The Erickson Family

One Smart Boy

2012-01-04T10:06:00.001-08:00

Most nights our kids go to bed without any problem, but every once in a while they try to pull a fast one on us. The other night, we put the kids in bed and sat down to watch the Jazz game. A couple of minutes into the game I heard toys rattling around in the basement. Spencer went to check it out and, sure enough, Davis was playing with his new Geo Trax. Spence put Davis in bed and told him it was time to go to sleep. A couple of minutes later, he peeked his little face around the corner at the top of the stairs.

Being the sucker he is sometimes, Spence told Davis to come sit with him for a while. This is where Davis' little brain kicked in big time. After asking Spence what color the Jazz guys were wearing and figuring out who was who, he started in sucking up to his dad by saying:

"Dad, the Jazz is the best movie ever!"
"I love the Jazz!"
"Oh great, they threw the basket in the hoop again."
"Oh, no. They need to make it so the other guys can't make a basket."
"Go Jazz."
"Dad, me and you like to watch the Jazz together."

This went on for a good fifteen minutes before Davis had to go back to bed again and he was pleased as punch that he stayed up late and watched part of the game with his dad. His dad was pleased as punch that Davis acted interested in the game. I laughed at them both the whole time.

I sure love my boys.

Time Out

2012-01-04T10:05:00.000-08:00

The other day, Blair got in trouble and Spence put her in time out. When our kids go to time out we like them to tell us why they're in trouble so they can recognize what they did. Spence asked Blair why she was in time out and she didn't respond. He reminded her that her time didn't start until she told him what she did. Still no response. A minute later I walked down the stairs and Spence asked Blair to tell me why she was in time out. In the most annoyed voice she responded, "It's complicated."

Spence and I laughed ourselves sick. I don't know where she comes up with these things.

Dance Recital

2011-12-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

Happy 4th Birthday!

2011-11-19T11:00:00.000-08:00

Davis and Blair turned 4 while we were in Uruguay. We had a party for them with our extended family before we left, but they knew it wasn't their actual birthday. We kept a couple of presents for each of them and took them to Uruguay to open on their birthday.

After a delicious breakfast of pastries we went out back in the beautiful weather to open presents. They were thrilled with the gifts. It made me think about how we always do too much because just a couple of thing that weren't that big of a deal was more than enough for them to be so excited on their birthday.

Davis spent the rest of the month attacking with his first Nerf gun.

Blair was happy to get things for her baby, a swimming suit, hair stuff, and a snow suit. She was excited to bring the baby back to Utah where it could wear its snow clothes.

After lunch, we went to the ice cream shop for a birthday treat and followed it up with a trip to the beach. It was warm, but not super hot, so I told the kids we'd just wear short and play in the sand because it wasn't warm enough to go swimming. That was a mistake because they just went swimming in their clothes instead. They were so happy to play at the beach, but Davis was elated because he thought the whole reason we went to Uruguay was to go to the beach.

It turns out it is cold getting out of that water. Lucky for the kids our house was close to the beach.

I love the huge smiles my kids have in most of these pictures. We had a great day hanging out together celebrating their birthday. We couldn't have asked for anything better.

El Pinar

2011-11-19T10:37:00.000-08:00

On November 3rd, we took a day trip El Pinar. It was about an hour and twenty minutes on the bus from Piriapolis. This was the sixth area Spence served in on his mission and he was there for about six months. This was one area where Spence had written down addresses for the people he baptized so we didn't have to do so much walking.

First we went to visit the Sanchez family. Both Gricelda, the mom, and Celeste, the older daughter not pictured, were baptized while Spence served here. The other family members were baptized later. When we went to their house, they were very happy to see Spence and we had a nice visit. Davis and Blair were thrilled because they had a slide to play on in the front yard.

Gricelda and one of her younger daughters

Next, we went to visit the Del Rio family. When we arrived Spence asked for Mirta and her husband (who Spence barely knew) said she was dead. Spence was a little shocked, but it turned out that Miguel was just messing with him. We went inside and had a great visit. Mirta was thrilled to see Spence and told him all about everyone he knew from the ward and everything that was happening with the missionary work since he left. She was pretty sure no one had come along that was as good of a missionary as Spencer. Mirta fed Davis a ton of cookies and the kids were pretty good considering we visited with them for about an hour and a half.

Spence baptized Mirta's granddaughter, Vanesa, while he was here, but for most of our visit, Vanesa was at school. Vanesa walked up just as we were leaving and it was so fun to see her. We got to catch up with her more at church later.

We also greatly appreciated the ride Miguel gave us from his house to the church. A car ride was a fabulous thing in Uruguay.

Miguel and Mirta

Spence, Vanesa, Mirta

The new chapel in El Pinar

On the 13th, we went back to El Pinar to go to church. It was much different than church in Sarandi Grande. They had a big chapel and it was full of people. Mirta and Vanesa had told lots of people that we would be there and when I came out of Relief Society, eveyone knew who I was when I was wondering around alone. They were all super nice and Vanesa was patient enough to let our kids go to her primary class and try to communicate with them. Blair was Vanesa's best little buddy by the end of church and was thrilled that we were hanging out with Vanesa after church.

Lareano Pardo, the third person from the left, was one of Spence's converts in El Pinar. We were excited to see him and his family and it was fun for Spence to visit with his mom.

This is a picture with Celesta Sanchez. We visited her home earlier (see above), but she wasn't there so it was fun to catch up with her at church.

After church, Mirta, Miguel, and Vanesa invited us over for lunch. Of course, Mirta was too nice and made a wonderful meal of canalones complete with two desserts. I think she thought I should eat three or four times the rest of them because I was pregnant, and I ate a bunch because it was so good, but I didn't make it through the whole second dessert. We had another wonderful visit with all of them and it was fun to meet Marcelo, Vanesa's boyfriend, too. He is a very nice, fun, returned missionary and Spence was so happy to see her on track in the gospel. She's awesome.

Blair was entertained forever playing with toys in Vanesa's room. They spoiled the kids rotten with anything they wanted and their constant attention.

When it was time to leave, Miguel and Mirta took us to the bus stop, but for some reason, the bus we needed didn't even slow down when it passed the stop. We were worried that we'd be waiting another two hours, but Miguel took us to another stop and a different bus that wasn't on the schedule happened to go by and we made it back to Piriapolis without a huge wait at the bus stop. El Pinar was one of Spence's favorite places to visit.

A Day in Piriapolis

2011-11-18T13:25:00.000-08:00

Wednesday November 2nd, we just spent a pretty relaxing day in Piriapolis (where we stayed for the month). That morning, Spence went to help the Piriapolis ward with a service project painting one of the "hospitals" in the city. A few hours into the project, the kids and I went to see him and check out the progress. As you can see from the pictures the clinics aren't very big and I can't imagine they're very up to date inside either. I'm very grateful none of us needed medical help while we were there.

