Fun stuff...

Now that I am back on my feet, it's been great to do things and get out of the house! So, here are a few things that we have been up to!

*Felicia (Josh's sister) had a birthday on the 28th, so I drove up for the first time since the surgery, with Bridger and Kenna so we could be there for the festivities. Josh wasn't able to make it because of work. We had a great evening! We love Aunt Feli! She is seriously one of the sweetest, most kind people I know! Happy birthday cute Feli! For her birthday, we made calzones, did the cake thing (Bridger blew out half of the candles before we were done singing), and then headed to the park where everyone played kickball. I wasn't able to play it, because I wasn't healed up enough yet. Bridger had a great time running around, and he ran so much that he was all sweaty after...it was kind of cute! They also played a game...can't remember what it is called, something like Destruction... It was a fun day...we love you Aunt Feli!

*Josh's brother, Adam and his wife Ashley are up visiting for a while from California. It's been great having them around and hopefully we'll get to see them a few more times before we leave! Last week Josh and Adam went fishing on the Provo River. On the way home they stopped to eat at a place that their grandpa used to take them to after he would take them fishing. I think Josh and Adam had a good time and they are probably going to fit one more fishing trip in before had leaves.
*We went to Bear Lake this past weekend. We went for a day trip with Josh's family and extended family on Saturday. Everyone had a great time! Josh's parents rented waverunners, his uncle had a boat there, and we all visited and had fun! I mostly hung out under the umbrella with Kenna, as I can't get my ear wet at all...so I didn't dare venture too far out in the water. Bridger loved playing in the water and didn't want to get out even when he was pretty much convulsing from being so cold! After the day trip we headed to my parents' house (we actually stayed at Sheena's house) to see everyone. Josh's sister Kayley was also there, because the Whitney and Dani invited her to come with our family to Bear Lake again...those three have such a great time together, I love it! Everyone headed over to Bear Lake to set up camp Sunday evening. I stayed behind and hung out with Sheena and Jordan (I didn't want to mess with two days of boating with Kenna). Kenna and I headed over Monday evening, camped and went boating with everyone Tuesday. I think everyone had a great time! Bridger is getting so much more comfortable around the water! He jumped off the engine cover of the boat into the water by himself...that is a pretty good jump for a 3 year old! We came home super late last night, exhausted, with a messy house, but had a great time!

Surgery update...

Hey all! So, I had my ear surgery a week ago this past Friday (July 17). It went well, but was even longer than anticipated...it took 6 1/2 hours. Fortunately when they got in there and started removing the tumor, they found that my three little bones that help with hearing (ossicle bones) were still there...that is great news! Since the bones are still there, I will not have to have artificial bone grafts to reconstruct the bones. So, they went in removed the tumor, made me a new ear drum, made the ear canal larger, and removed some of the mastoid bone. Anesthetic makes me quite nauseous, especially when I am under for anything longer than 3 hours, so I have been pretty sick from it. Now, I am just dizzy a lot from the whole ear thing, and that in turn make me nauseous. I spend a lot of my time sitting or laying on the couch...not very fun. I just want to get up and play with my kids, take care of my family, etc. I am really hoping the dizziness will get better soon. I go to the doctor on Wednesday for a follow-up, and they will also remove some of the packing from my ear (I have packing on both sides of my ear drum, the stuff on the inside will dissolve in 3-4 weeks). I think my ear is definitely healing, and can't wait until it's healed enough to see if my hearing is better! Anyway, there is an update of what is going on for me...

Up chin...

Here are a few more funny things that Bridger has said, which I want to remember...

*I was helping him pull up his pants, and while doing so started to sing "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash (Bridger loves Johnny Cash)...I sang "I went down down down, but the..." and then Bridger filled it in with "but the pants went higher!"(normally goes "but the flames went higher).
*After reading him his bedtime story, he looked at me and said "I have an up chin and a down chin." (Up chin=the space between the upper lip and nose, according to Bridger)
*While painting with water colors, he was using the brown paint and said, "Mmm, this looks like chocolate milk!"

What a funny boy...I love all the funny things he says and I don't want to forget these things!

Goldfish...

So, here is our dinner conversation tonight:
*Josh: "Bridger, what did you learn today?"
*Bridger: "I learned a lot of songs, but I am trying to think of them. But the big fat singing lady had a firework thing."
(Us laughing about the big fat singing lady, but trying to not let Bridger see it)
*Josh: "So, what did the singing lady look like?"
*Bridger: (In a totally serious tone)..."a goldfish".
(We were really cracking up about that!!!)

Mustache...

VOTE

For Tom Dolan!

Ha ha ha...Tom Dolan is the mayor of Sandy...he looks like the monopoly man, and loves it! He is campaigning and part of his campaign is focusing on his monopoly man mustache. He was handing out temporary tattoo mustaches at the 4th of July festivities in Sandy, so while Josh was there for work, he grabbed one for Bridger...isn't that kind of him?! He conned Bridger into putting it on, but trust me, Bridger did not like it! We'd ask him how his mustache was doing and he's say, "Not good, it's stupid!". After they put it on, we then went to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point (that was planned before the mustache) and boy did Bridger get some looks! Some people would laugh and say "nice mustache", other people would just stare, little kids would look and then tell their moms/dads what they saw. Poor Bridger...everyone was laughing at his expense!

The gardens were beautiful as always! We took this picture of Kenna on the grass(she hated the grass, note the annoyed look on her face!)...she's getting better at sitting up, but still doesn't stay up for long.

On another note, I had a CT Scan on my ear yesterday and found out I have to have surgery on it on July 17th. Not too excited about it, but at least we found it now. It's a growth called cholesteatoma (basically a benign tumor), and it has already eaten through my ossicle bones in my ear (responsible for hearing), so my hearing is bad. It will still be bad after surgery, but eventually they will go in and do an artificial bone graft to repair it. It's about a 5 hour surgery, so kind of long, due to the delicate procedure. They will go in, remove some of the mastoid bone, as well as the growth and then depending on what they find, they may have to restructure some of my ear canal. Some of you know that I am not new to the surgery thing...already had 13 surgeries, but that doesn't make it any easier. I am doing okay with it now, still not thrilled about it, but grateful they can fix things before it eats through more bone, etc. Anyway, I am posting all of this mostly so I can have it "journaled"...as I know this is just something to get through. We'll let you know how it goes once I am up and about after it's done!