Masons Blessing Day

April 6th, 2013

Mason Troy Hanson's special blessing day. 

 Surrounded by our family and friends, the love and support that we felt is indescribable.  

In the midst of a chilly rainy day, the sun peeked through the clouds just in time.  

Such a special and beautiful moment for our family.  Giving our baby his name, and sealing a blessing on his head.  It's a sweet reminder of all that we hold dear.  The importance of family.  And of friends.  And of the gospel.

 Despite his goofy cheesiness, I usually get a good shot! Love this man! :)

 What a beautiful family we have been blessed with.  We treasure them more than we can express.  No life is not all peaches and cream, but family is THE most important thing to us.  We love our life.  We love our 5 babies.  We are so grateful for all we have.  

Thank you to all of you who went out of your way to spend a few hours with us.   We love and appreciate every single one of you.

(Sorry I didn't think to get pics with everyone! I didn't even get my camera out until almost everyone had left. dang it!)

Family, It's a Wonderful Life!

There really isn't much I need to say. I adore my family.  We have our good days and our bad.  There are days that are amazing and there are days I'm ready to call it quits.  There are times I think life couldn't get any better, and there are times I don't think it can get much worse.

One thing I have learned over and over again is that nothing else really matters. Truly.  As long as I have my family, that is all I need. 

I remember growing up and watching my mom raise us 7 kids and always being amazed by her.  How she managed to accomplish so much with 7 kids, full time church callings, and tending to the home I will never understand. I have 4 kids and I can't seem to keep up on anything it seems!

If you don't pinterest, you should.  I recently came across this awesome saying that I intend to make onto a wood sign for my front door, it reads; Please excuse the mess, the children are busy making memories.  That statement is awesome.  And true to every word.  I could clean and clean all day long, but it would never be clean for long! Children are children, let them BE children.  That's my motto anyways! ;)

James and I are celebrating 10 years this next fall, and to see what we have accomplished, all I need to do is look at pictures like these.  A beautiful family, a home full of laughter and love.  I think we have done pretty good!

poor Lillie, she normally is a total cheese for pics. And I could not figure out why she was so sad and crying the whole time.  Ya, it was cold and windy.... well, 4 days later her ear drum ruptured and I had no idea!

This may be my new favorite picture ever of James and I.  Man I love him so!

see what i mean about laughter? He is always crackin me up.

And my FAVORITE family picture. I will be getting this in a large canvas for my living room :)

A special Blessing

It seems like it took forever. Postponed when he was just 6 weeks old, because he was hospitalized. Postponed again when he was 3 months old due to my mothers horrific accident.

Finally at 6.5 months old, our special, sweet baby boy was blessed. The day was as beautiful as can be.

He is crazy for baths!

Clean and shiny and smelling oh so good!

praying it fits....

Oh sweetness.  He has to be the most handsome sight! Ever.

Ya, he's a mommas boy for sure :)  And still completely attacks me with kisses.  And I love every wet sloppy drenched part of it!

I mean really? REALLY? Oh come on, you can never say no to that face!

My handsome men together.  I love them so!

The only non crying picture of Lils. ha.  Ahh, 2 year olds with no nap.

I am so in love with my family! It really is what this life is all about.  And this aesome day was a beautiful reminder. Life is precious. Eat it up.  Every second of it.

Wonder Woman. Or maybe not :)

Sometimes the sunshine makes me think I am Wonder Woman. Ever have that problem?  Not sure why it is, but so far this dreary spring, every day we have good sunshine and warmth I get super gung ho! Anything from deep cleaning, to working out more than I should be yet. :) Well Friday was no exception. My morning started with crazy cleaning, then on a whim I decided to take the kids out for pics. I thought it went well. Until I came home and noticed Cherry's eyes half closed in all but 3 shots! Poor girl had been complaining of headaches, and later that evening she got a fever. The next morning I woke up and couldn't swallow. Shot a wedding, and noticed it was hurting more and more. Yep, we both had strep over the weekend.  Super Duper! And by today, the other 2 kiddos got it too. All except sweet baby boy. Good thing my antibiotics get into my milk for him :)

Thankfully I had some leftover meds I started me on, so even today I am feeling amazing compared to Mothers Day.  Speaking of Mothers Day, I spent the entire day in bed. Sick and feeling completely flu like, but it was still nice. James was the amazing husband he always is.  Took care of the kids, made the meals and kept me in bed to rest. He's the best!!!

It's amazing to me how much Braddock has just slipped right into our lives.  There has been no need for adjusting.  Its kind of like life never slowed down or stopped, and he just joined right in with it all.  I am loving every second of him and so are Daddy and the Kids. He is already changing so much. Smiling and reacting to us. He's eve made a few accidental giggles and they are the sweetest sounds!

