Beautiful bubbles

I don't say this too often, but I'm going to say it now...

Everyone ready?  I'm about to say it.  Yep, here it comes.



Today, I was a cool mom.




There you go.  Sometimes it's just got to be said!

Okay, now that it's been said, I guess I should really explain what happened, and maybe let the cat out of the bag that I really am not that cool of a mom, but I just chose to respond in a good way.  I did say that right, didn't I?  I CHOSE to respond in a good way.  And for that reason, I am going to say that I was a cool mom today.

I'm coming to see, after my vast years of motherhood, that so much of how a day turns out is in the choices a mother makes.  Do we choose to play with our children or just get the house cleaned?  Do we choose to use multiple bandaids on a visually non-existant cut when our little guys come running with an owie and claim that nothing but the Scooby Doo bandaids will help! (is that how owie is spelled??  Yep, I just Googled it.  Who would've known!!)  Do we choose to let our kids run free in the muck and mud of a wonderfully messy pond/creek even if baths will need to follow and other seemingly important items on the never ending To-Do list will need to be sacrificed for another day?  Yes, I believe it is in the choices we make, minute-by-minute, that often dictate the tones of our days.  Now, that being said, I do realize that sometimes the To-Do list really does need to get done and all of that.  And maybe I've even been guilty of stopping my kids from getting out all the Hotwheel paraphernalia after I have finally put it all away.  But today, I was cool.  Did I mention that?  I was a cool mom today.

Bubbles.

We're not talking the little bubbles that disappear into nothing.  Nope, the bubbles that we currently have in our home are some sort of hybridized super-bubbles!  Really.  They don't pop and if you leave them alone they will still be around hours later.  I know this from experience.  This is one of the reasons we generally only use them outside.

I had just finished getting dried off from the shower, dressed and was putting things away in my room when our oldest son came running in with obvious excitement on his face.  He almost pulled me out as he said "Please come mommy!  Come look at this!!"  The two older boys had been playing StarWars earlier so I thought there was a new Lego base that they had made for their guys to blow up, or something like that. 

I was wrong. 

As I came out to the top landing, I was met by hundreds of bubbles!  It really was amazing!  I wish I would have had my camera then!  It was just beautiful!  We all laughed as we looked at all the bubbles!

This is how it started.

Then they moved downstairs.

And back upstairs again.  This next picture is nothing like the mass of bubbles I was greeted with when I came out of my bedroom, but it shows a few lingering in the air.

This is what the floor was filled with!

Beautiful,

perfect,

bubbles.

And this is what the center of it all looked like where the majority of bubbles and drippings had landed.

And then it was irresistable not to try and touch or pop the bubbles with feet...

Remember, these bubbles are almost indestructable.  They don't go away with just a damp cloth.  They take about a half hour's worth of scrubbing.

And I did it with a smile on my face.

See, I'm a cool mom...maybe just for today, but I try.

I love you boys.  I love your exploring, experimenting, curious hearts and minds.  Thank you for sharing with me so I could be excited about bubbles too.

Shopping with the boys

The other day something wonderful happened.

The Big Guy Lowe said he was taking the boys out shopping.  Their plan was to get ready for Mother's Day.  I couldn't help but smile. 

I love The Big Guy Lowe.  I love my boys.

This is a picture The Big Guy Lowe took when they were out on their adventure.

What a happy group of cuties!

I sure love the man/boys in my life. 

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Two Years Old!  I almost can't believe it!  He's two years old!

To celebrate our youngest son's 2nd birthday we planned a train-themed party.  Well, to be fair, we planned a train, truck, car themed birthday.  It was really anything that had wheels!  But the cake was going to be a train.  I was excited to make it.  This is how it started...

The birthday boy obviously felt that he needed to be a part of the creative process too and kept bringing over different cars.  It was pretty funny.

This is how it ended!

I showed him his cake before the party began and was so happy with his response.

 

 

He kept finding new things that he was excited about!  My little mother's heart was so happy!!

Yay for success!!

Because this birthday fell the day after Easter, our meal consisted of casual hamburgers/hotdogs on the grill.  We had all our local family present with the addition of Aunt Christina and our friends Sue & Gary.  

We decided to open presents before attacking the cake.  2 year old J was a bit hesitant in the beginning.

Then he caught on that the presents were for him!  There was no stopping him from then on!

Thank you everyone for your well thought out gifts!!  All the kids had fun playing with them that day!

Now that presents were finished, it was time to EAT CAKE!

First we sang.

Then we blew out the candle.

Big J tried to defend his cake from would-be eaters.

Then it was just fun, fun and more fun!

I did make a tasty pound cake with whipped cream and strawberries for the adults in case they weren't interested in the pure-sugar train cake.  That took place in the kitchen.

Overall it was a wonderful birthday!  We love our youngest son dearly and are grateful for the blessings he brings to our home every day!  Happy 2nd birthday sweetheart!

