Alex's 5th Birthday

Yesterday was Alex's 5th birthday. Since it's so close to Christmas, we try to make it fun for him. We also take down our Christmas decorations the day after Christmas so that it won't be Christmas anymore, it's Alex's birthday.

Alex was very excited when Ben told him happy birthday in the morning. He told me, "Ben said happy birthday to me because it's my birthday already!"

After making the boys clean up their toys in the morning, which took much longer than it should have, we took everyone to McD's for lunch so they could play on the playground. They didn't think it was very funny when we were almost there and told them that it looked like McD's was closed and we'd have to just go home. They had a really good time playing and eating at McD's and weren't even upset when we said it was time to go.

When we got home, I got started on making Alex's birthday cakes. He wanted cupcakes and a round cake. He told us on the way home from McD's that it's a cake when it's round and has frosting on it. He didn't know what it would be called if it were rectangle without frosting. Alex helped me do the cake mix and then kept asking me later if they were done yet so he could eat them.

Here are the finished cakes, kind of my own version of a cake wreck, since it ended up going a bit lopsided and the frosting was melting on me. Alex wanted a blue cake with a lion on it, but I didn't really have time to do a lion, so I just did a blue cake.



While I was letting the cakes cool before frosting them, I wrapped the presents Chris picked out for the boys to give to Alex for his birthday. As I finished, Bryce took Alex to the store so they could let Alex pick out his own birthday present. He ended up picking out a nerf-type tommy gun and had wanted to pick out something for his brothers, so he decided to use half of his birthday present money to go in on a present for the family. He's a very nice and thoughtful kid.

This is what he picked out to get everyone. They're like the rock 'em sock 'em robots, but more fun since they move around:


After Bryce and Alex got back, which was just as I finished frosting all the cakes, we had Alex choose what they wanted to eat for dinner (he chose dinosaur chicken), then let him unwrap his presents and then we sang happy birthday to him so he could blow out his candles and we could eat his cake and have root beer floats.

Alex seemed to really enjoy his birthday, and enjoys being a big 5 year-old.

Here's what Alex looked like when he was 2 weeks old:


And here was Alex on his birthday with his cake:


Here's Alex and his presents:




Here's Alex blowing out his candles while we were singing to him:


Here, they're ready for their cake:


Chris, Alex, and Ben enjoying their cupcakes:


Daniel is enjoying his cupcake:

Christopher's follow-up appointment and some random pictures

On Monday I took Chris to the urologist for his post-op doctor visit. At first he was a little nervous about the idea of going to the doctor again. He would ask us, "Are they going to put more stitches in me?" or "Are they going to stick another needle in me?" When we told him that no, they were just going to look at where the stitches were and make sure it was healing the right way and that they would probably let him pick another toy from their treasure chest, he wanted to leave right then. We got there a little late because the light was out by the freeway, so traffic was really backed up, but it wasn't too bad. Shortly after we got there, the nurse came out to get us to take Chris to the bathroom to give them a sample. He thought it was pretty fun to pee in a cup. After going to the bathroom though, he decided that the appointment was done and it was time to go. I had to tell him that it wasn't and he had to still wait for the nurse to take us back to the room. She came out a couple of minutes later and we waited in the room for a few minutes for the doctor to come in. When the doctor came in, she looked at Chris's incision and said it looked perfect and he was healing just as he should. Chris was pretty happy that he was done and ran out to the treasure chest, where he grabbed a pair of sunglasses and a toy whistle thing that was in the shape of lips. So Chris is done with the urologist and hopefully won't (and shouldn't, since complications are pretty rare) have any more problems with it.

Here are some pictures that I took of the boys and some the boys took of the boys:

Ben's self-portrait with goggles on:

Daniel posing for the camera:

Daniel lying on his bear rug. He does this a lot:

Ben with the bear on him:

Ben carrying the bear:

Alex cheering:

Alex carrying the bear:

Christmas

Okay, I'm going to finally post some pictures from Christmas. The boys all had a really good time and probably got way too many presents. They spent the whole day playing with their new toys and haven't gotten tired of them yet, so I guess that's a good thing. :)

Here's all the loot by the tree:

The new train:

The new tents:

The boys looking at their new train:

Chris by his tiger rug and other presents:

Alex and Chris with some presents:

Daniel's 18 month check-up

I took Daniel in for his 18 month check-up today. His appointment was scheduled for 11:00. I guess 11:00 is code for 12:00 in this doctor's office, since it was after 12 when he finally came in the room. I was really glad I didn't have Alex and Chris with me, since they would have been going nuts by then. Daniel was pretty easy to entertain, so at least it wasn't a totally unpleasant wait.

Daniel now weighs 24.7 pounds and is holding steady at about the 30th percentile. They measured him at 33 1/4 inches, which is in the 75th percentile, but I don't know how accurate drawing lines on the paper and then measuring the lines is. It did seem like the nurse measured him a little long.

He's getting over the cold that he's had for the last month, but is otherwise healthy and happy and developing right about where he should be for his age. He only had his second dose of the flu shot today and no other shots, so if they hadn't run out of the flu shot last month and had to cancel that appointment, he wouldn't have had any shots today. He definitely didn't think getting the shot was fun, but he was pretty good for it.

