Sleeping Beauty

Look who's sleeping in his own bed through the night!! Amazing what a healthy boy is capable of :)

Potty Time

Michael went peepee on his potty!!!

YAY! MICHAEL!

He has been keeping his diaper dry through the night for a while now and then once he wake's he "fills it up." I took this as a good sign he might be ready to use the potty. A previous concern was that he is not able to walk himself to the bathroom but thinking about that now I don't think that should stop him from using the bathroom. He is definitely using more signs to communicate his needs and now "potty" is one of them. I got a small toilet training potty that sings when the bowl is filled. I thought that this was perfect since that sound response would be a great positive reinforcer for Michael. What a big boy he is!

Flynn & Krista's baby girl should be here anytime!! Krista makes a darling pregnant Mama and I can't wait to meet the newest addition to our family!

A day's account

Slow day. Michael didn't go to sleep last night until after 1am which was so very odd because he had taken all of his meds and was happy just not tired. It was also odd because the night before he fell asleep on Lexis' lap by 8pm without taking his meds and slept all night waking only for new bottles. Can never quite figure out the sleeping thing with this little one. I spent the day weeding in stiflingly hot weather, doing some internet 'stuff' for this Reunion in July and cleaning house. Noah and Grace came home at about 4pm after spending the day with their cousins (Ken & Emily are here) and mopped around wishing they were still with them. I understand. It is always something they enjoy--playing with their cousins. Noah PULLED out TWO of his loose teeth with floss and a great deal of determination tonight and after writing Tessa the Tooth Fairy a note in purple ink asking if he could keep his teeth to show his cousins but still get the money he went quickly to sleep. I noticed that our sweet next door neighbor pulled their own hose and sprinkler across to our yard to help water the strip of grass that has yellowed from our surf and slide. Maggie comes in the morning and the older kids are all hiking Timp first thing before it gets too hot. Me? I'm determined to clean up the hauntingly high pile of stuff on top of the freezer in the garage.

The dead tree out!

One of the trees I planted in the front yard didn't make it. To remedy this situation all you need is 1 "do-er" Grandmother in town and 2 extremely adorable children with a shovel...

Snake Kisses

Michael playing with his rubber snake. He loves biting on the snake's tongue and boy, does it make quite the picture! He is doing a good deal better today. His medicine seems to be taking affect and he is sleeping better. Some of it spilled all over the bed but I just had to get this shot before cleaning up. We came home from the hospital with two pairs of "No No's." They are padded wraps that go around each of his arms, keeping him from being able to bend his elbows. It has really saved his little head in the past few days.

Final Loft Floor Plan

Grandma's Here!

Grandma's Here! She flew down on Tuesday and we were able to work it out where we picked her up from the airport just after Michael was discharged from the hospital. She immediately got busy washing the piles of dishes that had been accumulating, doing loads and loads of laundry, making to-do lists, having the studs taken off my car (since it's JUNE,) meeting with an electrician (since we haven't had lights in the bathroom or back 2 bedrooms for way too long now--I'm not saying how long) and filling our grocery cart overflowing on our trip to Costco... to name a few. We are very grateful to have her help. I took time to mow the lawn, weed the flower beds and take A FEW naps. The kids enjoyed the hot weather by playing out on the 'surfing slip and slide' and started sewing on the blankets they are making for Flynn and Krista's baby with Grandma's help.

On our way out of the hospital with new "no no's" that we love!

Primary Children's

In the hospital again tonight with Michael. He seems to be doing somewhat better. The new meds are definitely knocking him out which they need to figure out. While it is good to have him sleeping, I don't want him to sleep all the time and the rest of the time to be lethargic. Missing the kids! Grace called tonight crying, Lexis leaves for Girl's Camp in the morning so she'll be gone for the week...Mom is flying in tomorrow afternoon to help out. Still no good news about Carol. It is intensively upsetting to me. Life is so fragile.

SOCCER

He LOVES Soccer! And is darn good at it too!

Warm Water to fill one Pink Bathtub = 20 cents
One yellow rubber ducky =$1.39
Lexis fixing Michael's hair=priceless!

Summer is on

Lexis is headed to Girl's Camp this next week. She has a busy summer as do the rest of us. We have been trying to coordinate all of the summer camps, family reunions and etc. and it is quite the task. Noah and Grace both have soccer camp--1 at BYU and 1 with some world famous Brazilian player. Lexis has BYU volleyball camp, girl's camp and we all have season passes to Seven Peaks to keep us busy. I have my 15 year Reunion, their are atleast 2 Allen Reunions and we have plans to spend two weeks in Washington with Grandma...plus school actually starts again on August 15th! My word!

CAROL

Today I got a message from Nicole saying that Carol was in the ICU in very serious condition. Her baby, born two months early is doing well but Carol is not. Supposedly, she went into the hospital with severe pain and a high fever on the 10th and they ended up taking the baby by an emergency C-section moments later. She was in surgery for hours, her blood pressure would not come down and they put her on dialysis. I am in shock and overwhelmingly distraught. I have not been the best at keeping in touch over all of these years, particularly in the past 8, but I LOVE Carol! In elementary school, in middle school, in high school I always considered her my best friend. No doubt we struggled at times and I am quite sure that there are at least a few other people who called themselves her best friend but it didn't matter to me! She was THE one person I turned to at the most difficult time in my life, when Dad died, she was THE friend I knew would always be there for me and she was THE person I honestly admired in so many ways which included the unbelievable spirit she had about her. In going through old photos for this summer's Reunion, I was curious to see that in a huge majority of them I am standing next to Carol, arm around her, her arm around me, holding hands! What a horribly difficult thing she and her family are now faced with. I am overcome with sadness and helplessness as I wonder what I can possibly do and why is this happening to such a wonderful individual!

On the recently made blog her husband, Scott, says this, "She has a Streptococcal Pnuemoniae infection. A septic infection...the worst.....with all possible complications. All major organs have been effected including her skin. The scariest part of this, is a syndrome called DIC. This has effected they way she clots, and bleeds. It's fairly complicated, but she clots where she shouldn't, so when she bleeds somewhere, all her clotting factors have been used up, so she bleeds.This has made putting in every needle, tube, etc. very dangerous. All the clotting over her skin is starting to "boil". The hope is that these spots are just on the top layer of her skin. If they are deep, it would be like she had been on fire, and will need to be transferred to Harborviews burn unit to deminish chanced of a secondary skin infection."

Kissy face

This is THE pose I guess these days. Lexis, her friends, they all do this little kissy face to the camera. She does look especially cute I would agree but when doesn't she?! I printed out a bunch of pictures of her and her and her friends and her and family to put in the frames she has up on her bedroom walls at her Dad's house. She has had all these frames up for at least a year now but no pics in them. I filled them all for her birthday as a surprise. It was fun and I know she was happy about that. Now we need to get a few MORE frames to hold the newly fabulous photos we took at her birthday party. So many great pictures of such a fun time.

Sand Castles

ANOTHER fun day with our favorite friends, Bowie and Darby! Another sleep-over and when a full 20 hours had passed they still were quite unhappy to have to seperate to their individual homes. They love being together and Mom loves that they love being together! We spent 3 hours alone building an entire city of sand at the park. What great kids!!

A long lost picture of my darling boy! So small, so much younger, still fantabulous!

Noah

My boy "doing Yoga" in his sister's socks that he obviously does not take off to walk outside in and that he absolutely prefers to his own socks. Note the band around his ankle. He usually has five or six around his wrists as well. Most are the Lance Armstrong one's others 'choose the right.' Such a boy!!