Sunday, March 30, 2008

More Butt Stories...

He's healed! Well, not quite...Sam had his surgery on Friday and is doing so well! It went so quick (too quick for me to even sit there and be sad and worried about it)! Despite the fit he threw when he awoke from the surgery, he has been handling it very well. He had such a hard time when he first came out of it that I couldn't even calm him down, so unfortunately they had to give him Demerol (spelling?) to relax him. When he finally started calming down I was able to get him to drink some juice, but because he had thrown such a fit, he threw it up all over me and I drove 2.5 hours home with wet clothes. Anyway, as soon as we went outside to the car he was just fine and didn't peep the whole way home. He slept great and when we got home and the pain meds wore off he was still doing great! He went to bed early that night and slept throughout the entire night. We haven't given him pain meds the whole time since we have been home! He has been so happy and I think that even though it is probably painful, it probably just feels so much better than it did before the surgery! It hurts him, of course, when we try cleaning it and stuff, but overall he is doing great. It hasn't been nearly like I thought it would be, which is such a huge blessing! Thanks to everyone who has been praying for him. I am so grateful for the ultimate power of prayer and the priesthood! We are hoping that he will heal up really fast and we wont have to deal with this ever again! Here's a picture of him I took with my phone before the surgery in his tiny little gown. He was sad because he was sooo hungry (he hadn't eaten since the night before), so he kept going to the diaper bag and trying to get food out of it. Cute but sad little guy...



Well, my sister found out on Thursday that they are having a healthy baby boy! Yay! They are naming him Aaron Kenneth Lindsay. It's so cute and fitting and we are so excited for them! I'm excited because that means Sam will have another boy cousin close to his age. Now only if we lived closer to his cousins... :(

Another thing I am excited about (not on the same level as the news of my new nephew, of course) is that we just ordered a double jogging stroller off ebay and I should be getting it this week! Yay! Now I don't have an excuse for being out of shape. I didn't want a single seater and then when we have another kid someday be out of luck, so I am preparing early. And it is soo cute! Here's a picture of what it will look like...I love the colors!



The General Young Womens broadcast was last night and we met at the Y.W. president's house. Four girls showed up (plus the presidency) which is a great turnout considering where we are and what the "activity" was. It was such a great conference. The main theme I picked up was standing steadfast, strong, and immovable. One of my favorite scriptures was quoted (Isaiah 41:10) and my favorite hymn was not only quoted a few times but it was also sang. I wanted to share the 3rd and 7th versus (my favorite):

Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I'll strengthen thee,help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I can not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake.


Those words have given me comfort and lifted me up on many occasions in my life and I just wanted to share them because for me, I feel the spirit testifying the truth of those words each time I hear them! I love my Savior and this gospel so much!

Monday, March 24, 2008

It's been a while...

Life is crazy! I will just start with what's new...Sam's appointment went okay last week. Besides the fact that it was a long 2.5 hour drive and I waited for 2 hours to finally get in and see the surgeon, I'm glad we went. Apparently, the surgery wasn't done right the first time in Idaho(of course). So he is scheduled for surgery again this Friday at 11:30am. And because the surgery wasn't done right the first time, it is going to be a lot more extensive and the healing process will take 4 weeks instead of 1.5 - 2 weeks. One thing I really like is that the surgery will be performed at the actual Phoenix Children's Surgical Center and not the hospital, so it wont feel as...creepy. I'm stressing over it and dreading the healing process and all that, but mostly I feel like it can't come soon enough! I am so tired of dealing with this dumb thing and seeing him in pain! Once it's all over it will be so nice! And we feel really blessed that it is something so minor. It definitely puts things into perspective when you see another family you love going through something harder than what you are going through yourself. It just reminds you that your problems are so temporal and small and that you will get through it! But please just keep Sam in your prayers!

Haha...you gotta love kids...it's already taken me an hour to get through this far of my blog. This is why it's so hard for me to find time to update it. When he finally does go down for a nap, I have to prioritize, and most of the time doing the dishes or the laundry takes precedence.

Anyway! I finally booked my plane ticket for my brother John and Micha's wedding. I will be back in Colorado (with Sam, of course) from May 3rd to May 10th and even though I am really not looking forward to doing the whole airport thing with Sam again, I am really excited! It will be about 5 weeks after his surgery so hopefully he is all healed up and good by then!

