2014 Year End :)

This past year has definitely been a good one for the Burdett Family. We started off the year in Cochrane and we are ending it in Orton. Lydia and Brigham have grown so much in the past twelve months. We saw Brigham get his first eye surgery done and found out he will need another. He and all things high are not friends. Haha. He falls off of something at least twice daily. I am hoping this next surgery will help him and his depth perception.

Lydia is just a little cutie. She has an amazing vocabulary (or at least I think so) and she is understanding a whole lot these days. She sings to herself and she has a great imagination. She love to play pretend. Brigham follows right along flapping his arms like a bird or roaring like a lion. Lydia has been learning a little bit of sign and can sign her name.

Brigham has just started to really babble and loves to say grandpa and bubbles and pee! He can copy most things we say now, but I think his favourite word to say these days is yummy! Everytime he sees candy or his favourite foods he repeats yummy and points his arm towards whatever it is he wants to eat. And boy, can that kid eat! He was off of all kinds of milk around 11 months old. It made his tummy upset and I was slightly overjoyed since I didn't want to have to wean him off of any kind of food or drink. He drinks water like a champ. If ever he is slightly unhappy, I just give him water and he is happy as can be.

Another thing Brigham loves are his stuffed animals. Or anything soft for that matter. He just snuggles right in. Lydia loves little babies. She is so kind and gentle whenever she sees ones and just likes to comment on how cute they are. Lydia is excellent at giving compliments as well. Anytime Kayla brings a friend over, she just has to comment on their earrings, shoes, hair, shirt, you name it! She also adores being with the girls. She likes to hang out in Kayla's room while they get ready for whatever the day holds. Lydia actually has invited me into her own room to talk at times. I think it makes her feel special and grown up. haha.

This Christmas we stayed over at my parents house in Lethbridge. My kids quite enjoyed that, and Lydia especially liked having Uncle Brad to play with. She was also pretty excited to talk to her Uncle Jeff on Skype, but when it came down to it, she was just a little too shy to even show her face.

Lydia is really enjoying her presents she got for Christmas including puzzles, a baby doll, chocolate and a play castle. The castle was also for Brigham too! He has mostly enjoyed the food of the season and reading his new books. Oh and he has loved loved loved his soft oversized stuffies. :) So cute.

One of my favourite parts of the Christmas holidays was getting to see our new little one at our ultrasound and finding out that we are having another little girl! We are due May 15th and if she follows suit and comes early, we should get to meet her sometime before Mothers day :)

Here I am at 21 weeks.

And here are some pictures of my cute kids :) Ignore the big scabs on their faces. haha

Way too excited for a stuffed animal. haha

Take a look

Catch up time! The past couple have months have been really busy for us, but I thought I should share some of what we have been up to. August led us to a wedding in Utah for one of Anthony's cousins. It was a lot of fun for us to go down and spend time with family. Lydia really loved seeing the temple. All she wanted to do was to go and see it. When we went for the family dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial building, you could see the temple through the window. When they closed the curtains to show a slideshow Lydia had a little meltdown because she couldn't see the temple.  I hope she can carry that focus with her throughout her life.  

August also brought us to Orton where we are living now. We are in Anthony's parents old house and we are living in and fixing up it up. Orton is only 8-10 minutes from Fort Macleod and 25-30 minutes away from Lethbridge. Not too bad as far as location goes, but who knows where we will actually end up.

I know last time I blogged I gave the impression that Brighams eyes were completely fixed. They seemed to be for a while but since then they have moved. His left eye is still a little crossed at times but he has been learning how to control his eyes and how he has to look at me to see a clear image. I think his brain is starting to figure it out. We have another appointment in December to see if a secondary surgery will be necessary. So in pictures and in real life, the way you can tell if his eyes are straight is by looking at the light in his eyes. It should be in the exact same spot in both eyes when he is looking straight at you. Lots of times he will turn his head to make it easier for him to look straight. He hasn't been doing his patching because I just can't reason with a one year old. He can take them off and if it is on he will just cry, so it doesn't really help. Here are some pictures so you can see what I am talking about.

BP's for his first birthday!

At a joint birthday party for Brigham and Kadence

He loves all things food.

 Having all this space out here in Orton is awesome. We have developed a love for slingshot paintball. Because it is slingshot, getting hit doesn't hurt as much, but they also don't always break. And sometimes when you don't wear a full face mask, you get hit in the mouth. It tastes worse than it hurts. Trust me.

 Since we are a lot closer to family, Lydia and Brigham get to spend a lot more time with their cousins. So fun!

Lydia has started to fall asleep in strange places....

 ...and when she wakes up, she has the most lovely hair. 

I asked Anthony to put the kids in the bath tub the other day. this is what happened... haha

We also got to see the LCI vs Cardston football game this past weekend. It was an awesome game. 

