Emily's Surgery

Back in the post for Emily's birthday, I mentioned that Emily had been referred to a urological surgeon about her bladder infections and reflux. When we met with the urologist, he told us that the injection would not work in Emily's case because the reflux was too severe. After several reschedules, Emily finally had her surgery on February 2nd. Maybe this should have gone in my last post on January randomness, but we bought Emily a new dress the weekend before her surgery. That Sunday, we went to my mom's house so that Sherwin could assist Mike in giving Emily a pre-operation priesthood blessing. Emily begged us to bring her dress so she could show it off to Grandma and Grandpa. My mom has a lot of very cute pictures of Emily dancing in her dress. The only picture I have is of Emily dancing with her Grandpa Crooks, but it's dang cute! She adores her grandpa!

We tried to prepare Emily for what was coming, but she didn't really get it. I explained to her that the doctor was going to make a small cut in her tummy and fix her insides, and that it would hurt for a while, but she would feel better and not get sick as often when it was over. Emily started giggling, and when I asked her why, she answered incredulously, "The doctor is going to fix my insides? That's pretty funny."

We arrived at the hospital at about 5:00 am to fill out all the paperwork. The surgery wasn't scheduled to start until 7:00. Emily was still mostly unaware of what was going to happen. She was cute and chatty with all the doctors and nurses, thinking it was all a fun game. They all treated her and us wonderfully. I was so impressed with the staff at Portneuf Medical Center.

Although we knew what day Emily's surgery would be, we hadn't been given a time. We got a call from the hospital at about 7:00 pm the night before asking us to come in at 5:30 am, so we didn't have time to make arrangements for Hyrum to stay with a friend or neighbor before school. I worried a little bit about bringing him with us to the hospital, but the staff didn't mind at all. The nurses let him listen to Emily's heart and explained the numbers to him as they checked her vitals.

They made a big deal of how "pretty" she looked in her hair net. Emily believed them. After all, she didn't have a mirror. Mike was given a sharpie and asked to put an X over her left kidney and initial it. I assume that this must be to avoid mistakes and lawsuits.

Emily's surgery was scheduled to start around 7:00, but they actually started a bit later. Emily became scared for the first time and asked Mike to stay with her. Such a daddy's girl! They let him stay with her up to the operating room and let her take her Jessie doll in with her. Emily was already knocked out by the time they got there, and didn't even notice that Mike was gone.

At around 7:30, the surgeon came in and recommended that we allow him to perform the surgery on both sides, not just the left. There was only minor reflux on the right side, and if left alone, she would probably outgrow it. However, because of the severity of the reflux on the left side, the surgeon said that the right was likely to become worse after the left was fixed. We told him to go ahead and fix both sides. Hyrum was playing with his Bakugan (Hyrum's new favorite toys, thanks to Dave) when the surgeon came out, and was thrilled when the doctor said, "Hey, Bakugan! Cool!"

After the surgery began, Mike took Hyrum to school and brought back breakfast. Around 10:00, the doctor came out and told us that all had gone well, and Emily was resting. She had lost about 70% of her kidney function on the left side, but he said that 30% healthy is healthy enough. Additionally, her right kidney was still in perfect condition.

The next hour and a half seemed impossibly long while Mike and I waited for the doctors to tell us it was okay to go see Emily. When we finally got to see her in the wake up room, she was in a lot of pain. She kept telling me, "He broke me! The doctor broke me!" Relief finally came when they gave her an epidural. It was still several more hours before they moved her to a regular hospital room.

Emily spent the next couple of days in the hospital, and I slept on a fold away bed/chair in her room. It was quite clear every time the pain killer wore off. She became more angry and bitter towards the nurses and doctors the longer she was in the hospital despite their bribes of books, dolls, and ice cream. Comfort came from the lady bug pillow pet and Hello Kitty balloon Mike and I gave her and the blanket from her Great-Grandma Sears. As she started to feel better, she wanted to get out of the bed. However, every time she tried to stand, she was in too much pain to walk and would collapse into my lap crying. However, when she had enough pain killer, she was her usually happy self!

