We've Been Busy!

So, Blogger loaded my pictures opposite of how it did before, so they are out of order. Anyway, I guess I'll start at the end to match the pictures. We went to Utah. The last night we were there, Clint and I went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game. It was lots of fun.

 We also took the boys to Hogle Zoo earlier that day. Here they are getting a ride on the merry-go-round. They were pretty spoiled on our little trip down to Utah.

 Riding in the stroller at the Zoo.

 Link on the train ride.

 Corgin on the train ride.

 The day before that, we took them to Chuck E. Cheese's. They had a blast! Here they are on a ride together.

 And earlier that day we took them to the museum at Hill Air force Base. They had a helicopter that was open for people to go in, so here are my boys hanging out the window.

 Corgin ran ahead of us and was always checking things out and telling us to hurry so we could come look at this or that.

 He was always pointing things out, making sure we didn't miss any of the cool planes and things.

 Outside, I actually got both boys to hold still and look at the camera at the same time. They had so much fun running around all the huge airplanes.

 Attempting to get them to hold still for another picture.

 Link tried to keep up with Corgin, but he was too fast (he's all the way over by the double helicopter).

 Before our little trip to Utah, we got the celebrate Clint's birthday. Doesn't he look so happy to be 30?

 A few days before Clint's birthday, we got to find out whether we are having a boy or a girl. The ultrasound showed that it's a GIRL!

 Here she is!

 We also had a few nice days to play in the sun. The boys liked jumping on the tramp at my mom's after playing in the water.

 We even had one day toward the end of April or the beginning of May that was nice enough to take out our new toys. Clint's parents and us each bought a jet ski with our tax returns. They turned out to be a matched set, even though we got them at different places. You can see them both in this picture. One is a two seater for the crazy riders and the other is a three seater for the kids and the more conservative drivers.

 The boys had fun riding the jet skis and playing in the water and sand. Here is my Corgin man.

 And my Linkers.

 Both of them played so hard and got covered in sand, but they were the happiest little boys!

So, as you can see, we have been keeping ourselves very busy and we have more fun things planned already to keep us busy all summer. We love the sun!

Link's Birthday, Among Other Things

So, it's been a crazy month. My mom got very sick and was in the hospital for almost two weeks. She was admitted on her 50th birthday (we told her that just because she was getting old didn't mean she had to start falling apart) to Bingham Memorial for spinal meningitis. They did a lumbar puncture and took blood to culture. They kept her from the 12-16 with her cultures coming back negative for meningitis. Her doctor told her she was "unlucky enough to have a stiff neck" and sent her home in more pain than she was in when she was first admitted and told her to follow up in a week.

Five hours later, my dad took her to the ER at EIRMC. They did a CT scan and would have done an MRI right away, but they thought they would have to remove a BB from her cheek. My dad convinced them that it wasn't steel, it was lead, and they did the MRI. The doctor that was overseeing my mom told her that there was definitely something there, but it was "weird". He assembled a group of doctors which included him, an infectious disease specialist, an Ear Nose and Throat doctor, a neurosurgeon, a radiologist, and a few other doctors. They were able to determine that it was an epidural abscess and once they knew that they prepped my mom for surgery right away.

The surgery went well, but it was worse than they thought once they got in there so they had to do a little more than what they originally planned. They went in through her throat and removed the front half of C-6 and part of C-7. They then vacuumed out and scraped out the infection. They replaced the removed vertebrae with a titanium cage, plate, screws, and a graft from her hip. She felt so much better after surgery than she had before. The doctor that performed the procedure told my parents the next day that at the rate her abscess was growing, she would have been paralyzed within 12 hours and then eventually died and had it ruptured she would have been gone.

Anyway, she is home now and doing well. She has to wear a neck brace and has to have antibiotics administered through a PIC line for another month or more. Very scary, but we are so glad for good doctors who were definitely answers to our prayers.

Then, on the 27th, my little Linkers turned two! We celebrated a couple days later, but let him open two gifts on his actual birthday. Here are some pictures.

Then he got to open some presents when we partied too.

And of course we had to have cake.

I think that he enjoyed his birthday and I can't believe he's not my little baby anymore. Where does that time go. He also had a well check and is in the 25th percentile for his height and 10th for his weight. He's just growing up so fast. Tomorrow he goes in for an echo cardiogram to make sure the heart murmur he has isn't caused by a valve problem or a hole in his heart. So keep him in your prayers and I will post again when we know more about that.

