A Couple of other Things

A few tidbits that I forgot to post this morning. First of all I have to say that I was really frustrated with the blog this morning. For some reason, some areas in the post have spaces between them like I meant for them to and then others got all smashed together. Even when I try to edit, it just goes back to the same thing. I don't know how to fix it and it really irritates me to see it all run together. Anyone know how to make it look right when you post it? Hopefully it won't happen in this one!

Anyway, back to the other news. First of all, Bryce's CT scan results came back and there is no sign of calcification on the brain. If you have read Bryce's blog, you may have already read this, but I wanted to post the information here as well. So this rules out Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome, which is what Dr. Narayanan was really thinking this may be. Also I thought that he was talking about something different than Leukodystrophy when he was talking about this disease, but it ends up he wasn't. AGS is just one of the types of LD. So, it is good that he doesn't have it, but it leaves us back at square one again, and Bryce's Dr is still pretty sure it is a Leukodystrophy that we are dealing with. Sigh!!! He will be having an EEG on December 11 to check for silent seizures since he is having episodes of zoning off and gasping for air/forgetting to breathe. It's so scary! Seizures have always scared me and I have been very glad that he has not had any problem with them. I am really hoping it is something else that we are dealing with here. Seizures are very common in children with Leukodystrophy. =( Bryce's Dr. said that he is going to look through all of Bryce's records again and talk with a colleague in Baltimore who deals with Leukodystrophies and see if he/they can find anything that may give us a clue as to what to look for. It all just makes me sad.

On to another child! On Monday I will be calling to make an appointment with a urologist for Spencer. We are still having major wetting issues during the day with him no matter what we try. I talked to his pediatrician again when I was in there last week and she thinks it would be a good idea to see a urologist just to make sure there is nothing medical going on there. Part of me hopes they find something so that we can take care of the issue, but of course part of me hopes everything is just fine and eventually it will all just work out. It really seems like something is going on, whether it is medical or mental I don't know, but it's just gone on too long. He has a few other things going on as well that I am trying to piece together and figure out if it is related at all. Oh, having kids can be so trying on the heart! Hopefully everything will be fine with him and this will just be a passing trial.

Also this past week Annalise turned 6 months old. I can't believe it's been 6 months! I think I say that every month! =) She is getting so big. She loves to get herself up on all fours and rock back and forth. She has plunged herself forward a few times, but mostly she just goes backwards still. She has also begun to babble a lot. She says mom, mom, mom all the time. I know she is not talking about me, but hey I'm taking it as her first word and it is mom, not dad. =) She loves people and really enjoys her brothers. All William has to do is walk into the room and she begins to giggle. He loves entertaining her! She is now 14 lbs. which puts her in the 50th percentile for weight. She is in the 70th for length, and her little head is in the 15th percentile. She is handling oatmeal much better than she did rice and she loves sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, and pears. As always she is a wonderful little girl and a precious part of our family!

Daily Happenings

These have been some busy, busy weeks and I don't see signs of slowing anytime soon. I'm looking forward to Christmas vacation already! Last Saturday we went as a family to see the Queen Creek community Theater production of Willie Wonka Jr. There were a lot of kids from our ward in it and it was really fun to see. Both Jacob and William said that they want to be in the next one that they do. We'll see what we're doing when that time comes!

Last Tuesday night William and Jacob had their Christmas concert at school. It was really well done this year and the boys looked great. It was kind of hard for the little ones to sit still through it, but it was still very enjoyable.

Jacob with his teacher Mrs. Martinelli

William's grade got to sing Christmas carols in the lobby as people came into the theater.

We had to sit way in the back where they had the wheelchair section and unfortunately my camera didn't zoom enough to be able to see the boys very well. This is William's group singing. Since he is short he is on the front row and so if you look closely you can see him. He is the ninth person in from the left.

Thanksgiving ended up being quite nice although throughout the day I kept thinking that it was quickly becoming my least favorite Holiday. I know I've thought that in years past as well. It just seems like a whole lot of preparing, cooking, and cleaning for one meal. I know it's all about family and being thankful, but we are typically on our own for the most part for Thanksgiving, so it is just like any other meal...only more work. OK, now with that being said, it did end up being a nice day. John's cousin Nanette and her parents came into town and spent the afternoon/evening with us. Aunt Margaret made the pies, Uncle Arden made a cranberry relish, and Nanette brought some Shrimp (a favorite of Williams) and little toys for the boys. Also, my sister ended up not having to work, so she was in town and came over for a few hours. We ate, talked, and played games. It was nice.

I didn't do the early morning Black Friday thing this year. Instead I spent the morning with my kids. I am using some of the rent money that we receive from our renters...who are the best renters ever by the way...to have a cleaning company come out every other week. Yesterday was their first time. The first two times they come, they do a deep clean, so they were here for longer than I even expected. They cleaned from 8 until about 1. It was so nice to come home to a clean home. There are still many, many piles of stuff/projects that I need to go through, but it is so nice to have the basic stuff clean and now maybe I can focus on getting the other "stuff" taken care of. For the past year and a half (at least) most of these things have just been sitting untouched. It's driving me crazy and I am excited to finally be diving into them again soon, I hope! Anyway, so while they were cleaning, John was working on the new laundry room that we are adding to the guest house and I took all the kids to the new Chick-fil-a near our home for breakfast and playing. Everyone did pretty well there. It was tough for Bryce because he wanted to get out and play on the playground. We took him in there for a while, but the noises from the toys in there kept startling him and he would cry. So Bryce, Annalise, and I sat outside of the play area and watched the older boys play. They kept looking out and waving to Bryce which he really enjoyed.

The Chick-fil-a cows were there and were willing to pose for a few pictures.

It was hard to get them all in from where I was, so I just did the best I could. Bryce seemed very intrigued by them. It makes you wonder what he was thinking about these very tall cows.

Just hanging out at Chick-fil-a. Annalise was getting very tired by this point.


Playing in the play area.

William entertaining Bryce from the play area.

After Chick-fil-a we stopped by the house, but the cleaning crew was still there, so we went over to the park to play. The two little ones had fallen asleep so I stayed in the car with them while the boys played. By that time it was past lunch time and I thought for sure they would be done cleaning so we headed back. They weren't so John suggested we go to Burger King and pick up some food from the $ menu. Now the boys thought that was a great idea...two meals out in one day, that never happens! William didn't want to come, so he stayed with his dad. The rest of us got some lunch and brought it home. We ate lunch together in the back yard. Just as we were finishing, one of the cleaning crew came out and said that they were finished. It was nice to be able to spend some fun time with the kids and to have the house cleaned while we were out. Now if we can just keep it clean until they come next time.

This morning John is at rehearsal for the Stake Christmas concert that is tonight and tomorrow night. He should be home around noon and then some friends of ours are coming for a late lunch...of Chili...not turkey! It will be great to hang out with the Crandalls again.

One more tidbit of information is that we are thankful that John still has his job. They have been laying people off periodically throughout this year. I think they have lost about 57 people just from his Chandler office. About a week ago they called his group together and said that there had been more layoffs, but that their group was safe throughout the end of the year. So, I guess we can breathe freely for a few more weeks and then we have no idea what will happen. Luckily he has made himself known in good ways and he received a very good year end review. We continue to pray that they will continue to have work for him to do throughout the new year!

Bryce's New Wheels and Website

OK, this post is way overdue, but better late than never, right?! So back on Friday the 13th of November, Bryce got his new wheelchair. He loves it! It's a Zippy! My arms and back love it also except that I am now building new muscles getting this thing in and out of the van. John built a ramp for us yesterday and that helps, but the chair is pretty heavy and awkward. I guess it will just take some getting used to. But, that is a small price to pay for how great this seems to be for Bryce. Here are a few pictures of him in his chair.

This one was taken on the day we got his new wheels. It came with this tray which is very handy for holding his toys and books for him.


This one was the next morning. You can see the backpack that is hanging from the handle bars. That came with his chair and is great for times when we are out and about. It has replaced the diaper bag when I am out with Bryce.


The following pictures were taken last Sunday right after church. The chair is a tilt and recline model. Here you can see it tilted back. Very nice feature.

On many Sundays the boys will play hide and seek or tag around the house after church. Bryce has always enjoyed watching them from the family room, but now he is able to play with them! Bryce got to be "it" when they were playing tag and Jacob had a ball pushing him around trying to catch the other boys. Bryce just kept giggling. It was the best sound ever!!!

What a cool kid!

Also, I have started a new website to help keep everyone updated on Bryce's condition. There are more pictures of him there. Feel free to check it out if you would like. www.caringbridge.org/visit/bryceclayton

Family Day

Saturday was John's annual work party. Each year they have a rocket derby and barbecue. We decided to go this year and just watch and enjoy instead of building rockets and launching them there. I think it was a wise choice. Then after that we decided to take the kids to see the movie, Cloudy with a Chance of meatballs. Great movie! We all loved it and are still laughing at parts that we enjoyed. It is a great adult and child movie. What made it even better was that we all got in for free! John has been carpooling to work with a friend from the ward. Orbital Sciences hands out incentives for carpooling. One of those being free movie passes. We have some saved up so we decided to take the whole family to the movies. It's been quite some time since we have done that. I'm so glad we did. Everyone was so well behaved and had such a great time. Lots of fun! After the derby and before the movie we had a little time, so we stopped in to see some old friends, Will and Missy Carpenter and their family. It's always so nice to visit with friends you haven't seen for a while.



