Baseball

This year the three older boys are playing baseball.  Don't they look so cute in their jerseys?

Carson is playing on the kids pitch team and has a great coach this year.

Jonas and Mason are playing on the 3&4 year old "Itty Bitty Ball" team. It was so cute watching them warm up for their game last week. I really love that they are so close in age.  It's made it nice because we only have to juggle two games instead of three.  Last week Carson's game was at the same time as the little boys' game so Jeff and I hopped back and forth between the two games. It's kind of crazy  because Carson's games are an hour and a half long and the little boys' games last maybe an hour.  So Jonas and Mason watched the first part of Carson's game, then came back just as it was ending.

Preschool Exchange

This past school year Mason participated in a Preschool Exchange with some other kids in our ward.  Since the kids were really young (Mason and one other girl were still two when we started) it was pretty laid back.  We worked on letters, numbers, and handwriting, but the main goal was to let the kids socialize and learn to follow directions. We rotated houses so I only had to teach every fifth week. I really loved having these little ones in my home and Jonas was always so excited when it was my turn to teach because he got "extra preschool" those weeks. Its been a little crazy running Mason to school on Mon/Wed and Jonas had preschool on Tues/Thurs. Friday has been our only day where we can just hang out and do what we want!

Last week one of the other mothers, Mikki, took pictures for us.  She has her own photography business and is super talented.  I am hoping to get her to do Carson's baptism pictures.

In addition to pictures of the kids in the exchange, she offered to do sibling pictures.  I really regret that I didn't pull Carson out of school to get his picture done.  It would have been nice to have had all new pictures for my wall! Here are my handsome men.

 I love this look on Porter's face!  It is just soooo typically him, with this concerned/questioning look.

Star Wars

 A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

 You knew it was coming, right?  With so many boys in our house, I'm actually quite surprised that they hadn't discovered Star Wars before now.  It all started back in February after we bought our iMac. Since my iTunes account was hacked twice last year (and money stolen off our debit card...twice), I bought iTunes gift cards so we could purchase some programs through the App store.  We had a few dollars left over and decided to let the boys download Angry Birds Star Wars. Pretty soon they were asking if they could watch the movies and I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were rated PG. 

So on a snowy February day, and on our way home from a Jr. Jazz game, I stopped by my friend's house and picked up all six movies.  Even though I really regulate my boys' TV time, the plan was to let them watch the movies while Jeff and I painted our bedroom as part of our bedroom re-style. After all, it was a snowy, icky Saturday, and I needed them distracted so I could get my project done. As it turns out I was the one distracted and ended up watching most of the first two movies with my boys. Over the next week or so we watched all six movies (in order).  This is the first time that I'd ever done that and the saga made so much more sense to me. When it came time to return the movies, my boys cried...and cried. They went two whole weeks without Star Wars before I texted my friend and asked if we could borrow her movies again. She was so kind and let us borrow them for a whole month.  Seriously, how awesome is that?

Mason became obsessed with Darth Vader.  Obsessed.  He made a mask out of a milk box and walked around the house saying, "Luke, I am your father." One day my sweet sister in law, Kris, showed up at our house with a Darth Vader costume!  It was one of her boys old Halloween costumes and she thought Mason would love it.  Cue evil Empire music now....dun, dun, dun, da, da, dun, da, da, dun...

 Pretty soon, Darth Vader, was everywhere I looked...taking a nap on my couch, in my bed, on the patio, playing outside...he even tried to go to the store with me.

Since my boys were making Light Sabers with anything they could find, we soon invested in some "real" Light Sabers.

And the epic battles began...

I have to share a proud mom moment with you.  One day Carson came home from school very sad.  I asked him what was wrong and he told me that all of his friends at school had Star Wars Legos and he didn't.  At first my mind turned to the old "you need to be happy with what you have...wanting things makes you sad...don't covet..." train of thought, but before I said anything something stopped me.  I looked at him and said, "Well, you can be sad about it, or you can do something about it.  If you want those Legos, you will find a way to get them. What do you think you could do to get them?" At first we talked about him doing chores to earn the money.  He decided that it would take him a long time to earn the money because Mom doesn't pay well (I like to make him actually work for a dollar not just have it handed to him!).  There is a Facebook page for our community where you can post items to sell and we've had quite a bit of luck selling things on it. I asked him if he had any old toys he would want to sell.  He went to the basement and picked out four toys he hardly played with.  I snapped a picture of them on my phone, uploaded it to FB, and within 10 minutes all four toys had sold and he had the money he needed for his Star Wars Legos.  It was a great lesson for both of us.  Carson and I talked about how we need to look for solutions instead of whining about our misfortunes. We also talked about how if we really want something, and we put forth the effort to work for it, that Heavenly Father will bless us. I often think of how that day could have went.  I would have told him not to whine about it and that he had a lot of other Legos, and he still would have been sad that he didn't have his Star Wars Legos.  It would have caused contention in our house.  I'm thankful that I was able to listen to the Spirit and teach him.  He sure has been crazy about those Legos, and I'm happy that there are four less toys in my basement!