On a different and very happy note, we are expecting Simonson baby #3 in October! We find out in a couple weeks if we are having another boy or a girl. Corgin told us that he knows it's a girl. When I asked him how he knows, he said "because I asked Heavenly Father." He's very excited and has shared the news with everyone! Another cute Corgin story: He was riding his scooter in the basement the other day while Clint was working. Clint hears him saying, "And Chicken Bullion wins the race!" And so Clint asked him about chicken bullion and he replied, "That's my racing name." So funny. I love my kids!!!

Life at the Simonsons

Here are a few pictures of some of the things we have been up to lately.

For my dad's birthday we went bowling. Corgin loved it. Here he is, he would hold this pose until his ball was about halfway down the alley. It was cracking me up.

We went to see my Grandma Stander and the boys had to try out the swing. They loved it.

Link was making me laugh so hard because every time the swing would go down it would take the air right out of him and he was making the silliest sounds.

Aren't they so cute!

Saturday, we had run some errands and were pulling into the garage when Corgin told me that he saw a moose. I stopped and, sure enough, there was a moose in our neighbor's yard.

I think it was scared of us because it started running away and headed into the road. I took the pictures with my phone, so they aren't very good, but you can still see the moose. It was exciting to see it so far from home.

EASTER

Easter morning came and the boys were excited to see what was left for them.Link found his basket.Then he had so see what was inside.Corgin found his basket.He also had to examine the contents.New beach toys!They were enjoying their new toys! They even got to take the beach ones in the bath with them later and that kept them entertained for quite some time.

And, they got new church clothes, but I'm terrible and forgot to get pictures while they were in them, but they did look super adorable!

After church and a delicious dinner, the boys went outside for an Easter egg hunt.

They hurried out the door.Link got right to it and picked up lots of eggs.We told Corgin he had to find the ones that were actually hidden and to not pick up too many that were just on the grass. He was looking all around.There's one! He found it in the plants.Link filled his basket so full that he had to set it down and bring the eggs to it since it was getting too heavy for him to lug around.Corgin found one in the rain spout (with a little coaching).Here is Link's basket. All three little boys made a haul and now have too much candy!We had a fun Easter! We are so grateful for a wonderful family that we can spend our holidays with and for a loving Heavenly Father. We are thankful to celebrate this time of year and the Resurrection of our Savior and all the new life that comes with Spring. We are so truly blessed!

I Can't Believe it's Already March!

So, I like to try to blog at least once a month, but I obviously missed February. But we have been keeping busy and having fun (even if I haven't taken lots of pictures of the fun).

In February, I had a birthday. I celebrated by having dinner with my family and then going to get set apart as the Primary President in our ward (part of the reason for no blog, busy, like I said).Jake and Maddie also blessed little Zoey.My mom, Maddie, Brianne, and I took a girls weekend and went to Utah and did some shopping. We had way too much fun and decided that we are going to have to make that a yearly tradition. We got some stick-on mustaches from a little vending machine and walked around Trolley Square. When my boys saw the mustache I brought home, they wanted to see what they would look like with mustaches.

Link

Corgin

Earlier this month some of Clint's siblings were able to come visit. So we spent almost a whole week hanging out and having fun. I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing with their cousins, but one night we had a little excitement.We were getting ready to leave, loading up the car, coming back for the kids. Corgin was telling his Grandma Hamblin how fast he could run, then decided to show her. He ran smack into the corner of the table and busted open his eyebrow. Here are some pictures of that.

We weren't sure if we needed to go to the ER or not, but our sister-in-law is finishing up school to be a PA, so we asked her. She said that she would just glue it shut. This is before we glued it.

This is after we glued it.

Here's the next morning when Corgin got up. His eye was so swollen then, but it is looking much better now. This happened about a week ago and now he has a little bit of a yellow bruise left, but the swelling has gone away and the glue has almost worn off. After he did it and calmed down, he told us that he wished he didn't do that and we told him to watch where he is going next time he is running fast. When we were at my in-laws house the other night, we saw that he left a big dent in the corner of her table (so sorry, Kristi).

The other night we went out for dinner as a family and it happened to be kid's night at the restaurant. There was someone going around making balloon animals and giving them to the kids.

Link got a brontosaurus and loved it, especially when he was pretending like it was eating his food.

Corgin got a pteradactyl. He also had lots of fun playing with his, even when we got home.

Lots of fun in February and March. Looking forward to April.