Justin's Ankle

Today we went to see one of the best orthopedic surgeons in Utah for Justin's ankle. We already saw his physician's assistant a few weeks ago and Justin got a CT scan. Today we talked with the surgeon and unfortunately surgery is the best option. The surgeon is booked out a few months so today they gave him a shot right under his ankle bone in the joint that is supposed to help with the pain by about 50% for about 6 months. He said that Justin has had this condition in his foot since birth and that usually it is in both feet so I guess we can feel luck that he only has it in one. He also said that only about 7-10% of people get this particular condition in their feet. So Justin is one of the few lucky winners. He said that because he is over 25 they cannot go in and take out the extra bone that is causing the problem. They will have to just fuse the bones together that are already there. He also said that Justin already has arthritis in a couple of the bones because it has been overcompensating for the non-use he has of other bones. That cannot be fixed. So they will fuse the bones together with pins and it should take away his pain by 90-95%. The down side to this whole thing is that he will have to get surgery about every 10-12 years because other bones will begin to get overworked and need to be fixed as well. He also said that after the surgery he will be in a hard cast for 2 1/2 months. Eight weeks he will not be able to put weight on it at all and then the last two weeks in the cast he will begin to try to walk on it. After the cast comes off he really didn't think he would need physical therapy but it would take quite awhile to get the strength back up. So I guess the good news is that there is an option to help him take away the pain, the bad news is that it will not be fun for him at all. We will have to see how the shot works for now and hopefully for the time being until we can get in for surgery he will have some of his pain go away. As you can imagine it is very hard to pick 3+ months that you can basically be out of walking commission . Now isn't great and then it is summer and then it is fall (hunting season). Something is going to have to give. But we are hoping for the best and wishing for a good surgery and recovery when the time comes.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008 - This is on Christmas morning at 5:45 to be exact. Our kids did not do such a great job sleeping in, we were up bright and early.

We always go through our stockings first. The boys got walkie talkies, new socks and new shirts plus a whole lot of candy.

Jake is checking out his new car. He got 3 cars and 4 binkies! How much better can it get?

Maybe if he could reach just a little farther he could have that tiny little snicker bar.

At our house santa leaves a note in the tree with a piece of string attached to it. The kids go one at a time and get their name out of the tree and follow their string all around the house. This is Max following his string to his present from santa. It is always so much fun to watch!

Still looking...

Ah ha! A ramp and skateboard for Max. Not exactly what he asked for but he was happy anyways. He really asked for a violin, but santa had a very hard time getting the elves to cooperate with that request. Maybe another day when he could actually play a real violin. On Christmas morning when the kids woke us up before we went downstairs Max said to me, "Mom, I don't think I ever told santa why I wanted a violin.... I said why? He said, I just really like to play music and I thought that would be fun to have....." So as you can image I felt very bad, although santa did really and honestly try for a violin.

Riding down the ramp in the kitchen. I am afriad that the skateboard and ramp have found a home in the kitchen until about May when the snow melts and the kids can use it outside.

Santa brought Isaac an air hockey table. Also not exactly what he asked for... but a winner anyways...

The first game of air hockey...

Oh, little Jake is so cute..

So months ago, clear back to the summer time when we were doing yard work. I was giving Justin grief about not being a huge BYU fan. The kids love BYU and Cosmo (by default of living in Provo.) But we probably will live here for quite some time so I told Justin he may as well decide he likes BYU. He said no, no, no it is not going to happen. So I told him for Christmas I was going to get him a BYU shirt. I do not think he believed me. So I came through and here is the BYU shirt. I told him he was going to have to open the first present and that no one else could open a present until he shouted "Go Cougars!" So we waited... and waited... and waited and then......

I was all ready with the camera and he shouted "Go ... ..... ...... ....... and I took the picture and then he said "Broncos" ... I never did get my real cheer for the Cougars but it was funny anyways.

Justin with his hunting book that I made him for Christmas. It was a hit.

This is what Isaac really wanted for Christmas, so Justin and I bought it for the family instead of just giving it to Isaac. That way I can be in charge of the time it is used and such.

We got these lasso's (if that is how you spell it) from Grandpa Nolan. The boys are having a great time with them. The are actually a pretty good catch.

Both of them also got these super duper dart blaster guns. They seriously shoot 20 bullets in like 2 seconds. And then back to loading and pumping again. So much work for such fast fun! I have been hit by quite a few bullet in the last day or so. But all is well in fun.. (for now)

Max playing the Wii in his own choice of clothing for Christmas day. Those are BYU socks and both of the kids just think they are fun. Justin was trying to rope the kids while they were running and and Max said, "Dad, the reason you can't catch me is because I have on my magic BYU socks and they are fast." Made Justin's day if you can imagine.

