It's All Relative

So yesterday morning when John got up, he asked how I had slept. I said that it had been a good night. I then started telling him about how Annalise and Bryce had only woken up twice each and how at one point Annalise slept for 4 and a half hours. Then I started thinking about the hours and realized that once I got everything ready for the next day, it was 11:oo by the time I had gone to bed. Bryce woke up at 5 am and was not able to get back to sleep, so I started my day then. So within a 5 hour time period, I was only up 4 times...and I honestly had said that it was a good night of sleep! When I realized that, it just made me laugh. Better to laugh than cry I guess!

However, last night Annalise actually slept 7 and a half hours without waking! I hope something similar continues to happen! Now if I could just get myself to go to bed when they go to bed, I might actually get more than an hour or two of sleep at a time.

Life Moves On...

and doesn't seem to slow down! I can't believe we are heading into the end of June. Summer break is almost half over! Bummer! This week is going to be a very busy one, especially for Bryce. Today is the calm before the storm. Tomorrow we have an appointment up at CRS at St. Joe's hospital with a new geneticist, Dr. Aleck. He is part of a two part team who deals with very rare neurological conditions. We meet with the other half, Dr. Narayanan on Thursday. We will also be working through them to get into the wheelchair clinic there, where we will hopefully be able to get Bryce an adaptive stroller/wheelchair type of thing so that we can get him around a little easier. I'm really excited about meeting with these new doctors. I'm hoping something good comes out of it. On Wednesday, Bryce also has two therapy sessions and I am hoping to take the boys over to watch a little of their dad's play. They have been wanting to see him and so I plan to take them over for a little bit on Wed. night. They don't make it through the whole play, so it's not worth buying tickets for a real show. I'll do that on my own one night!

Thursday morning we will be returning to Hanger orthotics. Hopefully this time Bryce's AFO's will be there and the correct SWASH will be ready for him. I'm really getting tired of the run around. We then head from there up to the appointment with Dr. Narayanan.

Friday morning will begin early with a trip to Phoenix Children's Hospital for a repeat MRI, EMG, and possibly a skin biopsy. Not looking forward to that, but I am very curious as to what the MRI will show us this time. Then we will be meeting with Dr. McOmber, the GI specialist again to discuss a feeding tube. Something I have really been trying to avoid, but I'm beginning to accept that a temporary tube might really be what is best for him at this time. We'll see.

Unfortunately I won't be spending much time with my older boys this week. Hopefully next week will be full of fun activities...including Spencer's birthday party!

A Day Out!

Yesterday we were out of the house most of the day. It started with going to the summer movie. It was the first time that Annalise and I went. I have had John or Alea take them the other times. The movie was the Spiderwick Chronicles and the part I saw was very good only way to scary for the little ones. Luckily Bryce fell asleep and slept through most of it. From about the first 2 minutes Spencer was saying that it was too scary. He then got down onto the floor so that he wouldn't see it. Only he kept peeking between the chairs in front of him. After about 10 minutes he asked if we could just go walk around for a while. So Annalise, Spencer, William (who said it wasn't scary, just too boring...yeah right!) left the theater to walk around. Soon we saw another family from our ward who was leaving. They offered to take the two boys with them to Chick-fil-a so that I could go back in with the others. Spencer decided to go with them, but William decided to go back in. I had to leave one other time because Annalise needed a diaper change, but otherwise we made it through. I'm really glad Spencer did not stay. The end was pretty intense and even William and Jacob were a bit freaked out by it, although they did say that next to Space Chimps, this was their favorite summer movie so far.

After the movie we went to pick up Spencer at Chick-fil-a. Of course we couldn't just pick him up and go, so we had a little lunch and let the boys play for a while. They were doing some type of customer appreciation week there and so they had different games for the boys to play. That was fun for them and they all won some free breakfast items, so I guess we will be going back sometime for breakfast! Yum!!

We then dropped Alea off at her doctor's appointment and headed home. That evening John and I went to see the movie UP. It was a very cute movie. A bit of a tear jerker at times...John cried, I didn't...yet very good. I only had to leave once with Annalise and only to stand up until she fell asleep. We decided that we would go home and have a treat. However when we got home, I fed Annalise, got her to bed and then I fell asleep while putting Bryce to sleep! John was kind enough to just let me sleep. So much for treat! Oh well. I told him that he should have met me a few hours later while I was up with Annalise. It was a fun day!

Twins?

Well, not exactly, but it does feel like I have two babies that I am taking care of. Even though they are almost two and a half years apart, there are a lot of similarities between them right now. It's only because of the challenges Bryce is going through, but it sure makes life interesting and tiring around our house. Much different than the other times I have brought home a newborn. Some of their similarities are: both are up multiple times throughout the night needing attention of some sort. Both need to be fed...day and night. Both are in diapers. Neither one of them can walk, crawl, sit,or roll over without support. Neither one is able to speak, except for Bryce's one word that he has said since we brought his little sister home. That word is "Anna"! AND...both are so stinking cute, cuddly, and irresistible that I just can't help loving them more than I could ever express! These two, along with my other three boys, are the best blessings I could ever ask for. I am so lucky to be their mom!


Bryce absolutely adores his baby sister. I was really worried about how he would handle loosing his spot as the baby, but so far he has done a fantastic job of sharing Mom. He loves to be near Annalise. If I am feeding her, he wants to be close by and just sit and touch her blanket or any part of her he can get to. If she cries, his head turns instantly to make sure he can see her and know that she is all right. If he doesn't see her, he looks at me with a look of concern until I explain that she is all right and that we will go get her, or that someone is taking care of her. When I change her diaper, he wants to be right next to her on the floor. The most amazing thing though is the fact that this boy, who has basically lost his ability to speak at all, has been able to say her name since the day she came home from the hospital. And not only once. Over and over for the past 3 and a half weeks. And always when he is referring to Annalise. We are lucky if we get a "mama" or something like that out of him on occasion and yet he says his version of his sister's name multiple times throughout the day. I don't fully understand it, but the one thing I know for sure is that there is a very special connection/bond between these two!

Random Photos

These are just some random photos that I saw as I was going through our pictures from the last month or two and thought I would share them.

Bryce looking as cute as ever!

A few weeks back a boy in our ward picked grapefruits

from our yard as part of his eagle project. Jacob's

kindergarten teacher is his aunt, so she came to help.

Jacob thought it was great that she could climb

trees and so he had to take a picture of her in the

tree. This is also the day that Jacob actually fell out of a

tree hitting his head three times on the way down.

He's a trooper though and said it didn't really hurt

too much. He was pretty scraped up for a while though.

William the Warrior! He loves to get creative.

This day he decided to make himself some full

body armor out of tin foil. The helmet doubles

as a saw! I'm pretty sure he has made more since

this picture was taken.

Another thing the boys have been keeping themselves

busy with this summer is domino's. Here is a creation

of William's.

Here is one of Spencer's. Alea helped with this one.

Jacob, William, and Bryce (with Alea's help) enjoying

this pool that we got from my sister. The boys love it!

The boys all enjoy helping in the kitchen. Here Spencer

is helping me make cookies one day. It was a lot

of fun.

Here he is enjoying his favorite part of the cookie making.

The boys playing around with all of William's

stuffed animals.

A Couple of Firsts

Friday, June 12th. Her first real bath. She loved
it!


Before getting in the bath she had
a major diaper blowout and was
crying hard. As soon as she got
into the water, she calmed right down.
When I took her our, the crying
began again. I really think she
liked being in the water.

This isn't really a first, but it's just a cute picture

so I decided to add it. She loves to sleep mostly

swaddled but with a least one arm out. That arm

always seems to end up behind her head. She's

so cool!


Today. Sunday June 14th. Her

first day at church. She actually

did have little socks on, but we

lost one of those right away. She

has two little dresses this size and

since I couldn't decide which one to

have her wear I let the three older

boys decide. All three picked this one.

They love choosing which outfit

she will wear for the day.

Time Flies!

Since Grandma Clayton is requesting blog updates all the way from Tonga, I guess it is time to do it! It has been a busy couple of weeks. Since it is late and I probably only have an hour or two before I will have one of my little ones awake, I am going to briefly update you through pictures. That's what we really want anyway right? Not just a bunch of words!

Here is Annalise on May 26th, ready for her

car ride home from the hospital. She slept the

whole way. What a wonderful birthday gift it

was for me to be taking my little girl home!

When we arrived home the boys and Alea greeted

us with a loud surprise and "Happy Birthday".

They lead us right to the Pin the tail on the donkey

game they had set up to celebrate my birthday.

However, the game didn't last long since the boys

were much more interested in checking out

the beautiful baby sister who had just arrived

home. Here is William, Spencer, and Annalise.

We then had cake and ice cream. Can you believe

I am 39? As Spencer puts it, I am now tied with

Dad for the oldest in our family.

A couple of days after we arrived home, my sister

Sheri came back into town and came right down

to meet her newest Niece! She usually comes

to the hospital, but was out of town this time. It

was really strange not to have anyone other

than John and the boys come to visit us in the

hospital. That's what happens when you give

birth over a holiday weekend I guess!

The first week that we were home, John was home

from work. It was a good thing too because Alea

was sick all week. John really stepped up to the

plate and kept things running smoothly. Here is

a pile of laundry that he had washed. It was taller

than I am! The boys and I attacked it one Saturday

morning while John was at play practice and got it

all folded and put away. John also got to spend some

great quality time with the boys while Annalise and

I rested. We were very blessed also by many people

in our ward who brought in wonderful meals that first

week. We are very thankful for all the help we have

received!

On Tuesday, June 2nd, John went back to work. That evening my Mom came out to help us for a few days. Somehow I missed getting any pictures of her while she was here. It may be because every time she was holding Annalise, I took advantage of it and took a nap! Mom was here for 5 days and thanks to her, we now have 21 meals in the freezer that I can just take out and pop into the oven. That has been a huge blessing! She says that when she and my Dad come out for the blessing, she will fill our freezer again. How great is that?!!! The boys also loved the time she was able to spend with them. I'll have to get some pictures next time!

So that brings us up to a week ago. Throughout this week it has been back to just us...with Alea's help of course. She has been great with helping to keep the house cleaned up and taking the kids out while I have not been able to. The older boys keep asking when I will be going to the movie, pool, etc with them, so I am going to venture out to some of the places this week as well. In the past I have been out and about once the baby is about 2 weeks old, but this time I am taking a little longer. I think a lot of it has to do with the extra work that Bryce is right now. It's like having two babies and I am still trying to figure all that out. Anyway things are good and always moving forward!

Swine Flu

I just found out that my youngest sister has swine flu. She is a teacher in Utah and on the last day of school, one of the kids in her class was diagnosed with it. Unfortunately she now has it. She is on medication and is feeling better, but yesterday her poor husband began to feel sick. Looks like they will spend their first wedding anniversary at home sick tomorrow. Bummer! Here is what my sister says about swine flu..."avoid swine flu. It won't kill you, but it's not cool either." I thought that was good advice!