Happy Birthday, Kris!!!!

****Mushy alert - if you can't take the mushy posts, then don't read this one!****

I know most of my posts recently that have mentioned my husband are either to complain about him or to give updates on his recent health scares, or both. Well I wanted to do a post for Kris' birthday to tell everyone what an amazing husband he really is. His 26th birthday was last Saturday (yes - he's 3 months younger than me!). Poor guy had his birthday just 2 days after his gall bladder surgery - which by the way went great and without any complications - and he's recovering well. We didn't do much for his birthday, and I didn't even have a present for him because I had been so busy and stressed with everything else going on. But I hope he knows how much he means to me. So I will write this post to him.

Kris, you always amaze me how much you do. You are a work-a-holic, which, believe it or not, I am thankful for. You provide so well for our family so we can live comfortably. I know this is no small sacrifice for you. I swear you are going to kill yourself by how hard you work, but I truly do appreciate all that you do for our family.

I am so greatful for what a great father you are. You are such a good example for our kids in your work ethic and your worthiness to hold the priesthood. I love seeing you cuddle and love on our children. I know they will grow being thankful that they had such a loving and involved father.

I am also greatful that you help me fulfil my dreams. You motivate me and stick by my side in my decisions. You are very much a realist and you help me think through things the way that I really can't some times. I don't know where I would be without your analytical imput.

This picture was taken on our trip out west in August, 2006

This is Kris being the great dad he is. Joey is 1 in this picture.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures on this computer of when Joey was born, but this is Kris with me as we were awaiting Savanna's arrival.

Our first picture with our new daughter, Savanna


Daddy with his brand new baby girl - she already had him wrapped around his finger and every day that wrap gets tighter and tighter. Just recently her baby babbles hav started saying 'da da da' and he is just delighted!!


Our family on Savanna's blessing day. I am sooooo happy I have a husband who can hold the priesthood and perform these ordinances for our family.

Daddy chilling with his 2 favorite little people in the world.

Daddy and Joey - I think Joey was 1 in this picture, too, but I'm not sure.

A more recent picture of Daddy cuddling with Joey - he probably will be less than pleased with me for putting this one in, but I think it's just precious!!!!

I have always dreamed since I was a child of having a horse of my own. I love horses and they truly are a passion of mine. Although I know Kris doesn't completely understand it, he still respects it. He has helped me fulfil my dream of having my horse and he supports me in taking care of her, which does take away alot of time from the family. I can't thank him enough for this - it truly is good for my soul!

Kris, I will forever be thankful for you and all you do. I am so happy to have you as my eternal companion. I hope you had a happy birthday, even though you were laid up. I love you, truly I do!!! :-)

The proper way - according to my cuties!!

The Proper Way to... According to Joey

This is the proper way to wear a hat and celebrate a birthday!

This is the proper way to use a couch - strip it of cushions and JUMP before you get caught!

This is the proper way to help mom cook - look totally innocent when she's looking but do something like sneeze in the batter when she's not!

The proper way to work - I learned this from my Daddy!
(Joey got this laptop for Christmas in 2007 - though he never showed any interest in it until recently when he figured out some of the games - now he is ALWAYS on it! And when I call him to dinner or something like that he says 'But I'm working right now!!' - sounds just like his father!!)

The Proper Way to... According to Savanna

This is the proper way to watch TV - naked and on the floor
(And yes - that is Spongebob my mommy is letting me watch!! You got a problem with it?!? he he)

The proper way to sleep - anywhere, anyhow, as long as I can stretch out, I'm happy!

The proper way to suck on a pacifier
(yes - this is a new habit she has begun recently. I think she may be teething and her bottom gums are bothering her because she will fiddle with her pacifier until she gets it in like this and yes - actually sucks on it like this. I think the hard plastic on her bottom gums must feel good. It makes me nervous tho cause I worry she might choke on it! I always correct it - hopefully she'll stop doing it soon! But till then, it's quite interesting that she's figured it out!)

The proper way to open a can - who needs a can opener??

Awww poop - I dropped it. So much for gumming my way to the pineapples!

Sooooooooo big!!!

I had to post about my little boy who is quickly becoming a big boy! It is amazing me how quickly he is growing up!! It is so fun to see his little personality coming out and view his emotions and reactions to different things. Sometimes it amazes me how grown-up he acts and how understanding he is of everything, and then other times (like yesterday!) I see he is still just 3 years old and i need to remember that in the temper tantrums he still rarely throws.

