Celebrating Jordan

We got to celebrate Jordan's birthday on Saturday, and we had a blast!  Keeping with my simple birthday party themes, we headed over to Falcon Hill park with most of my extended family. We had a lot of playtime, some presents, sprinkled cupcakes, a bit of baseball, some hiking, and lots of talking.  I love that Jordan could have most of his cousins with him-he specifically asked for this for his party, and it was wonderful to see them all hanging together.  Here's a slew of pictures of the party portion!

 Jordan is so easy to please in the present department.  He will smile at anything, and does a good job saying thank you!

 Great face in this shot!  I was super pleased with these huge blocks I found at deep clearance at Walmart.  The kids built a huge fort when we got home, and it was awesome!

 This is so very Jordan-happy and sweet all at the same time.  Very genuine.

 Happy Birthday Jordan-5 years old and still growing!

Cardiology Update

Today's cardiology visit-specifically today's echocardiogram-was a serious labor of love.  By that, I mean, it was a wrestling match.  And by that, I mean it was a loooooong 90 minutes.  Goodness gracious.  Trying to get a 14 month to sit still long enough to get 83 shots of various parts of his heart is just not an easy task, regardless of how many goodies are stashed in the diaper bag.

So with that being said, the echo tech (whom I love) managed to get all the pics she needed except for one of James' descending aorta.  It is always hard for her to get this pic anyway, she usually has to go right under James' chin, which means he has to be somewhat arched back, and he has to hold still.  It was not happening today.  Thankfully, all of his blood pressures were good, which indicates his aorta is doing great-that was enough for Dr. Garn.  His aortic valve still looks "gnarly", in Dr. Garn's words.  BUT, while his gradient was 47 last time (remember, higher is bad), his gradient through that valve this time was 30 at its highest.  This means the median gradient was even lower than that.  Dr. Garn says James keeps proving science wrong-while the anatomy is terrible, the physiology is adjusting and at this point in time, that valve is functioning better and better.  It prompts a slew of thoughts, honestly-gratitude the most predominant one of course, but hope is in there too.  But what can I hope for?  That James never has to have that valve replaced?  We've never hoped for that, we have always known it would need to be replaced at some point.  But he keeps getting better and better.  I don't know if that's enough of a reason to hope that, at a future visit, Dr. Garn will tell us it now looks and functions normally.  I have some research to do, and at this point, I am just going with gratitude.

Dr. Garn did see a very slight potential issue with James' mitral valve, leading into his left ventricle. The blood began to flow faster as it approached the mitral valve, which is not normal and suggests a potential issue.  Now, at this point, he said there is no cause for concern, that's how slight the increase in speed was.  He just wanted me to know it is something they will watch in the future.  It may have just been that James was getting agitated during the echo. Or it could be a legitimate issue, which would not be uncommon for a child who already has CHD.  We'll keep an eye on it either way.

With that appointment down, we don't need to go back to the cardiologist for 6 more months-our longest time span yet.  When we do go back, we'll just do an EKG rather than an echo since the echo is just hard to do at this point.  If the EKG indicates issues, we'll try an echo at the office, or Dr. Garn may just send us to the hospital to do an echo with sedation (which I would honestly opt for given how difficult the echo was today).

We are super grateful for today's updates-what a wonderful thing prayer is.  We know the Lord is watching out for James.  Great news.

Joy

The other day, Jared said to me, "Do you realize how much joy you get from James?"  I kind of laughed it off because, of course I get joy from James-I do from all my kids!  But I really sat back and thought about it....and Jared is right.  All of my babies have been special in their own unique ways. James is no different.  It is my job to make him feel loved.  It is my job to bring his comfort, peace, and happiness.  It is also my job to spend as much time holding him close to me--as long as possible.  When I stopped to think about it, I realized I really do those things without even realizing it.  I know there's a part in the back of my mind that is constantly thinking about the next cardiology appointment, the next surgery, the next set of what ifs.  I just can't reconcile the idea of NOT absolutely relishing each moment with him.  You know what's funny though-the other kids are the same way.  When they wake up in the morning, the first thing they ALL do is go into James' room to say hi...Sara's first words are, "I want to give him a hug!"  They constantly yell things like, "Oh my gosh, James just stood up!"--even though he has been doing that for months and months.  James is joy.  For me, for the kids, for Jared-for our whole family.  We sure do love that little boy to pieces.  

