Cutler Clan

New Car and Potty Training for 3

2012-01-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

The Car

While in Boise, on New Year's Eve, we had an unfortunate car wreck. We survived it without injury – wonderful blessing! The other car and it's passengers survived just fine with only a tiny scratch of paint on the back bumper - another great blessing. However, our car did not survive so well, it crumpled a good amount and wasn't worth the repair. We actually had a lot of generous help and offers for getting us through this, the biggest one was borrowing my grandma's car to get us home and around for a week. Besides a financial hit, it was a fair amount of stress for our family...

Background: Alene gets some pretty serious anxiety over getting things done that need to get done, or deciding things that need to be decided. I will say that she did quite well, for her, on this one though. We made it a full week before deciding and then overnight before purchasing. Anyway, because of that anxiety, we did spend a lot of time looking, and discussing a multitude of options.

We had so many options because, although we are NOT pregnant now, we are thinking of having our next kid sometime in the next year or so and 3 cars seats do not fit in the back of any sedan I know of (until your kid can fit in the base-only style car seat). So, options:

Fix up Earl (our car)
Beater car to hold us off until we were planning on upgrading our car anyway in a year or so
Decent (but cheap) sedan to hold us over, but may be good as second car or sell-able
Bigger car now that’s on the older side, but easily in our price range
Bigger car that we dream about, still get a used one but one we’d be excited about (we’ve looked at cars a few times long ago just for fun and found family crossovers that get good gas mileage, and other things).

With the hope that the company I work for does well we were hoping for #5 possibly at the end of the year. But, decision hit us now. We ended up going right between #4 and #5. Major financial purchase, one that drained our saving quite a bit, but will be somewhat replenished by tax returns.

Without further adieu (the car we’re both excited about, is affordable enough, and will be the family-upgrade-able car we need):

Mazda5! (nameless so far)

A minivan, right? Not exactly… As you can see by the next picture, Alene is basically as tall as it, and, technically, some call it a microvan. It seats six, has sliding doors, and has a hatch back, so kind of a cross between wagon and minivan.

Interior Seats:

It gets great gas mileage for being able to carry 6 people. It’s a 2006 with 90K miles on it. It drives more like a car than a minivan and it fits into our garage much much better. We like it a lot. It’ll be something we’ll enjoy and something that we can grow into over the next 5-6 years.

Kids and Cats

We’ve had a couple go’s at potty training Camden. The latest was in December and didn’t go well, so we thought we’d hold off a while. However, after seeing potty training for cats in the Skymall magazine on our flight back from Hawaii, I researched and found a good cheap option. We started that a week ago. Camden saw the cats sitting on the potty and getting treats, decided he wanted some of that action too. So, contrary to what Alene said she’d NOT do (back in decemeber with the failed attempts for Camden), we started potty training two species at one time.

It’s going much better this time around for Camden, thanks to some extra research Alene put into it and inspiration from my sister Tenley – we took him straight to underwear rather than the in between step of pullups.

Click this Link to see Video of Camden Helping With Dishes

Above is a movie with Camden in his big boy pants wanting to play with water – watch for the part where he says he wants to help. Below is the kitty’s setup.

It started with no hole. We went to a small hole after a few days. Then, after a few more days, to this larger hole you see above. That unfortunately was a bit too fast for Leo. We had some accidents, so we took it back to square zero for couple days and now we’re back to the small hole. We’ll let them get used to that longer this time around.

I’m excited! It’ll be great to get rid of buying kitty litter, scooping kitty litter, buying diapers for Camden and changing them on Camden. Good times ahead! Some pain along with these changes we’re going through, but it’s for the better. We’ve felt blessed through the deals we were able to find and make with the car (brought the dealership down $2,500 off their normal price), and we’ve had good success (along with the set-backs) in training both the cats and Camden.

Sorry about the long post!

Guess who's 1!

2011-10-26T00:40:00.000-06:00

XAN!

Yup, he's one years old now and becoming such a little man!

Alene came up with the great idea of a gumball machine because he enjoys picking up objects and putting them inside various containers (including an actual toy gumball machine Camden got for Christmas a while back). It made for a fun cake to share and a great cake for Xan to have himself (an entire cake for your kid at his 1-year-old b-day is a Duersch tradition).

Alene did a fabulous job with the cakes, and left me the project of making a mini-edible-gumball machine. I whipped up some rice krispie treats and sculpted it over top of a balloon, let it harden, popped the balloon and pulled it out. Putting it together, it actually allowed Trix to drop down through the top and out the bottom. Fun project, and Xan enjoyed dropping the Trix we gave him into the top!

It took him a while to warm up to the idea that he could eat the thing in front of him, but once he figured that out, he had fun! We had lots of family and friends come to celebrate with us - thanks for coming! We really appreciate all the support we've had with all the treatment Xan has had to go through. His club feet are hugely improved, and very functional!

Xan is really taking to his standing and scooting now-a-days. He's been doing it for a few months now. There's definitely a mental block keeping him from trying to take steps on his own, but, just recently, he's gained a fascination with pushing around or climbing on all the wheeled objects we have around the house.

Mohawk Xan!

Update on the boys

2011-04-18T22:12:00.011-06:00

Well, since that includes me, I'll make it brief on my end... I'm graduating/walking for my graduation on Thursday and Friday :-D. Masters in Computer Science, wahoo!

Camden...

Has some new favorite toys...

He rides his tricycle everywhere and loves to build train tracks with his train set from IKEA. Thomas and McQueen are still his top two favorite toys though.

The doctor said it was time, so it was time - Camden has gone binky-less. We cut the rubber end of all his pacifiers and told him they were broken. He was pretty heartbroken. He stopped asking for them almost immediately though (success!), but without a binky to help him fall asleep for naps or when he'd wake up at night it was a rough week of transition.

Xan...

After wearing a cast for 3 weeks following his surgery Xan graduated from casts and was fitted for the "dobbs" bar and boots system. We took pictures of all the casts (minus at least 3 we weren't able to grab) as a memento.

So, as you can tell, Xan is ok with his boots at various points in the day, and can be his normal happy self. Unfortunately, it's really hard to see him in pain - which he is very obviously in pain for much of the day. Here's why... Fresh out of the cast, his incision from the surgery still wasn't quite healed:

The boots have to be put on tight (very tight), otherwise in all the baby's movements, he'll get blisters. We followed orders to the T even though it meant a lot of hard work and enduring the crying and struggling each time we put the boots on. Sadly the result was still a blood blister (likely due to the amount of pressure put onto the heel) right around the incision:

Which eventually opened up:

And after opening up and draining out, rather than healing, things got a bit worse. Over the weekend the blister area started to discolor and form puss. We thought the blister had become infected despite the neosporin we faithfully applied.

However, when Alene took him in to the doctor today it was diagnosed as a pressure ulcer. Unfortunately an ulcer like this is not treatable by antibiotics - which would have been tame compared to the treatment he will likely have to go through.... debridement. Debridement is where they'll scrape off the dieing tissue and clean the wound. Not fun.

We've been referred to the wound clinic at Primary Children's to get that done after getting a second look at the wound by our Surgeon Dr. Stotts. For the meantime, Dr. Stotts is letting us keep Xan out of the braces to relieve the pressure. We're just hoping we don't lose too much progress and that Xan's wound will heal swiftly.

Our poor little Xan... It's tough to see him have so much pain as such a little guy. A sweet, happy little guy - like he is - doesn't deserve this kind of trial. Probably for that very reason, he is able to endure it so well.

Kelv loves Leo.

2011-04-11T01:25:00.001-06:00

Oh wait... I might have stated the direction of that affection backwards...

Can you spot the cat? How did he get up there?

He's also been spotted sitting on top of our closet doors!

That cat has some serious hops!

Keep your eye out for a couple posts to come... Camden's Tumbling Tots and Xan's New Braces!(The later future post has resulted in an incredibly difficult week. Hence why it's not up yet.)

Leo

2011-03-21T22:27:00.007-06:00

I am not a cat person.

Well, I guess I could be if have to be :-P

I knew we'd get one eventually, but it all came sooner and faster than I ever expected it to. Alene's been talking about wanting one for quite sometime now. The event that really pushed the initial domino over happened on a rainy Wednesday night.

Alene and I were home, the boys were in bed and we were getting ready to watch a movie. Before we picked out the movie, we heard a crying sound outside. Opening the door, only a crack, I could see the inevitable fate of owning a cat even more imminent, real, and knocking at my door.

With a bit of investigation, we found the owners of this tag-less feline (in our ward) and I gladly returned him to his owner. Alene enjoyed the hour of cat we had that night. I thought I'd have some time before a mischievous cat joined our family, but, alas, the dominoes had begun to fall...

I thought our tight finances would save me from having to give in to the pleas of my wife. However, a few days later, we mapped out the costs of getting and owning a cat. A bit of up front cost - but fairly manageable with some of the options we found online (cats that had vaccinations already completed, etc). Monthly costs would be very do-able (less than $10/month).

