Things I don't want to forget...

Caleb is turning 11 months old soon and has hit some milestones and I want to remember when they happened so here goes...

This month he learned to wave hi and bye.

He can also say "hi" and "yeah" and "daddy."

Last week he decided to take two steps. Just two. All by himself with no prompting from any of us. And now he has no interest in trying again.

The kids all adore him. Like crazy. He will smile at almost everyone because there is no doubt in his mind that he is loved because, well, he is LOVED.

We are grateful for the opportunity to have this little guy in our life!!

Debbie is 9!

Debbie turned 9 this week!

9 things about Debbie:

1 - She has a heart of gold. She does what she can to make the world a better place. I don't know if I've blogged this story yet but a few months ago she asked me, "Mom, have you ever had a friend that bragged all the time?" I said yes and then explained that people brag because they feel insecure and I told her that this girl probably feels insecure around Debbie because Debbie has a natural goodness and light that just shines from her. Now, if anyone had told me that when I was her age I would have totally puffed out my chest and went and rubbed it in the other girl's face (which is probably why no one every told me that when I was her age, haha). Debbie thought about that for a minute and then said, "So, the best way to help her is probably to just be her friend, huh." What?? She's amazing. Which leads me to number 2...

2 -  She is SOOO willing to forgive people. Very eager to see the best in everyone.

3 - She has a ready smile and happiness that is contagious. So much so that sometimes I wonder if how she can be my daughter. But...

3 - She's developing quite the sarcastic sense of humor so I know she's mine ☺ (also she's starting to show a little more temper and can have some pretty teary days, and that's also 'me').

4 - She LOVES to read. Last week we had to take away her book because she wouldn't put it down. She's on the last book of the Percy Jackson series which are a 6th grade reading level so that's cool.

5 - She just got her ears pierced.

6 - She was in choir this year and LOVED it. She wants to be a famous singer when she grows up.

7 - She also wants to be an animal activist, own a bakery (gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, nut free, etc.), and plan parties (and a bunch of other things I can't remember at the moment)

8 - She has her own sense of style but totally rocks it.

9 - She just got her hair cut (very short) and it is so cute!

 Choir concert this month

Rocking her own sense of style. 

 I'm pretty sure she intentionally mixes as many different types of patterns as possible in one outfit. Notice the differently patterned shirt, the plaid shorts, the striped socks, and the Indian patterned boots. This is a pretty typical outfit for her.

 Long beautiful hair...

 And now short hair!

She got her hair cut last week, she's been asking for a while and I finally gave in. I thought I was going to be sad and hate it but I actually love it! Well, after we went back the next day and got it cut anyway. The first lady that cut it did a terrible job and I was so furious. She came home from school the next day and I couldn't even hardly look at her it made me so mad. She looked as cute as ever, because she is cute, but the haircut looked like I had done it myself! They lady ignored everything I said and just did a crap job. So we went back and had the supervisor cut it and she did a great job and we both love it now.

Happy Birthday Debbie! We love you and are so proud of you!

Cosette

How can you tell that your daughter has had her blood drawn too many times? When you're at the allergist and he's deciding between doing a blood test for a milk allergy or just doing skin testing and she shivers and says, "blood test please! No skin testing!"

We go in tomorrow for skin testing.

The phlebotomist's always comment on how well Cosette does when they have to do a blood draw. Last time she marched right in, sat down in my lap, put out her arm, and calmly said, "I like pink tape." She didn't watch that time but she also didn't flinch or even say anything, just took it all in stride and walked out happy with her toy and her pink tape!

I've said in the past and I'll say it again, I would not be surprised if Cosette has a career in the health care industry. We were driving home the other day and she says from the back seat, "Mom, I want to touch a real, live human bone. Not a plastic fake one." Umm, ok. I told her it would have to come from a dead body and she was totally chill with that. So then we talked about cadavers and anatomy classes and after making sure that you wear plastic gloves while touching the dead body she decided she wants to touch a cadaver. Even going so far as asking me as we were going in the house, "Mom? WHEN will I be able to touch a dead body?"
Love it.

She still says some of the funniest things.