Although Emily hated being in the hospital, she was scared to leave when the time came. She told us that she was afraid that if we left, she would get hurt more. Thankfully, the Hello Kitty sweater from her Grandma and Grandpa Crooks provided her with the courage she needed. Anything is possible with Hello Kitty! We gave her one dose of Tylenol the morning after we brought her home, but aside from not wanting to be picked up for fear of it hurting, and tiring out quickly, she seemed to be her usual self. That weekend we took her to my mom's house for the rest of her recovery so Mike and I could return to school. Hyrum was upset. He misunderstood, thinking that Emily wasn't going to live with us anymore, and cried, "But now we don't have a girl anymore." Emily recovered quickly. In fact, if it wasn't for the 4" scar, you'd never know she had surgery!

Christmas in Las Vegas!

This post is dedicated to Sandi who threatened to remove me from her blog list if I didn't post an update soon.

Since yesterday (when I started working on this blog) was July 25th, I figured this would be a good time to write about Christmas! I have been trying to be more positive on my blog, so I won't go into the details of why last Christmas was so difficult for our family. Honestly, it isn't even necessary because last Christmas, we were reminded that people are amazing. They are kind and generous and mindful of others. All throughout the month of December, friends and neighbors anonymously left food and gifts for the kids at our doorstep. We were so grateful.

Mike and I weren't able to afford any presents for Christmas, so we relied on family activities to make the holidays memorable for the kids. We spent one weekend decorating our house. Thanks to our mischievous kittens, Buyo (the black one) and Diaho (the orange one), the tree was never decorated. The tree was a hand-me-down from my aunt Judy and has been getting progressively more ragged every year. Thanks to our wonderfully thoughtful kittens, we will probably be getting a new one next year. Someone should invent a kitten proof tree. They'd make millions.

Another weekend was spent making gingerbread houses from two kits which were left on our doorstep. One kit was a traditional ginger bread house while the other was made of Rice Krispies. Both kits were so stale that we couldn't eat them, but we had fun decorating and making a mess!

The Rice Krispy Treat house turned into a large amorphous blob, so we ripped it up and turned it into snow men... kind of. The weird looking one on the far left was Emily's.

On December 20th, we were driving around Pocatello looking for something Christmas-y to do. I think we were contemplating heading to Idaho Falls when I got a phone call.

"This is Alex Guerrero calling on behalf of the Ryan Clady Foundation."

Now, in the back of my mind, I knew who Alex Guerrero and Ryan Clady were, but I couldn't think of any possible reason why they'd be calling. As a result, all that came out of my mouth was a skeptical, "Uh-huh...?"

"Would your family be interested in going to the Las Vegas Bowl?"

"Very much..." I remembered hearing that Ryan Clady had asked for names of Boise State fans who might be having a rough year and would appreciate a trip to the bowl game, but a family had already been chosen.

"Well, we'd like to invite you at our expense."

"...Seriously? Um... yeah... I mean... yeah! That's amazing!!"

Our conversation continued while Mike remained oblivious in the seat next to me. Apparently, after seeing how well things had worked out with the first family they selected, Chris Carr decided to fund a second family's trip and asked for the list of names. Our family was on the list. Alex told me that Mike was selected because they were impressed by a congratulatory note Mike had sent to the winning family. Alex asked how many were in our family, what our kids' ages were, and what size shirts they wore. Then he told me that, if we were going to go, we needed to be in Boise by 5:00 am the next morning.

Yikes! I handed Mike the phone so he could work out the details. I don't think he believed me when I told him who was on the phone. It was fun to watch him go through the same disbelief I had just minutes before. He turned the car around, and we headed home to pack. We debated whether we should leave then and ask our friends and family in Boise if any of them could put us up for the night, but we decided it was too short of a notice, and opted to sleep early and leave at 1:00 am. Wrong decision. We couldn't sleep.

