Halloween 2010

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! This year was one to remember.................

The girls were in their costumes and waiting for the rain to stop. After dinner, it stopped raining and we went to the trunk or treat. There were 3 wards involved so we had lots of kids. Just as we were all getting set up, the heavens opened and down came the rain. It poured and poured and poured! Needless to say, we all were inside the church building doing a "sit and treat."

Avery as baby ladybug
Brynlee as our sweet little witch
Madelyn as our mamma lady bug

Provo Halloween Half (Half Marathon that is)

Editors note: As written by Nichole's husband...yeah...that guy.

Well usually people who marathons or half marathons for that matter, typically they prepare for a few months prior. Not Nic! How much time did she dedicate to ensuring every step counted, all her muscles were in top shape and her focus was razor sharp? Well I will tell you...two days. What?! That's ridiculous! But yes, two whole days of well...figuring out how to sign up, get some warmer clothes and cruise down Provo canyon.

I blame it on her friend and neighbor, Stacee! She is always out running and talkin it up about how fun these things are and they should like, totally do one together. They even tried to enlist me, however I couldn't make myself pay $60 to abuse myself over 13.1 miles! Well the day finally arrived and at the buttcrack of of dawn and in the chill of the brisk late-fall air, I dropped her off for her Halloween adventure!



Personally I went home and went back to sleep while their festivities continued on the bus ride up to Aspen Grove, above Sundance, UT. There they were surrounded by the individuals who took the costume aspect of the race to heart. The costumes ranged from a ballet dancer and a pink tutu to a pretty awesome rendition of one of the Super Troopers.

Anyways, I digress. After an nice nap and then a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy, really awesome by the way, I piled the girls into the car and we trucked over to the finish line. We watched in anticipation as costumed running crazies zipped by one after another. Constantly searching their faces we finally caught our first glimpse of our amature Olympians as they rounded the corner, their eyes alight with the thrill of victory and the relief that the end was finally in sight.

They finished strong and with aching hips, quads, calves and multiple other body parts sore, and of course, smiles on their faces. I couldn't be more proud of Nic for taking the challenge and crushing it. In fact several of her first words to me were that it was "easy" and "it was really pretty". What I wanted to know...where was my wife?!

The Champions! Seriously though what a great accomplishment!

Crossing the finish line...the whole crowd went nuts!

Well the day finally came where we had to take our little angel to the hospital. Definitely not what any parent ever wants to do. The pictures are from after her surgery. Avery was diagnosed with a blockage on her UPJ (Ureteropelvic junction) on both kidneys although the left kidney was by far the worst case.
Our doctor ordered a pyeloplasty, which is bascially a cool doctor term for fixing some problems in the kidneys. So on Wed, 29 Sept, we brought her in, and they took her away to the OR. That was probably the hardest part, was letting them take her away, knowing that she didn't know what was happening.


However, the doctors there were fantastic and you could tell they sincerely cared about our children and were doing the most that they could to put Avery at ease. And so we waited for 2.5 hours while they performed the surgery. When they were finally done we were able to see our girl and know that everything was going to be alright. Avery did great.

She was a little loopy after the surgery from all the fun medicines, but she was also very thirsty and was ready for something to drink. Within an hour or two she was alert again and really started to perk up as the day wore on. A very good sign.

The incision was made on her left side, about an inch wide, and then a stint for drainage was placed temporarily (2 weeks) near it to help with drainage while the area healed. She did great and we now have her home and we couldn't be happier to have our little girl home and healing. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! A special thanks to Nancy for watching our girls and being there for us and to Helene for driving across the country practically to be with us during Avery's recovery!

Family Pictures 2010

Family Pictures 2010

Isaac and Nichole
Madelyn~6 yrs old
Brynlee~4 yrs old

Avery~1 yr old
Three sweet little girls.........

Oregon......

Before we moved into the house we took a trip to Oregon to visit Grammy and Grand Bob. We had a fun time hiking, touring the little town of Enterprise, riding bumper cars, horseback riding, ice cream, etc. I wish we had more pictures of the adventures. Here are just a few......

Isn't this HUGE chair so awesome!

Baby Avery is ONE!

Our baby girl turned ONE! Time goes by so fast. This little angel is such a snuggle bug. I love to get her out of bed in the morning and just snuggle..........I will miss these days when they are gone~hopefully they won't be.

This sweet little things was not shy to dig into the cake. She ate her entire piece~you can tell how healthy she is, right?!!

And boy did it make her happy! She was sucking frosting out from between her little fingers for a while. Who would of thought it tasted so yummy!

She's not too sure about the candle..........Maddie and Brynlee helped her blow it out.

Cupcake for our "Baby Cakes"

Fishing with Papa and Neena

Isaac cut the top of a bottle off and put raw pork chops in the bottom. He threw it out in the lake and waited for crawdads to take a bite! About 20 minutes later he pulled it out and found two!

My girls went fishing with Papa and Uncle Bert for the first time. They each caught a fish (we did set them free). Madelyn was so excited until the fish was out of the water floppin around......

My sweet, smelly little girls