I love how cuddlely my little Sam is. He truly enjoys giving hugs and kisses. I say "besito" which means little kiss and he will smack his cheek against my lips. I've read there are all these different kinds of ways to show love (verbal, touch, actions). Sam is definitely the touch type and I love it. Luke on the other side loves being held, but if you rub him or something he will say: "I don't like that".

My kids are the best : )

Sam

Luke 3yr old video.

Dallas Traffic Laws

I love Dallas for many many reasons. It is beautiful and hip and busy. People are friendly and polite (in person). I feel pretty cool when I tell people that I live in Dallas. It's a cool place to live. There are a lot of activities and things to do.

One thing I don't love, however, is driving. I've never been one to enjoy driving. If someone else wants or is able to drive, I typically let them. I like to relax while in the car and I am unable to do that when I'm driving. Especially in Dallas.

I've put together a small list of rules that Dallas drivers seem to follow pretty religiously. These rules, while unspoken and unwritten until today, are quickly learned it seems by any regular driver on Dallas highways.

1. Go as fast as you possibly can while on the freeway. Most of the time, the fastest possible speed is less than 60mph (the current speed limit) because there are just too many cars on the road, so no one is really breaking the state laws. However, if there is ever a break in traffic, cars will speed around you at unsightly speeds. Literally as fast as they can go until they have to slow back down for the next traffic jam a few miles ahead. It's ridiculous.

2. If another car puts their blinker on to switch over into your lane, speed up and get ahead of them. Always. It doesn't matter how much room there is or was when they put their blinker on. You must speed up.

3. Because people speed up when you put your blinker on, don't use your blinker. This is the only way you can change lanes without getting people worked up about getting in front of you.

4. Don't stress about traffic laws because the cops are too busy dealing with accidents and don't have time to pull anyone over.

5. Use your phone, talk, text, whatever. Doesn't matter how much traffic you're navigating through; phone usage is perfectly acceptable.

6. Traffic lights. The colors mean different things here! Yellow means the same as green. A newly red light means you can still go through because you know there is that 2 second lag between your red light and the opposing street's green light.

7. Never let anyone in, ever. Merging is just ridiculous here.


Rush hour is ALL day and all night. Literally. There is never a time when the streets are even close to deserted. Real rush hour is probably between 7 and 10 am and 3 and 7 pm. During these times, you might as well not go to wherever you need to be because you won't get there.

I apologize for complaining. Like I said, Dallas is awesome, but along with every place there are some things are are left to be desired. My advice, just drive as little as possible. Do not follow these rules, listen to some happy uplifting music while in the car and pray that Heavenly Father will protect you while on the road.

Happy driving! (I thank God that people don't drive in the snow here! Oh it would be horrific!)

-Emily

October Sillys

Just wanted to post some fun pictures that you may or may not have seen yet! 

 Sam got away from us and we thought he was just so cute naked! 

 Love his crazy hair! We've already cut it a few times but I will be sad when he grows up and loses the baby fluff.

HALLOWEEN:

We did a fairy-tale theme and had a lot of fun with it!  

 Our best family shot. I guess the boys were a little distracted!

Luke even won "cutest costume" at our ward trunk or treat! I was very proud of him and I think he totally deserved it! I just wish he would have liked to hold his fire stick that I made for him. It  was pretty cool but he thought it got in the way. 

Our Halloween started on Friday the 26th with our ward trunk or treat. It was great. Lots of friends and food. Luke got a pretty good candy stash too. The next day we got to have a dental school activity at the park where we ate hot dogs and carved a pumpkin. It's funny because the only people who came were either dog owners or families with kids! There are a lot of dental students with dogs! I guess it's the cool thing. Saturday night we hosted a small costume poker night. Everyone brought a bag of candy which we used as bets. It was fun to play and goof-off. I (Em) totally won and had a HUGE bowl of candy at the end, so I generously shared my winnings with everyone. (I kept the good candies for myself though!!!) I made caramel apples for the party and they were so yummy! Halloween was on a Wednesday and I had a pretty  bad cold so we missed playgroup. Sam had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. Then, we went to another ward's trunk or treat for a chili dinner. We didn't stay long, but it was good to go do something on Halloween.

Overall it has been a pretty great fall! I did most of the things on my bucket list. We were only missing the corn maze, pumpkin patch stuff because I couldn't find one close to us! They were all like an hour away! Oh well. Maybe we will find a good one next year.

