Kerri, Cody, Ansel and Eli

Fast Forward..

2012-01-31T22:34:00.000-06:00

Since we've been missing in action here.. thought I'd do a quick fast forward on the last SEVERAL months!!

We had our 7th Anniversary in November
My little sister had her first baby in November, so we have a cute new niece, Xaniyah!
Ansel had his sixth birthday in December
I graduated from nursing school in December (YAY!! So glad to be done!) and accepted an RN position in ICU in Joplin
I passed my NCLEX in January (so officially an RN)
Ansel had his first surgery in January (amazingly he didn't have any after his birth).. he had strep 5 times this school year, so he ended up with a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy!
Also in January.. WE FOUND OUT BABY #3 IS A GIRL!! (Yeah.. I haven't even been on here to announce baby #3! She was a bit of a surprise but we're excited! Due date is June 20th.. so I'm half-way there!) I had a feeling it was a girl.. mostly because I've been far more sick than I was with the boys!! (I was sick with them.. but not like this time!) It's wearing off now thankfully, but it still has it's moments!!
I guess that's a quick summary for now :) Here's a few pics: (and links to more pics!)

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151210608910253.806950.576240252&type=1&l=b808a34540

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151203601795253.805694.576240252&type=1&l=d85b5f7de9

Growing up..

2011-09-12T23:17:00.001-05:00

Eli at 17 months

Ansel's first day of Kindergarten!

Ansel's first art project at school

Well, my boys are just growing up too fast on me. The two biggest things that happened in the past couple of months were Ansel starting Kindergarten, and Eli getting potty-trained (day-time). Ansel has been pretty excited for school and so far is really enjoying it. The first few weeks were a little rough though as he keeps getting sick. The second week he woke up about 3 am one night and continually threw up about once an hour or so (needless to say he stayed home the next day!). Then the third week, I got a call saying he had thrown up at school (in his class poor guy.. and teacher!) He told me he tried to catch it all in his hands but some got on the carpet (yikes!). He's usually such a clean thrower-upper at home since he's been so used to it through the years. I think his body is just adjusting (and building immunities) to a new environment. He went to preschool at the same school but it was just twice a week for a few hours. This is Mon-Friday all day, so much bigger adjustment!! He has always had such a sensitive stomach to the slightest changes anyway, (stress, food, etc) and it seems to be getting the best of him! THEN, later that same week, he said his throat was still hurting. (He had said it was the day before, but since he had no fever I just assumed it was from all of the throwing up). Well, the next day, when a fever started, I looked inside his throat and was pretty sure it was strep. (Sure enough, took him to the Dr. and it was). So he missed another two days that week! Last week he made it to school all week (there was a holiday Monday) and so far has this week too.. so I'm crossing my fingers that it will start to go a little better! He's definitely getting a flu shot soon too, hoping to at least prevent one thing!!

There's also a couple of pictures of the boys and their bike helmets (being cute together!) They really almost look the same size sitting down, but when Ansel stands up he's still quite a bit taller (although Eli is catching up..weight wise, Ansel is 30 lbs. and Eli is close to 25. Eli seems so big sometimes but really he is right at 50% on everything so he's right on target. Ansel has consistently been right at the 3%, so it's good he's been consistent at least!)

Luckily he seems to be over this phase though!

As for Eli and potty training, I truly was shocked with how well it went!! I had been dreading it, (and really had no intention of starting it until after school got over since he doesn't even turn 2 until March anyway). But one day he grabbed my hand and pointed at the potty, so I sat him on it. Even though he didn't go then, I knew he was ready! So (at 16 months old) we started potty training (daytime only). The first few days were of course filled with accedents, but seriously, he basically had it down by the end of the week (started on a Tuesday, and by Saturday I was able to take him on an outing for 5 hours and NO accidents!) He only wears a diaper at bedtime since he rarely wakes up dry. He still has occasional accidents (especially once he starts getting tired) but the majority of the time he goes anytime you take him. We taught him a potty sign, but usually he just points at his underwear when he needs to go (so he can definitely communicate the need!) He also tries to say potty (although it sounds more like "paw-pi"). Signing has been fun with him too though. One day he came over and signed medicine, so I asked him "Why do you think you need medicine? Does something hurt?" Then he pointed to his teeth and said, "teeth". I just love the ages my boys are right now. It's so fun watching them learn new things, (and Ansel always says the most hilarious things.. I really should do a whole post about that sometime..if only I was better about keeping up with this! Nursing school finishes for me in December! I really do enjoy it, but I'm ready to be done and pretty excited to be in my final semester! Well, gotta get to bed.. the morning comes early!

There truly are no words...

2011-06-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

     I have felt such overwhelming sadness the past week and a half. I've also seen so much hope. When a disaster hits such as we got in Joplin, there is just no way to really convey it (and I wasn't even in Joplin when it hit, and didn't lose my home, car, or family members like so many of my friends have; nor did I have to witness the horrible scene of that first tragic night). I live just outside of Joplin, but it is such a big part of our lives. My husband works there, I am there at least several days a week, we have family that live there, our stake center was there, and we have been staying with Grandma and Grandpa there a couple of days a week (during school) while Grandma watches my boys for me so I can go to school and clinicals.

   That Sunday we were having dinner at my inlaws (in Carthage). Nothing out of the ordinary. . we were so oblivious as to what was about to happen. The tornado sirens went off, again, having grown up in the midwest, nothing unusual there. We went to the basement until they were over and returned upstairs. My sister-in-law and her husband were there as well (who live in Joplin also) and suddenly we begin hearing little reports that this store and that store on Rangeline had been hit by a tornado. (Again, still oblivious to what had really just happened.) We turned on the TV as everything began to unfold. When they displayed St. John's hospital, the hospital I've had clinicals at for the past two semesters, it began to hit how bad this was. (St. John's is not very close to the places we had heard got hit on Rangeline! Not to mention, the impact of losing one of the two main hospitals at a time like this! It is not very far at all either from the other main hospital, such a blessing one was spared.) I got on facebook to see statuses from several friends who (since they had their phones) were able to post that they had lost everything but were alive (and thankfully their children were too). Then we got word the stake center was gone (and that some of our ward members had been in it when it happened but all inside were okay.) I immediately began to think of so many of my friends. Many worked at St. John's, but those who worked at Freeman were deeply on my mind too.. as I knew this was likely going to be the most tragic night they would ever have to work. At the end of this last semester, we took a test over prioritizing in a disaster. I remember wondering to what extent we would ever end up using it. (Although I knew it was necessary and very valuable to teach, you never think the big tragedy is going to hit your area). I just assumed we would hopefully only have to use it on a smaller scale, for minor disasters. It kind of hit how much more is involved in nursing (and the medical field in general) than your day to day concerns.

        I worried too about whether or not some I knew were still alive. I sat near my sis in law as she wondered if she would even have a home left to go back to (fortunately she did). We waited to get word from Grandma and Grandpa as we were unable to get through to their phone lines (and had heard already reports of it hitting not all that far from them.) I wondered if Cody's work was even still there (again.. it was not all that far from the damage) The more things unfolded.. the more heartache (and worry for those I had not yet heard from) there was. There is so much more I could say about that night, but suffice it to say, so much had changed for so many in just a few minutes.

     Since then, my heart continues to ache with each tragic story conveyed (either on the news or from friends who worked that night, or friends who were there when it hit). I got to help out one day with my nursing school at a triage center. There are so many more stories from people I talked to that day that just overwhelmed me. We had many different supplies at that center as well. I watched several people walk past kind of looking at everything. I went and talked to them, asking what I could get for them. Many of them broke down, overwhelmed that they could get some of the very basic things they needed, for free. Some just needed a hug, a shoulder to cry on, and someone to tell their story to. Again, there is more I could say about that day too.

Later in the week I went with my sister (from Tennessee) who had driven up a van full of supplies that had been donated mostly from her husband's unit. We were able to drop things off and stay and help at some of the drop off points. We drove past some of the main damage areas to get to some of the drop off points..it was so overwhelming to see such things (and surreal to see places I had gone just the day prior to the tornado completely gone). The pictures truly can't give you a full picture of how horrendous the damage was. It's unreal to be able to see for miles and miles in the middle of Joplin (and to see miles and miles of nothing but "debris").

   Another day I went and did assessments with our church (to get work orders ready for when all the volunteers that are scheduled to come get here). We drove past the stake center to get to our assigned street. Again, it was just so overwhelming to see the destruction, and to really struggle to even recognize an area that was once so familiar. As we did our assessments, one guy told us they had found a hand during cleanup (and his house received very minor damage, mostly just some trees that needed cut up.) It's just all so sad.   However, you also really saw neighbor helping neighbor.

      So many expressed condolences for our stake center (as it was just down the street from them) and concern if there had been any losses (as another nearby church had unfortunately lost several who had been inside) We were fortunate that all were okay there. In fact, it was announced on church Sunday that our members were accounted for and although there were a couple of injuries and many homes lost, there were none lost. Likewise, our nursing students were all accounted for as well. (again, several who lost homes and had amazingly survived in those same homes) but all were well. You see so many photos of homes with just one tiny area left standing (as the case with some of my friends and the stake center) where people say amazingly they were in that one tiny area that was barely left standing. While there are so many heartbreaking stories as well, it's heartwarming to hear of those times where there was divine protection. It all makes me appreciate even more the things I am blessed to have. (Oh, and on a side note they also announced Sunday that the stake center will be rebuilt by December 2012! For now the two Joplin wards are meeting at our building in Carthage..such a good thing they expanded it a few years back!)

     On a happy note, the highlight of my week was Ansel's preschool graduation. It had to be one of the most adorable things I've seen! Watching them all do their cute little songs in little caps and gowns was just priceless. As one friend stated, it was a "beautiful distraction" from the week. So I will leave you with a picture of that beautiful distraction of such an overwhelming week.

Happy Birthday Sweet Eli!

2011-03-20T21:55:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe it's been a year already! (Especially if you look at this blog and can see the post from when he was born still! I haven't had a lot of time to update things this year!) It's been a really fun year though and Eli is such a fun boy to have around! He's getting really steady when standing, but not quite walking yet. He's been climbing everything for a couple of months now though and is so busy! AND.. his first tooth STILL has not come through yet! One of the bottom ones is getting pretty close though! He has his one year appt. tomorrow so I'll add in his stats then! I'm so grateful though to have him as part of our family. We're truly blessed! Once again.. a link to a few more pics!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=641880&id=576240252&l=27c28d2187

**Update after one year check-up:

At one year Eli weighs 23 lbs even and is 29.5 inches long. (He was 50-75% on weight and head circumference and 50% on height! Right on target! :)

Zero Heroes.. and other snow fun :)

2011-02-03T14:04:00.001-06:00

Well, I don't think this week has been so bad even though we've been snowed in! We have our family, and electricity and running water.. what more could you ask for :) We haven't played in the snow too much since I don't want to take Eli out in it for very long, but Cody was off work yesterday so we got out there some! Cody and Ansel built a little snow fort so they could have their "zero heroes" camp out, (and it got to -7 degrees.. so it was definitely below zero!) I guess there is a scouting badge called zero heroes. Cody's going to have Ansel so ready for scouting by the time he gets there. He's always showing him a new knot to tie or something fun to do. He's such a good dad. Anyway, Cody told him about this and he was so excited. They made it through the night with only one phone call to me, because Ansel wanted a pillow, and since the fort was in our front yard. I ran one out to him :) I asked if he was cold and he said no, and that he was warm. Cody's a pro at this kind of stuff though and they had good sleeping bags so I wasn't too worried. I considered doing it too, but I think Eli's just a bit too young for it yet! I don't think he would have liked being confined in a sleeping bag either. Cody had to wake Ansel up in the morning so he could get to work and the first thing Ansel asked was.. "where's my badge?" haha.. I think it will be a fun memory for him!

Here's the link to the rest of the snow pics:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=618644&id=576240252&l=dbc97fa51e

Here's another link for more pics of the boys from January:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=618694&id=576240252&l=b7ef78d451

Picture time!

2011-01-08T09:50:00.001-06:00

We hadn't taken the boys to get there pictures taken yet... so we finally went this week! (Last time we took Ansel to get pictures done was on his first birthday!! So.. it's been awhile!) Here's a few favorites.. and a link for the rest... I was really happy with how they turned out.

Here's a link to the rest!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=605113&id=576240252&l=7a9e6fac7f

Happy Everything!

2010-12-28T11:40:00.000-06:00

I'm on a little break right now from school.. that has been fun! Two semesters left! Well, since last post we had a fun Halloween, a great Thanksgiving, a wonderful 6th anniversary, Ansel's fifth birthday, and a Merry Christmas!! Busy time of year!! Eli also had his 9 month appt. the other day and is 21lbs 7 oz. Ansel will actually have his appt. at the beginning of the year, but it looks like he just might have finally hit 30lbs!! (with the home scale anyway) So. . here's a few pics from the past couple of months, along with a link for more pictures.. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!!

Link to more photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=597919&id=576240252&l=bea3989586

We're still here...

2010-10-24T16:12:00.004-05:00

Well, I think this is probably the longest I've gone without a quick post! Life has been busy for sure! Eli is 7 months old already! He is growing so fast it's crazy. He's 20 lbs already at just 7 months which seems so crazy to us as Ansel is about 28-29lbs at almost 5 years! Eli is wearing clothes that Ansel wore when he was almost 2 years old! Eli's a very good baby, so happy and sweet. He was a little fussy this past week though as I think he's working on some bottom teeth, but he's really been such a great, fun baby to have around. Ansel has been such a great big brother as well. He tells me often how he thinks it is so much fun to have a baby around. (I've been warned that might change once Eli starts getting more mobile and into Ansel's toys more, but I'll enjoy them constantly loving each other as long as I can :) Eli is getting really close to crawling. He's up on his knees with his stomach off the ground and rocking, but not quite crawling yet. Also, he's starting to get into the "momma's boy" phase even more. He does fine with others if I'm not around but he reaches out for me a lot and always watches me if I'm in the room and anyone else is holding him.

