The Burning.....

We have had a crazy and scary couple of days. As many of you know Austin was burned by a gasoline fire. Many want to hear the whole story but just like any incident like this, you get tired of telling it over and over again so I thought posting the story here will make it so everyone can read the story if they want to know. First a warning I AM posting pictures of the injuries. So if you don't like that kind of thing, reading this post is NOT for you! Though the pictures don't look as bad as they did in person. (That's what I get for having a horrible camera.) They are still graphic. The worse ones are at the burn clinic. On with the story!












I went to a tupperware party at our friends', the Joneses, house. Yes, a tupperware party started the whole chain of events! Andrew and Merrill were outside with all the kids while us women were inside learning all about the cool products we could buy.

Andrew saw some wood that needed to be burned and suggested that they start a fire. They lit a few matches but they didn't take so Merrill suggested putting a little gas on it to get it going. They shooed Austin and Daimian back away from the fire pit, then They added the gas on the opposite side of where the matches were. As the gas was being added, the gasoline shifted in the container causing more to be added and it ignited big and fast! The fire started going back up the stream of gasoline to go back into the canister. Merrill reacted and as he moved, it made a stream of burning gasoline land on the kids (Austin and Daimian) and Andrew. Andrew seeing that he was on fire dropped and rolled. Merrill saw Austin running away and got him to stop running in time to see that his own child's head was on fire so he ran to help him. My brother-in-law, Scott was out there playing with Gavin and took over with Austin and starting patting away to try and stop the flames. At that point Andrew got his flames out and ran to Austin. He smeared Austin's face into the dirt to get the flames out and rolled him back and forth to get Austin's fire out. Then Austin was rushed inside for cold water. That is when I got to see what the crying I heard outside was about. I was unaware of the fire and thought that Austin was coming in with a bad head gash or something. So as he went to the kitchen sink Andrew said "Austin is burned!" I was so confused at first, how could he be burned? I went right over to inspect him. I saw right away they he needed medical attention. He already had a few blisters that developed and popped. I found our Medicaid card and sent Austin and Andrew off in the car to get him taken care of.

At that point Daimian was brought in. His hair was completely singed and some burn spots noticeable. Merrill and Corinne quickly got him in a tub of water and decided he didn't need medical attention. I got to Gavin who was confused and concerned about what happened but once I held him he calmed down and got down and started playing. As the adrenaline started to wear off, the reality started sinking in; all I could think about is how I should be at the hospital, and started crying. As I said it hadn't registered yet what this all meant. I asked the Joneses to watch Gavin and asked Scott to drive me to the ER.

I was brought back immediately and see 2 or 3 nurses around Austin, and Andrew among the mix.  Andrew gave him a sweet and powerful blessing. After the doctor arrived and stated that he doesn't want to touch it at all but they would but some burn free on it and call Primary Children's where we would most likely be admitted to watch him overnight. At that news I start to tear up, and also thought that the doctor was overreacting to the burn....

At the ER. Right when I first arrived.

  As some of you may remember I burned my hand in High School my Sophomore year. I was cooking bacon, left the pan on the stove with the heat still on. As it was brought to my attention, I picked up the pan, forgetting about the grease in bottom, and poured the grease down my hand, causing 3rd degree burns on my right hand and some spots worse than that.

Getting that thumb taken care of!

Austin's face didn't look as bad as that, which I am grateful for, except the ear had started swelling a lot more. I was concerned about that part. They gave Austin a shot for pain and gave him an IV. They had a hard time finding his vein. (Sorry Austin, looks like you have my veins!) We were able to get him calmed down for the IV and they got him a movie to watch as we waited to see what the game plan was going to be.

Sometime during all this over at the Joneses home they built another fire. Yes, another fire. They built it to show Daimian that there wasn't a reason to be scared of the fire and that what happened doesn't happen normally. They then had a calming prayer for Austin. While they were saying it Daimian suddenly sat up and said "Austin is OK." He said that so matter of factly it was hard not to believe him. It was like he knew.

The doctor told us that the U of U was having a burn clinic the next morning so we wouldn't need to be admitted. He also said they didn't sound as concerned as he was about the burn.

During this whole event Austin was mostly concerned about the burn on his thumb. Not the big burn on his head. Silly kid.

