BIG CAR!!!

So Robyn and I decided that it was time to get a second car. We had been pondering the idea, but did not do much else. When Alex had his little episode that ended with stitches, we put the idea in to motion. While Robyn was driving me to work last week, I made a comment to Robyn that we should buy a Jeep (I have wanted one since I was a little kid) not thinking that anything would come of it.

While at work I checked our email and low and behold I saw three emails from craigslist that were advertising Jeep Wranglers. I began laughing because I realized Robyn took me serious (more then not). I called her up to see what she was doing and she just told me that she wanted to see if they were in our ball park. Well, we decided to pull the trigger and get one. Of course with a decision like this we prayed and looked at lots of options, but we still felt good about the Jeep. I test drove the Jeep with Dan, and everything went well (you never know what you are going to get when you look at purchasing via private party). I offered the guy $700 less then what he wanted, but because it was cash, he folded:)

Here are a few pictures of the new car. BTW, the reason that I titled the post BIG CAR is because that is what ALex calls it. When he wants to ride in it, he says, "Big Car! Big Car!" He loves it too. Next weekend is our wards father son camp-out, and guess what the boys are taking camping? BIG CAR!

I also figured that since we have another little boy on the way, we should invite him into the world and make him feel at home with a big red Jeep. Here are a few more pics of the Jeep.

Robyn likes to ride in it too. When the weather stays sunny then we will take off the hard top and the rack and have lots of fun.

Thank Heaven for Little BOYS!

Yes, if you haven't guessed it, we are having a BOY! Here is the proof:

Below are the 3D pictures. I think the top one is the best, but he does look sort of alienish in both of them. He has a cute little nose and mouth and I think that is his little hand off to the right.

We had a crowded little room, with Paul, Alex, my mom, sister Molly and nephew Dominic, all excited to see the baby for the first time and find out his gender. Alex and Dominic kept saying, "Baby, baby!" And then Dominic said, "Baby monster!" We were all laughing. He really thinks I have a monster in my stomach and kept telling Gramzi this over and over. I guess the 3D pictures aren't too flattering, but I suppose I am biased being the mom and all. :)
I love this shot of his little bum and legs. It makes me so excited to hold this little boy!

Paul and I are very excited to have two little boys pitter-pattering around our house, getting into mischief. Boys are such fun and have so much energy! From the way this little one is moving around and kicking so much, he is going to have just as much energy as his big brother. He wouldn't stop moving during the ultrasound, so the technician had a hard time getting all of the important photos for the doctor to look at.

I am halfway there now! My due date is still October 12. Oh yeah, and the baby currently weighs 11 oz.

As for names, most of you who know Paul and I well, know that we have a difficult time picking out names. But some of you may be surprised that we already have at least one name that we are seriously considering: LeRoy, which is Spanish for The Roy. Just kidding! But, maybe we will use it as a back-up. :)

Flying BBQs, Caught in a Monsoon & a Trip to the ER

Last Friday evening Paul, who is an assistant scout leader, went on a boy scout overnight-camping trip. We are a one car family, so he took our only car with him. This is usually not much of a problem, and Friday night was pretty uneventful for Alex and I. But, Saturday was a whole other story.

Flying BBQs and the Monsoon

I needed to clean Uncle Randy's office (which I do twice a week). The walk to his office takes about 35 minutes. The whole way there it was semi-sunny, but rain threatened on the horizon. We cleaned for a few hours and then it was time to head home. We were about halfway home when the stormy weather hit full force. Alex started complaining that he was cold (all was wearing was a sweater), so when we stopped at the next intersection I dug out his favorite blankie and wrapped it around his head and tucked it into his sweater. Then I took off my flannel and zipped him up in it. As I was doing this we heard a loud crash! A truck had driven by towing a flat bed trailer full of stuff and a BBQer had flown off the back and lay smashed all over the road! Alex and I were very impressed. Luckily no one got hurt.
He loved that he was wearing my sweater and didn't notice the pouring rain and wild winds the rest of the way home. Thank goodness, because it was pretty cold. I love his big grin!

Needless to say, I was pretty wet, but at least Alex stayed somewhat dry.

A Trip to the ER

That evening at about 8:00, I was working on my lesson for Young Women and Alex jumped up on the couch to get something off of the desk. Well, he missed the arm of the couch and his face smashed against the edge of the desk. As you can see in the picture below, they are right next to each other.
When he finally lifted his face up so I could see the damage, all I could see was blood, blood, blood! (You know how head wounds are.) I finally saw the source of the blood and knew immediately that he would need stitches. Trying to stay calm while Alex continued to scream and cry I tried to think of who to call. Paul wasn't home yet and I had no idea when he would show up. So, I called Sari and briefly explained, close to tears myself, that Alex needed stitches and Paul had the car. She was amazing and just said she would be right over. Within five minutes she was at my door and helping me load Alex into Annie's seat.

Alex was buckled and I was hurrying to the passenger door when Paul pulled up to the house. Yay! I ran to the car window and motioned to him to roll it down. He stared at me with a look of confusion mingled with horror, and I realized that I was covered in Alex's blood. It was soaked into the shoulder of my sweater and smeared all over my face and neck. Poor Paul. I explained what happened and he jumped out and hooked in Alex's seat while Sari got Alex out of her car and I ran inside to lock the doors. We made a very good emergency response team. Alex was so excited by all the action it helped him forget his bleeding lip for a little bit.

