October is Over?

Blake turned 6!! He didn't get to have a party this year, but I let him have a couple of friends over. We went to a fun blow-up jumping place. He got a lot of Stars Wars stuff. :)
Our big boy

Hi! I am finally trying to take the time to record my life during these last crazy 6 weeks. Six weeks postpartum...I can't believe I am already there! I blinked and October was over. :)

Thank you to my sweet hubby for doing the post about the arrival of our little Crew man. Although he chose pics I may never have posted (the new baby gunk and the lovely part that proves he is a boy), I really appreciate Jeb taking the time to do that. Thanks Sweetie! Notice how there has not been a post by either of us since the sweet, calm time in the hospital with baby No. 4. That's because there are not a lot of calm moments in our household these days. I feel like Crew is most comfortable when there is a lot of craziness and chaos going on because that is all he has known. It makes Jeb and I smile though because this is what we wanted for our family. :) We are finally getting into a groove and it feels really nice. I will try to update through pictures so I don't bore everyone with rantings of my "exciting" life. As I was going through the pictures I realized there aren't really any of me...I will try to work on that. I am usually taking the pictures! They are mostly of Crew. I promised my Mom that I would show her more of what he looks like now.
It is hard for me to think through getting them in the right order, so I will just put on a bunch from the whole month.

Halloween! Darth Vader, Obi-Wan, and of course...the Princess


Savannah got to visit her brothers at their school parties

"Seeping Booty" (Sleeping Beauty)

I really enjoyed making her a princess. :) Darth Vader with a sweet kid underneath the mask

Growing quickly! Blake told Jeb "I am NOT touching that stuff" (inside the pumpkin)

In the end, they both got nice and dirty. Thanks Jeb for always doing the pumpkins with the kids!

The Rapids game!

Savannah said "look, he can hold his own bottle!" This baby has been fantastic. I mostly feed him, but he takes a bottle and a pacifier really well. It is nice because the kids can help out so much.

Blake and Crew. He is such a chill baby...he doesn't mind when the kids hold him and move him all around. He is just happy to be held.

Crew at the pumpkin patch...nice and warm

Blake on the hay bales at the pumpkin patch. The boys had more fun running on top of the hay instead of through the little maze that was there. Believe it or not, the owners didn't care. You could tell that the top of the maze had far more wear and tear than the maze itself.

Savannah at the pumpkin patch. She did not want to let that wagon go. It drove us crazy the whole night because she was really slow. We had such a great time that night. One of our first outings as a family that is 4 vs. 2!

Landen feeding Crew while I made dinner! A very common occurence. He doesn't mind because I let him watch cartoons while he does it...not to mention he loves his new brother. :)

Dad and Baby

Jeb is so great with kids! I love seeing him as a Dad.

Brother time.

General Conference. Jeb and I got to watch the entire 2 sessions on Sunday with hardly any interruptions. Our kids were so quiet and good. I thought it would be really hard with 4 kids, but we probably listened more than we ever have since we have had kids. Thanks guys!

I painted Savannah's nails during it. I have only done her toes before so she was really excited

Cutie pie

A common picture in our house. Crew zonked on Jeb while he directs traffic. ("get your pjs on" "stop fighting" "give that to your sister", you know how it goes :))

Earlier days

We just finished our Fall soccer. We had an awesome season! Jeb was a proud coach and dad. We kept Landen and Blake on separate teams this year and Jeb decided to be head coach of both. It was a big commitment but we had a great time.

Bennett Crew

As promised, we have more pictures of Crew. We finalized the name Saturday after much debate. We had Adam, Nathan, and Bennett in the final round of deciding. We loved the name Bennett for a long time. Blake was pretty close to being a Bennett 6 years ago. So we decided to use the name for this one. We call him Crew though. For Savannah it sounds more like "Cwoo".

How about a pictorial timeline.

Crew is born. A little messy and making some well received noise.

The weigh in. He was a few ounces short of Landen. 8 lb 11oz after some rounding. He came out sideways also making life a little harder for Becca.

Cleaner now. He was 15 minutes old in this picture

The proud dad!

The very excited siblings.

Beaming Grandma Jen!

Landen with Crew. Landen was probably most excited to see his new brother.

Savannah just has this look. "My precious little pet." - Think Tommy Boy - Yikes

She really loves Cwoo and wants to touch him and pet him and hold him all the time.

This was the next day. the kids couldn't get enough.

First day at home (2 days old). He sleeps most of the day away.

