Beach day, a quick visit from Aunt Donna and Kindergarten promotion

A friend in Hunter's class organized a beach day for all 4 Kinder classes last Saturday and we ACTUALLY went! We may live a mile from the ocean, but we go....never. I sometimes take the kids when my church group goes, but Brian never goes.  This was quite an experience. We brought 3 chairs, an umbrella, 2 big bags of stuff and 2 buckets full of beach toys. We DID the beach. Oh yea.

 Daddy and Aspen snuggled almost the whole time.

 Oh my gosh! Best thing ever. My Aunt Donna and Uncle Kenny came by for the day last Friday. LOVE them. So do the kiddos.

 They met Maisy.

 And my aunt played with them.

 Oh my gosh. How is she so incredibly CUTE?!

 Sibling time!

 Too. Much. Love.

Katie and Aspen at their big brother's graduation

 Our big graduate

 Andrew!

 Hunter and Destiny

 Andrew and Allison

 Andrew and Mrs. Vavao

 Hunter and Mrs. Vavao

 Cutest graduate!

 It was his choice to wear a suit. STUD.

 All 6 of us!

 Our day today. Cookies by the pool - celebrating the last day of school! We are OUT FOR SUMMER!

 Even Maisy is excited about it! She's been less fussy these past 2 days. Let's hope it continues.

 Our friends, the Halls, came over tonight for a pizza and cupcake celebration! Woohoo!

 Doug in the pool with the kiddos.

This week

We had a rough week last week - but there is good and bad in that.  On Monday I was at the park with a friend who I hadn't spent time with in 4 years.  While we were there, Aspen fell and had a seizure.  She actually had 2 previously in the last year, so it was her third seizure.  We called 9-1-1 and went in an ambulance to the hospital. My very brave little girl waited patiently, despite being hungry and tired, while we waited for the doctor. They checked her heart (which is fine) and got us in to see a pediatric neurologist on Wednesday.

On Wednesday she had an EEG, which measures electrical signals in the brain. Again, she was the perfect patient as she was instructed to lay perfectly still with 25 leads on her head. At the end of the 25 minutes with the leads on her head, they determined that she has irregular activity in the temporal/occipital area in the left hemisphere.  This is important because most of the seizure activity occurred on the right side of her body.  Because movement is controlled contralaterally, this pattern of activity makes sense. The doctor told us a few things: 1.) this could be residual activity that was leftover from the Monday seizure. 2.) She will likely outgrow this given her age and the lack of a family history of seizures. 3.) She is having partial complex seizures (because we needed a name to google.) 4.) She is in no way severe enough to be on medication or to be rushed into treatment of any kind, however, there are things we need to change to make her life safer.  I am feeling okay about what is going on with her, or maybe I had to because the next day we had an appt with Hunter's immunologist.

On Thursday morning we got up bright and early, dropped Landon at school and Aspen at Megan's house. We went to Children's Hospital to see Dr. Church. He determined that Hunter is, indeed, doing better than ever expected. Therefore, it is possible to do a trial off of his infusions for the summer and then we will recheck blood levels. The risks of being off of the infusions are great, and incredibly scary.  It is testing my faith to take him off of them, but there is no way that I wouldn't give him this opportunity. Dr. Church said that in rare instances it just takes an immune system a longer time to mature. It is possible that Hunter's immune system has matured and he will no longer need infusions of any kind for the rest of his life. Keep him in your prayers.

On Friday, I pretty much laid in bed all day, completely exhausted from the week I had. Now it is Monday and I am doing a little bit better. I am so hopeful (and prayerful) that my kids will both heal and we will be onto the next challenge before long.

I was folding a HUGE pile of laundry just a few minutes ago.  It was probably 8 loads of laundry (because I didn't fold any laundry last week being as overwhelmed with life, as I was.) Anyhow, I was thinking that to a little person, looking up at my bed, that pile of laundry was insurmountable.  Then I was thinking that if I were on the fan, looking down, it would look tiny.  So, life is all about perspective.  I was thinking that our Heavenly Father is able to put all of our "problems" into perspective because he can see it from such a different perspective than we can. Anyhow, that's my spiritual thought for today. I'm going to trust Heavenly Father to take care of my babies. There you go - let is show! let is show! (I'm letting my faith show.)

Scottsdale and Maisy newborn photos

Maisy's newborn photos and my maternity photos. We just got them and I LOVE them! I didn't post all of them, but these are some favorites.

 She was 10 days old and barely 6 lbs. What a sweet little thing!

 Today we had her 2 month dr appt. She weighs 10 lbs 11 ozs, which is over 5 lbs bigger than what she weighed the first time we went to the doctor (she was 5 lbs 7 ozs). She grew from 3rd-5th percentiles on height and weight, to over 50th. Her head grew from off the charts, the 25th!!  She is doing awesome!

 Little monsters. We just had a super fun and relaxing trip in Arizona. Brian was so nice and spent the majority of the week in the pool with Aspen. The boys are such strong swimmers, they were swimming around with their newfound friends.  At one point an 8 yr old girl said to Landon "You can't go in the deep end! You're too little." Hunter, being an awesome big brother, said "Yes he can. Landon is a fantastic swimmer." So, there you have it folks.

 I can't stand it. Beauty, brains and hilarity all encapsulated into one perfect 2.5 year old. I'm totally in love.

 These 2 wanted to sleep together in the pull out couch.  It wasn't too long ago when they really disliked one another.

 Hunter got the big bed to himself.

 My sweet baby girl.

 And of course, Hunter and Aspen are still snuggly and in love.

 All 3 took breaks. It was amazing that they are old enough to know they need to get out and rest (and drink oreo milkshakes.)

 I did this. All. Week. Long. Tough life.

 They had a whole story going on that they were enacting.

 "I can't believe you tried to put me down. You will now allow me to nurse for the next 45 minutes."

 "Take my picture!"

 My cutie boys

 This could be me when I was her age. She is built exactly like me.

 I did this for a lot of the week too. Lots of girly snuggles. <3 p="">

 Daddy playing with the kiddos.

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 She got out of the pool to change the bear's diaper. I wonder what gave her that idea?

 Happiest girl ever.

 <3 p="">

 Is it just me, or does Hunter look like a brooding teenager? And a CUTE one!

 Sweet girl.

 Brian took the boys golfing. They LOVED it!

 So I took the girls for mani/pedicures.

 Sparkly pink toes!

 Landon was in heaven playing with his friend Rachel and her dolphin.

 We had an incredible trip. Everyone was happy and got along really well. We were relaxed, ate great food and enjoyed one another's company. Brian and I had 3 date nights (and celebrated 13 yrs together!) More of these trips to come!

 More maternity/newborn photos.