32 weeks!

I had my 32 week OB appt. today and everything looks good. He did say that I am measuring big, which was no surprise to me. I have done that with every child. I was just surprised that he hasn't mentioned it before now. Usually they start saying that at about 1/2 way through the pregnancy. It took this girl a little longer to make mom pop out...but she did it! He said because of that and the fact that I have had some contractions he will be doing an ultrasound next week to measure size and see what position the baby is in. He thinks she is head down as of today. If that is the case, I hope she stays that way!

Play Updates

Well, the results are in. It looks like John will be playing one of the brothers. We don't know which one though as they just have him listed under brothers. William is also listed in the children's chorus. At least someone named William Clayto is, so we are claiming that as our William. They are both excited about being in the play.

Call Backs and FHE

Saturday night John was called and said that they wanted him to come for "call backs" for the play. So that's where he is tonight. I don't know what specific part they have in mind for him, but I think we will know when he gets home tonight. William did end up trying out so we will see what happens with him as well. I guess he was very nervous, but he did it. I'm proud of him for trying.

Since we knew John would be gone tonight we had FHE yesterday. We talked about priesthood prayers and father's blessings and then everyone received one. It was a neat experience. The boys did pretty well through it although they kept saying that it was too long and there were too many prayers. I'm so glad that we have the priesthood in our home and it makes me excited that someday our home will be filled with young men who hold the priesthood.

TakingTurns in Nursery

Nursery was pretty fun yesterday. We only had 5 children in there and 3 adults for part of the time. Sad that we were missing so many kids, but once we had lesson, snack, and coloring time, we pulled out some blocks and started making towers with the kids that were there. Brother Lemieux built a tower that was almost as tall as he is. The kids all helped by adding blocks to the lower sections and then handing them up to Bro. Lemieux as it got taller. The kids were loving it and kept coming to me and John and saying "look at my tower" or pointing to it and saying "mine". The biggest trick was to keep the girls from knocking it over before it was finished. When it was finished, we said someone could knock it over and of course they all started saying me, me, or mine. So we said that we had to take turns and told one of the girls she could be first. Now one side note here, almost every child takes off their shoes the minute they walk through the door, so by this time they were barefoot. Well, she kicked it and as it fell to the floor she looked at the other girl who had wanted to knock it over and said, "That hurt my foot, you can kick it next." The whole time we were building the next tower she kept saying that over and over to the other girl. So, we see that they can be taught to take turns, even though it may take a little foot pain to get them there!

Taking it Easy Today

Well, today I will be following the advice of my friend Valeen, who used to be an OB nurse, by putting my feet up and taking it easy. She gave me this advice on Thursday night after mentioning that it looks like the baby has dropped. What? I still have almost 9 weeks left! Well, then last night, I was up during the night having contractions. That was a scare. They have stopped, thank goodness, but I don't want to start anything up again. I'm only a little over 31 weeks and we want this baby to be fully cooked before she comes! I go back into the OB on Tuesday, so we'll see what's going on then. Hopefully nothing at this point!

This Morning John and William are going to tryout for the upcoming Queen Creek Community theater play. This is the first year that William is old enough to try out and he isn't so sure that he wants to do it, but he is going to go see what it is like. He would love to be in the play, but he doesn't want to sing for someone all by himself. He's a kid after my own heart there! This year's play is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It should be a really good one. John is very excited about it. Honestly, I'm a little nervous about the play this year. When John does these, I don't see him much at all throughout the month of June and since the baby is due the end of May,I'm not sure how it is all going to work out. I'm sure it will, I just don't know how yet! Good luck today Boys!

Kindergarten Registration

This week I registered Spencer for Kindergarten. I can't believe

my 3rd baby will be going to school this year! He is very excited

about it.

Slight Update on Bryce

We had a neurology appointment today with Dr. Sweetman. I love meeting with her. Her office has toys all over it, she talks to me like a person, and shows respect to Bryce. She tells me what they are finding even though they don't have all the answers and what they are finding is not always what I want to hear. At least she is not telling me that everything looks fine when it doesn't . She (and others in the team) have been reviewing the MRI's and with the full results of the last MRI (which she finally received from PCH) they have found that it is a type of white matter depleting disorder. He is actually losing or has lost some of the white matter in his brain. Not good news, but at least we know what they are finding. The part that gets me is that they are seeing this in the MRI's that have already been done and that we were told originally that they looked fine. I realize that we are working with new neurologists and this is why we decided to get other opinions. To see what they could see. I'm so glad that we have gone this route! I am also really glad that they are looking into what has already been done instead of continuing to poke and prod poor Bryce for a shot in the dark diagnosis. He has to go through enough of that just to take care of the symptoms and issues he is experiencing due to this disorder.

