New Babies and New Skills

Within the last month our collection of nieces and nephews has grown by two more.

Adam (Michael's brother) and Stacey had their 5th baby.  Her name is Savannah and she looks just like her siblings. Very cute.

One week after Savannah was born, Joe (my brother) and his wife Amy got their first baby.  They started the adoption process just in January and had a great experience with the birth mother and the process in general.  their baby boy is tiny still.  We finally got to see him just yesterday and he's darling.

I just love Sabrina's mid-yawn expression in this one.

Don't give Joe your camera without anticipating a picture like this.

While my  mom was over recently Sabrina wanted a lesson from Grandma to learn how to tie her shoes. 

We don't have much longer to go until school starts again.  I'm trying to make arrangements to get Sabrina into the preschool we'd like her to go to.  The girls are very excited about starting the new school year.

My ankle is pretty much the same a it has been -- very s l o w l y healing.  I think.  It still swells up and aches but it can take a bit of weight now which is an improvement.  In two days I'll be exactly 2 months from when I fell and I still rely on the crutches.  Moral of the story: always use a sturdy ladder when reaching for things that are high :)

No surprises here: Growing like cute little weeds.

So just for the heck of it I weighed and measured my girls today.  It's all pretty much what I expected.  I bet within the next year or so Sabrina will be at least as tall as Lizzie, if not taller. Sabrina is our "tall" girl... though that's clearly relative, lol. 


Kate: 50 lbs (21st%), 48" (15th%)
Lizzie: 45 lbs (48th%), 43" (10th%)
Sabrina: 38 lbs (46th%), 41" (32nd%)

The girls reading Kate's baptism book with Grandma Jensen

Yesterday I had my post-op appointment with my orthopedic surgeon.  He said it's healing really well, particularly considering how much damage there was in the joint.  The incisions were healing well and he removed the sutures and applied steri-strips.  I can now shower (YAY!!!) as long as I still keep weight off that right foot.  My tiny range of motion is actually normal, as are the consistent pains.  So that's all good news.  I will see him in two to three more weeks and he'll check things again and probably start physical therapy.  Right around the time school starts :)    I don't have to keep my ankle wrapped anymore even.

Unfortunately I've had some terrible blistering on the bottom of my foot.  We believe it was caused by creases in the lining of the walking cast I was in for a few weeks.  The blistering showed up when my foot swelled up after the surgery.  I typically have very thick callouses on the bottom of my foot (because I most often go barefoot) so it took a lot of swelling to push the blisters to where they were visible. They kept coming until I've had blisters along the entire ball of my foot on the bottom. 

This is a picture of how fantastically well it's healing.  I won't show you the earlier pictures because they're just too gross.  And I'm not being sarcastic either - they're healing very well!  The old callouses are really dark because they were stained by the cleanser before my surgery.  So I am still wrapping my foot to keep clean dressings on the blistered portions while they heal. 

Last night I had my foot unwrapped for a while.  I placed  both feet flat on the wood floor while sitting in my chair and kept looking to find a puddle of cold water of the floor, but couldn't see it.  Because of the really thin new skin on those parts of my right foot the floor felt cold and wet, LOL.

One BIG mistake I made...
Yesterday we took the girls to see a movie and the cheap theater (How to Train Your Dragon -- awesome movie!).  The theater had stadium seating so there were stairs involved.  We decided to move higher up in the theater so we would have cup holders.  I was carefully watching where my crutches were going so I wouldn't fall (stairs freak me out) and managed to catch the toe of my sandal on the lip of the stair.  I couldn't get the crutches around or get my good foot under me so I caught myself with the toes of my right (BAD) foot, putting more than my full weight on it (since I was falling) and bending my foot well past it's current range of motion.  Ouch.  Ouch.  And one more time: Ouch.  So today it's a bit more swollen than it has been, and a fair bit more painful.  As long as long as I didn't dislodge the clot created to fill in where I'm now missing bone / cartilage then it will be fine once the tendons, muscles, and nerves quit freaking out.  That's really what we're hoping for, and most likely how it really is.  But in the near future I will continue to avoid stairs when at all possible.  When it came time to leave the theater I just sat down on the stairs and with my bad foot sticking out I slid down the way you may teach a tipsy toddler to do it :P    Lesson learned.

Kate's Baptism

Saturday was Kate's baptism.  It was a really wonderful day and she was SO happy.  She has hardly slept for a week, she's been so excited!  

We got Kate all dressed in the white dress (complete with bows, of course).  This is the same dress I wore when I was baptized 22 1/2 years ago!  She's such a shortie it reached all the way to her toes.

Kate and her sisters looking past the glass divider into the font she and Daddy would stand in for the baptism (during the baptism she went completely under water and was brought back up, so it's deep-ish water)

Kate and Daddy posing for a picture.  

Kate in front of the font.

Sitting and waiting in the chapel with her sisters.  Lizzie wasn't really *that* cranky.  She just was refusing to be photographed.

Mommy, Daddy, and Kate

Aunt Jenny, Kate, and Aunt Janice

Grandpa Southern, Kate, and Grandma Southern

Grandma Jensen (aka "Grandma Abuela" >thank you Dora the Explorer<) and Kate

After the actual baptism I slipped into the back to help Kate change into dry clothes and change out her hairbows.  Since I'm on crutches, Aunt Jenny came back to help also.  My camera happened to be in the bag with the dry clothes so she got a picture of me helping Kate.  

After the meeting was over we went to a park behind the building for a lunch and time to visit.  Kate got a couple of presents  including a fancy book from Aunt Jenny that everyone could sign their names in and for her to write what she remembered during this special occasion.

