Nana & Popsie Visit

Lando:

He did an organ harvest this week for the first time. Which means, his patient was only being kept alive by machines. She had been confirmed brain dead. Landon's job was to keep her alive while the transplant team harvested her lungs, kidneys and other stuff. Then his job was to turn off the machines and walk out. Pretty crazy. One of Landon's colleagues invited us over to their house on Saturday. She is about the same age as us and has three cute kids. But Landon ended up getting called in so I went with the boys by myself. She was telling me about how a lot of people just don't understand the pressure that they deal with on a regular basis. I have heard this before, but hearing it from her stood out to me. I know it is something that I will never understand. And I even often forget that there is pressure involved. He's so good at not bringing that weight home. I'm pretty amazed by him. 

Becs: 

I told Landon last night that I have a list a mile long, and I never even get to it because I also just have my normal. tasks. This has been the hardest move by far for me. Every other move was temporary and things were okay to be just good enough. But this move as felt so much more emotional and mentally taxing. It is not something I am even good at explaining to anyone, but I feel like, if you know, you know. 

WITH ALL THAT BEING SAID. I FINALLY GOT TO HOST MY PARENTS!!!!!!!!! IN MY HOME!! And it was better than I even imagined. They came Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday. Then they left to Glacier for a few days. Then came back Friday night and Saturday. It was pure Joy. I can't even describe it. I've been waiting so long to have a place to host people in. And having my parents be my guinea pigs felt right. 

Jaxson: 

He ran 15 laps on Wednesday in Cross country. One lap short of 4 miles. He was so disappointed. We took him to a basketball open gym and he felt pretty behind. I was so dang proud of him for doing something so brave. Walking onto a court with boys that are exceptionally good and have played with each other for years and just trying so hard. He then went the next day to a skills class and a private session. He really wants to be good at basketball and I feel lucky that we can help him. Also, Jax is just so dang good. He has really grown up in so many ways. He is so kind and patient with his brothers and so helpful. He is loving this BYU team this year. And his close friend next door. Life is good. 

Ty: 

He is doing well at school and cross country. He doesn't love either of those things though. What he does love is composting and building things in the dirt and being outside. He came home Friday pretty angry. Come to find out that he didn't get pink that day, which is "outstanding". He got blue which is "good day".  He was also doing flips on the monkey bars and was asked to "please stop doing that." He said in tears, "I can't do anything right." We talked. I told him it sounds like there are a lot of rules at school and he said, "Yes and there aren't rules at home. I feel free at home." 

Luke: 

Oh Lukie. He took our neighbor Claire flowers for her birthday. He always asks Landon how work was. He is aware of what people love and he connects it with them. We saw sushi at the store and he said, "Mom, sushi, Ty loves sushi." And then I asked him to go grab the BYU water bottle and he said "For Jaxson or Daddy". I wanted it for myself, but the fact that it was BYU meant that is was most likely for Jax or Dad in his mind. He asks for friends every single day. And he can't get enough of people. He loved the new TV in the basement that my parents got us(perks of being the only daughter. My dad spoils me), and I let him watch a show for the first time since we've been here down there and he thought it was so cool. We also stayed up as a family and watched How to Train Your Dragon together. It was a blast. 

Brigs: 

He is saying dadadada, not in direction of Landon but the sounds themself. He crawls and cruises. The second the door opens, he books it to try and make it outside. He is always so content. He will sit on our laps for minutes at a time and when he is the only on in the car, its like no one else is in the car with me. He is starting to nibble on food, but its little nibbles and most times if he swallows if he will drop the food immediately. Almost as if the swallowing hurt him and he doesn't want to experience that feeling again. He is only waking up 1-2 times at night, but man my back kills. My stupid back. BAH. 

Life is really happy and beautiful and fulfilling right now. I don't have any time to dwell on the things I dislike. We just had dinner with our neighbors tonight and we just love them. I think we will have such a fun relationship over the years. The are some of the most talented good hearted people. We have a lot to learn from them! 

My dad has always had dozens of chargers of all of his gadgets. For as long as I can remember. 

Settling In

After crying to my mom for about an hour Monday night, I was able to reset and refocus. I think all the stress of the last few months was just building and building and I needed to explode. And I did. Bless you mom for listening. And bless Landon for kicking me out the door and watching the boys and putting them to bed!

We made a prayer list that night to, about the things we(especially me) are most concerned about.

1: Finding Jaxson a basketball team to play on 
2: Figuring out how to get Brigham to eat/swallow food 
3: Luke finding a friend 
4: Me finding a friend, here, physical friends are needed too 
5: My back, because I still wake up every morning (and through night) in so much pain 

So far, we haven't had an answer to any of those prayers. BUT but, we making headway on #1, 3 &4. 

Landon: 
When he hands off his patients, people ask him where his attending is, then they look at his badge and realize, HE is the attending. He is figuring out all the administrative stuff about his job still. He woke up most mornings before work and worked out. One morning he went on a run up Tower Mountain and came home so jazzed. BYU won again!!! 3-0 vs power 5 teams. 14-1 in the last 15 games. Officially ranked #15 today. He, Jax & Ty went and watched the game at the Condon's while I stayed home and watched it here. Our date night consisted of planning how we can get out of debt the fastest. And eating good food.  Landon got a calling too, Stake Young Men's Secretary. 

