A Week with the Hauer Boys

About a year and a half ago we met a wonderful family.  Annalise had just begun to show signs of regression.  Their little boy, Ryder, had recently been diagnosed with Unspecified Leukodystrophy like Bryce and Annalise.  One of the therapists that came to evaluate Annalise knew this family and, with permission, shared our contact information.  Denise and I first met by phone and before too long we were able to meet in person.  I would prefer that we had met this wonderful family under different circumstances, but I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who sends people into our lives at just the right times to help us as we go through tough times.  Les, Denise, and their 3 boys will be lifelong friends of ours!

A little over 2 weeks ago, Ryder, who is just under 3 years old was hospitalized due to some complications with his disorder.  Luckily our children were doing well at the time, so Ryder's big brothers, Tyler and Noah, were able to come to our house to spend a few days.  For a little over a week, we had kids here ages 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 years old.  Fun times!

MONDAY

5 minutes after Tyler and Noah got here, they were all in the pool.  Most every day, they were in the pool at least 3 or 4 times.  They would also "water bathe" which means they would go over to the driveway, turn the hose on themselves and lie in the little puddles of water.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the water bathing.

Devin, one of William's friends was over swimming with them as well.

TUESDAY

The first day the boys were here was the day that Spencer slept the entire day.  This is him Tuesday morning, awake and although still very weak, he was ready to play.

Playing Apples to Apples.  My boys were excited to have enough people here to play a "real" game of Apples to Apples.  Tyler, Jacob, William, Devin Clare, Noah, and Spencer.

Bryce loved having a house full of boys.  He wanted to be wherever they were the entire week.

The picture didn't turn out very well, but this is from Tuesday night.  The boys decided they wanted to have a "late night" with Devin.  A late night is like a sleep over, but it only lasts until late at night and then everyone goes home and sleeps at their own house.  William and Devin wanted to have a late night until midnight, but we compromised and it ended at 8.  That is late enough for me!  So, we had dinner and eventually everyone agreed on a movie.  They younger kids all got into their pj's and everyone pulled out some blankets and settled in for the movie.  

WEDNESDAY

We have summer movie tickets so on Wednesday we got a respite worker to stay with Bryce and Annalise and the other boys and I headed to the movie.  We saw Horton Hears a Who.  

Jacob and Spencer.  I love all my kids and I love how each one has his or her own very different, slightly quirky personality.  Spencer chose these clothes to wear this morning.  A blue shirt and orange and grey shorts.  When I said something about how he might want to put some different shorts on, he said, "why?  These match perfectly.  This is my favorite shirt, and these are my favorite shorts...so see, they match!"  I just couldn't argue with that logic!  He also likes wearing the tongues of his shoes down at the end of  the shoe so that is why you can see the whites through the straps.  

William and Noah

Tyler, Noah, William, Jacob, and Spencer

Group hug!  Tyler wasn't so sure about that at first, but soon he joined right in.

It was pretty amazing to me how well these boys got along all week long.  They were typical boys and we had to do a few separations throughout the week, but overall, they got along very well!

After the movie, my mom took Jacob to his counseling session and the other boys and I hit Burger King for lunch.  Don't worry, Jacob got to have lunch at Wendy's with Grandma!

I did feed them more than just french fries and water for lunch.  I just forgot to get pictures until the end.

After lunch, we went home and of course they spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing the Wii.

THURSDAY

Thursday is our big therapy day for Bryce and Annalise, 6 hours total, so we were pretty much stuck at the house all day.  The boys didn't seem to mind a bit.  They of course swam, water bathed, sun bathed, and built forts!  It was a great day for everyone except maybe Bryce.  He would get so mad when he had to leave the boys to do his therapy.  He was very NOT cooperative at all during any of his therapies that day.  Typical 5 year old boy...who wants to work when everyone else is playing!  

All week long, they wanted to sleep in the same room, so we put up mattresses and had 5 boys in one room.  Again, I wasn't sure how well it would work out and figured we would have to change things around, but they all did so well and would go right off to sleep.  There is something to be said about wearing kids out during the day!

