I wanted to share some sweet experiences that I've had with Siobhan the last two mornings. But it actually all started on Sunday during conference. General Conference was particularly personal for me this year. I don't remember a conference teaching me so much. I felt like prayers were answered for me that I hadn't even put before the Lord yet. It was s testament to me of the tender mercies of the Lord and how mindful He is of our needs.
Like all parents, we have struggles with our kids and they each offer their own set of challenges to our family dynamic. Siobhan, in particular, is having trouble with boundaries and understanding right from wrong. This is a very important concept that we want her learn as this is the year that she is getting baptized. In thinking about her baptism, there's so much that I want her know and teach her. I've come up with different schemes to teach her those lessons but nothing seemed like the right plan. Then I got my answer during the Sunday afternoon session of conference while Siobhan was sleeping on Carson's shoulder.
During a talk given by Elder Enrique R Falabella. He was talking about home and family and he shared a story about his granddaughter who had recently learned to read. He suggested that she make a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon. Of course, being so young, she was very daunted by the task. Then he timed her. It only took her 3 minutes to read one page in the Spanish Book of Mormon. They came up with a plan and figured out how long it would take her to finish the entire book. And lets nor forget that it's a long book for an adult to read, let alone a child. Well, she finished the book and grew to love it.
So I thought to myself, Siobhan is a really strong reader and absorbs any book that is put in front of her. I realized that i had a received an answer to my question. If I want Siobhan to gain a testimony of the gospel, I first need to have her gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.It is the cornerstone of our faith and by learning from it, she will learn of The Savior and the restoration of the gospel. Is there any better way for her to learn those important lessons? I don't think so. When missionaries are teaching new converts, they first ask them to read the Book of Mormon, so how is it different with a child whom we are trying to teach the gospel to and bring them unto Christ?
We talked it over with Siobhan, and we decided, (Carson, Me and Siobhan) that challenging her to read the entire Book of Mormon before her baptism (Nov. 30th, 2013) was a reasonable goal. We figured that she only needs to read about 3 pages a day. When you think of it in those terms, it seems totally doable!
We started yesterday and her and I have had two of the best mornings that I can remember. That's one of the issues that we've been dealing with-she hates getting up for school and it just seems to lead to a lot of contention and frustration. But yesterday and today have been the complete opposite. I've adjusted my time frame so that I wake up earlier to get her going so nobody is rushed. She gets dressed, comes up stairs and eats her breakfast. That leaves plenty of time for her to read. So far, she has read the first two chapters of 1st Nephi. We've had a great time discussing what the tender mercies of the Lord are, talking about the knuckleheads that are Laman and Lemuel and we are blessed and prosper when we are faithful and obedient.
I can already feel her little testimony beginning to grow. We've talked about how she can liken the scriptures to her own life and find peace and comfort reading the words of the prophets. There is a sweet spirit that has filled our home these last two mornings and I'm so grateful to Lord for giving me this inspirationI know it's only been two days and we have a long way to go, but we all are committed. Even Audrey has enjoyed hearing it when she comes up while Siobhan is reading. I know that this will bless her life and also our entire family. I will continue to blog our experiences and progress!
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Joint Injections Part Deux
Today Siobhan and I headed up to Primary Children's Medical Center for her joint injection. I hate this part. Carson was supposed to come up with us but he spiked a fever last night and it was still hanging on this morning, so this being flu season, we thought it was better for everyone involved if he stayed home with the kiddos. So it was just mommy and Siobhan for a little girl time. We had to leave really early in the morning because she was the first one on the schedule. As early of a morning as it was, it worked out for the best and I think that i want to it that early every time. Because she had to go completely under, Siobhan wasn't allowed to have anything to eat after midnight and nothing to drink after 6 am. So getting it all over with early was nice so Siobhan could eat while it was still breakfast time.
After getting all checked in, they took us back to pre-op were all of Siobhan's vitals were taken and she was declared to be in good health. That was relief since Siobhan spent almost all of last week really sick (she missed four days of school!). We also met with the childlife specialist who walked Siobhan through the whole process and let her pick a flavor for the anesthesia. I was just reading my last post about that (you can read it here). Last time, Siobhan loved every flavor last time and couldn't decided. This time around, with all of the same flavors at her disposal, she only liked three of them! Strawberry, watermelon and one that I can't remember. For the record, they have yet to take our suggestion from last time to add a bacon flavor! They also had a ipad for her play Angry Birds on while she waited. It was awesome!
