October, November

Charlie & Jane
Charlie had a birthday. He turned 9. We celebrated with a little Red Robin.

Maggie, Kimber, Charlie

Maggie and Jane on Halloween
The Raccoon and the Fox

Our neighbor painted Charlie's face for Halloween. 

Mike's Costume
Shake weight and fake muscles. The ugly mustache was real.

Gus and Charlie

Jane, for your enjoyment.

Every few months Gus gets his big kidney checked.
It's still big. 

Due to all of choking issues, Gus developed a messed up head.
We got him a helmet to reshape his head.
This stocking was placed on his head for some digital pictures.  

Jane is blind. She got glasses. I didn't know she was having trouble. She didn't know  to tell me. Her teacher told me that she would get up out of her front row seat to take a closer look at the white board. 

Maggie is sixth from the left. She's a Pilgrim standing next to Colin the Indian. The kindergarten put on a very cute Thanksgiving program fro the parents.

First moments with the helmet

Charlie is third from the left, front row. The third grade gave us a fantastic patriotic program.

Summer to Fall

This is a picture of Gus the sickly.a

I'm obviously not blogging much. Here's a small view of a few things that happened in our family.

Gus had some choking problems that began at about two weeks old. We had to watch him continually. We always had him propped up on his back and in the same room with us. He could eat properly but would have choking spells at random times throughout the day. He choked on his saliva. 

Thus began the tests. 

This little test was to check his swallowing. The nurse called it a "baby rotisserie" which couldn't have been more true. The room was warm and he was strapped in and then they cranked a handle to twist him around  into different positions as he drank a bottle. 

Test results. A big nothing.

Blood draw which only revealed nothing of what we were looking for and more of other issues we didn't want to know about.

A little VCUG. To check out his big kidney issue.

On one of my many Dr. appointments Gus helped me out by having a little choking episode in front of my Dr.
I was glad that someone else could see what I was seeing. The bad part was that my Dr started asking me a lot of questions that I didn't want to hear. Essentially he thought it looked an awful  lot like an infant seizure. 

So here's the brain scan which came out clear. 

I have hundreds of these on my phone. 

Jeremy and Shauni came to visit and attend the BYU / Virginia game

BYU vs. Virginia
A giant storm rolled in and rained us out. It was pouring.

Megan, Andy, Matty, Grandpa, Helene, Mike
We always love it when family comes to visit.

Maggie liked to play with Grandpa's oxygen when he left the house.

Maggie and Jane
First Day of School

Drew, Peyton, Charlie, Patrick & Cooper
School fun run to raise money for new playground equipment. The man in the red head is our friend Mr. Bill. He is  a secret service agent for Biden. Imagine him in a suit with a thingy in his ear. Doesn't he look the part?

Jane.
The whole school participated. 

Charlie advancing to a wolf.

Charlie was the only 3rd grade boy in his school to qualify for a countywide 
school run for  3rd, 4th & 5th grade qualifiers. 

And his sweet Mom forgot his water. 

A couple of weeks later he thought it would be funny to faint in class. Turns out he's fine.

His friends B-day party was at a Nationals Game. 
They got VIP tickets and Mike got to sneak along too.

Jane, Mallory, Maggie, Charlie
Thanks to Groupon we  scored a great horse ride out in the country and Cousin Mallory joined along.
Big hit with the littles.

Memorable Pictures of the Summer

 I've been terrible at posting so here are some pics from our summer.

Gus on his blessing day.

Gus

This was us at Target. Gus is probably about three weeks old and Maggie wanted to hold him on her lap in the cart rather than have him in his carseat. We freaked a lot of customers out. They thought it was a doll and then he'd move or squeal. 

Maggie at Virginia Beach

Gus at the beach

I gave Charlie a skull glitter tattoo before our beach trip in hopes of him getting a really cool tan on his back but I ruined it the very first day by loading him up with oily sunscreen. Oops

Jane

Charlie and Gus in church

Jane turns 7!

Jane's birthday dinner at Red Robbin

Jane's dance recital

Charlie and Jane snuggling while watching tv

Farewell party for our friends at the park.
The rainstorm took over the place and there were mud puddles everywhere.
The kids were in heaven. 

Maggie at her dance recital

Baby

The day finally arrived. We are so happy to welcome Gus into our family. We have had him one whole week and he has been incredibly enjoyable. I was prepared to have a complete meltdown. I've been pleasantly surprised that it really hasn't been that bad. Of course maybe that's because I have a very kind and helpful husband and my sister Debi has been here and done everything. Yeah, that's probably why the transition has been easy. Ask me again when the help is gone and the kids are actually out of school.

Started out the morning with Mike having to put on this beauty before being aloud in the surgery room.  Gotta say it was nice having him wear this since my body has to lay cold and naked on the operating table.
We could feel like fools together. 

Mr. D being the kindest friend ever and rubbing my swollen feet.  Weird? Yep and I just let him.

Day after birth

Gus Michael
7.2lbs