First Day of School 2015

Tuesday August 18th was our school's open house day.  That day the teacher assignments for the year are posted on the school log-in site at noon and then at 2:00 the kids can go to school, meet their teachers, and take in their supplies.  Since Finn is in Kindergarten this year, we actually got a letter from his teacher over a week earlier introducing herself.  Once we had the letter, I started corresponding with her and the school nurse about Finn and his medical needs.  On Monday the 17th I went to school and met with his teacher.  She was very nice and very understanding.  I'm hoping that's a good sign of things to come.

When Kai saw his teacher assignment, he had no idea who she was.  I'll admit, neither did I.  I had heard about three of the five teachers and the other two were pretty much unknowns.  We got an unknown.  The thing is that this teacher has been there for a while, so why haven't I heard anything about her?  Is that good or bad??  I don't know what to think.

But the open house went well and the boys were excited for the next morning.

1st day of 3rd grade (Mrs. Call's class)

1st day of Kindergarten

THIS!!  This captures so much of their relationship!

Bree has to have a backpack, too.  She would LOVE to go to school.

We took Kai in and stood outside with him until his class was ready to go in.  It was cold!  As in 40 degrees cold.  I always struggle with sending my kids back to school when the weather is nice out, so I guess Heavenly Father was trying to make it easier on me.  It felt like a crisp fall morning--school weather.  After dropping off Kai, Finn and Bree and I did some shopping at Wal-Mart and then headed home.  We were able to do some laundry and cleaning and then have a a picnic lunch (one of their favorites!) before taking Finn in for his first day.  Finn's class is small this year--only 11 kids right now.  Half of the kids were scheduled to go in Wednesday, half on Thursday, and then all 11 for the first time today.  For some reason, one of the kids did not show on Wednesday so it was Finn and only 3 other kids.  Wow!

Notice the chaos of the first day of school with 900 kids.  And it was cold, so the crowd was down a bit!

Finn's version of helping with the laundry.  And yes, he fell just seconds after I took the picture.

She wants to be just like her brothers.

His eyes are super sensitive to light.  

Ready for his first day with Mrs. Strahan.

As we went to leave the school, Bree realized what was happening and she got really upset.  There was a lot of crying and demands of, "I need to find my brothers!"  "My boys!", etc.  It was adorable.  I took her home and put her right down for her nap and she didn't wake up until we had to go to the bus stop, so that was nice.  With my quiet time I attempted to take a nap (Bree has been waking up a lot lately with nightmares or something), but my phone rang several times and I was getting texts.  After 20 minutes I gave up and settled in to take care of some business.

Not wanting to leave her brothers at school.

Reid came home just in time to get the boys from the bus stop.  They had a good day!  Good thing!

Giggles

The sound of giggles led me to find these two.  They are playing with sidewalk chalk and drawing "ice".  I love how much fun they have together and how much Bree loves her "boys".  

 
 

The last FULL week of Summer--Week 12

We have had a fun and full summer!  When it comes to back to school, there are parents who are excited and parents who are sad.  I don't know where I am.  Can I be in the middle??  We have had a good time together and if summer were to keep going, we would continue to have a good time together.  That being said, school provides a needed break for us from each other.  The boys can get on each other's nerves at times and so having school is another outlet for them.  I'm not looking forward to having to get kids out the door, though.  There's good and bad to school I guess.  I'm just in the middle.

Anyway, with this being the last full week of summer, we decided to pack it full of fun!  Oh, and errands.  On Monday Finn had an ENT and GI appointment.  We were at the Children's location here in the Springs from 9am until nearly noon.  It was a long morning and I was really, really tired.  Kai and Bree stayed with a babysitter and had a good time.  Kai never got dressed on Monday as after we got home we did chores around the house and just played.  The rest of the week was busy and we didn't need to wear ourselves out before it had even begun.

On Tuesday we went to the zoo with some friends.  It turned out to be Sawyer's 7th birthday that day (the boys had gone to his birthday party last Saturday).  It was a great birthday trip and the kids got to do some special things at the zoo just by chance.  The most awesome "special" thing was feeding an elephant.  It's normally $10/person to feed an elephant at zoo but we happened to get there right after they had handed out food to people for free.  There was a long line and all of the food was gone but Sawyer was whining just loud enough for some people in line to hear him and some nice older gentleman stepped forward and gave us their food so that our kids could feed the elephant.  We waited in line at least a half an hour but it was totally worth it for that once in a blue moon experience.  Even Bree got to feed the elephant a carrot and she loved it!  There were docents everywhere at the zoo that day and it was just a good day.  We stayed for five hours (which we have never done before!) and fed giraffes and elephants, touched a baby wallaby and a milk snake, and had a beaver wave at us.  The kids rode the carousel and even had some Dippin' Dots.  It was a really fun day!

