Ezra's Big Day

Yesturday, Monday April 21, 2008, Ezra had his big surgery with Dr. Wilson, the kid dentist. He wasn't very excited about it, but it proved to be not to bad of a day for him. After all, he got to have Daddy all to himself and that's always fun.




He slept the whole way there... I wonder if it was peaceful. Up to this point the dentists hadn't done anything to make him afraid of them, so I think he was probably okay. We did explain to him before hand what was going to happen, and he told lots of people that he was going to get his rotten teeth taken out, so he did have a fairly good understanding.





Hanging out in the waiting room. Having just watched the movie Spider-man the night before, he strikes a Spidey pose for a cute girl his age who was also having some teeth pulled. There was also a tiny little baby there, whose parents took him into the operating area just before Ezra (probably just to go get his older sibling). Bill led Ezra to believe that the cute little baby was having teeth pulled too, which made Ezra much more confident about going in. "If that wittle baby can do it, so can I."


They gave him a hospital gown, and some huge green booties, which he got to keep. I think it was because they needed to cover up the IV bandage, and his socks were to tight. I tried them on later to make him laugh, and they fit perfectly, but he still said they were to small. You can almost see the look of concern on his face about the fact that his bum was exposed in the back.















Ezra had his own little T.V. in his room, which was fantastic. The surgery was set up for 1:30, but it was actually 3:30 before he even got in there. He ended up watching two episodes of SpongeBob, which isn't Bill's favorite show, I'm sure he was going crazy! GO CRABBY PATTIES!!

His robe was apparently very itchy, and he just wanted to take it off. It was all he could talk about, so finally Dr. Wilson told him he'd give him a dollar if he left it on! It worked, and Ezra is now a dollar richer, although I'm sure that after the Tooth Fairy gets here he will have a bucket load of money!
Dr. Wilson was so awesome, and just fantastic with Ezra.






After the surgery, on the way home. Ezra wasn't quite all the way conscious at this point. Despite the fact that he hadn't eaten anything all day, he wasn't even hungry. When he wasn't sleeping, he just sat there quietly with his mouth slightly open as the anesthetics slowly worked through his system. He kept mumbling something about fairies, pixie dust and other such foolery.

The Dr. said he would be dizzy, and tired. He can't eat any hard food for about 6 days. He is only allowed very soft stuff like yogurt, pasta, mashed potatoes, and oatmeal. He's not so happy about it, but yogurt is his favorite thing, so it's not that bad.














They put a little hospital band on him and Daddy so that there was no confusion when they were checking out of the surgery center. (Just like mommy/daddy/baby tags when you have your baby in the hospital.)









Ezra also got a shiney Spider Man sticker for his bracelet, which he loved. He was so sad when I had to take it off for his bath today. When they put him under they also stuck a heart monitor on him, and an IV in him. He has a little bruise where the IV was, and 3 big red squares on his chest and side where the heart monitor was. I thought the squares were just marks from the tape, but when we washed him in the bath this morning we realized that they are a little bit more permanent, and a little bit tender. I'm sure they'll go away soon.



After his surgery there was a little party/bbq at the Skinners house, they built this sweet fire pit in their back yard, which unfortunatly, I didn't take pictures of. They boys all set off smoke bombs and had a great time.
Ezra cuddled with me, which made me super happy. I guess I'm one of those moms, the kind that, although sad that their baby is hurting, is secretly happy to just sit and cuddle with a needy, hurting baby.





Everything went well, and although his mouth looks horrible he should be all healed up soon.

Thank You Kelly!

Kelly was nice enough to do my hair while she was here this weekend. She colored it, bleached it, colored more, and cut it. I got it cut very short, into an a-line cut, which is what I wanted, and I love it! I think it will have to grow on Bill for a while though....

Birthday Bash Games

Kelly tried her hand at Guitar Hero, and turned out to be a natural. If she was here to play Jake and I more she could possibly kick our Canadian bums.












Jake and Kelly playing. Sweeeeeet!









Vanessa and Mom hanging out while Kelly, Jake, Bill, and I are absorbed in guitar hero. The boys are all off watching a movie, or catching bugs, a lot of insects (and arachnids) were caught at our house this night. Yucky!










And this is us playing Buzz, which I lost, as usual, and Jake won, as usual. Vanessa gave him a run for his money tonight though. Go Vanessa!!!!

Happy Birthday Mickey!!!

On the night of Grandma's birthday dinner we also had Mickey's birthday dinner, as well as presents and yummy cake that his Mommy made. (Grandma got three delicious pies.)

This is the kids all gathered around Mickey's first present, which was from us. It was a cool walky talky/camera/watch and other cool thing set.







Mickey also got a kids karaoke set for the tv and a robotic panda bear, which I can't wait to see!













Here is Mickey with his Camera and his watch. I was trying to get him to smile but he had this cutest serious face instead, which is possibly cuter!












Mickey blowing out the candles, he had help from Liam and Grandma!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MICKEY!!! YOUR COUSINS LOVE YOU!!! (and your Auntie and Uncle too!)

Happy Birthday Grandma

Grandma had her birthday on April 19, which was Saturday. She spent the day with her brother and then came home to a grand chorus of "Happy Birthday" from Bill, the kids, my parents, and I, and we even sounded okay.













The following day was the day we were to do the big birthday dinner with all the bells and whistles. To Grandma's absolute suprise Kelly came down from Utah just for the party. (How sweet!)

