Opinions Please

My friend, Courtney, took some amazing pictures of our family and kids a few weeks ago. There were so many cute ones, particularly of Marissa, that I'm having the hardest time deciding which ones to have printed to hang on the wall. Here's my thought. I want one of each kid for the living room. I also want one of the boys together for their bedroom (I have others when they were younger and I want to add to them) and then I will probably hang one of Marissa in her room next to a picture of her as a newborn...still haven't gotten around to that project from a year ago. :) I also have another area in the family room that doesn't show as well unless you are sitting on the couches where I have two frames. I was originally thinking of putting one of the family there and one of the three kids, but getting all three kids to cooperate for a picture didn't work out this time around. So...I will have to figure out what to do there. Any votes on which pictures to use of the kids?

Oh What Fun...Marissa Is 1!!

This post is over a month old, but I still had to get it up here. Marissa turned one on July 16. Dylan was/is our poor guinea pig, but we've learned that less is best when it comes to parties so we kept it simple for her 1st birthday. She went from having 2 teeth at 11 months to having 7 by her 1st birthday. It was a busy month for teething. She is still working on her bottom side tooth and I have a feeling those molars are not far behind because the never-ending drool is once again plaguing our little cutie. Marissa is mild and mellow most of the time, but can hold her own, relying on her feistiness when necessary. She has learned that Preston LOVES her way too much and is pretty good at squealing and screaming when she thinks she needs some assistance from mommy. She has the most contagious smile and is a total social laugher. She loves laughing along with everyone else, even if she's not sure what exactly we're laughing about. She is already very independent and loves to be left alone to explore. However, she is never too far from mommy in case she needs some comfort. She is a snuggly one, lying on my shoulder whenever she needs some love. She is also right under foot and has a death grip on my pants when she wants to be picked up. There is no question she knows how to tell you what she needs, even with very few words as of yet. She does say something resembling thank you, says da da all the time (even if it's mama she wants) and has repeated quite a few other words, but most of the time she just lets out a short whiny grunt to say "Hey, people, I need something here." And with two older brothers, a mom and her Papi, that seems to be plenty for her to get her needs met. She still loves her binkie and grabs one ear or both (see the picture in her carseat above) when she is tired and trying to fall asleep. The little lady was standing and balancing for about a month before she started taking a step here and there. It took her awhile to realize she really was capable of walking. She officially took more than two steps a week after her birthday - on Pioneer Day, July 24. We were at a friends' house (the Talbots) and she just started walking to Jon. It seems like this one really is our social, community baby. I went into labor sitting at the Slades' house, Hannah Edge was over helping me with kids when I was on the couch in January and discovered her first tooth coming in, and she took her first steps at the Talbot's. She loves being passed around the ward and going to all her favorite "second mommies". We feel so blessed to have Marissa in our family. She is the princess that brings a little girlie to our rough and tumble land of boys. Happy Birthday, Ladybug! We love you!

Grandma (my mom) had dinner and a birthday party for Marissa at her house. She spoiled her (as always). She got her a fun little buggie car to ride in and her first doll. It was so fun to watch Marissa with the baby doll. She holds her and pats her on the back. It really is amazing to see how nurturing really does come so naturally to girls. She LOVED her cupcakes and had a great time being around family.

I had Marcos' family up for cake and ice cream to celebrate her birthday. She looked adorable all dolled up, but we stripped her down for cupcakes. Good thing we did because the only thing she was interested in after that was the garden hose. She got the perfect gifts...books, a sippy cup, swimsuit and pj's. In addition to adorable pajamas, abuela gave her a little bee book (she is always saying Marissa looks like a little bumble bee) and it is now her favorite book of all time. She loves that book and takes it with her everywhere!

Some of the cousins hanging out at the birthday party

July 2011

Here are a few of our adventures in July I managed to get pictures of. It was a crazy busy month.

