Prepare for a photo dump. Here is our summer in a nutshell:

Field Trip to Hogle Zoo

Josh was born

Father's Day

Nathan's birthday

Hailey's birthday

Fireworks on the 4th of July

Played superheroes

Shriner's for Pam treatment

Played at the "secret" beach

Visit from the Spiers

Bike ride with Grandpa

Went to a Bees game

Temple Square

Matinee at the dollar theater

Draper Days Parade

Took a nap.

Lindsay took the kids to get their pictures taken on Friday. The last time we had family pictures taken, Blake was barely walking, so it was about time to go again.

Hailey, age 6

Blake, age 4

Nathan, age 2

Joshua, 1 month

I've been avoiding this for a long time, but the last few months I've noticed our blog has had an increase of traffic from strange places (both odd urls, and odd geographic locations of the person and/or program accessing the blog). Anyway, I think we finally have to bite the bullet and go private. Please leave a comment on this post if you want me to email you an invitation so you can still see our blog. If you don't think I have an up to date email address for you, and don't want to leave your email address in a public comment, feel free to message me on facebook with your email address. I'll give it a few weeks before we go private.

Last week, Joshua got a pretty bad infection. We ended up spending a little more than 4 days at Primary Children's Hospital. I am so grateful we have a very good children's hospital nearby, particulary considering we have put it to good use with our last two kids. At the same time, I hate that place. If we never have to go up there again, it will be too soon. Spending the better part of a week in any hospital with a sick baby leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth, no matter how kind the nurses are or how competent the doctors are.



Anyway, here's the story on how we ended up in the hospital.  On Tuesday Joshua had a fever, it came and went all day, and finally in the wee hours on Wednesday, we decided to take him to the ER just to be safe. I'm glad we did. They took urine, blood, and spinal fluid samples. All three came back with signs of infection. Thanks to the results of that initial test on the spinal fluid sample, extra precautions were taken, just in case he had bacterial meningitis (anyone who came into the room was wearing a mask and a robe for the first 24 hours). Thankfully the culture came back clean, so no meningitis. His urine and blood, however, had bacterial infection. They think he just had a really bad UTI that spread into his blood stream. His kidneys were a little infected, but there don't appear to be any anatomical abnormalities that caused his kidneys to get infected, so once he finishes up his antibiotics we should be able to put all of this behind us and forget all about it. On Saturday the radiologist placed a picc line so we could administer the antibiotics intravenously at home, and on Sunday, we finally got to come home. Lindsay and I have gotten some practice flushing the iv, giving him the antibiotic, etc. over the last couple of days, so we're practically experts now. Hopefully, next Wednesday he'll be done with antibiotics, get the picc removed, and we'll never have to see the inside of Primary Children's Hospital ever again.

Our newest little boy was born last week. He weighed 8lbs 4oz, easily our biggest baby. Lindsay and the baby are doing well. They were able to come back home 24 hours after he was born, and he has been healthy, and eating well from the beginning. The other kids love having a baby, even if Nathan gets a little jealous sometimes.

A few weeks ago, Hailey lost her first tooth and learned to ride a bike without training wheels.  Hard to believe she is getting so big.



My baby sister got her master's degree last week, it's also hard to believe she is so grown up. She and her husband lived with us for a few months last year, so having them back in town for the commencement was a blast for us and our kids.




And here is a photo from our trip down to the cabin a couple of weeks ago.

I had to use this one, I love the look on Blake's face

For anyone still checking our blog on occasion, I wanted to let you know about the March for Babies. The kids and I will be participating in the March for Babies on May 18th (Lindsay may join us, but since she'll be 8 1/2 months pregnant, she'll be a gameday decision). A co-worker of mine has been involved in the Utah chapter of the March of Dimes for quite a while and told me about the event. The March of Dimes mission is "to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality."  Here's the blurb on how to donate to our family "team" and what the event is all about.

I'm very excited to be a part of March for Babies this year and hope you will join my team!
Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick. We're walking because we want to do something about this.

The money we raise will support March of Dimes research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. And it will be used to bring comfort and information to families with a baby in newborn intensive care.

Please join my team. You can do so on my team page. If you can't walk with us, please help the team reach our goal by making a donation. You can do that online as well.
Thank you for helping me give all babies a healthy start!

Visit my team Web page at
http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t2035911

If you would like to learn more about March for Babies,
visit the Web site at marchforbabies.org.


