Miscellaneous March Pictures

We had to show the kids that those whopper Easter candy eggs are for more than just eating.  Fun blue lips for everyone!

Update on All the Kids

Eden is loving 2nd grade and is having such a fun year.  She has continued to gain a confidence in herself that has been so amazing to watch.  Her class made a video newscast about a subject they were working on and she volunteered to be the newscaster and speak into the microphone to discuss polar bears.  She was so confident and brave and loved doing it.  I'm so proud of her.

She is a huge Harry Potter fan right now.  We decided to let her read the first three books and she flew through them and is now a huge fan.  We have also been letting her stay up on the weekends to watch the movies with us as she finishes the book.  It has been so fun to have this time with her, doing something we all enjoy.

Speaking of books, this girl is a major reader.  She loves to read and is burning through chapter books quicker than I can keep her stocked.  It's a great hobby and I've seen her comprehension, her writing, and her vocabulary increase a ton this year.

She is still in piano and is such a good student.  She is really good about practicing and is learning so quickly.  She has yet to do a piano recital because we have been out of town both times they were scheduled, but she is looking forward to playing some prelude music for the primary program coming up in a few months.

Her baptism is coming up this summer and she is so excited!  I still can't believe she will be 8 soon.

Bentley has had such a fun year in preschool.  He says he didn't learn a lot of new things, but he had fun with his friends.  ha ha  He has a few boys in the ward that he also went to preschool with and he says those guys are his best buddies.  Sometimes Bentley says, "mom I just need another boy around to play with" so we will get him together with these guys often so he can escape from all the girls once in a while.

He has figured out the reading thing too and loves to sit by me and read some of the level 1 books we have.  He also loves to do "homework" and worksheets so I'd say he is definitely a self motivated learner.  He will for sure be ready for kindergarten this fall.  My heart breaks a little every time I think about it though.

He is a still very much into playing games any chance he can get.  Brad is training him up quite nicely and he is already out strategizing me in some of the games. It's crazy to watch him go. He can never get enough.  I will play a couple with him in the afternoons most days, and then as soon as Brad gets home Bentley begins lining up their games for the night.  It's very cute.

He is my homebody kid.  He likes to go out and do things, but he is always the first one ready to go home and would be totally fine if we never left the house.  He is good about playing solo with his Star Wars guys, or Transformers, and he also likes to be outside on the trampoline or climbing the tree.

Not a day goes by that this boy doesn't tell me I look beautiful, or just randomly come and give me a hug and a kiss.  It is the sweetest thing, and he melts me with it every time.  The other day at the park, I was visiting with a couple friends while we watched the kids play and Bentley came running over with a dandelion he had picked for each of the moms.  It was so sweet.  He is definitely learning quickly what works with the ladies!  :)

I was getting Bentley some fruit snacks from the pantry and was trying to be very secretive about it so I didn't have to get them for everyone, but then he said, "Mom I need to share these with my little sisters because that would be a gentleman of me."  Cutie.

Olive is our social butterfly.  She asks me every day who she will get to play with, or where we will be going.  She is the opposite of Bentley and is not content to be at home unless she has a friend (or me) to entertain her.  A day at home with her will drive us all crazy because she gets so bored and then starts to stir up trouble.  So it's a good thing we have lots of girls around who love to play with Olive!

She is still very much into dress ups.  She loves that she has lots of ballerina and princess dresses to choose from, and plenty to share with her friends too.  She also loves to wears skirts and anything sparkly when she gets herself dressed for the day.

Olive loves her baby sister, a little too much sometimes because no matter how much we warn her, she really can't keep her hands to herself most the time.  Though she does get smothered sometimes, Karly really does love Olive and is very entertained by her too.   Just this morning I was watching Olive as she was squeezing Karly's hand and she was starting to pinch her a little bit.  She was being soft, but I thought I should step in before it went downhill:

Me: Olive don't pinch Karly.
Olive: Mom I wasn't. My fingers were just giving her a soft hug.

