The Dealio

    I figured this would be the easiest way to spread the news to the people who care about our family without it being too dramatic and without me having to tell a million people a million different times.
    About a month ago our family practice doctor found a heart murmur in Ian. At that point we weren't really concerned with it because heart murmurs are very common, and most kids have one at one point or another. The murmurs that most kids get are called innocent murmurs, and like I said, are very common and not anything to be worried about. Our family practice doc said he wasn't very knowledgeable in little hearts, so he referred us over to a pediatrician. (which, this is kind of a blessing because the pediatrician that he referred us to is the best in town and has a 7 month waiting list, but she accepted Ian right away because of the murmur)
    We were able to get in to see the doctor yesterday and she listened to the murmur and told me his murmur is definitely not innocent, and that he has something wrong with his pulmonary artery. That's about all she was able to tell us without doing any tests, and she referred us to a pediatric cardiologist that comes down to St George once a month.
    The good news is she went over a whole list of  symptoms that Ian would have if there was any need for urgency in the situation and he isn't showing any of them. So for now, we just get to wait and wonder until his appointment with the cardiologist, which is scheduled for March 11th.
   I am kind of hoping for that miracle story everybody has heard where the doctor diagnoses something, and then a month later when they test for it, the issue is miraculously gone. It might not be the best way for me to be looking at it, but for now it is allowing me to plod along through our day without me constantly worrying. We would love any prayers you can send our way: for Ian and his heart, and for me and any help I can get from on high to calm mine :)

Magic Dad

Morgan has a panda beanie baby. His name is Pandy. 

Yes, it does sound like she is screaming "Panties" when she asks for him in the store or outside or anywhere else. Just in case you were wondering.

But, she loves him. Very much.

And he has been lost for the last 2 nights.

Tonight, when she asked for him again, I asked JD to tell her he is still lost, because I didn't exactly have the patience to go back into her room for the melt down I was sure would ensue.

What did JD do? He walks over to the toy box, fishes out a teddy bear puppet, stuffs a bean bag inside of it and the next thing I know I hear Morgan saying 

"Oh, Daddy! I love my new bear! I will name him Pandy too!"

If I had tried that, well, it never would have flown. We'd still be hearing about it 2 hours later, I am sure. But nope, a bean bag stuffed inside a puppet was just right because it came from Dad.

Magic Dad.

PS- I'm not bitter. Just a little jealous that I'm not magic. And also, very glad that she thinks her Daddy is :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This morning we had our ward Christmas party. I have NEVER been to a church function that was decorated like this! It was craaaaaazy. Anyhow, here are a couple festive pictures:

We found Morgan's name on the nice list. Surprise Surprise :)

 Yep, Ian is almost as big as Morgan. 

 Family Picture :)

 Ian was pretty happy to be able to dig around in the boxes that were overflowing with giant candies:

 And last, a picture in the snow (its as close as we are gonna get around here. It's 60 degrees outside :) It's a good thing too, cause Morgan doesn't seem to be enjoying it so much! And Ian is being how he is 90% of the time: Smiley!

Holy Moly

So, HOLY MOLY it has been a while since I last posted! You see, I have been feeling like I am very far behind on everything lately: Cleaning, blogging...getting ready today...and I am plain sick and tired of it. But seeing as how Ian makes everything look like this within moments of cleaning:

 I have decided to call it a lost cause for today and move right along to blogging. It's only 2:45...JD doesn't get home from work for another 2 hours so I still have an hour and a half till I have to get dressed anyway ;) What, you know you've had these days!

Anyhow, we have had a lot of fun stuff happen since the last time I blogged. So here's quick, illustrated (that makes it sound fancy) catch-you-up:

In the last month we have been:

Planting amaryllises

   Taking some pretty awesome pictures... (yes my shirt is indeed on inside out AND backwards)

Baking pies

 Chopping down our Christmas tree

 Making crazy faces to match our crazy hair

 Decorating said Christmas tree

 Barring the way for Mom to get to the Christmas decorations

 Climbing up ON EVERYTHING

 Playing Santa

 Crawling around naked (okay, so this one is just Ian and it really only happened once :)

 Playing in the leaves

 Cutting teeth!

 Seeing temple lights

 Pouting inside the end table... (Morgan is weird...)

AND- OF COURSE-

Getting into EVERYTHING!!!

Our Day, Today.

It started out pretty good,

I cleaned and the kids entertained themselves really well.

If you would have asked this morning,

I would have said everything was swell.

And by this afternoon,

the day still seemed just fine.

It had actually been quite lovely,

The kids had barely whined.

So here we are cleaning the truck,

I was determined to make it the cleanest in the land,

Morgan found a marker

and colored every inch of both her hands.

I kept my cool and let it slide,

tried not to be a nay sayer.

I bit my tongue until I tried to put in a cd-

Yes, those are pennies in the player.

Alright, I will admit, 

I kind of flew off the handle,

I got a little impatient,

and sort of began to ramble.

Morgan started crying,

-after all her mom was freaking out-

When she rubbed her teary eyes, I started laughing.

She didn't quite know what that was all about.

But, somebody, anybody please,

tell me if you could still be mad,

when your daughter's tears met her marker covered hands,

and she looked so very super-hero clad?

Halloween Festivities!

I have been actively trying to spend more time with Morgan doing good things, and Halloween was the perfect opportunity to do all sorts of things! I saw the idea of making a "Halloween Tree" online, where you take a fallen tree branch (or in our case, since St George is still so stinking warm that no trees had lost their leaves, let alone any small branches/twigs, you have to find a neighbor who recently trimmed their trees) Anyhow, you take a  leafless branchy twig and make some Halloween ornaments and hang them from the Halloween Tree. So, we made some salt dough and went to town making some ghosts, spiders, witches, and bats. (Morgan even made a Halloween caterpillar!)

 (Does anyone else feel a little ill when they see how old Morgan looks in this picture?)

This year it was so fun to let Morgan draw the face on her pumpkin for her jack o lantern! 

And then, the TRICK OR TREATING!

We went out on Saturday night with Morgan's cousin Celeste. They were both Princesses, Celeste was Belle and Morgan was Princess Peach from Mario Brothers. 

I was Mario and Ian was Toadstool

I was supposed to be Luigi and JD was gonna be Mario, but he ended up having to work :(  He did end up getting home with enough time to trick or treat with us for about a half hour, so that was good!

This is how all my Halloween pictures of Morgan turned out this year. She is always just running away from me.

Except, of course, when she would randomly sit down in the middle of people's yards. Who's kid is that anyway?

By the end of the night Ian was super tuckered out!

Morgan too! :)

Settling in to St. George :)

Yes, it does seem like I tend to post 2 days in a row quite often. I would say it is just a weird thing I do, but the truth is, I am slightly ashamed of being so judgmental in my last post so I am posting this one to get the thing moved down in the blogosphere :)

Since we have moved up here, Morgan's favorite pass time has become hiking. She LOVES it. So, we are pretty darn lucky to have Snow Canyon right around the corner! Here are some pictures of a quick afternoon trip we took up there:

She thinks I am a horrendous mother for forcing her onto the 3 ft high ledge to attempt to get a cool picture.

And, I will leave you with this little beauty: