Spring Fever

Sorry I'm such a slacker! We don't have a whole lot going on to tell about. Siennah is 19 months old now. She is loving nursery. She started a feeding group that is part of her swallow therapy. She loves the group. They get to play on an in door play ground for a half an hour and then they go to another room to eat all different kinds of snacks. They make it a lot of fun for the kids. Siennah is already starting to eat things she wouldn't have anything to do with before. She still has a long way to go though. She is also getting occupational therapy for her "toe walking" every other week. Apparently the tight muscle tone in her legs could also be affecting the tightness in her jaw and neck. I never knew it could all be so complicated but it makes sense. So, anyway that's what we've been focusing on lately.
Jason is still traveling a lot with his job. I hate it but I'm grateful that he still has a job. The pharmaceutical part of the company he works for is being auctioned off. We're not sure exactly what that means for Jason's job yet. He says it could go either way.
I'm loving the nicer weather. We've been going to the park almost every day. Park, swing, and slide are the first words out of Siennah's mouth in the morning!
Here are some cute pics grandma took when we were down there last month.

5 years! Camping Trip

On April 24 Brendon and I celebrated our 5th year anniversary. And what better way to celebrate it than to go CAMPING!!!! Our original plan was to stay up here closer to home but the weather just did not cooperate, so we headed south. We spent weeks gettin everything ready, and what seemed to be endless nights working on the trailer. On Monday night we were up till about 4 getting everything packed so we could just leave on Tuesday. We finally got out of town at about 7 and yes, that is early for us. After a quick stop in Cedar to drop Chevis off with the family, we arrived to our first camp spot around 11pm. Craig and Sugar were already there and ready for bed. (For those of you who don't know, Craig and Sugar are good friends of ours from St. George. Craig was in our wedding.) So we got set up and went to sleep ourselves. The bed in our trailer is set up to be a california king but the padding wasn't too comfortable so we took the king mattress out of our basement and put it in there. And let me tell ya....... we have never been so comfortable camping before!!!! Brendon actually fit on the bed.
The spot we were at was about 5 miles from the Arizona border. Craig and Sugar have a boy, Kashton, who is one month older than Michael so they had a good time playing together. This was the first time that Michael got down and dirty in the dirt. He ate so much sand I'm surprised he didn't poop out a castle! We stayed there for two nights then headed over to Zion.

We had originally planned to stay at a RV park in Springdale, but after getting there and taking a walk around the park..... we changed our minds. The spots were about 5 feet apart, and lets just face it, Brendon and I are not the close camping type. We had passed a little camp spot a few miles back on the side of the road that worked perfect. There were a few other people there camping too, and they were all in tents. So we parked as far away as we could, cause even though we are camping, we still run the generator for our air conditioning and tv.

On Friday we drove the few miles it is to Zion National Park and went on the hike to Emerald Pools. The trail to the lower ponds is paved so we were able to take the stroller. It was so beautiful. It had been such a long time since either of us had been there, we completely forgot how beautiful it is there.

The weather was starting to turn bad on Saturday, so we packed up and headed home. We had such a great time on this trip and it got us all excited for the rest of the summer! The past two weeks of little sleep was totally worth it. After stopping at Mom and Dad's to get Chevis, then to my parents to say hi, we got home around 10:30 which is still good for us!
I was very happy and surprised to receive the beautiful clock from Dad and Brendon. It looks great in our living room on the mantle that dad made for us for Christmas. I'm not sure if we ever put a picture of that on so here it is. Dad, you are so talented! Thank you so much!

In other news, Michael took his first steps yesterday and just keeps doing a little bit at a time. Pretty soon he'll have walking down.

This was at our first spot and you can see the Hurricane Sand dunes in the back ground.

This is on the way to Zion where we pulled over.

Mission call

I just talked to Joyce. Alan has been successfully transferred to Delta where they have a long term care facility with a few "Swing beds". Alan requires a swing bed right now which is an intermediate care place. They had him transferred through a business that uses vans outfitted with a bed in the back to eliminate the expensive ambulance. When they came to pick him up, the van was being driven by two Mexicans. "Where are we taking him?" they asked. Les replied, "To Delta!" "Is that in Nevada?" "No, it's in Utah". "How do we get there?" "You first take I15". "Where is I15?" Then Les says, "We'll be right behind you!!!!" Well, he made it okay, about 9:00 PM last night (Friday). Joyce talked with Alan (Smith) this morning and he told her they would do all that was possible to get him better. Joyce said the facility is brand new and it is really a nice place and they have been treated very well. She said nothing has changed much since we saw him at the beginning of the week. Then she told me that Danielle has her mission call to New York South, Spanish speaking. This takes in Manhattan Island and several other Islands. Danielle is really excited. I forgot to ask when she will be going but it looks like Larry and Jan will have two missionaries out at the same time.

