Cindy and Russ' Blog

Happy 10th Birthday Emma!

2011-11-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

Today is Emma's 10th birthday, which means she no longer belongs to the single digit club. I think she's had a good day. She has been very excited about her birthday, partially because she also had her party today.

Everyone seemed to have a good time at her party, especially with the amount of candy that came out of the pinata once it finally broke apart. Emma had told me she wanted a cake with a puppy jumping out of a present but we compromised and I did puppies with cupcakes. Made the one for her the biggest and made smaller ones to easily fit on the cupcakes. Didn't take my time to make them look very good, but Emma loved them. First thing she wanted to do when anyone showed up for her party was show them the cupcakes. She invited six girls and one called right away to tell her she would be out of town so couldn't make it. All but one other came. But the best part? It's over and I don't have to worry about it anymore. :)

Here's a picture of the cupcakes.

Happy birthday, Emma!

Dylan's (non-heart) Surgery

2011-11-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

Wednesday Dylan had his surgery that I had written about in an earlier post. I was almost surprised that he was actually well enough to have it. He had been sick the week before and had a hard time getting better. At one point in the car he had even sighed and said, "It's hard to get well." Where I'm sure Dylan wouldn't have complained to have the surgery postponed, I really didn't want to have to wait even longer for it.

While it isn't nearly as scary as open heart surgery, I found myself getting a little nervous for his surgery. I really think more because I was afraid he would wake up that morning sick. But once we were on our way, I was fine. Dylan was surprisingly good before his surgery. He was happy and even answered the nurses when they would ask him a few questions. I think it helped that they planned on waiting until they had him asleep to start an IV. They also gave him some medicine to help him feel calm and a little sleepy.

They brought out a wagon for him and let him take along a toy he had been playing with and wheeled him off to surgery. About an hour and a half later, his doctor found me in the waiting room and told me he did well. Said the hydrocele repair went just as planned. Said the other part didn't quite go as planned. There wasn't as much flexibility as there should have been plus there was an interesting growth that he nor the two associates he pulled in had ever seen (making a combination of about 60 year's experience). But it's nothing harmful and should be fine (they did send it off to pathology to make sure). Of course, his telling me that brought back memories of meeting with Dr. Hawkins the night before Dylan's open heart surgery and being told that in all his years as a heart surgeon, he had only seen truncus with a coarctation one other time. I'm not sure I like Dylan being quite so unique. Ah well.

Dylan woke up from surgery really unhappy. He didn't like the pulse/ox or the IV. He cried that he wanted them out and he wanted to go home. After a while I got him to take two sips of apple juice and the nurse took everything off and I got him dressed to go home. He cried the whole time. Only stopped when we were heading out the door of the recovery room.

He has done pretty well. Walks a little funny, but that's expected. This morning he woke up showing more pain than he has since having the surgery. It has been the only time that I haven't had to fight him to take pain medicine. But it worked nicely and he's back to running around and playing like nothing is wrong.

Molly's Baptism

2011-10-12T10:53:00.000-06:00

Saturday Molly was baptized. She was very excited about it and had a hard time waiting for the day to come. She was baptized with her cousin, Rebecca. And two days later I realized we never took a picture of the two of them together. (Dang it!) I thought it turned out really nice (even with several people trying to help Russ when he asked a simple question and telling him wrong so made for some lovely entertainment).

We tried to get a new family picture right after the baptism since we were all dressed up. The two pictures taken with my camera weren't great so unless the ones my dad got were better, I still need to get a new family picture. The one on my wall was taken two years ago at Emma's baptism. Really need to get a new one up there.

Anyway, here's a picture of Russ and Molly just before she was baptized in the baptism clothes.

Here's Molly in her dress she got for her baptism. She felt very beautiful in it and for good reason, if you ask me.

I wasn't going to but decided to go ahead and post one of the two family pictures from Saturday. Not the greatest, but hey, it has everyone in it.

Doctors and Illness

2011-10-06T11:44:00.000-06:00

I realize that I never posted about Dylan's urology appointment he had last week. But that was largely due to Rachel being very sick with strep throat. She was sick for his appointment and luckily my mom was able to watch her while I took him in.

Dylan was surprisingly good for his doctor appointment. I explained to him what they would do and that he definitely would not get an iv poke. He was very happy and had a good time going. At least playing with all of the toys they have there.

The doctor came in and examined him and said he does need surgery to correct his hydrocele and his undescended testicle. He will have that surgery done in the first part of November. The tricky part will be to keep him well during that time. Especially with how much we have all been sick so far, which brings me back to Rachel.

She got a high fever the Sunday night before Dylan's appointment, which was about the time I was expecting her to get a fever from getting her mmr immunization. She was miserable. My happy girl who tries to be happy even when not feeling well wasn't happy at all. She cried when she wasn't asleep. And she slept as long as she was held.

The fever didn't go away when I thought it should. I gave her an extra day (mostly because I didn't feel like taking her to the pediatrician the day I took Dylan to the urologist. So on Wednesday I called and took her in. The doctor looked at her and saw that her throat looked very sore. He explained that it is really rare for kids as young as she is to get strep, but decided to do a throat culture anyway. They called on Thursday and said it was negative but would check again the next day. They called back on Friday and said it was positive. They called in a prescription for her. I was actually very glad they found something because she just wasn't feeling well.

I called them back yesterday though because she still isn't feeling well, even after almost a week on antibiotics. But today I've decided that's just because she's lucky enough to have managed to catch a cold. Makes me tempted to have Dylan go visit his grandparents for a while. If he would. Which he wouldn't do. I'll just have to make sure he washes his hands a lot and uses hand sanitizer and it seems kind of pointless to put a sign on the door asking people to please not come in if they are sick or have been around anyone who is sick at all when people here are sick.

I have a feeling it's going to be a long winter.

Rachel and Dylan Well Checks

2011-09-23T15:13:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week I took Rachel and Dylan for their yearly well checks. Decided that they are close enough in age that I might as well save a trip and take them together.

Rachel is growing well. She kept saying "hi" to the doctor and stole his stethoscope. She didn't like the 4 shots she got (one of which was the flu shot...a must in a household with a heart kid), but who does? She has stayed at the high end of the percentile scale for height but is going down a little in weight, which is normal. She was a little sick before going to the doctor and hurled in the car on the way there. Which was the one time I was glad to have a broken washing machine. I happened to have laundry in my car to do after the doctor so was able to change her quickly.

Dylan is understandably nervous about going to the doctor lately. I told him as we were going that as long as he doesn't get sick, he won't have to go to the doctor again for at least 6 months after this one. Which apparently I shouldn't have told him. He's doing really well. He even went up in the percentile range, which is great for a heart kid. He even went up so he's in the above average range. His problem is that he has a hydrocele and likely an undescended testicle. Which means that he needs to see a urologist. He goes next week. He's not going to be happy about it because it's at PCMC, which is where he goes for his cardiology appointments. And it will likely mean some more surgery for him. Poor kid is really going to hate doctor appointments after this. He also failed the hearing test in his right ear, but that was likely due to large amounts of wax in his ear and the fact that Rachel chose that time to yell loudly.

Happy 1st Birthday Rachel!

2011-09-15T10:52:00.000-06:00

Today is Rachel's first birthday. So far she has no cake. I really should make her a cake. I would have made one by now but I was sick the first part of the week (still have a lingering cough and occasional ick feeling but for the most part am better). And now Rachel is sick. But man, she's a good baby. She is about as smiley and happy as ever even when she isn't feeling well. She does have her moments of crying and not being happy, but those are few.

In case you're wondering, the picture was taken at a ward party/luau. Emma took part in a dance and the shells on Rachel were included in the packet with her grass skirt. Russ had a good time putting them on Rachel. Rachel just had a good time sitting on the stage for a bit.

Now if we can only get her walking. Hm. Maybe I don't want her walking yet. She already gets into everything. Even climbed up on my bed by herself last night. And grins and says, Hi!" as soon as we say her name to stop her from getting into something. She knows exactly what she's doing. I have a feeling this next year is going to be a busy one with her.

Squirrel!

2011-09-04T20:19:00.000-06:00

Yes, I say that thinking of Dug in the Disney/Pixar movie, "Up."

A few Sundays ago I was sitting in my living room and heard a strange chirping noise. Wondered what kind of bird that could be so opened the front door and looked out. I saw two of my neighbors from across the street trying to get our cat out of our tree. Then I saw why. The cat had managed to tree a squirrel. And it was not happy about it at all and was letting everyone know quite vocally. We rarely see squirrels around here, so it surprised me to see and hear it in the tree.

The cat didn't seem too happy when we took her in the house so she would stop tormenting the squirrel.

Back to School

2011-09-04T20:14:00.000-06:00

Back on the 22nd of August, the kids started back to school. Jimmy started his first year of Jr. High as a 7th grader (can I say that still seems strange to me that he's old enough for Jr. High?). He seems to really like it so far. Especially the lunches. Emma started the 4th grade. She has the same teacher she had for 2nd grade and is very happy about that. Molly started the 2nd grade and has the same teacher Jimmy had. She really likes it so far. Alyssa started the 1st grade and has a teacher none of my kids have had, but seems to really like her teacher and class. She's not so sure about going all day, but is doing fine with it. I think Dylan gets a little bored with his older sisters and brother at school all day, but he also seems to have fun having just him and Rachel at home. The house is definitely quieter with them in school.

Anyway, here are their first day of school pictures. I didn't get one with all four since Jimmy left before the girls even got up for the day.

Summer Events

2011-09-04T20:07:00.000-06:00

Yes, I realize it has been a while since I have posted. I did try to post at one point. But my computer froze when trying to upload some pictures so I put it off. And kept putting it off. So I'm making one big post to describe the summer. There aren't as many pictures as there could have been. I brought my camera to several things we did, but failed to get it out and take many pictures.

The week after school let out, I drove up to Idaho with my mom and kids to visit my sister and her family. It was kind of a spur of the moment trip. We had a good time there and the kids loved swimming in the hotel swimming pool. They were all really good travelers, which was nice. Most of the pictures from that trip are ones Jimmy took on the day we went to the zoo.

This first one is of Ben, one of my nephews.

Here are Emma, Molly, Lys, Alex, and Chris getting in a big nest (along with some other kids).

I'm posting this one of Rachel that was taken in the hotel room just because I think it's a silly picture. :)

Jimmy, Chris, and Ben at the zoo.

Later in June, my brother and his family came out to visit from Georgia. We some fun things with them while they were here. We went to the zoo (the word "fun" here is questionable. It was very hot. I think the kids had fun though) and Lagoon and things like that. Unfortunately, I only really got one picture the whole time (okay, I got a few with my cell phone but haven't been able to transfer those to the computer).

This is of my kids on a big dinosaur at the zoo. Well, minus Rachel. She was sitting happily in the stroller.

We also had Dylan's heart cath in the summer, but I did post about that. At least a little. In July we went camping with Russ' family. Russ wasn't able to get off work so I went up a day before he did. That was interesting since a bear had been seen in the area the day before we got there. But we had fun. Got covered with dirt from head to toe, but it was fun.

In August we had the Family Heart Camp with IHH. Being on the governing board, I helped out a lot with things there so Russ spent most of the time with the kids. Unfortunately, Jimmy was sick so he spent the weekend with my parents. I thought the camp turned out great. The camp is held every year at Camp Wapiti, a campground run by the Elk's Club specifically for groups involved with kids with various health issues. In July there is Camp Hawkins, a camp just for heart kids and their siblings. There are also camps for kids with cancer, diabetes and other things.

The kids had a lot of fun at camp and especially liked the time spent swimming. There was a symposium for the adults where a few from the cardiology areas of PCMC came and spoke. One talked about some of the studies that PCMC is part of, including a pulmonary conduit study that Dylan is in. Dr. Gray from the cath lab came and spoke on what is new with the cath lab and what they hope to be able to do in the future. Meanwhile, we had various activities for the kids, including a reptile show (which was a hit). The rest of the pictures are from the family camp.

School started about a week after the family camp. Our summer seemed to be busier at times than other summers, but it was a good summer.

Happy birthday Molly!

2011-09-04T19:31:00.000-06:00

Today is Molly's 8th birthday. While it seems strange she's already 8, it has also felt like it's been a long time coming (mostly because of the whole booster seat law). She keeps telling me it's her best day ever. She got to pick what we had for dinner (out of just a couple of choices though since I totally spaced asking her what she wanted before Russ went to the store yesterday), and I made some cupcakes which I quickly drew cat heads out of frosting on (haven't taken any pictures yet). I did let her decorate some of the cupcakes, which she loved.

So happy birthday, Molly! I hope your day continues to be the best ever! I'm so glad you are part of our family!

Happy birthday Dylan!

2011-08-01T11:06:00.000-06:00

Today is Dylan's 3rd birthday. I know people say it all the time, but man, it has gone by fast. I keep wondering how long it's going to take me to get used to telling people he's three and not two.

We celebrated his birthday last night since Jimmy has scout camp all week and left early this morning. I had plans for his cake but ended up changing them. I knew he wanted a Wow! Wow! Wubbzy cake and thought I would make a cake that looked just like Wubbzy. Figured it would be easy enough to do. Then Dylan kept saying how he wanted the other characters too. So I baked the cake and quickly sketched out an idea for decorating (which looked better on paper than in frosting) and then frosted the cake. I did a rush job on decorating it since I didn't decorate it until after dinner and it was getting close to bedtime. But for a rush job, I don't think it turned out horribly. And he was happy with it, so that's all that matters.

Here's a picture of his cake and a picture of him just before blowing out the candles.

So happy birthday Dylan! I hope you have a great one and many more to come!

Successful Cath

2011-06-18T23:02:00.000-06:00

Dylan had his heart cath yesterday. He did well with it and acts like nothing even happened yesterday. Only thing I notice that shows that he had it is the two tiny cuts from where they went in with the catheter and what part of the adhesive from the tape hasn't come off his skin yet.

We weren't supposed to have him to the hospital until noon. I knew as soon as they said noon that he would be there overnight. When we walked into the hospital, Dylan knew where we were and wasn't really happy. Kept saying that he wanted to go home or go to Grandma's. He did get happy for a bit playing with toys in the waiting room but really wasn't happy when we went back to a room to change him into the hospital clothes. He kept pointing at the exam table and said he didn't want to lay on that. A nurse found a box of dinosaur toys for him that cheered him right up though.

The anesthesiologist came in and talked to us and talked about some of the risks involved with going into the pulmonary arteries (they can sometimes bleed which scares them and causes extra problems). He watched as the IV team attempted to put one in Dylan and failed. He said watching him gave him confidence in how Dylan would do with the procedure. (They put in an IV later, after they had him asleep for the procedure.) They gave Dylan a little bit of medicine to help calm him and make him a little sleepy and then we walked down to the cath lab where we talked to the doctor who would be doing the procedure. He told us that he would also attempt to fix his leaky conduit (the artificial vein) while he was in there and try to get him back to us in the best shape possible. We were given a pager and told they would page us when he was done and to go back to the cath lab where the doctor would tell us how it went.

After we walked away I remembered that I had wanted to take his picture before the procedure. Too late. Never did get any pictures in the hospital. Wish I had. Ah well.

When they paged us and we talked with the doctor, he showed us video and pictures of the procedure. He showed us how they had used a stent to widen the narrow artery. He also told us in going in to check the conduit, he found it wasn't narrow at all, but that he found that the valve is basically gone. For now it's fine but will need to be fixed at some point. Hopefully later rather than sooner.

After he was awake and seemed pretty stable I went back home with the kids and Russ stayed with him for the night. They were discharged around 8:30 this morning, after doing an x-ray to make sure things still looked good.

Dylan is supposed to take it easy for a couple of days. He keeps saying that he "got shots" at the doctor but like I said acts totally normal. For which I'm glad.

I will add though that going to a church activity the night before and finding out there that the theme was basically how to prepare for funerals isn't the most fun thing to do. But pretty funny at the same time.

Dylan's Upcoming Heart Cath

2011-06-12T21:00:00.000-06:00

I just realized that I haven't updated my blog since scheduling Dylan's heart cath. He will have that done this coming Friday, the 17th. I don't know the time yet since they don't finalize the schedule until the day before. I will find out sometime Thursday afternoon what time we will take him in on Friday. A letter (along with a pamphlet about the procedure) we received yesterday stated to call them if we have not heard by 5:00 the day before the scheduled procedure. Hopefully I won't have to call.

Cupcakes and Cat

2011-06-04T18:16:00.000-06:00

Yes, I could easily make this two separate posts but thought I'd save myself a little time by combining them into two posts. Just because.

For Lyssa's birthday I made butterfly cupcakes instead of making a regular cake. They were actually really easy to make and Lys loved them. I even let her help a little. Just a little though. I run out of patience when it's something like the cupcakes when they don't do them quite like I think they should. You can find the directions here on the Family Fun magazine's website. If I were to make them again, I would make sure I did the white chocolate part of the wings a little thicker than I did. They broke easily. But they were kind of fun to make.

They didn't leave much space for putting candles, but I found a way. Used the same candles I used on Jimmy's cake. A few with the flame the color of the candle and a couple of the kind that relight.

Yesterday as kind of a birthday gift for all of the girls (and Dylan since he says he wants it for him as well) for their birthdays this year, Russ came home with a cat. He went to the animal shelter and picked her out from there. The staff there named her Roxie and the kids all love the name so it will likely stay even though Russ doesn't really like the name. She's a Domestic Shorthair/Siamese mix with the lynx point markings. Whatever lynx point markings means. I think she's just a pretty cat. She hid most of the time she was here yesterday until the kids were all asleep. Today she's warming up a bit more. Still hides at times, but not nearly as much. Wonder how long it's going to take us to get used to having a pet again. Although it was pretty funny to have Russ get startled when she darted through the kitchen last night. At first glance he thought she was a very large rat. I'd say he screeched a little, but it wasn't really a screech.

The kids were are very excited. Dylan almost more than the rest. So as she was hiding yesterday, they were gathered around following her to try to see her even as she was trying to hide from them. Which was funny in and of itself.

Happy Birthday Alyssa!

2011-06-03T18:03:00.000-06:00

For some reason blogger isn't letting me upload photos right now or else I'd start this post off with a picture of Lys. She turned 6 today! Really doesn't seem like 6 years have gone by since I sat on the porch steps timing contractions while I waited for it to be time to go pick up Jimmy from his last day of kindergarten and then head to Mom's to go to lunch with her and some relatives. (Just so you know, it really panics the waitresses when you inform them that you are in labor but think you'll go ahead and get something to eat.) I knew it would be a while because the contractions were far enough apart and not strong enough. She was born just after 1:00 in the morning. And no, I have no idea why I decided to share that story.

