Broken Bones

The past six-and-a-half weeks have been very interesting, to say the least. On October 26th, my sister and I decided to go walking around the community that morning. I left the kids at home because with Craig's job(driving bus for the local school district), he is home between 9am and 1pm. So I figured it would be nice to go without the kids. Craig suggested to take one of them, but I just wanted to leave them both. He didn't push it, so I left a few minutes later.

About five minutes upon returning home, Craig called my phone. My sister and I were talking and I was almost home, so I didn't answer it. Then he called again. I answered it and the first words out of Craig's mouth were, "You're not going to like this." Then he said that Caleb hurt his arm really bad. He had fallen off the arm of our couch. I didn't panic too much then, because that is not a far fall.

I got home to see Caleb just sitting on Craig's lap holding his arm. It was so pitiful. There was no bruising and very minimal swelling, so I wasn't sure if it was broken or not. I was really hoping it wasn't because we don't have health insurance. So we decided to watch it for a few hours to see if he starts using it again. This was around 10:30am. By lunch time, it wasn't any better, so I decided to make an appointment at the pediatrician. But of course they were on lunch, so I had to wait until 1:30 ( I think) to call again. We were able to get an appointment ASAP, so left as soon as I hung up.

The doctor looked at it and was 90% sure it was broken, so he put a hard splint and a sling on and sent us to an imaging place for an x-ray. And also a referral to a pediatric orthopedic doctor. The x-ray confirmed the break, but it was worse than we thought it would be with both bones broken (it was his left arm). And one bone (I think the radius) was completely snapped and offset 2mm. The other one was broken, but not all the way through.



We got in to see the orthopedic doctor on Halloween to get his cast on. It was a pretty easy appointment. Caleb cried and screamed at first, but when the doctor and PA were actually putting the cast on, he was a perfect angel. The cast had to be on for 4-5 weeks so we set the appointment at 4.5 weeks away. The doctor gave us instructions about what he couldn't do. And he also excused Caleb from gym class for six weeks! ;-D


The 4.5 weeks passed by pretty quickly. It was a pain bathing and dressing him, but it wasn't too bad. 3 or so weeks in, he started to try to use his broken arm as if he didn't have a cast and sling on. By about 4 weeks, we couldn't even keep the sling on him. He was using his arm so much that the sling kept riding up even being safety pinned.

On December 1st, he finally got his cast off! He was perfect the whole time with not even one whine or tear. The PA put little sound reducing headphones on him (so cute!) and started the saw. We got to keep the cast and the first thing I did was throw away the cloth sleeve that touched his skin. It was very crusty where it touched the palm of his hand. Gross. And he had gross dead and dry skin flakes all up and down his arm. Thankfully that went away after a couple days. He had to wear a wrist brace for a week just when he played for extra support.






Now he is totally cast and brace free and back to normal! One thing that I noticed was that while he had his cast one, he became more aggressive. He was very frustrated not being able to do things normally. And unfortunately, he started biting when he got mad or frustrated. Ella and his poor cousin June (who is three weeks younger than him) got the brunt of it. And a couple nursery kids. How embarrassing! But, since he's had the cast off, there hasn't been any biting incidences. I had also started putting him in time out even if he just attempted to bite, so I think that plus having the cast off is helping him stop. Knock on wood... I have also noticed he is much happier these days. I finally got my sweet and happy little boy back!

And here he is all healed up! He's not so happy in this picture, but he wanted to get down.

Happy Halloween!

Yes, this is almost 2 months late, but better late than never, right?

This Halloween was a little different since Craig had to work at Papa John's (which, by the way, he works for Barro's now! Yay!). I carved the pumpkin with the kids, and got them dressed in their costumes all by my self. It was really weird carving the pumpkin alone(besides the kids).




Since I didn't want to take them out trick-or-treating alone, we decided to go over to my sister's house. She lives only a few streets away, so it was nice. My mom also decided to join the impromptu party and go trick-or-treating with us. As I pulled up to her house, Craig called and said he was getting off work early! Yay! So he met us and was able to go with us. Afterwards, we hung out at my sister's house for a bit.

In September, I decided that I was going to make Ella her costume. She wanted to be Cinderella and loves to play dress-up, so I figured if I made her costume, it would be better quality and last longer so she can use it after Halloween. Besides, I also wanted to brush up on my sewing skills. And because I'm not very good and have only made a handful of things, I gave myself a month to get it done. So, we went to the fabric store to buy the pattern and fabric for a Belle dress. Yes, Belle. She changed her mind. Well, Ella changed her mind about five more times in the store before we got the fabric cut. First it was Belle, then Cinderella again, then back to Belle, then Snow White, then Cinderella again before settling on Belle. And that's what she got. And she was very happy. Actually, giddy is a better word.


