Thanksgiving in Bend

Way, way too early Thursday morning we got up and drove to my parents' house in Bend. It is really nice, which means we have to constantly watch the girls to keep them from damaging anything, but it is fun to go there, relax, and just be away from all the little busy things that always seem to need doing.

And since I hadn't mentioned yet what I am thankful for, here is my list:


^^^^^ #1. My husband is the best daddy, and our girls just love him.


^^^^^ Here's my #2 - Jenelle is potty trained!!!! Honestly I need a Hallelujah chorus for that. I never thought I would have a potty trained child, but voila! dreams do come true!


^^^^^ Here's my #3 - early Christmas presents (from wonderfully loving parents and grandparents) of bikes and a bike trailer/stroller for the girls to ride in. We can be a little biking family. Very cold and possibly very wet at the moment, but the girls would stay dry, and when they're this bundled up, they can't even move (bonus- means no pushing).


^^^^^ My #4. Family time! I love going and doing stuff like this together, giving the girls new experiences, and getting lots of pictures for me to look at over and over and over again. The exciting thing about this adventure was that apparently Jenelle now likes the snow. She hated it last year, wouldn't touch it, play with it, even walk in it. In fact, she would shut the door whenever I would even open it to look outside at the snow. But we're over that now, and with the girls dressed as pink and purple Pillsbury Dough boys, we had a blast (apart from the two face plants Meri did in the snow, of course). Jell surprised us all and even loved sledding. Meri was marginally amused. And the remaining pictures are just cute!

Pics Pics Pics

In case you are legally blind, I'll tell you that there is a new slideshow feature on our blog! It's through slide.com, which is very cool for this little dealie (by the way, thanks, Raina!) We're still hosting our photos through the same Kodak site, so if that slideshow thing ever asks you to put in your e-mail address to receive notification when we post new pics, don't. Besides, you'll see new ones scrolling across your screen, right?

The real reason for this post is to notify family members who only use this site to see our digital photo albums over there on the sidebar. There will now be only two links, one to the newest pictures and one to all other pictures. The link to the older albums will lead to this post, no matter how old it is, which is about to have links to all of the albums. That list will grow over time as we add pictures, but the list in the sidebar will not. It's a cosmetic thing.

New pictures from our Thanksgiving trip to Bend will be posted soon, so stay tuned.

Family Fun Thru 10/13

It's Meri's world--we're all just living in it.

A.J. (Anno Jenelli)

A.J. 2

Blissful Engagement Pics

Happy holidays, all!

Thanksgiving

Yesterday, I was asked to give a speech at work to kickoff the annual employee fund-raising event. It was a grand time with a lot of red and a lot of cookies. But if you cared about that, you'd be reading my other blog (redcrosspdx.blogspot.com). For the most part, however, the speech was entirely appropriate for this blog, because it had to do for what I am most grateful for. Given the season, I would be ungrateful for not posting this.

Eliminating the job-related stuff, this is more or less the speech I gave. (I know it's long. Sorry. Brevity is something I struggle with when talking about Alisha.)
*****
On February 13 of this year, my second daughter, Meredith, was born. She is now 9 months old, and is perfectly healthy—always has been. My wife, Alisha, is now 26 and is as healthy as a woman who chases around two little girls (and a 27-year-old little boy) all day can be. Shortly after Meri's birth, however, that wasn't the case.

About 6 hours after the picture-perfect delivery of my daughter, my wife began to feel intense pressure in her abdomen. The nurses didn't know what was wrong but weren't too worried, as random aches, pains and pressures are fairly common after childbirth. When she fainted on her way to the bathroom, though, she piqued their interest. We would later know that she fainted because she had been losing blood—lots of it, for a long time—it just hadn't exited her body yet.

Then it did.

The next few hours were the most frightening of my life. I watched as 7–10 nurses rushed in and out of our tiny little "recovery" room, none of which knew what was going on. It wasn't particularly reassuring to me that the nurses knew nothing beyond what I, in my limited medical knowledge, knew for myself: that my wife was losing an inordinate amount of blood, and that she was in a great deal of pain—and both were getting worse. There was no color left in Alisha's normally bright face, and the only energy she still had left was being focused on breathing slowly so as not to faint from the pain and, sweetly enough, reassuring her husband (who was a complete mess).

