Happy Birthday Mom

I just want to wish my Mother a very Happy Birthday! She is an amazing women and has taught me so much! It is crazy to think of how old she is (76) and yet she seems so young to me. My mom is a very strong, faithful, loving lady! I am grateful to have been raised by such wonderful examples.

We had a little party in my mom's honor at my sisters house which my mom knew nothing about. When we all started showing up she was thrilled that was just what my mom wanted. . . to spend time with her family. Madison telling grandma all about her day

My mom is a very special lady!!

A Christmas Surprise

Cole's has had several surprises this Christmas. On Christmas day we had just left to go up to Brett's sisters when Cole called (he can't go anywhere right now. . fear of catching something). He said (in his new squeaky voice) "guess what I am holding in my hand. . . a football signed by every player on the BYU team". But the best part was the people who delivered it. . . Ray Feinga along with his wife Kassie and Ku'uipo. Cole could not have asked for a cooler gift! sporting his football

The Ball. . . Many thanks go out to the Vea family, The Feinga family and the Aiono family! We are blessed to have them part of our family!

A trip to the ER. . .

. . . we ended up spending a good portion of the evening in the ER. Cole ended up having bleeding from his throat, after about 2 hours of watching him spit up blood clots (that we hoped would just go away) we thought it best to get him back to the hospital. (We did call and talk with the hospital several times also) After having several doctors look at his throat they all agreed the site on the left was bleeding (I could tell that and I don't have a degree, I have a trusty flashlight and a Popsicle stick, and I ended up with the same conclusion). As we sat there for hours of him spitting into a cup the bleeding was not as bad. They had called his surgeon to come in and look at him. We were hoping he would not have to go back into surgery and have them cauterize the area. When his surgeon got there and assessed the situation he was hoping he could take care of it without surgery. He asked Cole if he was feeling tough tonight which he said he was, they used a suction to remove a blood clot in the area and then went in with silver nitrate to stop the bleeding. After a little while there was no bleeding. The doctor hopes this will take care of the situation and he will just continue to heal. After it was over we had to wait for his IV to finish and then we were able to come home. All is well and he feels better he finally started to say a few words yesterday and now we are back to silence. I know in a week I will want some silence from him but right now I miss hearing his voice! I am so glad he has this time to heal and not have to worry about school!

Merry Christmas

We hope that everyone has a wonderful day!

and more parties. . .

Our Ladies party at work. . .

This is something we all look forward to at work! We draw for someone and then exchange gifts with them. This year everyone's gift was perfect for that person. It was obvious a lot of thought went into our gifts they were very personalized! I work with such great ladies and enjoy spending time with my "other family!"

Tonsil and Adenoid Free

We are so glad this day finally came. We scheduled this back at the first of October. The doctor was concerned with the time of the surgery due to all the sickness around but we had to do it over Christmas vacation. We have done everything we could to keep him healthy!! On Monday the doctors office called to see if we wanted to reschedule his surgery, his surgeon had broken his hand and could not perform the surgery. Lucky for us he has a back up and we opted to go with him. We were pleased with the backup surgeon and Cole's surgery went really well. We are so glad it is over! Everything is going well he is just really sore today! To bad he doesn't know sign language since that is his form of communication to us right now and he is not very good at it. :)Hanging out before and playing some games starting the long process of getting him ready

His biggest concern was that he would NOT go nightie night. He as less concerned after the IV went in and they explained the process to himHe ended up with some stylin' clothes. He especially loved the socks!

right after surgery. . . as they were taking him into the recovery room Brett was walking next to him and Cole asked Brett "where the hell he was" apparently he had already asked the nurse "who the hell she was". I am sure these nurses see a lot, people have such different reaction from anesthetic. Cole felt bad after and apologized to the nurse.

We just had to wait for him to drink some apple juice and hold that down and then we could be on our way. After 3 glasses of juice we thought we were headed home and then he got sick and we had to wait a little longer. But all in all everything went well and he is now on the road to recovery! The doctor told us that he will have really bad breath for a little while bad enough that it could peel the paint off the wall! Now isn't that just lovely. Lucky for us!

More Parties. . .

The Stalder Christmas Party. . . Madison performing. . . she did a great job!
apparently the only thing the kids know how to do is text
Some of the family. . . we have some tight quarters at my mom's but we all manage to fit in Madison got some new jammies from her cousins. . . she LOVED them!

Thanking Grandma for his gift! Cole is so glad he is getting taller than my mom!

We are ALL Hunter Educated!

We all have our "Blue Cards" and can hunt as a family!

