A Month in iPhone Photos

My poor DSLR camera hasn't made it out of the case in the past two weeks. Life's been a little crazy lately, so here's a recap of our month with pictures from my phone.

Carson had a bunch of dental work done including a cap, sealants, and teeth extractions.  He has a small mouth and his permanent teeth were coming in behind the baby teeth.  The kid is hilarious on laughing gas.

Porter started cooing.  I love it.  I love the expressions on his face when he is telling me "oooooh" or "goooo". One night he and Jeff were having quite a conversation.  My heart melted.

 We've had lots of sleepless nights.  The boys have had some weird stomach bug that causes abdominal cramping and bloating.  No throw up, no diarrhea, just lots of pain in the gut.  And it lasts 10 days. It took the doctors a while to figure out what was going on because the symptoms didn't fit any classic illness. In fact, our Ped sent Jonas to the ER at Primary Children's because he was crying so hard that his stomach hurt and they couldn't figure out what was going on.

We hired someone to pain the bead board, trim, and doors in the nursery.  Now I can't wait to get the rest of the doors in the house painted.  Good quality paint makes such a difference!

 Jonas is obsessed with Porter.  He can't get enough of him and is always trying to pick him up or feed him.  It has been a little stressful trying to reign in his love of his new brother.  I found him trying to feed Porter shredded wheat one morning. Enough said.

We went to Family Skate Night for Carson's school.  We rented the boys scooters and let them go on the little kids rink with them.  They had a blast.

I took the boys to see the baby chicks at Tai Pan Trading.  Its something I like to do every spring and they love it.  Plus I get to shop around one of my favorite stores :).

We took Porter on his first trip to Idaho.  We hung out with cousins and fed ducks at the Nature Park in Rexburg.

I love watching Carson hang out with his cousin TyLee.  It reminded me so much of how my cousin Ben and I were at that age.

Carson drove everyone around on the four wheeler at Grandma's house.

 About two seconds after I took this picture, Porter rolled over.  He's such a big boy (90th percentile) and I've already switched out his 0-3 month clothes for the 3-6 month ones.  Babies always grow too fast!

The Best $11

Ever since we moved into our house, I have been wanting to put a ledge on my kitchen window. It just seemed so boring and plain without one. And, to be honest, I was a little unnerved that our builder was so cheap that they couldn't even case out the windows. Well, I finally talked Jeff into doing it and the grand total for this little project was $11.38. Such a simple and cheap way to make the kitchen look so much nicer! Next on the home improvement list: board and batten along the dining room wall and the back kitchen wall. I can't wait...although I will probably have to because I've got these darn medical bills to pay off first.

Sorry for the blurry pictures. I'm blogging from the iPad and too lazy to get the nice camera out.

A Paint Story

When we were picking out the interior of our house at the design center, we had decided to leave our walls white because we thought they wanted too much money to paint them a different color. So when we moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago, I was so excited to finally be able to paint walls. I went to Home Depot and Lowe's and grabbed a bunch of paint color samples (just the paper ones), came back to the house, and decided which color I wanted.  At the time, beige walls were really trending and I wanted a light brownish-beige color.  We bought a five gallon bucket (it was on sale and cheaper that way) of a color called Gallery Taupe.  From the paint sample, it looked like the perfect color.  Once it was on my walls, it was the absolute worst color.  I was pregnant with Mason at the time, and left for the day while Jeff painted.  I came home excited to see my beautiful walls, and walked in to see walls that looked a purple-brown.  I cried. Jeff told me that eventually we could repaint, but I would have to do it because he wasn't going to redo it. So for two years I put up with walls that looked pinkish-brown in the mornings and purple-brown at night.  It drove me nuts.

In those past two years, I've bought about ten different paint sample colors and tried them on my wall.  I learned my lesson the hard way and now I always try the paint out first.  I've tried various shades of browns, beiges, taupes, and grays on our walls. Since my couches are an aqua color, I knew I had to find a neutral for the wall.  Last month I'd finally had enough of Gallery Taupe and settled on a shade of light gray. 

I painted most of our living room/kitchen by myself.  I did happen to have my mom here when I was painting the kitchen and she helped me.  Then I finally talked Jeff into helping me cut the paint in by the ceiling because I didn't want to get on the ladder.  He was so nice about it and even left me a note...

I am in love with the new color.  I was hesitant at first because it looked bluish next to the old color, but now that everything is painted and its had its two weeks to cure, it looks amazing!  I love how paint (and new curtains) can change a room. I'm love, love, loving my new white ruffle curtains! The house looks so much brighter.  Just what I needed right now!

