Cedar City

I am seriously the worst picture taker ever when I go up to Utah for an Adair family visit. I have no cousin pictures, no Pirate Pizza pics, no swimming pics, no quad riding pics, no play night pics, you get the picture, or not. I did get my camera out and snapped this shot when we visited the St. George Temple. The kids loved going through the visitor's center and watching the movies.

And I managed to take plenty of snake pictures. This is Andee's boa, Rango (I think that's his name, he had like five different names).

Caleb was enthralled.

Talin and Collin begged to hold him everyday.

Tom and Caleb at the property with the donkeys. It was cold. So I literally took this picture and went back to the house.

JoDee and I always have something we make while I'm there, and this time it was a Cub Scout cake for her wards Cub Scout Cake Auction.

We thought it was going to taste divine, so we made Shane buy it.

It really wasn't divine, but worth the contribution for the scouts.

Overall we had a great week playing and hanging out, drinking Pepsi, playing monopoly and letting the kids run wild.

And I'll have to post about Uncle Shane's departing gift to the boys.

Super exciting.

"A little piece of Utah", as he put it.

Belated Birthday Post

Caleb turned 3 on March 17th. We went to the park to have cake and play, but it was too windy for the candles to stay lit. He was a little disappointed.

So we went home.

And I'm pretty sure this kid got his wish. No issues in blowing those candles out.

New birthday bike.

He's already mastered the pedalling and the steering.

Presents from Talin & Collin.

I'm always saying how blessed we are to have Caleb, but we really feel that way everyday.

He is exceptionally special and is going to do great things.

Everyday is a trial and he pushes buttons and boundaries all the time.

He's quick as lighting, physically and mentally, which makes him difficult to keep up with.

Who would have thought this was who he was going to be three years ago?

He constantly surprises and impresses us with the hurdles he is overcoming. Nothing will hold this boy back from what he wants to do and accomplish.

So despite the constant stress of lost/broken hearing aides, mixing food on a daily basis, eternally cleaning feeding tubes, and the occasionally vomiting (still!), Caleb is worth every minute of stress, tears, and exhaustion.

I wouldn't trade him.

By the way...

It's a GIRL!

Busy Saturdays

The first Saturday in March the extended Jones' family got together to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's birthday. Grandma was turning 86, and Grandpa was turning 96.
Of course Amy made the super fabulous cake/cupcakes that tasted as amazing as they looked.

It was just Caleb and I for the party that day. Tom stayed behind with Talin and Collin so they could play in a chess tournament.

Everything on these beauties were edible, the pearls and the pictures. So cool.

It was great to drive up to Mesa for this and see my Grandparents and all my family, close and extended.
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The following Saturday we packed the entire family in the car and went to the Renaissance Festival.

Talin, Caleb, Savannah, London, Collin & Reagan.
We met Mandi and her girls there, prepared for a day of food, sun, heat, more sun and lots of fun.

Collin & Reagan.

Reagan, Collin & Caleb.

I have mixed feelings about this fair. I love/hate it. You have to go prepared to spend a lot of money, get really dirty, have some frightening Renaissance images ingrained in your brain and even more frightening outfits. All I can say is that at least my children are low to the ground while walking around. The dirt is much more desirable than the outfits and images.

But of course they loved it and had a great time. Talin in the swing with dirt all over his face from the Wild Men/Mud Show.

Even Mandi took a break with the kids in the swing chair.

Collin swinging around.

You can tell it's the end of the day because the kids all look hot and trashed.
The day went by super fast.

$30 on lemonade, I think I drank a whole stand myself.

Losing Collin for awhile. Worst part is that it took us a while to realize we had lost him, I felt real bad about that. I spent the rest of the day counting our small army of children.

1,2,3,4,5,6. All there.

Okay.

1,2,3,4,5,6.

Again.

1,2,3,4,5,6.

That's how the rest of the day went in my head.

Update

Yummy Valentine's Day chocolate covered strawberries.

I seriously make the best ever.

Monday morning Tom surprised me with breakfast in bed on this lovely homemade breakfast tray that he made for me while I was out of town last weekend.
I was super impressed. Apparently it only took him ten hours to put it together on Saturday.

Entering the 18th Week.

This has been an interesting pregnancy. Battling Hashimoto's has thrown a wrench into an already exhausting journey to create junior. First I was under treated, and in a panic they have over treated my condition. So when I started having heart palpitations and my resting heart rate was at a 100, I called the endocrinologist who got me in immediately. We have changed my medication and dosage and hopefully I can feel like a normally functioning human at some point. I'm starting to forget what that's like.
I also got the fun miscarriage talk about how high the possibility is and how hard my body has been working with being over dosed increases the chances. But I saw my o.b. yesterday and she calmed my fears and I'm feeling better. Just trying to take it easy and not over stress my already over stressed heart/body and wait for the new meds to take me down.