FRIDAY

Bowlopolis!  We had a reservation for two free hours of bowling.  It was a way of the Brunswick to get people in there and tell them about the leagues.  The league part of it only took about 10 minutes and the rest of the time we were able to bowl, and have pizza and ice cream...all for free!   I had signed my boys up before I knew the Hauer's would be here, so I just wrote to the people at the bowling alley and asked if we could bring 2 extra boys.  They said that was perfectly fine.  

The little girl standing behind the boys was part of the other family that bowled with us.  They had 4 kids...two of which were named Bryce and Anna!

Out of the 8 kids who were bowling in our lane, Tyler was the big winner at the end!  All of the boys were great sports...which made me very happy!

Tyler, William, and Noah

Jacob and Spencer

Noah really got into his ice cream!

The plan was that after bowling, I was going to take the boys back to their house.  However, Ryder was having a very hard time and would be spending the day in surgery.  I talked to his parents and told them that the boys were welcome to stay with us a little longer.  We decided it would be best for them to stay with us at least through the weekend.  The best part of it was that when I got off the phone and the boys found out they would get to stay a little longer, Tyler was so excited and said that his prayers had been answered.  I asked him what he meant and he said that he had been praying that they would get to stay at our house!  

When we got home, we saw that our respite workers (Denise and Adrienne) had Bryce and Annalise in the pool!  Even though Annalise's face doesn't show it in the picture, they were having a great time. 

And of course the boys had to join them immediately!  That is Jacob doing a handstand. 

SATURDAY

Tyler, Ryder, and Noah Hauer.  

By Saturday, there was no end in sight to poor Ryder's hospital stay, so I took his brothers up to visit him and take him some little toys they had chosen for him at the dollar store.  

We had a good visit with Les, Denise, and Ryder...and a good lunch in the cafeteria. 

Ryder was having a pretty good day, so it was good for the boys to see him this way.  Having a sibling who is medically fragile is way harder than most people will ever understand.  These boys are all amazing people! 

William (pretending to be asleep) and Noah waiting to go down for lunch.

SUNDAY

Tyler and Annalise all ready for church!

Saturday evening I took Tyler and Noah over to Walmart and let them choose out a tie and pants to wear to church the next day.  It was so fun.  They were so excited as they tried on their very own "church pants".  I didn't realize how completely excited they were until Sunday morning when I got up and heard Tyler in the shower.  He came out shortly later completely dressed and ready for church!  

Tyler and Spencer eating a snack of pretzels on the way to church.

The kids all looked so great all dressed up for church that I just had to get a picture before we went in.  As you can see, it took a few tries before getting a "good" one...although in my opinion, all of these are good ones.  I love all the different personalities!  Annalise kept trying to get away and no matter what I did, she would not look up at the camera!

Silly pose!

My favorite picture of them all!  Don't Tyler and Noah just fit in so well!  We loved having our extra boys with us for a while!

Our beautiful Princess!

MONDAY

Annalise, Bryce with his physical therapist Tess, Noah, Spencer, Jacob, and Tyler.

Since we do not let our kids play outside on Sunday, they found some indoor fun to keep them busy.  They pulled out all the Geo Trax trains and spent hours building and running the trains.  This picture was taken Monday morning during physical therapy.  Bryce enjoyed his therapy much more this day since he was able to be a part of what was going on! 

Monday night, Denise came to pick up the boys.  As she walked in the door, Annalise immediately went up to her and stayed by her the rest of the time she was there.  She even began calling her Mom.  This is totally not the way Annalise usually reacts when someone comes to our house.  She typically becomes very clingy to me and not wanting me to leave.  This night, I don't even think she realized I was still there.  

Tyler and Noah were excited to see their mom again, but sad to leave at the same time.  It really was such a wonderful week where the kids could all just play together and do some fun things that just aren't always possible in our situations.  There were many tears shed by both families as they drove away.  We will definitely have to spend a lot more time with this amazing family!