The Watson Clan

Let the fun begin!

2011-11-15T10:17:00.001-07:00

After only a year, the time has finally come to redo the living room, dining room, and kitchen. We're so excited! A friend of ours, Allen Thompson, is going to be doing the work since Shane just doesn't have the time with his work schedule. That's why it's taken so long to get around to it in the first place. At any rate, I took some before pictures and thought I would blog the progress and then the final product.

Here is the living room before. Now, keep in mind that we have been slowly working on the deconstruction over the year, so it hasn't looked like this the entire year. Also keep in mind that these pictures were taken after we took out the furniture and things that could be taken out, so it's not usually this empty, either.

Allen will be finishing the fireplace/hearth, enlarging and finishing the doorway into the dining room, sheetrocking that same wall, installing new can lights in the ceiling, replacing the windows, retexturing the entire room, painting and putting up new trim. Under the carpet is what appears to be an oak hardwood floor, so once all the other stuff is done, we will take out the carpet, and sand down and refinish the floor. The light fixtures will be replaced with ceiling fans.

These first five pictures are taken from the front door, starting with looking to the north and then making the way around the room.

Josh was being silly and posing.

This one is of the front door from the dining room doorway.

Now here are pictures of the dining room. In here, we will be painting, putting in new trim, a ceiling fan where the smaller light fixture is, and a new laminate floor.

This picture is taken from the living room doorway. The blue chair doesn't actually live there; it lives in the living room. It was too wide to get down the stairs with the other furniture and there isn't room for it in the bedrooms, so it will get shuffled around depending on what room is being worked on at the time. Eventually, we're going to put a cabinet with built-in desk in the corner where the desk is now, but that will be a little ways down the road. That doorway leads into two bedrooms and the bathroom.

Here's from the doorway by the blue chair.

And here's from the kitchen.

Finally, here's the kitchen. We're getting new cabinets (including room for a dishwasher!), same laminate flooring as the dining room, and it will be repainted.

These pictures are taken from the dining room. This doorway leads out into the laundry/utility room. That room is one of next year's projects. Some of these kitchen cabinets will be moved out there for additional storage. That will be really nice.

And this one is taken from the laundry room. That missing cabinet door just came off in the last week. Good timing, eh?

So yeah, we're pretty excited to get all of this redone. We're hoping it will be done in time for Thanksgiving, since the family usually comes here to get together for the holidays. I'll post updated pictures as we go along so you can share in our excitement. :)

First Snow

2011-11-05T10:05:00.000-06:00

Last night we got our first measurable snow of the season.

Shane and the kids spent much of the morning cutting and stacking yet another load of firewood.

And, of course, where there's snow, there must needs be playing in said snow. Olivia's snow horse:

I guess it's time to dig out the snow pants and hot chocolate!

I Spy a Baby

2011-11-03T11:14:00.001-06:00

Some pictures too cute to not share

2011-11-01T19:44:00.001-06:00

Here are a couple of pictures I took of Rebekah in the last couple of days. It's hard to believe she's getting so big already!

Joshua loves Mickey Mouse. I mean... LOVES Mickey Mouse. Olivia had this stuffed Mickey doll that she has now passed down to Joshua and he plays with it all the time and sleeps with it every night. One night Shane was playing around and put one of Rebekah's old pacifiers into Mickey's mouth. Well, Joshua was so tickled that now he insists on Mickey having his pacifier every time he's in bed, too. Today at nap time I snapped a picture of the binky buddies and just had to share.

Joshua is 2!!

2011-10-24T21:01:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I'm a total slacker on the blogging lately, but things have been busy. We've started back with our homeschooling routine, we've got lots of activities/meetings going on with church, piano lessons, Thomas is back in scouts after the summer break, and I've been spending my free time doing a lot of knitting and crocheting.

But I had to share the news that Joshua turned 2 last Thursday and share some pictures. Joshua continues to be a sweet and wonderful little man who is such a joy. He still isn't speaking and we're not sure if it's due to the slight hearing loss he suffered as a result of the meningitis he had, or if it's completely unrelated. Either way, he's doing very well with signs and finds ways to communicate his needs. He doesn't express nearly the level of frustration that Benjamin did at the same age when he wasn't able to speak.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our little man on his second birthday. Plus a bonus picture of Rebekah, who is now 4 months old!

Here's his haul from Grandma & Grandpa Skidmore.

This was his favorite gift of the day - a wooden rubber band gun.

He got $2 in birthday money from Grandma Skidmore, which he spent on two candy bars right before we had his party. So by the time we had the cupcakes, he wasn't hungry anymore and never did eat this cupcake.

And here's our sweetie pie, Rebekah. She still looks just like a blue-eyed Olivia. So darling!

Basic Crochet Newborn Cap

2011-10-06T07:52:00.002-06:00

Crochet Newborn Cap

Supplies:

Worsted weight yarn. I especially like Caron Simply Soft.

Size H/5.0mm crochet hook

Yarn needle.

Gauge: About 3 DC and 2 rows per square inch.

Pattern:

Round 1: Make Magic Loop. Ch 2. 10 DC inside loop. Pull yarn end tight. Sl st into top of ch 2. (10 DC)

Round 2: Ch 2. 2 DC in each st. Sl st into top of ch2. (20 DC)

Round 3: Ch 2. *1 DC in next st, 2 DC in next st.* Repeat * * to end of round. Sl st into top of ch 2. (30 DC)

Round 3: Ch 2. *1 DC in next 2 st, 2 DC in next st.* Repeat * * to end of round. Sl st into top of ch 2. (40 DC)

Rounds 4 – 7: Ch 2. 1 DC in next st. 1 DC in each stitch until end of round. Sl st into top of ch 2. (40 DC)

Make edging:

For girls cap: *Skip 1 st. 5 DC in next stitch. Skip 1 st. Sl st into next stitch.* Repeat * * to end of round. Sl st into first st. Fasten off. Weave in ends.

For boys cap: Ch 1. SC in each stitch to end of round. Sl st into ch 1. Fasten off. Weave in ends.

Add optional embellishment of your choice.

Feel free to sell the items you make using this pattern, but please do not sell the pattern. Thanks!

MIA

2011-10-06T07:48:00.000-06:00

Sorry I've been so long away from the blog. It's been a busy summer and I haven't had much time to really sit down and update things. I'll try to get back here and share some news in the next week or so. I've been doing a lot of knitting and crocheting and will share some pictures of what I've been creating as well. I designed a newborn crochet cap and am sharing the pattern on Ravelry.com, which is a knitting and crochet pattern database website and needed a link for others to see the pattern, so I'm adding it here to the blog. :)

The Toddler and the Diaper Sprayer

2011-08-09T07:34:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I was in the dining room and I heard a sound coming from the bathroom that got me more than a little concerned. I raced to the bathroom and, sure enough, there was Joshua with diaper sprayer in hand.

Was he hosing down the whole bathroom, as you would expect the typical toddler to be doing? Oh no... that's much too juvenile for Joshua, the grownup trapped in a toddler's body.

He had taken a clean diaper from a hamper of diapers that I had folded, but not yet put away, tossed it into the toilet and he was hosing it down.

I honestly didn't know whether to congratulate him or to discipline him. I mean, it's kind of hard to be mad when they're using the thing they're not supposed to be playing with in the appropriate manner, and then when they look up at you with a big grin, so proud of themselves. So I just laughed, took the sprayer away, led him out and closed the door. Funny boy!!

Chickens

2011-08-01T13:30:00.004-06:00

Having chickens this year has been a new and fun experience. It has also been a challenge at times. About a month ago we bought 60 baby chicks (mostly hens, some roosters). Some of them were going to other owners, but most of them were going to be ours. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago a skunk got into their little coop and killed all but about 10 of them. Over the course of the next week the rest of them died, we suspect from the trauma. So that was very sad and frustrating. That leaves us with our adult chickens - 1 Leghorn rooster, 2 Leghorn hens, 3 Barred Rock hens, 1 Silkie bantam hen, and we still have the 2 turkeys as well.

The good news, though, is that our adult hens have started laying eggs! Not real consistently yet, but we've had 4 eggs in the last week - 1 brown from a Barred Rock hen and 3 whites from Leghorn hens. Our chickens are free ranging and have taken up roosting and hanging out in the barn. I had started looking around while I was out there to see if they had started laying yet, but hadn't seen anything yet. Then last week the kids came running in the house yelling and jumping up and down with 1 brown and 1 white egg that they found in the barn. The next day there was another white egg. Then nothing for a few days until today when Liz was out in the barn cleaning her horse tack. One of the leghorn hens started clucking very loudly, then started pecking at the ground. Liz looked and saw that the hen had just laid an egg! So she swiped it up and brought it in the house.

This time I got out the camera.

Here's today's egg...

And here's a picture of the lovely lady who provided it...

Here's also a picture of our rooster, which the kids have aptly named Foghorn Leghorn...

Collecting the eggs has become Olivia's job and she loves going out every day to see what she can find. We plan to get some more chicks eventually, but probably not until next spring at this point. That will also give Shane a chance to finish the permanent chicken coop so we can hopefully avoid the same tragedy the next time.

I also snapped a couple of pictures of our gardens this morning. This is the one we call the "big garden." It has sunflowers, squash, beets, peppers, tomatoes, and beans.

This is the "corn garden." It has corn, squash, cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage, as well as a few more sunflowers.

There's also a smaller squash garden with squash and more sunflowers next to the hay barn in the corn garden picture, but I didn't get a picture of that one.

One month old

2011-07-26T12:22:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to share some updated pictures of Rebekah now that she's 1 month old. She's such a sweet, easy going baby and already sleeping most of the way through the night! We all just adore her!

She looks almost exactly like Olivia did at this age, too. I even had this picture of Olivia on the computer and fooled Shane and most of the kids.

Horse camp

2011-07-18T10:08:00.000-06:00

Shane's Aunt Mimi (Cynthia's sister) is a professional horse/rider trainer in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her ranch is called StoneGate Ranch. She invited Elizabeth to come out for a couple of weeks and get some training and participate in a riding camp that was being held at her ranch. Liz has been there for a week now and the camp was this past weekend. We have been receiving updates from Aunt Mimi and she has told us that Liz has been doing phenomenally well. She is a fast learner, a true natural, and a joy to teach. She has been riding one of the horses that Mimi boards named Charlie, who is actually a national dressage champion horse and has been a perfect horse for Liz to learn on. Liz has had to do all the grooming and care of Charlie and even got herself hired by the stable manager to work in the stables when she's not riding/training. She has been in absolute horse heaven!

Aunt Mimi said that Liz did fantastic at the riding camp (which Mimi hosted, but did not sponsor or run). In fact, after the first day, she was moved from the beginner class to the more advanced class. She has now earned her United States Pony Club D1 rating, which is a beginner rating meaning that she can fully groom, tack and untack her horse, walk, trot, rein, halt, and jump ground poles. It requires knowledge about horse anatomy, tack anatomy, how to care for the basic health of the horse, and other things. So she had a busy week and weekend!

Shane will be picking her up this weekend, so she will be spending more time with Aunt Mimi learning more and riding and working. We're thrilled that she's been able to have this opportunity and grateful to Aunt Mimi for offering it, and she says she's thrilled to be able to share what she has and knows with family.

Here's a picture that Aunt Mimi took of Elizabeth on Charlie during the pony camp.

I'm sure Liz will have lots of stories and experiences to share when she gets home. She took a journal so she could write about her time there and what she learned and experienced.

Benjamin's turn

2011-07-04T19:59:00.000-06:00

Today Benjamin turned 12. Is that even possible? Happy birthday, Ben! We love you!

Happy birthday Thomas!

2011-07-03T11:50:00.000-06:00

I'm a little late posting this, but Thomas turned 9 on Thursday, June 30th. Thomas is such a bright part of our family. For his birthday, he got a much hoped for cowboy hat and cowboy boots. Doesn't he look handsome in his hat?

She's here!

2011-06-26T22:34:00.003-06:00

Rebekah joined our family on Friday, June 24 at 11:04 p.m. She weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces and was 21 inches long.

For those who might be interested, here is the story.

I woke up at about 6:30 with a couple of contractions that felt real. I went to the bathroom and had what I considered to be quite a bit of blood. I called Michele, my midwife, and she said she would come right over. I was dilated to almost a 5 and she thought the blood was just cervical/bloody show and wasn't concerned. Contractions were 5-10 minutes apart. Three hours later, I was 6 cm, 90% effaced, bulging bag, and we were sure baby girl would make her appearance by noon. Michele's assistant, Rosa, who is also a friend of mine, massaged my feet with clary sage oil, which is supposed to increase and intensify labor contractions, while at the same time providing some pain relief. However, within a couple of hours, the contractions had slowed down to 15-20 minutes apart and then by 2:30 they almost shut down completely.

Michele said that it's not uncommon for labors to wane in the afternoon, but then pick up again in the evening, so she and the assistant went home and I alternated between lying down and walking around.

By 8:00, I was still having contractions no closer than 30 minutes apart. I tried a pressure point to see if it would help bring on some contractions. I did have a couple fairly close together, so I stopped to see if they would keep going. I got up to go to the bathroom and passed two clots that looked to be about the size of small eggs. I got a real uneasy feeling in my gut and called Michele. She came over and listened to the baby during a contraction. Her heart rate dropped to 118 during the contraction and then came back up to mid-130s afterwards, so she became concerned about some distress, and possibly some placental abruption, and we decided to go to the hospital.

We chose to go to the hospital that is about 30 minutes away rather than the one here in town because it's a little bigger, and Michele happened to know that the doctor that delivers here in town was up at scout camp, and with the bleeding and things that were going on, there was a good chance they would send me to the other hospital anyway.

We got there and they did an ultrasound. Everything actually looked good - placenta was intact and on the monitor baby's heart rate was holding steady during the contractions. On the way to the hospital, I started having some contractions again, but they were still only 10 minutes apart and not as intense as they had been in the morning.

They started just a whiff of pitocin and I got an epidural around 9 p.m. Rebekah was born two hours later. She ended up with moderate shoulder dystocia and it took some seriously hard pushing, including Michele (went with us and stayed throughout the delivery) pushing on my pelvic bone to get her out. She did really well, though, pinked up and had Apgars of 8 and 9.

The other kids just met her the first time tonight and are already smitten, including Joshua. Shane's mom took the kids out to Granite Ranch last Saturday to stay with Alicia's family until Rebekah was born, and they got back this evening.

We're very thankful to have Rebekah here and for all to have gone as well as it did, all things considered. We're also very thankful for Michele and her excellent care. We consider her to be a close friend and love her and her family so much.

We are also so thankful to Shane's mom for coming on a moment's notice and taking over the care of the house and kids so I could stay down during the last 6 weeks of the pregnancy, as I kept having frequent contractions and we were concerned that I might go into premature labor. She's been an incredible help and I honestly don't know what we would have done without her. My mom also came and stayed with me the week that Cynthia and the kids were at Granite and I'm so thankful for her help. We are so blessed to have such wonderful support from friends and family.

Elizabeth, Sassy, and 4-H

2011-06-16T14:10:00.000-06:00

We got Elizabeth signed up for horse 4-H, and the leader also happens to be a professional horse trainer. She confirmed that Cinnamon just isn't going to be a good riding horse for Liz, at least not without several months of consistent training. So she helped us locate a horse that a family was looking to get rid of because they couldn't afford to feed her anymore. That's how Sassy came into Liz's life. Sassy is a 20-year-old paint mare who is super gentle and completely trained. She came to us last weekend a good 60-70 pounds underweight, but after just a few days of good grass hay and a nutritional supplement, she is already starting to look much better. She got to us just in time to get acquainted with Elizabeth and then accompany her through her first 4-H horse show on June 14th.

The horse show went really well. Elizabeth was great with Sassy, looking completely comfortable in the saddle, and Sassy was obedient and more energetic than we expected. Liz rode all of the events except bareback; she did the showmanship, western pleasure, scurry, poles, and barrels events. The show started at 5 p.m. and didn't get over until 11:30 p.m. so we were there a long time, but Liz had the time of her life and can't wait for the next show in a couple of weeks.

I managed to get a few pictures of the showmanship event and video of the western pleasure. By the scurry event, it was getting pretty dark, so the video isn't very good of that one, and by the time they finally got around to barrels, it was much too dark to get pictures or video, but here's some of what I was able to get of the evening.

Western pleasure:

Scurry:

I also managed to get a cute picture of Joshua wearing Liz's new cowgirl/boy hat and just have to share that, too.

Olivia is 7!

2011-06-16T11:38:00.000-06:00

Olivia turned 7 on Tuesday the 14th. She had been counting down the days to her birthday for weeks and finally it came. As it turned out, Elizabeth's first 4-H horse show was also that day, so the party plans had to be a little bit up in the air. When the horse show was still not finished by 10:00, Grandma Skidmore took the boys and Olivia home so Joshua could go to bed and Shane and I stayed for the rest of the show. Olivia had already consented to having her birthday dinner the next day when we ate sloppy joes at the horse show, but she insisted on waiting up until Mom, Dad, and Elizabeth got home from the horse show so we could still do presents and cake. We didn't get home until 11:30, and sure enough Olivia, Ben, and Thomas were still awake in their pajamas. So with 20 minutes left of her birthday, we quickly ate chocolate cake and she opened her presents.

