wishing you a...

Happy Birthday Nate!!!!

Puzzle solution

You've all been chomping at the bit to get the solution to the puzzle I posted earlier. And then I went and forgot to post the solution! I've now remedied that. Go check out the comments on that post below if you're curious about the answer.

My Big Gid

Gideon had two appointments up at Primary Children's on Thursday--a bladder study and an orthopedic doctor appt. Both appointments went well, and we have further evidence of the Lord's mercy on our little boyo. He truly is doing better than we could have ever hoped.

The bladder study was pretty uncomfortable (he yelled the entire time, but not with pain, he was just ticked off), but the results were very comforting. Many children with spina bifida experience bladder reflux, when the urine is pushed back into the kidneys. If there is any bacteria in the urine, then serious kidney damage can occur. Aaron Fotheringham lost the use of one of his kidneys this way. Gideon's bladder, even when full of fluid, didn't reflux. Yay! Now we can take him off the precautionary antibiotic he's been on since birth. We get to do this all again in six months, but for now, we don't have to worry about his bladder/kidneys at all. (By the way, this test really doesn't say anything about his ability to be potty-trained in the future, but we're just taking this one step at a time.)

The orthopedic doctor decided that only Gideon's left foot needed to be casted--the right foot should be okay with a lot of physical therapy. All the bones seem to be in the right spots, and we have a pretty good chance of being able to correct his club foot with the casting--although club feet on spina bifida kids don't respond as well to casts as other types. If it doesn't work then we'll have to explore surgery options (yuck). But for now, Gideon has a huge cast from below his toes to the top of his thigh--they get much better results if they cast the whole leg. This is what it looked like when we got home Thursday evening:
And this is what it looks like now that I've had a chance to decorate it:

Gideon gets a new cast every week for the next four weeks, so if anyone has any great decorating ideas, speak up! I'm thinking I'll have to go invest in colored sharpie markers so I can do trains next time.

Here are a few more pictures of our addition as it comes along. Theo had some friends help him with the first concrete pour. We then hired someone to lay the block. So this is what it looks like now. We are so excited to really be under way! Hopefully someday we will have lots more room to have all of you come and stay with us after mom and dad have flown north.

Why Why Why

Nicole, why must you torture my husband so?

Polar Bear Boarding

Theo's friend Paul has a goal to go wakeboarding at least once in every month of the year. Theo decided that this sounded like some fun he needed to get a piece of. So, four grown men, all with families, children, careers, and presumably some sense of reason, suited up and headed to Lake Powell on Saturday to ride the glass. The water temp. was a balmy 47 degrees, yes that is farenheight. The air was downright toasty at 58 and nothing but sunshine.

Theo claims that the only parts of him that ever got cold were his feet.

At last, a confession!

Ah haaa. Now the truth is out. You DID fall in love with Theo when only 16! Remember, I told you to "cool" your relationship. You told me that he was only a good friend. I guess fathers know best. However, in hind sight, Theo was a great choice. I wouldn't trade him for the world.

Kim, let this be a lesson to you. Lock Lauren in her room until she turns about 24. Then let her out to date a little. Only kidding (make it 23).

I often marvel at the wonderful group of spirits that Heavenly Father has blessed me and Mom with. Our sons, daughters, and grandchildren are the best. I must have earned a lot of blessings in the preexistence. (Actually, I'm sure it was Mom who earned the blessings.)

Retirement is getting closer and closer. We are excited to get on with this new phase of life... sleeping till noon, watching TV all day, golfing till we are exhausted, visiting you all till you're sick of us. It can't get better than that. And, oh yes, perhaps serving a mission or two in between.

Love, Dad

Love You All

Wow Lauren! What a hottie! And the total package, beautiful inside and out!! You know, I don't want to freak you out Kim and Steve, but I was Lauren's age when I fell in love with my sweetie. Whoa, crazy!
Virginia Rosses, it is so good to hear from you. What a fun bunch of pictures.
Brad and Keryn, what a precious little family you have created. No clue on the puzzle, never was a lover of math. (-;
Thanks everyone that took care of our Corbin up in Salt Lake. He had such a great time, I don't think he missed us much at all.
Happy Valentines day Ross family. It has been great to see some of the recent posts with all the pictures and news. Everyone looks and sounds GREAT! We love all of you so much, and hope you have a great day with the ones you love!

Glimps into the future

Lauren is on the Prom Team for a local bridal shop specializing in modest dresses.
As part of the Prom Team she models prom dresses as well as wedding dresses for fashion shows. She also appears in their ads and does other publicity things at bridal shows and local high schools. In return for her service she receives a free dress! Our young women went to the shop for a private fashion show this week. It was the first time I saw Lauren in action. It was so fun watching her come out in all the dresses new for the season.
Then came the wedding dresses..... this freaked me out a little! Seeing her standing there in a beautiful white dress... she looked so grown up. She is still a little girl to me, but I guess I'd better get ready because that day may be right around the corner!

