Brian, Paula and Company

Time Goes By

2012-02-03T15:38:00.001-08:00

I can’t believe how fast the month of January went. I have had so many excuses as to why I haven’t been blogging (sick kids, Brian’s work has been crazy busy, don’t feel like it, I need to do a Christmas post and it’s overwhelming, and taking care of three kids is, well, busy), but the fact of the matter is, time goes by whether I document it or not. It’s important to me that my family members that don’t live close by get to see pictures of our kids at least relatively recently. So I have a new goal to blog “in the moment”. I won’t focus as much on catching up all the time because that keeps me from posting.

I do want to say that we had one of the best Christmases ever and I am so grateful that we got to go to Colorado. I will at least post some pictures of our trip on picasa and maybe get around to posting about it soon…maybe. And now, here’s what our kids are looking like these days…

Let’s start with this little guy:

He has been working on getting chubbier and learning to put things in his mouth. Oh and he’s a drool machine!

It’s true Christopher! You can’t deny it!

He adores Katie. And it’s nearly impossible to get a non blurry picture of Christopher when he’s smiling because he wiggles.

Sunday Best. Interesting side note: button up shirts don’t work really well when you don’t have a neck.

See? Smile=Wiggle=Blurry

Katie always wants to climb into pictures

Christopher doesn’t seem to mind

We thought we’d be fair and let Becca in on the action. I love how no one is paying attention in this picture.

She wasn’t really in the mood. But she did look cute in her church outfit!

Christopher got really excited that his other favorite person was sitting next to him…super wiggle!

Becca: Can we be done?
Chris: Yep I’m bored
Katie: I could get my picture taken all day

Alright let’s see what Katie has been up to…

One of Katie favorite things to do.

I love this picture! Brian has been teaching Katie how to make funny faces.

And Katie has been potty training this week and doing quite well (maybe this time will stick??). So of course we practiced funny faces while on the potty. I really love Katie’s after nap hair…

The other morning I was sitting at the table feeding Becca and Katie breakfast and I had one of those moments where it really hit me, I have three kids. Crazy. I had all of them sitting really close to me and it got me thinking about how hard it has been to have three kids but at the same time how much I love each of them. So naturally, I took a picture.

Awesome picture right? Well, it didn’t really capture the moment as I had planned it to, but I sure love our beautiful kids!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2012-01-06T11:18:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Huntington Utah where Brian’s grandparent’s live. It was wonderful to see family, Katie really enjoyed playing with her cousins, and Becca was happy pretty much the whole time! Brian and I felt like it was a successful trip for us and a great practice run for our Colorado trip. And now, because Thanksgiving was a long time ago, I will mostly fill this post with pictures…

The kids had fun playing in the bounce house

The adults playing a game

Becca and Christopher spent most of the time playing on a sleeping bag…Becca was happier about it than Chris was.

Katie spent a lot of time on these bleacher…her feet and hands were black (yuck)

There were a lot of fun toys!

Grandma and Grandpa Grange

Becca loved being pushed fast around the gym and well, Grandpa’s funny in this picture.

Katie loved the animals!! She cried when we had to leave the corral. I was surprised by how much she loved riding the horse (even though I could tell she was a little nervous). We got Becca up there with Brian and well and she liked it ok once she settled in.

Brian talked me into trying it out myself and aside from being a little nervous, I had a good time.

It was fun to watch Brian ride fast…he’s a natural and loves horses. He hopes to one day have a horse of his own.

And as Grange tradition goes…we had a Christmas celebration the day after Thanksgiving and guess what!! Santa came! Guess who played Santa…

I think Becca guessed right…

I don’t think Katie guessed right…

Yep! Brian was our Santa this year!

I love him :).

And although it’s way delayed, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This year I felt like I had a ton to be grateful for. Here are my top 5:

1. Becca’s health (the 6 lbs she’s gained since being in the hospital)
2. Modern medicine (The machine that breathed for Becca until she got stronger and Becca’s seizure medicine in particular)
3. Brian’s company success
4. Our new chunky baby boy
5. All the funny things Katie says every day

Ok and and two more:

6. Brian
7. The Gospel and the perspective it brings

Halloween!!

