Declan's Favorite Thing

I finally remembered to take a picture of Declan's FAVORITE thing to do. He LOVES munching on things, but mostly he loves munching on his toes. He is constantly shoving his feet in his mouth. Fortunately, he has the best socks in the world in that they do NOT come off . . . ever. Even after lots of pulling and tugging on his toes, his socks always stay on. Unfortunately, they get SOAKING wet.


He loves munching his toes so much that we have problems when we're trying to get him to sit because he just wants to bend over and munch on his toes.

He even does this when I'm trying to change his diaper, which makes it even more difficult as he has tons of fat rolls that have to be cleaned and they're that much more difficult to get to when he's munching on his toes.

Christmas in Houston: All the Way to Christmas Eve

We started Christmas break getting ready to go to Houston. Tom had a doctor's appointment on Monday, so we tried to get laundry done and get things ready. Taylor, Payden, and Declan had all been sick. Taylor and Payden had previously been diagnosed with sinus infections and were on antibiotics. I'd been watching Declan to see if his cold would advance to anything more and on Monday decided we'd better call the doctor. They were full, so I made an appointment for Tuesday. Tuesday was already crazy as we were trying to pack, load the car, and leave that day, but I'm so glad Declan and I headed to the doctor in the morning to see what was going on. Poor boy. He ended up being diagnosed with chest congestion. The doctor was concerned he'd get bronchitis, so he ended up getting an antibiotic as well as breathing treatments. I was so grateful that we'd been able to find this out and get him all medicated up before we left for Houston.

Because of the doctor's appointment and some kiddos who kept getting in the way, it took us a LONG time to get out of the house. We ended up arriving in Houston at about 7 or 8 that night, tried to get everything settled, and then got the kids to bed.


The next day the fun set in. The morning was pretty relaxed - filled with lots of playing, and then later in the afternoon my sister Lori and her 2 girls, Avery and Addie, arrived. We really get a kick out of watching Avery and Payden play together. First of all they are both 2. Second they both have pretty strong personalities. Despite all that, they do have lots of moments where they play so well together. Then we get the occasional fights. Lori and I just laugh as it goes back and forth between the two as to who causes it and who wins. It really is hilarious watching them interact.

After a nice dinner of stew and homemade bread, it was time for the annual Christmas Eve events. Because it was getting close to bedtime for the kiddos and some of them were a bit restless . . . Taylor, Payden, and Avery . . . we had to shorten things a bit. We read the Nativity story in the scriptures, played our Night Before Christmas White Elephant game, and were handed our jingle bells to wear on Christmas day. It was REALLY shortened, but it was definitely needed because the kids were a LITTLe crazy and needed to get in bed at a decent hour.

After we finished all the activities, we ended as we always do - with a few pictures in front of the Christmas tree. After having EVERYONE here last year, it seemed so weird to have so few of us.

For the last picture, we always take a silly photo. When Payden heard this, she jumped out in front of everyone, spread her legs wide, and started making silly faces and silly noises. What a crack up! Unfortunately, she was too far in front of everyone to be in the picture, so we didn't get a shot of her.

After Lori and her kids left and before the girls headed off to bed, we had one more thing to do - get the cookies ready for Santa. While we got the cookies ready, Tom and David did the dishes. We decided we had to document this UNUSUAL moment. Ha ha!!

Meanwhile, we got the cookies out that we'd made earlier. We had tried to make sugar cookies, but the dough was too sticky to make into shapes and they ended up looking a little strange. Since the girls were unable to cut them out, they were eager to be able to ice and sprinkle them.

While Shelby and Taylor helped Nana, Payden got to play with her favorite person EVER - Papa.

With the cookies iced, it was time to write the note.

Shelby wrote the note and then my mom brought out this Naughty/Nice paper, and so Shelby

decided to write everyone's name on the Nice side of the paper, so Santa would know we'd been good this year.

With Santa's cookies in place, the girls headed to bed. It was then time to give Declan his breathing treatment. Poor boy. His first breathing treatment was a bit traumatic for him, but fortunately he got used to it after that. Even though I felt bad for him, it was a nice excuse to get some cuddle time with him.

The night ended with us finishing wrapping presents and of course . . . some Halo 3.