Nesting

I think that I am officially nesting! We've been trying to think of how we would be doing the whole bedroom thing once our little girl gets here. We've had a few ideas, but it finally all clicked on Friday while my boys were out with my sister. Our house is built with the master bedroom on one side of the house and the other two bedrooms on the other side. I think this will be great once the kids are older, but I don't really like having them across the house now while they are young. I like having them close during the night. Needless to say, Bryce has been in our room pretty much since he was born over two years ago. I figured we could just plan on having 2 kids in our room, or do some rearranging. We decided to do some rearranging. So...the three older boys will have the master bedroom and bathroom (which is where they like to take baths anyway!), Bryce and the baby will be in the "yellow room", and John and I will be in the one just across from that one. John is very excited about our new room because as he gets up from bed he can look out the window and see straight across to his barn. He says it's great because it reminds him of all the fun projects he will be able to do! There is also a door going to the outside in that room, so he can still easily head out to feed the animals first thing in the morning.

Anyway, in order to make this all happen, a lot of moving had to be done. So when we got up Saturday morning we set to work. I told John that the goals for the day were to get all the beds moved and to avoid ending up in the hospital with pre-term labor contractions. Luckily at the end of the day, both of those had been accomplished! As John took the beds out of one room, I would vacuum and shampoo the carpets and then we would move another bed in. It was kind of crazy, but it all worked out quite well. The boys even got in on the fun and they are very excited to have the "big room" as theirs for now.

I walked into our bedroom and saw John "moving" the king
size mattress. I knew it was time to grab the camera! Then
I helped him.


The boys all had fun helping to move their beds. Luckily
we didn't have to take those totally apart. They named
their way of maneuvering around walls the "secret slider".


The yellow room really needs to be painted, but we decided
that for now a good cleaning and some touch up paint would
work fine.


A boy who LOVES to work with his dad.


Jacob loved using the power drill to unscrew the screws from
our bed and then screw them in again in our new room. He
is going to make a great cub scout one day!



There is still a whole lot of work to be done in order to have everyone's clothes and other stuff in the right rooms and places, but we feel like we got a great head start on it Saturday. Most of the heavy stuff has now been moved. We also listed a bunch of stuff on craigslist to sell and freecycle to give away. I am hoping to earn enough money to buy a new crib and a nice rocking chair for the baby's room. We ended the night by renting a movie and, taking the baby monitor with us, going over to the guest house for movie, popcorn, and chocolates! It made it feel more like a date by going to the other house! It was a nice relaxing way to end the day.

A Trip to the Zoo!

Friday, my fabulous sister Sheri had the day off so she came down and took all 4 of my boys to the zoo. She said it was packed with people, but other than that and getting lost on the way out they all had a great time.

Hanging out with the giraffes. I'm not
sure what my boys were looking at.


Spoiled with Sno Cones!


They loved seeing and petting the Stingrays.


Poor Stingrays must get touched thousands of times a day!


While the boys were gone for the day, I was able to get quite a bit done here at home. Most of the morning I spent on the phone getting things taken care of or set up for the upcoming weeks. Then I set to work getting the bedrooms ready for the big bedroom move which was planned for Saturday.

Question of the Day

Why oh why would anyone build a huge McDonald's without a play area? I mean really, maybe it's just me, but McDonald's food is gross. You certainly don't go to McDonald's for the good food or great prices! The only reason I would ever go to McDonald's (other than maybe for an ice cream cone) is because there is a play area and for some reason, kids seems to love their food. Yesterday we met up with some friends at the new library in Queen Creek. Then we headed over to the brand new McDonald's that is right there. We walked in and realized there was no play area. What? Do you think we stayed? No, of course not. We drove up to the McDonald's on Queen Creek and Power that has a play area. The funny thing is that 2 other families that we had seen at the library also ended up at that McDonald's. What a waste of good space to stick a McDonald's right next to the library in the middle of Queen Creek which is flowing with children and not add a play area. If it was just to put a fast food place there, I think they would have done better to put a Wendy's or Arby's or Taco Bell or something with decent food in that place instead. At least that's my opinion!

