Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day One
Brooke, Kim, Brittany & Kacie

Taylor, Ryan, Lindsay & Brady
Scott, Kristen & Steve
Kevin and Brandon


Brady with Kristen and Kim
Yummmm...Pumpkin Pie
Great Grandma & Brady
Stacie & Brandon

2nd Annual Filch Football (girls vs boys)

We missed Travis & Tony and Stephen & Tyler, but we had loads of fun. Brittany is so fast and always carries the ball so we decided to do a reverse and she handed it off to Kacie and she ran it all the way into the endzone. They didn't have a clue that she had the ball until it was too late.

Way fun!

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Ralph with Brandon
Thanksgiving Day Two
If we didn't already have enough to eat, we had Thanksgiving dinner again with my family on Friday. I made cornbread stuffing for the first time and I really liked it. Scott didn't make it though because he went coyote hunting with his brothers. We had a lot of fun playing games after we stuffed ourselves.




We had a great long weekend with Brandon. He was very pleasant to be with. He even talked some and was very lovable if we could just keep him out of the pantry. I often think that we could take care of him full-time if he was always like this.
We were all happy when Aunt Anita made it back from her Thanksgiving vacation with her nephew Mike. Brady made this placemat at school. I thought he did a good job on it. Sunday the kids made a list of things they are grateful for. Brady had a list of about 16 things and number 1 was family videos. Kacie made a list of 100 things in her journal. I'm not sure what her favorite would be, unless it was anything that had to do with Harry Potter... haha. For me, I am just so grateful for a loving husband and 3 beautiful children. I will always be indebted to my wonderful parents, (Scott's included) that have been such a great support and comfort to us. And to my Heavenly Father who loves me enough to sacrifice his own Son. He has blessed my life in so many ways.

Girls Night Out, Service Project & Turkey Cookies

We had a fun, jammed-packed weekend. Friday Scott went with Steve to see Tyler play in his state football game in Florence, OR. Kacie and I went with Aunt Barbara, Tara, Sheree, Lori and Maria to see the Twilight Breaking Dawn new movie. We went to Fiesta to have some Mexican food before the show. It was a lot of fun and the movie was awesome. We were so glad they invited us. I got Kacie a three-barrel curling iron and we tried it out for the first time. I think it looks really cute on her.

Kacie had to play in the Fall Piano Festival Saturday morning at 9:15. I think she did really well. She played Carillon (level 7), which was a dificult song for her to learn but she worked really hard on it. She played before a judge and she gave her an excellent which was a red ribbon. Taylor played for the first time and she won the rosette in her level which was three. We were really happy for her.

At 1pm we got together for a service project. The church asked each ward to do a service project and our ward decided to divide it up by the church cleaning committees. Our group joined up with mom and dad's group and we worked on clearing out their corals so they can put in a little cottage for Aunt Anita to live in. We got a lot done, but I hurt my arm in the process. I was carrying a big post with Ruben and when we went to put it on the trailer I fell into one of the post holes and my arm hit the trailer with the post still in my arms. It hurt so bad, but I was able to keep working. However, when I went inside for some reason my finger started tingling and it felt a lot worse. Mom thought we needed to go get it x-rayed but I was pretty sure it wasn't broken so she gave me some ice and 4 advils and it eventually started feeling better.(Pictured L to R) Dad, Ruben, Janetta Garner, Me, Tim, Allison Peterson, Stoney Schulthies, Tyson Winkle and Trevor Peterson. It is hard to believe that there were corals and a loading chute here...it looks so different.

Mallory and her brother Nate came out to play later. The girls did nails which were so cute I am mad that I didn't get a picture of them. While they were doing nails I did turkey sugar cookies with the boys. Brady has been begging me to do these for weeks now. He saw it on Nickjr where they trace their hand to form a turkey. The boys had fun decorating them with candy corns and M&Ms plus eating them. They were cute...

Nyssa and Baker both lost their State playoff games by about 18 to 14. It was sad but Scott had fun even though he got home around 5am Sunday morning.