Blessing

A special day, just for my little one.  I always love baby blessings and being able to share the joy of our new addition with our extended family. I treasure the moments when we spend time together as a family and build those special relationships. We snapped a few quick pictures before heading off to church today.  As I looked through them tonight I was struck with the reality of how much our family has grown. In just a few short years we've gone from one child to four. We are starting to look like a real family now! Oh how I love these sweet little boys, and of course the big boy, I've got a special place in my heart for him.

Hypo What? And a Hernia.

When Porter was six days old, we took him into our Pediatrician to have him circumcised.  During the procedure, Jeff went with Porter and I stayed and waited in the exam room.  After what seemed like an abnormally long time, Dr. Greenberg returned to the exam room and asked, "What is a phone number you can be reached at during the day?" I thought it was an odd question but told him my number and then saw him walk into his office.  I was a little perplexed at what was going on, but he came back a few minutes later and told me that Porter had been born with a birth defect called hypospadias. (Warning: there is a picture of a penis with this link so if you don't want to see it don't click. Oh, and Porter's problem looks nothing like this picture.  His is a first degree hypospadias and is under the foreskin and that's why it wasn't detected until the circumcision.) Our doctor had called up to Primary Children's Hospital to talk with a Pediatric Urologist.  The doctor told us that it would have to be corrected surgically after Porter was six months old.  They stitched Porter back up (the foreskin needs to be saved for part of the reconstruction) and gave us a referral. I felt horrible about it for awhile thinking that I had done something wrong.  But after talking with some extended family members, it seems that the problem may be more genetic than anything I did.

Yesterday, after waiting almost two months, we had our appointment with the Urologist up at Primary Children's. The good news is that it is a day surgery and he should be able to come home the same day.  But he will have to have his little man parts reconstructed so he can go to the bathroom normally (he would have to sit down for the rest of his life). The surgery can be done any time between 6 months and 18 months.

We were planning on doing the surgery this summer when he turned 6 months old.  That is until today when we found out Jeff will be needing surgery too.  He came home from his yearly physical with news that he has a hernia. I am counting it as a blessing that Porter's surgery can be postponed a bit since Jeff's surgery is a little more urgent.  Sheesh, what is it with us and medical bills?

Dino Boys

When discussing where we would like to get a pass to this year, it was hands down a vote for the Dinosaur Museum (Thanksgiving Point).  I tried talking them into the Pass of all Passes to Seven Peaks and Tralfaga, but they shot me down. I guess we must be nerds. Or maybe the boys are, I wanted to go swimming. It seems like we only buy passes to educational places like museums and aquariums. But its what my kids like so I'll go with it.

Jonas and Mason were especially excited to go see the dinosaurs again.  As I've mentioned, they are a little obsessed.  Its kind of funny to hear your three year old say to your two year old, "Where is the Ornithimimus? Do you have it?"

Here are a few pictures I snapped with my phone while they were playing at the Erosion Table.

Legos

It must come with the territory. Little boys=Legos.

 Especially six year old little boys. We've finally hit the stage where the Megablocks became boring and it was time to move on to Legos.  I'll admit, I've been very hesitant to have them in the house with all the smaller boys around...I didn't want them choking on a stray Lego. But this little man was gifted some Legos for Christmas and was instantly hooked.  In fact, he had been begging for Legos for a long time because his cousins have them, so it was a dream come true when he got some.  I'm so amazed at the things he dreams up to build.  He is such a creative little man!  Now if only we can keep Jonas and Mason out of them because they think the Legos are fun too and are always climbing up into the top of the closet to get them down. Poor Carson, nothing is safe from those two little explorers.  He can't seem to find a place to hide the Legos where they won't find them!

The Nursery

Here's a little peek at the Nursery.  We've been working on it for the past few months and its almost together.  I've had a hard time getting a good picture of it because the lighting is tricky in that room so here are some shots I took straight from the camera. The walls look yellow, but they are really a pretty shade of grayish-green called Plum Passion.

 The original plan was to put up bead board on all of the walls, but at the last minute I changed my mind and decided I wanted it to go up 5 feet and make a nice ledge that I could put things on.  Good grief, I don't know how my husband puts up with me changing my mind every five minutes!  He must love me :). We also pulled off all of the builder's grade baseboard and installed a nicer, taller one.  Jeff also cased out the window and put a nice ledge on it.  We still have a little bit of touch up paint to do on the green and then we are having someone come in to paint all of the new moulding and bead board.  We had to buy a few pieces that weren't pre-painted because of size issues, so we decided we'd just have someone paint it all the same shade of white so it would match. Also, our builder painted all of our doors with a yucky flat paint, and as you can imagine, after two years and three little boys running around, the doors are not so much white anymore, so we'll have those painted too. I'll have to post some more (and hopefully better) pictures when it is all finished.

Jeff and I both agree that it is our favorite room in the house.  I'm pretty sure Mason concurs.