Gabe's 6 Months Old (Well, at least he was in October)

On October 15, Gabe officially turned 6 months. This is what he looked like on that day:

 And this is how much he was loved that day (and every day before and every day since):

 On the 19th, we took him to the doctor for his check-up. Here are his stats:

Weight: 17.33 Pounds (45.59 percentile)

Height/Length: 26.75 inches (53.7 percentile)

Head Circumference: 17.5 inches (81.29 percentile)

So how does he compare to his siblings?

Michael at 6 months: 

Weight: 13.89 pounds (1.66 percentile)

Height/Length: 28 inches (89.78 percentile 

[he must have just had a growth spurt, because he's never been at that percentage before or since])

Head Circumference: 17.32 (51.78 percentile)

Rachel at 6 months:

Weight: 14.51 pounds (16.85 percentile)

Height/length: 25.5 inches (26.53 percentile)

Head Circumference: 17 inches (73.17 percentile)

On the 16th, we decided that maybe we should try feeding him solids, at least at dinner. It's amazing how NOT in a hurry we were for this stage since I'm not nursing him. Here he is trying peas for the first time:

Mostly, he liked them okay, once he got used to having this foreign stuff in his mouth. Gabe is such a blessing in our lives. He is our most mellow and most chubby baby. We can't get enough of this guy,

Hogwarts

Michael's elementary school throws a big Hogwarts night each October. It's pretty intense. Chick-fil-a catered the event, they had "butter beer" and lots of shops to buy things like wands, every flavor beans, and chocolate frogs. Of course Muggle money isn't allowed, so everything had to be exchanged into galleons at Gringots (or at Parent/teacher conference the week before, which is what we did.) They had cool magic shows (science demonstrations), an owlery, fantastic beasts, and so much more that I can't remember. Leading up to it, they have house competitions at the school. This year, Michael was in Hufflepuff. Here's why he belongs in Hufflepuff:

Here are a few pictures from our night at Hogwarts:

  Michael bought this mustache with some of his galleons. 

 Real owls at the "Owlery"

 The Bean Museum from BYU came and brought some animals for the kids to see:

  

 It was a fun night. We're already looking forward to next year's.

Michael's Birthday

Michael turned 7 this year. I can't believe it! This was his year for a special date with Mom and Dad. We went to one of those fun centers with lots of activities and arcades. I got to be a spectator for a lot of it, like the bumper cars:

 And this crazy shaky arcade game/ride:

 Photo booth:

 Connect Four:

 After the game place, we headed to the outlets because they have really big versions of games that you can check out and play. Unfortunately, there were too many shoppers, so they wouldn't let us check them out. So, we got a treat instead. Michael picked this ginormous marshmallow dipped in candy:

The next day was Michael's birthday, and Lea & Shayne and Nana & Papa came over to help us celebrate, and I was really proud of myself for making his cake. (~4 weeks post surgery). 

 Uncle Shayne set up the candles to look like players on our BYU Field:

This boy amazes us constantly. We don't tell him enough about how proud we are of him and how much we love him. He loves to read, and he's been know to stay up way too late reading. He loves chapter books the best, including The Magic Treehouse books and the I Survived books. He loves learning and soaks everything up like a sponge. He asks very thoughtful questions, so thoughtful that sometimes we forget that he's only 7. He has already figured out a lot of times tables, and not too long after his birthday, he started reading Harry Potter. He's already on book 4. Michael wants to play football in college someday. He enjoys soccer, playing with Legos, and playing on the Wii. One of my favorite things is watching him play with his little brother. I really feel like Michael wanted to be the big brother to these other two, and he's really good at it. He looks out for them and would never let anyone hurt them. He has so much energy and love for life and a stubborn and independent streak that I'm hoping will help him stand strong for the right as he gets older. We're so grateful and honored to be his parents. 

September

Here's what everyday life looked like for us in September:

 Try to picture his legs flailing, trying to get the bib off of his face. We all know that hands would do the trick, but for some reason, he was convinced it was his feet and legs that could get it off.

 Gabe was finally big enough to use this sweet cart support that Lea made for us a few years ago:

 Gabe was really into this play mat during September. He loved seeing all the things hanging down:

Being the youngest means that your older siblings are going to dress you up a lot. We all got a kick out of this outfit, courtesy of Michael:

 I added tulle to the bottom of this shirt for Rachel. She loves it:

Since Camp Floyd, Michael loves dressing up as a Union Soldier with a century crisis (meaning he has medieval swords and modern machine guns)

 Books

 Baths

 And sweet naps

  We love hanging out in our new basement. 

 The Elders loved our playhouse. It brought out their inner child. It was kind of fun to see:

Gabe turned 5 monhs: 

And these shoes almost fit:

Kisses:

 Baths:

 Snuggles:

 And of course, lots of Lego creating:

 Brian and I watch way too much TV after the kids go to bed. Because of my hip, I slept on the recliner in the basement because sleeping in our bed was just way too awful at first. One night, I suggested that Brian blow up an air mattress and sleep down there with me. It was hard being in separate beds, separate rooms, and even separate floors. So, he humored me. I tried laying by him while we watched a movie together. It was so strangely comfortable.  

