We're Going on a Frog Hunt

Tonight for Family Home Evening Noah was in charge of the activity. I told him the lesson was going to be on animals. So he thought going frog hunting would be fun. So after talking about how we should treat all animals kindly, and then convincing Noah that we should not and would not keep and frogs we set out. (I said a a quick silent prayer that we would be successful knowing how disappointed the kids would be if our hunt was unsuccessful.)

Searching the woods near our house proved unsuccessful....Noah did make a wonderful and yummy discovery though...blackberries! So we ate a few berries and decided to call off the hunt. Noah wasn't to happy. On the walk home Kendall caught a little frog!

It was a cute little frog. I think Noah was a little disappointed it wasn't his friend Hyper Jumper.

Emma is getting a little help from Daddy.

So it was a successful hunt! We then went home and made some ice cream!

Sleepless in Seattle

Tired, that's what I am feeling right now. They told me at the hospital that Daniel's sleeping patterns might be off a little. They didn't tell me was that he would stop sleeping! I brought him home Tuesday and he slept on the car ride home (about 45 minutes). He slept okay that night, up every 2 hours. The next day he woke up and didn't sleep again until 3am the next morning. I was about ready to go crazy!!! Last night was a repeat of that. I finally got him to sleep about 6am. Kendall took Daniel about 4am for about 30 minutes so I could try to sleep. I didn't sleep very well as Daniel was still crying. Kendall is working today so I am just trying to not sit down very much or I just might fall asleep. Daniel is doing really great other than the whole sleeping thing. People stare a lot when we go out. I am not able to put a hat on him yet, so it's pretty hard to miss the large zigzag on his head.

Home from the hospital

They put us in this little waiting room for 3 hours. I was so impressed with how well Daniel did considering he had not eaten since 5:30am. Kendall had to hold him the whole time cause if I held him he would cry and want to eat.

I have had lots of people say they want to see pictures, so I have posted a lot of pictures. If you are really squeamish, just skip down towards the bottom of the post and they aren't as bad.



This is a view of the top of his head. You can see the drainage tube and the incision really well.

This is Daniel the morning after the surgery.

As you can see his right eye is swollen shut. They were impressed that both eyes didn't swell closed. They had to keep socks on his hands so he wouldn't pull out the IVs and the drainage tube in his head.

Daniel did a lot of sleeping during his stay at the hospital. This was taken on Sunday.

This is Daniel on Sunday. Kendall and Joshua came and spent the day with us. My Brother was a life saver and came and took care of the kids while I was in the hospital.

This is a view of the back of his head. Still a little misshaped because of swelling.

Kendall came and took some pictures while we were waiting for the discharge paperwork to go through. He was very happy!

Daniel woke up very happy this morning (Tuesday). He was just waiting for the IV to come out and then he would be free from all the wires and tubes!

So this is Daniel on Tuesday at home. He looks so different! He still has a bit of swelling in the head and face.

This is Daniel the day before the surgery! He has no idea what's coming the next Day!!

We are home finally! Daniel's surgery on Friday went really really well. It was a really really stressful day for us, as you can imagine! For those who don't know what I am talking about I will inform you about why he had surgery. He was born with Saggital Caniosynostosis. What that means is his saggital bones in his head were fused together. They had to go in and cut open the fused bones to make room for his brain to grow normally. It was a pretty big surgery! Children's Hospital in Seattle is one of the top hospitals in the country that does this surgery, so we are so blessed to be here! Friday morning Kendall and I took Daniel and we waited and waited for them to take him into surgery. They were two hours behind schedule, which was not good for Daniel, as he hadn't not eaten since 5:30am. They took him at 1:18pm. I was amazed at how Happy and content he was while we waited. My friend Amanda came and hung out with us all day. She was a wonderful "distraction" for Kendall and I! I am so grateful she was there. So they finished the surgery and it seemed like forever before we could go back to the ICU to see him! I had seen pictures of what to expect to see after the surgery, but it is a different thing to see your own little baby like that. He was in the ICU over night and then they transfered him to a regular room on the surgical floor in the late afternoon. Our nurses and the doctors were all so wonderful and gave awesome care! His right eye swelled shut on Sunday, but when he woke up on Tuesday he had it open. We were a little worried that he was not eating on Saturday and Sunday. They had to give him some meds to help calm his stomach and then on Monday he was slowly starting to eat. As you can see from some of the pictures the scar is a really big zig zag from ear to ear on the top his head. Kendall and I think we have found a good nickname for him...Ziggy! I think it's cute! We have been so blessed! I am so thankful to all of you who have been praying for Daniel and I know it has helped!

