As most of you know, our summer started out with my diagnosis of Cancer. It was a bit of a shock to say the least. I had been planning and saving for a big trip for the month of June. We were going to a family reunion in Missouri, to sight see in Nauvoo, to go to Six Flags in St Louis (We had earned free tickets with a reading program) to stay with my Mom for a few weeks, and to go to my Dad's wedding. Instead our plans changed to me needing surgery to remove the tumor and flying my older 3 out to do all of those fun things I just said.
The surgery went fine and I went home the next day.Trent was so awesome! Really going the extra mile with handling everything!
My good friend Bethany was here from Georgia visiting me. I was having a hard time talking to her. My mouth kept going numb. I continued to have problems that got worse through the night. The next morning we called the DR who told us to get to the hospital right away. By the time I got there, I was having a thyroid storm. It was very painful, and scary. Apparently, my parathyroid had been damaged in surgery, and that is what controls our calcium. I was running out! After a team of Dr's and nurses worked on me, I was beginning to come out of it. It took 3 more days in the hospital to get that regulated.
I came home to wonderful messages on my driveway, flowers, flowers, and more flowers! I even had Christmas in July from a friend. The first gift was a scarf, because I had confided in her that I was worried about the ugly scar on my neck!
Here is Aiden trying to entertain me and to cheer me up! What a cutie! Aiden and Taryn were here with us alone for 2 weeks. They had a great time, but really missed their siblings.
Here are some pictures of my neck about a week later. My throat was very sore for about a week, my neck for about a month. But overall, I think the scar will not look that bad.
About 2 weeks later, I was chomping at the bit to leave to go and get the kids. I had to see the Dr the day before to get the approval. When I did I was soooooo happy. After all that had happened, I needed to get out of town. I still was to take it easy, so I did not get to swim or play much, but it was so nice to see my family! We went to Missouri, my Mom met us there with the kids. I was able to see both grandparents, and some Aunts & Uncles, and my Dad drove down to see me too. It was a short visit, but very nice. I even got to see my brother Brenden who is a missionary in West Virginia. He got special permission for us to take him out to Dinner with his comp. I will add pictures as soon as I can figure out the camera that they are on! :+)
We stopped at the Arch on our way home. I have always wanted to take the kids here. I came a lot when I was a kid. It was great!
We went ahead and used our Six Flags tickets. I was good and did not ride anything. I still had a great time watching the kids have fun. The characters were fun to see also!
It is hard to believe that Taryn is already 3! Time goes so fast. This year, we went camping, swimming and to a local beach. We just kept it to family. It was nice just to kick back and relax a bit. Taryn just wanted to stay in the water for hours. She was unhappy whenever we left.
As most of you know, our summer started out with my diagnosis of Cancer. It was a bit of a shock to say the least. I had been planning and saving for a big trip for the month of June. We were going to a family reunion in Missouri, to sight see in Nauvoo, to go to Six Flags in St Louis (We had earned free tickets with a reading program) to stay with my Mom for a few weeks, and to go to my Dad's wedding. Instead our plans changed to me needing surgery to remove the tumor and flying my older 3 out to do all of those fun things I just said. 
Okay, Thanks to being snowed in for the second weekend in a row, I am finally catching up a bit on my pictures. We went to Utah/Idaho for a few days short of a month over Christmas. We have also had 2 January birthdays, and A LOT of SNOW!!!
Pictures from Christmas Day.
This trip was so nice to be able to spend time with family and see friends too.
Madison and Karen really hit it off. So did Spencer & Logan with William and Micheal. I somehow did not get pictures of the boys though.
Taryn greeting her new cousin Rebecca.
Logan turned 7 on Jan 2nd while we were still in Idaho. He wanted to see Alvin and the chipmunks the squeequal. We then had pizza and cake with the family. I know he had a great time!
We wanted to go and play in the snow in Idaho. We only had snow one time last winter, so we were looking forward to a white Christmas. They did not get this nice snow however until New Years. It was the perfect play snow though!
Madison turned 10 Jan 18th. We celebrated with a bowling party. She invited 3 friends that she has from a Home School class that we go to. It was so much fun, and the girls were so sweet to each other. We then went to Golden Corral for dinner. I think Madison was very pleased with her b-day.
