Boise Temple Open House

 The Boise Temple has been closed for the last year so it could be renovated.  It is finally finished and the open house was held over the past month.  When my sister came for a visit, we took the four kids and met my mom at the temple.

 We took this picture (above) after we were finished with the tour.  As you can see, we are holding onto both little boys to keep them in the picture.  They were pretty done with the whole thing.  The amazing thing is that Jonny was throwing a fit right before we went into the celestial room and when we entered and stood in there, Jonny was as good as gold.  The temple was beautiful and when Jonny sees pictures of the temple or when we drive by, he asks if we can go again.

Fall Photos

 While Jonny was dressed up earlier this week, I stuck him in front of the lilac bush in our yard since the colors were so beautiful.  These are all of the photos I took, in order.  He did really well in the first few, but you can definitely see his cheesy smile in the last ones!

Halloween 2012

 Jonny dressed up as a dragon for Halloween this year, in a costume that I made for him.  He was pretty excited about it.  I'm pretty sure that he thought the wings would actually work because he kept asking if he could fly on Halloween!

 Chris's sister brought her kids over to go trick-or-treating with us.  We walked down our street as far as the little ones could go.  We only went to about 10-15 houses and Jonny got a little more than half of a bucket of candy.  There aren't a lot of trick-or-treaters on our street so everyone is pretty generous with the candy.  Jonny had such a good time that he has been asking to go trick-or-treating again every day since Halloween!

Back in the Hospital

Ahhh!!! Another hospital stay for Chris!  His pancreas flared back up and he was in a lot of pain again so we took him into the hospital on Tuesday, Oct 16.  They kept him until Saturday, Oct 20.  His pancreatitis was not nearly as bad as the first time so he was not in the ICU this time.  We weren't expecting another case of pancreatitis again since his gall bladder was taken out.  The doctors thought at first that he had a stone that might have been left behind, but after running some tests they don't think that was the case.  Instead, they told us that the fluid pocket around the damaged part of his pancreas most likely caused this inflammation.  The fluid pocket has grown from 2 1/2 inches a month ago to 4 inches now.  The doctors would prefer to let the fluid drain off on its own but that could take anywhere from 6 to 12 more months!  We have a doctor's appointment this week for a check up and hopefully to make a plan so that we won't have a THIRD case of pancreatitis!

 We happened to be there one day when Chris got to finally eat again.  Let's say that Chris got to drink the broth and the grape juice but the green Jello just disappeared!

Jonny was definitely more comfortable with the hospital this time around.  He didn't mind stretching out on his daddy's bed to watch cartoons!

Jonny doesn't let his dad get too far out of his sight.  All week long, he kept giving Chris a hug and telling him, "I'm so glad you're home from the hospital.  The picture above was taken the day after Chris came home from the hospital.  Jonny doesn't take naps anymore but he snuggled right up to his dad and fell asleep!

Making Faces

 To get that one good picture on the last post, we had to take several pictures since Jonny is into making faces lately.

 This is Jonny's MAD face!

Daddy's Finally Back to Work!

Six weeks later, Chris was finally able to go back to work!  Jonny really got used to having his daddy around all the time so the first day that Chris went back to work, Jonny asked me several times, "When is my daddy coming home?"  The doctor told us that it will still take another month or two for Chris's pancreas to heal completely, so we are looking forward to the day that Jonny's daddy feels like rough-housing again so Mommy can take a break!  (You probably can't tell from the photo below, but Chris lost 30+ pounds during these last six weeks.  But it's definitely not a diet plan that I would recommend!)

What a Month!

 Yes, these pictures show Chris in the hospital.  The ICU, in fact!  It started on Saturday, Aug 25 when he started having an unbearable pain in his abdomen and was throwing up.  We took him into the emergency room where they discovered that he had stones in his gall bladder and that one had come out and was stuck in a duct.  It was preventing the enzymes from the pancreas and gall bladder from getting where they needed to so it caused severe pancreatitis, a highly painful inflammation of the the pancreas.  While he was still in the ER, he stopped breathing after they administered two doses of pain medication.  Consequently, Chris spent a week in the ICU.

 Jonny was allowed to come see Chris after a few days.  He was pretty hesitant to get too near his dad.  He told him, "You're sick."  As soon as Jonny discovered there were buttons on the bed to push, he didn't mind sitting up on the bed with Chris.  He enjoyed making his daddy's head and feet go up and down.

 Jonny also liked borrowing the nurse's stethoscope.

 Jonny got to ride on the wheelchair with his daddy when Chris was discharged.  He thought it was the best thing ever, but of course I couldn't get him to look at the camera!

The doctors wanted to take his gall bladder out because it had more stones in it, but they wanted his pancreas to heal before surgery.  So Chris spent another couple of weeks feeling sick and sore at home before they took his gall bladder out on Tuesday, Sept 18th.    He spent two or three days sleeping on the couch but he is finally starting to feel better.  It will take him another two weeks or so before he can go back to work.  We've also got to get him eating and building his strength back up.  He's lost about 25 pounds because it hurt to eat.  At one point, Chris was told not to eat fats, meats, fresh fruits & vegetables, dairy and sugars.  It's been quite a month, but hopefully Chris has turned the corner and is going to be better soon!