Joslin my youngest is a little princess. Today she brought Juliette her makeup and said, “Mom! Make me a princess! I need makeup on!” I immediately said, “NO! No makeup on until you’re sixteen!” I have never seen a body crumple to the floor so fast. She was literally a limp rag doll on the floor completely heartbroken by her mean ol’ dad. Sobbing and with pleading eyes, she turned to her momma to plead her case. I turned my head to continue with my delicious dinner that my wonderful wife made when all of the sudden the crying stopped. “Hmm, that’s unlike her” I thought. I didn’t quite see it but I suspect that “momma” put some lipstick on her princess. UPDATE** Just confirmed, Juli did in fact place some lipstick on that girl to make her into a princess. Good to know that I am not the only softie when it comes to Jos the Boss the mighty mighty princess.

Both Joslin and Hailey are special special girls. Each has a distinct personality and way of doing things. One thing they do that is very similiar however is they like to mother things. Hailey mother’s her animals and plays with them all the time. Joslin likes to mother her dolls and make sure that they are covered in blankets and not cold. A few weeks ago, I came home and as I was getting out of my car, I twisted my back just right. By the time I got into the house I was in pain. I slowly climbed the stairs like a decrepit old man and barely made it to bed. As I laid there, Joslin came in to ‘check’ on me. She was asking all sorts of questions and genuinely concerned for my well being. Every so often she would kiss my arm or cheek and ask if that made me feel better. Of course it warmed my heart but my back, well I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it still hurt. After a few minutes of this, I figured she got tired of me because she abruptly left the room. I closed my eyes trying not to concentrate on the pain and I slowly drifted off. (It had been a long day after all!) All of the sudden I felt wetness on my forehead. As I groggily and grouchily came to, I realized that it was Joslin kissing me on the forehead. Having drifted off for my 5 o’clock nap, I didn’t realize that Jos came back into the room. She had come back with a doll and one of her favorite pink blankets. I was snug as a bug wrapped in her blanket with a doll sitting on my chest. She was sitting next to me and had been kissing me better. And people wonder why I am wrapped around her little pinky finger!

That was my kissin’ story. Now for the cussin’ story.

Juli and I gave away our TV’s before we moved to Utah. The events surrounding said TV giveaway are pretty well documented here.. To compensate for the loss of that entertainment we turned to the internet. Yes, I know, the internet, that magical and mysterious place where all your dreams can come true. At least that is what the brochure from that multi-level marketing company promoting a miracle drink that cures everything from Asthma to Zinc Deficiency Dermatitis said. Anyways, Juli and I found a wonderful website called Hulu.com. They show our favorite TV programmes on the interwebs! w00t!

So Juli and I have been closet TV watchers since giving our real TV’s away. It has been great because we don’t have to be slaves to a time frame. We can watch our favorite shows anytime we want. Sorry back to the story. Juli and I are watching a TV programme the other night and boom! A cuss word. Not a bad one, in fact it’s pretty common for this particular piece of profanity to be played on the airwaves. This word however was said in a funny context. Let me clarify, it was the way in which the word was said and the saying with out the word would have been meaningless. Lo and behold, Juli starts busting up laughing! Now, I am shocked. I have been married to this lady for nigh 11 years this March and I am speechless. Anyone who knows Juli, knows that she is the most kind and caring and righteous do-gooder you will ever meet. Well now you know her dirty dark secret. Her flaw, if you will, is that cussin’ doesn’t bother her and sometimes it even makes her laugh. Next time you see her, walk up to her and cuss at her. See what she does. There is a good chance she will giggle.

As I thought about this incident and reflected on past incidents, I realized that this was not the first time such an event had occurred. I remember one time back in 2002 when we were in the theater watching The Adventures of Pluto Nash starring Eddie Murphy, that a cuss word was said and Juli busted up laughing. It wasn’t even that funny.

Now, I am not talking major profanity you would hear at a Sam Kinnison show nor am I talking about ‘farm language’. I am talking your every day bible swearing that cracks her up. Sometimes I intentionally select scriptures like Genesis 22:3 just so I can hear Juli swear in front of the children. So please don’t walk up to her and drop an F-bomb. That would not be funny. As I wrote this, I actually imagined someone doing that and thought, “Hey that probably would be funny.” But please, still don’t do it. Unless I am around with my camera in hand and can get a picture of the moment.

