Nick's First Primary Talk

 

Nick was able to give his first primary talk yesterday! He was so excited. We (Christopher and I) both practiced and practiced with him. His talk was on Jesus and miracles. The plan was to have Christopher help him, but right before primary he benched Christopher and put me in. 

We grabbed our picture of Jesus, headed to the pulpit, and I began whispering his talk into his ear. He then told me, "No mom, I've got this", and proceeded to go completely off script. His talk kind of went like this (Oh how I wish Christopher was recording it!)

Nick: and in utah there is snowmobiles, and Ben is at BYU, and there is lots of snow and it's so much fun.

Me (in his ear): And Jesus performed many miracles....

Nick: And we stay at the cabin with cousins.......(on and on about snow, snowmobiles, cabins, Ben, ETC)

I finally told him "In the name of Jesus Christ amen" and he copied that, smiled, and walked triumphantly back to his chair. He had just given the talk of his dreams and he was so proud of himself! All the teachers were smiling and so impressed.

Fast forward to our singing time activity. I had put little shamrocks on the board that talked about "lucky" things verses "blessing". Nick's stick was called and he got to come up. He picked the one with the most text. As I went to take it from him to read it to the primary, he said, "No mom! I'll read it!" and for a FULL MINUTE talked and talked about Ben, BYU, Football, snow, snowmobiles, cabins, etc. He barely stopped for breath! Once he stopped, I said, "and ladybugs are also considered lucky!" Everyone burst into laughter. 

I think Nick loves the spotlight!

Grandpa (attempts) to teach Kallie to drive in the snow...

 Kallie has been asking and asking grandpa to take her out in the jeep and teach her how to drive on these snowy roads at the cabin. He finally gave in on New Years Day (it had been snowing non-stop for a day or two) and off they went! Before we knew it Kallie was back, but without grandpa...and her jacket. Apparently she took the turn a little quick and short and the side of the road ate her. There is so much snow it just sucked her in.  They tried to call the cabin, but of course no one answered the phone, so Kallie had to walk to a cabin near by and asked the people there to take her to the cabin. They rode her home on a snowmobile and she gathered the troops to go help dig the jeep out!

When Kallie does something, she does a great job. She got that jeep very, very stuck. They went out in the suburban to try to pull her out, but that didn't work so Andrew snowmobiled back and asked to get Alex's truck. Alex showed up, but by then they had put the chains on the suburban and finally got the jeep out. 

So Kallie not only learned to drive in the snow, but she also learned where the tow ropes go on the cars, how to pull out a car, and (most importantly) to turn wide and stay away from the berm.

Snowy Utah Days

This year the cabin has just been dumped on with snow. The little boys are finally old enough where they want to go out and play in the snow. Nick has been loving the snowmobiles and sledding. Poor Xander is so tiny he can barely hold himself up when he is in his snow clothes. It has been so fun having older kids too. Ben, Kal, Andrew, and Zack have been so cute to give snowmobile rides, take them sledding or pull them on the tubes. We really should just move here.

Uncle Steve made this massive igloo.  How awesome is this!!

 

A Few Firsts for Xander...and Kallie

What a whirlwind the last few days have been. Christopher is in Vienna and Sweden for a week, it's Christmas, life is nuts, and Xander is sick. Sunday he didn't feel great so I kept him home with Andrew while I took everyone else to church. By the time we got home he just wanted to cuddle - which I love. We had a hard night that night (he couldn't get comfy, barky cough, yucky nose, fever, etc). When we got up I realized I needed to take him into the doctor, so I made him an appointment for that day at 11:30. Long story short, the dr. (not our reg dr.) kept us waiting in the room for over an hour, kind of blew me off and said it's a virus there's nothing we can do, just take him outside then to a steam shower and here are some antibiotics for his double ear infection. I left feeling unheard and not taken very seriously. I even had to ask her to listen to his lungs - and she said they sounded like he had a virus. She told me to expect another tough night, but I should see a great improvement by the next morning. Great.

We had a horrible night. He couldn't get comfortable, he couldn't breathe, he was just miserable. I did a few steam showers, kept up on meds, but nothing. As I was rocking him at 5am I noticed he was working really hard to breathe. I took a video to show Christopher and he said that didn't look good. I didn't want to over react - I was told it was just a virus, he will be fine at the doctors the previous day.  But then I looked at his feet. They were purple. His hands were purple. I called his doctor to talk to them and ask if I could come in and have his oxygen stat taken. The nurse said they don't really do that and if I was worried I should just take him to the ER. I had Nick at home, Chris was out of town, and the other kids were at school. I didn't want to drag them all to the ER to just be told he had a virus and I was being dramatic. But he was struggling to breathe even more and I started to feel really anxious about it.  By then the doctors office called me back and said if  I really thought his feet and hands were purple I should call 911. 

I called the school and told them to send Kal home ASAP. I loaded Xander into the car and waited in the driveway for her. As soon as she came home I asked her what she thought and she said he looks purple, get him to the hospital. I drove to the closest hospital and was worried I was just being dramatic. They took us right back. His oxygen was jumping all over the place, his heart rate was in the 200's, and his temp was 103.2. This kid was sick.

Xander was completely out of it and not really aware of what was going on. They put all the monitors on him and he just wanted to suck on his fingers and be held. Since babies do terrible with oxygen, they just watched it on the monitor and gave him a breathing treatment. With such a high fever and how dehydrated he was they started an IV. They put it in his elbow area and tried to splint his arm so he wouldn't bend it, but he wanted his fingers! He actually bent the catheter and they had to redo the IV in his hand, this time keeping his fingers accessible. 

After a few hours in the ER the pediatrician on call came and talked with us and after checking him over told me they needed to admit him. He was just working too hard to breathe, his heart rate was way to high, and his fever was just aggressive. They needed to transfer him to a hospital with a pediatric ward, which was 20 minutes away. He was too unstable to drive there so they had to call an ambulance to transfer him. Kal came and brought me some clothes and things to spend the night in the hospital with him. Thankfully she was able to go with him in the ambulance - which he loved! Thank heavens for Kallie being there!

Our transport team was amazing too. They took such great care of Xander and was thrilled when Kal mentioned she wanted to go into medicine someday. They gave her the full royal treatment and loved sharing their knowledge. It was great!

He was so out of it I'm sure he didn't know what was going on. He was just watching everything and soaking it all it. When we finally got to his room he was ready to crash. His nurse was amazing and did all her assessments without actually touching him - which was amazing. She later told me he was in really bad shape. I was wondering why we had so many people in our room!

Every two hours throughout the night they would come in and give him a breathing treatment. I don't think he was even aware of what was going on. He just wanted me to hold him and sleep. Poor kid was just so sick.

The next morning I was so excited because I thought he was going to actually eat. He was feeling so much better! He woke up without a fever and noticed for the first time that he had a sensor on his toe. He hadn't eaten 4 days - but he didn't really eat. He's lost 4 lbs...and when you only weigh 22 - that's a lot.

Once he was feeling better he hated people coming in and touching him. Poor kid was just ready to get out of there!

When he was starting to feel better he noticed a ton of new toys. He kept tripping all over his wires - so I just disconnected him.

He turned the corner pretty quick. After explaining our home situation (Dad out of town, 17 year old sister taking care of everything including a 3 year old) the doctor made me sign my name in blood and let me take him home. Kal came to get us. She was so sweet and let X keep Ahba bear while he was sick. He cuddled that sweet bear the whole time!

But I think someone missed him more.....