We were at a play date yesterday and he was doing great, but I think he was just over tired and started throwing a fit because (*gasp*!) someone else touched his cars. So since he wouldn't get over his fit I said we had to go home - which made him even madder and he was screaming his head off. Quite embarrassing in front of the other moms, but I know they have ALL been there before, and I know Joey will be there someday with his kids as well! I get so frustrated, but I know I have to remember that he is still just 3! He's not the little adult he acts like most of the time!

At the beginning of the year, he started in primary at church. At our church, nursery is for kids 18 months to 3 years old and primary is for kids 3 to 12 years old. The switch to primary was a big one for Joey because instead of playing the whole time, they actually have lessons and a children's service and stuff. He seems to really like it. Well I know it's sinking in because we really don't sing many church songs around the house just because I really don't think about it. Usually Joey prefers to listen to the Cars movie soundtrack. But Sunday on the way home from church I over heard him in the back seat singing 'lead me, guide me, walk beside me...' How cute! Then later on that day he was singing 'Hello, Hello, Hello...' (the Hello song for visitors). Then today he was playing and I overheard him singing 'Follow the prophet.' How cute! I am so glad he is in primary now and is obviously taking it all in - even though when I check on him in there he looks less-than-interested. And his new teacher is just amazing! She is so high-energy and keeps the 8 - 3 year olds she has under control! Thank you Sister Dawes!!

At any rate, I am so proud of my little Joey. He tries so hard to be a good boy and he's so smart. It is soooo fun watching him grow and learn. It amazes me every day the things he does. I love my little man!!!

Surgery

So tomorrow Kris goes in for his Gall Bladder surgery. It is laparoscopic and out patient, so I am not anticipating any issues, but I know Kris is nervous about it. Thankfully my sister is taking Joey for the day and then my mother-in-law is taking him for tomorrow night so that is one person I won't have to worry about. Just keep Kris in your prayers that the surgery will be a success and that it will resolve the issues that had him in the hospital a couple weekends ago. No I did not actually kill him for the TV, though I am still upset with him about it. Maybe I'll ask the surgeon tomorrow to implant a brain while he's in there.....

On a darker note I found out tonight that my Grandfather (my Dad's Dad) is very sick and probably won't be with us much longer. He's 82, so has lived a long and happy life, but it's still sobering. Keep him in your prayers, as well - and my grandmother, too - they've been married over 60 years! How difficult this must be for her!

You've GOTTA be kidding me.....

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I both started weight watchers. To make it more interesting, Kris suggested we make it a competition; since we both need to lose weight and get healthier, we figured it would motivate us. Kris said we should each have something we will 'get' for whichever one wins. I figured something small. But no - my husband dreams big. So he said at the end of the 3 months time (by April 1), if he loses the highest % of body weight, then he will get the big flat screen TV he's been lusting after. I said fine- whatever motivates you - I know we'll get it some day anyway since he wants it so bad. (We do always ultimately end up getting what he lusts after.... the Suburban, the piano, etc - even if we can't afford it, somehow he does it - gets them and then just asks me for forgivness later - when he can't return the item anyway so we have to keep it). I told him if I win, I would like to begin taking horseback riding lessons again. It's great exercise, fun, and something I truly miss that I haven't done since we've been married.

WELL.... this moring he was surfing the internet and discovered that Circut City was going out of business. He told me he might go browse and see what deals they have. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep him away from it anyway, and if they had good deals, he would probably get some stuff for the business. SOOOO - I come home tonight and find this....

***BEFORE***
(a pic of our living room looking at the TV that I posted on here a couple weeks ago)

***AFTER***

Needless to say... I'M GONNA KILL THE MAN!!!!!

Coming home

Kris was finally released from the hospital last night and will be driving home today! I can't wait to see him! And I mean it that he will never leave here without me again! Well, he might, I can't exactly go with him on business trips, but it's still fun to say. I've been so worried about him and I'm so tired from dealing with sick children alone, I have really come to appreciate him in the last few days! Joey I think is finally over his cold, but now Savanna has decided to get it - ugh - nothing worse than a baby with a cold! Anyway - just pray for his safe return in all this snow!

nother update - bad news and good news

So, Kris is STILL in the hospital out in PA. But, like I said before, the intestinal blockage has thankfully moved. Yesterday they did an ultrasound of his gall bladder and he got the results today. Bad news is he has to have his gall bladder out ASAP - good news is it can at least wait until he returns to Ohio. So they are giving him some food and stuff now and if everything works out with that then they are going to release him this evening and he will *FINALLY* return home tomorrow. Then he has to check in with a family doctor immediately and get the ball rolling on having his gall bladder removed. My poor husband! I feel so bad for him. This just stinks. But I know it could be soooooo much worse!