They even held the ipad up for her to play on while she was falling asleep!
She looks so much bigger than last time!
Fast asleep!
Dr. I was very happy with how everything went! Side bar, we love Dr. I, she's awesome! Siobhan had a harder time coming out the anesthesia than last time. She was very dizzy and it took a while to get over that.
When she's older, she's going to be really mad at me for posting some of these pictures. Oh well. She was also very excited to have a bag of cheetos when all was said and done. I don't let cheetos in the house because I hate them with passion that very people will understand. So it was a big treat along with her own can of root beer and a root beer slurpee.
All in all, I think the injection was successful. We'll know more over the course of the next few weeks if they actually did what they need to do. Fingers crossed that we've bought ourselves of few months of no meds and no worries!
Joint injections part 2-January 2013
P.S. She's my hero!
After getting all checked in, they took us back to pre-op were all of Siobhan's vitals were taken and she was declared to be in good health. That was relief since Siobhan spent almost all of last week really sick (she missed four days of school!). We also met with the childlife specialist who walked Siobhan through the whole process and let her pick a flavor for the anesthesia. I was just reading my last post about that (you can read it here). Last time, Siobhan loved every flavor last time and couldn't decided. This time around, with all of the same flavors at her disposal, she only liked three of them! Strawberry, watermelon and one that I can't remember. For the record, they have yet to take our suggestion from last time to add a bacon flavor! They also had a ipad for her play Angry Birds on while she waited. It was awesome!
They even held the ipad up for her to play on while she was falling asleep!
Dr. I was very happy with how everything went! Side bar, we love Dr. I, she's awesome! Siobhan had a harder time coming out the anesthesia than last time. She was very dizzy and it took a while to get over that.
Joint injections part 1 August 2011
I don't know if you can really tell, but this girl has grown up a lot in the last year and a half!
Friday, January 4, 2013
JIA Update
Last we checked in with Siobhan and her friend JIA, she was in remission with medication. Back in August, the methotrexate, that she gets by shot, was causing come damage to her liver so the Doctor had us take her off the meds completely!! That was happy! So we began life with no medication at all and just managing her Arthritis with a gluten free diet and lots of positive vibes.
Siobhan had her regular check up with Dr. Inman on November 15 and was declared in full clinical remission with no meds! That's huge and exciting!
Then her birthday and Thanksgiving hit. I don't know if it's related or not, but we let her have regular gluten filled cake for her birthday and a Thanksgiving dinner that was bursting with gluten (gasp!! Mother of the year!). The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Siobhan came up in the morning with a very swollen, painful and stiff right knee. :( Such a bummer!!! Back on meds. Not the methotraxate but a daily anti-inflammatory called meloxicam. Through discussion with her pediatrician (who Siobhan coincidentally had a well check with) and emails with D. Inman the decision was made to go for several weeks on the meloxicam and see where that got us.
By Monday of this week there was no improvement! So six weeks of pain, stiffness and swelling....great. So we got into see Dr. Inman yesterday and we were told that we basically had two options. 1) back on weekly methotrexate injections which could possibly not work (at least not very quickley) and damage her liver again. And by the way, do you like getting shots once a week??? 2) Go for the big time and do the joint injection which she's had once before in August 2011. You can read about it here and here. Through discussion with the Dr. and Siobhan, we decided to go with option 2. It's a more drastic option but I don't want to spend months and months giving her shots every week and then end up doing the injection anyway-who wants that?? So on Monday Jan 14th, we will head up Primary Children's Hospital for another round of injections in her right knee.
Oddly enough, her right knee has never been the one we were worried about. Her left knee was the one that first clued us into the fact that something might be wrong back in 2011 and by all accounts, her right knee was never as bad as the left. She didn't even need the injection in her right knee the first time around. That's all changed now. Oh well. Siobhan is very happy though that she gets to take two days off of school and that she'll be asleep through the whole thing. The little things, right?
