Labor Day Weekend--Part 2

Clay's mom flew in on Saturday for the blessing. We had a nice day and let the kids play with cousins in the water and then all the adults went out to lunch while the kids watched a movie/took naps.

Here's Ethan taking his bath Saturday night in preparation for his blessing.Sunday morning we got up and had all 14 of us get ready for 9 am church. This picture is a bit blurry but it's one of my favorite. Samantha loves talking to Ethan.
Here he is in the blessing outfit I made for him.
Dad and Ethan before church.
It was a beautiful blessing. We were so blessed to have our friends, Reed and Donna Carr come up to join us from San Antonio. They're the missionaries I stayed with a few times when I came to visit Clay during training. We're very blessed to have them in our lives.

Ethan's blessing was amazing. The part I remember the most was about how there are people that he will meet and bring into the gospel on his foreign speaking mission. He's going to be a great missionary. We're so blessed to have him in our family. He was also counseled to remember his ancestors and look to their example of faith and courage.

After church we attempted to get some pictures. Here's our best attempt at a picture of the kids.
And a family picture. Hopefully some day we can get some better ones.
Our family with Clay's mom. By this point, the kids were pretty done so I didn't get the one I wanted with our family and both sets of grandparents. Oh well.
Here's all the family that came to be with us.
I have to admit that every time I look at this picture I get amazed at how well it turned out. That many people actually all looking at a camera and not too many funny faces.
Ethan and I.
Me, Ethan, my sister Kimberly, and my mom
This one cracks me up. I love everything going on in the background but we still smile through it all.
Kimberly and I.
Brother Carr, Clay, Me, Ethan, and Sister Carr.

Labor Day Weekend--Part 1

We decided to bless Ethan on Labor Day weekend so we were lucky enough to have some family be able to visit. My parents picked up my sister Kimberly and her two kids, who live in Denver, on their way to visit. It's been almost a year since we've seen them and it was really good to catch up with everyone. They arrived on Friday morning.

The cousins all had so much fun. Here's Jonathan and Charlie.
That night we headed back out to Belton Lake and had a picnic. Charlie and Daniel (with Clay and Grandpa's help) fixed dinner (cub scout achievements!) while the other kids went exploring and playing. Jonathan came back with war paint.
We found the perfect spot and it was so relaxing for all of us.

Daniel, Grandma Beck, Kimberly, Barbra, and Christina.
The cousins who were here--Ethan, Christina, Barbra, Charlie, Daniel, Jonathan, Samantha, and Amanda.
Grandpa & Grandma Beck with more than half of the grand kids. We have 6 of the current 12. I found out just before this weekend that my youngest sister is expecting her first next March. We're so happy for her as this is truly a miracle baby.
After dinner, we headed over to the paddle boats. I could go this time and my dad stayed with Ethan. Clay and Jonathan were in the back of our boat with Daniel, Samantha, and I in the front. I didn't get a picture of the other boat but we all had a blast! Some of us got much wetter than others. :)
After this it was time to head home but Ethan decided he needed mom before we drove home so Clay took Grandpa and the younger kids and headed back. Kimberly, Barbra, Christina, my mom and I got to sit and watch the sunset while I fed Ethan. It was so relaxing and peaceful. When we got home, I was surprised with Clay and my dad had assembled our new, much stabler dining table. The first we've purchased in our married life and I love it! It's nice to have a good, large sturdy table for our family. Now I'm going to recover the chairs we have to make them look better.

Update on Jonathan

It's been quite an interesting week here. More on that later.

We had Jonathan's MRI done last week. I had talked to him about his "space ride" and he did great with that concept. He knew he couldn't eat that morning because it might make his stomach upset during "take off." I felt very inspired by using this analogy with him when the gown he changed into had space ships and astronauts on it. It worked very well for him.

He luckily was able to be sedated with oral medication but he really fought it. We tried just watching a movie like I did when Amanda had to be sedated to get her tongue clipped. That didn't work so well for him. He really fought it. I finally passed the baby to Clay (thank goodness he was there) and held Jonathan and sang to him. I lost it for a bit. It was hard to watch him struggle like that.

He did great during the MRI they said. Clay got to be in there with him. He started to come out of it pretty quick after. He was fairly disappointed he slept through his "space ride."
The doctor called back that day. They were able to rule out most of what the doctor was concerned about. His issues may be a viral meningitis or migraines. We've been referred out to a pediatric neurologist to look at him and see what he thinks. I'm just grateful that at this point it doesn't look life threatening and anxious to see what advice the specialist has.

Jonathan

Thursday, September 2, Clay luckily didn't have to leave as early for work. He went to get the kids up for the morning prayer as I finished getting ready. He said that Jonathan didn't want to get up for the second day in a row. He carried him out of bed and Jonathan was complaining his head at the "shakes" again. We got him downstairs and he tried to walk, stumbling into everything. He was soon vomiting as well.

