Catch up...sort of..

Here are a few pictures of our Easter this year.  We went to Lava Hot Springs for their Easter celebration.  Grandma Charlotte puts a lot of time and effort into planning it and we have  a great time enjoying all the hard work.  The children always get to decorate hats(okay, James picks out creatures to put on his, we hot glue them and he’s done and I pick out flowers to hot glue on Katelynn and Carrie’s and theirs are done too) and hunt for eggs and eat breakfast and lunch and get prizes.  This year , a lot of family came down so it was a good time.  We spent the Saturday with Grunigs and Sunday with Browns.  It was the first time we sort of split a holiday between our families.  Kind of different.  My mom was in town on Easter Sunday because my sister had a baby!  And so did my sister in law two days later.  It was a crazy time.  So now I have a nephew’s birthday April 2, a niece’s birthday April 4, and mine April 6.  Pretty cool I think.

In other news, we have Carrie on oxygen at night.  At her 4 month checkup, I mentioned that I hear her every once in a while stop breathing and then take a big deep breath at night.  The doctor was already going to send us to an ENT, so I mentioned it at the ENT appointment too and by that night we had a pulse oximeter  to chart her oxygen levels.  The ENT called me back the next day and said that the results were troubling.  Her oxygen levels were dropping often during the night.  Within 10 minutes, I got a call from the ENT, a call from the man who brought the testing stuff over, and her pediatrician.  We had a respiratory therapist over that night showing us our new equipment.  We did another test that night with the oxygen on and it made a HUGE difference.   We have an oxygen pump and oxygen tanks in case the electricity goes out.  She has pretty big tonsils, so they will be taking those out in the next year or so and I hope that helps with the oxygen levels at night.   We’ll be going to a cardiologist next month instead of in August or September just to be make sure nothing else is going on.  And we’re going back to the ENT in about a week.  I am glad for the time we had where we didn’t have extra equipment or worries besides weight gain(which is still a bit of a concern to me).  It was a good time to get used to everything that comes with a new baby.

Katelynn loves Rapunzel(as you know if you watched that video from her birthday).  She likes to brush hair and she is not picky as to what hair she brushes, I mean, her blanket was Rapunzel hair one morning, a kitchen rag got brushed and carried around, anything long and flowy is Rapunzel hair.  In fact, when Carrie’s OT was over the other day, she got her hair brushed and combed. She also loves How to Train Your Dragon and is crazy about it.  She likes being outside a ton too.  I have to watch her a little closer in the front because she still doesn’t believe me that the road can be dangerous.  I will have to write some of her cute stories later when my brain is not shutting down. 

I am LOVING being a mom & wife right now, this time right now is so precious that I wish I could record our days and go back and watch them later.  Sure there are hard days, and I get pretty grumpy some days, but I am loving this time in my life and my family’s lives.

Easter clothes! 

 That is new baby Jonathan and Grandma Brown and Carrie in the chair back there.  What a crazy & great year to get to see my mom twice in less than 4 months!

Did I mention Katelynn LOVES swinging, I think she was on this swing for 10 or 15 minutes.

 And when we were in SLC this past weekend, we got to see my favorite room mate from college and her husband and one of their boys!  It was SO fun to reminisce and catch up, I just wish Georgia wasn’t so far so we could get together more often!

I love it when she lets me fix her hair!

going swimming!

Our "new" van!

James

James loves being outside and he loves fishing and loves looking for bugs, I mean he LOVES them and I LOVE that he LOVES them.  It means he is outside and running around and exploring.  The other day Katelynn was napping, I was feeding Carrie and James was outside digging for worms.  He stayed outside for a LOOOONG time, maybe an hour and a half or more.  And he found a ton of worms!  We still have them somewhere, waiting to take them fishing.  Also, we were in Utah looking for a van this past weekend and one of the places we  went had a mud puddle.  Wouldn’t you know, there was a caterpillar in that puddle.  We took it with us to the next place and he had it in a cup outside the door.  He was devastated when we left and someone had thrown it away.  At the same place, he got a balloon, a huge orange balloon.  As we walked outside, it popped.  He was sad for about 30 seconds, he looked at the string in his hand and the popped balloon on the end and said….This would be good for fishing and he stuffed it in his pocket.  Later that day, we visited the new mall in Salt Lake which has a creek running through it and it also has live fish in it.  He wanted to pull his new fishing line out and go fishing in the mall.  I have to say he was fairly disappointed when we told him he couldn’t do it and he couldn’t take any of the fish home.

Water collects fairly often in the gutter in front of our house and when it does, he is outside fishing.  He checks everyday to see if some water run off has gathered there.  If it has, he gets his chair and his fishing pole and sits out there and fishes.  Well today, there was water.  He came up with a brilliant plan to stop the water from draining, he built a sort of dam with rocks and dirt.  And he made a bridge over it. 

Also, while we were in SLC, we went to Tucanos.  They serve lots of meats and have a really yummy salad bar.  James is a bit of a picky eater so I was very surprised when they came around with chicken hearts and James wanted one!  I was more surprised when he popped it in his mouth, chewed it up and swallowed it!  Another thing, he had eaten a chicken wing and decided he wanted to bring the bone home for his puppy( it’s a stuffed puppy).  It’s in the car, I think we’ll have to get it out tomorrow.

