Mindy's New House

We moved in August, and here's our new house, and the kids in front on their first day of school. Dylan was already gone for early morning band practice. This is the first time I wasn't there when they went to school, because I was already at school myself. -Sniff- We are renting but will probably buy it when we can. It's a really nice house and a great neighborhood. We live between a family doctor and a chiropractor.

Tonight we went to Jason's cousin's farm for a Halloween get together. They have a huge pumpkin patch and TONS of pumpkins left over. So we got to pick out what we wanted, and we got some big ones! Jonah's was so thick we had to take a saw to it to get the lid off! We haven't finished carving yet, so no finished pictures, but we got a LOT of seeds. Yum!  

Mindy, we need your new address.  Please send that to us as soon as you can!

Happy Birthday Tad!

Hey! this cute boy had a birthday today!

Happy Birthday Tad!  We love you!

Tara is Published!

This morning at 8am Tara's first Historical Blurb was published on Footnote.com.  She is now an intern for this company, a subsidiary of Ancestry.com, and writes short, historical items that might be of interest to readers.  Go here and check it out


http://spotlights.fold3.com/2011/10/27/japanese-bike-brigade/

The blog.

OK guys, Jeny, Mindy and I (Grandma)  have spent the last 3 days with them learning how to do this.  I hope I can remember when I get home.  Please Please Please!!! send some posts to the same address you did for Nickell.  I'd like to thank Nickell sooooooooooooooooo Much for doing this and getting me started.  I don't have a lot of recent pictures so if you want them on please send them.
And now for the new question of the month.

                      What was your first thought when you woke up this morning?


I woke up coughing and wondering when this cough would go away.  Dad's went away in one day.

October Happenings

Sara's birthday was Oct 26th.  What a cute little girl.  We love you so much.  You make me smile.  

Cassie's birthday is the 18th of Oct.  We don't get to see her very often.  Your birthday looked so much fun.  I wish we could have come too.   

Mindy and Jason's anniversary was on the 15th

Emma  was born on 9 of Oct.  We went down to San Antonio for her baptism.  We had a very nice time.  She is a lovely young lady and we love her.  

September dates to remember.

Happy Belated birthday to Heidi and Holly.  I had to put one picture of them both because I wanted to use this cute picture.  That was a fun Halloween . Their birthday was Sept 1. We love them and are praying for both of their babies.  If you are close to a temple please put them on the prayer roll.  

Happy Anniversary to Mark and Jeny. They had a nice one.  Jeny got a convertable and Mark got Jeny. Poor Mark.  I guess it was a joint thing. It was on Sept  5.

Happy Birthday to Lydia and Trina.  Hope you had a really fun day. We love you so much.  It was on Sept 8th .

Happy Birthday, -whose birth is on Sept 11. Let me know who this is.  We love her. 

Happy Birthday my Ashley. We hope you had a really fun birthday.  We love you!

 Happy Anniversary you too.  You live too far from anyone.  We love you both. It was on 24 of Sept.

Happy August Birthdays. Sorry we're so late.

 Happy Birthday Courtney on the 25 of Aug. We think you are a special girl. We love you.

 Happy Birthday Kelsey on the 19th of Aug.  You are a darling girl. We love you.

Shannon was 5 on the 18th and got to go to school.  You are a big girl now.  We love her.

Josh's birthday was on the 15.  He is a very nice young man.  We love him.

Hope you had a very nice day.  We love you. His Birthday was August 7th. 

Birthdays!

Recent birthdays.....

Mom turned 67 on the 9th! Happy Birthday Mom/Grandma! We love you!

Dan turned a quarter of a century on the 10th! TWO FIVE! Happy Birthday Dan!

McKayla's birthday was on the 11th! Happy Birthday McKayla!

The 16th was Elder Grierson's last birthday out on his mission! He will be home in October!!!!!

Becca turned 16 on the 16th! Happy birthday Becca! Now you can date!

We hope you all had fantastic D.O.B.'s! We love you all!

Jonah Got Baptized!

