Mason Ordained a Deacon

 Last week Mason was sustained in church to receive the Aaronic priesthood and today he was able to be ordained by Steven in his deacon quorum and was also set apart to be the secretary in the Deacon's presidency. It was such a neat experience to be able to be there and be witness to him receiving the priesthood from his father. He has grown up so much in the last 6 months and I feel like time is just flying by, but I'm so very proud of the young man he is growing into. I pray that he will have a desire to serve the Lord and those within and outside of his quorum. 

He also had his first young men's activity this past week on the 6th which happened to be a very fancy etiquette dinner as a combined YW/YM activity.  I think it was definitely a little intimidating for all these brand new (and young) young men and women, but they were all so cute. They got "paired" up with each other and assigned seating so they didn't really get a choice in who they got to interact with, which was great cause they were all out of their comfort zones and kind of forced to talk and get to know each other. Mason got paired up with a cute girl named Afton and they were too cute together. The perks of being in YWs is I got a front seat view to all of this and it was awesome! Us leaders were the servers and they got a full 3 course meal so we got to have quite a bit of interaction with the kids and it was a really fun night, a lot of work, but definitely fun! 

Landon's Eye Surgery

 Way back at the beginning of August 2021 the boys had their well visits and it was at that visit that Landon had some significant changes in his eye exam and they recommended he been seen by an optometrist. So a couple weeks later we were able to get him in to be seen by a pediatric optometrist. I fully expected that this would all lead to him needing glasses since both Steven and I needed them in elementary. However, during the exam the doctor asked me if there was anything out of the normal that I'd noticed with his eyes and I mentioned that he does go cross-eyed at times, but at times I wasn't sure if he was doing it intentionally or accidently. That spurred her to do some additional testing and then she said that he definitely had some eye-crossing and that sometimes that can be fixed with glasses and sometimes it requires surgery. I was a little shell-shocked at the mention of him needing surgery just because that had not even been on my radar. So after that appointment she wanted him to be seen by Dr. Arnold who specializes in this and performs these surgeries. It was 3 weeks later that we were finally able to get an appointment with him on September 17th. He performed his own eye exam and I was told that unfortunately his eyes could not be fixed by wearing glasses, but that he was going to need surgery to correct the eye-crossing. I really wasn't sure how to feel about that because I was glad he didn't have to start wearing glasses (I always hated glasses), but I also really hated the thought of him having to have surgery. 

I called to get the surgery scheduled and they were booked out until mid December and since our insurance deductible would start over in January we decided to just push it back until January. He had to have one more pre-op appointment on January 5th to make sure that everything was still the same and no changes had happened and then he had surgery on the 6th. I was grateful to have been able to request his anesthesia be done by Dr. Eisenmenger who I've known, worked with, and trusted for the last 5 years. It helped ease my mom worry just a little knowing he was in very capable hands. We arrived at the surgery center at 7 in the morning, got checked in and taken back to a pre-op bay. The nurses and techs were all so very sweet to him and did a phenomenal job at making everything exciting and not scary. I could tell Landon was a little nervous, but he was so brave and was just taking everything in stride. They let him pick a couple of prizes/toys to play with and then we waited. Dr. Eisenmenger came in and talked to us for quite awhile and even gave Landon the oxygen mask to play with for a bit before they'd go back. Dr. Arnold came in quickly to mark his eyes and then after I got a few more hugs and kisses in they were off to the OR with him around 8:05. 

Around 8:50 his pre-op nurse came out to tell me that he was out of the OR, in recovery and that he was doing well so far but still asleep. It was probably 20 minutes later before Dr. Arnold came in to tell me how everything went, and said Landon did great. Then they came and got me to go see him in recovery. He was still very out of it, but when asked about pain he only motioned to his stomach, so I quickly asked for an emesis bag which they had to go find. With his history of motion sickness I was anticipating that he'd feel sick after anesthesia and unfortunately I was right. In the hour and a half that he spent in the recovery room he probably puked about 7 times, so I had to tell Steven to come get us and drive home with me so I could sit next to him. He was still so sleepy and had a hard time opening his eyes, but every time he'd sit up to puke his eyes would have bloody tears and it was so sad to watch. He handled it all like such a champ though and never said a word which the nurse even commented on, saying that she'd never had a kid in recovery not say one word. After getting Dr. Eisenmenger's blessing to leave with him still vomiting we loaded him up and headed home. 