Wonderful news!

2011-05-26T11:25:00.000-06:00

As you probably already know, Shane took the Professional Engineer exam last fall right before we moved, but didn't pass. He took it again in March and just received word today that he PASSED!!!! This makes him a full-fledged professional engineer with the authority to independently stamp engineering projects like house plans, etc. Now instead of Shane Watson, E.I.T. (engineer in training), he is Shane Watson, P.E.

CONGRATULATIONS SHANE!!!

Ten Years

2011-05-09T10:19:00.001-06:00

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of our fire. Ten years. Hard to believe. As we reflected on how far we've come since then, it was an exercise in wonderment and gratitude. Some of the events of the past 10 years have been good, some have been challenging, but either way it's a lot of water under the bridge since then.

~We've had almost 4 more kids since then, the oldest of which is almost 9 years old, and the youngest of which will be born in the next couple of months.
~Shane finished his engineering degree and has been working as a full-time engineer for 6 years.
~I quit working after a total of 12 years of working at home, 9-1/2 of which were after the fire.
~We embarked into the wonderful world of homeschooling and are now in our 5th year of that.
~We've moved 6 times between 2 states.
~Benjamin, who was not quite 2, is now almost 12 years old. Elizabeth, who was 5 months old, is now 10-1/2.
~We've gone from living on a very rural farm to the suburbs, to a not-quite-as-rural-as-the-last-one smaller farm, and plan to stay here for the foreseeable future.
~Many of the people who were living at Granite Ranch at the time of the fire are no longer there. Mostly of note, Glen's family is now living in the Salt Lake area. Keith (Glen's brother) was killed in a car accident in 2005 and his family now lives in a different small town in north-central Utah.
~Joshua spent a week in the hospital with bacterial meningitis in 2010.
~Shane's health suddenly deteriorated starting in August 2009, for which we still have no clear answers, and which still waxes and wanes from time to time.
~Benjamin was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (high-functioning autism spectrum disorder) at the age of 8, which we are certain is not from the fire, as we were noticing "issues" with him before the fire.

I'm sure there are more, but that's what I can come up with off the top of my head right now.

And then there is how far Shane and the kids have come physically.

Benjamin then:

Benjamin now:

Elizabeth then:

Elizabeth now:

Shane then:

Shane now:

Ten years. Amazing.

Learning how to be old-fashioned... from the internet

2011-05-07T20:57:00.001-06:00

Today I spent time on the computer learning more about making butter and yogurt, and also learned how to make cultured buttermilk, sour cream, and cream cheese from raw milk. This week I've spent time learning how to bottle different kinds of foods like meats, beans, etc. I've also been working on improving my knitting skills and have been looking into learning to spin my own wool.

There are several reasons why I spend time learning about these kinds of things: Developing a more self-sustaining lifestyle, being more frugal, being more industrious, and developing skills (and passing them onto my children) that are likely to come in handy as economic times become tougher and tougher. I've come to enjoy learning these things and actually doing them. As a matter of fact, today I made butter and started a milk clabber for buttermilk.

It just struck me funny today how these are all considered "old-fashioned" or pioneering skills, and yet here I am depending on the very modern internet to learn them. Quite the dichotomy, isn't it?

Pickles galore!

2011-05-02T19:24:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, I was able to purchase 36 pounds of pickling cucumbers, so today I spent nearly the entire day bottling pickles. I got 39 quarts total. Not too shabby, and I told Shane that now we don't need to plant pickling cucumbers in our garden this year. *laugh*

Here are the fruits of my labors. The ones that look darker were done with a different brine mixture than the others.

Catching up

2011-04-29T08:00:00.004-06:00

Wow - Has it really been since February that I posted last? I will attempt to hit all the highlights and get you caught up on life over the last couple of months. I may not get it all in the right order of events, but you get the idea. :)

Thomas had his first pinewood derby in March. He made his car 100% by himself with just a little supervision from Dad, and we all think it turned out really well. He was pretty proud of himself and, despite the car not faring well in the competition, he had a lot of fun and said that he thinks that's the most important part. Here he is with his great car.

In case you can't see it, the name of his car is the Golden Hinde, which was the name of Sir Francis Drake's ship. Thomas learned quite a bit about him during a pirate phase he was going through. In fact, that's what he did his history fair project about.

Speaking of the history fair, that went pretty well. Thomas and Elizabeth did presentations to go along with their display boards and did a really good job. Liz did hers on Joan of Arc and read several books about her and has really developed an admiration for Joan. Benjamin didn't do a presentation, but he had a great display board with lots of pictures about the discovery of King Tut's tomb, which he had fun putting together.

Joshua is getting just plain big. He's 18 months now, but hasn't figured out yet that he's not a big kid. He's so cute just toddling around the farm, getting into everything imaginable. His favorite place to hang out is near Dad's tractor, whether or not Dad's even there, and if Dad happened to leave a crescent wrench or some other type of tool laying around, that's a bonus. He'll pick up the tool and "work" on the tractor. Of course, he also has a knack for getting into the buckets of hydraulic fluid and motor oil and whatever else horribly messy might also have been inadvertently left available for him. He's a busy little handful and just as darling as ever.

And while we're on the subject of tractors, here's picture of the beast itself.

The tractor needed some work before it was ready to roll (hoses and gaskets replaced and that sort of thing), so Shane has been slowly working on it, and finally last weekend got it finished and ready to work. As you can see, it has a front loader and Shane has also accumulated a two-way two-bottom plow, disk, cultivator, and hay rake.

Thomas has become quite the little mechanic's apprentice and enjoys working on the tractor with Dad.

Next on the priority list is finishing the chicken coop and getting some fences moved so that as soon as we stop getting hard freezes at night, Shane can plow up the garden and get that planted.

Which brings me to the chickens. Currently we have a little flock of 6 Barred Rock hens, 2 white silkies, and 3 leghorns. We also have 2 turkey poults and a bunch of Cornish game hens. We're still a few months away from real egg production, but in the meantime the hens are getting big and ranging all over the farm. Eventually we'd like to get a bunch more hens and a couple of roosters as well.

Here are the older hens (4 Barred Rocks and 3 leghorns) out foraging.

And here are the younger chicks - Silkies, 2 Barred Rocks, turkeys, and 12 Cornish game hens - playing in the little play yard Shane and the kids set up for them.

This is actually our second batch of Cornish game hens. We started out with 10 and a couple of weekends ago they were big enough to be killed and processed. So that's what we did. The boys mostly helped with the butchering, though the girls helped some.

First, they had to get the chickens inside these milk jugs that had the bottoms cut off. The chickens weren't too keen on the idea and it was a challenge to keep them from escaping.

But the boys prevailed!

Once they were in the jugs, Shane showed them how to slice the windpipe so they would die and bleed out.

Here they are waiting to be butchered.

Shane breasted out the first one and the kids all got an up close and personal anatomy lesson, which they all found very fascinating. "Mom, did you know that chicken intestines look just like a bunch of worms, and the heart looks like a strawberry!"

Once the first one was done, it was the boys' turn to get started. They were a bit apprehensive at first.

But then once they jumped in and got started, they quickly became very proficient, though it took a few birds before the grimaces on their faces relaxed.

Before long, there were a bunch of chicken breasts and legs ready to be bottled.

That's where I came in. I deboned and cut up the meat and pressure canned it. After approximately 4 hours' work, we yielded a grand total of...

Yep, 2 quarts. Well, actually 2-2/3 quarts, but the 2/3 quart just went into the fridge for using right away. We've decided that Cornish game hens are a lot of work for not much yield of meat, although they are significantly less expensive to raise than the larger meat birds. Once the 12 remaining birds are butchered, we think we'll forego Cornish hens in the future. Shane's thinking we'll just get some Turkens (also known as Naked Necks) since they are good layers and their meat is supposedly pretty good, too (most layers don't make good meat birds).

But hey, the meat is good. We had the first quart in a stir fry last weekend and it's pretty tasty.

And as if that wasn't enough fun, also two weeks ago, my mom happened to chat with a local sheep farmer and asked him if he had any orphaned lambs. He had a couple and said we could have them, so we brought them home. We got a boy and a girl.

The first day, it was a chore just to get milk into them. We weren't sure the girl was going to make it through the night as she wouldn't even lift up her head and would barely open her eyes. The boy seemed more robust and we were a little more optimistic about his chances.

Here I am feeding the boy right after we got home with them.

Here is my mom trying to get some milk into the girl. She barely was even making attempts to swallow the milk. It was quite disheartening.

By the midnight feeding that night, the little girl had started to perk up and even got up and started walking around.

For the first few days they slept in the dog crate out in the laundry room with the space heater running. After that we moved them out to one of the hay barns and put some fresh hay in there for them to bed down in.

On day 2, the girl seemed much stronger, started actually sucking on the bottle to eat, and was romping around a little, so we were more encouraged that she might make it after all. The boy lamb, on the other hand, was doing great and would even leap around in the hay barn, come skidding to a stop, and then leap some more. He was a lot of fun to watch.

On day 3, the girl lamb seemed to take another turn downhill. She stopped eating again and had runny bowel movements (scours). Not a good sign. Most orphaned animals don't recover from scours. I syringe fed her all that day and started her on some penicillin we had leftover from Shane's dog. The next morning, I was sure I was going to find her dead.

To my surprise, though, when I went to feed them at 5:00 the next morning, she popped right up and ran to the fence and eagerly drank several ounces from the bottle. She got stronger and stronger and now is doing extremely well and is clearly out of danger. The kids have appropriately named her Lucky Penny. The boy is named Marvin Marshmallow.

Here are the lambs this morning, now 2-1/2 weeks old, nibbling at some grass. They don't have their top teeth yet, so they can't actually graze, but they already get the concept. They're a lot of fun. They follow us around just like little puppy dogs, which is cute but sometimes frustrating. *laugh* We're hoping that in a couple of years they will breed. Wouldn't that be fun?

At work, Shane has been made the construction engineer on a project that is being done out in the Stockton area (south of Tooele, for those who are familiar with that area), so now instead of commuting to Davis County, he is commuting to Stockton every day. The distance is about the same, but he found a route that saves him about a half hour of commute time. He still gets up and out of the house by 5 a.m., but he is working 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., so he's home around 6:00 most evenings, which has been nice, since before he was working 8 to 5 and not getting home until nearly 8:00 most nights. He is really enjoying the change of pace of the job itself, and the contractors who are doing the job have expressed how glad they are to have him. It looks like he will be on this job all the way through construction, which could be up to 3 years.

As for me, besides taking care of kids and animals (or rather supervising the taking care of animals, since the kids are really doing most of it; they're getting to be great little farmers), I've been doing a lot of crocheting of late and have recently taken up knitting as well. I find it to be very gratifying and relaxing. You can see some of the projects I've done here. I've even started marketing myself a little bit, but we'll see where that leads, if anyplace.

Well, that pretty much sums up how life has been going the last couple of months. It's busy, but it's beautiful. We absolutely love it here in this little valley. It's hard to imagine that there's a more peaceful place on earth than here.

He's finally signing!

2011-02-25T19:12:00.001-07:00

Joshua is finally using signs! I've been doing them with him for months, but he just recently started doing them back consistently. He's actually been doing more and please for a while, but now he's also started using eat, cracker, and a version of all done. He's starting to pick up on them quickly now, too. Yay!

Update on new baby

2011-02-21T18:47:00.006-07:00

I realized I haven't updated everyone on the latest with our newest addition.

We had planned to forego an ultrasound this time around, but when the midwife, Michele, began to suspect a low-lying placenta, she recommended taking a look to double check. So I figured, as long as we're at it, we might as well find out the gender of this little bean.

I had the ultrasound on February 12 at almost 21 weeks. The placenta is not too low and there is a good chance that it will continue to rise (as 99% of initially low-lying placentas do) so there is no concern for placenta previa and the bleeding, bed rest, and C-section that would accompany it. A home birth is still in the game plan. Yay! All of the anatomical structures appear to be perfect with no cleft lip/palate or spina bifida. Great heartbeat and organs look great.

And now for the important news...

It's a girl!

So our pattern remains intact and things will be evened out again. And I get to buy pink girly clothes and diapers and diaper covers.

Stinkin' Lucky Charms

2011-02-21T18:42:00.002-07:00

Today we went to the dentist. Well, Ben, Liz and Olivia went to the dentist. Tom's appointment had to be rescheduled because he spent the weekend in Salt Lake with his friend, Aaron, and Shane is bringing him home with him this evening. Olivia has 1 small cavity, Ben has several, and Liz has several. Ugh. We'll be spending the next couple of months getting them all taken care of, and we still have to see what Thomas's teeth will bring to the party.

As we walked out of the dentist's office, Elizabeth took a small pendant (sans chain) out of her pocket and said, "Well, I guess this didn't work. It's my lucky charm."

Stinkin' lucky charms.

Builder Ben

2011-01-10T20:48:00.004-07:00

Last week, Shane and Benjamin got started on the riser for the wood stove. Shane even presented Ben with his own new hammer. Shane got the platform started and then put Ben to work on it.

Ben really enjoyed pounding nails with his new hammer.

Once the platform was finished, Shane finished hooking up the stove and by Saturday afternoon, it was up and running and we were enjoying the heat of a nice wood fire. It's still a work in progress, but it sure is nice to have.

New blogging venture

2011-01-04T19:00:00.004-07:00

For those of you who read this blog that I don't have email addresses for, I wanted to invite you to follow my new blog that I just started today. This Watson Clan blog is used primarily for sharing family news, adventures, and pictures. The new blog is a place where I will do more musing and pontificating about parenting in general. I make no guarantees of greatness, or even a worthwhile expenditure of your time, but hopefully it will be at least a little entertaining and perhaps even a bit enlightening for those who choose to read it, but mostly for me. Feel free to stop by, take a gander, and let me know what you think. It's still brand new, so it may take a while to really take shape, but think of this as your opportunity to get in on the ground level. :)

Toddlin' around

2011-01-03T10:58:00.006-07:00

It's official - Joshua is a full-fledged toddler now. He walks everywhere he goes. He even walks backwards, practically runs sometimes, and turns on a dime. He sometimes looks like a drunk, but he manages to stay up most of the time. He still doesn't stand up on his own in the middle of the floor, but will crawl over to the nearest wall, piece of furniture, or person, stand himself back up and then toddle off again. Here's a shot of him walking.

He also got this very cool dump truck from Grandpa Greg, and he loves playing with it, especially the blocks. He stacks blocks together, carries them around, takes them apart, then puts them back together. He pushes the truck around and puts things in and out of the bed.

Probably the most remarkable thing about Joshua, though, is how much he likes to be a big person. I've posted about this before, but it still amazes us. When Daddy's home, Joshua has to be where he is, doing what he's doing. Shane spent most of the weekend working on installing a wood stove in the house, and Joshua stayed by his side almost constantly. If Shane is using a tape measure, Joshua has to have a tape measure. If Shane is using the hammer, Joshua wants the hammer. There's no placating him with a different tool instead - he wants what Dad has, and he wants to use it the same way Dad is using it. If Dad is up on the step stool, Joshua climbs up to stand up there next to him. One time, Shane was reclined on the floor looking into the empty wood stove. Joshua walked over, laid down next to Shane, stuck his head right in front of Shane's, looked into the stove, and then looked at Shane as if to say, "Whatcha lookin' at?" All of the other kids loved to be with Dad, but none of them insisted on being so involved in whatever Dad was doing, especially at this age. It's pretty funny, really, and super cute, if just a bit exasperating for Shane sometimes.

Snow day

2010-12-21T18:58:00.005-07:00

Not only did the snow not slow down last night, it kept snowing all night, and most of the day today. At about 5:45 this morning I woke up and realized that the power had gone out (Shane spent last night in Salt Lake). The next door neighbor came by to make sure we were okay and to ask if we needed anything. He said that the radio had announced that they were going to try to have power restored by 11:00, but then they were saying it would be more like 1:00. Well, 1:00 came and went, 3:00 came and went, and then 5:00 came and went, and still there was no power.

Thankfully, we have a gas stove, matches, and plenty of food on hand, warm blankets, and emergency candles. So the kids and I took a snow day and spent the day cuddling under blankets, drinking hot cocoa, and watching the snow come down. Well, except for the hour and a half or so that the kids went out to play in the thigh-high snow. At about 2:00, the snow started to taper off and went into an on-off pattern with 5- to 10-minute cycles until it finally quit for good around 3:30. We ended up with a good 2 feet total. It was still in the mid-30s outside, and the house was doing a good job retaining what heat we had, so we piled on a couple of layers of clothes and stayed relatively comfortable.

