Trip to Greer

Over the summer we went to Greer with my family. We all (Will and I and our kids) stayed in a big cabin with Tricia, Scotty and their kids; Tiffany, Jon and their kids; and Ryan and a girlfriend, Cynthia. My dad, Joann, Gami and Papa, and Michelle (my step sister) and her boyfriend, Kualana, and her friend, Mary, all stayed in a different cabin. This is imperitive information, by the way. Mostly everyone just fished- the streams, the lakes, the ponds, the rivers, you get the picture. I actually didn't fish at all, although I don't mind fishing, I just like to fish when you can catch something every few minutes. They only caught a few in all those days and nothing to be impressed about. Will was so good and helped our kids fish as much as they wanted. We ate good food and the weather was absolutely beautiful- we enjoyed lots of rain. One night Gami and I put together a puzzle and Jon and Tricia joined us towards the end, that was my favorite part of the entire trip. It just wasn't my thing, I guess. I really loved spending the time with my grandparents and my kids' great grandparents, Gami and Papa. If things turned out differently I may have more to say about the trip. Enjoy the pictures.


Carlee and Cade on the swing.

Wild Tanner!

Cade got his warm clothes on so he could go play outside but it was raining, so he played catch inside.

This is Gami holding Cloee and the following picture is the same but with Papa.


Hannah, Cade, Carlee and Ryan's dog Chimay(what's that dog doing?).

Cloee is napping on Grandpa.

Love this pic. Tanner and Connor are terrorizing a squirrel. I am off to the left nursing Cloee while in the swing. Tricia is messing with her camera. Carlee is walking the dog as Hannah watches. And others are in the background doing whatever they are doing. This photo catches a lot though.

Daddy can you teach us to repel? And let's swing while we're at it!

I walked downstairs and I immediately asked myself: Is that my husband swinging my child on my Moby Wrap? Holy Cow! He tried to get out of trouble by telling me he was teaching them how to repel. Before I could even freak out I had to think that I am so grateful for the wonderful guy I married. He truly believes he never needs to grow up and that life is just for having fun. I am actually thankful for that trait in him (most of the time). He can be serious on occasion and is quite responsible when it comes to providing for our family but he sure makes us laugh, on a daily basis, and loves to have fun with us- even if a bit dangerous and crazy! Take a look at the pics.

Another Glorious Miracle

Cloee's birth and survival will always be a miracle to us. But we have experienced another miracle in our family recently. When I was in the hospital we found out that my sister, Cassidy (11 years old at the time), had a very fast growing tumor in the base of her skull. Picture a gob of chewing gum wrapped around a handful of your hair. What do you do? Well, you would most likely have to cut the hair to get the gum out. That's what they did. They cut the tumor out and also everything it was surrounding, the most important being a nerve that controlled one complete side of her face. The tumor basically strangled the nerve so that her lip was unable to smile or frown, her nostril wouldn't move, her cheek didn't pull up, her eyebrow did not raise and her eye would not close tightly. The tumor could not take away Cassidy's cute laugh or her strong spirit. This is kind of confusing read it slowly and try to picture it- the doctor was able to remove the middle of the nerve (picture a long cooked spaghetti noodle where you cut off the ends and remove the middle part) and then he took another nerve from her neck and put it in the middle between the two cut ends. The hopes were that the new piece and the ends would eventually grow together. Nerve grafting is apparently a very new thing and is not considered 100%. This has been a huge tragedy to my mom, myself and my sisters. Luckily Cassidy hasn't let this get her down. Cassidy's face kind of looks like the 'working' side sags but really it's just that the 'paralyzed' side doesn't move at all so any movement on the other side looks funny(that's not the best word but I can't think of what it looks like, it just doesn't look right). We have all been worried that she would get made fun of or people would think mean or bad things about her. She just started a new junior high and had to make all new friends and she didn't give a crap about her face looking funny. She is such a strong person. She is so different than I was as a junior high student. She doesn't care what anyone thinks about her! This challenge was easy for her to overcome, but would have killed me at that age. I would have gone in a closet and hid for the rest of my life. Her biggest fear, other than the doctor messing up and messing with her brain, was what her hair was gonna look like when it was shaved. Luckily they shaved it to where the other hair would mostly lay on top of the shaved part and no one would ever know. This past March when she returned to school after she had the surgery (she had gone to school with most of the kids since kindergarten) everyone wanted to see her "Britney hair". It was cute.
So here's the miracle to this all... last week Cassidy could feel her lip move up on that side. She showed me when I saw her last weekend and my heart about leaped out of my chest. It worked! It worked! It worked! The surgery worked and the nerves are growing together. Eventually the nerve will be like one long spaghetti noodle, without any sign of them every being severed. We have been praying for this time to come. And it has. And it is Glorious!