A Few Random Moments

First, Tom was leaving to go somewhere, and Payden decided she wanted to go along, so she went and got her shoes on.


She's never had problems with this before, but that night I guess it didn't really matter to her which shoes she had on.

On another day, Shelby decided she was going to watch something or playing something (I can't remember the details right now), but she hadn't asked if it was okay. When she finally said something to me, I told her she wouldn't be able to do it. She had set her little mind on doing this, so when I told her no, she got really upset. She grabbed the little chair, moved it in front of the piano, and started to pout.

Her little lip was sticking out and everything. Of course Tom and I were busting up laughing . . . I know . . . we're so mean. It was just tooooooo funny!

We weren't trying to be mean, but it really wasn't possible to do what she wanted at the time. She definitely has a hard time switching gears. If her mind is set on something and things can't happen that way (and she's a little bit tired), then she just melts down.

Declan and I were taking some pictures. First of all, everyone comments on how big his head is, which it really isn't in comparison to his body, but it looks huge in this picture. Second, can you tell how tired I am? At this point, Taylor and Payden had been diagnosed with sinus infections, but Declan was also congested and stuffed, so our nights weren't the best. But I guess for this family and this time of year . . . I should expect it.

Here's Shelby stealing the camera.

She decided to document the book we're reading together. Yep. That's right. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I'd promised her this summer that we'd read them together, and she's really enjoying them.

It also helps that they are AR books (she gets points at school for reading AR books), and because they are about a 7th grade reading level, she gets a TON of AR points for reading them. Last year, she had the most AR points and won an award for it. She's working really hard to do the same this year. Most 1st grade books are between .5 to 1.5 points. The first few Harry Potter books are about 15 points apiece, so she's gotten a lot of points so far.

I'm SOOOOOOOO Happy!!!

Taylor is having surgery. Now in order to understand why this makes me so happy, I'll have to start at the beginning.

When Taylor was about 6 weeks old, she started having trouble sleeping. Then at about 2 months old she got her first illness. As of today, the sleeping troubles and the sicknesses are still going strong. She is always sick and, if it's something that all the kids get, hers is more severe. As for sleep, sleeping through the night is not something she consistently does. In fact I would say more times than not she wakes up at least once a night. At first we figured the sleeping problems were because she was always sick and it was hard to sleep train her because she was constantly getting something. Then when she hit 2 she started fighting her naps, so we figured that was why she was having sleep problems. As she's gotten closer to 5, we've just felt like something was not right. We do everything in our power to give her the best sleep possible. She goes to bed at 7 pm in a dark room all by herself with a fan running to provide background noise and block other noises. She has a consistent bedtime routine that we follow, and she goes to sleep independently. We've done everything, and yet she still doesn't seem to get enough sleep. Every day she's grumpy at some point in the day if not throughout the day. She's a bit hyper and unruly. She's disobedient; she struggles to control herself. She breakdowns really easily. She lashes out at others. At first we thought this was a mix of a strong-willed child and being in the "terrible twos," but as time continued it just didn't feel right. As we've looked at things, we've started realizing that all of this behavioral and sleep stuff is connected. She is a sleep deprived child, yet we can't figure out why because we've done everything possible to give her good sleep. Most days of her life have been difficult. It's honestly been a roller coaster ride.

Then at the beginning of November my sister had a baby and my mom was helping her out and decided to look through Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Now this is a book I have (and recommended to my sister). My mom found an entire section on Sleep Problems and Tonsils and Sleep Problems and Allergies. I had never thought to look in there. I read them and all of a sudden everything made sense. I just knew this had to be the answer to it all. Everything they described sounded EXACTLY like Taylor. I'd noticed she'd snored; even recently I'd noticed she tends to just breathe out of her mouth all of the time. I'd noticed she had difficulty falling asleep and was a restless sleeper. All of this plus the behavior problems, the sleep problems, the constantly getting sick . . . according to the book all of it was because of her tonsils and adenoids. It all made sense, and there was a solution to all the struggles we had and were continuing to have with her.

Then I got nervous. There were 2 doctors that needed to agree with me - her pediatrician for the referral and the ENT. I didn't want to get my hopes up and then have them dashed by one of the doctors. I'm very grateful that I researched the problem. By doing that, I knew what things the doctors would look for and I could tell them the symptoms she was showing; plus I also was able to observe her to see if she exhibited any of the other symptoms that maybe I hadn't noticed before.

