Noah's Blessing

We decided to bless Noah today since G&G M were in town to pick up their car they left for Jill while she was here. It was a great day and we were able to share it with all our family except Jill and her family and Jennifer and her family. They were missed. Noah was still on the oxygen, but it worked out. He was blessed with a keen mind and intellect, that he will go on a mission, marry in the temple, be a husband and father, a good son, have a joyful spirit, with health and strength and with gifts of discernment. This was the first place we have gone together as a complete immediate family. It was nice! Aaron and I were sure glad to have all the help for our kids from our families during sacrament meeting! We will definitely have our hands full at church with all five very active kids when we are able to make it back (probably when Noah's off the oxygen). Daniel loved having everyone there and tried to sit on everyone's lap at least once. He kept going from person to person. I can't complain because it kept him busy and occupied. Afterward we wanted to have a picnic in the park with everyone, but the weather did not cooperate. We ended up having the luncheon at our house, but I think it was easier for everyone to visit. It was nice to share this day with our families! Thanks for all the help we got from everyone as well!!

Successful Surgery X2

I am very excited to say in the mail we received the special screw driver for the Wii yesterday. Aaron was able to go in and perform surgery on the Wii to extract the stuck toy CD Sarah put inside it. Yay for me because there is no Kids in the Park today. We are also stuck at home with Noah and it is very overcast and rainy today so the kids can't even go outside to play. I guess we will have a Wii marathon. However, Sarah has attempted to put some more toys and DVDs in the Wii, but we have caught her just in time. I am thinking we might need to move the Wii out of Sarah's reach....Here's a picture of Sarah with the offending toy CD who is casually inching toward the Wii with it again:

As for the second surgery, Noah had his circumcision done yesterday. The neonatologist in the NICU does not like to do them so we had to wait until we saw the pediatrician to get it done. After seeing the Pediatrician he wanted to wait until he was 40 weeks gestational age and when he was a bit more stable and not setting off the apnea alarms as much. So yesterday was Noah's lucky or unlucky day depending on how you want to look at it. I was a little nervous getting it done because when we got Daniel's done we had major problems afterward. We had problems with lots of bleeding and had to follow up with a Urologist--not fun. However, Noah has done well so far so I think everything will be ok. As for Sarah she has been making her own fun. She keeps finding markers and coloring with them, but not on paper. I keep trying to find her stash, but I haven't been able to find it yet. Until I do find her stash of markers I am left to clean up her artistic messes:

BUSTED!!

What To Do With These Kids?!!

Well Summer vacation has started and I am already counting down the days until school starts again. I am shamed to say that I don't think I could make it (or my kids either) as a home schooler mom. Anyway, we are stuck at home until Noah is off his oxygen and apnea monitor so it makes for some long days and a touch of cabin fever all around. However, my kids have been making their own fun at everyone's expense. Sarah decided to get her five a day fruits and veggies by eating my Cucumber Melon lotion the other morning. I am sure that tasted terrific. I hope it tasted so bad she won't attempt that again.

Sarah is also great example of monkey see monkey do. She has made many attempts at trying to put different cds or dvds in the Wii, but we have always caught her in time before she actually got them inside. Yesterday she was just a titch faster than Aaron was. The bad thing was it was a toy cd that is only about 2 inches big. The Wii accepted it and pulled it inside, but now it is stuck and we can't get it out. It happened in slow motion. Aaron saw her heading toward the Wii, but didn't make it in time to stop her. Right after she did it she turned around and looked at Aaron with a triumphant grin that said, "Look what I just did. I am such a big girl." Aaron didn't have the heart to get mad at her--she has him wrapped around her little finger. Aaron went to take the Wii apart to see if he could get the toy out, but it requires a special screw driver to open it. Aaron ordered one and requested overnight shipping on it. At this point being stuck home because of Noah this is a NEED and not a WANT so, yes, to save my sanity he overnighted it. Hopefully, we can fix it and get it up and running tomorrow. How could you get mad at this face?

