How Well Do You Know Spence?

I took exactly ZERO pictures of our holiday weekend so this post has absolutely nothing to do with Thanksgiving.  Except that I'm super grateful for my husband.  


1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?  His newest XBox 360 Game, or a Comedy

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?  Salad as a meal?  No.  He definitely got a steak.  So unless it came with a salad, none.  Otherwise, ranch

3. What's one food he doesn't like?  Fresh Tomatoes

4. You go out to eat and order a drink. What does he order?  Water or Coke

5. Where did he go to high school?  Timpview High

6. What size shoe does he wear?  12 or 12.5

7. What is his favorite type of sandwich?  One with interesting sauces.  And different meats; he likes to change it up

8. What would he eat every day if he could?  Steak or a really good hamburger

9. What is his favorite cereal?  Cinnamon Toast Crunch

10. What would he never wear?   Pointy Shoes

11. What is his favorite sports team?  Not so much into watching any sports.  More into... hiking in waterfalls or going shooting

12. Who did he vote for?   Our baby was born 2 days before the last election.  Voting was not so much on the top of our priority list... 

13. Who is his best friend?  Me!

14. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do?  Whine about him going to work all the time

15. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake?  His family's recipe of Red Cake

16. Did he play sports in high school?  Nope

17. What could he spend hours doing? Playing XBox or looking at new guns online

18. What is one unique thing about him?  He loves to teach and/or speak in public.  Weird, right?

Does everyone feel like they know him a little better now?

Exotropia Surgery

In January of this year, Sadie was diagnosed with Intermittent Exotropia.  It looks similar to a lazy eye, but a lazy eye deals with the muscles of the eye and Exotropia deals with the nerves.  Basically, Sadie's brain wasn't "talking" to her right eye, so if she looked out of each eye alone, she had fantastic vision; but if she looked through both eyes at once, she wasn't really using her right eye.

We were told that about 1/3 of the cases resolve on their own in about a year, 1/3 stay the same, and the other 1/3 get worse and require surgery to repair the problem.  We had a feeling that Sadie would be one of the 1/3 that would require surgery since we weren't seeing any improvement at home, so we weren't shocked when the doctor recommended it, but we were still scared out of our minds to be putting Sadie under anesthetic for a big surgery at such a young age.

Here we are!  10 months later, sitting in one of the waiting rooms before surgery.

All changed into her adorable, tiny surgery clothes, waiting for the doctor to do her final pre-op check up.

The nurse brought us bubbles while we waited.  So impressed with  Primary Children's!

Our tiny kid was so enamored with all the fun stuff they had to play with, she didn't even mind leaving with the surgeon and anesthesiologist when it was her turn.  They offered her a wagon or car to ride in and she just grabbed the doctor's hand and said "I wanna walk!"  So off she went with the surgeon in one hand and the anesthesiologist in the other.  Holy adorable.

 This picture breaks my heart.  Sadie had a REALLY hard time waking up from the anesthesia.  Her right eye was draining badly and she kept trying to rub it.  That's not allowed, obviously, so they put those horrid braces on her arms which made everything worse.  She wasn't able to open her eyes, couldn't move her arms and was crying and crying and crying trying to figure out what was going on and why she felt so awful. 

They finally had to give her a little dose of morphine to calm her down and once it kicked in she was Very subdued but SO MUCH happier. 

They brought her a popsicle and a sippy of water and she was a different kid.

Trying (unsuccessfully) to open her eyes...

Taking a much needed rest on the drive home.  

Sadly, just a few minutes later, she threw up her whole popsicle.  It was the only thing in her system and apparently even that was a little too much.  Poor kid.

The first time we got her to open both her eyes.  If you look closely, you can see how bloodshot and dilated her right eye is.  

She's had some hard times since coming home but is doing really well.  She forgets about the stitches in her eye and rubs it without thinking and then realizes how badly it hurts.  We also had to do eye drops for the first 5 days following surgery and they sting SO badly!  Sadie is REALLY good at taking medicine and she's never had a harder time than with these dang eye drops.  We finished them yesterday and let her throw them away so she realized she's all done.

Just 24 hours after surgery.  Her eye's still red and hard to open all the way, but look at the difference in this kid.  So much happier!

Way to go Sadie!  You did a great job!

p.s. I have to take a minute and say how incredibly impressed we were with Primary Children's in Riverton.  They were SO fantastic!  The have TONS of toys in every room (including a few XBox 360 consoles for the older kids), cars to ride in, movies to watch etc.  They made her feel right at home for being in a hospital.  They catered to our every need and even offered to put a "flavor" in her anesthetic mask while she fell asleep.  If you do have to put your child through a surgery of any kind, I HIGHLY recommend them.

Five Fantastic Years

Spencer and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on October 15th!  We wanted to do something awesome for our 5th year, but we were limited since I was 24 weeks pregnant...  We decided to drive down to Vegas for a few days and spend a whole bunch of time relaxing and just being together.  Spencer took over all the planning and he did NOT disappoint!

Let me start by saying our hotel was INCREDIBLE.  We stayed in the MGM Grand Signature Towers.  They are a new addition to MGM Grand with NO smoking in the whole building and NO casino.  They also only use valet parking, use the concierge for everything and basically don't let you lift a finger so we immediately felt very high-class.  :)

 

 We were 31 floors high, in a Penthouse Suite!