***Here's another link to some newer pictures for family and friends who haven't gotten to see the boys in awhile :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=563981&id=576240252&l=aea7db7850

School is still going good. I did get pancreatitis about a month ago (The two main causes for that are drinking and gall bladder problems. Since I don't drink it's not related to that, and I didn't have any gallbladder issues to go with it so it was quite the random occurrence!) I've been told it may have been due to stress (possibly the cause :), a virus, etc. . but hopefully that will just be a fluke thing that doesn't happen again! Luckily it hit the hardest over the weekend so I only ended up missing one day of school, although it was a rather miserable week when I went back! It was rather ironic, I thought, that on the day I went back to school I had to give my class presentation on metabolic acidosis (and pancreatitis just happens to be a type of metabolic acidosis...haha) I really enjoy nursing school though. Sure it's kind of crazy fast paced and pretty busy, but I really enjoy learning stuff like this.

However, I am looking forward to next December, just over a year from now! I sometimes pull late nights studying since I don't want it to take too much time away from my boys. I like to spend as much time with them as possible so I try to save the studying for when Eli's down for a nap or they both have gone to bed. Needless to say, for the sleep factor alone I will be glad to finish school! I know some people think maybe I shouldn't be doing this right now while my boys are so young, but I really feel like I am supposed to do this right now and I know it is knowledge that will be so useful in raising a family as well. I feel like Heavenly Father has blessed me with the strength to do everything right now and that as long as I prioritize my time well, then I will get through school just fine and still have the essential family time that is important to have. I also have several friends who have gone through nursing school who give me encouragement and I feel strength through their stories and experiences. And of course I can't forget my wonderful husband! He's really been great and has helped pick up some of the extra workload around the house too. (Not to mention dropping the boys off at grandma's on school days, and taking an early lunch so he can get Ansel to preschool on time!) I'm really lucky to have him. We're also so grateful for Grandma Wilma. She takes such good care of the boys when I'm in class.. I never worry about them with her. I know they are in good hands.

Ansel is enjoying preschool. I was so glad he was able to get in to it. Next year is kindergarten for him.. and it's all day kindergarten here, so I'm glad he can get a little used to the routine of school this year before just being thrown into all day every day school!

Brotherly Love

2010-06-05T06:38:00.000-05:00

I've just love how Ansel has been so excited about his brother all along, and he's been a pretty good helper too. The only thing he occasionally gets jealous of is if he's tired and wants to be carried too. (He'll usually tell Cody, "Give Eli to Mommy.. " and then says that he wants to be held as well!) He really has been such a great big brother though! This was one of my favorite little moments. One day I got back from school to pick up the boys, and this is how I found them. Grandma told me that Eli was fussing just a little, so Ansel ran and grabbed his pacifier and was holding it in place for him when they both crashed out! It was such a sweet little sight! (And they stayed like that for a good hour at least!) Being a mom is great..especially when you get to see moments like this :)

*Here's the link to some more updated pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=435546&id=576240252&l=943edd10ec

Eli's Blessing Day

2010-05-05T01:44:00.007-05:00

We blessed Eli this past Sunday. It was such a wonderful weekend with family! Lorelle and John came up for the weekend which was great since we don't get to see them too often right now!! And.. AMAZINGLY I didn't have any tests this week so I felt like I could actually relax a bit and enjoy the family time! (However the next two weeks are going to get CRAZY until the end of the semester! ... Almost there though!)
It's amazing how quick our little guy is growing! He was 8lbs 4oz at nearly one month.. I'm curious to see where he's at now because it seems like he's grown a ton just in the past two weeks! We just enjoy having him in our lives so much and are loving every bit of it! I didn't find the transition to having two kids bad at all.. some things just take a little more time. (I hear three's the most noticeable.. when the kids outnumber your hands!) Of course Ansel's four and quite independent (and helpful!) and I was definitely ready to have a baby around again.. so I'm sure that's all made things much easier!

*Here's a link to a few more pictures from the weekend!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=425467&id=576240252&l=753fdf3ca9

**Also I added a few more pictures to this album I've previously posted:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=405003&id=576240252&l=40b25f7e2f

***Oh.. and since I'm so behind on here and forgot to put up Easter pics.. here's a link to that album as well!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=411883&id=576240252&l=24e5d4c5f2

Eli Bryce is here!

2010-03-21T23:40:00.007-05:00

Eli made his grand entrance into the world first thing in the morning of March 20, 2010! (The first day of spring.. how perfect!) Apparently my baby boys like to make their surprise arrival with the gushing of fluids.. just very grateful it was my water breaking this time instead of the placenta abrupting! We made it to 37 weeks.. yea!! Eli was nice and "done" at 37 weeks though.. weighing a whopping 7lbs. 9.6ounces and was 20.5 inches long. (The nursery said he rated as a 39 weeker really and was ready to be here!) He was breech (and has been for every ultrasound as long as i can remember ) and has a few little characteristics to go with it (round little head, and his legs are always to the side(like little frog legs almost!) and lifted up.. it's nearly impossible to get him to straighten them yet (and ticks him off if you try to!) Remember last ultrasound pic... where his foot was in his face? Well he's been in that little ball for so long he still prefers that and isn't too happy about getting his blanket loosened up too much either (loves the swaddling!) He's of course cute as can be and just perfect in my opinion :)

Here's a link to more pics : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=405003&id=576240252&l=40b25f7 e2f

Here's a recap of how I found out he was coming... (and his birth story I suppose...)it really couldn't have gone more perfectly! Friday I was at the perinatologist's office getting my ultrasound and stress test done. My appointment was actually supposed to be at 10am, but I went in at 2pm fully thinking that was my set time. (Yep.. looked at the wrong week when i wrote it down or something!) Thankfully they squeezed me in anyway! I was there awhile.. seeing as how they had to make extra time for me, but in the ultrasound was reassured my fluid levels looked great and so did the baby. At the stress test though he was being stubborn and didn't want to move a whole lot (he'd done the same thing Tuesday at that stress test as well which led to an hour long stress test instead of 20 minutes!) Today though I was having lots of contractions to go with it. (Some pretty darn good ones too) However once they got enough movements charted.. I was approved to go on home. I have to admit I'd been pretty frustrated lately about how to know at what point I should go see labor and delivery when it came to contractions. I wanted to make sure i would get there in time to have my heparin wear off so i could be awake for it, but didn't know at what point that should be! My doctor had been sick and I hadn't seen her in ages, and obviously the doctors i saw in place of her weren't going to set my c-section date for her. So i went home still a little discouraged about how to know when to go in to reduce the less risks of pure craziness like last time! I would have felt fine with going a couple of more weeks if I KNEW i wasn't going to go into active labor or go too quickly (anything to add additional risk factors) I actually felt quite fine still physically. About 45 minutes after I left the office, I was still in Joplin waiting for Cody to get off of work. Ansel and I were there (Grandma watched him for me during my appointment and they'd invited us to stay for dinner) I was getting ready to go do another heparin shot (my first shot had been at 10:30 that morning) but when i stood up to leave the living room I was suddenly (and completely) DRENCHED!! This was such a blessing actually because I KNEW it was time to go to the hospital, I hadn't yet taken another shot, Cody had just gotten off work (and showed up just a minute or two after my water broke), plus Ansel was there where someone could watch him.. (and to top it off the hospital was just down the road a little ways)
I seriously could not believe how much fluid there was!! (and it didn't stop until after he was born!) When we got to the hospital they took us on up to Labor and Delivery where I was monitored until the time was right. Since I wasn't dialated very much yet.. they decided to let the heparin wear off (the first blood test they took was still a little high) and decided they'd wait 12 hours after my last shot to retest and see where my blood levels were. (That way.. since there was time still.. I could wait it out so I could be awake for it!) Of course contractions definitely picked up and were often just a minute or two apart by the end.. but around 11:30pm or so the last blood test came back perfect so they began to prep for surgery! The nurse anesthetist who was doing my spinal turned out to be someone I'd met just a few weeks earlier! (Her husband is in my nursing classes, and I'd ran into them at the mall and we'd chatted a bit then!) The spinal was a piece of cake.. and oh so wonderful. It completely relaxed me and i couldn't stop grinning (and crying at times) as I awaited the beautiful sound of my baby's first cry!! Cody was in there too, and i just couldn't be more grateful that everything was going exactly as it should. The doctor took out most of my extra scar tissue as well (since there was lots of solid scar tissue pretty much all the way down seeing as how it took 4 months to grow closed last time!) That will be weird, but nice, to have a scar that's a line instead of a hard crater!
Anyway, when they pulled him out he definitely cried and cried!! It was such a beautiful sound! When they placed him next to my face after getting him a little cleaned up he quieted down his little eyes just blinked open and closed as he peered into my eyes. Such a perfect moment. He was so alert and aware and just amazing. Then they took him off to get a bath and such while the surgery continued and he and Cody were there to greet me when I got to the recovery room. We got to a post partum room by oh.. 2:30 am or so (it was late/early... I don't remember exactly when!) I didn't get too much sleep that night. He was wonderful and slept a lot but I was so grateful for him and just couldn't stop looking at him and holding him! I couldn't wait for Ansel to meet his wonderful new little brother the next day! When he did get to come meet him.. he was just grinning from ear to ear! He didn't say anything for a long time, but was just full of smiles! I'm so very grateful for my wonderful little family and for the opportunity to be blessed with a wonderful husband and two amazing little boys. I'm also so grateful for how this pregnancy went, and that we were able to get little Eli here safely! I'm truly blessed.

35 weeks! Getting close!

2010-03-06T15:45:00.006-06:00

Well, the countdown just keeps getting closer and closer! I'm very excited to get to see little Eli! The ultrasound this week shows him weighing about 5lbs. 5 ounces already, so he should be a good size by the time he gets here! Oh.. and he has cute little chubby cheeks already... at least it appears that way in the pictures they gave me :) They're still monitoring things well. My clotting times got too slow again so they raised my heparin dosage again. I'm on twice weekly doctor visits though so they're watching things well. I also have fetal stress tests at both of those visits each week and so far everything looks great :) I've started swelling a little.. but I just have to remind myself that's actually normal this far along! I'm still wearing my wedding ring though (barely some days.. but it's still there for now!) We're VERY blessed that everything's going so well!

Oh, and he's still breech.. but he's still been moving because some days he's sideways (which REALLY feels great on my crater of an incision.. yeah right!) They said it is easier with c-sections as well if he's head down.. but I'm having a c-section anyway.. so I guess if he doesn't turn then it won't mess up the game plan too much! I'm a little nervous about the c-section itself. They said it'll likely be pretty long as they're going to try to take out all the old scar tissue from last time, since it grew closed from pretty much all the way down! (and along with that comes a fairly high risk of hitting the bladder since it's likely attached to all the scar adhesions! I guess that's not altogether uncommon though (hitting the bladder).. and apparently the bladder will heal up on its own (if you keep a catheter in for 5-10 days to help with the healing process.. so it's probably not too big of a deal if that happens! Still doesn't sound pleasant though!) I just hope I get to be awake for it this time! As long as I get off the heparin in time in order to get an epideral I should be fine! (I only have to stop a couple of doses before I guess.. and since i do the injections 3 times a day I should be able to get off of them in time for that!) Anyway.. the next few weeks should be pretty exciting! (On a separate note nursing school's going great.. I really enjoy it! I'm grateful that they're working with me well also!)

**Oh, if you look at the pictures of Eli that's actually his foot in front of his face, with his little fist right above his foot!

Looking forward to a great THIRD trimester :)

2010-01-22T21:20:00.006-06:00

Here are a couple of pictures with Ansel back at the 28 week mark, the week he was born. It's pretty exciting to be past and still feel so good! I've only gained 8-9 lbs. so far, even though I think it looks like more than that! (Whereas with Ansel from 15 weeks on I gained 12 lbs. a month due to all the water weight!) What a difference it makes to not feel so sick! I can't believe I only have around 8 weeks left. (And with nursing school going on I'm hoping it won't drag on too bad like I hear most people say it can!) Anyhow, I'm very excited about experiencing the third trimester this time and seeing the little guy move more! I realize I'm saying this before things start to get really uncomfortable, but it's still an experience I'm grateful for.
Speaking of nursing school, this was my first week. I felt a little panicked the first day wondering if this was really feasible with an extensive c-section and a new baby coming in the middle of it! I've talked with my instructors though. They all seem really nice and know the situation. They said I should be fine with the classes, but I might have to rearrange the clinicals a little, possibly to the point even that'd I'd be almost 6 weeks post surgery before I had them. (Meaning more time with my cute boys before I have to run off and do a few 12 hour shifts!) The nice thing is there is one long class I have two days a week, and it will end just 2-3 weeks after Eli is born, so then I'll only have one class a week before clinicals begin! (and first semester there are only four clinicals) So.. it seems like things are starting to fall into place. There's a girl in my class who offered to give me rides after Eli's born, until I can start driving again, so some of all the stress is subsiding! However, there is still tons of studying to do so I better get to it!

*Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that my three shots a day of heparin get me out of being practiced on once we start doing IV's on each other! I don't mind needles really. I'm just not keen of people practicing on me when I'm such an easy bleeder at the moment. I do feel bad however for the people I have to practice on! Hopefully I pick it up quick!

Oh, and just for fun, here's a 24 week comparison picture (for anyone who hasn't seen it, most of my facebook friends have).. just to show what a difference this pregnancy is!! For the record I started out at least 15lbs. lighter with Ansel than with Eli...crazy!

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-24T18:29:00.005-06:00

Just wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our dear friends and family! Hope you all have wonderful and safe holidays!

Happy Fourth Birthday Ansel!

