Adapted Mind

I started home schooling in January of this year...with that has come the stress of teaching math. I have really struggled with a way to get the girls excited about math, until I found Adapted Mind It is for 1st-6th grade. It is $9.95/month, but it includes all my children. Also, you can just go month to month; no contracts and you can quit at anytime. We've already started Samuel on the 1st grade math (he's starting Kindergarten this year). One of my favorite features is the ability to "earn badges". The badges have no monetary value, but it brings out the competitiveness in my girls and keeps them motivated. They are in a race to see who can earn the most badges. So I have been very happy with it and will continue to use it. It just goes up to 6th grade, but with all my children, I'm sure I'll get a lot of use of it.

Slacker

So I pretty much feel like a slacker in most areas in my life, hence the reason I've not updated since May. Since then we've added another sweet, little girl to our family (Caroline born on 12/21/11), so life is really busy now. We're all currently healthy, and happy for the most part. I'm going to make a goal to update once a week; I think I can stick to that. =)

May 2011

We’re still here. We survived the winter. Hyrum and I spent 4 days in the hospital. He had two viruses and had a hard time breathing, so we had a little vacation for the two of us (he had to have an adult with him all the time). =) My awesome family made sure we had plenty of visitors. Hyrum is now walking and thinks that he’s all grown up. I also took away his binky, which he wasn’t so happy about. Sammy keeps me on my toes. I’m convinced he has something in his ears. He talks really, really loud and is always saying “WHAT”? Eli said he had the same problem when he was younger and the doctor said he was just a loud talker. He really likes his old nursery leader, whom he calls Christiansen (that’s her last name). He’s always talking about her and on Mother’s Day, he picked her a dandelion and she waited around after church so he could give it to her. Claire is Claire. She is really anxious to start school. I’ve been teaching her how to read and she’s been doing well. She’ll be ready for Kindergarten. She and Sydney really like their hair put in curlers at night, which is an easy hairdo for me to do. I really, really like having girls. Sydney is getting really excited to get baptized in August. I asked her last night if she could stay 7 forever (she’s really sweet right now). She told me that she couldn’t, but one day she will be 17 (which is kind of like 7 in her mind). I took a picture with the children on Mother’s Day and Sydney was the only that smiled. 1 out of 4 isn’t too bad. They all are generally happy. We also went to the cemetery on Mother’s Day. It was the first time we’ve been since Hyrum has been walking. It was so cute to see him walk up saying “Joseph”. I love the picture of Sammy and Hyrum because it shows that Sammy is almost always watching over/ hovering over Hyrum. He doesn’t leave him alone, much to Hyrum’s displeasure.  The last picture is kind of cool because it’s Hyrum’s face, Joseph’s name and then Sammy’s head in the back-all my boys. So that’s us. Life is good.

I’m baaaaaack!

For how long, I don’t know. I’ve lost my zest for blogging. The addition of a 4th child has taken a toll. And I’m trying not to spend as much time on the computer.

Anyway, we’re all doing well. Sydney is enjoying 2nd grade and I stay busy with Claire, Samuel and Hyrum at home. Hyrum started crawling about a month ago, and it’s so cute. He’s really made some good progress on his development. He’s still a lightweight, but I’m not too worried.

I turned 30 in September, and I decided to go off sugar for a year. I’m wanting to lose some weight, and do something hard, so sugar had to go. It’s been hard, but I’ve seen small results, so that keeps me going. My girls are also doing it with me, so I have little eyes watching me.

So here are some pictures, because anyone that is left checking this blog really only wants to see pictures anyway. =)

His clothes were too wet, so he stripped down.

 

Exhibit A-couch cushions waiting to be washed

Exhibit B-marked hands, waiting to be washed

 

Sydney wore a monkey on her head for crazy hat day. For Super Hero day, she wore a nurses hat that said “My grandma is a super hero-she’s a nurse”.

Waiting for candy at the parade.

 

The cutest cheeks ever!

