October

Falltime wrestling on the tramp.
Our SPOOKY house...
The Japanese girl holding Santa...
Waiting for the bus on Halloween....

The Pumpkin Prince and the Monkey.... ROAR....

September...

Cross Country season!!! Both Jonathan and Kendall running for IF High School!!!

2 cute brothers home with mom while everyone else is off to school!!!!!
Kendall turned 17 on the 21st of September and got a new flute, watch out baby....
First day of school, Heidi in 4th and Nathaniel in 3rd.
Jonathan is a FRESHMAN, and Kendall a Junior!!!!

Going Back in Time...August

Brad lit off some fireworks to start the party, hence the plugged ears...



SPIDERMAN / DARTH MAUL TURNS 3   !!!!!!

HOMECOMING 2008

I think this was the most perfect date of Kendall's life thus far...

He had the most darling girl to take....

Lots of great food...

And a lot of great friends to enjoy it with... 

Brad and I had a lot of fun preparing a fancy dinner last Saturday.  Kendall wanted it to be really nice like a restaurant so we put up a curtain to block off the kitchen from the eating area.  Heidi was the waitress helping us serve and take orders, Jonathan took care of Noah, Nathaniel had Christopher watching Pokemon in the basement while Brad and I cooked and prepared like crazy.  We served Brie cheese warmed with peach/strawberry jam and bread for the appetizer, then choice of ceasar or garden salad, rasberry, vanilla, or lemon Italian sodas, marinated balsamic steak with yummy carrots, green beans and oven potatoes, or a yummy lemon chicken picatta.  We also made some pasta for a vegetarian that was there.  Oh and we served some frozen lemon peaches with a strawberry and blackberry.  All went really well and we had dishes for 3 days.  After they left we had  Dawn Legge (a great friend and her daughter from Alaska) come and visit for a few hours.  It was a fun night!!!

Mud Run

Kendall and Jonathan after running three times through the mud bog at the 5K race at Sandy Downs

Updates

Each day, Christopher decides who he is.  We've never had a 2 year old who pretends so much.  A few months back he was either Spiderman, Gollum (from Lord of the Rings), or a sharp tooth dinosaur.  This month he is totally into Star Wars and is usually General Grievous, Darth Maul or Darth Sidius.  It really is hilarious.  He needs this orange noodle to be Darth Maul.
We were surprised last week to have a visit from Angela, Cory, Tyler and Baby Jason!!!  It was so fun to see them and to finally get these two babies together for a picture.  Aren't they cute?

Look who has found his thumb.... the cutest baby ever!!!

And the most loved...

Bits of July

Brad signed up 6 members of the family to run the FIRECRAKER FUN RUN (5K) early in the morning before the parade on the 4th of July.  
After the run, Jonathan dressed up in his cedar badge outfit to march in the parade.  Look how tall he's getting!
Jordan also marched with the IF marching band.  I'm not sure how they got all of these graduated seniors to march.  

Jordan was ordained an elder this month.  This is Bishop Brundage and our highcouncilman.
Our happy baby!!!

Julie's Pathology Report

We recieved the pathology report on Julie's tumor. It was a pacreatic neuroendocrine tumor, well differentiated, with metastatic spread to three out of seventeen lymph nodes that were removed. This type of tumor is very slow growing and although it had spread to a few lymph nodes, it might not cause her any problems for the rest of her life. She will have follow up CT scans every six months for a couple of years and then yearly after that. In the future if tumors show up they will be removed at that time. She will not have chemotherapy or radiation treatments. We are happy with this report, although we would have liked it better if there had been no spread to lymph nodes

Julie started taking oral pain medications and eating a regular diet today. She got sick after having various pills and eating lunch. We hope dinner goes a little better. If she does OK eating and taking oral medications she might go home tomorrow.

