Maricopa Bakers

I overheard Christian talking to Declan today: "Whatever you do....don't do ANYTHING!!!!"

I made orange chicken tonight for dinner. (One of my family's favorite meals) Declan finished two plates of food and declared it was so good that he wished there was a restaurant named "Orange Chicken Hut" so we could just buy orange chicken every single day!

On Friday we had a very fun time surprising my mom (early) for her birthday, which is actually today. (If you are reading this, Happy Birthday Mom!) We had planned a trip to take our kids to visit with Grandma and Grandpa so my mom knew we were coming up to Utah, but not that all the other kids and grandkids and her own mother. We had a great time distracting her while everyone assembled at the Trellis cafe at Thanksgiving Point for a surprise birthday lunch. The restaurant was only open for our party, so the kids had a great time wandering around. We had our wonderful server take a group photo when we were done with our meal. The mission was a success - even after several close calls we were able to keep the secret and actually surprise her.

Okay, we are back online and ready to go. Check back soon for new pics and updates after I sort through the 1000+ (I am not joking) pics from the last 3 months. Hope all is well with our friends and family.

Here are the pics from the day Jessica got her "official" cast. White (surprisingly) was not an option. So we went with light blue. It really brings out her eyes. The top pic is after the process was done. She was very happy to get the splint cut off and see her hand again, but when they started wrapping the cast around her arm she wasn't too sure about it. She's a trooper, and held fairly still during the process. (Pictures taken by Christian - Grandma was helping with Justin)

Here are some of the pics from the first couple of days after Jessica broke her arm. She was walking on the sidewalk in front of our house and tripped, landing on her arm. She fractured both the ulna and radius right by her wrist. The first pic is after the 3 hours of sleep she got before church. (She was at the emergency room until 3:30 in the morning after it happened) She is clearly tired and not too happy about me taking a picture. We were all VERY tired that morning. To be honest, we probably would have all stayed home to sleep, but I was in charge of the children's sacrament meeting program at church that morning and couldn't miss it.
She actually has done very well with her sling when we put in on her. This is the day after, while she still has her splint on.

This pic still shows her splint.
Then our wonderful friend, Miss Margeret brought over some flexible bandages in several different colors so we could wrap her splint to match her outfits. Here she is with a teal splint.

She definitely looks much happier than she does in the first pic!

It's hard to find the words to describe the roller coaster we've been on lately. Justin had been sick recently (congested, slight cough, etc.) and last Friday morning spiked a fever. I almost never take my kids to the doctor immediately when they get a fever, preferring to give them Tylenol for a least a day to see if they improve or not. But I took Justin in and the doctor almost immediately said Justin needed to be taken to an emergency room because he was VERY sick. He needed a chest x-ray, and several other tests, according to the doctor. Then almost as an afterthought, he asked if the nurse has gotten an oxygen reading on Justin. When I said no, he had the nurse come back in. The second the nurse said his reading was an 87 my heart sank. The doctor came running back in and said he had called an ambulance, and Justin was immediately put on oxygen while we were waiting. It still felt a little surreal. But the moment the EMTs came storming in the door it became all too real and I lost it. They placed Justin in his car seat and strapped that to the gurney, while stabilizing him with more oxygen.

We were rushed to the new pediatric hospital attached to Banner Desert that Jessica had just been at the weekend before when she broke her arm. Andy came straight from work and pulled up in front of the hospital at the same time we did. We are so grateful that his oxygen levels stabilized quickly once he was placed on oxygen. The hospital admitted us and began a long series of tests on Justin. The chest x-ray quickly showed that he had an infection in his lungs called bronchiolitis. They also did a spinal tap, took blood samples, put him on a catheter, swabbed for RSV, and started him on an IV with antibiotics. The doctors were mostly concerned with how young Justin was, and making sure he did not have a secondary infection (such as meningitis) that they were missing because they were treating his lung infection.

I had uploaded a photo showing the IV in Justin's hand, but somehow it got deleted. This next photo is a VERY tired momma holding Justin. You can just barely see the splint for his IV sticking out from behind his face. You don't get much sleep in a hospital when you're sleeping on a bench and your baby's oxygen alarm is screaming every ten minutes or so.

Here's Andy holding Justin. You can see the bruise on his right hand from where his first IV was. While we were there they had to re-start his IV line three times, with countless pokes during each attempt.

In this picture, you can see the IV line dangling down on the left. (Obviously) we were allowed to hold him a lot, but the IV line and the pulse/ox monitor acted as leashes. We had to sit or stand very close to his crib and be very careful with the lines.


This picture shows the crib Justin slept in while we were at the hospital. Both sides could be raised and lowered all the way.


Here's Andy grinning after we got the great news that there was no other infections and after the next antibiotic drip we would be able to take Justin home! Yea!!


All dressed, out of his hospital gown, and with the IV removed.

The nurse snapped a quick pic of us just outside of our room on the way home. Each room was decorated to look like an individual cottage from the outside.


