3rd Place Winner!!

Isaac entered some artwork in the Reflections contest this year at school. He won 3rd place in his category! This was his first time trying watercolors and he did such a great job. We're so proud of him. He won a ribbon, a bronze metal and a ticket for a free doughnut. He was so excited!

Halloween

Well I am slow, but here are the boys' costume pictures from Halloween. They had a lot of fun Trick or Treating. It was SO warm! We walked for almost two hours Halloween night and didn't even need jackets.

Parker's New 'Do

As you can see from the picture, Parker got some scissors tonight and decided to give himself a haircut!! He cut it so close to the scalp that I knew there was no hope for fixing it. So after Josh got home from work tonight I took Parker down to a hair salon and had them cut it. Here is Parker's new look............................




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It actually doesn't look too bad considering how short she had to buzz it. Parker doesn't like it (yet). He came out of the store pouting and said he doesn't like his haircut. I told him it looked cute, but he was still pouting. Then he asked, "Will my hair grow back if I pour water on it?" Gosh, I was almost in tears trying not to laugh at that one!!! Then later tonight he was playing with a toy construction hat. He asked me if he looked like Bob the Builder. I said yes. He said, "No - Bob the Builder has hair!" He is just cracking me up with this.

So anyway, that was our little adventure of the day. : )

Park City

We got a chance to go to Park City with a voucher for a free two-night stay at one of the resorts there, so we took it and had a little mini vacation last week! It was fun and a nice break. The first night the boys had a blast playing in our Jacuzzi bathtub. When we weren't looking, Parker got some shower gel and poured it into the tub when the jets were going! There were LOTS of bubbles! : ) Bryce actually ended up getting a pretty high fever that night. We didn't have any tylenol with us, which is rare, so Josh got up and did some Craniosacral therapy on him. It took the fever right away and he never got another one! Luckily he seemed fine for the most part after that (just a little runny nose), so we just kept him bundled up and continued on with our vacation.

The next morning we ate breakfast at one of the local restaurants. Then we walked up and down Main Street and just browsed through some of the shops. The boys had fun in the candy store. They also bought a geode at one of the gift shops that they got to crack open and see crystals inside. We then went back to our condo and had lunch there. Then we took the boys to the game room there at the resort. They had lots of fun playing, then we relaxed in our room until dinner time. We at at a little Mexican restaurant there that was really good.

The second day we checked out of our hotel and went to lunch at a cool little cafe called Souperman Gourmet Soups. If you ever get to Park City and get the chance, try this restaurant! It was a really fun place. :) After that we headed home! Here are some pictures from our trip:

Our condo:




































Playing in the Jacuzzi:






























Relaxing with some popcorn & a TV show in bed.















Pictures from Main Street:






























































I just had to share these two pictures that we took in Park City 3 years ago by that same Bear statue. A lot changes in three years! : )

At the resort's game room:

Pumpkin Patch

Monday was Josh's day off so we took the boys to the pumpkin patch. It was a really cute place. They had a little corn maze, a place with animals, those blow up bouncy things, and a whole walk through light show. Then of course they had the pumpkins! The kids all had a lot of fun.

Halloween Party!

On Saturday we had the annual Halloween Party that Josh and I do every year. We made homemade caramel apples and let everyone put on their own toppings. We had dinner and did a game of "find the Jack-o-lantern" in the backyard. Then we did a costume contest of course. We kept it simple this year, but it was a lot of fun! We had some fun costumes this year. Josh kept his costume simple this year as well as took advantage of his new curly 'do and dressed as Greg Brady. I was dressed as someone from the '80s, Isaac was a knight, Parker was Pirate Mickey Mouse, Bryce was a tiger, Grandpa Chappell was a nerd, Grandma Chappell was Sarah Palin, Melissa was a chocolate covered macaroon (from her RawMelissa line :)), Kekoa was the Joker, Ivey was a fairy, Luke was a business man, and Kenya was a vampire. Kederyk and Peysun were also there but they didn't wear costumes.