2011-11-17T09:08:00.001-08:00

Hooray for Halloween! I have always loved Halloween and as our kids get older I’m loving it even more. It’s so fun to see Katie get excited about every little thing and Becca definitely loves holidays as well. Leading up to Halloween we carved pumpkins and had our traditional hot chocolate and doughnuts. When we were little we would always go trick or treating in my Grandma’s neighborhood and then she would have doughnuts and homemade hot chocolate waiting for us when we got back. I always think of my Grandma every year when we do this tradition. Since Halloween was on Monday this year, it was going to be hard for Aunt Jamie to come down so we changed it to Saturday. It was sure fun to have Jamie down here and we even watched a ridiculous zombie movie. Sorry about that Jamie :). Halloween was fun too! We got to visit Brian at his office for a little Halloween party and then in the evening the girls enjoyed trick-or-treating (just on our street). Katie thought trick or treating was magical and has asked to go trick or treating many nights since then.

Katie cried the first time she touched the pumpkin guts (I guess the sliminess surprised her), but Brian convinced her that it was cool.

We didn’t get pictures of the adults carving pumpkins but here are the finished products…

From left to right: Katie’s, Jamie’s, Brian’s (duh), Mine

And lets get a close up of Brian’s amazing pumpkin shall we…

And here’s another one of Brian’s masterpieces from this Halloween:

We couldn’t get a great picture, but believe me, it looked really cool!

And what everyone really cares about…the kids…

A witch! Complete with broom!

Our pictures are kind of blurry, but she was really happy.

A cat!!

And…

A frog!!! Brian was busy this Halloween (he made the frog costume)!

Sad Christopher, but this shows the fly at the end of his tongue.

The least blurry picture of all the kids.

Ready to go trick or treating!

Happy Halloween!!

Competing with the Pink Ribbon

2011-11-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

Most people don't know this, but Breast Cancer Awareness Month coincides with Rett Syndrome Awareness Month. I don't know who thought going up against breast cancer in October was a good idea, but I guess you probably wouldn't see very many purple ribbons regardless of the month IRSF chose. It's just not that well-known.

Quick recap: Rett Syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a genetic mutation resulting in a malformed protein. There are I think around 20 different known mutations all resulting in the same malformed MECP2 protein and gene. The mutation occurs on the X chromosome, so males do not typically survive since they don't have any properly functioning X chromosomes if they have a mutation. The severity of the disorder is dependent on the percentage of well-formed X chromosomes, which apparently is not always 50% like I would have assumed. Rett is an autism-spectrum disorder, but the symptoms are more commonly compared to cerebral palsy. Rett girls typically do not talk and only half are able to walk. The life expectancy is stated to be around forty, but most deaths I hear about are for girls in their twenties. One in twelve thousand girls are born with Rett.

Our little girl Rebecca has Rett Syndrome. She was diagnosed in August of 2009. The geneticist, Dr. Rope, walked me through the biological details of her specific case, and also Rett in general. He then said, "I can tell you all about the biological effects, but I've never had to take one of these girls home with me." I didn't realize at the time how apt his comment really was.

We've tried some to interact with other Rett families. We subscribe to some blogs (thank you everyone for sharing your experiences), we've been to a couple events (these are kind of depressing to me, I already have one Rett girl I don't need to see twenty more), there's even a mailing list. But when it comes down to it, raising a girl with Rett is I think a lot like raising any other kid: you just have to figure it out as you go. It's been great to get some advice for what to expect and how to make life a little easier, and Becca's doctors have been super helpful in knowing what to worry and not worry about, what equipment we might need, etc.

But Becca is undoubtedly her own person. She gets annoyed if you touch her face. She thinks it's funny when her siblings cry. She doesn't appreciate it if we leave her inside by herself. She's not a big fan of mashed potatoes, but she loves cole slaw. She needs some time and space when she first wakes up or she'll be super grumpy. She loves to wear cute outfits and likes to play the piano. We recently discovered that she thinks The Nightmare Before Christmas is hilarious. She doesn't get as many opportunities to express herself, or to make decisions for herself, but it's very clear to us that she has opinions on things and that she is fiercely devoted to her family.

We are so grateful for our little Becca. I know some people think we're crazy for having more kids after giving birth to a disabled child, but I don't think there will be much that's more valuable to our other children than having the experience of growing up with their sister in our home. It makes us all think a lot more about what it really means to live a "full" life, and what God intends for each of His children when we can't even be sure some of them will ever be able to walk or talk.