 

The field of flags from Peach Days

 

My brother came home from his mission. It was so fun to see him. He changed into the above attire on the plane. It was awesome.

 

  

We finally got some updated pictures. My how we’ve all grown.

July 1, 2009
I woke up pretty early and got ready. We had spent the night at my grandparent’s home in American Fork. Eli also got up, and we had a few minutes together before our other children woke up. Eli gave me a beautiful, sweet blessing. I don’t remember much of what was said, but I do remember feeling comforted that things would work out according to the Lord’s will. I was also still apprehensive because I could sense that things would get a lot harder before they would get better.
Once again we dropped our children off with Nicole and went up to St. Mark’s hospital to see Dr. Belfort. Dr. Schemmer is neighbors with Dr. Belfort, so he was able to show him ultrasound pictures of our children and fill him in on what he thought the situation was. Prior to seeing Dr. Belfort, I had another really long ultrasound, and both babies were alive and kicking.
Dr. Belfort came in and proceeded to perform yet another ultrasound. He was straightforward regarding our situation, but also hopeful. He said that our recipient twin was quite active for how ill he appeared to be. The donor twin was also doing well, but his bladder was already getting smaller, a sign that his body was shutting down. Dr. Belfort wasn’t convinced that they had TTTS, so he sent us to Primary Children’s Hospital to have an echo done on the twins. He wanted to rule out the possibility of heart problems. We also received information regarding the laser surgery, if we chose to go that route.
We headed up to Primary Children’s Hospital in North Salt Lake to see yet another doctor. Here we endured the longest ultrasound yet. The technician was very thorough and also preformed an echo on both twins. We then saw the Pediatric Cardiologists and she performed some more ultrasounds/echo’s. She then sat us down to give us her diagnosis. She said that both hearts looked good, considering. She did not think that the hearts were causing the problems. She felt that TTTS was what was causing the problems. Relieved that we wouldn’t have to see any more new doctors, we left. We called Dr. Belfort, who had received the diagnosis from the Cardiologists, and he wanted to schedule the surgery for 5 pm that day. He said it was urgent to act as quickly as possible if we wanted to save the twins.
It was so hard having to make quick decisions like that, but we both felt that having the surgery was our best option, so we said yes and headed back to the St. Mark’s Hospital. We arrived, and they began the paperwork to get me admitted and ready for surgery. I have never had surgery before, so this was somewhat scary for me. I wouldn’t be put out, unless I wanted to. The procedure only lasted about 20 minutes. I opted to stay awake.
Prior to the surgery, we made some phone calls to people in Ferron to take care of some things, since our plans had changed somewhat.
They took me to a room in the labor and delivery section of the hospital where I changed into my lovely hospital gown. I had nothing except my bag with some personal items. I was not planning on a hospital stay when I went up there. Eli was able to stay with me until they wheeled me into the surgery prep area. I was very sad to be away from him. We had pretty much been together for the whole ordeal, so it was no fun being alone to go through what I was going through. Sometime during this time, I met Dr. Robert Ball, who would be helping Dr. Belfort on the surgery. I was confident in both of their abilities. I never felt like they didn’t know what they were doing, and they had excellent bedside manners. They are both very good men.
They prepped me for surgery and explained what was going to happen. The main thing I remember was being so cold (could have been the lightweight gown I was wearing). They must keep that place pretty cold to keep down the infections I guess. It was finally my turn to go into the surgery room. They took me in their and it seemed to get colder. There were several people moving around, getting various things ready. They gave me the spinal block, and also something to keep my stomach calm. At this point, I am uncovered from the chest down, unable to move, and feeling like throwing up. I hadn’t eaten anything for almost 24 hours, but I could still feel something coming up. I told the anesticalogist that I was going to throw up, and he was right there with a bowl. I threw up the medication he had just given me (to keep my stomach calm), and after that I felt fine-considering.
I pretty much just laid there after that. I didn’t pay too much attention to what they were saying. I couldn’t feel anything, except a little prodding. I did feel when they initially went in through my tummy, but that was it. I didn’t have any pain. I was very cold though. Shortly after they finished, I started getting really shaky, and was still very cold (probably because I was so exposed). One of the best feelings from the day came when a kind nurse placed several warm blankets on top of me. It felt so good to be warm and covered. The doctor’s said they felt it had been a success, so now it was wait and see.
They then wheeled me back to my room, where Eli was waiting for me. I was so glad to see him. I’m not sure how long I was gone, but it was long enough for me.
I would be spending the night, and in the morning they would perform an ultrasound to see how the twins fared the surgery. I still couldn’t eat anything for awhile, so I was feeling pretty weak.
Sometime during the day, my parents picked up my children and took them to Liberty Land in Lehi. They had a great time; they probably didn’t even miss us. They spent the night at my parents home in Lehi. Later that evening, Evan and Nicole came up to see us. It was good to see them. They had really helped us out the last couple days.