1 Year of Joy

This month Sammy turned one! I simply cannot believe how fast this year has gone. He has grown up so much, yet I still definitely think of him as and treat him as my baby! He has had a quite a year with possible? health problems, lots of new friends, and a crazy brother to get used to.

Here are the boys in our playgroup who have birthday at the end of October! A 2 yr old and three 1 yr olds! The awesome cake was made by my friend Bronwyn!

Checking out his cupcake. He wasn't so sure about it.

He didn't even try the cake. Just licked some frosting and played with it.

On the morning of his 1st birthday!

Brother bear giving him a hug and his presents!

Got to do one of his favorite activities! Play on the piano! Every time we sit down to play, he has to come and play too!

So here is our update on our sweet silly Sam!

Wt: 17lbs (2%ile)

Ht: 28 1/2 in (10%ile)

Head: 50%ile

Sam has been to many many doctors and had many different tests and screens and evaluations done on him to see why he had the fast breathing and the retractions (pulling in while breathing) in his neck and between his ribs. He went to the pulmonologist first. Dr. Moorehead has taken a very active role in Sam's care. Since then, he has also seen a cardiologist, gi doctor, neurologist, a dietitian, physical therapist, and will start seeing an oral/feeding therapist. He has been tested for Cystic Fibrosis, anemia, genetic abnormalities, reflux, swallow test, x-rays and CT scan to look for damage on his lungs. 

He has been taking several medications including Prevacid for reflux, Bethanechol for faster stomach motility (to decrease amount he is able to reflux), Flovent HFA given with a spacer (a steroid to decrease inflammation in his lungs). He has also been prescribed Nasonex and Xopenex but has not had to use those on a regular basis.

He has been diagnosed with reflux, low weight gain or even failure to thrive, and missed gross motor milestones. 

He is or will be treated with physical therapy for gross motor, feeding/oral therapy for better muscle control in his mouth to get him to eat table foods and different textures better. We have increased his formula to 30kcals/oz instead of the regular 20kcals/oz that it typically provides and also started added formula to EVERYTHING else he eats. 

I feel that he is on the mend. He went to his wellness check-up with his regular pediatrician and he said that he seemed to be breathing a lot easier now and his weight is on an upward trend so so he looking good! :)

He has really given us a lot of grief over these health problems, but all I can say is that I am so thankful for modern medicine and the doctors that have worked so hard to try to help him get better. I am also eternally grateful for Medicaid that has allowed us to freely test and evaluate and see specialists with absolutely no thought of cost. It has been so helpful and I will forever be grateful for the help of the government in my life.

So while we aren't at the doctors, we are having a lot of fun playing!

Sam loves music. His favorite toys right now are a musical turtle that plays classical music and lights up and moves slowly. He also likes a light-up music playing cellphone, and a plastic tube thingy from the $ Store. (The one that you fling around and it whistles, but he like to put it to his mouth and talk into it because it kind of echos.) He LOVES books and reading. He also likes to play with his brother in all the pillows from the couch, although brother gets a little rough too often and squishes him with the giant cushions.

He started crawling on his hands and knees right before his birthday. I am so glad that he will no longer have gray shirts from sliding on the ground! He also climbs up on to everything and will cruise around furniture. He is not very close to walking at all, but I am okay with that for now.

His favorite foods are smoothies and yogurt. We have a chocolate or fruit smoothie for breakfast every day. He will also eat gold fish and other crackers pretty well. He likes the taste of meats and fruits and veggies, but is still struggling with swallowing these table foods. Most foods end up in his lap. He still eats baby foods about once a day, but he is getting bored of those and wants to feed himself, making it extra difficult and messy! He is just so messy at mealtimes!

He can say several words and has been saying them for a few months now. He says Mama!, Da! (which means toy or play) Ma! (means eat or food). He shakes his head no. and when he is done eating he waves his hands in front of him while shaking his head no. He also growls with us and crawls around pretending to be a lion. He makes cars fly and makes an engine-like noise while driving them. He has a definite "Cheese" smile for the camera and totally models for pictures. He loves it!

Happy with his new see and say!

We love Sam and we are so happy he is part of our family. 

-Emily

Vegetable Chili

I think this is the first recipe I have added to my blog! I had a few people asking me for my vegetable chili recipe so here it is! It is a Pendulum Court Cafe recipe (a small cafe run by dietetic students at Brigham Young University) So yummy and so good for you!

