Finn's 7th Birthday

 Ahhhh.....technical difficulties.  The reality is that I barely sit down at the computer anymore and when I do, it's after the kids have gone to bed and I'm just not in the blogging mood.  And then there is the complicated issue of getting pictures from my phone to the blog (or from Reid's phone to Google photos to the blog.)  The picture issue is what has held up this blog post for nearly two months.  But here it is--Finn's 7th birthday!

Finn's birthday this year got spread out over several days.  Lucky kid!  His actual birthday fell on a Monday, but we gave him his big present on the Saturday before hand.  He got a brand new, BMX-style bike.  It's a 20 inch bike, which means it's just slightly too tall for him to get on and off easily.  But we figure by the time it's bike-riding weather again next year, it will be just right.  For now, when it is good enough weather outside to ride, Reid has taught him how to use a rock as a stool to help him get on the bike and he taught him how to "crash" to get off in the grass.  He loves having a big kid bike.  And the awesome green color is also a huge plus!

Learning to steer into the grass to crash and get off

 On Monday we celebrated Finn's birthday with birthday cookies at school and then dinner out to Texas Roadhouse.  I should have suspected he wasn't feeling well when he ate very little of his dinner.  He ordered all of his favorites and normally this is the dinner we can count on him eating quite well.  He loves the rolls, fried pickles, steak bites and mac 'n cheese.  But this particular night he just wasn't eating as well as I would have thought.  We managed to get the car in the driveway before he threw up.  Ugghhh....poor kid.

He did sit in the birthday saddle.

Once we got home, he just wasn't feeling up to cake and he only made it half way through opening his presents before he asked to go bed.  That green bucket--that's his that he keeps for his tummy episodes and it makes me sad when it has to follow him around the house.  That night I moved his mattress into the living room and I slept on the couch next to him.  I had his feeding pump going super slow (10 mls an hour--that's 2 teaspoons) with only water and miralax.  This is the third time he has had continuous vomiting like this and I'm still unsure if these episodes are typical stomach bugs or if it's indicative of a blockage forming.  Blockages are quiet common in CF for many reasons and with Finn's chronic constipation we are lucky that we've never had a severe one.  But, these episodes make me wonder.  Anyway, with his pump on a slow drip he was still not keeping anything down.  It took until nearly 4am for the vomiting to stop and for his tummy to finally keep a little fluid down.  And not long after that he had a good trip to the potty and it all seemed to be getting better (see my confusion about constipation/blockage?).  Clearly he stayed home from school the next day and I worked on getting him hydrated and rested.

Tuesday the 18th he was excited to finish opening his last two presents and he even let us sing to him and have cake.  He never did have any cake himself, though.  He just wasn't ever up for it.

The last gift he opened was a Star Wars jelly bean machine.  He loves Star Wars and jelly beans so he was thrilled with this!  I was secretly hoping we could use it as an enzyme dispenser but it turns out that the enzymes just didn't work with the machine which means he actually has to use it for jelly beans.  I can tell you that he's not disappointed about that!

 On Wednesday the 19th he went back to school, but later that night he threw up again.  Good thing there was no school scheduled for Thursday and Friday as it was Parent-Teacher Conference time.  Thursday he did have a CT scheduled for his sinuses and so we had to drive to Highlands Ranch (south side of Denver) early in the morning to be there.  He was a champ and even allowed me to leave the room while he did the CT on his own.  I stood in the control room and unfortunately have enough experience looking at his CTs to know that what I was seeing was not good.  I was right, as his ENT called within two hours to tell me that he had complete opacification of all of his sinuses and that he needed surgery.  We were still in Denver at the time and I didn't feel like talking so I just let it go to voicemail and listened to the message after.

So, you know those technical difficulties I mentioned earlier?  Those are what are keeping me from rotating this picture.  It would just be too much work, so you'll have to deal with it sideways.  Sorry!  Anyway, the reason we were still in Denver when the ENT called with the CT results was because we decided to take the opportunity to stop at Park Meadows Mall and visit the Lego and Disney stores.  We first had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then we moved on to the fun shopping portion of our day.  Can anyone say "Retail Therapy"?!

