Awards Assembly

Lexie & Joseph both got awards this trimester at school.

We are so grateful that they are good kids & are working hard in their classes!

Quick Trip

We picked up Rick from the airport late Friday night. It was great to have him home. We survived our 2 weeks without him without many problems (the kids are amazing!), but I'm very grateful that he doesn't have to travel very often.

Saturday morning we made a fun breakfast & asked the kids what they wanted to do for the 4 day weekend & gave them some options. We mentioned go to Kansas & immediately they all began shouting that they wanted to go there. They hurriedly got their trip bags together & we quickly packed & headed out to Grandma's house!

Unfortunately, I did a terrible job of taking pictures, but we really had a great time. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins & Eliza started warming up to other people. I went on a fun walk with Janae & Lexie & was surprised to see so many buds on trees so early.

On Sunday afternoon we headed down to Emporia to see Uncle Nathan for a bit.

On Monday afternoon we went over to the Great Wolf Lodge to stay the night. We played LOTS in the water park. The kids loved all of the water slides & sleeping in their own little cabin.

Here's Lexie meeting Wiley Wolf after story time.

And after playing for a few hours in the water they slept really well only to get up & go swimming again! Then we headed back to Grandma's for a bit & then began the long drive home.

It was a really quick trip but we are glad we did it & had lots of fun seeing everyone!

Rick's California Trip

Here are a few highlights from Rick's trip out to California. He had 2 weeks of classes out there. He visited the Newport Beach Temple,

the Los Angeles Temple,

Manhattan Beach,

and (his words) a basketball temple for a game.

He had a great time but is super glad to be home! It gets boring being by yourself after awhile.

Snug Fit

Lexie is the best! She loves to help everyone & finds ways to make life fun for others. Eliza really loved being pushed around in the lego tub while reading of course.

It's Valentine's Day & I'm amazed that we got all 80 valentines made for the kids classes. It was fun also watching them look through the valentines & share with each other. These kids sure are sweet & I'm grateful for them!

Weekend Fun

Rick is enjoying sunny California & going to the Newport Beach & Los Angeles Temples. We had lots of fun with crafts. Joseph made this dinosaur creation out of 3 pieces of paper. He was quite excited to show it to Dad.

All Wet

I guess Eliza didn't get the memo that she was supposed to staying in her pajamas all day today.

As I was letting the water warm up for my shower as I brushed my teeth & turned around to find Eliza standing in the shower just smiling as the water soaks her. This girl loves her showers!

She was not thrilled that I took her out of the shower, as the pictures show so well.

Snowed In

We had a great snow day yesterday! The kids had a lot of fun helping Dad shovel & playing outside for what seemed like hours!

Today the kids played out back. We got LOADS of snow & are grateful that we had the weekend snowed in with Rick before he takes off to sunny California for 2 weeks!

At least he was here to help with the shoveling instead of my by my lonesome.

Rick's Christmas Present

For Christmas I gave Rick a little poem (if you can call it that-I'm not the best poet)...

along with these pictures of the kids.

They really think he's pretty neat from their heads to their feet.

He smiled as he read, "These 8 little feet love you & adore you!"

But his expression changed pretty drastically as he read, "Our cute little family will grow two more feet in 2012." His jaw literally dropped! Priceless!

He sure was surprised! I don't think I've ever gotten him this well before.

Today we got to see those 2 little feet!

Here is our little one greeting us with a fist pump.

We're grateful we got to see this baby before the big snowstorm tonight & tomorrow. It was getting really hard keeping it a secret.

Due date: August 18th. (Although today at the ultrasound the baby measured due August 16th. close enough.) And yes, the 18th is Andrew's birthday & was also his due date.

I should add this awesome detail. The best way to buy a pregnancy test is to take all 4 of your kids with you & go to a line with an innocent looking teenager. The look on her face when I put the pregnancy test up there was absolutely awesome!

Hooray!

On Monday we took Eliza in to a kidney specialist to get the blood work done again for RTA. I was so grateful they were able to get us in so quickly. She didn't love the appointment-not one bit! But she survived it & with Rick & I both holding her down they were able to get her blood draw done by only having to poke one arm & much more quickly than at the pediatricians.

Here is our cute little patient waiting patiently for her appointment. She really loves to read!

Today we had her follow up appointment where they gave us the results. It was great! Her potassium levels were much more normal, everything was normal, & her CO2 levels were 22! Perfect! Here she is celebrating her perfectness with a cookie! That made her super happy!

I'm so grateful that she is fine & we're not going to have to get her blood drawn every month for the next few years & that I don't have to touch the yucky medicine. The doctor was very funny in how she told me she would send the results to our pediatricians with a nicely worded letter telling them that how these tests are drawn often give false positives & would be better if they suspect something to send them to a specialist to begin with or to change how the run the test. It made me laugh. But for now we are going to be grateful that she is healthy & growing at her own rate. We think she is perfect!

Phlebotomy Angst

I don't see either of our girls wanting to be phlebotomists when they grow up. This is basically how they feel about getting their blood drawn.

Brave face for Lexie to begin with while Eliza wants nothing to do with it.

Lexie starts to protest & Eliza still wants nothing to do with it.

