Playing Catch Up

I know the absents of my blog posting is just killing everyone... ok maybe it's just killing me, but it's been hard getting back in the swing of things. I am feeling 100% from surgery, but haven't gotten my old routine down yet. Then just when I felt like I could Preston got REALLY sick! I don't think I've ever seen him this sick EVER! He's doing a lot better but let's just say that men are big babies when it comes to being sick. Not to take away the fact that he genuinely feels horrible, it's just kind of funny how men/dads get to be sick and the way women/moms get to be sick. I have now taken on the full time job of keeping his germs away from the rest of us, I just hope it works. We have a couple busy weeks in front of us and we can't afford to be sick too! Well here are some of the pictures that should have made it on our blog a while ago. Some pre-hospital some post.

I've had these done since December, there my Christmas present from me. We had two mismatched selves sitting in the garage forever and I decided that if they were both black they would look so amazing above the TV, and they do! I sanded them, painted them, and hung them and ta-da! We are getting family picture next week so I can fill them.

Proof that I'm a dork! Yes that is a flat red playground ball on my head!

Playing at the park. My kids are just the cutest aren't they?

Mall fun!

Kya is so sweet, daddy was tired and she got her own blanket for him and then snuggled (this was when he was well)

I was sitting in the kitchen one day, Baden decided that he was going to play in the garage. I was feeling lazy and thought it wouldn't do any harm so I let him stay out there for a little bit. Kya soon followed and this is how I found them. They sure were having fun!

Hide and Seek!

My Lovely Hospital Stay

*Graphic-don't read if you get grossed out.

I'm not going to give all the details because frankly I don't want to be blogging about the same thing for a whole week but I will give some details. I will give a bit of a background that I've had this pain before but I was pregnant with Kya at that time so they couldn't do all of the tests that they were able to do this time. Back when I was pregnant with Kya I went to the hospital because of my appendix, they took it out sent me home and a day later I was having the same pain that I was experiencing THIS time that I went.

So since I was familiar with the pain I knew it was going to be bad. The pain that I was having was a sharp pain in my high stomach. So on Sunday of last week we went into the hospital with me moaning in pain, they told me it was probably gas and sent me home in the middle of the night, two hours later we were back in the hospital and this time they had me stay. They admitted me so that they could run a gallbladder test on me on Monday. Before the test they decided that I needed to have a GI tube.

More like a HOSE!

And no I didn't get any pictures of me with the hose up my nose. But this old lady looks WAY to pleasant with it up there. The only thing that was keeping it from coming out of my stomach was the tape on my nose.

Lets just say when the nurses that come in to SHOVE a hose up your nose say, "This is NOT going to be pleasant!"... um, they know what they're talking about. The hose was shoved up my nose and down my throat into my stomach, SO not pleasant! Then for the gallbladder test they hadn't let me have any pain meds for 5 hours before hand then they had me lay completely still on my back which was super painful, because I hadn't been out of the fetal position for the whole time I was there. The test took so long they pumped nasty things into my tube to make my gallbladder do a ton of stuff, which made me throw up a ton of nasty green bial, remember that I was on my back and wasn't supposed to move!

After Monday the days kind of run together I was needing pain drugs every hour but had to wait two hours in between. It hurt to talk with the GI tube in my throat because it would move slightly which hurt my nose and throat. They were continually running me down stairs in the mornings for a new test. On Thursday I think it was that they did an Upper GI test. Which was very long. They said on average the test takes a couple hours, mine took 6. They had me try to drink some foaming stuff and a couple of other things until I started throwing up on them. Then they pushed three cups of thick white nastiness down my lovely tube. And x-rayed me every 15 mins for the first 2 hours and then every 30 for the rest of my 6 hours! I hadn't spent that much time out of bed the whole week and it wore me out. The next day they did surgery, luckily it was Laparoscopically which means I have three small incisions and that scar tissue was the problem. Evidently when I got my appendix out they put staples in after the surgery and one of the staples had hit my small intestines which probably caused this pain the last time. This time the obstraction was caused by the scar tissue. I am glad that they figured out the problem, and hopefully I will NEVER have to do that again!

The rest of my days were spent in the hospital from after the surgery till Sunday and with way less pain! Which is the only time I pulled out the camera because I felt a little better. I really missed my kids and being home... OH it's good to be HOME!