Bree at lunch

 The boys spent their allowance money on purchases at the Lego store.  It was the first time they had spent their own money and they have been saving it for quite a while.  Both boys had enough money for a really good Lego kit and so they had a hard time deciding which ones to get.  After they made their decisions, we headed to the Disney store where Bree and I were in heaven.  Seriously, walking into the Disney store is almost as good as being in Disney World.  I love it!  Bree is in love with Doc McStuffins these days, but since we don't have cable she doesn't get to see it often.  She was enamored with the whole display of Doc McStuffins toys, though, and asked for all kinds of them for Christmas.  I think she thinks Santa is made out of money!  Since the boys had bought some new toys, when we got back to the car I gave Bree some toys that her Aunt Kristi had brought for her during the summer and that I had been hiding away for just the right moment.  She got an Aurora and Cinderella doll, and Sophia the First dress up shoes and a new princess crown.  It more than made up for not buying anything new for her that day.

Here she is later that day wearing her new princess crown while swinging at Sister Longshore's house while Kai was in piano lessons.

And hear is the big 7 year old swinging.  He looks so thin in this picture.  Since his g-tube he has gained quiet a bit of weight (at least 15 pounds in the last two years) but he also looses it very quickly.  With the stomach issues he had going on, he ended up losing a good three pounds in a matter of days and I could immediately see it in his face.  Unfortunately, at this point we were only three days into the stomach issues and it would be a couple of more weeks before I figured it out.  :(

 Since my kids did not have birthday parties this year, I gave Finn the chance to pick an activity for his birthday and I let Kai invite a friend to come along with us.  Finn choose the North Pole (much to my encouragement to find something else) and then Kai invited his friend Nathan from church to come along with us.  So, we went to the North Pole on Saturday the 22th to round out Finn's birthday week.  I was smart this time and took a Dramamine on the way to the park and so I was able to handle the rides much better than I did last year.

Reid and Bree taking a selfie on the Christmas Ornament ride

Finn, Nathan, and Kai on the bucking bronco type ride

Bree LOVES rides and loves having her picture taken on them!

Kai and Nathan--Why can other people's kids look at camera and mine just can't?  I have gone through all of these pictures from our trip and seriously, Nathan is looking at the camera in almost all of them and Kai isn't looking in a single one!

Bree and Finn

My Ham on a motorcycle--Love this girl!

Everyone on the polar bear

And a final picture before we leave for the day.  We spent more time there that day then we ever have.  We were there just an hour or so shy of closing time, after having arrived right when they opened.  The kids had a great time.  

Finally, on November 2nd Finn had his 7 year well check.  I nearly cancelled the appointment as he had just recently been seen by his normal ENT, had a follow-up for a second opinion with another ENT the day before, and had his annual CF appointment scheduled for the next Monday (the 7th).  But on Monday the 31st I got a phone call from the school nurse to inform me that a confirmed case of the flu had been reported in Finn's classroom.  And since he hadn't had his flu shot yet, I was worried and decided to keep the pediatrician appointment, solely for that flu shot.  I'm so glad we kept that appointment!  I was reminded why I love our pediatrician and drive 25 minutes to see her when there is a pediatric office literally out my back door a half a mile away.  She asked about the ENT issues and I was grateful for her feedback and advice.  And then randomly, I mentioned that Finn had started throwing up 2 weeks prior and still was experiencing a complete lack of appetite and random vomiting every few days.  She was convinced that he was constipated and sent us for a belly x-ray.  I was so glad to get that x-ray because as I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure what causes these episodes.  The belly x-ray showed that he was completely and utterly full of poop.  Enough that even the radiologist was impressed.  And most doctors will tell you it takes a lot of poop to impress a radiologist.  The pediatrician called me when she saw the x-rays and told me that "any other kid would be writhing in belly pain".  We had been talking about his pain tolerance and the fact that he just may be used to living with pansinusitis and honestly, she's convinced that his pain tolerance is just incredibly high.  Between the CT scan and then this x-ray, I'm leaning toward agreeing with her.  The poor kid has no idea what it feels like to be normal.  I got off the phone with the pediatrician and walked in to see Finn bouncing around the tennis court having a great time at his weekly lesson.  He sure did not look to be in any pain or discomfort.  So, that first weekend in November, once he got home from school and had a good long 3 day weekend, we ran a miralax/ex-lax cleanout.  It is amazing how much good that did for him and his appetite.  Oh, and since then I have found out from another family that visited the ER for a stomach virus around the same time that there was a stomach virus going around that caused about 24 hours of acute symptoms but then lingered for 2-3 weeks just causing your gut motility to go really slow.  Because of Finn's already slow motility and CF GI issues, I'm sure that this virus just paralyzed his system and caused all of this back up.  I'm glad we've got him back to normal now.  And I'm glad that because of his CF diagnosis, I have the tools at home to take care of these issues and don't need to go to the ER (like that other family did).  I grateful the doctors trust me and allow me to take care of him at home, as several CF families thought we should be admitted to do this in the hospital.  The reality is that because of all of the medications and the G-tube that we have for him, everything they do in the hospital, we can do here (except IV fluids).  And so, for that I am extremely grateful that his CF diagnosis leads to much more proactive care which in turn keeps us in the comfort of our home instead of in a hospital.  What a blessing!  And what a crazy 7th birthday this kid had.  We love him so much!

