Life or something like it...

Dominic's first official ride!

2010-10-03T11:33:00.000-06:00

Today Dominic went out front with his two big brothers and came in a few minutes later declaring that

HE CAN RIDE A TWO WHEELER!!

He's been trying and then giving up for a couple months now but TODAY... he was victorious!! Love this kiddo!! GO DOM!!

Tragedy.

2010-03-09T10:04:00.003-07:00

I am not sure where to put this down so I thought this might be a place. I have met few people out here that I feel like I connect well with, but one of the gals I've met that I adore has experienced the loss of her 6 week old. They are out of town and in a hotel and now.. they have lost their little guy to SIDS. I can't imagine how hard this would be. I am helpless at this point because they are in Seatle... I can't help with her kiddos, or offer a shoulder to cry on. All I can do is sit here.. and think about her.. and hope that she is being comforted.
I have serious issues with death. It doesn't discriminate and it makes me mad. Pick on someone who is a bad person and leave my amazing friends ALONE!!

Fun Weekend!

2010-03-08T09:27:00.002-07:00

This weekend the weather was GORGEOUS! I was so excited to take the family out for a bike ride on the trails in Fort Collins. We weren't exactly sure what the trails would be like.. but Fort Collins is famous for them so we headed into town and with directions from a friend, we found the trail. It was so much fun! We did a 9 mile bike ride that day. LOVE IT!

After the bike ride we came home and grilled some steaks. Before that the boys were playing in the front yard. I had to get the camera and take pics of Colton. He loves that skateboard!

HI!!!

2010-02-26T15:49:00.005-07:00

Okay.. I have really put this blog on the back burner but am realizing that it's SO important that I blog my family life. We moved to Colorado in December and I decided it's probably time to post a few pics! ;o) Here is just a little taste of the house. I'll take pics of the rest and post them throughout the week!

The first is the 1/2 bath downstairs! This is the SMALL dining space! Notice the kitchen bar.
Another view.. trying to piece it all together. You can see where the kitchen and dining area connect.
Kitchen... small but functional.
Front of the house. Notice where D's truck is.

This is D's truck. Our neighbor who lives across the street form us parks his STUPID TRUCK WITH TRAILER RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR DRIVEWAY!! As shown in the pic. One of these days I'm going to hit his stupid truck trying to back our beast out of the driveway. Our landlord is so OCD that I would probably be better off hitting dumb-a$$' truck then I would ruining the grass of our house trying to avoid the truck behind me!

More pics tomorrowish. Although the weekends are hard.

Life has been pretty good. The boys are adjusting to school.. although Damon has some pretty bad days. His teacher his not his biggest fan. Yeah... we are having a hard time with that. Damon and Jaydin are going to be starting soccer in April and I will probably be coaching their team. Darin is enjoying work (for the most part) and rarely complains about his 30 minute commute. Colton is starting to combine words and loves to eat bananas. He is such a sweet little guy, but is also a little mischievous. Must shut all the bathroom doors!! Dom is just a little ball of spunk. He is excited that he is going to be 5 or 6 or 8 in May. (Don't tell HIM but he will only be 4!) We are looking forward to a beautiful summer in Colorado. We anticipate many hikes/bike rides/ and trips to Estes Park! It is beautiful here!! Love you all!!

Family pics are here!!

2009-11-02T19:50:00.004-07:00

YAY!! My Family pics are here! So excited!! THANKS MELISSA. WE LOVE THEM!!

Halloween

2009-11-01T21:55:00.003-07:00

New Family Pics

2009-10-15T21:01:00.001-06:00

I will be posting new family pics soon! For now, you can get a sneak peak here! ;o)

Dom's First Day of Preschool!!

2009-09-08T09:20:00.002-06:00

Life is a highway! ;o)

2009-08-21T07:21:00.006-06:00

We have been having a fantastic time now that we are more settled in to the new place. We were able to head out to Colorado last weekend for a get away to visit some relatives! It was a ton of fun. The cousins adored time together! Here's a few pics for your viewing pleasure.

There are so many more... but I'm feeling kind of lazy today! ;o) We also have had some new milestones with Colton.. so for those of you who haven't already seen this one... here's a little video.

What's in a word.. entry numbero uno!

2009-08-05T16:11:00.001-06:00

Mom: Oh so am I a princess?
Dom: You don't like being a princess.
Mom: What do I like being?
Dom: You like being my mom!

LOVE IT!

Hooray for a healthy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T08:55:00.004-06:00

Last year Damon, Jaydin and Dominic spent the 4th up at the property with Nana and Papa. Darin and I were also camping... at Primary Childrens Hospital. Here are some pics from exactly a year ago.

Last year Colton was SO sick.... still in "critical condition" and we weren't sure how things we going to turn out. He had spent 4 days on a vent and would spend another 2 on it... and 2 more days in the hospital before we were able to take him home. This 10 day hospital stay was the scariest time of my life. We missed our boys but couldn't stand to leave our "Cole-Bug". We are so grateful for the beautiful boy he is now. He is strong and healthy and ADORED by all.
Colton LOVES playing in the back yard with his brothers. We keep saying we need to get him a swing, but he holds on to the swing SO WELL and loves to have his brothers push him!

Colton's first birthday. I really need to edit the red eye... but... not today!

We love our boys and are so grateful that Colton is here with us this year! We've also decided that since he missed the property last year, we are going to head up there and have a family campout tonight! This will be the first year I have been fit enough to really take some amazing hikes and see amazing things. Can't wait!!! Watch for pics!

A Hiking We Will Go!

2009-07-03T21:59:00.004-06:00

I woke up early this morning after a restless night! (Too much caffeine too late in the day!) Darin looked up at me briefly and I let him know I was going for a run. He half grunted and rolled back over. While running I was thinking about what we should do for the day. My dad and I had gone on a hike a couple days ago with Damon and my nephew Alex... so when I got home I announced to Darin that we would be going on the same hike as a family! Darin seemed pretty excited about it. I wasn't sure how Dominic would do, but I knew the other boys would do well. It ended up being a beautiful drive threw the A.F. canyon and a 3.6 mile hike with 4 boys in tow. Damon and Jaydin were total troopers and had no trouble making the trek. Colton also did a fantastic job of staying in the hiking backpack and saying "hi" to people as we passed by them on our quest to the waterfall. Dominic hiked in the whole way to the waterfall but umm... was not quite as easy to get OUT. Darin ended up carrying him on his shoulders for a good 2/3 of the way back. (It was "HOT" and uphill most of the way back!) It was a lot of fun and we can't wait to do some more hikes very soon. Darin has still yet to hike up to the "Y" so soon... very soon... he will know the pain... that is the Y! ;o)

Damon & Jaydin playing in the stream at the bottom of the falls.

Just after eating some PB&J

Standing in front of the falls. The waterfall is so powerful that you are literally standing in a perma-wet zone. LOVE the feel of the mist against my face!!

I wish I knew what this waterfall was called? I'm going to guess it's called Stewart's Cascade... that's what the sign says. ;o)

Father/Son Campout

2009-06-16T15:46:00.003-06:00

Darin took the 3 oldest boys on the father son campout. They all reported it was a good time. I asked Damon if dad was cranky and he said "only when he realized we didn't have any tent poles!" OY! I got totally blamed for that one. I was the last one to fold up the tent and while the poles were NEXT to the tent... they weren't in the bag. Luckily.. Darin is an amazing problem solver... this is what he came up with!

It was pretty funny to hear the bishop (AKA our landlord) tell the story. It was something like... "we were setting up our tents when we heard a bunch of swearing coming from the parking lot. We raced over to find that YOU had stolen Darin's tent poles!" He had several offers of tents from people who had brought extras (WTH?) but alas... he stuck to his amazing design and the boys didn't complain of being cold or anything!! I sent the camera up with them and they came back with these few pics. Here are a couple of my 3 oldest boys all together!! LOVE IT!!

2009-05-30T09:39:00.003-06:00

So yesterday was the last day of school. My dad had IM'd me earlier in the day and asked if wanted to go hike the "Y". I'd never done it and figured it wouldn't kill me. We were planning on going earlier but didn't end up going until around 11. So up the mountain we went with all 4 boys, my dad and his brother Mike. I had no idea what I was in for. My boys did fantastic. No fighting, no whining, no begging to die. They were seriously amazing. They enjoyed the little wildlife we saw along the way. Mostly lizards and butterflies and one rattlesnake. Dominic actually hiked up about 1/4 of the way and then enjoyed being carried up the rest of the way by his grandpa and Uncle Mike. (Mike carried him about 1/2 the way and I didn't get a picture!!!) Dominic also walked the whole way down. Anyway... here are some pics of our adventure. It was so much fun. Thanks uncle Mike and Dad for letting us crash your hike. Next time, I'm going when it's a little cooler outside and maybe after it's rained so the trail isn't so slick!

Uncle Mike and his rock. He hiked to the "Y" with some other missionairies when he was at the MTC and so, he takes a pic with this rock everytime he comes to town.

All 4 boys stopped by Mikes rock.

Sitting on the "Y"

View from the top.

Uncle Mike and Dom. They were so cute together!

We did it!!

I carried Cole up about 2/3 of the way in this. Dad carried him up the rest. Aren't they cute?

Dom with Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Boys!

2009-05-18T06:59:00.002-06:00

Saturday was the big SHABANG! It went off pretty easily although I was a little stressed and it did get down to the wire. We rented the pavilion up at the park and although I was told city soccer would be over before the party started, competition league tryouts were just beginning as our party arrived. We even had to have the registration people for the league move all their equipment so we could use the pavilion! It was a little crazy.. but the kids had a whole lot of fun playing in the water!! I'm SO glad that the big party is over with. One less thing to worry about this month!
It was so fun to have so much family there. I'm way disappointed that I forgot my camera!! My SIL took some pics so maybe I will try to get some from her. AHH!! I could kick myself.
Darin's oldest brother wasn't able to make it to the party Saturday. (Seriously they have 5 kids and 4 of them play soccer, lacrosse, etc... I can't even imagine how they manage to make it to all the events.. I am going nutso with 2 kids in activities.) They were really bummed that they couldn't make it and so they invited us up for a little party at their house last night. We had so much fun roasting hotdogs and brats over the fire pit and eating yummy salads. AND... they made this gorgeous gumball cake for the boys!

SO CUTE!!! They all devoured the cake and we had A LOT of fun hanging out with them. We realized as we were nearing their house that we had not been up there in WAY TOO LONG! When they first moved here we would go up there frequently and we always had a lot of fun. SOOO... we promise to make it up there more often. We also got to watch a video of them doing the "IFLY" in Ogden. It's this WAY COOL machine that makes you feel like you are skydiving! Can't wait to go on a double date with Mark and Dianne and do some flying!
Thanks to everyone who helped me survive this week. I even managed to run a 5k on Saturday morning at Thanksgiving point! We are SO grateful to have such amazing families and friends. THANKS! :o)

Happy Birthday Damon

2009-05-16T07:12:00.001-06:00

So today is Damon's 9th Birthday!!! We are having a big party this afternoon for all 3 of the older boys at the park up the street. I'll take lots of pics but for now.. for your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of Damon with his friend Bryson. They built this fantastic fort and his mom was nice enough to take a pic and send it to me. What do you think?

Mother's Day Card by Jaydin

2009-05-09T10:15:00.004-06:00

My cousin-in-law posted her card from her daughter so I thought this would be fun! It is a fill-in-the-blank card so the red words are what preceded the blank!

My Mom is Special

My Mom is special because she's nice and osum.
I like it when my Mom is happy and hving fun.
My Mom can do many things! I think she's best at hving fun and playing.
My Mom has a pretty smile! I like to make her smile by helping her and watching my bruthers.
My Mom is as pretty as a butterfly and flawers.
My Mom is smart! She even knows that she is the best of all.
Signed Jaydin Date 05/07/09

I'm so excited to have a child with my ability to flatter people! ;o)

Colton is Crawling!!

2009-05-07T07:29:00.003-06:00

I admit that Colton has taken his time to learn to crawl, pull himself up etc... he is no where near walking which I am SO okay with. I think that his trip to Primary Children's Hospital at just 4 weeks old changed me. And I hold him ALOT!! Thus... the reason why he is a little bit behind his brothers when it comes to milestones at certain ages! Oh well. He is super smart and already has a couple of very recognizable words and one sign. ;o) Here's a little video of our little guy crawling!

Why having an almost 3 year old who talks so well, isn't always the greatest thing!

2009-04-19T09:06:00.004-06:00

Remember when we were little and we made up all sorts of fantastic words for songs... like the place in france where the ..... or batmobile, broke it's wheel? Well... now there are new and even more outrageous words to those little innocent songs. My boys have this rendition of "Joy to the World", and they must sing it often enough that Dominic has learned it. Occasionally I will catch him singing it and this morning I decided to record it. Watch the video and I'll type the words to follow.....

Joy to the world, that Barney's dead. I BBQ-d his head. Don't worry 'bout the body, I flushed it down the potty. And round and round it goes.....

