Off to School we Go

I miss them already...

{Livi 4th grade}

{Anna 2nd grade}

(Just for fun you can mouse over the pictures and see how they looked the first day of kindergarten. Oh they grow up fast!)

Valentine's Day

A few photos from today...including one showing Anna's new smile.

Throwback

One of the coolest things about having a Wii: the ability to download many of your old favorite video games and play them again (without having to blow on the cartridge every time you try to play). It's also pretty fun watching your six-year-old learn to play Super Mario Brothers. She's already much better than I was back in the day. She'd probably be better than me now, except Tricia let me in on a little secret-the Super Mario Speed Boost (also known as the 'B' button). I never knew he could run so fast...

Little Pink Elephant

So far, Olivia is our emergency room child. I'm not sure that every family has one, and I feel badly for those who have more than one. It's a little disconcerting when you're trying to decide what to do with your child and "call 911" is one of the options; but that's what we did last night. Liv woke us up around 1:00AM coughing and unable to breathe. After trying to calm her down ourselves, Tricia called emergency dispatch and they sent out the EMTs. And a couple firemen. And a police officer. At 1:15 in the morning. The lovely dispatch girl kept Tricia occupied on the phone while I calmed Liv down enough to get her breathing a little bit.

After the EMTs checked her out they thought that it was probably Croup, and said we needed to get her to the hospital for some breathing treatment. They kindly offered to take her for us, but also suggested that we might just want to take her ourselves and save some money. So Liv and I headed off for her third trip to the emergency room. (Luckily for me, it's been long enough since our last visit that I wasn't getting the stink-eye again, and questions about whether or not they needed to call social services. Like last time we were there...)

When we got there, we did the old "tell us what's happening" routine and were quickly led into a nice quiet room (ER was empty for a change). After checking her out, the doctor thought it might not be Croup after all, as Livi was missing one of the tell-tale signs: inspiratory stridor (I had to look that up on the interwebz--I thought the doctor was saying she didn't have Strider, whatever that was supposed to mean). That's the loudish wheezing sound kids with Croup usually make while inhaling. Anyway, he thought she might have bronchitis, so they had her do some breathing treatment with Albuterol. When that didn't seem to help much, they gave her a shot of steroids (she was very brave), took a couple x-rays, and finally did a second breathing treatment, this time with racemic epinephrine (commonly used to treat Croup). That did the trick. The nurse warned me that in children, the epinephrine usually causes some hyper-activity, but was surprised when Liv fell right to sleep once her breathing started to come a little easier.

The sleep was short-lived though, and Liv was shortly wide awake and ready to go home. The doctors needed to keep us there for a couple of hours to monitor her response to the epinephrine after its effects wore off, so hyper Livi and I tried to keep ourselves occupied for the next three hours. Liv did it by coloring a very nice picture/card for her nurse Julie (I wish I had snapped a picture of that before she gave it away) and reading a Ranger Rick magazine from 1991 (I think the ER could use an updated subscription). Julie made the fatal error of giving Liv the "call" button and telling her to push it if she needed anything. Liv spent the next hour pushing the button every five minutes.

Finally, at around 5:00, the epinephrine started to wear off and Liv fell asleep. A few minutes later the doctor came back to check on her and said she would be fine to go home. Her breathing and heart rate were back in good ranges, and she was getting plenty of oxygen. They walked me through the packet of stuff they gave me (prescription, instructions for treating Liv at home, etc...) and we came home, arriving just before 6:00AM. The last thing Liv said to me was to make sure her alarm was set so that she could wake up for school (in twenty minutes). I let Tricia handle the horrible duty of explaining that there would be no school today, which was probably the worst thing to happen all night.

PS--I guess I could explain the title of the post. When Livi was doing her breathing treatments (see the picture at the top), we joked around that she looked like a little pink elephant. She would try to make elephant noises and blow the mist at me. She really was a trooper.

The Random Late Halloween Post

Yeah...This post is only two weeks late. But as Livi says: "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"

Livi's Pictures

Liv and I went out for picture day today. Lesson learned: mid-day is not a very good time for taking pictures outside. I struggled with shadows, squinting, uneven light on her face, etc... Earlier in the morning, or later in the evening is definitely the way to go. Anyway, here's a sampling of what we got.

Nicknames

I had some fun yesterday trying to think of all the nicknames that we use for our kids. This doesn't count names that we call them occasionally (like "munchkin," "monkey," and a few that aren't fit to print). These were just the regular names that we use a lot at our house.

Olivia's Nicknames
Livi
Liv
Lou
Louis
Lucious
And no, no one calls her "Liver" anymore except Uncle Jeremy...

Anna's Nicknames
Ann
Nan
Animal
My Anna

Jarom's Nicknames
Jare
Jare-boy
Jare-bear (ugh)
And just "boy", which I suppose is the benefit of being the only boy in the the family...

