Brad's clones

Okay, I found some pictures at my mother in law's tonight that confirm in my mind my children's DNA make-up: Brad. Especially this latest child:)

Brad at 15 months - I see a little Jade in the face.

Brad at 4 years old - Dominic gives this look quite often!

Can you say Hudson on the last three?

My little runtlet

*Photos by Felicia Gray




Hudson hit the four month mark on November 7! He is a wonderful addition to our home. He is seriously such a good baby. He loves to be held and talked to. He loooves Dominic and tolerates Jade :) No, really, he loves all kids and watches them all the time. He has discovered his hands and sticks them in his mouth if he doesn't have a pacifier in it already. He sleeps well, eats well and is just a really good natured kid. His hair is still red too! He looks so much like Brad to me. I just keep making them closer to being exact DNA replicas of Brad, it's crazy!

We love this little guy to pieces. I love his adorable dimples, his cheeky babbling and skinny little legs:) He was a whopping 10 pounds 4 ounces at his check up yesterday! And 23 inches long. Dr. Sirsy said he is a little on the small side, but that it was okay since his head was good sized. He said the rest of his body would catch up. We got the okay to start rice cereal. We will be doning that as soon as mom can get to the store:)

A girl up the street is starting a photo business and kindly offered to take Hudson's pics to add to her portfolio. I normally take my own pictures, but she is super nice and obviously talented. All the pictures were taken by her, Felicia Gray. She did a wonderful job and turned them around super fast! I like to see how other photographers work too. It was fun for me to watch her in action.

So how was your week?

This week was quite possibly one of the worst and most stressful in my life! It all started Sunday with Brad feeling a little under the weather. After ward council, he decided to go home and take some Theraflu and rest. I took Hudson to church and went to the primary program. Brad's condition continued to get worse so he called in sick to work on Monday. He never calls in sick. (Dominic gets up and throws up a few times Monday morning.) He couldn't get an appointment with our family doctor, so I convinced him to go to Urgent Care. He came back a few hours later with a diagnoses of bronchitis, but they also suspected an pneumonia so they tested him for that. Tuesday morning comes along, I get up and I am not feeling that great. I am feeling sick to my stomach at first, then I start feeling like I felt three years ago when I was having gall bladder attacks…except I no longer have a gall bladder. I go from bad to worse and insist on Brad taking me to the emergency room. So he does. His dad comes to watch the kids and he and I head over to Rose de Lima (I am so sick, I don't even get dressed, I just stammer into the car in my night gown.)

I get back to the ER and over the course of a few hours determine that I probably have a kidney stone and order a cat scan. I get the cat scan and then get wheeled back to the ER. About an hour or so later, a get the most horrific pain in my life. I am on the bed pleading for help. I am whimpering that I can't breathe. I feel like I'm going to black out any second because of the pain. A very nice nurse comes over to my little corner of the ER and yells at me and tells me to stop saying that I can't breathe, because if I an say that I can't breathe, then I can. She pushes the guard rail up and says, "there, now you won't fall off the bed."

Finally my nurse, who is actually nice comes and gives me a shot of pain medicine. It goes straight to my head and makes me kind of loopy. But I can still feel the pain so she gives me another shot. Finally, I feel better.

They discharge me, but tell me I have to see a doctor soon because I have a kidney stone that is 3 mm and might not pass on its own. GREAT.

So we go home. My sweet sister comes and gets my kids for me because I'm pretty out of it and still in some pain. Then my mom and dad take my kids for the night so I can get some rest. They even take Hudson because I can't nurse him on all the pain medicine. Besides, my mom watch Dominic when he was only six weeks and I had to have my gall bladder removed.

So my mom calls my the next morning early. She said Hudson is running a fever and he didn't really eat anything the night before. told her to bring him over so I could nurse him. She does. Also, Dominic is looking a little sick and running a fever. They get to my house and we call the doctor to get an appointment as soon as the doctor's office opens. My mom and dad take all the kids to the pediatrician. One hour later my mom and dad call me to tell me that they need to take Hudson to the emergency room.

