Thank You

Thank you all for your prayers and special thoughts.

Mark's surgery went very well. The surgeon was able to do everything he planned to do and didn't have to do a couple of the procedures we were hoping he would not need to.  Does that make sense? I'm pretty drained but just wanted everyone to know Mark is doing well.

We got to see him in ICU and visit with him. He was able to joke a little and had us all laughing.... His main concerns were  1.) He wanted the catheter OUT  and 2.)  his head hurt

It was hard to leave him but he really preferred we all go home and get rest. I think he needed time himself to rest and heal.

I'm very proud of him as always....

I will try to update more when I feel I have more cohesive thoughts.

It's been quite a day and we are all pretty exhausted.

Thank you all for your thoughtful texts, calls and emails. It really helped us get through the day.

Prayers and positive thoughts appreciated...

As most of you know Mark will be undergoing a pretty serious operation tomorrow. We appreciate any and all positive thoughts you have to offer.

I know Mark is going to come through with flying colors, he always does.

I believe he is in very good hands and thank you ahead of time for thinking of him and sending a few good thoughts or a small (or big) prayer his way tomorrow. His surgery will start at 1pm mst.

I will keep you posted the best I can.

Also if you could say a little prayer for me and his mom and dad as we sit in the waiting room "waiting."

We all know what that is like, when you are waiting for word about a loved one.

What are they up to now??

Every once in a while the boys (all of them) including Dad and Grandpa will disappear into the basement. There are all kinds of cool tools and gadgets down there. I call it the boys club and always ask permission to enter. They are pretty cordial............ most of the time.

Well the other evening all the boys were in the basement so naturally being the nosey female I am I had to go see what was going on. They were building something.

GRANDPA AND CONNOR

MARK AND DAD

DADDY AND ALEX

PRECISE MEASURING

                                     TA DAHHHH!!! A MINI SKATE BOARD PARK!!
                                                (CONNOR CREATED THIS VIDEO)

A HALF PIPE AND MINI RAMPS

A MINI GRINDING RAIL..MY PERSONAL FAVORITE

Wordless Wednesday - leftover from Halloween night

ROMEO AND JULIET

This is a post that is a little overdue. Connor performed in his school play "Romeo and Juliet" a couple of weeks ago. He played the part of Sampson (one of Juliets cousins) He was in the opening scene with quite a few lines AND a fight scene. He also appeared in many other scenes and even got to "twirl" Juliet in one scene. That was one of my favorite moments of the play.

We were very proud of him. We thought he did a great job! I took some pictures at one of the dress rehearsals. They didn't turn out great but I will post them anyway.

Opening scene

Connor in light blue shirt 

Connor in his first scene

Connor on the ground after his fight

During the "party scene"

Connor in party scene (light blue shirt)

Final bow

The director and Connor's drama teacher (Connor in yellow shirt)

Wordless Wednesday

Halloween Part 3... Pumpkin Carving!

We always enjoy carving our pumpkins. It's one of our favorite traditions. I almost titled this post "Pumpkin carving gone wild" because well it got a little wild. It all started out fine but then Alex started having his yearly gagging problem. He loves the act of cleaning out and carving his own pumpkin but the texture and smell get to him. He gags and digs, takes a breath, scoops some more, gags.. and on and on it goes. He hangs in there though and gets it done. Connor thinks it's funny and decided to torture his brother in various ways. One being scooping out "pumpkin guts" and dangling them in front of Alex. It ended up in a pumpkin gut throwing fight.

Then out came the power tools. Living with Grandpa, you have all kinds of cool tools at your disposal. It wasn't quite the Norman Rockwell family jack o lantern carving experience I may have imagined it would be but that is the joys of boys and I wouldn't trade it for anything.... well maybe... nah.






Check out Grandpas spot lights...told you he had cool stuff
Grandpa keeping the stove going

The finished products

Happy Halloween Part 2

Connor's costume was a little easier. He picked out a gorilla mask but wasn't quite sure what else he was going to wear. I suggested we go to the Goodwill store and just look around. Both boys looked at me horrified and said "the Goodwill store?" "Are we that bad off?" I explained to them that it's just like a huge garage sale and you can sometimes find treasures for cheap. I thought about going into how most of the clothing I wore growing up was 2nd hand and I still don't mind 2nd hand if I can get it cheap. I decided it really wouldn't be that helpful for now.

They begrudgingly walked into the "Goodwill" store with me and slowly started looking around. Soon they were getting into it. I watched as they went from one department to the other excitedly telling one another to look at this or look at that.

Connor found a great suit coat and a shirt with what he thought was a ridiculous pattern for cheap. Add in Grandpas Jerry Garcia tie and you have a "Gorilla in a monkey suit."

And Nowwwww.... The Rubics Cube!