At home he slept for a little bit on the couch while the nausea subsided and then we started foods. He had kept food down from about 1p-5:30pm when everything came up again and we had to go back to clears. We had him sleep upstairs the first night so we could hear him better and thankfully by the next day he was feeling so much better and was able to eat and drink normally. His eyes look so incredibly painful and are sensitive to the light, but again he's done great. We're now on day 2 and he's already weaning off the pain medicine and doing just fine. I'm so grateful he's done so well and I hope this surgery will be successful in helping his vision. 

Mason's Broken Arm

We'd just finished having breakfast as a family and Mason went downstairs to get ready for the day. One of the kids had put a child's folding camp chair at the bottom of the stairs which Mason stepped on to touch the ceiling. Well the chair wasn't locked in place and folded up on him causing him to fall onto his right arm. He hardly made a sound, but came running up the stairs holding his arm and at my first glance I knew it was broken. He looked like he was ready to pass out, so I sat him down and grabbed an ice pack while Steven got ready to take him to the ER. At the ER they were able to get him right back, get an IV in and give him some pain meds. He got x-rays, then they sedated him to reduce the break and splint it. He handled everything like such a champ and was so strong throughout everything. We were glad to get him home for some much needed rest and Amiah was excited to give him the picture she colored. He's the first of our kids to break a bone, and I'd be happy if he's the last!!

 

Swim Lessons

 June 7th - July 7th: 

All four kids completed 2 rounds of swimming lessons going every M/W evening. The first session Mason completed Level 5 and Amiah passed the beginning Tadpole class. Emma and Landon were in levels 3 and 1 and didn't quite pass them, but I'd already signed them up for the next level up. They both worked really hard and both passed the next level up (4 for Emma and 2 for Landon). They didn't have a level 6 offered at the same time as the others lessons so Mason repeated Level 5, but there ended up only being him and one other kid in the class so his teacher trained him on Level 6 which he almost passed. He just needs to work on swimming laps without stopping. Amiah moved up to the Froggie class and did amazing, but didn't quite pass. She made huge strides though considering at the beginning of the summer she wouldn't even put her face in the water and now she is diving in for toys and becoming a little fish! 

Mason's Basketball Game

I finally took our camera to Mason's basketball game so I could take some decent pictures of him playing. This was his 4th game so far and while his team seemed to do a little better this week they still lost. Sadly they have yet to win a game, and honestly haven't shown huge improvement in their playing. I know their coach tries, but he seems to be on a hodge-podge team where few of them show much skill for the game. Mason also seemed to be having an off day and didn't seem like his head was really in the game today. On the few chances he did get the ball his dribbling was to wild and he couldn't control it causing him to lose it to the other team most of the time. He seems to like to play the game, but clearly has no desire or motivation to practice on his own or put the work in to improve his playing which of course Steven and I find very frustrating. In the end I'm glad he is having fun, but eventually I'd love for him to find something that he's passionate about and really see him go after it. I know he's only 7, so I guess time will tell.

Illness Strikes Again

11/9
For the last month of so Mason has had a cold and nagging cough that won't go away. Two weeks ago I thought it was his coughing that caused him to gag and puke, however now that it's hit the other kids it seems to have been a separate stomach virus. Thankfully it has caused each of them to only be sick for an evening/night and then they feel better. So two weeks ago it was Mason, then almost exactly a week later it hit Emma, and another week later it hit Landon. They all presented acting completely fine and playing one minute to saying their belly's hurt and then just started puking. We were smart and sent Mason to bed with a bowl the night he was sick and he almost got it all in the bowl or the toilet, but did manage to hit the wall on the way to the bathroom.....which I didn't know till several hours later! Emma lost it all over the kitchen floor and cabinets after just putting her dishes in the dishwasher. Then while I was sitting on the couch with the foot rest up feeding Amiah, Landon proceeded to throw up all over the footrest and me! Meanwhile Mason and Emma just sat there staring at him while I yelled for them to go get towels, a bowl or something to catch it in as I was somewhat trapped holding Amiah and stopping the puke from going further onto the couch! Needless to say I am really over cleaning up puke and I'm just praying the rest of us don't end up with it next week! To make things worse is that this was my first week back at work and yesterday I was orienting to our surgery center where I'll be picking up some hours so there was no way I could call out sick. Luckily Steven's work has slowed down a little now after their busy month of October so he was able to stay home yesterday with Landon. He hasn't gotten whatever this stomach bug is, but he has caught Mason's nagging cough which has been going on for several weeks now. I've actually been very surprised, but also very grateful that I haven't caught it, because I seem to catch everything. Anyhow, I'm hoping we can kick these viruses and remain illness free for awhile. I feel like we've had our fair share over the past year and I'm so over it!

