March 3, 2010 by Ashley.

Fortunately it looks like this stomach bug was a 24 hr thing. Yesterday Pat was able to come home a little early so I spent from 4 on sequestered in my bed feeling really lousy (and that’s an understatement if you’ve had a 24 hr stomach bug before). But we all woke up this morning feeling a lot better. I just had to give Lydia one more bath (because she threw up during the night). She immediately started called for “water, water” and “eat, eat.” I figure that’s a good sign when you actually want to eat and drink. Thanks for all your thoughts and in case you’re wondering, it looks like Heidi’s ok so far too.

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March 2, 2010 by Ashley.

So having friends is great, but the downside is that our kids (and us) are exposed to a lot more germs, viruses, etc. We visited our friends the Fairbanks the other day and their poor kids seem to always be sick. Well, they had just gotten over this bug (well, we thought they were over it). But this morning I went to get Lydia because she was crying a different/sad cry. I went in her room and found she had thrown up in her crib. And it’s not baby throw up anymore, which makes me ill just smelling it. She was especially sad because her blanket and stuffed animals had to go in the wash and thus she couldn’t have them to comfort her.

So for those who have tried to call me (Mom and Leah) I can’t come to the phone because I’ve been busy cleaning the couch (which Lydia also threw up on)…changing into my 4th outfit of the day (because of being thrown up on)…and doing I think my 6th load of laundry. To top it off, my stomach isn’t feeling too hot either and I’m just waiting til I have to run to the bathroom. I’m just praying Heidi doesn’t get it because she’s just too little and I don’t even know what I’d do if she gets this stomach bug too.

Wish us well!

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February 22, 2010 by Ashley.

Well, Mom left last Wednesday and I was scheduled to be officially on my own with 2 kids the next day. Of course The Universe knew this and so a mere 7 hrs after she boarded the plane, I got a fever of 102. I had to wake Pat in the middle of the night because I had the shivers so bad and could not warm up – even when he got about 5 more heavy blankets to pile on me. Pat did some research and we were both confident it was mastitis (a breast infection). So the next day Pat was good enough to work from home so he could take me to the doctor and help look after the kids because I literally don’t know how I could’ve done it alone. Fortunately the doctor said it was probably just a plugged milk duct, but I had to be careful because it could become mastitis very easily.

Fortunately by the next morning I was feeling MUCH better and was officially on my own. And man, what a difference it is going from 1 to 2 kids! Lydia is doing “ok” to the change. She has become much more clingy and requires her security things pretty much all the time (her stuffed chick, stuffed sheep – “Ba”, her pappy, and her blanket – she calls “B”). Whenever Heidi starts crying at all, Lydia takes it as her cue to start crying and getting upset as well. So I spent about 30-45 minutes of my first day running back and forth between them as they took turns screaming and crying – just a little stressful.

At the same time though, Lydia is trying to be a good big sister. She rocks Heidi in her carseat (although lately she’s begun shaking the car seat back and forth). Words such as “Nice…Gentle!…..Soft…” are constantly being spouted when Lydia goes anywhere near Heidi. She’s just so young and doesn’t understand yet. We have confidence though that she’ll eventually lose the security items and not try to poke Heidi’s eyes out all the time .

Lydia in the new PJ’s Grandma got for her. (The pants are a little long for her right now )

Heidi 8 days old

CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE –> dscn3166_med.MOV

Lydia loves glasses and Grandma was trusting enough to let her wear her reading glasses for a minute.

Heidi’s first bath at home. She wasn’t a fan.

Lydia and Grandma making cookies (side note: they’re those Betty Crocker cookie mixes that I scored for 20c each!)
CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE –> dscn3177_med.MOV
CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE –> dscn3178_med.MOV

(Lydia wanted to focus on eating the chocolate chips instead of helping scoop cookies)

Grandma and Heidi

Trying in vain to get a group shot. Lydia is getting very difficult to take pictures of now-a-days.

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February 10, 2010 by Ashley.