One Year...

Today marks one year since I found out I was having twins. For those few readers I have left, and for those who are interested, I'll be posting Joseph and Hyrum's story, beginning with our first visit to the doctor. I wrote this last year so I could remember. It reads kind of like a journal.

March 25, 2009
Today we went to see Dr. Aagard at his office in Timpanogos Hospital. I knew I was pregnant, but I didn’t know how far along I was. Dr. Aagard performed an ultrasound and confirmed that I was pregnant, and he stated there was just one baby in there. I was somewhat relieved to hear that as there seemed to be a lot of twins showing up in Ferron. Sydney had also been praying for twins. She prayed for a sister and along came Claire. She prayed for a brother and along came Samuel, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with this pregnancy. At this point, only Eli knew I was pregnant. While I was at the doctor, he took the children to Costco to get some things, and then we went back to Ferron. I was only 6 weeks along. This pregnancy happened much sooner than I had anticipated, so it was somewhat unexpected, but not unplanned. I was feeling excited and happy at the prospects of another baby. I thought I would most likely have a little girl, as boys are not very common in the McMillan family, but I had a feeling that I was having a boy; a brother for Samuel to play with.
June 30, 2009
Today we all (Eli, the girls and Samuel) went to see Dr. Bean in his office in American Fork to see what gender our baby was. We were all very excited to find out. From the start, Sydney and Claire had both said they thought it was a girl, but two weeks before going in, Sydney changed her mind to say she thought it was a boy. She had also prayed for twins. Eli waited outside with the children until it was our turn to go in. I was a little apprehensive. This pregnancy had already been different from my previous pregnancies. I was much more tired and feeling much more sickly. I was also much larger in my tummy and had gained much more weight very early on. My ankles were also swelling, something that didn’t normally happen until much later in pregnancy. I was hopeful that my due date was off and I was further along than they thought. I had a feeling, however, that I was pregnant with twin boys.
Before Dr. Bean started, he said "are you sure you want to know because once we look there's no going back?" We told him we were sure. Dr. Bean started the ultrasound and didn’t really say anything for a few minutes. He just kept looking. Finally he said “You know you’re having twins don’t you?” I looked over at Eli in a somewhat state of disbelief. He then told us that they were both boys. He continued by telling us that it appeared that there were some serious problems with them, but he wanted us to see a perintolgist to confirm what he suspected. Where we lived so far away, he wanted us to see the perintologist that day. He made arrangements for us to see that doctor at 3.
My mom called while I was waiting for Dr. Bean to make arrangements, and I told her I was having twin boys. She had been telling me that I was going to have twins because I was so big, but when I told her she didn’t believe me. I had to have the receptionist talk to her. I also called my siblings to let them know as well. It was a surprise for everyone, but they were all excited.
While I was waiting for Dr. Bean, Eli took the children outside to play and to talk to them. Sydney was very concerned with her little brothers. Claire, who is always taking cues from Sydney, was also upset. They didn’t understand everything, but they knew one baby was not doing very good. It was very hard to help them understand when we knew so little ourselves. It was such an odd position that we found ourselves in. In a moment our lives changed.
We then went to lunch at La Carreta to celebrate. I called Daniel and Cheryl while we were there and told them. They were also surprised, but excited for us. At this point, Sydney became very upset because she had heard Dr. Bean say that the twins weren’t doing well. She has such a tender heart, and she was very worried about her brothers. We tried to reassure as best we could, but there were also a lot of unknowns for us.
I was excited, but I also felt a sense of worry. Already this pregnancy was turning out differently than I would have planned, and with each visit to the doctor, I felt my control over the situation slip further and further away from me. I like to plan and control things, so this was difficult for me.
We dropped our children off with my sister-in-law Nicole, and headed down to Utah Valley Hospital to see Dr. Schemmer. We first saw someone who performed a very in depth ultrasound, and who confirmed Dr. Bean’s suspicions that our twins were in danger. She was quite frank with us and made it very apparent that we were in a serious situation. She told us that she normally doesn’t tell patients as much as she was telling us, but we were acting so calm and in control that she felt it was okay to keep us informed. I truly felt calm during the entire proceedings; I was worried, but I did feel a sense of calm from the start.
After she did her measurements and assessments, Dr. Schemmer came in. He also explained how serious our situation was and recommended that we go see Dr. Belfort in the morning. He thought our twins had Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) and because of that, one twin was dying from too little nutrients, and one twin was dying from having too much. Dr. Belfort is an expert in the field of dealing with twins that have TTTS, and was capable of performing a laser surgery to cut off the blood link between the twins to enable to them to thrive on their own. If we did nothing, there was a 90% chance that they would both die. We made arrangements to see Dr. Belfort the next morning at 9 am.
Once again we were leaving a doctor’s appointment with more questions than answers. I was feeling the weight of the situation at this point. Eli had parked his truck at the Deseret Book in Spanish Fork because we were just going to go to the doctor, find out the gender, and be back on our way home, and Eli was going to go back to work. Well, once again our plans were changed and instead we went down and picked up his truck to take back to my grandparent’s home in American Fork. I had a return to make at Deseret Book; I wasn’t feeling much like going in, so Eli took it in for me. He came back with a CD by Hillary Weeks-If I Only Had Today. He didn’t know what the CD was about, but he knew I really like Hillary Weeks, so he bought it for me. That CD will forever be associated with Joseph and Hyrum in my mind. I cried the whole way to American Fork as I listened to it. I was ready for a bath and bed. It had been a long day.