Isaac takes the Wii very serious. He loves it and I am going to have to be very careful to not lose him to it. Any game is great but he mostly loves the golf game.

Both of them playing Wii but Max is doing a little dance bum shake thing that he loves to do.

Jake just chillin' on Christmas day.

Justin has joined in on the Wii to see if he can beat Isaac. Really it is quite the deal because it is a toss up who will win each hole.

So Justin caught Max and his skateboard with the ropes and who knew that was going to be so fun. Max got pulled around for quite awhile that way.

Grandma Marla and Jake the day after Christmas. Grandpa Kirk and Grandma Marla spent the whole entire day driving in the worst blizzard ever I think. They are headed to San Diego to see Hailey and they are having quite the slow drive getting there. It took them a very long time to get from Bozeman to here yesterday. But we were so, so glad to see them!

So my parents gave us this "iRobot" it is a vacuum. And they vacuum really good and I don't have to do anything. I think I will turn on the dishwasher and the vacuum at night before I go to bed and walla..... clean in the morning. Perfect! I got my very own "maid."

We had a very Merry Christmas and we hope you all did as well.

Gingerbread house!

I bought this gingerbread house kit quite a few weeks ago. I was waiting for the perfect day to do it. And yes, today was that day. It is snowing like crazy, the kids were out of school and this was the perfect project for the afternoon.
Each one of the boys took a side of the roof and we all worked on the front and back. Isaac put on all of his own frosting and candy and I put the frosting on for Max and he put on the candy. They both did a really great job.

This is our finished house. It turned out really great, don't you think?

They were very proud of their masterpiece!

Of course we wanted a picture of everybody. Jake just stood by this year and watched and played with paper and stuff. It won't be long until they can all do it together.

The finished product...

So as you know we made this on Thanksgiving day. I finally got it up on the wall. We put it on our red wall and I painted on the darker tan and the black to make it look like a mat and frame. It is just above the kitchen table and it really looks cute.

The Lights at Temple Square

Last night we braved the 15 degrees and went to Salt Lake to see the lights at temple square. It was really fun and really cold.

So this is how Jake started the evening out in the cold. He was so happy to wear his beanie and his big black down coat.

It only took about 15 minutes until he fell asleep and he slept for the whole entire event. He woke up for one minute when we took his coat off to get back in the car and then back to sleep. It wasn't like we went in the middle of the night it was only from like 6:00 - 7:30 ish. Oh well, we were glad to have a sleeping baby a lot of people had really cold crying babies.

So around temple square there are random water features. Even in the freezing cold Isaac and max wanted to stick their hands in the water. I told them they better not get their hands wet or they would be sorry and they said, "we already felt the water and it is really warm" It is water that goes around and around so it won't freeze and I am thinking the water must have actually felt warm because it was so stinking cold out. Crazy kids!

There was this nice guy that was walking around all alone and just taking pictures of families. He ran into us a couple of times and saw us taking a picture of just Justin with the kids and then just me with the kids. So he would come over and say "would you like me to take one of all of you?" So we would let him and then we saw him around quite a few times doing the same thing for other families. We were very glad that we were able to get a couple pictures of all of us. It was a very eventful cold walk!

Max's Preschool Christmas Program

Max was really excited about his Christmas Program. He worked very hard on all of his songs at home.
The two kids in front of him are in the 3 year old class and Max is in the 4-5 year old class. They were turned around watching him most of the time. When I would try to take Max's picture the would also stand in the way and say "cheese" thinking I was trying to take their picture. I feel lucky I got as many good pictures of Max as I did because they were in the way most of the night.

This is a "Rudolph" singing his heart out!

The older class sand the song "Must be Santa" up at the front with the teacher. Max loves this song and sang it so well.

It is over and yahoo he got a present from his teacher and root beer and cookies to eat. How much better can it get?

A posed picture for mom by the Christmas tree with the rudolph antlers on.

So everyone was just talking after the program and I turned around and looked over at Max and he is trying to talk in the microphone. Lucky for all it was already unplugged or Max may have sang us another song. He thought he was being so sneaky.

Then he got one of his friends to work on getting the microphone plugged back in for him. He was very excited about this if you can't tell. This is when I had to intervene and keep them from blowing everyone's ears out.

Max did an awesone job in his program! We even had someone tell us that his next step is American Idol, he was singing that good. As you can imagine we were very proud parents.