The Wood Whisperer

I have spelling issues.

oops, I meant Whisper, duh

The Wood Wisperer

I have something in common with Grandma Mary, we hear things. Inanimate objects speak to us. Only difference is with her it is fabric or quilts. With me it is wood. This piece of cedar wood has been shuffled around on the floor of my shop for the past two years, just inches away from being firewood. A couple of weeks ago I got a text from my son asking what he could give his wife for their fifth wedding anniversary that was made from wood. Who knew that wood was the theme for the fifth? Not me. "A Clock"? Was my quick reply. "Sure" was his reply. So I was walking around the shop wondering what style of clock to do when this piece of wood yelled up at me, "I want to be a clock". "You"? I asked. "But you have been close to firewood a hundred times". "Come on, give me a chance", was its reply. So, as you can see from the picture, I gave it a chance. The other one with the little drawer in it I am going to try and sell on this web site that I am on with the Cedar city artisans. Let me know if any other of you family members hear things like Mom and I do. P. S. Sorry it is laying on its side, my computer locks up when I try to rotate.

Uncle Alan update

We just got home from Salt Lake where we spent the night with Joyce and found out what it was like to sit in the waiting room outside of the ICU hoping for signs of life from Alan. When we arrived and I saw him for the first time it was a shock to see a trach coming out of his throat and an incision in his skull where they were draining the fluid from his brain into his stomach. He was not too responsive but did open his eyes part way a couple of times. But I felt very strongly that he was going to be okay and I told Joyce that. She seemed encouraged by our positive outlook and she took on new life. We were invited to the Sorenson's (Her former mission president) for dinner that evening. Pres. Sorenson gave her some encouragement also. We had a good dinner then retired to her condo for the night. This morning Les and Mindy were coming bright and early and Joyce planned to go home with us to have a break. We went into Alan's room and began talking to him, trying to get him to open his eyes. Well, he opened his eyes and held Joyce's hand and it made us cry to see him respond to our voices. He didn't try to talk but we could tell he knew we were there. Joyce felt so much better that she didn't mind leaving him for a day. They were going to move him out of ICU today and they are trying to find a rehab place to move him to. Things are looking up. Thanks for all your prayers in his behalf.

A is for alphabet, B is for birthday, C is for cake. . .

We had Tristan's birthday party on Saturday. He loves and has always loved the alphabet so I did an ABC theme. We sent invitations to some of his nursery friends and didn't expect many to come. At the beginning of the week we were planning on only 3 guests. By Saturday 7 guests had RSVPd. Good thing I bought extra party favors!
When the guests arrived I took their individual pictures by a wall that we decorated with colorful letters. Then they moved on to the craft table to make a key chain with alphabet beads. Then we had a story time where I read a library book called, "The Absolutely Awful Alphabet" and one of Tristan's favorite books, "Dr. Seuss's ABC Book". I have that one memorized so I was able to get the kids involved and have a lot of fun with it.
The next activity was a game. We have a little game that has an animal for every letter of the alphabet. Chris hid the animals in the other room and each child was able to find 2-3 animals and place them on their spot on the mat. While we did this Chris went to pick up the pizza. . . .Did I mention D is for DISASTER? This is where things fell apart a little bit. I ordered online the night before so I wouldn't have to do it the day of the party. When Chris went to pick up the pizza in Hillsoborough they didn't have a history of our order. I guess the last time I ordered pizza I picked it up from the Durham location and the information was saved on the computer. So after a few phone calls we found the pizza and we had the kids play outside on the play set for the few extra minutes it took.
The pizza was good and then we had cupcakes. I made colorful letters out of candy melts but the kids really liked the frosting. Tristan had a great time and I think all the guests did too. They got to go home with a fun party bag with their names spelled out on the front in foam letters. Inside they each had a Cookie Monster ABC book, ABC cards, a T-shirt with their first initial embroidered on the front and a frame to decorate with shapes and letters. We'll send them a photo of themselves to put in the frame when we send thank-you cards.

I reminded Chris before the party that it had been 2 1/2 years since I had done a theme party for any of our kids and that we would probably remember why we have been having Kennedy's parties at places like Build-a-Bear. We remembered. . . .

WORMS!

Tuesday was Brendon's birthday. I took the day off of work and Brendon took a half a day. We were planning on going on a wheeler ride for a few hours. We had a sitter, the good tires and everything but the rain just wouldn't stop!!! We ended up working on our trailer some more to get it finished. That's what we have been doing every night after Michael goes to bed. While we were working, the rain just kept a comin.

