Happy New Year 2012

Our plan for ringing in the new year?

A dinner of appetizers, Kung Fu Panda 2, the Smurfs, and a not so quiet night at home!

Quin Quotes and Dallin Doings

Some Quin Quotes:

1. Mommy: "Quin, do you want to watch Pocahontas?"

Quin: "Ya, lets watch hippopotamus!"

In Quin's mind, if there is a long, hard word being said, it is usually hippopotamus

2. "I am a cute man!"

3. During Sacrament meeting....

Quin: I'm thinking about Jesus

Mommy: Good job

Quin: I'm soooooooo smart (Said in a shouting, not very reverent voice)

4. Popsicle-cul-cul-cul-cul

5. Quin calls butter knifes "sharks." I guess they have a shark-like shape and are dangerous!

Dallin updates:

1. Dallin is huge. I mean mega-big. The doctors said get him nice and fat for his surgery that is coming up. I have taken this command very seriously. Dallin is a beast. My back hurts from lifting him.

2. Dallin is having his palate surgery on December 28th. Mommy is entering "freak out phase".

3. This kid snores. Really loud. There is never any doubt as to whether or not he is asleep. All you have to do is listen for the melodic snoring and you know his status

4. He loves splashing water all over his mom, brother and himself in the bath. Sometimes I worry that he won't be able to breathe because he is splashing so much water in his face, so fast while in the tub. He loves the water!

Fall Festivities

In October this year we did some....

dressing up like pumpkins and Peter Pan

a little trunk-or-treating

the boys spent some time exchanging sicknesses (can you tell who isn't feeling well in the pic below)

we conquered a corn maze

we visited some of our favorite little people

went on a little trip to the coast

and took a couple of fall walks

The moment I have been waiting for...

...matching outfits for the boys.

The Bryces that I love

Growing up our family often spent a week or two at Bryce Canyon. It was one of our favorite vacation spots. When I was in college at BYU I started dating this guy and called my mom to tell her how much I liked him. She asked what his name was. It was Bryce. She said she knew at that moment that my roaming single days were over. Bryce was a good name in our family.

We just got back from our first trip back to Bryce Canyon in about 10 years. It was Bryce's first time visiting. The whole vacation was very nostalgic for me and it was fun to take my little family to one of my favorite places.

I love Bryce Canyon. And I love Bryce Doty.

If you need a good book, read this....then call me.

Are you a fan of the Hunger Games series? If you answered "yes" then you will love this book. It has been a while since I have had a good book that I just could not put down. This was one of those. I started it yesterday and finished it today. It was a glorious 48 hours.

It is very reminiscent of Hunger Games because it takes place in the future and everyone is divided into groups, and there is some love interest yadda yadda yadda.

Lets just say it is awesome. Read it! Now I need a good book.....any recommendations?

Some Quin Quotes

1. "Mommy you're a girl. Daddy and Quin is a boy. Dallin is a man."

2. "I love you too mommy. You are my best friend"

3. "It's nice to be home." (Said every time we arrive home)

4. (When Mufasa died on the Lion King) "Awwww... he is sad that his daddy is sleeping"

5. (Looking outside our dark window at night) "Where did the outside go?"

6. (After a long nap) "What happened to me?"

Not a Fan of Solids

It is so funny to see the unique qualities if little Dallin as he grows. Here are a few fun tidbits about this cutie:

1. He hates having a dirty diaper. As soon as he fills a diaper he cries until it is changed. Once it is changed he is a happy camper. This kid has never had a diaper rash because of it!

2. When pooping he makes a high pitched grunting noise. I imagine it is the kind of noise a very small dinosaur to make.

3. Dallin kicks his feet whenever he is excited. Whenever I am approaching him shaking a bottle his little feet start kicking so fast that they are practically a blur. He really likes his bottles....finally!

4. Dallin's favorite person is his brother Quin. Whenever he is around Dallin is either smiling or laughing at him.

5. Dallin does not like solid foods! We have tried rice cereal and a little applesauce to tempt him. So far all we have gotten is sour faces. However, even the sour faces are cute!

