tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932822197954603192023-11-16T00:18:31.248-06:00The Shaw Family BlogFor the whole Dave Shaw family...but currently being dominated by the St. Louis TannersAl and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.comBlogger302125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-25083727864897652912013-05-20T14:59:00.000-05:002013-05-20T14:59:03.368-05:00Catching Up...Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yikes. I got pretty far behind on blogging! This last month has been crazy busy for us and I'm hoping things slow down soon. I don't love being this busy! The memory card was full on my camera and so I decided to see what was on there and came across a ton of pictures that I had forgotten about. These pictures are from when my parents were here at the beginning of April. Houston has had a very cool spring. Definitely the coolest one since we've lived here. I think we were breaking all kinds of records. On this day it was warm enough and James and Avery decided to run through the sprinklers.<br />
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Dane was not a fan of the sprinklers at all! He got pretty wet, which he wasn't happy about. He felt a lot safer when he was on my dad's lap.<br />
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Al had the week off and we went to pick our strawberries at Froberg Farm.<br />
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Dane was in heaven. Strawberries are his favorite food.<br />
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Here he stuffed an entire strawberry in his mouth, right off of the plant.<br />
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James, his bucket almost full. We got a little carried away with the strawberry picking, but we made a ton of freezer jam and Dane was loving eating them at every meal.<br />
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One day we went to the beach. The kids LOVE the beach. They ask to go back all of the time. Maybe we will go more this summer than last. This day was pretty cold, but Avery and James didn't care.<br />
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The water was pretty wild this day. I don't think the pictures do it justice, but it was the craziest water that Al and I have ever seen at Galveston. I didn't really want the kids to go out in it.<br />
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Dane was happy staying dry. He loved walking/running around on the beach. Since it was so cold there was almost nobody there. Dane's goal was to catch one of the birds that was flying around or walking around on the beach. That kept him occupied the whole time. He wasn't successful, but still had fun.<br />
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Dane getting warmed up after running around in the cool air. I don't have any pictures, but right when we were leaving Avery decided to give her left over lunch to the birds. Within seconds she had probably 20-30 birds swarming around her, within a few inches. It was madness!! But she thought it was pretty awesome.Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-90439897927846347172013-04-27T09:14:00.000-05:002013-04-27T09:14:03.143-05:00Happy 4th Birthday, James!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today James turns 4. He has been so excited about this birthday and we have been talking about it for quite some time. He has been trying to grasp the concept of being 3 1/2 and up until a day or two ago he would say he was 3 1/2. Then I would say that he was almost 4. But he thought 3 1/2 sounded older. His birthday celebrating is kind of being spread out over days/weeks this year. Thursday was already blogged about... then today is the actual day, Sunday he will get recognized during primary, Tuesday they are celebrating at preschool, and some day (soon!) he will have his very first birthday party. I just need to see what Al's May schedule is like so he can be around to help me.<br />
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We love James very much. There is just something about him...that is makes him so lovable. I don't know what it is.<br />
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Here are some things about James at 4:<br />
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-His favorite color is green. I thought it was just because Avery's favorite color is green, but he has consistently said green for quite a while now.<br />
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-He loves Chick fil A. Loves. But he doesn't want to be bothered with the waffle fries. He just wants the chicken.<br />
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-His favorite book is Little Blue Truck. We've read it so many times. It is a very cute story. For his birthday he got the sequel and he was super excited.<br />
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-James will often make statements like, "When I was a baby..." or he will tell me about something that he used to love/a place he went/something he did when he was a baby. They are always random, always made up, sometimes very outlandish statements.<br />
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-He still loves to suck his thumb and rub the skin on his belly button.<br />
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-He is the cuddliest little guy I've ever known. He would cuddle all day long if time allowed.<br />
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-James follows most statements he makes with "right?" at the end. All day long. All day. He has a lot of stuff to talk about. "Mom, I am strong, right?" "Pepperoni is spicy, right?" "It's foggy outside, right?" "It's almost my birthday, right?" "We live in Houston, right?" "Birds like to fly, right?" I love this about him. Occasionally I will have to tell him that it's quiet time, my mind needs a rest. I remember one morning in particular we were driving to preschool and it had been just non-stop, rapid-fire statements/questions. When James said, "A hippo could bite me, right?" I told him that we needed just a little bit of quiet time.<br />
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-He wants to play with friends all day, every day. I arrange quite a few play dates for him after preschool, and he is always so excited. A couple of his BFFs are moving in a month and he will be crushed. I am sad for him. Luckily he has a couple of buddies that will still be around. Even if James has been playing all day long, after the friend leaves, he wants to know who else can come over. It's a little bit of a challenge for me because I don't really love/need to have people over that much! But it is good for him.<br />
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-James recently completed a little gymnastics class through the city. He LOVED it. I signed him up on a whim, thinking they would just do some running, stretching, whatever. James has a ton of energy and he needs some structure and things to keep him busy. I was pleasantly surprised when we showed up and it was kind of a legit gymnastics class! They did all kinds of stuff on the uneven bars, balance beam, vault, and trampoline. It was a cool little class. I am hoping to sign him up for another one.<br />
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-Some of James' favorites include: holidays and decorating for holidays, candy- he could eat it all day every day, pizza, cheese, cereal, strawberries, Super Mario anything, hex bugs, cars, trains, playing the wii/DS/leappad, Tom & Jerry cartoons, visiting Utah, his grandparents, going to preschool<br />
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-James is a sweet little guy and very loving. Occasionally he will have a burst of rage/temper. It is a little bit amusing, but it lands him in his room for some quiet time.<br />
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-He has the loudest voice. It carries very well. We have to remind him very often to use his 'inside voice.' When he was a baby he had the teeniest, softest cry. Somehow he went from that to full volume.<br />
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Well, I could go on forever here. James has such a big personality. But these are a few things I want to remember about him at this age. Happy birthday, Jamie!!<br />
Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-58558101703670936352013-02-15T21:18:00.001-06:002013-02-15T21:18:25.376-06:00Avery Lately<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Avery's been a busy little gal lately. Last week they had a 'free dress' day at school. Avery was so excited. The first outfit I put together for her she rejected. Avery is usually pretty relaxed about what I pick out for her, but she said the first outfit looked to much like dress code. Honestly, her winter wardrobe is pretty sad because almost all of it is dress code. So I pulled out a new shirt I had got her for summer. She was very happy with the second outfit choice :) James wanted to get in on this picture. Look at his hair! He was long overdue for a cut.<br />
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Avery, looking happy and excited about free dress day.<br />
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Not the best picture, but Avery wore her new skirt I made her for church on Sunday. We were in a hurry and I didn't have time to straighten everything out before the pictures, but I just wanted to document that she wore something I made! It's a little bit big on the waist...it kept falling down. Oh well. Maybe she can wear it for the next few years ;)<br />
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I was asked to help out at Avery's Valentine party at school. They had little ice cream sundaes. The parties at her school are on the small/dull side. They usually have just refreshments- no games, crafts, etc. So basically my assignment was to go around and see if kids wanted sprinkles on their ice cream.<br />
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Had to get this cute picture of Dane in. He got a bubble gun for Valentine's Day and as you can tell by his face he loved it. We was laughing out loud at the bubbles.<br />
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Today was a big day for Avery at school. She got a special reading award. The entire first grade lined the main hallway at school. At the end of the parade were the principal and vice principal. The principal called out Avery's name over the microphone and then the whole first grade chanted, "Avery! Avery! Avery! Avery!" while they clapped as Avery walked down the parade<br />
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When she got to the principals they put a special shirt she was awarded on her.<br />
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I didn't get a picture of it, but then they each held up one of Avery's hands/arms and then they yelled, "Yeah!!!"<br />
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Here is the group of first graders that got recognized at this awards program.<br />
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And here are all 3, at the school. See Dane? That is how he felt about the parade. He hated it. He cried through the whole thing because of the noise. Then James started to get fired up because he wanted to be in the group shot with all of the first graders that got awards. By the time the parade was over there was only an hour left of school and the principals said I could take Avery home with me...and Avery said she wanted to stay!! What?! Who doesn't take a get out of school free opportunity?! Then James started to bawl because he wanted Avery to come home with us. Sigh. Some times I think it would be nice to have Al around to help me wrestle the kids at things like this!<br />
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I am proud of Avery! She is a good student and I am happy the school here does such neat and special things for the kids who do well in school.<br />
Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-1326265246749782062013-02-06T09:25:00.003-06:002013-02-06T09:25:59.735-06:00Avery's 7th Birthday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Avery had a great birthday this year. She chose to go eat at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. That is her favorite place. She loves the steak bites. A birthday bonus: kids eat free on Monday nights! I am pretty sure that free steak bites are even more delicious than regular steak bites. After dinner we came home and it was present time!<br />
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Avery got a lot of fun little things. I think the thing she liked best from me and Al was her glow in the dark hexbug. One of the things she got was the new Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet. She collects all of the Fancy Nancy books. It is the cutest book- the pictures and story are adorable. I highly recommend it. She got some Fancy Nancy chapter books too that they are just starting to come out with. Also very cute.<br />
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James wanted to try out Avery's new hair brush.<br />
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Avery got the American Girl trundle bed for her doll. She was super excited. I am sure McKenna will love it too.<br />
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The cake was a last minute decision, hence the #1 candle...which sort of looks like a #7, right?! It was the only candle we had. I thought we could just get a dessert at the restaurant since she is having a cake at her party. Al thought that was a bad parenting move and said she needed a cake. I think Al really wanted chocolate cake... Any how, we ran and picked one up at Sam's Club that afternoon. Avery was happy with chocolate cake too. I think Al was right. It was good we got to sing to Avery and have her blow out the #1 candle.<br />
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On her actual birthday the boys and I met Avery at school for lunch. It was a little hectic, but fun. James was very excited to be at the big school. I wasn't feeling super great that day, but one of Avery's class mates said, "Hey, look! Avery's sister is here!" and that made me feel a whole lot better. Avery's sister that is towing an almost 4 year old and a baby... :) Ha ha ha! Kids are funny.<br />
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And here is Avery with her cute teacher, Ms. Frost. I dropped off some treat bags for Avery's class, which is why Ms. Frost is carrying around a Target bag. That is what they do at school here (everywhere?). You take treat bags with little goodies and pencils, erasers, etc. It gets expensive! But Avery was so happy and excited that it was worth it.<br />
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You can see on Avery's hoodie, the birthday badge. She also got a goodie bag from the front office, her name announced during morning announcements, and her biggest highlight of the day....<br />
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She got to go down to the front office and say the Pledge of Allegiance to the whole school over the office intercom. She thought that was pretty fantastic. She also got to say the Texas pledge of Allegiance which is very similar to the regular pledge, but shorter.<br />
