Happy Thanksgiving!

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was probably as picture perfect as you can get with this Holiday. Brian played football in the morning. We had a small gathering of Grandparents from both sides and a young man named Troy from Elmo an Judy's ward who didn't have a place to go for Thanksgiving.

I have to hand it to Brian for being such a great cook! The meal was so wonderfully tasting because of him! I was just his helper. We ate a perfectly brined and roasted herbed turkey, sour cream and butter mashed potatoes, delicious gravy, homemade rolls, sweet potato casserole, fresh green and fruit salads, and pumpkin and apple pies. I enjoyed making a beautiful tablescape and place settings....but of course, I was so busy helping in the kitchen I didn't take a picture of any of it until we were done and the kitchen was cleaned up and we were ready to eat pie. But the kids love pie!!

I snagged this one of Brian eating leftovers the next day, which is honestly a highlight to having such a great meal! I love leftovers! My iPhone has a messed-up camera, so you'll see these purple spots on all my pictures. I gotta get a new one :)

After the meal, we played games, chatted, and put the kids to bed on time!

On Friday, we went to Santa's big event and watched Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive on the helicopter. It's always fun to see a helicopter, our kids love it, but even more fun when it's carrying Santa!! They got free reindeer hats, hot cocoa, treats, and made a Christmas card and played games while they waited. It was warm enough that by the end, we had all shed our coats.

 The helicopter was really cool! It even had read and green on it!

 After the helicopter event, we passed a Christmas tree lot and decided to get one, so we picked out a pretty Mountain Pine. The kids played hide in seek in the rest of the trees. It was fun for all. Eli is still getting over a cough :) I love Thanksgiving beacue it ushers in the Christmas season! It's such  fun time for me!

Hip Surgery (Pre-Op)

So this spring I started having pain in my hip. At first it felt like my hip was out of position and needed to pop back into place. I would get glitches of pain every once in a while, but not enough to prevent me from being active. I noticed it most on days when I was running, and back then I was running 6-8 miles 3 times a week with a long run of 10-14 miles on Saturdays. I assumed all I needed was to take a rest. So I did.

But then that pain never went away and eventually got worse. Over our boating weekend in Boise this summer, I couldn't stand up on the wake board because my hip hurt terribly bad (and that's not just an excuse to cover up my lack of wake boarding skills)! I was having trouble with kneeling on the ground to change diapers and bathing children, I couldn't even do yoga. Running was out of the question. Little things that I had taken for granted and didn't take much thought of like changing directions and bending over to weed the garden was now painful.

I decided it was time to search out an orthopedic sports medicine specialist. I was hoping a prescriptive anti-inflammatory and rest would be his recovery plan for me, but I wasn't so lucky. Through X-rays, CT scans and MRI's, we learned that I had a labral tear on the cartilage surrounding my hip joint. I also had a mis-shapen femur that was causing some damage to the hip joint... a condition called Femoral Acetabular Impingement, FAI. I also had hip bursitis and Sacroiliac dysfunction! In short, my hips were messed up! Surgery would be required. I couldn't have been more shocked to hear that at age 34 I was gong to need hip surgery! WHAT?

I've been doing physical therapy since to help heal what needs healed and strengthen what needs strengthened. I've had to rest from all physical activity, which has been a serious mental struggle for me! The last four months have been as much of a mental challenging as it has been physical. This is a series of photos Zoey took while she was with me at a PT session. Here, they have sensors attached to my legs to calculate what joints and muscles are taking impact, how intense, and how different from Left vs. Right side. All the data gets put into a computer program and renders up a digital image of me. The data should help in my recovery when I begin to build up my strength for physical activity again to prevent future injuries. Neat.

On December 30th I will go in for surgery. It's just a scope, but I've been told the first month is really hard. I'm relying on my mom and Brian to help me through it. The first week will have me in bed 24/7, being rotated 4 times a day to my stomach. I won't be able to pick up children, twist, or sit much for 4 weeks. I will be on crutches for a month. I'm hoping for better.

Although it takes a full year to expect a full-recovery, I should be strong enough to start doing yoga and some other activities within a few months post-op. I'm excited for that. For now, I get to enjoy the holidays without trying to recover...and my recovery will be in the thick of winter. It's a win-win. I'm told I should be running again by summer...to some degree anyway :)

 I've never had surgery before. I've never had a broken bone before! I've never had an injury that rest didn't cure. I'm really nervous about the surgery and the recovery but looking forward to getting my life back. And even though getting active again without pain gets me excited, I'm more excited to handle my daily responsibilities of being a mom without pain.

