So long sweet summer!

We've had such a busy and fun summer, I can't believe it's over. I am a huge lover of fall though and I am excited for the cool weather and crunchy leaves...well, and there might be a certain little girl that we're all slightly anxious to meet. :) Hopefully the next time I post it will be about the arrival of "Sopie" as Brock calls her. I am grateful to know that she will be so loved by all of the family she'll have around her. I'm always blown away by the amount of love my family shows to Brock and how excited they get every time they get to see him...which is several times a week. His uncles Guy and Granty are the ones who made him the train he's wearing in the picture. It's a nice feeling to know that while I'm in the hospital with Sophie that Brock will be in good hands with people that love and adore him almost as much as Luke and I do. We have the best families on the planet and we are so grateful for all the love and support we are shown. We love you all right back!! Oh yeah, and just so those who are interested can plan ahead, we'll probably be blessing Sophie the first Sunday in November if everything goes as planned. More details to come on that of course. Love to all!!

There's only ONE...

There's only ONE Lagoon and Labor Day comes but once a year, so Luke's parents treated us all to a little "Goodbye Summer" fun at Lagoon! The kids all had a blast and it was so fun for us parents to watch the looks on their faces as they rode all the rides. Some of the non-preggies (aka the men) went on some rides too, but it was mostly a day for the kids. Here's a little preview of some of the fun...Izzy took Brock on his first Lagoon ride, the boats :) Warning: I don't think Brock is looking at the camera or smiling in any of these pictures, but trust me, he was loving it.

Riding on the "dinosaur way up high" as he called it. This ride was fast and Luke and I were a little nervous letting him go on it to be honest. Luke jokingly turned to me and said "How am I ever going to let him play football?"

Luke felt the need to waste a little money winning some prizes for the kids. Good job babe, Brock loves his giant blow-up baseball bat. :)

Helicopter ride. Brock was too short to reach any of the handles on the rides that make them go up and down, so he didn't quite get the same thrill as some of the other kids, but he was still just as happy going round in circles.

This was a mini version of that big pirate ship ride. I was going to get on it with them, but of course there was a sign that said no preggies allowed.I think this was a spaceship ride. He rode with Gabey and Kinks...woot woot!Brocko riding on "Bulgy the Whale"..........Speaking of Bulgy the Whale...Here is where they got their inspiration for that ride! This is me at 36ish weeks. Just call me Bulgy...or Whale...whichever works.

The whole fam at the end of the day. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking us!! From L-R: Geese (Grandpa), Gus, Broodge (Brooke), Gabe, Kinks (Lincoln), Skyna (Scotty), Bones (Jace), Breena (Brianne), Izzy {note: I don't think you will ever see a picture of Izzy where she is not doing a cutesy pose}, Lis (Grandma), Me (and Soph), Brock, Luke :)

Our little family of four :) I sure love my boys and can't wait to have Team Girly evened out when Sophie gets here!

Beehive Camp '10

I'm actually not a beehive adviser, I'm a laurel adviser, but since our stake had Trek this year instead of camp, the beehives invited me to come to their beehive camp! I might have declined the invitation had we not been staying in a nice cabin with hot running water! It was a fun couple of days and guess who got to come with me.... You guessed it. Brocko Man. He was a very good boy...very attached to mom the whole time, but he slept like an angel which was great. It was only my 2nd time being away from Luke and I missed him like crazy!
Our 7 beehives doing a team-building activity.

Preggie me trying to fish. I was the only person who didn't catch one. I was too impatient. So unlike me.

The girls swimming in the man-made pond in the backyard. Freezing!! It didn't stop them though, they loved it!

All the girls on the last night with our matching PJ pants and our crowns we made. From L-R: Sis. Shiley, Nicole, Hailey, Michelle, Lily, Rachael, Sierra, McKenna, Sis Goaslind and Me+Brock (Not pictured is Sis Arnell). Our theme was "Be Strong and of a Good Courage, for Ye are a Royal Generation." We had Princess lessons, and a royal banquet that night. The leader on the far left is due with a little boy a few days before me...and we found out we have a mutual 4th great-grandma, Martha McBride. Small world!