The pediatrician texted me this picture of his x-ray.  A normal belly x-ray you can see some black snake like lines which are the intestines and air (black equals air, white equals bone, and gray equals other).  Notice all of the gray in Finn's x-ray?  That's tissue just full of stuff.  All the way full.  And on the right (his left) is his g-tube.  The x-ray technician made me angry as she came out and started asking all kinds of questions about it in the lobby.  She clearly had no idea what a feeding tube was or why one would have one, and she certainly didn't respect his privacy in asking and talking about it in the waiting room.  Ahhh.....joy.

Bree-school and other updates on our peanut

Right after Labor Day we started a co-op type of preschool with several other families in the ward. Bree is the youngest of the group of 6 kids, but she has jumped right on in and loves to learn.  The other kids in our group are all the youngest kids of several large families and so the moms are all pretty laid back about what actually happens at "school".  This works out well as the expectations are low, so when I host at my house every 5 weeks most of the kids and parents are pretty thrilled that we accomplish a few things.  We have six kids in our group, but we rotate to 5 houses as there is a set of twins that are with us.  And each week we are taking a different letter and talking about it.  So far we have hosted at our house two times and have had the letters "C" and "H".  It's been fun to find books, crafts, activities, and snacks that help us talk about our letters.  I also like to sing rhymes and songs with the kids and work on counting a bit.  I've been told by two different kids now that our house is their favorite.  (Shhhh....don't tell the other moms!)  I think most of the other moms also do a fantastic job and Bree is getting a good experience outside of the house and learning to play and get along with others.  Outside of her co-op school, we work on the letters at home together and she has gotten through a good 2/3 of the alphabet.  She can recognize both upper and lower case letters of those letters and she's starting to learn how to identify beginning sounds in a word.  She can write her name and Finn's name and she begs every day to do more and more school.

One day her cousin Maci was talking about going to her preschool and she called it Bree-school.  Her mom shared that with me and I thought it was a perfect description of what we are doing here.  Bree loves school and she insists on having it every day of the week that she possibly can! 

Outside Ms. Charity's house for the first day of her co-op preschool

Working on alphabet flashcards with me one afternoon

Decorating our cookies for "c" week (I let the kids make a few different shapes, but required them to all do at least one letter of the ones they had already learned.  So, that's why you see the "b")

We had quite a mess of car troubles in September and so we spent a fair amount of time at the Honda dealer.  The first time we were there, there were these mounts for iPads but no iPads.  Just a few days later the iPads were there, thank goodness!

Bree insisted on taking this picture of me in the kitchen

For Bree-school we collected several preschool workbooks from friends (you know, the ones we buy at the start of summer with good intentions but then never get beyond the first 10 pages of so).  Some of the books had stickers and one in particular had lots of alphabet stickers.  Her cousin Maci had an alphabet shirt she had shown Bree, so Bree made her own alphabet shirt using the stickers for the letters that we had worked on at home up to that point.

This sweet girl has completely dropped naps, but in September she was still taking the occasional one.  One day she kept telling me she was tired and I was busy doing other things and then I noticed it was quite.  I found her in her bed asleep.  She is just so good!  I thought that if I had tried to lay her down it wouldn't work, but apparently she really meant it that day.

