ELIZABETH'S LATEST HOSPITAL ADVENTURE

August 30-Sept 1st found Elizabeth and I hanging out at the
Children's Hospital.

She thought it was THE.BEST.FUN.EVER. :)

seriously.

what's not to love about having mommy (and nurses and doctors) at your beck and call, a bed that moves however you want it to, total control over the remote control, a TV that not only carries cable but 24/7 kid movie channels, AND room service?!

Let me back up a bit and explain why we ended up at the hospital~

Elizabeth had her tooth extraction back in mid-April.

everything seemed to heal up well and we were on track to have her next round of surgeries this Fall (we were hoping for Sept thru Dec).

On June 27th or 28th we noticed a round, red, warm mass was on her lower jawline -unfortunately RIGHT where the surgery had been.

We immediately contacted the craniofacial team and one of the docs got us in immediately -diagnosis -"some kind of infection"....they couldn't pinpoint what it was or why it showed up 2.5 months after surgery.

Long story short -she was on antibiotics for 10 days...about 5 days after stopping them the mass grew bigger, turned more colors, and hurt her even more.

7 doc visits in about 2 weeks ~noone could pinpoint what it was, but her craniofacial surgeon believed it to be a bone infection.

6 weeks of antibiotics were Rx'd.

on day 28 she developed an allergy to those antibiotics and had to be switched.

once switched to the new meds, the mass (which had decreased in size dramatically) started growing, turning colors, and hurting her again.

GREAT!

The docs involved wanted to just double her dose of meds and prolong their use for several more weeks.

John and I just weren't comfortable with that. We were going on 10 weeks of antibiotic use with, seemingly, little to show for it.

We wanted some answers ~specifically, "what is going on in her jaw?!"

We ended up at our pediatrician's the morning of 8/30 -she was quite concerned none of the experts were doing much....so she called her contacts at the Children's Hospital.

They were concerned as well.

They wanted Elizabeth admitted so they could run all the needed tests right there in the hospital immediately.

When we pulled up to the hospital Elizabeth exclaimed "oh wow! It looks just like a hotel!! I'm so excited!". :)

She was an amazing little trooper who stole EVERYONE'S heart. Every time we'd walk down the halls I'd hear the nurses whisper "how cute!" "do you see this little one coming?!"

After blood tests and a CT scan ~the docs determined there is no more infection in her jaw...but the mass she has now is actually scar tissue that has grown and has tethered her skin to the jaw bone....which we assume is what is causing the pain.

This is wonderful news ~no more signs of infection!
We can, and will, proceed with the next round of surgeries. We see her craniofacial surgeon next week to determine the timing of the next surgeries....hoping for a mid to late October surgery date.

enough talking -here are the pics from our little adventure!

immediately upon entering her room, she unpacked her princess roller bag and put her things away in drawers!

look at this giant room!



watching tv on her cool bed!




dinner Tuesday evening ~the last time she'd eat until dinner Wednesday because of her CT scan.

They IV'd her around 9:30 that night since they knew it'd be awhile before she'd get to eat.

the beauty of homeschooling -much to her dismay!

even in the hospital, we did a little bit of school each day. :)

**notice the Star*bucks cup on her "desk. Thank God there was a Star*bucks in the lobby of the hospital. Mommy needed some iced chai each morning. :) **

Wednesday evening, John brought the other 3 kids up to the hospital for a visit.
They ALL thought it was the coolest place ever!

They were SO excited to eat dinner in the cafeteria and hang out in Elizabeth's "cool" room!

We were released Thursday right at lunch time....and Elizabeth was even cleared to go to gymnastics class that afternoon!

We're praising God the trip to the hospital gave us the answers we needed AND Elizabeth loved it so much....cuz she will spend her fair share of time in hospitals over the next 18months or so.

BASEBALL GAME WITH THE COUSINS

our local library had a summer reading program for the kids and the reward was a free ticket to the local baseball game.

My mom, John, and I took all the kids (my sister's and ours -minus baby Joshua) to the game.

It was a little crazy trying to keep track of 12 kids AND watch a baseball game -but it was SO fun.

The cousins just LOVE being around each other. :)

Jackie-you're such a crack-up!



want some Cracker*Jacks?

Andrew taking a swing!



our stadium has a kids' "sand lot" sort of deal -a little play ground, a little kids' batting cage and a big kids' batting cage.

the kids always love visiting the area!

Biruk trying his hand at baseball.


Thank you public library for free baseball tickets! :)

STAY UP AS LATE AS YOU CAN NIGHT!

we got the idea from some friends last year -plan a night of fun activities and see how late the kids can stay up.

We did it last year and the kids LOVED it.

So we tried it again this year.

Again, SO much fun!

1st up -dinner at Organ*Stop*Pizza

Yummy pizza AND great entertainment via 1 of the world's largest organs!
This thing takes up ROOMS it's so big!

after dinner was laser tag!

oh.my.goodness!

all 6 of us had a blast.

we were the only 6 in the whole place -cuz it was a school night so not many parents let kids stay out late playing laser tag. :)

the 1st 2 games the girls were paired with John and I. We wore the vests (with the targets on it) and the girls got to carry the laser guns.

On the 3rd game, the girls paired up together and shared the vest wearing and gun toting....so John and I could each have our own vest and gun.

FUN.

Serious fun.

And you know who won?

ME!

yep -mom had the best score for that game. :)
I rock!

and at 9:30pm you naturally go get your kids slurpees so they can be good and sugared up to stay up a little later!

we had had a HUGE duststorm that night -so our little night swim really became more of a "help get all the leaves out of the pool" endeavor. :)

doesn't Becca look like a floating head in the above pic?!

and to end our night -we had everyone wind down by watching
Gno*meo & Juliet.