For Caleb, we were just going to buy something, but I couldn't bear the thought of buying a cheap quality costume for $13. So, we bought a white sheet for $5 and made a ghost costume for him. We don't have that costume anymore because two days later, we needed to use it to clean up puke. We were on our way home from going out to eat for Craig's birthday when Caleb threw up. In the car. I didn't feel like washing it, so in the trash can it went.

Music & Dancing

My kids love music. And they also love to dance. They usually start dancing whenever they hear music. In fact, a couple weeks ago when we drove to California for my nephew's baptism, we discovered that to keep Caleb happy during the long ride, music needed to be playing. It was so funny watching him rock out in his carseat!

I love that they both love music. Growing up (jr. high through college), music was my life. I feel music is so important to be involved in. Before I had kids, I knew I was going to get my kids into music, no questions asked. And I still feel that way. It's that important to me.

Anyway, that is not the point of this post! So, one of Ella's favorite shows is Angelina Ballerina. I think it is a cute show (and much less obnoxious than Caillou, which I ended up banning in this house because Ella was starting to becoming whiny like him). And she has learned a lot from it! Mostly dance moves, of course! She even knows what a pirouette is and will perform one if asked.

Caleb is around when she watches this show and he sees her doing her dancing, so he has even started picking up some moves (well, one move). He also has this drum that plays a few songs from The Wiggles that he has claimed. This is what happens when he plays it!



And here is Ella joining in on the action! Watch for her pirouette! And please excuse how they are dressed (or not dressed).

Hairy Situation

This morning, little miss Ella almost gave me a heart attack. I was combing out her hair to fix it. As I was doing this, I noticed that a little more than normal hair was coming out. I thought, "Okay, well I guess we need to start having her take vitamins." And then more and more and more hair kept coming out! I was in shock. I had Craig look at it and he was shocked also. I told him to Google 'hair loss in children', which was not a good idea. I know better than that. I was certain she had a disease.

So I finished combing out her hair. With lots still coming out. This is how much hair I combed out.



Her hair wasn't coming out in patches because she didn't have any bald spots. I examined her hair some more and a the top, I saw a bunch of short hairs. I said, "Oh, good. it's growing back in. But I don't remember any excessive hair loss recently." I guess here is where I earn the Mother of the Year Award and admit that I hadn't combed or fixed her hair in a couple days. Oops! It was still in pigtails, but was a matted and tangled up mess. I thought that her hair was growing in really fast.

Then a minute later, Ella pipes up and saying something about a haircut. Now, I trimmed her hair a little bit last week so I thought she was talking about that since I was messing with her hair. Then I stopped and asked her what she said. She repeated it and it came to me what happened.

Earlier, she and Caleb were playing in his room. I was downstairs, but could hear them. They're good kids and there's not anything in his room that is dangerous. I went up to check on them and saw they had trashed his room. I started picking stuff up and I saw Ella had some scissors that came with their nail clippers. I took them from her and put them away, and thought nothing more of it. They couldn't do any harm, they aren't sharp enough.

Thankfully, Ella admitted to me that she cut her hair. It would not have crossed my mind that she cut it. We have all scissors put up out of her reach (or so I thought) to prevent this from happening. She has never taken them and cut anything (except that one time she cut her dress, but it was kind of my fault. I was taking them from her so she closed them to give back and her dress happened to be in the way), but I know how little kids can be with scissors. Heck, I chopped my hair off when I was her age.

Anyway, I looked closer, and realized that the short hairs was where she cut it. I wondered what in the world she did with the pieces she cut off. Then I remembered her matted mess. Of course there weren't any pieces anywhere. They were still on her head!

I talked with her about how NOBODY is to cut her hair except me or Craig or hair dressers. Hopefully she understands.

Here is what her hair looks like now. Thankfully she didn't cut off more. It's not too noticeable.





It's actually worse than these pictures show. There are a lot more little pieces that I couldn't get to stand up.

Four Years of Bliss

On July 12, 2007, Craig and I married each other for eternity in the Mesa, AZ Temple. It was one of the best days of my life (along with the birth of our children). He is my best friend and I am very proud and happy he is my eternal companion.

When we were dating, we would kind of joke around (also being half serious) that we were meant for each other. We would say this if we discovered something we had in common or there was something we agreed about. But looking back, I can say we were meant for each other in all seriousness, that we are truly meant for each other. Certain things happened in our lives that brought us together. And I strongly believe that if just one of those things did not occur, we would not have found each other.

