Happy Birthday Eleanor!

Our sweet Eleanor has finally turned 3 (after much anticipation!) We had a fun party with family at the house. She is very blessed to have so many people who love her! We asked her what she would like for a birthday. All she would say consistently was a brown cake, with brown frosting, and lots of candles... so yes, she is only 3, but she has lots of candles (made into the shape of a 3, which you can't see in the pictures) on her cake. In addition, she got her very own purple bike.

Happy Birthday Princess!

New photos of the family

Thank you to my sister, Erica for taking these pictures. She is amazing for being able to get such good shots of uncooperative children! I was pleased with the way they turned out!

Bridal Veil Falls

The other day we took a drive up Provo Canyon and Brandon, Quincy, and Eleanor hiked up to the falls. I currently have the unpleasant experience of tendonitis in my right foot so I had to stay at the bottom with Benjamin. They had a good time, without any major incidents.... but mostly it was a good photo op.... I love the colors in the canyon right now!

Apples

Many of you are aware that Quincy and Eleanor both love apples. Quincy will tell you her favorite food is "apples and cheese". It is not uncommon for us to go through about 6 pounds of apples per week, and neither of the girls are very picky about the kind of apple-- they just love apples. I can't really complain either-- kids choosing healthy apples over junk food-- I'm all for it! However, because we don't restrict apple eating to just the kitchen I have the unfortunate experience of finding apple cores in just about every room of the house.... literally! The other evening I found these apple cores downstairs in our living room... If you are not able to see them very well I will describe them..... there is literally NO apple fruit left on these cores. the only thing left is the hard crusts that hold the seeds. At first I thought that maybe ants had gotten to the cores and "finished off" what Quincy and Eleanor had not eaten... but these were apples that they had gotten out of the refrigerator not 3 hours earlier and I don't think we have THAT many ants in our house! I guess I should clarify... Eleanor eats apples, and Quincy devours apples. Apparently one of these apples belonged to each girl and after Eleanor had her fill, Quincy was able to polish it off..... I'm impressed! Are you?!

Blessed!

My friend Kristy posted this on her blog and I loved it... thought I would share-- a little long, but well worth it!

How do you think of your children?

On any given day, would you say your children are a blessing or a burden? Here is a challenge to you…

How are you?”…“How is the baby?”…“How are your kids?”… We all hear these questions every day. Do you know a mom who always answers something like this: “Well, I haven’t killed my 2-year-old yet, so I guess that’s good.” Or, “I’m just exhausted,” or, “Things are absolutely crazy – I am so stressed out!” Maybe that frazzled, haggard, bewildered mommy is someone you know. Maybe it’s you. I know I’ve been there.

Here is my question to you today… are we bearing our blessings as burdens? Those babies that we dreamt of and prayed for, that we had so much fun choosing names for, that we counted the days to meet… are they burdens to us now? Those homes that we were ecstatic to move into… are they burdens now? That husband that we couldn’t live without, that we picked out the wedding dress for, that we cried and ached and waited by the phone for… is he a burden now? That job you needed, you wanted and prayed for, that provides food and clothing for your family… is it a burden now?

Sometimes it seems to me like a mantle we as moms must carry. We must be tired, we must be stressed out; we must be harried and frazzled, we must be lucky just to make it through the day. Are we bearing our blessings as burdens? Are we tired? Absolutely. As moms, we know about the 2 a.m. feedings, the nightmares, the wet beds, the midnight curfews. Do things get a little stressful between PTA meetings, dance class, the T-ball game, and dinner on the table at 6? Sure they do. Are husbands always a joy when they get home from work? No way. Is scrubbing the potty, doing the laundry, and cleaning the high chair tray the greatest thrill we’ve ever known? Of course not.

So how do look past the burdens and see the blessings of our families and our homes? Do you know any women who would give anything to have a baby to nurse at 2 a.m.? Anyone who would love to have those clothes we are sick of washing, or that house we just can’t keep clean. Do you know any women whose husbands aren’t coming home?

I challenge you to joy, to smile, to persevere. I challenge you to bear your burdens as blessings and watch as they multiply. And the next time someone asks you how you are, throw off that identity of stressed out, frazzled mommy, find your smile and answer, “I am blessed!”

I should have waited for help

I should have waited for help, I had no idea what I was in for. You just stick it in and wait-- or that is what I thought.

