the c.astles

Capri's birthday at the Zoo

September 20, 2014

Jody's best friend is Capri. They are only a month apart - and are the sweetest together! For Capri's birthday, Marissa and Chase's family, Kelly and I with our families, went to the zoo to celebrate. The little girls had the greatest time!

The classic tub picture - Joanne and Capri

Jody loved every minute of it!

Marissa with Capri on her lap.
In front of her are Kelly's girls, Reagan and Daryn, and Jody.

Jody, Lance, Marissa, and Capri

Happy 1st birthday Capri, we love you!!

Daisy

August 29, 2014

On the same day that I found out my results about the BRCA1 gene, Lance and I had planned to go look at the sweetest puppies. This was a favorite thing for us to do because Jody loved seeing them so much. I had no thoughts of actually getting a puppy. But after I found out my results, I wasn't in my right mind, and somehow we came home with a puppy we named Daisy. She is the cutest puppy I have ever seen - and Joanne is obsessed.

Daisy and Jody in all her naked glory.

Joanne is so happy about our addition!
She also had "hand foot mouth" which was easily the most miserable thing ever. Poor girly.

Lance loves his new toy.

BRCA1

August 29, 2014

Less than a year ago, my Aunt Christine got tested to see if she had the BRCA1 gene. She got tested because she has ovarian cancer, and there was enough evidence that it was genetic that the doctors recommended the test. She ended up having the gene. My dad volunteered to take the test so that all of my siblings and I would know whether to have the test. It turned out that he was positive meaning that I would also be tested.

I was tested, but it takes a month to find out the results. I found out my results 15 minutes before my job interview at BYU. Not ideal timing. I found out I am positive. I was pretty sad with this news, but it is such a blessing to know. Now I can be aware and do something about it. And gratefully, somehow, my interviews still went OK and I got the harp teaching position at BYU.

Having the BRCA 1 gene means that I have a substantially higher chance of getting breast, ovarian, and fallopian tube cancer than women who don't have this gene. I copied the statistics I found from www.cancer.gov

Breast cancer: About 12 percent of women in the general population will develop breast cancer sometime during their lives. By contrast, according to the most recent estimates, 55 to 65 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation will develop breast cancer by age 70 years.

Ovarian cancer: About 1.3 percent of women in the general population will develop ovarian cancer sometime during their lives. By contrast, according to the most recent estimates, 39 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation will develop ovarian cancer by age 70 years.

What this means to my life right now is that I have to have a mammogram and an MRI every year until I finally decide to have a double mastectomy and my ovaries and Fallopian tubes out. This will probably happen for me at about 35 years of age.

I am grateful that I still have time to have children, and that I am aware of this gene, so I can do my best to be the healthiest possible to avoid cancer at all costs.

Jody turns One

August 25, 2014

We love this little girl so much! This past year has been the best of our lives and we couldn't imagine life without her! It would be pretty boring for sure. In her first year of life we have lived in Hermiston, Oregon, at my parents house during much of that time, with Lynn and Marian, and finally in our new house in Spanish Fork. She has been adaptable and delightful throughout, and we are so grateful that we got such a happy baby to be part of our family! She is a joy!

Thanks Aunt Sue for the cute "HOORAY" sign! We love it!

Digging right in to her gingerbread cake!

Life is good!

Marian's birthday

July 3, 2014

I feel so silly. I barely got any pictures of Marian on her birthday!! I'm kicking myself for this. But for Lance's Aunt Marian's birthday we went up to the canyon and had a barbecue! I love that they have adopted Lance as their "son" so we get to have another set of wonderful parents! We sure love Lynn and Marian!

I love this picture of Lance and Jody! Pure Joy!

These are Lynn and Marian's granddaughters playing with Joanne.

Left to right: Kate, Joanne, Annie, Leah.

Jody and Kate playing in Jody's peapod (that we usually use as a pack -n- play)

Lance and Marian roasting their hot dogs

Lynn looking fabulous.

Kelly and Nick's Wedding

May 8, 2014

Kelly (Lance's younger sister) finally met the man of her dreams. His name is Nick Webb. They were married on May 8! We are so happy for them and it was the perfect day! It was so special to go to their sealing and to welcome Nick into our family.

ps. Sorry for the picture overload! The wonderful photographer was so great to shoot family pictures of our little family. I loved them all! This was me being picky! What a fun day we had!

Joanne is obsessed with Uncle Lynn!
She doesn't look it here because she is cold and I didn't plan for freezing weather! Poor baby!

The sweet couple! We love them so much!

Kelly and all the little nieces!
From left to right: Scarlett, Johanna, Joanne, Kelly, Brees, Paris, and Lillian.
These are the best cousins to Joanne and she loves them so much!

We love our little Jody!

There is nothing better than being this girl's mama.
I love her so much!

We bought a house!

February 2014

House hunting is crazy! It's hard to know what is the best deal, what you will care about or not end up caring about. So many things factor in - is the neighborhood good? Is the house something we can grow into? Is it close enough to Lance's work and BYU for my work? Do I like it? Does it matter that it has no storage or good closets? It's pretty overwhelming. It's a blessing that we were able to stay at Lynn and Marian's house for this process so that we could take our time.

So we were pretty excited that we finally found a house in Spanish Fork that we just LOVE! It's the perfect starter home in the perfect little starter neighborhood! We feel so good about this place, and we are excited to start our next adventure here! Sweet Lance had to move our stuff into our new house because we were able to get in while I was still in California. I have one goooood man! So when I came back to Utah with my mom, we were able to set up house. It feels so good to be in!