(Not my actual chili)

Ingredients:

1 medium zucchini, diced
1/2 green pepper, finely diced
1 small white onion, finely diced
3 or 4 white mushrooms sliced
1 T veg. oil
1/4 tsp garlic
1 can diced tomatoes, include liquids
2 small cans of tomato sauce (14-16oz)
1/2 tsp tobasco sauce
1 qt, 1 cup water
Chicken boullion about 2 cubes
1 Tbs light chili powder (more or less for spiciness)
1/2 t ground cumin
1/8 tsp oregano
2 cans kidney beans
About 1 c frozen corn
Cheddar cheese and chips for garnish!

Instructions:
1. Heat up the oil and cook the onions, gr. pepper, mushrooms and garlic 6-8 minutes until tender.
2. Add zucchini, tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, chicken boulion, and all seasoning.
3. Drain liquid from kidney beans and add to soup.
4. Add corn.
5. Simmer at least 20 minutes until heated through. (Can stay on the stove on low for a couple hours if needed)
6. Eat with chips and cheese! Yum!

You could probably do this in the crock pot too.

It is really good!

New Home Decor

Look at all my craftiness!

 Book pumpkins that I made last year; I updated them this year to have black faces and painted them yellow. I also put a black frame behind them just to set it apart from the wall. Elmer's glue and sparkle spider web that I love! It is so neat looking and pretty easy to make! The little box is a Kleenex box covered in construction paper and electrical tape. After the tissues were used up, I made it into a remote caddy. I also strung mello-cream pumpkin candies into a garland. I figured that would be really easy but it actually took a lot of muscle to string them together! Then I added our pumpkins to the fireplace. Its cute and well, I had no other good place to store them except our balcony where no one would see them!

Here, I have some mini gourds and pumpkins I picked up. I added some festive ribbon around my vase and hurricane. Changed up my beans to black, white, and yellow. (So I was looking for a small can of orange spray paint (for the book pumpkins and beans) and they didn't have the color I wanted, so I went with yellow. It turned out okay, but I would have preferred a pretty orange color.) Finally, I made a candy-corn wreath. I think it turned out pretty neat, even if it sagging a little. I also have my felt flowers around the base of the vase, but I just haven't found the perfect place for them yet.

I created a place to display some of Luke's best art. He created all this (except for the baby feet in the middle, although he helped ;) Luke is really talented and I am proud of everything that he creates.

Self-timer

 Luke loves to take pictures with the self-timer feature on the camera. He sets it all up with a stool and books to get it at the right level (with a little help from Mami). Then he pushes the button and leaps to get in front of the camera. Unfortunately, he is still learning the tricks of the trade. Often, the camera is not focused or he nudges it as he moves to his place so that the camera is not even on us at all or the flash is turned off so every single picture we take is black. We usually end up taking about 10-15 pictures and can capture 1 or 2 cute ones. and usually he wants to do in the morning when we are all in our pjs and I am nasty greasy, but that is okay. Here are some of the cute ones he took:

With his animals!

In our pjs.

Off center...

Okay, Papi helped a lot with this one, but it was still self timer!

-Emily

Fall Randoms

I don't have too much to report. I just wanted tot post some pictures for my Ma and let you know what we've been up to!

Luke on our balcony is his coat and boots! It's finally cooling down!
On this day, Luke wanted to go outside but it was too cold to let Sam crawl outside, so I told him he could go out, but he had to keep the door shut so Sammy couldn't go out. A few minutes later, I hear Luke saying in his high-pitched baby voice, "Come on Sammy! Yeah!" So, I go check it out and he is coaxing Sammy out on to the freezing cement! After several warnings and explanations, I bring Sammy back in for the 3rd or 4th time and took Luke's boots and coat away and said he could go back outside. I explained that Sammy wasn't wearing any boots or a coat and so this is how it feels for him to be outside! COLD! After that, he didn't coax Sam out anymore!

Watching Luke longingly from the window. Sorry baby! When you can walk, I'll let you go out on cold days by yourself!

A few more pictures of my cuties:

 A common look to our living room. This is "house". We have pretty strict rules with this game so that Sam doesn't get squished under all the cushions. The boys love it! They have also recently started creating forts behind the couch with the curtains as a roof. Francisco hates this game because it leaves the room in such a mess!

-Emily