I love this little guy!

Big Days for the Boys

Quin is now a three-year-old. This past Saturday we celebrated this momentous occasion by going to train mountain with the Grandparents, Nana, and the aunts. There we rode 13 miles on the worlds longest miniature railroad. It was the perfect day for Quin. After riding the mini-train twice we had a picnic lunch. Then we headed home for pizza, presents, and cake.

Here was a little interview I conducted with my little 3-year-old, these were his exact responses. A few of them don't exactly make sense, but bare with me:

How old are you? 2.... (5 seconds later) 3

Whats your birthday? Cars (meaning we had a cars birthday)

Fav color? Orange?

Fav Toy? Orange truck and Buzz

Fav Movie? Dumbo

Fav food? Cake

Fav thing to do? I like the letter "e"

Fav place to go? the library

What makes you happy? Smiles

Who is your best friend? Brent

What do you like to do with mom? Hug

What do you like to do with dad? Eat Pizza

The interview ended with Quin saying his monster trucks wanted to go see the animals.

The next day was Dallin's blessing. Here he is in his adorable outfit which just so happens to be the same one that Bryce wore when he was blessed. It was a special day.

Is it really over? (sob, sob, tear, tear)

I started reading the Harry Potter series when I was 14. At this point only the first and second books were out. I remember bringing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to seminary early in the morning and someone laughing at me for reading a book about some guy with the name Harry Potter. Well who is laughing now? My love for Harry began early, and honestly it sounds strange but he has been a part of my life for the last 12 years. We have been through the ups and downs of life together.

I have done a lot of waiting for Harry. I waited for the 3rd book to come out. Then the 4th. Then the 5th. Then the 6th. And finally the seventh. When I finally got my hands on the seventh book at a midnight release, I stayed up all night reading it so no one could ruin the ending for me. I also have done a lot of waiting for the movies, which I also love.

I just saw the last movie a few hours ago and am a bundle of emotions right now. I am elated because it was wonderful but I am saddened by the fact that I don't have anymore Harry to look forward to...except maybe for a trip to Orlando to see the Wizarding World.

I guess I just want to say, Harry, I love you.

For my 100th post: A Little Info on the littlest Doty

1. Dallin loves his hands. In his spare time he stares at them in wonder or shoves them into his mouth. They are his two best friends.

2. In Dallin's short 3 months of life he has sampled many different liquids: breastmilk, fortified breastmilk, 3 brands of formula, acid reflux medicine and fortified formula. But his favorite of all is a mixture of rice cereal and formula. He gobbles it down.

I feel like a chemist because within a 24-hour period I usually serve him 4 different combinations of rice cereal, formula, and breastmilk in 4 different bottles to increase his caloric intake. His favorite bottle you might ask? The infaFeeder. Why? Because it has the good stuff- Rice cereal.

3. Dallin is skinny and long. He is gaining weight very slowly, thus the reason for all the different food combos.

4. Dallin loves watching faces, particularly his brother Quin's. Quin will sit next to him and say "LA LA LA" very slowly and Dallin thinks it is hilarious. It gets him smiling every time.

5. Dallin hates pooping. It makes him mad.

6. Dallin likes hats. I could never get Quin to wear a hat, but Dallin enjoys them. He appreciates the matchy-matchyness of hats which correspond to specific outfits.

7. Dallin's favorite game used to be"Watch me Try to Stick out my Tongue". This basically involved him trying to stick out his tongue, but not getting very far because it was tied down. However he just got his tongue clipped so he is no longer tongue-tied. Now the name of the game is "Lets Learn to Eat with a Free Tongue."

8. Dallin's greatest wish is to someday hold a binky in his mouth without assistance. He loves sucking on his binky but can't manage to keep it in without someone holding it. As a result he ALWAYS has a binky clipped onto him.