Doctor Appointment

All three kids had an appointment with Dr. Campbell today.
Carlee had her 8 year check up and is in the 100% for weight and 75% for height. The dr says as long as she is active and has good eating habits then she should be fine and will grow out of this stage. I guess she means that she will thin out eventually. At the doctor's suggestion she got a flu shot. She hesitated getting on the table but finally got up and then laughed as soon as it was done. She really is a toughy. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up and she knows she needs to be tough to have that job!
Cade has his 5 year check up a month or two ago and had to get 4 shots! He now HATES shots. If I remember correctly he was 70% for weight and 45% height. Today he had his hearing and vision screening. (He was supposed to get that done when he was there before but was too distraught from all the shots so we re-scheduled the screenings for today.) His vision turned up fine but he didn't pass the hearing test. He had one constant ear infection from the time he was 4 months old until he got tubes put it at 8 and 1/2 months. Even after the tubes he continued to get ear infections but with the tubes the pressure wouldn't build and the ears could drain. So if he does have some hearing damage I would not be at all surprised. They apparently had some issues with their hearing machine and just got it back from the fix-it shop but don't know if it is really fixed or not. Dr. Campbell referred him to an audiologist for a more intense screening. We pray all is well. Cade also received a flu vaccine. He was the last to go and cried the whole time- even before the girl was ready to give it. He just sat on the table and hugged me and cried and told us all that he hates shots "more than anything because they are too pointy". He is not my tough child- he must take after me.
Cloee checked out good. She is 10% for length and is finally on the charts for weight at about the 5th percentile- yahoo! She had to get 2 shots, one being the flu vaccine. She cried when the first one went in and when the 2nd one went in but as soon as I picked her up she smiled at me and was fine. SHE is my tough child! She seems to be doing really well. I updated the doc on her physical therapy and speech therapy. We talked about the things that she is still not able to do and what I am doing to help her learn to do them. Dr. Campbell noticed she still has a very hard time breathing and that is just something she will have to grow out of. Could take until she is 6 or 8 years old- yikes!!! Poor baby. Oh, her ear looked fine so I guess the antibiotics cleared up that infection. She will begin the Synagis vaccine (for RSV) again once the first case of RSV shows up in the valley and will get that once a month until the end of the season. She will not be seen again for 3 months- that's the longest time between appoinments and I am so excited not to have to drive into Phoenix again for a while.
I stopped on the way home and got the kids "Frosty"s from Wendy's that I had promised them since I "didn't tell the truth" about them having to get shots. (Which wasn't true- I didn't know that flu vaccines were being given this early.) They came home, watched some tv, showered and Will gave a nice FHE lesson and they were in bed by 7:45. A rarity. In fact I don't think they have ever been put to bed that early. It was wonderful right up until Cade was coughing so bad that we decided he needed a breathing treatment. So at 8:45 Will brought him downstairs to me to give him his treatment where he sat on my lap and I rubbed his face. He coughed thru the entire treatment, we felt so bad for him, and towards the end he was coughing so hard he started throwing up. It was just wonderful. Will just sat there and then said, "Cari, he just threw up in the breathing mask." Duh! "I know that. How about you be a pal and get me a towel?"
I sent everyone to bed, including Will, and I am now enjoying my time alone!

At The Races

Will took Carlee, Cade, and my nephew, Tanner, to watch a friend of ours, Randy, race his cars. I don't think I ever posted the pictures. They had a super great time. Will took them down to the pits and they got to check out all the cars. They loved it. Will would go every weekend if I didn't keep him so busy. His dad was a car racer when Will was young so he grew up with it.

