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!

Hypospadias Repair

After months of waiting, the time finally came in September, for Porter's hypospadias repair.  We arrived at Primary Children's Hospital bright and early at 6:00 AM, and quickly went upstairs to the day surgery area.  After checking in, we waited for the Registrar to call us and verify Porter's medical history and our insurance information.  After completing registration we waited for a nurse to call us.  When it was Porter's turn, a nurse took us into a room where we dressed him in a hospital gown, put on his hospital tags, and checked his vitals.

 

We were then escorted to  a different waiting room right outside of the operating area. Here we waited for the anesthesiologist and surgeon to speak with us.  There was a little girl who had checked in shortly after us, and while we were sitting in this waiting room, I overheard that she was there for open heart surgery.  I was deeply humbled that Porter's surgery was only for something minor.  I couldn't imagine sending my toddler off to have open heart surgery!

We talked with the surgeon and he explained what would happen to Porter.  He told us that in the parents waiting room we could get updates on Porter's status via phone calls, but that most likely we wouldn't get a call because the surgery was minor and didn't take very long. After talking with the surgeon, the anesthesiologist came to get Porter.  We walked with him down the hallway until we reached some double doors where there was a big red line painted on the floor.  The anesthesiologist stopped us and said, "This is where we say goodbye."  We hugged Porter tight, and handed him over. 

Jeff and I were then escorted to a third waiting room. About 20 minutes after getting to the waiting room we heard the attendant call out, "Update for the parents of Porter".  Jeff and I looked at each other and wondered what was going on.  Jeff walked over to take the call.  I was nervous that there had been a complication or bad reaction to the anesthesia because we were told that we probably wouldn't be receiving a call.  I followed Jeff over and listened to his end of the conversation. I heaved a big sigh of relief when Jeff told me that Porter's hypospadias was very minor.  In fact, after pumping his bladder full of liquid, they had determined that his stream was straight enough that there was no need to move his urethra. It would have been a matter of moving it 1 mm.  The doctor did say that they were going to perform a chordee repair to fix the curvature of his little man part and then circumcise him. The surgery was quite short and soon the surgeon was out to talk with us and give us instructions on how to care for him.

I was then able to go to the PACU to see Porter as he woke up.  He was screaming and as they placed him into my arms, the smell of anesthesia on his breath was overpowering.  After about 10 minutes in the PACU, they took us into recovery where Jeff was able to come be with us.

Porter was pretty upset.  We couldn't get him calmed down so the nurse gave him some oxycodone.  This made it so we had to stay in the hospital an extra hour so they could monitor him. 

This is him after nursing and having the oxycodone.  He was quite relaxed!

His recovery went very smooth since his operation wasn't as invasive.  We were anticipating stint tubes and visits back to the urologist, and feel very blessed that we just had to follow up with our pediatrician the next week.  It ended up being just a little bit harder than a normal circumcision, since he had stitches up one side of his little man part.  In no time at all it seemed like he was back to normal and terrorizing the house with his curiosity!

10 Months

Sure do love this baby.

Oh, and he says "mom" and"daddy", shakes his head "no", and likes to click his tongue.