Julie is sleeping right now, after what has been a much better day. It started a little shaky in the morning with a good deal of pain and anxiety, but we got that under control. Each morning has been rough, but they are getting better. Today Julie started "eating". For breakfast she had some chicken broth, a few nibbles on a bagel (though not enough to satisfy a mouse), some Jello and a sip of Apple Juice. For lunch she had some chicken broth that had a few noodles in it, and a few crackers, and more Jello. For dinner she had...chicken broth, white toast and, yep you guessed it, Jello. I think her favorite is chicken broth with some kind of white starch and Jello. Truly, she really enjoyed and savored every bite. Nothing like a major surgery to help you appreciate the simple pleasure of eating simple food. Just before noon she got taped up with plastic over her IV's and drains and took a shower with some help. This afternoon we went for a walk out to the terrace and sat out in the sun, which made her very happy. She is still on strong pain medication, but taking less of it, her IV fluids are being cut back, her bladder catheter has been out since yesterday morning, and she has been on several short walks the past two days. She can now get herself in and out of bed without help, but help is less painful.

The plan is for her diet to be slowly increased, and perhaps soon she can start taking oral pain medication. She might be ready to come home by Tuesday, but we won't try to hurry things along, and we told the doctor that we are in no hurry.

Julie update 1

Yesterday, Julie got out of bed twice and walked down the hall, at a 10 feet per minute pace. Today, still no eating or drinking except for some water. Her wound dressing and bladder catheter were removed this morning. She still has her staples and a drain and the subcutaneous catheters which slowly drip local anesthetic to her wound. They want her out of bed and walking a little at least four times today. When she sleeps she doesn't use her pain medication and she wakes up miserable. She is using a lot of pain medication but she hasn't been nauseous since yesterday afternoon. All things considered she is doing well and making progress.

Julie's Distal Pancreatectomy and Splenectomy

It has been a little hard to keep everyone updated as often as they would like on the phone, so maybe this will help. I'll try to post every day, or anytime there are significant changes.

Julie had her tumor and distal pancreas and spleen removed yesterday. She was in surgery for about three hours, from 4-7 pm. All went well. The tumor was about the size of a golf ball. The splenic artery was involved so the spleen was removed as we expected. The margins of the specimen were clear of any tumor, meaning that no tumor was left behind. She should have enough pancreas left to maintain normal digestive and endocrine function. The tumor has been sent off to pathology for further evaluation, which won't be complete until Friday or Monday.

She has a drain coming from her pancreas that will indicate any leakage from it. In a couple of more days she might start to eat and drink. The primary indicator that she will be ready for food is when she starts passing gas again. I didn't know ladies did that.

She is able to pump her milk, but it is being discarded since she is medicated. We aren't sure when she will be ready to care for Noah, we'll take that one day at a time like everything else.

This morning she was able to get out of bed to a chair and later today we will try to walk. Everything is progressing as usual, with good pain medications with the typical side effects of drowsiness, dizziness and nausea, but some additional anti nausea medication and anti anxiety medication seem to keep the pain medication side effects under control. In other words, she is heavily medicated. It will take a few days before she feels like talking or visiting. Please don't feel bad about not calling or visiting. If you need to call, feel free to call me (Brad) at 208 201-1985.

We anticipate a total of 5-7 days in the hospital. We have been so thankful for all your love and prayers and concern. We feel that all will go well, and we have great reasons to rejoice.

Our children can pass on this blogspot address to any who call the home with questions.

All our love, Brad and Julie

a few more...

This picture was taken yesterday (May 24th) of our 3 little boys.

On the 26th Nathaniel had a birthday and got baptized.  We were worried the baby would come and were thankful to make it through this day.  
Heidi also had her art displayed at the Eagle Rock art museum.  

Little Update

After waiting for Angie and Cory to post more pictures I decided I better get on the ball and do the same :)!  I knew I had to get some help to remember how to do this again so here's a few of our highlights... Here are a few random pictures of what we've been up to. 
Here's our beautiful baby.

On Friday night, before Noah was born, Jordan had a big youth symphony concert. He was the star playing the last piece.  He learned two movements of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21 and played them while the symphony accompanied him. 

It was at the Colonial Theater

Here I am on Mother's Day with my seven beautiful hatchlings. hahahahahaha.  Notice my crown made with dandelions and a daffodil.  

Here's Jordan and his friend Jon on Graduation Night.  They both graduated Summa Cum Laude and got to sit on the stage at graduation.  Way to go guys!  Aren't they cute boys.  Watch out BYU!!

Noah Bradford Hatch

Noah was born at 1:03 PM Tuesday April 29th, weighing 8 lbs. 14 oz.

Geuss Who?