Before Thanksgiving, we headed to her pediatrician. She thought Taylor's tonsils were big, but not horribly enlarged, but with the sleep and behavioral issues and the fact that she couldn't look at the adenoids, she went ahead and gave us a referral to an ENT. I was so relieved. Unfortunately, I couldn't get an appointment with the ENT until December 8. I was so excited that I'd gotten the referral, so it was horrible to have to wait so long for the appointment.

Well, the 8th FINALLY came. After Declan's appointment, I dropped him and Payden off at my friend Krista's house, and Taylor and I headed to the ENT. Again, I was nervous because I wasn't sure if we'd get the solution we were looking for. Tom had told me the night before to make sure I told the ENT we wouldn't accept anything except surgery. :) I wasn't going to say that, but I was definitely going to be ready to fight for that.

After a long wait in the waiting room, we headed back for some more waiting. Amen to cameras and games on phones because they are what got us through the waiting period with a minimal amount of grumpiness and fits. Finally the doctor came in, and everything went perfectly. There wasn't a need to convince. From my observations, he felt surgery was the best option. He even commented that he could see the typical behavior that comes with tonsil problems in her (she was a bit difficult and didn't want him to look in her ears or mouth or anything). After looking at the tonsils, he said that typically the adenoids would be large as well. Then he asked about her ears. She's had numerous ear infections and been on the verge of being recommended to an ENT for them, so I told him that. He said that if we were going to remove the tonsils and adenoids, he would like to do tubes too if the ear drums were giving her problems so that he could get everything done at once rather than having to do 2 procedures. I told him we were willing to do what he thought was best so that she could be better, and that's when we started talking surgery.

We received all the instructions, filled out the paperwork, did a few hearing tests, received instructions to get lab work done before surgery, and set the date - January 8. I am sooooooo excited and relieved. I almost cried right there in the office.

All the hard moments (which have been at least daily and usually multiple times a day) should stop. The behavior issues and the grumpiness and everything will go away. A friend of mine mentioned a kid she knew who had it done and how his behavior went from horribly awful to the complete opposite. I don't want to get my hopes up, but if this is what will happen to Taylor, I am SOOOOOO happy. I feel bad for the bad times we've had, the trouble she's been in, and everything all because her tonsils and stuff were causing her to sleep poorly, which made it hard for her to behave. We are sooooo excited to finally have the sweet Taylor - the sweet girl we occasionally get a glimpse of. Yea!!!!!!!!!

4 Months Old

Today Declan is 4 months old. It's hard to believe. It really seems like he's been a part of our family forever. Unfortunately, being 4 months old also means a visit to the doctor. We headed out bright and early because it was not our only doctor's visit today. As I had suspected, Declan did not keep up with his enormous weight gain. He was 16 lbs. 10 oz. (90%), 26 in. long (90%), and his head has shrunk to 75%, which I was surprised at because I have difficulty getting his head through some of his 6-12 months shirts. He's still nice and chubby despite his slowed growth.

Of course he was doing well with all of the milestones. He smiles, coos, and laughs; he reaches for things (generally my hair). The only thing he needs to work on is rolling over. He has rolled over once, but we cannot get him to repeat it.

All in all he is really doing well. His sleep is improving after the changes last month. He is happy and content as long as he's fed and well-rested. We just love having him in our family.

Sights and Sounds of San Marcos

A friend of mine sent me an email this year with different events and things to do around the San Antonio area for Christmas. On the list was this event - The Sights and Sounds of San Marcos. I checked it out and it looked like it would be fun to go to - food, crafts, lights, Santa, little Bethlehem village, animals, etc. We called up our friends the Chappells and headed out on the last night of the event. San Marcos is a little town about halfway between San Antonio and Austin. Apparently, though, this event has become a much bigger production over the years. It actually made me think of a fair or rodeo.

Anyways, we had to park in a park-and-ride and then hop a bus over to the park where it was held. When we got there, we found out that you had to buy tokens if you wanted to buy anything, so while the dads went to do that, we caught a few shots of the kiddos. Dallin, the one holding Payden, is hilarious. He LOVES to pose for pictures - and I mean pose, not just smile for the camera; he cracked me up all night as I'd go to take a picture and would have to wait as he had to get his pose ready. So here they are - Taylor, Dallin, Payden, Lexi, and Shelby.


