Surgery Day!

 While waiting in the room for the nurse Chan, Carter and I were having a blast! When he came walking out with this garb on I started laughing and then he hit this pose and I was seriously crying! Hilarious! I was glad that he seemed calm and was in good spirits, it just makes things go smoother.

 He was having a scope on his right knee as well as a lateral release. This picture above is of the top of his knee and that bit of white off to the left is his knee cap. Obviously that is NOT where it should be!

 Here is the picture after the release- the knee cap is now resting in the groove above the knee- right where it should be! The knee cap issue is genetic and this is the best way to fix it!

 The main reason for the scope was to get out some floating cartilage that was mucking up his joint. They knew there was ONE piece in there because it showed up on his MRI, but when they actually got in there they found SEVEN pieces! The picture above is some that they found while in there! They used this fancy little grinder and broke them up and sucked them out! :)

 Here is he after the surgery! It was an outpatient procedure and he did AWESOME! He wasn't even that loopy! He has been home since Thursday and doing really well! He even felt good enough to come to church on Sunday so he could sing in the choir! (He and Brianne and I have been singing in our Ward choir :) I am super proud of him and hope his recovery continues to go well! He gets his stitches out on Wed!

Alta Black Playoff Game

 The playoff game was two weeks ago and it is a do or die situation. Your either a winner and your in the championship or you lose and your out! Thankfully the weather cooperated and there was a fall nip in the air but not bad at all! Perfect football weather! I was thrilled that we had some people to join us to cheer as well! This is a great shot of Kathy and Carter!

 The game was a fun one to watch. Our guys were ready for this team and came out very strong!

 Tom, Carter and Chan were also talking college football because Utah was playing that day too :) And it's always nice to have some guys around to give advice too!

 The game was really a great one! We were able to relax and enjoy it which was so nice! It was a great win!

 I was glad that Annie and Dakota were able to make it too!

In the end it was a great win and we were SO excited to be 10 and 0- an undefeated season going into the championship! Let's do it!!

Election 2012

 I had to do a quick post about the election this year. It's been two+ years of getting ready for another Presidential election, narrowing down choices and finding candidates etc etc etc. I have always had a passion for my country and always wanted to do what is right. This year was especially that way! It was an important election and so I was even more careful in my study of the people running all the way down to our new County Mayor. The local elections went pretty well and most of the people I had chosen were elected. I wasn't as worried about those as I was the Presidential election. Our country is changing and a lot of those changes are not in keeping with my core values. Some are not in keeping with the way the country was founded! It's a difficult thing to watch happen, but I had a lot of faith that this was going to be the year that good people and those of Christian faith were going to stand and make their voices heard. To say I was disappointed in the Presidential outcome is an understatement! I guess there are more "taker" people in my country than I care to admit. I was so saddened by these people that would put their trust in the wrong place. The wrong idea, not necessarily the "man". This is not what our country is about! That night and the morning after were so hard and I was trying to find a distraction or something to get my mind off it. I wasn't having much luck. I was making my bed and getting ready to take my morning carpool when I got this text below:

What an amazing thing! My son, who was at early morning seminary text me the spiritual thought that another student gave because he knew I needed it. He also told me to pass it on to my Mom and sisters and anyone else he felt could use the comfort. What a wonderful thing to receive. I wrote that scripture down on a post it and put it on the mirror in my bathroom. Now it is a daily reminder that my Heavenly Father is there and also a daily reminder for me that my son loves me and wants me to be happy. I am blessed! Now I just have to remember that and not focus on the bad!

Brianne's 11th Birthday!

 It's hard to believe that my youngest child is now 11! YIKES! It was pretty cute how excited she was about her birthday! She kept sharing ideas of things she wanted for her big day!

 She decided that instead of a big party that she wanted to spend the weekend with one of her best friends! We did our usual morning birthday surprise and she opened her gifts- a new Just Dance 4 game and mine craft for XBox! She was a very happy girl! She even ended up staying home from school that day! Yes- we let her play hooky!

 Then later that afternoon Halle came over and the fun began! She and Halle and Will played and ate snacks while Chan and I went up north to the Alta High football playoff game.  Initially they were going to come along too, but they decided not to go the 1 hour drive both ways and to just hang out and play! I think it was a good choice!

 The next morning was Will's playoff game , so we all geared up and went over to his game. Brianne was cheering with Halle close by and Halle even did her hair for cheer- pretty cute friends!