Yeah... really, our kids our singing this song at elementary schools across the nation... it's pretty catchy don't you think?

Happy Birthday Papa!

2009-04-09T20:12:00.004-06:00

Today is Darin's dad's birthday! He is 59 and as far as we know.. he is in the Philippines and hopefully enjoying a beautiful day now. I tried to e-mail this. .. hopefully one way or another he will get to see it!

Happy birthday DAD! We love you and already miss you so much. Hope you are enjoying your little tropical paradise and drinking something fruity with an umbrella in it! ;o)

Achieving a goal!

2009-04-04T13:12:00.002-06:00

The last 3 months have been SO exciting for our family. We've endured illness after illness, loss of hours which equals a huge pay cut, our oh-so-amazing Nana & Papa leaving for a year and a half, teething, potty training, the list goes on and on. Amidst all of this, I have been consistently dropping lbs. the good ol' fashioned way: eating less, moving more. It's fascinating that this concept ACTUALLY WORKS! I have lost 30 lbs since January 5th and I plan to continue on this path until I reach my goal.
One of my goals in this journey has been to run a 5k. I used to be quite the little runner and I really thought the possibility of actually doing it was MUCH farther out... a few more months away. I was talking to some girls who told me how they ran a 5k and it inspired me to make that goal a priority. I guess I thought it was unachievable until all the weight was off, but they let me know that I could TOTALLY do it!
Today I DID IT!! I ran 3.1 miles without stopping. I now have a starting point and a time to beat next time... and there will be MANY next times. My next goal is to run a 10k, but I don't anticipate doing that until the fall. For now I'll stick to the shorter distances. ;o)

Holy Geeze! Our house is full of germies!

2009-04-02T18:13:00.002-06:00

So.. lets see. 2 weeks ago, I had strep. I did my ten days of antibiotics. BLAH! Then on Saturday we took Jaydin to the instacare and they confirmed (with a swab) that he had the flu. YUCKY!! Yesterday Darin went to the Dr. where he learned he had pneumonia. Today, I took Colton in because he obviously didn't feel well, and he had this crazy weird, untreatable rash on his bottom region. The Dr. told me that babies can get "rectal strep" and sure enough, the rash and everything else is STREP! So he said I could bring in any other kids and have them swabbed. Damon seems to be feeling fine, and Jaydin was negative on Saturday but I did bring Dom in because he has had this horrible cough and a fever off and on and GUESS WHAT?!?!? STREP!! I decided to double check, could I get strep AGAIN!? (Because I've been feeling pretty crappy!) He told me it's possible and swabbed me and .... go figure... POSITIVE! So now 4 of the 6 of us are on antibiotics. I might end up taking Jaydin tomorrow to be swabbed again if his cough doesn't go away.
The moral of this story. Stay away from my house! We are a bunch of sickies! Guess I need to break out all the disinfectant stuff. SHEESH! I think we have had our fill of illnesses for the next 5 years, thank you very much!

Interview

2009-03-24T12:25:00.002-06:00

So, I've heard back about one of the 3 jobs I applied for. I have an interview on Thursday at UVRMC. It's a secretary position on the weekends... which would work VERY well with our schedules! :o)

Strep

2009-03-19T14:16:00.003-06:00

So... I hate being sick. Seriously.. it makes me SO MAD!! I also hate going to the Dr. and avoid it at all costs. So Tuesday night I started to feel some swelling, tenderness in the glands at the back of my throat. I was annoyed but hoped it was allergies with Utah deciding to change seasons every other day. I got in the shower to wash green streaks out of my hair.. (THANKS JESS) and then took each of my little guys and washed out their green faux hawks! When i got out of the shower this overwhelming chaos hit my head like a ton of bricks. I laid down and couldn't move. My head was throbbing... I KNEW I had a fever. I asked D for some Ibuprofen and took some. I seriously didn't even brush my hair after I got out of the shower. I just crawled in my bed and contemplated my nearing death. I KNEW I had strep. It always hits me like this. So DEBILITATING.

So Wednesday morning Damon comes in my room. I tell him I'm sick.. I can't... he gets Colton out of bed and plays with the boys until he has to go to school. I asked him to make sure the baby gate was up so Colton couldn't fall down the stairs. I'm laying in my bed, thinking about sending out an SOS via text message but not able to complete thoughts when the phone rings 4 times. Dominic comes in my room and tells me Justin is coming. (I asked Justin about the conversation, he says Dominic answered the phone and when Justin asked to talk to me, Dom told him I was sick and in my bed.) So a few minutes later in walk two of my brothers. They were stopping in to get golf clubs that D said they could borrow. Justin comes in my room and I tell him, I'm dieing. I can't get up. I need help. Charlie gets me some ibuprofen, while Justin goes around changing Colton, feeding him AND getting a hold of his wife, Jessica. He decides to stay with me and take care of the boys until she can get here.

So Jessica gets here, picks up my house, brings me some liquid to drink, reminds me to call the Dr. Offers to go get me anything I might need AND spends 3 hours or so at my house and then took my little guys to her house so I could go to the Dr. (she had to be home when HER OWN kids got home from school). At this point, I've taken Tylenol and Ibuprofen and I can at least MOVE. My fever is gone... and I set my alarm so I'll wake up for my appointment.

So after a few minutes and a rapid strep test, my doc tells me that.... I HAVE STREP!! Seriously, I love my Dr. but it is so annoying to pay money to have him tell me what I already know! So.. I'm taking Amoxicillin and tylenol and ibuprofen so I can continue to sort of function. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be feeling tons better. For now, we are out of baby food and Darin will have to go to the store this evening.

So... I want to pour out my gratitude for a minute. I don't know what I would have done yesterday if my brother's and Jessica hadn't been so willing to help me! THANK YOU!!!! I love having my family close for SO many reasons, but yesterday reminded me of just how blessed we are to have each other.

I LOVE YOU GUYS!! THANKS FOR RESCUING ME!!

Jobs

2009-03-16T10:46:00.002-06:00

So for now, it seems that Darin has work. He will only be working 32 hours a week though... but WOW we are grateful he has work.

Today I applied for a few jobs. Of course I am applying at the hospital because health care is just sort of WHO I AM. :o) We'll see if anything happens with this. I would love to do medical transcription for the hospital! I love data entry and would be very excited to be able to work from home. (And thanks to being addicteed to AOL as a 14 year old... I type 80+ words per minute!) There are also a couple of secretary type jobs I've applied for that have needs on the weekends... which would be perfect for us! I'll keep people posted. My guess is that in this economy, jobs like these will have lots of OVERQUALIFIED applicants. Hmm... I guess whatever will be will be! :o)

Helpless

2009-03-06T07:41:00.003-07:00

So the ONLY part about being a stay at home mom that is really hard is not contributing financially. Here we are in the midst of this recession that has mostly effected the trades in our state and our only source of income is IN THE TRADES!! This week Darin has only had enough work for about half of his normal 40 hour work week. Next week... we don't even know if he'll have work. Because we live off only his income, unemployment would not even come CLOSE to supporting us (and seriously, we don't need hand outs from the stupid government! There is enough people EXPECTING it in this country. We like being self-sufficient.) and THERE IS NO WORK TO BE FOUND!! It's not like he could go out and get a job with a different company which means... he could go work at wal-mart or something for less than half of what he makes. Honestly, with what jobs are available, we couldn't even make his income if BOTH OF US were working FULL TIME!!! But it might come to that. Working opposite shifts just to make ends meet. It seriously BREAKS MY HEART!!! We might just both end up working at the hospital, meanwhile I will be missing my children and my husband.

It's hard times and I know we need to just do what needs to be done to live. It's so frustrating that Darin has dedicated 4 years of school and 7 years of work to a career that is obsolete. So NOW WHAT? I just don't even want to think about what the future holds, but I also can't just not worry about it because it could be staring us in the face TOMORROW!! And then what?

Chocolate cookies! YUM!

2009-03-03T13:52:00.003-07:00

We were at my mom's yesterday and she had these 100 calorie packs of cookies. I figured it couldnt' kill him right? So maybe the shirt is doomed... but LOVE these pics!

Catch up!

2009-02-26T10:08:00.005-07:00

So I have a couple videos I wanted to post for your enjoyment. The first is Jaydin doing a back handspring. I recorded when they were using the down slope... but he does do it on the flat surface as well....

The next one is just Dom and his love for Mama Mia! Seriously cracks me up!!

And just one more...

Otherwise.. life is life. Some days are good. Some days I struggle. I've been disappointed with my weight loss this month but can't really sweat it too much since I've lost 19 lbs in 6 and a half weeks! Darin is still working. (This is a big deal in this economy where so many guys in the trades are out of work.) My kids are healthy (finally) and happy. All in all, I have no real complaints. Tomorrow is a whole nother day so who knows what it will bring!

Are you freakin' kidding me?

2009-02-24T07:38:00.003-07:00

Hmm... I think I should change the title of my BLOG to the title of this post! It's how I feel lately about pretty much everything. Don't get me wrong, I think I'm a pretty positive person but.... I do have a severe intolerance to stupidity, mediocrity and ignorance and unfortunately... the world is full of all of these things! So lately... I've been having a severe allergic reaction to alot of things around me which results in me proclaiming... "ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME? NO SERIOUSLY???"

Apparently, my dad (who is 54 years old) has been complaining of chest pain for over a week. My mom has been way busy and hasn't had time to really see how much he's hurting and my dad is frankly SICK OF THE EMERGENCY ROOM!! The first time he finally went to the hospital for chest pain he had a quin bypass, then 3 months later he has a HEART ATTACK and ends up with 3 stents. In the first instance he did not have an actual heart attack but in the second he did, which resulted in cardiac tissue damage. The heart attack was caused BY 3 of the bypasses FAILING so they went in and stented the ORIGINAL arteries. (MY translation??? HE DIDN'T NEED THE BYPASS!!! THEY SHOULD HAVE STENTED HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!) I mean SERIOUSLY, why go to EXTREME measures like... I don't know... open heart surgery... without at least attempting something much less invasive like angioplasty and stent placement? UGH!!! Okay so a little while later he had more chest pain which ended up with a diagnosis of reflux. After that he decided he is just suffering from paranoia so he doesn't want to go to the hospital.

He also COMPLETELY changed his eating habits. He eats almost NO saturated fat and exercises more than I do which is saying A LOT!! (I'm at the gym 6 days a week!)

So yesterday I'm at my mom's and my dad is talking like he thinks he is going to die soon. He's complaining of chest pain still and my mom, is asking him if he needs to go to the hospital. I'm like YES!!! Take him!!! So he takes a nitro pill and they take him to the hospital where the EKG and bloodwork come back normal. This time though, they are able to rule out reflux and his cardiologist is NOT comfortable with assuming everything is okay and insists on doing "more tests". HOORAY!!! GO DR. FRIESNICHT!! So he does ANOTHER angio and finds.... (drum roll....) a STENT HAS COLLAPSED!! Are you freakin' kidding me? What the H. E. double hockey sticks is up with that? So they re-stented his right coronary artery and now he is just hanging out in the hospital. Hopefully he will be home later today.

I finally googled stent info and found that stents are little mesh wire tube like things that are inserted via a small catheter that gains access into the heart from the femoral artery. (I already knew this but I didn't know what MATERIAL the stent was made of.) I can't for the life of me figure out how this tube could collapse. I can't find any information on the likelihood of that happening.

It's so hard to think that my dad's heart would fail him again EVEN when he is working so hard to be good to it. The likelihood of the bypass failing was VERY low and still 3 of the bypasses collapsed. I'm sure the likelihood of the stent collapsing was equally as small and STILL it happened. The likelihood of him dieing at a ripe old age from being old is VERY SMALL... but hey... my dad does everything else different from the norm... so here's to AT LEAST 30 more years of having my dad around. I LOVE MY DAD!!!

UPDATE: My dad just called and told me his Dr. said the collapse was caused by a build up of scar tissue around the stent.... go figure!

Loving sudafed

2009-02-18T12:22:00.004-07:00

So I love sudafed... the real stuff! I will wait in line at the pharmacy to get it because #1 the new substitute OTC stuff is NOT good for nursing mommies and #2 it works like magic. I have this horrible head cold. I HATE not feeling well but whats worse is that all of the boys have a cough.. even little Colton who was up for a good hour last night crying and hurting. I hate colds because they seem to last forever. I've been drinking emergen-c every morning before I go to the gym and yesterday I purchased some kleenex with VICKS! It's fantastic... the only thing I've smelled all day long! ;o)

Life is treating us well and every day I feel blessed that Darin still has work. This economy totally sucks and for the trades, the unemployment line is getting pretty long. His company is SO good to him and they are managing to keep him busy! LOVE THIS!!!

Damon and Jaydin are doing okay. The other day we were headed out to my in-laws and we walked out to the truck only to find the two of them full on ripping eachothers hair out and kicking eachother. The thought occured to me that my boys have NO FEAR of hurting eachother but I guarantee they would never pick a fight with someone else. Why is that?

