Circumcision...BEWARE...this could get graphic!

So most of you know that Beckett isn't circumcised (I am sure he will appreciate this post when he is older). They don't do this procedure in England (for some really weird reason). As soon as I found out I was having a boy I was like "oh crap" knowing he wouldn't be circumcised. After he was born we looked into having a private dr. in England perform the procedure but they said they wouldn't even consider it until he was two years old. We moved back to the U.S. when he was 4 months old and by this time I was way too attached to Bex to let anyone put him under anesthesia and cut at his privates. My pediatrician here was very supportive and assured me that more and more parents were taking the non-circumcision route and that pediatricians are now supportive of either decision. So, pretty much we decided to not have it done. We figured that he would probably be made fun of in jr. high but that he would already be made fun of for being Mormon so why not add one more thing-builds character-right?? Well, a few months ago at a well visit my ped. was checking him out and noticed that his foreskin was adhered. This isn't good because it balloons up and forces some of the urine back to the bladder. I tried some topical stuff but it only worked very temporarily. At my peds. recommendation I made Bex an appt. with a Ped. Urologist. We just saw him today and he said at a minimum it needed to be dilated, which requires him to go under anesthesia...so, if he is going to go under anesthesia then we are having him circumcised. This won't happen until Sept. so I have time to brace myself. I know it seems silly but he is my baby and I just don't want to think about him undergoing ANY sort of procedure-I don't even want him to skin his knee. The dr. assured me that his recovery would be VERY EASY and that the chances of him dying under anesthesia would be the same as being struck by lightening. I have a huge fear of anesthesia because I have never been put under. I went through the same thing when Sawyer had his club foot surgery at 3months old. I know I will be happy we did it after it is all over. So, to all you outspoken (Holli K.) people who are pro-circumcision it is going to get done.

Beckett is 18 months!

Beckett turned 18 months on the 15th. I am behind on this post for him. I took him to get his photo taken and this is pretty much the only one that turned out because we couldn't get him to sit still for more than a second. I had to take a photo of the photo. You don't get a disk unless you spend over $100 and that wasn't going to happen for one photo so I opted for the $9.99 package of the ONE pose that turned out. Anyways, he is a BUSY boy. He LOVES to dance. He will dance to anything-even church hymns during church. He is just starting to get a little interested in T.V. His favorites so far are "Blue's Clues" and the very odd, "Yo Gabba Gabba". He is saying a few words like "Thank You", "ball", "baby", "no", "uh-oh". If you ask him "Who's cute?" he says "meeee." He can point to many of his body parts when asked. He also loves books and calls them "bookas". He also LOVES balls and will throw anything that he perceives looks like a ball. When I took him to go get his picture taken he was playing with a small soccer ball. The photographer was using this flower with a very long stem to tickle him. Beckett decided he wanted the flower and proceeded to use it as a golf club/baseball bat to move the ball around. They had this little podium/prop thing and he put the ball on it and tried to hit it off with the flower stem. Faith was with me and we were cracking up. Also, one day Reganne was over practicing her pitching with Faith and Beckett was watching out the window. He was trying to imitate her by spinning his arm around and throwing the ball-it was so cute! I still have to gate my stairs. He wants to go down like a big person so I can't trust him yet. It will be a happy day when I can take the gate off the stairs. He is a climber. He doesn't really get into things-just wants to climb. The picture of him on the dining room table I just took seconds ago. He is by far the most active out of all my kids. Oh yeah, he also loves to give "hi-five's" and "kisses". He just sticks out his bottom lip for his pucker. He brings us a ton of joy.

Softball

Faith's softball season is finally over. It has kept us VERY busy. I have to admit that I have LOVED every minute of it. (However, I have NOT enjoyed entertaining Bex during the games). Faith has shown a ton of improvement and I am so proud of her efforts. Their team was called the "Diamond Dolls." She played with Reganne. Reganne's mom, Jenny and I have been good friends for almost 10 years-since the girls were toddlers-and it was so fun to watch them be on a team together. Reganne is an awesome pitcher and will be trying out for her jr. high team in a few weeks. They had a rough season with only a handful of wins but did awesome in the tournament-placing 6th out of 18 teams. They played 3 games on Saturday-it was exhausting but very exciting. After the softball tournament and garage sale I am ready for a more relaxing week. Kyle was camping for 4 days with his friends so I want to thank my in-laws and parents for coming to my rescue to help out with the kids so I could work at the garage sale and be there for Faith-to give her my undivided attention at her games. I have to add that Sawyer loves going to her games to play with Carson and Gavin (Reganne's brothers). I think he sampled every food item at the concession stand on Friday and Saturday. Here is a photo of Faith with Reganne before a game and one of Faith's team at the end of their final game.