Finn's favorite animals at the zoo are the Red River Hogs

Sawyer and Kai made friends with this giraffe before they even fed it

Feeding the elephant a cucumber

Feeding the elephant a carrot

Bree and I feeding the elephant

My kids plus Sawyer driving the antique airplane

Kai has decided that the wallabies are his favorite.  This is him petting a baby.

Kai and a snake

The boys plus Sawyer

A friendly beaver!

On Wednesday we went back to the Miller Athletic Center in Castle Rock.  This has become one of our favorite places.  This was meant to be the final play group event of the summer but only one other family showed up.  I'm glad someone showed though and they have two boys that match my kids so that was great.  Bree loves this place because of the awesome playground but she is very partial to the pool.  Bree might just be my swimmer!  And Finn has become very very daring in the water as well.  I need to get both of them swim lessons soon!  Kai on the other hand is content in the 1 foot deep end with a life jacket on .  It cracks me up!

The neat climbing area at Miller Park

The slide

More climbing with a couple of swings

The see-saw

Thursday was scheduled to be our down day but Wednesday night we got invited to go to Sky Zone with one of Finn's preschool friends, so we couldn't say no.  The early part of the day was filled with grocery shopping and relaxing, but then we had a great time at Sky Zone with friends.  Finn's preschool friends were an hour late so we didn't get to really see them, but at least we had invited Sawyer and Jude.  The boys had a good time together!

Finally, on Friday we went to Pirate's Cove.  Another friend from the ward (and the entire family--including dad!) came with us.  The kids had a good time swimming, digging in the sand, and riding on the lazy river.  Finn LOVED the lazy river and Bree loved being in the "just too deep" area of the pool where her feet didn't touch and floating with her ring float.  She wouldn't let me help her either.  She's going to give me some gray hair!!  Everyone was worn out from a long day in the pool and the sun.  Bree got a slight burn but luckily I got it the worst.  I told Reid last year that I wanted him to come with us this year but he didn't really want to,  I told him last night that next year he has to come with us.  At the very least he can help me keep sunscreen on back so I didn't end up lobster fried.  I'm going to be hurting for the next week or so.  Boo!

Today we are hanging out at home and relaxing before the back-to-school crazy starts next week.  I have a meeting with Finn's teacher on Monday afternoon and then we have the school open house on Tuesday before school starts on Wednesday.  Wow!  We made it through the summer.  I'm still in shock.  And the weather is still so nice there is so much more we can do.  I'm looking forward to the fall!

Summer Break--Week 11

After the disaster that was Monday, we needed a pick me up for the week.  Tuesday morning the boys had dentist appointments.  Finn was not not at all thrilled when I told him he was getting his teeth cleaned, too.  But he eventually calmed down (after I told him they only give prize tokens to good kids) and he did pretty well.  Finn started with watermelon flavored toothpaste but was gagging on it.  We eventually switched to the unflavored paste and he was able to get all of his teeth cleaned.  It was a first!!  Kai is very self-sufficient at the dentist and did great.  After they were done Bree kept saying "My turn!"  I didn't have an appointment for her because I wanted to wait until the boys were in school so I could have her in a one-on-one situation with me, but I'm glad she's excited about it.

After the dentist we headed to Costa Vida to meet a friend and celebrate her birthday.  Our sweet Liz/Sister Horton/Megan's Mom turned 55 and we wanted to celebrate with her.  It was nice to go to lunch and chat and have a good time.  The kids got restless though.

The kids coloring and waiting for Liz

Tuesday I was also able to get Kai to start talking about his fears with growth hormone.  He was concerned that the "shots" were going to be the same as the IV he got for the blood test.  Once I was able to assure him that was not the case, he was more accepting of the idea.  Sheew!

Wednesday we had a playdate with some of our friends from baseball.  TJ has been on Kai's team for the last two summers and Caden played on Kai's team last year and Finn's team this year.  Finn and Caden are both going into Kindergarten and have become really good friends.  Somehow these two have found each other and are great friends.  It's so funny to watch them play together and it makes my heart happy.

I found the boys in the same bed on Wednesday morning.  They were snuggling after waking up.  I tried to take a picture but it was dark.  When I turned on the flash silliness happened!

Thursday we did errands--groceries, etc.  And we had playgroup with the ward.  I have been in charge of the ward's playgroup for the last year (organizing the playdates) and so we have been super diligent about going to the park play dates every week.  This last week or so I hit my wall and am feeling burnt out.  I'm glad that school is starting so I can take a deep breath and not feel pressured to go to playgroup every week.  Another yay!

