We're back...

...we'll see how long it lasts! The plan is, I'm going to pick up where I left off. I have a couple of saved entries that I never got around to posting so I'll start there and see how it goes.

Columbia

We took a little day trip up to Columbia when my sister and parents were in town. The kids had fun exploring the old shops, feeding the chickens, climbing the rocks, picking out candy in the candy shop and being with there cousins. It was fun having my parents and sister, Jill and her family visiting.

Holiday Festivities...

New Years Day

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve Dinner

Gingerbread houses

sugar cookies

Christmas breakfast

Jaxton turned ONE!

Our little guy turned one on Dec. 12th. Daniel and Crystal came over with their family and Grandma Betty and Grandma Karen were there to help us celebrate. He wasn't too impressed with his cake, but he enjoyed his presents, especially his riding dump truck that he got from Uncle Daniel and Aunt Crystal.
Atleast now he doesn't have to ride the purple and pink princess one. It's fun to finally have little boy toys around the house!

OUCH!!

The day Rob came home from the hospital I decided to try and get some christmas lights down from the attic. (Big Mistake!) I had the ladder set so that it was straight (we have one of those heavy duty ones that folds, straightens, extends, etc.) but wasn't long enough. So rather than extending the ladder, I pushed the knobs to collaspse it and it folded down and crushed my fingers. It hurt soooo bad!!! I thought I had broke all my fingers. Luckily my ring protected my left hand a little, although I had a really hard time getting them off. I wasn't able to do much for a couple of days.

Deja vu

Rob went in for his second thyroid surgery on December 8. We had requested a private room this time since his previous stay was a nightmare. Aside from that everything was pretty much Deja vu. At least we knew what to expect this time. He got his staples out Tuesday and is doing well. Altough his neck is still a little sore and tender. Thank you all for your prayers and support. We're glad we decided to do it sooner than later, and grateful that we can now enjoy the holidays with no worries.

Update... FINALLY!

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. So if you're interested scroll on down to see what we've been up to for the past two months!

Happy Halloween!

Mckinlee had a hard time deciding on what to be for Halloween... She finally decided on Boo from Monster's Inc.

Rob's Surgery

A couple of months ago we went out to dinner with some friends, and Rob noticed he was having trouble swallowing afterwards. He said it felt like something got caught in his throat and he was trying to swallow past it. The next day while he was shaving he noticed a "lump" on the right side of his throat. We kept an eye on it for about a week, and when it didn't go away, we made an appointment for the doctor to get it checked out. Well, the doctor said it looked like his thyroid, and scheduled him for blood work and an ultrasound. When he got the results back he called us and said he wanted Rob to go see a specialist. So the next week we met Dr. Porteus. He took one look at the ultrasound and said, "yeah, we need to schedule a date for surgery." According to him, even if the tumor was benign, it was large enough that it could start causing problems, and it was best to just get it out. So here is Rob getting ready for surgery to remove the right half of his thyroid (5:30 am)Last look at his clean, undamaged neck...

We had to do some major coordinating so I could be with Rob and wait to find out the results. Many many thanks to our friends the Looslis for helping us with our kids!!

Here's Rob after surgery - he still looks a little out of it, doesn't he?

Yep, those are staples. Rob had to spend the night in the hospital, but he probably would have gotten more rest at home! His roomate was very loud, and very annoying.

Rob's surgery was on a Thursday, so he came home on Friday. He was feeling well enough by the next Thursday to go back to work, and that Friday he got his staples out. By then they had become very itchy, and irritated, and sore. He said he immediately felt relief when the took them out, except for the bad news. The doctor said his tumor had multiple pockets of cancer within it, so he will have to do the whole procedure over again to remove the other half of his thyroid! This was a real surprise for us since the initial pathology report while Rob was in surgery said it was benign - otherwise they could have removed the other half at the same time. Very frusterating! The doctor wanted him to get all healed up before he cut him open again, so we meet with him on November 21 to schedule the surgery, hopefully the first week of December.

Mckinlee wasn't too sure what to think about Rob's scar when he came home. She told him to cover it back up.

Kennedy's Birthday

We celebrated Kennedy's Birhtday a day early since Rob had to go in for surgery on her birthday. She wanted pizza and then off we went to the pumpkin patch.

Kennedy also got to choose her own outfit as you can see. Socks with dress shoes. You gotta love it! I especially love the shoes with this dress. :)

Kennedy's Field trip

Kennedy's kindergarten class went to the Children's Museum in Stockton. It 's all hands on so the kids had a great time playing and pretending. I'm glad I was able to go.

Happiest Place on Earth

It has been said, "the family that plays together, stays together". Well, in the case of our family trip to Disneyland we can also say that the family who invades a hotel together, finds ways to avoid long lines together, walks endlessly together, braves massive crowds together, worries constantly where all the kids are together, rushes to bathroom together, crams onto the trolley together, eats mass packed lunches anywhere together, gives multiple piggy back rides together, shares exit-entry ride passes together, takes pictures together, runs down the hotel hallways together, eats unusual taco meat together, rides Tower of Terror together, take 18 kids under the age of 13 to the beach together, worries together, smiles and laughs together, all while having the time of their lives together definitely-and-without a doubt-stays together! (But we missed Uncle Adam)

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for a family trip we couldn't live without and a trip we'll never forget!

Dance

If you ask Kennedy how she did at dance, she's quick to show you her stamp. She always comes home and tells us if you get a stamp on your hand it means that you did better than your older sisters, but if you get a sticker it means you didn't. The funny thing about this is they don't even give out stickers. Kennedy comes up with some great stories.

Madison turns 9!

Circus

Friday night we went to the circus. Rob got tickets from work again. One of the perks about his job is they own a box at the stockton arena, so we get to go to all of these fun events that we normally would'nt. We took our friends the Loosli's with us and my parents. It was a fun evening.

Surprise Visitors

I wasn't feeling very well one day, so I decied to lay down with Mckinlee for a nap, when I heard my back door open. At first I thought Rob had come home from work early, but then I noticed it was my parents walking down my hall! Of all days they chose to show up unannounced when my house wasn't exactly in order. Oh well, it was still the best surprise ever. It was fun to see the girls' reactions when they came home from school and saw grandma and grandpa sitting on our couch. My parents are seriously the best parents! Not only was my house not how I would have liked it to be, but my garage and back yard were a disaster - something that had been driving me crazy for awhile. But Rob and I have been so busy doing our floors and other house projects that the other stuff was getting put on hold. Anyways my parents totally helped us clear out our garage of all our old basebaords and scraps of wood and spent all day working in our yard. I was so grateful for them. It was a really fun visit.My kids love having my dad give them a choo choo train ride before bed. I always loved this as a kid too. He would take us all over the house and we especially loved when he would go outside. Then he would drop us off at each of our bedrooms.
Mckinlee just loves having tea parties! Unfortunately, she doesn't get to have them as often as she would like. So it was a real treat to get to have a tea party with Grandma! Now that's some quality one-on-one time!


We went over to my aunt and uncle's for a barbaque on Sunday. It was so fun to get together with them. It's a shame we don't get together more often. They just live in Houston!

My dad always gets these huge maple bars when he comes to visit. They're the same ones he got for us as kids. And there still as big as I remember them being. Since Madison's birthday was the following week we stuck some candles in and sang happy birthday to her.