Daniel was definitely ready to go when we went, but he did stop by the nurses' station, since he knows they have suckers there. So he got his sucker and was off. He wanted to walk the whole way and didn't want me to pick him up. He was laughing the whole way to the van.

This is a fun age, in my opinion. I think the best part was being able to put him in the nursery last week for the first time. He did really well and just sat down in a chair and got ready to play and didn't care when I left him there. I'm hoping that this next Sunday goes as smoothly, especially since Bryce and I are actually teaching our classes at the same time right now, as Bryce's primary class will be moving up to Senior Primary, so they're getting them used to the change.

Now, assuming he doesn't get any ear infections or major illnesses or the like, Daniel won't have to go back to the doctor until he's 2. I'm so used to having to take him in almost every month with his colds and all that it's strange to think that we could actually go that long. Hopefully we actually can.

Christopher's surgery

Yesterday Chris had his surgery. I woke him up at 6:00 in the morning and had him use the bathroom, then we got his shoes and his coat on and got in the van to go. He did bring along his favorite blankets and his tiger for comfort and support. We were supposed to have him at the surgery center at 6:45, but the roads were supposed to be slick from the snow, so we left a little early to give us time to go slow. Of course, the roads were fine, so we got there 15 minutes early.

When we were almost to the surgery center, Chris showed his nervousness a bit. He asked me, "Are they going to use a big, sharp knife?" and then, "Will they stick needles in me?" I told him that he wouldn't feel anything during the surgery, that they would give him some medicine that would make him go to sleep, and that seemed to help him.

It was interesting to pull into the parking lot at the surgery center and only see like 5 other cars sitting on the other side of the parking lot. It made me wonder for a minute if I was going to the right place. Luckily, I was in the right place and they were expecting me. The nice thing was that they knew immediately who I was when I walked in. The bad thing was that I had left the forms they had mailed me at home, so I got to fill them out again when we got there. I guess it was a good thing we were a bit early.

Chris was being silly in the lobby and kept hiding under his blankets and kept the receptionist entertained until they took us back to the pre-op area. The nurse who took us back listened to his lungs and checked his pulse and blood oxygen levels and asked a few medical questions. Then the anesthesiologist came in and explained what he would be doing. While he was doing that, the nurse came in and gave Chris some medicine that would make him a little loopy and make him forget the first part at least. Chris was pretty funny a few minutes after he took that medicine. He told me, "Hey Mom, I took the medicine and I didn't go to sleep." He was pretty proud of that. I could tell when the medicine was starting to kick in. Chris was lying down on the bed and looked at me and said, "Mom, I'm still in my bed." A minute or so later, he said, "Hey, I'm not in my bed. Whose bed am I in?" He'd later try to talk to me and couldn't quite get the words to come out right. I don't think he even realized what was going on when they wheeled him back and I didn't go with him.

It was about 7:50 when I went back to the lobby to wait during the surgery. A little after 9, the doctor came out to tell me that everything had gone well and that he was just coming out of the anesthesia. She said they'd probably let him sleep it off a little and then come and get me. It was a little after 9:30 when they did. The nurse warned me that Chris was crying a bit, which I expected. He had been coughing a lot too because of the cold he was still getting over a bit and the tube they had put in his throat. They gave him a dose of the Tylenol with codeine to try to help him with the cough a bit, but didn't think he was in any pain at that point. When I saw him, he was trying his hardest to get the blue tape stuff off his hand. It was where they had taken out the I.V., and he really, really didn't want it on there. He ended up pulling it all off himself. They had tried to calm him down earlier with it by putting some on the leg of his tiger to show him that it didn't hurt. He didn't calm down until we took it off the tiger too. Once we did that, I held Chris in a rocking chair and he went back to sleep. He would wake up a little occasionally and ask for water or apple juice, drink some, then go back to sleep. After 10:00, they let us go home. I carried him out to the car and buckled him in his seat and he went back to sleep in the car on the way home. It was snowing when we left, so the roads were worse then than they were at 6:00 in the morning, so it took us a bit to get home.

When we got home, I put Chris up in the guest bed and let him watch Dora (that's what he picked out). I got him some apple juice and some crackers to munch on and left him a bowl in case he felt like he needed to throw up. The nurse thought he might when he got home, but luckily, he never did. He was feeling a bit sore, but felt like he needed to go to the bathroom, so I took him to let him try. I think with the anesthesia and all the IV fluids, he couldn't help himself, for he had actually already wet his pants. He was upset about it, but we got him changed and dry. We had to change him a few more times through the day as he had a touch of diarrhea from the surgery and would leak a few times as he'd try to make it to the bathroom. By the end of the day he was doing much better with that though.

I went to pick up his prescription for Tylenol with codeine and got him some Goldfish crackers while I was there. He was very excited about the goldfish. He loves those and at them all day long. He did surprise me and didn't sleep until about 3:00 and slept until 5:00.

My visiting teachers were really nice and brought us dinner last night just so that we would have one less thing to worry about. I'll admit that it was really nice to not have to worry about getting dinner ready too. And Chris was especially excited when they brought him a candy cane container full of M&M-type candies.

