the great PUMPKIN(S)

we finally got our pumpkins carved! here's our end result......

Tagged!

I was tagged by my SIL to go to my picture files and post the 4th pic in the 4th folder. So here goes!

It's Jade's 10th birthday! here she is just prior to blowing out the candles. She had a High School Musical cake. She was lovin' it!

This week has been crazy busy with Dr. apointments and family business. I did get out of the house for fun though. I took the girls and their friends to The opening day of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL!! It was way fun. The girls were eating it up and I have to say that I really enjoyed it! It was fun, and I liked that I wasn't worried about the main characters hopping into bed at any moment! It was fun. And did I mention that it was FUN? We were all digging the music and I think I even want the wound track. That HSM music is pretty catchy!!

Gavin had his Dr. apopintment check up. seriously this kid is growing fast. HE is now 13lbs. I can't believe it. He is only 6 weeks old. So I guess he is following in Ian's footsteps with the shole HUGE kid thing. Ian out grew his carrier by 4 months old. I wonder if this will happen with Gavin, too? We had to do the rear facing upright! ( I hated that) anyway, I had to pack away alot of his 3 month clothes today, they were just getting to tight. I know the 3-6 month look a little big, but believe me, at this rate, next week they will fit!

I just had to show this pic. It looks like his BUM is Massive! :)

Enjoy!

a little goodness

Just a little picture goodness!!

I think on most days I could just eat him. He's 4 weeks old. He smiles quite alot. But I have yet to catch it on camera. He smiles in his sleep quite a bit too. I hope this is a sign of being a happy boy!

When it rains, it pours......

or as my sister-in-law says,

"At your house it's raining cats and dogs, and they're rabbid and diseased!"



After this week I think she's right!! Robert hurt his arm last weekend and had to have an MRI. On Wednesday we got the results back, he needs extensive surgery, He has torn his rotator cuff, bisep tendon and his labrum. (I don't even know what a labrum is, but I think it's important !) he will be out of work for at least a week, his arm will be imobilized for 6 weeks and he will have 8 weeks of rehab after that. So we're trying to figure out the logistics of how this will all work. We will know more details when he goes to the orthopedic surgeon this week. That night (after hearing Robert's health news) I noticed that Gavin felt like a little fire ball. So we took his temp. It was 101.7. I actually couldn't remember the rules of temperatures for babies that are 4 weeks old so I called the Dr. To get the dosage of tylenol. The Dr. was out of town so we called the on call dr. He said to go in right away to the ER. Babies this small can't have Tylenol. Also, babies this young do not get temperature this high unless their is some kind of infection. Apparantly anything over 100.4 is noteworthy for an infant. (I have never had a newborn with a fever before) So I bundled up the baby and off we went. Of course it took 1 1/2 hours to be seen in the ER. by now it was 10pm and they weren't sure what was wrong with him so it was decided that he had to have a full work up. This includes a spinal tap, blood work, IV, chest X-ray, and a cathetar. They actually worked pretty quickly getting the tests administered. The IV was a little much for me to watch. They had to call special people in to give it. They had a hard time getting it in, (his veins being so small) So when the spinal tap came around I opted to leave, by this time I had to go get a COKE. I was tired and needed some comfort!! So Robert and I went to go get a drink. They came and got us a little while later and said he cried alot. Also, they had to do 2 because his first one was contaminated with blood. By now it was midnight and we were told that he has a UTI that was pretty severe-let me add here that I didn't even know that babies could get a UTI. HE was given antibiotics via an IV. We were told at 1am that we would be admitted and so Robert left to go home and I stayed. Babies this little have to be observed closely because they can get septic really easy and babies do not handle UTI's very well. We were given our room at 2:24am. Gavin at this point was pretty lifeless. He didn't really move and he didn't even really cry. They were worred that the UTI was a secondary condition and we had to wait for the culture of his spianal tap to come back. It was checking for meningitis. Long story short, Gavin was in the hospital for almost 2 days. He is much better. He does not have meningitis and he is on a oral med for his UTI. Apparantly it is VERY RARE for a little boy to have a UTI so we will be back in the hospital later this month for Gavin to have some tests done to see if his bladder is backing up into his kidney's. I was so worried about my baby! The first morning in the hospital was pretty dark-not knowing the results of the tests. I really appreciate my ward here. My friends rallied to my side. They swooped in and helped my family with food and babysitting. They dropped by for visits and lifted my spirits. And don't forget the phone calls! Yes, it counts ladies. I appreciate all of them. It was special to because I don't have family nearby who I could call on. So yes, I feel blessed today!



like I said, this is a long week for us. Don't forget the suicidal man we found earlier this week. I can't believe that this has all happened in one week. It is overwhelming. it is craziness. but I do feel a sense of peace and composure. I think that it is not the trials we get but how we choose to handle them. Hopefully I can handle them with dignity and grace. Hopefully I don't complain to much!