When we were visiting and seeing the progress, Davis was thoroughly entertained playing with the kids that were there. My kids, speaking English, are always a big hit, but the kids this morning couldn't get enough of Davis telling them, in Spanish, that his name was Buzz Lightyear. They thought he was so funny and they were happy to run and play and do whatever he wanted for a pretty long time. Blair likes to play with the other kids sometimes too, but she's a little more shy. She hung with me most of the time.

Later that afternoon, we took the sister missionaries to lunch. On Sunday, when we were at church, they were passing around the sign up to feed the missionaries and Spence thought that would be fun. He told the missionaries that we couldn't make anything really good with what we had in our house, so we just took them to a restaurant we liked. It was fun visiting them and Spence really enjoyed hearing all about the mission.

The rest of the day we took it easy, played at the park, and enjoyed being together.

We tried to have a few different people take a picture with all of us, including Spence, but for some reason, they couldn't make it work. So we settled for this one Spence took.

San Jose de Carrasco

2011-11-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

On November 1st, we took a day trip to San Jose de Carrasco. It's only about an hour from Piriapolis, where we're staying, on the bus. We walked a ton becuase Spence didn't have any addresses written down and he couldn't remember for sure where things were. We went to see the church there and I was pretty suprised to see how nice it was. The building we attended in Piriapolis was nice, but I didn't think they would all be so nice.

After seeing the church, we had lunch and headed to find the apartment Spence lived in here. We walked on a lot of dirt roads, and it was hotter than I anticipated when we got everyone dressed, but we eventually found the apartment. Spence was thrilled when Graciela Alonzo, the lady that lived in front of them, was home and she was beyond excited to see him and catch up. They talked about how everyone was doing in the ward and had a good chat. Spence will have to fill in more on that later due to the fact that I can't understand very much when he's talking to people here.

It was so much fun to see people Spence knew when he served here and watch them both so happy to see each other.

Walking...

More walking...

Taking a break from walking...

Graciela gave Davis and Blair some toys to play with while she talked to Spence. It was so nice. The kids get pretty tired of sitting and not touching anything while Spence talks in a language they don't understand.

This is the apartment Spence lived in while he was here.

Another break

Happy Halloween & Punta del Este

2011-11-04T15:04:00.000-07:00

On Halloween, we had a pretty mellow day planned, but ended up doing and seeing a lot and having a blast. In the morning, we went to the park and spent forever twisting the kids up on the swings and sending them spinning. They thought this was super fun and they each did it a million times. After the park, when we were on our way to lunch, some super nice people that we met at church the day before pulled up and asked if we wanted to go to Punta del Este that afternoon. We didn't have anything planned, so we went.

Punta del Este is a major resort town and many people in South America travel here for vacation. It's only about 30 miles from where we're staying in Piriapolis.

Jugo and Teresa were fabulous tour guides and took us so many places it would have taken us forever to see by bus and foot. Davis and Blair enjoyed riding in the car with no car seats. (I've seen a few car seats here, but for the most part kids aren't even sitting down in cars. They're sticking half of their body out the window or just messing around and climbing on the seats.) We stopped a number of places along the way and saw a couple of neighboring towns too. Davis and Blair happily gobbled the treats Teresa had brought along for the trip. It was a little crazy letting my kids eat so much junk, but Teresa and Jugo were trying to be so nice, so we let them have at it. (In Uruguay, lots of people eat one big meal each day at lunch and then just snack the rest of the day. The snacks they eat aren't healthy either.) The kids had candy, wafers, and tons of other junk on the way to Punta del Este and while we looked around, and on the way home Teresa insisted on stopping by the panaderia for some bakery treats. Daivs and Blair have perfected their "Gracias". They loved it.

Jugo and Teresa were so nice and so much fun and they were so patient with the craziness of Daivs and Blair for almost five hours.

On the way home from Punta del Este, the kids noticed some other kids walking the streets in Halloween costumes going Trick-or-Treating. We've been telling them that people in Uruguay don't celebrate Halloween and we were just going to skip over it this year, and they were a little disappointed when they saw the other kids dressed up and we didn't bring costumes. Things have changed in the ten years since Spence has been here. They do a little for Halloween now, but nothing like home. The kids got over it pretty quickly though.

We, of course, brought Halloween shirts to celebrate a little.
Blair learned how to "pump" herself on the swing in the morning. She is still so proud.

Twisting madness

One place we pulled off on the way to Punta del Este

Our family with Jugo and Teresa and Punta del Este far off in the background

We stopped at the Plaza in Punta del Este and the kids had a blast on this Merry-Go-Round type thing

Over by the port, this giant Sea Lion was hanging out on the sidewalk

Feeding the wafers to the Pigeons

"Los Dedos" One of the landmarks in Punta del Este

The kids playing at the park in Maldonado- Maldonado is a city next to Punta del Este that we drove though on the way home.

Carrasco

2011-11-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, the 29th of October we took a day trip to Carrasco. Carrasco lies on the outskirts of Montevideo. It is one of the nicer areas in the country. Spence never served in this area, but he spent time here as it is where the temple, the mission home, and the mission offices are located. We didn't do any temple work because we had the kids and no babysitter, but we enjoyed seeing it and talking about it with the kids. Spencer was on his mission here when the temple was finished and dedicated.

After we saw the temple, we walked to the mission home to take some pictures and ended up talking to the current mission president, President Da Silva, and his wife. The mission home is the only place we've seen carpet since we've been here. President Da Silva and Spencer talked about the mission now and the president took us in his office to show us the board of missionaries and where everyone was currently serving. Davis and Blair thought it was cool to see that and were impressed with the number of missionaries that are serving in Uruguay. Davis is sure when he's a missionary he'll be in Uruguay too. Before we left, Sister Da Silva gave the kids each a bag of treats that made the trip totally worth it to them.

After the mission home, we walked past the temple again and ended up talking to the temple president and his wife for quite a while. They are from Pleasant Grove, UT and they've been on missions for a while now. They were mission presidents, MTC presidents in Argentina, and now temple presidents in Uruguay. As we spoke to these people, we found out that the temple president and Spencer's mission president were companions when they served their missions in Uruguay as young men.

After lunch at McDonalds, yes, McDonalds- it's nice to have something familiar once in a while and it's a rarity here- we went to find the new location of the mission offices. Davis was thrilled when Spence said we were going to take a taxi there. Earlier in the day we were talking about how much missionaries walk and he replied, "Well, I'm not a missionary right now, I'm just a little boy and I'm TIRED." The kids have been troopers because we've walked a ton since we've been here and I think Davis is counting down the days until we have a car again.

We just took a few pictures at the mission office and then we hung out until our bus ride back to Piriapolis. We're all pretty tired after some of the day trips, but it's so much fun seeing and learning more from Spence's mission and it's really fun to see how excited he gets about it.

