Ethan's poor toe

Ethan can't seem to catch a break.  About a month ago he started complaining that his big toe on his right foot was hurting.  We looked at it and noticed that i appeared to have two ingrown toenails on his big toe (one on each side).  The poor guy had been ignoring them as long as he could because he didn't want anyone else poking at him.  But finally they got bad enough that he finally agreed to go to the doctor.

I called around to find one that had an opening and got him in at the beginning of December.  The doctor poked his toe and, without numbing him up, cut out two large ingrown toenails.  Ethan was a trooper.  The doctor told us that Ethan has wide nail beds (which is hereditary) and that this probably wouldn't fix it permanently.  Because both Bryan and I have had to get ingrown toenails fixed, we figured Ethan would eventually have to have his fixed too.

After a couple of weeks it was obvious that Ethan's toe wasn't getting better.  So I made an appointment to have his ingrown toenail fixed and his wide nail beds thinned.  So we went to have that done before Christmas.

This is what his toe looked like before having it fixed.

This is what it looked like after the doctor injected it 7 times to numb it.  Ethan's toe didn't want to go to sleep so the doctor kept having to inject him with another shot.  The poor kid was still in pain but he did the best he could.

The toe nail they took out was huge and there was a lot of blood.  We couldn't believe how far in the doctor was able to stick his instruments.  He put some toenail killer on the end of a small dowel and kept shoving it in to kill the nail bed.  We were both amazed at how far it could go into his toe.

When the doctor was finished, he put some bandages on Ethan's toe and it looked HUGE!

Ethan spent the rest of the day with his leg elevated.  It was strange because it was his right leg instead of his left that was elevated.  He is still recovering but he hasn't been hurting anymore.  He has a follow up next month to make sure it is healing well.

Caroling

The young men and young women in the ward usually go caroling on the Sunday before Christmas.  Ethan likes going and they always have a lot of fun.  Our ward is a lot smaller than it was last year so it didn't take as long for them to go to all the streets.  They met at the Church, loaded onto a truck with hay bails and took off.

After a while we could hear them singing so we went outside to wait for them to come by.  Courtney had fun playing with some neighbor kids while we all waited.  They had a blast riding scooters, playing on the pogo stick and riding bikes.

When the youth came by someone stopped to talk to me about one of my visiting teaching sisters so I didn't get a video of them singing but they did a great job.  I did get a photo of the truck as it went by.

Silly Courtney

Courtney was bored so she decided to be silly.  Ethan was walking around and she followed behind him copying every move he made.  He started to ham it up and she was having a blast.

She also decided to take a rest on Bryan while he was on his computer.  I think they both liked it.

Star Wars

Bryan and I took us to Star Wars.  We didn't want to go with the crush of people so we bought tickets for Saturday morning at 9 a.m.  Courtney didn't want to go so she hung out at my parent's house.  We had a lot of fun and really liked the movie.

Survival Bracelet

Ethan's scout leader gave all the boys survival bracelets with a flint and steel in them along with a knife.  The boys thought they were in heaven and immediately began trying to set the leaves at the Church on fire.  Luckily no one could do it but they had fun trying.  Ethan couldn't wear it to school because it would be considered a weapon but he loves it and said he has the "best scoutmaster ever!"

25 Days of Christmas

This is something I want to do next year so I am putting the link here so I know where to find it.

25 Days of Christmas

Coyote

Ethan had a science lab after school so I went up to pick him up. As we were driving next to his school we saw a coyote. We had to stop and take pictures.

Rage Invitational

This cute soccer girl made it onto her team's Invitational team.  There is a soccer tournament in St. George called the Rage Invitational.  Our coach has been getting pressure from some parents to enter the team into tournaments.  He didn't feel that the teams were ready for that kind of competition.  But after thinking it over, he decided that he would take the best players from the U11 and U12 teams, combine them into one team and enter them in the Rage Invitational.

The last month they have been holding tryouts during their regular soccer practices.  Courtney really wanted to be invited onto the team and last night we found out that she made it!  She was so excited!!  Her best friend was also invited onto the team.  How fun!