Well, my mom and dad were here this last weekend, as I mentioned before. They came Saturday and stayed the night. We were going to go to church the next day but Sam was still sick so mom and I stayed home with Sam and dad and Dave went to church. I went the last hour though, because I had to teach the lesson in Young Women's. Anyway, my dad left Sunday night to go back to Phoenix and mom, Sam, and I hung out until Tuesday when I took her back to Phoenix to be with my dad. I stayed in the hotel with them that night because Sam had his appointment there the next day. It was so fun to have them here! I absolutely loved that Sam was able to spend time with them and get to know them better. I miss them!


On Monday Dave's friend, Jenny, watched Sam for us while Dave took my mom and I on a tour of the mine. It was the first time I had seen it. It was actually pretty impressive. We had to wear these hard hats and orange ugly vests, though, so I felt pretty geeky. But it was fun!





Another thing my mom felt pretty lucky about is that Sam took his first steps while she was here (March 17th)! Yay! It was so funny because we were sitting there that night (Dave, Mom, Sam, and me) and Dave was saying how the first time Sam walks he hopes he isn't at work and my mom was saying how neat it would be if he did it while she was still there...and not even five minutes later he took his first steps! It was so exciting! We got it on video, but instead of posting that one, I'm posting a link to the video we took last night because he did a lot better! The video is kind of long (a little over 2 minutes) but at the very end he walks all the way to me, turns around and walks all the way back to his daddy! It was so exciting and so fun to see him walking! Please go check it out! Here it is: Sam Walking. I would put it right here on the blog but for some reason every time I try it doesn't load correctly or something.


The drive between Prescott (or, "Prescitt," as the locals call it...don't ask, because I have no idea why) and Bagdad is so pretty. There are so many huge cacti and stuff, but there is this one in particular about 16 miles outside of Bagdad that we really like, so this weekend we pulled off the road and took some pictures! Here some of them are. Other than my bangs being wacked out, they turned out so good and the lighting was so pretty!






On Saturday afternoon we went on a small hike in a little canyon area near by (7 miles away) with our friend (and our Bishop), Morgan, and two of his kids, Cassie and Lund. It was really cool and actually very pretty. We strapped Sam on Dave's back and he loved it! He just loves being outside! Not only was it cool to learn about all the desert plants and bugs and animals and stuff (Morgan and his kids were so informative and knew everything, it seemed!), but it was really cool to see the petroglyphs! Some of them were newer and put there by what we could only presume as idiots, but you can definitely tell which ones are authentic ancient Indian markings because they are pretty faded. It's definitely different surroundings than what we are used to experiencing in Colorado!




Well, yesterday was Easter and we gave Sam his first Easter basket! Actually, it was me giving all of us one...it had toys for Sam and candy for Dave and me. Sam wore a new outfit (I actually bought it about 5 months ago but it has just never fit him until now) and he looked so stylin' and cute! We had Easter dinner with our friends, the Johnsons and the Andersons, in the ward and had a really good time! And it was delicious! Thanks to my weird oven, my rolls I made were dyed black, but they tasted good! :)




Another thing that has been fun for me is I finally bought plants and flowers this weekend! We now have 7 house plants and a bunch of flowers in pretty pots or in the planter outside. I love them! I still need to plant some of them in the dirt in front of our front window, but I haven't had time to do it yet, due to the long time it will take to weed the whole area first. I love flowers. Anywho, next, we are going to till up our yard (weeds and dirt with a few grass blades here and there) and put down some new grass seed and then we will plant a veggie garden out back! I'm excited. This is all a first for me.

My little sissy, Cindi, finally finds out what she's having on Thursday and we are all so excited about that! Once we know we can start planning her shower we will be having in May! I'm so excited for her!

Anyway, that's about all I can think of at the moment. I will try to get on more often so that my posts aren't all huge novels! If you want to see more recent pictures of all this stuff going on, click here to see our newest album in Photobucket.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008


This is a picture of our apricot tree in our backyard starting to bloom... Sorry I haven't posted any updates about Sam yet...I have been extremely busy with him (he is now sick) and with trying to get my house somewhat together before my parents come on Saturday. There hasn't been anything new to report on his situation though, other than he has his consultation with one of the best pediatric surgeons in Phoenix(or so we hear) on Wednesday, March 19th. We are just praying that he can figure out what this has been caused from and take care of it for good!

