PLATT REUNION

My family reunion was held at Pinto Springs this year (not that I expect any of you to know where that is because most of you have no clue where NewCastle is!!) We enjoyed visiting, jet-skiing, and a nice session at the temple. Thanks Wade and Kayla for all the fun!

All thirteen grandkids!! (with only 1 on the way:) They all played so well together. At one point they were collecting little berries off the trees and calling them nuts. Next thing we knew Hayden had climbed up into a tree and was jumping on the limb, trying to shake the nuts out, and yelling "Save my nuts, save my nuts"!! So cute:)

Brit and Mattie. Mattie was able to take a ride in the semi this past week with my brother. He was up this way so he took her to Grandma's for the week. She was so excited to be able to spend time with Brit and Grandma. She hasn't stopped talking about it and she says Kayson grew an inch while she was gone:)

Kael and Hayden. Soakin' up som rays!!



I was able to spend a little time with both Grandma's while I was down home. I hadn't been home since Thanksgiving so it was so GREAT to go! The twins session was very good. I can't believe it is time for them to serve missions!


Jordan, Grandma Platt, Grandma Hunt, Justin

(no there is not that much height difference in the twins, the sidewalk slopes)

Current sibling pic. We are missing Merr.

Me, Jordan, Warren, Wade, Rhonda, Rawlin, Justin, Crystal
Pretty stinkin' AWESOME!!

UPDATE

At Kael's last clinic visit the Dr. and I had a discussion about med dosages. What they had written in his charts were different than what I was giving him ( I was giving him a lower dose by 1/2 a pill). Not a big deal his Dr says - it's just a 1/2 a pill - but start giving him the extra 1/2. His counts came back and were down again so we are not giving him the extra 1/2 after all. They had us pull blood this past Monday and counts were unbelievably HIGH!?!?! We go again tomorrow for another blood draw.

RELAY

The reason we RELAY!

Our youngest 'relay-er', Aleigha, 4-months. (Dan and Courts baby) She even stayed the night - what a cutie:)

I belive this was Saturday morning. Shauna and Court got us through the night again!! (You will be glad to know I did make it past 10:00 this year!!) It would not have been possible if it wasn't for Matt's family. Everyone was busy this year and I was not as dilligent in getting things organized so a big THANK YOU to my MOTHER-IN-LAW, (and father-in-law for making a huge effort to come) COURTNEY, DAN, a sick SONNIE, MITCH, WADE, and KAYLA!! Thanks to some dedicated friends that came on Friday night to support us: Eric and Shalice and their 2 boys, and Zak and Marcy and their 2 girls. MATT was terribly busy with the farm this year so it wasn't very ideal timing for him. He missed the walk and the dinner so I experienced single parenthood for the evening. He was able to make a few laps on Saturday. Thanks again to my in-laws for taking care of my other kids so I could be with Kael. Kael was very excited to Relay this year and he and Mattie ran quite a few laps for our team. They even did laps by themselves at times so someone was always on the track!!

This wagon came in very handy:) Trey, Ryanne, Mattie, and Kace taking one of their laps. (Every one of their laps included a trip to the bathroom. Seriously - I didn't know it was even possible to have to go so much!!)

Uncle Wade and Aunt Kayla represented my side of the family:) They were able to come for a few hours on Saturday. The kids thought it was fun to pull Uncle Wade in the wagon! Thanks guys!!

One view from our camp-site. It was Relay for Life's 25th Anniversary so we actually Relayed for 25 hours instead of 24. The theme this year was "Back to the Future" so we decorated our camp-site with a dance floor, jukebox, 45's, and poodle skirts. Our sign read "Stepping BACK in time TO find a cure for THE FUTURE". We won for sticking to the theme the best:)

They do not make shirts small enough for Kace and Trey so I made these about an hour before I left the house. It is one of my most favorite pics of Kael with his nurses kissing him on his cheeks. The shirt says "I relay for Kael".

I am trying to hold it together in this pic. They had the survivors walk on one side of the quad and the cargivers walked toward them on the other side. We met in the middle and then walked under an arch of purple balloons. It was done very well!

