Billings Trip

On Christmas day, we left Tom's family and drove to Billings. We got there just in time to talk to my little bro. Todd on the phone. He's been on his mission in NYC for four months now. All of us had a ton of questions for him and I think we got a better picture of what his mission is like. It sounds like he is starting to adjust and doing very well!
All of my brothers and sisters, except Joel and his wife Maria (we missed you guys!), were able to come. Everyone is spread out... from Kansas, to Utah, to Washington, so it's always great when most of us can get to Billings. We are trying to talk everyone into moving closer together. It will be interesting to see where everyone ends up in the future... hopefully a little closer! After being together for a few days, you really miss your family when it's time to leave! When I got home, I realized that I would have to start cooking our meals again! I think we get very spoiled on vacation.
We also did a nativity play with the kids. Eli wrote and directed the play... it was so cute. I took video of it, but not any photos. Evan was baby Jesus and Jordyn was an angel.

"The Cousins" - Left to right: Jordyn, Evan, Nathan, Katherine, Liam, Eli, and Elizabeth.

Jordyn opening a Christmas present. She got so many cute clothes. I think she is the most stylin' little girl ever!

Evan and Rex. Evan was quite fascinated with Rex and I think Rex was starting to warm up to Evan too.

This picture goes along with the post below. See what happens when you let your kids hang around with those cowboy folk? Ha, just kidding... it's plastic if ya didn't know.

 

Wyoming Trip

We spent the week before Christmas in Buffalo, WY with Tom's family. Actually, I should say "Frank's" family. Growing up, Tom's family and friends called him Frank (his middle name), because his dad's name is Tom. When Tom, I mean Frank, moved to Billings to go to school, he decided to make a change and have everyone call him Tom. So when we are in Buffalo, I make an attempt to call him Frank, to avoid confusion. (and during this Wyoming "post" I will call him Frank!) It seems like it would be wierd, but for some reason it's not too strange! Then when we go to Billings I have to go back to calling him Tom!
I feel like I am so lucky to have such opposite in-laws from my side of the family. I know, sounds wierd, but I love that they have such different lifestyles. In Wyoming, my in-laws live on a ranch 30 min. from town. Ranch work has been a big part of all of their lives, even in Frank's siblings lives. The guys always go hunting or fishing most of the time we are there. And if it's nice enough, the kids can go fishing or 4-wheeling too. This year they even cut down a Christmas tree with all of the little kids. When we go to Wyoming I feel like it's my time to be outdoorsy and enjoy the beautiful scenery and animals. And one of the things I love the most is going outside and night and being able to see the stars so well! And if you stop and listen, you hear nothing! No cars, or police sirens, no neighbors, or ... anything. Pure silence!
Then we go to Billings and I feel like I get to be a "city girl". (even though Billings isn't THAT big of a city) We do a lot of shopping and always go to at least one movie (it used to always be the newest Lord of the Rings, but this year it was The Pursuit of Happiness). We always sit and visit with my siblings or my parents and play a lot of board games too. If it's nice outside, we'll take the kids to the zoo or go to the park. And everytime we are there we go on a drive to look at all the huge new houses that are being built around town.
Doesn't it sound so perfect? I really do have the best of both worlds! I love it that way. I think it fits me so well because I love being a combination of outdoorsy/sporty and then sometimes being a real "girly girl" and getting all primped up. It can't get any better than that!

Our 3rd annual Live Nativity Scene. Left to Right: Clay, Evan, Jordyn, Cole, Caleb, Joseph, and Ryan. Oh, and two dad's hiding in the background.

Ninny (Frank's mom, Glenda) with the six boy grandkids. Jordyn is the only girl grandchild on the Bybee side of the family!

Cole, dressed up in Pa's (Franks's dad) cowboy boots.

Clay, dressed in his cowboy gear and ready to rope calves (their favorite pretend game). I loved that Clay decided several times to inform us of what Jordyn was saying to him.
"Jordyn said that I am her daddy!"
"Jordyn said that she wants to play hide and seek with me, but that no one can cheat."
"Jordyn smiles at me everytime I come by her.. she likes me."