Our emotions were pretty happy and relieved while getting ready to go home. I was teasing Andy that I needed a picture of HIM bringing home a baby from the hospital because after having four babies all the pictures are of ME bringing home a baby. Here's Andy bringing home our baby and waiting for the elevator. The elevator with buttons. Buttons that our nurse strongly warned us about. Apparently, they are the dirtiest thing in the hospital, and we were warned to wash our hands repeatedly if we touched them, especially before we touched Justin.


Jessica was very excited to snuggle up with Daddy for a bedtime story when we got home Sunday night.

I have some pics ready to post about her arm and cast, but because everything went crazy I haven't posted them yet. Here she is the next morning after we got home. She has adjusted very well to having the cast on.

It was like Christmas morning at our house to have Justin home again. Deja Vu anyone? This picture is very similar to all the pics we took when we first brought Justin home from the hospital 2 months ago. Jessica just loves him to death and is always happy to see her baby brother.

We are so happy and blessed to report that he is healing wonderfully. We took him back to the doctor a couple of days after being released and he said he could hardly believe Justin was the same baby that was seen on Friday. The power of prayer is a miraculous thing. Many, many thanks to all who helped us with the power of their prayers.

At this season of Thanksgiving we have an infinite number of blessings to be thankful for. Especially for family.

Here's Justin, looking very happy, healthy, and chubby at home. There's no place like home! We are so happy to be home.
We want to wish all our friends and family a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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I saw a post on Money Saving Mom yesterday and just had to check it out! If you go to freebies4mom.blogspot.com (You can click the link on the side of my blog) and click on "freebies" at the top of the blog it will give you the details for the fujifilm website and the code to get 50 FREE photo cards plus FREE shipping!!! This offer is good until the end of November so you have plenty of time to take a family photo before it expires. Free is a fantastic price - pass it on and tell your friends.

Buckle up and get ready for the longest post I have ever posted in the history of our blog. This is a "brief" review of July 2009. And I say "brief" because it still barely scratches the surface of all the fun we had this summer. Many, many pictures were taken on my mom's camera or my brother's camera and I still don't have copies of those. (Hint, hint if either of you are reading this) :) The first pic is my mom and the boys at Sundance in Utah.



No trip to Sundance is complete without a homemade sucker from the shop there. So here's Andy, Christian, and Jessica with their suckers. Somehow, I didn't get pics of anyone else with theirs.

And of course, here's Declan doing something that he does best. :) Jumping into a photo I'm taking of someone else. (I'm not kidding that it's something he does best. I was reading through some of the very first posts on this blog just after Jessica was born and I wrote that Declan was jumping into pictures when he was 2 years old saying 'me too, mommy, me too!')

There are many, many activities at Thanksgiving Point for families and it happens to be just a few miles down the road from Grandma and Grandpa's home. Here are a few pictures from the farm area at TP.

Who needs swine flu when you can kiss a cow instead of a pig? :)

Here's a couple shots from the hayride we went on.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the pony rides!!

The next few pics are from the Children's Garden at TP.

We found a ferocious bear inside of a cave.

And a very friendly bear outside of the cave.

They had a very fun maze the kids enjoyed running around in. Keep in mind that I am very pregnant in these pictures!

Everyone enjoyed making giant bubbles at Grandma and Grandpa's house, just like we did last summer.

It was so funny to see how hard the boys would concentrate while trying to play video games on the Wii. They are concentrating so hard, they wouldn't even turn their heads to look at the camera. (Although Declan did try to smile for me!!!)

Declan got really good at boxing and beat almost everybody!

Here we are at an aquarium, trying to get a group shot. That is a small shark in the tank behind us.

Aaahhh, my handsome hubby. Love you babe!

The kids all got new sunglasses this summer.

And this is one of my favorite pics from the July picture folder. Christian in full lotus position and Declan trying to copy him. I'll let this pic end my post about July. Enjoy!

My poor baby Jessica tripped yesterday on the sidewalk and landed on her wrist, fracturing it in two places. She'll need to get a cast in a couple days when the swelling goes down. Pictures to follow.

The boys have been taking showers for some time now, but the other night they decided they wanted to take a bubble bath. They were having so much fun, I just had to snap a couple of pics.

While the Christian and Declan enjoyed their bath, my other two guys had 'story time'. It was cracking me up because while Andy was sitting there reading, it looked like Justin was reading too.

I had to take a pic of Jessica in her new jammies, and Declan just had to jump into the picture too.

Here's Christian with his nose buried in a book. (A very common occurence. Very common. :) Sometimes Andy tells him he has to put the book down and get outside and play - such a mean dad)

And here's Declan jumping into this picture too.

We catch Christian reading in his bed after "lights out" all the time. Once I went in pretty late to check on them (hours after they had been tucked in) and Christian was sitting in the dark reading a book. I said "Christian! What are you doing?!? It is way past your bedtime, and you know you're not supposed to read in the dark!" (Hmm, wonder where he gets that from? Couldn't possibly be from his momma or grandma) :)

Bless his heart, he burst into tears and cried something to the effect of, "Then don't put books right by my head at night!" (The headboard of his bed is a bookcase full of books)