sammy boy turns 6

Sam's Birthday was last week, and we did our best to make it a great one.  I think it was a success.
Sam woke up to streamers hanging from the doorway and a house full of decorations on the main floor.

He woke up with a grin and received lots of hugs and happy Birthday's from the family.
We let him open one present that morning, because it was beginning to look like he was going to burst if he had to wait another second.  We saved the rest of the gifts for later that day.

He got to pick out any breakfast of his choosing, and he choose this.  Oh boy.  I relented for the Birthday boy, and we started the day with some serious doses of sugar. 

He requested doughnuts for his treat to school.  I happily agreed.  It was so much easier than Mary's choice of white chocolate covered oreo truffles.  :)

He had a great time at school, and felt special.

After school, it was off to the doctor.  Sam has had this horrible, weird rash on his bum, and it has been killing him.

The doctor ended up taking almost 2 hours!!!!  We ended up finishing off all of the doughnuts that Sam had left over from school, because the appointment went well into dinner time.  The kids thought this was great, I was bordering anxiety watching all of that sugar go down their throats.

To my complete shock and surprise, we discovered that Sam had strep.  They swabbed his throat and his bum, and he tested positive for strep in both areas!!!  He hadn't even had a sore throat or a fever.  I was sure the test was wrong, but it wasn't.  Sam had sores in his throat, and apparently had a fever as well, when they checked his temp.  I was completely baffled. 

I then remembered that William had been complaining of a "sore tongue"  which means a sore throat, the past few days.  They checked him, and he had strep too!

Both boys had been playing and running around all day, and were acting just fine at the appointment too.  It was so weird to me, but I am grateful we caught it.

We came home with two bags of antibiotics.  While we were there, the doctor also discovered something that is going on with Sam's heart.  He was very vague, and played it off as just something that needs to be looked into soon, but he sure spent a lot of time listening to Sam's heart, and of course, I am now worried.  Sam goes back in about a month for a follow up on his heart. (the strep has to be completely out of his system) I am trying not to worry a ton, but it nags at me often.

We came home and ate Sam's birthday dinner of ableskievers, and then he opened the rest of his presents.  We did cake and he blew out the candles as well.

He wanted a lego cake, and with the help of Pinterest, this is the best I could do.  Of course, it doesn't look like the perfect picture of the perfect cake on Pinterest, but Sam was thrilled with it, therefore, so was I.  Go me.

Sam's Birthday wish, when he blew out the candles, was to be able to play with his friend Landon again.  It about broke our hearts.  Since we moved from Herriman, Landon's family has also sold their house, and will be moving in about a week. 

Ben and I decided to make Sam's wish come true (and also Mary's, because her best friend Taylor is Landon's sister) and we made the trek to Herriman yesterday.  Ben and I switched off at the temple, while the older two played with Landon and Taylor.  I was also able to visit with Trudy, and had a great time.  It was fun to be with them again. We ate at the Macaroni Grill on our way home. It was a really fun day.

Sam's rollerblades that he ordered will be here tomorrow, and then all of the Birthday celebrations will be complete!  We sure love our Sammy boy with all of our hearts, and it is an awesome journey to watch him grow and become the sweet boy that he is.

An Interview with Sam:

Favorite Color:  Orange
Favorite Show:  Puss N' Boots
School:  Heber Valley Elementary  Teacher:  Mrs. Lloyd
Best Friends:  Landon, Carter, Elijah, Owen, Bransen, Dillon
Favorite Toys:  Hulk hands, Captain America Shield, Hulk Figurine
Favorite Food:  Puppy Chow, Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Favorite Animal: Cheetah, elephant
Favorite Game :tag, Ninja
What do you want to be when you grow up: vet, builder
Something really cool that you can do: walk up the walls, and run really fast
Favorite sport: soccer, because I run so fast

monster jam

Sam's Birthday is this week, and for the past little while, I have been wondering what to get him, that he didn't already get for Christmas just a few months ago.

And then it came to me....a monster truck rally!  A good ol' mullet sportin', white trash smellin', big truck revin', car smashin', monster jam.  Perfect.

Sam is in love with monster trucks.  He just can't get over the sheer size, noise and monsterness of it all.  I decided to look and see when there would be a monster truck rally in our area, and I was so excited to see that there would be one in Salt Lake the very week of Sam's Birthday.

Ben's parents came to visit this weekend, so they decided to join in the monster truck madness too.
I stayed home with Luke and William (the Monster Jam was extremely loud, and too loud for little ones), and Sam took off with Mary, Ben, Ben's parent's and some of Ben's relatives to go see the Monster Jam. 

I kept picturing it in my head all day, as they were at the event.  The look on Sam's face when he saw the trucks, the noise, and the whole experience.  I had no doubt that Sam would love it.

Sam has been counting down the days to this FOREVER!  He has been so excited.  I don't think it disappointed either.

We all met up at Cafe Rio in Park City after the monster Jam, where I got low down from everyone about the experience.  Sounds like it was great!  Sam was exhausted by that point, but did continue to ask when the next one would be.  :)

And so it is official.  My boy has been to a monster truck rally.  One boy down...two more to go.

valeninemonthubes...yup another one of those posts

Valentines...nine months old....and tubes.  You get three posts in one.

Valentines day was fun at our house.  I normally go all out for holidays, but right now, in our cramped quarters and with the decor packed away, holidays have been smaller, but no less fun or happy at our house.

The kiddos woke up to a table with balloons, chocolates, candies and a toy for each of them.  It was cute to see their faces light up at the sight.

Mary worked all week on Valentines for each of us, and they were adorable.  Valentine's Day is her favorite holiday, and she put a lot of time and effort into her Valentines.  She is such a sweet girl.

Once the kids were off to school with their homemade valentine boxes and bags of valentines for their friends, I took Luke to Primary Children's Hospital to get tubes in his ears.
I guess that 9 ear infections in 8 months isn't exactly great, not to mention the thick mucus that hasn't drained from his ears since Thanksgiving.

The wait for the surgery was 2 1/2 hours, the actual procedure was 3 minutes.

he looked so cute in his little hospital outfit

um, yeah.  That is the FLOOR of an exam room, where we hung out for 90 minutes.  Fun.

 They put Luke to sleep with a mask, so he didn't have to get an IV.  When the tubes were done, the surgeon came in with a big cheesy grin on his face.  He said that he could not believe how much "gunk" they ended up clearing from Luke's ears, and he was elated that Luke was going to feel "like a whole new baby."  I have never seen a doctor that loved his job and his patients so much.  He was genuinely happy and excited for Luke to feel so much better.

The recovery was smooth, and we were home in time to get Mary and Sam from school and see their grins as they carried their boxes full of valentines to the car.

We had heart shaped pizza (which William literally ate half of) and root beer for dinner, and then it was time for the sitter to come and Ben and I were off.  We went to this cute little cottage restaurant in Midway and had cheesecake and ice cream Sunday's.  It was a very fun date and I loved being able to spend time with my favorite buddy and eternal friend. We brought Luke with us, but he was still recovering from the anesthesia, so he was snoozing away the whole time.

It was a great Valentine's Day.

I have missed the past few months of updates on Luke, and since I have all of his stats...here goes a nine month update.

He is 16 lbs 10 oz
He is 10% for weight and 30% for height.
He has 5 teeth and is cutting 2 more.
He started crawling a few weeks ago.  He crawls with one knee on the ground like normal,  and one knee off the ground.  It is hilarious, but it works for him.

He has been to the doctor 11 times in two months.  All for RSV, pneumonia and constant ear infections. As of two days ago, his right lung is still infected, but almost cleared of the pneumonia. That stuff just seems to linger!
He eats solids, formula and table food.  His favorite is bananas.
Ever since the tubes, I have noticed that his hearing is greatly improved.  He has always been curious, but now he is even more so, because of all the new sounds he can finally hear.
He is a VERY happy baby.  He will smile at and go to anyone. Even when he was extremely sick, he still had a smile for us every now and then.

The doctor calls him iron man, because apparently his iron numbers are amazing.
He laughs easily, he smiles easily, and he loves to play.
We love him so much and kiss on him all day long.

I think that is about it for now.  Up next...The Monster Jam.  Oh yeah.

a blessed day

If you want to, especially family, please leave a note to Mary as a comment on this blog, so she can put it in her journal.  Thanks!  To comment, just click the link at the bottom of the post.


Yesterday will definitely go down as one of the most special day's of my life, and hopefully Mary's too.
Mary was baptized yesterday.

It was a wonderful event!  Only my parents were able to make it, so the whole thing was very small and simple.  At first I was really sad that we didn't have more support there for Mary, but it ended up being exactly what made it so special.

The spirit there was so incredibly powerful, and the spirit that was emanating off of Mary was so sweet, pure, and precious.  She just had this glow around her, and it filled the whole room.  Where physical bodies lacked, the spirit made up for.  In our hearts, the room was full.

My parents gave the talks, and they were perfect for Mary.  It was so neat to watch my parents talking to Mary, and teaching her the Gospel.  It meant so much to me, and I know that Mary will have the picture in her mind for the rest of her life.  I could feel that it made a big impact on her.

Mary was the only one from our ward being baptised, and she was the first, so we had the room to ourselves.  Her best friend from school came, as well as the primary presidency and a member of the bishopric. 

Mary looked beautiful.  She was glowing inside and out. She seemed  a little nervous at first, but I know that she realized the importance of the event, and she was excited as well. This has been a long awaited day for her.

After everything was done, no one wanted to leave.  We all just lingered.  It was such a special event, and the feeling was incredible.

As a parent, I knew I would feel joy, but I did not expect the amount of joy I felt.  It was amazing to see my daughter make such an important decision and make such a special covenant with the Lord.  For me, this is all that matters.  There are a lot of things I work toward with my children, but this, by far is the most important.  All I want is for my family to stay strong in the Gospel, my children to keep the faith, and for our family to be together forever, even after death.  To see my daughter take her first step toward this, made my heart feel like it could burst with happiness.

 

After the baptism and confirmation, we took my parents over to see our house.  The framing and walls are all done. It was really fun to be able to share this with my parents.  This is our dream home, and something that we have put a lot of time and effort in.  It is something that we are so excited about, and it was really good to be able to show it to my parents, talk to them about our dreams with this house, show them some ideas we have, and to have them show their excitement and joy for us.  I always feel like home isn't quite home until family and friends have been in it.  Now our home is one step closer official!

After the house, we went out to eat.  Ben and I discovered a really yummy cafe here.  After lunch, we went to Dairy Keen (for Mary's special baptism day treat), and had ice cream and milk shakes.  Dairy Keen is kind of famous here in in Heber.  It is a really cute hamburger, milkshake place that has trains running all through it, lego tables, train tables, and it is really kid friendly.

After lunch, we said our goodbyes to grandma and grandpa and came home.  Mary opened a few gifts, like scriptures, a ctr necklace, and some other stuff, and we just hung out the rest of the day. 

It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day, and the kids were even able to play outside for a while!  Talk about a gift from heaven.

The day was wonderful, Mary was glowing, and it was so incredibly special. Congratulations Mary girl.