The Invitational is February 12, 13 and 15th (it really pays to live in Utah where they don't schedule tournaments on Sunday).

Letter to Santa

Each year Courtney writes a letter to Santa and we mail it off.  This year she was a little slow getting it off but she is certain Santa already knows her so well that he knows what she wants.  But I thought it was a cute letter.  She is really into email and would like to email Santa instead because it's faster.  Haha!

Bryan's in the paper!

If you look very closely at the photo from the newspaper you will see Bryan on the left hand side, with his hands in his pockets, getting ready to go through the door.

Can you see him?

There was an article in the paper about the Water Canyon School in Hildale.  Bryan is part of a group called "Leadership Dixie" which is a class where they learn about Washington County and the various groups/things that are found here.  They were on their monthly field trip and were learning about diversity in Dixie.  So they went to Hildale to find out more about the area.  They saw where the recent flood was, visited the school, etc.  One of the members of Leadership Dixie is an editor at the newspaper (I believe) so he took the picture and it was in the paper.

The kids were pretty impressed.

Family Pictures

We had family pictures with my side of the family last Saturday.  Courtney and I decided to take a selfie before we left.  I look a little spacey and I am hoping I looked a little more normal for the real photographer.

I will post pics when we get the disk.  I hope they turned out.  The location was great and a lot of fun.

Wishbone

The wishbone from Thanksgiving was finally dry enough that the kids could snap it.  I don't know who won but they had fun.

Gingerbread Houses

Our Christmas activity for the night was making gingerbread houses.  We bought kits but I didn't realize that the house was prefabricated.  Usually the kit just has the pieces to the house and you have to put them together.  It usually only has the powder mix for the frosting too but this one had the frosting already pre-made and in bags! It made it so much easier but Ethan was bummed that he didn't get to put it together.  I think he wanted to eat the house.

Courtney got right to work and had a lot of fun putting the decorations on her house.

  

It turned out really well.

Ethan got right to work on his house.

t turned out....

They had fun though.

Haircut

I have to document this because Ethan does not like getting his hair cut at all!  But isn't he so handsome?!

Ethan's Choir Concert

Last year Ethan decided he wanted to quit taking piano lessons.  I made him a deal that he could quit piano if he took choir at school.  He agreed and so here we are.  Ethan doesn't enjoy choir at all and he has it all year long.  Ugh!  I kind of feel bad for the kid but a deal is a deal.

They had their first choir concert for Christmas and it was a doozie.  They didn't leave time for applause because they had so many songs to get through and wanted to keep it to an hour.  I thought they did a great job and Ethan looked sharp in his church clothes.

He is on the back row in the center.  These pictures prove that his mouth was at least moving.  Who knows if sound was coming out but he was at least faking it.  He says he isn't very good at singing.  We tell him that soon he will appreciate that there aren't as many boys in choir as there are girls.  But right now he really doesn't care.

Here are their songs:

Noel

Jazzy Jingle Bells

Deck the Halls

Once Upon a December

Sleigh Ride

Jingle Bell Dash

Holiday Hand Jive

Silent Night

White Christmas

Ding Ding Merrily on High

Baby, What You Gonna Be?

While Shepherds Watch their Flocks by Night

Shine for me Again, Star of Bethlehem

I See a Star

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen part 1

part 2 (I think my finger hit the wrong button)

Let it be Christmas

Orchestra Concert

Courtney absolutely loves playing the violin.  She has so much fun and is really doing well at it.  She has been blessed with some great teachers who have taught her so much.  Her teacher decided to combine the Early Morning Orchestra with the Beginning Orchestra at Lava Ridge for their concert.

Courtney emailed her teacher from last year inviting her to come to the concert.  We didn't have her email address but knew what department she worked in at Dixie State University.  I sent the email Courtney had written to the secretary of the department asking her to forward it to Mrs. Crosby.,,,and she did.  Mrs. Crosby answered Courtney's email and she showed up at the concert.  It was fun to see Courtney and her friend's faces light up when Mrs. Crosby walked in.

