I finally got it!!!

Okay. So I've been mentioning a lot on my blog lately about how cute Luke says things, in particular his own name (he calls himself Hoot). Well I finally got a video of it!!

We were looking at pictures on the computer and he was saying everyones name including his own. So I grabbed the camera and started recording it. Of course he was sitting on my lap so it's not the greatest shot to look at but it's so cute to hear him talk that I have to share!!

The first part he decided to be a punk and kept saying the wrong name but after that I got him saying the right names. Enjoy!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Surgery went well

I am so behind but I'm trying to slowly catch up. So here is what I should have posted two weeks ago.

I had surgery almost two weeks (Thursday, October 9th) ago to repair a hernia I've had since I was pregnant with Cameryn. It was no big deal and went really well. I actually had is scheduled back in May but with all my thyroid stuff that started happening around the same time (just in case you want to reminisce with me about all those issues they are here, here and here) I had to cancel the surgery. As it turns out, thyroid issues like the one I was having are bad and would react badly with the anesthesia and I could die or something. Though, if I hadn't had everything figured out with my regular doctor and if I had still showed up the day of my surgery with my heart rate all out of control like it was, they wouldn't have done the surgery anyways... so that was really good to know.

This time I also scheduled it way in advance so I could have the first scheduled surgery of the day. Last time it wasn't supposed to be until 4:30 pm and I was supposed to be fasting since midnight... no thank you!! I had to be at the hospital at 6:30 am and my surgery was scheduled for 8:30. I was right on time too. They wheeled me into the OR and the clock said 8:29. Does anyone know why it has to be so FREAKING cold in the surgery area and especially in the ORs?

The surgery took about 2 hours and I woke up about an hour after that. Though it took awhile to fully wake up. There was a clock right in my eye sight that I would see every time I opened my eyes and each time I looked at it, it was like 10, 15, or 20 minutes ahead from the last time I looked. And here I thought I was just blinking. My mouth was so dry and my throat hurt from the tube they have to put in you to help you breath while your under. Then the nurse said I couldn't have anything to drink (meaning I couldn't have any pain meds either) until I could move over to this reclining chair they brought in. So I sucked on ice cubes for awhile until it just wasn't enough then had the nurse and Mike help me over to the chair. Man, that hurt so bad.

Finally they gave me some graham crackers and some juice which I sucked down quickly and kept asking for more. I finally got dressed and they wheeled me out to go home around 2:00. The main area that hurt was where the hernia site was. I had laprascopic surgery so I only had three small incisions on my stomach (though the one straight through my belly button does hurt pretty bad). The only other thing that hurt was the fact that they have to kind of pump your stomach with some gas so they can move around with their instruments better. Well, they get out as much of it as they can but you're still left all bloated and fat. Plus the gas would get up into my right shoulder somehow and HURT!!!!! That was the worst part though, feeling like I had an air bubble in there. My mom's wonderful shoulder massages really helped though.

I had so much help from friends in this Mom's Club that I only joined about 4 weeks ago and people from church watching my kids for me. It was so nice and I got alot of rest that way. Plus the kids got to play with friends and they had a ball. I'm so grateful for those people that helped and are still helping me out. My mom came over and cleaned a lot of my house for me on the Friday after and the Mom's Club people are bring me six meals all spread out so I'm still getting them this week!!! I'm also grateful that I have such wonderful kids that adjust to anything it seems!! I am one lucky mom.

My parents watched my kids that day for me and of course they had tons of fun. I'll just end this post with some pics my Dad took from putt putt and other outings that day.

I love the fall

One of my favorite things in the fall is to take the kids to the pumpkin patch. This year I went with my friend, Jessie and her son Landon to a different pumpkin patch than the one we usually go to. It was a lot of fun too. They had a small petting zoo, hay bales to climb on, etc. Unfortunately we went on a Thursday and their hay rides to the actual pumpkin patch only run Fri-Sun. But we still had fun letting the kids run around and play.

Here's Luke and Landon as flowers.
It's called Jumbo's Pumpkin Patch, so here's Cameryn riding a tractor.
He looks so cute here with his glasses on.


Cameryn and Landon on the very top of the hay bales.
Me and my adorable kids on the very top too.

They had a ball playing with this car. They loaded up the back with the small pumpkins, then one of them would drive somewhere and Luke would say, "We're here!!" and then they would unload. Luke was so cute and talking the whole time. I'm still trying to get him to say his name on camera but it hasn't happened yet. I'm going to keep trying though, it's too cute to not get on camera!!