I sure am very grateful to have 3 healthy babies! (and for their sweet cousin, too)

Well, it's been six months, and time for an update. The biggest news, is that we are expecting baby number 4. It's a boy, and he is due on June 8th. I suppose we're a bit late announcing this, since he'll be here in just a couple of months, but I realized a few weeks ago when someone at church asked Lindsay if she was expecting that we really haven't made any kind of announcement to anyone except our immediate families, so not many people probably know! Assuming he comes on time, that will make 4 birthdays in a two week span in June. Blake and I are the odd men out with birthdays in the winter. Nathan has had a couple of treatments since the last post. He goes in every 8 weeks. We spent Christmas in Colorado with my parents, who had just returned home from their mission in London.  Then we had Blake's 4th birthday in January.

The kids are all growing up. Nathan is now running, and is much happier now that he can keep up with Hailey and Blake a little better. Hailey is reading, and doing math, it's amazing to me how much she has learned in Kindergarten. Blake is still just really imaginative and creative. It seems like he comes up with a new game every day. Lindsay and I went on a nice vacation together last week. It was really great to spend some time together away from work and kids for a few days.

The sedative they gave Nathan during his December treatment messed up his oxygen levels.  Try keeping a mask on an 18 month old for 4 hours. Not fun.

The headlamp was Blake's favorite Christmas present

Blake had a Ninja Turtle themed birthday

Hailey and Blake Sledding

At the temple on vacation

Nathan loves watching everything Blake does

Nathan wants to give up his naps, but isn't quite ready

We were warned to start looking for fractures once Natey started walking. Sure enough, just a few days after he took his first steps, he got hurt. We took him in to the doctor last week to get an X-ray. Based on what seemed to hurt him the most, we thought the fracture was on his right side. They X-rayed his right femur/hip area.  They told us that they only saw one small fracture on his right femur that was 5-15 days old (based on how much it had healed). Well, that was a surprise, since we had no idea he had broken his leg two weeks before.  Our wonderful pediatrician told us she didn't want to take more X-rays and just keep guessing where the injury might be.  Especially because he already has to get X rays so often.  We got some pain medication, and took him home.  We let a few more days go by, and long story short, when he started to feel well enough to start crawling on Thursday, he finished off the injury he'd started earlier in the week. He seemed hurt worse, but we still couldn't tell where exactly the fracture was (femur, pelvis, hips?).  Then, his left leg started to really swell up. We went into the doctor yesterday, and confirmed that his left femur was fractured. They considered putting on a spica cast, but in the end we all decided to go with a splint that is much lighter weight (Natey only weighs around 16 lbs, and the cast would have been almost as heavy as him!).  He will have it on for 3 weeks, at which point we hope he'll feel well enough to pick up where he left off, and be walking again in no time.

Natey's splint - it's amazing how much this has helped with pain control

Nasty fracture (I snapped this with my phone when they had it up on the screen)

When Nathan was just one day old, the pediatrician at the hospital told us his legs were not the same length. When he was two days old she told us he has OI. For the first few weeks (maybe even months) Lindsay and I wondered whether he would ever be able to some of the basic things every child should do.  Most importantly to us, would he ever be able to walk. There have been a lot of little miracles in his life already, but to us, this is a big one. He's walking.

For family night this week we took the kids to their first Drive-in movie. Since it was a double feature, the kids watched the first movie, and slept in the car during the second movie. It was a late night, but well worth it.

We spent last weekend at the Bench family cabin. The cabin was built by Lindsay's grandpa (not sure if it was her great grandpa or her great-great grandpa, someone in her family is going to have to remind me!), many years ago. It's a great place to gather with the family, and it still gets lots of use. Our kids love the cabin. They get to capture butterflies, caterpillers, and any other bugs they find, and, most importantly, play with their cousins. The trees are changing this time of year, and it was absolutely beautiful.

The "driveway"

Natey enjoying some watermelon

Foil dinners

Linds and Natey

The kids down by the nearly dry creek

Hailey, Blake, and cousin Embry

They played all day in their PJs

still playing...still in their PJs

Well, I missed July, and August, and now part of September, so here's a brief recap.

We had a lot of visitors in June and July. My sister Kim and her husband came and stayed with us for a couple of days. My brother Greg was in town visiting for a few days during the 4th of July week. A couple of weeks later, my Grandma Mills passed away, and Kim came back to town for the funeral. Grandma had been sick for a while, and had been ready to let go and see my grandpa, and the rest of her family. At the service I had a chance to talk to some of my extended family, and learn more about my grandma, and her life growing up. She really had a tough life, and it's amazing what she and my grandpa accomplished during their lives.

Finally, my sister Shelly was in town at the end of July with 5 of her 6 kids. It was so much fun to see my family so much, we usually only see each other once or twice a year. Most of them live in Colorado, and we try to go out there in the summer, but we weren't going to get out there this year, so it was great they all came to see us.

Hailey started kindergarten just a couple of weeks ago. She seems to really like it (although she did start the "I don't want to go to school today!" talk this morning, so that didn't take long!). She has a very good teacher, and is making friends.



Blake started his first year of preschool. His preschool is at the same school where Hailey goes to kindergarten, so it's nice that he gets a chance to get used to the school, although we're not convinced he's going to learn much based on what we've seen the first couple of weeks. That's mostly okay though, he still has a couple of years until kindergarten, and it's nice for him to get away from home and meet new kids.



Nathan is still getting faster and stronger. He's finally tall enough to climb stairs, so a few weeks ago he started really cruising up and down the stairs. Considering his brittle little bones, we are not so excited about the possibility of him falling down a flight of stairs, but he needs to figure it out, it's just scary for mom and dad. Along with the stairs, he likes climbing into or onto pretty much everything.



My little sister and her husband moved in with us at the beginning of August. They will be staying with us until April or so, when my sister finishes school.  She is getting her masters at the University of Utah in speech pathology, and he just finished up his bachelors at BYU, and is applying to graduate schools. The kids love having them around. Hailey begged Aunt Julie to do pedicures and facials every day for the first two weeks after they moved in, and Uncle Trent is basically a human jungle gym.

We're looking forward to the fall. The kids have already picked out their Halloween costumes, and we have close to a dozen pumpkins growing in the garden, ready for carving (we only planted a single pumpkin plant, thinking we'd get 2 or 3, but it has gotten out of control!).

June is a busy month in our family. First, we had Hailey's 5th birthday. Next, Lindsay turned the big 3-0, (I know I'm going to get in trouble for publishing that), and finally Natey just turned 1. Also, because it is an even month, that means we spent a couple of days at our favorite spot, the Shriner's Hospital, getting Natey's treatment. Which didn't exactly go well this month, but that's a story for another time. As if we weren't busy enough, we have had a nasty flu-like bug going around our house. We've had at least one ill person in our house for nearly the entire month so far. Miserable.

Back to the fun stuff, Hailey had a Rainbow themed birthday this year. She had a few friends over, Lindsay made a rainbow cake (rainbow both inside and out), rainbow ice cubes for the drinks, skittles as party favors, and well, lots of other rainbow things. We had the party in the backyard, and the kids played watergames for a couple of hours, and Hailey got lots of wonderful presents.



For Lindsay's birthday we took a day away and went to the Zermatt Resort in Midway. It was pretty fun, the entire place has a Swiss theme, we had delicious fondue and a steak dinner at the chop haus, and some really good pastries from the bakery they have on the property. We played a little tennis, threw some horseshoes, and even played some shuffleboard (that was a first, and I have to admit it was a pretty fun game). Anyway, a night away was very fun, (although Lindsay couldn't sleep in, and couldn't help worrying about whether Nate had kept his grandma up all night.) The kids of course had the time of their lives. They stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Bench. Hailey said it was the best, Grandma let them stay up late, and have ice cream before bed. Blake especially loved having cookies for breakfast. Grandma is so much cooler than us.

Natey's birthday was really just a pool party at Grandpa Brig and Grandma Gale's house. Linds went with a banana cake for this one (easily Natey's favorite food, he wakes up saying "nana? nana?" most mornings). A monkey theme went nicely with the banana cake. Natey loves water, whether it's the bath or the pool, he just loves it.


What a year he's had. We're so grateful for the progress he's made. The last couple of months he has been crawling everywhere, and is now pulling himself to a standing position, and as of yesterday, climbing up the stairs. Speaking of which, he snuck away from me while I was upstairs getting changed after work last night, and he tried to go down the stairs. When we heard him fall, and finally land at the bottom of the stairs on our hard wood floor, we thought for sure every bone in his body would be broken. After a few moments of Lindsay and I both trying to calm him down (while shaking uncontrollably ourselves), we could tell that he was scared, but not hurt. Really, when I think of how easily his arm broke when he was just a few weeks old, i realize what an absolute miracle it is that he wasn't seriously injured yesterday.



Just for good measure, here's a photo of Blakey at the chalk art festival this last week next to one of his favorite superheroes, the Green Lantern