The Ice Cream and the Smurf boy

For Family Home Evening treats we went out for ice cream cones.  Mostly it was to get the kids out of the house so Chad could do a school presentation over Skype.  ( A presentation that never happened because someone went over their time significantly). 

Mooch decided he wanted to get the blue ice cream.  Clearly, he hasn't quite grasped the flavor concept yet.  Well this ice cream was smurf blue.  The saturation level of this ice cream was around 100%. We're talking VIBRANT blue.  He got his cone and went and sat down at the table.  As I'm paying I look over at Mooch and he looks like a clown with blue face paint all the way around his mouth.  So sad my phone was dead and I couldn't get a picture. 

But here is one AFTER I washed his face.

Helpful Mooch

Here are a few more "older" pictures.  Mooch was apparently trying to be helpful at my parents house.

the amount of concentration in this picture kills me

Helping Grandma make some raspberry jam. Don't mind the plethora of drugs next him.  This was during our "what is wrong with little T" stage of life.  Oh wait we're still in it.

Gone Fishin'

This is a few months old but I just now found the pictures on the camera. 

There is a Trout Farm in North Ogden.   I have quite a few memories of going there when I was younger.  Unfortunately for my children, Chad and I both hate fish.  I hate the smell of it, the texture of it, and the taste of it.  Occasionally I can choke down a tuna sandwich.  You get the point.  The only way my kids will get to go fishing is if someone else will be eating the fish. 

While my sister's and all their kids were here in August, My Dad took us all out to the trout farm.  The kids each got a turn or two to catch a fish.  The best way to catch a fish is to drop fish food in with the hook and hope one of them is dumb enough to bite.  Yep, it's chumming. 

Cowboy loved it and wanted to do it again and again.  Mooch on the other hand held the pole for 2 minutes and lost interest.  He wanted to walk around and look at the different ponds and fish. 

Sorry I left the date thing on the camera.  I know it takes away from the rustic masculinity of fishing.

the proud fisherman

watching fish

Antelope Island

Now that Chad isn't going to school full time, we get to have a little free time every once in awhile.  Chad works 9 hours every day and so he gets every other Friday off.  Which is great!  We're able to get stuff done around the house and do something fun. We've decided that once a month we're going to go do a family activity and go out and explore where we live a little.

This past Friday, Cowboy didn't have school and it was Chad's off Friday.  So we made the best of it and decided to go to Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake.  I grew up here in Northern Utah but have never actually been there.   It's about a 30 minutes drive from our house and for 9 bucks the whole family got to do something fun.  My Dad also has Friday's off so we invited my parents along on our little adventure.

We drove around the island for a little while in search of wildlife.  They have a few hundred buffalo, some antelope, coyote, and a lot of different types of birds.  We managed to see quite a bit of it.  I almost ran over the one coyote we saw.

Buffalo out on the lake bed.

Grandma watching buffalo with the boys.

Watching buffalo from afar.  Very afar.

We went on a little half mile hike up to the top of Buffalo point.  Chad had to carry the stroller in a couple of spots before we abandoned it all together on the side of the trail.  The boys practically ran up the hill as we chugged along behind them.

At the top of Buffalo point.

Mooch pointing at a buffalo.

At the top of our hike the boys declared themselves Kings of Antelope Island. It included a song and a dance and a lot of "oh yeah!"ing.

At the top of Buffalo Point.  There were a lot of cool big boulders.

Little T chilling at the Ranch on the south end of the island.  They've turned the Ranch into a little museum with a lot of old Farm equipment and other things.  The boys had fun running around and roping a fake calf.
As my Mom and I were walking around, Mom barely missed stepping on a snake.  I screamed like a little girl. Literally.

We had a fun day and definitely enjoyed our time together as a family.

