The month of Easter

For our family Easter wasn't just the one day, no it was multiple days spread over the entire month of April. From brunches to easter egg hunts, we had our fair share of easter flair. Needless to say I was very glad to retire to our bed last night. And now you can all enjoy our bazillion Easter pictures!

But before I post this years pictures, I have to put these back up from last year. Isn't it crazy how much they change and grow in a year? It makes me sad and weepy for my little brown eyed bunny. sigh... when did he get so big?

This is when the egg opened and Candy appeared...This is after I put the candy back in the egg and closed it... I still see this face daily...Brunches lunches and day dates....

A few weeks ago Axel and I drove up to Park City with Ashley and Ashdon for a Easter Brunch with our friends Janae & Jade.

We had a VERY delicious lunch

Made adorable Easter bunny ears

And stuffed eggs with rice crispy treats

the following week we had another lunch with some of the Anderson mommies in our "Play Group" we had a great lunch
Lots of visiting and chit chatting

A killer egg hunt inside grandma's living room

The day BEFORE Easter we went to our stake Easter Extravaganza, and had an Easter Egg hunt.

While we were out the Easter Bunny broke into our house and left THIS for Axel!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! You sure did brighten his day!

On Easter, we opted to not do the whole candy thing, but hid other types of stuff around the family room for Axel to find. We had a sports theme, if you didn't already assume that.

He did great at picking up the eggs and putting them in his basket, then dumping them out, then moving on to find all the other things the "Easter Bunny" left him.

For church our friends, the Fries', came down from Alaska to bless their baby Hudson. It was really good to see them even for a small amount of time. The blessing was really great, and the speakers in their ward were also really good.

Later that day we went to ANOTHER Easter Egg hunt/lunch at my sister Hilary's house with her kids and grandma and grandpa. By this point Axel was over the whole easter egg in the basket thing and just wanted to play with the soccer ball outside, while Hilary's kids climbed trees and fences to get every last easter egg. (there was quite a few too) We brought all our eggs we collected this week and added to the hunt so we could get rid of them. :)

We finished the night at Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's for a lovely and delicious Easter dinner, and some visiting.
When we retired to our beds that evening, we watched a couple videos on Easter which can be seen here. Which I really needed to watch because our Sunday was sooo chaotic with lots going on and I kinda felt like it was missing something. This brought everything else back into focus.

Just when you think all is safe

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up with the looming feeling that something bad is going to happen that day? So you start covering your bases, ie you double check your bank account and bills, you make sure your husband makes it safe and sound to work, you get an oil change and you make sure when you leave the house all lights and appliances are turned off, and doors locked. I don't have those days all that often, in fact I really can only think of two times in my life where I felt this way, when my water broke with Axel, and then yesterday.

So naturally, I started to panic that maybe my daughter was about to make her debut into the world, (even though we still have 6 weeks) I couldn't shake the suspicion that something not so good was about to happen.

And then it did, despite my efforts to double check all my steps, and to keep my family safe. Before I could blink, I was running out the door following my husband who was holding our screaming toddler.

So what happened?

We have a door in our Kitchen that goes to the pantry, and to the basement and to our really steep stairs and to the back doors. We are constantly trying to keep Axel away from those areas, but when he sees that door open, he bolts for it, either wanting to go downstairs, or to have some candy from the pantry or in this case to go skateboard outside. He has been so obsessed with getting outside lately, and suddenly our easily distractible tike has turned into quite the stubborn boy. Kory was trying to distract Axel with a piece of peppermint candy while I finished up the last part of making dinner.

But as Kory was closing the door, and it is a really hard door to close because it's old, and you have to kind of pull it tight to get it to close otherwise it just snaps back open, Axel tried to stop Kory from behind and his little pinkie finger got stuck in between the door and the jam. Kory turned around and said "we need to go the hospital" I could tell by the urgency in his voice, he was not joking.

(insert from Kory)

[I turned around to see why the door wouldn't close and saw his finger in it. I threw the door open and grabbed his finger to assess the damage and it flopped around like a bobble head and blood started pouring down our arms. That's when I realized electrical tape wasn't going to fix this one.]

