For History's Sake

We survived Friday's surgery and actually made it home much earlier than I anticipated. Our little guy had to go in for an outpatient surgery on his ... um ... junk. A few weeks ago we had taken him in to the urologist to check on his circumcision (which I've had concerns about since day 1, and which would be an entirely different post), and discovered that he had "undescended testicles." Apparently before babiy boys are born, their testicles travel down a little tube from their stomach and into their scrotum. Some don't do it before they're born, but most of them do it before they are six months old. Apparently if it doesn't happen on its own by six months, it's not going to happen on its own at all. If left untreated he would most likely be sterile as an adult and have a much higher risk of getting testicular cancer. Even after surgery, his chances of those two things are increased compared to the average male adult, but much less dramatic than if there were no surgery.

I, of course, have been stressing about this for two weeks. (Insert apology here to my husband and friends who have noticed me being on edge for a while. The election results did NOT help my mood, by the way.) I was concerned about the risks of putting my baby under general anesthesia, and I was super worried about the whole recovery process. I HATE to see my babies in pain. And I can't take it if I'm the one causing the pain, even if it's from cleaning the wounds. I know it needs to be done, but it just kills me!

We scheduled the surgery on a Friday so The Man could take just one day off, and then have a couple more to help me take care of him once we were home. After the nightmare of caring for my newborn after his circumcision, I was NOT going to go through that alone again. Again, another story for another day.

So I didn't sleep at all Thursday night in anticipation of the surgery. I woke him up for his last meal right before 5:00 am, and then we started getting everyone ready so we could be at the hospital by 9:30. We dropped the girls off for a fun day and Aunt K's, who lives right by the hospital, and then we left. The Man dropped me off to go sign us in while he parked the car, and when he came in he took Mini Man to start wandering hallways. He passed a young couple who told him that their son just had the same surgery. He figured they were a couple that I knew or had talked to about all this. Once we were inside and he told me what they had said, I was surprised since I had not seen anyone I recognized in the waiting room. We saw them later as they were leaving, but neither of us has any idea who they were or how they knew what we were there for. Weird.

Getting ready to "go under the knife"

Chillin' listening to some tunes

Practicing breathing with Daddy


Anyway, the doctor came out about two hours later and told us the surgery went well and that one of us could go back and wait with him while he was coming out of the anesthesia. Just one of us? That's just cruel. I went back for the first little bit, but when he didn't come out almost an hour later, I came back to the waiting room and grabbed the man, and we both went back to stay with him. I didn't care if they only wanted one person at a time in recovery. And not one person said a single word about us both being there. Mini Man was pretty upset once he finally woke up, so as soon as they told us we could go, we quickly unhooked every monitor and needle, dressed him in some comfy pj's, and left for home. He slept on the way home and for most of the next day. We would wake him every six hours for more medicine, a snack and a diaper change, and he would soon be back to sleep. It was a good idea to keep him on a schedule for the pain meds; I don't think he's felt any pain at all, but it's been hard to see him SO loopy all the time. The first day was the hardest, since he wanted to get up and walk around but was unable to because of the block he was on during surgery. Every time he would stand up, his little legs would just buckle underneath him and he'd fall to the floor. He was SO mad!

The healing is going much better than I had anticipated, and I am thrilled. Today he is off of the major pain meds and just taking Tylenol a couple times a day. What a champ. He is such a sweet little guy. I'm so grateful to everyone who helped us this weekend with babysitting, meals, phone calls, prayers and priesthood blessings. We are surrounded by amazing family, friends, and tons of love. Wish we could repay you all.

Recovering at home

Because It Was Time

I'm home from church today with a sick little one, so I figured this would be a good time for me to change my blog. New background, check. New title, check. New picture header ... still can't figure that one out on my own.

In case you were wondering why I changed my blog title, the real answer is because I never really liked the old one to begin with. When I first started this blog, I sat and sat and sat at the computer, staring at the screen, trying to come up with a title that fit for my family and my life at the time. I felt so much pressure to come up with something good, something clever, just something. I had a husband, two little girls, all the basic neccessities of life, and even some spare time. My life was balanced ... sort of. Like everyone else, I had times when I was totally on my game as a wife and mother, and I had times when I felt like things weren't "just right." Hence the 'sort of.'