Finally a doctor was able to come take a look. After examining my wife and gathering other information, she didn't know what was going on either. But she had a theory and she was confident enough to act on it even though her theory couldn't be confirmed or disproved without emergency surgery. Hopefully without going into too much detail, her theory was the following: upon exiting my wife, Meredith somehow burst a blood vessel inside my wife's lower abdominal wall. Because of normal childbirth swelling, the blood vessel contracted and didn't drain for a few hours—just long enough for the doctor to be completely sure that everything went perfectly. When the swelling went down, however, the vessel began to drain, and did so inside the abdominal wall creating what is called a hematoma. That hematoma kept filling, explaining both the pressure my wife had been feeling and how she had fainted from blood loss without anyone knowing she was bleeding. They needed to get in and tie off the vessel.

There was nothing left for me to do but steer the bed as they rushed her down the hall and through a few doors to surgery. Before she went in she reassured me one last time, and gave my hand the weakest of squeezes. [Not included in speech: Alisha had received a priesthood blessing before going to the hospital that reassured everyone, and the end result of the surgery was never completely in doubt. Regardless, in the next couple of hours I went through the widest spectrum of feelings related to spirituality and faith that I ever had or have since.] I will spare you the details of my next two hours or hers. Needless to say, they weren't pretty on either side. They had a happy ending though, as the doctor's theory was proven correct and the problem was fixed. Alisha would live.

As the details of the ordeal became clearer over the next 24 hours, we found out how much blood she really had lost. There was no way to tell exactly how much for a variety of reasons, but the bottom line was she had lost well over half her blood—more than enough for her to go into shock, which she did not. The doctors had no idea why she didn't go into shock, but were glad she didn't. Had she done so, she probably would not have made it.

Alisha had lost so much blood that her body wasn't manufacturing any on its own to make up for what was lost. She was going to need a transfusion. Now, understand that I had never given blood. Some of my reasons were valid, and some weren't. But never have I been more grateful that there are people more caring than myself.

It was amazing to see the transformation that Alisha underwent over the next day as they slowly replenished her body with 3 units of the Red Cross's finest blood. Before the transfusion, her energy was focused on trying to keep her eyelids open when someone was talking to her. After one unit, she was smiling and there was a little bit of color back in her lips. After two, she was twirling her hair in her fingers. And after the third, she was able to sit up for short periods of time, and even hold her new baby for the first time in well over a day. She would still on bed rest for the next month or so, and not 100% for another 4 or 5. But she did recover.

After I had been back at work for a couple months, I got wind of the employee blood drive. There was no question in my mind that I was about to make my first blood donation to the Red Cross. About 3 units. It was only fair.
*****
This Thanksgiving I will be grateful that I have a job, grateful for vacation in a beautiful place, grateful for my parents and in-laws, siblings and siblings-in-law and, even more importantly, two beautiful daughters who seem to right all the wrongs in the world. However, what I have to be thankful for the most is the fact that after more than 3 years of marriage and well over 5 times that long of knowing me, Alisha is still here to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Enjoy the ride.

The Grand Poop Debacle of 11/07

*WARNING: this whole blog entry falls under the category of too much information and should not be read while eating. I'm serious.*