At least, not in this life.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-27T16:48:00.001-07:00

I Think We’ll Keep Him

2011-10-05T09:41:00.001-07:00

I love our little family! I suppose it’s not so little anymore :).

I think it’s safe to say that we all love Christopher. Katie loves Christopher but has yet to understand that having a Christopher means Mommy has to take care of him. But, other than some whining and a little bit of getting into trouble, she has been a great helper. There have been more than one occasion where both Katie and Christopher are crying and Becca seems to get a kick out of it. She has been known to smile and giggle when her siblings are being dramatic. Oh and even though there aren’t any pictures of me with Christopher, rest assured, I am growing very fond of the little boy. I have been a lot more relaxed about things this time around and have been able to enjoy the newborn phase a bit more.

Christopher still does a lot of this. That and eat. Eat, sleep, poop, eat, sleep, poop. What a life!

Christopher Gordon

2011-09-28T14:31:00.001-07:00

In a couple days it will be two weeks since Christopher joined our family. It seems like he’s been a part of our family for longer than that. It has been a wonderful (and exhausting) two weeks and we’re so grateful to have Christopher as a part of our family.

Let’s rewind…

Here is what I looked like two weeks before Christopher’s arrival. But, believe me, this picture doesn’t do my belly justice. I was a lot bigger than I was with the girls and I carried him a lot differently too.

So, my original due date was the 30th…two days from now, weird. Because of many ultrasounds and how I was measuring (3 weeks big at basically every appointment) my doctor changed my due date to the 26th. My doctor was very willing to induce me any time after the 19th because I was measuring big and dilated 3 cm and Brian and I decided we would be induced on the 22nd since I really didn’t want this baby to get too big to come out :).

If you want a short version of Christopher’s birth story…I woke up at 1:45am on the 16th and two hours later we had our beautiful baby boy. And now you can skip down to the picture. For those who want a longer version:

I had braxton hicks contractions my whole pregnancy this time and they were getting so they were pretty intense there at the end. Brian and I went to a movie (Contagion…disturbing movie) the night of the 15th and I was having a few pretty intense contractions with a lot of the pain in my back throughout the movie but when we got up to leave, they stopped. I felt pretty normal that night (by normal I mean extremely uncomfortable, but no contractions), and the baby was moving around like crazy! I was pretty sure he was trying to come out of my belly button and then we went to bed like normal. At around 1:45 am I woke up having to pee…at this point I was getting up at least 4 times in the night having to go to the bathroom so this was nothing out of the ordinary. After taking care of business, I stood by the sink and…what the!? Did I not get it all out? I was pretty sure I peed my pants, just a little bit. I was really paranoid of this happening to me since I was close to peeing my pants all the time. I always thought that if my water broke, I would know it. But, well, I wasn’t so sure. So after standing in the bathroom and leaking tiny bits for about 10 minutes I decided I would go google it. I also did some dishes and figured maybe I would have a contraction or something. Upon doing internet research I learned that to test if it was my water breaking and not pee I should lay down for 30 minutes and if I had a gush of water when I stood up, then I would know it wasn’t just pee. Ok, cool, I went to lay down around 2 am and stared at the clock. At like 2:10 I had a really intense contraction, and then again at 2:15. I was determined to stay laying down for 30 minutes. Ok, maybe just 20 minutes. When I got up I didn’t have a gush of water but I did have a little trickle and since I was having contractions I was pretty confident that I would have the baby in the next 24 hours. So I thought, I’ll finish packing my bag and then if my contractions are close and bad I’ll wake up Brian. Just turning on the closet light woke up Brian and I said, “I think my water may have broken a little bit”. He was like, “Ummm, ok, and you didn’t just pee your pants?” I said, “Well if I did then I keep peeing my pants” He asked if I was having contractions and I said yep about 5 minutes apart and then he jumped out of bed and started getting ready. By 2:20 my contractions were 3 minutes apart and Brian decided we couldn’t wait until his mom got there (in like 20 minutes) so I called my sister-in-law and she was able to come over right away. At that point I was still slightly hesitant to go so quickly. I’m so glad that Brian rushed me to the hospital…