I'm still workin' hard on my weight loss journey! Since the first day I weighed myself back in December, I've lost 21 lbs! YAY!!! The sad thing is that I still am fitting into my old clothes. Well, really I was SQUEEZING into them before and now they are comfortable. I can't wait to have no choice but to donate them to some other unsuspecting fat girl. I also realized last night that D and the boys TOTALLY see how hard I'm working. They actually BELIEVE that I am going to lose the weight! It's a huge victory for me. D has never really shown interest in my losing weight before... probably because he was afraid I wouldn't lose it and then feel like he loved me less or something. He has always been supportive of me whatever size I am but I am loving little things that he hasn't done in years... like smack my bum when he walks past. :o) He also said something to me yesterday about how I'm going to be "smokin' hot!" LOVE IT!!!

I'm def. enjoying the changes going on around me. I also love that as I'm changing, I still feel like ME! For now my goal is to be small enough to play at Kangaroo zoo with my kids on their birthday! They just put a weight limit on the stupid things and right now I surpass the limit by 27 lbs! I have till May and I KNOW that I can do it!

Hope everyone is enjoying life... even with all the miserable sicknesses that seem to be everywhere. I also wanted to make a shout out to AMBER! Congrats on the birth of a HEALTHY BEAUTIFUL BABY! Love you!

The Power of the Master

2009-02-14T13:48:00.002-07:00

So have you ever met someone with so much power that you couldn't help but want to be like them? Well, Dominic has concluded that the power that his cousin has is SO WORTH IT! Seriously... one of my nieces is a very powerful 3 year old. She knows just what to say and do to get what she wants and she is not afraid to scream, kick, or turn on the water works to get it. So lately Dominic has been talking/walking like her. He even does the thing she does where she crosses her arms, tucks her chin to her chest, looks up at you and DEMANDS you do as she asks NOW!!!! Well, so far his new charade isn't working but I need to get pictures of them both. It's phenomenal how perfectly he duplicates her behavior. I understand why he would try it. It seems to work REALLY well when my niece does it, but alas, he is finding that not only does it NOT work for him, but he is spending more time in his bedroom for it.

Wowzer! 2 year olds are brilliant aren't they?

Too much fun!

2009-02-13T13:55:00.005-07:00

Okay so the other day a "friend" called us up and told us that they have this scooter that doesn't start and if we want it we can HAVE it!! So of course we go to pick it up. Darin is great at tinkering with stuff so we figured why not try it and see if he can get it running. We brought it home on Tuesday night, kind of late so it wasn't until Wednesday that Darin had some time to see if he could get it moving. I had gone to the gym in the afternoon and when I got home... Darin had it running! Really, truly, it is so much fun! Here is a pic!

I took some video of me and Darin playing on it but blogger won't upload video right now so.. for now this is all you get!

Pay it Forward

2009-02-05T07:27:00.001-07:00

A few girls on my Biggest Loser group are doing this so lets try it!

Here’s how it works–the first 4 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise!

The catch is that you must participate as well–before you leave your comment here, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then come back, let me know you’re going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Remember that only the first 4 comments will recieve a gift from me, so be quick!

2009-02-02T13:21:00.004-07:00

So... a lot has been going on these last few days! Colton got his first tooth on Thursday! We are excited it decided to finally come through! Only what? 19 more to go! YIKES! (If you click on this pic you can actually see his little toother on the bottom! ;o) )

Friday Darin was off work and we had a lot of fun running errands without the 2 older boys. It's amazing how much they bicker when we are out in public! Saturday Jaydin had his belt test in Tae Kwon Do! He did awesome... here is just some of the oh so exciting video!

I have found that my knees are hurting frequently. I assumed it was from running but they didn't hurt worse when I was running versus the rest of the day. I was talking to my sis-in-law who mentioned I needed new running shoes. I googled it just to prove it to my hubby and low and behold the #1 indicator that you need new running shoes is pain in the joints ESPECIALLY knees! Ugh! So yesterday when we were out running last minute super bowl errands, I made Darin stop at big 5 and we picked up some NEW running shoes!

The box said $84.99 but they were on "sale" for $39.99! I also try to buy pink stuff when I can because it seems to weird my boys out just a little bit. So I am excited to try my new shoes. Unfortunately, I've had some kind of stomach bug and didn't go to the gym this morning. I figured I would spend more time running back and forth to the bathroom then I would on the treadmill. I hope to be "up and running" by the morning! ;o)

Every year my family has a super bowl party but this year it ended up being at our house! It was a lot of fun to see my sis-in-law who spent a great deal of her childhood in Pennsylvania, rooting for HER TEAM!!! It was also fun to be antagonistic and cheer for the Cardinals. I was actually complaining in the 3rd quarter that the game was way too boring. So glad the fourth quarter was full of excitement. I also had an accident while preparing the food. I went to grab a ceramic plate from the cupboard and it started falling. There were several children at my feet so I tried to grab it! Basically, the plate broke on my hands against the countertop. I sliced my finger up pretty good!

It was bleeding for a really long time and I was fighting people who insisted I would need stitches. When we got it stopped bleeding enough I talked D into putting some liquid bandaid on it! This pic is from a few minutes ago... approximately 20 hours after the injury took place. I think It's going to heal nicely! ;o)

I also have my BIG weigh in this Thursday for my weight loss competition. I'm excited to do measurements and see how many inches I've lost but super disappointed that I have not lost the 15 lbs I had hoped for. Maybe being sick will help... who knows. I'm just getting annoyed with all the gals in the group who blog about how often they cheat or how they never exercise who are managing to lose 6 to 10 lbs this month! I guess I need to not be hard on myself... but it's really starting to bug me. Maybe I should wake up earlier and get to the the gym by 4 so I can do an extra hour of cardio! UGH!!

9 years!

2009-01-28T07:08:00.002-07:00

Well.. today is our 9 year wedding anniversary! WoW! Honestly it has been a crazy nine years. We have been through 4 births, many, many jobs, 4 years of D in school and so much more.

LoVe YoU dArIn!

Colton's first Oreo

2009-01-23T07:13:00.005-07:00

Okay.. so Colton has just started eating crackers and he does so well with them. Yesterday we went to wal-mart to pick up some much needed items and one of the necessities on Darin's list is the Oreo Fudge Rings. (Which by the way I TOTALLY can't eat!) I've been in such a good mood lately and he was doing really good with the crackers. I couldn't help myself... I needed something to blog about and so... we gave him half of an oreo fudge ring! The result?

And because you can't take pictures of the baby and not the other boys eating Oreo's, here's a couple more!

Mind you that the boys (including Darin) were in fact posing for these pictures.

On a completely different note! I have been working out for 3 weeks now but this week I started something a little different. I could tell by the end of last week that working out "whenever I could squeeze it in" after Darin got home and in between the boys activities was a whole lot of stress on my family. I had toyed with the idea of going to the gym at 5 in the morning but decided that was ridiculous. Well, after a rough weekend, I realized that the resentment I was facing was totally justified. I started thinking more and more about going to the gym in the morning and realized that, not only would it not take away from family time, but it would give Darin and Me some MUCH NEEDED alone time in the morning. I've never been one to get up and see my husband off to work but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how messed up that was. Seriously... If I had to get up every morning by six while my hubby slept in, I think I would be bugged. SO.... this week I decided to try the early morning thing. I LOVE IT!! My workouts feel so invigorating in the early a.m. I have a lot of energy to really push myself. I get home from the gym and think that being intimate with my hubby sounds like an AWESOME and NECESSARY idea. I make him breakfast and we have time to sit and talk and laugh together. I've even told him I will start making his lunch but, he is anorexic and prefers to not eat lunch at work. I find myself smiling in the middle of the day just thinking about him and... I JUST FEEL AWESOME! So here's to becoming a better person, and building relationships up in the process.

Anxiety... UGH!

2009-01-19T09:02:00.002-07:00

Ever since Colton's "near death" experience in July I have had this fear that he was going to die. I've had the fear before, especially with the first where you wake up and check on them. I think the fear used to be more about, it's something new is it still going to be here in the morning and less about, PLEASE let him be breathing, PLEASE don't let him be hurting again.
We have decided it is time for him to sleep in his crib, in his own room. I actually wake up in a panic and run in to touch him and wait for him to move ALOT to prove to me that he is not dead. Sometimes I will poke him 10 times before I get an adequate amount of movement from him. I don't know how to let go of this anxiety. I cannot convince myself that he is fine. What if he's not? Losing him would be TRAGIC! This fear is only aimed at him. I totally feel like the other 3 boys will be fine. That no harm will come to them. Colton is different though. What to do with the pit in my stomach? How do I at least help the fear subside?

Raining...

2009-01-17T15:52:00.003-07:00

Today is not a good day.. tomorrow doesn't look so good either.

Happy Birthday Whitney!

2009-01-13T13:14:00.007-07:00

Yesterday was my niece Whitney's 10th birthday! I cannot believe it has been 10 years since she was born. She changed our entire family in so many wonderful ways and we are so proud of her now. She is beautiful, intelligent and very sweet! She is also not afraid to try new things.

HaPpY bIrThDaY wHiTnEy!!!!

We LoVe YoU!!

Wow!

2009-01-09T10:59:00.002-07:00

So a few exciting things have happened lately. First of all, Dom is officially potty trained and now has learned how to use "accidents" to manipulate mom! It's fascinating and I'm not sure how to deal with it. Basically, if he says he has to go potty and I don't jump up and run to the potty he will just go into the bathroom and poop/pee his pants! UGH!! He has been super mom clingy lately and the potty has been the perfect opportunity to take every second of my time he can.

Jaydin started Level 4 in gymnastics yesterday and I am KICKING MYSELF for not bringing my camera. Seriously... he did a back hand spring all by himself yesterday. He also did EVERTHING that they asked him to without any help. The coach was ecstatic and talking about level 5. Apparently the boys in the class he is in are all competition boys. Competitions start in like a month and these boys have been working like crazy for 5 or 6 months to get ready. She actually said that if he wants to compete he can.... I'm not sure where to go with that. He does want to compete... it's just more money and honestly, it might not be fair to the other boys who have been working so hard for so long. We'll see.

Damon has been becoming a kinder, sweeter, more respectful kid. He LOVES scouts and TaeKwonDo and really wants to do gymnastics as well... it's so much for them. Another undecided moment.

Colton is finally feeling like he will get teeth soon. I am not super excited for this because I nurse him and I don't want to get bit. He also is starting to army crawl towards objects. I will record it when I get the opportunity.

Darin is working. I feel like he's kind of drifting and maybe depressed. Don't know what to do for that.

I joined a weight loss competition. I'm so excited to finally be working towards a goal and while most would assume that goal would be a certain amount of lbs or something my goal is to FINISH WHAT I START! It's a 6 month competition and win or lose, I am determined to stick to this for 6 months. I do have a blog for this journey (it's required by the competition) but remember, it's a weight loss blog. There are some horrible before pics and things of the such there so... please don't visit it unless you are REALLY interested in watching my progression. www.thinformyboys.blogspot.com .

Hope everyone is doing fantastic! :o) Kari

Life in general

2009-01-05T11:08:00.005-07:00

So.. everything has been crazy but Christmas break was really not too bad. Damon and Jaydin were happy and for the most part kind to eachother. Dominic is pretty much officially potty trained although he did have an issue yesterday while playing in someone elses house. Hopefully we don't have any more of those.

Damon and Jaydin got snowboards for Christmas and we were able to go up to the elementary school and Darin showed them how to snowboard. We had a lot of fun playing in the snow with Justin and Jessica and their kids! Everyone LOVED tubing and sledding. I attempted to snowboard but lets just say it: I'M A CHICKEN! The worst part is that once I'm on my but I'm too fat to get up. Seriously I cannot physically stand while I'm strapped to the board so I sit on my butt flapping around like a beached whale or something! UGH!!!

Here are some pics from our snow fun!

We also had the opportunity to go to Colorado for New Years. We had a lot of fun relaxing with Darin's brother Les & Fam. Our kids had lots of fun playing with their kids and we spent a lot of time just relaxing, enjoying good company and great food! ;o) We went to Chuck-E-Cheese and a dairy farm while we were there but I never had my camera with me so... these pics are ones I got when we were just hanging around the house. It's obvious that my children and Les' children LOVE eachother!

I still need to post Christmas stuff but have felt like a slacker so I hope you will bare with me and my slacker ways! :o)

Dominic's fortune!

2008-12-19T08:13:00.002-07:00

Okay, so I promise to be over this potty training kick soon. Dom is doing "pretty good" but does not seem to understand how to control the urge when his rear sphincter says PUSH!! Needless to say, he is pooping his pants. He does pee on the potty almost always though. He also immediately says.. I'm poopy... GROSS! after he poops so at least isn't running around the house squishing it everywhere as he plays. In light of the current events in his life, I thought it was very appropriate when he cracked open HIS fortune cookie on Wednesday night. IT read:

Be patient - think, listen and heed signs for personal gain. :o)

Life is beautiful and I am so proud of my little guy for his quick progress!

And the fun continues.

