Stockton’s 1st Birthday

I cannot believe that my baby boy is 1! His birthday is the 1st of November. The last year has gone by so fast. I love when my kids’ birthdays roll around just because on that day I always find myself remembering what it was like the day they were born and the little details surrounding their birth. The day I had Stockton it was a beautiful Fall day. It was so nice in fact that I had on capris and flip flops. I went to my doctor’s appointment on Monday morning. I had been dilated to a 3 for a couple of weeks. I had had false labor a couple of times and just kept waiting for him to make his appearance (even though his wasn’t due until the 15th). They checked my progress and the doctor asked if I wanted to go to the hospital- I was dilated to a 6!. I hadn’t had any painful contractions or anything and I was so excited. Jeremy had stayed home to get some work done just in case I was going to have him that day. So I called him up and made arrangements for the other kids and made a quick stop at a computer place (to get a part for Jeremy) and I was off to the hospital. I got there around 11:00 and got hooked up. Jeremy got there shortly after, The doc came and broke my water at noon and Stockton was born at 3:26 in the afternoon. He was 8 lbs. 9 oz. and 21.5 in. long. They took him to the NICU right away because he was having problems breathing, but everything turned out fine.

And now he is a little one year old who is busy exploring everything around him- especially now that he has the use of his hands back.:)

We made him a Cars “cake” for his birthday except it wasn’t cake-we made carmelitos instead-yum. Brooklyn and Piper helped put the stuff on. I think it turned out pretty cute:

Piper colored the flags and Brooklyn made the road. They did a pretty good job and they were excited to do it!

We had both sets of grandparents over to have dinner with us. We had homemade chicken noodle soup with rolls, spinach salad with candied pecans, and pomegranite avacado dip. It was so yummy! Afterwards we sang to him, opened presents, and had dessert. Here are some pictures from the party:

Grandma and Grandpa Clayson gave him a Thomas the Train flashlight. It was so cute that it got taken and used by Piper that night.

  We gave him a cute little giraffe that came with 3 little balls and a car that you let slide down the front. It was pretty cute. We also gave him a Fisher Price board book about the zoo and a pair of pajamas. Grandma and Grandpa Jensen gave him ‘Cars 2’ the movie. My girls were pretty excited about that one- they hadn’t seen it yet.

He wanted the toys on top!   He loved the dessert Grandma was feeding him!

We sure love this sweet little boy and we are so grateful he is in our family!

Halloween Fun

Now that the holidays are right around the corner things have gotten CRAZY!!! But, I did want to post some pictures of the Halloween festivities even though I am a little late. It seems like we celebrate for half the month! We went to my sister Linday’s house to celebrate my brother, Mark’s, birthday and to decorate sugar cookies.

Reese and Megan

 

Brooklyn and Austin

It is a fun tradition to decorate cookies and we always have fun piling on the candy!

Later in the week we went to Idaho Falls to Melaleuca where Mark works. They always decorate their office really cute for Halloween. The kids got to dress up in their costumes and they walk around and get candy from all the employees. This year for Halloween Brooklyn was a purple butterfly, Piper was Repunzel, Reese was Strawberry Shortcake, and Stockton was a boxer/frog(depending on the day):).They love to dress up!

Brooklyn

Piper

Reese

Stockton (the boxer)   Uncle Mark was dressed as a Zombie

Grandma Jensen put on her annual Bowling Halloween party and the kids were so excited. They look forward to this every year! I love the bowling party because we get to catch up with cousins and family. Here are some fun pictures from that party.

Stockton loves Uncle Mark

All the men chillin’

Stockton and Michelle

My cousin Melanie with her girls Emily and Clara with my little Reese. Fun Cousins!

  Cousins-Reese and Megan, such sweet little friends

Aunt Michelle with Ryan, Kyle, Brooklyn and Austin

Rachel, Hallie, Emily, and Piper- the 4 little Repunzels

My kids with Great Grandma Jensen- We love the bowling party!

The kids also had parties and school with a carnival. They had a ball….:   Face Painting

The parade

Some kids in Piper’s class

Ava and Piper coloring in Mrs. Ochoa’s class

Pinatas in Mrs. Johnson’s class

Ayesha and Brooklyn waiting to hit the pinata

Brooklyn’s turn

Brooklyn in the parade

The is Brooklyn’s teacher and she had a baby a few months ago. She dressed as a kangaroo for the parade. She looked really cute!