Back to Work

On Monday the 6th my maternity leave came to an end and I returned to work. I worked the 5:30 am pre-op shift and it was a little rough. Amiah woke up wanting to eat around 3, but I had to hold her off till 4 so I didn't mess up her schedule for the babysitter. This meant I was then awake since 3, fed her at 4, got her back to bed and then got ready for work and left at 5. When I got to work I could not remember my locker combination to save my life, so I had to put my clothes in another coworkers locker. Since I couldn't get into my locker that also meant I couldn't get to my stethoscope which was a pain. Thankfully I had gone through the process to reset my passwords while I was off so I was able to get into the computer system, however they had updated it and everything looked different than I remember.  I felt like I was having to dust off the cobwebs in my brain as I tried to remember everything that I was supposed to do and chart. It got a little better by the end of the day, but man did I feel kind of lost all day. Oh I also had trouble tracking down the employee pump rooms, which no one seemed to know where they were. Then I finally found one, but I don't have badge access to it, so I had to have our unit secretary walk with me every time I went to pump to let me in. Hopefully I can get access to that by next week.
On a positive note one thing I was worried about today was childcare, which feels like a first! A huge blessing and tender mercy for us is that our neighbor and fellow ward member Melissa Watt offered to watch our kids while I work. We really couldn't have asked for a better scenario, not only do we completely trust her, but it's also super convenient that she is right across the street from us. r
When I got home from work Monday I went straight over to get the kids

Well Visits for Mason, Emma & Amiah

This morning we had well visits for everyone but Landon. The kids did really well and are growing well too. They are all pretty average for their weight and on the shorter end for height. We discussed Mason's feet and how he has been walking on the inside of his feet, also called pronating. He is starting to become flat footed and lose the arch in his foot and if we don't start to try and correct it as he grows it will likely start affecting his knees and hips. Right now we can start treating it by getting him new, supportive shoes with some inserts. He has been wearing a lot of hand-me-down shoes lately so he is overdue for a good, new pair of shoes. He also got a couple warts on his right hand frozen off, which he handled surprisingly well. I was preparing myself for him to freak out at the last minute or while it was happening, but he was a real champ and didn't even make a sound. Afterwards when it was stinging he started saying how much it hurt and looked like he was holding back tears, but he held it together and I was so proud of him. After Dr. Brockway was done freezing off his warts she through the rest of the liquid nitrogen on the floor and looked like a bunch of fog which the kids thought was really awesome. The nurse then came back in and gave Amiah her 2nd Flu booster shot which she was not happy about. 

Here are everyone's stats for today: 

Mason age 8

Weight: 60 lb 13.5 oz (64%)

Height: 4 ft 1.2 in (26%)

BMI: 17.6 (82%)

BP: 98/58

Left eye: 20/25

Right eye: 20/25

Hearing: WNL

Emma age 6

Weight: 44 lb 1.48 oz (46%)

Height: 3 ft 7 in (13%)

BMI: 16.76 (81%)

BP 80/60

Left eye: 20/25

Right eye: 20/25

Hearing: WNL

Amiah age 9 months

Weight: 16 lb 13.49 oz (26%)

Height: 25.98 (4%)

Head Circumference: 16.83 in (20%)

Once we left the doctors office we walked over to the main part of the hospital and I took the kids up to the pre-op area where I work so they could see it. I also got Mason a small glove with some ice in it that he could put on his hand on the ride home to help the burning. I introduced them to a few of my coworkers and then we were on our way back home. I decided to treat the kids to lunch at their favorite McDonalds since they were so good at the doctors. Outings by myself with all 4 of them in tow certainly is not always a walk in the park, but it's definitely getting easier!  