Lys was so excited to be able to take a treat to her class for her birthday that she was ready to go over a half hour before she needed to be. Just kind of fun for her to be able to have her birthday on the last day of school, especially the last day of kindergarten. I think it made it more exciting for her.

She is a very sweet and happy girl. And man, does she love to tease her little brother. We love having her a part of our family. Happy birthday Lys!

Dylan's Echo

2011-05-26T20:09:00.000-06:00

Dylan had his Echo this afternoon. It was hopefully his last sedated Echo. I went into it wondering if they tried doing the Echo with him not sedated if it would work. Then the nurse laid him on the exam table to get a quick measurement and he cried. I decided then that it was good they were sedating him.

He took longer than usual today to calm down after getting the IV for the sedation. I think it must have bothered him where they had it more this time. He even complained when they were giving him the medicine. The nurse did check the site and it was in correctly, so it was just bothering him.

After the Echo and time in recovery, we met with his cardiologist, who came in carrying a toy car to give Dylan (he hit the jackpot this time...came home with 3 cars, a ball, a new sippy cup and a blanket). His doctor commented on how happy Dylan was after he went over the results of the Echo and listened to Dylan's heart(he really is getting better about interacting with adults. He will actually talk to adults now and not cry if they touch him).

The doctor told us that his pulmonary arteries are getting a little more narrow and so will need to go sometime next month to the cath lab and get that fixed. Said the main problem with the narrowing is that if it isn't fixed, the vein has a tendency to not grow. Getting it fixed in the cath lab is relatively simple. They will take a catheter and go up through a vein in his leg to the narrow veins where they will balloon them open and, if necessary, use a stent to hold them open. He said that generally it's an overnight stay. (Not always, but best to plan on it being overnight.) He obviously still has the leakiness, but his heart is still handling it well. Russ asked him when we should plan on that needing to be fixed. He said, "That's the million dollar question." Went on to say that he would say that the average for it to be fixed would be early teens. Some earlier, some later.

After the cath we will talk with his doctor again to see when we need to take Dylan back for his next Echo. The way he talked today, I assume he will have us come back in about a year.

The Heart World

2011-05-11T16:12:00.002-06:00

Dylan has an appointment coming up at the end of the month for an Echo cardiogram. I'm sure those who have heart kids understand how even though things appear great from our end, there's always the worry that lingers in the background that this time will be the time they say that it looks like it's time for the next surgery, or that things aren't looking as good as they have in the past. It's not a constant conscious worry, but as the time gets closer it creeps more and more to the forefront and in the quiet moments I find myself thinking about the appointment and wondering how it will go. Mostly I think of how Dylan's cardiologist said at one appointment that he hopes to get him to 3 before he needs his next surgery and how he will be 3 this summer. Then I will think of his last echo and how Dylan had the MRI after it because his pulmonary arteries looked like they were getting pretty narrow and his cardiologist said he wouldn't worry about it if he thought he would need the surgery any time soon and would just fix it with the surgery if he did.

As I think about these things, I think of my ignorance of this whole heart world before Dylan was born. I was aware that such a world existed. I have family and friends who are part of the heart world. I saw their worry and heartbreak and hope but it wasn't until I found myself living it that I realized that I really only saw a small part of it.

I read on a blog (I wish I could remember whose at this point so I could give the proper credit) recently where the author wrote that her husband said that we live with fear and not in fear with our heart kids. I totally get that. I find that when my heart healthy kids are sick that I don't worry about them quite the same as I worry about Dylan when he gets sick. I'm sure it's easy for others to "forget" that Dylan even has a problem with his heart because he is doing so well and seems so normal. I think of it every time I help Dylan get dressed for the day and for bed and every time he gets in the bath. I think of it every time he's sad or hurt and won't let anyone besides me help him and think of how eventually he will need to have more surgery and how hard it is going to be on him (and on me) when he will be in the hospital recovering and in pain.

I think of these things and then I think of how this heart world has really opened my eyes and my heart. I think of all the women who were at the luncheon and how strong they all are. I think of Intermountain Healing Hearts and what a great service the group provides in bringing together people who are going through the same life journey. I know I've said it before, but as much as I wish Dylan didn't have a CHD, I am grateful for the blessings that have come into my life because of it. A whole world of hope and strength and compassion mixed in with the worry and heartache. I hope that I have become a better person because of it.

Heart Mom Luncheon

2011-05-09T16:30:00.000-06:00

A little over a week ago Intermountain Healing Hearts held its second Heart Mom Luncheon. Being on the governing board, I had some small part in helping with it this year. The one last year was so good we knew we didn't want to even try to compete with it so we kept it simple. Knowing that the biggest part of having the luncheon is to get together with women going through a similar life journey, we made sure to have part of it introductions where everyone could stand up and say who they are, where they live, and which type of CHD their child(ren) has. We also had a video from pictures everyone sent in of their heart kids and glitter toes for those who wanted it. Lunch was catered by Cafe Rio (thanks to a member of the group who works for their corporate offices we got a nice discount on the food).

Each "Heart Mom" was allowed to bring one guest. I brought my mom. I know she couldn't hear most of what everyone said, but I'm glad she was there with me anyway. I hope she enjoyed it as well as I did.

Even though we didn't try to compete with last year's, I think it turned out every bit as good. From what I could tell, everyone had a good time. The introductions part was full of emotion as people described the issues for each child (I was the only one there whose child has truncus), especially for those whose children have passed away. The parts of the video showing the pictures of those heart angels was also heart-wrenching.

For some reason my computer doesn't want to upload all of the pictures that I took at the luncheon, but I did manage to get these two. They are mostly of the decorations for the event before people started to arrive. I'm grateful that we have this group and glad that I was able to help out with the event this year.

Rachel's 6 Month Check-up

2011-03-31T22:58:00.000-06:00

I took Rachel this week for her 6 month check-up. She had been sick with RSV and a double ear infection earlier so it was kind of nice that her check-up was later in the month instead of closer to her birthday. Just nice to know that she was over it.

I had decided to keep Lys home from school that day because I also had a hair appointment and with gas prices being what they are, I really didn't feel like driving back and forth all day. Plus there was always the chance that the appointment would run late and I wouldn't be able to pick her up on time anyway. When I told the girls that Lys would be staying home because of Rachel's appointment they weren't thrilled. I didn't really expect them to be. But in talking with them, I happened to mention how Dylan is thrilled whenever someone else had a doctor appointment. They grinned and said that they know. When he has something they want, they often say, "If you don't give that to me you'll have to go to the doctor." I think it's funny that they would come up with saying something like that. Mean, but funny.

Anyway, Rachel's appointment went well. She's over her RSV (which I knew only because she wasn't coughing any more. She was always happy even being sick) and is a "picture of health." She didn't much like the nurses. Cried with them and getting weighed tried to hold onto me for dear life. Smiled and smiled at the doctor though.

She now weighs 17 pounds, 4 ounces and is 27 inches long. That puts her about the 75% for weight and 90% for height. So far she's staying my biggest. And she is a very happy baby.

Her siblings all love her and almost fight over whose turn it is to hold her. She will go to them and be happy but doesn't usually take long before she's reaching back to me. She just really likes her mom.

Thought I'd throw in two more pictures. The first one is of Emma holding Rachel. The second is just showing her sitting up.

Performances

2011-03-25T12:54:00.000-06:00

This month Jimmy performed in the 6th grade play. They did "Into the Woods." Jimmy was one of two boys who played the role of the prince's steward in the performance. Here he is in costume:

The kids worked hard to learn ttheir parts and did a pretty good job. As usual, we were later in getting to the school than I hoped (same story with Emma's 3rd grade program, but I'll get to that) so had to sit in the back. So the pictures we got weren't the best. But sitting in the back has its advantages when one has to take a 2 year old to the bathroom in the middle of the show. Jimmy was excited and nervous about the performance and only forgot one line, but I think that was more out of confusion on whose turn it was to speak.

Here's a picture of Jimmy on stage:

The next week it was Emma's turn. The third grade put on a program about how people can make a difference. Emma had been excited about the program and was often talking about for weeks before the program. She quickly and easily memorized her line for it. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries so I wasn't able to take any good pictures. This one I have posted is the best one I was able to get. Emma is standing in the front row. They all wore dark clothes because they used black lights for one song.

As I said about Jimmy's play, sitting in the back sometimes has its advantages. I had to take Dylan out a couple of times and Lys out once. This time though I was right by the doors. Made it that much easier to take them out.

After the program, my mom took the kids to get ice cream. Since getting a new car, we were all able to go together. Which was nice. After going almost 6 months with not being able to fit the whole family in one car, it's still almost strange to think that we can all fit now. Anyway, the kids had fun getting the ice cream. Probably went a little overboard since it was a serve yourself kind of ice cream place where they charge by weight. Amazingly, they ate almost all of it.

Happy (Belated) Birthday Jimmy!

2011-03-25T12:18:00.000-06:00

Last week was Jimmy's 12th birthday. Usually birthday parties bring a little bit of stress into my life. Mostly in the part of figuring out what we are going to do for the parties. This year Jimmy's party was a breeze on my side. Jimmy did all the planning and made the invitations and passed them out. He asked me if I could make a cake to look like an Xbox console. I figured it sounded easy enough, but Rachel had been sick with RSV and wasn't often happy when I wasn't the one holding her. Made for a kind of rushed job on the cake, so it wasn't as clean as I could have made it otherwise. But all in all, I was happy how it turned out. Jimmy said it wasn't as good as the turkey cake I made several years ago, but he was happy with it too. I think this one probably tasted better than that turkey cake. Just because I used a from scratch recipe instead of a boxed cake mix.

Jimmy had his party the day before his birthday and that night went to his grandparent's for a birthday sleepover. He had told his friends that all he wanted was cash. Even told my mom that instead of the usual candy box for birthdays that he wanted money instead. With the money he got from his friends, his grandparents and us, he bought himself a digital camera and a small video camera and a tripod. Not surprisingly, he informed me yesterday that he is now the historian in his scout troop.

After he came home from his birthday sleepover, I took him shopping and bought him a suit since he would be ordained a deacon the next day. Still strange to think that I have a son in the Young Men's group now instead of Primary.

Anyway, here's a picture of his cake and one taken during his party. Some of the candles on the cake were the kind where the flame is the same color as the candle, the rest were the trick candles. Really was funny watching him with the trick candles.

Dylan's Famous!

2011-02-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

Well, sort of. Before CHD week, I sent an email to the county newspaper suggesting a story of IHH as part of CHD week. I was kind of surprised when I got an email back asking if the group has members who live in the county as they mostly focus on county issues and people. I emailed back saying that we do have several members in the county and that I also live in the county. I received another email asking for a phone number to reach me for a story. Several days passed and last Monday while I was up at Primary's with the table IHH had, the lady who had been emailing me called. Unfortunately, my cell phone was beeping at me because the battery was basically empty. I asked her if I could call her back. When I was leaving the hospital I plugged my phone in the car charger and sat in the parking stall and called her back. Which might not have been the best idea since I kept unplugging it accidentally and reception in the parking isn't the greatest. After losing connection toward the end of our conversation, I decided to drive to a better location for reception before calling her back. She asked a few questions and I told her a little about my own experience with IHH and with having a child with a heart defect. I later emailed her a few pictures of Dylan for them to use with the article.

This past weekend's edition had the article. I was surprised how big they had the pictures. I thought the article turned out well. Her opening wasn't quite what I had said (she wrote that I call IHH "the best group no one wants to join." I had actually said it was the best group people wish they didn't have to be a part of, but I guess that's close enough), but I was just glad that I didn't sound like as big of a dork as I felt when I had talked to her. When I looked at the article online, about 250 people had looked at it. Not too bad.

And yes, I am keeping a copy of the article to put in Dylan's baby book. Assuming I ever actually get around to making his baby book. Surely one of these days I'll do it. Surely.

Chick-Fil-A Fundraiser

2011-02-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

Last night the Chick-Fil-A in South Jordan held a fundraiser for IHH where they gave 10% of the money they made in sales between 5 and 7 p.m. We also had a donation jar and sold "Heart Hero" bracelets and IHH logo car stickers.

I was impressed with all of the people who came to support IHH. The seating area was pretty full for the two hours. After 7 it got pretty quiet in there. Molly and Alyssa were very sad to leave because they were having fun on the playground. Emma was happy that I got extra food for her since she was still hungry. She only complained that I made her share some.

This is a picture of the table we had set up with the IHH banner on the wall and Marye, a member of IHH who volunteered to help with the event.
Here's our family. Lys wouldn't move her head out of Dylan's way so he's harder to see.

Thanks to all who came and helped make it a success!

CHD Week

2011-02-07T19:56:00.001-07:00

As the banner reads in the above photo, today starts CHD Awareness week. I took the picture of the banner today as I was leaving PCMC. It hangs on the parking structure. It is very nice of PCMC to allow IHH to put the banner up each year. From what I understand, it took a bit of work to get approval the first year it was hung. Since then it has been fairly easy. This year I made a phone call and the lady I contacted did the work for me.

I also helped with the table IHH sets up on the third floor at PCMC (next to the Spider-Man statue for those who know of it). Below is a picture of the table. The sign in the picture now looks a little different. It now has a few hearts and the IHH logo on it, which I think makes it look better. In the time we (those of us from the IHH governing board) spent there, we were able to talk to several people about CHD's.

I am glad I have been able to have a small role in spreading CHD Awareness, albeit a very small role. There are some who do a whole lot more.

For those who live in the Salt Lake area, and who need to eat dinner anyway, head over to the Chick-Fil-A in South Jordan between 5 and 7 p.m. They are donating a portion of their profits during that time to IHH. I will be there. Come join me!

4 Month Check-up and Registrations

2011-01-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

I took Rachel to the doctor today for her 4 month check-up. She smiled at the doctor the whole time. Didn't like being weighed and measured and complained a little then though. She's now 26 inches long and weighs 15 pounds, 3 ounces. Her height is a little above the 95th percentile and her weight is a little above the 75th percentile, which is about what it was at 2 months. Her head is just above the 50th percentile so she still has a little head compared to the rest of her.

She received two shots and one oral immunization today. Surprised me by not crying for very long with the shots. She actually cried more on the way home because she was tired.

This morning was Jimmy's Jr. High registration. The councilors from the Jr. High came over to the elementary school so it was really fast for each student. When I got over to the classroom for the registration, they asked me for my student's name to call him out of class. Dylan saw Jimmy stand up and did a little happy dance. When Jimmy came out of his class Dylan said, "Hi," and gave Jimmy a quick hug around his leg.

I was surprised how quickly it went. They pointed us to an open councilor and we sat at a desk with him. Handed him the papers we had been sent, and he looked over them quickly and asked if we had any questions. He handed us back the immunization record and we then took that over to another lady who looked at it and made sure everything was marked and that was it. Jimmy will get his class schedule in the summer and they will have a kick-off day for the 7th graders to go and try out their lockers and such.

I definitely don't feel old enough to have a kid starting Jr. High. I did realize today though that when Jimmy is a senior in high school that Rachel will just be starting with kindergarten. That one made me feel tired. Made it feel like it will be a really long time before I will have some real alone time. I do know that it will come faster than I think. I'd say that I'm sure I will miss having someone home all the time, but you know, right at this moment the thought of having all of the kids in school at least for a short time sounds kind of nice. I'm blaming that one on the fact that the kids get out early all week and have been fighting over simple things. Like food.

Rachel

2011-01-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

Rachel is a little over 4 months old now. She's a very happy baby. Getting very grabby and reaching for everything. She started out as my biggest and if my measurements are correct, she's staying my biggest (I'll find out for sure when I take her in for her well-baby checkup). All of her siblings are great with her.

Here are a couple of pictures of her. Which is my main purpose of writing this particular post. Wanted to show off my happy and very good baby.

McD's for FHE

2011-01-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

For Christmas my parents gave everyone a $5 coupon book for McDonald's. We finally decided to use them last night. Despite the looks on the girl's faces in the first picture, they were excited that we went. More because they could play than anything else though. Dylan is mostly potty-trained now and even stopped playing to have me take him to the bathroom. So far he has been really easy to train. Bribery works wonderfully for him.

The playland was next to empty but the girls managed to make a friend and Dylan even played with a boy about his age. Jimmy had fun teasing Russ.

As a side note, going to McDonald's when there has been a stomach bug circulating through the family that keeps coming back isn't really the best idea in the world.

Leaving Comfort Zones

2011-01-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

I don't ever remember being accused of being outgoing. I do, however, remember a few times when people have told me I'm the quietest person they've ever met (at least when they first met me). Look up the word "introvert" in the dictionary and you should find a picture of me. Growing up I made my sister do most of the talking for me. I've gotten better though. Or at least I keep telling myself that.

This month I officially started my term as vice president of Intermountain Healing Hearts (or IHH for short). I have been very impressed with this group and when the opportunity came decided to submit my name for this position so that I could have an opportunity to give back and do my part in making sure the group keeps moving forward. As I learn my new role I'm sure I'll make a few mistakes but I'm working with a great bunch of ladies who are very capable and talented and will hopefully put up with my errors.

With National CHD Awareness week coming up (Feb 7-14), we have been discussing what we need to do. Every year a table has been set up on the 3rd floor of Primary Children's Medical Center by the group with brochures and things to help spread awareness. We discussed trying to contact various media outlets to try to get the word out about CHD week and about IHH. Well, I decided to send a message to my county's local newspaper. A lady who works at the paper has emailed me back a couple of times,this last time requesting my phone number so that she can contact me further. While I think it's really great that she seems interested in the story, there's a part of me that quite enjoys sitting in the comfort zone of the background starting to get a bit nervous. If I listen close I can hear that part of me cry, "Oh, no! What if she wants to take my picture?!" Okay, maybe it's more that I really don't like pictures of myself. Then there's the part of me that isn't nervous. I have to listen harder to hear that one, but I hear it roll the eyes and respond, "Oh, just put on some make-up and you'll do fine."

Is it any wonder why my favorite t-shirt saying reads, "Even if the voices aren't real, they have some pretty good ideas"?

Lend me Your Ears

2011-01-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize that this is a goofy picture. Should have seen the other one.

For one of her Christmas presents, we gave Emma a "coupon" good for getting her ears pierced. Well, yesterday I decided to take her to actually do it. She was excited and a little bit nervous. I was impressed how brave she was and that she really didn't flinch or make much noise with the piercings other than saying, "Ow." For a kid who can be quite vocal about pain, that was quite amazing. She picked out studs of her birthstone. So far she's doing pretty well with them.