Sooo cute!

 

Well, we are now home from our 2 week Christmas vacation! We had a great time visiting our families and we already miss them. I will post photos of our trip very soon.

At the very last minute, we decided to take a "family photo" to include with our Christmas letter. Sometimes it can be very hard to take a good photo of Jordyn with someone else or with a group, so we had taken photos of the kids seperately and together to see what we could come up with. And surprisingly, we got some good ones of the kids. But, then we decided to take a family photo and use that instead. I thought the pictures of Evan and Jordyn were so cute that I needed to show them off!



 

cookie time

Tom and I decided to make some holiday treats for the families that we Home Teach and Visit Teach for church. I have no idea how, but we came up with the idea to make "missionary gingerbread men" and then have a little quote about sharing the gospel with others at Christmas time or something like that. So here is our finished product. They are actually very tasty too. I baked the cookies and frosted them. Tom did the decorating detail. Piping decorations onto cookies is harder than it looks! Oh, we are also giving some of the cookies to the missionaries in our ward... we couldn't leave them out. These cookies are also in honor of my brother Todd, who is on his mission in NYC right now. We hope he is having a great Christmas season! 

Cute GENES Jordyn!

Here is a picture of Jordyn's actual chromosomes. I thought it was pretty interesting to see. We have received all the results of Jordyn's recent testing... including the final two tests for Rett Syndrome. All of the tests were normal!

I was not really surprised at all since that is the only results we have ever heard. The doctors keep telling us that she probably has a syndrome or genetic disease that they just don't know how to test for yet. I was thinking the other day that it would be pretty interesting if Jordyn was one of the first kids to ever have a "certain" disease or syndrome. And then I thought, they usually name the disease after the first person to have it, or the person who discovers it. So maybe Jordyn could have a sydrome/disease named after her. Tom and I were thinking of possible names and we came up with: Cute-itis, Cutest girl in the world Syndrome, or Cutie Pie Syndrome.

We also went to the neurologist on Friday for a check-up and to hopefully find a cause for Jordyn's recent irritability. It worked out well because Jordyn got very angry while we were there... so at least the doc. could see what we were talking about! I had to laugh because he said,"She is definately on the "high" end of irritibility!" I never thought I would be HAPPY that my child threw a fit at the doctor's office. Anyways, he wants to try an acid reflux medication first. And if that doesn't work then he said we could change her dose of medication or even try a new kind. We are anxious to see if any of these solutions will work.

We were at the mall the other day and we saw another young girl in a wheelchair. It's funny how excited we can get when we see other kids in wheelchairs... it really doesn't happen that often. I always want to run over and talk to them and ask them all sorts of questions. But, I usually never do! They are probably wanting to do the same to us. I actually like it when people stop and ask us questions. While we were at the mall, a lady stopped and talked to us for while... she said her neice or nephew had Cerebral Palsy. And the other day a lady stopped me in Walmart and said her 11 yr. old. daughter had the same wheelchair and asked me a few other questions. It's always good to hear that there are other people with disabled kids out there... even if you don't see them very often.