Grandma got a lot of crazy cool gifts this year, including a very nice handmade card from Rudy, a flag stone for her garden from the Skinners, a humming bird feeder from us, and a brightly colored spring shirt from Kym and her clan, as well as a matching bracelet.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Death Valley: Papa

Here is Papa doing what we all did at one point in the day, trying to convince Mo-Mo to go a different direction. Papa even tried putting Mo-Mo on his shoulders, something our other boys love, but Mo just cried as if someone had stolen his lolly pop, or something. Poor boy.

I think Papa's favorite sight to see was the 20 mule team wagons and the boilers and other stuff linked to that. He would have loved to see Scotty's Castle too, but apparently it's on the other side of Death Valley, so maybe next time, eh Papa?

I tried to get a picture like the one of the boys here, with the wagon wheel of Papa, but he's a little bigger then the boys and I couldn't fit it in right, so this is what we came up with. Still a big old cutie though, isn't he?

A nice old hiker asked us if we wanted our picture taken and told us to smile like we were Newly Weds, so we just busted out laughing and then my Dad was like "I had to smile pretty big, because she's my daughter!" but the guy didn't here because as my Dad said it the wind ripped it out of his mouth and threw it to California. Maybe Mickey Mouse heard???

Death Valley: Nana

Nana and Papa don't like to travel with all their seats in the van, so they remove the two bucket seats, and call it good with the bench. They did however, bring a lawn chair just in case they had more then five passengers in there. On our way to Death Valley Nana was so happy because she got to ride with her babies. Look at them in there!







We stopped at Walmart to grab some lunch for everybody on the way. We grabbed these darling lunch boxes for the boys and Papa and a Cesar salad for Nana and I. The salad was Delicious, but Papa's sack lunch was a flop, so we decided to all share the Cesar. As we passed it around a huge wind gust hit it and it flipped upside down on the table and promptly blew away, leaving 3 pieces of lettuce and a huge mess for us to clean up. We were starved when we got home!

Did I mention it was a horribly windy day in Death Valley?




Mosiah was so funny with his walking today, he just wanted to go everywhere, so he followed Nana to the bathroom. This is them coming back from their trip!












This is Mo-Mo following Nana around the museum. He is actually eyeing a large mountain sheep, wondering if it will come and get him. Turns out the sheep was safe, but a baby about his age was waiting around the corner with cute pudgy fingers, to say hello, and that was worse then rhino relatives, sheep, and giant Eagles combined. Because of that little baby Mo finally let us pick him up! Yeah for baby girls!

P.S. Notice Nana's sweet dessert camo outfit.

Death Valley: Mosiah

Nana and Papa brought a little toy cell phone with them for Mo-Mo and he brought it with him on our trip. One time I looked back at him and this is what I saw. Now, that is cute, but what was even cuter was that he was actually talking into it, on and on! Isn't he darling?










When we got to the first hike Mo was so excited. We got him all ready to go and I started out carrying him. Well, he was having none of that. He kicked and cried until I would put him down and let him walk. Unfortunately, these trails have no guard rails or anything, and so scary drops, so I was a nervous wreck, because not only would he not let me hold him, but he would not let me even hold his hand! On the way back down Nana and I took turns holding onto the back of his shirt so he wouldn't fall on his head! Crazy baby!









There was this crazy skull of a Titanothere (or something like that) which was some sort of relative to a rhinoceros that Mosiah was just fascinated with. He stared and stared at it. Even after I called him and turned the corner I had to go back and peel him away from it. I don't know if he was just scared of it, or if it was just interesting to baby eyes.









Close up of discription, picture and Mo's little hand.

Death Valley: Ezra

As I mentioned earlier, we had a great trip to Death Valley, again, and this is Ezra's version.

Ezra loved the binoculars, and somehow after getting his turn with them on the bench, managed to keep them for the rest of the trip. He really liked to look through them backwards, like his brother, but to keep things interesting he especially liked to walk, while looking through them backwards. Yikes!










Apparently I lied, I said Liam was the only one who found a rock to sit on for his picture, but here is Ezra being photographed by his loving Nana.









Papa took Liam and Ezra to use the outhouse and Ezra came back to the van first at a full speed run, yelling "I want to drive the van! I want to drive the van!" sooooo, Nana lifted him into the front seat and said "So drive." Ezra turned around and looked at her and said matter of factly "I can't Nana. I can't drive a van." We tried to tell him that it would be fine but he held to it, so finally I said "Ezra, it's just pretend!" and then he was like "Oh, okay!" and he started "driving" the van. Silly boy.







This is Ezra and Papa hanging out in the Museum together.

Death Valley: Liam

My Mom and Dad, lovingly known as Nana and Papa by our boys, are in Aruba right now, and stopped by for a day on their way there. We spent that day in Death Valley, and had an absolute blast. These are some of Liam's highlights.

When we first got there each boy got to pick a rock to stand on to get their picture taken. Liam was the only one who actually accomplished this task, and obviously he was excited about it!












This was the first bench on the first trail we hiked up. Nana and Papa brought binoculars and Liam and Ezra both took turns looking through them, okay, they were fighting over them, but it worked out in the end. Notice Liam is looking through the wrong end. He would rather see Mommy really, really small, then some rock in the distance really, really big.





This is at the top of our first hike. The view behind them is spectacular, and for the second time I am noticing that pictures just don't do Death Valley justice. I mean, yes, it's pretty, but it is so much more amazing when you're actually there, breathing it all in (dust and all).







All Liam talks about when he's in Death Valley is climbing "real" mountains. He just wants to run up a peak and be on top of the world. He wants to look down and see me as a little ant and feel like he's conquered something. He had that chance with Papa and Ezra, and he is still pumped. Maybe the Mountain wasn't that big, but to Liam it sure was. When they were climbing down a huge wind burst kicked up some dust and blasted them in the face. That was Liam's favorite part... I know, I know, boys will be boys.