These thoughts come the night before we head to the cardiologist for a check-up....never a fun outing, but one we will handle.  Prayers tonite for James.

Tidbits a la Facebook

Sometimes I post funny comments the kids have said or sweet family moments on Facebook, and forget to record them on the blog, but I don't want to forget about these "pearls", so here are some I pulled from Facebook:

Karianna: Mom, what is a labyrinth? 
Me: Kind of like an underground maze.
Karianna: Oh. So kind of like the catacombs where the Phantom lives.
Me: Catacombs? Where did you learn that word?
Karianna: I've known that word FOREVER! It's an underground place where you can bury people. 
This girl's vocabulary shocks me all the time.

Me: I am so tired of cleaning!!!!
JD: Too bad you aren't a Dad, then you could just sit around and do NO cleaning at all.

Karianna told me today she wants to be a Broadway singer when she grows up. She has memorized all the Wicked songs....she's doing the same thing with Phantom songs. We talked today about protecting her voice....she asked how I made my voice "shake" when I sang-thus I taught her about vibrato. We performed phantom songs while riding our bikes on the sidewalk in front of our home. She told me she was born to sing. I think we've got the start of something cool.

What was your "Made Me Smile" moment of the day? Mine: I was in Wamart with James and Jordan and an elderly gentleman stopped me to say, "You have 2 beautiful children....and they sure do have a beautiful mother." Made me smile! What was yours?

This is how I got an unwilling 8th-grade detention center student to warm up to me: I let him challenge me by writing any math problem for me to solve. He gave me a 22-digit subtraction problem with regrouping in each place value. And he said I had to read the answer to him. Ah, he doesn't know I'm a math nerd in hiding.....

Jared's telling a scripture story to the kids (brother of Jared)....
Jared: And the families all packed up and decided to leave.
Karianna: But how did they survive with no electricity?
Me: They didn't have electricity sweetie, they were used to it.
Karianna: Well, how did they get anywhere with no cars then?
[No one answers fast enough]
Karianna: I guess they just used Mexican handcarts or something.

?????What???? And then we all laugh because that just made no sense. ;)

Me: What's 9+8?
JD: 17.
Me: How do you know?
JD: Because 9 and 8 is 17.
Me: Yes, but how do you know?
JD: Because if you have 9 and add 8 more you get 17.
Me: YES, but how do you know????
JD: Because I'm smart.
LOL. Sure, I was looking for an answer that mirrored near doubles, but how can I argue with him on that????

While I was nursing James, I felt inclined to tell him, "James, if you have to have any other surgeries in the future, I am so sorry that I can't stop them-I love you and don't want you to hurt." James paused, smiled, and reached up to rest his hand on my cheek for a few moments. My heart melted. 

And just because he is James, he proceeded to shove his entire fist in my mouth to try and pull my teeth out, just because he's cool like that. Love my little boy!

I showed Karianna how to do laundry one time last week, just to start her out. Fast forward to today. I'm in the middle of teaching and hear the washer start from down the hall. I run out there real quick and find Karianna has switched the white load to the dryer, started it, separated a pile of colored clothes and put them in the washer, set the water temp and size, put it on the correct cycle, added soap and started it. The entire universe just changed: I have a child who knows how to do laundry!!!!!

Valentine's Day 2013

Valentine's Day was pretty fun for the kids today-I worked really hard to make sure they had several fun things throughout the day, and I hope they knew how much Jared and I love them!

I experimented with cake pops for the first time-just using donut holes, because I am just not a baker and would have no idea how to do it otherwise.  The process was easy enough, but there were multiple times Sara would ask me what was wrong because I was yelling at the donuts for misbehaving.  I realized about halfway through the process that, as a novice, I shouldn't try any elaborate decorating methods and just stick with simple drizzles and sprinkles.  They turned out cute, I'm just not sure it's worth all that hassle.

 I heart attacked the front room for the kids.  Each kid had a certain color of hearts, and I wrote compliments on all of them for the kids.  We took turns reading each kid's hearts, and they had big smiles on their faces the whole time! We clapped for each child in turn, and James loved that part!

 The kids each had a bag of goodies to open full of little trinkets and toys.  James' does in fact have hair by the by-see it?

