Baby E Update

Here's a quick update on the progress of our favorite newcomer to the world. She is doing well today and continues to be quite stable. This morning the surgeon closed the chest and today has been a day of re-dialing in all of the myriad of medicaions to keep her heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, etc. all in check. Fortunately, this has not been a hectic affair. She now has an "NJ" tube going from her nose to her intestines and they will very slowly start using this for feeding starting tomorrow. So for now, she continues to do well. We'll just keep praying for the best!

Baby E Progress

Here's our little baby before the surgery. We were able to bless her at home the night before she went into the hospital. E's surgery went as well as could be expected. She is in ICU and will be there for at least another week. She has tubes and wires coming out of all of her little body parts. She still has her chest open because of swelling, but they will close that up tomorrow. Overall, she is holding her own. She still looks cute--one of the nurses came by and did her hair. Dad wanted the mohawk look. The nurse agreed, only if she could put a bow in also. She stuck it on with Elmer's glue. That's a new one! On a different note, I got to attend Sacrament meeting at the hospital today. Good news--it only lasted 30 minutes and I got to wear pants! I don't think we'll make that attire a habit, but it was nice for today!

How Does Our Garden Grow?

Our garden grew well for the first time ever! We have very prolific summer squash, small tomato trees, more pumpkins than we would want to remove guts from, cucumbers, green peppers, hot peppers, a random carrot or two, and even a couple of teensie weensie watermelons! Water and Miracle grow are a good combination! Of course, we can't figure out what to do with our bounty. Frankly, I think our friends are tired of my pleas to rid my home of extra veggies and I'm the only one who actually likes to eat what we've grown. So, our family night tonight involved squash baseball (imagine squash bats and green tomato balls), and a garden fashion show. I don't think this was what church leaders had in mind when they counseled families to plant a garden and use it!

Baby "Slug"

A new baby girl will finally be joining our family! We have waited for four years for this little person. So even though this will be a Christmas baby (something I said I'd never do), we are thrilled! Our family tends to come up with interesting names for the baby in utero. This one happens to go by the glamourous yet endearing term of "Slug." I happened to mention once to the kids that in the first ultrasound (8 1/2 wks.), the baby looked like a slug. The name stuck. Poor child! We will try to come up with something better after she is born!

Rosie

This is Rosie, our new puppy. She is a maltese/poodle mix. She should be pretty small (which means small poop--yay!). Having a puppy is like having an infant again. It's a ton of extra work! But, I'll admit I enjoy having Rosie around most of the time.

Love is Speckled

This is the face of true love! My hubby asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told him I didn't want any gifts. I wanted our dark brown room (and darker trim) painted. He took 2 days off from work and painted his little heart out. He painted after work for the next few days after that. The best part is I only had to help with the trim! This was a huge job--we have very high ceilings which also needed to be painted. He got all speckled. He is a wonderful husband!

Santa showed up at our house one afternoon after school. He read the kids a story and gave them each a water balloon yo-yo. Our children still believe in Santa Claus! ED will not remove that fuzzy blue hat from off her head! She wears it constantly. Our youngest was afraid to sit on Santa's lap without parental support, even after all these years!

Even the grandparents got to sit on Santa's lap.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Maybe I'll update the blog again by Easter!

Fall Happenings

I looked at our blog and decided it was time for an update. The guinea pigs are no longer with us. Their young owner decided that they just didn't like her, so she carted them back to the pet store (in time for us to get a full refund--good timing!). The rats may not be with us much longer either. They chewed holes in 2 pairs of our son's shorts in the past few days. I hate throwing away things he will actually wear, because there aren't that many. He's a little picky with clothes (can't be too tight, too loose, too scratchy, too heavy, too new, etc.--but I digress). Today they got into gum on AD's bedroom floor. It was kind of amusing to watch Sugar's little jaws keep chewing and chewing. We'll see what a few pieces of gum do to our resident rodents. I'm trying not to be upset about their newest chew toys (I'll just add the shorts to the list of their expenses, including a couple of pairs of jeans, a pillowcase, and our denim couches that they turned into swiss cheese--add that to the expensive vet visit and well, we could have easily paid for a dog!). Anyway, I'll add some pictures so you don't have to listen to our pet woes any longer.


The week before we went off track, AD learned how to ride a two-wheeler! Her dad was taking her to school because she couldn't bear to part with me. She was so proud of her accomplishment and so glad to be with her dad, that she forgot to be upset about going to Kindergarten. After 3 1/2 weeks of being off track, she went back to school on Monday. So far, she has gone every day without crying!!!

We took the kids for a drive around the Alpine Loop to see the fall colors. It was gorgeous!!!

EDD is riding Sierra, who was dressed up as My Little Pony for Halloween. She loves her horseback riding lessons!

Darth Vader, the Wizard, and a fairy. I actually sewed the wizard costume!! Who says that miracles have ceased?