Firsts in Galveston

First Ferry ride to our first time at Bolivar's beaches....covered to our waist in seaweed...so we turned around and rode the ferry for the second time back to Galveston

First time swimming in the ocean at sunset

First time in the ER for one of my kids. (I didn't take my camera in...and I call myself a blogger!) So my story will just have to suffice.

Ryan declared Saturday a family day so we planned on heading to Galveston. We spent the morning being kind of slow and lazy and cleaning the house. Right before we were ready to leave that afternoon, Kate and Sawyer were running down the hallway and Sawyer fell and came into the kitchen to Ryan with his mouth pouring blood. I have never seen so much blood coming from one of my kids. Ryan washed him up while I held him and eventually the bleeding stopped and I was able to take a peek inside his mouth. I didn't want to really pry in there since he had been through so much trauma but I could see a red line right on the inside of his cheek but it didn't look too deep. I consulted my nurse husband and he agreed that we could probably let it heal on its own. By that time Sawyer was happy with his popsicle and his mommy to snuggle.
We left for Galveston and rode the ferry and then headed in to have some dinner before hitting the beach. When I went to get Sawyer out of the car he said "ouch" and pointed to his cheek. He wasn't saying it like he was hurt, he was more just telling me it was there. I could see him rubbing his tongue on it.
(while I was editing pictures of the ferry ride I actually noticed this one with his tongue on his owie)

So I asked him to open and he did and what I saw made me instantly start to go into mother panic mode. It was like a giant tear/hole in his cheek! It looked so much worse than before! I don't know if he bit it more or if I just didn't have a good enough look the first time, but it was bad. Ryan decided the kids were hungry enough that we should let them eat first and then head to the ER. (Does that sound as ridiculous to you as it did to me?) Somehow he got me to agree and I hurried them through dinner. Sawyer, of course, ate all his chicken nuggets and oranges like a champ. It didn't even seem to bother him at all.
After about 20 minutes of circling around the Galveston hospital we finally found the emergency room (I would think it would be better marked) and I took him in. The place was empty and we got checked right in.
By this time I had decided he needed stitches. The hole seemed massive. And frankly, if I didn't think that....I wouldn't have come to the ER. The nurse practitioners in the ER looked and said it probably would need stitches but that he would probably need conscious sedation so he would tolerate it. I asked Ryan if that sounded okay to him and he said yes so they left to go start the paperwork. When they came back they said they had talked to the plastic surgeon upstairs and he had said that stitches would be too traumatic for a 2 year old and that since it wasn't all the way through his lip and wasn't continuously bleeding that it would be best to just let it heal on his own. We said okay and he went to go write the prescriptions for antibiotics to help prevent infection and Chlorhexedine to swish 2 times a day (Kelley, can you believe that a Dr actually recommended that for my 2 year old?) and I had to really accept the fact that we weren't leaving there with stitches. That was a little hard for me but I just had to trust them.
Luckily we were in and out of the ER in an hour and we were able to enjoy the last 15 minutes of sunlight jumping in the waves. Both my kids enjoyed every minute of it, running and jumping in and out of the water. Then we got some ice cream and headed home.
Today Sawyer's "ouch" is looking much better. When I ask him how his ouch is, he says "good" and he opens and shows it to me really well. It is actually healing really well. The human body is a miraculous thing and the mouth sure is a fast healer! And, through it all, it hasn't fazed Sawyer a bit! He even ran into something else today and got a big purple goose egg on his forehead to match.
I have a feeling this won't be my last ER visit with Sawyer!

Father's Day 2010

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Ryan who is the best husband and father I could have asked for. He is fun and my kids adore him. He works constantly to provide for us...someday...and I am so grateful for his hard work. And he is just fun to have around every now and then too!
Kate was so excited about Father's Day keeping everything a "secret". She didn't want to sing the song "My Daddy" that they were going to sing in Sacrament meeting if Ryan was around because it was a secret. (Funny enough, she talked about singing that song all week long and then started to cry when it was time to walk up and she didn't even go. Sound familiar?)
She was also really excited about making Daddy this tie that he wore to church. Pretty stylish, huh?

And Happy Father's Day to my Dad who is the best Dad and Papa we could ever ask for! He is the funniest dad ever, he is always dedicated to his testimony and church callings, he is always up for a walk to feed the ducks with Kate after a long day of work, and he is the best breakfast maker in the world. I will always remember that he ironed my shirts. (Do you remember that joke, Dad?) Thanks for being amazing and I love you!

