Life lately

1. Kathryn loves her little brother.  She is always protecting and comforting him.

2. Making silly pictures with daddy.  I loved watching their faces and hearing them giggle.

3. Max loves these potato head glasses.  He is always asking me to put them on him.  And better yet, he always wants me to wear them too.  Silly boy.

4.  Kathryn started preschool.  We are doing a co-op again this year with the kids who didn't go to kindergarten from last years group.  My sweet friends are teaching the preschool, and picking up and taking Kathryn home.  It's so nice of them to do everything until I can help out more.  Here is Kat looking at Mary Poppins and waiting for her ride on the first day of school.

5. I let Kathryn make rice crispy treats (almost) all by herself.  It went really well until Max climbed up on the chair to help.  He knows how to turn on my gas stove.

6.  Kathryn asked me to teach her how to sew, so I pulled out my embroidery stuff. She stitched this letter K and did an awesome job. The whole time she was working, she sang to herself and repeated over and over how excited she was to show daddy. 

7.  Kat and Max helped me clean the bathrooms.  Max kept scrubbing me with the scrub brush.

8.  Kathryn is my mail girl. She gets the mail for me almost every day.

9.  I love this little scrunchy face.  What a sweet pea.

10.  Maxwell is such a boy.  He plays with his sister's toys just fine, but when it comes right down to it, he loves legos, blocks and cars.  He has awesome concentration and is very good at building things. 

11.  We had family pictures last weekend, and Maxwell was due for a haircut.  I love how he always looks like such a little man afterwards.

12.  Crafting the morning away.  It didn't take too long before Maxwell discovered the glitter glue. 

13.  Cuddling with my baby boy.

Summer Wrap-up

Summer is officially over. I feel like I blinked, and then it was gone.

With all the baby hoopla, I never got around to posting a lot of our summer activities.

It's been on my agenda, but it's kind of hard to get around to posting these days.

However, I got a little motivation from my sister in-law yesterday to finish up.  So here goes...

Row 1: Static hair from cousins' trampoline; Perfect drive-in movie seat for Max; Sidewalk chalk and swimsuits; Bungee jumping at the fair; Picnic at the park.

Row 2: Painting in her art spot; Our favorite country greenhouse; Swimming and picnic with cousin and friend; Intense coloring; Kathryn swinging Max and her baby.

Row 3: In his airplane at my parent's cabin; Yummy popsicles; Cowboy Max; More yummy popsicles; First time to the drive-in with our kids to watch Monster's U. It was sooo HOT and they were crazy.

Row 4: Summer movie with a friend; Petting zoo at the fair; Tallest lego tower; They couldn't resist the pepperoni; Picnic and park with cousin and friend.

Row 5: Unloading the dishwasher; Terrified of the carousel at the fair; Drive-in movie night; Fun with cousin; Playing with the new blocks at the library during summer reading.

2 Months

 

Samuel Dale was officially two months old yesterday.

Two months?!  Where did the time go?

We had an appointment last week with the pediatric pulmonologist.

And Samuel has graduated from 24 hours a day on oxygen, to just having it on at night.

It's a step forward for our sweet little boy.

Samuel is a darling baby.  He is starting to wake up more.

His skin is fair, his hair is light brown and he has beautiful blue eyes.

I have a picture of Kathryn at this same age in the hallway, and they could be twins.

Every time I walk past it, I hold him up and compare their little faces.

 

He is not always the most comfortable baby.  He is extremely gassy and has re-flux.

Which leads to inconsolable crying during the day and night.  He seems to be getting better though...

He loves to be held, although he is not as cuddly as Kathryn and Maxwell were.

His neck is getting stronger and he is growing like a weed.

Kathryn is his second mother and Maxwell likes to sit on him and put things in his mouth.

 We all love this sweet and precious boy.

Sunday

Yesterday was a funny day.  It was funny in a good way though.

I woke up with enough time to get all four of us bathed and ready for church.

Michael was working on a talk and lesson before leaving for an early meeting.

I felt pretty good about everything, although there was a mad dash at the end.

As I went to get the kids in the car, I noticed the keys were missing.

Kathryn admitted to putting them somewhere, but she couldn't remember where.