Summer Vacations '10 Part 3

I'm ashamed once again to admit that I only have 3 pictures of this vacation... But, in my defense, most of our trip was spent on a lake and it's hard to remember to take pictures when you're on the boat! So this was another Flinders' family (Flinders, Sanchez, Wetsel) trip up to Flaming Gorge to visit Luke's Grandparents, Earl and Mary Ila Flinders. We stayed in Vernal at the new swanky Marriott each night and every day we got up and went boating! The first day we spent at Red Fleet and the other two days we went to the actual Gorge. Normally the Gorge doesn't have the best weather or skiing water, but the first day we were there the weather was incredible all day! Just when we were about to give up on you Flaming Gorge, you redeemed yourself. Well done!Brock and Luke at Dairy Keen in Heber on our way to Vernal. The kids love the trains! Brocko on the boat. He loves going on Grandpa's boat and every time he sees a boat he says, "Boat! Water! Daddy!" because he loves to watch his daddy on the water when we go boating.
Our little family on the boat

Thanks Lis and Geese for the best Flaming Gorge trip yet! Can't wait til next year!

Summer Vacations '10 Part 2

So I'm embarrassed to admit it, but this vacation took place at the beginning of July and I am just now posting about it. It was our trip to Jellystone! Ok, it was really West Yellowstone, but we nick-named it our Jellystone trip. :) AnnAlyse has been working at the Playmill Theater up there all summer so the WHOLE Gibbons clan (Gibbons, Blacks, Flinders) made the trek out to visit her for her birthday and to see her shows! She was in Beauty and the Beast and 7 Brides for 7 Brothers...both very cute and fun! My parents got us sweet cabins at the Hibernation Station where we all stayed. We also spent a day in the actual park and saw many wild animals and of course....

Old Faithful!
Brock and Porter watching a movie together...cute buddies!

Flinders Family Picture :)

Brock enjoying the hour wait in the hot sun for Old Faithful (or not so faithful) to erupt!

Some hot shot Buffalo. The park has thousands of acres of land for them to roam free and they come and invade OUR streets. Seriously. By the time he walked past our car I was yelling at Luke (middle name included) to get his head inside the car and roll up the window.

Luke having another close encounter...this time dragging Brock into the danger.

Brock learned a new animal on this trip...Moose! He was enjoying his newfound friend.

Another close up taken by Luke. I forgot to mention this was his first trip to Yellowstone, he loved it...and he caught the only fish of the whole trip!

Thanks Marm and Dad for the fun vacation, we had such a blast!!

Our Hospital Scare

I should have written about this right after it happened but it was pretty crazy at the time and then we left on vacation and now we're back! So here it is...it's long and I apologize, but it's mostly for my records, so if the details are too much then feel free to skip ahead.

A few weeks ago {Tues, the 3rd.}, Brock got a pretty bad cold out of the blue. Well, the first night he was miserable so we let him sleep in our bed and he did pretty good the next day, but as we were eating dinner that night, he puked. I just assumed it was from all the mucus in his tummy from his cold and didn't really think much about it and left for young women's.

When I got back Luke said he had puked again and he was acting really fussy so we gave him some pedialite and he puked that up as well. He was wheezing pretty bad from his cold and so we tried to get him to go to sleep in our bed to no avail.

He finally fell asleep at midnight, still laboring to breathe. He tossed and turned a lot and at about 2am he woke up crying/fussing and climbing all over Luke and I trying to find a comfy place to lay down. Of course because it was the middle of the night we were both just trying to get him to calm down and go back to sleep but he wouldn't stop crying and flailing, so I took him into his room to rock him and see if he would calm down.

Normally he would have been back to sleep within minutes, so I started getting worried when he was still crying and flailing after 15 minutes of trying to rock him. He would wiggle out of my arms on to the floor and as soon as he was down he would want me to hold him right away again. I was trying to get him to look at me and calm down, but it was almost like he couldn't even hear me.

I was pretty worried at this point and took him back into our room and asked Luke to give him a blessing cause I didn't think he was getting enough oxygen. After the blessing I called his 24 hr pediatrician to schedule and appt to have them see him that night, and they didn't even have me make an appt, they told me to just come right away.

I told Luke that I would take Brock by myself and keep him updated because he had to work in the morning and he had finals that week. I got dressed and loaded us in the car as fast as I could. Brock was breathing so hard and crying still and as we started driving he was gagging and choking in the back seat for air. I was sure that he was going to stop breathing any moment and I was trying to drive as quick as I could while looking back at him to make sure he was still breathing. I was crying, praying and speeding the whole way to the hospital.