Today Chris acts like he's back to normal. He does say he hurts a little bit still, but he's wanted to go outside and play (I wouldn't let him because it's too cold), and he's been running around and having a good time. It's nice that the surgery is over now and that he's feeling pretty well.

Friday's appointments

Well, we've basically gotten one of the two weeks done now. Today's appointments were the ones I was a bit worried about making it from one to the other on time, even though there should have been plenty of time to make it to both on time. As it was, we were 5 minutes late to the second.

The first appointment this morning was Chris's appointment with the urologist to make sure he is healthy enough for his surgery on Monday. The actual time spent with the doctor and/or the nurse was about 5 minutes. The rest of the time, we were either waiting in the waiting area or in the examination room. The waiting part took over half an hour. That's always such fun with 2 boys who were getting rather bored. At least this time I remembered to take paper and pens with us so they'd have something to do. Chris is healthy enough for the surgery, so I get to take him in early Monday morning for that. Alex and Chris were pretty excited to be able to go through the treasure chest at the end and pick out toys at the end. They weren't going to let the doctor forget about that one.

The second appointment was for Alex's speech therapy. Since Chris was with us, Chris and I waited in the waiting area while Alex went back. That appointment seemed to go a lot faster, probably in part because I didn't have another appointment to try to make it to right after. Alex is still doing well with his speech therapy and has been very cooperative. I thought he might not be since he missed two weeks of it, but he still did well today.

While I'm really not looking forward to having to take Chris in for surgery next week, since I don't have multiple appointments on multiple days next week (just appointments on different days), it should be an easier week. So I'm glad this part is over.

A Little Story

I have a little story to tell. "What kind of story?" you ask? Well, sit back, relax, and take a listen. It all started back in July, when Bryce and I decided it was time to try for another baby. Yes, I know there are some of you reading this who may be thinking, "Another one?! You want to have a 5th baby?! Especially in this economy and when the four you already have can be very rambunctious, to say the least?!" Just know that we both felt strongly that there was someone else waiting to join our family and that it was what Heavenly Father wanted us to do.

So anyway, in August I took a pregnancy test and was pleased, but not surprised, when it was positive.

I had my first visit with the doctor at the end of September. I'm sure that some of you were speculating on the possibility, and I may or may not have been successful in making you think I was not. It was a typical first OB appointment - blood draw, weight check, blood pressure check, pap smear, and ultrasound. Everything looked good and all was well.

Here's a picture of our little peanut at that appointment:


Four weeks later, I went for my second appointment. Dr. Lowder told me the titer levels for my antibodies (taken with the blood draw at the first appointment) when he took me back to the examination room. My titer level was at a 4, which is higher than it ever was with my pregnancy with Daniel (I don't know what the numbers were with the other 3). With Daniel, it was below a 1, until it went up to a 2 near the end of the pregnancy. Dr. Lowder said we didn't need to worry about where it was, that we'd just call that the base level and watch for it going up from there. Of course, I still worried about it until the next week when they called to let me know that the numbers had actually gone down to a 1. He took my blood pressure and checked my weight and then sent the nurse in to give me a flu shot. We listened to the baby's heartbeat at that appointment. It took a bit for him to find the heartbeat, but we could hear the baby moving around plenty until then. I talked Dr. Lowder into letting me come back in 6 weeks instead of the usual 4, since I would be 20 weeks along and we'd be able to do the next ultrasound. Usually I think I should ask about things like that and then end up not saying anything, so I was glad I actually did it this time and that he agreed.

By about 16 weeks, I was starting to feel the baby move a lot. Between 16 and 18 weeks, however, I hardly felt the baby move at all. I would either feel movement once a day or not at all. I would even try all sorts of things, lying on my stomach, lying flat on my back, etc, to try to feel the baby move. I kept telling myself that it was probably just that the baby had turned a different way or I was distracted, but I still worried. I thought of Brian and Steph when they found out they had lost their twins and could see that happening to me with this one. I realized that when they went through that, I never really showed them much sympathy. I felt it, but I didn't know what to say or what to do, so I felt bad. I hope they realized that I felt for them and wanted to be able to help them. I finally told Bryce about my worry on the day before Thanksgiving and that must have been the magic button because from then on, I've felt the baby kick quite often. Bryce even felt the baby kick for the first time last week.

De and Doug and their family came up to visit Doug's family for Thanksgiving. Since I was 18 weeks along then, I was sure they would be able to tell I was pregnant (and we weren't telling anyone yet) when they saw us, but they never said anything. So we hoped that meant that we managed to get away with them not finding out. Only they can say if they had any idea.

I was sure people around me had started to wonder, especially people at church, but no one ever asked me if I was expecting until this last Sunday, when the RS pres asked me during church and then one other person asked me during choir. I actually thought it was pretty funny.