We’re happy to announce that we have another healthy baby girl! On Saturday Feb. 6th (which amazingly was her precise due date) at 3:03pm Heidi Alice Crummett was born. She weighed 8 lbs 1.6 oz and was 20.5 in long. She sleeps and eats a lot and is doing very well. That’s the short story, but I always like reading labor stories so for the curious out there, continue below for the long story:

This movie is mostly for family who haven’t seen Lydia. It’s kinda long (1.5 min) and not super interesting, but you get an idea of how she is now. CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE -> dscn3137_med.MOV

For months it seems I’ve had Braxton Hicks contractions so I couldn’t really predict when I would go into labor (I was hoping though she wouldn’t be overdue because I already thought she was going to be a BIG baby). At the doctors on Friday and she said I was dilated 4 cm. I was totally elated! With Lydia I wasn’t even 4 cm when I was sent home from the hospital the first time for not progressing, so to be nearly half there was fantastic to me. That night my contractions started getting a little more intense, but not to the point where I thought I was going into labor at all. Fortunately I was able to sleep that night and not have the contractions bother me (it was good Pat got a good night’s sleep too. He doesn’t do too good w/out his 9 hrs ).

The next morning (Saturday) I woke up and the contractions were stronger – to the point where I thought I was probably going into labor or would go into labor later that day. So Pat started getting things together for Lydia and I finalized our birth plan (yes, I had procrastinated and thus nothing was ready). I wasn’t able to help as much as I initially planned because soon I was lying on the couch trying to just relax instead of running around getting a hospital bag together.

Sally, our relief society president and Pat’s 3rd cousin, had offered to take Lydia so we called her to let her know that at some point that day Lydia would probably head over. Pat assured everyone that called though that I was in EARLY labor and nothing would happen until that night or the next morning. I had a sneaking suspicion it might be sooner than that, but I had jumped the gun with Lydia and didn’t want that to happen again so I tried to convince myself of his predictions.

Around 2 or so my contractions started to get very uncomfortable…well more like REALLY REALLY painful. It was to the point where I HAD to have Pat rubbing my back and legs through the contractions to distract my brain from the pain. Looking back, I should have gone to the hospital at that point, but Lydia was actually taking a good nap for once and we had told Sally we’d bring Lydia around 2:30 so I figured I could hold out.

Around 2:30 though right after one of those contractions I rushed to the bathroom and sure enough my water had obviously broken. And once my water broke, man oh man, the contractions came really quick and were severely painful. I yelled to Pat that we had to go to the hospital NOW and didn’t have time to bring Lydia to Sally’s. Someone would just have to come to our house and take her themselves. Remember Lydia was still asleep upstairs and I was ready to just leave the door unlocked and leave because Sally just couldn’t get there fast enough for me. Pat started rushing around getting nervous because I’m yelling that we have to GO NOW and he keeps thinking we have time. It’s a good thing I was so insistent (and also that Sally got there as we were leaving). Pat sped like crazy (even passing people on a double yellow line) while I pounded my fist as hard as I could on the car roof during contractions because the pain was so intense. (I might add a big sarcastic Thank You to the person who designed the road to the hospital with about 6 round-abouts. Let’s just say that is not the most comfortable for a laboring woman in a speeding car).

So we get to the hospital and Pat doesn’t even have time to park the car (they have valet parking at the Emergency entrance). I get wheeled in, give them my info as we go up to labor & delivery, and immediately say I want an epidural. Labor was so painful and long with Lydia I thought I’d try the alternative this time. But the nurse said I had to have the doctor check me first (which was frustrating for me because I felt like no one believed me – that I was so close to having the baby). And it turned out to be fruitless because the doctor ended up missing my delivery by 5 minutes. As we got off the elevator my hands started getting tingly. When I told the nurse this she said it was because I was starting to hyperventilate – and here I was thinking I was trying to have slow controlled breathing. They got me in a room and I had to have an oxygen mask because my tingling was getting worse and I got to the point where I really thought I was going to faint. The nurse said I was 7 cms but about 2 minutes later I said I felt like I needed to push. I wasn’t quite 10 cm by that point but a minute or so later the nurse said I could try. Usually it’s the doctor giving orders, but like I said before Heidi just couldn’t wait so the nurses ended up delivering her. I had my eyes closed the entire time just waiting for the whole experience to be over but Pat told me later it was a little crazy in there because there were all these nurses surrounding me doing the delivery as more a group effort. He got a little frustrated because everyone was calling out different instructions and he was trying to tell them my wishes about certain things, so I guess it was good that I was totally out of it. So finally little Heidi was born. The nurses commented how large her head was (a mother’s dream during delivery….), and that she had lots of dark hair.. She had swallowed meconium like Lydia, but her delivery had been so fast she had barely any so luckily they didn’t have to suck out her lungs. (Lydia’s had been more serious).

