Category: Family

Family news, announcements, etc.

Cribsakes 2006

In case you haven’t visited Cribsakes yet in the new year, Becky’s site is almost 100% up. You can now see close ups of each announcement, and we’re finally set up to take orders online. Go check things out if you get a chance. And please refer any friends or family who might be interested.

Finally, she’s completed a couple of new designs for 2006. I soon as I can get to work on incorporating them into the website, then they’ll be up. Hopefully in the next few days.

Wedding

I quick check in for those of you not able to be here today. Andrea and Josh’s day is going great. The weather this morning is Salt Lake City was just about perfect for a December wedding. Mid to upper 40s, very light overcast, perfect lighting for pictures. The ceremony was this morning, and we just got back from the luncheon. I’m waiting right now for the reception as the families have to show up early for pictures.

Here’s a quick picture from this morning (click for larger image):

Christmas review at 36,000 feet

So, I’ve got a couple of hours left to kill while in the air heading West. I’m between episodes of Battlestar Galactica and I figure I’m up for a review of our Christmas.

We started on Christmas Eve by going to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was pretty good, and Ashlee didn’t even fall asleep. Although she did get bored almost near the end and she started walking up and down our row. To her credit though she was very quiet and she didn’t disturb anyone as we had the whole row to ourselves. There were only about 20 or 30 other people in the theater. After the movie, we had a little bedtime snack, got ready for bed, read stories, put out our stockings and some egg nog and cookies for Santa. Becky informed me that she was going to sleep until at least 8 before we went to bed. Which meant that we could all sleep in as she’s usually the first one up on Christmas and she has to drag the rest of us out of bed.

I got up around 8:30, and went down and checked on Nick, who was also just waking up. The girls got up shortly after. Nick and Ashlee were pleased that Santa had left a note thanking them for the snack. Ashlee had been showing some of her mother’s former habits during the week by pretending to rearrange presents when she was really trying to sneak her fingers in between the seems of the wrapping paper to get a sneak peak. Anyway, we let her and Nick run the show. They’d each pull out a present for themselves, open it, then find another one. We had to keep them moving along a couple of times because they’d often want to stop the whole thing and play with what they had already received. After presents, Becky cooked up a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and hash browns. Then Nick practiced his song and we got ready for church.

Surprisingly, Sacrament Meeting was pretty full. The family in front of us got a laugh courtesy of Nick and Ash, during the Sacrament hymn. They were singing Jingle Bells pretty loudly. I didn’t notice until we were actually done with the hymn but they still had “Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!” to go. Becky and I were trying to get them to be quiet but everyone around us thought it was very cute. Nick sang Away in a Manger with a few other children as part of the Christmas program and he did really well. We were proud that he got up and sang in front of everyone.

After church, everyone not named Becky settled in for play time or relaxing. Becky proceeded to start work on her masterpiece Christmas dinner. Which turned out to be one of the best meals we’ve ever had. Seriously, it was soooo good. We had roast chicken (turned out perfect), ham, mashed potatoes (the real kind, nobody makes mashed potatoes like Beck), sausage stuffing, corn (the only thing we knew for sure Ashlee would eat), and dinner rolls. Shortly after dinner we had apple pie. Everything turned out perfectly.

Following dinner, the kids watched The Polar Express (they have to watch it while they look at the book) while Becky and I talked to family on the phone. Even though we were flying solo this year, and were far away from all our family and friends, we had an excellent Christmas! Mostly through the efforts of Becky (I love that woman!). Merry Christmas to you all, we love and miss you. Enjoy the rest of the holidays and I’ll try and get some pictures posted soon.

Pinky update

We had another follow-up visit with Plastics yesterday for Ashlee’s finger. It’s actually looking really good. There’s a scab on the tip of it, but other than that it pretty much looks normal. The shape and length both look normal. She still has no nail and it’s still up in the air what if any part of her nail will grow back. We don’t need to see the doctor again though. We just wait for the nail to come in, give it some time to grow, and if we need to address it down the road we will. Other than that, she’s free from her protective tip and we don’t need to wrap it up anymore.

