness of mine that I'm afraid my kids will inherit.

When General Conference comes around I get really excited for it and then on the day it starts I internally grumble a bit because I have little kids and that makes it hard to pay attention. They usually nap during one of the sessions but when they're awake I miss a lot of parts.

This year I realized that when the kids are sleeping during a session, I fall asleep. Even if I particularly like the speaker or it's really interesting I can't just sit there and watch or I will fall asleep no matter what.

So either I miss it because I'm taking care of the kids or I miss it because I can't stay awake. Great.

Before next conference I need to figure out something to do that helps me stay awake and listen. Be it coloring like the kids, taking notes or eating cheese balls I'll figure it out.

The girls and I went to the nature park with Grandma to feed the ducks. There was a steep drop down to the water so we stayed up on the edge. The second we started throwing bread an ARMY of all kinds of birds came out of the pond, waddled right up and surrounded us.

Of course Kallie and Jayda freaked out immediately so we backed up and put them on a bench but this bird gang was on our tails and got seriously aggressive and scary. It was like the paparazzi but they were trying to eat us. Not just eat our bread but eat US. Some of them were HUGE (like taller than Kallie) and they wouldn't stop. All three girls were screaming bloody murder.

We finally had to chuck the entire collection of bread and flee for our lives in the other direction. It took a solid ten minutes for the kids to stop crying.

We call Taylor our raptor baby because most of the time the sound coming from her mouth is a loud high pitched velociraptor screech. We absolutely LOVE it as you can imagine.

But then if she's handed anything (especially a snack) she'll look straight into the giver's eyes with a ginormous smile on her face before she eats it. And if the snack is something like gold fish crackers she'll do it every single time she gets a bite.

I took Kallie and Jayda to the dentist again. In the past Kallie has screamed the entire time and then Jayda does the same thing. But they finally both did great! It made me so happy.

Sadly Kallie got her first cavity so I had to bring her back to get it filled but I was surprised she didn't need a shot for pain or anything. Just numbing gel and laughing gas.

I had to get a picture of Taylor joining the rest of the kids at the snack table in nursery.

She's learning how to make hats out of pancakes.

We went to Salt Lake for the wedding reception of my sweet friend and college roommate, Valerie. It was so fun to see her gorgeous self and her new hubby, although I sure wish it could have been longer than 10 seconds. I would have loved a picture with both of them but we had to leave and couldn't find him so we kidnapped Valerie from a group of people and took the quickest selfie ever.

A huge bonus was that we saw other friends I didn't know would be there! I saw our other roommate Staci and she made sure to video chat with two more of our roommates, Amie and Arica. Why didn't we take pictures?! Oh my heck.

Talking to all of them, if only for a short time made me realize how much I miss them and it's been WAY too long since we've really talked. So guys, be prepared: I'm gonna video call you one of these days because I miss your faces.

Don't you love Brad's selfie faces?

We also saw Sister Heslington, one of our favorite missionaries from our ward in Florida and found out she lives in Rexburg as well!

Our last bonus to the trip is that we stayed with the Fraileys and enjoyed another short but sweet visit. And they babysat our kids so ya know, I guess it was worth it.

I shopped around for a baby gate and this looked the fanciest so we went with it.

Lindsay Stirling concert at Byu-Idaho. It was really entertaining. She's talented at many different things and uses them all in her performances. Once again we were reminded how old we're getting because it was SOOO loud. Our ears were ringing after we left.

Brad has gotten into editing fun videos of our family adventures

Brad's dad took his agriculture students to a nearby dairy and we joined the group:

And of course we bought some raw milk before we left! It was my first time drinking it. I'd love to buy it all the time but this dairy is too far away to get it that often.