Pioneer Day

We spent the day at the lake on Pioneer Day. We had so much fun, the kids loved it.
Lilah just chilled in the shade most of the day while the rest of us took turns keeping her company.

Here's Brady making a sand castle.

Jared & Garett taking a break from dunking each other.

Addison would not get out of the water and she just kept going further & further out.

I love Urban in just his swim trunks. He's so cute.

This picture makes me laugh. I was trying to get the scenery in the background and happened to catch this dad throwing his kid in the water. It kind of looks like he's floating through air.

Later that night we went home to once again have our own little firework show.

Eating snacks while watching the show. This is SO Urban. If there's food around he's pretty much oblivious to anything else going on.

I got Brady to do a little sparkler dance for me.

Garett wasn't going for it.

4th of July

I love the 4th of July. It's a low stress, relaxing holiday full of perfect weather, yummy food, fun fireworks, a beautiful reason to celebrate, and marvelous family & friends.

We spent most of the day at my sister's house. We played soccer, cooled off in the kiddie pools & had a BBQ. Once it started getting dark (which is pretty late in our neck of the woods) we lit off some fireworks. Of course sparklers are always a favorite among the kids. They kind of make me nervous though. The thought of my kids holding a stick of fire, especially around Addison's long hair, scares me a bit. They all did great though and had tons of fun. =)

Hmm, I'm kind of liking the blonde. Maybe I'll go back.

Only Heather could look this cute acting like a complete spaz!

I guess I was wrong, Addison looks pretty darn cute too! We told her she had to dance like Aunt Heather if she wanted to do any more fireworks. She was a little embarrassed. When we were looking back at these pictures she insisted that they must have been doing a rain dance to put out the fires. It does kind of look like it.

This must have been the next night. I don't really remember but I think we had a few left over sparklers & fireworks so we finished them off. Urban looks ready for bed already. I miss his longer hair...so cute.

Don't ask why she's wearing a backpack...I have no idea.

This is our little neighbor boy, Tristan. He was supposed to be in his room sleeping but we were too distracting so he sat and watched us through his window. Such a cutie.

By the way, sorry about the pictures. I don't have an editing program on this computer so I can't fix anything. They're all in the raw and I am a terrible photographer.

Spica Cast

I went a little crazy with pictures on this post but she is just so darn cute. Anyone I talk to on a regular basis probably got so sick of hearing me talk about this stinkin' cast but this was a really huge part of our lives for a couple of months. Delilah's hips were displaced, it's just something she was born with. This meant that the head of her femur did not sit right in the hip socket. The socket was too shallow to hold the bone properly and the bone was not in the correct position.

We tried a harness for 6 weeks starting when she was six weeks old then a brace for about a month when she was 6 months old. Neither one of them worked so the next step was the spica cast. This is a procedure where they put her under and inject a dye into her so they're able to see the placement of her hips. Once they're in the right position the doctor sets them with a cast. She had to wear the cast for 8 weeks. It was put on June 30th and removed August 30th.

It was kind of a bummer that it was on during the summer because we weren't able to take her swimming at all. Oh well, we managed.
Here are pictures of Ms Daisy the day before the procedure. She was always so happy and smiley. That was one of my greatest worries...that I would lose my happy girl and get a fuss bucket in return. She had also just started crawling, so I was concerned that she'd be pretty mad that she was immobilized.

Here she is getting her last bath for 8 weeks. Oh how I was not looking forward to having a smelly baby. What did I tell ya though? Always smiling!

These are pictures we took in the pre-op room. Lilah was so cute. She kept kicking her legs all over the place as if she knew it was the last time she'd be able to for a long time. The nurse kept calling her a boy, even after we said her name was Delilah. I must admit, she did look a bit boyish in those blue hospital jammies.

