The Aquarium

On the way to Heber to see Thomas we stopped in Sandy at the Aquarium! Stets was excited to see the sharks. Most of my pics didn't turn out good due to the bad lighting and the NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY signs everywhere but we enjoyed the sights anyways.
I thought this octopus was the coolest thing EVER
Stets was mesmerized with all of the displays!

After the aquarium we headed to my favorite fish joint--McGrath's Fish House! All THREE of us tried raw oysters for the first time and what do ya know, Stetson liked them the most! Stetson kept saying he wanted to, "eat a Nemo fishie for dinner"... Poor Nemo!

This was one of the coolest displays and it wasn't even at the Aquarium...we ALSO hit Skylar's favorite fish joint--Cabela's. It was my first time there and I can ALMOST see why Skylar drools...

Skylar was as happy as a kid in a candy store and Stets got to ride his first (and hopefully only) moose

ALL ABOARD

Well we finally got away for a much needed miniature vacation last weekend. 24 hours wasn't long enough but we had so much fun and are so glad we went! We did a few fun things and I have WAY TOO MANY pictures, but I thought I would post our main attraction first because you all know how excited Stetson had been ALL WEEK for this to come-- so here is our long awaited ride on Thomas the Tank Engine...

As you walk in there are posters of all of the trains so you can take pictures by them. Stets chose Percy for his picture but as you can see he was too fascinated with Percy to look at the camera!

Here are me and Stets standing by the hay bale maze which I got ALL TOO familiar with because that was the ONLY way to the port-o-potty.

We saw this train as we were pulling in and Stets was so excited because he thought this was "Salty the train." It is the same color as Salty but unfortunately this train resides in Heber and not on Sodor island. We let Stets pick out one train at the gift shop before we left and he chose Salty.
FINALLY it was our turn to ride Thomas and here he came! We were only about the third family waiting in line out of about 400 people to ride Thomas at noon so we got to pick where we wanted to sit so luckily we weren't on anyone else's laps! Stets was waving at Thomas as he drove by...

You can see how they get so many people on at one time...this is only HALF of the train.

We found our seats that we wanted and just had to wait for everyone else to board before take off.

During the 30 minute ride, conductors walked up and down the train talking with all of the kids and posing for pictures. Stetson didn't say much to them but this guy stuck around anyway and kept talking and telling us some history info on Heber Valley. All of the crew members were nice and really good with the kiddos. Sometime between boarding and take off Stets HAD to change into his Thomas T-shirt we got him...

One of the conductors passed out these cute "Jr. Engineer" certificated to all of the kids. Stetson dragged it around ALL DAY afterwards. He was so PROUD of his, "Thomas paper." We had so much fun! The only downfall was that we didn't get any pictures with Sir Topham Hat AKA, "Sir Thomas with the hat". He was there but you had to pay $20 for a picture with him or to even talk to him and I thought that was a joke especially if the picture was of a screaming child. Why pay $20 for that?? So unfortunately we missed him all together BUT we did get a family picture of us all with Thomas that I will post later because I don't have it with me right now.

I am so glad that I have a loving family that loves nothing more than spending time together. I really hope as our children grow up that we will be able to do fun little things like this with all of them. I love you so much Stetson and had fun riding Thomas with my little man!

Vein update and potty training (or lack there of)

As you can see by the pictures--it is time for Stets to be potty trained!! That was the nasty pee diaper he woke up with today. Isn't it lovely that it is hanging out of his shorts? Yeah, I thought so....ugh. He is making progress and peeing in the potty now but whenever he has to poop he runs and hides behind the chair in our living room and it is VERY irritating. It's funny though because he used to poop in the potty but NEVER pee in it so maybe eventually the two will come together and we will be passed this hurdle in life.

In other news we saw a NEW vascular specialist for Stetson's leg two days ago and we received GOOD NEWS! He is NOT having surgery. The blood that is pooling in the vein has decreased in size and is only at a dangerous level IF it were in a major vein or artery but this is his lesser saphenous vein and it is OK! He can have the vericose vein fixed when he is older if he chooses to do so but all of the smaller ones around it will probably continue to grow with him and unfortunately most likely the discoloration will not fade with age. The Dr. said this type of hemangioma is very rare, but shouldn't cause problems so we are grateful for that!

Hopefully one day his wife will love his two purple toes and splotchy purple bum as much as I do!
Here he is waiting for the Dr. to come in. This was the third ultra sound Stets has had in two weeks on his leg and it is a ZOO every time trying to get him to hold still for 30-60 minutes but now it has all been worth it and we are glad the outcome was in our favor.
We love you Stetsie! DISCLAIMER: I did NOT buy this shirt and take no responsibility for any harsh reactions....if you want Skylar's number feel free to ask and you can take it all out on him.

Recent FUN in our lives

I have blogged about all the stressors in our lives right now and have left out lots of fun stuff so here it is. Nothing over the top crazy fun has happened but we've had our good times lately just hangin' out...