 Everyone got little bubbles, and it was so adorable watching James try to grab them.  Or eat them. One landed on the floor and actually stayed inflated-James scrambled onto his tummy and tried to eat the bubble.  It popped, and he ended up kissing the floor.  That is very James-esque (albeit gross).

 We drove down to Jared's work and heart attacked his car-all the hearts had compliments on them as well, and the kids had a BLAST decorating it with me.  When Jared came home, they all yelled out, "We attacked your car with hearts!" and then they did their evil laughs.  That was directed by me.

 We spent the last hour of our day at the park just playing.  James is a pro at sliding down slides while sitting up, he loves slides now, which is great since he hated them as of a few months ago.  I have stopped putting him in a stroller at parks, and he now has free reign of the entire area.  I have to shadow him pretty close to make sure he doesn't put anything in his mouth, but I do think he is past the I-like-to-eat-sand phase.

I had tons of fun with the kids today, and I really enjoyed making them feel loved.  I also enjoyed doing a few surprises for Jared, and I hope he felt the same thing.  I think I overexerted a bit to make the day special for everyone, and by the time Jared got home, I was starting to feel it.  The day ended on a note of frustration for me, unfortunately, but it doesn't erase the fact that I love my family and my husband more than anything, and I am so grateful for them in my life.  You don't need valentine's day to express that.  Sure, it's nice to make the 14th a little more special-but it's not necessary-I love my family and Jared every day of the year.

Fun Run 2013

Yesterday was the annual Fun Run at Karianna and JD's school.  The goal is to raise money per lap that the kids run, which then gets donated to the school for new technology.  It's always a huge deal at the school-they have "motivational athletes" who pump the kids up every day for a week until the actual run and then they set up a huge course on the field, complete with two tunnels.  The kids love it, and it's always an exciting event.

 This year I went to support the kids for two reasons.  First of all, I volunteered to be a ticker-mark how many laps kids ran.  Second of all, I wanted to make sure Karianna didn't get sick again.  Last year she came home with a fever, and I am sure it was because she got dehydrated.  I definitely did not want that to happen again.

It was great fun marking off laps as the kids ran. Karianna came to me each time she passed, and I was able to remind her to get a drink of water every five laps. JD had his fun run at a different time, and I could only stay for the first 5 minutes, but I wasn't so worried about him.  They both had such a great time, and it was great to be able to be there and cheer them on.

And since this was a big deal for them, here's their numbers:  JD ran 36 laps (which was the max).

Karianna ran 47 laps.

What do you say to that??????  I couldn't believe she racked up so many. The girl's a runner.  She had tons of extra marks on the back of her shirt!

Great job guys!

A Fit and a Diaper

Sara has gotten so much better at her inclination to throw fits.  I have always said if I had to deal with a child who throws fits, I would at least be grateful if she confines her fits to the home.  Thankfully, Sara does.  So I was fairly shocked the other day when she threw a fit at a quick doctor visit-for James.  James was having his iron checked, and it required me to sit in a nice tall chair, hug James to me, and watch as his finger was pricked.  It took seconds, James cried for a few seconds more, and then he was fine.  Sara watched and poo-poohed James in his agony.  As we were ready to walk out of that little room, I hear Sara say, "My turn!"  I turn to her and tell her she doesn't need to get a shot today.  She paused and said, "But it's my turn."  I asked her playfully, "Do you want a shot like James?"  I thought she would instantly decline....yet Sara nodded her head yes!  I asked her again, to which she continued to bob her head up and down.  I flat out told her she didn't need a shot and she could have a turn next time.  With that, she threw a fit.  She began crying, which escalated into scream crying, which escalated into throwing herself on the floor and scream crying into the ground, which, contrary to popular belief, does not diminish the volume of said scream crying.  Thankfully Jared was there with me, and he scooped Sara up and hauled her out the door while I stayed with James to fill out some paperwork.  The other moms in the waiting room looked expectant, and I thought the situation was rather funny, so I told them, "Apparently, she wanted a shot really, really bad." They laughed, I laughed, and thus ended the funniest fit on record.

Though I thought that fit was pretty hilarious, I still don't tolerate fits.  Thus we made a new promise to Sara, and I am certain we will have to follow through with it at some point.  We told Sara that only babies throw fits....and babies wear diapers.  Therefore, if Sara throws another fit, we will put a diaper on her.  She will adamantly tell you she does NOT want a diaper, and she will tell you in the same breath that she WON'T throw fits anymore....3 days of no fits later, I still don't believe her, and I am certain she will have a fantastic moment where she earns her diaper.  That will be an awesome moment in the making, and you better believe I will take a picture.  Stay tuned.....

