Derrick's Followup

Derrick had his second CT scan of his abdomen so that they could compare pictures from the last one and see if the spot on his adrenal gland has changed. This time around was not as pleasant as the last. Last time he smiled through the IV. This time I over heard the nurse say that they didn't have anymore of the really small needles so they had to use a slightly larger one. I'm not sure if that is what made the difference or not, but he screamed and cried the whole time. He has to hold really still so that they can get a good picture and that was just not going to happen with how upset he was. I was worried that they were going to have to sedate him, but then the nurse told me that I could finally give him a bottle ( he hadn't had food since 5am his apt was at 11). The bottle made it so he wasn't crying but he was still sniffing and trying to calm down. But the guy was really good and positioned the machine to that he could still get a good picture.

I just have to say that I really LOVE our pediatrician. He called us later (the same day!) and let us know that everything looked good. He said that they think it might have even shrunk a little. But it could also be the angle of the picture. But the size hasn't increased so that's all they really cared about. They already did the test for cancer and it came back negative. It is looking like it might just be an old bleed. D's Dr. said that he didn't think we needed to do anymore CT scans and that we kind of went the extra mile to make sure everything was ok (which I'm fine with!) We went in looking for something and came out empty handed! Yay!! We are so happy!!! So in a few months he will be back on just the regular screenings. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. It means a lot to our family.

Christmas

Christmas was just full of fun and family. Both of our families live close, so we are usually pretty busy on christmas eve and christmas day. We hit up the Crockett Christmas party where we saw Santa again, and ate some wonderful mexican food. Then we went to my parents and had some tamales! Christmas morning we stayed home and had our own little christmas before we went to the families houses again for even more presents!! Our babies really are spoiled :) although this christmas I felt like I was spoiled too!

Its finally Christmas time!!!

Santa came to our house Monday night! Brother Adams plays an awesome Santa! The boys have never really seen Santa so I was nervous about how they would react when they saw him, let alone how they would do if we tried to put them on his lap, but they did just wonderful! Brent was getting tired so he isn't the happiest in the pictures, but at least he wasn't screaming or crying (which is what I thought would happen)!

I started decorating for Christmas just after Halloween! I know some people really disagree with that. But it always feels like Christmas goes so fast for me. Its my favorite Holiday and I guess by starting super early I feel like I get to enjoy it just that much longer. But now its finally Christmas time and my family can stop giving me a hard time about having Christmas stuff up too early. Josh did say that we should wait for the tree until after Turkey day, but on everything else he was fine with :)

Some Christmas Card Photos

D is nine months old!

D turned nine months old today! The other day I left him in the front room to play for a while and went in to the kitchen to do something (forgot what) and I looked over to find him standing on Brent's chair. I guessed he climbed up there and wondered how he could have done it. But later that day he did it again and this time I watched him do it! Crazy kid! I couldn't believe he just climbed right up there. I don't' think I would believe someone if they told me their almost nine month old was climbing up on chairs (granted it is a little chair, but still!). He loves Brent and wants to play with or do what ever he is doing. :) He prefers to eat Brent's little cars now.

This would have been an even cuter pic of Josh and Brent because Brent was laying just how Josh is with his arms hanging over the edge of the bed, but he moved right when I took it.

Brent really had fun playing in the sink this day. Although, by letting him I think i created a monster, because now he always wants up on the counters. After he was done we had quite a bit of water to clean up off the floor and counters.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENT!!

Today is Brent's 2nd Birthday!! And he is a little sick :( He seems to be feeling a bit better today actually but he has had a fever for the past two days. He and his Derrick had a lot of fun with the balloons after we blew them all up. We had quite a few, and when derrick fell back we couldn't even see him! Brent is a wonderful little person. He is very smart and even mischievous. I don't know why they call it the terrible two's it usually starts before they are two :) But the mischievousness does make for some pretty good memories to look back on. Brent likes to play with his brother more and more, and he just LOVES cars! I think he made out pretty well for his birthday. He got about $40, two tractors five little cars, a ball, some diapers (I probably appreciate those more than he does) and a cool car garage that also came with two cars! I think between the grandmas, grandpas and uncles and aunts he is a very loved and very spoiled little boy.