The piercings that almost weren't

I told myself a long time ago that when Kate asked to get her ears pierced, I would let her. I got mine done when I was 8 but I don't really remember begging my mom before that to get them done and I figured there was no harm in it.
Well a couple of weeks ago, totally out of the blue, she asked. I was shocked. But after thinking about it a little more, I realized how the idea most likely got in her cute little head. We were watching Deal or No Deal a few days prior and the host, Howie Mandel, and the male contestant both had one of their ears pierced and she asked me why those boys had their ears pierced. So I explained to her that some boys choose to have their ears pierced but that the prophet has counseled us that only girls should get their ears pierced and only one piercing in their ear. So I'm assuming she thought about that for a few days and that is how she got the idea.
Ryan was in the middle of his big paper so I knew it would be tough finding a time to take her so we got out the calendar and scheduled it for 2 weeks from when she asked. This also just so happened to be the Saturday after her swimming lessons ended and I used it as a little incentive to be happy and participate in them. We even made a swimming lessons ear piercing chart that she got a sticker on every day to earn her earrings.
I can not even tell you how adorable the anticipation has been for this. She talked about it all the time and would get giddy. She noticed EVERY person with earrings (and tongue rings, and eyebrow rings) and would excitedly point them out to me every time. When she would say her prayers at night she would always bring it up and ask Heavenly Father, "help me to be a good girl so I can get my ears pierced" or "please bless there to be flower earrings when I get my ears pierced." She was so cute about it!
The day finally came and she was excited all morning. She kept saying, "I can't believe its the day I'm getting my ears pierced!" We went to a Stake Primary Activity in the morning and then headed over to the mall. We decided to eat lunch first and all though lunch she was so excited. Then we walked over to Claire's and started looking at the earrings. I was letting Kate pick between diamonds and silver balls and she got her heart set on a pair of Hello Kitty ones. Umm...no thank you. The lady there told me they didn't do both ears at the same time so we decided to head down to Icing. When we got there, there was a teenager getting ready to get her second hole pierced. I thought that would be perfect because Kate could watch someone getting it done that was brave. I filled out the paper work and we watched the girl get it done (who sat there without a peep and was the perfect example) and when I told Kate it was her turn she freaked out. Big tears running down her cheeks saying, "I don't want to get my ears pierced!" I obviously told her she didn't have to get her ears pierced but that I really thought she wanted to get it done. We sat down outside for a minute and I kind of explained things to her and I really just couldn't believe that we were going to leave the mall with no earrings after 2 weeks of build up! Without much coaxing she said she wanted to get it done and I hurried her in the chair before she could change her mind.
I think what actually got her in the chair were the sparkly flower earrings that I told her she could have if she wanted to (straying from my diamonds or silver balls only stance) and the lady told her she could eat her sucker while it was getting done. She sat in my lap and they got her ready and 1...2...3... it was done. Kate was silent for a minute and then cried for a minute and then was just about as excited as could be. By the time I bought her a lip gloss she was skipping out the door.
So its done. She has her ears pierced. I was a little afraid it would make her look like a teenager or something but it doesn't. She's just my gorgeous little Kate was pretty little earrings. And all in all, the whole experience was just totally how Kate handles most things in life. 95% of it is worrying and stressing about something she has to do but when she does it, she is happy.
Okay, enough words, here are the pictures!

Blackberries and Peaches

While cooped up in the OR one day, Ryan heard some people talking about having been to an orchard down towards Galveston where you can pick your own blackberries. When he told me we decided to make it our first big adventure after getting our Daddy back from the land of ginormous anesthesia papers. This afternoon we headed down to Galveston and spent some time at the beach and then drove back up to Fruits n' Such Orchard. The evening had cooled off perfectly and the orchards and gardens were beautiful. Kate had been excited all day and enjoyed every minute of it. Sawyer was so cute. He started out by picking the red ones but eventually learned to go for the big juicy purple ones. He got into a fight with a big blackberry branch and ended up with scratches all over the side of his face and ear, poor kid. He was so cautious after that and it was adorable to see him be so careful. We ended up with a delicious haul. When we got home we found some of our peaches had split open in transit and we had to eat them up. They were delicious. Seriously, best peaches EVER!

ice cream

I was sitting next to Kate on the couch while she was looking through a library book by herself. She turned to me and said, "Mom, this picture of ice cream makes my tummy think it wants ice cream."
It made my tummy think the same thing.
So we went to sonic for FHE after dinner. While we were waiting I took some pictures. And wouldn't you know it, I didn't take any of us with the actual ice cream!

Hopefully this will be our last FHE without our Daddy for a while. His capstone paper is due at midnight tonight and after that we might actually see him every now and then. He came home and saw us a little today and Sawyer, who has a tendency to want mom to do everything and be everything even when Daddy is around, couldn't get enough of him tonight! He wanted him to do everything and you could just tell how much he was loving reading books with Daddy and getting tickled by Daddy. But when Ryan tried to start working on his paper while I put him down for bed, Sawyer ran into the bedroom crying, "dada! dada!!" It was the saddest, most adorable thing I have ever seen.

dance recital teaser

I'm not sure when I get the official dance video of Kate but I took this video at her final rehearsal before the big night. Can you hear Sawyer whining in the background? Yes, that is why the video is so short. I took more on my real video camera and once I have a husband again he might be able to show me how to get the videos off. Until there, here is a little sneak peek.

sleep

Sawyer's favorite sleeping position. Every time I go in while he is sleeping he is curled up like this. And when he is in the cuddling mood, he'll climb onto my lap and curl into this little ball. I love it. I love him.

ice cream with Daddy

Ryan took a small break from his paper to go get ice cream with us. Vanilla cones covered in sprinkles!
aren't they looking good in their summer tans?

Cousins!

Kate

SawyerEthan
Benjamin

We are so excited about Jen's newest addition to our lost-tastic family! Wish we could be there to see and hold him!

Look who graduated!

On Tuesday we ended our fun year of preschool with our friends by having a little graduation and swimming party! We swam, wore their graduation hats while singing the ABC's and ate a graduation themed lunch. We have loved preschool with our friends and we'll miss it!

Memorial Day 2010

Ryan is buried up to his eyeballs with his capstone paper being due next month so I expected Memorial day to be a humdrum, same old same old kind of day. Luckily we last minute decided to head to the beach (Daddy-less of course) with some friends and it was so much fun! My kids are at really perfect, independent ages where I could sit and talk and keep an eye on them and they entertained themselves the entire time. Sawyer was on a mission to bring the whole ocean up to the beach, one bucketful at a time and Kate had fun chasing her friend Summer around. She even bravely followed Summer in and out of the waves (something I am certain she would not have done on her own!) They also had a lot of fun pulling each other on the boogie board and then, later, the daddys became the motors and all the kids took turns being pulled around the water REALLY fast! Kate took one spill that left her crying but was soon on board again!
It was the perfect day to pack a lunch and head to the beach and we can't wait to do it lots more times this summer!