My Benjamin

I absolutely love my little man. I've never had a child so all over the board with his moods though. He can be such a cuddlebug one minute and the next be giving you his evil eye.

Lately he's been cracking me up with his parrot-like comments. I've had to get on the other kids to be careful of the things that come out of their mouth. When you praise him for something he's done, his reply is "I'm just awesome like that" (thanks Jordan). Wow, no problems with self esteem with this guy! (BTW, we're working on stopping this phrase).

He recently lost 2 teeth. I don't think I've had a child lose teeth before kindergarten, but he is older than the others were at that point. It's hard to believe he will be going to school next year. Partly I'm excited, so that I can have a couple hours free to myself each day. On the other hand, I'm sad because my baby will be in school. It's never easy when they start school. They still seem too little, and it feels like I'm sending them in to the wolves. I really had this feeling sending my kids to middle school....probably because I WAS sending them to the wolves.

I know he thinks he's 15 at times. He feels he should be able to do whatever he wants. Mom should NEVER tell him no. Dad, on the other hand, has more power over him in that department.....but hey, most kids respond to dad more anyways. At church on Sundays, you may not see me quite so happy with him though. Since Taylor's rarely at church with us, Ben pushes my buttons a little more. When he flashes his dimply smile at me, it's hard to stay mad at him long.

These pictures really sum up his personality best........

Determination written all over his face as he learns to crawl.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him when he was little.

He loves the dogs......sometimes a little too roughly though.

Swinging on Dadoo's hammock with Charlie & Mason.

A rare sight. He's constantly moving.....and never slowly.

He is obsessed with deodorant (pronounced "doe-o-dorant"). He wants to be just like his brothers. Last Christmas Noah gave him this deodorant for a present.

Caught him reading Hailey's Twilight magazine. He was not happy I took this picture.

He loved Primary baseball.

Taking a break to visit with Brendan at 2nd base.

I'm thinking this would be a good timeout spot.

He lost 2 teeth within a day of each other.

The Past 7 Months in a Nutshell

I always felt like blogging was like journaling. I'm realizing now more than ever how much that is true. Especially when it comes to letting too much time pass between blogs. The longer it goes, the more guilty I feel, but the more I feel I need to include, so I never end up getting around to it. Such a vicious cycle! So for my sake, if nothing else, I'll sum up what's happened around here for the past 7 months.........

September:

Jordan had a skin graft on his leg. I'll keep the graphic images for my own personal viewing, but I will fill everyone in on his progress. The surgery went perfectly. As expected, the place on his thigh where they took the donor skin was extremely painful. The doctor told him that he would need to wear a compression sock for almost a year. Because Jordan was vigilant about following the doctor's orders, plus the fact that he had youth on his side, he was able to keep the skin flat enough that he doesn't need to wear that legging. Now he just has his "awesome" battle scar to show off to the world.

I turned another year older this September (no age in needed). My life is quickly passing before my eyes. It's so true when they say you never feel as old as you look. Mentally I feel 25. Physically, I sometimes feel 70. The amount of candles on this cake almost burned a hole in the ceiling. Good thing they took a picture beforehand because the smoke afterwards just about blocked out the camera's lens.

Airplane with my brother Michael.

Jordan's view of combing his hair. He figures he can get his mop flattened by using a hat to do the work for him.

October:

Noah turned 11 and received his Arrow of Light. I will always remember that night as being somewhat of a surprise. We were dealing with some issues at home, so I asked Noah if he really wanted to go to Scouts that night, since it was just a pack meeting and he didn't think he was receiving anything. About 6:15 (pack meeting started at 6), I got a call from a friend.......

"Are you still coming tonight?"

"Coming where?"

"To pack meeting."

"Well, I wasn't planning on it. Why? Is Noah supposed to be doing something for it tonight?"

"Well, he's sort of the guest of honor. He's receiving his Arrow of Light."

"Huh? That's news to me! We'll be right there!"

