Meeting My New Niece

Brynlee and Addison


Taylee and Addison


My niece Aubree adopting Addison as a cousin for the day :-)

I got to meet my newest niece today! She is so adorable! My little girls LOVED holding her. In fact, Bryns kept squeezing in next to whoever was holding little Addison. So cute! She loves babies!
Congrats Lacey and Jason!!

Hmmmm...

Sean was able to meet us in Pocatello today. He was on his way home from Salt Lake and we were coming back from Burley. He was so sweet and took Paxton with him so I could spend time with my sister and aunt and uncle who are in town for a few days...Pax is so much fun and is absolutely adorable, but he makes it hard for me to get QUALITY time chatting with anyone when I'm keeping him from getting black eyes or falling down stairs. It was so much fun to spend time catching up with family members until Sean sent me this...

Yep. That is MY toothbrush. While unpacking from his trip, my sweet hubby thought that this would be a suitable toy to entertain Paxton.

Good thing he is so cute.

BTW, Pax is doing great. He saw the pediatric cardiologist on Wednesday. They still have not found any reason for the low oxygen levels, but we are going down to Primary Children's next Tuesday for an echocardiogram (basically an ultrasound of the heart). Pax has to be sedated for it. Hopefully after that we will start finding some answers :-)

AND, Taylee is now in a splint. Yay! No hard cast! She loves being able to take it off and on. We have to do various elbow excercises throughout the day. The doctor said that everything is growing back the way it should and the splint should be off before we go to Florida.

4th of July

We had a great time for the 4th of July. Family. Food. And a ton of Fireworks. Oh yes, we had a blast!
In one very important way, this 4th of July was very different...the girls were not scared of the fireworks. Taylee wasn't quite sure about them at first and she cuddled with Grandma Johnson,

But I had to keep a close eye on Bryns because she wanted to help Sean blow eveything up!! (Don't let that innocent look fool you, she is total monkey on the inside :-)


I love watching my children play with sparklers. I love seeing the joy and wonder in their eyes. I love how the lights reflect. It is one of my favorite images of the 4th of July.


And here we will introduce our two pyros. Pyro 1: Uncle Jordan

Pyro 2: Daddy! (with Jr along to help...Sean said that he needed to teach him while he was young)

Sean was able to get a ton of **exciting** fireworks. The kiddos LOVED them (both young and old kiddos!). Taylee sat by her cousin Hunter and they booed when the two pyros lit a fountain. They only wanted the big, loud, **exciting** fireworks.

We had such a great time and we can't wait for next year's show!

Random

Here are some random pictures that I found on my phone...
Sean did such a great job as Taylee's coach. The other kids loved him!

My parents have helped us out quite a bit with watching kids this summer as we have gone to this drs appt or that one. Here was a sweet moment that I caught. Bryns loves these old "Where's Waldo" books. Many times I have found her cuddled up with Grandpa Gneiting looking for Waldo.

I don't camp. I have great memories of camping as a kid. I want my kids to love the outdoors. But I hate being dirty. I hate sleeping on the floor. I hate not having a real bathroom. This might be the closest thing my kids get to camping...at least until they're older and I won't have to stress about them trying to jump into the fire:-)

Before Taylee broke her arm I took the kiddos down to Salt Lake and met up with Sean for a night. The girls loved Hogle Zoo, especially the train and the fake elephant that sneezed on them. Paxton? Well, he did not like it. I think he liked the zoo, or at least he would have like it if it would not have been combined with a S-L-O-W 4 hour drive (what is with all this construction everywhere??) and then being confined to the stroller. We made it back to the giraffes and poor little kid totally lost it. He screamed the entire way out of the zoo and the hour drive through rush hour to our hotel. It might be a while before we go back. Sorry Sean :-)


Summer has gone by so fast. I cannot believe that we are already half way through!

Paxton

I love my little guy! Here is a sneak peak at what he looks like when he first wakes up in the morning. A little puffy eyed. A bit dazed. But oh-so happy and oh-so cute!
For those who do not know, he has been having some difficulties over the past couple weeks which has led me to hearing those four words that all mothers dread hearing. Primary Childrens Medical Center. Please don't misunderstand. I LOVE that we have so many new techonologies readily available to us. And its so nice that it is relatively close. I just don't want it to be my child going.
Please bare with this as I share. I want this in our family journal so in 20 years if my grandchildren are having similar problems I can pull this out and share it with their stressed out parents.
Paxton woke up last Monday with purple and blue lips. I truly thought that Sean MUST have given him one of those blue dum-dums before he went to bed. It was the only thing that made sense. The blueness was gone within an hour of him running around. It happened again Tuesday morning. The picture above was taken Wednesday morning (of course, very little purple on the day I have the camera!). Two Dr. appointments, an overnight oximeter, an ekg, and lots of labs later, we are being set up with a pediatric cardiologist at Primary Children's Medical Center. Now, before anyone stresses out. The ekg and labs were perfect. Paxton's oxygen levels at night are ickily low and his pediatrician knows that he would be better off with a specialist. The appointment will not be for a few weeks, so please just keep the little guy in your prayers.

Surgery

Sorry this has taken me a while to get posted. Thanks to everyone who has called, texted, and stopped by with yummy treats:-) The surgery went very well. The Dr was able to push everything back into place without pins or having to go into her arm. (for those interested in the medical side of things, the radial head had broken off at the growth plate and had moved to the side of the bone)

Taylee loved the hospital pajamas. She thought she looked like a nurse:-)


On the way to the Operating Room


Waiting outside the Operating Room (coloring with her left hand!)


In recovery...

Taylee is doing great. It is a break that does not cause her very much pain. In the last week, I have seen her bump that arm quite a bit and there has only been once that she said it hurt. She gets bummed out when she thinks about the things that she can't do right now, but truthfully, the cast is not slowing her down at all. We have ran through sprinklers (with her arm wrapped and duck taped in a garbage bag), played at parks, and she has even gone golfing. Yep, nothing slows down my princess :-)