Blake likes holding Crew, but gets bored after 60 seconds. He is very good with him though.

The boys went to the Rapids game Saturday night to "get away". Really. I was getting the boys out of the house for Becca. It just so happened that it was for a soccer game. Rough life so far.

Landen and Crew again

Hooked to the pacifier already. Nice!

Pacifier = No crying

Grandma pulling an afternoon shift while Becca gets some needed rest and Dad gets the kids from school. She needs the rest too because she's been up all night also. But she gets to go home in a couple days.

Baby Crew is here!!!!

At 6:52 pm after almost 6 hours of labor Becca delivered our new beautiful baby boy. He was 20 inches long and 8 lbs 11 oz. He resembles both brothers so far, but you never know after he gets all cleaned up and the swelling goes down.

We have 2 names decided on so far - Crew Buffington (middle and last names) but are still working on a first name. I'm thinking Ole, Gunnar, Rooney, Keane, Ronaldo or Kaka. But I don't think any of those are going to happen. I got Crew out of the deal and doubt I'll get anything else.

Blake votes for Blake Jr. and Andrew, and Landen says Landen Jr. or Johnny.

We have some serious contender but won't let them out just yet.

Becca and Crew are doing great!!!!

Soccer Season!

I haven't taken a lot of pictures lately. I will try to get on that. I just wanted to post something that wasn't so depressing! We took Savannah to the Endocronologist on Wednesday and the good news is that her cyst is not effecting her pituitary gland and we have nothing to worry about in that area of her brain. Yay! An easy appointment! Now we just have to monitor the great amount of fluid that is sitting in the back of her brain, but it is stable for now. :)

The boys started practicing soccer 2 weeks ago and had their first game on Saturday. I should have taken pictures of that but during Blake's game Landen got his first bee sting (traumatic) and during Landen's game I was talking too much! We have been with the same players on Landen's team for almost 2 years now (give and take a few) so it is fun to catch up every season. The boys did awesome and really had fun. We usually have them on the same team but Landen is in U8 this year and it is a bit more intense. We decided to have Blake play 1 year up instead of 2 and he is doing great. What does this mean for us? Jeb is coaching 2 separate teams! Arghhh! Every Tuesday and Thursday the boys have 2 hours of practice instead of 1 because they stay for each other's practices. We haul all of our crap around to two different games every Saturday. I know a lot of families have it worse, but last season was so nice to deal with just one team. Oh well, I really need to get used to my soccer life. :)

As for me, the baby should be coming so soon. It is very uncomfortable at this stage of course, but I don't mind moments like yesterday....I was making dinner and my ankles started to swell so Jeb made me sit down, put my feet up and took over. He then took all of the kids on a Sunday bike ride (yes, we think it is a good family activity on Sunday :)) and came home and put them to bed. It was nice. Hopefully, our new unnamed addition will come soon but not too soon. My brother, Adam gets married to Erin on Friday so I am trying to hold out for my mom! :) I would really like her here for the kids while I am in the hospital. We have all kind of taken turns needing her around lately. She is such a great Mom! I hope we don't run her ragged.

Jeb and Savannah are doing great. Savannah loves soccer practice because there is a playground right next to the field this year. She freaks if I don't let her stay and play. She calls the playground "soccer practice" and begs to go to the "soccer practice" the whole car ride over. :) Jeb is playing softball with the ward late Monday nights, indoor soccer late Tuesday nights, outdoor pickup games early Saturday mornings, serving as Education director on the soccer board, coaching the boys T and Th, and leading our ward choir on Sundays....oh, and occasionally he works. He is a busy guy during the fall season! He is also a huge Michigan football fan so he will watch a few of those games (he lived in Michigan before he moved to Ohio).

Well, this is all pre-4th baby life for us! We will see how it all plays out over the next couple weeks. I will try to get more pictures added so I won't ramble so much!:)

Savannah's MRI

So yesterday we had Savannah's MRI. We were exhausted to say the least. The night before (Thursday) we stayed up late watching the Dem. Natl. Convention on TV (here in Denver:)) and the next morning we had to be at the hospital at 6:00 am.

I was planning on getting up at 4:45 so we could leave at 5:15 but I awoke with a start at 3:55 remembering my tooth fairy duties for Blake! Yikes...we have already forgotten too many times. So I took care of that and decided to just stay up and get moving. We sent Landen off to the neighbors so he could get to school (thanks Brooke!) and pulled Blake and Savannah out of bed. I couldn't feed Savannah at all before the procedure so I made Blake wait also so she wouldn't see any food. He is such a trooper and was very good about it.