Kederyk, Parker, Grandpa, Isaac, Grandma, Peysun, Bryce, Kenya, & Ivey

Kederyk, Grandpa, Ivey, and Isaac

Josh and me


Me in my '80s getup



the BRAIN... Yum! ;)

School Fall Carnival

Isaac's school had a Fall Carnival a couple of weeks ago, and Aunt Cammie came down and we took all the kids to it. Isaac and Parker had a blast playing all the little carnival games. They even got brave and went on the big pirate blow-up slide. They also had a little spook alley that Isaac just HAD to go through although he ended up getting scared by it. Parker loved it though! I forgot my camera, but luckily Cammie brought hers so these following pictures are ones that Cammie took:

Parker & Isaac showing off some prizes that they won



Isaac playing one of the carnival games



Parker playing another game



Bryce in the stroller

Update on Bryce

Bryce had his endoscopy on Tuesday (7th) as planned. They did the procedure in the RTU (rapid-treatment unit), which was really nice. This was our first time in this section of the Children's Hospital as we've done all other procedures and surgeries on the surgery floor. The staff was SUPER nice. One nurse even brought Bryce a Build-a-Bear (already built - LOL). It was so cute, because when she handed it to him he took it and gave it a kiss. :) Sweet boy. They gave him toys to play with while we waited. We talked to the anesthesiologist (he's one of my favorites). It's kind of sad when you get to know all the anesthesiologists at the hospital. Then we talked to the doctor and they took Bryce back. They let us come with him which was new for us and we watched them put him out. Ohh that was SO hard for me to watch. Bryce didn't struggle or cry or anything. He was just sitting there quietly playing with his toys when they put the cotton candy scented mask over his face. It was just so - creepy watching him pass out like that. I think I prefer handing him off to the anesthesiologist! Anyway, the scope went well. They scoped his esophagus, stomach, and duodenum. They also took biopsies throughout. It was very quick and we were soon brought back and he was awake. He was crying and upset and wouldn't calm down, but as soon as they took of all their monitors and IVs and such he stopped crying RIGHT away. LOL! He can't stand anything on his hands and feet. (which is why you'll very often see Bryce without socks or shoes on! )

They didn't find anything during the scope. Everything looked healthy throughout his system. This is good, and I'm thankful for it, but it also means that we still have no answers as to why Bryce will no longer swallow. We got the results from the biopsies back yesterday and they were all clear. I AM thankful that his GI system is so healthy after all he's gone through with the severe relux and DGE, but it's very frustrating to not have any answers. I'm not sure what our next step will be other than continuing on with the feeding thearpies.

Parker's 4th Birthday

Well it's more than a month later, but I wanted to post about Parker's birthay. He turned 4 on September 6th. We ended up going to a family reunion that happened to be on his birthday, but we were able to squeeze a little celebrating in too. :) Parker got a scooter and helmet for his birthday which he loved! That night after the reunion, we had the birthday dinner that he chose: homemade macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, and artichokes! We also had a birthday cake and ice cream. I didn't have much time, so the cake was sort of thrown together, but it worked. Parker wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday this year, but we didn't end up going until a few weeks after his actual birthday. The kids had a TON of fun when we finally went. We had pizza, and Isaac and Parker played lots of games. Josh won the boys a bunch of tickets playing basketball and skee ball. Even Bryce got in on things and went on a few of the little rides they have. We even got ALL of our tokens for free. They gave Parker 20 tokens for his birthday and then Isaac and Parker each did one of their reading charts to each earn 10 tokens. It was a fun day.

Prayers for Bryce

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are taking Bryce up to the Children's Hospital for some testing that will be done tomorrow morning. He'll be having an endoscopy done and we are praying that we can finally get some answers regarding his feeding aversion.

We would appreciate any extra thoughts and prayers at this time! Thanks for your support!

(P.S. - I'll hopefully get around to updating our blog when we get home!)