I asked Molly if she wanted to get her ears pierced then since she has been talking about wanting them too. She surprised me by saying not then. There was another girl there trying to decide if she wanted to get her ears pierced. Emma told her it wasn't that bad to get them done. As far as I could tell, the girl decided she wasn't brave enough to do it.

Overheard...

2011-01-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

The other day I overheard two of my daughters talking. My 5 year old said to her 7 year old sister, "Jimmy's lucky. He has 4 sisters." Yeah, for some reason I don't think he quite feels the same way.

Recent Outings

2010-12-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

We've gone out as a family recently a couple of times. We don't go out a lot. Probably largely due to inertia and pure laziness on my part. Just easier to stay home most of the time. That's not saying we don't have fun when we stay home. We do.

Anyway, last night we decided to take the kids on the train and head down to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square. I think the part the kids liked the most was the train ride. They probably would have enjoyed looking at the lights more if we had eaten before looking at the lights. We planned on finding a place to eat while we were out and decided to look at the lights first. Certain children of mine get somewhat grumpy when they haven't eaten. Funny how happy a little food can make him.

It was nice going last night because it wasn't as cold as usual. Which could be one reason it seemed a little more crowded than usual. The train was full both going down and coming home.

Saturday night we took the kids to Yogo Togo, a self-serve frozen yogurt place. They had fun choosing which flavor they wanted and the toppings. Almost seemed to have the most fun moving from chair to chair in the lounge-style seating area. Anyway, here are a few pictures from both nights.

Emma in front of the Christus.

Molly in front of the Christus. The others wouldn't turn around for a picture.

Dylan and Lys on the train.

Emma and Molly (and Lys in the background) at Yogo Togo.

Lys.

Dylan. His eyes are closed because that's how he poses for pictures lately. Says "Cheese!" and closes his eyes.

Russ and Jimmy. I don't think either were thrilled that I was taking their picture.

In case you are wondering, this is how Rachel was both nights.

Happy Birthday Emma!

2010-11-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

Emma turned 9 years old today. I'd say that's crazy that she's 9, but I have a tendency to think she's older than she is. So I've been thinking she's 9 for a few months now. A few weeks ago I even said something about Emma being 9 and she corrected me.

Anyway, happy birthday Emma! Pretty soon I'm sure I'll start thinking you're 10 and you'll have to correct me again.

Rachel's 2 Month Check-up

2010-11-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

I took Rachel in for her 2 month check-up this morning. Before I left to go to her appointment, I had to wake up Dylan. Told him we were going to take her to the doctor. He immediately said, "I don't like the doctor." I told him it wasn't for him, it was for Rachel. That made him much happier. Although he did keep checking to make sure it really was for Rachel. Even told the nurse it was for Rachel when we went back to the exam room.

Rachel is now 24 inches long and weighs 11 pounds, 11 ounces. She started out as our biggest and is staying that way so far. Twenty-four inches puts her at the very top of the growth charts and her weight is around the 75%. Her head size is just above the 50%. So she's tall and skinny (skinny for her height, anyway) and has a little head. Wonder how big she will be in 2 months at her next appointment.

She got three shots and one oral immunization today. Didn't cry very long from the shots. I didn't think she would stop crying before I could pick her up to comfort her, but she did. She did start crying a little again, but seemed more hungry than sad.

Rachel is a very good baby. Rarely gets upset and is smiling more and more. She coos more and more as well. Just the other day I had her laying on my bed and Emma was laying next to her and talking to her. She cooed at Emma about as much as Emma was talking to her (yes, Emma was talking).

SEP Conferences

2010-11-09T17:23:00.003-07:00

I attended SEP Conferences for my kids today. All went well. Jimmy's and Lyssa's were what I expected. Doing well, keep reading more, etc. I always worry a little bit going to Emma's because of her lack of doing work in kindergarten and in 1st grade. But hers was good. The AR reading has Emma reading a whole grade above where she is and her math is into the grade above as well. She just needs to get a little faster. Molly's also went about like I figured from the papers she's been bringing home. She gets 100% on almost everything and is very good at art. Her teacher wants her to have a goal of reading 2o minutes every day instead of the 5-10 that she suggests for the 1st grade.

When SEP Conferences are being held, the school holds a book fair. My kids love getting new books so we went to the book fair in between conferences. I broke down and let the kids get a little toy thing as well. Jimmy got a rubber fly. Walking out, he let Dylan hold it. Dylan happily held it to his chest. Then looked down at it. At that moment Jimmy really wishes we had been filming. Dylan started to scream and cry, "It's going to get me!" Jimmy had to take it from Dylan before he would stop.

A New Adventure

2010-11-07T20:24:00.003-07:00

Last month our family attended IHH's 3rd birthday party/Halloween party. At that party they went over some business matters with the group. One item they discussed was the upcoming board elections. All of those currently serving in board positions have done so for the entire three years the group has existed. With the end of 2010 approaching, so does their tenure. Because of this, they announced that from then until midnight on October 31 they would be accepting nominations for board positions (essentially saying if you want to help by serving in one of the positions, send in an email stating so and which position you would be willing to hold). As they were listing the board positions, Russ kept nudging me. Later, as we were leaving, Carolyn Quigley, the current president, asked me if I'm thinking about one of the positions because they need good people.

I thought about it for a couple of days and decided to go ahead and submit my nomination. I stated that I was thinking of secretary or if more wanted that position, vice-chair. A few days ago I received a phone call asking me if I really was fine with vice-chair. They had one other person who had stated they would be interested in the secretary position. Including my nomination, they had 5 nominations. Five nominations for 5 positions. Technically there were 6 positions but 5 works.

The announcement that went out to everyone in the group after the party stated that the elections would take place for the week of November 7 until November 13 with the final results posted the first week of December after background checks have been completed. Sure enough, when I looked at the forum tonight there was a post with the voting polls up and my name on the list.

I will admit, I am a bit nervous (also a little excited) about this position I will have, assuming it's confirmed by the other members. The current board, like I've said, has done an excellent job. I've said before that I'd hate to follow them because of how well they've done. Yet here I am. Hopefully I won't mess things up too badly.

Reality Check

2010-11-03T21:31:00.002-06:00

I subscribe to the newspaper. Which makes me think of the Mark Twain saying, "If you don't read the newspaper you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper you're misinformed." But I digress. In this morning's paper there was an obituary of a man who is the same age as Russ. The obituary stated that this man was the oldest survivor of Truncus Arteriosus type IV. I will admit that I had just kind of skimmed over the obituaries this morning until after my mom mentioned it by asking what type Dylan has. (He has type II.) I think Russ would have been happier had I not mentioned the obituary to him.

As a parent of a child with Truncus Arteriosus, reading an obit of a young man who had it isn't always a pleasant thing to read. Dylan is doing well enough that it's easy to forget that problems can (and do) arise in children and adults with CHD's. When I was changing my calendar over to November, I thought how had Dylan's cardiologist wanted him back in 6 months from his last echo instead of 9 that he would be going back this month. And how nice it is to not have to go back for another three more months. Mostly because it's nice to go longer without having that worry that this time the doctor will say that it looks like he'll need more surgery. It was a nice relief after his MRI to be told that everything looked good and he wouldn't need the cath like they thought he did.

I have read about a few babies with Truncus recently where things haven't gone so well. Makes me realize more how things could have gone wrong with Dylan's surgery and recovery. I think of his surgeon telling us that with his Coarctation of the Aorta in addition to his Truncus that the chances of him surviving that initial surgery was between 70 and 80%. What I mostly heard there was the 20-30% chance of not surviving it. I feel very blessed and lucky with how smoothly things went. I sometimes think of how one nurse said to us, "You will soon realize that you will be out of here a lot sooner than some of the others in here." And it was true.

I guess in the end, all I can really do is hope and pray and have faith that Dylan will continue to do well and that his next surgery (hopefully long in the future) will go even more smoothly than the first. And also pray for other children and adults going through the same things, as I hope others do the same for us.

Random, Catching up and Pictures

2010-11-03T20:50:00.003-06:00

I realize I haven't posted a lot lately. I blame Facebook. Not that I really post much there, but it makes me realize how little I have to say. Even when I may have things to say if I were to blog more often. Like how Russ was recently called as 1st Counselor in the Elder's Quorum in our ward. (Which I found to be hilarious because he was serving before as the 11 year old scout leader and the first time he was in the Elder's Quorum presidency he had been serving as the 11 year old scout leader. Let me know if you don't follow that and I'll try to explain more clearly.)

People have asked me what it's like having 6 kids now. I always respond, "Not much different than having five." And having six kids really doesn't seem like a lot when they're yours. Except for those moments of temporary insanity when you decide to go to the store with all six. Funny part is the looks people give you as you parade through the store. Which, honestly are not quite as funny as going to the store pregnant with your sixth and taking the other five plus the youngest four of a sister.

Anyway, before I ramble even more, here are the promised pictures:

This was taken tonight of Lys and Rachel. Rachel is 7 weeks old today. Crazy.
Dylan told me to take his picture here. Then covered his face.
This is what I got after trying again and telling him to keep his hand down.

Emma, Molly, Lys and Russ carving pumpkins. Dylan decided he was done and went to find Jimmy.

Dylan and Rachel.

Stitches for Dylan

2010-10-28T15:07:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago Jimmy took Dylan in the kitchen to help him make some cookies. They were just the store bought kind that you put the dough on the cookie sheet and bake. Well, the cookies didn't get made that day. Dylan slipped and hit the back of his head on a chair. After I picked him up, Jimmy noticed that he was bleeding. A lot. At which point Jimmy panicked. I kept telling him that head wounds bleed a lot, but can understand why it would scare him.

Russ ended up taking Dylan in to the doctor where they put in three stitches. Dylan had to be held down for it. When Russ called me to say they were on their way home, I could hear Dylan crying that he wanted his mom. Poor kid.

While Russ was gone with him, I got a call from his parents. Jimmy had called and left a message telling them about Dylan. Which they couldn't understand because he was so upset. All they understood was, "sob...sob...sob...Dylan...sob sob...It's all my fault." So they imagined the worst. I'm sure I would have too. Still find it somewhat funny though.

When it was time for the stitches to come out, we waited for him to fall asleep and took them out ourselves so he wouldn't have to get upset about it again. He refused to let anyone look at his cut and stitches so figured it would also be easier. I was surprised that they only put in three stitches when I saw it. It was sore for a while after. I'm sure it was bruised. Here's a picture right after we took out the stitches.

Happy Birthday Russ!

2010-09-19T09:15:00.002-06:00

Happy birthday to Russ today! He's getting his wish that he stressed to me quite often of no gifts today. Mostly because of Rachel's birth. Haven't been able to get him any gifts. Although I would guess just having had her before his birthday was a gift for him. He was starting to get worried she was going to be born on his birthday.

I chose this picture of Russ with Rachel (taken with my cell phone camera shortly after she was born) partially because it was the most recent picture I have of him and partially because it reminds me of what a good father he is.

Hope you have a great birthday today, Russ! The kids and I love you very much!

Welcome Home Rachel!

2010-09-18T23:20:00.003-06:00

Early Wednesday morning our newest daughter, Rachel, was born. She weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. Wednesday was actually her due date. I had never gone to the due date before so this was new for us. The closest I had gone to the due date before Rachel was 5 days before the due date.

I don't know if it would have been as hard as it was going to the due date if I hadn't been having lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions the entire week leading up to the due date. Had them fairly regularly every day but they would eventually stop. None of them were strong enough so I knew they would stop and knew they weren't likely to develop into active labor. I did find it interesting though that the two days before the due date the Braxton-Hicks contractions slowed down and never really got as regular as they had been.

I pretty much knew right away when actual labor started. Those contractions hurt. The Braxton-Hicks ones were uncomfortable but not really painful. They quickly got close and regular so we didn't wait long before heading to the hospital. Labor with Rachel was probably my shortest labor at about 4 1/2 hours. When we got to the hospital the contractions were quite regular at 2 minutes apart. Yes, I opted for the epidural. Yes, it was very very nice to have.

We came home from the hospital Thursday evening. The kids were all very excited to have her home. Even a couple of neighbor kids greeted us when we got home. I was worried how Dylan would be with a baby since he's such a mama's boy. He hasn't seemed jealous at all and even tonight when I asked Russ to take the baby so I could cuddle with Dylan for a minute Dylan got upset and said he wanted me to hold the baby and cuddle with both of them. He sometimes gets upset that I'm not holding the baby. Wonder how long it will last.

We are all glad to have Rachel as part of our family. She is a good baby and seems pretty laid-back most of the time. The only exception so far has been when the chocolate I decided to eat caused her to have some gas and such. Guess that means no more chocolate for me for a while. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for such a sweet and beautiful baby.

Molly's Birthday

2010-09-04T10:45:00.002-06:00

Today is Molly's 7th birthday. Funny how quickly children grow up. We celebrated her birthday last night, partially to make things easier for getting stuff done that we need to today and partially because it's possible that I could go into labor at any time and we didn't want her to have to miss celebrating her birthday. I was actually due with Molly two days earlier in the month than I am due with this baby. Molly has kind of been hoping the baby would be born on her birthday, but at this point in the day, I don't think that's going to happen.

Anyway, I had talked to Molly earlier about what to do for her birthday since we didn't know what would happen and with my doctor giving me a 50/50 chance of making it to my next doctor appointment. We decided that we would just invite a few friends and have cake, a pinata (since we almost always do a pinata) and then go see Toy Story 3 since we hadn't seen it yet and it was one that the kids have been wanting to see. I asked Molly if she wanted me to buy a cake or make one (really hoping she would say buy one because this much pregnant I wasn't really feeling like making anything). She said she wanted a cat cake and wanted me to buy it if they had one. Make it if they didn't. Luckily, when I stopped by the store to look at their cakes one of the workers asked me if I needed to order a cake. I told her how Molly wanted a cat cake. She thought for a minute then showed me a picture of a small cake they make to look like a cat. I thought it was perfect. She said it would only feed about 4 so I also ordered a quarter sheet cake to go along with it. Molly loved her cake.

Two of the four girls Molly invited made it for the party. They all seemed to have fun. We had to kind of rush through the cake and pinata in order to get to the movie in time. I chuckled at the way the girls basically danced to the car on the way out.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the night. I took a picture of just Molly with her cake but apparently it didn't turn out. I'm thinking I'm going to need to break down and get a new camera one of these days. The first is of all of the kids just before singing to Molly for her birthday (which reminds me that I laughed to myself watching Toy Story 3 when they had a short segment of celebrating Andy's sister's birthday and said, "Happy birthday Molly!"). The next is a picture of the cakes for Molly.

In addition to it being Molly's birthday, we are dog-sitting my sister's poodle, Maygun for the long weekend. I think Dylan and Alyssa are going to drive me nuts with the dog by the end of the weekend. They won't leave the poor thing alone. Which is funny considering how Dylan is typically afraid of dogs. He was scared for a few minutes but quickly got over it when he realized that this dog wasn't going to jump up on him or really pay any attention to him. Alyssa keeps trying to carry Maygun around. Let's just say the dog pretty much stays right next to me. Can't really say as I blame her.

First Day of School!

2010-08-23T13:18:00.002-06:00

Today was the first day of school for my kids. Strange to think that I will have 4 kids in school this year. Jimmy is starting the 6th grade, Emma the 3rd grade, Molly the 1st grade and Alyssa kindergarten. So technically Alyssa doesn't start until next Monday, but she did have Kindergarten Orientation today and will do her individual test tomorrow.

When I went to take the traditional first day of school pictures, I discovered my camera isn't working. Not quite sure what is wrong with it. Acts like it just doesn't want to open right. I'll have to play around with it and see if I can figure it out later. At least I have a camera on my cell phone so was able to take a few with that. I couldn't get Jimmy to smile for the picture of just him. So he gets to have this one posted.

Here's Molly.

And Alyssa.

And Emma.

Kind of funny that in both of the pictures with all four Molly has her eyes closed. At least Jimmy smiled for those ones though.

Kindergarten Orientation went well. Alyssa got her homework book to start working on and has since done 6 pages out of it. Well, 6 1/2. She would have done more but I told her that was probably enough for now. Her teacher has always had the kids draw a picture of themselves at the orientation while she goes over some information for the parents. For some reason Alyssa doesn't think she draws well and didn't really want to do it but eventually did. She seemed a bit nervous going there.

I helped Emma find her classroom before going to orientation for Alyssa and helped Molly line up with her class. Jimmy basically took off and didn't want any help from me.

Being an early out day, the kids just got home from school. Molly came in and gave me a big hug and exclaimed that the first day was fun. Emma smiled and said she liked it and likes her teacher. I asked Jimmy how he liked it and his response was a shrug and, "It was okay. My teacher seems nice." Funny how they aren't quite so excited as they get older.

Dylan's 2 Year Checkup

2010-08-09T16:21:00.002-06:00

Dylan had his 2 year well-baby check this afternoon. I think he's getting really tired of going to the doctor. Usually he's pretty good at his well-checks. Not today. He cried the entire time. Did not want them to touch him or even look at him. I guess crying the whole time is an exaggeration. He had a rather good time playing with the toys in the waiting room.

Anyway, Dylan now weighs 27.6 pounds and is 34 1/2 inches tall. That puts him right on the average for height and just under the average for weight. Luckily he didn't need any shots today because he is all caught up on his immunizations. And it's nice that he won't need to go back to the doctor for a while (except for any illnesses over the winter that I'm sure he'll get).

His doctor asked if he's putting a couple of words together in talking. I chuckled and told him he will say things like, "Alyssa downstairs watching tv." So yeah, I would say he's putting words together. The doctor's response to that was that he's ahead of the curve then. All of my kids have been good talkers though so he seems about right on for me.

Happy Birthday Dylan!

2010-08-01T20:35:00.004-06:00

Today is Dylan's 2nd birthday. Which I had actually finished posting about and then had a problem and it lost my entire post. This time it will probably be shorter. Should count yourself lucky. I probably rambled about more things than I should have.

It's hard to believe that two years have gone by since Dylan was born. At times the days were full of stress and worry for Dylan with his heart defect, but it has been a good two years. I wouldn't trade them for anything. Dylan is a joy in our lives and we are all glad he's part of our family. Jimmy often says that Dylan (whom he calls "Gus" most of the time) is the "most awesome ever."

We celebrated Dylan's birthday with cake immediately after eating dinner tonight. Even before taking our dishes off the table from dinner, actually. I actually remembered to take a few pictures too.