Reese, Piper and Sophie after the kindergarten parade

On Halloween we took the kids to the Trunk or Treat down town so they could get some more candy- just what they needed.:) They had a ball…they love Halloween. In fact, we talk about what they are going to be all year long!

Such cuties! 

4 Weeks post baby burns

It has been 4 weeks since little Stockton burned his hands on the fireplace. It has been a long and tedious process, but things are finally looking better.

The first week he had his hands wrapped. We took him to the doctor and they did it the first couple of times and then Jeremy and I did it for a week. They were very tender and he would just scream when we had to change the dressings.

The next 2 weeks I had to take him in every other day so they could scrub all the dead skin off his hands. This was VERY hard for me, so hard in fact that I left the room in tears on more than one occasion. They had to scrub them until they bled- the blood was a good thing for 2 reasons: 1-It let us know that he still had good circulation in his hands and 2- that blood was good for the new skin that was coming. That blood was giving nutrients to the new skin. So we did have good news along the way. It has been quite interesting watching Stockton adjust to not having the use of his hands. He started to army crawl on his elbows-it is actually quite amusing. Here is a cute video of him army crawling. Watch for a slight wink at the end! 

He figured out how to hold his bread with his ‘gloves’. 

He learned how to balance his bottle on his ‘gloves’, and finally he became a little hoover. While sitting in the high chair he would bend his head down and suck up the cereal from the tray. He adapted. For the bowling party-(post to follow in the near future) we thought it would be funny if we dressed him up as a boxer. I put him in a onesie with black sweats and a head band. He had on red and blue boxing ‘gloves’ and I found a cute plastic championship belt at the dollar store. He was pretty cute!

His hands look so much better then they did before. He still army crawls, but for the most part he is using them pretty good.

So thankful that this wasn’t worse and I am so thankful for our good nurses and doctors who take good care of us.

Baby Burns

So this last Thursday and Friday we got about 2 inches of snow. Our house was pretty cold and I couldn't get the furnace to turn on or the fireplace. Jeremy had talked to the heater guy and he finally got the fireplace to come on, but not the furnace. It was supposed to get really cold Thursday night and the heater guy was coming Friday morning to fix it. Since it was cold the girls wanted to sleep upstairs in front of the fireplace. It warmed up pretty fast and when it gets up to temperature it turns off. Friday morning I was trying to pick up our living room and the fireplace must have kicked on. Stockton saw the flames and crawled right over to it and used the glass to pull himself up to it. He didn't scream or anything- just fussing. When I realized what he had done I ran over to him to find a singed hand. I ran him over to the sink to run cold water over it. Luckily Jeremy hadn't left for work yet, but he was outside. Brooklyn ran to get him and then we noticed that he had burned both of his hands. Jeremy called our doctor and we took him up there. I am so thankful to live by family. I called my sister, Lindsay and just dumped my kids off to her pjs and all. We saw Wade, the PA, and he drained the huge blisters and cut away all the dead skin. They piled on some antibiotic and burn cream and wrapped his little hands. I think he screamed for 2 hours off and on. I felt so horrible. I have to say that I didn't exactly hold it together very well either. It was a good thing Jeremy was with me.

These were just cute pictures of Stockton cuddling with his dad with his big boxing gloves. The first night after he did it. He kept waking up screaming. We spent the night on the couch together- it was a pretty sleepless night. "Friends" happened to be on at 2:00 in the morning and you know it is a classic when you can laugh in the middle of the night! :)

This is Friday the day it happened. He loves to chill with his dad. His little gloves are so sad!

He is having a real hard time even holding his bottle. Uncle Mark was so sweet to hold it for him one night. This was taken Friday, October 7, 2011- the day it happened.

We had to change the dressings today and I was worried about it. He screamed so much when they did it in the office- they had to hold him down and it was not a pretty sight. I didn't want a repeat, but he actually did pretty good considering. Jeremy held him and I did all the wrapping. The burns had been weeping and it didn't look good.

His left hand actually didn't look as bad as his right hand. It just looks painful.....

This is his right hand. It looked like it was bleeding and weeping more than the left hand. We finally got him all wrapped up with fresh cream and new "gloves". We go to the doctor tomorrow to have them checked out again.

We were actually pretty lucky because he only burned his palms and the tips of his fingers where there are no tendons, so we didn't have to go to a burn clinic. I don't know what the future will bring with this injury in terms of therapy or anything, but we will just take it a little at a time.