I am so thankful my family moved out to Queen Creek back in 2002, just a week after I graduated high school. Yeah, I lost my high school friends, but I later found my best friend and eternal companion.

I am so thankful that stubborn me resisted going to the singles' ward out here for two years. It was a pretty lonely time, but all worth it in the end.

I am so thankful that Craig did not marry any girlfriends he had in the five or so years after his mission. Even though he felt a lot of pressure to get married.

And I am also grateful for his previous marriage. Without it, he would have stayed living in Gilbert and not eventually end up in the singles' ward out here in which we met.

These are just the biggest things, but there are many more. It's very amazing.

I am so excited I get to grow old with Craig, raise our family with him, and especially be with him throughout all eternity.






By the way, I just saw this is my 100th post! Yay!

Happy Birthday, Ella!

Too excited to get her picture taken

Yesterday, Ella turned three years old! This year was so fun, because she's old enough to get excited about it. Starting about three days before, she kept going around saying how excited she was for her birthday. And on her birthday, she was basically giddy the whole day. It was so cute.

This year, we did a princess theme. This girl loves princesses and all things girly (thankfully, she loves other things too). But, recently, she has developed a love for the movie Ponyo. It's really cute. She has watched this movie so many times(on the nights Craig does his pizza delivery job), and went on for about two months. It's been a few weeks since she's watched it. She knows the movie so well, she quotes it and eve acts it out. So cute! Anyway, I had a hard time deciding which theme to go with. Princess or Ponyo? I asked what she wanted and she chose princess. It turned out perfectly because I later realized I couldn't make a Ponyo cake.

This year, I actually didn't put things off until the day before. Go me! I got started planning the cake about a week before. I found a cake I wanted to copy, and even had enough time to borrow cakes decorating stuff from my mom. All I have are rectangular cake pans, but this cake is round. And I decided to make and use fondant instead of frosting. I'm no cake decorator, but I am pleased with how the cake turned out. And more importantly, Ella loved it!

Please excuse the crooked border on top

We spent a lot of the day getting ready for her party that evening, but Ella was able to get in some swim time that she asked for. She also asked to eat her cake all day. Silly girl.

The time finally came for her party and she got even more excited! My parents were only ones that could come, but we still had a good time. It was so cute seeing Ella react to her presents. She unwrapped each present slowly, and when she saw what they were, she gave a little gasp like it was the best gift ever!










We have been talking up about her being a big girl since she is turning three. It has been working well. In fact, she was finally able to give up her pacifier by herself yesterday. She hasn't been using it since she was almost two except during naptime and bedtime. By the way, whoever said that if you cut a hole in the pacifier it will make the kid not like it anymore, and therefore not use it, was wrong. Ella chewed three holes in hers and still coveted it. But, then again, Ella didn't suck on hers. Just either held it in her mouth or her hand.

Because Ella is now a big girl, Craig and I decided to plan a big surprise for her that we knew she would love. We just didn't know she would love it as much as she did! She got a big girl bed. She's been in a toddler bed, but we decided to get her in a twin. Plus, we inherited a bed that Craig used, and passed through his family (I think only a nephew used it, but not sure). We spiffed it up by spraying a fresh coat of paint on it, and it almost looks brand new. I found a really cute bedding set on sale at Target and wrapped it up for Ella to open. After she did that, we took a trip to the garage, and when she saw that bed,her expression was just priceless. She put her hands on her cheeks and gasped with joy! Then she proceeded to get on it and jump. I sure wish I was able to get her reaction, but I think it's something that will be engrained in my head the rest of my life.






Ella is such a wonderful little "big" girl. She is very stubborn, but that can be good as she grows up in this scary world. Despite her stubbornness, she is such a joy. Always happy, and she really doesn't have many tantrums. And she is a very good and loving big sister. She love Caleb so much. She plays with him, shares with him, and loves to hug and kiss him. They still fight, and she's been experimenting with pushing,(which we are working on) but those times are atually rare. We love her so much and it's sad, but so exciting that she's growing up and becoming her own person.

Fun in the Sun

Well, I guess it's more of fun in partial sun on the back porch. But anyway, today Ella and Caleb had their first swim of the season. It's taken us a while to get them a little pool, but today we finally did it. It was just a cheap $8.00 pool, but the kids don't know the difference. Ella was so excited, she held on to it throughout the store while we finished our shopping trip.

We got home too late for them to play in it before lunch and their naps, so we waited until after nap time to get it out and let them play in it. Ella woke up and immediately asked to go in the pool. So I put Caleb in a swim diaper and Ella in her swimming suit (by the way, it is so much nicer to not have to put a swim diaper on Ella too), and we headed out back to set up the pool.