She’s having to get used to actually using that finger again. She’s spent the past month holding it straight and away from the rest of her fingers protecting it. Yesterday she didn’t want to move it much. But watching her today, she’s at least subconsciously bending it and using it to grab things again. Hopefully we’ll get lucky and her nail will grow back normally and look great.

“Good job Mommy!”

Becky and I had to speak in church this past Sunday. We somehow survived. I was lucky because I was last and by the time I got up to speak, there were only about 5 minutes left in Sacrament Meeting. We were sitting in the second row (instead of the second from the back) so that one of us could sit with the kids while the other was speaking. Becky gave an excellent talk, and while she was coming back to the pew to sit with the kids, Ashlee excitedly said, “Good job Mommy!” She said it loud enough that I’m sure the first couple rows of pews heard her. It was the cutest thing.

This Sunday, Nick is part of the Christmas program. He was asked to sing Away in the Manger with 4 other children. It took us a little over a week to talk him in to it, but we think he’s all for it now. We’ll see when Sunday comes around. This is also our last week of the 1-4 block. It’s 9-12 for a year, Yippee!

Here is the subject matter for the talks we gave:

The Prophet Joseph Smith – Teacher by Example

Happy Birth Day

Will & Trish, along with Will & Grant, welcomed baby Nina Marie to their family this morning. Born at about 8:45a, Nina weighed in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long. Trish and Nina are doing well, and from talking to Will, the boys were very excited to see their baby sister.

Happy Birthday Nina!

“I need to go to the hospital”

As most of you know, we aren’t in Utah right now. For only the second time since we’ve been in Michigan, we’ll be having Thanksgiving at our house. So what’s keeping us here? Well, it was our second trip to the ER in less than a week that has delayed our trip out west. So here’s what happened (WARNING: this story is not for the squeamish, read at your own risk).

The night before our trip, we were getting the kids ready for bed. It was about 8pm. Nick was going to the bathroom and he had the door closed. Ashlee decided that she wanted to be in the bathroom also. She pushed the door open, and Nick slammed it closed. The third time this happened, the tip of the pinky finger on Ashlee’s right hand got caught in the door as she was pulling her hand away. This pulled off the tip of her finger from the nail on up.

I was sitting on Nick’s bed only a few feet away and I jumped up and rushed over to Ashlee, who’s hand was bleeding everywhere. She was crying, “I need to go to the hospital!” I cupped her hand and pulled her into Nick’s room, then asked Becky to get me something because Ashlee was bleeding. When she handed me some toilet paper, I told her I’d need something more so she rushed to bring me a paper towel. Becky didn’t yet know how serious Ashlee’s injury was. I told her that the tip of Ashlee’s finger had been pulled off and that it was on the floor in the bathroom doorway. She scooped it up in a plastic bag and put it with some ice then dialed 911. Ashlee only cried for a couple of minutes before she calmed down.

The EMTs arrived (they were only a couple of blocks away) and we pulled away the toilet paper and paper towel that I had been holding over her finger. They then bandaged her up with some gauze and we decided to drive Ashlee to the hospital ourselves. So all four of us piled into the car and we were off to the ER (again).

We were quickly ushered to Pediatric Urgent Care, where the same nurse who had helped treat Ashlee the previous Sunday for her head laceration recognized us and said, “Ashlee, you’re back?” She took us into one of the treatment rooms and took Ashlee’s history and vitals.

After a little while, one of the residents arrived and gently unwrapped Ashlee’s bandages to have a look. He took a quick look, covered her finger back up, and told us the hand surgeons would probably want to come down and take a look, and that they most likely wouldn’t be reattaching the tip of her finger since it was pretty much just her skin and nail that had been pulled off. Since Ashlee had last eaten around 7pm, we’d have to wait at least until 11pm before anything could be done surgery wise. Nick got a look at her finger at this time also. Becky asked him what it looked like and he said, “It looks straight across.”