Kacie's visit with Dr. Page

Kacie has had a nasty something on her leg for quite a while now and it has been bothering her more so we decided it was time to finally get it checked. As Dr. Page was messing with it, it started to ooze and he said, "This is so awesome!" I told him he is just like Scott and so I asked him if he liked to pop zits too and of course he did. It was so funny. At first he thought it was an infected sore but then as it bleed more then he thought it was a wart that she had agitated. He asked us if we wanted to freeze it or cut it out and we opted to cut it out. So right then he numbed her up and as he was cutting it out he changed his mind again and thought it looked more like some kind of cyst. He then proceeded to sew her up with just three stitches. I then asked if the three little bumps by her knee were the same thing starting to come and he wasn't quite sure but he went ahead and froze them. Dr. Page and Amy were both amazed at how well Kacie handled everything. He said this is probably nothing compared to all the other stuff she has been through and we both agreed. We just love Dr. Page, he is so cool. He then told us to come back in a week to have the stitches removed and that they would send off the cyst to see what it was.

My Little Decorator

I love how Brady gets so excited about decorating for Holidays. I wasn't going to put out that old wooden turkey but Brady found it and had to put some suckers in it. Luckily we had some from Halloween. I'm really going to miss it when he out grows this.

Number 30

So while Scott and I were waiting for the nurse to take him back to the operating room to remove his gallbladder, we started counting all the surgeries that our family has had. If our calculations are correct this will be number 30 between the five of us. I was hoping to take his mind off the surgery because he was so nervous but I don't think it worked.

Scott: Tonsils + repair on his arm when shot + gallbladder = 3

Tammy: Tonsils + wisdom teeth + two c-sections = 4

Brandon: Ventriculostomy + shunt placement + hernia + two eye surgeries + tonsils + three leg surgeries + three shunt replacements = 12

Kacie: Two port placements + dialysis PD catheter placement + scope on stomach + kidney transplant + removal of dialysis PD catheter = 6

Brady: Tonsils & tubes + dialysis PD catheter placement + removal + two hospital stays for teeth = 5

So Scott was wondering why I wasn't nervous for him and I told him this is why...look at how many of these surgeries we have gone through.

...So I was right, I just talked to Dr. Roman Babij, M.D. at 9:50 am and everything went just fine. He should be able to go home today unless he gets really nauseated.

Yesterday...

Yesterday was a crazy day. I didn't have to go to work because Kacie had an appointment with Dr. Jenkins. So first thing Mom called from the school to see if I could check on Aunt Anita and help her and Teniele straighten up the house a bit before Rosie and EJ come for a visit. So not quite 2 hours into our cleaning, I get a call from the school and Brady had thrown up so I ran into get him and I delivered his turkey that we worked on the night before for the hallway at the school....



I thought his turkey turned out pretty good. They said to use anything from around the house to decorate it with and we used leaves from our yard plus the candy corns, a coco puff for the eye and a red balloon. His class loved it!

...Anyways I didn't know what I was going to do with Brady while I took Kacie to her appointment and thankfully Grandma Joan said she could watch him. I'm not sure why he threw up because he seemed fine the rest of the day. I guess just one those things to stress out Moms.

In the mean time I got a call from St Luke's and they were taking X-rays on Brandon for his shunt because the CT scan from Wednesday showed his right ventricle slightly enlarged. I still haven't heard the results from that. I hoping no news is good news.

Dr. Jenkins thought Kacie looked amazing and so proud of her for doing cross country and he was exited to hear about her doing track in the spring. He was impressed that she is only on two medications and said we didn't need to see him for three months, but she still has to do blood work every six weeks.

Mom and Anita got home shortly after we did from taking Anita to get a head scan from a previous fall she had. Mom had a nightmare trying to get the doctors to order it. They just wanted Mom to take her to the ER which is ridiculous. They should know today if she had trauma to the head or if she is disoriented from the progression of the liver disease. We pray she is OK.

Halloween 2011

Brady wanted to be "Woody" from Toy Story this year. He was really cute, but I felt bad that in our rush out the door we forgot his red bandanna.

Mallory with Kacie our adorable Hermine from of course Harry Potter. She is only missing the dark curly hair, but she had her wand, scarf, robe, t-shirt, deathly hallows and time-turner necklaces.

I'm not sure what is up with Brady's new pose, lol!

I love these pictures of Kacie or should I say Hermine placing spells on Brady aka Woody! You would have thought Brady planned the facial expressions.

Trick or Treating Aunt Anita!

We had to continue our tradition of going to Great Grandma Talbot's house! Kacie stayed just long enough for some pictures and then she went to a party at Melissa Gonzalez's house.

It was a fun night, but we missed Scott who spent the night on the Corn Combine.