Matthew has found his own fun. Matthew has finally decided at the beginning of this year that riding his bike was fun. I guess just riding your bike got a little boring so he has been playing chicken with cars. It started with me backing out of the drive way. He came up and parked his bike behind me and just sat there smiling and laughing because I couldn't go anywhere while he was there. I got mad, but that didn't stop him. He has been doing it to the neighbors as well. Once I found that out I had a talk with him and told him if he does it anymore he won't be able to ride his bike. I am keeping my fingers crossed he actually LISTENED to me this time.

Matthew and Josh started Kids in the Park Monday. It is a recreational program sponsored by our city to help relieve some summer boredom. Monday and Tuesday they play games and do activities for three hours. Wednesday is water day where they play with water guns, sprinklers and play water games. Thursday is field trip day where they go to places all around for fun field trips. Tomorrow they are going to a theater to see a movie. This is the third year Matthew and Josh have done this so they have gotten to know them. The leader that really got close to Matthew last year had a baby and did not come back for this year. Instead the lady in charge of the program hired her daughter who works with special needs kids to come to help out (mostly with Matthew) which was awesome. So far things are going well and I am hoping they stay that way.

Josh had a Neurology follow up appointment on Monday. He is doing well and staying seizure free as far as I know. The new medication he started made him quite moody and hard to be around. However, we had to lower his dosage because he ended up being on too much for his body weight. Since we have lowered the dosage he has become a lot more pleasant to be around. He is still more moody than when he started it, but it is tolerable now. We have another follow up in four months and I hope things will be going as well then as they are now.

So for now summer is in full swing and I still can't believe it. It seems like this school year went by entirely way too fast! Hopefully Noah will get off all the equipment soon so we can get out and have some fun that I decide to do instead of letting the kids come up with their own fun at our expense ;)!

10 Crazy Years

Our 10th anniversary is today and wow, what a crazy 10 years. This engagement picture makes us look so young (especially Aaron). Daniel is looking over my shoulder at our engagement picture and asking me who the guy is that's standing next to me. I am sure Aaron will really appreciate that comment (not really). I guess kids, especially ours, will make you age faster than anything. Who would have thought ten years would bring 5 kids under age 8 (what were we thinking?!?), 3 moves, 3 college degrees and lots of crazy adventures.I still don't feel old enough to get married let alone have children. I look back to that windy day and I am thankful I made the decision to get married to Aaron. I can still see him nervously waiting at the temple wondering if I was going to show up. I was wondering if I was going to show up as well ;)--good thing I did! The Lord knew what he was doing when he paired us up in our college karate class. He is the perfect partner for me!

I had no idea what the next 10 years would entail, but we have weathered it pretty well seeing as we are both still standing and somewhat sane--some may not agree with the sane part, though :). I am very thankful families are forever because there is no one else I would rather be with.

Not Another Thumb Sucker and Other Randomness

Matthew and Daniel were thumb suckers. Sarah has done her share after seeing Daniel suck his thumb. She somewhat picked up the habit for a short while--thank goodness I haven't seen her suck her thumb for a little bit even though Daniel still does. Now this isn't the first time I have caught Noah doing this and I have a feeling it won't be the last either: Sarah loves taking pictures. If she finds the camera anywhere she will pick it up and say, "Teez" (cheese) and take pictures of anything and everything. The funny thing is the camera is facing backwards most of the time. Daniel is Mr. Social in everything he does. Whether it's playing the game "Mummy" with Josh (yes that is Daniel all wrapped up in Josh's blankee) to sneaking in Josh's room with his pillow and blankee at night to sleep on the floor. Yesterday he even went over to the neighbor's house to play, but instead of ringing the doorbell he (with Matthew tagging along) decided to walk inside their house and see what was going on their kitchen. It scared the neighbor half to death. She was in the laundry room and didn't even know they were in her house until walking out of the laundry room and seeing two strange kids who weren't hers just standing in her kitchen. I am pretty sure she appreciated that one! We had a talk about that this afternoon and I am hoping it won't happen again, but you never know with them. They're both pretty funny kids.

