Nummy!

I thought the Amaryllis was out of reach, but when I returned, I was proved wrong.
(It was much further away...he pulled it over, putting it right next to him.)

Birthday/Christmas

With Ty in the hospital all weekend of the 18th - Zack's birthday on the 20th was pretty uneventful but thankfully it doesn't take much to make a 3 year old excited. He LOVED his birthday and kept singing "Happy Birthday to Zacky!" He loved opening his presents and wanted to eat at Chick Fil-A for dinner, which was easy and Free! Pat gave him this fuzzy pillowcase which he LOVES!! It is so cozy and soft! I can't believe he is already 3 and goes to Sunbeams next week - he is so excited and loves church and going to class so moving into sunbeams shouldn't be a problem.

Christmas Eve at Brad and Ali's -
Rich and Brad disecting the turkey and dunking it in the juices. It was a tasty turkey!

Ali made all the food - which was really good! and set a beautiful table.

The kids frosted cookies to leave for Santa

and then all the kids opened a present - they all got pajamas - which for my boys is basketball shorts.

Here is our Christmas present - We got this at the ICON charity sales event last week. It retails on NordicTrack.com for $3,000. and we got it for $800. I am so excited to have this baby and start using it.
Kade really wanted a rip stick for Christmas - he has watched his cousins ride theirs and thought they looked fun. It was a harsh reality to him that they are not as easy to ride as his cousins make it look. But he is slowly getting a little more balance and it will give him something to work on. A rip stick is like a skateboard but both ends wiggle so they are harder to learn to ride. Rich is learning to ride it as well and does pretty good on it.

Ty wanted a scooter with brakes - he LOVES it!

and Zack got a plasma car - he loves to ride it. Thankfully it was such a nice day on Christmas Day that they played outside on their new toys a lot.

We also got the XBox and Kinect - the boys are in heaven. Ty has only stopped playing if we drag him away. He LOVES the Adventure games and we rented the Kinectimals and Sports games from Blockbuster today for them to play this week. Kade loves the dancing game - and so do I, even though I am exhausted after doing 1 dance :) Zack has tried to play a few times but usually gets kicked off by Ty and ends of watching.

We had a great Christmas - the boys played Kinect all day, I worked on and finished a 750 piece puzzle all day. It was so nice and relaxing to hang out at home and play all day. Now that Christmas is past I need to get things ready for this baby. I am scheduled to be induced on the 31st but my Dr. will start me anytime after 37 weeks if I am at a 4. I am 34 weeks now and he is measuring almost 6 lbs.

Christmas in Kentucky

We had a great Christmas in Kentucky - it was even white! The first white Christmas since 2006! The girls were very excited and proclaimed - "This is the best Christmas ever!" Pretty good endorsement. We agreed to let all the girls sleep in our room on the air mattress last night and that didn't turn out so well. Charlotte ended up in her bed. Riley slept in ours and Macie was the lone ranger on the air mattress before the dust settled. We want to thank everyone for the gifts and well wishes. This truly was the "Best Christmas Ever!"

We got the XBox w/Kinect for a family gift. Here is Riley performing one of the songs.

Home Ideas

Here are some photos with some home ideas. For Jared or anyone looking to build/remodel:

LINK

Polar Express

We hosted a Polar Express Party yesterday. Everyone invited was given a ticket and told to wear their jammies. We set chairs up like a train, read the story, drank hot chocolate and ate cookies, colored, and then SANTA came! Santa was excellent, real beard and everything! It was pretty fun. I think the kids had a good time. Charlotte always talks about sitting on Santa's lap, but when it comes down to it, she never does! Our friend, Megan Bean, had a party in Idaho Falls last year, so the idea came from her.

Update

Here is the most recent picture of Ty's lump, from today December 18th. You can see it looks a little bruised and the skin is peeling a little bit. Erica's husband Landon was right - it is a thyroglossal duct cyst. It is looking better but the skin is starting to break on the outside which we have to be very careful about. He is on oral antibiotics for 10+ days depending on how it is looking, and then surgery in 6 weeks to remove the cyst. That is right around his birthday and when this baby is due, so the end of Jan. is going to be very crazy for us. The infected cyst thankfully is sitting right in front of his adam's apple which is protecting his airway - so he has no problem eating, drinking or breathing. The nurses and Dr.'s tell us that a lot of patients with this have labored breathing and are on oxygen and have a hard time eating and drinking. The boys are loving all the yummy food the nurses bring them - our nurses have been so nice and always bringing in toys and games and crafts for the kids to do.
The hospital bed is a big hit with everyone. All three squeezing in to watch a movie - this didn't last long before someone was yelling or mad about being squished.
There is a playstation 2 hooked up in Ty's room - they have a bunch of different games to choose from and I think these guys have played most of them. They usually only play for about 15 min. and then realize they don't know how to play that game and request a different one.
Ty gets to order as much food as he wants, when ever he wants. He is loving it! This was his breakfast the other day and he ate every bite of it. He orders fruit smoothies, rice krispie treats, brownies, nachos, root beer floats - they have pretty much everything.
Ty loved riding in the wheel chair when we went up to the hospital room from the emergency room.
This was after he got his IV - he hated that! It took 3 of us to hold him down. He had to have the IV taken out today because he was getting a red streak up his hand which they said was common with IVs in hands that meds are going through. So we had to go through the whole process again of putting an IV in the other hand. But it is in now and he is back to good. :)
He has blood drawn every morning for labs and the ENT Dr. comes in every morning to check his throat. Ty's labs are all back to normal and they sent him home this morning - the 19th. He is so excited to be home and we are excited to be out of the hospital.

