Life in Pictures

Fair warning: this is a picture heavy post. We have had a fun/busy winter.

We have gotten together at Willamette Mtn (AKA Joshua James' home) a few times. Christmas Party and New Years Party= fun times
We have played with this wild man A LOT

We visited Gardner Village on one of our many unseasonably warm days

I've been sewing up a storm. I made this dress for T when her class was on TV. Other things I've made lately: 2 baby quilts, 3 paper wreaths (much more labor-intensive than they sound), a HUGE watercolor painting (Christmas gift for Adam), valentine pillows, and I can't remember what else.

Baking. A lot of baking.

Walking the kiddos home from school. Love them!

Baby! Love taking pics of this boy.

Wild man got into the baking soda. That was fun to clean up!

Joshua James show in American Fork. We also went to a show in SLC. Love him! Check him out here .

Pretty little Lu had her ears pierced.

We are starting to potty train the boy. Not too successful- but he likes it!

Lu and baby J

I have been on a major soup kick. Here is a yummy butternut squash, with my homemade grape juice. I think I might start posting some of my recipes- Adam thinks I should.

One of the few snowstorms we've had. This is a tree outside of the library.

Daddy and daughter painting session. I've been teaching them how to paint watercolors.

Crazy boy, he thought his hair was an excellent place for yogurt. getting ready for a shower.

One of the valentine pillows. It's made out of a vintage hankie.

Domino's. Another favorite pastime lately.

So- that's a bit of what we've been up to. In heart news, Asher saw his cardiologist a couple of weeks ago for a surgery follow-up. It went GREAT! His heart is doing very well, it's only mildly enlarged now, and his new valve is not leaking AT ALL. Yay! By this point last time, he already had a moderate leak. 6 months post op and it was severe. SO we are thrilled. Dr. P says this valve should last 8-10 years. And if it doesn't last that long, they can replace it without open heart surgery. (But if it does last 8-10, surgery would be open heart, because at that point they would need to place a larger valve). All good things- we were just hoping to make it to pre-school with the valve! We don't see cardiology for another 6 months.

So that's life lately in a nutshell.

Some People...

So... it's been awhile. Sorry.

As I've been reading through past posts, and reading other blogs lately, I realize I've been keeping things kind of at surface level. You know, this what we've done, blah blah blah. Which is nice, but, things haven't been totally rosy for me lately. I've been a bit down, and haven't really talked about it to anyone.
Sunday, we decided to be brave and take the whole family to church. The first time in MONTHS that we have ALL gone to church together. It was crazy, but good. I needed it. A neighbor came up to me at church, and mid-conversation asked how I'm doing. "Oh, I'm okay", I said, with a little laugh. My typical answer, I'm okay, things are fine, were doing alright. Well, he saw right through it, and didn't let it slide. He spoke to me about how some people have an awareness about how others are doing, and he shared some very sweet words of love and hope with me. Very much what I needed to hear. SO GLAD we went to church.

Financially, things have not been swell for us. Adam's pay is down (commission sales is not so swell), I haven't been receiving much of any real estate work (I do bank appraisals), hospital bills have been crazy (turns out, on top of this years deductible, there was an error and we still owe thousands toward our deductible from last year. Uugh.), and quite frankly I screwed up and have thoroughly mismanaged our money. Not my best moment.

Of course, I haven't really shared this with anyone. Christmas was going to be very lean this year. In fact, this past week I went and returned about half of the gifts I had gotten for the kids, because the money was needed for other things. That afternoon, I received a phone call from my Bishop, asking me if things were alright for Christmas, and if we could use some help. I just about started bawling, and graciously accepted the help offered. Some people are very aware of others needs, even when we don't ask for it, and don't necessarily feel like we deserve it.

Things haven't been all sad and depressing. Asher's finger drama is finally over; the pin was removed last week. It doesn't look great, is bending again, but for now there isn't anything that can be done.

We've been baking a lot, took Taylor to the Forgotten Carols, and Adam and I have had some fun together; we went to a Christmas party at his cousin Joshua's, which was a blast ( I won Girl Talk in the white elephant, remember that game?!), we went to a Christmas concert down at Velour in Provo on Adam's birthday, and we had a fun kid-free day/night Sunday night. I actually got to sleep in Monday! (Thanks mom).

