Happy, Joyful, Excited . . .

I am just so happy today! I think it's a culmination of a few different things:

1. It is getting warmer outside which means that we aren't cooped up in our little place as much. Definitely a YAY!
2. I am SO excited about our summer trips to two of my most FAVORITE FAVORITE FAVORITE places in the entire universe: Lake Powell and California.

Lake Powell is with my fam and it'll be fun to see Tanner play in the water and sand all day long. That is like paradise for him.
And California is where Eli and I spent the first three months of our marriage. We lived in Orange right next door to Ari and Christian and just had so many fun adventures while we lived there. And we went to the beach A LOT! This time we will be staying with Ari and Christian in San Diego and I'm excited to see them and explore that area. What I'm most excited for about that trip is the length (like 10 days I think), much needed time with Eli's family, the BEACH, and a day at Disneyland for free! We did the Give a day Get a day program through Disneyland and volunteered with the Special Olympics so now we have a free day at the Happiest Place on Earth and that makes me ECSTATIC! I am listening to the music from the fireworks show this very second and I can hardly wait to get into that wonderful place! I get so giddy when I walk down Main Street in Disneyland and I hope Tanner will be excited, too! He's learning some of the Disney characters through pictures and books and his favorite is Mickey so far ("Mi Mi" he says). I was at a friend's house the other day whose son has a Mickey doll and Tanner would not put him down. He kept hugging him and taking him everywhere around the house, even getting him smeared with dirt (sorry!)These vacations need to come soon because I can't wait any longer!!!!

3. This amazing lady spoke at our ward Relief Society dinner last night:
Kristen Oaks was single until her 50's and then married Elder Oaks and she is just the most optimistic, kind, and loving lady. Her talk was informal because it was just a room full of about 40 ladies. It was very touching and I soaked up every little thing she said. The message that spoke to my heart the most is the fact that we (human beings) have an obligation to love on another. I had been thinking about that a lot prior to this dinner and what she said just pieced together everything I had been thinking about. And how do we love each other? We become friends with people, we learn about them and find out what their needs are. We say and do kind things for them. We live by the Spirit so that we can know how to love and serve others better. It was an amazing talk and just made me feel so happy!

4. I am loving our ward here. The dinner last night was in a beautiful mansion on South Temple, a couple of blocks from our little place. It was a great setting to chat with the women in my ward. I'm excited to spend more time with them!

5. General Conference is coming in less than 2 weeks! This brings SO much joy to my soul!!

Transitions...

This is a transition year for most of our family members. We've moved 9 times since getting married so we definitely know that moving is exciting because you get to explore a new place but it's also hard because you're leaving a life that you built behind. Our hearts are with our sibbies (and sibbies-in-law) that are packing up (some on their own, some with moving companies which we are totally jealous about) and heading to a new adventure! From earliest to latest, here's where they are goin:

Kristie is taking a break from snowy cold weather in Colorado and is headed to the desert in Phoenix where she is going to be working at the Arthritis Foundation. She is on her way right this very second!
Andy graduated from Ranger School (BIG Hooray! It was quite an accomplishment!) and he and Paige are headed for Germany. The army base is in Baumholder, a little city an hour east of Luxembourg. They leave tomorrow!
Ari and Christian are headed south to San Diego. They have been living in Irvine, CA so they will still be Californians. We're excited to take a family vaca to visit them there!
Doug is graduating from the University of Arizona with his PhD in Planetary Science (he is too smart, seriously) in May and has taken a job with NASA in Texas. So he, Dana, and little Wes are moving to Houston! Pretty soon they're going to be hanging Texas flags EVERYWHERE!
And then Eli, Tan, and I are moving at the end of July! We still don't know where we're going for sure yet, but hopefully we'll know within the next month. Eli's waiting to hear from the University of Colorado at the end of this month. In the meantime, we are weighing the pros and cons of living in little Burlington, VT...... or metropolitan Norfolk, VA.
So different but both good places!

Happy Moving Everybody!!!

The big surgery day!