It all started a few day ago when Valynn and I started asking each other, “When was the last time you changed a poopy diaper for Benjamin?” When we started to do the math, we came up with it being about a week. So we started to watch and wait. With each pasing day I was starting to get more and more concerned. The kid is going to explode!-- I kept thinking to myself.

I knew we had a Dr. appointment coming up so I could ask about it. To the best of our remembering, it had been about a week and a half since his last bowel movement by the time we went to the Dr. I brought up the topic, the Dr. asked me some questions, and the boy answered most of them-- he was happy and his tummy wasn’t rock hard full of poop. The poor kid got a…. well, rectal exam. Poor guy, if I had only know that would have happened I wouldn’t have brought it up. Okay, yes I would have. I was worried. I was glad something was happening. The Dr. had some good news after pulling his little finger out of my son's bum. He said, “Well, there’s no hard dry poop in there,” as he showed me the trace of poop on his glove, “and his vault isn’t full either so he must just do a really good job of using all the food he gets.” The Dr. and I discussed a few options came to the conclusion that we would use a suppository.

Ok… they didn’t cover suppositories in the classes you take before you have babies. I know what they are. I grew up in a house with a dad that worked in the endo lab (you know the cameras down you throat and up your butt). Anyway, I guess I didn’t ask enough questions about them. The Dr. told me to use a little petroleum gel to lube it up, and that I might need to hold his legs together to keep it in, then it would dissolve and he should poop in the next couple of hours. The Dr. warned me it might be a big one. He even told me to expect a blow out. “If nothing happens, come back in and we will investigate a little more.”

But that is not what happened. And where my story begins.

I got some suppositories, the ones for little people-- but we were busy, and the doctor didn’t make it sound like we needed to hurry and do it, so when we finally got the girls to bed and the boy was crashing hard, Valynn and I decided we would do it the next day. Valynn had to go to work in the morning and the boy and I were still sleeping, so it didn’t happen before she left. When I woke up, I checked to see if he had pooed in the night, and still nothing. So, I figured it was time. It didn’t sound hard-- you just stick it in, right? So, I got ready for this fun new adventure: With petroleum gel on my finger, I pulled out of the little tub what looked like to me a birthday cake candle with no wick. I have to admit, I didn’t know how this was going to help much at all, but that’s the magic of medicine.

I didn’t think he would really even notice this thing go in-- so I lubed up the suppository and with my free hand tried to wrangle his legs and feet so I could get at my target. He is a very wiggly kid! Without being too graphic, it went in. We took it nice and slow and at first he didn’t seem to mind what was going on at all, and it was done. Tadah! As I tried to then get his legs down while keeping them together that candle wax thing shot out of him like a rocket. Not kidding! It was in, then just like that, it was out! A little shocked, and not happy about it, but not put off to much-- I mean it went in easy enough… I will just put it back in! This time it was not as un-noticed by my little friend and he squirmed and made some funny faces. How could blame him? This time I held it in for a few seconds to make sure it would stay and then, moving with some urgency, I moved his legs down and together. I even went to squeeze his bum cheeks together and as I looked down to admire my work… there that damn little thing sat-- right there on the changing table like I had never put it in. Not happy, either of us, we tried it again-- him crying and me close to it!

This is a bum we are talking about… a cute little one, yes, but it is a bum! Hence to say, it was starting to smell quite badly. Benjamin had a pooing problem, not a farting problem, and as the week and a half had passed, his farts had gotten stinker and stinker.

As I wemt to put in the suppository for what I was going to make sure was the last time (even if I had to put my finger in the poor guy’s bum) he pooped and pooped and pooped: On me, on him, and all over the changing table. And then, he decided that he couldn’t do one with out the other, so he peed all over everything.

As I sat there, poop in hand, thinking back to the doctor’s office, thinking about where this had all gone wrong, and how this had gone nothing like the way it was supposed to, I then realized: I should have waited for help.

In the past few years I have had the experience of seeing three of my dear friends lose one of their parents. The first was my next door neighbor Lizzi Whitehead, Calvin Whitehead's mom who suffered from heart problems. The second was Michele Pereira, Melissa Peterson's mom, who died July 18, 2008 in a very sad accident. The third was Dan Bishop, Shannon Adams' dad was passed away earlier today following a very sudden and serious health condition. Although I have been trained as a nurse to understand the grieving cycle, and taught how to be "helpful "in these situations it is different to experiencing death in the role of a health professional vs. a friend who knew and loved those who have died. I still don't know what to do to help my friends through these difficult times. Shannon, as the one who has most recently lost you loving dad, know that we are thinking about and praying for you and your family.