So I saw it as an opportunity to teach Kathryn about prayer.  We all knelt down.

She asked Heavenly Father to help her remember where the keys were.  She couldn't.

So, I said a prayer. She still couldn't remember. Thankfully, we had a spare set.

We got to church ten minutes late.  I had really hoped to get there on time.

It was our first Sunday in a new ward, and I'd been asked to bear my testimony.  

I had wanted to get there in time to find someone to sit by who could watch my kids while I went up.

No luck. We snuck in the back and sat on one of the last rows. Maxwell found some basketballs.  

He can be so loud when he can't play with what he wants, but I was able to distract him.

I spotted my friend with children the same ages as Kathryn and Maxwell

And another sweet friend came to sit by Samuel.  

Maxwell did not want to go to my friend. He normally loves to be with her.  

He screamed at the top of his lungs for daddy, so Michael hurried to the rescue before it escalated. 

After church, the four of us went home to take a nap while Michael finished up some things.

Maxwell was the first to go down for a nap. It had been a long day for him.

Then I helped Kathryn put a diaper on her baby doll, get it dressed and put it to bed.  

She had to do all of that before she would take a nap.

We talked about her new primary class and friends. She was still a little nervous about it all.

Later that evening,I ambitiously made homemade waffles and eggs for dinner.  

Kathryn helped me with the food while the three boys watched football.  

Maxwell wandered over and begged for a banana.  He stuck around and poked at everything.

And then he threw up all over the floor.

I was glad it was on the tile rather than the carpet we'd just had cleaned the day before.

Michael bathed Maxwell and I cleaned the floor. We both hoped Samuel wouldn't get sick.

Maxwell was quarantined to a blanket in the living room

While we all quietly took turns eating dinner in the kitchen.  We didn't want to make him feel bad.

We watched more football and used lots of hand sanitizer.

Maxwell just couldn't stay on the blanket, so he joined Kathryn in brushing our hair.

After we got up from saying our nightly family prayer, I started thinking about the car keys again.

I wandered over to the bookcase and saw them sitting on top.

Kathryn was already in bed, but I went in to tell her anyway. I told her that Heavenly Father had answered our prayers. It hadn't happened when we'd hoped it would, but he still answered them.

And so far, no one else has gotten sick. We're crossing our fingers!

Three chickens

I love these three little chickens.
They are the reason I get up in the morning and the reason I go to bed at night:)

Hospital days

I'm finally getting around to some pictures of Samuel's birth and hospital stay...

 Sam entered the world like our other kids. Fast, furious and early.

I had a good nurse who was very calming and soothing.

Normally, I pace like a crazy woman to get through the pain.

But this time, I relied on Michael and my nurse much more.

I finally told her it was time to get the doctor in the room.

He arrived, broke my water, and Sam was in my arms five minutes later.

He was such a beautiful little boy. So tiny and sweet.  We noticed his big, full lips right away.

At first we thought he was a mini Max, but then he started to look more like Kat.

He cried immediately after birth, but it took him a long time to cry later.
We didn't have much time to love on him before they sent him over to the NICU.

And the pediatrician soon noticed the symptoms of RDS and put him on a CPAP.
One thing I noticed right away was how blue his hands and feet were.

When Sam was about 30 hours old, they decided to transport him to the Children's Hospital.

Michael went on the fixed wing plane with him since I was still a patient.

A sweet friend helped me check out of the hospital while my parents drove to our home.

We picked up our kids from Michael's parents, went home and packed,

And then my dad drove all of us to the other hospital a few hours away.  I was so anxious to get there.

Samuel ended up being in the NICU for 18 days.  

Sometimes, it seemed like so much longer.

I did learn to appreciate the "short" stay we had compared to the babies born much, much earlier.

I can't even begin to imagine the four and five month stays of some babies.

We are truly grateful for all the kindness and generosity of family and friends.

We were so blessed to have such wonderful people who picked up where we couldn't.

And for Michael to the have the flexibility with his job to do what he needed to do.

 Thank you again for all the love, support and prayers!

Big sister

She sure does love him.

She is fiercely protective and always watching out for him.

And she always wants to do things for him.

She is such a good big sister.