Our Weekend

Reid went to visit his family for several days this past weekend and the kids and I tried to keep busy and have fun.  On Thursday (he had left early that morning) we went to get Papa Murphy's pizza.  The kids each got a Mini-Murph kit and made their own cheese pizzas.  I got a large Hawaiian pizza to last me the whole weekend.  I also bought myself a salad and then we got a S'mores Dessert Pizza.  All of that food really did last me the whole weekend, and the boys were eating pizza for three out of the four days.  Yay!

On Friday we had planned to go to House of Bounce with friends, but the friends got sick and I wasn't feeling great and then Bree had a rough night Thursday night.  So, we skipped House of Bounce and stayed home and cleaned a bit.  In the afternoon I went out with the boys to play in the snow.  It was perfect play in the snow weather.....40ish degrees with so much snow piled up that it still hasn't finished melting.

The snow plow has pushed all of the snow up to the end of the cul-de-sac which also happens to be the edge of our front yard.  It hadn't even melted from the last snow, so this pile just keeps getting bigger.

My little helper!

On Saturday we went to feed the ducks in the morning, then we went to the Home Depot Kids'Workshop, and then we finished up with grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.  It was a busy, busy morning, but we needed out of the house.

Making bookends

Finally Sunday arrived and with it was daylight savings time.  Our normal 9am church was at what felt like 8am.  The kids woke up at 8:15/7:15 and we got dressed and ran out the door.  We arrived at church at 9:02am.  Not bad for being byself and having "8am" church.

Reid came home late on Sunday night and the kids were so excited.  When Finn woke up on Monday morning the first he asked was if his dad was home.  He ran right in to our room and hopped up for snuggles.  He was thrilled!  Kai on the other hand was sick and didn't want to get out of bed.  And Bree, well, she was happy, but she's still a mama's girl.

We had a great weekend, but we are happy to have Reid back!

At Least He Doesn't Have to Brush His Hair (Finn's Update)

Finn has a lot going on.....and at the same time, there's not that much going on.  I know that makes no sense so I will try to explain.

Finn's profile shot

Finn had his G-tube placed on New Year's Eve.  He seemed to recover fairly well from the surgery.  For the first two to three weeks there was a lot of sensitivity to the surgical site and he didn't like being touched or having his gauze changed or even taking a bath/shower.  I'm glad that the tenderness/sensitivity has seemed to die down.  He has developed what they call granulation tissue around his stoma (the tube site) and so he has to have the gauze changed twice daily and a steroid cream applied.  The prescription actually says to apply the cream three times a day, but good grief I can't imagine doing that.  Twice a day is all I can manage.  He does 10 to 11 hour tube feeds every night and gets 500 calories.  While the tube feeds have gone pretty painlessly most nights, we have had periods of trouble.  We had about a week straight where the feed would stop in the middle of the night and we would wake up to find all of his formula still in the bag.  This led to him getting constipated, which then leads to him vomiting.  It's a vicious cycle.  Some nights (depending on the day) I add 100mL (almost 4 ounces) of water mixed with cap full of Miralax and a dose of Benefiber to his feed bag.  There are other days where I give him the 4 ounces as a bolus feed while he is watching a show.  That takes us about 20 minutes.  Thankfully, all of our effort is paying off as he has been gaining weight.  His last visit he was at 37 pounds, which is at least a 2 pound gain since he had his surgery.  Considering he had only gained about 2 pounds in the entire year before his surgery, this is good progress!

Finn posed for a shot of his G-tube

Other than Finn's G-tube care, he still has his regular breathing treatments that take about an hour a day.  And then there is his sinus care.  Depending on how his sinuses are doing on a given day, he may need 2 sinus rinses a day and oral antibiotics.  Or he could be doing great--like today (knock on wood)--and not need any of that, just his Flonase.  That being said, he just finished a one month round of oral antibiotics yesterday and he also had a 5 day burst of Prednisone in the middle of that, too.  So, we will take the rest for the next few days until he catches whatever virus it is that Kai has right now.

Finally, as if Finn didn't have enough medically going on, Finn's feet have been a problem for him since his infancy.  He either has a CF-related dermatitis or eczema (hard to tell), but we have found that it responds well to a steroid cream--a different one than what we use on his stoma.  So, twice a day I have to apply his cream, some aquaphor, and then cover his feet up with socks.

As you can imagine, all of this certainly makes getting ready for the day a long process.  It kind of feels like a never-ending marathon.  And then we get to start it all over again to get him ready for bed.....breathing treatments, G-tube flushing/set-up for night feed, gauze change, feet fix, and then all of the other things that a normal little boy has to do  (eat (take enzymes with that), get dressed, brush his teeth, back his backpack) and of course, I'm still juggling the two other kids while helping him through all of this.  It honestly feels like we're never going to get out the door some days!  At least he has this awesome wiry-texture hair that has a slight curl to it ensuring that it is almost always in perfect place.  Yay for not having to brush his hair!!

Other than all of his medical stuff, Finn is doing great at school.  He loved celebrating his first Valentine's Day at school.  He decided to hand out toy skateboards with a tag that said, "I Wheely Like You!"  They turned out cute and he was excited.  There have been a lot of delayed starts the last few weeks due to snow and cold and that means that Finn hasn't had a lot of time at school.  I'm hoping we are through the worst of it, but you never know here.  I'm sure we will have at least a couple more big storms, I just hope they won't impact school as much.

Finn dutifully working on his Valentines

Kai's Update

There really hasn't been any exciting events to post about these days.  We are pretty much just going about normal life with our routine and enjoying the time we have together.  It's been quite snowy lately and so we spend our time indoors playing together, watching shows or movies, and for Kai--reading.  This kid just loves to read and learn.  He currently says that when he grows up he is going to be an astronaut geologist.  He loves to read non-fiction books....yep, the educational ones.  We just recently discovered that there are chapter books of The Magic School Bus and so that's been great for him.

For Valentine's Day this year he wanted to do the "rock" theme again, so this year we went with Pop Rocks.  I covered up the word "Pop" with "You" and the "s" in "rocks" with an "!".  The result was that it said "You rock!".  I printed everything out and then had Kai cut it out and tape it on.  And then I stayed up late the night before making sure they were all done.  Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but at least I have some of him making them.

Kai's profile shot.  He had a hard time with this for whatever reason.

Making Valentine's

 We've had the sister missionaries a bit lately as they are not allowed out after dark unless they have an appointment.  So, when they don't have appointments they fill in with the members and talk to us about sharing the gospel, etc.  One night they brought an "Armor of God" lesson and the boys just loved it.  They love the missionaries and I think the love is mutual.

The missionaries brought one set of armor and so Kai put on his Halloween costume so we could have two sets.

Finally, today Kai had "Famous American Day".  Kai's teacher sent home a list of people to choose from and then he was to research that person and prepare a speech, poster, and costume.  Kai chose Neil Armstrong and did a great job researching and writing his report.  His dad and I helped him design a poster and we got him an astronaut costume.  He did a great job today.  It was fun to go into the 2nd grade pod and see the kids set up with their posters everywhere.  They had several different classes from around the school coming to visit the pod to learn about the famous Americans presented and all of the parents were invited, too.  It was fun chaos!  The event was scheduled to last 2 hours!  Bree and I stayed for a half an hour and heard from people such as Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, George Washington Carver, Sally Ride, George Washington, Susan B. Anthony, and Walt Disney.  Personally, I thought Neil Armstrong was the best!

22 Months of Bree

I can't believe she is almost 2 years old!  That being said, she is certainly starting to act like a 2 year old.  We are so blessed to have her in our family.  She is exactly what we need to brings smiles to all of our faces.  She is talking more and more and is finding her inner "silly" personality.  She is finally enjoying nursery and the last couple of times I have left her with someone else she actually hasn't cried.  One of our favorite things these days is listening to her little voice.  She says "Mo!" quite frequently with a shake of her head (for No!") and has become a good mimic.  She has "said" prayers for the family a couple of times (mostly just repeating a word or two that I say).  She loves to watch shows with her brothers and watching a movie with her is a fun adventure.  The other day when Kai was home because school was out on a snow day we watched Milo and Otis.  Bree spent a good 40 minutes saying "Cat?  Cat?  Where cat?".  And then when he came back on the screen it was "There he is!".....and over and over again.  Except for the parts when the cat was in trouble and then she'd say, "Oh oh cat!" and scream and cry and grab onto her blankie.

Speaking of the blankie, that is her comfort object of choice whenever she is upset.  I have laid her on the floor several times during one of her tantrums and handed her theblankie and waited for her to figure it out.  (It's the better option to getting hit, scratched, and bit.)

Bree can be a great eater or a horrible eater.  It kind of depends on the day and how she's feeling.  She went through a large growth spurt last month and gained nearly a pound in a month.  And now she's back to being more picky.  She is very close to 20 pounds but hasn't quite made it yet.  I have a goal for her for her 2 year check, so I'm hoping she decided she likes eating again soon.  She has about 13 teeth (she doesn't like me to look and since she's my 3rd I haven't been keeping close check), and teething is a big struggle for her.  Getting teeth in is hard and apparently very painful.  The other night I spent 2 hours holding her and then finally got smart and gave her some ibuprofen and once that kicked in she was able to go back to bed.  She was crying, saying "Owwww" and pointing to her teeth/mouth.  Poor thing.

Bree is also an outdoor fanatic and loves to do anything active.  She also loves to read books with us and she really loves going to Toddler Time at the library on Thursday mornings.  She has taken to being quite the comedian at dinner and will laugh loudly at herself and do all kinds of silly things until she gets our attention.  She also remains my little helper.  She loves to help with the dishes, and setting up Finn's feeding pump, and getting the things he needs for changing the dressing on his "magic" button. She is my little shadow and yet at the same time she is quite independent.  She has taken to rocking herself to sleep in the recliner.  At night I sit on the floor and sing her favorite song (she calls it "Jesus", but it's "I Know that My Savior Loves Me") while she rocks and "sleeps" by her "self" in the chair.

We are so grateful for this little bundle of joy (and drama....there is always a little drama!).  She is a blessing!

Throwing a fit with her trusty blankie

My sister-in-law asked for some profile pictures of the kids.  This is one of Bree.

She woke up from a nap to snow.  Here she is still cuddled up from her nap watching the snow fall outside.

Glued to her favorite TV show--Animal Mechanicals