Daddy-Kid dates

This is a guest post from Dad. This last spring I told the three oldest kids that I would take them each on *two* on-on-one dates over the summer months. They were all so excited - as was I. We spent a Sunday afternoon drawing pictures of all of our date ideas and then each of the kids picked their top two ideas that they wanted to do together. It made for a busy, but super-dangly dad-gum awesome summer. I love each one of them SOOOOOOOO much!! It was a total pleasure for me to be able to spend some special time with each of them making some special memories. Here are some photos, from top to bottom:

- Strawberry Days Carnival with Zoey - riding the Ferris wheel has become a tradition that we do every year.

- Kayaking the Provo River with Eli - favorite parts were seeing a deer in the water and Eli falling asleep after we fell in the river together. 

 - Kayaking the Provo Rover with Jackson - he wanted to do all the rowing himself and he was surprisingly good!

- Deer Valley outdoor princess concert with the Utah Symphony and Broadway singers doing favorite songs from all of Zoey's favorite Disney movies, including Tangled, Frozen, Princess and the Frog, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, The Little Mermaid and more. Zoey had been looking forward to this one for so long and waiting patiently for me when I got home to pick her up. We took a picnic dinner and both had an amazingly special evening. Zoey was 100% entranced and I loved seeing her sing along. It was the best to spend such a great evening with my little princess!! Mom even did her hair in my favorite way ever - piggy-tails with plumeria flowers. 

- 32 mile Utah Rides for Cancer bike ride with Jackson. This was a great date that I was so glad that Jackson chose. We trained all summer leading up to it and he did great! He is such an amazingly little rider. He was by far the youngest rider in the entire event and everybody there was so impressed with him. The whole family came to the finish line to cheer for us and it made us both feel pretty special. I think it was great for him to do something so hard and rewarding. Jackson has always been such an independent boy and this ride was no different - he always wanted to ride in front of me so that he could be the one to find and follow the green arrows that marked the route that took us from Provo, south around East Bay to Springville and out near Lake Shore and towards Benjamin. 

- Camping with Eli on Timpooneke Road. This was a great overnight camping trip with Eli. He is a great camping buddy. We loved setting up camp and hiking around for fire wood and talking about all the animals that might be in the forest. We had a great dinner consisting of tin foil dinners that Chelsea made us - she makes the best tin foil dinners in the Universe - and s'mores. I enjoyed  telling  Eli the story of how I asked Chelsea to marry me and showing him the exact spot.  I loved watching him go to sleep at night looking up at the stars and then watching him wake up in the morning and snuggling while the sun came up through the trees. It was a great way to end a special summer.  

Can she be Six Already?!?!

When we asked her on camera before singing her birthday song how old she was-- she tried to sneak in an extra year and say 7! ha ha!

We wrapped her door the night before so she could burst through it in the morning. She ripped through it like a wild woman! It was one of her highlights...although it wasn't a total surprise because I had to warn her what I was up to so she wouldn't get freaked out if she tried to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night :)

We enjoyed the day together, went out to lunch and visited Jackson at school and she got to spend the day playing with her toys! Her first time out of her sick-room this week :)

 I did my best attempt at making a doll cake she'd been admiring from the grocery store. It's not without it's flaws, but it made her happy!

We love her to pieces. I'm so glad I get a girl to spoil. She had strep and croup this week and for the second year in a row, she's been sick on and around her birthday. After being on antibiotics and missing a week of school, she felt well-enough to celebrate. But by the end of the day, her voice was losing power, and she started to lose her high spirits, and we knew her body needed more rest. She was so sad her birthday had come to an end....I guess that's a good sign that it was a great day for her!

11 months!

Almost a year has gone by, I can hardly believe it! He's only in the 10th percentile for height and 20th for weight. He's a small guy, and he's one of our pickier eaters. If he doesn't like something, he just won't eat, but if he loves something, he can't stop! He's different from any of my other babies in that way. He just barely decided he likes bananas...which is usually one of the fastest things for babies to like because they are so sweet! Isaac would just spit it out... I think it's a texture thing. He loves spaghetti sauce though! He'll eat until he's so full he spits it up!

He's on the move! He loves to grasp our hands to "walk." He loves using the walker toy when it's not being used by (or taken away from) bigger siblings. He is starting to pull up to stand on anything that will support him, and sometimes tries to stand alone in a room. AND He finally got 4 teeth in with more on the way. The mysterious swallowed wood game piece never showed up, and X-rays showed a clear abdomen, so big question marks on that one!

He has learned the tricks of the trade of being the last child in the Beutler home. He throws a tantrum by laying on the floor kicking, screaming for attention, or prostrating himself on his stomach. SERIOUSLY! Why do they pick up these annoying habits?!? I don't give in to my 2 year-old when he pulls stuff like that, but somehow they think it's the way to solve their problems.

Altogether though, We love having this guy. He's more sweet than sour and gives me the BEST hugs around the neck that I just adore. He's the best baby hugger I've ever had! I'll cherish it!