Courtney's Shirt

[CORRECTION: Julie made the shirt for Courtney and Brooke has a matching one. Sorry about that Julie.]

When we went up to Lisa and Mike's house they gave Courtney a shirt that Aunt Julie had sent out for her. And I can't get her to take it off!! ;) I guess you can say that she loves her new shirt. Cute girl.

The Dumb Thing is OFF!!!

We took off my splint this morning and it was such an exciting experience!!! It was really itchy yesterday and I was going nuts. I didn't sleep very well last night because it has been aching too. So this morning, bright and early, Bryan became my nurse and unwrapped my miles of gauze and bandages.

The part of my foot that was below my splint (near my toes) was pretty swollen but my foot wasn't too bad. It's all right because I need to lotion, but the itching has gotten a lot better. The incision looks a lot different than I thought it would...it's a lot bigger than I anticipated, but it doesn't look too bad. I was a bit light headed and nauseous after we got everything taken off but I feel fine now. You can still see the doctor's signature on my right leg and the "YES" they had me write on the foot they were operating on.

I still can't put any weight on my foot but it's so nice not to have a huge, heavy splint on my leg/foot anymore!!

WARNING: The bottom picture is kind of gross.
Just starting:

First layer off:

The foot wrap:

The wrap over the incision:

The incision (GROSS!):

Pack Meeting

Ethan had Pack Meeting last night. I didn't get to go because of my foot but I got the run-down on what they did when they all got home.

Ethan had earned a couple of Arrows so he was awarded those at the beginning. Then the fun began. Bryan says that a Pack Leader is kind of like a grandparent...they can give the kids anything but they don't have to deal with them afterward. Yes, the boys all got marshmallow guns! They got to play games with them and have fun. Ethan thought it was the best thing and was so excited to come home and show me how well he can shoot his marshmallows.

We have some fun leaders in our ward and I appreciate all the work they go to for my son.

Lydia's Princess Party

Last Monday Courtney was invited to a Princess Party. They had a royal manicure, royal pedicure and a royal up-do. She had a great time and came home looking very "princessy."

Here's how she came back to us:

Michelle's Surgery

Last Thursday, after school, we loaded in the van and drove to Provo to stay with Lisa and Mike so we would be closer to the Surgical Center for my foot surgery. About 18 years ago, more or less, I was goofing off with a friend and stepped off a curb funny. I hurt my foot but the doctor kept telling me that it was just sprained. It has hurt every since but I couldn't find anyone who would believe that anything was wrong. Finally, a doctor in St. George did an MRI on the foot and found a fracture. He did a few cortisone shots (wonderful things!) which gave me some relief but nothing permanent. Finally I went to a specialist in Provo who did a CT scan and found a cyst, bone spur and "junk" in my joint that needed to be taken out. So we scheduled surgery.

Lisa watched the kids while Bryan took me to the Surgical Center. I was there at 9:15 but didn't get into surgery until 11 a.m. They put me under general anesthesia, so I got to sleep, but then they did a nerve block in my calf which numbed my foot. It was supposed to wear off between 10-12 hours, but it lasted about 19 hours (lovely!). I woke up after 1 1/2 hours of surgery (it was supposed to be about 45 minutes but he found more "junk" than anticipated) absolutely FREEZING! The blood pressure cuff on my right arm was driving me nuts and alarms kept going off. Bryan told me the alarm was because my heart rate was so low (40-45) and the nurse finally asked if that was normal for me and I told her it was, so she muted the alarm.

After what seemed like forever in the recovery room, I was able to get dressed to be discharged. Now, they told me to wear comfy, baggy clothes and I thought I had. But I didn't anticipate this huge splint that was all the way to my knee! I barely got my pants on. Bryan took me back to Lisa's where we got the kids, I changed into my pjs and then we were off.

I slept most of the way home, which Ethan watching me closely in the backseat. We had to take one pit stop at a rest area where Bryan ended up giving me a piggy back ride to the bathroom, but other than that it was non eventful.

I can take the splint off on Wednesday (yipee because it's heavy!) but I'm on crutches for 2-4 weeks. I have a post-op appointment in two weeks to have it checked. Hopefully this will take care of everything.

My orange foot:

My splint:

My splint and my left leg so you can see just how big it really is (I heard one nurse say something about "overkill" but I was out of it so I may have imagined it)! Just think how big it would have been if the surgery was on my leg!

Ethan and Courtney

I am sure Ethan is going to regret this someday but he asked me to post this photo. He was playing on his DSi the other day and Courtney decided that he needed to have his hair done. She ran in the bathroom, grabbed a bunch of flowers and started putting them in his hair. Isn't is usually the older sisters dressing up the little brother and not the little sister dressing up the big brother?!?! Anyway, he wanted it documents because he said it shows "how great a big brother I am because I let my little sister make me look ridiculous." He has a point!

Courtney's Dance

Here is Courtney's Pizazz routine (the part I got on tape before the battery in the camera died) from last night. She did awesome and had so much fun. She didn't have her glasses on because her eyelashes are too long and hit her lenses which bugs her. So she is allowed to perform without them. She gets to wear makeup for the performances too which she loves and Ethan hates. He says she looks "freaky" and "not like herself at all!" It gets washed off the second we get home.

Please ignore the psycho mom yelling in the background (it's just me!). She has had such a hard time getting the ring out in past performances that I was so excited when she got it.







Here she is after it was all over and we were watching the game.

Finding His Inner Zen?!?

Ethan paid a token to play Wii and after a few minutes he yelled for me to come and see something. What I found made me laugh.

Ethan was sitting, cross-legged, on the balance board staring at the TV screen which showed a candle burning.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

Whispering, Ethan slowly said, "Finding my inner Zen, Mom. If I move, the candle flickers and goes out. I have to be really still."