So that brings us to this morning, when we went to t he doctor for the third visit and the anticipated ultrasound. I'm a little bummed because I can't figure out how to get the dvd file to work properly to post on this blog so you can see it, and the pictures I have aren't very good and don't show what we're having. I did manage to get a couple of still shots from the dvd, so below are first one of the pictures they gave us (it's mostly the back of the head and the spine) and then two I got from the dvd. See if you can figure them out. :)





Did you figure it out? For those who may not have or who are just too lazy to really look at it, yes, we are having a baby......girl! We both knew we were having a girl this time and the ultrasound confirmed it, so we've been 5 for 5. :)

Bryce says I'm not allowed to spoil her, and I told him I would try my best not to.

And in case you were wondering, yes, it's been very hard to keep this a secret. There have been many, many times when I've almost said something like, "Oh, my doctor told me..." or "when I was at the doctor last time..." especially when my parents were up when I was about 12 weeks along. Luckily I was feeling well, so I didn't have that to give me away, but I was starting to show a bit and I know I saw my mom looking at my stomach a few times.

The due date is officially April 30th, which means that we will likely have her sometime in the middle of April.

I hope you liked my story. :)

And it begins...

Well, the chaos for these two weeks officially began today. If it continues to go like it did today, it won't be too bad, so that's always good.

It began at 9:30 this morning with Daniel's follow-up appointment with the ENT to make sure his tubes were still doing okay. That visit went pretty quickly with nothing too exciting except for a bump on the head for Daniel when he was running around the chair in the middle of the room and tripped on the foot rest for the third time and landed on his head. And I found out that the tubes they put in his ears are green. I didn't realize they came in different colors, so I guess that's good to know. Anyway, his tubes look great and he is doing well with them.

After Daniel's appointment, I took Daniel over to Katie's to join his two brothers while I went to the dentist. I'm sure by the end of next week, Katie is going to appreciate the break she'll get from my kids for a couple of weeks. I timed it perfectly to get to the dentist about 5 minutes early so I wouldn't have to wait too long and didn't have to worry about being late. Unfortunately for me (and for Katie!), the dentist was running late, so I got to sit in the waiting room for about a half hour before I went back. Luckily I had my pda and could play solitaire while I was waiting. The dentist and I joked about how my tooth on the other side must have been feeling neglected from all the attention the one tooth got, so decided to need to get a new filling. An hour later, my tooth is all fixed and I don't have to go back until my next cleaning in May. It's amazing how nice that is after months and months of work on one tooth. It will be even better when the numbing goes away, hopefully before I go visiting teaching tonight.

So today's main events are over and were relatively easy and painless (not totally painless, however). Hopefully the rest are at least as easy.

Colds, etc.

It's been a while since I've posted on here, so I thought I would today.

We had a pretty good, but quiet Thanksgiving. While it doesn't feel as much like Thanksgiving when we're not around more of our family, it's really nice sometimes to just enjoy a quiet Thanksgiving at home. The best part is that we get all the leftovers. :) Bryce had all of Thanksgiving week off, but we didn't really do anything exciting, just hung out together as a family. Ben still had school, so it made it harder to do things in the day. We did go to dinner together one night since we had some coupons that were expiring at the end of the month. Ben and Chris each spilled their drinks and Daniel got into a coughing fit right before we were going to leave and threw up all over. Luckily, the waiter was really nice about it. He got a good tip.

We got to go to dinner to see De and her family the day after Thanksgiving, so that was fun. Daniel had his runny nose that had been coming and going for 3 weeks and Ben had his cough that he'd had for a little longer than that, so we were a little hesitant to bring everyone along. Hopefully they didn't mind that too much. Earlier that day I had put up the Christmas tree and Alex and Chris helped me put on the ornaments. They were very excited and keep asking when Christmas will be here now.

Unfortunately, Chris spent Saturday morning throwing up. He hadn't been one of our sick ones, and no one else had been throwing up, so we were a little surprised. I blamed computer viruses for that one, since Cindy's kids had been throwing up. Chris was feeling better by about noon though, so that was good. Unfortunatley, that evening, Alex had a fever of almost 103. So Bryce kept Alex, Chris, and Daniel home with him the next day while Ben and I went to church. And through Sacrament Meeting, I kept thinking that we should have kept Ben home too, with all the coughing he was doing.

Chris and Alex both had seemed better Sunday morning, but were both feverish Sunday evening, so we were glad we had kept them home. They've been sick all this week too, which is the last week before my schedule starts to get crazy. They haven't been sick enough that they haven't been doing their usual teasing and fighting though. Alex seems to be doing a bit better today, his eyes don't have the sick look anymore and his temperature has been back down to normal. I figure it's because I had called yesterday to cancel his speech therapy session today. I do think it's better that I keep him home today though.

So for the last couple of weeks, we've mostly dealt with colds and other illnesses. Hopefully everyone will be better soon. Just in time to have Chris have surgery and for Daniel to get another round of shots. Fun times.

Living Room

When Mom and Dad came to visit last month, they brought up a metal wall hanging that was of a G cleft staff with notes on it for my living room. Ever since then, it's been safely tucked away behind my piano waiting for me to finally put it up.