Spence served his mission from October 2000 until December 2002

Outside the mission home- Spence wasn't thrilled to take a picture by himself, but Davis and Blair were too interested in the birds they were chasing to pose with him.

Our two little walkers- Every time we see a car Davis mentions that we should have gotten one and Blair reminds him that it's good exercise to walk.

Just a cool tree we saw

Our family in the mission home with the Da Silvas

Taking a break and enjoying the treats from Sister Da Silva

Outside the mission offices

Blair was pretty tired out on the bus ride back home.

This is how Davis felt about her sleeping on him while he was trying to play his Leap Pad.

Heaven

2011-11-02T15:11:00.001-07:00

Right now, Uruguay feels like Heaven. I'm sitting in a little ice cream shop right on the beach with my family having a treat and watching the most beautiful suset across the ocean. I could stay here forever. I love the slower pace here and I can't imagine anything better than being with the three people I love most all day every day. This is the life.

Baby #3

2011-10-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Spence felt our little baby boy move for the first time today. It was so fun. We get more excited every day. We don't, however, have any idea what we'll name the little guy.

Home Sweet Home

2011-10-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

We found a place to stay for the next few weeks. It's really nice compared to other places we checked out and just two blocks from the beach. It has three bedrooms, two nice bathrooms, a kitchen and a family room area. We are super happy to be unpacked and not digging everything out of suitcases and then re-packing to move to the next place. The house we're staying in has a nice backyard too- it's Davis' favorite part. One of my favorite parts- the washer. I am thrilled that I don't have to go to the laundry mat all the time. I did, however, need Spence's assistance when I hung up the clothes the first time. They kept falling down, but Spence taught me to fold them over the line before clipping them- much better.

Spence and Blair putting on the "4 thread count" sheets. We had to get our own sheets and towels for this house and I about died when we were buying them. The sheets are like paper and they cost $20-$30. When the lady was showing us the towels, she showed us some pretty good ones like we have at home and said they were $30 each. No thanks, I can use the crappy ones for a month. We bought some pretty awesome ones for $7 even though they repel water instead of absorb it. At least they dry out fast after.

One of the bathrooms. Spence thinks the bidet is one of the coolest things ever- I'm not sure if he's tried it out.

A pretty nice little kitchen compared to others I've checked out.

According to Davis, this is his house he built out of bricks so no one could blow it down. He's out there all the time.

Clothes line in our backyard

This is the main living area- just another table, no couches

Our bedroom- Don't worry, Spence got rid of the creepy bedspread.

The office. This is the only room in the house where the internet works. There is actually no internet in this house, but Spence paid the guy at the hostels across the street to use it. We use it in this room or on the porch of the hostels. It's not the best, but it works okay.

More living room

Blair's side of the kid's room

Davis' side of the room- They've actually done pretty well sharing a room again. Luckily Blair can sleep through anything.

Eating bizcochos this morning. Spence went to the bakery while Blair and I showered. Spence has been talking about eating these pasteries for breakfast every day in Uruguay since the first time we talked about coming. Everyone loved them. Davis and Blair were thrilled to eat pasteries when it wasn't even "Saturday donut day".

Celebrities for a Day

2011-10-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

This morning we went to the park for a while and Davis and Blair were the center of attention. There were a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds there who thought our kids were the bees knees. They loved watching our kids play and listening to them speak English. They talked to Spence a ton and asked all about our family and practiced their English on him. It turns out their English is just as bad as my Spanish. I told them I was from the USA, my name, and that I didn't understand anything else they were saying to me. They thought it was absolute craziness that the kids and I only spoke English.
The kids here followed Davis and Blair wherever they went and tried to help them on the playground equipment despite Davis telling them he could do it himself. The kids loved having their picture taken too and liked to see it on my camera afterward. Davis was thrilled when he had a whole herd of kids who were happy to race him around the park. Our kids had a great time and the kids here did too.

10 Years Ago Today...

2011-10-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

Spence was celebrating "Hump Day" here in Uruguay. We're so excited to be back and see where he served.

"We're at Uruguay!"

2011-10-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

We took a ferry from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Montevideo, Uruguay. We were pretty tired when we finally got to Montevideo, but we found a place to stay pretty quickly, had some dinner and went to bed. Blair was sick in the night, but I think traveling and no sleep had just taken a toll on her little body. She was fine when we woke up Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, we left Montevideo and took a bus to Piriapolis. We're planning to find somewhere to stay longer term here. Right now, we are just in a hotel, but today we're planning to go look at monthly rentals. We're all feeling good and happy with a shower and a couple nights of sleep under our belts.

Spence and the kids headed to board the ferry
This was how Davis spent the ferry ride. It turns out if you're awake from midnight until noon the next day, you're pretty tired. The ferry was nice because it had so much space. We weren't cramped in like the airplane; Davis had the whole row to himself to stretch out. Spence and I also took turns naping on another row.
Blair liked the ferry, but I think it was becuase she had the iPad to herself with Davis sleeping.
Blair crashed the second we made it to the hostel in Montevideo. Too bad we had to wake her up to go get some dinner. Later that night, we remembered how nice it is to have the conveniences of home when kids are sick. Blair threw up in the night all over her bed and blanket and we had to rinse her hair out in the bathroom sink before putting all resources together to make somewhat of a bed for the rest of the night. We also used her Halloween bucket from her McDonald's Happy Meal to catch more throw up later in the night. We still have a gross blanket and pair of PJs in a grocery bag in the suitcase- we need to find a laundry mat today.

Davis loved all the bunk beds in the hostel.

We all enjoyed some food that felt to us like it should have been breakfast, but it turns out it was 12:30pm in Uruguay. The kids and I had somethign familiar and Spence went with something from his mission days. I don't think they'll have any McDonalds where we'll be staying for the remainder of the month.

The kids had a blast chasing the Pigeons in the plaza outside of the mall where we had lunch.

Waiting for the bus from Montevideo to Piriapolis. Davis and Blair got some random toys in the bus terminal they thought were pretty fun.

The LeapPads from Grandma and Grandpa Davis have been lifesavers throughout our traveling. The kids played them on the whole two hour bus ride.

Davis having a blast when we stopped for a break on our walk from the bus terminal in Piriapolis to a hotel for the night. At the bus terminal, the people told Spence it was just a short walk so we wouldn't need a taxi, but I'm not sure they knew we had a bunch of luggage and two three year olds to take along. We had to stop twice on the way. Luckily, we found a hotel pretty fast once we made it to the la rambla.

We found a great hotel on the beach with two bedrooms and a bathroom and Blair thought it was "fancy". I guess she was comparing it to the hostel we stayed in the night before with a bunch of bunk beds and a bathroom we shared with other people.

Hamburguesa Completa. That says it all. I picked the best when it came to dinner in Piriapolis.

