Saturday, August 30, 2008

A week or so in review...in pictures

So it begins...
This is at Home Depot, last Wednesday. The reason for the picture is, this is a monumental moment. Isabella and Aiden despise each other. And yet for these few moments in the store they were holding hands and walking up and down the aisle while they waited for me. It was precious and may never happen again.

Last Friday, I decide it is time to do some shopping. Only because Aiden has now ran out of food. Josh and I have been scrounging for a while. I HATE grocery shopping and it has been several weeks since I had gone. Aiden refuses to sit in the cart, or mommy doesn't want to deal with the constant fit. The strap doesn't keep him in and he will jump ship. So I usually hold him. One hand on the cart one on him. This time we discovered Aiden likes to "push" the cart. So this kept him bust and freed up my hands. Plus he looked super cute.

Saturday was work at the house day. Aiden had a blast climbing on the gravel mountain in his jammies.

Later that day they played in the pool. Aren't we so lucky? Our new house has a pool.


Tuesday Morning comes along and we find that our new house has been flooded. That is an issue that gets my blood boiling. We have an irrigation ditch along our property. We DON'T have any water rights, therefore it is NOT our responsibility to maintain the ditch. But nobody does and our house was flooded. Come to find out, apparently almost everybody on either side of the ditch has at some point had their basement flooded. WHY is this OK? I am not going to tolerate it. I have new carpet getting installed in a couple of weeks.

Tuesday around noon. A sucker in one hand and a chicken nugget in the other. Can life get any better?

Tuesday Afternoon. We took the scouts to Wheeler Farm. We got to milk a cow, "the old fashion way, like in the cartoons," (as Collin put it). If you look real closely you can see Aiden touching it with "One" finger. In our house we have started a new rule. If it's ok for an adult to touch it then Aiden can to but only with one finger. I am so sick of saying "Don't Touch." And why can't he, he just saw me touch it 30 seconds ago. That makes no sense. So now he can. The only problems we have ran into include, picture frames, they still knock over with one finger. TV Power button, and something else I can't remember. But he gets it. We didn't even tell him to use one finger on the cow.

What a busy day. Tuesday night we went out to dinner with Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Roy. We went to Joe Morleys BBQ in Midvale. It was surprisingly really good. It is in the ghetto which scared me, but it tasted great, was reasonable for a BBQ place and was almost empty on a Tuesday evening so the monster could run around. He had some ribs and as you can see enjoyed them. He also really liked the BBQ sauce, which seemed spicy for a baby, but...

And last Wednesday morning. The car seat had been in Josh's car and he put it back in the truck for me. Well I guess he didn't put it in tight and I didn't check (it was buckled, I checked that). I drove to the new house, only a couple blocks. Parked and turned around to get Aiden, this is how I found him. I laughed so hard. Not a peep from him the entire way there. I told him he needs to tell me if his car seat is tipping over.

So I guess I am almost caught up on our lives. I am glad I take lots of pictures or I would forget entirely what happens. Busy Busy.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Reading

Jamie just sent me an email and reminded me that I have not posted about last weeks "Being a Better Mother." If you recall our goal is to do something new with our kids every week. Last week I sat down and started reading books with Aiden. I know most of you do this already and regularly, well I haven't. We have a zillion books, but considering Aiden's level of energy, have not wanted to try. He really liked it. We added it to our routine and are now reading almost every day. So I consider it a step forward.
Also in my quest to screw up my child as little as possible, I started reading a book called "Love and Logic." Awesome! If you can read one parenting book, and trust me that is all I will get to reading this year, this is the book. Buy a copy, don't borrow it. It is one you will want to re-read every so often as a refresher.
What will we do this week?
I am open to comments about things you have tried with your toddlers that they loved. I lack creativity.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Aiden


Even though Grandpa Aune wouldn't let us take Aiden down the river, Grandma Cindy came up with us and watched him. The first day she didn't have a camera. Aiden got to ride a horse and play with baby cows. The next day they went to Jackson and here he is in the antler arch.