In the process, Alene found a cat, a litter box, and a bed on ksl.com all for incredible deals. We set out on Friday last week to round up all the supplies and the kitty himself. Seeing "1 year old cat" on the description made us think we'd get a small, fun little kitten. However, getting there, we immediately realized he must be on the latter end of 1 year old. He's a loooong and skinny kitty. A beautiful cat with a kind and loving personality.

Without further ado: Leo!

At the shelter, Camden was much more excited about all the puppies, but fortunately did share some of his excitement with Leo ("Jingles" at the time).

Leo was a bit skiddish from the get go...

He was even more skiddish and terrified of Camden when we got home. He literally spent about 98% of his first 24 hours in our home hiding under either our bathroom vanity or bed.

Screeching, squealing and screaming aside, Camden did very well with Leo, he was very soft and sweet to the new kitty (he's using the brush to pet him in this one).

Although Leo hasn't warmed up to an over-excited Camden yet (he hides and sleeps while our kids are awake), he has definitely grown to like Alene and I - and has begun to show more of his playful nature :-D. He spent most of last night running around exploring the house and jumping on the bed to nuzzle our faces as we slept.

Saturday night when he finally ventured out from his refuge (our bed) of his own accord, we were so pleased with the new development that we took the following video (shortened for your convenience):

Surgery

2011-03-09T21:24:00.005-07:00

So Xan had his surgery today at Primary Children's. They clipped his Achilles Tendon again (tendonotomy) and also opened up his ankle joint capsule to try and get his foot up to a normal position vertically. My mom was so wonderful and came up to Primary's with me since Kelv had to work. It was so nice to have her support especially recognizing the sacrifice of time she was making! (She works for an accountant and we're thick in tax season!)

The surgery went REALLY well except for the fact that they couldn't pull the skin closed around his incision because of how vertically they pulled the foot. They stitched the incision closed as close as they could and and then we'll go back in next week and try and suture it all the way closed after giving the skin a week to stretch and heel. We unfortunately (and fortunately for the pain aspect) have to put him under again for the procedure which means the whole surgery process again. I'm just hopeful that since it will be a much faster procedure, recovery will also be much faster.

Xan had a pretty hard time recovering from the surgery. No one likes what anesthesia does to your body. It took about an hour of snuggle time before Xan was ready to try and eat, but he held it down great once we were able to get going.

He's had a rough day, but the liquid lortab, Baby Einsteins, and Mommy near by has seemed to help. We so appreciate all your prayers, thoughts, and fasts for Xan. Thank you!

And overall, we are so happy with how things are turning out and love our little boy so much! Here's a picture of Camden showing how happy we are!

And just as a quick side note and excuse to post this adorable picture...we also bought ANOTHER stroller this week (we now have 6!) We realized that we can't fit any of our current double strollers in our trunk if we need to also take luggage (aka. trips to Boise) so we got a compact unbrella stroller. This will be great for the trips!

Vote for Xan!

2011-03-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

Help Xan win! This photo of Xan was chosen in the runnings for cutest kid of the week! Will you help us win by voting everyday for Xan? Voting ends on the 13th. And feel free to have friends vote too! Thanks all!


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Pics & Surgery Update

2011-03-04T22:06:00.006-07:00

Camden turned 2 on February 18th. Much to Alene's chagrin, she planned a spectacular birthday for him - which still turned out to be awesome for him - but, unfortunately, Camden acted very age appropriate on that day (if you catch my drift...). Camden got a pre-celebration on Sunday with the Duersch family, hence the cool cupcakes. Then, on Friday, we had a surprise celebration with the marshmallow fondant cake fully equipped with Lightening McQueen, Doc and Willey's Butte.

Xan is a way cute kiddo and puts up with his older brother quite well. He's an amazingly chill baby - such a blessing! Casting has been pronounced insufficient for correcting Xan's extremely resistant club foot yet again by our second doctor, Dr. Stotts. The surgery is scheduled for Wednesday (3/9). During the surgery, he'll be completely sedated, his Achilles tendon will be severed and the ankle joint will be opened up to allow maximum stretching and movement towards the slightly over-corrected position the doctor will be aiming for. Afterward, it will be one 3-week cast, 2-3 months of 23/7 boots-on-a-bar, and then 2-3 year of nap/night time boots-on-a-bar. If all goes well, his foot should be fully functional and capable for nearly anything Xan can set his sights on. The only slight side effects, should only include things like smaller muscle development on the left leg, and the entire left foot being at least a shoe size or two smaller than the right foot. We're hopeful things will turn out just fine, but things have been slower and more complicated than originally thought, so any prayers and thoughts (especially this Fast Sunday with the surgery coming on Wednesday) would be appreciated.

Thanks all!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-21T22:51:00.002-07:00

The promised update

2011-02-03T20:49:00.006-07:00

Alene asked me to post a little update since we have had such an outpouring of love and concern for little Xan. So here you go!

We went in to see Dr. Stotts at Primary's on Monday this week. After looking at his foot for a long while, and rubbing his own chin for even longer, he came to the decision that he wanted to give Xan’s foot a break from casts for a short time. Xan’s skin has become so sensitive, discolored, and bruised in certain places that he feels it needs a break and a chance to become healthy again.

Here's Xan's foot at our Primary Children's appointment on Monday Jan. 31, 2011

Here are 2 pictures of Xan's foot the week before and 1 week after the tendon release on Jan. 25 when Dr. Faux decided to refer him to Dr. Stott. You can really see the creases in his foot here.

Two weeks from now we’ll have a casting appointment with Dr. Stotts. A few weeks – and a few casts – after that, he expects the foot to be in a correct enough position for a more invasive surgery. Fortunately it’s not what they used to do, back in the day, where they opened up the entire foot to rearrange things, but they will open up the back of his heel/leg so that they can cut the achilles tendon along with many more surrounding tissues that have too much tension. After that, it will be another few weeks in a cast to allow it to heal in a good position. Then if all looks good we'll move onto braces. Yay!

It’s not fun to see Xan going through so much more than a typical club foot correction process, but we’re still optimistic, and Xan is being a patient/brave little guy!

Thank you to every one for all the support and prayers. We appreciate it so much.

Surgery?

2011-01-25T20:23:00.005-07:00

Over the last 4.5 months we have had at least one doctors appointment every week. Initially they were my pregnancy appointments as we neared Xan's due date; after Xan was born however, most have been related to Xan's club feet treatment.

Xan needed only 3 casts to advance his right foot to a state acceptable enough to prepare for the braces. His left foot has been an adventure though (18 casts and counting)! Progressively for the last couple months, although we've been able to rotate his ankle more and more, the foot itself has looked progressively more deformed. Every time we'd take off a cast I'd just look at his foot and it made me sad. It was getting more and more weird creases and looked painful. It seems so incongruent with the sweet, joyful spirit of our little boy. It's been sort of an eye opener about how people who live with disability everyday can be stereotyped.

So, today was another one of those casting doctors appointments and it was a bit discouraging. Since Xan underwent a tendon release procedure last week, (where they cut his Achilles tendon and recast his foot in the normal position so the tendon heals appropriately and not so tight,) we were hoping for some pretty good progress. Last week they weren't quite able to elevate his foot to a normal position, so they decided to try and adjust it again this week before the healing was 100% complete. Well, when they took the cast off today the foot looked just as deformed and our doctor said he'd even lost progress. They took some x-rays as you can see below. It's fascinating to see how much work that poor little left foot needs as the bones alignment is incredibly off.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge. Then you can zoom in on his left foot to see the bone structure.)

Our doctor (Dr. Faux) whom we really like, is an incredible adult orthopedic surgeon but recognizes that pediatrics is not his specialty. After seeing the x-rays Dr. Faux is convinced Xan needs surgery since his foot is so resistive. Consequently, he has now referred us to a Dr. Alan Stott up at Primary Children's for a second look and as someone who can hopefully reconstruct Xan's foot. We'll head up early Monday morning and I'll try to keep you updated in a timely manner of what steps we will take next.

I am so grateful for so many things at this point. First, I'm so glad we live close enough to a facility that specializes in children's surgeries and club feet. I'm so happy our original doctor was humble enough to realize a procedure may be out of his scope rather than try to save face and possibly end up doing something that maybe wouldn't be the best thing for Xan. And mostly, I'm just grateful that God sent us this beautiful, sweet little boy who has handled all of these challenges better than I ever would have imagined he could. We love his smiles, his coos, and his excitement for life. We feel so blessed to be his parents and appreciate so many of your prayers and concerns on our behalf. Thank you!

Funny Kids

2010-12-09T01:13:00.008-07:00

The boys have been so cute lately that I wanted to update you a bit on life. We'll start with Camden and do a little Xan casting update at the end.

Camden keeps us laughing!

So I was in the bedroom pumping the other night when down the hall comes Camden for a visit!

Then the next day, I was changing Xan's diaper in Xan's room while Camden was playing around with the swing. He loves to play with all the music features on the swing. Well, I went to put the diaper in the diaper pail in the bathroom and when I got back this is where I found Camden!