9. Dallin sleeps through church 95% of the time. It is his favorite place to nap.

10. Dallin is a joy to our little family. We all adore this little guy.

Ingredients for a Perfect Day at Disneyland:

1. One 2-and-a-half year old boy.

2. Breaking 2 Disneyland rules. We recommend:

a. No bumping at Autopia

b. You must be 40 inches to ride on Star Tours

(our 38-incher couldn't stop talking about lasers and robots after this mind-blowing experience)

3. Meeting the character whose T-shirt you are wearing.

Added bonus: being able to lovingly stroke your favorite character

4. Catch some zzzzzzzz's wherever you can. Whether it be at the Disney Junior show...

...or in line for finding Nemo.

5. Dinner and a show with balcony seats. Nothing like a little hand-clapping and hootin' and hollerin' to work up your appetite.

6. Take a walk on the wild side and make some new friends.

7. Ride Dumbo. It is the best.

A perk of looking like a famous person...

Sometimes you get a free bowl of gumbo at a restaurant for looking like Taylor Swift. Why gumbo, you might ask? I don't know, but if you have any ideas let me know.

Oh Brother

Blogging has fallen by the wayside as I have been adjusting to life with two little boys. The transition from 1 to 2 kids has been harder for us than the transition to 0 to 1. However now that I have a spare moment and both boys are sleeping, here are some updates on the Doty boys:

Dallin is all smiles now that we have figured out what bottles work with his cleft palate. He has been having weekly weight checks and we are happy to report he is steadily gaining weight. One of the bothersome things about having a cleft palate is that Dallin can't suck. So although he loves having a binky in his mouth he isn't able to keep it in because he can't suck on it. As a result I spend a lot of my time holding the binky in his mouth so he has something to soothe himself with. Despite feeding difficulties this guy is a great sleeper (I think we earned it after Quin's restlessness the first year of his life.) He is an easy going kid and is a blessing to our family.

Quin has been keeping us on our toes. The other day I discovered the hard way that Quin had been doing some diaper digging. After digging in his full diaper he decided that playing the piano would be a good idea. He then came to me and showed me his dirty hands. Luckily my friend Brittany was over so she was able to take Dallin while I cleaned up a stinky toddler and piano.

Above: Evidence of the diaper digging debacle of 2011

Some good news to report on the Quin front is that he is finally wearing his glasses. He still tries to sneak them off, but usually a reminder/warning will get them back on. Quin is also adjusting to baby Dallin. The first month was a tough time for poor Quin...it is tough sharing mommy's attention. However with time and little advise from my new favorite parenting book "1-2-3 Magic" Quin is now becoming the Dallin's helper. He loves to get him blankets and give him his binky when it falls out. He is now proud of his new title "Big Brother"

Happy Easter

Love the Doty Bunnies

"God Bless Us, Everyone"

Last night Bryce was saying a prayer before dinner. He was asking Heavenly Father to bless Mommy and Quin and Baby Dallin. At this point Quin made a valuable addition into the prayer of someone who he cares about deeply: "And bless Thomas the Train."

Thomas the Tank engine, I hope you feel blessed kmowing that there is a two year old out there praying for you.

Our Little Dallin

Things have been pretty crazy over the past week. Between a marathon labor and delivery and discovering that our little Dallin has a cleft palate we have been very busy. It seems like every moment of the day I am either on the phone with a nurse/doctor/lactation consultant or am at some health professionals office! Here is a summary of what has been happening:

While Quin's labor and delivery was like a running a sprint, Dallin's delivery was like running a marathon. I started feeling steady contractions at 5am on Saturday, April 2. I laid on the couch most of the day listening to General Conference and timing contractions. By 3:00pm I decided to go to the hospital. When I got there they checked me and informed me that I was 2 cm dilated. They also told me my doctor was out of town. After laboring at the hospital for 2 hours the checked me again and sent me home because I wasn't progressing fast enough. I was not happy about this. I went home and after feeling what I like to call "death contractions" every 3 minutes for an hour we went back to the hospital. They checked me again and I was at a 3. A stinkin 3. I thought for sure they would have said "Wow...you are a 8 lets get you an epidural." Nope. I was not that lucky. I labored at the hospital another 2 hours. They checked me again. Still a 3. At this point they wanted to send me home again. However I would not have it.