Dylan is blowing out his candles in this first picture. For the third or fourth time. He loved blowing out the candles so Russ kept relighting them for him.
Here's Dylan with his cake just after I finished frosting it. I hadn't planned what I was going to do for his cake before it was made. (He was eating a soda cracker with frosting on it at the time.) Dylan's sisters and brother kept saying he needed a Yo Gabba Gabba! cake since he loves the show and since I really didn't have any other ideas went ahead and decorated it as such.
Here's his cake. Not the best cake I've ever done, but not as terrible as it could have been considering how quickly I did it and the fact that it was freehand. Didn't get some of the colors quite the right shade I wanted, but that's okay. The kids were impressed. That's all that really matters, right?
I have tried to upload a video of when we sang to Dylan and his blowing out the candles the first time. Dylan grinned and sang along. Unfortunately, it keeps having problems. Which is probably why it lost my first post about his birthday. I don't think I'll try again. Really don't want to have to write the post a third time.

Dylan's Dental Appointment

2010-07-15T20:43:00.002-06:00

If you remember a while back when I took the kids to the dentist that I mentioned that Dylan had one cavity and would need to get it filled but the dentist wanted me to wait to schedule that appointment until after I his echo so I could talk to his cardiologist and make sure he was fine with them doing the sedation in office. I did ask and after a quick roll of the eyes said he had no problem with it and also said (after I asked) that he doesn't need to take any antibiotics before dental work. Which is actually a nice thing considering it wasn't very long ago that they wanted people to take antibiotics before dental work even when they hadn't needed surgery to repair a chd.

Anyway, I have been putting off scheduling Dylan's dental work because of his needing to be sedated for both the echo and then a couple of weeks later the MRI. Just didn't think he needed to be sedated a third time so quickly. I finally broke down and called the dentist to schedule it when Dylan started putting his hands in his mouth like his teeth were bothering him. I looked closely at his teeth and noticed that he had a couple of other cavities on his front teeth and the one cavity was looking worse.

With kids like Dylan who do have health "issues" they use an anesthesiologist to administer the sedation instead of their usual quick sedation with a pulse/ox monitor. That meant that the times they had available were fewer so I was surprised when I called and they could schedule him within about a week. Unfortunately, the appointment was a later appointment. Which meant that Dylan was going to need to go half of the day without eating and a good portion without drinking anything either.

I worried about what I would do when I needed to get the other kids lunch and try to keep him from wanting food and drinks. Luckily I have a very nice mother who offered to let me take the kids there and leave with Dylan before lunch so that he wouldn't be bothered with it. She was tending four of my sister's children so I thought it was very nice of her to offer to watch four more.

Fixing the cavities took a little longer than they expected even after they knew all they would need to do. He ended up with caps on his front two teeth and they had to grind them down to make them look okay. Said the size that fit looked too big and would have just looked bad. Because of the grinding his mouth would be sore. And from how cranky he was the rest of the day, I would say they hurt. Even after getting some Tylenol in him.

I am very glad to have it done. He was very cranky again all morning and I thought it would be a very long day. When he gets cranky like that he thinks I'm the only one who can do anything for him or with him. And gets upset when his siblings even touch me. He did get happy (about the time I took the kids back down to my parent's to let them play with their cousins and so Jimmy could mow their lawn) and has stayed pretty happy the rest of the day. The one exception being when Lys decided it would be a good idea to grab his sore front teeth. No idea why she thought that was a good idea.

Independence Day Stuff

2010-07-12T14:13:00.003-06:00

I seem to keep forgetting that I actually know where my camera is. At least that's what it seems like with how few pictures I've been taking lately. I keep thinking I should be taking more but rarely pull out the camera to do so. So in a way I'm amazed I got what pictures I did from the Independence Day celebrations. Well, at least from the local parade. Didn't get a single picture taken when we did fireworks with the kids. Or from the barbecue we had. Or even from eating lunch after the parade with some wonderful neighbors. Didn't even get any pictures of the water fights that went on with the parade this year. And since that's mostly what Jimmy did, I somehow managed to miss getting a single picture of him from those days. I keep telling myself that was a case of self-preservation and to save the camera from the water. Not quite sure I believe it though.

We did have a lot of fun for the holiday weekend. The only downfall being the motor going out on our air conditioner the afternoon we had the barbecue at our house. Luckily it was a cooler day than it had been. Another good neighbor and friend came over and helped Russ get it working the next day after work. Which was another time I thought I should pull out my camera and didn't. He brought along his three daughters and they had a good time playing with my kids. His youngest is about 6 months older than Dylan and they played really cute together. Dylan would kind of give her a hug and look at me and say, "Gracie nice."

The parade seems to get longer every year. For our town not being all that big, the parade is large. It was scheduled to start at 11:00. Always at the end of the parade is a giant water fight along the parade route. That part was actually shorter than it has been in the past. And even then the parade didn't end until quarter after 1. Of course, that meant more candy that the kids were able to get at the parade. Knowing full well that the parade ended with a big water fight didn't stop Russ and Jimmy from being drenched before the parade even started. I think they almost wished it had been a hotter day than it was after that.

One nice thing about being the main photo taker in the family is that means I am in very few pictures. Russ did get the camera at one point and made sure he took a couple of me. I'll get one of those here first to get it quickly out of the way.
Here are the girls at the parade with their sacks ready to grab more candy thrown their way. Jimmy didn't watch a whole lot of the parade but still managed to get a bit of candy.
You can kind of tell how wet Russ got in this picture. I was actually surprised Dylan didn't mind being held with how wet he was.

Going back to being the main photo taker, sometimes Jimmy gets a hold of the camera. Sadly on my part, some of the best pictures we have are ones he has taken. This is one Jimmy took in the car as we were headed to my parent's house recently. Totally unedited, I should note. Decided to throw it in this post because I think it's cute. Not sure how he got Dylan to stick his tongue out at him for it.

Catching Up Post

2010-06-29T13:46:00.003-06:00

I've slacked on posting about a few things. Mostly because I hadn't uploaded any pictures onto the computer for a while. Actually haven't taken many pictures at all lately. Not really sure why. Just haven't. Probably just utter laziness kicking in.

Anyway, I can't remember if I mentioned before (and again with the lazy trend, I don't feel like looking) that we got the kids one of the butterfly kits where caterpillars arrive in the mail and you get to watch them grow and make cocoons and hatch into butterflies. The kids really loved it. They would often check on the caterpillars to see how much they had grown and were excited when they finally made their cocoons. They were even more excited when they hatched. Lys, Dylan and I got to watch one of them emerge from its cocoon. That was kind of fun. Although I will say that butterflies are kind of gross when they first come out with their drippings of red meconium. And kind of stinky. A few days after they hatched, the kids decided to try to release them. I got a video of it, but will spare you from listening to Dylan cry and Jimmy boss his sisters. The butterflies didn't seem ready to be released then. They didn't try to fly at all and basically fluttered to the ground when Russ gently tossed any into the air to see if they would fly. So back into the netting thing they went for a few more days. They flew away nicely when they tried again. Well, one seemed happy to sick around and let the kids hold it for a bit. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me that time.

Here are a couple of pictures just before the first attempt to release them. One with the kids getting ready. The other just of Dylan to show that he was actually there and part of it.

This next picture is of Lys with her preschool teacher at preschool graduation. Again I have a few videos of songs and things from her graduation but will spare you having to listen to them. My camera was very low on batteries so I didn't actually record all I wanted. Wished I had recorded them singing Tony Chestnuts. They sang a lot more to it than I know and it was cute. Lys loved preschool and was excited about her graduation program. Didn't seem all that sad about not having preschool anymore. She just knows she gets to start kindergarten in the fall and is excited about that.
Yesterday I cut Dylan's and Emma's hair. Dylan's because, well, it needed it. It was getting a bit long and even though it was cute on him we decided to try giving him a really short cut. Not the easiest thing in the world to do to a kid who wiggles because he's not happy about getting a hair cut. I just think his hair is kind of funny. Has a couple of spots where his hair is more blond than other parts so it makes it look like he has bald spots. Granted, Russ did decide he needed it a little shorter on the sides and around the ears and did make a couple of little bald spots in his attempt to trim it.

Emma asked me to cut her hair for her. Ended up being slightly shorter than I intended because she moved as I was cutting some and had to fix it after that. She likes it though. Likes having it shorter for the heat of the summer.

This is a picture of Emma and Dylan together shortly after their hair cuts. Not the best picture but it gives you a general idea. Jimmy says Dylan says he has "Jimmy hair." The girls say he has "Daddy hair." Emma says she and Molly have the same hair now.

If you notice, I don't have any pictures from Lyssa's birthday party. When I finally got the pictures onto the computer I discovered that the only picture we have is a short video of the blowing out of the candle. She had a good time with her party though. Even if Dylan thinks the presents she got are all his.

MRI Results

2010-06-17T11:52:00.003-06:00

Dylan's doctor called me a few minutes ago to go over the results of yesterday's MRI. He said that everything looks good and there wasn't the narrowing in his pulmonary arteries. Which means that he won't need the cath. Which is very good news.

He also talked about when he needs to come in next. The last few visits have been every 6 months. He decided to go 9 months this time. I didn't think we'd see going every 9 months for a while yet. So all in all it was a good phone call.

Dylan's MRI

2010-06-16T22:20:00.002-06:00

I was surprised last week to get a call from Primary's to schedule the MRI for Dylan. Didn't expect it to happen that quickly. Nor did I expect to be able to get in this week. Although I will say it's nice to have it done.

I took Dylan in this morning for the MRI. Obviously it was sedated. And even then he fought them a little with it. They give a stronger medicine for sedation for the MRI than they do for an echo since it's more important that the person not really move during it. The nurse told me that they wanted him to sleep for 2 hours with the medicine. Said that those who don't sleep for the 2 hours tend to wake up rather cranky and it's just all around better for them to sleep for the 2 hours. Anyway, after giving Dylan the medicine, it appeared that he was quite out so they took him into the MRI room and started getting the monitors on him and getting everything set to go. They have a little camera inside the machine so they can watch the patient. I looked at the monitor and noticed that Dylan's head wasn't where it had been so glanced through the window into the room. He was moving around and fighting them. They gave him a little bit of a different kind of sedation medicine just to help him "get over the hump" to fall asleep.

Once they got him settled back down and got the monitors hooked up and everything ready to go, they had me go wait in the MRI recovery room. I was glad that I brought a book at that point.

About an hour later they brought Dylan in and laid him on a bed. He really tried to wake up then and started moving around and kind of fighting them. I ended up holding him and he would settle down and sleep for a couple of minutes then start shifting around again for a bit before settling down. The nurse finally asked if he would like a drink. He heard her say "sippy cup" and without even opening his eyes said, "Okay." A little bit later when it was obvious he was keeping it down the nurse asked if we wanted to go home. Again he immediately said, "Okay." Although I think he said "Bye" the loudest.

Not long after getting in the car, Dylan fell back to sleep. And stayed asleep for quite a while. Woke up pretty happy but pretty wobbly. Couldn't really even stand without tipping for a while. Even going to bed tonight he was still slightly wobbly but was a lot better than he had been.

I don't have the results yet for the MRI. Dylan's cardiologist wasn't at Primary's today. He was at a new outpatient clinic Primary's has at the south end of the valley but he should be calling me. I'm hoping to hear tomorrow. Waiting for the results of the MRI isn't fun. Waiting the week for the results of the echo didn't bother me at all. I guess that's because I figured it would show what it did. This time I'm waiting to find out if he will need a cath procedure. I'm hoping he won't but a lot of me expects that he will. Which is probably what is making the wait a little more anxious. Which is funny in a way since earlier today I was thinking how quickly going to the doctor for his heart becomes just a part of life.

Dylan Echo and Cardiologist Visits

2010-06-04T15:19:00.003-06:00

About Wednesday of last week I received an apologetic call from Primary's saying that they would not have any sedation techs there the day he was scheduled for his next sedated echo (that date was today) and they had one time open that Friday at 8 a.m. that they were saving for him if we could take it. I asked them when the next available time they had open after his original scheduled one. They checked the schedule that would work to also meet with his pediatric cardiologist and the soonest they could get him in if I didn't take the one open time wasn't until September. So knowing it would be challenging for us, I opted to take the time they suggested.

Mostly it was challenging because Russ had training stuff at work he couldn't miss and the kids had a big program followed by their annual picnic on the playground and flower planting at the school. But it got worked out with Russ just going in a little late to work to help get the kids off to school and my mom came up to get Molly over when she was supposed to go and watch Lys.

With the appointment at 8 and knowing I wouldn't be meeting with his PC until today, I figured I should be back in time to see the program. Unfortunately, the sedation left Dylan a little nauseated and he threw up a couple of times. They wanted to make sure he was okay before they let us go home. After the second time he threw up, they got him some anti-nausea medicine. After waiting some time to make sure that actually helped with his hurlings, I was finally able to leave. I got to the school after the program had ended and about the time they were starting to eat for the picnic.

Today I went back to meet with his PC and get the results of the echo. The timing with this appointment was actually pretty nice. I picked up Molly when she was done with kindergarten for the last time and headed down to his appointment. I got back in time for Jimmy and Emma to get out.

Dylan's cardiologist told me that his heart function looks about the same. Still has the leaking from the valve, but the heart can take leaking for quite a while. His problem is that the veins going into his lungs are narrow. He wants Dylan to get an MRI to see exactly how narrow. If they are too narrow, he will need to get a cath to get them expanded. He wouldn't worry about the veins being narrow if he thought that Dylan would need to get his conduit replaced soon, but since he thinks it will be a while before he needs that surgery he feels we need to get this taken care of. He did say one option would be to just go ahead and do the cath but really doesn't want to do it if it isn't necessary.

The plan now is that they will get the pre-authorization for the MRI from the insurance and then will give me a call to schedule it. I should hear from them within the next couple of weeks to get it scheduled and have the MRI done sometime within the next couple of months.

Happy Birthday Alyssa!

2010-06-03T14:43:00.003-06:00

Alyssa turned 5 years old today. How quickly the time has gone by. We had a birthday party for her last Saturday at the park. She invited kids from her preschool class and had a good time. I didn't get many pictures from her party unfortunately. Couldn't find where I had shoved the camera with all of the rest of the things we brought over to the park. Found it in time to get her being sung to for eating cake and ice cream and then put the camera away and had a hard time finding it again.

She is one of the happiest kids I know. Always has a smile on her face and an easy going attitude. She is excited to start kindergarten in the fall. She's hoping to get the same teacher that her sisters and brother had. Should be finding out tomorrow sometime.

Happy birthday, Alyssa! I hope you have a great one this year! Love you!

Wedding, Dentist and More

2010-05-19T11:03:00.005-06:00

It has been fairly busy for us lately, which isn't very typical. Just have had a lot of things going on close to other things. And we're not quite finished.

My sister-in-law, Linda, got married last Tuesday. I would say I made her wedding cake with the help of my sister Susan, but in reality it was more that Susan made her wedding cake and I helped a little. I made the figures for the top of the cake. We got it all put together the night before. I'm happy with the way it turned out. I only heard good comments about it, so everyone else must have been happy with it as well. Here's the cake right after we finished it:

Tuesday was quite rainy most of the day. Instead of taking the group picture outside the temple we went down to the atrium. Which was nicer than standing in the rain, even if we did get in the way of people trying to get in or out of the temple. My mom watched the kids while we were in the temple for the ceremony then was nice enough to bring them up after for pictures. They seemed to really enjoy looking at the flowers in the atrium. I tried to get a good picture of them in front of it, but this was the best I could do. Which actually turned out better than I thought it would.
If you look close you can see Emma looking at me through glass.
The girls, along with their cousin Rebecca, were excited once Linda came out and gathered around her.
The day after the wedding I took all of the kids to the dentist for cleanings. It was Dylan's first time going and we didn't expect much to come from his appointment being so young and not really liking adults other than Russ or me to touch him. Lys was quite nervous because of her experience in trying to get a tooth filled without sedation. She was afraid it would be like that. She was very happy when it was easy and when she learned she didn't have any cavities.

Dylan wasn't as lucky as Lys. He has one cavity that they saw doing a quick lap exam. Which means that when he goes for his next echo on the 4th, I talk with his cardiologist and make sure he's okay with them doing sedation in their offices for him. They do have an anesthesiologist they use for real small kids like Dylan. So it probably won't be an issue, but nice to make sure.

Emma didn't have any cavities but had a tooth that was starting to get infected and needed to be pulled. She had that done this morning. My friend Jodi watched Dylan, Lys and Molly (since Molly doesn't have kindergarten today) while I took Emma in. She wanted it sedated so it was scheduled as one. But then Jimmy didn't know he wasn't supposed to and gave Emma breakfast this morning, which meant they couldn't do it sedated. After some convincing and bribing and a slight freak out over the gas (which they ended up not using), they were able to pull her tooth. I walked out of the dentist almost exactly a half hour after I walked in. Much nicer to not do sedations. Cheaper, too.

Molly and Jimmy also had no cavities. Jimmy is going to need braces pretty soon though. I need to schedule an appointment for him to see an orthodontist soon. He's not thrilled about that. Keeps asking me when he will get them. I keep telling him sometime after I make him an appointment for a consultation with an orthodontist.

Thursday Lys had a field trip with preschool. Because this spring has been cold and wet the field trip had been postponed a few times. Luckily it was a nice day that day. A little cool, but nice. Really would have felt too hot had it been any warmer that day. Molly had kindergarten in the afternoon that day for practice for the kindergarten program so she came along on the field trip. I think Lys was excited that she was able to go along too.

The field trip was to a local park to go feed the ducks. All of the kids seemed to have fun. Almost think they liked playing on the playground for a while after feeding the ducks the most. Of course, Dylan saw some ducks as we were leaving and was mad that we didn't go over and see them again.

This is Lyssa's class (and a few others like Molly and Dylan in front). Lys is in there somewhere. Not sure where though.

Molly and Lys feeding a couple of geese.
Dylan loves swings. As you can see in this picture.
Molly saw this rock as we were leaving and wanted me to take a picture of the three of them on the rock. Obviously Lys and Dylan weren't as excited about it as she was.
Friday morning Molly had her kindergarten program. This is the third one I've been to. It was just like the other two, only Molly had a short speaking part where Jimmy and Emma didn't. I mostly took video of it. I may add one with my next post, which should be coming sometime fairly soon with more upcoming events.