2009-12-14T19:06:00.003-06:00

Our handsome little boy turned four yesterday! He's big into legos right now.. so I made him a huge lego cake he was pretty excited about! He's so much fun. He gets so excited over the littlest things. He's also always been precise about some things... for example, he was opening his presents and he would stop after every piece of paper he pulled off to make a neat pile of paper. Then before he opened the gift up to play with he'd go throw away all the paper first! I think I may be a little spoiled sometimes! Don't get me wrong.... he has his angry frustrated moments still.. but really he's a pretty easygoing kid (except for when he's tired and SUPER cranky :). I've never even thought about him coloring on walls or anything like that because he's so precise about things having their place and purpose and will comment on things that are "out of place". (he's always been obsessed with shutting toilet lids, doors, and stuff like that too. such a funny boy :) He's also really good at entertaining himself easily and quietly. It'll be interesting to see what the next little one is like! I might be in for a big surprise! I'm so glad he's come so far from four years ago!!! We're very blessed. Oh, and his growth is still quite consistent.. 3 more pounds this year! (we're up to 27lbs now!) He's also around 37 inches tall.

Here's a link to some more birthday pictures, along with a few other Christmas pictures. He was so funny after seeing Santa (there was a Parents as Teachers Christmas activity we went to.) As we walked away he told me, "I asked him for legos, but he didn't give me any" He just said it so matter-of-factly with such a funny little tone in his voice it made me laugh.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355432&id=576240252&l=9ec4008ef9

Happy Fifth Anniversary (and Thanksgiving!)

2009-12-07T21:50:00.003-06:00

This was of course a couple of weeks ago.. but our fifth anniversary fell on Thanksgiving this year! Seemed appropriate to me as our marriage is definitely one of the things I am most thankful for! It's always nice too (well.. for now since we live near family!) because not only do I know Cody will have some time off but so will family who can watch Ansel so we can have a date!
It's crazy how much can happen in five years! We've been through a lot together and have grown stronger through it all. I'm very lucky to be blessed with such a great husband who's also such a great father, and I am grateful to him for all the support he gives me. Our decision to have another baby after the crazy pregnancy with Ansel wasn't an easy one (esp. with the incredible support from doctors... haha), but talking and praying together about it reminded me of how important marriage is. (Not just by having a family, but by growing together through making those important decisions together and helping each other strengthen our faith.) Before I got married, it seemed so easy to just pray about things and make my own decisions about what I would do in life... but it's definitely been a learning experience to have to work with someone else in order to make those important life decisions! I'm so grateful though I've been blessed with the opportunity to do that, and for someone who shares my same goals, values and beliefs. It makes life much easier! I love you babe!

It's a BOY!

2009-11-19T15:13:00.005-06:00

Well, Ansel has been calling this baby his brother from the beginning so I'm glad I didn't have to regear his thinking! (or mine truthfully.. I would have been shocked if he'd been a girl too just because I've pictured this baby being a boy the whole time!) So much to update on since I haven't been on here in ages!! I'll start with the pregnancy I guess. So far things are looking great still! I do heparin shots three times a day (blood thinners to hopefully help prevent some of the craziness that occured with Ansel's birth!) I really think they're helping. My high risk doc raised the heparin dosage again today (still just 3 shots... just more in each dose) It's nice they're keeping a good eye on all my levels and adjusting things as needed! My wedding ring still fits perfectly at this point and the water weight gain hasn't started yet.. all good signs! (And I haven't had the constant headaches like I did with Ansel's pregnancy either) So that's exciting. I'll put up a link to all the ultrasound pics at the end of the post!

As for other things in life.. October was a pretty crazy month! First we had Rachel's wedding! (Cody's youngest sister) I'll put up a link for those pictures (along with some halloween ones as well!) Sorry I never got a post about it Rachel! I've really been slacking on my blog!! Ansel was the little ring bearer at the wedding.. he was pretty cute :)

Also in October Cody broke his arm and had to have surgery on it! His workplace had a family night at the Bridge in Joplin (a place that has a variety of games, wall climbing, skateboard courses... etc.) Needless to say he should have steered away from the skateboarding. He fractured his radius on his right forearm and ended up with metal plates and screws and everything. He finally has his arm splint free again, which I think he's grateful for! It seems to be healing well post surgery, so that's good. How fun that we both are not supposed to be doing heavy lifting right now! Hah.. what timing!

The other big thing is that I got into the nursing program which I'm quite excited about. I started classes up again this past summer (Getting my Anatomy and Physiology one and two both out of the way) and with my classes that transfered from my previous degree I shouldn't have too many classes other than just nursing ones to take. However it does start in January.. so that could be quite an interesting semester to say the least. I talked to the department though and they said they'd work with me.. even with the c-section. Worst case scenario is that i'd have to quit and reapply next year (which is what I'd have to do if I decided not to go next semester anyway). They said I should be able to get through the classes fine (there are only two next semester) but i might have to end up doing the clinicals in the summer since I'm having a c-section. At least there's only 4 clinicals the first semester of the program!

So.. that's a bit of our crazy busy life these past couple of months!!!

*Feel free to view the extra pics through the links below!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=344630&id=576240252&l=38c45f5c82

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=344620&id=576240252&l=e274a08db7

Wind Rivers Wyoming!

2009-08-21T12:09:00.005-05:00

We had our family vacation this past week and went backpacking in the mountains along with Cody's parents and our niece Jewell. We had a great week! (although morning sickness did hit a little harder while I was there! I seemed to do pretty okay though as long as we were hiking. The day we didn't hike at all I felt the worst! So apparently I just need to make myself walk all day long!)

Here's a link to the pictures from the trip!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=298997&id=576240252&l=068f3b96ba

Make new friends .. but KEEP THE OLD!!

2009-08-21T11:58:00.005-05:00

I had a fun surprise this summer. One of my old roommates said she and her family were driving through our town! So we met up for a few minutes! This is my roommate Katie.. and her three cuties, Lily, Eve, and Abigail. (and one on the way!) The last time I saw her, her oldest was about 6 months old.. so it's been a few years! It was fun to see you again KT(and your family)!

Sneddon Family Reunion

2009-08-21T08:14:00.008-05:00

So this was from WAY back in June (hmm.. kind of like my last post was..) ... but I thought I'd still put up some pics! Thanks to Cody's sister Melinda for getting this all together! It was great to get to know some of the extended family better.. we had a lot of fun! So I'd been slacking on updating here because it was easier to just put up the pics on facebook.. (not that I put them on there until today either... haha.. I have no excuses..) but still, they now let me put a link to the albums so even those without facebook can see it...Yea! That makes it easier and then a million photos don't take up the whole blog post!

So here's the link for those who want to see the other pics..

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=299329&id=576240252&l=72996e10fe

Very Interesting...

2009-06-10T22:20:00.004-05:00

Ansel's Dr. called last week and said he wanted an appointment to discuss Ansel's growth. So that was today, and he said at this point (with his current pattern of growth) he'd probably only end up around 4 foot something (and he wanted to just cover all areas since he's not even on the charts at all). He said he wanted to get an x-ray of his hand and that would tell us what age his body thought that he was (Seriously.. how cool is that.. that you can find that out from an x-ray!) He said if his body actually thought he was 3 1/2, then he'd refer us on to an endocrinologist to at least discuss the human growth hormone options. (Don't want to go down that road if we don't have to!) He said if his body thought it was younger, in the two year range somewhere, then that meant he was just having delayed growth issues (and usually will play catch up at some point).

Well, we had the x-ray done today, and just a couple of hours later his doctor called back with results. Good news... his body only thinks he's about 2 1/2 years old!!! So on the 2 1/2 year charts his height is okay (around 20-25 percent or so) and his weight is close to 5%. He said we'll retest every 6 months or so just to make there is still improvement in growth. Anyway.. quite interesting news to get today.

I've kind of thought a lot of this was somehow preemie related (although he's still on the small end even of other preemies at his age) but I was worried that all his immature stomach issues could be affecting his growth. (That maybe he wasn't absorbing enough of the right stuff or something due to all the stomach irritations). Quite interesting to learn about all of this! I guess he didn't really associate this to preemies in particular, it can happen to non preemies as well, but from things I've read it seems to be a fairly common trend in preemies during early childhood! I personally think the whole "preemies catch up by the age of two" thing isn't all that accurate (especially for micropreemies!) My friend said the place they were at for one of her preemies told her really they don't catch up until age eight or so. Crazy how three little months can make such a difference for years to follow (or for some even just 4-6 weeks early can also make such a difference too!) I find it all quite fascinating to learn about!

Fun Camping

2009-05-27T12:37:00.004-05:00

I'm so terrible at updating lately! Sorry... Well, now that Cody has Tuesday's off (a lot of his dept. got cut recently :( .. and those that got to stay were cut to 32 hrs) we ended up with a nice four day weekend with memorial day... so we went camping for part of it. Ansel was so excited about it and kept talking about it for weeks (even though I don't think he really knew what camping was) and he was quite upset when we took down the tent to go home! I think he had a pretty good time!

We brought Lexi with us too.. who had a few first experiences of her own. She went and chased some cows in a field. Who knew she was a cow herding type of dog? (esp. given her fear of cats!). She also went on a nice LONG hike (good thing for the cool weather or she never would have made it..she's not exactly a long distance dog breed, and she overheats easily!) and she even took a swim (not by her own choice.. Cody thought she should try it :)

Anyway.. here's a few pics!

New Pediatrician

2009-05-11T16:32:00.002-05:00

Ansel got to see his new pediatrician today. Ansel weighed 25 and a half lbs and 35.5 inches. (So, another pound and another inch since January!) I did like his old doctor.. she was really nice and I loved her staff (anytime I'd call to ask something.. medicine dosage, etc... they'd ask, "Who's the patient?" and every time I'd say Ansel they always would say, "Aww.. Ansel, we love Ansel". (We'd gone there ever since he got out of the NICU) So, I do miss some aspects about his old office, but his office shut down and we had a to find a new doctor. The one thing I didn't like about the last place I went was I didn't feel like his last doctor was great with following up on things. (When we were supposed to do follow up blood tests or anything I always had to call to see if we were still supposed to do those like we'd talked about and even if she'd mention something that seemed like a concern she'd never have me bring him in for a follow up to keep an eye on things (it was just always... "see you in a year at his next appointment" type of thing.) Anyway, I feel bad that her office got shut down but hopefully the doctor change will be a good thing.

His new doctor seemed really good though. He asked me a bunch of different things (I'd made my little list of things to cover just in case so I didn't forget but didn't even need to use it because I think he pretty much covered it all in the things he asked!) We talked about the asthma thing (we'd just still been doing breathing treatments at night.. which with a home nebulizer they take about 2o minutes or so) Anyway he switched us over to an aerochamber thing (that has a little mask on it too) and you only have to have a couple of "puffs" of medicine a day (so I guess you get the inhaler medicine and attach it to this device and it's supposed to diffuse the medicine properly through a little mask.) We haven't tried it out yet, we still have to pick up the medicines for it. It's much more portable though and will be quicker to use too. His doctor added a medicine to help prevent asthma stuff too instead of just treating it.
Then, while he was talking to me he heard Ansel making this little clicking noise at the back of his throat and started asking me questions about that and asking if he had allergies (which he'd been coughing a ton the past few days again), so he prescribed some Nasonex to help with the drainage from allergy stuff. He said a lot of times kids will make that noise when their throat is getting kind of itchy from the allergies. Oh, and the part I really liked (well, not money wise but I think it's wise) is he said he wanted to see Ansel again in a month to see how the medicine changes are going and if there's anything that needs to be changed at all. (Follow-up.. and I didn't even have to ask!) So, so far I like his new doctor! The medicines are sure expensive though!! (Well, they have been for awhile though.. I wish the insurance covered a little more on them!!)

His doctor seemed pretty funny too. He came in with Ansel's 3 inch (or more) stack of paperwork and said, "Obviously there's history here! How about you give me a good summary of it to begin with!" (Seeing as how a good chunk of it was likely NICU stuff!) Ansel was pretty funny too. When he came over to listen to Ansel's heart, check his ears, nose, etc. Ansel kept saying, "No, it's not my turn, it's Mommy's turn. You can't get my arm!!" (Yeah.. he had more bloodwork done recently) Then the doctor asked to look up his nose and Ansel said, "I don't have boogers.. Mommy does.. check her nose.. it's her turn!) He doesn't like to be messed with.

Also, Ansel has an appointment with his GI doctor next week. All the bloodwork (and samples, etc. that were done a few weeks ago) went to him so he should be able to tell us more there. (We hadn't picked out a new pediatrician at that point yet.) Hopefully the blood tests are more normal this time!

Video trouble

2009-03-26T08:41:00.003-05:00

Well, I have actually tried to do a few posts... but they were all video posts and for the life of me I cannot seem to get my videos to upload with my newer camera. I can watch them on the computer.. but have tried uploading through blogger and youtube with no luck. (I don't have this problem though if I use a video from my older camera.. that I no longer have) I really like my camera.. I'd just like to figure out the video part of it!! When they save to the computer.. it shows two different icons (one with a picture for it and another blank looking one with a play button.) Both of them have the exact same file name... but it's almost like I somehow need to try to combine the two in order for all the information to be there to upload right!! Hopefully I'll get it figured out one of these days. If you're better with this kind of stuff than I am and have any ideas I'd love to hear them!!

We're all doing well though. We just got back from our trip to Utah on Sunday. Cody's grandparents live out there so we drove out with Mom over her spring break. Our niece Jewell got to come too. Ansel and I went out with them last year, but it was nice that Cody got to come along with us this time! I think Ansel enjoyed all the extra Daddy time too! We also got to see Cody's sister Melinda and her family! They live in Idaho so we don't get to see them too often. The weather was amazing this year! I brought warmer stuff after last year, but didn't need a coat at all and rarely even needed a jacket! (Luckily that meant perfect weather to drive in as well.. last year was a little crazy in a places and it was hard to see driving at times with all the snow!)Yeah.. we got lucky this year! I'll try to post some pics from the trip in after while. I usually put some on facebook too... which is partly why I've been slacking with pictures here.. because it's easier to just post the pictures with a caption of them on there! I'll try to be better though. Hopefully I can figure out the video thing soon too.. I've had some cute ones. Ansel does a cute "thriller" dance!

