Last Update For a While

Well, I thought I would write one last update before we leave. We are officially leaving Colorado on Wednesday after the movers get us all packed up. It will be a very sad day for us, but when we get to Bagdad and settle in I'm sure we will be very happy! I think one of the things Dave and I are most excited for is to be able to sleep in our new King size bed for the first time. Yay!


Even though Sam's birthday isn't until February 11th, we had his birthday party tonight so that all his family could be there. It wasn't much of a party though. I don't know if he is getting sick or if he just senses the stress all around of us leaving, but he hasn't been himself so he didn't get into the whole cake thing at all and he was fussy the whole time. Oh well! Such is life!

Anyway, we probably wont have internet set up there for a little while, so wish us all luck and I will update everyone when we do again!

Bagdad, here we come!

Well, it is official...we are headed to Bagdad! Bagdad, Arizona, that is. Dave officially accepted the position on Monday and he will be starting his job on Monday, January 28th. He would be the Industrial Hygienist for a mining company called Phelps Dodge (part of a corporation called Freeport McMoran). We have a lot of mixed emotions about it, but mostly we are very excited. It is going to be a great opportunity for him, career-wise, and there are many great benefits, perks, and opportunities that come along with the job. We have been praying for months for a job opportunity and we never expected such a great one right off the bat. We are definately thanking the Lord every chance we get!

It might be a small mining town in the middle of nowhere, but I think we can handle it. It will be a new adventure for both of us, as both of us have always lived in a normal/big city. The closest it is to any normal size city is about an hour and a half to Prescott, and about 2 hours away from Pheonix. But, even though it's a small town there is still a ward/branch building there, so at least we wont have to drive an hour and a half to church every week!

We don't know the day we are officially driving down there yet because we have to find out first how soon we can move into one of the houses down there. Everything in the town is owned by the company, including the houses, so we will be paying rent to them to live in one of the houses for a very reasonable price.

There are a lot of other small details that I wont go into here (if you want to hear more, email or call us), but basically we are excited! Wish us luck!

Yes, we are alive!

Well, it has been about a month since our last post, and a lot has happened during that time, which is why I haven't had the time to write. Okay, I guess I should rephrase that - I haven't taken the time. So now I am going to update you all on everything that has been going on in our lives.


First of all, Dave finally graduated with his BA in Health Science on December 14th! Woo hoo! No more school - at least in Rexburg, anyway. His whole family came out for it, even though only Mom and Dad could go to the graduation. The girls (Jessica, Mary, Jenny, and Jeana) just babysat Sam, which we really appreciated! The gradutaion went really well and we enjoyed hearing from President Clark and Sister Tanner. Mostly, we were just excited to be done! So, after 4.5 long, hard, and stressful years he is done - and he did it with a 3.8 GPA. We are all so proud of Dave!


That weekend was pretty jam-packed. We had graduation, moving, Grandma's surprise birthday party (which was also very fun!), etc. That Thursday night (the night before gradutaion) when the Meyers all got into town they helped us pack up the truck Dave's friend let us borrow. Moving and packing is stressful enough as it is, but when you're doing it in the dark it's even worse - especially with a baby. Yes, that's right, the power was out in our whole apartment complex for about 4-5 hours that night. Perfect timing. Sam was down for a nap when it went out and the family all arrived and we tried to all do it in the dark, while one or two people held a flashlight. Then when Sam woke up he cried for about an hour strait while we all packed because he didn't remember or recognize the family and it was dark and he didn't know what was going on. But it finally came back on right at bed time - when we were done, of course.


Anyway, there was a lot of moving going on this last month - we moved back to Colorado to live with Dave's family until we figure out what's going on, Jason and Brittany (Dave's brother and his wife) moved back to Rexburg to finish school and Cindi and Braxton (my sister and her hubby) also moved to Rexburg to start work at Melaleuca and get out on their own. So Dave had to quickly go to Idaho Falls a few hours before his graduation and get the Uhaul trailor we rented, we packed it, went to graduation, came home and did more packing that night, and then early Saturday morning (about 5am) Dave left to Colorado with the first load of our things. He unloaded our stuff at his parent's house, loaded Jason and Brittany's things, went to my parent's house in Highlands Ranch and loaded Cindi and Braxton's things (Dave wasn't doing this all on his own, by the way - they all helped), and then he and Jason headed back to Rexburg the very next morning. They unloaded Jason, Brittany, Cindi, and Braxton's things at Grandma Mary's house and then Jason drove one of our cars (packed with more of our stuff) back to Colorado the very next morning. Whew!