The next morning we called at 8 to get an appointment and were told they were only open til 10:30am. Andrew told me that and I was out the door. I didn't even wait for him to find out any instructions. I was saying so many little prayers on my way down there that I would be able to make it through the traffic quickly and easily. And amazingly enough, the cars almost seemed to part for me. It was a good thing that I didn't run into any traffic on the way there because there was a Marathon going on in SLC and it cut right across the easiest street to get to U of U. I again started praying to have there be a large break so all the cars ahead of me could get through. And only moments later all the cars ahead of me were able to get through and then I had to wait just a few more minutes for me to cross. I made it to the hospital at 10:10. If it weren't for the marathon, I would have been there at 10. It was such a relief that we made it and could get him taken care of. I'm not great with instructions, so just the fact I made it was a miracle in itself.

In the waiting room at U of U burn clinic waiting for our turn.

I gave him a James train and Percy train as a small gift for being so good.

Cutting off the bandage for the first reveal since the accident

Doesn't that make you hurt? He only whimpered a little as they rubbed the dead skin off.

Drawing as we waited for the nurse practitioner.

Still happy after the hands on cleaning job. A little swollen on that side.

Austin wanted a picture of his poor thumb that he obsesses over.

His coloring book for being a good patient. They also gave him 24 crayons to go with it. When we left the hospital they fell out all over the ground. Luckily some bystanders helped me pick them all up!

We are so grateful that things didn't turn out differently. So many things could have been worse. The first being that if Andrew hadn't of been telling the boys to get back a little farther, Austin wouldn't have burned his ear but his face! The other big one being, if Merrill didn't react the way he did the fire could have been worse, making a bigger explosion of fire. Austin's ear is already looking so great, we can't help but know he is being looked after by a higher power and will be back to better in no time. We won't know until our appointment on the 1st if there will be scarring. Thank you for all of your concerns and offers! Austin feels so loved.

Halloween 2011

Halloween was fun this year. We had the theme of Xmen. After many years of dressing up, as Rogue from X-men, I finally made her traditional outfit found in the comic books and the old animated series on TV. I was so proud of myself!

Me as Rogue

Andrew as Gambit (we didn't ever get an individual pic of his costume.)

Gavin as Nightcrawler

Austin as Wolverine

This was the first house we went to. The neighbors across the street. Austin was excited, as you can see in the pic, Austin is peering through the window. What you don't know is that he is yelling "Trick or treat!" and Gavin just cried the whole time. Great, and we still have about 20 houses to go....He warmed up to it after we let him stay in the stroller for the next few houses.
Besides the actual Halloween fun I also wanted to show off my decorations. Keep in mind we are grad students and have a VERY small budget:

 Don't ya love the BO? We ran out of staples in the gun and when I found the staples, the other O went missing... oh and there were more bats too, My little ones decided they needed a cave in the air vents.

I love my pumpkin frames!

The eye frame. I never put anything in it...next year I'll get something spooky instead of the insert that comes with the frame.....

Andrew's Birthday and other awesomness

Andrew's Birthday was on a Friday this year and it just so happened that Diane and Jeff had a condo reserved at Bear Lake that started that same day. They got to Logan and were nice enough to take us out to Olive Garden for Andrew's b-day. We had lots of fun and joking around. Austin got restless and left his seat and lied on the ground. Just in time for one of the waiters to come around with a tray of dirty plates. I still can't believe what I witnessed. Instead of tripping all over Austin this guy noticed him just in time and maneuvered around him. It was like watching a movie where the guy get around a hard obstacle with a cake or breakable dishes,  just to run into something simple to destroy what he saved. Except the disaster never happened. How he moved his wrist around like that is beyond me! I felt like I should have given him a tip!
After we left late for bear lake getting there around 8,9 I can't remember which! The moon was beautiful over the lake. Made me wish I could capture it. We spent the rest of the night getting kids in bed and talking through the night.
The next day we went for a little walk to see where things were and have fun on the scooters provided by the condo and played on the nearby playground. oh and we lost Issac for a little bit but no reason to get concerned. It was about 5 min. that's all.....

Just try and take it! I dare you.

Racing down the slides

Julie, Mana and Scott showed up soon after that and after lunch we went out and played some soccer and football. So much fun to watch (I took the pics) and fun to play a little soccer. While the little ones slept. I captured some interesting things....maybe we can guess what's going on......

Jeff hopefully going to catch the ball

Dallin eying  the ball

Friendly bro-in laws fighting

I bet I can run faster then you can!

