2 years ago...

This past week, Jason and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. I have to say that it feels like it should be married like 5 years with all the major life events we have crammed into these past 2 years. But what can I say...we must be on the "fast track for learning life's lessons" or something.... who knows. In the past two years, we may have moved to 3 different states, had 2 children, and countless other life changes but one thing remains...the fact that I love Jason! What does change is how much I love him. It seems that my love for him grows and grows each day (well most days...j/k) I think about how much I loved him on the day we got married compared to now and it seems as if there is no comparison. Jason is my ultimate best friend and my everything! He has such a kind heart and is one of the hardest working persons I know. He is a great husband, father, and person! Thank for all you do hon! I love you!

London's Baby Blessing...

Another awesome family picture...we will eventually get a good one...the kids might be 30 but we will get one...some day

Today, August 23, 2009, we gave London a name and a blessing. Jason's parents were in town, from Hawaii, and so we decided to go ahead to take the opportunity with both sets of Grandparents in the same place at the same time. London looked like an absolute doll in her dress. She wore the same dress that my sisters and I all wore to be blessed in. Jason gave a beautiful blessing which I was lucky enough to hear...thanks Jen for taking Brayden out. ( Brayden started screaming and we had to rush him out...heaven forbid his sister be the spotlight of the attention and not him) Brayden also looked so cute in his little suit and tie and vest! We had a luncheon at our house after and had a fun time visiting with everyone. Thanks to everyone who came and thanks sweetheart for being a worthy priesthood holder and being able to bless "our little miracle".

A rare spare moment...

Tonight, as I find myself with a rare spare moment, I decided I need to take the time to update the blog. I have decided it is my new form of scrapbooking/family history and I am going to have my blogs printed out and put in a book. One of these days...

I feel like my life is always going 90 miles an hour and maybe even 110 miles an hour now that we have moved into our new house. We moved in August 1st and thanks to the wonderful help of the Elders Quorm we did it in about 2 hours. Now the unpacking (my job) is another story...for the most part we are unpacked and set up but there are still a few boxes here and there...mostly things we are going to sell, get rid of, or i don't know where to put. We'll get there someday...

Aside from moving, unpacking, and making sure life keeps going on yes, I had a birthday on the 8th. Jason was in Athens all day at student orientation and so it was me and the kids. We stopped by my parents and said hi and then the next day, Sunday, my mom made me a terrific stake dinner complete with a birthday cake. Thanks mom! I have to say...I feel so much older than 24 years old....maybe it has something to do with having 2 kids and a husband that is almost 8 years older than i am. It doesn't really matter though...its only a number.

Beyond that...I can't believe that Brayden is 16 months old now (yes, I can't wait for in 2 months when he gets to go to nursery!!!)! What really gets me is that London is already 4 months old. It felt like time stood still while she was in the hospital and since she has been home it has flown by!!! I really had a baby 4 months ago? London continues to be a terrific little baby and is slowly getting out of her newborn stage. She has more awake periods of time and enjoys laying at her kick and play looking around, and batting at the colors and toys. She is about 10 pounds now and looks huge to me. She is really long, with a long torso (did not get that one from me!) and a skinny little thing. We go to the doctor next week so i can give a more updated report then. Thank goodness London is so easy because Brayden keeps me plenty busy! His current favorite thing is to read his books! He is obsessed with his books. Which is a good thing. I am all for promoting reading! Brayden is also doing better around London and will actually come snuggle next to me while i am holding her which he would not do at all before. Also big news that is keeping me busy is the fact that Brayden began climbing. I went to the bathroom and came out 2 seconds later to find Brayden scaling the bookcase. What was he going for? A picture of Jason and I.

Jason continues to keep on the go with construction work, school, and being an assistant scout master. How he does it all? I don't know but we sure love him and are grateful for him!

I also found out today than i can sell my cupcakes at the football games so i need to start getting that prepared and going because the first home game is in 2 weeks! oh lots to do!!!...

Yes, this is a real picture. He climbed up into his dumb truck and was reading his books.

My lolly dolly hanging out

Baby Smiles...

I love baby smiles! I took these last week and no it is not gas...London is beginning to smile! She is doing great and is about 9 pounds now. Yes, I know, compared to other 3 1/2 month old babies she is tiny but to me she is growing like crazy! We finally got out of newborn clothes, because she is so long, and into 3 month clothes (not that they fit width wise but they do length wise). We have begun to see some of London's talents really come out which include: lip smacking, stretching, sleeping, eating, and projectile spitting up. She is great at all of them especially the last one.

The grand hospital total, our new home, and congrats to all the new mom's and babies...

So, I think that we have received all of the medical statements/bills for London and I and we now have the grand total amount...drum roll...

$772,057.50!!!

I went and told Jason after I had figured it out and he said, "Well that isn't much different from the last total." I said, "It's $12,000+ more." Jason replies, "Oh that's nothing when you are already in the $700,000 dollar range. I thought you were going to tell me it was over a million dollars." I said, "No but that would have been kind of awesome though..."

Oh well...even though we didn't reach the million dollar mark that is more than ok! $ 772,057.50 is still pretty awesome in my book. And in regard to many comments from my last post on the amount, we have been very blessed and not even had to pay 10% of that amount because London qualified for some extra funding programs since she was a "micro preemie".

As for other news...

We found a place to live!!! It is a cute 3 bedroom/2.5 bath town house. It has a cute little backyard and has a kitchen that will work for me to do my cakes and baking...and it is in the ward boundaries and about a 5 minute drive from Grandpa and Grandma Rupp's house. We move in on July 30th! Although it has no garage, we have 2 designated parking spots in front of the house, and it is seriously lacking in visitor parking we...well, I, Emily am so happy to have found something.

I also wanted to say congrats to everyone who had their baby in the past couple of days. It seems that my friends went through a girl baby boom around London's arrival time and now they are going though a boy baby boom. Congrats to Courtney, my BYU sophmore year roommate, who had her 2nd little guy, Collin, on Saturday, congrats to Lauren, on of my BYU freshman year roommates, who had her 1st little one, Macsen, on Sunday, and congrats to Katie, my best friend growing up, who had her 1st little one, Marshall, this morning!!! And still yet to come...Stacia, Jerilyn, Shannon, and Claire.

sprinklers, finger painting, and wierd rashes...

Summer vacation does not really mean a whole lot to a parent who's child can't go to school yet but we have been trying to do some fun and different things anyway. I let Brayden play in the sprinkler for the first time about a week ago and he loved it. I know, I should have put a swim diaper or swimsuit on him but it was an impromptu thing. Then we had a finger painting experience at the Benson's house. We rolled out a huge piece of butcher paper in the garage, got crayola finger paints, stripped the kids down to their diapers and let them go crazy...well to some extent. I thought for sure that Brayden would be very into this because he likes to pulverize his food and finger paint with it and with liquid but when it is allowed...not so much. He was more interested in painting himself. And then he looked like a big blueberry because the blue paint he loved do much stained his skin. We had to do some serious scrubbing to get it off...so much for "washable paints" ...

Then on Sunday, Brayden got a weird rash that we thought was a couple different things. Our first suspicion was chicken pox but he has had the first part of the vaccine so who knows. We also thought it might be a case of measles since he got his MMR vaccine on Friday but no...we waited and saw what he looked like on Monday morning and decided he needed to go to the doctor. The rash had spread all over his body and the poor kid looked like leper but he was still a happy little thing. Dome of his spots were turning purple and they were all blotchy and huge....not like chicken pox at all. It turns out the rash was from a viral infection that he had gotten apparently a week or so ago. We gave him Benadryl and slathered on calamine lotion and 2 days later it was gone. Weird....

Braden's catch of the day...

So as Brayden becomes more comfortable with having London around he gets more bold in the things he will try to do to her. This is London this evening laying at her kick and play just looking around and being happy. The night was going so well. All babies had been fed and bathed and Brayden was happy to play in Grandma's Tupperware cabinet. Well...for about a minute because that is how long his attention span is right now. So after ripping apart the cupboard and scattering Tupperware all over the kitchen floor he walks off to go play with his toys. I went over and began cleaning up the Tupperware... All of a sudden, I hear Brayden full out laughing. Now, he never full out laughs unless someone is playing with him. He will giggle to himself and talk to himself but never full out belly laughs. So this caused me to stop and go and see what he was up to. I walk into the living room and find Brayden dragging London by the end of her little "sleep sack" pajamas across the floor. I had two reactions at the time. I laughed becasue it was pretty funny and then I had to be the parent and tell Brayden to stop and that he can't do that to his sister. He did his classic thing...he just laughed at me and walked away. Yes...he is like his dad. (Apparently, when Jason was little, and now, he would start laughing to get out of trouble and becasue his laugh was so infectious, his mom had a hard time staying mad at him. Note: he does this to me too and as much as I dont like when he does it, it works pretty good.) Brayden is such a little charmer...he will turn on his little smile and act as cute as can be and he totally knows what he is doing. I tell ya...I need to get this kid into acting becasue he knows how to do it good..when he wants to of course.