We arrived in Boise early and had to wait for about an hour and a half in the cold car for the charter bus to show up. When it finally came, the bus was as cold as our car! We tried to sleep in the bus, but it just didn't happen. The drive was long and terrifying as we drove through some horrible snow storms with white-out conditions. Luckily, Alex had all sort of fun activities to help pass the time. We had raffles and trivia contests. Mike and I had brought DVDs for the kids which the bus driver let us play on the bus's system. Thankfully, the other passengers didn't mind watching Cars and Toy Story. We had brought snacks, coloring books, and video games as a preemptive measure to keep the kids entertained on the long drive, but they surprised us by being incredibly well behaved. The other passengers kept commenting on how they were worried when they saw such young kids board the bus, but were impressed by how well behaved they were. Emily would always answer them by saying, "Nobody wants to hear me cry, so let's all have fun!" Despite the long drive and lack of sleep, nothing seemed to upset the kids except when Emily misunderstood and thought that we were going to Lost Vegas. She insisted that she didn't want to be lost, she wanted to watch Boise State.

We arrived in Vegas that evening. The rest of the passengers took a shuttle from the hotel to the strip, but we didn't have any money for the taxi ride back. Instead, we stayed in the hotel, ordered a pizza, and took hot baths to warm up from the cold bus ride. We were all too exhausted to do anything else anyhow!

The next morning, we hit the strip. We figured there must still be plenty to do without spending money. What we didn't take into account was the amount of walking and the amount of rain. Our hotel was "just off the strip," but we didn't realize how far off the strip it really was! The kids and Mike had their fun at my expense as they watched my hair get curlier and curlier from the rain. I don't look good with curly hair. It only got worse as the rain stopped and my hair dried into a nice gravity-defying frizz. However, we were much more concerned about our shoes and pants. It wasn't until after we got back to the hotel that we found out that Vegas was under a flash flood warning. All we knew was that the water was often ankle deep and we were soaked through from all the walking. Still, we were enjoying ourselves too much to care.

When we got back from the strip, we all changed into dry clothes. Mike and I used my hair dryer and the hotel's hair dryer to try to dry out our shoes. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort. By game time, it was raining again, and it only took seconds of being outside before we were soaked. We headed to the stadium early and went to all the free tailgate activities we could find. We didn't have ponchos, and vendors were selling them for as much as $20 a piece. That's a bit too much for a garbage bag with arm holes, if you ask me! We finally found someone who offered to sell us a two pack for $5, and give them to the kids. Later, we saw a kid pull off his poncho and throw it on the ground because it had a hole in it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I snatched it up and put it on right then and there.

The game was the coldest I've ever attended, but it was totally worth it! Hyrum kept telling the Ute fans behind us, "Boise State wins by far." He wasn't trying to taunt them, but I don't think they appreciated it much, and they changed seats before the fourth quarter. An older couple in front of us kept fawning over Hyrum and Emily, and the kids ate it up. Best of all, Hyrum was right, and Boise "won by far."

After the game, we went down to the field and managed to get pictures with Joe Southwick the backup quarterback. Hyrum begged for the chance to meet a real football player, but he was stunned into silence when he saw just how tall he really was. Also, although we didn't get any pictures with the real Doug Martin, we did get a picture with the Muscle Hamster. Back at the hotel, we dried off and piled our beds high with warm blankets.

The next morning, we boarded the bus to Boise, then drove to Pocatello. We arrived home at 1:30 am Christmas Eve, and promptly fell asleep. When we woke up, it was to another surprise. Someone had given our family money to buy Christmas presents! Mike and I dumped our kids off with my parents and went shopping. We all met up at my Grandma Sears's house that evening for presents with the extended family. That night, we gave both kids new pajamas. Hyrum's had Mario, Luigi, and Bowser on them, and Emily's had zebra pants and a zebra applique on the shirt and came with a stuffed zebra. Hyrum ran around pretending to be Mario, collecting coins and jumping on blocks. Emily was in heaven pretending to be a zebra. I think that in her mind, zebras are as close to perfection as anything on this earth. The next morning we opened presents and enjoyed a nice Christmas at my mom's house. I promise you we had a good time even though I don't have pictures or videos. I didn't have time to recharge my camera after Vegas. Oops!

Christmas in Shelley

As Mike said in his entry, I spent Christmas with my family in Shelley and Idaho Falls. Mike and I had agreed that I would take the camera so I could get lots of pictures and videos and blog every day I was gone so he could feel a little more like he was there. Unfortunately, one of the first things I realized when I got to my mom's house was that I had left the camera at home. Instead, we had to settle on lots of phone calls and emails to get us through. I don't think I want to do the whole Christmas apart thing again.