Abnormal blood tests

2009-01-14T10:40:00.004-06:00

I just hate it when Ansel's blood tests come back abnormal. It's a little unsettling, even if things are completely fine (or at least seem fine).. it makes you wonder why the tests were abnormal in the first place. The first time this happened was when Ansel was about 10 months old... 6 months after his last transfusion they did blood work to make sure things looked good. His doctor said something was abnormal but she looked through lots of stuff trying to figure out what the codes meant and wasn't coming up with much. She sent that test to Kansas City and they replied that as long as the child seemed healthy not to worry about it. So I tried to drop worrying about that one even though it always bugged me a little bit.

After Ansel's last appointment with Dr. Porte (his NICU doctor who he saw for developmental follow up) he thought it'd be a good idea to have some blood work done. I'd asked about Ansel's slow growth, (at 3 years old he's 24lbs and 34.5 inches tall) and how should I know if it was just preemie related or if there were other issues (like his cousin who has celiac's disease (gluten allergy that highly affects growth and proper absorption of nutrients). Dr. Porte thought it'd be good to atleast rule that out since it was in the family and that maybe he should go see a GI doc also. To be honest I felt like Ansel had some kind of issue (stomach wise.. perhaps some type of allergies..or something that's maybe aggrivating his stomach lining?) I didn't really think it was celiac disease, yet I really felt like if he had the blood work done to check for c.d. that perhaps it would reveal something else (I was thinking like some other type of allergy or something). Nearly every day says he says he has a hurt tummy (which has improved a lot with the new reflux medicine though).

Anyway, at his doctors appointment this past week she said it didn't look like things indicated celiac's disease (which is a relief because I've seen my sister deal with that with her little girl and I know it's not easy... not to mention expensive). She said the weird thing was that in fact he had quite high B12 levels (and usually when there's issues with growth and such the levels run low and that's why those levels were checked). She kept saying how odd it was for someone.. especially someone his age to have high B12 levels. (low levels are fairly common but I guess high levels aren't often seen unless there are certain drug treatments which would make it high.. which Ansel obviously isn't on anything like that!) I guess the other thing is that just because the levels show high doesn't necessarily mean that his body is still absorbing all the necessary B12.. it could just be getting discarded.. I'm not really sure how all this stuff works.. just trying to sort out what bits of information I've gotten so far!! Also his doctor kept saying that high levels could indicate some different things, but things that didn't at all match how he looks and everything so those other things are likely not it because he doesn't have the symptoms, coloring, etc for them (really don't remember what all they are as I was getting a bit of info and not having the background on this, I didn't really know what everything was that she was talking about. She said what we're hoping for is that it's just some kind of transitory thing where he happened to have some high levels.

The other factor, that could quite possibly be related is that he's been (off and on) having reddish brownish sediments in his urine the past few weeks.(the urine color is still normal but it has all these sediments that fall to the bottom) I got a picture of it to show her.. and she said.. "Yeah.. that is NOT normal", but haven't been able to get a sample of it yet. Last week it only happened once or twice.. although the week before it probably happened at least five or six times (and just a couple of times the week before.. so it's very sporadic). I guess the plan is we'll redo blood tests at three months to see if the levels are still elevated, but his doctor really wants a urine sample (one of course that has the abnormalities) before the blood test is ordered because the outcome of the urine test could change the order of the blood test a little. I would imagine the two things are interrelated somehow. The thing is he doesn't seem like he feels sick at all... so that's good, (and hopefully this is all some odd random abnormal thing that just goes away!) I also hope that if there is some issue we need to deal with that we can figure it out and treat it!! (Oh, and also with the urine I ask him if it hurts to pee and he always says no, and he hasn't had fevers or anything to go with it, so it doesn't seem like normal symptoms for just a typical infection either) So, with all of this it's just kind of waiting on timing and tests and stuff to see if there's anything to it or not. I would imagine that if the tests are still abnormal next time around then we'd go see the GI doctor (and atleast we could then go to him with all the tests that have already been done) to try to sort it out better.

This really all is probably not a big deal, I just thought I'd write about it as it is on my mind at the moment especially as there doesn't seem to be a lot of info about high B12 levels (just low levels). The thing is B12 is a necessary thing to have and those who are low have to supplement to get their levels up.. and in their case if they get too much it's no problem they just get rid of the extra in the urine.. it's just odd though when your doctor tells you it's real unusual, especially for his age. Oh, and if anyone's heard of this happening before (with either the weird urine or high b12 levels) I'm always up for added info!

Christmas pics

2009-01-05T13:09:00.004-06:00

Christmas was fun! We hope you all had a great one too! Here's a couple of slideshows from our Christmas :)

Christmas morning:

My little rockstar! Ansel was all about the guitar. It was his cousin's Christmas present.. (hence the Hannah Montana on it) but he sure had some fun with it.

Ansel's third birthday!

2008-12-15T15:00:00.006-06:00

Time is such a funny thing... I can't believe my little guy is three years old.. yet his crazy birth seems like a lifetime ago! It seems like he's been a part of our family forever and it seems weird to think of what life was like before he entered our world :) I'm so grateful things have gone the way they have.

This is such a fun age! I love all the conversations and funny and witty things Ansel comes up with. Oh, and being potty trained.. love that too. Makes life a little easier!

He was so excited to have a Thomas Train cake this year! He woke on his birthday so excited to see it.. (It took awhile to make.. having to mix all the colors!) Just a few minutes after he came across it.. I could hear him playing in the kitchen.. still very excited about it. I went out there and he proudly showed me the additions he had made!! So funny.. He added the other trains (that I was originally going to use.. so atleast they were brand new and washed already!) They were heavy though.. and had magnets in them..so I decided not to use them after all! Well, Ansel fixed the cake up a little by adding them.. and even had them all going the same direction. Funny though.. it looked like a little train wreck with the log that flew off to the side. He definitely had more fun playing in it.. ( and it was more for that than for eating!)

He had his last appointment with Dr. Porte (his NICU doctor.. who does the developmental appointments until they turn three). Dr. Porte was thrilled with his progress. The only thing he's a little behind on is his gross motor skills that involve the side trunk muscles (like jumping and stuff).. he has low muscle tone there still which is common with little preemies (but it's mild and just improves with time.. so nothing major or to worry about). They changed around some of his medicines to see if that will help him a little (mostly for his asthma and reflux.. he seems to have the whole asthma/allergies/acid reflux trio....) Dr. Porte said his lymph nodes in his neck are pretty good sized and figured he has some type of allergies (but we're not sure what...aside from the typical seasonal ones) Ansel says he has a hurt tummy nearly every day (likely the reflux issue) but he's doing a little better with that now that he's regularly on reflux medicine again. He had to go get a bunch of bloodwork done the other day too.. just to kind of check some things out.. but we're still waiting on that to come back. He's still of course not hitting charts.. but he had gained a little bit! He was almost 24 lbs. and was 35inches tall. Dr. Porte kept saying though how great he's doing.. especially given his start.. and that we should be proud :) And of course we are... I'm happy he's done so well. It's so exciting to see him progress and learn everyday. We're very lucky to have him in our lives.

On another side note.. we also just had our fourth anniversary a few weeks back (November 26th).. Our fifth will actually be on Thanksgiving next year! What a great thing to be grateful for. Cody's so wonderful and (kind of like I mentioned the weird time thing earlier) it's seems like we've been together forever already! I'm grateful I have him... he makes my life so much happier :)

I love this time of year anyway.. Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays.. and then to add to that we have such special family memories at this time of year which seem to enhance the richness of those holidays even more!

Halloween

2008-11-12T18:37:00.006-06:00

Ansel was a cute little monkey this year and had a lot of fun saying "trick or treat" to everyone! I didn't think he was going to wear the costume at all because he'd never try it on, but he finally did on Halloween day and kept it on pretty much the whole day! (Once he realized it would get him candy... suddenly being a monkey was a lot of fun!) ... Also.. a little flashback at his first two Halloween costumes. I think the Bob one was definitely the best (and was perfect for him).

It was a full day though.. first we went trick or treating at Daddy's work.. then the square (met up with some friends there), then the ward trunk or treat.. and ended at Grandma's house! At Grandma's house Ansel would run to the door every time he'd hear the door bell and greet the trick or treaters.

Hide and seek

2008-10-29T15:50:00.004-05:00

Ansel sometimes likes to play hide and seek with Daddy before bedtime. He found a new spot to hide... (although he did need a little bit of help getting it zipped up. The other pictures are of him in his cute new pajamas.

Babying our puppy?

2008-10-29T15:30:00.005-05:00

I came out to find this the other day.. I guess she found one of Ansel's really old pacifiers in his toy box. (Didn't know there were any around still!) She's quite fond of it though.

Also, she's a kind of puppy that doesn't maintain their body temperature well. She'll sit there shivering sometimes.. with some of the weather we've had lately. So I gave in a bought her a sweater... (Ansel picked it out because it had the little fuzzy balls on it.) She wasn't sure of it at first.. as in that first picture, but she doesn't mind it at all now if she's cold (usually that's the only time we put it on.. if she's shivering).

My life is a little easier thanks to this product!!

2008-10-29T09:43:00.004-05:00

So, I was at Wal-mart the other day when I came across this oh so wonderful thing... Ansel's potty-trained.. but only at home, where he can use his little potty. He has a potty insert seat as well that we can take to places like grandma and grandpa's house, etc. Stores however have been another story. Ansel's still only 23 lbs.. so real potties are quite large to him (and he's still too short to stand up and pee.. with a real potty anyway) Needless to say the toilets in public are quite big for him and he would refuse to even try them (he'd just cling to me and not even try to go.. don't blame him though.. he did look like he could fall in pretty easy!) This thing folds up nice and compact and fits easily in his little mini backpack (with extra clothes of course..just in case.) It doesn't fit great on home ones, but is perfect for the kinds you find in public. Anyway, he finally decided it would be okay to go while we're in public. Not to mention it's nice knowing he's the only one using that thing. One step closer to being fully potty trained! (We still haven't messed with it at night time.. although he is usually dry after nap time, and will take his diaper off when he wakes up to go potty.)

Maple Leaf Parade

2008-10-29T09:20:00.007-05:00

A couple of weekends ago was the annual Maple Leaf Festival here in Carthage. We only went to the parade.. which started only a few blocks from our house. Ansel had fun dancing to all the bands in it. He liked the kettle corn too.

Just for Cody... he works as a recruiter at CFI.. (well, it's actually Conway now)

Ansel with the kettle corn.. the bag's almost as big as him!

A view of the parade at the square.. We do have a pretty courthouse.

Ansel locked me outside today!

2008-09-30T17:34:00.004-05:00

Well, today was a little crazy. We stopped by the store after our walk (Ansel was out of milk.. so I went ahead and did a little grocery shopping while I was there). After we got home I took the kids in, put Matthew in the exersaucer (he's a fast little crawler!) then went out to get the groceries. LUCKILY I had my phone with me at least, because when I got to the front door, Ansel had shut it! (and apparently also turned the lock in the process) Slight moment of panic...but at least my phone was on me so I called Cody (took me 10 minutes or so to get through to him) and TRIED to walk Ansel through the process of unlocking the door. He was distraught though that I couldn't come inside and after trying to turn the door knob a few times with no luck, I could just hear him screaming on the other side. At this point I was pretty sure I wouldn't get him calmed down enough to figure it out so I called my friend (who's husband works with Cody) and had her get her husband to have Cody call me. (If I call him at work.. he'll only answer if he's not on the phone. If he's on the phone then usually he'll call me back when he gets done... but I couldn't wait for him to get done.. two little ones inside!!!) Anyway.. Cody came and saved the day :) (Although I was out there for 40 minutes or so because he works in Joplin! 40 minutes wouldn't have been bad if the kids were out there with me, because it was a gorgeous day outside.. but knowing they were in there by themselves was a little stressful! Now... had Matthew not been in the exersaucer.. I think I would have completely panicked!!!) It all worked out.. but now I need to remember to ALWAYS have my keys on me just in case.. and maybe we'll have a little family night teaching Ansel how to UNLOCK the front door :)

Improvising

2008-09-30T17:04:00.005-05:00

My friends and I have been going walking everyday, only I don't have a double stroller yet since I've been watching Matthew everyday. (I'm not alone though.. one of my friends that goes with us has two small children.. one that's pretty new, and hasn't gotten her double stroller yet either)
Anyway, at first Ansel would ride up top (like a shopping cart), but the other day he decided to climb in the basket at the bottom and that's actually worked out quite well! He and Olivia (the other toddler that comes with us) will also get out and walk sometimes..or look at flowers..or rocks..etc! (It takes much longer that way though!!)

Hide and seek

2008-09-30T16:47:00.006-05:00

I was washing Lexi's bedding the other day when I realized Ansel had found a new hide out. (Luckily I'd just cleaned it well) Yes.. both Lexi and Ansel were in there at one point! We couldn't get him to come out... so Daddy decided to get him out.. only his plan didn't quite go as expected. (Daddy didn't realize Ansel was coming out butt first until I grabbed the camera.. not to mention Ansel was gripping the inside of the crate trying to stay in longer!)

The last couple of pictures were some cute ones of Ansel and Lexi after church one day.

Trying to take after Mommy or Daddy?

2008-09-30T16:40:00.003-05:00

Let's hope for Daddy on this one! Even little boys raid Mommy's mascara. This happened just a few days after Daddy got his lovely little basketball wound (4 stitches and a black eye.. the black eye part showed up a little later)

Birthday cakes are so much fun...

2008-09-30T15:26:00.004-05:00

It was a few weeks back, but here's a couple of pics from Cody's birthday. We had a variety of Thai food (Cody's favorite..mine too actually) for dinner. As soon as Daddy got home from work.. Ansel ran over yelling, "Daddy, birthday cake!!" over and over. He was pretty excited about it and usually is.. as you can see from pictures earlier this summer from my birthday and Aunt Rachel's birthday.( Yes.. it does appear that my cake is going up in flames.. too many candles this year!) I have so many birthday pictures of him on the birthday person's lap.. I think it's been his designated spot since he was a baby!