This little girl has really liked hot dogs lately.  She will ask for a corn dog and then strip off the bread and turn it into a hot dog on a stick!

Finally on Friday we headed up to Dinosaur Ridge on the west side of Denver.  It was neat!  I was not anticipating how neat it would seem to see dinosaur foot prints, bones, etc. right in the mountain.  Millions of years ago the mountains weren't there and it was flat land near a body of water and so you can see their bones, footprints, plant fossils, etc.  The kids had a good time and we really enjoyed the bus tour.  It's definitely worth a trip back.

There was a sandbox with fossil replicas buried in it.  All the kids can get one to keep.  They take it to the docent and he puts it in a nice display bag with a paper information sheet about the "fossil" they found.

Kai versus a dinosaur

In this picture, Kai has his feet in a cut out circle.  That's where someone came along decades ago and stole a dinosaur track.  They cut it right out of the mountain!

The boys are under a dinosaur track here.  When the dinosaurs stepped on the mud it would sink it several layers and then it dried.  From underneath this has the shape of a dinosaur footprint!

This little one ran around as Tinkerbell that night.

Saturday we wrapped up the week with a family hike around Spruce Mountain.  We had heard about this hike for a couple of people and decided to give it a try.  It was worth it and will definitely be a favorite place to hike for us.  Finn took a tumble while holding my cell phone for me, though, and he ended up with some big scrapes on his leg and my phone was cracked.  Poor kid.  I carried him a bit but he seemed to recover quickly.  My phone on the other hand....

A view from our hike

What a week!  And then there was only one more full week of summer.  WOW!

A Doozy of a Parenting Day

I'm so glad I got caught up on the blog yesterday.  That means I can blog about my doozy of a day the actual day it happens.

I woke up about 7:30 this morning (yes, we are on a bad summer schedule) and I'm glad that I started in a good place.  With nothing on the calendar for the day I decided we needed to get some things done and so we started getting ready.  When I took Finn down to start treatments he surprised me by saying out of nowhere, "I'm sad I have CF."  It was a moment that I knew was super important and here it was while he was sitting on the couch, the TV was on, and Bree was anxiously awaiting a "show".  I asked him what made him sad.  He said "CF".  So I asked him what part of CF.  He talked about how CF made his body feel sick at times.  And he also talked about being different and I told him everyone is different.  That's called being unique.  I told him that CF made him special.  But I also told him that it is hard to be different and I understand it is hard to have CF.  I thanked him for telling me that he was sad about it and told him that he could always tell me how he felt about CF.  And then he asked me not to tell anyone because it was just between me and him that he was sad about CF.  And just as it had started, our conversation was over and he was back to watching shows for treatment.

After morning treatments, we loaded up into the car to go get our back-to-school haircuts.  From there we headed to Skate City to try our hand at roller skating.  I had bought summer passes at the end of the year from school that was a fundraiser and gave us a good discount for the session and skate rental prices.  We had never been before but I thought it couldn't be harder than ice skating.  I was WRONG!  Poor Finn was so excited until the skates were actually on his feet and he realized it was harder than he thought.  And then of course, there were "trainers" that some kids had and the boys wanted some.  It took a while for another mom to finally tell me that you had to pay to rent them.  Ummm....what??  I didn't want to take off my skates to head back to rent them.  So, I told the boys to suck it up and Finn decided he would go out while holding my hand.  The problem is I am not a good skater and here I was trying to hold up Finn and Bree.  It was a complete disaster and one of the most stressful and worst situations I have ever encountered taking my kids out.  I was ready to throw in the towel and go home.  Kai on the other hand was taking his time and skating around on the carpet areas and getting more confident. We thankfully got back to where Kai was and Finn took off his skates and threw himself on the ground.  I gave Kai a little more time and then decided I would look into one of the "trainers".  It was more expensive to rent a "trainer" than it cost to get in and rent skates.  It was ridiculous but I rented one and figured anything I could do at this point to salvage the activity needed to be tried.  Kai took the trainer and then felt good enough to get out on the skate floor.  I went out with him (with Bree trailing behind) and got him going and once he stopped to listen to me he finally started going.  Bree really liked the idea of skating but would get nervous every once in a while.  I think the dark and the loud music didn't help at times, but overall I was proud of her and Kai.  Finn on the other hand did not do well, and I will admit that after my morning success with him, this was a complete mommy-fail!  After an hour and fifteen minutes I headed to the snack stand to get everyone some drinks and lunch.  Bree was happy to see food as was Kai.  And after we ate everything I treated the kids to cotton candy.  They have never had it before and I wanted to do something to make the day somewhat decent and I thought that would help.  Kai was excited but Bree and Finn were skeptical.  The two youngest both put a piece in their mouths and then just spit them out.  So Kai dug in!  On the way home Finn finally gave it a try and realized it was good.  But I still ended up with some to eat myself after we were home.