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, I still have a few gifts to finish up (going for a homemade thing this year). Ours will be full of gratitude for all we have been blessed with this year.

Sunday Breakfast and Hand Surgery News

This may sound bad, but since we've been keeping Asher home from church (lots of icky germs there- for some reason people WILL NOT stay home when they are sick), I've really started enjoying Sunday mornings. No mad rush to get out the door. I can make a nice breakfast, and help Adam and the older kids get ready to go. Then I get some (relatively) peaceful time with the babies, put them down for naps, and make a nice lunch for when everyone comes home (or, today, update my blog ;). Really a nice way to spend a morning.
Asher, contemplating stealing my pancakes.

Today, Jon stayed home also. After Thanksgiving, all of my little boys are now sick :(. Jon's pancake request was Optimus Prime.

Not sure if I succeeded, but he liked it!

Asher had surgery on his hand on the 9th. Overall, not a bad experience. Surgery was at 12:30, and lasted 1 1/2 hours. They ended up not doing a skin graft. They just revised his scar, did a zig zag cut, straightened out the finger, inserted a pin, and re-stitched the finger. He came home after a couple of hours in recovery. he came out of anesthesia really well this time. Usually he is an angry bear; I talked to the anesthesiologist about this beforehand, so he gave Asher a dose of morphine before he woke up, and he woke up sleepy rather than grumpy.

He's been doing okay at home. He has to wear a large splint (the pin is sticking out of his finger-gross!), and at first we struggled keeping it on him. However, after letting him go without, and then falling and pushing the pin in too far, and now having an infection that he is on antibiotics for, we have decided keeping the splint on him is a good thing!

He sees the surgeon again in 1 1/2 weeks, and the pin will be removed then. Poor guy- he's becoming a lefty now! he has had to relearn how to do everything!

Family photo from last Sunday- thanks Amy! Notice Asher's hand? That's the day he went without his splint and hurt it.

Okay, off to fix lunch for the family!

Silly Family Pic's and Halloween Fun

We've been having fun at our house!

In an effort to enjoy the last days of good weather, we've been getting outside as much as possible. A couple weeks ago, we decided to head to Wheeler Farm. They had a cute Farmer's Market going on, and we enjoyed browsing allof the booths. Our favorite? A photographer set up a booth (Lazy Day Photography) and was taking pics for FREE, with these silly mustaches and glasses and whatnot. Then you got to download your silly pics for free from his website. FUN! I think they actually turned out really well, I wish the whole family was in it and I would use it for our Christmas card!

Jon boy and his silly mustache. Love it!

We made it through Halloween here. Taylor was a garden fairy (and was constantly correcting people that thought she was Tinkerbell).

We picked up the costume on 75% off clearance at Gymboree, we already had the wings, and I made the headpiece. Taylor's favorite part was wearing MAKEUP. For weeks now she has been counting down to Halloween.

Jon was a Samurai Power Ranger. His costume is a bit worse for the wear- we gave it to him for his birthday, and he's been wearing it almost everyday since.

Jon doing his best "tornado" kick. Hilarious!

Jon was excited for Halloween, because it means we are closer to Christmas. For days he's been saying "First Halloween, then Thanksgiving, and then...CHRISTMAS!"

Daddy hanging out with the boys while I took pics of Tay and Jon.

Dragon Asher. He is our third dragon, and I never get sick of the costume! We will retire it after Jacob wears it next year.

Jacob the shark. We wanted Asher to be the shark (fitting since he is such a biter!), and Jacob was supposed to be a lobster. But Jacob is so long, he outgrew (by a lot!) his costume before Halloween came. So we switched it up a bit .

Daddy handed out candy while I took Ash, Tay, and Jon out. After one street Jon was pooped, so I took him home, and traded Asher for Jacob. Then Tay, Jacob, and I finished up. I kind of forgot it was a school night- we didnt get homeuntil 8:15 (bedtime around here is between 7:30-8). Oh well! Overall is was a great day.

Asher met with Early Intervention last week and got approved for Speech Therapy; we start tomorrow. He was in the 1st % for receptive language, and 5th percentile for expressive. Not terribly surprising! I hope we like our therapist- we adored Jonathan's, but she moved to Idaho. I will let you know how it goes.