So overall, Heidi was born 15 minutes after I had gotten to the hospital and because of that I never got a chance to try out an epidural. I didn’t even use the TENs unit like last time (an electrical impulse thing used when you want a non-medicated birth, but still offers good pain relief). Labor from start to finish was about 6-7 hrs, which sure beats my 36 hrs with Lydia. Pat and I were just in shock that everything was over so quickly. We get to the hospital and 15 minutes later I’m collapsed in bed and he’s sitting there holding a baby!

Unfortunately though, I tested positive for Group B Strep, which means I was supposed to have antibiotics in an IV for at least 4 hrs before delivery to insure that it not get passed to the baby, which can cause a bad infection. Because of the rush I never got a chance to have any antibiotics so we had to stay an extra night so that Heidi could be watched for 48 hrs. So we were in the hospital a little longer than anticipated, but it worked out fine and Heidi is healthy and strong with no signs of infection.

I’m recovering slowly, but surely. And Lydia has mixed feelings about her new sister. She loves to rock her in the car seat carrier and gently stroke her body going “nice…nice..”. Lydia is quick to point to the “baby”, which she pronounces very well and even started saying “Heidi” really clearly today. She gets upset when Heidi cries and gets more nervous (and very curious too) when I nurse or change her. Pat’s been trying to adjust to having 2 kids. The lack of sleep and me not being able to move very well (I have some stitches that are quite painful…plus a tetanus shot…plus my milk coming in…plus back pain…etc) has been hard for him. He’s just grateful that labor was so quick this time and the middle of the day. “It wasn’t nearly so bad this time” he says with a smile and of course I roll my eyes at that one. I’m thinking next time it’s his turn to have the baby .

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January 29, 2010 by Melanee.

When I review the experiences I have had in my life I see the chain of events that ultimately make me say “Ah-Ha” Well I am doing it again.I found a connection on my life journey.
In our faith our temples are our places of instruction, a place of service, a place of refuge from the busy problematic world, a place to commune and receive answers to prayers. When Randy and I personally met for the first time last year on Valentine’s Day weekend we took a trip to New York City and did a session with my sister Rachel and her husband at the Manhattan Temple. This was the first time Randy attended the temple since Gayle’s passing and I went twice since Kev’s passing, but found it very difficult to attend. When we went to Manhattan Temple it felt good again and comfortable again. I enjoyed being with Randy at the temple again. Our relationship grew and each time we met together we went to the temple. When I came out to Utah in March we went to the Manti Temple together. When I came out in April for Randy’s son’s wedding we went to the Idaho Falls temple to witness Darrin and Rachel’s marriage. When he came out to Connecticut in June we obtained our marriage license and did a session the Boston Temple. When Randy came out for Marlene’s wedding he helped drive us to the Washington DC Temple and witnessed Marlene and Stephen get married. Then on August 1st we were married in the Boston Temple by my father. On our cross country honeymoon we visited the Kirtland Temple, then we stayed for four days in Nauvoo and did a session in the beautiful Nauvoo Temple.We met many senior couple missionaries with similar circumstances as us who lost their spouses and found each other. To top off the great honeymoon trip we were privileged to have an exclusive tour of the Rexburg Temple by Randy’s mission friend who painted the murals in each session room. We saw each room of the temple and heard about his personal experiences with getting the temple ready and the inspirations behind his paintings. Since we have been married and moved to Utah we have gone to the temple together often.

Then on Monday an announcement was made to build a temple in our neighborhood-two blocks away from our home. This is huge to me since all my life the temple has been my place to go to enjoy the spirit, learn about the gospel, and receive answers to my many prayers. Randy and I have made a temple journey of sorts and we are ready for when the temple is built, and opened for the public to see, then dedicated to the Lord, and the work can commence. I will literally be able to walk to the temple.
Having the blessings of the temple gave me comfort during my darkest times. Now being able to have the temple in my life everyday will be so fulfilling and joyous to me.

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January 18, 2010 by Ashley.

Just thought I’d put up the other pix I never got around to putting up in my last post. Stay tuned for the next post in 3 weeks though when Baby #2 comes!!

Our portable DVD player is probably the best investment we ever made (especially when I was doing a ton of traveling with Lydia a few months back). One day I just got desperate and she LOVES watching movies anyway. Glad to say though this was the only time I had to do this.

