Deer Valley w/o kids

Lisa and I spent the day today skiing up at Deer Valley. My office manager hooked us up with some tickets - thanks Lindsay! We owe you.

We love living here and being near so much fantastic recreation. We were also lucky enough that our parents watched the kids for us, allowing just the two of us to go. We couldn't have asked for a better day for skiing. The snow was great quality, the weather was fantastic, it wasn't crowded at all, and we rode up the lifts with some great company (a couple from Ohio that we probably convinced to move here to Park City, several BYU students, the ski patrol, and my good buddy Stein).

Lisa decided to open up our Christmas gift a week early so she could use it today. We got a new handheld camera for times like today. The cannon is a great camera, but not a pocket camera. So, we had a blast on the mountain and can't wait for more ski days ahead this season.

A really cool view back towards the Wasatch, where Alta, Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton are located.

Another sweet view out towards Mt. Timpanogas.

Lisa took a little video of me going down the run. Hopefully this little video will serve as motivation for all of you who haven't made to the slopes yet. Get out there and do it, you won't regret it.

One Stitch for Cole

Cole has been learning to walk around while holding on to things lately. He is very eager to be a big boy and will pull himself up onto anything within reach. Earlier today he happened to fall while in one of his adventurous moods. The poor kid hit the corner of some of the finish work in our house. He punctured his head and left a huge gash on his forehead. Lisa called the doctor's office and they said they were all booked up today and that we would have to go to the emergency room. When she called me I told her that I would just stitch him up once I got home from work to save the $100 + fee of going to the emergency room for something I can do on my own.
Well, when I got home I busted out my surgical first aid kit. I have been wanting to stitch somebody up outside of the office for a long time, so I was pumped to finally use the kit I had put together months ago.
Lisa held him down, and boy was he mad that he was immobile. I used some local anesthetic to numb his forehead up. I then used the iodine to disinfect the area then used some 6-0 silk suture material to place one little stitch.

Here is my handy work. First time I've done a stitch not in the mouth, and I must say that it is much easier to see and work when not wrestling with a tongue and cheek and when I have ample lighting. Cole was so happy to get out of Lisa's death grip, and within 10 seconds was back to his happy self and crawling around the house.

I think this kid is going to be a little too much like me and we might end up putting him in a helmet permanently to protect him from all the falls and bumps that await him.

A birthday for the doctor!

We celebrated Cody's 31st birthday on Monday. He did have to work, but he loves his job so it wasn't a problem to go in. We recently bought a snowblower for Cody's birthday/Christmas present. Now it just needs to snow so he can use it. (Although I'm not complaining that it isn't snowing. Once it starts, it doesn't leave for a long time up here!) Aubrey dressed herself, can you tell! She's our little princess and knows it!
Last night we were able to get together with some of our dental friends from Cody's class. 3 of us live in Utah and the Hales were visiting, so we met up in Ogden for a pizza party. The handsome doctors!

The cutest wives!

All of our kiddos! Aubrey, Tucker, Cole, Will, Cassidy, Luke, Katelyn and Sarah.

Seattle Thanksgiving

We decided to drive to Seattle to spend the weekend with Cody's brothers family. We left Wednesday morning, 5 am MST and made it there a little after 5 pm PST. The kids did awesome in the car! We've taken our kids on a lot of road trips and I'm so glad, they are used to it and do great for long periods of time. The kids all had a blast playing together. They showed us a fun kids browser called KidZui and they played on the computers a ton. Luckily we had 4 computers between us so each boy had their own. We had a very relaxing Thanksgiving. Marisa and Carson did a great job with the food and had everything decorated beautifully. I felt bad that all we brought was the sparkling cider - at least we were able to help cook the food.

On Friday we slept in and then Marisa and I took half the kids out shopping. I really wanted to be able to go to Toys R Us at midnight when they opened, but really, who wants to shop in the middle of the night. I missed the deal I was aiming for, but oh well, sleep beckoned and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Cody and Carson did dental work on each other while we shopped and then we met up with them later and went to Bellevue Square to let the kids play, shop and watch their annual Snowflake Lane parade.

Saturday morning we drove to downtown Seattle and had lunch outside Pike Place Market. It was a bit cold, but fun nonetheless. Below Cody is chasing the dumb pigeons with Cole.

Our little family looking out at the Puget Sound.

Carson and Marisa's family.

Aubrey, Tucker, Caeden and Beckham enjoying some Mike N Ikes.

The guys headed over to a friends house to watch the BYU/UofU game and Marisa and I made hair clips. After the game we had a mini Hampstead reunion with 3 families we used to live by and know when we were all living in Maryland. The Hartleys, Keppners and Nielsens.

Laura and I each had baby boys just a couple weeks apart and they were dressed in their Cougar pride!

Kevin K, Carson, Clark, Cody and Kevin N.

Chanel (due in 2 weeks!), me, Marisa, Julie and Laura

Carson got Cole to stand on his own for about 10 seconds. Cole was so excited he started clapping!

After all our friends left we had a mini Christmas with the kids and they were able to open their presents for each other.