Then, because of Sam's bottom and the surgeon wanting to keep an eye on it, Dave, Sam, and I didn't actually drive our other car down to Colorado with the rest of our stuff until that next Thursday. We had a truck, a trailor, and 2 car loads full of stuff, and we still had to leave things behind! Well, we learned what not to do the next time we move.

So, now we are here in Colorado, back with family and loving it. We miss Rexburg, but honestly, we are SO glad to be done! Sam's bottom had a few more break-outs since then, but over the last week it has been doing great and healing up wonderfully! Other than his cold he has had, he is doing great!

Okay, onto the next item of business - my little sister, Cindi, also announced last month that she is now pregnant! She is due on Aug. 12 of this year and both her and Braxton are very excited to be parents. We are all happy for them and I can't wait to have another cousin for Sam to play with! She has her first apointment on Monday! We just all wish they could be closer. :( But they are very happy in Rexburg to have their own place. They just started their jobs at Melaleuca this week and talking to them about it has, oddly enough, made me miss it. Oh well, I wouldn't trade what I am doing now for anything!


Brooke, Dave's sister in Utah, had her baby last week and we are all very excited about that - especially Dave, as it is his first blood nephew! Baby Davyn was born on December 27 at 1:15 and is 8 lbs. 3 oz. Dave got to see them when he was in Utah a couple days ago and says he is very cute. He took pictures on his phone and yes, he is adorable. We are all very excited for her. And if we do end up moving to Utah, it means Sam will have another cousin to play with!

I guess that moves me onto our next topic of conversation - jobs. I'm not going to get into details but basically he has been offered one in Arizona and he has interviewed with one in Utah. We wont find out more until tomorrow and will have a decision made by monday for sure. There are pros and cons to both so we will just have to determine which would be better for us. We have definately been blessed with these two opportunities though - more than we expected and we are very greatful for that. So we will keep everyone updated on the outcome.


Christmas went really well. Christmas eve we spent here with the Meyers and had a little Christmas Eve program, as is tradition. People sang, played instruments, and we had a fun little nativity skit. Jason played Joseph, Brittany played Mary, Jennifer and myself played wise-women, Mary played the inn-keeper, Jeana played a sheppard, and of course, little Sam played baby Jesus. It was so cute. A sheet was put up when Mary was "giving bith," while we put Sam in the manger. He cried at the perfect time, but then once he was in and the sheet was lowered he was quiet and happy. It was adorable.


Anyway, Christmas morning went great. It was a joy to see Sam on his first Christmas. When you have children it definately changes - you don't care what presents you get - only what your kid gets. :) He didn't quite know what to do about the presents but we tried teaching him how to open them. He got a lot of fun toys! It was a good Christmas, probably one of my favorites.

New years was ...interesting. It didn't quite feel like New years, but when does it ever? Dave and I spent it with Braxton and Cindi, which was fun. We just watched Lost until midnight, paused it a minute before midnight, poored some cider in some plastic cups, toasted when the new year rand in, and then finished Lost. It was like any other night, but we were in good company.

Speaking of Lost, we are excited for it to start again in a couple of weeks and way excited for Prison Break to start again on Monday, but we are sad about our other shows that aren't starting or finishing because of the Writers Strike! I wish it would end! Yes, we are a little too dependant on our T.V. shows.


Sam has been growing so much and is advancing so much, especially over the last few weeks we have been back in Colorado! He is doing so many fun things, like waving, dancing, sticking out his tongue, standing, getting into everything, and playing with his new favorite friend, Macey (the Meyer's dog). We will miss family so much when we have to move again!

Anyway, I think that about covers everything. I will write more when anything new happens. Oh, and if you want to see anymore of these pictures, you can go to our Photobucket website. Happy new year everyone!

