Some of this and that

The yard scene:

We have grass in the front yard AND a tree! you might notice we planted some stuff in the front flower beds as well My roses have flourished beautifully so far in the week we've had them!Have I mentioned I love the view of Mt. Timp from my porch? This view is also something I've fallen in love with on my evening runsThe Steven Scene: Steven is becoming very good at asking for things politely. Like when his fingers are dirty, he says, "Help me wash them please" and he says "thank you" constantly, which is basically just adorable. He also loves being concerned for "Lillie Lou's Broken Bone." We got top soil this week to help us finish off the back yard. For two hours after the delivery guy dropped it off, Steven dug, played, climbed, and nose dived off the hill. He was running back to tell me to "Come play with me mom!" as I took this picture. He's also discovered a new neatness to the fisher price farm animals he got for Christmas. As you can tell, the sheep wasn't the best driver, so it needed a tractor to tow it.

The Lillie Scene:

Through her tough past week, her daddy has been the one she prefers to have comfort her. A little sad she doesn't want me as much sometimes, but cute to see the two of them bonding.We went to Primary Children's on Thursday to a fracture clinic, and x-rays were once again done on her leg. It was still broken (surprise) and I thought they would do a cast. The doctor didn't want to cast a leg that small, so she gave us a Wheaton Harness (shown below). It's supposedly supposed to hold the leg in one position and help with healing and be more comfortable. Needless to say, the last 3 days have not been our favorites, and Lillie always wants to kick her legs and can't. Luckily I can take the harness off, so when I change her diaper, I unstrap her unbroken leg and let her kick and laugh for a little bit. She does like that :) Three more weeks and we should be done with all this fun stuff!

Happy Wonderful Sunday everyone!

Ending the Week With a Bang...literally

If you don't have time for the story - short story - poor Lillie broke her leg today.

I was definitely excited for today. A Saturday with NO plans, and Darrell was going to spend the entire day with us. We decided we'd go shopping for plants and stuff for the yard and go to Wendy's for lunch while we were out and about. The first two stores were fantastic and fun, yeah yeah. Then we headed to Lowe's to go garden shopping. We'd been shopping for quite a while, and Darrell was off looking at something, and I was looking an annuals and perinneals. (I know..so exciting). Due to lots of plants in the cart, Steven was out of the cart running around. So, I was looking around at plants and keeping an eye on Steven. At one point, when I was turning my head to look for Steven and ask him to come back by the cart, I hear a bang, and it only took me seconds to realize the carseat with Lillie in it had fallen off of the cart and was on it's side on the ground. I basically did not know what to do for a split second, and then instantly worked on helping my now crying baby out of the carseat . She was buckled in with the top buckle, which luckily caught her and prevented her from hitting her head, but she was still crying her hurt cry. As I tried to comfort her, I thought maybe her shoulder had gotten dislocated in the strap, so I was trying to check that out. Once she fell, Steven became a great little helper and stayed by my side, which helped me a lot. Then we went to find Darrell, and I told him what happened. At this point, my insides were going crazy, and I was trying to hard not to cry. Darrell didn't think her shoulder was dislocated, so I decided to take her back to the car to feed her and check her over. I was helping her, I could see her arms were fine, and everything else seemed to be fine, but she still had her hurt cry. However, when I went to burp her, I noticed she would not put any weight on her right leg, and I knew that's where she was hurting. We decided to hit the drive through for lunch and came home to eat and see if a little calm time would help Lillie. When we got home we could see she definitely was not using her right leg in simple things like stretching and kicking. So, we headed off to InstaCare, and I made Darrell come with me, because every time I tried to even talk I'd burst into tears. X-rays were performed and the verdict - a broken leg! She has a small buckle fracture toward the bottom of the femur, and the PA put a full leg splint on it to help immobilize her. They didn't think it was super serious, but of course painful. We do have to call a pediatric orthopedic specialist at Primary Children's on Monday and have them look at her x-rays and see what we need to do for a follow up, but for now it's lots of love for us here, and lots of prayers that she will start to feel better soon!