We had a great time hanging out for the weekend! The drive home wasn't too bad and the kids are already asking again when we are going to Seattle!

O' Christmas Tree

A week and a half ago I stood in line at Soldier Hollow to get a coveted Christmas Tree permit. They only give out 1000 a day, for 2 days. My friend and I arrived at 8:30 and received one of the last 25 left. How awesome is it that for $10 you can go cut down a fresh Christmas tree in the mountains?!! Yesterday we picked up Cody's parents truck, my Mom and a chainsaw and headed up to the Soapstone Basin. On our way we saw a bobcat, coyote and of course some deer. After looking at several beauties we settled on this one. It was probably 18 feet to start with, but we cut it down a bit to fit our 11 foot ceilings in our family room.

TIMBERRRRRR!

Our kids have been sick, so they spent most of the time in the truck, but they came out after we cut it. I love Cole's toothless grin.

All ready to take her home.

I've always loved how in the movies Christmas trees are in the front window all lit up and decorated. We have a house that let's us do that. Hmm, how many women does it take to tell Cody how to string Christmas lights?

Unfortunately we only own 2 strands of Christmas lights, so we'll need to make a trip to the store to complete our tree. The top 1/3 is the only part covered. It looks great though and we are so excited for our first real tree. It smells great! We are headed to Seattle for Thanksgiving so we thought we'd better get our tree now, on one of Cody's days off. It should last for a couple months since it was only cut down yesterday. I love this time of year!

Cool Cosmetic Cases

I just did an amazing cosmetic case today, and it motivated me to post some of the photos on here. The last set of photos is the case I finished today, but I'll start with some older ones first.

This guy came in to us because his wife really wanted his smile improved. He is 80 years old, and has some old, broken down teeth and old crowns that needed to be replaced due to recurrent decay.

They only wanted to do the upper teeth for now, but will do the lowers down the road. They look so awesome now. They look so natural too.

The gums are a little inflamed in this photo because I had just finished removing the excess cement. When you look at those uppers, you can't tell they aren't natural. Pretty gorgeous, huh? Now to clean those lowers.

Another lady came in to our office to fix an old, ugly bridge. These crowns and the bridge are kind of common for what many labs and dentists do. They look bulky and very opaque. You can't see any transluscency at the incisal edge. They just scream out "fake"!

Don't they look like marshmallows stuck on the teeth?

The final product is so much better. They look so natural. The two teeth on the sides of what we did will be getting veneers down the road, but the 5 that we did look beautiful. She was extremely happy with the results.

This guy told us that he rarely smiles because of "The Grand Canyon going between my front teeth." I suggested braces to close the gap, but he didn't want to do orthodontics. We then decided to pursue crowns (veneers wouldn't have been stable enough).

I was really nervous that we weren't going to be able to close the space without the teeth looking like horse teeth. He has a 6mm diastema, which is huge in dental terms. I also was afraid that we would have a "black triangle" between #8 and #9 due to insufficient gingiva. I worked closely with the lab on this case to make it turn out great.

The final product is phenomenal. He couldn't stop smiling.

His upper lip was still numb so you can't see his real smile accurately yet, but when he comes back in 3 weeks we will take a final photo. It's cases like this that make me so pumped to be a dentist.

Halloween Fun

We had a great time this year on Halloween. We carved our pumpkins last Wednesday. I did a bat for the kids and a ghost/Boo pumpkin. Cody carved the cool one below. It looks awesome all lit up! This year was the year of not buying anything for Halloween. Aubrey was the cutest clown ever! My mom made this costume for my little brother about 13 years ago. She was darling!

Tucker borrowed his Mr. Incredible costume from his cousin Parker. He really wanted to be a giraffe, but the one I bought from Costco was too small and I kept getting outbid on ebay. Oh well, superhero it was!

We trick-0r-treated down Park City's Main street in the afternoon and they kids received TONS of candy. They didn't even need to go out that night. It was fun because Cody saw a bunch of his patients and their families.

That evening Cody's parents came up for dinner and to trick-0r-treat with us. Here we are sitting down for a chili and cornbread dinner.
Cody and I were Mexicans this year. I froze my toes off! If I'm ever a Mexican again I'll find out what they wear on their feet when the weather is cold! Cole was a little devil. Tucker wore the costume when he was 1. It's funny because when Tucker wore it he'd been walking for a few months and could carry around a little pitchfork. Cole stayed at home with Cody's mom and the rest of us were off to find the goods!

It was pure excitement at each house! Aubrey was so excited about every piece of candy and had to show it to me. We love living in such a great neighborhood where you actually know your neighbors. We've never been around that before. No more trunk-or-treats for us - we can do the real thing now!

Cody's pumpkin. Perfect for him and our family!

We had so much fun that night and ended it with Dark Knight. Unfortunately daylight savings began the next day. I am not a fan of it, especially with kids that do not want to adapt to the change. I mean come on, who wants it to get dark at 5:00pm? That's not saving me any energy by having to turn all my lights on that early. Plus, my kids don't care that it's 6:00 when they wake up now!