He is growing rapidly! Today at the doctors I weighed him. Keep in mind at 2 weeks he was 8lbs 1oz. Now at 3.5 weeks he is 9lbs 7oz!!! I think my milk is icecream :) hee hee

Here are some funny and sweet faces of our little Braddock:

and a couple other random photos courtesy a la phone :)

we are in the unbearable bang growing out stage. lol

And here ar our pictures from our outdoor adventure. I didn't get the story time I was going for, but this weekend is supposed to be gorgeous again!!!

My 4 beautiful blessings.

and 3 weeks old Braddock

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We finally have fully functioning internet at home!

At this point though, I am so far behind on all the things I wanted to blog about I am going to just start it up again from here. If I think of something really important I'll blog it. Really, I have been so busy with Cherry Tree sessions that I don't even have any home pictures to share! Ahh! I know, I know! I am a slacker!

So catching up....

I am 33 weeks preggo! Yay! Which for me means I can actually count down the last 4.5 to 5 weeks. Thanks to our tax return I have had some serious fun shopping and getting the cutest, tiniest little baby boy things! So I am sooooooo excited to get my little Braddock here! It's amazing how even newborn diapers are exciting :) But I do need the next 4 weeks. I still have some big to do's to get done. Along with finishing his afghan. Why oh why did I pick such a detailed pattern?!?!
Aside from the cute things, this boy has dropped, I am in insane pain most of the day (those with multiple kids know what I mean), I swear he's ripping his way out... I gave up on sleep a long time ago. But still, every time he moves-which is TONS, I can't help but feel so grateful he is healthy and happy and he is mine! And almost here! :)
I didn't get to share these until now, we had a 30week ultrasound done to check my placenta and fluid levels. Never before have I done a 4d, and I was honestly debating on it, I really really LOVE the surprise of seeing them when they come out, and I was afraid the 4d would give away too much. But the technician actually switched it over without saying anything, so of course I got excited! And as fun as it is too see, you really can't tell too much more than the normal.
Aside from his absolutely full poutty lips EXACTLY like his big brothers.... and that nose- it is indeed like his brothers.





Twin of Damons? We shall see!!!

Lillie had surgery, again, last Friday. Tonsils this time. I know, I swore off anymore surgeries. But you would not believe what she has gone through. In 6 weeks since her adenoids were removed we did 5 antibiotics and rosefin rounds and nothing worked. I tried herbal, I tried natural oils....nothing. Ugh. It was so frustrating! So after a crying session(me crying) at my pediatricians office I said ok. The day of the surgery was seriously one of the worst days of my life. They could see at the hospital that I was miserable being cramped in a hard chair in an open waiting room holding her. She had woken up enough o take Lortab and fussed a little. So they nicely let me go home. About 2 hours later, she really came out of the anesthesia. OMG it was awful! She screamed like she has never screamed before (and this is not her first surgery!) She was hitting and pinching me, which words cannot explain how far from her these actions are. I mean, she was all out hitting and scraping and pinching. All I could do was cry. I could tell she was in soooo much pain, and nothing I did calmed her down, at all. It went on and on and I just held her. I took her outside to get some air and she calmed down a bit. It was about 24 hours of this before she really settled down. So here we are, a week ago tomorrow. It has been an VERY long week, with even less sleep, a lot of crying, a lot of mommy trying to do anything she can to soothe her and failing miserably. She just breaks my heart to see her go through this. She is such a tough girl though. She has kept up on fluids amazingly. So I really can't complain. This surgery had better work or someone is going to have an angry hormonal pregnant woman saying not such nice things :)

The other 2 kids? Cherry is still loving kindergarten. Hates when it's a holiday :) It's amazing to watch her read books and figure out the words on her own. She truly gives me proud mommy moments! She is growing up way to fast. She even decided a few weeks back she wanted to changed Lillies wet diaper. So I let her. She did it like she's been doing it for years. She is even helping encourage Lils with the potty training! Which is on pause thanks to the surgery. Cherry is so much me it cracks me up. Her personality, the way she talks, the creative things she does. I absolutely LOVE it! It's fun having a mini me :)

Damon is still my little hammmmmmm. I swear that boy knows how to test my patience to the point of breaking, then he says or does something so completely adorable that I completely forget what I was upset about. He is a total sweetheart. And yes, going on 5, he is by far my biggest challenge of a kid. Disciplining him is as far of opposite from both my girls as can be. And the attitude this kid has! Sheesh! So it's a learning process still for both of us. Things definitely go a lot smoother when I am not hormonal ;) One of the first things I get asked by him every morning is to draw him a shark. yes a shark. And it changes everyday. Some days it's a great white, some days black tip reef, other days a wobbegong..... It makes me laugh. So I draw him a shark and cut it out.