Monday

So today has been very crazy, only a Monday would be like this! I spent the whole day at Children's Hospital in Seattle going through all Daniel's pre-op appointments. I had all three kids with me, but the hospital staff seem to enjoy having the whole family involved, so they were really great. I felt like a lot of the appointments with the surgeons were a repeat of everything we did back in May, but it was nice to have it all laid out for me again. One of the surgeons even printed out the CT scan of his head for me to put in Daniel's baby book. I am sure he will love that when he is older! I don't know many kids that have pictures of their skulls in their baby books. They had to draw blood for the transfusion stuff, which Daniel didn't like very much, but he survived. The big day is Friday. I am trying really hard to not think about it to much. It is really scary, but I know it will all be okay and he will come through it just fine. He has a lot of people praying for him. The kids were excited about the whole thing because they knew Manna and Papa Ted were coming to spend time with us. My mom (Manna) called when I got home and told me Ted had a heart attack and passed away this afternoon. I wish I could be there for her right now, it is hard being so far away at times like this! Ted was a great person and so good to my mother! He will be missed so very much!! My brother and sister-in-law are driving up there to be with her so that is good. I know she has a lot of friends with her to help and support her. Well it is late and all the kids are asleep so I should be too! Till next time...

Homeschool

This week Noah started 1st grade. He has been so excited to start school and I have to admit I was a little excited too. He has given me no trouble at all about sitting down and doing the work. I love teaching kids at this age when they are so curious and soak everything up so fast! He loves history and math. He is reading so well. Most kids sleep with stuffed animals or a favorite blanket, but Noah sleeps with books, I go into wake him up in the morning and he has at least 10 books all over his bed. He loves to stay up as late as we will let him and read his books. I can't get to upset because I remember staying up all night reading when I was younger. A few moms from my ward at church have gotten together and we are starting a preschool for our 3 year olds. We just rotate who teaches every week. So Emma starts preschool on Tuesday. I think it will be really good for her. She is so shy and quiet around other kids. Well I wouldn't call it shy just quiet. I am really excited about it. I think it will be a lot of fun.

Daniel is 6 months old!

Daniel is now 6 months old! I can't believe it has been that long. Time is a strange thing... sometimes I feel like he has been here forever and then at the same time I feel like he just arrived. He is such a wonderful baby. He isn't crawling yet but that could be my fault. I don't give him enough "tummy" time on the floor. I have started giving him more time on the floor and he is moving around just not crawling, I think my brother would call it the army crawl! He is so happy and loves to play with Noah and Emma. He is such a joy in our lives.

Camping

Daniel playing in the tent.

Kendall and Noah messing around.

Noah took this picture. Pretty good except he cut Emma off.

Daniel loved the tent! This was his first camping trip and he did great and really loved being outside so much.

Daniel and friend Aby playing in the tent.

Emma collecting gravel.

Emma loved this little chair. She carried it around everywhere!

Emma discovered smores. Yummy!

Noah spent most of the time playing with the fire. He went through several sticks. He loved the smoke coming off the sticks.

All of us sitting around the camp fire in the morning.

Kendall and Daniel. Aren't they cute! Daniel is a morning person! He was so happy that morning.

This is Emma whining about being hungry and wanting breakfast. She refused to eat dinner the night before so she probably was pretty hungry.

This is Emma Saturday Morning. She was trying to let us all know that she is cold, or maybe she is to hot in front of the fire, she kept going back and forth for a while!

Saturday we went for a walk by the river and Noah had a great time throwing rocks into the river.

As you can see we had a great time camping. We all came home tired and dirty. The rain held off till just after we finished cooking our dinner. I was a little worried about our new, very large, tent. We read some reviews about this tent and they all said that is took a while to set up and it was a little tricky. Well Kendall forgot the directions. But then again, he is an engineer and we got it up in less then 30 minutes. It really wasn't very difficult at all.