Brent blew out his candles all by himself! We were all very impressed :)

D is partying too!

This is Grandpa trying to put together the new car garage. We had the hardest time finding a screwdriver! I don't' think we have very many, which is pretty sad. Maybe I should get Josh's some for Christmas!!

Brent was Born November 1, 2007 at 6:33 pm

HALLOWEEN

Halloween was not quite as we had planned. Brent was really sick so we didn't' take him out on Halloween but the day before we did go to the ward party. Josh couldn't be there because he had to work but I took the kids :) We were a little late because I totally forgot to make the rest of Brent's costume. I had all the accessories, but NONE of the actually clothes together. He had no black pants to I made him a pair in like 2 minutes. Derricks costume was awesome! I got it earlier that day at Old Navy. They had a sale where all their costumes were $2. I ended up getting some Jammies and a monkey costume for Brent too. The monkey one is big though, so maybe in a few years. At the party they had a place to take pictures, which is where we had the one above taken. The background was awesome, you can't see all of it in the picture, but it was cool. I'm glad they took pictures, because I didn't really get to take any.

On Halloween we stayed in, got some Antibiotics and some taco bell and partied it up at home.

Derrick and the IV

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything about our little D. We've had a few Dr. Apts lately. We went in and had another ultrasound done at phoenix childrens and in the ultrasound they mentioned something about a small exophytic lesion that was projecting off the side of his kidney. And since he has the hemihypertrophy and beckwith-wiedemann syndrome, they wanted to make sure that it wasn't willms tumor. So we scheduled another appointment to have a CT scan done so they could get a better look at things. I was a little worried, because his appointment was at 10 and he couldn't eat anything (not even water) after 7am. I woke him up at 4am to give him some milk, and I tried to give him water at 7 but he did not want any. He did really well considering the lack of food though. I was impressed. They put an IV in his arm and had 2 nurses in there to help. One of them was trying to distract him while holding his arm straight at the same time, and he actually smiled while they were putting it in. He never cried! They said that has never happened before. They have never had a baby smile while getting an IV. (It made me think of the blessing Josh and his dad gave him the day before.) They prepped him for sedation just in case, but he didn't end up needing it. He held still just long enough for them to get some pictures.

When they came back with the results, it turns out that what they thought were cysts on the kidney before are actually something on his adrenal gland. They said it is most likely an old renal hemorrhage but could also be neuroblastoma. Although the Neuroblastoma was less likely. It was a scary type of cancer. (they did mention something about that when we started seeing the specialist when I was 20 weeks pregnant with him) They were pretty sure it was his Kidney at first but babies are so little and all their organs are even smaller, and when your talking about a gland......I can see how it would be hard to tell. Anyway, they did another urine test to rule out Neuroblastoma. The tests came back negative. We were all VERY happy! They are going to do another CT scan so they can compare the two images and make sure there are no changes and if it all looks good then as far as we know he will just be back on the regular screenings for the other cancers.

Our little D is a trouper! We love him so much and can't imagine our lives without him. He is crawling around all over the place. Well.....kind of crawling. :) He does this little worm thing, where he gets up on his hands and knees, pushes himself forward with his toes and hands and then goes on to his tummy. He does it over and over until he gets where he wanted to go. Although he is getting closer and closer to just crawling on his hands and knees :) Everyone keeps telling me that the boys will fight with each other. But they are so good with each other now. Derrick will sneeze and Brent will start laughing. And then Derrick will start laughing because Brent is laughing. Or sometimes in the car, one of them will make a loud noise, and then the other will make a louder noise, until they are just both yelling one right after the other trying to be louder than the other. Brent does like his cars and does not appreciate it when Derrick takes them and chews on them. I am sure they will get on each others nerves, but I also think they will be very good friends :)

I Love Old Navy!!!

