Pics coming soon

The last couple of blog posts are long and very detailed for my journal purposes and do not include any pictures. I will be doing an all picture post in the next little bit which will be way more fun to look at so stay tuned!

Fun Events

The last few weeks have been filled with some fun events. First of all - now that Addy is older and her surgery is over, we have been going to playgroup which is every Monday and Wednesday so that has been so much fun! I love getting to spend time with adults while Jaxon gets to play with his friends!

There have also been some fun events in the community that we have gone to. First there was Kids Ranch Day at the Heritage Museum here and that was... well not as fun as I thought it was going to be, but it was still fun! They had little pony's there for the kids to pet, they had activities for the kids to do to see what it was like to live a long time ago, and they had part of a full size train there for kids to go on and look in. Jax loved petting the mini horses and he actually was getting ready to mount one - luckily I looked over right as he was doing it so he didn't actually jump on - but I thought it was pretty funny that he had no fear and was ready to just get on! There was also a Dino Day at the museum, they had lots of pictures for the kids to color, dino masks for the kids to make, sand pits with fossils in them and they kids got to keep one piece of fossil that they found, they also had clay for the kids to make a fossil replica in, a store with lots of fun dinosaur things to buy - and a movie called Journey to the Center of the Earth playing in the theater. Jax loved it, he saw a kid go into the theater so he wanted to see what was in there and he actually sat during the movie which I was shocked about. He wasn't perfectly quiet - he would ohhh and awwww at things and say "oh no!" when something scary would happen, but he liked being in the theater so I think I might brave trying to take him to an actual movie sometime. But it was fun because for Dino Day it was just me and Jax - Dan stayed home with Addy so it was nice to get some one on one time with him.

There have also been a few of Jaxon's friends birthdays. First was Oli and JJ Oblad's party (they are brothers, 2 and 4) - we had a fun time! Dan was out of town for that one so it was just me and the kids, but it was in their backyard and we had a BBQ and lots of fun! They have a tramp which Jaxon LOVE's! It was kind of funny at first though because he isn't used to jumping with a lot of kids so when he first got on he was scared and wouldn't jump unless I was holding his hand - then he would lay on the tramp and let the kids bounce him while he laughed his head off - then he stood up and jumped with all the other kids and had the time of his life. They also have an area in their backyard that is just dirt so all the boys went over and were digging and one of Jaxon's friends Ryker dumped dirt all over Jaxon's head so Jax had a bath when we got home and it was SOOOO gross all the dirt that came off that kid LOL but he loved every second of the party.

Next was Weston's b-day party. It was a pool party and BBQ. It was a hot day so that was nice for the kids to get in the pool. Dan swam with Jax and Addy and I stayed dry and chatted with the girls. They said the water was cold but that didn’t' stop Jax from just jumping in. That kid has NO FEAR when it comes to the water. The pool part of the party was last minute so we were not prepared with water wings or a tube or anything and Jax would just jump in anyway so it definitely kept Dan on his toes - but a little later in the party sweet Brooklyn shared her pink tube with Jax and he loved being in that thing!

The last party we went to was Carter's. He had a Spider man/super hero party so all the kids came dressed up like their favorite super hero. Jax borrowed a costume and went as a transformer! They had a bounce house there which the kids obviously LOVED.

Like I said in the previous post - we are so lucky to have such great friends around us!

We will be in Utah again this year for Jaxon's b-day so I decided to have a party for Jaxon before we go so he can have a friend party this year. Last year we were in Utah too so he didn't get a friend one then so I thought this year I will do a friend one before we go and then he can also have a family party in Utah. What a lucky boy!!!

No more binky

When Jaxon turned one, we decided the binky was only for intense screaming cases, church to keep him quiet, and sleeping. Then when he was about 18 months and starting to say more words, we decided he shouldn’t' ever have it when he was awake so we only gave it to him during nap and night time. Well it had been that way until a couple of weeks ago. I had been wanting to get rid of it totally for a long time now. I thought we should do it before Addy came, but I read that a lot of kids will "relapse" if their younger sibling uses a binky so I decided to wait until after Addy was born so we could tell him that she is a baby and needs it but he is a big boy and doesn't anymore. Then Addy was born and waking up every 3 hours for feedings and so I didn't want to deal with another kid being up at night because of lack of a binky (lazy I know). Then it got to the point where Dan was starting to do serious studying for finals and I was worried Jax would keep him up and then he wouldn't be able to focus... basically giving myself any excuse not to have to do it. The doctors told me not to worry because we were only giving it to him at night and it wasn’t' doing any harm to him at all, so I think I let that be another excuse why it was ok for him to still have it. Then in the middle of April Jaxon got really weird and possessive of his binky and would try to find it during the day and he would take Addison’s binky and go hide and suck on it so I thought this HAS to stop!!! Dan went to Utah for a friend’s wedding and some interviews at the end of April so I thought this was the PERFECT time to do it!