 The view from our room

We spent the first night exploring Vegas.  We've been a couple times previously, but we never went to the Coca Cola factory or the M&M factory, so they were on our list.

Made completely out of M&Ms.  Crazy!

Spencer was getting a little fresh with the Green M&M...

Angie at one of her favorite souvenir stops--a penny press!

Thanks to a great recommendation from a friend, we did the "Tastes of the World" at the Coke factory.  SO FUN!  It was 16 of the most popular drinks of other countries.  Word to the wise: stay away from the "Beverly" drink if you're ever in Italy...

Spencer surprised me (holy understatement of the century) with Prima at MGM.  It was a "Member's Only" rewards card that got us TONS of incredible stuff for the price.  He spent a certain amount of money (way too much) and then we got an extra $250 worth of free stuff just for joining.  Our room was upgraded to a Penthouse and we lived it up and did so many things we never would have done without it!

We spent one whole morning in the spa.  Spencer lounged in the sauna, hot tub and steam room while I thoroughly enjoyed my Pedicure and "Mommy To Be Massage."

Enjoying our free limo ride

Fancy anniversary dinner at Fiamma.  

The Concierge informed every restaurant in advance that it was our anniversary so we got free dessert and drinks everywhere!  SO awesome!

Enjoying our S'more Pie at Wolfgang Puck

Enjoying the sights.  Love the fountain shows at Bellagio

Top of the Eiffel Tower together

We ended our trip seeing KA by Cirque du Soleil.  Holy awesome show!  We even got free seat upgrades with our Prima card.  :)

Happy Anniversary Babe!  I love you more than ever.

Sadie's Two!

Sadie had a fantastic birthday!   She didn't quite understand why people were telling her happy birthday and she just kept saying it back to them.   :) 

Spencer and I both stayed home from work and we spent the whole day doing all of Sadie's favorite things.  We had a lazy morning at home and then started our day at the Pet Shop--one of her favorite places to go with daddy on rainy days.  :)

After she had her fill of animals we went to Partyland and let her pick out a bunch of balloons.  She really wanted a Mickey Mouse balloon and then one of every color.  We settled on 6 and left with a SUPER happy kid.

Then we went out to lunch at Wingers (for two reasons; 1-Sadie loves the popcorn and their Alfredo and 2-Spencer and I go there every year on her birthday cause that's where we were when I went into labor.  :)  Fun little tradition)

After lunch we came home for her nap (not one her favorite things...) and then headed to Chuck-E-Cheese.  We'd never been there before, but had heard it had lots of those little car things to ride in and Sadie LOVES those.  We spent just a few dollars and she got to do everything she wanted and then some.  Once again, Super Happy Kid.

We ended the day with a party at Grandma Nyman's house.  Crystal made her a "Toodles" cake from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she got to open all her presents.  She loved Every One of them!

We couldn't be happier being your parents!

Happy Birthday Darling!

Halloween 2010

I haven't even posted about our AMAZING anniversary trip and here we are with Halloween over and Sadie's birthday TOMORROW!  Too many fun things going on!

We went all out this year and went to every Halloween party anyone had and even threw one ourselves!

We started at the annual Gillespie Halloween party and Sadie loved seeing all her cousins dressed up.  It got her excited for her costume, thank heaven, cause she really hated wearing it til she saw other kids in crazy clothes too  :)

 Our adorable little pumpkin princess

(Spencer's not actually dressed up as a Police Officer.  He was on-duty the night of the party so he was only able to stop by for a little while)

 The green goblin ice hand in the punch melted in a quite hilarious fashion...

We took Sadie to 2 different Trunk-Or-Treat nights and although she really didn't understand why people were giving her candy for no apparent reason, she didn't care!  Both were inside, since it was FREEZING and raining, but no biggie to her!  She loved it!

 Adding a candy bar to her bucket

 Cheesin' it up.  Love it!

Sortin' through all her loot

Next, we carved pumpkins.  We got a pumpkin for each of us and Spencer chose our designs.

 Sadie had a great time playing in all the goo, but she got bored really fast.

 

 

Sadie decided to help mom make the pumpkin seeds while dad finished cleaning out the pumpkins and drawing on our designs.

 Carving our faces

 The end products.  Pretty sweet huh?

Last, but definitely not least, was our Halloween Party.  We worked hard this year and planned everything from black lights in the kitchen, prizes for the winners of our games and even gross names for the food.  

We had some tasty treats including Poison Apples & Ear Wax, Stomach Bile, Pus & Puke Puree and Broken Bone Breadsticks with Blood and Marrow Dipping Sauce.

We played some awesome games that Spencer created.  We had a Costume Contest, played Halloween Catch Phrase, and Shout About Halloween Movies.  We had a great time, and hope everyone else did too!

 Panda Bears (Jeff & Rachel)

 The Referee and the Magic 8 Ball  (Kyle & Natalie)

 The Traditional Brazilian, Hot Rod and Dave, Hot Rod's Sidekick (Ian, Dave & Ryan)

 The Corpse Bride (Cryst)

 The Nurse and her Patient (Anu & Jon)

And us!  Batman & Pebbles

Spencer spent a lot of time on his costume this year and it paid off!  He was a very convincing Batman, complete with the voice and all!

 

 Surprise attack from above.  Watch out Hot Rod & Sidekick Dave!

Ultimate Punch!  Anyone wanna place bets on who won??  :)

Happy Halloween Everyone!  Until next year!