The kids and I packed up and left Nampa shortly after Mike left for work on Christmas Eve. I had opted to leave on Monday because we had to sing in our ward's Christmas program on Sunday and I didn't want to drive in the dark. It only took until I got on the highway to realize that this was a mistake. There was a storm. A pretty big one. The highways were snowy and the traffic was bumper to bumper with last day shoppers. It was pretty treacherous nearly all the way out to Mountain Home. Once I got out of the Boise area, the roads were clear. I thought I had beaten the storm, but boy was I wrong! The storm caught up to me again around Fort Hall. By the time I got near Blackfoot, there was about three or four inches of unplowed snow on the highway. It only got worse the closer I got to Shelley. Near white-out conditions slowed highway traffic to around 30-40 mph. I followed a semi figuring they probably had a better view of the road than I did. However, I couldn't see the Shelley exit at all until I was already past it, and had to take another road from an Idaho Falls exit. This too was a mistake. By now, the snow was reaching 8 or 9 inches on unplowed roads, and I couldn't see where the edges of the road were. The car bounced in and out of ruts made by other cars driving equally as blindly as I was. I couldn't slow down or I would have risked getting high centered in the deep snow. Every now and then, I could hear grass or gravel under my tires signaling that I had drifted a bit off the road, but there was little I could do to get away from the old tire ruts. It was that way all the way out to my Mom's house. By the time I got there, I was pretty shaken up and didn't even want to go to my Grandma Sears's house for presents and dinner with extended family that night. The storm didn't let up until we had 10 new inches from that one day of snow. It snowed the whole time I was there. I think the news said we got up around 14 or 16 inches total that week.

We took Mom and Sherwin's Jeep to my grandma's house. I was glad not to be driving, but I was still quite nervous riding in the back seat. As I walked in the door, I was met with applause and cheers of, "There's the brave girl!" Nobody could believe I had been so daring (or stupid) to make that drive alone. We had a great time at Grandma's house. Hyrum got to see his cousin Piper again. They haven't seen each other in a long time, but it was like no time had passed at all. Hyrum gave her a big hug and kiss and they took off hand-in-hand to play together. He also got to play with my cousin's kids... what does that make them? Second cousin? Cousins once removed? I've never been able to figure out that cousin thing... Emily was too shy to let me put her down, but still showed off playing and dancing in my lap.

I was at fault to us getting off to a late start on Christmas morning. Emily hadn't slept well that night, and I got up early when Hyrum woke up. However, after my mom woke up, I dumped Hyrum off on her and tried to catch a little nap since Emily was sleeping. I slept longer than I had meant to and everyone had waited on me for breakfast. I felt pretty bad about that. We had a nice breakfast and were about to start opening our presents when Emily got sick. Very very sick. The poor kid spent the whole morning throwing up, and Mom, Emily, and I went through several changes of clothes in the process. Luckily, Hyrum enjoyed himself enough for both kids. He couldn't stop talking about Christmas and Santa and singing "Jingle Bells" over and over. We spent the rest of the day playing with the kids' new toys. Hyrum especially liked the preschool software my mom had gotten for him. Emily enjoyed playing with her new doll.

Mom had to work a half day on the 26th. When she got home, we went to the Wal*Mart photo studio to get pictures of the kids. I think they turned out pretty cute and can't wait to get them back. I also got to see our old friend and neighbor Dan who is the manager of the optical center there. He showed me pictures of their kids including their newest baby I haven't yet seen in person. I tried to set up a time to go see his wife Carissa and the kids too, but the weather kept me from ever going out that way.

Mom got off early again on the 27th, and we headed out to see my Grandma Sears again. Mom helped her with some stuff on her computer while I tried to program a stubborn universal remote for her. The kids decided to play cute and show off. Emily even got brave enough to let Grandma hold her for a while.

The next day, I went out to visit my high school friend Sandi. She's expecting a baby in April and looked so cute! I'm so excited for her! My kids really loved her husband. Especially Emily who will usually never go to anyone but me. I'm sure they will be incredible parents.

Mom decided that Hyrum needed some mittens for that freezing cold East Idaho weather, and we had gotten some fleece to match his coat at Hancock Fabrics on one of our previous trips to town. So on Saturday, we stayed in and made mittens. Hyrum loved them!