2008-12-12T16:49:00.002-07:00

So potty training day 2 was not nearly as breezy as day one. Dom peed his pants more times than he didn't and by the end of the day... I was EXHAUSTED! I did however, heed the words of my mom-in-law who said that once you start potty training boys, you can't stop. I put the diapers away where he can't find them and persevered! I think the whole day was a tester to see if I was going to give in and even though it was a rough one... I WON!!

Day 3 has been wonderful with only one half accident where he proclaimed his need to go to the bathroom when he realized that he was going. The timer is awesome and, although he sometimes throws fits when the song goes off, he sits on the potty and pees EVERY TIME.

So here's to tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. Hopefully it can continue to go smoothly even with the boys and Darin home. Either way... I'm in it to win it! :o)

Potty time!

2008-12-10T14:37:00.003-07:00

So... we have been trying to figure out the potty training thing. You might think that I should be a pro at this by now... but to be honest, I've never REALLY potty trained any of my boys. Damon was older than 3 when he potty trained and it was really thanks to my mom-in-law watching him a few days in a row while I worked that he ended up potty trained. Jaydin was also past 3 and the daycare promised to get it done if I brought lots of pairs of underpants and pants with him. Well, Dominic shows LOTS of signs of being ready. He wakes up dry in the morning and the other day he told me he was poopy, proceeded to push.. then said "never mind, I just fart!" That's when I knew I just needed to buck up and get 'er done! So we started out with a "potty train"! I bought this train and some big boy underpants and just displayed them on the piano. Any time he asked we would talk about the potty train and how he could earn it from going potty on the pot. He showed some intrigue and so... I sort of "tried" the other day with underpants and he did OKAY! My mom-in-law swears by the timer. She used it with all 7 of her boys. I am horrible at the timer! Ugh!

So... I was talking to my mom and she told me I should go to kid-to-kid and get the "potty time watch." I was a little confused but my mom said it's a timer that they wear as a watch that goes off to remind them it's time to go potty. This sounded like a grand idea so I stopped in and picked one up. I have also heard people say to let the kid run around in just their underwear so you aren't fighting pants to get on the potty. I promise that normally Dominic is dressed! Running around without clothes is a very RARE occurrence in my world! :o)
Here is Dom displaying his potty watch. I actually decided to watch the timer and record it going off so everyone can see what it does. Basically, you can set it to go off every 30, 60 or 90 minutes. When time is up, a song plays and lights flash. It then resets itself and voila... it continues to go off at intervals as programmed!

So he sits on the toilet and doesn't fight me and goes PEE!! YAY!! Unfortunately we missed the poopy by a minute or two but maybe... he will figure out the joys of pooping on the potty! The only downer I've found so far with the watch is that the stupid face comes off way too easily. Dom doesn't like wearing it all the time but carries it around when he's not wearing it. I think I will take this one back and get a new one and hopefully we can get one where the face stays on! Otherwise... so far... I think it's worth the 10 bucks!

Bad mom award!

2008-12-06T13:15:00.003-07:00

So today I got my "bad mom award" from some lady who caught me in my evil ways. Damon was finishing up at Tae Kwon Do and I ran inside to ask the instructor something leaving Jaydin in the car with Colton and Dom. It was cold outside so the car was running. Jaydin decided to sit in the front seat to be near the heater and "the queen of the universe" saw him. I have never met this woman before but she exited the restaraunt next to the tae kwon do place and happened to be parked next to my car.

She looked at Jaydin (who had rolled down a window cause he could) and asked him where his mother was. He told her I was in Tae Kwon Do and in she walks with all her glory! (The kids have been in the car alone for approximately 3 minutes at this point!) The tae kwon do place is set up in such a way that parents can observe and talk quietly without interrupting the class but as the woman walks in she looks in at the instructor and very abruptly yells, "Excuse me, but who is driving the red car with the 2 babies and the small child in it that is RUNNING?!?!?" I very politely and incredibly embarrassed like, raise my little hand from my spot right next to the door. As I walk outside I very quietly say something like "my son is 8 years old" to which she begins yelling at me again! "I don't care how old he is, you have two babies in the car!!

AND YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ME?!?!?!?!?."

(She says this last sentence as she stands with her hand on your chest as if she wants me to punch her or something!) At the same time her husband is yelling something about how my son nearly drove away with my car and killed my babies. I look up at her and say very firmly and borderline sweetly. "No, I don't have a problem with you! Thank you so much!" And I get in the car with my boys as she and her husband drive off with their heroes badge!

So this is to you "Queen of the Universe"

THANK YOU!!!!

You rescued my children from sure destruction and put me in my place. I hope that the tale you tell of your triumph resonates to all you know and that I punched you are spit in your face. And that you think of how you should have called the cops on my white trash ass!

Honestly, you were right! I shouldn't have left the car running and I shouldn't trust Jaydin to not drive the car. I probably shouldn't have even run in (I never would have if Jaydin had not been in the car!). But I promise that very few people will learn lessons from a "Know-it-all" like you! Maybe taking a more polite approach will actually help people see the error of their ways. Luckily for you I will take my "BAD MOM AWARD" and wear it with pride. Because I, of all people, know how obnoxious it is when people are so busy being butt hurt that they can't see their own fault!!! I did have another lesson resonate while you were strutting your stuff: Being a bitch makes you really ugly! And if you are trying to embarrass others while being a HAG, people just see you for what you are, A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BITCH, and instead of being outraged by the outrageous situation, they are outraged by YOU!!

Dr. Karilynn Prescribes you Ativan or Whiskey, whichever you choose! Take one or two tabs (or shots) PRN any time you think you know everything or want to scream at total strangers instead of communicating like a rational human being. Either way, you know what happens when you assume? ;o)

Snowboard fun!

2008-12-01T20:58:00.004-07:00

So since my boys are pretty much guaranteed to grow up in Utah, we've been talking about snowboards a lot lately. Darin picked one up from his friend the other day and he has another one he bought from his cousin last year. We had some fun with the boys and the snowboard... here are a couple of pics of the boys on Darin's old (my) board. Can't wait for Christmas! This is the first time in a LONG time I'm actually hoping for snow! ;o)

Damon and Jaydin think they are SUPER FLY! And what blog of mine would be complete without a Dom video? Here is Dom and his daddy... "scapin'" in the living room!

Family pics!

2008-11-30T10:46:00.008-07:00

So I got my pics back yesterday and they are SO cute!! It's hard for me to choose favorites, but here goes!

All pics were taken by Nicholette Adams www.nicholettedawnphotography.com @ the American Fork, Utah Ampitheatre.

Panda Fu and laundry....

2008-11-19T17:51:00.003-07:00

So... today I spent a lot of time doing laundry and cleaning. I needed a good distraction for the boys... thank goodness for Red Box and Kung Fu Panda -aka- Panda Fu. Dom loved it and I got some stuff done... here is a little video of Dom talking about his Panda Fu.

Dom recorded another similar video... I was trying to get him to hold still but it didn't work... Panda Fu is just too mobile for him to not move and still show us what he does! :o) Of course Colton is just hanging out in the background. He's been rolling over lately but getting it on video is pretty tricky. If I ever get it I promise I'll share it. :o)

New Kids on the Block

2008-11-16T21:00:00.007-07:00

So... the girls got together and went to see NKOTB for Vicki's 30Th birthday! It was a lot of fun to go out together and it was also fun to hear stuff from the good ol' days! Seriously.. we are talking about an arena full of women ages 20-35. It was WILD!!! I thought I was going to lose my voice. Opening acts were Lady GAGA and Natasha Beddingfield. I did know ONE of Natasha Beddingfields songs but for the most part I was baffled! Anyway... here are some pics from our adventure.

Angela, Whitney, Cristina, Vicki, Karilynn, Jessica!

I know I look retarded but Ange looks cute! :o)
Cristina thinks she looks super fly in this pic! ;o)
Cristina trying to be a tease? ;o)
Jess... was not so big on pics... but I had to post some of her... does she looks super excited... or too pregnant to be too excited?
Little blurry but so cute!

NKOTB!!!
They came down to a different stage that was a lot closer.. unfortunately this was the last pic I got before my battery died! I was so bugged. I even had my camera bag in the car with extra batteries!!! UGH!!!!

And here is a little video for your entertainment... it was fun to watch them dance... nevermind the screaming in the background!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy ViCkI!!!!!!

In the words of the New Kids!!!
Happy birthday to you.
This is your day.
On this day for you,
we're gonna love you in every way.
This is your day, your day!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you.
You're still young.
Age is just a number,
don't you stop having fun!
This is your day, your day!
Happy birthday to you! :o)

Dad's precious grass!!

2008-10-21T21:19:00.003-06:00

So this is not the best pic but.... for those of you who know how my dad feels about his grass... I took a few pics like this! My dad is constantly complaining about his grass... he sometimes gets mad when people park on the grass on the side of his house, which may as well be concrete... but tonight, my dad came home to no parking and HE parked my moms car right on the front lawn. NEXT TIME WE HEAR YOU COMPLAINING I'M BUSTING OUT THESE PICS DAD!!! :o)

Happy Birthday Cristina!

2008-10-21T09:19:00.002-06:00

It's my lil' sis' 23rd birthday! I can't believe how quickly they grow up. ;) I remember when she was a tinie tiny baby and I would cary her around like a doll. Now I could probably still carry her around but.... it just wouldn't be the same!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy CrIsTiNa!!!

Hope this year RoCkS for you!

Mindy Lynn

2008-10-19T09:34:00.006-06:00

Yesterday morning one of my dearest friends called me and asked me to go to my computer because she was sending me something. This isn't like a super common thing but she called me the other day and told me she was going to start e-mailing me cause she gets bored at work. So I hop on the comp.. check my email and NOTHING!! WTH? She tells me she is sending it and VOILA mail from Mindy... All I see is a thumbnail of a little pic! I open it up and....

(Miller is her last name! ;o) ) So holy cow I think I started crying. Mindy is going to be 29 next month and has no children. She has been married for a little over a year to an amazing guy... Mr. Jack Miller. She has wanted children for years but for whatever reason... has never got those 2 pink lines on a single test. (She was married previously for 3 or 4 years.) Jack and Mindy have been talking about this moment for years as well.. they've been together for 3! She is super intelligent and a perfect candidate for my childbirth obsessive nature. She has been talking to me about birth for years and now, finally.... she is going to be a mommy! All day yesterday I would laugh out loud at random things and when Darin asked "what" I would just say... Mindy is going to be a mommy!!! or My baby is having a baby! :o) I am SOOO excited for her.

Anyway... she took the cute little pic above (err the one with the prego test) and printed it. Then put it in 3 frames. She is mailing one to her in-laws (who currently have no grandchildren and live in Pennsylvania) and brought the other 2 over to her parents wrapped complete with bows last night. Her parents have wanted grandchildren for so long... they've even taken on a little girl (who's dad used to date Mindy's sister) and have spoiled her rotten since she was 3 or 4 (we are talking a good 6 or 7 years at this point!). So she hands her parents these little gifts last night and tells them to open them. Her mom cries and laughs at the same time and her dad gets teary eyed but says basically nothing. (PERFECT!!) She talks to me about how unbelievable it is and how impossible it is to think about anything else. I agree since it's hard for me to think of anything else at this point too! SO CONGRATS TO MINDY LYNN & JACK and to NANCY & PAUL who are finally going to meet the little someone they've been waiting for all their lives!! LOVE YOU ALL!!

This is just a little addition Mindy and Me in High school with a couple of friends... can you believe my waste fit through a childs floaty tube?

First Snow!

2008-10-12T10:02:00.007-06:00

Jaydin had his Green Stripe test yesterday and my mom was kind enough to get some video for me. (Darin was working and it is impossible to take Dominic into that place. He jumps down and starts punching while yelling his "KIOPS!" Here are some tidbits from the big test! :o)

Jaydin is the 2nd from the left (smallest and best) if you can't tell! :o)

Breaking the board can be tricky if you aren't in the right position! :o)

2008-10-11T11:28:00.003-06:00

I feel bullied.

I don't know where to go with that.

I wonder if I'm doing more harm than good by allowing it.

I don't know how to change it.

I don't want to fight it!

I don't want to run from it.

Maybe I want it to run from me.

I'm tired.

I want a change!

I NEED A CHANGE!

I'm helpless.

I'm scared.

I'm SO tired.

I want to rejoice in every moment.

I fear the day.

I change but it stays the same.

I am not strong enough.

So I sit...

and wait....

for it to get better

or for the bomb to go off.

What happens when?....

2008-10-05T20:03:00.006-06:00

A 2 year old gets ahold of an ink pen and manages to break it undetected????

TADA!!!

This is Dominic standing next to our ink covered refrigerator door. It was obvious he was the culprit from the fingerprint analysis. And here is a video of him admitting his crime!!

Much to our dismay this was a tricky cleanup! Rubbing alcohol, grease cutter and finger nail polish remover combined, really did the trick! Dominic was dilligent in helping till the end and we skipped the community service for this one!