This beach is just steps from our hotel. When we walked over and saw it Davis happily exclaimed, "Dad, we're at Uruguay!" He has been telling everyone we were going to Uruguay to got to the beach, so I guess the day and a half we've been here didn't feel like it to Davis. He was waiting to see the beach.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

2011-10-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

We left for the airport yesterday morning at 11 and we got to Argentina this morning at 9 Argentine time. The kids did pretty good on the plane and were happy the whole time, but they didn't sleep much. I think the kids and I are running on just a few hours of sleep max and Spence maybe about one hour. We're all looking awesome as were still wearing the clothes we had on yesterday, but we're waiting for the ferry and we'll be in Uruguay tonight at around 6:30 Uruguay time (it's 4 hours later here than home). After we find a hotel for the night, I'm sure none of us will have trouble sleeping.

Getting ready for the first flight
The kids were great following right behind Spence. Blair even followed when Spence started weaving back and forth.

Two pretty happy kids waiting for the ferry in Buenos Aires after some long miserable flights.

This picture of Spence shows perfectly how we were all feeling after the flight and all the travel.

It's a BOY!

2011-10-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

We had our ultrasound today and were thrilled to find out we're having a boy. Everything looks good at this point. We took Davis and Blair with us and they were totally pumped to see the baby on the screen. When we get back from Uruguay, we'll start getting things ready for our little guy.

Tiny Tot Soccer

2011-10-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

We just finished up Tiny Tot Soccer with Davis and Blair. Clearfield has so many fun recreation programs. Last spring, we signed both kids up for Smart Start Soccer and they loved it. Smart Start Soccer is where they go just to learn the basics of the sport. They had a fabulous coach and loved every minute of it- until the game. Blair hated the game and thought that everyone was being mean because they weren't sharing the ball. Davis loved plowing through people to steal the ball away, but Blair vowed soccer was off her list of things she liked to do.

I saw a flyer for 3 on 3 soccer for 3 and 4 year olds, so I signed up Davis, but Blair said she wanted nothing to do with it. Davis was so pumped he couldn't stand himself. Every day he asked how much longer it was until soccer started and when we were going to get shin guards and cleats. We got him all the gear he needed and waited to hear from the city, but nothing came. Finally, they sent out an email saying they didn't have enough coaches and they needed more volunteers. I asked Spence, but he was going to be out of town for a few games, so he said he couldn't do it. A week or so later, I got a call from the lady in charge of soccer saying they were going to have to cancel it if they didn't get more coaches. I couldn't tell Davis there was no soccer, so I said I'd do it. Yes people, I was the soccer coach. I can just picture my friend Suzy laughing her guts out at the thought of me being the soccer coach even for 3 and 4 year olds.

I didn't really know what to do, but they gave me a book and I did some of the same things the kids learned in Smart Start Soccer. We weren't that awesome of a team, but it turns out only two of the six kids on my team even cared to follow the ball or try to kick it. The others didn't even run half of the time- Davis and Blair included. (Blair singed up when she found out I was going to be the coach and there was an open spot on my team.) It was one of the most frustrating things I've ever done, but the kids seemed to have a good time and now I've done my duty as a coach. It's not my turn next time...

2+1=3

2011-09-16T13:26:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce that we're having another baby! I'm pretty lucky because I've already gotten over being sick and throwing up non-stop. Thank Heavens that only goes through the first few months for me. Baby #3 is due March 6th and we'll find out gender on October 19th. We couldn't be more thrilled.

I am reminded on a daily basis of all the things we need to do to take care of a baby. For some reason, Blair is sure she knows how to do this, but I don't. It's pretty funny. Here's a list of some of the things she's told me:

Don't feed the baby the same food Davis and Blair eat.

Babies can't just ride on the seat of the car- they need to be buckled in a car seat.

Everyone will have to be quiet while the baby sleeps.

Babies like to be cuddled.

We're going to need some smaller clothes for the baby.

Babies need to take naps.

You must hold up a baby's head when you're holding it.

There are more that I just can't recall right now. It's lucky for our baby that Blair is here or the baby might not make it with me in charge...

Missions

2011-09-13T13:24:00.001-07:00

Last night the kids and I were talking and the following conversation took place:

Blair: "When I'm older I can decide if I want to go on a mission or not because girls get to choose. Davis has to go because the prophet wants ALL boys to go."

Davis: "Yep, I'm going to be a missionary like Dad."

Me: "Did you know people can also go on missions when they're old? Dad and I want to go on a mission together when we're older."

Blair: "Whoa, that's going to be a long time for us to have a babysitter."

Tax Team Day at Bear Lake

2011-08-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

The tax team at JD Clark spent a Friday in July hanging out and visiting on the beach at Bear Lake. We had a great relaxing day and the kids were in heaven- especially Blair. They loved playing in the sand and Blair was in and out of the water a million times. Both kids were constantly covered in sand and so very sad when we had to leave. It was fun visiting our tax friends and their families and having Spence around to hang with us on a Friday.

What Was She Thinking???

2011-07-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

This morning, Blair was coloring and working on her "projects" while I was doing a little work myself. She's normally pretty good about keeping her mess on the counter and staying pretty clean. Not today. She came to talk to me for a minute and I noticed she had used a marker to color her arm. What??? Her response, "It's no big deal, Mom. You can scrub it in the tub." What a goof ball.

4th of July

2011-07-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

We started the morning at the Clearfield city parade. The kids had a blast and, of course, ate way too much candy. After the parade we met Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Austin for lunch. In the afternoon, we just hung out and visited and enjoyed having Austin home for a bit again. That evening my aunt Sue and my cousins and their kids came over for a barbecue. We always have a good time with them.

The kids were so excited all day for the fireworks and excited to stay up much later than they normally do. That night, we did sparklers before the city fireworks began. The kids had fun, but Blair loved it a little more than Davis. Right before the big fireworks began, Davis fell asleep. Shortly after that, only minutes into the fireworks, Blair announced, "I don't want to see the fireworks anymore. I'm sleepy. Take us home." Ay ay Captain. What a bossy little girl. Both Grandpa and Uncle Austin tried to get her to snuggle up with them and watch a little longer. Her response, "Nope. I'm headed home now. Bye."

That was that. We packed up our stuff and left just after the fireworks began. Maybe next year we'll go to the barbecue and head home before fireworks. That way, when the kids decide they're done, we don't have to drive so far to get to bed.

Overall, we had a great holiday. We loved spending time with our family and it was fun to hang out with Spence again because he'd been on High Adventure with the young men for the last week.

Waiting for the parade to start

When we stopped to buy sparklers at Smith's, the firemen were there talking to people about safety and the kids got to go in the fire truck. They loved it.

Snap pops at Grandma's house

Davis was playing with Uncle Austin- that's him under the blanket.