On the way to the hospital my contractions stayed at 3 minutes apart and were very intense. Brian sped the whole way and only ran one red light. He asked me if I needed him to pull over at one point and I was like NO! I’m not having this baby in the car! We got there at about 2:45 and as we were checking in the lady was being really really slow. Here I am leaning with my head against the counter and breathing really heavily and she’s like, type…type…type. Doesn’t preregistering mean fast!? They put me in a triage room and told me to change and pee in a cup. Pee in a cup!?!? You mean you want me to hold this baby in while getting a little pee out. Yeah that didn’t happen. Finally we called the nurse back in and I found the magic words. I had said more than once that this was my third child but the magic words were, “I feel him coming!!” They checked me and I was 9cm dilated and they ran me in my bed down to delivery. At this point I was still interested in getting an epidural. They put in an IV faster than I’ve ever had them get one in and called the anesthesiologist. By the time he got there I was fully dilated and my contractions were basically one on top of the other. I’m actually really surprised that they let me get an epidural at that point, but they did…halleluiah! I got a special kind of epidural that they use for emergency c-sections that’s supposed to take effect almost instantly and it started working just in time for me to push. One push and out came our beautiful boy at 3:42am weighing 7 lbs 8 oz, and 20 inches long. I’m still grateful for that epidural because man, there are a lot of really painful things that happen after the baby comes out. I could have had the baby a half hour sooner if not for the epidural, but it was totally worth it. I was shaking so bad afterwards that I couldn’t hold Christopher for a while, but I was so grateful that at this hospital they don’t take the baby away, they take care of the baby right there next to you.

Mid sneeze

We love our Christopher and we’re so grateful for a safe and smooth delivery!

Spring and Easter

2011-08-09T15:26:00.001-07:00

Our beautiful weeping cherry tree

We were all so excited when warm weather finally appeared around these parts. It took forever this year. It was fun to see our tree bloom for the first time since moving here. It was also fun to plant our first garden!

We had a lovely Easter and were excited to have Jamie up for the weekend. But first, these are the cupcakes I made with my activity days girls…

I pictured them loving them so much and wanting to copy them exactly. Unfortunately I thought they were way cooler than they did. They ended up just trying to fit on as many jelly beans as possible.

Katie enjoyed dyeing eggs for the first time. She only did two, but it was a fun experience for her.

I have no idea why, but she really wanted to have that mitten on one of her hands. She wouldn’t take it off all evening.

We all got little Easter baskets outside of our doors on Easter morning and Katie enjoyed her first Easter egg hunt that afternoon.

And here are the finished dyed eggs…

You can easily pick out Brian’s eggs as they are the ones that are artistic/creative. Jamie and I felt inferior in our egg dyeing skills, but we all definitely had fun.

Yes, this is a Jamaican egg.

We had a lovely afternoon Easter walk…

We were all happier than we look in this picture.

We had a fun visit from Natalie in May and Jamie was able to come up for part of it as well. We had a fun girls afternoon with In-N-Out and then shopping.

And here are a couple random pictures I took this spring. Here is Katie trying to be just like Becca. She sure loves her big sister.

They were pretty zoned into their show.

Becca with her Aunt Jamie enjoying the warm weather.

Katie still loves hats.

Brian putting together a swing set with the help of his parents. It was their Christmas/birthday present to our kids and they absolutely love it.

Katie’s Birthday

2011-08-09T10:58:00.001-07:00

Katie turned 2 on April 9th!

This was Katie’s birthday outfit from her Aunt Natalie. She LOVES it!

Katie wanted all those clips to be in Becca’s hair. And that’s the doll we gave Katie for her birthday. She was scared of the sounds it made so she laid it by Becca and told her she could have it. Becca was actually really interested in it.

We had a small little family birthday party for Katie and it seemed like it she had a good day.

Becca’s Birthday

2011-08-09T10:00:00.001-07:00

This year Becca had a very special fourth birthday. My parents and brother and sister were in town that weekend and so she was shown a lot of love that whole day. She was happy the entire day and it really was the happiest birthday she’s had yet. Thank you to my parents for coming out for it. She was spoiled by seeing both sets of Grandparents on her birthday. So much fun!

Katie sat by Becca and opened all her presents. Becca watched her he whole time.

A fun birthday party!

I think Grandma and Katie were a little distracted by something.

Katie wasn’t as happy that day.

Whew.

