Lately

Not too much has been going on but I thought I would just give a general update.  This quarter of classes for Matthew has been really tough for all of us. His classes this time are just more intense and time consuming. He is definitely feeling more stress and pressure and Austin and I have definitely felt his absence a lot more. We will all be glad when this quarter ends in about 2 weeks.
Austin and I have been trying to keep busy. Here is a little bit of what we have been up to:

Austin is really into legos lately and this time he wanted to be all covered in them.

 Austin loves to put on my necklaces when he sees me do it and really wanted a picture of both of us wearing them.

Austin starting sorting out his alphabet puzzle like this all by himself. I was quite impressed!

 And we are always finding new things to play with.

Now that it is a little cooler, Austin loves to have a snack while sitting on our stairs and watch cars and trucks drive by. I think his mouth was full while he was trying to smile.

To go along with the season I have really been into baking with pumpkin and this blog has lots of yummy pumpkin recipes. I have tried the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (twice!) and the pumpkin french toast and loved both of them!
 I have also made pumpkin bread using my roommate Laura's recipe and it is the best:
-3 c sugar
-1 c vegetable oil
-4 eggs
-1 1/2 t salt
-1t cinnamon
-2/3 c water
-2 c pumpkin
-3 1/2 c flour
-1 t baking soda
-1 t nutmeg
-1/4 t ground cloves
-1 c nuts
Combine and bake:
375 for 2 large loaves for 1 hr.
350 for 4 small loaves for 40-45 minutes

Partying....I mean Babysitting

Ok I totally stole that title from my sister Jenna but it was the perfect description! My parents had the awesome opportunity to go to Moscow, Russia for a week and my youngest sister is 13 and living at home. So Jenna and I were both able to go home and be with Alyssa while my parents were away.  It was so fabulous to spend time with Alyssa and Jenna while Austin got in some good cousin time with Cade and Rylee.  I did get to see my parent for a day after they got back and got to hear all the cool things they did.

How awesome is that!

Here is my picture overload of what we did during the week together:

 Alyssa is an 8th grade cheerleader at her school so we were able to go to one of her games and watch her cheer.

 Rylee watching the game in all her cuteness

 Ahh sorry its blurry! Alyssa is the cute little one in front :)

 Our neighbor has chickens and let us come over one night to see the baby chick and to pick some eggs. Cade and Austin loved it. 

(blogger would not let me turn this picture the right way)

 Proof that Jenna and I were together! Sometimes we get so focused on the kids we forget to document ourselves. Try not to notice how Jenna's hair curls up so much better than mine!

 Me getting in some girl time with Rylee!

 Meeting up at the park with a couple of friends from home. We have 8 1/2 kids between all of us now! So fun to catch up with these girls.

 Austin and Cade enjoying their gifts from Russia.

 Making cookies with Alyssa!  Austin is clothes-less because we had just come back from picking eggs at the neighbors and Austin fell in a mud hole.  It was really sad and really funny all at the same time.  He hates being dirty and he kept slipping and couldn't get out. Whereas Cade was just itching to jump in and was sad he couldn't play in it too.

This is what the boys did most of the time.  They would fill up their carts and chase each other around the house. 

 What is with blogger suddenly not letting me put in vertical pictures? Anyone else have issues with that?  I love this picture of Austin, Rylee and I jumping on the trampoline.

Austin and Cade loved sitting together when we went places and Jenna and I loved driving around Dad's car!

Jenna and I were also able to get some crafting nights in as well as go shopping together. We also stayed up way to late every night. It was a fun-filled week and I'm so glad my parents were safe and enjoyed Russia as well as letting me come home for a little trip too!

The Story

So I am a little behind in blogging but I have had an intense couple of weeks. One week I was in Texas which was awesome but I will get to that in another post.  This past week I spent some time in the hospital which was not so awesome.  (You know how I was joking a few posts ago that both Matthew and Austin have had surgery this fall and that I guess I would be next?) Here is the story.

On Monday and Tuesday I was feeling really sick and nauseous and so didn't really eat or drink much. Wednesday I was feeling worse plus had a really bad back/side pain on my right side. Thankfully Matthew didn't have class on Wednesday morning so he hung out with Austin while I tried to sleep but this nagging pain was getting worse and I just couldn't ignore it anymore.  I called my doctor and was told to come to the hospital so they could check it out and make sure baby girl was still doing ok.  By this point my pain and nausea was so intense. They did a ultrasound where my pain was and found that my kidney was pretty swollen and inflamed which was causing the pain. They said this is somewhat common in pregnancy but not this bad and this early on (I was 23 weeks).  They also found I was really dehydrated and that was causing contractions.  I was admitted into the hospital and was given and IV of fluids and pain medication.  But my pain was getting out of control.  Seriously the worst pain I have ever felt.  They were giving me narcotics but they would dull the pain for about an hour and then I was asking for more.  They couldn't really do much for me since I'm pregnant and told me that I might have this pain for the rest of my pregnancy.  REALLY? 4 months of this?? At this point Matthew had called his mom and she was on the next scheduled flight.  She was a life saver!  I stayed in the hospital for 2 two days and then was sent home with Tylenol and some Vicodin if I really needed it.

