Baptism

On December 4th, Andrew was baptized. It was such a sweet day with our little man. He was a little nervous, but very excited. He listened so intently during the talks and was so aware of the choice he was making. We were so proud of him. After the baptism, he was eating his cake and he said - I feel really happy. I hope that he will always remember that. We were so glad that family came into town to be with us on this special day. My parents and Nathan and Mandy flew in from Texas and Taylor, Justina, Aiden and Eva drove in from Vegas. It was going to be a Stake Baptism, but the Sunday before we found out that Andrew would be the only one being baptized. So, we were able to plan it with family being involved. I really loved that it was so personal. Both his Grandmas gave talks and Taylor and I said prayers. Justina was going to, but she lost her voice right before. Our home teacher, Brother Pehrson led the music. My Dad and Taylor were the witnesses for the baptism. Jacob was so excited for his brother and kept talking about when he would be baptized. Andrew, Jacob, Aiden, Nathan, Mandy and the Bishop's daughter sang Baptism. It was so sweet to hear them.

Andrew

I am a bit behind in my posting! I want to update on some important things. Our Andrew turned 8 years old! I can't believe he has been here in our family for 8 years. He was born on Veteran's Day, so it is fun that he always gets his birthday off school. We went to the Children's Museum in Phoenix and had a great day. The boys really had a great time with all the exhibits and could have played all day. I made him a Lego cake and he loved all his birthday presents. On that Saturday we went to Gilbert and celebrated with Emily and Armando and the kids.

More pictures

Here are some closer pictures of his cast. It is heavy, but I have been able to pick him up a couple of times. We tried a wagon out and took him down to the lobby and tried the interactive wall. He is doing well and tomorrow we will try to wean him off the epidural at 6 am and possibly release him if we can get a handle on his pain orally.

Surgery

spica cast with blanket keeping him decent :) (he still has a catheter) brushing his teeth :)

this popsicle was the beginning of calmer times. I am so glad he has his bear

Finally settled in his room, armed with his bear and watching Winnie the Pooh

They gave him a medicine to help calm him before they took away - starting to get sleepy while Grandma blew some bubbles :)
Here he is pre-op. What a cute guy - He melts my heart, I am loving his half smile here. :)
Michael had his surgery today at UMC in Tucson. It went really well and Dr. Valencia was able to do both hips today. The second hip was scheduled to be done in two weeks and I am so glad that he was able to do both today. Hopefully, we can be done with surgeries for a while! They cut out a wedge of the femur on each leg and tipped the head of the femur into the hip socket. They put a steel plate and four screws in to hold it in place. Then they put him in a bilateral spica cast. They put in an epidural to help with the pain. This way they can numb him with a non narcotic medication and limit the amount of medicine they need to give him. They had to give two doses of morphine when he was waking up, because the epidural hadn't fully kicked in yet. Ironic that my youngest son was the first one in our family to have an epidural! But, it seems to be working very well and he has only had tylenol since he left the recovery room. They will try and wean it tomorrow and we will see how that goes. It is really hard to watch your child in pain. I am so proud of him. He is tolerating everything so well. He has sensory issues, so he hates the IV and the leads on chest and pulse/oxygen monitors on both his big toes. But he hasn't fought them as hard as I thought he would. I know we have a hard road ahead of us, but this bump (It is a really big bump) is done!

I picked the red cast for him because his brothers love red(I love you, Jacob and Andrew). They gave me the option of a couple colors, including bright pink. We are brainstorming coping strategies for the cast. The nurse and surgeon both suggested a red wagon loaded with pillows to get him around the house and other places. It isn't as bulky as a wheel chair. He will need the wheel chair for preschool, but I am not sure otherwise. Any ideas?

School!

All three of my babies are now in school, at least part of the day! It is incredible to me, I am not sure where the time went. But, when I look in the mirror my wrinkles also show proof that time, indeed has passed! :) Andrew started 2nd grade and Jacob started Kindergarten. They are both in a Spanish Immersion class half of the day. It seems to be going well. I don't know how much spanish they are picking up, but neither one of them are extremely frustrated. They warned us that that might happen. Andrew is not crazy about the increase in homework, but loves that they get two recesses. Jacob really likes school, but is way ahead of many of them. So we are on our second big 1st grade reading book at home. We read stories while the other kids are doing letter flash cards at home. I am thankful for the spanish, because that is something that is completely new to him.