This picture turned out rather blue, but I thought I would add it since we don't have many pictures with all of us. This is right when we got to the rocket derby.


They served a great barbecue of hot dogs, hamburgers, and of course...ice cream!


William and Spencer playing with the toy rockets they were given when we arrived.

Here they are looking up a rocket that had just been launched and was on it's way down near them.

Running to get the fallen rocket.

Some other boys got that rocket, but our boys were fine with that. They just started looking up for the next one to come over the bleachers.

Jacob, William, and Spencer had a ball climbing to the top of the bleachers and watching the rockets from there.

Then on to the movie.

Tickle time at the theater while we waited. John is so good with our kids.

At the movie theater they had these huge chipmunk statues that the boys thought were great. We had to wait our turn because there were a lot of other people wanting a picture with Alvin, Simon, and Theodore as well.

Great family, great movie, great day!

On our way to the car we found this old telephone booth without a telephone...just the right size for a baby!

Random October Pictures

Here we have the not-so-well-known super hero, Red and White boy...


With Sword Boy by his side. I just love seeing what these boys can come up with!

Here is a picture of the kids enjoying conference...and the contents of our 72 hour kits.

Even Annalise tried to join in the fun.

William, sucking it in.

Here Spencer is showing us the scar on his neck. The older boys had rigged up some rope onto the slide some how and poor Spencer met it square on with his neck. Ouch. This totally reminded me of something similar my younger brother and I did when we were little. I don't even remember to name of the poor kid who ran into our line with his neck while on his big wheel. I don't think he got to play with us anymore after that one. Spencer is still allowed to play with William and Jacob, but they did have to get rid of the rope!

Annalise in one of the wigs we tried on for Halloween.

Yes it was bright during fall break. That was a wonderful week with fabulous weather. The boys spent a lot of time outside playing and riding bikes. I love it when boys can be boys!

William jumping. He always likes having the action shots taken of himself.

Fun with chalk...still need to work on spelling. I guess I do need to send them back to school.

Indiannalise! Her brothers love dressing her up.

Breakfast on the patio. Ok, it wasn't a healthy breakfast, but it sure was fun!

Beautiful William. Trying on Annalise's wig before Halloween. Everyone tells me that she looks like William, so maybe this is a hint of what she will look like when she gets older.

Jacob cracks me up!

Kissy Kiss! Scary, but these should make some good black mail photos in a few years!

Our Big Girl!

Annalise is getting so big. She turned 5 months old in October and has really come to life. She rolls all over now and can scoot herself around a little...although she mostly goes backwards when she goes. She has begun waking up some during the night and I think it is because she rolls over and hasn't quite figured out how to get herself comfortable again and back to sleep. Hopefully she can get that figured out soon! Everything she can get her hands on, goes straight to her mouth. She loves being entertained by her brothers and "repays" them with plenty of smiles and giggles! She continues to be one of the best behaved, happiest babies around!


Annalise loves her jumper. The first time she played in there, the music freaked her out a bit, but once she got over that, she has loved every minute in that thing.


She also enjoys her swing...


especially doing tricks in it.

"Look Mom, one foot!"

Enjoying a ride from Dad.

On November 2nd Annalise had her first "solid food" meal. She had rice cereal and as you can see here, she enjoyed every minute of it. Whenever I got the spoon close to her, she would grab my hand and pull it right in. She also would get all excited and giggle as she ate. Of course most of it ended up outside of her, but we think she did really well for a first timer! She is just so much fun!

Halloween

This year we went with two different themes chosen by the older boys of course. We also went with store bought costumes since I just didn't have time or energy to be creative. They did all turn out mighty cute though...if I do say so myself! We spent halloween evening at our ward chili dinner and trunk or treat. It was fun to see all the kids dressed up in their costumes.



Spencer as Mario, William as Luigi, and Annalise as Princess Peach. All I had to get for hers, was the wig.

Then we have our Star Wars heros. Bryce as Yoda, and Jacob as Darth Vader. The best part was to see Darth pushing Yoda around in the stroller! =) Jacob makes a very sweet Darth Vader.

Peach and Yoda just hanging out watching all the activities of the night.

Annalise finally gave up and fell asleep. I couldn't believe how long she actually left the wig on her head.

Spencer playing one of the games at our ward Trunk or treat.

The boys all had fun doing the cake walk.

Jacob enjoying his cupcake prize.


William of course chose the largest cake there was! It was quite tasty.

So since Saturday we have had way too much cake and candy around our house, but the boys all seemed to have a great time and are all pleased with there Halloween treasures.