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

From the mouth of a 2 year old

The other morning I woke up to the sounds of my sweet little two year old yelling from his room. This was unusual; he usually just gets out of bed and comes into my room; then pokes my eyes telling me to "Geck up! Stop sleeping! Sol up, luna down." (Translation: "Get up, Stop sleeping, Sun up, moon down!") But that's a totally different story.

So, you might ask, what was this cute little kid saying?

"Mami! Us stuck here! Help! Us stuck!"

Sure enough, I walk into Sam and Luke's room to find two cute little boys wide awake and "stuck" in the crib together.

-Emily

Random things that I talk to myself about.

1. Sam loves doors. Have I mentioned this before? Anytime a door is open, he promptly crawls over and plays with it. He shuts it, then gets stuck behind it. Constantly. The other day, Luke locked Sam in my bedroom. I couldn't get it open and had to call maintenance. It is days like that when I am SO thankful that I live in an apartment building with an on-site maintenance crew. A few days after that, Luke slammed the door on Sam's fingers. As soon as he calmed down, Sam went right back to playing with a door. Oh Sam!

"Door" was also one of Sam's first words! (He says "Mama". That was his first word) But the other day when he was playing, I was talking to him and saying "You like to play with that door!" and Sam promptly replied, "Door!" and I got really excited and I repeated it back, then he repeated it back. He said it at least 5 times in a row! He has said it a few times since then as well.

2. A friend of mine posted a picture of her friend nursing her minutes old newborn baby saying "I am proud of my friend, a proud mama with her baby... she worked so hard" or something like that. So a well meaning woman commented saying that the "proud mama probably wouldn't want that picture on facebook" because it was an intimate moment between her and her baby. My friend replied that she had asked the proud mama and  mama said she did want it on Facebook. So the comment argument continued a little more and a few more mothers commented and really attacked this first commenter. They said it was a beautiful picture and there was no reason for it to not be on Facebook and breastfeeding is natural and she had no right to "dig" on this new mom for breastfeeding... I felt really bad for this well-meaning commenter because I don't think she meant any offense and was really just concerned for the woman in the picture because this intimate moment was all over facebook on her friend's friend's news-feeds (like mine and well-meaning commenter). We don't know this woman and I doubt she would want us looking in on this moment. The commenter never said she was offended by the picture or that it was offensive in any way (which is what the others were accusing her of). Anyway, it was on my mind and it bothered me that people were so quick to judge and attack one well meaning opinion of breast feeding pictures on facebook. My opinion? BF pictures are not offensive and should be allowed on facebook if the mother wants, BUT I think it was inappropriate to have the picture posted on her friends wall therefore allowing all of her friends friends (strangers to the BFing woman) to see the picture. If you want friends and family to see it, great! but it is an intimate moment that strangers don't really need to see.

3. Luke has started doing "imaginary play" with his toys and animals. It is SO cute to watch him "talk" for his animals (his favorites are my old Ty beanie babies). They play together, eat fake food, fly, then convenienly "fall" because they have no wings!

4. Sam is teething and has been pretty grumpy because of it. He has a bit of a passionate personality and I thought that his happy happy days were over and he was already going into toddler-hood where emotions are so unstable. Then, I gave him some ibuprofen and put him down for a nap. He woke up so happy and it was SO good to see him in such a good mood. It makes me sad to see him in so much pain that it is affecting his mood. It really had been a long time since I had seen him so happy.

5. We read the parenting book, "How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk" by Adele Faber and Elaine Maz... something. It has been really good for us! It teaches you to give emotions a name and acknowledge your child's feelings. So, now Luke tells us what he is feeling and says, "Me happy Mom, me happy!" in a very sad way with a very sad face, often with tears. So I respond, "you're happy?" He replies, "No mom. Me sad!"

-Emily

The simple, routine things of life

One of the things I try to do with the kids is brushing their teeth. We started to brush Sam's teeth and so we made quick video. Hope you enjoy.

Feeling Refreshed for new goals

I am not a believer in New Years Resolutions. Not because I am not goal oriented, simply because I believe in year round goal setting and that you shouldn't wait for the new year to start improving yourself. If it's going to be something that sticks, you might as well start now. I am constantly making new resolutions for myself and I don't think that just because it is January 1st, you need to overwhelm yourself with a bunch of new goals.

