Talentless

Earlier today I was oowing and awing over some photos a friend of mine took. (Go here to oo and awe with me: http://www.ericakirbyphotography.com/.)
Well, James thoughtfully said, "Wow. You should get some talent too."
Oh gee, thanks. As if I wasn't already feeling like the only person in the world without a great talent to share with the world, my husband had to go and confirm my fear. I laughed a little. He explained that he meant I need a talent that will make us money. Didn't make me feel better. Now I'm talentless and not contributing financially. Oh bother. I love my husband. I think the things he loves most about me are the things I do that prove how talentless I am: dance like I'm five, burn everything, etc.
The only thing I was ever sort of good at was writing, but I don't write songs any more and my poems are way too embarrassing to share, so my blog is the only thing that sort of reflects my love for writing. The problem with that is... EVERYONE blogs and so many people are so great at it. And why are we so interested in other people's lives? Like strangers lives. It's a bit odd, don't you think?

I don't sew (well), paint, cook (well), take pretty pictures, dress fancy, etc...

Soo... I'm on the hunt for a talent. Wish me luck.

Swing and a Miss

We're in limbo and my back is starting to ache.
We live in a college town and yet we are both done with school.
We applied for a job on campus that we totally got our hopes up for. James seriously would be perfect for it. We convinced ourselves that we would like to stay for awhile. It seemed like most of our problems would be solved with getting this job and we have been so excited.
Welp... we got a "you're great, just not the greatest" e-mail today. He didn't even get an interview. It's so hard not to feel discouraged.
We feel trapped, but if we leave, what are we going to find on the other side?
I see so many of our friends getting great jobs. They're leaving Idaho and moving on to bigger and better things. I have friends moving all over the country for grad school or air force positions or other government training thingys and all sorts of grown-up jobs. I guess I'm just wondering when that'll be us.
I want to go back to school so badly. I have already thought of an idea for my thesis paper.
James loves his job here. It's a really great job for him and it provides for our family, but we feel like we're getting left behind when it comes to other opportunities.

How do you force yourself to fit in in a place where you just don't fit in any more? We just feel a little defeated and are (at least I am) struggling to stand up again.

Poopy Trained!

I can finally say that Ezra is poopy trained! When we started potty training, I thought it was a breeze. He caught on fast. I even said, "I don't know why parents always act like it's such a stressful thing." Then he took several steps back and refused to poop on the potty. He has been pee trained for a couple of months now, but the poop was a problem. He would poop in his underwear EVERY day. I didn't think he'd ever be completely potty trained.

 Until about two weeks ago James held him down (screaming) on the potty and the poop plopped in. It was traumatic, but he got many prizes afterwards. I may have even teared up a little because I was so proud. Ever since he hasn't had any problem. He gets excited and proud of himself and loves to say, "bye pee-pee! bye poopies!" when he flushes them away.

It's so exciting to not have to buy diapers or pull-ups any more!

And I just love that little bum in little boy underwear!

What?

 I'm a mom, we like our kids bums. It's not weird.

Here's my two cents: They'll do it when they're ready. AND it's not a race.

Congrats little Ez Man! We're proud of you.

I Love My Family

I am totally in love. I have 3 boys who feel the same about me. This thing called family is most certainly a blessing from a loving Heavenly Father.

I love my Makie Mak. He truly has a smile that brightens my world. 

(I know these pictures are blurry :( My camera is having issues including auto-focus difficulty. Not to mention I'm like the only person in the world who can't take a decent picture.)

Mix a swing with the tickles of a loving daddy and you get auto heart-melting smiles.

Mix a loving, wild daddy with an equally rambunctious 2 year old and you get joyful squeals that would put the care bears out of a job. (My Ezzy is seriously too fast to get a picture of these days. I'm working on it.)

I am totally in love with my family. Not everyday feels this way, so I'm savoring this moment :)

Kayleen's Fancy Homemade Garlic Bread

And James says I can't cook. Psh..

Yes, my fire alarm went off. I made homemade garlic bread seasoning and I was really excited to taste it, so I popped in a couple new slices and literally sat in front of the oven and watched them. It actually turned out to be delicious when it wasn't on fire.

I have been trying a bunch of new recipes lately and I have actually been getting "mmm's" and "this is really good!" and requests for encores. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but James has truthfully been enjoying my cooking lately. It makes it much more fun to cook when the people you're cooking for actually like the food :) Though I'm still getting used to my oven, so I obviously have some kinks to work out.

The Zoo

Last Saturday we took a trip to the zoo. Makai is still a little loopy from his surgery the day before, but he seemed much happier to be outside.

We started with the birds. Ezra wanted to feed them so I gave him a quarter and pointed to the machine to get food for them. He looked at the machine, walked right past it and threw my quarter at one of the ducks. Haha. Thankfully there was quite a bit of food still left in the machines and on the deck, so I was able to look past wasting our quarter.

Notice Baby Kai's rosy cheeks? Poor little guy. Ezra was so excited to see all the animals, but he was terrified to go near them. I got some food for him to feed the goats and he just threw it at them. When we were walking away he shouted, "Bye reindeer!!" I just cracked up. He told me that some of them were goats, and some of them were reindeer.

Then we came over to this guy and he said, "OH MY GOODNESS! Look at dat!!" I told him it was a Yak and he said, "yeah, it's a yuck." haha

He LOVED the lions and the tiger the most. We went back to see them 3 times. (the real ones.)