So that's about it here. Kinda boring I know :) I'll get some fun things up to make up for lost time soon! :)

The Surgerys

Let's start with the good times :)

Cherry went Thursday to have a sleepover at Grandma Finley's so we wouldn't have to worry about her seeing what goes on before her surgery. (Trust me, it would only make things worse) While she was gone I caught Damon being absolutely adorable with Lills. He was playing trains, and she wanted to too. Normally she breaks it and sits on it and takes the trains and runs off. So he was smart, he built her her very own track! And she loved it.




Friday {The Big Day!}
On the Menu:
Damon- Tubes and getting tissues removed from inside his nose
Lillie- Adenoids removed, and tubes

The next morning we were out the door by 5:45am. Can you say exhausting? It's not like I sleep well these days anyways! But honestly I was glad to be first on the list. I hate staying. Just let me get my babies home!
Damon saw me pull out the camera. First he hid, then he ran. :) Love that silly boy.


But of course, once cartoons were on, I was able to sneak some shots in of him passing the time.


Lillie was quite content coloring. She didn't even fuss for a sippie. Which is always the hardest part of these surgeries. No food or drink when they get up. :( I tell ya though, I was nursing Cherish at 8 months old when she had her first tubes- that was a nightmare.


James and I have gone through this process, literally, 9 times. So we are very comfortable with the process and know what to expect. I've never taken my camera before and decided this time I would. I really wish we had a video camera. For this reason; our very favorite part is the medicine they give them ahead of time to make them loopy. The kids have all been HILARIOUS on it. This was no exception.

Lillie was first, and it did not take long to set her in. In fact, I had to hand her to James and her head totally flopped back. He was like "Oh! That was fast!" ha ha ha! I was with D at the nurses desk to get his stats and he kept Lills in the room. I hear these random squeals like she is scared. When I went back she was staring at the cartoons. We decided she must be hallucinating.
I have to hold my babies while they are like this. It's a total mom thing. I need to have them close to know they are ok. I won't share them, unless I have to :) Lillie would look at me with her droopy eyes, and then give me that drunk smile, then burst into a silly laugh. We were dying laughing at her. Ok, WITH her :)
Here we are- Lillie all "high"


D was next after they had her back for a bit.

He was scared at this point and letting it be known. We had to pin him down to give him the medicine, which broke my heart. But I knew without it he would never let them get a mask on him. I held him while he watched cartoons, and finally after a bit it kicked in.
This was slightly before it hit him. Still capable of cheesin it hardcore! :)

Then they came to get him in the wagon, which I put him in. While trying to readjust him, so he was laying on the pillow and not hanging over the back, he out of no where starting giggling like a crazy person! It was awesome :)


So we waited. For the part I hate the most. Hearing them come out of anesthesia and crying and screaming not understanding whats going on. I can't help it. I cry with them. I wish I could just make everything ok for them the minute they wake. Whats worse is I feel helpless. There really is nothing you can do until they calm down. So I sing and talk to them and hold them and rock them, and wait. Then they fall back asleep for a while.

We wait for the ok to go home, which feels like it takes an eternity.
All my kids have a hard time with the nausea and throwing up, so we know to have the anesthesiologist give them the med for it. This time it seemed to do nothing for Damon. He felt so sick and I couldn't get him to drink anything. And he kept throwing up. Even as we were walking down the hall to leave. And in the car. And when we got home, we took him to the bathroom,
and there....

The poor little guy fell asleep! I kept trying to move him, but he would wake up still out of it and freak out that he was going to throw up. So I let him be. (Despite how badly I needed to pee- and it's a 1 bathroom apartment)

Lils slept soundly


And for a couple of hours I sat in a chair by the big fold out bed in the living room, watching their breathing, making sure they stayed sitting up enough, wanting to hold them, but not wanting to disturb them.
Finally they both started to wake up.

Within about 15 minutes of that, they seriously perked up.
Cherry came home and they were all so excited to play together. (like it had been days! lol)



The rest of the night was actually pretty smooth. It took forever to get them to sleep, despite how exhausted they were, they just kept on fighting it.
But we just hung out as a family in the living room and watched movies. Thank goodness for redbox!
James slept with Damon and I took Lillie with me to our room. James made the better choice. Ha ha! Ya, D slept like a log, except for at 5am when he asked me if he could watch a shark movie. :)
Lillie had a rough night.
And sadly, the last 2 nights have been even worse. I finally put her back in bed with me last night because it hurts so much for me to get up and down so many times. The poor thing would cry and whimper in her sleep and never slept more than 20 minutes at a time. I can tell she still hurts. I think I seriously got about 45 minutes of sleep. So I am running on nothing today. Ahh the life of a mom!
I am just grateful it's done, and praying it will help them not be sick 3 out of every 4 weeks.
So here's to some fast healing, some better nights of sleep (pleeeeease!!!!!), and to some happier and healthier kids!