Morgan Family Reunion

After leaving the Bloomfileds we went on to spend time at the Morgan Family Reunion (Nathan's mother's side) near Stanley Idaho. I was wonderful to see everyone who came and those who were unable to make it this year were missed. A lot of fun was had by all and many memories were made.

Here Andrew is meeting his Great Grandma Donna Morgan.
Another "semi-bug-proof" game tent was set up and Tiana put it to good use again. This girl loves playing games!The loggers were working in the area while we were there. This was not only neat for the kids to watch but they were also able to hear stories of how their Great Grandpa Morgan was a logger!
Grandma and Grandpa's canoe got a lot of use out on the lake. This lake was so clear and beautiful!
Nick loved rowing in Aunt Cindy's raft. Ben enjoyed the ride.
Tiana had trouble figuring out the rowing of the smaller raft. So Nathan climbed in to teach her. What a funny sight! What a good daddy!
After a while Nathan got tired so he let Ben take over...too cute!
Here Nick is having fun with "the cuzins". Uncle Dave went out there to help swamp the canoe so Nick bailed out quick!
They all had fun flipping the canoe over and over again. They would climb on top of it while upside down, go underneath of it while upside down and yell, climb inside of it while swamped. They quickly learned that no matter how hard you try, you cannot sink this canoe!
Ben finally got comfortable going into the water a ways with mommy. Next year he will be all over this lake!
The uncles and cousins (including Nick) found some frogs and toads. Ben wasn't too sure of the little creatures. He is telling this one to "go that way".

"Here, let me help you with that." Ben is only 2 years old, but he truly believes he is much older and more capable. We have to keep an eye on him!
Helping shuck corn for one of our dinners. Now that was some sweet corn! My mouth waters just thinking about it!
Helping in the kitchen. Keep up the good work!
More kitchen help, Tiana was in the middle of it all doing what she was told.
This was how Andrew spent most of his time. Oh! so comfy!

Ben really took a liking to his cousin, Lexie. Actually she is one of Nathan's younger cousins.
Mom: "Nick, you did great with that axe."

Nick: "It's not an axe, it's a hatchet."

Mom: (slaps herself on the forehead) "Of course, what was I thinking?!"

Nick driving the (I forget what it's called!) with Uncle Mike. Tiana had a turn too. They thought that was pretty cool. Ben just enjoyed the ride.
Ben on the last morning of the reunion, "This was GREAT! Let's do it again!"

Bloomfield Reunion at Winchester Idaho

Andrew was doing great after his surgery. So even though we left later than planned so that we could make sure he was doing okay, we were able to meet up with our wonderful friends, the Bloomfileds, for our own little reunion.

It was so wonderful to see my best friend, Chauntelle, again! Nathan and Jim seemed to have a good time as well. The kids were all very excited to see each other. Nick met up with his friend, R, who is only 6 weeks older than he is. Tiana was able to play a lot with L who is only 2 days younger than she is (Tiana was born 5 1/2 weeks early on L's due date). Ben met two new friends and loved having two boys to play with! G is four and T is almost 2. I will let the pictures tell most of what fun was had!

The hammock got plenty of use. What a beautiful lake! This in Winchester Lake, Idaho.
Of course we had to fit in a little geocaching! Nathan and Jim took some of the kids, "We found it!"

The netted "game tent" was always in use!
Ben and "the boys".
Ben riding in the bike trailer with G.

We went to the Wolf reserve and saw a few of the beautiful creatures in the wild!

Movie night while camping! Ah, yes, we know how to "rough it"! Notice L holding Andrew. She couldn't get enough of holding him, too cute!

Of course we had to get some fishing it. This was the perfect fishing lake for little kids. They caught so many fish! We didn't have to wait long before getting a bite! Mostly Blue Gill and Trout. We threw back everything though. The kids just had fun catching them. Nick is just about to cast in this shot.

G is playing with the fishing worms. I LOVE the look on Ben's face! "I can't believe you're touching that dude!"

Nathan helped Ben in his first fishing experience. "Hey son, you got one!"

One of Ben's catches. Like father like son!

And last but not least...lots of wild flowers were picked for mommy.

Andrew's Surgery

THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2008

Here is the update...first from Nathan and then from Satina...

Andrew ended up having surgery yesterday to correct the pyloric stenosis. He had an ultrasound at 8:45 and a Dr.'s appoint. at 9:45. They did 2 ultrasounds. One before feeding and one after feeding. The muscle contracted more after feeding not allowing food to pass. They decided to schedule him for surgery. I left work early to be there with Satina.

