Magnus is six months old!

Magnus' first Thanksgiving coincided with his 6 month birthday. Little did we know that we would spend the day in the same hospital where he was born. James woke up early Tuesday morning with a pain in his stomach.  The pain subsided a little over the next day but got significantly worse by Thanksgiving morning. He decided to go to a local clinic to get it checked out but it wasn't open due to the holiday.  He called my uncle, Steve, to ask for his medical opinion.  Steve came over and talked to James about his pain.  In the end he recommended going to the ER to rule out something serious. I was trying to figure out what to do with the kids, especially since Magnus nurses and doesn't take a bottle.  At all. I was feeling really flustered and Steve offered to take James up to McKay while I took Mina to my parent's house.  I was really grateful!

While James got processed at the hospital, I took Mina to my Mom and Dad's house. Brent and Melanie were headed to Bountiful for our family dinner, the same dinner we were planning on attending.  They dropped off their contribution and then drove to my parent's house to pick up me and Magnus.  By the time we got to the hospital, James was in surgery.  His white blood cell count was high enough that they opted not to do a scan and just proceed to surgery.

James sent me this before he went in for surgery

 We didn't have to wait too long before he was in recovery and then in a hospital room.  After that we waited for James to wake up and decide if he wanted to stay overnight or come home.

 I am so grateful that I have such wonderful in-laws! They stayed into the evening after I needed to leave to put the kids to bed.  James has really great parents!

 The next day Mina and I started to decorate the house for Christmas.  I couldn't reach the box for the Christmas tree so we waited to set that up until later.

 Magnus had his six month check up the following Monday.  He is healthy and doing great!
His six month stats:
Height: 26 1/4"
Weight: 17 lbs 13 oz
Head circumference: 17 1/4"

He wears size 6 month clothes and just moved in to size 3 diapers.  He and Mina wear the same size!

We have also started solids.

I don't think he is a fan.

Graduation!!!

 James was able to participate in commencement this month. He successfully defended his thesis a week before.  We are SO proud of him! James is almost done, just another round of revisions. But, before I write about graduation, I need to write about the weekend he defended his thesis.

We spent a lot of time in the car, like this:

We loaded up the car and drove to Logan for the defense. We watched the first portion of the defense, James presented a power point about his project.  He did a great job and Mina only contributed a little bit.

Several hours later we finally hit the road for Vernal. Mina did surprisingly well considering she hadn't really napped and she didn't eat a whole lot. By the time we got settled in at the motel it was, oh, 3 HOURS past her bed time. She was very chipper:



maybe a little TOO chipper





The next day we had breakfast with James' parents and then we went to James' cousin's sealing.  It was lovely.  The temple is so interesting because it was formerly the Tabernacle. I was glad we were able to attend and support Jared and Kendra. After the luncheon we packed up and headed home.

Mina entertained herself by taking self portraits.

I had to put a stop to these when I realized this had happened:

I dropped my phone in a parking lot in Vernal.  Ouch.  Luckily it still works!

A week after our Logan/Vernal adventure, we went back to Logan for commencement exercises.  James' parents, my parents plus James' sister and her family joined in the fun.  We were glad to reach another milestone and James is grateful to be another step closer to finishing his thesis. Finally.

the hooding gauntlet

I'm fairly certain James is behind the girl with long hair

Afterwards we had delicious Tandoori Oven and Aggie Ice Cream.  

Congratulations, James!