Hernia Repairs, Round Two

Shortly after our return from Thanksgiving in Idaho, Mason was in the bathtub and coughed really hard.  I happened to notice that he had two bulges in his groin area when he coughed, in the same place Jeff had had his hernia earlier this year. Since his birthday and yearly check-up were a week away I decided I would ask our pediatrician about it.  At his check up, Mason wouldn't really cough hard and our pediatrician had a hard time feeling if there was a hernia or not. He suggested that we wait and see if it worked its way out or not.  I pushed the issue saying that our out of pocket maximum had been met with our insurance, and if there was a problem that I wanted it taken care of by the end of the year.  He scheduled an appointment for us at the Riverton Primary Children's Outpatient Clinic and a week later we went in for his check-up.

  It seriously took the surgeon less than a minute to tell me that Mason had bilateral inguinal hernias.  He explained that it is a birth defect that happens when the tube the testicles descend through fails to close.  This is the same type of hernia Jeff had repaired back in April, Jeff's just took 32 years to become a problem.  After Mason's diagnosis, I asked the surgeon if there was anyway we could have the surgery done before the end of the year since it would be 100% covered by our insurance.  It was already Monday, December 10, and I was worried we couldn't get it done in time. I talked with the nurse that did the scheduling and she told me that they had an opening for surgery the next morning, or in a week.  After a quick phone call to Jeff, we decided to go ahead and do the surgery the next day, so we didn't risk Mason getting sick in the next week and having to push his surgery into the new year.

The next morning Mason and I were at the Primary's hospital wing in Riverton at 6AM. After checking in, we were taken upstairs to surgery.

We noticed that the waiting room was donated by Jeff's employer.  Of course we had to text Daddy a picture.

Mason was taken back to a room where they got his vitals, and changed into a hospital gown.  They gave him this puppy and he instantly fell in love with it.

Next, we were taken to a second waiting room, right outside of the surgical area.  Since there was only us and one other little boy and his mom there, Mason and I played games on the floor.  He loved this toy.

 Eventually the nurses came and gave him some medicine to drink.  It made it so his eyes glazed over and he went limp.  The medicine makes it so he has no memory of being taken into surgery.  We placed him in a wagon, and they took him back to the operating room.

Heading back to surgery.

I went back out to the first waiting room, and in about a half hour they called me back to meet with the surgeon.  I was really surprised at how fast the surgery was, considering he had hernias on both sides.  Jeff only had one hernia to repair and I waited a lot longer to talk to his surgeon.  The surgeon told me that it was an easy repair and that there was a fatty deposit that had started to form on the right hernia.  I was then taken back out to the waiting room to wait for Mason to wake up from anesthesia.  It took him  longer that normal to come out of the anesthesia and I was getting a little worried.  Finally they called me back and I could hear him screaming as soon as I walked through the doors.  To say that he was NOT happy was an understatement.  He screamed for a solid half hour and nothing I or the nurses did could calm him down.  He finally started to settle down once they took his IV out.  After about an hour in recovery we were released to go home.  He slept most of the first day, but the next day he acted as if nothing was wrong and was running around as happy as could be.

Finally calmed down in the recovery room.

Then on Wednesday night, he started acting like he was in a lot of pain.  He fell asleep on the couch about 5:00 that night and woke up about 7:00 miserable.  He tried to get off of the couch and couldn't even walk.  We quickly gave him more pain medication and tried to snuggle him.  He was miserable.  He started screaming.  We had no idea what to do. 

 Finally at 2:00 in the morning I called the after hours surgery number on our hospital discharge papers.  They could hear him screaming in the background and told me I needed to bring him into the ER right away.  I took him to the ER in Riverton, since that is where he had his surgery. The doctor looked him over and couldn't figure out what was wrong.  The incision looked fine and he didn't have a fever.  They ordered x-rays to see if his bowels had some how twisted.  The doctor came back in and told me they couldn't find anything wrong and he acted quite rudely towards me, as if I had wasted his time.  I was so annoyed. He gave us a prescription for Lortab and sent us home and told us to call the surgeon when their office opened. 

In the ER after getting some Lortab.

 I called the surgeons office as soon as they opened, told them what had taken place at the ER, and they said that since nothing could be found wrong with his hernia repair, that I should call my normal pediatrician and make an appointment.  All of this time Mason was still horribly miserable and he had now spiked a fever of 101.  I was at my wits end after having no sleep and getting the run around from all of these doctors.  I called our pediatrician's office and made an appointment.

 Now I have to say I LOVE our pediatrician. As soon as we got there and I explained all that had happened in the past few days, he was very concerned. He started with a basic exam, and about five minutes after we got there, he figured out what was wrong.  He took one look in Mason's ears, and declared that Mason had ruptured an ear drum. He asked if the ER doctor had even checked Mason's ears and I told him no.  He looked extremely shocked.  He asked again which ER I had taken him to, and when I told him he said, "Well, I hate to say you get what you pay for, but you really should have just brought him up to Primary's.  We would have caught this right away." He had a Resident with him and turned to him and said, "I always tell my Residents, simple things in simple places.  Its easy to overlook the basics."  My pediatrician is also an ER doctor at Primary's and he said they always check basic things like ears, throat, etc. I'm sure the ER doc just thought his misery was related to the surgery, but I was still annoyed that my child had screamed and suffered so long and the ER doc just wrote me off and acted like I had wasted his time. We've had some good experiences at that hospital, but I should have known better than to take him to Riverton. A few years ago Jonas had a problem that ended us up in the ER there and they just shipped us up to Primary's. My doc explained that they aren't a bad ER, just not trained to deal with children's problems and that they constantly ship kids up to Primary's.