Amiah at 9 Months

NINE months!! Seriously time needs to slow down, so I can soak up all of her sweet babiness. She has become a serious girl on the go these days and I could barely get pictures of her today cause she does not sit still anymore! 
Here are a few things about our little miss at 9 months though: 
* She's a speedy little crawler, pulling herself up on everything, and loves to get stuck under tables and chairs. Although she is standing, she hasn't quite figured out how to move her feet while doing so yet. 
* Separation anxiety has set in and she really hates being left alone. She starts crying almost the second that I put her down, and starts crawling after me if I walk away. 
* She still has the cutest, yet saddest pouty face when she cries or is sad. 
* She absolutely loves her blankets and it's my favorite thing watching her bury her face in them with excitement when you had one to her. Seriously I think this is one of my absolute favorite things that she does.
* She has been our pickiest eater so far, and makes it clear when she doesn't like something. She'll put both hands up in front of her face and block you from putting anymore food in her mouth. She is starting to prefer finger foods over the baby food and is liking most of those now. I think her favorites are probably bananas and bread.
* She's wearing some 6-9 month clothes, but mostly 9-12 months, and still in size 3 diapers.
* She still loves to be up in the night for one-on-one mom time, but has started to sleep in a little too.
* She's starting to jabber and I love hearing her find her voice.
* She continues to be very ticklish, especially underneath her chin and in her thighs. Steven can always get her laughing pretty good by tickling under her chin. 
* Although she remains quite the mama's girl she actually does pretty well going to others without getting upset. 
*She continues to want one-on-one mama time at night and is still getting up/nursing 2-3 times a night. For a little while I had her down to once a night, but she's back to her old ways already. 
*She's napping twice a day for a couple hours each time, and nursing about 4 times during the day. 
*She is a wild child in the tub and is all over the place in it. Whenever I lay her back to wash her head she starts kicking and splashing like crazy, she soaks me every time! However when she's done, she's done and will start trying to climb out of the tub. I'm looking forward to taking her swimming this summer, I think she's going to love it!
*She's becoming quite the handful at church and we end up in the foyer/hall most weeks during Sacrament meeting now. Usually we can get her to sleep in her car seat during the second hour, but she really fights going to sleep in our arms. 
*She'll have her well visit next week and we'll get all her stats then. 

* I could just go on, and on about our sweet little girl and how much we adore her! Knowing she's my last I feel like I've been much more relaxed about things with her and just trying to enjoy every moment with her. I just can't believe she's only a few months away from her first birthday!