My plan: Tell Jaxon about the binky fairy and have him put his binky's under his pillow and then switch them out for a toy before he woke up. I'm thinking he will be excited to get a toy and it will all go great. So I start to tell him the story before his nap - he gets upset and says he doesn't want a toy he wants his binky! So I pull up pictures online of crying babies and explain that the binky fairy needs to take the binky's to these crying babies and that since he is not a baby anymore, he doesn't need it. I also pulled up a picture of a cute fairy so he would see that the binky fairy was nice! He still wasn't excited about the idea so I just decided to put him in his room for nap with no binky's and get rid of them while he slept. He went to bed JUST fine - he yelled from his room for the first couple min’s asking for the binky - but after that he fell asleep and slept great. That night, he asked for them again and I reminded him that the binky fairy took them to the little babies that needed them. He was upset and didn't want me to leave so I made the mistake of saying, "I'll go talk to the binky fairy and see what I can do." He said ok and that was the end of it that night. He slept great again. So for the next couple of days he would say "go talk to the binky fairy" every time I would put him in bed LOL but he always fell asleep great and slept great! Now all of that has stopped and he just goes to bed without mentioning it. He also NEVER tries to suck on Addy's binky anymore. I keep thinking I should have done it sooner - but at the same time, I like the age he is at - I was able to explain to him what was going to happen instead of just taking away something that he loved and not being able to give him a reason. He is also old enough that he is not going to form another sucking habit like a lot of other kids do. I know so many kids that get binky's taken away when they are young and they either become thumb suckers, arm suckers, blanket suckers LOL - anything to fulfill the need/instinct they have to suck. So what I'm saying is.... judge all you want but my almost 3 year old JUST gave up his binky and he is doing great - there was no trauma associated with it and no other weird habits have been formed. That is a total success in my book!

Friends

When I first moved to Lubbock, I kept thinking I couldn't wait to get out of here. It's always windy, the summers are HOOOOOTTTTTT, and it's... well just plain ugly here. But now the thought of leaving next year makes me sick. I LOVE the friends we have made here. I don't think I will ever find a goup of women as amazing as the ones here (although I truly hope I do). And our group of friends are all in the same situation/stage of life as we are so we all understand the poor student thing, we all have kids, we get together for playgroups at least 2 times a week, we have girls nights, we have parties, the guy's play basketball, we all love and support each other. There is no judgement - just total acceptance of everyone. People come and go each year and the new comers are welcome and the people leaving are missed and we all just have a blast when we get together.

This time of year is fun - there have been lots of birthday parties and get togethers that just make me realize more and more how hard it is going to be to leave. Jaxon loves his friends here - how am I going to explain to him that he won't get to see them anymore when we have to leave?

I would live in windy, ugly, hot Lubbock for the rest of my life if it meant staying around these amazing people who have made my life and the past 2 years away from our families so amazing. It's going to be unbelieveably hard to leave - but until then - keep the parties, get togethers, girls nights, play dates, and everything else coming! We are so lucky and blessed to be here and we know this was the right place for us to come to Law School so we could be surrounded by so many amazing and wonderful people!

Just keep chewing, Just keep chewing

One day Jaxon saw me chewing gum and he wanted some. I thought - lets see how he does with this. So I broke off a little piece of a new stick and told him not to swallow it. He did good for a while but the inevitable happened and he swallowed it. He LOVED it though. I always chew the Extra Spearmint kind and Jaxon said it was "kinda spicy" haha. I keep the gum hidden pretty well and try not to chew it in front of him so he doesn't see it, but every once in a while he does and he asks for it and I always think "I'll let him try it again and see if he won't swallow it". When will I learn? How bad is it that he is swallowing little tiny pieces of gum every once in a while? I hope not too bad!!!!

Addy's Little Surgery

You can't see the tape very well because it's clear - but the red marks on her arm are because of the tape, there was a lot of it :(

This is her after she woke up! She had the awesome blue bandage (that Jaxon was jealous of) where her IV was. She though it was a treat and would try to eat it all the time lol. But she was so happy!

Addison was born with a little skin tag by her left ear. We went back and forth a lot between when she was born and now trying to decide if it was something we should let them remove now or later.

The doctors were pushing us to have it done when she was around 3 months. They told us that once you are 2 months old - your body handles anesthesia the same way it does when you are an adult. They also told us that it might continue to grow and could possibly affect her hearing.

We were obviously very nervous about the thought of having our 3 month old baby put under to have a surgery for something that wasn't life threatening.