At about 4:00, Shane decided he would head home, after checking road conditions and finding out that they were wet, but mostly clear. He stopped by the store to pick up some kerosene lanterns and a propane space heater. We actually already have one of those, but neither of us had a clue where it ended up in the move. The power did finally come back on at 5:30, just as I was getting dinner started by candlelight. So ended our snow day adventure.

Our house has a metal roof, and the snow would get so heavy, that we would be sitting there and hear what sounded like thunder, and then suddenly an avalanche would slide off the roof onto the ground. The first time we heard the noise, we didn't know what we were hearing, and then a great big slide-off happened right outside the window we were sitting next to. It was cool! It happened several more times during the day, and as soon as we heard the thunder noise, we would try to see what window we could see the slide-off from.

Remember the dog house picture from yesterday? Here's what it looked like at 8:00 this morning.

This is the front porch, taken from the car port, also about 8:00 a.m. You can see that the snow is starting to slide off. It wasn't until a few hours later that it actually did start sliding off.

This is the view from the west window in the utility room. The roof is the shed that is just behind the house. You can see how tall the snow is on that fence post, too. This were taken about 10:00 this morning.

This is looking outside the kitchen window. That roof is the utility room. Look how loaded down that pine tree is. This is also about 10:00 this morning.

I don't remember what time this was, but this is also looking out the kitchen window at the utility room roof after the snow came down in an avalanche.

And here's that poor dog house at 2:00 this afternoon just before the snow started to quit.

Olivia spent a little bit of time outside, then decided to come back in the house. She was helping me do some dishes and Joshua decided he wanted to help, too.

Our Winter Wonderland

2010-12-20T17:40:00.002-07:00

It has been snowing hard and steady since about 8:00 this morning (after raining almost all night last night). I went out about 5:00 and took some pictures. It is now almost 6:00 and the snow is not showing any signs of slowing down.

Nutcracker 2010

2010-12-20T11:56:00.003-07:00

Saturday, we made the excursion to Salt Lake with my mom, Amy, Celeste, Elizabeth, Olivia, and me and met Julie Marie, Julie, and Isabella (Cari's daughter). In the afternoon, we adults went to Desert Star Playhouse while the girls hung out with Uncle Ken at Julie Marie's house and had pizza and watched movies. Then that evening all us girls went to the Nutcracker Ballet by Ballet West at Capitol Theatre. Julie Marie bought each of the girls their own nutcrackers, which she presented to them before the ballet. We had a good time and the girls were just as entranced with the show this year as they were last year. It was a good day.

Happy News

2010-11-29T11:27:00.002-07:00

We are happy to annouce that we are expecting a new addition to the Watson Clan, estimated to arrive around June 27, 2011. We're all very excited, and the kids are banking on a girl this time... gotta keep the pattern going, after all! We're thinking we'll forego finding out ahead of time, so the kids will have to wait a while to find out if they're right. :)

Little kids doing big people things

2010-11-26T19:52:00.006-07:00

Okay, so Benjamin's not really a "little" kid anymore, but he has decided he wants to learn to weld. So Grandpa Wilcox brought his welder and Shane gave him a quick beginner lesson and let him work the welder for a little bit. He thought it was pretty cool.

And then there's Joshua, who is convinced that he's just one of the big kids. Thomas decided to put together a puzzle, and Joshua decided he would help. To be honest, he wasn't much help, but he sure looked like he knew what he was doing.

We had a great Thanksgiving. My parents and my sisters, Amy and Julie, and my brother, Ken, all came and we enjoyed each other's company and ate and showed Ken around the new place, as this was his first visit here. We have much to be thankful for, and acknowledge our Heavenly Father for all He has blessed us with, including our wonderful friends and family. We are most thankful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for His atoning sacrifice in our behalf, and for the fulness of the Gospel as restored through Joseph Smith, which brings such peace and joy to our lives even in our challenges.

Liz's dream come true

2010-11-26T14:27:00.003-07:00

Elizabeth received the birthday present of her dreams from Grandma and Grandpa Wilcox this year. (Yes, Shane and I knew this was coming.)

She is ecstatic, naturally! She has named him Cinnamon.

Everyone got to share in the excitement.

I think Elizabeth is going to be a terrific little horse owner. She spent about 2 hours total supervised in the saddle yesterday, and Grandma and Aunt Julie were very impressed with how well both Elizabeth and Cinnamon did. The horse was actually purchased a couple of months ago and Julie has been working with it. He's old and very docile, but not entirely trained. So Elizabeth will be particularly focusing on building a relationship with Cinnamon, and making sure he knows she's the boss. He's the perfect size and has a great temperament. I think they're going to get a long famously!

First steps!

2010-11-23T20:29:00.005-07:00

Joshua walked today! Shane and I were sitting on the couch and Joshua was standing next to us, holding onto the couch. Suddenly, he took off and took 3 steps toward Liz's box of plastic cowboys and indians. We cheered and clapped, and Joshua just looked at us like we were crazy. Then we grabbed the video camera and encouraged him to walk some more.

Elizabeth is 10

2010-11-23T11:17:00.004-07:00

Elizabeth turned 10 yesterday. We had a little party Sunday night while Shane was here, and then we will have another small celebration Thanksgiving while the Wilcoxes are here. Grandma Skidmore sent her a boar bristle brush, which thrilled Elizabeth because she's been wanting one ever since Grandma brushed her hair with hers and it didn't hurt (she's very tender headed.) Grandma Skidmore also made her a beautiful green dress. Grandma and Grandpa Skidmore also gave her $10.00, so yesterday on her birthday she got to go down to the grocery store in town all by herself on her bike and buy the set of plastic cowboys and indians she has had her eye on ever since we moved here. She felt very grown up getting to do that herself. Shane gave her a nice pocket knife, and the tomboy in her was ecstatic about that, too.

Liz and her pocket knife.

Liz's new dress.

Yay! A new bristle brush!

The birthday girl and her cake (she frosted it herself).

Happy birthday, Liz. We love you!

Fresh butter

2010-11-14T14:36:00.005-07:00

There's a family from church with a milk cow, and the mom, Rosa, told me that it's putting out about 35 gallons of milk per week! Since they can't begin to use that, they are selling it. So we've decided to start buying our milk from them. Mmmmm.... raw milk. We haven't had raw milk since we lived out at Granite. This is creamy milk, too. This morning we drained the cream off the 2 gallons I bought yesterday morning, about 2 quarts of cream, and we made butter. I had never seen butter made before, but I found some great instructions online. Shane was a little disappointed that we don't have an authentic butter churn, but personally I find the accelerated time that an electric food processor offers a significant advantage. I'm amazed at the pioneers who would spend an entire day doing a couple of loads of laundry, and another entire day making butter, and another entire day baking breads, and all of this between nursing babies and changing diapers and fixing daily meals and herding kids out to do chores. It's no wonder several of them would get together and help each other out. We're pretty spoiled with all of our modern conveniences.

At any rate, it was a lot of fun watching the cream go from liquid cream to whipped cream to stiff cream, and then finally to butter and buttermilk. Out of almost 2 quarts of cream, we ended up with almost 4 cups of the buttermilk and we figured about 3/4 of a pound of butter. Shane had the privilege of doing the washing and kneading the butter to get the last of the buttermilk out, and here is the final product.

For the final taste test, we used it to spread on our traditional Sunday crepes and the whole family gave the smile of approval.

Wild Rabbit

2010-11-13T15:55:00.003-07:00

We have a rabbit that runs free on our little farm. We've seen it several times, and this morning Shane and Elizabeth managed to corner and catch it. It didn't particularly care for being captive like that, but Shane managed to hang onto it and the kids had fun petting it for a little while, and then it was set free again.

Joshua and I were watching the rabbit fun from the dining room window (it was cold outside this morning!). I went out to take the pictures of the kids with the rabbit and came back to see Joshua's sweet smiling face in the window, so I had to take a picture.

Then Joshua decided to do a little window "cleaning."

Homeschool science fair and other extracurricular activities

2010-11-09T21:29:00.004-07:00

When we moved down here, I assumed that we would be some of the only homeschoolers in the area since it's so small. It turns out I was wrong. There are several homeschooling families in Sanpete County with kids ranging from preschool to teens. Today was their science fair. The kids and I went and had a good time. We saw some very impressive displays and demonstrations with things ranging from chemical versus physical changes, fun with dry ice, hurricanes, how color affects our perception of taste, lightning, the life cycle of a butterfly, the bony anatomy of the human foot, homemade root beer, and several others. Here is a picture of the kids enjoying the demonstration on hurricanes.

We're looking forward to getting to know the other homeschoolers around here and participating in some fun activities.

In addition, the boys started scouts yesterday. Well, technically only Benjamin did. He met with the 11-year-scouts yesterday and really enjoyed it. He's excited to keep going back. Thomas is a Wolf, and they're currently in the process of finding a den leader for them, so he didn't have a den meeting yesterday. He's hoping to start next week.

Today was our third week of primary. I have been asked to be the music person, which I accepted. It should be a lot of fun. Because the building where we meet for meetings is only one room, we are not able to separate into primary classes, so we have a 45-minute meeting with everyone all at the same time. The kids do sit in "classes" with the kids their ages, though, and so they're starting to make some friends at primary as well.

Tomorrow the kids will start piano lessons with a teacher here in Mount Pleasant. Benjamin has even decided that he wants to start taking lessons, which we think is great. The other kids are excited to start back up again as well.

So, the slow pace of living in a small town is about to pick up a little, but that's okay, too. I'm just looking forward to not having to drive 30-plus minutes to get to all these activities!

Extraordinary

2010-11-08T19:57:00.004-07:00

There are few things more extraordinary than making a baby belly laugh. Then when they reward you with hugs, well... that's just the icing on the cake.

Sorry the picture is so dark. My camera doesn't do very well with video in low light. It's definitely worth watching anyway. :)

I Will Survive

2010-10-26T21:10:00.003-06:00

I thought this was so cute I had to share.

We're here!

2010-10-25T14:09:00.002-06:00

We're moved! We got most of our stuff hauled down here on Saturday, with some straggler stuff that will need to be brought down later. It rained like crazy all day Saturday and many of our boxes got wet (as well as the queen mattresses), but nothing got ruined and everything went well over all. We had a lot of help from some guys from church who brought trucks, trailers, and muscles, and did all the heavy lifting since Shane's head pressure won't allow him to strain too hard without giving him a massive migraine. We're so thankful for all the help that we had, and that everything went as smoothly as it did.

We've been spending the weekend getting some stuff unpacked. Shane is back in Salt Lake now for the week to work. Some of you have asked for pictures of the new place, so I'll try to get some taken and posted in the next week or so, but I wanted to check in and let everyone know that we arrived safe and sound, albeit soggy. :)

Joshua's one and a new addition

2010-10-21T20:15:00.004-06:00

Joshua turned 1 year old yesterday. We had a little party for him tonight, which basically consisted of him eating a mini cupcake and "opening" some presents (I basically had to give him a big head start). Here are the highlights.

We also added a new member of the family today. Meet Mauser. She was found on the engine block of a car belonging to one of Shane's co-workers, and we decided that having a cat around a farm might be useful to keep the mouse population down, so we brought her home. She'll be an outside cat for sure, but for now she's getting acquainted with the family.

The Winds of Change

2010-10-11T08:39:00.006-06:00

We are officially moving on the 23rd. We are very excited. We are so looking forward to getting out of the city and its influences and distractions. We're looking forward to a much more simple, agrarian lifestyle where work is life and life is education, where we can focus on the most important things in life without having to compete with the things that really don't matter.

Also among the changes, we have decided that it's time for me to quit working. This will be my last week of work. I think the kids are just as excited about that as I am. I'm looking forward to making homemade bread again, to walking with the kids to the library and spending time outside, and to helping them with their school work without feeling frustrated and guilty that doing so is taking me away from the typing I know I should be doing. I'm excited to have the time to sit with the kids while they practice their piano lessons and teach Elizabeth to crochet, and still have time to do the laundry and housework. Yeah, it's going to tighten the budget a little, but we have decided that it's worth it. We can sacrifice a little standard of living to live by correct principle, which says that a mom should be with her kids, not just in the same house as them.

It is a little scary, though, too. I have been working from home doing medical transcription basically since we got married. I have been working for Breitner for 8-plus years. During some of our leanest times when Shane was in school, it was my job (and God's grace) that kept food on the table. Other than a year off after the fire, and a short 3-month stent of unemployment 3 years ago (after which I went back to Breitner), me working has always been a part of our lives, and on some level it's a little scary to give up that perceived security and consistency. However, the benefits far outweigh the insecurity, and I really am looking forward to just being a mom finally and forever.

This weekend is the Women's Retreat that Alicia has put together and I've been helping her with. This is our second year and last year was a resounding success. Last year's theme was "As Sisters in Zion," and I got to teach a class last year called "Coming Out of Babylon." This year, the theme is "Keepers at Home" (Titus 2) and the classes will focus on both the spiritual and practical sides of our roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers. I'm teaching a class on cloth diapering, and I'm really excited about that. All of the classes are going to be really good, I think. I really think this retreat idea was inspired and a lot of women who attended last year have expressed that as well, and that it was a blessing in their lives to have attended. I love being part of this kind of stuff!

Slight change in plans

2010-10-04T15:12:00.007-06:00

Our move has been bumped back by a couple of weeks. The man we bought the house from in Mount Pleasant won't be moved out until October 16th, so we are now looking at moving the following week. Shane did take a large trailer load of stuff down there this past Saturday and put it in the shop behind the house. The load included the piano, so despite being here for 3 more weeks, the kids had their last lesson with Mrs. Packer this morning. She has been a great piano teacher and we have appreciated her very much. We will definitely be hunting for a piano teacher down in Sanpete County so the kids can continue taking lessons.

Last Wednesday, the 29th, we lost a good friend to breast cancer. I served with Robin Vander Wilt in our Area Relief Society presidency, and she was an amazing woman. We had gotten to know her and her husband, Chris, pretty well and they are such wonderful people. I will miss her very much.

Here are some pictures from Ben's Arrow of Light ceremony finally.

With Cubmaster Zollinger:

With his den leaders, Ellen and Rebecca:

Pinning the Arrow of Light pin on Mom:

The candle ceremony:

They presented him with this great plaque with his name and the date on it. He thinks it's pretty cool.

Now that Thomas is 8, he is old enough to start scouts, so they presented him with his Wolf book. Since we're moving soon, though, we're going to just wait and register him with a den in Mount Pleasant. He's excited to start.

Joshua FINALLY got his top 2 teeth. He has been working on them for months, and it has been quite a difficult process for him. The first one pushed through about a week ago, and the second one finally pushed through yesterday. Now hopefully he'll start sleeping better.

I forgot to mention before that on September 19, Shane and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Twelve years and it just keeps getting better.

M minus 16 days

2010-09-23T16:02:00.005-06:00

M = Move. We'll be closing on the house in Mount Pleasant tomorrow (or more accurately, my parents will be, since they're actually buying the house and we'll be renting from them), and moving day will be October 9, although I'll be doing some minor moving in the week prior to that, and will probably need do so some cleaning at the new house. We signed paper work yesterday to put the West Valley house on the market. I've been doing some packing and cleaning as I can, and will be taking the second week of October off work so I can really dig in then and get everything done.

Shane will be staying here at the West Valley house until at least the end of October. He's taking his PE (Professional Engineer) exam on October 29 and is taking a class 2 nights a week to get ready. He will be tested on everything he learned in his engineering courses, and since you can't even take the test for at least 4 years after you graduate, most people have forgotten much of what they learned by the time they take it. Shane's friend took this course before he took the PE exam in the spring and found it very helpful, and passed the test the first time, so Shane's hoping for the same outcome. He'll also be staying at his ECI job for the time being until he finds something down in Mount Pleasant. One big advantage of having passed his PE exam is that he will then be able to stamp building plans and do engineering independently, so he's hoping that will prove fruitful in our new location as well.

Tonight Benjamin will be doing his Arrow of Light ceremony. If I remember to take the camera, I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, I caught the truth on camera.

Joshua does cry! And he's even cute when he's doing it! ;)

Another Shane update and other news

2010-09-07T14:20:00.004-06:00

After seeing the ENT and infectious disease doctors, they have effectively ruled out multiple sclerosis, sarcoidosis, as well as Lyme disease. The infectious disease doctor is looking into some other tick- and mosquito-borne illnesses, but we're not entirely optimistic that anything will actually be found. Furthermore, the doctor did explain in response to Shane's question that, depending on what they find (if anything), there may or may not be any treatment that can fix it.

In the meantime, Shane had a baptism for restoration of health a couple of weeks ago, and we are placing greater faith in that than anything we've received from the medical community thus far. He has been feeling better since then as far as the neck pain, etc., although the numbness is still present in the right side of his body and the steroids apparently made an underlying viral infection blossom out because he's been dealing with a lot of cold/flu-like head pressure since then. The ID doctor told him could happen with the steroids, since the same weekend as he got his steroid treatments, I got a flu with fevers up to 102 that lasted almost a week, so Shane obviously was exposed to that. That does seem to be getting better in the last day or 2 finally, though. Despite that, though, he says he has had more energy the last 3 or 4 days than he has had for a long time. He even got the shower grouted on Monday. We believe that God will eventually heal Shane and that there is a purpose to all of this that hopefully someday we will understand.

In other news, we are expecting to get final approval on the house in Mount Pleasant in the next week and are hoping to get moved the second weekend of October. We're in the process of getting our house ready to put on the market and are hoping that it sells soon.

Shane update

2010-08-26T12:12:00.004-06:00

Shane had a followup appointment with Dr. DeWitt (neurologist) today and she went over some of the results of his testing from last week with him. The meningocele they thought they saw on the brain MRI was a false alarm, as his CT scan of the sinus came back clean except for some possible abnormal tissue at the base of his tongue, for which she is referring him to an ENT specialist. So far, they haven't found anything significant on the spinal fluid. They did a comparison of the two spine MRIs and she confirmed that the lesions do, in fact, appear to be smaller than before. Shane had very severe neck pain yesterday, so Dr. DeWitt gave him a prescription for a medication that should help with the inflammation and pain of the nerves. She also scheduled him for a CT scan of the chest to rule out sarcoidosis, which is another autoimmune disease that can affect some the same body systems as MS. She admits that it will probably be a dead end, but it's worth ruling out since nothing else has been revealing. I'll post the results of that when we get them.

Also, Ben's Arrow of Light ceremony has been postponed to next month.

Where did the time go?

2010-08-22T14:36:00.002-06:00

For the record, I do feel guilty about having neglected the blog so badly. It's been a very busy summer with lots of houseguests, busyness, birthdays, and some big changes on the horizon. I'll try to remember as much as I can to get everyone caught up.

Shane is still struggling with his health. His headaches seem to be not as frequent or as bad, but lately he has been having trouble with his right leg being completely numb and his left leg not functioning quite right. He is still struggling with fatigue and lack of focus as well. After his horrible experience with the first neurologist we saw earlier this year, he hasn't been real anxious to go back to see any doctors, but when he started complaining of some vision changes, I insisted that he see a neuro-ophthalmologist, who he saw in early August. We also scheduled an appointment with a new neurologist. The neuro-ophthalmologist told him that the brain MRI that the previous neurologist had ordered was wholly inadequate to visualize the optic nerves and to reveal indications for multiple sclerosis, and that it is a very sensitive test and so has a tendency to illuminate things that don't need to be illuminated because there's nothing wrong with them (that MRI, according to the first neurologist, showed some inflammation of the optic nerves). In the 6-hour appointment she performed every test she could possibly think of (except a chart test, Shane said, haha) and told him that his optic nerves actually look good and that the pain in the front of his head and along his temples is likely referred pain from somewhere else. She ordered a new brain MRI to get better, more true look at his brain, and this type of MRI is apparently much more adequate for identifying indications of multiple sclerosis.

She also informed him that the first neurologist had failed to include any testing for Lyme disease with the spinal tap that he ordered in Februrary, when that would have been an ideal time to definitively rule that in. She told Shane that his biggest problem is that he is in Utah, where doctors don't know much about Lyme disease, to which Shane agreed. She is in the process of setting him up with an infectious disease doctor that she knows has experience with Lyme disease. She also cancelled the appointment we had made with the new neurologist and instead referred him to 1 of 2 premier MS neurologists in Utah. She told him that she was 50/50 split between this being Lyme disease (based on the history) or multiple sclerosis (based on the testing thus far).

Fast forward to last week. Over the course of a few days, Shane lost all feeling in his right leg from the mid chest down, and the left leg started with some numbness, but mostly just wasn't functioning quite right. He called the neuro-ophthalmologist, who told him to go to the ER. After 12 hours in the ER, they had given him a 1-hour infusion of steroids, a new spinal tap, and an MRI of his entire spine. The neurologist on call (Dr. Hammond) consulted with the neurologist (Dr. DeWitt) he was referred to by the neuro-ophthalmologist, and they told him that the brain MRI he had had the week before actually showed no indication for MS, which was a huge relief. We're still waiting for the results of the new spinal tap, but they did test for Lyme as well as a bunch of other stuff. They did find on the MRI a myelomeningocele and this past Friday he had a CT scan of his sinuses to take a better look at that. The MRI of his spine showed a new lesion in his mid back that is small, but is most likely the cause of his leg numbness and dysfunction. He has had 3 infusions of steroids, which should calm down that inflammation and restore at least most of the feeling and function of his legs. they also said that the 2 lesions that were originally found at the base of his skull/high on his neck seem to be getting a little smaller, so that's also a good sign.

Long story short: We still don't know what's wrong for sure with Shane, but it looks like Lyme is still very much in the differential diagnosis, and we're so glad that he has finally found a doctor who is taking him seriously and is very motivated to get answers and treatment if at all possible. We know that Jesus Christ is the Master Healer and have faith that eventually Shane will be healed.

As if all that wasn't exciting enough, on Saturday, August 14, we had my parents, all of my siblings, my brother-in-law, all 5 of Cari's kids, 2 of Richard's (Cari's husband) kids, and all 8 of my kids over to the house so we could take family pictures. It was the first time I think since Jesse and KC (now both 15) that we have all been in the same town at the same time, and we were excited to get family portraits. The plan was go to to Memory Grove for the photo shoot. As Shane and the kids were getting into the car to leave, with me following close behind, Shane saw a pit bull running loose in the neighbor's yard with nobody around. He came back into the house to get Julie to see if it was the same dog that had attacked her 2 weeks before when she was arriving at the house. (We were on our way home from Idaho at the time and she managed to keep her suitcase between her and the dog so that only the suitcase got bit. She had filed a report with the police department/animal control, and the neighbors were cited, but denied knowing the dog.) She said it was definitely the same dog and just then the dog went into our back yard, where we had kids running all over the place.

Shane went through the house to shoo the dog back out of the yard. It ran into the neighbor's yard, where 2 of the neighbors had now come out of the house, then circled around and came back at Shane, growling. It got about 3 feet away, paused, and then just as it was about to lunge, Shane managed to shoot it in the face. The dog will live, but the neighbors got all kinds of upset, called the police, and were making a lot of retaliatory threats. The police came and both sides (Julie included) submitted statements, and since it was clearly a case of self-defense, the case was closed that night with no legal charges even being considered against Shane. Nevertheless, 4 different officers warned Shane that these neighbors are closely affiliated (and even related) with some Mexican gang members and we should be prepared for possible gang retaliation.

(Needless to say, this threw a wrench in the picture plans, but our photographer, Liz Bowles (love her!) was so sweet and accommodating that she came to our house and we took the pictures in our back yard.)

With the threat of possible retaliation (which, according to the officers could be anything from graffiti to break-ins to drive-bys, although the latter was the least likely), we decided it would be best for the kids and I (and the dog) to leave town for a few days, so we went and spent a week at Granite with Shane's sister, Alicia, and her family. We also decided that it was time to act on the talk we'd been doing for the last few months and move. The kids and I are back at the house now, and so far there have been no attempts at retaliation, to which we give Father in Heaven credit for protecting us.

Yesterday, my parents came up and my dad retiled our shower (and did a BEAUTIFUL job!) and mom helped me do some cleaning and packing in the family and kids' rooms. We've decided to move to Mount Pleasant, which is a little town in Sanpete County. We've found a house, so we're waiting on that to be finalized and getting ready to put this house on the market, and will likely be making the move in late September or early October. We're really excited about moving, and in the next few years my parents will be moving there as well, and Shane's parents are going to be looking at property in that area as well. We're very excited about the prospect of living so close to our family for the first time.

Since I wrote last, we have also had 3 birthdays - Benjamin is now 11, Thomas is now 8, and Olivia is now 6. Ben will be performing his Arrow of Light ceremony for scouts later this week. Thomas is now baptized (which he was very excited about), and Olivia is on the verge of learning to read. Elizabeth has become pen pals with 2 cousins from Shane's Skidmore/Dudley extended family and has really enjoyed doing that. They've all had a fun summer of fun, spending time with friends and cousins, and getting older and more amazing. I'm truly the most blessed mom there ever was.

Joshua is now 10 months old and is crawling, cruising the furniture, and "talking" up a storm. He looks so much like Benjamin did at this age! He's been trying to cut his 2 top teeth and that has been really hard on him, but he is overall still such a cute, cheerful, charming little angel.

At the end of July, we traveled to Moscow, Idaho for Shane's sister, Mary's wedding. She is now Mrs. Michael Sasala and is very happy. It's a 17-hour drive, and the kids traveled very well and had a lot of fun. Elizabeth got to go up a week early with Grandma Skidmore and helped with some of the preparations and really enjoyed that. She also got to meet Megan and Maureen (the Dudley cousins - not sisters) and they were inseparable throughout the wedding reception.

In June we wrapped up the primary and Liberty Girls year. In July Benjamin got to attend Webelos scout camp, which included his first ever overnight campout. He had a wonderful time! Thomas is now old enough to start scouts, so we will plan to involve them both with a den and troop down in Mount Pleasant. Olivia is now old enough to be in Liberty Girls, but with our move we have backed out of the club for this semester. This would have been Liz's last semester. Liz, Tom, and Olivia have continued with piano lessons and have done very well. I pulled them out of piano when we went to Granite since we weren't sure at the time how long we would be gone, but I'm going to call and restart them for the rest of the time we'll be here before the move.

August 10-14 brought this year's Burn Camp, and Ben and Liz, as usual, had the time of their lives. That is such a remarkable program. Elizabeth had set a goal for herself to make it to the top of the rock climbing wall. It took a few attempts, but she did manage to get all the way to the top! She also got to ride a horse for the first time by herself with no one leading it. She said that was one of the best experiences of her life. Haha. Benjamin was old enough this year to do the scuba diving and he LOVED it! The water was cold, so it took some time for him to be coaxed in, but once he was in he didn't want to get out. He didn't want to go beyond the shallow end at first, but by the end, he was in water over his head and didn't even care.

Anyway, I think those are the main events of the summer. In a different post, I'll post some pictures from the summer. Hopefully I will be better about keeping things updated. Sorry it's been so long, but as you can see it's been a bit crazy around here. :) I hope everyone else has had a great summer, too.

April Update

2010-04-25T20:00:00.004-06:00

I haven't updated for a while, so this might get a little long.

Now that spring has finally arrived, it's garden planting time! Thomas has been Shane's helper this year and in the last couple of weeks they have planted pretty much everything. We got a couple of days of rain and then some good sunshine, and already the beets and broccoli have sprouted. They've also planted peas, carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage. Later the cucumbers and a variety of squash will go in. Shane's still considering whether he will plant potatoes and watermelon. We're looking forward to a good harvest this year and have already learned that we need to freeze/can a lot more this year than we did last year to get us through until the next year's harvest, as we've just about gone through everything we put up last year.

Benjamin is continuing to enjoy scouts, especially since he has made friends with one of the boys who, conveniently, lives just around the corner from us (they just moved into the neighborhood last August). They walk home from scouts together and get together to play usually every other Friday as well. Ben's friend, Lincoln, also has a sister Elizabeth's age and two sisters whose ages straddle Olivia, so all the girls have gotten to know each other and enjoy playing together, too. Until this family, we've had a very difficult time finding other kids near by that the kids can play with, so now having friends just around the corner has been great.

Elizabeth, Thomas and Olivia are enjoying piano lessons and are improving very quickly. They're good about practicing every day and are starting to learn songs they really enjoy instead of just "learning" songs. I tried to embed some videos of the kids playing their favorite songs they have learned so far, but Blogger was not cooperating, so I uploaded them to Photobucket instead. Here are the links.

Elizabeth playing Book of Mormon Stories (from memory)
Thomas playing Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Olivia playing Bridal Chorus

On the health front, Shane's headaches have been occurring less often, though he's still getting the tingles down the right side of his body almost constantly. He also gets random muscle twitches throughout his body that seem to have no rhyme or reason to them. Two specialists (neurology and infectious disease), 5 MRIs, a lumbar puncture, and a dozen blood tests later, we still don't have diagnosis, and Shane's not in any particular hurry to go see a bunch more doctors. While the symptoms are very irritating, they are bearable at this point, so he has chosen to either wait until they get worse or until he decides he just can't stand it anymore. I can hardly blame him; between him and Joshua, this has been quite the year of medical expenses.

Shane has been delving into the world of gunsmithing lately. He bought a Browning Hi-Power 9 mm pistol at a pawn shop and proceeded to tear it apart, fix up a few things inside like replacing springs and polishing the trigger parts and things like that. He also sandblasted the finish off and redid the parkerized finish. It turned out really nice, and yesterday he took it to a handgun shooting match. He had never fired a round through the gun and wasn't sure how it would function after all the work he had done to it, but was thrilled when it ran flawlessly and has now been dubbed his new three-gun pistol. Before this pistol, he parkerized and fixed up a shotgun he also bought at a pawn shop and took it to a three-gun match and another shooter there was so impressed with it that he has asked Shane to re-parkerize his shotgun as well. Shane's pretty excited, especially since if he gets any more involved with all of this, he's going to have to buy some gunsmithing tools. Shucks! :)

Here's a picture of the finished Hi-Power.

From Miscellaneous

Joshua, who turned 6 months old this past week, is back to his normal happy, adorable self. He has begun cooing and vocalizing again like he was doing before he got sick, so that's a relief. He is currently working on getting a tooth or two, and is characteristically handling it largely with a grin on his face. Unfortunately, he failed his repeat hearing screen last Friday, though the test shows that he still likely has quite a bit of fluid in his ears. On the surface, it sure appears to us like he responds to sound, but he is obviously not hearing in the normal range for some reason. So now he is scheduled to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist in early June to get some more detailed diagnostic tests and see what needs to happen next.

Here are some pictures I just got of Joshua today.

From 2010

Hmmm...

2010-04-04T20:57:00.002-06:00

I made a realization this evening and I wanted to record it so that I would have a reference in case I needed to go back and remember when I came to this realization. It occurred to me when I was giving Joshua a bath that he doesn't coo and "talk" like he did before he got sick. He used to do it all.the.time, but I realized this evening that I haven't heard him do it at all since getting sick. At this point, I'm not inclined to worry. I mean, he did just go through a pretty major illness. Of course, this particular illness is well known for resulting in various levels of brain damage, much of which is not evident until a child starts missing developmental milestones. He does seem to be responding to sound pretty well, but the hearing test later this month will give us better information. We figure we'll give it a few months and see where he is. It's possible that this is just a minor temporary setback and he'll return to his normal self over time.

Joshua update

2010-04-01T13:06:00.001-06:00

Joshua had his appointment with the infectious disease clinic this morning and has been discharged from their service. His last dose of antibiotics is today and the PICC line comes out tomorrow. He is officially out of the woods. Yay!! We will still be repeating his hearing screen later this month, so I'll update on that when it's done, too.

Joshua news and cuteness

2010-03-25T19:14:00.003-06:00

First, good news. Joshua had another blood draw yesterday and his CRP and blood counts are back in the normal ranges. That is very good news!

Now for the 5-month-old cuteness. Joshua is getting very close to rolling over and sitting up. He has also recently discovered how to blow raspberries, which is now his favorite thing to do. He has just recently begun eating a little bit of cereal. It didn't take him long to get it figured out, and as you can see in the video below, he's a fan. I was hoping that feeding him a little cereal before bed would help him sleep longer at night, but so far it hasn't happened. I think he must be going through a growth spurt right now. He's also getting very good at the reachy-grabby skill, though he still experiments with opening and closing his hands while holding an object, so is constantly dropping them.

He is such a cutie!!

Not quite out of the woods yet

2010-03-20T13:29:00.002-06:00

It turns out Joshua isn't quite out of the woods yet after all. On Monday (March 15) the home health nurse, Natasha, drew his labs. On Thursday morning, Joshua had a followup appointment with Dr. Allred (our family doctor) and everything checked out, although he did say that he had not received the labs yet. We also started his vaccinations for Hib and Prevnar (for the other meningitis-causing bacteria that babies are in danger of). Natasha called around noon on Thursday to confirm whether we were taking out the PICC line the next day (yesterday), which was still the plan. She said that she would have the blood work faxed again to Dr. Allred's office so they would be sure to see it.

Then Thursday afternoon, just as I was pulling into the parking lot for primary, I got a call from the infectious disease doctor who said that the Monday blood work showed that Joshua's white blood cells, platelets, ESR and CRP (inflammatory markers) were all high, which raised the concern for a fluid collection in the brain (one of the effects of meningitis they had warned us about) and would I please take Joshua to Primary Children's that evening for a brain scan. She asked how he was doing and I said that he seemed to be doing great. She said that was encouraging, but the problem with a fluid collection is that the baby can go from looking great to very serious condition very, very quickly. Needless to say, that was a little unsettling.