It's a great memory book!  Highly recommended :)

Thanks Aunt Jenny!

We had potluck Hawaiian Haystacks which seemed to work quite well.  Thanks everyone for helping to bring food!

Unfortunately the play set was infested by bees!  Two of the little ones got stung :(

You can tell this is my family by the curly hair on the girls and thinning hair on the boys ;)

Nieces and nephews playing on the swing-set.  I love how the second one in is 18 year old.  (Just after this he did take some turns pushing the little ones on the swing which was quite nice.)

Kate and her "twin".  She and her cousin Emma look quite a bit alike, and even act quite a bit alike.  Emma has brown eyes and Kate has blue eyes and they're a few years apart in age.  But they have very similar hair and the same olive skin tone.  Sweet girls :)

Aunt Janice brought a big box of CANDY.  The kids really enjoyed that :)  By this point Lizzie was quite content to be photographed again.  Obviously, lol.

This is Matthew doing his 'rockodile.  He's very funny.  I have been working my way into his good graces by talking tractor with him ;)

Grandma gave Kate a set of "Scripture Stickers".  These super thin stickers go in scriptures right over the verses to highlight portions.  They're see-through and really fun.

Later that night Kate and I were reading the instructions and getting ready to put them in...

her very own new scriptures!  Daddy and I got her a beautiful new Triple Combination (Book of Mormon, Doctine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price all in one volume).  We each wrote in the front of it.  She loves reading it every night.

She also got this beautiful necklace you can see above from some of her cousins who MADE it for her!  She loves it.

 Aunt Karla did a photo-shoot with Kate a couple days before the baptism and took these awesome pictures.

Thank you to all the family and friends who were able to come celebrate this occasion with us.  It was a wonderful day.  We're so proud of the choice you made, Kate.  You're a wonderful little girl. 

Baptismal Braids

Yesterday Kate was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 
I spent a long time trying to figure out how to do Kate's hair for the occasion.  Her hair is beautiful -- smooth and silky, and straight as a board.  Since I wanted her hair to look nice for pictures before and after, as well as not take much time to "fix" after the baptism (by full immersion).... it took a little research.

Anyway, here's what I came up with.  And I like it :)

I started by having Kate take a good shower, and gave her a trim (it's been a while and apparently her hair grows unevenly).

Ta-da!

I made a full part down the center of the head.  Then another part across the top of her head near the front.  This front section I divided into 6 parts going across.

Apparently I skipped the photo of a step.  Oops.  I braided each of the 6 front sections going back and secured the bottom of each with an elastic.  I made another part going across her head one each side and created three more sections to start a french braid on each side.  I used an elastic band to secure the end of each braid to its corresponding side.  This is the slightly complicated part... The braids on the left side were secured to the sections on the right side and vice versa.  Plus, the braids were woven together.  This is easiest seen by looking at the pictures.  Each braid alternated over/under/over.  It's not nearly as complicated as it looks, just takes a teensy bit of concentration.  On her actual baptism day I missed one of the over/unders and it drove me crazy! 

I finished a french braid on each side starting with the three rubber-banded sections.  The tiny braids were left braided so at the top of each french braid has tiny braids through it also. 
Finally I lifted the bottom of each french braid right up and used a hair bow with a french clip on it to secure the bottom of the braid over the hair bands securing the three starting sections. 
With her hair wet I just spread out the ends of the hair and let it dry on its own (this worked great after the baptism!)  With her hair dryish I used a teensy curling iron to curl the ends down a bit into a puff instead of sticking straight up.

These were great for baptism day.  Her hair stayed secured really well when she went under the water and came back up.  When I changed her out of her wet dress into a dry one and changed the bows (from plain white to the white with blue stripes) her braids stayed nice and tidy.  I simply patted the hair gently and yes, it dripped a little over the next while, but not bad.  It probably helped keep her cool at the picnic lunch at the park afterward :P  I'm very happy with how these worked!

Oh Wretched Wife that I am...

I really am bad.  And I feel awful about it.

I didn't do a post about my fantastic, wonderful, incredible, spectacular husband for his birthday.  Bad me.

I also didn't send his birthday picture post to the Jarbh family!  The only one of those I've missed in the last looooong time (that I'm aware of) was my SIL whose birthday was just a couple of days after my worst surgery.  Naughty me.


I'm so sorry sweetheart!!!!!  And you've been so patient with not even harassing me about it (well, you did briefly mention it after I was done with all my other stuff this week).  My bad.  I will post a picture a day for a month if you'd like just of YOU.  Would that kinda make up for it?

Perhaps I should just tell everyone what a perfect husband you are for me?  Except I do that every chance I can anyway...   well, sorry babe.  My bad.

Happy Birthday to my splendiferous husband.  I love you SO much.  You make this crazy life of mine worth facing day after day (well, you and our adorable children).  You're such a sweet daddy and I love serving in nursery with you at church.  You're a good guy.  And I like you :)

On Michael's birthday he had to work really late.  I let the girls stay up late until after her got home.  They made this big poster for him earlier in the day at the neighbor's house.

   During the day, Kate made snickerdoodle cupcakes for his birthday cake, and I mixed up some cinnamon buttercream frosting (a container of storebought buttercream frosting with cinnamon stirred in :P )  The cupcakes were REALLY good.  This coming from a dedicated chocolate lover.

Then the girls tried to walk some knots out of Daddy's back before they went to bed.

Sorry it was such a loser birthday, babe.  Thank you for being understanding about everything.  We love you tons :)   (we got to borrow a Wii from a friend for a week.  I love hearing the girls chatter along in proper golf-speak, lol)