Steve.... "I'll be "BACK"...

Steve had back surgery last Monday.  He has been dealing with sciatic pain down his left leg caused by a herniated disk. They had tried twice to resolve it by removing the material that had come out of the disk and unfortunately the disk herniated again following his surgery this past Thanksgiving. So, the recommendation was to fuse the two vertebrae together. This surgery was much more of a significant surgery than in the past, but based on all the information, we felt it was the right thing to do. Brooklyn didn't have to go to school Monday because it was a holiday. So she went with us to the hospital. I am so glad that she was with me as we waited for Steve to get out of surgery. The surgery took 5 1/2 hours. That's a long time to be waiting.

 

This was a picture that I took about 2 hours after surgery. We couldn't see Steve until he got to his room. His face is all puffy and swollen because he was laying face-down for 5 1/2+ hours during surgery. But he looked great to us.

 

On day two Steve was up and walking. He says that the most painful part was learning how to get up and out of bed - as he has to be careful not to twist and moving that way was painful. He got a balloon bouquet delivered from my mom and dad. The balloons definitely brightened up his room. Thanks mom and dad!

 

Steve ate all his meals sitting up in a chair...doctors order!

Check out the view from Steve's hospital room. We were right by the water - Everett marina area - and we could even see the top of Mt. Baker. So beautiful.

I spent every day at the hospital with Steve. Even being in pain Steve kept me and the nurses laughing! Steve tried to blame the jokes he told on the pain killers he was taking, but we all know he doesn't need pain killer to be funny. 

On day three after the doctor stopped by to check in on him he gave him the ok to go home. YAHOO! Later that afternoon he was discharged. 

Going home! Now nurse Cynthia gets to take over his care!

Steve has been resting and moving very slowly at home. One of our good friends, Howie dropped by yesterday and delivered some Baskin Robbins ice cream to Steve. Thanks Howie! You are the best! And our good friend Sarah brought us homemade chicken enchiladas for dinner! They were yummy! Thanks Sarah!
 
It's great to have friends that know what you need - just something to pass the time until you feel better. Thanks Linda and Lance!

 

This afternoon UPS delivered a box from Cookie Bouquet.

It was a bouquet of whale and palm tree cookies from his Sister Cheri and their family in Georgia. On one of the cookies it says, "Get Whale Soon". So cute. Thanks Georgia Clan!

 

Steve's brother Shane and his wife Kristin sent him a box of chocolate dipped strawberries. Oh yum! They were so good. Thanks Shane and Kris.  

The Hammond kids knew exactly what to get me to help with my recovery. Something any kid might like. Legos! Thanks Ryan, Heather and family.

Steve will be off from work for at least 2 weeks and he will be on strict restrictions for 3 months of no bending, twisting or lifting. It's going to be difficult to keep Steve from doing that once he starts feeling better. But so far the sciatic nerve pain is gone so we are hopeful that the surgery was a success.  

Thank you for your prayers, text messages, e-mails and phone calls. It's nice to have such awesome families and amazing friends.

Mackenzie's off to college

After Christmas we had a week to pack, shop and prepare to take Mackenzie up to BYU-Idaho.

 

A few day before we left Mackenzie wanted to go to Dicks Drive-In one last time for hamburgers and shakes.

One last cooking class.

We made 2 trips to Walmart and 1 to target to buy everything she would need for her apartment. Here are Steve and Mackenzie packing up the car the night before we left. 

 

We were definitely packed full! One of Mackenzie's friend, Bailey rode back with us to Rexburg. It was a fun trip there with these 3 funny girls. 

 

Mackenzie is living in the Nauvoo House apartments. Her friend Bailey lives just a few blocks away. 

Early Friday morning we checked Mackenzie into her apartment and the unpacking began.

Here we are opening all her new kitchen tools.

Steve even got in on the unpacking action!

This is the view outside the apartment family room. It was so so cold. But clear as can be.

Here is Steve hanging up all the decorations in Mackenzie's room. 

Brooklyn saying good bye to Mackenzie. She is really going to miss her sister.

Here we are saying one last good-bye. Don't look to close at the picture or you may see Mackenzie's mama with a tear or two.

 
We were in Rexburg for 2 days. We had a great time getting Mackenzie settled into her apartment and stocking her up with groceries. The BYU-I campus is beautiful and we know that Mackenzie will have a great time there. Our house seems so quiet with her gone. But we are happy for her and are excited to hear all about the adventures she'll have for the next 7 months living in Rexburg, Idaho.

Skiing

A few days after Christmas Mackenzie and Brooklyn went skiing up at Snoqualmie pass. Because Steve's back hasn't healed completely since his back surgery we decided it wasn't a good idea for the two of us to ski with them. So we drove the girls up and dropped them off.

