Kasen's First Day at Church

When Kasen was born, several virus' were going around so we decided to wait 3 weeks before taking him to church so that his immune system was built up at least a little bit. We were very proud that we were able to get all of us fed, dressed, and ready to go to church on time... even though our church is at 1:00 pm. And I ended up loving my boys in the bow ties I made them!

Tori's Surgeries

Having three pregnancies right in a row with no break was really hard on my body. Through both Maycie's and Kasen's pregnancies I was hospitalized twice because of what we thought was a kidney infection and kidney stones. When the 4th time in the hospital came around, we decided to start working with a general surgeon. I went to Doctor Todd Russell and he said that he thought I had a hernia and chronic appendicitis. The reason everyone had trouble diagnosing the appendicitis is because "Chronic Appendicitis" is apparently pretty rare and hard to diagnose. Chronic appendicitis is a disorder caused by inflammation of the appendix over a period of time, that reoccurs until surgically dealt with. Often, individuals with chronic appendicitis are undiagnosed until an episode of appendicitis occurs, resulting in symptoms that progress in severity. Diagnosing chronic appendicitis can be difficult because the symptoms are severe but individuals with chronic appendicitis often become used to the abdominal pain and discomfort. Left untreated, chronic appendicitis can lead to life-threatening complications such as a ruptured appendix and infection that spreads to other parts of the body. So when we finally decided this was the cause, Doctor Todd decided on surgery. I had the surgery two and a half weeks after delivering Kasen, which was hard on my body, but much better than continually having pain and being in and out of the hospital. These pictures are the last pictures I have of me with my appendix still. The hernia ended up being about 6 inches long, stretching from the middle of my rib cage to my belly button. When they put the band on me to find a good vein, my arm turned very "hulk-like" as you can tell by the picture.

I tried to nurse while I was in the hospital, which was really tricky. After they had me hooked up to the IV's and monitors, nursing got even trickier. At one point Kasen got all tangled up in all the cords and I had to get two different nurses to help me untangle him. We got a good laugh out of it because it seemed as though I was delivering him again... but out of my side this time. Ha.

It was worth a try...

As you can imagine, we spend money 'out the wazoo' on diapers each month; so instead of spending a ton of money on a family photographer, we tried to do a few ourselves... it didn't really work. The kids only paid attention for about 20 minutes so here is what we were able to get in that time.

In the midst of trying to tame our two wild children, we were able to get just a few individual pictures of Kasen. Unfortunately the poor guy was too hungry to participate for long.

We love cousins!

4 cousins in 1 month, within 1 mile... That's gotta be some kind of record.

Birth Dates:
Beckett(left): 7/30/13
Jase(2nd from left): 8/6/13
Quentin(2nd from right): 9/2/13
Kaysen(right): 9/8/13

Our new little Kaysen has jaundice unfortunately. His levels were way too high, all the way up to 22. :( When the levels get passed a 12, babies have to be on lights. We're hoping to get his levels up and off the lights by Tuesday because he sure doesn't like sleeping on them. :(

Our first family outing

This morning the kids were acting a little restless so we decided to take them to the park. I got to sit on the bench and hold my baby boy while Jess ran around on the playground with Kingston and Maycie. ;) Daddy did however, take our little man on his very first slide... He didn't seem to enjoy it too much considering he just slept right through it.

We are so proud of our little man; he is tied(with Kingston) for the most handsome baby award. We love his blonde hair, his cute little crooked toes, and his sweet, angelic personality. We had such a peaceful time with him in the hospital, but are now ready to get home and become our little family of 5!