Good news!

Once again I am very behind on my blogging and most of you already know this but Luke had his 12th surgery a couple weeks ago. I have taken him into surgery 12 times during this last year, and every time it's an anxiety-filled, heart-wrenching experience for me as I wait for the surgeon to come back and give me the news. However, this last time was a little different because for the first time the doctor came back and told me that the hemangioma was totally gone! (For those of you who don't know, Luke had a growth under his vocal cords which was expected to grow for about a year before it stopped, so the doctor had to go in and laser it off every few weeks to keep his airway clear. And the thing was basically growing like a weed. She had to laser it every time.) I was ecstatic about the news. There was some bad news however. The doctor said that Luke has scar tissue in his airway which she may have to take care of with one more surgery. I guess I could handle one more if I had too, but any more than that and I think that I would go crazy! It's been quite a year for my little guy. I am just so thankful that he is healthy and happy and doing well. Heavenly Father has definitely been watching over him.

Someone needs a haircut!

I just had to get a picture of this because it was just too cute. Luke is almost 16 months old and has not yet had a haircut. He has the blondest baby fine hair of any of our boys. It's so cute, but it's going to be really hard to cut so I am waiting for Jim to be done with finals and then we will do it together because it will take two to cut this kid's hair! (P. S. Jim is taking his last final today! Hurray! I am definitely going to celebrate because this will be a much needed break for both of us.)

Visit from cousins!

This week my sister Pam and her family came to visit us from Arizona. My boys were so excited to see their cousins. They actually were a little crazy and acted a little like wild monkeys (big surprise). Pam has 3 girls who are very mellow and calm, which is a stark contrast to the zoo we have in the Ostler household. The sad thing is that it has been forever since we have seen them - like 2 years. It makes me so grateful that we live so much closer to family now so my boys will actually know who their cousins are. We plan on seeing a lot more of them in the future!

Thanksgiving

Well, we had a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home. Amber came to visit us for a whole week. The boys love it when she comes. I hope she had fun too. I'm sure she was pretty worn out by the time she left. For dinner we had a couple of Jim's friends from school over. It was nice for all of them to have a break from the daily grind of school. It's pretty intense for them right now since finals are coming up in a week. This is a picture of the boys making the turkey place cards. It's always fun when there's paint involved.

Jim wanted to take a picture of the turkey. I put him in charge of cooking the turkey this year. He loves to cook meat of any kind (although, I think he would have preferred to cook prime rib or steak, but I convinced him that you have to have turkey on Thanksgiving). He did a good job.

Jimmy loves Thanksgiving dinner, especially the pumpkin pie. That's his favorite. I don't know if you can see in this picture but he put about 5 scoops of cinnamon sugar on his sweet potato when nobody was looking. Needless to say, he didn't eat any of it.

Kenneth Hahn Park

We were so lucky on Veteren's Day. Jim and Jimmy both had school off so we got to spend some quality time together as a family. We decided to take the kids to a near by state park for a picnic. I heard that Los Angeles is one of the cities in the United States with the least amount of open green space and I definitely think that is true. It was so nice to get a little break from the city and go somewhere that is peaceful and quiet. There is a little man made lake with tons of ducks and the kids had so much fun feeding them. The weather was beautiful - couldn't ask for anything better in November. It was a good day.

Just in case you are wondering - no, that is not a bug on Ben's nose. It is an owie courtesy of Jimmy. He actually bit Ben's nose. We are working on controlling that temper of his.

Prop 8 protests

I am feeling great anxiety right now as I sit here and watch all of the protests that have been going on against prop 8 in front of the temple (less than 5 miles from where I live). It is very scary to watch all of this unfold. It brings up a lot of questions in my mind. I don't like people telling me that I am an intolerant bigot. I found this article on the church website newsroom. I copied a few paragraphs that answered my questions perfectly. For the full article you can click here.

The article said, "Allegations of bigotry or persecution made against the Church were and are simply wrong. The Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility toward gays and lesbians. Even more, the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches." I couldn't agree more. If the gay and lesbian couples simply wanted these rights, they can have them through civil unions. It just seems to go so much deeper for them. Can't they have these rights while at the same time respecting my right believe that marriage is a sacred and holy institution that should not be defiled by perversion and immorality? That is what I believe and it is my right to feel that way.

The article went on to say, "Some, however, have mistakenly asserted that churches should not ever be involved in politics when moral issues are involved. In fact, churches and religious organizations are well within their constitutional rights to speak out and be engaged in the many moral and ethical problems facing society. While the Church does not endorse candidates or platforms, it does reserve the right to speak out on important issues.

"Before it accepted the invitation to join broad-based coalitions for the amendments, the Church knew that some of its members would choose not to support its position. Voting choices by Latter-day Saints, like all other people, are influenced by their own unique experiences and circumstances. As we move forward from the election, Church members need to be understanding and accepting of each other and work together for a better society." That is they beauty of the plan of Heavenly Father. We each have agency to believe how we choose. If a member of the church is against prop 8, then that is their personal choice and I should not judge them. Those opposing prop 8 are just doing what they feel is right. And so am I. I just hope we can find a way to exercise our personal beliefs and live together in peace.

On the news I saw some members going out to the temple to protest against the protest and that almost made me more sick than watching those protest against us. We are counseled to love and respect those with different beliefs than ours. That is the Savior's way. Peacefully standing up for what you believe is right will send a much stronger message than retaliating out of anger. I just hope and pray that all members of the church will stand for truth and righteousness as they follow the example of the Savior.

Thanks Mom! You're the best!

Last week Luke had his 11th surgery and once again my mom came to the rescue. She is always there when I need her. Luke is doing well and has fully recovered from the surgery last week. We had to spend the night at the hospital which, of course, isn't fun for anyone, but after he came home he seemed to recover quite quickly. While mom was here we were able to do some fun things with the kids. There is a great science center which is near the USC campus about 20 minutes from where we live (without traffic of course). The best part about it is IT'S FREE! The kids had a lot of fun learning about bugs, animals, frogs, senses, sound and other science related things. They really liked the discovery room which is made for kids between the ages of 3-7. Ben got to hold and touch a cock roach! Yuck! We also took a trip to the Santa Monica Pier with Ben and Luke. Jimmy was at school that day. I was sad that he missed out on it, but the great thing about where we live is we can go back any time we want! It was a fun day.


As soon as she put the giant cock roach into Ben's hand he immediately threw it back into her hand as you can see. Good thing they have a hard shell because he could have done some damage to the helpless bug by the impact of his throw. After he gave it back to her he wasn't done though. He was still very curious about it and kept touching it. Jimmy, on the other hand, ran into the computer room next door and hid behind the door. He wanted nothing to do with the nasty bug. Can't say I blame him. He said it's "yucky."


Here is Ben sitting with Grandma on a bench at the pier overlooking the ocean. It smelled like fish!


Ben got to ride on the ferris wheel with me and he had so much fun. I thought he might be scared because it was so high but he loved it.

Here is the view of the Pier and the ocean from the top of the ferris wheel.