Kael is on the left. The kid just to the right of him is JT.

He had ALL too and is 3-years cancer free.

Team Leak was able to raise over $800 thanks to all of you!

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE!! THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU!

Just a side note: The landslide that happened in Logan last week was just off the hill from where the Relay was held. Sad and scary.

Play BALL . . .

In June we decided we were bored (haha) so we took up T-Ball/coach-pitch. For the first few weeks we had practice once a week and games twice a week. CRAZY. Mad and Kael were on seperate teams and most games were at different locations. Thanks to Mattie's coach, we made it work. Kael was pretty ticked he had to hit it off the T but I made him stick to it. Next year he can play coach-pitch and it will be a little more of a challenge to him. Mattie had to play coach-pitch and she did awesome. Her coach was very energetic (even at 7-8 months pregnant) and did a really great job teaching them the fundamentals. This was not competitive ball so there were no winners. ( That is a soapbox for another day). GOOD JOB MATTIE AND KAEL!!

We are starting Kace early!! I can't believe he could hold the bat up like that:)

BAtteR UP!

KaeL


Matt practiced grounders with them whenever he had a minute so I had to get this pose. I forgot to mention that both teams were the "Newton Skeeters". For any of you that know the area, it fits!!

OUT . . . and . . . ABOUT

. . . school is out . . . yay! This ends my crazy schedule of a 2nd grade and kindergarten student (in two more years we will try that again and see if I learned anything:) early breakfast, early lunch, late dinner . . . You will be glad to hear I have already adjusted my summer schedule and we stay up late, get up late, and eat all day long! Seems to be working right now but the reality of it is, time is slipping through my fingers. I can't believe it is already the end of June and school will start again in 7 weeks. I am enjoying it while I can:)

Here's my little grad - about to jump off the stage from pure excitement!!! They performed a song and did the actions from the "Macarena" (do any of you remember that??) and I about fell off my chair laughing. It was so cute and you should have seen the hip movements - priceless!!!

Here's Grandma celebrating with the boys!

This is the only pic I have of our reservoir, a-hem, I mean our backyard. My garden is under there somewhere. I haven't been to sad about it until I went to a friends the other night and their garden is amazing. I am officially depressed about it now. However, I believe it has saved the water from going into our basement so I am not going to complain anymore . . . I am trying a little container gardening at this point. I will keep you posted.


June 15th was D-Day so we went out for Pizza with Gpa and Gma Leak, Jason and Sam (Matt's cousins), and Gma-Great. We came back to our house for a Hot Fudge Sundae, Platt-style (delicious recipe from my younger days. mom would make it almost every Sunday! mmmm). Then Grandpa thought it was funny to wrap the kids up in the blankets so tight they couldn't escape. They loved it!! Here are Trey and Kace giggling while Gpa wrestled with them. Thanks to everyone who helped make this day possible. We wish we could celebrate it with everyone, both near and far, and are hopeful that someday we will.

I can just here him saying "cheeese" in this pic! What a joy he is to have in our family!!


LaLa just chillin'. We went to Tony Grove last week with some friends from Corny-town. It was cold and sprinkled on us some but the kids had a great time. They even found a sledding hill, complete with snow, and had a great time sliding down on someone's raincoat!

We hiked around the lake - that would be a first for me - so this is a view looking to the east. It is a beautiful spot!

YS REPORT . . .

. . . well . . . it's over . . . and for my first try I don't think it was so bad:)
I have excellent support and help from friends and family. I could not have done it without you all!! Our original plan was to go from 8 to 2 but around noon it started raining so we moved under the covered parking and didn't have much traffic so we closed up shop. My goal was to make at least $500.00 and we surpassed that so I am terribly PLEASED!! Thanks again to everyone that helped.
* Court and Sonnie made some adorable flower clips for little girls that were a hit (website coming soon)
*My sister Merrilee sold hot dogs and Mattie and two of her friends sold lemonade. (Uncle Denny did a great job at teasing/flustering the little girls and their lemonade stand. He is also great help whenever I have such hair-brained idea's)
*Mitch, Mark, and Dan helped put price tags on everything and move furniture around. They are pro's. I think Mitch should open his own professional yard sale stand:)
* Thanks Mark and Alisa for coming and helping with everything. I owe you big time!
* Thanks to everyone that donated something: Gma Leak, Natalie, Cheri, Joni, and Alisa all made goodies for the bake sale (which was a BIG hit), and Holly, Joni, Rob and Holly, Zac and Marcy, Shalice, Shauna, Merr, Court, Sonnie, and random stragers for donating to the cause.
*I really do not wish to leave anyone out so I appologize if I do but I need to give a big THANK YOU to my mother-in-law. She is always so supportive of my ideas and always helps in so many ways. THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

YARD SALE

MULTI-FAMILY

FIGHT . . .

. . . against cancer!!!

Saturday, June 20th, 8 am - 2 pm

756 E. 1000 N.

Logan, UT

All proceeds will benefit the American Cancer Society

Items for sale: electronics, baby items, toys, clothing, home decor, books, and much more!!

We will also have goodies and drinks available:)

Stop by and see us or if you still have things to donate please let me know by Friday!!

Thanks for all your support and GO TEAM LEAK

Mr. Hustle

Kael attended a basketball camp last week for three days. He was the smallest one there by about 5 inches but we know he doesn't come by height naturally:) The last day they gave out awards and they awarded him 'Mr. Hustle'. On his birthday, the coaches put him on their shoulders and sang Happy Birthday to him and then lifted him up to the basket so he could dunk it! He had a good time and I even think he picked up on a few things. He came home dribbling under his leg and behind his back. Impressive!

We celebrated his 6th birthday last week - so exciting! He wanted a suit for his birthday and to move. Guess which one he got?!?! Matt got him a toolbox and tools. He has been hammering non-stop for a few days now. Thanks family for spending the evening with us and spoiling him rotten.

We had blood taken last week but it was unchanged from the week before. We go again tommorrow for more blood work and then we see where we go from here. Dr. Afify says if he isn't up this week we will for sure drop med dosages again. They are assuming his body is just trying to fight off an infection of some sort. We have been off of meds now for three weeks but hopefully tomorrow's counts are good enough to start them again.

Race for the Cure

Friday night we went to my sister's house to have a high-carb dinner and watch the twins open their mission calls. What an exciting time. I had never witnessed a mission-call-opening before so it was great to see two-in-one!! Jordan will serve in the Kentucky Louisville mission and Justin will serve in the Texas San Antonio mission. They leave on August 12th. Congrats lil' brothers!!

*Obviously with 9 siblings and being the youngest, not everyone could be in attendance. That is why both of them are on cell phones. There were about 5 others on their phones too, just so everyone was in on the action!!


Saturday morning we got up bright and early for the Race. Everything went smoothly . . . oh, except trying to park at the Trax station:) . . . but we were still early enough to get a spot close to the front! Thanks everyone for coming and running with us!! I had a great time and thought our team was represented well. Can't wait to do it again next year!

(Jordan, Rhonda, Peyt, Mom, Justin, Chelsea, Crystal, Me, Kirby, and Randi)

Just a few of the people there to support breast cancer research! I think they said there was over 18,000 people. Awesome!!

P.S. Thanks to the 'twinners' for staying and babysitting Trey and Kace and helping Mattie get on the bus* while I took Kael to clinic.



* Mattie is very independent when it comes to getting on the bus. I get stuck outside some mornings with chores and she is so good to do everything on her own. I guess she got all ready on Monday and a few minutes before the bus came she had to go wake the twins up and told them "if you want to see me off you better wake up!"