We bought some 7-Up a little while ago and one day she quietly asked Chad, "So, dad? Can I not have the 7-Up?" He said he thought it was gluten free so it should be fine and she said, "no, because it's 7-up and I'm only 6."

Then today I had asked her to go on the balcony and see if daddy was headed upstairs and he was so she yelled that back to me. Chad heard her but didn't understand what she had said so he asked her "what" and she responded very matter-of-fact, "It's none of your business, mom just asked me to do something." Haha! I was dying. There was no malice, no pretense, she was completely serious but also innocent.

So Behind: February

 Debbie loves to plan and create and organize things. She also loves to serve people. One day she recruited Cosette (who joined eagerly) and they spent an afternoon making snacks and desserts for the family. It was so cute and sweet. We ate a little just because she worked so hard. I love her heart.

 I got to visit with Sara in early February and it was so fun to see our babies together! Her little Ori and Caleb were pretty much the same size, they were born 4 weeks apart but their due dates were one day apart so it makes sense they'd be the same size.

 It was so great to see her and to catch up! I need to go digging around and find a picture of us when we were younger.

 I was dealing with some postpartum depression (which was weird, I've never had it before, oddly enough) and baby smiles certainly go a long way to help with that depression.

 Isaac LOVES his legos. Most kids sleep with stuffed animals, my son sleeps with legos, that just how he rolls. :)

 Jack's down here going to school and I'm loving being able to see him more!

 I attempted to take some pictures of Caleb and I like how they turned out.

 Debbie loves to sing and Caleb loves music, perfect combination.

Women's Meeting

 Debbie and I got tickets to go to the Women's session of General Conference yesterday and it was an amazing experience. I LOVED it. We went with Ellen and Nicholette and decided to make a day of it so we took frontrunner up and ate at the cheesecake factory before the session.

 Two of my favorite girls in the whole world!

 We had amazing seats! I've never sat that close before.

 I love this little girl. I love her and am privileged to be her mother. I hold her hand with pride and feel blessed to be by her side. She's pure in heart and kind and has love for everyone. I went to this conference expecting to have my life changed by something said from the pulpit but that is not what happened. My life was changed because I had the opportunity to sit by my daughter as "sister's in Zion." I'm not sure how to explain it but I had a paradigm shift last night and it was special. I'm beyond grateful that we got to be a part of last night's meeting. My favorite part was when Sister Wixom had all the girls ages 8-11 stand and sing the first verse of "Teach Me to Walk in the Light" and then everyone 12 and older sang the second verse while the girls were still standing.

I realized last night that Chad and I have never - I repeat NEVER - taken our kids to Temple Square. What?? What kind of mormons are we??? So, we'll have to remedy that quickly. But not this weekend, it's going to be craaaazy.

On our way home we had some interesting experiences. Debbie rode on TRAX for the first time and it was standing room only so we all had to hold on for dear life to one pole. She loved that, it was cool to see her wide-eyed, just watching everyone and everything and taking it all in.

Then we had to wait 55 minutes to catch frontrunner home and while waiting there Debbie met her first drunk person. He was mad about leaving his "pack" on the train and was cursing and yelling and then came over and asked us to help him (because he was too drunk to work his phone, he was swaying so much that I was a little worried he was going to fall on the track). So I called a couple places for him but everywhere was closed but he thanked us profusely anyway and gave us each a kiss on the hand. Ha ha. Debbie wasn't sure what to make of him, with his dirty clothes and missing teeth. He walked away then and we started playing a word game to pass the time and he came back shortly and joined in with us. That's quite interesting, playing games with a drunk person. It started getting uncomfortable and I was a little worried about Debbie, not physically but emotionally, sometimes it seemed like he was fixating on her a little bit. I tried to distract him and that led to a philosophical discussion which then led to a discussion on faith. He asked us where we were coming from and we told him and then he said that he didn't believe in God. And Debbie, bless her heart, in her sweet voice asked him, "What do you believe in?" He said he believed in a friend who's got your back and then asked us how to get faith. It's hard to have a sincere discussion with someone who's not entirely with it but it was nice for all of us to figure out how we would answer that question if someone asked us it again. As we were going to bed last night Debbie came out and told us she was afraid the drunk person was going to pop out at her in the bathroom or in her bedroom so I tried to humanize him a bit and that seemed to help. I reminded her that he told us his name was Mark and he was a Vietnam veteran so that meant he was a hero. I explained that he'd had a hard life and was probably a very sick and sad man and I also explained that she was never in any danger because Aunt Ellen was ready to call 911 if needed and I would not have hesitated to kill him if he had gone after her (Chad thought that bit was overkill, but I meant it...). That seemed to help because she went to bed pretty easy after that.