Davis Grandkid Pictures

2011-07-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Emily, Trey and Ivory were in Utah for about a month. While they were here, we had Trey and Ivory come stay at our house for a few days. Davis and Blair always have a great time with Trey and Ivory. We enjoyed the pool, playing outside, and having sleepovers while they were here. In addition to the fun we took a few pictures of all of the Davis grand kids. They were pretty good sports about it.

High Adventure

2011-07-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Spence works with the young men in our ward. Last week, they took them to a cabin in Island Park. They fished, boated, went to Yellowstone, hiked, and had a great time. Spence loves working with the young men. Here are a few pictures from the week.

Our Little Dancer

2011-06-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

Blair started dancing this spring and she just finished up with her recital on the 7th. It's been a little crazy as she missed two of the five months of dance classes while she was in the hospital and recovering, but I think she's had a pretty good time. They do ballet and tap once a week for 45 minutes.

The recital was pretty funny to watch. All of the little girl classes had every dancer doing something different and some not doing anything at all. I was pretty worried that Blair wouldn't move when people were watching her because when her teacher would invite the moms in to watch during practice, Blair would completely freeze. According to her teacher, she was dancing when we weren't watching. We spent the weeks leading up to the recital talking about how much fun it was going to be and bribing her with ice cream after the recital if she did her dance for her everyone. She had her little heart set on chocolate ice cream with sprinkles for weeks.

Grandma and Grandpa Davis and Aunt Emily came to see her at the recital. She was so excited when the day finally came. She did her dance pretty good until the end when she decided the umbrella was more interesting than dancing and watching her teacher. She was absolutely thrilled when Aunt Emily brought her flowers and she got a cute little gift from her teacher. Blair lets eveyone that comes to our house know that the flowers on the table are HERS- she got them from her aunt and her aunt is a dancer too.

Afterwards, we took her to a frozen yogurt shop where you can put on a million different toppings, but she only wanted chocolate with sprinkles. Nothing more. It was a late night, but we had a lot of fun and she was happy.

Dance pictures

The day of the recital

After her performance

Davis was pretty cute at the recital. He was standing in front of his chair dancing along with all of the girls and clapping like crazy for everyone. When Blair came back from dancing, Davis said, "You did REALLY good Blair." He's a pretty good brother. He sits through dance class every week and was a trooper at the recital.

This is her smile at the ice cream shop. A little creepy...

Everyone, except Mom, enjoying their treat after the recital.

A Real Mom

2011-05-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight Blair decided the garbage was too full so she took the bag out of the can and put in a new bag. Before I knew it, she was outside. I went to check on her and she was closing the lid of the big can outside. "Look Mom," she said, "I'm getting bigger. I can do all of the garbage by myself. I'm like a real mom!"

I don't know how she got the idea that taking the garbage out made her a real mom; I'm always avoiding that job. She sure was proud of herself though.

Easter

2011-05-20T18:06:00.000-07:00

The kids were excited about Easter for weeks and Spence and I were too. The Easter bunny came to an agreement that Easter would be a bigger present holiday this year, not Christmas. The day before Easter my mom had the kids while Spence and I worked for hours putting together the swing set. My parents brought the kids home just in time for bed Saturday night and they didn't notice what was in our backyard.

At 4:15am, Davis came running up the stairs to our room yelling "There's a swing set in our back yard!" He was thrilled. Why was he looking out the back window into the yard at 4am I'll never know. He was way too excited to sleep after that and we were too. At 7:15, we let Davis wake up Blair and the fun began. It was all he could do to keep the swing set a secret until Blair saw it for herself. The Easter bunny hid the baskets outside this year, so the kids had fun looking for baskets and playing on the new toy all morning.

When it came time for church, Davis had been awake too long and he had a full on meltdown, but he settled down in time to sing in Sacrament. It was the first time my kids have done this and it made me cry to see them up there- I don't know when the got so big.

Spence gave a great talk in Sacrament (Of course and it felt like it'd been forever since he spoke last- about six months. I'm still used to him speaking every month on high council Sunday) and Davis was a reverent child in Primary. I'm sure no one in Primary knew what to think. Davis has a hard time sitting still most of the time. He doesn't talk, but he doesn't hold still. We practiced being the reverent child all week and he stood up there like a champ- folding his arms and not moving a muscle. He was so cute. Blair gave a talk in Primary and did so good. In the middle of her talk, she got frustrated with me trying to help her and said, "Mom!" in a loud and very annoyed voice. I about died laughing. Of course she didn't need extra help.

After church Grandpa and Grandma Davis came to visit and have dinner. We had so much fun. It's not often that Grandpa isn't totally booked with church on Sundays, but Easter landed perfectly between semesters at BYU. We had a fantastic day.

Davis waking his sister up with his "horn".
Blair wasn't sure Easter was worth waking up for.

The Easter Bunny and Santa decided the big present should come in the Spring because it would be warmer. Too bad that didn't work out. Christmas morning was much warmer than Easter morning.

Aunt Sue taught Blair how to use Robin Eggs for lipstick a week or so before Easter and she thought it was the greatest thing ever. Davis has decided that Aunt Sue loves Robin Eggs so he won't eat his. They're in the pantry waiting for the next time we see Aunt Sue so Davis can give them to her.

Of course the kids had to pose with the annoying bunny.

Our Favorite Aunts

2011-05-20T18:00:00.001-07:00

The kids' favorite aunts came to visit one weekend while Grandpa and Grandma were in Europe for a month. Davis and Blair were thrilled to have the girls come and slightly disappointed they only came Saturday afternoon and Sunday. We had a blast while they were here- we went bowling (a favorite of the kids) and went to dinner (Davis choose pizza of course). All four kids (can I still call the girls kids? It doesn't feel like that these days.) had fun and came home to veg later. Sunday night came too fast, but we loved every minute they were here.

Easter

2011-04-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

The kids have a bunny that sings "Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail". It is perhaps the most annoying toy ever, but we deal with it for one month a year.

Yesterday at my parent's house, my mom was putting together an Easter basket for Morgan and Kristi before they move for the summer. Blair was looking at the basket with Davis came in and asked, "Is that a basket full of Easter joy?" That is, after all, what the song says the bunny brings.

Tonight he was taking about Easter joy again, so I asked him what it was. He quickly replied, "It's about Jesus."

We'll have to get the two separate parts about Easter sorted out in the next couple of days. Either way, we're excited for another fun, family holiday.

The Last Month

2011-03-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

For the last month, since Blair came home from the hospital, our life has been pretty mellow. Spence has been super busy with tax season and the kids and I have been hanging out at home most of the time avoiding any germs and letting Blair get back to her normal self. The blogging has suffered since it's a pretty busy time for my work too. Here's what we've been up to:

A bunch of the pictures were taken on my phone- sorry about the poor quality.