This cute chubby munchkin is our nephew Bridger. I took this picture when he came to play at our house for a couple of hours one night. He is hilarious with all the faces he makes.

Here is Stetson smothering Bridger last Sunday, or as Stets calls it, "giving him loves"! Bridger isn't too fond of all the loves Stets so freely hands out.
This chubby munchkin is the newest addition to our family, Solstice. Stetson couldn't remember her name for a few days so he just called her "Baby Lotion". So here is cute little baby Lotion and her two cute mommies. They came up here and stayed a couple of weeks ago. Skylar was still working in Vegas and he is really mad he missed them because he has not met Solstice yet and I told him how much he was missing out.
Here's Solstice loving Uncle Justin (Skylar's brother). I was just asked last week how my husband Justin was doing and as you can see he is doing fine...lol
Last but not least here is Solstice hanging out in her Bumbo. This was the best thing we had when Stets was this age. Babies just love them! Stetson thought it was a potty for babies and we caught him taking off all of this clothes one night so he could pee in it. Luckily we caught him before he actually did!
We get to see little Bridger lots because he lives close but unfortunately we won't see little Solstice again until August. We will miss you guys! We love all of our little nieces and nephews and after the three newest additions this last December and January, we now have 19 nieces and nephews together with both of our families and one in heaven too. We are so lucky to have such great families and lots of love to go around.

Poor kid!

We have had quite a day today! We went to Skylar's cousin Forrest's farewell this afternoon. He did such a good job talking in church and we are so proud of him for the choices he is making. We will miss you Elder but these next two years will be an amazing experience for you and we are so excited for you!!

About halfway during Sacrament meeting Stetson started saying his ear was hurting. At first I figured he was just trying to get out of church because we all know how much two year olds love Sacrament meeting. As the meeting went on he kept pulling on his ear and telling me he had "owies". As soon as church was out he seemed to snap out of it and was doing better so we drove to the missionary's house for the big family pot luck dinner we had been looking forward to all week. Skylar even made two pies for the dinner while I was at work last night and when I got home this morning at 6:30am Skylar was all ready and waiting for me to come home because he had forgotten one of the ingredients for the pies and had to run to Wal Mart for it. Now that's dedication!! So we went to the house and watched all of the yummy food being laid out on a table and as soon as the prayer was said to bless the food Stets was crying again and told me he WANTED to go to the Dr. That's when I knew without a doubt he had an ear infection so we jumped in the car and took off... and sure enough he does! His right eardrum is bulging but his left one looks good.

He is doing good now and you would never know this child running around and playing is sick but hopefully he will get better soon....and by the way family....we ate COLD Taco Bell food for lunch after all that...it just wasn't the same...

Mother's Day

Since I am back on my feet I wanted to tell you how wonderful our Mother's Day was this year! First of all, the best gift I received was my husband coming home! He had been working in Las Vegas for for almost a month and as you heard, it was a stressful time at our house while he was gone and we definitely missed him more than he will ever know!He got home Friday night/Saturday morning about 2am and unfortunately I was working so I didn't see him until the next morning but Stets woke right up when Skylar picked him up from Amy's house and they stayed up talking until 4am!! The next day we headed to Health Days to see the festivities. Unfortunately sleep deprivation caused us to miss the parade but the fair was fun.
Stets had a good time on the slides and all of the other blow-up toys. After this we headed to Sizzler for a nice dinner since it had obviously been a while and guess what? Stets fell asleep on the way there and slept through the ENTIRE dinner....it was nice.

The next day was Mother's Day! These are the hot pink pumps we got Skylar's mom. She loved them!! Stets was "helping" her open all of her gifts because he was so excited.Then we went to see my parents. Me and my sister got my mom a massage for Mother's Day from a lady that goes into your home and does them. Enjoy that hour and a half mom!

Here's Brinkley, Brendon, and Stetson posing with Grandma JT

Cute little Brendon got stuck being in all of the pics...but with cheeks like those, who can blame me?
Last but not least two days later was my surgery. I am doing really good now but I wanted to share these cute pics...first of all we have Stetson who LOVES the COOL socks I brought home for him! He tells everyone that his mommy bought them for him...haha. Also, I can't forget the flowers from my boys. Skylar bought the white ones at the hospital that day and had them waiting in my room for me when I got back and the tulip is from Stetson. He decided to pluck one from the yard for me since he knew I "had big owies". He also plucked another one for me today to add to the vase. He is such a sweet kid. He woke up with a fever on the day of my surgery and was VERY sick for a few days afterwards. Today is the first day he has really felt better. Thanks to everyone who called and offered to help with Stets while I was down. We would have taken you up on your offers if we wouldn't have been so sick!!

If you are STILL reading this novel of a post...this is Stetson leaving my mom's house last Sunday with a bag of peas and a bag of rolls...he wanted to make sure JT shared the leftovers with him! He ended up eating three rolls before we even left their house. I can't believe how much he eats some days.