What the heck have we been up to...?

I was talking to one of my friends on the phone and she asked what the heck our family had been up to since we moved to Atlanta....well here is a run down of our life currently...

Jason-Jason has spent the past 4 1/2 months doing lots of different things including applying for mass amounts of jobs, remodeling my mom's pantry, holding down the fort while I was in the hospital and making a ton of trips to the hospital to see me and then London. Jason has also been extremely busy doing lots of remodeling and handy man work and has gotten so busy he has a waiting list now. The hot things to remodel...the master bath. He is now working on his 3rd bathroom in the past 2 months. Jason is also doing some consulting and estimating for an hvac company on the side. Jason is the Assistant Scout Master for the 11 year olds and loves it!

Emily- What the heck have I been up to? The biggest thing...trying not to go insane! Besides having London, living at the hospital, bring London home, going to lots and lots of doctors appointments, teaching Brayden to walk, working on Brayden learning to talk, keeping the family happy I have also started up my cake business. Business has actually been pretty good and I am currently set to sell gourmet cupcakes at the high school football games this fall. I'm a little scared since it is such a big commitment and they estimate I can sell about 1,000 cupcakes a night. I am not starting at 1,000 though....we will see how the first game goes. Besides making good money, at least that is the plan, it will be a great marketing tool and really get me in the door with the community. I am the ward community welfare resource specialist for our ward....in the short that means I help people get set up with community resources that can benefit them.

Brayden-Brayden is so busy we can't keep him busy enough. Since being in Atlanta, Brayden has learned to walk and is working on explaining his vocabulary. Brayden loves to figure out how things work and is very attached to his blankie. Brayden now has 7 teeth and is working on getting in all 4 of his molars...not fun. Brayden is adjusting to having a sister and is generally a happy...and loud...little boy.

London-Little London is such a good little baby. She still pretty much eats and sleep all the time. She has to in order to keep up with how fast she is growing. On average, London grows about an ounce and a half a day....has grown 5 inches since being born and gained about 5 pounds. London is doing great and we love her lots!

As a family, we are working on finding a place to live. We put in our notice to end our storage unit contract so we are trying to find something by the beginning of August. We are trying to stay in the ward boundaries but having a hard time finding something we can afford. We'll see where we end up. Jason is getting ready to start school in a month and we are all loving being here for the boating season. Jason is getting awesome at doing jumps on the wake board and finally managed to jump the entire wake which is hard to do on a water ski boat. Way to go hon!

4th of July 2009...

I can't believe how big Brayden is getting!

TAnother family picture attempt...

Jason and Brayden watching Joe lite fireworks in the backyard...the pool was empty at the time and I am not sure why they sat in it but when I looked out the window and saw how cute they looked I had to take a picture.

This fourth of July we started celebrating a day early and spent Friday evening boating with Grandpa and Grandma Rupp. Saturday afternoon, we went to our friends, the Benson's, house

for a BBQ with a bunch of our friends in the ward. We had great food...including awesome flank steak by Dawnelle and incredible ribs by Lisa! After dinner, the firework lighting began. However, we didn't make it to far into that because Brayden was so done and wanted to go home and go to bed. That's ok. We had fun anyways with everyone. Here are some pictures...

Brayden's friend Ellie-what a cutie pie!

This pretty much summed up London's excitement for the day.

Brayden being a big boy with all the other kids...

What does $760,023.50 get you?...

So I decided to add up all of London and I's medical bill statements that have come so far. Yes...the grand total, so far, has come to...

$760,023.50!!!

So...what does $760,023.50 buy you ask?...