Saturday we went to the annual family picnic with IHH. In the past it's been held at the hospital. This year it was at a park (that I impressed myself with being able to find without getting lost at all when it had been a long time since I've been to that park). I made sugar cookies for the heart shaped dessert contest this time instead of an elaborate cake like last time. I had leftover cake last time. No leftover cookies this time. It was fun being at the park. Luckily it was another nice day.

After the family picnic we went to the hospital for a very short and quick visit to see our newest nephew, Nathan. Then went home and worked in the yard. I have learned that with this pregnancy I get tired easier than I have with the other ones. So I was pretty tired by the end of the day. And end of the week, actually. I failed to mention earlier that on Mother's Day we attended a baby blessing for another new nephew, Aaron. That was nice as well. I didn't get any pictures taken that evening though. One of these days I'll find the paper where I wrote down what I could of the blessing and get it sent to you, Sara.

Surgery Musings and Ramblings

2010-05-05T10:21:00.003-06:00

Last night as I was lying in bed to go to sleep I kept thinking of things I could write in a post here. I also thought of Jimmy talking about when an author came to the school recently he told the kids that if they want to be writers they should keep a notebook with them to write down the ideas they get. I kind of wished I had a notebook last night to jot down the thoughts that were running through my mind. Mostly because I do that a lot. I will think of things and ways to write them on my blog but by the time I actually sit down to write it I can't quite remember how I thought of it and it's never as good as it was in my mind. Basically this is a little disclaimer to let you know that what I'm writing in this post isn't as good as it was when it ran through my mind last night. Apparently it doesn't stop me from writing it though.

I have a friend on facebook whose oldest daughter has Tetralogy of Fallot, a chd. She is scheduled for surgery to replace a valve (I believe) in a little less than a month and is quite nervous and scared about it. As I have been reading about this family and their experiences in preparing for the surgery, I can't help but wonder what it will be like further down the road when Dylan is old enough to know what is going on and will need surgery. I would imagine it will be much the same. I can honestly say it's not something I'm looking forward to experiencing.

I think of the age of this girl. She's 10. I remember how when I was 9 I had an appendectomy at Primary Children's. Yes, I know an appendectomy is nothing compared to heart surgery. I'm not even trying to compare the two. I'm just remembering how I felt going into it and realize that there are good things about going into surgery that quickly. None of us really had the time to really think about what was happening. We didn't know weeks ahead of time that this would happen. Of course my dad had recently had an appendectomy and I remembered his. I think that scared me more than anything. Granted, his was worse than mine.

I remember waking up right after the surgery. I was curious and wanted to see the area where they had done the incision. Just wanted to see how it was bandaged and such, but I think I scared the nurse who was close by. She saw me kind of sit up and start to move things to look and stopped me. I think she was afraid I would try to pull everything off. I wouldn't have. I just wanted to look. I must have still been quite groggy from the anesthesia because really the next thing I remember is being wheeled through the halls to my room and my family in the hall with smiles greeting me. And especially the big grocery bag with candy for me.

That grocery bag of candy actually ended up almost tormenting me in the hospital. It was kept by the side of my bed where I could easily look and see into it and look at the different kinds of candy bars and things. At the time I was on a liquid diet. Which was not fun for someone who really does not like tomato soup.

My mom will tell me how she felt bad for me. I would complain that I was hurting but after the first time I told the nurse that yes, I was hurting, I refused to admit it to her again. I expected pills or medicine to drink. Didn't expect the shot she gave me in my thigh. I don't remember the pain. Really only remember hurting that first time when I got the shot for the pain. And even then I only remember that I had been hurting but don't remember feeling pain.

I'm sure Dylan and this girl will remember that they felt pain after their surgeries as they get older. But I wonder if they will be like I was and have no memory of the pain. I'd like to think so.

One thing I always think of when I think of the short time I spent in the hospital following my appendectomy is of my roommate there. I believe her name was Matilda. Or something close to that. She was friendly and always seemed very positive to me. She was also paralyzed. I remember her parents chatting with mine and saying that the doctors told them she would never walk again, but how they knew that some day she would. Sometimes I think of her. I wonder how she is doing now and if her parents were right in their faith that she would walk again. At the heart mom luncheon I mentioned in my last post, Paul Cardall said to never stop fighting or believing for your children. Even if the doctors say something is impossible. Because the things that are possible today were impossible yesterday.

Funny how thinking of someone having surgery soon will lead to thoughts of someone I knew for just a couple of days.

As a parent who has had two children have surgery (one minor, one major), I can understand what my parents went through when I had my surgery. I'm hoping that having been through surgery as a child, I will be able to understand at least in some small way what my children go through when they have theirs.

Heart Mom Luncheon

2010-04-24T20:49:00.002-06:00

I have always been glad that I joined the local CHD support group, IHH (Intermountain Healing Hearts). Today has been no exception to that. I am not the most social person in the world, but despite that I attended a luncheon they had for heart moms. I know that any description I give won't really do the event justice, but that won't stop me from trying.

In addition to lunch, Margaret Cardall, mother of award winning-composer Paul Cardall (if you remember I've mentioned him before and had a link to a video on youtube that he did where he included a couple of pictures of Dylan) spoke to us about some of her experiences with raising a child with a CHD. She said many things that were touching and many that were humorous. She talked about how there were times where she thought she needed to sleep for just two hours and have some time and she would be fine. She spoke of losing a son this past summer and how his death made Paul's heart transplant and recovery that much more of a miracle. She talked about how it's okay to live now even when we worry about our children and do the things we would like to do.

After she spoke Paul played a few songs. For one he asked for a volunteer to come up and pick three notes on the piano and said from those notes he would compose a song. The song he played from those three notes was very beautiful. Amazing to me that people have the talent to do that. He mentioned being an adult and being a patient in a children's hospital. Said it was humbling to be around all the children who had so many problems but were so strong. Said he thinks of Primary Children's as being a sacred place.

I actually thought the brief words of the emcee for the event, Rebecca Cressman, a dj for a local radio station were as good as the rest of the day. She mentioned having a son who had chronic illness as a child and as a senior in high school and in track trying to make it to an event and just missing his event. Said he told her he knew she missed it (and was glad) because out of all of the voices in the stands, the only one he can ever hear is hers and how he would know that if he failed, she would feel worse than he did. She mentioned then the power a mother has. That out of all the voices in the world, our children hear ours louder than the others.

All in all it was a very nice event. One that has left me feeling grateful and blessed for having been able to be there.

Ultrasound

2010-04-22T15:07:00.005-06:00

Today I had my "20 week" ultrasound appointment. (In case you're wondering, I have the 20 week in quotes because apparently that's what they call this ultrasound appointment even if you aren't quite 20 weeks yet.) One thing I've always liked about my doctor is that there is rarely a long wait at the appointments. Unfortunately, such is not always the case when it comes to the ultrasound appointments. Today was one of those long wait days. The ultrasound tech even commented that his schedule was getting further and further off. When Russ and I got there a lady ahead of us went back. I knew it would be at least 20 minutes before we would go back. It was a bit longer though. By the time we finally went back, two other couples were waiting for their appointments.

Instead of taking the day off, Russ just took a longer lunch. The longer we were sitting there, the more I decided it was a good thing I didn't pick him up and we just met there. That way he was able to leave to go back to work right after the ultrasound and didn't need to wait with me to meet with the doctor.

The ultrasound went really well. He got a really good look of the heart and said that as far as he could tell, everything looked great. This was the same ultrasound tech I've had for all of my kids. He was the one who found Dylan's heart defect, so I trust his results.

I really didn't care one way or the other if the baby were a boy or a girl. I just wanted the baby to be healthy. Russ and Jimmy kind of wanted a boy. The girls wanted a girl. I had always kind of figured it would be a girl but I'm usually wrong. This time he got the ultrasound picture where it should be and then asked us what it is, since we've gone through this a few times before. I said, "Sure looks like a girl to me." So yes, we are having another girl! Now if we can come up with names...

Here are a couple of pictures from the ultrasound. This first one is of a hand and of a foot.

This one is a profile picture.

Last Cub Scout Pack Meeting

2010-04-19T10:52:00.003-06:00

This month at pack meeting for cub scouts, Jimmy received several awards. It was his last pack meeting as a cub scout too. And I very nearly forgot about it. Would have forgotten it completely had Russ not asked Jimmy why he didn't go to scouts that day. I started to say because he's an 11-year old scout now and not in cub scouts anymore so wouldn't be going to pack meeting when I remembered that he did need to go to it and looked at the clock to see that it was about to start. I told Jimmy to quickly grab his scout shirt and we drove over while Russ stayed home with the rest of the kids. I had been planning on having the whole family go since Jimmy would be getting lots of awards but by forgetting about it didn't have time to get everyone to go. Which might have been easier anyway.

I did find the camera and did take pictures. Which have been put on the other computer and not the one I'm using. I may go back and add pictures later.

Jimmy received the pins for his communicator, family member, traveller, fitness and handyman activity badges. He earned all but 4 of the activity badges for Webelos. He also earned his compass patch and two compass points. His biggest award was the Arrow of Light award. I took video of him receiving that and since it takes so long to put videos on blogger doubt that I will put it on. The ceremony for that lasted several minutes as all of his past leaders said something about him as he crossed a bridge thing they have into boy scouts. (That wasn't the original plan for the ceremony but the person who was going to do it was sick and couldn't be there so it was a last minute decision. But I thought it was kind of nice that way.)

Jimmy is excited to be in boy scouts now. Partially because they are going to go camping sometime this summer with their fathers. I think Russ is excited about that as well. I just wonder how long it will take me before I remember what day and time he goes for his boy scout meetings instead of thinking he needs to go when he would go for cub scouts. At least he remembers.

Jimmy's Party

2010-04-02T14:56:00.003-06:00

I have really slacked off on writing on this blog. Not really sure why other than the fact that I haven't had much to say. Granted, I've had Jimmy's birthday party I could write about for a while now and just haven't done it. Been meaning to for a while though, if that counts for anything.

Jimmy invited a few friends to come over and then walk to the nearby dollar theater to go see Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 and pizza the day after his birthday. He was worried that no one would show up because another boy in his class was having his party at the same time. Russ and I kept telling him that if he was so worried about it we could easily change his party to the following week. We also said if he didn't want to change it and only one or two boys showed up that maybe we could go somewhere else a little more fun. The boy in his class ended up changing the time for his party, which was rather nice of him.

Somehow it went from Jimmy inviting 3 or 4 boys to inviting 6 or 7. (I say 6 or 7 because at this point I can't remember which it was and just don't feel like trying to figure it out.) I had planned all along that we would all walk over and as soon as the movie was over I would drive and pick up some pizza. Then Russ suggested that I stay home with Dylan and pick up the pizza while they were gone. Brilliant. So when it came time for them to walk to the theater, I distracted Dylan by pointing out the neighbor's dog as Russ walked off with a herd of boys and our three girls.

The movie started at 4:50 and was supposed to end around 6:30 so I drove over with Dylan to get pizza when I thought it would give me time to drive over, get the pizza and get home by the time they got out and walked back. Figuring this was a bunch of boys, I ordered a lot more pizza than I really needed. Next time I'll know that I don't need quite so much. Dylan was good and stayed right with me as I carried out the pizza to the car. He snagged a cheese stick before he would happily get in his carseat.

As I drove past the movie theater on my way home I saw people coming out like a movie had recently ended. So I figured I would have a few minutes before they got back. I was surprised when Molly came running out to greet me as I got out of the car. They had been home for just a minute or two so it really was good timing.

The kids all happily got pizza and drinks and then Jimmy opened his presents. He was thrilled with all of his presents. Then instead of a birthday cake, we ate birthday pie. Should have seen his eyes light up when I told him he could have pie instead of cake. The pie went over surprisingly well. At least no one complained about having pie instead of cake.

All in all he had a good birthday and party. Kept saying it was one of his best. Which is nice to hear.

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

2010-03-19T11:04:00.003-06:00

Today Jimmy turned 11. Crazy. Surely hasn't been that long since he was a tiny newborn. Still cracks me up, by the way, that Jimmy spent an entire week longer in the hospital than Dylan did and he didn't really have any problems even though he was 7 weeks early where Dylan had open heart surgery.

It's been fun watching Jimmy grow up over these past 11 years. Especially has been fun watching him interact with Dylan and see the bond they have. Give Dylan a picture of Jimmy and he will hold onto it for quite a while saying either "Immy!" or "Brother!"

Hope you have a great birthday this year, Jimmy!

Lys and the Dentist

2010-02-22T22:36:00.002-07:00

My kids are not the bravest kids in the world. I realize this. So I was surprised when Lys said she wanted to get her cavity filled without being sedated when both Emma and Molly quite strongly said that they wanted to be asleep for their work back two dentist visits ago. She tried to be brave that first time. For all of about 30 seconds. They were able to fill her cavity, but she did not make it easy for them. So I'm sure you can imagine her distress a short while later when that filling came out and I told her I would have to take her back to the dentist. She again tried to be brave as they put in a new filling on that tooth. The dentist said that it really should be capped but she was having such a hard time that he did a quick filling repair and recommended that I eventually bring her back in to get a cap on the tooth and make sure it was a sedated appointment because he worried that her memories of the dentist would not be good ones with the experience with getting the filling filled twice. He said he didn't know how long that filling would last.

Time passed and I would occasionally think of calling the dentist but her tooth seemed to be okay. I finally did call the dentist and schedule the appointment though. I could see signs that the filling was not going to last much longer. And I was right. During preschool as she was eating candy, the filling came out along with a piece of her tooth.

With it being a sedated appointment and it being in the morning, Russ stayed home and was nice enough to take her while I stayed home and got the others off to school and took care of Dylan. I told Russ before he left that I was pretty sure that they wouldn't be able to cap the tooth and would end up just having to pull it. Part of me thought it was silly to have her sedated just for a quick tooth pull, but I knew how nervous she was and how nervous Emma was when they pulled her tooth.

I think I got the better end of the deal. My biggest worry was getting the garbage can out to the street when Dylan wanted me to sit and watch Blue's Clues with him. While Russ got the joys of helping a very groggy girl and cleaning up after her when she threw up three times before leaving the dentist. Luckily she didn't throw up at home.

I did laugh that as he carried her in and as she was obviously a bit on the loopy side, she had to make sure to show me the prize she got from the toy machine at the dentist. And chuckled as she asked me as she had me watch Go Diego! Go! with her which octopus was the real one and which one wasn't since she was seeing double still. Brought back memories of Molly being sedated and saying to me that when she first saw me I had two noses, "but I didn't laugh."

I will say that I am looking forward to this short break of going to the dentist before we take the kids back for their next cleaning. And next time we take Dylan for his first trip to the dentist. That should be interesting. Wonder if they'll even let them touch him.

Just A Reminder

2010-02-22T14:45:00.002-07:00

Just thought I'd throw in a quick reminder that tomorrow is National Pancake Day. Which means that once again IHOP is giving away a free short stack of pancakes all day (well, from I believe 6 am until 10 pm) to every customer. Any donations they get that day will go to the Children's Miracle Network to support local children's hospitals. Which is always a good thing. If they do the same as last year, you can donate on their website if you don't want to fight the crowds that are sure to be there.

Last year I decided not to fight crowds and just made pancakes at home. May do the same thing again. Especially since Dylan has developed quite the runny nose.

The Best-Laid Schemes

2010-02-16T16:18:00.002-07:00

As is written and often quoted (albeit often misquoted I discovered recently) poem by Robert Burns, things in life don't always go the way we plan for them. Like having a child with a CHD. But we make the best of what ever comes are way and are hopefully the better for it.

Once again Russ and I find ourselves heading down a path we didn't plan. And that path starts with a 9 month journey. Yep, that's right. Russ and I are expecting our 6th child. Before you start asking if we know there are things that can prevent that, yes we do and yes we used it. It just didn't work as it sometimes doesn't. And for the most part I'm fine with it. I do worry about little things like where on earth will we fit another body in our car that is full and what are we going to do with a baby when it's time for Dylan's next surgery. But I know that things will all work out, as I know that this child was meant to be a part of our family. Just not quite what we expected at this point. (Granted, I'm sure my older sister who is also expecting but who will be 41 close to when she delivers feels much the same way.)

I will be 10 weeks tomorrow, which puts the due date as September 15. We told the kids last night and they are thrilled. Russ and I aren't quite as excited as they are, but we're getting there.

Dylan's 18 Month Checkup

2010-02-09T12:56:00.002-07:00

Dylan had his 18 month checkup today. I laughed because the nurse at first asked if he were in for his year checkup. Apparently time has gone by just as fast for her. She commented about remembering when he first went there.

Dylan was surprisingly good this time. At his 15 month appointment he cried nearly the whole time he was being examined. This time he was nervous but just watched the doctor very carefully. Even smiled at him. Briefly.

Dylan is just below, but very close to the average for height at 32 inches. He now weighs 24 pounds, 1 ounce, which is only a very slight gain from last time. But after a week of not eating much because of a sore throat and then a recent bout of diarrhea, it's not surprising. His doctor wasn't concerned at all as it is still a gain and he's above the 25th percentile. Added that with the statistics of so many teenagers being overweight, it's not a bad thing to keep him on the lean side.

I did chuckle when after listening to his heart the doctor said, "Yep, sounds like a Maytag." I've read where other people with truncus kids have had doctors tell them their hearts sound like a washing machine. Of course, Dylan's doctor doesn't know I've read that, but I still thought it was funny.

Dylan had his last shot until his kindergarten checkup today. I was smart. I let him pick out a sucker from the sucker drawer and so when the nurse came back in to give him his shot, he had that happily in hand (with the wrapper still on). He started to cry when she gave him the shot but I quickly pulled off the wrapper and he happily stuck it in his mouth, stopping any thoughts of the shot. He was just happy to be going, as anyone who was near could tell by his happily heading out the door saying, "Go! Go!"

The next checkup he should have will be his next echo sometime in May. Which reminds me. I suppose I could call and schedule that appointment soon. They did say they would send me a reminder card to schedule the appointment, but I may not wait for the card to do that. Hopefully he won't need to go to the doctor for any reason before then. That would be nice.

National CHD Awareness Week

2010-02-07T11:16:00.002-07:00

Today marks the start of National Congenital Heart Disease/defect Awareness week. There are a few things associated with this and with the local support group that I belong to (Intermountain Healing Hearts) that I am aware of.