Friday, March 5, 2010 - Tanner's hypospadias surgery (Here's a link for info about the surgery if you didn't see the blog prior to his surgery: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003000.htm)

Tanner woke up later than usual (he woke up screaming in the middle of the night and needed to lay with us for a while - I wonder if he sensed something was coming?) and ate a breakfast of jello and apple juice. He couldn't eat normal food but it didn't seem to bother the little guy! He even had time to play at home before we left.

We drove a mile up the street through the snow to Primary Children's Hospital. I had taken Tan there the day before to walk around so that he would be comfortable on the day of his surgery. He remembered these giant moving fish and loved watching them. The hospital was so welcoming for kids!

I love how he is looking at me through the glass in this picture!

We checked in at same-day surgery and waited while Tan played with all the toys. This was the last time he could play on a straddle toy for a while!

Getting his ID anklet on - he's a little concerned about what the girl is doing to him!

He walked into the hall and found a "parking lot" for these toy cars so of course he pushed one up and down the hall.

He started to get tired and hungry while we waited and started yelling at the simplest things.

Weight: 23.1 pounds

Height: 29 1.2 inches

Head circumference (I don't remember!)

Getting his blood pressure taken on his ankle

All dressed in his cute little hospital outfit! Doesn't he just look darling?! Checking his vitals

Proud of the munchkie! He didn't cry or fuss at all during his physical exam!

Never seen one of these toys!

The nurse gave him Versed through a nasal spray. This drug is the "date rape" drug (the same one I had when I delivered Tan). It made him relax and forget what was going on so leaving us to go back to surgery wasn't hard. This was the only time he cried because he didn't like the nasal spray!

Within 2 minutes MAX, he lost his scowly face and got a goofy look on his face. The videos below kind of capture it, but it was hilarious to watch! He was giggling at everything and was just so loopy. I'm so glad he got that medicine because it made the transition to surgery SO much easier!!! He would have freaked out when he left us if he hadn't gotten it!

After putting him in the wagon (that's how all the child patients at the hospital are wheeled around - so cute!) and walking down the hall with him for a minute, the anesthesiologist took him through the surgery doors and we were left to wait.

I cried a little right after she took him through the doors but knew that he was in good hands. I really liked the doctor and anesthesiologist! We waited and chatted in the waiting room and ate lunch in the cafeteria. After 2 hours, Dr. Wallis came to talk to us. The surgery went great! He also spent some time talking to Eli about medical school and tried to give some advice about how to choose a school - such a nice guy!

I headed back to the post-op room where Tan was just barely waking up. A nurse was holding him and all he was wearing was a diaper. He definitely looked pale and he had an IV in his foot, but other than that, he looked good! He heard me and groggily reached for me and was asleep within 2 seconds of me holding him. We had a nice little cuddle for a while which is more than I can say for the mom and her screaming child next door (poor mom - I bet she was stressed out about how to calm her son down after surgery).

We moved to the recovery room where Eli joined us. Tan was more awake now and wanting to walk around. It frustrated him that he couldn't move because of his foot IV and because he had to have an oxygen mask in his face. His oxygen levels didn't go up for a while so we had to secretly sneak the mask next to his face while he was looking at books.

When we were finally allowed to go, Tanner tried to walk around and was super tipsy. He was so confused about why he couldn't walk! So the nurse pushed him around on her chair. He kept staring into space like he was stoned and we just kept laughing!

All ready to go home! It's like drive thru surgery!

The surgery hasn't slowed Tan down that much. He still plays and walks around, and keeps his same sleeping and eating schedule. He even sleeps all night! Sometimes we forget that he just had surgery! But we need him to help him recover so we have been reading lots of books and watching lots of movies to make sure that he rests his body.

The worst parts of his recovery have been diaper changes (painful for Tan), random bladder spasms (ouch!), and giving him 3 different medicines multiple times a day. But he is healing and is just as happy as can be besides those 3 things. Overall, the whole surgery experience went really well and Tanner reacted superbly to everything!

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes! We are so grateful that everything went smoothly!

Here's a video of Tan in the recovery room:

Here's a video of him looking "stoned" in the chair

YESSSSSSSSSSS!