     Bath times are usually a happy time in our house. The girls bathe together, and they love it! Jenelle pats Meri's tush and say, "nakie bottom Meri!" and Meredith occasionally dives for Jell's toes, thinking they are a passing toy that needs to be chewed on. Such was not the case the other day.
     It all began when Meri started crying. She stood up and as I went to grab her, Jenelle and I noticed at the same time that Meri was pooping. In the bath. Jenelle proceeded to scream and scramble FRANTICALLY out of the tub as if her life depended on it. (When do I get to run screaming from the room?) As I stood there frozen, totally at a loss for what to do, she deposited three lovely logs in the water.
     I sent Jenelle to retrieve a bag of wipes, and honestly, miracles do happen, she returned with said bag in her hands. There's a first for everything. So I cleaned Meri, sat her down, and went fishing. As I finished bagging the toys for a later but thorough sanitizing, Jell screamed, "More poopies!" I turned and saw another tootsie roll on the bathroom floor behind me. More wipes, more bags, more sanitizing. Walking to the trash, I found two more treats in the hall.
     At this point, you're asking, why wasn't she in a diaper? I'll answer - she had now pooped as much as she usually does in 2-3 days, not 2-3 minutes. And I was just trying to get things under control enough to get them back into fresh water with LOTS of soap. Got that cleaned up, sprayed down the tub, and sent Jenelle to go fetch Meri who seemed to have wandered off again (I promise, sometimes I am a little more on top of things. The girls don't normally run totally wild and naked).
     Meri started crying, which tends to mean Jenelle is trying to drag her to me, against her will (I really gotta stop thinking Jenelle can help in times like this). Before I could run to the rescue, Jelly started to scream. Unusual? Oh that's because the nightmare was nowhere near over. Upon arriving, I was sure that Jenelle had now pooped all over the brick, and smushed it all around, and I do mean ALL AROUND for fun. But no, this was more of our little, angelic Meredith's doing (Honestly, where did all the poo come from???).
     Jenelle had her eyes closed as if she was unable to face the horror, and was screaming and flailing her arms because she had stepped into a tiny, tiny bit of it which was mashed between her little toes. In her defense, nobody likes the feeling of fresh feces between their toes, but I kinda thought my first priority was to keep Meri from eating it, which she was most persistently interested in doing. However Jenelle wouldn't stop screaming and throwing herself at me until both toes were spotless. Helpful. This was one of those moments where you look around and have NO IDEA what to do. A few dozen arms would be helpful, for starters.
     Anyway, I got them cleaned somehow (even washed the poop off of Meri's upper lip), in the tub, and then tried to figure out how to sanitize brick, or at least remove the seriously disgusting discoloring. All I wanted to do was burn the house down. I changed my whole outfit despite the fact that I couldn't find any keepsakes on it. I'm sure it was somewhere, how could it not have been? Oh yeah, and all of this happened about 20 minutes before my visiting teacher was dropping off her 2 year old for me to babysit.
     Moms are shockingly underpaid. So hopefully I haven't made you swear off having kids (like my sister), or given you nightmares for the next week. Hey, there was a warning, and I only wrote this upon request. I keep getting told that these are the things we laugh about later. Perhaps much later.

And just for fun (and don't forget to check the "Family Fun" album for new Halloween pics (at the end)):

Kids Say (and Do) the Darndest Things

Sorry for the overused title, but it just fits. In fact, I'm holding a contest. In the comments, if you have a better title for this post let me know. The winner will get the satisfaction that comes from watching the title of this post change thanks to your input. Okay. Moving on....

Jenelle says a lot of great stuff. What follows is a collection of said stuff. And, while Meri doesn't say much, she does do this (and we're equal opportunity parents, for the most part):
1) On a walk about a month ago (Alisha walking and the girls in a stroller), Jenelle was holding a leaf. Like any good child, she went to take a bite. Alisha said: "Honey, I'm not sure that's a good idea. People don't eat leaves. Giraffes eat leaves."

Jenelle: "I a giraffe!"

Alisha: "You're a giraffe? Okay, what animal is Meri?"

Jenelle: "Umm... zebra."

Alisha: "And daddy?"

Jenelle: "Zebra too!"

Alisha: "And mommy?"

Jenelle: "Mommy? ...Mommy a elephant."

Alisha: "Thanks."

2) Jenelle is learning to say her prayers every night, which can often be humorous. One particular time she just got on a roll thanking Heavenly Father for things: "Thank you for my elmo, thank you for my blankie, thank you for my binkie, thank you for my daddy right here, thank you for my mommy right here, thank you for my nose, thank you for [cousin] Paige, thank you for Paige's nose...."