The kids were pretty wiped out by the end of the movie so we all headed to bed -right around midnight.

not too shabby for staying up as late as you can!

1st DAY of HOMESCHOOL SCHOOL

we decided to enroll the kids in a homeschool enrichment program this year.

it's 1 day a week ~Mondays.

We chose this enrichment program because it's a snapshot of what a regular school day would look like ~plus they get all the "specials" like PE, music, library, and computers.

Monday the 15th was their first day.

Excited doesn't even begin to describe them.

The girls woke up before 6am ~I made them go back to bed to "rest" (like that really happened).
As soon as they were allowed up, they wanted to start wearing their backpacks. :)

I've never seen them get ready so quickly in the morning!

There is only 1 class for each grade so each of our kids has a buddy in their class ~which makes going to school even more exciting! :)

Andrew is in the 2nd grade class with cousin Jackie.

Biruk and Rebecca are in the 1st grade class ~with each other.

Elizabeth is in the Kindergarten class with her cousin Joanna.



They LOVED school.

LOVED it.

They couldn't stop talking about their amazing day!

Their favorite parts of the day were recess (shocking!), PE, and music.


and what made our hearts sing even more is that, before we left for the morning, we prayed over their day...and I pointed out that some kids might be super scared to go to school 'cuz they wouldn't know anyone. Our kids are lucky that they each have a buddy in class. I asked them to watch for ways they could help others out.

At lunch, Biruk saw a boy sitting all by himself.
Biruk chose to go sit by the boy and be his friend instead of sitting with his siblings and cousins.

ahhhhh....that's our sweetie.

Becca noticed another girl crying at lunch. She and Jackie decided to sit next to her and be her friend and help her feel better.
So proud of both girls.


We can't wait to be bombarded with stories each Monday afternoon!

FRIDAY FAMILY FUN ~ SLIDE ROCK

I think I've mentioned before, John has every other Friday off.

We've had ALOT going on lately.

John really wanted to just get us out of town for the day to have some family fun.

August 5th was one of his Fridays off.

And it was going to be HOT and MUGGY down here in the desert.

So we headed north.

About 2.5 hours north of us is the mountains......and in 1 town they have an area called Slide Rock.

it's a shallow creek running through a canyon ~the rocks are SO smooth you can slide down the rocks in the water.

sounded like a perfect "family fun day" get-away.

our first glimpse of the actual "Slide Rock" area

looks like LOTS of families had the same idea we did. :)

this pic cracks us up -look at the guy on the right, totally posing in OUR picture!

Andrew was the first to fall.

the rocks were SLIPPERY!

and the water is snow run-off so even in August -it's still FREEZING!

Biruk got a good laugh out of Andrew falling. :)

this was one of the deeper slides.

Elizabeth only wanted to go on it with daddy. :)

I think her eyes were closed the entire time!

love how she's holding onto John ~she knows he'll keep her safe.

can you see the uninvited guest to our little party?

Andrew was the first to spot this little snake.
The snake was lurking near the smaller more shallow slide ~which, after seeing him, the girls refused to go down again. :)

We're sure he was a non-poisonous variety and was probably WAY more scared of us (especially after hearing Becca screaming!) than we were of him...but none-the-less....I wasn't too keen on staying in the area either! Call me funny-I'm not thrilled about swimming with snakes.

John took the camera from me for awhile so that he could document I actually WAS there with the family. :)

I almost always take the pics and John wanted to make sure I got in front of the camera a few times.

it was such a great day.

I'm so thankful John insisted on us taking a day and just getting away.

Our family really needed it!

RUNNING AWAY

Becca had been having a rough week.
In general, just a bad attitude and having trouble being nice or respectful.
She'd been threatening to "run away" the whole week.

Over and over I told her how that wasn't the solution.
How much we loved her and didn't want her to leave.

But on Sunday, she was reprimanded for being unkind to Elizabeth.

30 minutes later she came out of her room with her backpack packed and her pillow.
She informed us she was running away.

to the front yard.
She knew enough to know there were "bad guys" out there so she'd be safe if she camped in our front yard.


We decided to call her bluff.
We gave her our rolling duffel bag and told her she could raid our pantry for food.

John got our tent out so she could have shelter.

she lasted outside about 45 minutes -coming in 2-3 times to "negotiate" with us.

She really didn't want to run away -we KNEW that.

She wanted her way.
She wanted to do what she wanted to do without any consequences.

She humbled herself and told us she wanted to stay after she learned we were going out to breakfast to Crack*er Barr*el ~one of our family's fav. b'fast restaurants. :)

At first she tried to negotiate us taking her out to breakfast and THEN she would run-away once we got home (we fear she might be a budding lawyer!).....but since we wouldn't give in on that request, she decided being part of our family wasn't so bad after all.

We're awfully glad she decided to stay. :)

We love her too much to have her away from us....even if it was just the front yard.

JACKLYN'S BIRTHDAY

Jacklyn's birthday was July 12th.
She told grandma what she REALLY wanted to do was go to one of our FUN public pools.

We have some pretty cool pools around here...water slides, lazy rivers, etc etc.

So on the 11th, my mom and I and all the kids (minus the baby) took Jackie to one of the pools.

Everyone had a BLAST!

the kids calls this "the toilet" cuz it swirls around and around. :)

Janae always has "littles" clinging to her. :)

the birthday girl hanging out with Becca

hanging in the lazy river

show me your mad face Joanna!

cheesy!

LOVE this of the 2 girls!


After swimming we came back to our house for lunch, presents, and cake.

she had been wanting a pill*ow pet!

Happy 7th birthday Jackie!!