Where Does the Time Go?

Happy Birthday to my baby sister Debbie! The big 30! Congratulations! Hope you had a great day!

Time just does not seem to slow down! At least the weather has become nice and cool. It is so nice to be out in it. The mornings and evenings are even a little chilly. I love this time of year!

Just over 2 days until we leave for Florida for Bryce's Make-A-Wish trip! We are all so excited. If we can just survive through the week, we will all be ready for a vacation. Here are just a few of the highlights of this past week.

Last Thursday Bryce had a Neurology appointment. It was a great appointment. Dr. Narayanan is going to be getting in touch with us to set up a time to go to his office to sign the papers and do all the prep work to enter Bryce into a research study he and some others are doing. They will be taking some blood and then studying his entire DNA makeup. Although our part is easy, the process is very expensive and time consuming. He said that there are about 25 others who are currently in the study and that it takes about 6 months to run through each person. So, we may not know anything for a while, but if his issues are being caused by some mutation in his genetic makeup, we will finally know. It is nice that they are doing this research study, because that makes it free to us!

Saturday was the Fall Festival for Ben Franklin Charter School. John was asked to be the D.J., so although our boys no longer go to that school, we went along. The three older boys had a lot of fun, but Bryce and Annalise weren't happy for long. We had lunch and stayed for a while and then headed home to put the little ones down for late naps. I have a few pictures that I took and I will put those onto the blog soon.

Also, Saturday night my Mom arrived. She has been here this week to help watch the kids during all the appointments we have going on and to help me get everything ready for our trip. I am so glad that she is here. I don't know how I would be doing it all without her. John has been needing to work extra hours and has been a bit more stressed than normal with some things that are going on at work, so that has been tough as well.

Sunday was a wonderful day! Since Bryce had woken up early and was very cranky and fidgety, I took him out just after the Sacrament so that I could get him to sleep. While in the mother's lounge, a friend and fellow ward member, Audra Morley came in to feed her baby. We ended up talking for quite a while. Although we ended up missing most of the testimonies, we had a very inspiring conversation and I felt the spirit many times.

When I returned to Sunday School I found out that another wonderful friend, Layne Peterson, was taking care of Annalise for us so that John could teach his primary class. It is so nice to know such wonderful people. Relief Society was fantastic. It was a lesson on gratitude and it was a good one. I felt the spirit there as well and as I looked around that room, during the lesson, I realized again how thankful I am that we are in the ward that we are in now. It is full of amazing people!

After church, Bryce's wish granters came over to give us our itinerary and a few other things for our trip. I will also post a few pictures of this time in another post. MAW and Mindy and Jeff are unbelievable. Mindy and Jeff first gave Bryce a huge train set that they had seen and instantly thought of him. We will have to set it up soon. We will be leaving for Florida on Sunday, November 14th at 7 am. A van will come to get us and take us to the airport at 4 AM! That will be an early day! We will then return home on the following Saturday evening. We are all so excited for this trip!

Monday afternoon, I drove to Glendale for Bryce's pre-op appointment with Dr. Shrader. At the last minute, I decided to have my Mom and Annalise go with us, so I called a friend and arranged for her son to meet my older boys at the bus and babysit them until I got back. He did an incredible job! When I got home, the homework was done, the dinner was made, and the kids were happy and safe. I was very pleased!

At the appointment we learned that Bryce's left hip is still about the same (about 50% out of the socket), but that his right hip has gotten slightly worse. The surgery that Bryce will be having on November 24th, is to clip the tendons in his groin and calf area to help loosen the muscles and hopefully allow the ball to move into the socket and grow properly. Dr. Shrader is hopeful that it will work, although he believes that Bryce may still need another surgery when he is 5 or 6 to actually move the hips into place because they have gotten so bad. After the surgery we will be in the hospital for a couple of days and then Bryce will be in a Spica cast for about 6 weeks. He is not going to like that!

Tuesday morning I interviewed a girl for Respite. She seems wonderful and so once the company trains her, I will once again have some more respite time. That will be very nice.

Then Bryce had his physical therapy. Brenda spent the first part of the time working with Annalise. She said that as far as she can tell, her hips seem to be where they should be and one leg does not seem longer than the other (which is how it looks when she walks). She also noticed that Annalise does not always put her arms out to stop herself when she falls. This is probably why she has hit her poor little head and nose so many times lately. She showed me some things to work on with her during this time until we can figure out what is going on. We only have one more appointment with Brenda and I am really going to miss her. The Higley School district sure is lucky to get her!

Tuesday afternoon we had family pictures taken. They were taken by my friend Erin from Treasure Box photo studio. She is fantastic! It seems like getting family pictures taken is always a hassle and this time was no exception. During the pictures, Annalise would not get her fingers out of her mouth and kept getting angry because I would not put her down. The older boys would not stay were they were told to and kept poking each other. However, despite all that, the pictures that I have seen so far are amazing. I am excited to see all of them. She is also very reasonably priced. I highly recommend her! I know where we will be going for our photos next year!

Yesterday, Bryce had an appointment with the geneticist, therapy, and Annalise had her ENT appointment. I decided to cancel Bryce's appointment. We just have to much and since the neurologist is moving things along so well, I didn't think it was all that important to make another trip to Phoenix this week. Instead Mom and I packed some suitcases! Only 3 more days! Have I mentioned how excited I am for our trip!!!

Since today was a holiday, and the boys didn't have school, we spent the morning working on projects that are due while we are away. I want them to be able to turn them in tomorrow. Once they got all of their work done, we went out to lunch. Then a friend called and invited the three older boys over to play. Mom and I have almost finished the washing and packing. Tomorrow I will take her back to the airport =( and hopefully get the house cleaned up so that we can come home to a clean place. Mom will be missed! She has been a really great help this week. Luckily, she will be able to come back down after Bryce's surgery, so we will see her again soon.

Well, I guess this is long enough! If you have made it to the end...congratulations. Bryce and Annalise were both up a good part of the night last night, which meant I was as well. I am very sleepy tonight, so I am now off to bed! Good night all! 2 days and 5 hours until we leave for Disney!!!!