They did a great job and played really well.  It helped that the entire concert was only 15 minutes long!

  

Here are their songs:

Ode to Joy

Oh Gee Down

Lightly Row

Dreidel

Jingle Bells

Deck the Halls

Up on the Housetop

What Child is This?

Frosty

He's free!!

Ethan had a doctor appointment on December 7th to have his boot taken off.  At this time they would tell us whether he was good to go or if he needed therapy or something else.  We have been disappointed each time we have gone in so I was optimistic but didn't want to get my hopes up too much.

They called us back, took the boot off, talked about getting an xray to make sure it was good to go, nixed the xray and then told us that we should come back if Ethan had any pain.  Wow!

Ethan put his shoe on and didn't like the feel or it at all.  It's been a long time since he had a shoe on his left food....12 weeks to be precise!  And he had to figure out how to balance and walk on it again.

He didn't like the way his shoe felt.  Can you tell by his face?

He got up and walked around the office a bit to see how it would go.  He was a bit unbalanced at first but he got the hang of it.

Here's the video of Ethan walking around to test out his leg:

He was able to carry his boot our of the office and was so happy!

All he wanted for Christmas was to be able to walk on his own again and the dr said he was able to give him that.  This has been a long rough road for the kid and there have been some major ups and downs, but I am happy with his progress and all he has learned.  

Run Run Reindeer

It is one of our traditions to do the Run Run Reindeer.  They always hold it on the first Saturday of December.  This year for the kids they had white shirts and fabric markers so they could decorate their own shirt.  It was pretty cold.  A couple years ago we had a huge snow storm that started during the Run Run Reindeer.  We were hoping for that again but it was blue skies.

Courtney and Bryan entered to run the 5K.  I stayed with Ethan because he was still in a boot and couldn't run.

She was ready to run!  Since she has been playing soccer and they have been conditioning, I wasn't nervous that she would finish.  I was a bit nervous that she would get lost.  But they had signs so it was all good.

We have some neighbors who run it every year with their two boys so Courtney started the race by the boys but they quickly left her in the dust.

After the race began, Ethan and I spent our time playing with a huge Jenga game and taking a selfie (my camera lens on my phone obviously needs to be cleaned because the selfie looks washed out).

  

Then people started getting back from the run so we began watching for them.  Courtney came in and had a great time.

  

Bryan came in next and beat his time from last year.

  

These aren't their official times but they were kind of close.  They were able to get donuts, water, bananas, and hot chocolate.  Great run!

Ward Christmas Party

We had our Ward Christmas Party on December 4th.  We had reserved the Church last year, right after our last party, because a couple of the wards last year weren't able to have their Christmas parties because there weren't open dates.  Because of all the changes in the ward, it was a great time to get to know people better.

The theme was "Musical Christmas."  Each auxiliary was asked to present 2 musical numbers.  One was supposed to be funny and one was supposed to be serious.  I helped the new presidency get the numbers figured out for the Relief Society.

Here is the entry for the Young Men:

Yes, their leaders bought them all whoopie cushions and they did Jingle Bells with those "instruments."  They had a lot of fun at rehearsals (as you could well imagine).

The Primary did a great job with their entry:

You can see Courtney once-in-a-while on the left behind some other children.

Courtney's Book Report

Courtney was having a hard time thinking of a unique way to present her book report.  I asked if she wanted help making a roller book.  She hadn't heard of one, because she is way too young.  So I explained it to her and she wanted to do it.  I cut the holes in the box but she wrote everything down and put it all together.  It turned out great and I think she had fun making it.  It certainly was something none of her classmates had seen before.

Courtney's Choir Concert

Courtney had a choir concert that was held at the high school.  She didn't participate in drum corp this year.  I was glad.  The concert turned out well.

Courtney is the short one in the middle but since she is in 5th grade she was on the back row!

Hanukkah:

Deck the Halls:

Good King Wenceslas on the recorder:

Light up the Tree:

Santa Makes the Rounds:

Up Above My Head:

Song of Praise: