Look I'm blogging about Spring & it's not even Fall yet!
Impressive. ;)
There is no perfect word to describe our Spring...it was filled with ups and downs (I hate to say more downs than ups but it is what it is) but it was definitely craziness around here. Honestly, I'm glad it's behind us! Between fighting morning sickness and the woes of early pregnancy (yep, it's happening!), Lexi having bouts of pretty scary breathing issues and sickness, our basement bedroom flooding & having to put our sweet dog of 10 years down....I can't say it was a great Spring but definitely one of change and moving on with things.
ROXY....
We adopted Roxy from a no-kill animal shelter shortly after we moved to Arizona for Chris to attend Midwestern University's Pharmacy School in the summer of 2004. That was a great year for us of new beginnings....moving away from Utah for the first time ever (besides Chris' mission to Louisiana) was a great experience and one that I treasure. We had no kids at that point and had just purchased our very first home in Surprise, AZ (I think we paid just $140,000- our house payment was like $600-700 a month!) and were loving life! We were SO excited to be on the path to a real career for Chris and to have made it to this next phase. Not to mention it was so exciting to live in a brand new place. I really, REALLY wanted to get a dog to share our new life with and was thrilled when Chris (who had never owned a dog before) picked up Roxy at a shelter while I was working (at a neurosurgeon's office - WHICH I HATED...haha!). Anyways, I am waaaaaay too wordy here so feel free to skip (I'm talking to my one lone reader out there) but I gotta document! :) I remember that Chris picked her up from the shelter just had to leave her alone in our empty house and run back to school, so I came home to find my new best friend. The poor little thing had kennel cough and was soooo sick. She would just sneeze and sniffle and goop out this white stuff all over our couch. It was disgusting and I wondered if she had something permenantly wrong with her and wondered if this was even such a good idea. It took a week or two but she got better and her sweet personality shined through. We just LOVED her. She was so gentle and affectionate and would follow us everywhere... and she never made a peep! She especially loved Chris in the beginning... we think it's especially because he rescued her. Over the years she proved to be the most loyal little being I think I've ever known. She was our first baby... yes, we were totally those dog people (who after I had kids I began to roll my eyes at). We took her where ever we could and she always traveled back to UT with us, in her luxury dog bed, wearing a seat belt of course. When we went to CA for a weekend to meet up with my Dad we had major anxiety over leaving her but we researched and found this little dog sanctuary where she wasn't locked in a cage all day. We were so excited to pick her back up after our trip and were quite the proud dog owners to find out that she was so well behaved while we were gone and that the owner's had in fact fallen in love with our Roxy baby too. How could they not? Our hearts swelled with pride. :) She truly brought us so much joy and we LOVED those years with her!
2 years later....
Our 2 red heads! (P was red-headed for the first 10 months of his life!)
In 2006, things changed a little for our pampered little pup. Not drastically, but she was definitely knocked off her pedestal with the arrival of Parker. She now had to share attention with this new creature, and even though she was wary about it, she was never ever aggressive with this new family member and was still so happy to have a place in our family. The following year, 2007, Chris graduated, and with some trepidation, we packed up and moved back to good old Utah. Arizona was an amazing time for us. We began our family there, become first time home owners there (in an adorable house that we LOVED), Chris acquired a doctorate degree there that would give him a great, stable job that he loves for the rest of his life, and, of course, we adopted our sweet Roxy there (to name just a few of the fabulous things that happened to us in that desert).
It wasn't long (a year) after we moved back to Utah that Roxy's attention had to be divided yet again with the arrival of Emmie. Once again, Roxy took it like a champ. She even handled 2 year old Parker during those days pulling her tail and not always treating her very gentle (to put it nicely) with grace. SUCH a good, sweet, patient dog.
As the years rolled by and stress with little ones and chaos in the home increased, I am sad to say it became harder to give Roxy all the time and attention that she once had, but she was still an integral part of our family. In AZ we had health insurance for her, but once back in UT and with money and time now going towards our kiddos, she rarely got check ups or time at the groomers... but I promise we still loved her! We had many good years with her here in Utah. Our neighbors knew and loved her too and those that might just be passing through might have thought there was a fox on the loose, because that's what our "Foxy Roxy" resembled. :) In the last few years of her life, she had arthritis and had a harder time getting around, had cataracts and had a hard time hearing. Old age was really getting to her and not to mention the life long seizures she would have periodically since we got her as a young dog sometimes plagued her terribly. Last summer around the same time I got sick, she started bleeding on her belly and developed a fast growing tumor. I was so busy dealing with my own medical issues and basically just in survival mode in our home with taking care of the kids because of it that sadly I didn't have time to worry about her issues. (Which makes me feel so bad!)