Last night we went to our ward Christmas dinner. It was a pretty good meal... ham, green beans, funeral potatoes, rolls, and pie for dessert. I made a tasty looking pie: graham cracker crust, a layer of cream cheese mixed with cool whip, and a layer of pumpkin on top. But, they had so many pies that they never got to serve mine! All that hard work for nothin'! Well, we ended taking one home with us (I made 2) so we could actually try it. It tasted great!
I was looking forward to getting the kids' picture with Santa, but Jordyn wasn't cooperating very well. We knew she would probably start screaming the second we put her on Santa's lap, so we decided not to stay for the whole party. It could have been a funny picture if Jordyn was sitting with Santa and crying, but when Jordyn gets mad...she doesn't just sit there, she kicks and bucks and will slide right off your lap! I also have a cold and wasn't feeling well either so went home.
This morning Tom had a "Youth Training Leadership Meeting" or whatever they call it. They have a breakfast and then the adult leaders train the youth on how to be good leaders, etc. It starts at 7:30 and he got home at noon! He had to give a talk at the meeting also. Then he came home, changed his clothes and went to work putting up Christmas lights. I have to say, Tom is such a hard worker and NEVER complains! For the past few weeks, he is at school all day during the week. Then on the weekends he works all of Friday and Saturday. Sunday is really his only day off and with church callings, he still stays pretty busy! I am probably not the most "supportive" wife either. Last Sunday in church our bishop was giving a talk and at the end of it he was thanking his wife for being so supportive. He said he is really busy all of the time and his wife never complains. She just lets him do whatever he has to do without whining or complaining. It was kind of a lightbulb moment for me because I ALWAYS complain when Tom has to leave! And I am such a whiner too. So, starting now, I am going to try really hard to not complain when Tom has to leave or be gone all the time. So thanks Tom, for working so hard for me and the kids! (I know, I'm so corny!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving is already over, but I finally found a few minutes to post. We had a great turkey day! My parents came up from Billings on Wednesday (they will stay until Sunday morning) and we were so glad to see them. Thursday morning, Susan and I ran the 5 mile Turkey Trot here in Spokane. We thought we might be running in the snow, but the weather was great for running... just cool enough. We think around 700 people showed up for the run. The course was through and around Manito Park, a very popular floral garden. We had a fun time! At the same time, Tom was playing flag football with a bunch of guys from our ward. They have access to an indoor playing field every year. Tom came home with a ton of carpet burns on his knees and legs. But, he acted like it was worth it because he had a lot of fun!

Around noon, we headed over to Susan and Kurt's to eat some appetizers to hold us until the big feast. Then, we ate dinner around 6:00. Everything was so good! We made green jello salad and brought the drink. We had pies from White Box Pies.... apple pear and pecan. The whole day couldn't have been any tastier!

Poor little Jordyn was still sick. She did have a spoonful of mashed potatoes, so I guess that has to count as her Thanksgiving dinner. She is finally keeping down her food. She was extremely grumpy the past two days. I took her to the doc. this morning and they said she has an ear infection. We got her some meds., so we'll see if that helps.

All of the family is having a great time... it's always sad when they have to leave and you go back to your regular routine. I guess we still have Christmas to look forward to!

Feeling under the weather - see post below!

 

Poor little Jordyn.

Jordyn has been having some very bad luck lately. Early last week we took her to get a blood draw so they can finally do the test for Rett Syndrome. It took FIVE phlebotomists to hold her down and get her blood. So sad! Needless to say, they finally got enough blood and Jordyn was extremely angry!
Jordyn has also been really irritable the past month (maybe from being poked by needles so much haha!) so I called her neurologist, at the end of the week, to see if her medication could be the problem (one of the side affects is irritability). They decided they wanted to have her blood taken to check her medication levels! Why, oh why, didn't I call them a few days earlier!? So, I got up early this morning and took her to get her blood taken again. This time, at a different lab, they couldn't EVER get her blood taken. They had two different phlebotomists try and they just could not find a good vein. This always happens when Jordyn gets her blood taken so we are getting used to it. So, Jordyn was really ticked and they couldn't poke her anymore, so we left. We are supposed to go back tomorrow or the next day so someone else can try again, but I am debating wether we should even go through with it. Her irritability seems to be slowly getting better.
THEN, after going to the lab, I took Jordyn to school. About halfway through her school day they called and said she had thrown up everywhere... including on one of the teacher's aides! I rushed over and picked her up from school. I felt so bad for everyone there who had to clean her up... not fun! I apoligized a million times to the lady who had the luxury of being barfed on! Hopefully Jordyn doesn't have the flu. I got Jordyn all cleaned up and she has been sleeping ever since. As you can see in the picture, Jordyn also has a strange rash below her mouth and on her cheek. We think it may be caused by saliva since she tends to have her fingers in her mouth and drools, etc. We keep putting creams on it, but nothing is helping. Poor little girl! She has had a rough time!