We got to PCMC at about 6:00. I didn't feed Joshua before we left since I didn't know whether he was going to need to be sedated or anything. We checked in to the ER, they drew some blood tests, and we finally had the CT scan at about 8:30. He did not need to be sedated and he was perfect for the scan, but they suggested that I still not feed Joshua until after the CT scan results come back. At this point, the poor baby hadn't eaten since 1:00 that afternoon, but was surprisingly pretty patient about it all. At around 10:00 they finally came back with all the results.

His white count and platelets were still a little high, but not alarmingly so. His ESR and CRP were lower than they had been on Monday, but they were still higher than they should be. The CT scan did show a fluid collection in the left front part of his brain. It did not light up with the contrast dye, which indicates that it is not infected/pussy, so that's good news. Also, it is small enough that it is not putting pressure on the brain, which is also good. If fluid collections are greater than 1 cm, then neurosurgery would want to operate and drain it. Joshua's is less than 1 cm big.

So at this point, infectious disease has decided to continue the antibiotics for another 2 weeks and just keep an eye on his blood work and behavior, and hope that the fluid just absorbs back into the brain. We go back to see them on April 1, and they will decide from there whether they want to do another scan to follow up on it.

In the meantime, Joshua is continuing to eat, sleep, and behave normally. You wouldn't really know that he had ever been sick other than the PICC line sticking out of his arm. Nevertheless, it looks like the war isn't quite over yet.

Joshua's hearing test

2010-03-12T09:54:00.002-07:00

Joshua had his hearing screening today to see if he has had any hearing loss as a result of the meningitis. He failed in both ears, but the tech said that it could be because of some fluid in the inner ear. So she did the test for fluid and it did indicate that there was probably some fluid, which would not be unreasonable to expect since he's been so sick recently. So she advised that we wait a month so that he will have finished the antibiotics and had some time for everything to kind of get back to normal inside his body, and then test him again. Personally, I'm not too concerned. He seems to respond well to noises as far as I can tell. So that's the plan as far as that goes.

We're home!!

2010-03-10T20:30:00.003-07:00

We got home from the hospital about 7:00 and it feels so good to be home again. Even Joshua's spirits seem to be a little better since we've been home. The home health care service brought by the antibiotics and other supplies we'll need, and tomorrow the home health nurse will come by to change the dressing and supervise my first official administration. The nurse was never able to get a hold of audiology in the hospital, so they just discharged us anyway, and either tomorrow or Friday, I will take him to the health department to have his hearing tested. Then next week we will follow up with Dr. Thompson and infectious disease. We will still need to keep an eye on him for any neurological sign that would indicate an empyema or relapse of the infection, but overall it looks like we're pretty well home free.

We want to thank all of you again for your concern, thoughts, and prayers. We have no doubt that it has made such a difference. We know that Heavenly Father has heard all of our prayers and we thank Him for hearing and answering our prayers and for His goodness in touching our darling son with His healing power.

Wednesday

2010-03-10T10:26:00.004-07:00

Joshua had another really good night last night. This morning, he's almost back to his old self. Right now, we're just waiting for the word from radiology so they can insert the PICC line, which we are hoping will be soon, because he hasn't eating since 4:00 this morning since he has to be fasting for the sedation. Then once he comes out of sedation okay and I've been taught how to give him the antibiotics and take care of the line, they will send us home TONIGHT. Hallelujah!

This morning, Joshua's IV infiltrated, so they had to change it a third time. With having to have taht done so many times and all the blood they've had to draw, they had a hard time finding a vein in his either of his hands that wasn't already too bruised to place this IV, so between that and being hungry from waiting on the PICC line, it ended up being a relatively traumatic experience for him. They have to have it in his hand because they will have to use contast dye in it to light up the veins to place the PICC line. They finally found a spot, though, and he calmed down pretty quickly once it was finished. Poor guy.

Tuesday, part 2

2010-03-09T22:31:00.002-07:00

Wow, Joshua had an AWESOME day today. He has been so peaceful and content. The only time he's even fussed is when they had to put in a new IV because the other one clotted. He's been "talking" up a storm and just looking all over the place, checking stuff out the way he always has. He's been eating great and my supply has been more than adequate. He has been off the IV fluids all day and looks great. He even sneezed and didn't cry, which means that the pressure in his head has diminished. The nurses said his blood work looked awesome this morning; everything is back in the normal range. He's not back to his normal smiley self, but getting there very quickly.

They ordered a repeat blood culture this morning and if it's clean after 24 hours, meaning that that the bacteria has been cleaned out of his blood (the bacteria grew out in both his blood and his spinal fluid), then they will put the PICC line in tomorrow. A PICC line, for those who don't know, is a tube attached to an IV access that is inserted near the elbow pit, and then the tube is fed through a vein to a point just above the heart. The antibiotics are then given through the IV access and go pretty much straight to the heart so that they are quickly sent out through the entire body. Before they send him home, they will teach me how to care for the PICC line and how to administer the antibiotics. If he's doing well, they anticipate he could go home as soon as this Friday. Hooray!

My heart is so full of gratitude to Heavenly Father for His healing influence and goodness in hearing and answering the many prayers of so many wonderful people on Joshua's behalf. God is indeed good. I am also so thankful for all of you for your sweet words of concern, for your cheering Joshua on, and especially for your faith and prayers. We are so blessed to be acquainted with so many beautiful people.

Tuesday - Houston, we have a...

2010-03-09T07:25:00.003-07:00

SMILE!! That's right, right about midnight last night, Joshua looked at me and smiled for the first time since this whole ordeal began. It wasn't the bright-eyed, face-splitting grin he's famous for, and it was just a flash, but it was a smile nonetheless. I can't even tell you how that melted my heart. Then during 4:00 a.m. vitals, he gave me just another tiny little smile.

And that's not all.

He's starting to lift his head up all the way now when he's on his stomach, which is a very good neurological sign. Also, he is tolerating holding his head up longer when I'm holding him up against my shoulder or sitting on my lap.

But wait! There's more!

He slept great last night, and at his 4:30 feeding this morning, he quit eating after 7 minutes because he was ready and not because he ran out of milk, and then went right back to sleep instead of acting like he was still hungry. Now at 7:30, I'm feeling full again, so it looks like my milk is coming back well, and I'm ecstatic about that as well. The nurse said that they will probably turn down his IV fluids so that he will be sure to be thirsty enough to want to eat well, and we'll see if he increases the amount of time that he nurses and see if he can stay hydrated enough that way.

So it looks like we're starting to turn a corner. Hooray!!

I'll update again after all the docs come by for their daily visits.

Monday, part 3

2010-03-08T21:00:00.005-07:00

Overall, I would say Joshua had a pretty good day today. He was awake a LOT today. He was still pretty fussy, but had several periods of time where he would be quite alert and just look around. After the bottle victory this morning, other attempts largely failed to get him to take it again. Finally this evening I spent an hour squeezing some formula into his mouth, then giving him the binky to encourage him to swallow. When we were down to the last ounce of a 2-ounce bottle, he finally started sucking on the bottle. This is actually quite encouraging, as it took longer than that this morning to get to that point. Hopefully next time will be a little shorter, and then a little shorter. Of course, the ultimate goal is still to get my milk supply re-established so that we can go back to nursing full time.

One of the downsides to him being awake a lot more is that he fusses a lot more. He's not sleeping in long stretches like he was, which is a good thing, but that also means he spends more time fussing than sleeping, which is hard because it's hard to be sure what's wrong and there's not a whole lot we can do about it anyway. Poor little guy. I'll tell you what, I'm sure looking forward to seeing him smile again.

We were moved to a different room this evening. This is our 4th room in 4 days - 2 in the PICU and 2 on the floor. Shane has started writing the room number in pencil at home. LOL

Monday, part 2

2010-03-08T13:44:00.003-07:00

The infectious disease team came around and pretty much concurred with the pediatric team on the course of treatment and all that, other than the fact that they have pretty well decided that they will not bother to do a CT scan or MRI unless they start seeing some concerning neurological changes like seizure or loss of motor function or if it's obvious that he is not responding to voice or something like that. So far, it's hard to gauge whether he is responding to voice or not because he's still so fussy for most of the time that he's awake, but I did snap off to the side of his head and he turned toward my hand. It's possible that I was still in his peripheral vision and he saw my hand, because I tried it again more to the side and he didn't respond at all, but he was looking at me and it's possible he just didn't care. Haha. Obviously, we'll be keeping an eye on that, and they will for sure be doing a formal hearing assessment before he goes home.

We had a small victory on the feeding front this morning as well. We finally found a bottle nipple that he accepted. He still balks at the formula at first, but he did finally drink 2 ounces from a bottle with the Nuk nipple. This is a huge relief, as it gives us some assurance that he will be getting nutrition while I work on getting my milk supply back to where it needs to be to keep him satisfied, which should be within the next 72 hours or so. He is still latching on well when he's hungry, but gets fussy when the milk runs out.

He's also spending more time with his eyes open, looking around and not crying, and will even hold his head up when I hold him up to my shoulder. He doesn't like to do it for a real long time, but the fact that he is doing it is a good sign. So we are winning battles here and there, but the war still rages on.

Monday

2010-03-08T09:13:00.002-07:00

Mercifully, Joshua finally settled down last night and slept pretty well. My milk supply has already increased some, and Joshua was able to nurse twice last night, but I'm still being as aggressive as I can to improve it even more.

When he was up for his 4 a.m. vitals and feeding, the nurse told me that the lab team was up to draw blood on another patient, so even though it wasn't time for his morning labs to be drawn yet, she asked them to come and draw Joshua's so that he wouldn't have to be disturbed in another hour or so. After 1 attempt in the arm and then another attempt in his hand, he finally was able to get some blood, and then Joshua and I both went back to sleep. At 6:30, I was awakened to the lab team coming back into the room. It turns out that Joshua's prothrombin time (PT), which is a test to see how long it takes the blood to clot, came back with some shockingly low value, so they wanted to recheck it to make sure that was an abnormal reading. This time, he used a vein in Joshua's foot, but the blood wasn't real forthcoming, so he got what he could and said, "We'll just hold our breath that this will be enough."

An hour later, the nurse came in and said that it wasn't enough and the IV team was here to put in a new IV since it wasn't going to hurt to replace the other one anyway, and collect the needed blood that way. Unfortunately, that took 2 attempts (this kid has very tough veins to find), but finally they got the blood they needed and the new IV put in. The pediatric team just stopped by while I was writing this and said that the clotting factors do look better, but are still worth watching pretty closely. He also said that his platelets are continuing to rise, which is a good thing, but indicated that he's not necessarily out of the woods in that respect, either.

Overall, the perspective of the pediatric team is that he's still in fairly serious condition with the infection in the brain and iffy blood work, but he is on the right track and seems to be responding well to the antibiotics. They would like to see him more alert and less irritable before we talk about when to send him home, but they seem overall optimistic. It looks like he will probably be getting an MRI rather than a CT scan in the next few days, as the MRI can give a better look at the brain tissues to get a better assessment for pus pockets and other things that would be problematic. They're looking for the clotting factors to improve more before that happens, though.

Thanks to everyone for your continued prayers and concerns. I hope you know how sincerely they are appreciated.

I have to give a shout-out to the staff up here at Primary Children's. You know how when you're in the hospital and there's always that *one nurse* that just rubs you wrong? There aren't any here! The nurses and doctors and everyone up here are so outstanding. Thanks PCMC for taking such good care of our baby!

Sunday, part 3

2010-03-07T22:34:00.004-07:00

Joshua had a really rough evening. It started with the realization that his eating for 5 minutes every 2-3 hours has resulted in a depletion of my milk supply. I am in the process of successfully building it back up, but in the meantime, he is not being satisfied with nursing and he patently refuses to take a bottle. We tried all possible combinations of 3 different kinds of formulas and 3 different kinds of bottles/nipples, all to no avail. He literally cried for 3 hours straight as we did everything we could think of to get him to eat. Finally, we resorted to squirting formula and then a little bit of milk I was able to pump into his mouth with a syringe while he was sucking on his pacifier. Once we got about 1.5 ounces into him, he was so worked up that we decided we'd better not push our luck, afraid that he would vomit it all back up. We sang to him, rocked him, laid him on his stomach, laid him on his back, held him, put a hot pad on his stomach, gave him simethicone, changed his diaper... nothing. Shane ran to Smith's and bought some gripe water. That helped him belch a couple of times, but he still wasn't relaxing. Then Shane gave him a blessing.

We wondered if all the crying had built up so much pressure in his head that he had developed a bad headache that the Tylenol he had right as this whole episode started just wasn't keeping up with. The nurse agreed to ask the doctor on call about an order for ibuprofen, even though he's "technically" not old enough for it. Because of the meningitis, anything stronger than Tylenol or ibuprofen would be out of the question.

While the nurse and I were at the nurses' station having that discussion, Shane was at Joshua's bedside still trying to calm him down. Finally, it occurred to him that maybe it was all the touching that had Joshua so upset, as it may be reminding him of having his vitals checked and all that stuff he's really grown tired of. He walked away from the crib and literally within a minute, Joshua was sound asleep. Probably the gripe water helped to settle his stomach and then just leaving him alone allowed him to totally relax.

That was at about 10:30. Now it's nearly 11:00 and I'm hoping he sleeps long enough that I will be ready to give him a good feeding by the time he wakes up again so we don't have to start all over again.

Sunday, part 2

2010-03-07T14:27:00.004-07:00

Spoke with the infectious disease doctor again. She's a little concerned because his platelets came back low this morning. Low platelets means that your blood is not clotting the way it's supposed to, and if they get too low then you can have bleeding in places you don't want to have bleeding. She said that his platelets are not scary low, but low enough to be concerning and to keep a close eye on, and the last place we want Joshua to have bleeding is in the brain. So they drew another CBC this afternoon to check the level again. If they get much lower, then they will have to transfuse him with platelets. I'll update again when I get more information.

The good news is that the lactobacillus has really helped to get his diarrhea in check, and he's looking much better that way. The redness and tenderness are just about gone.

His eyes and scrotum looked pretty puffy to me last night, which could either be from the steroid or from the IV fluids. Since he's been eating much better, the first step is to reduce the fluids. They cut the IV fluids in half, and then in half again during the night, and now the swelling is looking much better, but there is still some, so we're watching that, too. There's no danger associated with it or anything, it's just something to keep an eye on.

Sunday

2010-03-07T09:08:00.002-07:00

Joshua had a pretty good night last night. He is waking up every 2-3 hours to eat, which is a wonderful thing. He's still pretty uncomfortable and pretty much not at all interactive. He HATES being assessed, mostly because he has to be on his back for it, and he is clearly more uncomfortable on his back. The doctors say that he could be like this for a few more days and the important thing is to just keep giving him the antibiotics and watch him for any concerning neurological signs like seizures or loss of function. It is likely that they will choose to do a CT scan in the next couple of days to make sure the infection has not formed any pus pockets (empyema) in his brain, which would be a big concern for causing severe neurological damage. So far, he has been neurologically appropriate, so that's a relief.

In other news, Catherine participated in her first field trial since fall of 2008 and since her training with Keny Glasscock last summer. Keny ran her in the trial for me after taking her down to Southern Utah for a week to run with some wild chukar. He said that he was able to get her into 4 covey of birds and that she did great. The field trial was not such a success, unfortunately. He said everything was going great at first; she backed her bracemate (the dogs are run in braces of 2 dogs) and stood well, but when the other dog's handler went in to flush the bird, he fell. Keny said, "It was a confusing mess, too much for her and she broke. I think if he had a clean flush, she would have stood. That's the breaks." Too bad, but some things you just can't practice for in training, and she's still rather immature and inexperienced, so no a big surprise. Keny thinks a little bit of manners training will go a long ways, so once things settle down a bit with our medical situations (between Shane and Joshua), we'll probably see what we can do with her that way.

Progress

2010-03-06T22:22:00.003-07:00

Disclaimer: There will probably be more information in these updates than most people will really care about, but I'm writing it all down for my own sake as much as for other readers, so just bear with me. :)

Joshua was moved this evening from the PICU to the regular floor. All that really means is that he's stable enough that he doesn't need the extra close supervision of the ICU. His vital signs all look great. He is also eating better now, which is also a good sign. However, he is still very lethargic and obviously uncomfortable when the Tylenol wears off, but he does respond nicely to Tylenol, so that's good. How long he'll be here will depend on how he responds to the antibiotics, which he has been on now for about 30 hours.

I forgot to mention before that he was started out on vancomycin, ceftriaxone (Rocephin), and gentamicin, all of which are broad-spectrum antibiotics. Then when the culture came back as gram negative, they were able to discontinue the vanco and gent, so he is getting only the Rocephin. They are also giving him dexamethasone, which is a steroidal, to keep any swelling/inflammation at bay as a preventative measure against hearing loss. That will only be given for the first 48 hours, though. As expected, the antibiotics have given him some diarrhea, so he's pretty sore "down there," but the nurse is working on getting an order for some lactobacillus, which should help with that.

