Howdy Partner!

We took a trip up to Papa's ranch with Josh and April and their kids. We had such an awesome time snowmobiling, hot tubbing, sledding, eating and relaxing. These were the only pictures I took while we were there but they are some of my all-time favorites!! I love this little boy!!

Thanks to my wonderful in-laws for letting us come on up. We had such a great time as usual!

I walked into our bedroom and saw this:

Olivia loves her little brother. She is so cute with him and helps so much with him. I am so grateful for her.

I looked out the kitchen window and saw this hawk eating it's prey this morning. It was so cool. The girls loved it, too.

Valentine's Day poster!

Although Aaron had just had back surgery he still made time to make this awesome poster for me. I loved it! Thanks babe!

Hey Hot Tamale!

We hope this gives you a snicker as you read your runts' message. We are not playing twix on you. You are always a bit-o-honey. We may have had a few rocky roads and lost over 100 grand but you have always been there for us in a crunch. We have had a good and plenty life together. We hope you were able to take 5 for yourself. We wish you mounds of almond joy this valentine's day. I will always be york big hunk! We love you. Hugs and Kisses.

Your, sugar babies.

Last monday on Feb. 8th Aaron had back surgery, finally. It's was hurting him for over 6 months. He had a cyst that needed to be removed and one disc that was damaged that might have had to come out too. Had that happened, the doctor would've also had to fuse his vertebrae. Being concerned about that we called for reinforcements and saw a miracle. I know that due to fasting and prayer the doctor only had to remove the cyst (which was "by far the biggest" he'd ever seen and that's saying something since he's been doing back surgeries for 15 years or so).

Here's Aaron enjoying his dinner. Yummy! Beef broth, white grape juice a popsicle and some green jello (that complimented his green hospital gown and bedding just perfectly!) Ha, ha.

The incision was smaller than I had expected but still very painful.

Here's my little old man's walker that he used to walk to the door and back and then later, down the hall a little ways and back. Now who's OLD, Aaron?? :)

He was so bored. I told him I'd love to be there. I'd be enjoying that peace and quiet and reading a great book! That's just not his 'cup of tea'. He'd rather be up playing with the kids or doing some kind of service project. What a guy! Seriously, how'd I get SO lucky??

All smiles, probably due to the morphine drip. The surgery only lasted 2 hours instead of the 4 we thought it might. He's healthy and strong and has a good attitude. He should be back to his normal crazy self in about 3 months. The doc told him to find a new profession.

Macey's ER visit

So, the sunday after the last post Macey had a febrile seizure. The night before she was really hot. We gave her some tylenol and Aaron brought her into bed with us. I went to sleep in the spare bed to avoid being kicked all night long. In the morning I had just gotten Jacob out of bed and changed him when Aaron yelled for me to come into our room. I hurried in and saw Macey having a seizure. Having had experience with this before with Jocelyn (and my nephew) I knew it was a febrile seizure and we began taking off her jammies to cool her down. I felt I was keeping pretty calm until she stopped breathing. I turned her on her side assuming her tongue was blocking her airway. She wouldn't breathe. She turned blue and then gray. Aaron was in the kitchen getting a cold washcloth when I started screaming for him to call 911. His cell was dead, and the home phone wasn't working. I grabbed her and told him that we needed to take her to the ER (we live only a few blocks away and figured we'd get her there quicker than they could get to us). We couldn't find the keys to the van! I opened the garage door and ran her out to the freezing cold air. I learned that morning how desperate your prayers can get when you're praying for your child you think is dying in your arms. She was completely limp and grey. Suddenly she tried to inhale. She foamed at the mouth. My sister Allyson who lived in the basement heard the commotion and came upstairs. She gave Aaron her keys and we took her car to the ER. Luckily it was early on a sunday in Utah so the roads were void of traffic. We ran stop signs and screeched into the hospital. Aaron ran her inside while I drove to park and then ran in. We both had bare feet and I only had on a robe. They gave her oxygen, IV, x-rays, medicine and ran tests on her. They explained what we already expected, that it was a febrile seizure. They ran tests on her blood and told us her white count was high. Now let me explain, the only thing I associate with high white count is leukemia. For about five minutes I worried about this, praying and dying inside. I'm so sorry to all those parents who experience that. It was like we were living in a nightmare, in slow motion. Finally the doctor came in and I asked him about it. He quickly told me that her white count wasn't THAT high and she was probably just fighting an infection. What a relief! My dad came down and he and Aaron gave her a blessing. She stayed in the ER for an hour or so and then they let us come home with instructions to keep her fever down. That's one day I never, ever want to relive.

She liked her pretty, pink "bracelet" she got there.

They loaned me some scrubs and socks to put on. She was very tired after the whole ordeal and slept a lot that day.

Here is the hospital gown they put on her and let her wear home since she came in with only a diaper on. It's so sad they even have to make these gowns in this size!

Aaron asked her what she remembered about her trip to the ER. She didn't even know what the bandage was for on her hand. She didn't recall them giving her an IV or anything else that happened there. I'm so grateful for the priesthood and that Aaron and my dad were there and worthy to use it. What a comfort it is to know that we have the power of God at our sides. Think about it for a minute. It's amazing!

