Austin's a Sunbeam!

I realized I haven’t been taking very many photos of me with the kids, (and for some reason I thought when I was sick and hadn’t showered for three days would be an opportune time)....ha! ha! Anyway, Austin is getting so grown up and is now in Sunbeam class at church! The first week wasn’t so bad because Bryan and I were asked to substitute his class, but last week I stayed with him for the first hour during Sharing Time. I then told him I had to leave when he went to his small class, though, because I had to play the piano in Relief Society. He started crying and did not want me to leave, and wanted to come with me. So I had to hand him over to the teacher to make my escape. All through nursery I had to hand him to one of the nursery teachers so I could leave, and a few minutes later he would be fine. I am hoping today when we go to church, and with a bribery of Tic Tacs, he will go to the entire thing himself. What a cute boy he is!


Read All About It!

Bryan just had an art piece he did, advertising Dynalite equipment (one of his sponsors), published in the February 2011 issue of PDN Magazine, which is the premier photography magazine in the U.S. This is just an image shot with an iPhone of the spread, (page 28). You can find this magazine at any major bookstore, like Barnes & Noble or Borders. I don’t think he’s posted this picture to his blog, but some of the behind the scenes are here. This was quite the production shot because they flew him to Harlem, New York, for the backdrop, and the people were shot in studio here in Utah.  Two of the people in this image are my dad, one is Bryan's Aunt, and the others are models.


And here is the silly cover of the magazine so you can find it when you go to the bookstore. Just look for the guy wearing ballet shorts, at least I think (and hope) he is!

Arete Gymnastics

The other day we went to Areté Gymnastics. They have one play hour during the week where they open it to the public to come in and play on their equipment. I’ve been wanting to sign Ethan up for gymnastics, but every time I bring it up he says, “No, I’m shy. I just want to do it around the house.” :) He seriously does gymnastics all over the house and that’s why I’ve been wanting him to try it! I’m hoping that since he had so much fun here, he might want to try it. My next step is to take him to just watch a class. Everything has to be baby steps with him, so we’ll see. I really want to bring Bryan here and see what he can do, since he did gymnastics for like 10 years. The boys had a blast, especially in the foam pit. Here’s a few videos and pics of our fun time.
The little girl in pink is Austin’s friend, Grace. It’s my friends daughter and they get along pretty well. They sit and read stories together at Grace’s house and sing made-up songs. Ethan kept jumping into the foam pit over and over. They were really sad when the hour was up and it was time to go. Here’s me with the boys, and my friend Ingrid with her kids. There was so much chalk in the air the pictures didn't turn out that great, and I think my camera isn't working properly anymore.....or I just don't know how to take pictures! :)



Trials Come in Clumps

We have had quite the couple of weeks! All is well now and we made it through in one piece!

On Christmas day I thought it would be fun to wrap up a present of a little baby and let the boys open it to let them know we were having a new addition to our family. Saying they were excited is an understatement. From the time I told them, until the time I miscarried on the 29th of December, they were talking nonstop about the baby and asked me every 10 seconds to “see the baby” and wanted to get it a look at my expanding belly!  This pregnancy felt different than the others, though, and the whole time it felt like something wasn’t right. The day before I miscarried I went to the doctor and actually got to hear the baby’s heart beat and have an ultrasound. I was about seven weeks along.

Before this happened, Bryan had been doing some follow-up appointments with his doctors for his thyroid cancer, which he has to do yearly to make sure nothing comes back. His scan was clear, but his thyroglobulin level wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and then when they did an MRI on his neck they found a growth on a lymph node. He talked to several doctors and we finally decided on doing a biopsy. What’s crazy is Bryan used to get awards for never missing a day in school, and never had a health issue, (other than the self-inflicted skateboarding injuries), before we was married. Last week he had three different appointments for different things, one of which he now will be having surgery for because of some scar tissue buildup from a skateboarding injury back when he was a sponsored skateboarder over 15 years ago!

During that week of appointments, Ethan came down with the flu the second day back to school. Ethan is a skinny boy and has always struggled to stay on track with normal weight for his age and height. (This is getting longer than I had planned), but in summary he couldn’t keep anything down, even sips of water I was giving him every 5-15 minutes and he was showing signs of dehydration. He ended up back at the hospital on outpatient observance while they gave him an IV. Because this had just happened in April and he ended up in the hospital as well, they wanted to do some blood work and check some things, which so far all look great, but they do want to double check his weight and urinary acids to make sure he still doesn’t show as chronically malnourished. The poor guy got poked with needles about 5 times, not to mention the original IV that they couldn’t get in because he was so dehydrated. He was a brave kid, and originally he was excited to go back because he remembered all the popsicles he was allowed to have and the blanket and toy they sent him home with! Before Ethan got sick, the bishopric of our church called Bryan and asked if we could give talks in church that coming Sunday. We have been in this new ward for seven months and hadn’t been asked yet, so after being given the topic of, “Gratitude in Our Trials.” we ended up writing our talks while hanging out with Ethan in the hospital.


We should have taken a picture before his IV.  Here his cheeks look nice and rosy, but before he was so pale!


Back to Bryan....I really think he should blog his Seinfeld-like day of doctor’s appointments, because it really is a funny story, but for now I will just let you know the end results. His biopsy was painful and mostly just grossed him out because he could feel them searching around his neck with the needle and then he could look up on the monitor and see it with the ultrasound. The growth was so hard, they couldn’t even get a sample, even after the doctor was seriously using all his muscle to push on it with the needle. I guess for now it’s good news because his doctor thinks we should just watch it, and that it may just be some calcification from his original surgery when they removed his thyroid. Other than the surgery he has scheduled for the end of this month to remove scar tissue from his urinary tract and his recovery time for that.......we are doing well! I am really actually grateful for the opportunity we had to prepare and give talks at church, especially on the topic we were assigned. Maybe that’s what helped me keep a better attitude, as I realized we have so many blessings, and I feel there are so many people that go through so much more than we ever have. I am truly grateful for all the trials that have come into our life, because I know that they help us grow and become better people.

Frozen Utah Lake

Bryan took the boys sledding while I finally took down all the Christmas decorations. They had a blast sliding down Bryan’s snowboard together over by Utah Lake. The lake was so frozen there were a lot of people out there ice fishing. The boys got to walk out on the lake with Bryan, which scares me and I didn’t know they had done it until after.



"Memory is a child walking along a seashore. You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things." ~Pierce Harris
 
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