Community Service

2008-10-02T09:06:00.005-06:00

On Monday, while walking to the park with my boys and Mason (Darin's cousins boy) my next door neighbor stopped me and asked me if he could show me something... without getting me mad at him! I was like... "OF COURSE!" So he takes me around the side of his house where we share the fence with him and hiding behind his garbage can is an adorable little skull and crossbones written in SHARPIE on his side of the fence. Fantastic! I immediately recognize the art as one of my boys while he's trying to explain that he doesn't know if it was one of my boys or not. I politely inform him that I am 100% positive it was one of mine and ask him to PLEASE not clean it off... that the culprit needed to learn a lesson.

I totally understand that parenting with Love and Logic is an amazing tool when you have time to think up great punishments and I had approximately 3 hours to come up with something. The boys arrived one at a time and I first started on Damon with simple questions... "Do you have anything you want to tell me about Vance's fence? Behind his garbage can?" Damon is obviously oblivious so I wait for Jaydin to get home. With the same questions on the table he starts out denying it but within 10 seconds admits his crime. He was not happy to hear what his punishment would be.

First he had to go over and clean it off the fence. Because it is a vinyl fence it came off (for the most part) with rubbing alcohol and this weird cleaner we got from costco a couple years ago. After the evidence was gone he had to apologize to Vance. Vance was a good sport and while telling him that he wasn't mad at him, he talked about graffiti and how it is bad. And last came the "real life consequence". In the real world, you do community service for vandalism so.. with the help of Nana and Papa and the slobs of Lehi Utah who like to throw crap on the ground, he spent 2.5 hours picking up garbage alongside the road, next to the field at their house.

So... will he ever vandalize anything again? I pray that this was a grand opportunity to teach a valuable lesson at 7 instead of when he's 15 and the cops bring him home! ;o)

And FYI... Jaydin picked up a total of 4 garbage bags of garbage on his own. Nana, true to her kind nature, started helping about 1.5 hours into it... together they picked up another 3 bags!

Adams Family Circus!

2008-09-27T18:24:00.012-06:00

I decided to show you all what goes on in my house... these are my AMAZING boys doing their AMAZING tricks!

Damon is truly one of a kind... love the cart wheel and round-off! GO DAMON GO!!

He has been practicing walking on his hands for a while! Pretty impressive eh?

No one is surprised my 2 year old can do somersaults... he thinks he is just as big as his brothers. Seriously, he follows them around and does EVERYTHING they do! I also got him to say something.... which was the goal with the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious thing!

And of course... Colton's amazing trick is his conversational skills... although he does seem to be attempting a back flip don't ya think?!?!?

Sparkle Toes, Taekwondo and Colton speaks!

2008-09-16T19:36:00.009-06:00

So... this Saturday I splurged and got myself some sparkle toes... it's sort of a new thing in Utah. Basically they put gel on your toes, then pour glitter on them and then bake them under the U.V. light then repeat the process. It's supposed to last like 2 months... we shall see! Here's a fun pic!

So Damon tested for his BLUE BELT on Saturday... I can't believe he is half way to his black belt. He really enjoys Taekwondo and works his but off. He's pretty dang good at it! Here is a video of his test... this is his one of the forms he was tested on. I had to record it in the mirror in order to see him without recording a million kids sitting on the floor.

Here's a pic of him getting his blue belt!

Okay so Colton is getting into the mode where he talks and shares amazing stories with you. I have been trying to catch this phenomenon on tape and was recording him talking during taekwondo so ignore the Korean counting in the back ground. It was the first opportunity I've had so I jumped on it!

Getting Fit!

2008-09-08T07:59:00.002-06:00

I am excited to be participating in a fitness study at a local gym. It's a 21 day study where I get to meet with a PERSONAL TRAINER 3 times a week. (AND ALL OF THIS IS TOTALLY FREE WITH NO OBLIGATION TO SIGN UP!!!) Today was my first day which consisted of being weighed, calculating my BMI, taking my BP and resting heart rate and letting me know what the program entails. Basically I will be doing 30 minutes of resistance training and 3o minutes of Cardio 3 times a week! Then they take all the same measurements again at the end of the study. I'm totally excited about this because I had already planned to join this gym... I have got to exercise and the place is open 24 hours a day so I could seriously go after the kids are in bed! HOORAY!! I currently want to lose a total of 69 lbs. Wish me luck! ;o)

The truck

2008-09-04T15:21:00.002-06:00

So the truck is officially back to us.. only $2416.95 later! UGH!! We seriously had to get a loan to fix our truck and now we will put it back on the market with a rebuilt transmission and a lot of new parts inside. Hopefully we will get it sold so we can pay off the loan, pay all the hospital bills, buy a USED 7 seater something or other and hmmm... maybe pay for me to go to nail tech school.

I've decided that nail tech school is a great idea because it's only 300 hours and in my neighborhood I am pretty sure I could get lots of clients willing to come right into my home for their nail needs! I also think it would be a great service to be able to offer to my doula clients. Like a free pedicure and manicure when you get to 39 weeks. Just a perk of going longer than you hoped/anticipated! Jess is willing to help me with babysitting stuff and really... I could get it done in 3 months or less and be done! I'm just sick of having these times where we are dirt poor and all I can do is suggest my hubby get some side jobs. I would love to bring in a little extra cash of my own.

Hope all is well for everyone. :o)

BIRTHS!!

2008-09-03T15:45:00.003-06:00

So I just wanted to let everyone know that I have 3 births to attend next month and I am SO EXCITED!! One will be at the hospital with my favorite CNM. One will be in a birthing center and one will be a home birth! Seriously... I love birth! I so can't wait to be a part of these magical events. :o)

Update

2008-08-26T19:30:00.001-06:00

Mom is having surgery tomorrow to repair the break.
Truck is looking like it's going to cost around $2100 to fix.
Last time I checked, I don't fart quarters or poop nickels..... so no hope in even pulling the money out of my @$$.
Hooray for me!

In case I thought it couldn't get worse.....

2008-08-25T20:55:00.004-06:00

We had the privilege of going up to "The Property" this weekend with Darin's family. It was a whole lot of fun and everyone got along really well. Lots of good times until we went to leave and Darin's AMAZING truck decided that it will not go into drive.

I couldn't believe our luck and we were forced to leave it up at the property with plans to come back the next day with a trailer and truck to tow it. Sunday I asked my mom to take the two older boys and Darin, Matthew (D's Cousin) and I headed back to the property (2 hours away) with both babies and a trailer in tow. Getting the truck down the mountain is a story all in itself but in short it involves STRATEGICALLY getting the truck on the trailer (a 2 hour process) realizing that we couldn't possibly pull his truck out on the dirt road in the truck we had. Unloading the truck, the truck and the trailer and the truck that was pulling them rolling down the hill, Darin driving his truck out of the dirt road in REVERSE (about 5.3 miles) and finally abandoning the truck at a gas station to be retrieved on a day when we had the equipment to pull the truck on the trailer front-end first.

After an exhausting 10 hours we finally arrived home to find my mom at the bottom of the stairs with a BROKEN LEG!!! Yeah... she went down the stairs, in the dark, with no glasses AFTER taking all her night meds. I had called and asked her to open the garage for me and she missed a step or two on the way back down. We took her to the hospital where it was VERY OBVIOUS that she has spiral fractured the distal part of her fibula.... seriously... it's a bad break and she will find out tomorrow if she is going to need surgery. After looking at the x-ray... my diagnosis is DEFINITELY!! Seriously it's a horrible break and the bottom 2.5 inches of the bone is detached, jagged and displaced from the larger part of the bone. YAY!!! I SWEAR CAN WE BE FRICKIN' DONE WITH FRICKIN' HOSPITALS ALREADY?????

On a lighter note... today was Haley's first day of kindergarten and even though I'm not her mommy... I do babysit her and I am in charge of making sure her hair is adorable every day... so here's a couple of pics of HALEY SUE on her first day of kindergarten.

This is just a view from the top... I'm trying to be cute/creative but don't have everything I need to be exceptional!

And this is just a cute smile... she was very excited and said that school was lots of fun... but she doesn't remember her teachers name so don't ask... she gets annoyed with that question! ;o)

Slacker!

2008-08-18T12:52:00.003-06:00

So I have become quite a slacker recently when it comes to blogging. I really don't have much of an excuse. No one has been sick... dad hasn't been in the hospital. Boys have been fairly reasonable. Shawn got married.... that was an exciting event. Colton is smiling and laughing tons! I suppose I could blog some pics. Darin is...... Darin.

Today is the first day of school! Damon's teacher is Ms. Dietz. I would guess she is around 5'9". She has a reputation for being.... NICE! No really, she is the most requested 3rd grade teacher in the school. I just hope that nice doesn't translate into pushover. On first impressions, I would assume that she is NO pushover! Hip hip hooray... this could be the start of a beautiful year.

Jaydin's teacher, Miss Sorensen, is like 4'8"! Seriously... that might even be giving her a few extra inches! I don't know much about her as she didn't teach 2nd grade last year. In fact, she was a kindergarten teacher. The only thing I've heard about her was from a family friend who did an internship type thing at their school last year... she's says... SHE'S PHENOMENAL!!!! WOOT WOOT!!

We started Harry Potter last night. I figure that if I'm going to be reading to them every night, we should start with some fun chapter books. The first chapter of Harry Potter is 17 pages long and Damon couldn't get enough. I'm excited to read it to them... we could have a goal to read the whole series before the end of the school year or something. Wouldn't that be a blast?

I started watching Vicki's girls today. Haley starts kindergarten this year but for whatever reason, our school district always starts the kindergarteners a week later than the rest of the grades. Once kindergarten starts, I will be driving Haley to school every day. Vicki is trying to find the nearest bus stop so I don't have to drive her all the way to school, but we shall see how that all plays out! I am excited to do her hair everyday for school. She sits still because she desperately wants her hair to be pretty. (Seriously she would let me do her hair when she was 2!) Maybe I'll try to post pics of her hair on exceptional hair days.

If your bored.. now you understand why I'm trying not to pull my hair out!
Hope everyone is well!

:o)

School days

2008-08-02T20:54:00.003-06:00

So... although I was really thinking that I wanted to homeschool... I'm counting down the days till school starts. I'm praying that my boys get sensational teachers and that I can just supplement their learning. Damon and Jaydin just don't like being together all the time and the fighting is becoming unbearable!!! So school starts in 15 days and I'm SOOOO excited!!!

Yesterday I put up my new "Adams" wall. A couple of Darin's siblings have walls like this and I was excited to get SOMETHING on my walls. Here is a pic of how mine turned out... I think it's kinda cute! ;o)

Basically it's just pictures of all the families in the Adams side of our fam. I love how it turned out kind of heart shaped even though that was not my intention... it's just the way it turned out for symmetrical purposes.

Hmm... kids are freakin out.... hope everyone is having happy times!

Photo Session

2008-07-23T21:35:00.002-06:00

So I was trying to take pictures to make some sort of card for a couple of nurses that I really appreciated and a couple of AMAZING Docs. Of course... If I'm taking pics of Colton, I've got to take pics of my Dom and his oh-so-cute smile!! Love my sweet little guys. Still thinking about killing the older ones! >:o[ I swear they are evil!

Aren't they a cute duo? Dom insisted on holding Colton. Love the two of them together. They are both so mild mannered! How did the older two get so Evil?!?!!?

Colton just chillin'! Unlike his evil brothers!

Little crooked smile! So cute... not EVIL like Damon and Jaydin!!

Ugh!! Can you tell I'm super fed up with the two older kids? I would love to give them away... any takers?

Finally a break?

2008-07-16T16:24:00.002-06:00

So the stent placement seemed to be successful for my dad. For now... he is doing well. Colton has also made a complete recovery. Still don't know what started it all but I'm so grateful that for now... things are normal. I also found out officially that my boys have insurance... so Coltons hospital stay will be covered by CHIP. We will end up paying only a couple thousand which is amazing in comparison to how much it will all cost! (I'll def. keep you all updated on the grand total. For now I only have $10,000 in bills for LIFEFLIGHT and the American Fork Emergency Room, I've yet to see my Primary Children's Hospital bill!)

Lately I'm feeling slightly homicidal as Damon tries to push me over the edge. Not sure what to do with that kid but I need to figure it out before he becomes a teen ager! UGH!!

Life otherwise feels fairly normal.

Hope everyone is feeling normal as well!
LOVE ME!

Heart Attack

2008-07-11T22:23:00.001-06:00

No.... Really...

My dad had a heart attack today. 3 of the 5 bypasses they did during his open heart surgery collapsed. They want to try and bypass the bypasses and put stents in the original arteries they chose to bypass. If that doesn't work.. they open him up AGAIN and bypass the bypassed bypass.

UGH!!! When it rains it pours.

Home at last!

2008-07-10T15:58:00.002-06:00

We are home! WE came home last night with him and slept beautifully. It is so nice to have our baby home... loved Primary Children's Hospital... hope we never have to go back!

And so it goes!

2008-07-09T10:03:00.003-06:00

So graduation from PICU becomes graduation from stabilizing to finding out why this happened. The pediatricians in the Infant Unit have called in a pulmonologist and a hematologist. Pulmonology came yesterday and ordered a million labs and hematology should come today. Basically pulmonogy ran tests for things that are very rare... so far... no answers.