Recognition

Olivia brought home a letter from her principle yesterday. No, she wasn't in trouble. She was being invited to eat lunch with the principle in recognition of being a great friend to those in her class. I really need to call my mom and find out the story behind this invitation, but that's not why I am mentioning this letter. As I was cleaning the kitchen up after breakfast this morning and checking my calendar for things I need to do today I found this:


I have no idea when she wrote this. My calendar is rather high and she would have had to pull a chair over. I am constantly amazed at how much she knows and understands. I've never talked to her about calendars and writing appointments on them. I know they talk about dates and calendars at school, but I didn't know they talked about this. I'm impressed on how quickly she is growing up and what a big help she is to me. How did I ever live my life and run my home without her?

Yuba Lake

We had our annual family summer trip last week. We went to Yuba Lake (again) down in Central Utah for a few days of swimming, boating, playing games, and getting rained on. We had a really, really good storm Friday afternoon, flooding the beach. Half of the family was out on the boat, and most everyone else hid out in Grandma's trailer. Tricia and I just stayed in the tent with Jarom. We got a little water seeping through the bottom of the tent, but once again, the tent was perfect for the bad weather.

Anyway, other than a few sunburns, we had a great weekend, and can't wait for next year's trip (wherever we end up going). On to the pictures!

Summer Reprised

With school looming on the horizon (for Livi, anyway) we're starting to wrap up our summer activities. The family trip to Yuba this weekend will be our last big hurrah, and then it's back to the grind. Looking back over the summer, there are two things that are really memorable: fireworks and water fun.

We live just south of Thanksgiving Pointe, which seems to be Utah Valley's destination for fireworks displays. Whether it's the 4th or 24th of July, company parties, various festivals, or even the county fair, it seems like we get two or three good fireworks shows every month during the summer. Most of the time, we get a great view while just sitting on our front porch. The girls have stayed up later than normal on more than one occasion this summer, "oooohing" and "aaaahing" at the light show overhead.

As for the water fun, we spent plenty of time getting wet this summer. From weekly "swimming night" at the Lehi Legacy Center, to pool parties at Grandmas' houses, ward parties, and just running through sprinklers, there were lots and lots of hot days that just begged for some nice cool water. So, without further rambling, we'll pass you off to the pictures!

Wii Play

Our family has contracted Wii-itis. Looking to get something that the whole family could have fun with, we bought a Wii last month. Livi has been averaging around 2 hours per day playing Wii Sports, and the rest of us get to play a little bit, too. Liv is very proficient at Tennis and Bowling, and decent at Baseball and Golf. We don't like boxing much... Other than sports, we'll play a little Mario Kart here and there, with some other random games thrown in for fun. But Livi has pretty much monopolized the Wii, and Tennis is her game of choice. This little movie clip was taken a couple of weeks ago, and she's much better now.

Dear Tooth Fairy

That gap in those front teeth--what remains of Livi's first lost baby tooth.  It's been loose for a while, and she's been driving us crazy wiggling it, talking about it (maybe even whining now and then...).  Yesterday it was being especially wiggly.  Grandma Sheree was telling Livi a story about when Mommy lost her first tooth after biting into an apple.  Livi took one bite of her carrot and the tooth was sticking out at an odd angle.  Grandma reached out and yanked it right out!  As you can tell from the picture, Livi tried to be brave, and she tried to smile through the 'anguish.'  Overall, I'd give her an 'A' for effort.

Too bad we didn't get a picture or a movie of Grandma 'saving' Anna from riding her tricycle down the hill a little bit earlier...

Livi's Letter to Santa

We found this stuffed into one of the Christmas stockings hanging in the living room the other night.  We didn't know she'd written it, but loved reading Livi's letter to Santa.

(Trans. 'Santa, I want a new pony, please.  Anna wants a princess.  Mommy wants a chocolate.  Jarom wants a new blanket.  Can you give my papa a new pair of work pants?  That's what all of us [want for Christmas].  Will you really bring those stuff?')

House of Giggles

Our home is a house of giggles.

Livi began her nightly prayers as usual, blessing all her loved ones and asking for help to be good. She reached the part of her prayer where she began to bless her Uncle Nathan who is serving a LDS mission in Brazil.

"Bless Uncle Nate in Brazil, that he may be healthy and strong. Help him to serve well and to learn porkajeez . . . porgadeese . . . porjajeeze . . . porjakeez . . . porkageese . . . pordajeeze . . . "

By the third or fourth attempt at saying Portuguese, the once quiet and reverent tone of the girl's bedroom was beginning to be disrupted by Matt's attempts to stifle his laughter. Tricia, coming into the room at about the third attempt quickly dodged into the other bedroom as to not become a distraction with her giggling. Livi, the trooper, tried and tried to say Portuguese a task she has been completing nightly for the four months Nate has been in Brazil. Finally when Anna began to giggle she had to stop and giggle for a minute too.

After calming down somewhat and practicing the right way to say "Portuguese", Papa told her to finish her prayer.

"Bless Uncle Nate in Brazil, that he may be healthy and strong. Help him to serve well and to learn . . . porkajeez . . . porkageese . . . porajeeze . . . . . . "