Early Sunday morning, we got a call. Church had been canceled due to snow. Nearly all the country roads were closed until plows could get out. There was even talk on the news about the possibility of closing East bound I-15. I had been looking forward to showing off my kids in their cute Sunday clothes, but it turned out to be a good thing anyhow. I was very sick throwing up all day Sunday. I spent nearly the entire day in bed. After the roads cleared a bit, Mom and Sherwin took the kids on a drive while I slept.

Monday was my birthday! My Grandma Page and Aunt Pat came to visit that afternoon because they knew my car wouldn't have made it through the snow to their house. It was really good to see them. Hyrum was in the mood to show off, but Emily was sleepy and wouldn't play or even leave my lap. Still, she looked cute in her pigtails!

I left for home on Tuesday. It was too bad I couldn't spend the day with my mom since she had it off, but I was afraid of missing a window of opportunity. There was no snow and no wind. Perfect driving conditions! Surely, the drive back would be much less eventful than the drive there. Right?... Well, for some reason, I wasn't paying much attention as I came out of Shelley. I missed the turn to get to I-15, and instead, kept heading down 91. I realized fairly quickly that I either needed to find a crossroad that would get me through to 15 or turn around and head back to the missed turn. After passing a couple of crossroads that ended in dead ends, I realized that you could probably only cross the river from Shelley or Firth. 91 was fairly snowy, and I was still closer to Shelley than to Firth, so I decided I would turn back. I turned down a narrow little country road looking for a driveway to pull into so I could turn around. Well, there weren't any driveways for a while. But there was a one lane bridge which I crossed followed by another intersecting one lane bridge that crossed a small canal. Since there were no cars on the road, I decided to use this little bridge for my three point turn. I pulled over the top of it and backed out the other way. The problem was, the second bridge was on a hill. The incline was so gradual, I hadn't noticed. The car couldn't grip the road well enough to climb the hill. The wheels just spun. I tried to back up a bit to get some momentum to get me over, but it didn't help. Finally, I decided I would have to push the car over the top of the hill. I was worried about it drifting off over the edge of the bridge into the canal, so I stood in the driver side doorway to steer as I pushed. It started out well enough until I lost my grip and the car started rolling backwards. I couldn't stop it. I tried to jump in, but I lost my footing in a bank on the side of the road. Now remember, the snow was really deep. Anyone who has lived in snow areas knows how it works. When it gets cold enough without new snow, the top layer of the snow freezes and forms a crust over the top of the softer drifts of snow. Well, my left foot broke the crust and I sunk in nearly knee deep. Meanwhile, the car kept rolling until I had been knocked face down into the snow by the open door of the car. I was waiting for it to slam into the back of my head, but before that could happen, the car came to a stop in the bank. My left foot was under the front tire. However, the car hadn't broken the crust and had only pushed my foot deeper into the snow rather than running over the top of it. I was easily able to pull it out and drag myself out from under the door. I stood up, shaking. My legs felt like Jell-o as I walked to the nearest house house for help. I knocked. No answer. I started out to the next house, but realized it was too far to walk as my legs were shaking so badly that I fell every few steps. So I went back to the car. Emily was asleep and Hyrum was just singing along to a Tabernacle Choir CD, completely oblivious to the fact that we were stuck. I was literally covered head to toe in snow and quite panicked. Luckily, just as I called Sherwin to tell him how to find me, someone came along in a hay truck. He had a chain with him and everything and was able to pull me out with no trouble at all. I quickly realized how lucky I was. But after the shock, adrenaline, and the numbness of the cold wore off, I realized how sore I was. Upon further inspection, I found bruises on my legs, some nasty scrapes on my forearms, bent up glasses, and for some reason I can't recall, a swollen pinkie. Curiously, the least sore part of me is the foot that was caught under the tire. Good thing I had prayed before leaving. Heavenly Father must have known that I have no health insurance! Thankfully, I can still say that I have never broken a bone.

