Outnumbered! (and Kids in Church)

Toby is here! That makes 3 little boys and 2 VERY outnumbered parents. Oddly enough, we couldn't be happier!

Baby Tobias Vaun Young was born via a scheduled C-section (which was phenomenally easier than an emergency one, by the way!) at 7:58 AM on Friday, December 14th, 2012. He weighed 6 lbs 9 oz, was 19 inches long, and had the cord wrapped twice around his neck. The doctor said that we would've ended up having to do another C-section even if we had tried the other way. This proves again that Heavenly Father was guiding us in our decisions, just like with Johnny and Zach. All three of our babies are such miracles!

Our lives have greatly changed, and we love it! Johnny and Zach love Toby more than I ever thought they could, and it's so amazing to watch them bond. They try so hard to be soft with him (TRY is the key word there), and it's so sweet!

So, the real purpose of this post is to begin a series of posts depicting different segments of our amazing life as parents. These are moments that I just don't want to forget. I dedicate this to all you parents out there thinking, "My kids are nuts." As I am about to show you, ALL of them are nuts. This particular post, I plan to highlight a few of the joys of taking kids to church. Here you go!

• One of the first Sundays we took Johnny to church, he pooped on a lady during sacrament meeting. I don't mean he tooted in her lap - the lady had POOP on her dress! Luckily it was time to go home. 
• When Johnny was about 6 months old, we were sitting in sacrament meeting and he had one of those long, explosive toots that make everyone turn and smile at you. As all the turners and smilers were watching, he smiled up at me and belched with all the force he could muster. What a charmer.
• Round binkies, otherwise known as little devils, do not like church. Zach went through a throwing phase, and there was one poor bald man that he particularly liked to aim for. Every Sunday. 
• You could easily stock an entire grocery store with the fruit snacks, cereal, goldfish, and raisins that we've ground into the seats and carpets of the chapel. 
• A few months ago, we had to take Johnny out in the middle of a musical number because he was screaming bloody murder, presumably trying to upstage the soloist. 
• And now, I present to you the mother of all awful Sundays! Enjoy:

About 10 months ago, Paul was asked to speak in sacrament meeting. We had only been in the ward about 3 weeks, so we didn't know a whole lot of people. I knew I was going to have to handle an 18-month-old and a 2 and 1/2-year-old all by myself that day, so I packed WELL. Little did I know, it really wouldn't matter WHAT I packed.

When Paul got up to speak, the boys both got really excited and kept pointing and yelling, "DADDY!"  I was completely embarrassed, but that was just the beginning of my troubles... Johnny decided he needed to be up there WITH Daddy, and started trying every escape tactic in the book. I had a few good evasive maneuvers and was actually faring pretty well until Zach started screaming. I looked away for a split second to help Zach, and Johnny was gone.

At first he stood just out of reach (I had Zach on my lap so I couldn't just jump up and grab him), taunting me with a big grin. I showed him every single car and fruit snack I had packed trying to lure him back in, but no luck. The second I stood up to grab him, he was off. People were most definitely watching us at this point, which was okay since Paul was just beginning to introduce us from the pulpit. Speaking of the pulpit, Johnny was on his way there. He hesitated at the stairs, gave me one last look of triumph, and darted onto the stand. One of the bishopric members caught him and held him on his lap for a minute, at which point Johnny looked out at the congregation and suddenly became very serious. He knew he was in trouble! He got down, came down the stairs, caught my eye yet again, and turned to run across in front of the pulpit. I set Zach down, who immediately started screaming as if he were in mortal peril, and ran to grab Johnny.

Johnny saw me coming and darted up the other set of stairs to stand by his daddy at the pulpit. Zach was still screaming, and I hesitated to go onto the stand and add more fuel to the fire. I ran back to take Zach out, and Johnny followed me - thank heavens! However, as soon as we were out the door, I tried to reach into my bag for ANYTHING that would calm Zach down, and Johnny seized the moment to run right back into the chapel....and back onto the stand. The poor bishopric member snatched him up and brought him out, at which point several sweet women came out to help me. After the meeting, every single person in the ward came to talk with us. What a way to meet the new ward: HERE WE ARE!!!