Long Term Care Evaluation

On Tuesday the nurse that had been assigned to come do the evaluation of Bryce for long term care called and said that she had a cancellation and could come do ours if we were available. I of course said yes, and she came out that afternoon. Wow, that was an emotionally exhausting experience. I haven't really been able to write about it until today, but I think it is important to have it in here, since I use this blog like a journal and as unreal as it sometimes seems, this is really something we are going through right now.

I have been through this evaluation once before, but that was back in early October when he was still able to do many things which he is no longer doing. That was hard enough. This one was a lot tougher! The nurse was very nice and ask all the same questions as last time, but the answers were different. Is Bryce able to crawl?...no. Scoot?...no. Is he able to sit?...no. Is he able to help feed himself with a spoon, help with dressing himself, hold his own cup?...no, no, no. Bryce's therapist had reminded me that this was not the time to make him shine since we really need him to get the care that long term services can offer him. So I had to be really honest about what was going on. Both with her and myself. We talked about the fact that he can no longer hold a regular sippy cup up by himself, and that he is unable to roll from his back to his stomach without help. His hands are fisted most of the time and his muscles throughout his body are tight or spastic. If he is in another room, he is not able to come and get me if he needs something. He no longer has any words that he uses and often says little more than aaaa. Yes, he can point. Yes, he is still very social. Yes he can turn pages of a book or stack some blocks if his body is totally supported. We talked about the fact that he is still gaging/chocking on a lot of foods and liquids even though everything he eats has been cut up very small. He continues to have trouble gaining weight consistently and may soon need some type of feeding therapy. He may have asthma and he may still be aspirating food and/or liquids. No he does not have a diagnosis, we have no idea what his future holds or what is causing this. We do know that it is some form of a white matter disorder, not one of the more common ones, it is not lupus, mercury or lead poisoning. It is not many other things which have been ruled out, but no, we don't have a name for what is happening to our son or what is or has caused this, all we know is that he is a two year old who cannot do many things which a six month old should be able to do and he is in need of therapy and medical support and devices that will help him be as independent as possible. She played a little bit with Bryce. We went over his medical records and therapy reports that we have. She took some of those and said that their medical examiner will review everything and we should hear one way or the other in about two weeks. She left and I cried. It didn't really help that we had been at Xtreme play earlier that day and I had been watching an adorable 20 month old running around, climbing on the toys, and laughing away as children that age should be able to do. Why can't my son! I pray for everyone of my children. I have since before they were born. I have always done everything that I know to do to give them what they need. It just hurts so badly sometimes. Luckily I have children here who needed me for one thing or another as soon as they realized I was no longer in the "meeting" so I got myself together and spent time having fun with all of my boys that afternoon! John worked late that night and as I was going to bed with Bryce sleeping next to me I cried again until I finally fell asleep. I sure hope that he qualifies this time so that we don't have to go through that again! I don't see how he wouldn't. Looking at it now, I know that he is not going through this because of something he did or we have or haven't done and that actually we are very lucky to have this special spirit in our home. We are very blessed with many wonderful children and opportunities. The situation could be much worse and I am thankful that it is not. The Lord is very aware of what Bryce and our family are going through and I know that we receive constant support, more than I am even aware of.

Ok, I got it down. Now, on to get everyone fed, dressed, and chores done so that we can head out on today's adventure. The library! Then we are meeting some friends at the new McDonald's (yuck) for lunch and to let the kids all play together. It should be a fun day. I can't believe Spring Break is already half way over...Nooo! I guess we better make the most of what is left.

Xtreme Play=extreme waste of money!

Yesterday our activity for the day was going to Xtreme play in Mesa. William and Jacob had each gotten a free pass through their music class so we decided to give it a try. I was not impressed! At first, it looked like a lot of fun. They have about 6 bounce houses there. The boys set off to bounce and slide and have a good time. Well, that lasted for about 45 minutes..maybe. Then they noticed the video game station and wanted to sit and play video games the rest of the time we were there. This is set up right at the front of the building and they have 6 different video and Wii games. When I noticed that the boys were playing Wii sports, which we have at home, I decided it was time to go. I figured they could do that at home while I got something done. We had some overpriced pizza for lunch there and soon headed home. When I asked the boys what their favorite part of the day was, they said playing video games. Spencer did finally say that the small slide was his favorite, so I was glad for that. All I can say is that I am glad we had some free passes and they didn't charge for Bryce, or it really would have not been worth it. Even the toddler area was pathetic. They had a small area gated off which had a few little toys (most were ones we have here) and that was it. I guess it was nice to get out of the house for a couple of hours, but for $8.75 per child, I was expecting a bit more.

