So, What Exactly Have the Lindsays Been Up To?

Where do I begin?
Well, let's start with Rhaevyn...
Rhaevyn has been busily working towards her goal of finishing Personal Progress by her birthday.
It looks like she'll actually finish before her birthday. During the month of February she indexed 1004 names. She has been learning to crochet, and she made herself a scarf. She is still loving the violin and learned to play two of my favorite songs "If You Could Hie to Kolob" and "Ashokan Farewell." We learned that she is outgrowing her violin, which doesn't surprise me as I seem to be shrinking next to her :) When did my baby get to be so tall? She just finished two weeks of cooking dinners for us. Man was I spoiled! One of the dishes that we loved was lasagna made in the large muffin tins.

Here is an experimental project she was crocheting.

Aeva is getting accustomed to her new set of ivories (piano). She just got her last set of piano books, which is pretty exciting. Her teacher said she's never had a student make it this far, so it may be uncharted territory once she finishes up these books. She tried her hand at crocheting, but being left handed it was a bit hard to learn from a right handed person. Aeva thought she would instead try knitting, and she has really taken off with that. She is currently making a dishcloth. She even bought herself her own set of knitting needles. Both girls are learning knitting/crocheting from a sweet lady in our ward (who used to be my RS Secretary). They get together every few weeks, hang out, eat chocolate and knit and crochet, laugh and visit. Fun is had all around. In January Chris and I took Aeva to the temple to do baptisms. What a very neat experience that was. Aeva is babysitting now too, for us. She has also been hired as a mother's helper by my best friend. This has been fun for her and a way to earn some extra money for camp.

Here is the dishcloth Aeva is working on.

 

 Myles just lost his second tooth. He didn't want to pull it out, so he said he let his tongue do the job for him. Myles is quite the reader. While he likes to say he doesn't like to read, he reads everything! He is getting so big and so tall. He is currently trying to learn to roller blade. 

Myles missing his two front teeth.

Elsa is getting bigger by the second. I think she is keeping pace with Myles and Rhaevyn. Last night we had a fun trip to the ER, as she was running 104.5 -- 105 temp. Low and behold she had a nice bright red ear. Our second ear infection in 10 years and four kids. She is feeling much better today.
She still entertains us with her ballet dancing and her singing. I love how she makes me laugh!

Chris, after growing his curls out for me, just cut them all off again. He was looking very "Cary Grant"-ish. Oh well. He's training to ride in the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic which takes place in July. It's a 200 mile bike ride over two days, but he's doing it in one day with a group of guys from church. It is funny to see all the planning they are doing: meetings, google calendar, scheduled and calculated bike rides..........Should prove to be fun.

And then there is me. I've taken some pictures of me post surgery. It's been two months since my procedure. You can't tell much in the pictures except that one side looks a bit puffier than the other.
Unless you are right up close to me you can't really see the scar. After three months pass I can decide if I want dermabrasion done or not. Every day is a bit better..............the feeling is starting to come back. I will be glad when it has totally healed (which is about a year long process) and my incision site doesn't feel like it is going to rip apart when i move my face in different positions. Really all is well. I can't complain, and I'm still keeping busy with life :)

I found these pictures I had taken up at the barn we go to on Fridays.

This is Elsa with Tucker. He is also affectinately known as 

Tuck-Tuck. He is a dwarf.

Here is Myles trying to help with the wheelbarrow.

Rhaevyn scooping the poop from the wheelbarrow.

All three putting in their muscles to dump the wheelbarrow.

This is Harvey.

 

Aeva having some trouble with the wheelbarrow.

Rhaevyn making a nice face for me :)

In a nutshell, that's what we've been up to the last couple of months.

A Mini-Mini Vacation

 We planned a very mini, we're talking 36 hours, vacation, and what a great vacation it was.
We made some really great memories as a family.


We headed up north on Thursday (roughly 2 hours away) to the Great Wolf Lodge.
It's a hotel with a humongous indoor water park. Fun with a capital F!
We decided to be thrifty, so we brought up Lunchables for lunch, a pizza and soda for dinner, Oreos for dessert, popcorn and hot cocoa for a snack just before bedtime, and cereal and milk for breakfast.