Seconds later we were headed out the door on our way to the ER. I drove to the hospital through rush hour traffic while Kory tried to keep both me and Axel calm, holding a screaming Axel on his lap. Axel kept crying "you Ok!" over and over. (We totally pulled a 'Britney Spears' but there was no way we could have gotten him in his seat with out doing more harm, Kory could barely hold him on his lap, he was in a lot of pain, and didn't understand why we needed to hold his hand still to stop the bleeding) I am sure we were quite the site when we pulled up to the hospital. Axel was not wearing a shirt either because we were having pancakes and watermelon for dinner and watermelon stains shirts, its just easier that way.

But after a conversation with Kory's sister, who thought that was risky, how many of you would have taken the time to strap your toddler into a seat? (Keep in mind we are less than a mile and a half from the hospital). Little babies sure, because they are more cooperative, but even then, if you were worried they were going to go into shock I don't think I would have taken the time. (And yes I actually thought he was going into shock, but realized it was just peppermint candy mixed with drool, and not blood, but still when you are in the fight or flight mode, you just go) So I am just curious what you all would do? Or are we just THOSE kind of parents and too afraid to admit it?

I dropped off Kory and Axel at the ER, and then rushed back home to turn off our grill which was still cooking the last of the pancakes. The whole time balling my eyes out, and tailgating everyone in site. I got two birds, and a "what's your problem?". When I got home, I thought for sure that our dinner would be gobbled up by our dogs, but even they knew something was wrong and didn't even attempt to eat it.

I am not sure what happened to Axel or Kory during this time, but Kory said there were a lot of nurses trying to make him calm and happy and when I got to his room he had stickers a bear and a book, but was still very very upset. He was mostly upset because they took his shoe and put on a foot tag, and they had the audacity of taking his vitals, Axel has not been a fan of nurses lately.

But we quickly turned his tag on his foot into a pirate flag by drawing the jolly roger on it and he was much happier about that. We then attempted to read him his book, but it was really when he got to color on his book that he liked it better, and when we told him the lizard was a dragon, because he has been really into dragons lately because of a book he likes to read. We did some singing too, which helped him too. But really what REALLY calmed him down was when we started to flip through channels on the TV and we stumbled upon Sports Center. After that he just sat back and made himself comfortable. Which we were so glad because we were there for a really long time.

The Dr finally got to us after about a half an hour and he was really great at explaining what was going to happen and the next steps.

After about another hour Axel was taken back for an X ray. Because I am pregnant I wasn't allowed to follow them. But in a way I was thankful. It was hard for me to see him in pain. I knew he wasn't going to be cooperative for them. And he wasn't, but they got the x rays they needed.

He was upset about them taking his blood pressure

After the X ray they came in and prepared him and us for the surgery. They had to put him under because it was such meticulous work and there was no way he would hold still for them to work on it. They gave him a shot of something that sedated him, but didn't put him out out, he just kind of sat there on the table and stared off into space. (Did I mention this happened on 4/20? I'm just sayin...)

This is where he started to fade out...

But basically what they had to do was sew his skin back together, sew the nailbed back on, put his nail back in and then repair his cuticle, so that when the new nail grew in it would have a place to grow in. He said he may not have the prettiest nail but that this should prevent his nail from growing like up or out some other weird place. The bone was broken but not in a way that would cause any problem.

When the doctor finished he showed us the stitches and I was amazed he was able to make it look so much better. We don't have any before pictures or after sorry. But it was a mess.

The Dr finished just in time, Axel started to come to, but was still really loopy. Just trying to get his eyes to focus and such, the first thing he asked for was "water". Poor kid hadn't eaten or drank anything since 2 that day. (besides the piece of candy) But in this case it was a good thing because he didn't throw up, which a lot of people do. But he kept asking me for it, "Mama, Water?"

We had to hang out in the room for a bit longer as we waited for him to fully come to. I have to admit we got some good laughs out of it. Poor kid was soo hungry and thirsty but once he could hold his head up they gave him some water, he watched some more TV, and a commercial came on with fries (Probably one of his top favorite foods) so after that he kept asking for fries.