Summer Lovin'!

We've had QUITE the crazy summer this year! Here are a few of our highlights:

1. We found out we're expecting a new little addition (another BOY!!) on Decemeber 21st! Johnny will be barely 3, and Zach turns 2 on Dec. 28th. Needless to say, it's going to be a very exciting Christmas this year!

2. We took our family to Disneyland (my first time) the beginning of June. It was absolutely one of the best weeks of my life! We took our niece and nephew with us to help with the boys, and it was just a blast. Here's a look at our adventures:

 

Johnny played peekaboo with Silvermist on our way to meet Tinkerbell!

  

Johnny was in heaven.



Tinkerbell!



In front of the Tiki Room - which was actually Zach's favorite, although you'd never know it by this picture.

*Some of my favorite moments from Disneyland:

                      - Johnny throwing a muffin at Sadie's face while she was dead asleep in the hotel room.

                      - Pregnant me running back and forth across the street 4 times in a row to find a dropped pin in the road. Those Disney pins are spendy, so it was well worth all the cars having to wait for me! ;)

                      - Watching the World of Color, Fantasmic, and the parades! AMAZING!

                      - Eating. Hey, I'm pregnant, and the food was awesome.

                      - The rides! Duh! The boys' favorite was Winnie the Pooh, which we would ride like 6 times in a row until the boys fell asleep. Johnny called the ride "Poop" and would beg for it all through the park. :)

                      -Carrying around a parasol for my awful sunburn. Princess right here!

                     

I got to see the ocean for the first time!

  

We stopped on our way through to take pictures at the beautiful Las Vegas Temple!



3.  We took a week off and went camping for the annual Anderson Family Reunion at the beginning of August. Our boys were absolute mudballs, even with daily baths. They had a blast though! And so did Paul and I.

Johnny LOVED hiking!

         I do have to say that we got off to a rough start to our trip. Our first evening there, we got out to stretch our legs and locked our keys in the van! BAH! We didn't have any spares, both our phones were in the van, and we hadn't unpacked anything but ourselves. The boys had just sat in the creek for the first time, so they were drenched and muddy with no extra clothes or diapers. As we were circling the van to see if ANY of the doors were unlocked, Zach came around the corner eating what I assumed to be chocolate. It wasn't. It was MOOSE POOP (and I'm not even kidding). I couldn't make this stuff up. 

      Needless to say, thank heaven for families! After a fervent prayer for help, my uncle came over and unlocked the door with a hanger. It took him an hour and a half, blessed man! Our adventures never stop, and neither do our answered prayers.

Well, that pretty well covers the biggest moments of our summer. I hope you all had great ones too!









Wal-Mart Adventures

Hi everyone! I'm mostly writing about this for future reference - to remind myself why I do not - do NOT- take my children shopping. Ever. For any reason. Here's why:

Yesterday dawned bright and sunny, with springtime in the air, promise on the wind, and...no juice in the fridge. It had been months since I'd tried grocery shopping with my boys (because of a few not-so-pleasant episodes of dragging their screaming little selves out of stores - quite literally), but we were desperate. I knew we would never get a naptime without any precious juice, and there were a thousand other things we needed. So, I thought I would give them a chance to redeem themselves in the grocery shopping deparment. Silly me!

I packed my 15-month-old and 2 1/2-year -old into their carseats and off we went. When we got to Wal-Mart, I faced the usual parking dilemma: closer to the store, or closer to the carts? It had been a rainy night, so I decided on closer to the store. That meant using a dry cart inside, but it also meant carrying Zach and dragging Johnny the whole 75 yards into the store. As soon as we were inside, I let go of Johnny so I could grab the nearest cart and start stuffing Zach in the child seat.

 Of course, the second I let go of Johnny, he was running - no destination in mind, simply the call of freedom tugging at his little Osh-Kosh sandals. I tried to keep an eye on him while wrestling to buckle in a squirmy Zach, but alas! Johnny disappeared around a corner at the same moment I realized I had put Zach into a very rain-soaked cart. Oh well on the cart dilemma. The damage was done, and I had a fugitive to chase.