As the years rolled by and stress with little ones and chaos in the home increased, I am sad to say it became harder to give Roxy all the time and attention that she once had, but she was still an integral part of our family. In AZ we had health insurance for her, but once back in UT and with money and time now going towards our kiddos, she rarely got check ups or time at the groomers... but I promise we still loved her! We had many good years with her here in Utah. Our neighbors knew and loved her too and those that might just be passing through might have thought there was a fox on the loose, because that's what our "Foxy Roxy" resembled. :) In the last few years of her life, she had arthritis and had a harder time getting around, had cataracts and had a hard time hearing. Old age was really getting to her and not to mention the life long seizures she would have periodically since we got her as a young dog sometimes plagued her terribly. Last summer around the same time I got sick, she started bleeding on her belly and developed a fast growing tumor. I was so busy dealing with my own medical issues and basically just in survival mode in our home with taking care of the kids because of it that sadly I didn't have time to worry about her issues. (Which makes me feel so bad!)
Oh, the circle of life.... I hate it sometimes.
We definitely knew we needed to do something to put her out of her misery, and after months of knowing this but not having the courage to do it, we finally took her in this last Spring to have her put down. It was such a sad day- harder than I thought it would be. Knowing how loyal she had been to us all those years, even through tougher times for her, I didn't have the heart to just leave her body there with the vet. I knew she'd want to be close to us, as she always was, so after the horrible trip to the vet we buried her in the backyard. Emmie was at dance and then a playgroup, Parker at school, but we took Lexi with us.
Here she is with her pals, on her last night with us. Emmie started to bawl and scream right after this pic... she was probably the most upset about it of the kids. You can tell Roxy just looks sick in the picture... it was definitely her time to go.
Funny how the right thing is sometimes the crappiest thing.
It's been three months and I still really miss her...I miss her sense of relief in unison with my own as Chris would be working a late night shift and she and I would finally get to sit down in solace after she "helped" me put the kids to bed. I think she really loved having me that last hour of the evening to herself as she would cuddle at my feet at the end of my bed without the chaos of the kids swirling around us. It was finally our time to bond in the day in recent years.
I know she's a dog and after having kids I definitely appreciated animals (sad to say) less, because I know that people are way more important ... but they still have a place in our families and more importantly in our hearts.
We sure love our Roxy and feel honored to have spent 10 great years with her!
I know she's a dog and after having kids I definitely appreciated animals (sad to say) less, because I know that people are way more important ... but they still have a place in our families and more importantly in our hearts.
We sure love our Roxy and feel honored to have spent 10 great years with her!
Well, that was depressing.
In other news, THIS happened in late winter...
Baby #4 12 week Ultrasound
We knew it was risky for me to get pregnant after health issues I experienced last year, but after December I was feeling much better and couldn't shake the feeling that we had another boy up there... and let's face it, I'm not getting any younger. I really wanted to do this and get him here or move on from the baby phase and close that door... so after telling Chris it was now or never... we went for it and this happened pretty much immediately. I was pretty sick for the first 5 months (however not as sick as I was with my girls)... but Zofran was a huge help in easing the dreaded nausea and is still helping me out (at 24 weeks).
At 20 weeks we found out that in fact it really IS A BOY! I really felt like I knew this all along and was glad my intuition was correct. I've always wanted 2 boys and 2 girls, so I feel super blessed that this is really coming to fruition. I am due on Nov 13 and we're excited to get this little guy here. I'm sooooo happy- probably most happy, to be giving Parker the gift of a brother!
