festivities, freezing, & fevers

I love blogging.

Here I sit, eating fudge & sipping the best
hot apple cider.
The tree is up & sparkling.
We watched 50 bazillion Hallmark movies
this weekend.
My babes are tucked in.
My Hunk is near me watching the Jazz play.
Sounds dreamy, hmmmm?
But......the weekend has been
ROUGH.
All my 3 darlings were/are SICK.
Which also means that I
took hardly any pictures.

Oh, Bugg.
He's been feverish all weekend.
Glassy-eyed and lethargic.
He is so silent when he throws up,
even coming out his nose.
He is the most patient lil' dude.
Today, Mia dropped a glass ornament
and Bugg laughed at the sound.
Good sign!
But he still had a fever when I put him to bed.
(Why must special kids get sick, too?!)
We did manage to pack in a lot of goodness
before the fevers started up.............

Mia doorbell ditches on
Thanksgiving Eve.

Breakfast on Thanksgiving morn.
Sausage legs & feathers,
blueberry eyeball,
jam gobbler.

Bugg sleeps while Dada, Mia,
& Uncle J jam before Thanksgiving dinner.

A sickie Ella sits with Uncle J.

Brian & his bros throw the football in
FreeeEEEEEeeezing weather.

my brother's "milk mustache" drawing

Grandpa & Rooskii

Mia & cousin Ashtyn make
apple turkeys

Let me spell it out:
F.U.D.G.E.
That's fudge, baby!
Tradition!

watching "Little Women"
Tradition!

Mia got the energy up during the Tylenol high
to help decorate the tree and
discover Christmas treasures that have been boxed up.
She let me put her hair back to keep it out of
her mouth while she was leaning over a bowl.
The girl is SO picky about me touching her hair.
Is it not the saddest thing in the world
to have pathetically sick kids?!

Bree fluffs the branches on the raddest
artificial tree.

the view from Bugg's window

Hope you have a warm & snuggly
week!
Pray for us!
Mamas can NOT get sick.

celebrating......blessings

I'm thankful for Wyatt's
preschool art projects.
I'm always excited to look in
his backpack when he gets off the bus
to see what cute things he's made at school.
(With help from Miss Britt, of course.)

Thankful to Wyatt for getting
us sweet seating at the BYU basketball game.

And to sweet friends for sharing
their tickets with us!

I'm thankful that Bugg can sleep
through anything.
Even the hoopla at the game -
BYU vs. Utah State.
Extra heat & rivalry going on.
Yikes.
(xoxo, Bailee!)

I'm thankful for getting bit by the crafting bugg.
The idea just came to me as I was falling asleep one night.
A Christmas countdown for Bugg's room.

Girls' Nights Out
with my mom, sisters, & Mia!
We saw the play "Little Women"
in the cutest little theater.
I love the movie, love the book,
and now I love the musical.

Thankful for the candlelit dinners
we can now enjoy since it's dark by dinnertime.

Ssssoooooooo thankful for HIM.
My eternal Hunk.

Preschool!
I am thankful for Wyatt's fantastic
preschool teachers.
We got to visit for his Thanksgiving feast,
which Ella readily helped herself to.
We also got to see how popular he is at school.

On the way to his vision/speech therapy,
he stops in and sings ABC's with the secretary.
When he pats his legs like that,
you know he's a happy guy and lovin' the attention.
At one point,
I counted 10 people surrounding him,
just soaking up his cuteness as he "sang" (babbled) the ABC's.
Oh, my gosh, melt this mama's HEART!

Lightbox for vision therapy

Wyatt & I are incredibly thankful
for Miss Britt and that she gets to be with
him again this year.
It was a close one.
Those two, I tell ya.
They have the best times!

I'm thankful for inchstones.
This Bugg has made great progress.
Perhaps slow to some.
But in this special needs world,
progress means a whole day's worth of celebrating
the teeniest tiniest thing.
Like tracking a picture of a red apple
across a lighted screen.
Hello!
He used to look right through the lightbox
as if it wasn't even there!
Progress!!!
AAAAauuuuuugh!

And likewise, I'm thankful for Ella's milestones.
Like discovering body parts and holes.

I'm thankful to celebrate Bugg and that he is
4 and a HALF now.

That means 4 and a HALF candles.
Cake is topped with HALF a cookie.
I'm thankful for cookies, too.

And mostly, I'm thankful for this
awesome little family of mine.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Grub OUT.

make the ordinary EXTRAordinary

My question is: how do you take such amazing pictures of EVERYTHING?

Who, me?

Gee, Mrs. Fought, thank you
for that sweet compliment.
Photography is something I fell in love with
just a couple years ago.
It is tricky stuff and I would love
to take a real class.
I have to give most of the credit
to the Nikon D-40.
In turn, giving a lot of credit
to my Hunk for "surprising" me with it.
(hehe, I did NOT want this camera.
I didn't want to spend the $$ on it.
But he knew that I wanted it.....I just didn't know I wanted it.)
It has been awesome to document
this life full of celebrating.
There's about a trillion gadgets on the camera
that I still have no idea what to do with.
And I'd love to learn how to use photo editing,
although, taking a raw picture seems more real
than brushing it up all perfect,
make sense?