A Blessing on Your Head...

Although it was sadly impossible to get a proper family portrait, given my three-year-old and my almost-two-year-old, we did get some amusing family pictures. It was a beautiful day, all the more so because of the uncertainty gone before.
(Notice that Mercy is inspecting Gideon's shoes. That girl loves loves LOVES shoes.)
Thank you to everyone who made Gideon's blessing so wonderful. I am truly glad to have married into this most wonderful family.

The latest from Richmond

Hello from Virginia. We do still exist. Sorry we missed the blessing, we heard it was wonderful. I did not know how to get on to this blog until tonight. I will probably forget how to do this tomorrow. We are enjoying life here in the east, glad to miss all the snow in Colorado. We finally sold the house and are happy to move on.

Jack and Sam are enjoying playing basket-ball, and Blake and Claire enjoy cheering them on. Blake enjoys Running and jumping, which are generally frowned on in the house, and he found out why when he ran and dove into the couch, he broke his arm in two places on Monday. Being the great parents that we are we told him he was fine and the pain would go away in a couple of days and that's what happens when you run and jump into the furniture. We realized it was serious and took him promptly to the Doctor on Friday. We feel terrible.

Skip is enjoying his new job. Claire is such a joy she gets attention where ever we go, strangers even ask to hold her, apparently we live in an area were babies are a rare happening. It is kind of strange. She is cute, but we are her parents of course we think that. We are doing well we miss all of you. Living this far away is tough, we know we will miss many family happening good and bad ,we have already missed several things. We are really trying to make it to the reunion, pray for us. We don't want to be the cousins out east that nobody knows or ever sees. We love you all very much and pray for you and your families.

Nicole we are also grateful for truth, it's what strengthens us and helps us to progress. I am daily amazed at how my children innately grasp and understand gospel truths. What a privilege it is to teach and be taught by them. I know you all have experienced this, as a parent, you watch your child struggle, you want to step in and save them, but you have to sit back and let them hurt, guide them ever so gently, and let them try, fall and get back up again. As they become stronger and grow, you realize how much you love them. You get a small glimpse of what our Father in Heaven must feel for us. This is a truth I am so thankful for, I know I am a child of God. I am grateful to be part of such a loving family. Laurene

A Puzzle and a Plea

A speaker at the conference I was at last week in Vegas used the following puzzle to illustrate a point. I thought you might enjoy it. Post a comment if you think you know the answer. (Usually we turn off comments, but we make an exception for puzzles!) In a few days, I will post a comment with the correct answer if it hasn't already been given.

In bucket A, you have 1000 red marbles. In bucket B, you have 1000 blue marbles. First, you randomly select 20 marbles from bucket A and put them in bucket B and then mix. Then, you randomly select 20 marbles from bucket B and put them in bucket A and mix. Repeat this three times. At the end of the experiment, which bucket will have more foreign colored marbles in it?

And now for the plea. Will you please send me high quality versions of any of the pictures you took at the baby blessing?

Happy Birthday Laurene!

What a BLESSING!

We had a great weekend! It was so fun to see Mom & Dad and Corbin too! We were so sad the other Martins were feeling under the weather, but it was fun to get to know Corbie (Steve asked Corbin if I was the only one who called him that... he said, yes!) a little better. He was so sweet and polite and very obedient.
The Gilleland gang also came in and even managed to play in a little of our famous Utah powder. Jebb is growing like a weed and is curious about everything. Jackson announced to everyone he won the "Piston Cup" (a medal Eric won for reading in elementary school) when he found it in Eric's room and carried around all day in his pocket for safe keeping. Elise and Lauren found a little girl time together. (Elise had the great hair-do to prove it!) We sang a belated b-day to Seth with Corbin at his hip. (Those two had a great time playing their favorite Hannay video games together.) Gabe and Nate also spent time strengthening their cousin bonds jumping on the tramp and running around together. And everyone enjoyed going to Nate's basketball game.
Mom & Dad squeezed in an inspection of the wiring on their basement finish job (Which is coming along nicely thanks to their fabulous GC! hee hee) and did some all important shopping while here in the big city. We are getting excited to have them move here this summer.
On Saturday night we enjoyed a dinner together. Brad & Keryn were a little late joining us. Upon arriving home from their business trip to Las Vegas they found their furnace had died. Thanks to quick repair visit to avoid freezing pipes they joined us... better late than never.
But the highlight was the blessing of Gideon. It was so great to be together to witness the blessing of this little cutie!
Living far apart is hard, but seems to make our visits together all the more special and sweet.
Thanks to those who travel to keep family ties strong. We are looking forward to July when we can reconnect again!