Not What I Planned For Today

Just to warn you, this post is somewhat long and rambling. And probably far more detail than you need or wanted to know.

I had plans on how my day would go. I would get up, wake up Emma and Molly and get them ready for school. I would send them and Jimmy to school then finish getting ready and get Lys and Dylan ready to take Lys to preschool where she was Star of the Day today. I planned on getting stuff ready, picking Molly up from kindergarten then heading over to Lyssa's preschool with her Star of the Day sack and some treats for her class. Then I'd come home and make the kids lunch, get Dylan down for a nap and finish up some cleaning. Figured for a few days that's how today would go.

That was before Lyssa came up to me a little bit upset last night. A filling that she had just gotten at the very end of November fell out. Not wanting to repeat the abscess that Emma had with a chipped tooth, I told her that I would need to call the dentist in the morning. I also told her that it would be unlikely that they would get her in today, which I think made her feel a little better.

Well, not much of my morning went as planned. The girls got up pretty easily but took long enough finding shoes that I ended up driving them to school so they wouldn't be late. Only Molly decided she was scared to go in and stood in the front of the school. I sat in the car and watched her to make sure she went in. The minutes passed and she still stood there, staring at the car. I unrolled the window and told her to go in and that I couldn't take her in because I wasn't ready. I was still in my pajamas. She eventually won. I hopped out of the car and took her to her class, where I left her watching me leave.

By the time I got back home it was nearly time to take Lys to preschool. I rushed and got ready and drove her over. She was sad because she had hoped we would have time before going that she could help me make the rice krispy treats for her class. I told her I would make them when I got back. We were a few minutes late to preschool, which was fine because a lot of the other kids were arriving at the same time.

I got home and made the treats for her and sat down to chat online with my family like I do most mornings. After a while I remembered that I needed to call the dentist. There is where my plans changed the most.

They asked me how soon I could get her in. The dentist who put in the filling only works Mondays and Tuesdays and leaves at 12:30 on those days. So instead of waiting for Molly to get out of kindergarten and then going over to Lyssa's preschool, I ended up getting Molly out a few minutes early. I took the treats and the Star of the Day sack over and told a little about Lys and let her pass out the treats and then we left as quickly as we could for the dentist. And hit nearly every light red.

The dentist put in a new filling but noted that when her filling came out that a piece of tooth came out with it so it really needs a crown rather than a filling. Lyssa had gotten herself worked up about getting a new filling so wasn't holding still enough to get the crown. He said that the filling will likely fall out sometime, but until then this should work. They want me to call after the holidays and schedule a sedated appointment to get a crown put on the tooth. Getting there as late as we did, I was surprised when we were done just before 12:30.

Funny how something that took at most a half hour of my plans could add some stress to the day. But at least it's done. And at least I didn't get charged anything for today.

Snow Fort

After the ward Christmas party on Saturday, the girls went and played with some neighbors and Russ went out with Jimmy to build a snow fort. They didn't quite finish it because after working on it for 2 hours, Russ got tired. He told them they'd finish another day. Here are a couple of pictures of Russ and Jimmy working on it. As you can see in the pictures, there are some downfalls to not being able to get the lawn mower started to clean up the leaves from the tree.

Yes, Jimmy was throwing a snowball at Russ here.

When the girls got home they were excited to go help with it. I never did get a picture of how tall they went with it. Which I should have done. The tops of the walls have fallen over so it's no taller than it looks in these pictures. Maybe even a little shorter. Ah well.

Ward Christmas Party & Our Tree

Saturday was our ward's Christmas party. Russ took the kids over while I stayed home with Dylan. Which is what would have happened even if Dylan weren't sick then, which he was. Russ thought to bring along the camera for pictures with Santa. Since I wasn't actually there, I don't have a lot to say about what happened. This post is mostly for pictures.

I think Lyssa's expression in this picture is funny. I just do.
I put this and the next picture in because here Jimmy is doing the rabbit ear thing to Santa. In the next, Santa is doing it back to Jimmy.

A couple of weeks ago the kids begged and begged to put up the Christmas tree. We've had our little tree since Russ and I got married. It's getting to be quite the sad little tree. Branches are breaking and everything. But it works. Since Dylan would pull off most ornaments anyway, I bought a few packages of candy canes to cover the tree. The kids had lots of fun putting them on. It should be noted that there are only a few left on the tree. All of which are ones Dylan can't reach. Which is kind of funny since he wasn't the only one taking them off the tree.
As you can see in this picture, Dylan was trying to eat the candy canes before they were even on the tree.