Mana catches ball?!?!

wax on, wax off?

Julie and Scott bonking heads.?

The rest of the day was filled with swimming, food and games including some delicious root beer floats provided by the amazing Pounds ;)

Don't we all look interesting...

We had so much fun at bear lake, and really appreciated the invite! I took over 200 pics. I was the crazy lady with the camera that weekend.
Later that week we had fun and the next Friday with them it happened to be Diane's and my father b-day so we went and ate at our favorite sushi joint The Black Pearl. We had THE WORST service ever! I couldn't believe it. It might have been because of our large group but I was not impressed with our waitress. We had the remind her about everything. Our soup, food and sushi and even had to wait 5 min for our check though we received our take out boxes, first. I was so tempted to just go but I'm not that kind of person. Darn these morals! hehe but after we went to the pumpkin walk. sadly no camera was brought with us so you'll just have to believe us that we went and waited and waited in line from start to finish (waiting in line and then looking at the pumpkins and getting out of there) took us 2 hours! Crazy, we didn't get home til after 10.

After we got the kids in bed we headed out again. I know what your thinking. You have 2 small kids and left the house at 10:30 at night? I haven't been out that late in a LONG time. We went to a corn maze with everyone except baby Kaden, Gavin, Austin and Grandma and Grandpa (thanks for listening for the kids!)
It was a haunted maze so taking Dallin(8) and Issac (6) with us was just going to be fun right? Well it was :)
Isaac (and Dallin) was scared a bit after the first scare-ers jumped out and yelled, and even I got caught off guard when a guy came around the corner unexpectedly and I screamed a little. The best was Mana. She was scared the whole time and when she was put up front a guy jumped in front of her and she tried to run away. It was a good thing Scott had a hold on her or we would have never seen her again. It was hilarious! Til next time. And Happy 28th birthday to the love of my life!

Lee Family "Christmas" Party

This year's Lee Family Christmas Party didn't happen before Christmas in fact it didn't even happen in the Month of December. We had it on New Year's instead which was just fine and actually easier on everyone I think. All the racing around for Christmas everything was over so it was more relaxed and I enjoyed it more. We didn't get there in time for the beginning because of sick sleeping children. Remember the 3 weeks of Austin being sick? Well this party was at the latter end of the illness. We made it just after eating and just before the games. So in my opinion right at the best time. No waiting in line for food and we were so late we missed a lot of the small talk. For those that do not know I HATE small talk. I feel like at functions like this and others I am just saying the same thing over and over again. Andrew's schooling, kids ages,and no I have not gone back to work. Just over and over again to the same people it seems over and over again. It's not that I don't enjoy talking about our family it just that some that ask don't care about the answer and THAT'S what I hate about small talk. So just know if you ask you need to care.

      We usually have Santa visit us but this year it was past the season so who did we have come to visit?

Frosty the Snowman of course! here is everyone following him to his chair to hand out the presents. Grandma Lee makes and buys all her gifts. She use to make every single one of them but now because of age she has had to make it easier on her. It's a lot of gifts anyhow all grand-kids, great grand-kids and spouses get a gift and she had 9 kids. I might be under, that's what I count out right now....needless to say this is a huge family outing.
Here is all of us getting our gifts of love:

I'm a dork sometime aren't I? I was in a really funny mood that day. Look at what I did to Gavin:

I made him a his own hair. Just until his own grows in anyways...haha.
Here is the fam playing a game...Something about crossing the river..... It was like mother may I and running put together. The person in the middle call out who can run across (everyone with blue one) then everyone one runs whoever gets touched by the people in the middle becomes part of the middle. It seemed like fun but I was being one of those old people and sat on the side lines. 

And now pics of the kids

 see how he likes to suck on his Binky sometimes? I think it's hilarious!

Austin opening his gift.

Right after the Lee party we went over to Great grandma and grandpa Pound for their New years party. We played games and had lots of fun! Oh and great food as well. We hadn't planned on staying long because of sick kids but they were doing so well, we stayed and were so happy we did!

 Austin with Great Grandma Pound

Cheesy Gavin with Cousin Nathan Wood. He'll be leaving for his mission soon! It was a full day of fun and we saw a LOT of family but all in all a great day and the kids did so much better than we thought with Austin how he was feeling. Thank goodness!!