I caught Johnny in a moment of hesitation, as he was trying to decide if he wanted to try pushing ALL the buttons on the RedBox machine, or run straight out the nearest door. I steered us all into the store and our adventures really  began! The first thing Johnny saw was the big beautiful display of "traw-buddies" (strawberries). What?! He was begging for something healthy? Win for Mommy! Also, it was my bribe for getting him to sit in the cart. Double win!

We moved throught the fruit aisle with lightning speed because Johnny had found the "nanas" (bananas) and was yelling at them from 10 yards away. We made it through the deli and the frozen foods pretty quietly, but then I realized why: Johnny was sticking his little tongue out and had weaseled 2 little fingers into the strawberry container. I needed a distraction, and fast! I looked up and found a Pez display - with Lightning McQueen and Mater dispensers. Perfect! I grabbed one for each of them, but I should have known better. Johnny had Mater, and Zach had McQueen. Johnny started yelling for his "Maween!" so we traded. As soon as Zach had Mater, Johnny screamed for "Nater!" He finally realized that he could have one, so he settled for Maween and all was happiness and roses.

Until the juice aisle. Remember how apple juice was the reason we came? I couldn't find it. Anywhere. And Zach had started playing the "Throw Mater and all his Pez Candies out of the Cart and Watch Mommy Scramble to Pick it Up" game. After he did it twice, I put his Mater in the back of the cart with Johnny. And I still couldn't find the juice. I found fifteen aisles of wine, one small display of Sunny-D, and no apple juice. I decided to go with Sunny-D and repent later for all the sugar I was going to feed my children. I put the sunny stuff in the cart and CRASH! Mater went flying again. I couldn't figure out how Zach had gotten it, but whatever. The end was in sight!

We moved on to the binky section, and Johnny was much quieter than he should have been. I looked down and realized he had opened a box of donuts I had picked up to surprise Paul. He only had a little crumb in his hand, so I thought, "Whatever. We're almost done, and we'll still pay for the box." I moved the box away from Johnny, got an understanding smile from another mom as we started moving again, and then CRASH! went Mater again. I picked it up and put it back in the cart. Johnny immediately grabbed it and handed it to Zach again (that's how he was doing it!). I congratulated Johnny on learning to share and stuffed Mater in my armpit.

We headed for the checkout lane as Zach became irate. He only stopped crying intermittently to suck on my sweatshirt strings. We found the famous Wal-Mart checkout lanes (500 lanes, 3 of them open) and went to the shortest one. We realized it was the shortest because the lady in front of us - bless her heart - was a couponer. Oh well, it looked like she was almost done, and the other lines were backing up farther every second. Zach was still screaming and started throwing everyhing he could reach onto the floor. I finally just picked him up out of the cart, and then Johnny started "helping" me. He loves to put everything onto the conveyor belt, but we couldn't reach it yet. He kept handing me the cottage cheese and pointing to the belt, and I kept saying, "Not yet," and putting it back in the cart. Zach started grabbing some candy from the shelf and I was distracted just long enough to hear a SPLAT! and see cottage cheese explode everywhere. Yes, Johnny had thrown it toward the counter and majorly missed.

The cute lady in front of us informed me Johnny was making a mess, and continued with her couponing business. Finally - FINALLY - she finished and it was our turn. I moved the cart forward, revealing a huge puddle of cottage cheese and a whole lotta donut crumbs. As I unloaded the cart, I realized there were two half-eaten donuts stuffed in with the rest of the groceries. Yum. I handed the cashier the empty cottage cheese carton and apologized profusely. She was SO nice and just laughed at the whole thing! Another lady cleaned it up, and we high-tailed it out of there the second Zach was done pushing all the buttons on the credit card machine.

The moral of this story is: wait until the hubby gets home to go shopping.

Fast-Paced Life

Wow! So many things are going on right now, but since this is really the best journaling I do, I better get caught up! Here goes:

- Paul has been applying for several different jobs now that he's finishing up his business degree. We will *probably* be moving to Boise in the next few weeks, but we're not totally sure. Although being sure would help my nerves. A lot. Moving on...