Siobhan had her regular check up with Dr. Inman on November 15 and was declared in full clinical remission with no meds! That's huge and exciting!
Then her birthday and Thanksgiving hit. I don't know if it's related or not, but we let her have regular gluten filled cake for her birthday and a Thanksgiving dinner that was bursting with gluten (gasp!! Mother of the year!). The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Siobhan came up in the morning with a very swollen, painful and stiff right knee. :( Such a bummer!!! Back on meds. Not the methotraxate but a daily anti-inflammatory called meloxicam. Through discussion with her pediatrician (who Siobhan coincidentally had a well check with) and emails with D. Inman the decision was made to go for several weeks on the meloxicam and see where that got us.
By Monday of this week there was no improvement! So six weeks of pain, stiffness and swelling....great. So we got into see Dr. Inman yesterday and we were told that we basically had two options. 1) back on weekly methotrexate injections which could possibly not work (at least not very quickley) and damage her liver again. And by the way, do you like getting shots once a week??? 2) Go for the big time and do the joint injection which she's had once before in August 2011. You can read about it here and here. Through discussion with the Dr. and Siobhan, we decided to go with option 2. It's a more drastic option but I don't want to spend months and months giving her shots every week and then end up doing the injection anyway-who wants that?? So on Monday Jan 14th, we will head up Primary Children's Hospital for another round of injections in her right knee.
Oddly enough, her right knee has never been the one we were worried about. Her left knee was the one that first clued us into the fact that something might be wrong back in 2011 and by all accounts, her right knee was never as bad as the left. She didn't even need the injection in her right knee the first time around. That's all changed now. Oh well. Siobhan is very happy though that she gets to take two days off of school and that she'll be asleep through the whole thing. The little things, right?
Sunday, December 30, 2012
2012 In Review
2012 was mostly awesome. Of course, there were aspects of 2012 that I could have done without as usual, but for the most part, I can't think of any really clear, glaring awfulness in 2012...so....score! I don't think that I really have the time to update month by month in separate posts, so I'll give a blurb for each month. Here goes...
January: We went to Vegas for New Years as a family and to have an early celebration for our anniversary. It seems so long ago. Well, I guess that was a year ago so it would make sense that it seems like a while ago.
February: Mr. Will started pre-school through the school district when he turned 3. It's awesome for him! The program is mostly for kids who have communication/cognitive issues but there are some kids who function developmentally normally as well. He's in class for his speech issues but it seems that there are some behavioral issues as well that they are helping him with. So come next week, he's going to start going four days a week. He loves riding the bus everyday that he goes to school!
March: We had a super fun St. Patrick's Day party with kids in the neighborhood and ward. Not much else to report other than that.
April: DC was a blast and I'm actually going to do more posts about it in the coming days.
May: It was Arthritis Walk time! Siobhan and I were on the planning committee and we had a great time being involved again! I also got started on a project that is actually taking longer than planned but that's not all my fault. People move away and that makes it hard. Anyway, I have organized a parent/peer network for families whose children have Juvenile Arthritis.
June: The kids and I took a great trip down to Arizona to visit Molly, Meredith and their families. We had a great time but I think that that warrants it's own post as well!
July: Again, this will get it's own post...we had a great time going to on a small family reunion with Carson's side of the family. We went up to Flaming Gorge and had a great time rafting on the river and hanging out with family!
August: I had the great opportunity to go to Las Vegas with the Arthritis Foundation to get instruction on how to plan events and raise awareness and funds. It was a awesome and it more than prepared me to plan the 2012 Jingle Bell Run/Walk. I'll do a post about my trip. It will be short.
September: School started!!! Audrey started afternoon Kindergarten, Siobhan started 1st grade and Mr. Will went back to preschool. They all love it and they are all excelling in their classes!
October: No kidney stone! If you didn't hear about the epic kidney stone battle of '11, then that probably doesn't mean anything to you, but that's okay. Just know that that was a big deal! We also had a fabulous Halloween! Siobhan was a cat, Audrey was Merida, Mr. Will was Thomas, Ethan was a lion, I was Rosie the Riveter, and Carson was a Jazz super fan. Fun times.
