Tattoo: Test Subject...Part 2

Yes, Tattoo is part of another study. However, this one doesn't affect him physically. This story starts about a year ago, when a friend introduced me to Savvyshopperdeals.com. Ever since, I've been hooked! I love to save money, and have since found several other websites that save me money and even make me money. One that I found the link to on one of my regular sites, was for Publisher Clearing House surveys. I originally signed up because I got a free sample out of the deal. Now, I get regular e-mails from them offering some sort of reward for completing a survey. I usually just erase the e-mail right away, as the reward is not worth the 20+ minutes it can take to complete a survey. Well, I noticed that one kept coming back. 3 times I deleted it, and yet another one would come in. I was getting a little frustrated, so I opened it to see what was so important. It told me it was only about a 3 minute survey, so I finally caved and started working on it. Anyway, it turned out that the survey was looking for people that have children in a certain diaper size, because they wanted to have those children try a new diaper. At the end of the survey, they told me that we qualified, and that I would receive a package of diapers to try out, and then fill out another survey after we've used them. I was figuring maybe 2 or 3 diapers. Then, I forgot that I'd even signed up after a week passed and nothing came. Today, however, to my delight, I found on my front porch, a BIG package of diapers, that we're supposed to use for a week! Wahooo!! So, starting tomorrow we're going to try out these new diapers. Hopefully they aren't awful! I'll post an update as soon as we know how they work.

Thankful

Although I didn't get around to this post around Thanksgiving, I still wanted to take a minute to share what we're thankful for in our lives.
First of all, 3 very healthy kids. I've been so lucky to have rarely sick kids. Not even an ear infection in any of them!
Next, We're very thankful to have jobs. Of course I would prefer to be a stay at home mom, but sometimes that's just not possible. I'm just thankful, with the economy, that I was able to find a great, secure job that allows me to work from home and have minimal time away from those cute kids.
Finally, we're very thankful for great family and neighbors that are always so supportive and helpful. Whenever we need help with anything, there's always someone to step in and lend a helping hand.
So, from the Morgan household, we all just want to say "Happy Thanksgiving!" (4 days late.)

Happy Birthday Tattoo!

Tattoo had a great 2nd birthday! His birthday was on the 7th. For the actual day of his birthday, we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese for the first time. Boy, did they have a blast! I had some great coupons that got us hundreds of tokens for the games, for very little money. We gave each of the kids a cup of tokens and sent them on their way. We also had Ghyslin with us, so it worked perfectly. Ghyslin and PJ were working together, I was following Kaiden around and Nathan was in charge of Tattoo. Tattoo was having a great time walking around pretending to play the games. Kaiden was actually pretty good at some of them. The girls, however, made bank on tickets from the games they were playing. Between all of the kids, they had enough tickets to get Tattoo a new ball, and each of the big kids several small toys. Although the food there sucks, we still had a great time!
We had birthday party with family the following Thursday. It turned out really great and went very smoothly, as a pot-luck dinner. Great food, hilarious entertainment (2 silly boys), and a fun, relaxing evening with family. Tattoo's favorite toys are cars, stuffed animals and balls. He got TONS of cars, a snuggly bear, a new light for his room, a book and some jammies. Good times!

Halloween

We had a great, fun Halloween this year. I did have to work, but was able to get off at 3, just in time to enjoy most of the festivities. The day started with a party for the 2 big kids at one of the neighbor's houses. Nathan did a great job of getting them dressed up in their costumes while I was working, and they sure had a blast!
Since I'd had to work extra hours during the week to make up for getting off early for Halloween, I was crunched for time in getting the kids' pumpkins carved. I ended up doing one each day, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They turned out really great, but because I had to do them in advance, they were a little shriveled by Halloween night. After I got off work on Halloween, I finished the last pumpkin. Whew! Cutting it close!
Because daylight savings came after Halloween this year (weird!), we went trick-or-treating a little bit later in the day, as we were waiting for the sun to go down before starting. Luckily, it was still fairly warm, and we didn't need coats. 2 years in a row of a warm Halloween. Dare I wish for another?! Trick-or-treating was fun, and Tattoo was the best part. He wasn't interested in going up to the doors (Kaiden had to collect treats for him). He was far more interested in playing with the toys left out in front yards. The very best part was the "drunk dragon walk." The costume was so padded, that he kind of waddled and ended up swerving a bit when walking. He was so funny!
Next in the festivities was over to Chris and Kelli's for their annual Halloween party. We got there too late for the kids to go trick-or-treating with the big kids, but Keyana and Kaiden took advantage of the opportunity to hand out the candy. Kelli had a computer set up on the kitchen counter that showed a camera feed from outside the front door. Keyana would sit there and watch for kids to come up so that she could run to the front door and hand out a treat.
All in all, it was a great day!

