Roadtrip to Denver

Eden had her annual bronchoscopy with Dr. Prager so we packed up the crew and headed to Denver for a quick weekend get away.  It's such a blessing that we can stay with Greg and Steph and turn these sometimes negative medical trips into great family time.  

The kids do awesome on the road.  This time we got 3 out of 4 asleep for a period of time on the drive out.  Success!

Bright and early the next morning, Eden and I headed to the hospital for her bronch.  She wasn't nervous at all and handles all of this like a champ. I always like that we get a couple hours together before she goes in for her procedure.  Even though she is fasting, and getting ready to go through something rough, you'd never know it.  She has always had such a good attitude about all of this.

Everything with the procedure went smoothly.  Waking up and having an IV is always the worst part for her.  Fortunately, she bounced back from anesthesia pretty quickly and we were on our way.  Before we left though she had one request. She remembered seeing a big doll house in the hospital years ago and we wanted to search the place to find it again.  It's a big hospital, but we found it!  It made me reminisce on all the time we have spent in this place, especially during the weeks of the intensive feeding therapy we did.  She had to be in a feeding session two or three times a day, and most days it wasn't worth leaving the hospital so for weeks we just killed time by finding things in the hospital (like this doll house).  I remember little baby Bentley napped right there on the floor next to that doll house one day.   It was fun to find it again, and she even confirmed her memories of a lot of the pieces and creatures inside the house.  She loved it and I was glad to see all her memories of this side of things are good ones.

As an update on her airway, she has a trouble spot in her upper airway that Dr. Prager feels is something that needs to be watched, but wasn't yet worth working on.  As of right now he felt she was completely stable so the risks of manipulating the airway weren't worth it yet.  We will do a sleep study in the fall and make sure things aren't getting worse, and we will continue to monitor.

After leaving the hospital, we needed to get this fasting girl some food!  She chose the iHop down the road because she felt that chocolate and banana crepes would totally hit the spot.

Once we broke free of the hospital, the fun began.  We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and enjoying time with family.  

The kids played for hours in the backyard. They made a cafe and every rock had a different kind of entree that could be ordered.  They used every kind of plant they could find, and each "dish" was a little different.  It was so cute to see their creativity.

We are so grateful to stay with them while we have these medical trips.  It's the best that we can get in so much family time, and accomplish our out of state medical appointments at the same time.  We love having our families together.  Thanks Greg and Steph!

Sleeping in the car - it's like a drug.  I can't help it.  It's just too good.

Best Daddy Ever

In between errands, we made a quick stop at Barnes and Nobles because there were some books Eden wanted to check out.  While her and I were browing books, I realized that the rest of the family were nowhere to be found.  Then I followed the sound of giggles and found this cute puppet show going on.  Brad had a voice for every character and there was a pretty fantastic story line.  These three were completely enthralled and loving every minute of his "play".  

Brad, you're the best.  We are all so blessed to have you.

Swimming with Shannon

Summer is quickly approaching and I've got to get these kids more water safe!  Swimming lessons with Shannon these past couple months have been worth every penny.  The kids trust her, and LOVE her, and they have been making incredible progress.  It's so fun to watch them gain more confidence in the water. 

Eden and Bentley are totally good now and can swim themselves really far across the pool.  She continues to work with them on their breathing and strokes.  They are doing awesome.

Olive is just a hoot to watch.  She has the confidence in the water and now just needs the skills to back it up.  She makes Shannon laugh constantly with the things she does and says.  She is so much fun.  Now if we can just get her to really swim, that would be awesome.

Karly is a lot more hesitant and never wants to get in, but once Shannon grabs a hold of her, they have a ton of fun too.

The kids love ending their lesson in the hot tub.

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to have them in lessons here and seeing them make great progress!

Molly and Bentley

Molly is such a cute friend for Bentley.  Whenever the Haslam family is here, Bentley and Molly like to play board games together.  She is such a good sport.  Bentley does his best to explain the rules and as I'm listening in, it's incredibly confusing and so hard to understand for poor Molly who has never seen these games before.  The other day I tried to step in and said, "Bentley, this game is too complicated and you have played it a lot and she never has so it's kind of confusing and not really fair." Then Molly sweetly responded, "Oh it's ok, I like to lose! It's fun to play and I don't mind if Bentley wins every time."   Bentley, of course, LOVES to win so there you have it - a match made in heaven.  :)

Preschool Graduation

Olive has really loved her preschool class this year.  It was only one day a week for her and it wasn't nearly enough.  She absolutely loves Mrs. Brittany and loves being at school with her friends. 

She was so cute and proud during her preschool graduation.  Her smile says it all!

Mrs. Brittany gave each of the kids an award and Olive received the "lifesaver" award because she 

always saved the day by saying the right thing, or showing her cute smile, or making everyone laugh.  I thought it sounded like the perfect award for her.  Sadly, Mrs. Brittany will be moving and Olive can't be in her class again next year.  We are so grateful for the foundation of "school" she received here this year though.  We shall see what next year of preschool holds for our little "lifesaver". Watch out world!

Sleepy Baby

Karly has started skipping her nap sometimes so it results in a pretty sleepy baby every couple days.  She's the cutest.  These pictures make me smile.

I'm not sure if I should be excited that I'll no longer have a napping child, or if I should be sad that I'll no longer have her taking naps.  Well either way, those naps are slowly going away.  The transition time is always the worst.  Wish us luck!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is such a fun day for me!  It also happens to be the only Sunday in the whole year where I don't like having 9am church.  It's kind of a bummer to get up early and quickly get myself ready so I have time to get everyone else ready too.  No breakfast in bed this year, but I know my cuties would do it if we had the time! 

The morning was still great though.  I got up and got ready and then came down to many, many surprises from everyone.  They had made me cards, drawn me pictures, made messages written in legos, and a few gifts too.  Brad was awesome to take some great pictures for me to capture all the fun.

I got a really pretty necklace with all the kids names on it.

From the time I can remember, I had a very special doll, my "music doll" and I loved that baby so much and took her everywhere.  I always wanted to be a mommy and I still can't believe these four miracles are mine.  They are amazing in every way and I am so very grateful.  These days as a real mom are a lot harder than taking care of my dolls (ha!) but the richness of motherhood brings me joy like nothing else in life.  I'm so grateful.