Two very handsome boys!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Actually getting along

Landon, Luke and Cameryn all playing on Cameryn's bed under the sheets. They actually got along and didn't fight for like 30-45 minutes while playing here. They usually are stealing toys and just being regular two year olds (at least the boys) but they had so much fun playing under the sheets, I just had to take some cute pictures. Luke loves this picture, when he saw it he said "It's Hanen, Tamen and Hoot with gasses on"- translation "It's Landon, Cameryn and Luke with glasses on". I love how Luke says his name but I haven't been able to catch it on camera yet!! I will though one of these days.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tire Park

I'd never been to this park before but my kids had so much fun here. Everything is made of recycled tires, even the ground, so I didn't really have to worry about anybody falling and getting hurt. It was a fun relaxing day. We were going to go hiking too but it got too late for me and my kids so I took them home so Luke could have a nap. I know I am behind on posting again (nothing new here) so I don't have any good stories to tell right now. Just pictures, but that's my favorite part anyways.

I went with my mom, my brother and sister, my mom's friend Terry Smith and her daughter and granddaughter, Ellis (above). Ellis is so cute so I got a couple picture of her and Luke.

Random things

Luke loves his Hulk glasses and likes to wear them all the time so I knew it would be relatively easy to get him to keep his new glasses on. He's just so cute!! He still likes to wear the Hulk ones so he puts them on OVER his other glasses- it's really funny.

Oh and I forgot to mention in my previous post that I cut Cameryn's hair shorter. I don't have a really good picture but she wanted me to take this one of her and our cat so I thought I would post it up anyway. Actually you can probably see the haircut better in my last post.

Here is just silly picture of our cat playing fetch with her favorite toy. I took these two while Luke was playing with her, throwing it into the kitchen while she chased it down and brought it right back to him so he would play some more. So cute!!
Yes another dorky cat picture, oh well.

These next ones were taken by Cameryn. I laughed so hard when I was uploading my pictures from my camera to my computer and I saw these ones. Look at his sweet little face cheesing for the camera right in his face.

Oh WHOOPS!!! How did this picture of my butt get in here?? HAHAHA!! Not bad for never having time to work out- hahaha- I crack myself up!! Oh and Cameryn took this one by the way.

Always playing catch up

Again, I haven't really been in the mood to blog. But there is a lot that happened that I would like to catch up on.

Cameryn's birthday party went really well. I don't know why I was so stressed!! Well, actually I do since it looked like it was going to rain all that day and we were having the party at a park, plus I invited WAY too many kids. It was a really great day though and everyone seemed to have a blast. Cameryn was so excited to have all those people there but she was still so shy with everyone. Unfortunately, we were in such a big hurry to leave the house to run our last few errands since the party was at 11:00 am that I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!!! I was so mad and my mom didn't know where theirs was either. She was so sweet though and went out to buy me a disposable one so I could at least get the pictures developed later. So I don't have any pictures of the actual party, but I do have one of Cameryn wearing her favorite gift of the day.

Cameryn is really enjoying her preschool too. She loves to go and always has a lot to tell me when I pick her up. I only wish that it was more than twice a week now. If I'd have known she would love it that much, I might have looked around more. I wasn't really even going to put her in one though so I'm glad she at least has this one. She is so cute with her little backpack on with nothing in it but a folder and a change of clothes (just in case). She is always so excited to see me and Luke come to pick her up. Actually I think she is more excited when my mom picks her up on Wednesdays. That is the only day I work now during the week so my mom comes out to my house to watch the kids and take Cameryn to and from preschool. Yesterday she asked me why Gramma didn't pick her up and when I told her she would next time she got all excited.

Luke also seems to like his alone time with me or Gramma. He always wants to go to the park or to his friend, Landon's house. Mike and I have friends that live on our street that he has known since high school (maybe longer, I can't remember) and they had a little boy about 6 weeks after we had Luke. It's really nice to have a close friend who also stays home with her little boy to hang out with all the time.

So onto my other news about Luke. He had another appointment with his eye surgeon/doctor the beginning of this month. I really loved the doctor that did his surgery and that I had seen since he was 4 months old. But she moved to a practice that was closer to where she lived so I've been having to take him to the other doctors that I don't know- still in the same practice but I really miss his other doctor. Anyways back on topic now- as most of you know, he had eye surgery a year ago this September (13th to be exact) to correct an eye problem. He had/has intermittent strabismus (ohh I'm so knowledgable and technical- sike!! I had the doctor write down the name since I always forget what it is actually called) which really means that his eyes would cross sometimes and it needed to be corrected with surgery. His left eye was his stronger eye so I would patch that eye for about an hour everyday to force him to use the right eye. Well his surgery was successful in that his eyes don't cross anymore but they are still not straight. His right eye moves outward occasionally and his left eye moves a tad bit up.