Tattoo's Surgery

This will be a "too-much-information" post, so if you have a problem with that, stop reading now!
Now, on to Tattoo's surgery. He was born with one undescended testicle. The other one is fine. We were waiting for it to drop on its own, but it still hadn't, and we were nearing his 2 year mark. His pediatrician sent his information up to Primary Children's Hospital for a consultation with the urology department. Matthew's cousin, Nik, had to have surgery in that department when he was younger, so Nathan's family was able to recommend a fabulous doctor for us to see. The problem with being a fabulous doctor, is that it took 6 weeks to get in for the consult! Well, we went in for that a couple of weeks ago, and decided that the best, quickest and most efficient method was surgery. They need to bring it down for it to develop fully, and the younger we do it, the better, especially so that he won't remember.
I completely trusted Dr. Cartwright to do an excellent job and take care of my baby, but I did have one huge fear about the situation. Tattoo has had stranger danger issues since birth, and I was afraid that scary doctors taking him away from us would cause permanent damage. Well, Primary Children's is the best in every way, and think of situations like this beforehand. They offered to give him some drugs that would make him sleepy and loopy before they took him away from us. They also said that it would help make him forget being taken away. I was on board! He was so silly while on those drugs, and just kept laughing at everything! Finally they took him back. The surgery took about an hour, which was right on schedule. Dr. Cartwright came out to tell us that it went very smoothly, and just as planned. It took Tattoo a while to wake up after the surgery, but they let me come back to be with him when he did wake. He was so thirsty, that within about 5 minutes of waking up, he had downed 2 sippy cups full of apple juice! Swallowing is one of the main things they make sure a kid can do after surgery before sending him home, so we were right on track. We stayed for about an hour after he woke up. We just sat in wonderful, padded rocking chairs, snuggling with him while the nurses made sure everything else was good to go. He passed with flying colors and has been doing really great ever since. They put some tape over his upper incision, as there are only stitches there under the skin, and they said that it should take about a week or two to fall off. Of course, Tattoo doesn't like to do anything according to plan, and had the tape off on Friday night! I panicked and made Nathan call to see if that was okay, which it was. I just overreact sometimes. Everything's doing really great and he's healing like a trooper. We go back for a follow-up visit in a month, but I think everything will be perfect at that appointment too!

Halloween Prep

I sure loved Halloween when I was a kid! As I got to be a teenager, and especially when I became an adult, I decided I didn't love Halloween so much anymore. I didn't, and still don't, like it when teenagers would just color their hair or wear a stupid mask and consider themselves "dressed up" for Halloween and expect people to still give them candy while trick-or-treating. I still feel that trick-or-treating is for the little kids, and if you're old enough to get a job, you shouldn't be trick-or-treating; you can buy your own candy!
Anyway, now that's off my chest, I'm really loving Halloween again! Having kids makes it at least as fun, if not more fun than it was when I was a kid. Having our own house to decorate makes it even better. As we were just moving in the week of Halloween last year, we didn't get to really enjoy the fun decorations, as we had to take them down nearly immediately after putting them up! This year, we whipped those decorations out as soon as it got slightly chilly! We've been gradually adding a bit more at a time over the last week or so, but the best part was just added last night. For years, Nathan has had a Halloween tradition of building a "monster" for the front porch. Last night, the monster was assembled. As he was being built, Tattoo decided to try on the mask. Cutest monster ever! In addition to the monster on the porch, Granny and Papa donated some Indian corn stalks to the decorations, which we tied around the front porch posts. Very festive effect overall!

Flu Shots

Today, I got a call from my pediatrician's office, letting me know that they were doing a pediatric flu study, and wanted Matthew to participate. They're compensating us for our time and travel, and the flu shot itself is, of course, free!!! With most places charging $25-$30 for the flu shot alone, this sounded like a great opportunity for us! Because Matthew only had one shot last year, as his first year, and was supposed to have had a booster as well, he is going to get 2 shots this year. Today we went in for the first shot. They also did draw blood, as part of the study. That part was sad, but he did so well!!! Now all we do is take his temperature every night for the next week and record it in a diary. We're also supposed to record any other symptoms as well. At the end of the week, we mail back the diary pages in a pre-paid envelope. For the rest of the study, we go back in a month for his second shot, and I believe we go back one month after that. There are also a couple of phone calls involved in the following months. I believe the entire study takes 6-7 months (in case you can't tell, I need to re-read the material again!)
Anyway, another great thing, is that if Matthew gets sick at all during the study, even if it's a non-related sickness, the office visit will be free, as they will take note of how any additional treatments may affect this flu vaccination.
I'll keep this posted as we go, in case a similar opportunity ever opens up for someone else, you will know what to expect. And because my obsessive-compulsive disorder won't allow me to post without pictures, I've included some of test-subject A!