March 17th St. Patrick's Day

My little Irish boys.

All dressed up for the day!

I forgot that it was St. Patrick's Day before breakfast, so we

had a green dinner instead. Green eggs and ham with green

pancakes. Spencer wasn't sure about the green eggs, but

after seeing his brothers eat some, he decided they were

okay.

Spring Break!

Spring break begins today! I think I am just as excited as the boys are. It was so nice to get up this morning and lounge around for a little bit as the boys played instead of trying to get everyone ready for school. About 8:00, Bryce woke up and we all decided to have breakfast, get dressed, do morning chores and get the day started. It was amazing how fast the boys can get all their chores done when they know they get to play the Wii when they are finished. They played that for a while while I played around on the computer...yes, and joined facebook. They are now all outside playing baseball, swinging, and riding their bikes. Bryce is sitting in his chair watching them play. I keep hearing him giggle as the boys ride by him and talk to him or do something to make him laugh. I love it when they are all getting along. I hope it keeps up this week!

At noon, I have an IFSP 6 month review meeting for Bryce and then I am going to go to lunch with my sister and a friend. She called this morning to see if I would be available and I said that if I could find a sitter, I would be. Thanks to the Smiths, I found one at short notice!

Once I get back from lunch I plan to take the boys to the pool that is open here during Spring Break. Hopefully it won't be too cold. The water is heated, but it's the getting out that might be a little chilly. My two goals during spring break are to get a few of my projects done and to be sure that the boys play hard enough each day to sleep really well at night! I don't think that is to much to ask during spring break!

Ahhh, The Best Sunday Ever!

That's what Jacob claimed yesterday just as he was going off to bed. It really was a nice day. We had church as normal at 8am. Then after that we had a little potluck here at the house since the Null's were in town. Although a little windy, it was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed talking with the girls outside while the kids all played and the guys chatted inside. Everyone brought some yummy dishes to share and seemed to have a good time. John left for choir practice about 3:30 and Chris and Amy helped me get everything back in order. Then they headed off again. It was great getting to see them. Around dinner time, everyone said they were still full from lunch and afternoon "leftovers" munching that we decided to forgo dinner and just have popcorn and watch the movie Scamper. John was gone, so the boys and I spread a blanket out in the family room and had a great time. The movie ended just in time to get ready for bed. Perfect timing. I love it when that happens. It truly was a nice, relaxing Sunday.

Bryce's Therapy Continues

I am so excited right now. As of today Bryce's therapy was suppose to end. Well, at the beginning of the week his PT told me that a group of people are suing the state over this whole issue and that if they were able to get it into a judge before today and get an injunction, then therapy would most likely continue. So all week, we have been hoping and praying and today we just got the word. Two of his therapists have just called and said that the judge has ordered an injunction. I don't totally understand all the legal jargon, but all I know is that Bryce will continue to get his services at least until this has been ruled upon. So again I don't know how long this will be, but this should give us the little extra time we will need to get him reevaluated for long term care and hopefully get everything in order for ongoing therapies. This has been quite a roller coaster, but today we are definitely up. It appears to be a lucky Friday the 13th for many families!!!

Asthma

This is what we have added to Bryce's health history as of yesterday. He continues to get a cough and we were worried that he was aspirating food. We have done some testing and for now that does not look like the issue, which is great news. He does have some reflux though which may account for his gagging/choking while he is eating and drinking. He is now on reflux medicine, but continues to get this cough. We went back to the pulmonologist yesterday and he said it sounds like asthma. So almost $100 of medication later (and that is with insurance!) we will be starting asthma treatments and hope that it helps. Asthma is not a big surprise since William has had trouble with Asthma since he was little and so have a few of their Aunts and Uncles.

Another Trip to Our Mountain

9 years ago today John and I became engaged. He proposed to me at the top of a hill out near Tortilla Flats. One year later we climbed the hill again with a bag of cement (exactly 3 weeks before William was born) and placed a plaque, that John had made, into the mountain. Our plan was to revisit that place each year on March 11th. We haven't made it each year, but we did go back in 2004 and then again tonight. William has been asking about when we would be having a picnic on our mountain again, so we decided we should go back up there again this year. We had a great time, but the sad part about the visit, was that someone has pulled up the plaque and all we found were pieces of cement where it used to be and down the other side of the mountain. Even though the plaque was gone, the memories were all still there. It was a lot of fun telling the boys about the event that took place 9 years ago and answering questions like Jacob's of "So dad, how did you get her to want to say yes to marry you?" and other fun questions boys can come up with. It was a great family activity for tonight!


Here is the plaque back in 2004




2004...yes I was pregnant that year also. I can't believe
how little William and Jacob were!


2009 On top of "Our Mountain"



The boys had a blast exploring the hill. This made me a little
nervous because on one side there is a very steep drop.
Luckily they didn't get too close to the edge.



John and Bryce enjoying some of our
picnic dinner.

Party at the Clayton home

OK, this is an upcoming event and I thought I would write about it here so that when you read it, you will know you are invited. It will be on Sunday so maybe we'll call it a potluck or get together or something. Anyway, the Null's are coming back into town this week for a wedding. They will be busy Saturday, but hopefully on Sunday they will be around. We thought this would be a great reason/excuse to have a little get together with some friends. So, this Sunday, the 15th at about noon you're all invited to our house. We'll provide drinks and some Costco sandwiches or something. Then if everyone else brings something to share with others, we can just eat and chat and relax. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can be outside. So if you are in our ward, pass the word! Everyone is invited. If you are not, feel free to come anyway if you are in town.

My New Kitchen

No, we didn't remodel or anything, but it sure looks different in here. Last weekend some of our friends who have recently moved away, came up to visit. On Sunday, they had a missionary homecoming to go to, but on Saturday, we got to hang out with them most of the day. John and Chris took the older kids to a fly in that was going on in Casa Grande, so that left Amy and I here with Bryce and her two little ones. Well, I have many "projects" around the house right now that I have really been wanting to get done, but with everything that is going on right now, I'm lucky if I get the basic cleaning, feeding, and washing done. So...one BIG project that needed attention was my kitchen. Unfortunately it had been overtaken by clutter and disorganization. And since it is one of the first things that you see upon entering our house, it was very obvious. Well, Amy, being the amazing person that she is, said she wanted to help me clean it up. Now, for anyone who has ever been in my house, you probably think that I love clutter and love living that way. I don't. It drives me crazy and it was really embarrassing at first to even have people in and seeing my mess, much less letting them dig into it. However, I am learning to swallow my pride, and besides, this was Amy. She of course was not judgemental and really didn't make me feel like a bad person for having such an out of control kitchen. She assured me that she has been in situations like mine before and that she totally understood. Well, the rest of the morning and afternoon we spent in the kitchen cleaning and organizing. It was a big job and I am so thankful for her help. It's always more fun to have someone to work with. I felt bad at times because her kids were being so good and I often had to leave to attend to Bryce, and she just keep on working. She kept assuring me that she was having fun, and although I don't know about that I am truly grateful for her help! I just hope that someday when I am in a different situation I will be able to help someone else the way my friend helped me this day!

Here are the boys enjoying breakfast at our now usable bar.

The top drawer use to be a horrible junk drawer full of

unnecessary items.

When the guys got home, we had a brother/sister team come babysit all 9 kids and the 4 of us adults went out to dinner. We went to a little Greek restaurant in Queen Creek. It was such a great evening. We had so much fun talking and laughing that we ended up staying in the restaurant past closing time without even noticing. Luckily they were very nice about it and never did kick us out. We then had to stop at Walmart to pick up cash for the babysitters and of course got ice-cream while we were there. After the babysitters had been taken home, we ate ice-cream as we watched videos of Bryan Regan among other funny things and laughed until way past bedtime. What a great time!

King For A Day

The other day, Bryce was playing in his chair and William decided to make him a hat. William and Spencer thought that Bryce should be the King for a day and that they were his bodyguards. Bryce liked wearing the hat for about 2 minutes and then it was all over, but hey, it was fun for all of them while it lasted! Unfortunately I cut half of William out of the picture, but otherwise I think it's a cute one.

2 More Good Things

I remembered 2 more. First, John caught a gopher that has been terrorizing our front yard. Hopefully he doesn't have friends! And second, the garden that John has been working on is starting to really look great. I can't wait until we have fresh veggies from our own garden.

Good things about today

It seems like with all the illness and stuff going around (I'm sick now...grrr), I've been more negative this week than I would like to be. As I was picking William up from school today I was thinking of some of the good things that are happening now. First of all, we were very glad to hear that little Scott's head surgery went well and he is recovering fine now. He is our 3 month old nephew who lives in Colorado who was born with a condition called craniosynostosis. It's where the plates in his head are already fussed together so his poor little brain doesn't have room to grow right. So he had to have surgery to separate those bones. From what we hear he came through it just fine and is doing well now.

Another thing that is making me happy today is that the Nulls are coming into town. They will be staying in our guest house. We are all excited to see them. And I love to see our little house getting some good use.

Also it's Friday. No school or weekday hassle for 2 days. Today that is a double blessing, because it means that dress up week at school is over. The boys love to dress up, but I'm just not so good at coming up with things for them each day or coming up with how to create the look they have decided they want. We went through 3 costumes this morning before Jacob decided that Peter from Narnia was a good choice for a favorite storybook character. Also only one week until spring break! Some kids are on spring break this coming week, which is great because there will be babysitters available during the day. I don't know if I will need any, but hey, it's nice to know they're available just in case! Maybe I'll get a babysitter one day this week and escape out to the "guest house" for bubble bath and a nice long nap. ohhh that sounds great.

I'm also really thankful for good doctors. We got to go see the pediatrician again today because Bryce's cough has moved into his lungs. We drive a little way to see her, but she and all the staff there are so great with the kids. I also love our dentist. We finished dentist appointments for this 6 months yesterday with no cavities or issues. They boys are bummed because they don't get to go back for another 6 months, but we are thrilled that we don't have to shell out any money for baby teeth!

Ok, there are a lot of other good things going on right now that I was thinking about while I was in the car. I knew I should have written them down right away. Anyway, these are some of the highlights that are in my mind this afternoon. I'm looking forward to a good weekend!

Tears, tears, and more tears

I don't know what it is about today, but everyone around here is so whiny and fussy. It started with Spencer waking up this morning crying because he didn't want to go to school. Well, he doesn't go to preschool until noon, so I wasn't too worried about that. I figured he would be fine by then. Then I dropped Spencer and Bryce at Valerie's house so that I could go to my OB appt. Bryce cried. He never cries for Valerie! So then I went to my appt. Everything is fine with baby. Great news. The problem was that they had to take my blood after I drank that yucky drink. They had to poke me 3 times before they got blood. Just as she finishes, the dr comes out and reminds her that they need to check my blood for fifth disease as well. So another poke, only she couldn't get more blood, so she sent me to the lab. They ended up drawing from my hand. So 5 pokes later and they have what they need. I could have cried...but I didn't!

Then on to pick up the younger boys and off to get Jacob and Nathan from school. I drive up and see that Jacob is crying. He got in the car and said that the aide in his class said something mean to him, but that is all he would tell me. He finally told me later that she told him to get started on his work. OK, I think he may have been a little over sensitive. Poor kid. Spencer then starts in again on not wanting to go to school and so I figure, it's preschool, we'll just skip it today. On the way home, we pick up the mail. Today is the day that we got the official letter from DES stating that as of March 13 Bryce's services will no longer be available. Ok, so we get home have some lunch and one of Bryce's therapists comes. He cries and wants to cling to me the whole time she is there. Normally he loves playing with his therapists. As soon as the therapist leaves, Nathan and Jacob come in and Nathan, who came over to play with Jacob, is crying. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he misses his mom, dad, and sister. I can't convince him that everything will be fine, so I call his mom and he heads for home. Then Spencer starts talking about preschool and how he actually wanted to go and he bursts into tears when I tell him it is over. So, by now it is almost time to pick up William from school and to late to put Bryce down for his afternoon nap, so we get into the car, give Bryce his binky so that he will fall asleep and head to McDonald's for ice cream cones that we eat in the car while waiting for William. Luckily when William got to the car he had a huge smile on his face and the cones were gone, so he didn't know he missed out this time...or he would have cried. Hopefully the rest of the evening will be filled with more smiles and less tears!