After almost 24 hours of no sleep, I was so happy to have an answer and to get Mason on the road to feeling better. A few days later he was as good as new!

My Three Year Old

Our little Mason monster turned three clear back in December.  We had a fun filled day with Grandma and Grandpa Larsen coming to visit, going shopping at Scheel's, and a birthday party that evening. Mason is obsessed with the color blue right now.  When I asked him what kind of a party he wanted the only answer I got was "blue".  Here's what he ended up with.

Last summer Mason fell in love with our neighbor's Cozy Coupe.  About a month before Mason's birthday, a friend called me and told me that Toys R' Us had them on sale that day only for $39...a steal if you've ever priced out Cozy Coupes.  So I went over to Walmart and price matched it, and within a few hours of the phone call I had it all tucked away in a corner of my garage.  The night before Mason's birthday, Jeff and my step-dad put it together, and when Mason came out of his room in the morning, he was so excited!

Mason really is a joy to have in our home.  He has such an enthusiasm for life. He is also our Type A personality. He is a control freak.  He is often heard bossing around Jonas, and Jonas obeys because he is such an easy going kid. We butt heads sometimes because he thinks that he's the boss. I can definitely see him being a great leader one day. He is also such a Momma's Boy.  He often wants me to lay by him in bed after I read him bedtime stories.  About 20 times a day he comes up to me and says, "I want you to hold me."  So I give him a big hug and tell him that I love him. Also, he doesn't like it when I get stern with him and tells me, "Just be nice to me.  I want you to be nice." He tries so hard to be independent and doesn't like it when I try to help him.  Often he will be saying a blessing on the food, and stop because he doesn't know what to say.  So Jeff or I will try to prompt him and he'll yell out "I don't need help!" He will go quiet again and then finally demand "Help me!" We do this scenario at least once a day.

At his 3 year check-up he was:
Weight: 28.5 lbs   20th percentile.  (Wahoo! He's moved up from the 10th!)
Height: 36 3/4 inches    30th percentile

He's a lot smaller than Carson and Jonas were at three, but he's staying on his own curve and finally gaining weight.

Halloween Festivities

Another Halloween has come and gone.  This Halloween I took the boys around the neighborhood, while Jeff stayed home and handed out candy.  At the time, Jeff was working the night shift and when it came time for him to go to work, we were still out Trick or Treating, so he had to come looking for us to give us the keys to the house.  I had met up with one of my good friends, and we decided to take the kids to a different part of the subdivision since not many people were home on the streets by us.  Here are my four little spooks, just before we left. We walked around the neighborhood for about an hour and a half, until Porter had had enough and cried until we got him home.

(Sorry for the blurry pictures, most of them are from my phone.)

In early October, Jeff's friend, Finn, invited us over to his house to pick pumpkins.  He lives in American Fork, and has a huge garden.  (All Fall, Jeff kept coming home from work with tomatoes, peppers, and zuchinni from Finn's garden.)  The kids had a blast and Finn's wife, Michelle, and I hit it off well. We stayed much too late talking and letting the kids play. I can definitely see us hanging out with them more in the future.

Jeff and I joke that Carson looks like a proud Papa in this photo. We got a few of these Hubbard squash for decoration.  You can see Finn in the background.

Finn and Michelle also gave us these corn stalks to decorate with . 

The boys had fun trying on masks in Walmart.

The week before Halloween, we took the boys over to Thanksgiving Point to the Barnyard Boo.

They got their faces painted.

 Carson and Mason were brave and held the snake and tarantula.  Jonas is more like me and had no desire to hold such things!

Then we hosted our annual Halloween Party.  I made these Owl Cupcakes for one of the desserts. Cake decorating is NOT my thing, so I was happy to find something so easy to make and that looked halfway decent.

Some of our attendees.

Then it was finally time to carve those pumpkins.

On Halloween, we went to Carson's school for the Costume Parade.  I only managed to snap this blurry picture.

When we left Carson's school, the boys begged me to take them to Neptune Park.  Since it was such a gorgeous day, I agreed, and we spent 45 minutes soaking up the sun. It was a great way to get the boys out of the house so Daddy could sleep!

Tulip Festival

Last week we took the boys to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point Gardens for FHE.  It was absolutely beautiful!  Spring is my favorite season and I just love it when everything blooms out. We got there a little later than we wanted to because our lesson ran longer than anticipated (but Mason gave a great lesson on love...with a little help from Daddy and the Nursery Manual).  We didn't have as much time there as we would have liked, but I'm sure we'll be back soon since we have a season pass.