By the time we got there he was barely coherent, but still wheezing and fussing. He had puked all over himself in the car from choking for air. The nurses rushed me back to check his oxygen levels and as soon as she saw that his oxygen was at 83 {it should be at 100} and his heart rate was below 60, she yelled something in code ending in "stat" down the hall and another nurse quickly arrived with an oxygen machine and mask for him.

I was trying to answer their questions and update Luke over the phone all at the same time, still not quite sure what was even happening. After about 15 minutes on oxygen and albuterol, Brock started to perk up a little and started talking which was such a relief! After about an hour of them trying to get his oxygen levels into the 90's with no success, they told me he would have to be admitted to the hospital because they had done all they could do. I called Luke and told him what was going on and he packed some things from home and met us at the hospital {which is connected to his 24 hr pediatricians office so they just wheel chaired him across the parking lot with his oxygen still on}.

Once we were at the hospital they put oxygen tubes in his nose, took his blood, ran several tests, took chest x-rays, gave him a few shots and gave him an oral steroid. Needless to say he was pretty worn out and scared and wouldn't let his mommy out of his reach. When they were taking his blood he was being so brave and when she was done he was crying a little and saying "good job, good job" to himself. The nurses couldn't get over how cute he was.

Finally at 5 in the morning they left him alone for a little while and he watched "Nemo" on the tv while I laid next to him and held him and Luke sat in the chair next to him. He finally fell asleep between 6 and 7am just in time for the respiratory specialist to come in at 8am to wake him up to do some more breathing treatments. She told us he was being tested for Pneumonia among other things and we would have the results within a few hours from the x-rays and blood work.

Well, to make a really long story a little shorter, he was at the hospital on oxygen for two more nights and continued to make progress. They ruled out Pneumonia and started talking about Asthma. His days and nights were filled with more steroids {which made him pretty ornery} and breathing treatments which made his heart rate go way up. He was sooo bored having to stay in his bed all day hooked up to all these tubes and cords, but they would let us pull him around the floor in a wagon with portable oxygen so he could at least have a change of scenery - which he loved! He had lots of visitors by both sets of grandparents and almost all of my siblings to help cheer him up and keep him company. By the last night they let him breathe on his own for a few hours and his oxygen was up to about 90 while he was sleeping {everyone's oxygen drops a little when they sleep} so they told us on Saturday morning that we would be able to go home that day!

When they finally unhooked his tubes and cords he was just running up and down the hall like a free man! He was so happy to be going home {and so were we}!! They sent us home with a portable nebulizer so we could continue to do his breathing treatments every 4 hours and an inhaler that he had to do twice a day, along with a few other oral meds. For now his outside play has to be limited because of all of the junk in the air and how bad all of the allergens have been this year and he'll have to continue his inhaler every day until the end of next spring. After the first week of being home from the hospital we'll only use the nebulizer for the first 5 days of each cold he gets or if he's wheezy at all until the spring as well. We feel like his asthma, eczema, and food allergies are probably all related because while he was on the meds in the hospital his skin was SO clear! We're hoping this is something that he'll eventually grow out of, but at this point there is no way of telling.

We feel blessed that everything is ok and Brock is back to his normal happy, funny, talkative, spunky self again. Luke was amazing through the whole thing; he had two finals that week and he still stayed with us in the hospital each night on those really comfortable hospital "beds", and he used his personal sick time from work to be able to be with Brock and help me out during the days when he could. He is super dad. Thanks to all who came to visit or offered prayers in his behalf, you made a huge difference! We love you all!!

Here are a few pictures of our brave little boy during his stay. We love you Brock!!

Reluctant Baby Pic Update...

So this is me at 31 weeks with baby girl (pretty sure we'll name her Sophie). Can you say HUGE and LOW?! For comparison purposes I have included a picture of me at 36 weeks when I was pregnant with Brock. Feel free to feel sorry for me.
They say that you carry higher with girls than with boys, but I am definitely carrying lower with this one than I did with Brock...and I thought Brock was low! I still have the same misshapen stomach that I had with Brock.
Luke wanted to have his baby belly picture taken too so he tried to stuff Brock up his shirt but he kept falling out. This is probably the closest Luke will ever get to a birthing experience. We are getting excited for this little one to come! We still have a lot of prepping to do before she gets here, and she has some work of her own to do (she's still breech) but time has been flying and she'll be here before we know it!