• For me it was a prerequisite for marriage! After a few hunts with Brett I decided it was not for me! I enjoy being with him in the mountains, I don't mind cooking the meat but I just didn't enjoy the intense work it requires!
• For Cole it was required he was educated by the time he turned twelve. He has been hunting with his dad since he was little. He got his first gun (it was a cap gun that looked like a shotgun) when he was 18 months old. He has always hunted with his dad and they enjoy that time together!
  
• Madison was required to take hunter safety so Brett and her could spend some time together. Maddy wasn't super excited about the class but after she spent time at the shooting range with just her dad she ended up having a good time.

She had to shoot last weekend when it was freezing. She did really well and was so relieved when it was over! Needless to say her dad is very proud of her!

There are 3 postitions they have to shoot in:

Prone
Sitting

Standing (which is the hardest)

Just a little side note: all four of us used the same gun to certify with which I though was pretty cool!

Sick puppies aren't much fun. . .

Little Spade was having a case of the diarrhea throughout the evening and was not eating and was also very lethargic. Cole would lay down with her and you could tell he was crying. He was so worried about his little girl. By the time we got back home from the party she was not any better and we were starting to get really concerned. So we ended up at the Animal Hospital. A VERY worried Cole
Cole offered up MANY prayers in this little girls behalf. He told us he felt like heavenly father would help her to get better but he just could not imagine if she didn't.
We had several tests run on her and everything came back negative which was a very good thing! They put a hydration pack under her skin and some antibiotics and sent us on our way. She already acted like a different dog within such a short time we just knew she had lost so much fluid and she didn't want to replenish it. Hopefully she will be ok because there is nothing worse than seeing Cole so upset. She is a good little dog and followes Cole everywhere!

Let the Parties begin. . .

We had our party with Brett's family this weekend. We get together for dinner and just to visit. It happens to my favorite meal of the year! I could hardly wait!

Brett's dad makes the best Prime-Rib dinner and we are so grateful for the time he spends getting this meal ready!Everyone "patiently" waiting for the rib to be cutGrandpa carving dinner. . . YUMMY After a wonderful dinner grandma and grandpa gave the kids a present. . . only one they have been begging for. They both got new phones Thanks Grandma!!!
Cole with his loyal sidekick. . . how by the way was not feeling well and we ended up at the animal hospital later that night but that is a whole other post!

For One. . .Christmas came early!

Santa Claus made a surprise visit to our house this morning! for Cole. . . a puppy under the tree
we decided we would wake the kids up early since they do it to us EVERY year so here it is at 6:00 in the a.m. for a great surprise!
Cole was very excited he could not believe his eyesCole has been asking for a dog for awhile and we have told him NO! He says he is tired of retrieving his own ducks out in the swamp. So here it is RESPONSIBILITY!

We have named her Spade (Black Spade)

Merry Christmas Cole!!

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope everyone has a wonderful day!

(food, friends, my family and clothes)

Cole's Thanksgiving art work from seminary. I am so thankful he can still color :) It is nice to see he is thankful for things and that family actually made the list, and clothes is the big one that surprises me since we have a hard time getting him to wear more than shorts around the house apparently he thinks we live in a warm climate.

I am Thankful for. . .

FAMILY!

I love being around my family so the holidays are especially fun for me! We will be having Thanksgiving with Ratcliffe's this year so it is tradition that I have my parents out the Sunday before and I cook a Thanksgiving dinner so we are able to have that time together also. (We do the same with the Ratcliffe's the next year we switch back and forth. . . we always get to have 2 Thanksgivings)

It was a little strange this year to think about having my mom out without my dad so we invited my sister and her family out. Julie was the sister that taught me how to cook :) Ahh- Good Memories! She is an amazing cook so I owe it all to her (and of course to my mother since that is where Julie learned) One year Julie asked for an easy bake oven and Santa thought that was a waste of money so she got the real stuff to learn how to really cook and man-she can!!

Isn't that a great Christmas. . .This is why she ended up making all of the birthday cakes for everyone in the family!

Making the rolls. . .Yes everything I made was from scratch-NO BOXES, stuffing included!Madison was a little picture happy and took all sort of pictures (all before though)

Preparing the turkey for perfection!

Tom the turkey :)

Maddy having a good laugh with Grandma!

The clan eating!

We could not get the food on our plates fast enough. . . everyone was STARVING!!!!

Everything tasted so good!

I even made carmels and Julie brought yummy pies for dessert! We had way to much food and everyone was so full it hurt. We had a great time eating and visiting I am so grateful we are such a close family.