Birthday Memories...

As our youngest son's birthday was quickly approaching, I found myself doing something that I imagine might be common among other mothers...I began thinking back over the events that lead up to his actual birthday.  My heart has again been filled with gratitude for all that happened, both challenging and enjoyable that brought our little guy to us.

For the majority of the pregnancy all went smoothly...even though we were completely caught off-gaurd by it!  Remember, I'm the woman that can't seem to get pregnant...hmmmm.  As we were approaching about 34 weeks I was measuring small at my appointment.  Dr. Hutchinson, who is AMAZING, nonchalantly sent me over for an ultrasound to see if we might find some answers.  It seems that I was low in the amount of amniotic fluid that was surrounding the baby.  She sent me home with instructions to rest, drink lots of water and a follow-up ultrasound two days later.

Two days later, our ultrasound only showed even less amniotic fluid.  Non-Stress tests were now ordered regularly to make sure the baby wasn't under stress.  A few days of this passed, when after an evening of watching a movie with my greatest love, I noticed that the baby hadn't been moving much.  After a bit of moving around there was some movement, so I went to bed without too much worry.  Early the next morning, I woke up.  Nothing out of the ordinary as I was up and down throughout the every night!  This time though, I just felt concern.  As I was lying in bed, I concentrated to feel our baby's movement.  There wasn't any.  I didn't get too concerned, but went downstairs and ate a bit of food and drank something to get some sugar into my blood--hoping the baby would respond.  I then went back upstairs and layed down in bed to again wait for movement.  Nothing.  Even as I type this, tears come to my eyes.  I was scared.  The Big Guy Lowe was awake from all my ups and downs and through tears, I explained to him what was going on.  He immediately said that we needed to call our doctor.  Because it was now about 4 AM, the on call service took my message and our doctor called us just a few minutes later.  After explaining what I was experiencing, she camly said that she was heading over to the hospital for another patient and that I should head over too.

Phone calls were made, Grammy and Grandpa HB arrived at our home, and The Big Guy Lowe and I headed to the hospital.  I was immediately hooked up to many different things, an ultra sound was performed and again I was told that I was very low in amniotic fluid.  Dr. Hutchinson looked at The Big Guy Lowe and I and with a big smile said "How do you feel about having a baby today?"  I was moved into a labor/delivery room, paper/computer work completed, and an induction began.  Dr. Hutchinson said that she didn't want to jump to a C-section unless the baby was in danger, but that it was something we needed to be aware of.  Gratefully, our baby seemed to be doing well now that we were at the hospital.  That started a LONG day of waiting!   Grammy brought the boys over to visit...

And they got to watch a Power Rangers movie--just like when our middle son was born!  Hmmm, it must have been pretty intense!

By the end of that day, I had not progressed much at all.  Dr. Hutchinson let me rest through the night and we started everything again early the next morning.  I was determined to have the baby that Saturday!  After a few hours I noticed that my contractions basically stopped if I sat or layed down.  From that moment on I did lunges--hours of lunges to keep my contractions moving!  I wouldn't regret that...until the next day when my legs were extremely sore!!  Yikes!

Gratefully, The Big Guy Lowe and I were able to watch General Conference, but by the end of the afternoon session I was beginning to feel real contractions.  Oh, interesting little fact, when Dr. Hutchinson broke my water, we found that there was copious amounts of fluid!  She was amazed as were the nurses.  No one knew how they couldn't have found those large pockets of fluid in any of the ultrasounds that were performed for that very reason!  Oh well!  I was planning on having an epidural, so we had the anesthesiologist come in and get things started.  While I am a huge fan of epidurals, I haven't ever had them go very smoothly.  This time was no different.  Unfortunately, I have now experienced an epidural that only works on one half of the uterus.  Yep, I felt everything on one half of my body and nothing on the other.  Let me tell you, only half doesn't really help.  By that point though, I was just interested in having our baby.

Joyfully, our little guy was born that evening.  It had been a long two days! 

 

I did notice though, after delivery, Dr. Hutchinson sent the placenta to pathology.  That was something I would learn about later...

Dr. Hutchinson--we love her!

Our newest sweetheart.

Grammy HB

Grandpa HB

Grammie Lowe

Then time for bed...for all of us!

This picture leaves us feeling that all was well.  And it indeed would be, after a few more challenges! 

We were released from the hospital.

We all commented on what a good baby this little guy was.  He slept so much the day we were released. 

We were all so excited to have him home!

Our oldest son wanted to make sure he introduced the important things in life early on...

never too early to introduce a brother to Star Wars!

Our "new" middle son was pretty curious about this new baby too.

