Disneyland Love

We had yet another fun Disneyland adventure this weekend. We stayed at the greatest hotel, Marriott Suites, my favorite one thus far and it was only $44 for the night! It was a 2 bedroom suite and Brady was actually able to sleep in his own space, his favorite thing, mine too! Oh and did I mention it was $44 for the night?
Cameron was excited because this was the first time he has been with us to Disneyland in about a year. He had such a great time. Andie couldn't wait to show him all of her favorite rides and the little Mickey heads hidden around the park. He finally was able to see how magical Disneyland is for Andie. I just can't explain how sweet it is to see her reactions when she sees one of her "rockstars". While we waited for Cameron to upgrade his pass, all the characters were out so we took advantage of the short lines and got the camera out for a few photo ops. Before we go to Disneyland every time, Andie has a character that she is absolutely set on seeing during the trip. A lot of the time we do indeed see that one special character, but when we have to go home without the sweet sighting it is a sad car ride home. Now that we have pictures with just about all the favorites I think we are good for a while.
It was so cute watching Andie drag Cameron all over the park and telling him all about "her" rides. We went from one end of the park to the other, ran over to California Adventure did a few favorites and had to call it a day about 3 o'clock . The heat was out of control! When we planned the weekend adventure it was only supposed to be 88 degrees, but it ended up being more like 100 with the humidity. We figure we would much rather come back later in the month as opposed being miserable.
And now, a few pictures with the characters...

They were so excited they couldn't even take their eyes off him!

Brady was fascinated and Andie thought Brady was being funny so again no picture of them looking.

Finally a picture with Andie looking!

One of Andie's favorites, Pluto!

And We're Back!

Brady on the carousel with Grandpa!

Brady happy in the car (rare treat)

Andie on the carousel

Brady at the beach!

Cameron, Andie and Amber at the La Brea Tar Pits

After a much needed trip to Sacramento this past week I realized that a) a lot of people actually DO read my blog and b) several of you were sad that I haven't posted a new one in ONE MONTH!!!
So here it goes, I hope I can remember everything that has happened in the ONE MONTH that I have been gone.
We moved back to San Diego the first of August so that Cameron could come and work for his dad. They are selling insurance, securities and annuities, Cameron is LOVING working for his dad and Bill loves having someone else to spend his days with! (I am only assuming the last part is true). Andie is so excited to be in San Diego because she has convinced herself that we can got to Disneyland EVERY DAY! She's had a bit of a reality check and has learned to settle with going to the beach instead. Brady turned ONE YEAR OLD and I still can't believe that my baby isn't much of a baby anymore. In light of all the birthdays in July and August, Andie has taken it upon herself to divvy out what she is expecting for HER Birthday and even Christmas. Top of the list, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs DVD (grandma), a stuffed Pinocchio doll (mommy), and a real Buzz Lightyear (daddy). Easy enough right? Well you should see the Christmas list, she is saving all the big stuff for the most wonderful time of the year. The child is almost too smart for her own good.
After 2 weeks of settling in after the move, the kids and I took a trip up to Sacramento for 10 days. My brother in-law Justin was on leave from Iraq and it was my Dad's 50th (Sorry Dad, secrets out. Don't worry you can be 50 for the next ten years!) It was a great visit and the kids had a great time with all their cousins. Andie and Grandpa did quite a bit of bonding which was good even if it did take a certain obnoxious guitar to get the job done! We already miss everyone and can't wait to spend Christmas with them.
Wow, I guess a whole lot really didn't happen. It seemed like a like more in my head!
On to Andie then. She has recently taken on praying and in fact she is the only one who gets to bless the food anymore. It goes a little something like this: "Dear Heavenly Father, grateful for this day and the blessings. Bless we can go to the museum in Grandpa's truck and see the squirrels and he wont hurt me. Bless the gospel. Bless Jesus Christ, Amen. And bless the food." Every time is about the same with a little variation, but this one is my favorite. Just when I think it isn't possible, she gets funnier. The things this child says are out of control. Yesterday she ran into me and said, "oh Mommy, you ok? I'm so sorry Mommy. I didn't mean to hurt you. You ok? You didn't mean to spank me the other day. You're so sorry. Oh Mommy." I think she was expecting an apology from me and this was her way of getting it. Even as I write this, I am cracking up just replaying the conversation in my head.
Brady loves to dance! The boy can not keep himself still if there is any sort of music playing. It is the funniest thing, because he doesn't just dance, he suddenly develops a bobble head and it looks like it will just roll off his neck. He is starting to pick up little habits from his big sister which I am not totally loving, like oh, TANTRUMS! It's only happened 2 or 3 times and it isn't even close to the degree at which Andie has them, but she has planted a little tantrum seed in him and we all know what happens to seeds, THEY GROW. He is a very good child and takes direction well so I am pretty confident we can rid him of this bad habit before it becomes bigger.
I am sure you are wondering what ever happened with the running since the attack of the mosquitoes. Well I HAVEN'T RUN SINCE!!! Sorry to let you all down, but I have taken up walking, 2 miles almost every night with Karen. It's been great. It's nice to go with someone, get away from the kids and have adult conversation.
Boy it's good to be back! Until next time...