Oh, and as I was uploading some pictures from my phone, I found this little video of Camden singing Karaoke at Costco. It was a few days before we had Xan, Camden and I were at Costco shopping but mostly just trying to kill some time. There was a player piano and a karaoke machine set up on display and although you can't hear the piano music in this video, Camden just couldn't help but sing along! Gosh I love that kid!

Along with birthday fun for me, and Xan's baby blessing this weekend (post on that more later), a couple weeks ago we had a date night out with the kids and attended the BYU Dancesport. Camden loves to dance and so we figured he'd really enjoy it- and he did! It was pretty crowded though and so we had to sit upstairs and watch from the balcony. Still a good view and Camden jamming out to the music made it even better! (I did take a video of Camden dancing on my phone but it was such poor quality, I couldn't justify posting it.)

Xan has been so smiley of late too! I love it!

He has become the happiest little baby! It's so rewarding and makes the late night feeds and lack of sleep each day much more bearable!

Casting update!

So our last post talked about how Xan's cast fell off and we had to get a new one put on. Well that was only the beginning, that week. The cast ended up falling off again just a few days later! We got another put on, and that cast slid and got stuck in a bad position and ended up being really painful for Xan. It was a really hard night for Kelv, Xan, and me as we helped consul Xan through the night. Luckily we were able to get in to the Dr. early and got yet another cast put on the next morning. However the Dr. said we had lost some progress over the week due to so many slipped casts.

Feet angles at week 5

So as of today, we are about 3 weeks behind schedule, but that's ok! We were supposed to have the tendon release procedure this week but it looks like we won't be having it for at least 2 weeks now. The casts have remained on of late and Xan got his 12th cast on this week with at least 4+ to go. They now put a sticky ticture all over his leg to help keep the casts on and cast him with about a 90 degree knee angle in attempts to keep the casts on. It seems to be working... yeah!

Feet angles at week 6

Wups. (Casts Week 2-4)

2010-11-17T21:52:00.007-07:00

Dialog between Kelv and Alene.

4am 11/17/10

Xan is crying and ready to eat again. Kelv is sweet enough to take this feeding so Alene can pump and go back to sleep. Kelv feeds Xan and after putting him back to bed says to Alene:

Kelv: "Alene..."

Alene: "Mmmm hmmm?"

Kelv: "Xan's cast fell off."

Alene: (Much more awake now) "What? REALLY?!"

Kelv: "Yup."

Xan's little cast on the floor after Kelv found it.

(Poor Kelv! He was so tired that he heard something fall to the ground when he got Xan up to feed him, but didn't realize it was his cast until he put him back to bed. Got to love sleep deprived parents!)

How Xan looked 12 hours prior.

Xan's casting progress is going great!

His right leg has taken to the casting so well that it gets a break from casting this week! He may get next week off too depending on how good his position is after the stretches we do with him all week.

His left foot still needs quite a bit of work however. Last week didn't adjust quite as much as they expected and since the casting process didn't go as smoothly as well, his heel is much more callused and sore. Plus, when they were taking off his cast this week, they accidentally "burned" him with the cast saw. He had about a 1.5 inch red burn mark on the inside of his left foot which was bleeding a bit as well. It was pretty sad to experience as his mom, and I hope it doesn't bother him as much as it did yesterday, the rest of the week.

Left foot is a little smaller than the right foot.

One of my friends has a little guy with one club foot, and she mentioned how his casted foot is smaller than the non-casted foot now that he's moved onto the braces phase. So I checked it out today. And I think due to the angles they've had to cast his left foot, Xan's foot growth has been slowed a bit compared to the more "normal" angles the right foot has been allotted. We'll have to see how it changes.

Xan's first tub bath!

While waiting to hear back from the orthopedic surgeon, we decided to take advantage of the fact that Xan didn't have any casts on... meaning.... a much needed BATH! He did so well with it too! Such a sweet heart!

Casts- Week 4 (take 1) He'll get recasted tomorrow!

Casts- Week 3

Casts- Week 2

Taking off his first set of casts, with the crazy cast saw. He was so good that week! Sadly this is the same saw that burned and cut him two weeks later. :-(

Big Brother Camden looks on during the casting.

(It was sort of a long appointment, so you'll notice the sucker in his mouth... we had to start bribing him to stay out of all the oh, so tempting medical equipment cupboards!)

Feet angles after 1 week of casts

Feet angles after 3 weeks of casting!

The right foot has almost entirely normal range already! Left foot has some work, but is doing better each week!

Life with Xan

2010-11-16T23:15:00.000-07:00

Xan is such a joy! We all love having him as a part of our family! Camden is doing so well with him too!

Xan's club foot needs have obviously added some extra effort to parenting a newborn, but Xan's more mild temperament has helped this process as well.

We do find ourselves at the doctor's office much more frequently though.

Xan's 1st week of life: 4 doctor's visits

2nd week: 2 visits

3rd week: 1 visit

This week: 3 visits

With all this attention for Xan, we've had to do some extra special activities here and there to help distract Camden a little more, but overall, we're getting into the swing of things well enough that Camden is used to the routine.

Here's Camden playing with shaving cream on his tray. It was a desperate attempt by mommy to give him something "new and fun" to do and yet, educational as we practiced identifying shapes and letters. Camden has been fascinated with letters of late and can identify about 10 letters consistently!

We've also been playing and digging in our new "rice and noodle box". Thanks for the rice and the idea grandma!

Camden LOVES this penguin! Few people may know that penguins are my favorite animal, so we have a few about the house. Anyway, Camden has decided this is his baby! He'll put it to bed, sing to it, give it kisses, put it in the baby swing and bouncer, we even changed penguins diaper today! It's so cute!

We've been doing the growth changes with Xan too! Camden just isn't into that game anymore however.

Week 1 growth for Xan... Camden's saying, "Ack! The baby is touching me!"

Week 2, Xan still wants to touch his brother, and Camden doesn't seem to mind the touching quite as much.

We love our boys!

Sleep... where are you?

2010-11-09T22:33:00.006-07:00

Sleep.

Something I'm finding myself observing more and more and participating in less and less.

Can you get any deep REM if you're never asleep longer than 2 hours at a time?

Xan LOVES to be held. Especially when it comes to bed/naptime. Maybe I should adopt Kelv's method of getting more sleep. If you can't beat him... join em!

Halloween!

2010-11-08T21:07:00.004-07:00

Some may frown upon me for saying this, but Halloween just isn't one of my favorite holidays. There are some parts to the holiday that I enjoy. For instance, I love how it starts off the holiday season and I love how much many of my family members get into it. I also truly enjoy all the cute and happy parts of Halloween-- kids dressing up, silly carnival-style games, pumpkin carving, chili for dinner, etc-- but I'm not a fan of any of the scary, creepy, or gory. Period.

Needless to say I didn't have any guilty feelings toning down our celebrations this year. I was mostly excited just to dress the boys up, Camden as a tiger, Xan as a giraffe, and Kelv as the zoo keeper!

I also made Camden a Super Camden cape just to wear around the house for fun. He's still getting used to wearing it, and wears it only when I make him. It was just one of those things I knew he just HAD to have and would LOVE! Haha, maybe someday huh?!

In fact, we didn't end up going around trick-or-treating because when Halloween hit the scene:

Xan was barely a week old
There was a heavy downpour during trick-or-treating time
Mommy was still healing from delivery
Camden was just as happy (if not more) to answer the door to trick-or-treaters as he was to go himself

We did however attend a couple ward Halloween parties. (Xan and I only incredibly briefly at one, since he was only 6 days old at the first and I did not like having him out around people.)

My beautiful sister Ruth enjoying Xan the giraffe

My dad in his AWESOME "Hole in One" costume. He won 2, 1st place awards at NuSkin for this costume. He's a retired golfer, and it's hard to tell in this picture but you can "see" straight through him! There's just a golf ball in between! He used some piping and mirrors to create the illusion. It was so great!

We also had a wonderful get together with the Provo half of Kelv's siblings. We enjoyed the traditional chili, corn bread, and apple cider Halloween meal that both Kelv and I grew up enjoying, and just catching up. Thanks for coming guys!

Here's a picture of Jase and Brittni holding Xan for the first time!

Casts and Braces

2010-10-27T20:40:00.007-06:00

Monday was a hard day for little Xan. We scheduled his circumcision for 11, and our pediatrician scheduled an orthopedic visit for him at 9:30. Turns out they wasted no time getting the first set of casts on, so he ended up with a double whammy that morning.

Here are his feet before the casting:

While his club feet are not a blessing, the fact that the technology to fix club feet is a wonderful blessing. The standard technique used is the Ponseti Method. That is what our doctor will be using. He says he gets 5-7 babies with club feet a year. Not all that much, but not all that rare either.

Xan will have his left leg in casts for 8 weeks total, getting a new cast each week. Each new cast allows them to move and mold the ankle a little at a time. At week 6, they will do very minor surgery to release the tendon, allowing them to move everything to its final position.

