Pumpkin Patch 2011

We decided to venture to Idaho Falls and go to the U-Pick Red Barn. You can go here for more info. We choose this one because David loves trains and they had a nice size one.

Next up, was picking the perfect pumpkin. David also loves balls. Anything in the round shape category (tomatoes, grapes, pumpkins, etc) is a ball. David kept pointing to the pumpkins and shouting "ball" with a big smile across his cute little face.

Then we went through this cute little straw maze. Of course, it is a great time for a couple of pictures

And that concluded our trip this year. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad David is a little bit bigger this year and that we can enjoy things like this.

Idaho

We are back in good ole Rexburg, Idaho. It's kind of a surreal feeling. Most people leave Rexburg and don't look back, let alone come back. Haha. But we are here and it is good. Since we have been back, David has done lots of exploring and checking his new place out:

Ridden in the back of a truck. (Don't worry, it was parked in the drive way at Ralph and Normas. We were busy cooking some delicious dutch oven cooking.)

David and Mark have continued to cheer on the St. Louis Cardinals. It seems it has paid off too!

We have survived our first snow.

Enjoyed frozen yogurt. There are 2 in this small town :-)

David and Mark were able to ride in the "Welcome Home" parade.

It has also been fun getting together with the few friends that are still in Rexburg. The Tataipus came over for dinner 2 weeks ago. David and Kai were born 4 days apart. Here they are at 1 month old and Talmage (Dennett) was 2 months.

(David, Talmage & Kai)

And here are Kai and David at 16 months:

RunforBrad

I had the opportunity to run a 5k in Troy, IL on September 10. It was in honor of a soldier that would be 26 this year. He left behind a wife and baby girl. He was killed in action in Afghanistan. (For more information, check out his site.) It was a very humble experience; Mark had just landed back in the US. He was safe. And is alive.

I ran it with Vivian and Ben Gardner. This was Bens first 5k. He pretty much had to do it, because I was able to convince Shalon to get ice cream one night :-)

My good friend Lindsay and her sweet baby Chloe were able to come and cheer me on. Dana brought David, unfortunately, I never saw them.

Thanks Lindsay for being there and for the pictures. I was able to do the race with a time of 39:20. I need new knees though. Haha.

Surgery #2

I know it's been a while since I've blogged, I'm losing that motivation. I love reading other peoples blogs, so I guess it's only fair that you can read mine :-)

At Davids follow-up appointment for his tubes back at the end of August, his right ear looked great. His left however had a clot of dry blood in it. Dr. Lieu had me put some drops in that ear for a week in hopes that it would loosen the clot and take care of the problem. At the following appointment, the clot was still in there. She needed to remove it. I had to hold Davids little body down, with a nurse holding his head while Dr. Lieu removed it with this little scissor like instrument. With the blood also came the tube. It needed to go back in. She was able to squeeze us in the next day (Sept. 23).

This surgery was a hundred times harder than the first. It was scheduled for 11AM. We had to be at the hospital at 9:30. David could not eat or drink and therefore was a little grumpy.

The surgery went really well. In recovery, he was just sleepy, not hysterical like the last time. He slept the way home and pretty much the rest of the day until I woke him up.

Soil

American Soil that is! Mark is back in the good ole United States! (Lets see how many exclamation marks I can use in this short post :-)

Yesterday during Sunday School I got a text that read "I Love you!!! I'm in Maine!!!!" I stepped out and we chatted for a minute. It was a sureal feeling seeing his name pop up on the screen of my phone and not some funky number.

(Can you see him in the back?!)

There are some great people that meet and greet the soldiers as they pass through various airports on their way back home. They were able to capture Marks excitement of being back America, having real toilet paper and fresh air.

You can check out the other soldiers, here. He and the other soldiers will be in Washinton State for about 10 days (give or take) and then he will fly back to St. Louis, we'll pack up and head back to Idaho.

Welcome back Mark!

Catching up...again

I don't know what it is, but when I think about sitting down, making sure I have all the right pictures, and writing down our stories, I just think, "oh another day." The only problem is the motivation just doesn't come. Haha. But, because I enjoy reading your blogs and looking at the pictures, I too will blog for your reading pleasure.

However, I have been slacking in the taking picture department. I just need to stick the camera in my purse. Oh well. So, lets begin. A week ago, Katie packed up and she headed off to Atlanta to begin her Masters program at Emory. Way to go Katie! David was loving have free range of her room...and the big chair in her room.

He also got his 3rd haircut. Yes, 3rd. She went pretty short this time around, but hopefully it will last a little longer.

We're still working on the one nap. Sometimes are great, and others are just okay. In his defense, he is teething. His poor lower gums are so swollen. Anyways, back to the nap, I had to run to Walmart. I was pushing the time, so we stopped at McDonalds and grabbed lunch then ran my errands. He fell asleep on the way home.

We also went to the mall to get David his first pair of shoes. How exciting! Anyways, while at the mall, we rode the Train. He loves it!

He loves to ring the bell. And one final picture, just because he is handsome!

We are in the last little bit of this deployment. Mark should be back in the United States later this week! Please pray for the safety of him and his fellow soldiers as they travel back.

Surgery

David finally was able to get tubes on July 25th. It was seriously a miracle that we were able to get in when we did, and for that I am grateful.

We had to leave the house at 5:45am to be at the hospital by 6:15am. We signed in and were called back shortly. Once in the room, we met with a variety of people (lots of nurses, the Doctor, the Anesthesiologist, lots of residents, and I'm sure a few others were in there at one point.) Our first task, was to get David into his little hospital gown.

THe advantage to David not watching TV very often (uh, pretty close to never actually) is that when it is on, it works great as a distractor.

Somewhere between then, we met with some more people. David got a little restless, so we took a stroll down to the playroom.

Shortly after, it was time. I was able to walk him down to the doors of the OR. I handed him off to one of the residents/doctors/Anesthesiologists and through the doors they went. This is when I lost it. Handing my baby off to have surgery was by far the hardest thing I have had to do. I pulled myself together and went back to the room where I waited the longest 10 minutes of my life.

The doctor came in and said everything went well and he should be awake soon. Again, the next longest 10 minutes of my life. They called and said he was awake and to come back to recovery. I went through the double doors, to room 9. David was in the doorway being held by Julie. He was sobbing. I dropped my bag and took him. I lost it again. He snuggled right up. He was pretty groggy. He had these little moments of crying, a painful/sad cry.

Once he woke up a little bit more, and he kept the apple juice down, we were good to go home. He fell asleep (and took a 3 hour nap).

Look at those cute little cheeks! He was pretty groggy the rest of the day, but he is back to his normal happy self! Within 2 days of surgery, I saw amazing improvement in him. He is talking more and louder. He also is so close to walking, its slightly ridiculous. He pulls himself up on anything within reach and cruises along. He had his first fall last night actually. We snuggled and read some books and he was good to go.

He is in need of another haircut, but I need to figure a way to keep water out of his ears. He continues to love bath time, even without his hair getting washed.

He also has his first little bruise. It was from crawling actually. He was going too fast and bumped into a cabinet.

Hopefully he wont get too many more bruises. It's painful on me too. Hope you all are having a fabulous Friday! We are on the very tail-end of things; roughly 4-6 weeks! Wahoo!!!