Summer Fun

Just a random (albeit long) sampling of some of our fun this summer....

We have been having a lot of fun so far this summer! We just love those free summer movies. And we've been actually making it to playgroup. Ok...sometimes.

Ok. And seriously? The. Best. Dollar. Ever. Spent.


Marble races. Awesome. It's one of those swimming noodle thingys (that's the technical term) cut in half and stuck together with toothpicks with a shoe box at the end to catch all those racing marbles. Seriously...we have had hours of fun! You can find more detailed directions online here. Awesome site!! Love it!

Caleb started swimming lessons and LOVED them!



Caleb is doing quite well at the swimming thing. And Carson is too. Carson was so cute watching Caleb's swimming lessons. He would walk around the pool kicking his little feet and saying, "Kick kick kick!" while the kids were practicing their kicks in the pool. When they went under the water and blew bubbles, he would be blowing too. Every time Carson gets in the bath or pool now he kicks and blows bubbles in the water and practices everything he saw Caleb's class doing. Funny kid. He even insists on wearing Caleb's swimming suit (and one flip flop) at all times.

I always think that thing is hidden...but he comes up with it somehow!

Speaking of water...we have spent quite a bit of time at the Sea World water park this summer.


Um, yeah...in case you were wondering...it's HOT in Texas in the summer. Not as hot this year as other years...but still hot. I thought this picture of them sucking down their drinks was funny.

I've been very surprised and very proud of Caleb for wanting to do all the water slides. He goes by himself on any that he's tall enough for. I took him on a kind of scary slide and thought I had probably made him swear off water slides forever. It was dark and fast and at the end he was bucked off our tube. But he got up and said he wanted to go again! I was ShOcKeD!

Caleb and Carson love the various play areas at Sea World.



They have also enjoyed some sprinkler time



It's actually rained some this summer...so on the rainy days we find things indoors to amuse ourselves:

Like riding a bag of dirty diapers like a horse while shouting, "Woo hoo!" Sick. But not too sick to stop and take a picture first. :)

Or racing in laundry baskets:



We spend time indoors being crazy box head



Or giving each other rides in boxes



Or rides on blankets



or just playing hard core together



Or just kicking back and having a cold one:



Or having breakfast in bed:



Maybe we have enjoyed a few too many indoor play lands.


Ahh...so much fun and so yummy too.

Carson's vocabulary is EXPLODING! He says EVERYTHING we say now and it is SO very funny! He also imitates everyone. Like this:

Caleb fell and twisted his ankle a little bit. So he was scooting on his bum over to see me. So what does Carson do? Why of course...he drops down on his bum and scoots over to see me too! He had everyone in the place laughing at his antics.

This is Carson's new spot for dinner cooking:

A little wet and well, at first I thought it was kind of gross...but then I decided it's nothing a little clorox can't fix. :)

And what summer is complete without...

...a flat tire. Can't you see how excited the boys are to wait an hour and fifteen minutes for a patch? :)

Also needed for some summer fun--

...some bike riding...

...and some skating



So there you have it! A random post about some random summer fun!

Now go make that marble racer thing. And just TRY to pretend you don't think it's fun!

Fourth Fun

Ahhh...nothing like some Fourth of July Fun and a three day weekend! Action packed fun, really!

Where to begin? We had a church breakfast celebration in the morning--complete with a kazoo parade for the kids.

Um...thank you...I THINK...for the now well used kazoos! :)

Then we hit a good old fashioned small town parade


The boys scored a ton of candy! And some pretty necklaces. Nice. :)

Then we hit a community center celebration, complete with food and fire trucks and such:




Went to a very fun pool party

Stayed at said pool party way too late. Stayed up even later when we got home and set off a few of our own fireworks in front of our house.

Regretted staying up so late the next day during morning church. :) Remembered how one and four year olds should not be up until 11:00pm. Recommitted during morning church to never staying out so late again. At least on Saturday nights. This month at least. :)

Went to a very very very yummy barbecue at some awesome friends' house. Then missed meeting up with some other good friends for some fireworks. But still saw the fireworks. A bit disappointed they were so short...but the boys didn't care. In fact...they loved them. I have just been personally spoiled by Cincinnati fireworks.

Of course we had to do some 4th of July crafts and make some yummy treats


(boys putting festive sprinkles on cupcakes)

And of course we had to have matching patriotic (and dirty) t-shirts.




My favorite part was just being with my three boys. My boys' favorite part I'm pretty sure was the poppers.

Iron Gut

A little quiz for you:

Which of the following has Carson had a drink of or eaten:

A. Chunks of his flip flops
B. Dirt
C. Bubbles
D. Wood chips
E. Sand
F. Glue stick
G. Sneakers
H. Foil wrappers
I. Elmers glue
J. Dishwashing soap
K. Pool water
L. Puddle of rain water
M. Very hot and spicy salsa
N. Chunks of sponge
O. All the above

Yes, that's right friends. Carson has eaten or taken a drink of each and every one of those things. His new nickname is Iron Gut because he's going to have one if he doesn't already after eating and drinking such yummy things.