Up at Primary Children's they have a banner on the parking structure stating that it is National CHD Awareness Week and have a table with cookies. Also this week on the 15th, Paul Cardall is having a concert with a silent auction to benefit some who have been affected by chd's. I believe tickets are still available. Later this month, on the 20th at the Kearns Olympic Oval from 1-4 is an event sponsored by IHH to raise funds for research and awareness for chd's including prize drawings and a silent auction (not to mention ice skating, music and food). Admission for that is $10 per person or $50 for a family of 5 or more, including an entry in the drawing for each family member.

Me? I'm not sure yet on if we will be going to the ice skating thing (although I'm sure my kids would love it, especially since every time we drive past the frozen ponds where we saw a family playing hockey one day they ask when we will take them ice skating). But I have put the Valentine's hearts on my car again this year and plan on leaving them up for as long as I can stand this month. And seeing as my polka dots have all faded, I may just keep them up all month. Much to Jimmy's chagrin.

I saw this poem on the blog of one of my second cousins who lost a daughter to a chd. Thought I would repost it here and add, as she did, that I hope the author doesn't mind. I believe it was written for CHD Awareness Week.

Somewhere...someplace... today...

A family is waiting to hear...

Is something wrong with their baby?

The answers aren't quite clear...

This family has entered an unwanted world...

And they just don't know what to expect...

Somewhere...someplace... today

They first heard the words: heart defect.

And how they hoped this was not true...

And thought... this cannot be...

I too... know just how this feels...

For one day...this was me.

Somewhere...someplace...today...

A man and a woman embrace...

Their baby is in surgery...

They long to see her face...

They haven't got to hold her yet...

Without...a cord or line...

They pace the room awaiting news...

And hope she'll be just fine.

Prayers fill this busy waiting room...

And mom and dad are scared...

Somewhere...someplace..today...

The tiniest hearts are repaired.

Somewhere...someplace...today...

A child's growing fast...

Smiling,laughing,thriving...

His mom thinks...can this last?

It's almost easy...to forget...

That anything is wrong...

Somewhere...someplace..today...

Her child seems so strong.

Somewhere...someplace... today...

A little boy fights...just to live

A father holds his tiny hand...

His love...all he can give...

The doctor's are all baffled...

They fear that he might die...

Somewhere...someplace...today...

A family says goodbye...

Somewhere...someplace...each year..

More than 40,000 families will see...

What it means...when something's wrong...

They'll face a CHD.

Today...for just a moment...

Stop...remember...reflect...

Make time to tell someone you know...

"I've been changed by a heart defect"

Author - Stephanie Husted

Words, Words, Words

2010-01-25T22:04:00.004-07:00

You'd think that with my 5th child I wouldn't be amazed at how well and how many words he says. Especially when all of my children have been good talkers. Sure, I've had more than one amaze people in nursery when we've gone to pick them up and they start chatting because they don't say a single word while we're gone, but they really have all been good talkers. Back in November when Dylan had his last echo, his cardiologist asked how many words he says. We made a quick guess because we hadn't counted at that point. Russ guessed between 20 and 30 words. I thought it was closer to about 15. And you know what? I still couldn't tell you exactly how many words he says. He does sometimes say a complete sentence though. Lately he likes to say, "I wanna go!" No, he doesn't care where, he just wants to go for a ride or go outside and play.

I couldn't help yesterday but smile when we were at our special Stake Conference with Elder Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. Russ had given Dylan a piece of paper and a couple of crayons and he happily sang (for a good part of the meeting, I might add), "Color, color, color!" Yes, I know that we have said we are keeping Dylan home from church and things during the winter to try to keep him from getting sick. Besides the fact that he still catches everything, neither of us wanted to miss this meeting so we decided to take him yesterday. A bit selfish of us, I know.

In fact, Dylan is getting to be a toad when it comes to coloring. He will find a crayon and color on whatever surface is nearby. Including the tablecloth, the dishwasher, the fridge and the cabinets. One time I found him crouched under the bench for our organ coloring the underside. He got mad when I didn't let him color on the computer screen. But he's the happiest toad as he's doing it. And happily singing like he did yesterday. He makes me laugh though. If he gets a piece of paper, he will take it and lay down on the floor to color on it. Here's a picture of him doing it. No, I still haven't found my camera so this was taken with my cell phone, hence the poor quality.

Jimmy's Science Fair Project

2010-01-21T12:38:00.003-07:00

I realize that I haven't posted in a while. Just really haven't had anything to post about. Unless I wanted to complain about realizing I'm not as young and in shape as I used to be each time I get on the treadmill.

Today is the school's Science Fair. Most of the month of December Jimmy would tell us that he needed the plants for his project since the science fair was toward the end of January. Silly thinking on my part, but I assumed he was wrong and the science fair was toward the end of February. Luckily we finally took him and got the plants he wanted. He decided to get three plants and use one for a control and the other two he would talk to and measure their growth to see if the talking actually had any effect on them. One of the two he would say only positive things and the other he would say only negative. He also made sure that when they needed watering, he always watered the same amount to each plant and watered them at the same time. Knowing that even indoor plants tend to go dormant during the winter months, I worried that he wouldn't see any results.

Being a family of procrastinators (for the most part), we waited until last night after dinner to even go buy Jimmy the display board for his project and get putting it together. Which meant we were up a bit past bedtime getting it done. Surprisingly, the girls actually fell asleep earlier last night than they usually do so it made it a little easier.

Russ helped Jimmy measure the plants when he first got them and again last night to show the final results. After measuring them, Jimmy came up to me convinced the project had failed. I asked him if there were any changes in height this time. He said that yes, the one he talked negatively to had gotten shorter, so surely it had failed. Asked him about the other two. He told me that the control stayed the same and the one he talked positively to had grown a little. I told him that those all showed results. I think he got more excited about that project than he had at any other point as he worked on it.

Jimmy then typed up all of the information for each plant and his hypothesis and conclusion and printed them up along with photos of each plant. Apparently they didn't want them to bring anything other than the display boards, so he did need the pictures of the plants. Still not having found my camera, we took pictures with Russ' cellphone and sent them to the computer so he could print them up.

I thought his board turned out well. Especially considering the late start we got working on it last night. I did help him a little with it, but my help mostly consisted of reminding him which information he needed to show and cutting out the pictures and things and helping him glue them on the board. He really did the work for it.

The open house for the Science Fair is tonight. They will give awards there. I won't be sad if Jimmy doesn't get an award for his project. I just hope that he gets a decent grade on it.

I find it interesting to think of the results he found even in a shorter time than he would have liked to work on it. These are plants. They aren't self-aware like we are. Yet the one he said negative things to actually got smaller. Makes me think of the effects negative and positive words have on each of us.

Along the same lines of Jimmy stuff, Jimmy told me yesterday that he moved up to a higher math class yesterday and they took a spelling test in his class and he was the only one who would have gotten a 3 on it (3 basically being an "A"). He said everyone else would have gotten 1's, so his teacher didn't record the scores and they will do it again. He also was one of the two fastest typists in computers.

Belated Christmas Post

2010-01-06T15:53:00.003-07:00

About a week before Christmas I told Jimmy how I remember Christmas morning as a child. We would line up in the hall at a bright and early hour and wait for the okay to all rush into the living room where Santa always had lots of presents for us. The order of the line changed every year to try to keep it fair. Of course, the one who was sick that year was the one who got to go first. Jimmy asked me what happened if more than one person happened to be sick that year. I gave him the only answer I knew: I don't know. I should have known that I had just cursed my family.

A few days before Christmas, I noticed that Lyssa looked a bit flushed and her eyes looked bright red. Soon thereafter Molly and Emma also had the bright red eyes. All three had what I fondly term "eye boogers" and I knew conjunctivitis had invaded. And so the day before Christmas Eve I ended up at the doctor's office with the three girls to get the needed eye drops. I asked how long I should consider them being contagious. The nurse told me that as long as their eyes looked goopy.

Every year on Christmas Eve we get together with Russ' family for food, presents, and a program. That morning Russ was in a bit of a bad mood. Not only did the girls still have eye boogers, but Dylan now had some. Plus Russ said his eyes felt itchy and he was a bit coldy. So it ended up that Jimmy and I were the only ones who were able to make it to the party. Which really made it easy for me, but I would have preferred it if everyone had been able to go. The girl's eyes really did look much better by the time I got home from the party. So there was hope for Christmas day. Especially the way Jimmy was constantly washing his hands to try to avoid getting it.

Christmas morning arrived and the kids were happy to see the stash from Santa and seemed to like all of their gifts. The only remaining gifts were to my parents, whom we planned to visit that afternoon. Russ and I worked on putting together the treadmill he got me for Christmas when Jimmy came out of his room with a grunt and his shirt pulled up over his face. Yes, despite all of his hand washing (and sanitizing everything with Lysol), he got it. So again I was the one to go while Russ stayed home with Jimmy. Only this time the girls and Dylan were able to go with me.

We didn't stay all that long because Dylan didn't get a nap and was cranky. At one point he tried to get me to stand up and kept saying, "Go!"

At least we were generally well for New Year's.

Yes, I know I have no pictures with this post. I did take a few. And then couldn't remember where I put the camera. Then I found it and set it somewhere so I would remember where it was. Yeah, I shouldn't do that. Once again, I can't remember where I moved it to.

Not What I Planned For Today

2009-12-15T13:50:00.005-07:00

Just to warn you, this post is somewhat long and rambling. And probably far more detail than you need or wanted to know.

I had plans on how my day would go. I would get up, wake up Emma and Molly and get them ready for school. I would send them and Jimmy to school then finish getting ready and get Lys and Dylan ready to take Lys to preschool where she was Star of the Day today. I planned on getting stuff ready, picking Molly up from kindergarten then heading over to Lyssa's preschool with her Star of the Day sack and some treats for her class. Then I'd come home and make the kids lunch, get Dylan down for a nap and finish up some cleaning. Figured for a few days that's how today would go.

That was before Lyssa came up to me a little bit upset last night. A filling that she had just gotten at the very end of November fell out. Not wanting to repeat the abscess that Emma had with a chipped tooth, I told her that I would need to call the dentist in the morning. I also told her that it would be unlikely that they would get her in today, which I think made her feel a little better.

Well, not much of my morning went as planned. The girls got up pretty easily but took long enough finding shoes that I ended up driving them to school so they wouldn't be late. Only Molly decided she was scared to go in and stood in the front of the school. I sat in the car and watched her to make sure she went in. The minutes passed and she still stood there, staring at the car. I unrolled the window and told her to go in and that I couldn't take her in because I wasn't ready. I was still in my pajamas. She eventually won. I hopped out of the car and took her to her class, where I left her watching me leave.

By the time I got back home it was nearly time to take Lys to preschool. I rushed and got ready and drove her over. She was sad because she had hoped we would have time before going that she could help me make the rice krispy treats for her class. I told her I would make them when I got back. We were a few minutes late to preschool, which was fine because a lot of the other kids were arriving at the same time.

I got home and made the treats for her and sat down to chat online with my family like I do most mornings. After a while I remembered that I needed to call the dentist. There is where my plans changed the most.

They asked me how soon I could get her in. The dentist who put in the filling only works Mondays and Tuesdays and leaves at 12:30 on those days. So instead of waiting for Molly to get out of kindergarten and then going over to Lyssa's preschool, I ended up getting Molly out a few minutes early. I took the treats and the Star of the Day sack over and told a little about Lys and let her pass out the treats and then we left as quickly as we could for the dentist. And hit nearly every light red.

The dentist put in a new filling but noted that when her filling came out that a piece of tooth came out with it so it really needs a crown rather than a filling. Lyssa had gotten herself worked up about getting a new filling so wasn't holding still enough to get the crown. He said that the filling will likely fall out sometime, but until then this should work. They want me to call after the holidays and schedule a sedated appointment to get a crown put on the tooth. Getting there as late as we did, I was surprised when we were done just before 12:30.

Funny how something that took at most a half hour of my plans could add some stress to the day. But at least it's done. And at least I didn't get charged anything for today.

Snow Fort

2009-12-14T14:31:00.003-07:00

After the ward Christmas party on Saturday, the girls went and played with some neighbors and Russ went out with Jimmy to build a snow fort. They didn't quite finish it because after working on it for 2 hours, Russ got tired. He told them they'd finish another day. Here are a couple of pictures of Russ and Jimmy working on it. As you can see in the pictures, there are some downfalls to not being able to get the lawn mower started to clean up the leaves from the tree.

Yes, Jimmy was throwing a snowball at Russ here.

When the girls got home they were excited to go help with it. I never did get a picture of how tall they went with it. Which I should have done. The tops of the walls have fallen over so it's no taller than it looks in these pictures. Maybe even a little shorter. Ah well.

Ward Christmas Party & Our Tree

2009-12-14T14:17:00.004-07:00

Saturday was our ward's Christmas party. Russ took the kids over while I stayed home with Dylan. Which is what would have happened even if Dylan weren't sick then, which he was. Russ thought to bring along the camera for pictures with Santa. Since I wasn't actually there, I don't have a lot to say about what happened. This post is mostly for pictures.

I think Lyssa's expression in this picture is funny. I just do.
I put this and the next picture in because here Jimmy is doing the rabbit ear thing to Santa. In the next, Santa is doing it back to Jimmy.

A couple of weeks ago the kids begged and begged to put up the Christmas tree. We've had our little tree since Russ and I got married. It's getting to be quite the sad little tree. Branches are breaking and everything. But it works. Since Dylan would pull off most ornaments anyway, I bought a few packages of candy canes to cover the tree. The kids had lots of fun putting them on. It should be noted that there are only a few left on the tree. All of which are ones Dylan can't reach. Which is kind of funny since he wasn't the only one taking them off the tree.
As you can see in this picture, Dylan was trying to eat the candy canes before they were even on the tree.

Molly really, really wanted to put one up high on the tree. She didn't knock the tree over putting it on. No, she waited a few days and then knocked it over grabbing a candy cane off.

Dylan vs. Insurance

2009-12-11T19:51:00.003-07:00

Late this summer I got a call from the pediatrician's office asking if we were interested in getting the synagis shot (if you're unfamiliar with what the synagis shot is, it's a vaccination to help prevent RSV for those who qualify for it, given every 30 days) for Dylan again this year. Assuming that his cardiologist would recommend it again this year and remembering that the information on the shot had said that it is recommended for kids with heart defects until they are 2, I said yes. About a month ago I got another call from them to verify the insurance information. The nurse who is over getting insurance approval and keeping track of which kids get the synagis shot told me that thus far the insurance had been claiming no record of him and would resubmit the information to the insurance to get approval. This is a vaccination that is quite expensive so one typically doesn't get it without that approval.

At Dylan's last appointment with his cardiologist, he asked if he was getting the synagis shot. I told him we were still waiting on approval. He said that if they are having a hard time getting him approved to have them let him know and he would be happy to write a letter to the insurance company to try to get it approved because it's something he thinks he should have.

After a bit of not hearing back about it, I decided to call the pediatrician's office and ask about it and let them know about what his cardiologist had said. The nurse told me she would call them and see if she could find anything out and call me right back. She called me back shortly and told me that she had just received a fax from them requesting more information about his heart. She said she thought it would be a good idea to have the letter from the cardiologist to send along with that information and had me call him and ask that he fax her the letter so she could send it with the information she had to send.

Last week she called me again. She said that the insurance company denied the request for him to receive the shot, sent it immediately to appeals and denied it again, even with the letter. Apparently they've changed the parameters for those who receive the shot just in time for this cold and flu season, and he no longer fits in their parameters. She did send me a copy of the denial letter she had received. The reasons the letter states for denial are that he was full-term and post cardiac surgery, he is in his second RSV season and non on any cardiac medicines. Says he has "no CLD or other risk factors" and does not meet the "medical necessity criteria."

Don't ask me what CLD stands for. I have no idea. All I know is that I'm a little bit annoyed that they've denied him because I know how easily he seems to catch everything that comes around. Which is why we are keeping him home as much as we can, especially from places with large groups of people. We will take him to a few things like Emma's baptism. Of course, I'm thinking the question of taking him to the ward Christmas party and a wedding tomorrow (which I thought was a bad idea) isn't up for debate any longer. Dylan looked flushed tonight and I felt his forehead and it was warm. Took his temperature and sure enough, he has a fever. I'm thinking it's my fault. I've forgotten a few times in this bitterly cold weather to have his sisters use hand sanitizer or wash their hands before touching him after school and preschool. But then no one else in our family has had fevers recently. Par for the course, he seems to be starting this one. I am so looking forward to spring and summer.

December Birthday

2009-12-02T15:13:00.002-07:00

Almost seems silly to do a beginning of the month birthday post for just one person. But I'm going to do it anyway. I know, I could easily wait until his actual birthday to wish him a happy birthday. Only problem with waiting is that some might think I forgot to do the birthday post this month. Or they won't even notice at all.

Anyway, happy birthday this month to Alex! Hope you have a great one!

Lyssa and the Dentist

2009-11-30T12:09:00.002-07:00

Bright and early this morning I took Lyssa to the dentist to get her two cavities filled. They had it down as a sedated appointment, but she had wanted to try it without sedation. She was scared and wiggled a lot, but I think did okay considering her age. The dentist, on the other hand, said after word that he thinks we probably should have sedated her. Just because she's going to have bad memories of today. She went out of the dentist office happily enough though. I think she mostly didn't like the tool they use to hold open the mouth. But for the cost difference on my end, I much prefer the non-sedated way.

Anyway, I laughed at her as we were in the waiting room. The movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks" had just ended and the credits were playing. She danced around to the song on the credits. She's just that way. Hears music and has to dance.

The following video is an example of it. I was trying to film her singing along with the credit song for the "Plants vs Zombies" game like she does. She saw the camera and danced instead. She keeps saying, "Click!" because she didn't know I was all ready filming her.

Emma's Baptism

2009-11-28T14:19:00.002-07:00

As is obvious by the title, Emma was baptized today. She was very excited about getting baptized. She was supposed to have her baptism interview with the bishop on Tuesday but she had gotten sick and so didn't have it until last night. In a way I was amazed she answered the questions. She sometimes doesn't like to answer when people ask her things and will just kind of grunt. Not this time. She answered very easily and well.

When we got to the church building for her baptism, the church was locked and no one was there. Since we were having her baptism on a different day than they normally have them, I was almost afraid that they had forgotten and wondered what we were going to do. Actually, I was more worried that the font wouldn't be filled and we would have to sit around and wait while it filled. We didn't have to wait long though.

I thought her baptism service was very nice. I had actually forgotten until it was announced that I was saying the opening prayer, which is funny since I'm the one who gave the list of who was speaking and prayers and such. Emma asked her grandmothers to give the talks on baptism and on the Holy Ghost. I thought they both did good jobs. Emma, of course, wanted her dad to baptize and confirm her. Jimmy gave the closing prayer.