Caleb goes to School

Yesterday was Caleb's first day of preschool at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind.
I tagged along this first day.

It was a bittersweet moment. I've known for a long time that he would start preschool really young with all his developmental delays. I've also had to come to the painful conclusion that I don't have all the resources and ability to help him learn, and that an early start was critical for his development.

Yesterday was not so bad.
He enjoyed the preschool, loved his teachers and kept busy all morning.
It was this morning that was the most painful. For me that is.

We waited out front for the bus to come and he had no trepidation getting on the bus, buckling up, waving good-bye to me from the window and driving off.

I had to fight off tears.

I can not believe my baby is going to school four days a week on the school bus.

Definitely a bittersweet day.

Thankful

Today I feel thankful.
First of all I found out my test results for my thyroid biopsy on Friday, and those results were benign. Out of all the four options, this was obviously the one I was hoping for the most. I've been plagued with fears about surgery and cancer and I'm so glad and grateful we have the results now and I can rest easy.

My other main reason for being so happy is because I need to be as healthy as possible to grow this little person inside me during the next months.

(Imagine an ultrasound picture here, my wouldn't load.)

I'm dubbing this my crazy, unexpected miracle baby. At a time where it should have been impossible to get pregnant due to exceptionally low thyroid functions and Tom and I not trying. All we can say is that there must be a reason, and whether we're ready or not, (I'm feeling not ready) we're going to be welcoming #4 this summer.

We announced our baby news to the boys at Christmas time. Collin was very excited, hoping for a calmer baby than Caleb. Talin turned to me and in his most adult voice said,
"Don't you think it's a little soon to have another baby with Caleb and all?"
Yes I do.
Yes. I. do.

Christmas

Christmas Eve:

Early Christmas present that Tom bought for the family was opened.

Caleb is obsessed with trains and this one provided hours of frustrating entertainment.
Tom prepared Christmas Eve dinner. He seriously keeps our family functioning lately, which I'm grateful for. He also keeps us in hysterics. This is the result of him and Collin's punch creation. They lost the spoon and then forgot about it.
My boys were so excited for Christmas to come that they asked to be put to bed at seven. Is that normal? We of course agreed and never heard a peep from them all night. Christmas PJ's




Christmas morning:
Tom was up at four. By seven he was becoming increasingly impatient, rummaging through my drawers and picking out "Christmas pajamas" for me to put on. Thankfully the boys woke up shortly after that.

Waiting to see what Santa brought.

The quad was a big hit.

Talin with Harry Potter Legos and his coveted MP3 player.

Collin disappeared all day with his DS.

But when they weren't building or playing games they were riding.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Pity Party

The week before Christmas was a little rough on me.

First of all I burned my face. And it was bad.
There I was cooking dinner, tortillas to be precise for fajitas.
I pulled the tortilla off the stove top and it looked so enticingly warm and cooked that I took a bite out of it.
I am so stupid. And I knew better.

My piping hot tortilla was holding a bubble of steam in the middle that I punctured and blew all over my bottom lip and chin.

I immediately knew this was bad. And it was.
My face was red, my lip was swollen to twice its normal size.

The worst of it though was on Sunday when I woke up and looked like I had a piece of leather across my chin, with my swollen lip split open and bleeding.

I still went to church, sacrament only, the stares killed me. I left immediately after the Christmas program.

It honestly looked like Tom had beaten me. It was so awful. But I'm happy to say that the leather peeled off and I have nice pink skin underneath it all. What a relief.

On another note I had to endure my biopsy on Wednesday. I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant, and it really wasn't. Three needles in the neck extracting cells from my thyroid nodules. Surprisingly enough the needle going in was not that bad, but once he started pulling out the cells with the syringe it was quite painful. And then two more pokes after that just about did me in. But it's done, thank goodness.

My doctor says that there are four possible outcomes:

1. the results come back benign and no cancer.

2. the results come back malignant and there is cancer and we have to remove the thyroid and do radiation.

3. the results come back inconclusive and we have to remove the thyroid to be safe.

4. they didn't obtain enough cells to test and we have to redo the biopsy.

I should find out next week what's going on.

And for Jo, here's the awful burn picture.

Yes, it was as painful as it looked.