He went to the hospital at 11:00. They attempted several times to start an IV. After 4 nurses and 7 attempts they finally were able to get one started. Andrew did not enjoy being a pin cushion and Satina had a hard time with it too. Andrew went into surgery at 3:15pm and was back to us about 6:00pm. The surgery went well and the surgeon said it definitely needed done. He said that it was good to get him in this early. He said most of the time the baby's are already dehydrated and losing weight. Andrew was showing some signs of dehydration and was only gaining half the weight he should have been, but wasn't losing weight yet.

I stayed at the hospital while Satina went home for an hour to shower and bring the kids. Then I came home and got the kids to bed. Satina stayed with Andrew in the hospital overnight.

We had planned on leaving Friday for Idaho, but may delay it a day or two now. The Dr's say that he should be fine after a couple days.

That is about it for the day. So much for hoping it was just gastric reflux.

Nathan

*******

Andrew was discharged this afternoon at 3:30. We had a long morning of pain and feeding issues. Andrew is in a lot of pain (duh!) and was wincing or crying or even screaming all morning. I didn't get much sleep at all last night.

At first they had him on Tylenol and Morphine for the pain. The morphine was making him too sleepy to eat and we were struggling trying to wake him up for his feedings. So they stopped the morphine this morning and then he was only on Tylenol for a while. This didn't cut it for his pain and he was screaming and in too much pain to eat, so we were still struggling to get him to eat anything. Then the nurses finally got a hold of the doctor who called in an order for a Motrin and Tylenol cycle and then it took forever for the pharmacy to get it up to them. I wanted to scream myself, "don't you people realize my baby is in a lot of pain here?!?!" It was a very trying and emotionally exhausting morning following a very emotional day yesterday.

Finally they got him on the medication he needed and he started to get comfortable. At 1:00 he ate a good 2 ounces for the first time, then at 2:30 he had his first bowel movement in days. They weren't going to release him until he did both of those things. He has been keeping down all of his food and now that he is home he is feeling much better. He is sleeping right now, I just got up from a 1 1/2 hour nap and things are looking up.

Thank you for prayers that have been said, visits to the hospital, and phone calls that were made. It means a lot to have so many wonderful people who love Andrew. The other three children were cared for by three different families who were gracious enough to step up and help out. A good friend of mine came to the hospital to sit with me while I waited for Nathan to come from work. My world was a whirlwind of tears and worry, but my family was being taken care of without a hitch. I am so grateful once again!!!

The doctor said that Andrew should be good enough to still travel. I didn't really want to go anymore because I am worried about him. But the doctor said as long as we keep his dressing clean and his pain meds up he will be fine. Nathan said, "you can hold him here or you can hold him there, you might as well come with." When I told the kids that we would be going after all they all yelled, "Yay!" and "Yessss!" It was very sweet. I didn't realize how much it meant to them for Andrew and I to go along. So we will still be leaving for Idaho on Saturday or Sunday but not Friday like originally planned. Two days in the hospital put us a bit behind schedule anyway!

Satina

Here is a picture of poor little Andrew right after surgery. He has a two inch incision on his abdomen and his IV is in his right foot.
The children were very worried about Andrew and relieved when they could come to the hospital to see for themselves that he was okay.

Andrew's sick...

TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2008

Andrew is scheduled for an ultrasound tomorrow morning at 8:45 and has a doctors appointment at 9:45. Here is the history...

Last Tuesday night he threw up projectile vomit all over the place (covering my shirt, pants, soaked through to undergarments, covering half the couch, and of course covering him). I was concerned and worried. Then on Wednesday he threw up the same type of projectile vomit large volume four times. After the second time I had called the doctor. They scheduled him to come in Thursday morning. My assumption was that he had infant reflux and would need medicine.

Thursday morning we went into the doctor and it wasn't our normal pediatrician but the one we could get into soonest. She said he either has the flu (although he never had a fever and acted fine other than throwing up after eating), reflux or pyloric stenosis. She said to play the "wait and see" game which I wasn't too comfortable with. She said we would know by Monday what it was. If he got better then it was the flu, if he got worse then it was the pyloric stenosis, if it stayed the same then it was reflux.

If it was reflux we would treat it with medication. If it was the pyloric stenosis then he would have an ultrasound to verify and then abdominal surgery to correct it. I was very scared.

I called Monday morning and told them that he is still pretty bad, but not worse like she said he would get. So they called in a prescription and said that we will know for sure by Wednesday. If he wasn't better by Wednesday it still may be this pyloric stenosis. More waiting and our regular doctor was still out of the office!

