I Elfed Myself

Grandpa? or Santa Clause?

One afternoon while I was at my in-laws, Santa Clause came bounding through the door. Denton seemed to recognize Santa Clause right away. Julia kept her distance at first, not knowing what to think. Cody was shy and didn't want to look at Santa. Turns out, Denton was right! Grandpa Bonewell really was Santa Clause! The beard is real even. My kids have always been scared of Santa Clause, so this is the first time I was able to get pictures of the kids with Santa without them crying. I think Grandpa Bonewell made the perfect Santa Clause. Thanks! We love you Grandpa/Santa!

Little Rascal

I put Cody on the floor by the Christmas tree so that he could enjoy it while I put Denton and Julia to bed. He wasn't within arms reach of the presents however. When I came back to check on him, I found the little rascal trying to get into the presents. He's only 5 months old and he's up to trouble already :-)

Festive Pics

Count Down

Denton got this adorable Santa-count-down-to-Christmas chart at preschool. I'm really excited about it because we are using it as a count-down-until-daddy-comes-home too.

Smurfette

Julia came to me asking for a marker and a piece of paper. I grant her request and give her specific instructions: only color on the paper, not on the table, your clothes, or anything else... only on the paper. Up until now, the instructions have worked and my kids have always been really good about keeping it on the paper. Well, Julia decided to turn herself into a smurf. You can tell by her face that she knows she is in trouble.

Let's Bumbo!

Thank you Alisha, for letting us borrow the Bumbo! I was excited to put Cody in it, but he's so used to laying back and he was trying to lay back in the Bumbo. I put toys on the tray and he finally leaned forward into a comfortable position. He still only lasted 5 mintes, and that's ok with me. I'm in no hurry for my baby to grow up. I absolutely love this stage and I'm enjoying every minute. He's on a good schedule and we have a system down. Cody even sleeps 11 hours at night without waking up. I get him up at 7:30am to feed him. He smiles and giggles all the time. At 5 months he weighs 17 pounds, is 26 inches long, and is above the 95 percentile for weight, height, and head circumfrence.

The Whirlwind I call November

November came and went way too fast. I was happy to have Brandon home, but still didn't get to see as much of him as I would have liked. He made a total of 3 trips to Michigan, two were interviews and one was just to work in the ER of the residency program he is hoping to get into. Every spare minute was spent studying for boards (8 hour long test) that he took on Nov. 17th. We were excited for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was a glorious day of food and more food. I talked my mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law into going to see New Moon with me Thanksgiving night. I really enjoyed the movie and found it to be much better than the first. Friday, we went to visit my parents and got to visit with Jared, my oldest brother, while I was there too. Friday night Julia and I got very, very sick. We had a very bad stomach flu. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say it gave the ol' abb muscles a work out. Saturday, Denton had his birthday party at Pirate Island Pizza. I wasn't able to go because Julia hadn't recovered from the flu, so I stayed home with her and Cody. I heard he had an awesome time. Thanks to all the family that came and brought gifts. Saturday night, Brandon and Denton got the nasty flu. Brandon was able to get up and go to Hadley's baby blessing while I stayed home with the sick kids again. Sunday evening we drove home and the kids slept all the way. I was glad to be home again, but Monday meant saying goodbye to Brandon until Christmas. He drove to New Mexico on Monday. Tuesday he made it the rest of the way to Oklahoma City. I hope this month goes by fast. Oh, my video camera broke so I bought one on ebay. I will soon have video of my handsome little Cody on here.

My Birthday

My Birthday was awesome this year! My friend Teresa babysat all the kids for 6 hours while Brandon and I went to dinner and Phantom of the Opera. It was so great to go out on a real date. I loved seeing Phantom. I loved hearing the live music so loud that it shook my insides. I can't believe how many special effects could be used on one stage. It was amazing! I have always been a fan of the music, but hearing it professionally sung was incredible.

Halloween 2009

On Thursday night I took the kids to their cousins school Halloween carnival. Denton and Julia had a blast. They played pumpkin bowling, fishing, cake walk, slimey worms and face painting. Aunt Jennifer actually painted Julia's and Denton's faces because the 2 teenagers where taking 5 years. Denton said his spider looked like a fly (sorry Jennifer :-) They had a punch card with 10 punches. When it was time for the party to end Denton started crying because he didn't get to use all of his punches. It was unusually cold for St. George and a lot of the activities were outside. By the end, I was exausted and wanted to just curl up under a blanket and go to sleep. It was a lot of fun though. Thanks for inviting us Turbow's!






I survived the month of October with no Brandon. I'm so glad to have him back! Saturday we picked him up at the airport and had a few hours to get him a costume and get ready for Halloween. Brandon was a blind ref. Denton was Optimus Prime and I was an angel (there are no pictures of my costume because I was the one holding the camera, and amongst the chaos, I forgot to get myself in a picture), and Cody was a sleeping baby. We went to the ward trunk-or-treat. The kids got a lot of candy and enjoyed seeing the other kids' costumes. We came home when we ran out of that stash of candy and started our at-home stash of candy. We had quite a few trick-or-treaters and Denton and Julia loved putting the candy in the tick-or-treaters bags.

Cody's Blessing and Julia's 3!

So, it has taken me forever to get this post up. Life has been crazy. On September 27, Brandon blessed our very handsome little Cody David Bonewell. I have to get spiritual for a moment. I never feel closer to Heavenly Father than when I have my own little miracle from heaven in my arms. I look at tiny little Cody and feel that he just came from Heavenly Father's presence. It makes me realize how much I treasure my temple sealing to Brandon and to know that my children are born under the covenant and will be mine for eternity. I'm so grateful and blessed for the wonderful family that I have.



We had a fun blessing/birthday party at Leeds park after the blessing.

