Colorado

Samantha, my Mom and I flew out to Colorado last week to see Jeff's new baby and the Colorado families. (My two oldest brothers Jeff and Brady live out there with their families). Marlee is so cute and so sweet! Samantha had so much fun with the cousins, she loved to play with them and all their toys. Jeff's birthday was while we were out there and he got Rock Band!! So we jammed out a lot! He is awesome on the drums and I am very good on guitar...if it's on easy :). Jeff and I would get laughing and not be able to stop, everyone else thought we were dumb, but we know how funny we are! I seriously haven't laughed that hard for that long in a long time.





























We miss our boys! We love you and thanks for letting us come.

Denver Zoo

We also went to the Zoo with Natalie while we were there. We left after Samantha and Abe took naps and took Ava out of school. So by the time we got to the zoo, we missed the crowds and it had cooled off. The kids loved it! We were there for 4 hours! Samantha only let me keep her in the stroller for the first hour, then walked/ran the whole rest of the time. I kept waiting for her to break down, it didn't happen until the very end, and Grandma carried her on her back for the last 15 minutes or so. Thanks Mom. We all had so much fun, but were pretty exhausted when we left.

Like Momma, Like Mantha

Samantha loves to do whatever I am doing: laundry, dishes, yard work, ect. Well, she is starting to copy me in her play too and I get such a kick out of it. She cracks me up. She picks up the phone now and says 'hey' instead of 'hi' because that is what I say.

Organizing my turn around is an almost daily chore for her. Oh, and she smiles now (eyes closed) when I get the camera out.












She also multi-tasks what ever she is doing with a phone in one hand. It is funny what she picks up on.

Babies, babies, babies!

We have had lots of babies born the past little bit! Congrats to:
Ben's sister Marisha and Chris! Baby Ayda










My brother Jeff and Ali and baby Marlee!








My long-time friend Chaysie and her Chloe!

Eye surgery

Samantha has had eye drainage problems her whole life (apparently lots of kids do). Well, it is supposed to clear up on it's own by one year and we waited til she was almost 2........and nothing, so she had the surgery. It is to clear out the tear ducts, they put a wire down them and then a balloon to stretch them out (usually there is a blockage at the end of the duct that needs stretching). They had to sedate her so we had to do the whole no eating for most of the night thing that really sucks for a short-gut kid who is starving by 2am. Well, we got through that then had to be at the hospital at 6am!! We are about an hour away so, we woke up at like 4:30am!

Then we wait in lots of waiting rooms and get vitals and measurments and stuff. (Still no food or drink for Mantha.) And since we were at Primary (where my Dad works) everyone gives us lots of extra attention. Doctors come in and check on us every step of the way and are so good to us. She was a little clingy and grumpy for the first part of the morning (no food, no sleep). But, when the anesthesiologist took her down the hall to sedate her for the surgery she was fine, that was a relief. The surgery went well, it was pretty quick and then we got to see her coming out of anesthesia, she was pretty groggy and confused and didn't like the breathing tube or the IV, but just cuddled with me. Her eyes had bloody tears coming out that was pretty creepy and her nose had lots of blood too . She was able to drink some apple juice and didn't vomit so before long we were discharged and went home. She was a little drugged for the rest of the day, and had some pain, by the next day we both just slept a lot! We gave her eye drops for a few days, and that was it. Pretty quick recovery.

We actually had this surgery done about 2 weeks ago, sorry for the late blogging. But, her eyes are still pretty bad. We have been in touch with the Doctor (he gave us his cell phone, pager, office phone, and home phone numbers and has been calling us every few days to check up on us). See what I mean about extra attention? He thinks it could still clear up, if not we will have to repeat the surgery. It is a pretty common surgery and about 10% have to get it done twice. So, hopefully we won't be in the 10% group. Fingers crossed.

So, you'd think we are used to all this hospital stuff, but it is seriously a whole new ball game when they are old enough to know what's going on. The whole time she was a in the hospital as a baby, I just felt bad and sad when she cried or they did procedures on her. Now, she fights it and it is so much harder. I'm glad we have most of her hospitalizations out of the way........knock on wood. :)

This picture is pre-surgery in a waiting room.
Sorry about the girl in the background, I didn't take many pictures that day and this was the best one.



These are post-op at home.

More pictures of Mantha

We got Mantha's 18 month pictures done....finally!! We were actually in the studio when she fell and got her goose egg, and they made us fill out an accident report so we wouldn't sue (can you believe that?) and it took forever! It was a long day. But, I am very glad that the pictures are done and we documented this stage of her life. She is growing up so fast that if I skip an age, I know I will be sorry later. Not that I don't take enough pictures of her on my own, but I like having a nice studio one to hang.
Ben's little sister Karilynne (the one on a mission in Sweden) said that Mantha has more pictures than she does of her whole life. And she said that when Samantha was a baby (even before her Primary Children's stay where we took another million) . So, apparently pictures are pretty important to us.
That is probably why most of my posts are pictures........ and a sentence, I like 'em, hope you do too! :)