  We have also done a lot of renovating but I will save those pictures for another post later on. Hopefully not too much later. :)

Seeing big differences

My little baby boy is not so little anymore. He is a 8 month, 20 pound ball of energy! So much has changed in the last few weeks, I thought I better write about it. Brigham has become such an amazing little man. His surgery went very well and we and his surgeon are extremely pleased with the results.

Right after surgery he was just really sleepy and hungry. He slept nearly all day! The day after surgery he wasn't in pain anymore and he was back to being his regular happy little self. Except for a few things. He was extremely wiggly and wouldn't sit still. Ever. haha. He immediately started to army crawl everywhere. He is happier for longer. He smiles bigger. He laughs at funny faces. It is like he was given a new life. One where people look nicer and the toys are much more fun to play with. One where the trees have leaves and mommy has earrings. haha. yeah. He pulls on my earrings now. But that is something I am willing to deal with if it means he can see.

I was talking to my dad about all the advances there have been in medicine and what doctors are now able to do. I am a firm believer that the things they do are miracles. Science is a miracle. All truth and knowledge flows from a loving God. Men are inspired by God and by the intrinsic desire we all have to create and therefore become more like our God who created all things. I am grateful that I am able to create. To bring life onto this earth. I am also extremely grateful for those with great minds who have created cures and created techniques to fix my little ones. We were blessed to have an amazing pediatric ophthalmologist who did a great job fixing Brigham's eyes. Our little man truly has a new outlook on life. :) 

Right before surgery

Day after surgery (his eyes are looking more straight everyday)

8 months old!

Update on the Burdett Family

The phone call I have been long awaiting has finally come! Brigham has a surgery date set for April 16th. Am I nervous? yes. Excited? yes. I am hoping that his eyes and his brain take to the surgery well so that he can see the way that we are all meant to see. I am grateful that he will be getting surgery a few weeks before Lindsey (my sister) gets married. He will be able to see how beautiful she is when she comes out of the temple a married woman. Lydia is so excited to go to the temple and see Auntie Lindsey in a beautiful white dress. Lydia tells me she wants to go inside the temple. I am truly blessed in this life I am living. 

Also in other news, we will be moving again come September. We will be moving to Orton to live in and fix up Anthony's parents house. Anthony is super excited to be able to live in the country again. Also he has become very interested (obsessed) with building an underground greenhouse. He will be able to build one when we go down there. 

Now, we as a family felt very inspired to move up here to Cochrane, but after spending a few months up here, we felt prompted this was not the place for us to stay. It is so beautiful up here and the ward is amazing. Leaving this place is not going to be as easy as I thought it might be when we first moved. When we first decided to move from Lethbridge, Brigham wasn't crossed eyed at all. Since we moved up here he has had many appointments with specialists in Calgary, just minutes away. If we were in Lethbridge, we would have had to drive up almost every other week. I know some people do it, but with a small baby it can be difficult...especially when you have to be on time. Haha.

This weekend we are going down to Cardston to be there with my sister as she goes to the temple to receive her endowment. I am so proud of her and the life she has lived so far. I hope I can be so fortunate as to see all my kids in the temple one day. :)

Brigham and his eyes

I consider myself to be very blessed and just a little bit lucky too. There are some things that I just simply have not had to endure and I am so very grateful. I am so blessed to have two beautiful children. However, one of them is cross eyed. That is what I want to talk about. Ever since Brigham was about two or three months old he started to cross his eyes. At first I thought, no big deal, all babies cross their eyes sometimes. But thennnn they never went back. He has been diagnosed with congenital esotropia. They don't know why it happens, but from what I've read it happens more often than you would think. Sometimes it can be fixed with glasses, but in Brighams case, we are looking at surgery.

Ahhh. My little mommy heart! Surgery? They like to do this particular surgery between the ages of 6months to a year in hopes that the eyes will restore binocularity. Else the brain will switch back between looking with one eye to the other like he is now. Actually right now he only likes to look with his right eye, so we have to patch it for an hour a day until he is back to "normal". Then comes surgery. And of course I have watched the surgery on youtube. Save yourself. Refrain from watching it. Your eyes will itch for the next few days if you do.

I thought at first I could fix his eyes with a little workout routine I developed. Haha. I honestly think it helps to keep his eyes working and not settling into lazy habits. But much to my dismay I cannot fix every ail that my precious children may encounter. I am so very grateful that I live in a day where this type of thing can be fixed. Even if it has to be surgery. I read the comments under the gross eye surgery that I watched and there were adults who were talking about how they dealt with crossed eyes their whole life and how much they were made fun of. Brigham hasn't really been made fun of but young children do ask questions and I am totally ok with that. But make fun of him and you are in for a world of hurt. Lydia can sure pack a punch. haha. In all honesty though I am grateful that this surgery option is available. To get him back to normal. Or as close to normal as he could ever be with the parents he has. :)

Oh and as a side note, the Alberta Childrens Hospital is so cool! Well at least the part we went to. They have done a good job making it look like a happy and safe place to be. The people that work there are extremely friendly and nice as well.