Olive really is so much fun, and she is constantly making us laugh.  She has a sparkle in her eye that is just so endearing. She makes friends wherever she goes, and she loves to entertain and chat away about the most random things.

The other day, while eating breakfast we laughed over this little exchange:
Olive: "Hey guys, I dreamed about myself last night!"
Dad: "you did?"
Olive: "Yeah! And I was SOOOOO funny!"

She really adds a whole new personality and dynamic to our family that really livens things up.

Karly Rose, this girl.... she is my little snuggle bug. She is just growing and changing so fast and it is so bittersweet!  I have really loved every stage with her and have just soaked it in.  Her personality is growing and changing so fast and we are definitely seeing a little toddler now, and not so much a little baby anymore.  She is climbing everything, helping herself to snacks from the pantry, singing tons of songs, and talking in sentences sometimes already.

Karly is also starting to get very demanding about things and she will throw some pretty good tantrums if I don't give in.  She thinks my phone belongs to her, and anytime she sees it she wants me to put on "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and she takes the phone and runs. If I don't give it to her, she throws herself down and has a tantrum.  She's also really good at saying "no" and "mine".  She's a toddler!

With all that being said though, she is the sweetest.  She still lets me roll her up in a little ball and snuggle her up close to my neck.  I love it.  I will rock her and we will sing together. She is really good at singing "I am a child of God."  It's precious.

She has the best laugh!  She squeals and gets really excited about a lot, and then when we get her laughing, it is good and loud belly laughs.  It's the best.  She also really loves it when everyone watches her and laughs at her.

She likes to act like the big kids.  If they sit on the couch, she wants to sit by them.  If they get on the trampoline, she wants to jump too.  Anything they have, she wants too. It's cute, and it definitely is helping her to mature and grow up very quickly.  She has a tiny little body so she surprises people with how she talks and acts much older than she looks.

Anytime Eden or Bentley come home from school, she runs to them and gives them a lingering hug as she lays her head on their bellies.  It's precious.

She is so much fun.  We all adore her.

I am so grateful to be home with my babies.  I can't imagine being away from them, and can't picture myself doing anything else that would be as meaningful.  I absolutely adore the stage we are in right now, and the pure magic in their eyes as we go on adventures and play together. It really is a blessed life I live with my kids and my amazing husband.

Spring Break in Denver

Spring break was so much fun this year!  We packed a whole lot into one week, and had a fabulous time.  We also managed to get Eden's annual hospital visit in there with Dr. Prager, so it was a trip mixed with business and pleasure.

Before I get to all the fun stuff- here's the medical update for Eden.  She went under anesthesia for her annual bronchoscopy.  Her airway in the reconstruction site still looks good.  It is nice and open, and doing well, but still not growing significantly.  He felt very positive about it all.  The trouble spot this time is in her upper airway, above the reconstruction site.  She has an aretnoid that is kind of flopping down into her airway a bit, which is causing some blockage and most likely the reason behind her increased struggle to breath at night.  Last year he shaved a bit off of this aretnoid, but it looks like it has gotten worse in the past year.  He decided against doing anything to it this time because the risk of aspirating liquid can increase if he cuts away too much of this area.  He felt it would be best to get another sleep study and make sure she is breathing sufficiently.  If not, he will do a procedure to remove some of the blockage. However, if she is still breathing ok, than he thinks it's best to just leave it alone.  We will see what comes of this!

So now back to the good stuff:  We started the week at the Asay's house in Erie.  Their house had sold, and this was literally the last week their family was going to be in this house.  We kind of crashed in on them at a crazy time, but we had to get one more visit in before they were off to Utah.  I'm so glad we went, and the kids were all so happy to see each other!

Karly did surprisingly well for most of the drive.  Turns out she was actually fairly entertained by watching the movie in the car, even though she had to twist around to see.

-- We walked to the park by their house a couple times. Being at the park is always a hit.

-- Brody had a really fun dancing game on their TV and they were all so cute to watch.  Eden and Bentley totally got into it.

-- On one of the days we went to the Children's Museum which was such a blast.  We ended up being there for almost 5 hours, and the kids weren't even ready to go at that point.  That place is definitely a huge hit.  They all had so much fun together.  