A week or so ago, I was going to put it up. I found a couple of drywall anchors and some screws and was going to do it. Unfortunately, my drill wasn't charged, so I plugged in the charger and waited for it to charge. I got busy for the night, so I figured I would do it in the morning. I grabbed the battery and put it on the drill only to find out that it still wasn't charged. Apparently the outlet I had plugged it into doesn't work. So I moved it to a different outlet to let it charge again. It has been sitting there ever since, at least until this morning.

So yes, I did put it up this morning. I'm not sure I totally like the positioning of it, but it's going to stay there. I had to drill holes in my walls for it. I don't want to leave my wall on big holey mess. So if we ever get around to repainting our living room, I may move it over a bit then, but for now it's staying.

Here are a couple pictures of what it looks like:




And just because I can, here are a few more pictures of the boys:

Alex playing with a watergun and lightsaber:


Chris using the Wiimotes as a toy weapon:


Daniel looking innocent:

Busy December?

So it looks like December is already going to be a busy month, even before you put in holiday stuff.

I went to the dentist yesterday morning for a regular cleaning, and yep, I get to go back next month for a new filling. Well, mostly to replace an old filling, I think. It's starting to pull away and in order to avoid all that I had to go through with my one tooth, we're going to take care of it now. Well, on the 10th of December, anyway.

Yesterday afternoon, the urologist office called to schedule Chris's surgery. They had a cancellation on the 15th of December, so I could either do it then or wait until the end of January. I decided to have us do it then. Get it over with, along with the added bonus of not having to fill the deductible again right away. I also get to take him back in to their office on the 12th to make sure he's healthy and to get some last-minute instructions. After the surgery, we're supposed to take him back about 2 weeks later. I'm thinking with the holidays that might make it be in January sometime, but you never know.

Add in Alex's regular speech therapy sessions and a well-baby check-up for Daniel, and my calendar is filling up fast. I also still need to schedule his follow-up appointment from when he got the tubes in his ears, so that will probably be the first week of December.

Bryce and Ben both have off school and work for the two weeks around Christmas and New Year's, so I'm sure we'll have plenty to do then. And don't forget Alex's birthday on the 30th. Somewhere before then I'll have to squeeze in Christmas shopping too.

I'm just glad I don't have to figure out how to schedule work off with all this. It's certainly nice being a stay at home mom.

Speech Therapy and Urologist

Alex had his typical speech therapy appointment today. The thing that made today a little more unusual was that Chris had an appointment with a urologist in Meridian a little less than an hour after Alex's speech therapy usually gets out.

In order to not be rushing the whole time, I took all the kids with me to the appointments. I really was tempted to leave Chris and Daniel at Katie's for speech therapy, then drop off Alex and pick up Chris after, but I decided it would just be easier and less stressful time-wise to just bring them with me. And it would give Katie a whole week without having to watch my kids, so a definite bonus for her.

Chris and Daniel seemed to have a pretty good time in the waiting room during Alex's speech therapy. We had brought along a few toys from home, but they mostly ignored those and played with the toys that were already in the waiting room. When Alex was done, Trisha said he had done an awesome job and gave us some 'sh' papers to work on at home for the week.

We loaded back in the van and headed to Chris's appointment and ended up with about 15 or 20 minutes to kill, so I picked us up some lunch and let the boys start eating it before we went in for the appointment. Daniel fell asleep in the van though, so he got to wait to eat any of his until after the appointment.

We handed the receptionist the paperwork they had mailed us earlier, along with a copy of Chris's insurance card (we have separate cards for each person in our family even though we're all on the same plan), then sat down to wait in the waiting area. The boys thought it was pretty cool to be able to look over the balcony to the floor below. I thought it was pretty interesting to see the shackled prison inmate come in with his 2 armed guard escorts. Yes, he got to go back immediately.

When the receptionist had entered all our information, she led us back to another waiting area, but this one had a train set to play with, so the boys were pretty excited. And when the nurse came to get us, she let them take some of the trains back with them. Of course, the trains didn't stop Daniel from opening all the drawers and cupboards in the examination room. (As an aside here, I cleaned my downstairs bathroom this morning and was all happy that I hadn't gotten any bleach from my toilet bowl cleaner on my clothes like I've been doing lately. In the examination room, Daniel knocked over a squirt bottle that was under the sink and spilled its contents. I cleaned it up as well as I could, then noticed that yes, it was a bleach product, and yes, it had gotten on the arm of my sweater. Bummer.)

After a wait of 5 or so minutes (which can sometimes seem longer when you've got 3 very active boys playing in an examination room), the doctor came in and examined Chris. He does have what is called a hydraseal (I'm not sure on the spelling). She said adults can get them, but they worry about them in kids Chris's age because they can stay and get bigger and cause pain and other problems. So like I expected, Chris will need to have surgery to take care of it. The doctor is going to give the information to her scheduler who will call us and schedule his surgery. It will likely be after the first of the year, just because so many people try to get things like this in before the end of the year and so the schedule fills up quickly.

So lucky Ben will be the only one of my kids so far who has not had surgery of any kind. I hope he doesn't decide that he wants to try surgery too.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Ben had parent/teacher conferences last night. Our appointment with his teacher was for 5:00, which was the very first appointment. Of course, we managed to be about 5 minutes late to it. It turned out okay though.

