1st and 2nd

The older boys started school last Monday. They are now both going for the full day! Crazy! They both seem to enjoy it enough. Easton's teacher is a yeller, like a mom heard her yelling on the first day :(. However, when I asked him about it, he said "Yeah, she yells. But just at Kaden and the bad kids." So I guess she won't be yelling at him. ;)

Cole doesn't really tell me much about whether he likes or doesn't like things. He just tells me facts... so I guess we'll see when he finally reveals his emotions about it.

Here's some pictures of them on the first day-

some summer fun, part 2

Here's another little update of recent life around our house.

Not only has this adorable little guy continued to be the best baby ever, but he has started rolling over like crazy! I put him down on his back and he is immediately on his tummy. He pushes up with his arms and starts to look around, like he's ready to take off crawling any minute. I can already tell he's going to keep me on my toes for the next 18 years. :)

A couple weekends ago, the boys and I went to Snowbird where my Aunt Martha had rented a condo for family to go spend time with my Abuelito. It was tons of fun! However, with Seth gone at a camp with young men, that left me to do all the fun activities (Alpine Slide, Huge Bouncy Tramps, Mechanical Bull) with the boys so I couldn't take any pictures. So here are the only pictures I took.

Brock with cousin Levi (my brother's son)

Future best friends and college roommates :)

(Levi is about 2 months younger than Brock.)

 Trey could not stay away from the camera

 We had a baby shower for my little sister Ginger (the sister who I still sometimes think of as 16! I can't imagine what it will be like when my youngest sister is becoming a mom. AGGHH!!)

She's due in less than a month now with a boy. Yes, that will make 8 grandsons for my parents and 0 granddaughters. Crazy! (And get this, Seth's parents have 9 grandsons and 0 granddaughters! What?!)

What a gorgeous mom-to-be she is!

 My sister-in-law, Tara and youngest sis, Linda. Beautiful, right?

 Trey showing off the little favors

   

 And here's my boys showing off the extra favors.

 By the time I grabbed my camera, Easton had eaten a lot so he said he'd make it look like a goatee. :)

Can't believe school starts in less than a week!! Crazy!

some summer fun

I still can't believe it's August! The summer has flown by and I haven't done near as many things as I was planning on. My poor boys. Next year when I don't have such a small {nursing} baby, I am totally making it up to them. 

Here's a little bit of the few things we've been up to:

Baseball. Baseball. And more baseball. In May and June, both Easton and Cole were in baseball so we had games every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. Can't even imagine how it will be in a few more years.

Waiting for homemade baked donuts to bake. First recipe I tried was a complete failure - on the recipe's part, not mine. :) Second was actually quite yummy. Not as good as real ones, but anything is better fried, so I wasn't expecting anything TOO great.

Lighting and watching fireworks

 Seven Peaks. Many times. (Thanks to our Pass of All Passes. :)

Yes, I realize there are no pictures of Cole. I only remembered my camera one time and it happened to be the same day Cole was tripped (by someone who shall remain nameless) and got scraped up so he spent most the time out with me.

 Loving the Best. Baby. Ever. He is 3.5 months and already sleeping from 8:30 til at least 5, sometimes 6. So crazy to me. My other boys weren't doing that til at least 6 months, sometimes much later. And he just did it all on his own. I did nothing to try and help that happen, except maybe pray a lot. ;)

Peyton finally got to play some baseball. He was always asking me when he'd get to play and I was able to find a Start Smart Baseball for 3 year olds. He loved it.

Playing a whole lot together. We haven't turned the Wii on all summer long (except the first week when I decided I was not going to let the whole summer be like that) and I've loved seeing their imaginations go crazy. :) They've invented so many games and done so many things together that weren't happening when the Wii was on. Surprisingly there has also been a whole lot less fighting. I love everything about taking the Wii away. :) It is now just something we will only turn on when we're all playing together. Mario Kart anyone?
This is Trey's idea of playing with Brock. So sweet of Trey to include him.

I'm really hoping to take full advantage of the last 3 weeks we have before school starts and have lots more fun.

am I four yet?

The whole day before Peyton's birthday he kept asking "Am I four yet?". The next day his brothers informed him he wasn't 4 right when he woke up, cause it had to be the exact time he was born. So then he had to wait til 3 p.m. But once he saw the clock after 3 p.m., he would shout "I"m 4! I'm 4!"

Birthday Breakfast Crepes

 Opening up presents (Yes, in pajamas. He had his first baseball practice and then we went to dinner and between the two places he got filthy, so the boys had to shower before presents and dessert.)

Birthday Whoopie Pies :) (I knew I'd be making a cake for his friend party and wanted to do something different.)

Caterpillar Birthday Cake for his friend party

On a side note, and for anyone with future 4 year olds, but mostly for me so I remember for Trey and Brock.... 4 year old's don't need planned activities for a party. All they want to do is play. Any future parties I throw for 4 year olds will be a swimming party or bouncy house. 