Mason's Baptism

I have to say that Mason's baptism all felt a little surreal to me today. Part of me just kept thinking that there is no way our Mason could actually be old enough to be baptized. Before we headed off to the church we went ahead and gave Mason his baptism presents from us and his grandparents. Steven and I gave him his own set of full size scriptures with his name on them, a scripture case, scripture marking crayons, a bookmark and a picture that has the baptismal covenants on it. My parents gave him a white towel with his name and baptismal date embroidered on it along with a CTR tie clip. Cory and Terrie also gave him a Book of Mormon with his name on it. We were starting to run a little behind so we kind of had to hurry through his presents and head off to the Trilby Stake center which happens to be right next to the Fort Collins temple. We got there about 2 pm, so we had a little bit of time to take pictures before and after Steven and Mason changed into their whites. It was just a little after 2:30 pm that we stared the program in the chapel. So planning his baptismal program has been rather stressful for me since we didn't have any family members able to participate in it like most people do. This led us to turn to our wonderful ward family, home teacher, visiting teachers and Mason's primary teachers. I actually had a very neat experience when asking his primary teacher Greg Silk to speak. I had only briefly met Brother Silk a couple weeks ago when I was sitting in primary helping, but really didn't know anything about him or his family so Mason suggested we ask him to talk I was hesitant. I talked to my friend Susan who's the first counselor in the primary presidency about my hesitation and she assured me that he'd probably love to do it. She also told me a little about him and I learned that his wife is actually not a member, but Jewish. However she attends church with him and often comes to RS activities and church activities. So I finally decided to just call and ask him. Well I ended up calling his wife Dana's phone and left a message letting them know why I was calling. She called me back within 10 minutes and said she was just in tears that I had called to ask him to talk and she was very touched by that. She said he would love to, but gave me his number so that I could call and ask him. She was so genuinely sweet and even offered to help us with anything that we needed to prepare for the baptism. When I called Brother Silk he seemed genuinely honored to speak at his baptism and I was so glad that I didn't let my hesitation stop me from asking him. I also have to say that he did an awesome job talking on baptism and putting it into words Mason would understand. He and his wife also gave Mason a neat Baptism Memory book for him (or mom) to fill out. I still don't know them all that well, but they seem like such sweet, genuine people. We also asked our home teacher Brother Paul Perlic to talk on the Holy Ghost. He has been a fabulous home teacher and faithfully comes every month by himself, always brings our kids goodies, and has come over to help with priesthood blessings when the kids were sick too. He's not someone we probably would have gotten to know otherwise, but he is a very sweet guy and I'm glad we have had the opportunity to know him. He is a convert to the church and it was neat to hear him share a little about that in his talk to Mason. When the talks were done the ward before us was still in the RS room with the font so we had to wait for about 10 minutes. Thankfully Bishop Parnell got up and talked to Mason a little bit about baptism and the Holy Ghost. The thing I liked most about what he said was first he asked Mason what sports he likes to play and he said basketball. So he likened receiving revelation from the Holy Ghost like receiving a basketball pass. He said if we aren't in a position where we are ready to receive a pass our team mates won't pass us the ball and it's the same with the Holy Ghost. If we aren't spiritually prepared to receive inspiration from the Spirit, we won't be able to hear his promptings. When he was finished with his remarks we sang a few more songs while waiting to go to the RS room and then finally it was our turn. Once we got down there Steven and Mason immediately went to the font and got in the water, which ended up being really cold they said. However the ward before us ended up closing and locking the doors in front of the font so we couldn't see it and it took a little bit for the Bishop to find the lady who had the key to unlock it. So poor Steven and Mason had to stand in the freezing water while we waited to get it unlocked, so by the time it got opened poor Mason was just shivering. They invited all the little kids up close to watch and then Steven performed the baptism. I could tell he was nervous, but he did a good job and got Mason all the way under so he didn't have to do it again. We had asked Brother Perlic and Brother Silk to be our witnesses for it as well and they were both happy to do that. Once the baptism had been done they went to go change while brother Whitlock played some prelude music for us. When they came back in Steven performed the confirmation of the Holy Ghost and gave Mason a beautiful blessing at the same time. In the confirmation circle with Steven was Bishop Parnell, Paul Perlic, Greg Silk and Daniel Cooper (a friend of ours that happened to be there). Mason shook all their hands when he was done and they came and sat back down with us while Kristi Hartman from the primary presidency made a few remarks and presented him with a white towel that had a CTR shield embroidered on it. She told him that she wanted him to remember that along with it meaning Choose the Right that it also stands for Clean Through Repentance which I liked. The Bishop then gave a few closing remarks, we sang a closing song When I am Baptized and then I said the closing prayer. We had been asked not to have any refreshments there and we didn't really want to have people come back to the house afterwards I'd just made up a little treat that they could pick up and take with them. We stuck two mini donuts together with a toothpick to make an 8 and the top said, "It's great to be 8".  We visited with a few people that came as we were heading out the doors so the next ward could go in, but once outside it was to cold and windy to stay and talk much so we loaded up and drove across the street to the temple where I wanted to take a few pictures. Although sadly it was so cold and windy there that we didn't really get that great of pictures there. We then headed home and Mason was able to open the gifts that he'd been given there. My visiting teacher Vivi Churnos had said the opening prayer for us and came with her son Collin who is in Mason's primary class and they gave him some scripture marking pencils, a CTR ring and two bags of candy. Our previous Bishop Houghton and his wife were there and gave him a cute "Baptism sack" filled with candy bars that had cute sayings on them. Then he got the Baptism Memory book from the Silks that I already mentioned.