Breaking records

Tyler had an awesome therapy day yesterday. He walked the entire length of the hallway in a Lite Gait in record time. He has walked the length of the hallway before, several times actually, and it always takes the entire therapy session (30 minutes). Yesterday he did it in 15 minutes. I am so proud of him and you can tell by the video and his expression, he is pretty proud of himself.

Sorry for the shakiness. Kenna decided she wanted to help me video tape.

From Start to Finish

Have you ever seen a house being built from the ground up, well here you go.

Isn't that amazing?

I am pretty much in love with this house. I love the open layout, the exterior, the location. Especially the location. It is so peaceful but still close to town.

Would I do anything different? Yes, but there is only so much in a pocketbook. I would have loved to do more detail on the exterior and do some type of stone with the brick. I would have loved to have a formal dining room (but really how often would we have used it); so that was one of the places we cut when we had to cut back on square footage. I would have loved to have a walk-in pantry; but I have more cabinet space than what I know what to do with. I like to call our house our affordable dream home.

I think one of my favorite rooms is the kitchen. I love everything about it. It's very functional with a lot of cabinet space. I also love that it is open to our living area, so I can still keep an eye on the kids.

 

Some other details that I appreciate:

The tile work around the fireplace  

 

The crown molding around the banister

 

The windows that bring in a lot of natural light with a beautiful view of our lake.

Tyler's room

 

I mentioned the other day that the driveway was the last big task that we needed to finish. But when you own a home you always have a to-do-list. Some other projects that are still on the list to complete are finishing the basement and finishing Tyler's accessible bathroom but those are going to have to wait just a little bit longer.

Playing in the dirt!

It's been 7 months since we moved into our house and everything was pretty much finished and move in ready with the exception of one big task. A driveway and sidewalks. Well that time finally came, no more gravel driveway. Maybe now I can finally wash my car and it stay clean for more than one day, lol!

We had the concrete poured about 3 weeks ago and the asphalt driveway about 2 weeks ago. So all we had left was the finishing touches of landscaping the yard and push a LOT of dirt around. So that was the big task this weekend. My brother-in-law, Jason, brought down his Bobcat and helped us out. And let me say it looks so much better.Jason, thank you so much for all of your help!

Some before pictures of the sidewalk and driveway

I even got the kids footprints. Yes, I know it says 2011, but I wanted to put the year that we moved into the house.

 

 Jason popping a wheelie in the Bobcat. Boys will be boys.

  

 

The kids enjoyed watching Travis and Jason work. Also thanks to Jen, my sister, for helping out with the kids and running errands with me.

The finishing touches of spreading the straw. 

Now let's hope the grass grows!

 

Check back later this week, for one more post of the house--that I have been meaning to post for the last 7 months =)

Last week of school

The last week of school is always a fun week for kids (at least in elementary). Once they hit the higher grade levels, there is testing and finals to be done. So that's not so much fun. So you might as well enjoy these younger years as much as possible.

Tyler's last day of school is Friday. This week, his class has celebrated summer birthdays, had a field trip, an ice cream party and track/field day. Let's just say they have had a lot of sweet treats.

Today was track & field day. There were 25 different stations set up with an activity at each one. You were paired up in a group of 4 and given a Bingo card. Each station was numbered and your group could decide which stations they wanted to participate in, of course trying to get a Bingo. The more Bingo's you completed, the more prizes you earned. So you wanted to try and complete as many stations in the time given. Tyler's group completed 5 Bingo's and they had a blast. Some of Tyler's favorite stations were:

• Being pulled on a sled by his team around an obstacle course
• "Running" a lap around the track (which was a good work-out for mom also)
• Riding on a 2-seater tricycle around an obstacle course
• Trying to pick up marbles with your feet in a pool of water (he pretty much just liked splashing his feet)

Tyler's Bingo group 

(Tyler, Rebekah, Riley & Nathan)

 

 Tyler splashing in the water

 Singing karaoke - a Taylor Swift song (of course, picked by the girls)

 Balancing a wet sponge on his head. He was not to fond of this and kept looking down to make it fall.

Riding on the tricycles

Kenna - 6 months old

This first year seems to be flying by. I can't believe it's been 6 months since Kenna has entered our lives. This past month has been so much fun. I think as each month passes by, I keep saying that this was my favorite month and then the next month comes along and I say no this was my favorite month. It just keeps getting better and better. I love watching her grow and watching her little mind work. I can't wait what the next months have in store. But she could slow down a little bit so we can enjoy these precious moments just a little longer.

