Growing Up

Here are the new school pictures of my babies, only, they are not babies anymore :(. This year they have both officially lost that last look of the toddler phase. They are growing so fast. Alex is as tall as Sieauna! This is the year they look like twins. I get asked frequently. Oh I miss my babies, but I love what they are growing up to be.

Sieauna - 2009

Nine years oldAlex - 2009

Seven years old

Ahhhh, Fall. My Favorite Season.

I absolutely love Utah in the fall. Where can you see a more magnificent display of God's beauty? These are just a couple pictures I took over the weekend when Shannon and I went up to the cabin and to Park City. Hope you enjoy as much as I am!

Snowbird Oktober Fest 2009

What a great time of year. We love going up to Snowbird and feasting our eyes on the magnificent colors. Not to mention THE BEER! This year was especially wonderful because we had Shannon in our presence and the kids got really involved!
Sieauna and Alex competed in a huge round of musical chairs with about 20 other kids. Okay, let's paint the picture: down to five girls and Alex, half the crowd is cheering for him, the music starts and stops until it's down to Alex and one other girl. Music stops and, oh bummer, he came in a close second. BUT the winner, this cute little girl, came over and gave the 1st place price to Alex! It was really sweet, she was probably 12 and said "You did a really good job! I would love for you to have my tram ticket." Alex was really excited. We told him if he won we'd all go on the tram. So, we did! Alex was SO hungry, he ate his bratwurst before we even got out of the line!Instead of tramming it back down, we hiked down to the next chair lift and took that down. It was soooo much nicer than taking the tram. It was slower, all outdoor and the scenery was fantabulous! The kids and daddy also got in a slide ride! It was a perfect day and hey...did I mention the beer?

Soul Sisters

My best friend Shannon came in to town for a visit and we were lucky enough to get to host her for a few days. I love spending time with her. Even when we don't see each other for years, we pick up right where we left off. This visit consisted of lots of catching up gossip, a beautiful relaxing lunch at Diva's, old school rap music, food, a barbecue held in her honor to meet my friends, 4-wheeling at my parents cabin, a Wallace family reunion, a visit into Park City, Oktober Fest in Snowbird, and lots and lots of fabulous FOOD!
Justin was super husband and watched the kids so we could spend the entire day together. Then he cooked breakfast for us in the mornings! Today he made us this incredible eggs benedict with crab meat and served it with mimosas. (Love you hunny!)I love this girl. There is no secret she doesn't know. It's so nice to have a soul-sister who you can share EVERYTHING with. Love you Shan!

We've Been Blessed - Tomato Style!

We've been blessed. I am not exaggerating, it's a true statement. Our friend Robert was kind enough to share some of his bounty with us and we are SOOOOO happy and grateful! These tomatoes are simply marvelous. I mean incredible. You can eat them like an apple. They are THAT good. Thanks Robert and Debbie, for sharing the love. We enjoy reaping the benefits of your hard labor!

Cuteness From The Past

My mom emailed me these. I had forgotten about them and was so happy she sent them. Alex went through the cutest "camo" phase. Everything he wore had to be camo. Mom bought him hiking boots, which became his favorite shoe of all time. I still have to buy him the same shoes every year in a bigger size (in fact, he wore them to school today!). So cute! I want to pinch him and eat him up!
Alex loves chapstick. He has always loved chapstick from when he was very little and he would ask for it. I remember one morning I walked into the kitchen to find that apparently it can be mom's lip gloss too!

Goooooooooooaaaaaaaalllllll!!!!!

My lil' soccer girl ROCKS! She is doing amazing for her first ever season. The coach has been great with really playing her a lot and finding out what positions she excels in. The last two games she has scored goals! This last game was especially awesome because she scored the goal right before the whistle blew ending the game. SO COOL! She really loves it and I'm glad to see her enjoying it so much.
One of the AWESOME moms on the team has created a blog to show off our cuties. Thanks Melissa! Check it out: www.teamsoccer01.blogspot.com

Surgery - Ugh.

Let's see if I can get my incoherent thoughts expressed correctly as I am still under the influence of morphine, verset and a side note of Tylenol 3 with codeine. Okay. So yesterday...wait, before I go on, let's mention my darling, sweetest ever, confidant, best friend and lover was with me THE ENTIRE TIME for all this stuff...okay, going on. So we got to the hospital at 5:30 just to be told we didn't actually need to be there until 7:30 (but they called us and said 5:30!). Around 7:00 they called me into the pre-op room where the very nice nurse attempted (yes, I said attempted) to get my IV in. I warned her ahead of time that I have very small veins. I believe now she took this as a challenge and finally succumbed to my being right only after rupturing my vein causing a quick bleeding spurt in which she promptly apologize and proceeded to put the IV in my hand, where I advised her to in the first place. Wow, check out the bruise on my arm!

Anyway, so at 7:30 I went to the breast care center for a wire tapping. This is where they do an ultrasound, find the tumor, numb up the area and insert wires that hang out of my breast so the surgeon knows just where the tumor is. Not so bad, a little prick painful like the biopsy, but not too bad. I asked the doctor if this wire sticking out of me was a tracking device requested by my husband. I'm not sure whether she thought I was serious or joking.

Next more waiting and tv time until I was called back for surgery. I met with the surgeon and aneth---yeah, I'm so not going to try to spell that now---the guy who puts you to sleep and then was taken back. Another sweet nurse put a warm blanket on me and asked if I was warm. I told her yes except for the cold, stingy feeling in my arm. She smiled and asked me to take a deep breath. Yup, that's all I remember about that.

I woke up around 11:30 and then was released about 1:00. After a quick stop to Taco Bell (remember I hadn't eaten since the night before) we made it home. I arrived to all these beautiful flowers. Thank you Kitty, Kathy, Amber and Jeremy, Debbie and my sweet kiddies for the pretty rose (which just so happened to appear while they were on Holli's watch...hm....did she have anything to do with that??? ;))

The doctor told Justin he got all the tumor and saw nothing bad. I am pleased with this and will find out officials tomorrow at my follow-up where he will check me and go over the pathology reports.

So thanks to everyone who prayed, thought about and cared for me. I couldn't have done it without your help.

Special thanks to: Ken & Kathy who watched the kids overnight, got them to school AND brought us a fantastic dinner last night. To Holli & Summer for keeping my kids after school so I could rest. To all the friends who sent flowers, and most of all, to my husband. I love you all!