All in all it was a pretty spectacular day, full of love and new experiences. And it ended with Chad saying the sweetest thing. We walked in the door after being gone for 10 hours and I asked him how it went and all he said was, "just don't ever die please." Aww, he missed me!

Happy Birthday to Cosette!

 Happy sixth birthday to sweet Cosette!! She has quite the large personality in that little body; all the goodness, sweetness, and charm of a six year old with the attitude of a teenager and the wisdom and vocabulary of a seasoned adult. I wish I could record her all day long, she uses these big and rather complex words and she uses them correctly it's awesome. Words like 'edible' and 'prefer' (I know those aren't big words but they aren't words most six year old's use) and lots of others that I need to remember to write down. The past year was  kind of a rough year for her (and us by extension) so I'm really hoping this year is better. The diet is getting a little easier, we're slowly figuring things out. Honestly, we've seen the most improvement since taking her off all dairy. Which has been more difficult for her than the gluten because she always loved her milk and cheese! It still causes some tears (hers AND mine, lets be honest) and sometimes my heart aches a little when I think about all she has ahead of her with parties and dating and such. There was a meme I came across that had a man on it and it said, "girl, I love you so much I'll eat gluten free so I can kiss you later" and it made me realize [once again] that this really is a lifelong battle that she's got to fight. But thankfully, she does seem happier lately. I feel like she just had a massive bout of the "terrible two's" like a 4 year bout of them. But through this all there is one thing that has never varied... this girl is FULL of love. She is compassionate and nurturing and a passionate supporter of those she loves. Just the other day she was playing quietly on the balcony when I suddenly heard her yell, "Hey! Don't do that to my brother!!!" Then she went charging down the stairs full of indignation and love and ran to Isaac and hugged him tightly, ready to take on whoever it was that had hit him. And that's just who Cosette is. If Debbie comes in crying because of trouble with friends, Cosette is there with a hug and an offer to play with her. When Caleb is crying Cosette will stand next to the pack and play and hold the pacifier in his mouth to help him be comfortable. She is an intense child who does nothing halfway and I love it (most of the time anyway).

On a somewhat unrelated note... I came across something I wrote back in July of 2012 where I was supposed to write about all of the things that were causing me anxiety and then put what I thought the worst case scenario would be. At the top of the list was "Potty training Cosette" and this is what I wrote:

"It won't work, she'll be traumatized, she'll fight us, she'll have lots of poopy underwear and a sore bum, she'll stink, poop will get everywhere."

Ha. Little did I know. Check, check, check, check, and check. And then some.

A little scare

We had a little scare last month. At one of Caleb's visits the dr heard a heart murmur that "sounded a little different" than normal heart murmurs and he was worried about a hole in the heart. He sent us to a cardiologist but we had to wait 12 days to get in to see him and that was a long 12 days. It was scary because Caleb was still on oxygen and if he had a hole in his heart that could cause him to need oxygen. But, thankfully, no hole! The cardiologist said the murmur was just loud, he did an ultrasound to rule out a hole (because of the oxygen) and said that everything looks great. I cannot even express how grateful and relieved we were to hear that.

Caleb also has a belly button hernia, that's why his belly button looks huge in all his pictures. It is getting better though and they don't worry about it unless it's still there by their first birthday. Isaac had one too and his resolved itself and we feel confident that Caleb's will resolve as well.

