The doc today moved Maggie down to a different floor and pronounced that she is not coming home yet. She had a little breathing episode, nothing serious, but they want to watch her for a couple more days. So, I guess she will not be home tomorrow. We are all really bummed. The new area she is in, is for babies who are going home soon. They just opened it up again today actually for 3 babies to be in so they could make room for a set of twins coming in that are more critical. She past all her tests she needed to, so someday hopefully soon.

Maggie comes home!

I am at the hospital right now. The nurse told Derek this morning that Maggie will most likely come home on Monday! We are shocked and excited. I have mixed feelings. I am excited but nervous also. She eats really well from a bottle, but not from me, she just likes to cuddle and sleep. I think things will work out. She is doing well in every way! She doesn't even have a feeding tube anymore! They told us come with her car seat so we can test her in it. She has to pass that test now. She has to sit in it with the monitors on her to make sure she doesn't have some breathing problems. If none, she passes.

Spencer had his basketball game today. It is fun to watch him out there. He loves to be out playing.

The Fam

The boys finally got to visit Maggie, well, actually they did before for like 15 seconds. We didn't have the camera either. This time they got a picture with her. It is nice that they can come back and visit, with major hand washing and a mask!

The picture above didn't look blurry until I put it on, but I like it because of her hand. I love to see how tiny and perfect they are. I think it is so amazing to see her and all the other kiddos in the NICU and how small they are. It is amazing to me how they develop and grow so much. I met 2 people today who have babies in the NICU. One of them is a little boy born at 23 weeks. He was 1 lb. Now, 9 weeks later he is the same size as Maggie. His mom told me how his skin was transparent when he was born, and he has even gone through a major heart surgery last month. She drives an hour each day and leaves her 4 year old at home with her mom. She said she has never missed a day. I thought that was amazing also. She said it has been neat to see him grow and develop literally before her eyes. The other was a man who 2 weeks ago, his wife gave birth to twin boys at 20 something weeks also. I can't remember exactly. His boys are doing great also. They talked about all the stuff that is going on with them, I am so grateful again for the second time for the inspiration of modern medicine. The first with Seth and his surgery, and now with Maggie. I feel so blessed to live in this time.

Maggie is growing!

We don't have any new pictures ready but I wanted to let you know that Maggie is growing!
She has added 2 oz a day to her weight! As of this morning, she is now 3 lbs 11oz. She is almost to what she was at birth. She was 3 12 then. (I can't believe she is 1 week old now!) She gets to wear clothes now too! No more IV or being under the lights for beliruben (I am not sure how to spell it Jaundice is what it is.) I have brought a couple things that I had. The nurses say she is a different baby now that she gets to have some clothes on. She is still quick squirmy, but she doesn't fight to have them poke her as much, or complain to them if they put her in a position she doesn't want to be in. She just moves there instead. The nurses are doing a good job.
She is fun to hold, and likes to peek one eye open to see if your still there.
I love to hold her little hand too. That baby reflex that grasps your finger.

Visiting Maggie

Mom and Dad were able to visit Maggie in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) today. And Dad remembered the camera. She really liked being kissed, looked around to see from where voices were coming, and was eventually calmed down after giving the sweetest squeeks of complaint about being moved.

Our girl arrived early!

Maggie Michelle was supposed to wait until Dad's birthday, but she decided to come on her aunt's birthday, November 22nd! She weighed 3 lbs and 12 oz and was 15 1/2 inches long. Mom had a C-section and as soon as Maggie arrived she started crying. Mom and Dad started crying, too. She'll be in the NICU for awhile, but is doing really well for being born at 32 weeks. I'll post more pictures and stories soon.

Halloween!!!

This year Spencer had the hardest time picking a costume out for sure, until a friend of Seth's gave us a Jedi costume that we used for Luke Skywalker. He was happy to be Luke! He really wanted to be about 10 other things, almost all of them having to do with Star Wars. He had been counting down for like 3 months or more for that night.

Seth came up with his own costume. He wanted to be a robot, and make up the snap circuits to beep and light up. He said that at school some kids thought he was a bomb, but he would correct them and tell them he was a robot. I was impressed that he came up with this costume himself. We went up to the Truck or Treat and then home to go around the neighborhood. Oh, I almost forgot, Derek was a football fan!

Spencer that night I guess decided that he was done trick or treating and took off for home without telling Derek, I was home passing out the candy when he came running in. I said, oh, where is Dad and Seth, he says, they are out there still. Does he know you came home? I think so, Okay!

