Harmony's Birthday and Arizona

I wasn't sure we were going to make it to Arizona with Steven and Brynn both sick but luckily their antibiotics kicked in and we where able to head down for my brother's wedding. It was a long drive but caravaning with three other cars made it interesting to say the least and the kids did great. It was Harmony's birthday the day we arrived so we went to Golfland to celebrate. We miniature golfed, played arcades, and ate pizza. I think Harmony had a good time she hadn't been too excited about being somewhere else on her birthday. The next day was the wedding. It was great to be there together as a family in the Mesa temple. My grandparents also came down and my grandpa performed the sealing. Wes and Leah were so fun to watch they are such a cute couple. The girls loved their new dresses and felt very pretty. It was a long day because we were constantly on the go but everything turned out great. The next day we headed to a Wildlife Zoo with the family and had a great time. The kids loved the animals and running around with their cousins. After the zoo we headed the Adam and Naomi's for the night and had a great time with them. Early Sunday we were on the road again and drove straight home. I thought it would be horrible but the kids did great until we hit Spanish Fork and then they were just ready to get out of the car. We all enjoyed the warmer weather and now have spring fever. The snow can go away for a year and I would be just fine with that.

Golfland

Mia, Harmony, Brynn, and Boston getting ready to golf.

Harmony opening gifts

Wes and Leah

The kids with my grandparents

Steven and I at the reception

My cute kids
Boston and Steven at the zoo

The Zoo

My Uncle Nick

I was driving home from work Thursday evening and just as I was getting off the freeway exit I received a phone call from my mom. She called to let me know that my Uncle Nick had passed away that day. Wow, what a complete and unexpected shock. My Uncle Nick Drakulich was diagnosed with cancer back around November, it was some kind of tumor under his tongue but I'm not sure what kind of cancer it was considered. He started chemotherapy and radiation in January and the prognosis seemed extremely hopeful and the most likely outcome seemed to be that this would be cured without many complications. Unfortunately as I have come to know all too well, nothing is very easy when chemo is involved. I'm still not sure what exactly caused his passing but it's a very surreal thing. I didn't know my Uncle Nick very well...in fact I can probably count all the times I spent with him on one hand. But all the memories I have of him are happy and memories I'm glad to have. We were able to vistit Nick & Elaine this summer as we made our way to Seattle. I'm now very grateful that my kids got to meet Nick and even play with him a little bit for the short time we were there.

Death isn't something I've had to deal with many times in my life. Mainly just my Grandpa Drakulich and my baseball coach growing up. As Britt and I sat talking the night we found out about Nick it definately brought us back to reality a little bit with regards to how serious cancer and its treatment methods can be. As for my Uncle Nick, we will miss you and I hope Heaven has some good fly fishing for you.

Where did January go?

I can't believe it is already February. I thought I would give a quick update on what we were up to for the month of January. On January 1st we celebrated Brynn's 5th birthday. She was really excited and suddenly thought of herself as much older now that she is 5. The kids played in the snow and made a snowman. The girls spent a lot of time playing with their friend Claire. Steven and I took in a Jazz game and thanks a TON to Melissa for watching the kids. Other then starting on a trial study instead of chemo for now and a few doctor appointments the month has just flown by with the everyday things. I will hopefully do a better job in February keeping up to date.

Brynn opening her many presents.

Brynn with her princess cake. (What a headache.)

Boston and Brynn playing in the snow.

Harmony, Brynn, and Claire having fun.

Our Christmas!

We had a blast this Christmas watching the kids so full of excitement. I had been off of chemo for a couple of weeks so it was nice to feel good for the holidays. It was also a lot of fun having our first Christmas in our house. Steven did a great job decorating the house.

Harmony, Brynn, and Boston in their new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Harmony with her fun new toys.

Brynn showing off her stuff from Santa.

Boston loving his "Buzz" that Santa brought him.

Happy Birthday Boston!

Guess who turned 2 yesterday......

This guy.....

Yesterday was Boston's birthday. We had a nice little family party for him, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Christmas Decorating

Well, it's that time of year again. Christmas decorations. We don't do any decorating before Thanksgiving, but the day after the girls were begging to decorate the house. Saturday night we went over to Mom's house so the kids could help set up the tree.

I'm not sure if Harmony wanted her picture taken here or not...

Britt's Birthday!

I appears Britt has taken a blogging sabbatical so I guess I'll continue to provide updates here until she gets back. November 19th was Britt's 29th birthday. We got to spend a nice evening away from the kids with dinner and a movie. I can't remember the last time we got to enjoy an nice evening out together. I also had a surprise party planned for her that Friday at MyNoahs in Lindon. Ever since we got married Britt has been wanting me to throw her a kegger like she use to have in college. I figured with all the crap she's been through this year it was the least I could do for her. Needless to say she enjoyed her 'happy lemondae' all night long. It wasn't an easy thing to keep secret but we managed to keep her in the dark and it all turned out really well.

All of our sibblings and parents were able to be there and we enjoyed partying late into the night.

Boston getting his first pool lesson from Grandpa.The happy lemonade was obviously affecting Mike.The Ben Man spreading his man love to Wes.




Why do I look slightly interested in this proposition.Happy 29th Britt. I love you...and just in case anyone is confused, there was no alcohol served at this party.

In Memory Of.......

....the 2008 Boston Red Sox season. What the heck happened...we should be repeating World Series Champions. Instead I had to sit and console Britt all night last night...not from the pain of her surgery, but from the pain of seeing an inferior team in an inferior league win the title of 2008 World Champions. After seeing the Crapa Bay CrapRays make it to the world series and not be able to beat a mediocre Phillies team...it was really heartbreaking for the whole family...The Sox would have shut down the Phillies in 4 games. We aren't quite sure how to explain this to our kids. There don't seem to be any books about how to talk to your kids about this kind of thing. Boston is taking it especially hard...But that's baseball and that's why we love it...what other sport could you see the greatest comeback in the history of the world? Definately not in Football or Basketball.




So now we enter 5 long, cold, worthless months of college football, NFL and NBA nonsense until Spring Training starts again. Once again though our family did enjoy some memorable moments cheering our team on.






So here's to our 2008 MVP - Dustin Pedroia:

Britt Update -

Britt had surgery yesterday on her wrist to repair the break that she had a couple of weeks ago. Surgery took about 2 hours and she was released to go home a few hours after that. It was a nice change from her past several surgeries. I think we are all thankful that there was no multiple week hospital recovery time to this surgery.

The surgery itself involved having the tumor in her wrist scraped out and then filling that space in with bone cement. After that was done Dr. Scott put small metal plate over Britt's wrist to help stabalize everything. She is recovering pretty well from the surgery. She's experienced a fair amount of pain in her wrist today but that's to be expected. She looks to have 7-10 days of recovery time after which she'll start her third round of chemo. So far chemo seems to be holding the growth of this stable. Hopefully she can continue her treatments with minimal side effects.

Here's to a quick recovery for Britt and the Sox in 2009!