But just like the song, the times they are a'changing. Life moves on and we happily accept the new seasons in our family. It's two years later, our fourth child is nine weeks away from joining our home, and my spare time has somehow completely disappeared. I'm grateful we still have all the basic neccessities of life ... and then some.

When I was a little girl, I dreamt of how my life would turn out when I was a "grown up." And truthfully, THIS is pretty much what I had imagined. Well, maybe there was a bit more glamour, a few less pounds, and a lot more shopping. Oh, and my family and friends all lived on the same block.

So I've changed my title to HARMON-Y (pun intended), because to me it doesn't signify a perfect life; it's a range from blissful to downright miserable and everything in between. And we all need that entire spectrum in our lives. We need it for experience. We need it to become better people. We need it so that we can learn and grow and achieve our goals.

And all I can say is that I'm so thankful for this life I've been given, with all of it's ups and downs, joys and sorrows, struggles and triumphs. I truly have everthing. And there's no one I'd rather spend my happily ever after with than my husband and best friend, my very own prince charming, and our beautiful family.

It's not our anniversary or anything, but I chose this picture because this was the day that changed the path of my life forever. And it's a decision I've never regretted.

Yes, blonde. I know, I know -- the things we do for the men we love...

Love Your Guts

We carved pumpkins for FHE on Monday night with my sister's family. Somehow over the course of a year, I always seem to forget what an ordeal it is to wash those slimy seeds. But it's oh, so worth the effort. We all love snacking on them when the carving is all finished.




This year we let the kids draw their own faces on the pumpkins, and then The Man did his best to carve out exactly what they drew. So cute. Miss Priss ended up with heart-shaped cheeks and big eyelashes on hers, and DC drew the funniest shaped mouth. Mini Man was fast asleep in his comfy bed before the carving began, so daddy did his by himself. My favorite was the message Miss Priss wrote on the side of her pumpkin. It said, "I'm sceery." Wish we could have carved that out so it would glow when we lit the candles. We all kept telling each other all night how "sceery" we were. Who needs spelling anyway when we've got phonetics, right?

A Life With Sisters

It's a little bit sad, but mostly funny. It might be a little bit degrading, but not for a few more years. And above all, it's what you have to expect when you have two older sisters, and you're only a year and a half old....










I wonder if he realizes how lucky he was to get outta there without Sleeping Beauty's dress on.

Proud Momma

It's been a while since we've posted an update on our little man. I was kinda waiting for some momentous occasion so I had something wonderful to say. His progress has been kind of slow these past few months. We constantly work on new skills (mastering the stairs, feeding himself with a spoon or fork, drinking from a big boy cup, using words instead of grunts or screams, etc). And then, of course, we have his daily stretches and exercises. He has to continually work on stretching his muscles (especially the ones in his heel), since it's just so automatic for him to be on his toes. If we never stretched his feet to the floor, that muscle would stay tiny and short until it would become impossible for him to physically put his feet down. Then he would have to have surgery to lengthen it.

Mini Man has finally started his home therapy, where a physical therapist comes to the house to work with him. She is the greatest. She was so friendly right off the bat, and so he was more than happy to "play" with her. She has all these games that the two of them play that are geared toward stretching and loosening up his leg muscles and teaching him to walk. And when she came on Tuesday of last week, my long-awaited momentous occasion occurred. Can I get a drum roll, please?




Mini Man is WALKING!!!! Well, kind of. He took about eight or nine steps with her. Just enough for me to freak out and grab the cameras. And then, of course, it was over. The second he sees those things, he looses focus on ANYTHING else. All he wants is to hold the camera or see the pictures. So I wasn't able to get any footage of his first walk (sob, sob), and my pictures are not that great. But at least it's something.

We will still be visiting a PT in office probably once a month for a while, but I really think he'll be UP and about in no time at all. And I couldn't be more proud.

The Sad Truth

Not too long ago I was informed by The Man that we should no longer eat at McDonald's. No, it's not because we're trying to eat healthier, and it's not because we had a bad experience there or found a bug or a fingernail in our food. It's because we have recently learned that McDonald's ACTIVELY supports gay marriage.