We weren't surprised by anything at the conference. Ben's a smart kid who is already at or beyond the spring level for his grade, especially in reading. Occasionally he has a hard time keeping his hands to himself and listening to all the rules, but he's been working hard at doing better.

His grades on his report card were all E's (exceeds grade level/expectations) and S's (satisfies grade level/expectations), so he's doing really well so far.

They were having a book fair at the school too. Ben seemed pretty excited to be able to check it out, so we went there after and got him 4 new books. He came home and read 3 of them straight through and is still working on the 4th, which was a bit longer with 9 chapters.

So good job, Ben!

Daniel's tubes

Today was Daniel's big day. We got up early because we had to be at the hospital at 6:30, so that meant we had to leave at 6:00. Daniel didn't even seem to mind being woken up at such an early hour. He's a good kid. He even just sat in the van and jabbered the whole way to the hospital.

We got to the hospital (it's a very small, no emergency services hospital) and were greeted by a very friendly receptionist, then sat down to wait in the lobby. Daniel was a bit shy at first and just wanted to sit on my lap, but after a few minutes, he wanted to explore and would play with the other people in the waiting room. After a few minutes of waiting, they took us back to go over some paperwork, then sent us back out to wait for the nurse to come get us.

After waiting a bit longer, the nurse finally came and got us and took us to the pre-op room where she took Daniel's temperature and blood ox level and had me change him into his gown. She also went over a bunch more paperwork and then left us to wait in there. Daniel really wanted to get out of the tiny room and go explore, but he had to wait there. The anesthesiologist came in to explain how they were going to put him under for a few minutes, then snuck out. A couple of minutes after he left, a different nurse came in and took Daniel back to the operating room. Daniel was not happy that they took him from his mom. I got to go wait for him in the recovery room.

Here's Daniel in his gown:


Less than 10 minutes after they took him away, they brought a sleeping Daniel to me and put him in my arms. He didn't stay sleeping for long. He then spent the next 15 minutes crying. During that time, a nurse brought a cup of apple juice for him and the doctor came out to say that the surgery had gone well and to call him if we had any concerns or questions.

After the 15 minutes of crying, Daniel finally calmed down and drank the apple juice they brought and wanted more. The nurse brought him out another cup and a couple of graham crackers just as they were letting us go home. Daniel perked right up as soon as we went outside. He was happy to be going home.

Now that he's home, he's acting like everything is normal. So it's nice that the surgery went well and he's happy and hopefully won't be getting as many ear infections.

Halloween fun

So I'm finally getting around to posting about our Halloween. The boys were very excited that it was Halloween all day long and had the added treat of having their dad home for the day too.

We would have gone to do something fun during the day, but with Alex's speech therapy in the middle of the day, it made it hard to go do something. Alex was excited that he was able to get some candy at speech therapy though. And he actually talked most of the time and didn't have as long of a stretch as he usually does with refusing to try to say the sound Trisha wants him to say.

After a late lunch, we started carving the pumpkins. Ben was pretty excited to start cleaning out his pumpkin, until he decided it was too messy. So I got to clean out most of the pumpkins while Bryce would carve the faces according to the boys' directions. Of course, I didn't take a picture of the pumpkins, but the boys thought they were a lot of fun to make. Ben said that was his favorite part of the day.

After we finished with the pumpkins, we got out the costumes and let everyone get ready. After everyone was ready (some having to take their costumes off to use the bathroom), we headed out for trick-or-treating. Ben and Alex wanted to run on ahead to each house while Chris and Daniel were a bit slower. Daniel was funny when he noticed that he had candy in his bucket and wanted to stop right there to eat it. We didn't go out for very long, but the boys got plenty of candy.

Here are pictures of the boys in their costumes.

Ben as Batman:




Alex as Bumblebee:




Chris as a skeleton:




Daniel as a lion:




The boys all together and ready to go:




When we got back home, I made our traditional Halloween dinner of Mummy dogs and mac and cheese. The boys even pretended that the ketchup was blood to keep the whole theme going. They would get very excited every time the doorbell rang and wanted to help pass out candy.

After dinner, we watched some Goosebumps on Cartoon Network together for a bit, then sent the boys to bed. I was really surprised that they went to bed so easily after having such an exciting day.

Another tag

Tagged!

Here are the rules for the tag: Link the person who tagged you. Mention rules on your blog. Tell about 6 quirks of yours. Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same. Leave a comment to let them know. I was tagged by Michele, thank you so much!

#1 - I actually organize the clothes in my closet according to color, except for my dresses and they all go together. It's just my clothes though. Bryce's clothes can be put away randomly.

#2 - I'm obsessive about the way the dishes are put away in the dishwasher. If someone else puts something away, I will move it to be put away the right way. That's why I usually just load the dishes myself. :)

#3 - The bed has to be made first thing. If I get up before Bryce and have to leave before he's really gotten out of bed, it drives me nuts to think that the bed is unmade and I have to make it as soon as I get back or as soon as Bryce gets out of bed.

#4 - If I start working on something, I have to keep working on it until it's finished. I can't leave it undone or it drives me nuts.

#5 - If I've just cleaned a room, I try to keep the kids out of there for a bit so it will stay clean for a few minutes at least.

