Dillon's first and I am sure not last trip to the Instacare......

Thursday night I was over at my moms and Dillon was playing on her quilting machine. On the side of the machine there are little wheels and the kids always play on them and act like they are driving. Well Dillon reached his hand up at some point and his middle finger got pinched and it cut it pretty good. He was bleeding all over so I called Aaron and my mom and I cruised over to the instacare. They said it was not that deep (I didn't agree) and that they were just going to put Dermabond (SuperGlue) on it and that was it. So we went home and within 2 hours it had completely come off and he was bleeding EVERYWHERE again. I bandaged it up and put him in bed for the night. Friday morning he woke up and as soon as I took the bandage off it was gushing again. WHAT IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!! So I called Instcare and they said to bring him down again. When I got there the Dr. took a look at it said, "Oh that is really deep clear to the middle of his finger, that is why it is still bleeding." Hmmm and 2 people the night before could not tell that. Anyway they wanted to do stitches which I was scared they were going to say that. I asked them if there was ANYTHING else they could do because of Dillons experience a couple weeks back at the hospital. He is already so traumatized and I knew that he would just FREAK OUT the entire time. So what they ended up doing was gluing steri-strips onto the wound and and then bandaging up his entire hand as you see below. They said they totally understood and if I needed to bring him in everyday to be re-bandaged so that it could heal they were willing to do that. HOW GREAT ARE THEY?! Thank you so much to Randy Archibald who was the great Doc that took care of him at the Tri-City Instacare in Lindon. He even called that night to make sure that Dillon was doing ok and that the bandage was holding up.

Dillon is doing good, we can't let him play in the bath or get the bandage wet so that's been a little tricky but our little man will be just fine in 4-5 more days. Love you buddy!

Halloween 2009

We signed up to decorate our car for the ward Trunk or Treat and it was SO fun. I had been planning for a couple weeks and I think my bat cave came out really well. There were eyeballs, bats, spiders, and my Witch Potion. Halloween is one of my fave holidays and this year did not disappoint.

Aaron took the boys out trick or treating around our neighborhood and they had a blast. Dillon was of course wandering the streets and Gabe just couldn't wait to get to the next house.


This was our candy to hand out and he kept stealing the bucket and carrying it around. He definitely understood the whole getting treats idea.

Dillon with his owie finger. Another post on that coming.
Lego man (Sam)
All the kids
Lego man and Snake Eyes
Nacho Libre, Captain Hook, Alien, and Raggedy Ann

Bunco-Halloween Style

It was a blast! Thanks Corinne!
Before the party
Killer lashes, Right!
Killer Cape my mom made.
Kanye West and Taylor Swift
The Group
Cassie
Jocelyn
Jocelyn, Millie, & Karrie
Millie, Sam
Karrie
Kanye aka Heather

Gardner Village with Friends

Carving Pumpkins

We had a BLAST carving pumpkins as our little family this year. I am not going to lie I think we did pretty good.


Once again Gabe snapped this picture. He only does it for Gabe.

Scary guy??
Skull
Owl-I have been obsessed with them lately
Blue from Blues Clues

Old Chair Makeover

I believe this old chair came from DI or Savers, but I am not sure as my brother bought it. My mom has just had it at her house since he didn't want it anymore and I saw HUGE potential.

I need to remember to take step by step pictures but I just get so excited. So this is how it started old, boring, and drab. I took off the seat and spray painted the chair black. Then I measured and cut out some burlap for the seat and stenciled an "S" for Smith on it. I then covered the seat and by the time I was done with that the chair was dry and I was ready to put it back together. I am not sure where this little gem is going but as for now it is my chair in my craft room.

Home Made Burlap Sign

If you look at the post below you will see this sign was part of Dillon's Birthday decor. I of course got the idea from a gal's craft blog I follow and had to try it. I bought the burlap at Walmart for $2.78 a yard, some black acrylic paint, and the scraps of ribbon I already had.