That being said, the past few months/weeks/days (I'm not really sure when this started) I have been feeling a little renewed and refreshed. I have gotten over the new baby thing and I am starting to feel more like the me I used to know. It feels good. I feel like I am not just surviving anymore, I am thriving. This does not mean every minute or even every day is fantastic and filled and that my life is exactly where I want it to be. Not at all. However, I feel that now I am able to start climbing that mountain to be the woman that I want to be.

I have more energy, I have learned how to balance my needs along with the needs of my family. I am starting to think more about what I can do for others, rather than what I need them to do for me. Because I am feeling this way at the moment, I have concocted up a few goals for myself that I know will help me to be a better wife and mother, have more energy, and be happier.

I thought to myself, I want to have these goals on my blog so that I am a little more accountable. So here they are!

1. Find time to read the scriptures! (This is a hard one or me. It's 11pm and I still haven't read them! yikes)
2. Exercise every day. Go to the gym 3x/week.
3. Go to the temple on ward temple night each month (Francisco and I are going to try a system where we trade off each month and every 3rd month, we find a babysitter and go together)
4. Decrease the amount of sugar in our diets. We eat too much sugar. I used to not think this was a very big deal because we eat a lot of healthy things too, but I think it  is too much and we need to figure out some alternative snacks that aren't so sugar-packed.
5. Increase the amount of beans/legumes that we eat. I've been working on this for a while and haven't had a lot of success. Just need to do it.
6. Spend more quality time with my husband. Now that school is back in session for him, we need to make time for each other. I got really excited today about some of the silly dates I read about on thedatingdivas blog.
7. Make time for me. Whether it's to read a book, make some crafts, or try something new, I want to have hobbies that are for me, so that I don't lose myself in motherhood.
8. Open up and let people get to know me better. I want to share my thoughts and opinions, my likes and dislikes. I tend to put up a wall and don't get to close to people, but I think that the more I open up, the deeper and more meaningful my relationships with others will become.

I think that's it! I think these are all doable things and I am excited to do them.

-Emily

(and be sure to read the second post from today as well! Yes, I posted twice in one night and sorry gramma, no pictures of your grandkids :)

I'm dreaming of a cool autumn breeze and crisp red leaves.

With the end of this sweaty summer we have been (and still are) enduring, I have become unattainably excited about fall. Most of you already know that this is my absolute favorite season (I've posted about it on here in previous years) but I am just too excited to not write about it!

This year, I have already written my bucket list for the coming season. It is a little longer than normal; actually it is the first time I have made an official bucket list, but still it is more than what I normally think to do during the fall. I think this is for 2 reasons. One, last year I was pregnant and had a baby right before Halloween. That is a bit of a buzz-kill on the outings, recipes, decorations, pretty much everything... Not that having a baby was bad, just bad timing for me, because I wasn't able to do all the things that I wanted, so this year I feel the need to make up for last year. And secondly, this Texas summer has been SO dreadfully long and hot hot hot that I am dying for cooler weather to come! I have been planning my decorations and activities since the beginning of August and the anticipation of waiting has made everything become a little more extravagant in my head.

Here is my list (I had to go get it from my refrigerator):
- Make caramel apples
- Make apple crisp
- Make costumes (I am planning a fairy-tale theme. I will be a princess, Francisco my Knight in Shining Armor, Sam his handsome steed (horse), and Luke the scary dragon. I am pretty excited about it!)
- Make new decorations (I am planning a candy pumpkin garland, a candy corn wreath, adding pumpkins to my living room in my wood-burning fireplace, and some sort of burlap banner.
- Decorate!
- Go to a corn maze
- Pumpkin patch and tractor ride
- Have a Halloween party (I want to have a poker night and use candy as bets!)
- and of course carve pumpkins!

I am just giddy with excitement! Please fall come early this year! (It was 105 today so it's not really feeling like fall.) Oh fall. A girl can dream, right?

Happy dreaming until autumn really does come! What's on your bucket list this season?

-Emily