November: Thanksgiving happened. Siobhan turned 7!!! We had a fun birthday party at Chick fil A and instead of her friends bringing presents for Siobhan, we asked them to bring donations for Primary Children's Hospital. Everyone was so generous!!
December: Jingle Bell Run (Holy Moly-I will post about that in detail later), I had a birthday, Carson was called as Elder's Quorum President and Christmas! It was awesome! I love Christmas!
One of my New Year's Resolutions, in addition to losing weight and cooking more, is to blog more. So I'm going to blog at least once a week, hopefully twice. I would like to do something from 2012 and then something current. Sound good? I think that sounds like a good plan!
January: We went to Vegas for New Years as a family and to have an early celebration for our anniversary. It seems so long ago. Well, I guess that was a year ago so it would make sense that it seems like a while ago.
February: Mr. Will started pre-school through the school district when he turned 3. It's awesome for him! The program is mostly for kids who have communication/cognitive issues but there are some kids who function developmentally normally as well. He's in class for his speech issues but it seems that there are some behavioral issues as well that they are helping him with. So come next week, he's going to start going four days a week. He loves riding the bus everyday that he goes to school!
March: We had a super fun St. Patrick's Day party with kids in the neighborhood and ward. Not much else to report other than that.
April: DC was a blast and I'm actually going to do more posts about it in the coming days.
May: It was Arthritis Walk time! Siobhan and I were on the planning committee and we had a great time being involved again! I also got started on a project that is actually taking longer than planned but that's not all my fault. People move away and that makes it hard. Anyway, I have organized a parent/peer network for families whose children have Juvenile Arthritis.
June: The kids and I took a great trip down to Arizona to visit Molly, Meredith and their families. We had a great time but I think that that warrants it's own post as well!
July: Again, this will get it's own post...we had a great time going to on a small family reunion with Carson's side of the family. We went up to Flaming Gorge and had a great time rafting on the river and hanging out with family!
August: I had the great opportunity to go to Las Vegas with the Arthritis Foundation to get instruction on how to plan events and raise awareness and funds. It was a awesome and it more than prepared me to plan the 2012 Jingle Bell Run/Walk. I'll do a post about my trip. It will be short.
September: School started!!! Audrey started afternoon Kindergarten, Siobhan started 1st grade and Mr. Will went back to preschool. They all love it and they are all excelling in their classes!
October: No kidney stone! If you didn't hear about the epic kidney stone battle of '11, then that probably doesn't mean anything to you, but that's okay. Just know that that was a big deal! We also had a fabulous Halloween! Siobhan was a cat, Audrey was Merida, Mr. Will was Thomas, Ethan was a lion, I was Rosie the Riveter, and Carson was a Jazz super fan. Fun times.
November: Thanksgiving happened. Siobhan turned 7!!! We had a fun birthday party at Chick fil A and instead of her friends bringing presents for Siobhan, we asked them to bring donations for Primary Children's Hospital. Everyone was so generous!!
December: Jingle Bell Run (Holy Moly-I will post about that in detail later), I had a birthday, Carson was called as Elder's Quorum President and Christmas! It was awesome! I love Christmas!
One of my New Year's Resolutions, in addition to losing weight and cooking more, is to blog more. So I'm going to blog at least once a week, hopefully twice. I would like to do something from 2012 and then something current. Sound good? I think that sounds like a good plan!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
I Know Right???
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Heading to Washington DC!!
Last Saturday Morning (April 14th, 1 am) Siobhan and I headed out to the big city! Washington DC that is! :) Siobhan and I-well mostly Siobhan-were chosen to represent Utah at the Arthritis Advocacy Summit. While there, were tasked with talking with Congressmen and Senators about various legislation that is relevant to Arthritis Patients. I'll get more into that later. But for now here is the first part of the trip!
This is Siobhan and I on the airplane leaving SLC. Our flight left at 1 am and headed for Atlanta for out lay over. Siobhan decided that she was going to be brave and not be scared when the plane took off. Also, the tooth fairy payed us a visit while we were on the plane! Siobhan lost a tooth on Friday afternoon so the tooth fairy had to come while we were flying! It was great incentive to get Siobhan to sleep. Right before we took off, I was so tired, so I told Siobhan, 'I don't care what you do as long as you're quiet and stay in you seat, but I'm going to sleep. Before I knew it, she was sleep on my shoulder!
After our layover in Atlanta, which was not very long, we hopped on the plane for the final leg of the journey. She was so excited to have a window seat! And boy was this girl tired! After sleeping for two hours before we took off for the first flight, sleeping through the entire first flight, I wasn't sure she was going to sleep on this flight. But boy, that girl was sleep with her head in my lap before we even took off!
Once we got into Reagan, we were HUNGRY! Good thing there was a McDonalds right at our gate! so we stopped for a quick breakfast before we got our baggage. You can tell from the picture that Siobhan was very excited! I hear that Uncle Joe gets a similar look on his face when he gets his McDonalds breakfast! LOL!
We were worried that since we got in so early, like 9 am, there would be no rooms ready at our hotel. So we planned that we would check the suitcase with the bell hop and go do some sight seeing. But we were lucky because our room was ready to go as soon as we got there! So we got all checked in and changed clothes and headed out get me a swimsuit. I found the nearest Target but we walked for an hour before we found it. My navigation skills are completely lost outside of Utah.
We finally made our way to a mall in Pentagon City and found me a swimsuit. We made our way back to Arlington for some fun in the pool. After an afternoon of swimming, we decided to head down town to DC for some dinner. We hopped on the metro train and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe. After some walking around, attempting to navigate the city, a small brush with the white house and making our way through the crowd at the Cherry Festival, we finally found the HRC! And there was a 45 minute wait. So we put our name in and went to go buy some souvenirs. Got into dinner where Siobhan promptly fell asleep! Who falls asleep at the Hard Rock! Such a cutie!!! On the train ride home, we both fell asleep. Thank goodness we (I) woke up before our stop! The great part was that our stop was right under our hotel! How cool is that? The subway system in DC is awesome! Needless to say, we were exhausted when we got into bed! The next day we planned our sight seeing adventures....
After our layover in Atlanta, which was not very long, we hopped on the plane for the final leg of the journey. She was so excited to have a window seat! And boy was this girl tired! After sleeping for two hours before we took off for the first flight, sleeping through the entire first flight, I wasn't sure she was going to sleep on this flight. But boy, that girl was sleep with her head in my lap before we even took off!
Once we got into Reagan, we were HUNGRY! Good thing there was a McDonalds right at our gate! so we stopped for a quick breakfast before we got our baggage. You can tell from the picture that Siobhan was very excited! I hear that Uncle Joe gets a similar look on his face when he gets his McDonalds breakfast! LOL!
We were worried that since we got in so early, like 9 am, there would be no rooms ready at our hotel. So we planned that we would check the suitcase with the bell hop and go do some sight seeing. But we were lucky because our room was ready to go as soon as we got there! So we got all checked in and changed clothes and headed out get me a swimsuit. I found the nearest Target but we walked for an hour before we found it. My navigation skills are completely lost outside of Utah.
We finally made our way to a mall in Pentagon City and found me a swimsuit. We made our way back to Arlington for some fun in the pool. After an afternoon of swimming, we decided to head down town to DC for some dinner. We hopped on the metro train and headed to the Hard Rock Cafe. After some walking around, attempting to navigate the city, a small brush with the white house and making our way through the crowd at the Cherry Festival, we finally found the HRC! And there was a 45 minute wait. So we put our name in and went to go buy some souvenirs. Got into dinner where Siobhan promptly fell asleep! Who falls asleep at the Hard Rock! Such a cutie!!! On the train ride home, we both fell asleep. Thank goodness we (I) woke up before our stop! The great part was that our stop was right under our hotel! How cool is that? The subway system in DC is awesome! Needless to say, we were exhausted when we got into bed! The next day we planned our sight seeing adventures....
To Be Continued!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Yeah, It's Been a While
Hey, remember how I have a blog? Remember how I used to update it fairly regularly? Yeah, me too. So I'm back, but I'm not going to promise the [blogging] world. Things are busy and facebook tends to be fast, but kind of more a time suck when you add it all together. I don't know, I'm torn and apparently in a stream of consciousnesses kind of mood....moving on.