Treehouse Museum with the Talbots. After Dylan's experience being in a play, the kid loves to be in front of an audience. He was thrilled to be chosen as king at the little play they put on at the Treehouse. He was so cute and serious about his part. Preston ended up being chosen as one of the wild pigs. He didn't follow the story like the other wild pigs, but was the "wildest" pig there. He was definitely entertaining in his own right.

Otis and Marissa are only 2 1/2 weeks apart. I managed to capture a couple pictures from the Otis birthday bbq. Those two are so entertaining to watch. They climb over each other, take things from each other and just observe what the other is doing. So funny!

My dad and step mom took my niece, Lily, to Cherry Hill while she was in town visiting. They stayed in their trailer and camped as well as went swimming. We met them for a day of fun in the sun and a short break for lunch and a movie in the trailer. Dylan and Lily had a great time playing together. It's funny how kids can pick up where they left off even if they don't see each other very often. The "skin" picture is a picture of Marissa's leg. She fell asleep on her comforter and it left an imprint of a dragonfly. Too cute!

Part of our busy July included almost 3 weeks of tending Anthony while his dad was on a cruise with friends. It really was crazy timing with Preston's finger and other appointments we had scheduled months ago, but we managed to have a blast anyway. Several trips to different pools, the aquarium, the zoo, slumber parties on the new bunk beds, and lots sword fights, trampoline time, bike and scooter riding, building forts and other kid-friendly activities. My house was less than clean for many days, but we survived the extra chaos and the kids had fun together.

I know I posted about this one, but July was full of adventure with Preston's finger. An Emergency Room visit, plastic surgeon to repair his tendon and stitch his finger, multiple follow up visits, much creativity on my part to figure out how to help him keep on his temporary splint and then the red splint that they fitted him for (thus the picture of the latex glove taped around his hand). Yes, it's been a long 3 weeks. But he got the stitches out today (August 3) has to wear the splint for two more weeks, follow up one more time and then hopefully he'll be fine.

A few more moments with Anthony. The kids made chopsticks out of plastic straws to eat noodles with one day. We area also proudly the rent-a-pet home. We haven't dared to get our own pet yet, but we happily watch others' animals while they are gone. Gives us a little exposure without the extra responsibility. :) We dog sat and tadpole sat while Anthony was here.

As if July weren't already packed full of adventure, we remodeled. Not on purpose, but my dad was getting rid of bunk beds that my sisters and I had used at his house when we were younger. I probably wouldn't have bought a full on bottom and twin on top, but free is free. All we did was bought new sheets. Yay! The kids slept in the family room while we painted and I managed to capture a couple funny pictures. Preston fell asleep wearing his pirate hat and holding his sword and an hour later he had rolled into Dylan and they were as close as can be. So cute! It has actually been wonderful having the full bed on the bottom and surprisingly has made their small room seem much bigger. By the way, Preston chose Toy Story sheets and Dylan chose Star Wars. I thought they would be matching, but we settled for making the kids happy and colors that didn't completely clash. :)

This last picture is a picture of the office/toy room. I was going crazy trying to figure out how to arrange things. It happens to me often, although may have been sparked by the chaos of an extra kid this time around. Stuff was everywhere. I can let things go most of the time, but every six months or so, I just feel the need to clean and reorganize everything. It drives Marcos crazy, but he always appreciates it in the end. Trust me, this one took some time. Probably three days of non-stop sorting, organizing, setting up, getting rid of, etc. But here is the final product. Now we have the desk and my shelves with craft stuff and then the back wall has the nice shelves with bins of toys and then the other shelves with learning stuff for school. One shelf has puzzles, games, playdough, crayons, coloring books, etc. and the other has curriculum-type stuff. My plan is to get a new doorknob so this room can be locked when I don't want the kids to get into stuff. Now the bookshelves upstairs just have books and the binders we will be using for home school stuff. It looks much better. Not perfect, but better. Man, I don't know how people do it. Our house is small, but not tiny and we only have three kids. We have plenty of stuff, but not TONS. I'm pretty good at going through stuff regularly and purging. I don't know how people fit things in their houses. Sometimes STUFF makes me NUTS! I was so ready to throw everything away. Glad I found a slightly different approach.

