Emily's 4th Birthday

Monday the 6th was Emily's 4th birthday. We weren't able to go anywhere, but we did get a cake and open presents at home. The cake was... an adventure. Mike had bought a tube of frosting to write on Hyrum's cake, but we didn't have a writing tip to put on it, so we never used it. Thinking that I had learned from his mistake, I found a section of writing tubes in the cake decorating section. No tips needed! What I didn't notice was that the set of tubes I picked up were for tinting batter and frosting, not for writing. Really, it's not my fault! I blame the stocker who grouped it in with the other icing tubes and the package designer who decided to put writing tips on the tubes. Anyhow, the box I picked had orange and green which, according to the box, should have matched the cake I picked out. I used the orange tube and tried to write Emily's name. The gel came out uneven, goopy, and red. Mike tried to fix it by tracing over the lettering with the green tube. It came out uneven, goopy, and black.

And it used to be such a cute cake too! Rats.

Since the writing was just concentrated food coloring in gel form, it dyed our mouths green.

Hyrum picked out several toys to give Emily, and finally settled on a stuffed Hello Kitty wearing a black cat costume. Emily thought it was a bat. Mike and I gave her a new pair of mittens and a Strawberry Shortcake play set. She got a Strawberry Shortcake doll last Easter, and it had a cardboard cutout of her pink polka dot cat as a decoration in the box. Emily loved it so much that she kept it and played with it, but she often said she wanted a real cat figurine. Mike and I found a sale on a cute set which included the cat. She was very excited about it.

Because of my mom's knee surgery, Emily got birthday presents from her grandma the same day that Hyrum got his. She got two pairs of "sparkly" pants and a very cute tambourine. She's very proud of her tambourine playing skills, telling everyone that she knows how to hold and play it. She calls it, "my instrument," and even pointed out another tambourine player in the symphony. She's constantly trying to get Hyrum to play a concert with her on the new recorder he got from my mom.

Here's Emily's birthday video. Credit goes to my mom for recommending that I use this song. Sadly, because of the song, youtube is posting ads on my video. Just click the x to close the ad so you can read the subtitles.

The day after Emily's birthday, Mike took her to the hospital for an imaging appointment. She has been getting frequent bladder infections for a few years, the most recent one lasting about a month and a half despite trying 3 different types of antibiotics.

Before the doctor came in to discuss the results of the imaging with us, Emily told the nurse that she needed to talk to the doctor about her hiccups. Both the nurse and doctor were great, and played along.

Nurse: "When do you usually get hiccups?"

Emily: "Every time I go to daycare."

Nurse: "Ok, I'll make sure to tell the doctor when he comes in."

Nurse: very seriously to the doctor "Emily is concerned about the hiccups she gets whenever she goes to daycare."

Emily: "Yes, and Cruz teases me because of my hiccups. Cruz is my boy at daycare."

Doctor: "Boys like to tease you at daycare?"

Emily: "Yes, they're very noisy."

Doctor: "Boys are bad news. Don't you agree, Dad?"

Mike: "Yes. Boys are very bad!"

Doctor: "You stay away from those boys and tell them to be quiet, and your hiccups will go away."

The x-rays showed a level 4 (highest level) reflux from the bladder up to the kidneys. Normally, it's a one way path from the kidneys to the bladder, but on her, the fluids were not only leaking back up from the bladder, but completely filling the left kidney. As her doctor put it, "a bladder infection is not the end of the world, but a kidney infection is." He asked us to schedule an appointment with the urologist ASAP to discuss surgery. He said that there might be an option for a new injection which has had some success in other patients. We're meeting with the urological surgeon on Wednesday to get his opinion. In the mean time, she's on suppressive antibiotics to keep her from getting a kidney infection. I don't like the idea of my little girl in surgery, but I hate how she's so sick all the time, and surgery is certainly better than kidney failure.

Thursday, we met with Hyrum's teachers about updating his IEP. We've been frustrated with the lack of communication from his school. They didn't even have a parent/teacher conference at the end of the trimester! They finally got around to getting him in the appropriate classes when his IEP expired and he was up for reevaluation. After lots of testing and paperwork, they arrived at the same diagnosis as the psychologist -- PDD-NOS. They told us that he is a bit of a dilemma for them because he is miles ahead of his class academically. They said that he is ridiculously smart and talented. No matter how often his teachers tell me that, I still love to hear it! The problem is, he no longer qualifies for an IEP based on developmental delay or academic difficulties, but he really does still need special help. Luckily, they were able to qualify him based on a lack of problem solving language skills and social behavior. Basically what that means is that he is unable to communicate his frustration and work out problems when things don't go his way, and he cries a lot in class. They decided to continue giving him speech therapy and add behavioral counseling with social skills groups. A lot of my doubts and fears about the attention he's been getting in school were alleviated in our meeting, but I still wish his teachers communicated with us better.

