Main Floor Painting

Before we left on vacation we decided it was time to paint the main floor of our house. It was originally painted with flat paint which is virtually unwashable and so the walls had been getting black marks and looking horrible. We have been talking back and forth and looking at swatches forever and could never come to an agreement on the colors we wanted to paint it. We knew we wanted to do the two-tone with chair rail we just didn't know which colors to use. Finally we found two swatches that we both could agree on and here is the results!

Before:

After:

Here is a video to show the whole downstairs

(please excuse the TV in the background)

Biopsy Results

Well as some of you know Russell has been diagnosed with Graves Disease (hyperthyroidism). He was diagnosed because he has a racing pulse, has lost 35 pounds in the last few months without even trying, he has been tired, nauseous, dizzy, and a bunch of other things. The treatment for this disease is to take a pill of radioactive iodine which in turn goes in and kills the thyroid and then he would have to be on medication for the rest of his life. Well when he went in to the radiologist to get scanned to see if he was a candidate for this procedure they found a nodule and told him that they could not do the radiation until he had a biopsy to make sure it wasn't cancerous. We went in for the biopsy and the Dr. said that there was less than a 5% chance that it would be cancerous. That was last Friday and she said she would get back to us Monday or Tuesday to let us know what the results were. Well this morning (Thurs.) She called to let me know that they discovered something that they weren't expecting.....Cancer. She said that he has Papillary Carcinoma which is the most common of the Thyroid Cancers and has been researched to find that people who get it between age 20-40 have a less than 1% mortality rate so it is the best one to have. I am still seriously worried. So for now we have to wait until the medication he is on regulates he Thyroid and then he will have surgery to remove the Thyroid and the nodules and then after the surgery he will be having radioactive iodine treatments to make sure to kill any remaining cancer cells.
Please keep him in your prayers!

"How 'bout I draw a line down your head and make it look like a butt"

The quote is from Cool Runnings when Sanka is calling Yule Brenner baldie.

Russell and I were joking around the other day saying that he should shave his head bald for the last week of school, then it turned into talking about having a beard with it, then last night we decided why not just try it out and see what it looks like? So we shaved it all off with the clippers first and then I shaved it clean with his Gillette razor. 

He has a really nice shaped head. I really like it. And luckily he has really olive complected skin so his hairless head isn't bright white as I have seen happen to some men when they first do this. He is very happy that it makes his head so much cooler. I really like it too!! 

Easter 2010

This year we kept Easter pretty simple. I have been seriously ill for the last 2 weeks and so I wasn't able to go out and find fun stuff for her and we also weren't up to going to any fun Easter Egg Hunts or anything like that either.

Sunday morning Kennadee woke up and was able to have a little Easter egg hunt of her own around the house. 

She had that face after every egg she found. It was so cute!!

The above picture I had to put on here because I don't think I have ever been able to take a picture of her where her hair swooped like that!! It has always been too short!! It is so fun that her hair is FINALLY growing!!

After her Egg Hunt she got to open her Easter Basket. She just got all candy this year. Even though her Daddy got plenty of candy she really wanted to be generous and she gave him half of her candy. It was so sweet. This girl is growing up!!

Kennadee Turns Five

I can't believe my little girl is 5 years old!! I have been telling her for the last 3 years that we would take her to Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday and this year we finally decided to take her and her cousins. We had a blast. The kids all played games and got lots of tickets to get prizes with. We sang to Kennadee and ate cupcakes. She got to open her presents and then we went home. It was so fun!!! 

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!!

Miscarriage/Blessing

As some of you know we were finally able to get pregnant. All along the way I was having problems. See this link for more of the story.
I went in for an ultrasound last Friday and found out that there is no sign of the baby. They aren't sure what happened. They don't know whether it is a Molar pregnancy (which she said isn't as likely) or what it is. I went in on Monday morning for a uterine tissue biopsy to see if they can figure out what happened. They are also trying to figure out if I need to have a D&C to get it all out. I am hoping that I don't have to do that.
I had a Priesthood Blessing that gave me tremendous strength and comfort to get through this enormous trial in my life. I wanted to write this down so I don't forget. The blessing went as follows:
Our baby had the choice to be born now and have a pretty big trial to deal with in their life or they could wait and come later and not have this specific trial. The baby counseled with the Lord personally and decided to wait and come later. The baby also knows that it has caused us some pain in our lives and will be with us to comfort and uplift us in this hard time.
This blessing came as great comfort to me in my life. It is so nice to be able to know what happened.
So many people have sent us gifts and cards to help cheer and lift us at this time. I wanted to thank you all (you know who you are!!) for your love and support and prayers!!

Christmas

This Christmas season was full of lots of fun. We baked cookies and other treats, I made homemade stockings for the teachers at Russell's school and filled them with the goodies. I made homemade stockings for the three of us because our stockings were pretty singed from our old fireplace and they just didn't look good anymore. Our great Elder's Quorum President came and hung our lights for us since Russell couldn't do it and had been super bummed that he wouldn't be able to do it this year. We received tons of goodies from friends and family but surprisingly neither of us gained any weight! Mid December we took Kennadee to see Santa at the mall. We didn't get the professional pictures there because they are ridiculously expensive but thankfully at this mall they let you see Santa without paying for it. So Russell sat back and took a picture from afar. 

                                      

The weekend before Christmas was our Ward Christmas party. It was pretty fun we ate good food and visited with friends. Then Kennadee got to see Santa and sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. It was pretty funny.

Christmas Eve we went to the Mildensteins house. It was really nice to just be with family. Diana was going to have more people there but Gabe had been ill the day before and Nathanael had an ear infection so she just wanted to keep it low key. It was nice to have our traditional Clam chowder (she even made me a portion without clams) , corn bread, veggie tray, cheeseball/crackers, and lots of treats.

It was actually really cold that night and had snowed a little (nothing stuck) during the day so we enjoyed a nice log on the fire. The children loved sitting and looking at the fire. It was really windy outside so the flames were dancing in the wind coming down the chimney it was really cool.

Kennadee and Nate enjoyed the fire as well. Such a cute picture!!

We had our traditional Christmas Eve program reading from the Bible and reading my Great Grandma's Christmas story and some other stories. We also sang a few Christmas songs. Then we opened our traditional Christmas Eve pajamas. For some reason I didn't get any pictures of Kennadee opening hers. But this is what they looked like:

Christmas morning Kennadee came down the stairs to see what Santa brought

Some of her favorites were Pet Shops, Ice Age 3, play food, a rubix cube, and a huge Hershey's kiss. She also got a Dora electric toothbrush that immediately after we were done with breakfast she went and brushed her teeth with.

Me with my stocking

Russell with his stocking

After we opened presents the rest of the day was spent eating and watching movies and I spent 2 and a half hours putting together Kennadee's toy kitchen!! We also spent some time at Russell's mom's house for dinner and games. Overall it was a pretty good Christmas season. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!