That's right, this family-friendly institution has decided to put it's name and it's money at the forefront of the fight to oppose the sacred institution of marriage. I'm not one to pass along many emails or warnings (at least not before checking snopes), so you can believe me when I tell you that I've done my research. You can do your own, and I encourage you to do so. I also encourage you to spread the word.

I am not motivated by hate, as some of the articles I've read imply. But I whole-heartedly believe that "Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God," and that men and women have divine roles in our families.

One person can make a difference. And that difference is made when that one person tells another person, who tells another, until we've all heard. There are many other fast food options that offer similar menus (and not surprisingly better quality), so I ask that we all make the effort to give them a try. I do not intend to stand by and continue to frequent a business that uses my dollars to buy their position on the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

So Wendy's, Burger King, and especially In-N-Out, here we come!!!

I will now step down from my soapbox. Thank you.

I Love Ketchup ... I Mean "Catch-Up"

Oh, I am SO far behind. Please forgive the quick catch up, but for all who've been asking for new pictures, here's a little bit of our summer...

We celebrated the 4th of July with cousins at the park ...









And had S & S come down for a rockin' weekend of guitar hero ...

We said goodbye to our best friends, who left us here in the desert and moved up to Idaho We miss you guys! Sequence just isn't the same without all the trash talk.) ...

We visited Utah for a family reunion ...








Lost two teeth ...








I went to girls' camp with our YW (and got rained out and evacuated our first day! We ended up going back up again and staying the rest of the week, but we dealt with major rain storms and hail for most of the trip)...
I owe a HUGE thank you to my mom and dad who came up for the whole week to watch the kids so The Man didn't have to take off work. My parents rock!

Went to a cool birthday party at a local theme park ...




Saw Le Miserables in St. George with the YW and did baptisms at the St. George Temple (funny story about the second picture - while we were taking the tour of Brigham Young's summer home, they brought us out to show us his garden and yard full of fruit and nut trees. Right after moving from underneath the pecan tree, a HUGE branch cracked and broke off -- and fell RIGHT where all the girls had been standing just 10 seconds earlier! The girls couldn't resist posing for a cute picture.) ...




Got ready for DC's birthday party by making yummy cupcakes ...


Celebrated DC's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's ... (ah, memories)





More birtday parties (This one was so neat! It was an exotic animal themed party, where a lady came in and showcased tons of lizards, spiders, snakes, an iguana, a baby kangaroo, and tons more! The girls LOVED it! Me, not so much.) ...






And now summer has ended. Both girls have started soccer (yes, Miss Priss said she wanted to do it again -- go figure), and they are both in school. Miss Priss is LOVING 1st grade, and DC thinks preschool is the coolest.

As the days fly by, I realize that my little babies are growing up. Sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's great, but always I know that it is inevitable. And they are each getting cuter and cuter by the day ...

The Wait Is Over!

I apologize for the delay. I was not intentionally making everyone wait. After our last doctor's appointment, I spent the next couple of days getting ready for a quick trip up to see The Man's family for a reunion, and upon our return I had one day to finish getting ready for girls camp. I just got back on Saturday, and have been sleeping ever since. And that's barely an exaggeration. I feel like I cannot catch up on lost sleep from last week. I had an absolutely amazing time. I'll post pictures and tell stories of everything later, but for now I just wanted to end the suspense and let you all know that either the first week of January or the last week of December we will be welcoming another sweet baby boy to our family.

We feel so blessed to have been given this gift. The girls are absolutely thrilled that they are going to have another brother, and I am excited to have my baby boys be this close in age. And to answer a couple of questions, no, this was not planned, but we could not have asked for a better surprise. I am a tiny bit sad to come to the realization that I will have to let go of all my baby girl stuff for good. The last time I went through the girls' outgrown clothing, I gave away all but my very favorite items, in hopes of getting to use them again. And now I won't get to. But if I can't use them, at least I know someone else can. I will be waiting until the end of this month (when I find out what my sister is having), and then I will be getting rid of it all. If she is having a boy, my stuff will be up for grabs. Let me know if you or someone you know is in need of baby girl clothing.

Thanks to everyone who has commented and let us know that you are just as excited as we are. We are so grateful to have good friends to share good news with. We love you all.