On the bright side!
Colton is back to nursing beautifully. He never had to use a bottle. They removed the feeding tube yesterday. He is currently on room air... NO OXYGEN!! Really truly... they want to try an antibiotic given orally and if he tolerates it, they will take out the I.V. . This will be the removal of his VERY LAST LINE!!! We can't wait. The Dr.'s said that if he continues to stay the way he is that he will go home later on today or tomorrow. It kind of depends on the when the hematologist comes but I'm guessing it will be tomorrow. I would love to get home with him before the boys get home from camping.

I just can't wait to get out of here. Don't get me wrong.. this is an amazing hospital with amazing staff... I just wouldn't wish a child sick enough to be here on anyone. This has been the most trying experience of my life. There were times when he was on the vent that I would look at him and wonder what on earth I would do if he didn't make it. How could anyone turn off life support? How could I live without my little guy? I am SO incredibly grateful that he has done so wonderful. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers... and thank God for competent nurses and Dr.'s.

I would post pics of how handsome he currently is but for whatever reason, my memory card is being retarded!!! As soon as I can post them I will!

Graduation

2008-07-07T15:39:00.001-06:00

Today we graduated to a new room on the pediatric floor! (GOODBYE ICU!) We are so excited! I'll post more after we find out what the care plan is!

no more tubes...!!!!!!!

2008-07-06T22:13:00.003-06:00

We spent the whole day hoping that Colton would be extubated. During a.m. rounds the attending mentioned the possibility of extubation today but wanted to get more fluid off of him first. I was okay with the plan as he had a couple of spontaneous trials to do and pass before extubation. Unfortunately the nurse and respiratory therapist we had today were far from proactive. The day passed and it looked as though he would not be extubated because the nurse didn't follow through with the things she was told to do and the respiratory therapist had an excuse every time he was called as to why he couldn't do it then!!! When we got back after report (8:00 p.m.) we walked in to a very frustrated little guy. The sedation was completely weaned earlier in the day and now the tube was really irritating him. He was coughing and gagging. The nurse went to find the resident and see if he wanted her to intibate or sedate. Something had to be done. The resident told her to intibate. I saw her at the med cart getting meds and I knew what he had decided to do. I couldn't help it and started to cry. I just didn't want to spend tomorrow waiting for some nurse to get her shit together so he could finally be extubated. I couldn't hide my frustration and the nurse (who has come to know me well) could see I was frustrated and I just told her that we spent the whole day wasting time, that he had done everything they wanted him to do, and that I was nervous that the next day would pass like today. The attending physician came over and the nurse told her what was up. She asked a few questions about labs and output and said, "let's do it!" He has been extubated for several hours now and has been doing AMAZING!! Here are some pics of me holding him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Grrr... I deleted the cute pic.. I'll post it tomorrow.. I'm really exhausted. Here is a pic Darin likes.... look at Colton, not my ugly mug... Could that be a smile?

I see you!!

2008-07-06T07:26:00.005-06:00

Here is a little video of Colton's little eyes! It's been a few days since we saw those little peepers so even if you can't see them... we are AMAZED!! When this bizarre thing first started he got so sick so fast! I was afraid I would never get my little guy back! It's fun to see him moving and showing signs of being a really STONED perfectly normal little guy. If all goes well (which it TOTALLY has been) he will be extubated today and I will be able to hold him! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! :)

When the nurse repositioned him, he decided to cross his legs at the ankles. We thought it was the cutest thing so she left him in that position. He slept like this for a while! :)

Just a few more little movements! :) We spent most of yesterday staring at him and delighting in this little toe and finger wiggled.

Pics from this A.M.

2008-07-05T09:57:00.008-06:00

So I took some pics this a.m. and wanted to share! He is truly looking much better and is coughing and moving around. I will try to get some video of it and put it on here later. For now, here are some pics. For those of you who have been up here to see him, I'm sure you will notice the dramatic improvement. For those who haven't... even though these pics may look a little scary, he looks AMAZING!!!

I really love this pic! Notice the tube mustache he is sporting these days! One goes into his small intestine to feed him (NJ) and one goes into his stomach to drain excess acids in order to avoid aspiration.

I took this pic because I love that the chest tube is IN HIS HAND!! It just looks like he's ready to yank it out. It will come out today or tomorrow. YAY!

Friday

2008-07-05T00:23:00.003-06:00

The rest of last night was not too shabby. I actually learned to like the nurse and she learned that Colton is a different kind of amazing. She stopped with the negative and we had a good time joking with each other. So... I didn't fire her.

I slept for about 3 hours last night and when I woke up I found that Colton had not changed much during the night. No progression, no digression and I prepped my self for a plateau. I know that I can't expect that he is going to keep getting better so quickly. What I didn't realize was that he had different plans. I swear to you he decided to take a break last night and start rockin and rollin as soon as the sun came up! He started controlling his BPS on his own and they started tube feedings today! (And they promise to only give him my breast milk!) They were able to wean the settings on the oscillator down and HIP HIP HOORAY he went from the oscillator to a conventional vent around 8:30 p.m.. His labs are stable and he is tolerating the vent beautifully. He also has made some small movement in his feet and occasionally coughs, gets hiccups or even takes breaths. The respiratory therapist said that at the rate he is going (provided he continues on the same rate) he may be extubated TOMORROW!!! I really hope that if not tomorrow than Sunday! Sunday is my birthday... what could be a better gift then to get him out of the ICU and on to the newborn med/surg floor?!?! Well... extubation would be AWESOME as well! Extubation means I can hold my baby!!!

This morning in the shower I was thinking of songs that were supposed to be happy... I was sort of singing "You are my sunshine" to myself when I sang the second verse and my heart hurt.
The other night dear, as i lay sleeping, I dreamt I held you in my arms. But when I woke dear, I was mistaken and I hung my head and cried.

I can't wait to hold my baby in my arms.

Thanks for all your love and even your prayers!

Thursday at PCH

2008-07-03T23:36:00.002-06:00

Today we had one of the nurses Colton had yesterday. The Dr.'s wrote very proactive orders. Unfortunately the nurses are really busy chatting and don't seem to get around to being as proactive as the Dr.'s have requested. Irritating? HECK YES!!! Colton should have a feeding tube by now! He might even be on a conventional ventilator. Instead he is staying the same... because no one has gotten around to doing anything about his AMAZING lab values!

His night shift nurse was really irritating when she first came on shift. She seemed to feel the need to repeatedly remind us just how sick he is. She also thinks that repeating over and over that he will be here "FOR WEEKS" is somehow beneficial to our psyche.. NOT SO MUCH!!! We do understand that he is sick but seriously... he can hear her! We don't want him to know! ;o)
Really.. we just want to rejoice in every little step. We are realistic about how long he will be here and we really don't need anyone to kill our buzz! The night nurse also seemed SCARED of him when she got here... describing him as "unstable" and refusing to even move him inches without the respiratory therapist holding her hand. She has turned out to be fairly nice but definitely OCD in an annoying sort of way. She also told me that "on night shift they try not to make any changes because they don't have the hands [number of staff] to fix things." She than proceeded to point out that it's a holiday and lots of traumas will be coming in and with the weekend coming ..... blah blah blah. I'm just thinking "seriously lady... did you just say that if we wanted proactive care we should have come NEXT WEEK?!?!?! " So she is definitely not my favorite person and unfortunately she will be back tomorrow. If she doesn't get proactive I'll fire her! (Well.. not on this shift but I will tell the charge nurse on days that we do not want her taking care of our baby!)

The moral of the story. Colton is still in "critical" condition. He has made amazing improvement in the last 24 hours. And contrary to Bad Vibes Betty's beliefs... he is getting better. Well nurse Betty... I'll take slowly but surely over NEVER anyday!

Colton

2008-07-03T07:53:00.004-06:00

I took this pic on Tuesday like 3 hours before everything went crazy......

So... Colton is at Primary Children's Hospital. Something happened on Tuesday although no one is sure of what that something is. I was at my mom's house and trying to clean up after my lunch mess. I put Colton down on my mom's bed so I could sweep and heard him fussing 20 minutes later. Dominic had just been in the room so I hurried into check on him and his face was turned sideways and buried into a blanket. I picked him up and saw that his lips were a little purple... I was nervous but he was crying and breathing and I just decided to watch him, assuming that he was going to perk up quickly. This was not the case. Over the course of about 20 minutes he went from crying and breathing funny to being completely asleep and limp. He continued to breath but it was very labored. Vicki stopped by as I was starting to panic and I called Darin who came right over to look at him. As soon as Darin got to my mom's he told me that something was definitely wrong and we needed to get him to a Dr. I called 911 because I didn't want to put him in the carseat and have something bad happen on the way to the ER. The ambulance came and did not seem overly concerned but thought we ought to transfer him just to make sure everything was okay.

When we arrived at the hospital they were waiting for us! (THIS IS DEFINITELY A BONUS TO COMING VIA AMBULANCE!) The Dr. assessed him and ordered a Chest x-ray. When the x-ray came back it was clear that some fluid was in his lungs. The Dr. assumed this was due to aspiration and told us that it was very serious and that the baby had to go to Primary Children's Hospital via helicopter. At the time he was still working hard to breath but he was successful and his oxygen Saturation was good. We thought the Dr. was being very extreme by insisting that he fly but since we are poor and have no insurance we figured it was just another bill we will never pay. Our biggest concern was when the Dr. suggested that they would intubate him! (This is when they stick a tube down their throat into the trachea, then they "breath" for him with a bag.) The assumption was that he would have to be on a ventilator.

So for everyone who knows me you know that I HATE HOSPITALS!! The number one reason we had Colton at home is because I hate how hospitals do whatever they want, whenever they want to your baby; without any explanation or even permission! The ER at American Fork Hospital proved to be my greatest fear in that regard. So when they said they were life flighting him and that the helicopter wouldn't arrive at AFH for 30 minutes, we decided that Darin would head over there so that he could be there when Colton arrived. The idea was that we would know what was going on with him and that they wouldn't be doing anything to him that we weren't aware of.

When the life flight arrived they decided that they should intubate before they took him up in the air, which turned out to be a 45 minute process. They had a really hard time intubating and it took 2 separate dramatic attempts to get the tube down. They also attempted to put a tube down his throat to empty excess gases from the bag but couldn't get it down there so went through his nose first. After another chest x-ray they determined the tube for intubation was too far in and pulled it out a cm. It was at this time that they noticed there was blood in his mouth.

The life flight story is a mystery to us as we were not permitted to fly with our little guy. Darin did arrive long before Colton but was not even notified when he got here. They took Colton through a back door and told Darin someone would let him know when he got there. What we do know about the flight is that right about the time they were landing they realized that a blood clot had clotted off the breathing tube. They opted to rush him into the PICU and re-intubate there. The first chest x-ray they took when he arrived was COMPLETELY different from the one at the other hospital. His entire lung cavity was FULL of blood. They told us that he was almost dead when he first got there although he NEVER stopped breathing. They gave him some blood (even though he didn't need it and they had no permission to do so). They also got him on a ventilator. When I got to the hospital I threw the shit at the fan! Darin had found out that Colton was indeed there because I insisted that HE HAD TO HAVE BEEN THERE BY NOW! They told him that he had been there for 20-30 minutes but that he was having a hard time and they didn't want the parents in the way. HELLO HE'S OUR BABY NOT YOURS!!!!! Anyway... I got to the hospital and threw a FIT!! It worked! The nurse and Dr. came out to talk to us within seconds and within 5 minutes we were in the room with our little guy.

They had started an IV in his head. This was his second IV, one was started in his hand at the ER. He was on the vent and they proceded to tell us just how sick he is. They decided that the bleeding in his lungs was possibly due to a hemorrhagic disease (problems clotting) although he shows no other sign of bleeding anywhere else. (As the days have passed they seem to be bagging this idea. ) Tuesday night was rough! The vent he was on was just not doing the trick. It was requiring a dangerous amount of pressure to keep up his oxygenation and his ventilation was critical. (Basically he wasn't getting rid of the carbon dioxide his body was making.) They found that he had a Pleural effusion (fluid/air in the space between the chest wall and the lungs) so they placed a chest tube. When they placed it, the shift in pressure in the lung caused a pneumothorax. They also decided to place a central line which was a game of "grind it till you find it!" They struggled to get the needle in the artery in order to place it but it finally got done. It also became necessary to switch him to an Oscillator for ventilation. The normal vent breaths for the patient. They put it on 20 or 40 and that's how many times a minute it forces the patient to breath. The oscillator is completely different. It forces "breathing" 540 times a minute (basically it vibrates his lungs!) keeping the lungs open all the time. In Colton's case it forces the blood to the side of the lungs and the lung absorbs the blood. So he has been on the oscillator and it has done some amazing things for him. We have found that it also means that he is sicker than we would like to admit. But either way it is working and he is improving. Everything lab wise and x-ray wise looks awesome. They've tested him for several diseases that have all come back negative. Now our goal is to let his lungs heal. Only time will tell how long it will be. For now he is still on the oscillator. Once he comes off the oscillator he will go back to a conventional ventilator before he is finally extubated. After extubation he will go to a med/surg floor. All of these things will generally happen in that order but there is no set amount of time that he has to be doing any given step. It's all up to how well he tolerates each step. Right now we are guessing he has a couple more weeks here.