And now they both totally want nothing to do with it. Good times!

On Monday, Lexie had her first blood draw. (But I think it may technically be her second. I think in Maryland they actually drew blood for the 1 year old lead test.) Needless to say, she was not a fan & cried & begged for it not to happen. I was impressed with how the doctor explained what was going to happen, too bad it didn't really work to make her more calm. All of my kids have seen me get my blood drawn many of times so I thought that maybe she'd be a little more calm, but I can't blame her. I wish I could kick & scream each time I do it as well. Anyway, Lexie has been having lots of stomachaches & headaches lately (off & on for the past 5 months & every day for about the last 2 weeks) & we thought maybe she could be allergic to something. The doctor noticed her weight had dropped off & wanted to check all of her levels & also for celiac disease & make sure she wasn't allergic to gluten. Gratefully, her results came back telling us she is perfect. We're thinking she may be slightly lactose intolerant, so we'll just test her out by eliminating milk from her diet for a few days & see what happens. Who knows, maybe it's nothing at all, but her reaction to a milkshake has me & the doctor both thinking she may be slightly.

On Wednesday I took Eliza in for her 15 month check up. She's such a good little baby. She's in the 50th for height & head but the 7th percentile for weight. The doctor suggested we check her kidney functions & electrolytes to make sure there wasn't something going on there that would prohibit her from growing properly. So poor Eliza got to get her blood taken & get a shot-score for her! Trying to draw her blood was not a pretty picture. They tried in one arm & it really looked like a great vein, but the nurse missed, dug around for a bit & couldn't get it & finally gave up on that one. I calmed her down for a bit & then we went for the other arm. Again, looked like a great vein but the nurse missed, moved around & got a bit but it was a slow flow. She filled up the tube a bit & then the blood stopped flowing. So, we gave up. They submitted the blood but since there wasn't enough her numbers could be skewed a bit. Anyway, the doctor called me today & told me that the CO2 levels are very low (normal levels are 21-24 she was 9, but this may be skewed some because of the amount of blood they actually got) & she has renal tubular acidosis. Basically, her body is too acidic & her kidneys can't balance out the acid with the bicarbonates which makes it so that she can't metabolize the nutrients from her food. Therefore, she isn't growing very well. So, we're going to give her some icky tasting medicine for a month & test her again & see if her CO2 levels come up some. Hopefully, she will also gain some good weight this month as well. And maybe if I remember, I will let Rick take her in for this next blood draw. He misses all the fun of shots & blood. Maybe he'd enjoy a turn...probably not.

Museum Field Trip

Andrew had a class field trip to the Museum of Nature & Science today & we had such a great time! He's been talking about seeing the dinosaurs for WEEKS & wanted to walk around with his teacher, Ms. Krista to see everything. He didn't get to the whole time, but he still loved everything! Here he is with some of his friends waiting while all of us gathered to go in. It's so fun to see him interact with all of his friends & greet each of the kids as he saw them. He's really become so much more social & really loves his friends at preschool.

Andrew has never been to a museum before, so it was fascinating to see how he reacted to different things. He had to look at everything & have me read him each placard in the first room & explain things to him. It was fun, but I was grateful I didn't have to do it for EVERY area we went to.

The lady here was super nice & let Andrew touch everything. It kinda hit me how a year or so ago he wouldn't have liked it because of how sensitive he was to touch but he's come a long way & even told me how different things felt.

And yes, I did park Eliza right next to a dead bird. I thought it would be more interesting than a blank wall since she couldn't see high enough through the window to see the scientists working on cleaning fossils. She was content as well as her play buddy.

Andrew LOVED the dinosaurs! He couldn't get enough of them.

This tall one was his favorite.

And he knew this was a T-Rex head before I told him & he got to hold a T-Rex tooth, too.

He had a lot of fun walking around with his buddy, Brady, as well.

Once we finished looking at the dinosaurs we went to look at the Mummies. I was a bit nervous that it would freak him out, but it didn't. Afterwards, we went to the Discovery Zone & played a lot! He & Eliza could not get enough of everything. It was as if they had never seen toys or puzzles before, but I'm so glad they had a blast. We spent a good hour or more in here just exploring.

The fan was a big hit. Eliza would laugh every time the scarves landed on her.

And Andrew learned a lot about elevators, pulley systems, & magnets.

And also enjoyed building many different things.

He loved this owl puzzle & did it at least 15 times. He even let me do it once.

And before we left he had to put the body parts all in their right place & learn about all of the different parts & what they did. He did a great job putting it together.

Eliza really liked the brain.

As we got outside Andrew reminded me again of his awesomely vivid imagination. Before we went he thought that we would see real dinosaurs, like in a zoo. Once we were safely out of the museum he said, "Mom, I'm so glad we didn't see any real live dinosaurs that wanted to eat us. But I was ready to run if we did." He is awesome & such a delight. Even on the way over I was cracking up. We were almost to our exit off of I-70 & Eliza had fallen asleep & we were both kinda quiet for a minute & Andrew said with a slight giggle of discomfort, "Mom, sorry it's so quiet & I'm not really talking. I'm just thinking." It was awesome. I so love this boy & am glad I could go with him today.