New Year’s Eve

For New Year’s Eve this year we got together with a bunch of Vance’s high school friends and their wives.  These guys are so close.  I am always amazed at how they have stayed so connected after all these years.  They were all in town for the holidays (except for Pace) so we got together with them for New Year’s.  It was really great to see Jake and Hannah.  They live in Maine right now so we don’t see them very often.  Ben and Brianna are going to school at BYU.  We saw them a few times when we were living in Utah.  Greg and Jen and Eric and Amy live in Rexburg and we hang out with them quite a bit. 

It was a fun night.  We played games, ate food and toasted to the New Year early (about 9:00pm).  We had to leave early because our kids were giving Grandma and Grandpa King a run for their money back at our house.

                          Jake, Greg, Vance, Ben, and Eric

An update on Vance

Well, we have had an eventful holiday break.  It has been filled with ups and downs, but we have never felt so blessed.  Here’s the story…

Vance has had a lump on his throat for quit a while and he went in to get it checked about two weeks ago.  We really thought it was nothing and were really shocked when the doctor expressed a lot of concern and said that he needs to have it removed immediately.  He said that there is only a 20% chance that it is cancerous but told Vance that he should get it removed anyway because the more it grows the more it will start to bother him.  Well, the word CANCER kind of freaked us out so we scheduled the surgery for as soon as possible.  After they removed the growth they said that it was bigger than they thought and showed some signs of cancer.  We had to wait an agonizing 24 hours to get the results back that would tell us for sure. 

It was the day before Christmas Eve that we found out that Vance has Thyroid Cancer. At first we were really freaked out.  But the more we learned about Thyroid Cancer the more our minds were put at ease.  It is a highly curable cancer and Vance would not have to go through Chemo-Therapy.  We scheduled the surgery for Vance to have the rest of his thyroid removed the next week.  Once the thyroid is removed, Vance will have a treatment called Radioactive Oblation.  It is basically a treatment that kills all the thyroid cells in Vance’s body.  This treatment is a precautionary measure, in case the cancer has spread to other parts of his body. 

Vance’s went in for his second surgery right before New Years and we should hear back in a few days if the cancer spread to his lymphnodes.

 

This was Vance right before his second surgery.  You can see the cut in his throat from the surgery exactly one week before.  It wasn’t much recovery time before he had to go under the knife a second time.

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of him in the goofy cap they put on him as they wheeled him away.

This was right after surgery.  It was a little scary seeing him like that.  The surgery went well and his recovery has been pretty normal.  It has been a little more painful than the first surgery and he has been really tired but that is to be expected.  Once he fully recovers from the surgery he will have the Radioactive Oblation treatment.   After that, he should be okay.  He is thyroid free and hopefully cancer free!

It has been an emotional few weeks but we really feel so blessed.  We have really come to realize how precious and fragile this life is. 

Christmas Time

We had a really great Christmas this year.  We didn’t travel anywhere.  We just stayed home and enjoyed time together as a family.  It was very relaxing and just what the doctor ordered.

On Christmas Eve we decorated a Gingerbread House.  Austin was so excited.  He had a blast putting the little candies on the house (and eating them too). We had so much fun that I think we are going to make this a King Family tradition for Christmas Eve.

It turned out to be quite a masterpiece.

Later that night we went to Grandma and Grandpa King’s house for dinner.  Then we went to see Great-Grandma King and spend the rest of the evening with her and the Barry King Family.

We have carried on the tradition of opening pajamas on Christmas eve.  The boys had lots of fun ripping into their presents. It was a good warm-up for the following day!

Austin’s pajama situation is kind of sad right now so he got 3 pairs of pajamas.  He got all of his favorites, Batman, Phineas and Ferb, and Cars 2.

Vance was uncharacteristically surprised and excited to unwrap the pajamas that he picked out for himself

We really need to work on Austin’s smile.  This is the face he pulls whenever I ask him to smile for the camera.

Christmas morning was so fun this year because Austin was finally old enough to understand the concept of Santa.  Vance woke us up bright and early (everyone except Kaleb) to go see what Santa brought us.

Kaleb got to open his presents a little later after he woke up.  We weren’t about to wake up the little dear before he was ready.  We aren’t insane!

Kaleb didn’t really open his presents…more like he ate them.  He just took a big bite and started chewing.  Poor kid will never stop getting fat comments if he continually acts like that.

Austin had to step in and help his little brother out.

Later we had our traditional “pork chop and gravy” breakfast.  Grandma and Grandpa King, Brian, and Andrew and Becky all came over to spend the day with us.  Later that night we got to talk to Tyler on his mission via Skype.  It was so fun to see him.  Technology these days is pretty cool.  We can’t wait for him to get home in 6 months.

Handsome Boys

Since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year we thought it would be fun to get our boys new church clothes to wear Christmas day.  Plus, our kids usually look like homeless orphans at church and it was high time we remedied the situation.  I think they look like quite the handsome pair!

Christmas Spirit

Austin is really getting into the Christmas spirit this year.  Today he came up to me with a big box and wrapping paper and said he wanted to wrap a present for me.  First he wanted to put my name on it.  I wrote M-O-M and he said, “no, it’s to Brittney!”  So we crossed that out and wrote “to Brittney”.

Then we wrapped it and we did a mighty fine job!

As soon as we were done wrapping Austin said, “Open it mom, open it!!!”  So I opened it and this is what I found inside.  Just what I always wanted…a Hotwheels Car! 

I can’t wait to see how excited he is on Christmas morning!

Kaleb at 8 months

Kaleb is growing so fast.  He is very mobile and curious and can eat with the best of them.  He is 22 pounds and in the 98th percentile for height. 

Kaleb loves food. I haven’t found anything that he won’t eat (paper included…it’s one of his favorites).  He has two teeth on top and two teeth on bottom. He can sure do a lot of damage with those four small teeth. He can chew through a carrot like a beaver and devours crackers like the are the last crackers on Earth. I am continually amazed that I can hand him a snack and within seconds it is gone. No trace of it anywhere. He hates to see other people eating without him. He can be stuffed to the rafters but as soon as we sit down to dinner he whines and whines until he has something to munch on too.

Kaleb is a very social baby. He likes to be out and about. He gets very whiney if we have been cooped up in the house to long. He is the best baby in the grocery store. He just likes to look around at all the people and see what there is to see. He is pretty tough too. He loves to wrestle with his big brother. I love to watch them roll around and giggle. Sometimes I will be watching them and I think, “Austin that’s too rough,” but Kaleb doesn’t seem to mind.

Kaleb is very mobile these days. He is crawling all over the place. He can climb up the stairs (he can do it in record time if everyone is upstairs and he got left downstairs by himself). He can pull himself up to things pretty easily and has recently started to try and stand on his own.

His little smile and laugh just brighten my day. He has the sweetest little smile that is even cuter because of his big cheeks. The thing I love most about his chunkiness is that he is so snuggly. He loves to snuggle with his blanket.  He loves that blanket almost more than he loves me.  He buries his face in it when he is getting tired and he will not sleep without.  Needless to say we don’t leave home without it.  One time Kaleb was ready for a nap but his blanket was being washed.  Vance said, “we have a thousand blankets, just give him a different one.”  My reply was, “you just don’t understand blankies, do you?”  He responded, “no I don’t!”.

We love our sweet Kaleb.