Saturday, January 29, 2011

"Oh No, I Lost My Weight!"

So a few people have commented that Logan has "lost weight" since his surgery. For 10 days he really just had milkshakes, Popsicles and apple sauce for the most part.
It was so cute.......after Grandpa Boswell commented that Logan had "lost weight"..........Logan got real sad and said, "Oh No, I Lost My Weight.............How Am I Going To Find It?"
It was the cutest thing! Wish I could lose some weight and worry where it went.......ha, ha....
Oh to be a Five Year Old again!
I think that would be the best vacation.............being Five for a week!
Thanks Logan for always making us laugh! You are such a lovable kid!

Kool-Aide Play Dough

Ryker and Carson Shupe brought over some Kool-Aide Play Dough for Logan.
It is the best play dough ever!
And because it's made with Kool-Aide it smells yummy too! Starts like this..... And ends up like this. The kids so enjoyed playing with it. Logan has played for hours and hours with this as he recovered from surgery. Not kidding HOURS! He loved it so much I had to get the recipe and make some myself. Super easy and better then regular store bought play dough!
You do have to keep it refrigerated for it to last for months.
It's a big thumbs up from the Cluff Kiddos!
They just all had a grand time with this Kool-Aide Play Dough.
Cake Boss Hunter
Logan made pizzas and cakes galore!
Such a fun thing!
If you are interested in the recipe let me know and I will post it. Super easy to make and oh did I tell you it smells yummy too!

The Popcorn War Lives On

After Wendy made the popcorn into the Christmas wreath I thought the war was over.....because what could you do with in now?
Well I dug deep and got creative! Yes that is the popcorn wreath! Looks like clown hair under the birthday hat. Jingling Justin made this up for me. With Stewarts help........I got it arranged for the ladies at Casa to give this to Wendy when they came out to sing Happy Birthday to her. Her friend Jenny Rogers took her out to eat and knew about the whole thing. Thank you Jenny and thank you Casa ladies! I had paid for their lunch as well....so they both were happily surprised! Wendy called me and said it really caught her off guard. She was so shocked that the hat was the popcorn wreath. It just made her day she said. And look doesn't she look HAPPY! Happy Birthday Wendy! Thanks for being a great friend!

All By Himself

Logan was so happy that he started giving himself his medicine. Oh wait........I need water. So fun to capture his expression!
There he goes being a Very Big Boy!
You can tell in this picture that just swallowing was uncomfortable. But man he took his medicine better then I did after my tonsillectomy!
Man, this is no fun!
He liked this medicine better.......it's the pain killer!
What a guy!
He was just so excited to do it, "All By Myself Mom!"
Logan's recovery wasn't as fast or as easy as Hunter's. It took Logan about 10 days to feel better. He didn't want to play with friends. He just stayed in his pajamas and watched cartoons for the most part. Poor little guy!

A Day with Daddy

Every year Justin gets asked to go to the Brighter Day Preschool during community week to talk about CKC. He does a great job up there in front of those preschoolers!
Logan was happy to have his dad coming to this class. This is one of the two newer heavy duty dump trucks we just got for the HWY 191 job. It was quite the ordeal to get the two trucks here from Utah. Justin worked on that for about 7 weeks...........I thought he was going to kill people by the time it was done. It was crazy! He would get phone calls at the craziest hours, all regarding these trucks. We are all glad they are finally here...........but no one as much as Justin!!! We took pictures and printed them off for the preschool class to see what type of equipment CKC has..........Logan was thrilled about this part. Pretty big tire...
The asphalt plant (and Logan striking a pose!)
The cement plant and office.
Justin's home for 10-12 hours a day (many times even longer!)
The wash plant
The kids love the huge piles of dirt and sand. Sometimes we'll let the kids go out and climb on them. It always scares me a bit, but they have a grand time!
Headed to school
Justin came and picked Logan up. Mr. Grant was not so happy to not be going with the boys and he let me know it! Isn't this a sweet picture of them!
I love Mr. Grant's smile in this one.
I had a hard time getting Mr. Grant out of the picture. Good thing this isn't a video or you'd hear Mr. Grant SCREAMING!!! He knew he was missing out on something. Logan loved this day..........but it was his first day back to preschool and he couldn't handle the full 2 1/2 hours. So Justin brought him home. Poor little guy just wanted to get back into his pajamas!
Logan also shared his Eggee's with both classes.......it was a HUGE HIT! Especially with the staff!!!

Logan's "Happy Day!"

This was the Sunday after Logan's surgery.
He was having a particularly hard time.....he was hurting pretty bad and couldn't eat much. He kept telling me, "I havin a hard day!"
But that ALL changed when his preschool teacher, Ms. D'Anne came by to visit him. She brought him a monkey stuffed animal and Popsicles. He was in HEAVEN! He then told me, "Mom, this is the best day EVER!"
Logan LOVES Ms. D'Anne! When she came by to visit she said she doesn't do this for every kid.........but Logan has just won her heart! It was so sweet to hear! She has won Logan's heart as well.........and mine as well.
Thanks Ms. D'Anne for making Logan feel better!

We Are the 2%..........Not Sure That's A GOOD Thing....

So Logan's surgery was scheduled for January 20th. He had to be at the surgery center by 7:00 a.m. with his surgery scheduled for 8:00 a.m.
He had been extremely nervous for weeks! We had discussed everything a hundred times it felt like........so I was worried about how he would act the morning of the surgery. Seriously, he had cried so many times about having his tonsils out and begged me to not make them do it.
I tried my best to talk about all the "Perks" of getting his tonsils out.......
Ice Cream for a week,
All the Popsicles he could eat,
New pajamas,
Lots of prayers and a blessing for him,
and he got to pick ONE toy at Target after the surgery was done!
All this did lessen his anxiety at times, but not as much as I thought it would!
It was so cute he would tell me, "I promise Mom to be a good boy, please let me keep my tonsils! I like them!!"
I was so shocked when Justin got to the surgery center with Logan, Kiersten and I drove from Chandler to meet the boys....Logan wasn't nervous at all. I think considering the weeks prior to this that nothing could have changed his attitude except for the prayers that were said in his behalf. His name was put on the temple prayer roll and many family and friends were praying for him this day. He wasn't worried or asking a million questions. He almost seemed confident and relaxed............it was amazing! He was happy Kiersten had gotten him a Buzz Lightyear Sword from Disney on Ice. Isn't he precious? Even when it's a routine procedure you never enjoy seeing your child in a hospital gown and cap............even tough you know it's the best thing for them. Logan was having his tonsils and adenoids removed as well as having his ear tubes removed. So NO water in his ears for a month........good thing it's not summer! Logan LOVED all the attention the nurses and staff gave him. They were so amazing! The anesthesiologist was excellent! He just kept asking Logan questions and joking with him. They let Logan take back his pillow pet that Grammie Cluff had given him for his surgery, so he was happy about that. This surgery center doesn't let the parents go back with the child while they are being put under anaesthesia and I was afraid Logan would be upset and nervous. But he was happy and I kissed him goodbye and they rolled him away. I have been there with my other kids during surgeries while they put them under anesthesia. Even though it is scare to see them look dead-like, I prefer to be with them until they are completely out, but this isn't the procedure here. So you do what they tell you. After only 35 minutes, our Post-op nurse, Ruthie Kimmons, came and got me. On the way in to see Logie Bear she warned me that he was having too much post-op bleeding and that they were having to suction it out. So not to freak out about the tube of blood! That is not what I wanted to hear. She also told me that this only happens in 2% of the surgeries! But after going through the experience with Hunter throwing up blood a week after he had his tonsils out........having to RUSH to TMC and have emergency surgery on a late Sunday night........Logan's situation was something I could handle with easy. Ruthie commented several times about how calm I was.............it was much easier to be calm when you are right in the surgery center having this problem instead of on the Freeway holding towels while your sweet boy pukes up tons of blood and tissue (that was the experience with Hunter). Once Ruthie knew about our experience with Hunter she said, "Man you guys are the 2%! Aren't you?" Logan was quite out of it, but he would wake up periodically and ask me questions and tell me he wanted to sleep. I told him that he had to go back in to have a second surgery to stop the bleeding in his throat. And without skipping a beat, he replied, "So do I get TWO TOYS now.........since I have two surgeries?" Ruthie even asked me if Logan said what she thought he said. Man this kid is smart even when drugged! I told him yes just to calm his nerves.... so we talked about what fun toys Target had as he drifted back and forth from sleep. The whole bottom of this was full by the time they took Logan back........yikes that kind of scared me. Dr. Soderberg, to the left of the picture, is a fabulous doctor. When we talked about our experiences with both Hunter and now Logan and I told him, "We must be the 2%. If we didn't have bad luck we wouldn't have any luck at all!" He laughed and gently hit my shoulder. But seriously we kind of come to expect hangups and glitches at this point. They promised me this only happens in 2% of all tonsillectomies. WE just happen to be the 2%.......lucky us! Logan loved that the doctor put a mask on his pillow pet! Dr. Soderberg said, "he didn't want Pillow Pet germs getting in the surgery room!" Gosh that ice necklace brought back horrible memories from my own tonsillectomy! I had mine taken out a month after Hunter back in 2007. Logan asked for a blue popsicle.......Ruthie told him she wasn't sure she had any of those left but she would try to find him one. He was so happy she fould him one and said she had to go through the whole box to get it. What a great nurse Ruthie was. She was the post-op nurse when Mr. Grant had his surgery to have ear tubes put in. She was so kind to Mr. Grant and I that day, as I was alone that day and Justin was back at the hotel with stomach flu............yeah see I told you we have bad luck.........ha, ha! Ruthie wheeled us all the way to our car. Logan thought it was fun to ride in the wheelchair. Poor guy.....trying to smile! We went to T.G.I. Friday's for lunch after leaving the surgery center and Logan was excited to have his bowl of ice cream for lunch. Kiersten and Hunter were both jealous about that and said they wished they got to have their tonsils out. I reassured them no they didn't. My mom and Gloria kept Mr. Grant for us which made the trip so much easier.....Thank You, Thank You! Grammie Boswell gave Logan the New Browny Bear that she got the music box out of for THE Browny Bear. He was thrilled to have a bear just like Hunter.........he wants everything Hunter has of course. He started feeling better after his ice cream lunch, not quite as good as Hunter did with his tonsillectomy. Hunter ate pancakes, eggs and bacon after the first surgery and the emergency one...........crazy, but he ate it with no problem.
Thanks to Ruthie, the Awesome Nurse, we found out about Eegee's Fun Party Pak! We took home pina coloda and strawberry eegee's.....yeah enough for 50 people in this freezer container with cups and spoons for only $17. Great idea for a party! We had the neighbor boys over for some eegee's, shared with J.P. and Mac, Grammie Boswell, the Shupe's and Logan's WHOLE preschool!
So so YUMMY! Thanks Ruthie for telling us about this.........see she is an amazing nurse! Wish I had gotten a picture with her....she's the best!
We decided since Logan seemed to be tolerating things well to go to the Tucson Zoo for a few hours before heading home........of course our first stop after lunch was to get Logan his pain meds and his One TOY...........yeah he forgot all about the second surgery and that I promised him a second toy. we had to tell him all about what happened cause he didn't remember it.
The kids love the Tiger!
I Love to watch my kids looking at the animals more then I enjoy watching the animals. They get so excited about everything!
I do LOVE the giraffes.........their tongues are crazy long!
Kiersten greatly enjoyed using her new camera to take pictures herself. I of course was thrilled she is interested in photography!
Logan was excited to get to ride around in Mr. Grant's stroller, as he has been too big for a stroller for some time now!
Just our luck the stroller had a flat tire, but Justin refused to pay the $5 to rent a zoo stroller. I told Justin I would much rather pay the $5 then push that stroller with a 45 pound kid in it WITH a flat tire, so if he didn't want to rent the stroller the pushing was ALL on him. And he did push the flat tire stroller around the whole zoo.......way to go and way to save $5!!!!
Logan really started to perk up after an hour or so of being at the zoo.
Hunter and Kiersten were excited to be ditching school for the day!
Gosh I love my family!!!
Me pretending to be a turtle.........my kids thought it was so funny that I would climb in the turtle. Oh the things we (or I) do for our kids amusement!
Logan kind of out did himself at the zoo........so we headed home about 4:30.
We were so grateful for great doctors, nurses and staff that made Logan's TWO surgeries go so smooth. We'll see what the week of healing brings!