When she had an MRI done at 3 months old it took her a long time to be put to sleep because she would never completely relax and fall into the sleep. So I thought it was going to take awhile to put her out and they would start the process right when we arrived. Oh no, we did lots of waiting, paperwork, etc. So poor little kids had been up so early and still couldn't have any food or drink (I did sneak Blake out and gave him something to hold him over). Finally at 8:30 they got Savannah into the room. They wheeled her down the hall in a wheelchair and she thought it was the coolest stroller she had ever seen! :) Jeb took her into the room as they put her to sleep and she screamed for 20 seconds and was out cold. He had to leave her after that and let them take all of the pictures of her brain. We took Blake down to the cafeteria to get him some breakfast and he loved it so much! He kept asking if we could go back there for lunch.

We came back to the waiting room to wait for Savannah and I went in to help her come out of the anesthesia. It was hilarious to watch her come out because she was so disoriented. She sat up at one point and yelled "horseys!" and then fell back to sleep. Anyway, we finally got her out of there and we were so happy the long ordeal was over. We got to take all of the films with us so we can show the Endocrinologist (sp?) on Wednesday. We got home just in time to get Blake off to school. Jeb took him and headed off to work (although it had already felt like a very full day). I was so excited because Savannah was going to take a nap and then I was going to crash for 2 hours before the kids got home from school (I was so exhausted!)

I was reading stories to Savannah in her room on the floor when the phone rang. Now remember, I am 8 months pregnant so once I am on the floor it takes great effort to get up :). I let the machine get it and it was my pediatrician. She said, "Rebecca, call me as soon as you can and even if I am with a patient have them come and get me." My heart just sank. I didn't want to call her. I quickly put Savannah in bed and got up the courage to call. She told me the radiologist that looked at our scan saw a mass (tumor, etc.) near her pineal (sp?) gland area in her brain and we needed to get to Primary Children's to see our neurologist (Dr. Handler who we have seen many times before) right away. This was a whole new thing, totally unrelated to her Dandy-walker cyst that she has had since she was born in the back of her brain. Needless to say I started freaking out, hyperventilating, feeling like I was going to throw myself into labor, you name it. I called Jeb and told him to come and get us, we have to go to the hospital right now(Lisa Marie, I immediately thought of you and all you have gone through recently...it is the most horrible feeling to think there is something wrong with your child).

Jeb got home and we went straight to Primary Children's. We did the MRI that morning at Presby. St. Luke's so we had to bring our scans with us. The whole way I felt dizzy, over tired, sick and emotional. Jeb kept trying to tell me, we don't know anything yet, let's wait until we find out more (trying to be strong). I told him it was too late because I am so pregnant and so tired, there is nothing that will keep the tears back. I kept thinking about brain surgery, not enjoying the baby coming because of stress, etc, etc. I couldn't look back at her happy little face in her carseat without feeling so much pain.

We got to the hospital and our wonderful and very interesting neurologist (who squeezed us into his schedule so we wouldn't have to wait the holiday weekend) comes in. He says "What the hell is going on here?" He looked and looked at her scans and asked if we have a copy of her previous MRI from when she was 3 months old? I told him we had it done in Virginia and that Primary Children's should have them on file because I have brought them in before. He looked it up and had them and was able to compare the two. He said she has always had this in her pineal gland area (sp?) and it is not a mass, it is another cyst. The kind of cyst that a lot of children have that will hopefully go away eventually (the kind of cyst we were hoping Savannah had instead of her Dandy-Walker). He said if you would have done your MRI here we could have found that out much easier because we have all of her records and we have seen a lot of children's brains. He went and got a couple of other opinions and all of the doctors agreed.

I felt color come back into my face and immense relief. Jeb and I were so happy to have better news! What an awful, traumatic experience! My heart went out to so many at Primary Children's who get such horrible news about their precious little ones. The Dr. said he wants us to do another MRI in 3 months to take a look at it again but for now we can rest easy. It is so creepy knowing she has another cyst but apparently it is more common than her Dandy-walker and may just go away. He said her Dandy-walker (near her cerebellum in the back of her brain) looks scary and bigger but it is stable for now. We still have to see the Endocrinologist on Wednesday but I don't think she will have anything life-threatening going on. We can deal with anything else right now as long as we know she is going to be okay.