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We are happy that we got to have such a fun couple of days celebrating Avery. She loved the phone calls and attention from her loved ones.<br />
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Next up: Valentine's Day, Al's birthday, and Avery's Super Mario party. This month is crazy! I asked Al what kind of cake he wants for his birthday and after polishing off Dane's huge cake, and still working on Avery's he said he might be done with cake for a while :)<br />
Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-2213023255044506102013-02-05T12:31:00.003-06:002013-02-05T12:31:39.438-06:00Happy 7th Birthday, Avery!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today our sweet Vee Vee turns 7! I can't believe that she is 7 already...that sounds so much older than 6 for some reason! We celebrated her birthday yesterday so that Al could be with us and so I will add pictures later. Today the boys and I are going to the school to have lunch with her and then she is having a little friends birthday party at the end of the month.<br />
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Some things about Avery at 7:<br />
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- She is a sweet girl. She is usually very willing to share, even without being prompted.<br />
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- Avery does well at school and enjoys it.<br />
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- She has lost 7 teeth now and that top left permanent tooth is finally making an appearance!<br />
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- Avery loves music on the radio, and she still loves Taylor Swift the most.<br />
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- She has just started taking piano lessons from a girl in the ward. Her first song is Mary Had a Little Lamb :)<br />
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- Avery is the 3rd girl in her dance class to do the 'seal pose' and they have to do it so that their feet cover their eyes and can play peek-a-boo. Her teacher makes a big deal about it and gives them a prize. It's pretty crazy how flexible little kids are!<br />
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- She can be quite dramatic...! At a recent trip to the park Avery fell off the swing (a small fall) and she declared that this park "was the worst park ever!!!" And after seeing what happened when she woke up with a bloody nose yesterday I think it is safe to say that she will not follow in Al's footsteps and become a doctor, like she once claimed :)<br />
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- Avery is a collector. American Girls stuff, little trinkets, jewelry, notebooks, stickers, pens and pencils etc.<br />
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- Her favorite foods are meatballs and steak<br />
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- She LOVES both sets of grandparents. She asks almost every day when can we move to Utah/Idaho...<br />
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- At a recent church activity, while playing a getting to know you game, Avery said about herself, "I love the color green...no matter what!" This is very true. Sometimes she will add that she likes purple and hot pink second best.<br />
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- Avery has some strong interests in: Super Mario anything, volcanoes, the color green, the wii, holidays in general, crafting especially if it involves scissors, wearing new clothes (but not shopping), wishing/wanting to see snow, going to the movies, still loves Tinkerbell.<br />
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We love Aves so much. She is a great big sister. She is funny, loving, spunky and smart. We are so grateful that we have been blessed with her.<br />
Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-74726644560808519852013-02-02T09:30:00.002-06:002013-02-02T09:30:26.014-06:00BEAR Night<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last night was a big night for Avery. She was invited to attend the BEAR party at her school. It is once a year, for 1st-4th graders and it celebrates kids who have achieved excellence in both conduct and reading. I dropped Avery off at school at 6pm to start the evening. The school was really organized about dividing kids by grade, parents having to sign kids in, etc. so I wasn't worried about leaving her.<br />
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On the ride to the school Avery asking about which kids would be at the party and I told her it was the ones that never 'clipped down' at school and also did all of the required reading. She said she felt bad for the kids that didn't get invited and she didn't know if it seemed 'fair.' Sweet Avery. I explained that it definitely was fair. Everybody had the same opportunity to behave well in school and to do their reading and maybe they didn't make the best choices. She seemed happy with that answer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjRRG6EKsRipumunmZCFLitF-cFC2tacWufMsg13CQgOpAo9lsBKWZuc4tF1HyCbqgY5CsRdP-Lnx-pjpmQR4T4cG6kreopI08L9ueQh7wY4H7-jkVwuzpudfQXiUj3QnpEDESPPcVh6k/s1600/062s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjRRG6EKsRipumunmZCFLitF-cFC2tacWufMsg13CQgOpAo9lsBKWZuc4tF1HyCbqgY5CsRdP-Lnx-pjpmQR4T4cG6kreopI08L9ueQh7wY4H7-jkVwuzpudfQXiUj3QnpEDESPPcVh6k/s320/062s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
The party started in the cafeteria. As we walked in they handed her a purple tote bag to hold all of her goodies from the night. They also took her ticket to enter it into a raffle. There were a lot of school staff and parent volunteers/PTA members running the show inside. Avery was seated at the 1st grade table and was served pizza right away. I got this picture, but as you can tell Avery was a little to anxious/distracted to bother with pictures. The kids didn't have to wear school uniforms to the party and there was a lot of excitement/buzz about that.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKNEZPsnzlqEFiYBlqQiCxQ910OvGwnozJL0PfZzhK-qLd8QHapkTHATUwK496ol-ux93fq2InQbpqmYooKKJ2JCWCQtNvN9a7lEGcaxiDi6_CU8_A5nXUcXtKjFhud1_63Xre23Q2c7M/s1600/063s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKNEZPsnzlqEFiYBlqQiCxQ910OvGwnozJL0PfZzhK-qLd8QHapkTHATUwK496ol-ux93fq2InQbpqmYooKKJ2JCWCQtNvN9a7lEGcaxiDi6_CU8_A5nXUcXtKjFhud1_63Xre23Q2c7M/s320/063s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 16.35416603088379px;">And Avery, checking out her empty tote. After this I headed out to enrichment and left Avery to her party. I picked her up at 9 and she was bubbling with news about the festivities. She had a tote bag full of stuff she had collected. She won two books at various games they played. She also had some pictures that her and her friends had taken at a photo booth- They were all dressed up in hats, mustaches, glasses, etc. Then she had a school pencil, cup, etc. I guess there used to be some treats in there too, but she ate those before I picked her up :) </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 16.35416603088379px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 16.35416603088379px;">I am glad that Avery got to have this fun party at school. She is a good girl and student and it's nice to show kids that being well behaved and a hard worker is rewarding.</span></span><br />
Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-47272973681630939312013-01-29T14:41:00.001-06:002013-01-29T14:41:34.350-06:00Dane's 1 year appointment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsjuUFDR7o3GQOy-a7H7pLEUNebfJ78S24sjgE8fhPRsWhFWa3j38jwGHS1w0L1MbBxj_RyDSST9kvJpTtZy6ADadAr34s7QMu2NFIRZ-gO5c1_rTQsPaRaMRtalAc3KIs4Nn9GE033Q/s1600/060s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsjuUFDR7o3GQOy-a7H7pLEUNebfJ78S24sjgE8fhPRsWhFWa3j38jwGHS1w0L1MbBxj_RyDSST9kvJpTtZy6ADadAr34s7QMu2NFIRZ-gO5c1_rTQsPaRaMRtalAc3KIs4Nn9GE033Q/s320/060s.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I took Dane in today for his one year check-up. He is a healthy little guy and growing very consistently.<br />
<br />
Weight- 21 lbs. 14 oz- 50th percentile<br />
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Length- 29 3/4 inches- 50th percentile<br />
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Head- I don't remember the number, but it was 50th percentile :)<br />
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Now I just need to work on getting him off of bottles and onto sippy cups. I'm always a bit behind on that one. Oh well! Next up is Avery's 7 year old appointment in a week or two. I am anxious to see how much she's grown. She seems to be so much taller recently! Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-19574031911813562652013-01-28T09:24:00.002-06:002013-01-28T09:24:45.193-06:00Dane's First Birthday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn0yZ1T-HjQuD6nK_CwKxCPc2vDTo0V2ldk2QHarVuixar9U8Pquqb-pA-ZdLPuIuauDJYddUX2sHlRgkgop1oKlaCxrH2ZyUn9Ztn-P3wQok5IqbucM3p3WhfQ2XSFeRYTtneeZ1t4DI/s1600/020s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn0yZ1T-HjQuD6nK_CwKxCPc2vDTo0V2ldk2QHarVuixar9U8Pquqb-pA-ZdLPuIuauDJYddUX2sHlRgkgop1oKlaCxrH2ZyUn9Ztn-P3wQok5IqbucM3p3WhfQ2XSFeRYTtneeZ1t4DI/s320/020s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;">This was a picture I took on Dane's actual birthday. James was sitting up on the bar stool eating popcorn and Dane was waiting underneath, grabbing all of the popcorn that fell down his way. Look at that face!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3JiLIB0eNBKp5_TknLeTXV68NYymTdG_0_l0QcXTBdVUf_3VmSSahyphenhyphenrDOQwOuBVGf3cbgvEwj22TZik_a1MLTq0ti34iki9xGtBSvUbU3V_8mkn__AIW6It0OQzurdejGQTR-qU1A-_Y/s1600/022s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3JiLIB0eNBKp5_TknLeTXV68NYymTdG_0_l0QcXTBdVUf_3VmSSahyphenhyphenrDOQwOuBVGf3cbgvEwj22TZik_a1MLTq0ti34iki9xGtBSvUbU3V_8mkn__AIW6It0OQzurdejGQTR-qU1A-_Y/s320/022s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;">We celebrated Dane's birthday on Friday. Al had the whole day off and was able to come to the zoo with us. We let Avery stay home from school to participate in the festivities. It was the perfect weather for the zoo and probably the least crowded I've ever seen our zoo...so that was nice.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_pUdfQfStHORQwxF8IBgBZ6jQlnqu-S9YWjwPp_txFkNieTAgG8SSbwYC9EsNO_Tj_Z5n-ZeSIo1yPstsQI3X2EzW23QyIAF4gEOD9l050lopQD37GQhl1XdaVOYpL8OIDl15OiOeZow/s1600/023s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_pUdfQfStHORQwxF8IBgBZ6jQlnqu-S9YWjwPp_txFkNieTAgG8SSbwYC9EsNO_Tj_Z5n-ZeSIo1yPstsQI3X2EzW23QyIAF4gEOD9l050lopQD37GQhl1XdaVOYpL8OIDl15OiOeZow/s320/023s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;">Dane, looking like a big 1 year old!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQerrCWwgYOxpv3-J2MFtoUUVt7tzcrahPjvs1b43B2SuNYdao_gj2ErmSuKApUR15dnh9w-BNP-ZYVocCnOAtgkdVJhLAnBWF_aKZEcvSdlFrLwBdrKyGrvova7Hs5U3TwQzWMfegdY/s1600/024s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQerrCWwgYOxpv3-J2MFtoUUVt7tzcrahPjvs1b43B2SuNYdao_gj2ErmSuKApUR15dnh9w-BNP-ZYVocCnOAtgkdVJhLAnBWF_aKZEcvSdlFrLwBdrKyGrvova7Hs5U3TwQzWMfegdY/s320/024s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;">Avery, looking very grown up- almost 7! She is next up in our crazy month of birthdays.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR1oSpUfZ32xmrWbs_LciPfVGXlmozEMDq2xPOLMFor7gRpb3aOHd6wsj8adoa3yAiAp9GrCX-yw0oyjWnsnzZYrUcwhjfW-p1ojjhNFQILG3Hh2AXB3deaVor_43Ei4H1k_eTVWBmTYI/s1600/028s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR1oSpUfZ32xmrWbs_LciPfVGXlmozEMDq2xPOLMFor7gRpb3aOHd6wsj8adoa3yAiAp9GrCX-yw0oyjWnsnzZYrUcwhjfW-p1ojjhNFQILG3Hh2AXB3deaVor_43Ei4H1k_eTVWBmTYI/s320/028s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"> Not a great picture by any means, but this is Dane's first ride on a carousel. He liked looking up at the top and watching the mechanics of it all.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcNdzN91I5MT-7k3y4Sc1MhNcmeY4XLKe3jz_pLCVu637Iwbf4M8yLcJKhyphenhyphenet-0RCkAfYdC0IyflAY2DHX7BP4RrK9Fs8GU7uV2gPfjlT-BCfFqoPhrXB-_GATlJNwX5eNAlSOyeC4qs/s1600/029s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcNdzN91I5MT-7k3y4Sc1MhNcmeY4XLKe3jz_pLCVu637Iwbf4M8yLcJKhyphenhyphenet-0RCkAfYdC0IyflAY2DHX7BP4RrK9Fs8GU7uV2gPfjlT-BCfFqoPhrXB-_GATlJNwX5eNAlSOyeC4qs/s320/029s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"> After the zoo we headed over to Costco for some pizza. Here is Dane with a mouthful of crust. We also had to pick up a cake...I had baked him a cake the day before and one of the layers got stuck in the pan and came out in pieces. I was sad because I had decorated a cute cake for my other kids first birthdays, but it wasn't going to happen this time.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3EKy8Dyr5VYfIOgWukdHUe53p3tp7zCQM2BMxQNm42CJS2gRdr-rUdx58ep_rTg3PNWA5n6f-DQlwcQdQzNWjOxlodGU-4QjBtqgCZ3loAdIyR_JLbX6IK2uYrV4WUHWfy66ThOYRMjM/s1600/032s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3EKy8Dyr5VYfIOgWukdHUe53p3tp7zCQM2BMxQNm42CJS2gRdr-rUdx58ep_rTg3PNWA5n6f-DQlwcQdQzNWjOxlodGU-4QjBtqgCZ3loAdIyR_JLbX6IK2uYrV4WUHWfy66ThOYRMjM/s320/032s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;">Dane, after his nap, excited about the presents.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh41ZrbBmACXzq-KZK1UEroT_RT0r5AUjzvghhBAa8TDLqk46NhtuivmuU2JQfFoKFy0widfA3KZvuG-peqwRfqp1jjF-XssIiELtGgD5FD6wHUE2SCkijGRkHWqU_1HLX5iR1_xsyK2fU/s1600/034s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh41ZrbBmACXzq-KZK1UEroT_RT0r5AUjzvghhBAa8TDLqk46NhtuivmuU2JQfFoKFy0widfA3KZvuG-peqwRfqp1jjF-XssIiELtGgD5FD6wHUE2SCkijGRkHWqU_1HLX5iR1_xsyK2fU/s320/034s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"> And he actually tried to open the presents! He ripped off paper without being prompted. I don't know if he remembers because Christmas wasn't that long ago or what, but he was a champ. And what he couldn't/didn't do James was more than happy to help with.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0tVm0I02gVe4ekmCUbJJi2EPEhVT4cIMzzF8t8Toe_CERXPMACFF6SowPXMhIUwTsRe59P5noC5vVYwrjY4hS0taQ1jXABdFhrkOxAbfgXw2-jFSyHAz7OumU8O9A2js2xqvfHzyo2BE/s1600/039s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0tVm0I02gVe4ekmCUbJJi2EPEhVT4cIMzzF8t8Toe_CERXPMACFF6SowPXMhIUwTsRe59P5noC5vVYwrjY4hS0taQ1jXABdFhrkOxAbfgXw2-jFSyHAz7OumU8O9A2js2xqvfHzyo2BE/s320/039s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"> Here he is opening his big gift from us. He got the zoo talker train to go with his zoo and other animals. He also got the zoo talker jeep and most of the rest of the animals he was missing. They are the most adorable toys and Dane loves them. So do Avery and James :)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIksl99R5cFwKbcF7g-9w7Xdpobd9tgmAeWjYOsdrgCzcZjRoAgG4ZASr42lTqXwQmkpgy_4hgORod1Q1osLz47J29m0e7F1_W8lwV1LHNHrbs0SK_sKUFp5jg-Syn_WgvZOof5tQ5B2c/s1600/044s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIksl99R5cFwKbcF7g-9w7Xdpobd9tgmAeWjYOsdrgCzcZjRoAgG4ZASr42lTqXwQmkpgy_4hgORod1Q1osLz47J29m0e7F1_W8lwV1LHNHrbs0SK_sKUFp5jg-Syn_WgvZOof5tQ5B2c/s320/044s.