After lots of prayers and research, we decided it was best to go with the doctors recommendations and get it done.

The original surgery was scheduled for April 13th but Addy had a little cough and was congested and I felt a pit in my stomach about it so I canceled and pushed it back a week to April 20th. I didn't get a pit at all that week and felt very peaceful about it so we went ahead with the planned surgery.

The night before the surgery I wasn't able to feed Addison milk after midnight - I was however, allowed to give her pedialyte until 2:30am so I fed her milk right before midnight and then I woke her up to feed her some pedialyte at 2:00 (and she only drank 1 1/2 oz).

We had to be at the hospital at 5:30am, so Dan stayed home with Jaxon and off Addy and I went. We got there and signed in, they had to get her weight and measurements, vitals, and all of that good stuff so we had to wake her up. I was really nervous that once she woke up she would start crying because she was hungry - but she smiled through the entire thing. The nurses loved it.

The surgery wasn't scheduled until 7:30 so we had to just wait around. Well 7:30 came and went - they finally came back to get us at 8:04 to go back. The nurse just told me to leave Addy in her car seat and carry her since she had fallen back asleep. We walked down the hall and then the nurse said, "ok you see those doors down there - that is where you need to go an wait until its over. I will take her from here." I wanted to tell her that if I would have known that was how I was going to be dropping her off - that I would have taken her out of her car seat and carried her!!!! But I gave her a kiss and the nurse took her into the surgery room.

I was trying SOOO hard to keep it together. I kept telling myself that there were other people having surgery’s that were probably life threatening and here I am - upset about this. But on the other hand - my 3 month old was being put under and I was scared so I totally LOST it. Good thing it was early and there wasn't anyone in the halls. I finally composed myself and went to the waiting room where I waited for an hour (which actually seemed like 5 hours).

The doctor came in and told me everything went great and that I would get to see my baby soon! I was so relieved. When I finally got to see Addison, I almost started crying again. Her arm was covered in tape because she had the IV still in her and they needed to keep it still. She also had other wires hooked up to her to monitor her oxygen and hear rate. She would let out a little cry every now and again and it sounded different because her poor throat was hurting from being incubated. In that moment I thought - what on earth have I done? Why did I let them do this to my sweet baby?

We only had to stay for 45 mins while they watched her and made sure she was doing ok. She drank a bottle and kept it down which was good - and all her vitals were great so they let me take her home. She was a little sleepy for a few hours after - but once she woke up she was her normal happy self and I felt that peace again that we had made the right decision.

She has been totally herself ever since. She hasn't shown any signs of pain or discomfort (even though it looks pretty gnarly where the surgery was).

In the end - we are glad we went with the doctors recommendations and got it done and we are so glad that it went well and that Addy is fine!

Easter

Easter was wonderful! Jaxon got to participate in 3 egg hunts. The first was for his friend Brooklyn's birthday party on March 31st before Saturday Conference. He got to go find 10 eggs so not only did he have fun finding them, but he loved counting them over and over to make sure he had 10! The next one was our ward egg hunt and potluck. Jaxon was very happy during the egg hunt and as long as he was either running or throwing a football, but the rest of the time he was throwing a fit and crying - it was really odd and we are still not sure what was up with that... oh wait, he is 2 - almost 3... maybe that’s why? Anyway - and the third one was on Easter in our back yard. We also colored eggs the Saturday before and Jaxon loved doing that. This year he was way more into it than he was last year. It was so much fun to watch him get so excited!

The Easter bunny came too! Normally the Easter bunny comes to our house on Saturday so that Sunday can be a day devoted to remembering the true meaning of Easter and focusing on the Savior, however, I (I mean the Easter Bunny) dropped the ball this year and Easter snuck up on me so the Easter bunny came Sunday afternoon. Jaxon looked for his Easter basket and got really excited when he finally found it. The Easter bunny left the following:

Addison's Basket: Bottle, Formula (her favorite things right now!)

Jaxon's Basket: Juice, Reese’s eggs, bank (to put the money in he found on the egg hunt in our yard), card game, box of 1000 stickers, and an art box with markers, paint, crayons, posters, clay, and stickers.

Dan and Lisa's Basket: Candy and an I love you because "board" (the Easter bunny must be on Pinterest)

After our Easter dinner we were able to skype with my family! It was so great to see all of them and talk for awhile. Overall it was a wonderful day!

We are so grateful to have a holiday to remind us about the sacrifice of our Savior. It’s fun to dye eggs and get candy and toys - but we all know the true meaning and us here at the Garner household are very grateful for our Savior!

Got to love Jaxon's smile! He has been doing this smile when we say "say cheese" so we stopped saying that LOL