My Friend Aidan

Aidan is two and full of energy. Aidan never walks anywhere, he runs. I can never keep ahead of the child. He loves to eat, so all food has to be kept out of his reach. But Aidan is ever resourceful and has gotten very good at pushing the dining room chairs into the kitchen to reach his desired treat. Aidan is very clever and usually sneaks up to my room to eat is snack. This is usually some kind of crumby chip, or cracker so when I get into bed at night, I can tell if Aidan has been hanging out in my room.

Aidan's new love is Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. Austin loved these movies when he was little so we have tons of Toy Story toys which I am glad I saved. They are getting a second life. Aidan saw Toy Story and Toy Story 2 for the first time a couple of month ago. These movies are on video and the VCR was destroyed by little fingers some time ago. We finally got a new VCR/DVD combo and the boys had fun rediscovering their movies. Unfortunately, Aidan's curiosity about how a VHS tape works got the best of him and he broke both of the Toy Story movies. So now one of Aidan's favorite games to play is "Where is Buzz?" We say "Where is Buzz?" and Aidan says "I don't know!" and then runs around the house like a crazy man, looking for Buzz. He is quite entertaining.

Aidan is also starting to add many new words to his vocabulary. He has been a little slow to talk, I think it is just because he spends so much time trying to master his running, jumping, climbing, and scooter riding skills. It is fun to have a conversation with him now.

Aidan loves the summer and has had fun catching bugs with his brothers. Aidan is not quite the water lover his brothers are so when we go to Grandma's pool Aidan likes to play outside the pool or on the stairs that go into the pool. But he loves the reservoir, probably because of the endless supply of wet, muddy sand he gets to play in.

He is a monkey and loves to run around with no shoes on. I send him outside with shoes and he never comes in with them on. If I need to find Aidan's shoes I just have to look in the backyard.

He will be starting preschool in the fall which is hard for me to believe. I swear he was just born but I know he will love it.

My Friend Carter

I have written a lot about Carter, so this will just be a little update. Carter is returning to his old self again. After his surgeries he was a little sad, and angry, and just not quite himself. I am happy to say that my feisty, little Carter is back and we get to see his smiling face a lot more often. Carter's eyes are healing well, everything is in place and where it should be. Carter still cannot see out of his right eye, but you would never know it, and he does not really complain, unless someone runs into him when we are in a crowded place. He gets a little peeved and is not shy about vocalizing his frustration. We just have to remind him that nobody can tell that he cannot see out of his right side so he just has to be patient with the innocent bystanders. I have to remember to be a little more vigilant for Carter and watch him to make sure he does not run into people, or things he cannot see. Carter is the ever faith filled little boy and is teaching his parents about patience and faith. When we ask him if he can see anything out of his eye yet, he checks, and then says "No, but I will soon." :) We love this boy!

My Friend Preston

Preston, Preston, Preston!!! What do I say about Preston. Preston just turned 7 in July, we were glad to pay a little attention to Preston on his birthday. Preston has the middle child blues. (I guess we really have three middle children who can claim that right.) Preston is a very funny child. He loves to play jokes and make you laugh. He is not shy and will say just about anything to anyone.

When we brought Logan home from the hospital everyone was oohing and aahing over the baby, everyone except Preston. Preston's comment was "Such a big deal over such a little thing!" We all got a good laugh out of that, except Preston, he was dead serious. Preston really loves Logan though and can get him to calm down just like that.

As the weeks went on we had all the issues with Carter and his eyes. Preston's comments on that were "He's just doing that for attention." We had no comment on that to Preston.

Preston's favorite thing to say to me right now is "You don't love me!" or "You just hate me!" Now I can tell you these words have never escaped the mouth of his mother but he insists on telling me this anytime he is in trouble for teasing his brothers or not listening (which is often some days).

Then Austin and Aidan both had to have surgery so of course we heard more of the attention seeking speech from Preston. Yes Preston, I am sorry that you have perfect vision and are the only brother (besides Logan) who does not have to wear glasses. I'm sorry you are in perfect health and rarely have to go to the doctor.

Preston's middle child blues were fueled when Brian and I took all five boys to the eye doctor a couple of weeks ago for Carter's check up. As taking the five boys anywhere is a fiasco, we have only done this once. Our sweet friend Lori at the doctors office said to Preston "Are you a friend or a cousin?" Preston promptly replied "I AM A BROTHER!!" Yes, Preston is never seen at the eye doctor so they did not recognize his sweet little face. Poor Boy!