It turned out to be a little bigger project then I intended but I am SO pleased with the outcome. I printed out each letter and then cut it out and used the normal "scrap" part as my stencil. I then made a template from a manila folder for my squares and I went at it. It took the most time to cut the stencils and fabric but once I was done with that the painting was so quick. I then hot-glued jute twine to the back and ta-da here is my sign. I measured my kitchen before I glued them on as well so that I didn't use more than needed. Once I got it up and hung I tied the scraps of ribbon in between each letter. I felt like it looked too plain for a birthday party so I just dressed it up a little. What do you think?

Dillon's B-Day Party-Lots of Pics!

Last night we had Dillon's 1st birthday party. It was a huge success and we want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes and fabulous gifts. He was totally spoiled!
Invite to Dillon's party
My cute boys! We had a little birthday lunch at Wendy's.
Gabe captured this little beauty while I was getting our food. He LOVES Gabe!
3D ALL the time!
Birthday Party Set-up! P.S. I made the Burlap Sign and will be posting about it later.
Cute party hat I made as well.
Suckers for party favors.
Opening Gifts
Thank you to everyone that came!
Jordan and Cayleen
He LOVED ripping open the gifts. I am super excited for Christmas.




He did not disappoint yet again.
Mmmmmm!

New little 4-Wheeler. Thanks Andrew and Shauna!!
He thinks its the greatest thing ever!

Happy Birthday Dillon!

One year ago today I was in the hospital recovering from having this little guy. I just can't even comprehend its been that long. He is the love of my life along with my husband of course and is such a joy to have in our home.
This past Friday at the Hospital when they weighed him he was 28 lbs and 30 inches tall. He goes for his one year checkup on Friday so I will give more info later. We just started him on the D Milk a couple days ago and he didn't even flinch. He LOVES it like his daddy and brother and is now totally on Milk and no formula. YEAH!!!! He has been walking for about a month now and frequently goes up the stairs and fast I might add. He loves to play with toys and knows exactly how to get to the playroom. Gabe and Dillon are still best buds and Dillon gets so excited when he even hears Gabes name. He loves Goldfish, applesauce, yogurt, and of course any kind of treat. He loves to dance to music and taps his leg in the car. He is also clapping, FINALLY and is just a total Ham. He loves to put on a show for the little girls in the neighborhood when they come over. He is a big fan of Reagan Wilson (Watch out Cammie Jo).
We love this little man to death and are so happy he is apart of our family. Love you Bug!

MRI and The Results

Here is an email that Aaron wrote to our families. I think he puts everything so well into words. I have added my thoughts after.

Last Friday, Courtney and I took Dillon in for his MRI and we just found out the results so I wanted to let everyone know. The MRI was not a fun experience for our little boy as it took 2 hours for the nurses to thread an IV as they tried both hands and feet multiple times. Courtney and I and multiple other nurses had to hold Dillon down while he was getting pricked numerous times and screaming bloody murder. However, after two hours and multiple nurses trying to get the IV started, they were finally successful and Dillon was sedated for the MRI.

Today, I spoke with the doctor and he confirmed that Dillon has Optic Nerve Hypoplasia which means that he is nearly blind in his left eye. However, the main issue we were wanting to determine was if he had any midline brain abnormalities, which we are happy to report that he does not. There was one thing that did show up on the MRI which the doctors were not originally looking for which is a cyst on the left side of his brain. It is small right now and will need to be monitored so we are meeting with a neurologist in the coming month to determine how often it needs to be monitored and if it continues to grow, what the procedure entails to drain the cyst so it does not cause too much pressure on his brain.

So bottom line, Dillon’s brain looks good, his vision in his left eye is very impaired, and we will have to continue to monitor this cyst so it doesn’t get bigger and cause any other issues as he gets older. We, unfortunately, cannot do anything about his left eye, which is very sad, other than just make sure that his vision in his right eye is okay so he can see and we will have to monitor the cyst on his brain to ensure it does not grow. Both of which we can mitigate. The one thing that we wouldn’t be able to remedy is if he had abnormalities with his brain which is not the case. Even though every parent doesn’t want to hear any of this we are very grateful that it is not worse than it is. We appreciate everyone’s love and support in fasting and praying for our little boy.