So I yelled for everyone to hurry and get in the car. I felt horrible for holding up the meeting, but yes, it would have been nice to know about it in the first place. I am so proud of Noah in receiving this award. He was so dedicated to Cub Scouting that he decided he was going to earn every single pin before he turned 11....and he did it!

Nicole, Jared & their kids came to visit for a few days. We were lucky enough to go see Lion King. That show is AMAZING! I highly recommend it. Ben was just transfixed the entire time.

Another one bites the dust. Our table bench tipped over and landed on Hailey's foot. I wasn't sure if it was broken, but with our track record I decided to bring her to the podiatrist just in case. Sure enough, a bone in her foot was snapped in half. We have our podiatrist on speed dial at this point.

Taylor's idea of a Halloween costume for the youth dance. I'm not exactly sure the idea he was going for, but he certainly got razzed by the other leaders. I'm guessing it was a 70's type guy, but the chain, yellow shades, shaded beard & undereyes made him look like either a druggie or a pimp. He was the talk of the night, as you could imagine.

An angel & a snake. Most people thought the cast was part of the costume & called her a "fallen angel".

Taylor & I were invited to a couples party at our friends' house. We were supposed to dress similar, and this was the only thing we could come up with (by the way, it's nice being able to fit into your son's clothes at times like these). It ended up being a Newlywed type game, but they called it the "More-lywed game". Amazingly we ended up winning the whole thing (it was VERY close though).

Noah & Bill once again were able to spend their birthday together. I'm not sure if they've missed a year since the day Noah was born. Noah LOVES the Packers, so I had to make a jersey cake for him.

November:

We took a trip up to Cold Creek in the northwest part of town. Taylor goes here to fish sometimes, the wild horses wander all around with no fear of people obviously.

They are a little skittish, but they will let you pet them if you're slow about it.

This one was so fearless, he decided to peek his head in to say hi.

The big month of November came. We were not so much excited for Thanksgiving and the school break it brings, but that New Moon came out. It was almost as exciting as Christmas for us!

I received a new calling to be the Boy Scout Committee Chairman. I was a little surprised at this, since I thought women handled the Cub Scouting and men handled the Boy Scouts. I also felt very overwhelmed for a couple of months, since I had absolutely NO idea about Boy Scouts and how it worked. I really love the calling now.

Cousins swinging in the hammock and Momoo's house (Reese, Charlie & Clara)

BYU vs. Utah game. All the men in our family are obvious BYU football fans.

December:

Jordan got his braces off.....a perfect present for his birthday the following day.

Jordan & his cousin Claire share the same birthday, albeit 12 years apart. Love the staredown she's giving him here.

An Xbox controller for Jordan's birthday. I was in such a hurry, so I feel like I could have done a lot better on this one. It was fun though.

Christmas at Grandpa Bill's house. So exciting having Santa take time out of his busy schedule to visit our family.

Four generations of Kochs (& a Caron)

Mistletoe hung in our entryway.

We made gingerbread houses this year for the first time.

Santa came and went. He's always so nice to leave the kids some reindeer milk.

We are very into "lining up" for events. It used to be pretty easy to do. Youngest to oldest.

Now there are so many of us, we hardly fit in the hallway. Plus the women are ending up having to stand in front of their children in order to be seen.

January:

I guess this month was little slower. Either that, or there was nothing exciting to photograph. I do have a good video though.......

He's eaten his vitamins every day since.

February:

Hailey turned 9. She wanted a cake shaped like a purse, so I did my best to use her initials of HC to copy the LV of the Louis Vuitton purses. Turned out pretty good for my first try.

March:

My little man turned 5 on March 31st. I can't believe it's been that long since my baby was born.

This cake was much bigger than it looked in this picture.

Such an annoying mom on the sidelines. I couldn't get away with this with my older boys.

Primary baseball started off to a violent start. Every time the ball was hit, a dogpile ensued. With the amount of time it took to pull all the kids off each other, the runner could have made a home run.