Little Lillie

I cannot believe Lillie is already 4 months old! We went to Primary Children's Medical Outpatient clinic last week for what we found out was her last appointment there! She was born with an irregular heartbeat, and it was discovered she had PVC's (premature ventricular contractions). Basically, in Lamen's terms - she was having an extra heartbeat randomly here and there. The doctors were not too concerned, but wanted to make sure she grew out of them. She had to have an EKG the day after she was born, and two at PCMC in the past two months. She has also been through two echos. Not her favorite. Anyway, at her last appointment everything looked normal, and she has been declared perfectly normal and functioning. Definitely an answer to prayers. :)

Anyway, we went in for her 4-month well child visit and she checked out great!

Lillie is:

14.4 lbs - 69th percentile

24 inches long - 41st percentile

She loves to:

suck her thumb

shove her fist in her mouth

coo, and say what is starting to resemble "ma ma" -we're getting close ;)

Roll onto her sides

Get her brother in trouble by crying when he's bugging her.

We tried doing a photo shoot today with her, but Steven insisted it was his turn as well :)

The other night Darrell was reading to Lillie, and she was being so cute. She would look at the book and then smile at Darrell, and do that over and over again :)

Race for the Cure

First, a story. Once upon a time there was a girl who HATED running. She loved participating in sports, but hated running. She could dance for hours, she could swim for a long time, and be okay. But if she tried running, her lungs hurt, her throat hurt, and her body hurt. Then when she was 5 months pregnant with her first child, some of her family did a 5K - Running with Angels - in memory of a sis-in-law's brother who passed away, and a stillborn nephew. This girl walked the 5K with her family in support of Jake and Parker. She had never had any race training, and was enjoying the view, so she completed the 5K in 52 minutes. Then, a goal was set. The girl wanted to participate in the "Race for the Cure" in honor of her survivor mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer on September 11, 2001. The goal was originally do to the race in 2008, after her son was born. Her son was born in September of 2007, the running shoes were purchased, but training never began. The 2008 race was scheduled the same weekend as a family vacation to Disneyland, so sights were set on Race for the Cure 2009. Then the girl was asked to be a Matron of Honor at her good friend's wedding the same day at the race in 2009. The goal was then set - very determinedly - for 2010. After having her second child in January of 2010, the girl had big hopes and goals, and 8 weeks later the running training began. Alas, the girl didn't get as much training done as she wanted, but she made it to the Race in 2010, joined by her amazing survivor mother, sister, brother, and sister in law! And she completed in it 34 minutes. About 10 minutes after the race, the thought occured to the girl "I just may be addicted to running...."

Here are some pictures documenting the fabulous event!

Past Few Weekends

I have so much fun playing with these cute kids each day!A couple weeks ago we headed to Logan for our niece's baptism, and while we were up there we took a bus ride to please the little man, and went for a walk around campus. Steven got to get a picture by the french fry statue :) Swimming at the hotel was the hit for Steven at the weekend, and then uncle Brad helped him get dressed....

Mother's Day Weekend fun started on Friday when we went to my sis-in-law's little sisters wedding reception. (Congrats Stef! You looked amazing!) While we were there, Hayley wanted grandma to dance, but grandma convinced Hayley to dance with Steven. Steven got a lesson in the art of hand holding and spinning while dancing. It made him dizzy, but he kep smiling and saying "WOAH!"

Saturday evening we headed to Santaquin for a Mothers Day barbeque, and Steven had fun with his cousins!

Sunday was a beautiful Mothers Day! I got some lotion and a double stroller! Wahoo! (Now just waiting for the weather to cooperate so I can use it!) The evening we headed to Kaysville for our monthly get-together with the Croppers. Steven discovered the bongo drums, and started a great band!

Progress on the yard

Thanks to some friends who got us free sod, the back yard is half done....and the sod looks amazing considering how it looked by the time we finally got it down! We have grass AND a tree in the front yard! Hooray! Sunday morning we looked out the window and saw antelope. They were actually originally a lot closer, but ran some by the time I got my camera

Our good little helper!

Tulip Fest

Back in April, we went with my sister, parents, and grandparents to Tulip Fest over yonder at Thanksgiving Point. I was a little disappointed that the colder spring made the tulips not quite as amazing as last year, but we still had fun nonetheless. Steven's favorite part was most definitely the golf cart. Lillie's favorite part was sleeping on Darrell's shoulder. What a great time, eh? :) Here are just some random snapshots from the day.