This kid cracks me up!

You might wonder why I am posting a picture of the pool when it is not even summer yet... well, there's a story behind this! I am just posting this picture to show how dark Traysen gets in the summer. The two people on either side of him are of average color I would say and Tray is slightly darker than average color. Well here's this funny story...
The other day Tray asked Ed if he likes Barack Obama.
Ed: "Well, I don't know him personally, but I'm sure he's a very nice man."
Tray: "Well, I'm sure glad that the president changed the law so that black kids can play with white kids because if he didn't I wouldn't have ANY friends!"
Ed: "Tray- you do realize you aren't black, right?"
Tray: "Well, everyone says I'm black!"

Ha ha ha! He cracks me up- he seriously thought he was a black person. I guess one too many people have said that he's so dark he looks black. I didn't know he actually thought he was! Too funny! I too was once that dark- I miss those days :)

Precious Baby Kisses...

I LOVE this smile! I just can't get enough of it! She makes me smile every time she grins...
She is getting to be so big already! I can't believe how big she is. She's starting to show lots of personality and she grins and giggles at us all the time. It's so fun!

If you put your face by hers she will give you an open mouth kiss. It's a big, wet, slobbery, but oh-so-precious baby kiss! And Talen loves to be the recipient of these kisses...

The project I FINALLY finished!

I have been waiting forever to finish this project to complete Tessa's room. It is a "window" that has magnet boards. I think it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! Also- I found these really cute metal flower magnets to go on the boards and they match perfectly! Thanks to Meisha who helped me- I really needed help with the measuring :) and to my mom for buying the cute magnets!
These are some previous pictures that I posted of her room....

Do they know it's not really summer yet?

Sheesh... Crazy boys! We had one warm day and they thought it was summertime! They played on the trampoline with water. Remember those days? When getting wet on the tramp was the funnest thing ever?
Ah... Brotherly love... You've gotta love it!

Crazy boys! Now if "real" summer would stop by I would greatly appreciate it- thanks!

Idaho History Project

Tegen had to a project for 4th grade Idaho History class. There was a long list of projects to choose from but in the end Tegen chose to make a shirt. He had a lot of fun doing this. He looked everything up on the Internet by himself. I taught him how to import the pictures in Word and do the Word Art around the images and he did it all by himself! I think his shirt turned out fabulous... not sure if he'll ever actually ever wear it though :)

Spring Flag Football

Tegen and Tray are playing indoor arena football this spring. Ed and Christian are coaching both teams again. The boys are in heaven! They love football so much and I love watching them play!

Tessa's Surgery

Tessa was born with a cyst on her gums and a tag on her tongue. She had surgery on May 4, 2010 to have them removed. Her doctor was Dr. Hinckley who was awesome! I must admit that I had been dreading this day since she was born but it is nice to have it past us now. We arrived at EIRMC at 5:45 a.m. Tess could not eat after 1:45 a.m. and her surgery was scheduled for 7:00. That's a long time without food for a baby! This picture was prior to the nurses poking her. The absolute worst part of the whole day was the i.v.! The nurse was very nice and poked her once and couldn't get the i.v. so she called the resource nurse. He was a very nice man who was sweet with Tess. His job is to go around and do i.v.'s for anyone who is having a hard time. We thought he'd be able to get it right away... but NOPE! He tried both hands, her other foot, the crook of her arm and her head. They even used a cool machine called a vein finder to try to locate a vein but obviously didn't have much luck. It was so horrible to watch her being poked over and over. Finally after 5 sticks they decided to send her down to surgery to let anesthesia try to get the i.v. I was bawling in the corner of the room worse than Tess. I'm a big baby! She was so precious. She would cry and look at us like "why are you letting them do this to me?" It was so sad! Both nurses felt awful too. I felt really bad for them!
I got to carry her down to the second floor surgery holding room and she had the same anesthesiologist who did my c-section with her. He is wonderful so I felt like she was in very capable hands at that point. She had fallen asleep in my arms and when I handed her over to the nurse she was still sleeping which made it much easier to deal with! After about 10 minutes in the surgery waiting room a nurse whom we've know for years called us and said that her i.v. went in perfectly when she was under the gas. They had a PICU nurse come in and do it and it went very smoothly. Ummmm.... hello? Why couldn't they just do that to begin with? Anyway, the procedure only took about a half hour and within an hour we were back up on the pediatric floor. Tess was an absolute perfect trooper. When she got back to her room I nursed her and she did great. We had to hang out at the hospital for about 5 hours to make sure she was going to tolerate eating well and then we could go home.

She's so sweet that she was actually smiley and happy for a little while after the surgery. The biggest pain was the machines that kept beeping (her i.v. and blood pressure cuffs-annoying)!

The best part of the day was that we HAD to sit and cuddle our baby all day- what a chore :)

She was a sleepy girl most of the day but has acted great ever since. She eats fine, sleeps fine and is mostly her happy little self. She has had a couple of bouts of fussiness but who can blame her? I'm just so greatful and happy that this all behind us and we don't ever have to worry about it again!

Two Months Old... Already?

Wow- where does the time go? Seriously? I cannot believe that Tess is already two months old! She had her two month appointment last week so here are her stats: weight (10 lb 12 oz, 46 percentile), height (22 1/4", 44 percentile) and head (15", 31 percentile).

She is a cute little chunk! We also visited the ENT again and they have scheduled her mouth surgery for this upcoming Tuesday. I don't even want to think about it yet- so instead I'll just think about what an adorable baby she is! At two months she is: smiling tons now, cooing at us quite a bit, she's content to lay by herself on a blanket, she loves her swing and bouncer seat, she has a little bit of a fussy time from about 8 to 10, she still has absolutely NO schedule, she continues to sleep most of the day and usually wakes once or twice a night and she still sleeps in the bassinet in our room. Although, last night she slept from 10 until 5- I could really get used to that! Everyone who meets her thinks she's adorable (who wouldn't, right? but I guess I'm a little biased!) Um... let's see she still eats about every 3 hours but when sleeping is content to go 4 or 5 hours. She will take a bottle very well but we've never given her formula yet so we'll see how that goes later. All in all she is a very happy, content baby and we feel very lucky to be with her every day.

This picture was taken shortly after Tegen set her down. Maybe her big brother has a special touch? or else she defends herself by going to sleep? Maybe a little of both!