Caleb wasn't too keen on being in the pool, but he had lots of fun splashing and playing form the outside. It's funny, because he loves baths, but he hates swimming! It must be the water temperature.

And of course, Ella had a blast. She played for over an hour until we needed to come in to start dinner. She was not happy. But she went along with it when I asked her to help me dump the water out. And played her favorite song on my phone while we did it. The best part was that there wasn't any crying involved! Then she demanded a cookie, which she got after dinner. Silly girl!

Here are some pictures of the fun.

New Look

I haven't written here recently. Life has just gotten in the way and my creative juices have dried up (not that I really had any in the first place). For the past while, I became very bored with the title of the blog. I mean, it was just our first names. No creativity there! And it was really long. So, I decided that I was going to change it. I tried this about a year ago without success, but I wasn't going to let that happen again. So, Newman News it is. It's kind of fun with both words beginning with 'new', so I decided to keep it. Even if it sounds a little cheesy. Heck, I could get even cheesier with 'New Newman News', but I think that's beyond cheesy!

As I was contemplating on what to change the title to, I decided to change the background. That's when I discovered that you can use different fonts! I have seen them around, but I guess I figured is was some special program or something. You don't know how excited I got when I saw that!

Anyway, enough of the step by step process on hoe I changed things around. Hopefully this change will get me to start posting regularly again (not that anybody even reads this). I usually don't deal with change very well, but sometimes a complete change is what a person needs to get out of a rut!

He's One!

This year just flew by so fast. I have no idea where it went! On Sunday, March 13th, our baby boy turned one year old. I'm excited that he is growing up because his silly little personality is blossoming and he is learning new things as each day goes by. But at the same time, I am sad that he is growing up so quickly.

Our precious boy went from this,

To this,

to this,

to this handsome fellow.

My due date was actually March 11, 2010, but Caleb decided he was way to comfy in my tummy, so he decided to stay put as long as he could. So, we (my doctor included) decided to 'evict' him. On the morning of Saturday, March 13, 2010, at 7:30 in the morning, we checked into Mercy Gilbert Hospital to start the induction. I think I probably would have gone into labor by myself that day because they used only two of three rounds of gels to get my labor started. For me, labor is really, really painful. I have back contractions and it's so intense that I feel like I'm going to die. And that's at only 3 or so cm dilated. I had to wait until I got to 4. And it takes forever because my body won't relax because of the pain.

So, after walking around the L&D halls for a few hours and going into the waiting room to visit my parents and Ella (she couldn't come to me because of the restrictions from H1N1 last year, and she was sick), I finally reached 4cm. Yay! Time for an epidural. But first I had to have some blood test before they would give it to me, and wouldn't you know it, but the hospital lab was swamped. I had to wait over two hours for them to come take my blood. And another 1-2 hours (around 7:30pm) to finally get the epidural. By this time, I had progressed to 7cm.

My nurse was wonderful and so helpful. She tried her best to hurry them up. Unfortunately, her shift ended just after I got the epidural. She tried to stay as late as she could, but had to leave. On her way out, she joked that knowing her luck, I would have the baby while she's in the parking lot.

The new nurse came in and the first she did was check me. I was at 10cm already! Time to push! At 8:05pm, Caleb Craig Newman was born. He weighed 7lbs 10oz. And Tammy (my nurse that left) was probably still in the parking lot. And, I almost had him without an epidural. I was only able to enjoy being pain free for about 30 minutes!

Our poor little guy had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, but the doctor was able to get it unwrapped before he was fully born, so it thankfully caused no problems. And his hands and feet were purple for a little while, but he was very healthy.

We are so blessed to have Caleb in our family. We all love him so very much. He is such a happy little boy, and such a joy to just sit back and watch him (until he gets into something!). And I love how he and Ella are best buds. They are only 21 months apart, and are so close to each other. They play together and are sometimes even cohorts in crime!


Happy Birthday, Caleb!

I would also like to wish my mom a happy birthday. Today is her birthday.

Our House

In December, we found out that the homeowners of our house were foreclosing on it. They actually were trying to do a loan modification, but you know how those go these days. They usually do not work out. Especially if your mortgage company is Bank of America. Anyway, we were really disappointed because we had only lived in the house for eight months, and were planning on staying for at least two years.

The house hunt really tested my faith. And I mean really. At one point, I even had an mental breakdown. It was good for me, though, because it opened my mind. I realized that something would work out and that Heavenly Father would not let us become homeless. I just had to have faith. It was really hard trying to keep the faith. We had at least two really good opportunities go through. And one of them being less than a month before the house would be foreclosed.

