hello there! it's been awhile since my last post and it has been a week or so since i've been online..surprising, but we were so busy. the week before last kicked off the craziness.
landon went in for his second bronchoscopy. the doctors are still trying to figure out what is wrong with his breathing. they also did some other blood work while he was sedated. the results came back and said that landon is still aspirating into his lungs and he had an infection in his airways. they said just to keep waiting to it out to see if he'll grow out of it and to avoid him taking in lots of water ie submered in water or else he could drown with the all the fluid in his lungs...guess swim lessons are out for the time being.
on wednesday, jordan and i went to dinner with his boss and some people he worked with and it was an adult dinner...no kids. some friends we have babysat for us (gasp!)....in landon's two years of life it was the first time someone other than family had watched him. he did great though, there were lots of people there to entertain him. we also went to dinner with the perrys and the burninghams and all six of our kids in tow...it was interesting but not as bad as we probably all anticipated...they are getting older now and keep each other company, at least for a little bit.
dylan had his four month check up. he's in the 75th percentile for height and weight lol which is funny to us because landon never went through the chumky baby phase, but dylan is a tank of a kid. we have to take him to the ear nose and throat specialist (same ones that put landon's tubes in his ears) because they think dyl might have a deviated spetum or a collapsed nasal passage; he's always stuffy and his nose runs and he snorts a lot, sounds like a warthog....a cute warthog.
we had our version of christmas here before we left and it was nice...we didn't go too overboard with spending this year because we're saving up to landscape our backyard still .
then we braved taking both kids on the airplane to washington for christmas. with checked baggage as much as it costs, we were worried about how we were going to get stuff for 4 people for 8 days on the plane with us.....enter Space bags!! we packed all four of us in one suitcase and still made it under the 50 lb limit, just barely though. the boys did okay on the plane...it is difficult to keep landon contained to such a small space for any prolonged period of time. surprising enough, we werent' the mess you expect with two kids and two carry one items each. we made it through security, shoes and jackets off and all, in less time and with less hassle than most single travelers.
we got to washington and it was freezing! it was really cold but as soon as we got outside, you just breathed in evergreen trees and it feels like home again.
the first night we were there we went to a baptism for a friend of ours who has been a pseudo member of the church for a long time but finally took the plunge...pun intended. he had so many people there to bare witness to his committment, i told him he had the super bowlf of baptisms. it was really inspiring to watch; all those people having so much love and acceptance of his new life. you could really see it in his face too that he was changed instantly.
the next morning we went to church and dylan had his baby blessing; he slept through it but it was a beautiful blessing given by his grandpa dave. he gave dylan a blessing that he would be happy and healthy and strong throughout his life with strong faith....it moved us, just like when he did landons. it was the christmas prgram which is my favorite because i know all the songs and they are the perfect belnd of spirit, both in God and in the christmas sense which i guess is the more commercial sense of the word.
i got to go spend a little bit of time with my brother mikey and he got to see his nephews (meeting dylan for the first time). we did some christmas shopping and spent most of the rest of the day just hanging out, playing board games with the family and eating all the things you are expected to eat at christmas time but the kinds of foods your diet doesn't allow for....oh well....all in moderation which i did a good job with....no extra pounds gained..
i also got to see my very best friends tim and suzi!! they are the best kinds of friends because even though we go years sometimes before we see each other, we pick up right where we left off. we talk like we just saw each other the day before. i love them. i also got to see my friend nolan who had been serving in the armed forces, just got back from quatar and was back in town. he and i go way back and have been friends a long time and i'm glad he made it home safe and unharmed. we all had a good time and i hated not being able to see them more but when you want more time, it seems like it's always speeding away from you..
jordan and i got to spend a night together in seattle. we stayed at the edgewater hotel which is a rustic/modern hotel, makes you feel like you're in a ski lodge in the city, i loved it. we drive down with nayt and jaimie who were celebrating two years of marriage. they were a lot of fun to hang out with. we all went to dinner and the next day, we spent a good part of the day walking around pike place. we bought doughnuts that were the size of someone's head, we had fresh fruit that was delicious, we went to the first starbucks which i always wanted to do and we ate at this local cheese place for lunch. i got to do two things that i havne't been able to do in a long time.....take an uniterrupted nap AND and uninterrupted shower...it was divine!!
that night, we took the kids to the bellevue botanical gardens to see the light display they had there. landon wasn' in the best of moods but we made the best of it. it was insane the things they can do and make with christmas lights, i was really impressed... and i liked that it was free..most light displays were charging 10$ a person..no thank you..
on christmas eve, we had our christmas dinner with the whole family. kathy made chicken cord en blue (pardon the spelling) and lots of other yummy food and we ate until we were going to explode and then we played some more board games. p.s. i am awesome at apples to apples, just in case anyone wants to play against me....example. word was "innocent", i won with the card played of "adolf hitler".
the next morning was christmas!! we all opened gifts, exchanged thank yous, even landon said his. he suddenly has hit a language boom and will voice his wants and needs most of the time and copies what you say. i slept a good a good part of the day away after not sleeping at all the night before and then we just hung out the rest of the day.
on saturday we went to our friends mark and anne's house to have dinner and so landon could hang out with their daughter, the lovely and adorable miss gracie.they went back and forth from getting along to arguing to fighting to chillin on the couch....and only one head on collision that left them both in tears momentarily. mark and anne are always a source of entertainment for us and it's so easy to hang out with them because there are very few topics that are off limits or don't end up to be hilarious. last night, we spent our time packing. we had to leave the house at 330am to catch a 515 flight....ugh....we did it that way to avoid a layover.
we drug ourselves and our sleepy little ones through security and onto the plane for the 2 hr and 45 mins flight home. dylan slept almost the entire time, jordan and i kept drifting off and landon stayed quiet most of the time since brought the zune with us, loaded with kid movies...it's a handheld wonder!
today, we upacked, bathed the kids, showered, cleaned, went and finally bought landon's bed for his big boy room and put it all together. it was a very productive day (so far) considering that we only got maybe two hours of sleep. now we're home and it's bittersweet...both in that we are awar again from our family and we're back to our regular routine in the morning.
we had so much fun this trip and it is so awesome to see how close landon and his grandparents and uncles and aunts all are. dylan just loved and cuddled everyone and landon is getting to the age where he really can express how much he loves you and it just broke my heart when we left this morning and he looked back and at grandma and grandpa getting in the car to leave...the look on his face was so sad....but i know that we are going to see them again soon and he'll be even more excited, and so will we!
here is a link for pictures from our trip
www.picasaweb.google.com/dunnboy10