A few weeks ago I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting and I talked about Logan and Carter. I mentioned I was grateful for all my "beautiful boys" but only mentioned Logan and Carter by name. Preston's comment to Brian's Mom was "See, she doesn't love me, she didn't say my name." Oh my sweet Preston: I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!

Preston has always been my biggest mama's boy and has always loved his mother very much. I tell him how much him saying that I don't love him hurts my feeling but we are still trying to out grow this phase. Hopefully it passes soon. So in the meantime Preston, I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!

Crazy Day

So today was supposed to be a quiet easy day, you know how those usually turn out! We started the day giving all four boys a haircut. This activity usually goes like this:
Mom: Today is haircut day!!
Random boy: NO, NO, NO I hate haircut day!

Then we go out to the front yard and get the clippers out. All four boys proceed to run up and down the street trying to avoid Mom and her crazy clippers. Summer haircuts are pretty easy because I just buzz their whole head. So I got each of the boys up on the stool to get their hair's cut and this was followed by their usual screams of how this hurts their hair, yes their hair, not their head. I am sure the neighbors love the 30 or so minutes of screaming that their face, nose, neck, etc itches and now they have hair in their mouth because they have been screaming so much. So that lovely task out of the way we headed over to the park. Since we are in our 16th day (or something like that) of 90 or above it was pretty miserable at the park. Slides too hot to go whee! on. Aidan wore his flip flops which he has yet to master, so they keep coming off and the ground is so hot it burns his little toes. All the boys end up on the bench with me in the little bit of shade I found. Not playing, just catching ants and seeing if they can make the ants fight with each other. So we quickly abandoned the park and headed up to Southland's to play in the dancing water. We had to stop at Wal-mart first to get sunscreen and lunch. You can imagine how fun this is with 5 kids. This is an activity I tend to avoid. Only one will sit in the shopping cart (the one who cannot walk) all others insist on walking, always promising not to touch anything and promising, yes they will stay with me. So we get through Wal-mart with all promises broken, just happy to be leaving. We arrive at the dancing water and try to find a decent bit of shade since the last two days have resulted in the baby getting a little red either on his arms or face. First bit of shade is a no go because it is on the grass that has been soggy and swampy all summer. Second bit is not shady enough and Logan still is in the sun. Third bit of shade is great for the 10 minutes we sat there before Preston's face collided with the back of Carter's head and resulted in Preston with a double bloody nose, Carter crying because his head hurt and Aidan running away from the blood and slipping on the cement landing on his back and crying too. We quickly packed up and made our exit to the bathroom to clean up. And so one of the boys (who will remain anonymous) could poop because he did not do it before we left, like he was told. We all cleaned up and relived ourselves and then headed back to the water. We got our ideal shady spot back, and one bright spot of the day, we got to share our shady spot with some long lost friends from Preston's preschool days. After an enjoyable, mishap free time in the water we headed home for some much needed R&R (for Mom). Well, we get home and the garage door opener (which has been slowly dying) decided to completely die and we cannot open the garage. Just go in the front door you say, I would love to except my keys were lost yesterday and have still yet to be found, so the only key I have is the key to the van. So we drive over to Grandma Rosie's to see if we can find a battery store since the garage door opener cannot have a regular battery, it has some crazy tiny 12V battery that cannot be purchased at Wal-mart. Of course Grandma is not home and because of the a for mentioned lost keys we are not able to get into her house either. So Mom decided to drive around and see if we can find a battery store in on of the many surrounding shopping centers. We drive all the way to Chambers and Alameda with not a battery store in sight. So I stop at the Checker Auto part store to see if by chance they carry the battery we need. Of course they do, I am grateful that I now have the battery I need, and just a little peeved at myself, because there is a Checker Auto Parts about two minutes away from my house. That's OK, I really needed to use up some more gas for the day:) Luckily the boys were awesome, and thought it was a great adventure to keep their eyes peeled for the elusive battery store. We all came home and crashed!! Yes, you can watch 2 movies. Yes, you can make popcorn and eat it in my room, just don't tell your Dad. So now this day is saved for posterity, for better or worse! I need a vacation!!