Lydia can put on her own pair of sunglasses and then she goes around going “Cool! Cool!” because when I first put them on her I would say she looked so cool with them on.

Right at the end of October we got a whole lotta snow. This is our grill. And backyard

I took Lydia to reading time at the library once and she got a little cup of dirt with a pumpkin seed in it. I actually planted it and it was the one thing in our garden that grew. So here’s Pat and Lydia carving it for Halloween. Lydia wasn’t as excited as we thought. She mostly just ate the pumpkin seeds.
CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE -> dscn2986_med.MOV

Probably not impressive now, but this was when Lydia first started climbing stairs on her own really well (17 months old - right around Halloween). Gosh it was nice not having to carry her anymore!
CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE -> dscn2989_med.MOV

I finally put Lydia is this famous bathing suit I wore as a baby. Unfortunately I waited a bit too long so the suit is a “tad” small. Plus Lydia wasn’t in her “modeling” mood. I was hoping to get a similar shot, but the one photo where I’m standing up in it I cannot seem to find right now, so this will have to do. Any similarity??

Lydia loved playing in the fall leaves
CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE -> dscn3008_med.MOV

Pat’s most recent [GIANT] project has been building a trailer on the trailer frame we bought last summer at a garage sale. He put a LOT of time and work into it. I wanted it built by Thanksgiving so he could drive out to Utah and get some furniture and my boxes of things that had been brought from Connecticut. His hard work paid off and he finished, like 24 hrs before he was scheduled to leave. It’s really sturdy, did well on the trip, and now our house actually has some furniture in it! One glitch though, was that Pat made this really nice gate for the back (you can see it in the picture). On the way there though, he hit some bumps on the road and it came off without him knowing. By the time he noticed and backtracked it was smashed into a million pieces in the road. It was severely devastating for us both (if you’ve ever done a project that took a lot of time and money, you can understand). But with Mom’s help he was able to figure out a temporary gate for the trip back. Here’s before and after pix.

Pat made the mistake one night of showing Lydia that she can be driven around in boxes. Lydia’s inside with her “B.” That’s what she calls her special blanket.
CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE ->dscn30371_med.MOV

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January 18, 2010 by Melanee.

I wanted to repost Mallory’s teacher experience in honor of MLK Day. This is very appropriate, worth thinking about, and a subject worth talking about.
Mallory writes:

So I have a very interesting and funny story about what my students told me this week. As most people know, February is black history month. What many of you also know is that my class is made up of 100% African American students. I read them a book about Martin Luther King, Jr. and I was telling them how not all white people hated black people back then. There were several white people who were on their side. One of my students then said, “I don’t like white people” to which another student replied “That means you don’t like Mrs. Fackrell!” Then he responded back, “Mrs. Fackrell isn’t white.” Then my students proceeded to ask me, “Mrs. Fackrell, are you black or white?” I didn’t really know how to respond, given the conversation that just went on, so I simply said, “I’ll leave that for you to decide”, which then almost unanimously they said, “Mrs. Fackrell is black.” So I’ve officially become accepted! It’s kinda exciting and funny at the same time. Anyway, just thought I’d share that little funny teacher moment! Until next time!

Melanee’s opinion added: Wouldn’t it be nice to have races and colors just blend in the background so we really see who each of us are-sons and daughters of God.

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January 14, 2010 by Melanee.

Having been raised in the Northeast has it’s challenges when you are trying to do what our faith teaches us to do. We have been taught for many years to have food storage for your family in case of emergencies or future problems that may come up and also a 72 hour kit to take in case of emergencies. This is widely known. Obtaining that food storage was a huge task because the resources were not there. Most things needed to be ordered through ultra organized effort from the leadership in the church to ship everything to us from the west. We could order through catalogs or take a two hour drive to Massachusetts to get basics at the Bishop’s storehouse.
Well, I just went on a 15 minute drive to the Bishop’s Storehouse today to replace some of the food storage I gave away from my move. (I think I gave away about 75%-which is a lot) I walk in and a really great elderly man took my order and entered a very large room to gather everything I needed–already canned. Afterward I went to a nearby grocery store(from a tip by one of the workers there that sugar was at a good price) and got 75 lbs of sugar for a really good deal, a 5 gallon bucket, and 2 gamma lids(screw top lids for 5 gallon buckets)-In The Grocery Store! All these things I had to order from catalogs. Most stores I frequent out here have a food storage area with all the things that took us weeks or days to obtain. It took me less than two hours including travel time to obtain a portion of what I needed.
The resources here are enormous and I am grateful for that. Now I need to get back to replenishing my food storage. Let me contact the person in our ward that has the canner to can the powder milk and sugar I just got.