Molly really, really wanted to put one up high on the tree. She didn't knock the tree over putting it on. No, she waited a few days and then knocked it over grabbing a candy cane off.

Dylan vs. Insurance

Late this summer I got a call from the pediatrician's office asking if we were interested in getting the synagis shot (if you're unfamiliar with what the synagis shot is, it's a vaccination to help prevent RSV for those who qualify for it, given every 30 days) for Dylan again this year. Assuming that his cardiologist would recommend it again this year and remembering that the information on the shot had said that it is recommended for kids with heart defects until they are 2, I said yes. About a month ago I got another call from them to verify the insurance information. The nurse who is over getting insurance approval and keeping track of which kids get the synagis shot told me that thus far the insurance had been claiming no record of him and would resubmit the information to the insurance to get approval. This is a vaccination that is quite expensive so one typically doesn't get it without that approval.

At Dylan's last appointment with his cardiologist, he asked if he was getting the synagis shot. I told him we were still waiting on approval. He said that if they are having a hard time getting him approved to have them let him know and he would be happy to write a letter to the insurance company to try to get it approved because it's something he thinks he should have.

After a bit of not hearing back about it, I decided to call the pediatrician's office and ask about it and let them know about what his cardiologist had said. The nurse told me she would call them and see if she could find anything out and call me right back. She called me back shortly and told me that she had just received a fax from them requesting more information about his heart. She said she thought it would be a good idea to have the letter from the cardiologist to send along with that information and had me call him and ask that he fax her the letter so she could send it with the information she had to send.

Last week she called me again. She said that the insurance company denied the request for him to receive the shot, sent it immediately to appeals and denied it again, even with the letter. Apparently they've changed the parameters for those who receive the shot just in time for this cold and flu season, and he no longer fits in their parameters. She did send me a copy of the denial letter she had received. The reasons the letter states for denial are that he was full-term and post cardiac surgery, he is in his second RSV season and non on any cardiac medicines. Says he has "no CLD or other risk factors" and does not meet the "medical necessity criteria."

Don't ask me what CLD stands for. I have no idea. All I know is that I'm a little bit annoyed that they've denied him because I know how easily he seems to catch everything that comes around. Which is why we are keeping him home as much as we can, especially from places with large groups of people. We will take him to a few things like Emma's baptism. Of course, I'm thinking the question of taking him to the ward Christmas party and a wedding tomorrow (which I thought was a bad idea) isn't up for debate any longer. Dylan looked flushed tonight and I felt his forehead and it was warm. Took his temperature and sure enough, he has a fever. I'm thinking it's my fault. I've forgotten a few times in this bitterly cold weather to have his sisters use hand sanitizer or wash their hands before touching him after school and preschool. But then no one else in our family has had fevers recently. Par for the course, he seems to be starting this one. I am so looking forward to spring and summer.

December Birthday

Almost seems silly to do a beginning of the month birthday post for just one person. But I'm going to do it anyway. I know, I could easily wait until his actual birthday to wish him a happy birthday. Only problem with waiting is that some might think I forgot to do the birthday post this month. Or they won't even notice at all.

Anyway, happy birthday this month to Alex! Hope you have a great one!

Lyssa and the Dentist

Bright and early this morning I took Lyssa to the dentist to get her two cavities filled. They had it down as a sedated appointment, but she had wanted to try it without sedation. She was scared and wiggled a lot, but I think did okay considering her age. The dentist, on the other hand, said after word that he thinks we probably should have sedated her. Just because she's going to have bad memories of today. She went out of the dentist office happily enough though. I think she mostly didn't like the tool they use to hold open the mouth. But for the cost difference on my end, I much prefer the non-sedated way.

Anyway, I laughed at her as we were in the waiting room. The movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks" had just ended and the credits were playing. She danced around to the song on the credits. She's just that way. Hears music and has to dance.

The following video is an example of it. I was trying to film her singing along with the credit song for the "Plants vs Zombies" game like she does. She saw the camera and danced instead. She keeps saying, "Click!" because she didn't know I was all ready filming her.

Emma's Baptism

As is obvious by the title, Emma was baptized today. She was very excited about getting baptized. She was supposed to have her baptism interview with the bishop on Tuesday but she had gotten sick and so didn't have it until last night. In a way I was amazed she answered the questions. She sometimes doesn't like to answer when people ask her things and will just kind of grunt. Not this time. She answered very easily and well.

