Hello, Jerry.

In just about every Seinfeld episode there is a tense moment between Jerry and Newman. "Hello, Jerry" Newman says with attitude. "Hello, Newman" says Jerry in disgust.

This, my friends, is how I feel about the Nebulizer. As you know, my kids get sick a lot. A lot, A LOT. Max has Bronchiolitis. Kindof like Bronchitis, but more of a risk to form into a juvenile onset Asthma, or Pnemonia. Max needs the nebulizer to break up the crap in his lungs. Max HATES the nebulizer. We had to break it out yesterday with the new albuterol and all I could say was "Hello, Nebulizer. I haven't missed you."

Maddie's Surgery

Maddie has a birthmark. Maddie's birthmark has grown with her age. It is now larger, darker and has hair growing out of it. Maddie is aware of her birthmark. When Maddie draws a self-portrait, she draws the birthmark too. Because of the risk of cancer that it may have, we are able to get full-coverage plastic surgery to remove it. Primary Children's Hospital has a great doctor named Dr. Siddiqi that will perform the surgery in 2-3 stages over about 9 months time. Each surgery Maddie will need to be under General Anesthesia. Each surgery takes about an hour. 2-3 of them will be performed in 2010. I am excited for Maddie to think of her face without this 'defining characteristic' and anxious to receive pathology results, but still a little nervous. I hope my baby doesn't get scared. I hope that she is happy and brave. Our first surgery is scheduled for February 1st. Please keep her in your prayers!

Eve and Rob's Wedding

Congrats Eve and Rob! On Monday we went to a fabulous wedding at the Sundance Resort by where they do the Sundance Film Festival. We had SO much fun. I was honored to give a reading (Oh The Places You'll Go) during the ceremony. Soooo much better than being a bridesmaid, I tell you, because not only did it make me feel important, but I got to read to them, not just hold some flowers!
Anyway, I was super nervous, but because it was outdoors and like 20 degrees, my trembling knees were mistaken for shivering. Haha. It turned out well and I wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I would be in the end.
The ceremony was beautiful. I am so happy for my lovely friends!
After it was over we had AMAZING hors d'oeuvres followed by an AMAZING dinner. The best part of the reception was a photobooth that printed your pictures right away for you to keep half, put half in a scrapbook for the couple and sign it right then. It was SO fun. We even grabbed the bride and groom for a quick picture. Too bad I don't have a scanner! So, it was a blast and I was honored to be there. What a GREAT night!

Christmas 2009

This year's Christmas was a BLAST. Once Maddie realized it was Christmas day the excitement didn't stop. Santa knows Maddie really well and she was very impressed with the selection in her stocking! Santa brought me a little gift too; 2 beads for my charm bracelet! That sweet Santa! Other than the hutch for the kids (see my earlier post) and a few cheap wooden food sets from Lars' work, it was a very inexpensive and low-key Christmas. After presents at home we went over to mom and dad's in River Heights for some more presents. We got spoiled. On Christmas Eve we got presents from Mom & Dad Harper and had a blast opening/playing with those toys! We were lucky ducks. Over the weekend we met up with some friends, Jeremy and Jenny Petersen in Salt Lake. We had a fun time. This past week was so much fun. My favorite thing has been talking about the symbol of Santa with Maddie (she's really smart and almost ready for the truth), the Reason behind Christmas, and the story of the birth of Christ. Grown up conversations with Maddie are so easy I forget who I'm talking to!