#6 - I really, really, really hate to be late to things. I will sometimes leave earlier than I really need to in order to be there a little early. And if I have to wait for someone, I get really impatient with them.


Okay, now I am tagging:

De
Cindy
Karen
Amy
Lisa
Jill

Have fun. :)

8 Things About Me

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:

*Having Daniel's tubes done and over with
*Having no more kids in diapers
*Thanksgiving dinner
*Getting a new family picture taken
*Christmas (especially all the Christmas music)
*The day after Bryce and I sing in church
*Our ward time changing from 9:00 to 11:00
*Stake Conference when I have a week off of teaching

8 Things on my Wish List:

*Painting my house
*Building up our savings account
*Get the van paid off quickly
*Get bookcases for our living room
*Get shelves for food storage so it's not all on the floor in our pantry
*Either get rid of or get Bryce's car fixed
*Taking my family to go see the sites from my mission
*Become better organized


8 Shows I Like To Watch:

*Psych
*Chuck
*Heroes
*Eli Stone
*Pushing Daisies
*The Office
*Burn Notice
*Stargate Atlantis


8 Things that happened yesterday:

*We were a couple minutes late to church
*I taught the lesson in Sunday School, as usual
*I actually got to sit through all of Relief Society with Daniel
*We had choir practice at our house
*I started working on my next lesson, even though I get a break for a week with Stake Conference. :)
*I got to take a nice bath
*It rained a lot
*I remembered to write in my journal

8 People I Am Tagging:

*Michele
*Amy
*Jill
*Karen
*Cindy, just because she hasn't done it yet
*That's all. I don't have 8 people to tag.

9th Visit

Last night I had my 9th dentist appointment dealing with my lower back molar (tooth #31, if that means anything to you). I was really looking forward to this particular appointment. No numbing, just take off the temporary crown, put on the permanent crown, and done. No more having to deal with work on this tooth anymore. I was really, really hoping the crown would fit and they wouldn't have to send it back to the lab to redo and I would have to go back another time.

I got to the dentist a few minutes early, so waited a few minutes to go back. The dental assistant took me back and took off the temporary crown and started trying on the new one. She would have me bite down and ask how it seemed. She seemed to think it was a little high. At that point I kept thinking, "Please no, just fit."

The dentist came in and was fitting it too, then decided he needed to cement it in and then check it better, since it would move when he'd check it. So he cemented it in and then left for about 10 minutes to let the cement harden. When he checked it, he did have to kind of grind it down in a couple of spots and thought it might still be a little high, but it would work. So he told me that if it starts hurting that tooth or the tooth it's hitting within the next couple of days to let them know, but we're calling it done. Yay!

And now I just get to go back in 3 weeks for my next cleaning. Hopefully I won't be starting this whole process over with another tooth.

Happy Birthday to Bryce!

Today is Bryce's 34th birthday. I feel bad because it seems like this year we're really not donig much for it. He had to go in to work an hour early this morning and will probably have to stay a bit late, then I have a dentist appointment at 7:00 tonight. And he probably won't even get a cake because I don't have all the things I would need to make his favorite cake. If I had the car today, I could go to the store to get the things I would need for it, but I let him take it because he seems to prefer to take it when I don't need it for doctor appointments or things like that. So I do feel a little bad.

It's incredible to me that he was 10 years younger than he is now when we got married. I know that's how it happens when you've been married for almost 10 years, but it really doesn't seem like we should be this much older. I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing 10 years from now, only it won't seem like we should be 20 years older than when we got married. We had our first kiss 10 years ago 2 days after his birthday. It's amazing how fast time flies.

I'm so lucky to be married to such a smart, talented, and wonderful man. He's a great dad and a great husband. I hope he has a very happy birthday, even though we probably won't get a chance to really celebrate it today.

Today's appointments

This morning I took Daniel in to the ENT to see about getting tubes. After hearing about the number of ear infections he has had over the past 8 months, the doctor said that he would be a good candidate for the tubes. He then checked out his ears to see how they were looking now. The left ear was of course fine, and he just looked for a second in the right ear and said, "This one burst." So apparently his ear drum burst with his last ear infection. He said that the hole had healed already and it wouldn't cause problems, which is always a good thing. Daniel is now scheduled to have tubes put in his ears on the 5th of November. Hopefully that will help reduce the number of ear infections, or at least help so he won't have too many problems because of them.

Alex's speech therapy was basically across the street from the ENT office and we had a few extra minutes, so I made a couple of calls from the van before we headed over. The first was to tell Bryce about how Daniel's appointment went and to tell him about a voicemail I got while I was in the office. The second was returning the call to the person who left me the voicemail. It was the receptionist at my dentist's office saying that my crown came in early and if we wanted, we could schedule my appointment for earlier in the week. It worked out really well to schedule it for Monday evening, even though it's Bryce's birthday then, so I did reschedule. I figured it would be one less time I'd have to make Katie tend my kids for me, and hopefully I'll get the tooth finished a few days sooner than I would have. The appointment on Monday will be the 9th time I've been to a dentist for this particular tooth. Yep that's right, I'll have gone nine times. (Yes, I picture that in Mr. Rooney's voice..."Nine times.") Knowing my luck, the crown won't fit and so I'll have to make it an even 10. I'm really hoping that won't be the case though. And Bryce's suits that were supposed to be ready on Monday are already ready, so he can go pick those up early too. Bonus.