- I have been watching kids for some extra money these last few months. This makes our house even noisier, which, if you've never spent much time here, is pretty impressive. It also makes for some pretty entertaining conversations! For example:

*My 3-yr-old niece walks into the room with Johnny, who's sucking on a bracelet with huge wooden beads. She looks up at me with those concerned little eyes and informs me, "Kristi, him is sucking on those yucky grapes."

*Paul runs into the room and says, "I know this probably isn't what you want right now, but HELP!" Cute little Heather, who is the same age as Johnny (HOW do people with 2-yr-old twins survive?!) had dumped one full liter of Mrs. Butterworth's Maple Syrup onto...well, everything. Herself, Johnny, the table, the floor, the chairs, the booster seat, the...no, she actually missed the kitchen sink, but other than that, the kitchen was one big maple-flavored party! We threw the little destructive duo into the tub and spent the next 45 minutes cleaning/laughing. As soon as I got Heather out and dressed, I ran to grab a hairbrush, but alas, I was too slow. By the time I came back to the living room, she was already back in the bathwater - fully clothed.

The stories go on, but suffice it to say: there is truly no dull moment!

- Johnny is talking up a storm, and repeats about everything he hears. My favorite thing is when he prays. We have to prompt him, and it goes something like this:

*Me, whispering: Heavenly Father,
Johnny, also whispering: Fado...
Me: Thank thee for the food,
Johnny: Food...
Me: Please bless it,
(Zach blows a raspberry)
Johnny: Haha! Silly Zachy
Me: Please bless it,
Johnny: blows a rasperry
Me: In the name of Jesus Christ
Johnny: Jesus. AMEN! YAY!! (much clapping...)

- Zach is walking. Or whatever you call it that he does. It mostly resembles a penguin's waddle, I think. I used to not fully understand why they called it "toddling." I understand now! He also really loves silverware. I can always tell when he's been in a room because I'll find cute little spoons in the toothbrush drawer, forks on my nightstand, etc. He is truly my little sunshine, and he just loves to leave little rays of happiness everywhere he goes!

Well, I think that updates us for now! Happy blogging :)

The Destructive Duo!

Well, it's official: Zach is mobile! He started crawling about a month ago (he was 8 months old at the time), and is now probably the world's fastest little guy on four....appendages?

Anyway, since he has become so mobile, he goes wherever he wants, which is usually wherever Johnny is. It's actually pretty cute to watch him try to keep up with his big brother - I think that may actually be why he's so fast. Either that, or he's learned how to teleport. If we open a door to outside, he's right there within 3 seconds, no matter where he was in the house!

The real problem with Zach's newfound mobility is that Johnny's little moments of trouble are now twice as bad. He has the ideas, and Zach follows right along! It's a dangerous combination. We know if there's a long period of silence, there's probably been some sort of disaster: a purse relieved of its contents, a new technological something or other thrown in the toilet, a dirty diaper being chewed on, something small (you name it) lodged in Zach's cheeks (yes, he has a few chipmunk qualities), all the movies from the bottom shelf opened up and strewn across the living room, and the list goes on. I have to admit, aside from the frustration and messes, I really do love the spice that these two bring into our lives!

Another quick Johnny-ism that makes me smile - he now communicates if he has a problem. He'll come to me and say, "Uh-oh," and proceed to drag me across the house to find one of his cars stuffed too far under the bed, a fruit snack stuck in the air vent, etc. I love it! Every day brings a new adventure, and I just couldn't be more thankful that these two little hoodlums are MINE!

Happiness!

After my last post, I figured I should definitely update all the happy things going on in our lives! (You don't have to read the surgery post, I mostly just wanted to write it down somewhere while it was still fresh in my mind.)

Anywho, here are all our happy updates!

1. Johnny is talking! He's 22 months old. It's basically just one word at a time (his favorites are sugar, ice, "Shysha" for Aunt Tysha, and ball), but he's working on stringing them together (i.e. "Bye, Da!" and "No way!").

2. Zach is a scooting machine! He only goes backwards, but he rolls a lot too, so he pretty much gets wherever he wants to go. He's been rocking back and forth on his hands and knees, so it's only a matter of time before he just takes off! He's 7 months old and is seriously THE happiest child alive.