Just continue to pray for him and our family! Also pray that I might beable to get some sleep tonight! (Joey and Savanna have been keeping me awake allll night the past 2 nights in a row- Joey with his cold and Savanna being a parasite wanting to eat lots). *sigh* I guess the lord gives us these times so we appreciate the good times!

Update on Kris

Well, they just did the second CT scan and thankfully the blockage has moved. It's still in there, but it's moving, which is a very good sign. However, the doctor saw alot of fluid around his gall bladder, which worries him, so now they are waiting on an ultrasound of his gall bladder to see if that is the problem. That's the great thing about hospitals - the 'hurry up and wait' of it. If it is his gall bladder, hopefully he can come home before it needs surgery. It's still just killing me to not be with him. But he seems to be doing well and John is taking good care of him.

Joey is doing better, as well. He still has a cold, but he's eaten some today and seems to have energy.

I just hope it's not too long before I get my husband back!

It's been a trying day.......

OK so - I know it can always get worse, but sometimes it's hard to see things on the positive side of life! This weekend started yesterday with Kris going out of town. We have a friend of the family that lives in the Pocono mountais in Pennsylvania and John (the friend) is investigating some business ventures, and since Kris enjoys that stuff, he decided to take a break and go out there to help him and to hang out and relax a bit. So here I was alone with 2 kids, which I didn't mind too much because Kris works alot anyway and I knew he needed some time away from everything to just go and chill. I was worried about him going out there with the weather, but you can't tell him anything - once he makes up his mind to do something, he does it, so I let him go without much complaint.

Well today when I was at the store with my dad (we do grocery shopping together most saturdays) I got a call from Kris (this was at about 2 pm) saying that he was going to the emergency room because he was having horrible pain in his abdomen. Great. I was really really worried and just kinda sat around anxious waiting for some news. Thankfully John was calling me with updates when he could. I am so greatful that John is taking such good care of him when I cannot! They took him back for a cat scan and found that he had a blockage in his small intestine which has probably been there for a while and all the food or whatever he ate after the blockage got there has just been backing up behind it. Thus his abdomen was really kinda blowing up like a balloon - no wonder he was in pain! They drugged him up - which he greatly appreciated and had to put a tube up his nose into his stomach/intestines to remove all the pressure behind the blockage. They are hoping with the pressure removed that the blockage itself will move which will resolve the issue. If not, then, well, let's just hope it moves. Otherwise surgery may be necessary. Ugh.

I am just dying because I can't be there with him. I have to wait and see what is going on. Even if I could to fly out there, the airports are closed because they have been slammed with snow. And there's no way I can drive with savanna by myself and I can't leave her here since I am nursing her. Well, I could, but I'd rather keep her with me because with the whole nursing thing, it's hard to be away from her when she's this young. Especially since I don't know how long I would be gone.

AND to top it all off, Joey's been pretty snotty and conjested today, but I just chalked it up to a 3 year old's normal cold. Well tonight before he went to bed just for kicks I took his temperature and it was 101*. Poor kid. I gave him tylenol and he went straight to sleep, but he just woke up about half an hour ago and threw up. Now he is sleeping again, but I'm not sure if he will sleep or if he will wake up more sick. I'm just so tired - emotionally tired that is. I'm worried beyond belief about Kris, I'm worried about Joey, I'm worried about what I will do with Joey if I do go out to PA, I'm worried how Savanna will handle the trip, I'm worried about even if Kris does get out of the hospital, how will he get home with the feet of snow they got out there? I'm just worried about everything.

I think I will list the things that I am thankful for so maybe I will smile a bit. I am thankful that I have so much family close to help me with the kids. I am thankful that Kris isn't any more sick than he is - it could be so much more serious. I am thankful that John is taking such great care of my husband - I'm sure that's the last thing he wanted to do with his weekend, but he is treating him like he is family, which I am endebted to him for. I am grateful for our church - I know it is same wherever we go. I was able to get online, find the bishop of the area that the hospital is in, call him and ask him to get priesthood together to give Kris a blessing. They should be able to get out there in the morning - unfortunately the roads are terrible out there right now. Anyway, just please keep Kris in your prayers and pray he will make it home safe and SOON! I'm not good at the single parent thing.