That's all the news from Pocatello for now. I'm planning to put up a video of us decorating our house for Christmas, but that will probably have to wait until after finals week. Until then, I hope you enjoy the pictures and video from Emily's birthday!

Hyrum's 7th Birthday

November 17th was Hyrum's 7th birthday. I can hardly believe that he'll be baptized in only one year! We had planned to go bowling with my mom and step-dad the following weekend, but a large snow storm changed those plans for us. Instead, we stayed in Pocatello and took the kids to the skating rink. They had a blast! Hyrum goes to the rink with his school about once a month, but I think he usually plays on the playground equipment and arcade. This time, we made him skate. Emily was adorable. Whenever she fell down, she'd just jump back up, smile, and say, "I really need to practice more!" We probably would have never been able to drag them home if the rink hadn't ended their skate session.

Hyrum thought this was a very funny cake. So did a lot of other people who stopped by our table at the rink.

Among Hyrum's presents was a watch from us. He loves it! We also gave him a flashlight which you can see around his neck in the videos. Emily picked out a ball with Buzz Lightyear, a green alien, and glitter floating in it to give him.

Here's a video of the kids skating. The limbo was so cute. There was no rule about staying on your skates as long as you didn't touch the bar. Hyrum came in second by crawling on his belly. He had everyone cracking up. The girl who won stayed on her skates the whole time. She was incredible!

After the skate session is over, they have the kids put on their regular shoes and dance to this song. You can tell the older kids know the routine quite well. I put some clips of his dance in the previous video, but I wanted to post the whole dancing video just because it makes me smile.

Boise State College Game Day

Last time I posted the summer and fall update, I completely forgot to post about our trip to Boise State when ESPN's College Game Day was there. I realized my mistake when I was clearing out space on my camera's memory card. So here ya go!

Boise State had just won their first game against Virginia Tech in Washington D.C. and was up against Oregon State at home in Boise. After years of promising to do it, ESPN finally brought their College Game Day show to Boise, and Mike and I were there for it. We had a lot of fun meeting with some of Mike's online friends for a tailgate. We also met a lot of Oregon State fans and plenty of fans from other schools who were in Boise to cheer on the Broncos. One guy--a Michigan fan--had specifically come because it was his birthday, and he asked his wife to take him to see the blue field in lieu of a birthday present. Here are the pictures and videos.

This was the basic set up from where we were sitting. The tier above us was full too. They told us that we had either tied or beaten the record attendance for College Game Day. Not bad for 7:00 am. And that was with half the city attending a marathon that same morning!

The tent had the cameras and desk where the commentators sit, and the screen next to it showed us what was happening on the camera since their backs were to us.

One of my favorite signs (and sign holder) down on the field.

Mark May is a commentator who is well known as being overly critical of Boise State, TCU, Utah, and all other non automatic qualifying teams. He is also well known for not being able to take any criticism. So much so, that they won't allow any anti Mark May signs in the Game Day crowd, no matter how harmless. Our friend Tyler swiped this confiscated sign as we left the stadium and posted it outside of our tailgate tent.

The kids getting ready for the game.

Kids pulling silly faces.

Emily dancing at the tailgate.

This was the color scheme at the game. We were in one of the orange sections. I'm always surprised at how well the color coordination works out.

The view from our seats during the game.

The morning after the game, we took the kids swimming at our hotel pool. It was the first time we were able to get them in the water without screaming. We had a harder time getting them out again when it was time to go home!

Fall Update #5 - Lost Teeth and Cats

Mike and I started school again this fall. It's a lot of work, but a lot of fun. Well, at least it's fun for me. We're both feeling a bit burnt out now that we've hit midterms. I sure hope we survive!

