Hunter Skateboarding

Yes Hunter my soccer star is taking on a new leave. SKATEBOARDING. He really loved soccer but I think he's been out of it long enough to forget how much he enjoyed it. We want to get him and Tate back in it but until the season starts, he is doing skateboarding. Hunter had his first lesson. He really enjoyed it. He did great. He is a pretty coordinated kid and has good balance. Im excited for this for Hunter. He really thrives on his OWN achievements.

WHOA where has the year gone already?

I have been wanting to to update but I have gotten so far behind when I come to type it up Im at a loss for words.

January was a busy/stressful month. My MIL was in the hospital with life threating diagnosis. Dont worry she is home and healthy now. We dont have to worry about her leaving us. My mom had to do a topical chemo on pre cancerous cells on her face. Hunter started preschool. Jaycie had a surgery scheduled for her kidneys and then canceled because well... the most up to date VCUG showed no signs of reflux.

Febuary was a much better turn around. With things looking up for my MIL and my mom. Hunter enjoying preschool and Alexis doing great in dance. We attened a few performances Alexis put on at halftime shows with her dance group. Of course there were some down sides like the WHOLE house being sick. Ear infections for the whole house and Jaycie being on her 4th... or 5th? Ear infection she got the go for tube placement and adenoid removal and then something fell through with insurance and the surgery center it was scheduled at... we have to REschedule it at my hospital!

With March right around the corner we are looking forward to spring. With spring it brings on Hunters bday and Alexis' bday and zoo trips and wonder weather... EVEN if spring in AZ last only a short time.

Happy New Year 2010

Happy NEW YEAR! Twenty Ten! Sounds weird doesnt it? Last year was a great year for us and we hope to be blessed and have this year be another great year for us.

Christmas was great for us. We went to the Husted family for Christmas eve and we loved seeing everyone. Rob and Angie did a great job. Christmas morning Grandma and Grandpa and Gram came over and Matt made us a breakfast. All the kids opened there presents and had a blast. Christmas afternoon we went over to my parents house to get a little bit of time for visiting and opening gifts. Josh and Dawn and the boys were there and it was great. Christmas day was a little rushed because I wanted to make sure I got a nap. This year was my Christmas to work at work. I had someone take my Christmas eve shift and who would know.. I got canceled on Christmas night. YAY! Now to worry about xmas again in 3 years.

Matt and I got to go on a date New years eve. We went to a dinner and movie. It was really nice being able to go out with the kids. We dont do it often and its a special treat. (Maybe every 2 years).

We got Jaycies Journey blog put into a book from Blurb.com. We got it and love it. It will be great to look back at in future years.

Happy New Year again!!!

Her 1 year home Birthday

Jaycie has been home 1 year today. Oh how time flys. She is a much different baby today then she was one year ago. She is walking/running. She says a bunch of words. She loves playing with her siblings. She has 4 teeth. The one thing similar to a year ago? Her head.... Its still bald! But you know the saying... BALD IS BEAUTIFUL! :)

Hunters OT

Its been a busy month with Hunter. He has had evaluations and screenings and Therapys and appointments. He got his results from the "CHILD FIND" program at the local school district and was borderline. They decided he was on the "BETTER" side of the line and was denyed help from the State.

His scores were...

Motor Area: (91%) Gross Motor items include catching, jumping, hopping, and skipping. Fine Motor items include building with blocks, cutting, copying shapes and letters, and writing, and the popular finger-touching task from the DIAL-R.

Language Area: (29%) Items include answering simple personal questions (name, age, sex), articulation, naming (expressive) or identifying (receptive) objects and actions, plus phonemic awareness tasks such as rhyming and I Spy.

Concepts Area:(90%) Items include pointing to named body parts, naming or identifying colors, rote counting, counting blocks, placing a block in named positions relative to a little house, identifying concepts in a triad of pictures, and sorting shapes. The DIAL-3 includes an item that assesses automatic naming of colors. This skill has been shown to be associated with potential learning disabilities.

Self-Help Development:(21%) Looks at the child's development of personal care skills related to dressing, eating, and grooming.

Social Development:(2%) Looks at the child's development of social skills with other children and parents, including rule compliance, sharing, self-control, and empathy.

He can be accepted as a tuition paying student so I believe we are going to put him in the school that way. Im hoping it helps with his weaknesses before kindergarten to give him a bigger boost before then!