Afterthought...

To Sara the teenager-we really do love you with all our hearts!  :)

Baby

Someone in our family is pregnant.

Not me.

Sara is convinced she is expecting-probably because nearly all of her aunts are expecting or have had a baby recently.  She'll run through the list of who is pregnant, tell the gender and the name if applicable, and then, sure enough, she'll add herself to the end of the list.

She has named her baby Cinderella.

She will also add that while Cinderella is growing, she's not going to come out yet.  Glad she understands the reality of the situation!

**PS added on 2/13:

Sara added to our normal Cinderella conversation today.  When I asked her when the baby was coming, she told me Cinderella wasn't coming out yet.  I asked Sara why.  Her reply was:  "Because I'm not married yet."  GOOD GIRL Sara!!!!!!

Aiming for 5th!

Karianna passed off her 4th grade mathblasters today-50 add, 50 sub, 50 div, and 50 mult problems in 10 minutes-and her time was marked at 7 1/2!  Woohoo!  She is now aiming for 5th grade math blasters, which is the same thing in 8 minutes (with a 98% accuracy for all).  She got her orange shirt, had her picture taken with the principal, and was on the announcements.  She is amped up to test for the 5th grade test, and then we'll get her ready for the 6th grade test, which is the same thing in 6 1/2 minutes.  The last level is 7th grade-same problems, but all mixed up (yikes!) and in 5 minutes flat!  Ok, that'd be hard for me!  Either way, she is doing a fantastic job!  JD is really close to passing his 1st grade mathblasters, hopefully he gets there soon-he's been aching to pass like Karianna!

Jordan is 5!

Jordan is officially 5 years old today! And when I started typing this, I accidentally put 6....I think I view Jordan as so similar to JD, I subconsciously bumped him up to be the same age as JD!  I think I'll keep that extra year, thank you very much!

Jordan is such a HAPPY kid!  He has always been that way, and it hasn't changed yet!  He has so much energy, and it is those two things that just make me love that kid so much!  We are not celebrating Jordan's birthday until the 16th since we have been out of town this weekend, but we did celebrate his birthday with cake, a song, and compliments all around.  I called him "birthday boy" all day at his request-he told me I was not allowed to call him Jordan!  We went to the zoo this morning with cousins, which Jordan loved, and it was a super way to celebrate his day.  I made him a special chocolate cake with a bat symbol on the front.  It looked awesome until I tipped the cake to get the excess sprinkles off. What I was not expecting was for the cake to slide out of the dish and onto my shirt.  Lucky catch.  I managed to get the cake back into the dish just fine, but the bat symbol was a total loss.  We re-frosted  and it was just as delicious, just a bit more memorable than I intended!  We look forward to celebrating Jordan's birthday on the 16th!  A few things we love about Jordan:

1. Jordan loves JD.  They are best friends-they do absolutely everything together and I just love that.
2. Jordan is a smart cookie.  He has learned so much in preschool and he has really blossomed this year.  He is beginning to sound out words and has enough sight words that he can read a short sentence if I ask him to.  He is much more interested in this than JD was, which is interesting-each kid is so different!
3. Jordan is a natural at anything physical.  He climbs, jumps, runs, bounces, and wrestles (anyone) as frequently as possible.  
4. Jordan doesn't like meat.  Isn't that weird?  If he turns up his nose at anything during dinner, it's not the veggies or fruit, it's the meat.  I make him eat it up of course, but it's definitely a nuance of his!
5. Jordan loves superheroes, and he is fantastic at making sound effects when he fights action figures back and forth.  It is a skill, that's for sure!
6. Jordan has huge feet.  While JD wears a size 13, Jordan wears a size 12 1/2.  He is average for weight and height, but his feet are just huge! I am expecting a growth spurt sometime in the very near future.
7. Jordan loves to draw right now.  He prides himself on being the best color-er in preschool.
8. Jordan is loving preschool.  He feels like the big kid in his class since he knows he gets to go to kindergarten next year. His teachers constantly tell me what a good helper he is, and I am so glad he is that responsible kid when he is out from under my watchful eyes.
9. Jordan's speech is improving!  He still has some sounds he doesn't say, like his r's, but he is meeting his speech goals, and he is very understandable. I do believe his speech IEP will carry over to kinder at this point, but I am so glad he has been able to attend EMECEC the past year and a half-he has loved it.
10. Jordan loves to make lunch.  He does it nearly every single day.  He's a pro at PB&Js!

