Motor Vu Drive In

We took the boys to the drive in for the first time over Memorial Day.  I think the rest of Tooele County had the same idea. We had a good time...Axl fell asleep on the way there and stayed that way.  Carter was so excited and couldn't decide if he wanted to be in the jeep with Mom or outside with Dad. And about 2 minutes before the movie started the battery in the jeep died...so we had to keep the windows down to hear the movie from the cars around us.  :-) We only made it through the first movie but it was fun.  Carter keeps asking to go back so I think it was a success.

The newest addition to the Brown Family....Winston

Nate has always wanted an English Bulldog and a very specific one at that...brown brindle with one eye patch.  I have been thinking about getting him one for quite a while.  I thought that if I was able to find one for his birthday it would be perfect timing.  The kids are old enough (kind of) and its warm outside for house breaking.
I started searching in January and found a breeder in Lehi.  She had two litters that were going to be due in February.  I told her specifically what I was looking for and she said she would contact me after they were born.  Well on February 20th I got an email that one of her dog had 3 brindle puppies and 2 had eye patches.  One boy and one girl. From there we exchanged about 50 emails and I actually went to Lehi when they were about 3 weeks old to decide which one I wanted.  (All of this was done without Nate knowing...having NO clue)

Meeting him for the first time. 

So, once he was 7 weeks old it was time to arrange to pick him up.  I was really torn because I wanted Nate to see his Mom or Dad but I wasn't sure how to get him to Lehi without telling him why we were going.  The lady I bought him from said she would be willing to bring him to Grantsville so we created a plan.  She was going to bring his dad (Rocky) with her and we would meet at the park.  I knew once Nate saw a bulldog he would want to go see him and then we would just improvise from there. 

Well...the Tuesday we decided to meet it was freezing.  It actually snowed that morning. I told Nate we had to go to the park because I had promised Carter...well then the lady was running almost an hour late.  We finally made it to the park but there were like 3 soccer games going on so Nate didn't even want to go, then when I convinced him to park he didn't want to get out.  He thought he should just keep the baby in the car.  I told him to wrap him up and get him out.  Just as he was walking to the park he saw her walking the bulldog and pointed him out.  We went over to talk to her (even though I had to  spark the conversation) we started asking if she bred her dogs and the specifics.  She said she has a business card in the car and she would go get it...so he followed her over and told me to go put the kids in the jeep....so in the meantime she walked up to him with the puppy and told him Happy Birthday. He was in SHOCK to say the least. 

Carter was also a little shocked but so happy.  The lady kept trying to talk to Nate and give him all the details and Carter could just not wrap his head around it.  He kept asking the lady "this puppy came from your belly?!" It was so funny

Had to go to Gma's to pick up all the "stuff" (food, kennel, bedding, treats, etc)

He has fit in pretty well but you forget that having a puppy is just like a baby except they don't wear diapers! The boys love him but he can get rough and he has the sharpest teeth I have ever seen on a puppy.  He is settling in and we are all getting used to each other. 

He has gotten so big so fast! He is heavy and his paws are huge!

Oregon Spring 2013

We headed to Oregon for a Spring visit.  Also, we had to go see the newest little baby Garrett.

Our first stop was to see Gma Willard at lifecare.  She broke her hip in March and was in therapy.  Axl was so happy to see her. 

It is always fun to go to Oregon and see family.  This trip was interesting though.  Axl was pretty much sick the entire time.  He started out with an ear infection, then had a horrible diaper rash and diarrhea.  Nate had to come home on Thursday to get back to work, the boys and I stayed for a few more days.  Saturday morning we got up and got all packed to go home.  We didn't even make it out of Dayton before Carter started throwing up.  So we went back and decided to fly home on Sunday.  

Easter 2013

We didn't do a whole lot for Easter this year.  We went to the Grantsville Easter Egg hunt and dyed eggs.  We had dinner at Robbie and Mindy's...Nate roasted a pig.

When Carter saw this he wanted to know if it was peppa pig

Burnt Baby

I will start out by saying this was probably the worst day of my life.  I took the boys to Erda to go to church in Rick and Amy's ward.  Rick was being put into the 1st counselor of the bishopric.  We made it through Sacrament and I decided to go to Rick and Amy's with the boys and Kari's kids to wait for everyone else while they were setting Rick apart.
We got to the house and I changed the kids.  Everyone was just playing and I decided to empty the garbage and check on the food for Amy.  Axl was playing with the dog and I happened to see him start crawling into the toy room out of the corner of my eye.  I started following him and realized at the same time that the pellet stove was on.  It all happened so fast, I started yelling for him to stop and started running after him and I was too late.  He got right up to it and put his right hand on the front of the glass.
I swept him up and ran him to the sink to run it under cold water.  He was sobbing uncontrollably! It was horrible! I knew that he was burnt but had no idea to what extent.  I was home alone with 5 kids under 6.  I tried calling numerous cell phones but of course no one was picking up because they were all in church.  I could not calm him down and knew I needed to get some help...at least to watch the kids so I could take him to the ER.  I loaded him up in the jeep and told Maggie she needed to watch the kids.  I drove as fast as I could to the church looking for any familiar passing cars on the way. I ran in the church and found my dad.  He came out and said he would take me back to Rick and Amys and we could put some Aloe on it to stop the burn.  Once we got back and I was able to look at his hand again I realized I needed to take him straight to the ER...

This is what it looked like once we got to the ER. I don't think they knew who to admit when I showed up...I was distraught.  The Dr. came in and said she was not even going to look at it until she could medicate him and get him to relax a little bit. 

Luckily Grandma was with us and he was able to sleep some on her lap...these cheeks are so red. His entire body was bright red for quite some time. 

Dad showed up just in time from work.  I needed some help at the ER

Once they took the initial dressing off this is what it looked like. They popped the big blister and cut away all the dead skin.  They put medication on it and wrapped it up. 

We were referred to the University of Utah Burn Clinic the following day.  

Poor drugged baby..

This was the final dressing after the ER.  We had to do something major so he would't bite it off. We had to get a picture of Rick with his thumb cast

Happy boy!

Drinking his bottle

Helping Mom work

He looked like a wounded baby bird :-(

His final bandage