November 2015

There’s not much to report for November from our house. There was a lot of the same going on here. School, running, homework, more homework, dance, more dance, orthodontist appointments, BYU football (and USU football for Megan), etc.

Probably the biggest event we have had going on is Autumn’s deep tissue abscess in her neck (at least that’s what the doctors think it is) and trying to figure out how to make it go away. It all started at the end of October when Autumn got sick with a sore throat and fever, and what appeared to be a swollen lymph node in her neck. Her doctor did a strep test which came back positive, so she had a penicilin shot and we thought that would be the end of it. A week later, she still wasn’t feeling any better and late Saturday night, she spiked a high fever and the lump in her neck became even more swollen and hot to the touch. After talking to the nurse on call, we took her to the ER, where they started her on an IV, did a CT scan of her neck and after determining that she had a deep tissue abscess, started her on IV antibiotics and sent us home with enough IV antibiotic to get us through the next few days.





Before this experience, we had no idea you could do IV antibiotics at home. It was so much more convenient than going back to the ER every 6 hours and was actually pretty simple to do at home. We are so grateful for that!





We then met with an ENT who switched her to oral antibiotics and assured us it would be gone in a week. A week later when it hadn’t gone away, they added a second, more powerful antibiotic and again sent us home. A week later it still hadn’t changed, so we went in for an ultrasound and the ENT decided to take some of the fluid out of Autumn’s neck to send it in to be cultured so they could know exactly what bacteria we are fighting and prescribe the right antibiotic to kill it. Let’s just say the draining procedure was quite painful and Autumn is tough as nails for getting through it.






That was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and the doctor sent us home to wait for the results of the culture. He gave us a prescription for an antibiotic “just in case” Autumn took a turn for the worse over the holiday. Sure enough, on Thanksgving night her fever came back and her neck was hurting again, so Bryce drove to Provo to get the prescription filled at a pharmacy that was actually open on Thanksgiving. We are still watiting for the culture results, and the antibiotic is working well enough to keep Autumn’s fever away but the lump remains as large as ever. Poor Autumn is so ready for some answers and to hopefully get rid of the lump she has somewhat affectionately named “Neck-Bob”. We are all ready to stop waiting and get it taken care of.




This is what Neck-Bob looks like today, December 4th. :(

We did have an awesome Thanksgiving weekend with everyone home for the first time in 3 years. We ate lots of delicious food, played games, went to the movies, decorated for Christmas and even did a little Christmas shopping (BEFORE thanksgiving). Of course, I didn’t take a single pictures of any of the fun we had, but it really was super great, especially getting to be together as a family!! It was so fun to have Megan and Devin home for a few days!



Oh, and Seth has started his religious culture unit in AP Human Geography and is loving it. I took him and a few friends to the Calvary Baptist church a couple of Sundays ago and we all loved rocking out with the rock band at church. :) Bryce is taking him to a Jewish Synagogue for a Shabbat service tonight and then we’ll be going to a Catholic Mass soon and Seth and Autumn are planning to go do Yoga together at the Hindu temple over Christmas break.

Hope you all have the merriest of Christmas seasons!! I promise to have more pictures next month - hopefully including one of Autumn’s neck without Neck-Bob. :)

October 2015

October is my favorite month of the year and this October did not disappoint. Here’s a look at some of the things we did:

Autumn celebrated her birthday and officially became a teenager. One of the things she really wanted for her birthday was to redo her room and make it a little more grown up. She loves the final results. Here are a few before and after pictures:











She also celebrated with a party with a few of her favorite friends. We had a pizza dinner and took the girls to a movie, but I think they mostly just took selfies and giggled.











Seth finished the cross country season with a personal best run at regionals. He’s improved a lot through the season and is now looking forward to track season in the spring.





Autumn and I went to see “Thriller” with some friends. We had a fun dinner before the show and Autumn and her friends enjoyed the zombies (several of whom are their friends from dance). They also loved seeing one of their dance teachers perform in the show. If you are ever in SLC in October, you should definitely go see the show - it’s scary and fun and so cool.