I lasted one day and one sleepless night at home in agony.  The pain was so bad that I was also so nauseous and would literally force myself to eat or drink anything since I didn't want to get dehydrated again.  The only sleep I got was for two hours right after I had taken a Vicodin and then was just up all night in severe pain. I waited until Matthew woke up and then we headed right back to the hospital again Saturday morning. I was just in tears my pain was so bad.  But I was also concerned about heavy medication while pregnant. I was basically a mess. They admitted me again and took another ultrasound and kidney went from "moderately bad" to "severe".  They thought there might be a kidney stone but they couldn't find one. Well at this point the only option was surgery but then again being pregnant they really didn't want to go that route.  The surgery would put a stint in my kidney and that would help it drain better but not necessarily take away the pain. This surgery also has lots of side effects and the stint has to be changed every month. By this point I am literally begging the nurses for medication by the hour and was left with no other options so we decided to go the surgery route scheduled Sunday morning at 8am.

Early Sunday morning around 4am I woke up comfortable for the first time in 4 days with a nurse in my room. I asked her if she had already given me my pain medication, she said no she didn't.  I was like "Are you sure? Because I feel no pain." She assured me I had no pain meds in me so I just decided to jump on the chance to sleep comfortably again. At around 7am I woke up again with zero pain. After talking to the doctor we decided to cancel the surgery one hour before it was scheduled.  I don't know what happened but my pain was literally gone.  It was purely just a miracle.

 My doctor thinks it was a kidney stone although there is no proof. They couldn't ever find one in an ultrasound and I didn't ever feel like I "passed" one. But who knows.  All I know is my pain is gone and I am just so thankful.  My doctor said my kidney is still swollen and inflamed so chances are it will probably give me some more trouble the further along I become but for now I am good.

I am just so thankful for all the love and support I had throughout that horrible week from family and friends. Especially to my mother-in-law who flew down at a moment's notice and basically took over with Austin while I was in the hospital and Matthew was in class and studying.  After I came home Sunday afternoon, Matthew pulled an all nighter up on campus studying for a test and didn't come home until after his test Monday morning. Poor guy.
Anyway, long story but I really am doing good now. However after almost a week of little sleep I feel a little zombie-ish (I guess this in in preparation for a  few months from now) and am trying to sleep and take naps as much as possible. Little baby girl seems to be happy and loves kicking all the time!

Playdough

I have given Austin playdough before to play with and he hated the texture and wouldn't touch it. I haven't really tried since then.  So randomly he found a little tub of it and wanted to play with it. So I sat him at the table and tried it.
He was completely thrilled and silent while playing with it for almost a half an hour! Matthew and I were able to enjoy talking and making dinner together while he played.
His is so full of expressions it's hard not to include all the pictures I took of him!

Cutest dude ever!

Tongue Tied

 Matthew had surgery last month and this month it was Austin's turn. Let's hope the trend does not continue. We have known for a while he was going to need it and today was the day.  Austin was born tongue tied.  Actually that's the first thing the nurse said when he was born.  I tried to find a current picture of him sticking out his tongue.

You can see that his tongue doesn't have a point to it and we lovingly refer to it as "butt tongue"  Here is another picture I found online.  

Here is some info about it from here.
The medical term for the condition known as tongue-tie is "ankyloglossia". It results when the frenulum (the band of tissue that connects the bottom of the tongue to the floor of the mouth) is too short and tight, causing the movement of the tongue to be restricted.
Tongue-tie is congenital (present at birth) and hereditary (often more that one family member has the condition). It occurs relatively often: between 0.2% and 2% of babies are born with tight frenulums.

 So Austin had a frenetomy to get it clipped. It's a pretty minor surgery. Interesting that it is hereditary because my twin sister and I were both born tongue tied!   It usually causes problems with breast feeding and eventually speech problems. Austin didn't really have any problems with nursing so we let it go for awhile but when I took him to the ENT he said it was a pretty significant case and we should get it clipped. However we couldn't find a doctor who would take our insurance so we had to wait until I could switch plans so now we finally got it done. I'm curious to see if our baby girl is tongue tied since neither of my sister's kids are.

Here is Austin all ready to go.

 He got really excited when I told him he gets to have medicine.

I tried to prepare Austin for what was coming. I told him they were going to make him fall asleep and when he wakes up his tongue is going to hurt just like Daddy's leg hurts.  He really did seem to understand. The hardest part was having the nurse tell me after all the paperwork was done and he was changed into his hospital gown, "Ok, hand him over to me and you can leave through that door."  Excuse me, what?  It was so sad handing the nurse by little baby while he is screaming and then having to hear him scream all down the hallway. I wished they had told me about that part a little sooner so I could have prepared Austin (and myself).  But the anesthesia quickly put him under and the procedure took maybe 15 minutes and then when  he woke up they came and got me. They told me to be prepared if he woke up screaming and thrashing like some kids do but Austin was really calm and just told me his mouth hurt.