When we got to the church building for her baptism, the church was locked and no one was there. Since we were having her baptism on a different day than they normally have them, I was almost afraid that they had forgotten and wondered what we were going to do. Actually, I was more worried that the font wouldn't be filled and we would have to sit around and wait while it filled. We didn't have to wait long though.

I thought her baptism service was very nice. I had actually forgotten until it was announced that I was saying the opening prayer, which is funny since I'm the one who gave the list of who was speaking and prayers and such. Emma asked her grandmothers to give the talks on baptism and on the Holy Ghost. I thought they both did good jobs. Emma, of course, wanted her dad to baptize and confirm her. Jimmy gave the closing prayer.

After the baptism we all headed over to Emma's favorite restaurant for lunch. We had such a large group with us that I wondered briefly as I was leaving if they were glad to see us go.

Russ and Emma in baptism clothes:
Our family after the baptism:

Happy Birthday Emma!

It's hard to believe that Emma is 8 years old today! She's growing up too quickly. Looking out the window at the snow on the ground, I think it's appropriate in a way to have that snow. The night before she was born there was a snow storm. Of course, I still think it's funny that the day before she was born (which happened to be Thanksgiving that year), my brother-in-law, Mike, looked at me and said, "Tomorrow. 1:00." She was born the next day at 12:55.

Hope you have a great one this year, Emma!

Dylan's Latest Echo

The past 6 months have flown by and today was time for Dylan's next echo. He had another sedated echo, which was quite obvious right away that sedated was the only way they would get an echo today. Anyone who has been around him knows that if you aren't in his immediate family and touch him, he's not happy at all. Even having the doctor listen to his heart with the stethoscope can be a challenge. Although I will add that if I'm not around, he tends to be a little happier with other people.

Late yesterday afternoon I had gotten a call from the hospital telling me that Dylan's cardiologist was quite sick and would be unable to be there tomorrow but recommended keeping the echo since they were pretty booked up and it would probably be into January before we could get him in for another. Since Russ had taken the day off of work for it anyway, we decided that would be best and scheduled an appointment to meet with the doctor on Tuesday. Just after they started with the echo, one of the nurses stuck her head in and said that his doctor would actually be in today and to make sure we didn't leave without talking to him.

They do an iv for the sedation so they can give the medicine to them easier and give them a little more if they need it. Dylan was very unhappy when we laid him on the exam table so they could start the iv. He wasn't happy with being touched. When the iv needle poked him, his cry didn't change at all from his crying that they were touching him. When they left the room, he stopped crying briefly. Then started up again because he didn't like the little foam board thing they had taped to his hand to help keep him from pulling out the iv. After the echo when he had become conscious enough to drink a bit of apple juice, he was very good and held very still for the nurse to take the tape off to remove the iv. Until she got the foam board off. That's all he really wanted off. He didn't want her to touch him after she had the board off.

It has actually been somewhat entertaining to watch how wobbly Dylan has been after his sedation. When we were in the room waiting for the doctor to come in he really wanted us to let him try to walk around. We knew he wasn't quite ready for that. Russ did let him try to crawl where he proceeded to crawl right into the wall then say, "Uh-oh," just before doing a rolling fall. After getting to my parent's house (thanks mom for letting the others sleep over and watching them for us during the echo!) he would try to walk a bit then fall down then try to stand up only to fall again. Didn't take long until he was a little more steady though.

Anyway, when Dr. M came in, he told us that everything looks good. His heart function is normal. His conduit, as always is a little leaky (he said about medium leak) and slightly narrow, but functioning well. We go back in another 6 months. In the past he hasn't given a time-frame of how long he thinks we can go before he needs to have his conduit replaced. Today he said he would like to try to get Dylan to at least 3 before replacing it. I had been almost expecting him to say that it would be time really soon for that surgery so it was really nice to hear 3. That's right in the middle of the average age that Dylan's surgeon had told us he typically sees for the time when they need the second surgery (he said between 2 and 4, some earlier, some later). Hopefully he'll be able to go even longer, but it's nice to think of going at least another year and a half.

Alyssa's Thankful List

Today at preschool Lyssa made a "Thankful Tree." I'm sure you've seen one before. Picture of a tree where each leaf has written on it something that person is thankful for. A few things on her list made me laugh. So that you may enjoy it too, here's her list:

Dog that's dead Xena
Mac & cheese
Neighbors
Baby
Molly's toys
Dad
Cat Cid (Yeah, the cat died long before she was born.)
Mom
Jesus
Sweety Bell (one of her toys)
Store

Yes, I plan on keeping her paper for a long time.

Dentist Appointments

Way back in September (which really wasn't all that long ago), I made dentist appointments for my kids for cleanings. Which got postponed because of a stomach bug. Then postponed again because of flu and strep. Then postponed again because I decided they had missed too much school with being sick and wanted a time where they could go without missing school. That turned out to be today. And I changed Jimmy's for Friday so he could go to a birthday party.

Molly was the most nervous, which is a big change from usual. She's my child who doesn't even flinch when she gets a shot. Emma wasn't nervous at all. Lys was bouncing because she was so excited about her turn. Dylan just liked their fun house mirror.

Admittedly, my kids don't brush as well as they should so I expected them to have cavities. Especially Molly. She's gone from my best brusher to one of my worst. I was right. Emma and Lys each have two teeth with cavities. One of Lyssa's I could easily see. Her front teeth didn't seem to have enamel on them when she was born because as soon as they started coming in, they started to break down and get cavities. So the reason her teeth look so good is because they're fake. She has a partial for her front teeth. The one I could see was next to the partial. Her other one is just a small one. Emma has two small ones, but they want to put in a spacer where her tooth was pulled and she hasn't wanted to let them take a mold at all. Molly has 4 cavities. The hardest one for them to fill will be one that is growing around a filling, so they'll have to take out the filling and start over with it.

Emma and Molly both panicked at the thought of getting work done on their teeth so they will have the sedations. They've scheduled Lyssa for a sedation appointment but will try to do it without sedation first since she seemed like she may actually be okay with it. I think Emma would be okay with it if she hadn't just had her tooth pulled. On the way to the dentist she mentioned that it hurt a little to get her tooth pulled. I also think Molly would be okay, but she was the hardest one today. She tried to run when it was her turn for the cleaning.

Shortly after getting home, I heard Molly tell Jimmy (who decided to come home from his party early) that the dentist was fun. They loved getting new toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss. But most especially loved getting a token for a small toy.

SEP (aka Parent Teacher) Conferences

Today I had parent-teacher conferences for Jimmy, Emma and Molly. I scheduled them far enough apart this time that I could go home in between and not have to drag everyone along for them. Jimmy wasn't really happy about that. Says he likes having everyone go. Mostly he wanted to show off Dylan to his teacher.

They have changed how they do them a little bit. For the kids older than kindergarten, anyway. They have the student kind of lead the conferences and show their own reports and things. Makes it a little more entertaining.

Since Molly's conference was first, I'll start with her. She was the only one who didn't bring home a report card last week. Her teacher likes to go over them at the conferences, which I was aware of so I wasn't surprised when Jimmy and Emma brought theirs home and she didn't. They've changed the grading system this year so they get a 3 for at or above grade level, 2 for below, and 1 for far below. Molly got all 3's except for one 2 for not knowing a few letter sounds. I quizzed her on those sounds on the way home and she knew them. Said she just gets nervous when she's asked in class what the sounds are. Her teacher said she's very nice and a very good artist. Said she really likes her cousin who is in her class.

I got home with Molly and remembered that I hadn't filled out a couple of papers Emma's teacher wanted taken to her conference. Luckily I had a few minutes and filled them out quickly. Emma is also doing really well. She is doing math a little above where they should be at this point. Which is nice since math is her favorite subject. Her reading level is right where it should be. She just needs to work on starting her work when she's told. She hasn't had the problems of not finishing work like she did in kindergarten and 1st grade though. She is starting to talk a little more. Emma seemed excited to read to me a story she had written in class titled, "The Trouble with Big Brothers." I thought it was a cute little story. She even put the Plants Vs. Zombies computer game into her story. She hadn't had that graded yet or else she would have been able to bring it home. Her teacher gave me a copy of a skills test Emma took. Her scores on that were nearly 100%.

Jimmy's conference was last. We got there a little early so we could stop by the book fair. Then we went to his classroom where we waited for about 20 minutes for the people ahead of us to finish up. While we waited Jimmy pointed out which picture of parents hanging on the wall across from the classroom the one he had done. I wasn't sure what to expect from his since he had such a long list of missing assignments but it went really well. Of course, she found two of his missing assignments just before the conference. He is reading well into a 6th grade level. Two months ago he showed reading nearly 2 grade levels lower. So he's improved a lot there. He's typing faster than level and his math is slightly above level as well. I was given a copy of his IOWA test. Most of his scores fell in the high average range. Jimmy says his conference rocked.

All in all the conferences went well. Kind of nice to have them over with too. Now to get them to do their homework...

Dylan's 15 Month Check-up

Just when I thought I had finally gotten caught up with posts, I remembered that I failed to mention taking Dylan today for his 15 month check-up.

Dylan is just above the average for height and a little below average for weight. His head size, on the other hand, is in the 90th percentile. He's growing and developing nicely.

He usually smiles at the doctor. Not today. He kind of frowned at him today and wasn't happy at all with being examined. The doctor said that his lungs sound really good, which was nice since he's had a cough and a runny nose and bronchitis has been going around. He did say that his heart makes so much noise that it's hard to say anything one way or another about it. He did seem happy to know that I take Dylan later this month for an echo to check his heart again. Dylan was just happy to be given a sucker after his exam. Wasn't happy at all about the two shots he got though. Which made me forget that I needed to schedule his 18 month appointment until I was almost out of the building.

Dylan walks everywhere now. I'm sure he'll start running soon. Seems to be starting to talk more, too. He can say go, yes, no, banana, dog, thank you (but more like "tak oo"), bottle, and things like that. I've made a monster out of him with books too. He is always wanting me to read to him. And knows if the book is upside down or not, which makes it funny to watch him with one book we have where a girl is standing on her head.

Now we just need to try to keep him from catching everything this winter by keeping him home from everything and making everyone wash hands often and we'll be good. :)

November Birthdays and such

Happy birthday this month to Mike, Susan and Emma! Hope each of you has a good birthday this year!

And to make this not such a short post, I'm adding the "and such."

A little while ago, Russ bought the game Plants vs Zombies. Dylan loves watching people play the game. In this first picture, I managed to catch the look Dylan kept giving me as he was watching Russ finally beat the game (I beat it a while ago). There have been times that Dylan has tried to open up the laptop to watch it and stood there crying because he couldn't.
Here's Russ and Dylan playing the game.
For those who may be interested, you can download a free trial of the game here. But be warned. It can get addictive.

Halloween

All of the kids were very excited for Halloween. I couldn't tell you how many times Lyssa asked me when they could go trick or treating. Jimmy went with a friend and so I didn't get a picture of him in his costume...he rushed out the door too fast and had wiped off the makeup before he came home. Emma also went with a friend but stayed in her costume so I could get a picture of her after she got back. I took Molly, Lyssa and Dylan around. Dylan seemed happy just to be on a walk.

Here are the pictures of the others in their costumes. Jimmy was a zombie. Wish I could have gotten a picture of him. Here's Dylan in his monkey costume:
Lyssa as Batgirl.
Molly was a fairy. Russ added the makeup around her eyes.
Emma was a candy corn witch.
Just for fun, I'm throwing in this picture of Dylan happily getting suckers out of his candy bucket.

Lyssa's Halloween Program

I'm a little bit behind on posting about things. So I'm going to post a couple today and try to catch up. And with the camera working again, I can add a few pictures too.

Thursday Lyssa had her Halloween program at preschool where they sang a couple of songs for us and had snacks. All of the kids were very excited about it and did a good job with their program. Lys had been so excited about it that she had been asking for days if it was time for her to sing to me yet.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from it. this first one was taken of Lys just before the program started. She had taken off her mask earlier at preschool and hadn't grabbed it for the program yet.

Here they are getting ready to sing a song.
Lyssa and her preschool teacher.
I was going to add a video of one of the songs they sang, but it won't upload for me. Keeps having errors. So no video. Sorry.

Still Here...

I realize it has been a while since I have posted anything. The reason for that being that there just isn't a whole lot to post about when everyone has been sick. Started out about the time I posted last with a stomach bug. Shortly after that one had finally cleared out, we had a double whammy of strep and the flu. Jimmy and Lyssa seemed to be the worst with it. Luckily Dylan never got bad. At least not yet. He has had a slight fever the past two days and has been a bit cranky. I'm hoping he's starting to get over whatever it is he has and that it's not something new and exciting to spread around the family again. Especially since everyone else is finally better.

Last week when I was starting to not feel well, the kids took advantage of that and snuck and got the camera that I keep up where they won't constantly try to play with it. After playing with it for a bit, Molly decided to throw it. Yep, it's broken now. Won't even turn on with the battery fully charged. Which means that this year I won't be able to take pictures of the kids in their costumes or their pumpkins after carving or things like that. I'm not really happy about it. I made little zombies for my sister for a cake that I would have posted pictures of had my camera been working. I did take pictures with my camera phone but since changing internet providers, we haven't been able to get the wireless modem working for the laptop to upload the phone pictures. Ah, well.