A few min. later, Derek came in the door huffing, is Spencer here? Yes, I said, did you not know that he came home? No! I leaned down to help Seth with something and looked up and he was gone. Needless to say, Spencer has a problem with just going where he wants and not telling anyone. It reminds me of my older brother taking off when he was a little kid on his own to see the toys at the store. Silly kid! Here is a fun picture of them all.

A really yummy birthday cake and the leaves

One of my friends here, was so kind, she brought over a yummy birthday cake from cold stone ice cream. It was so good. Here is a picture of it. The ice cream was the green peppermint chocolate chip kind and the the cake was chocolate. It had Oreo cookies on top. The frosting was a whip cream, can you tell we enjoyed it, I just was describing it in almost detail.

I loved these picture of the boys playing in the leaves too. All of the leaves on our trees are off now. It is sure fun to rake them up into the pile and then jump in them!

The pumkin patch

My Birthday

I love having a birthday. It isn't just my birthday, but every one's birthday. I guess it is because I love the fact of having a day to just have fun and everyone around you is having fun also. It is fun to celebrate! This year, we went to the pumpkin patch in the morning, on the way we past one that was extremely packed with people. The one we went to was like us and 3 other families. It was great. They had the tractor ride, the maze with no left turns allowed, bikes to ride, butterflies and caterpillars to see, and of course, pumpkins to pick. The kids loved to play also in the huge bin with corn. It was fun for Derek and I too. We came home, carved the pumpkins, watched the football game, at pizza, and then Derek and I went on a date that night. It was a good day. Here are some pictures of the pumpkin patch.

Seth earns his bear!

Seth earned his Bear award in Cub Scouts while Grandma and Grandpa were visiting! We are so proud of him!

The Grandparents came

We had so much fun with Derek's parents when they came. We went bowling and played around, cleaned, painted, and got the car all ready to sale. Someday we will sale it! They were a huge help and we really had a good visit with them! Here are some pictures to share!

problem with the settings for me

I don't know how to fix the problem of the words by the side of my pictures doing what they do. Does anyone know how to fix that? I can't figure it out! Thanks for your help!

The Iorn Giant

Spencer is in love with the Iron Giant. I don't know how many of you know about this movie that was made in 1999, but it is a really cute movie of a gigantic robot that comes to earth and befriends a boy named Hogarth. Spencer loves robots and wanted an Iron Giant so bad! We looked up all over the web and apparently they don't make this product anymore because it didn't do as well at the release of the movie as expected, so I decided it would be easier to make one then to buy one off ebay for loads of money. It was harder than I thought, and took longer than I thought, as well as I didn't use much of a pattern just a couple of pictures of the Iron giant. I am so glad he loves this toy and that I am finally done making it! I posted a picture of the actual one so you could see what it really looks like. You should check out the movie though, it really is a good one!

The Family Home Evening project

For FHE one night we decided we needed something new. Seth did the lesson on family togetherness, so we got a puzzle and listened to primary music while putting the puzzle together as a family. It took about 4 days, but we put this 500 piece puzzle together! Seth could always find the exact piece we were looking for, that was amazing! Spencer loved the fact that he could help put the Statue of Liberty together. We had a ton of fun doing this and I definitely see puzzle projects in our family for a long time.

Back to school

So, call me a slacker for not keeping up, but the kids started school about a month ago. Seth has the same teacher as 2nd grade and really really liked her, so that is a good thing. Spencer was excited to go to kindergarten now! He prays now for his teacher a lot. I think that means he likes her also. It is good to have them excited again about school!

Spencer and his love of "Necco"

So, Spencer is so cute. He is eye level with my belly and I don't think 5 min. goes by without him saying I love you baby to my belly and kissing it too. He is constantly talking to the baby, I think she will definitely know his voice when she comes out. It is so cute. In his prayers he loves to pray that the "baby will be cute and come out at Christmas which is a long long long time away."
He has a name for the baby already also. He calls her Necco! We will see about that one. I wanted to share this with you because I think it is so adorable that he is so excited to have a little baby in our house.

Cave of the Winds and swim lessons for Spencer

The Garden of the Gods

Some pictures from fun things in July

The fly by month of July

The month of July has flown by! We are trying to even remember what all we did! Summer has been good this year, weather and all. We have tried to stay busy with fun classes, playing with friends/family and visiting great places.
Spencer even learned to swim all by himself! Pretty amazing!
Spencer said that his favorite thing was running in the water! Seth said he had too many fun things he can't choose just one.
My favorite things were going to listen to the Drum and Bugle corps. That brought back a lot of fun memories growing up and listening to them play. I would highly recommend going to hear a competition near you! www.dci.org that will take you there. The sound and show they put on is amazing. Of course the Blue Devils won, they do so many times. Another was going out with some friends for dessert. Also going to visit family in Colorado. We did a lot of staying up late playing games. It took at least a week for our family to make up for lost sleep! It was so fun to play games, take it easy and play around. We even got to go to the Temple 2 times! The kids got along great! Derek and 2 of my brothers and a brother in law of 1 brother, went for a beautiful hike up in the Colorado Rockies (Sorry, I don't remember the exact name). I think Derek liked taking vacation time off of work, who wouldn't!

