Update

Brandon got a job last week. He ended up being in the position to choose between two jobs. He chose one in Draper. He's still not so sure about the commute though... It will normally take up about 35 minutes but today there was a storm and it took him an hour. He does not like traffic. But it is a good job with amazing benefits. We have really enjoyed the last two months hanging out together during the day and staying in our jammies until 2pm. But that time had to come to an end. And we kind of needed to start making money again. So this is a very good thing.


Last Saturday we went to a family's house that we know from the gym. They had sheep that had just had babies so we went to see the lambs. Aubrey wouldn't even go near them but ever since Saturday she's been saying, "(In a soft voice) I saw baby lambs. And I saw (loud voice) BIG LAMBS!"

I'll leave you with a funny Caleb quotable:

Last week was the school's skate night. Brandon has always taken the kids in the past but I was going to take them this year.
Me: "Do the mom's skate?"
Caleb: "Well, sometimes, but I don't really want you to."
Me: "Ha, ha, how come?"
Caleb: "Mom! All my friends will be there!"
Me: laughing so hard
Caleb: "Well, I guess if you want to you can, just don't skate with me."

He's growing up...

Cellulitis

Last Tuesday Caleb called me from school saying he was sick. I went to pick him up and his lip was really swollen (like it normally is when he's sick) and he slept most of the day.

When he woke up the next morning his face was red and swollen and his lip was blistering. We took him to the Dr and he sent us straight to the hospital to be admitted and hooked up to IV antibiotics.

Turns out it was cellulitis, a skin infection. It started as strep and must have gotten into his skin through cracks in his lip because it was so swollen.

He was in the hospital for 48 hours and then sent home on oral antibiotics. He kind of loved the hospital the first day. Unlimited wii time, tons of movie choices, as much ice cream as he could eat(which wasn't much since he was so sick) and lots of root beer. After the first night sleep and getting woken up ever few hours for vitals and a blood test he was not loving it so much. The second day there his face was really itchy and it hurt him really bad. He was really uncomfortable. Poor kid.







Caleb is such a strong brave boy. It broke my heart as he laid there trying to be brave through the iv's and CT scan as tears welled up in his eyes. He didn't ever flinch or cry out. The tears just softly dripped. It was horrible.

Now he is feeling so much better. The redness lead to peeling and now it is pretty much gone! Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. He got so many cards from friends and phone calls and I could tell he felt very loved. Thank you for your kindness and friendship.

Merry Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year! It was the year to spend time with Brandon's side of the family and his parents were nice enough to come to all of us in Utah!

We started the weekend by going to the BYU basketball game on Thursday night. I haven't been to one of those since Brandon was a student so that was a lot of fun.

Friday night Jeremy and Angie and family and Jordan came over to our house. We had dinner and fondue for dessert, sang carols, read the Christmas story with our puppets, and did our favorite pass around game. This game is so fun. Everyone brings a little $2-5 present. You sit in a circle and someone reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Every time the word "and" is read you pass your present around the circle. At the end of the story you keep the present you ended up with. We usually do a kid circle and an adult circle. It's such a fun tradition.

Can you find someone jumping between pictures below?











The pajama elf surprised the kids with jammies again this year:

Christmas day was way fun. The kids got lots of fun presents. Santa brought Caleb a voice activated R2D2, Brynley a Furreal pet dog and Aubrey a baby with a crib, high chair and stroller.

We all ended up getting really sick on Christmas day and the day after. It still hasn't quite left us. Brynley has thrown up a bunch and we've all (except Brandon) had fevers. Not the ideal way to spend Christmas break but, to look on the bright side, there hasn't been much fighting because we've all just been lethargically laying around.

I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday season and had a great year. We didn't get out Christmas cards again this year. Maybe next year? I think I say that every year... Anyway, know that we love you all and think about you often!

(Job updates: Brandon has a contract job that is full time hours and good pay that will last up to 6 months. This is perfect because he can do that while he continues to look for regular work. We have been very blessed through this entire ordeal...)