Waking up and all bandaged up

(Side note story, once upon a summer Kory had surgery, and the first thing he asked for when he woke up was a stake...like father like son)

He also kept saying things like "door" over and over again and "No No No" We got a couple good videos of him coming out of it too.

We came home around 9:30, so we were there about 4 hours total. He still couldn't walk on his own so we had to keep a close eye on him to keep him from getting more hurt, but he went to bed pretty easily that night.

On Thursday, he woke up and had a hard time adjusting to using his hand for anything, but eventually as the day went on he started to use it, and he thinks the wrapping is pretty cool, he asked us to put some more wrapping on his other hand to match.

Follow up appointment 4/22

Today we had his follow up appointment with a hand specialist to assess the damage and make sure his little pinkie was still in good shape.

Good news! The Dr told us the ER Dr did a great job and that it most likely will heal nicely. Worse case scenario he will have a funky nail the rest of his life. Also good news we wont have to change the wrapping as often as we thought. FEW I am so done with things messing up this kids nightly routine.

Bad news! We are back to ANOTHER round of antibiotics, to help it keep from getting gross and infected. Luckily tho it is only 5 days, but still twice a day. And even tho it is not ammoxicilian, (he's apparently allergic) it is still pink, so I am hoping he will like the flavor and be a good sport about taking it.

The Potty Diaries

This is the beginning of a series of posts I would like to call "The Potty Diaries" We are about to embark on a journey and I thought I would bring all my readers along! You know for moral support, or maybe there is someone out there who will be encouraged by our journey, hopefully not the opposite. But who knows we don't know where this will take us.

Each day I will be documenting our progress and hopefully it will be progress.

Introduction:

Somewhere recently we decided it was time to start potty training Axel. But I knew when I got started it was going to be a LONG grueling process. But like many mom's I know it has been more about When? How? and Will it work? To me it seems like now would be better than later because at least right now he is relishing in being independent and showing interest in being potty trained, and we have a little more time to devote to him and this big step.

One day I was emailed this article from BabyCenter.com, which is about Potty training your child in just 3 days! When I read the title I thought, yeah freaking right! But then as I started to read the program and how it is laid out, I started to think about potty training, not just small children, but about how we trained our dogs too, and it really started to make a lot of sense, and the more and more I thought about this approach, I thought if anything works with Axel right now, this will be it.

That being said, if I have learned one thing about potty training over the many many years as a nanny, it is that every child is different, every child learns differently, and what works with one child may not work for another, but eventually they all come around to accomplish it in their own way. Case in point, Maddy had an imaginary friend tell her it was time to use the potty because she was 3, and Nicolas after every other attempt failed, what worked for him was telling him he'd only get Diapers for his birthday, and that cured him.

I really thought this approach would work great for us, because it really wouldn't be that messy of a clean up, because we have hard wood floors, vinyl couches, and linoleum through out our house, (ah the life of a dog owner!) So really it wouldn't do any lasting damage, so why not?

Some of you may be thinking we are crazy for even attempting this so young, and that's o.k, I too think this is possibly far fetched, and have been saying to myself all morning that I don't think it is going to work out, (my pessimistic attitude always seems to show itself when I am trying to accomplish something new). But I keep telling myself that we can do this, and we have nothing to lose! Kory says he thinks Axel can do it, and has been encouraging me to not give up. I am so glad Axel has a dad who is optimistic, and can really encourage us to try new things.

Day 1~April 18, 2011~

Getting started

I originally decided I would start this today a week ago, but then retracted that, and decided maybe we would wait until he was older, or after the baby came, because the idea just terrified me.

But then this morning I woke up with a terrible cough and sore throat, and it was raining, so I opted that today was going to be a day we just stayed home, watched movies, and napped our heart out. In my head I canceled everything I had planned for the day, grocery shopping, picking up diapers, and maybe a little walk in the afternoon. We were just going to stay inside.

At about 10 am I decided it was time for us to get out of bed. (Axel had joined me in bed for cartoons around 7:30 this morning) As I was getting ready Axel asked to take a bath. Why not? What else were we going to do.