Thought you all might enjoy an update of what's been going on. One child is off to school and the other three are still asleep, so I'm going to listen to vicious wind outside and ruminate and reminisce.
So we've been up to a lot of things. I'll start in December...
Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis....We had so much fun at this event! I am continually impressed with all the wonderful work that the Arthritis Foundation does in this community and the events that they put on are amazing! Siobhan was the youth honoree for the event and she did a great job! She gave a speech that was very articulate and moving. Video will come soon-it's on Carson's phone. We had a misshap of illness though. Right after the kid's run, she had a spell of violent throwing up! So sad on her special day! But she was a trooper. We had a great time that day-vomiting aside!
Festival of Trees....Audrey and I both performed in the Festival of Trees with our Irish Dance school. We had a blast! As a result of her adorable performance, Audrey was even picked to dance on a kid's DVD which should be out in the next few months.
Christmas happened and so did my birthday-the Christmas post at least will be at another time when I can post all the pics and videos. Christmas really should be it's own post anyway, not thrown into the mix of a run of the mill update post, don't you think?
Jr. Jazz....Siobhan played basketball this winter. She had a great time and no problems with the JIA! She was the only girl on her team, but totally held her own! She was also the tallest. Favorite memory of the season, after a girl on the other team stole the ball from her, she came over to me on the verge of tears because someone 'just took the ball' away. I told her to steal it right back. She did!
Preschool for Mr. Will....Mr. Will started speech therapy back in November. He has been very delayed in the his speech and vocabulary and after a lot of testing we found out that he has concentration/attention issues and memory problems as well. So we started having a speech therapist come into our house twice a month to work with him. Now that he's three, he ages into the school districts preschool program. He goes to a 'special needs' preschool two mornings a week and he loves it! He gets to ride the bus which is the high light of his day! Oh, and he's improving so much with his speech! It seems like everyday he has new words that he can say. We are so happy! I plan another post about this very soon!
Standing Man...So Ethan can stand against anything and it's so cute! He's starting to cruise too which is so fun to watch! He still won't crawl on his knees though. The other day I put him down on the floor of the living room to play and went into the kitchen. About two minutes later, i couldn't hear him. Yeah, he was upstairs. So I put him back in the living room with more toys and turned my back. Two minutes later, he was upstairs again! Fast little guy!
Carson's Amazing!....Carson has been working out a lot over the last year and has lost 40 pounds! His BMI is down to 16.9!!!! I'm so proud of him! He's been working hard! He's also kept busy with his responsibilities in the Elder's Quorum presidency.
Vegas...We took a short trip to Las Vegas on New Years Day and stayed overnight at the Excalibur. The girls loved being able to stay in the Castle! It was nice to get away and do something fun as a family! Carson's mom met us there and stayed with the kids so we could go out. It was a very quick trip but lots of fun!!!
I'm doing some fun work with the Arthritis Foundation which is keeping me busy. I'm helping to organize the upcoming walk in May and Siobhan is helping also. We are planning on attending the Foundation's gala in a few weeks where Siobhan will present an honoree with the platter that she made. We're super excited for that! Siobhan and I were also chosen to attend to Arthritis Foundation's Advocacy Summit in Washington DC in mid April and we are really looking forward to that! Well, I'm looking forward to that, Siobhan doesn't know. We're surprising her at school on Weds at their weekly assembly!
Soccer....Siobhan just had her first soccer game on Saturday and scored 2 goals! But then she got wicked hurt and couldn't play the rest of the game. It's all good though. She's excited to keep playing!
St. Patrick's Day....Me and Audrey both marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade down town and performed in the Siamsa. It was so fun! We also had a super fun party the night before with all the kids friends! It was so much fun!!!
So there you have it, a comprehensive update of what's going on in our family. I hope you enjoyed the read and lack of pictures. I have a reason for that. I got a new phone for my birthday and the camera on my phone is better than our digital camera so I use the phone for all of my picture taking needs. I just don't know how to get them from the phone to the computer. I know there are ways like emailing them to myself and then copying and pasting them into my picture library. But that's a lot of steps and I'm kind of lazy. I need to find an easier way. Love ya'll!