Happy July everyone! I hope you had a good one. I'm hoping to catch up with other people via their blogs when I get a minute to breathe. Soon...hopefully soon. :)

The Fountain of Truth

Dylan had his first experience with singing and acting this year. He was in a play called "Pirates of the Carob Bean: The Fountain of Truth." It was SO CUTE! He had lines, sang into the microphone and got to be a pirate on stage in front of tons of people. The first night he was a little nervous and asked me to say a prayer for him, but as soon as he took the stage, he was in his element. The kid is a performer! He had a great time and told me he can't wait until next year. Here are a few pictures. I may have some video as well, but I need to sort it out. I will post it when I upload and edit it if I can find it in my unorganized mess of videos.

4th Of July Festivities

I got so far behind again that I was tempted to do another post of all our July happenings, but I figured so much has happened it would be way too long. So instead, here are some pictures from our 4th of July adventures.

We started the day out at the Kaysville parade with our friends the Talbots and Edges. We forgot bags for the kids to collect candy so they ended up using the bags the camp chairs come in. Preston was dragging his big bag two feet behind him. But the kid would not let go of his bag. I'll be honest, now that I'm an old lady, parades are not my favorite. I don't love the crowds, finding parking, the heat, the humidity (which has been horrible this year), and the insanity of keeping so many kids back far enough, making sure they stay close by, etc. But I love watching my kids enjoy it all. I guess that's why we moms do much of what we do.

After the parade we headed down to Bountiful for a private bowling party with the same friends and another family, the Behunins, who joined us. Preston and Owen (who is 3) were so cute. They are such good little buddies and were jammin' out to the songs while they tossed the bowling balls down with the helper device over and over again. We discovered Preston is a die-hard bowling fan. The older girls were so cute, wanting to hold Marissa and take care of her. And having extra moms around was awesome too. Hannah put Marissa to sleep and after her nap, I handed her off to Kristie who held her while she drank her bottle. Yeah, we are definitely taking the "it takes a village to raise a child" literally. Our kids are very loved by so many amazing people!

After our bowl-fest, we headed to Ogden-Farr West to be exact- for what has become a tradition for my family. They have delicious Greek food you can purchase, a DJ, a huge grassy area to set up blankets and chairs and a playground that the kids always take advantage of at some point while we are there.

As it gets dark, 3 or 4 sky divers start out the evening and then the fireworks begin. I thought the fireworks might bother Preston a little, but it was much worse than I thought. Loud, startling noises are definitely not good for his sensory processing issues. I ended up sitting on a camp chair holding him, his head pressed against my chest with my hand covering his outer ear. He had a blanket draped over him to cover the noise and bright lights even more and I still needed to sing to him and rock him to keep him calm. Poor little thing. When the finale was over, I moved my hand off of his ear and he grabbed it with his little hand so fast to move it back to his ear again. It was hard. Really hard. And I was dripping sweat from his body heat and a big blanket over me for 20 minutes. I love the 4th of July. I'm the type that gets choked up listening to patriotic music while imagining the sacrifices that were made to give me the life I enjoy today. There was some of that as always, but tears streamed down my cheeks in sadness for my little man, my "baby", who has to face a life that looks so different to him than to most people. Sometimes trying to understand what his life will be like long-term is almost too hard to imagine. There is just so much I don't know and don't understand. It breaks my heart. Other than that, it was an amazing 4th of July marathon celebration.

Dylan's Play

I am attaching the flier for the play Dylan is in this week. If you live close enough and want to come, it is really cute and is free.

Preston's Poor Pointer...finger

Every time I think life will settle down for a second, something major happens. I guess I was totally wrong. This must just be the pace of life with three little ones at home, a busy husband who works full time and part time and church callings. More to come on the rest of life later.