All things considered we are doing fine

My mom sent out an e-mail to my side of the family yesterday letting everyone know how my surgery went. I figured the fastest way to let other family and friends know was to just copy and paste that e-mail here because quite frankly I don't feel good enough to do much else so here you go...

For those of you that don't know, Chelsey had her laparoscopy this morning since she has experienced so much pain recently. As expected they found a lot of endometriosis and scraped that out. There was also some blood backed up in her uterus which they were able to remove. Her right ovary was pulled down by some scar tissue and while the ovary remains healthy they removed the scar tissue. The uterus and both ovaries look healthy now. This should keep things cleaned out pretty good at least for a year or two. The doctor recommended to have a baby in the next year or two since things might start to build up again:). Not sure how that fits in with Chelsey's school plans but we will leave that part up to her!

Just thought I'd let everyone know. She will be going home (under the influence of drugs) in a couple of hours.

Love
JT

Funny People

When I posted those pics of the towel rack I made out of the door knobs it made me remember something funny someone asked me the other day and I thought I would share it because it is the SECOND time I have been asked that in the last couple of weeks...

DID WE REMODEL THE HOUSE THAT BURNED DOWN ON OUR LOT A FEW YEARS BACK?

For people who never saw that house, they wouldn't know that we hauled everything away and built from scratch...but when someone asked me that who lives CLOSE TO HERE and should have SEEN the construction going on for over a year....I just had to laugh. This person knows that I love them...

I don't think even Ty Pennington could have rescued this disaster!

Good News!!

We got some good news this afternoon--Stets does NOT have to have surgery right away. We are going to continue seeing the specialist every two months and monitor the problematic vein BUT he thinks we can hold off on surgery until Stets is about 5 yrs old. I am going to seek a second opinion obviously so I will update you when I know more about that hopefully soon!

IF ANYONE HAS A GOOD PEDIATRIC VEIN SPECIALIST TO RECOMMEND PLEASE DO SO!!
Sorry the pic of Stetson's leg is kind of blurry but what can I say but he doesn't hold still when I want him to! I know it's not 3D so you obviously can't see the vein that is bulging out from the side but it's the best picture I could get today and the bad vein is the one on the left side that kind of looks like it is rippling.

Now to some happier news! I finally finished this towel rack that I started over a week ago.
These door knobs were really used in the house that used to stand on our lot where we built. That house burned down about four years ago now...and Skylar saved these when we wrecked down what was left of that house.
Berkley is recovering good since she was spayed two days ago. Getting her to take her pills is MUCH worse than getting Stetson to take any. See the cloudy water she is drinking? Yeah, it is antibiotic enhanced H2O!
We went outside and played for a bit tonight when things calmed down. Berk can't do much but she enjoyed the fresh air.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

When Life Gives You Lemons--Make Some Lemonade!! It seems like life has been pretty hectic around here lately. Luckily, finals are over now and I am happy with my grades!! I am taking a couple things this summer but it will be more laid back so that I have some time to enjoy the sunshine too. I can't wait!

However, we have a couple things to get through until before we can be too carefree this summer. I am having a laparoscopy for my endometriosis a week from tomorrow. It's just an in and out surgery that hopefully won't put me down for too long so I haven't been stressing about it too much yet. I have put it off for a while, but it is definitely to the point where I need to get it taken care of again. I tried the Lupron treatment when I was 18 years old and that worked really good. When I had my c-section with Stetson they also cleaned out all that they could find but it's been two and a half years since then and it is time to take care of it again. So that is what we are looking at for next week...

Now for the following week, we found out today that Stetson is getting surgery. I took him into his vein Dr. this morning because he has had a bruise on the back of his leg for almost a week and it started to make a little bump that stuck out off of his leg and it worried me. They did an ultrasound of his leg again and he has a vein that isn't working right, and the little bump on his leg is his blood pooling because the valves aren't working in that specific vein. I know this ultrasound picture is hard to understand but you can see the little pool of blood and it measures a centimeter in diameter. A centimeter doesn't sound like much, but I guess in an adult that's a problem so for a small child it is definitely not good and needs to be fixed very soon. They are just going to tie off the vein from both ends which is something that would be done in the office for an adult but since Stets is so small, they will be doing it at the hospital under anesthesia. I don't have any details on the day and I should know more after out next appointment at the hospital on Wednesday. Luckily, his surgery is also an in and out and should be minimally invasive and the Dr. thinks Stets will be up and running around 6 hours after the procedure so we will keep our fingers crossed that everything does ok!

After the Dr. appointment, Stetson was promised a prize IF he was good. He freaked out at first but then he thought the ultrasound was really cool and he relaxed after that and did pretty good. He passed out in the car after our trip to Wal Mart where grandma JT bought him these two Thomas Trains and mommy got him an Elmo DVD....spoiled I know, but the poor kid has NO idea what lies ahead of him. Berkley wasn't with us at the Dr. but when we dropped my mom off at home, we picked up Berk and headed to HER DR APPOINTMENT where she is staying the night to get spayed. At least now everyone is taken care of and I am exhausted already and the night is still young!!