Ben had the ball in his hands in this play, but his teammate was holding his arm with the mitt down so he couldn't get up.

April:

We ended up getting a new playmate for Katie (and for us of course). Having a puppy is fun, yet challenging.

Missy's favorite sleeping position. I don't get it.

Katie's favorite pasttime is licking the dinner dishes while their being loaded in the dishwasher. Now she has a partner in crime.

Benjamin lost 2 teeth within a day of each other. He has the cutest lisp now.

Hailey & Benjamin decided that they wanted to leave a treat for the Easter Bunny. We leave food for Santa, so why leave EB out of the fun?

Easter bonnets are my the tradition at Momoo & Dadoo's house. We don't start the egg hunt until everyone sticks that bucket on their heads.

Update

Jordan will be getting his skin graft surgery on Friday. We're both very excited. I'm thrilled because we can finally lay this injury to rest. He's thrilled because he gets to miss at least a day of school. I just don't think he knows what he's really in for.

By the way...I kind of have a theory. Granted, I didn't go to medical school, but I am curious if his wound has not been healing because of his allergy to the antibiotic he's been putting on. His burn in just one week has improved considerably with a new patch they gave him.

Hmmmm, curious.

Here's the Story

Many people have been asking the deal with Jordan and his leg and how it happened. I am usually pretty strong when it comes to injuries involving my children, but this one tends to get me a little queasy.

For those of you who know Jordan, you understand that he isn't one to shy away from stupid situations. I firmly believe that one day I'll see him on Nitro Circus. Two months ago, Jordan and Noah went up to Utah to visit with his grandparents. He stayed a while longer in order to visit with his cousins in Rexburg. My brother in-law owns Rexburg Motor Sports, so dirt bikes and four wheelers are readily available. One afternoon while dirt biking, he got stuck in some mud and the bike tipped over on him. His leg became stuck between the tire and the exhaust pipe and burned clean through his jeans. Funny how his jeans had no damage, just the leg.

Now, for a positive and a negative. Negative note, during the month of August we had no insurance. Positive note, since he was up in Idaho, he could go straight to the burn center and didn't have to be sent to every other doctor in Vegas, each of them charging a fee, just to end up sending him to the one who would treat him. Things seem to be much simpler in Rexburg. Plus, medical treatment up there is considerably cheaper.

Hanging out in the whirlpool for burn treatment. This was the daily drill for a couple weeks.

So, we kept him up in Rexburg with my saint of a sister in-law Nicole in order to get him as much treatment as possible before bringing him home. The timing of it all couldn't have been more perfect. He had enough work done on him up there in order for us to understand what the extent of the damage was, as well as learn how we needed to treat him when he got home. Also, hey were kind enough to send him home with a huge box of supplies to get us by for a while (never knew how expensive gauze and wrappings were).

We have also been blessed to have a couple of nurses in our ward. I was able to ask whatever question I had, plus one of them came by a couple times to check things out and make sure everything looked okay. We pretty much knew a skin graft was on the horizon, but had to hold out hope that it would heal on its own.....or at least stay okay until our insurance began.

So, that's where we lie. We've had our consult at UMC's burn unit and are just awaiting a call for the surgery date. I can't wait for this to all be over with. And if I can't wait, I can just imagine how Jordan must feel. I do have to say, he has been VERY tough through this whole process. He's been taking care of his wound himself, being very cautious as to follow the exact steps the doctors told him. He doesn't complain about the pain at all....unless someone accidentally knocks his leg. I forget half the time that he even has this issue. I just couldn't be more proud of him.

For those of you morbid types, who enjoy checking out wound pictures, I'll post them here. For those of you who might puke if you see any sort of blood, I'll post them very small.

1 hour after the accident

3 weeks after

4 weeks after

At the consult with the surgeon....we didn't know he was allergic to sulfa in the antibiotic they gave us to apply. This caused the redness here.