-a 3 day hospital stay in the high-risk labor and delivery unit
-a 10 day stay in the high-risk labor and delivery unit
-a 61 day stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
-numerous blood/laboratory tests
-4 blood transfusions
-tons of x-rays and ultrasounds
-exams by neonatologists, perinatologists, OBGYN's, surgeons, anastisologists, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, gastrointestinologists, audiologists, opthamologists, cardiologists, neurologists...
-a fleet of nurses to attend to you
-1 emergency C-section
-1 epidural (which they put in the wrong place so they then had to pump me up with double the normal amount of medicine)
-tons of iv's
-oxygen/breathing aids
-lots of incubators
-all of the medical equipment
-lots and lots of pain killers and other medicines
-mass amounts of saltines and graham crackers and apple juice....oh wait that is free...
-"other charges" of $54,288.50...whatever that is...
-fetal monitoring 24-7
-the cleaning crew to clean up all of the yucky messes
-oh wait...and the pillows are free....how nice of them!

I know...pretty impressive...I am going to wait like another month before I call the final total to see what other statements we get.

However, I am going to save some of the really impressive statements, the ones in the hundreds of thousands, for London's scrapbook.

All i can say is...thank heavens for good medical insurance!!!

A day at Zoo Atlanta...

At the beginning of April, about a week before London came home from the hospital, our ward play group took a trip to Zoo Atlanta. We decided to make it a family outing and spend some one-on-one time with Brayden before his whole world was changed when London came home.

Brayden and dad at the Panda exhibit.

Mr. Panda Bear eating his lunch.

Brayden's favorite part of the whole trip was the petting zoo where he got to get up close and personal with goats and sheep. He liked being able to touch the animals and chase them around. However, the petting zoo was where Brayden's allergies started really going down hill. We started off with Brayden's nose and eyes running like a faucet and so we gave him some children's clariton right after we got inside the zoo gates. After the zoo, Brayden's face was swollen, blotchy, and he was miserable. By that afternoon, not only was Brayden's face swollen but his eyes were almost swollen shut. He looked so bad that I called the pediatrician to see if I needed to take him to the ER but because he was not wheezing we didn't have to go. We also discovered that Brayden is allergic to something in sunscreen. We have tried numerous brands all on different occasions and he still gets a rash and swelling from it. In the end, all of this led to an epi-pen prescription from the doctor and a trip to the allergist for allergy testing. Yep, the poor kid has allergies.

All in all, we decided that Brayden might need to be a little older to fully enjoy the Zoo more.

Boating with the Benson's...

Two Saturday's ago, we went boating with our friends the Benson's. They have a son who is almost 4 and then a daughter who is 2 weeks younger than Brayden and so we get together often so that Brayden and Ellie can play together as well as Joe and Jason because lets face it....they are kids at heart too. It was the first time on a boat for the kids and they were a little nervous at first but they ended up having a blast.

Benson family playing in the water!

Don't you love this picture Dawnelle? Your face and the tube in the air says it all. Good thing you took your glasses off and couldn't see that one coming.

By the end of the day, the kids were exhausted and both fell asleep in Dawnelle's arms and Jason and I were tubing. See Dawnelle, Brayden and you are friends!

London's baby shower...

This past Thursday, my sweet visiting teachers and the Bishop's wife, threw me and London a baby shower. This is London and I before we left. London got an adorable green party dress from Grandma Rupp that she wore to the shower....(and of course as soon as we arrived she spit-up all over it. But not to worry...we cleaned it up and she looked great again.) London enjoyed being held as she was passed around and everyone got to check her out (well all the healthy people did). Everyone was so sweet! London got a cute assortment of clothes and blankets and got Baby Gaped, Cartered, and Gymboreed out! The ward was so sweet and went in on a gift for us and got us a double stroller. I am really excited about it because not only is it a double stroller for 2 kids but it converts to a sit and stand stroller so it grows with you as the kids grow. Thanks to everyone for being so sweet and thoughtful!

Our first picture as a family of 4...

Ok, so i decided to get my act together and update the blog since the Grandparents did not like that I had gone so long without updating...Last Sunday, we took London to church for the first time and we decided to take a family picture...lets just say it was a challenge. We tried to get a picture of just Brayden and London but he kept trying to push her away and off the couch. We then took a family one and Brayden tried to push me out of the picture because I was holding London. This was our best attempt which needs improvement...good thing we have lots more family pictures to go to practice.

London in her cute Sunday dress!

We survived the first week!...