Last night, we had just finished eating dinner. I was doing dishes, Marcos went to put Marissa in the bathtub and the boys went out to ride their bikes on the sidewalk. Next thing I know, Dylan is running in yelling "Mom, Preston fell down and hurt himself. He needs you." I ran outside and he wasn't kidding. There was blood everywhere. It took me a minute just to figure out what had happened. At first I thought his mouth was bleeding because the blood was all over his face, but I soon realized he had cut his right index finger...bad. I had Dylan run get Marcos and a drink for Preston to try to calm him down. I took Preston over and sat him on the lawn. Blood was everywhere so I didn't dare take him in to try to clean him up. Marcos called a neighbor to take the other kids and I called the doctor's office to make an appointment. We got there and were told it was too deep and we would need to go to the Emergency Room. I thought that might be the case, but was hoping for the best. The whole time blood is gushing everywhere and I'm doing my best to hold gauze on Preston's finger while sitting next to him in the van. Marcos takes off like a complete maniac and I spent most of the drive trying to convince him speeding and crashing would not make his finger better. If you don't know us very well, I tend to be the one who stays calm in emergency situations. And that's probably the understatement of the century. The kid freaks out when stuff like this happens.

We waited for a bit in the waiting room and then were taken to triage to be assessed and admitted soon after that. The doctor who saw us, Dr. Heilaster (or something like that) was awesome. We got x-rays and found out his finger was most likely fractured and he had probably severed the tendon. All I have to say is even when things seem incredibly difficult, it's amazing to catch a glimpse of the tender mercies from the Lord. There was a doctor on call who is a plastic surgeon specializing in muscles and tendons of the hand. Seriously? How did that happen? She said that was pretty unusual. It took quite awhile for him to call, but we were grateful he was the one on call and was willing and able to squeeze Preston in first thing in the morning. His office is on a different floor at the hospital. He didn't even have the E.R. doctor stitch him up so it wouldn't heal wrong since the tendon was involved. Poor Preston finally fell asleep around 10:00 p.m. just in time to have a rude awakening now that they knew what the plan was and needed to clean the finger really well...without using any numbing at all. I had to hold him down while he screamed and was sweating from the struggle. It was a hard thing for a mom, but you do what you have to do. I held his hand, chest and head while Marcos kept him from kicking. They got him bandaged up with a green bandage over a temporary split, we waited for his first dose of antibiotic and then we headed home.

We got home to our neighbor who had Dylan and her kids watching TV and had put Marissa to bed. We have the best friends ever! Seriously! The village really is helping to raise our children. So...we are dog sitting for our other friends and Dylan assumed we had the dog with us. So the whole time we were at the hospital, there was no dog. We got home finally ready to breathe and I just about had a heart attack thinking I'd lost this cute little dog. I had to take a minute alone in the basement and just lock the door and pray and think. I knew I couldn't figure all this out alone. Everyone was walking around the cul-de-sac whistling for the dog and Marcos was in panic mode yet again. I got a flashlight and keys and headed over to their house. I had the impression the dog might have gone home and knew I had to go look. Sure enough, Belle was there in the backyard. My guess is someone saw her by my house, looked at her dog collar and took her home. Either way, I have never been so grateful for so many blessings. Okay, I probably have, but this was definitely one of those moments of intense gratitude that sometimes come. The Lord heard me over and over and answered my prayers. I know prayers are not always answered immediately, but when they are, it strengthens my testimony in leaps and bounds. I almost don't feel worthy of being so looked after and cared for during such times of crisis. I went to bed and prayed and read scriptures and cried and prayed some more. It was an emotionally overwhelming night for sure.