So... the hardest stuff for me:

As long as he is on the oscillator they have to give him a paralytic (so he is paralyzed...) this means that he will not look any better than the lovely pic below until he is off the vent. Once he gets back to a conventional vent he has to AT LEAST be heavily sedated even if they are able to wean him off the paralytic. Basically he will look the same until he's extubated. We look to the labs and x-rays to feel like he is progressing since he still looks like crap!!!

Also.. we can't hold him until he is extubated. NOT FUN!! We just stand by his crib and stare at him, rub his feet, and talk to him. We haven't heard him cry since Tuesday.

Good things!!

The biggest concern long term from this diagnosis and treatment pattern is permanent loss of lung capacity. We are talking a very minor thing. Like oh darn I can't run that marathon cause I was on a vent when I was an infant.

They have done a CT of his head which was normal. They've also done an EEG to test for brain activity and it was normal. They do not worry about brain damage at all. He should be the same little boy when this is all over.

He had an echo of his heart and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!

His labs are awesome!

His chest x-ray went from absolutely horrifying to NORMAL in 22 hours!!

His ventilation labs are NORMAL!!

He is tolerating weaning of the Oscillator incredibly well.

So for all you wondering souls. This is what he looks like right this second and what he will look like until extubation.

It's kind of like a nightmare. One minute he's perfectly normal and 20 minutes later he is fighting for life. It comes on so suddenly but takes weeks to resolve. It's also hard to be this capable adult and be able to do NOTHING for him. He looks so helpless but he is fighting really hard and we couldn't ask for anything more than that!

Cutie pics

2008-06-24T15:54:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to post some more pics of baby and cute moments!

Happy big brother!!!

Dom and Colton hangin' out on mommy's bed!

Colton passed out in this skiwummpis position. I had to take a pic!

Not sure what he's lookin' at but it must be something strange!

One-eyed wonder.... aye aye captain!!!!

Tired

2008-06-23T10:37:00.002-06:00

So the boys have been getting better but of course... today is the exception to the rule. They spend the whole weekend getting yelled at by Darin and Monday rolls around and kicks my ass! I really wish he spent more time praising and less time telling them they are stupid. It makes days like today intolerable for me!

And while I'm being negative. Darin has been doing these "side jobs." It's great because he is making extra money but it is a real sacrifice for me because he isn't home and I end up spending all waking hours of the day home with all 4 boys. I am willing to do this because having money to pay your bills is a good thing but for whatever reason.... he doesn't get it! He thinks that since HE'S the one doing the work... he should get to waste the money on crap that we don't need. (Currently he has his eye on a dune buggy!) He thinks that I am a selfish slave driver because I don't think we should blow money and he has no concept that while he's working... I'm working too. I'm just so tired! He's always talking about how I spend all his money. I admit it.. I buy food and pay bills. Shame on me for spending HIS money.

I need a break, or a thank you or something. I need to feel appreciated at least once a month. It's so hard to do everything for everyone and never feel like anyone cares. Today... is not a good day.

Adventures in reality.

2008-06-14T21:33:00.002-06:00

So I have to admit that I am having a hard time adjusting to my life lately. I think the transition would be hard regardless of whether or not I have a baby because... having Damon and Jaydin home all day is proving to be borderline insanity. I am afraid that I will soon be in the nut house if they don't stop fighting! I was hoping that Colton would be born for a couple of weeks before school got out but instead he chose to come the Wednesday after school ended. This has posed a problem for me. I am exhausted and trying to survive the day with the two older ones fighting, yelling, running in circles around the house. I can't really take them anywhere because the baby is too little. I don't know what to do with them. My in-laws were out of town all last week and it was all I could do to survive. This week, I really really hope they will help with the older boys so I can take some time to enjoy the SILENCE that my two younger boys are actually capable of giving me!!!! Sometimes I wish I could ship them off and have them come back fixed. I've said it before and I'll say it again. My two older boys are broken. I know it's my fault... I just have no idea how to fix it!!!

Colton's firsts!

2008-06-09T22:32:00.003-06:00

Today Colton had a couple of firsts! First time in the bouncy seat and first "official" bath! It was so fun! Here's a few pics for you! I tried to cut all the pornography out of the bath pics! :o)

Was trying to get a pic that shows just how tiny he is but this doesn't really do the job. He is just so small.

He wasn't super thrilled about the bath but it was fun to get a few pics. I hate those stupid little baby baths so I refused to buy one this time around. The big tub did the job just fine!

See... not too bad!!

Colton the pirate. His brothers were playing pirates all day so it only fits that he would give us a little grunt face after the bath! Not sure what he thought of it but we are stoked that we don't have a swamp baby anymore. Let's just say... his umbilical chord stump was STINKY!!! Darin was thrilled when he discovered it had parted ways this A.M. Yesterday it was getting really rank and I called him "Swampy" a time or two! ;o)

A few pics...

2008-06-05T22:19:00.002-06:00

So I managed to birth a baby in the room right across the hall from Damon and Jaydin and NOT wake them up! :o) I was fairly quiet for the most part. About 3 hours after Colton was born Jaydin woke up "cause he heard voices" and came into the room to find that his little brother was here! He was pretty stoked. Damon was not so excited about it when we went in the room to let him know the baby was born.... I believe he is quoted saying something like "I don't care... I'm sleeping." Anyway... these pics are just of them holding little guy around 6:30 a.m.! Kind of cute!

Jaydin was so excited. He was acting shy and wouldn't talk to the midwives apprentice but he was just grinning from ear to ear!

Jaydin took this pic of Colton. It's not too shabby if you ask me. Notice he has the classic "my baby" nose! His hair is much lighter than the other boys and there is much less of it. He is really a sweet little guy.

Damon's photography skills at work here!

Tried to get a pic with his eyes open but what do you know??? He doesn't like the flash.

More to come soon I'm sure. Along with the beautiful birth story.

He's here!

2008-06-04T16:35:00.003-06:00

I promise to post pics etc... but for now...

Colton Stephen Adams was born into the hands of his daddy at 3:20 this morning after 3 hours of labor. He weighed 6 lbs exactly and measures 20 inches long.

My Grandma sent me a guess via e-mail that he would be born today so she gets a big WOOT WOOT!!! I'm also positive that Jess gets a WOOT WOOT for being closest to the weight even though I was stunned when he came out so little.

The birth was amazing but I am supposed to be lieing down so more on all of that another day.

Let's take bets!!!

2008-06-03T08:42:00.002-06:00

Okay, okay so I was thinking we should have some fun with this! I would love for everyone to guess a weight/length and even birthdate for this little guy. Keep a few fun facts in mind.

My biggest baby thus far has been Damon who was 6 lbs 8 ozs and 18.5" long at 38 weeks and 3 days. Also keep in mind that my midwife will get very aggressive about getting this baby out on the 11th of June so bets far beyond that date would be pretty cruel! ;o)

I am currently 40 weeks and 6 days!! PLEASE GUESS!!! IT'S A GOOD DISTRACTION FOR ME! Whoever gets the closest to the actual info will get a big WOOT WOOT on the blog after he's born!

It's summer!

2008-06-02T09:24:00.005-06:00

So my boys are out of school for the summer... and I'm still pregnant. I'm not sure what to do all day but I know that sitting at home is only going to make the day drag on and possibly make me miserable.

I wake up each morning a little more frustrated wondering when this baby is going to come out. My biggest irritation is this. I want the baby to come when he is ready... it's part of the birth that I want... but the longer he is in there the farther I feel I am from my "ideal" birth. If the baby stays in too far past his "guess date" the chances of him passing meconium increase. If there is meconium present in the amniotic fluid then my chances of having the baby in the water decrease. Of course, I want him to be healthy and I certainly wouldn't want him to take in a big breath of meconium at birth but avoiding suctioning is also another big deal to me. I think it's miraculous that at the hospital they rush to shove that damn suction bulb in every opening of the face while it is simply NOT NECESSARY!!! Baby's do not have to be suctioned... they don't have to scream bloody murder. They don't need someone rubbing them vigorously or smackin' them on the back. Nature allows absorption of excessive fluids and babies can come out calm and alert. It annoys me when a pink baby is being forced to cry even though her eyes are open and she is WIDE AWAKE!!!! (In fact... the last birth I attended as a doula, the hospital caused a MAJOR respiratory problem because they wouldn't leave an alert, pink, baby alone. THEY LITERALLY CAUSED A PNEUMOTHORAX (hole in the lung)!!)

I'm just afraid that I'm going to lose the calm, peaceful environment I've worked so hard to build and been yearning for since before conception. I do not want chaos at the birth but I am nervous that the longer he stays in there... the more chaotic the situation could potentially be. Every day that passes makes me more and more concerned that I am losing out on everything that I want.

So umm... I'm getting a little cranky. I feel bad for my boys... and I don't know what to do to help them have fun and keep my sanity.

PLEASE NOTE

2008-05-30T12:02:00.002-06:00

For all of you who think it's really important to point out the fact that May is almost over and that this kid MAY be holding out for June.... I appreciate that you are so aware of it but please... STOP REMINDING ME!!!!! My mothers ring is going to be ruined!

Thanks-

The Management

Kangaroo Zoo

2008-05-29T07:02:00.005-06:00

On Jaydin's birthday we went to Kangaroo Zoo. The kids had tons of fun and so did the adults. I wish I would have got more pics of the adults playing... especially Darin's parents with the kids but here are a few of the pics I did get.

Let's just say this place was MADE for ALEX!! Considering he jumps off the walls all the time. It would be very therapeutic for this kid to LIVE at Kangaroo zoo!

I tried to get pics of Jaydin having fun... he was having a hard time doing it though I think! I'm not sure he likes to share Zack with others.
We were lucky enough to have 2 (PAID) birthday parties going on while we were there so the Kangaroo happened to be walking by and was nice enough (thanks to my future sister-in-law and her inside connections) to pose for a few pictures.
Jaydin was far from willing to stand near the Kangaroo but Zack makes that Kangaroo look good.

Whitney and Damon were racing... I'm pretty sure Damon kicked her trash!
Darin cannot just slide down on his butt... that would be WAY too easy! Don't worry... he weighs less than half the kids her were playing there and no air-filled toys were injured during his crazy playing.
Oh my gosh... is Jaydin SMILING????
Kirsten was loving this snail... luckily Vicki did not KILL him when she tried to ride him in a similar fashion! ;o)

YEAH CUTE PIC OF THE NIGHT!!! WOOT WOOT!!!

Hope you enjoyed our adventure. I only wish I would have paid the $5 so I could play.. but I figured... I was pretty large and prego and maybe it wasn't a good idea. Dangit... in retrospect... I should have been all up on it!

P.S. YES!!! I'M STILL PREGNANT!! ;o)

Bwah HA HA!!!

2008-05-28T07:11:00.002-06:00

So as you may be noticing by my counter and my lovely baby ticker... the baby is officially "out of time". I love that the baby ticker has actually come to the conclusion that he "SHOULD" be here by now. Luckily... I know a little better. Baby gestating is NOT an exact science and actually... when women are left to have babies on their own... they rarely have the baby when DUE and even less have their babies on their due dates. So I remain pregnant! With or without ticker time. I have not lost hope and do truly believe that HE WILL be born and that I will NOT be the first woman to be pregnant forever. I still feel really great physically and mentally so I've just come to the conclusion that I will let him come when he is ready. I will probably go for a nice walk today but otherwise... I'm not gonna stress too much about it. :o) I do appreciate good baby vibes as I've requested in the past. Just think about me today and send me your sincere hope for a speedy/easy/beautiful birth!

In case you were wondering.....

2008-05-25T16:39:00.003-06:00

I'm StIlL PrEgNaNt! :o)

Tomorrow is the 26th... everyone do me a favor and send me good baby vibes.

If I can manage to have him tomorrow... my boys birthdays will ALL be 5 days apart!

Currently they are the 11th, 16th and 21st!!!

Epiphany!!

2008-05-22T11:53:00.002-06:00

So as the birth approaches (as apparently NO WOMAN HAS EVER STAYED PREGNANT FOREVER) I have come to a wonderful realization. Very soon.... I will be able to sleep on my back! I am a back sleeper by nature... like fall asleep on my back and never move until I wake up... so sleeping on my sides is hard on me and hard on my hips. Last night at about one I woke up to pee and my hips hurt and I thought "Wow!! This is almost done and soon I will sleep on my back and wake up LESS frequently in the night. I will have a beautiful little guy to hold and to share with my family and maybe... just maybe... I will have some patience come back to me in the next couple of weeks." YaY!! Every day I spend pregnant... every moment longer.. is one minute closer to meeting my little guy and learning how to be mom to one more boy!