Also, he has a new nickname for all of us.  He used to hate it when I would call him dear or honey.  He would say , “ Mom, I’m not a dear, I’m a boy!”  Well now if I call him honey or dear, he says, “ Mom, call me sweety-heart & I’ll call you sweety-heart too”  He’ll say “sweety heart mom” which I think is so cute!

He also builds fake fires everywhere.  I think we had 3 or 4 piles of sticks and logs in our backyard a couple weeks ago.  And in the front there are a couple too.

He is certainly one of a kind and I LOVE it.  I’m going to try to write down more of the really cute things that he says because I think every time I hear him say something that I want to remember it in 10 years or 20 or whatever.

We have a book from the library about dinosaurs and there are some pretty big dino names in there.  Today while we were eating, he started saying some of them-I can't hardly remember the names, so I was pretty excited that he learned them!  Did I mention that we have all sorts of "bones" and "fossils" in our yard.  Fish ones, frog ones, I don't think we've found any dino bones yet though.  The bones(rocks) are piling up on our front porch.  

 Here's our favorite fishing spot lately.  It's Ryder Park or Pond or something.  It's just about a 10 minute drive through town.

 He loves Carrie, loves holding her and likes to "watch" her for me when  I have to go in the other room to do something.

 We tried making silly putty with glue and liquid starch-it was fun stuff, but it didn't ever really turn into silly putty type stuff.  And the food coloring that I put in it came off all over you when you played with it.

 James and I went to get frozen yogurt the other day.  It was a pretty fun trip and I think he liked picking out a flavor and all the toppings he wanted.

 Oh yeah, check out that huge orange balloon. Katelynn had a green one.

Happy Easter!

Sunburned James and more

Here are a couple sunburned James' pictures.  He was a tough guy-he never complained about it hurting.  One time he did say-Mom, my eyes are getting smaller(hahaha) and then when it peeled, he didn't like that too much.  Don't worry, it looks a bazillion times better, its still a little red -I should mention that he got sunscreened 3 times while they were up there. 

And here are a couple other really cute ones I thought I'd throw on here.  The kids are sleeping and I'm almost tired, so why not!?

 Cute Katelynn!  She's learning to dress herself and gets so excited when she does...I DID IT!  Mom, I DID it!

 HAHA, I wash my windows way less times than I mop and that is not very often-work is good and when you get a spray bottle it is fun.  Maybe we'll have cleaner windows from now on?

 Sweet Carrie Jean.

 James and Katelynn's cake-he was more excited for her birthday than she was-he even opened some of her presents for her.

And here's Katelynn on her birthday-I know I said I didn't need to put any other birthday pictures up, but I couldn't resist.

Now, I am tired for real and going to bed!

OHHH yeah....

I noticed after I put up the post about Katelynn's birthday, I had not put anything up about my mom's visit or  my  Dad's visit or Carrie's baby blessing....and I think all of my pictures are on the computer. 

In January, my mom came to Idaho.  It was so nice to have her here.  And I loved having help then, because it was when I felt like things should be getting back to sort of normal and it I didn't think I was there yet. (Still am not there, but feeling more okay about it)  The kids had a lot of fun having Grandma here.  Jarom and Stephanie and Connor came  up and Amy & Warren came down-it was great!

Here's my Dad and Carrie.  I was so glad he got to come up for Carrie's baby blessing.  He only got to be here for just a little while, but it was so good to have him here.  Katelynn was CRAZY about Grandpa.  She just sat in his lap for a long time staring at his face and said over and over Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa.  He also brought her one of her favorite things-gum-3 whole packs of it.  By the time she went to bed that night she had about 11 pieces-don't worry, if you swallow gum, it definitely does not get stuck inside of you.

 Happy Valentine's Day-again-cute tutu outfit!  One of my favorites!  Grandma and Grandpa Clemons gave us that one.  I like it.... A LOT!

Oh yes. Trevor and James went icefishing..and the girls all got our nails painted.  It was fun and I'm excited for girl stuff with my girls as they get bigger.

 This is pre-sunburn...I ought to find an after picture.

 Dad, Amy and almost born baby, and me and the kiddos.

 Here we are again on Carrie's blessing day.  A lot more people came to the blessing, but we didn't get any pictures of people once we got home--it was a little crazy once we got back to the house.  Thanks to everyone who came!  Grandpa Mike came up from St. George and a lot of Trevor's family-Mindy and Beau, Grandma and Grandpa Clemons, and Uncle Justin and Aunt Dom and the whole crew and Trevor's best bud Ben and his girlfriend came up.  How about that crazy glare coming from behind us!

 I love baby blessings.  For those of you who don't know, it is one of the ordinances we do in our church-like getting baptized, getting married in the temple, taking the sacrament.  When babies are pretty young, their dad or sometimes someone else who holds the priesthood lays their hands on the baby's head and gives them a name and a blessing-the name is the name that they are known by and the blessing that follows is given as the father listens for inspiration of what to say. The blessing is usually given at the beginning of sacrament meeting in front of the congregation. I always feel like I know a little more about my baby after a baby blessing.  I am very excited to see Carrie develop and see how she will change the world. I love this sweet girl.

Here's another great video.

Both of the videos..yesterday's and today's made me tear up a  little bit.....