A Year in Review 2014

March:

We got ourselves a second vehicle to fit us all in! (Once the third kid comes)

Our Durango

April:

We found out that baby #3 was going to be A GIRL! We were beyond excited to finally get a girl :)

Yay! Another girl in the family :)

July:

This month brought the 1 year birthday of Lucas and my brother in law David getting married to Joy!

I was a bridesmaid and Josh played in a quartet.

Lucas enjoying his cake!

Jon wanted a picture of me and my pregnant sister and decided to join too!

August:

This month brought about Lucas starting to walk (@13 months...sooner than Aidan did), Aidan starting his first full year of preschool, and the birth of our daughter Melody!

August 14 we had our baby!

second day August 15

We are at home!

Sept:

This month I turned 32. We also had Lucas go in for a tear duct surgery. So glad that was done because now we no longer have to worry about goopy eyes from him!

Nov:

This month brought us Melody's surgery to correct her skull (which had been growing front to back, but not side to side. Josh's cousin Emily's baby Kendra had her heart surgery the day before Melody's head surgery.

It also brought me my third nephew, Aaron, who is Mindee's second child.

Waiting to go into surgery. Josh took her in at 7:45 and we didn't get into surgery until about 11:30.

Just after surgery....pretty drugged out, but so adorable!

Scars from the surgery

Sweet Kendra recovering from her heart surgery. I couldn't hold her, but I got to see her!

This month I also was rear ended in our Durango with all 3 kids in the car. Since it was the other person's fault, we got our car fixed and paid for by her insurance.

Dec:

We had received a very generous anonymous Christmas present on our doorstep the last week of November. This helped us get some additional Christmas gifts that we wouldn't have been able to get without.

Emily's daughter Kendra returned back to heaven this month. What a sweet spirit that was with us for a short 5 1/2 months! I only got  to meet her twice (they live in Idaho) but I loved her. She was so sweet! We will miss her!

 May you keep watch over your family and be wrapped in your Heavenly Father's arms!

Just a few happenings...

After my crash, we were spoiled with this for a week and a half while the Durango was getting repaired.

Got the Durango back today:

They repaired the back bumper and the rubber part below the trunk.

Melody got her helmet last Thursday and now has to wear it 23 hours a day with one hour off to take a bath/wash hair.

She had her 4 month checkup today. She is 13.8 lbs in the 50%. Her head has gone down a bit since the surgery, she's down to the 90%.

While waiting for our turn with the doctor, I put her down on her tummy. Right before the doctor came in, she rolled over for the first time ever to her back! I wish I had taken video, but I did get a picture of tummy time:

Look at that awesome head hold!

Also, because of the generous Christmas surprise we received, we were able to buy ourselves a little something (besides helping out with Christmas gift purchases) was this set. We needed a new soup pot but these extras are awesome! (plus it was half off which was an awesome deal!) 

:

Car Crash

I don't really want to remember this day so I'll make it short. Wednesday afternoon, I was on the way to take Melody to an appt to get measurements for her helmet that she will need to wear. I was turning into a parking lot and was rear ended by a 20 year old girl.

Dealing with both insurance companies the next morning, giving my statements to both insurances, and all that "fun" stuff. Around noon, I get a call from the other girl's insurance company saying that they are taking full responsibility and paying to get my car repaired and also paying for a rental for the time until I get my vehicle back.

Here are the photos of the damage my car sustained.

Melody's Surgery

Wednesday, November 19th, 2014

Melody went into Primary's Medical Center for her surgery. She had a strip craniectomy. Her skull had fused together too early in the middle of her skull. This was allowing her head to grow back to front, but not side to side. So her skull was getting elongated. So they took out a 1 inch strip in her skull and reshaped the skull to allow for normal growth. She will have to wear one of those baby helmets for about 7-8 months, but she won't get it for at least a week. She stayed overnight in the hospital and will probably need to stay one more night. Hopefully not more!

Here are some pictures and a video that I have taken over the course of the last 2 days....