Happy Father's Day

Well

I don't even know where to begin. I've kind of lost my gumption for blogging. That and trying to juggle four children requires almost all I have, so the blog sits silent.

Claire had her 4th birthday. She is such a spicy addition to our family. When we were trying to decide on a name for her, Eli wanted a name with spunk. Not sure how he knew she was going to be spunky, but one thing is for sure: her name fits (if you're going for spunk).

Samuel turned 2 in February. He is so much fun, and all boy (with a little girl influence from having sisters). To help encourage him in his potty training, I bough him Sesame Street and Thomas the Train undies. He had never seen either shows before, but he loves them now. He also has a big thing for John Deere tractors and cows. He's always on the lookout for the familar green and yellow, or for the "Angus bulls". He keeps me on my toes. He is a lot of fun. He adores his brother. I'm so excited that they each have a brother, and that they'll be so close in age.

Hyrum is now 11 pounds and 24 inches long. He's not even on the growth charts yet, but he's getting closer. He is such a sweet little guy. It's hard to believe he's 8 months old; he is just barely fitting into 0-3 month size clothing. He's my perpetual newborn. He's so cute, and is loved by all. He had his first interaction with another baby at my niece's baptism. McKenna and Hyrum had the exact same due date; McKenna's mommy Aimee is my only girl cousin my age. Aimee and I have pretty much done everything in sync: she got married 2 weeks after I did; Sydney was born in July 2003, Jaxon was born September 2003; Hudson was born September 2005, Claire was born January 2006; Cartson was born November 2007, Samuel was born February 2008; and finally we ended with the same due date, except Hyrum seemed to prefer an August birthday over a November one, so he's older. So anyway, it was fun to see Hyrum and McKenna. They actually looked pretty close to the same size. When we sat them up, she looked bigger, but they still look to be about the same age.

