Anne-ecdotes

Mom: No, you can't have a yogurt.

Anne: No, Mommy! You go ni-night and go to bed!

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After putting on her new dress up dress she went to model it for Brandon.

Brandon: Oh, look. You're a Southern belle.
Anne: Uh huh.

She then goes to show my dad.

Grandpa: Oh, I didn't even recognize you. Are you Little Bo Peep?

Anne: No, I Jingle Bells.

Marie-esque

Marie was watching Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue. At the end the father gives his daughter a hug and apologizes for not believing in her and her belief in fairies. He says something along the lines of, "I've doubted you for over a year."

Marie came up to me and said, "Mommy, we have a better daddy than that. Her daddy doubted her for over a year." Her eyes started to fill with tears.

I asked, "Are you crying?"

Marie nodded her head, "I'm happy crying because we have the best daddy in the whole world. He believes what we say and never doubts us."

Intussusception: PCMC: Enema and Surgery

We were brought into PCMC from the ambulance and went through the necessary motions (for insurance purposes, I'm sure) of meeting with an ER nurse and then doctor. While in the ER a phlebotomist started a new IV. This guy was amazing. It was very apparent that he had done this many times before. What took three nurses several tries the night before, he accomplished with one stick and no assistance in a matter of minutes. Amazing. I was grateful for his efficiency.

I've faced ultrasound machines several times in the past few years, each time because of the joy of a tiny new life forming inside of me. It was always with blessed relief and reassurance that I looked at the screen and saw the little pitter patter of the heartbeat. And then to hear it! No song in the world has ever filled my soul the way the sound of my babies heartbeat's did.

That dreadful October night when we faced the ultrasound machine again, for a very different reason, all I could pray for was an answer. The ultrasound tech was matter of fact and straight to the point. In a matter of seconds we would know, there was no gray area. Either there was an intussusception or there wasn't. (Which led me to wonder why that wasn't the first test they did back at Davis, but that is not worth dwelling on at this point.) 

 When he pointed at the screen and said, "And there is your intussusception," relief poured over me. We had an answer. Brandon and I squeezed each other's hands. We might have even been tempted to jump up in down in celebration, but we knew that this was only the middle of the journey. There was still a lot of road ahead of us.

 The next step was the air enema. An enema of air was to be given while x-rays were taken of the abdomen. The air is intended to create pressure that should then reduce the intussusception. We were warned that this would be uncomfortable for Samuel. Imagine feeling bloated and gassy. Mutliply that by a few thousand and that is probably what an air enema feels like. I was prepared for him to be uncomfortable. What I wasn't prepared for was to see my small, helpless child arch his back and scream in pain, completely red in the face. Keep in mind that up to this point, in the past 12 hours, he was completely lethargic. The tension in the room was thick. You could slice it. The radiologist, the nurses, Brandon, and I, we were all helpless to do anything besides watch this tiny life endure this painful procedure. I don't think anybody anticipated the pain it caused him. I want to start crying just thinking about it again. The doctor proceeded in spurts. A few seconds of air, several x-rays to track the progress, and then a break. There was a clock on the x-ray machine. I was shocked as I watched only seconds pass by, it felt like minutes, hours even. The radiologist was concerned and obviously frustrated as try after try didn't completely reduce the problem. After what was only 1 minute total procedure time (with the breaks in between) he stepped back and announced, "There is nothing more I can do." To continue would have sent Samuel's body into shock. He walked out of the room to go consult the surgery team.

Minutes later we met the surgery team, the procedure was explained to us, Samuel was laid on a gurney,  I gave him a great big tearful kiss, and he was off to surgery. They would first attempt the reduction laproscopically. If necrosis was found then they would have to cut into the abdomen to repair the bowels and reduce the intussusception. Best case scenario we were looking at a 48 hour recovery period, but it could possibly be up to 7 days. After they wheeled Samuel away we were brought to a waiting room and instructed to answer the phone if it rang, that is how they would update us on the progress of the surgery. We sat and talked and ate some of the food a sweet sister in our ward had brought down to us. About forty five minutes later the phone rang. Brandon answered it. After talking he hung up and looked at me with a smile on his face, 

"They aren't quite done with the surgery yet, but they were able to reduce it laproscopically, and his bowels look pink and healthy." 

Anne's first and second haircut

August 30th was the day. Marie had a friend over and they were downstairs happily playing. I heard Anne screaming, but didn't think much of it. If you spend a lot of time around Anne, you wouldn't think much of her screaming either.

When the girls came upstairs I looked at Anne and thought her hair looked especially choppy. She had never had a haircut before and I had it in my radar to take her to get it cut in the next day or two. I made a mental note that I really needed to take her in soon. Then she turned around. I gasped.

"Marie. Did you cut Anne's hair?"

"Yes. She wanted a hair cut."

I walked away. It was all I could trust myself to do.

I called Brandon. I texted my mom and friend. I posted on instagram. I cried. The more I looked at Anne's hair the more I realized how thorough of a job Marie did. On Anne's left side it was cut to above her ears. In the back it was choppy in length, the shortest layers being only about an inch long. I had no idea how any hair cut short of a buzz would fix this mess. 

I found all of the chopped off hair hidden behind Marie's bed. Marie was informed over and over again that if she ever took scissors to anyone's hair again she would get a hair cut as well. I cried some more and sympathized with mothers who have had to see their daughters lose their hair under much more dire circumstances. 

The next day I took Anne in to the nearest salon that had an available appointment. She wasn't about to hold still, unless she was in my lap, so Marie was the photographer.

She did about as good taking pictures as she did cutting Anne's hair.

We chopped and chopped and chopped. 

I wanted to just laugh at this point. Realizing that it would all grow back one day, I was figured I might as well just enjoy the humor of the situtation and the memory that this would provide.

The finally but was .... short.

Easy to do, that's for sure.

And thanks to a bit of gel and some slight wave in her hair, I could even make it look pretty cute.

And Marie is still be reminded that if she ever even thinks about cutting someone's hair ....

Meanwhile ...

I jumped some time to write about Samuel and yes, I know, I haven't finished. I will, but life happened before "the event" and life has happened since and, well, it was pretty good stuff.

Some highlights in August and September:

With nervousness and hesitance from all involved, William started first grade at his new school. His teacher is in our ward. In fact, her husband is the bishop. She is wonderfully kind and William has quickly made friends. It hasn't been as smooth of a transition as we would have liked, but it has been a learning, growing, and stretching experience for us. Any chance to better ourselves is a good one, right?

 After watching "Say Yes to the Dress" my girls asked if they could try on my wedding dress and veil. I obliged with the veil. Brandon said he would like several more years decades before he sees his baby girls looking anything at all like brides. I would have to wholeheartedly agree.

 Nearly three weeks after William started school, it was finally Marie's turn! Look at this sassy pants. What am I going to do with her?! She loves school and couldn't be happier to be able to sing, play, and create with her classmates and teacher. 

 Isn't this classroom just adorable? Whenever I drop Marie off I want to stay and play too!

Upon completion, the Brigham City temple hosted an open house so all who desired could see inside it's beautiful walls. Brandon and William attended with the youth in our ward. The camera did not go along for the ride. Marie, Samuel,  and I went a couple of weeks later. The camera decided to come this time. It was such a special moment with Marie. They used a lot of peach blossoms throughout the decor and she loved searching each room for them. A temple worker pulled her aside and pointed out to her that they were on all the doorknobs. She loved that! Her favorite part was the sparkly chandeliers in the celestial room.

And a quick Sunday photo shoot when we realized we were all ready to go and had a couple of extra minutes (It's a miracle!). I love seeing my family dressed up in their Sunday best. 

For Now

I haven't fully wrapped the entire picture storage issue around my head yet. I've been slightly preoccupied with cleaning up puke and, um, other stuff, from three of my four children.

In the meantime, I am using another one of my e-mail accounts to post because if I do that I can upload more pictures.

The best solution? I don't know.

But it works.

And for now, that will have to do.

Full?!

Um, when I try to upload pictures I am informed I've used up all my 1GB storage? Further research tells me that only some pictures (above a certain size) are put into said "storage." I am willing and able to do even further research to remedy this problem, as I have plenty to journal  and don't want to miss capturing these moments.

But I thought I would start by putting it out here.

Does anybody know what I need to do. I'd rather not pay for more storage space.