So behind: January

Isaac said to me shortly after we brought Caleb home, "Mom, do sometimes you think about Caleb more than you think about me, Debbie, and Cosette?" It broke my heart a little but I answered truthfully and told him, "Yeah, buddy, sometimes I probably do." But then I told him I'd work on it and try harder. December was a trying month and we did think about Caleb more. It was difficult to have him on oxygen. And then I noticed as I was uploading pictures that I have NO pictures of Cosette and Isaac in January. NONE. And only a few of Debbie. Poor older kids! We do still love them!

This is still such a common sight in our house. Chad is an amazing dad and an amazing husband. I wrote about lack of sleep, but my lack of sleep is nothing to Chad's because he is the one who gets up with Caleb at night. I have a hard time sleeping anyway so Chad wants to let me sleep as much as I can so while I will wake up when Caleb is crying I am not the one who stays awake with him. So Chad gets the awesome man of the year award because he's up with the baby at night and then goes to school/work the next day and then comes home and gets 30 minutes to an hour nap in the evening and then does it all over again. I LOVE this man.

 Check out the hairy back!! He looked like an ape for a while with dark hair all over his upper body, down his back, on his arms, and even covering his ears. Thankfully it's not as bad now.

 I saw a lot of this face in January. Caleb is by far my fussiest baby. It's been not-so-fun. He does seem to be getting a little better now and we discovered gripe water too, he loves that stuff! And it seems to help calm him down.

 Caleb went off Oxygen January 17th and that was an exciting day. I realized just how much it was consuming our life the time when I left the house to go shopping and as I was walking along the sidewalk I instinctively swiped my hand in front of me to hold the cords out of the way so I wouldn't step on them. And I wasn't even holding Caleb, I was by myself. But he finally did get off the oxygen! It took another 4 weeks to get him off the apnea monitor, which was frustrating.

 Watching tv with Daddy.

 Debbie is so sweet, she offered to hold Caleb so I could get a nap one day and when I came out this is what I found. Both of the fast asleep.

 And, I decided to try my hand at taking some 'newborn' pictures. Not awesome but they do the job.

So behind: Christmas

We had to change Caleb's cheekies and took a minute to snap a few pictures. It changed his look a little bit.

He was not happy to get the cannula back on...

Notice the tiny Charlie Brown tree in the background. Hopefully by next Christmas we're in a place big enough to fit an actual tree!

 

 

 Cosette managed to fit her tent on it's side on her bed on the bottom of her and Debbie's bunk beds and then slept in it. I guess she wanted something different for the special occasion of Christmas Eve?

 They wanted to make sure Santa knew which stockings were theirs so they wrote their names on paper and put it on the stockings. Debbie made this one for Caleb.

 So, Santa had a near-miss. Cosette woke up at about 12:45 and saw that Santa had come so then she woke up Debbie. And while Debbie was able to go back to sleep within the hour Cosette was not. She was up for another 2 hours, it was so frustrating!

 We got Debbie the "Frozen" soundtrack and this is her face when she opened it. Ha ha, it's nice to know she loved it! (And check out Isaac in the background getting some air, I guess he was excited too...?) [And on a second side note: I'm writing this in February and the girls have played that CD every day since as loudly as I'll let them. Needless to say, the whole family has the whole CD memorized.]

Cosette got her American Girl doll from Grandma Westerson and she loves it.

 Chad checking out the sports cards Isaac got him for Christmas. The kids school has a fundraiser where they have a Santa's shop at school and you send money and the kids are able to buy gifts for the family while raising money for the school. I love it, everybody wins!

 This is how Caleb spent Christmas morning.

 Cosette sporting her new Doc McStuffins Dr coat we got her.

 Uncle Ben didn't want to hold Caleb but Grandma Rogers forced the issue. He was thrilled...

 Chad's favorite gift:

This is a funny story: Grandma and Grandpa Rogers got the girls each some arts and crafts and thoughtfully got them some containers to keep it all together in. Unfortunately this was the first gift Cosette opened. The look of confusion, disappointment, and bewilderment on her face was priceless. Here were her brother and sister opening fun gifts of books and toys and she gets an empty plastic container. I wish we had it on video, it really was priceless. She cried on my shoulder for a while but was a good sport when I asked her to show me how she felt when she opened the present so I could get a picture. Ha ha! Love this little girl.