Sam Bum Update

Thanks to everyone who has kept Sam in their prayers and have been thinking of us! I am relieved to say that we are done with the whole hospital thing, and it feels so good! We were scheduled to go in this morning, but yesterday afternoon Sam started screaming and crying in pain and there was nothing I could do to comfort him, so I checked his bum and it looked 10 times worse than it did that morning, so I took him to see the surgeon and he told us we needed to go admit him to the hospital that night and that they would do it then because it probably couldn't wait. Oh, and I was wrong...it wasn't a sist, even though I heard nurses calling it that. It was just an abscess. Anyway, we arrived at the hospital at about 5:15pm and due to some annoying circumstances (Sam having to have an empty stomach and the fact that there were 3 emergency C-sections that night), he didn't actually get into surgery until about 11pm. During that waiting time though, he did surprisingly well. He was going 8 hours tops without food and his bottom hurt so I thought he'd be doing a lot worse. But he was definitely manageable. And I think we have the blessing he got to thank for that. Anyway, to make a long story short, the surgeon said it was a little more complex than he was thinking (the abscess had a tract that spread to different places under the skin) so they had to cut more of the skin, which means his recovery will be a little harder than they thought. So we had to stay over night. Poor Sam was so tired of being poked and prodded and he felt so awful. Every time a nurse would even come into the room he started to cry. It's hard seeing your baby all hooked up with IVs and seeing them feel so awful. But he did sleep pretty well throughout the night, probably thanks to the anesthesia. Daddy went home to try and get sleep for his big day today, even though unfortunately he still couldn't sleep thinking about Sam at the hospital. It was a good thing he wasn't there though, because I ended up having to move to the 2nd bed because Sam was hogging the whole bed we were sharing and I couldn't sleep. So, after a long hard sleepless night (I literally only got 1.5 hours of sleep) we finally got discharged this morning and got home about 10:15. Sam is doing great and you can tell he is just so happy to be home. We all are! Thank goodness that part is over with. The recovery will be a pain in the butt (literally!) but the worst is over. And I think it was a blessing that it happened last night because I got to have Dave there with me and that helped me keep things together. Everyhting happens for a reason. I wish we brought our camera so we could post pictures of him in his cute little hospital gown. Anyway, thanks for everyone's support!

Sam's bum

Well, our little Sam goes in for minor surgery tomorrow morning. He has had a boil or something on his butt for about 3 months now and the 2 times I saw the doctor he said it was normal and okay and not to worry about it, that it should go away on it's own. He said I should just soak it and put triple antibiotic ointment on it everyday. So we have been doing that the last 3 months and a few days ago it started to get a lot bigger, redder, and more swollen so we took him in yesterday and he got an antibiotic but we also had to go see a surgeon and he told us it needs to be removed surgically. It looks so awful...like a rock is underneath his skin. Aparently it is a sist of some sort...or so they are calling it. So, our poor little guy goes in to the hospital first thing in the morning where they will have to put him under and remove the whole chunk. I know it is a very small minor procedure and that he will be fine, but being our first child and that he is still a baby, I have been having a hard time with this and worrying myself to death. It's not even that I'm worried something could go wrong (though, I do a little), it's just that he will be so scared in there without me and wont know what is going on. It will just traumatize him. When he was getting his blood drawn at the hospital yesterday, that was even a nightmare for him! It's just hard thinking of your baby going through something scary. I can't imagine if something actually serious and bad happened to my children...how do people handle it? I guess if he was older I wouldn't worry so much. I will keep everyone updated. Just please have him in your prayers tomorrow! Thanks!!

Thanksgiving

Well, this year we got to spend Thanksgiving with the Davenports in Utah and it was great. Sam had such a good time there and loved seeing that part of the family. We got there Thursday afternoon and had Thanksgiving dinner at Mom and Dad Davenports and then Sam opened his first Christmas Present (because he wont see his grandma and grandpa at Christmas)! It was actually his first present ever. He didn't quite know what to do with it so I had to open it for him. It was a hooded blanket his grandma Karen made him. He loved looking at the bear face on it.

The next day Dave got up at 3:30am to do the black friday shopping. I would have gone with him if I didn't have Sam. We got lots of fun things! Then the next day we got to go to aunt Gloria's and have our SECOND thanksgiving dinner! Sam LOVED her 3 little dogs and laughed harder and longer at them than I have EVER heard him laugh in my life. It was the cutest funniest thing. Even when they weren't in the room and I was trying to feed him, every time he heard them he would stop eating and laugh.


Another exciting thing happened that last night we were there (or we thought it would be exciting anyway). Sam's aunt Brooke starting having contractions regularly and close together. But when they went to the hospital the doctor stopped it because they didn't want her going this early. We were all a little bummed because we were hoping to be able to see the baby before we left on Sunday. But everything happens for a reason, right?

Sam started crawling normally the day we left too. He still army crawls sometimes because it is easier for him, but at least he knows how! He also learned how to sit up from the laying down or crawling position, which means it is way harder to get him to actually sleep because when I put him in his bed he either sits right up or tries to climb out.

Well, our Thanksgiving was great and we had a good time spending it with the family. Next is Christmas!!