River Rafting

A couple of weeks ago we went River Rafting. We spent a wonderful week up in the mountains, in a beautiful cabin on the way to Jackson Hole. It was in Star Valley Ranch. We both brought up our lap tops. Josh had plans to work at nights and I was going to do alot of real estate courses. Neither of us did. It was so relaxing. We wanted to stay there forever. Even Josh didn't want to leave and come back to work.
Our friends Robert and Darcy came with us. The first night we went to Bar J Wranglers Chuck wagon dinner. They played cowboy music and my little guy loved to stand in the aisle and dance.
Then the next morning it was "Snake River here we come!"
Josh's dad, Ray organizes the entire trip every year and I look forward to the next year, about a day after we get home. I am planning my pregnancy and births around this trip for the rest of my life. (FYI Ray we are doing this the rest of my life).
Ray video tapes us on the rapids. Here is a picture of him and Farfar (Josh's great-grandpa) videoing us as we load into the boats.
And here is the group in the front of the boat on one of our runs.
Rustin? (one of BYU Emily's friends), Me, Darcy, and Robert.
Back of the boat
My new friend, who's name escapes me, My handsome husband Josh, who is the greatest river rafting Captain ever (he is great at hitting rapids, only occasionally hitting the sides of cliffs/rocks and very rarely having people get injured on his boats) and Lina.

And Robbie "riding the bull" going into one of the rapids.
Maybe if your nice we'll invite YOU next year.......

PS: If you want to see more pictures click here

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Have you seen my mate

My dog is a CLEPTO. You would not believe the things I find on my porch. One time there was a little purse. I am sure it was just a little girls, but it has lip gloss, finger nail things. He stills other dogs toys as well. On numerous occasions he has come home with some brand new very large rawhide bones. Both our neighbors have Labradors. This is what I found today...
Poor little slipper is missing its mate. Maybe tomorrow he'll bring the other one.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Donate Organs

Our friends have a baby a few months younger than Aiden. He needs a liver transplant. His mom just made a post on his blog called "A Mother's Plea." READ IT!
We all need to donate our organs! Let your family know that you want to donate your organs. If you don't want to donate, don't tell anybody and maybe they will accidentally get donated, you selfish poop.
Everybody, I want to donate my organs (except skin and eyes). Now you know.

I'm just going to copy it here since somebody might be to lazy to click on the link above. You can still check it out though. Read about the bravest and strongest little dude I know.

Our prayers are with you Beth, Andre & Gavin

"Saturday, August 09, 2008

A Mother's Plea

Gavin has been hospitilized seven times in his short 10 months of life. He has gone through three surgeries. He has been in the ICU twice. We've had to race him to the E.R. in the middle of the night three times (why does it always happen at night?!). He already has 5 different scars on his small body.

The worst part is…this isn’t the worst. What we’ve gone through is only the tip of the iceburg. Some other families going through liver disease and transplant with their little ones have been through so much more. Shunts, draining, permanent hospitlization until transplant, extreme bleeding, banding...and that is all before a transplant is done. Afterwards there are worse possibilities. Our little man has a very long journey ahead of him, and I get weak just thinking about it. No child should have to suffer this way.

Why can’t they just transplant him now, while he is still relatively healthy? Why has he had to wait so long? Simply- there are not enough organ donors. I know a few children who have waited YEARS and still aren't transplanted. The sad, but harsh truth is that most of these little children must wait and wait and wait until they are knocking on death’s door before they will ever be transplanted. At Gavin's transplant center alone there are over 50 children waiting for a liver transplant right now. And they’ve only been able to do a handful of transplants so far this year. How many of those children left will make it to next year? How many more will be added to the list?

I understand fully why some chose not to be organ donors. I wasn’t one before all of this happened with my son. I admit, even as I signed up afterwards, I cringed. People don’t like to think about their death. They don't like to think about their bodies being excavated. But think about this way…most likely all of us will die “naturally” while we are old and wrinkly. So we wouldn’t be viable to donate our organs anyway. The very, very small chance that you would die young and healthy, and in such a way that you would be at the hospital in a position for them to even consider using your organs is so very small. Most likely it won’t happen.

But if it did…if there was some tragedy, there could be some small measure of comfort for your loved ones, knowing that life will go on for others. Almost every single religion out there, including the LDS faith (Mormons), is okay with organ donation. And in my opinion, people of our faith have an even bigger responsibility to be an organ donor, since most of us have never drank a drop of alcohol, never smoked, never tried drugs, never drank coffee. You can also choose which organs you are comfortable donating if you register through www.donatelife.net. And despite the sensational myths that get passed around…no doctor would even KNOW that you are an organ donor when you were brought into the ER for him to save your life. But if you are really that worried about it, don’t sign up through the DMV, so it wont be on your driver's license.