3) We have been teaching Jenelle about relationships and different names for some time. For example, Meri is Meredith, her sister, and mommy's daughter. As we were explaining these things one night, she thought for a while, looked at us seriously and said, "Daddy is my daddy and Mama's Cooper!"

4) Along those same lines, when she woke up from a nap one Saturday, she yelled (as she can't open her door by herself yet--or at least forgets that she can): "Dad! Da-da! Daddy! Cooper!!!" Though keep in mind she pronounced my name "Tooper," so it's always funny when she says that.

5) In church last week Meri was beginning to fuss a bunch, and Jenelle looked at her and said: "Whoa! She's goin' nuts!"

6) We drove up to Nana and Bopa's (Alisha's parents) house one night, and Nana's car was in the driveway. Jenelle said: "My car!"

Alisha: "No, I think it's Nana's car."

Jenelle: "It suuuuuure is!"

7) Alisha noticed today that the way Jenelle says the name "Meredith" makes it sound uncannily like "elephant." Yet both are fairly clear. Figure that one out.

8) Jenelle knows that when she's completely potty trained, we all get to go to the zoo. When reminded of this fact today she got a little mixed up, and said "I see animals go potty!"

9) She likes to feel like she's in control. So after we tell her things she tends to repeat them to us. A few days ago she reminded each of us in turn that we weren't to do peepees on Grammy's (my mom) couch or floor, and we weren't to do poopies in our panties. We promised. (And succeeded!)

10) About 473 (approximately) times a day she asks Alisha what she's doing, and upon finding out offers any number of responses. Here is one such exchange:

Jenelle: "What doing, Mama?"

Alisha: "I'm cleaning."

Jenelle (concerned): "Oh, I'm soooo sorry."

11) A short time ago she had a balloon from Applebees' sitting on the ceiling of our family room, and she couldn't reach the string. She jumped--still couldn't reach it. She stood on her rocking chair--still couldn't reach it. Then she looked all over the room for something to stand on to give her that last foot of height she needed. She found it: the remote control. We watched as she carefully put the clicker on the rocking chair, and then climbed on and stood on it. She was extremely disappointed when she still couldn't get it. Once we were able regain the strength in our legs after laughing so hard, we got it for her.

12) Jenelle was asking for music a few weeks ago in the car rather than listening to my sports talk all the time. Understandable. So I turned on the radio, and she kept telling me to change the station--only allowing me to rest on Gwen Stefani. That certainly wouldn't fly for long with me, so I put in a CD or two. She wasn't really impressed with Live, Edwin McCain, or Chris Daughtry. What she fell in deep love with was Jonny Lang. When I say "deep love," I mean that every time she got in the car thereafter for at least a month she would ask "Where Jonny Lang?" When I would say something like "Not right now, we're going to listen to the Blazer game!" she would get pretty upset, yelling "I want Jonny Lang! I want Jonny Lang!" Other than the Gwen Stefani speed bump, I like her taste.

13) Seeing as how Jonny only has one CD that I can listen to over and over and over. Even with that, I eventually had to try to get her hooked on something else. I moved on to Colors, and hit another bulls-eye. Of course I did their live CD first, which certainly helped. Although the best part about it is that at the end of every song, someone from Colors says "thank you" when the crowd cheers. So after every song, Jenelle yells "Thank you, Colors!" and "Yea Colors!"

14) Jenelle loves to dance. We have dance parties often in our house. If you ever come over, be aware that one may just break out, and you will be expected to participate. You heard me. Anyway, if this scenario ever does happen, don't be surprised to see Jenelle put her hand out and yell "Freeze!" When she does, you'd better freeze for at least 2.5 seconds, or there will be the devil to pay. Don't test it. Don't.

15) On one particularly cold Sunday after church, Alisha put on some warm, dark, striped socks on with her skirt to walk around the house. Jenelle said: "Mama, what doing?"

Alisha: "Just keeping my feet warm."

Jenelle (shaking her head and walking away): "Silly Mama. Silly socks."