Brad and I rush over there to meet them. As soon as we get there, my Dad and Brad give Hudson a blessing. The doctor in the pediatric er tells me that he is positive for Influenza A. She also says that most likely it is H1N1 too. I am freaking out to say the least. She then tells me that there is nothing they can do for it because he is so young. So they attempt to put an IV in him to rehydrate him. They have almost poked him in every vein possible. Finally, they get a NICU nurse to come down to get the IV started and draw his blood for some tests.

I keep nursing him when he makes a peep in hopes of helping him in some small way. So the doctor decides that he needs to be admitted. So we wait for a room.

Meanwhile, Brad gets us both an appointment with our primary physician. We are there for two hours. He gives Brad a couple of shots, tests him for H1N1 and puts him on Tamaflu because he believes he has the flu, not bronchitis.

He tells me to take all this medicine and that I might have to have surgery to remove my kidney stone. I could have just started bawling in his office…oh yeah, Idid. He told me to go see a uroligist the next day. I left determined not to take anything until my baby was out of the hospital.

I return to the hospital with Hudson and bring my mom some food - she hasn't eaten anything, it's 5:00 p.m. We wait some more hours, finally at around 8:30 they have a pediatric room for Hudson. We go there and get settled. (By this time my pediatrician has called in Tamaflu for my other two kids to start taking. Brad goes and gets the medicine and takes it to my Dad who is watching Dominic and Jade. ) I am also now worried about them too. I ask my mom to go home to help my Dad watch the other two. I stay the night with Hudson.

Hudson and I are attempting to get some sleep at the hospital when the nurse comes in at 2:00 a.m. and tells me that there are contaminates in his blood work and that they need to do a spinal tap. Again, I have a break down. The doctor comes in to explain the procedure. It's basically like and epidural, only instead of adding fluid, they are removing fluid. He asks me if I will be upset watching them do it…I say yes, it's probably best if I don't see it done. So they take him out. About thirty minutes later the doctor comes back and tells me that he thinks everything is okay, but he won't know for sure until the next day.

Hudson and I sleep on and off for the next little bit.

Thursday morning Hudson is looking better. I get an appointment with the urologist. My mom comes to watch Hudson while Brad take me to the doctor. Thankfully the doctor tells me that he thinks I have passed my kidney stones and I don't need to take any medicine!

I go back to the hospital and the doctor checks Hudson out. He is maintaining his body temperature and looking tons better. She says he can go home! We got home about 8:00 last night! My other kids stayed with grandma and grandpa until about 4:00 today so we weren't crossing germs.

We are all home now and somewhat healthy:) Yippy! I went to Target tonight and stocked up on hand sanitizer and Lysol. I am so grateful for everyone that helped us this week. I don't know what I would have done without my mom and dad watching my kids for me and helping us. I know others would have and did help too, we appreciate it so much. We are also thankful for a good, smart pediatrician and last but not least, priesthood blessings and Heavenly Father for helping Hudson to make a speedy recovery:)

Family reunion

This weekend we had the biannual Slack family reunion. (That is Brad's mom's side of the family.) It was held on Saturday at the park in Logandale. We started early with pictures for the Frehners taken by me. We ate, played and had an action to raise money for the next reunion. It was really fun. I enjoy getting to know Brad's extended family better. There are so many of them! I know Brad's Grandma Slack is pleased that her kids still get together and spend time with one another. It is also one of the few times that all of Brad's brothers and sisters are able to get together with their families.

I love being part of a big family both my own and my in-laws.

Such a Jade face

Kid update

Hudson

Hudson had his two month well check on Wednesday. He weighed 10 pounds and was 23 inches long. Long and skinny basically! Everything was good except for that shot thing. You would think by the third kid it wouldn't be that bad…but it was still just kills me to see my little guy get poked in his skinny little leg! (Three times!)

Hudson is a great baby. He sleeps well, eats well and poops well. What more could you ask for? He rarely cries. He sleeps until about 5:00 am, nurses and then goes back to sleep until 9:00 - pretty darn good in my opinion! He loves to go in the sling and snuggle against me. He also likes his swing and overhead toys.