Question of the Week - Ode to Rex

(My childhood dog, Rex, eating a snack.)

If you and your dog (or any pet you've had) could understand each other for one minute, what would you say to it? What might it tell you?

Kids Galore!

Friday night was our turn to watch all of the kids in our babysitting co-op! We had all 7 kids (+ our 2) and it went great! They were pretty interested in playing with toys they don't usually have, so that kept them busy. Then we watched a video called "Let's Move". It is 30 min. of all kinds of games, dancing, and "moves" that the kids are supposed to copy. They do "head, shoulders, knees, and toes", lots of jumping (fast, slow, big, little), stretching and counting, and even yoga at the end. The kids REALLY liked it! We even helped Jordyn do it and she was smiling and laughing.
I just love how good the kids are with Jordyn. They like to ask a lot of questions about her, but also like to include her. We were having crackers and one of the girls said,"She didn't get one!" (pointing to Jordyn). I thought it was so cute. The kids (esp. the older girls) all love holding Evan too. One of the girls was having fun taking care of Evan, holding him, getting him toys, giving him a blanket, and even asking me over and over if she could feed him some food!
We are just loving this babysitting deal! And now that last night went so well, with all of the kids, we are even loving it more! (in the photo, we had all of the kids saying "Cheeeeese"!) 

Happy Halloween Continued (and Hijacked)

This is Tom I've hijacked Emily's blog for the moment...not really actually Emily says she is too ill at the moment to finish part two of her halloween blog, so she has given me the oppurtunity to put a new blog on my page so check out my blog to see pics of the kids halloween...Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

(My pumpkin... it's Frankenstein if you can't tell.) TO BE CONTINUED... 

Question of the Week!

Would you rather: Marry your first boyfriend/girlfriend - OR - marry someone your parents chose for you?

On Monday and Wednesday morning I pack all three of the kids into the car and we take a short drive to put Jordyn on the bus to go to school. I think the kids really like going on this little outing. It will be really fun in the spring when it's warmer and the babies are older and can get out of the car and watch Jordyn get on the bus. Today when we were waiting for the bus, a lady came over to admire the babies and she thought they were twins!

After going to my cooking party on Friday night, I was really in a baking/cooking mood. (It was a party for a fairly new company called "Demarle" - they sell flexible bakeware designed with a combination of woven glass and food grade silicon. Subway, The Cheesecake Factory, and Oprah all use the cookware. It's pretty cool stuff, just very expensive!) So, I decided that I wanted to bake something I've never tried before. I decided to make pumpkin scones! Tom thinks I'm wierd for taking a picture of my food, but I couldn't resist. I'll do anything for something new to blog about! The scones were pretty tasty so I'll include the recipe:

Pumpkin Scones:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup chopped white chocolate (optional)
1/4 cup toasted and chopped pecans (opt.)
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup fresh or canned pumpkin
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Egg Wash:
1 large egg
1 tbp. milk or cream
Turbinado sugar for sprinkling the tops of the scones (opt.)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. Stir in the chopped choc. and pecans. In a seperate bowl, mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin puree and vanilla and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix.
Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough gently 4 or 5 times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 in. round and about 1 1/2 in. thick. Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 3 triangle shape wedges. Place the scones on the baking sheet and brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle with the sugar.
Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 min. or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. ( I melted the leftover white choc. and drizzled it over the tops of the scones.)
Makes 6 scones.  

Carpet Cleaning Day!