Our little Macey-Moo. We're so blessed and happy to have you in our lives! Glad you're still with us!

Catching Up

Well, since I haven't blogged since May, I have a lot to catch up on. I've been dreading this, but I finally started today. I need SEVERAL more pictures for our Sharp Family Reunion. When I get them I'll add those. I still need to do Olivia's 7th Birthday, Aaron's 30th Birthday, Jocelyn's 4th Birthday and so on. Wow, this is going to take forever!

On top of that I have so much updating to do. We've moved again! We're in American Fork now. We love our new ward. Aaron's a primary teacher. He was Olivia's but now that it's a new year he's got Makell in his class. They are both in school now and loving it. It was so hard for me to let them go at first but now I'm so grateful they're there since I've been helping Aaron out after he seriously injured his back (for the second time) about a week and a half ago. It's been hurting him since the Sharp reunion back in July. Initially it was hurt wakeboarding and then made even worse after shingling a roof. He had to have several MRI's where they've discovered he has a large cyst on his vertebrae. It didn't respond to the needle treatment they did to remove it so they said if it didn't get better he'd need surgery and possibly need to remove a disc that had bulged and fuse his vertebrae together. Sounds like fun, huh? He's been making himself work as much as he can since then but recently brought an inversion table home hoping it would help. Well, it only made things worse. The first time he tried it it really messed something up. My sister and I had to help him off where upon he collapsed to the floor. He wasn't able to move because of the pain for two hours. He said it was like the worst charley-horse you could imagine that wouldn't go away. I ran and got him a muscle relaxer and ice. He couldn't even roll to ice it. He sobbed. I had never seen him in pain like that. I've never seen anyone in pain like that. It was horrible. I called his back doctor and he said to call 911. The ambulance came, which scared the kids because they thought he was dying. It was awful. Anyway, they stayed with him for a half hour and said to call if he still couldn't move in another hour. They said it would cause him too much pain to strap him to the gurney and drive to the hospital just to be told that he has a hurt back. He was in the initial stages of shock so I put some blankets on him and we waited it out. 2 hours later he made it into bed and didn't leave it for two days, other than to the bathroom. He's still there most of the day. He's scheduled for surgery February 8th and I guess he'll be living on painkillers until then. Such a crazy time right now!!!

Christmas was fun. We spent it in Idaho although we left the camera in the van until Christmas morning so it was too cold to take pictures. We managed a few later on and I'll get around to posting them sooner or later. Anyway, if anyone is still reading this and wouldn't mind, please keep us in your prayers. We sure could use them. It's an unsure time for us although we still have great faith that even all of this is Heavenly Father's will and eventually we'll understand it. We know that this too will pass and hopefully soon we'll be back to life as usual. It really could be so much worse, so we're grateful for good health, a wonderful marriage and great kids, and all the help from so many family members and friends here. This time is made so much easier by all of you so thank you so, so much. We love you all!

Long Christmas get-together.

My family reserved the Mutual Dell Lodge for our Christmas get-together. It was such a good experience that I hope we can do it every year. It was totally free and they had so much for us to do. We went sledding first. Olivia even tried snow boarding (standing on a sled). She's got pretty good balance! Then we played games inside, colored pictures, ate yummy food and set up our beds to sleep there. The highlight was when one of the three Magi (wise-men) came to visit. It was so great to have the Magi instead of Santa there. The magi told us all about his travels to find the baby Jesus. He showed us a slide show of all that he saw. It had pictures of the shepherds who were watching their flocks when the angel came to tell them of Jesus' birth. We saw the big, bright, new star that appeared and we saw pictures of Mary and Joseph and even baby Jesus. It was wonderful!! We all felt the spirit there. I really hope the Magi will come visit us again next year! Hint, hint, Dad!

Thanksgiving Pictures

I said I'd be playing catch-up... Here are pics from around Thanksgiving.

Quick trip to "Lost Begas".

We decided a day or two before that we were going to go to Las Vegas. Aaron's parents, Grandparents (Rudds), Aunt Kerrie and her family (who live there), and Mandi were going to be there. We didn't want to miss being with everyone so we packed a few bags, invited Kristi (Chewey) to come along and we took off. Does the song, "I drove all night" come to mind?

Aaron and I at the Bellagio.

At night we went to see the light and music display in the old part of vegas. Makell was dancing around like crazy until the movie on the ceiling started. She was mesmerized.

Papa took us all out to eat dinner in some fancy top floor restaurant. It was really yummy and so generous as always of him. It was so fun to see him with Jacob. I don't know how I didn't get any pictures of Grandma or great Grandma or Grandpa! I'm kicking myself.

I took a few pics of Chewey. Of course she wasn't really gambling but I thought they turned out so well that I just had to post them. Below, she's getting robbed by the one-armed-bandit.

Here is Aunt Mandi and Chloe. It was awesome to see them again. We wish so badly they lived closer so we could spend more time together.

Kris posed next to this cool car we saw in a parking lot.

I love Aaron's family so much. I really am so lucky that I get along so well with all my in-laws. I feel like one of the sisters or one of the kids. It's always so fun to be with them.