We spent many days in our jammies, but not without a bow in Blair's hair. According to her, "You can still be fancy when you're sick." The picture above was the first time she walked down the stairs by herself after coming home. It amazed me how fast she regained her strength and got around normally.
We spent lots and lots of time in the bath. The kids love the bath and since we had no where to go, we could play forever.

We went to Grandpa and Grandma Davis' house when we needed to get out of our house. The kids loved all of the attention and the change of things going on. I enjoyed talking to other adults and having some time to get out when Grandpa watched the kids and I ran a few errands with my mom.

Grandpa bought this new fun toy for his backyard and the kids love it. The call the backyard a park now. I think the new toy put them over the top. It is a pretty fun place for kids.

Aunt Mandy made this darling quilt for Blair. She was absolutely thrilled and it is her new favorite. She won't sleep without it. Mandy quilted it too- what an amazing aunt.

This is one of the first few days we ran a couple of errands. I told the kids to grab some shoes and get ready to go. I had to take a picture when they came out with boots that didn't go with their outfits and a few toys that they needed to make the trip to Lowe's. They surely sported this look in public too. You can wear anything to Lowe's, right?

We had some really nice weather for a few days and the kids were excited to get out of the house. We rode scooters and bikes and even went to the park for a little while. It was so great seeing Blair play outside with her toys like nothing had happened.

On the 11th, we went to Blair's second follow-up doctor appointment. They did another x-ray of her lungs and it looked great. By this day, she was almost back to 100 percent of her normal physical activity. Her running was a little crazy still, but everything else was normal. The doctor said she could go out a little more, but to be careful with school and church and other activities like that because it is still respiratory season.

My cutie pie at the doctor

Happy St. Patrick's Day. The kids were thrilled to see the treats that the leprechaun left. Unlike all the good mothers that made their kids green pancakes, eggs, muffins, or something, I let my kids eat their treats for breakfast. I think they thought it was the best day ever.

This week we went to Sweet's Candy factory for the Joy School field trip, Blair has been to dancing, the kids are going to school tomorrow and we'll try primary on Sunday. Both kids are very ready to get back to their normal routines and spend time with their friends. I'm still a little paranoid, but I can't protect them from everything forever.

Our Cute Little Blair

2011-02-27T12:54:00.000-08:00

Blair is trying to walk more and more each day. Here is a video from Saturday. She's got the whole front room of our house to practice walking with no obstacles because Spence took our furniture to stage a house we have for sale. He said it'd only be gone for a short time, but that was at the end of December...

Valentines Day

2011-02-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Friday at our house. The kids were excited to make Valentines for Dad and Blair used more glue on her daddy's valentine than anyone else would use making ten. We made heart shaped rice crispy treats and had a fun night as a family. My mom's friend made these cute shirts for the kids.

Better Each Day

2011-02-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

Blair is doing better each day. Today we had a follow up doctor appointment and everything looks pretty good for now. We have another appointment in two weeks and they'll do a last chest x-ray to make sure her lungs are looking good.

She is getting more and more confident standing and walking a little bit on her own. She can stand up for a second if she's getting off a chair or a step and she's getting better at standing up from the middle of the floor. Yesterday, she could only take one or two steps before falling, but today she's put together a few more steps a couple of times. She's doing great with sitting up and using her arms. She only had one potty accident today and I think we're going to try wearing underpants to bed tonight. She's being a pretty good sport considering everything she's gone through lately.

Our cute girl crawling around. Yes, her bangs need to be cut in a big way, but it obviously isn't on my priority list right now.
Happy to be walking

Davis wanted to show me how he walks too. He always says, "Blair can't stand much. I stand much." He is being very nice and helpful to his sister now though.

Sorry the video is so shaky. I was trying to get her standing and then move back without missing anything.

First Day Home

2011-02-23T14:19:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty good night last night. We woke up to all of the alarms for medications and Blair took them like a champ. I've got quite the list going of what needs to happen each hour, but I don't want to miss anything that needs to be done.

I've been pretty worried about how Blair would get around at home, but she's doing better than I thought. Yesterday during her physical therapy, they worked on crawling with her. She doesn't do awesome with it because her arms are pretty weak too, but she can sure get where she wants to go by crawling. When I put her in bed at 9pm (much later than the normal 7:30pm bedtime, but earlier than her hospital bed time), she came downstairs and into the kitchen before I knew it. It turns out that she can slide down the stairs on her belly just like she did as a baby. It's a little crazy watching her get around like that, but at least she can move around the house on her own.

We were all so happy to see Davis this morning and he was thrilled to be home with us. He went right upstairs and woke Blair up when he got here. They've been playing together great all day long. I've had to have a little talk with Davis because he said, "Only babies crawl" and he told me to put her in time out when Blair had an accident, but he's understanding a little better now. We're all learning to adjust and I think things will be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Right now, we're just thankful for all the blessings we've been given lately.

Day 21: We're Headed Home

2011-02-22T22:50:00.000-08:00

Our cute girl happy to be in her own PJs
Ready to get home

Today Spence needed to go to work so Blair and I hung out all day. It was a lot harder without Spence around because Blair doesn't like to be in her room alone even for a minute. Also, she's starting to try to move around a little more, but has no balance, so she'll sit up and try to move and about fall out of her bed. I ran downstairs for some breakfast while she was sleeping, but other than that, I didn't leave the room all day.

Blair wanted her own PJs on today, so we put them on her, but she had an accident and had to go back to the hospital gown. The poor little girl is so confused from going back to a diaper for three weeks after being potty trained for so long. Also, when she was first ex-tubated, they needed her to go in her diaper and she wouldn't. She'd hold it and wanted to go potty, but she couldn't get out of bed, so we spent all day trying to convince her she should just go in her diaper. Now we're working on getting over that and back to going in the potty 100 percent of the time.

Blair is doing great with her breathing, but they're still working on weaning her medications. They did, however, decide we could finish the weaning process from home. Tonight we were able to come home. It was a little crazy today because this morning, the doctor told us to plan on going home tonight, but later tonight, she wasn't so sure anymore. I had a total meltdown. Three weeks is a long long time and Blair is doing so great with everything that it's a major job entertaining her all day in the hospital room. They have playrooms and things for the kids to do, but since she has RSV, Blair isn't allowed to leave her room. She gets pretty tired of her bed sometimes.

It was finally decided that we could go home tonight. After a bunch of packing and getting all of the orders clear from the doctor we were on our way home at 7pm. It took a long time to go over what we need to do at home because the medication schedule and amounts given change each day during the weaning process. When I stopped at the pharmacy at the hospital to pick up her medications, the person helping me jokingly said, "It must have been a big year, you've already reached your out of pocket maximum on your insurance. You don't owe anything tonight." Yeah, I'm pretty sure due to the ambulance ride, the ER in Layton, and the helicopter ride, we reached our out of pocket maximum before we even got to Primary Children's Hospital. Thank Heaven for insurance.