So after the bath I wrapped him in his towel and put him on the couch and went to get his clothes for the day. When I brought them back he was climbing off the couch his bare bum sticking to the black vinyl. And I said "Axel we need to put your diaper on." to which he replied "No No NO" grabbing his boy parts and running into his bedroom.

That is when I decided, or rather he decided for me, that today would in fact be the day we tried this program out. So I grabbed his potty, pulled it in the front room, then rolled up our blue shag carpet from the living room and our green shag carpet from Axel's room and put them away, grabbed my computer, and made myself comfortable on our couch. All I had to do now was watch for him to "Show me signs" of him needing to use the potty. Easy peasy right?

The Goal of today is to get him to get a "Hit" on the potty as much as possible even if it's just a drop. Eventually after 12 "Hits" they say he will get it. (Not that you are done from there, but that the hard part is over...)

So I watched, and I watched and I watched. And nothing. So I pulled up messenger on my computer to chat with Kory about our day and what we were doing.

Then I hear it.

"PUUUFFF" I look up, Axel is looking up from his toys at me, an expression on his face only to be described as a dear in headlights, like "Whoa mom, did you hear that?", I run over to him to whisk him to the potty, and I am already too late. He had all ready pee'd on the floor. No poo, so I put him on the potty anyway and instructed him to "PUSHHHH the Poo out!" Making quite an embarrassing face, as I am sure you can all imagine. But he happily copied my expression, stood up, turned around only to be disappointed there wasn't any "stinky" or an "Ah sick" in his potty. SO off he ran to play, bare bottomed and all.

Disappointed that we missed this prime opportunity I followed him into his room so I could watch him, we went from toy to toy as he ran around playing with them.

Then we went back to the family room, and I looked away, kid you not for one second, and he began running only to stop for a second to watch a little more pee coming down his leg. But again, I was too late to put him on the potty to finish the duty. So we just cleaned it up and he went back to playing.

Kory came home at noon, like always Axel ran to him to greet him, he seemed extra excited today, I am sure because he was naked. One minute the floor was dry the next it was wet! But at least this time it hit the side of the wall of the potty on its way out. He was completely oblivious tho. Does that count as a hit? Probably not...

After we ate lunch it was time for a nap which meant putting a diaper on him. This time around he cooperated and allowed me to put his diaper on him. We snuggled on the couch until he fell asleep. While he was asleep I ran downstairs, threw some laundry in, then retired to my bed.

I don't know if I would call the day a success so far. The score is 3 misses and 0 hits.

Has it been hard? No

Has it been different? Surprisingly, not so much, A little, but not much.

Have I been disappointed? I am not going to lie, yeah, a little, but I am sure we will get there eventually. Hoping that after his nap we will be able to get some good practice in :)

What would I do differently? I think it would be nice to have Kory here while we do this to help and encourage and to teach, and to follow him around. But that is really not an option for us right now, so we'll do what we can and make it work for us.

The rest of the day

After Axel woke up from his nap at 4:45, we took off his diaper and had him sit on the toilet, and he tried with all his might but still no cigar.

Kory came home shortly after 5 and by then Axel had already had 4 misses. It was like every time I turned my back or looked down for a second he would pee. I followed him around all day and every time I would turn my back THAT was when he would pee. The rest of the night was similar to that. Only it seemed to be bigger pees, more spread apart. Which I think is a good thing right? Means he was learning to hold it in? Still wont pee on command, but he tries.

He did have one Hit, so yeah for us! Makes it all worth it right? I am not so sure. At this rate it will be more like a 15 day potty training not a 3 day one.

Tomorrow we get to leave the house without a diaper on...we'll see how I feel in the morning about that, I guess I should just make sure I have extra clothes for him.

Sometimes life can be hard...But other times it can be so so so good.

On Monday April 11, 2011 my older sister Hilary and her husband Brian, along with their three children, went to the Provo Temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. (On her birthday too! Good luck topping that!)

It was such an amazing day, we have all been waiting, and praying for this day to happen, for a very long long time. I think I was in shock for a while and sometimes when I think about it, I still get chills. I don't ever want to forget the spirit I felt in the sealing room that day. It was amazing, to say the least.