Don't you just LOVE having clean carpets? Our carpets were driving us CRAZY because they were so dirty. Well, backing up a little bit, we actually had a little flooding accident a month or two ago. Our neighbor who lives above us flooded her bathroom (her kids were dumping water out of the tub, onto the floor!) and it started dripping through the ceiling into our apartment in several spots! We cleaned everything up the best we could. One spot on the carpet got very wet and we thought we soaked it up well enough. But, now there is a huge dark spot where the water was and we were worried there could be mold underneath. So, our carpets are being cleaned right now. Evan is asleep (hopefully still asleep even with all the noise!) and Jordyn and I are hiding out in the bedroom.
Our neighor flooding our apartment is just ONE of the MANY MANY annoying things she has done. She is one of those neighbors you pray and wish you NEVER get! haha I could tell you stories upon stories about our neighbor, but it would take me all day. Hopefully there is no way she could come across this blog!
Tom is gone until tomorrow afternoon. He went up to a cabin with a few of the young men and leaders. They were going to shoot guns, play videogames, and ride motorcycles - a guy's dream day I guess! We have the babysitting co-op tonight, so I am taking the kids there and going to a cooking/baking party (like Pampered Chef, but a diff. company). Then tomorrow morning we are going running on the Centennial Trail with Susan. After that, I think we will just be lazy until Tom gets home!

Question of the week.

Most of the time, I use a book called "Little Book of Stupid Questions", as the source for Question of the Week. This week I am getting my question from a fun board game we have called "Zobmondo - That Crazy 'Would You Rather' Game". The object of the game is to advance to the middle of the game board, by predicting how friends will answer outrageous, gross, thought-provoking, and hilarious "would you rather" questions. For the questions, there are five categories: Pain/Fear/Discomfort, Appearance/Embarrassment, Food/Ingestion, Ethics/Intellect, and Random. We have only played it 4-5 times and I don't think we've ever used the game board! We always end up going through all the question cards and debating/laughing/talking about all the wierd questions.
So, we'll see if one of these questions is fun to do for Question of the Week. It comes from the Food/Ingestion Category:


Would you rather: While dining in a restaurant, catch a glimpse of a dead rat -OR- catch the chef sneezing into his hands while preparing the food?

What a day!

It's only 3:30pm and we've already had a crazy day! This morning I had to take Jordyn to get her blood drawn for a few of the tests that the doc. in Seattle wanted done. (I know, I know, I procrastinated taking her in for 2+ weeks!) Actually I took her in a week ago, but they ended up making errors on the labs and had to re-do them.... a story for another time. Anyways, Jordyn did pretty well getting her blood taken and she is glad it is over.
The hardest part about taking the kids somewhere by myself is getting them through the doors! Literally, getting them through the doors! I am always complaining about this to Tom and everyone else who will listen to me. I hate going to places now that don't have handicap buttons on the doors or automatic doors. And trust me, I have memorized ALL the places that do not have doors that I can easily get me and two kids through. Just imagine carrying Evan in one arm, trying to push and hold the door open with my body and then trying to push or pull Jordyn through the door. It's prob. quite hilarious to watch. And it seems like someone is ALWAYS watching. 90% of the time people always run over and try to help me, which is very helpful and embarrassing at the same time. I am sure it is much like trying to get a stroller through the doorway also. So, lesson to everyone. If you see a mom struggling to get through a door, go help her!
After we got done at the lab, we went to pick up Jordyn's glasses! I was thinking in my mind,"Oh good, the eye clinic has a handicap accessible door, so I won't have a problem taking both kids in." (I know it's weird, but I really do think about this before I go places!) And sure enough, the button was broken! I just started laughing, because I had just struggled through all these doors at the hospital (and what hospital doesn't have handicap doors??) and now the ONE door that has a button, doesn't even work! hahaha And of course there were like 3 people in the waiting room watching me try to get through the door.. and one finally came over and held the door for me. So, Jordyn got her glasses. She didn't really like trying them on! But, she is already getting used to them. I think they look pretty cute!
It's pretty crazy how running two errands took me almost all morning and when I got home I was ready for a break! At least the kids behaved well while we were out. I think Evan might have to learn to ride on Jordyn's wheelchair with her!
I included two other photos. One of Jordyn and Evan together and one of Evan eating his first vegetables. He likes to put his hands in his mouth and then smear the food everywhere.

Question of the Week.

Ok, so I haven't been very good about doing a question every week. Oh well. I think I'll just do them whenever I feel like it....


If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, which food would it be? OR
If you could only eat at one restaurant for the rest of your life, which would it be?

Harvest Hustle Fun Run!

