Max Update

For those of you who don't know, my darling little nephew has been diagnosed with apnea. It has been a pretty tough on Emily and Matthew. They are in our prayers. Last Sunday Emily was home and on her bed reading a book and Max was next to her. She looked down and he was blue. She was panicky to say the least. Matthew was at church. She called 911 by the time they had gotten there he had started breathing again. They couldn't find anything wrong with him. My parents went to visit later that night and he started losing color again. Emily and Matthew took him to a pediatric urgent care that night. There wasn't much they could do for them so they sent them to the hospital to be monitored for the night. As they were checking in he stopped breathing again. On Monday they did some testing that lasted 12 hours. When it was all done they concluded that Max has a minor case of reflex and Apnea. He will need to be on oxygen for up to 2 months until he can breathe on his own. Then he will need to be on his little heart and oxygen monitor for 2 months without any mishaps. We are grateful they have good doctors working with them and that he is getting stronger each day. I went for a visit yesterday. Emily just had him in a diaper. I insisted on picking out an outfit and getting him dressed. Isn't he cute?

I love this picture of Emily and Max. I feel like this picture shows how much Emily adores Max. Emily is so fun to watch as a mom. I know we mothers all think our kids are the cutest and its true. We all have the cutest kids in the world. One of my favorite things about Emily as a mom is how verbal she is about how cute Max is to her. She always sounds so surprised at how cute she thinks he is.

I know you are probably thinking enough already, but here are two more pictures. I just couldn't stop. I feel like I have such a cute family. I just love my sister and nephew.

When we found out Ethan was deaf we kept praying and fasting that he would be able to hear. It took me a while to realize that the answer to our prayers was hearing aids (later cochlear implant) and a great audiologists. As a parent I feel you just want your child to be perfect in health and you pray that they can be. I feel like sometimes the answers to our prayers is great technology that can further and enhance life. For little Max it is the oxygen. I feel so blessed that he is being taken care of. We love you Max.

Uh Oh!

I know to many of you this looks like the face of a darling innocent little boy. Well do not be deceived. Mark and I often hear, Ryan is so cute, I could just take him home, we love Ryan, I am obsessed with Ryan. This little smile shows me why people think that. However he can be quite trying! This last week I had Jake and Ryan watching a short show on the computer and Andrew in his bed so I could take a shower. (Gotta get clean sometimes). When I got out of the shower I found this! Courtesy of Ryan Hemingway.
We do have a fridge lock I just forgot to double check to make sure our fridge was actually locked.

Who Knew?

I just went to the doctor the other day and I got a hand out. I usually never read these. I don't know why I don't I just don't. This time I decided to skim through it. I found out some really interesting things. Did you know there is a list of foods you are not supposed to feed your child until at least age four? Here they are.

• nuts and seeds
• popcorn
• raw vegetables
• raisins and other small dried fruit, such as cranberries
• whole grapes
• fresh or frozen blueberries
• melon balls
• marshmallows
• large chunks of meat and cheese
• hot dogs
• chunks of peanut butter and other nut butters
• hard candy and cough drops
• chewing gum
• jelly beans, gum drops, gummy bears, and other sticky candy

I think I should get mother of the year award since Ryan who is 2 1/2 has had everything on that list. Wooops!

Google Shed

Mark has finished our Shed. I have been very amazed because anything he didn't know how to do he just googled. My cousin Andrea has named it the google shed. I thought that was very fitting. I told her I would take a picture and put it up here for her to see. So here you are A.J. I thought I post all about a shed would be a little boring so of course I had to add a picture of the cutest baby ever. Here is the one I wanted to put up last post and I think my camera froze or something since I couldn't get it up. Here is Andrew at 9 months. He newest trick is to roll over from his back to his tummy. It is a lot of effort and I really enjoy watching him succeed. Oh and just to note. Mark predicted today that in one month Andrew will be crawling. So by June 23. And if it doesn't happen I will get $100 to spend on whatever I want. :) ( that is just a little friendly wager that Mark and I always say which we never really follow through with.)

We've been good :)

My kids have marble jars. Each time they do something good they earn a marble. Some of these things include making their beds, doing something the first time I ask, not hitting back, doing homework, being good at church or school or staying in their beds. When they fill their jar all they way full they can pick something to go and get or do. I have really enjoyed doing this. I feel like it helps me as a mom focus on the positive things they are doing. Also every time they ask me to go and do something that we wouldn't normally do I say, "We can do that if that is your choice when your marble jar is full." So I don't have to say no to all the pricey museums and other attractions. It has been a win win situation. I have had some friends who do this with their kids and they take marbles away when they are bad. I was talking to Ethan's teacher Mrs. Busker at USD about our marble jars. She told me she never takes anything away once she has given it to a child. I thought that sounded reasonable. So instead of taking away they have a harder time earning their next marble. This is what we have decided on. Well now that you know our system here are pictures of some happy boys.

Ethan was our first to fill his jar and he wanted some shoes with wheels, Heelys. So we went to the store and got them. I was so excited that that was his choice since his shoes were so worn out. Ethan has been so happy to wear his shoes. Sorry this picture is blurry but its the only one I have to show his cute face.
He is still learning to roll around.


Jake chose build-a-bear. This was the perfect reward for him.

Here he is putting his heart into his new panda bear.

Jake giving his bear a bath.
I forgot to get pictures of the finished product. (it got a little crazy with just me and three boys) Jake put his panda in a batman suit and named him Jake. We went to Burlington Coat factory after this and Jake left his panda in the box in the van and just before he shut the door he said, "Are you comfortable in there Jake?" And all the way home he was having Jake answer my questions. It is sure fun to have two Jakes :)

This is Ryan stuffing his bear. He actually put two hearts in his. He loved the hearts.

Here is Ryan giving his bear a bath. Yes! Ryan's bear is pink. I tried to get him to get a different one but he was pretty set on this pink bear.

Ryan's finished bear was named Buzz and wore the buzz lightyear suit.

And one final note:

Andrew was 9 months yesterday! Where does the time go? I took him to the doctor this morning and here are his stats.

Weight 18 lbs. 14 oz. (30%)

Height 27 3/4 in. (30%)

head 44 1/4 cm. (25%)

He also has 2 bottom teeth 1 1/2 top teeth. I was going to put a picture up but for some reason I can't get it off my camera. ( I think I will have to have Mark look at it for me)

Meet Max

Emily had her baby this morning at 3:30 AM. Max weighed 7 LBS 8 OZ and was 19 in. long. I couldn't get to the hospital fast enough. I was so excited when I got to the parking lot I had butterflies in my stomach :) I didn't head over at 3:30 AM although I was tempted. I went over this morning at 11. Emily and Matthew look so happy. It is so fun to see them as parents. Here is Emily with Max.

Hartvigsen Family

Me and Max

And my favorite picture of the two of us. Me and Max. Look at all that hair. Maybe one day I will have myself a little brunette.

Congrats to Emily and Matthew. We are so Happy!

Happy Birthday Emily

Today is my younger sister Emily's birthday. I had her over for lunch before she headed up to Shauna's to get a hair cut. I feel bad we didn't get a picture of the two of us. I was just so excited about her gift. I have been planning it for weeks. It has been super hard to keep the secret. So here she is modeling the head bands I made for her.

Kellie actually made this maroon one. I sewed on the button and then put it on the ribbon. I think they turned out so cute. Emily loves headbands so it was fun to give them to her.

What did we have for lunch? Sorry no photo of that either. Egg salad sandwiches in pitas, fruit salad (strawberries and bananas) and then we had little truffle cup cakes from the wal-mart bakery. It was yummy.

Happy Birthday Em! We love you. Thanks for spending a little time with us on your special day.