My brother and his wife were able to fly in from California for that day. We were all able to be there, and witness this amazing event for the first time. (We were missing Liesel's husband who had a final that day)

This is my family

This picture makes me really happy, Kory was there too but we had to go pick up Axel and so he just dropped me off at the front and I got there just in time to be in this picture, while he parked the car. Seen below coming to join the party...

A couple cousins and some Aunts and Uncles were able to be there as well. Which was amazing because we don't have too many relatives here in Utah, most of them came down from Idaho. They also had a lot of friends and neighbors there too. Our old Bishop growing up, and Hilary and Brian's home teacher for many many years was actually working in the temple that day and was able to come sit in.

Brian's dad and wife Karen, as well as his Grandpa (I think anyway) were there.

I am so happy for my sister. I am so glad I was able to be there and to see her darling children kneel besides their parents and be sealed together for time and all eternity. This was my first time witnessing such a sealing, and I am not going to lie, it was probably my favorite thus far. I have such a strong testimony of Temples and the work performed in them. But sometimes I need reminding of that, and I am grateful that the Lord gives me these experiences to humble me.

Often times when Kory and I do temple work I sometimes lose sight of what we are actually doing for them. Too often I feel like its just a name. This day reminded me of just how important it is for those people and their families, and how long they have been waiting to have that work done. It is extremely important stuff, and I am going to try to be better.

I also have to give my sister a shout out, not that she did this on her own, or that she converted her husband. In fact, I don't think I even know what made him want to start coming to church. I think there was just a lot of support and encouragement in a lot of different places.

But I know her example was a key player, it had to be. She never gave up on him, and she kept doing what she needed to do for her family so that her kids would still have the gospel in their lives. It was a definite struggle for her sometimes, I remember many conversations with her about church being hard with 3 kids all by herself, and wanting to give up. (Sometimes I laugh because I didn't get it at first, then I had Axel, and church became sooo hard and exhausting, and I have Kory doing most of the chasing/entertaining even. I laugh how I used to give her advice on how to entertain her two toddlers and a 5 year old, like I even had a clue!)

But she didn't quit going because it was hard, sure she had her days, but she stuck to it, she kept on going, praying and pleading that someday her family would be able to go to the temple together.

I am grateful for the atonement and for how it blesses my life and the life of my family, and allows us all to be able to return to our Heavenly Father.

It was a very very good day.

Fun stuff

Are you ready for some pictures?

Last monday for a combined birthday party for my nephews Hinkley (3) and Liam (1) we went to Kangaroo Zoo.

Giving the Turtle Loves

Then we went to Maddy's first Soccer game, Axel had SOO much fun. I thought he was into the JAZZ game but not compared to how he reacted to watching Maddy play soccer. He kept yelling "GO GO GO GO MABBY (OR BABBY) GO!" He was soo excited. All the other kids thought he was pretty great too, and Mad's asked her mom if Axel could come to all her games to cheer GO GO GO for her because "it was just so darn cute!" We will have to go again...

For the first half of the game she was here defending her goal, she was WAY bored, and didn't really get the defending part. .

Then the coach wised up (probably after hearing my sister complain about not letting her play more) And let her play another position for the 2nd half, and she kept the ball by the other teams net the whole time! She just would book it down there, I can tell she will be a great soccer player. (and this was her first time playing too)

In her cute soccer get up after the game!

Remember when we had really nice weather for like 3 days? We didn't waste a minute of that beautiful sunshine. One of the days we took the dogs to the park for some Family/Date/picnic time.

How cute is Axel walking Zoe next to Kory? I've had a lot of kids attempt to walk our dogs before, none of them had as much success as Axel did, he did a great job, and the weird thing is Zoe lets him, she usually resists other kids. I bet she was just excited to out with us. I took a bunch of pictures of them walking but these are the only two where the dogs weren't marking their territory, kid you not they peed like every two feet.

Thanks to Kangaroo Zoo, Axel's slide courage has greatly improved. He chose to ride the biggest slide aka "wee" the entire time, all by himself.