3. Paul and I started a fence business. It's called Blue Diamond Fence Company, and it's going great! Our first job was a Parade of Homes house, so we've gotten our names out pretty well. We kind of put everything on hold while I was sick, but we're hoping to pick everything back up this week. Paul is still working at Alsco, but the idea of the business is for Paul to manage it while his guys do the labor. So far, it's been working great!

4. The same week that we started the fencing business, we traded in our cars for a van and a truck! We love them, and we found great deals on both so we only financed $4,000 total!

5. My sister Kelsey won the Price is Right in April! When I say she won, I mean she WON! $54,000 was her grand total in prizes, and it was CRAZY fun to watch!

6. Kyle and "Shysha" got engaged! They're getting married August 13th in the Twin Falls Temple, and we are seriously SO excited. Tysha fits into our family so well, it's crazy to think she's only known us for a year! We love her!

That's pretty much it as far as our exciting news! We're having a great time with our little family, and we really couldn't be any happier together! :)

Surgery City!

Well, for some reason, our little family has decided to keep the health industry in business this past 7 months! We've racked up over $50,000 in medical bills over that span, and the number is still growing. As of right now, we only owe about $2,000 thanks to Paul's aMAZing insurance, which we are just so thankful for.

Needless to say, between Johnny's kidney surgery, my emergency C-section with Zach, and my emergency gallbladder removal last week, we are eager to move on to greener (and healthier) pastures! After Zach was born, I noticed I had a really hard time with digestion for a while. I thought it was maybe just part of C-section recovery or something, but then it started getting worse instead of better. I tried not to complain about it too much, but let's just say...I was miserable. The first time I had a real attack, I thought it was food poisoning. Then when it happened a few more times, I realized no one could possibly be THAT unlucky with food poisoning, so maybe I had a food allergy. I started trying to tweak my diet but that didn't help me either. Finally about a month ago, I decided to tell Paul what was really going on. I hadn't been telling anyone, but I would get really sick 3 or 4 nights out of the week. Paul goes to bed early so I didn't want to bug him about it, but then I finally couldn't take it anymore.

I had done a little research and discovered that the location of the sharp pain and all of the other symptoms were indicative of gallbladder disease. I told Paul I suspected it might be a gallbladder problem and that I was going to start eating differently. However, about a week after I told him this, I had a MASSIVE gallbladder attack and almost went to the emergency room. The pain started ebbing a little, so I decided I would wait until morning so we wouldn't have to pay huge ER bills.

First thing the next morning, I called the doctor and scheduled an appointment for 1:45. At noon, it hurt too much for me to wait any longer, so I had Kelsey come watch my boys while I drove myself to the ER. There they told me it would be at least a couple hours before I could see anyone, so I decided to just wait it out until my scheduled appointment. Dr. Roberts decided my symptoms probably were gallbladder problems, but they would have to do an ultrasound to double check. They couldn't schedule one until the next morning, so she sent me home with pain killers. The ultrasound, however, did not reveal any stones. The only next step was to do a HIDA scan (SUPER not fun scan where they make your gallbladder contract and watch it to see if it's doing its job), which they couldn't schedule until the following Tuesday.

SO.....we waited out the weekend, me on pain pills and basically just dying while family and friends helped with the kids. Tuesday finally came around, and I went and had the HIDA/torture scan done. I called the doctor later that afternoon, and (surprise!) she wasn't in that day! The super nice on-call doctor (I think it was Dr. Kohtz) finally called me back and personally contacted all the surgeons in town so I could get the fastest surgery possible. What a relief! It was still 2 days later that Dr. McKain did the surgery, but from a surgeon's standpoint, that's really fast.

I finally had surgery 10 days after my initial ER visit, and what a relief it was to have it done! It's been a rough week of recovery, but I can already tell a difference in the things I'm able to eat. All I know is that I am SO grateful for the medical knowledge we have today. I'm also grateful to a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to teach me patience and long-suffering. If it wasn't for these hard times, I wouldn't be able to experience so much joy during the good times. The law of opposition comes to mind frequently when I'm going through things like this. I know that in order to truly appreciate the beautiful blessings I've been given (and I HAVE been given so many), I have to endure trials. I'm just glad this one's behind me now!