2011-08-09T09:18:00.001-07:00

So, our summer hasn’t gone exactly as we’ve planned. But that’s ok. We are finally feeling settled and back into a routine with Becca and she has gone from intubated to this…

to this…

and then at home but still healing…

Since being home she has made some great improvements and is now healthier than ever. I mean she’s gained almost 5 pounds since leaving the hospital/being on this NG-tube.

And we’re all so happy to have our healthy Becca back!

Thank you to all who have helped our family so much through this hard time. We are so nervous for Becca’s G-tube surgery on the 23rd, but we have faith that everything will work out ok. And now, I think it’s about time I update this little blog.

How About, Two Steps Enough For Me?

2011-06-12T16:20:00.001-07:00

Ha. I used to think I had this pretty much nailed. "Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me." It's not hard, right? You just say, "dear God, I know you know how this story ends. I know you have a better plan than what mine would have been. So I'm going to stick with your plan and not worry so much about needing to know every waypoint down the road. I'll do my best with what's here and trust you to lead me where I need to go." Sounds great.

This week I'm realizing how badly I suck at this.

Tonight we're in the pediatric ICU with Becca. Monday we brought her to Primary's to have her tonsils and adenoids removed in the hopes of helping her sleep a little better. She woke up with a sore throat in an unfamiliar setting with a completely empty stomach. Unfortunately, poor little Rebecca's reaction to stress is to cough and stop swallowing, which after a few hours snowballed into a seizure, a collapsed lung, respiratory arrest, and about thirty doctors surrounding her bed just trying to keep her alive. I watched this bald, stocky respiratory technician with tattoos down both arms walk up to a blue-lipped Becca whose body had given up coughing, force a plastic tool down her throat and attach a green bag that he then squeezed by hand over and over while he fought the numbers on the monitors for thirty minutes above our motionless little 4 year-old (that man's name is Nathan. He's back in the PICU tonight and I can't help getting choked up with gratitude every time I see him. He has no idea how often I've seen him in my mind over the last week, and how much love and gratitude I feel for his efforts that night).

Since Monday night it's been ups and down. Becca apparently caught metapneumovirus from Katie right before her surgery, which has definitely exacerbated the situation. Some days she has improved a lot and other days not so much. Thursday they took out her breathing tube but it was too much too soon, and she's been back on the ventilator since then. We're on our way up at the moment, and it looks like she should be out of the hospital hopefully by the end of next week.

The really scary thing for us hasn't been seeing her go up and down; there isn't a safer place for her to have medical problems than in Primary's PICU. What's been scariest has been to see how frail our little girl really is, to see the dips in her oxygen levels, the spikes in her heart rate, the irregular breathing, the possible seizures, the heavy sweating that nobody seems to have an explanation for -- and then to think about signing out at the front desk and taking her home again.

Becca's never had these kinds of problems at home that we know of. Is this what the rest of her life is going to be like? Are we going to get home and settle back into Becca's old routine? How many times have her oxygen levels dropped dangerously low in the night without any monitors hooked up to warn us? Is this the kind of situation we should expect now every time she gets a cold?

This is hard. I really really want to be able to know what our life is going to look like two weeks from now, two months from now, and two years from now. I thought I was doing a pretty good job not worrying too much about down the road, not fretting about what Becca's high school life is going to be like, what we're going to do when she starts having a period, how we'll know when she gets a cavity, how Paula's going to handle her at home when she's gotten too big to lift, or a dozen other things. We'll get to those when we get to those. But this one sure is rough. How much did our life just shift from beneath us?

We attended church here at the hospital today where Paula said the thought came to her that this hurdle happened now because Becca was in a place where it could be caught. She could have aspirated that much any night at home and we would have walked in the next morning to find our daughter asphyxiated. We'd considered delaying the surgery to make 100% sure she hadn't caught Katie's bug... who's to say her condition at home would have been better than it was here? It really is a miracle that our little girl is with us today.

I'm trying to focus on that. I'm trying not to think too hard about the follow-up question, "what about next time?" We can be more ready than we were, but when and how often are we going to need to be ready? What's going to happen this summer? Or during the next flu season? How long does it take an ambulance to reach our house when we call 9-1-1? Are we going to feel comfortable asking anyone to babysit our kids ever again?

