Weekend recap

Thanksgiving was great! I think one of the best parts of the day was seeing William walking around in his turkey hat. Those little hand/wings flapping around was awesome!

I spent the morning making bagels for breakfast, then making pies for dinner at the Grays. The strawberry creme pie was the best in my opinion but you would have to talk to the other 5 pies that were served. :) The other cool part of the day came when I climbed into the truck and found surprise after birthday surprise from Rob and my boys. Rob totally trumped me on the presents this year and got me a sewing machine (big surprise!), a small jewelry box, and a case to hold my glasses. What a fun birthday. And then Caleb gave me one final present at the end of the night by losing his tooth. YEAH! That thing was holding on by nothing and it looked so goofy and slightly yuck. Everyone kept telling him to just yank it out or twist it out but he was just not ready to do it. I told him that morning that it just needed to go because for heavens sake, the other tooth was already coming in. So, I was carrying stuff out to the truck to go home and as I was walking up the steps to go back in I heard a loud celebration. When I got inside everyone was cheering for Caleb because as he was in the bathroom he got enough courage to twist out the tooth and be done with it. There he was, with a big smile and a bloody hole in his mouth. He was one proud kid!

Finally, Saturday we went to the Rachiele's for one last Thanksgiving dinner, for the annual noise of that house and I was able to watch the 4th quarter of the U-BYU game (the only quarter worth watching personally). You cannot tell by this face but Haley was very excited that her team won!

Well, at least her mom was excited! Boy I tell ya, that was an awesome way to end the game, at least for U fans. Oh, Rob's birthday was pretty good too. You would have to ask Rob for details but we had the traditional birthday breakfast at our house with delicious donuts, sausage, bacon and OJ. Rob went to a movie with his dad and he had fun with that. And the boys were pretty good for him. :)

Now it is on to the next celebration and excitement. Setting up the Christmas trees, dancing to Christmas music, gingerbread house.... and trying not to eat as much sugar as I did at Thanksgiving time. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Simply cute!

Before this week of celebrating gets under way I could not let the time slip by without a post about beautiful Haley. She is, like all of her clothes say; cute, adorable, pretty.... We love her! The boys all love holding her and the past few days she has been awake more and it has been fun to see her beautiful eyes and watch her interact with us. We have also noticed that she has somewhat of a high-strung/nervous side to her. She gets so wound-up (if that is the right way to put it) at certain times of the day. Maybe it is just a phase, we will see. She also seems like a quite, serious girl. Of course she has her moments of crying and letting us know something is not right, but I am talking about those baby sounds. Every once in a while she will make a small sound but for the most part she seems to stare and take it all in, very contemplatively. Somewhat like her dad. Every now and then I will get a glimpse of Caleb or Peter in her, but mostly I just see beautiful Haley, I love those eyes and her sweet mouth. Oh, and her hair is still one of our favorites. Ok, so I will stop bragging.

Someone very wise told me to take a picture of her each day this first year to see how she changes and grows (thanks Dacia!). Some days we just get by, but then others we get wonderful pictures of this lovely girl. We have enjoyed having her in our home and being able to love her.

Nice one!

I stood in front of the counter, pointing to the cupcakes I wanted, as the cute blonde gal gathered them as requested. The aroma in the bakery was delicious, making it impossible not to buy something. As I paused, contemplating my next choice, I felt a curious tickle on my chin, followed by a small plop on my chest.

I looked down and saw a large red droplet soaking into my shirt. I looked back up at the girl, who stood quietly, watching me over the counter with a slight smile on her face. "Am I bleeding?" I asked. "Yes dad. AGAIN!" Jonah replied in an exasperated tone from my side. The bakery had several framed mirrors on the north wall, left of the counter. As I gazed at my reflection, sure enough, I noticed a large trail of blood running down from the puncture just below the lip, and dripping off my chin. 'Well those sutures are worthless,' I grunted to myself. 'And why is that girl so happy about it?'

Yes, I was privileged to spend all of my hard-saved HSA insurance money at an UrgentCare facility today. A little voice in my head reminds me, "That's what you get when you rush to meet the business end of a chain link fenced topped with coiled barbed-wire, biking at twenty miles an hour!" Hmph.

"Well aren't you the Clumsy One!" the attending physician who was to stitch me up sang out in a cheerful voice as I entered her domain. "Don't most bicyclists turn to avoid barbed-wire fences?" Ha ha. And the Utes are getting pummeled by TCU. Fan-freaking-tastic! A doctor who's a comedienne.

*Due to the graphic nature of these injuries, these photos have been heavily edited with bandages and sutures to protect the women, children, and innocent viewers.

Actually, all-in-all I was a very lucky on this crash. If it weren't for the barbwire and chain-link points, I would not have been injured much at all. As it is, my itemized list of injuries includes: a large contusion and scratch on anterior left thigh, two 4-inch scratches on anterior ribcage below left pec, one 3-inch scratch on left forearm, one quarter-inch puncture on left forearm, one 3x3-inch epidermis gash also on left forearm, a half-inch gash on chin, tiny puncture on left deltoid from the tetanus shot, one injured feel-bad and traumatized psyche due to sarcastic doctor. You know, that gash on my arm is a large enough pocket to carry a golf ball. Other than that, the only problems are the puntures on my chin and arm that won't stop bleeding.

The funniest part of the whole thing was the attending physician. She really wasn't sarcastic at all, and was quite humerous. Her biggest concern was the scarring, and she made certain to tell me in voluminous detail how she was stitching to reduce scarring. Of all the things I couldn't have cared about less. My biggest worry was making sure I received the tetanus shot.

I remember getting up from the crash, and taking inventory of my injuries and thinking that these were all superficial, notwithstanding the copious amounts of blood all over my chin, arm, clothes, and ground. I sat there musing, "This isn't so bad. If I wait until Monday to go to doctor, I'll save myself around $1500!" It was the whole tetanus thing that made me change my mind-that and the two-inch patch of exposed subcutaneous and muscle. I didn't even know about the chin until looking into the mirror and seeing a red goatee instead of the usual blond.

Well, enough belly-achin'! Following is some Halloween photos and stuff...

By the way, the cupcakes were delicious!