Today my sister, Susan and I ran a 5k race in Rockford, Washington. It's about 16 miles southeast of Spokane with a population of490 people. I actually heard about it on the Spokane news so we really didn't know how many people to expect. So when we pulled up to where the race was going to start, we were a little surprised to see about 10-15 people! When the race started there was probably a total of 25 people. In our minds, we kept comparing it to the Laurel, MT race we did on the 4th of July. And we had to laugh because I don't think we expected a race to be any smaller than the one in Laurel! Susan and I ran together and got the same time: 28:49. We took 4th and 5th place for overall women. And probably 8th and 9th for the overall race.
Some funny comparisons I thought of between the Laurel race and the Rockford race:

Laurel: population 6,255
Rockford: population 489

Laurel: about 100 racers
Rockford: about 25 racers

Laurel: orange cones and flags marking the starting line and finish line
Rockford: the race officiator said," The starting line is over there (pointing)... where the dark pavement meets the light pavement."

Laurel: cups of water at the turnaround / water and oranges at the end of the race
Rockford: no water, no food ..... anywhere

Laurel: large time clock at the finish line
Rockford: lady at the finish line, holding a stop watch and smoking a cigarette

Laurel: Plaques and ribbons for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, for about 6 diff. age groups
Rockford: Ribbons for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place in overall men and women's groups (we just barely missed getting ribbons for overall women! Darn it!). "Prizes" (misc. items in a box to choose from) for age groups 5-10, 10-18, and 19+. We couldn't believe that out of 25 people, we walked away with no award! Boo hoo.

Laurel: Nice people and a fun run with family.
Rockford: Nice people and a fun run with Susan.... oh, and an old guy running in cut off jean shorts (think daisy dukes).


All jokes aside... it was a very fun run! Considering the size of the town, they did a good job! The course was very pretty and I enjoyed the scenery. And we didn't have to run up any hills either! Everyone there was very nice and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think I'm starting to like the small town races because you actually feel like you have a chance of doing well. Next race... the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day!

Happy Anniversary!

Aren't we such a cute couple? Yesterday was our 5th Anniversary! We went out to a restaurant that serves Mediterranean food and then got dessert at Dairy Queen. It was very tasty!
The past five years have been so great! Sometimes I wonder how I got such a great husband who is so kind, smart, good looking, and funny (with many other wonderful qualities too). Tom and I often talk about how incredibly compatible we are and how well we get along. We are different in many ways, and yet we have SO many things in common.... most things we didn't even figure out until after we were married! We've really had five perfect years together and I can't wait to add many many more years to our happy marriage! I love you Tom!

Highlights of the week.

Monday was Jordyn's first day of school! She goes Mon.- Thurs. for two and a half hours. She goes to a great school and I'm so glad they have this program for Jordyn. She is riding the bus to school on Monday and Wednesdays (I watch my neice, Katherine, those days and didn't want to cart two 6 month old babies with me to Jordyn's school!). On Monday, Jordyn was supposed to ride the bus, but there was a big mix-up and the transportation dept. didn't read the info. saying that Jordyn was in a wheelchair... so, the bus came and she couldn't get on! Oh well, Tom was still home and I was able to take her. On Wednesday she finally got to ride the bus for the first time! It was so cute, I just had to laugh the whole time. While she was riding the ramp up onto the bus she had the biggest smile on her face... it was hilarious. And sadly, I didn't have the camera that day! I was so worried all week about Jordyn being good at school and she did awesome! I think her teachers were pleasantly surprised. They are very honest about how the kids behave, etc, and they said Jordyn did SO good this week! I was so relieved and I am keeping my fingers crossed that she continues to stay happy and do well at school!


Here is a picture of Jordyn and Evan goofing around. Jordyn always has to have her feet on everything. If you are sitting near her, she will always put her feet on you. So many times, Evan is Jordyn's foot rest. He really doesn't seem to mind it at all!

Evan got to eat rice cereal, for the first time, this week! It looks pretty tasty doesn't it?