The right leg isn't quite as severe and so will only need 6 weeks of casting, with a couple weeks mixed in without a cast until the left leg catches up.

Now the big question... How many people does it take to put a plaster cast on a newborn?

Apparently 4. The doctor, his two techs, and me! (He needed 5 at the beginning when Alene was feeding him a bottle at to keep him calm!)

Happy that we're done getting them on!

Xan certainly wasn't himself with so many traumatic things happening to him that day, so we decided to show him and his cast a little love:

Once both legs are done with theirs casts, both legs will be stuck in boots on a board 23/7 (yes, that's one hour shy of 24/7) for 3 months! The braces looking like:

Once the 3 months of nearly constant boot wearing are over, for the next 3 years, he'll only have to wear the boots at bedtime and nap time. Pretty strict, but definitely do-able and worth a brighter future!

Xan!!!

2010-10-25T22:27:00.006-06:00

Alexander (Xan) is here!

AND We are sooo happy!

Born 10/20/2010 @ 11:41 AM

7 lbs 14 oz
19 inches long
3 hours of active labor
Small amount of light brown hair
Gray eyes (we'll just have to wait to see the final color later!)
Bilateral club feet but still adorable! (left foot more severe)
Kissable chubby cheeks
Adorable round face
Sweet little man

Xan!

I'll try and do a more detailed post about the labor experience later, but for now here are some flicks... ENJOY!

Are you ready?

2010-10-17T23:33:00.006-06:00

Are you ready for Halloween? Camden is!

First time in his tiger costume... he loved it!

PS We're also ready for baby #2! Come on out Xan!

First Hair Cut!

2010-10-01T01:03:00.001-06:00

Hey all you Camden Fans!

This is Camden! I just wanted to tell you about my first hair cut! My mommy is really tired because she is due with my baby brother in 3 week so I'm going to do a post for her.

(Me with my new hair cut!)

Because I didn't have very much hair as a baby, I have not needed to get my hair cut until now, even though I am 1 and a half years old! But my hair was getting to be a little long so my mommy cut it.

I was a good boy during the whole thing. My daddy put on one of my favorite movies and since I had my binky in my mouth, I didn't mind the loud noise of the buzzer. My mommy put a towel over me so the hair wouldn't make me itchy.

It's hard to see the difference in the pictures but my mommy cut off 2 inches of hair from some parts of my head. Now I have a big boy hair cut just like daddy!

Before Shot and.... After Shots

Triathlon

2010-09-05T17:52:00.006-06:00

Well, I've given Alene an excuse for way too long. She told me "You can do the post about the triathlon!" and I said "Sure!" Did I do it? Nope, never got to it. It was back in late April this year. We can't have too many posts in between the post and the actual event, or just the fact that I hardly ever contribute and she wants me to... something like that has been an excuse for us Cutlers not posting.

First things first. For those of you wondering:

Yes. I can swim.

No. I cannot swim well - I sink anytime I'm in the water.

How? I survived because it was only a 350 meter swim and there were shallow parts I could walk in when I was cramping.

For those of you wondering about Alene:

You're crazy. She's amazing, of course she can handle it! Ok, ok, you've got the right to wonder - after all, she was 13 weeks pregnant! She did awesome anyway!

About the Triathlon:

TELOS Reverse Sprint Triathlon with shorter than usual swim... 5k run, 15k bike, and 350m swim (instead of 800m). Started, transitioned, and ended all at the Orem Fitness Center. Almost 300 participated. Both my parents and Alene's parents came to support - as well as Jase, my younger brother - THANKS! We both survived and did quite well for our categories considering we were both in the 25-29 year old categories which is a prime age for those who really get into the sport.

For us, it was fun and something that we looked forward to, but only prepared here and there when we had time.

For me, I went swimming when I had the chance - Alene joined me a few times to try and correct my desire. I say desire because I wanted to just do a make-shift breast stroke, she wanted me to do the crawl/whatever that normal form of swimming is. So I learned. Didn't use it much during the event though because I was drowning (from exhaustion, crowds, and eventually a cramp), but it was good for me to learn something my wife is so excellent at (swimming).

Alene spent sometime running and biking. She was already doing well at both and simply wished the swim was longer so she could more time to pass all the slow runner/bikers like me.

Many thanks to Wyatt Brockbank for the use of his road bike, and thanks to my parents for (as a B-day gift) renting a road bike for myself. :-D It was a great thing to not have to ride my old mountain bike and Alene's super old paper route bike.

Pictures, and then... the RESULTS!

signs made by Jase (the other side of mine says "Don't sink Kelv!")

Jase cheering us on

the rest of the gang cheering us on (my dad was on the run getting photos at various places)

the start (my dad took these without ever spotting us/knowing where we were)

can you spot me?

can you spot Alene?

first leg, still going strong (even though my hair's quite long)

Alene saying "I'm hanging in there!" (again - 13 weeks pregnant here, had thrown up numerous times in the 48 hours preceding - she's awesome)

this was the FUN part!

looking good hon!

I forgot my goggles!!!!! SAVE me!!!!

excellent form sweetie!!! (it was a mad-house out there with people having bad form - a.k.a. me - flailing their arms, and whacking anyone trying to pass - a.k.a. Alene)

tired? Alene - no, Kelv - oh yeah

family shot

I got a medal!

Me:

Overall: 29th; Age Overall: 3rd; Age Run: 3rd; Age Bike: 2nd; Age Swim: 18th;

Yes, pathetic swim placement. I made up huge times in the bike though.

Alene:

Overall: 125th; Age Overall: 5th; Age Run: 15th; Age Bike: 7th; Age Swim: 2nd;

Alene, you made me proud with your bike section and of course in your swim. Only out swam by her good friend who does get into this sport - Becca Lau!

Sugar and Spice...

2010-06-08T14:57:00.010-06:00

Sugar and spice and everything nice?.....

Well, maybe in the future that's what our baby will be made of, but it looks like for now...

It's a BOY!
(Sorry to the 77% of you who voted sister! Don't worry... I was one of them!)

We're so excited for the party to continue and foresee Camden and Baby #2 being great friends!

And it looks like we already have a competitive streak between our two boys! Camden was born with some pretty inverted feet but they reshaped nicely as he began to put pressure on them as he grew older and stronger. (If you notice the earlier weeks in Camden Grows slideshow, you'll see what I mean). No biggie, it was just a result of being housed in a mama with a short torso and he sort of ran out of room.

Well, Baby #2 appears to be trying to outdo Camden by already having pretty severely turned in feet. So much so, it looks like he may be born with club feet. So to investigate a little more, we have another ultrasound (yeah for the extra chance to see the baby at least!) with the perinatologist tomorrow to take a little closer look. I just feel so blessed that we live in a day and age where technology has advanced enough that they can treat club feet with only a series of castings. They rarely even do surgery for it anymore! What a blessing, and how great that everything else with Baby looks to be developing fabulously!

And as Camden's cousin Troy so appropriately educated Camden back in 2008...

(Cousin Troy is also getting a brother in October too! Fun huh?!)

Voting time once again!!!

2010-06-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

Hey All!

Yes it is almost that time again! In one week (June 8th) we'll be getting our gender ultrasound! Yeah! So we want to know what you guys think the baby will be?

Just make sure to vote by Monday night June 7th!

BYU Splash and Dash

2010-03-20T16:40:00.002-06:00

Over the last 3 weeks we've been strapping up our laces and goggles in preparation for the BYU Splash and Dash!

Kelv and I have been training for a triathlon in April and Kelv convinced me that doing the Splash and Dash would be good practice.

We decided to do the Team Event which meant I would be swimming a mile (that's 66 times across the pool just so you know!) and Kelv would be running a 10K. That is something he has never done, and I haven't really swam competitively since I graduated from high school 7 years ago, and had a baby a year ago, so we were excited for the challenge!

Our goal going into the race was to finish. Whew! We achieved our goal! And actually, we did better than that too! We ended up getting 4th in our heat and then 7th overall. Hurray!(Too bad that 2nd heat was fast too!) We're pretty pleased with those results and figured they weren't too bad for two people who have only trained for about 3 weeks! I finished my mile in about 26 mins and Kelv did his 10K in about 46 mins. That's 7 min miles for Kelv! I'm glad Kelv whipped it out so we could finish so high in the ranking!

In the end it was a lot of fun being able to achieve something together as a team/couple, and a big shout out thanks to my parents who were kind enough to watch little Camden while we competed!

What do you do with a free balloon from Macey's?

2010-03-20T16:08:00.005-06:00

So, I don't know if my shopping trips just take too long, but the last couple times I've been shopping at Macey's Camden has been pretty fussy by the time we get to checkout. Needless to say, the last couple times the cashiers at Macey's have given him a free balloon. He loves them! It really does help. The only question I have, is what do you do with your free balloon when your toddler still tries to eat them? You clip it to the bottom of his binky! :-D

This video is just a fun little clip of how Camden spends his time when hyper during the day. It's like he just can't say enough or reach enough places! So much ground to cover... in our one bedroom apartment!

