One of the best things about our church, is that you can walk into your own building, or a building across the world, and it is the same.
It’s true.
Because if you walk into our ward building in southern California any week, or a different one in Salt Lake this weekend, you will see the same naughty girl climbing the pews with stickers all over her face.
I hope this boy never grows out of his DayDay and his two front fingers.
For Scout’s birthday, we planned a camp out. It got delayed a few times because he wasn’t up to it after his tonsils, but today is finally the big day! He invited a few buddies, and Micah and Jason were the adults on duty. They headed to the Ortegas, and found a rad spot. Micah brought about every kind of food imaginable, and was prepared with all things, for all weathers and all situations! I knew they would have fun. But when they came back with their stories, it seemed like a perfect night in any boy’s eyes!
They got to set up camp, played for hours, made a million s’mores, ate and ate, and got up and started over. The best story was when they saw a huge 6 foot snake, and Seth said, “I love snakes”, and went over to pet it. That snake turned around and hissed at him, and everyone ran for their lives! Then, as they were all scared like little girls, the snake slithered away, and up into the wheel well of my car! Micah couldn’t get it out, so they just started driving. Luckily, somewhere along the drive, Mr. Snake came flying out of my car! Funny story? To them, yes. To me, only because the ending was without a snake in my car.
Scout, happy belated birthday party.
I have a slight hatred of baking. Too many specifics, and you have to follow the directions exactly. But my cooking class had the most amazing cheese rolls last night, so I wanted to quickly recreate them.
They looked amazing.
I followed the rules to a T.
I proofed, rolled, and proofed again.
Which leads me to another reason I hate baking — 3 hours later, I had hockey pucks on my hands!
Apparently Pippi is very hands on. If Blush is in the bath, Pippi gets in. If Blush is eating, Pippi is feeding her. If Blush is in a diaper, Pippi is trying to change it — dirty or not. And if Blush is sleeping, Pippi is crawling into her crib with her (even inviting the neighbor girl to join in)! Looks like someone is a very good big sis.
I wasn’t sure I would feel good enough to go on Dash’s train field trip — 2 days after my hospital stay, but I felt great.
So Dash and I headed to the train station for his “favorite field trip ever”!
The whole preschool gang boarded the train to Oceanside.
We hung at the beach, walked the pier, and I took Dash to Ruby’s for a milkshake.
We ended up having the best time, and Dash told me at the end, “Mom, I am so glad you came, because my teacher didn’t think you would be able to. But I knew you would.”
What do you do when your 2 year old companion for a flight, suddenly has a stuffed animal from nowhere, as they call for pre-boarding?
Well, in my mom’s case, you run to the nearest store — only to discover that there is nothing Disney in that store. Then you look to realize that there is no other store within stealing distance. Then you walk through the crowd with the mouse held high, asking if it is anyone’s mouse. Then, as they make their “final call” for pre-boarding, you grab that naughty little two-year-old’s hand and get on the plane — with the mouse! And then as the passengers walked on the plane, she was still trying to see if it was anyone’s.
I asked her if that two-year-old could verbalize where she got it, and my mom said that for the first time in Pippi’s life, she was silent.
After hearing this whole story before my mom’s plane took off, I was dying when Tristen sent me this photo from when she picked them up!
Find the not-so-hidden Mickey!
Last Thursday, I had my appointment to check on my baby. It was my 20 week appointment where you find out about the detailed health of the baby, so it was a biggie. As I sat in the waiting room, I knew without any doubt that I was going to get bad news that day. My mind fluttered back to a blessing I had at the beginning of my pregnancy where I was told that my baby wouldn’t deal with the blood issues that my other babies had. When I heard that, I immediately knew that my baby would either be part of a miracle, or that I wouldn’t be having this baby. I didn’t give it much thought until the waiting room. And then as my mind fluttered back to the blessing, I knew.
The first ultrasound presented a healthy heartbeat, and I thought, “Wow! My baby does have a heartbeat.” I full expected it to not be there. And then during my second ultrasound, the doctor casually asked me, “Have you been feeling your baby a lot?” I looked back at him, and said, “There isn’t a heartbeat, is there”? He was very surprised by what I said, and asked how I could possibly know that. I told him that I knew in the waiting room that I was going to get bad news. I then asked what we do next. He started to talk about what happens next, and then he wanted to know how I was so composed and calm. I then told him that I felt very prepared for this news, and this was not a shock to me at all. What I didn’t tell him was that I had received a blessing many months before that gave me great clarity in the midst of some really tragic and scary news.
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Fast forward to today. Because our baby had developed enough, we had to deliver him. So with the help of Dr. Thein (who is so insanely awesome that he took charge of this whole thing for me), we went into the hospital, and went through exactly the same sort of induction I received with my other babies. Some have asked if it was a sad and long day. But it wasn’t. It truly wasn’t. It certainly was reverent, but we had a great time at the hospital. There wasn’t any sadness in the room — at all.
When I finally delivered our baby, he was teeny but fully developed. Ten fingers and ten toes, and little muscles in his legs. We weren’t going to bring the kids in, but Scout and Navy both asked to hold him. So we felt great about that. And one of the sweetest moments of the day was Scout describing our little baby to Navy as, “the most perfect, beautiful baby he had ever seen”. That is exactly how we all felt.
We all got to hold this sweet baby, which was a really neat experience. It reminded me of the time when we first told the kids that the baby didn’t grow properly, and went back to Heaven. Dash thought for a while when he heard the news, and then said, “It’s a miracle”! The whole day felt miraculous to me. And I am grateful for the sweet experience. I also love that my kids know they have a personal angel looking out for them.
And in true Denison baby birth fashion…
Of course Micah got a footprint on his arm.
The sweetest, littlest footprint ever!
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Skip-Doc you ask???
Since we were only mid way through this pregnancy, we obviously hadn’t come up with a name yet. I was loving “Skip”, and Micah was fond of “Doc”. Because we don’t know which way it would have gone — when they asked for his name for record purposes, I responded with Skip-Doc. And now Skip-Doc it has become — the only baby name we chose 50/50.
But actually, if you think about it, Skip has more letters, so I guess I had a bit more say!
I can not describe how lucky I feel, that my kids have older cousins who adore them.
This is a picture I got from Skylar, while she was on a date to sushi with Scout.
I think that I had about the best childhood a kid could ever have.
But my kids are definitely in a close second.
Happy Mother’s Day to this tired woman with her first baby.
The fact that you did this eleven more times is amazing to me!
Your stamina and patience I will never have.
Your goodness, I hope to have.
Your red hair and freckles, I undoubtedly have.
Thanks for the least of your best qualities.
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