Surgery Update!

She's ALIVE!





Oh, you needed more than that? Okay, she's alive and doing great. In fact, as I type this quick post she's cleaning up the baby's chocolate pudding face for me - And No, I didn't ask her to do that, she's just an awesome little 7 year old that one!!

She did end up needing her tonsils out, as well as the adenoids - the very experienced doctor, (he did Uncle Justin's surgery 25 years ago!) said, "She had very big adenoids!"

I promise a post with more surgery details when I have the time to sit down and recall them, but for now I just wanted to let everyone know she's doing great.



Thanks to Grandma Jan-Jan for babysitting the day of the surgery and for Emma's new book - she loves it! And another shout out to Aunt Coco and Grandma Kitty for dinner and ice cream! That was so wonderful of you!

And Sharla, if you're reading this, (a lot of my friends don't do the "blog thing") Thanks for a delicious dinner the day she came home - that was so nice not to worry about dinner the day of her surgery! Even though it's a very routine proceedure and didn't have much to be concerned about I'm always a bit of a nutcase when one of my babies is sick or hurting!

Thanks to everyone who has shown their love and concern for Emma at this time! We love you!

Personal Space

To say that Rebekah is a snuggler would be a gross understatement. Lately, her affections have been directed primarily at Mommy. Gail can't watch a show, read a book, make dinner or anything else without a four-year-old hanging from her.

Last night, I was driving to the grocery store with Mo and Bekah, so I seized the intimate setting to do a little investigative reporting.

Dad: So, Bekah. Why are you always glued to Mommy?

Bekah: Because I have an invisible glue stick.

Dad: Yeah, that's fun to pretend. But really, why are you always sitting on Mommy?

Bekah: Because I love her.

Dad: I love her, too. But I don't hang on her all the time.

Bekah: Well, I love her more than you. I love her 46.

It's tough to compete with that. I guess I'll have to step it up. So, Gail, if you feel me encroaching on your personal space, just know it's for the good of the kids. We can't have them thinking they love us more than we love each other.

Open Up and Say AHHH!

For those of you who don't already know, Emma will be having surgery next week! A definite adenoidectomy and a strong possibility of a tonsillectomy.

Too many sore throats/colds? No. She's getting them taken out because of the dark circles she gets under her eyes. I'll explain.

It all started with a quick little consultation with her orthodontist. He wondered if she was a mouth breather at night and I said she was. This is starting to cause some problems with her growth plate and her bite. So, he recommended we follow up with a ENT. He referred us to a good one at Jordan Valley, (someone the Rimington family is apparently already familiar with) and he discovered that Emma has very large adenoids! This causes her breathing problem at night, because she's not getting enough air through her nose - she automatically switches to her mouth.
She gets plenty of sleep at night, but it's not restful enough for her, hence the dark circles.

I feel bad. Part of me thinks I should have discovered this sooner because for the last few years her pediatrician has asked about her dark circles. But when we ruled out lack of sleep and allergies I didn't of anything else, specifically her adenoids! Well, now we know and next week she goes under the knife.

Is she scared? YES, at first. She was terrified in the doctor's office. As the nurse described the pre-op and post-op details to me, Emma sat snuggled up in my lap. My almost 8 year old daughter, the one who groans when I ask for hugs, sat perched on my lap with a death grip on my encircling arms.

BUT after a day of talking about what would happen and why, THEN calling grandparents and Aunt Coco, she stopped being so scared and I think the only word that best describes it...came from her...She got on the phone with my mom, and said, "Grandma, I have some exciting news."

Exciting and scaring and expensive. Mike had hernia surgery 2 years ago and one of his comments was, "Why do we always end up having surgery in January when we're no where near meeting our deductible?"

I know as the actual day gets closer her nerves may just get the better of her again, so good thoughts and prayers for Emma would be welcomed this way. We love her so much and hope she recovers soon. The doctor will only take out her tonsils if they have too, but for now it's goodbye for the adenoids! The recovery time for the adenoids is very minimal, in fact the nurse told me most people have zero complaint, BUT the tonsils are different. Speaking from personal experience, it's one of the 3 most painful things I've ever experienced! And so for her sake I hope very much those don't need to come out too, but if they look too big or are touching while she's under, he'll just take them at the same time.

So, should I start stocking up on popcicles now, or wait? The hardest part will be keeping her hydrated because the last thing you want to do after that type of surgery is swallow anything! But we'll do our best and I think she'll make a speedy recovery. She's a strong girl, much stronger than she knows!

Good Luck Peanut.

Quotable Kids

While driving in the car today the kids did it again...



They made me laugh out loud!

• Emma to Mom, "Well Mom that's just payback for this morning." Aaron shouting to everyone, "Why am I the only one who doesn't know what 'Payback' means?"

• The kids have learned the cliche, "so ____(adjective here)____, you're just going to die!" So it doesn't suprise me to hear all of them use it from time to time, especially when we get new clothes or something like that. Bekah, Mo and I were at Target while the other kids did their thing and we picked up some new swim suits and a few new shirts for Aaron. When we picked up the other kids Bekah said, "They're so cute, you're going to be dead!"

oops - that changes the connotation a little bit Bekah.