That's What I Get!

I've been re motivated to exercise and have decided to start running, funny right! I have attempted this ridiculous feat several times since moving to Utah but it always ends up in shin splints and a chest that feels like it will explode if I take in one more struggled breath. So for my birthday, oh yeah, I turned 24 on the 11th, Cameron bought me some new running shoes (thank you thoughtful husband) and I decided to reattempt the running! I got a running program from my mom and thought about it for a few days, to stall, I mean mentally prepare and finally took the leap on Sunday night. I decided in the morning that in the evening I would go because it would be cooler than 100 degrees out. I even told Cameron to remind me that I was to go running tonight because I didn't trust myself to remember on my own. It was 8:30 at night, still light out but only about 80 degrees, I got dressed, grabbed my ipod, and told Cameron I would be back in 30 mins (don't want to get too ahead of ourselves here). I did a few stretches on the front porch cranked up the ipod and began my run. It was going great, the weather was perfect I was really enjoying myself and thought for the first time in almost a year, "this isn't that bad, I actually might be able to do this running thing!" With the program, which works you up to a long run, you walk for the first 5 mins, then run 60 secs and walk 90 secs on and off 8 times. I was doing great, getting parched, but feeling like I could finish. I was on the 4th interval when I realized I was running/hoping trying to itch my shoulder, then my ankle and my thigh, then my arm, oh the cheek. Ahhh, just thinking about it makes me itch all over again! What the heck?!? I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos! I HATE mosquitos! I kept on running, but the more sweaty I got the more I was feasted upon. I had to stop, but I couldn't possibly quit now, I was so close I could taste it. I sat down for a minute just to itch and try to convince myself that I could go on. I got up and attempted another drill of walk/run and 30 seconds into the run my legs were on on FIRE! I had concentrated so much on the nasty creatures feasting on my sweet sweaty flesh, that I forgot to convince myself that this was indeed as easy as it sounds. What was I doing?! If the bugs didn't kill me the running surly would. Finally I was done, I walked home and realized
THIS IS WHAT I GET FOR RUNNING!
Now it has been two days, I am supposed to go again and I am thinking, do I dare chance the pesky insects having another Thanksgiving feast on my sweet flesh?

......to be continued

Brady!

Night before surgery having his "last meal" look at the sweet face!

Right after he coded, still trying to figure out what just happened.

Mommy holding Brady, him holding his oxygen mask with his IV hand.

Right after they woke him up, gave him fentenyl and he passed out again.

Playing in the pre-op room with no idea of what is about to happen.