Jonah's birthday and baptism

Jonah had a fun party with 4 of his friends. They did a baptismal font treasure hunt (the treasure was in a cardboard baptismal font -- his idea) and played "random games" (red rover, water balloon fight, silent winker). They had so much fun! His cake was a castle, which Kate decorated.

Mom and Dad came for his baptism on the 26th. It was so fun for us to have them here! We also have great ward support, so there were several other families there too. Our last one! And of course I forgot my camera. Dad to the rescue! He took several pictures for us.

Landscaping Changes

Dear Family:

I have been promising several of you some photographs of the major changes we did to our front yard, so here they are. Clearly, we have not even begun the major replanting that lies ahead, but you will at least have a view of what we have started.

Dad/Grandpa

Baby Christopher

Last week I had my full ultrasound and everything looked normal except that they couldn't get a good view of the 4 chambers of the heart. The doctor scheduled an appointment for me to go in today for a fetal echocardiogram and I was hopeful that it would just be poor positioning of the baby. The doctor took me to a consultation room after doing the echo and explained to me that the baby had a pretty severe defect and he told me all about how the heart works. Then he flipped the page over and I saw the words Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. My heart sank and I broke down. I understood fairly well what that entailed since I worked in a NICU for a year. It is one of the worst congenital heart defects. The doctor presented me with some options, and Matt and I feel very strongly that, as of right now, we are going to go ahead with the series of 3 reconstructive surgeries. The first will take place after he is about a week old and will be the most dangerous. If he survives that he has a good chance of surviving the other two and leading a fairly normal life. Since this procedure is fairly new (started in the 1980s), the oldest survivors are in their late 20s, so the long-term prognosis is unknown.

As for the pregnancy, everything should be just fine. I don't have any restrictions and we don't forsee any complications. I will deliver at the University of Utah hospital because it is right next to Primary Childrens Medical Center, where they will take him pretty quickly after birth. I should still be able to have a normal delivery and this poses absolutely no threat to my health (well, physical health, anyway).

Matt and I had a hard day, but through talking it over and lots of prayers we are feeling pretty hopeful. We know we are in for a roller coaster ride, but we are going to take one day at a time and do what we can to get this kid healthy. We have good insurance, so I don't think we will be very burdened, financially. We know there is a reason behind this trial and we are going to bear it as best we can. In the mean time, we are loving our healthy, happy girls and I'm soaking up every minute I can get with Shannon before she begins all-day kindergarten on August 3rd (yikes!).

We would appreciate any prayers you can offer and we love you all. Thanks!

Holly

June 26, 2011

Was a sad day at the Payne house. Chuck died.

Birthdays!

Holy birthdays batman! It's that time of year! The time of year that approximately 2/3 of our family has birthdays. Also the time if year that is craziest for me. Sorry for all the late birthdays and anniversaries!

On May 26th Dad celebrated his 71st birthday!

David celebrated his birthday on the 26th too!

Lori's birthday was on the 27th!

Kate's birthday was also on the 27th!

Mom and Dad celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary!

(THIS ONE IS OUT OF ORDER) On June 9th April and Dan celebrated their 3rd anniversary!

On June 1st April celebrated her birthday!

Zacary ALSO celebrated his birthday on June 1st!

Holy smokes! So many double birthdays!!! Happy birthday/anniversary to all of you!! We love all of you and we're glad you are part of our family!

Birthdays!

For some reason Blogger won't let me add more pictures to this one so the birthday posts will be broken up.

On June 3rd, Tricia celebrated her birthday!

Happy birthday!

On June 5th, Rachel turned EIGHT!!! That's right, she's THAT old.

On June 7th, Heidi and Jason celebrated their wedding anniversary! Congratulations!

On June 8th, Aaron turned 31!

Happy Birthday!

On June 21st, Jonah celebrated his birthday! I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Jonah turned 8 too. Am I correct? I feel like he was just barely walking at our wedding....

On June 22nd Kristi turned 45!

ALSO on the 22nd, Brock turned 14!!!

Then finally on June 24, Matt and Amanda celebrated their... 13th? Wedding anniversary! Congratulations!