Eli celebrated his 32nd birthday. He got books and a super cool flashlight. He really likes the flashlight. He's a gadget geek, so I knew he'd like it.

We're blessing Hyrum on May 2nd. He'll almost be 9 months old, but he'll fit into Samuel's blessing outfit (Samuel wore it when he was 3 weeks old). He's only been to church once, and that was when they had cancelled all the other meetings because of snow, so there wasn't a lot of people there. My mom pointed out that by the time he starts going to church, he'll only have 9 months to go until nursery. There's a good chance he's not even walking then, so we'll see if he ends up going.

We also did the MS Walk again this year. We had a great time in St. George. Thank you again to those who donated.

I have also started Bountiful Baskets here in Ferron. I'm so excited to do it. I think it will be a great thing for people in the area.

So I guess that is us in a nutshell. Enjoy the pictures; they may be the last ones for a while. ;)

Hyrum & McKenna

Easter Dresses that I gave them on Valentines Day.

He's a pretty happy baby


Getting ready for the Easter egg hunt at grandpa & grandma's. Anita and her girls came down for the weekend. It's always fun when they come down.

It has been decided that he looks a lot like a McMillan. I think my other children are a pretty good mix, but Hyrum seems to be mostly McMillan. He did get my mom's chin dimple (which you can't see in this picture). He reminds me of Eli's father Daniel, so I guess he has the right middle name.

Just in case any of you were wondering if I really was around still, here I am. Hyrum and I have fun messing with the camera settings.

The little rugrats with my parents.

Happy baby

The McMillan Boys

Eli's father came out to visit us for a week in March. It was fun to have him here.

Cute

No "bones" about it; we have cute children.

Grandpa Herbert

"Work will win when wishy, washey, wishing won't!"

Eating ice cream, having a little chuckle at the water tricks he was playing at the 4th of July party.

Grandpa and Grandma with Hyrum

Grandpa and Grandma with Sydney

Sporting his new hat the Christmas he found out about his cancer.

Grandpa and Grandma with Claire and Sydney

Grandpa and Grandma with Samuel. Grandpa asked me if he could wear his hat; he had his head shaved from the cancer. He always looked good in a hat.

My grandpa Herbert passed away today, having fought a hard battle against cancer.
We knew it was coming, but it's still sad.
I will miss him. He was a very good man. He wasn't a very big man physically, but spiritually, he was a giant.
I hope he gives Joseph a hug for me.
I love you grandpa.

Names

So life has been good for us. We are happy to have Hyrum home. He's been home for 2 months now, and the time has just flown. He's currently 8 pounds, 2 ounces and 21 inches long-at 5 months. =) Samuel was 8 pounds, 3 ounces at birth, so Hyrum has a ways to go to catch up, but he's doing great. We've avoided most sicknesses so far; he did have the beginnings of an ear infection, but we hopefully caught it before it turned into anything else. Hyrum got his first RSV shot (a shot that helps infants not get RSV); he has to get one every month, but if it keeps him from getting RSV, it's worth it.