Hard To Say Goodbye

Yesterday my sister-in-law Jill finally got approval from her insurance to transport her and her preemie Sydney back to her home in Texas. She was so excited to finally get back to her home after being here for 9 weeks straight. It was hard to see her go since she had become a part of our "home" family. Nine weeks ago I was starting down the road of pre-eclampsia and we knew I was not going to be able to stay pregnant much longer. She dropped everything and came to help me out with the kids. Little did we know that the night she came in I would be leaving very early the next morning to be admitted to the hospital. She was thrown into the chaos of taking care of four children on maybe two hours of sleep without any help. She did fabulous. When I got home from a surprise c-section and a 9 day stay at the hospital she took care of everything from laundry to dishes to taking care of all the kids--no easy task. She also was a support while I was dealing with having a preemie on a ventilator all the way to feeding issues. When things finally settled down and I was feeling well enough to take back over my post, that's when her problems began. The day before she was going to leave to go back to Texas we had to make an emergency run to take her to the hospital because she was having contractions and was bleeding. That is when we got the news she was going to be admitted and on complete and total bedrest for as long as her body could stay pregnant. She was able to stay pregnant for an additional two weeks until Sydney had to make her appearance at 27 weeks 6 days. What a roller coaster the next month was. However, Jill became an even bigger part of our home family. While visiting Sydney in the hospital she also got to participate in our Family Home Evenings and our movie nights. She was able to eat dinner with us and she drove Josh's carpool to school every morning. We were excited for her when we heard the news that her insurance was going to pay to transport her and Sydney back to a hospital by her home in Texas. She was able to leave yesterday, but it was hard to say goodbye. It will be best for her to be by her husband through the ups and downs of having a preemie. They made it safely back to Dallas last night riding a Lear Jet with a neonatal medical transport team. Now comes the hard part of trying to explain to the kids why their Aunt Jill isn't living with us anymore. We are all missing her. We are missing the Sonic drink runs and the starbursts :). We will eternally grateful and indebted to her for dropping everything to come to our aid and for all the help she gave us. Judging to what a wonderful job she did taking care of my kids she will be an excellent mother to Sydney. Thanks a ton Jill!!

Noah's 2 Month Appointment

Noah had his two month check up from the pediatrician today. Jill was kind enough to stay home with Daniel and Sarah because just getting out of the house with all Noah's stuff is a chore in itself. This picture shows how I am loaded down with my purse, the diaper bag, the apnea monitor, the oxygen and Noah in his car seat. I get a work out every time I go to the pediatrician! Luckily I got an awesome parking spot close to the door so I didn't have to lug this stuff too far today.

Since Noah is still setting off his apnea monitor we won't be changing anything. He only sets off the apnea monitor every few days, but when he does drop the heart rate too low or stops breathing he sometimes needs some stimulation to get going again. That's still a little scary, but we are learning how to work with him. He will still be on the oxygen as well as the apnea monitor until he can remember to breath all the time and not drop his heart rate. You know, I am really ok with that. I need that piece of mind to know he is doing ok before we take away everything. Other than that he loves to eat and his weight is up to 8 pounds 12 ounces, 37.5 cm head circumference and 21 inches long. He gained 1 pound 5 ounces in two weeks so that proves he loves to eat. Now I can nurse him all the time and don't have to worry about pumping and supplementing with a bottle of breast milk mixed with formula for the extra calories. YAY!! He is in the 3rd percentile for his weight and 10th percentile for his head size for a two month old. However, if you take into account his prematurity his adjusted age is only 10 days old. So if you look at the growth chart for a newborn, he is the 50th percentile for his height and weight which is great.

Today I got some help without even asking for it with Noah's bottle earlier: