Post Surgery Photos

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. I'm finally making time to do it. Here are some photos from after Garrett's surgery while he was in the hospital. I have to say their playroom they have there is awesome and was a life saver! They had so many different things for kids to do. From toys, to art projects, to video games, to piano playing, etc. I will post a couple of more slide shows of our Christmas, so be looking for them in the next day or so. By the way, Garrett is doing great in his recovery since he's been home. He was on oxygen until the 17th. That was a real pain so we were very happy to get rid of that. He's running around and talking up a storm. It's now been just about 4 weeks since the surgery. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support!

Daddy's homecoming and Garrett's surgery

Well, Curtis made it home safe and sound this past Sunday evening. He had some flight changes and went to San Francisco instead of Chicago but his luggage was still sent to Chicago. The airlines had it shipped to Boise and delivered it to our door in the middle of the night. Anyhow, the next day we took off to Utah to get Garrett's surgery done. Tuesday was all of Garrett's pre op appointments and Curtis was kind enough to take him to all of that while I rested at the condo with Nikki and Jack. That evening we went to my aunt's house where she made us some delicious dinner of enchiladas and other great foods as well. Not to mention one of my new favorite flavors of ice cream, mint cookies n cream. Yum!! Then on Wednesday we kinda relaxed during the day and then Curtis took Garrett to a pre surgery class. After they got back we decided to do something fun with the kids since it was the night before surgery and took them to the Mayan restaurant in Sandy, UT. I do have to say the only reason we went there was the atmosphere and the diving show for the kids to enjoy. The food was not that great. I especially did not like their refried beans. Great restaurant for entertainment but not for food.

Day of surgery came and Garrett was all smiles from the time he woke up, which was around 5:30am until we parted with him 2 hrs later. He was so happy to play with toys in each waiting room and was having such a good time he didn't even ask for food or drink once. For surgery they have to be fasting. He happily let the nurse take his vital signs and enjoyed putting on his hospital clothes. My favorite part was when the anesthesiologist was pulling him away in the wagon towards the operating room he waved and yelled "Bye Mom! Bye Dad!" with a smile on his face. That made the day so much easier for me. I was also able to go back to the condo to take a nap with Jack during the surgery (the surgery was 5-6 hrs in length) also. The surgery went very well. He was in the ICU for 2 days and is now in the Children's Surgical Unit in his own room. I actually had a more difficult day yesterday because we couldn't take Jack into the ICU so we had to take turns. But now that he's in his own room Jack is allowed in and we can all be in there together. Garrett is doing well and is slowly starting to eat and drink. He hasn't been very happy though and not wanting to do much but sleep. The nurse recently gave him some medicine to help with pain on his sides and he's taking a nap. So hopefully when he wakes up he'll be a little happier. That's the update for now. Here are some pictures from this week.

It took a little while but Jack finally warmed up to his Daddy the night he came home. At least he didn't cry the first time Daddy held him.

Daddy giving the kids a ride to bed. Can you tell they missed him?

This is at the Mayan restaurant.

Jack and Daddy at the Mayan restaurant.

This is what they had outside the Mayan restaurant. This restaurant looks really cool. Great decorations and surroundings.

I think Nikki is trying to be a snake charmer.

This is Garrett when we were riding up the elevator the morning of surgery.

He didn't waste any time finding the toys.

Now Jack is joining the fun.

The nurse was taking his temperature and showing him what it said.

Surprisingly Garrett actually wanted that blood pressure thing on his arm.

Now he has his hospital clothes on.

This is him being wheeled away by the anesthesiologist. As he was rounding the corner and going through the double doors he yelled out "Bye Mom! Bye Dad!" with a smile on his face and was having a good time.

And this is after surgery. Every once in awhile he would raise one arm, even while he was sleeping. He looks like he wants to ask a question.

This is the first time he opened his eyes for me. Obviously not smiling now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday Nikki had a Thanksgiving party at school. They made Indian hats, place mats, and turkey cookies. After seeing how cute her cookies turned out I decided that we could make some more and take them to Grandma's for a dessert item for Thanksgiving dinner.

On the way home from school yesterday Nikki said this was the best day of her life but you can't tell by the look on her face in this picture, lol.

Nikki made this place mat at school. It's even laminated.

Getting our supplies ready.

Let's make turkey cookies!

The finished turkies :)

Miracles Do Happen

My Monday started off great and here is why...

Nikki's room was a big mess last night when we went to bed and this morning she decided to clean it all by herself before eating breakfast. She was the last to get up so the boys and I were in the kitchen eating our breakfast. I heard some noise but I thought she might have been watching TV. When I called to her and asked what she was doing, she said she was cleaning her room. And sure enough she was. I think our little talk we had last night worked. I asked her if she liked having a messy room. She said "yeah" playfully. Then I said "Do you think Jesus likes your room messy?" She said "No". "How would Jesus like your room to look?". She says "clean". And then I said "we should do what Jesus wants us to do". Then she replies "yeah". ( I don't remember the exact words of the conversation but it was something like that.)

This morning after she cleaned it, she then wanted to vacuum it. So of course I let her. When she was all done she said "now the spirit can be in my room". Of course that made me very happy and I told her repeatedly how impressed I was and how happy it was making me, etc. etc. to encourage her. These are the moments when I finally feel like I'm doing something right. I also went visiting teaching this morning and had a good time so today has been a really good Monday!

I Spy A Tooth!

Life has been so busy lately I haven't had time to blog since last week. My thoughts have been preoccupied with getting applications turned in for financial assistance, trying to find out if Curtis's insurance will cover Garrett's surgery for sure or not, getting ready for the surgery, trying to get Christmas done before Curtis comes home in a week(which I don't think is going to happen at this point) and Thanksgiving coming up this week! That's a mouthful. Speaking of mouthful, I discovered yesterday morning that Jack is finally getting his first tooth! I tried to take a picture but it's hard to see right now. It's his lower front left tooth. Nikki was about the same age when she got her first tooth.

If you click on the picture and bring it up to a bigger size you can kind of see it.

Earlier this week Nikki got out her dress up and was dancing around. Garrett then tried to get me to help him put a dress on. Don't worry Curtis, I refused to do it. So I remembered that when I was a kid we used to use blankets or sheets to fly around with. I found this pillowcase in the closet and pinned it around his neck to make a cape. He was very happy with it and wore it all day!

A few days later Nikki decides she wants a cape also. So I found another pillowcase and they both flew around the house like super heroes. They even went out on the swings so their capes could fly in the air. Oh, and they both had one of my big hair clip claw things on their arms. They have worn these before as a super hero thing.

This was funny. I was going to take a video of her and had it on camera instead and so this is the pose I got as she was taking off to fly around. It's also funny that I don't mind that Nikki does things boys do but I don't want Garrett doing girly things, lol. Guess that comes from me being a tom boy when I was a kid.

Bath time pictures are so cute and I loved the look on Jack's face. I just had to post it.

And this picture I thought was just as cute. I love my boys!

Potty Time!

I was finally able to get Garrett to go on the potty yesterday! Of course, I haven't really been trying that hard. It started out earlier in the day when it looked like he might be pushing something out so I asked him if he wanted to go on the potty. He wasn't really sure. At first I put him on the toilet the way it was but then remembered we had a Sesame Street potty training seat under the sink that also has an attachment for boys. He seemed to really like sitting on the potty seat. But that first time he didn't end up getting anything out. I just figured it's one of the first steps to get them interested.

Later on after dinner I was doing some laundry and he was standing next to me and all of a sudden I heard him doing some pushing again. So I asked him again, do you want to go on the potty? At first he shook his head no but I asked him a couple more times and then ran him to the bathroom anyway. Luckily, nothing came out yet and I was able to get him on there without any messes. I just kept telling him to keep pushing and get it out and he finally did. He was so excited about it that he didn't want to get off. He kept saying he wanted to pee. So I let him sit on there for awhile and then cleaned him up. And of course he was excited to flush the toilet when he was all done. After washing his hands and calling Grandma to tell her the good news I let him have a piece of candy for going on the potty. Good job Garrett! I hope he can keep it up but I'm not too worried if he doesn't yet, especially with his surgery coming up soon. It was very exciting for all of us though.

(And yes, I did take a picture and even though it doesn't show anything I decided not to post it just in case some people might get offended or whatever. The only thing you see are his legs, lol. It was a very cute picture though with a big smile on Garrett's face.)

No More Duck Tail

After about 2 months of saying "Garrett needs a hair cut" I finally did it this morning. I was going to have my brother help me do it but decided I would go ahead and try it myself. His hair has been growing out since February. That's 9 months!


All smiles. He was such a good boy again for his 2nd hair cut ever.

His long hairs are all combed out and ready to cut. I love his facial expression.

There's that curly little duck tail I've been wanting to chop off.

Proof that I was the one cutting his hair. We were both still in our pajamas. And yes, those are Curtis' pj bottoms I'm wearing, hehe :)

A little shorter on top than I wanted but still looks good I think. I was originally going to layer it like I do Curtis' hair but the longest length on the cutters was plenty short for all his hair. So it's all the same length.

Ahhh, no more duck tail.

There's all the hair we cut off.

After getting bathed and dressed. He loves that Buzz Gma Verne! Oh, and and the toy too, lol. Sorry, couldn't help myself.

While Nikki was watching me cut Garrett's hair she got excited and wanted to get her hair cut. I told her I've never done girl's hair so we might want to wait and have someone do it that knows what they are doing. I have still never touched her hair with a pair of scissors, not even to trim. And she'll be 6 years old in January! Part of me wants to cut it but I love her long beautiful hair so I'm having a hard time deciding when to get her first hair cut.

Halloween in Iraq

Curtis had some Halloween fun, even in Iraq.

Halloween 2009

So our Halloween festivities started off on Friday night at my brother's house where we shared some yummy food and had 4 different movies going. That's right, 4 movies all in different rooms. There was "Charade", "The Village", "Harry Potter", and "A Heffalump Halloween" (I think). We brought the Halloween decorated brownies and everything was very yummy. We had plenty of family there, even a couple of cousins from my mom's side of the family came. It was great!

Then on Saturday we had our ward trunk or treat at the church in the afternoon. They had a potato bar first and then went outside for the trunk or treat. By the time we went outside it started to rain. So it didn't take long for all of us to quickly make our rounds and head back inside for awhile. They were pretty much finished by then and so we headed over to my in-laws to show our costumes. I felt bad for not seeing them last year so I made sure we made it over there this time. Unfortunately my father in law was not feeling well. It was nice though to have my mother in law take some pictures of all of us in our costumes. I might not have been in a picture otherwise. Anyway, after hanging out there for awhile and getting some goodies we drove back home, stopping by Jack in the Box on the way. After eating dinner we raced over to my sister's house where her kids were anxiously wanting to start trick or treating. I barely had time to set my bags down inside and slip my costume back on before we were off. After the first few houses we discovered that Garrett was going to have a hard time keeping up. So my brother in law took Jack back to the house so Garrett could get a ride in the stroller. I didn't keep my costume on very long though because it kept getting in the way. So I took it off and traded for my jacket. I'm glad we had the stroller to carry things.

The kids had lots of fun and got a ton of candy. I think they had a good Halloween but next year it will be so much better when Daddy is here to enjoy it with us.

NICU Grad Party

Last night was the annual NICU grad party and the kids had a lot of fun again this year. It was very busy and a little crazy at times but it turned out to be a good time.


This is the photo they took at the party. I had to scan it into the computer. I can't believe how good Nikki and Garrett are smiling. And all 3 of them were looking at the camera! I love this picture!

Yay, they get to color on the wall! Okay, not really...just the paper that was taped to the wall :)

Time for some fishing!

Our little ghost had a ghost painted on her face.

Jack having lots of fun sucking on whatever he can find. And he loves that his grandma is holding him.

They decorated their own cookies and Nikki is loving hers, except you can't tell by the look on her face in this picture.

Everybody loves a slinky! Garrett had fun decorating the cookie but he didn't want it so Gma Laverne and Mommy shared it.


So we came home with a few little toys, candy, a bike helmet & t-shirt for Garrett, and a first aid kit. That's right, they had a raffle and I was the first winner of the night and won a first aid kit. I think it will go great in one of our 72 hr kits at least. I was happy to win something but a little disappointed that I didn't win something better like Roaring Springs passes, Anniversary Inn, Scentsy products, train ride, etc. etc. But at least I won something.