I had such a fun time being home with my family! I missed my husband like crazy, but it was so fun to just do the girl stuff with my sisters, things which Tom would have gotten very bored with!!! I was able to spend from Friday the 12th til Sunday the 21st with my family! I made it just in time for Brett and Brody's Birthday party on Saturday and it was so fun seeing everyone again! Brody was born on his Daddy's birthday, so they get to celebrate together! My mom, and Savana, and JoDee and I spent all Saturday morning decorating cakes for the party and they turned out pretty cute!
We had the party in Grandpa and Grandma Carter's basement and all of Brett's family and our family were there and it was a blast! They both got a lot of cool presents and we let Brody dig into his cake, but he didn't really think that was a good idea! What a fun day!
The decorating crew, minus Savana (who was taking the picture)
JoDee surprised Brett with a Fun-fetty Bart Simpson cake! He loved it!
Brody got a cute Giraffe cake to go along with his Giraffe Birthday!
The Birthday Boys with their cakes!
Blowing out the candles!
Brody picking at his cake!
The Birthday Boys opening gifts together!
The party crew!
I was really bad the rest of the week about taking pictures. Monday, JoDee went in for her surgery, so I went to take care of the baby! He wasn't really quite sure about being around me, since that last time we really had one-on-one time with each other was when he was born! But, after a few minutes he warmed right up and we had a GREAT time together all week! Our first day together, we went shopping and silly Aunt Crystal locked the keys in the van! Luckily my mom could come unlock it for us! I wasn't being irresponsible... I grabbed a pair of keys before shutting the door.... except they were JoDee's keys, not my mom's van keys! Oh well! We had a good time anyway!
Oh my goodness... I really can't express enough how WONDERFUL it was to have so much time with that little man! We stayed up to my parent's house during the week til JoDee got home and I loved rocking him to sleep and cuddling in the middle of the night when he woke up scared, and playing with him! I definitely got my "Brody Fill" that will hopefully last me until I get to see him again! He is talking so much and so responsive and so funny and so smart! What a cutie!
JoDee's surgery went well. They removed the Thyroid and several lymph nodes and the doctor felt very confident that they had removed everything infected with the cancer. She actually had to stay in the hospital a little longer than planned because her calcium levels were so low, and damage to the parathyroid is always a risk during this surgery. But, she munched on a lot of TUMS and took her calcium pills and she started feeling better! The doctor called her on Friday and told her the pathology came back the way they had hoped.... just thyroid cancer and nothing else was infected! That was such great news to hear! She was and still is pretty stiff and sore in her neck and chest, but I felt much better about leaving her this time around than I was this time last year after she had Brody! We spent Friday and Saturday shopping and doing crafts and just hanging out and laughing and jamming to Christmas music!!!
JoDee is starting a Iodine free diet (yeah, that doesn't sound fun at all) and she'll have to do that for several week, and they took her off her Thyroid meds too during all this, so that every thing is running "on empty" so her body will soak up the Radioactive Iodine that she will have to take to get the last of whatever may be hanging out in her neck. Then, she'll be able to start her full dose of medication and hopefully get everything back to working order. That poor girl has been through so much... but she is one tough cookie and I know she'll make it through all of this on top!!! Love you JoDee!!!
While I was in Morgan, I got to be a part of some of the festivities of their new church house. It was actually dedicated Sunday night, but I was already back in Ohio! The new building is just down the road, within walking distance of my parent's house, so that will be really nice for them!
And, when we drove to the airport on Sunday morning, white knuckled i might add, there was a foot of snow, wet, slushy snow, on the ground! It was so weird going from snow storms to 65 degree Ohio weather, all in the same day!
I had such a great time with my family.... and I haven't yet decided if it was a good thing or a bad thing that I went, because now I'm missing them and everything about beautiful Morgan Utah so much more! Can't wait to be able to go back again!!!
Ok, I forgot this part!!!! Friday night after my dad and little sisters picked me up from the airport, we all went out to dinner together. When we went back to the car, there was this HUGE truck parked next us and we couldn't resist taking pictures. They aren't the best because it was dark, but you'll get the idea!
The top of the tire comes up to Mallori's hips
They were being eaten by the truck
Look at that huge tire!
Wish it wasn't dark and the truck wasn't black so we could have gotten a really good picture of it!