As you have read this, you might have thought to yourself, ‘Wow, that was bold of Brandon to out Juli like that!” Well it was, and I am pretty darn sure that it is going to be a cold night tonight. I had to tell this story though. Why you ask? Well, a few weekends ago, we went out with some really good friends of ours and the subject came around to family blogs. The consensus was that reading about peoples perfect lives was well, boring and nonsensical. You can’t connect with perfection and it disingenuous to say the least.

I wrote this post to show that the Beecroft’s are not perfect. They are funny and quirky and shy and outgoing and just plain crazy everyday folk. To make things fair, I plan on posting a pretty embarrassing story about my addiction to Little House on the Prairie. That Michael Landon has to be like the 14th or 15th best actor of all time. Not to mention his directorial skills! Plan on reading that in the not too distant future.

That being said, I am always looking for the gems, those fleeting moments that occur once. Capture that and I feel like I am on top of the world. It’s amazing that photographers can spend their whole life capturing these moments and in the end, it only amounts to a few hours. Yet the images taken represent so much more than that.

One of the reasons I bought my camera was because I had a class at school. I was tired of waiting for my turn on the ‘school’ camera so I convinced Juli that I needed one to be successful in that class. That was a long hard fought battle but I finally passed that measure through the appropriations committee. I quickly learned that I could justify my camera purchase by saving some money on family pictures. I mean really, you get all dressed up, go to a mall somewhere and have some teenager who doesn’t care about you, snap a few photos in front of a cheesy starry night backdrop and then pay lots of money for the privilege? Really? No thanks.

Fast-forward a few years and it has become so much more. John Loengard once said,

“Perishability in a photograph is important in a picture. If a photograph looks perishable we say, Gee, I’m glad I have that moment.”

That’s how I feel about the following moment. Hailey received a cute hat and scarf for Christmas. Unfortunately she will never wear it. It’s too much sensory input for her to handle. Joslin on the other hand put it right on and proceeded to act like a little princess. Ever since seeing that, I knew that there was a picture that needed to be captured. Once we got back from Christmas vacation, I decided to get this picture I had in my head out and shared. The other night we sat down for a session with Joslin and the following ‘perishable’ moment occurred.

I hope it brings a smile to your face as it did mine.

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You can see a larger version of this photo and more from this session by visiting my newly redesigned photoblog at: 47Syndrome

We got a late start in the day and by the time we got our act together, the sun was rapidly going down. When we finally made it up the mountain, the sun was already setting, we didn’t have a spot picked out and so we just stopped off by the side of the road so that we didn’t make a wasted trip. I am hoping that the weather will hold out just a little longer so we can try again, but if it doesn’t here ya go. Our latest family pictures.

My extremely HOT wife. She practically melted the snow away!

And last but not least, the 3 rug rats. Hailey the instigator, Noah the joker, and Joslin the extremely photogenic and fantastically cute pretty princess.

Well that night, I got on my knees and in my discouragement I pleaded in prayer that we might be provided a direction to go. I had no idea. All our best efforts had been in vain and it was discouraging. So many factors we were looking for such as house size, yard size, a good school for Hailey (top priority!) and many more. In our efforts however there was a house that Shane took us to look at that was one of his former rental properties. Well, I liked the house well enough. It had a good sized yard, was very private, custom home so that it didn’t look like every other house on the street, quiet well kept neighborhood, etc. Juli however didn’t like it. To her it was not her dream home. The layout was wrong, the lawn not green and beautiful, and many other things. Well the thought came to me, “Take Juli and go see that house again.” We had been offered to rent the house as well as buy but the terms weren’t what we were looking for. We want to buy while the market is good for buyers and not lock ourselves into a lease agreement so I didn’t know exactly why we should go and see this house again.

So I said ok and went to bed.

The next morning I proposed to Juli that we go look at the house. I told her of my experience and right away I knew I was in for a fight. Keep in mind I only know what I was told to do. Nothing more. Well I got the third degree about how this was not the house, we didn’t want to lock into a lease, etc. I explained that we just needed to go look at the house again. After some cajoling, she finally agreed and we made arrangements with Shane to meet him at noon to walk through the house again.