We didn't want to go through a property management company because we didn't have the money for deposits, and we wouldn't get the deposits from our then current house back in time. But, after the last house opportunity fell through, we decided we would have to just do it. We called our real estate agent, who we just love, (her name is Dawnell Gebhardt if anyone needs an agent) and that night, she sent us several listings to pick through and go look at the next day.

The very first house on the list just stood out to us. It looked perfect for us. And the price was perfect. The only downside was that it wasn't in our ward (it;s actually in my sister's ward), but at this point, it was the least of our worries. We saw all the houses the next day and put in an application for that first house that night. We didn't want to risk losing it.

This house was saved just for us. It was a great house for a great price. There was lots of activity on it (people coming to see it), but no one had put in an application for it. Very odd for out here. And, there's no risk of it being foreclosed on because an investor bought it to rent it out. Another reason I know this house was set aside for us was that there were several things that could have possibly made it fall through. But, in the end, everything worked out perfectly, and we moved in this past weekend. And it feels so good. This is such a great blessing for us.

Here are some pictures (from the listing). I will have to take more pictures after we get settled.

Sports

Thanks to my wonderful husband, I have discovered a new sport. I think I might like this sport the best, and I really wish I knew how to play it! I'm actually thinking of having Craig teaching me how to play. It's one I thought of in high school as being nerdy (look who's talking) and silly. Right up there with golf and soccer. Oh, and hockey, too.

I have fallen for the game of tennis! If you understand the rules and and actually know what's going on, it's really fun to watch! Right now, the Australian Open is going on. We have watched it every day and even gave up watching our favorite show Castle (okay, we recorded it and watched it last night).

Anyway, the following two people are my favorite tennis players. They are really good and fun to watch!

The girl is Caroline Wozniacki and she is from Denmark. I like to say we are kin because my family comes from Denmark. However, I recently found out her parents actually from Poland. Her last name is obviously not Danish.

The guy is Roger Federer and is from Switzerland. The only word that truly describe him is awesomeness. Look him up. He's won a lot of stuff.

Umm...Yeah

So this is what happened as I was writing yesterday's post.



If you can't tell, that is Desitin all over them. Those two little stinkers decided to take their love for each other and become cohorts in crime. They sneaked into Caleb's room (which they have never done before and will not again because I put one of those child-proof door knob thingys on his door) and Ella decided to get into the Desitin. I am amazed how much she was able to get out of the tube, because I was going to throw it out after the next use! Besides themselves, she was also able to smear it on his dresser, hamper, and crib.

I am so thankful the tube was almost empty! If it wasn't, I think I would have crawled back into bed. It was one of those pull-out-your-hair days.

I can laugh about it now, and I'm pretty sure it's one of those things that just about every kids does (like cutting their own hair) I was actually waiting for the day when she would get into the Desitin, just like I'm waiting for the day when she tries to cut her hair *cringe*. I will be doing my best to prevent that one, though!

Disclaimer: Please excuse Ella's appearance. I had not fixed her hair yet, and she was making those faces because she hates the flash of the camera. I didn't use it, but she still made the faces.

Love

Ella and Caleb truly love each other. I can see it in how they interact with each other. I've been able to see it since Caleb was only a few months old. The way they looked at each other and reacted to each other when they saw the other one was proof.

And now that they are older, it's so cute seeing the love between the two. Ella love to hug and kiss her little brother, and Caleb gets so excited when he sees his older sister. And they both love playing together in Ella's room. They go in there just about every morning to play. In fact, right now I can hear them in there both laughing!

Of course, like any siblings, they also fight. Since Caleb can't talk, they obviously can't argue like me and you would, but they do it in their own way! And they only argue when Caleb is trying to take something Ella is playing with. It usually goes like this:

Ella: No, Caleb!
Caleb: Ahhhhhh!
E: Caleb, stop it!
C: babble, babble, babble (very loudly)

And so forth, lasting about a minute or so. Ella usually then takes whatever they are fighting over and leaves. But, sometimes, it ends with Ella in time-out because she pushed Caleb down.

Yesterday, since Craig didn't have to work, we were out and about. We had to stop off at Walmart to get something really quick, so I stayed in the car with the kids. We were talking and singing, when all of a sudden I see this:

They were reaching out to each other grabbing hands! So adorable! And apparently, they wanted to recreate art. It looks very similar to Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Just kidding on that, but I thought it was funny how the picture looks like it!

I am so glad they are close.It is my dream to have all our kids close to one another. I hope these two continue being close and that their future siblings will be also.