My Friend Austin

Well life is actually pretty calm right now, finally!! We are getting ready to go to our family reunion this weekend so we are busy washing and packing. I thought that I would write a little bit about what Austin has been up to this summer. Austin turned 9 in May and has decided that he is a grown up now. We like to go play at the park and Austin says that is for little kids, which he no longer is. So I tell him to bring a book and sit and read while the "kids" play. Well, that would be torture to read while everyone else is playing so he says "I will play if I have to." That's what I thought. Austin has also been my biggest helper this summer with Logan. It is so nice to have an extra pair of hands around for this baby who loves to be held. Austin will get him up in the morning, change his diaper, and bring him upstairs to Mom. Austin really is very sweet. A few weeks ago I got a little stomach bug one day and was feeling pretty miserable. Logan and I just hung out on the couch all day. I was surprised how good the boys were that day, with limited supervision. Austin took care of getting everyone lunch, and even made cookies and wrote Mom a nice little note hoping that I would feel better. Austin's favorite thing to do in our backyard right now is to cook ants. We have railroad ties in our backyard and Austin has found a spot of oil on one of the ties that gets very hot when the sun shines on it. So all the little boys collect from our endless supply of ants and spend hours cooking them. I know, it is disgusting, but it keeps Austin and his brothers occupied and not fighting. Austin has also decided to boycott the camera so any picture I take of him has to from at least 50 yards away. Austin takes his job as big brother very seriously. Where ever we go play if anyone picks on one of the brothers Austin is the first one there to tell them to leave his brothers alone. Austin really is a good boy most of the time, he can get a little mouthy sometimes but it is fun to watch him grow up and become more aware of the world around him.

Miricle of Miricles

Well it only took three months but Aidan finally held Logan! Aidan has not wanted to hold Logan since he came home in April and I have not really pushed it since Aidan would be on the verge of tears if I even tried to put the baby in his arms. I also did not want him to have some weird complex about holding babies when he grows up. So other than asking him once a day for the last three months if he wants to hold Logan, I have not pushed it ;) Today Austin was holding the baby and he asked Aidan his daily question, if he wanted to hold Logan. Imagine our surprise when Aidan said yes. So Austin handed him the baby and we were all squealing and making a big deal about it, snapping pictures, etc. Aidan was very sweet and once he held Logan he did not want to give him back to Austin. So today the baby belongs to Aidan. We went to Southlands today and no one was allowed to push Logan in the stroller except Aidan. Aidan has turned into Logan's guard dog if anyone so much as looks at the baby you will get a talking to by Aidan. (and he is not quiet about it)

Three Months Already

Little Logan is three months old today! He is getting so big it is sad how fast they go from being a new born to a big baby. He is getting a little chub which is very cute. I've said it before but he really is a good, easy baby. A day in the life of Logan goes like this.

5am Wake up to eat, go back to sleep

8am Wake up to eat, play with Mom, play with my brothers, get held by Mom, get held by Austin, get held by Preston, basically get spoiled all day.

11am Eat, take a nap

1pm Eat some more, get held some more, play some more

4pm Eat some more, sleep some more

7pm Eat, Eat, Eat, hang out with Dad

9pm Eat and go to bed for the night.

We are all really enjoying Logan right now. He smiles and reacts to us when we play with him and loves to stand and look around. He is becoming quite active and can roll over onto his tummy. He is always kicking his little legs and moving around, just practicing so he can play with those brothers.

Brotherly Love

Aidan has finally decided that he likes the new baby. It took him a couple of months to warm up to Logan. He has never been mean to Logan, Aidan just chose to pretend the baby did not exist. The day we brought Logan home from the hospital all the boys were so excited and everyone wanted a turn to hold Logan, except Aidan. Ever since then, if you ask Aidan if he wants to hold the baby he very adamantly says "NO"! The last couple of weeks Aidan has started patting Logan's head and giving him kisses. Aidan still has no desire to actually hold the baby and is very upset if you ask his to, but he is now fascinated by Logan and wants to play with Logan and is very interested in watching Logan cry and seeing what is in Logan's mouth while he is screaming. Gotta love those boys!

Welcome to my Crib!