In the last two pictures.. Ansel decided he really liked Daddy's cycling shirt he got for his birthday.

Cute kids

2008-09-11T11:03:00.004-05:00

I liked this picture of Ansel and Matthew. Matthew's the cute little 5 month old we've been babysitting. Ansel's pretty good with him, although he does have his little jealous moments (when he'll yell, "My Mommy!!") I think it's good for him to learn he has to share sometimes!
When he's not being jealous.. he'll talk sweet to him, kiss the top of his head, and he likes to lay down on the ground next to him. I have to sometimes remind him to give Matthew his space! (Which is funny because those of you who know Ansel know he's very particular about people invading his "bubble".. He likes his personal space, unless it's HIS idea to snuggle up to someone or say hi. (He does still love to snuggle though... at least with us) He's not always friendly, however, when people come up and say hi to him and he'll sometimes scream "No, Mine!" (As in his personal space I guess) I'm not sure how to fix that problem! But if he initiates it, he will act sweet as can be. (Giving cheesy grins and waves and kisses.)
Matthew's a strong little guy though and growing up fast. He's already crawling and even got his first tooth about a month ago! (Completely different from when Ansel was a baby! He was a year old when he started crawling (9 months adjusted)! Matthew's also a very good eater when it comes to baby food. (another phase we totally skipped.. Ansel wouldn't touch the stuff! It wasn't until we introduced finger foods that he'd try something other than milk.) Anyway, it's been fun seeing his personality emerge.

I think I need a laser light!

2008-09-04T09:38:00.003-05:00

Grandpa Miller had a red laser light that seemed to keep both Ansel and Lexi entertained!

Mommy's "helper"

2008-08-27T16:04:00.002-05:00

It's no secret that Ansel likes to be Daddy's helper when it comes to tool time.. but he likes to help in the kitchen too. Anytime I'm cooking he has to pull a chair over to see what's going on. Here he's helping make waffles and "stirring" up the dry ingredients with the teaspoon. Most of it stayed in the bowl!

Buddies

2008-08-27T14:47:00.009-05:00

Ansel really likes his puppy... (still a little too much at times, but they're getting a little better around each other!) Ansel really likes to be the one to hold her leash when we take her on walks. They pretty much take turns pulling each other along. She'll start running when we're getting close to home, which nearly takes Ansel out even though she's 6lbs. 6 oz.(went to the vet yesterday for shots) and he's 22lbs! Yeah, that makes it hard to teach her how to "heel", but they have fun. She's very good at sitting when told, but we're still working on the other ones!
Another way I can tell Ansel likes Lexi is that he'll let her sit in his Thomas the Train chair without moving her. Even if we just lay our head on the chair he'll try to push us off.. (and he really gets possessive with it if another kid tries to sit in it) but he hasn't seemed to mind her sitting there. Lexi will sometimes sit there patiently while Ansel's holding her, but sometimes she'll give us the "please rescue me" look (As seen in the picture above). Despite that though, I think she likes him too. When she wakes up in the morning she'll run to his room door to see if he's up yet. Speaking of sleeping.. quite often I'll find her sleeping on her back! ( shown below....looks kind of funny!)

The whole vet experience was a little new for me. The weirdest part was that Lexi was suddenly my "baby" that everyone was going crazy about and the people there hardly seemed to notice Ansel at all (which was completely different from usual!) They'd even tell her "wait for momma" (again.. referring to Lexi, not Ansel.) I know this is quite common in the pet owner world.. but I guess I'm just not used to some aspects of it yet! The funniest part about the trip though was the huge red dog who was terrified of Lexi, and would whimper and scurry under the chair trying to further their distance from each other! (Lexi was just sitting there, not barking at all or anything. The dog's owner said she's just scared of little dogs for some reason!)

In this picture.. I thought it was kind of funny how Ansel and Lexi are pretty much making the same face. They definitely have some similarities going on : she was a runt.. he was a little 2 pounder; they both are potty training (and doing pretty well with it); they both beg for junk food but don't want to eat their real food; they both get overly excited when they're playing together (and learning boundaries and proper behavior!); and I think they both get jealous of each other when it comes to getting attention! I think in the long run though they'll grow up to be good buddies!

*A note about the umbrella picture: it was raining on our walk the other day, so Ansel lost interest in holding the leash and decided he wanted the umbrella. It looked so funny.. All you could see was this blue umbrella walking around (and sometimes at the right angle you could see little blue shoes to go with it!

Our first family pet

2008-08-11T15:23:00.003-05:00

Well, it was kind of random (we weren't out looking around or even thinking about getting any dogs), but I came across this one through a good friend. We named her Lexi, and she's half Boston Terrier half Pug (the mix is known as bugg dogs! Kind of funny..) She's about 9 weeks old. Ansel's pretty excited about her.. although they both get a little too excited sometimes and clash a little. I think it'll be good for him once they adjust to each other a little better!

Let's pray little Alexa safely home!

2008-08-08T15:42:00.004-05:00

Well, I'd briefly mentioned on a post awhile back that we had some friends who had a little preemie girl. The time has come where they hopefully are not too far away from getting to take her home.. actually they've had plans to go home several times over the past couple of weeks. However, new challenges keep arising, and the date keeps getting pushed back further.

I remember being in their place.. it seemed like Ansel's departure date always seemed to get pushed back a little for one reason or another. Then, just a couple of days after we got home with him, he and I both got the flu.. very scary for a little guy who's already dependent on oxygen. He had a few spells where he'd go limp and blue (even on the oxygen) so we rushed him back to the hospital where he spent another three weeks (back in the NICU) trying to recover so we could try to go home again. At that time when all those things were happening for us, I really believe that the prayers of so many people in our behalf helped give us the strength and patience we needed (and the help Ansel needed to get stronger!) I read comments from people I'd never even met (friends of friends and friends of family members all over the country) and it amazed me how intently people who didn't even know us would pray for us and give us their support.

So, I wanted to ask all my friends and family who might read this (I know some of you know Trevor and Melissa and have them in your prayers already!) but for those who don't... if you could remember this little family in your prayers tonight, that'd be great. We've also been praying that the doctors can figure out what is the cause of Alexa's breathing and heart rate episodes so she can be treated correctly and that when she does go home, she'll be strong and ready for it! I'm sure they'll greatly appreciate any extra support! If you want to check out cute little Alexa, her blog is: http://alexapetersen.blogspot.com. Thanks everyone!

Memorizing puzzles

2008-08-08T14:34:00.005-05:00

Ansel has this new car puzzle that he really likes. He's getting pretty quick at it.. (I think he pretty much just remembers where all the cars go). The first video is kind of funny because it show a little of his somewhat obsessive/compulsive side.. all the cars must be facing down before he can start it (add a little challenge I guess.. who knows?) He's very particular about certain things. He likes playing with some toys in pairs.. ones that have a connection to each other (two similar bikes, or two vehicles from the cars movie, etc.. Some other things are: he's obsessed with making sure the toilet lids are down (anywhere we go.. not just at home) He's also very particular about things having their "place" and will make sure some things are put away where he thinks that place should be.(It's usually a fairly logical place too) Don't get me wrong.. this can come in very handy too. He's pretty good about picking up toys, putting trash in the trash, and stuff like that. It's just a little funny sometimes.
Anyway, in the second video he does it how he usually does.. fairly quick (less than 50 seconds)..

My big boy

2008-08-04T14:54:00.005-05:00

We're doing lots of big boy things right now. We finally got the crib taken down a couple of weeks ago and set him up in a twin bed. (We don't have a lot of storage space.. so we thought we'd just pass on the toddler bed.. one less thing to store later!) He loves it! He's done really well with it too. . . He'll wait until I come in the room in the morning and after nap time to get off (I'll hear him calling "Momma!") It's funny that he does that since he is always climbing off and on it throughout the day!

We're also potty training right now.. fun fun. He's doing all right. He's actually a lot better with going number 2 on the potty than number one. He'll do it all by himself (pretty much all the time) whether I'm in the room or not, and then bring me the little bowl insert from the potty chair and proudly yell "big one!" Then he'll run off and dump it in the real toilet and flush. With peeing though.. he gets it about half of the time, the other half is either holding out for a diaper or an accident. (and the times he is actually sitting on the potty it doesn't always go in!! Apparently there are aiming issues even when you teach sitting down to start with!) His main problem.. which can be a good thing too though, is that he'll hold it way too long. (Even though he'll sit on the potty pretty much at any time.. he just won't go until he REALLY has to.. so then he won't always make it.) The first couple of days he didn't have but maybe one accident.. but he didn't go at all in the potty either. (He'd hold it from when he got up until nap time.. (still use a diaper there) and then from nap time until bed time.. crazy! One time I caught him starting to spray (hardly anything) so I rushed and set him on the potty.. I guess it scared him because then he wouldn't go and held it a whole hour more! So he definitely has the "physically able to hold it" part down! He did actually ask me though to go potty (on the big toilet) when we were getting him ready for bed (and he even had a diaper on already!) That was exciting progress, and, I guess made up for the fact that he peed on me earlier when we were snuggling!

Here's a bunch of pics to go along with it... (new bed.. big boy pants, etc..) There's also one of him "nuggling" his monkey doll. (We're babysitting a cute little four month old baby right now.. so he's getting some big kid practice there too!) Oh, and the picture of him holding the baby is actually of him and his cousin Braden (not of the baby we're watching). Isn't Braden so cute!? Bright blue eyes just like Ansel.
We also, finally, found a bike helmet that fit him! (Thanks to Target for carrying a 12 month size!) He doesn't like it much though, and would much rather play with Daddy's helmet. The other "hat" he's wearing in one picture was brand new out of the package.. I promise. We showed him pretty quick that it really wasn't a Bob hat! Also, the smallest underwear we could find were 2T... so I read up and found out which one's ran the smallest. They actually stay up too! (which is very exciting seeing as how I have to put 9 month shorts on him if I don't want them to fall down!) They're a little baggy.. but hey, thankgoodness for the great elastic!
Ansel "fixed" the changing table while we took down the crib.

Ansel's It!

2008-07-11T11:29:00.003-05:00

Ansel also got tagged! His is a little different..

Name: Ansel Joel
Age: 2 1/2 (31 months)
Birthdate: 12-13-05
Nicknames: Bubby, Bubba, Bob (when his 'tools' are out), little squirt... I'm sure there's a ton of others we use too!
Favorite activities: "riding" bikes.. (he can't pedal yet though); snuggle (he always comes over and says, "nuggle, momma"); Playing soccer with mommy and daddy; playing with cars, bikes, tools, trucks, helicopters, etc! Watching favorite shows.. DANCING... listening to music.. getting tickled.. (he's super ticklish but will often ask for "more tickle" if he's in a good mood!.... going to the park... seeing animals... watching (and trying to help) Mommy cook... playing with Daddy.... getting to sit on motorcycles... Jumping... and talking on "phones" (anything from real phones to calculators to cars he uses as phones.. anytime I get a phone call he picks up whatever is nearest to him and has a full out conversation as well)
Favorite Foods: Crackers and cereal, pediasure, ham, cheese, chicken, noodles, eggs, pizza, hot dogs, grapes, bananas, beans (kidney and pinto like beans) and toast.
Least Favorite Foods: most vegetables.. (he'll pretend to like some though.. like broccoli and celery... that is if there is some kind of dip. he'll go through a lot of dip, but the vegetable will look the same when he's done!) He really doesn't like lettuce, peas, corn, carrots, and green beans.
Ansel's a pretty finicky eater.. and always has been. I pretty much skipped the baby jar puree food phase with him because he was so picky (although we sure tried it a lot and tried to introduce it over and over again! The flavor didn't make a difference... it was the puree texture I guess!)
Favorite music: Baby Einstein music cd's; kids' music cd's (children's hymnbook; other cd's with children's songs on them ("Get Moving" is one of his favorites).. He also likes ANYTHING with a good beat to dance a long with (Latin, some country like Rascal Flatts, etc.. really if it's a fast paced song that he can dance a long with, he'll like it.)
Favorite toys: Cars, trucks, bikes, etc, (our couch usually has bumper to bumper cars lined up perfectly); balls to play catch with; Tools.
Favorite books: Green Eggs and Ham, Snug House Bug House, Fox in Socks, First Colors (usborne version) and, once again.. any book that has Bob the Builder, Cars, Trucks, Helicopters, etc. in it.
Favorite items of clothing: Shoes.. he really prefers to have shoes or sandals on most of the time.. Other than that... he's not too picky.. He likes his "jammies".. sometimes it's hard to get him to change in the morning. He also likes his Bob outfit.. (He's pretty much wearing all the same clothes from last summer.. I thought he moved up to 18 months, because that's what he wore in the winter (for length).. but He still wears all his 12 month summer stuff easily.
(I was so excited I bought some 18 month shorts with ADJUSTABLE WAITBANDS!! Sadly, though, I had them as adjusted as you can get and they still fell off :( (and then looked really silly when you rolled them down at the waist with all the elastic hanging down!) So I guess we'll just stick to the 12 month ones again.. (and even some of those I have to roll down at the waist. He still even fits his 6/9 month shorts.. crazy) Maybe there'll be a growth spurt this year?!
What makes me happy: When Daddy gets home from work! Ansel runs to the stairs to greet him everyday!
What makes me sad: When Daddy leaves.. Also.. getting in trouble for hitting!
I tag: Cousins.. Olivia, Emma, and Karina.. (because I'm sure you have time for that Roya.. haha... what with being pregnant with your fourth and a hubby that's deployed and all. Oh well, I still tag you ;)

I'm it...

2008-07-11T10:18:00.005-05:00

I got tagged... so here it goes! :

4 movies I could watch over and over: (first off.... I really am not a fan of watching movies over and over.. this one would be much easier for Ansel to answer! I'll pick a few I like though!)