**Word cannot express how many emotions were going through my vains that day at the hospital. I was just so sad that my little boy had to go through all that pain and suffering. Ultimately it was a huge blessing that we did the MRI or we would not have known about the cyst and it could have caused major issues later. Dillon is such a strong boy and I know that he will be able to face the world with what he has to deal with. He will live a normal life and live it to its fullest. I love that little man so much it hurts sometimes! I want to personally thank all of our friends and family that prayed, fasted, and thought about Dillon and our family through the last month. We have been truly blessed and we love each and every one of you.


Before the procedure in the waiting room. He was SO happy!
He totally loves paper and pens.
After 2 hours of hell. My face is puffy and red and so is his.

Finally got it in his foot.
Them putting him on the table and strapping him down.

These 2 pics above break my heart........
After the procedure sleeping off the sedation medication.
Trying to get him to eat and drink afterwards. He was pretty much totally drunk and couldn't even keep his head up.

Newest Projects

So I am all about doing projects that are CHEAP, EASY, and CUTE! These are a few things I have done recently to spruce up my house. I wanted to get some fun Fall and Halloween decor around the house and I got a few ideas from some blogs and from my own brain and wahla!

Here is an old black caldron I have had for a few years. I never really did anything with it so this year I thought I would add a little ribbon to make it look appealing for the holiday.


This is a plant that I have in my entry way and that I also wanted to add a little something too. Ribbon is the cheapest and easiest way to make something look so good and so different.


This little gem was a 5am wake up from my sleep idea for our family pictures. This was yellow at first all over and I spray painted it white and recovered the back and the seat. I am sorry I am not good at remembering to take a picture before. I will work on it.


My mom picked these beauties up from the Roberts Clearance center in Lindon for like $1.25 and so we got some paper and mod podged them up.


I like it!

Here I wanted just some fall decor that I could leave up clear through November. I had seen on another blog a lady had done this with some grass in her own yard. Well I didn't have any so I went to a field by my house and chopped some down.

I also bought some small pumpkins, gourds, etc at Walmart.

And the base I found at DI for $3.00. I thought it was a steal and couldn't pass it up. Now I have this little number on my front porch.


I used more of the grass for my next project.

Used as old vase I had lying around, some ribbon, and ta-da!

A cute grass something to put on my fireplace mantle.


Really what I try to do it look around my house and see what I have that I am not currently using before I go and buy stuff. That is my favorite thing to do seeing as then I don't have to spend money on the actual items just on what I need to spice it up. All of these things have literally cost me no more than probably $6 or less. I have done a few more projects and have tons of ideas so keep watching for more.

New Family Pics

Before I explain our pics I have to first give a shout out to Nichole Burdett who was going to do our pictures and went into labor Tuesday morning. Congrats Nichole!!!!

So I was scrambling to find someone else to take our pics and I called and called and everyone was booked out for months. Well I called Jennifer Eliason who had done some of my in laws pics and she said she was booked out as well but if we wanted to do that night still we could. WAHOO! I was so happy because I had everything ready to go. So we headed out and this is what we came up with. Thank you so much Jennifer! She did a great job and I would highly recommend her. (Don't worry Nichole I still plan on using you next time.)

Sorry their kind of blurry. When the file is so big and blogspot has to resize them they sometimes come out weird.

Here is her website.
http://www.jennifereliason.com/

Car Carts

If you ever go to Smith's Marketplace to shop you MUST use one of these. I didn't hear a peep out of him the WHOLE time.

Goose Egg City

The other night Dillon leaned over to grab a pillow and got off balance and went right into the corner of the wood around our fireplace. It swelled up immediately into a HUGE goose egg and has been black and blue for a week already. He cried for just a few minutes but was fine once Dad walked in from work. He is getting to be such a daddy's boy lately and its fun to see him run to the door when he hear's the garage door open.

A sad day at the Dr's office.......

