Christmas 2010

This year we did things a little bit different for Christmas. With money being tight, like I'm sure it is for just about everyone, each of the kids got 3 gifts. Something they WANT, something they NEED, and something to SHARE. This worked out so well. The kids had a great Christmas and I didn't overspend! My brother Brett stayed the night with us on Christmas Eve so he could play with the kids and they love this! He's such a good sport and so patient with them. He played Lego's with Russell for hours. What a great Uncle. We had a wonderful day relaxing and eating. Grandma & Grandpa came over for a yummy Ham dinner and we finished off the day playing cards with the missionaries.

Ready for bed. New jammies from the Pajama Elf. Brenna's not impressed!

Nice and warm by the fire. It really wasn't cold enough for a fire...but it's tradition.

Brett & Russell playing Lego's

Russell's 11th Birthday Party

Somehow Russell convinced Chad to throw a birthday party for him. They played kickball and of course shot some paintballs. Chad got some helium balloons and the boys had to try to shoot them.

Russell shot one of the balloons and the paintball got stuck inside! Pretty funny!

Chad, Russell, Brett, Parker & Blake.

The Crew

That evening the Elder's stopped by to help us sing Happy Birthday and have some cake & ice cream. They are a hoot and the kids LOVE them.

Cooper, Elder Dursteller, Russell, Janey, Elder Harall & Parker

Merry Christmas

Here is the Christmas letter Chad did this year for those of you who didn't get one in the mail.

Happy Holidays to All,

This has been a remarkable year for the Belnaps and Pure Flooring. We have had some great things happen for us. First and foremost, we have a beautiful little girl – Brenna. Secondly we hired our first employee and he is doing great things to help our business grow.

My wife endured well her pregnancy with our new addition. This pregnancy was a rough one for her. She was really sick for most of the beginning, put on bed rest for much of the latter part and then, as most women, was really uncomfortable at the end. This was her hardest pregnancy and so I am grateful to her for all that she did while it was going on. It is hard for me, as a man, to understand the displeasures of pregnancy, but I can tell you that I don’t want her to ever have to do that again. So we will be complete with four amazing children.

My children are doing wonderful. My oldest, Russell, is almost 11 yrs old and continues to do well in school. He has been really blessed with great teachers to help him improve in his abilities. He continues to read at an elevated level and he really enjoys it. He is currently loving video games – don’t worry we monitor the amount. He wants to attempt to play any musical instrument that he can including the drums, violin, guitar, and piano. He and I played a lot of paint ball at the beginning of the year, but after I broke my leg, we haven’t been able to play. Janey, my 7 year old daughter is still as sweet as can be. She loves to be a part of a music program called “Let’s Play Music.” She gets to go to a class weekly to learn music. She is doing great in school and loves to play with friends and neighbors. Parker is 4 years old and is a sport maniac. He wants to go outside at every opportunity to play basketball, football, soccer, ride scooters, and bicycles, anything to get out of the house and be active. He “graduated” from his preschool class this year too. He also enjoys having his older sister read to him. Brenna is now six weeks old and is starting to smile back at us and look around and be more “awake” when she is awake. She is a sweet and good baby for us. We think that it is because she gave Trisha so much grief during the pregnancy. I cannot tell you why she is so good, but I know that she really is and we are so grateful.

My big news for the year was that I broke my leg in June. I had to have surgery to repair the bones. I had to get a plate and 8 screws on the tibia bone and 2 screws on the fibula bone. I became utterly worthless for six or seven weeks. I have recovered to about 90% but still can’t jump or run, but I didn't do much of that before so it’s OK. When I broke my leg, I was actually able to hire Brett Anderson. He has worked with me before and knew our systems and expectations. He has been with us for 6 months now and is doing great. He has a great work ethic, quick to learn and we have a lot of fun working together.

We are still doing great in the business. We are actually going to be expanding into water damage restoration this next year as well as carpet cleaning. This next year we are going to be doing more advertising via email, so if you want to get some great specials - sign up, just go to our website at pureflooring.com and enter your email address. I respect privacy and will keep all emails secure.

We wish everybody a happy and safe holiday season. There is much to be grateful for and we want you to know that we are grateful for you and all you have done for our family and business.

Here is my shameful plug. We would love to help clean your carpets, furniture, or tile for Christmas. We have been busy and are excited to help in any way we can.

Chad, Trisha, Russell, Janey, Parker, & Brenna Belnap

Pure Flooring 480 275 7658

One Month

On one hand I can't believe it's already been a month...on the other I feel like I remember every single day of the past month. I am enjoying my sweet baby so much. Maybe it's because I know this is my last or maybe I'm just so glad to not be pregnant anymore but I am relishing in the time I get to spend holding her and watching her sleep. She has such an amazing spirit and I'm so glad she's mine.

Brenna Evelyn Belnap

We are so excited that our sweet Brenna is finally here. She is such a good baby, which I am so grateful for! The kids are loving her. No one has asked if we could send her back yet. I am finding that with #4 the hard times don't come from #4, they come from #'s 1-3. I've really had to work on my patience. They all love to hold her and burp her and help bathe her. Sometimes it seems like there isn't enough of her to go around. She eats about every 3 hours and is a good sleeper the majority of the time. I'm getting use to sleeping in 2 hour increments. It really helps that she goes right back to sleep after she eats during the night. I am feeling so much better since having her. My family is so glad to have me back, and I am too.

Arriving at the hospital.