Camden's Birthday!!!!

2010-03-19T14:51:00.002-06:00

Back in February we celebrated Camden's 1st Birthday! Hurrah!

It was such an exciting day and time! On his actual birthday we kept the celebrations to a minimum since he was teething and having just a bit of a hard time. We just tried to do things that he enjoys all day, and gave him all the foods he enjoys eating as well. Then later that night, we had our neighbors the Billman's over, whom Camden just loves, for some cupcake ice cream cones and it was a fun time!

The next day, Kelv's parents, Camden's Miga and Poppa, made the trip down from Boise to be here for his birthday and it was a wonderful visit! Camden loves his Miga and Poppa, especially all the one-on-one attention they gave him! :-D

Then on Saturday we had a big family birthday bash! (Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us crash your place!) Camden absolutely loved seeing all his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who came out for the event! We made him a safari cake which he thought was very interesting, but didn't really dig into much until we gave him a fork with which to attack it! (Thanks for the tip about the fork Marianne!)

Camden's little cake

The Cake for the rest of the family

Some of the family there...Thanks for coming!

So as you can see, it was a fun and eventful weekend! One of my favorite parts was seeing Camden respond to the traveling "Homey Birthday Frog" that each member of Kelv's family gets to enjoy on their birthday! :-D

Valentine's Day!

2010-03-18T12:39:00.001-06:00

Hey All!

So we've been sort of neglecting blogging lately. Life been busy! Between school, church responsibilities, work, and life with an active toddler we're learning to balance our time. So... we wanted to share how our Valentine's Day went! Camden was born after Valentine's last year and so it was fun experiencing his first Valentine's together!

We started off the holiday by putting up the adorable decorations my Grandma Sanders sent Camden!

He was so excited! It was hard to catch him holding still!

Camden looked so handsome in his "Future Heart Throb" Jammies from his Miga and Poppa (Kelv's awesome Parents!)

Then to top it all, my little sister "Heart Attacked" our door with President's Day quotes. It was awesome. Thanks Ruth!

Update on the little guy

2010-01-31T19:49:00.004-07:00

He's learned a really neat skill so stay with me all the way until the end...

For starters, he had great Christmases (yes, plural), both in Orem, UT at Alene's home and my home up in Boise. Alene was scheduled for an "on call" shift Christmas Eve but didn't have to go in :-D! My parents and the rest of my family including our 1.5 year old nephew didn't mind calling Christmas day Christmas Eve, so we finished Christmas morning at the Duersch home and 6 hours later began Christmas Eve at the Cutler home. Pretty AWESOME if you ask me! A big thank you to all my family for allowing us that option!

Here's a pic from Christmas with my cousin's little girl (not all that close of a relation, but Alene thinks they look so similar in features and of course Camden is very cute in it so I'm including it)

Here's some picks of our little guy with crazy faces and a full-ish set of teeth (6 of 'em)

Here is a video of his craziness :-D:

And the BIG news....

Camden is taking steps!!!! He's basically there! He can walk!!!!!!!

We've spent a fair amount of time and effort into getting him to walk on his own, but no fruit whatsoever while we're trying. He would (and still) just immediately plops down on his rear end whenever we try to get him to walk and we let go of his hands.

I wish we could say it was all our effort that paid off (and maybe it helped), but he took his own first little steps when we weren't really even paying him much attention - in fact, Alene wasn't there! Alene had gone off to do zoomba (dance aerobic exercise), and I was home working on my computer while Camden played by himself in the room with me. He doesn't usually let me do this for long before grabbing at my laptop so I was enjoying this time. The trick to his contentment this day (yesterday - Saturday), was my toothbrush. He LOVES my toothbrush and I rarely let him have it. So while thoroughly enjoying his time with and being caught up in the excitement of standing up and playing with his "toy," he took two small steps! I was lucky to have been watching him at that moment. I called Alene - no answer, left an excited message for her. He stands a bunch more times, and does the little step (just single steps) thing a couple more times.

Since then I got him to / we distracted him with fun toys until he took some steps for mommy (Alene), and then today at church he took a few more steps. Tonight he started actually realizing what he was doing (you can see in his face how clever he thinks he is) and we could get him to actually make some walking steps. We caught his best run, 9 steps! Enjoy the video!

Oh no... we have a climber on our hands!

2009-12-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

So, we put our Christmas Tree behind our chair for a reason! But if you can't go around it, and you can't go under it, guess you have to go over it!

Yup, our kid is crazy!

And cool...

And fast...

And cute!!!

Our Kid's Got Skills

2009-11-20T00:22:00.000-07:00

Camden is 9 months now!

He has 3 teeth and one more (to mirror the other top tooth) that has almost erupted! He crawls like crazy and so many other things!

We've decided to document a few of them for you here. Enjoy!

Camden loves to crawl on top of things... (he gets up there all on his own)

AND under them too!

Loves to talk and make sounds!

Here's his attempt on his own! (He does this all the time... I love it!)

A little fall fun

2009-10-28T22:50:00.003-06:00

The leaves here in our neighborhood have been beautiful...AND plentiful as they fall to the ground.

We couldn't help getting Camden out there so he could frolic in the leaves for his first time! Enjoy!

Little Update

2009-10-22T21:45:00.004-06:00

First, Camden has learned to crawl!

Yes, we officially had to really get down and baby proof the house.

Camden has also enjoyed trying on different hats of sorts!

And he's enjoying reading more and more everyday too!

What a wonderful life!

Tie!

2009-10-08T23:45:00.002-06:00

My little man.

So we finally got Camden a little tie. I love it!

Jumperoo!

2009-09-29T22:20:00.000-06:00

So a few months back we posted about how Camden got a new Jumperoo. At the time, he couldn't even reach the floor or move enough to activate any of the features at all!

But now, we've even had to raise it up a setting he's gotten so tall and whenever he's in it, he can't help but activate EVERYTHING--Including a big grin from both himself and his parents!

We also took Camden on his first plane ride! For being the tired boy he was, missing his nap time before the flight and all, he did very very well. He only got upset as we were just starting our decent into Boise, and I was able to hold him and rock him to sleep, so that was wonderful. He just loved everything about the plane!

BYU Football!

2009-09-21T17:53:00.002-06:00

The leaves are starting to change, the days are getting shorter, the temperature is getting a little cooler, that must mean one thing... BYU FOOTBALL SEASON is HERE!!!

Although Saturdays game was less than desirable, we still had a fun time just being there as a family and with friends!

Here are the Jello Jigglers we dyed and made for the neighborhood tailgate/BBQ party we had in the afternoon.

This game was Camden's first time in good ol' Lavell Edwards' Stadium! We are sure he'll be there many more times with both his parents and then again when he comes to the Y as a student. Maybe he'll even play there some day!

It took Camden a little getting used to the loud excited outburts from the surrounding fans, but with the help of some ear plugs and happy looks from parents and other fans, Camden did really well. He was the reason we were still somewhat happy by the end of the game because he was so hyper!

We sure love our little guy! AND we love BYU Football! (yes. even after the FSU game)

Adventures in Canning

2009-09-10T15:51:00.000-06:00

So like last year, my parents were generous enough to let us have some grapes to can grape juice!

Hooray! Grape Juice IS Delicious!

Well, everything was going well, and having already done the process once before, things were going much more smoothly than last year. Until.... the jars started to cool.

I was sitting in the living room working on the computer while Camden was napping, when I hear this "POP!" sound from the kitchen.

I knew this wasn't "the sound of success" that you get from a properly sealed lid since I had the jars tipped upside down. Tipping them upside down with the hot juice helps them seal without having to process them. Anyway, so I get up to see what has happened, and this is what I saw.

I don't know if you can tell well from the pictures, but my GLASS jar had caved in! I couldn't believe it! I quickly called my husband, mom, and dad to consult what I should do, or if they had ever had that happen to them. Dumbfounded my parents just couldn't believe that happened and in all their years of canning foods, had NEVER had that happen. My dad thought it was possibly a weakness in the glass and that once the juice had cooled, I should get the juice out of there and not use that jar in case it imploded some more. Crazy huh?!

Well, to wrap this up, do not fret, because it didn't implode. And we can happily announce that we will be enjoying 32 quarts of grape juice this year!

Camden gets a new bed!

2009-08-06T20:54:00.005-06:00

It was time.

Although we were holding onto the days when Camden would still fit in his little cradle, for the sake of sharing our one bedroom, he's just now too mobile! For instance, in the picture above, he started the night swaddled in that blanket and perpendicular to where he ended up!

So we went over to my parents' home and brought home the crib we'd been storing there.
A huge shoutout to both my parents for letting it live at their house until we were ready for it AND to my sister Marianne, who is loaning us the crib in the first place!!!

We're pretty pleased with how well it fits in the room and don't really feel like we lost too much space, with the reorganization we've been able to do.

As you can see, Camden has much more room to sleep and maneuver. (We still find him totally turned about in odd angles-- including 180 degree turns-- each morning)

He seems pretty happy with it don't you think!?!