For a few months now we have noticed that Dillon has a little bit of a lazy eye. Since Gabe has one we thought we had better take him to an opthomologist to be safe. After getting a recommendation from our pediatrician we had to wait a couple months and then were off to Primary Children's for our appointment. They had to dilate the poor guys eyes and that is what the pictures are of. He was pretty silly because it made his eyes blurry and he was acting like a little drunk baby. I felt bad but still laughed a little. Well once we were able to get in to see the Doc we were completely caught of guard when the Dr immediately said that the nerve in Dillons left eye(the lazy one) was dramatically smaller than normal and said that he has a condition called Optic Nerve Hypoplaysia. It is a birth defect and his nerve never developed completely and he is legally blind in his left eye. We don't know the severity of the blindness because he is so young but it is something that could potentially get a little bit better but we won't know until he is older. His right eye though is great which was REALLY good news. If that wasn't bad enough the Doc went onto tell us that because the nerve was SO small and this is the nerve that takes the info from his eye to his brain they are concerned that his pituitary gland in his brain may not have completely developed as well. We are scheduled for an MRI on October 9th and that will tell us if he will have issues with his brain or not. For those of you who don't know the pituitary gland is a major component in your brain and controls A LOT. This was a HUGE shock to us and we are very nervous about having our baby have to go through this. The odds are in our favor for a lot of things, but there is also a 30% chance that he could have issues. We are optimistic that all will go well and it will strictly be a vision issue which means he could lead a normal life. He will never fly planes or anything but will be able to do pretty much everything else. We would like to ask for everyone thoughts and prayers at this time and we will also be doing a Family Fast October 4th if anyone would like to join us. We just love our little Dillon so much and wish him every great thing in life. Wish us luck!

Bed Head

I love seeing what his hair looks like every morning from sleeping on it. I know you can't see it real good, but it was pretty funny this particular morning.

11 Months Old Today

Well our little tiny baby is another month closer to one year and has made so much progress in the last month. As most of you saw in the earlier post that he is walking and sometimes practically running. He loves being so much more mobile. He won't eat baby food anymore and he lives on Easy Mac, Fruit, Yogurt, Gerber Cheetos, etc. He loves water and any kind of juice and has been doing the sippy cup thing for quite some time now. He LOVES to dance and starts jammin' every time music comes on. He still continues to climb out of the bathtub regularly and tries to climb up anything he can. He can go so fast up the stairs and will sit in the his room for an hour and just play toys. He can say Mom, Dad, and Sadies (our dog), and we are working on saying Gabey. He is such a happy kid all the time and LOVES to laugh and tease. He plays peek-a-boo with us and thinks he's so funny. He can also sign a few things as well.

He has been sick the last week or so and one night Aaron was out of town and he woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep and seeing how I had the flu as well I just brought him in bed with me. The next morning I woke up to a big WET kiss on the cheek and a big hug. I couldn't believe the little guy had done that and realized he was excited to wake up next to his mommy. I continued to get mauled with kisses, hugs, and pats for another 30 minutes. What a way to wake up, eh?

This little man brings so much happiness into our family and I am LOVING watching him grow up. I can't wait for his first birthday and being able to give him a big birthday bash.

Love you baby!

Dillon is walking!!!!!

Everyone check out the video I posted on YouTube. Its short but sweet and yes he really is ALL OVER now. He literally walks 99.9% of the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5r8sce30Bg#watch-main-area

New Dresser

So there have been a few other projects I have been wanting to tackle and have not had the time to do them. This is a dresser I have had in my craft room that has been great for organization but didn't look that great with all the other pieces I have redone. Last night I finally got to it and here are the before and afters. What do you think?

I read this gals blog regularly and she owns or has something to do with Mod Podge. Here is a link to her blog so you can see what some of my inspiration was. I think for my first piece its pretty good.

http://modpodgerocks.blogspot.com/search/label/Furniture

http://brassyapple.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-studio.html

You should buy one too!!!!!!!

I am normally not one to just take pictures of myself but today I really wanted to do a little advertising for my good friend Heather. Her and her friend have started making headbands. Now the fabric they use is YEARS old as well as some of the sequins and other parts. So when they say Vintage, they mean VINTAGE. They are super cute, affordable and as you can see I am wearing my new purchase today. I wanted to tell everyone because they are way too cute not too. Thanks Heather and hopefully you didn't want this one Cassie because I bought it after you left, hehe. What do you think??


If you would like to view more you can click on the link that says "Steve and Heather Farnsworth" and from there you can click on their Headband blog or their Etsy site. Happy Shopping!

P.S. Please don't critique the pictures, just look at the headband.