Harlow Turns Four

Following Hadley's weekend, we transitioned right to Harlow's birthday. 

Crewe thinks she's pretty funny.

It was only a few days after his surgery, but Crewe seemed to be doing pretty well for the most part, with the exception of Sunday morning. We decided to keep him home from church, and by the end of the day he was starting to feel better.

Harlow enjoyed uncle Dwight's visit because it gave her someone to beat up on.

Dwight and Shannon, unfortunately, couldn't stick around for Harlow's birthday party, but made sure to wish her a happy birthday.

For her birthday dinner she requested pizza. 

She went back and forth between cakes, but Harlow eventually went with a cat cake. Look at that piping work by Emily.

She was adamite about placing her own candles.

Crewe remembered how the girls hijacked his birthday when it came to unwrapping presents, so he thought it only fair to return the favor.

Harlow ended up with some pretty good stuff. Gabby's Dollhouse, Hello Kitty, drawing board, yo-yos, and a lot of other awesome stuff.

Also got some targets to go along with everybody's Nerf guns.

We sure do love our little Harlow, and the happy noises she adds to the chaos of our house. She still loves to sing her K-Pop Demon Hunter songs, and you can often find her narrating her actions. We are excited and anxious to see how she does at TK, but I have a feeling she'll do just fine.

Hadley's Baptism & Birthday

August 1st was a big day for Hadley. For a while, we've asked her if she wants to get baptized, and she would say, "no." She would give a reason about being scared of water or not wanting to get wet. At one point she asked if she could wear goggles. We weren't going to force it on her, but instead wanted it to be something that she wanted to do. Then something changed, and I can't really pinpoint what it was, but she was all for getting baptized. She said she knew it was something she was supposed to do. She then started looking forward to it and getting excited. 

We had a bunch of family show up to support her, which we appreciate so much. Still crazy to think I have a kid that's eight years old.

The dress she is wearing, is the same dress Emily wore for her baptism. Meemaw altered it slightly to fit Hadley, and also removed the sleeves, I think.

Let alone four other kids. I am a blessed man.

The baptism went well. Meemaw spoke on baptism, and Emily spoke on the Holy Ghost. Hadley was pretty excited for all the little gifts she got out it. Big shout out to everyone who helped. Also, a big thank you to Rissa and Gma for making the macarons.

Back at the house, we prepared for Hadley's Mario Galaxy-themed birthday party. Emily had prepared for this for a while, she had rockets ready to go, and even had a slide made to look like the green pipes Mario goes through.

Shannon was in charge of putting together the vegetable tray made to look like the fire flower.

Emily had other puns for the beverages and snacks, as well.

Gma and Meemaw were also put to work.

Then, the kids started showing up, and the first order of business was to decorate their rockets to get them to the galaxy.

We even got these kid safety glasses to make them feel like true rocket scientists.

Crewe was all about the fire balls (cheese puffs). I'm pretty sure he ate half the bowl.

Then they got down to launching the rockets. Emily had taped tissue paper with baking soda to the end of a bunch of corks. Then one-by-one, the kids handed her their rocket and she poured vinegar into it. 

Then put the cork in and set the bottle upside down on the launching pad, and soon the pressure would pop out the cork and send the bottle into the air.

There was a lot of reactions form the kids. It was definitely a hit.

Then it was time for cake and ice cream. This year, Hadley requested a Luma cake. A Luma is a friendly, star-like alien creature from Mario Galaxy.

Emily had also made a bunch of cupcakes to go along with it.

This was like the 4th time Hadley got to blow out candles for her birthday this year.

Bristol gave her approval.

It was a successful party. Nothing overly fancy, but provided some good entertainment. When it was over, people cleared out almost immediately, which was also pretty nice.

Crewe was done with all the screaming and noises, so he went inside with Meemaw to play with the magnetic tiles.

We sure are grateful for Hadley and the blessing she has been in our lives. She has been, and continues to be, a happy child. Even though I couldn't get her to smile for her birthday portraits, she has a great one.

Okay, I got a little bit of a smile here, but that's not her full one.