Shane's mom is expected to get into town this evening (she left early this morning to drive up from Oklahoma City) to help take care of the kids and the house so I can be up here at the hospital as much as possible, and my mom will be coming up early next week to also offer moral support and whatever other help she can. I also have to say thank you to Julie Marie, who spent the bulk of 2 days with the other kids at home, preparing extra meals and everything, while Joshua was being evaluated, admitted, and settled in. We have received such wonderful words of kindess ad concern from so many wonderful friends and family members. Please know that, even if I don't respond personally to each of you, we appreciate you all so much. You give us such strength, and that's a big help in getting through things like this. Thank you for being so wonderful!

We have a pathogen

2010-03-06T11:03:00.004-07:00

I spoke with the infectious disease consultant this morning. Joshua has been diagnosed with Haemophilus influenzae, otherwise known as H. flu. The specimen will be sent to the state lab to confirm whether it is type B, which is likely. If so, then it is the same H. flu (Hib) that is part of the normal immunization regimen that infants receive. Here is some good information about H. flu meningitis.

For those who haven't heard our vaccination story, here's the Reader's Digest version. When Ben was a baby, we did a bunch of research on vaccinations and decided to go with a delayed-vax schedule, i.e., we would start the vaccination schedule when he was 2. This was shown to result in a lower occurrence of side effects from the immunizations themselves. Then, when he was 17 months old, Benjamin got sick and was diagnosed with H. flu. He did not develop meningitis, which is common with this bacteria, and recovered with only a single dose of Rocephin, a powerful broad-spectrum antibiotic.

Obviously, we became very concerned about Elizabeth, who was 2 months old at the time, and so we went ahead and had her started with the first round of vaccinations.

At the time, we were living out at Granite Ranch in the west desert of Utah (90 miles northwest of Delta), and the county would come out to the elementary school in nearby Trout Creek and do a vaccination clinic. For 3 or 4 months in a row, we planned to go and get Ben started on his vaccinations and continue with Elizabeth's, but ended up unable to do so. Either we couldn't make it to the school, or the clinic was cancelled, or whatever.

In the meantime, I started noticing Ben's speech delays and a speech therapist suggested a diagnosis of apraxia of speech. While I was doing research on that, I found enough anecdotal evidence of parents watching their perfectly normal toddlers spiral into the autism spectrum within weeks to months after receiving the MMR vaccine. Trying to balance their stories with the medical community's assertion that there is no link was no small frustration. We made it a matter of prayer, and felt very strongly impressed that we should forego the immunizations.

I want to make it very clear that this is not a judgment call on vaccinations themselves. I do not believe that they themselves are inherently dangerous, nor am I 100% convinced that they are the direct cause of so many children being diagnosed with autism. There are definitely more questions than answers when it comes to all of this, so all I can say is that not vaxing was the right thing for us. As a result, none of our kids has received any vaccinations other than that first round that Elizabeth got at 2 months old.

Anyway... fast forward to today. Meningitis is actually pretty common with H. flu (as well as a few of the other diseases that children are vaccinated against). There are possible long-term risk factors that can range from nothing to hearing loss to severe neurological compromise, which you wouldn't really notice until they start missing developmental milestones as they get older. (Side note: Benjamin's developmental delays were all noticed before he got ill, so H. flu cannot be blamed for his issues.)

At this point, we just give him the antibiotics and watch to see how he responds and recovers. Our faith is in God and we have committed Joshua into His hands and have already felt His loving care and inspiration. All will be well, no matter what happens, because Father in Heaven is in charge.

And as I sit here in the pediatric ICU, listening to all these babies with RSV crying, coughing, and getting suctioned out so they can breathe right again, at the mercy of time for their recovery since viruses cannot be treated with medication, I thank Father in Heaven that Joshua does not have RSV.

It was just a joke!

2010-03-06T07:17:00.002-07:00

You'll have to forgive my lightheartedness. If it offends you, get over it. It's a coping mechanism.

Even before Joshua was born, Shane nicknamed him "Bill." I think if he had been in charge of filling out the birth certificate, the name Bill probably would have ended up on there somewhere. Joshua Keith "Bill" Watson. Haha. The nickname has stuck, although Shane's pretty much the only one who calls him that.

Anyway, when he ended up being born in the hospital instead of at home like we had planned, Shane joked that he's our little Hospital Bill. That story is always good for a chuckle. Well, you know what they say... children will live up to the expectations you have for them, and obviously Joshua is no exception.

Okay... all silliness aside, here's the story: Last Tuesday (March 2), Joshua developed a fever in the evening of 102 degrees. I gave him some Tylenol, the fever broke, he slept great that night and was completely normal all day on Wednesday. He slept well Wednesday night, woke up normal, bright, and happy Thursday morning. Went down for his morning nap, then woke up at 2:30 in the afternoon with a fever of 103.7, wouldn't eat, and was pretty fussy and lethargic. I took him to our family doctor's office, and by the time we got there, his temp was up to 105.3. They gave him Motrin, checked his ears, which were clear, and ran a rapid RSV test, which came back negative. The fever started to come down, so we brought him home to keep an eye on him. The fever continued to decrease until it finally broke around midnight Friday (March 5). In the meantime, he had a couple of good feedings, and at 7:00 on Thursday, he started tugging at his right ear, so we thought, "Okay, looks like an ear infection after all."

Friday morning, he still had no fever, but was still just not bouncing back. He was still lethargic, fussy and acting like he was hurting somewhere, and breathing fast and shallow, but not labored. I also noticed that he didn't like to be moved, picked up, etc. Once he got into a position, he would settle down, but if you moved him again, he would cry like it was hurting. By noon, I was just very uncomfortable with how he was acting, so I called the clinic and they agreed to see him again. After being evaluated by 2 of the doctors, it was decided that he needed to go to Primary Children's Medical Center for a spinal tap and other testing, as he was looking very suspicious for meningitis.

We took him straight up to PCMC, where they did check his urine, blood, and did a spinal tap. Urine came back negative, blood came back with increased white cells, and the spinal tap confirmed gram-negative bacteria (the destructive kind), so he was admitted to the Pediatric ICU and started on antibiotics. We should have the final results of the spinal fluid culture in the next day or 2 so we can narrow down the kind of antibiotic he needs, but he is facing at least a week in the hospital and likely 3 weeks of IV antibiotics. Depending on how he responds, they may allow us to take him home after the first week or so with a PICC line and finish the antibiotics as an outpatient.

All in all, he's really handling things well. He's such a little sweetheart. It breaks my heart that he hasn't smiled at me in nearly 48 hours, but I'm optimistic about his prognosis. I just keep reminding him, though, that the "Hospital Bill" thing was just a joke! :)

Haircut!

2010-03-03T15:12:00.004-07:00

Well, I've been threatening to do it for weeks, and today I finally took the plunge. The question was: Do it myself, or pay $12 to have it done? Ultimately, my frugality won out, so I put Joshua in his Bumbo seat and went to work.

Before:

I started out just scissor trimming it to leave some length on it. If you have never tried to cut a 4-month-old's hair, let me tell you... they don't hold still!

He really handled the whole thing like a champ. What a smiley guy!

Finally, frustrated with the inconsistent lengths I was getting due to constant head movement, I got desperate and pulled out the clippers and #3 comb.

When all was said and done, he had a very short haircut and a very hairy face.

That's an awful lot of hair for such a little tyke. Check out the length and curl on some of those strands! Of course, it's only curly when it's wet.

Here he is, all cleaned up and looking like a new man. I think he aged 3 months in that 30 minutes! I think he likes it.

The most amazing part: We went through an entire outing this afternoon without hearing, "Wow! Look at all that hair!"

Ben's latest achievement

2010-02-26T12:46:00.006-07:00

Benjamin earned his Webelos patch at the Blue and Gold Banquet last night. He really enjoys going to scouts and having fun there, and his leaders are great.

Oh... and for the record, those are not gray hairs!

Joshua - 4 months

2010-02-20T12:54:00.002-07:00

Joshua is 4 months old today! How does that even happen???

Brothers?

2010-02-12T18:48:00.004-07:00

Even before Joshua was born, I imagined that he would look like Thomas. I didn't know why... just a hunch. Then, when he was born, it was true. He did look a lot like Thomas, with the dark hair and everything. Within just a couple of days, though, Joshua's hair became more and more red, and then as the weeks passed by, he started to decidedly favor Benjamin and Shane. Or so we thought... Just recently, this picture was brought to our attention by Shane's mom, Cynthia.

Notice the date stamp on the side. This picture is Thomas at just about 3 months old.

Compare to Joshua at roughly the same age.

I guess they really are brothers after all.

Update on Shane

2010-02-11T13:05:00.002-07:00

Well, actually there's not much to the update. We went to the neurologist on Tuesday, who agreed with the radiologist that another MRI is needed with contrast dye and with a more powerful scanner, and to include the brain this time.

After some discussion, he is certain that multiple sclerosis is highly unlikely, and it is more likely that Shane picked up some type of viral infection that attacked the spinal cord. He said he can't completely rule out the possibility of a spinal cord tumor, but the more powerful MRI should help to rule that out. He also ran some blood tests to look for possible West Nile virus, Lyme disease (not common in Utah, but Shane has spent a good deal of time in tick-laden fields in Wisconsin for work), and some other screening tests.

Shane will have the neck/brain MRI Friday morning, and then goes back to see the neurologist next Thursday to review the results of the MRI and blood work. If we don't get any satisfactory answers from those, then the neurologist will plan to do a spinal tap to look at the fluid microscopically to see if he can see anything.

So, basically we're still in a holding pattern and will keep everyone updated.

Been a little while

2010-01-31T17:01:00.002-07:00

I haven't updated for a little while. There really isn't a lot of exciting news. The kids and I have been spending a lot more time at home now that it's winter, and having a baby in the family again is even more incentive to stay home where it's warm.

Two weeks ago, Elizabeth, Thomas, and Olivia started taking piano lessons from a lady in an adjoining neighborhood. She's a lovely grandmotherly woman who has been teaching lessons for nearly 40 years. The kids have been very good about practicing every day, even when they don't particularly feel like it. They're excited to learn. Unfortunately, we missed the second week because of a stomach bug that plagued the family last weekend.

We spent 4 days fighting off that stomach bug, and just about the time everyone was well again, I came down with a different bug -- this one with fever, chills, sore throat, headache, and body aches. I had a 102-degree temperature for a while at one point. Just as I was starting to feel on the mend, Elizabeth started complaining of a sore throat, and yesterday she was having headaches as well. Today she's feeling much better, and no one else has begun to show symptoms, so it looks like we're going to get through this one with minimal impact. Fortunately, that means we should be ready to go back to piano lessons tomorrow.

Liz will be starting a new semester of Liberty Girls in a couple of weeks, and I am a co-advisor again. This time, we are reading the Kirsten series of the American Girl books. She is a 9-year-old in a Swedish-immigrant pioneer family who move to Minnesota in 1854. We have some fun stuff planned.

Ben is continuing in Webelos and enjoys it quite a bit. He has managed to make friends with one of the boys in particular, who we just found out lives right across the street and around the corner from us. The boys are very excited about being able to get together and play, especially when the weather warms up again. The family also has a girl about Liz's age and a girl about Olivia's age, as well as a girl about Tom's age and a 2-year-old boy.

The kids are still enjoying doing Time4Learning for the bulk of their schoolwork and are doing really well with it. Thomas got the hang of carrying in addition very quickly, which is no surprise. He has a real knack for math and science stuff. His most favorite thing is his Legos, and I am continually amazed by his creativity and vision. Ben, on the other hand, is currently obsessed with Transformers. Pretty much every conversation with him quickly leads into something related to Transformers. Liz continues to be a voracious reader. Her favorite book right now is Where the Red Fern Grows, but she will read pretty much anything she can get her hands on. She is also developing into quite the remarkable babysitter and is an invaluable help to me, for which I try to express my appreciation often. Olivia is getting closer and closer to reading all the time. She is starting to sound words out and trying to spell them. She is also picking up a lot of math concepts just by paying attention when we are working with the older kids on things. She also loves to help with Joshua and talk and play with him.

Joshua is changing and getting more and more interactive and fun every day. Now that he's holding his head up really well, we have started putting him in a Bumbo seat in front of some dangling toys, which he really enjoys, and also in his jumper in the doorway, which he is still figuring out, but getting there and seems to like it. He is still such a happy, peaceful, friendly baby and cannot possibly be any more adored than he is.

Shane will be seeing a neurologist on February 9th to further investigate some symptoms he's been having in his neck, including some electrical sensations that shoot down the right side of his body from time to time when he looks down and to the left. He had an MRI early this month, which showed two "lesions" identified as a disruption in the myelin sheath around the spinal nerves, which prompted the radiologist to include multiple sclerosis in the differential diagnosis (though we have since learned from another radiologist that MS is frequently included in the interpretation of these kinds of lesions because, although it is uncommon, it is devastating and so they want to be sure to rule it out). The MRI was done in response to an episode Shane had in mid-December where the whole right side of his body went into a massive muscle spasm/contraction when he attempted to sit up in bed. Obviously, that got us more than a little concerned and he went to our family doctor, who recommended the MRI, and now we're hoping the neurologist will be able to shed some more light on what is happening. In the meantime, Shane is still having the occasional electrical sensations and headaches (he's had occasional headaches at the location where the lesions were found at the base of his skull for years), and even had another spasm/contraction episode this past Friday morning. Needless to say, we're getting rather anxious for that neurologist appointment.

Friday night, the primary put on a talent show that we attended. Elizabeth displayed a dolphin cross stitching she did recently (her very first). Thomas donated cookies for the bake sale, and Benjamin donated a 1-hour massage by his Aunt Julie Wilcox for the silent auction. We had a good time and saw some fun and even some great performances by some pretty talented kids.

That's basically what's been happening around here this month. Here are some recent pictures for your viewing pleasure. :)

"Tummy time" with the lion mirror that was hanging in his crib.

Sitting in the Bumbo playing with toys.

In the jumper looking cute, drooling as always.

Mohawk!

The girls in new dresses from Grandma Skidmore.

Joshua buried in toys, courtesy Liz and Olivia.

Olivia & Joshua

Da boyz

Laughing some more

2010-01-05T17:19:00.002-07:00

We finally got some better video of Joshua laughing. Elizabeth is behind the camera.

Laughing

2010-01-01T15:10:00.002-07:00

Here is a video from the other day. Shane had Joshua laughing and it was so cute that I ran to get the camera to record it. By the time I got back, Joshua had the hiccups, so the laughs aren't as cute on the video, but it's still so adorable I had to share. :)

No fair

2009-12-24T15:56:00.003-07:00

Girls, why is it that the boys get the gorgeous eyelashes?? It's not fair! (Click for a larger view.)

And just because this picture is so cute, I have to post it, too.

Joshua - 2 months

2009-12-20T16:54:00.003-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's already been 2 months since Joshua joined our family. He's such a sweet baby, and he's absolutely adored by everyone. Here are some recent pictures.

Check out the double chin!

Here's a good shot of his hair, parted and combed after a bath. That's sure a lot of hair!

I bought this mirror toy and attached it to the side of the crib. He loves to smile at that baby who always stares and smiles back to him.

Some pictures of Joshua and Ben enjoying each other.

Family pictures

2009-12-14T19:13:00.002-07:00

Karen Squires (www.adorableyouphotography.com), my friend who has been documenting my pregnancy photographically, did the final photo session last Saturday -- the new baby and our newly expanded family. Here is a slide show of the pictures she took. I'm extremely pleased with the way they turned out.

If you're looking to have portraits done, I can definitely recommend Karen. She does a very good job.

Thanksgiving pictures... finally.

2009-12-12T19:56:00.002-07:00

We went to Lake Powell with my folks this year for Thanksgiving. We took their houseboats (the smaller of which they are trying to sell) out to Castle Rock and stayed there Thursday through Saturday. The weather was actually beautiful for November. The kids even spent a great deal of time wading and playing in the water, which they spent most of Thursday doing, in addition to playing on the beach. The nights got a little nippy, but not too bad. We had lots of blankets and everyone stayed warm.

On Friday, most of us hiked all the way around Castle Rock. Even Olivia and Bella (Cari's daughter, almost 5) did a great job on the 1-plus hour-long hike. It's a beautiful spot of the lake. That evening, Julie Marie led the kids in Thanksgiving bingo and even made sure everyone got a turn to win (ssshhh...) so that everyone got a prize - a jumbo-sized package of candy!

First thing Saturday morning, Dad took Julie Marie, Olivia, and Bella back to the marina, and they headed back to Kanab and prepared our Thanksgiving feast (it was Julie's idea, just for the record... she's amazing!), while the rest of us got everyting all cleaned and packed back up and let the kids have another couple of hours to play and explore. Just as we were headed back to the marina at about lunchtime, it began to rain. Perfect timing!

We got back to Kanab and enjoyed Julie's masterful cooking, and then Mom, Dad, Shane, and (my sister) Julie spent the rest of the evening putting up the Christmas village at the ice cream shop, the grandkids watched movies, and Julie Marie and I (mostly Julie, as Joshua was very fussy and wouldn't be put down) cleaned up dinner.