So at his most recent appointment, the doctor wanted to dilate his eyes again to check and see if glasses would help at all. They had done this at his first ever appointment and came to the conclusion that it wouldn't help then. So she put the drops in his eyes which he did not like but he is such a sweet patient boy that he calmed down as soon as I was holding him close again. We had to wait another 30-45 min while the drops worked. She checked his eyes again and recommended he get glasses. He is a bit too far-sighted (interesting fact: the Dr. told me that kids are all far-sighted when they are little but Luke is too far-sighted- weird huh) and he has a slight astigmatism on both of his eyes.

I didn't really understand what all that meant but I went to get him fitted anyways. A guy who goes to my church works at the office they recommended to get him fitted for the glasses. He saw me sitting in the waiting area and came out to talk to me about Luke's glasses. He has been helpful throughout the whole thing with Luke actually but especially while I was there. He looked at his prescription and explained the whole far-sighted thing to me so I could actually understand it. He said that this is not a permanent thing for Luke (most likely). He said the glasses will help his brain to not have to work so hard to focus on things close up then far away and back and forth ALL the time which is what Luke's brain and eyes have been doing. He can focus since kids brains are still developing and they are more adaptable and doesn't have real vision problems but his brain just has to work harder. This will just help his brain relax a bit and work on making his eyes straighter instead of all this constant focusing and refocusing.

He was so cute trying on his glasses!! I liked this one pair that were thin rimmed and brown (to match his hair of course) with the cable ear piece to it stays on more securely but Luke really liked these blue pair. I figured since he was going to have to wear them all the time, I should let him pick out the ones that he likes so I got the blue ones. The optician (the guy that fits the glasses) was really nice and funny. Luke was having so much fun with the kid glasses that he started pointing at the adult glasses. The guy goes and gets him a pair to try on and Luke was laughing at himself in the mirror the turned to Cameryn and said "Tamen, look at me" then they both busted up. It was so cute!!

Mike went and picked up the glasses the day of Cameryn's party and he's been wearing them ever since from when he wakes up, to when he goes to bed. I didn't really like the glasses once I saw them with the actual lenses in them but they are growing on me. He is cute no matter what so I don't worry. Mike was kinda mad at first that I didn't get the other glasses cuz he thought the blue ones were dorky, but Luke is the one that has to wear them. Boy those glasses get dirty though. I have to clean them constantly because he is such a messy boy (what boy isn't). He is going back to the eye doctor in December for another evaluation so I'm hoping these are helping. It sucks though because kids grow so fast but they need to have snug fitting glasses too so I really really hope that this is not a long term thing cuz glasses are expensive! My friend did have his office give me a 20% discount though, so YAY!!

Okay so here are a few pictures of Luke with glasses and some of him and Cameryn playing outside.

Four year old preschooler

Yesterday was Cameryn's birthday and today was her first day of preschool. She has been excited since Luke's birthday for her birthday to come. She was so good all day and couldn't wait for Daddy to come home so she could open up her presents. We wanted her to have stuff to open on her actual birthday since we can't have her party until Sept 13th (2 Saturdays from now). We are having a bigger party than normal with her little friends instead of just our family. I'm excited and nervous for this. It seems like so much more to do and I want it to be fun for the kids.

She got to open up her presents from Mike's parents on Monday. They got her a Leapster2 with a Princess cartridge. She has been loving that and plays on it really well. She also got a lot of winter/ school clothes. We got her a backpack and a folder, a Barbie nightgown, a dress for her first day at school and a few small toys. She was very excited about the nightgown and backpack especially.

She woke up so nicely today and was so excited to wear her new dress. I had to continue to talk her out of putting her own toys in her backpack and lots of other stuff that was not necessary. I took some pictures and put the kids in the car.

It only takes about 10 mintues to get there which is another plus with this preschool. I dropped her off and had to drag her attention away from the dressups to say goodbye. Luke and I played at the park and went to a friends house for the remainer of the time.

Cameryn was so happy to see me and tell me all about her day. She was a little upset that she didn't get to use scissors today but she did get to use glitter so alls well.

It is so nice to see her happy for what seems like a really long time. She is slowly getting better about not being a punk most of the time and I have really enjoyed these two days of relative peace from Cameryn.

So here are a few pictures from her two special days. I will post the pictures from her party when it happens. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can pull off a fun party for about 12 little kids!!

This was me trying to say goodbye while dragging her attention away from the dressups, shoes, and play kitchen.

Luke at the park while waiting to go pick up Cameryn. He loves his Hulk glasses as you can see. He wears them all the time. He even took them to church this past Sunday. But hey, if it helps me to leave him in the nursery and go to my class, I don't care what he brings.