Our New Mexico Trip

We had lots of fun in New Mexico last week. We stayed nice and busy spending time with Kirt's family. Hailey loved playing with Janae and Sam became very attached to grandpa. Here are some photos to highlight the trip.

Lillywhites

If anyone was wondering whether or not Sam and Hailey were really Lillywhites, here is the proof. Sam loved playing in the rock yard. As we were packing up the car, he thought it would be fun to play in the rocks in his diaper. When we were at a picnic in the canyon with Kirt's family Hailey decided it would be find to collect rocks. I think she was afraid grandpa didn't have enough at the rock farm. Rocks rule!!

Fireworks

Here are the firework pictures I forgot to add to the last post.

4th of July Fun

I know, I know I said I was going to be better about blogging, but I guess nobody's perfect right? I wanted to put some pictures from last month. We had a good, hot July. The 4th of July was really fun. We got up early that morning and went to the balloon fest with some of our neighbors. It was fun to see the balloons up close. The kids thought it was a little too early in the morning. After the balloon fest, we went out to breakfast. Later that evening we played in the cul-de-sac with the neighborhood kids and then did fireworks with them. Hailey went to bed and Kirt and I sat in the middle of the cul-de-sac with the neighbors and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We had a perfect view, we just wished it had started earlier.

Birthday Bash

We had a celebration of Grandma Forman's and Sam's birthdays yesterday. It was really fun! The kids had fun playing with the cousins and swimming. Hailey gets really shy whenever we are there and never wants to smile for any pictures.

Tina & Mavis

We have had 2 ducks that have been coming back to our house everyday. Our next door neighbor Kalyana affectionately named them Mavis and Tina when they first started visiting in the spring. They come to the back door and start quacking until we bring them some bread. Hailey and Sam get a big kick out of feeding them. Hailey is very protective and gets mad at anyone (most of the time it is Sam) who tries to scare them away. She yells, "SAM-U-WALL, NO SCARE THE DUCKS!!" Sam even says ducks when he sees them. Anyway, tonight while I was getting the kids ready for bed, I heard quacking and asked Hailey if the ducks were there and she said she could only see the mommy duck. We took some bread out to her and she just kept quacking and looking around. I know this might sound totally wierd, but she (the duck) actually looked sad. Admit it, you are probably thinking, "Wow, Emily has totally lost it, she has dedicated this whole post to a couple of ducks." Well, I feel like the ducks have sort of become part-time pets for us and I am really worried about Mavis. He was so sweet to Tina, I think they were really in love. While they were eating, Mavis would kind of just stand there all protective of Tina and looking around making sure that she was safe. I hope we will see Mavis again tomorrow, I will definitely keep everyone posted!

Happy Birthday Sam!

I can't believe that Sam is 1. His birthday was fun, but he did not understand the whole unwrappping presents thing. Grandma Lillywhite sent a wrapped up ball about a week early and he went around playing with it all week. I think he was really confused when Hailey started opening it, he liked the noise the paper made. After the ball was opened that was all he cared about. Luckily Hailey was there and was more than willing to open the rest of the presents herself. That evening we had cupcakes and ice cream cones with some of the neighbors. It was a really fun evening.
He is growing up so fast and is into everything. He has been walking for 2 or 3 weeks and now walks everywhere. He loves following Hailey and wants to be just like her. Hailey likes having someone to hang on her every word. Sam is such a fun loving, laid back kid. He loves giving sloppy kisses and throwing or kicking balls around the house.

The Zoo

We had Janae staying with us for the first 2 weeks of June and grandma gave us some money to all go to the zoo. We had a really great time, but were surprised because it was super cold! We would have thought that going to the zoo on June 13th would have been fine, but it was freezing. The kids were all wrapped up in their blankets.

I'm back!!!

I know I have been horrible with the blog lately. Life is too hectic with the kids to have any time to write during the day, and Kirt is on the computer almost the entire night. Well, I have good news - Kirt bought me a laptop. Yep that's right it is mine, which means he has to ask for my permission to use it! We are actually still working on a few problems with it, but hopefully we will get it all worked out and I will post some pictures of what has been going on the past 10 m0nths or so.