We got to the Emergency Room at about 8:35 and got Alex registered. His lip wasn't bleeding so bad by this time, so we had to wait a little bit to get in. Boy was he a trooper! The nurse at the registration desk checked his pulse by putting a little clip on his finger and he just sat there. She was as amazed as we were that a little 2-year-old would be so good. We had to wait awhile before they took us to our ER room. And, it took even longer to see the doctor. By the time they decided he needed stitches it was about 10:30 pm. This is where it got exciting. There are basically 2 options when stitching up a 2-yr-old: 1) wrap him tight in a blanket and get the stitches done as quickly as possible while he screams, or 2) put him to sleep and he will lay still and won't remember a thing afterward. The problem with Alex's injury was the location (on his lip) and the type of injury (it cut through the pink lip line and into his regular skin). They needed to make sure they lined up the pink part of his lip just right so he doesn't have a horrible scar the rest of his life. So, although I would normally be all for option one, we went with option two.

(Here, you can sort of see the stitches on the left side of his mouth.)

It was really scary and we wouldn't have done it if there was a better way, but there just wasn't. Paul had already given Alex a blessing, so we felt comfortable with the choice, but it still didn't make it easy to watch. They insisted that he lay down on the bed and they began hook up heart monitors, an arm cuff, the little clip on his finger, and then oxygen through a tube in his nose. He took it pretty well, plus I was laying on the bed with him to help keep him calm, but he absolutely refused to let them put the tube in his nose (I don't blame him). He kept saying, "No nose, No nose!" He of course screamed when they gave him the shot in his thigh, but the drug started kicking in after a few minutes, so he calmed down. Now, this was the hard part for us as parents. The drug they gave him only knocked him out for about 15 or 20 minutes, but he goes to sleep with his eyes open. His eyes were shifting back and forth really fast, and it accelerated his heart and saliva production. This made him gurgle a lot and they had to suck out the saliva every couple of minutes. His muscles were also twitching. Paul and I were both near to freaking out, but they had warned us this would happen, so we just had to keep repeating to ourselves that he was going to be just fine. The stitches went in great and the doc was able to check the other 3 cuts in his mouth to make sure they didn't need stitches.

(This picture was taken today, so it is already looking much better.)

So, we went through all this for 3 stitches! My goodness! It took him until almost midnight to wake up completely from the drug they gave him. Meanwhile his eyes were open the whole time. We would ask him questions and he would stare blankly at us while answering very slowly. It was the weirdest experience. I am so glad it is over. We finally got home at 12:30 AM and went to bed. Alex slept with us, of course, so we didn't have a super restful night, but it was a relief to be home with a healthy, albeit injured, little boy.

Here he is posing with his little heart monitor "band-aides" on. He thought they were cool. We considered trying to see what kind of things with could button to him, but he had already been through enough, so we left them alone. As you can see, he also loves to lick the stitches.

Here he is posing. He was refusing to let us take a picture of his "owie," so the ones above were the best I could get.


I am so glad he is OK! It was probably more traumatic for us as parents then it was for him. The hardest part for him was staying up so late and then putting him to sleep and then waking him up again. We sure love this little boy and are so grateful for blessings and the comforting love of our Savior.

The good news is that he can still doing swimming lessons, which start today!

...and the Officially Late Announcement!

OK, so you would think that I could have gotten my act together a little sooner and made the announcement official, but let's face it, I am a procrastinator. *sigh* Well, here it is anyways, if you haven't already heard (or noticed) I'm pregnant! Yippee!
I am about 19 weeks along now...which is anyone's best guess, including my doctor who freely admits it. But, when we get our ultrasound done on May 25th, they will pin down a slightly more accurate due date. Right now we are saying it is October 12, but of course this little one will come when he or she is ready. So, i guess this means I will be entering my third and most fabulous trimester right in the thick of summer! I already got a cute maternity swim suit and plan to spend lots of time cooling off in Randy's pool, I mean teaching Alex to swim...haha! OK, so I will do a little of both. I have always promised myself that I would never be pregnant in the heat of the summer...now I will eat my words!

I have been feeling a lot better lately...It seems that after throwing up everyday since I was about 5 weeks along, I am finally over that part. I do have to run to the porcelain god every once in a while, but it has drastically decreased since about 2 weeks ago! Another Yippee! The only real difference between this baby and Alex when he was in my tummy is that the throwing up stopped about a month earlier than it did with Alex (thank goodness) and I have been feeling the baby move since he or she was about 13 weeks or so. I felt the baby kick my hand for the first time about 2 weeks ago and it has been kicking ever since. Paul has even felt him or her a few times. Alex was a wiggly little guy in my tummy all the time, and this one is no different.

We will find out if baby is a boy or a girl on the 25th (hopefully, if the little bean cooperates). Paul is hoping for a boy, Alex wants a girl, and I am happy either way. We will all of course be excited, whatever the outcome may be.

That's all for now, but be assured that I will post again when we find out the results. Anyone want to guess? Leave a comment!