We stayed in town this year for our fall break since Devin doesn’t get a fall break at BYU and Megan only gets one day off. When Megan realized that her one Friday off was also a day Seth and Autumn had off, she convinced Devin to play hooky from classes for that day and the four kids met up at Lagoon for an awesome day of sibling fun and awesome roller coasters. They were all a little afraid to try the newest roller coaster, "Cannibal", but all deemed it their favorite in the end. :)







While they were playing it up at Lagoon, Bryce and I took a day just for the two of us. We went to a session at the new Payson temple (gorgeous!) and then drove through the Nebo loop and enjoyed a few short hikes along the drive. It was a beautiful and fun day! Perfect fall day!









Devin and Seth went to the Mister Wives concert with one of Devin’s roommates in SLC and they all loved it.



Devin was super excited when he was finally able to isolate the phage he has been searching for in his research on honeybees. He has since isolated it’s DNA and sent it out for sequencing. I think it’s pretty cool that he has discovered a unique organism’s DNA as a college freshman. He and Megan are both loving their classes at BYU and USU and are both doing really well. Seth and Autumn both finished the first school term with straight A’s. Payoff for all that hard work!

I spent 2 days at the World Congress on Families in Salt Lake. Bryce joined me for one of those days and the other day I went with a couple of girlfriends. It was an awesome experience and I am so glad I went.

We had fun enjoying the Halloween festivities. Autumn dressed as a nerd for one party, dressed as Minnie Mouse for her dance dress up day and then settled on Captain America for dressing up at school and two more Halloween parties. Seth chose Captain America mostly because it meant that he could wear his pajamas to school. :)













We ended the month with one super happy husband and dad as Bryce and the rest of our Bishopric were released from their callings. I’m not sure I’ve seen Bryce smile so much in a single day. It will be so nice to have him back on Sundays. :)

September 2015

I think we did a bunch of stuff in September, but if you look at the photos I took for the month, all we did was cross country, so I guess I’ll start there.

Seth had weekly meets for cross country and has been having a good season, getting lots of exercise and making good friends. His personal best (and thus his favorite) race so far was the BYU Autumn Invitational. He led the entire group of boys for the first mile and beat his old PR by nearly a minute. Here are a few pictures of his races:


Seth by the BYU track before the start of the BYU invitational


Start of the BYU invitational




Leading the pack at mile one


Running the Murray Invitational - it was over 90 degrees and a hilly course - not Seth's favorite race, but he still did great!


Seth with his good friends Howie and Chris after the Wasatch Rendezvous meet

Autumn is staying busy with dance, hanging out with friends and managing homework and study time for her classes. She is hardly ever home, but when she is, she loves to spend time playing games with all of us and catching up on cooking/home remodel shows. :) She also worked with Megan over the past month or so to sew this cute blanket.



Devin is loving life as a college freshman. We don’t see him too often, but he did come home this past weekend for General Conference, along with 3 of his roommates. It was great to get to know them better - he has good guys for roommates. We also got to have Ellie come spend the weekend with us as she came down to Provo to see some friends and then spent Saturday and Sunday watching conference with us. It was a full house and so much fun! Plus a weekend of inspiration listening to our Church leaders - so great!


Ellie, Autumn, Mark (one of Devin's roommates), Seth and Devin



Seth had a special Patriot’s Day choir concert, which is one of my favorite concerts of the year. Makes you proud to be American. I volunteered to help with the choir robes this year, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time at the school getting 250+ choir kids sized and assigned their robes for the year.

We actually saw more of Megan than we did of Devin since she has to come down every couple of weeks for either post-op or orthodontic appointments. She is continuing to heal and is back to a normal diet. The good news is that her jaw has healed and did not retract, so her bite is perfect and she can now bite into foods and actually have them break apart, which is huge. She is working on putting weight back on now that she has a completely unrestricted diet again. She is loving her classes at USU and is confident she has chosen the right major for herself, which is a relief to her. :)

Bryce and I went to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival’s Laughing night for a date and had a great time laughing at the funny stories and amazing storytellers. If you ever have a chance to go to a storytelling festival, you should.



Other than that we watched some BYU football, did a whole lot of homework (mostly Seth - he has some very challenging classes this year, but says it’s his favorite year of school ever since he is finally not bored and loves his classes. For Seth, this is huge - he has never been a fan of school until now), and celebrated Bryce’s birthday (low-key the way he likes).

P.S. I wanted to get one cute picture of our kids when we went up the canyon for a picnic. Here’s what I got instead. I’m pretty sure they never stop being toddlers. :)









Have a great October - my favorite month of the year!!