Dave and I finally got callings...Dave is a teacher in Elders Quorum...apparently everyone just LOVES his lessons. And I am now the first counselor in the Young Women's Presidency! I have wanted to serve in the young women for a while now...I don't know if I wanted to necessarily be the first counselor, but I am way excited! It will be so fun and uplifting. Besides, there are only like 4 girls that show up to church on Sunday, so how hard can it be? :) The Wednesday night activities will be a little more challenging, because apparently most of the teenage girls from Bagdad go for something to do...so there is quite a turnout, I guess. Anyway, wish us luck!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Sam's bum...AGAIN

Well, unfortunately, we are probably going to have to take in Sam for surgery again. The problem that the surgery was supposed to get rid of in December (see our December blogs for more info) is still rearing it's nasty head. It keeps coming and going and when it has been flaring up we have just been taking care of it on our own, but I think after 4 months of it coming back we need to take it further. It's getting much worse and I just feel so bad for him. We have done everything we can to not have to make him go through that awful surgical procedure again (thinking about it makes me want to just...I don't know...scream and cry at the same time), but it clearly wasn't enough. I am waiting for the doctor to call me back today and then I will know more details. I will keep everyone updated when I know more. The problem itself isn't a big deal and will go away once we take care of that...so it's not that that's stressing me out...it's thinking about surgery again and wondering how in the crap it wasn't taken care of the first time, even with the antibiotic! I just don't want him to have to experience the hospital again and the pricking and the prodding and the anesthesia. It was such a traumatizing thing for him...and for us too...and long and tiring. I just hope this next time goes more smoothly and that they actually take care of it! Good thing he wont remember it all. The poor boy and all his bottom problems. Okay, I will stop venting on that now...

I wanted to post a couple cute pictures of Sam and his new friend, Will. I watched a friend's 2 year old son a couple times this week and Sam just loved having another kid in the house to play with. They were so cute together and played so well together. Sam just loves Will and followed him EVERYWHERE, like he was his big brother. It was so cute...and so nice because he actually forgot about me for a change! He loves his new friend!



Well, yesterday I tackled the project of painting our front room. It took me all day just to do 3 walls, due to our little guy...and the taping. I haven't decided yet if I am actually satisfied with the outcome. My intention was to do a light tan color, so I borrowed some dark brown and white paint from a friend (thanks Christa!) and mixed them together...how hard could that be, right? Well, apparently, the brown has some red in it (Dave was smart enough to be able to see it just by looking at it, but I guess I'm not that observant), so instead of getting tan, it made pink. Why pink, I still don't understand, but it wasn't what I was expecting at all. So, because I didn't want a baby pink color on my wall, I put more brown in it, knowing that it would be darker, but I'd rather have it darker if there was going to be less pink. So after realizing I was not going to be able to get the pink hue out completely, I just painted. When I got it done, it looked brownish tan with a pink tint to it, so it was alright. Well, by night time when it was completely dry (and especially today in the day light!) it looks totally pink....not even brown at all! I guess if I was being technical, it's more of a mauve color. So yes, I have pink walls. And actually...the color isn't that bad, and it surprisingly matches things pretty well. It's definitely not what I really want or what I'd pick out, but I don't hate it enough to actually change it. In fact I don't really hate it at all...it's just different. I will just deal with it and it will grow on me. It already has started to. Anyway...here are some pictures of our new pink living room...it's still bare because I haven't hung any decorations, pictures, or drapes, but it will get better. Maybe I will post a picture of the completed look when it's done...



And lastly....this is what happens when I leave Sam to feed mac n' cheese to himself...

Monday, March 3, 2008

Well, we didn't think we had to start brushing Sam's teeth this early, but per Sam's doctor last Monday, and because Sam now has 6 teeth (his lateral incisors came through!) we need to start right now... We were looking at a friends blog of their baby and how much he loved brushing his teeth so we thought it would be a fun new thing for Sam...boy, were we wrong. We must have forgotten how hard of a time our boy has with change. I even got him his own Diego toothbrush and toothpaste (one of his favorite shows), which he loved...until daddy shoved it in his mouth. For some reason, it was completely traumatizing for him...and very sad for me to watch daddy torturing him. But he will get used to it the more we do it, right?

His teeth in all their glory...


Before he knew what was coming, when he loved his Diego brush...


"Daddy how could you?!?"


Anyway...I thought I would post a couple more pictures. The next one is of a sunset view from our front porch...pretty huh? And then I thought I'd leave this blog with a happier note of Sam playing on his hippo...