This is a picture of Kris with the tube and stuff that John took on his phone and sent to me. :( poor guy! He is never going out of town without me again!

New Blog Title

Whoever can figure out why I named my blog 'The Oval and the Squares' gets a prize!!! Let the guessing begin!

Donate Today!!

Today I went to the Blood Give-In at the Alladin Shrine Temple put on by NBC 4 and WNCI.

I just wanted to put a little post in here and say if you are eligable to donate blood, DO IT! If you are afraid of needles or are squeemish around blood, GET OVER IT and donate!

The red cross is in desperate need of blood - and as the picture says above, Live and Let Live - Donate Some Blood!! It's not hard, it goes quickly, and they give you yummy food afterward! (I got Raising Cane's chicken and Panera tonight!)

I'm also considering donating breast milk to the Milk Bank of Ohio to help premature and sick infants! Interesting, no?

Christmas 2008

Well, I know I haven't posted in forever, and I apologize to the few of you that actually look at my blog, but here I am with my belated Christmas post. Christmas went GREAT but was very exhausting. First off, it was so exciting this year, because this is the first year that Joey really understood the concept of Christmas and Santa and Christ's birthday and why we get gifts and so on. He was STOKED in the morning to find that Santa had eaten his cookies and drank his milk - he was even happy to finish the half of cookie that 'Santa' had left:


Next, he was very excited to find that Santa had left presents under the tree - here are some pictures of him opening them:

This one is Joey 'helping' Savanna open her presents!

It's hungry hungry hippos!! :) A classic

Now, the next story is sooooo cute! Since Joey understood that Santa would bring him presents, there has been only one thing that he has been asking for from Santa - a 'walking talking Lightning McQueen' (from the movie cars). I was so excited because I knew that would be a great gift for us to get for him. Well, my parents bought it for him before I got a chance to! So, I explained to him that Santa takes presents everywhere, and he might take his Lightning to another house and we'd have to go see. Well, of course it wasn't under our tree Christmas morning, but he was very happy with what Santa did bring him. He didn't even mention 'walking talking Lightning McQueen' once. I was happy he wasn't disappointed even though he didn't get what he asked for yet. Next, we went to Kris' mom's house for christmas dinner. I don't have any pictures from that unfortunately, but she got him a TAG reading system w/ some books to go with it. Again, he was very happy. And again, he didn't even mention his Lightning! I was hoping he had forgotten about it. Well, then we went to my Sister Julie's house for Christmas dinner. After dinner we opened presents. It was SO cute when he opened the Lightning from Grandma and Grandpa:

He smiled REALLY big and said 'IT WAS HERE!'

How cute is that?? He really had been thinking about it all day and was just waiting to see if it was at any other houses since it wasn't at ours. So cute. He's my little guy! Here are some more pictures of christmas at my sister's house taken by my mom, since I forgot to pack my camera!!

This is Joey and his cousin, Kenny

Jacob, Kenny, and Joey - he LOVES these guys!! He always can't wait to play with them!

My Savanna with her surprise face!

Savanna holding her new VW bus from Aunt Amanda and looking at her new doll from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Slack

Savanna with mommy looking at her car toy from Aunt Melissa and Uncle Randy

Savanna didn't last long.... she loves sleeping on her Daddy!! :-)
For those who are wondering, Kris' shirt says 'NO, I will not fix your computer' - ha ha - so fitting for him!

My momma opening the gift I got for her - a ticket to Time Out for Women! For those of you who don't know, it's this AWESOME womens conference run by Deseret Book Company, which is affiliated with my church. It's always so fun! My mom, my sister Amanda, and I are all going together in Cincinnati in May! YAY!

This is my papa smurf opening the car we got for him - he collects models of old cars. I got him a 1960 something (cant remember the exact year....) Ford Mustang. I LOVE mustangs and will someday have one when I don't have to squeeze in car seats!

Overall, Christmas was an awesome day. We all had fun and it was relaxed, and both Kris and I got to see our families. We even got to go to Kris' dad's house after we left my sister's house. It is SO nice to have both of our families so close!! We get to share our holidays with them all and don't have to chose where we are going. I don't know what I would do without my family so close to help me with my babies!