Kindergarten's Over!

It was such a huge struggle trying to decide to do with Eden and school this past year. We put SO MUCH thought and prayer into the decision and felt it was right to start her in January, knowing she would only get half the year in.  When we met with her teacher, her speech therapist, and the others who interacted with her regularly, they all had such positive things to say about Eden and the change and progress she made from January until May. Socially, she still had some shy behavior, but made tremendous progress with her peers once she became comfortable in the classroom. Academically, she is average or above average for her age so they all felt without a single doubt that she needed to move on to 1st grade next fall and not repeat a full year of kindergarten.

So once again, so much thought and prayer has gone into this decision but we also feel it is right for her to move on to 1st grade. Something that is a huge positive for me is that she has something like 10 kids in our ward who are also moving on to 1st grade that she knew in kindergarten, so having this established group of kids she already knows is such a great blessing.

I can't believe I have a kindergarten graduate! I'm so proud of her!

On their final day, they invited parents in to watch a little performance before having a big class picnic. I wasn't sure how she would do having to get up by herself in front of so many people, but she totally blew me away! She was confident, spoke loud and was so excited to do her part. I'm so proud of her.

I helped put together a framed picture of the kids in the class for her teacher. I think she was surprised and the kids and I had fun doing the photos.

That night, after daddy got off work, we went to Bahama Bucks to get snow cones to celebrate the real start of summer vacation! We can't wait!

Miscellaneous Pictures

Olivia is very intrigued by our friend's cat. She is very soft and sweet  to it (which is kind of surprising ha!)

Bentley and Abby May - best buddies.

There are always helpers around when I get the kitchen aide mixer out.

I went and got my hair done and went for a new "sombre/balayage" style. It's definitely lighter than I've ever done before, but it's a fun summer do! 

Most days of the week we have friends over and it's so fun for the kids to make the backyard into a fun summer playground. This particular day they had those plastic pills that eventually turn into sponge animals. It kept them all entertained for quite a while.

Road Trip and Medical Update

May 16th Eden was scheduled for her next bronchoscopy at Denver Children's Hospital. Brad had blocked a few days off at work so he could drive out with us, and keep the two little ones while I spent Friday at the hospital with Eden.  Unfortunately, a few days before leaving to Denver, Uncle Jeff took a pretty scary turn for the worst and we all felt it was best for Brad to head out to TN to be with his family, and help support them through Jeff's sickness. 

I was pretty nervous to be taking the drive and trip to Denver solo, but it's what needed to happen, so I strapped them all in and out we went!

At the halfway point, when we stopped for gas, I turned Olivia's carseat around to face forward to try to prolong her happiness and give her something else to look at. She was pretty excited about that at first. I love her funny smile.

And then... a miracle happened.  They ALL fell asleep. It was a blessing from on high for sure.

Stephanie graciously offered to watch Bentley and Olivia for me, so bright and early Friday morning, Eden and I headed out to the hospital. 

It always takes a couple hours in pre-op while they get ready for the procedure so we were finding things to do to entertain ourselves. It becomes a really special time for Eden and I together as we wait for these procedures. She's a pretty awesome kid.

This time she was a little antsy to go back to the operating room. She was excited though about picking out a smelly chapstick that they rub all over the inside of the mask. She thinks it smells so good and that it's funny that she gets to do that.

Prior to starting the bronch, I met with Dr. Prager and told him that her breathing was louder and sounding more strained since the last time we were there. I was a little curious and anxious to find out what that meant and how things looked down there.

So there are three areas of her airway that they are looking at each time she goes under.  The lower airway, almost where it branches off into her lungs, still has severe tracheal malasia (softening and collapsing of the airway). This news isn't new, but also doesn't look (yet) like it's improving at all. So this is a big check against her and certainly contributes to her strained and loud breathing.

The second part of the airway they look at is below the vocal cords which is the area they reconstructed. This part looked good.  The rib grafts are healing nicely. The airway is nice and round and looking good. Sweet! This was fabulous news.

Then the last part is the upper airway, above the vocal cords, which is the picture below. Because of the force of breathing through a small airway that has tracheal malasia, this upper airway is slowly kind of turning in and down into the airway. This is a problem they have seen before and is a form of "maintenance" they expected to happen at some point after a reconstructive surgery like she had.  So this is a second strike against her which is also contributing to her increase in strained breathing.

So the plan is to do another minor procedure next time we go to open this part up a little bit. On the sides where he drew the dotted lines, he plans to snip that skin to release the tension. Also, he will laser out a bunch of the stuff all along the bottom that is folding in. This should help relieve the occlusion a little and open that upper part up again. I'm still waiting on contact back from the hospital to find out the recovery time there and when that will take place. He didn't seem too concerned that it needed to happen really soon, but when she is active she sounds like breathing is so much work so I want to try to get back in as soon as possible to help relieve some of that strain for her.

Once we were finally checked out of the post op recovery area, the first order of business was to get this fasting girl some food. She was very excited to pick out anything she felt looked good.

Aside from the day at the hospital, we were able to spend lots of quality time with Stephanie and the kids. We stayed a couple extra days so it felt like a fun trip, not just a medical one. :)

The kids all love Mason, he is so sweet with them. (the stranger girl in the middle is one of Stephanie's daycare kids ha ha)

On one of the days we went to the Krispie Kreme donut factory, and then over to Chuck-E-Cheese's. The kids had a blast.

The drive home was a little rougher than the way out, but the kids did really good overall.  We did stop at a park in Raton and played for a while and that really seemed to help Olivia get some wiggles out. Overall it was a great trip.

While we were there, Brad kept us posted on his trip out in Chattanooga, TN. He got to see some pretty cool places and spend some quality time with his family so I'm grateful he was able to go and that Jeff is recovering.

Praying Mantis Babies

This year when we ordered our caterpillars that we watched transform into butterflies, we also ordered a large praying mantis nest. The butterflies were like a week or two from arrival to release of the butterflies. The praying mantis cocoon, on the other hand, was a bit more of a time commitment. When it arrived in the mail, it said it would take 6-10 weeks before the babies would start to hatch. So we stuck the nest in this bug catcher and left it on the kitchen counter. For a while Eden would check on it every day, but 6-10 weeks is a long time for a child so eventually we all kind of forgot about it.  

Then one day it happened.  I was cleaning up my kitchen and grabbed a clorox wipe to get all the crumbs that were all over my counter, and then I noticed these weren't crumbs at all - they were tiny, minuscule little baby praying mantis that were somehow getting out of the cage and crawling all over.  It was so disgusting and I freaked out. 

I ran the cage outside and got the kids to come see.  While they were busy watching them coming out of the cocoon like crazy, I went back in and decontaminated my kitchen counter tops. There were hundreds of babies all over in that cage and they were still pouring out, so I didn't feel too bad about the ones that got swept up in my kitchen. :)

It just looks like a bunch of fuzz on the top of that nest, but those are babies coming out. Kind of interesting, mostly just creepy.

Eden is our creature girl... she has no fear and loves to hold anything.  Brad ordered another big box of worms which he feeds to the turtles and Eden loved helping him clean out the box and playing in them.

Yes.... we have a revolving door (outside door) for all kinds of creepy crawlies...

Mother's Day

Sunday mornings are crazy around our house.  We have church at 9am, and Brad has to be there for meetings by 6:30am which leaves me to get myself and the kids ready. Needless to say, we stay moving and on track with not a lot of down time. Mother's Day was a little exception because Brad got to stay a little longer that morning, but it wasn't quite the relaxed Mother's Day mornings that I've had in the past.  It was a great morning though.

Brad and the kids brought me breakfast in bed (I had to crawl back into bed after taking a quick shower, but it counted I guess. :)

This is the card attached to some beautiful flowers from Brad.

The card Eden made at school.

This is the card Bentley made in nursery at church. He's right, I do love going to Costco and I take him there often.

This was on the back of Eden's card.  It's just a cut out picture from a magazine of some sort of smoothie or something. "This is good for you."  So cute.

I'm so grateful for these three huge blessings that call me mom.

That afternoon after church, we headed down to Grandma and Grandpas house.  The guys planned to make dinner so we were excited about that!

All three kids took a little nap on the way down so Brad and I had a nice quiet ride.

Grandpa had just finished the sandbox at his house and this was the first time the kids were seeing it.  It was so much fun and they spent a lot of time out there that day.

The kids had major noodle battles.

Overall it was such a wonderful Mother's Day and I got to spend it with some of my most favorite people.  I'm so grateful to be a mother, it's what I always wanted to be and it truly is the hardest, but most rewarding work I could have ever imagined.