1. Pride and Prejudice (long version)
2. Bourne movies
3. Anna and the King
4. Return to Me

4 jobs I've had:

1. Wal-mart overnight stocker
2. English teacher in Korea (one of my favorite ones!)
3. Aide at Junior high (working with those who have learning disabilities)
4. Saved the best for last... MOMMY!

4 places I've lived:

1. Rexburg, Idaho
2. Provo, Utah
3. Taejeon, South Korea
4. Carthage, Missouri (Springfield, Ozark, and Nixa also)

4 foods I love:

1. THAI CURRY CHICKEN.. MMM....
2. PAD THAI (seeing a theme?.. . maybe I went to the wrong Asian country! Although I do have some Korean favorites as well.. it just took me a few months of living there to find them!)
3. Mexican food.. like a simple carne asada"taco" on corn tortillas with lime juice squeezed over it!)
4. Pizza

4 Favorite T.V. shows:

1. LOST!
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Everybody Loves Raymond
4 Medical Mysteries (CNN)

4 Websites I visit daily:

1. Email (hotmail)
2. Facebook
3. Friends and Families blogs
4. Creative Memories (Consultant website... I'm mostly a digital scrapbooker)

4 places I've vacationed:

1. St. Louis, MO (mini vacation!)
2. Florida (Orlando, and Ft. Lauderdale)
3. Nassau, Bahamas
4. Cancun, Mexico (and some surrounding areas)

4 places I'd rather be right now:

1. On a vacation with my husband.
2. Visiting family who doesn't live nearby.
3. I'd like to visit Korea again (with Cody and Ansel)
4. Either a beach by the ocean or somewhere in the mountains (some kind of nice, beautiful outdoors place with nice scenery and good weather!

Goodbye Grandma

2008-07-08T11:31:00.009-05:00

We said goodbye to Grandma Clinesmith yesterday. I'm grateful she's not suffering any more. She's seemed frail these past several years, compared to how we knew her before, but I don't think any of that prepared me to see her the way she was the last few days. I came down to see her a couple of weeks ago, and she was able to sit up in her wheel chair and visit with us. For 90 years old, she had a very sharp mind still! Once the cancer really started to take over though, she got weak fast. I got there Saturday, and she was no longer able to really move or talk at all, and she wasn't very responsive at all. They gave her medicine for the pain (although you could tell she was still in a lot of pain) , but I sat with her a lot, especially on Sunday, and as I watched her closely, I learned to tell when she was sleeping and when she was somewhat awake, so I'd talk to her then. We had a few sweet moments though.. she really couldn't move or talk at all .. but at one point, I leaned down to talk closer to her so she could hear me.. and she lifted her head slightly and kissed my face several times. (Lifting her head at all was a big thing at that point. ) Then, (she was laying on her side) she gave me a sideways glance and raised her eyebrows as if to say "What can I say? These things just happen." She would squeeze our hands too.. I felt like she was aware of us being there, knew who we were and could hear us. There was another time, when I was telling her how much we loved her, that she started to struggle a little, like she was really trying to clear her voice to speak, and she seemed frustrated that she couldn't, so I told her, "It's okay.. we know you love us too." Then she seemed to relax and gave me her faint smile. We also got a sweet smile from her when she heard Ansel's voice. Anyway, there were a few little things like that, few and far between, where we knew she was still aware. Mom sat with her a lot that last day, and said at one point you KNEW she saw someone she loved very much (I'm sure Grandpa wasn't too far off!) Mom said her eyes brightened and she just had this huge smile. I got there in the early afternoon, and we stayed for a few minutes and said some goodbyes (planning on being back soon though). Then I left to go pick Mom back up (she'd been there since 4:30 that morning! She went to take a little break (the nurses didn't really think she'd make it through the day, but some said they've seen people hang on like this for several days or more.. so we did take a break.) When Mom got back though, she had already passed. (Mom actually found her and had to go tell the nurses.. she did have really great nurses who took good care of her though). We felt a little bad we hadn't been there as she left, but on Sunday I'd had a strong feeling it would be that way. A thought came that she would want to be near us while we were there, but that she would slip away when we left.

Here's just a few more pictures of her.. one of her wedding even! The first one is one of my favorites of her and Ansel. This was the first time she got to see and hold him.. since it was so long before we could take him places. I still remember her lighting up when we walked in the door with him! I also thought it was cute how whenever he'd see her with her walker, he run over and grab a hold of it, and walk with her! (we had to watch him though.. sometimes he'd start going a little fast!) Grandma loved her grandkids, but boy was she proud of her great grandchildren!! One of the nurses saw Ansel and knew him by name because she'd show off pictures of all her family!
The one of her and Roya makes me tear up.. Roya drove a ways to come visit her.. and they both knew it would be their last time here to say goodbye. This was just a few weeks ago.
There's also one of Grandma with her sister, Vera, who actually just past away one month ago from the same thing. (Exactly one month and one day.. They were both too weak to go see each other, but going through the same things at the same times.. I think Grandma was also ready to go see her again!) I know she longed to see Grandpa again.. (he passed away on my 12th birthday... so that's been quite a few years ago!)

Sorry for another long, and kind of sad post.. I have other posts I've been meaning to get on.. (just had a few distractions lately!) So I'll liven up the mood soon!! I have some 4th of July stuff to add now too! I just wanted to first take a minute to pay a little tribute to my Grandma, Myrtle Mae Clinesmith. I'm so grateful for her example and all she's done for us. I've gotten A LOT of family history stuff (pictures, pedigree charts, documents, etc,) from her.. She really kept up with things like that. It will be neat for us to go to the temple for her in a year! I'm sure she has a lot of ancestors who are very grateful for all she's done! We're going to drive to Kansas Saturday to have a little memorial/ graveside service there. (That's where Grandpa's buried and where she spent most of her life)

Some thoughts

2008-06-23T12:07:00.006-05:00

Usually I just use this blog to give my friends and family new pictures, updates, etc of Ansel.. I haven't really been the typical blogger where I post my thoughts and feelings about everything on here.. (generally I'm a fairly private person and just save all that stuff for my personal journal; that and I barely keep caught up once or twice a month on the pictures and everything!!) But I've had some feelings about life from a few specific incidences this year that I thought I'd write about.

There are a lot of you who read this who know about Aaron and her passing. For those who don't... about a month ago, I had a friend from church who was moving out to Utah with her three little boys(4, 3, and 1 years old) and an 18 year old girl she'd gotten to know who was going to live with them for awhile (Aaron's husband had already moved out there a couple of months earlier). Sadly, in Colorado, they were in a terrible car accident. The boys were ok, as was the girl that was with them; but Aaron was pronounced dead at the scene. My heart has really gone out for this family and the adjustment they are now having to make. (And also for the 18 year old girl who was driving.. I can imagine she's having a tough time as well). Aaron's sister Krista has done an amazing job helping out with everything and has been updating Aaron's blog..(I'm so amazed how she's handled taking care of the boys, the blog, and I'm sure just being a huge support to the rest of the family even though this has (obviously) hugely affected her life as well) But I just saw the blog today.. which prompted me writing this now.
The blog address is http://reedsinmo.blogspot.com/ (for those who knew her or are interested)
There were pictures put on of the van and also from the graveside services... very, very sad :( But as her sister said.. just a reminder for us all to be a little safer when traveling and be grateful for what we have.

Anyway, I've just been thinking a lot lately about life and how grateful I am for it. How grateful I am for every moment that I have with my own family. (Of course after the close call we had with Ansel's birth.. I've thought a lot from time to time about this; how lucky I feel to be here and to have this time I've been given with my family) It reminds me also how I need to be more aware of how I spend my time... to make sure not to waste it with trivial things. (I know I do waste time sometimes too.. so I need to work on that more).

I've also been thinking about how grateful I am for the experiences we're given. When I think of the complications with Ansel's birth. . . I look back at it as a sweet experience. The memory of the awful pain and recovery has faded (ha.. I still remember it; but it's really not what I think about as much). I've adjusted to the fact that maybe I won't be able to have as many kids as I wanted to have (that was a tough one at first).. although who knows for sure how that side of things will turn out! What I gained from that experience far outweighs the hardships of it. I have so many friends that I likely wouldn't have because of that experience (and that was actually how I came to know Aaron better as well.. her first son was also a 28 weeker; so she'd come and visit me during my hospital stay. . . bring me preemie clothes; etc.) I'm good friends with all my nurses and with the NICU staff; and every time I run into them there because I'm visiting someone, it's always catching up with friends now.

Also, just like my friends who used there experiences to help me at our time.. I've been able to use my experience to help others, a little at least. In January (exactly two years after I got out of the hosptial) our good friends Darwin and Dania also had a little preemie girl (30 weeks). They're from Honduras and so they didn't have any family here, and told us we were their family. She had some complications similar to mine (her wound even split open a little bit on one side) and there were kidney tests that had to be done, etc. So, it felt so natural to try to comfort her through that since I'd already gone through that myself. She'd tell me "I just kept thinking about Ansel" and knew things would be all right. It was good too for Cody to be able to relate so easily with Darwin about it because it is a completely different situation to be on the guys side.. worrying about their wife and baby (and having to go back and forth from visiting in the NICU and seeing your wife) not to mention still having responsibilities with work and everything else. I always admired Cody's strength through all of that.
I was kind of thinking about all of this again because also, near the end of last week, our friends Trevor and Melissa had their baby girl really early too(31 weeks... she was a tiny 31 weeker though... only weighing a few ounces more than Ansel did at 28 weeks). Melissa also had high blood pressure/toxemia issues as well; but we're very glad both her and her baby are doing well, and that they have great family support here. (I know that really helped us out.. having all of our family and friends to help us and pray for us)

(All three of us... Melissa, Dania, and I were working in Young Women's (at our church) at the time we had our babies early due to toxemia/preclampsia, etc; so the Young Women's President said "I've decided I must be toxic... giving you all toxemia.. no more pregnant women are allowed to work in Young Women's around me!" She's funny.. seriously though I hope she knows she had nothing to do with it! :) We love you Penny! )

I'm just grateful though that we're prepared for the experiences we receive. (Maybe not always, but it's been my experience that, at least later on, looking back, I can see how Heavenly Father has helped prepare me for the things that come my way) The first time I saw preemies in person, TINY preemies, was in high school when I got to go to the NICU for a job shadowing day.. it was one of those things that was just engraved into my memory. Then, when I was pregnant, my friend Jovi had talked about how she'd had preclampsia and HELLPS Syndrome (both of which I ended up with) so while I didn't really know a lot about them, I was at least a little familiar with them. The night my placenta abrupted, I was in so much pain as we drove to the hospital and I KNEW that I would be having Ansel pretty much as soon as we got there.. (the way I felt.. I knew there was no way I could keep him in longer.. and we were lucky to get him that far at least!) I was grateful though that I knew just enough about preemies (although not much) to know that he could survive at that point. I was in too bad of shape to stress about whether or not he would live, and I was blessed to just KNOW that he would be just fine.

So, I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. It has blessed my life so much, and has blessed every aspect of my life. I'm grateful that we have the knowledge that families can be together forever. What an amazing blessing to know that... to know that there is so much more than just our time here on earth. It really helps put things in perspective sometimes. I'm grateful that we can receive direction for our own lives through the guidance of the Holy Ghost. I feel so grateful to have these things in my life. Sorry for the incredibly long post.. but I had a lot of thoughts on my mind that I thought I'd share at this time. I'm grateful for all of my friends and family.. I love you all. Thanks for all you do to bless our lives!

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-16T22:11:00.004-05:00

I hope all the Father's out there had a good day! I'm grateful for the Fathers who've influenced my life (Especially my own father, and also Cody's dad.. they're both great examples to me!) I'm also so grateful for Cody. It's so neat to see him with Ansel.. he's such a great dad! Here's a couple of recent pictures I thought were cute.. Ansel definitely wants to be just like Daddy!

(*I didn't get around to doing a Mother's Day post this year but I want both my Mom's to know I love them very much too and am grateful for their friendships and all they do!!!)

My little character

2008-05-23T08:55:00.007-05:00

Oh there's always so many new stories at this age, I never seem to get them all written down! Ansel's talking a ton and likes to be the one to say the prayer (with help of course) Usually he'll repeat what we say.. but sometimes he'll throw in his own stuff (For example: every time we use the word "for", instead of repeating "for" he'll say "five" (yeah.. he likes counting too).

I had his swing out to wash the cover... he climbed right in and hung out there for 10 minutes or more.. and it still swung him too! (I guess he's probably still in the weight range!)

Ansel with his buddy Olivia.. he's actually 13 months older than her.. but they usually play really well together and always get so excited to see each other at church. It's really cute to watch them play... they're both so funny!

I think Ansel was definitely ready for a nap this day!
Ansel loves getting on the scale (and always says "Two Two") Usually it says 21 or 21.5 lbs. but on a good day (shoes and all ) he'll hit 22 (or "two two").

Ansel likes to make sure the toilet paper holder is filled (it holds three). We came in one day and he had it stacked with 9 or 10 rolls!

I had to put a picture of our new bathroom trim too! Cody did it a couple of weeks ago.. It makes the bathroom finally look finished! :)

*Also, sorry about the mismatched text! I always try to line it up with the pictures when I'm creating the post... but it never really seems to work out! There's gotta be an easier way (any tips are welcome :) )

First bike ride

2008-05-23T08:49:00.002-05:00

Ansel got to take his first ride on "Grandpa's bike" (which he loves and is always talking about)... don't worry, they were going pretty slow and it was in a parking lot, but Ansel was quite excited about it!

Little Conductor

2008-04-26T14:31:00.003-05:00

Ansel loves music.. and usually loves just dancing to it.. Lately, though, (especially with his classical music) he likes to "conduct" to it as well. I caught him in the car the other day while he was listening to his music!

"Help, Momma!"