When we called it quits for the night, I headed inside and saw a HUGE worm in the driveway. I remembered then that when it rains alot, worms always seem to come out. I looked around and saw a least 5 just in the driveway. I hollared at Brendon to come and check it out. It was then that I decided to get a box and collect them to put in our garden.

There was 21 in there I think.

We walked up and down the sidewalk and they were just everywhere and all different sizes. I took a few pictures with my foot and Brendon's so you could compare the size of them.

We just thought it was pretty crazy to see that many. There had to be hundreds of them all together. Looking up and down the street, you could see them everywhere. I felt bad because they were getting ran over. I don't have to worry about the 21 that we collected getting ran over, cause we dumped them in our garden.

I showed this picture to my 7 year old nephew and asked him if he thought it was gross and he said, "No, I'm a boy."

I hope that everyone finds this as interesting as we did.

Uncle Alan

I just talked with Carmen so I thought I would report what she said. Yesterday they did a tracheotomy on Alan and today they will insert a stomach tube. He is still in a deep coma and unable to breathe on his own. Their goal is to give him a better oxygen supply through the tracheotomy and to provide a way to keep him healthy with more calories. The doctor said there is no reason why he won't wake up eventually. It will just take time and they need to keep him healthy so he can function when he does wake up. He will be sedated to have the stomach tube inserted so they told the family not to expect him to wake up before this weekend because he will remain sedated until then. I'll keep you posted if there is any change. Love all of you. Mom

Birthday

Last Friday my little Tristan turned three. He is such a sweet boy. He asked me if we could go on a picnic for his birthday. I made us a nice lunch and we picked up Chris from work and drove over to Duke Gardens. It was quite busy but we found a secluded spot and spread out our blanket. The kids enjoyed biscuits and jam, fruit and chips. I let Tristan pick out some cupcakes at the store. We had a few presents for him to open, one being a soccer ball that he and Kennedy were able to kick around after lunch. Later that day we colored Easter eggs.

Tristan was a little confused and wasn't sure why he was getting so much attention and why he is three now when he just started to understand that he was two.

Jack turned 10 months on the same day and I think we are in trouble. Check out this picture and imagine what kind of mischief he will be into when he turns two!

Update on Uncle Alan

I've decided to include an update on Uncle Alan on the blog then I won't have to be calling everybody once a day. Carmen called me a few hours ago and gave me the latest. Alan had just been visited by the doctor and this is the report. The doctor is baffled with his inconsistent progress. One day he seems to improve, the next day he's back to square one. He told Joyce to prepare for a lengthy stay. They told her that a patient should only be on a respirator for 10 days. After that they consider a tracheotomy. They are considering a tracheotomy on Alan. This will be in place until he can breathe on his own. They are also concerned about his weight loss. Since he hasn't eaten for a week they are needing to tank him up on calories. They also want to do another cat scan to see if there is something they missed. Joyce is very discouraged. I talked to her this morning and her voice was lifeless. Her answers were short and to the point. Can you just imagine what it would be like to sit in ICU watching your husband in a comotose state? Not fun! My heart aches for her. Please keep them in your prayers.

Usually when I get on to post a blog, I actually have something to report. But lately we haven't really done anything worth reporting. Michael is great! He is getting so big and growing up so much. Still pulling himself up on everything, he is getting more secure with standing and I'm sure walking is just right around the corner.

About a month ago we went down to the duck ponds to feed the ducks. Brendon and I had a great time and I think it will be a much better time for Michael when he can help feed them.

In other news, our anniversary is coming up here pretty quick, and we have a camping trip planned. We have spent the past few weeks working on our camp trailer to get it ready. We have about a week taken off to go on a nice, well needed vaca. We plan on going south to Red Cliffs and to Zion. You know, to do all those fun things we didn't do together when we lived a half an hour away. Hopefully it won't be raining down there. It seems like its been raining everyday, or at least the days we have time to work on things. We should have lots to report after the trip.

This Easter we were visited by Mom, Dad, and Lyssa. Michael loved spending the day on Saturday with them while Brendon and I were at work. When they first got here, he played shy as he usually does, but it didn't take too long for him to warm up to them. Hope everything is going well with everyone. Rachael, Derek, and Josh.... Good luck with finals!

Conference Weekend April 2009

Wasn't conference wonderful? I'm so excited to go back and read some of the talks. I did miss some just because with three kids sometimes you don't hear everything. It seemed like on Saturday conference started just as it was mealtime or kids were waking up from naps and wanted to play.

On Sunday we had some ward friends over for a brunch. We had an enjoyable time and a nice meal before the morning session. Between sessions we took our usual trip to Duke Gardens where most of these pictures were taken.