Phylcten-What?

Ever heard of a phylctenule? Yeah, we hadn't either. But after a visit to a pediatric ophthamologist, we learned all about it.

We noticed one day that Ellie's eye was blood shot. After a day or two, it cleared up but there was a small whitish bump on her eye, almost like it was mucus or something but it wouldn't move when she blinked. We took her to her pediatrician and she said, "Hmm... I have no idea what that is." But it wasn't irritating her, and it wasn't affecting her vision so she didn't seem too worried. Just in case, she referred us to the Rocky Mountain Eye Center in Salt Lake. But as with all specialists, we couldn't get an appointment for 3 1/2 weeks.

A week or so passed and her eye started clearing up. "Hooray!" we thought. But then it came back a few days later and seemed to be getting worse. So we called the ophthamologist and they were able to move up our appointment.

The doc diagnosed it as a phlyctenule. Wikipedia defines it as this: a small whitish bump or blister found on the eye. It is on one or more discrete spots on the eye and has visible small blood vessels. Or, as our doctor put it: it's a ramped up immune response to something that causes a bump on the eye.

Luckily, it's easily treatable. Well, if you consider putting eye drops into a fighting 6 month old easy, then yes... I suppose it is "easily" treatable.

But it's nothing serious, and she'll go back to being a beautiful, tan princess in no time!

Here's the best picture I could find of our Phlyctenule-baby, although it's not a very good one. It just looks like her eyes is a little red. If you want to see more disgusting pictures, you can always google it.

Ada Lilian Hansen

My sister and I were due exactly 6 months apart (Dec 16th & June 16th). Both of our little babies were very content where they were and came late. I was 4 days late, and Stacy was 7. But Ada finally came on June 23rd. So her and Ellie are 6 months and 3 days apart. They are going to have so much fun together when they're a little older!

Here are the proud parents!

And here's the beautiful baby girl!

And here are the kiddos side by side in adorable matching outfits supplied by my Mom. Notice how we had to restrain Ellie's arms. Ellie was far too interested in grabbing Ada's face.

Swimming Lessons

I signed up Ellie for swimming lessons this summer. I know she's a little young, but I was surprised how much she LOVED it! The second we entered the water her legs never stopped kicking.

On the last day, they had all the kids wear life jackets so they could float in the water by themselves. The recommended weight limit for these jackets was 30-45 lbs. Ellie was about 15 lbs at that time, so it was a little big on her.

This is Hailey and her mom Emily. I work with Emily at IMC and we thought it'd be fun to sign up for the classes together! Mike couldn't get a picture where the mamas and the babies were all looking. This was the best we could do!

And this was Ellie after swimming lessons every day. She would come home and CRASH!

Exploding Pyrex

Apparently we have angered the Pyrex Gods. Mike, Ellie and I came home from a day of doctor appointments and errands to find shattered glass all over our kitchen floor. My first thought was, "Shoot... someone broke into our apartment." But after a quick scan of the place, I realized I was overreacting. Or maybe under-reacting, cause what happened was much cooler: Spontaneous Exploding Pyrex.

Mike had made brownies a few days ago and after we finished them, we put the baking dish on the counter. There it was, waiting to be washed, when *BOOM*! At least, that's what I'm assuming happened because we weren't home when the actual explosion occurred. We read online that if you subject pyrex to extreme temperature changes, it can shatter. But it was sitting at room temperature with brownies in it for a few days. And it literally exploded because glass had flown a few feet away and landed in the sink and on top of some cannisters we have sitting on the counter.

We came up with some possible explanations:

1. Ellie has X-men mutant powers where her high-pitched scream can break glass, and somehow she controlled it so only the pyrex broke. This is unlikely due to the fact that Ellie wasn't home. Not because she doesn't have these powers.
2. The pyrex dish was so mad at not being washed sooner, it decided to spite us by breaking into a million pieces.

And really, those are the only other options besides spontaneous explosion. So spontaneous explosion it is!

Thank you Spontaneously Exploding Pyrex for making our lives a bit more interesting.

Alright, alright...

Baby's sleeping, house is unpacked (mostly), dishes are clean, laundry is running... I guess I don't have any more excuses. I better update this darn blog.

A lot can happen in 4 months. Let's see if I can catch it all. Here's an update on our family, mainly with pictures of Ellie, since she's the cutest member of our family and a strategically placed picture will cause you to keep reading no matter how boring this gets.

First, I got a new job. I am one of the newest employees at IMC, also known as the Death Star because of it's massive size and super weapon capabilities. I work in the Transfusion Department.

We do all of the testing when people receive blood at the hospital. We figure out what type people are, find out if they have antibodies that will cause problems when they receive blood, and well... I'm sure you don't really care about ALL of the things we do, but it is quite the interesting job. IMC is a Level 1 Trauma Center, meaning it has the personnel and the equipment to handle the worst situations. Gunshot wounds, car accidents, falling into fish tanks, yes... we see it all! Part of our responsibility in the blood bank is to take up emergency release blood to the Trauma Bays when really bad cases come in. Initially, when I signed up for this program at BYU they said, "Now you know as a Med Tech, you won't have patient contact, right?" Ha! No patient contact my eye! Now I'm getting more patient contact than I ever wanted. It's pretty crazy when you are up in the trauma rooms banding a patient and collecting samples, and then you go down to the lab and get online to read more about what happened on the news. As happy as I'd be without seeing some of the crazy stuff I do, it is a really satisfying job. It's easier to see that even though we're down in the lab, we're helping save lives.

The other nice thing about my job is it's a 7 on/7 off position, meaning I have every other week off. The 7 on is killer! But the 7 off is fantastic!

Just a side note: if you have B or AB blood, you should donate more. And anyone who isn't afraid of needles and has 2 hours to spare, donate platelets. Cause there's always a shortage of platelets. (And I'm off my soap box.)

We also moved to a condo in Murray, which is nice since I can get to work in about 3 minutes. Great ward, great location, and our condo is a lot bigger than our last place.

And we're really proud of Mike! He took the LSAT last week and will find out in a few weeks what he got so he can start applying to law schools in October. Way to go Mike! It's such a terrible test and we're both glad it's over! Other than that, he's being a stay-at-home papa, which Ellie couldn't be happier about! She's such a Daddy's girl!

Oh yeah! And then there's Ellie. The cutest baby ever. Here's a few pictures to prove my point.

Ellie is 6 months old now! My how time flies! She's rolling, babbling, grabbing, and getting spoiled.

She's started eating,

And drinking,

And playing,

And sleeping.

Being a Mom just keeps getting better and better!

And there you have it! Our life in a nutshell! Sorry this was so long. I promise to try and update a little more regularly in the future to avoid the Death Star of posts.

Beary Cute

Given the color of her hair, she'll never be Goldilocks. But we think she makes one heck of a cute Baby Bear.

Hunger Signs

Ellie wakes up very happy in the morning...

She likes to play and talk with mama and papa until...

Hunger rears its ugly head and she transforms into this. We call it her "Tiger Face." If tigers liked milk, I'm sure they'd look something like this: hungry, intimidating, and not something you'd refuse to give milk to.