Sick kids=change of plans

It's amazing how quickly plans can change when your children wake up sick. Bryce was up most of the night with a fever and cough and Jacob woke up this morning covered from head to foot in a rash. So, I spent the morning calling and rearranging the plans that I had scheduled and decided to take the boys into the Dr. Normally I would not take Bryce in so soon, but I figured since I was taking Jacob in, I'd have her check Bryce over while we were there. It looks like Jacob most likely has fifth disease. She said that he may have the rash on and off for up to a month. Luckily he is no longer contagious. I guess he was contagious like a week or so ago when he had mild cold symptoms and maybe a fever (although he never had a fever as far as I know). So, I'm sorry if we infected anyone without knowing it. Luckily it's just a virus and the rash does not seem to be bothersome at all to Jacob and once a person has it, they are generally immune to it. The only people who it could be troublesome for is pregnant ladies usually in the first trimester. His Dr said to call my OB just to be safe. As common as it actually is, I bet I've already had it sometime in my life and me and baby will be just fine. Bryce's looks like a virus also, very possibly the same thing or maybe Roseola which is related. We will just ride this out and see if he develops a rash. Oh, the joys of parenting. Never a dull moment!

Time for an update

Wow, this week flew past really quickly. A good part of it has been spent talking with Dr's, reapplying for long term care, looking at therapy alternatives for Bryce etc. It's been an emotional week. Luckily, this weekend has been a nice break. Friday morning I was suppose to meet up with an old friend of mine from our Scottsdale ward for "Brunch", but she wasn't able to make it, so we planned to meet Saturday morning. This ended up being even better because I ended up with a burst of energy Friday morning and was able to clean all three bathrooms, do some laundry, and go through a bunch of baby boy clothes that I have been wanting to get over to a friend of mine before she has her baby. And since I needed to be here to get my kindergartner at 11:15, I thought that doing brunch on Friday might be a little rushed. Then Friday afternoon I fell asleep with Bryce during nap time while Spencer and Jacob stayed busy playing the Wii. We then picked kids up from school and after dropping Nicole off at her house I headed to Costco with the boys. Not my idea of fun, but they had called and said that William's glasses were in. Since he lost his a couple of weeks ago and he had been complaining all week of a headache and not being able to see, I thought it was pretty important that we get them sooner rather than later! We picked up 2 pairs this time! We also picked up a pizza for dinner and a few other things, then headed home.

As I walked in the garage door, I saw a friend coming in the front door with her children, one of which often babysits for us. John announced that he had a surprise for me and that we were going out. Although surprises like that are a little stressful at the moment, it ended up being a great, relaxing evening out and everything went just beautifully at home. We went to Texas roadhouse for dinner, which is one of my favorites and then went to see the movie Push. This was the first time we have ever gone to Texas roadhouse and did not have to wait for a seat. It was great! It was also nice to have a fantastic waiter. My water cup never even got close to empty!

Then Saturday I met up with Shellie at Mimi's Cafe. I had never been there before. It was delicious and it was great getting to talk with her again. I took Bryce with me since John planned to work in the yard all day. He is getting a garden started for us! Shellie brought me some Reliv products for Bryce and a bag full of VERY cute girl clothes. Hopefully we can get together again soon. It's hard to do since she has moved to Avondale and we are here in Queen Creek, but that's how I tell a true friend...one that when you talk to them after a long period of time, it's like no time has passed at!

Nursery today was so small. We only had 5 children there. One of those was there with his mom because he is not quite 18 months old. In a lot of ways, it's nice to have a small group, but we really miss the kids when they are not there. I hope they are all well. It's still really hard for me to be in nursery and see all the kids that are Bryce's age and younger jumping around and really participating in the activities we have planned while Bryce is not able to. We make it work though and he seems to love nursery anyway. Working with Marc and Whitney Lemieux is fantastic! They are going to be great parents here real soon!

Tomorrow we start another busy week with my 28th week Dr's visit. It's the one where I get to drink that yucky juice stuff and have blood drawn to check for gestational diabetes. Let's hope that all goes well! Then of course dentist appointments, hopefully some therapies, school, music classes, preschool, and meetings at the school. Only 2 weeks until spring break. I can't wait!