On Wednesday, Jordyn also went to the eye doctor here in Spokane. We talked about our appointment in Seattle and he examined Jordyn's eyes again. He thinks we should give glasses a try for a couple months. The doc. thinks Jordyn will eventually get used to them. I'm not too thrilled, but of course I will try them. After two months, if the glasses don't help correct here eyes crossing, they may consider surgery. But, we will see. (no pun intended) I took Jordyn to get fitted for glasses and we got her a pretty cute pair... at least I hope they are cute! She won't get them for a few weeks. We will be sure to post photos. While we were picking out the frames, I couldn't help but laugh at one pair of lenses. They had HUGE lenses and were the thick plastic frames and a bright blue color. Extremely out of style, but much like the ones I used to wear!!! haha I think that is the main reason I am hesitant to get Jordyn glasses... because I look at photos of when I was little and just CRINGE at how dorky I look in my glasses. Mom and Dad... How could you let me go out in public looking like that!?? hahaha

Tonight Tom and I had a date night! We started a baby sitting co-op with some other couples in our ward. We rotate every Friday night and one couple watches ALL of the kids! So, we get 4 Friday nights of babysitting and on the 5th Friday, Tom and I will watch all of the kids. Then the rotation starts over again. Most of the kids are over 3 yrs. old and Evan is the only baby. All together, there are 9 kids! Are we crazy or what!? We just keep thinking that we only have to watch the kids once every 5 weeks, for 3 hours, and in return we get 4 Friday nights out! That's worth it, isn't it? I was worrying about it all week because none of the families know Jordyn very well and I was afraid that they might be scared to watch her. But, I wrote up everything they need to know about her and I think they did really well. Tonight was the first night and the couple that watched all of the kids said that it went better than they thought it would! So we are off to a good start. Tom and I met some friends at the Fair and just walked around and had dessert. It felt very strange to not really have any set plans for the night and to not have any kids! We are hoping the co-op will keep up because we could sure use the break every week! We are already planning fun activities and snacks for when it's our turn to watch the kids. 

Question of the week!

In honor of 9/11, the question of the week is:

Where were you and what were you doing when you found out about the terrorist attacks?

Seattle Trip

Warning: Very long and full of lots of medical mumbo-jumbo.


Well, we made it back from our weekend trip to Seattle. We left Thursday afternoon and stayed the night at a hotel in downtown Bellevue. Friday morning we drove 15 min. to the Children's Hospital (we have to say that we DID NOT like Seattle traffic! Way too many cars!) for Jordyn's opthalmology appointment. We really liked this doctor. He was very interested in Jordyn and seemed extremely smart. Every other doctor we've talked to that knows him also gives him great praise. Anyways, he said Jordyn's eye problems are neurological. (That is what we thought, too.) He actually was not too concerned with her eyes crossing. He said they could be fixed with glasses. However, he said Jordyn would absolutely HATE having glasses on (she hates things touching her face!) and it would be easier to just deal with her eyes crossing, since they only cross every once in a while. He was more concerned about her lack of attention to objects and lack of tracking objects. Her eyes are actually very physically strong/good... except she is a little nearsighted, but not enough to need glasses for it. He was extremely surprised that Jordyn's MRI's have shown nothing. He thought for sure, the cause of her problems would show up on a MRI. He explained her vision issues as cortical visual impairment (the eye itself is normal and she sees things, but the brain does not process the information correctly). So basically, there isn't much we can do about her eyes, but just deal with it! She will continue to see her opthalmologist here in Spokane and we will see if he agrees with what the Seattle opthalmologist said! Oh... the opthalmologist also asked us if she had been tested for Rett Syndrome! We just laughed and said yes and it came back negative. Almost EVERY doctor or therapist we talk to thinks she has Rett Syndrome!