Ouch!

2009-08-06T18:44:00.006-06:00

All for the love of the game...

So Kelv and I were on an intramural softball team together this summer. It was a blast!!!

But a little painful too...

2 weeks ago today, we had our first 2 tournament games as double headers. Well, during our second game we were pretty evenly matched and playing hard. Keeping this in mind, when I saw the ball flying towards home just after rounding the bases from 3rd to home, my competitive instincts kicking into full gear I realized to make it safe, I'd have to slide. So I did... and I made it home....SAFE!!! wOOt! And we actually ended up winning the game!

Well, 2 days later however, my leg wasn't as happy about my choice to slide to home over the hard and sandy ground.

After a trip to the urgent care, the doctor put me on 10 days of antibiotics, Lortab for the pain, and home with a whole lot of bandages, Neosporin, and tape, to help heal my infected and very painful wound. Here's what it looked like that Saturday after being treated with Neosporin all day. And to be honest, the wound was looking better than it had that morning.

Well, having won our games, we were still in the tournament and had 2 more game (double headers again) the following Thursday which was one week ago. Well, come the second game again, I came into a situation where I was in danger of getting out, but this time at 3rd base. So as I ran hard into the bag, I sort of tripped/dove into the 2 players standing on the 3rd base bag. I sort of took out the tall guy in my way, taking his cleats to my hand and already wounded left leg (thank goodness it was wrapped), but that caused him NOT to catch the ball, so I was SAFE AGAIN!!! My knees and hand were bleeding, but at least I didn't get out right?! This is what my leg looked like after that game:

So today, after another painful week, I can finally walk normally, without fear of pain or reopening any wounds!

Man... who knew that coed, lower division, BYU intramurals could be so exciting!?!

Happy 4th!

2009-07-05T15:43:00.006-06:00

We had a really fun Independence Day!

After a delicious patriotic breakfast, Camden decided to show us how he can try and sit on his own!

Then, we couldn't help getting outside to enjoy the beautiful day. We played an exciting couple games of croquet!

Camden and Daddy did awesome and actually won both games! Poor mommy. :-(

Then after a yummy BBQ with family, Camden head off to play with his cousins, while mommy and daddy went to Stadium of Fire! Although we didn't know the lyrics to the Jonas Brothers' songs, we still had a wonderful time!

Thank you to all who fight, and have fought to keep us free!

R"eat"ing

2009-07-03T15:57:00.001-06:00

We feel blessed that Camden has always liked books. Even as a newborn, one sure fire way to help distract him for a bit was to put a brightly colored book in front of him and read away.

Well, he has now taken reading to a whole new level... or should I call it r"eat"ing since the books seem to get eaten a whole lot more these days!

Beating the Summer Heat!

2009-07-01T10:39:00.000-06:00

After noticing how mommy and daddy drink a lot of water from water bottles to beat this summer heat, Camden wanted to give it a go as well!

Not quite... but it was a great attempt son! :-D

Dad's Day

2009-06-21T21:12:00.004-06:00

Well it was the best Dad's Day I've had while being a dad! It also happened to be my first! All the same, WOW, it was a great Father's day! I think the meal we had just a little while ago (yes, a very late Sunday meal), was a nice finishing touch to it all. However, I think I'll start at the beginning...

First of all, aside from waking up very briefly a few times in the morning to put Camden's binky back in, Camden slept well through the night as he has kindly done for the last 2-3 months AND after waking up, he let me sleep a bit longer while he kept himself happy as can be babbling while Alene prepared breakfast. We had ham and eggs - Yum! I opened my gifts and put on the tie that Camden and Alene made for me. Those ties were the fun primary project Alene thought of - she had the kids color them and then we stapled rubber bands to the back and had the kids present them to their dads after singing the classic "daddy comes home" song. Here's the happy dad and happy Camden:

As a side note for those who don't know - which is an important detail behind my next Father's day joy - I am now the 2nd counselor in the bishopric of my ward. So, another big reason I could sleep in and be happy (sleeping in being 8am ish), was because they had us only do minimal meetings today in honor of the dad's in our ward. That meant I only had one half hour meeting at 9:15am (and then some stuff to take of during and a little bit after church). That part was great!

Then... a NAP!!!! Wahoo! that felt good! I love sleep! I love naps!

Then a visit to Alene's Parents to say "Hello," "Happy Father's Day," and "Camden's here to play with Grandma and Grandpa!" Then home and preparation for dinner as Camden took a - much shorter than should have been - nap. He woke up, we fed him and then began to scarf down (ok, ok, so only I was scarfing - hey, I was hungry and the food was incredible!) our dinner. We splurged. It was a definite splurge, made ok by the fact that we got it from Costco and with a coupon, but we had... RIBS! BABY BACK RIBS! So delicious. We also had veggies and cantelope (from Costco too)! Yumm Yumm!

At the end of dinner we got a skype call from my parents! Camden was a happy playful guy for that. Life is good. Being a dad is awesome!

Happy Father's day to everyone else out there who's a dad! And thanks to Alene and Camden for making this day possible for me! :-D

So Strong!!

2009-06-21T21:00:00.000-06:00

Over the last week, Camden has been trying to show us just how strong he is!

He's been showing us by trying to sit up on his own by doing a pike! He'll even use his hanging toys to help him pull up if they're accessible! (It's a little hard to see in the second picture, but if you look closely, you can see his head and feet are lifted up.)

He's also been trying to eat his feet. This isn't a great picture of him attacking them, but sometimes it's hard to catch those!

I can't believe how fast he's growing up!

He's Growing!

2009-06-04T15:49:00.002-06:00

So, I don't know if I'm just in denial that Camden is growing so much but I had another "he can't be that big" moment today.

I was looking through his "bigger" outifts that I had set aside til he grew more, and I found this cute overall set! I looked at the tag which said 3-6 months, and figured, "Hey! It will probably be a little big but let's try it out!" It was so cute I couldn't help it! Well... as you probably guessed... it BARELY fits him. I'm really hoping I can get him to wear it 2 or 3 times before he grows out of it! Oh well, hopefully we'll have another little boy sometime in the future and he can get some good wear out of it!

Hard to tell in the picture, but I could barely snap up his onsie shirt and had to extend the overalls to the longest strap setting!

He loves his little inch worm! Especially those knobby green "legs"!

Look alike!

2009-06-04T14:57:00.005-06:00

Who Does Camden Look Like More!

There have sure been times where I thought Camden looked more like Kelv, and then other days where I think he looked a little more like me... what do you think?

Kelv?

or Alene

Just a cute little update!

2009-05-26T23:21:00.005-06:00

Now that Camden's a little older he gets really frustrated if he can't see the world around him. Consequently, we've been spending more and more time holding him sitting up and facing out!

To help him in this endeavor to sit, see, and learn, we got him a Bumbo (once again a steal on Craigslist. Thanks Marianne for picking it up for us!) He really enjoys interacting with his animals and books... when he's awake that is!

And as you can see, we've also been working on sleeping. Camden has always been pretty good but lately, much to his parents delight and joy, he's been sleeping through the night (9 to 10.5 hours!)

Lastly, we've been working on improving our tummy times. He really has been doing better, especially with his Panda bear to help him out!

(Don't you just love the smooshed little grin!)

Babble!

2009-05-17T22:41:00.005-06:00

Just ignore the crazy sounds from his mom in the background!

Turban!

2009-05-17T22:34:00.003-06:00

Funny kid!

Graduation!

2009-05-04T15:46:00.002-06:00

Well, for all of you who weren't 100% aware... Kelv graduated!!!

Wait? That's not Kelv!? That's the cutest little Camden!
Ahhhh! That's because Alene didn't really have any of Kelv. But my parents do!

So there are more pictures to come once I can retrieve some! ;-D

Oh, and I just have to make a shout out "Thanks!" to my older siblings Brett and Lanae for putting their little Elizabeth in a pink graduation outfit years ago. I've wanted to make a graduation outfit for my kids ever since! And I finally got the chance!

New Trick and Toy!

2009-04-16T17:03:00.001-06:00

Camden has been learning new things every day... here's his newest one!

*(Sorry about the poor lighting! Kelv was "winding" him down for bed! So we had the lights dimmed.)

Take 2 with Jazzy Music!

Camden also got a new toy off Craig's List! A Fisher Price Jungle Jumperoo!!!

We may have to wait a little while till he's not drowning in it though to enjoy it more!

Happy Birthday Kelv!

2009-04-16T16:39:00.003-06:00

No fooling around about it, but on April 1st Kelv turned 24! Hurrah!

After a fun first trip to the Teppanyaki restaurant-- where we sang Happy Birthday to Kelv over a 3-layered flaming onion cake, and Kelv put us all to shame with his shrimp catching skills-- we had the Billmans over for some cupcakes and another round of Happy Birthday!

WAY TO BE BORN KELV!!!

Want happiness?! Camden reveals his secrets!

2009-04-02T10:25:00.004-06:00

So do you all want to know why I'm so happy!?!