So Logan has been sleeping in his crib for about two weeks now. I was not quite ready to move him out of my room, especially since his room in all the way downstairs, but I guess it was time. He is so long now that when he is stretched all the way out his head and feet touch both ends of the bassinet. His first night in the crib he slept the whole night. You know the first time those little babies sleep through the whole night you wake in a little panic and rush to make sure they are still alive. He was fine and has slept peacefully every night since. Logan really is amazing he goes to bed by 9pm every night and does not wake up until 5am, and only two months old. It is awesome, since my last one Aidan, did not sleep through the night until he was over a year old. His room is pretty cute too. This was my little nesting project before he was born so it is nice that he is finally using it.

Six Eyes!

Carter has to wear these awesome sunglasses over his regular glasses. I think he looks pretty cool. Anyway, Austin and Carter sit next to each other in the van and lately have had a hard time getting along. This is the "conversation" they had in the van the other day:

Carter: Four Eyes

Austin: Oh yeah well your six eyes!

Long Pause

Carter: Oh yeah well you have six butts!!

Yeah, that sounds about right:) Just another one of the joys of boys!

Happy Birthday P-Nut!!!

Today Preston turned 7!!! Hooray!! Preston had to wait one whole year for his birthday, which according to him is longer than anyone in the whole family has to wait for their birthday. I know life is pretty unfair when your 7. For Preston's birthday we went and hung out at Cherry Creek Reservoir. My kids think this is one of the best places on earth because they get to play in the mud and sand and water as much as they want.









After the reservoir we went to Cici's Pizza at Preston's request for his birthday dinner. Preston got a digital camera for his birthday. He has wanted one of these since Christmas.










Then we came home and had cake. Aidan was very upset that it was not his birthday because he wanted to blow out the candles.

Preston spent the rest of the evening taking pictures of his stuffed animals and family members. His camera put silly faces and hat on people so he had fun making all of us look silly.

We love you Preston!! Happy Birthday little P-nut.(Which by the way I am not allowed to call him in pubic anymore, he is 7 after all ;)!!

Can I Get Some of that to Go?

Aidan had surgery last Friday to laser his retina. The boys eye doctor suggested we do all three boys (Austin, Carter, and Aidan) at the same time. I suggested we do Aidan by himself. This was a good move. Aidan had to be there at 8AM and could not eat breakfast so his day did not start out well. He was not happy so Brian and I were trying to keep him entertained and he was back to his usual high energy self. This is not so good for the nurses who want him to stay in bed and give him eye drops. They suggested we give him just a little sedative to calm him down so he would stay in bed and let them put eye drops in. This was just fine with me. This first video is about 1 minute after Aidan got his sedative.

Obviously it had not kicked in quite yet and we were wondering if it was even going to work. About 1 minute later Aidan's legs went out from under him and he was very happy.

We had about 30 minutes of pure entertainment at Aidan's expense. He just laid in bed happy and smiling even when the nurse came in to put the "spicy" drops in his eyes.

After 30 minutes the sedative started to wear off and he wanted to get out of bed again. This was also quite entertaining because Aidan's legs were not working the way he thought they should. But he was still happy enough to let me carry him back to the OR. His surgery went well and his doctor said he was glad we did the laser because his eyes looked liked Carter's did with some weak spots on the retina. Hopefully the laser will prevent any detachment in Aidan's eyes. When Aidan came out of surgery we knew right away. They usually let them wake up a little before they come and get us but they came and got Mom right away because he was mad when he woke up. When I got back to the recovery room four nurses were try to hold Aidan down and he was trying to rip out his IV and his pulse/ox monitor that was taped to his toe. He was not happy and screamed at the top of his lungs for about 30 minutes. Then he was so exhausted that he slept for another 30 minutes after they took his IV and pulse/ox monitor off. Needless to say everyone was glad to see us go home and no one was happier than Aidan to get home. The nurses said he would probably go home and sleep the rest of the day. They obviously do not know Aidan because he came home and played all day long. No nap, no nothing. Seriously I need some of that sedative to go, thank you very much!

Logan's Blessing (Finally)!

We finally blessed Logan last Sunday. Hooray!! A month later than originally planned. Logan was supposed to be blessed the first Sunday in June but he had to make the surprise trip to Michigan with Carter and Mom. Logan's uncles Chris and Roger flew out to help bless him but instead gave Brian some much needed moral support while Carter and I were gone. Brian was talking to me on the phone last month while I was gone and said "Too bad you are going to miss Logan's blessing." I said "Um, yeah since I have the baby here with me." It was kind of funny.