The Secret Acts of Angels

There are days when I dream of giving lavish gifts to my friends and family. About this time every year I swear that next year will be better; we will send gifts to friends instead of home-printed Christmas cards. We will have money to spend before Christmas and not after. We will send family members AMAZING gifts that they totally deserve. I will be able to buy that ornament/pack of cards/wrapping paper before the 90% off sale the day after I need it... but then life gets more expensive. My husband is not working for what he's worth, and school gets prolonged for my sweet husband because, instead, Lars is busy taking care of us. Unexpected expenses arise, etc and we are left to a meager budget... I know, however, that money we are blessed with comes from the Lord. We've had numerous occasions where we were uncertain where rent would come from and after paying our tithing, it just shows up. We are so blessed. We are certain our blessings are due to faithful service. Without sacrifices, we most certainly would not be blessed with so much. This week, without a doubt has been a week of blessings. Yesterday, our family portraits arrived after a long wait; the printer messed up our order and to our advantage printing us a second LARGE picture. Then, of course, not only was it 2 pictures we received, but the wrong picture, so now the right picture is on the way. Sounds silly, right?? But for me, 2 extra pictures was a present from Heaven. We would have never been able to afford any more pictures than we ordered (most going out to parents for presents). And today, a sweet ANGEL left an unmarked card on my doorstep with money inside. The money didn't make me cry (okay it did) but the message was more sweet than any amount of cash:
Christmas is...
starlight on a December night
a wreath of welcome on the door
the fragrance of pine
quiet moments of reflection
and the gift of knowing just how much you are loved.
My Christmas wish for you is really very simple-
that the joys of the season warm your heart,
that the new year brings you only good things,
and that you know always how much you're loved.
The fact that someone loves us so much as to leave money on our doorstep leaves me emotional and speechless. A gift, of ANY kind is so kind and such a sacrifice that it makes me cry. I am thankful for Christmas angels. I am thankful that there are others that not only know the true meaning for Christmas, but also show the pure love of Christ. I am thankful for this Christmas season and my Loving Brother, Jesus Christ, that gave me the best gift one could ever wish for; the Atonement. By Him, if faithful, I am able to return to my Father in Heaven and enjoy eternal life.

Merry Christmas.
and thank you, to our sweet Christmas Angel.

Go from BLUE to RENEW

For Christmas we gave our YW scrapbooked Books of Mormon. I got the idea from a super talented girl HERE. For the NEW YEAR, we gave them a reading challenge to complete the book in 6 months time, along with us. With the Book of Mormon, BOM, gave me the idea of having this challenge be THE BOMB! I made little bomb invitations that had a fuse with the invite stapled on them. It turned out to be SUPER CUTE!

Early Christmas Present

This past week we were lucky enough to have an early Christmas present: my little brother Clayton! We had a great time together and I can't wait to see him again in a few months when we see him off to the MTC to go on a mission! Unfortunately, we didn't snap a single picture together, even though the camera was on the counter all week!

On Saturday, we took him to the airport and had our annual Christmas Temple Trip with the YM and YW to do Baptisms for the Dead (to see why we do this and what we believe, click here). The kids and I took Clayton to the Airport and got Maddie some new shoes while Lars did the baptisms with the youth. After the Temple, we ate pizza as a group and then went over to the SLC temple and watched the Joseph Smith movie. Of course Max only lasted about 5 minutes, so we spent the next 58 minutes in the hall. We wasted a good 14 minutes doing this:Then, we toured the Temple Grounds to see the AMAZING light display, nativities and candle lit pond. The blurry picture at the top of my post is how intricate the lights are. They are strung all the way to the TIP of the branch, thousands of lights on each tree. Breath-taking, really! It reminded me of the Mesa Arizona temple that has a similar display for Christmas too!

Well, traveling with Max is always uncomfortable, but this time he actually slept until we reached Logan boundries so we only had about a few minutes of crying... All in all it was a very spiritual and lovely day. A nice close to a great week!

The kids and I took some pictures around the temple while we waited for the youth to finish up. Here they are:

Maddie Update

We had a doctor's appointment and had a great discussion with the doctor about Maddie's "episode". I am so excited for modern medicine and the knowledge that the human race has incurred! What Maddie seems to have is a vasovagal sensitivity; what seems to be the same thing that I had when I was a child. It is a response to stress, high emotions, unpleasant stimuli, etc. He even warned when I curl her hair or braid it that it could trigger "fainting." Much of what I remember in my youth was passing out while getting my hair done. Crazy, huh? So her response was due to seeing her poor brother get his blood drawn; kinda sweet in a way... You can read more about the vasovagal response here.

Christmas is ALMOST here!

Guess who showed up at our Christmas party last night??? Oh yes, Santa and Mrs. Clause. They were delivering some early presents to the extra nice children this year! When Santa called Maddie's name she leaped out of her chair and ran to Santa. I was very surprised, as this is the first year she has not cried while seeing Santa. Maybe the present was a lure?
Max on the other hand was NOT very happy to see Santa. Even Mrs, Clause scared the little guy! Too many jingle bells on Santa's suit make children like Max VERY nervous!
On Saturday night, Maddie was in the live Christmas nativity: also another surprise that she was interested in that and not her usual shy-self. She was a purple angel-- you know, the one that was at the manger the night of Christ's birth... C'mon, you all remember the purple angel, don't you????
See? She's the closest of the angels to Baby Jesus...
Haha. So it has been a great few days...