Jeb and I couldn't believe how much peace we felt after leaving that place. There happened to be a Dairy Queen down the street from the hospital (my favorite pregnancy treat is a chocolate blizzard with M and M's :)) and we made a stop! Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I know I made this story really long with lots of details, but I want to remember it. When she is driving me crazy as a pre-teen I can look back and remember how grateful I am that she is doing so well despite her underdeveloped brain. :) We slept really well last night and feel so much better today. My heart goes out to those who don't get such relief and have so much worry to deal with. Since having Savannah I have definitely gained more empathy for others. Thanks to all of our friends and family.

Updates

There are many pictures posted below of the Buffington family in the last couple of months! As you can tell I have not kept up on my goal to update more often. Our baby is coming so soon I figure I better do it now before I have more to post!

As you can see we have a few different pictures from our trip to Utah. We went to Bear Lake and had such a great time with all of my Mom's side of the family. Cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents all stayed in a great house on a very quiet part of Bear Lake. I am the oldest cousin so I have lots of young cousins that are my kids' ages. They loved being free and having so many friends there. We had a hard time getting back to everyday life.

School has started already (Aug. 19) and the kids were so excited! Landen's in 2nd grade and Blake's in kindergarten. They are loving it but Savannah doesn't like to be left behind. I've been trying to hang out with her a lot and it's been fun to have some one- on- one time with her before the baby comes. I miss the boys but it's perfect timing as I'm getting more and more uncomfortable and less anxious to do a lot of entertaining.

We had a great summer. We swam a lot and my kids are finally catching up to others with swimming. Landen hasn't done a lot of swimming lessons in the past and has never been super comfortable in the water. We did swim lessons this summer and I think it helped him a lot. Blake is our little fish, he's doing really well.

Blake's had quite a lot of medical issues this past month. He had a staph infection which was scary because that is something you do not mess around with. We were nervous for a few days and were on pins and needles hoping the infection would not spread through his blood. He was on loads of medication and in a lot of pain. Luckily, after a few days they figured out the right antibiotic that killed it and it was smooth sailing after that. At the same time we figured out his tubes had finally fallen out (he didn't get them until he was 4) and he had double ear infections. Poor kid. A couple weeks later he started losing his voice and not feeling great (around the first day of school). While we were in Savannah's 2 year check up appointment the doctor heard him coughing. She listened to his breathing and said he had bronchitis and double ear infections again. So she sent us home with more antibiotics and another trip to the ENT for the possibility of more tubes. Luckily he is not a complainer but I feel bad for the poor kid.

A lot has been going on as we try to relax and prepare for the baby (hah!). At Savannah's 2 year checkup the doctor declared it is time to get a look at her brain again. We have to meet with an Endicronologist (sp?) to check out some things with her pituitary gland. They want to get a good look at that and her Dandy-walker cyst so they are doing an MRI. I know she'll be fine but I hate that they have to put her under. I am trying to get all of this taken care of before I have the baby...I hope there are no more issues to deal with! Please keep her in your prayers.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will update how the MRI turns out (it is on Friday). In the meantime Jeb and I are missing his brother Jacob's wedding and my brother Adam's wedding which we are super bummed about! Good luck you guys! Also my brother Brandon and his wife Stacy just had a darling new baby that they named Lily. I can't wait to be able to travel and see everyone again.

August Happenings

Landen's First day of 2nd grade

Blake goes to 1/2 day kindergarten. Savannah cried when both of her brothers left her.

Blake making sure she will be okay without him. This was before our walk to the school and Blake's dreaded bee sting he got along the way. He is terrified of bees now (he has been stung twice) and has a hard time outside. Good thing it happened at the end of summer!

Blake is one of the oldest in his class (turns 6 in October) and here he is wishing he could play on the big kids playground. He hates the fact he has to stay in the kindergarten section!

Savannah and her friend Drew at the Butterfly Pavillion

Checking out bugs

This picture gave Jeb the creeps! Neither of my kids would hold this guy until the worker told them it would make them braver than their dad. Blake wanted to hold it several times after that and wanted Jeb to know how much braver he is!

Jeb's 32nd birthday!

Jeb's staged look of surprise! The kids were so excited to give him Rock Band, but he is the one who picked it out. I love hearing my little 7 and 5 year olds belt out Nirvana in the basement.

Baby coming soon! I can only post this because it is a non-full body shot taken by Blake

One of Blake's many medicines he has had to take in the past month and a half. Poor kid! (See story above) Notice he also lost his front top tooth. The permanent one is almost done growing in and the other front tooth is now hanging by a thread (snaggle tooth)