At this Rate, I'll be Bald Before My Dad

I am losing huge amounts of hair each day, and it's really starting to freak me out. I'll spare you a picture, it would horrify you (not to mention totally gross you out). It's happened after each of my babies reached about 4 months old, and from what I understand, it's pretty normal. It's always tapered out and returned to normal, but I haven't seen signs of that yet. What if it doesn't this time?!
Rob reminds me that if I go bald, I won't have to do my hair anymore, nor will I have to worry about coloring all those grays. Thanks hon, I feel better!
I'll let you in on a little secret of mine: one of my (many) little insecurities is my hair. So having it get so thin is not helping things. I guess if there's any consolation, I do see lots of new growth in my newly formed widow's peak. So I have wispys and fly-aways to look forward to. Who am I kidding, I've always got those.
Does anyone else go through this after having a baby?!
Here's to hoping my shedding ends soon. In the mean time, I'll keep pulling hair out of my vacuum, shower, broom, laundry- ok, pretty much everything. It's worse than having a cat! Sorry for the gross post, it's just been really bothering me lately.

Cousins

I was intending this to be several posts, but I'm realizing that these fun pictures will never get posted if I don't just put them all together. I'm never going to get all the catching-up done that I need to do. I'm always behind.
Anyway... we've had several fun adventures with our cousins. This is a collection of events with my family.
For Labor Day, we went to Layton Park with Jim & Lynette and kids, and aunt Terri. This is an awesome tree limb that was begging for a picture of a bunch of kids. We have Ryan, Adam, Matthew, Sarah, Ashely, Nathan, Erin and Abby.
Matthew and Adam are so cute together! We had a great time feeding the ducks.

Adam, Matt, Sarah and Ashley waiting patiently on the limb for pictures while...

these yahoos climb the tree. Erin and Ryan are avid tree climbers.

Terri with all the kids.

Porter turned 1, and this was his amazing barn cake. Toni worked on it forever, and it turned out great!Here's P. with his own little cake. They worried the barn cake would stain too bad. Oh, back to Labor Day. We went home and played on the slip n' slide. Nathan loves to practice his "baseball slide." He goes pretty far too! I love the water in this picture.
Sarah became a good slip n' slider.
Porter and his mom and dad joined us for a barbecue. He preferred Mater over the slip n' slide.
Toni was letting Abby experience the fun of slip n' slides. Porter watches on with great interest.

Ashley turned 5 just five days after Sarah. The kids had a blast at her party. They played games, decorated yummy cup cakes, and whacked a pinata. Happy Birthday Ashley.

I love this picture of Ryan and Nathan.

...and the always adorable Adam and Matthew.

My brother Tom and his wife Misty and their 5 kids came to visit over General Conference weekend. They live in Michigan, so we don't get to see them much. We had a great time having them stay with us. We had quite a house-full.

This picture cracks me up. The kids were told they needed to watch Conference. Those not obeying, got to sit on the couch with Misty and Tom. Here's Tim, Brooke and Chris. Notice Brooke's pleased expression, and Chris' hands over his ears.
I had Conference bingo and activity packets for the kids to do. It worked some of the time. How do you hold that many kid's attention for that long?! I think I need to watch Conference again to catch the many things I missed.
Here's Misty with the kids enjoying zucchini brownies while the guys were at the Priesthood session. YUM!!!

Here are my four brothers Dan, Tom, Evan and Jim with Rob as they leave for the Priesthood Session of Conference. What a rare treat that was for them all to be together for Priesthood.

This was one of the cutest things of the weekend- we found the little boys enjoying a tea party! They were so adorable, and totally unaware (or uncaring) that they were doing something so girly. This is Jacob, Matt and Tim.
Porter found his way to the tea party as well. How sweet!

Matthew's recent favorite story is Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss. He found the book and asked his uncle Evan to read it to him. I think he talked about 3 other people into reading it to him that day. By the way... one of my few talents is reading Fox in Socks really fast. It's a great tongue twister, and I love it. Thanks Evan! My family has a tradition that we make roll-up pancakes for breakfast before Conference on Sunday morning. Yum, I love it!

Back in the Hospital

I don't think we realize all that our immune system does for us on a day-to-day basis. It's been an eye-opening experience watching Rob's dad go through his stem cell transplant. Before the transplant, they killed off all of his white blood cells, leaving him with no immune system. His stem cells are now engrafting and starting to produce their own white blood cells. These new cells take over, and will kill any other white blood cells they find. Rob's dad had be admitted to the hospital on Sunday because he was running a fever- an indication that he's got some sort of infection. He also got a terrible rash covering most of his body (graft vs. host disease). His mouth and throat were so sore that he couldn't eat. He didn't even have the energy to get up, or to even talk, only grunt. The nurse said that was ok, because she speaks grunt. Rob's sister said that he was pretty much in and out of consciousness for a while. The doctors say that this is all normal, and expected. If he didn't experience these things, it would mean that the transplant hadn't worked. They started pumping him with extra antibiotics, feeding him through an IV, giving him a steroid for the rash, and anti-fungal mouth rinse for the fungus making his throat and mouth so sore. Yikes! Like I said, we just don't realize what our immune system does for us!
He's been doing better the last two days. Rob's been able to visit a few times this week, and his dad had enough energy to talk on the phone a tonight. He's eaten on his own some, and can get up for short periods. His mom is hanging in there. I just can't imagine watching your spouse go through all that he's been through. They are so tough!
My brother Jim asked an interesting question the other day- since his immune system was killed off, will he have to be re-vaccinated for everything? Rob asked the doctor yesterday, and Jim, the answer is yes. After a year he will receive new vaccinations.

