Callie is 10 (going on 18) Haha

I can't believe this little spit fire is 10!!!! She amazes me constantly with her kindness, talented singing, her tenacity, and her animal loving sweetheart. She can be all sweet and cuddly one moment and then feisty or sassy the next. She has lots of friends and is loved by all who know her. Her birthday party was cancelled last year with COVID hitting right on her birthday. So of course we partied hard this year to make up for it. 

Jaxon is a sweet friend in our stake and at school. He has asked Callie to be his Valentine 3 years in a row and Callie wanted to invite him to her party so we made sure he wasn't the only boy attending. Aaron to the rescue.

Christmas 2020

Merry Christmas!

One of my favorite Holiday Traditions is hiking with my brother Nathan and his wife Erica. I'm so happy they make the trip every Christmas. Always an adventure and we always have a good time. This year we hiked Camelback Mountain.

One of the great things about CoVid was it made a cousin exchange possible. Nathan had this genius idea to swap kids for a couple weeks since we have remote learning. So Gunnar stayed with us in AZ and my Callie girl went to Idaho. We had discussed meeting halfway to switch back at some point in January. Gunnar was very fun to have around so helpful and full of lots of positive energy. 

Callie going to Idaho was the longest I've ever been apart from her. Poor girl had a really rough time in general with remote school. It was a learning curve. Thank goodness for Aunt Erica helping her. I think she really enjoyed her stay in Idaho and loved hanging out with Ella.

Nathan and Erica took Mason to Idaho, he stayed with and hung out with his cousin (technically my cousin) Josh Ellsworth. Those two are hilarious together. He got to go skiing and hang out at their massive mansion off of Lake Cascade. I think I can honestly say he did not ever want to come home.

Our child swap back ended up being on Saturday, January 16th. My Dad was so sweet and offered to make the drive for me so I could enjoy my birthday. Grandpa Faler is the most fun person to travel with. I know from lots of personal experience. 

Goofy is sick

 IVDD is a four letter word in my house. Intervertebral Disk Disease

Two weeks ago Goofy was his happy active perfect self. On Tuesday, October 13th he started acting a little weird. He went from jumping all around to hardly moving and depressed.
Thursday, October 15th I took him in to the pet hospital. After a few tests, lab work and x-rays he was diagnosed with IVDD. A common disk disease caused from past trauma or just day to day trauma to the spine.
Goofy is only 7.5 years old. I always imagined he would live through most of my children’s childhood. He came home from the hospital lethargic, drugged up and quite literally a different dog. He lost full function of his back legs. and when he did get up to try to move around with great difficulty he would drag his back legs behind him. He remained in this condition for almost a solid week.
Prognosis is poor we have been told most likely he will not ever be the same dog. The following week was filled with a lot of tears, doggie carrying, frequent potty breaks, and some force feeding/watering, and lots of laundry.
Ron and I had multiple conversations about his quality of life and our options. Our family vet explained all our options in detail.
Option 1- see a dog neurologist (yes there is such a thing ) and schedule exploratory surgery (no guarantee it will work and costs around $10K)
Option 2- physical therapy- costly and time consuming
Option 3- we accept and live with a special needs dog.
Option 4- we say goodbye 
I have learned a lot about myself. I learned that I don’t like being an adult and making decisions like this. I learned that I love this dog so much more than I thought. Don’t get me wrong I have said at least a million times “Goofy is the best dog ever”. But I have never considered myself much of a dog person. I guess Goofy has converted me. Per the chiropractor recommendations (yes I found a dog chiropractor) we started exercising and massaging Goofy’s back legs. This past week has been a miracle. He still has a long ways to go but I’m so happy his personality has returned and he is doing better everyday.

Deer Hunting

The boys had a successful hunting trip this fall. Ron said the boys enjoyed the hunt that they hiked their butts off haha, and everyone had fun. When they walked in the door Mason had the most mischievous smile on his face. I should have seen his prank coming. I was giving all the boys hugs as they walked in, Mason was the last to enter the house. He grinned really big and stuck his hand out for me to shake. The lighting was poor in our front room so I took his hand and was a little surprised to feel fur and a hoof. I jumped back and saw the deer hoof in Mason's hand. ...sigh That kid. :)