Sam in the hospital

On Sunday night August 12th, Sam got a high fever. It made me nervous because it came on suddenly and we could not console him. In the morning I called a nurse to basically find out how much Tylenol I could give him. She told me that I needed to take him in to see the doctor as soon as possible. On the way to the doctor's office I thought that it was kind of annoying that I had to see the doctor so he could tell me how much Tylenol to give him. The doctor started doing all these tests. The did a strep test - negative. They did a urine sample - negative. Then the doctor told me he would have to do a test where they had to take a sample of his spinal cord fluid. The nurse brought in a parental consent form. All of a sudden this little fever was getting scarier. Before the test the doctor said they might have to put him in the hospital, but it sort of sounded like there was still some hope. They took Sam to another room to do the procedure and then after being there for more than three hours (not just for that, but total) the doctor brought him back. He said that everything went well but that after watching him he decided that he needed to be hospitalized right away. So it was off to the hospital after dropping Hailey off with the Tippetts. (Thank heavens for the Tippetts!) So at the hospital it was more of the same torture for Sam and mom. Finally they took us to a room and the waiting game began. They hooked him up to an IV and started pumping antibiotics into him in case it was a bacterial infection. Basically all the tests were coming up negative which was good news. It meant that it was probably just a virus. The second day we were there Sam started to show that he was not getting enough oxygen while he was in a deep sleep. This confused the doctor and he decided to do more tests and an x-ray. All came back negative again. They didn't know what was wrong. On Wednesday night the nurse thought that she had weened him off of the oxygen so we thought we would be coming home. Right before the doctor came his oxygen levels started dropping again. Confused once more the doctor decided to do another test. This one was the worst. They were testing to see if he had reflux which may have been getting into his lungs. For the test they had to stick a tube down his nose into his esophagus and hook him up to more machines. This would not have been that bad except I was not supposed to hold him and limit contact. That was super hard because I could not even pick him up to feed him. The test started at 4 in the afternoon and was supposed to last for 10 hours. At 2 am the nursed told me that they were going to keep it in until 4. At 4:15 am Sam was hungry so the nurses told the people that were doing the test to come and take them out. That test came back negative also but the sent us home anyway with and oxygen tank and an alarm that he wears while he is sleeping. It is a pain but were are extremely glad to be home. It was definitely not a great week, but in the room next to ours there was a handicapped child. As I walked by one day I saw his mother holding him and rocking him. I wondered how many times they had been there and how many more times they would be there in the future. Suddenly I was very grateful that all the tests came back negative!

Lillywhite Family Reunion

We went down to St. George a few weeks ago to a family reunion with Kirt's extended family. It was pretty fun. We went to Pine Valley and had a picnic. Hailey had fun playing in the stream with the other kids. Hailey had her first water fight with Janae.

Hailey's Necklaces

Hailey loves to share with Sam. One night Kirt and I were doing the dishes and cleaning up the dinner mess when I thought Hailey was being a little too quiet, which can be a little scarier now that Sam is around. I went into the living room to check on them and found Sam with one of Hailey's necklaces. Sam had the funniest look on his face. He was looking at Hailey and seemed to be thinking, "why in the world are you putting these on me." We are glad that Hailey is so thoughtful of her brother though.

Hailey's hair

Hailey loves flowers, especially lellow ones. She picks the dandelions and brings them into our house and asks me to get some water for her "flowers". Around the time Sam was born we had a bunch of flowers around and I would let Hailey play with them every once in a while. This particular day I came into the living room and dad had put these flowers in Hailey's hair. She was so proud of her hair!

Sam

Now that Sam is a month old, I decided it was time to post some pictures of him. Here are pictures from the day he was born. I decided not to post any of the pictures of me because it may appear that I was not as happy or excited as I really was. I look pretty beat and my face shows it. Sam has been the perfect baby. For the first 2 weeks of his life all he did was sleep and eat (mostly sleep). It has made it much easier for all of us to adjust to a new member of the family. It has also helped with recovery. He sleeps for about 6 hours straight most nights. Then goes right back to sleep when he is done eating again. Some nights I actually felt like I slept more than I did when I was 9 months pregnant. It has been really nice. I have loved seeing Hailey interact with him. She is already a little mother hen. She loves taking care of him and playing with him. Whenever he cries she has to tell me (as if I didn't already know). The first couple weeks Hailey would only hold him for about three seconds at a time. Now she will hold him and feed him an entire bottle.

boots

These pictures were taken just a few days before Sam was born. Hailey had to wear her snow boots even though it was about 102 degrees outside. I was sweating just thinking of her wearing those boots. I also like these pictures because you can see Kirt in the background trying to catch some Zzzs on the couch. I think he knew that once the baby was born it would be a little harder to take a nap.

Dad's Backpack

Hailey loves to be like her daddy. Lately she has been wanting to go to school to see him. He forgot his lunch a few times over the past couple of weeks so Hailey and I took it up to him. The only problem is she wants him to come home with us and gets upset when I tell her that he has to stay to work. One day we brought dad's backpack home so he wouldn't have to wear it on his way home on his bike. Hailey had to carry it inside and when I turned around to see if she was coming she had it on her back. I thought she looked so cute I had to take a picture!

Mom's Shoes

Hailey loves to wear mom's shoes. She has always liked shoes, shoe was actually one of her first words. Her friends Savannah and Mirian have plastic dress up shoes and since we don't have any pretend high heels she likes to wear mom's only pair of shoes that have any kind of heels on them. She also loves pushing around her strollers and pretending that she is a mom with her babies.

I Wish My Dad Was A Horse

Last conference someone gave a talk about parenthood and talked about how their son wrote a poem about how he wished his dad was a dog. Hailey wishes her dad was a horse. She loves getting down on the ground and playing with her dad, especially since her mom is getting less and less playful. Most of the time I suggest reading books, playing puzzles, really anything that does not take too much movement. When dad comes home though, Hailey knows that he will play with her. Tonight she wanted dad to get on her while she pretended to be the horse. I thought it was so cute and couldn't resist taking a few photos.