My ears are all better!

Ayden had her ear tube surgery today and everything went really well. She was so good through out the whole process. We arrived at the surgery center at 8:15 this morning and the surgery was at 9:00. She was not allowed to eat or drink anything 8 hours before the surgery and I was a little worried how she would respond to that since she has to go to bed with water every night and the first thing she wants when she wakes up is milk and cereal. My worries were not necessary because after we explained to her that she couldn't eat or drink anything she was really good about it. The first thing that came out of her mouth this morning was "I can't have any milk huh? because the doctor said I couldn't have anything to eat because I am having surgery today." I thought it was really cute. Then when we got to the surgery center they brought us to a little curtained off room with a big comfy chair and some toys and the anesthesiologist and the doctor came and talked to us to let us know what to expect and the whole time we are talking kids who had just woken up from the anesthesia where screaming their heads off (they do about 20 ear tube or tonsil surgery's on Tuesdays so kids were everywhere). They explained that about 95% of kids wake up like that because they are groggy and disoriented and that we should expect it. I couldn't see Ayden acting like that but I did not know what it felt like so I was not sure how she would act. The doctor, the anesthesiologist and a nurse then came and told Ayden it was time to go and that she could go see some pictures of puppies. Ayden was totally cool about it and said "ok, bye mommy and daddy" as she held the doctors hand and walked off to the surgery room. About three minutes later they brought Ayden back asleep, snoring and wrapped up in a blanket and laid her in my arms. She slept in my arms for about five minutes and then woke up just as she would have from any other nap. She just sucked her fingers and held her blanket with out making a fuss at all. The nurse brought her some apple juice and Ayden read all the letters and the sounds they make off the Tree Top can to the nurse. One of the first things she also said was "my ears are all better now." The doctor came and talked to us and told us that she drained a lot of fluid from her ears and told us that Ayden will be hearing a lot better now and that she will be much happier too. After about 10 minutes Ayden was ready to go home so Brad carried her to the car and she has been totally normal and happy all day. It was so simple that I just kick myself that we did not get it done sooner. I guess I should just be glad we got it done now. Alex is next!

Toilet Paper Fun

Alex had some fun with the toilet paper and I took some video of it. Nothing too exciting, sorry!

alex

This video is kind of boring but we just don't have any video of Alex so I wanted to take something of her. Just watch what you want of it.

Birthday Week

It seems that lately all we have been doing is celebrating birthdays! It can be fun that Brad's birthday and my birthday are only a day apart but at times my birthday is a little overlooked because Brad's birthday is first so by the time mine comes around it just feels like we are dragging the birthday thing out. So this year Brad and our friend Wade surprised me and Wade's wife, Elizabeth, with a surprise party a week early. It was actually on Elizabeth's real birthday. Brad and Wade had been up to something and I assumed it was something for our birthday's but I really was not sure what they were doing. Last Saturday at about 2:30 he told me to go over to Elizabeth's house and when I asked him why he told me I would find out when I got there. So I went over there and Wade handed us the business card of a nail parlor and told us to go there and he said that when we got back we would all go to the Cheesecake factory for our birthday dinner. We were both really excited and we were treated with both a pedicure and a manicure. It was nice and relaxing and very enjoyable. When we finished our instructions were to go back to the house and when we arrived there there was a nice paper towel banner that read "Happy Birthday Elizabeth and Jenni" and then a whole bunch of our friends and their kids all jumped out and yelled "surprise! Happy Birthday!" It was really fun and very thoughtful of Brad to do something for me. My birthday present was a PS2 with Dance Dance revolution and American Idol Karaoke. We had a great time at the party singing karaoke but unfortunately the dance pads broke before we all got to play DDR. We have some more on order so I can't wait to tear it up on the dance floor! Unfortunately we did not take any pictures but our friends did so I will try to get some copies from them and post them later.

For Brad's birthday the girls and I went down town and took him out to lunch and then we had a little quiet family party when he came home from work. Ayden really wanted to make birthday hats and cards and we also made him a tres leches cake. It was a fun quiet night. It seems really boring for being his 30th birthday but his big present was the road bike (both Christmas and birthday). We did get a couple pictures of Brad's party. I think the best picture is the one after Brad blows the candles out because it is all smokey. It just shows how old he is getting. I also added a few other pictures of the girls lately.

Never Leave a Two Year Old Alone With Finger Paints!

Obviously Ayden is my first child because I am still doing stupid things like leaving her alone with finger paints. What was I thinking? I don't know... actually I was thinking that it would give me ten minutes to make some phone calls that I have been putting off all week. In the end I did not get to the phone calls and Ayden's finger painting time gave me ten more minutes of something to add to my daily list and that was to clean up her mess! Oh well...
You can tell she is proud of herself. Look at that grin!
Since my table is black these pictures don't really do justice to the mess that she made. It was all over the table and the chair.

Finger paint soup, Anyone?

Sorry I have not posted in a while. I have a couple of excuses. First, I have not been taking any pictures because our camera isn't working so great anymore since Ayden decided she wants to be the family photographer and it does not help that we lost our case, extra memory cards and batteries is Park City. I guess it is time to get a new camera. My second excuse is that we have all been sick. Ayden has had two ruptured ear drums this month from her chronic ear infections and we were both sick with the flu this past week too. The good news about Ayden's ear infections is that I finally switched pediatricians and found one who really knows what she is doing. Ayden has had bad ear infections since she was a couple months old. She has probably had at least twelve in her life and six since last July. That is lot of antibiotics for a two year old. She has had more doses of antibiotics in her short little life then I have in my whole life. Our last pediatrician just kept writing the prescriptions and sending us away even though I begged for more options. I hit the end of my rope when she got two ruptured ear drums within two weeks so I switched doctors and our new doctor could not believe I was never referred to an ear nose and throat doctor for tubes before. She said that any kid who has more then 6 with in a year should definitely get tubes. So she recommended them for Ayden if for no other reason then to give her body a break from antibiotics. She has chronic diarrhea which makes things like potty training impossible and who knows what else the antibiotics are reeking havoc on. I wish we did not have to go as drastic as surgery but at this point we are desperate for a change and I am happy to be doing something about it. Thanks Brad for giving Ayden your ears!!! (he also had bad ear infections and tubes put in at least once but maybe a couple of times)

On to some other news... We had a great time last weekend in Burley. We went for the super bowl and I have to report that even though Brad was extremely disappointed his team lost he was a great looser. I have never been more proud. Sure it probably helped that we worked out a deal where he did not loose either way if you know what I mean, ahem, but he was great about it. We also had a really fun day skiing with a ton of family and friends. It was a really great ski day and it was fun to ski the resort (sorry Marsha and Lori "hill") that Brad grew up on. Thanks Marsha for watching the girls so we could go! Ayden and Alex had a lot of fun with their cousins. Ayden and Caleb played really well together and she also loved the attention her older cousins gave her. Thanks to everyone for making it a great weekend.