Harvest Time

Last week I cried when my garden froze. I have loved my garden; it has done so well this year. We must have super soil here at our new house, because everything that survived the initial period, did really well. We got 14 pumpkins off of the only pumpkin plant that grew. Our cherry, pear and grape tomatoes were awesome. The grape tomatoes looked like mini romas because they were so big. We picked about 2 1/2 gallons of them the day before the frost hit.

Nathan loved his job as pumpkin stem cutter.

We planted our pumpkins too late, so they aren't totally orange yet. Oh well, we love them anyway. Sarah is always a good helper.

We got this many banana squash off our lone squash plant. Some of them were huge! Unfortunately, almost all of them got nipped by frost and won't keep through the winter, so I need to cook up and freeze what I didn't give away.

Nathan, our entrepreneur, cut corn stalks and he and Sarah sorted them into bundles. We had way more than we needed for Halloween decorations, so they set up a corn stalk stand and sold the extra bundles.

A month ago, our long awaited corn was finally ready. It was so yummy- I could eat it every day! I have to say though, the corn was a big let down. We anticipated corn all season. When it was ready, we had it for dinner a few nights, then picked the rest to freeze. It was gone way too fast! Next year we'll get our garden in earlier, and plant MORE CORN every few weeks so we have a constant supply.

Like I said, I think our soil must be awesome (it certainly wasn't anything that I did!). This onion is almost as big as Abby's head! I've never grown good onions before.

I had so much egg plant that it was insane. This one was huge too. My kids aren't nearly as sad about the garden freezing. Nathan is relieved not to have zucchini on the dinner table every night. I'll have to post some of my favorite zucchini recipes that I discovered this year.I love being somewhat self-reliant. I remember as a kid, when everything on the dinner table was from the farm. I love the satisfaction of opening a jar of something I canned. I do most of my canning after the kids are in bed. When I'm done, I drift off to sleep with a grin on my face as I hear the popping sound of the jars sealing. I love that sound! As my mom used to say, "we eat what we can, and what we can't, we can."

I really haven't done very well at canning this year, but I've got a lot of it to do soon before my produce goes bad. I'm up so late right now because I've got diced tomatoes in the pressure cooker. I have to admit, the pressure cooker still scares/intimidates me. It looks and sounds like a rocket is about to lift off as it builds up steam. Of course I've had to call my mommy to make sure I was doing it right. Next, I've got pears and peaches to do. I have yet to pick the apples and grapes. I just really don't know how to do it all! How did my mom do it? I think she never slept. Ah well, we do what we can. Good night, and here's to listening for popping sounds.

Growing Up too Fast!

My sweet little baby Abby isn't so little any more. She's 5 months old already, and sitting up on her own now. It makes me so sad that she's growing up so fast. Yesterday, my sister-in-law was commenting that she doesn't have that little baby cry any more. (sigh) I tried my anti-aging cream on Matthew when he was little, but it didn't work (doesn't seem to be working on me either).Matthew loves to hold her, and she tolerates it.

She almost always rolls right over to her tummy when you lay her down. What's funny is she doesn't really like it on her stomach, but forgets that she can roll back onto her back. In this picture, she's on the cute quilt my mom made for her before she went to Guam. She jabbered up a storm tonight while we talked to her Grandma and Grandpa via the web cam. Thank goodness for Skype!

Grandpa's Two Birthdays in Two Weeks, and Record Breaking Release from the Hospital

A month ago my father-in-law had his stem-cell transplant. I think it's cool that they gave him a new birthday- his transplant day. They celebrated it with a sign and cake and everything. The first few days after the transplant were pretty rough, with vomiting, high blood pressure, severe head aches, and chest pain. But since then, he's done great! Ten days after his transplant was his real birthday, and we were able to go see him at the hospital. I hadn't thought they would let us see him, but we were all healthy, and didn't stay long, so it was ok. A year ago, we didn't think there was any chance that he'd make it to his next birthday, so this was cause for great celebration. He has amazed us every step of the way.

We were expecting him to be in the hospital at least 4 to 6 weeks. Before his transplant, he asked the doctor what the record was for the shortest stay after a stem-cell transplant. When the doctor said it was 3 1/2 weeks, Grandpa said he'd beat it. Sure enough, he was ok to be released in 2 1/2 weeks!!! He's still really fatigued all the time, but doing great. His blood cells are looking good so far. He had another bone marrow biopsy today, so we'll know more when we get the results in a few days. He's such a tough cookie! He's been through so much- poked and prodded every way imaginable. I guess the biopsy isn't just a little poke either, it's a 9 inch cork screw needle they drive into his hip bone. Ouch! It leaves him sore for days. This was his 10th biopsy. Now he has to stay within 15 minutes of the hospital for the next 100 days. He's got no immune system still, so he has to stay away from people and be careful with the food he eats- no raw vegetables or fruit that have the potential for bacteria. He takes about 40 pills a day to prevent infection, rejection, etc.

They had to scramble to find a place to stay when he got out. They hadn't anticipated him getting out so early, so the arrangements they'd made for an apartment weren't for another few weeks. They are so happy to be out of the hospital though! Rob's mom stayed at the hospital all the time, sleeping in a fold-out bed. I can't even imagine being in a hospital that long! There's a guy in the hospital, about Grandpa's same age, that had the same transplant, and is barely able to eat. He got an infection in his lung, that went up to his brain and put him in a coma for a while. We feel so, so very blessed to have him go through all this so well.Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

Way to go Grandpa!