Mom and Dad mean the World to Me!

The other night as I tucked Corinne into bed she said, "Mom, I wish I were you."
"Why? Because I'm going to have a baby?" I asked her jokingly.
She nodded, but then I asked her what her reason really was for wanting to be me. After thinking about it for a minute she said, "Because you make all the fun things. You are a sewing artist!"

It made me smile to hear that I am a sewing artist even though I have barely begun learning to sew. Corinne is the real artist! I should post some of her drawings on the blog. They are so amazing! She spends a lot of time practicing her drawing too.


Allana complimented Andy last week too. She told him that he could run for president and that she would vote for him, but that she would miss him a lot because he would have to work really far away. Then she told him that after his 4-year term was over that she would not vote for him again because she would want him to come home. I think it is evidence to show that kids think the world of their parents.

Reflections

I went with Allana tonight to the Reflections Awards night at her school. She choreographed a dance piece all by herself, entered, and won first place. It was very cute to see how excited she is about her accomplishment. The coolest thing was how she got a piece of paper and started "mapping out" her dance. She even gave names to the steps.

We like to change our minds...A lot!

Instead of selling the Rover we decided that we'd take a loan on it to buy Andy a car to drive and pay the bills. It was a relief to keep it after spending so much time looking at the other options out there. The coolest thing is that Guilia and David agreed to sell us back the Subaru Baja we sold them 3 years ago. We drove to Vegas and brought back our long lost family member, A.J.

I Love living on this mountain!!!

This morning on the way back from dropping Allana off at the bus. Corinne looked up at our house and mountain behind it and exclaimed,  "I love living on this mountain! Now we can hike!"

Super cute! Corinne talked me into going mountain biking with her. Gideon made it biking to the service road and then ditched his biked and hiked the rest of the way. It was good to be back on a bike again. It has been months since I've been on my bike. We only biked to the top of the service road and hiked around a little bit, but it was still nice to just be outside together. I guess I love living on this mountain too.

Goodbye Rover

Sadly, we are selling our Land Rover LR3. We have loved it, but reality is that we need money to pay the bills more then we need a luxury SUV. We are hoping to get enough to pay for Andy's tuition, pay for a less expensive, but safe vehicle and still have a little left over.

Mondo

Another example of how awesome my midwife is... I haven't been eating great for the past couple weeks because I have been worried about $$$ and we have hardly any food in our house. So, Sherri gave me a bunch of fresh foods from her garden including "Mondo" the giant zucchini.

 Corinne showing her massive muscles.

 Gideon said, "It's so huge!" (sounds so cute in his little 2 1/2 year old voice.

Tomorrow we'll be making lots of zucchini creations!

My cute Kids

I can't even remember what they were watching on the computer, but they all had their arms around each other and asked me to come and take a picture of them since they were so cute!

Gummy bears!!!

Corinne had the camera with her and took a bunch of pictures all over the house, but I think she took about 10 or more of this bag of gummy bears. Gideon has been doing awesome going on the potty and I told him if he could go all day wearing underwear without an accident that Andy would bring him home a bag a gummy bears. Since then Gideon has even been wearing underwear at night without trouble. What a super star! He is 2 1/2 and doing just as well as the girls did at his age.

Follow-up Appointment

Gideon had his follow-up appointment today. They are going to have him do a pulse oximetry study on Monday to see if he can get off the oxygen at night. On the way to the doctors office Gideon kept saying that the doctor missed him and that was why we needed to go to the doctor's because he wanted to see Gideon because he missed him. He said that the doctor was crying and crying because he missed Gideon.

Gideon's Bout with Pneumonia

Friday May 4th Gideon had a barking cough. Saturday he seemed tired and by 4:00 Saturday night he was asleep. He had a fever and threw up once on Saturday night. Sunday he wanted to be held all day long. He was very lethargic and still feverish. Sunday evening he started breathing very shallowly and rapidly. I took him to the after-hours clinic. They said that he was breathing 65 breaths a minute. Normal respirations are 20-30/min, but they said it was due to his temperature of 102.7 degrees. His ear also looked red, but there was no pus visible so they didn't want to do any antibiotics. He also had a tonsil stone (uncommon for 2-year-olds, but Gideon seems to be lucky that way) that they popped out of his tonsil. They gave us advil and sent us home saying Gideon just had a cold.

 Gideon was so sick that he did not have enough energy to do anything. He looked like this even when he was awake...just lying in the hospital bed.

Sunday night he was still very sick and had a fever he would drink water but wouldn't eat anything. Monday he was still sluggish and had to be carried everywhere. I put him down for a minute and he just stood in that spot and cried until I picked him back up. I took him back to the PA (Mike Gibson) he had seen on Sunday. We told him he still has a fever, he is still very sick, and asked him to make sure that the tonsil stone he got out was completely gone and that it was not the reason Gideon was so sick. He looked at his throat again and sent us home saying bring Gideon back in a few days or so if he still had a fever. Monday night Gideon was given a blessing.

Tuesday and Wednesday he continued with fevers. Wednesday I called again because the office had never called me with the results of the strep test they had done. They told me those tests were negative. I asked to make an appointment for Gideon. She asked if he was wheezing and if his abdomen was sucking in when he breathed. He didn't have either of those symptoms. She told me that if it were her son she would wait another day or two to see if the fever would go away on it's own. My gut feeling was that something was really wrong and that I should take him in. I also wished that the nurse was right and that he would just get better on his own. I gave it another day...

So now Gideon had hardly eaten anything and had been on only fluids for five days.