After the baptism we all headed over to Emma's favorite restaurant for lunch. We had such a large group with us that I wondered briefly as I was leaving if they were glad to see us go.

Russ and Emma in baptism clothes:
Our family after the baptism:

Happy Birthday Emma!

2009-11-23T14:20:00.003-07:00

It's hard to believe that Emma is 8 years old today! She's growing up too quickly. Looking out the window at the snow on the ground, I think it's appropriate in a way to have that snow. The night before she was born there was a snow storm. Of course, I still think it's funny that the day before she was born (which happened to be Thanksgiving that year), my brother-in-law, Mike, looked at me and said, "Tomorrow. 1:00." She was born the next day at 12:55.

Hope you have a great one this year, Emma!

Dylan's Latest Echo

2009-11-20T14:09:00.003-07:00

The past 6 months have flown by and today was time for Dylan's next echo. He had another sedated echo, which was quite obvious right away that sedated was the only way they would get an echo today. Anyone who has been around him knows that if you aren't in his immediate family and touch him, he's not happy at all. Even having the doctor listen to his heart with the stethoscope can be a challenge. Although I will add that if I'm not around, he tends to be a little happier with other people.

Late yesterday afternoon I had gotten a call from the hospital telling me that Dylan's cardiologist was quite sick and would be unable to be there tomorrow but recommended keeping the echo since they were pretty booked up and it would probably be into January before we could get him in for another. Since Russ had taken the day off of work for it anyway, we decided that would be best and scheduled an appointment to meet with the doctor on Tuesday. Just after they started with the echo, one of the nurses stuck her head in and said that his doctor would actually be in today and to make sure we didn't leave without talking to him.

They do an iv for the sedation so they can give the medicine to them easier and give them a little more if they need it. Dylan was very unhappy when we laid him on the exam table so they could start the iv. He wasn't happy with being touched. When the iv needle poked him, his cry didn't change at all from his crying that they were touching him. When they left the room, he stopped crying briefly. Then started up again because he didn't like the little foam board thing they had taped to his hand to help keep him from pulling out the iv. After the echo when he had become conscious enough to drink a bit of apple juice, he was very good and held very still for the nurse to take the tape off to remove the iv. Until she got the foam board off. That's all he really wanted off. He didn't want her to touch him after she had the board off.

It has actually been somewhat entertaining to watch how wobbly Dylan has been after his sedation. When we were in the room waiting for the doctor to come in he really wanted us to let him try to walk around. We knew he wasn't quite ready for that. Russ did let him try to crawl where he proceeded to crawl right into the wall then say, "Uh-oh," just before doing a rolling fall. After getting to my parent's house (thanks mom for letting the others sleep over and watching them for us during the echo!) he would try to walk a bit then fall down then try to stand up only to fall again. Didn't take long until he was a little more steady though.

Anyway, when Dr. M came in, he told us that everything looks good. His heart function is normal. His conduit, as always is a little leaky (he said about medium leak) and slightly narrow, but functioning well. We go back in another 6 months. In the past he hasn't given a time-frame of how long he thinks we can go before he needs to have his conduit replaced. Today he said he would like to try to get Dylan to at least 3 before replacing it. I had been almost expecting him to say that it would be time really soon for that surgery so it was really nice to hear 3. That's right in the middle of the average age that Dylan's surgeon had told us he typically sees for the time when they need the second surgery (he said between 2 and 4, some earlier, some later). Hopefully he'll be able to go even longer, but it's nice to think of going at least another year and a half.

Alyssa's Thankful List

2009-11-17T15:09:00.002-07:00

Today at preschool Lyssa made a "Thankful Tree." I'm sure you've seen one before. Picture of a tree where each leaf has written on it something that person is thankful for. A few things on her list made me laugh. So that you may enjoy it too, here's her list:

Dog that's dead Xena
Mac & cheese
Neighbors
Baby
Molly's toys
Dad
Cat Cid (Yeah, the cat died long before she was born.)
Mom
Jesus
Sweety Bell (one of her toys)
Store

Yes, I plan on keeping her paper for a long time.

Dentist Appointments

2009-11-11T15:51:00.003-07:00

Way back in September (which really wasn't all that long ago), I made dentist appointments for my kids for cleanings. Which got postponed because of a stomach bug. Then postponed again because of flu and strep. Then postponed again because I decided they had missed too much school with being sick and wanted a time where they could go without missing school. That turned out to be today. And I changed Jimmy's for Friday so he could go to a birthday party.

Molly was the most nervous, which is a big change from usual. She's my child who doesn't even flinch when she gets a shot. Emma wasn't nervous at all. Lys was bouncing because she was so excited about her turn. Dylan just liked their fun house mirror.

Admittedly, my kids don't brush as well as they should so I expected them to have cavities. Especially Molly. She's gone from my best brusher to one of my worst. I was right. Emma and Lys each have two teeth with cavities. One of Lyssa's I could easily see. Her front teeth didn't seem to have enamel on them when she was born because as soon as they started coming in, they started to break down and get cavities. So the reason her teeth look so good is because they're fake. She has a partial for her front teeth. The one I could see was next to the partial. Her other one is just a small one. Emma has two small ones, but they want to put in a spacer where her tooth was pulled and she hasn't wanted to let them take a mold at all. Molly has 4 cavities. The hardest one for them to fill will be one that is growing around a filling, so they'll have to take out the filling and start over with it.

Emma and Molly both panicked at the thought of getting work done on their teeth so they will have the sedations. They've scheduled Lyssa for a sedation appointment but will try to do it without sedation first since she seemed like she may actually be okay with it. I think Emma would be okay with it if she hadn't just had her tooth pulled. On the way to the dentist she mentioned that it hurt a little to get her tooth pulled. I also think Molly would be okay, but she was the hardest one today. She tried to run when it was her turn for the cleaning.

Shortly after getting home, I heard Molly tell Jimmy (who decided to come home from his party early) that the dentist was fun. They loved getting new toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss. But most especially loved getting a token for a small toy.

SEP (aka Parent Teacher) Conferences

2009-11-10T19:50:00.002-07:00

Today I had parent-teacher conferences for Jimmy, Emma and Molly. I scheduled them far enough apart this time that I could go home in between and not have to drag everyone along for them. Jimmy wasn't really happy about that. Says he likes having everyone go. Mostly he wanted to show off Dylan to his teacher.

They have changed how they do them a little bit. For the kids older than kindergarten, anyway. They have the student kind of lead the conferences and show their own reports and things. Makes it a little more entertaining.

Since Molly's conference was first, I'll start with her. She was the only one who didn't bring home a report card last week. Her teacher likes to go over them at the conferences, which I was aware of so I wasn't surprised when Jimmy and Emma brought theirs home and she didn't. They've changed the grading system this year so they get a 3 for at or above grade level, 2 for below, and 1 for far below. Molly got all 3's except for one 2 for not knowing a few letter sounds. I quizzed her on those sounds on the way home and she knew them. Said she just gets nervous when she's asked in class what the sounds are. Her teacher said she's very nice and a very good artist. Said she really likes her cousin who is in her class.

I got home with Molly and remembered that I hadn't filled out a couple of papers Emma's teacher wanted taken to her conference. Luckily I had a few minutes and filled them out quickly. Emma is also doing really well. She is doing math a little above where they should be at this point. Which is nice since math is her favorite subject. Her reading level is right where it should be. She just needs to work on starting her work when she's told. She hasn't had the problems of not finishing work like she did in kindergarten and 1st grade though. She is starting to talk a little more. Emma seemed excited to read to me a story she had written in class titled, "The Trouble with Big Brothers." I thought it was a cute little story. She even put the Plants Vs. Zombies computer game into her story. She hadn't had that graded yet or else she would have been able to bring it home. Her teacher gave me a copy of a skills test Emma took. Her scores on that were nearly 100%.

Jimmy's conference was last. We got there a little early so we could stop by the book fair. Then we went to his classroom where we waited for about 20 minutes for the people ahead of us to finish up. While we waited Jimmy pointed out which picture of parents hanging on the wall across from the classroom the one he had done. I wasn't sure what to expect from his since he had such a long list of missing assignments but it went really well. Of course, she found two of his missing assignments just before the conference. He is reading well into a 6th grade level. Two months ago he showed reading nearly 2 grade levels lower. So he's improved a lot there. He's typing faster than level and his math is slightly above level as well. I was given a copy of his IOWA test. Most of his scores fell in the high average range. Jimmy says his conference rocked.

All in all the conferences went well. Kind of nice to have them over with too. Now to get them to do their homework...

Dylan's 15 Month Check-up

2009-11-02T14:23:00.002-07:00

Just when I thought I had finally gotten caught up with posts, I remembered that I failed to mention taking Dylan today for his 15 month check-up.

Dylan is just above the average for height and a little below average for weight. His head size, on the other hand, is in the 90th percentile. He's growing and developing nicely.

He usually smiles at the doctor. Not today. He kind of frowned at him today and wasn't happy at all with being examined. The doctor said that his lungs sound really good, which was nice since he's had a cough and a runny nose and bronchitis has been going around. He did say that his heart makes so much noise that it's hard to say anything one way or another about it. He did seem happy to know that I take Dylan later this month for an echo to check his heart again. Dylan was just happy to be given a sucker after his exam. Wasn't happy at all about the two shots he got though. Which made me forget that I needed to schedule his 18 month appointment until I was almost out of the building.

Dylan walks everywhere now. I'm sure he'll start running soon. Seems to be starting to talk more, too. He can say go, yes, no, banana, dog, thank you (but more like "tak oo"), bottle, and things like that. I've made a monster out of him with books too. He is always wanting me to read to him. And knows if the book is upside down or not, which makes it funny to watch him with one book we have where a girl is standing on her head.

Now we just need to try to keep him from catching everything this winter by keeping him home from everything and making everyone wash hands often and we'll be good. :)

November Birthdays and such

2009-11-02T14:14:00.002-07:00

Happy birthday this month to Mike, Susan and Emma! Hope each of you has a good birthday this year!

And to make this not such a short post, I'm adding the "and such."

A little while ago, Russ bought the game Plants vs Zombies. Dylan loves watching people play the game. In this first picture, I managed to catch the look Dylan kept giving me as he was watching Russ finally beat the game (I beat it a while ago). There have been times that Dylan has tried to open up the laptop to watch it and stood there crying because he couldn't.
Here's Russ and Dylan playing the game.
For those who may be interested, you can download a free trial of the game here. But be warned. It can get addictive.

Halloween

2009-11-02T14:06:00.003-07:00

All of the kids were very excited for Halloween. I couldn't tell you how many times Lyssa asked me when they could go trick or treating. Jimmy went with a friend and so I didn't get a picture of him in his costume...he rushed out the door too fast and had wiped off the makeup before he came home. Emma also went with a friend but stayed in her costume so I could get a picture of her after she got back. I took Molly, Lyssa and Dylan around. Dylan seemed happy just to be on a walk.

Here are the pictures of the others in their costumes. Jimmy was a zombie. Wish I could have gotten a picture of him. Here's Dylan in his monkey costume:
Lyssa as Batgirl.
Molly was a fairy. Russ added the makeup around her eyes.
Emma was a candy corn witch.
Just for fun, I'm throwing in this picture of Dylan happily getting suckers out of his candy bucket.

Lyssa's Halloween Program

2009-11-02T13:55:00.002-07:00

I'm a little bit behind on posting about things. So I'm going to post a couple today and try to catch up. And with the camera working again, I can add a few pictures too.

Thursday Lyssa had her Halloween program at preschool where they sang a couple of songs for us and had snacks. All of the kids were very excited about it and did a good job with their program. Lys had been so excited about it that she had been asking for days if it was time for her to sing to me yet.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from it. this first one was taken of Lys just before the program started. She had taken off her mask earlier at preschool and hadn't grabbed it for the program yet.

Here they are getting ready to sing a song.
Lyssa and her preschool teacher.
I was going to add a video of one of the songs they sang, but it won't upload for me. Keeps having errors. So no video. Sorry.

Still Here...

2009-10-27T10:12:00.003-06:00

I realize it has been a while since I have posted anything. The reason for that being that there just isn't a whole lot to post about when everyone has been sick. Started out about the time I posted last with a stomach bug. Shortly after that one had finally cleared out, we had a double whammy of strep and the flu. Jimmy and Lyssa seemed to be the worst with it. Luckily Dylan never got bad. At least not yet. He has had a slight fever the past two days and has been a bit cranky. I'm hoping he's starting to get over whatever it is he has and that it's not something new and exciting to spread around the family again. Especially since everyone else is finally better.

Last week when I was starting to not feel well, the kids took advantage of that and snuck and got the camera that I keep up where they won't constantly try to play with it. After playing with it for a bit, Molly decided to throw it. Yep, it's broken now. Won't even turn on with the battery fully charged. Which means that this year I won't be able to take pictures of the kids in their costumes or their pumpkins after carving or things like that. I'm not really happy about it. I made little zombies for my sister for a cake that I would have posted pictures of had my camera been working. I did take pictures with my camera phone but since changing internet providers, we haven't been able to get the wireless modem working for the laptop to upload the phone pictures. Ah, well.

Before the camera got broken, I did take this video. Russ would get out his longboards and skateboard and Dylan would climb right on them and stand up and grin. He watched one of his sisters push the skateboard down the hall and copied them. This is a video of that. At one point Molly gets in the way, but she didn't realize I was taking a video. Updated: I was playing with my broken camera and managed to fix it! Yay me!

The Things You Learn

2009-10-05T13:30:00.002-06:00

I just found out that this week is National "Carry a Tune" week. I find that funny. Guess I have all the more reason to sing the little songs that are constantly stuck in my head and annoy the people around me. Of course this means that I won't have a single song stuck in my head all week. But at least I have an excuse to share a fortune cookie fortune I read once. "Sing badly if you must, but sing!"

My Kids And Scissors...

2009-10-05T10:53:00.002-06:00

I really don't know what it is with my kids and scissors. Jimmy used to cut Emma's hair all the time and cut Molly's once. Ranting and raving each time apparently didn't help until the last time. Then Emma had fun with scissors and cut hers, Molly's and Lyssa's hair. Finally has grown out. A little while ago I noticed that Molly cut off a piece of hair that was shorter by her face that had a cute curl to it. Guess it bugged her.

Then came Friday night. Lys came in for family prayer at bedtime holding a small pair of scissors in her hand. Attached to the scissors was a piece of hair. Which belonged to her. Essentially, she gave herself bangs. Badly. So I took her Saturday afternoon to see if it could possibly be fixed. There were parts that I knew ahead of time couldn't. This picture is the result of her haircut. She was very excited about it too. Grinned like this the entire time she sat in the barber's chair. Except for when I pulled my cellphone out to take her picture getting the cut. Unfortunately, I think she enjoyed getting her hair cut too much to learn not to cut her own hair again.
Russ keeps telling her she looks like a boy now. She ignores him.

October Birthdays

2009-10-04T13:23:00.002-06:00

I know I'm a little late, but that's okay. Haven't missed any one's birthday yet.

Anyway, happy birthday this month to Dom, Maddy, Livi, Bryce, Jenni and Kathryn! Hope you all have great birthdays!

And somewhat unrelated, apparently it's breast cancer awareness month. Which means a little more to me having had my sister recently have a masectomy due to breast cancer.

School's 5K/Walk-a-Thon

2009-09-26T10:09:00.002-06:00

The school had a 5K and Walk-a-thon this morning. We've known about it for a long time now. Kids didn't seem interested, which I didn't mind since the race started at 8 and registration at 7. Then a few days ago Jimmy started to say that he wanted to do it. I said nothing in hopes that he would forget. Yesterday he mentioned it a few times. I hoped that pretending not to hear would get him to change his mind. Then he started to mention it to Russ. Which gave me hope that Russ would take him and I could happily stay home. I'm not really a morning person and that sounded really early to me. So when Jimmy kept coming in this morning trying to get Russ up, I finally got up and took him over to the school for it. Jimmy wanted me to walk with him so we opted for the 5K rather than the walk-a-thon.

Let me just say now that I am out of shape. I have been taking Dylan on long walks about every night, but nothing that is really good exercise. I pictured writing a post about how I nearly died and how hard it was as I barely made it at an easy jog to the first turn of the run. But it wasn't as bad as I pictured after that. Mostly walked it, but when I could get Jimmy to, we would run for a bit. I ran the last little stretch while Jimmy slowly walked. Yes, Jimmy was the very last one to finish. He was tired and swears that he will never do that again. I would have actually liked to have run more than we did. And think I'm insane for starting to think that it would be good to get up early in the mornings before Russ leaves for work and go run about what I did today. And thinking that I'm insane for thinking it, I probably won't. I will probably just continue to take Dylan on his nightly walks.

And just so you know, chucks are not the best shoes to wear for a 5K. But I hadn't been able to find my running shoes. Which I regretted not long after starting.

Happy Birthday Russ

2009-09-19T20:59:00.002-06:00

Yep, today was Russ' birthday. I think he had a good day. Despite having to go to work today.

He wasn't expecting anything when he got home so he was happy when the kids greeted him with presents. I took them to the store while he was at work and before Molly was back from her birthday sleepover with her grandparents. There was a little bit of whining and even though I told the girls to go to the bathroom before we left they didn't so needed to go almost as soon as we got to the store. Which meant I took longer at the store than I planned. At least I got home before Molly did.

I had planned on going out with Russ tonight for his birthday until last Sunday when he told me there was an Elder's Quorum party tonight. We went to that instead. First time I've been to one where they served steak. It was fun. We got to know some new neighbors better and listened to BYU lose. Which, I must say, helped me feel better about the Utes losing today. Several at the party wished Russ a happy birthday. One of Jimmy's friend's birthday is today as well, so word spread faster that it was his birthday than it otherwise would have, I think.

Anyway, happy birthday Russ! I look forward to spending the next 35 years with you.

Dentist and Other Things

2009-09-15T17:41:00.002-06:00

Saturday night Emma started to complain that her tooth hurt. Started hurting her badly enough that Russ left our ward talent show to take her home. I knew as soon as she said her tooth hurt that I would need to take her to the dentist. When it still hurt Sunday, I really knew I would need to. So yesterday morning I called and scheduled an appointment for her for this afternoon.

I was a bit apprehensive about taking her to the dentist. She hasn't been good at the dentist and totally freaks out. This time she was perfect. I don't know if it's just because she's older or because I kept telling her that they were just going to look in her mouth and maybe take a couple of pictures of her tooth. Either way I was impressed. She even answered them when they talked to her.