16) Another gem from today (and perhaps my personal favorite), Alisha and the girls were watching one of the Planet Earth DVDs that Mom so nicely bought me for Father's Day. (By the way, if you haven't watched the Discovery Channel's Planet Earth mini-series, I highly recommend it. Pretty amazing stuff. And while we're on the Discovery Channel, can I just say that "Dirty Jobs" is perhaps my favorite TV show of all time? That's a blog for another time though.) This particular episode was "Fresh Water," and contained a scene of a crocodile surprising and snatching up a wildebeest slowed down to 1/40 speed. It's amazing. This was Jenelle's first time seeing it though, and she said: "Mama, what he doing?"

Alisha: "The crocodile is eating the wildebeest."

Jenelle (surprised): "He need timeout!"

That's right, young lady. If we ever catch you eating a live wildebeest you are soooooo grounded.
Life is fun.

Disney Magic ... for Free!

So whenever I see little "enter to win a free ____" box I always do. Why not? We could use free stuff. And lo and behold, we actually won something last week! We won 4 free tickets to Disney Princesses on Ice! Okay, so it's not a new car, but I was dang excited. Coop and I got really brave and decided to take Jenelle and our two nieces, Kendyl and Paige. The only real bummer was that it didn't start until 7:30 PM, which is, of course, pretty darn near bed time, so we were in the danger zone. But on the other hand, the tickets were free, so if they misbehaved, we were "outta there."

And it was SO worth the risk! From the moment we walked in the Rose Garden their eyes were huge! It was probably the biggest building they'd ever been in and there were men walking around yelling, "Popcorn, cotton candy," etc. There was ridiculously overpriced Disney merchandise everywhere they could possibly fit it, whether or not it had anything to do with the show (what was up with the rubber Finding Nemo hats? Do you remember any princesses in that movie, cause I sure don't).

As we walked in to find our seats, their eyes were HUGE looking at all the rows and rows of people, spinning lights from the recently purchased toys of rich kids, and way more steps than their miniature legs could ever handle. Our seats were great! Since when are free tickets good? Our preseason Blazer tickets sure have never been! Anyway, both of us got teary-eyed just watching their faces fill with such wonder and excitement. It was like they'd never seen anything so amazing. After each song Paige would say, "are they going to have another song," Jenelle would turn and say, "again," and Kendyl would ask some question that I totally didn't have the answer to.

Cooper's favorite part was the huge dragon that lit the ice on fire. He thought that was pretty sweet. Jenelle loved the silverware dancing with Belle, Kendyl's favorite was when the shell fell (we have no idea what she's talking about), Paige repeats whatever anybody else's favorite was, and I loved the awesome costumes in "Under the Sea." Kids are so much fun! I just love seeing them discover something new - it seriously is like seeing the world again for the first time just by watching their faces. Oh, and my other favorite of the night was when Kendyl (4 years old) turned to me with a mixture of fear and skepticsm on her face and asked if the dragon was really real. Love kids.

Pumpkins and Ponies

The Saturday before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch on some farmland nearby. Of course there weren't just pumpkins, there were goats, llamas, chicks and hayrides! We had all sorts of fun, as you can see.
Perhaps the best of the day was watching Jenelle take part in her first pony-ride. Last year, she wouldn't go anywhere near them. But this year, to everyone's surprise, she was all about it. Moments later, she was terrified of a poodle 50 ft away, but the horse was no big deal. As soon as they started walking, she was all, "ooooh, this is SO fun!" She wanted to go again soon after, but hey, it aint real cheap. In the two weeks since, Jenelle still talks about it all the time and says "Jenellie ride a pony, like at da pumpin patch," anytime she sees or hears of a horse. Meri didn't really get into the festivities - we put a baby chick in her lap and she looked at it like "so what am I supposed to do with that?" No interest. Blank stare.
Earlier in the week, I actually took the girls to a different pumpkin patch with a "choo-choo train" and a boat ride. It was all going great until a big metal shark popped out and spit water at us. Basically, that ruined the boat ride. But Jenelle also still talks about how "Jenellie ride a choo-choo train wif Mama and Meri and Hunter (her friend)." It's fun to see all that she remembers - it kinda makes going to do fun stuff like this worth while!