At the beginning of October my sweet pea got quite sick.  Finn had a version of this where he was running a fever and tired, but then he sprang back (after having a fever just in the evening a couple of nights).  After three days of fevers not really dropping below 100 even with tylenol and ibuprofen, I took Bree into the Urgent Care at our YMCA.  I was reminded why I told myself I would never take my kids to an Urgent Care (the pediatrician is what I should have done).  The doctor insisted on getting a urine sample to make sure she wasn't dehydrated (which she was) and then she gave me a prescription and a dose of medicine for her.  Of course she didn't tell us until afterward that the medicine was not the same as what she had wrote the prescription for, but was rather a dose of tylenol because Bree was fevery, but I had already given her a dose of tylenol just an hour and a half before (like I said, the fever wasn't coming down with the tylenol).  So, the doctor overdosed her on tylenol, ran a urine test that my insurance refused to pay for, and then diagnosed her with strep without actually running a strep test and gave her a prescription for azithromyacin.  Ugghhh....I debated on making another appointment for the next day at the pediatrician, but Bree was so sick that I decided trying the antibiotic couldn't hurt.  Within 12 hours of her first dose, she turned the corner, the fever dropped , and she was less lethargic and willing to actually drink something.  So, who knows?  Did she have strep?  We will never know.  But I'm glad she got better.  She got me really worried as she refused any liquid for days and just slept and slept.  I was glad to get my peanut back to normal.

We've had some time to play, just mom and Bree.  Her favorite place is the park.  And when it's nice out, I agree with her!

On Wednesday October 12 th the boys had a delay start and it was a dreary foggy cold day.  So, after dropping the boys off at school, Bree and I headed to the mall for some fun time together.  We visited the doggies at the pet store, had Chick-fil-a for lunch and Baskin Robbins for dessert.  We also stopped to look at some clothes for the boys and just enjoyed walking around and being together.

Finn's Update

Finn's schedule is full of all kinds of fun.  He is continuing his music class that he began last year and is doing a great job learning the piano and music theory.  He also has begun (finally!) weekly tennis lessons and is improving rapidly there.  He really enjoys tennis and looks forward to his Wednesday lesson every week.  He says he wants to be "really, really good" at tennis, so we will see what that means.  And on Saturdays he is still working on his swim lessons.  Mid-July he had a major setback with swimming and the last several months have been working on regaining his trust and confidence.  I was just about to toss in the towel last week and then he had a great lesson and was doing well.  It's honestly one week at a time with it, but I'm hoping he will get there.

In school, Finn is doing well.  His reading is progressing and he has recently found a love of Magic Treehouse Books.  They are still fairly difficult for him, so we work on reading them together slowly.  I'm just glad he has found something that he wants to read!  And in math his teacher says he is one of her top students.  He does a great job but I have to admit that when I try to help him at home I often do not understand his logic and reasoning.  Somehow he will get the correct answer (most of the time) but I have no idea how he got there doing what he was doing.  It's funny to me, as Kai and I tend to think and process the same way, but Finn's logic does not seem at all logical to me! 

He has finally lost his two front teeth.  He waited until the just fell out of his mouth.  The last day he could not eat at all and he could easily twist and manipulate this tooth.  The first of the two front teeth was actually lost on the Sunday of the Primary Program.  He sat through the program with a tissue as it was bleeding a bit and another family sitting towards the front of the chapel admitted to watching his tooth throughout the program--it was loose enough that they could tell!  We all thought it would come out during the program but it made it until opening exercises of primary the next hour.  Sheew!  I don't know what we would have done had he interrupted the program with his tooth issues!  

Our trip to the dentist occurred before he lost the front teeth and the hygienist was not impressed at all with his "brushing" of the front teeth.  The dentist had to tell her that it was probably hard to brush the front teeth with them being as wiggly as they were, which was exactly right.  And I should know since I'm the one that still brushes his teeth.

Finn has been swimming with Ms. Sophie and keeping a consistent teacher for the last two months has been very helpful.  She is very patient with him and he enjoys his time with her (for the most part).

The 1st grade sampler is a night for the kids to show their parents what they are learning in their "specials" classes.  We do mini-rotations and go to technology, library, art, music, PE, and counseling,  Finn was very excited for this night and the chance to take me to school and show me what he was doing.  He really is loving school, which is a welcome relief.

Another month, another shipment of medical supplies.  He has had a slew of health issues (mostly minor) these past two months.  But that is for another post.  

Of course, October was also Finn's birthday and so that deserves a post all on it's own.  As far as school and extra circular activities go, Finn is doing great, having fun, and contributing to running me around town like crazy.