Garage Sale

My friend, Jenny and I put together a garage sale this month. We had a TON of stuff-and that is an understatement. The pictures I put on here don't do it justice. I bet we had close to 200 pairs of shoes. This is what you get when you combine 2 shopaholics and 7 kids between us. Plus, I had 3 years worth of outgrown clothing. I used to put everything on ebay but it seemed I wasn't doing as well on there as I was before we moved to England. It was at Jenny's house and she put together a subdivision sale. It was supposed to start at 2 on Thurs. and people were there at 10. We weren't even done pricing stuff. It was a lot of work but ended up being very worth it. We boxed the stuff up that didn't sell-of course we were shocked that every single thing didn't sell :)-and will be putting it out next summer. I am happy to have the extra money for back-to-school stuff.

More Photos ...

My girls!!


My grandpa has two "picture rocks" in his yard-we have taken pictures on them for over 30 years.


Yep...that is my dad on the rock wall in the park.





My boys!!


My nieces with Faith and Bex.


Us with my grandpa on one of the "picture rocks".


My parents with my grandpa.


Kids in my grandpa's yard.


My parent's illegally sharing a seat and a seatbelt so that we wouldn't have to rent an extra vehicle to the airport.


Sawyer's wasp sting that happened right before we left for the airport.

Family

This is my cousin, Jeff, and I-we are the same age and have pictures of us as kids on this rock together-we (his wife and I) thought it would be cute to recreate the picture :)


Most of the boy 2nd cousins


Most of the girl 2nd cousins


Kelly, Laura, Maia and Kellie-Danny in the background (married to Kelly)

We had an amazing 4th of July. We got to spend this day with my brother, Tyler, and his family, my parents, my grandpa and many cousins with their many, many, children. I think there were close to 50 people at my grandpa's that day. It had been 10 years since I had been to Utah and that long since I had seen many of my family members. We REALLY appreciated everyone coming to see us and spend the day together. I wish we would have had more time together. Unfortunately, I didn't get very many photos of our day together. Beckett was in prime form on this trip and either Kyle or I had to chase him around constantly so I didn't get the chance to take many photos. My grandpa's house is like a museum and his yard has lots of nice landscaping with rocks, inclines, steps and concrete-not good for an almost 18 month old. Beckett was also very moody-must have been homesick or maybe his 11 mosquito bites were bothering him. Regardless, we had a great time. Here are the few photos I took.

The location of our future vacation home....haha

My cousin, Wendi, gave us a lot of suggestions for fun things to do while in Utah and one of them was to drive to this valley/reservoir area in/by Ogden. It was SO incredibly beautiful!! Pictures DO NOT do it justice. There are all these smaller towns down in this valley and a huge reservoir-it is all surrounded by beautiful mountains. It was two-lane winding mountain roads in and out. I would hate to commute in and out everyday for work. The reservoir had a ton of boats on it. I can't imagine what it would be like to wake up every morning and have all that beauty to look at outside my window. I told Kyle that I wanted a vacation home there (you all now my heart belongs here) and he told me to start looking for money in the couch cushions......guess it won't be happening anytime soon.

More Utah...Salt Lake City

I really want to blog this whole trip but I am having problems getting around to it so here goes. The next day we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to learn more about our Mormon heritage. Kyle and I had been before but it was very fun for the kids. We saw the SLC Temple and went to a museum-My mind is blank right now and I am having problems remembering the official names of places. The museum was great with tons of Mormon historical stuff. My aunt, Judy, is a tour guide for the museum and she met us in SLC and we got a personal tour. Anywho...we also drove past the high school that was used in the High School Musical movies. The girls didn't think it was the right place but we were told differently so here are some photos. Unfortunately, it was raining and the kids were tired so we didn't get out of the car.

Dinosaur Museum

Our first day in Utah was spent going to the museum and to this awesome dinosaur museum/park-I can't remember the exact name of the place. I have never been anywhere like it. It had indoor and outdoor displays of every kind of dinosaur. I am going to try and do my posts from this trip day by day. It is going to take me forever cause I have tons of photos. We had a great trip. I haven't been to Utah in 10 years. My mom, dad, brother and his family were there too. We all stayed with my grandpa and got to visit with lots of cousins that I haven't seen in those 10years. It is SO BEAUTIFUL out there. More to come.





"Sweaty Boy" coloring a dino picture.




The dinosaur trying to "eat" Eden.



Dinosaur feces and Faith being funny.


Faith and Sawyer with the robotic dinosaurs.

Vacation

Sawyer didn't care much for the uniforms or airplanes-he just wanted to put money in here and watch it spin around.


My mom next to one of my grandpas uniforms


My grandpa is the one closest to me in the photo


Me and my Bro




On the first day of our vacation we went to the Hill Air Force Base Museum. My grandpa was a pilot in the Air Force. He has collected tons of military stuff over the years and has his own room in the museum with a display of his own uniforms plus others he has. It was so fun to look at. The museum also has tons of planes.