The Baby

My neighbor took these pictures of E for me. Here she is at 15 months old -
She is too adorable for words, so I'm just going to post the pictures -

Loving

Just loving my baby -

Baby's arm and other exciting happenings -

Boo performed in her first choir concert on Wednesday!
Earlier this year she told me she wanted to take voice lessons but never wants to sing in front of people. She started taking voice lessons and then signed up for choir at school. Now she just sang in front of hundreds of people! I am so proud of her!Baby E got her cast on Wednesday - PINK is her color! The doctor said she only has to have it on for two weeks! It is awesome that babies heal so quickly.
Here she is crawling despite the awkward cast -The next morning -

The cast has been signed by the whole neighborhood. Anyone else want to sign it?

Yesterday Little B, S, and E all got immunized -

I just don't understand this - the kids cried and got lollipops and bubbles, they cried again and got stickers and lunch at McDonalds. I comforted and held three crying kids and what did I get? Nodda!

S is going to pass up little B soon. S is in the 75th percentile in height and weight and little B is in the 15th percentile in weight and 25th in height. There are 2 years 2 months 3 lbs and 3 inches difference between them. E has finally gotten a clean bill of health with regards to her ear infections. No more antibiotics - Hurray!

Tonight is the long awaited much anticipated Pinewood Derby!

Even though G is the only cub scout in the family, Boo and A are making derby cars as well. It has been a time consuming undertaking getting three pinewood derby cars cut, sanded, painted, weighted and detailed. Last year, G won first place and the pressure is on to bring home another win. (Okay, really it is self-inflicted pressure because of my competitive nature). DH is having the kids do more of the work this time, so the cars may not even roll. We'll see. On another note, any one know if you can get lead poisining from melting split shot on a camp stove?

CRAWLING!!

I was excited when the baby started crawling because she was much happier being able to get around and would entertain herself for longer periods of time. Crawling also meant that we had to set up the gate at the top of the stairs. Unfortunately, my three year old didn't understand why this barrier had been put there and was wholly annoyed about it. In retaliation, he would leave the gate open after he passed through. Yep, I heard the "thump thump" as little legs and arms were rolling down the stairs and my heart jumped into my throat. Then the "thud" and a very loud 10 month old cry!

We checked her over, no bumps, bruises, or obvious injuries - she was hardly upset. I was relieved that she was okay. She didn't seem to want to get down and play, but I figured that she was somewhat traumatized by the whole incident and DH and I just held and coddled her until bedtime.

Fast forward to morning - I fed and changed the baby. She wasn't crying or in obvious pain, but didn't crawl around and play at all. She would just sit there and reach for toys with her left hand mostly. At this point I wasn't sure what to think. So I did what any other mother would do, I asked another mother to watch her and tell me what she thought. Michelle noticed that she was favoring her right arm and wouldn't put any weight on it. So I took my baby to the doctor. The doctor checked her over and confirmed that something was wrong with her arm and sent us to Primary Children's Medical Center. After x-rays and several doctor's consults the official diagnosis is a "Supracondylar Fracture of the Elbow" which is a break of the humerus just above the elbow. She was put in a splint for now and next week may need a cast.

Here she is with Grandma J when we got home from the hospital - Not too happy about the whole thing

This is her today - Happy baby! She is pretty annoyed about not being able to crawl. She'll probably figure out how to do it one-armed.

112 days

I spent some time yesterday taking pictures of the baby instead of getting dinner ready. This was way more fun.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Sports Injury

Apparantly - I have a sports injury. I guess child birth is a sport. Who'da thunk it?

I've been feeling pain near my belly button every time I bend over or turn or pick up something heavy. Two doctor visits, 4 blood tests, and one ultrasound later - it turns out that I've torn an abdominal muscle! Ouch. The good news is - it will heal. The bad news is - I'm supposed to rest and not do anything that causes pain - yeah right.

The baby was soooo worth every bit of pain and sickness I endured over the past 9 months. I was looking forward to feeling better after I had her, but I guess I'm not done yet. What lesson am I supposed to learn with this one??

By the way, I read up on torn abdominal muscles and apparantly it can happen if you don't warm up and stretch properly before exercising. I didn't know I needed to warm up and stretch before pushing out a baby. Ha-ha. Seriously, I think my abdominal muscles were already stretched to capacity and being so sick during pregnancy made it virtually impossible to retain any muscle tone whatsoever. I'm getting too old for this!

Novella -

WARNING - You are about to read a seriously long post -
There is a story behind this picture. Elyssa is one week old here. Her big brother G is holding her for the first time! I told the kids at the hospital that they would need to wash their hands or use hand sanitizer if they wanted to hold their baby sister. Well, G has a serious aversion to hand sanitizer and the only time he'll use soap is if he is home and can use perfume free bar soap in his bathroom. If he even smells hand sanitizer he begins gagging and often throws up. He throws up every time I put on the sunscreen or the bug spray too. Anyway, G finally decided to get his chance at holding his new sister and washed his hands just to do so. Don't think that G only washes his hands once a week. I actually make sure he washes several times a day, it's just that it is a big ordeal for him. BABY STEPS -
The kids just finished a session of swimming lessons. They are all so excited because they each passed their swimming levels.

If you know where this is, you should get a prize! My DH went on sort of an adventure to find this rock made of black basalt. It is covered in petroglyphs. He's been uncovering clues to its' whereabouts for a couple of months. Now he has found the elusive rock!

The 4th of July!

*Thanks to our family who showed up on the 4th of July to paint and work on electrical! Next up - CARPET!

*Here's Grandma L holding Elyssa. The baby got lots of hugs and kisses from Grandma's, Aunt's, and Uncle's that day.

*For the 4th we had a BBQ with our neighbors and my brother. We played Bocce ball and Croquet. Then went to see the fireworks display in Grantsville. We had a blast!

5th of July -

Here's our latest attempt at getting a picture of our whole family.

Here are the sweetest pictures of Elyssa that I took yesterday. Isn't she adorable. Oh how I love babies! I can still say that after she kept me up half the night.

Announcing Our New Arrival -

Oh happy day!

Little Elyssa is here at last.

She came without parade or much fuss,

but come she did, and fairly fast.

7 lbs. 5 oz.

20" long

She had a little jaundice on day 3 and had to be under the bili lights for a while.



Here she is today. She is 5 days old!

- Our Littlest Sweetie -

It's Official

I am 36 weeks, dilated to a 4, 50% effaced, and no longer on bed rest! Yay! Now I can start getting ready for this baby. I've got a nursery to decorate and some serious organizing to get done.

Thanks everyone for helping me out during the bed rest. Thanks especially to my Father-in-law who came and stayed most days and kept the kids happy, changed countless diapers, and did the housework like a champ! I always knew you had it in you!

On another note - Here are some pictures from our latest excursion to Black Rock -

The kids made it to the top for the first time!

Here's the crew just before sunset -
The sunset was beautiful!

The BASEMENT

Before sheet rock -After the sheet rock -

Boo and G in their alien spacesuits at Camp Invention -