At about 10:30, they came to get Ashlee for an xray. I went with her while Becky and Nick waited in the treatment room. At radiology, we unwrapped her hand all the way for the first time since the EMTs treated her. Ashlee finally saw her finger and was a little apprehensive. I helped her hold her hand still while they took three separate views of her pinky finger. After we finished, I bandaged her up again and we went back to the treatment room. After returning, they started to get Ashlee ready for the surgeons. They had to put an IV in her left hand and wrap it up so she wouldn’t try to pull it out. It reminded me of when Nick was born and was in the ICU for about 12 hours with his tiny hand wrapped up with an IV. Once again, Ashlee was very tough through the whole thing. She finally fell asleep shortly after that at around 11.

At about a quarter past 11, the hand surgeons arrived. Ashlee was given the sedative through her IV. I choose to stay while Becky and Nick went to the waiting room. They prepped her whole arm for the surgery. The xrays had shown that the very tip of her bone was exposed a little, but otherwise there was no bony injury. Next they injected lidocaine into her hand and the base of her fourth and fifth fingers as a localized nerve block. The surgeons closed up the wound as much as possible (luckily with biodegradable sutures), but told me that there was still a small area that was exposed but should heal up fine.

After closing everything up, they cleaned up her hand and arm, then wrapped her whole hand and wrist up with and gauze leaving only her little thumb exposed. They gave her antibiotics through her IV also. Everything went well. Becky came back into the treatment room just as they were finishing up. I asked her where Nick was and she said he was still in the waiting room playing with some cool toy. For future reference, the Pediatric Urgent Care waiting room does have some fun things in it. Nick came in a few minutes later. He had stopped off at the nurses station on the way back and picked up some stickers, one of which was a cute Princess sticker he wanted to give to Ashlee (see picture below).

Now all we had to do was wait for the sedative to wear off, then try and wake Ashlee up. She had to show she could respond to stimulus and drink something before we could take her home. Often when children are coming out of their anesthesia, they’ll experience blurry or double vision. Ashlee was no different as she started waking up about a half an hour later and started to cry as I’m sure she was confused and disoriented. It took about 15-20 minutes for her to calm down. Then she gulped down some grape juice and we could finally get ready to go home. Nick finally jumped into Becky’s lap and fell right asleep just after 1am.

We got our discharge papers, script for her antibiotics and pain meds, and instructions on caring for Ashlee’s finger until her follow-up visit with the plastic surgeon. With Ashlee in Becky’s arms, and a sleeping Nick in mine, we finally headed home. We got back just after 1:30. Ashlee got to sleep in our bed that night.

morning
Ashlee sleeping the morning after surgery

The prognosis: The finger should heal just fine. There is a small possibility that Ashlee’s pinky may need a couple of “touch-ups” so it looks like a normal finger when it’s totally healed. She most likely won’t grow a finger nail on that finger either. If some sort of nail does eventually grow, the surgeons said we’d probably want it removed for cosmetic reasons. We have a follow-up 1st post op visit with the plastic surgeon the day before Thanksgiving. So, we’ll be having Thanksgiving in Michigan.

We do wish we could get Ashlee to be more cautious of her hand. She’s been running, jumping, tumbling, and twirling around as if nothing’s happened. She is having to adjust to eating, coloring, painting, and using the computer with her left hand. But hopefully, after our next doctor’s visit, she’ll only have her pinky finger bandaged and can use the rest of her right hand again.

She’s very interested in the xrays of her hand I brought home from work yesterday. When she first saw them she said in her little sad girl voice, “Oh, the pinky got cut off.” She often asks to look at the xray of “Ashlee’s bones”. Maybe she’ll be a hand surgeon when she grows up.

with daddy 1

with daddy 2