Jordan, we love you and we are so grateful you are in our family!  Happy Birthday!

To CA and Back!

Our February sure did start out with a busy bang!  We are back from California, and had a great time!  Just a few teaser pics-the next few posts are all about our trip! 

My beautiful bridesmaids in our hotel room-which, thankfully, was a 2 room suite! The kids did so so so well in it, it was a lifesaver.

 James. What a MAN!  He looked like he was ready to kick some hiney on The Apprentice!

California: San Diego Temple

 Another thing you have to do in CA-go see the nearest temple.  Because there will be a close one! We drove over to the San Diego temple Sunday morning-great way to honor the Sabath when you are out of town!

 Right before Aubrey took these pictures, I saw a family taking pictures and asked if they wanted me to take a pic of their whole family for them.  They agreed, and I took a few of their family of 4.  When I was done, the little boy-maybe 2 or 3-ran up to to me and gave me a huge hug while saying "thank you so so so much!"  It was just adorable!

 The kids thought this was the coolest part!  The temple is right on the highway and I kind of flipped out when the kids disappeared at the top of the steep decline.  When I ran over, I realized there was a fence down there and they were just scaling the hill up and down.

 Jared loves this temple-so much symbolism!

 And of course, I have to take pretty flower pictures with my beautiful girls!

Beautiful temple, glad we got to see it before we left!

California: The Wedding

Our main purpose of course for coming to California was to see David and Sarah get married.  The entire wedding was just beautiful, the backdrop of this reservoir was lovely and I loved how the colors ended up turning out!  Sarah and David have been together for so long, it just seems natural that they should be husband and wife.  We were so glad we got to go to see them finalize it!  

Karianna and Sara were asked to be bridesmaids. Sara specifically was the flower girl.  They looked GORGEOUS in their white dresses with tiffany blue sashes.  I curled their hair and swept it to the side for the wedding.  I know I am biased, but they looked so beautiful!

 The boys were asked to be groomsmen!  They had vests to match, but the other cousins didn't have them, so we just nixed those and went with the tiffany blue ties.  They look so dashing!

All the kids together.....

 Plus James, who wasn't part of the bridal party, but he looks equally cute in his 5 piece suit!!!!

 JD was first to walk up the aisle with his partner....doesn't he look excited?  He looked mortified to be walking arm in arm with a girl!

JD with Uncle David

Jordan came next with Karianna-it was Karianna who looked embarrassed to be walking with her brother!  Jordan just smiled his brightest!  I was super proud of Karianna, I told her she was not allowed to hunch over like she does when she gets flustered-she did great!

 

 Then came Sara with her buddy Austin....there was a collective "ah" when they appeared, they were so cute!  Sara started off holding Austin's arm, but at some point, I could see her gently trying to tug her hand out of his so she could reach in and throw her flower petals-and she did!  She was so adorable!

 She was so convinced she was there to marry Austint that she followed him to the groom's side, and David had to redirect her to the bride's side.

 She threw her flower petals the whole way.....

 ...and didn't stop until she saw "big Sarah" come up the aisle....that's how she distinguishes her new Aunt Sarah!

 Sara ended up sitting with Grandma Lautenschlager for the ceremony-she kept trying to clean up her flower petals once the Bishop started speaking.

The ceremony was just beautiful-the bishop's words to the couple were wonderful and in some parts, similar to a sealing ceremony.  David and Sarah looked beautiful together-they just fit.  The ceremony was small-maybe 70 people or so, and it immediately flowed into a reception.  We took wedding pics with everyone and then had fantastic Mexican food while David and Sarah did all the standard newlywed stuff-bouquet throw, garter throw, cake, first dance, speeches, etc. At some point, James wet his pants, and we had to leave maybe half an hour earlier than we wanted to get diapers (which we had left in our hotel).  We left just as the reception was turning into a night club-Karianna was seriously rocking out on the dance floor! Overall, it was a beautiful night, and a wonderful experience for us as a family!