My life is not grand and fabulous.
We are home a LOT.
We don't take fancy trips or do big excursions.
But what we do have going on.....
family time, housework, seeing children grow,
errands, crafts, baking, a party here, a picnic there....
is fabulous to ME and I cherish it so so much.
And so I document it with my camera
because memories are extraordinary.
The simple things like watching Bugg
turn his head to my voice,
following the diapered baby around,
or pinning my curls
on a Sunday morning.
I think, "Hey, this would be fun to look
back on when I'm an old Granny."

My hairdo on the way to HD

A couple weekends ago,
we all went to Home Depot to get a few
house projects finished up.
I grabbed my camera, just for the heck
of capturing our morning wandering the aisles.

I can just see us watching these family pictures
years to come,
laughing at Mia doing "YMCA" while
we looked at bathroom fixtures.
And how bored Wyatt looked.
And Ella eating "tooty." (cookie)

Apparently he got so bored
that he took a snooze.
Such a simple thing,
yet priceless.

And I'm sure it's obvious that I have
an obsession with sunlight.
It makes a moment more enchanting.

Also, I like to take pictures from different angles.
Instead of just clicking from my eye level standing,
I like to change it up and see what new perspective
I can come up with.
Try it!
And I also have an awesome photog book
that my pa-in-law gave me.
It all goes back to celebrating, I suppose.
When I look around for the simple things to celebrate,
I begin to be inspired by every scene that unfolds throughout the day.
It's fun.
Great question.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Eve! Yay!

holding on

How do you get through the times when you feel helpless and sad for Wyatt's future? (asked by anon)
For the first 2 years, I just held on. For dear life. I barely held it together. I cried a LOT and talked to my husband because he could always reassure me and comfort me. I called my mom all the time. I cried. I stressed. Oh, it was not a good time.

The MRI of Wyatt's brain at just 1 day old showed pretty significant abnormalities. But no prognosis could be made. It ripped me to shreds, knowing that he was different, but not knowing what the heck that meant for him. For us. For our future. I'm sure I was dealing with some PPD issues as well. I was a MESS every other minute.

In the really early days, Bugg seemed to be just like your typical newborn. He ate and slept and grinned. He was chubby and bald and cute and.......a baby.

3 months old - love the rolls!

But as he got older, the more we noticed he was NOT doing. He didn't look at us. Bugg seemed to always be staring into space. He grinned, he laughed, but it was at random times. And then we noticed his lack of head control and not grasping toys. My turmoil increased as I realized that it was really happening. The whole "special needs" thing was coming to life. And that's when I started to get reaaaaallly freaked out about the future. It made me sick. I trained myself to NOT think about it. I couldn't handle it. My heart was so broken and I just couldn't take it.

I suppose I could allow myself to feel a lot of sadness, thinking back to those days. Did I waste that time with my sweet baby? Did I love him? Did I have fun with my growing 2 year old? Did I.....this, that, and the other like a real mother should???!!! I look through these old pictures and see all the fun stuff we did, the celebrations, parties, quiet and happy moments at home.....and it makes me feel much better.

4 months - the patch

2008 - 20 mos.

I think all the pain I went through helped me to get to this amazing and full and joyous and celebratory place that I am now. I HONESTLY feel so happy to have Wyatt just the way he is. Even though I know that he will never leave home and that Brian & I will always have to care for him. But I love it. I love it so much. It doesn't make me sad anymore.

I really adore the thought of making Valentine sugar cookies in the kitchen with Bugg at my side.......even when he's 50. And waking up each St. Pat's Day morning with a green shamrock sticker on his cheek! Driving through the Autumn canyon, collecting leaves to decorate our house. Doorbell ditching May Day baskets. Sharing a bowl of oatmeal every morning. Sleeping under the Christmas tree. Going to parades. Wiping his chin and cleaning his glasses. Serving my boy all my live-long days.

I am grateful (GRATEful!) to be able to celebrate this special life. The journey became awesome once I started to see Wyatt as Wyatt, and not a child with a brain anomaly and special needs. The whole world became a new & fresh palette to me. My eyes started seeing even the simplest things, as such grand and beautiful gifts from God. "Celebrate" became a daily motto.

Does this mean I never feel sad or down or depressed? Heck, no.....

I still get down in the slumps occasionally. And I still cry. I think it's good to feel every once in awhile. Feel the emotion, then be done with it and the world is always brighter afterward. I talk to my Hunk. I call my mom. I craft. Bake cookies. Go shopping for a new skirt. Open the blinds and let the sunshine in. Throw an un-birthday party. Go out for cupcakes. Take pictures. Blog! There are so many good things that help me when it's dark. I'm blessed. Amen.

Whew, gooooood question, anon. Thanks!

And I realized that there's more answer to give to a previous question: Was I afraid to have another child after Wyatt?

See the following picture story of my lil' Ella Rooski....





To most, this is probably no big thing. Yay, she went down the slide, whoop-woo. To me, it is soothing and amazing and therapeutic and delightful on a high high level to see my girl do this by herself! It is so much fun to rejoice in her milestones. This time around, I take nothing for granted. Life's incredible, hands down!

(For the record, these pics were taken over a month ago. Right now, there's a blizzard warning. Well, welcome Winter, you little rascal!)