Bryson's Surgery

Bryson has been having a sore ankle for a couple of years every time he does a lot of running or plays a demanding sport (which for him is almost constantly). His doctor originally thought it was a tendon problem, but at his last checkup he wanted to investigate further by sending him to an Orthopedic specialist.

At his first visit with the Orthopedist, the doctor was checking his range of motion and it was the first time we realized Bryson couldn't turn his left foot toward the inside at all. The doctor wanted an MRI to confirm his suspicion. The MRI confirmed that Bryson had two bones in his foot that were fused together with some fibrous tissue. It's a genetic abnormality that is not very common (not from my side of the family). The only real solution to the problem was to operate and remove the material. Since Bryson was finishing up the Basketball season and willing to sacrifice spring soccer, we scheduled it immediately. Two weeks later, Bryson is beginning his recovery after a successful surgery today.

This is Bryson pre-op. He was really brave.

He was in the operating room for only 45 minutes, but it took a couple of hours for the sedative to wear off enough for us to take him home. Since he had to fast before the surgery, he insisted on a Big Mac and McFlurry on the way home.

Before the surgery the doctor said Bryson will miss a few days of school, but in the recovery room the nurse said that they usually don't go back to school (or work) until after the follow up appointment which is on the 30th. I don't think so. We'll give him a week to get though the worst of the pain and heavy pain meds and then reassess the school issue.

We had Bryson practice on crutches yesterday so he could have some practice manuevering the stairs before he had to. Now he's doing really well getting around-what little we let him move anyway.

Kadence 3 months old

Kadence with Stephanie and Don at the XOS Christmas Party.

Kadence with her cousin Drew's wife, Laura, on Christmas Eve. Kadence was very comfortably napping.
Christmas morning.

With Hannah on Blessing day.

Kadence got her first cold this month and was snorting and congested through most of the holiday season. Add to this that her reflux makes her mildly uncomfortable, causes her to spit up profusely, and diminishes her appetite; and you have one stressed little girl. During the last week of this month her spitting up subsided a little.

Austin 3 months old

While Austin was 3 months old he had a busy month of social engagements, parties, and naps.

Austin is in Mom's pack during the Troy Victorian Stroll.

Tired out after the XOS Christmas party.

Christmas morning

Napping on Ben on Christmas Day.

At the end of being 3 months old, Austin started investigating his hands. Now he's trying to control them enough to grab what he wants.

Baby blessings

In our church, when the babies are old enough to be brought to church, the fathers or other Priesthood holders can give the babies a name and a blessing in front of the congregation. We decided to wait and give the babies their blessings while everyone was in town for Christmas.

When my mom was alive, she insisted on providing two things for all the grandchildren. One was a cradle. She always wanted a cradle for her children, but she knew how extravagant they are since you only use them for 3 to 5 months, and she could never justify it while she was raising her 6 kids. So she provided one for each family of grand kids so that her grandchildren would have cradles. Of course, we used the one she bought for Bryson for the first few months for the babies.

The second thing she provided for each of the grandchildren was their blessing gowns or suits. They were another extravagance since the babies use them for a total of a few hours. She typically bought them like she did the little suit for Bryson which we used for Austin. But my mom made one blessing gown for my niece, Danielle, who is now almost 16 years old. I contacted my brother Scott to see if he still had the gown, and sure enough he was able to find it and send it to me just in time for the blessings. I remember when my mom crocheted it for Danielle along with a matching bonnet, booties, and blanket. It fit Kadence nicely for her blessing. My mom's legacy lived on for this blessing day. Not only was she able to be a part of it through the clothes, the white crocheted blankets behind the babies in the pictures below were crocheted by a lady in Utah that was the recipient of a lot of my mom's craft supplies. She crocheted them with some of my mom's yarn which was likely purchased for just such an occasion.

Merry Christmas

Santa had quite a crew to prepare for for Christmas morning. Everyone was eagerly awaiting going downstairs to see what's under the tree.

Austin and Kadence were still sleeping, so we helped them open their presents. The bears you see them with were made by Rachel (I told you she was talented).

After a long time opening presents, David fixed us his specialty of egg-in-a-hole for breakfast.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, too!

Christmas Eve Festivities

While waiting for dinner to cook, the kids went out to play in the snow. The snow was great for sledding, but not so great for making snowmen as evidenced by John and Edward's snow-mound man.

After dinner it was time to show off people's decorating skills decorating gingerbread trains.

John and Ethan's train.

McKay and David's train.

Mia and Hannah's train.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Even though Alice wasn't going to be in Massachusettes for Christmas, we still wanted to have the traditional Christmas Eve dinner up at the farm. So Alice showed us where to find everything and Drew (David's nephew) and Laura put up the tree. We had dinner early enough that people could still head off to the in-laws and keep everyone happy.

I don't remember who took most of the pictures, but they almost always caught people with food in their mouth.

It's a Danish Christmas tradition to have rice pudding for dessert that has an almond hidden in it. Whoever finds the almond gets the reward of a marzipan pig. For the first year ever, Rachel (Nathan's wife), who is very creative and talented, made the marzipan pig. It's one of the best ones I've seen. And who do you think found the almond and won the pig? Would you believe it was me? I'm hoping it brings lots of good luck my way this year.

Family Photos!

Can you believe we had all 10 kids in the same place at the same time?

From the left: Nathan (az), Dorothy (ny), Hannah (ma), McKay (ny), Kadence (ny), Mom and Dad, Bryson (ny), Austin (ny), Parker (ut), Mia (tx), and Ben (ny)

Below is the whole crew with their significant others and kids.

Back Row: Little John, Dorothy, Big John (Dorothy's Krissy not pictured), McKay, Hannah, Parker

Left Corner: Edward, John, Mia, Ethan

Center: David with Kadence, Chris with Austin, Ben, Ben's girl friend Emma

Right Corner: Nathan, Rachel, Bryson

I know what you're thinking...that's a long Christmas list! You bet and we love it.

Fun with Ethan and Edward

Mia, John, Edward, and Ethan were the first to arrive in town for the holidays. Just in time for Edward's 3rd Birthday.

With Bryson's assistance the boys took over the family room downstairs and built the ultimate fort. It had a bedroom suite for each of them, many of which were two stories. It was pretty cool. Ethan and Bryson spent one night in the fort, but we had to take it down after a couple of days because it occupied the entire room. The picture below is when it was only half built.

Our town park provides a nice (free) ice rink. We took the boys, but they were a little young for skates. They decided it was more fun when Bryson whipped them around the ice in sleds.

Aunt Jaime comes to visit

I was wondering how long it would take my sister (WHO WORKS FOR AN AIRLINE!!!) to come see her new niece and nephew.

After Jaime fed Kadence, Kadence burrowed in for a little nap.

Jaime came just in time to help with our annual Christmas party. Yes, we were crazy trying to pull one off at the end of a really busy year, but that's us. We had a great time with good friends.

Then Jaime set off for home in Arizona to work on finishing her degree in Mortuary Sciences. My sister the embalmer. Gotta love her.