 Thursday May 10th I took him to Sue Ann who is our regular PA and his SPO2 was 70. She put him on oxygen right away. Gideon still was not wheezing and there was only a very very slight sucking in on his abdomen when he breathed. He did have an ear infection in one ear and her guess was pneumonia. She sent us straight to the hospital and Gideon only whimpered as they put in his IV. He was too sick to do much of anything. They did X-rays and put him on 2 different types of antibiotics and did bloodwork. His CRC was 17.3 (normal is 1) and his X-ray showed he had a bad case of pneumonia. By Friday morning his blood draw showed his CRC was 15.8 and his x-ray was also improving. Yeah!

 By Friday evening Gideon was feeling well enough to play a little. His right hand was splinted with the IV in it, but Gideon created a ramp out of his bed. One of the nurses gave him a Lightning McQueen car which he loved to roll down the hospital bed. Finally on Saturday I heard Gideon laugh. What a wonderful sound that I had missed for a whole week!!!

Mother's day I was hoping that we could go home, but his oxygen levels still weren't high enough to let us go. The highlight of my day was when Keri showed up with dinner. Way yummier that hospital food!

Gideon came home today May 14th at about noon. This is Gideon leaving the hospital in a wagon. He still has trouble with breathing at night and has an oxygen tank to use while he is sleeping. They will probably do another X-ray at some point to make sure everything is cleared up.

I was so grateful for the peace that I felt remembering the words of the blessing that Gideon was given on Monday. I felt a peaceful reassurance that Gideon's needs would be met at the hospital. My heart ached thinking of parents that I know who have been through sicknesses like this and even worse illnesses with their children. Some who have even lost their children. The thought of losing Gideon worried me on Thursday after he was admitted. Then I was quickly blessed with a peaceful feeling that Gideon would be well again soon. One thing I kept thinking is that he can't die now because he is going to grow up to be an amazing missionary and father.

Now we are home and there is just the aftermath of having your life turned upside down for a week and a half. I am dreading the bill that will come after 5 days in the hospital and then the oxygen on top of that. It is a good reminder that we need to stay out of debt and save our money so that we can have it when unexpected trials come our way.

I am exhausted and was very spoiled by our neighbors with a plate of cookies, dinner, and a card to brighten up our week.

Corinne's Laugh

We were watching old videos this morning and found this one. It made us laugh so hard that we had to put in in the blog. Corinne can still do this laugh too.

Home, Sweet, Home

Here it is... now time for landscaping...

The road you can see on the left-hand side of the picture is an Orem city service road. It also allows access to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. It is sooooooo fun to walk outside and step right onto a trail to go hiking. I love it!

Our New Home

This past year has been pretty crazy selling our home and now finishing the building of a new home. We moved in over spring break. We have been so blessed to be able to build in a place where our kids have a "forest" to play in. Our appraisal came in higher than we expected. I was praying hard for the appraisal to come in as high as we would need it in order not to have any mortgage insurance. Heavenly Father loves us and blessed us through the whole process.

Corinne "Mountain Biker" Young

While Allana was at school, Gideon, Corinne and I went on a little adventure. I wanted to see if my stroller would fit on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (it did, but not very well). Corinne rode her strider bike and gideon hiked most of the time, which left me with an empty stroller to push. We parked the stroller and kept on going.

This was the first time Corinne has ever taken her strider bike on the trail. It is a single track trail and her favorite parts were the spots with lots of gravel, rocks, or hills to ride down. I haven't seen her smile that big and laugh that much for a while. She would go down a hill and laugh and laugh and then ride back up and go down again.

When we got back home she said to me, "Mom! Now you need to call me Corinne "Mountain Biker" Young!" If you know Corinne that is a pretty big deal. Ever since she could talk if you call her anything, like "Sweetie" or "Cute" or anything she would get really upset and say, "No, I Corinne!!!" So this is the first time I've really seen her taken another identity besides "Corinne"

"I happy, Mom, I happy!"

Yesterday I was in a hurry to get out the door and get Allana to kindergarten. I have spoiled Gideon by carrying him up and down the stairs, so as I started down the stairs with him and he made a whining sound I thought he was begging me to pick him up. "Gideon I want you to walk." I continued closing the door at the top of the stairs not realizing his pinky was being squished in the door.

Gideon: "Ow! Ow! Ow!" (with tears starting to come down is cute cheeks)

Me: "I'm squishing your fingers!" (I kissed his pinky and saw that I had broken the skin, it had to have hurt badly!) "Gideon, I am sooooo sorry. Can you still move it?"

Gideon: (wiping tears from his face and smiling) "I happy, Mom, I happy!"

I gave him more hugs and kisses and ended up crying myself. He and all my children are so forgiving even when they are in pain. What a great example! Most of the time when he topples and falls (as he does often trying to balance his big head), he jumps up and says, "I okay!"

Does it look like it is ready for us to move in?

So our house was supposed to be done by now... look at Allana's face in this picture... It makes me laugh. It is like she is shocked that it won't be finished in time for her birthday. It would have been nice, but I think it has been a blessing in a lot of ways that it has taken the extra time to get it finished. This too shall pass, right?

Spontaneous Hiking

We dropped Allana off at school at 11:15 then came to the building lot. Corinne and Gideon wanted to go on a hike. I thought we would only end up going a short distance, but they kept hiking and hiking almost all the way to dry canyon. This video is after 2 hours of hiking and they still wanted to go farther. I made them turn back since we had no food or water with us. It was a fun hike. I am excited for this to be our backyard.