She is still fascinated with her feet and even chews on them every now and then. And anything you give to her goes straight to her mouth.

She also loves to roll and loves her belly time. I hate to say this but she is a belly sleeper. As many times as I roll her to her back at night, there is no stopping her. She LOVES to sleep on her belly.

 

What is it about a baby's laugh that is so stickin' adorable? Kenna's laugh isn't just a little giggle, it's got a little evilness in it as well. It's also very contagious, because every time she laughs you can't help but laugh along. That goes for Tyler as well. He thinks its funny when she laughs. 

On the mend

As you may have read from my last post, Tyler hasn't been feeling good. We thought it was just the stomach bug. However if you have a non-verbal child with a shunt, your first thought is 'Is it the shunt?' and since he can't tell you if his head hurts you have to wonder. The signs of a shunt malfunction are the same signs of the flu; vomiting, lethargic, etc. So you begin to play the guessing game. Do you take him to the hospital that specializes in his shunt (which is 2 hours away) or do you just stick it out at home and let the bug run it's course. Well we stuck it out at home for most of it until today and Tyler seemed to get a little better. He isn't vomiting anymore but he is still very weak and not acting quite like himself. We figured after being sick for an entire week, it would take him awhile to get his strength back. But we decided it would be best to double check his shunt. We were nearing his yearly check-up with his neurosurgeon anyways.

The good news is his shunt is still working great! I even snapped a few pictures of today's scan and previous scans.

 

The black area are his ventricles where the fluid is built up. His brain has really started to "fluff" out and should cover the entire area like the image below. I really wish I could have got a picture of his original scan at birth, but the computer was acting up and it wouldn't pull up.There was so much pressure on his brain at birth that it was pencil thin all around his skull and you could barely see any brain matter.

 

Picture of a normal brain

I know this may sound strange, but I am thankful that this was just a stomach virus.

Not Feeling So Well

The stomach bug has hit Tyler like a brick wall. He started throwing up last Saturday and wasn't able to keep anything down. Sunday was much better. He was eating and drinking with no problems. So Monday came along and we sent him off to school. Well that didn't last long, the school nurse called me at work and said he has thrown up multiple times and has had diarrhea. So back home we went. Tuesday and Wednesday, the vomiting decreased a little but he still had diarrhea. Late Wednesday morning, he refused to eat or drink anything. I was trying everything from water, juice, Sprite, Gatorade, popsicles. But he would just clench his jaw down and refused to open his mouth and shake his head back and forth. He was really pale and weak. And for the size Tyler is, he can't afford to not eat or drink for very long. We were worried he was getting dehydrated, so we headed to the hospital. We spent the next 6 hours in the E.R. getting fluids. Luckily the doctors didn't think that he was bad enough to observe him overnight, so they discharged us. He has perked up a little but still not feeling up to par. But hopefully we are on the downward slide of things and he can get back to his goofy self.

 

 I was some what surprised how quick our hospital trip was. We got in and out of there in a timely manner and the nurses and doctors were great. We usually don't have good experiences with our local hospital but I have to say they did it right this time. The doctor was very informative and had great bed side manners. And the nurses were extremely nice and comforting as they were were getting an IV started. It still took 2 nurses and 6 sticks to get one, but we have had much worse experiences.

Kenna - 5 months old

Wow, what a month! Kenna is growing so fast. This past month she has learned to roll over (both ways). It may be time to start thinking about baby proofing the house, because it won't be long before she is all over the place.

She has also discovered her feet and likes to pull her socks off and chew on them.
She is becoming more and more vocal with her 'ooohs' and 'aaahs'. We have also started her on solid foods. So far, she has had cereal, squash and carrots. The carrots are definitely her favorite so far. I'm sure once we start the fruits, she will want to spit those veggies out.


But one of her favorite things to do now and the way she soothes herself to sleep is sucking her thumb.

Mr. Bear is starting to look a little smaller.

Kite Flying

What better way to spend a windy day than flying a kite. So that is how we spent our Sunday afternoon.

So many prayers needed

I have another prayer request. Another one of our close hydro friends need your prayers. Matthew is in the hospital having breathing issues, which is preventing him to keep his oxygen level up. He is having surgery tomorrow at noon to have a tracheostomy surgery. Please pray for a successful surgery and a quick recovery.

Continue to keep Elizabeth in your prayers. The doctors still do not know why she is in all this pain.

It breaks my heart what they are having to go through. And all I can ask is to keep them and their families in your thoughts and prayers.