The hardest thing I have ever had to do in my entire life is hand my baby over to the anesthesiologist as they took her through doors that I could not enter. I've never felt so helpless. I'm getting teary again just thinking about it. Even though I knew this was a fairly non-invasive procedure and she'd be fine, it was still so so hard. The second hardest thing was watching my baby come out of the anesthesia. Talk about heart wrenching! She'd wake up for a few seconds just screaming, then she'd fall back into sleep, then she'd wince in her sleep and this just continued for a little while. HELPLESS. I once again started to cry and the nurse looked at me and asked if she was my first baby. I was a bit confused as to why she'd ask that. I told her that she was my third but the first one I've ever been in the hospital with (well, other than the time Addison stuck a Polly Pocket shoe up her nose). She just kind of smiled at me and went back to work. For a split second I thought that maybe I was over reacting. Nah, even if this was my tenth baby I'd be just as emotional. I have to say though, when she came out of it for good she just started giggling. That was the sweetest thing ever.

Here's our little bear checking out her new threads. The edges around the cast were very rough & sharp so the nurses wrapped mole skin around them as to not irritate her skin. They said normally when they do that the kids are screaming the whole time. Delilah just laid there and watched them do it. They all kept commenting on how good she was. That's my girl!

The first few days were a challenge, I'm not going to lie. I think I cried more during those 2 months than she did. Figuring out how to sleep, change diapers, sit her up, hold her, feed her, get her in a car seat, stroller, etc. It was awful, but we did just fine. After about the first week everything just became "normal". I didn't even think twice about doing all of those things. The funny thing is, I got so used to it all that when it came time for the cast to come off it took me a little while to get back in the habit of doing things the "right" way.

I would have to say that the most crushing part was holding her. I don't mean the physical act of holding her (although that was difficult) but just the feel of holding her. I so desperately wanted to hold her close and cuddle and feel her soft, squishy body up against me but all I could feel was that hard, scratchy cast. Babies are in this stage for such a short time & I just felt like I was being jipped some precious moments. Looking back though I realize I was not jipped at all. We are extremely blessed. Just look at this sweet girl, she's perfect. Our moments together were perfect too. Perhaps a bit unconventional, but perfect none the less.

This may have made the whole cast experience worth it. Is this not the cutest bum shot ever! hee hee, I love it.

Well what do you know? Still as happy as can be. She's all smiles in her bean bag chair. We found that this was the easiest way to sit her up. My sweet grandma & aunt Debbie sent her the cutest little lady bug bean bag chair.

It is absolutely amazing to me how adaptable children are. Within about 2 weeks she could get wherever she wanted to go. She was fast too! She would just use her little arms to slither all over the place. She was able to flip from her her stomach to her back but not the other way around. That big old bar got in her way.

These pictures are in the morning before the cast came off. She did so great with it on. I was really worried about the smell but luckily it never got too bad. She did not have a blow out the entire 8 weeks. A couple of days before it was to be taken off she did throw up and it got all down inside of her cast. I was just so grateful that we were almost done.

She loved having one hand down her cast. Not sure why.

These are marks the cast left just from rubbing on her for so long.

This is a rug burn she got because her skin was so sensitive from not having been exposed to anything for 8 weeks. It actually looks a lot better here, this picture was a couple of days later. I felt so bad, I never even thought about keeping her in long pants until her skin toughened up again. Poor thing.

She did really well once the cast was taken off. She was sore & fussy for a couple of days but not too bad. She did develop quite an attitude though. The entire time she was in the cast she never once threw a temper tantrum. She went a bit hog wild once she was out though. I'm not talking about crying or fussing but full on yelling & screaming in anger. I think she just realized that there was not much she could do in the cast so there was no point in fighting it. But once it was off & she knew there was nothing holding her back she would get so mad if she wasn't able to do something. Luckily that has calmed down in the last couple months.

At her 6 week check up the doctor said she looked great. Her hips still weren't quite where he'd like to see them but that should improve as she starts putting more weight on the joints by walking and such. We have a 6 month check up in April just to make sure. She still mostly slithered around after having the cast taken off but has since started crawling and walking around furniture. We're still waiting for her to walk on her own, it won't be too far off.

Sorry, I know I was a bit long winded but I just want to make sure I don't forget any of this stuff because I have a terrible memory.

MAJOR CATCH UP

I thought about not even trying to catch up and just start blogging about present happenings, but we have had too many wonderful memories that need to be documented. My Christmas gift to myself is getting caught up on my blog before the end of the year so everything that happened in 2010 is archived under the same year. I don't know why blogging has been so hard for me lately. I think it's partially because every time I sit down to do something I get lost for hours looking at old pictures. I've been sitting here laughing & crying just watching the kids grow up in photo form right before my eyes. It makes me so sad, but man are they beautiful little beings. I need to try to stay focused here. I have 2 days people...good luck to me!