Disneyland 2010

Creative title, I know. Man, I just realized I haven't posted for so long. We have no pictures from November. Seriously. None. Brandon was gone for the middle two weeks to Australia and we didn't do anything because we didn't want him to feel bad. ;-) Just kidding. But we really didn't do a darn thing. Besides eat turkey and I have no pictures of that.

In other news, Brandon lost his job today. If you follow us on facebook you already know this. It wasn't really EXPECTED but it was suspected. Anyway, I don't really know what to say about this... If you know anything anywhere here is some info about what he does.

"Brandon's degree is in Information Systems. He knows sql server and crystal reports. He does software implementation and training. He wants to get into software product management or a sales engineer role."

Enough about that. We went to Disneyland last week. It was awesome. The Christmas decorations and parades and fireworks shows were incredible. We saw the Aladdin show (AMAZING!), World of Color (also AMAZING!), the Christmas parade and the firework show. The parks were more crowded than we would have liked so I think we'll stick to going in Jan/Feb in the future. But we still had a fantastic time!

Halloween Weekend 2010

We had a crazy weekend around these parts! With Saturday being Halloween (or when it was celebrated in Utah) and Monday being my birthday we had lots of stuff going on.

It started with a dinner with friends on Friday night. We had a lot of fun and ate a lot of greasy food at Ruby River with the Nyes and Browns. Thanks for helping me celebrate my birthday you guys!

Saturday was the trunk or treat. I HATE trunk or treats but I'll leave that discussion for another day. Half way through the trunk or treating it started hailing like crazy. I'm talking immediate hurricane like storm. It was nuts. Everyone jumped in their cars and headed home. We were going to go REAL trick or treating later but Caleb said, "I guess we can't go trick or treating..." and I jumped on that opportunity and said, "Yeah, I guess not." So we watched Karate Kid instead.



Caleb was Darth Vader at school and Mario on Halloween. Brynley was Thumbelina and Aubrey was a ballerina.

Sunday we had a birthday dinner at my parents house and on Monday Brandon and I spent a couple hours running errands together at lunch time. It was a great weekend spent celebrating my birthday and halloween! Aubrey made me feel especially special because she kept saying to me, "Happy bowday, mommy!" She would follow that up with a kiss on my arm. She's so sweet.

Thank you all for the birthday facebook greetings and text messages! I felt so loved all day!

The Pumpkin Patch

On Monday night we went to the pumpkin patch. We have a pumpkin patch post every October so this may be a little redundant. This year they added a hay ride, a petting zoo and big bales of hay for the kids to jump off of and into. It was a ton of fun.

We were laughing before we went because three years ago, when Brynley was Aubrey's age she threw the hugest tantrum (similar to this famous tantrum) on the way to the very same pumpkin patch. I'm talking HUGE. TANTRUM. HUGE. So funny how time flies.

Caleb Surgery Update

Sorry I don't have any pictures. I didn't even bring my camera on surgery day. Lame, I know. Caleb had a surgery done on Monday. As you know, all year he has been getting injections once a month of a scarring agent with the hopes of his lip shrinking in size. It has been very slow progress but there is definitely progress none the less.

On Monday his ENT, Dr Grimmer, did a coblation procedure. This is where they basically shave down the inside of his lip so it lays flatter. You know how when you bite your cheek you getting little bumps for sores? He has that all over the inside of his lip. They are vesicles. The Dr shaved those off. Right now he has an open wound in his mouth but it will heal nice and smooth just like the inside of our mouths.

Right after the procedure I could tell it was going to make a difference. From the bottom his lip already looked much more similar in size to the other side. As with any surgery though, there is swelling and it is now much bigger again. We will be able to know by about 4 weeks out what kind of results we will have. They can do another procedure like this mid November if needed.

He is a resilient kid and was bouncing off the walls yesterday so I sent him to school today. I went at his lunch and gave him some Lortab and he was good to go all day. The dr said he would miss 1-2 weeks of school but he was back after two days. Such a little tough guy.

I'll get some pictures and post them but I just wanted to update you all with how he is doing for now.