• And the third, (again Bekah)

"You scream like a boy!"

Mom - "You mean a girl?"

Bekah - "No. A boy!"

Aaron does have a high pitched scream these days. That will change though.

TMI

I'm the first one to admit, I'm not all that up to date on the latest texting abbreviations and acronyms, but I do know TMI means Too Much Information! And this post contains just that...

Too Much Information!

So if you're easily grossed out or have a weak stomach please turn off your computer and walk away now. If not, by all means keep reading. You've been warned!

(Grandma, it's really not that gross.)

Mike was reading a friend's blog the other day and he got this idea from them, (just so you know we're not claiming this one). Here goes...I always lose a ton of hair after having a baby (lots of women do - it's pretty common, but it still sucks) and instead of letting it clog the drain I just pull it out in the shower and stick it on the wall and every day or two I wipe off all the hair and throw it away. Well, the other day I was in the shower and noticed that my hair stuck to the marble tub surround looked a lot like a heart! And then I looked harder and I read these words:

I (heart) U! - spelled out it my hair!

It's both gross and hilarious, sorry about the TMI but it definitely gets a good laugh.

As a funny sister story to this one - the other day I pulled up to see "I love Gail" scrawled in the snow, huge as life written across the side of Mike's Expedition. I came in the house and kissed Mike and declared very excitedly, "I love it!"

"Love what?" He said dumb founded.

Come to find out that was not the work of my romantic hubby, it was my daughter, Emma.

Thanks Emma! I love you too!

Here's a picture of the hair if you're not too squeamish:

Lost and Found

All things lost have a way of returning to us, sooner or later.

At least this was the case with our missing memory stick. Let me explain. Two years ago we got a digital frame from Mike's parents and they asked us to try it out and make sure it wasn't damaged. Well, we plugged in our memory stick and checked it out...it worked fine, but we decided to keep it in the box until our kids were a little bit older - and would leave it alone. Otherwise I know, I just know they would end up breaking it.

Well, as time went by we forgot about the digital frame tucked away in the office closet - out of sight out of mind, right? Apparently so, because we both completely forgot that the memory stick was also still plugged in to the frame! A few days/weeks later when I was ready to scrap all those cute 2008 Christmas pictures and couldn't find the memory stick - I figured we'd lost it and it would eventually turn up. Several months go by and we never found it, so I assumed it really was gone, those things are so tiny! I resolved that it was either played with and lost by a child or mistakenly thrown out! Who knows? BUT it was gone.

The other day Mike was doing some filing, the filing cabinet is still in Emma's new room, (our old office) and he decided to pull out the digital frame. Guess what we found?! I'm so excited! As sad as it was to me, I had come to terms with one lost Christmas in still photos, (we still had what we captured with the cam corder). Now I just have to sneak these pictures in their scrapbooks and they never have to know we lost a Christmas...


Until they read the blog.

Check out these pictures, the kids look sooo little! And Mosey wasn't even a thought yet! Well, maybe a thought kicking around in my mind, but definitely not Mike's.

This was the year they each got a light saber, "Ouch Emma, light saber burns hurt!"

For the artist!

For the Batman fan!

For the little Mommy!

What's In A Name?

Well, if you're Bekah...a lot. A few weeks ago a little girl was chosen to go up and help in the primary sharing time, for the sake of privacy we'll call her Jane Smith. Bekah pulls me down to her level and informs me that I should change her name to Jane Smith...you see, that way she could go up and help too.

A few days ago Bekah asked me to start calling her, "Mrs. Kitty." And when I kept forgetting, she'd get a little angry..."Mom, remember you have to call me Mrs. Kitty!"

Where did the Mrs. come from?

Many of you know we call her Kippy. It's one of my all time favorite knicknames for her. (We also call her Button). But maybe you didn't know why. Well about a year or so ago Bekah was playing pretend - she was imagining herself as a kitty and then as a puppy and then as a puppy and a kitty. So of course she asked me what that was called. "A puppy and a kitty?" I clarified. "Well, that's a ... Kippy.

And she's been Kippy ever since.

It's Not Goodbye...

It's not goodbye, it's "see ya later!" Michael's little sister, Tammy, is leaving on her mission! And the emotions we've been feeling are of course bittersweet. We're so proud of her decision to serve the Lord in this capacity. But we will miss her in so many ways! This girl is a breath of fresh air! I mean that in every possible way, she's a ray of sunshine with a gorgeous smile all wrapped up in this beautiful young woman! So it's just easier to remind ourselves that we're not saying goodbye, just see ya later!

As a sidenote to our friends who didn't know, her twin brother, Kevin, is serving a mission in California as well! In fact they will come home the same month!

We love you Tammy! And we wish you the Best of Luck!

Project Runway

My girls got coordinating outfits this year for Christmas. Today they were good enough to model and pose for pictures to indulge their scrapbooking mother...Thanks kids. By the way you look marvelous...simply marvelous!

Emma, gorgeous as ever, especially with that "Lion Hair."

(Our handsome little man,

Aaron shows off his new shirt and tie - Birthday present)

Little Bekah, Sweet As Pie!

And our adorable baby, Moriah, You just gotta love her!

Rock On People!