2008-04-08T16:21:00.003-05:00

The other night Ansel wanted some milk shortly before bedtime. I went out to the kitchen to go get it, and thought I'd grab his medicine while I was at it. He came strolling out to the kitchen(likely checking up on me to make sure I was getting it!) He saw me with that medicine and bolted off so fast!! He ran to Cody in the other room yelling, "Help, Momma!!" (with a look of terror on his face!) Too bad for him though, Daddy was on my side :)

Easter eggs

2008-03-28T15:25:00.005-05:00

The cousins all got to color and decorate the easter eggs together. We had a little hunt outside, which Ansel loved... he loved it even more when he discovered the chocolate inside of the eggs! We let him take some of it with us (after the egg hunt we left to meet up with my friend.. that's when he became a little mess in the car seat!) A couple of the pictures are actually from easter Sunday when we were back home in Missouri.

Fun at Great Grandma and Grandpa's

2008-03-28T15:06:00.003-05:00

We had such a fun visit! Ansel's cousins, Evan and Camille got to come down too (they live in Idaho). Sorry Melinda (and Rachel ), but I LOVE this last picture!! Camille decided to try out Aunt Rachel's new makeup! I guess they do try to grow up too fast!

Gateway

2008-03-28T14:52:00.005-05:00

I also got to visit with my old roommate Annie while I was there! We met up in Salt Lake at Gateway shopping mall. She's due to have a little boy in June! Hopefully Ansel didn't scare her of that too much! :) It was so good to see her again!

As you can see, Ansel loved the fountains!! I had to go buy him an outfit afterwards though, since I'd already changed him after he spilled water all over himself at lunch. (Not to mention got chocolate all over it on the ride to Salt Lake.. there'll be a picture of that later though)

Conference Center

2008-03-28T14:42:00.004-05:00

We took a tour of the Conference Center also. I'd been there before for Conference, but I hadn't been up on the roof. Ansel loved it there!! (outside anyway). Most of the pictures are from the roof area. Ansel loved the water, and the ledges were a perfect height for driving around his car!

Salt Lake City

2008-03-28T14:26:00.004-05:00

We had a very fun week last week, going to see Cody's grandparents who live in Brigham City. It was a long drive, but Ansel didn't do too bad (thank goodness for the little DVD player and his cousin Jewell being there!) He definitely had his moments though (once after the DVD player decided it needed a break!) Also, when he was getting ready for a break from the car seat, he'd yell, "I stuck, I stuck". Under one panicked moment, he yelled, "BIG stuck!!" I'll have a few posts from the week, but first I'll put some pictures (mostly) from when we visited temple square.

The last picture is of the Logan Temple where we also went while there. It was so nice to have so many temples nearby! (Especially when the nearest ones back home are 4-5 hours away!)

What's wrong with this picture?

2008-03-28T14:18:00.003-05:00

I was trying to get Ansel ready for a bath one night. I told him the water was ready, and it was time for his bath. He kept running off, not wanting to take one just yet. I went and grabbed his towel and washcloth and then went to go find where he had run off too, when I peeked in the bathroom and there he was, diaper, clothes, shoes and all! He played for a few minutes, but it didn't take him long to realize maybe that wasn't the best idea!

Welcome to the family Braden

2008-03-28T00:53:00.006-05:00

Braden is the newest addition (on Cody's side) of the family. He was born February 13th and we got to go see him several weeks ago, so here are a few pictures from then!
(Pictures in order):
Cody and Braden, Rachel and Braden, Lindsey dancing for us, Kelsey on her bike, and Kaley, Ansel, Jewell, and Kelsey... Ansel was so proud to be on the tricycle! He wants to see the bikes every time we go to the store!

New posts coming VERY soon!

2008-03-27T11:44:00.002-05:00

For all those friends and family members who think I've abandoned my blog... we FINALLY got internet this week!! So, I'm sorting through some pictures to get ready for several updates (which I'll try to do in sequential order, with the most recent things posted last.) Ansel and I went to Utah this past week, so we'll probably have a few posts from that week alone!

New things Ansel is doing

2008-01-16T15:25:00.000-06:00

I thought I'd update a little about what Ansel is doing (language wise, etc) Back around his birthday, he began learning many of his colors. He consistently knows about 10 colors (I think all the Christmas lights helped a little with that interest he has.. although he'll point to pretty much anything and tell what color it is, especially trucks and cars.) He'll say all of them except for red(brown, pink, white, green, blue, black, orange, yellow, and purple) If I ask him to pick up something red, he will; but if you point to something red and ask what color is it... he almost always calls it yellow!

He also likes counting. He'll consistently counts to five.... beyond that you'll sometimes hear an eight or ten thrown in there. He likes dumping things though and counting as he puts them back. He'll also count all his cars and trucks, as he lines them up like they're in a parking lot.

Aside from that.. he knows a lot of words, but his main sentences are "My big _____" (truck, Daddy, etc) and "I love_____" or "I like______" (He loves and likes nearly everything right now) So of course it just thrills Daddy to hear him say "I love pink" or "I love purple".. or my favorite at dinnertime once (he was talking about this one particular book he has) when he said "I love big cute guy". Daddy's really working on teaching him "nice" instead of "cute" and "pretty"!

You definitely have to watch what you say though! One day I dropped or spilled something and said "Crap." (Good one Mommy) Later that evening... Ansel dropped one of his cars and said "crap". Then.. when Cody asked him, "What'd you say?!", he quickly replied, "I said Uh-oh"!! If his first response didn't surprise us, the second one sure did!

He's also quite taken with his cousin Jewell and is always "talking"to her on his toy phones and saying "I love love love Jewell" (That's another thing.... quite often he'll add 3-5 "love"'s in his sentences when he really likes something!)

These next couple of pictures I couldn't resist putting on. We have one of those soft folding chairs.. which Ansel can be quite possessive of. Apparently it's pretty comfortable for him!

Finally some Christmas pictures!!!

2008-01-16T14:54:00.001-06:00

Ansel holding Daddy's calendar ... with a familiar name on it!

Yummy popcorn.... One gift from Aunt Rachel was popcorn and a movie. Ansel got so excited when he saw the popcorn and was done with unwrapping presents after that! He kept asking ,"Beep, Beep?" (That's his way of asking for something he knows needs to be microwaved)

A few days earlier, he also enjoyed some caramel corn our friends brought over!

Ansel with Aunt Rachel!

Ansel with Aunt Lorelle! She lives on the east coast right now, so we were so excited that she got to come up for Christmas!!

Water fun

2008-01-16T14:40:00.000-06:00

Back at Christmastime, we were getting ready for dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and we came across Ansel dipping a spoon into water to drink it. He did this for a good 15 minutes or more, and little cousin Lindsey decided to join in the fun! (The only reason I can think of why he wanted to drink this way is because that's how we'd let him try the hot chocolate!) Anyway, the table cloth was soaked, but it was easy entertainment!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

2007-12-14T12:21:00.000-06:00

Ansel's an official two year old.. yikes! We had two little parties for him.. one up in Springfield the weekend before (Roya and the girls were down too) and then Grandma and Grandpa Sneddon and Aunt Rachel came over to our place to sing to him on his birthday! By the second time around he was REALLY having fun with the unwrapping part and kept asking for more.. (and wanted to unwrap everything under the tree!) He also liked his cake He kept saying, "I love cake" and "My big cake". (he says "I like...." and "I love.." everything right now!)

Time to unwrap presents!

Ansel knows what "hot" means, and got a little worried that the "hot" candle was so close to him!

He had a lot of fun playing.. driving the cars throught the ice cream and cake!
All done!!!

Time for clean-up!
The cake I made for the first party (we went simple with the second one and just made cupcakes!)
Anxious to dig in!!

Make a wish!

Testing out the presents!

Belated Thanksgiving pictures

2007-12-14T11:52:00.000-06:00

We had a very fun Thanksgiving! Cousins Evan and Camille got to come this year! They live in Idaho, so we were very excited to get to see them.

We even got an updated cousins picture, although it will soon be outdated! (Cody's sister Kim is due in February!) Kim and her family got to come up too!
This is always such a busy time of year! Between holidays, there is also our anniversary(third this year) and Ansel's birthday!

Ansel wasn't real happy through all the pictures!

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids! The kids have grown just a little from the last time they were all together for a picture!

We went to Springfield to see my family the day afterThanksgiving.. these picture aren't really Thanksgiving related.. but they were cute... Every time Grandma would come out with her walker, Ansel would run over, grab on to it, and start walking with her. (Although he tried to "pull" her along a little too fast sometimes!

Ansel also go to "ride" Grandma's reindeer outside.

Aunt Amanda had some fun with the reindeer as well!

Little Bob

2007-11-11T16:43:00.000-06:00

I figured I better get some Halloween pics on here before it was too far past Halloween!! Ansel of course as his favorite person.. Bob the Builder. He got to go trick or treating at Daddy's work, around the neighborhood with friends, and at the church party...so he did quite well this year!
Ansel got the "cutest" kid award at the ward halloween party.. surprise surprise :)

Developmental Checkup

2007-10-26T12:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been so long!! Well, Ansel had his developmental checkup with his NICU doctor recently (he has them about every 6 months until he's 3 years old. ) He's doing great! They said he's really on target with language, fine motors skills and pretty much everything except size. Also his walking is more in the 15-18 month range (getting closer to running, but not quite there yet). Yeah, he was only 19 lbs. 12ounces... (they weighed without clothes) so he really is almost 20lbs.... and he was a little over 31", so he gained another inch atleast. His head growth has always been good (and is even above the 10th percentile on the 2 year old growth chart) so that's good considering his size. They said to try and keep him on about 24 ounces of Pedisure a day until he's two (adjusted... so next March). His doctor said he's thrilled with his progress considering his start. His hearing and vision are great too, and he really hasn't had to have any speech or physical therapy. His doctor's ordered synagis shots again (RSV protection). . . just as doctor appointments were becoming easier, he's going to start getting a shot once a month again!!! (After shots last seaon, any time he'd get stuck on a scale he'd scream like crazy because he assumed a shot or two would follow. If he could make the association last year, I'm sure he'll really know what's going on this year!)

***Oh yes, I have a little story to add too. My child has begun making fun of people. (Well, he was probably just imitating... but it was pretty funny) I took my little sister to the Veteran's hospital in Kansas City the other day, and this guy who was wearing sagging pants and had a little bit of a strut walked past Ansel. Just then Ansel sunk down a little and started walking really funny (I've never seen him do this "walk"before) and then he started pointing at the guy! Luckily the guy was walking away from us so he didn't see it!

Enjoying the Outdoors

2007-09-17T12:33:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2007-09-17T12:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Cody's birthday. After church we had dinner and enjoyed the beautiful weather over at Grandma and Grandpa's. Ansel loves being outside and really had fun exploring the yard with Jewell!

Snuggling up with Great Grandma

Ready for bed. . .

Ansel got these p.j.'s from Korea.. one of my students sent them shortly after he was born (along with several other cute pairs) and he finally fits them!

Fun things to do at Grandma and Grandpa's house

2007-09-17T11:42:00.001-05:00

There's always fun things to do....

like "fixing" the vacuum. . .

or helping out with dusting. .

snuggling up with Aunt Rachel. . .

and attacking her with the duster!

There are also fun things to find in the playroom. . .

like shiny purple beads. . .

or a drawer full of barbies. . .

or getting dressed up to go horse back riding!

Finally 20 lbs!!!!

2007-09-14T11:39:00.000-05:00

Well, Ansel FINALLY hit 20 lbs at his doctor appointment the other day!!! (They weighed him clothes and all, but still, we'll take it!!) He's been hanging out in the 19 lbs range forever, so it was exciting that he finally hit 20. (and finally hit 30" long as well) The past couple of weeks we started him on Pediasure (which we've given to him here and there, but now that's his main source of milk, and it seems to be helping out more than just adding more calories to the formula.

Catching a "dog"

2007-09-08T20:33:00.001-05:00

We caught a big grasshopper in Ansel's room the other day. He was pretty excited about it.

He kept saying and signing "dog" (well he altered the sign a little and pats his chest instead of his leg) Quite a few animals are "dogs" right now. He knows duck, cow,and cat (with their correct sounds) but many other animals are dogs that make a monkey sound! He'll get it all figured out one of these days!
When we let it go... he caught it in his hand right as it started to fly away!

Fun at the park

2007-09-08T20:26:00.000-05:00

Just some more cute pictures

2007-09-08T19:16:00.000-05:00

Me and my cousin Jewell in Daddy's hammock. . .
Ansel loves his cousin! Quick story. . . he got so excited to see her at church Sunday. We were holding him and he leaned down to give her a huge hug! While we were all "ah"ing about how cute it was, he sneakily grabbed the little bag of cookies out of her hand and popped right back up! So, he loves his cousins, but he loves cookies too!

Watching "Bob"on a trip to Springfield

Swimming fun

2007-09-08T19:01:00.000-05:00

It's been a month or so.... but here are pics from when we took Ansel swimming.. which he loved of course!

Yikes! not what I was intending to capture! Good thing for padded diapers!

Relaxing with Daddy afterwards in the hammock!

(for some reason he kept making that puckered lip face whenever we set him in the hammock!)

Cute sleeper

2007-09-08T18:50:00.000-05:00

Here's just a few of my sleeping poses!!

Both arms up!

In the very corner, cross legged and poking an eye!

Arm twisted upward

Snuggled with my blankie

All sprawled out! ..... Can you tell that mommy thinks I look cute when I sleep?

Bob the Builder

2007-08-13T16:11:00.000-05:00

Ansel's new obsession...(and I do mean obsession) is Bob the Builder. We got him a little video way back at Christmas time and he's never really cared for it.. until this past month. Now he can't get enough of it. I think he says "bob" more than mom or dad. (Well, maybe not "dad"....about an hour before it's time for Cody to get home, he talks about daddy non-stop!) Anyway, he gets a glimpse of big building vehicles, or any bob merchandise, and goes on and on about "Bob!" Very cute.. but I'm learning how old some kids movies can get!!! Here's a couple of pictures of him hard at work helping daddy "build" a bookcase.

Getting down closer for a better look!

Getting very serious about it!

Crashed out after a hard day's work!