Blair is in bed now upstairs by our room, I've cleaned out the fridge since mostly everything had gone bad while we were gone, I've gone to the grocery store to re-stock, but I haven't put everything away from the hospital and other random things that were left out the two times we were home for a few hours. I'll work on that in the next few days.

Tonight, we've got to set an alarm for 12am, 4am, and 8am (we're on a little bit of a late schedule from the hospital) to get up and give Blair her medicine. It's a little crazy, but I'd much rather set a few alarms and deal with waking up in the night than stay in the hospital any longer.

We are home and getting settled. Grandpa Erickson will drop Davis off in the morning and it will feel so good to have all four of us together at home.

Thank you all so much for your concern, prayers, and support during this stressful time for our family. We love you all and appreciate everything you've all done. We are not, however, going to be able to have visitors at our house for the next couple of weeks. Blair is still pretty weak and needs more time to heal. Thanks for your understanding.

Day 20

2011-02-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

Nothing really big happened today other than the fact that Blair took at real bath for the first time in what seems like forever- really only 20 days. It felt so good to have my little girl really clean. It was much faster and easier than a sponge bath and hair wash in her bed.

Last night, they decided to turn off her feeding tube for a while so that she'd be hungry enough to really eat something. After they stopped feeding her through her tube for a while, she ate a pretty good dinner at 6:30 and didn't throw anything up. The doctors still decided that they wanted to put some more food in her belly though the tube though. At 8:45, they started pumping food in her tube. About halfway through putting in the allotted amount, Blair said her belly was full and she didn't want any more food in it. The tech that was doing the feeding talked to the nurse, but the nurse said to go ahead and she'd be fine. About 3/4 of the way through it, Blair said again that she didn't want any more and her belly was too full for more. They finished the rest anyway and Blair said she didn't feel good. About a half an hour later, she threw everything up all over the place. When she was throwing up, there was so much force that her feeding tube came screaming out of her nose. That was the one part she was happy about in the whole throwing up episode. They decided to let her leave the tube out for the night and they'd make a decision about it in the morning. This morning, she's done well enough, that they didn't put it in again.

After her bath today, they also decided that she didn't need her vitals measured constantly, so they took the leads off of her chest- another cord off of her body. This afternoon, they took out her PICC line (the long IV type thing running from her elbow to the large vein going into her heart) and now all she's hooked to is the oxygen saturation monitor. She is doing awesome. She stayed high on her saturation last night and they said if she was going to have a problem, it would likely happen during the night. It feels like she's over the breathing problems.

They're working on weaning down some more of her medications and if she does well through the night and tomorrow, we could be going home tomorrow night. I think this should happen no problem. We'll see though, she's surprised us before...

Blair is doing so much better with her physical therapy. Today she will sit up on the edge of the bed herself for a pretty long time. She's still pretty shaky, so I don't let her sit there when we're not right by her, but she's holding herself up. She's also doing a little better standing and walking. She can confidently stand while holding on the bed or the chair and she's requiring a little less support while walking. It's been interesting watching her learn to use her body again. For some strange reason, when she stands, she feels like she needs to lean back really far and she's totally off balance, but she doesn't realize that. I think that with a little more time and a little less medication, she'll be getting around by herself. I'm still pretty nervous about the stairs at home though. I think she'll be sleeping upstairs in the room next to us for a while, not in the basement with her brother.

My cousin Dawn came over today and brought the kids some cute books and stayed for a great visit. She is so awesome and so thoughtful and I love anytime I get to hang out with her. It made a long, uneventful, would be boring afternoon, fun.

Blair played with toys, play dough, and read a ton of books. She loved ordering whatever she wanted to eat whenever she wanted it and getting all the juice and slushies she wanted. She also discovered chocolate pudding. She hasn't had it before, but the word 'chocolate' made her want it and she was ecstatic about it. It was pretty funny to watch.

Her voice is getting better and we can understand most of what she says when she tries to talk loud. The last few days of playing with her non-stop have been pretty fun. If only we had her brother here...

A cute girl after her real bath. She's loved playing with the stethoscope and a syringe. She's the doctor to her daddy and her stuffed animals and dolls and they need to be checked often. She also likes looking like a doctor in her special hospital clothes.

Blair and Dad enjoying some of the treats that Dawn brought us.

Day 18 & 19: We're Moving On Up

2011-02-20T13:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, Blair was having a hard time. She had woken up before we got back to her room and she was upset that we weren't there. When we came in her room at 7:15am, she reached out to give me a hug and said, "I want to stay with you all day today. Don't go ANYWHERE!" Since then, we've been taking turns going downstairs to eat so one of us was always with her. Last night, she refused to go to sleep unless we were sleeping in her room, so we scooted her over and I slept next to her and Spence slept in the fold-down chair. She must be feeling much better because she moved enough to kick me in the side the whole night. She did wake up a few times and was happy we were there.

All day yesterday she played and was a pretty happy little girl. Her diet was upgraded to soft foods, and she was pretty glad to get some applesauce. She did great with the applesauce and a few bites of banana at mid-morning, but she had a few bites of mashed potatoes and part of a roll last night and it all came right back up. This morning she ate some more applesauce and some yogurt and she's done fine.

Yesterday afternoon, they turned off the last of her medications that were on constant drips. She's done pretty well and only had withdrawal symptoms for a little while last night- sweating and fever. Now they're working on weaning her off the drugs that help her get off the drips. She has to be mostly off all of these before they'll send her home.

This morning, they had the doctors from the Children's Medical Unit come and check Blair to make sure they were comfortable with her moving out of the ICU. She's now moved to the third floor Children's Medical Unit room 3045. She's watching movies and eating her root beer slushie and happy as can be. Since she's come upstairs, they've turned off her oxygen totally and she's still got a high oxygen saturation level. Her nasal cannula is still sitting right by her bed in case she desaturates and needs oxygen fast.

When the doctor was in talking to us this afternoon, she said she thought we could go home as soon as Tuesday, but it may be Wednesday. We're hoping for sooner rather than later, but we want to make sure she's totally ready before we take her home.

Cuddling Dad and Mom after a sad morning

Blair has a room service menu that we order her meals from. This was her first meal in almost three weeks. When they brought her food in, she was thrilled. She looked right at Spence and said, "Are you so jealous, Dad?" We both cracked up.

Our clean little girl after a bath- I can't wait until I can just throw her in the tub again. Baths in the bed are such a pain.

Before we moved rooms, she was checking out all of the posters and cards people have sent her. They were a little hard to see when they were on her wall.

Dinner on the way in...

Practicing standing up with Dad

Happily settled in a new room watching Cinderella

Davis

2011-02-20T13:50:00.000-08:00

Davis is having fun at Grandma & Grandpa Erickson's house this weekend. He even convinced his grandparents and aunts to build a couple of snowmen with him. It looks cold, but Spence, Blair and I would sure like the fresh air- even cold fresh air.