Hunters been doing his OT with Miss L every week. He started doing really WELL by himself and then this past week they threw in another little boy for Hunter to play with. Hunters weaknesses of his social ability really shone through. Im hoping with time and patience Hunter will be able to communicate and make friends with kids outside of our home!

Thanksgiving/ Jaycie 1st Bday party!

Jaycie went to the Dr's yesterday for her 1 year check up. She is now 16lbs 15oz (ALMOST 17!!) AND 27 1/2 inches long. She has another UTI so we are going to be seeing a urologist. Otherwise she is doing GREAT!

We had family over for Thanksgiving today and had a mini party for Jaycie! Here are some pictures from todays fun!

Family Reunion 2009

We always really enjoy going up to Havasu for the family reunion. This year the kids got to go on hay rides, do different games (relay races, stick horse rides,ect) They searched for treasure with metal detectors, went on pony rides and ate great food. The adults enjoyed riding the horses and going on the ranger ride (not just rangers, quads, motorcycles, jeep, ect.)

I however could be found cuddled in a corner being cold or taking a nap. The day after we arrived at Havasu I became sick with what we now beleive was the FLU. BLEH! BUT I still had a fun time!

Tates 3rd Birthday

Tate really got into the present aspect this year!

However, his favorite part was when EVERYONE sang to him! He had the biggest smile EVER!

LOOK what I got from Grandma Great!

My camera...

So ever since we started packing from our house in Coolidge, I have been missing a peice to my camera. The charger or the memory card or the camera itself. Needless to say I havent taken many pictures in the last 5 months! Slacker I know. I will FIND all peices to my camera and start taking pictures. I have lots to show the house, the kids, the NEW family car, our improved doggy (trained).

Sight, Smell, Touch, Hear

These are all senses. For Hunter his sences work a little different than ours. Here is the definition from Wiki Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD is a neurological disorder causing difficulties with processing information from the five senses (vision, auditory, touch, olfaction, and taste), the sense of movement (vestibular system), and/or the positional sense (proprioception). For those with SPD, sensory information is sensed, but perceived abnormally. Unlike blindness or deafness, sensory information is received by people with SPD; the difference is that information is processed by the brain in an unusual way that may cause distress or confusion.
SPD is its own diagnosis, but it can be linked to other neurological conditions, including autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorder, dyslexia, Developmental Dyspraxia, Tourette syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and speech delays, among many others. The meaning of SPD falls under the DSM-IV criteria for Asperger syndrome. [1]. There is no known cure; however, there are many treatments available. This can affect
daily functioning
social and family relationships
behavioral challenges
regulating emotions
self-esteem
learning We are working with a developmental pediatrican and occupational therapist to help Hunter cope. With great doctors and a great son like Hunter with the will to please and desire to learn Hunter will do great and thrive! I will keep everyone up to date on his progress.

Jaycie is 10 months old!

Jaycie turned 10 months. She was 15lbs 5oz and 25 inches long. She still has a baldy head and no teethers!

No one ever told Jaycie she was a preemie and born 9 weeks to soon. She is crawling and sitting and pulling herself to stand and standing unassisted. She is saying mama and dada... errr oh kay just saying dada and mama is more like... a scream but I know who she is calling when she screams... ME! Thats right MAMA!

Healthwise Jaycie is doing good. She doesnt have a follow up on her Kidney reflux until next month but she is still taking her daily antibiotic and we havent had any symptoms so... We are thinking its keeping UTI's at bay. She still cant tolerate baby foods. Breastmilk, formula fine... but her tummy doesnt agree with foods. We are giving her until 9 months adjusted (next month) and then we are going to see a GI specialist about it. She has BHS (breath holding spells) where she gets hurt, frustrated, sad ect ect. Lets out a cry and holds her breath turns blue/gray/white and sometimes passes out and comes around but sleeps for about 10-15 mins after. We are just starting to look deeper into this to make sure its nothing cardiac because she does have a cardiac issue history... we will see!

WE MOVED!

My what a month this has been. Alexis has started school, Hunter finally has a treatment plan, Tate is getting potty trained, Jaycie turning 10 months old, Us moving out of our Coolidge house, Moving in with Dan and Nancy (inlaws), moving out, and moving in OUR NEW HOUSE! We couldnt have done this without FAMILY! With this move we will be closer to our city lives (School, Work, Dr's, Sports) With this move we had to move out of the same neighborhood as my parents and my brother and dawn and nephews. BUT with how much we love each other we wont let a few zip codes get in the way!

