Birthday celebrations

Matt always comes up with the most clever, creative and thoughtful gifts. I have always wanted to see the Rockettes, but have never seen them while in New York. They came to Salt Lake, so he surprised me with tickets to see them. He even went with me, which, if you know Matt is a sacrifice in itself. :) And it was during the Utah/BYU game so he must really love me. :) We went to Gateway and shopped, ate dinner at Biaggi's, and watched a movie, too. Then he had made reservations to stay at the Grand America hotel. It was so nice and pretty fancy. We had a great time, and really appreciated Christa staying overnight with the kids, so we could go. I had to teach on Sunday- so we came home that morning and went to church. It was such a nice weekend! The kids and Matt spoiled me with their gifts, cards, and their love. I have the best family ever!

On my birthday Monday, Matt had arranged for both sides of our family to come to dinner and meet at Red Robin. Holy cow. We have taken the commandment to multiply and replenish seriously. :) There were 50 people there (not everyone could come), but the majority in the state were there. It was fun, loud and chaotic! I am not loving getting older.... but it is fun to celebrate!

Misunderstandings

Camden told me today, " Mom- we don't talk to strange people." I tried to tease him and said, "Then I guess we'd better not go to Walmart." He then starts to get all excited- "We're going to Walmart? Who-hoo!" He was completely devastated that we weren't going. :) He says, "We don't talk to strange people at Walmart- only nice people huh?" I then had to explain more about strangers and I'm not sure he totally gets it, but I'm sure he stinks they're all at Walmart.

Logan's teacher also called today and said he had fallen in a snowbank and was completely soaked, and needed a change of clothes. I was gathering things to bring over and Camden asked why. I told him that Logan had fallen in a snowbank, and needed some dry clothes. He could not understand why he'd need clothes if he was at a snow bank. "He can just get some money at the snow bank and buy some more clothes." Funny kid. :)

Thanksgiving

We started out our Thanksgiving a little bit early this year. We went with family to the Jazz game in Salt Lake. We took all the kids, and all of them had a lot of fun! Camden has talked about it a lot since then. "When I went to the Salt Lake and saw the Jazz bear....." it was a fun start to the holiday.

We were at Matt's parent's for Thanksgiving this year. We had a great time! Laura and Emily played a beautiful song, then we had a yummy dinner, with too much food of course. Afterwards we played a funny and rousing game of "I never." I love spending time with family. They are so much fun to be around. Happy Thanksgiving! Unfortunately, I didn't even get pictures of people. Only some food that Morgan and I made. :)

Pilgrim Hats

Fruit turkey

And of course our annual "Thankful" tree.

Camden's ears

Okay this is funny and Camden will probably hate that I am writing this down, when he's older. We were in the house and a light was shining on the wall, so there was a shadow of Camden on the wall. He looked surprised and looked around, then looked back at the wall again. He points to the shadow and says, "Mom- that kid's shadow has big ears!" I told him that was his shadow, and he says, "Get out of here! I don't have big ears like that!" I told him to look in the mirror and he says, "See- my ears aren't as big as the kid on the wall!" It was so funny. He was convinced it was someone else's shadow, and couldn't possibly be his own. He even brought up that Peter Pan left his shadow behind, so maybe someone else did, too. Poor kid can't accept that he has adorable, but maybe slightly large ears. :)

Young Women's in excellence

We had young women's in excellence this week. It turned out very nice, and the girls all sang a beautiful song they had learned. Each girl had brought something that they'd worked on through the year, for their personal progress. They also recognized those who had received their medallions this year. I was so proud of Morgan, that she was able to stand as a new recipient of the medallion, and share some things she has learned through the personal progress program. I love being a part of this organization. It is truly inspired!

Update to the Update

Dillon was able to come home late Sat. night. He seems to have turned a corner, and is able to eat now, and doesn't have a fever. He is feeling so much better. He still has his catheter- but hopefully that will be removed on Tuesday. So many people have brought treats, balloons, cards, and visited. We appreciate it so much. Thanks for the love and concern!

Update

Well- a better day was not to be. Dillon woke up before 6:00 a.m. vomiting and in a lot of pain. He still hadn't been able to urinate since yesterday morning. He was irritable, tired, in pain and feeling pretty bad, so I called the Urologist. They said he needed to get to the ER- and only to Primary Children's. So we scrambled for a sitter, and off we went to PCMC again. Matt is at the temple on Friday mornings, so I wasn't able to get a hold of him. We spent 9 hours in the ER doing blood work, catheters, etc. We did a lot of waiting too. Dillon's temperature was 103, and his kidney function wasn't great, so they got us a bed to stay overnight. Dillon is just now closing his eyes, and hopefully sleep before they come in at midnight for more vitals. He will have to keep the catheter in until Tuesday at the earliest, but it may be even longer than that. Poor kid. He is worn out, exhausted and just plain old not feeling well. I hate not being able to do anything. I hope that we will get sent home tomorrow, and he can start this recovery process again.

Dillon's Surgery

Dillon had his vesicouretal re-implantation surgery yesterday. (Isn't it impressive that I know what that is?) :) We are so lucky to live near Primary Children's Hospital. They are fabulous with kids! They went out of their way to make sure Dillon was completely comfortable with everything. The had a child life specialist show him pictures, feel the tubes they'd be putting in him, try on the gas mask, etc. They even had probably 20 different "flavors" of gas to choose from, so when they put him to sleep, he could have a great smell. (He picked orange.) The anesthesiologist told him to make a bet with me on how long he could go before the "sleepy medicine" knocked him out. He wanted a big frozen yogurt from Yogotogo. He guessed he could last 10 seconds, and I said he could last 7. The anesthesiologist then whispers to Dillon, "I'm on your side- I will tell your mom you lasted at least 10 seconds, no matter what." Yea- that won him over. The surgery lasted about 2 hours and 45 minutes. They had to fuse his two ureters together, and then taper them, which is a little more invasive. However, he really did great in the surgery. We were supposed to stay overnight, but they ended up releasing him last night instead. While, I was thrilled to not have to stay in the hospital, I was a bit worried to take him home. Just in case... He also had a fever after coming out of anesthesia, but after some good I.V. drugs, which took his fever down, they released him.

He seemed to be doing tons better last night, than he has done today. He even said, "I don't even feel like I had surgery!" I think that was all the pain killers and anesthesia talking. Today has not been quite so good. He can take his painkillers every 4 hours, and by about 2 hours 45 minutes on the dot, he is counting down the hour and fifteen minutes until he can take them again. He is so uncomfortable- I can hardly stand to watch it. Unfortunately the painkillers make him nauseous, so that's not helping things either. Poor kid! He just wants me near him. Tonight he kept telling me, "Mom- will you encourage me again? Will you tell me I can do this- because I'm not sure I can. Will you remind me that I can do hard things?" I'm really praying that tomorrow is a better day.

He will go back in a month for a check up. And then back again in 3 months for the VCUG procedure to see if the problem is fixed. There is a chance that it won't correct the problem, but it's a pretty small chance, so they are just cautious. He will have to go back annually for that procedure to make sure everything is still working well. As we sat there in the hospital, I was thinking how lucky we are that this isn't something more serious. There were so many sick little kids there. It is truly heartbreaking. They go through so much, and so do their families. It sure helps me to appreciate my health, and my families health, when you see so many others, who have those heavy burdens. With that I'm off to administer some more meds.

Where did I come from?

I just had to write this, so I can remember this sweet conversation I had with Camden. I was folding laundry, and he was playing with his toys. He says, "Mom, come here." He puts his two little hands on the sides of my face, and looks me in the eyes and asks, "Where did I come from?" I asked him what he meant and he says, "Where did I come from? Where did you get me? Did you get me from somewhere? Did I live somewhere else before you got me?" It was so cute, because he was completely serious, and really seemed to want to know. I told him he came from heaven and Heavenly Father sent him to me. He says, "Okay- that's what I thought." And then went about playing with his toys. These cute moments sure make up for the not so cute moments!

Troublemakers

I watched my nephew Justin for a few hours this week. He is a month older than Camden. Holy cow! Two- three year olds does not equal a quiet afternoon. :) They are loud, and rough and tough, sweet and cute, all rolled into 2 little bodies. My sister called to tell me when she was coming to pick them up. During that time, they went to the basement and were really quiet. So I went down calling their names. Nothing. We don't have a walk out basement, so I knew they were down there. I look in all the rooms, and there is still silence. Then between the wall and a big chair, I see 4 little eyes staring at me. I said, "Camden- what are you doing? Come on out." Camden says, " Okay. Fine. But I did NOT color on my face." He comes out and before I can even see what he has done, he shouts, "Okay, okay I colored on my face. Sorry!" He and Justin must have decorated each other because the backs of their necks, their backs, their shirts, faces and hands all had marker on it. Little stinkers! At least it was semi-washable though. :)

This was after we had already started cleaning. I wish it showed the "whole picture."