Sam the Man

Even though this blog is for the purpose of updating everyone on the current news of our little family, it seems as though it has become a blog just about our little Sam. Well, the reason for that is, he is the most exciting thing going on in our lives. Believe me, if there were more exciting news about Dave and I, I would talk about it. So, once again, I am writing about our little baby boy. I know that it can be annoying to read so much about other people’s kids sometimes, but as a mother I have to brag, and so to all of you who are interested, I have decided to write about all of Sam’s latest developments...so read on. To others, I will warn you this may be too long and boring for you. :)

Sam does new things every day and not only does he make his mom and dad so proud, but he is always making us laugh. My heart melts when I look at this wonderful little angel. He is all I need to cure a sour, sad, or bad mood. I never could imagine so much JOY coming from having a little person around.

Sam is better from being sick, but he still has such a stuffy nose to the point where he doesn't eat his bottles sometimes because he can't breathe. It is very frustrating to him because he can't breathe when he sleeps, etc. It's getting old, so if anyone has any suggestions for me on how to help clear a baby's stuffy nose, other than the booger-sucker thing and saline, it'd be greatly appreciated. Too bad they can't just blow their noses, right?

Sam's personality is really starting to show through more and more. He is doing more cute little things and adapting cute mannerisms that we just love (like “head banging,” just to name one). It is so fun to watch your baby grow up. One thing we discovered he LOVES and will always calm him down is a good back scratch. It is the cutest thing! His eyes will almost roll into the back of his head and he just calmly sits there and takes in every second. He is just like his daddy in that way. Well, actually, he is like his daddy in a lot of ways (for one, he sneezes every single time he steps foot outside).

He is also to the point now where he will let mommy read him a story. Though he still has a very short attention span for it, during the few minutes he does love it, he will intently listen and watch as I read him books like "Book of Mormon Numbers" or "Doggies: A counting and Barking Book." He loves when we make animal sounds, especially a barking dog. His favorite animal is a fishy though. It gets him smiling and giggling every time he sees one. One of his favorite things to do is to watch our pet fishies swim around. For some reason, it is the funniest thing to him.

Another hilarious thing to him is his daddy. Dave always is playing with him and "scaring" him. Sam loves to get "scared" or surprised. Pop out from behind a couch and you are guaranteed a laugh. Sam loves his dad. Not only is "da da" the only word he can say so far, but when you say "dada" he smiles and looks to the front door to see if he is home. He also loves to look at our family picture and when I name each person (mama, dada, Sam) he "points" to each one and giggles…well, he can't exactly point yet, but he puts his hand on each one as I say the name.

And as a recent development, he loves to play peek-a-boo too. If you have something over your eyes (a blanket or your hands, etc.) and say "where's Sam?" he will grab whatever it is off your eyes and when you say "peek-a-boo" he thinks it's the greatest thing ever! He also loves it when you cover his face and he can uncover his own eyes.

Sam is definitely a boy. He loves any and all kinds of balls. His favorite is the nerf football daddy got him. He will chase is around all over the house and when he finally gets it (before he knocks it away again) he pulls it into himself and hugs and bites it while having a huge smile (same thing he does with his stuffed bears). Last night he chased his little wiffle ball all around the house for like 20 minutes. It was so entertaining to watch. As soon as he would get to it, he would reach out for it, knock it, it would roll somewhere else, then he'd crawl after it and do the same thing over and over again. And it is so cute because he can't crawl normally yet; he can just "army" crawl...but he does it fast.

He did the cutest, funniest thing the other day. He loves his TV shows (“Higley Town Heroes,” “My Friends Tigger and Pooh,” “Mickey Mouse Club House,” all the “Baby Einsteins,” etc.) and he always recognizes when they are on by the theme music. He was on the kitchen floor a couple days ago facing the opposite direction of the TV (the TV on in the background) and I was by the bedrooms trying to get him to crawl to me and as he was on his way over to me, “Higley Town Heroes” came on in the background and as soon as he heard the music he stopped, got wide eyes, and immediately turned around and went the other direction and scooted as fast as he could until he got to the corner where he could see the TV and just laid there with a smile on his face and watched his show. It’s so cute….but it might not be such a good thing he is so into TV already. That’s another way he is like his daddy. I guess it’s like his mommy too. 

So far, "dada" is the only word we can clearly understand that he says, though he babbles a LOT of baby talk, like "yaya," "nana," and many things I don’t know how to spell. He is starting to say "nana" sounds and so I can't tell yet if he is trying to say mama or not. Sometimes it sounds like he says "no" too, but who knows if he is actually saying it or just making sounds. The other day I swear he said "dog" too, but I can't get him to do it again. He put his hand on his "101 Dalmatians" book and kept saying it over and over again. Who knows...

Well, until next time…