The rest of the trip was uneventful with nice clear roads. I was so glad to be home again. The house has never looked so good to me. Mike had done some cleaning and organizing while I was gone. He had done quite a lot of work in the garage, taking advantage of the car being gone. Mike and I decided to let the kids open their presents on Christmas, but to wait to exchange our gifts to each other until I got home. I couldn't avoid seeing my presents as soon as I came in. For Christmas, he had gotten me a new computer desk. Sitting on top of it, he had wrapped the screen of a new monitor. I took off the paper to find this:

So maybe he can't spell "birthday" well and his shirt is stained (thank goodness I'm home!) but I still thought it was clever. He also did a great job finding an awesome deal for it on Craigslist.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. As for me, I'm happy to be home again!

One final picture of my mom with the kids.

Does it ever end?

Before I jump into some of the heavier details of our life, I must note that we read Harry Potter 7. Wow! What a great book! But it's so strange to think of it as being over... no more books to look forward to and speculate about in a few summers.

Ok, now for the rest. This is all rather difficult to talk about, and I hope I don't sound too depressing.

Thursday was the worst day ever. Late in the afternoon, the Department of Health and Welfare dropped by unannounced at our house. They invited themselves in and asked me if I knew why they were there. I told them no. They said that they had received a report that we are neglecting our kids by not feeding them or taking them to doctor appointments. This is absolutely ludicrous. Of course we feed our kids! They're just small. And if the doctor isn't worried, they shouldn't be either. As for not taking them to doctor appointments, that's just stupid. We've been taking Emily to the doctor more often than regular because of her health issues, so who knows where that came from. Health and Welfare is notorious for twisting things though. I'm sure someone called them and told them that we needed help financially because we can't afford baby food and have no medical insurance. But naturally, that MUST mean that we're neglecting and abusing our kids. I was so furious. They sat in my living room with a tape recorder for about an hour interviewing me. They took pictures of my house, my kids, even my cat. They checked our cat to see if she was diseased or abused. They wanted a closer look at Hyrum, but I insisted they leave him alone since he was napping. They told me they had to at least "Lay eyes on him" to confirm that he was ok. I was so infuriated. Of course, I kept my cool while they were there, but the second they left, I went to pieces. Why anyone would think that I wouldn't take care of my kids, I don't know. They're very happy and healthy. They're just small. These people at Health and Welfare have a chart that tells them how big a kid should be at a specific age but have no medical training. My kids are too small by the charts. Well, big deal! Their pediatrician says they're ok, and I'm gonna take his word for it. After all, he has a PHD and an MD. That's a heck of a lot better than a chart. They came back again the next morning when Hyrum was awake, and they could see him and Emily playing and smiling and giving us hugs and kisses. I think they were a little disappointed that they couldn't find any reason to take our kids away. Guess they'll have to fill their torn family quota on someone else.

As if this wasn't already stressful enough, Mike got a call while on his way to an Elder's Quarm meeting (he's the Elder's Quarm secretary now). It was our landlord who has a habit of bugging us constantly. She's at the house about 2-3 times a week and gives us absolutely no privacy. So it wasn't a big shock when she told Mike that she wanted to sell the house and we had until Saturday afternoon (not quite 2 days) to have the house ready for a walk through with her. Mike told her that that wasn't enough time to have it ready since he's working two jobs and I'm dealing with two kids. Cleaning up, sure, we could handle that. But things like cleaning the carpet, washing walls, washing windows, fixing dings in the walls.. there was no way. But no, she wouldn't give us an extension. She doesn't seem at all bothered by the fact that we're in a lease until November. She expects us out of the house whenever it sells. On top of that, she also wants us to vacate the house whenever a potential buyer wants to come look at it. This is so ridiculous. What am I supposed to do? Pick up my two kids and wander around on the street until they're done? I don't have a car or a place to go. Mike and I decided that we'd try to find another place ASAP. Although this is really maddening and inconvenient, it'll be good to be out from under her thumb. She's expecting us to stay in the house until it sells. But if she feels that she can break lease, then why can't we? She can't really complain if we move out early, although I'm sure she will. She needs us to keep paying rent so that she can make the payments on the house herself. Maybe she'll realize that she's asking too much when we move out and she can't find a buyer for 6 months! Sorry, that's my mean side talking a bit there. She won't even buy us out of our lease though. So I have no idea how we're going to find first month's rent and a deposit for a new place. But for now, we've started packing and looking for somewhere else. It's a little hard to do since Mike took on another job and is never home. I'm having to do all the packing myself, and who knows when we'll find time to look at a new place. It'll be hard to move again, but maybe we can find a cheaper place. That would certainly help a lot.

