the Match

We recieved the most wonderful news this week.

Kelly has been accepted to start a pediatric dental residency program in Princess Anne, Maryland.

We are thrilled.

He graduates from dental school in May, then will likely do some training in Brooklyn, then we will be on the Eastern Shore for the next two years.

(this picture was taken during his interview there in November)

It will be fun to explore the east coast,
for my boys to discover the magnificence of the ocean,
and to visit the national treasures less than two hours away.

happy.

Happy Temple Family Birthday!

new years eve is our special anniversary. 

It's our Happy Temple Family Birthday!

Two years ago this day we were sealed together as a forever family in the St Louis Temple.

an Amazing day.

we celebrated.

I took Jelly Bean out to pick out donuts.

the QT near our house is known as "the donut store".

we stopped by the Kansas City Temple

we went to P sub, Bean's favorite, where the workers were so delighted with my boys they brought out an extra grilled cheese for Jelly Bean.

We blew out two candles and ate cake, allergy friendly for sweet G and with sprinkles for mr B.

we showed him pictures of our special day.

And we took a couple new pictures

I'm the luckiest.

Christmas

Christmas was wonderful.

Kel and I might have had a small disagreement over a new tradition he tried to throw in at the last minute Christmas Eve called "piles".

I felt a bit awful with my sinus infection and stayed in my pjs all day.

Bean might have eaten too many cookies in the place of meals and gotten a bit grumpy.

Sweet G's allergies have been.... ugh.

But it was wonderful.

Only three years ago I was at one of Angela's amazing Christmas parties and we went around the room and told what we wanted for Christmas if we could have anything in the world. Of course my answer was I wanted my baby. And now here I am, with my two little boys, and my ever so sweet husband. EVERY Christmas is wonderful. I will never forget that aching for a grumpy little boy and a sleepless little baby that keep me so frazzled I have a half dozen Christmas presents that remain unfinished three days after Christmas. Every Christmas is the best Christmas. I'm a lucky lucky girl.

Aunt Chelsea had us for Christmas this year, and for one of her presents she drew a picture of the temple for each of the boys. Love it! handmade presents get me all happy inside.

Jelly Bean is terrified of Santa.

Terrified.

So we told him his big present this year was from Santa, in an effort to help him like jolly old saint nic.

He has had a small skateboard obsession for months, he will put anything flat on the ground - a book, graham cracker, anything - and stand on it pretending it is a skateboard. So for Christmas we got him a skateboard, helmet, elbow and knee pads, and he was on it all day. 

Sweet G's present was a cozy coupe. He uses so many of Bo's toys that he didn't really need anything, but I knew he would love getting in and out and pushing it around. I was right, he was so happy. The one time Bean left his skateboard to check out G's new car, G got in and sat on Bo's lap, making it clear he knew this was his territory.

Me being me, I insist on sentimental presents. So Jelly Bean and sweet G gave Kelly a framed picture they both painted on of the two of them. Bean even wrapped it himself with very little help from me.
It was my favorite moment.

yep. I'm a lucky lucky girl.

roughness

December has had some roughness.

Jelly Bean had a day at the beginning of December where he had a case of the cuddles and fever, thankfully that was all. He had another couple days of the cuddles this week, thankfully no fever. Both times weren't too bad, but put us on pause for a while.

Sweet G was sick for eight days, that included

seven days of throwing up,

one ER visit for dehydration,

a night on my cold dark porch trying to disassemble and clean up his carseat that he got sick all over,

lots of tears and cuddles,

plus some zofran to keep his liquids down.

We don't have any real answers of what it was, no one else caught it so it likely wasn't viral.

I'm glad that's over.

Kelly took his boards a few days before Christmas. Up until then he studied as much as he should have, and now that it is over it is such a relief to have him back with us. I must say, he is a great father. Although the pressure of boards sent him out to study many late nights, when I had to take little g to the ER he met us there and stayed with us all day. That darling man of mine has his priorities straight. He is working hard to take care of our family but coming to our rescue when needed.