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"> Getting ready for dinner. We had some of Dane's favorites- Chicken noodle soup and strawberries</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG6HmJcEzqVc1NAvcNDlWgrXMExBfILCvH-UJvG39rixgTGoY0usiwqz6ZtG1ACAAkJbapGt4mY_eq0TaDCI_nLaQGrH-k8vDCjcRh_eKkVJRecFXizb8EXF6XpGEYgz4cDEOdVpItHq8/s1600/047s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG6HmJcEzqVc1NAvcNDlWgrXMExBfILCvH-UJvG39rixgTGoY0usiwqz6ZtG1ACAAkJbapGt4mY_eq0TaDCI_nLaQGrH-k8vDCjcRh_eKkVJRecFXizb8EXF6XpGEYgz4cDEOdVpItHq8/s320/047s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"> Here is Dane's 'zoo' cake...or dinosaur cake :) He loved the candle and being sung to.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfNE-dGVxBEglqup1tUWv1j8jSo8J3lnX3ACoviQ8WM6l5GdpE5Y-mUJxDaBNtQX__-kPYSxqmLuhuS8j_tP9qKOaW-GtC5O1GIxOXHgghKITET8OSZGWDpD8w3TwUP2_xK8h4dcd4nsY/s1600/051s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfNE-dGVxBEglqup1tUWv1j8jSo8J3lnX3ACoviQ8WM6l5GdpE5Y-mUJxDaBNtQX__-kPYSxqmLuhuS8j_tP9qKOaW-GtC5O1GIxOXHgghKITET8OSZGWDpD8w3TwUP2_xK8h4dcd4nsY/s320/051s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"> Dane is our first baby that didn't cry or show complete disinterest in the cake. We didn't even have to force his hand into the cake. He went for it with gusto and loved it.</span><span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHfi_u1s728I6q_5QjRkqXEtomlG9khdUJOtJ22AMCYYGbDhGs4jCWE6vHJXwFHtA7-tpsi7tl6uRK1PamuDmDJUiSkARgikiHKAYp_bpvIpnLnZrVKH5E5gVVnJzmYR0bLAOk3KF1kAk/s1600/055s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHfi_u1s728I6q_5QjRkqXEtomlG9khdUJOtJ22AMCYYGbDhGs4jCWE6vHJXwFHtA7-tpsi7tl6uRK1PamuDmDJUiSkARgikiHKAYp_bpvIpnLnZrVKH5E5gVVnJzmYR0bLAOk3KF1kAk/s320/055s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: #ad966c; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.363636016845703px;"> And after a while he threw manners out the window and just put his whole face down on his piece of cake.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jdA5gmEo40ETEDhDQBnbDlrpO8UxH3GrnwVogXEbPsWeryyMsS03-LYk9TGOH50nbBhx_HkSFT7Jq-4cxU2KqYwf7ouB_MCHq05Gep3HJ2xMyqHF9j6YROtHRdwPKggxpnjjqapTkVA/s1600/056s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jdA5gmEo40ETEDhDQBnbDlrpO8UxH3GrnwVogXEbPsWeryyMsS03-LYk9TGOH50nbBhx_HkSFT7Jq-4cxU2KqYwf7ouB_MCHq05Gep3HJ2xMyqHF9j6YROtHRdwPKggxpnjjqapTkVA/s320/056s.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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It was a great first birthday. We love our sweet Dane-y so much and were so glad we got to have a fun day celebrating him.<div style="clear: both;">
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Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-70316118858913124102012-04-15T15:08:00.002-05:002012-04-15T15:12:18.748-05:00Dane Talking<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyXpyh8By5zMkYnhsWrdJWnuuYQvRgMz6G7QzZYRxJpfyjfLfRLPzc7um9ZAMnefY9EfG6LwArKQRjNWKOFgw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-72634331275246319892012-04-09T16:21:00.006-05:002012-04-09T16:23:46.317-05:00All Smiles<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcW7jfGZ9PDf2_Y0SW0BAE8_cJEhj5QSbemmUJi3gCElOJvMOdF49tZgJovfDZNuCFzXbXemrKKLdTFpkW34u0w2vafUFZdmDELGv5akBjNphcVjyfInfqhgDmyStptf7oEXk_P3LDKc/s1600/041s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcW7jfGZ9PDf2_Y0SW0BAE8_cJEhj5QSbemmUJi3gCElOJvMOdF49tZgJovfDZNuCFzXbXemrKKLdTFpkW34u0w2vafUFZdmDELGv5akBjNphcVjyfInfqhgDmyStptf7oEXk_P3LDKc/s320/041s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729514626341989890" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Sz-vnyCJrTpnlmEHPgbPA7DwrFV4-5V6mFsRQJbHC88xaD5D4oTBhMmTzZMTC8LG26jQD8t1C8ilkdrowWGtQD-UbAW_AjZ1Xz-GsVil8Zj-LOmCeWLsxBNXhn6BbPwXAQW02FkycpE/s1600/042s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Sz-vnyCJrTpnlmEHPgbPA7DwrFV4-5V6mFsRQJbHC88xaD5D4oTBhMmTzZMTC8LG26jQD8t1C8ilkdrowWGtQD-UbAW_AjZ1Xz-GsVil8Zj-LOmCeWLsxBNXhn6BbPwXAQW02FkycpE/s320/042s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729514547462729138" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNFgSonLqmLrn6qSZ4x6K6dqJHCPP3hCJqIfaBba7wbbFR4pFOCYBm_gct61D9ZFrq9Y11gPgM9QbE2BIBaJVT15ocNgMb7OzYMtsVPF8h-aQ-eOwOUgUcmQE2xUCNKh4_JeSdYJ8I_TU/s1600/043s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNFgSonLqmLrn6qSZ4x6K6dqJHCPP3hCJqIfaBba7wbbFR4pFOCYBm_gct61D9ZFrq9Y11gPgM9QbE2BIBaJVT15ocNgMb7OzYMtsVPF8h-aQ-eOwOUgUcmQE2xUCNKh4_JeSdYJ8I_TU/s320/043s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729514477125472642" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKc9J-8XNxfCOPk1DZfZWOnqJ_OCcNPCetd2_jox31IHW8KBWft5ojPGVjZ-Oe8zDuC4lNZ-eTweMzxVH402r_B-LAr-sHY4M62E4oLpiPM5j-seUw9lYM1kMl9VDCr3PQxDH9k_vkBzo/s1600/044s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKc9J-8XNxfCOPk1DZfZWOnqJ_OCcNPCetd2_jox31IHW8KBWft5ojPGVjZ-Oe8zDuC4lNZ-eTweMzxVH402r_B-LAr-sHY4M62E4oLpiPM5j-seUw9lYM1kMl9VDCr3PQxDH9k_vkBzo/s320/044s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729514413687028866" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBmtBP74GSlRMy6dDy8tSL1htl_62IsCDu43QImx0NyOT-zYKUmHFUPD8dehUgD10ae0hqgkkfamDcBoKjPFUFUfKF_E9JV_DK0_40JRawGqeZK78Ke0K0TrOwHjVMWUMgmPxzeGjCLyM/s1600/048s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBmtBP74GSlRMy6dDy8tSL1htl_62IsCDu43QImx0NyOT-zYKUmHFUPD8dehUgD10ae0hqgkkfamDcBoKjPFUFUfKF_E9JV_DK0_40JRawGqeZK78Ke0K0TrOwHjVMWUMgmPxzeGjCLyM/s320/048s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729514320836283890" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLFgQntFsjy5P-CIun7sOqQGcrew3oWetusDPXkQ0VkS-vxrkrAbSBCEVNKXgeoOTc43MGwUB1GSZPisXE_JOKiq0DambQ8ZriCmHoCbpsH1TAg5WV86EGxk4E4RmqGcMG5LCNBEdY284/s1600/049s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLFgQntFsjy5P-CIun7sOqQGcrew3oWetusDPXkQ0VkS-vxrkrAbSBCEVNKXgeoOTc43MGwUB1GSZPisXE_JOKiq0DambQ8ZriCmHoCbpsH1TAg5WV86EGxk4E4RmqGcMG5LCNBEdY284/s320/049s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5729514259904446434" /></a><br />Well, there are a lot of pictures in this series, but honestly, how could I choose?! He kills me! He just could not be any cuter. And the dimples...sigh. It makes me want to squeeze him right now!Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-43372808095499787482012-04-01T07:59:00.006-05:002012-04-01T08:02:31.653-05:002 Months Old<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkbQlVYuiDT7FfsS8EzsBilt9cOd-x7DVWmnq12t32Hd_mH4ljCt5fSII1xtGssLAkFuQrr_0_J3kj33YTyAY3hIp0xrKmprcwhdKx6CJxfIF4ZGI73yQ__TQahv0yUrV_rYxCxmv8Gc/s1600/006s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkbQlVYuiDT7FfsS8EzsBilt9cOd-x7DVWmnq12t32Hd_mH4ljCt5fSII1xtGssLAkFuQrr_0_J3kj33YTyAY3hIp0xrKmprcwhdKx6CJxfIF4ZGI73yQ__TQahv0yUrV_rYxCxmv8Gc/s320/006s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5726416669779232178" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTDE4F876bTiknpIZn8MUxUIP7VnR1QopwBeheCu-HHAMQH8tYmA3isFocnSYsubs7EZn0i40sUNIVD4inRUVF8UN_pBq1N-Cfq72Gjtpk4SiY_gyZUYx3pywHlb1yHHeIJFp9KAVOJ5U/s1600/007s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTDE4F876bTiknpIZn8MUxUIP7VnR1QopwBeheCu-HHAMQH8tYmA3isFocnSYsubs7EZn0i40sUNIVD4inRUVF8UN_pBq1N-Cfq72Gjtpk4SiY_gyZUYx3pywHlb1yHHeIJFp9KAVOJ5U/s320/007s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5726416600541454690" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUGKlHjZ49peZLbWomt70589FYPnqj_i2G6UI9sno64BZUiviVRlk6OCxfmCMRteHE9JOLxZNpjGOmwWzEuZsFXbo_Qie1T5EZmCuqblvRdiPINjxexEC_Z5JiVXIVUyXxO3KslVKfqHE/s1600/009s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUGKlHjZ49peZLbWomt70589FYPnqj_i2G6UI9sno64BZUiviVRlk6OCxfmCMRteHE9JOLxZNpjGOmwWzEuZsFXbo_Qie1T5EZmCuqblvRdiPINjxexEC_Z5JiVXIVUyXxO3KslVKfqHE/s400/009s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5726416514781121010" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgac122ff-wSsKCBJibpG3UzY2S9ULIzNcFanP4viIBZV0sN4xT-Bsg5x0Dy_WpNlDcV9xjOJLM6s3YLgZEU0Lj-0UbFmKBJAJqZoNOgmTULoK60_Z3sVxKVudDauhzNsLn2ZeNUofP-2U/s1600/011s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgac122ff-wSsKCBJibpG3UzY2S9ULIzNcFanP4viIBZV0sN4xT-Bsg5x0Dy_WpNlDcV9xjOJLM6s3YLgZEU0Lj-0UbFmKBJAJqZoNOgmTULoK60_Z3sVxKVudDauhzNsLn2ZeNUofP-2U/s320/011s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5726416441587989986" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9qOmAnH_R91uSYB82Zxcb2AaC7A6RyMuuGle4yBzHkBQPwcR1OhDurJu3qebKYwd5w6eHPNj2AfszPgLJkT0_tLp48cXJ08s1I0eBckYFDghaUCOxJJH6g9v3jPLOV9zFcXgu7R8iz8/s1600/020s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9qOmAnH_R91uSYB82Zxcb2AaC7A6RyMuuGle4yBzHkBQPwcR1OhDurJu3qebKYwd5w6eHPNj2AfszPgLJkT0_tLp48cXJ08s1I0eBckYFDghaUCOxJJH6g9v3jPLOV9zFcXgu7R8iz8/s320/020s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5726416337324110530" /></a><br />Dane had his 2 month old check up on March 20th, combined with his second meningitis follow up appointment. The doctor was very pleased with how well Dane looked. He is completely healthy now and is such a sweet baby. The doctor talked again about how scary meningitis is and that he is so happy that Dane is doing so great. I think I have a little Post Traumatic Stress Disorder...on a very small level. Some times I will be driving around town, or at home and out of nowhere it will hit me how sad and scary that all was and I'll get a sense of panic and teary-eyed. But then I always tell myself that he's okay, that it could have been so so much worse, and I just need to get over it. We had ward conference last week, our first Sunday back since Dane got sick, and our stake president told the story of how his grandpa got bacterial meningitis and was in the hospital for months and completely and permanently lost his short term memory as a result and couldn't work afterwards, etc. I sat and listened and got that teary-eyed and panicked feeling. Again...it could have been so so much worse for Dane. But he is fine. He is more than fine!!<br /><br />Dane weighed in at 12 pounds 1.5 ounces, which puts him in the 50th percentile for weight. He measured 22 1/2 inches, which puts him in the 50th percentile for height.<br /><br />Dane got s few shots and an oral vaccination. One of the vaccinations was for bacterial meningitis...so I don't need to worry about that anymore! Again, Dane didn't cry for the shots. He just whimpered a tiny bit and then that was it. He's so brave! He was a little cranky and feverish for the rest of the day, but not too bad.<br /><br />Dane is starting to smile so much and it's adorable. His dimples kill me. He is also cooing in response to me and Al talking to him. We have been putting him on his tummy more and he doesn't mind it at all and lifts his head up so well. And his sleeping has gotten really good! He sort of has a bed time now, around 9, then will wake up around 3 and then again for the day at 7. He is popular with strangers...which is good and bad. They are drawn in by his hair. I like the attention, but I am leery of germs. Dane is still such a good and sweet baby. He is very content. The only thing that really bothers him is an upset tummy. He definitely struggles with that and it usually seems to bother him the most at night.Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-23822502788012409862012-03-17T14:35:00.005-05:002012-03-17T14:36:35.197-05:00Viral Meningitis<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGn33RxjsTAfxKGBeE6ZjeVJmRIwBahv-xNrf76tW3NCNaiEypcsd0gf0E2tmimyE1Uu-FI39wkB9r0g2VRNA74SdM7guLLY-kVrzenzDy5D4YVE4LIDGkdUlaic65fTV8EnEGD7ZaCFU/s1600/001s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGn33RxjsTAfxKGBeE6ZjeVJmRIwBahv-xNrf76tW3NCNaiEypcsd0gf0E2tmimyE1Uu-FI39wkB9r0g2VRNA74SdM7guLLY-kVrzenzDy5D4YVE4LIDGkdUlaic65fTV8EnEGD7ZaCFU/s320/001s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5720952181084736706" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhNulHJIrGXBQOjEayzgLG6LupPal8tBvXgK328Ndu_AWyK_VU62nodnYOqAsszkwea3cisplRZDUi3ZIu4fbXMlyEw5ik1Ttmj_D9Rg0bZl6v0cicSv1KCyGKlzxOiGPtsxdntePXDek/s1600/006s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhNulHJIrGXBQOjEayzgLG6LupPal8tBvXgK328Ndu_AWyK_VU62nodnYOqAsszkwea3cisplRZDUi3ZIu4fbXMlyEw5ik1Ttmj_D9Rg0bZl6v0cicSv1KCyGKlzxOiGPtsxdntePXDek/s320/006s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5720952128444279954" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKS6EcMqn4HhV62h0ii4wXEG1x72SerytNcw5E3B4RNvxtGxckRefXjQG381oYeqS4TLVgbBrmGjz0oQBbL9PyyIpbuNwJLSZDQ8gXs5Tw_P2BpKsID3GFTeDjuivz0E5W1WtjPO8uuT0/s1600/007s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKS6EcMqn4HhV62h0ii4wXEG1x72SerytNcw5E3B4RNvxtGxckRefXjQG381oYeqS4TLVgbBrmGjz0oQBbL9PyyIpbuNwJLSZDQ8gXs5Tw_P2BpKsID3GFTeDjuivz0E5W1WtjPO8uuT0/s320/007s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5720952073094735746" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSexbPiimAGXVl_i9HnGYlmQhbkdiqtAszIXDqFB3rYFR27BM0_xnn8RCk6M2ORbaZdg8tfcTaSWnbjl6CvTrwR6PWb744NIsyM6JfpT2KQtTq52s1MIu4Aunm8wlA07RXjvT4RRQwPGc/s1600/009s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSexbPiimAGXVl_i9HnGYlmQhbkdiqtAszIXDqFB3rYFR27BM0_xnn8RCk6M2ORbaZdg8tfcTaSWnbjl6CvTrwR6PWb744NIsyM6JfpT2KQtTq52s1MIu4Aunm8wlA07RXjvT4RRQwPGc/s320/009s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5720952013972922130" /></a><br /><br />This is going to be long, but I wanted to remember all of the details of what happened over the past few days.<br />On Thursday morning Dane woke up at 6 am to eat, like normal. But after he ate he went right back to bed. He usually would be awake at that time but I thought he was just a little sleepy. I wrapped him up in his blanket and put him in our bed and he was already in a deep sleep. After a few hours I thought it was strange he was still asleep so I went to check on him. It wasn’t until 11 am that I thought he really needed to wake up because it had been so long. I kind of had to force him awake and then I noticed that he felt a little warm. I thought maybe he just got overheated from being wrapped up in his blankie, so I took it off and then I stripped him down to put him in the bath to cool off.<br />Dane has always loved the bath. Always. But this time I put him in his tub and he looked like he was in pain. He just whimpered and had his face all scrunched up. So I quickly finished his bath and got him all dried and dressed and he immediately fell asleep again. Al was home that day and I commented on how sleepy Dane was being, but at that time I think we still didn’t really think anything of it. <br />I left a couple of hours later for a doctor’s appointment and Dane was still asleep. I told Al that he surely would wake up really soon and that he would be starving and for Al to give him a bottle. I was gone for a couple of hours. When I got home I saw that Dane was asleep in his bouncy seat. I said to Al, “Oh, he went back to bed?” And Al replied, “He never woke up.” I just looked at Al and told him that wasn’t normal. I grabbed Dane and he felt warm again so I took his temperature with the only thermometer we have, an ear one, and it said it was about 101 degrees. I told Al we needed to call the pediatrician. And so I did and they said bring him in right now.