Weekend stuff...

Russ and I have had a busy weekend. Well, slightly busier for me than for Russ, but who's counting? It was a good weekend. Except for the whole car thing, but I'll get to that.

Friday I had a girl's night out. Russ had me take Dylan claiming that Dylan doesn't like him. Just because there have been a couple of nights when Dylan hasn't settled down and I take him and he cuddles up and goes to sleep doesn't mean he doesn' t like him... My friend, Lisa, also had her baby there. Her baby is two weeks old. Putting them side by side made me realize how much Dylan has grown.

Anyway, at the girl's night out, we picked up some Chinese food and watched a movie then sat around and chatted. We usually play a round or two of contact rummy but didn't this time. Had fun talking about books we've read or haven't read.

The picture here is of Ruby in her carseat next to Dylan in his. (For those who may not know and are interested, Ruby has an older brother who also has a heart defect. He has HLHS.)

While I was at my girl's night out, Russ had taken the other kids over to the dollar theater to see Kung Fu Panda. He called me while he was there. Said he had seen maybe a half hour of the movie. Kids would want something or need to go to the bathroom. If you ask the kids, they enjoyed the movie. Not quite sure Russ could give you an answer other than, "The parts I saw.."

I thought he would walk over to the movie since it's so close, but he drove. I know this because when I got home he asked me if we needed the car in the morning. I said we did. He said, "Here's the thing," and proceeded to tell me how when he got in the car to go home, it wouldn't start. Ended up walking home with various children freaking out that they were leaving the car there.

Saturday morning, Russ and Jimmy had practice for the Savior of the World play that they are in (performing Oct. 10th and 11th at 6:30 at the Davis High Auditorium for those interested...). On the way home Russ stopped to see if he could get the car to jump start. Nothing. Great. And we had a sealing to go to. That we needed to leave right away for so we could take the kids to their grandparent's for tending. So I sent a text to Mom asking if she could come up and get the kids. They came and we were rushing. I thought for sure we were going to miss the sealing because we were going to be late. But apparently John and Tina know Russ. They had told us 11:00 when the sealing was actually at 11:30. So when we got there right at 11, we weren't late. I had been worried since I knew they like you to be there a half hour early.

The sealing was really nice. There's not much nicer than watching parents get sealed in the temple to their child for eternity. Thanks for inviting us.

After the sealing we went to Olive Garden with my parents for lunch. Side note here...make sure you order a pint of Alfredo dipping sauce for the breadsticks...yum...oh, exploding diaper, be right back....Okay, looking at the last things I wrote, really bad combination there. Ah, well. After eating, we went and bought a blessing outfit for Dylan while Russ and Dad looked at the car to see if they could figure out what was wrong. Turned out that the connector cord for the battery had corroded through.

Later, I went with Jo to my stake's dinner thing before the Relief Society General Conference. I enjoyed it. Laughed that the theme for the dinner was Italian and they even had breadsticks from Olive Garden. No dipping sauce though.

Sunday was my ward's Primary program. The kids really wanted to go and participate, so I planned on letting Russ go to the blessing of John and Tina's baby while I went to our ward. I think the car breaking down helped him decide that he would just go to our ward instead.

Well, that is basically the bulk of what happened for the weekend. Been a busy few days. Kind of nice to not have anything today.

Smile!

I finally was able to get a picture of Dylan smiling. This time he was smiling at me and I grabbed the camera and he stopped. I put the camera away and he started smiling again. I grabbed the camera again and he stopped smiling but then must have decided it was okay. Of course, the smile was cuter a second before the picture was taken. Still cute though.

School Carnival

Thursday was the school's yearly carnival. They always have a bunch of activities. Of course, the kids all had a favorite. It was the big inflatable obstacle course they had. They went on that one several times. For a while Jimmy was off with a friend, which is why he isn't in many of the pictures we took. The girls also got their faces painted. They had a few of the 6th graders doing the face painting. My advice would be if they decide to do that again, have an adult there to supervise. They were doing a lot of playing around so the line didn't move very quickly. They would also let friends go right to the front of the line. Just seemed like they needed a little bit of supervision.