After 2 minutes of watching the candle burn down on the screen I asked, "Why?"

Again whispering, he said, "Mom, you're messing up my Zen, please leave now."

Okaaay....I guess he is clearing his mind and focusing on his inner vessel. He's been quiet for quite a while, so we'll see how calm and centered he is after this. Someone at Harvard should do a study on this...oh wait, they probably already have. ;)

I just went in to see how he was doing and he was on to play something else. I asked him, "How was it finding your Zen?"

"Oh Mom, it was good. Really, really, really good."

What a funny kid!

Ethan's "Injury"

Today at basketball practice, both Ethan and another kid went after the ball. Unfortunately Ethan fell and got scraped up. His knee and his elbow have some pretty good scrapes on them. He wanted me to post proof of his "injury" and tell everyone that he was really brave. (I wasn't there so I can't vouch for his braveness, but he didn't need a bandaid...which in our house is a big deal.)




(Courtney calls this his "grandpa look" because of the glasses.)

My Birthday!

Wednesday was my birthday and the kids were so excited! I got up really early and went to the Temple. When I got home, there were flowers on the table (from Bryan and Courtney), breakfast of crepes ready to be eaten, and a beautifully wrapped present on the table (from Bryan and Ethan) along with a few cards.

Ethan was anxious for me to open my present ("But open the cards after you open the present!") so I did. It was a Wii Fit Plus. I was really excited. Ethan had me open it up to see what the board looked like and inside was.... a board....of wood. I realized that I had told Ethan about the time I really wanted a nice camera for Christmas and on Christmas Eve my parents gave me a package to open which turned out to be a one-time-use-disposable camera. I was so sad, but got the nice camera the next day. Ethan decided to re-create this memory for me.

I then opened the card and Ethan had written a poem that gave me a clue as to where he had hidden the balance board. He was cracking himself up that he had fooled me! What a kid.

Bryan wrote me another poem...which I loved! I could get used to the poem bit because he is really good at it!

After everyone went to school/work, I got things done around the house I wanted to do and then, after doing Kindergarten carpool, my mom watched Courtney while Bryan took me to lunch and we did a bit of Costco shopping. Then, after teaching piano and school was over, my parents took us (and Don and Kathy) out to dinner at Iggy and we all came back to our house for cake and ice cream.

I got a digital picture frame from my parents, cards from a lot of people and a heart rate monitor from Bryan's parents. So I did pretty well for being so old. ;) It was a fun day and I was definitely spoiled. I love my family.

The board in the Wii Fit box:

Me and my flowers:

Courtney and me:

My flowers:

Getting ready for cake and ice cream (you can tell by the angle that Courtney took the picture.):

More Basketball

Ethan had another game last Tuesday. They were run over by the other team. The kids were older and you could tell they practiced a lot. But the boys still had fun, I think. Here are some photos:

Best Brownies

Last night Ethan was the treat for FHE and we didn't have anything on hand. He wanted to make brownies, so I found this microwave brownie recipe that is really good! I thought I would share it.

Microwave Brownies:

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
* 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
* 2 large eggs
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup chocolate chunks or chips
* Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

Put the butter and chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds to melt the chocolate. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar.

In a large bowl sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the egg and chocolate mixtures along with the vanilla and stir well to combine.

Spray an 8 by 8 by-2-inch microwave safe glass pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan, spread it out evenly, and scatter the chocolate chunks on top. Cook on high for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 3 minutes before cutting and eating.

(Don't overcook them. They are really chewy at first but the second day they are perfect!)

Basketball Season Again

Ethan started his basketball season with Ivins City tonight with their first practice/game. He is on a team with a bunch of neighborhood boys and is have fun. Bryan is the head coach this year and he has some great assistants (they actually did the game today because we got the schedule really late and Bryan couldn't make the game). It's fun for the boys. They are all so much bigger this year that it's amazing. Ethan is #14. (I couldn't get any front shots, but there are still 7 more games to go!)

More snow fun

Here are some more snow pictures from Monday when it snowed. Bryan and Courtney went outside and made a snowman with a carrot nose and a fruit snack mouth. They had fun. Ethan got into the winter clothes bin and found an old 9M jacket he wore as a baby and decided to try it on. It was pretty funny!

SNOW!!

We woke up this morning to see this in our backyard!



We were supposed to get snow last week but didn't get any. I guess it's "better late than never" around here.

Trying to make it to a new year...

The kids wanted to stay up until midnight so we decided to let them try. We watched movies and popped popcorn. At about 11:10 Courtney lost the battle and fell asleep. Ethan was on his way out around 11:30 so Bryan suggested he play his DSi and that woke him right up.

At 11:50 Bryan woke Courtney up and put her on his lap but she didn't want to stay awake and buried her head in his neck. At 20 seconds to midnight, Bryan tried to wake her up again but she wasn't interested.

After the ball dropped Bryan climbed Courtney up into her bed where she woke up and proceeded to tell him off for not waking her up "fast enough" to see the ball drop. He explained that he tried to wake her up but she wasn't having any of it and kept yelling that now she couldn't sleep. I went to warm up her rice bag and by the time I got back (2 minutes later) she was asleep.

Ethan fell asleep pretty easily too and they both slept in this morning.

Happy New Year!!!

Ethan trying to stay awake:

Proof that Bryan did try to wake her up:

Laser Mania

On Thursday, we went to Laser Mania. Ethan and Bryan played laser tag (Ethan won) while Courtney and I played mini-golf with blue lights. It was really fun. We don't keep score because Courtney is a use-the-golf-club-like-a-broom type of golfer. But she had a lot of fun and so did Ethan!