<br />When I got to the pediatrician they got us right in. Dr. Kagan came in, asked me a few questions, and started examining Dane. Dane even slept through this. He checked his ears, throat, etc. Then he checked his pulse. Dr. Kagan looked at me and he said that Dane’s pulse was going so quickly that he couldn’t even track it. Too fast to count. I just kind of stood there with a blank stare and then Dr. Kagan said, “I don’t want to scare you, but this isn’t good.” He started to rush around, calling a nurse to come and get another temperature while he called the hospital to say we were on our way. The nurse came in with a rectal thermometer and Dane’s temperature came in at 102.5 degrees. Too high for a 6 week old. Dr. Kagan told me again that I needed to leave right then and go straight to the ER. <br />I ran by the house since it was on the way, grabbed my phone charger instinctively, ran up and grabbed a few onesies and jammies for Dane, kissed Avery and James, and then I was on my way. We were in the pediatric ER at Hermann by 3:30 and by just after 4:00 we had been seen by a nurse there and were put in a private room. After that it was a parade of residents and nurses asking questions, explaining what the plan of attack was, taking vitals and so on. I think Dane’s resting heart beat was about 178 bpm. And if he was crying then it went over 200 bpm. Sometimes when I held him and stroked his cheek it would go down to the 160’s. Some time that night the nurse came in to get a urine and blood sample and to put in an IV for antibiotics. They had me leave the room, but I could hear Dane crying so hard. I was kind of peeking through the blinds and I told Al they had the lights off and I could see a red light. Al explained that they were using the red light to find a vein. <br />After a while the blood sample came back normal. I thought this was a good thing…but I guess it wasn’t. There has to be a reason for the fever. And so far they didn’t have one. There wasn’t any cough, or congestion, ear infection, etc. and that was a bad sign. And when the blood came back normal that was even more of a bad sign. They were still waiting on the urine sample. That’s when they said they needed to do a lumbar puncture and they brought in the consent form, explained risks, etc. I think I still wasn’t fully aware of how sick Dane was and I remember wondering if they really needed this test. I even asked the resident, “So…you think you need this lumbar puncture?” And he just replied that yes, they really need to do it. The attending came back with the resident after I had signed consent and she explained that they were going to hunch him over and go in between a couple of vertebrae and get some CSF. Then the attending said, “This needs to be a sterile environment, and you shouldn’t watch this, so we need to ask you to leave.” She told me to come back in about 15 minutes. <br />I called Al and tried to make plans for Avery and James for the night. And I wandered down to the cafeteria. Now it was 10:30 and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet and I was starving. I grabbed a few random things and headed back to Dane’s room. I had to pass the ER to get back to the pediatric ER, and it was packed. I made the mistake of glancing outside and saw two paramedics hosing down a backboard that was covered in blood. And then I got all queasy and the food seemed like a big mistake. I told Al that I didn’t belong there. It wasn’t my thing. When I got back to Dane’s room a nurse was holding him and he was pretty calm. Every time they had to do any kind of poke or procedure on Dane they gave him ‘sweeties.’ That is when they take a paci and dip it in a sugary solution and then hold it in Dane’s mouth. The babies like it so much that it distracts them for a second while everything is being done. Dane had a ton of sweeties that night. It was sad. There were open containers of sweeties all over the room. <br />After the lumbar puncture the doctors could proceed with antibiotics, so they quickly pushed two different types of antibiotics through the IV and then they moved us upstairs to a room. The pediatric ER was so busy that night that there were kids and parents lining the halls. As we were taking Dane upstairs the nurses were trying to decide who should get Dane’s empty ER room. Sad again. Kids shouldn’t have to be that sick. <br />We arrived on the 8th floor, and it was beautiful! At least if kids have to be in the hospital they get the nicest part of the hospital! Everything was brand new and sparkling clean. The entire floor is decked out in a baseball theme, and despite it being a hospital, it was really cute! By the time we were settled in the room it was 1:30 am. The nurses were trying to decide if people had to wear masks to be around Dane, to come into his room, etc. They didn’t want me to feed him until the doctor gave the go ahead, but luckily Dane wasn’t alert anyway. Shortly after, a doctor that was on call came in to check on Dane. We went over all of the information and questions again and then he looked at Dane in my arms, fast asleep. He did a little sternal rub on Dane and Dane didn’t move. He tried again, with no response. Then the doctor got a little panicked and said, “Hey, I need you to go put him in the crib for a second.” So I placed Dane there and the doctor did the rub again, a little more forceful. Finally Dane’s arms started flailing a bit. The doctor looked relieved and then said that he wanted to start some fluids and so the nurses came and hung a bag of electrolytes. It wasn’t too long before Dane started to wake up more and then he finally ate. By the time this was all over and the nurses had been in and out a few times it was 3:00. I called Al at home and started to cry. I hadn’t cried until then. I had prayed for Heavenly Father to please make me strong. I am usually a crier…and I was strong. But I knew I couldn’t leave Dane here and go home to the other kids so Al could go to work. The thought made me sick to my stomach and panicked. So I just cried to Al and said I couldn’t leave. I just couldn’t. Al made a few calls and arranged to go into work a bit later. Thankfully his coworkers were very understanding. <br />I finally was alone in the hospital room with Dane, in my clothes from the day before, and I just sat there feeling like I had been hit with a ton of bricks, wondering what had happened. I lay down in the bench in Dane’s room, in my clothes, and closed my eyes. I slept for about an hour before the rounds started.<br />It was a day full of rounds. Nurses taking vitals, residents scouting things out, the infectious disease team, the pediatric team, etc. And also the texts were coming in like crazy, from the ward members, from family members, friends, etc. I tried to keep up with all of them, and it was good because it kept me busy. <br />The pediatric team was intimidating. It was a team of about 6 doctors that came in to check on Dane. They were talking about him right in front of me, but not to or at me. Weird. Then the attending started talking to me. She was intense. They had just poked and prodded Dane and he was crying so hard. She was telling me that they didn’t know exactly what was wrong, but they knew he had meningitis. At the time they were rounding, my good friend Kim was at the hospital picking up my house keys so she could go home to get some things for me. The attending launched into this speech about how we didn’t know exactly what was wrong with Dane and how we shouldn’t have visitors and that the hospital was full of infectious disease, and so on and so forth. Right after the speech a paci fell out of Dane’s mouth on to the hospital floor. I was horrified when she went and rinsed it off in the sink for a couple of seconds and then put it back in Dane’s mouth. I wanted to scream. That is something I wouldn’t do at my own house! Let alone, the hospital!! Then she went on about how she didn’t think Avery or James should come to the hospital. We needed to be really careful about not contaminating Dane with any other germs. <br />As the day went on and tests results started coming in, it was looking like Dane had bacterial meningitis. His CSF had a really high white blood count. Usually it would be around 10-80. Dane’s was almost 1000. He also had low glucose and high protein in his CSF. This usually points to bacterial meningitis as well. The attending explained to me that the bacteria like to feed on the glucose, which is why the low glucose was giving them the impression of bacterial. <br />As the day went on I anxiously awaited more news about the test results. The infectious disease resident, and then the team, both told me that it was leaning towards bacterial meningitis as well. They just were waiting for more conclusive tests to be completed. It takes a couple of days to grow the cultures that would confirm a diagnosis. In the meantime they were quickly working the antibiotics into Dane’s system, aggressively treating for bacterial meningitis. There is no time to waste when it comes to bacterial and even a couple of hours could make all of the difference. So they had to start treating it as bacterial just to cover all of the bases.<br /><br />It wasn’t until the evening when the tests results came back as positive for viral meningitis. I was on the phone with my mom at the time when Al came in to tell me the news. I was so numb to everything at that point that I didn’t really react at all. Just kind of nodded and mumbled the words to my mom. My mom on the other hand started to sob and had to get off of the phone. <br />A while later a nurse came in and said we were being moved to the 10th floor. We had been on the surgery floor for some reason, but they were moving us to the normal pediatric floor. A couple of men from our ward showed up at that time. They were going to help Al give Dane a blessing. We got settled in on the 10th floor, after the nurse had to fix Dane’s IV that was coming out of his arm. That was sad too. Poor little guy. When we were left in quiet Al and our friends were able to give Dane a very nice blessing. Then everybody left and it was just me and Dane. I put Dane down on the hospital bed and I curled up around him and we both drifted off to sleep for a bit. Our bishop and his wife came to visit that night, which was so nice of them, and I had a good visit with them. That night was a little bit more calm, but we still had nurses in and out taking vitals. Dane’s fever went up again, and he was given more medicine, but overall the night was much better. <br />We were really happy when they said we could go home Saturday morning. I thought they were going to make us wait until Sunday, to give the bacterial tests the full 48 hours. But the fact that the viral test came back positive was almost assurance that the bacterial would be negative. There are more details to all of this, but this account is already so long. I had to take Dane in to his pediatrician the following Monday and Dane looked really good. He had gained back the wait he had lost in the hospital (almost ½ a pound) and had put on a few more ounces. The doctor again just talked about how scary meningitis is, how he was so glad that Dane was okay, and to keep Dane away from people for another week. It just wouldn’t be good for little Dane to get sick again. We have another appointment next week and then Dane should be given a clean bill of health.<br />I have had time to reflect on everything now that Dane is better and I don’t have to worry as much anymore. Now I just feel sad and panicked when I think about it. Things I didn’t allow myself to feel while I was going through it. Today I was folding Dane’s laundry and I came across one of the pairs of pajamas he wore in the hospital. I almost cried and I felt a tightness in my chest. It is too sad to have a sick 6 week old baby. I still feel like I am decompressing from it all. I need to go shopping!!! I know there are much worse things out there and I am so very grateful that he is okay. We have truly been blessed. We have had so much love and support from friends, ward members, and family. In that way it’s been an awesome experience. Heavenly Father really helped us out through this one.Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-61994220498597947902012-01-27T12:16:00.009-06:002012-01-27T12:22:01.355-06:00Dane Meeting Avery and James<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3qszDx8VVxh5dSGGI-4UXcIrBaCkhNXqUtvubw9cGec8aPyQZW6TtbfjRsq3pK9TaWdMkHd-RRNRvgJ-nhRjFrQ1hx2iXTvNemHWA-ktNOIW7JpSCAYi27YbKrKcuwfZOGBq6zKNoss/s1600/043s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3qszDx8VVxh5dSGGI-4UXcIrBaCkhNXqUtvubw9cGec8aPyQZW6TtbfjRsq3pK9TaWdMkHd-RRNRvgJ-nhRjFrQ1hx2iXTvNemHWA-ktNOIW7JpSCAYi27YbKrKcuwfZOGBq6zKNoss/s320/043s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702378355101344978" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnx0yjuddludJ8MngBhD5KpcUsTOtq1MIrUWRoLobk3rP8HFyu29XSqJ540eqwcmcH8CofjtcBPI4L3p9D6iuVfycGDQrm5GYtpRkkRO_Xu31C0j-asmZffYCXL59sroNtJtL22CYAW88/s1600/045s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnx0yjuddludJ8MngBhD5KpcUsTOtq1MIrUWRoLobk3rP8HFyu29XSqJ540eqwcmcH8CofjtcBPI4L3p9D6iuVfycGDQrm5GYtpRkkRO_Xu31C0j-asmZffYCXL59sroNtJtL22CYAW88/s320/045s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702378278251963410" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOs9ePFMEeeMJPYa0_faxc6doSsE0GM1Ziq95b6-txINFZLwFHoLDevBspUD9kNJg10qJfDW1wzgZN7UisxH0Q8KzutY3LuloXAVsmTE8_s3plgYSXYXoPkViOM94KqYoL4XzI_W2hd9M/s1600/051s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOs9ePFMEeeMJPYa0_faxc6doSsE0GM1Ziq95b6-txINFZLwFHoLDevBspUD9kNJg10qJfDW1wzgZN7UisxH0Q8KzutY3LuloXAVsmTE8_s3plgYSXYXoPkViOM94KqYoL4XzI_W2hd9M/s320/051s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702378186689359346" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQyo0h3eYkromF7MAs7sZG_TrNcZ_7T0u68Zej7ugHYUb8gpoPQyHaBafoUx-jr-_84JAzKMuGA09aqLAE_hrQsV8pAh9j3KJLQ0NGt-T-5H9zzJs17jwYiDMWEXAxB14baY4y2zIRBo/s1600/068s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzQyo0h3eYkromF7MAs7sZG_TrNcZ_7T0u68Zej7ugHYUb8gpoPQyHaBafoUx-jr-_84JAzKMuGA09aqLAE_hrQsV8pAh9j3KJLQ0NGt-T-5H9zzJs17jwYiDMWEXAxB14baY4y2zIRBo/s320/068s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702378064709494034" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWNfnvupVpxP3U28VlmbAslurQdIIG7fGnrbdufCEitpEUZmn8r9J-pudhTLzwmvFNOjvJGIuHoIWsNWO28gBywXKsAk2oxE4W0VVxlsXrl5l_sEEckSMHf3FikXZvsnZUuDARBRf5Us/s1600/075s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWNfnvupVpxP3U28VlmbAslurQdIIG7fGnrbdufCEitpEUZmn8r9J-pudhTLzwmvFNOjvJGIuHoIWsNWO28gBywXKsAk2oxE4W0VVxlsXrl5l_sEEckSMHf3FikXZvsnZUuDARBRf5Us/s320/075s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702377661534490546" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCP1yjU8_iXDhPDWlOGpxQQmEHpsbcEMTMbDA_LK0opikNOfqlC0k1BRk6fVZiZjLLSAJIghb5NKerNTlr_Xi0dMWdJaDoC_QgjzF7ERUL7krS5jiIDAxUp8YOPqEeJDnvtI0AYyGsMoU/s1600/076s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCP1yjU8_iXDhPDWlOGpxQQmEHpsbcEMTMbDA_LK0opikNOfqlC0k1BRk6fVZiZjLLSAJIghb5NKerNTlr_Xi0dMWdJaDoC_QgjzF7ERUL7krS5jiIDAxUp8YOPqEeJDnvtI0AYyGsMoU/s320/076s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702377587442595090" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQ-RKRexgnilToloIOGcwAAB-l5Xv4NQqx_H9uFe_EqMNhcqE1OONs_2XYT49oYOIDv75SysOh2-OPq_VTuRr1S9Dj8bk6oBfSAWGpo9sS4zuabrf1TQTesKoxvoMZSx_NNI6v7uiovk/s1600/079s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQ-RKRexgnilToloIOGcwAAB-l5Xv4NQqx_H9uFe_EqMNhcqE1OONs_2XYT49oYOIDv75SysOh2-OPq_VTuRr1S9Dj8bk6oBfSAWGpo9sS4zuabrf1TQTesKoxvoMZSx_NNI6v7uiovk/s320/079s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702377498661899602" /></a><br /><br /><br />Avery and James finally got go meet Dane Monday afternoon. My mom drove them downtown and they came and found me in recovery with Dane. They were so, so excited and also very sweet and gentle with Dane. Both of their faces lit up and they couldn't stop grinning. They wanted to touch him of course, and also were very exciting about checking everything out: Avery wanted to see his toes and his ears, they both wanted to see his hair, James was really interested in his belly button and my incision, etc. We got a few pictures, but I am looking forward to getting some better ones over the next few days.