In February Lexi got really sick really fast and I knew by the retraction in her chest (because my good pediatrician has taught me when to really be alarmed) that it was a big deal and that she needed to get into the doctor asap. I brought her into the office and with one look at her in the waiting room several nurses just flocked to us and ran her back and immediately started breathing treatments on her. Her oxygen stats were too low but the treatment helped to raise it a little. Poor little thing was so sick and also had a high fever among other symptoms. They sent us over to the hospital for chest x rays to rule some things out. This was our first of four excursions like this in the last 5 months. The second one actually turned out to be pneumonia and over the months we have come to be experts at breathing treatments and even the same drill of running to the hospital for chest x rays. She starts wheezing and is so out of breath to even say one word, it's pretty scary. The most recent one was over the Fourth of July.... she was so SO sick. She started some steroids and they really helped her out over the course of a week but I hate watching her struggle to breathe. The littlest cold or bug turns into something major for her in her lungs and can be really dangerous. She doesn't have asthma-like issues at all otherwise. Needless to say, she'll go to nursery (at church) for the remainder of the summer, but once Fall hits, she won't be going. It's too risky plus with the new baby coming I just can't handle the stress of all the germs nursery provides. I usually don't send my kids much in the winter anyhow because the repercussions of 2 weeks of illness and doctor visits shared with the family is so not worth it to me, so this isn't all that different I guess. :) I think we're going to be missing A LOT of church this winter between her and the new baby coming.
Another happening this spring was that Parker was in this cute patriotic play that the First Grade put on. There are 150 students just in his grade so it was quite the production! He was chosen to be one of the members of the Barbershop Quartet. It was HILARIOUS! Seriously, it was the comic relief of the show and the audience LOVED it! The choreography was darling but the foursome lip-synced their parts and just hammed it up. It was really really fun and I think a good confidence booster for Parker as everyone complimented him about how funny it was. We were proud of him to say the least! :)
{Not the greatest pics}
In February Lexi got really sick really fast and I knew by the retraction in her chest (because my good pediatrician has taught me when to really be alarmed) that it was a big deal and that she needed to get into the doctor asap. I brought her into the office and with one look at her in the waiting room several nurses just flocked to us and ran her back and immediately started breathing treatments on her. Her oxygen stats were too low but the treatment helped to raise it a little. Poor little thing was so sick and also had a high fever among other symptoms. They sent us over to the hospital for chest x rays to rule some things out. This was our first of four excursions like this in the last 5 months. The second one actually turned out to be pneumonia and over the months we have come to be experts at breathing treatments and even the same drill of running to the hospital for chest x rays. She starts wheezing and is so out of breath to even say one word, it's pretty scary. The most recent one was over the Fourth of July.... she was so SO sick. She started some steroids and they really helped her out over the course of a week but I hate watching her struggle to breathe. The littlest cold or bug turns into something major for her in her lungs and can be really dangerous. She doesn't have asthma-like issues at all otherwise. Needless to say, she'll go to nursery (at church) for the remainder of the summer, but once Fall hits, she won't be going. It's too risky plus with the new baby coming I just can't handle the stress of all the germs nursery provides. I usually don't send my kids much in the winter anyhow because the repercussions of 2 weeks of illness and doctor visits shared with the family is so not worth it to me, so this isn't all that different I guess. :) I think we're going to be missing A LOT of church this winter between her and the new baby coming.
Another happening this spring was that Parker was in this cute patriotic play that the First Grade put on. There are 150 students just in his grade so it was quite the production! He was chosen to be one of the members of the Barbershop Quartet. It was HILARIOUS! Seriously, it was the comic relief of the show and the audience LOVED it! The choreography was darling but the foursome lip-synced their parts and just hammed it up. It was really really fun and I think a good confidence booster for Parker as everyone complimented him about how funny it was. We were proud of him to say the least! :)
{Not the greatest pics}
I went to both the day production and night. I didn't catch him fast enough afterwards to get him in his costume in the pics on the right. We were grateful that Gpa Todd and Melissa, Grandma and Grandpa Hansen and Great Grandma L were all able to make it out to support him. It was a fun night for him!
And finally, the last event I'll mention in this post is Spring soccer. This season flew by and we had to miss several games due to our CA vacay and Lexi being sick, but Parker really loves this sport and I love to watch him! He is super fast, hard working on the field and has a lot of potential!
Goooooooooooooooo Blue Bearded Dragons!!!
We went to get snow cones after his last game as a little celebration of a great season. :)