Well... I got blessed this week!

My daddy gave me a very special blessing and I had so many people come to visit and support me!

My Grandparents and uncle Trent even came all the way from Boise for the blessing. They were so nice that they even babysat me so Mommy and Daddy could go on a date to the MAC and dance!

Plus last week I got to visit both of my GREAT grandmas on my mommy's side! They love me so much!

Isn't life so wonderful!?!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

2009-03-17T14:09:00.002-06:00

Lots to do!

2009-03-16T09:27:00.005-06:00

So Camden had a busy week!

First... now that his cord has finally fallen off and healed he had his first tub bath!

We're still working on liking those! ;-)

Is it over?

At least the aftermath of the bath wasn't too bad!

Then... he got a visit from his great grandparents! All the way from Boise!

He also had his first real bear hug!

And finally on Friday, Camden, went to the National Dancesport competition at BYU! He was so good and either slept or was eating happily through the whole thing!

Then on Saturday, Camden had his first babysitting adventure at his grandparents home while Alene and Kelv had their first date night since Camden's birth, back at Dancesport!

Whew! I wonder what this week will have in store!?

Hide and Seek!

2009-03-09T12:53:00.004-06:00

If I close my eyes I can't see you... SO you must not be able to see me!
Especially with my special "Jungle Friends" camo going!

What a fun little kid! ;-)

One Week Old!

2009-03-01T23:43:00.005-07:00

Ok... So here are some more cute flicks! I sure love our little man!

Don't you wish you were this happy at 4 in the morning too!?! :-D

Another Daddy/Camden shot that I just love! He had the hiccups pretty bad here... so cute!

One of the nurses (Auntie Carol) with whom I work in the NICU crocheted this for Camden months ago! She put little airplane buttons on it because she thinks he'll go places in life! Carol is the "baby whisperer" at work. Thanks Carol!

Inspired by what my siblings (Paul and Vicky) did with their son Benjamin, we're going to try and visually keep track of how much Camden grows each week by comparing him to the squares on our rug and his teddy bear.

Too Cute!

2009-02-25T19:47:00.002-07:00

Ok, I promise I won't become too obsessive and post a new picture of my little man every day... but... he was just being so cute this morning! So I grabbed the closest camera to me (my cell phone) and feel lucky to even have caught this one!

He just seemed so happy to be alive! I truly am loving being a mom!

I love my daddy!

2009-02-24T01:38:00.001-07:00

Camden really loves his daddy!

...And his daddy really loves Camden!

(Thanks Leif for catching this moment with your cell phone!)

Possibly two of my new most favorite pictures!

Welcome Camden!!!!

2009-02-19T18:18:00.005-07:00

He's HERE!!!

Camden William Cutler
Feb 18th, 2009, 5:49pm: 8 lbs 8 oz and 20.5 inches

WE ARE SO HAPPY TO HAVE HIM!!!
Especially happy and grateful he came out healthy!

Wednesday February 18th!

2009-02-09T12:47:00.002-07:00

Well great news!

Being 38 weeks today, my doctor decided to check for any dilation. Well I'm dilated to a 2, 80% effaced, and at 0 station! Yeah! Because I'm starting to progress he said I could set an inducement date! I'm all for that! Since next week has a holiday on Monday, we put the date for Wednesday Feb 18th! There's still like a 33% chance he could come sooner than that, which would also be great!

The end of this pregnancy and the beginning of our new little family is in sight!

Nesting!

2009-02-06T16:05:00.002-07:00

As we get closer and closer to the due date of our little guy, I get more and more excited to make everything as perfect as possible for his arrival!

(Here's me today! 37 weeks and 4 days pregnant! Only 17 days to go! Yikes!)

Over the last few weeks, other than just making room for everything (which meant some DI runs for the stuff we can't fit) I think I've deep cleaned the kitchen and bathroom 4 times! There are still some things we need to do, like picking up the beautiful cradle my dad made us, and such; here are some pictures of the things we've done!

First, I whipped out the sewing machine my Grandma Duersch so kindly gave me, and finished making some curtains to hide all the tempting plugs, cords, and outlets in the toy corner of the living room! The machine is a little old but it sure does the trick! Thanks so much Grandma!

Then, we put the old TV from our bedroom in storage, deep cleaned the TV stand and turned it into a little baby center. Then after finding some INCREDIBLE deals, we got a cute little dresser and touch, night stand lamp for our little man!

Lastly, we hung up the adorable animal/letter blocks that my dear friend Christy made us! The perfect touch for the "baby area" of our room!

Oh! And I got a new phone! It was my turn for an upgrade and I wanted something that I could actually take pictures with and recognize what I shot! So we got a red samsung rant! It's so pretty! :-D

35!

2009-01-19T12:19:00.003-07:00

Hey All!

I know it's been a LONG while since I posted... so I'm posting today! Today is a fun day because I am officially due in 5 weeks! So in other words I'm 35 weeks along and have 35 days to go! w00t! (Well... give or take a few days I'm sure!)

Benjamin... This is for You!

2008-10-25T23:44:00.004-06:00

Look at what's parked in front of our house this weekend!!

The kids in the neighborhood have also been climbing all over these!

*Note: for those of you who may not know little Benjamin, he's my brother Paul's adorable 2 year old son who, true to his father's profession, loves anything construction! "Dig, Dig, Dig!"

Home Improvements-- Baby Style!

2008-10-23T23:10:00.006-06:00

So in preparation for our little boy due to be featured in February, we decided to add a few touches to our little one bedroom apartment. Now, we know that many families will even build on an addition to the house for their newcomer. However, after going over the extensions and floorplans with our contractors, there just doesn't seem any way we can get around BYU's housing rules! Therefore, since expansion is not an option this season, we were left with the option of reorganizing, removing, and adding new pieces to the home!

First, we decided to get a nice area rug so that the little guy will have a softer surface than our carpet to play on! It makes our apartment a little more "busy" but that's ok!

Next, I made a few trip to Micheals and BB&B to redeem some gift cards and coupons for wood letters, painted shapes, wood glue, spray paints, and some cute shelf boxes.

From CutlerClan Pics

Then after a lot of time painting, gluing, clamping (or pressing with cans, since we only have two clamps and I wasn't patient enough to wait), measuring, nailing, and reorganizing, we finally came up with a fun little set up on our wall!

From CutlerClan Pics

Although currently over our TV, this is the wall space that will be above the baby's cradle/crib!

From CutlerClan Pics

IT'S A...

2008-10-06T11:25:00.007-06:00

BABY!!!!

Ok, ok, 40% of you were right, IT'S A BOY!!!

Click here to see the ultrasound pic!

Thanks for voting and your support!!!!

Can, Can... Can you Can the grape juice?

2008-10-05T11:56:00.006-06:00

My wife can!!!

From CutlerClan Pics

Yup! It's something my family used to do when I was really little. My Grandma and Grandpa had a mini farm in their backyard that seemed absolutely huge to me then, and there we'd pick our grapes. Since their moving out of that house, my family hasn't really done the grape juice thing (that I remember), so this was a neat, nostalgic experience! Alene's parents were kind enough to provide all the tools and grapes!

I wasn't able to help all that much, being busy with all the homework and projects I've got going, but, I did get to do one batch all by myself! Alene started washing the grapes one late night while I labored on a project. She finished that, but I was still banging my head against the wall, so she set out to get us some canning jars. Visiting grocery stores just after midnight was hit and miss for just getting inside, let alone actually finding what we wanted. The first store, Maceys, only had half-gallon sized jars, all the shelves for the normal quart sized jars were large and empty. Out of the 5-6 stores she went to next she got into 3-4 of them, but all of them were sold out of any and all canning jars (except the half-pint sized)! No good! So she returned to the first store and got the half-gallon sized jars.

From CutlerClan Pics

Canning took a long time with our limited experience and small stove top, but we got through 5 batches and 12 jars + some! YuuuummmmmmY! This grape juice is way good! So delicious! I'm excited to have it for the next year or so! (that is, we'll try to make it last that long... don't know that it will, but we see!)

Pack N Play

2008-10-02T15:16:00.004-06:00

Hurrah! After many weeks searching Craig's list and KSL classifieds, we have finally scored a pack n' play! Yeah! It's in good condition and after about an hour of sanitizing and scrubbing I am satisfied and excited to use it once the baby comes!

*Special thanks to Celest the bunny (my dear friend since I was 4 years old) for her modeling role in the making of these shots!

The changing table and bassinet. We probably won't use these much because my dad is making us a beautiful wooden cradle, but it's nice to know we have it for trips.

The open play area!

Vote NOW!

2008-09-12T19:20:00.002-06:00

Get your vote in before it's too late!
(See the sidebar on the right)

Actual results will be posted on October 6th*
(*Provided the baby cooperates)

"Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime!"

2008-09-05T18:03:00.008-06:00

Whew! Well it has been a busy summer for us! And in attempts to make amends for not posting much about the things we did, we thought we'd post about them all!