Also- his hand surgery is scheduled for the 9th of the month. Mixed emotions there- glad it wil be fixed, but bummed that he has to have yet another surgery!

Fall Days

We ARE still alive! My blog has been a bit neglected lately- sorry!

First of all- Asher is doing great!

He is back to his normal- super active, full of energy, major handful self. I am on a constant run, picking up his messes like crazy. But it is great that he has so much energy. Gone are the days of sleeping for 18 hours- now he naps a couple of hours a day, like any other 18 month old. Which is good- but life was less hectic when he was sleeping SOO much!

We have our first meeting with Early Intervention tomorrow, to get help with speech therapy, and see if he might have a sensory problem, as well. Should be interesting!

Jacob is growing soo fast!

I can't believe he is 3 months old already! It seems like he was born just yesterday. He is a much happier baby lately- his reflux seems to have resolved itself, and he smiles and laughs now. So cute!

Our house has been pretty chaotic lately. We just had a new furnace and ductwork installed:

The joys of purchasing a home built in 1970. It was built with electric heat, a furnace was added in the 80's, but it was done very WRONG. So, when our furnace went kaput this Spring, we saved our pennies. And now, after a week of mess and destruction, we have a new furnace and ductwork and our house is actually warm! Now it is being torn apart again, new exterior doors are being installed. Our 1970 wood doors were leaking air like crazy, so we decided part of our new furnace budget needed to go toward doors. Next up: fixing the drywall from having the new ductwork done. Some day this mess will be over and I can have my house back!

In the midst of all of the chaos, the grapes out back ripened. SO, it was grape juice time! Last week I picked 40 gallons of concord grapes, and made 65 quarts of grape juice. And yesterday I pick the white grapes, and made 39 quarts of white grape juice.

The crazy thing is, we actually drink that much juice in a year!

Otherwise, all is well in the James household. Staying away from people as much as possible (don't want Ash getting sick!). We've been playing outside, enjoying the last bit of good weather, and driving the canyons to see the fall colors. Time to go! Jacob is making his presence known.

Surgery Followup

Why is Asher bundled up like a little Eskimo?

We had SNOW!

Last week we had our first snowfall of the season. I'm not sure how much we actually received, but at least an inch of it "stuck". Asher was so excited when he looked out the window and saw it falling! So, we broke out the snowsuit and boots. So cute!

Asher had his surgery follow-up appointment today. Everything looked great, and sounded great. His heart is still a little more swollen than they would like it to be at this point, so he is going to stay on Lasix for the next 3 months (until he sees his cardiologist again).

Also, surgery for his pinkie finger (remember, the one he bit, had stitches, got infected, didn't heal right, and now needs a skin graft?) is officially scheduled for November 9th. Thankfully, it is just an outpatient procedure. He will be fully sedated under anesthesia, but he wont have to stay overnight.

And in other Asher news, we believe he has a speech delay (not surprising with these heart kiddos), and possibly a sensory problem. (We spoke with a speech pathologist while we were in the hospital). SO, he is being evaluated at the end of the month for Early Intervention.

We are busy, busy, busy, but Asher is doing great. It is such a relief, and so nice to have my happy, funny, active Asher back.

Home!

We are home! Yay! We got to the hospital at 8:30 this morning, and our sweet nurse informed us that as soon as we were ready, Asher could be discharged. We were so excited! She got started on the paperwork, and had Bonnie, the Cardiology nurse practitioner, come up. In the meantime, we bathed Asher, and got him dressed in his cute monster jammies to come home. Dr. Kaza didn't have any surgeries today, so he came up to say goodbye to Asher.

We love Dr. Kaza! You couldn't have a nicer guy operate on your child. He says he feels like every patient is his own child, and that when he is doing surgery, he is an instrument in God's hands. Really, he is the best. And he came to see us several times every day! So great.

While we waited, Daddy and Asher had some cuddle time in the rocker. Asher is so much happier today over yesterday. He is more like his normal self.

Goodbye morphine Asher! He is now on just tylenol and ibuprofen.

Goodbye oxygen sensors, iv's, and heart monitors!

Goodbye iv pokes. Ouch!

Goodbye "prison" crib

We are soo happy to be home. So grateful all went well. So blessed to have Asher home with us.