Brandon is leaving me...

So we just found out yesterday that Brandon is going to Tulsa Oklahoma for the whole month of October for and ER rotation. It is crucial that he does an internship rotation in ER because he has to have it to apply for residency. He needs to apply for residency ASAP and Touro was not willing to work with him on getting him into the ER rotation next month, so he's off to Oklahoma. The sad part is, he has another one lined up for December in Oklahoma city. If he makes a good impression, one of the two places may even accept him for their residency program. I know these sacrifices are necessary, but I'm really pretty bummed about it.

Cody is 1 Month

Cody is growing and filling in all his rolls and extra chins. I took all three kids to the Dr. on Wednesday for check-ups and vaccinations. That was a tiring experience. It's a new challenge just getting all three of them in and out of the car. They are all healthy, thank goodness. When it came time for the shots, all heck broke loose. Julia went first and she started the crying. Then, it was Denton's turn after he just watched Julia get tortured. It took the nurse and I both to hold him down for his 3 shots. I hate putting my kids through that, and being the one to hold them down, but sometimes you have to allow your kids a little pain in order to do what's best for them (that sounds like a Sunday School lesson). Anyway, it was a good thing we were the first apt. of the morning and there were no other kids around, because Denton was literally screaming at the top of his lungs. It made me stressed and I'm glad that's over! From the Dr.'s office, we went straight to the dollar store to get rewards for being tramatized. haha.

Off the Radar

So, if you've ever had a newborn, you can guess what I've been up to for the last three weeks... trying to survive :-) We brought Cody home from the hospital and I was trying to nurse him. He was very sleepy for whatever reason and wasn't interested in eating. After losing a pound and a half, his pediatrician told me I needed to bottle feed him so that he could quickly get the calories he needed in the short time he was awake. Basically, there's a lot more detail to it, but, I was pumping 9 times a day along with feeding Cody a bottle 8 times a day. My butt created a permanent indent in the couch. I went to Cody's pediatrician 3 times in one week checking his weight. I felt like they were therapy sessions for me because I always ended up crying. Cody's Dr. (Dr. Dushman) is awesome! He always asks me how I'm doing and if I'm ok. Last week Brandon took Cody in to be circumcised and the Dr. asked how I was feeling about bottle feeding because he knew I was trying really hard to nurse. He had already told me that statistically, if a baby isn't nursing and needs a bottle, he will never go back to nursing. Brandon told the Dr. that I was still nursing and he was shocked. Anyway, Brandon took the kids to the children's museum to treat them to a fun day. They had a wonderful time. The only problem, Denton got the flu. Ya, not fun. The good news... I just took Cody to the Dr. today and he weighs 10 and 1/2 lbs. at 3 weeks old. He's very healthy, we're just hoping he doesn't get sick. All in all, I'm ready for some normalcy. I don't think I'll get it for another few weeks, but I have hope. Brandon goes back to work on Monday. I'm kind of scared to be left on my own with all three kids. We'll see how it goes.

At the kids museum there is a little pretend grocery store. Julia was sad there wasn't really ice cream in the carton. Brandon listed all the things off to me that Julia tried to eat, like the plastic apple, the plastic banana, ect.
This was a fun project to create waterways using the plastic pieces.
>divMy cute little grease monkey.

Welcome To Our Family Cody!

I finally had the baby! Wed night I started having real contractions and by early Thur morning they were hurting enough to wake me up, but they were very far apart. I woke up Thur morning and told Brandon, "I think today is the day." I continued having contractions throughout the day, but I still got a pretty good nap in. By 5:30pm the contractions were hurting pretty bad, so I told Brandon to call his mom to come. He was hesitant because he didn't realize how bad my contractions were like I was. My mother-in-law was a lifesaver. She immediatly got ready and drove here from St. George to come look after Denton and Julia. We had a girl from the ward come watch the kids until Brandon's mom got here, and we left right away for the hospital. We got there at about 7pm. When I got to the hospital, they ckecked to see how far I was dialated. I was already at a 7!!! They addmitted me right away and called my Dr. in. I had the IV put in right away, and blood drawn. Shortly after, I had the epidural put in. He had to do it twice because it got blood in it the first time. The Dr. came in and broke my water (that's the first time my water didn't break on its own). I could still feel the contractions and I told the nurse, but she convinced me it was just pressure I was feeling. By 10:45pm I was really feeling like I needed to push, but I was only at a 9. I called the nurse back into my room 5 minutes later and told her I was going to start pushing. She said, "The Dr. is coming." I crossed my legs until he got there, and finally they told me I could push. To my grief, I could feel everything. The epidural was a no show. I was going to get that baby out as quickly as I could. Dr. told me to stop and catch my breath and I was like, "NOPE." Within 2 contractions, my precious Cody was born. He was a whopping 9lbs 11 1/2 oz and 20 inches long. The Dr. and nurse were both amazed at how big he was. I stayed in the hospital until Saturday morning. I'm so glad my mother-in-law was nice enough to entertain and take care of Denton and Julia so I could rest and not worry. On Saturday, my father-in-law, and sister-in-law came to see the baby and bring gifts. It was so fun to show off my new little baby. Stephanie (my sister-in-law that came) took a bunch of cute pictures. To see more of cute baby Cody, go to http://www.totalblissphotography.blogspot.com/

Kids Fist Baseball Game

Brandon gave blood and was givin free tickets to the 51's baseball game, so we went. The sun was just going down when the game started, but I'm pretty sure it was still 120 degrees. Notice in the pictures taken when we first got there, my hair is done and I look happy. I bet you can tell which picture was taken at the end. Seriously, it was fun and the kids lasted all 3 hours. I kept pouring water out of my water bottle on them and then going to refill.

Prego Pic. Session