 I neglected to say earlier that Chan made this beautiful cake! 4 layers of yummy chocolate cherry cake topped with chocolate frosting, chocolate chips and more cherries! It was SOOOO good!

 Looking at all her treats!

 After the game we went home to change and then headed over to Black Bear Diner for a yummy birthday brunch! Some of us had breakfast and others had lunch but ALL of it was YUMMY!

 While we were waiting to be seated we were being a bit goofy with the bear! :)

We filled our tummies and after Chan and I ran a couple of errands I went home and got the girls and we went shopping! It was so fun to go out with the two of them and try on clothes and pick out jewelry! They are such cute friends! And I even picked up something for MYSELF! I never do that! Once we were done shopping I took them out to Halle's house for one last sleepover! She had a great time and a super fun birthday! We love you Brianne!!

Halloween 2012

 Halloween started off with the annual trunk or treat at our church building. This year it was combined with another ward so there was A LOT of cars! Super fun! And Brianne decided to throw a costume together from our costume bin! She was a mighty cute witch!

Check out all those cars! The kids all came through about three times too! That's a lot of candy!! :)

 Then the next day (Halloween day) I went over to Brianne's school to help out with her class party. It was her last one EVER! Hard to believe! I got to serve them their donut and drink and read them some scary stories! It was fun!

 Here's Brianne's group from her class- they are super fun girls!

I grabbed a quick photo of us before she had to go on to the next group! She makes a pretty dang cute football player!

Perks of having a brother play I guess! She had fun wearing his gear but she kept saying she couldn't believe how heavy it was!

 Then later that night we went over to Annie's to  celebrate together! Here are Brooke's kids all geared up and ready to trick or treat!

 Tom tried on one of Annie's freaky masks! And that is Dakota with him!

 Annie made some fun food- some "guacamole" and "witches fingers" to eat!

Will was a lumberjack but decided not to go trick or treating this year! I was SHOCKED! Instead he picked up his new XBox game he had pre-ordered and went home and played it all night! He was a happy camper! Little Chloe was a pirate! The only thing Annie could put together since she's still so little! Carter went out with friends too and I am kicking myself that I didn't get a picture because he dressed up as Chris Farley! He actually put together an outfit that made him look the part and was ready with some one liners from his best movies! Brianne dressed up as a nerd for trick or treating and went out for the first time to trick or treat with a friend! It was so nice far Chan and I to be able to stay home and relax! They are all old enough to do what they want! YAY! It was a fun night!

Pumpkin Carving

 I have to admit I am not the best at remembering to carve our pumpkins for Halloween. It's a busy time for us with all the football happenings, but I promised Brianne this year that no matter what we would carve them! So Saturday I grabbed them and cleaned them out with Brianne so she and Will could carve them. I found these cool teeth at the store and had Brianne follow an idea from the package to carve hers. I actually like it better than what was shown!

She tweaked it a bit and made the eyes a bit more scary and I LOVE the nose! She did an awesome job carving it all by herself!

 Carter's he did with his date for the Halloween dance. He said it was a pumpkin unicorn! Apparently when he was cutting the hole for the top the stem came off, so he turned it into a horn! So clever!

 Will's was fun too! He also had some teeth to work with and I showed him what was on the package and he tweaked his a bit too! I love the crescent moon nose, shaved eye brows and I really like the way he layered the teeth in! It looks great! And the fact that it leans a bit makes it even better!

Way to go kids! I think we are ready for Halloween now!

Halloween Dance

This past Saturday was the Halloween Dance at Alta and carter discovered this poster on our porch a few weeks ago along with a few packs of Trident gum.

 we were excited to see what that meant, so in we went to figure it out!

 We realized that we had to unwrap each piece to find the pieces of gum with letters on them. So we began to separate and put the opened ones in a baggie.

And after some putting together we came up with this name! She's a good friend of Carter's and he was excited! We answered her with a trick or treat pumpkin pail with candy inside and a poster that said it would be a treat to go with you to the dance! SO fun!

 I LOVE the costumes she chose! And actually it was a big group that went and they ALL had a cave man thing going on! Doesn't Carter look like Bam Bam from the Flinstones! Anyway, they went out to lunch and had hamburgers, went to a house to carve pumpkins, came home to change, went out to dinner, then the dance and then after went to a local gym where they rented a room to watch a scary movie.

He had such a great time and was LOVING that he had to do NO planning whatsoever! This time he just got to ENJOY! So glad he had fun!