This was before the complete melt down

Honestly, he looked a lot more pathetic before I got out my camera

Yay for cotton candy!

You'd almost think she liked it!

And then later in the afternoon I was outside getting something ready for someone who was coming over to pick it up when the phone started ringing.  Kai came out to let me know but I still ended up missing it by a second.  I realized it was the endocrinology office and hoped they would leave a message.  After the item had been picked up I was able to go into the house and listen to the message.  It was the endocrinologist calling to let me know that Kai's test results were in.  His cortisol test was normal but his growth hormone test showed that he did have a growth hormone deficiency.  Normal levels are above a 10 and the highest he ever scored during the 4 hour test was 3.3.  The doctor told me to call him on Wednesday (he is in the remote office here in the Springs tomorrow) to talk to him but in the meantime he was starting the insurance paperwork to get Kai going on growth hormone injections.  Unfortunately, Kai was hiding behind a wall and overheard the message.  He came out crying and ran off to his room.  After a quick call to his dad, I went in to talk to him.  He was hiding under the covers and crying and refusing to talk to me or come out.  So, I tried asking him what specifically upset him but after not getting a response I told him that I would tell him what the doctor said.  So, I explained to him that his body does not make enough of the chemical he needs to grow big.  I told him that he had a friend in the ward who also takes growth hormone and he said the shots aren't bad at all.  I also told him that I was happy we know what his body needs to grow and that we can get that for him.  And then I told him it was ok to be sad and that I was going to leave him alone and he could come out when he was ready.  He eventually came out after 15 minutes and seemed to do much better as he ran off to play with Finn.  We haven't talked about it since and I figure we have another week or two before we have to again, but wow--what a day!

I'm glad I was caught up so that I could update the blog with today's events.  And I'll do my best to stay updated as we go back into the school year and start this journey of growth hormone with Kai.

The Lazy Days of Summer-weeks 9 and 10

The last two weeks have been really, really low-key.  I woke up not feeling well on Tuesday the 21st and it got worse as the week went on.  That week we did not really venture anywhere other than a couple of birthday parties that the kids were invited to.  And I had a friend volunteer to take the kids on Friday night so that Reid and I could go to the temple.  It had been so long since I had been that despite how I was feeling, I knew I should go.

And then of course, Bree got sick.  She woke up with a fever early Tuesday morning and battled it for most of this past week. Whatever the virus is, it has now made it's way to all of us, and I'm just hoping that we are fighting it and close to getting better.  I'm also grateful that on Monday the 27th none of us were sick so I was able to take Kai into Denver to do all of his bloodwork and his 4-hour growth hormone test.  Bree and Finn went to friends' houses and Kai and I spent our morning playing Battleship, Connect 4, and watching a movie while he did his bloodwork.  He did not do well with getting the IV in, but once it was in, he did just fine.

Here are the few pictures I have from these last two weeks.

Finn's feeding tube supplies for the month included a new g-tube "button".  We attempted and successfully completed our first at home button change on Sunday evening.  It wasn't perfectly smooth, but it was good to get done and have under our belt.

My attempt at getting us back on some sort of summer schedule.  Here Bree and Finn are coloring and Kai is working on his 3rd grade workbook.  I'm trying to get Finn to color more to strengthen his fingers and get ready for writing.

Photo evidence that we had a pajama day, or two.

Photo evidence that I was working out on my treadmill and saw a Prairie dog who thought he was a bird and could crawl along the top of our fence for a ways.

After being in the house all week we had plans to go to the zoo with a friend.  But the friend got sick.  And at this time I just thought I had allergies.  So, we went to the Pioneer museum for Pioneer Day (July 24th) and then we went out for pizza at Louie's afterwards.  It was yummy!

The museum photo area.  Can you find Bree?!

The display in the Museum about the Waldo Canyon Fire.  Remnants of the Flying W Ranch.

Bree was invited to a birthday party for a little girl in nursery turning 3.  It was a princess theme.

Kai and I were asked to water our friend's garden while they were out of town.

Bree ran a bunch of errands with me yesterday while all of the boys stayed home sick.  We hit the big sale at Safeway and there was barely any room for her in the cart.  She helped me stack and count the yogurts.