Happy Birthday Colton!!

Colton had his big birthday and is now 3! He wanted a tow truck cake, and his wish is my command. It was delicious!!
He also got some sunglasses for his birthday and he is on his way to being a movie star!!
Colty got lots of fun presents, but his favorites were the tractor of course, and his new bike from his Mills Grandparents. He is a natural, and I am sure by the end of the week he will be able to keep up with Tanner.

Grandpa and Grandma Mills and Cami, Auntie, and Uncle Mitch came to celebrate. It was a fun day!

New Tricks

Brady is getting so big. He is finding new things to do all the time, like jumping out of his swing, and rolling over. He has started to eat rice cereal better, and because he has something more solid in the belly is sleeping better too. (He slept from 10:30pm to 6am 3 nights in a row!!) He is liking playing with toys and anything he can get his little fingers on (which is making typing very hard right now because he wants to type too). He had the best time with Colty's birthday balloon too. His best trick lately is that he has found his voice and "hollers" all the time. And it is so noisy. He just screams at the top of his lungs and most of the time he is just doing it because he can, not because he wants anything. It is kind of funny...except at church.

Rain Rain Go Away!!!

We have had some of the craziest weather lately. Dave is wondering if we live in the rain forest. Our ground is so saturated that it just can't handle another drop of water. It has rained every day for at least 2 weeks, and we are now 4X our average for the month. Dave got a rain gauge and checks the Vipir on the internet all day long, so I call him our local weather man.
Every day it seems to be sunny for a while, and then in the afternoon the black clouds roll in and they open up and dump on us. We are wet!!
Our poor garden. The corn is yellow and drowning. Someone at church last week said that the saints are such faithful tithe payers that we are being blessed with moisture, but now we need to start paying our tithing so it stops raining. I thought that was so funny.


Next week is supposed to be sunny all week. Hopefully we get enough to dry out a little bit and our garden will be able to grow. I think that the corn will be "knee high by the 4th of July" if we could just get a little sun. But, I won't complain, because it has sure been nice to have the water bill cut down this month. It takes a lot of water to get grass seed to grow, and we have been blessed to have it watered everyday without much effort on our part. And, I am happy to announce that we really do have a lawn back there now!!! HURRAY!!

Summer has come!

For some reason it feels like it just suddenly showed up, but I think summer is finally here. We have been playing outside quite a bit, and it is so enjoyable. We have to avoid the backyard for the next few months while our grass grows, so we sit in the shade in the front. We have also enjoyed some fun bike rides, and Tanner is quite the little rider. I have also discovered that my bike trailer works great as a stroller, so we have been "exercising" about daily with a good walk. I enjoy when Tanner will ride his bike so I can put the baby in the trailer instead of in the tummy pack, but either way it is good for me to get moving a little. The boys love it when Dave is home and joins us.
This last weekend we worked in the yard all day, moving a bush here and there, transplanting some flowers and bulbs, and making the flowerbeds look the way I want them too. Dave moved a sprinkler head and we dreamed of the day when we could do more with our yard, but sadly, sweat won't pay for the supplies. Then, we got a HUGE rainstorm on Saturday night, and everything is wet again today. Kind of fun to have a little rain when it is so hot. There is nothing quite as miserable as it being so hot all the time that the house won't even cool off in the evening. Luckily, here in Sugar City, that just doesn't happen too often!

Closure

Well, there has been a lot happen in the last few weeks.

First, we went to the doctor, and realized we were seeing someone who didn't know enough about thryoid cancer, got a second opinion, and felt an answer to our prayers. And, all of Dave's levels were right, so he did the radiation treatment on Friday, May 22. With only a few hours of sore salivary glands, he has faired quite well, not even missing a day of work.

I took my boys and went to Rupert for the weekend. It ended up being a last minute trip, but was wonderful. We stopped on our way there on Friday at Grandma Peterson's for an hour or so, and it was nice to visit with her. My boys call her "Grandma Puterson with the crane truck" and enjoyed playing with that crane truck that is only 40+ years old.

In Rupert we had a nice time. Grandad took us on a tour of the area, we saw the fields and the pivots and trains and a dairy and all sorts of other things. Stuff my boys thrive on. Grandpa and Grandma Peterson and Mitch came it was enjoyable spending time with them. We worked in the yard and helped Grammy plant flowers and such. Gma & Gdad were celebrating their 60th anniversary, and I thought about the significance of that. Sixty years is a long time, and they obviously still like to be with each other. I can only hope that my marriage is that happy too. We celebrated with everyone around at Perkins for dinner, and it was so fun to catch up with cousins. My boys went to Declo to play with their cousins, and that was so handy. Sunday we enjoyed the Acequia ward. I don't know why, but I love sitting by my dad in Sacrament meeting. It seems kind of weird since he is the Bishop, but I love it. And I love that everyone else entertains my kids. Sunday we had dinner wth all the cousins again. I just love those people.
There was a train wreck in Rupert earlier in the week, and as my brother commented, "Today was a trainwreck" has a whole new significance! It was awesome, so we stopped to take pictures.
On the way home on Monday, I stopped at our car accident sight. I walked around to see if I could see anything left over. I looked for a while, then I came upon it. It was still a mess. I collected a piece of our van, and found one of the headphones the boys had been wearing. Oh, I am so grateful they were wearing seatbelts and only the headphones flew out the window! I took pictures up and down the road, and of the sage brush covered median the other driver came through. When it happened, we didn't think to look around, and now have lots of curiosity and questions. I wondered how I would feel about being there, but I just felt so grateful. It wasn't weird or scary. Almost peaceful. What a blessing it was that we are all okay.I smiled to see the potatoes still there amidst the mess.All in all, I think things are coming to a close. If everything goes as planned (which it rarely does), I think June will be the start of a calm year! We'll pray for that!

He's Home!

Surgery went well. I think that both of us were less nervous this time since we felt like we had "been there done that." In fact, it was the same pre-op nurse that helped us. She looked at me and said, "Weren't you guys just here?" I said, "yes, we had such a good time last time we came back for more!"

Dave was in a lot more pain right out of surgery this time, but felt a lot better than last time by day 2. I guess when they remove your thyroid they worry about the parathyroid because they get bruised in the process, and the parathyroid has something to do with your calcium levels. So, they wanted to keep Dave 2 nights to watch the calcium levels, but since the right parathyroids were likely recovered from surgery 3 weeks ago his levels stayed fine and he came home after one night. That was nice so that I didn't have to worry about staying at the hospital and having my kids and parents here at the house without me. Plus, the hospital wasn't exactly capable of having a patient that couldn't eat anything with iodine. It does make meals tricky.

On the ballot now....Recovery. Then we do the urine test to determine the iodine levels on Thursday, have post-op dr appts on Friday, and have a dr appointment with the endocrinologist on Monday to check his TSH levels. If the iodine level is low enough and the TSH level is high enough, then hopefully we can do the radioactive iodine therapy around the 22nd. And, at that point my big boys are going to go on "bay-cay-shon" at Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's again because they won't be able to be closer than 9 feet to Dave. Thank goodness for a Grandma that is able to take the boys so frequently!

Anyhow, it has been a lovely Mother's Day and Dave is laying on the couch healing the fastest he can!

Surgery #2

Today is the thyroid completion surgery for Dave. Please keep him in your prayers. In 2 weeks from today we are hoping that the iodine and thyroid levels are such that he can do the radiation treatment. Then, if all goes well, we will be mostly done with this mess by the end of the month.

Thanks so much for your support. I have been overwhelmed by the comments you are leaving and the prayers in our behalf.

Kate