He had a similar episode a few months prior when Clay was gone to NTC. It resolved itself within a few hours, after he had eaten and rested a bit. Daniel had a routine checkup that morning so I got the older girls and Clay off and took the boys and Samantha and headed to the doctors office. They were able to get an appointment for Jonathan after Daniel's. The doctor evaluated Jonathan and sent us to the ER for a CT scan. He also was very honest about some of the possible causes which I appreciate. It was a little scary for both of us so I told him that we were going to take him over to go on a spaceship ride and he would have to hold very still.

The ER doctor there looked Jonathan over. By this point, Jonathan was feeling better, almost himself again so they decided it would be better to schedule a MRI instead. Jonathan was pretty upset that he didn't get his spaceship ride. So tomorrow, we're headed down to Georgetown to get a MRI done. We've told him he's going on the spaceship ride now and won't be able to eat anything so his stomach doesn't get upset during take off. He'll have to be sedated and have a needle in his arm for the contrast for the MRI. We're trying to be positive and hope that it isn't anything too serious but would appreciate any prayers in his behalf.

First two days of school

After I dropped off Jonathan at his class, we went to the front door of the school to leave. Samantha insisted in wearing a backpack like all the other kids. We headed out the front door and I noticed Samantha stopped. I walked a few steps and noticed she wasn't coming so I turned around to see her standing by the front door. When she saw she had my attention, she waved at me and said "Bye!"

Oh Baby Girl, I'm not ready to leave you at school yet.

We went home and I had some time to start with the "organization after summer" project. I got a start but didn't make it too far as I forgot what a blessing older children are in entertaining younger siblings. I had laid Ethan on one side of the room and figured Samantha would help me clean on the other side. She kept sneaking around the other side and I luckily caught her as she undid Ethan's outfit and diaper. She thought this was great fun to do over and over again. Luckily I caught her every time before she had any surprises. We got a good bit done still and then headed over to help a friend who was moving to finish cleaning her house while Samantha got to play at a friend's house for a bit.

Example of the fencing pose--Tuesday was spent with visiting teaching appointments. It's nice to get out to meet our 4 new sisters but it was an all day event and the kids were great troopers.

5 weeks already. He is growing up way too quickly.

1st Day of School

August 23 was the first day of school this year. School starts really early here (7:30 am) but it isn't too bad the first week or so because they're so anxious to go to school.

Jonathan is going to pre-K in Ms. Littlejohn's class.Daniel is in 4th grade in Ms. Luevano's class.
Amanda's in Mrs. Griffith's class, 1st grade.
And our last year of junior high--Christina in 8th grade.
Here they are, ready to head off for the first day.
Jonathan had a Dr. appointment that morning so he didn't get to go with everyone else right off. We took him in since he has gained over 15 pounds in the 10 months we've been here. I guess everything really is bigger in Texas. The Dr. doesn't want to do tests yet since his height is going up quickly too but we'll go back in a few months to have it evaluated again. He's is almost exactly the same size, weight as Amanda. They wear the same size shoes and clothes now that I've even had someone ask me if they were twins. Yes, two years apart.

So after the doctor appointment, we headed over to the school. At least it made it less crowded for pictures for his first day of school ever.
Just the sun was in the way.

I wasn't planning on sending him to school yet but after Ethan was born, I realized that he needed to go to school. He wanted to go and I really need to spend more time with Samantha to help her with her speech.
Off to another adventure, only 2 at home during the day!

Week 4

Ethan's 4th week was filled with all kind of craziness of getting the kids ready for school and appointments I had been putting off (i.e. orthodontic evaluation for three kids -- YIKES!) but we did get a few cute pictures in the midst of the chaos.

Ethan started smiling a little. He especially likes smiling and now cooing with dad. We've tried to get a good picture of him smiling but usually they end up like this, and it's turned into a cry.
Amanda, our little photographer, took this picture of Ethan and I. Maybe with her help, I'll actually get to be in a few pictures with our kids. :)
I love watching how little babies like to curl up. I'm sure this was his favorite position in the womb.
Chatting with daddy.
It was a very crazy week. I was able to get uniforms for the kids, school supplies purchased and in the backpacks for school and only one of the three kids needs braces RIGHT NOW. I've got to work on a few things and see how quickly we can get things together to get them stared. Poor Christina has two impacted teeth and will need oral surgery 3-6 months after braces get started so they can attach a 24 Karat gold chain to help pull the teeth into the correct place. We just need to figure out how to work this into the budget so we can get started before it gets worse. At least hers should be done before Daniel is ready. I'm starting to see a few of the advantages of the large spacing between our first two kids.