Jade

Where has my sweet baby gone? Jade has turned into a little sassy pants! She is talking up a storm. She can say everything. She is starting to talk in pretty complete sentences. Her favorite things to say at the moment are "Stop it, DD!" "Play pretty hair, Mama" (that means she wants to play with my hair, ALL THE TIME.) "Ouwee, bum" (she needs her diaper changed) "Hudsun mowth go" (Where did Hudson's mouth go because she just can't imagine anyone Not wanting to suck a pacifier!)

She has such determination when she walks. She was pretty petite for a while, but know she is really growing into a sassy toddler. I love her little walk with her "booty" that she does. She loves Taylor Swift and will sit and watch her videos on the computer for hours, if I would let her:) Sometimes it's hard to get after her because she has such spunk and sass and sometimes it's just so darn cute! But believe me, with her new "personality" shining through she has had her first tastes of time outs and "spanks" on the hand.

She is still super cuddly and will say she is "sowry" if she is being mean.

Dominic

Dominic is a super big brother. He is the one that can usually get the biggest grins out of Hudson. He is very good with both Jade and Hudson. However, he can still be found with both of their pacifiers quite often. We have tried EVERYTHING to rid him of this habit. Some things will work for a while, but nothing has broken him of his love for the binky.

In fact, sometimes around four o' clock it will be kind of quiet. I will notice and investigate. Dominic will be passed out dead asleep with a binky in his mouth.

He is quite the character! He is very responsible though too. He has started helping me do the dishes while Jade naps. He scoots a chair right next to me a rinses the dishes off and puts them in the strainer. Then, I let him dry the forks and spoons and organize them in the drawer. For a kid as OCD as Dominic, this is pretty much Heaven:) And me, I'll take any help I can get when it comes to housework!

It looks like he may have the Frehner baseball gene too. He loves to throw things. Not out of anger or rage, just to chuck things…really hard. I, unfortunately don't share his love and most of the time he gets a nice long time out to think about it!

Lots of people told me that three would throw me over the edge, and somedays it does! But I love my kids and their cute little developing personalities. I just pray everyday that I can keep my sanity and have patience. They do crack me up and I wish they weren't growing up quite so fast!

Move over Michael Phelps

Dominic didn't get into the pre-K program at Gordon McCaw this year so I asked him which rec center program he would like to do. He picked swimming lessons. It made me happy because I loved to swim and always like to revisit my glory days as a lifeguard.

He started swimming lessons a few weeks ago and today was his last lesson. I think he was the smallest and youngest kid in his class. He isn't scarred of the water, but he also doesn't really like the idea of putting his head under water or floating on his back just yet. He did very well and liked it, which is most important. Jade also liked swimming lessons. I spent most of my time trying to take pictures and save Jade from joining in a class with all her clothes on.

Dominic had a really sweet girl named Maria as his teacher. She was very good with the kids and super nice. I had to laugh because there was this guy (a dad) talking to her today after lessons and he was laying it on pretty thick. He was borderline flirting with her and telling her how wonderful she was and great she was with kids and her expressions were magical in his MC Hammer pants and wife beater. I could tell she wanted to say "enough creep-o" but she politely stood there and thanked him and then scurried off into the guard room. Moral of the story: even after being gone from the pool for a long time…some things never change:)

Hudson's blessing

Sunday was a special day for our family. Brad blessed Hudson in our ward. We had a little luncheon after at our house. Hudson's blessing was sweet and simple. We had the suppoert of many family members and friends in the circle including Grandpa Glade, Grandpa Parley, Uncle Matt, Uncle Mike, Uncle Chris, Uncle Jarvus, Bishop Brwester and Max. I am so grateful Brad holds the priesthood and has been able to give all of our children blessings. 

I was also glad I was able to get a little smile out of Hudson in his cute little blessing outfit.

Happy 27th birthday to the best husband:) Love you tons. (And here is a little proof that all my children are clones of their Dad)

Wish I could do this more often…

I love to scrapbook. I like to scrapbook traditionally as well as my newer found love of digital scrapbooking. Now that Hudson is out and I have another little one to document milestones I figured I had better get crackin' on it! While Jade is taking a nap, I whipped these up in photoshop. I already sent them to Costco to get printed too. They are super simple, but I did interview Dominic and all his answers are his own. It's pretty funny to listen to three year olds:)

Dominic also started swimming lessons today so I'll be posting some pictures of that when I can get more action shots.