Crewe Gets His Surgery

Crewe has always sounded pretty congested, but his pediatrician said his lungs sounded great. At his two-year checkup, she started to get concerned about the fact that he doesn't say any words, and we got a referral for speech therapy. Before anything could happen with speech therapy, he first needed to get a hearing test performed. At the hearing test they determined that sound waves weren't making it through his ear drums. After some other test, they were pretty sure he had fluid in his ears. This would explain why he has never responded to us quickly, it wasn't just that he was ignoring us, he just straight up had us on mute, without knowing it.

He was then setup with an appointment at the Ear, Nose, and Throat clinic, where they could really confirm what was going on. Sure enough, they confirmed it was fluid. They also noticed the sound of his breathing, and how congested he was. They had a suspicion, and after an x-ray showed Emily that he had an inflamed adenoid. Like, reeeeeally inflamed. He then got scheduled for an operation to have tubes put in his ears, but also to have his adenoid shaved down.

That was nearly two months ago. The Friday before Hadley's baptism, was the best day to get him in. So, I took off work and Emily and I took him down to Bellevue to Seattle Children's where Crewe was able to get his little operation performed.

He did great, freaked out and we had to hold him down so they could put him under, but he did great.

Less than half an hour later, we were taken back to his post-op room to wait for him to wake back up. The surgery went great, and they said there was hardly any blood, which is always a good sign. 

After about ten minutes he started stirring a bit, and just like waking him up from his naps, he hated it.

He got to a point where they felt he was good to go, even though he hadn't fully woken up yet.

We were curious how he'd do with the sound he would be able to hear now, but he really didn't seem bothered or overwhelmed by it. He did freak out and run out of the room when Emily turned on the mixer, but that was about it.

He still sounds a little congested, but they said that would be normal until the swelling goes down. It has got to feel pretty good for him to have that pressure relieved and fluid drained. We've already noticed his breathing has sounded better. 

One thing we weren't prepared for was the smell of his breath. They told us it would be bad for about a week to ten days, but holy freakin' crap! It smells like something died in his mouth. 

It's bad.

Day Trip to Manson

Since Whitni and her family were in town from Phoenix, we decided to head over to Manson for the day. We left as soon as everyone was awake and arrive around 9am. Every grand child would be there on this day, so it was pretty exciting. It also meant taking a few pictures before we were allowed to do anything else.

We were trying to pack a whole bunch of activities into one day, so we had to get started pretty much as soon as we could. Whit busted out tie-dye supplies and the kids got to work applying the colors of their choosing.

But first, all the shirts had to be twisted and tied.

Cambri likes to apply her dye veeeeeeeery liberally.

Then it was time to cool down with some late morning ice cream.

There were no limits on this day.

After some lunch, we all headed down to the lake. We would end up being down there for, what, like four hours or something? Even after being there that long, the kids couldn't get enough.

I dragged Crewe in the water, which he didn't care for, so he mostly stayed safe on land and played in the sand.

It was pretty smokey, but not too bad.

There were also plenty of sand castle toys to go around.

Bristol enjoyed a nice nap in the shade.

The kids found a log and tried their hardest to get everybody on it. 

Just a little sand.

There she is!

Javier launched the boat, and took the kids out tubing. I don't know, but this might be the first time the girls have been on a boat. They thoroughly enjoyed it.

Crewe boy had an absolute blast.

Eventually, it was Hadley, Cambri, and Luca's turn on the tube.

The boat ride was making Harlow a little sleepy.

After Whitni took a turn with her kids, I got to hop on with Harlow and Crewe.

They absolutely loved it, and were laughing the whole time.

Javier then took another group of kids out and would end up over in Manson Bay so the kids could jump of the pillars. Hadley and Cambri were pretty excited that they jumped off the tallest pillar.

The rest of us just relaxed, and enjoyed some peace while the noisiest kids were out at sea.

We eventually made it back to Gma and Gpa's where we enjoyed some band booster hamburgers.

Needing an excuse to bake some cakes, we all celebrated the summer birthdays.

Bristol didn't spend a lot of time on the floor, but did look around for some cake crumbs.

We were only missing KC, and maybe one day we can figure out how to get him up here for a little vacation.

It was a good day. It was a long day, but it was definitely worth it. We headed home a little later than I wanted to, but it all worked out well. The kids had a blast, and slept quite easily on the way home, exhausted from the insanely busy day that they spent nearly all of outside.