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!