We were able to check in three hours earlier than expected, which was super sweet. We spent about four hours in the water park after we dropped off our bags and ate lunch in our room. Then we headed back to our room for dinner, a slight rest, and to warm up in front of the fireplace. Then it was off to the water slides again.
Elsa and I came back early to the room Thursday night, as she had a bit of an accident and cut open her eyelid and just below her eye. She got a free stuffed animal out of it from the first-aide person.Chris, Aeva, Rhaevyn and Myles lasted until the water park closed at 9:00 pm.

The next morning we were up early to eat and then we headed off to play in the water some more. The little ones and I played for an hour and then went up to get ready to leave. The big ones stayed a half hour more.
While it is possible to actually hang around the entire day until the park closes at 9pm, we decided that it would just be easier to call it good at 11 am. Besides Chris was beat. We got quite the work out walking up all the flights of stairs to go down the big slides.
After checking out  we went to Cabela's and ate lunch at Red Robin before we headed home.
Great times, lots of giggles, smiles and laughter............Yep, it was success with a capital S!!
Sorry the pictures are a bit out of order.

Elsa enjoying just one  of the four slides she was tall enough to go on.

She thought they were great fun. Sorry the video is sideways.

She kept whipping of this hat at Cabela's and yelling "yee-haw!"

Myles wanted a picture that looked like he was running 

away from the Rhino.

Elsa posing like she is a Sea Lion.

These are the stairs that go to the four big water slides.

Elsa and Aeva pose after going down these slides.

Way to go, Aeva!!

She wasn't sure she wanted to attempt the slides at first,

but after trying them, she thought they were thrilling.

We had a fun themed room.

There was a small cabin like area within the room

 that slept three.

Elsa's battle wounds.

She was a trooper.

Here is her stuffed animal she was given.

In the wave pool with Daddy.

Chris and Aeva warming up by the fireplace.

The kids are ready to go play in the water.

This was the view from our room on the eighth floor.

Those two slides would light up at night.

The red and yellow one is the Tornado. I think we

all (Chris, Rhaevyn and I) screamed going on that one.

Eating before playing.

Chris, Elsa and Rhaevyn catching some wave action.

Lost Tooth

 Myles lost his first baby tooth!
 He had been working at it for quite some time, but it just wasn't coming out too easily.
During a school day over at our friends house, while eating pizza for lunch, his tooth decided it was time to come out.  His little friends helped him up the stairs. There was lots of blood and crocodile tears. I will say that I am usually pretty good with wounds, but teeth.................well let's just say I was not blessed with the stomach or nerves for such things. His tooth was kind of dangling. My best friend took one look at me and said "would you like me to take this for you?" She was great and helped pull the tooth out, and Myles was a trooper. And by the next morning was a whole dollar richer:)

 Here he is a few days before loosing his tooth. He was really trying to pull it out himself.

"Cheese"

Myles's first tooth is out!

 

Now he is working on the next tooth...........

The tooth fairy is just dying to have that next tooth!!

New Piano

So, for at least a year now I've been dreaming of downsizing the piano we have. I'm always trying to find ways to make the most of our small space.We've looked every couple of months to see what pianos are out on Craig's List, but it was pretty much looking like things were out of our price range. I'd come back to reality and tell myself to be content with what I have and make do.
Two weeks ago, I happened to see that a lady in our ward had posted a picture of her piano on Facebook. She was in the process of packing for a move and wanted to find her piano a good home..........for free!!!
I just about freaked out............Rhaevyn would say that in fact I did freak out. The person who originally wanted it ended up not being able to take it, and I had sent off an email quickly to tell her I would really love to have it. She was thrilled to let us have the piano. This is just one of those moments when you see the Lord's hand in events that take place.
I did a very happy dance!
Our Home Teachers and the missionaries helped to move it to our house. It fit in our van........yippee!! And then they helped move our mammoth of a piano out to the garage. We decided that since our last piano was free and this new one was free we would pay that forward. So, Aeva's piano, that she learned to play on, has found a new home. While Aeva was sad to see it go, she was very understanding about "space." It is always hard to let things go when you have memories attached to them.
So, here are a few photos of Aeva's last moments with her piano and a picture of our new piano.

The living room looks so much bigger and brighter now :)

Crossing My Rubicon

The kids and I were reading about Julius Caesar today and discussing where the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" comes from. I was trying to explain to Myles what exactly it meant.
I told him it was making a big decision........a major turning point in one's life where once you take that step there is no turning back.
I likened it to what I just went through..........what I am going through.
My journey starts waaaaaaay back in March of 2012............

