Finally...A beach vacation

Since David and I went on our honeymoon to Hawaii, we have been wanting to take another beach vacation.  It only took 7 years!  We rented a house in Cape Cod, invited the kids, and packed our bags. 

The first day was a little chilly, but we weren't letting that keep us away from the beach. In the picture below you can see all the lifeguard bothers and sisters keeping watch over the babies.

Edward had a great time playing in the sand.  At one point he was digging and singing to himself, "I'm digging for buried treasure" over and over to himself.  He's one of those kids that is constantly talking or singing to himself as he lives out adventures and stories while he's playing by himself.  It's really hilarious to sit and listen to him.

Ethan tried boogie boarding with his Dad, John.  He was a little wary of the waves at first, but then he got splashed by a big one and he was very wary of the waves.  He got a little more comfortable as the day went on.

 Edward defended us against Pirates, Grandpas, and other notorious villans.

Bryson did his first boogie boarding and got the hang of it quickly.  

We had to take refuge under the canopy from a brief rain shower and took the opportunity to eat lunch.

In the evening we took a chance to watch David's "Roof Top Briefing" that he filmed when he was in the Army in Berlin.  It was interesting to see a different side of him than Dad or businessman David.

4th of July baby pics

With Bryson off at scout camp for the week, we spend most of the holiday weekend cleaning the garage. I took some time off when David's niece Juliana was here to get some pictures taken of the babies. Kadence is sporting a new headband Ben and Emma got her just in time for the 4th. Julie's only a teenager, but she takes pictures like a pro.

Happy 4th of July!

McKay's First Job

McKay has had his heart set on getting a summer job and this week it finally came through. He's working for Douglas Industrial which is a local company owned by a guy in our Ward (congregation). They sell nuts, bolts, screws, and all different types of hardware.

On McKay's first day he got the fun job of sorting out screws that got mixed together when someone ran a fork lift though a big box with lots of little boxes inside.

On his second day he came home with black hands and black all the way up to his elbows and covering his legs (he was wearing shorts luckily). I asked what it was and he said it was from stripping the roof and pulling off the rubber backing of the roof so they could put a new roof on. I commented to him that I bet he he never thought he'd be doing roofing when he took this job. He said, "Neither did the IT guy or the delivery guy." lol! Apparently they were his roofing buddies. When you work for a small company you have to be a jack-of-all-trades, but this takes it to a whole new level. What a great summer job for a teenager.

Babies in the news!

David's not the only one making news in our family. The babies made a local magazine. Check it out. http://acchamber.org/files/Visions_May11.pdf Scroll to pg. 13.

Tech Valley Babies

For the record, this was David's idea, not mine.

So we were at an awards dinner about a month ago where a local businessman/investor, Walt Robb, was getting an award from the local Chamber of Commerce. It was a pretty big affair (black tie) and had about a thousand people in attendance. David had been part of the presentation of the award by being in a video tribute by local businessman that had worked with Walt. It was actually pretty cool because in the video it would flip from David to Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, then back to David, some other businessmen, Jack Welch, David. I want to get my hands on that tape.

Anyway, when Walt got up to recieve his award he spent the next 10 minutes telling everyone how they are not doing enough to advertise New York's Tech Valley. He wants it to be as well known as Silicon Valley in California. They should have the Tech Valley logo on their business cards, stationary, shipping boxes, etc. After the speech, David was talking to a group of people and someone joked that they were going to get a Tech Valley tatoo. David immediately jumped on the idea and soon after ordered a bunch of Tech Valley temporary tatoos that his management team were all going to wear to the next board meeting that Walt would be at. But he couldn't stop there. Wouldn't it be funny if the babies wore the tatoos...on their foreheads?

Poor babies! Walt thought it was hilarious.

PS - A friend of mine was commenting that I was the best defense the babies had against their father (and his crazy ideas), then I told her about the tatoos and she conceded that maybe I'm NOT the best defense. According to her they need to learn to defend themselves!!

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!