Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Pete's School Pictures

Here is Pete's school picture. He looks so stinking old in this picture!  How the heck is he 8 years old already?! Honestly the collared shirt and tie makes him look older right?

Nora's School Picture

Isn't she adorable?!  She's killing me with her cuteness factor here. That haircut is so perfectly her (and I'm loving the fact I'm doing nothing but brushing it before school) I'll post Pete's pictures once they come in.

Friday, November 9, 2018

First Day of School Pictures

Playing catch up here.  Nora is in preschool this year and loving it, Pete is now in second grade and liking it as much as he can.


And both my kids totally close their eyes while smiling....

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Michael Eldon Call

A lot has happened since I last posted on the blog; the biggest would be adding a new baby to the family.  Here's the whole story of Michael Eldon Call - "Mike" for short.

tiny baby ultrasound
Mike is our complete and total miracle baby for all intents and purposes. Just thinking of his journey so far causes me goosebumps in many parts.  It starts out with my first appointment at the very beginning of the new year.  I went in for the routine first appointment including an ultrasound to get a more accurate dating and due date for the pregnancy. By my calculations I should have been 8 weeks; the doctors' dating said 10 weeks; the ultrasound said 5 weeks with no heartbeat. I was completely heartbroken as this is one of my biggest fears having already lost one before Pete.  The doctor said most likely it was a miscarriage as none of the dates would possibly have it that small; they'd check again in a week but be prepared for the loss more than likely that week.  I went home completely devastated; Pete and Nora were utterly confused because they didn't know yet about the baby.  I asked Phil for a Priesthood Blessing, mostly just wanting the strength to continue on through the loss and endure the horror again.  What Phil was a mouthpiece for was not that at all. He said our baby would be fine and be born into our family.  I was at a complete loss and lived on pins and needles for the next week, trying to have the faith but terror always around an unguarded corner of my mind. I went in to the next appointment and there was a baby kicking around with a wonderfully healthy heartbeat!  A few extra appointments happened because of the bizarre nature of his sudden growth and catching up to where I thought he should be, which perplexed the doctors.  

Next of the hurdles to cross came from a poorly located placenta, constant bleeding from me, poor cord attachment on the placenta, and a test result that significantly increased our chances for Mike having Down Syndrome.   Lots of tests later, the bleeding didn't have a cause, the placenta moved to a much better location, the cord corrected itself, and further genetic testing showed he didn't have Down Syndrome.  I also managed to pass 2 glucose tests with flying colors, despite the doctor not believing I'd produced a 10 pound baby previously without diabetes being present.  I had more ultrasounds and testing done for Mike than I had with the other 2 combined. The Lord's promise to us that he would be born to us healthy was coming true despite all the doctors told us and warned us about with each discovery.  Each one corrected in time and ended up not being cause for concern.

The night of July 30th, (37 weeks) I went to bed as normal. At midnight,  I woke up to my water breaking.  In the morning we went to the hospital after finding a sitter for the kids, since my parents hadn't arrived yet because Mike was so early.  I was admitted, received confirmation that the water had broken, and got hooked up to monitors.  Mike's heartbeat kept falling when I was sitting up so I had to lay in bed the duration of labor on my sides. I was planning on a natural, medication-free birth but required pitocin due to lack of labor really starting and not wanting to risk infection.  In case you were wondering, being stuck in bed with pitocin-induced contractions is pretty much torture without painkillers. I finally caved in and requested an epidural.  They came in and ran the line for it; contractions were the worst I'd experienced with any of the kids, just coming constantly with no breaks.  (Getting an epidural is no fun, you have to sit on the edge of the bed, holding still while being in pain from the contractions but also having a giant freaking needle shoved in your spine and not wanting a mistake so you don't get paralyzed.)  They got the thing placed, and before running the test dose I felt the need to push.  He was coming before the medicine was in me, I'd sat through all of that only to have to go through it without any meds after all.  After 15 minutes of pushing and extreme whining and complaining (that the nicu nurses were giggling about later to me) he was born weighing in at 8 pounds 9 oz.  I was amazed with how tiny he was; the nurses all thought I was crazy saying a 8 lbs + baby was tiny as a 37 weeker, but compared to Nora's 10-pound entrance to the world, he was a tiny little thing.
Mike's first meal
getting checked out by the nurses after his first couple hours
very first picture

All the kiddos
He's now 3 months old and adored by everyone, especially Pete and Nora.  The fact Pete is so enamored by him was quite the surprise.  They are both amazed by each milestone and smile.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Family Board Game Review: Cauldron Quest by Peaceable Kingdom



We attended GenCon this year and while there, we discovered a company that creates cooperative games for kids and families.  What is a cooperative game? In a nutshell, it is a game where players work together against the board instead of against each other.  We fell in love with the one we purchased there and reached out to Peaceable Kingdom to do a review on some of their other games.  The first one I will be reviewing is Cauldron Quest.  The goal of this game is to make the potion before the evil wizard blocks your way to the cauldron. Each turn, you roll dice to see if the wizard paces around the cauldron, if a potion ingredient can move closer to the cauldron, or if a minion appears to block your way. Sometimes, you have the chance to roll 3 dice Yahtzee-style to try and perform one of three possible charms to help you on your way.
 As an adult, I still can't win every time.  We've probably won about half of the time we've played.  This honestly doesn't bother me, though; it just makes me want to play it more so I can figure out the best strategy!  Pete (7) isn't bothered about losing during this game; it makes game night much more enjoyable since it doesn't have to end early because someone is in tears over losing to someone else.  He is also learning different strategies without feeling like he is being babied because we all help each other decide how to play on our turns. Often, he has great observations himself and is learning how to make suggestions to others in a collaborative and kind way. 

This game is too difficult for Nora (3), but she does like rolling the dice and counting out the spaces we tell her to.  She's a pretty good dice roller for us and loves getting to take a turn even if she doesn't really follow along with what is happening in the game.  We have created some house rules (who doesn't do that in board games) particularly about getting to use the spell breaker charm a second time to reduce the odds of losing super fast.

In general the board is fun with its round shape instead of a square.  The ingredients for the potion are something Pete enjoys with the eyeball, batwing, mushroom etc. Nora on the other hand is quite partial to the wizard's minions: the rather ominous looking unicorn, rose, and saber-tooth tiger thing ("kitty" as she calls it).  The artwork is fun and goes along with the feel of the game, and the pieces all have a high quality weight and feel to them. Plus, the biggest bonus is that if a piece goes missing, we can get a free replacement from the company!  Seriously, how many times have you come up with stand-ins for pieces because the little figurine went into the Lego bin on accident and can't be found?

This review was sponsored, and I received this game for free for that but the thoughts and comments on the products are my own.  I have also bought some of the company's games on my own as well.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Pete Turns 7!

We've been out of town for almost 2 months.  We did lots over that time but the biggest thing was Pete turned 7 this year and celebrated with lots of family!  We had a huge family party for him including a death star pinata, and star wars cake! He got lots of new legos (currently his favorites are Nexo Knights), a robot thing, a switch and go dinosaur, and a bit of money that is burning a serious hole in his pocket.  I think he had a great time and is already talking about how he wants his birthday party to go next year!
The awesome cake I made with no food coloring!

Birthday boy with his cake!

Modeling his lego set

Death Star Pinata