Ezra and Makai loved watching the otters swim. I kept trying to move on and Ezra kept running back to the window to watch them.

Then we were joined by some friends. This is Ezra's adorable little buddy Brennon, whom he calls, Brian, Brendan, Brayden, and occasionally Brennon :)

 We had to go back and visit the reindeer so Brennon could see. Brennon is very brave. He let the goats eat right out of his hands and he was so excited to get to go in to pet them. Ezra wanted to follow, so he fed a couple from his hands and then ventured inside to pet them. I was shocked. Until I saw him back into a corner with a frightened look. That's the Ezra I know.

We had fun and Makai did great. He is such a happy little guy. I don't think there's much at this point that can bring him down.

Our Little Troll

My good friend Amanda (aka Lemon Lips) once told me a story about how long ago God gave mother's so much love for their children that they squeezed them to death. Then he gave them a little less love, but so much that they ate them. And the result is what we now feel for our children. Weird story, yes, but I can totally get the humor from it. I want to squeeze him so tightly and eat that little tummy!

By the way... He's doing much better! The bruising has gone way down. He's still swollen, but better than what it was. I stopped giving him any pain meds Sunday night and he has been perfectly happy without them. He's our tough cookie.

Oh and 4 years ago today James asked me to marry him. This was when my ring almost fell off a cliff, got smeared with mayonnaise and he totally forgot my name.

Stickers

Ezra LOVES stickers. He gets really excited if I give him a pack of stickers to play with. He puts most of them on himself and occassionally some on the paper I asked him to put them on. He usually shares a couple with Makai too. Every time we go to the doctor (which has been a lot lately) he asks begs for not just one, but many stickers. It was the first thing he asked the nurse for when they called us back to prep Makai for surgery.

 I find these "stickers" all over my house; on the mirror, TV, Ezra, and sadly even Makai.

He doesn't even care if they're cool looking, as long as they stick.

Makai's Man Surgery

Makai was born with an undescended testicle. We waited until he was 9 months old and then decided to proceed with surgery to bring it down. They couldn't find it with an ultrasound, so we were sent to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City to see a specialist. Our doctor at Primary Children's decided to schedule a laparoscopy and orchiopexy. Laparoscopy is when the put a scope into your belly button so they can see around your abdomen. The orchiopexy would only be necessary if they found his testicle. Then they would bring it down if they could. We were scheduled for surgery May 19th.

This is us Thursday morning getting Mr. Mak ready for surgery:

Well, I have a blood disorder called Von Willebrand. I told them about it way before the surgery and the doctor told me not to worry about getting Makai tested. Then he called me the day we were driving down to Salt Lake to ask me about the disorder and why I haven't gotten him tested. Umm...hello? So he said he wasn't comfortable doing the surgery and we'd have to reschedule. We were literally walking out the door and had our hotel booked and everything.

Long story short, I talked him into performing the surgery anyways and just watching him carefully. He said we 'd take some blood tests before surgery and that if anything was abnormal that we'd have to cancel.

On the 19th, I starved my baby and prepared him for surgery. He kept turning to my chest to nurse and I couldn't. It was so sad. They gave him an IV, drew some blood and sat us in the pre-op room. The anesthesiologist started walking us back to the O.R., but right before we handed our baby over he got a page to come back to the pre-op room. That's where the doctor told me that his blood tests were grossly abnormal, so we needed to cancel.

They sent us up to hematology for more tests; including repeating the tests he had gotten earlier that morning. I finally decided to feed him while we were waiting to get the tests. Then after we got the tests we waited some more and more and more.

Long story shorter again: The hematologist came in and said the test they were scared about earlier that morning came back normal and appears to be a probable mistake of the IV team who drew the blood. Oh bother. Cancelled surgery for nothing.

I worked hard and bugged a lot of people and was able to get the doctor to squeeze us in early the next morning. So, we starved him all over again and this time it wasn't all for nothing.

The surgery went well. He was able to find the testicle and bring it down in one day (we were expecting a two-surgery process). The doctor told us it was quite challenging so he wants to see him again soon to make sure everything is okay. He has 4 incisions and is pretty swollen still. It was hard handing him over and even harder seeing him all drugged up afterwards. I couldn't get him to stay awake more than a couple of seconds for the rest of the day. He's in a little bit of pain, but I'm staying on top of his meds, so he's doing okay. He still has somewhat of a raspy voice from the breathing tube, but it's getting better quickly. I actually got him to smile for me today :)

We were all pretty pooped on the drive home having had two long days in the hospital, so we were head bobbing right along with Makai. Thankfully James, who was driving, kept his head up.

I'll keep you updated on how he's healing, but for now we're all sponge baths, pain meds and rest. Thank you to those of you who prayed for our baby love!

Ezra Goes to the Dentist

 Ezra had his first trip to the dentist yesterday. That's right, FIRST. I totally wish I had taken him sooner, but I never knew where to go or even when. I was so happy with the office we chose. It was a pediatric office, so everything was short and miniaturized and totally kid friendly. They had an awesome little clubhouse in the waiting room with a slide and lots of toys. They had TVs on the ceiling. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have survived with those. Ezzy started with Megamind then he switched to Tangled because that's his favorite movie. He did really well for his first time.

 Until she did the fluoride rinse and spit sucker on him. Not his favorite part.

He was pretty happy when it was over. They gave him a coin to go get a prize out of the machine, a new toothbrush, flossers, toothpaste, and 3 stickers. It was like going to a birthday party!