In Boise

So, we’ve gotten a little behind, since we usually try to write about our week each Sunday, and it is Michael’s turn to write this week but he has just been too busy during the days and too tired at night the last couple days, so I’ll do it this time. So, last week Michael had his first derm interview down in Texas, and he was really impressed with their program – he liked their emphasis on surgery and how family-friendly their program seemed to be. He was also attracted by the low cost of housing there [I told him that since we aren’t planning on settling in Texas permanently it might be difficult in 4 years to have to downgrade to a smaller house when moving to a different state, but still it might be nice to be able to afford a nice-sized house for a few years at least.] I also wouldn’t mind moving to someplace warm, although everyone says that some parts of Texas get miserably humid in the summer, but I don’t know if Temple Texas is in one of the more humid areas or not. So, we’ll see.

Camden had his 15-month doctor’s check up this week also (he’s not that old yet, but they scheduled it early so he could get his shots before we left town). He seems healthy, other than a perpetual runny nose, and the doctor commented that even though Camden seems so big for his age, that he is not as high up on the growth curves for his weight as he is for his height. Isaac also had his circumcision on Thursday morning, and it took me a while to calm him down after he had it, but he has seemed fine since then. I also had my 6-week check-up after having the baby (this sure was a week full of doctor’s appointments!) I was pleased to find out that I had lost all of the baby-weight from Isaac’s pregnancy (now I just need to work on the weight that I never lost from Eli and Camden’s pregnancies, but still I felt pretty good about that since I haven’t even been trying to lose weight yet with all that has been going on).

On Saturday morning we got up around 3:30am for our morning flight. We spent Thursday and Friday packing for the trip, and got it all into 8 bags (but it was really less than 8 suitcases, because several were just carry-on-sized bags that we decided to check rather than carry on to the plane). So we did pretty well – 8 bags, 4 car seats, and a stroller for a 2-month trip with six people – I even had room to pack my ski boots and ski helmet. So, we got up early Saturday morning and the Kearls took us to the airport, which was so nice of them to get up (and get their kids up) that early for us!!! We got on the plane alright and the flights went pretty well. My grandma was on the first flight with us, and she got off in Salt Lake. We had to rush in between our two flights because the snow in Salt Lake slowed down our first flight so they called a cart to drive us from one end of the airport to the other to catch our second flight. We were the last ones on the plane, and then after we got on it pulled away from the gate and sat on the runway for about half an hour before it was de-iced and we could take off. We got to Boise a little while later. All in all, it was a good trip – some of the boys cried a little off and on, but none of them cried for an hour nonstop (which has happened to me on past flights).

When we arrived, we went straight from the airport to a singing recital for Michael’s youngest sister, Mindy. Then we left after Mindy’s song so that we could go to a bridal shower for Michael’s other sister, Jennie, that was being thrown by her fiancé’s family. While I was at the shower, Michael unpacked all of our bags and the boys got to play with their grandpa. It is not as cold here as it was in Boise, and the boys have been able to play in the back yard a couple times, which has been really nice for them to get out. And we got to meet Jennie’s fiancé, Dalin, who seems like a nice guy. On Sunday we went to church, which went pretty well, except for Camden getting a bad case of diarrhea (caused by the antibiotic that the doctor gave us for his runny nose), but he has finally started to get over that today. At church we spent some of the time with the two youngest boys in the hallway, but got to attend part of all three meetings, so that was nice. We also got to talk to a couple old friends, and it will be fun to try to get together with them while we are here. That night we got to watch the First Presidency’s Christmas Fireside. We decided to watch it at home on the computer since taking the boys to church and trying to get them to sit still and quiet for an hour might be difficult. It was kind of crazy at home with the boys talking and crying, but we tried. After the fireside we went to Layne and Debbie Bennion’s house, Michael’s uncle and aunt, and got together for their annual tradition of hot chocolate and toffee. We got to see some of Michael’s cousins, and we talked with Becky and Neil Wall for quite a while. (It was fun to meet Becky after she and I have been in touch over e-mail for a while). We are planning on getting together with them sometime soon.

On Monday Michael started his derm rotation with Dr. Burr and he is enjoying it. Tonight he went to a derm conference in downtown Boise with Dr. Burr that is supposed to present a lot of really interesting cases, so it is nice that he gets to spend time this month doing what he is really interested in. On Monday evening we were invited to family home evening at Bryce and Emily Christensen’s house, but they called before we left to say their daughter had fallen and cut above her eye and they needed to take her in to see if she needed stitches, so we’ll have to get together with them later on. For our family home evening activity last night we ended up setting up the Christmas tree, and we will decorate it sometime this week. The boys should have fun doing that. Today we took the boys to the playgroup at the church, but it was cancelled because the carpets were being cleaned in the building so we took them to an indoor play area at a Burger King nearby instead. The boys had a lot of fun with that. When we got home I helped Debbie to get photos of all the family members for a calendar she is having printed. And now all 4 boys are napping – it sure is thoughtful of them to sleep at the same time so that I can write this.

So, Isaac sure has been great since we got here! When he was in the NICU they put him on a schedule of eating every 3 hours, and he had stuck to that schedule pretty much since then. So, after he got up several times the first night we were here, I decided that I needed to adjust his eating schedule. With my other boys I always nursed them every 4 hours from the time they were born, and they were fine, so I decided to switch Isaac to every 4 hours. I thought that if he acting hungry after 3 hours, we could just hold him and play with him to try to hold him off until it reached 4 hours since he last ate (because he is pretty content with being held, and he doesn’t cry much so I thought we could hold him off without much trouble). We did that all day and he did just fine with it, and then he went for 4 and 5 hours between bottles that night. The next day he did great again and last night he went for 5 ½ hours, got up once to eat, and then went another 5 ½ hours before he got up in the morning. I can’t believe what a wonderful baby he is. I guess, now that I think about it, all of my boys have been really good as babies, but I didn’t expect Isaac to switch his schedule so quickly just because I decided that he should. It has been nice to be able to sleep with minimal interruptions, and I hope it continues.

Oh, and Kolby said something pretty cute the other day. While we were having dinner Sunday night Dick asked Kolby what he learned in his class at church that day. Kolby told him about a song they sang about Joseph Smith going to Neverland. We all laughed and none of us could figure out what he was talking about. So, later on that night we were listening to Christmas songs and he said something about Joseph in Bethlehem – that’s what he meant earlier. How cute!