Cardio Tennis

One of my dear friends really wanted to help out with fundraising for Great Strides this year.  She went above and beyond in helping us.  Not only did she get a corporate donation from her husband's business (well, he is a dentist so he co-owns the practice :P), but she also approached her friends at the local country club and asked if they would be willing to help out.  One of her friends taught a cardio tennis class for free, with admission costs to be a charitable donation to the CFF for us.  I had never seen cardio tennis before, but was definitely curious.  And we were told that Finn could be the water and ball boy.

The class was held on May 1st and Finn was so excited that morning.  And then we got to the tennis court and he froze.  Complete utter freak out.  He didn't want to go anywhere near the other women and he most definitely wasn't going to participate.  The ladies were so sweet about it and kept trying to encourage him, wave hello to him, and one lady even did some juggling to try and cheer him up.  It was sweet and after about a half an hour, it worked.  Finn enjoyed watching them play tennis and really loved being the ball boy.  He thought it was a great game to try to get the balls back to the basket without getting hit by flying balls.  At one point, I nearly got decapitated in my attempt.  Thankfully I bent over to pick up a ball at the right time.

It was such a fun class and such a great group of ladies.  Most of these women were seniors and of retirement age, but they could play tennis.  I was inspired.  I decided that when I'm 60 I'll take up tennis, too!  (I don't have many pictures because reception was really bad inside and it drained my battery quick.  That and the ladies were moving too quickly to take any decent pictures anyway.)

Crabby

The started with aerobic-like activities.  This is so my kind of workout!

A little smile......maybe

Really playing tennis!  They were moving through the drills fast!

Bree's First Birthday

Her birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, so everyone had work and school.  On Saturday a cold that she had been fighting started to sound worse and she wasn't sleeping as well as she normally would.  That being sad, she wasn't sleeping horribly either, just not well.  She was also slightly more clingy, but aren't we all when we are sick?

On the morning of her birthday I tried my darnedest to get a picture of her in her birthday outfit.  She really did not want to cooperate.  During the day we took her over to the store to pick out a balloon.  I'm not sure who liked it more--Finn or Bree.  And finally when everyone came home, we had her little "party".  She tried pizza for dinner for the first time and really seemed to enjoy it.  And then she had chocolate cake for dessert.  She got a few fun presents and really just enjoyed having the spotlight all on her with everyone playing with her.  She had so much fun that it seemed she didn't want to go to bed.

Well.....that's what I thought.  I took her to her 12 month well-check on Friday (3 days later) and when we checked in I told the nurse she was sick and that we weren't going to do immunizations that day because I was concerned about her.  When the doctor came in, I talked to her for a bit and told her that at Urgent Care the previous month (when we all had bronchitis and got antibiotics except for Bree) the doctor said she couldn't see her ear drums because there was wax in the way and since she wasn't presenting like she had an ear infection she didn't want to go digging around in her ears.  Well, the pediatrician removed the wax for us and wouldn't you know, poor baby had two very, very bad infections.  Poor baby!  The numbing drops helped her for the rest of the day and within about 36 hours of starting antibiotics she was back to her happy, playful self.  I hadn't even realized how bad she was feeling and I felt awful about it.

Anyway, she did enjoy her birthday.  At the first 12-month well check she weighed 15 pounds 12 ounces and was 28 inches long.  We went back for immunizations and a weight check two weeks later and she was up to 16 pounds.  She started eating and drinking better once she was feeling better, go figure.

As for skills, at 12 months she was not taking steps or standing independently.  She could, but she was a chicken.  If she realized that she was standing alone she would sit down real fast.  She was a decent cruiser but was not interested in walking.  She could follow a couple of simple commands which always surprised me (such as "come here", "clap", etc.) and she made sounds that sounded as if she was imitating our words.  There were several times I was convinced that she had said, "I get it!" or "I did it!", but she really doesn't talk that well so it didn't make sense to have those moments of clarity.  She could say "mama", "daddy", "bah" (for bye or peek-a-boo), "this", and "that".  She also had 3 teeth at 12 months old.  Two on the bottom and the top left central incisor.

We love her so much!  (I seriously took over 100 pictures this day.)

My attempt at distracting her with toys to get a good shot.

Excitement over the large chocolate cake.  This girl can spot chocolate very quickly!

The concerned look over the flame.

Presents!

Some of you may recognize this as the helicopter that we got Kai for his 1st birthday.  A couple of years ago I cleaned and stored all of the baby toys to be used again.  So, we went shopping in the toy bin for Bree's "new toys".  She doesn't know the difference.  She LOVES the helicopter!

Yep, all of these presents were recycled ones.  And she LOVES them all!  Cheapest birthday ever.

Easter 2014

Easter was the last big holiday that Bree had not yet celebrated.  So, of course that means every picture I took on Easter was of Bree!  Honestly, I didn't take that many pictures.  We do have video of the egg hunt, but that is long and relatively uninteresting to everyone else.

The day before Easter we dyed eggs, which is something that the boys look forward to.

Waiting for the eggs

Goofing around while they wait

Pretty eggs

And then Easter morning we had an egg and basket hunt.  Bree's basket was right in the middle of the room since she can't really "hunt".  The boys had a good time finding their baskets and it actually took a little more time than normal this year, which was fun.  Bree's basket was a giraffe and despite her new found love of chocolate, she was quite nervous about the giraffe and really did not want to have anything to do with it.  It made me laugh.

I tried to get a picture of Bree in her dress after church (since we were running late before church) but she was tired and not really willing to pose.  She looked adorable, though.

Trying to find her bow

Bow found and successfully pulled out

And then I put it back and the game began again

Finally gave up for a second

The program at church was beautiful and a great reminder of our Savior's sacrifice for us.  The boys are getting old enough to start to understand some of it and so it's interesting to have more in-depth conversations with them about church and the gospel.  The suprise me with their questions at times, and I just hope that I come up with an age-appropriate answer for them.

At the end of the day we had a yummy Easter dinner of ham and potatoes.  It was a beautiful day!

Where to Start?

So much has happened in the last two months that it is overwhelming to think about catching up the blog.  But I need to.  We love having this blog to look back on and keep as a family journal.  So, I need to update it.  Here it goes.

At the end of Spring Break Kai was diagnosed with bronchitis.  And then slowly everyone started getting sick.  Eventually, Reid, Kai, Finn, and Bree all got it.  I got a head version of something but I thankfully did not get the worst part of it.  I slept on the couch going between the boys and Bree for a couple of nights.  I did not get much sleep at all.  And I washed my hands like crazy and prayed really hard that Heavenly Father would keep me healthy to take care of the kids.  Thankfully my prayers were answer.  Finn got an antibiotic and increased treatments.  Reid and Kai got z-packs.  Poor Bree did not get any medications from Urgent Care.  And since we were all getting sick, Bree didn't get an 11 month post or really any 11 month pictures.  This is the only one I managed to grab on her 11 month day.

And I got this video.  As you can see, by 11 months she had started waving, clapping her hands, and blowing kisses.  She could do them on request and melted my heart every single time.

Then the beginning of April arrived.  That first week we were all recovering from being sick and so we didn't get out or do much at all.  The second week of April is when we had the ENT follow-up.  Finn's sinus CT showed that he had inflammation and infection particularly bad on his right side.  He recommeded surgery with a one-night stay at the hospital.  I will admit to being skeptical, but as he showed me that the bone under Finn's right eye had shifted and was thinning out, I decided to trust him for a bit.  He said the fact that the bone was thinning indicated that the infection had been there for some time.  The conversation wasn't long at that point and Reid and I decided to schedule the surgery.  The doctor's first available appointment wasn't until May 23rd (today).  If we didn't take that appointment we would have to wait until the middle of June.  So, we took it.

Also that first week in April, we had a give-back night Fundraiser at our local Freddy's.  It was fun to eat dinner with some good friends and in the process we raised $71 for CF.

We had some good weather that week and enjoyed some time outside.

It was a bit windy this particular day.  This is a park right next to the Children's Colorado Outpatient Building in Colorado Springs.  You can see the building behind the kids.

Water Ballons!

This cracked me up.  Bree didn't want to put her feet on the grass.  She kept alternating what foot she had in the air.  She was too funny!

Say "Cheese!"

She finally relented and stopped tugging at her sunhat.

The week before Easter this girl discovered chocolate.  Shoot!

She loved it!

After holding her foot up in the grass, she learned that it can be a useful tool for balancing her toys.  She spent a half hour one day perfecting this.  Notice the "ta-da" pose with the right hand.  She was VERY proud of herself.

Kai had no school on Good Friday so we used the time to go on a little family "hike".  This is the Santa Fe trail near our house.  Turned out it wasn't great for Bree's stroller and I forgot a hat for Finn.  By this point he was on constant antibiotics and I was worried he would burn so we were only out for about 45 minutes.  I wish I had thought that through a little more!

That takes us up to Easter.  33 days ago.  How much can one family do in 33 days?  Two CF fundraisers, Easter, a wedding anniversary, three birthdays in the house, teacher appreciation day, several volunteer hours at school, two pediatrician visits, GREAT STRIDES, Mother's Day, Reid working countless hours of overtime, and I'm sure there's more.  Clearly I'm going to need to start another post!