After being in opthalmology for almost 3 hours, we went straight to the neurology appointment. She basically told us that we have already tested and done almost everything they would have us do. She did recommended a few more tests though. She said there are three diff. tests for Rett Syndrome and we only did one of them. (Why our Spokane neurologist only did ONE of the tests... we do not know!) So, we will do the other two tests. It is a blood test and will take around two months for the results. The first Rett test we already did, tests for 80% of Rett Syndrome cases, so the chances of getting a positive result from these other two tests is low. But maybe Jordyn falls into that other 20%! The third test we will do is for a syndrome called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome. People who have this syndrome are unable to make enough cholesterol to support normal growth and development. Jordyn has a few of the symptoms, but does not have many of the main symptoms... like poor growth! The neuro. didn't really act like Jordyn had a great chance of having this syndrome, but wanted to test just in case.
The neurologist also told us that our chances of finding a diagnosis for Jordyn are very slim. We kind of already knew that and other doctors have told us the same thing. But she also said that scientists are always coming up with new tests and new syndromes. In 10 years, the medical world will have advanced so much and between now and then, they may come up with something new to test Jordyn for.
So we were pretty happy with the appointments! Now on to something different!

Saturday morning we went to the Seattle Aquarium. The kids really seemed to like it and so did Tom and I! They had some great exhibits. We saw sea otters, harbor seals, sharks, octopus, jelly fish, eels, starfish, and ALL kinds of wierd fish and sea life.
Saturday afternoon we went to the Pike's Place Market. Tom's job is to post about that adventure and post pictures.
So check out his blog http://2bedapartment.blogspot.com/

We were so proud of our kids for behaving so well on the trip! We had to buy Jordyn ice cream because she was so good. They slept well at night and traveled well in the car! And Jordyn did awesome at the doctor's appointment! We were so happy!




(above) One of the many wierd fish we saw. (below) Star fish and tide pool life. You could put your hand in the water and touch/feel everything. Very cool.

 

More Aquarium Photos

Jordyn checking out a sea otter. There were some awesome exhibits for Jordyn because she could sit right in front of the window and the animals would swim right in front of her!

The "sea dome" in the aquarium. The windows surrounded you on all sides and above you. It was full of sharks, eels, many diff. fish and sea life.

A neat school of fish. It was above you and you walked under the glass.

Jordyn with her new friend... a harbor seal. 

We're off to Seattle

We are packing our bags and tomorrow we are leaving for Seattle! If you didn't already know, Jordyn has two doctors appointments on Friday at the Children's Hospital. Friday morning, she will be seeing a pediatric opthamologist. They are trying to decide whether her "crossing eyes" are a muscle problem or neurological problem. Her eye doctor here in Spokane is just baffled by her and wants a second opinion. (So what's new!? I think Jordyn should be on that new show "Medical Mysteries"!) If they decide it is a muscle problem, they could possibly decide to do surgery to correct it. If it is neurological, I don't think there is much they can do. Then, she will be seeing a pediatric neurologist on Friday afternoon. This visit will just be a consultation to see if they might have any suggestions or ideas for us. We aren't getting our hopes up for this appointment. We are guessing that they won't have much more to tell us.... but, who knows!

And once those appointments are over... we just might go and have some fun in Seattle! We will blog and post lots of pictures on Sunday. If we learn anything really great or important at the appointments, we will let everyone know as soon as possible! Wish us luck!

Pig out in the park!

Last night, we went to "Pig Out in the Park" in downtown Spokane. It's an annual event where a whole bunch of food vendors set up booths and sell every kind of food you can think of! This is our 3rd year going and we are always counting down the days until we get to go.
Last year I was pregnant with Evan and had extreme "morning sickness" (or I guess you could call it "all day sickness") and did not get to enjoy Pig Out in the Park. (It was also when my parents were visiting and we told them that I was pregnant!) I can still remember the constant nauseous feeling and not being able to hardly eat anything. So, I have been looking forward to going ALL year!
We went with my friend Jeni, her husband Jeff, and her sister Melissa. To start off, the five of us shared a plate of oriental noodles and a huge basket of cheese fries. Then for my main course I had a Perogie (fried dough ball filled with chicken and cheese) and a slice of garlic cheese bread. For dessert, I had a piece of chocolate covered cheesecake. Everything was so good and I am already craving another piece of cheesecake! All of us left there very full and probably wishing we hadn't eaten so much. Oh well, it was totally worth it.