I'm glad Logan was blessed before he out grew his blessing outfit. He is growing so fast! Grandma and Grandpa Condie and Robles came and so did our dear friends, the Moellers. We missed our other family but were so grateful to those who could come. Logan slept through his whole party, but it was fun to spend time with those we love and eat good food:)

We love little Logan so much and are so grateful that he is part of our family. He has blessed all of our lives and has brought so much comfort to me. We have had just a LITTLE stress in our lives since Logan was born but honestly, none of that was because of Logan. He really is an easy baby who just wants to be held and fed. He sleeps 6 or 7 hours a night and has been doing that since he was about 4 weeks old. He is by far my best sleeper. Heavenly Father knew what kind of baby I would need at this time in my life and has blessed our family with a little gift. He has just brought us so much joy.

Mom still has to fight with Austin and Preston for time to hold the baby. Logan is still being spoiled by his brothers who cannot stand to see him cry. I have to tell them that it is OK to let the baby cry sometimes, but they insist that that is cruel and unusual punishment and immediately pick him up and rescue him from the terrible fate of being left alone to cry for a moment. They just love little Logan so much. I love these boys! They are a cute little band of brothers!

4th of July

We had a really fun 4th and spent lots of time with both Grandmas and Grandpas. Brian and I started the day the day redoing the flagstone patio in our back yard, but that is a story for another time. That afternoon we went to Grandpa and Grandma Condie's annual ward picnic. The boys all had fun playing in the creek, throwing water on Mom and Dad, going down the water slide and eating!

Here's Austin eating (or not eating) his hamburger because he said it smelled like sweat.

Baby Logan's first 4th!

Carter hanging out with his buddy Grandpa Condie.

"Preston did you eat cake? No Mom, I haven't had any cake."

Carter and Aidan had a good time sitting in the hole in the grass.

Preston and Austin had fun going down the water slide. As usual they were there first ones on and kept going down until it was time to pack up and go home. Aidan had no desire to go down the slide. He preferred to stand at the bottom and let the water splash him.

Aidan and Carter spent some time playing in the creek with Dad. The water was still a little cold to spend too much time down there.

When we got home we hung out at home and Grandpa and Grandma Robles came over for a BBQ. We decided not to go watch fireworks anywhere this year, it was a little too much with Carter who is still recovering and a new baby. We didn't really want to fight the crowds. Austin and Preston were a little disappointed but all in all we had a good time and were wiped out by 8:00 anyway. There was no way those kids would have lasted until 10 or later. I think it was a good move.

Austin's & Carter's Eye Surgery

Well here we are again the day after eye surgery. Austin and Carter both had eye surgery yesterday. When Carter and I were in Michigan the doctor we saw recommended that any of Carter's sibling with Stickler Syndrome have their retinas lasered down to prevent a retinal detachment like Carter's. So yesterday Austin had his retina's lasered. He had had them done last year but not all the way around so they were lasered all the way around yesterday. Austin did well and was really just excited to have cookies and pudding when he woke up from surgery. His recovery time is pretty quick and he is back to his usual self today. His eyes were just a little red and scratchy yesterday but all is well today. My little trooper Carter had surgery yesterday too. He had a little more laser work done on his retina's but the main reason for surgery yesterday was to put a buckle on Carter's left eye. This is Carter's good eye right now since he still cannot see out of his right eye yet. The buckle is like a rubber band on the outside of Carter's eye that squeezes the eye to shrink the area the retina has to cover on the inside of his eye. The recovery time for Carter is a lot less than his first surgeries since they are working on the outside of his eye instead of the inside. But this surgery is a lot more painful to recover from. There a lot of nerves on the outside of your eye and the buckle presses on those. So until Carter's eye gets used to the buckle he will be in a lot of pain. It hurts to move his eye at all so he is keeping it closed right now. Which means he cannot see at all right now. This breaks his mom and dad heart but once again Carter has not complained even once about not being able to see. He is mad that his eye hurts but Tylenol with Codine is awesome! Carter is lucky to have his brothers, they have been so good about holding his hand and taking him where he wants to go and they sit with him when Carter wants them to. We are so blessed to have these little boys in our life. Even Logan is helping out.