Right by the entrance we could see the line to go see Santa (very smart placement). Taylor insisted that we had to go, so we decided to hop in line because it was already a very long line. It turned out to be a good thing because this ended up being our only time to see Santa this year as we ended up being sick on the night of our ward's Christmas party. While Cari and I sat in line, the dads went and got some food because we were starving. It was funny because they would return with something and then go off and come back and each time the kids would rotate around, so we always had a different combo of kids with us. It made me nervous because it was hard to keep up with who was with whom and there were a TONS of people around us. After an enormous wait, we finally got to see Santa. We got a free picture, but I haven't scanned it in yet. The girls were really simple it what they asked. Shelby wanted a FurReal friend chick, and Taylor and Payden wanted a dinosaur.

After Santa and another trip to get some food, we headed to the carousel. The girls had their first ride on one this summer in Seattle and absolutely LOVED it, so they were dying to ride this one. Tom and the girls ended up having to follow Shelby because she insisted on riding the pretty one - apparently there was only one.

And yes Dallin posed for me again when I took this shot, but a guy asked him to sit correctly right when I snapped the camera, so his face was turned. Funny boy!

Declan, who napped the whole time we waited to see Santa, had finally awoken and was chilling with Cari.

I tried to get a good shot of them as they came off the ride, but between the dust and bright lights it was hard to get a clean shot.

By this time the kiddos were starting to get grumpy . . .

so we found where the funnel cakes were - an absolutely MUST for Tom. He LOVES them. Plus, we had to support the Boy Scouts who were making them. :) At that point, we decided it was time to go. The crowds were huge, the kids were grumpy, we'd been there awhile, and we were ready. I was so bummed because we missed out on so many things, but sometimes it's best to call it quits before the kiddos get too out of control.

The kids really enjoyed the bus ride; they haven't been on too many, so I decided to take a shot of us all as we returned to our car.

The event ended up being a bigger thing then I had imagined. Maybe it was because we came on the last day. It was fun - it's always fun going on these little outings, but it would have been even more fun if it had still had it's small town charm. Anyways, we're glad we had a good night with our friends the Chappells.

I am Thankful For . . .

I found these papers that the girls did during Thanksgiving and thought I'd share.

Shelby did hers at school. I laughed because she did a good job of summing up most of the things she loves . . . (1) books - she reads daily as much as possible; the only time I can really get her to play is during long holidays because it's just not possible to read the entire day; on school days, though, after she gets home, besides doing homework and watching her 2 PBS shows while I cook, she usual reads until bedtime (2) sleep - she is my best sleeper and still needs 11+ hours a night; we rarely have to fight her about sleep; the nice thing is that if she stays up late, she'll usually sleep in to make up the missed sleep (3) her family - we love doing things together as a family and she has caught that love too; her favorite people in the world are definitely her family; she enjoys every time we get to go and visit our extended family and loves them, too. She was also thankful for friends, but the first 3 truly sum up what she is thankful for.

Taylor did hers at church, but she did a good job, too, of summing up the things she is truly thankful for . . . (1) dinosaurs - she LOVES LOVES LOVES dinosaurs; she often walks around like some kind of dinosaur; her favorite books are our dinosaur books; her favorite toys are our dinosaur toys; one of her favorite tv shows is Dinosaur King (2) animals - the toys she plays with the most are animals; we have tons of Little People people and animals, but the people are never played with . . . only the animals (3) Mom/Dad - again we love being together as a family and she loves being with us; she constantly gives random kisses and random "I Love You's," which we just love (4) Jesus - well this is obvious, but she loves learning about the gospel and about Jesus (5) food - she is definitely are best eater; because of this love, she has a nice round belly that we love and often rub.

To Grandmother's House We Go: Decorating the Christmas Tree

Tom decided he wanted some new tennis shoes, so my mom kicked us out the door and kept the girls. While we were gone, they got to help decorate the Christmas tree with Scott and Angela.

Apparently, the tree was a little bottom-heavy with ornaments (which the adults fixed later), but the girls had a good time helping out and being with Scott, Angela, Nana, and Papa.