Zander's Surgery

In my last post I wrote that nothing worth posting had been happening but I forgot that I hadn't posted that Zander had surgery on February 1st. Since he was a newborn he has had a hydrocele, which is fluid on the testicle. His doctor told us that it would go away by the time he was about a year old. It wasn't going away and was causing him pain sometimes.

We took him to Primary Children's in Salt Lake where Dr. Cartwright explained that he had a communicating hydrocele which means the fluid was moving back and forth between his abdomen and his testicles because the tube that the testicles come down when he was a fetus never closed off. So we scheduled surgery and the doctor told us that while they were doing the surgery they would check the other side to see if it need repaired as well. It did, so they repaired it and now he has two nice looking scars to show for it.

We couldn't have asked for a better boy for the whole process. Haylie stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Oberholtzer's house the night before the surgery and Dave and Zander and I stayed with my brother Darin in West Jordan. I was worried because Zander couldn't have anything to eat or drink the morning of the surgery and he is kind of a stickler for his morning milk. He didn't seem to care too much and luckily there were plenty of toys and other things to see at the hospital once we got there so he wasn't thinking about being hungry. The surgery took about 45 minutes and then they let one of us go back to see him. I went back and he was just waking up when I got back there and he was pretty upset. He was disoriented and nothing would help until Dave came back with his blankie and Rufus (his stuffed dog). I should have thought to bring those with me to begin with!

We left the hospital less than an hour later and he wanted to get down and walk in the parking lot. He only took his pain medication 3 or 4 times. He was a little sore but otherwise you would have never known he had just had surgery. What a resilient little guy! He sure looked cute in his little hospital jammies!

Bowling and Mohawks

It's been awhile since I have posted anything. We haven't really been doing anything that I felt was worthy of a post on the blog. Life is kind of dull here at times, but we try to have some fun. This past Saturday we decided to take the kids bowling. We took them a few weeks ago but I didn't bring a camera last time. Everyone had a good time. We weren't on a lane with bumpers so I am glad that neither of the kids care if they knock pins down or not. Zander was shaking with excitement because at this bowling alley the balls are returned above ground so you can see them roll all the way back. After we got home Dave decided to give Zander a haircut. We had been noticing that his hair naturally stands up in the middle and lays down more on the sides so he had a bed head/mohawk look no matter how you combed it. Dave decided to give him a real mohawk since that is how his hair wants to lay anyway. It looks pretty cute for a mohawk. We will see how long it stays.

Christmas

Our plan for Christmas this year was to go visit Dave's family in Wyoming. As the day we were supposed to travel got closer the weather forecast got worse and worse. We finally decided the day before we were supposed to leave that we weren't going to risk going on snowy roads. Most of what we would have to travel to get there is highway and several mountain passes that are treacherous in good weather. So we quickly changed plans, went grocery shopping for some holiday meals and made the best of our first Christmas in Price. We were able to connect to Grandma and Grandpa Holzer via Skype so they got to see the kids opening presents. It was a nice Christmas but a little lonely not being around any family. I also didn't get many pictures taken of Christmas morning in all the excitement. Haylie got a Littlest Pet Shop Clubhouse and a Tag Reader from Santa and Zander got a race track for cars and a bus and dump truck that are bigger for pushing around.
Before Haylie even looked at the gifts she had to check to see that Santa ate his cookies and drank the Hot Cocoa.
Haylie and Dad checking out the Tag reader.
A Christmas Explosion!!
We got to have Christmas Morning all over again on the Wednesday after Christmas. This time Santa was wearing Brown and came in a big truck instead of a sleigh. Our gifts from Wyoming arrived!! 5 huge boxes! They sure spoiled us. The main gift for our whole family was a Wii! We have had lots of fun with it already. Thanks again Holzers!


We had the traditional Oberholtzer fondue for Christmas Eve and then decided to enjoy some delicious Chocolate Fondue! Yummy! Notice how clean Zander's face is compared to Haylie's. Just another way they are complete opposites.