Clinic

We had clinic again on Monday, complete with back poke. His counts were way low so we will keep him home from school this week. It's pretty awesome we have made it through the year without having to take him out before now:) Dr. Afiffy was concerned with his biliruben #'s so she had them run blood work on his liver. One of them came back high (unconjegated) but the other was normal so we went ahead with chemo. I will take him to Logan Regional next Monday for a blood draw to see if we can send him back to school. We have taken him off his chemo he gets every night for now. The doctor thinks he is still just having a reaction from the higher dosages we had him on a few months back.
He was so cute when they were putting him out for his back poke. He was trying so hard to stay awake! They put the versed in and he just kept talking so when she changed syringes to the ketamine he says "I love this part". When he woke up he kept saying "where am I". (I hate that part.) He was wiped out and slept most of the evening but no puke to clean up!!! Back in four weeks:)

MIA . . .

The tooth has finally made it's disappearance! He lost it at school so we have no proof for the fairy. To bad that dang fairy forgets everything. She must have a no-tooth-no-loot policy. Taking applications for a new one:)

The kids had a Primary Talent Show. The following pics are what we took for their display.

Mattie: Painting

(totally staged and yes she is in her PJ's)


Kael: Basketball

Trey: Milking Cows

Kase: He didn't have a talent but here he is loving music. Matt had his headphones on the other day and he thought they were awesome:)

Check this DUNK!!!

JUST FOR FUN

Who Am I?

Vote on the side bar!!
A. Mattie
B. Kael
C. Trey
D. Kace

Enjoying Spring

I am loving the weather the past few days (I even have a small tan)! Grass is green and freshly cut, some tulips have peeked through and I am getting a few other flowers blooming (I am not sure of the variety so I can't tell you what they are - they were left here from the previous owners). Just trying to find the energy to get my vegtable garden mapped out and ready for seed. I am making it my major project this year. It was a lot of work last year but very satisfying so we will see what I can make of it this year.

Random pics of what life is all about:

My T-bird. Everyone should have one! One of my very favorite things he does is tuck his shirts inside his 'unders'. What a great kid!!

Mattie doing her thing . . . reading and riding!

Kael takin' a spin on Meeg's. (The kids saddle looks like an English saddle on our chubby horse but believe me we have not changed preferences)

Kael and Trey waiting to ride up to 'Gamma Shauna's'. We rode up Easter night and stayed to late so Grandma had to bring us home in the truck.

Kace and his favorite swing

OuR Mardi dog . . .

Matt and I decided she is a great family dog but stinks at farm dog. Oh well, you can only be really good at one thing right?

ENJOYING MATT . . .

I was teasing him the other night that if I didn't have him I would probably be living in a single wide trailer somewhere with 12 kids driving a white '87 Chevy Corsica. What a great guy he is to me. A great father and family man and such a support to me. I love you!

ketchup

(Really this post has nothing to do with the condiment, just catching up on life!)

Conference weekend found us in Jerome spending time with family.
We visited my mom, Grandma, and Aunts before they left for Oregon on a little vacation and then spent the rest of the weekend with Jordan, Barbara, and their family. The kids had a blast and the weather was decent enough to send them outside:)


Jayden and Trey enjoying a little H2O















Kace enjoying some R&R

Trey, Jayden, Rylee, Kael, and Mattie

I couldn't resist taking this picture. Matt, Barb, and Jordan listening to conference (obviously not watching it!!) Where are the 7 children we should be watching?!?! Thanks for showing us such a great time! Can't wait to do it again:)



EASTER

Just before the big hunt.

Kace really enjoyed himself this year!

We spent Easter Sunday blessing Court and Dan's little one and spending time with the whole family. We had a great time together. Thanks for the delicious meal!!

CLINIC

Last week we had to have blood drawn and they decided it would be best if we decreased med dosages. After clinic yesterday they decided to keep him on the lower doses. Dr. Affify says it is okay if this is as high as we can go with him. She is very pleased with how he is doing but we are all still puzzled about the tremors. They have shown up again these past few weeks but we have exhausted all avenue's so we wait for another 18 months and see if they disappear when we are finished with treatments. He wore his Wal-Mart shirt (complete with his name and patches) to clinic and everyone had to make a fuss about it:) Thanks DAD!!

And the winner is . . .

Rhonda

Congrats for winning our Bracket Challenge!

Thank-you to those who participated!

Can't wait for next year!