 I kind of cringe when I see these pictures.  We didn't know that our new baby's body was already beginning to struggle.  We didn't know at this point, but the lab results from the placenta would show that a Staph infection had been present.  I was later told that if we had waited a day or two longer before delivering our baby we wouldn't have had such a joyful birth-day.  I know all the events that lead to our early delivery were for a purpose.  As Dr. Hutchinson said a few weeks later when we were talking about the delivery experience and those of the following days, "Sometimes you are in the right place, doing the right thing, with the right people.  I'm so glad we were that day."

I am too.

I know our Heavenly Father is aware of us...each of us.  I know He loves us and cares for us.  I know we can each be inspired, prompted or motivated to do certain things that will bless our lives or the lives of others.  I believe those are tender mercies from our Eternal Father; mercies that any loving father would want to share with his children...if we would just listen.  I am so grateful for His love.

The day after we were released from the hospital, we were re-admitted as our little baby was struggling.  Gratefully, Grandpa HB and The Big Guy Lowe were able to give him a special Priesthood blessing before we headed back to the hospital.  Our precious baby had lost a large percentage of his body weight and had an alarmingly low core temperature.  I remember watching the nurses as they started his I.V.  When they inserted the needle and he didn't even flinch they looked at eachother with an attempt to mask their concern.

After a very stress-filled 24 hours, we were able to finally go home.  We had a very strict protocol that we were to follow for the next month and many doctor visits, but no more hospital stays.

Wow, two years later.  We continue to face different challenges as they come and we continue to revel in the joys as they come too!  How grateful we are for our sweetheart J.

   

Happy Birthday little J.  Oh how we love you!

Big Steps!

The past month has brought a lot of progress for our youngest son.  It makes me so happy to see development in areas where struggle has been.  In fact, the last time I was at PT with our little guy, I asked our Therapist some direct questions about our son's future.  She responded with confidence that she felt the challenges our son has been working with were things that he would outgrow with age.  She said she was very happy with his progress.  I couldn't stop smiling.  Big J was pretty happy too!

One of my favorite things recently observed was this:

 

This big boy now walks up and down the stairs without the help of my hand.  The Big Guy Lowe was the first to see him do this.  I remember him coming into the kitchen and whispering as loud as he could that I had to come with him to see something.  I wasn't sure what to expect as I walked into the foyer.  A boy that was all smiles!

Who knows what he'll accomplish next, but we are excited to be there when it happens!  Way to work hard J!  Love you!

Good friends, rain, standstill traffic and food...makings of a great night!

It's not too often that The Big Guy Lowe and I actually go out with other people.  We kind of find that we are pretty happy to just be together--something that I love!  Every once in a while though, it is fun to get together with good friends...like Nick and Erin.

Nick and Erin have been through a lot this past year, and gratefully we have become better friends with them through their journey.  It also helps that they are hilarious and so easy to be around!  To celebrate many things, we decided to go to dinner at the Skamania Lodge for their legendary friday night buffet.

After getting stuck in  horrible traffic and laughing the whole time, we made it to our reservations an hour late!  The Gorge isn't a respecter of persons though so everyone else was stuck in traffic too, making sure our table was still available!  The food was not disappointing and we all ate huge amounts! 

We even had some nice time to talk after dinner as we sat by the three-story fireplace...well, Erin and I had some nice time to talk there, Nick and The Big Guy Lowe were elsewhere doing other things that won't be mentioned!  When they both returned laughing--almost to tears, we couldn't help but laugh too.

Gratefully, our drive home was not traffic-laden, but just as enjoyable.

Yep, good friends and good food will always be a great combination!  Nick and Erin--Thanks for the great night and can't wait to do it again!!

A break in the rain...

This spring break has been, well, wet. 

There has been so much rain that we haven't had many trips outside to play.  It's been a bit of a bummer, but we have found other things that have kept us busy.  We did plan a visit to the Crumb Crunchers on Thursday afternoon and looked forward to not only playing with them, but meeting up with some new friends to play with too.  We were hoping to play outside.

Rain.  More rain.

Then a break in the rain.  Sunshine breaking through...yes!  The two older boys and I headed over while I left our youngest son to finish his nap while The Big Guy Lowe was home.

Glorious outside!  The boys always love playing at the Crumb Crunchers' house and yard.  Truly the perfect yard for children!  We're so glad they invite us to play!!

One cute and fun surprise came as we saw their bunnies running around outside!  The boys spent most of the time trying to locate and catch the bunnies...while not scaring them.  Hmmm.  Not quite sure if we accomplished the absence of fear in those soft, nose-twitching creatures, but they sure were cute!

Our oldest was able to hold one first.  I can't tell if this is Bam-Bam or Pebbles?

To our middle son's great delight, his older brother let him hold a bunny!

Do you remember that I mentioned earlier that new friends would be playing with us this visit?  Here is one of our new friends.  I had to include these pictures because our Big D's expressions/body language. 

What do you think was going through his mind?

I'm just fine with him keeping his distance from girls for many years to come...even if this one is a cutie!