<br /><br />Everybody stayed in recovery with me for a while and then it was time for them to take Baby Dane up to the nursery for a bath and some check-ups etc. Everybody left to go watch Dane through the nursery windows and I had to stay down in recovery...for 3 hours!!! I thought I was never going to get out of there! I was the only person in there and I don't know what the hold up was, but it was a very long three hours. Al kept texting me to see if I was ever going to show up to my hospital room and I FINALLY did at around 6:30 at night. By that time everybody was starving and the kids were starting to get a little restless in the hospital setting. But they still did very well. They all ate and took turns 'holding' Dane with some heavy supervision and assistance. Avery still has a cold which I'm not thrilled about...but what can you do? Oh well...lots of antibacterial wash going on here :)Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-10205633701829567512012-01-27T12:05:00.006-06:002012-01-27T12:13:17.302-06:00Little Dane's Arrival<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYM9HGZHM4r5qD89eXWguBE_1uRQA6t9BZVnrpMs5aH8C1LZvCtrkK-cguO5KuYaN90BXNDockRMSYHDrJGKQo0hofxQ08StM1nA7KGUFiiB84Ln8UH_PvYMkuAtLDjhkC0Ggshrdlc9M/s1600/031s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYM9HGZHM4r5qD89eXWguBE_1uRQA6t9BZVnrpMs5aH8C1LZvCtrkK-cguO5KuYaN90BXNDockRMSYHDrJGKQo0hofxQ08StM1nA7KGUFiiB84Ln8UH_PvYMkuAtLDjhkC0Ggshrdlc9M/s320/031s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702375893363803922" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5MjEyQWY_oAazYB8kE2N6IOyD10LkxNdzir-HEz0s2ki0Y9mCEzbaUSQC8D2dYnO8BdwMPC_WfESRCYZz4ZAaKrFdtuZ4OFBmOufGDBicFLZhOZgeam_Uyuxym_kBkHzReXTknyqo-ac/s1600/015s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5MjEyQWY_oAazYB8kE2N6IOyD10LkxNdzir-HEz0s2ki0Y9mCEzbaUSQC8D2dYnO8BdwMPC_WfESRCYZz4ZAaKrFdtuZ4OFBmOufGDBicFLZhOZgeam_Uyuxym_kBkHzReXTknyqo-ac/s320/015s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702375819739581266" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCMMo0OxrLqhyphenhyphenJMnqiFPhjzIX07AlkwxrrKRwIuxr9V7RdFC7Sj8GO6BimEpenaEYkU5P5jl1T12aimCJ4am06B5f5dOX3X3kf_vdrWpW8r7my8y-gC9MiaLaqUJ3lZ1rzAiIbMrNjOo/s1600/013s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCMMo0OxrLqhyphenhyphenJMnqiFPhjzIX07AlkwxrrKRwIuxr9V7RdFC7Sj8GO6BimEpenaEYkU5P5jl1T12aimCJ4am06B5f5dOX3X3kf_vdrWpW8r7my8y-gC9MiaLaqUJ3lZ1rzAiIbMrNjOo/s320/013s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702374963267024866" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizqRb_XziVKryNSwS4u4uETG2VaPCDSHxJKUuU0uWyJu2KYb9zn25Af5ulk_4Q3lwmW2PCevcvnYe43w6JjCoPpqbkA4LNrl7Mso7GD-G2AGS8f3lkspd3aJ-qN3ThpPxWwcto2vSUixg/s1600/037s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizqRb_XziVKryNSwS4u4uETG2VaPCDSHxJKUuU0uWyJu2KYb9zn25Af5ulk_4Q3lwmW2PCevcvnYe43w6JjCoPpqbkA4LNrl7Mso7GD-G2AGS8f3lkspd3aJ-qN3ThpPxWwcto2vSUixg/s320/037s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702374852578424274" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQnJCEkS4F78LdhntoJc02tdTRRO7q0eTqPuMffiwmjCB1MBfSOQCAOq4btkz3FB9vSzQjBO1olE-OHUJgM6lHlz5ZFzRWWuXHflNsP_q4p9BGKPgaD9febz8dH08lgGaRQkkkyZVbSo/s1600/038s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQnJCEkS4F78LdhntoJc02tdTRRO7q0eTqPuMffiwmjCB1MBfSOQCAOq4btkz3FB9vSzQjBO1olE-OHUJgM6lHlz5ZFzRWWuXHflNsP_q4p9BGKPgaD9febz8dH08lgGaRQkkkyZVbSo/s320/038s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702374782469721378" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8B6Rq6eBcoRoOqsGcTHX9e1czNCbNNScHoo3dt55hG9uLaXaxgwYO4EyTW0DyOcNUTIuK-_wyK95KibOMm0BLUNf8Oa9vdOTX2IS2oEfSIwLgCp73amDGunK6dB-8xDoHJ4fuxvx3r2g/s1600/040s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8B6Rq6eBcoRoOqsGcTHX9e1czNCbNNScHoo3dt55hG9uLaXaxgwYO4EyTW0DyOcNUTIuK-_wyK95KibOMm0BLUNf8Oa9vdOTX2IS2oEfSIwLgCp73amDGunK6dB-8xDoHJ4fuxvx3r2g/s320/040s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702374672128165698" /></a><br />Dane was born at 2:19 pm Monday. We arrived at the hospital at 11:30 to get checked in. After getting all of the paperwork filled out and information in the computer we were put in a small room where they monitored Dane's heart rate for a while and also started my IV. We were told at first that they thought they were running ahead of schedule, but they ended up running a little behind by about half an hour. Not too bad for a busy hospital!<br /><br />We had an attending and a resident from anesthesiology and Al knew both of them, so they were super happy, friendly, and excited for us. They do spinal blocks instead of epidurals for c-sections here. But in the end the result is the same :) It wasn't too long after they started when they brought Al in to sit by me, and then not too long after that Dane was born! This is the only time that they've lowered the sheet so that we can see him being born. Al had been peeking over the top of the sheet to get a couple of pictures, but then the techs lowered the sheet for us and we got to see little Dane for the first time. It was so exciting. Dane was already crying a sweet little cry and his arms were flailing around. We could see right away that he was a chub! His arms and legs were already filled out. We could also tell that he had a ton of hair :)<br /><br />The anesthesiology resident took over as photographer and got some good pictures of the three of us, and one with the doctor as well. Everybody in the OR was oohing and ahhing over Dane and his cheeks and the little dimple in his chin. It is the cutest little thing. He also has a dimple in one of his cheeks.<br /><br />It took a while to close me up, but we were able to hold Dane the entire time which was so fun. When they were finished with me they wheeled me up to recovery. We got to keep Dane in there for a long time too, which I haven't gotten to do before. It was great just to be able to hold him right after he was born for a long time before they sent him to the nursery.<br /><br />More pics and stories coming soon...Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-66336959431750720042011-12-20T16:37:00.002-06:002011-12-20T16:39:22.102-06:002 Teeth Down<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNsgO70-8Ik4SdV2LvM-V9uFPE9xosHmJoqpj5_uToVmit4XygBaM4Wq8qCUKM5DWigSn07Rqzy7l8UC4GDOx8GKWlI0hYm8Kd0a5rKnLTq1UrO37k6i4HxgpL-YxafEXCbthC-luw5o/s1600/003s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrNsgO70-8Ik4SdV2LvM-V9uFPE9xosHmJoqpj5_uToVmit4XygBaM4Wq8qCUKM5DWigSn07Rqzy7l8UC4GDOx8GKWlI0hYm8Kd0a5rKnLTq1UrO37k6i4HxgpL-YxafEXCbthC-luw5o/s320/003s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5688343637332876418" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXb6I3KcX9_qpIpCJ6OklYGFm9zPYTtJcbVRtx4htZHnLY1kxBe-p0ZpEehypkRWIvsHxUz1dZ5ehVfCf4DAB_9frvoqwbzKR1rQfMvfEzahi3NN4BD6je-WgKDjmNddydtBdKSKQcZrc/s1600/004s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXb6I3KcX9_qpIpCJ6OklYGFm9zPYTtJcbVRtx4htZHnLY1kxBe-p0ZpEehypkRWIvsHxUz1dZ5ehVfCf4DAB_9frvoqwbzKR1rQfMvfEzahi3NN4BD6je-WgKDjmNddydtBdKSKQcZrc/s320/004s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5688343578082550162" /></a><br /><br />It's been a big week at the Tanner household. My birthday, seeing Santa, Avery's last day of school before Christmas, a couple of different Christmas parties and more. But maybe the most exciting thing is that Avery lost her first two teeth.<br /><br />She has been waiting and asking about losing her teeth for a while now, since some of the older kids in her preschool class started losing teeth. I told her that it might be a while because I didn't lose my first tooth until I was in the 2nd grade...but she must take after Al in the teeth department. Over Thanksgiving my brother's family and my dad took her to see Puss in Boots and she came home from the theater with a very wiggly tooth. She said it was the popcorn that did the trick. But after asking about losing a tooth over these past several months, when the opportunity finally came she wasn't sure it was that great. She asked my older brother to pull it out and I think she wasn't prepared that it would hurt a little...because he gave it a yank and she ran out of the room crying. After that it took a lot of prompting to even let us see the wiggly tooth, let alone try to wiggle it out. Avery would work on it from time to time, but mostly just let it sit. We had noticed at one point though that actually both of the two bottom middle teeth were very wiggly.<br /><br />On Tuesday Avery and James had asked for some chocolate milk to drink. They walked back into the family room and just a couple of seconds later Avery came running back into the kitchen holding her tooth, almost in tears because she was so excited. It had fallen out all on it's own. She made a few phone calls that day bursting to tell people all about how she lost her tooth.<br /><br />The next morning Avery was getting ready for school. She was eating breakfast and had just finished when her other bottom tooth fell out on its own. Two teeth in less than 24 hours! Avery was beside herself.<br /><br />That night we were eating dinner before we went to see Santa and Avery was telling us all about how she went to school and told everybody about her lost teeth. It went a little something like this:<br /><br />Avery: I told Mr. Hanak (one of the music teachers) that I lost a tooth!<br />Me and Al: What did he say?<br />A: He said, 'Yeah, you sure did!' Then I told the cafeteria worker about it.<br />M & A: And what did she say?<br />A: She said, 'How exciting!' Then I told the other cafeteria worker about it and she said 'neat!' And Coach Christy said, 'Wow!' And then I told Coach Budd.<br />M & A: And what did she say?<br />A: She said, 'yeah, you already told me.'<br /><br />Then Al and I just laughed and laughed. I'm sure Avery had walked around most of the day telling anybody that would stand still.<br /><br />Avery's two permanent teeth are already growing in and I can see that we have some orthodontia in our future...hopefully she takes after Al in that department too and not me! It's all kind of bittersweet. Avery is so excited that she's lost teeth now, but it makes me and Al kind of sad. There little faces just change so much when their permanent teeth grow in. Our little Vee Vee is getting older for sure.Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-14487965058291587502011-12-20T16:32:00.008-06:002011-12-20T16:36:09.812-06:00Going To See Santa<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_EJ0VvAhZLoMHQVLYeP0OjevGiDL7oF5DjSm-8swH7C1pK5SQFizupGBISEukbg3zNbbyr7-Ifoa0TJ-tl8EnnxLfkkJU70Pro_cGEqIINAO34_XgQVsHEvN81Fw1H6F2d94IwXfAdHU/s1600/005s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_EJ0VvAhZLoMHQVLYeP0OjevGiDL7oF5DjSm-8swH7C1pK5SQFizupGBISEukbg3zNbbyr7-Ifoa0TJ-tl8EnnxLfkkJU70Pro_cGEqIINAO34_XgQVsHEvN81Fw1H6F2d94IwXfAdHU/s320/005s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5688342703296230082" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs1BcfNLeNXP2a-3DqfGypn3DRGEUcwNOmk5MZjjfjRoTuW_jv-ZUj-q6NmeQjdJ1nMwqBg0t3sMTwFluiNgK3A1hkgKV0aGRfQYbyJlXmarMYKEbq9qvQRCYUKAIs7DJe09jfB6qFc08/s1600/008s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs1BcfNLeNXP2a-3DqfGypn3DRGEUcwNOmk5MZjjfjRoTuW_jv-ZUj-q6NmeQjdJ1nMwqBg0t3sMTwFluiNgK3A1hkgKV0aGRfQYbyJlXmarMYKEbq9qvQRCYUKAIs7DJe09jfB6qFc08/s320/008s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5688342623175541330" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuFQgSvz_hn2NBKTidGasI2j2K7fcAywtWFzVm-INPu6tFYpUhAnCP_EnP9sKT8BiAdMKV_SMWJubYVWOZEHBd0AmsMpex1fZuE99dG5fDpzWM6DrnNnnjxa52aJkTQRHfFkgAQ5Dc1SI/s1600/009s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuFQgSvz_hn2NBKTidGasI2j2K7fcAywtWFzVm-INPu6tFYpUhAnCP_EnP9sKT8BiAdMKV_SMWJubYVWOZEHBd0AmsMpex1fZuE99dG5fDpzWM6DrnNnnjxa52aJkTQRHfFkgAQ5Dc1SI/s320/009s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5688342539765546498" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPiYJgS0ghdkfTW-6ilQrjx2F5AEWN96AO2tkOKC4uwySe6EPYF0MfFcNft4lE5wtsKfws-bsCgBMrfG3BMdVBnLHWhVSUWxaiA3DSDs-kP32LWvXOq6je-0-IZI5z-6fHThdSnWvRHkE/s1600/012s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPiYJgS0ghdkfTW-6ilQrjx2F5AEWN96AO2tkOKC4uwySe6EPYF0MfFcNft4lE5wtsKfws-bsCgBMrfG3BMdVBnLHWhVSUWxaiA3DSDs-kP32LWvXOq6je-0-IZI5z-6fHThdSnWvRHkE/s320/012s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5688342461468085490" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsgybDS7KeOHYjxZ15yxLfba7JcI1r4VzvOJUsmYtYFOsFMIXqyorfef4UMmdyqfoIl8W9PXRueKk8dQ1UthaLhp_Fa8cBLdc5c282OMlWKsA0v0wzV4aX84bKNijFcxa5iLWiCd8VDZU/s1600/013s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsgybDS7KeOHYjxZ15yxLfba7JcI1r4VzvOJUsmYtYFOsFMIXqyorfef4UMmdyqfoIl8W9PXRueKk8dQ1UthaLhp_Fa8cBLdc5c282OMlWKsA0v0wzV4aX84bKNijFcxa5iLWiCd8VDZU/s320/013s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5688342369216724050" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCevJpJVWkaE1rxOJE7ViR6AWwwvmGYjZcqgN2QyW2GeBuwGLb9Yg0yuIcxh8a77pm7jWNzbN4TBJJrEjUwO7KE7SyAA-bNtlbqH4wi9AKYcmnzzFPba6cdtn5k8mBgSnk71deE8x6Txc/s1600/014s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCevJpJVWkaE1rxOJE7ViR6AWwwvmGYjZcqgN2QyW2GeBuwGLb9Yg0yuIcxh8a77pm7jWNzbN4TBJJrEjUwO7KE7SyAA-bNtlbqH4wi9AKYcmnzzFPba6cdtn5k8mBgSnk71deE8x6Txc/s320/014s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5688342312488675810" /></a><br />The night of my birthday we took the kids to see Santa. We had told them that if Al got home at a good time we would go to Bass Pro Shop and see Santa there. It is just down the street from us and they do a really cute Christmas display. Avery and James were super excited and talked about it for the days leading up to the 14th. Al ended up getting home early that night so we were able to go!<br /><br />We took the kids last year and had to wait in line forever, but this year it wasn't busy at all. I guess we picked the right night to go. We only waited 5 to 10 minutes and then it was our turn. Avery wasn't shy at all and walked right up to Santa. James, who had been talking about it for days excitedly, panicked at the last minute and started to cry. So Al carried him up to see Santa. Avery told Santa she wants a "green nutcracker with a sword and a crown on its head" for Christmas. They have been talking a lot about the Nutcracker ballet at school and Avery loves it. She tells me something new about it every day. I think it's neat that her teacher is teaching them about the ballet, but I'm not sure what Avery is going to do with a nutcracker...James said he wanted "toys." After Al prompted him to say cars Santa asked James if he liked Lightning McQueen and Mater. That melted the ice a lot and James finally went and stood by Santa. He didn't really want to sit on Santa's lap still, so he and Avery just stood in front of Santa for the picture.<br /><br />Besides seeing Santa there are a lot of other fun stations set up in their winter land. James was most fascinated by the electric trains and it was so fun to watch his little face be so excited as he controlled the trains. Avery spent some time on the trains as well and also sat at the table to write Santa a letter. There were several other things to do but after the trains and the letter Al and the kids took off to go see the boats that were for sale. It was a really fun night.Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-57336014925084715392011-11-15T12:57:00.003-06:002011-11-15T13:03:01.699-06:00Dane at 27 weeks and 3 days<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfcfdN9RhUcFP1Svj9vB2VRYMRbO6PVqlYzYmhbDmmISVdSLV7lJhF7CXLlEhz0599T9ZODMuvch6r9t_7GC4n7klhhpXhDKKGmkne_N4FGQ20Jc94IJ5BC1CZsNXovDOdYxxDT1qXigw/s1600/img013s.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfcfdN9RhUcFP1Svj9vB2VRYMRbO6PVqlYzYmhbDmmISVdSLV7lJhF7CXLlEhz0599T9ZODMuvch6r9t_7GC4n7klhhpXhDKKGmkne_N4FGQ20Jc94IJ5BC1CZsNXovDOdYxxDT1qXigw/s320/img013s.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675298976527523346" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAU4vAhq1e3lQwRgvi1BkA7DPiadR23wkIAsz3dDHawxh1C3HkQOlBiuDlE1qmpcI4ZMoF98Kfet0hjsRqRUps4-V9v6tjYXGdetilB8ILnITG1QRnfLz-vAqAsy9ureb5OJaJ_pmdBI/s1600/img014s.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 221px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZAU4vAhq1e3lQwRgvi1BkA7DPiadR23wkIAsz3dDHawxh1C3HkQOlBiuDlE1qmpcI4ZMoF98Kfet0hjsRqRUps4-V9v6tjYXGdetilB8ILnITG1QRnfLz-vAqAsy9ureb5OJaJ_pmdBI/s320/img014s.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675298911636592226" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2b3hJ31K5_jzaP1IUkJKKQ2UBQrOfo8gHUXFFUc20AXJyJ8lzj0lzjyerza25OjcdirgDaD3380KQkIQeVDvXjJpDm8qZnslBVjuRMEd06Yu3GxPsCuHxa8nCz_4kNqGmaM0lvntkkyY/s1600/img015s.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2b3hJ31K5_jzaP1IUkJKKQ2UBQrOfo8gHUXFFUc20AXJyJ8lzj0lzjyerza25OjcdirgDaD3380KQkIQeVDvXjJpDm8qZnslBVjuRMEd06Yu3GxPsCuHxa8nCz_4kNqGmaM0lvntkkyY/s320/img015s.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675298841419751170" /></a><br />Today I had two ultrasounds. The first one was for my gall bladder. I had to go in fasting, which was rough...they shouldn't do that to a pregnant person. I am still feeling sick from it. Anyway, I had a half hour block for the gall bladder ultrasound. The tech was really talkative and she also had a student with her so she was explaining everything, which is how I found out that I have gall stones. Right before she started the ultrasound the tech explained that she was going to take some images, give them to the radiologist, he would write a report and send it to my OB and then my OB would go over the results with me. But as she was sitting there explaining everything to the student I joined in the conversation. It was interesting! So at one point I said to the tech, "Is that my gall bladder?" and I pointed to a white round marble on the screen. She said, "No, that's a stone." It was funny watching her try to track everything down since the pregnancy has displaced all of the organs. And once we saw a little foot up by my organs :)<br /><br />After the gall bladder ultrasound I had to go to a different part of the hospital and get a baby anatomy ultrasound. My new doctor just wanted to take a look at things since he wasn't my doctor at the time of my last ultrasound. This was really fun. The tech said that Dane weights 2 lbs. 6 oz. right now and is measuring right on my due date. This ultrasound lasted a half hour as well, and there was another student in on this one, so the tech was talking a lot to both of us. I walked out of there with a ton of pictures! It is so fun to see Dane at this stage. Al met me in the hospital lobby afterwards to see the pictures. He thinks that Dane looks like James :)<br /><br />Tomorrow is a regular OB appointment, plus the diabetes test. My OB is also going to run some labs on my liver and just see what is going on at this point. I am not having symptoms yet of cholestasis, in the past it shows up for me around 30-32 weeks.Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-38381847190327275692011-11-03T09:28:00.007-05:002011-11-03T09:33:46.688-05:00Two Little Bats<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYuLbg4occRoCOepA02mj0s_5jBwb8f4bz0KN-dB_Eo-heCBkTljhtAk0DzjADcYO-7a7siprnOylJMDn9MMuWj25XbfNgdqIQJ2gySZjGVSgCIHH1KJt8n_YUf8G1nnU7LmE0k_lYDo/s1600/039s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfYuLbg4occRoCOepA02mj0s_5jBwb8f4bz0KN-dB_Eo-heCBkTljhtAk0DzjADcYO-7a7siprnOylJMDn9MMuWj25XbfNgdqIQJ2gySZjGVSgCIHH1KJt8n_YUf8G1nnU7LmE0k_lYDo/s320/039s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670777171556429586" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0wCvqnA1G1I7ybTlH_sEw3Dvlyup0S0Kl0yswk_NQRQEgfhyc_8T0Cx61luMTrikVpqT0whRYkHOMi2FDm4UpwHdTA3brJ7m8Ht2ndxKci7u00OubG9khhEpLHnkl_xD5bL0nYIzOfE/s1600/007s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0wCvqnA1G1I7ybTlH_sEw3Dvlyup0S0Kl0yswk_NQRQEgfhyc_8T0Cx61luMTrikVpqT0whRYkHOMi2FDm4UpwHdTA3brJ7m8Ht2ndxKci7u00OubG9khhEpLHnkl_xD5bL0nYIzOfE/s320/007s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670777067959905346" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_BeL9KK2xQMpP6xdWcOGaCu6LiVrmxT7-sF_1lRFJkD2udJaxVlW93NjUhY-X6gwrLbEbnavU8X2gh-ywiUixkZ8DYCj7LoDwHhyphenhyphenoerVBO8xtjF6w8E1nnbu5vmIsN60N2ZsVChhpZEw/s1600/010s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_BeL9KK2xQMpP6xdWcOGaCu6LiVrmxT7-sF_1lRFJkD2udJaxVlW93NjUhY-X6gwrLbEbnavU8X2gh-ywiUixkZ8DYCj7LoDwHhyphenhyphenoerVBO8xtjF6w8E1nnbu5vmIsN60N2ZsVChhpZEw/s320/010s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670776993299014722" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnwmL0CegAEIbz1Y__zALFczyve1i-Aj3Z9RM7IPQu56b7TYz4m9F6eHFbEeq20XW1beZgHnUMekYeIV77AvQCzb1mlYyKRJ3T1LQmmwFO4x_Xypllezm9WJaBQIHmIHMzRZ4BiyYnL8/s1600/014s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnwmL0CegAEIbz1Y__zALFczyve1i-Aj3Z9RM7IPQu56b7TYz4m9F6eHFbEeq20XW1beZgHnUMekYeIV77AvQCzb1mlYyKRJ3T1LQmmwFO4x_Xypllezm9WJaBQIHmIHMzRZ4BiyYnL8/s320/014s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670776914284737490" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjPWFMFlwaq85KxkGaOH-Np4EBfEFKz9fGKTwYh7u1GZDeY-TYJdfbB7cPYUUxlp7VH4PFbcVfrKU2k5FFGu3uokmCwgOFJwLzJGJixXdp0K6mCyVxixxtEGZEl-kZTYd8VmWcmiTK2Dg/s1600/027s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjPWFMFlwaq85KxkGaOH-Np4EBfEFKz9fGKTwYh7u1GZDeY-TYJdfbB7cPYUUxlp7VH4PFbcVfrKU2k5FFGu3uokmCwgOFJwLzJGJixXdp0K6mCyVxixxtEGZEl-kZTYd8VmWcmiTK2Dg/s320/027s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670776784969962386" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAleLA2O5w4xvbxxi3EJCY1yJzm2FMA_mzLNzTnxM21feIk2l9vxiHxHrndMPuw_x5T-0qaSAenxMZ7-TWW74EwCiTmniXCI4FRWi9nREojozDSWMLyoQa4dWA3SsVHnKYtY-4QjPRaE/s1600/030s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAleLA2O5w4xvbxxi3EJCY1yJzm2FMA_mzLNzTnxM21feIk2l9vxiHxHrndMPuw_x5T-0qaSAenxMZ7-TWW74EwCiTmniXCI4FRWi9nREojozDSWMLyoQa4dWA3SsVHnKYtY-4QjPRaE/s320/030s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670776711799922386" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpY-vmraUKTGYrz8gOYn-fUNsAqPDrjsSKRU9XLaB9xpML8HEieDhyphenhyphenawhnfrrA3lnwZK-VHhyQ6UimcaugVrIh78z3CVYTGD4t1aQev8vWx069NYH7m_VMUg3_Vqt-E033pjKS610ChqQ/s1600/033s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpY-vmraUKTGYrz8gOYn-fUNsAqPDrjsSKRU9XLaB9xpML8HEieDhyphenhyphenawhnfrrA3lnwZK-VHhyQ6UimcaugVrIh78z3CVYTGD4t1aQev8vWx069NYH7m_VMUg3_Vqt-E033pjKS610ChqQ/s320/033s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5670776634246839106" /></a><br /><br />We had two little bats this year for Halloween. Avery had her heart set on being Wonder Woman for the longest time. I'm not even sure how she knows who Wonder Woman is...but about a month or so before Halloween she changed her mind and said she wanted to be a bat and she never wavered on it. I thought it would be cute for James to be a bat too. My mom and grandma sewed the costumes and sent them out to the kids. They loved them! The black parts of the costume are made out of a crushed velvety type of material. And you can't really tell in the pictures, but Avery's purple wings were sparkly. I think my favorite part of the costumes is the ears. I love how those cute pointy ears just stick right up.<br /><br />Avery and James were crazy about the costumes. They have loved flapping their arms and running around the house...so much so that I finally had to have them take off the costumes because my sanity was at stake :) We were able to get quite a few wears out of the costumes. Avery had a birthday party to go to a couple of days before Halloween that she wore her costume to. Then we had the ward Halloween Trunk or Treat, and then actual Halloween. They don't wear costumes to school here, or even have a Halloween party here. Al and I both thought that was sad! We both remember several of our classroom parties and how fun they were.<br /><br />Al had Halloween off this year which was so fun! He has worked the last two Halloweens. I know he loved going out trick or treating with us. The kids did really well and James caught on very quickly to what he was supposed to do. After we left every house the kids would call out 'Thank you!' and then James would add, 'Happy 'Ween!' Very cute. James would stop and focus on every Jack o'lantern and ask Al if he could blow out the candle. Avery was more focused on getting to the doors :) James was very possessive of his pumpkin bucket and wouldn't let me or Al help him carry it, and it was heavy! The kids loved coming home and dumping all of their candy into a pile. Then we had fun sorting it all out.<br /><br />I don't really have pictures from it, but Al and I went to a couple's only Halloween party the weekend before. It was a lot of fun. Our costumes weren't that great...we didn't have money to put into it, and we don't have a collection of Halloween stuff to choose from. And I don't have a sewing machine. Not to mention that neither me or Al is super into dressing up. So we decided to go as Juno and Paulie Bleaker from the movie Juno. But the night before the party I found out that my good friend Kim and her husband were going as Juno and Paulie! So then Al thought it would be great to go as ghosts. Just the super classic, lame, white sheet ghosts. I thought it was kinda funny too. Al 'borrowed' some sheets from the hospital which I was totally against. I don't care that he 'borrowed' them. I cared that they had been used in a hospital!! But Al said that they were from the children's ward (he's on pediatric surgery right now) and that he had gotten them from the fresh laundry and that the hospitals actually throw out the sheets very frequently so they never even get used that much. Whatever. I still wanted to wash and dry them again. Al thought I was crazy. Then as we were cutting up the sheets I noticed a small blood stain on the sheet Al said was mine. Al didn't believe me, but then I showed it to him and he was like, "Um...I'll take that one." In the end the ghosts didn't really turn out how we expected, and I was still freaked out about the sheets, so we didn't use them. We ended up being football players...sort of. Al wore his high school jersey and I wore this football jersey t-shirt that I have. We didn't win any prizes for our costumes, but we did win the pumpkin carving contest! We only had 15 minutes to carve, but we did awesome! Avery had suggested before we left that we go with a super mario theme. So Al carved the Boo ghost on his big pumpkin and I carved a one-up mushroom on the tiny pumpkin. I wish we had pictures of the pumpkins 'cause they really were cute.Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-86640674828951527792011-10-05T15:06:00.002-05:002011-10-05T15:08:12.593-05:00We are having a...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc770TBI0ipmOsdOeeh40lQO_4vmGRjcPFBL9VOm8_Ks7XafzL1GO3YwERTB4ElXuSrFUUfDXPu0oJRzXvM_IqQZb2LzVfY8ucU8ioLUtWO4Ac-8SJwM-HewgKs60cUn8WvQsn6PgG6zw/s1600/img009s.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc770TBI0ipmOsdOeeh40lQO_4vmGRjcPFBL9VOm8_Ks7XafzL1GO3YwERTB4ElXuSrFUUfDXPu0oJRzXvM_IqQZb2LzVfY8ucU8ioLUtWO4Ac-8SJwM-HewgKs60cUn8WvQsn6PgG6zw/s400/img009s.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5660102196726295554" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwj0lyUUsZiM2M2bk0vjFrkVW6HZVK903l202HwqbpL8GlbgL4D3JcJ3OuHn7rjmB5feCOQsuq6tIGKgEFgR1sI5f_wl00LQxXjbBsNINiUKZQx_eObo7H3XcqcWp0Mxicr-R8IjTuZc/s1600/img008s.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 363px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwj0lyUUsZiM2M2bk0vjFrkVW6HZVK903l202HwqbpL8GlbgL4D3JcJ3OuHn7rjmB5feCOQsuq6tIGKgEFgR1sI5f_wl00LQxXjbBsNINiUKZQx_eObo7H3XcqcWp0Mxicr-R8IjTuZc/s400/img008s.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5660102092518887698" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />BOY!!!<br /><br />We are very excited :)<br /><br />I took Avery to the ultrasound with me this morning. Yesterday morning she was nearly in tears saying she didn't want another brother, so I was a little worried about how today was going to go.<br /><br />Avery had a paper she had made that had a box labeled boy and a box labeled girl and she was all prepared with a pen to mark the correct box when the time came. The ultrasound tech was great at explaining everything that she was looking at. They have a big flatscreen on the opposite wall so it was nice to see everything on the big screen instead of craning my neck to look at the little computer. The baby is developing perfectly and measured just 1 day ahead of the estimated due date, so he is growing right on schedule and weighs almost a pound :)<br /><br />When it came time for the gender reveal Avery was hopping from one foot to the other, barely containing herself. When the tech told us it was a boy Avery started jumping up and down and exclaiming, "It's a boy! It's a boy!" And then she marked the right box on her paper :)<br /><br />When we left the ultrasound room Avery told everybody in the hallway, "We're having a boy!!" And of course, everybody smiles back and says congratulations. Then Avery said to me, "Mom, I always wanted it to be a boy." Ha ha ha! Well, good! She did say she was upset she wouldn't get to share her room with the baby. I told her she was probably the only person I knew that was upset about not sharing a room!<br /><br />I texted Al immediately. He had tried to get the day off, but it wasn't in the cards. Right before I went in to the ultrasound he had texted me saying he was in the OR, so I knew I wouldn't be able to call him. I just texted him, "Little DANE looks healthy and perfect, measuring just 1 day ahead of due date." He ended up calling a couple of hours later. He scrubbed out of his surgery because he just couldn't wait any longer and he said that everybody in the OR was so excited too. I didn't get to talk to him for long because he had to go scrub back in, but it was good to hear from him.<br /><br />We will be naming our little guy <span style="font-weight:bold;">DANE WILLIAM TANNER<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span>. Al and I both love the name and are so very excited.Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-89143838935883262342011-09-29T08:50:00.003-05:002011-09-29T08:53:46.337-05:00Girl or Boy?