9 months

Jaycie turned 9 months old. She is crawling and pulling up on furniture. She is babbling more and more. She still doesnt have any teethers yet but... maybe soon! She had her Dr's appointment and is 14lbs 10oz and 25 inches long.

Kindergarten

Alexis started school this year. With much research we found a school that we think Alexis will THRIVE in. She wasnt sure what to expect her first day of school but when I picked her up and asked her how it was the words out of her mouth? No other than "It was crazy mom" Yes... kids pushing and crying and telling jokes. Thats what she learned on her first day of school... just how CRAZY it can be! :) But after her first week of getting the routine down of bells and whistles and lining up and lunch and bathroom breaks, she loves it. Yes We have a kindergartener now.... My how they grow!

8 months old!

Jaycie had her VCUG and renal ultrasound. It did she she has a grade 2/3 kidney reflux in her left kidney. She was placed on a long term antibiotic and we will repeat the test in a couple of months.

Jaycie turned 8 months old! OH MY! 8 months! She is 6 months adjusted and feel doing GREAT! She is crawling. She may not crawl fast... and it may sometimes look more like a HOP! BUT she is crawling! Her sitting is still if we place her in sitting. She will only sit there for moments until she arches back! She started eating some solids here and there and nothing to consistent yet. She likes to play with her daddy the "coughing" game and the hit the sofa game! She is getting so big! I cant believe her first birthday is right around the corner! Ahhhh!

*Will edit with pictures*

Alexis Recital Pics

Tates Hospital Visit

Tate had nausea and vomiting for a couple of days which landed him in the ER for dehydration. Tate was a real trooper. He had blood test and IV's and peeing in cups and rectal temps and vitals and medications and he was such a trooper through the WHOLE thing! After he recieved a couple of bags of fluids he started to perk up more. Here is a picture of Tate from the other day in the ER.

Jaycie turned 7 months...

Jaycie turned 7 months old and 5 months adjusted this month.

Last week Jaycie had a fever of 106.7.... YES 106.7 she didnt not seizure (thank goodness). She responded well to tylenol. We took Jaycie in everything pointed to Viral (Tate was in hospital a couple of days earlier with dehydration from nausea and vomiting.) They had to take urnine via straight cath from Jaycie. The preliminary report showed clear... they sent it in and this weekend it grew and connfirmed she has a UTI. Because of her age and the fact she has a UTI she has to go in for a renal ultrasound and a VCUG (where they will put a catheter like thing and use dye with ultrasound. Ughhhhhhh That will be this Friday. My poor baby!!

In other news she weighs 13lbs 9oz at her appointment!

Lets pray Friday goes as smoothly as possible for Jaycie

Alexis 3rd Recital

Alexis had her 3rd recital. She did so well. She had 4 dances.

Tap- Never Fully Dressed (Annie)

Ballet- Twinkle Twinkle

Jazz- BIG (Big and Chunky from Madagascar 2)

DE Production- JUMP

She did well. The following week she had dance camp. Here is a few pictures of Alexis before try-outs

I will be sure to post recital pictures AS SOON as Matt scans them in!

Big Red

So kiss a little longer, hold hands a little longer, hold tight a little longer. Longer with Big Red.

Name- Tate

Age- 2 1/2

Hair- Red (Orange)

Weight- 30.8 lbs (just weighed him)

Favorite Color- Orange (I just asked him)

Favorite breakfast food- Cereal, If we make another breakfast food he will continue to ask for cereal for every other meal until he gets it (even if its for breakfast the next morning)

Favorite show/movie- Diego or Dora

Favorite superhero- Spiderman or Hulk or Bumblebee

Favorite drink- vanilla milk

Favorite food- FRUIT

Lovey- Zeebie the Zebra

Favorite past time- playing with his brother and sister

Odds and Ends- Tate likes sleeping with someone. If he isnt in my bed he is in sissys bed or trying to get into Hunters bed. He has a great vocabulary. If mommy is LESS than happy with him he makes sure to add a "I love you mom".

Yes that is my sweet, lovable, TATER! I definetly kiss him a little longer and I hold his hands a little longer and I will always hold a little tighter... with MY BIG RED!