Old Navy is just AWESOME!! I went by the other day and they were having a 50% off clearance sale again. So I got a shirt for about $4.00, However, I went back again yesterday with my mom and wasn't planning on getting anything, until I saw that they reduced the clearance prices! I got another shirt for $1.50 and The boys some warm clothes for winter for around $1.24 each!!

Funny story!!!!

So two weeks ago on Friday, as Josh was coming home in the little Geo, he got pulled over because apparently the license plate light was out. He was a little annoyed because he was excited for Friday and thought it was kind of a silly thing to pull someone over for. Anyway, the nice police man just told him that he should get it fixed. Then yesterday (Friday) He got pulled over again! By the same cop! It was the first thing he told me when he walked through the door. I laughed. It was just too funny :) He, however, was not quite ready to laugh about it. We had somewhat of a date planned so he put on his happy face and we went and rented a movie. And we took the Cobalt since the poor Geo has no license plate light. After we picked out the movie we went over and got some Fillibertos. The light turned yellow when we were going through it, so he! sped up a tad. Apparently a cop turned down the street after us because, as we continued down the street Josh all of a sudden says "If this cop pules me over I am going to be really mad." And sure enough, no sooner had he said the words, then we saw the lights in the mirrors.

We pulled over onto a side street, and the police man asks for our documents. We started to think that maybe he thought we ran a red light or something. But as soon as everything checks out he comes back to the car and says that the reason he pulled us over is.......that our LICENSE PLATE LIGHT IS OUT!!! That about did it for me! I burst out laughing!!! The Irony was just too much!! Too much I say! The police man I'm sure was wondering what was so funny, so I mentioned what had happened earlier that night. Both of our cars have no license plate light! While we were driving away Josh mentioned how he just wanted to hurry and get home so that no one else could pull him over, but then he couldn't speed cause he might get pulled over for that! Then we decided that we should just be criminal masterminds and Josh could be the license plate light bandit who would go around taking otherpeoples lisence plate bulbs. We are silly peoples :) But we have fun! Today we have resolved to go and fix both of our bulbs before driving at night again. Josh can laugh about the whole thing now. It took a little time for him to get there :)

Awesome Kmart Double deals!!

I have found a whole new appreciation for Kmart!! With their coupon doubling, up to $2.00 coupons ($4.00) I have found some AWESOME deals. I am still new to the coupon thing and feel like I am just dabbling in the little coupon pool. Slowly getting in deeper and deeper. :) Grocery's still really intimidate me. I'm not sure how the stores work. If you have to tell them to double or if it automatically does it. I will get brave enough to venture soon I think. At Kmart the machines just automatically take off the double when they scan the coupon. So maybe the other stores are like that too? Even the grocery stores? Anyone know? Anyway. Here is what I got at Kmart!

Glade oil Candle Refills on sale for $2.50 each
$1.50 coupon found in the tins from the candles I got at target last week. (doubled to $3.00)
= FREE

Poise Pantiliners $3.55
$2.00 coupon In sundays paper (doubled to $4.00)
=FREE

Bic Silky smooth Razors $3.49
$2.00 Coupon (doubled to $4.o0)
=FREE

Gillete Body wash $4.35
$2.00 Coupon (from another Gillete item I purchased last chirstmas.)
=$0.35

Gillete Shampoo $4.39
$2.00 Coupon
=$0.39

Dawn Dish soap $2.49
$1.00 Coupon
=$0.49

Hersys Kisses $2.50
$1.00 Coupon
=$0.50

Pert 2 in 1 Shampoo $4.89
$2.00 Coupon from paper
=$89

Cover Girl Eye Shaddow $2.99
$1.00 Coupon (from paper)
=$0.99

Toll House Cookie Dough $2.99
$1.00 Coupon from paper (But they also had $1.00 peelies on them that you could use)
=$0.99

Poise Pads $5.49
$2.00 Coupon
=$1.49

Huggies baby wash $3.69
$1.00 Coupon
=$1.69

Crystal light on the go packs $2.75
$1.00 off 2 coupon
=$1.75 each

Suave Calming Lotion $3.29
$0.75 Coupon (from Paper)
=$1.79

Gillete Deorterant
$2.00 off 2
=$1.89 each

Act Mouthwash $3.99
$1.00 coupon
=$1.99

Whiskas Cat food (much needed) $4.99
$1.00 Coupon
=2.99

The total was $104.07 after taxes

- $77.31 In coupons

=$26.76. Out of Pockett

Pretty AWESOME if you ask me!