The Lump

Ty's basketball team had their last game Tues. night - Ty missed the last 3 games because of this throat issues. I was worried about something hitting his throat and he'd hear me talking and then he'd get all nervous about it and start crying. He got a medal and certificate for playing and a team picture of the Jazz and his team picture plus a snack.Ty got a really sore throat last week and it got so swollen he couldn't lift or turn his head. When I took him to the Dr. it was so sore and swollen they couldn't look down his throat but the step test came back negative. He started a steroid to help the swelling go down and we went back to the dr. two days later for them to look again. The strep test came back this time with a weak positive so they started him amoxicillin. I noticed his neck was swollen on Wed. but by Friday it have moved up higher in his throat and got bigger and red on the outside. I had a dr. in our ward look at it on Sun. and I took Ty into him today to have him look again. The antibiotics aren't helping the lump and it seems to be getting bigger and more red.
Here is a picture of the lump - this was taken Tues. the lump looked a little bigger and more red this morning. We went into the Dr. this morning and there is a number of things it could be and he'll need an ultrasound or CAT scan to determine what it is. So we meet with the Ear, Nose, Throat Dr. on Mon. for now he is starting a stronger antibiotic that is for more serious infections. It could be an infected gland that may need to be drained or some type of cyst that would need surgically removed, or could be something with his thyroid - there are a lot of possibilities, but the procedure to go with any of those doesn't sound very kid friendly.

Zack is obsessed with basketball jerseys. He is always stealing Kade or Ty's and wearing them around. I found this little Utah Jazz one at Kid to Kid for $2.99 and Zack was so excited to have his own basketball jersey and wears it everyday now. I found Ty a Jazz shirt too for 3.00. They are playing their defense game in this picture.

Zack got a birthday card in the mail from my sisters family and has been so excited to pretend to read it. He is so excited for his birthday and tells everyone we see that he is 3! We are having a big family birthday party/christmas party at my sisters in Rexburg this weekend. Zack has the same birthday as my sister Heidi and brother Scott.

We put up our Christmas Tree!

This pretty much sums up my feelings about Christmas decorations:

Andrew's Birthday

Yesterday was Andrew's birthday. Here are some pictures of the festivities (today).


Andrew enjoying his birthday cupcake.

Some video of Andrew with his birthday present. He's been walking for about 2 months now.

Dad needs a new mouse for christmas . . .

If you have ever seen him "click" you know why . . .
Happy Birthday Riley ; )

KY Address

Since you will all be sending us a Christmas card this year, here is our new address:

4231 Springhurst Lane
Owensboro, KY
42303.

If you are reading Dalemart, you must be a friend or relative - so I expect one from everyone :)

Riley had her big 7th birthday this week. She opened presents earlier when Grandma and Grandpa Johnson were here, then she got a gift for the whole family - a basketball hoop for the backyard, so on her actually day we weren't planning much; then she had a sad meltdown on Saturday about missing her "real" friends in Idaho. Of course, it broke our little hearts, so we had to plan more for the big day. Todd took her out to breakfast at the Waffle House before school on Monday, then, when she got home, I took her to get a pedicure. She was soo excited! She loved every minute of it. She even insisted on wearing flip-flops to school the next day to show them off. It was cold and pouring, but that didn't stop her!

She kept talking about how the flowers were just like the ones Morgan gets when she gets pedicures :)

Thanks to everyone who called on her b-day. She couldn't stop talking about how she was on the phone all night talking to everyone!

Happenings...

My parents were here last week and on Monday we went to Nashville and took the kids to the Science Museum - it was a good time.

Riley posing as a paleontologist.

It was 76 degrees in Nashville on Monday!

Macie is thrilled to take this picture.

Where's Macie?

Riley and Valerie did the "Moon Walk Ride". I'm still not sure the point, but Riley enjoyed it.

We had an early birthday party for Riley and she got a Barbie with a glitter blow dryer. There is now glitter on every surface of our house.

Carver at Reid's Orchard.

More Carver...

The weather was great and some of the trees are still very colorful. Things have turned for the worse - we got about 2 inches of rain today.