Going to Wisconsin

We went up to Wisconsin to visit family! It was a lot of fun to hang out, even though it seemed to rain a huge amount! We wanted to visit the Wisconsin Dells to go to a circus museum, but it was flooded! So we went to a international crane foundation place. There were lots of different varieties of cranes there! Then the sun finally came out and we played golf and the boys rode on go-carts. All in all it was fun to have everyone on Derek's side together!

Our big news

Someone new will be joining our family around January 14, 2009!!!!
Yea!!

The rocket robot

The solar powered car

The moving cars

Seth for his birthday got these two things that move. One is a solar powered car that he makes go on certain times of the day. The other is a robot that goes forward until you make a sound like clapping or a noise and then it changes direction, or goes backwards. They are both a lot of fun to play with. Summer is a good time to play with these things.

Seth's piano recital

Seth had a piano recital in May that he did a great job on. He doesn't think he is very good at the piano, but we think he is. Here is a video of one of the songs he played. He likes to play patriotic songs.

Spencer's party friends

Spencer's #5 birthday

For Spencer's 5th birthday, we went camping that night. He loved it. He kept telling me that it was his "camping birthday" and we should do it all the time. The next day was when we had a party for him. I should mention that he also had his #5 check up that morning and got 4 shots in prep for kindergarten. He was so brave through the whole thing. He got a t-shirt, a sucker, a toy and another toy for being so brave. He that night would limp everywhere, but never complained how it hurt! The next day was as if nothing happened!
His brother made a scavenger hunt for the kids. They loved it! It ended up at the cake. Seth did a great job making this for them. Spencer had so much fun, when it came time to open gifts, all the kids were so excited, they all helped open gifts. We really have no idea what came from who it all happened so fast! He is so proud to say that he is five now.

Spencer's last day of Preschool

This is the last day of Preschool for Spencer! He had a good year. His favorite thing to do at preschool was playing with his friends. He also liked art stuff.

The friends who came to bird watch

Seth birthday party

For Seth's birthday this year, he invited a few friends over to go bird watching with him.
It was great. We made a list of birds that were possible to see and went to some wetlands nearby. All the kids enjoyed looking through their binoculars and trying to spot the birds!
We saw a lot of ducks, red winged blackbirds ( that was #1), and turtles, tadpoles, etc.

We were invited over to a friends house to see their baby goats! They were fun to watch jump around. They let the babies run around their huge yard, and we had fun chasing them around. Seth got to hold one of them! We watched also as our friend showed us how they milk the goats!

Spencer and mom at Waxman candles

Spencer's preschool went on a field trip to Waxman Candles. We learned all about candle making and the kids got to choose a color to make their candle. Spencer choose yellow, of course, and dipped it in 3 times. He was so very proud and so was I. That was a fun field trip!

Seth Jumproping

Seth got to help make a rope during one of the activities in Nauvoo. He didn't make this one, this one was given to him. I didn't even know he knew how to jump rope! Pretty neato!

"HERBIE"

We went to Nauvoo with Derek's sister Rebecca, and while we were playing at a park just down the street, Spencer saw this "HERBIE" and so we had to walk over to it. It was pretty cool to see, this looks like the same vintage as the real Herbie! It looked inside a lot like the one I had growing up.

Funny Eyes

I took these pictures a while ago, but they sure are a favorite to look at. Spencer for "E" day in preschool took these and it made everyone laugh.

I bet by now, everyone has heard that the Jayhawks won!!! Our family was pretty excited!

New York City #10 trip

We celebrated our #10 year anniversary this year by going to New York City! I can't believe it has been 10 years since we were married! It really doesn't seem that long ago. I am excited to have Derek with me forever!
It was a lot of fun! Derek's parents came to play with the kids while we went. It was so nice of them to do. I know the kids had a great time playing with them.
Derek and I went to the Museum of Modern Art, the Empire State Building (at night), the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, to the Broadway play WICKED, Central Park, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Temple in Manhattan, to China town, Little Italy, and to the South Pacific play at the Lincoln Center. So much...we ran a lot, and saw so many people and things. It went by so fast that it seems like a dream that we even went there! We found Derek's likeness in a huge M&M store on Times Square and ate some great food. We tried to eat at places that are not anywhere else. Here are some pictures to look at from our trip.