Just plain cuteness!

Here are some pictures I've taken of the kids over the last month or so. They're completely random but oh so delightful. They make me smile so I thought I would share.

Princess Spider-girl.

A face only a mother could love...and boy do I!

"Looking like a fool with your hand down your pants!" Delilah always sucks on her 2 middle fingers and for some reason she loved putting her hand inside her cast. Silly girl

Please ignore my hideously ugly stairway down to the basement. Urban was throwing a tantrum on the stairs because he didn't want to do something (who knows what?) but some how all of his thrashing around and being pouty looked very model-esque to me. I don't know where my little boy went, he looks about 13 in these pictures.

I started to get a smirk out of him here after telling him to "work it, work it" and singing "I'm too sexy" trying to get him out of his mood and into model mode. Inappropriate? Possibly. But did it work? Judge for yourself, baby. Move over Rico Suave!

Seriously, could Lilah bear be any cuter? I think not!

I love this "squish" face that she makes. She does it all the time, but of course as soon as the camera comes out she stops. I almost got it here but her arm is in the way a bit.

I have always hoped that our children would get my vision and not Jared's so that we don't have to mess with glasses, but after seeing how cute they look in Jared's old glasses I almost started to have second thoughts. =)

Swim lessons

Addison took swim lessons back in June and loved it. She did really well too. The lessons were only 3 days a week for 2 weeks so she is by no means a professional swimmer...but don't tell her that. She thinks she's pretty good. It's actually kind of scary because we went to a lake a few weeks after her lessons and she kept going out further than she could reach because "she knows how to swim now". Luckily she had a life jacket on and someone was always right next to her.

I think her favorite part of the lessons was the hot tub. Everyday after they finished up, their instructor would take them to sit in the hot tub for a couple of minutes. The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever. I think it made them feel grown up.

Her lessons were at the athletic club we belong to so I just dropped Urban off in the nursery while Addison swam. He loved it! Every day he would get so excited to go on the slide and eat graham crackers.

Gotta love those bun cheeks hanging out of the swimsuit, so darn cute! Wouldn't it be so nice to just not care about stuff like that and look that cute while you're oblivious? =)

Baptism

Baptisms are so special and so neat to witness. Back in June I was able to see an amazing family be baptized.

Dana is a really good friend of mine who I have know for over 10 years now. We met at a dermatologist office that we both worked at in Las Vegas. As soon as we started talking we pretty much instantly clicked. She is so much fun and so sincere. Dana is truly an amazing person and I feel honored to be able to call her my friend. We have seen each other through a lot...marriage, infertility treatments, health problems, births, death, moves, jobs, happy times & sad. There have been periods in our lives when things would be crazy and life would get in the way and we'd lose touch for a couple months here or there, but we could always pick up that phone and start back up right where we left off without missing a beat.

I remember having lots of talks about the church. Dana would be curious about things here and there and I would try to answer her questions the best I could. Well fast forward 10 years, you can't imagine my surprise and joy when I got a phone call telling me that she, along with the rest of her sweet family, was going to be baptized. They had taken the missionary discussions and felt good about what they were taught. I was ecstatic, and I could tell she was too. The excitement in her voice brought tears to my eyes.

Luckily, since they live in Cedar City now, we were able to drive down to be there for it. It was so great to see Paul, Dana & Noah. They have so much support from their ward, you can tell that they are just loved. There were so many people at the baptism and the talks were all beautiful. I kept looking over at Dana and let me tell you, she did not stop grinning the entire time. I could just tell that she knew she was making the right decision and she could not wait to take this step in her life. I got so emotional watching the actual baptisms. The bishop teared up a bit with each one, but when he got to Dana he really got choked up. They both hugged afterwards and cried and you could just feel the love and the happiness and the Spirit in the room. I am so grateful that I got to be there for this special event.

Thank you so much Paul, Dana and Noah for letting me and my family share this wonderful day with you. I can't wait to be able to go to the temple with you in a year and watch you all be sealed together for all time & eternity. We love you!