Exhibit A:

Carson--apparently thirsty--decides to just bend over and drink some nice pool water at the splash pad. Yum yum!!

p.s. For the record...the kid LOVES salsa!

p.s.s. I try to stop him. I honestly do! He's just too fast for me!

Father's Day

Our theme for Father's Day this year was "King for the Day" and we had a lot of fun with it! The boys had a blast calling Chris "king" all day, making him wear a crown they made him, and giving him clues to his treasures and back rubs and just serving him all day. Too cute!!

Each year I put together a dvd of pictures and videos of Chris with the boys for Father's Day. This is the beginning of this year's dvd. I put this on here mostly because Caleb likes to watch videos on our blog and especially loves watching the "dad movies" as he calls them. If you're really, really, really bored, you can watch and enjoy too. But BEWARE!! Chris has turned to the dark side since moving to Texas and so there is ample dark music (country!) Oh, and cut me some slack on not being able to polish it. Something about some meningitis going on and a little helper that turned off the power button on the computer when I was about half way done and smart me hadn't saved it yet. :)


We love Chris so much and think he is the best! He is such a good dad to Caleb and Carson!! So much fun, such a good example, and so loving and doting!

We also love our dads. They are too good to us and we miss them tons! The older I get, the more I realize how much they have done and continue to do for us and how ungrateful I've always been! We love you and hope you had a good Father's Day!!

How?

How do I explain to someone how last week could be so so awful and yet so wonderful?

How I wish I could erase the look on Caleb's face as he was in so much pain last week!

How I wish I could erase mental snapshots like this that will forever be ingrained in my head!



How do I thank someone for making my sick and pained son smile with their gifts?

How do I thank someone for praying for my son?

How do I thank someone for showing up at my house at just the right moment with just the right words or gifts or services?

How my heart melted as I watched Carson just want to make his brother better again!



How do I thank my husband for choosing to be with us and support us over not losing income?



How do I explain to someone how last week has affected me for the good?

How the things I worried about a couple weeks ago seem so trivial!

How I desire to be a better mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, disciple of Christ!

How do I thank a loving Father in Heaven for the feelings of peace and comfort I have felt?

How my heart hurts to think of all the mommies out there who are hurting and worrying about their little ones tonight!

Scary!

Life is so fragile. It can really be taken at any time. No one ever thinks it will happen to them!

We spend so much time worrying about and being frustrated by things that are utterly and totally meaningless!!

We had a small reminder of that the last few days. Sweet, sweet Caleb.

Friday night Caleb just stopped playing and just put his head on the table to rest. Chris went and got him ready for bed and noticed he had a fever. He complained that his head hurt. No alarms going off in my head yet.

Saturday the fever continued and by mid-afternoon he had a crazy crazy rash. It spread all over his body. He complained that his head hurt. Strange--but still no alarms going off for me. I was just wishing it wasn't the weekend!! Why oh why must they always get sick on the weekend when the doctor offices are closed?!?!

Sunday morning, he woke up and his rash and fever were gone. I questioned my decision to stay home from church. But Carson was running a fever and I had a cold myself. By early afternoon, Caleb's fever came back. And then the rash. In full force. Again, Caleb complained that his head hurt. I asked him to show me where and he pointed all over his head and his neck too. I thought maybe he had a sore throat or something. By early Sunday evening I was getting a bit worried. Chris walked in the door and took one look at Caleb and said we were going to the ER. I convinced him to slow down and call the free nurses hotline to see if we should really be worried. Haha. As soon as we were telling the nurse the symptoms over the phone, the alarm FINALLY went off in my head! Oh my gosh!! He is having head and neck pain!! And fever!!! HELLO?!?! The nurse kindly but emphatically said to get him to the hospital NOW! I tried to wake Caleb up as he had fallen asleep about an hour before. I tried to explain to him what we were doing but he really wouldn't wake up and was not very responsive which only added to my panic. Although I know he was somewhat with it because he later opened his eyes long enough to say, "No shots!!" and go back to his delirium. :)

If you ever want fast service at the ER, just drop the buzz words "head and neck pain" and "fever." Dang.

They ran a bunch of tests to try to rule out other things. All came back negative. He had to have a spinal tap to confirm what the doctor already heavily suspected--meningitis.

Funny side note--during the spinal tap Caleb had to be sedated. One of the monitors on Caleb's thumb had a red glowing light that as he was coming out of the sedation, he thought was pretty cool. Chris had a good ol' time with him. They had the same conversation over and over and over again. It was rather hilarious. "Caleb, your thumb is red (because of the light from the heart monitor on the end of his finger)." "Oh wow!!! Why does it do that? Wow!!" 10 second pause.... "Hey Caleb, your thumb is red...."

Another funny story--after Caleb finished the spinal tap and had come out of the sedation, they brought in a little bag with several little presents. He was so excited when he pulled out this little car and exclaimed, "It must be my lucky day!!!" Again, we found it hilarious. Perhaps the staff in the ER thought we were strange finding so many things hilarious. But anybody that can believe it to be their lucky day after going through all that craziness and still laying flat on their back in the ER recovering from a spinal tap is my little hero!! He is just such a sweet kid. He smiled through his whole hospital stay even though it was scary and new and crazy and painful.

The spinal tap results came back and confirmed that he had meningitis. Now to fully understand my mommy worry--the only thing I knew about meningitis was that it had taken an old friend of mine in her 20's who had been perfectly healthy just a day or so earlier. And that the ER doctor basically told us this is very serious. Yikes!

We quickly learned that we were hoping and praying for viral meningitis and not bacterial meningitis. Caleb was showing a few signs of both so it was impossible for the doctor to guess. Not that guessing matters except to put my mind at ease!! We had to wait for the cultures to come back. We would know preliminary news at 24 hours and definitive at 48 hours. Praying for viral. Praying for viral.... Bacterial is just straight up bad!!

The next day we found out it was viral meningitis. Serious...but not as serious as it could have been!!!

Bottom line...we were released from the hospital and are now at home dealing with it.

Caleb has been a trooper. He has had a lot of head, neck, back and stomach pain. Especially after he thinks he is feeling better and starts playing for awhile. I cannot stand to see him in pain...it just breaks my heart. So we have been watching a lot of tv and movies. Bleh. :) But Caleb is in heaven about that part. :) Caleb basically has zero immune system right now so we cannot go anywhere and have to be ultra careful about not having anyone sick come to see him. And yet, overall...I am just so happy that things are not worse than they are. My hope is that things just improve from here on out.

I brought Carson in yesterday because he too had been running a fever since Saturday. Just an ear infection. Phew! Never thought I would be so happy for an ear infection! :)

We are so thankful for priesthood blessings and the prayers of many and their healing power. We are so so thankful for such loving and supportive friends and family. We have learned so much about being charitable and giving service. It is just not possible to put into words the gratitude that I feel....

We are also thankful for lessons learned. Another life event that just has an amazing ability to zero in our focus on what is truly important in life.

Later

16 months later...

...still climbing! Still giving me heart failure.


16 months later...

...still has the same kidney issues. Dang it!! Just had another renal ultrasound and appointment with his nephrologist. Kidneys are not any better, but not any worse. Focusing on the not any worse part. :)


9 months later...

...Caleb finished Joy School. He has had so much fun with it, and so have I!


Being hit by several Nerf balls later...

...Carson is out for revenge! :)


Several trips to Sea World later...

...yup...we still love it. (Can you tell? Carson is becoming quite the hammy these days. Perhaps we only produce ham bones.)


12 months later...

...Still thanking NCI for doing us that favor. Still thankful Chris now only puts in 40 hours a week. Still thankful he is happy doing his work now. Still happy he actually enjoys the people he works with now. Still happy we are now better off financially. Only thing left to work out is that dang health insurance...but that is a post for another day! (Yeah..ok, so that picture doesn't really go with that one. But it's the only one I didn't have a picture for and Carson is, I'm sure, happy about all the stuff mentioned above. :)

2 weeks later since Uncle Kody came for a visit...

...still missing him!


Too many years later...


...Chris still manages to get the craziest injuries in racquetball!!


4 years later...

...Caleb still just loves to help. He can do laundry by himself now. Granted...he has a difficult time reaching the stuff in the very bottom. No pun intended.


5 months later...

...I'd say Chris and Caleb's weekly violin lessons have paid off. This video was of a practice for the song they played in church today. Can't believe Chris picked up the violin for the first time just a short 5 months ago. Some people got it...I don't got it! A man of many talents, for sure. Speaking of talents, Caleb is doing well on the violin too and absolutely loves to go to his joint lesson with Chris and then out for dinner together afterward each week.

Soon I'll have to record Caleb playing too for your viewing pleasure. But later.

Fun Run

Caleb and Carson participated in the Wildflower Kids Run held last weekend at the Botanical Gardens. The weather was good, the price was right (free!), the scenery great and we just had a blast!!

We weren't planning on Carson participating, but when we checked in and got Caleb all registered, the lady organizing the event told us to go get a shirt for Carson too because there were plenty of extras. They had a 3 and under race and so we figured, why not?!? Carson ran/walked the whole 1/4 mile run and it was sooooo adorable. He came in last place, but I'm pretty sure he got the most attention. :) Everyone around me at the finish line was oooohing and ahhhing and running to grab their cameras to take pictures of the cute 15 month old running the race. He's a little distracted by the bubbles here at the end, but he made it!!



Carson getting hydrated for the run:



Getting distracted by bubbles at the finish line:



LOVING all the attention and giving his cheesy face to all his fans:



We were so late finishing up Carson's race that we were still at the finish line when they started the 4-6 race for Caleb. So he had an extra leg in his race to try to catch up. He had so much fun though!!! He has asked every day since if we can go to another race. And at least once a day, we have to go outside and he has me time him while he runs or rides his bike to the end of the street and back again.

Here is Caleb being a good listener--listening to instructions for the race:



Getting all stretched out and warming up. SO CUTE!!!



Rounding the corner to the finish line:



Ready for his prize after reaching the finish line:



A good time had by all. We will definitely look forward to this again next year and will definitely have to check out some other fun runs for kids as well!