--Olive loved that she could use paint markers to color all over the windows.  :)

-- I love that Eden and Wren have each other.  They get along so well and love being together.

-- Brody and Bentley were in the workshop building for a really long time.  They were cute little buddies sharing their tools and ideas as they worked.

-- The zip lines outside were new and there was hardly anyone there so the kids went over and over again.

--When the afternoon rolled around, Brad took our two babies and went back to the house so they could nap.  The rest of us stayed for a kitchen class that we had signed up for.  The kids were excited to get their aprons and chop their veggies for a salsa recipe they had.

-- We also went swimming at the rec center.  Swimming is always a hit.  The water was a little cold so we spent a lot of time in the hot tub, but we all had a lot of fun.

-- When it came time to leave, it was actually a lot more sad than I thought it would be.  Tiff and Cam moved to this house in early 2011 which is the same year that Eden had her first reconstructive surgery.  Eden and I were in Denver A LOT that year, and the next couple years too as we did the intensive feeding therapy for weeks, and the constant visits to check her airway.  We have spent a lot of time in this house, under some pretty stressful circumstances, most of which Brad and I were separated so I was so grateful to have some family support and comfort.  The room in the basement even became "Lisa's room" and the closet was constantly full of trach and medical supplies so I didn't have to travel back and forth with them every time.  Such a blessing they were here for us for all those rough years.  I appreciate it more than I could express to them.  Goodbye Erie house!

-- On Thursday, Brad dropped me and the three younger kids off at my cousin Allie's house, while him and Eden went to the hospital for her bronch visit.  Allie was on her way home from the doctor still when we got there, so the kids and I explored their beautiful property and found this amazingly beautiful and huge horse.  She was a gentle giant, but still so intimidating because she was so huge.  It took Olive a while to get close enough to touch, but Bentley gave her a few very timid rubs on the nose.

-- Karly would also reach out to touch the horse if her head was turned, but when the horse would turn back and start to sniff, she got really nervous and tried to crawl over my back to get away.  She was super curious though. It was cute.

-- Bentley also found a snake which he thought was totally awesome - not awesome enough to try to catch though. 

-- When it came to grasshoppers though, he was completely ok to catch those. :)

-- We were able to have a really nice visit with Allie and her boys.  It was fun to see their new house and gorgeous new property.  Bentley and Bryant had a fun time together.  I'm looking forward to spending more time with them this summer in Durango.

--Eden and daddy played a lot of games and enjoyed their time together while they waited for her procedure.  She is seriously one of the bravest kids I have ever met.  She never gets anxious or worried before these appointments.  She doesn't even complain when the procedure gets delayed and she ends up having to fast for almost the whole day.

-- Once she had recovered from the anesthesia and got discharged, they came back to pick us up from Allie's house.  Before we left though, I had to show her the big, beautiful horse.  Allie even got her a bucket of oats to feed her. Eden loved it.

-- That night we headed over to Greg and Steph's house to finish out the weekend.  We couldn't believe it when we woke up to snow the next morning.  Eden was thrilled!  Fortunately, Maddie and Griffin had some extra gear they could lend her.  Eden and Maddie spent the whole morning outside playing in the snow and building a big snow igloo.

-- Steph had some fun eggs for the kids to excavate to "hatch" some kind of creature.  They very patiently chipped away for quite a while before they eventually got their creatures out.

-- We also took the bigger kids to go see Beauty and the Beast.  The movie was so good!  We loved it.

-- Greg is always good about giving Brad some good chiropractic adjustments while we are there.  All the kids were very intrigued and very worried for him.

-- The snow melted off pretty quick and the weather warmed up so they just had a random hill to sled down while wearing short sleeves again.  Colorado weather is so funny.

-- Maddie and Eden had so much fun tougher.  These two are great buddies.

-- It was a bummer when the week came to an end and it was time to go home.  I'm so grateful we were able to see so much family while we were up there, and that we could do so many fun things.  It was definitely a very successful spring break.