 In the middle of the night, Brian couldn't stand it anymore and went upstairs. I ended up sleeping on the air mattress for weeks after that.

Brian played football dad and ran Michael to all his games. Here's part of Michael's team:

It feels like a major accomplishment that we made it through September in one piece. And then it was October...

Service and Humility

The days leading up to my surgery, I had lots of people in my neighborhood ask how they could help. The problem was that I didn't know what to expect out of this whole thing. My experience with hospital stays involved new little babies. I figured that I would be sore, that it would hurt, but that once I got off crutches in 2 weeks, I would be just fine. So, I planned on having help for two weeks, getting off crutches, and resuming life as normal..maybe a slower normal, but still normal. 

It's almost funny now how optimistic I was about this whole thing. Completely, unrealistically, naively optimistic. 

The first week, I worried about everything. I was counting on it being rough. Brian told me not to worry, that he was planning on working from home. I slept in a recliner a lot and when I wasn't sleeping, I watched Brian juggling everything, including fetching things like pills for me. He was already starting to get tired from handling everything (remember we had a 5 month old at this point) on his own. That Friday after I got home, one of the older sisters in our ward came over. She played with Rachel and Gabe while Brian and I both slept. She didn't think it was a big deal. She didn't think she did anything, but she saved us that day. A few days later, her husband, who is a florist, picked these flowers from their yard (their whole yard is flower beds. I don't think they have any grass) and arranged them for me, telling his wife, "Devri needs these." He was so right. 

 I already mentioned how my parents came the Saturday after my surgery and what life savers they were. They brought me these:

Julie and Lea helped so much that first week too. Lea teaches Michael piano lessons, so she came to our house for lessons for a month or more. One day, she came for lessons while I was with my mom running balloons up to Brian. By the time we got back, she'd already unloaded the dishwasher and was filling it back up. Whenever she came, she always jumped in and did something. She saved us.

One Sunday in October, Kirt and Julie showed up with dinner. It saved us. 

Neighbors and friends, some living farther away than others, brought us dinner. Lots of dinners. Some were planned, others were quite spontaneous. All were welcome, and all saved us. 

When Lea was here for Brian's birthday, she decided that we needed more help, and and she knew we weren't going to ask for it. So, I gave her the contact information for our ward compassionate service leader. Lea had decided we needed people to come in shifts to help out. The next day, a sign up went out to my ward, via email, and that entire week was filled with sisters going in and out of our house. I watched from a recliner as they cleaned everything. The first day, sisters and friends helped clean up our playroom. Shortly after they left, another sister came vacuumed everything upstairs. She brought us dinner too. Another sister came and finished vacuuming downstairs. And in the middle of all of this, they changed diapers and dressed Gabe. All while I watched from a recliner. 

Throughout the week, they came. One cleaned out my entire fridge, and I was so embarrassed by how gross it was! Another cleaned surfaces in my kitchen. All lifted our spirits. One sister came towards the end and she was so ready to go to work, but everything had been done! She cleaned a sink. She talked to me. And we asked her to fill up the formula container for the night. She put jammies on Gabe and held him for a little bit. I think she left feeling like she hadn't really gotten a chance to do much, but she kept us both from breaking that night. 

The LDS Guide to the Scriptures defines humility as recognizing one's dependence on God. 

President Spencer W. Kimball said, “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.” So, in our case, humility was recognizing our dependence on other people. It was one of the hardest things watching others step in and do my work while I reclined in a chair. I hated it, and I probably wouldn't have allowed it to happen if it hadn't been for Brian. The hardest thing about this surgery was watching him try to carry the weight of our whole household on his own. Some days, it seemed like we took turns breaking under the weight of how difficult this has been. I hated watching him breaking while trying to stay strong and optimistic. I knew that the best way to help Brian was to let them all come and help me. And when the sign up sheet ended, help still continued to come. Somehow, when we thought we could do no more, someone else stepped up or showed up and saved us. 

One morning, probably about 4 weeks post surgery, Brian looked out the window and saw one of our neighbors pulling weeds in our flower bed. I'm still a little surprised and  a very touched that she did this. She always seems so busy, and even though we've been neighbors for five years, we haven't had very many conversations together. And there she was, out weeding my flower beds. When Brian thanked her, she said, "I was coming back from my walk, and I saw all your weeds. I figured it was really bothering her that she couldn't do anything about them." It was, and I'm crying just thinking about it. 

I cried when I found a card in the mail from my roommate in college. So few people send things in the mail, and I was so touched. I got so many texts, Facebook messages,  and phone calls of people just checking in on us. I wonder just how many prayers were said on our behalf. The day before surgery, one sister in our ward, who I greatly admire, prayed in Relief Society specifically for me, and she got choked up while offering her prayer. 

There aren't enough words to express how grateful we are for all of the wonderful people who have helped us through this.  We have felt so loved, so looked after, and we are in complete awe of the goodness that surrounds us.