Hyrum's new school wanted us to get him evaluated by a psychologist so he could be admitted into the speech and occupational therapy programs. We've known for a long time that he is probably on the autistic spectrum, but we had never gotten him a diagnosis since the school districts in Nampa and Shelly had no problem putting him in the correct programs without a diagnosis. We took him to a series of psychological evaluations and interviews. The whole process took a couple of months. When it was finally all over, he was given the diagnosis of PDD-NOS, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder - not otherwise specified. It's often referred to as "atypical autism." In other words, he has a lot of the symptoms of autism and a lot of the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome, but doesn't have enough of either one to qualify for either diagnosis. For example, kids with autism often have behavioral issues. Hyrum doesn't. He does have speech difficulties consistent with an autism diagnosis. Someone with Asperger's Syndrome usually has normal speech. However, most of his behavior and cognitive development is consistent with an Asperger's diagnosis. What this all means is that Hyrum is on the autistic spectrum, but that they don't have a term or a definition for what he has. He is very high functioning, and is closer to Asperger's Syndrome than to autism. I believe the school was hoping for a specific diagnosis in order to qualify him for in-school speech. I really hope that they won't keep him out of the programs he needs just because he doesn't fit into any of their neat little boxes. The psychologist did recommend that he be put in speech at school, and also recommended he be in occupational therapy although he doesn't qualify for it through any disability. So far, his school has been lousy about working with us. I sure hope they cooperate in this. The doctor provided us with a letter to take to the school requesting that he be put in these programs, so I imagine that ought to be enough for them. There have been a lot of "issues" at this school, but that's another rant for another time.

My mom recently had the first of two knee surgeries. She was stuck at home for a long time, and I'm sure was bored out of her mind! Emily, on the other hand, thought that using a walker was a lot of fun!

While we were visiting my mom, Hyrum finally got brave enough to ask her to pull out a tooth that had been loose for a couple of weeks. He didn't cry or flinch or anything! I was so proud. The next morning, he was so exited to tell us that the Tooth Fairy had come to visit him that night!

Sherwin and I had a good time teasing my mom about her wide open mouth as she demonstrated to Hyrum how to open up.

Toothless Hyrum! (Try to ignore the blood beneath his nose. We didn't wash his face after pulling the tooth.)

This picture has nothing to do with Hyrum getting his tooth pulled. I just think it's hilarious! Hyrum was trying to look and act tough, but that is just not his personality.

About one week after losing his first tooth, Hyrum lost his second one right next to it. Now he has a big gaping hole in his bottom row of teeth. He's quite proud of it!

This video has nothing to do with anything. I thought I'd include it for those of you who didn't catch it on my Facebook page. Just Emily being silly and cute. She's a pro at hide-and-seek!

The next bit of news is sad for us. We returned home from our family reunion in McCall to a very sick cat. DeeDee, as far as we could see, hadn't eaten since we had left, and she had lost her voice. We weren't too concerned at first because she would often get depressed when we'd leave her at home alone for a few days, but she'd always snap out of it. After a week of her not eating or drinking, we took her to the vet. She was given an IV of fluids which gave her a large humped back like a camel. She seemed to do alright for a few days, but still refused to eat or drink. We eventually started forcing water down her throat with a medicine dropper, but we couldn't do much about the food. We tried chicken broth since we could force feed that to her, but she would refuse to swallow and let it run out the sides of her mouth. After another week or so, we took her back to the vet for another IV--enough fluids to literally turn her into a kitty water balloon--and an antibiotic. She seemed to respond a little and perk up after the antibiotic, and she finally started eating again. However, she only ate barely enough to sustain herself, and still wouldn't drink. Over the next couple of weeks, she lost so much weight that she became nothing more than a skeleton. Eventually she got to the point where she couldn't even stand up anymore.

After a lot of crying, Mike and I decided it was time to put her down. We hated watching her die so slowly and painfully before our eyes. After school, we took her to the vet one last time. Emily, luckily, had spent the night at my mom's house, but Hyrum came with us. We tried to explain to him what was going on, but I don't think he really understood until after we came home without her. At the vet, we told him to tell her goodbye, but he refused, saying he didn't want to lose her. Eventually, he did say goodbye. Mike decided to stay with her as she was given the shot, but I just couldn't stand to stay. As I handed her over the the vet, she tried with all the strength she had left to climb up my chest and lay her head on my shoulder. It was hard to pull her away, but I knew I didn't want to watch her die, and I knew I didn't want Hyrum to see it. Out in the lobby, another cat came over to sit with Hyrum. He pet it, and smiled, but then told me, "It's not the same as DeeDee. I want to see DeeDee again." I had to explain that it was too late to see her now.