Bouncing Baby Boy

2007-08-13T16:08:00.000-05:00

Just a little clip of some of Ansel's dancing! This was actually about a month ago.. but anytime he hears music he loves to dance!

First steps!!!

2007-07-20T21:01:00.001-05:00

We haven't gotten much of a video yet.. but Ansel started walking this evening!!! He'll do about six or seven steps going between Cody and I! (He just started around five or so this evening and has done quite a bit in just the past couple of hours! It was a very exciting day! Here's a little video of it with only a couple of steps... (as usual.. he stopped doing it when being filmed!!) Oh, and sorry I filmed it the wrong way.. I don't know how to rotate videos!

We moved!

2007-07-19T16:09:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the delayed posts.. but we finally moved! We haven't hooked up internet yet... so I've been a little slow to add anything new. Here's a glimpse of Ansel's room..

Ansel likes eating cereal with milk now... sometimes that involves a spoon too!

Here's Ansel in his rocking chair... it was actually mine when I was his age!! (I'll have to dig out the pictures sometime) He likes sitting on that middle slat .. and will rock away like that.. (Yes, he has knocked it over on himself several times already.. mostly when he's rocking backwards though.)

This is how I found Ansel the other day... he found my oil pastels and drew himself a goatee.. trying to grow up too fast!

Apparently they don't taste too good though.

Ansel got invited to the Children's Miracle Network celebration....

Looking tough in his new tattoo (sticker of course)

He got weighed Monday.. 19 lbs exactly (so only one ounce the whole month... I was hoping for a little more than that!) Oh well... atleast he's eating well!

Some favorite toys

2007-06-26T15:42:00.001-05:00

Here's some pics of Ansel with some of his favorite toys!

This first toy was his souvenir Daddy got him from Mexico.. he loves it. It's kind of like a top, only to get it to spin you wrap this string around it and then drop it just right! He gets pretty excited about it.

I thought this picture turned out pretty funny... looks like he's doing some fancy trick with it.. really he just threw it and that's how it turned out in mid air!

Stacking funnels is also apparently a really fun thing to do

And of course, we can't forget the screwdrivers!!!

One for each hand even!

An idea from Parents As Teachers... take an empty can, cut a slit in the top, and gather a bunch of frozen juice tops! )
And last, but not least, cupboards... any and every cupboard! This is actually dual play time here, as he also has a hold of the mop. He likes things with long handles that he can drag around.

Play date

2007-06-26T13:41:00.001-05:00

We had lunch with my friends Jovi and Samantha and their cute kids... I thought some of these pictures were cute! We used to meet up every Friday, but it's not quite that often anymore.

Wyatt, the youngest there, just turned 3 months old!

Sam and Amaree... (Amaree's 6 months old)

Tatum, Ansel, Eliza, and Carson

Things Ansel likes to do

2007-06-22T16:16:00.001-05:00

Ansel loves dancing.. any time any music is on!
He claps and waves a lot.
He loves to brush his teeth... and believe it or not.. he loves FLOSSING! (If he sees me flossing, he hurries over for his turn!)
He likes to throw away his dirty diapers.
He likes to play with screwdrivers.. (yikes.. under close supervison!)
He likes putting movies into the vcr (DVD CASE AND ALL!).. oh, and might I mention pens, pacifiers, and anything else that will fit in there!
He loves to say the word "cracker", and I think officially uses it more than any other word, even ma ma and da da!
He loves to flip light switches on and off (and pull on ceiling fan chains).
He likes to put small objects into other objects.. (ex. pens into a bottle of water!)
Unfortunatley he still loves throwing his dinner on to the floor when he's done eating!
He loves reading and playing the piano.
He likes to play with animals (although we found out he's allergic to cats)
He likes bath time/ showers, rain, etc. (and we have to work at keeping him from splashing in the toilet water.. gross, I know)
He likes to play in the cabinets and is getting too good at hiding things! (I was looking for something the other day and finally found it when I went to to make dinner....in the pan drawer under the stove!)
He likes trying to figure things out.. right now he's trying to put a cassette tape back into it's case and get it closed right.. I think he's getting a little frustrated on that one! He has a good attention span though.. he'll work and work on something.
He likes to snuggle with his white(well, once white) blanket. When I go to get him after he wakes up from a nap or in the morning, he hurries around and gathers his binky and blanket before he'll let me pick him up.
He also likes to eat his cereal with milk now. He's working on using a spoon and has done a lot better with it this week!
He likes to brush his hair, and mine!
He's good at finding his belly button.
Oh yes, and he likes to bite.. legs, shoulders, toes, etc..another thing we're trying to work on!!!

Failure to Thrive

2007-06-21T19:30:00.000-05:00

Well, we had Ansel's 18 month appt. for immunizations... and he was still only 18lbs. 15oz.!! (and only 28" long) We seriously thought that surely he'd reached 20lbs by now.. (He was 18lbs. 14 oz. well over a month ago, and almost 17lbs at his birthday in December!) So, he's falling off the charts pretty much, even for adjusted age, and his growth rate has REALLY slowed. We've obviously noticed that, he's been wearing the same clothes for over 6months now (and still in size 2 shoes!).. not typical at this age. So the plan is to up the formula calories again.. (He grew great up until December when he was moved off the preemie high calorie formula to a regular toddler formula.) It will still be the toddler formula, but we were given a recipe to make it 22 calories. HOPEFULLY that will do the trick and he won't need anything extra!!

I guess there's other things, like some growth hormones, etc, that are sometimes given to preemies, but it's best if they get them before they're two. His pediatrician said it's sometimes hard to get it approved by the endocrinologists.. but she said she'll look into that too... so we'll see. (and sometimes there are other reasons for Failure to Thrive.. which he'd probably have to have a scope in order to determine that.. )
Anyway, everything else developmentally is going great, so that's good. He's doing lots of fun stuff, like dancing.. (he bounces up and down everytime he hears any music.. so cute!)

Happy Father's Day

2007-06-19T10:33:00.001-05:00

Happy Father's day!

Ansel helped pick out some cookies for Daddy... hmm.. wonder why?

We got Cody a new wedding ring (same style as before).. since he lost his in Mexico!

Speaking of Mexico.. how cute are my boys in their guayabera's?! (their mexican shirts)

A love of reading

2007-06-11T16:32:00.000-05:00

It's pretty cute how Ansel loves to read. He will flip through the pages and "talk" away. We have the Fox in Socks book, which is kind of a tongue twister book. I'll read it too him pretty quick, then he'll look at it and jibber jabber away for quite awhile. Here's a little video I got of it!

Car seat

2007-06-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

Yeah!!! We FINALLY turned the carseat around!!! Ansel loves it, and I like it much better too. It's so much easier traveling with him facing forward.

After we first turned him around, he just smiled and looked around the whole time!

Our trip to Cancun!!!

2007-06-01T13:37:00.000-05:00

We had a great trip this past week. It was busy, we saw and did a lot of things! (Needless to say, I've added about 5 posts, just of our vacation!) I love the color of blue the water is there!

Cody and I went to the beach at night.. (I got my hair braided the day after I got there.. it was so nice not having to do anything with it all week, and having it already fixed whenever I was done swimming, etc!)

We saw a lot iguanas all over the place.. (Nearly as frequent as seeing squirrels here!)
The flowers and plants were so pretty.
One day we took a ferry ride to Isla Mujeres..

Have you ever seen a circle rainbow!!!!??? I thought it was pretty neat, although hard to capture with the sun being in the middle. (We saw that while we were on the ferry ride)
We had good weather most of the time, but it rained a lot the day before we left! We went swimming at the beach for awhile anyway.. had some good waves that day! It's amazing what a beautiful blue the water still is, despite the gloomy sky!

Xcaret

2007-06-01T13:13:00.000-05:00

We went to a tourist spot called Xcaret on one of the days.It was beautiful. There were lots of different animals, a beach, snorkeling (outside and in caves), reinactments of different cultures, etc. There was definitely a lot to do and see there. I loved snorkeling,except for the part where Cody lost his wedding ring in the cold water :(

One of the parrots let Cody hold him. It was a little nicer than the one sitting next to him!

There were also tortoises of all sizes..

tiny ones

and really huge, older ones.

This animal is a tapir. It's one of the endangered species. I'd didn't know much about them, so I had to read up on it a little. It looks part pig, part anteater, but I guess it's actually in the same family as horses and rhinos. Cody got to feed it some leaves.

Chichen Itza

2007-06-01T12:34:00.000-05:00

We got to visit Chichen Itza!! I thought it was pretty amazing.. and it's amazing to think about all the knowledge the Mayan people had. You're no longer able to climb up it like before, but it was still great to see. Chichen Itza is one of the finalists in the new seven wonders of the world.

This is the observatory at Chichen Itza.

Cody and I in front of the pyramid

After (and often during) the tour, the little Mayan kids would run up to you to try and sell you souvenirs.

Cody and I with the souvenir they tried to sell us on the bus.. a bottle of tequilla with our picture and a picture of the pyramid on it. Yeah, we didn't get it..

On the way to Chichen Itza, our tour bus stopped at this gorgeous cenote (a fresh water, limestone sinkhole) I loved the way the vines hung down.

A view from above, of everyone swimming in it.

The Mayan Palace

2007-06-01T11:30:00.000-05:00

Thought we'd throw in a few pictures of the resort we stayed in, called the Mayan Palace. It was huge and gorgeous, but we didn't really spend a lot of time there because we were out traveling so much.

The pool was HUGE! It was all connected together, but it went all different directions.

We did get up really early one morning to watch the sunrise at the beach.

It started to get real pretty...

... but the clouds kept following the sun all the way up. By the time the sun finally got out from behind the clouds, all those gorgeous colors were gone; so it was pretty, but anticlimatic.

Friends from the mission

2007-06-01T11:06:00.000-05:00

One of the best parts of our trip was meeting some of the people I'd heard Cody talk about from his mission. They were the nicest people and offered friendship and help instantly. (The couple in the middle are the Nygren's. Bryce served the same time as Cody there and we stayed at the resort with them and another couple from their ward. It was a good combination of people to travel with. We all got along really well)

This is the Rocca family. They picked us up when we arrived to Cancun (funny story.. we actually took a taxi to their old house.. luckily the girls living there knew them and called them for us, and they came and picked us up there)

Anyway, we were a mess after flights and driving late to Dallas the night before. They took us to church (it'd already started by the time we got there, and Cody and I were in shorts and t-shirts from traveling!) I was a little embarrassed for looking like such a scrub but everyone was just so happy to greet us.. it didn't matter what we were wearing. The Rocca's took us back to their house and fed us lunch and got rides lined up for us to the resort. . . so hospitable.

I really enjoyed spending time with this family as well. We spent the last couple of evenings with them. They made us dinner one night, and they took us out and showed us some different places and things. This particular evening was their anniversary of when they'd been baptized. We had a lot of fun with them!

Cancun

2007-05-17T13:17:00.000-05:00

So Cody and I leave for Cancun this weekend. (He served his mission there) We'll be there for a week. I'm very excited (hello.. Cancun.. how could I not be!), but I'm a little sad thinking about leaving Ansel for a week :( Yep, haven't left him for more than a day yet, so this is the first big abandonement. He'll be with Grandma and Grandpa Sneddon, at home, and his Aunt Rachel should be home too by then which he'll be excited about, so I imagine he'll do better than I will with it!

A day at the zoo

2007-05-17T11:47:00.000-05:00

Ansel took his first trip to the zoo yesterday. We went with my friends Melinda and Jovi and their kids. It was a bit crazy at first.. of all days to go we just happened to hit a day where there where a million school groups there!! But then most of them left and it was a nice, enjoyable day. We got lucky with perfect weather too. It'd just rained the day before and cooled things down a bit.

Eliza, Wyatt, and Ethan in their cute new wagon

The peacock strutted his stuff for us

The otter showed off a little too.. it became known as the "water cat" by the kids!

Ansel loves trains....

So we ended up taking a little ride,

which he REALLY enjoyed

Luckily, we were even able to get a naptime in for Ansel!!

It was naptime for some of the animals too.. the cheetahs, mountain lions, bears, tigers, etc. Not a lot of excitement that time of day!

The monkey family, however, was very entertaining. There were two younger monkeys that were chasing each other all over the place. The kids got very excited watching them.

Watch out for the ostriches! This one bit Melinda's foot! Luckily she was wearing tennis shoes!

I always forget how big the hippos are until I see them! Definitely wouldn't want to mess with one of those!

Ansel got to feed the giraffe some crackers. (That was tricky... as I mentioned in the last video post, he loves crackers and it's his new word he uses all the time.. Needless to say, it was a task to get him to feed it to the giraffe and not himself!!)

Looks cute, but kind of rude.. they'd let Ansel pet him (which he loved doing) as long as he was holding a cracker, but once the crackers were gone they snorted on him (pretty big gust of air!)and walked off... I was left with a disappointed boy!

Fun at dinner

2007-05-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

Ansel was having fun playing at dinnertime... we even got one of his newer words "cracker" on the video!

Happy Mother's Day

2007-05-15T10:58:00.000-05:00

Hope all the mothers out there had a great day! We did.. Ansel (with Daddy's help) made me a very cute card with his hand and foot prints (dipped in paint). Definite scrapbook item :)

Rain, rain...time to play

2007-05-09T10:20:00.000-05:00

We've had quite a bit of rain lately. Ansel loves to feel it. He loves being outside.

Stair climber

2007-05-09T10:05:00.000-05:00

Ansel LOVES climbing the stairs, and he's pretty quick. He's done single steps forever now, but he recently started eyeing the stairs so we thought we'd let him have a go at it. He didn't have any trouble and looked like he'd been doing it forever. Now if he go down to do laundry, he's just a minute behind me!
P.S. this outfit, which has a little tie and sweater vest with it, is 3-6 months!! how crazy is that!? I know Ansel runs on the small size, but he usually wears 12 month clothes atleast. I don't know why they make the dress clothes so big. We tried a 6-9 month one first, but the shorts fell right off him!