just because...

A new blog post, just because.....

....Tyrel can stand now!

...Tyrel managed to get his cast off so we took him to the surgeon's office and she said that his fingers looked great and he could keep his cast off. ONE WEEK EARLY!

...he loves having his cast off.

...Tyrel has a new front tooth coming in.

...I know Jonah will LOVE these pictures when he is older.

...there's a new "game" at our house, climb through the kitchen.

9 months/10 months & other stuff

I never did Tyrel's 9 month update. Things have been a little busy. I have been to doctors/hospitals 5 times this month and already have 4 visits scheduled for next month (not me, for kid stuff). Here are some 9 month pictures of Tyrel:

Today, Tyrel officially is 10 months old. I can't believe how fast it has gone by. He is just an awesome little guy. He is starting to try and stand all by himself and he can do it for about 1 second. He loves Mickey Mouse clubhouse (which is very convenient for those days he wakes up at 5 am), he LOVES to eat (as you can probably guess), and he eats all big people food, he won't eat baby food anymore. His favorites are noodles/pasta stuff, soup and really I guess he eats everything...he is not picky; which is a really nice change from the other kids. He loves going on walks and watching the other kids; they can really get him laughing. He loves bath time and being held. I've noticed since his cast has been on, that he has been a little more clingy and wanting to be held. We went to the park yesterday and he was crawling on the grass and he got about 15 feet away and was playing by Mikelle and Jonah, then all the sudden he looked around and starting crying...I guess he hadn't seen me for a couple minutes and got worried. He is quite the momma's boy and I love it. He is getting on a pretty good schedule, but I could definitely have him sleep a little better through the night...and in his crib. Anyway, here is Tyrel at 10 months.

Here are random other pictures from recently. Mikelle and Jonah were watching The Grinch and apparently it was a little too scary. I looked over and saw Jonah covering his eyes (somewhat) as you can see he is still watching.

Tyrel and Grandma

Daddy and the kids

Strawberry pina coladas with Aunt Chuls...yum!

fun on the air mattress

sleeping under a tree

This picture is from my brother, Mike, mission president's blog. Mike (or Elder Stewart) is second in on the top left.

Here is a picture I took at the surgeon's office with my cell phone. Tyrel's fingers are still quite swollen as you can see. The black is where the stitches are.

Tyrel with his new cast on. It is smaller than his first one.

You can tell it is a lot smaller than the first one in this picture.

Ice Cream in a Bag

Yesterday the Knowles came over and we all made some home made ice cream in a bag. It was pretty good and the kids had a lot of fun making it. We put all the ingredients in a bag, then put that bag inside a bigger bag with ice and salt and shook it for about five minutes. Then we set up the tent and I think the kids grabbed most of the books in the house and sat in it and 'read' them. Tyrel of course had to be right in the middle of the tent with all the big kids.

Mikelle decorated her cookie, she drew a "girl with long hair," and I thought it was pretty good, here it is:

Tyrel's Surgery

Today Tyrel had his surgery. We left at 5:45 am to get to the hospital in Denver. Tyrel is the BEST baby ever. He sat there perfectly as they got him ready. The nurses were so cute with Tyrel. They took his temperature and put on the tiniest little blood pressure band thing and he kept it on pretty good, but they ended up taking it off because he was moving his arm when it would put any pressure on it and they couldn't get a good reading. They told me I could go back while they put a gas mask on him to put him out, but they said it probably wasn't a good idea because it was a really weird thing to watch your baby go to sleep and almost kind of disturbing, so I handed him off to the nurse and he even held out his arms and went to her; it was pretty sad to watch her take him away though. About 2 1/2 hours later, the surgeon (Dr. Schneider) came out and told us that everything went fine. A normal finger has nerves on each side to feel, and Tyrel's two fingers shared one, so the surgeon told us that he put the nerves up on the index finger and the middle finger will have no nerves on one side so it will be numb, but will slowly grow some feeling over time. Dr. Schneider told us also that the two fingernails were connected, which we couldn't really tell before, so we are not sure what the two fingernails will look like after. They also had to do a skin graft. So after his surgery, I could go back and see him and he stayed asleep for about 30-40 minutes, and when he did wake up, he NEVER even cried. He just drank some apple juice and sat on my lap. The nurse tried to give him some animal crackers, and he shook his head no; which he has never done before, but it was obvious that he was saying "no." Then later, we were trying to give him more apple juice and he was shaking his head no, and it was kind of cute because he knows how to say 'no' now. He didn't cry when they took the IV out or when I had to change him out of the hospital gown, he is so awesome! When we got home, I was expecting him to not even want to crawl and that it would take him a couple days to get it down; but he just got down and crawled across the room (as you can see in the video). I feel so bad for him because the cast is SO HUGE and HEAVY. I try to just hold him and support the weight of it. So today is Day 1; we have to have the cast on for two weeks, then go in for a check up, and then get a different cast on for 2 more weeks; so one month total. Sorry this is so long, but my blog is kind of like my journal and I wanted to write down all the details.

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p.s. Shout out to my Mom and sister for coming and helping! Thanks guys, also thanks for all the prayers and support from everyone!

Memorial Day Weekend and other stuff

We just took it easy for Memorial Day Weekend. It seems like a lot has been going on...missions, farewells, graduations, job stuff, doctor's appointments, ect...I could go on forever, so I wanted a nice relaxing weekend before Tyrel's surgery (which is tomorrow..June7..) before things start getting crazy. I told my Dad that I kept thinking that once this one busy weekend was over, or once we did this certain thing, or that got fixed or whatever it was, life would slow down and finally become a little less crazy, and he said "life never slows down." And he was right, things keep getting scheduled, or breaking, or dirty, or sick, or whatever, but it's great!

Here are our recent pictures:

Our Memorial Day BBQ with some friends:

Mikelle and Boston just love their steak!

Jonah feeding Mikelle some cake

Baby Kai sleeping, I thought he looked so cute.

And Tyrel sleeping, he also looks so cute!

Here are just some random other pictures:

isn't this the cutest picture, Matt took of them at Target.

Tyrel LOVES playing in the kid's room

taking naps

this is Ty's spot he loves to crawl around in

Mikelle loves to hold Ty, even if it is only a second

Cute Kids

My favorite pictures for the moment