Nathan vs. The Talk

Nathan gave his first talk in Primary as a Sumbeam.

I told him a few days before that he would get to, and he suddenly got very quiet and somber and told me, "Um... no..."

When the big day came, he sat very nervously in the chair in front. If it weren't for his friends sitting with him, the twins next door, he might have cried and thrown a fit to get out of it. I love some good peer pressure!

His turn came and he started narrating, out loud, his trip up the steps to the podium. Consequently, his talk began with his mini, high-pitched voice stating, "There are three steps, and THAT'S FINAL."

He mumbled/repeated his five sentence talk that I whispered in his ear about Jesus, and sat down a proud little Sunbeam.

This kid makes me laugh. I love that he's getting so big.

2014

At the end of January, I took down our calendar from the wall. It's interesting to go back and look at the things written down. Most of it was a blur--at least for me. I spent probably 10/12 months in the thick of survival mode, so sorry if it's painfully obvious that lots of these events are about me (I find it probably just as annoying as you too). I'm glad we got through.

January

Discovered that our family would be growing on New Year's Eve. Held my breath for several weeks until the first ultrasound. Feeling sick.

For the most part, just normal business--callings.

My birthday. A very low key celebration.

February

This month on the calendar is rather empty! These are the weeks I spent in denial of just how sick I was getting. Finally got set up with Home Health.

Valentine's. Managed a DIY craft for Garrison.

March

Also very empty month. 

Garrison's birthday.

Our most frequent visitor was Joni, my home health nurse. More IV's than I can count and black and blue arms and hands. Two liters of D5 every. single. day.

April

Managed to go see Chris Botti concert with my dad. 

Found out we were having another BOY! 

Easter. 

May

Got Nate tested for preschool--he got in!

Six year anniversary. We got a minivan.

I finally renewed my driver's license... Four months late. Not like I was driving much anyhow.

Mother's Day. My boys got me a honeysuckle plant--my favorite flower.

Last IV of the pregnancy til delivery.

June

Father's Day. 

Made it down to St. George for a big wedding.

Nathan's birthday. Lots of pirate goods. Graduated from speech services.

Gabe finished his year of pre-school with Ms. Kirsten.

July

Fourth of July. The boys enjoyed watching everything. I didn't love the cannon booms til midnight every single night. 

Saw our hyper dog the most mellow EVER when she got fixed... But I secretly was very grateful for a break for a few days.

Gabe rode in a bike parade.

August

The boys started school--together! 

Labor kicked in that night on the first day.

Two days later our September baby arrived in August!! Peter had us all 1000% smitten!

September

We brought Pete home on the first, Labor Day.

Garrison took great care of us all while we recovered and adjusted.

October

Getting a little busier--lots of little things etched on the calendar.

Halloween. 

Pumpkin patch.

Family pictures.

November

Lots of small events again. 

Lots of time with family. And friends.

Thanksgiving.

December

Gabe turned five! 

Lots of Christmas gatherings with family.

Got to see the last uncle return home from a mission!

2015 is looking like it'll be a big year for growth for each of us! I'm excited for how we'll all change.

Cycle

This winter has been so mellow, and yet nothing has been different this year for us. Nothing much going on. It's because of the sick cycle.

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, but I get increasingly frustrated with the colder months as January and February roll along--and it's not even been that cold. Nevertheless we get caught in the sick cycle. We try to function normally, attending school and church and grocery shopping. Someone gets sick. We do our duty to society and stay home, cancel our play dates, and try to keep our germs to ourselves (heck, we even stay home from Wal-Mart 95% of the time). We get cabin fever, go stir crazy, and even grouchy. Then we recover and slowly peek our heads out the front door... Cautiously attend church and school again, washing and sanitizing our hands a lot... aaand then someone gets sick and we're knocked back off our feet to start the cycle all over again.

It always finds us.

The last two weeks we started off with "just a cold." Sorry to use the "h" word, but I HATE that phrase. And it morphed into a croup cough in Nathan's lungs--our family's most vulnerable set. After many days of wheezing and coughing, and Albuterol, and almost pulling out the nebulizer for the first time in two years, Peter started to bark. He spent a couple nights in Insta/KidsCare due to wheezing and chest retractions while breathing, etc. etc. Bronchiolitis. The kind where the doc says "Could very well be RSV..." but we don't care about the official diagnosis because it's just viral, and it'll only differ by what we call it, not what we're seeing. Luckily his oxygen saturation/respiratory rates remained stellar, so he just got to go get "suctioned" a couple times to clear the gunk in his airway. He didn't need hospitalization or oxygen like Nate did as a baby. But then it got fun as the older kids had such a hard time with the gunk in their airways that they both spent two nights a piece throwing up through the ugly AM hours of the night.

And just short of two weeks later, we finally feel well enough to start creeping back out into the real world.

Phew. My fingers on the keyboard feel "out of breath" after that story.

But let me not forget to leave out that I, myself, have hardly been sick (knock on wood), and given the strength to get everyone else through these cycles. See? Silver lining!

A picture of the youngest, just because he's growing up the fastest right now.

I'm learning a little more clearly during these cycles that Earth life is not the period for reward. But how we get through matters, so we go through it all. Even young Peter does his best to put on his smile when he feels awful, and I think I can learn a whole lot from that.