This morning was utter chaos. I got the kids ready, dropped Dylan off to the neighbor because he had dress rehearsal for the play he's in this week. Oh, I should post about that so you can come if you want. Marcos and I drove separate cars up to the hospital so he could go to work afterwards and my mom met us there to pick up Marissa. We waited for what seemed like forever to get called back to the doctor's office and then waited another eternity to be seen. A few minutes before the doctor was going to be coming in, the nurse came and removed the splint (which was actually his second splint since he decided to rip the thing off this morning). The doctor came in and saw his finger and knew immediately the tendon was completely severed. The good news was he thought he could do it there in the exam room with just a localized shot. The E.R. doctor the night before thought they might have to sedate him so that was way good news. The bad news was entertaining a 4-year-old with sensory processing disorder for heaven knows how long was a less-than-pleasant experience. We sang songs, we jumped, he sat on my lap, I rocked him, I tried coloring animal pictures for him....NOTHING! He wanted out of there! We promised him a new Buzz toy if he was good and multiple other bribes I can't even remember at this point. It was HORRIBLE! Marcos had to hold his legs, I held his arm, chest and head down and the nurse held the injured hand and finger while the doctor stitched him up. What a process! He screamed the whole time and was dripping with sweat by the time we let him off the table. But the doctor thinks it went well. We follow up with him next week. He will probably have to wear a splint for six weeks while the stitches and the break heal, but we feel good about the whole thing. He comes highly recommended by the ER doctor and a friend of ours who is also a doctor. So it really was such a blessing that he was the one on call and could get us in this morning.

As soon as Preston was off the table, he was happy as can be. He just didn't want to be held down anymore. We stopped at the cafeteria for some lunch since he wasn't able to eat breakfast in case they had to put him under anesthesia for surgery. He enjoyed every bite and then was eager to go find a Buzz toy. At one point I looked over to watch him dunk the splint into the ketchup and lick it off. Seriously! I had to keep reminding him to leave it alone. But...I'm a sucker and "good" is a very relative term. I figured he survived stitches and being pinned down for what I'm sure felt like forever so he ended up getting a Buzz and a Woody toy from the store. :)

He keeps trying to take off the splint and chewing on it so it's going to be a long six weeks trying to keep that thing in good condition, but at least it's done. Hopefully it will heal well and life can move on. We didn't get as good of pictures as I wish we would have with trying to hold him down and keep him from making things worse, but here is what we did manage to capture of this traumatic experience.

I wish I would have taken a side picture of his finger on the camera. I got one on my phone, but it's not great and I have no idea how to upload the pictures from my very old school phone. That cut went all the way to the bone though so it is much worse than it looks. The whole fingertip felt like it was just hanging there. And it was dangling when he tried to point and hold it out straight.

Part of our three hour emergency room wait. You can't tell, but all the spots all over him and his pants are blood...and that was after trying to clean him up. He was a MESS!

Trying to entertain the little man. We sang lots of songs since there was nothing kid-appropriate on TV and there wasn't exactly time to grab a DVD player on the way to the E.R. We could have used a movie distraction though...big time!

He finally fell asleep around 10, just to wake up screaming when they had to clean out the finger and bandage him up to send him home again. Poor kid!

The temporary split from the E.R. He was not a happy camper, but was very brave for the whole process.

Waiting for the plastic surgeon. He was spinning this tray around and around. He was bored and almost at his limit before we even saw the doctor. I knew it was going to be rough.

The nurse taking off the first splint so the doctor could look at it. It must have hurt him pretty bad because Preston is my tough little man and he was flinching the whole time.

Another crappy picture trying to show how bad it really was. Sorry, this was as good as I could get. Marcos has a decent one on his phone if I can ever figure out how to upload his pictures.

A little bit better view. It had stopped bleeding for the most part, but as soon as they took the bandage off and he moved at all it started gushing blood again.

We took Buzz to help pass the time. It helped in the waiting room but that's about it.

The only moment during the stitches we could capture. He was moving too much and we needed all hands on deck. (Sorry they got out of order. This obviously happened after they numbed his finger)

Trying to calm the kid before the real storm hit

Just after they numbed the finger

Leaving the doctor's office with the new splint on

Happy to be leaving the hospital with a full belly and lemonade in hand