Bug Bay

Willard Bay aka "Bug Bay" is about 30 minutes from my parents and 30 minutes from us.  This past Saturday we met there and had a picnic and went out on the boat to play.

the kiddos, Chris, and Mike ducking into the picture

Cowboy getting ready for a swim

Grandpa and Little T, who does not really enjoy boating.

About the only time Little T smiled while on the boat

Again this is how Little T really feels about boating

Mud Run

So my sisters Chelsie and Carlee as well as Carlee's husband Mike decided we'd have fun and run in the Cache Valley Mud Run.  IT's a 5k run with obstacles and well, lots of mud.

It was a blast.  There wasn't a lot of running because I am not a cross country runner.  So we only ran on the really flat terrain and the rest was obstacles and walking.  There was a whole lot of laughing and my face was sore from smiling. 

Before.  MY parents, brother Christian, My sisters children, Chad, and the boys all came to support.

Clean

the first of 4 giant slides

midway through and no mud in my hair, yet.

The final slide/finish line had a giant mud pit at he bottom. My landing did not go well.

The end.

Seriously dirty.

Exhaustion and Pain

If you don't want to read a long whiney post, then I suggest you skip this.

Little T and I are in a fight.  This fight has lasted, oh, about 9 1/2 months. (We're talking fom birth people)  I already mentioned in another post long ago how from 0-31/2 months little T screamed from 9-1 or 2 AM every night.  Oh if only I knew what was going on then. I would have gotten so much more sleep.
Since May, little T has not been sleeping through the night.  I chalked it up to teething and learning how to roll over.  I figured eventually he'd get back to being his usual laid back self.    Nope.

In late June, he started waking up 3-4 times a night.  He fussed and arched his back and we just figured he was being gassy from starting solids.   He was whining all day and wanting to be held all day.  I was barely functioning on what little sleep I was getting and not a very nice mommy either. Chad was super busy with school and occasionally would watch the boys so I could sleep an extra hour.

Finally, I took him to the doctor where he was diagnosed with ear infection #1.  We did the round of antibiotics and he started acting happier.  About a week later he started whining again and pulling on his ear.  So again we went to the doctor.  Same ear, possibly same infection.  Round 2 of the antibiotics finished up 3 days before we flew back to Utah. 

I made an appointment with my Dad's office to go in and have Dr. Grandpa check his ears to make sure the infection had cleared up.  They were.  Then Wednesday he started whining and pulling on his ear.  Of course his ear was pink and so we started round #3.  Then a week after that infection cleared up we had #4 ear infection start up.  That's when we started discussing tubes.  My family has a history of very small eustacian tubes that don't drain well.  So I figured we'd be doing surgery soon.

Because of all the ear infections it hurt little T to nurse.  He would only lay on one side and it hurt him to suck.  So we started bottle feeding and I called it quits with nursing.  I could only take so much. 

Even with the ear infections cleared up little T was still having issues sleeping at night.  He was waking up 2-3 times a night and staying awake for 2 hours in the middle of the night as well. I was at my parents so I had a lot of help from them watching the boys.  I had asked my Dad if it could be reflux.  But we sort of shrugged that off because he wasn't spitting up a lot and never had.  As a last resort Dad prescribed some Tagament.  Which helped, a lot.  The ear infections have totally stopped and he's sleeping a little bit better at night.  He's also on soy based formula.

So after 9 months on this earth I finally figured out my kid has been in pain for most of it.  He has silent reflux.  Which means he randomly burps without spitting up and essentially has heart burn all the time.  We have to feed him bottles sitting up and make him sit up for 30 minutes after he eats.  If I don't do that in the middle of the night he's up 1-2 hours later in pain.  I can't over feed him or he'll get heartburn. So we're walking a tightrope trying to figure out how much to feed him without giving him heartburn but enough that he can sleep through the night.

We're still getting up 1-2 times a night.  But he has slept through the night a couple of times since starting the reflux medicine.  I'm still barely hanging on by a thread but at least I'm no longer acting like Kate Gosselin and yelling at everyone ALL. THE. TIME.