I have a sinus infection, it's spread to my ears this week and it's like I have swimmers ear nonstop and I'm feeling pressure all over my head. It's not too fun. It's actually been quite miserable. So miserable, that when I was given four medications, and considering that G does horrible when I take anything but especially antibiotics, I decided to wean him immediately so I can get better. Last night was his last night. I'm sad. He loves it, it's his best nutrition especially with his limited food choices, and the poor boy doesn't understand why he can't nurse anymore.

Thankfully our roughness is just roughness.

I can live with that.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We went to Utah to celebrate with Kelly's mom.

I braved going up a few days early by myself with the babes, so I could spend some time with my family before the holiday with Kelly's family began.

Jelly Bean and little G fell in love with these magical friends called "cousins".

my boys have the best aunts.

Noodle and Val came with us to the dinosaur museum.

My girls night with Adrienne and Chelsea hosted by Ucreate at Poppyseed Projects.

and they have such a wonderful grandma. She is so good to us.

We spent thanksgiving day in delta at Kel's grandparents home.

I got to go to this beautiful girl's sealing to her new darling Lucas.
Amazing.
Amazing.
Ah-MaZing.

Kel and I were getting our bags checked in at the airport to leave, grandma snapped this picture of the boys. melts my heart.

Sweet G, hooray for progress

Piece by piece, we are helping sweet G. I look at where we were a year ago and we have learned so much.
I am grateful.

We now know he is allergic to eggs, dairy, peanuts, chicken, soy, and raspberries. We don't know if he has any more allergies. We don't know what he will grow out of.

We now know that his nightmare eczema is made worse by his allergies. This means I no longer walk into his room in the middle of the night to find everything covered in blood because his little skin on his face is so thin. We don't know if the remaining minor eczema is also connected to allergies that we are unaware of.

We now know about his acid reflux and that medications help. They don't help all everything and we are trying out a stronger one.

He was in pain. Now he is just uncomfortable.

We now know that his allergies and acid reflux were affecting his sleep. Until he was six months old, he could only sleep 20 minutes at a time on his worst nights, one hour at a time on his best. Now he only wakes up 5 times a night on his worst nights but has actually slept through the night on his very rare best nights.

We still don't know why he has had a cough since December of last year. He has been to ENT and all they found were swollen vocal chords but an otherwise healthy normal throat. We are questioning if the cough is acid reflux related. I'm listening to him cough right now as he takes a nap, every 7 seconds. It comes and goes, good days and bad.

He throws up. It averages to only about once every two weeks. Sometimes it's because he has eaten something he is allergic to, sometimes it is for no known reason.

I feel like even though we are still facing unknowns, we are at the end of it. So much progress has been made that there seems to be little left to do. He is now seeing a GI doctor who put him on a new acid reflux med to see if it helps some of his unknowns, and if it doesn't then she has a plan to check out his esophagus and run some tests. I feel good about putting this in her hands.

I am grateful for our progress. I don't know how I survived on zero sleep for the first six months of his life, and still such little sleep now. I am grateful that none of this has been serious life threatening stuff. I am grateful for the amazing doctors we have met, especially his pediatrician and dermatologist and GI doctor. I am grateful for Sweet G's sweetness, he is such a chill happy boy and he has been dealing with so much. I'm not chill and happy when I deal with less than he.

Hoping and praying it keeps heading in the right direction.
So so grateful for all that we have learned.
We have been so blessed on this little journey to help him.

I just love him so.

Trick or Treat

Just look at my beauties!

Sweet G made the most adorable giraffe.

But he was tired and his crankiness came out.

After one stop at Penni's he was done and ready to be carried.

Five minutes later he and Kelly went home so I could continue with Jelly Bean.

To say my superman was excited is an understatement.

He flew with arms outstretched from house to house, happy to see friends and say "trick or treat".

He was perfect at saying thank you, so polite he made me proud.

I came home to put G to bed and Kelly took our superman pilot out for another trick or treat run.
When he came home he was so hopped up on sugar he had a very late bedtime.
Bo on sugar and the late hour make him hilarious.