Haylie's 4th Birthday

Haylie turned 4 on December 1st. She was pretty sure that she would all of the sudden be able to read and tie her shoes on the day she turned 4. Luckily the excitement of her party made her forget because she would have been disappointed. She chose a puppy party at our apartment for her party. I kept my homemade cake tradition up with a puppy cake and managed to keep 6 little girls occupied for an hour and half for the party. We played Pin the Tail on the Doggie and Doggie Doggie Where is your Bone. Here are some current facts about Haylie. She loves dogs and puppies. She still pretends that she is a dog but not quite as often. She knows all the letters and sounds, can rhyme, and even spell some words with a little help. She loves to go to preschool and often asks us to raise our hand if we want something and not call out. At least she is learning the rules if nothing else! She loves to play with Polly Pockets, Barbies, her brother Zander, and her newly acquired Littlest Pet Shop toys. We love you Haylie!!

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures taken over Thanksgiving by my niece, Janelle. She is pretty talented and is awesome for doing it for us, especially since our kids are not exactly the easiest to take pictures of. I don't think Zander actually held still once!

Thanksgiving...a little late!

We spent Thanksgiving with my parents and some of my family members in Perry, UT. My whole family goes there every other year for Thanksgiving but this was the off year so it was just a few of us. My brother Darin, us, my niece Janelle and her roommate, and my parents were there for Thanksgiving and then by brother Ryan and his wife Arika and their baby Afton came on Friday. It was a fun and relaxing weekend. We played lots of games, and lots of delicious food and had lots of good laughs. The only down side was that Haylie was sick the entire time we were there. She got sick on Tuesday and we thought she was better on Wednesday afternoon so we loaded up and went. We walked in my parents house and she looked and everyone and then proceeded to throw up all over me. It is times like these that I realize just how glamorous my life is. Cleaning up all kinds of bodily fluids is really the ultimate display of love for someone. It is a good thing that when you become a mother you get some sort of super power to deal with totally gross things as long as it if from your own offspring!

Getting ready for dinner

Poor sick Haylie. At least I got a nap too!
Haylie perked up a little for dinner.

Honesty List

My friend Rebecca passed this on to me and after reading her list I thought it might be fun to do so here we go.

Honesty-list ten honest things about yourself.

1. I am a terrible housekeeper. I don't quite understand myself because if I know I have someone coming over I can clean the house in record time but if it is just my family things can get pretty ugly before I find motivation to clean. I feel so much better in a clean house so I don't know why I don't make it more of a priority. Maybe it is the two tornadoes that follow me around undoing everything I do!

2. I have an amazing memory for song lyrics. Especially dorky jingles from old commercials and TV Shows and songs from my childhood. I often sing them when they are in my head. It drives Dave crazy but I don't do it to bother him, they are just in my head!

3. I cried at the beginning of each school year until I was in 9th grade. I would try to explain why but there really is not a good reason. I just pray that I don't have any children like myself. My mom and dad are wonderful people for putting up with it. I always thought as a teacher I would be more understanding of my students on the first days of school but I was surprisingly impatient.

4.I regret not playing volleyball in college. I had an opportunity and didn't take it because at the time I was completely burned out on volleyball. If I would have known all the different ways I would be involved in it later in my life I think I would have pursued playing.

5. I would rather inconvenience myself than someone else. I don't like to ask for help and there have been many times when I think "why didn't I just ask for some help?"

6. I could take a nap everyday. This was great when I had two kids that napped everyday. I could catch a few minutes to re-energize myself. I am probably a little lazy, but sometimes 2:00 rolls around and I can barely keep my eyes open. I must have inherited this from my dad. He is the greatest napper that ever lived!

7. I have a glass of milk almost every night before I go to bed. Ok, since this in an honesty list, I also have a little treat with my milk, some cookies or a brownie. In fact, I should be getting some right about now...

8. I am not sure if I want to be a classroom teacher anymore. I loved my days of teaching, and I am good at it, but I also think I could be happier doing something else. I am not a good classroom manager. I like the theory a lot more than the practice.

9. I wish I didn't care what people thought of me but the truth is that I do. I have noticed that as I get older it matters to me less and less. I always wonder, but spend a lot less time worrying about it these days!

10.I have an unreasonable fear of spiders. Since I have children to protect now I have become a lot more brave and don't freak out quite as much. I hate squishing them worse than seeing them. When I was growing up and would get home after my parents were in bed I remember waking my dad up to come kill a spider for me. Luckily Dave has pity on me and kills them when he is around now.

There you go. That was kind of fun. I pass this on to whoever want to try it out. Another honest fact about myself--I hate making decisions so I don't know who to pick! Just do it if you want!