Kai's Update

Since school has started it has been very busy our house.  I thought it would be easier to do the updates on the kids individually, instead of a chronological update on everyone, so that I could remember everything going on in each of their lives.

First up, KAI!  With school back in session Kai has a lot going on.  He attends Gifted Reading and Math classes at school.  Each class is one hour each day, so that means he is out of his classroom two full hours each day.  The gifted kids also have more of a homework load.  He is doing a great vocabulary building program in reading called Wordly Wise and is learning words (and having spelling tests on!) such as segregate, conspicuous, eloquent, arrogant, and squalor.  It's been fun to see him learn these words and learn how to use them in their various forms.  (For example, one word was abundant, but he had to learn how to use it as abundance and abundant.)

After school, Kai has scouts weekly with our local ward, piano weekly with his amazingly sweet piano teacher, and weekly swim lessons.  While we try to keep swim lessons to Saturday morning, in September that did not always work and so he had many weeks with after school activities 3 days a week.  Adding in the extra homework was overwhelming to him and he was struggling to get it done.  Early in September he had an opthamalogist visit (as a follow up to his optometrist visit earlier in the year) and we thankfully got a new prescription for glasses.  I had not decided what to do about his prescription, until he got so upset at school that he snapped his glasses in half.  The poor kid was under a lot of stress.  And the start of the year is very hard for him, as he struggles with changes to his schedule and so the first two months of school are normally just overwhelming for him to begin with.  Add in the fact that he is such a perfectionist, and well, we had the perfect storm.  I got several calls and emails from his teachers (he has two--his classroom teacher and his gifted teacher) expressing their concern over his anxiety levels and asking for help.  Early in October I attended a meeting with both teachers and the school counselor to talk strategies.  His classroom teacher is AMAZING.  He could not have been assigned a better teacher this year in terms of understanding who he is and being willing to think creatively to help him.  Our conversation was very productive and by the time we got to Parent-Teacher Conference night in mid-October I heard reports that he was a very different kid and was doing so well.  Both teachers are thrilled that the "old" happy Kai is back.  And he is.  He is happy, more settled, and we have managed to get his weekly schedule under control. (Oh, and he is back to completing his classwork and homework in manageable time frames without fights or tantrums.  Seriously, it's so much better!)

Mid-September all 3 kids had a joint dentist appointment and all were cavity free.  To celebrate we stopped to pick up some popcorn from a gourmet popcorn store and brought it home for movie night.

Scenes like these make my heart happy.  Our street is full of older families and no one for my kids to play with.  Over the last two years we have gotten to know the one other family on our street with kids our age and they love to play together.  It's a "yours, mine, and ours" family so sometimes not everyone is there, but when they are there is a 9 year-old girl (who is very sweet with my little ones), two 7 year-old (almost 8!) boys, a 3 year old girl, and a 2 year-old girl.  When the weather is nice and they are all out, they love to ride their bikes in our cul-de-sac and around the grass in the middle of our street.  Kai is finally a proficient enough bike rider to actually enjoy these games.

Bree was taking pictures and Kai did this for her.  Just proof that our happy Kai is back and more settled into his year and routine!

One day after school in mid-October it was nice outside and so instead of going home we stopped at the park to play.  These three were chasing me, "the tickle monster", and I made them stop for a picture because I did not want to forget how much fun we were having, just us.