the 1st night home

Jessica records ~3 hours of sleep on and off
Mike records ~5 hours of sleep on and off (I get to sleep when she feeds :D)

Emily was fine sleeping through feedings throughout the day, but not at night, unfortunately. I'm pretty patient when i'm fully awake ...it's the times when i'm half awake that i see myself get a bit frustrated. I just need jessica to slap me awake so i can get my priorites straight :)

Well, in lieu of that, lets get you some updated pictures!!

Pictures of thegirl

Mom and her princess

(lol, had to post that so she can kill me later)Dad and thegirl
Doctor Lovelace and Emily
Emily, a nose sucker, and 4 of my fingers
Naked Emily!!
(she'll kill me when she's older, for now, don't let her know this is embarrasing)

Emily Lisa Haddox

Her name was going to be something else --and we'd tell you except that we may have another girl one day and will use it then. For some reason, Emily fit this girl very well.

She is an adorable baby. When Hyrum was born, he looked like me, which made him cute. Emily was born and has the same look as me... good news is, she still looks like a girl too. She does snort just like Hyrum did, but she doesn't cry as much. Mom will be able to tell me how she did through the night later today. Unfortunately, i was not able to stay at the hospital. Hyrum decided he didn't want to sleep over at James's (Jessica's brother) house. So I picked him up at midnight and we slept at home.

We went in to the hospital yesterday morning @ 7.40am. We were supposed to go @ 7am, but you know how punctual I am. Normally I'm a very calm fellow, however, the excitement of delivering our daughter got me nervous and I was running around all morning making sure I didn't forget thing... naturally, I did. I finally went to get Jessica after 5 miles down the highway-- just kidding :P

It was a scheduled delivery. We were suppose to induce the day before on Dec. 5th, however after waiting for the hospital to call all day, they were not able to get us in. Once there, with the pitosin(?) Jessica was supposed to deliver around noon. After noon, they expected it to be 3 or 4pm. After 6pm they moved us into another room since they were closing that side of the hospital wing. That seemed to strike something because Jay went into hard labor at around 7pm-ish.

@ 8.10pm we had our daughter. Though the whole experience was great, as one would expect, i still had the same great/best feeling of happiness and miraculousness when lil-girl Haddox came out of the womb just as when Hyrum did. Then being able to hear her cry her first cry .... (my eyes are swelling as i type :D)

She weighed in @ 6 lbs 14 ozs, smaller than Hyrum, but longer than him @ 19.74" in height. I forgot the measurements of her crown, but she didn't have as much a wrinkly head as Hyrum did.

Unlike last time, i was able to cut the umbilical cord. It wasn't too hard to do, but the first cut squirted blood all over my shirt ... souvenir #1.

Events on her 0st Birthday

• On the news, they gave the "Iraq Study Report" or something. Apparently, other countries are moving out of Iraq seeing as they are having a Civil war. Oddly enough, we are placing more American troops in Iraq to help train their infantry... So, which side are we training in their civil war?!? Well, this post isn't about politics .. just to say it happened w/ the comment, "Silly Bush."
• Our 2% Milk expired that Sherwin purchased for breakfast during the Thanksgiving weekend. I actually used it when Ethan, Issac, and Piper stayed the night

Ok, i do need to get going. I was silly enough to leave the hospital last night... I grabbed a cookie, a bag of chips, string cheese, and a Diet 7up --however, i left my cell phone. Good to know in crisis, i know where my priorities lie. Needless to say, I haven't been able to talk w/ Jessica at all since leaving last night. I just hope i packed the right clothes for her and Emily.

A big thanks to James for watching Hyrum. He's a good boy, but also knows how to be disobedient and a pill. A bigger thanks to Heavenly Father for overlooking my imperfections and blessing me with a beautiful daughter. A pre-thanks to Jill as she's coming down to help Jessica while I go make $ @ work.

Pictures next blog :)