At noon we pulled up to the house, and started looking around again. As we walked though each room and the front yard and the back yard and well all over, I had that peaceful feeling that it was where we needed to be. I was keeping my thoughts to myself though because I didn’t know how Juli was feeling. Comments I made were very non-committal and general. It wasn’t till the end however when were were alone and standing in the kitchen/dining room area that I could sense a change. I asked her how she felt about the house and she teared up. I told her not to because well….

We both knew that this is where we were supposed to be. We talked to Shane about it and agreed to a price. Because it is his home he has agreed to let us move in before the 29th and before we officially close on the home. With the reunion the following day and his family going on vacation for a week after that, we just didn’t have time to start the process. So, we are moving into the home on the 24th and will finalize the sale after that.

I will post some pictures of the home later today. We have a home inspector coming out this afternoon to make sure everything is ok.

In other news, we are doing really good! Everyone is healthy and happy. Noah starts Kindergarten at the end of summer and Hailey finished 2nd grade. She did really good socially but is lagging a little in academics. We have put her on a new medication that has really helped her with her mood and aggression. She no longer beats up her brother and sister all the time. Joslin is doing good as you could tell from the video. She is my little princess and that is a dangerous thing for me. I have a feeling she is going to be really expensive when she gets older.

I took this picture a few days ago. She is the only one still willing to pose for the camera!

Other than that, not much else going on. We are frantically scrambling to get packed up, making plans for things we want to change in the house, and trying to get ready for the upcoming school year for Noah and Hailey.

Pushover from Brandon Beecroft on Vimeo.

Seriously!? Who could say No to that face? I can’t!

Unfortunately, due to current budgetary constraints, no party for you.

Love Dad

More pictures from this mornings present opening festivities:

5:16 – Woke up and got ready to take Joslin to the hospital. Primary Childrens in SLC. Forgot to wake up Juli so she could give Joslin one more little drink of juice.

5:51 – Woke Joslin up and put her in the car.

6:00 – Out the door, heading to the hospital. Wouldn’t ya know it there was no gas in the car. Fortunately, there wasn’t any traffic either so we did ok.

6:40 – Arrived at the hospital and found a parking spot right next to the entrance. Tender mercies of the Lord there.

6:45 – Checked in at the pre-op desk

6:59 – Finished registration and took Joslin to the first waiting room. I could tell that she was starting to get nervous. She recognized this place from the last time she was here for her MRI.

7:16 – Nurse came and got us and took us back to the physical room. Jos is really getting nervous now. Asks for her “baby” for comfort. The nurse took all her vitals and said that another nurse would be in with instructions. She left some hospital jammies for Jos to wear during the surgery.

7:19 – Jos is in new pajamas and we are waiting for the next nurse.

7:22 – Next nurse comes in gives us instructions of what was going to happen next. Asks if Joslin is going to be ok going with the Anesthesiologist when the times comes. I ask Joslin if that will be ok and and without skipping a beat she answered with a resounding ‘NO!” We talked about giving her medicine that I call ‘the silly juice’ (great stuff by the way). I agree to it.

7:29 – Nurse takes us to the 3rd waiting room before she goes into surgery. Jos immediately sees where the dolls are in the room and takes off for them. I let her play as long as I could.

7:34 – Yet another nurse comes and administers the silly juice. This time I need to hold her because she was going to get pretty wobbly. This hospital has red wagons that they take the kids back to surgery in. I declined because I wanted to hold my little girl.

7:45 – Jos is a riot! She is laughing and we are rubbing noses. She can’t stop laughing and finds everything funny!

7:56 – Doctor Larson comes out and gives last minute instructions and asks if I have any questions. We talk about what to do in case of vomiting or coughing, bright lights, wind, etc. He goes back in and says that the anesthesiologist will come out next and take her back. This whole morning I have been feeling nauseous, not sure if it was breakfast or if I am getting really nervous about this.

8:10 – Jos is somewhere between la-la land and the hospital waiting room. She is in and out of sleep and being extremely cute. She trusts me so explicitly.

8:11 – The anesthesiologist is here. Instead of taking Jos from me he asks me to follow him down the hall for surgery. As we talked I got the distinct impression that he would take care of my princess. I knew it. As we approached the final door before he had to take her, I gave Joslin one last kiss (I had been kissing on her all morning I realized) and handed her to the doctor. She thought that was pretty funny. I watched her go away in his arms.

8:12 – I cried.