Or hey, if the idea of actually being a registered donor just freaks you out (and I do get that) then at least talk to your family about it. You can say, “if something were to happen, and the doctors are saying there is no hope, this might be something I would want to do.” And not that its any thing a parent wants to think about at ALL, but if you ever find yourself in this position with a child, watch this video, http://video.nbc5i.com/player/?id=278123 and hopefully you will at least think twice about it. Obviously baby donor organs are extremely scarce...thankfully for us, they can do split liver transplants where they take a portion of an adult liver so there is at least a better chance for Gavin and other children waiting for liver transplants. Parents of children waiting for different organs aren't that lucky.

One time while we were at the hospital, a mom came up to us to play with Gavin while we were waiting for the elevator. She tearfully (through a smile) told us she was taking her daughter home that day…on hospice, but that they were hoping to donate her organs “when the time came”. All I could do was cry with her and thank her for being so selfless.

But don't just assume that you wouldn't be a viable donor because of age or health or whatever. If the time came, the doctors can decide. At least give them a chance...give someone waiting a second chance at life. Give someone a miracle. Give a family hope and a new beginning. Why take these organs to the grave? They do no one any good there.

Why would I need to take my corneas with me, when they can give sight to two people who are blind? To give them the gift of being able to see the face of their child for the first time, or to see a sunrise over the mountains? Why would I need my heart when it could go on beating for someone else...a mother, a grandfather, a teenager? Why would I need my lungs when they could give the breath of life to someone else?

God gave humankind the ability to perform these surgeries. Each one is a MIRACLE. To take an organ from someone's body and place it in someone else's is amazing!!! If you want to see them being done, watch the documentary series "Hopkins" on ABC. Its one of the leading transplant centers in the US. You can watch all 6 parts of the series at ABC.com, click: http://abc.go.com/specials/hopkins/index. The stories are incredible...you will be addicted to the show once you start watching. I cried through them all.

If only .03% of the entire US population became organ donors, every man, woman, teenager, child and baby waiting on the entire list could be transplanted. That’s less than a third of 1%. Right now there are over 90,000 people waiting for an organ transplant, 16,000 for livers- 626 of them children. In a country of over 300 million people, these children must wait months, even years, while their condition worsens, and some even die.

I try to ignore these thoughts screaming from every corner of my mind as I speak to people in my daily life about Gavin's story. But you know what? I am scared that I am going to have to watch my baby’s body deteriorate. I am terrified that he may not last the wait, that his poor little body will be so ravaged by the time he gets to the top of the list, that he won’t be able to pull through the transplant. I am sick at the thought that I might have to explain to his older brother and sister why their baby brother won’t ever be coming home. I hate seeing him in pain. I hate the constant needles and hospital stays and medications and tubes and fears and having every molecule in my body trembling 24/7, and breaking down in tears at least once a day. I am exhausted.

And as scared as I am for what may come after his transplant, at least I know that with it he will have a fighting chance at life...because without a transplant he will die. He has so much strength and so much more living to do here on the Earth. I need him like the air I breathe. He is my sun, moon, and stars...my whole life. And every other parent with a child waiting on the list feels the same way about their own child. We all need this gift of life...the gift to raise our children, to see them without tubes and wires, to see them healthy and happy.

And so many others feel the same way about their mother or father who is waiting for an organ transplant. These children need their parents. Husbands need their wives, wives need their husbands. Families should not be broken apart like this when MIRACLES can happen. How many diseases are there where there is NO hope? No solution? No cure? To have people die while waiting, when they could have been saved but for others' selflessness is unacceptable in my book. We have the knowledge, the expertise to fix this...the doctors just need the organs to do it. If there is any way to save a life, it SHOULD be done. "Don't take your organs to heaven...heaven knows we need them here."

I know nothing I say can ever fully explain it…I wish I could crawl into your hearts and minds and show you, let you feel it. Maybe it won’t change anyone’s mind, but at least it will make you think twice. I just had to speak my mind- for him, for all of them.

If you are interested in more information on organ donation, you can go to the sites listed below, and click on the links at the bottom of the righthand column of this page, labled "News and Articles". Please take some time to discuss it with your loved ones tonight. Don't let misinformation or lack of information keep you from giving life. At least take the time to learn about it and find the truth. And if you read all of this...thank you.



official waiting list: http://www.unos.org/

register online: http://www.donatelife.net/

Friday, August 8, 2008

Masterpiece #2

Last night Aiden and I took a bath. We have bath crayons, but I got them before Aiden could even use his hands. Mostly Josh and I just write notes to each other on the shower walls. But last night, Aiden decided to use his new found skills.
There is a video of him coloring and I asked him what he was drawing and he said a, "Doggie, Woof Woof."