Josh took her early for a blood draw and this is when I came to the hospital...still awaiting surgery.

got tired while waiting for our plastic surgeon to get started with the surgery

They had to shave part of her head for the surgery :(

she might lose more hair with the helmet on anyway

This was after I went to dinner the first night, she's all drugged out at this point.

This is from this morning (Nov 20th)....still drugged out a bit, but wanted to keep looking at me.

After finally having a wet diaper and getting 2 ounces of formula in her. She also has an IV fluid in right now to get her to get wet diapers because she isn't eating much.

I had to sneak in a picture of this beautiful angel!

This is Emily's (Josh's cousin) baby Kendra. She has Down Syndrome and had heart surgery the day before Melody so we had both of our families at Primary's. (they have been here and will be here longer than Melody will have to be)

Melody (2 months) and Lucas (15 months) checkups

Melody turned 2 months on the 14th and Lucas turned 15 months on the 16th. So they both had checkups this week. 

Melody is getting bigger (although still small compared to what the boys ever were) , she is up to 11 pounds and is 21 inches long. She is such a sweet baby. She is smiling A LOT now and loves to watch what her brothers are doing (except when they get too close lol). She loves to stick out her tongue a lot and "lick" the air as evidenced by this picture.

Lucas is a whopping 28 pounds and 32 inches tall. He is always on the go, go, go.....he NEVER wants to sit still. He's been walking around since 12 months (not too long after that checkup did he really start walking all the time) and he loves watching himself in mirrors or videos or pictures.

Melody's Blessing/Primary Program

Yesterday we blessed Melody in church. She had a beautiful dress that I borrowed from Mandy, a friend in our ward. Lots of people commented on how beautiful she looked and I would have to agree :)

It was also the day of the primary program. They have been learning this year about Eternal families. Aidan was a pill and made daddy sit on the stage with him. He would occasionally cry while sitting there and Josh said Aidan said multiple times "not Aidan's turn". When it was his time to get up with his classmates for his part, he said his part with help.....all the while crying. But he did get through it and I'm proud of him!

I'm sure lots of my family members that where there were laughing along with me.....it was too cute!

Aidan's 4th Birthday

Yesterday, my first born son Aidan turned 4 years old! We had a family party. (I am going to try and attempt a friend party for him next year) He got some Leap Frog learning DVD's, a DVD of "Elmo in Grouchland", a Lightning McQueen car that moves by itself when you shake it, 3 books, a shirt, a boxing Spider-Man toy, and a velvet coloring page with markers.

Here are some pictures from each year of his life-

2010:

family photo shoot

his first Christmas

2011:

wandering around with a bucket on his head

first time back to church for this (once) inactive family

2012:

starting his love of trains :)

playing in the snow with no gloves

"I'm hiding"

2013:

Santa hat

holding brother Lucas

loves Superman stuff

2014:

silly boy in Melody's bassinet

birthday morning

Spider-Man toy.......he boxes and you can hit his gloves too to "show him what you've got"

I couldn't be happier to have this sweet, smart boy in our family!

Melody Paige 1 month old!

I can't believe she is a month already, I hate how fast they grow!

She is such a doll and a joy in our home! Aidan just adores her (will always let me know when she is crying, sleeping, happy/sad etc.. and loves to say hi to her) and Lucas is slowing getting there (now instead of always hitting her, he will come look at her and smile....I still have to watch his hands though so he doesn't hit her).

She is a good little sleeper. She is still wearing newborn clothes (Aidan and Lucas never fit in anything newborn.....she seems so tiny compared to them!) She has given 2 genuine smiles to me and a few to daddy. She has the funniest mad faces I've ever seen (she has already perfected "the scowl") She is slowly starting to eat more in one sitting (for the longest time she'd only drink an ounce, so she'd want to constantly be feed throughout the day), now she gets about 2-4 oz at every feeding so we are having to do it less.

I love having another girl in our house, for a while I thought I'd be the only women in the house. I am very grateful that she came into our lives when she did.

Here are some of my favorite photos of her short little life:

her "lovie" she loves to hug

I love baby headbands!

cute outfit from Aunt Amy

staring at mama

asleep in mama's lap