Michael also started preschool! My baby! I think it is a really great thing for him, but hard for me to let him go. He is getting speech, OT and PT services there. He is in a small class, which is wonderful. I am happy with the teacher. She seems to work well with him. The bus (!) picks him up at 11:35 and then I pick him up at 2:45. The first two days of school I took him and he cried when I left. But, the bus has cured the separation fears. He is a bit intimidated, but loves the bus. He takes his teddy bear and hugs him for dear life and enjoys the short ride to school. Mr Dale picks him up and buckles him in and he is set to go.

I am sad that my boys are in school. But glad they are gaining knowledge and working hard.

I am volunteering in Andrew's and Jacob's classrooms at least once a week. We decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to go into Michael's. I am glad that I can be there and am so happy that they get excited when I come and they still want to be seen with me in public. :) I am so grateful that I am their Mama.

Michael's birthday

Our baby turned three years old on July 3rd. I can not believe he is three, but it feels like he has been part of our family for even longer. His birthday had a bit more meaning this year, because I had been so scared he might not make it when we were in the hospital. We love him so much and are so grateful to have him in our family.

I made him an elephant cake and we opened presents. I think he loved them. Then we went and spent the day with Emily at her place and ate delicious food, played on the slip n slide and enjoyed each other's company. Thanks Emily!

It has been so hot here that everything wants to have a drink all the time. If given the choice - which he normally is not :) - Michael will always choose Dr. Pepper. A little of his Daddy in him.

June

Jacob wearing his Daddy's pajamas

Helping pack up our van for a trip to the storage unit, before haircuts :)

We spent the beginning of June packing up most of our house. We got a storage unit and packed quite a bit of our things before we left for our big trip. My sweet, big sister Kathie got married and we made the trek to Texas for the big event. We decided to put Michael into a big boy carseat and were relieved to see he could sleep in it. Unfounately, not for as long as we would have liked. And, it was obviously not our first trip driving from Arizona to Texas, our van passed the 100,000 mile mark. I had to take a picture. :) We stayed in hotels and went swimming and finally made it to Houston. We had a fun time with a girls night out, a cousins party and the blessing for the newest Ricks baby.

Saturday, Kathie and Rob were married in the Houston, Texas temple. It was wonderful. The pictures after were not as wonderful, it was crazy hot. I hope they turn out, she was a beautiful bride. We went and had a delicious luncheon after. We didn't get very many pictures, just a few at the luncheon. Everyone had their cameras and the professional photographer, so we will have to borrow some of those.

We had such a fun time playing at Grandma and Grandpa Ball's house. The boys loved playing with Nathan and Mandy. We went to Galveston for a day and had a great time in the sand and water, despite Andrew finding the lone jelly fish washed up on the beach and getting stung. We went and had a fun lunch with Alexa and her family. We wrapped up our trip by heading up to San Antonio with Shelly, Jason and all of their girls, even Bella and went to a special park that celebrates people with special needs. We really had a wonderful time there. Thank you Turpins for sharing that with us. We stayed at the same hotel and even had birthday cake for our three recent birthdays: Joy, Jeremy and Michael. The next day was Jeremy's 34th birthday, too bad we were stuck driving, but Happy Birthday!

We finally got back to Tucson and tried to finish up our packing. We got everything ready for one last day of packing up and went out to dinner and rented a movie for our last night in Tucson. Unfournately, it ended up we spent an additional night in Tucson, in Tucson Medical Center. I woke up to find Michael having a seizure, we didn't know that was what was happening, and ended up in the hospital. He didn't come out of it until they gave him medicine in the ER. They did several tests and didn't find anything. So, after discussion, they gave us an emergency medicine for if he has another seizure. Lynne and Emily came down and saved us. We couldn't have handled it all without them. We also had to get everything out of our house while this was all happening. It all worked out though. Jeremy and Emily packed all our big things up in a u-haul and put it in the storage unit and we all managed to finish the cleaning after they released Michael on Wednesday. We turned in our keys at 4:48 on the 30th and headed up to Phoenix. Thanks Lynne for letting us come. What a crazy way to end the month.