I had two Napoleon Dynamite YESSSSSSSS moments today:

1. Tanner is w-e-a-n-e-d. That's right folks! After 14 1/2 months of nursing, I finally decided to wean the little crazy guy. I would have kept going but my milk supply started diminishing drastically recently and my metabolism slowed down to it's pre-pregnancy rate (which means that I actually have to work out now and start eating less. DARN! I loved the almost 2 years of eating lots and not exercising.) So since nursing wasn't making me thin anymore and Tan is so squirmy when he nurses, I just called it quits, cold-turkey style. The YESSSS moment is that he is actually drinking full bottles of whole milk - I don't even have to sneak some breastmilk or formula in there like I've had to do before. I am super glad that I got so many good months to bond with Tan while he nursed because I would have been really sad had my milk supply dried out sooner.
2. We went to Great Harvest today, which is the absolute BEST bread store in the universe. I LOVE IT!!!! (Yep Celeste, I still buy it! I remember our conversation during college about spending money on a gym membership instead of pricey bread. Nothing compares!)Not only do I like it because it brings back good memories of getting cinnamon sticks after YW basketball games and many other yummy things supplied by GH in our house growing up, but the bread really is just SOOOOO good. It is moist and thick and MMMMM, my mouth is watering just writing about it. We have always lived near a Great Harvest except in Payson and Baltimore and oh how I missed it! Want to know what my favorite part of GH is? The free samples when I buy a loaf. In Provo the samples were teeny tiny and made me wonder if it was even worth shopping there anymore. But in Salt Lake, they are H-U-G-E!!! It definitely makes it worth my time and money to get a sample of some bread of my choice. Mmmm mmmm good! Since a loaf is kinda pricey, I switch off getting loaves from there and the grocery store to validate spending that much on bread. If you haven't been there, go to there website and find out if there is a store near you. I'm tellin' ya, you won't be disappointed! Amazingly good bread = YESSSSSSSSSS!

Tomorrow is Tan's big surgery - Yikes! I know things will be just fine and I'm really not that worried, I'm just a little nervous for my little one year old to be put to sleep for 2 hours with anesthesia. Hopefully his body reacts okay to it. Tan's biggest problem will be the fact that he can't eat anything except apple juice and water from midnight - 9:00am. And then he can't eat anything until his surgery at 12:15pm. That means he will miss his morning bottle, a big breakfast, a snack, and lunch. We might have one grouchy kid on our hands! Wish us luck!!

To end this post, I have to share a way cute Tanner moment. Tanner has become very attached to Eli recently, enough that he asks for him ALL day and even waited by the door for him to come home yesterday (thankfully he showed up within a few minutes because Tan would have been so sad if he didn't come through that door soon). And he already is really attached to me (he had major separation anxiety back in December). Anyways, last night after Eli read him a story before bed, I took him and started giving him his bottle. Eli left and Tanner freaked out. So then Eli held him and tried to give him the bottle. I left and he freaked out. We tried to switch multiple times and he just didn't like when the other parent left the room. So with the lights off, Eli hugged Tan to his chest while sitting on the rocking chair and I knelt down in front of them and hugged them both. Tan put one arm around my shoulder and the other around Eli's. He put his head on Eli's chest and his face right up next to mine. We hugged and rocked like that for probably 10 minutes. It was so sweet and I definitely cried! It made me stop and think about how grateful I am for my little family and what a blessing my boys are in my life. I love them mucho mucho mucho!

These waffles are from V-day but you're feelin' the love, right?!

Under the Knife

This little crazy guy:

Is going here on Friday morning:

For his hypospadias surgery:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003000.htm

I'm so glad it's an outpatient surgery so that I can take care of my little munchkin at home afterwards. I'm looking forward to getting this over with because we have known since the day he was born that he would need this surgery. I'm not looking forward to seeing him get put to sleep with the anesthesia and wake up afterwards wondering what happened to him. Poor little guy! He just won't understand what is going on and that will be hard for all of us.

When we get home, Tan gets to eat all of his favorite things (including chocolate!) and watch lots of Baby Einstein and Mormon Tabernacle Choir (his favorite for some reason) and do lots of cuddling with Eli and I on the couch. We'll keep you posted on how the surgery and recovery goes!