We found out that there is a gene that all cats are born with, but lies dormant in some cats, while it activates in others. It causes the organs to shut down one by one until the cat can no longer function. She was experiencing kidney failure at the time of her death. It was a really difficult day for us. I know Mike's family won't really understand. Mike's the only one who even likes cats, and that's only since he's been married to me. We had DeeDee for 10 years. She was a wedding present to me from Mike, but she was a family cat. I've had a lot of cats, but she was one of the best I've ever had, and we miss her terribly.

Several months ago, a friend of mine pointed out to me that I have made lots of videos of the kids, but none of DeeDee. I started recording short videos of her only a few weeks before she got sick thinking that I would one day piece together a video. After she got sick, I figured it was time to make the movie. It's not quite what I would have liked to do if she had been healthy enough for me to get all the shots I wanted, but I didn't want any videos of her when she was so skinny and weak. I think it does a fairly good job showing her personality, although I wish I could have gotten better shots of her sweet, loving side. I think the song has very cute lyrics, so I included the translation in the subtitles.

Last week, we took the kids to a pet adoption sponsored by the Bannock County Humane Society. Hyrum picked out a black kitten because DeeDee was black. I'm sure if there had been a black and grey tabby at the adoption fair, he would have picked it. Emily picked out a tiny Siamese kitten. I was so proud of her when another family came along specifically wanting a Siamese. Her kitten was the only one there, and we had already signed adoption papers for it. The other family begged her to let them have the kitten. She didn't want to give him up, but eventually decided on her own that it was the right thing to do to let them have him. In its place, she picked out an orange kitten which was friends with the black one Hyrum picked. One of the shelter workers paid part of the adoption fees so that we could afford to get both kittens since the two of them were inseparable. It was pretty cute when we got the kittens. One of the workers at Petco had become quite attached to the black kitten because it looked like his cat. He showed us a picture of his cat on his phone and began to tear up as he told us how grateful he was that we were giving the kitten a good home. He became even more emotional when the shelter workers told him we were adopting his orange friend as well. He kept thanking us over and over.

So far, our kittens don't have any names. They're starting to respond to "Orange Kitten" and "Black Kitten," so I think we need to get them real names ASAP. Any suggestions?

"Orange Kitten"

"Black Kitten"

Fall Update #4 - Reunion - Batch #2

Here are some more pictures from our reunion. To read the blog about it (short read, just lots of pictures), you'll have to go back one more post.

Emily finally agreed to go in the water as long as she didn't have to leave her chair.

After her nap, she was much more playful, and enjoyed filling up her bucket and dumping it out on the dry sand.

After watching Piper play in the water, Hyrum started to get up some courage to go out himself. However, he was still afraid. Mike offered to go out with him, and he avidly refused. Mike decided to take a different approach and said, "I'll stay back here so I won't scare you," and Hyrum took to the water. Once he started playing in the water, we couldn't get him back out!

My elusive sister, Julie. She also shows up in another picture I have of Isaac, but I wasn't able to get many pictures of her. This is to prove that she was there too!

Isaac thought it would be fun to bury Mike in sand. Sherwin, eager to be rid of Mike, thought that it was going too slowly using our hands. He decided that using an oar as a shovel was much more efficient.

After helping bury his dad, Hyrum figured it was his turn to get buried.

Mom, Sherwin, and Jacob have a chance meeting on their floaty chairs. Although, knowing Sherwin, he was probably trying to knock Mom off into the water.

Joseph hanging out at the beach.

Jacob hanging out at the cabin.

One of the activities we did was to make glass marble magnets. Everyone, including the kids, picked pictures based on their interests. These are 5 of the 6 I made (Emily likes to play with them, and lost the other one). I think if I try this craft again, I'll try to use plastic "marbles" since the glass had too many imperfections, and didn't turn out very clear.

Fall Update #3 - Reunion - Batch #1

The weekend before school started again, my immediate family had a reunion. We rented a cabin large enough for all of us in McCall, Idaho. It was right across the street from the lake. We had beautiful weather, and tons of fun! We played board games, had a Wii Sports tournament, played at the lake, did crafts, and visited local art fairs and farmers markets.

Mike tried to coax Emily into the water. She didn't want to go.

Mike tried to coax Hyrum into the water. He didn't want to go.

Emily was unimpressed and spent half of the afternoon sulking in this chair.

She spent the other half the afternoon sleeping in this chair.

Hyrum and Piper built sand castles and dug holes together.

Isaac tried to outdo everyone by building the tallest sand castle.

Sherwin, Jacob, and Ethan rowed the raft out into the deeper parts of the lake.