As soon as we got home we did his two favorite things, drank juice and watched Cars.  He just cuddled with me and told me every once in a while his mouth hurt. But overall he is recovering great and this is what most of our day today looks like.

Bring It On!

Exciting news!
Bring on the ribbons and curls because we are having a GIRL!!  Woo Hoo! We are so excited (Matthew too!)  I can't wait for Austin to have a little sister and to play dress up with her!
Now we start the process of thinking of names.
And making headbands.

The other exciting thing that happened this week is Matthew starting his second year of Podiatry School.  This was the first week of classes.  Matthew actually skipped the first class on the first day so he could come find out the gender with me.  We are back to the daily grind of busy med school life as this will be his last year of lecture classes before he starts clinical rotations. Bring it on.

Austin was nice enough to help Matthew look over some material after class.  You can also see the after effects of Matthew's latest surgery on his knee.

 First day of school picture!  He sure does hate it when I take these pictures but he's a good sport!

Aubrey and Aaron

Last week Matthew's sister Aubrey and her 15 month old son Aaron were able to come down from Utah to visit.  We had been talking about doing this for awhile and we finally made it happen. Austin and Aaron were so cute together and spend the whole ride home from the airport just staring and laughing at each other. We loved having them here and did some fun things while they were in town but mostly we loved watching the cousins interact and play with each other.
While they were here, Matthew's brother Brian and his wife Michelle were driving back to Utah from a summer job and we happen to be the perfect halfway point for them to stop and visit.  It was definitely a full house over the weekend!  But I'm so glad we were able to spend time with them.  Here are some of the things we did:

These little boys loved playing with these firetrucks. It's a good thing we had two!

 We enjoyed some yumminess at Jamba Juice and Fuddruckers.

I  think we went swimming about 3 times during the week!

Aubrey, Michelle and I were able to sneak away for a little bit while the boys were sleeping. We went out to lunch and then to go see The Help.  So good!  It's was so nice to have a little girl time. Thanks to Brian for letting us go!

One afternoon we took the boys to Chuck E Cheese. It took some warming up to the rides but they ended up loving it.  They went on rides, watch other kids go on rides, went up and down the slide and enjoyed some bread sticks.  It was the perfect thing to do on a really really hot afternoon. 

We also went to the Children's Museum.  Austin just loves it there.  I didn't get any pictures of them together but they both had fun! 

  This was Aaron's favorite room. It had all different tunnels and chutes you could put balls into. It was so cute to watch him do it.

 We also took advantage of Sonic happy hour drinks a couple of different times. This Sonic is an inside one. I have never seen one like it before and it's really close by.  Perfect for the summer heat!  Austin decided to order for us :)

Last, we tried to get a picture of us all together but Austin just flipped out once I brought the camera out so he hung out in the background.

So where was Matthew during this whole week?? Remember when he broke his leg last fall and had to have major surgery including getting a metal plate and screws in his leg? Well it wasn't healing right so he was able to hang out with us for the first couple days but then he had surgery again on his knee to take out the hardware and to scope it out to make sure everything looked ok.  It went well and his is recovering.  So he mostly hung out on the couch all week playing video games.

Thanks to Aubrey for making the trip out here!   

Here We Go Again!

We are happy to announce that we are expecting baby number 2!!
We are thrilled and can't wait to see Austin as an other brother!
I am due February 4th. (So happy we missed the Christmas season!)
Thoughts on pregnancy-wow, I had forgotten how tired I always am and how I don't enjoy growing out of my clothes. It's currently quite hard to fit comfortably in most of my pants.
Thoughts on the gender- You know, I really would be happy with either!  I think a boy would be easy and it would be great for Austin to have a little buddy not to mention I have boy things but a girl would be oh so fun!
Thoughts on having two kids- A little bit overwhelming to say the least, but I have so many great examples of family and friends who can give advice!  Austin and new baby will be 2 1/2 years apart which is perfect I think.
Thoughts on names-none so far. We actually haven't even discussed it at all! We are waiting until we find out the gender to figure that out. (Which is coming up in 3 weeks!)
We are very excited and can't wait for this new addition to our family.

HP and BYU

Anyone else sad that there are no more Harry Potter movies to look forward to?  Matthew and I have loved the series both reading and watching and enjoyed a date night going to see the last movie recently. We thought it ended very well.


Another thing we both love is BYU and their comedy group Divine Comedy.  They are funny but sometime only in a dorky BYU kind of way.


So, If you appreciate and BYU and Harry Potter than this is worth watching. Click here.

And if that video didn't do it for you here are a couple others of my little dude that I think are way worth watching!

Austin's Birthday Party

On Friday we had a little birthday party with some of Austin's friends. He is really into saying his friends' names and loves playing with them. We had a very low-key party as it was a bunch of 2 year olds. We did a train theme. 

Austin helped me with the cupcakes by putting in a train flag  when I was done frosting each one. He loved helping.

  Here are the kids all decorating cupcakes.

Austin opening presents from his awesome and generous friends

We played Pin the Train onto the track. Each child got to put up one train and this is what we got! 

So very simple but so very fun. I think we all had a great time.