Kindergarten

Yes, my baby is in school. She actually started Kindergarten on August 27th, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it. Her teacher's name is Miss Nybo, and PJ thinks she's pretty great! Every time we do her hair a different way for school, or if she wears a new shirt, she asks me, "Do you think Miss Nybo will like this?" Of course!
She's really excited to learn new things. I love it on the days that she comes home and teaches me a new song she learned, or shows me how she learned to write a new letter.

Although she loves to go to school, she has already missed one day, due to an awful tummy bug that attacked our house. She was so bummed that she couldn't go. That morning, she said that she felt better, but I told her to lie down for awhile. After being sick again, later in the morning, she said that she felt better again. I told her that she wouldn't be able to go to school because she was sick. She was so sure that she felt better, so I let her get dressed and we put her hair into a cute ponytail, but sure enough, she was sick all day! Poor little girl. Anyway, luckily it was about a 12 hour bug and she was more than ready to go back the next day!

Rainy Days

One of our favorite things to do this summer, is to sit on the porch during thunderstorms. It's so relaxing to watch the gutters slowly fill, and hear that pounding of the rain, while enjoying that beautiful smell. This year has also been a great year for rainbows.

Lagoon

We finally made it to Lagoon again this year for the first time in 3 years! We all had a blast and can't wait to go again. Although Keyana was a bit scared of some of the rides, just the morning she was telling me she wants to go again. Kaiden had the most fun, I think. He loved every ride, and the faster and higher they went, the better.

Still Alive!!!

I'm well aware that it's been 4 1/2 months since I've posted anything. Bad, I know. Anyway, rather than posting pages and pages of what we've been up to, I thought I'd just put lots of pictures and a few captions. One of these days I may start posting more often, but for now, enjoy!

Easter

Keyana's 5th Birthday

Memorial Day in Fountain Green

Random, funny stuff

Happy Birthday Kaiden

I can't believe my little man turns 3 today! We celebrated with the whole family last night, and boy did we have fun! Kaiden got a plethora of new dinosaurs, dragons and sharkies! He has a spot in his closet called "dinosaur alley" which is where all these new creatures have just moved in. He also go a new table and chairs for his room, which he is pretty excited about!





As just an extra note, Kaiden has had several successful potty trips. Sure, he's still having accidents, but 3 successes in one day is something to get very excited about. Hopefully within the next couple months we'll be back down to one kid in diapers!

Updates

I realized that it's been over a month since our last post, so I decided I needed to get my act together and mention what we've been up to lately!
One of the benefits to living in Eagle Mountain is (prepare for a shocker!)...the eagles! I knew that they were out here because everyone else has seen them, but until about a week and a half ago, I hadn't seen any. The first couple I saw were standing on a dead cow (gross, I know!) The very next day I saw another one standing in the middle of the field of cows. I would almost say that they were vultures, rather than hunting their own food, they're standing there waiting for it to come to them. Lazy creatures! Anyway, in Fairfield, just across the valley from the city center, is where the eagles must be living at the moment. Nathan had gone with Chris and Kelli on Saturday while I was at work and they got some amazing pictures. I was super jealous and made him take me this week. It was so spectacular! Between golden and bald, we counted 15 that trip. We also saw a couple of wild bunnies and stopped to tell them they should hide because they are hopping around with a nice, shiny target on their backs in that area! :) I hope the eagles stick around for a while longer so I can see some more!
The snow around here is finally starting to melt and we can see grass again for the first time in over a month! Nathan is getting really anxious to get out there and start working on the yard. We have endless possibilities with the back yard. Before the snow melted I did get a couple good pictures of our resident snow bunnies!
The last couple weeks I've been working long hours on Saturday to get caught back up after taking so much time off around Christmas. Since this is Nathan's only day off, he really has been enjoying getting some quality time with the kiddos. Last week they made a fort, which by looking at the pictures, seems to have been quite a success!
Not too much has gone on in January, but February is always crazy with 5 immediate family birthdays! Kaiden will be 3 this month, so stay tuned in for an update on that!