8:14 – Found yet another waiting room to wait in. As I sat down, I saw parents who looked as everything was right in the world and were there for routine procedures and I saw parents that were there who looked like their world was about to come apart. I just wanted to run and take Joslin with me. I am so grateful that our kids have been so healthy. What a blessing.

8:22 – I called Juli and texted my mom that she was in surgery.

8:34 – Juli calls me back with additional questions.

8:58 – Still waiting. The doctor said that the operation would take about an hour. Realized I had brought a peach mango flavored drink with me. Woohoo.

9:11 – Dr. Larson came in and said that everything was fine. The surgery went off without a problem. He then told me that he couldn’t believe the anesthesiologist he had. He said that he was good. So good that he was a head of schedule for the day. I knew he was good because Heavenly Father was watching out for her. I was told that in a few minutes I would be taken to her and help her wake up.

9:23 – Nurse finally calls my name to take me to the post-op area where Joslin is. She is laying on her side that didn’t have the surgery so I couldn’t see how bad it was. I was told I could pick her up and hold her. As I did, I could see that she looked like she had been on the business end of a baseball bat. Poor eye was blood red and pretty swollen. The nurse found us a recovery room to go to and so we made our way there.

9:25 – I am still holding Jos. The nurse gave her a sippy cup of juice which I then asked if we could have a bottle. Joslin still doesn’t drink from sippy cups and the nurse very kindly told me how to get her off of bottles. Gee thanks. Her instructions were that if she could stay alert for 20 minutes or so and drink all the juice that she could go home. Well she doesn’t know my daughter.

9:27 – Juice is gone.

9:27:47 – Juice is screaming for more juice. (Juice is my new nickname for boo-bear)

9:28 – More juice arrives along with a popsicle.

9:31 – Juice is gone again. Can we get a refill please?

9:45 – Nurse comes by, says everything looks good and gives me final instructions. She calls a nursing student over to take off the monitors and take out the IV. I say that my sister is in nursing school too. She asks where and I say ASU. And she says, ‘Oh, Arizona State’ like it was some kind of backwater school. I say yes and she rolls her eyes. See that Hanny? It’s on between University of Utah and ASU. Represent well girl!

10:24 – We are cleared to go and Joslin is dressed and ready to leave.

10:40 – Find the pharmacy and pick up eye drops for Joslin. That’s going to be fun!

10:59 – Texted Juli to let her know that we are on our way home. That was quite the ride. The hospital gave us these arm braces to put on so that she would not scratch her eyes. I decided that I was going to put them on for the ride home because I was by myself and didn’t want to crash trying to keep her from scratching. Well that wasn’t too well received. As evident by the pictures I took. I guess I didn’t put them on tight enough because she found a way to get them off. As soon as I gave her a bottle though she held that and forgot about her eyes. She was pretty miserable though. I had just enough juice and peach mango flavored water to get us home.

11:28 – Arrived home to momma’s lovin arms.

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And that was just the morning! We struggled today putting in the eye drops. She obviously didn’t like us messing around with her eyeballs. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. We had to watch her through out the afternoon and she did pretty well. She sneezed one time though and that about killed her. After the sneeze this look came on her face and it stayed. I think she was wondering if her eyes were still there. It was the most pathetic face. (picture below)

Well it’s over now and I am exhausted. For all those that kept us in your thoughts and prayers, thank you! We felt it. Thank you.

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Before:

After:

At home finally:

the “Sneeze”

Jos went into the hospital this morning at around 6:30am to get her head scanned. Apparently placing a needle full of drugs in a toddlers arm is not that easy. Who knew? Nurses don’t really have THAT hard of a job do they? Sorry Hanny, couldn’t resist.

So they had a hard time finding the vein but when they did, it knocked her out. They strapped her down and she started coughing! Not good when you have to lay very still. They suctioned out her nose and laid her on her side and she stopped. After about 45 minutes they took her to a room and let her wake up. She was really loopy all day today and was walking like a drunk for most of the day. Juli said that she was a funny drunk so I guess that is some consolation. She is doing good right now and if I had known there were such powerful drugs to make someone fall asleep, I would have purchased some. Giving your kids NyQuil just doesn’t cut it after a while.

Thank you to all those that offered there support and prayers. It really meant a lot to us.

UPDATE:
sorry, was so tired I forgot to mention that the scan was sent to our doctor and he said that everything looked fine. No problems at all with the big melon of hers.