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXdLUsutpcawS5jz47isKcoDHppFcI28gbdVGUF89ioPDL3obL2XzA33P32SvZoQTMbio2lA1cL-3bmTIBh630gYtqOXGrMD9tQfCVYpKGbyacoljeRS5dDjIVJ-0GGj8xzX3MPiE_wB0/s1600/PICT0066s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXdLUsutpcawS5jz47isKcoDHppFcI28gbdVGUF89ioPDL3obL2XzA33P32SvZoQTMbio2lA1cL-3bmTIBh630gYtqOXGrMD9tQfCVYpKGbyacoljeRS5dDjIVJ-0GGj8xzX3MPiE_wB0/s320/PICT0066s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657779103650664066" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYI5VLApM0xxOsIFQsaabCYW1FneKqhyphenhyphenP87s1_5q5z-4zM8SP_rBtuh2SMoh_0M35fvNy_zU367qJOedXjOC0WqGUQgDkg0HwatEs7Wf3ANnu8lOJbq5GE-u7ba_7HxwVwBFgHd-nAho/s1600/IMG_1941s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYI5VLApM0xxOsIFQsaabCYW1FneKqhyphenhyphenP87s1_5q5z-4zM8SP_rBtuh2SMoh_0M35fvNy_zU367qJOedXjOC0WqGUQgDkg0HwatEs7Wf3ANnu8lOJbq5GE-u7ba_7HxwVwBFgHd-nAho/s320/IMG_1941s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657778969471143394" /></a><br />I don't know if it's too soon for this post, but I thought maybe it was time to put our guesses out there for what the gender of baby #3 is going to be :)<br /><br />Here is some input that may or may not be helpful:<br /><br />- I really think it is a boy<br />- I have been wrong with both of our other kids :)<br />- Al has a 100% track record of guessing<br />- He used to be confident it was a girl, but now he is only semi-confident<br />- Avery of course thinks it is a girl<br />- James thinks it's a girl<br />- James doesn't understand the question :) Or that a baby is coming...<br />- We have a great boy's name picked out. I am really excited about it!<br />- We have a blank slate for a girl's name...<br />- All of my pregnancy symptoms/morning sickness etc. have been different with each pregnancy, so no use comparing.<br />- One Chinese calendar I saw said boy, another said girl :)<br />- If we follow Al's older sister's family pattern it will be a girl :)<br />- If we follow my older brother's family pattern it will be a boy :)<br />- It is great having one of each already, because I will be thrilled no matter what! I just want a healthy baby.<br /><br />My ultrasound is on Wednesday, October 5th, less than a week away! Finally! I will be almost 22 weeks at that point. I'm thinking of taking Avery with me. I hope the next few days pass quickly!!Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-33684172714016821722011-08-27T13:38:00.006-05:002011-08-27T13:40:10.058-05:00Avery's First Week in Pictures<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSeO0DGWb37WyotTNZikCf8ppFNwWSwzvrSoTNEdZ7nN22_KEsdBf_Nu1LIzu41ZItLtHYJrS2Q2bdAxRHkurZSBaSHeeUISFewSK3wYhapZIVPWFl3T1hWo4ZGl7qhGr3a120QHAcRgs/s1600/002s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSeO0DGWb37WyotTNZikCf8ppFNwWSwzvrSoTNEdZ7nN22_KEsdBf_Nu1LIzu41ZItLtHYJrS2Q2bdAxRHkurZSBaSHeeUISFewSK3wYhapZIVPWFl3T1hWo4ZGl7qhGr3a120QHAcRgs/s320/002s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645607258254091570" /></a>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6h_YXh908AT_lfWiZBPXNCGYCXlpnDqFMLZV2MnfnPVwElXPGpM6ZzF3DRtbugZcH1qzBTIig9Ppy9pN0zRPAm1lX-mTx5IKxq2Ht7biGOwbn0fPLVUkrQ9twY9_Y1fBxM8vrPIID1g/s1600/003s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6h_YXh908AT_lfWiZBPXNCGYCXlpnDqFMLZV2MnfnPVwElXPGpM6ZzF3DRtbugZcH1qzBTIig9Ppy9pN0zRPAm1lX-mTx5IKxq2Ht7biGOwbn0fPLVUkrQ9twY9_Y1fBxM8vrPIID1g/s320/003s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645607196879855906" /></a>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHHWeR4wNQRFS9oAcuWvUnrH1NerTdxKPnS6txk-Hw7ZKGxPC73hzguwTTb8Gel9TOIwgB4X_1Yqbts9MVvBjTkY6nFTptcxEMcSPD10yFNsipVNekuQ0wXZSm0LYwBcDM35ac0-nyAQo/s1600/004s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHHWeR4wNQRFS9oAcuWvUnrH1NerTdxKPnS6txk-Hw7ZKGxPC73hzguwTTb8Gel9TOIwgB4X_1Yqbts9MVvBjTkY6nFTptcxEMcSPD10yFNsipVNekuQ0wXZSm0LYwBcDM35ac0-nyAQo/s320/004s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645607143179384178" /></a>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5HjSr0v1302NXzhn1s0MImvEpgV31Nhm5CGHF992MWFInWUH-e6IvyaUQj8rNds27Xs3_MdXagqaaXPoW5KCrof0iGavVUIoZj31od8bw10XLMtESNy1dletnXedrGrD3JoFep1k_KE/s1600/005s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5HjSr0v1302NXzhn1s0MImvEpgV31Nhm5CGHF992MWFInWUH-e6IvyaUQj8rNds27Xs3_MdXagqaaXPoW5KCrof0iGavVUIoZj31od8bw10XLMtESNy1dletnXedrGrD3JoFep1k_KE/s320/005s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645607068971786002" /></a>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqU2zX_7YWukKUOfW-mGSMs_WeYftLQ3jHBumCj9Ql-cr8N-0Fe0SYSwR6JZjgOKy-9WWcxNNjz5jmVvzntYWKRSuEf_no2s8unQ3E1jAPKLb8h6Jn1Sbh5VvT3Qgy_teZPAeYxx3EDu8/s1600/006s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqU2zX_7YWukKUOfW-mGSMs_WeYftLQ3jHBumCj9Ql-cr8N-0Fe0SYSwR6JZjgOKy-9WWcxNNjz5jmVvzntYWKRSuEf_no2s8unQ3E1jAPKLb8h6Jn1Sbh5VvT3Qgy_teZPAeYxx3EDu8/s320/006s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645607009985820642" /></a>
<br />As you can see Avery's first week of Kindergarten was well documented. And she embraced the khaki and navy blue :)
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<br />Avery had a great first week, she loved it. The school is grades K-4 only, which is kind of nice. There are two music teachers and so Avery goes to music class twice a week. They have a PE coach too and Avery goes to PE twice a week as well. They also go to the library once a week. Avery was very impressed when I told her that Grandma Louona used to be a school librarian. Avery is starting to get to know the kids in her class and gives us little details on her classmates. It's amusing :) She brings home a folder every day that has a printout for the first six weeks of school that lists daily homework assignments and a daily behavior report I sign off on. And then it also has the handful of papers that Avery worked on that day. This morning Avery asked me when she gets to go back to school. She is hooked already.
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<br />As for me, I did much better on Tuesday when I dropped her off. But then Tuesday night I got really sad again thinking that she was going to be gone the whole next day too. Still adjusting I guess. The rest of the week got better with each day. It is nice/weird being on a routine after a long summer. Wednesday was the last morning I got to walk Avery to her classroom. From now on I can just drop her off at the school entrance. The school had a huge sign posted in the lobby on Thursday morning that said, "Hug them, kiss them, then tell them good-bye!" Ha ha ha! So that's what I did. I can see why they have to have a cut-off though. Avery is fine, but I would walk her every day to her class room if they let me :) And there were a few little kids having freakout/meltdowns as their moms left them in the lobby. That was hard to watch and I'm glad that Avery didn't go through that. Gotta make the separation some time I guess.
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<br />James is adjusting too. We have cuddled a lot this week. He's always been a cuddler, but I think it's increased since Avery's been gone. He watched Nemo everyday and sometimes he would come and get me and pat the couch next to him so I would sit by him. Then he would lay his head on my lap. I've spent a lot more time playing on the floor than when Avery was home too. I also think he's starting to talk more! Or maybe I am just hoping he is talking more ;) Thursday morning James threw a fit when we had to drop Avery off at the door. I thought it was because he missed Avery and I felt bad for him. Then Friday morning he insisted on taking a book bag on the walk to take Avery to school. Like Thursday, I dropped Avery off at the door and watched to make sure she headed the right direction. I only watched for a few seconds and then I turned around to look at James in the stroller...and he was gone. I started calling, "James! James!" and was starting to panic when a dad said, "Are you looking for a little blonde boy? He went inside." I don't know how I missed it, but he snuck right in the school. He got a good way into the lobby, with his bag over his shoulder. I grabbed him before he got too far and he had another meltdown. I guess he wants to go to school too :) Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-73288260762582342282011-08-22T16:44:00.011-05:002011-08-22T16:49:44.650-05:00Avery's First Day of Kindergarten<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUF5Kfm9tb4gOF4PJbzlp6Xv41R8MAJodqjTDe1j1yorkWQZa8uCUwfC8QDkz4ANLvgppr1XAr6i1Rq0qcKekEKMMHxb1gtUD0r6TTkGCCixf-3TEBwqSEFYmIEMdpBnB_2NzV7nKLrY/s1600/001s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUF5Kfm9tb4gOF4PJbzlp6Xv41R8MAJodqjTDe1j1yorkWQZa8uCUwfC8QDkz4ANLvgppr1XAr6i1Rq0qcKekEKMMHxb1gtUD0r6TTkGCCixf-3TEBwqSEFYmIEMdpBnB_2NzV7nKLrY/s320/001s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643800042677622066" /></a>
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuTtuWPgySczbH0w-l7nlHs24p9E_9z3OZQRnPaN7xYMAbBZV_baq9I6HNHYjtISSth9g7RWMO1QMj8RBxvtBZzGK6AJqfNQI-przydYNCnKV7gcs35pP2cpOFrrjxG0ewF_NtSmLjpHE/s1600/014s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuTtuWPgySczbH0w-l7nlHs24p9E_9z3OZQRnPaN7xYMAbBZV_baq9I6HNHYjtISSth9g7RWMO1QMj8RBxvtBZzGK6AJqfNQI-przydYNCnKV7gcs35pP2cpOFrrjxG0ewF_NtSmLjpHE/s320/014s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643799577602924226" /></a>
<br />Avery is home from her first day of Kindergarten! It was a success :)
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<br />I had to include the picture of Avery in her 'alien mind blocker hat.' The green leaf is something she fashioned on the front to stand for 'nature aliens.' I guess she's a fan of nature aliens in particular...? She made a symbol for James' hat that is yet to be made. I don't think he's too keen on wearing a piece of foil on his head. But if he were going to wear his hat his symbol is a waterfall. For water aliens. Naturally. I know Al is thrilled beyond words that Avery has a huge interest in the solar system and now aliens. She drew a picture of the solar system yesterday that is so cute. I'll have to put it on the blog.
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<br />Anyway, Kindergarten!
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<br />Last night I painted Avery's fingernails and toenails in honor of the big day, and in honor of our tradition since the first year of preschool. This year at the store she picked out plum seduction, a very nice purple-y pink color :) After her nails dried Al gave Avery a back to school blessing. He talked about it with her before hand, how she needed to be extra reverent and listen to the words. She asked if I was going to help too, but Al said that only he would be giving the blessing since he had the priesthood. Then she asked what my special job was and Al said it was to paint her nails and help her look cute in her outfits, fix her lunch, etc. :) Al gave Avery a really nice blessing. Avery is so funny, when Al started the blessing and said her full name Avery whispered, "yes?" Ha ha ha! Al was saying some really nice things about Avery and the school year and he said something about her helping the kids that were sad. Then Avery whispered, "And also help me to be friends to the people that don't have any friends." Ha ha ha! So Al included that as well :)
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<br />After the blessing it was time to get Avery in bed. I took her upstairs and helped her pick out her outfit for the first day. She picked the hot pink polo. Then I opened her drawer full of shorts and pants and pulled out a pair of navy uniform shorts. Avery looked at them and said, "No! Not those!" Then I pulled out a pair of khaki shorts and she said, "Mom, I don't wear that color." Um...you do now! Welcome to uniforms! So we settled on a pair of denim capris. You are allowed to wear denim as long as it's not embellished at all. I guess we'll have to ease Avery in to the whole concept of uniforms.
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<br />Last night after the kids were in bed I had a little bit of an emotional moment. It's just such a big deal that she will be gone every day, all day now. I have never been away from my kids for more than a few hours at a time and so it is hard for me to be away from Avery for so long. Al was sympathetic, but said, "You know you can't do this at the school tomorrow, right?"
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<br />We woke up bright and early today. Al had the day off which was so nice! We got the kids all ready and headed down for Avery's requested breakfast of powdered donuts and orange juice. But she was just too excited/nervous to eat much of anything. Then it was off to school.
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<br />Avery was so excited. We walked Avery inside and to her classroom. Mrs. T was at the door ready to greet the kids and start the routines with them. Right when we walked in she put a name tag on Avery, then showed Avery where to put her lunch box. Avery excitedly told her, "I have a Littlest Pet Shop lunch box and today there are BBQ chips inside!!" To which Mrs. T replied, "Oh that sounds delicious!" Cute :)
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<br />We had a tiny hiccup when Avery went to hang up her back pack. There was another mom there with her child. She was wearing one of those long flowy dress things and Avery tripped on it on the way back to me and Al. She fell flat on the ground. Avery stood up bravely, but I could see her face crumbling as she walked back to us. So sad! I was already having a hard time keeping it together! Avery came and buried her face in my shirt and cried. I reassured her that she was okay, but maybe it just scared her a little bit. To which she replied that well, it did hurt a little too. She quickly pulled it together though and found a seat at one of the tables. Mrs. T had a coloring sheet at every seat for the kids to work on when they got there. At this point Al could tell I was in a fragile state so he told Avery to give me a hug and she did. Then I helped her sit back down and gave her a couple of kisses on the cheek and then...we left. I looked at the other moms all around and they all seemed composed! But as my friend Kim told me later, they were just saving up their tears for when they got back home :) What can I say...I'm super attached/worried/overprotective/emotional etc. And I'm my mother's daughter :)
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<br />Throughout the day, every so often, I would think I wonder what Avery is doing now. Did somebody help her with her lunch? Have they even had lunch yet? Is she having fun? And all sorts of other things. We all went and picked her up at 3 outside of the school. She came running up to us and before we could say anything she grabbed James' cheeks in both of her hands and said, "Did you miss me?!" It was cute. Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-53265440072901027972011-08-09T10:39:00.003-05:002011-08-09T11:36:16.566-05:00The More The Merrier :)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlhi9aqaAknOYXH5o6qb9MBQJg4OIXhYl3w8zbsEUfAmFKkN57d5RJ_ojD76XcqsqYmfADqKkMO6qZedq50TwEbdcjUYiyZ5XoPHTSU9asx0xEOC8JffuIyEat0u8eU-izZTaRDFmdblM/s1600/img002.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlhi9aqaAknOYXH5o6qb9MBQJg4OIXhYl3w8zbsEUfAmFKkN57d5RJ_ojD76XcqsqYmfADqKkMO6qZedq50TwEbdcjUYiyZ5XoPHTSU9asx0xEOC8JffuIyEat0u8eU-izZTaRDFmdblM/s320/img002.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638881616126733474" /></a>
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<br />Yeah! A baby is on the way!
