A Touch of Heaven!

We went for a super quick little trip to visit our new niece/cousin Kamree Jane. She is so little and petite. She weighs 6 lbs 7 oz. She has the most adorable red hair!

Beautiful red hair!

Benson showing off his mad skills - sitting up!!

Having a "snuggie" with Grandma.

Benson was never as little as Baby Kamree, but now he seems huge! I feel like it was just yesterday that I brough Benson home from the hospital and it has almost been seven months!

Lots of loves!

We are so glad that we got to meet Baby Kamree and see everyone for our super quick trip! She is so sweet, beautiful, and straight from the loving arms of Heavenly Father. We are so happy she is part of our family!

It Was the Best of Times - It Was the Worst of Times

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The second week of July - the Stewart family headed to McCall, ID to stay a week at our condo. We had a great time except we had a nasty flu bug that got everyone, but Preston. So we all took our turn kneeling over the big white tank. Despite one to three people being sick everyday we were there except Saturday - we still were able to get it together and have a memorable family vacation. We went swimming, hiking, fishing, and found lots of other fun stuff to do. We even went to a beautiful hot spring. We celebrated Madeline's 3rd birthday at the condo - Alayna and Maddie helped make a cake. Grandma and Kali did "Glitter Toes" on Alayna and Maddie and we also made the little girls tutus. We had lots of fun together enjoying the time we had to spend together. Here is a smattering of pictures.

My Little Super-Trooper

I have to do a little backtracking so I am going back to the beginning of the month...on Friday, July 2nd - we had quite a scare with Alayna and ended up at Primary Children's Hospital.

I had taken Alayna and Benson both to the doctor on Wednesday and they had their vaccines. Alayna was complaining about her leg hurting and kind of limping around...it got worse on Thursday instead of better and she was limping more and complaining. I wasn't sure if I should call the doctor or not - I just kept telling her she'd be fine and to keep playing. On Friday - her leg was much worse, we got up and she was dragging her leg - she wouldn't climb onto the couch or anything - and she fell down the stairs. Then I noticed that her knee was getting red. So I called the Doctor and they got her in and I was shocked when she said I'd like you to got straight over to Primary Children's Hospital. The lines around the rash are what the doctor drew before we left so they could see how fast the rash was spreading.

All in all - Alayna was a really good sport. Here she is waiting for x-rays. Anyways, back to the story - the Doctor knew Alayna had cellulitis (a deep tissue infection - completely unrelated to her vaccine), but she was hoping it had not spread to the joint in her knee. Cellulitis spreads really quickly and can make you very sick. Our Doctor was so glad that I had brought her in so quick because it could have been a lot worse. The x-ray at the hospital and some blood tests confirmed that it was not in her joints yet. We were so glad because if it would have been in her joint - we would have been in the hospital about a week (and would have missed our family vacation). So everything was remedied with a 10-day course of strong antibiotics.

My little Super-Trooper (Alayna's favorite Abba song). Alayna usually has pretty bony knees - but you can tell her whole leg and knee is swollen.

The very worst part of our stay was trying to get Alayna's blood drawn and an IV placed. They poked her 4 times and prodded around in her arms to try and get a the needle in (there were three of us holding her down as she kicked and screamed). I have never been so heartbroken as a mother. I cried as I held her down and they kept trying for an IV and couldn't get one. While we were waiting they to told us she couldn't eat or drink anything just in case they had to do surgery on her knee (if the infection was in her joint). I felt so bad telling Alayna that she couldn't eat or drink - she probably asked for a drink of apple juice a hundred times. She had to go six hours with no food or drink - which is a very long time to a thirsty 3 year old. We just felt so blessed that it wasn't worse than it was - we were able to go home and not stay the night in the hospital and the antibiotics started working immediately and by the next morning she could already walk a lot better. Alayna was so strong and brave through everything!

Super Savings!

Just got back from Smith's and while I didn't get everything I wanted from their big Event - I did really well - I spent $37.08 - and saved about $98...thats a 72.7% savings!! I was pretty excited. I know nobody cares...but my mom - who is my biggest money saving fan! I had a bunch of freebies - the toothpaste (which will probably get donated around Christmas time), Old Spice deodorant and body wash (they paid me $2.02!!), Olay Soap, and Butter Spread. The shaving cream and Secret deodorant were both less than $.50. The shampoo, condition, Pinesol, and Paper Towels - were all $.99. My big items were the massive Dawn Dishsoap refill - $2.50, Tide $7.99 each - a couple dollars cheaper than Wal-Mart, and the razor w/ extra cartridge - $3.99(which Coby loves.) So overall I was super pleased!

I was also excited about these 8 items that I got toward a buy $30(before coupons!!) get $10 back rebate. So for all these items it was 34.00 - and I paid after the $10 rebate - $3.86!!! Which is like buying one deodorant and getting the rest for free!!! Yippee! (You can find the rebate offer here.)

I have so many pictures and updates to do...but for now here is a few pictures from this last week. Here is Benson trying to convince Alayna that he can play golf too!

Cute Kids!!

The first "biter biscuit" - Benson loves them and cries for it...if he drops it or it is to small to hold or if he wants another one.

We went to the drive-in the other night and had a great time. Alayna was the only one enthusiastic about the Christmas Popcorn Grandma brought along.

Alayna loves motorcycle rides with Grandpa! She always goes and puts her helmet on then gets Grandpa his helmet and then tells Grandpa she is ready for her ride. She gets to beep the horn - the entire ride.

Benson can sit up all by himself (as of today!!!!) . He can finally sit and play for longer than a few minutes and he loves it, except when his toys get to far away.

Here is a funny little video of Benson...He has just recently started making these funny squawking sounds...and he just keeps going.