Update on Chad

We went to the Dr. today for Chad's first follow up appointment. They took new x-rays, took staples out and his cast off. Pretty gross. But the Dr. was happy with the way everything looked,what they were expecting I think. Basically right now the hardware is just holding the bones together so they will heal properly, it doesn't actually speed healing or anything like that, it just holds everything in place. They put Chad in a walking boot that he is not allowed to walk in yet. He can't put any weight on his foot for at least 4 more weeks. We go back for another appointment in 4 weeks and then the Dr. will see how he's progressing and either give him the okay to bear weight or might make him wait up to 4 more weeks. We are really praying that things will look GREAT at his next appointment and he will be able to put at least some weight on it. Chad can take the walking cast off in about a week for showering, which makes me oh so happy, but other than that it stays on, even for sleeping. He's done so good at following the Dr.'s orders, I haven't had to yell at him once! He was able to go to a couple of carpet cleaning appointments this last week. We are so fortunate to have my brother Brett step in and do all the "labor" and Chad just goes and hangs out in his reclining camping chair at the jobs. We'll have to get a picture of that! Brett is a really hard worker and has helped Chad in the past on bigger appointments so he knows for the most part how things are run. They are going to try to move up to 2 appointments per day this next week and see how Chad does. Russell has also been able to go to a few jobs and work hard with his Uncle Brett, whom he worships! We have been so blessed through this experience. Just to be able to have Brett so we have some sort of income is such a HUGE blessing. The ward brought in meals everyday last week for us! My wonderful sister-in-law and nieces came over last week and cooked up 50 lbs of meat to go in the freezer. That way I can just go out and grab a pound of meat and put something together for dinner. Another HUGE blessing. I've still been pretty sick, Heavenly Father hasn't taken that trial away yet :-) but I'm doing my best to get through each day. It's not always pretty and I'm rarely the "fun" mom my kids wish I was, but we are surviving.

Outside of his foot, across the ankle. I think there are about 20 staples there.

Inside of his foot. There are 2 staples there.

X-rays taken today. 1 plate & 11 screws. About 20+ staples.

Chad's Broken Leg

So I decided to just give all the details here of Chad's exciting weekend. On Friday he went to an appointment here in Mesa and was unloading all of his hoses and stuff. He was walking backward pulling his hoses to the house when he tripped over a rock twisting his ankle one way and then the other trying to catch himself. This resulted in broken bones, both the tibia and fibula just above the ankle. I came and picked him up, bringing my brother and a friend to get Chad in the car and to clean up all of his hoses and to drive the truck and trailer back, and took him to the hospital. First let me say that the wheelchairs at Gateway stink! They are not like regular wheelchairs and I could've used a driving lesson BEFORE I put Chad in it. OK, so Chad is in the wheelchair and turning whiter by the second, the part of the chair that holds his leg out only comes to his mid calf so his foot is literally hanging off the end and it's made of hard plastic so it's digging into the back of his leg. Seriously?! Whoever came up with that really needs to go back to school. So I'm pulling him through the doors and I can't get enough leverage to push him over the bump so I'm busting up laughing pushing as hard as I can and he's got his arms spread trying to grab the outer part of the sliding doors to pull himself through. We both had a good laugh...as he's about to pass out. So I take him to the front desk, the receptionist looks at Chad and proceeds to ask his name, address, birth date and I am just waiting for him to fall out of the chair unconscious. Finally I satisfy her with enough information and ask for a bed. They take us straight back. They get him in bed and are trying to get him as comfortable as one can be with a broken leg, propping his leg on a pillow etc. After the nurses leave I'm trying to readjust things and Chad decided he would like another pillow to elevate his leg more. So I go and ask for one...and they don't have anymore. What kind of hospital is this that runs out of pillows?! So I ask for another blanket to roll up and put under his leg. I went back in, told Chad they were out of pillows, and we got another good laugh. Really? no more pillows. So, the Dr. comes in, they take x-rays, and we wait and wait, and Chad decides he needs a way better story than just tripping on a rock to explain his broken bones. He goes with the "saving children from a burning building" story. And now that Chad has heard the life story of the x-ray tech, the bed transport guy, and some of the nurses (Chad certainly has a way of getting people to spill their deepest darkest secrets to him) they tell us Chad will be admitted and will need surgery on Saturday morning. They took him up to his room and the main nurse comes in to introduce herself and asks him what happened. He goes with the burning building story and she promptly asks "Are you a firefighter?" I'm trying my hardest to contain my laughter and explain to her that very rarely is the first thing out of his mouth in any way serious! (only when he calls me on my cell and says he broke his ankle, then he isn't kidding!) I stayed with Chad until they get him all hooked up and then left to get him some stuff from home and to get the kids to bring them back so they could see that dad was OK. Friday night went pretty well for Chad. They kept him on some good drugs. He didn't get much sleep, who does in a hospital, but he said he was able to fall back asleep easily each time he was woken up. Saturday's surgery went as planned. The Dr. put in a plate and 3 screws on the outside part of his ankle and 2 more screws on the inside of his ankle. He was in recovery a little longer than expected his oxygen levels were low but they got him all taken care of. They rest of the story is pretty boring. Just laying around and waiting. We were expecting him to come home on Sunday morning but his white blood cell count was too high, which can be a sign of infection. So now it's Monday morning and we are praying he comes home today. We all miss him a lot. It's just not nearly as fun without him around :-) This comes at a really bad time for us, is there ever a good time?, with me being so sick with this pregnancy and Chad being self employed but Heavenly Father is pouring out his blessings on us. We are so blessed with amazing family and friends. Thank you all for your prayers, phone calls, emails & text messages. I know I am not alone and help is just a phone call away.

On the left side, the outside of his leg, there is a vertical break. On the right side, the inside of his leg is a chunk of bone that totally chipped off.