Being someone who watches too much tv, the only thing I was sad about going to the carnival is it meant I missed the season premiere of Smallville, and the first part of the season premiere of Supernatural. The season finale of Burn Notice was on at the same time as Supernatural, but they replayed that later the same night, so I wasn't worried about that one (except that I managed to fall asleep for the last 20 minutes of it. Good thing Mom recorded it for me so I can go back and watch it sometime). Okay, probably could have left his paragraph off and could easily delete it, but that's okay.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the carnival:

The three girls starting on the obstacle course. Lys got through to the part where they climb before sliding down the big slide and stopped. Someone had to go help her. Later when Jimmy was back with us, he helped her so it was better.
The girls standing in line.
Lys got to the top of a another inflatable slide and just sat there bouncing. Didn't want to slide down.
Emma and Molly getting ready to slide down.
Lys laying on the grass while in line to go again.
Jimmy, Emma, and Lys climbing.

Belly Button

I wanted to post this picture to show why Dylan's belly button makes me laugh. He wasn't real thrilled when I took his picture. He had been in the middle of eating and I made him stop to change his diaper when he exploded out of his diaper. I grabbed the camera because I thought it was a good chance to take a picture of his belly button. Makes me think of a cinnamon roll. :) I don't remember ever seeing a belly button with a lovely twist like his. Kind of fun.

Happy Birthday Russ

*I know the date above says Thursday the 18th, but I really did post this on the morning of the 19th. I have no idea why it put it with the 18th. Although it was having problems when I posted it....

Today is Russ' birthday. I thought I'd post real quick to wish him a happy birthday (even though he probably won't read this....he doesn't read the blogs very often..and I know this is an older picture of him, but it's one of the few I found of him smiling).

Russ, thank you for all that you do. You are a wonderful husband and father. I love you! You are a good friend to many (even if you don't think that anyone actually likes you). My mom would always say that all she wanted for someone for her daughters is someone who would make them feel loved and beautiful. Thanks for being the kind of person my mom wanted for me.

Brainy Blog Award

Okay, there's supposed to be a little picture here of a brain that says, "Brainy Blog!" and shows the website mommybrainreport.com. Can't seem to get it to work for me. Ah, well. So pretend there's a picture here.

Anyway, I was given a Brainy Blog Award (thanks to Caden's mom, Ashlea at www.cadenkonecny.blogspot.com). Apparently my ramblings are at least sometimes interesting. :)

So now I'm supposed to list 5 blogs that I think deserve the Brainy Blog award!
Here are my 5:

www.brycetfamily.blogspot.com

www.dtolley.blogspot.com

www.wdgandfamily.blogspot.com

www.mkgreen.blogspot.com

www.quansters.blogspot.com

So for you on my list, you need to pass the award along. And go back to Mommy Brain Reports » Blog Archive » Mommy Brain Reports- Brainy Blog Award HQ to sign Mr. Linky.

Baby Grace

We were sad to learn yesterday that our friend's baby daughter was in the hospital with Kawasaki Disease. Luckily, they were able to stabilize her before she had any heart damage. The good news (since Russ just called me) is that he found out they were able to get her back home today! Hope everything continues to go well!

Molly's party

Molly had her birthday party today. Just a small one. In fact, only one friend was able to go, but she still had a blast. Jimmy invited a friend to go too. We went to the "castle park" to let them play and then ate cake. I brought along what I had left of the balloons to make balloon animals. Wasn't surprised when I had a crowd of kids wanting one. Actually, I kind of planned on it. My balloons were getting older and they pop easier when they get old and so I was hoping kids would ask for some so I could empty out my supply. Really should find my books and learn how to make more than a hat, a snake, a dog, and a sword. Ah, well. Anyway, here are the pictures Russ took.

New pictures

Wow. 200 posts already. Crazy. Anyway, I finally got pictures taken of Molly, Lys and Dylan. It has been a year overdue for both Molly and Lys. Lys would cry and scream when we tried and then Jimmy cut Molly's hair and just when it got long enough to get a picture taken, Emma cut it again. Ah, well. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Just a few rambling thoughts...

I thought since I had a minute of quiet (Dylan is sleeping and Russ has gone with the other kids to church) that I would make a quick post. Almost did it yesterday, but couldn't quite bring myself to even up the days of the month and posts again. Although this probably would have been better done yesterday.