Lastly Josh is going to kill me for posting this but "Like Father, Like Son


The one of Josh are from a few weeks ago when I bought a bunch of new makeup..

Mail Time

On Wednesday night Aiden received his first piece of mail (besides bank statements).
A letter from his friend Thomas. Thank you Thomas! He was so cute with it. He carried it around and showed everybody. It was neat because it came on the day he drew his first picture.

Aiden showing Grandma what he got.


Thursday, August 7, 2008

Pictures of the progress

The slide show starts out with pictures from the listing and how it looked when we bought it. Then some demo pictures and rebuilding and then where it is today. When it is complete I will do some side by side before and after pictures.
Or click here for a quicker view with captions




(note if you are an email subscriber you won't be able to view the slideshow unless you go to the blog at http://blog.omner.org)

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

A prouder mother, there never was.

My friend Jamie and I, in order to be better mothers have started a club. OK not really but we are trying to do more innovative things with our children. Each week we try to do a new activity with our child and report on it. So this week wasn't very innovative, but it was something I haven't tried with Aiden and that is the point. To get us out of our boring routine. He kept finding my pens and then what seemed to be, attempted to scribble on my bills. I had no idea he even knew that was what pens were for. He is so observant. So I went and got out the crayons and paper. Taking out those brand new fresh crayons and handing them over to him was hard for me. I love sharp crisp crayons and I knew there fate.
(side note, Aiden just came over to me and gave me the snottiest kiss. He opened up his mouth and leaned in... I looked at that mess, thought twice, but couldn't refuse, when he was initiating it.)
Anyway, he colored for such a long time. I was bored long before he was. I thought kids were supposed to have an extremely short attention span. He worked on one page for quite a while and then like he actually had intended to draw something, he pushed it away and grabbed the next sheet. I put the old one back so I could have it all on one sheet. He pushed it away again and started coloring on a fresh page.

Coloring with Aiden was so great. I teared up for a moment because I was so proud. Then he got bored and tried to color on the drink coaster, a bag and the table. I tried to direct him back to the paper and he would have none of that. So to save my beautiful table I took away the crayons and moved him. Oh the tantrum that ensued. I guess he really enjoyed coloring. We will have to add that to our routine.
The Masterpiece!

Oh and I didn't help him at all! Not one little bit and I really had to fight the urges to cup his hand in mine and show him how to do it. Every little scribble on there was all him!

Cutie Pie


Wearing Aunt Rachael's Sunglasses

Monday, August 4, 2008

Puttin it away

Why is my son so skinny? When we go out to dinner, I have to order him his own meal off the kids menu or he eats more than half of mine. He finishes his meal off the kids meal and has tastes off of everybody else's plates. We went to Applebees tonight and he eats more than his 2 older cousins (4 & 6). Oh by the way don't go to the Draper Applebees. I went when they first opened and it was a horrible experience, but I thought I'd give them another shot since they were new. Yep still sucks. The one in Fort Union is great. Also they have a super yummy California Salad. I thought I had at least another year until I had to start paying for Aiden to have his own meal. Guess not.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Nap Time

I have to admit for the last several months I have had it good. I notice Aiden is starting to get tired. Then the routine is as follows; I take him to his room, put him in his crib, put one binki in his mouth a spare binki in his hand, put his stuffed animal in his arms, cover him with blanket, wind up mobile and leave. Not a peep. He is off to dreamland. Well lately (the last couple of weeks), it has not been so. The ritual goes something like this, Repeat all of the above, I notice Aiden is starting to get tired. I take him to his room, put him in his crib, put one binki in his mouth a spare binki in his hand, out his stuffed animal in his arms, cover him with blanket, wind up mobile and leave. Not a peep. Few minutes go by and then... Change of plans. I am sitting in the family room. "Whats that noise (sounds like a mouse)?" Oh it's Aiden banging his binki on the the bars of the crib. Imagine a prisoner banging his metal cup between the cell bars. Then he gets bored with that and throws out his binki, then goes number two. Now he is upset because he no longer had his binkis and the crying starts and then the hysterics. It is the end of the world! Then it gets quiet. Hooray. Wait what's that noise? Oh it's Aiden grabbing and twisting at the doorknob that he can reach from his crib. This makes me smile. And somewhere amiss all this he takes off all of the little doo-dads that are hanging from his mobile.

Eventually after much crying and me making him lay down he goes to sleep. Or occasionally I am a bad parent and let him out and make it much harder for the next time. But the doorknob thing cracks me up. I didn't think he paid that much attention.

Oh how I long for the good 'ol days...