I don't have many up close pictures, but if you'll notice I have a bit of a scab on my nose.
This kept recurring. It would take about two weeks to heal, and if I was lucky I'd have two weeks before it would return. If I was really lucky it would be four weeks, but if I was really unlucky it would be not even a week.
Chris and my best friend kept telling me to get it checked out. Well, I kept putting it off. Other things were more important, or I'd get busy and forget to call and make an appointment.
Finally in September I went in to see my doctor. She took one look at it and said "no way" she was going to touch it because of where it was, and I was given a referral to a dermatologist.
So October rolled around, the day before we left to go to Idaho, and I found myself in my wonderful dermatologists office. He took one look at it and said without even needing to biopsy it..........it was cancer.
The "C" word. That word. It had been buried in the back of my mind. I thought there might be some extremely remote possibility that that's what it could be, but I thought that possibility was like me winning the lottery. Oh wait, I did once actually win $5 from the California Lottery. Maybe that should have been my sign. I won't lie.............I bit my tongue so as not to cry. Swallowed the big lump in my throat and told myself this was no big deal because he said if cancer is what your going to get this is the kind to get. He proceeded to numb my nose and take the biopsy, and placed a bandage over it after taking a picture. It really wasn't that bad. I mean, it didn't look that great, but hey nothing a little band-aid can't cover up. There wasn't much pain except for scrubbing away the scab (which I was not to allow to form), and after several weeks I could take the band aid off. There was a small dent in my nose, and it was a bit discolored, but I kind of forgot about it.
Then came the results of the biopsy and an appointment with a Mohs Surgeon.
I went unprepared to the appointment, while Chris had done his research ala Google.
I will say that I totally broke down in the doctor's office. I pretty much thought it was going to be like another biopsy. Uhhhh, wrong. Chris tried to point out the silver linings............."the doctor paid you a compliment when she said your skin was so young and tight." Ah, yes, which makes it harder to hide anything because I don't have sagging and wrinkling skin. Poor guy really tried to help me  "Stay on the Sunny Side of the Street" but I felt like things were crumbling around me.
Well, I knew there was nothing to do but to make sure all of the cancer was removed. I mean, I could have chosen not to, but that seemed like a rather silly decision.
So, I waited for New Year's Eve. This was my "Crossing the Rubicon."
I'm so blessed...............I had lots of people praying for me, my name had been put on the Prayer Roll at the Temple, and even at other churches, and I had a blessing. My first and second counselors in my presidency were great about picking up the slack, and Chris made it clear I would be out of commission for two weeks at least.
I put my Pollyanna glasses on, crossed my Rubicon, and didn't look back.
I arrived at 8:15 am, and I was taken back, given an ever so nice warm blanket and then the fun began. I won't go into great detail............
My nose and cheek were numbed in several places. A slice was taken from my nose. I can't say how big it was, and not because I was out like a light. No, I got to be awake for the whole thing. But if I had to take a guess from what I could see, it was at least the size of a dime or nickel. Once that was done it was cauterized and a bandage put on. Then I was shuffled back to the waiting area where I sat in a leather recliner and watched Masterpiece Theater's Emma.
Good news, I didn't have to have anymore slices taken off. I had been warned it could be an all day event and several slices removed. This truly was a blessing and a miracle.
I was ushered back to a different room where I was numbed some more and the cutting began. Because such a portion had been removed, they now needed to move part of my cheek tissue over to my nose, as well as the skin of my cheek.And I have to say there isn't anything like being awake and listening to your cheek tissue getting sawed into, and stuff getting moved over, and skin getting clipped and cut, and getting stitched up. The numbing started to wear off at the end and they had to keep giving me boosts of the Lidocaine. Finally it was over. I sat up while they went to get Chris and now the pain began. I made it out to the waiting room with Chris's help and got some juice to take the pain medicine.
We stopped to get a chocolate milk shake on the way home, as I thought I surely deserved one for being such a trooper (the surgery teams' words).
I made it to bed and decided one pain pill was simply not enough, but apparently two was too much. And I'll leave it at that. Two days of trying two pills at a time, I decided getting sick wasn't a freak accident. I tried half, which really didn't do anything. By Friday I just decided to give up on the meds entirely because I had such a headache.
After a week of not lifting much of any of my fingers, as my sweetie did everything for me, I got my stitches out on Monday. Chris is generally a tough guy. He can eat spaghetti while watching brain surgery, but he was even cringing while they were taking the stitches out. I'm thinking it's just because I was having such a hard time with it, and being that I'm his sweetheart that was hard for him to watch. I had not looked at myself at all since the surgery except for nanosecond glances here and there when I was up to use the restroom. Chris did all my bandage changes and cleaning. Monday night I decided to look at all the pictures I had asked Aeva and Chris to take because I had known that I eventually would be ready and want to see what I had looked like and what my wound looked like. I'll say that I am glad I waited.
This is kind of my therapy. I won't put myself in the category of having a horrible diagnosis of cancer. I know that I am considerably lucky and blessed, that it could have been so much worse. But this is my therapy. I didn't think much about it, or tried not to in the months leading up to the surgery. I didn't want to dwell on it and I knew that compared to others, this was a piece of cake. However, I did realize that I had to give myself permission to grieve and to cry. I never asked why me or think it wasn't fair, but I won't pretend that I am not vain.........because I am even if it is just a little. I am not a drop dead gorgeous beauty, but I admit I did not want to lose my blemish free face. I mean I didn't want a big scar on my face. And yes, I can run and walk and see and hear and I am here living and am surrounded by my sweet precious family. In the end, I could not ask for more and I know they love me no matter what.
And in my low moments this past week, My Heavenly Father sent me tender mercies, ones that if I could only receive this way, then I would do it all again.
At the beginning I told Chris I'd rather have given birth to twins than go through this. In the middle of the week I contemplated whether I'd have done it if I really knew what it was going to be like. Now I can say I would do it all again because I did it. It was hard and not a lot of fun, but what I received by going through it I wouldn't change. It reminds me very much of the Hilary Week's song "Beautiful Heartbreak"................
Every fear, every doubt,
All the pain I went through;
Was the price that I paid to see this view;
And now that I'm here I would never trade...