The Rest of August

The second day of school I had a lot on the calendar.  I had a friend that had recently moved here from Virginia that I had randomly run into at the outlets two weeks prior and we had scheduled a play date at a park in Castle Rock.  It was going to be quick as I wanted to get back to school in time for lunch to make sure the routine went well, as we really didn't get to do what was planned on the first day due to the medical emergency.  Well, not far into my drive to Castle Rock I noticed the light on the dashboard indicating an issue with tire pressure lit up.  I thought it was funny because that happens rather frequently in the winter when it's much colder outside and here it was hot and August.  When we got to the exit in Castle Rock that we needed we were stopped at a signal and then once I tried to start going to make it the last mile to the park, I found the car was not wanting to move or move quickly.  And then I hear the thudding.  I'm grateful we made it all the way to the exit and that we only had a little more to go.  I got to the park and pulled into the first parking spot I could find and got out to find this.  I have never had a flat tire on the road before.  It was a completely new experience.  I was glad I knew where the spare was and I worked on getting it out and then I googled how to change a tire.  Yep--I've never changed a tire!  Thank goodness for google.  But I was struggling to get the lugnuts off.  They were tight!  A couple of ladies walked by on the last of a morning walk and I started talking to them to see if I could grab any help or advice.  Neither of them knew what to do either, though, so we decided I'd be best going inside the athletic center and asking for help.  I wanted to wait for my friend, though, so I kept working on it, knowing that eventually I would head inside.  Well, the ladies were nice enough to flag down the next man they walked past.  He happened to be a park employee who also knew how to change tires.  So, he hopped over and showed me what to do and had our tire changed to the spare in a matter of 10 minutes or so.  He was a super nice guy and it turned out he is also the trail "designer" for many of the local parks.  I was glad he was there that morning to help me out.  By that point I knew I wasn't going to make it back to school for lunch so I dragged my feet and spent a lot longer with my friend at the park, as I did not want to deal with the tire situation.  The tires were relatively new tires and I had also purchased a protection plan of sorts at Discount Tire.  There happened to be a franchise just a few miles from where I was at, so after our park time I headed over to the store.  They told me it would take two hours for me to get my tire repaired.  So, we left the busted tire at the store and drove on our donut over to Walmart where Bree and I had lunch and then did some light grocery shopping.  After that we returned to the tire center to check.  It had been nearly two hours and they said it would be another hour before they got to our tire.  I think I just about cried at that point because I needed to get home to get the boys from school (they aren't riding the bus this).  My near-tears was enough to kick their butts in gear and just around the 2 1/2 hour mark our tire was patched up and back on the van ready to go.  Thank goodness.  Bree and I got home with enough time to run the groceries in and then head back out to get the boys.  It had been an exhausting day!

While Bree and I had so much time together those weeks we spent lots of time playing, reading, and having "picnics'" (we pick one of her favorite TV shows and eat lunch on a blanket on the floor).  I also used the time to get some running in on the treadmill.

That Sunday (the first one after school started) this girl was super tired.  But I was surprised to see this.  This was a first for her.  She has pretty much dropped naps, but every once in a while it just catches up to her.

I was shocked the first time it happened and I was even more shocked when it happened again a day later.  And without her blanket?!  She must have been beyond exhausted.

After the boys had been in school for a week or so, Bree started asking about doing school with me.  So we started working on school concepts at home.  I've been combining some worksheets from Starfall (this one above is from that site) with some preschool workbooks and she loves it.  She insists on doing school everyday now and she seriously won't stop until we've done at least an hour's worth.  It's really been good for her, but it does take up quite a bit of our time.

Kai read all of the Percy Jackson series this summer and was very excited to start this book on Greek Gods.  It's the thickest and biggest book he has ever read, but he did it.  It took him a LONG time.

On Friday August 26th our boys had "assessment day".  Our school district uses this day to administer some beginning of the year assessments.  They do it in rotations by last name and the kids come to school for just a couple of hours to take the assessment.  Since we had the 10-12 shift, we had the rest of the afternoon to go visit the new Ft. Collins temple and take the Open House tour.  Finn had been looking forward to this for quite a while.  It was special to be able to walk through the temple with our kids and to point out pictures and explain various parts of the temple to them.  The inside of the Ft. Collins temple is amazing and definitely one of our favorites.  I wish it were closer!  

We took our time walking around and enjoying all there was to see at the Open house (we had driven 2 hours to get there after all).  

I love watching these two together.  They have a very special bond.  As I watch my children interact, I've been touched to see just how special Finn is in our family.  He is the glue that ties my other two children together.  Yes, he is the middle child but it's more than that.  He loves and adores his big brother and wants to be just like him, and yet at the same time he takes the role of big brother to Bree quite seriously.  He wants her to be happy and engaged in whatever he is doing, even if Kai doesn't want her tagging along.  Kai is at the age where friends are starting to become more important than his family and siblings and he's learning that those siblings are "annoying", but Finn is good at holding it all together.  I'm grateful for the effort he puts into making sure that Bree is a part of what he does.
Oh, and there are lots more pictures from the open house, but they aren't good at all!  Some passer-by offered to take our family picture and well, it was a disaster.  I don't even know how she managed to take such bad pictures, but she did.  Oh well, at least we have these few.

After visiting the open house we headed to Texas Roadhouse in Ft. Collins for dinner.  We decided it would be better to eat and let traffic die down before heading home at what would have been rush-house.  Our hostess saw our clothes and immediately asked if we had been at the temple.  I don't know if she was a member or not (but I got the feeling she wasn't) and she said they had had many people come through dressed up after visiting the temple and that she wanted to go, but had not had the time to visit yet.  I encouraged her to go and told her how easy it had been.

By the end of the month my jogging had been going quite well.  This was my first 5 mile day and I was quite proud of it.  Unfortunately early into September I hurt my foot and have been unable to run for nearly three weeks.  It's nearly healed and I'm anxious to get back to the treadmill and keep burning those calories!

And really--how is Walmart already getting decked out for Christmas?  And nearly $400 for my girl to ride in a battery operated princess carriage?  Umm....no.  But that doesn't keep her from dreaming about.  She loved this and would love to have it.  But really, my girl doesn't need a carriage to be a princess in my book!

First day of school 2016

Kai-4th, Finn-1st, and Bree-mommy prescchool

The boys went back to school on August 17th.  It is Finn's first time going to school all day, and Kai's 6th year of school (!).  The first day of school was a good warm day, and strangely enough it went by really fast.  Going back to school is always a transition, not just for the kids but for me, too.  Bree misses these boys so much when they are at school.

Kai--first day of 4th grade

Finn lining up with his teacher--I wanted a picture with her but she was very overwhelmed that first day as she was hired just one week before school started.  She is a veteran teacher who had been out of the classroom for a while and was then thrown in at the last minute.  Poor thing has had a steep learning curve.  As for Finn, he didn't know very many of the kids in his class (just three or so from his years of Pre-K and K) so he was nervous in this group of kids. 

After I dropped Finn off with his teacher, we made our way over to the other side of the building for the 4th grade lines.  Kai's teacher is also a veteran teacher and has always taught 2nd grade.  Due to many of the changes going on in education these days, she made the jump to 4th grade this year.  As sad as she was about that, Kai was thrilled.  It's the first time he has gotten a teacher whose name he recognized and who he knew before the first day.  His 2nd grade classroom was right next to hers.  And we had heard many good things from friends in the last year about her, so we were excited.  And over the last month we have learned that all of the good things we have heard were spot on.  We love his teacher!

After seeing that Kai was happy and settled, I headed back to check on Finn.  I found him in this group of boys and did not get my camera out fast enough, as they were all standing in this circle comparing muscles.  It was quite amusing.  Finn's teacher tells us that he has become quite social and has many friends.  He enjoys playing soccer at recess and has a firm team that he plays with.  He has told me several times over the last month that 1st grade is so much better than Kindergarten and that he really likes school.  That makes this mommy heart happy.

The PTO had a message of encouragement for the kids as they entered the building.

Poor Bree!  I mentioned that first day went by quickly, and it did.  After dropping the boys off and visiting with friends for a bit, Bree and I headed back to the house.  But it was quickly time for lunch and I wanted to be there for Finn's first school lunch to ensure that our plan for his enzyme dosing went well.  So, we pulled up to school not long before his lunch time and were greeted by the health aide coming out of the building.  When I told her that we were coming to see her and to check on lunch, she asked if I could handle Finn's enzymes and lunch that day as they had a bit of excitement on the way.  It was then that I realized that the sirens in the distance were getting louder and heading to the building.  I assured her that I would handle his enzymes and then I went to the office window to grab all of his stuff for lunch.  The office was closed (blinds closed and doors shut) as the paramedics came in a tended to a student.  From what I gathered after the fact, a 3rd grade girl with a seizure disorder had suffered a seizure just mere hours into the first day of school.  Poor thing.  But I was glad that I was there to help Finn and relieve the office staff so they could attend to her at the time.

After lunch, Bree and I headed into town to grab some cupcakes for the boys as an after school treat. (It was after the trip for the cupcakes that Bree fell asleep in the car.)  They were excited to see these yummy treats waiting for them at the end of the first day.  Kai had an ice cream sundae cupcake.

I think Finn's was a "birthday cake" cupcake, but I can't remember.

It was a good first day of school.  The kids got started out on the right foot and I was surprised at how quickly the time went by those first few days.  I had been concerned that 7 hours of just me and Bree would be long and well, slow, but those first few days were certainly not slow.