Thought you all might enjoy an update of what's been going on. One child is off to school and the other three are still asleep, so I'm going to listen to vicious wind outside and ruminate and reminisce.
So we've been up to a lot of things. I'll start in December...
Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis....We had so much fun at this event! I am continually impressed with all the wonderful work that the Arthritis Foundation does in this community and the events that they put on are amazing! Siobhan was the youth honoree for the event and she did a great job! She gave a speech that was very articulate and moving. Video will come soon-it's on Carson's phone. We had a misshap of illness though. Right after the kid's run, she had a spell of violent throwing up! So sad on her special day! But she was a trooper. We had a great time that day-vomiting aside!
Festival of Trees....Audrey and I both performed in the Festival of Trees with our Irish Dance school. We had a blast! As a result of her adorable performance, Audrey was even picked to dance on a kid's DVD which should be out in the next few months.
Christmas happened and so did my birthday-the Christmas post at least will be at another time when I can post all the pics and videos. Christmas really should be it's own post anyway, not thrown into the mix of a run of the mill update post, don't you think?
Jr. Jazz....Siobhan played basketball this winter. She had a great time and no problems with the JIA! She was the only girl on her team, but totally held her own! She was also the tallest. Favorite memory of the season, after a girl on the other team stole the ball from her, she came over to me on the verge of tears because someone 'just took the ball' away. I told her to steal it right back. She did!
Preschool for Mr. Will....Mr. Will started speech therapy back in November. He has been very delayed in the his speech and vocabulary and after a lot of testing we found out that he has concentration/attention issues and memory problems as well. So we started having a speech therapist come into our house twice a month to work with him. Now that he's three, he ages into the school districts preschool program. He goes to a 'special needs' preschool two mornings a week and he loves it! He gets to ride the bus which is the high light of his day! Oh, and he's improving so much with his speech! It seems like everyday he has new words that he can say. We are so happy! I plan another post about this very soon!
Standing Man...So Ethan can stand against anything and it's so cute! He's starting to cruise too which is so fun to watch! He still won't crawl on his knees though. The other day I put him down on the floor of the living room to play and went into the kitchen. About two minutes later, i couldn't hear him. Yeah, he was upstairs. So I put him back in the living room with more toys and turned my back. Two minutes later, he was upstairs again! Fast little guy!
Carson's Amazing!....Carson has been working out a lot over the last year and has lost 40 pounds! His BMI is down to 16.9!!!! I'm so proud of him! He's been working hard! He's also kept busy with his responsibilities in the Elder's Quorum presidency.
Vegas...We took a short trip to Las Vegas on New Years Day and stayed overnight at the Excalibur. The girls loved being able to stay in the Castle! It was nice to get away and do something fun as a family! Carson's mom met us there and stayed with the kids so we could go out. It was a very quick trip but lots of fun!!!
I'm doing some fun work with the Arthritis Foundation which is keeping me busy. I'm helping to organize the upcoming walk in May and Siobhan is helping also. We are planning on attending the Foundation's gala in a few weeks where Siobhan will present an honoree with the platter that she made. We're super excited for that! Siobhan and I were also chosen to attend to Arthritis Foundation's Advocacy Summit in Washington DC in mid April and we are really looking forward to that! Well, I'm looking forward to that, Siobhan doesn't know. We're surprising her at school on Weds at their weekly assembly!
Soccer....Siobhan just had her first soccer game on Saturday and scored 2 goals! But then she got wicked hurt and couldn't play the rest of the game. It's all good though. She's excited to keep playing!
St. Patrick's Day....Me and Audrey both marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade down town and performed in the Siamsa. It was so fun! We also had a super fun party the night before with all the kids friends! It was so much fun!!!
So there you have it, a comprehensive update of what's going on in our family. I hope you enjoyed the read and lack of pictures. I have a reason for that. I got a new phone for my birthday and the camera on my phone is better than our digital camera so I use the phone for all of my picture taking needs. I just don't know how to get them from the phone to the computer. I know there are ways like emailing them to myself and then copying and pasting them into my picture library. But that's a lot of steps and I'm kind of lazy. I need to find an easier way. Love ya'll!
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