Then we headed home on Sunday. It was a wonderful weekend! Click below to see picures from the lake; there are too many to try to post here. Most of these pictures can be credited to my sister, Julie, who can really work some good magic with a camera.

Thanksgiving 2009

Opening Night

2009-12-05T07:25:00.004-07:00

Last night was opening night of The Nutcracker by Ballet West at Capitol Theater. Julie Marie and my mom bought tickets for them, Julie (my sister), Bella (Cari's daughter), Olivia, Elizabeth, Celeste (my 3 daughters) and me to attend. We had a grand time. Even the little girls did pretty well for the ballet, despite how late it became, but said they had a good time.

Afterwards we went to Leatherby's for ice cream and then went back to Julie Marie's house, where she presented each of the granddaughters with their very own nutcrackers. She's so amazing -- always doing whatever she can to make the most of every experience. I sure love her!

It has been fun having Celeste up for the weekend, too. I don't get to see her and the boys as often as I would like, so I always enjoy it when it happens. She's sure growing up to be a beautiful girl. She particularly enjoyed the ballet because she has been taking ballet classes for the last several years.

Here's a picture of the girls by one of the big nutrackers in the theater foyer. Pardon the quality -- none of us thought to take a camera (oops!), so this was taken with a cell phone.

Left to right: Isabella, Olivia, Elizabeth, Celeste

Rebecca's arrival

2009-12-01T15:35:00.002-07:00

About a year and a half ago, Elizabeth decided that she was going to save up for a new American Girl doll. She has the Samantha doll that was handed down by Shane's sister, Anne, which she had had since she was a little younger than Elizabeth. A new doll would cost her $100, which was a massive amount of money for an 8-year-old girl who really only got money for her birthday. Nevertheless, she was determined. She saved every penny of her birthday money (minus tithing, of course) that year, and throughout the year found ways to earn money by doing jobs around the house for me, or for doing jobs for Grandma Skidmore when she came to town.

At times, she was tempted by some other toy she wanted, and the task of saving up $100 became so daunting at times that she questioned whether or not it was really worth it. Could she ever really make it? Last December, she had this experience, and since that time, she has been stalwart in saving every penny she could get her hands on.

In October of this year, she realized she was about halfway there. I offered her a job cleaning up the dog's kennel each week to earn $2.00 a week, which she accepted. She has never complained once about doing it and most of the time doesn't even need to be reminded. Then Shane offered her an additional $2.00 a week for feeding and watering the dog, as well as putting her in the garage each evening and letting her out each morning. She also helped Grandma Skidmore when she came to town to work on their rental house in Stansbury and earned some money that way.

Well, with all of that and her birthday money this year, she finally made it! On the day after her birthday (last Monday before Thanksgiving), we ordered her new American Girl doll -- Rebecca Rubin. Finally, today, she arrived.

Now the proud owner ("mother") to two American Girl dolls: Samantha and Rebecca.

We are so proud of Elizabeth. This whole thing has been such a maturing experience for her, and she has learned more discipline than, sadly, many adults even have. Eighteen months has seemed like an eternity for her, but she has really learned the lesson well: Don't trade what you want most for what you want right now, and it has finally paid off for her. Good job, Elizabeth! We love you!

Smile!

2009-11-30T20:11:00.002-07:00

Joshua gave me his first real social smile last Saturday morning while we were out on Lake Powell in my parents' houseboat (more details to come on that when I get the pictures from my sister). I had to rub it in to Shane because he had 2 of our kids take their first steps in front of him... while I was in the other room... on Father's Day. Of course, not to be undone, a few minutes after I announced the smile and my mom verified it, he was holding Joshua and said, "Lori! He just sang the National Anthem for me!" Yeah... nice try. :)

Anyway, I was able to capture a few perfectly adorable smiles he gave Elizabeth this morning.

It looks like he inherited Shane's crooked smile, just like Benjamin. So cute!

Lego Fun

2009-11-30T20:00:00.003-07:00

I have such clever boys! Thomas came upstairs with these letters he had made out of Legos. He said he made them because he likes Legos and he likes art. Isn't he cute??

Benjamin gets the gold star of creativity today. He made this "Transformer" out of Legos and named it Sting-Flash. He takes the robot apart and uses all the exact same pieces to "transform" it into a "Porsche" with a cannon on top. I think this is his best Lego creation yet. Nice job, Ben!

Time4Learning

2009-11-30T16:47:00.003-07:00

For the last 2 weeks, we have been using Time4Learning online curriculum for our schooling, and I have to say, it has been great! It's an online interactive education program for grades K through 8th. You can use it as a supplement to school, or they have a homeschool program you can subscribe to as well. It is based on educational software used in many schools around the country. We are using the homeschool program and so far we are really loving it. It has sections for language arts, math, science, and social studies. For the lower grades, there is even a section called the "Playground" with fun games that can be used as a reward for finishing lesson time.

I love it because the kids can "do school" while I am working, which frees up our afternoon hours for other things. They'll come and get me after they've finished their activities and/or quizzes so I can check their scores. Plus, it keeps track of everything they've done, so I can check it later if I need to, and they can repeat any activity or quiz if I think their score isn't high enough or they're not grasping the concept. The set-up is so kid friendly that the kids can be very self-directed, and it guides the kids to know which section they should be doing next.

The kids love it because the activities are so fun that they say it doesn't even feel like learning, yet they are very effective. The kids actually get excited and ask to do school!

I would highly recommend Time4Learning for any family. Whether you are homeschooling or just need a way to supplement what your kids are learning in school in a way that gets them excited about learning, Time4Learning is a wonderful tool!

More Joshua pictures

2009-11-15T14:38:00.002-07:00

I got Joshua's crib all set up. All camo! I have to admit, it looks pretty cool. From early on in the pregnancy, even before we confirmed my intuition that he was a boy, I had decided that I wanted camoflauge as the theme for his bedding and stuff. I even made a camo diaper bag for him. : ) Anyway, I just got the crib set up last night, so naturally I had to take some pictures of him in it.

Shane's dad, Greg, flew into Salt Lake from Anchorage yesterday to go with Shane, Ben, and my dad to North Dakota to do a few days of pheasant hunting. He got to meet Joshua between being picked up at the airport and heading out for the trip.

Joshua was asleep on the couch, and Olivia couldn't resist setting up her baby doll, Emily, to be just like him. It was kind of cute. Later when Joshua woke up, she was imitating everything I was doing with Joshua, rocking him, talking to him, even feeding him. *laugh*

Days of 'um

2009-11-15T14:18:00.003-07:00

As kind of a last hurrah before I start back to work on Monday, the kids and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium on Friday and to the Clark Planetarium on Saturday with Alicia and her boys and her neighbor's little girl, who is good friends with Elizabeth. We had a lot of fun. At the planetarium, we watched the 3-D movie called "Magnificent Desolation," which is a great film done by Tom Hanks about the Apollo moon landings and exploration. It was really cool; it made you feel as though you were on the moon with the astronauts. Fun stuff!

Here are the kids on "Mars."

And here they are on the moon.

Mars again.

Moon again.

Olivia forecasting the weather at the planetarium.

Weatherman Thomas.

Thomas looking at a moon rock.

The aquarium was a lot of fun. They have an octopus in tank, which is really cool! I'd never seen an actual octopus. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of it because flash photography is not allowed, as an octopus is very sensitive to light, and where the tank is was so dark that I couldn't get a picture to turn out.

In a "sea cave."

With the southern sting rays. I couldn't convince the kids to touch them. Silly kids! They did touch all of the other creatures in the open tanks -- a Bahama sea star, brittle stars, pencil urchins, and horseshoe crabs.

Cute kids!

Liz on a frog.

Olivia on a frog.

Thank you!

2009-11-11T10:14:00.006-07:00

On the occasion of Veterans Day today, I just wanted to express my gratitude to all past and present members of our great United States military for all you have done/do to keep our country safe and free.

Our family enjoys a rich heritage of military service: Shane's dad, Greg Watson served in the Air Force. His Grandad Cecil Watson was a medic with the Army in the South Pacific during World War II where the Marines were fighting. He saw a lot of bloody combat while there, but was relatively safe on the beach providing medical care. Shane's step-grandfather, Dan Skidmore, served in the Army as well in the 101st Airborne division. He was being trained to invade Japan, but they dropped "the bomb" instead, and he ended up getting out of boot camp just after the war in the Pacific ended and was part of the Japanese occupation forces, but never saw any combat. Dan's brother, Harold, served in Europe during WWII and saw a lot of combat there. His grandmother, Ada Hewitt, was a nurse in the Navy, and his Aunt Syliva Solem served in the Army. His uncle, Charles Matthews, was in the Army in the Aleutian Islands. He also has a cousin, Ryan White, who served in the Marine Corps.

On my side, my grandfather, Truman Lynch, served in the Navy, and my dad, Robin Wilcox, served in the Air Force.

We also have friends who have served and currently serve in the military.

We are thankful to each of these people and all others who volunteer their service to defend our country, the Constitution, and our way of life. We are thankful to those who have served in times of war, from the Revolutionary War on down.

Today, veterans, we honor you. Thank you for your service!

Candy making

2009-11-05T20:25:00.003-07:00

Today the kids and I decided to make candy. I remembered too far into the process to get some of the boys doing their thing, but here are the pictures we got.

The girls (i.e., mostly Liz) were in charge of making the mints. All the kids got to help shape them once the "dough" was made.

A close-up of the finished mints so you can see some of the shapes they made. They had a lot of fun with this, naturally.

My job was the caramels. Here is the boiling stuff.

The finished products.

These peanut butter cookies were actually supposed to be peanut butter balls. The boys were in charge of making these. They shaped the dough into little 1-inch balls and had them all laid out on the cookie sheet. The directions called for them to be baked for 10-12 minutes, so we put them in the oven for 10 minutes, expecting that they would come out as baked little 1-inch balls. Nope. they came out as cookies. Oh well, they're still yummy!

We had a lot of fun. Thomas is actually behind the camera taking the pictures, and I was standing at the stove, so managed to avoid being in the picture. ;)

Two weeks old

2009-11-04T19:49:00.004-07:00

Joshua turned 2 weeks old yesterday. He had his 2-week check-up with the midwife and is doing awesome! He weighed 9 pounds 6 ounces (so up about a pound and a half since birth already) and was 22-1/4 inches long (so has grown over 2 inches already).

He is such a good baby... so peaceful and content. He hardly ever cries and is just so easy. He didn't even cry for his PKU blood collection at his check-up! We're all enjoying him so much and are so thankful to have him in our family.

I've been using the cloth diapers very consistently. In fact, he hasn't worn a single disposable diaper since the day after his circumcision on his 8th day. I'm actually enjoying it even more than I thought I would.

More pictures

2009-10-22T16:20:00.005-06:00

Cynthia and the kids got home from Idaho about 11:00 p.m. last night and met Joshua for the first time. They are all utterly smitten by him. Here are some pictures.

Introducing...

2009-10-21T14:13:00.005-06:00

Joshua Keith Watson

Born Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 7:23 p.m.

7 pounds 15 ounces, 20 inches long

The story of Joshua's birth really starts about 2 weeks ago. I had a lot of pre-labor and on one occasion had 30 hours' worth of contractions and on another occasion had 20 hours of contractions, and on the days in between I would contract for 6-7 hours, and every time the contractions would eventually stop. The contractions never got closer than about 7 minutes apart, Joshua always stayed high, never settling into the pelvis. This went on for nearly 2 weeks.

Finally, on Monday the 19th, I woke up in the morning had was having good contractions that got to 3-5 minutes for over an hour. Finally, we thought this was the real thing. Shane's mom took the 4 kids and left for Moscow, Idaho, to visit Shane's sisters, Mary and Anne for a few days. I called my mom, who was 5 hours away, and she left home to come up. By the time she got here at noon, the contractions had shut down pretty much completely, and baby was still very high

I called my midwife, who gave me the go-ahead to take castor oil to try to get the contractions going again. Nothing. That night, we went to Olive Garden for dinner and I had the eggplant parmesan, which apparently has a reputation for putting women into labor. I thought, Why not? I've got nothing to lose.

I was awakened several times that night with the uncomfortable effects of the castor oil, but no promising contractions. Then, at 4:00 a.m., I did wake up with what I knew were real contractions. I woke up Shane and my mom and called my midwife (Michele) at 5:00. She was at another birth, so sent two of her assistants (Joy and Heidi) to come and be with me until she could get there. Joy got there at about 6:15 and checked me and I was dilated to about 4.5 cm and 80% effaced. Baby was still quite high.

I labored in the tub (that's a beautiful thing for back labor, let me tell you!) for 2 hours and we checked again. 5.5 cm, 100% effaced. Baby still high. After two more hours in the bathtub, I was still only 5.5 cm at 10:15. Michele finally got there at about noon and found that I was still at 5.5 cm and baby was still too high for her comfort, especially since I had been having good, strong, what should have been productive contractions all this time. The best she could tell was that he was somehow hung up on my pelvic bone, and she was also concerned that he may have been tied up in the cord as well, since he had been turning full flips about a month ago. Given these red flags, she strongly suggested we go into the hospital where I could get an epidural, anticipating that this would allow my body to relax enough to let the baby move down.

We got to the Jordan Valley Hospital about 12:30 and had the epidural placed at around 1:30. By 4:30, I was progressed to 8 cm, but the baby still was sitting too high. Plus, my contractions were just not being very strong, and were not coming any more often than 5 minutes apart. At 6:30, I was nearly 9 cm, and my water finally broke, but the baby was still too high. It was determined that, not only was he likely hung up with the cord and pelvis, but also my uterus was just plain exhausted from the last 2 weeks of unproductive labor attempts. At 7:00, the obstetrician decided to start a very low dose of pitocin to get the uterus to work harder. Literally within minutes, Joshua moved down and 3 contractions later, he was born at 7:23. The cord was around his neck, just enough to hang him up, but not tight enough to cause any scares.

So, it wasn't exactly the delivery we had in mind, but we're just thankful that everything ended well, and we are so thankful for Michele's wisdom and insight. The longer we were at the hospital, the more obvious it became that that was exactly where we needed to be. Even through all of that, Joshua remained strong and robust during labor, maintaining a good heartbeat and never showing the slightest hint of distress. His Apgar scores were 8 and 9, and he is beautiful and healthy and perfect, and we're so glad he's finally here.

These pictures obviously aren't in chronological order, but Blogger won't let me shift them around without losing the ability to click on them to see them larger.

The proud, albeit tired, papa:

The exhausted and overjoyed mama:

Isn't he beautiful??

After his first bath:

After being weighed and assessed:

We stayed in the hospital overnight and got home around 1:30 this afternoon. The other kids will be home from Idaho either late tonight or sometime tomorrow, so more pictures will be coming once the introductions have all been made.

Due date

2009-10-16T12:07:00.003-06:00

Well, today is baby's due date. Any bets on how overdue he's going to be?

Benjamin was born on his due date. Elizabeth was born 4 days early. Thomas was born 4 days early using castor oil. We thought Olivia was 2 weeks late, so the midwife broke my water to get her here to avoid an induction and hospital delivery, and then the placenta ended up being 41 weeks intead of 42.

Wonder what this little guy is planning on...

Latest photo shoot

2009-10-01T13:37:00.005-06:00

I posted before that I have been doing monthly prenatal photo shoots with my friend, Karen Squires (http://www.adorableyouphotography.com). Here is a slideshow from the latest shoot with Shane and me. Enjoy!

Only 2 more weeks until baby's due date!

Livvy's new bike

2009-08-28T15:59:00.003-06:00

After a couple of weeks on the balance bike, Olivia decided she was ready for 2 wheels and pedals, and we agreed. So we bought her the new girly bike we promised her. We gave her the bike yesterday evening, and after 2 or 3 wobbly passes down the sidewalk, trying to get the hang of pedaling and balancing at the same time, as well as launching herself, she just took off. Within 2 hours, she was turning around and pedaling uphill, and took her first ride all the way around the block. Incredible!

I took this video of her, and wouldn't you know it... the very next time she rode after I took the video, she had no struggle at all getting started going uphill. She rode that bike for 4 solid hours yesterday evening, and has spent a significant portion of today on it as well. In less than 24 hours, she rides just like she's been doing it for months! Shane told her he would take her on her first "real" bike ride on Sunday, and she can hardly wait.

I'm telling you, this balance bike concept is a stroke of genius! We created two bike riders in the last month! So much fun!

I love homeschooling

2009-08-25T13:18:00.002-06:00

I just have to say, I love homeschooling! Most kids are headed back to school now. I read stories about exciting first days of the year, moms shedding tears that their kids are getting so grown up as they send them off to the first day of a new grade, and moms expressing relief that their kids are back in school so they will have a break and a routine again. It all just makes more thankful that I have the blessed opportunity to spend my days with my kids, watching them grow, sharing in the spontaneous teaching moments that life provides, and watching their delight and confidence grow with each new thing they experience and learn. Sure, it has its challenges, but the joys far outweigh them, and I wouldn't change it for the world!