Since I had Daniel with me, Alex had to go back to do his speech therapy session by himself today. His therapist Trisha told me that he did really well on his l's today, in every position. He did refuse to talk again when she did the g's. So today he didn't get a sticker. That was the first thing he told me. "I didn't even get a sticker today." Poor kid.

Daniel's follow-up

I took Daniel this morning to the doctor for his follow-up appointment from his last ear infection. I was impressed because they actually took me back to the examination room a couple minutes before the scheduled time for the appointment, but then I had to sit there for over 20 minutes waiting for the doctor to come in. Luckily, Katie was very nice again and watched Alex and Chris, so they weren't sitting in the room bored and Daniel was having a good time checking everything out in the room.

When the doctor came in, he looked through Daniel's chart at his past ear infections and with this last one, counted about 5 in the last 8 months. I thought it was only 4, but I could definitely be wrong about that. It all blends together.

He then looked in Daniel's ears to check on how they were doing and could see a kind of crusty scab in his right ear, left over from the infection. He also thinks there is still some fluid in there, but it should go away on its own. He said it looks good otherwise and the other ear looked fine.

Because he has had so many ear infections in such a short time and it is the beginning of the cold and flu season, he thought it would be best to refer us to the ENT office and have tubes put in. So I get to take Daniel there on Friday morning to see about getting tubes. Daniel also got a flu shot today and I'm supposed to take him back in about a month to get a second one. So no, these doctor appointments will never end.

Here are a couple pictures of Daniel waiting in the doctor's office:




Ben and Alex decided to put on their Cove Fort shirts last night and Ben made little signs that said Cove Fort (Alex is holding "Cove" and Ben is holding "Fort") and wanted me to take their pictures and show people, so here they are:

Family Visits

My mom and dad came up to visit us on Wednesday and stayed through Saturday. It was a lot of fun to have them here. The kids really enjoyed being able to spend time with Grandma and Papa. I did feel a little bad that they ended up babysitting for us for some of the time they were here, but the kids loved it. Chris even keeps asking where his Grandma and Papa are and when I tell them that they went home, he'll say, "They went to our home." Then I have to tell him that no, they went to theirs. When we were getting ready to go to church this morning, he ran to the front door to look out to see if their car was here so he could ride over with them and was a little disappointed when it wasn't here.

Mom and Dad first got to tend for me on Thursday when I had to go to the dentist for my crown preparation and to get the temporary crown put on. They were a little nervous about how Daniel would be for them, since he doesn't know them, but he really liked hanging out with them, especially when they'd take him outside on walks. On the up side, I should only have one more dentist appointment and my crown will be finished. Almost 8 months after the first visit. Unfortunately, I have another cleaning appointment for 2 weeks after I get the crown. I'm thinking about changing it, just to give myself a break for a bit. But maybe I want to keep it just to try to prevent having to go through all this again.

The second time they got to tend was on Friday when I took Alex over to his speech therapy session. He did a bit better this time and talked a lot more than he did last time, although he still had a few minutes of refusing to say anything. It's usually the hard 'g' sound when he refuses to say anything. For some reason he really doesn't like to try to say it the right way at the beginning of words. He gest frustrated and feels bad. When we got home from speech therapy with lunch, Mom and Dad had Chris and Daniel out on another walk. Daniel gets pretty mad if we go out the front door without him now.

The third time Mom and Dad got to tend was when they offered to let Bryce and me go out on Friday night and get to spend the evening by ourselves. I thought it was very, very nice of them to offer. It was actually pretty nice to be able to enjoy a nice dinner at a restaurant without the kids. After we had dinner, we went to see a movie. It wasn't a great movie, but it was nice to actually be able to sit through the whole thing and not have to take one of the kids out. So THANK YOU, Mom and Dad, for letting us go out. We really appreciated it. You're the best parents ever! :)

Mom and Dad got to see Alex score 3 goals in his last soccer game of the fall season and got to see Ben start his game before they had to leave to go home on Saturday. Alex was very excited that they got to see him play so well.

It was really nice to have Mom and Dad here to visit. It seems like we don't get to see them nearly often enough, even though they live only a short 5 hour drive away. So thanks for coming to visit, Mom and Dad. We love you and we miss you already!

What public school will get you...and your little brother

We don't know for sure where he got it, but we assume that he picked it up at school or on the bus, since he hasn't had sleepovers and isn't in daycare or anything like that. Wherever he ended up getting it though, he decided to share with Alex, so they both had lice. Ben definitely had more, but Alex did get a few. Luckily, none of the rest of us have seemed to have gotten it. And with the 16 loads of laundry I'm doing or have done in the past 3 days and all the vacuuming and spraying, hopefully none of us will.

These pictures show what coming home with head lice will get a boy. Yep, buzz cuts.

Ben with his buzz cut:



Alex with his buzz cut: