Affinity Family Christmas Party

December 1, 2012

 Spencer

William is a good sport.  He feels that at 11 he is too old to sit on Santa's lap, but he did it anyway.   

I love how Santa and Bryce are looking at each other in this picture. 

Annalise 

 My favorite Annalise/Santa picture 

Bryce 

'Tis the Season!

The Christmas season has begun!  The next few weeks seem to become more and more busy as every day passes.  It began on Friday evening with Patriot Academy's Christmas performance.  These performances are like none others I have ever seen and this years was no different.  The children (and staff)  did an amazing job.  

In preparation for the performance, I did something I haven't done in years.  I pulled out my sewing machine, dusted it off, and hemmed Jacob's new pants. It was actually really fun to sew again, even just to do this small job.  I may have to find some time to do it a bit more often.  

Jacob and Spencer dressed up and ready to go.  Jacob was one of the carolers and Spencer was in the chorus.   

Annalise and William before the show.  William was "Blue", one of the narrators.  He is just in regular clothes because he would soon be wearing a costume.  

Annalise entertained herself in the chair for a while. 

By the middle of the play though, she was tired and just plain done.  She and I spent the rest of the time in the back of the theater or out in the lobby.  I didn't get any pictures of Bryce and John, but they were there also and enjoyed the play.  Bryce was in a great mood and laughed through a good part of it.

After the performance, I came home with the two little ones and John took the older boys to Aspen Leaf for a treat.  Overall, the night went well and was a great start to the Christmas season.

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 The following morning started early as the 5 kids and I loaded into the van and headed to Phoenix to help with a fundraiser for Ryan House.  John stayed behind to work on our garage/bedroom project.  The fundraiser was a golf tournament at the Biltmore Golf Club.  There was a lemonade stand set up at one of the holes and we were asked if we would like to help serve lemonade.  We had a lot of fun and it felt great to be able to help serve for a good cause.

The kids enjoyed the volunteer's rest station.  

Bryce, not so much.  He just wanted to get back outside and moving.  

Jacob ready to serve a glass of lemonade to one of the golfers.  He was most impressed when someone took a glass of lemonade and handed him a $20 bill.  Everyone there was very generous! 

 Here we are with one of the golf groups that came through.  The lady who unfortunately got cut off here, gave each of the kids a golf ball.  They thought that was wonderful.  

The lady holding Annalise was the other volunteer that was serving lemonade with us.  She was so nice and I had a great time talking with her about our children and her boys.  Her oldest, named Ryder, is Annalise's age.  She was so good with Annalise and very kind to all of our children.  Her name is Kodette and about half way through our time there I found out that she is the wife of Jason LaBarbera from the Phoenix Coyotes!  Yeah cool!  Very, very nice lady.

This man was one of the golfers.  Before hitting his own ball, he took the time to show my boys how to golf and then let them use his iron club to hit a ball...which he left for them.  

The boys thought it was great and have all decided that they need an iron for Christmas!   

Even Annalise got in on the action.  She took this stick that William had found and hit her own ball.   

"Goal!" 

She kept saying that as the different golfers hit the ball.  Also at one point she was "crawling" around the grass and a golfer said, "get down, get down" to his ball and then we heard Annalise repeating, "get down, get down!" She also kept herself busy by hiding under the tablecloth (her cave) and roaring at the golfers as they came by for lemonade.  She is a funny little girl and had a great morning.

While there we also talked with Ryan Roberts again and got to meet his sweet wife.  We also talked with Ryan (of Ryan House and his parents), and met some of the Arizona Rattler's cheerleaders.  I'm sure there were many other "known" people who came through, but I didn't recognize anyone else.  Everyone we did meet though was very, very kind.  

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From the golf game, we went to the Affinity Family Christmas party.   We got to see Santa there and each of the kids got a bell and a little stuffed animal as a toy.  Santa also gave them a Candy Cane which the boys all handed to Annalise.  I wondered why and then remembered that we are not eating candy.  They are so good!  They amaze me.  

We had pictures taken with Santa and there were no tears this year!  As soon as we get those pictures, I will post them.  We did not stay for the movie since we had to get home so that we could get to William and Jacob's Christmas piano Recital.

Like a bad mom, I didn't get any pictures of them, but they did a FANTASTIC job!  Jacob played "The Sleigh" and William played "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"  They had their pieces memorized and played them well.  They both definitely have a gift for playing.  I am so glad that they enjoy it.  

That's Our Princess!

Annalise's funny of the day...During OT today, her therapist was trying to get her to button and unbutton a vest. Annalise said that she wanted to put it on. Her therapist said that she could if she would then do 4 buttons. Annalise agreed and they put the vest on. She then began to play. The therapist reminded Annalise that she owed her 4 buttons. Annalise looked right at her and with the hand and all the attitude in that little 3 year old body she said, "Whatever!" She had the head shake and everything.  Where does she get this stuff?!  She then giggled and went on playing. We could not stop laughing. Yeah, she's 3 going on 16, the little stinker. I think the poor therapist finally got 2 buttons out of her today!

Halloween 2012

Halloween is one of my least favorite holidays.  The only thing I really like about it is that Halloween seems to be the end of the warm weather here and the beginning of the Fall and Winter Holidays.  

Okay, I also like how cute my kids look when they are all dressed up.

Can you guess what Annalise is?  Yep, a pink Dino Bat!  That is what she said when she saw this costume.  She went from wanting to be a lady bug or a butterfly to wanting to be a clown.  I couldn't really find anything clown like that would fit her and had pretty much decided just to use one of our past costumes, although that is a little hard to do when she is the only girl.  However, while I was shopping Halloween morning, I saw this cute dinosaur costume at 50% off.  So I bought it.  By the time I got home she had decided that she wanted to be a bat.  I showed her the costume and suggested that she be a cute dinosaur and she said, "a pink Dinobat!"  And so she was for the rest of the night!   She wore this costume and went around waving her arms and "flying" throughout the night.  A Dinobat...who would have thought...

Bryce ended up in one of his past costumes.  As you can see, he was pretty excited about it. :)  One of these years I will get my act together sooner and make him one of those cool wheelchair costumes.  

The whole crew ready to go to the trunk-or-treat. 

As you can see, Annalise's hat came off about 2 seconds after the first picture.  It spent the rest of the night in her trick or treat bag.

The ninjas!  William and Spencer 

One crazy clown!  Jacob had been planning on going as a "Mexican Guitar player" for a long time.  That all changed the night he searched though our neighbor's costume box and found this clown costume.  (Yes, this is where Annalise got the idea of being a clown.  It was the hair that she loved the most.)  

Jacob the clown! 

As we were digging through our box of old Halloween costumes, John found my pumpkin costume that I made years ago during my BYU days.  I decided it would be a very comfortable way to go.   

Friends from our ward 

Janelle and Piper Sherwood

A very grouchy Bryce with Katy Smith and Annalise 

Poor Katy was so patient as I tried to get a good picture of Bryce and Annalise with her at the same time.  Seriously that is almost impossible!   

Kaitlyn Peterson 

 Denise Klein and Bryce

As usual, Denise helped us out a ton the night of the trunk-or-treat.  Bryce was grouchy from the moment we got there.  He did not want to stay still...wanted to keep moving.  Then someone started shooting off fireworks in the neighborhood behind us.  Fireworks FREAK Bryce out.  I took him out of his chair and he was just shaking.  I think the fireworks, all the people dressed up, and all the activity was just a bit much for him.  Denise sat with me and held Bryce while I passed out treats.  John took Annalise around and I just hope and pray that my older three behaved themselves.  I know they ended up with plenty of candy.  

Once in Denise's arms, it didn't take long for Bryce to calm down and snuggle in.  He did not fall asleep, but he was awfully close!  

Overall, it ended up being a good night.  The boys came home and counted out their candy to see how much money they would earn.  The following day, they all chose to have as a candy day.   They ended up eating some of their profits, but still came out pretty well.  Considering that they have not had regular candy or soda since Valentine's day, the sugar, and artificial junk that they did consume showed it's ugly head very quickly.  We had a couple of rough days, but they all seem to be back to their "normal" selves now.  By November 2nd, all Halloween candy had left our house and I was very happy when I could say that I had not eaten one piece of Halloween candy this entire season!

Molluscum Contagiosum and other New Words

My second trip of the day to Phoenix on the 30th, was to take Jacob and William to the dermatologist.  William had some weird looking mole type thing that appeared on his chest about a month ago which didn't seem to be getting better and Jacob has some extra skin near his eye that is bothersome to him.  

So, first Jacob.  He was born with what looked like a little raised area next to his right eye.  It has always been there, but over the past couple of years it has become slightly more raised and bothersome to him.  So about a year ago I took him to a dermatologist who said it was a wart and that it must be something different than what I had been seeing there since he was a newborn.  We went in multiple times to have it frozen down.  It seemed to help some although it never fully went away.  We finally just stopped going to her.

It continues to bother him and I have been meaning to get him in to a pediatric dermatologist for a while now and have just not gotten around to it.  About a month ago, this spot appeared on William's chest.  

We had been watching it and it seemed to get bigger and not be clearing up.  He also had a bunch of itchy spots behind his knees which I ignored for a long time because he often has trouble with Eczema and I just figured he was having trouble with that again.  Finally he asked me to look at it, which I did and I instantly realized it wasn't eczema, but a bunch of little raised bumps.  I took him in to the pediatrician to let her take a look.  She looked at his legs and recognized it right away as Molluscum Contagiosum, a common childhood virus.  I have never heard of that before.  William does have a really bad case of it due to his skin in that area being so broken down from his eczema, but luckily it is nothing very serious and should go away within about 18 months. Yes, 18 months! 

William then showed her the spot on his chest (which at the time had been scratched and just looked like an open sore) and she said that it was most likely just another Molluscum Contagiosum spot.  She gave us some antibiotic cream for the spots where William has scratched them open while scratching his itchy eczema legs and told him not to touch them because it is contagious.  Lovely!  

So, fast forward a couple of weeks and his legs look much better.  The spot on his chest however had "healed" from an open sore back to it's original mole like shape, grown a bit, and started to bleed a little at random times.   I decided it was time to call and get them both in to the pediatric dermatologist.  I called Friday, they had an appointment by Tuesday.  

The doctor looked at William first and confirmed that what was on his legs was Molluscum Contagiosum, but that what was on his chest was something different.  Most likely a Pyogenic granuloma.  Yeah, I didn't know what that was either.  They said that although they were 99.99 percent sure that's what it was, they wanted to remove it and have it tested, just to be sure.  They checked out Jacob and then removed William's spot.  It made William nervous, but poor sensitive Jacob was a wreck watching his brother have to go through that.  I got a call yesterday and with the results.  Luckily it is just a benign pyogenic granuloma which is no longer on my son's body.

I felt weird explaining to this doctor that Jacob had been born with this spot by his eye and it seemed to be exactly where this "wart" was now.   As she looked at it and asked more questions she said that it isn't a regular wart at all like we had been told before, but that it was an epidermal-nevus (nope, hadn't heard of that one before either).  Finally, someone else knew that it wasn't just my imagination that he had been born with this thing!  She said that you don't really have to do anything about this, unless it is bothersome, which it really is to Jacob.  She also said that often once they hit puberty it will grow and could spread and become more noticeable.  She said that since it's roots are deep under the skin, the only way to really get rid of it is to dig it out.  She gave us a name of a plastic surgeon and recommended that we talk to her about removing it.  It would need to be done by a plastic surgeon because of how close it is to his eye.