We had a good Christmas. We opened presents on Christmas Eve morning so we could go to the Herbert Family Christmas party and spend the night in Orem. My grandpa Herbert has been fighting cancer for about 3 years now. He was given a clean bill of health earlier this year. He seemed fine while we stayed at his house in October. He gradually started hurting more and more, so he went back in to get tested and his cancer has returned with a vengeance. He went back to the hospital the Saturday before Christmas to start treatments. They released him from the hospital on Christmas Eve, but he had to stay within 15 minutes of the hospital, so for our family party, we all went to the Governor's Mansion in Salt Lake. Grandpa was staying there so we were all able to see him, and he was able to see our Christmas program. He spoke to us all at the end. It was very sweet and very precious. He's currently in a medically induced coma at the hospital, so I don't think he'll live much longer. It was definitely a tender mercy that we were all able to spend one last Christmas Eve with him. I've never lost a grandparent before, so this is new territory for me, but having experienced loss quite a bit last year, I feel somewhat more at ease with loss. My grandpa was never one to speak a lot, but for quite a few years now, he has sent out a monthly journal detailing his day to day activities, and also his testimony. I will miss him, but I am happy for him. His mom died when he was quite young, so that will be a very happy reunion. One of his sons, Brent, died in 2004, so that will also be a happy reunion. He will also get to meet Joseph, so I can't be too sad about his passing, when it happens.

Now, onto the point of this post. =) When I found out I was having twin boys, one of my first thoughts was "Great, I don't even have any boy names picked out". I had plenty of girl names, and considering that Eli is an only boy with 4 sisters, I kind of thought I would have more girls. I felt really strongly that I needed to have names for these little boys well before they were born. We didn't name Samuel or Claire until after they were born. I did not want to wait that long. I always tried to get Eli to talk about names, but he never wanted to until they were here. With the twins, he once again didn't really talk about names, except in joking. He has two sets of boy twins on his side of the family; they were named Omer and Comer & Sod and Clod. He kept telling people that we were going to name our twins one of those names. One day I was thinking once again about names, and the names Joseph Steven and Hyrum Daniel came to me. I had never even thought about the names Joseph or Hyrum (side note: those names particular names come from Joseph and Hyrum Smith, early leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so they weren't totally random; see articles here and here for more details). I was looking for 6 letter names that had an 'e' in them (all my other children have 6 letter names with an 'e'; I'm weird like that). Joseph fits that, but not Hyrum, but when those names came into my mind, I knew that was what they were supposed to be called. I even knew which twin was to have which name. I just kept the names to myself for awhile, and then I told Claire and she really liked them. I then told Eli and Sydney. I can't remember what Eli's response was, but he was probably just glad that I was going to stop asking him about names. I told Eli on a Monday the names, and the next Wednesday was when I found out that Joseph had died. I was so glad to have them named. At first I thought that Hyrum was the one that had died because of the position of the babies in my tummy. Hyrum was always down low, and Joseph was higher. When Joseph died, they switched positions. I didn't bother asking my doctor which one had died because I was just wanting to get out of there. He told Eli later, when he called, which one had died. After Joseph died, Eli talked about naming Hyrum, Daniel Steven (so he would have a part of Joseph's name). I thought about it, but I really felt like Hyrum should be his name, so that's what we went with (another side note: Daniel is Eli's father and Steven is my father, so the middle names were easy).

Last week I spent New Year's Eve at my brother's house. They had a baby name book that I was randomly looking through. I really like looking through name books, but everything happened so fast with the twins, that I hadn't even touched a name book since I had Samuel. I was curious what the name Hyrum meant, since I had never looked it up. I almost couldn't believe it when I read "My brother has been exalted". I could not have named Hyrum a more perfect name if I had tried. In this same book, Joseph's name meant "God will add", which also has special meaning. So that is the reason and meaning behind their names. They were named correctly and it just goes to show, once again, who really is in charge. Thank goodness it isn't me.

Claire's birthday was on the third, so I need to do a post on her, but until then, here are some pictures.

I insisted on stopping at all of my grandparent's on the day we brought Hyrum home. I'm so glad we did. Here is Hyrum with my grandpa and grandma Herbert. They both turned 80 this year.

Here's our big guy. I think he looks more like Eli's side of the family.
He doesn't really look like my other babies. He did get the chin dimple from my mom.

Samuel, Claire and Sydney. The girls let me put curlers in their hair the night before. Now Sydney has me do that every time she washes her hair. Claire prefers the straight, messy look. =)