I obviously have a lot of room to go in the faith department. I think for now that means just focusing on the time we have left in the hospital. I can work on preparing but also accepting after we're home and settled. And I guess if there's one thing that can straighten out your perspective, it's living under the same roof as an angel like Rebecca.

Number 3

2011-04-05T15:31:00.001-07:00

We’re excited to announce that baby #3 is due to join our family somewhere around September 30th! That puts me at a little over 14 weeks. I have felt a lot different this pregnancy so everyone seems to be guessing a boy. Of course we would be very happy either way.

Some Perspective

2011-03-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

So I was at Wal-Mart yesterday running a few errands and somewhere in the store some poor child was absolutely screaming their guts out. I, like everyone else in the store, pretended not to notice what was going on. Nobody was really making eye contact with anyone else, and everyone had a semi-serious look on their faces. You have to realize, this kid was wailing. Like, my-life-is-ending-by-periodic-amputation or something.

Anyway, this went on for probably ten minutes. I had Katie with me and she always gets a serious look on her face when other kids are freaking out, but she was distracted by her sucker so all was well. We actually ended up at the registers about this same time as this still-screaming child, and I stole enough of a glance to see she was probably six or seven years old. She kept trying to run away from her mom, and I realized her banshee cries were actually made up of the words "GIVE ME WHAT I WANT!!!" over and over.

Before I had kids of my own my first reaction when seeing this kind of stunt from a child, as the mom tried over and over to stop her girl from running away, would have been something along the lines of "honestly, how do you let your kid get to that point? This is the result of years of poor parenting coming now to a head in a public setting."

Now, instead of that, I get a sinking feeling in my stomach and can't help but wonder how long it will be before I end up in the same situation.

Funny how your perspective changes over time.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

2011-03-08T14:59:00.001-08:00

Katie really loves to sing. We can even bribe her with songs: if you do___ we’ll sing___! Here’s one of the songs she can sing all the way through on her own (there aren’t very many of those…she tends to get stuck in loops or just sing parts). And it’s kind of funny that she’s out of breath because she was just running around like crazy. At the end you can hear her request another song. Can you guess what song she’s asking for?

PS-She’s asking for the Primary song, The Wise Man and the Foolish Man. She calls it house on rock.

Ring Around the Rosy

2011-03-01T15:58:00.001-08:00

Katie’s funny.

Happy and Healthy

2011-01-26T14:19:00.001-08:00

I can’t believe January is almost over! I love the start of a new year. I love making new year’s resolutions unlike one Mr. Brian. But he has his reasons and I have mine. Last year I tried something new and only made goals that were actually easy to attain and found great success with it…I’m talking pretty simple here. Many of you would laugh at how easy my goals were. Like for example, I had a goal of giving our kids a bath twice a week. This will be hilarious for those of you who bath your kids every day. Another goal of mine was to read a book every month. This goal was so fun and got me reading more (I was proud of my 21 that I ended up reading).

Anyway, many of you may laugh when you hear that this was the first year ever that I’ve actually accomplished a few of the goals that I set (I mean really, how did I ever think I would go through with goals like, exercise 5 times a week). So once again, this year, I’m all about setting easy goals. One of my goals it to write one letter per month (to a friend or family member…whoever I feel like). Another one of my goals is to exercise with Becca every week day which has proved to be harder than I thought it would. I’ve failed this month but have high hopes for February…we’ll see! Meh, if I can accomplish even two of my goals by the end of the year I’m thrilled. Hey, if I can even remember the goals I set in January that’s a big improvement from the way I used to be.

January has been a happy and healthy month for us. I’m so grateful! It has been nice to enjoy a healthy Becca and Katie. I feel like Katie is changing so much every day and I’m trying to remember to document it. Becca had a genetics appointment yesterday and I’ll post on her blog about it. She has to have a sleep study done which will be interesting.

Here are two things that Katie loves:

Hats and books

I got a video back in December of Katie counting. She can only get to 10, but I thought she was pretty cool. She now chooses to skip 5 sometimes, but only sometimes. Maybe it’s her least favorite number? Probably.

Katie has also started to show an interest in singing. Sometimes I can even tell what song she’s singing! But many times, I’m pretty sure she’s making stuff up.

I put Becca’s hair in two little buns the other day and I thought she was pretty cute. Lucky for her she looks cute however her hair is styled. I’m pretty clueless when it comes to styling hair.