We got him the medicine and he has been throwing up even more. He is getting worse. He acts like he is in pain and uncomfortable and won't sleep well, although he is napping well now. Thank goodness! So I called the doctor this morning and we got our regular doctor to call us back, yeah! He said, "I don't see why we should be letting this little guy suffer, or you suffer through this. Let's just get an ultrasound and find out definitively and we'll know what to do." Thank goodness, a doctor who has a plan of action, no more waiting to see if he gets worse which I think is totally mean to do to anybody much less a tiny baby.

So he has the ultrasound tomorrow morning followed right away by his doctor appointment with our regular pediatrician. He said that if he has it then he will have his surgery tomorrow. If he doesn't then we will try a different medication. Either way we will get it taken care of. But I REALLY HOPE AND PRAY that it is just reflux! I really do not want my little baby to have to undergo surgery! Just the anesthesia alone at such a young age scares me!

Ben's a BIG BOY!!!

Our little Ben has been doing a great job in his potty training. We are so proud of him! He has been successfully wearing underwear at home for a couple weeks with only occasional accidents. He would wear underwear at home and then we would put him in a diaper anytime we would leave the house. Then it occurred to me that this may be hindering his progress so we have decided to let him where big boy underwear as much as possible. He stayed dry at the park twice this week (once he needed to go so I showed him a bush...ah, the ease of boys!) Then he let me know he had to go while we were at Costco and he made it! You should have seen the smile on his face! It was the first public restroom experience and he was so proud of himself! Then today at church he didn't have any accidents and went to the bathroom four times (We are at church for three hours)! Two of those times he told me he had to go without me asking him first. I am so proud of him!!!

We have started and stopped potty training twice before because of my early than thought of bed rest and then when Ben got the flu. Hopefully third time is truly the charm. But we are going on a 9 hour road trip this weekend and will be camping for 10 days, so I am a little nervous of what that will do to his consistency again. Oh well, roll with the punches.

He looks so cute walking around in his big boy underwear but I didn't think it would be appropriate to post a picture of him with no pants on, although that is how he walks around the house all day! It is easier to pull down just underwear.

Splashin' Around

We went to the "Cool Pool" in town on Friday, July 11th. Nick and Tiana had a blast going off on their own. Ben was a little more unsure of it all and stayed very close to daddy at first and then I had my turn in the pool with him. Nathan and I took turns holding Andrew over in the shade. He has yet to have his first pool experience. There will be time enough for that.


Nathan helped the kids set up the kiddie pool by the back door. No matter how hard I tried, Ben refused to look at the camera. He was just too busy. I am standing in our back doorway as I take this picture, that is how close it is.

Serenaded Baby

Nick was playing the piano and I needed to put Andrew down for a minute to help Ben with something. I came back into the room and Andrew was smiling and cooing, almost like he was singing along with the piano. It was a very sweet moment with our oldest and our youngest.


I absolutely love this picture and just had to share it! Tatiana loves to hold her baby brother. She is such a sweet helper and a wonderful sister to her three brothers. We are very lucky to have such an amazing daughter!

Krafty Kids!

Our kids love to do craft projects! We went to the Parks and Rec's "Fun in the Park" on Wednesday, July 9th. The kids made Picture frames and then had fun playing with their friends. We headed home early because Nick's glasses got knocked off and stepped on by another child. Poor Nick. We got them fixed though and all is well!

The kids have been busy making these fun crafts. I do not know what they are called (lost the packaging years ago) but they are tiny plastic beads that they put together in pictures or designs and then I take an iron and melt them together. Even Ben has been getting into these.


We made homemade glass paint and turned this old glass jar into a new cookie jar. Now the kids are excited to make cookies to fill it!

Rasperry Picking!

This week we went raspberry picking at a little secret spot I know of that has FREE raspberries! The kids had a good time picking berries and our good friend, Kelly, came along. She was coming to help with Ben, but he was so into the berry picking that he was being an angel and she was able to get some for her family picked too! We didn't get as much as I wanted because the berries are pretty small this year at this particular patch and after almost an hour of picking we were getting pretty hot. So we grabbed milkshakes and headed home for the air conditioning! We won't be making raspberry jam this year, but we have them all in the freezer to make smoothies and desserts with! Yummy!

Birth Announcement and Blessing Outfit

This is Andrew's birth announcement. Nathan took the pictures and then we put it together on his photoshop program. I absolutly love it!

Here is a picture of Andrew's blessing outfit that I promised to post. Yes, I made it. It was a fun project and thankfully, it fit!