The grace that I feel,
And the faith that I find;
Through the bitter-sweet tears,
And the sleepless nights;

I used to pray he'd take it all away,
But instead it became a beautiful heartbreak.

I don't really know what my face will end up looking like, but right now I'm okay. The cancer is gone, my incision is healing and I know that I have so many people who love me because of who I am on the inside and not how I look on the outside. I know who I am. I am a daughter of God. And that's good enough for me :)
 I've posted pictures, so if you aren't up to seeing them that's okay, you can come back next time :)

 This was taken a couple of days before surgery.

 This was several hours after surgery.

 Taken Tuesday, day two, and I couldn't open my right eye at all.

 Day three. I finally was up to taking a shower. Woohoo!

Time for a bandage change and cleaning of the incision.

 Day Four.

 Friday.

The swelling was going down and I wasn't so purple.

Monday.

The stitches came out.

Now I'm super glued and steri-stripped together.

Thank you to all who kept me in your thoughts and prayers. They were felt and appreciated so very much.

And I'm Back

 Oh my it has been quite some time since I was in this neck of the woods.
I wasn't purposefully ignoring my blog. It just was last on the list for a very, very long time.
Homeschooling keeps me pretty busy, but being Relief Soceity President on top of that
really doesn't leave me much time for updating the blog.
I have a smidgen of downtime today as the girls are off learning to crochet this morning.

We've been having fun making turkeys from toilet paper and paper towel tubes, making tents, ornaments (many of which were for the church Christmas Party I was partly in charge of), snowflakes, cookies, and I could go on and on. You get the picture.............we've been  having fun!

Myles and Chris made an airplane, and then Myles was so cute to try and show Elsa how to make one.

We went over to our friends' house to do Gingerbread houses, and then the next day Rhaevyn went over and baked cookies for five hours. It was just her, and she had a blast.

Chris and the girls helped make Myles a tent over his bed. It's been there for about two weeks now, and he loves it.

My Miss Rapunzel just go her hair cut, so it isn't this long anymore, but I  just love the way she says "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair."


And my time is up. Hoping you all are having a wonderful time getting ready for the holidays. We are hoping to put up our tree today, as the organ is going to a new home.........which might be another story for another time.
Happy Holidays!!