I REALLY LOVE LIFE! NOTHING REMINDS YOU OF HOW BEAUTIFUL IT ALL IS MORE THAN YOUR FAMILY! :O)

Another day...

2008-05-19T21:13:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to let everyone who may be wondering know that I'm still pregnant! My ankles are EVEN BIGGER!!! The baby is active and seems to be growing well, and I promise that especially since I won't be at the hospital... I will have a blog up with pics pretty quickly once he gets here. I am getting more and more excited about meeting him and I'm feeling great! I have finally had some energy this last day or two so that's always a good thing. I have been feeling bad for Jaydin lately because his birthday is LAST... so I think it would be nice to have this baby fairly close to his birthday.. so they can be last together! :o) Jaydin turns 7 on Wednesday!!!! WOOT WOOT!!! Either way... I'm sure we have a couple of birthdays left to celebrate in the next week or so.

Preparing for birth at home....

2008-05-14T21:06:00.006-06:00

So I have a little edema these days!!!

Semi-Ankles in the morning.....

Cankles at night!! OUCH!!!

So now that I'm getting close to the end of my pregnancy, we decided to get the room ready for the "big event". I anticipate using the whole house for most of my labor but plan on birthing the baby in the spare bedroom downstairs, hopefully in my fancy inflatable birthing tub!! Darin is planning on "catching" the baby but will NOT be in the tub with me! (It's big enough but he is not interested.) Here is a pic of the AMAZING birthing tub!!!

We also have a nice queen sized bed in the bedroom. We lined it with some Vinyl shower curtains (bought at All-A-Dollar)! I hope to use the bed to just get some nice massages during labor! (My midwife is also a massage therapist ;o) ) It's also nice to have the bed in the case that something arises that would require me to get out of the tub for whatever reason... I.E. thick meconium present when my water breaks.

So here's kind of the whole set up. We have plastic under the tub as you can see and also candles in the window as I plan to have candles burning just to make the atmosphere as relaxing as possible. I am very excited about this birth. I know that some of you may think I'm completely insane but I promise to blog all about it once the little guy arrives.

Speaking of his arrival... Darin is getting VERY annoyed with my lack of desire to pop RIGHT THIS SECOND!!! He really wants me to be doing things to promote the birth... I'm not sure why he is in such a hurry to have a crying baby and a wife who squirts milk across the room... either way.. it's kind of cute that he is so anxious to meet his son.

Happy Birthday Dom!

2008-05-11T21:30:00.003-06:00

So hip hip hooray... Dominic is 2 today!!

I seriously can't believe how fast time flies. Really... I still have a slide show up on Myspace of his first birthday. He is such an amazing little guy and I feel lucky to be his mommy. He is so intelligent and independent. Loving and sweet. I couldn't ask for a more perfect child. (At least I think so! We'll see what happens when little brother arrives! ;o) )

So we started out the day at the zoo. Dominic really loved it! Unfortunately I left my SD card for my camera at home in the stinkin' computer so I was really bummed when all of the sudden I couldn't take any more pics. Here are some that I got.

All 3 of the boys were very well behaved at the zoo and they really seemed to enjoy themselves. We bought a family pass so we can go back a few times this year. It's always a nice pass time. Especially when you know you can go back. You end up only staying a couple hours and the kids don't get bored!

After the zoo we went back to my moms and had a fun little birthday party for him. Just cake, ice cream, presents and LOTS of family. Dominic LOVED it! He is at that adorable age where EVERYTHING excites him. He opens one present and wants to play only to be deterred by the fact that he has to open another present. He loved ripping open the paper and was so excited for each gift he got. He did get quite a few cars/trucks, a bike and helmet of course, and a couple of balls which he loves! He also got a Mr. Potato Head which is perfect cause... he loves to watch Toy Story. All and all it was an amazing day and he was thrilled to sing the happy birthday song and blow out the candles.

On the Mothers Day side of the world..... The boys gave me their gifts from school first thing this AM and they were adorable. Jaydin has this way cute teacher who did a "recipe" book from the kids. Basically she had them tell her their favorite recipes. My favorite in the book is the HOT POCKETS recipe. This girl actually explained how you take them out of the freezer, put them in the microwave for 2 minutes and then eat them. She ended the recipe by stating that she eats at least 1 or 2 everyday and LOVES them!! :o) Glad I'm not her mommy! ;o) Darin and the boys got me a new ring! It is beautiful.

Darin also had planned to sit me down in the pedicure chair at wal-mart while he shopped but they were closed for Mother's Day! LAME!!! It is def. the thought that counts though and I love that he would be willing to walk around wal-mart for an hour while I get my feet pampered. My mom gave each of us girls flowers with cute cards... so nice of her to think of us. It's hard for me to think about everyone when there is so much going on... especially with birthdays and all that jazz. Vicki (of course) got each of us a present. (She swears she is one of those people who would rather give than receive.) She really outdid herself by giving us each these Mini LCD keychains that hold up to 60 digital photos. Seriously... they rock and I can't wait to play with mine more tomorrow! I have to wait for it to charge tonight.

Really truly it was an amazing day. We ended it up at Grandma Houtz's where we visited with family... good times all around! Hope everyone had a wonderful day. To all of you amazing mom's out there HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!! And to my very special little guy... HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY BABY!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!! :o)

Make way for baby!!!

2008-05-10T08:51:00.005-06:00

So here I am at 37 and a half weeks prego. I realized from Cortneys comment that I have no pics of me prego on my blog. Now you can all see why! At this point in my past pregnancies.... Damon and Dominic were born 7 days from today and Jaydin was born 4 days from today! (By gestational age.) With this little guy I would really like him to stay in for AT LEAST 11 more days... preferably 16! :o) I am totally ready for him... I would just like to get through all the birthdays and be able to get my dad to Cardiac Rehab everyday. Vicki will be able to take over driving after the 23rd so... if we can make it that far my dad will not have to have any gaps in his rehab!!!!

This pregnancy has been a roller coaster ride to me thanks to my "just kidding you didn't miscarry after all" experience and the provider that I originally chose. My dad's surgery has been an added bonus to the whole scenario but actually the least stressful of the hurtles I've been jumping. Because this has all been so crazy... I wanted to take a minute and reflect on HOW WELL PLANNED OUT THIS PREGNANCY REALLY WAS... AND HOW EXCITED WE ARE THAT COLTON WILL BE JOINING OUR FAMILY VERY SOON!!!

Let's start with "the compromise." Darin had 2 stipulations to having another baby... one was that he get his truck!

The second was that he pass his Residential Journeyman test.

So I did tons of research as the date of accomplishment towards the compromise rolled around and discovered home birth. I really felt a strong desire to have my next baby at home because... I HATE THE HOSPITAL! I hate the way they take the baby away and act like they own it. I hate the smell. I hate the stupid uncomfortable bed. I hate the providers who act put out when you ask for something. I hate the anxiety of oh.. is this it? Am I going to get to the hospital in time? And I hate the interventions they throw out like candy when you don't labor in a way that is expedient for them!!! I called several different people whom I knew had first hand experience with birthing at home including a few home birth midwives and after looking at the actual statistics, I realized that having my baby at home was not just safe but safer for me than the hospital. It also was the only way to know that my birth choices will REALLY be validated. I am lucky enough to have Darin... who totally hates the hospital as well, knows that I know how to have babies, and isn't afraid of a little blood! So with home birth in mind I waited patiently for Darin to take his test!

Once both stipulations were accomplished it was a matter of DAYS before I took out my IUD! (That's right I took it out... my Dr. told me to and it was really easy. ) I desperately wanted to have another May baby as I figure at this point my mothers ring would be horribly ugly with 3 Emeralds and a Topaz or something! This is the first baby I will have INTENTIONALLY in May and I'm very excited. I also really wanted to have a 2 year gap between Dom and the next. I feel like the one year gap was WAY too small but a 3 year gap would be too big. The day I had my first/last period after I took the IUD out I already had my due date calculated and would say things like... "If I get pregnant this month I will be due May 28th!" I was very excited when I had a positive pregnancy test mid-September.

So even though the rest of this pregnancy has been trickier than intended. I couldn't be more thrilled that I will be giving birth to our little guy in the next couple of weeks! The boys are so excited to have a baby brother and well... as hard as it is to imagine nursing and not sleeping all over again... we are taking it in stride with a lot of humor and anticipating the day we will finally meet Colton Stephen Adams!!!

Pics from Dad's hospital stay.

2008-05-06T21:50:00.005-06:00

Here are some pics we took before the surgery. Just wanted to get pics of the kids with dad and we made him a nice collage from them.

Dad with My boys!!

Dad with Alex, Odessa and Josiah.

Dad with Nikki and CJ

Dad with Whitney, Zack, Haley and Kirsten

Dad with Chantelle

The six of us while dad was in surgery all there to support eachother.

My favorite pic! Love us just being goofy!

Baby room!!

2008-05-05T16:36:00.004-06:00

Okay... so I'm finally posting pics of the baby room! I thought I would first re-post a "before" picture. Obviously anything would be an improvement!!!

So... we spent a ton of time painting these lovely wood figures on the wall and they match the baby bedding. I just took pictures in a panoramic style so you should be able to connect from one pic to the next and figure out the basic of what the room looks like.

I guess this post is mostly pics.... so what do ya think? ;o)

And life rolls on.

2008-05-01T06:43:00.002-06:00

So... my dad is doing well. He is bored out of his mind and has only been taking tylenol for pain since before he came home. He is doing Cardiac Rehab at UVRMC and seems to be enjoying it! The first day he joked that it was like "going into the senior center, except they weren't playing bingo, they were exercising!" ;o) He really does seem to be the youngest by AT LEAST 20 years in that joint... but he is enjoying it.

Pregnancy is also rolling on. I'm 36 weeks now! This is the first time I have REALLY intently wanted to stay pregnant into my 39th week and beyond! (My other boys were born by 38 and 3.) I am feeling good physically... although I can tell that I occasionally overdue it. Bending over to clean is enough to start contractions so I've decided my house can be a little messy at least until next week. At 37 weeks all systems are go. At 36... I would have to go the hospital if I were in labor and that is NOT something I am interested in. Either way... my goal is to make it to Memorial day on May 26th. For the few of you who don't know... the 26th would keep my boys birthdays 5 days apart! Dominic will be 2 on the 11th! Then Damon will be 8 on the 16th! Followed by Jaydin turning 7 on the 21st. So many birthdays... so little time. (Not to mention that both of our moms have birthdays on the 13th and 14th!)

I also am my dads chaffeur for now for cardiac rehab as he is not able to drive for 5 more weeks. This is another reason why staying pregnant longer is better. Once little guy is born, getting dad to Provo everyday will be a little more of a challenge. If I can hold out past the 23rd... Vicki can drive him! :o)

I really did get the baby room clean the day I originally posted the disaster... but everything has been so chaotic that we haven't had time to get the final things on the walls. As soon as they are up I will take some pics!

Hope everyone is doing well!
:o) ME

HE'S HOME!!!!!

2008-04-27T19:28:00.000-06:00

WOO HOO!! Dad is home! SO exciting! :o)

Are the walls getting closer?

2008-04-27T08:50:00.002-06:00

Lately... I feel over emotional and like the walls are closing in on me somehow. Hmm... I wonder if Cindy still has those Valium!! ;o)

Dumb nurse...

2008-04-27T07:49:00.002-06:00

My dad has had the same nurse 4 days in a row and she is a total cack! Yesterday I didn't even go up to the hospital because I didn't want to see her ugly mug! I thought that for sure he would have someone else today but I just got off the phone with my mom and SHE IS THERE AGAIN!!! UGH!!! She already looked overworked and underpaid the first day she showed up; I can only imagine how obnoxious and rude she is today! I need to go up there though. HMM....

So.. on Thursday they decided to put my dad on Bi-pap to try and force the expansion of his lungs in hopes that he would get off the oxygen. They didn't start it until after I left on Friday and I didn't see him at all yesterday but the gist of it is.. they were supposed to have him on for 2 hours and then off for 2 hours. I assume that the pattern looked more like on for 2 and off for 3 or 4 until the nurse finally got her ass in the room to put it back on him. Either way, it's working!! Today he is off bi-pap and according to my lovely mommy... he is 95% on 3L via Nasal Cannula... which pretty much rocks! With sats like that he can come home today or tomorrow... even if he needs to come home on oxygen, that would kick ass!

I've also come to realize how emotional this is for all my siblings... on a level that maybe I can't even understand. Yesterday I tried to get us all together to talk about how important we ALL are to his recovery and how each of us can help him recover and keep his spirits up. (I have been sensing that some people are feeling left out of the recovery process and I know how much EVERYONE wants to help!!!) Hmm... didn't happen. Most people were excited to get together but a couple were pissed at me for suggesting it. I suppose I should have expected it... but I was really blown away. I hope today is a better day and that at some point we really can get together to figure some stuff out and make sure that EVERYONE knows how important they are to him!!!

Lesson learned? GOOD INTENTIONS DON'T MEAN SHIT IF PERCEPTIONS/EFFORTS ARE NOT IN ALIGNMENT WITH THOSE INTENTIONS.