Long Update Postscript

2009-08-18T07:43:00.002-06:00

I forgot to mention in yesterday's update that Thomas is now a full-fledged 2-wheel bike rider. Shane even took him on a ride down to Thomas's friend, Aaron's house, which is just about a mile one way, and then back again. He loves riding his bike and we're so proud of him!

The balance bike has now been handed down to Olivia, who was already really good at it within a week, and Shane's thinking she'll be ready for 2 wheels pretty shortly as well.

I guess this means that Baby Boy will get the 2-seat bike trailer all to himself next spring. :-)

Looooong Update

2009-08-17T19:23:00.005-06:00

It has been forever and a day since I've posted here. My only excuse is that it has been a very busy month. I've been sewing and canning like crazy, getting stuff ready for baby to come, and just doing the day-to-day home and family maintenance.

We've enjoyed pretty good success with our garden this year. So far, we've put up 14 quarts of green beans, a lot of beets (pickled and plain), and about 12 pints and 3 quarts of pickles. We still have pickles and beets coming on. The peas were pretty much a flop. Shane has decided to forego the peas and strawberries next year. The production rate for the space they take up just isn't worth it. We have a lot of tomatoes on the plants, but they are taking a long time to ripen. Once they start turning red, though, I think we're going to be up to our armpits in tomatoes to bottle. The squash, carrots, potatoes, watermelon and pumpkins are still growing. Funny thing about the pumpkins -- Shane didn't even plant pumpkins this year. But last year, when the kids carved pumpkins, he threw the seeds into the garden, and we ended up with 2 pumpkin plants this year.

On Saturday, August 8th, we went to Lagoon for Shane's annual work party. The kids had a lot of fun. Shane's office really does a great job with everything, including providing the tickets, snacks, a yummy dinner, a raffle, and other fun stuff. This is the second year they have done the party at Lagoon. The previous years, they paid for everyone to go to a Salt Lake Bees (baseball) game. That was always a lot of fun, too, but I think the kids enjoy Lagoon more. It was a rather cool day (high only in the 70s). Shane and the kids hit the water park portion of the park (Laguna Beach) first, but after only about an hour, they were all too cold to enjoy themselves, so they changed out of their wet clothes, we ate lunch, and then headed to the rides.

Shane and the kids went on a couple of rides and then the kids rode the bumper cars. Then Shane and the 3 older kids went to hit the roller coasters and Olivia and I rode the carousel and the sky ride. Olivia loved it, but I really had to work to keep my composure, as I hate heights. As long as the car we were in didn't swing and I didn't spend too much time looking down, I did okay. All 3 kids went on the Colossus roller coaster at least twice! They're braver than I am for sure. I hate roller coaters! Later we all met up again for dinner.

Right after dinner, we had to leave to take Benjamin and Elizabeth up to Camp Tracy to drop them off for burn camp. This is their third year going, and they have been looking forward to it pretty much since they got home from camp last year. As expected, they had the time of their lives, made some new friends and enjoyed friends from years past. Tuesday, I took Thomas and Olivia up to go to the "carnival" while I attended the parent support meeting. Then Shane met us there for the BBQ dinner and we went home.

Here's a story from the Deseret News about this year's burn camp. If you look at the picture gallery, you'll see a picture of each the kids (Ben's kind of in the background of the one he's in), and if you watch the audio slideshow, you'll see another couple of pictures of Elizabeth that are not included in the gallery.

With all the hustle and bustle of the last month, our summer has been winding down to a close. Our fall/winter activities are starting up again, and the freedom of summer schedule will soon be a memory. We're returning to the same homeschool co-op, which will start the third Tuesday of September, as well as primary, which will also begin the second Thursday of September.

Elizabeth has joined a new Liberty Girls chapter, and I am one of the co-advisors for that. Liberty Girls is a club that is part of the American Youth Leadership Institute wherein the girls learn American history through historical fiction -- namely, the American Girl series of books, which are wonderful! We meet together twice a month for stories, activities, narrations, music, cooking, games, discussions, special guests, plays, programs and trips. This semester we are reading the Molly series. Molly is a 10-year-old girl during World War II, and so the books talk about what her life was like during that period of time. Liz was in a LG chapter a couple of years ago for a short time, but the advisor had a daughter that became very ill and had to dissolve the chapter. Since we aren't doing dance and soccer this year, I decided we had room in our schedule to get her back to Liberty Girls and we found a great chapter that has been going strong for about 6 years. We started our meetings last week, the day after she got home from burn camp.

Benjamin is now in Webelos scouts. They haven't actually started their den meetings yet, but are supposed to start the first week of September. He's excited about being in Webelos, especially since now he'll get to do the overnight scout camps next summer.

So we still have a lot going on, but I'm looking forward to the fact that it won't be as time consuming as soccer had become. Which is good, because with a newborn again, I would prefer to be able to spend less time out and about and more time at home.

This is Shane's second year of archery hunting. The season just began last Saturday, so he spent last Saturday and is spending today and tomorrow in the woods. We're hoping for success this year. He has a tag that allows him to take both an elk and a deer, so even if he only gets one of those, we'll be very glad for the meat it will provide. Thankfully, in one of the areas he can hunt, he has until sometime in December to get his deer, so hopefully it will be a fruitful hunt this year.

Cat the Dog got home from her month of training down in Oklahoma on August 1. Keny, the trainer, said she did fantastic, and Shane even went out a couple of mornings with Keny and Catherine to see her in action and was very impressed. He's really looking foward to taking her bird hunting this fall, and I'm looking forward to joining them again next spring. She sure is a fun, sweet little dog, and it's good to have her home again. We couldn't be more pleased with everything Keny has done with her, and would recommend his services for any pointing dog breed. Here's his website.

As for a baby update... we're down to only 9 weeks left until baby is due to arrive. We're all getting very excited, and I've been feverishly getting things ready before our schedule gets too hectic. I've got pretty much all the necessities made or purchased, and things are pretty well organized. There are still a few things to do, like washing the clothes and covers on the swing and bassinet, setting up the crib, and that sort of thing, but I'm feeling pretty prepared. My sewing machines and paraphernalia have been moved downstairs to the family room, and the office, which is across the hall from the master bedroom, will now be the office/nursery. I've been pretty fortunate the last 3 months of this pregnancy in that I've been feeling really good and energetic, so I've been able to get a lot done not only with the baby preparations, but also with the canning and everything, too.

Shane's mom, Cynthia, is visiting right now. She and her husband, Dave, own a house here in the Salt Lake area that they have been renting out and the renters recently moved out, so she is here getting the house ready for new tenants with painting, cleaning, and all that. She'll be here for probably a full month, with Dave coming for a week during that time to help as well (that was all the time he could get off work). We always enjoy it when Grandma comes to visit, and the boys and girls have been taking turns going out to the house with her to help. They're really great workers.

So that's pretty much the latest news on this end. Hopefully there won't be as much time between updates next time. It's hard to remember everything that happens in a month!

Feeling domestic

2009-07-14T22:12:00.006-06:00

I've been feeling rather domestic lately. Yesterday, I tried my hand at pressure canning for the first time. We harvested a bunch of green beans from the garden, and I wanted to can them instead of freeze them this year. Alicia (Shane's sister) has an All American pressure canner that she picked up at an estate sale a while back, but hadn't used yet, so I borrowed it from her. Julie Marie tests pressure cookers as part of her job as a home economist with the USU County Extension, and she came up this past weekend, so I called and asked her to test this one. She did so Sunday night, and it turned out it needed a new dial gauge. After a few phone calls on Monday, I found a place down in Orem that had one in stock, as well as an instruction manual for the canner. The kids and I drove down to Orem, where they installed and tested the new gauge for me. Yay! We stopped at the fabric store on the way home, since their flannel prints are 50% off right now.

After dinner, after reading through the canner manual, I tackled the beans. I got them all washed, cut, and blanched for hot packing -- 3 quarts' worth. I put them in the canner, turned up the heat and waited for the steam to start for the "exhaustion" period. Well, the canner started building pressure, but I wasn't getting any steam out of the steam pipe. Hmmm... So I called Julie and explained the situation. See, this one has a petcock, but the instruction manual only addressed those with the weighted gauge. It turns out that this one is apparently backwards from most other canners with petcocks in that "up is open," rather than the other way around. Once we figured that out, I opened the petcock and steam did, in fact, start pouring out and the pressure started to drop.

After the 7 minutes of exhausting, I closed the petcock, the pressure came up and we were in business. In the process, the jars ended up losing liquid, which according to the manual I can most likely attribute to the whole petcock misunderstanding. All of the jars sealed, though, and so all in all, the process ended well. So it was a bit of a learning curve, but I'm feeling much more confident now, which is a good thing, because on Thursday I'll be doing beets, and there will be more beans in the next week to do as well. I am finding a lot of satisfaction in preserving all this food that we've grown and/or harvested for ourselves. It's a great feeling!

This evening, I spent the evening with the flannel the kids and I picked up yesterday. I don't think I've mentioned yet that I'm planning to do cloth diapering with this baby. I did a cost analysis on cloth versus disposable and the savings with cloth are staggering! I actually considered cloth diapering with Olivia before she was born, but chickened out. When I started doing some more homework in the last few months, I realized how many preconceived notions I had about cloth diapering, plus I learned how far cloth diapering has come in the last several years. I feel much more educated and, by extension, much more empowered this time and I'm determined to do it! Along with the cloth diapers, for home use, I'm going to use cloth wipes that can just be washed right along with the diapers, which will save money on wipes as well, as well as reusable nursing pads.

Anyway, here's what I got accomplished tonight.

Cut out:

~60 cloth wipes
~Flannel circles for 6 pair nursing pads
~12 burp cloths
~2 blankets

I got 6 of the burp cloths (on the right) completely finished and the other 6 (on the left) just need to be edge-stitched. The middle one shows you the shape of them.

I'm going to just stitch, turn, and edge the blankets the same way as the burp cloths. I'm just going to serge the edges of the wipes. I need to get some PUL (a waterproof fabric used in a lot of cloth diaper covers) from Hancock Fabrics for the nursing pads, and then I can finish those up. I have some minky fabric that I will combine with some flannel and satin binding for a blanket, which I'm so excited to finish, but I need to get the flannel. I also have all the stuff to make a diaper bag and matching changing pad. So much sewing to do, and only 3 months to do it in. :)

More birthdays

2009-07-08T12:45:00.006-06:00

I feel really bad that I haven't posted about the boys' birthdays last week. It's been kind of hectic around here the last week.

Thomas turned 7 last Tuesday (June 30) and we had a small family party with cake and presents from the Skidmores and us. We got him a scooter and he has been loving it! Also, I haven't mentioned yet that he's well on his way to being a 2-wheel bike rider. I'll post some more details on that in a bit. Anyway, I took pictures at his little family party and everything, and then the next day the kids and I went and picked pie cherries down in Spanish Fork and I left our little silver camera with the memory card in it on the ground. :( (Yesterday, I did find the memory card that I had lost some time ago and we still have another camera, so at least I can start taking pictures again.) The only person I can get a hold of that was also there at the cherry orchard has been out of town and has not responded to a message I left on his phone, so I don't know whether he found it or not. He was there the same time we were, and then went back the next day, and then went out of town. So I don't have the pictures from Thomas's birthday.

On Thursday, the boys had a combined "friend" party and invited some of their friends over to play and have cake and ice cream. Alicia brought the boys in for the party, too. My friend did take some pictures from that party, but I haven't got them from her yet, so I will have to post them when I get them.

Saturday (July 4) was Ben's 10th birthday. It's hard to believe he's getting that big! He is moving into Webelos at scouts, which he is really excited about because it means that he can do overnight campouts now. We had a small family celebration on Saturday (of which I have no pictures, of course). Shane had been given a youth-sized compound bow and a bunch of arrows from his buddy that he intended to give to Ben for his birthday, but it turns out that it is just way too big for him, in that the length of pull just can't be adjusted small enough for him to be able to pull it effectively. So that present fell through, and we hadn't bothered to pick up any "back-up" gifts just in case. So, Ben had no present to open from us on Saturday, but we gave him some money so he could pick out a remote control car, which was something he had really wanted for his birthday. I took Ben to the store yesterday and he picked out a great RC dirt buggy, 1:8 scale. He played with it this morning and said it's a lot of fun. Ben also got his retainer yesterday, which he wasn't thrilled about, but he got used to it pretty quickly and has been very diligent about putting it back in after eating, etc. Hopefully, that habit will stick with him for the year he will have to wear it.

Okay... bike riding. I learned a few weeks ago about something called a "balance bike." It's basically a special bike that has no pedals that kids push themselves around on to learn balance, and this is supposed to help kids learn to ride a bike sooner and with no training wheels. We decided we really liked that concept, so Shane took the pedals and shaft off of the little 12-inch bike that Olivia has been riding around and Thomas started riding it around. Within a week, Thomas was really getting good at it, coasting the entire length between the house about 8 houses up from us down to the corner about 3 houses down from us without tipping. He came in the house and told me he was ready to try his bike on 2 wheels.

Shane took the training wheels off Tom's bike, Tom hopped on, and took off. He did awesome as long as he was going downhill in a straight line. His balance was great, which made it much easier to get the hang of pedalling and braking without fear of falling down. When he was ready to turn around to come back to the house, though, he would stop, get off the bike, walk it around and then walk it back to the house. He has since become better about riding uphill, but he is still hesitant about turning around. Shane is planning to work with him on that in the near future.

Anyway, we've just been thrilled at how quickly that balance bike has worked to build up his balance and confidence, and know that he's going to be cruising around wherever he wants to go in no time. The seat on the balance bike needs to be lowered for Olivia now, and we've told her that when she is ready for 2 wheels with pedals, we'll buy her a new bike, so she's pretty motivated.

Here's a link to a video with an actual balance bike -- also known as a running bike -- so you can get the concept. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKIhwQYsTlM&feature=related

On Friday, July 3, Shane took the kids back down to Spanish Fork to pick more pie cherries (the camera wasn't still there, unfortunately). On Saturday, we spent the day making and bottling cherry pie filling. It turned out super yummy! We got 12 quarts total. The kids would sort the cherries, Shane would wash and pit them, and I made the filling and did the bottling. We had quite the assembly line going! By the end of the day, my feet and back were killing me, but it was so nice to get it all done. We also got some beets out of the garden and pickled and bottled 3 quarts of those. Those also turned out delicious! I'm looking forward to doing more canning this year with our garden fare.

Braces and boarding school

2009-06-29T16:56:00.010-06:00

The day has finally arrived! Benjamin got his braces off today! Once the braces were off, he had to have an impression made for the retainer to be made. Ben hates, hates, hates having impressions done and I can't blame him at all. Knowing that it would have to be done today, I prepared him ahead of time and made a deal with him that if he got through it well, then I would get him a treat at the store. Well... with Benjamin, you never know whether it's going to be better to prepare him ahead of time for something unpleasant or whether to just spring it on him. Overall, I think it went more smoothly with him knowing it was coming, but at the same time, he was so obviously stressed about it the entire time the brackets and expander were coming off. *laugh* When it came time to do the impression, he was pretty brave, but didn't open his mouth quite wide enough, so the impression wasn't as good as they needed, so we had to do another one. Poor kid! I told him that if he got through the second one, I would get him 2 treats at the store. Because Ben can always be motivated with food, that did help to soften the blow. He did the second one perfectly, although there was more of the clay-like material on the tray this time, so it was harder on him. Next week, we go in to pick up his retainer.

It's been almost exactly a year since his expander got put in, and almost 8 months since the brackets were put on. He is still getting used to not having all that hardware in his mouth. He says it feels funny, but great.

Here are the before and after pictures of Ben's teeth. It's amazing the difference. He almost looks like a different kid. Of course, being a year older now might have a little something to do with that, too. :)

July 2008

His favorite trick

New braces - November 2008

Right before the braces came off today.

Look at his pretty new smile!

As for the boarding school portion of the post... Catherine has been in training with a professional trainer, Keny Glasscock with Lost Arrow Gun Dogs -- I highly recommend him for all your pointing breed training needs! -- for the last 3 months. This month, he is taking her down to Oklahoma to work with Rick and Ronnie Smith, son and nephew of Delmar Smith, who was widely considered one of the premier authorities on gun dog training methods, on their ranch down there. She will get some finish training as well as lots and lots of exposure to wild birds to really hone the skills she's been learning the last 3 months. It has been very exciting for me to have her in training. I bought her because I wanted a good upland hunting dog, but quickly realized that I simply didn't have the time or know-how to train her myself properly. So I hired Keny to train her and he has done a fantastic job. He told me this morning before he came to pick her up that she's a different dog. When they get back, he'll take her, Shane, and me out and teach us how to handle her to reinforce the training and get the maximum enjoyment out of her. I'm so thrilled! I won't get to hunt with her this fall with the baby and all, but Shane plans on taking her out a few times (we're most likely going to be getting a membership at Four Mile Hunting Club again this year), and I'm already excited about being able to go again next spring. In the meantime, it's going to be weird not having a dog around the yard for a month. Have fun, Cat!