This post is long overdue! Brady finally had his surgery to repair a hernia on June 30 at SLC Children's Hospital. We went in early in the morning and were home by 3:30pm. The surgery went well, when they got in there, Dr. Matlack said that the hernia was as big as one in an adult male! So he has an incision that is an inch long as opposed to a cm, no biggie! He had a hard time coming out of sedation and was in a lot of pain so they gave him fentanyl, which he liked...naturally! We sat in recovery, for an hour and Brady seemed to be doing well he still wasn't himself but his vitals were great so they discharged him to go home. I got him dressed, they took all the tubes out of him and the last one was the IV. He was NOT a fan of that! There I was holding him, he was crying, then making no sound, turning BLUE and the nurse looked as scared as I did!!! I was quietly freaking out, made eye contact with the head nurse, looked at Brady at the same time she did and she immediatly ran in. She looked at the other nurse and said, "hello! would you call a code blue?!!" She told me not to worry and bring him over to the bed, all the while I was holding onto the gauze that was keeping him from bleeding all over the floor because the taking out of the IV is what caused this all. Probably 15 people ran into the room, he still wasn't breathing and was completely blue. They bagged him, he still wasn't breathing. They couldn't give him anything cause we just took the IV out! So they starting doing CPR and I had to stop watching. They all calmed down a bit and thought "oh good, he is breathing again"....uhhhh no! It wasn't until maybe a minute after I thought he was ok that the Dr. said, "finally, a breath big boy!" I looked back at Brady and saw that he was still blue but the color was coming back and he had a look of panic on his face. He just stared at everyone like, "what just happened?" They asked me to come over, I did, he looked at me then at everyone and smiled. It was very cute! He was out for a few minutes and they said it was because of the fentanyl they gave him, the medication just caused his body to forget how to breath when he was crying. So we had to stay in recovery for 2 1/2 more hours until the fentenyl was completely out of his system and his oxygen couldn't fall even once. About an hour after the scare he was back to his normal self but he still had to stay to be monitored. We finally were able to go home mid afternoon only after we pissed him off and made him cry hard again and they were confident that he wouldn't do it again. Just in case though, they told us what to do if he did turn blue again and we were instructed to keep a close eye on him and try to keep him from getting too upset (riiiight, Andie isn't his sister or anything!). Thanks to Grandma Karen, Andie was taken care of and it was one less thing on my mind. It has been a week and a half and I still freak out when he cries really hard, it's dumb I know, but I do. He has had a great recovery from what I can tell and he is up and around driving Andie more crazy than ever! I am so grateful that all went well with the surgery I was a little worried about it but I am glad it's over. Of course I have pictures to post!!!

4th of July

The Casper Family cousins: Lauren, Molly, Kate, Brady and Andie

Can you find them? Cameron and Andie at Bridal Vail Falls

Waiting for everyone to hike down from the falls Brady was a little pooped!

Andie and her "best buddy" Kate!

Andie all ready for the 4th. You can't see how cute her hair was, but it was!

We had a really nice 4th this year. Grandma Karen was in town for Brady's surgery earlier in the week, so Lindsay and her family came up to join in the fun. On Friday we took the kids to the animal farm at Thanksgiving Point (which is one of our family favorites) and the kids had a blast! That night everyone came over for dessert, haircuts (thanks again Lindsay, you are the best!), and craft time. Yes, I said crafts. We made shirts for the girls for the 4th (see top picture) they came out really cute, I was impressed with myself! On Saturday we had every intention of going to the parade in Provo but when the street was PACKED with people at 8 o'clock on Friday night we decided that it was only going to be more packed on Saturday morning and maybe not that much fun with all the little kids. So Saturday the 4th we went to Bridal Vail Falls, Aspen Grove, and Bob and Kel's. At Bridal Vail, everyone hiked up to the top of the waterfalls except me, Karen, and the two smallest kids. Andie had SO much fun going to the top! She found Mommy and Grandma and waved until her little arm got tired. She sang "Following the Leader" (from Peter Pan) during the whole hike up and liked being dangerously close to the edge! After the Falls we drove up to Aspen Grove, which I had never done, and it was seriously gorgeous! What a beautiful place. I got lots of pictures which I am sure I will never do anything with, but it was satisfying to take them. We took the kids home to take much needed naps in preparation for the evening festivities. Bob and Kelly had a great BBQ spread for everyone to enjoy. We had fun laughing, eating, eating and eating! The kids played until they were exhausted and then went to the Ladybug park. Cousin Kate spent the night and the girls did fireworks with Cameron, they had so much fun giggling and playing with sparklers and didn't go to bed until about 11:30pm! What a great 4th, thank you so much for all the family we got to see and spend much needed time with. Now a post wouldn't be complete without some pictures so here they are!

Bountiful Temple

This is the Draper Temple I believe

Andie in front of the Bountiful Temple

The family in front of the Bountiful Temple

Today we went to the Bountiful Temple and took a family picture. I don't even know the last time we took a family picture but it is nice to have a current one. Andie loves to go around to the different temples, go in and get a schedule card with that temple's picture on it, and take her own picture out front. She is in awe at each and every different one she gets to see. She always comments on how beautiful they are and likes to look for the Angel Moroni on top "playing the trumpet just like Quincy!" (Quincy is a kid on Disney's Little Einsteins and he plays the trumpet a lot). I am so glad that at 2 years old she has a such a love and excitement for the temple. She knows that when she goes inside she has to be very quiet and likes to remind us to do the same.

Kids at the Animal Farm