Trip to Washington!
We started out by helping my brother Paul move out to Bellingham, WA by driving his 20 month old son, Benjamin all the way from Utah on a 2 day trip. It was a lot of fun to spend that time with him and he was such a good boy the whole way. For more on this trip, you can see Paul and Vicky's blog: www.pvduersch.blogspot.com

While there we also got to spend some time with Kelv's sister Tenley and her little family in Seattle. It was wonderful! She was such a gracious hostess, Thanks Again Tenley! Plus we got to go to a Mariners game and see the famous Ichiro!

Viva Las Vegas!
Next we used up a promotional trip to Las Vegas, Nevada! After spending a few hours of prep time discovering all the exhibits and free things to see in each casino resort, we had a great time walking from place to place! But really the best part was just the fact that we had another chance to be together.

Miley, a new nephew, and 2 new neices!
Next as we hung out with Ruth over the 4th of July holiday we rocked out at Stadium of Fire with Miley Cyrus! Plus within just a few weeks we got 3 new additions to the family: Rhett Buehler Duersch, Jenalee Roylance, AnnaLynn Duersch! Hurrah for babies!

Camping, camping, and more camping!
We started out our adventures in the great outdoors at Ward Campout! We actually didn't stay the night because it was same day that we got home from Vegas, but it sure was fun to have a cookout and enjoy good friends!

Next we were with the Duersch family! We spent 3 days at the beautiful Ledgefork campground with Mom, Dad, Ruth, and Jason's, Marianne's, and Heidi's families! It's always fun to go creekin', relax on the hammock, play games, and just spend time with all our family-- especially the neices and nephews!

Lastly, after 9 hours and a blown tire, we spent the pre-labor day weekend with the Cutlers in scenic McCall, Idaho. Once again it was so fun to just be with the family out on the lake, lounging on the shoreline, playing games, and riding bikes.

Well there you have it! We had a fun summer and we are ready for fall and all it brings (aka. school, changing colors of the leaves, and BYU football!)

aWordGame

2008-07-27T19:29:00.003-06:00

About 6 months ago, I came up with this brilliant idea for a project that I couldn't wait to get started on. The sad thing is that I had to wait. I was way too busy with school and work. I looked forward to summer for this project more than anything. Well, it turns out I got caught up with work (I'm now doing two jobs, one for BYU-OIT, and work for my uncle), and didn't have enough free time to get it going until about a month ago. I pumped out the basic version of the program pretty quick, but since it has slowly gone many revisions. I am finally proud enough of it to post it publicly. Here it is, aWordGame!

The instruction manual tells you the rules of the game and how to play using my program, but I'll give you a little background here:

I can remember playing this "four letter word game" since I was in early middle school. It used to be a favorite to play in church when I was really bored. I loved it so much I made it for PalmOS and played it with my friends at school (mostly in band with Brian Harris, stand buddy). Pretty much this game is classic to me (a lot of sentimental value). Now what I've done with it, is enabled people (me mostly) to play it with someone else via text messaging! How sweet is that? Whenever I'm bored, no matter where I am or who I'm with I can be playing a very entertaining/slightly intellectual game. Ok, so not that intellectual, but it is one that has human interaction and makes you use you brain, so I love it. Don't always have someone to play with, but I play often enough to be satisfied - very happy really.

I'll put a warning right here right now, that it does basically spam you through out the game (you'll be sent upwards of 15-25 messages during the game and send about 10-15), so without unlimited text messaging, I don't recommend it for use with your phone. However, it works all the same with email, so feel free to give it a try, either with me or anyone of your choosing. I can't promise it will always be up and running or that it won't crash in the middle of your game, but if you do give it a try, I welcome feedback!

My Turn!

2008-07-10T21:51:00.004-06:00

So I finally braved up and cut my hair! Like 5 inches! SCARY!! I'm still getting used to it but I'm really liking the change. It was time.

ME and My HONEY! And supposed to be... "The Thoughtful Pose"

New York, New York!

2008-06-04T23:47:00.002-06:00

So about a month ago 3 of my sisters, my mom, and I went to New York! It was so much fun and it was just wonderful to be together! Here are some flicks of the fun things we did! Enjoy!
(Sorry, I'm a sucker for lamp posts and American flags!)

View from the Empire State Building. The Beautiful Statue of Liberty

View from Central Park. Gotta love those audio tour wands!

M&Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

WICKED!! Can you defy gravity too? Empire State Building

Only in Idaho!

2008-05-25T23:45:00.000-06:00

This last weekend, Kelv took me to a special little drive in found in downtown Boise. It's a quaint little place called the Westside Drive In. Kelv has many memories eating here as a child which made it all the more fun to go enjoy a delicious (and huge) meal at this little place. One item we enjoyed wasn't quite your typical entree however. ICE CREAM baked potato anyone?

Actually, you might have guessed, but it's not a potato at all! It's a ball of ice cream, rolled in cocoa. Then after a dollop of whip topping, some nuts, and oreo chucks, they slap it on a plate of chocolate sauce and you're ready to go! Pretty "cool" huh?!

On our way to Boise...

2008-05-24T23:22:00.002-06:00

As we were driving to Boise we passed a massive sign. We took the exit to try and find him. But, alas, he was not to be found. We thought for sure we'd see him with the sign describing him so exactly. Oh well, we'll just have to meet up with Alene's brother some other time...

Come on everybody it's FAMILY NIGHT!

2008-05-20T23:51:00.001-06:00

Monday Night we had a fun and necessary activity for our FHE. While watching Legacy on DVD Kelv had an incredible transformation! Here's the proof!

BEFORE:

............AND AFTER!!!!

Much Better! If only all our FHE's could be this great! :-D

Anniverary Celebration

2008-05-15T23:18:00.004-06:00

Although our anniversary was a few weeks ago, we have been so busy we couldn't find a good time to do anything together for a couple weeks. Sooooo, yesterday we had a belated 1st anniversary celebration appropriately at... the Anniversary Inn! It was so much fun!

We stayed in the Swiss Family Robinson room (since I have always loved that movie) which meant we got to sleep in a tree!!! Plus take our mornings showers under a rock waterfall... AND dance under the tree limbs to the light of a fish tank! Pretty sweet!! It was especially just a nice chance to be together and just have a fun time. We've both been so busy with work lately AND with our schedules not matching as much anymore, it was just nice to get away!

*I just wish these pictures did the room justice!! It was incredible!

Plus... the true highlight of the trip was the car we passed on our way there! :-D

Kelv's Birthday

2008-05-05T17:48:00.003-06:00

Happy Birthday to Kelv!!!

So once again, I know this is a month late, but I just wanted to post a little something about Kelv's birthday! We just had a little get together with close family and friends to celebrate just how wonderful Kelv is and how glad he's been alive for 23 years! wOOt! He's getting to be an old man!

This was also my first attempt at decorating a birthday cake so I figured that moment needed documentation... big time.

Also please note the little lego biker and also the biker on his birthday sign! Thanks to Paul and Jason for getting him the cyclometer to keep the biking theme "rolling"! ;-D

Valentine's Day

2008-05-04T23:24:00.000-06:00

Hey there!

So I know that it's a little bit late for this, but better now then never right?! Well, we've finally got a laptop back that we can download our pictures onto, so we wanted to do a couple posts of the things we've been doing over the past few months!

Our Valentine's celebration started the weekend prior to the 14th and we had a romantic theme dinner! Ratitouille, salad, and sparkling cider baby!

After learning how to make Ratitouille on the Rachel Ray show, I went and rented the exotic film from Red Box and we made a night of it! It was so fun to chop and roast all the vegetables and pasta together. Plus even though we halfed the recipe, we had enough Ratitouille leftover for Kelv's lunches the rest of the week! It also made a terrific mess of the oven!

Cosmo!

2008-04-10T13:32:00.003-06:00

Go cougars!

Our blood is blue. Is yours?

Ok, so maybe we're not that hardcore, but boy do we love BYU! Sitting at a volleyball game supporting our cougars, we had a rare opportunity that we just couldn't pass up. Cosmo was coming in the stands next to us, all we had was our cell phones! That was good enough us. It had to be! We called out to Cosmo and had him get in the picture with us. We didn't have time to hire a professional photographer and set up a back drop (Cosmo is a busy guy...), so it is somewhat of a candid shot. There is the classic "finger got in the way" border we added to make the shot look more like we were willing to get a shot with Cosmo no matter what it took. Yes, we are hardcore wanna-be's.

**Caution: Unless you are hardcore like us, we don't recommend getting this close to Cosmo - he really needs to wear a lot more deodorant.

Did they do that on purpose?

2008-01-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

So I had the chance to go eat lunch with Kelv at his work. Well, as we were sitting in the lobby about to enjoy our sandwiches I saw the funniest thing outside. Directly across the street from the building where Kelv works were parked three cars. We put it in black and white so you could appreciate it a little better!

Let the Journey Begin!

2008-01-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

On April 27, 2007 after being engaged since January 8, 2007, Kelv and I were married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple for all time and eternity! We are loving life and can't wait for all of lives new adventures!