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<br />I've had two ultrasounds already and will have my 3rd appointment on Wednesday and everything looks great! This ultrasound picture was actually taken a few weeks ago. I love how you can already see the head and arms and legs :)
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<br />I am due February 11th...February is a big month for us I guess since Al and Avery already have birthdays in February! Which puts me at just over 13 weeks right now. But the baby will be born at least 1 week before that, and up to 3 to 4 weeks before the 11th if I get sick again. So probably anywhere between the middle of January to the beginning of February.
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<br />I will start shots at 16 weeks, once a week, up until I deliver. My OB is setting up a home nursing service that will come to the house to do the shots. I am sure it is something Al can do, but I need to find out more specifics, like if it has to be on the exact same day every time, etc. Al will start to be gone a lot more in the next several months and so maybe it won't work out to have him just do it.
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<br />I think I have already felt the baby move :) But I don't know if that's possible at 13 weeks or less...but I swear I have at night when I rest on the couch. Hopefully I'm not just crazy...
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<br />I have felt pretty good, very tired, and more sick with this one than the others.
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<br />We have told Avery already. She wants to name the baby Amy Avery T. She will not even try to think of a boy's name. She is certain she is getting a sister. When James saw the ultrasound picture the first thing he said was "Baby!" I know he doesn't have a clue about what is going on, but I was shocked he could decipher the ultrasound picture without any help!
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<br />My OB is also pregnant right now and will just be finishing her maternity leave right around when I will be having the baby, so we'll see how that works out. And my OB group is switching hospitals in the fall/winter. So I will be at a different hospital than what I thought. I was kind of worried about that, but Al said as long as it wasn't the county hospital I would be fine :) Besides when I was in the hospital last year we saw another resident from our ward, Al kind of knew the anesthesiologist, and he ran into some people he knew when I was in recovery. So maybe it's just as well that I'm at another hospital that's not linked with UT...
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<br />I think that's about it for now, but we'll keep you posted! Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-86018584106143755572011-07-20T12:53:00.009-05:002011-07-20T12:57:28.602-05:00Lagoon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVesqmfBd-vom6wVxKG-xuimWUlL-ajghyphenhyphenF5TXy5cMrNAyGgz0LuVtmqQHNa2KyJqcmlkEm524mudRmswsg7wH69QDeHmdo94y233kShm0QPRK1HZil8r-4NCe7GeeJXWY6nHXENXoeNQ/s1600/086s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVesqmfBd-vom6wVxKG-xuimWUlL-ajghyphenhyphenF5TXy5cMrNAyGgz0LuVtmqQHNa2KyJqcmlkEm524mudRmswsg7wH69QDeHmdo94y233kShm0QPRK1HZil8r-4NCe7GeeJXWY6nHXENXoeNQ/s320/086s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631495012628863938" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk5Z-nWZFEF-5o-AmOjjSIHv8pDCQ2svicLTE50L0fflA1W61QLYBQ5fRgwX1jakjz49Z7LIAzv14L0mf1_tluxF5F-kcN2Csbsezh-Arasy3Y8v7wdJqkT12wytCmUX5_fj1bJq4hZwE/s1600/089s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk5Z-nWZFEF-5o-AmOjjSIHv8pDCQ2svicLTE50L0fflA1W61QLYBQ5fRgwX1jakjz49Z7LIAzv14L0mf1_tluxF5F-kcN2Csbsezh-Arasy3Y8v7wdJqkT12wytCmUX5_fj1bJq4hZwE/s320/089s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631494931222078658" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxj-i6Il6fmrR97Rzom_mhAoYZABxy1zxmKvKpjAKdG4AsvdpSQMBdvRm399lEwqcEha_P8vPuFQzKNq5bedjDekTPCVyZFU4KeHRp74wC7QOliHDw3Hv6rHGRRj1K8JD1ODmiAP_UagA/s1600/092s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxj-i6Il6fmrR97Rzom_mhAoYZABxy1zxmKvKpjAKdG4AsvdpSQMBdvRm399lEwqcEha_P8vPuFQzKNq5bedjDekTPCVyZFU4KeHRp74wC7QOliHDw3Hv6rHGRRj1K8JD1ODmiAP_UagA/s320/092s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631494829537892866" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixrEEV3F2N1plIHy3bLwlQ0if9Ay4p0ALNiBOIpvYOpuHyRsztg4jxa-_WDylmX_L8OHedWr-EhbGws0Ngx-Vj6ZCfiHMvkQl9s0Si5oUmz-GMmlozlEGgFIrfaY7XMgstIKHeY0ClRVk/s1600/095s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixrEEV3F2N1plIHy3bLwlQ0if9Ay4p0ALNiBOIpvYOpuHyRsztg4jxa-_WDylmX_L8OHedWr-EhbGws0Ngx-Vj6ZCfiHMvkQl9s0Si5oUmz-GMmlozlEGgFIrfaY7XMgstIKHeY0ClRVk/s320/095s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631494727953586738" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiId_oh_JxaxELowIgGsDXZC34HgpaayFGiQuhJdh4xdeyG8HwKSEBhrsRfeml82YEANr4Nw7k3ax6_90z5GPbnIR8o4DviIoRsYf1WBUcUk6HGXrwDsTPlpvD2p8TqT11cxpqr8qqBhU/s1600/096s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiId_oh_JxaxELowIgGsDXZC34HgpaayFGiQuhJdh4xdeyG8HwKSEBhrsRfeml82YEANr4Nw7k3ax6_90z5GPbnIR8o4DviIoRsYf1WBUcUk6HGXrwDsTPlpvD2p8TqT11cxpqr8qqBhU/s320/096s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631494636342620626" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDcfQsQ_Yb_Pjg0U-t-WP1z8HMxD1mtL0j4FfuiZVKgA_S2RUvBoYyYOntiDDCbQQq7WsvLJBuuewiYVXtOoujw4z5hG4FCBA7FoSnmldjnOKlSsZwUs7lgU2jNVzOXM0hIjgGtezplA/s1600/099s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDcfQsQ_Yb_Pjg0U-t-WP1z8HMxD1mtL0j4FfuiZVKgA_S2RUvBoYyYOntiDDCbQQq7WsvLJBuuewiYVXtOoujw4z5hG4FCBA7FoSnmldjnOKlSsZwUs7lgU2jNVzOXM0hIjgGtezplA/s320/099s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631494542369370402" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhn6-7bZFsM3sg10qKqf4Zl7FnTMUHVUe0rt-O5IDHU1m_Sf5XIn1Zf05AHf6Sz_h1tQuaMoB7jg8j5XQBaO1zYko7bBE4lDyhwEhVSr-1AHIbN-BBLm2AY6I-LpPIGREilzVk0BS4s3s/s1600/100s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhn6-7bZFsM3sg10qKqf4Zl7FnTMUHVUe0rt-O5IDHU1m_Sf5XIn1Zf05AHf6Sz_h1tQuaMoB7jg8j5XQBaO1zYko7bBE4lDyhwEhVSr-1AHIbN-BBLm2AY6I-LpPIGREilzVk0BS4s3s/s320/100s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631494469879570034" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNrktJYKtjFleaFTu9pRGyHKVBM-r4uelttgB93QEmof-n9036KkPubTq002p5AOBq6xvDK6MxQCSuOFT49GxdSPQq25VENsb8_4Mguu_QeGC5uwKWpPTnZo6cn4-8qkS5d5XCe1Zgo0/s1600/104s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNrktJYKtjFleaFTu9pRGyHKVBM-r4uelttgB93QEmof-n9036KkPubTq002p5AOBq6xvDK6MxQCSuOFT49GxdSPQq25VENsb8_4Mguu_QeGC5uwKWpPTnZo6cn4-8qkS5d5XCe1Zgo0/s320/104s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631494380985282338" /></a><br />On our second to last day in Utah we spent the day at Lagoon with my mom and dad, Derek and his family. I hadn't been to Lagoon since I was probably about 14 or so and didn't remember a ton about it. I have a very low tolerance for rides...I have to take Dramamine at Disneyland and get carsick if I glance down at a map for even a few seconds. So I knew that it was mostly going to be a spectator day for me. My kids have had very little exposure to rides so I wasn't sure what they would think about it, especially since James got freaked out at the bounce house.<br /><br />We got to Lagoon right when it opened. It was raining lightly outside and it was cold! Luckily we all brought sweatshirts with us. I was pretty surprised when we got inside the park at how nice it was. I definitely don't remember it being that nice, but it had been a while. There was quite a bit of landscaping, fountains, etc. And it was very clean. The kids were on their first ride within about 3 minutes of entering the park. We started small :) It turned out that Bulgy the Whale was a crowd favorite. Especially with James. He ended up riding it several times that day and was even sort of saying 'Bulgy' by the end of the day.<br /><br />For the first while we stayed in the kiddie area and let the kids go on the rides multiple times each. There were no lines and so the kids could go from ride to ride without a wait. Derek took Alison off to ride the wild rides. After we hit the kid rides pretty heavy we decided to venture out a bit to see what else the kids would want to go on.<br /><br />It turns out they wanted to go on everything!! I had no idea what Avery's tolerance for rides would be (or James' for that matter!) and I know my dad was nervous too. He said a couple of times that he thought Avery was going to get sick. But she would come running off of each ride with a huge smile on her face and want to run to the next ride. I kept asking her if her tummy hurt, or whatever, and she always said no.<br /><br />My parents and Derek and Jen were really nice to take my kids on all of the rides with them. James wanted in on the action after a while and he started to go on the rides he was tall enough to go on, which were a surprising number of rides. Avery went on a couple of different roller coasters, the Chinese Dragon (it goes super fast in a circle on direction and then reverses and goes super fast backwards)the dinosaur drop (takes you high up in the air and then drops you), the scrambler, the tilt-a-whirl, the Flying Aces, etc. A lot of these she went on multiple times. James was able to go on one roller coaster (well, he went on Puff in the kiddie section a few times, but then he went on a bigger one several times later) and also did the tilt-a-whirl and the Flying Aces. The Flying Aces goes pretty fast and gets you a fair amount off the ground. As soon as it was over he shouted "Again! Again!"<br /><br />At one point the little kids and my dad and I sat it out while my mom, Derek and Jen, and Alison went on a ride called the Samurai. It is a crazy ride. I don't know how to explain it except for that the separate arms are spinning in complete flips, while the whole ride itself is rotating. Avery was really disappointed that she wasn't tall enough to ride and kept saying for the rest of the day that she was sure she would be tall enough next year to ride it. I have no doubt she would have ridden it this year if they would have let her on!<br /><br />We ended up staying at Lagoon until almost closing. It never got crazy busy to where you would have to wait long for rides. It was a lot of fun to see all of the rides lit up when it was dark. Right before we left Jen disappeared and came back with a churro and a few funnel cakes. She was a hero! I think James would have eaten an entire one by himself if the opportunity had presented itself.<br /><br />It was a great day and I can't wait to go again. Maybe next year! We'll have to see if Avery's grown tall enough for that Samurai ;)Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593282219795460319.post-60475492592897409622011-07-16T08:09:00.003-05:002011-07-16T08:11:54.611-05:00Temple Square<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeMzSSTL8k96xGJWr87C_Z3lbdnu_Oo8eEqAPDMtxI7jfhBuIROiwGjCkORSM5hol-FCP9eejENDYsqdY871xqmLp-D9Z0kJIIy9fSgZK4pcyqtoB81y78aKCDfR4b4L2hPUGfg98mu8I/s1600/070s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeMzSSTL8k96xGJWr87C_Z3lbdnu_Oo8eEqAPDMtxI7jfhBuIROiwGjCkORSM5hol-FCP9eejENDYsqdY871xqmLp-D9Z0kJIIy9fSgZK4pcyqtoB81y78aKCDfR4b4L2hPUGfg98mu8I/s320/070s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629937101479717954" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjERQCAqNmgmoujxtozdnNK55rUAWwV8Yke6tbtcLoEVgKEbdR7_FNo-4avRCC4Xe9bgEDFznhGvkg1iYvTP8IMD10rpOJKlPXMDQhBXORp40iKLCSc0j5VchbgyyirFN6NLv637zAJzOw/s1600/071s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjERQCAqNmgmoujxtozdnNK55rUAWwV8Yke6tbtcLoEVgKEbdR7_FNo-4avRCC4Xe9bgEDFznhGvkg1iYvTP8IMD10rpOJKlPXMDQhBXORp40iKLCSc0j5VchbgyyirFN6NLv637zAJzOw/s320/071s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629937021657389474" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig0mBGtT7UmAroTaaM5jodlcc-WVRA-pMYSvquJng30TiUCn-p3HGdWKQtb01iXmN9bZmuYJHXYlO3PafKl6dU3KEMo6N_kAkGfkHOb10pvsMfeY3Vf6OlMHvDreSM3Tx3QUPmNwNvVII/s1600/073s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig0mBGtT7UmAroTaaM5jodlcc-WVRA-pMYSvquJng30TiUCn-p3HGdWKQtb01iXmN9bZmuYJHXYlO3PafKl6dU3KEMo6N_kAkGfkHOb10pvsMfeY3Vf6OlMHvDreSM3Tx3QUPmNwNvVII/s320/073s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629936936374222578" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgON624OT1Qv87lx_WY6MfFkB2_HvVRmycuXeXaIXXK8kIoIYpAtn2vr1CtoQ1Bmz6SQd3cuNdEGvxwIM9Ul91m1U8rH_KSt2t4ka-7xHZ-baHGtwwd83oKfAsf2l2Zgjre-8wPAqLfQzg/s1600/074s.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgON624OT1Qv87lx_WY6MfFkB2_HvVRmycuXeXaIXXK8kIoIYpAtn2vr1CtoQ1Bmz6SQd3cuNdEGvxwIM9Ul91m1U8rH_KSt2t4ka-7xHZ-baHGtwwd83oKfAsf2l2Zgjre-8wPAqLfQzg/s320/074s.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5629936799904172690" /></a><br /><br />One day we went downtown to temple square and the conference center. We didn't end up going inside the conference center, but just walked around outside.<br /><br />Temple square was so pretty. I don't think I've taken Avery before...and definitely not James. It was fun to be that close to the Salt Lake temple again. Avery loved being up close to it and I explained that Al and I were married in there.<br /><br />There are so many buildings to go in and see, but we only hit a few of them. In one of the visitor's centers there is a cross section of the SLC temple. It was really neat and very detailed. I got to show Avery where Al and I got married. The kids loved all of the fountains outside, the old fashioned looking drinking fountains, and all of the flowers. Avery actually seemed to really enjoy the older buildings, the old tabernacle, etc.<br /><br />We walked across South Temple to the section that the church is remodeling. What they have done so far is really pretty. Lots of landscaping and fountains. On one of the fountains it had an official dedication date, I think it was in March of 2012. We spent some time in the remodeled Deseret Book store. They have really improved it and given it some personality. Then we had a late lunch at the Blue Lemon, a new restaurant they put in.<br /><br />After all of this James was ready to call it a day, so we headed back to the conference center, where we parked. I don't know what happened, but somehow we got extremely lost. We remembered one of the numbers where we parked, but we didn't know you were supposed to remember 2 different numbers. And what also complicated it was that we parked on some weird half level...Anyway, after walking around the parking garage for 30 minutes, several trips to the various elevators and talking to a few people we finally found our car. At that point James was asleep and we were all exhausted. We definitely got our exercise that day.Al and Jennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17433807100193935793noreply@blogger.com0