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January 14, 2010 by Melanee.

As I was going through my paperwork I found a “poem” or thought that I had written about eight years ago for a dear friend and co-worker when she lost her mother suddenly to Crerutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Upon reading it-I find the writing reflects what most of us go through when we have trials and losses in our lives and how we come out in the end.

Through Our Experiences…..

We care as we never cared before
We laugh as we never laughed before
We have faith as we never had before
We have sorrow as we never had before
We gain knowledge as we never had before
We gain strength as we never had before
We love as we never loved before

Written by: Melanee Webster Bronson

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January 12, 2010 by Melanee.

Apologies to all because life has gotten pretty busy since I have settled here. The holidays were filled with family and visitors. So, my usual place was in the kitchen cooking up a storm. I have enjoyed putting together meals that would feed up to 20 people that have come. About two Sundays a month we have Randy’s children and Marlene and Stephen for dinner. That’s 10 adults and two children right there. Thanksgiving was 17, Christmas the same, basketball party 18 attended, New Year’s Eve 17 people. I have enjoyed meeting new people and having people over. Randy and I have attended 4 funerals and two wedding receptions. My daughter Mallory and her husband Wendell came to see me after the Christmas holiday for three days. That was really nice. (Also I do have to say that shopping for Christmas for nine children and six grandchildren then relatives was quite a challenge, but a good challenge. Because I had time to shop during the day which is a huge luxury for me.)

My parents visited for a week due to my uncle (Mom’s brother) passing away. They got to see my new home and we enjoyed having them here. My father upon coming into the home inspected my refrigerator and saw that my Thanksgiving turkey needed the meat taken off so he started in on my turkey carcass right away. Then made some soup with all the Thanksgiving leftovers. We also enjoyed seeing my Utah cousins.
We have had guests since Thanksgiving-The Kenyons (Gayle’s brother’s family), my parents, Kurtis (Randy’s son from Alaska), Mallory and Wendell. We would love to have more.
Then Randy’s daughter added to the family on December 1st with a granddaughter, born 8 minutes after arriving at the hospital. So, I took care of Josh and Maia while my parents were here. Talk about double duty.

I have also had problems with my house that I am selling. Thanks to those friends who were my eyes and ears to tell me what was going on. It is not fun trying to get repairs done on the house when you are 2000 miles away.The cost was enormous and I did have to fly out for a week mainly to have a planned visit with my daughter Leah and my grandchildren, but I had to extend the visit to supervise fixing the problems that occurred when the work got done on my house. Everything has settled and it is fixed up. Does anyone want to buy a home in a really nice town in a really good school system?

I have also found that writing takes a lot of time for me to do and I haven’t had the time or should I say inspiration to write. I will try to do better.

Christmas was good, but I really missed my girls. I bought cardinals to go on my Christmas tree. Decorating the tree was great to go through all the memories of all the ornaments that were put up. My sister Rachel gave me a cardinal ornament to hang on the tree. We had two trees in the home. One to represent each of our families. We also got together with my sister and brother to have a “Christmas breakfast dinner” at my brother’s–in law’s house. We enjoyed the lobster that Aaron brought along with all the good eats I am used to. It made it feel like home.

Randy had been wonderful to me -Helpful, we enjoy conversing about almost everything, He just knows when I need him. Sometimes I think he can read my mind. But he claims he can’t. It just shows how insightful he is. We are glad to have love and joy in our lives once again. We like going to the temple together. We have gone maybe 5 times so far. I have gone twice with a new friend from my ward. It is so nice to have the temple and church resources so close now.

One thing I haven’t been good at is trying to see all my Utah family members, also keeping in touch with all my Connecticut friends and family. Randy and I sent out 150 Christmas cards between us. I still didn’t send all that I wanted to send to people because I didn’t have addresses. Gratitude is the word that I can say for all my friends and family where ever they are.
Okay—-New Year’s resolution—- to update my blog more often. Please be forgiving if it’s short and to the point.

What I am looking forward to in 2010: Ashley’s daughter due February 2 and Mallory’s daughter due March 19. I love being a busy grandma.

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