Camping and Josh's Birthday!!

We went camping with some of our friends and had a fun time!! We didn't take any babies with us. I think we should do a trip with them sometime. But I'm glad we didn't' take them this time because it was FREEZING!!! I slept maybe 2 hours that night. It was horrible! Not to mention some noisy campers just arriving at 1:00 am!

This is a Picture of Josh on his Birthday. We left on Saturday to go camping and Sunday was his birthday! :) We came home Sunday night and I made him Cheese Steak. (Its what he wanted. I think it is his new favorite!)

I don't know if you can see him, but there was the cutest little chipmunk that kept eating our muffins! He was adorable!

We had smores of course! and hobo dinners (a tradition in my family) But we also ventured in new directions with dutch oven pizza and breakfast burritos. We learned a few things from our camping trip too. Like.....a shovel IS necessary when camping. Also....Jackets or sweaters (Josh and I didn't bring any cause I was afraid to go back, not wanting to disrupt the babies and say goodbyes again). Dutch oven Pizza doesn't take that long to cool. We blackened one and then made another (5 or 10 min) and it was perfect.

Awesome deals!!

Ok. So I had a good day!!! I got some awesome deals and I thought I would share just in case there was anyone else out there who had some of the same coupons. And I was just so excited about them that I wanted to share. I want to do the whole couponsense thing, but can't really afford it, So I've just been trying to wing it on my own, with a little help from some other blogs.

Old Navy has an additional 50% off all of their clearance until Saturday I think. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten them, but it was such a good deal, I couldn't help myself!! I got a shirt ($0.75) for Brent, a hat ($0.97) and some lounge pants ($1.74 ) for D. Good quality items for much less than I could have gotten them at walmart for.

I had some Air wick coupons from the 9/13 paper and while I was in Target I saw that they had some of the items on sale!

$6 coupon for Air Wick Freshmatic Ultra Imotion

Sale price $5.99

FREE after coupons (I got two of them, but I'm already using the other one :)

$4 coupon for Air wick Freshmatic compact Imotion

Sale Price $4.99

$0.99 after coupon

$2 off 2 Scented oil candle tins

Sale Price 3 for $5

$0.66 after coupons (I got 4 and used 2 coupons)

Fun at work with Grandpa!

We stopped by to see Grandpa the other day. Brent has so much fun with him :) He loves to push buttons on the adding machine, hearing the noise and watching the paper move. He found the fax maching and started talking on the phone.

At one point he figured out that if he used two hands it made even more noise and the paper went even faster :)

There were a few times when Grandpa was trying to show him something else or I was talking to him, and he would look, but his little finger kept right on punching! It was the funniest thing :)

Sour Cream? Or Lotion?

So Yesterday I made Brent a burrito for dinner and, since we had some, I put a little bit of sour cream next to it. Later I look over and he is rubbing it all over his hands like it is lotion. I wiped off his hands and tried to explain to him that it wasn't lotion, but food. I went to change D's diaper or something and I come back to find Brent just COVERED in sour cream. Its all over his face, his forehead is covered and his hair was just a mess!! I never dreamed that it would end up this bad!!! I didn't even put very much on his plate, I don't' know how he managed to make it go so far. But he really had fun with it. That is until it started to dry :) Then it really started to bother him. Especially his hair. Needless to say, he had a bath that night. The pictures really don't do it justice either.

A trip to Mt. Grahm With the boys!