I thought this was hilarious, he finally found his thumb. He liked sucking it but hated that his other fingers kept stabbing his eye.




I love it that he sleeps with such abandon. If you look closely you can see that his eyes are still red and puffy from this weeks events!

Snow!

This weekend my kids were ecstatic over the snow. (the mom in this house-not so much) They hurried outside after church to build this handsome snowman. Notice that it took every ounce of snow in a 5 mile radius to make this sucker. NO SNOW all around him on the grass :) Alexa went down for a nap on sunday with the ground covered in white. When she woke up, the snow had all melted and was gone. She ran to the window upon waking and cried for 20 minutes that "the snow was all gone" Little does she realize that all she has to do is give it a few months. She'll have all the snow her little heart could desire!

I can't believe it............

I can't believe how my day started. At 6:30 this morning Robert came into our room and said,

"Melissa, get up-you gotta come and see this. I think there is a dead body on the church steps. Or some youth group has played a prank on the church-I can't tell, it's to dark."

He had gone running this morning and came across it. He got close enough to get a little spooked but couldn't tell wether he should call the police or not.-He didn't go running with his cell phone anyway and had to come home to call the Police. So we got in the van to go down and take a look so we could shine the headlights on it to see what it was.

We got to the church and shone our lights on it and both of us walked around to see what was up. There was debree all over the grass, letters and pictures. There was also a shot gun that I thought looked real. I won't give you alot of details but their wasn't a head and I decided it wasn't real and Robert thought it was. We left to go get the Bishop to make the necessary calls. We didn't have his phone number and his house was dark. (Our Bishop often runs early in the morning so we weren't sure he was even home) We ended up driving back to the church to decide what to do and the Police had arrived. We pulled into the church lot to talk to the police. There was another couple there who had called the Police. When we got out of our car I heard them say "Yes, that's the Mini-van we saw"

WHOA!! We hurried to explain what we had done and that we were there earlier. We told the Policeman what we saw and that it wasn't real. Because if it was real where did the bullet go? wouldn't the blood look differant? wouldn't there be more of it? Aren't the legs to flat? I had so many questions. I don't usually see dead people but I always figured I would know one when I say one. He said it was, and we were like no-it's not. So the policeman hadn't been that close to it, so they went to check.

We watched.

They came back and said if that isn't brain matter then I should retire after 15 years in the force. We were shocked. We then had to call the Bishop -we had his counselor's number and called him. (he called the Bishop) We had to give our written statements. We left to get our kids up and ready for school.

I cannot wrap my brain around what I saw. I think I will always remember this. I think I am a little in shock. I cannot help but feel that the spirit was telling us both to leave and get help and NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING. The police did find a suicide note in the guy's car. We thankfully don't know who it was. I feel a sense of sadness for the family today. I feel sad that this man felt it was his only alternative. I wonder if in the spirit prison he is receiveing counseling as we speak. Trying to understand the decision he, himself made.

I know of 2 people who usually walk/jog in the morning and they would have found this. I am glad they didn't. As it is disturbing.

Halloween-Already?

I was going through some Halloween bags this morning, checking to see what we would need for the holiday later this month, and Brock and Alexa joined in on the fun!! We are complete with dirty faces-as it is right after breakfast!

Dr. appointment

So Gavin had his Dr. appointment yesterday, He has gained (drum roll please!) 19 oz. in 8 days!!!! Can you believe it? Crazy. That is 2 oz a day. That's alot. he is now up to 9lbs 8 oz. Not to shabby for his 2 week appointment. The goal being, that he would be back up to his birth weight which was 8 lbs 12 oz. He has way surpassed that! the Dr. was like WOW, I guess we don't have a problem breast feeding!! Apparantly, he's a Fehrenbacker-he fits right in!! So I guess we have been successful in working out the feeding issues that he had. He's a sweetie! Most recently, we have decided that he looks like Brock. I still need to get pictures out to compare, but that is the way I'm thinking. I am not sure though. Brock's infant stage was pretty stressful, so I am not sure I remember accuratly (how sad, huh?) I'll have to get back to you all on that!