Murder Mystery Dinner

A few months ago Will and I hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner at our house. We had 3 other couples over and everyone really got into it and did an awesome job at dressing up. It was set in the 1920's (I think) on a train car going to Paris (I think) or maybe it was leaving Paris, it's been a while so I am having trouble remembering. We had coq au vin, French bread, sparkling juices (in place of the fancy wines that were common back then), fancy cheeses and meats, and I even sauteed up some escargot with garlic and stuffed them in mushroom caps. Nobody even knew they were eating snails. It was great fun. The solution was actually a bit twisted so no one completely figured out who "did it". Will won for best costume. I was a journalist and looked completely retarded so I will not post any direct pictures of myself, if you look hard you can find me though.

Ashleigh

My older sister Tiffany has a baby that is just 3 weeks older than Cloee. She is the cutest thing! She and my brother in law, Jon, also have an 11 year old son, Tanner. They just went to California and it was Ashleigh's first time at the beach. I heard she absolutely loved it. And loved eating the sand. Ewww!

The Three Muske-turds

All three in my bed- something I don't like AT ALL. I tell my kids all the time that "A Mommy and Daddy's bed is only for Mommies and Daddies." They never listen though.


Will wants them to sleep with us on occasion because he says there will be a day when they grow up and won't want to. I don't find it necessary. When I would get home late at night (usually between 1 and 3 am) from visiting Cloee at the hospital I would come home and just want to collapse into bed but I would always find at least one of my children in my bed- in my spot. I would sometimes carry them to their beds but it about killed me, because of the c-section and because I lost all my muscles, well I didn't actually lose my muscles, I guess you could say I donated them to the bed I was pretty much confined to for weeks and weeks and weeks. Anyways, I finally just started sleeping in one of the kids' beds. I guess Will finally realized it wasn't a good idea and I began to come home to an empty space waiting for me to fall into.

Hannah

This is my niece Hannah. She belongs to Tricia- my younger sister. She's 3 and a half going on 18- acts just like Tricia did when she was that age. Hannah has cut her own bangs 3 or 4 times in the past few months and she doesn't do so great at it. She should keep her day job- playing with dolls.

Cade and Cloee

Shows how quickly things can go wrong: (these pics are not recent)
IT'S ALL GOOD









WAIT...NO ITS NOT! (Cade sneezes and scares Cloee to death)

Cloee Models Hats

Look at her ears poking out. It makes me laugh.

Vegas with Angela and Cloee's First (and hopefully last) Ear Infection

A few weekends ago Cloee and I flew to Las Vegas and spent the weekend there with one of my best friends (since we were born), Angela. Angela was driving from Utah to Arizona so I told her just to stop in Vegas and I would fly up there, we could shop a bit and then I would drive the rest of the way home with her. I talked to Will about it and he had a flight booked for me (and Cloee) within 30 minutes. Such a great hubby!! Friday and Saturday we shopped ALL day long, and then drove home Sunday. We stayed off the strip in a nice hotel that did not have a casino- which was so great given Cloee's sensitive little lungs. When we were getting ready to head home Angela noticed Cloee had a fever. It continued all evening and all day Monday. When Will got home from work he gave her a blessing and the fever went away. I just thought she was teething. I was nervous though because any little bug could send her right into the hospital. We've been there enough in the last year, thank you very much! Thursday she had an appointment with the pulmonologist and he checked her ears and noticed an ear infection- just for the record it was her right ear. Poor baby girl. When the fever first started I kinda pushed and tugged on her ears but she didn't react at all. Once I found out that she had the ear infection I did notice that she didn't like to nurse laying on that side and I saw her pulling on the ear all the time. I feel so bad that I didn't catch those signs earlier, although I'm thinkin' she wasn't really doing those things until the day of the dr appointment or the day after. She finished her antibiotics and still tugs at that ear. I am hoping it's no longer infected but still just has fluid in it that is annoying her. Who knows?! She has an appointment with the pediatrician next week and I will know more then.