Before the camera got broken, I did take this video. Russ would get out his longboards and skateboard and Dylan would climb right on them and stand up and grin. He watched one of his sisters push the skateboard down the hall and copied them. This is a video of that. At one point Molly gets in the way, but she didn't realize I was taking a video. Updated: I was playing with my broken camera and managed to fix it! Yay me!

The Things You Learn

I just found out that this week is National "Carry a Tune" week. I find that funny. Guess I have all the more reason to sing the little songs that are constantly stuck in my head and annoy the people around me. Of course this means that I won't have a single song stuck in my head all week. But at least I have an excuse to share a fortune cookie fortune I read once. "Sing badly if you must, but sing!"

My Kids And Scissors...

I really don't know what it is with my kids and scissors. Jimmy used to cut Emma's hair all the time and cut Molly's once. Ranting and raving each time apparently didn't help until the last time. Then Emma had fun with scissors and cut hers, Molly's and Lyssa's hair. Finally has grown out. A little while ago I noticed that Molly cut off a piece of hair that was shorter by her face that had a cute curl to it. Guess it bugged her.

Then came Friday night. Lys came in for family prayer at bedtime holding a small pair of scissors in her hand. Attached to the scissors was a piece of hair. Which belonged to her. Essentially, she gave herself bangs. Badly. So I took her Saturday afternoon to see if it could possibly be fixed. There were parts that I knew ahead of time couldn't. This picture is the result of her haircut. She was very excited about it too. Grinned like this the entire time she sat in the barber's chair. Except for when I pulled my cellphone out to take her picture getting the cut. Unfortunately, I think she enjoyed getting her hair cut too much to learn not to cut her own hair again.
Russ keeps telling her she looks like a boy now. She ignores him.

October Birthdays

I know I'm a little late, but that's okay. Haven't missed any one's birthday yet.

Anyway, happy birthday this month to Dom, Maddy, Livi, Bryce, Jenni and Kathryn! Hope you all have great birthdays!

And somewhat unrelated, apparently it's breast cancer awareness month. Which means a little more to me having had my sister recently have a masectomy due to breast cancer.

School's 5K/Walk-a-Thon

The school had a 5K and Walk-a-thon this morning. We've known about it for a long time now. Kids didn't seem interested, which I didn't mind since the race started at 8 and registration at 7. Then a few days ago Jimmy started to say that he wanted to do it. I said nothing in hopes that he would forget. Yesterday he mentioned it a few times. I hoped that pretending not to hear would get him to change his mind. Then he started to mention it to Russ. Which gave me hope that Russ would take him and I could happily stay home. I'm not really a morning person and that sounded really early to me. So when Jimmy kept coming in this morning trying to get Russ up, I finally got up and took him over to the school for it. Jimmy wanted me to walk with him so we opted for the 5K rather than the walk-a-thon.

Let me just say now that I am out of shape. I have been taking Dylan on long walks about every night, but nothing that is really good exercise. I pictured writing a post about how I nearly died and how hard it was as I barely made it at an easy jog to the first turn of the run. But it wasn't as bad as I pictured after that. Mostly walked it, but when I could get Jimmy to, we would run for a bit. I ran the last little stretch while Jimmy slowly walked. Yes, Jimmy was the very last one to finish. He was tired and swears that he will never do that again. I would have actually liked to have run more than we did. And think I'm insane for starting to think that it would be good to get up early in the mornings before Russ leaves for work and go run about what I did today. And thinking that I'm insane for thinking it, I probably won't. I will probably just continue to take Dylan on his nightly walks.

And just so you know, chucks are not the best shoes to wear for a 5K. But I hadn't been able to find my running shoes. Which I regretted not long after starting.

Happy Birthday Russ

Yep, today was Russ' birthday. I think he had a good day. Despite having to go to work today.

He wasn't expecting anything when he got home so he was happy when the kids greeted him with presents. I took them to the store while he was at work and before Molly was back from her birthday sleepover with her grandparents. There was a little bit of whining and even though I told the girls to go to the bathroom before we left they didn't so needed to go almost as soon as we got to the store. Which meant I took longer at the store than I planned. At least I got home before Molly did.

I had planned on going out with Russ tonight for his birthday until last Sunday when he told me there was an Elder's Quorum party tonight. We went to that instead. First time I've been to one where they served steak. It was fun. We got to know some new neighbors better and listened to BYU lose. Which, I must say, helped me feel better about the Utes losing today. Several at the party wished Russ a happy birthday. One of Jimmy's friend's birthday is today as well, so word spread faster that it was his birthday than it otherwise would have, I think.

Anyway, happy birthday Russ! I look forward to spending the next 35 years with you.

Dentist and Other Things

Saturday night Emma started to complain that her tooth hurt. Started hurting her badly enough that Russ left our ward talent show to take her home. I knew as soon as she said her tooth hurt that I would need to take her to the dentist. When it still hurt Sunday, I really knew I would need to. So yesterday morning I called and scheduled an appointment for her for this afternoon.

I was a bit apprehensive about taking her to the dentist. She hasn't been good at the dentist and totally freaks out. This time she was perfect. I don't know if it's just because she's older or because I kept telling her that they were just going to look in her mouth and maybe take a couple of pictures of her tooth. Either way I was impressed. She even answered them when they talked to her.

After the dentist commented that the tooth she was complaining about was chipped and asked how long she's been swollen (just today is the answer to that), I remembered that she had chipped it when we were in St. George on vacation. I had told her then that I would need to take her to the dentist when we got back. And promptly forgot all about it. So I kind of feel bad that I didn't remember. Especially since her tooth has abscessed and she will have to take antibiotics and a week from today will have the tooth pulled. Poor kid.

But on a brighter note, the school psychologist called me about Emma today. Yes, having the school psychologist call you isn't usually a good thing, but this time it was. Toward the end of the school year last year, Emma's teacher asked for permission to have Emma be part of a group that would meet once a week with the school psychologist to talk about behaviors. She was having a tendency to pinch and with how shy she is, we figured it could help. It did seem to help. The school psychologist was calling to see if I would give permission for her to occasionally talk to Emma to go over some of the things they learned with the group last year. Would be like a 2 minute thing every few weeks. She then told me how much she likes Emma. Said she is cute and funny and smart. I mentioned how there are times I wonder about her and sometimes wonder if she has Asperger's Syndrome. She told me that at the start of the class she might have thought so, but the more she got to know Emma and after seeing how much Emma improved, she really thinks she's fine. Just very, very shy. Just nice to have her say that. She kept saying how much she likes Emma and said that Emma would be funny and make her laugh out loud sometimes.

Walking!

Dylan has been a little stubborn about not wanting to walk. I guess he's just been too good at crawling to care about walking. But over the past couple of days, he's seemed to really be wanting to walk more. The following video was taken tonight. Shows how he's gone from taking one, maybe two steps before leaning over for a hand to grab to full out walking. Still a bit wobbly though. Russ calls it the "zombie walk."

At the very end of the video Dylan looks like he's kind of attacking the camera. He was. He wanted to watch the video I had just taken. Grabbed the camera and sat down on my lap to watch it. It really was funny.

Heart Walk

This morning we participated in the 2nd annual Heart Walk for Intermountain Healing Hearts. We didn't go to the first one because Dylan had been home from the hospital less than a month and didn't really want to take him to a lot of places yet. I think it is a really nice event. It is the one fundraiser a year IHH holds. This year the number of people participating doubled the number from last year. I think that is great. It was nice to see a lot of extended families going together. Some made their own shirts so didn't wear the shirt we got with the registrations.

Since Dylan has a chg, he was given a heart sticker to wear on his shirt. After about the 5th time it came off, I went back and got him another sticker. They gave me two in case he kept pulling the next one off too. Of course, Molly was sad that she didn't get to wear the heart sticker.

Here is a picture I took of some of the crowd waiting for the start of the walk/run. Doesn't show nearly the number that was there.

This was a portion of the group ahead of us. There was at least as many behind us, if not more.
Here are a few pictures of the kids before the walk started. They played a lot on the playground before and after.







After the walk, they took a group picture then held an "Angel Ceremony" for the children who have passed on. Each child's name was read and then once all were read the families huddled together and each released a butterfly. It was sweet. They also had a couple of canopies where posters with pictures of each child was displayed.

I just wonder how much bigger the group will be next year.

First Day of Preschool

Today was Alyssa's first day of preschool. She was so excited about going that I had to make her eat breakfast. She wanted to just go instead of eating.

Since it was the first day, her teacher had an activity of decorating a gingerbread man cookie where the parents could help if the child were scared and nervous. Lys was saying bye to me before she even got out of the car but once to the door seemed a bit nervous and shy so I thought I would stick around for a minute to make sure she was okay. After sitting down with her cookie and frosting, she looked up at me and with a smile said, "Can you go now?"

She loved preschool. She said she had a lot of fun and that she's going to have more fun than Molly had at her preschool. She's looking forward to going again.

It was really quiet in my house with just Dylan. He even took a short nap with everyone gone. Was kind of strange to have it be just the two of us, but I'm thinking it won't take too long to get used to.

Cones and Cars

Yesterday the city held it's 6th annual "Cool Cones and Cars." It was started as a family tradition to celebrate the birthday of the ice cream cone (which is Sept. 21) that grew and grew until the city decided to take it over 6 years ago. Most years we forget completely about it. One year I took the kids when Russ was working late. This was our second time going and the first for Russ. Kind of a nice way to end the day. Here are a few pictures.


I told Russ to take a picture of Dylan with his messy ice cream face. Side shots don't show the messy face so well....
I took this one just because the license plate made me laugh. It's up there with the Honda Odyssey I saw with the license plate of "Iliad." If you can't tell from the picture, the car is a Dodge Viper and the license plate is "SSSSSSS."

Why I'm Allowing my Children to Listen...

Tomorrow morning President Obama will speak to our nation's children. This single act has sparked controversy in many areas. Some school districts are refusing to show his speech. Others, like the one in which my children attend, sent home letters giving parents the option of having their children opt out of watching the speech. I have had neighbors ask me if I'm going to allow my children to watch his speech. I am. Don't get me wrong, I disagree with Obama on several issues. I am not one of his supporters.

I read the letter that education secretary Arne Duncan sent to principals of schools. I've read what some people have said about the speech. I've even read an advance copy of Obama's speech. But there are two main reasons I have chosen to allow my children to listen.

He's the President of the United States. He was elected by the majority of citizens of this country. We should respect the office that he holds. We don't have to agree with him or his policies. By allowing my children to listen to his speech, I can teach my children in at least a small way to respect that office. This was the reason I first decided to allow my children to listen. Some of their comments to me when we were talking about how Obama would be speaking to them made me realize that this is something they could learn.

One of the things that makes this country great is the freedom we have to hold our own opinions. More and more it seems as if people are forgetting that. They are forgetting that just because another person has a different view on something it doesn't make him a bad person. How can we teach our children that it is okay for someone to have a different view if we don't allow them to hear those other views? To me that is much like someone saying to their children that their neighbors aren't bad people just because they don't belong to the same church then turning around and not letting their children play with those same neighbors because they don't belong to the same church.

By allowing my children to listen to Obama's speech, I am provided an excellent opportunity to teach my children these things. I can discuss with them the things that stood out to them and ask them how they felt about it, which could help them know better that I do care about their opinions. Even if their opinions may be different than mine. I can watch Obama speak as well and tell my children the things I liked or didn't like and why.

Just as a side note, the only thing I read in that advance copy of his speech that stuck out to me as not needing to be in there were just a few sentences where he asks the children to wash their hands often and stay home when they are sick. Just didn't really seem to fit in with the rest of the speech and a bit unnecessary. I will be interested to see how closely he follows the advance copy.

Molly's Birthday and Party

Yesterday was Molly's 6th birthday. Normally I would have posted on her birthday but when I realized I hadn't yet I figured I could just wait until after her party today. Makes it a little easier for me anyway.

She seemed to have a good birthday. She took treats to share with her kindergarten class. I let her pick out the treats and she picked some crackers and cheese packets. She loves those. I was surprised when she picked them out though. I thought she would pick something like Ring Pops. If I had thought of it, I would have taken a picture of her coming out of the school with her birthday hat on. But I didn't.

Here is a picture of Molly the day she was born with Emma, Russ and Jimmy. She had a lot of black hair.

Here's Molly when she was close to a year old with her cousins Maddy and Rebecca. Rebecca is a week older than Molly and Maddy is a month younger. I can see Dylan in Molly here.
We had Molly's party at the local Arctic Circle. I'm sure the workers were probably glad when we left because of the noise level during the party. The kids all seemed to have a good time playing. Molly, of course, was anxious to open her presents. She was ready to go home as soon as her presents were open. Didn't even care that we hadn't had cake yet. One nice thing about having it at Arctic Circle was how they bring you the little complimentary dipped ice cream cones. Almost didn't need the cake after having those.

Emma gave herself the job of watching Dylan on the play equipment. He thought he was big enough to play with all of the kids on it. Here she is holding him on one of the slides.
It didn't really feel as hot as it can get in the play room there, but as you can see here, it didn't stop Molly from getting quite flushed and a bit sweaty. Could be that she chose to wear her new long-sleeved shirt. Or I would think that if the other kids didn't seem to get juts as hot and sweaty playing. The rest of the pictures are just random pictures from the party.