Kya was pretending that she was the one sick and I was the doctor.

This is where Preston spent most of his time... and the kids thought it was super fun to be able to get a cup of ice chips every time they came.

They poked me so many times I have bruises up and down my arms from all of the IV's and poking for blood.

I'm Home!

Got home from a 7 day 7 night stay at the Hospital. Accommodations came with midnight blood pricking, long painful hours in tests, a hose up the nose, surgery, and a whole bunch more. Needless to say... I'm sure glad to be home. More details to come but if you have been wondering where my blog presents has been, now you know.

Ready Set GOAL!

Need some motivation to get you going for 2010? Here are some quotes from a talk given by M. Russell Ballard.

"I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the technique of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential.

Some of you might cop out by saying, “Well, Brother Ballard, you just don’t understand my environment..."

“No,” I would say to you, “put all of that in the back of your minds and bring forward to the front of your mind the worthy goals that you want to obtain. Then practice personal self-discipline.”

Elder M. Russell Ballard then quotes Benjamin N. Woodson:

“All you need to do is this: Beginning this very day, stop doing some one thing you know you should not do.” After you have written this one thing down, stop doing it!

Now the second part of Mr. Woodson’s suggestion is this, “Start doing each day some one thing you know you should do!”

You must clear up problems and then not spend one more second worrying about it. Past problems are like a stream when you are standing on a bridge—the stream is rolling underneath you, and your problems have gone downstream. Regardless of how hard you try, you can’t change the past. What I want you to learn to do is look upstream. Watch for the things that are coming down the river of life that you can change and control. When you set a goal and commit yourself to the necessary self-discipline to reach that goal, you will eliminate most of the problems in your life.

Set clear and specific goals. Spend your energies doing those things that will make a difference. Then you can become what you think about. If you just have the simple faith that God is in His heaven and He is your Heavenly Father and He does know that you are here and He does love you—and that Jesus is the Christ, that He is your Savior, that He is your Redeemer, and that you love Him with all your heart and are going to do all you can to keep His commandments—then peace comes.

We cannot ignore keeping the commandments of God. We cannot excuse ourselves or rationalize or justify even the smallest things in our lives that we need to master. We must work to overcome them. We can become the masters of our own destinies by practicing self-discipline and by setting worthy goals that will lead to higher ground so that we can become what our Heavenly Father wants us to become."

This talk has really helped me get myself in gear and I just wanted to share!

AWESOME TALK!

Read the whole talk here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Temple Lights!

For family night we went to see the Temple lights. I'm glad we got there even though it was after Christmas.

Preston decided that he was going to talk with an accent for the night.

SO PRETTY!

Christmas DAY!

Christmas morning we woke up bright and early at 9:15! (I'm so glad that our kids are still little and don't have to wake up at the crack of dawn!)

We found that Santa really did come!

Then it was off to G-ma and G-pa's.

We are not looking forward to 16... We'll just let Ella do the driving. Notice Preston is running to stop the car from running into a fire hydrant.

Then it was over to the Grandma and Grandpa's.

Later we went out to Whitney's her oldest broke his femur, poor guy.

Great Christmas!

This Christmas...

I gave you my heart, and that's about all a gave this year! So if you didn't receive anything from us don't feel left out... that's what I gave to all my family and friends. Just know that I really do love YOU.

Well this year was looking like it was going to be a very skinny cow year, but friends, ward, and family gave and gave and gave. It ended up being a really big fat cow year thanks to all who served, sacrificed and filled our Christmas! I didn't expect any of the things we received and I have been learning this year how to just say THANK YOU! So really thank you all!

We had lots of parties just as every year! RS dinner, Stapley adult dinner, Brooksby Party, Fred and Doris Stapely party, Girls party and a Hatch Christmas Eve. This year was a good one! And we seemed to fit everything in and all went smooth. (I'm still waiting for other pictures I will have to add those later).

Brooksby Christmas

The Fred and Doris Stapley Christmas.

Girls Annual Christmas Party

Christmas Eve with at the Hatch's.

Our annual puzzle.

Ready to do Luke 2

My dad always makes Date Nut & Carrot Pudding...

with hard sauce and lemon sauce mmmmmmm.