One thing I have learned from watching Baby Story on TLC is that when the pregnant lady in labor freaks out- I mean really freaks out- she usually gets what she wants. So I decided to freak out. When the doctor returned to bid me a fond farewell home I burst into tears. I may or may not have said things like...

"On your stinkin pain scale of 1-10 I am and eleven"

"I can't take it anymore"

"I am not gonna go home and then just have to turn around and come back"

All followed by tears and angry stares at the on-call doctor

10 minutes later they were ushering me into the delivery room and were preparing me for my hospital stay. 30 minutes later I reached the magical 4 to get my epidural. By 2am I was blissfully numb and slept until delivery time.

Delivery was great and little Dallin was born weighing 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20 inches long on April 3 at 8am. He is one adorable baby! Everything seemed like it was going well at the hospital. Dallin seemed healthy and happy and nursing seemed like it was progressing normally. We left the hospital on Monday afternoon.

I started noticing that things weren't going well with nursing when we got home. He couldn't keep a latch and just didn't seem to be sucking. I decided to supplement with formula because he always seemed frustrated and hungry. I went to my pediatrician to request and SNS tube which supplements formula while you nurse and to get breastfeeding advise. He didn't really spend much time with us and just suggested a few places where we might find the SNS tube. After getting what I wanted we started supplementing but I just felt like something still wasn't right. I made an appointment with the lactation consultant at the hospital. The next day things seemed to be going better and I pondered canceling my appointment with the lactation consultant. That's when I noticed that Dallin had a string connecting the bottom of his tongue to the bottom of his mouth. I realized he was tongue tied and decided to go the the hospital to get advise on what to do.

When we got to the hospital the nurse looked at Dallin's tongue and then she noticed the cleft palate. Suddenly everything started to make sense. Dallin had not been able to suck, milk had been coming out of his nose whenever we laid him down, he had failed his hearing test because there was too much fluid in his ears. After getting over the initial shock I was peeved with our pediatrician for not taking the time to look in my child's mouth after I had explained all this to him so I decided then and there to switch to another doctor.

We just had an appointment with our new pediatrician yesterday and I am feeling much better about things. Dallin now has some special bottles that he can drink from and I am pumping since nursing is no longer an option. We are going to have a nurse come to our house weekly to help make sure he maintains his weight and he is staying a healthy, happy boy. The big bummer is that Dallin will probably need surgery somewhere between 6-12 months. I hate that we have to do surgery. It is scary and I am already freaking out. Until then we will be making monthly trips to Portland to see palate specialists at OHSU.

We are so grateful for our sweet little boy and are glad that we finally know what is going on and are on the right track to getting the care he needs.

Free at Last, Free at Last

Goodbye stinky cast.

Hello bathtime!

Aloha

What Hawaii Means to Me:

1. Burgers by the beach.

2. Race Car drivers in deep concentration at the pool

3. Fresh fruit for breakfast. All Quin ever wants to eat now are mango and pineapple.

4. Lots of sand. Everywhere.....except Quin's cast thanks to the waterproof blue boot.

5. Snorkling. Bryce saw sea turtles and Eels. I saw camoflauge sand fish.

6. Walks by the beach

7. Pearl Harbor

8. Motorized handgliding (for Bryce).

9. Lots of shaved ice. My favorite combo: coconut, pineapple, passionfruit with sweet and condensed milk drizzled on the top. I may have had 5+ of these on our trip.

10. Quin drinking pool water/beach water

11. Bryce learning that pineapples don't grow on trees at the Dole plantation

12. BYU Hawaii, temple and Polynesian Cultural Center

13. The zoo. Closest tigers I have ever seen!

14. Luau in Waikiki

15. Shark tattoos on casts

Hawaii: I. Love. You.