Hyrum thought the boat looked like fun, and agreed to go on the water on the condition that he got to wear a life jacket. Once in the raft, however, he chickened out. This is Mike, Hyrum, and Isaac in the raft.

James and his youngest, Maecy.

Mom and Ethan.

Blogger was being a pain and wouldn't let me post more pictures, so the next post will be batch 2 of pictures from the reunion.

Fall Update #2 - Visit from Dad

This summer, my dad's side of the family had their annual reunion. It's usually a pretty big deal that lasts several days with camping, lots of games, and a live auction. Lately, they've started holding it at a camp only about 40 minutes from our house in Pocatello. I was really hoping to go to the reunion since I haven't seen my Grandma Page or my Aunts in a few years even though they lived near by when we lived in Shelley. I wanted to go even more badly after I found out my dad was coming from Pennsylvania to attend. Except for a very brief "hello" at my Grandma's 90th birthday a couple of years ago, I hadn't seen my dad since I was pregnant with Hyrum. Unfortunately, Emily was sick with an ear infection, so we weren't able to go. Instead, my dad came out to visit us at our house. It was nice to see him again. The kids (and our cat) loved getting to know him.

Fall Update #1 - 4th of July

So, I knew I was behind on blogging, but I didn't realize I was this far behind until I checked my blog today. Well, needless to say, there's a lot to blog about, and since we're college students at midterm, little time to do it. Because of this, I've decided to break it all up into segments I can write between classes.

Since my last post, I finally moved back in with my family in Pocatello. Yay! I aced summer term and got onto the Dean's List. Yay again! We spent the next few days just getting settled in and unpacked, so there's not much else to report there.

My oldest brother James and his kids came to Idaho for the 4th of July. Well, actually James and his youngest daughter only passed through on their way to Montana, but the other kids stayed at my mom's house. Hyrum and Emily were so excited to spend some time with their cousins and enjoy a picnic at Grandma's house before we headed to the fireworks in Idaho Falls. If you've never been to the fireworks show in Idaho Falls, you should try to go at least once. It's the biggest fireworks show west of the Mississippi. I kid you not.

Hyrum, Emily, and Piper eating outside at Grandma Crooks's house. Piper and Emily wanted me to fix their hair the same so they could match.

Short video Mike took of the kids eating.

Hyrum and Isaac reading a book together.

Hyrum, Emily, and Mike looking for a spot to sit long the Green Belt. The kids were pretending to ride horses, but Emily got camera shy and stopped doing it as soon as I took out the camera.

Hyrum and Emily at the river before the fireworks started. I love the sky and the temple in the background.

Hyrum and Emily bundled up watching the fireworks. They were cold.

Part of the fireworks show.

Mike actually got a better video of the finale, but he filmed it sideways. I couldn't figure out how to turn it without having it shrink down too small to see well, so this will have to do. If you want to see the other one, check out my youtube account (KittyJaypea).

Well, off to meet my accompanist. More later!

Moving... Again.

So I haven't written an update since before Mike's Google blog. I do have a legitimate excuse this time though. First, we had finals for winter semester all while looking for a new apartment in Pocatello. Then a few days after the semester ended, I started summer term. Then, once Hyrum got out of school, Mike and the kids moved to Pocatello while I moved in with my mom to finish the summer semester. Well, Thursday was my last day of school, so I finally get to post all the videos and pictures we've taken and haven't had time to post. I'm so glad to have the rest of summer off, and I'm so glad to finally be able to move back in with my family! Be sure to check out my posts on Hyrum's field trip to the zoo and Hyrum's Spring Concert. Nothing much to read, just videos and pictures.

Our old apartment in Shelley.

Our new apartment in Pocatello.

Hyrum's Spring Concert

Hyrum's school had a spring concert. Both Hyrum and I are short. I was standing against the back wall of the gym and Hyrum was standing on the front row, so I could barely see him when I zoomed the camera in all the way. Sorry for the shaky camera work. It's especially hard to stabilize it while zoomed in that close. Emily couldn't see him at all, but had fun dancing to the songs.

Not to be outdone by her brother, Emily asked me to video her dancing. She got a little camera shy for a while, but got over it quick enough.

Zoo

On Hyrum's last week of school, Mike and I volunteered to help out with their field trip to the zoo. Here are some pictures and videos.

Emily loves zebras. Listen close, and you'll hear her say, "They're my zebras!"

She also loved this goat. Before I started the camera, she was hugging it through the fence.