I planned fun bug activities - like

-'kill' the bugs with silly string

-search for bugs (I had scattered big plastic bugs) in the backyard and put them in jars with grass and sticks

-keep the balloon bugs in the air

-make a caterpillar magnet

Between those, cake and presents I thought that would last the 2 hours. We were done in about 1 hour and 15 minutes. :) But then they got to play - just what they wanted to do. (I did have a couple back up games planned but since I knew they really just wanted to play, I was totally okay just sitting back and being done.)

Happy Birthday to our amazing Peyton! He sure is quite the spunky, handful - but we wouldn't have him any other way!

longest weekend (and post) of my life

On Friday, Brock wasn't acting like his normal self. He was sleeping a lot and crying out in pain at random times. When he had a fever at like 5 p.m., I decided to call the doctor.

I had an appointment scheduled for 7:10. My sister Vannessa (miraculously) happened to be up at my house, hanging out. So she stayed with the other boys while I took Brock in. When I changed his diaper before leaving to the appointment I noticed his belly button was starting to look a little red and kind of bumping out.

Let me give you a couple reasons I was extra nervous for a basic sick baby check:

1) Seth was gone at AP Camp until late Saturday afternoon.

2) An 8 year old girl in our Stake had suddenly passed away Tuesday after having a fever and then some seizures. She was otherwise very healthy and it all happened very quickly. Her exact cause of death is unknown.

I took Brock in. While in the waiting room, he kept giving me the cutest smiles, which he hadn't done all day. I kept having the horrible thought that he was giving me some final smiles to remember him by. I had to constantly wipe away tears and tell myself I was overreacting. It was torture.

I calmed myself down and was told he had an ear infection and an umbilical hernia. I was given a prescription for the ear infection and was told that the hernia would go away and heal on it's own. I felt okay and started getting Brock dressed. Then the P.A. came back in and said he wanted to have the doctor double check his belly. She came in, pressed down on it and said I needed to take him to Primary Children's. It wasn't a hernia but she wasn't sure what it was.

More unknown. More tears.

I texted Vannessa and she immediately said she was fine staying with the boys. She was an angel through it all. Then she called my mom, who immediately drove to the hospital with my dad and sister, Linda. I have the B.E.S.T. family!!

This has already become too long, so if you're still reading it, I'm impressed. I really am trying to condense. But warning - there's still much more...

My dad gave Brock and me a blessing. Such comfort.

Many doctors looked at Brock. Talked with each other. Explained things to us that made no sense. Or maybe I was just too nervous to really pay attention.

It seemed they really didn't know exactly what it was. But they never made it seem like it was something serious. I was still expecting to be going home that night.

Then they started putting IVs in and drawing blood. One in his head that no blood came out of. One in his foot that they were able to get what they needed. Then blood in one of the tubes from that clotted so they needed to redraw some blood. Awful.

Then suddenly one doctor mentioned Brock would be staying in the hospital a couple days while they monitored him and gave him antibiotics to see if that would clear everything up. I was caught off guard.

Lots more tears. I felt like such a baby.

I remembered that on Saturday the parents of the young men up at camp with Seth would be going up. I contacted one of the moms on Facebook with my phone since I had none of their phone numbers. I asked her to call me before leaving up to the camp. That was after midnight. I had little hope she'd get it before having to go up.

Brock and I finished checking in at 2:30. I nursed him and then passed out on the fabulously comfortable pull out bed. He woke up at 6, hungry. While feeding him I noticed my phone's battery symbol was flashing. Now even if the mom did get the message, my phone would be dead and there'd be no way to get in touch with anyone. But she called at 6:45 and my phone worked just great. She was going to give Seth the message. Right after that, I tried calling Vannessa but the call failed cause there was no reception in the room (and I never had it again). And then immediately my phone died. A little miracle so Seth could come down soon.

Seth got the message, left camp early, made the 2.5 hour drive and got to the hospital around 3. All the while Brock's belly button was looking worse and worse. It looked extremely painful but he didn't seem to really be in pain.

The doctors made the decision he needed to have surgery that night to drain it. It wasn't a very invasive surgery and would only last about 30 minutes. But he still needed to have general anesthesia. Terrifying. He's only 2 and a half months old!! That also meant he couldn't eat for over 5 hours beforehand. That was so hard. He's still used to eating every 2-3 hours. Guess that explains the chubby cheeks.

The surgery went excellent. As soon as we were able to go see him he was already waking up. We took him straight up to the room and he finally ate. Or drank, whichever you prefer to call it.

He has a drain tube left sticking out of his belly button to be sure to get rid of any other infection that may continue forming inside before the antibiotics did their thing. He had to continue using strong antibiotics through an IV so we had to stay until Tuesday morning. I was looking and smelling fabulous! 

Every single nurse that checked on him, put in an IV or drew blood commented on how incredibly strong he was. It always took at least 2 - sometimes 3 - people to hold him down to do what they needed to. He also moves and wiggles way too much. He kept messing up the IVs. All in all, he had to get an IV in his head, one in right arm, two in left arm and one in each foot. So so sad.

He has a follow up tomorrow with the surgeon to make sure everything is healing well and looking good.

 Right now he's just about as good as new.