Yesterday it was exactly a month since Dylan had his surgery. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. He's doing so well that there are times I almost forget he had surgery and his heart defect. If it weren't for his surgery scar and the fact that we can't yet pick him up under the arms I wonder how much I'd even think about it. I'm sure I still would, though. I read messages on the Intermountain Healing Hearts board and know exactly how some are feeling. One was saying how they will get to take their baby home soon and it is almost scary because she has gotten so used to watching the monitors. Russ and I felt the same way. Even now if Dylan gets really mad and is screaming, I think of how the alarms would start going off on the monitors when he would do that in the hospital. I'm just glad that Jimmy doesn't freak out quite as much when Dylan starts to cry. :)

I'm sure this next month will fly by, too. Funny thing is that Dylan will go in for his 2 month well-baby checkup exactly two months after his surgery, Oct. 6. (Which I actually didn't think of until now.) We are planning on having Dylan blessed in church on the 12th of October. That seems like it should still be far away, but I'm sure it will be here before we know it. Then it will be Halloween. May dress him up for it, but I plan on keeping him in. Jimmy says we should get a hot dog costume and dress him up as a hot dog. I said he's pretty bald, we should dress him up like Aang (from the Avatar cartoon for those who may not know...yes, I watch cartoons). Russ votes for the lamb costume we had for Lys when she was a baby. Ah, well.

Various pictures

I thought I would add a few more pictures today. I could break them up into a few posts, but figured I might as well combine them into one. After all, it's the 5th of September and this is my 5th post for the month. Really don't need to have more posts in the month than there have been days. :)

These first few are from going bowling for a retirement party for Keith. Everyone had fun. Even Jimmy, but he might not tell you that because Lys got a higher bowling score than he did, thanks to the bumpers.
Russ helped the girls most of the time. Made it nicer for me. :)


This one shows Russ taking his turn at the same time as our niece, Rebecca.
I have a picture like this one of all of the kids. I could probably have several of Russ like this with each of the kids if I really wanted.
This picture of Molly was taken as we were leaving to go to her first day of preschool.
These next two were taken last night when we had Molly's birthday cake. She had a hard time waiting to take off the chalk and chalkboard box. Couldn't quite understand why I told her she had to wait.

I took this one of Dylan this morning after his bath. Tried to show how red his hair looks right after baths. He's 5 weeks old today. Man, that time has really flown by.

Happy Birthday!

Today is Molly's birthday. Funny how fast 5 years goes by. She also started preschool today and with it being her birthday, she was leader of the day and I went and took a page of pictures of her as a baby (see the picture below) and told her class about her and shared one of her favorite books with the class. She wanted me to bring her kitty book, but I couldn't find that anywhere. So I took a butterfly book we have that has very obviously gotten some use. She was kind of shy, but seemed to enjoy the attention. Especially liked it when they sang Happy Birthday to her with all of the kids standing and pretending they were candles so she could blow them out at the end. Actually, I think all of the kids liked that. There were a lot of giggles as they fell to the ground when she blew them out. One boy seemed particularly excited about the treat she brought to share.
Also happy birthday this month to Breanna, Russ, Joshua and Autumn!

Comparisons...

I've always thought my kids looked a lot alike as babies. Decided I would go ahead and post their pictures here so it's easier to compare. The girls were all 2 weeks old for their pictures. Jimmy was about 4 weeks old, I believe. Dylan was 3 weeks old in his picture. So pretty close to the same ages. One of these days I may actually take Dylan to get a professional picture....

Anyway, here's Jimmy's picture:

And Emma:
Obviously Molly since it has her name in the corner:
Alyssa:
And Dylan. I picked this picture just because it's one I haven't already posted here and I think it's a silly picture. Just wish I could decide what color of hair he has. Sometimes it looks brown, other times blonde, and other times red. Ah, well. Guess I'm going to have to wait until he actually has hair. :) (He's still doing really well, by the way. Starting to get more of the chubby cheek look.)
So there you go. All of my kids as babies. What do you think? Do they look related?

*Edited to add a sort of panoramic picture of the kids pictures together. Really small so hard to see, but might be easier to compare them, especially if you click on the picture to enlarge it....

Tree climbers

Jimmy recently taught Emma and Molly how to climb the tree in our front yard. Some days that seems like all they want to do is to be in the tree. Kind of fun to see how excited they get to go out and climb. Molly will get sad if she thinks no one wants to go out with her. Really need to get a picture of Jimmy in the tree since he started it. But here are a couple of the two in the tree.

Thought I'd throw this next one of Lys in. She was having fun running around the yard while they were in the tree.
And thought I'd throw in this one of Molly and Lys playing at Molly's preschool the day we went so Molly could meet her teacher and some of the kids in her class. They didn't want to leave.

Playing in the Rain

Yesterday, after hearing a few loud booms of thunder, the kids got very excited to see that it was raining. Hard. They decided it would be fun to go run and play in the rain. I took a few pictures of them playing. Can't see how hard it was raining, so you'll have to take my word for it. They did have a lot of fun. With it raining a lot today, I'm kind of surprised they haven't gone out again. Here are the pictures from their playing. Kind of self-explanatory.