Becs: 
Besides the crying part, its been a really great week. I honestly just think I needed to release all of that stress out and feel it all. Moving is so hard. Getting your kids rooted is so hard. I don't think there has ever been a move that has felt this.... I don't know, I guess because I know we are staying, decisions feel even more permanent, so there is more pressure and emotion attached. And also, Jax is in fourth grade. I mean, I have 9 years left with him til he graduates. As for the house, its coming slowly. We are fully moved in, and 90% organized. But at this point, I think things will move even slower as we start start paying off our debt and getting our financial life more organized. I did however buy trashcans for all of our bathrooms. And filled soap dispensers for all of them as well.  Oh and bought a few plungers. Those felt necessary. Brittney Maxwell sent me flowers this week, and they have brightened my home all week. I love her. I'm pretty sure she sent me flowers on HER birthday, and I did nothing but send her a text soo..... she's just amazing. 

Jaxson: 
He is really loving his teacher. I can tell he doesn't have a buddy at school yet. He started Teserra on Tuesday. He is bused once a week to a different school to do some advanced in depth learning. This semester they are focusing on Inventors. On Wednesday he started Cross country and ran 12 laps which is 3 miles. The second most out of 100 kids K-6. He was able to go to a basketball training session on Thursday. And he plays with J when ever he gets a chance. Man I am so grateful for our neighbors. He had a blast watching the BYU game. Jaxson is such a great kiddo. He really loves talking to us about adult things and just being around adults. He is so dang mature. He played sock baseball with Landon on their in house date. He was bummed when he lost. If I ask Jaxson about sports and I really listen, he will talked to me about it for hours. He tells me its all he thinks about and he never gets bored because he has so many sport things to work through and think about. Gosh I love his passion. We need to get him on some of these teams. Spokane is a crazy basketball city. But that should be fun. 

Ty: 
The only child i'm not worried about right now. He has such a great group of friends at school. He was star of the week and that was so sweet of his teacher to do that for him. He had a rocky first day of school. Its a blessing he's starting out with them in first grade. A lot of Kindergarteners didn't go to school last year because of COVID. So he's not the only new kid in his grade like Jaxson is. He ran 10 laps on Wednesday in Cross Country, apparently no 4th grader got higher than 10 other than Jax. We got some runners in these too. He and Jaxson have been coloring their own version of football/pokemon cards. Luke jumps in to. We've watched next to no TV sense being here. I think that will change some once its dark and cold outside, but its been AMAZING. And Ty loves it the most, because he doens't like watching TV. He is really getting in to watching BYU football with Jax and Lando. He is such a sweet brother to Luke. I took Ty on a little date this week to deliver Peach Pies and he just chatted my ear off about all his friends and why he likes them and then he asked me a bunch of questions about how light works and how he thinks it started and what it might be like to only live with candles. 

Luke:
Says "i'm hungry" at least 79 times a day. Have I mentioned that before? I think he's always hungry because he mainly stuffs his face with fruits and veggies which just don't fill you up. In the morning when we bike to school, I'll fill his lunchbox with carrots, celery, strawberries, peaches, etc. I'll also add a piece of bread or pancake and they will be gone when we get back. And he's still hungry haha. He loved his playgroup that we had on Thursday. Except not really, because he whined the entire time the kids were here because they were playing with his toys and then he sobbed when they left. But then he has the most tender moments. Like when Dad comes home he says without any prompting, "How work dad". Or he wants to hold the door for everyone at church. Or he waves to anyone he sees on the trail. Luke is also so dang independent. He wants to wipe himself, put his clothes on, get his food, cut his strawberries, buckle himself. He wants to do the things his brothers do and thats so hard sometimes because he can't. But he is a forced to be reckoned with. He will hold his own, I know it! 

Brigs: 
This sweet boy. He can't swallow. He will lick and suck on things but if they get anywhere near the swallowing he has this little gab impulse. I'm not worried for him quite yet. As he is moving and developing and his brain is growing. I am just exhausted to be his only food source. And I still feed him... lets see at 6am, 9am, 11am, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, 1-2 more times at night. 8 times. He's 10 months. He won't take a bottle, he won't drink water, I mean, I'm just tired. And I see no end in sight. He definitely has a little dairy allergy as I had a bunch of dairy last weekend to test it out and he ended up with a blister bum. So I'm also still not eating dairy. BUT my obsession for him still runs deep. I just hope we can figure out his eating and my back sometime soon. Because those both are effecting me deeply. My stupid back. So much pain. I was able to get back into a workout routine for my back this week. But for whatever reason, I feel less discouraged when I haven't worked out and I'm in pain, then when I have worked out and i'm still in pain. BLAH. This paragraph feels discouraging. Lets move on. 

We love our house. We love that we can walk and ride our bikes to elementary, middle school, high school, church, the park, Target, gelato (which we did for family night), and two trails close by. We love our neighborhood and the friends we've met and made so far. We felt a little more comfortable in church this week. I love my bathtub, mudroom, laundry room, light in the kitchen, dinning room, fire place, basement..... our yard! Man I love so much about this house. My least favorite thing right now is that the boys still have to be quite when Brigham is awake because the bedrooms are just really close to all of the happenings on the main floor. But thats only a problem for 2 more years. 

It was fun to have a little more energy to actually blog again. Nighty night.