When I asked Jacob how he felt about just leaving it or having it removed he said, "well, I've always wanted to try to stay awake when they give you the medicine to go to sleep, so yeah, I say let's do the surgery."   I don't think that is a good enough reason for surgery!  I'm not sure at this point which way we will go.  Still need to do some praying about that one.

When the dermatologist was looking over Jacob, she also saw a small mole on his chest and one under his hair.  The one on his head is pretty large and a bit worrisome to them.  We were told to just let our pediatrician know about it so that they can keep an eye on it for now, but if it changes at all, we will need to go back and have it checked out.

After their appointment, we went into the cafeteria and let them get a little snack.  Although I really dislike doctor's appointments and hospitals, I love spending time with my boys.  I really love this picture of the two of them together.   They can definitely fight like brothers, but when all is said and done, they really do love each other!  

The Casts Come Off

October 30, 2012

After 7 weeks and 6 days, the time has finally arrived!  The day that the casts, aka boots, come off!

We got up early and made our way to the CRS orthopedic clinic.  While we waited in the waiting room, I met a lady who was there with 3 of her children.  Two of them were in power wheelchairs and one in a regular push wheelchair.   As we spoke, I found out that these were 3 of her 6 children.  5 of her children are in wheelchairs, 1 of the five is tube fed, and they will be adopting 2 year old twin boys, one who is blind, in the coming months.  The first three of these children are their biological children, the other 5 have come to them through foster parenting/adopting.  It was so neat to talk with her for a few minutes and learn how each of these children have come into her life.  Caring for these special children, who are often just passed by, is definitely one of this sweet lady's missions while on this earth.  What a great person.  I wish I had been able to talk with her longer.  I'm sure she has a lot to tell!

Once we got into the casting room, Annalise kept saying, " my boots come off.  The doctor take my boots off and I have a bubble bath in the big mommy bath tub." 

 The casts being cut off.

Annalise did really well, no tears at all until he began cutting on the second one.  It was just too much and the tears began to flow.  This wonderful child life specialist whom we have met and gotten to know over the past couple of months came right over to Annalise and showed her some games on the iPad.  It was a great distraction! 

While the tech was taking off the casts, I was told that Annalise may have some muscle spasms due to her high tone and having the legs in one place for so long.  The tech looked up and said, "she will have some for sure.  I can already feel it in her legs".  Poor girl.  Any time she tried to bend her legs, they would hurt her which always led to tears.   

The casts are off.  Just waiting to be cleaned up a little and for recasting for the AFOs.  She wasn't so sure about the casting.  She kept telling me that she did not want more boots.  She calmed down once she saw that they would be taking them right back off! 

Home, happy, and cast free!   

Annalise has begun twirling her bangs.  She does this a lot when she is tired or needing extra comfort. 

The whole way home, Annalise kept talking about her bubble bath in the mommy bathtub.  She was so happy that her boots were off and she was going to be getting a bubble bath.

However, once we got home, I ran some bath water full of lots of bubbles.  I put her in, but she instantly started freaking out a little and crying that she wanted to get out.  I made sure the water temperature and everything was fine.   I'm not sure why she did not want to be in the bathtub. I'm guessing that the water just felt really weird on her bare legs and that it was hurting.  I got her out and after a few cuddles, I handed her over to Sarah who was here to care for her while I took William and Jacob to the dermatologist.  I gave her some pain medicine and headed off to pick up the boys.  It was hard to leave her!

I guess all afternoon, Annalise wanted her legs to be covered with a towel or blanket.  She did not want to look at them and kept saying that she didn't like them and that they have owies.  I guess 8 weeks in a cast is a long time.  Being out of them is going to take some getting used to.  Hopefully she will get used to that soon and be able to enjoy her bubble baths again!