After the dentist commented that the tooth she was complaining about was chipped and asked how long she's been swollen (just today is the answer to that), I remembered that she had chipped it when we were in St. George on vacation. I had told her then that I would need to take her to the dentist when we got back. And promptly forgot all about it. So I kind of feel bad that I didn't remember. Especially since her tooth has abscessed and she will have to take antibiotics and a week from today will have the tooth pulled. Poor kid.

But on a brighter note, the school psychologist called me about Emma today. Yes, having the school psychologist call you isn't usually a good thing, but this time it was. Toward the end of the school year last year, Emma's teacher asked for permission to have Emma be part of a group that would meet once a week with the school psychologist to talk about behaviors. She was having a tendency to pinch and with how shy she is, we figured it could help. It did seem to help. The school psychologist was calling to see if I would give permission for her to occasionally talk to Emma to go over some of the things they learned with the group last year. Would be like a 2 minute thing every few weeks. She then told me how much she likes Emma. Said she is cute and funny and smart. I mentioned how there are times I wonder about her and sometimes wonder if she has Asperger's Syndrome. She told me that at the start of the class she might have thought so, but the more she got to know Emma and after seeing how much Emma improved, she really thinks she's fine. Just very, very shy. Just nice to have her say that. She kept saying how much she likes Emma and said that Emma would be funny and make her laugh out loud sometimes.

Walking!

2009-09-13T21:07:00.006-06:00

Dylan has been a little stubborn about not wanting to walk. I guess he's just been too good at crawling to care about walking. But over the past couple of days, he's seemed to really be wanting to walk more. The following video was taken tonight. Shows how he's gone from taking one, maybe two steps before leaning over for a hand to grab to full out walking. Still a bit wobbly though. Russ calls it the "zombie walk."

At the very end of the video Dylan looks like he's kind of attacking the camera. He was. He wanted to watch the video I had just taken. Grabbed the camera and sat down on my lap to watch it. It really was funny.

Heart Walk

2009-09-12T13:02:00.003-06:00

This morning we participated in the 2nd annual Heart Walk for Intermountain Healing Hearts. We didn't go to the first one because Dylan had been home from the hospital less than a month and didn't really want to take him to a lot of places yet. I think it is a really nice event. It is the one fundraiser a year IHH holds. This year the number of people participating doubled the number from last year. I think that is great. It was nice to see a lot of extended families going together. Some made their own shirts so didn't wear the shirt we got with the registrations.

Since Dylan has a chg, he was given a heart sticker to wear on his shirt. After about the 5th time it came off, I went back and got him another sticker. They gave me two in case he kept pulling the next one off too. Of course, Molly was sad that she didn't get to wear the heart sticker.

Here is a picture I took of some of the crowd waiting for the start of the walk/run. Doesn't show nearly the number that was there.

This was a portion of the group ahead of us. There was at least as many behind us, if not more.
Here are a few pictures of the kids before the walk started. They played a lot on the playground before and after.

After the walk, they took a group picture then held an "Angel Ceremony" for the children who have passed on. Each child's name was read and then once all were read the families huddled together and each released a butterfly. It was sweet. They also had a couple of canopies where posters with pictures of each child was displayed.

I just wonder how much bigger the group will be next year.

First Day of Preschool

2009-09-10T13:47:00.005-06:00

Today was Alyssa's first day of preschool. She was so excited about going that I had to make her eat breakfast. She wanted to just go instead of eating.

Since it was the first day, her teacher had an activity of decorating a gingerbread man cookie where the parents could help if the child were scared and nervous. Lys was saying bye to me before she even got out of the car but once to the door seemed a bit nervous and shy so I thought I would stick around for a minute to make sure she was okay. After sitting down with her cookie and frosting, she looked up at me and with a smile said, "Can you go now?"

She loved preschool. She said she had a lot of fun and that she's going to have more fun than Molly had at her preschool. She's looking forward to going again.

It was really quiet in my house with just Dylan. He even took a short nap with everyone gone. Was kind of strange to have it be just the two of us, but I'm thinking it won't take too long to get used to.

Cones and Cars

2009-09-10T13:36:00.002-06:00

Yesterday the city held it's 6th annual "Cool Cones and Cars." It was started as a family tradition to celebrate the birthday of the ice cream cone (which is Sept. 21) that grew and grew until the city decided to take it over 6 years ago. Most years we forget completely about it. One year I took the kids when Russ was working late. This was our second time going and the first for Russ. Kind of a nice way to end the day. Here are a few pictures.

I told Russ to take a picture of Dylan with his messy ice cream face. Side shots don't show the messy face so well....
I took this one just because the license plate made me laugh. It's up there with the Honda Odyssey I saw with the license plate of "Iliad." If you can't tell from the picture, the car is a Dodge Viper and the license plate is "SSSSSSS."

Why I'm Allowing my Children to Listen...

2009-09-07T23:01:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow morning President Obama will speak to our nation's children. This single act has sparked controversy in many areas. Some school districts are refusing to show his speech. Others, like the one in which my children attend, sent home letters giving parents the option of having their children opt out of watching the speech. I have had neighbors ask me if I'm going to allow my children to watch his speech. I am. Don't get me wrong, I disagree with Obama on several issues. I am not one of his supporters.

I read the letter that education secretary Arne Duncan sent to principals of schools. I've read what some people have said about the speech. I've even read an advance copy of Obama's speech. But there are two main reasons I have chosen to allow my children to listen.

He's the President of the United States. He was elected by the majority of citizens of this country. We should respect the office that he holds. We don't have to agree with him or his policies. By allowing my children to listen to his speech, I can teach my children in at least a small way to respect that office. This was the reason I first decided to allow my children to listen. Some of their comments to me when we were talking about how Obama would be speaking to them made me realize that this is something they could learn.

One of the things that makes this country great is the freedom we have to hold our own opinions. More and more it seems as if people are forgetting that. They are forgetting that just because another person has a different view on something it doesn't make him a bad person. How can we teach our children that it is okay for someone to have a different view if we don't allow them to hear those other views? To me that is much like someone saying to their children that their neighbors aren't bad people just because they don't belong to the same church then turning around and not letting their children play with those same neighbors because they don't belong to the same church.

By allowing my children to listen to Obama's speech, I am provided an excellent opportunity to teach my children these things. I can discuss with them the things that stood out to them and ask them how they felt about it, which could help them know better that I do care about their opinions. Even if their opinions may be different than mine. I can watch Obama speak as well and tell my children the things I liked or didn't like and why.

Just as a side note, the only thing I read in that advance copy of his speech that stuck out to me as not needing to be in there were just a few sentences where he asks the children to wash their hands often and stay home when they are sick. Just didn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the speech and a bit unnecessary. I will be interested to see how closely he follows the advance copy.

Molly's Birthday and Party

2009-09-05T14:46:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was Molly's 6th birthday. Normally I would have posted on her birthday but when I realized I hadn't yet I figured I could just wait until after her party today. Makes it a little easier for me anyway.

She seemed to have a good birthday. She took treats to share with her kindergarten class. I let her pick out the treats and she picked some crackers and cheese packets. She loves those. I was surprised when she picked them out though. I thought she would pick something like Ring Pops. If I had thought of it, I would have taken a picture of her coming out of the school with her birthday hat on. But I didn't.

Here is a picture of Molly the day she was born with Emma, Russ and Jimmy. She had a lot of black hair.

Here's Molly when she was close to a year old with her cousins Maddy and Rebecca. Rebecca is a week older than Molly and Maddy is a month younger. I can see Dylan in Molly here.
We had Molly's party at the local Arctic Circle. I'm sure the workers were probably glad when we left because of the noise level during the party. The kids all seemed to have a good time playing. Molly, of course, was anxious to open her presents. She was ready to go home as soon as her presents were open. Didn't even care that we hadn't had cake yet. One nice thing about having it at Arctic Circle was how they bring you the little complimentary dipped ice cream cones. Almost didn't need the cake after having those.

Emma gave herself the job of watching Dylan on the play equipment. He thought he was big enough to play with all of the kids on it. Here she is holding him on one of the slides.
It didn't really feel as hot as it can get in the play room there, but as you can see here, it didn't stop Molly from getting quite flushed and a bit sweaty. Could be that she chose to wear her new long-sleeved shirt. Or I would think that if the other kids didn't seem to get juts as hot and sweaty playing. The rest of the pictures are just random pictures from the party.

September Birthdays

2009-09-01T10:31:00.002-06:00

Happy birthday this month to Molly, Breanna, Russ, Joshua and Autumn! Hope you all have a great one this year!

Sheesh. These birthday posts are short enough that I sometimes start to think that I should just stop doing it. Maybe I'll stop in January so I finish out the year. We'll see.

Molly's First Day and Family Trip to the Library

2009-08-31T22:45:00.002-06:00

Today was Molly's first day of kindergarten. She really liked it. She was excited as she stood in line with her class to go in. Very cheerfully waved bye to me as her class went in. But man, I got a good hug from her when she got out. She told me she liked it and said no when I asked her if she did work today. Guess she doesn't think of what they did as work. She said she played at recess and watched a video and things like that. I think she's excited to go back tomorrow.

After the classes went in, the PTA held a "Boo Hoo" breakfast for the parents of the kindergarteners in the library. Most of the parents in there said they should change the name to a "Yahoo" breakfast. I think it's a fun thing to do. They started it the year Emma started kindergarten.

After dinner tonight we finally took the kids over to get library cards. I got one a couple of years ago for Jimmy and me and about two months later the library switched to the county system and so the cards I got were no longer valid. It's taken me this long to get over and get new cards. We live close enough that we walked.

I didn't realize how excited the kids would be about getting library cards. I was helped at the desk to get the cards as Russ took the kids back to look at books. Russ told them they could each get two books. I didn't hear that or else I would have told Molly that as she carried around a stack of books. She's easy to please. She picked out books with cats on the cover. She ended up getting 5 books. Lys got 2, Jimmy got 3 and Emma got 1. Russ and I each got 2. I was very happy to discover a new book out by Terry Brooks. I hadn't realized he had a new one. The other one I got was one for the kids. I saw it and had to get it. It was Huge Harold by Bill Peet. I loved that book as a kid. (Although there was another Bill Peet book I liked better.) I loved it enough that apparently I hid it from myself and told convinced myself that I had returned it to the school library. Enough so that I even argued with her when she said I hadn't returned it. Felt kind of bad in the middle of the summer when I found it in my closet.

At one point Russ set Dylan down in the children's section. He was just as excited as the rest. He quickly crawled from shelf to shelf looking at all of the books. And pulling several out in the process. Makes it tricky to try to help find a book for someone when he is doing that. In case you were wondering.

After the kids checked out their books we walked across the street to a dessert place and got soft serve ice cream cones. They have a special on Monday nights where a soft serve cone is just a quarter. So when Molly took two steps with hers and the ice cream fell off the cone, it wasn't that bad. Made it easier, actually. We gave what was left of hers to Dylan and got her a new one. Dylan didn't make quite as big of a mess that way.

The problem when we got home was getting the kids to go to bed. They wanted to stay up and read their books. I'm thinking next time we go to the library, we go before dinner so we don't have that problem again.

Erin's Slumber Party a.k.a. Girl's Night Out

2009-08-30T11:19:00.003-06:00

A local radio station held its 8th annual "Erin's Slumber Party" last night. Michelle won some tickets to it and so she, Rebecca, Jo and I went to it. I started to wonder about how well I would like it when I saw the crowd. It didn't take too long for things to settle down and the crowd didn't quite seem so bad anymore. Granted, there was still quite a line at the chocolate fountain. I'm just surprised that they still had brownies and eclairs left at the Dick's Market booth by the time I found it. Let's just say that everyone had quite a sugar rush going from all of the sweets there.

We did stop and get our pictures taken at a photo booth. I would post them here but I don't actually have them. Jo does. Which is probably a good thing. They are very silly pictures.

They had some break out groups scheduled. We looked at the schedule and picked 3 that sounded like they could be interesting. Only managed to make it to 2. I'll get to explaining how me missed the last one later.

The first break out group we went to was one put on by Twilightmoms.com about an upcoming convention/party for the release of the New Moon movie. I admit it. I liked the Twilight books. I'm among a small group whose favorite of the series was the last. I had a hard time not snickering through the entire presentation. One did escape when they were showing part of a music video from a Twilight tribute band. It was nearly as cheesy as the Twilight movie was. I am a fan of Star Wars and Star Trek but snicker at the tribute bands for those as well, so don't think this is anything new for me. I just think tribute bands to movies or tv shows is downright silly. At one point I noticed one of the presenters taking a picture of the group listening. Okay, it looked like the camera was pointed right at me. Unfortunately, I had no where to hide. Sigh.

The next break out group immediately followed the first so we just kept our seats. It was called "Finding your Angels" or something like that. This one was along the lines of "Crossing Over" if you've ever seen that. A couple of my neighbors attended that one as well. After it ended, one said to me that when she said something about a dog showing up she expected her to say it was a really big one and then I would raise my hand that it could belong to me. But no, it was a small dog.

The reason we missed the last group we wanted to attend (which was the Wasatch Paranormal Society) was because we had decided to wait in line to get a "reading" by the group who did the Angel thing. The line was very slow moving. (Just so you know, I don't put a lot of stock in things like this. I know they are very general and can be made to fit about anyone. I did it purely for entertainment value.) When I was standing in line, the same neighbor from before stopped and said, "Oh, Cindy, the lady who read me had a message for you. She said there are three more children for you." I have to admit, that was pretty funny. But NO WAY is that happening. Anyway, I am still chuckling about my reading. The lady who did my reading kept commenting about things that she had never had happen before. Like she could smell a very male scent like someone's after shave. And read things out of a little book that she hadn't read before. The part I'm still chuckling about is that she basically told me I'm psychic. I chuckled to myself and thought, "So I wasn't teasing when I told people I have evil psychic twin powers?" I also laughed when we were on our way home and Russ sent me a text message asking how things were going and I wrote back that I learned that I was psychic and told Michelle that he would respond, "We already knew that." Which he did.

Okay, so that was really the main thing I wanted to share because I find it very funny. Telling Jo and Michelle separately that I was basically told I was psychic they both responded the same. "Oh, so next time I want a reading I can just go to you." And we all laughed....

First Day of School

2009-08-24T10:29:00.005-06:00

It's official. School is back in session. Jimmy was practically bouncing off the walls this morning. He claimed he was just excited to see friends again. Emma had her backpack on and was ready long before it was time for them to go.

I did laugh that Jimmy and Emma wanted to walk today even though I would be driving over for Molly's kindergarten orientation. I let them. Figured if they really wanted to walk, more power to them. Of course, I did have them wait for the annual first day of school picture.

Here's Jimmy's.
And Emma's.
And Molly's. I know Molly doesn't really start for another week, but since she did go today included her with the pictures.
I decided to take a couple of pictures at the kindergarten orientation.

Maddy and Molly. I think Molly is really going to like having her cousin in her class.

Last Day of Summer Vacation

2009-08-22T21:43:00.002-06:00

It's official. Summer is over. School starts up again on Monday. Jimmy will be starting the 5th grade, Emma will be in the 2nd grade, Molly will (not really for another week though) be starting kindergarten and Lys will be starting preschool. The main thing I remember about preschool is doing the Hokey Pokey. I remember a few things about when I was in kindergarten. Stacey was in my class. We had Mrs. Kemp. She gave everyone a birthday "spanking" when it was their birthday. Something that would never be allowed today. I remember really liking the 2nd grade. Stacey wasn't in my class. For some reason they didn't like to put twins in the same class past kindergarten. My teacher was Mrs. Turpin. I remember thinking when the space shuttle Challenger exploded that the teacher who was on it looked a lot like her. I pretty much remember the most about 5th grade. Stacey was back in my class that year. Who knew that a short note on the back of the registration cards asking that we be in the same class would work? Okay, my main memory of the 5th grade is putting on a play for the school. Santa in Ozland. I played the Wicked Witch. Mostly because I could cackle. Stacey played the good witch. I spun off the stage and Stacey would spin back on. A friend's mom thought we were the same person and was totally amazed. At least until that friend told her that we weren't the same person. My teacher was Mr....um...W-something. Funny that I remember most of the grades my kids are starting that year and for some reason am totally blanking on his name. I'm sure Stacey will let me know what it is.

I realize that I was rambling a bit there. Obviously since the title of this post doesn't technically mention school starting. Just got caught up with reminiscing a little. That and I've had fun the past few days in changing some of the words to the theme song for Phineas and Ferb to tease the kids about school starting again. Jimmy joined in with making up new words to it today. Mostly because we ended a mostly lazy summer with a very busy day.

This morning the kids went to a surprise birthday party for their cousin, Rebecca. There were kiddie swimming pools involved. They had a blast. It looked like a fun party for the kids there.

As much as they were looking forward to going to the party, they were looking more forward to what we had planned after the party. So much so that they weren't really happy that we made them wait a little while.

Remember back in June when I made the cake for the Summer Picnic for IHH and won a prize? Well, to refresh your memory, that prize was 4 passes to Cherry Hill. We decided to finally use them today. The kids didn't want to leave when we finally made them leave. They were having fun. Dylan had gotten cold enough that he was shivering and his lips were blue. Emma's lips were blue too, but she hadn't started shivering yet. No, that started later when Russ headed to the car with Dylan and Lys while Jimmy, Emma, Molly and I went on the rapids float ride thing. Jimmy really wanted them to try it. Not so sure Emma enjoyed it. Jimmy didn't really either. Jimmy and Emma held onto each other's tubes so they would stay together. Only right at the top of a tunnel part, Emma's flipped over, sending her off into the water. The current pushed Jimmy and Emma's tube down the tunnel so he couldn't stop to help her. Someone did help her get out. I had been holding onto Molly's tube and we were ahead of them, so I couldn't help, either. As soon as we knew Emma was fine and out, we tried to get through it as quickly as possible. Jimmy felt bad. He thought it was somehow his fault. I told him I saw several people flip in their tubes with no one around, so it happens. Emma didn't seem bothered by it. But I doubt she will go on it again for a while. Other than that, the kids really did have a great time. I did take the camera there. Then decided I didn't want to risk dropping it in the water and left it in the locker with the diaper bag. Which is why I have no pictures.

After we left, we decided to go out to eat at the Dylan's restaurant by us. I like that they have English chips there. Decided I should have gotten a large order when I made the mistake of letting the kids try one. I'll have to remember that for next time. It was a nice way to end the day.