I know that officially, I have had 2 kids for over 2 months now but it hasn't truly felt like until this past week since London has been home from the hospital. The good news is that we all survived the week...that means that Jason and I survived a week of severe sleep deficit, London survived Brayden, and Brayden survived his many temper tantrums that he threw because he had to share mom and dad and the spotlight of all the attention. I won't lie...on more than one occasion, I found myself thinking, "Oh my goodness, what did we get ourselves into. We are crazy." or "Heavenly Father certainly wants me to learn patience doesn't he?!" However, regardless of all that we love our two children and wouldn't have it any other way!

I have to say that Heavenly Father must know my limits because he made London such a good baby...maybe that is just for now or until I have this all a little more under control but I'll take whatever I can get! London never really cries, she grunts and groans, and does a little 2 second cry here and there but she has yet to come out and full out cry yet. She is a very easy going baby that is content to sit and look around, eat, and sleep. Thank heavens because Brayden makes up for both of them right now...not that he is bad...he just wants to check out everything and investigate it all. Brayden's problem is that he is so smart he figures out how everything works and in order to do that he takes it all apart and then tries to put it back together. He is a very mechanically inclined little boy. We have had numerous strangers who have been stranding by us in line at the store or somewhere tell us that they thought Brayden was going to be an engineer when he grows up.

London is getting to be a little chunker these days...5 lbs. 11 oz as of Wednesday. I am very grateful for insurance because I went and got a months worth of London's formula at the pharmacy...i couldn't believe how expensive it was....$47.60 for a 14oz can...with a months worth of formula totaling $856.00!!! Yikes! Thank heavens for medical insurance!!!

Of course, I didn't take any pictures this past week. There was either no time...I was too busy protecting London from Brayden, or Brayden from himself, or I was too tired...however, I have resolved to do better this week.

London is finally home!!!!

Today, London came home and we are so excited! I am also relieved and feel like I can somewhat relax...that is for about 5 seconds until I realize that I have 2 babies!!! I had to laugh at myself because when we got home I told Jason that I was crazy for thinking I never got things done with 1 baby...ha...now I really never get anything done with 2 babies!

We found out yesterday evening that London was going to come home. I was all ready to camp out at the hospital over night to make sure she took all of her bottles but the doctors went ahead and wrote the orders that night so I went home because I knew she would come home. Before going to bed last night, Jason told me to enjoy my last night of good sleep...I said yeah right and that is about how it turned out because Brayden decided to wake up multiple times last night. Oh well. The doctors also pulled the feeding tube last night and it was finally nice to see London without anything taped to her face.

We took London home about 9:30 this morning and, due to hospital protocol, they had to wheel me out of the hospital in a wheel chair. So there is my big picture before we get in the car to come home. When we got home, we were finally able to introduce Brayden to London. He wasn't quite sure what to make of her and was way more interested in his new toy that we gave him at the same time. He got a toy workbench and toy power tools. He is already carrying his hammer and cordless drill around everywhere....he must take after his dad!

London has been a breeze so far...all she does it eat and sleep and then eats again. It made me wonder why I was in such a hurry for Brayden to grow up when being a new baby is so much easier! I have learned my lesson and am fully enjoying London just being a little ity-bity thing.

As the day progressed, Brayden decided that he did not like sharing mama and did not like when I held or fed London or showed her any attention. Lets just say that he has a bit of an adjustment to make now that he is not the center of the world anymore. Thank heavens for Grandma today! She helped to distract Brayden so he wouldn't be so upset. He also did not like that I wouldn't let him steel London's bottle and drink it. I told him that he couldn't have London's bottle and drink her "liquid gold", as this formula is nicknamed since it is the most expensive one out there. The house has turned into Babies 'R' Us with all of Braden's toys, the diapers, bottles, and now the baby swing and bouncy seat to add to the collection. Thank you mom and dad for putting up with us and all of the stuff that is seeming to take over the house!

Tomorrow, we begin the frequent journey to all the many doctors. We kick it off with a visit to the pediatrician tomorrow morning in fact. It has been a bit of a challenge with London home because Brayden has a cold so we are trying to keep them apart so that London does not catch Brayden's cold.

For now, all is well and we are just happy to have London home and to begin a new chapter in our lives. The Lord has blessed us tremendously along this journey and we could not have done it with out all the help from friends and family...especially Grandpa and Grandma Rupp who spent hours and hours babysitting Brayden. Thank you so much.

Brayden with his new toy...his consolation prize for having London come home.

Can you believe that 13 months ago, Brayden looked the same as London does in this car seat? Now he barley fits in it!