But this kid is seriously afraid of the netted playground stuff, he has to crawl across it if he doesn't have my hand, or the side. (I still feel that way about bridges) but this also improved as he kept climbing up to go down the slide.

For family night we went to the Karl Bloch exibit at BYU (we went on a tuesday to avoid the FHE rush). The paintings were amazing but the crowd made me very very anxious. I was panicked the whole time. It was chaos, I was glad to leave. Axel did say "Jesus" when he saw the pictures of the Savior. That was cute. Kory was pretty proud.

We then headed down stairs and they had another great exhibit of war posters, which we found humerous, sad and very interesting politically.

Axel thought this one was FANTASTIC, he kept pointing and shaking his finger at him saying "NO NO NO" then laughing...

Then today was a big day for my side of the family, my brother in law Brian, (Hilary's husband) went though the temple for the first time! I offered to watch all the kids for my sister's so they could go. I just knew I wouldn't be up for a session being this big and uncomfortable, it's really hard for me, but why I thought watching 7 kids would be any easier I still don't know. :) But I think I had a lot of help from Angels or Heavenly Father, and I know my sisters who never get to go to the temple, appreciated it and understood.

Luckily for me I had ordered some Play dough Cookie Dough from a neighbor school cookie order and it arrived at our door the night before, so it kept all the older kids pretty busy, and then everyone enjoyed the cookie creations.

The artists at work. The two older girls convinced me to let them get started before anyone else, but soon the boys found out and had to join them.

Hinkley joined us for a total of 5 minutes but ended up just clumping all his colors together and then just eating the dough. I know ...sick...

These two boys just busily played together, I am glad they are getting to that point where they can play together. They are both pretty shy so they just kinda do their own thing, but I think they both appreciate the other respecting their personal bubble.

Oh and Axel got a hair cut this week, it's a lot shorter than we were wanting it to be, and it took me a little bit to get used to it, I think it aged him quite a bit, but he still looks cute. :) But I am sure he appreciates being able to see.

Even with all those kids this was the messiest Axel's room got, and they even all helped clean up when we were done (I had to of course use the cookies as a bribe for some, but a few of them knew the rules and did a great job cleaning up)

I was surprised by some of the creations, it was really fun. I suggest you get yourself some for a rainy day or for a day when you need to entertain oodles of children.

Before

After

Before

After

I of course had to make Axel a Basketball cookie :)

YUM! nothing like cookies for breakfast!

I only wish I would have taken a picture of all the kids mouths after eating these! It looked like they each swallowed a bottle of food coloring! It was bad. Your welcome moms!

A picture of words

The sound of the organ booms through our home, as the choir members sing.

Bundled up on the couch as a family, on one end, Axel lays across Kory's lap with his bottle, and I and baby girl on the other, my feet rest on Kory's lap next to Axel, and Kory's next to me. Baby girl moves in my belly to get comfortable and I feel her begin to hiccup as she adjusts. I pretend she is tapping her feet to the music.

Axel is in his adorable stretch pajamas that only toddlers can pull off perfectly, and Kory in his dark blue Bigwig band sweatshirt, both boys hair is tousled and unkempt, but matches their sleepy eyes perfectly. Axel rubs his fingers through his own hair and looks up from his bottle to his dad and mentions something about the organ being a pirate ship.

Our house is filled with laughter.

Little dog rests behind us on the back of the couch, basking in the sunlight coming in from the window.

Big dog sits at Kory's side resting her chin in Kory's hand pleading for him to scratch her ears or rub her tummy. We both tell her to sit and relax. Axel laughs behind his bottle and mimics the command, shaking his little finger at her over and over.

Kory and I both smile.

We bow our heads as a family and pray together with the millions watching worldwide, we listen to the words of the prayer and plead silently in our hearts to be enlightened by the spirit, and for the answers we have come searching for.

The spirit is felt in our home.

Kory and I join the congregation and say Amen, Axel follows our example and throws his arms in the air and praises AMEN!

It is a beautiful day.

To watch/listen to this session of General Conference, or to learn more about Eternal Families click Here.