Parker's First Day of Preschool!

Parker started preschool on Tuesday. I was a little nervous because ever since we moved he hasn't been very excited to go (I think all the changes were hard on him), but he woke up Tuesday morning SO excited! He couldn't get out the door fast enough. He had so much fun and his teacher is great. He's doing so well. He can recognize almost all of his ABCs and write many of them. We're so proud of Parker!

Hiking to Calf Creek Falls

We went down to visit Mom and Dad (and Tim) this past Labor Day Weekend. Cammie and Jesse were down there too camping. On Monday we all went down to Calf Creek Falls and went on a 6 mile hike. It was a beautiful day and we all had a lot of fun! The kids had fun playing in the water, and Josh braved the cold water to go swim under the waterfall. Brrr! Here's a slideshow of some of our pictures. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Isaac's 1st Day of Kindergarten!

Every mother probably says it, but I cannot believe Isaac is already in Kindergarten! He had his first day today, and was so excited to go. He had SO much fun! He was excited to wear his new Power Rangers shirt and Power Rangers backpack (can you tell he has a new obsession?) We went to his assessment on Monday, and I was so proud of him and how well he's doing! His teacher told me that Isaac and one other little girl are the only ones in the class who can read so far, so they will get to go to the library once a week and get a special reading kit to take home and read. He's going to love that! We did his first homework assignment tonight. Our pre-school days are now behind us!

Our Summer

Yes, I'm actually posting on my blog! It has been a whole summer and I have not posted once! I guess I will just give a brief update of our summer. We've had a lot going on! We'll start back in June.

In June Josh and I took the boys hiking one day in S.F. Canyon. It was such a pretty place and we had a nice hike. Here are a couple of pictures from that:







Also in June, we had a mini Bell Family Reunion (my parents, siblings, and us) on Monroe Mt. Marcie, Dason, and Dryston weren't able to make it, but we had a lot of fun fishing, camping and hiking. I have a whole slew of pictures, but I'll just post a few here. I do have a slideshow in the works that I'll hopefully get uploaded eventually.








Isaac & Parker Fishing




Isaac, Grandpa, & Uncle Tim



Josh & Bryce



Parker & Grandma



Cammie, Tim & Jesse


Moving on to July... We had a fun 4th of July this year. I painted Isaac & Parker's faces with 4th of July pictures and we went to a benefit breakfast in Provo that morning and then went to the big parade. On the way we watched the hot air balloons. Isaac & Parker were so excited to see the Smoky the Bear hot air balloon! They couldn't wait to tell Grandma and Grandpa Bell all about it! That night we made a big yummy dinner and did fireworks. Here are a few pictures from our day.




Bryce eating watermelon (I think he actually swallowed some of that!)



Isaac & Parker by the hot air baloons



Bryce and me



Josh and his feast!
Also in July, my parents along with my brother Tim came up to visit and we all (including Cammie & Jesse) went to Salt Lake to the zoo and then to the "This is the Place" park. Later we went home and celebrated my mom's 5oth birthday! It was a fun day. :)


The whole crew.



Isaac, Bryce, & Parker on the tiger sculpture.



Dad & Jesse with their BIG popcorns. hehe



Bryce eating a frog.... well, a toy frog ;)



My little animals


Josh and I did a bunch of canning this summer! We got some apricots from a friend and we had the apricots from our own tree as well so we put of several batches of apricots and several of jam. We did almost all of it without sugar too! Here's a pic of some of what we did. We actually ended up doing a few more batches after that.




The first week in August we had a little Chappell Family Reunion with Josh's parents and siblings and their families. We went to the Mirror Lake area and did some camping and hiking. I even got a little fishing in! :) Again, I have a whole slew of pictures, but here are just a few.


Where we camped


Bryce having fun running around


Me and Parker



Part of our hike



Hiking




Josh & the boys on a little bridge on our hike



Melissa standing in the lake we hiked to