We always talk about making another trip to Thatcher, but that spontaneous trip has never happened. Until Yesterday! Josh doesn't work on Mondays and so that morning we decided to just pack up the boys and some lunch and head to the mountain! It was an interesting trip. The boys actually interacted with each other a bit on the way up. Brent would laugh at what Derrick was doing with his tongue and some of the noises that he was making and then Derrick would laugh too because Brent was laughing. Then after a while Derrick fell asleep and Brent was starting to get sleepy, but was having a hard time going to sleep so he got frustrated and started to cry. That woke D up and then we had two crying babies. Brent would cry hard and then Derrick would cry even harder. Josh and I just looked at each other and kind of laughed. They laugh and Cry together :)

We finally got there after a few delays (like road construction and string cheese stops-for Brent) He had fun, barely ate and then found a stick! Just like a boy.

This is him closing his eyes so that Daddy can't see him to change his diaper. He also does this when it is time for bed or brushing his teeth.

And after all that fun, Both of the boys were out!

D is on my lap, but didn't make it into this pic :(

I like that we got a pic with all of us....I just wish I had worn something not so grungy, yuck!

D is 6 Months!

I just realized that......I do monthly updates for D, but not so much for Brent anymore. But I think its because Derrick is just changing so fast (as babies do during the first year of their life) and Brent isn't changing as fast anymore. I did do this with Brent also (in my journal at least. I didn't have a blog then :) Time really does go by fast though. He is six months old and can sit by himself for a little while before he starts to lean to the side or forward. He has a Dr. apt on Monday and we will see where he is as far as height and weight goes, as well as some more tests. I'm a little nervous, but trying to be strong. We love our little D!

He is napping at church in this picture. . . .it doesn't happen very often.

We all screem for Icecream!!!

Josh one day decided that it would be fun to all go out for ice cream one day! Yay!! We also thought maybe Brent could have his very own ice cream cone!! I was sure it was going to be a mess. especially cause he was going to be eating it in the car on the way home, so I fashioned a little bib for him out of and old outfit that we still had in the car. He really enjoyed it!! But I don't think he really understood the concept of licking an ice cream cone. He kept trying to eat it with his hands, but then his hands would get cold and he would turn to us for help :) When we got home he still had quite a bit left so we stuck him in his highchair. Soon he was just holding this cone, And was trying to dig the little bit of ice cream out. But then Josh showed him that you could eat the cone and he just loved that! Very messy.....but a fun adventure and another first for Brent!

Brothers and the best of friends.

Brent has really grown to like Derrick and I can see them becoming very good friends and getting into lots of trouble around the house in no time. He likes to hold him now and he tries to tickle him and play cars and animals with him. It makes me smile inside and out to see them try to interact with each other. They are such cute little blessings!

This is Rylie and Derrick. They were born just a few weeks a part. Aren't they cute little babies?!

Boys and their toys! Brent loves to sit on Daddy's lap and 'race' cars on the xbox. He is really into cars and has a few of them that he drives everywhere. Walls, tables and chairs. Even on Mommy, Daddy and brother.

Granny Crockett and her favorite Grandbabies!

Movies with babies.

So we were out and about shopping and what not and we thought we might see how the boys did in a movie. We went and saw "G force" ( not bad for a kids movie). starting out wasn't so bad. Derrick was asleep and covered up, while Brent was just chillin on his daddy's lap. Then the movie started and you know how in between scenes or previews it fades out and goes dark for just a second? Well every time it did that, Brent would point to the screen and say "uh oh!" Like something was wrong. :) It was kind of cute, and hopefully not annoying to those around us. Although there weren 't many people there to begin with so I think we were safe. Brent started to get ansy part way through and then we had the bright idea of getting him some popcorn ( he LOVES popcorn). And that did it. He sat on my lap and just shoveled it into his mouth. D woke up about 15 minutes into the movie, but we had abottle for him so he was alright. Overall I would say it wasn't such a bad experience. Next time I think we will get the popcorn to start with though :)

Derricks First Foods!!

Ok, so I know there are quite a few pics and a lot of them look the same. But I thought they were all so cute! I was impressed that he liked the carrots so much.