This last weekend I was down in Provo for a baby shower, so Brian had the opportunity to watch the girls for a lot of the day. Becca always loves when he gets to be home. I could tell that she had a fun time because when I got home she was very giggly. She hasn’t laughed like this in a long time!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year…and wait, Happy Thanksgiving too!

2010-12-28T12:50:00.001-08:00

We have been blessed with a wonderful holiday season. We were able to go out to Colorado for Thanksgiving and as always, had a wonderful time. I am always happy being at home.

As you can tell we drove out to Colorado. We turned Katie around in her new car seat for the occasion (yay for being 20 lbs.!) and she had to get used to sleeping. She wanted to hold both of Aunt Jamie’s hands.
And here are some marvelous pictures of our time in Colorado…

We got to go with my Dad and Jamie to the Nuggets game and it was a really exciting game! We got to see it all from the 8th row and even got to walk in on the court! It was really fun and I was excited to go to my first Nuggets game.

Nice seats huh!?

We celebrated Christmas a couple days after Thanksgiving since we wouldn’t be together for Christmas.

I’m sad we didn’t get more pictures of our cute niece and nephew!

We spent Christmas with Brian’s family and had a really fun time. We didn’t get any pictures on Christmas because, unfortunately we had a very sick Becca. She had some kind of stomach bug that weekend and was thankfully a lot better on Christmas but still very sad and took a lot of our time. We were very spoiled by Brian’s parents and also got to talk to his brother Joel who is on a mission. It was very a nice day.

You can tell Becca wasn’t feeling well, but she loved her new bunny from Grandma Whitmer

Brian and I have decided that we will give our kids an ornament each year (like his mom did and my grandma did). This year I made these simple stocking ornaments.

Brian used some trimmings from our Christmas tree to make a little wreath. I was impressed!

Pretty flowers my parents sent us on Christmas eve.

Our awesome gingerbread village

We feel so blessed this holiday season to have been able to spend time with both of our families. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sisters

2010-10-22T09:36:00.001-07:00

Becca is a really good big sister. She loves Katie more than I think we even know.

(Katie got shots yesterday, hence the pacifier and the sick eyes)

Katie can you be still? That one was a little blurry.

That’s better

Becca is in heaven whenever Katie stops to say hi. I think they’re going to have a really special relationship their whole lives. They already do.

Katie Talks

2010-09-24T17:45:00.001-07:00

I’m lazy, so here’s another video of Katie demonstrating a few of the words she knows…

Settling

2010-09-16T09:29:00.001-07:00

Well, we survived the move! We are loving our new house and we’re working hard to get painting and unpacking/organizing done. It’s slow. As such, I haven’t got out our external hard drive where all the pictures are. But I found an old and new video on our camera that I think people may enjoy. Both are of Katie.

The first one is back when Katie learned the sign for please. It was back in June so I guess she was 14 months-ish. She quickly realized that she could get what she wanted when she used this sign. We’ve had to teach her that even when she says please, she doesn’t always get what she wants. Also, she doesn’t do this sign anymore she just says it. I kind of thought it was funny how enthusiastic she was depending on how much she wanted something.

The second one was last weekend when my sister Jamie was hanging out with us. We caught some of Katie’s funny dancing on film. She gets really focused when she dances and gets this funny look on her face. How do kids learn to dance? I hope she doesn’t ever find out that she looks like a spaz when she dances because I think it’s funny.

Oh and I also had a beautiful picture of Becca on the camera. She’s been pretty happy these days.

She likes the new house.

When we get our hard drive up and running I’ll get back to recapping our summer.

Katie’s Arm

2010-08-22T09:51:00.001-07:00

So I thought I would do a quick out of order post about Katie’s arm. I forgot that my non-facebook friends wouldn’t have found out about her breaking her arm and then I posted that video in which she is wearing a cast.

A few weeks ago Katie broke her arm. Brian was holding Katie and climbed over our barricade that keeps Katie from a couple rooms in our apartment. Unfortunately his foot got caught, he tripped forward and Katie slipped out of his hands (which were pretty close to the ground at the time so she didn’t fall very far at all). She must have fallen in just the right position (well wrong position).

She was already having a fit so we didn’t know that something was wrong at first (those who have been around when Katie throws a fit will understand why we didn’t know she had broken her arm). She wouldn’t calm down for a really long time which isn’t like her and then I took her outside thinking it would calm her down. I noticed right away that she wasn’t moving her arm at all when she would walk around and when she reached for me she left that arm pinned down by her side. After trying to reach the doctor (it was a Sunday of course) Brian and I decided I better take her into the instacare.

Luckily there was no one else at the instacare so we didn’t have to wait very long at all. Of course at this point Katie was playing with the toys in the waiting room and acting like nothing was wrong. The doctor was sure it was her elbow even though I told him more than once that she will bend it at her elbow but she won’t raise it. I said a few times that I thought it was her shoulder. So, he ordered some x-rays of her elbow and, of course, they came back normal…nice. So we left with the instructions to bring her back or to her doctor in the morning if she was still not moving it.

Next morning she still was holding her arm against her and she screamed when Brian and I tried to change her shirt. Nice. So I took her in, and to make this already too long story shorter…her doctor ordered x-rays of her shoulder, we went to the hospital to get them, and it was broken up by her shoulder, just like we thought.

They put her in a cast that had an extended part to keep her arm from moving in a bad way (turns out it’s hard to cast that kind of break). This picture may give you the impression that she loved her cast from day one. She actually had a hard time adjusting to sleeping with her cast. We had a few really rough nights. But after a week it was like it wasn’t there.

Katie got her cast off on Monday and though the break isn’t all the way healed (she had more x-rays), the doctor said that it was healed enough for her to be without cast.

Colorado Trip

2010-08-17T14:51:00.001-07:00

At the end of June I decided to be spontaneous and drive back with my sister Jamie to Colorado. We thought it would be fun to surprise my family and just show up without telling anyone we were coming. I felt really brave driving in the car with the girls by myself. It was an interesting drive for sure. Becca and Katie took turns crying almost the whole way there. But it was nice to be caravanning with Jamie so she could help at stops.

We had such a nice week! It felt so good to be home and Katie and Becca had a blast being at Grandma and Grandpa’s!

Becca was so exhausted when we got there.

Katie took a couple days to get used to her new surroundings. She was so excited to explore the house and had many injuries as a result…see bruises above.

Katie helped Grandma with the chores and both were in heaven.

I went running with my mom a few times…I was SO out of shape!

A lovely outside dinner

Jamie was peaking at Katie through the window. She thought it was hilarious!

Katie loved all the room to run around.

Brian joined us for the weekend and we were all really excited to see him. The girls and I missed him terribly. The drive back was a lot easier having Brian drive allowing me to be on kid duty.

Summer Flies By

2010-08-07T15:21:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe it’s August already. We’ve had a great summer so far with many ups and downs, but mostly ups.

At the beginning of summer back in June we let Katie play in the little pool that our cool old neighbors left for us to use while they (the poor dears) spend the summer in Europe.

She loved it! At first is was a bit cold for her (see video), but she got used to it pretty quick. I guess her favorite part was probably getting in and out and running away, silly girl. Thanks for letting us use your pool Madeline!

Also at the beginning of June we got to go out to Oregon to meet our new and absolutely adorable neice, Sarah Megumi. It was our first trip without Becca. Since it was a quick trip we thought it would be easier on us and mostly her if we left her with Grandma Whitmer. It was so weird and hard to leave Becca! But the trip went well and it was so nice to see all of my family and get to hold and cuddle with Sarah. Becca had a wonderful at her grandparents house and I was grateful that she got to keep her routine.

Cousins! They didn’t want to look at the camera…

That’s as good as it got.

It was so pretty at the temple. I’m glad we got to spend some time walking around. And Brian and I got to pretend that we’re were taking wedding pictures….

But then I got all self-conscious when an actual Bride and Groom came over to the special picture spot and then Brian laughed at me and then we left.

It was a very nice trip and I’m so grateful that we got to go.

Well, that’s enough updating for now…mostly because the girls woke up from their naps and a little bit because I’m bored.

To Be Continued…

Katie is weird.

2010-08-06T13:57:00.001-07:00

I am working on a post to update everyone on what we’ve been up to this summer and will completely overwhelm you with pictures/videos. But, in the meantime, here’s a short video of Katie. She started doing this all on her own and I have no idea how she thought to do it. Strange child.