We got them all set up and ready to go and then we left and went back down the mountain to Bellevue to shop and run errands.

We took Kia with us for the day. Before we left the girls we decided to let Kia out to play in the snow. That was a mistake. Once she saw the girls she wanted to go with them up the mountain. She is such a fun dog and loves to play.

Steve and I had a great time hanging out together while the girls were skiing. We went to Deseret Book to return something and while we were there we bought us some BYU - Roasted Almond Fudge ice cream. It tasted so good. 

Mackenzie and Brooklyn had a fun day skiing together. They hadn't gone skiing in a few years but it didn't take them very long to get the hang of it again. We're glad that they got to share a fun day together.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Eve baking, relaxing and playing games together.

We had our traditional fondue dinner that night.

Christmas Eve pictures.

Me with by beautiful girls. 

 

After dinner we watched a video about the birth of our Savior and read from the scriptures. Then it was time to unwrap one gift...new jammies! Our silly girls got footie pajamas. Mackenzie's were sharks and Brooklyn's were zebra's. They love footie jammies in the winter.  

Then we sat down to read our new Christmas Book. This year we read new book by President Monson called "The Christmas Train". Such a great book. We finished off Christmas Eve by watching the movie The Christmas Story.

Mackenzie is always the first one up in our house on Christmas morning. She came running into our room at 6:00 to try and get us up but we just couldn't get out of bed yet. So she went back to bed until 7:30.

 We had a fun morning taking our time seeing what Santa brought, opening gifts and having a yummy breakfast.

 

 Brooklyn laying in a pile of wrapping paper and boxes!

For dinner that night we had prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes, cranberry salad and homemade rolls. Everyone helped with making dinner. As you can see none of us got out of our pajamas all day. It was awesome. It was fun talking with our families on the phone that day. We had a nice Christmas and enjoyed spending the day together as a family.

Quick trip to Utah for Adrianne's Wedding

The day after my birthday we flew out to Utah for our nieces wedding.

When we landed in Salt Lake City, Kristin, one of our sister-in-laws called us and asked us if we wanted 4 tickets to go see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert that evening. Her neighbor had 4 tickets that they weren't able to use. Of course we said YES!

We grabbed a bite to eat and then went and walked around Temple Square and looked at all the pretty Christmas lights until it was time to head to the concert in the conference center.

 

The concert was amazing. Probably one of the best Christmas concerts we have ever seen. Thanks Kris! After the concert we went to Leatherby's for ice cream.

 

We spent most of the day Friday shopping. The girls and I love to shop in Utah. Steve was a good sport and tagged along with us most of the day. Part way through the day we dropped Steve off at Grandma and Grandpa's place so he could visit with them.

Ever since Steve's mom had a stroke a few years ago she lost the use of her left arm. She has always loved sewing and making things and yet she hasn't been able to do any of that since her stroke. In early December Steve made this cool vise tool thing for his mom so that she could stitch some felt Christmas mitten ornaments with her one good hand all on her own.  She made a lot of mittens over the holidays and was having a great time. We were so proud of her.  

Here they are with one of the many pairs of mittens that she made. Pretty cool!
That evening we met all of Steve's brothers and their wives up in Salt Lake for dinner. Mackenzie, Brooklyn and some of the older girl cousins went shopping at the mall while we had dinner.

Saturday morning we woke up to snow. It was so pretty. Adrianne and Matt were married in the Salt Lake temple at 8:30 that morning. It was a beautiful ceremony and so fun to be inside the temple with all of Steve's family.

Mackenzie and Brooklyn with their cousin McCall.

That afternoon they had a wedding reception in Lindon. They had a live jazz band - it was fun to dance and see relatives we haven't seen in a long, long time.Here is Brooklyn dancing with Uncle Kevin (the handsome father of the bride)!

Mackenzie taking a dip from Uncle Chad. Chad is quite the dancer.

Grandma LeBaron with some of her cute grandkids.

Steve even took his mom out on the dance floor for a spin.

Mackenzie, Chelsey, Brooklyn and Jenna. Such beautiful girls.

Mackenzie and Brooklyn with the beautiful bride Adrianne.

Steve, Grandma, Cynthia and Scott watching the bride and groom cut the cake and throw the bouquet and garter.

That evening Steve's family got together at a church and played games, had dinner and enjoyed being together. Uncle Brad made a huge pinata for all the kids to break. It was Yukon Cornelius, one of the characters from the original Rudolph movie.So cute.

 We flew back home early Sunday morning. It was a quick trip but so fun to be there for Adrianne's wedding and to see family.