Day 17: Even Better Than Yesterday

2011-02-18T19:16:00.000-08:00

Blair is doing so much better. Last night, she insisted that the pink fingernail polish she had on needed to be taken off and replaced with the new light blue she got in a gift. After running around talking to a number of nurses, Dad came to the rescue and found some nail polish remover wipes. Spence took off her nail polish for the first time; he didn't, however, paint them blue. It was pretty cute watching him work so hard to please his little girl. He's been saying for days that he'd be happy to get her whatever she wants and entertain her all day long if she'd just get better.

Last night, she also decided that she needed a drink. Since she just got her tube taken out and she hasn't had anything in her stomach for almost three weeks, they said she could have a few ice chips. She was not thrilled. She cried and cried and told us a million times that she was really thirsty. Lucky for her, this morning they decided she could have clear liquids. She's eaten two slushies, a popsicle, and a few cups of apple juice. She loved the slushies and was super happy the whole time she was eating them.

Today they've worked on weaning her meds more and weaning the oxygen percentage. She went from 100 percent oxygen last night to 40 percent tonight. She's doing great. Once they wean down the oxygen percentage to the 21 percent that we all breathe, they'll work on weaning the pressure in her nasal cannula. They said today that she'd likely leave the ICU when her drips were turned off. It looks like that may happen tomorrow. That would be quite the step. We're crossing our fingers.

Most of the day today, we've been playing and doing activities that the Child Life people have given her. She's loved it all. She gets tired and worn out pretty quickly, but she's acting more and more like herself. She's definitely bossing everyone around telling us exactly what she wants. If we can't understand her or she doesn't get what she wants, she has a total breakdown. I think that's a combination of her regular self and the medications. It's kind of crazy though. She's perfectly happy one minute and totally melting down the next.

One thing that we hadn't thought about in all of this is her muscles and what her body would do laying in bed for so long. They sent a physical therapist in today and she did a few exercises, but she was pretty unhappy the whole time. She was nervous to be sitting on the edge of the bed despite the fact that the therapist and I were holding her and she won't even try to stand up for a second. The therapist held her and asked her to stand for five seconds and she was crying and bending her legs the whole time. She was doing a little better tonight reaching for things and trying to hold her neck up for a few seconds though. Her legs feel pretty strong if she tries to push our hand with her feet, but she's pretty unsure about her ability to do normal things. They did send someone in that was supposed to help her with her hand eye coordination, but she's doing great with that. She fed herself fine today and has been playing with little toys no problem.

The respiratory therapists have been doing therapy on her to get more of the junk loosened in her lungs. They turn on a machine that sort of pounds on her chest and back. They told her she could try it on mom and dad and it's actually a pretty good massage- one perk of the hospital, I guess.

Overall, we had a good day playing, reading books, doing craft projects, and being the doctor for her baby and toys. Her voice is coming back a little so we've been able to understand about 75 percent of what she's saying. We had a great day and it looks like tomorrow will be even better.

Dad taking off the nail polish
Less than thrilled with the ice chips she was offered

This morning she decided she needed clothes because she was going to be cold outside- "It's freezing cold out there" she said. Even after explaining to her that we wouldn't be going outside, she liked the idea of the leg warmers, although the top of her legs would be very cold and she needed a shirt too. It was clearly a total meltdown. She was happy again when we found a hospital gown.

Art projects- stickers, coloring, and making cards

Happy to finally have something good- a slushie that she was allowed to eat herself as fast as she wanted.

A paint project they gave her- hasn't Primary Children's heard of washable watercolors??? This was a big mess, but not a bad place to do it. They've got the perfect drop cloths for everything.

What a mess

The baby had a fever too- poor baby, she'll need some Tylenol.

Listening to her baby and her daddy

Her baby also need a few breathing treatments- good thing the mask didn't cover Blair's whole face like it covered the baby's

It's the baby's turn for the arm restraints

Medicine for Zoe and the baby

Blair likes the fact that the hospital provides great treats on demand- At this point, I think it'll work pretty good when she gets home too.

Day 16: No More Respirator!!!

2011-02-17T19:46:00.000-08:00

This morning when the doctors came for rounds they took out the tube in Blair's mouth. She is finally done with the respirator! She has done pretty well without it, but she's still had to work extra hard to breathe. When she breathes, you can see her throat retract quite a bit, but it's been getting better and better. After the extubation, they listened and decided her airways were still pretty swollen so they have done two more rounds of steroids to help her throat heal. They've also done a number of breathing treatments to help open her airways.

When I came back from hanging out with Davis last night and this morning, they had just extubated Blair five minutes before and Spence told me she hadn't tried to talk yet. When I said hi to her, Blair held up two fingers and said "Two nail polishes; I got two nail polishes". Her former nursery leader, Sister Salmond, had sent a gift for Blair with lots of fun girly things and she was very excited about the nail polish. She wanted to show me right away, so she motioned Spence to get out her gift. That's my girl- the first thing she says is "nail polish".

She has gotten better and better as the day has progressed. When they first took out the tube her breathing was pretty loud, but it has gotten slower and quieter. She has more energy this afternoon and she's playing and having a good time. It's still pretty difficult to communicate because her voice is so hoarse that we can barely hear her, but it's much better than it's been the last two weeks.

Right now, Blair just has a nasal cannula and she's been able to have her arm restraints off all day. There is a chance she could pull out her feeding tube, but it's not near as critical as the the respirator tube, so they're willing to take the chance.

Blair will stay in the ICU until they can wean the oxygen percentage blowing in her nasal cannula and the amount of drugs she's getting. She also needs to be able to eat and drink. They aren't planning to let her do this today, but hopefully she can have a drink tomorrow. She's already told us she's very thirsty. Hopefully, she just gets better and better from now on. They did do a test today though and she's still RSV positive.

Right after extubation

Once she was off the respirator, I could hold my little girl. It was absolutely wonderful. It's been so hard to see her in bed non-stop for over two weeks.

Afternoon nap time

This afternoon we got a little more of the adhesive off her face and and combed her hair- she looks like a totally new girl.

Sitting all the way up in bed with no coughing fits!

Playing with her toys tonight- she played with her Snow White magnet dress ups, read books, played with Fancy Nancy stickers, colored, and more. It's so fun seeing her more like herself.

Done with pictures

As much of a smile as we could get- What a cutie!

It was so good to see Davis last night. We let him come see Blair for a couple of minutes before we went home. He was required to wear a doctor's mask in order to come into the ICU. He thought the mask was pretty cool, but I don't think he knew what to think when he saw Blair. He just looked and stared for a minute and then started checking out the new stuffed animals.

Davis and I went home and did some puzzles our friends have give him. He had an absolute blast. When it was time for bed, he said the sweetest little prayer.

"Heavenly father, thank you for this day. Thank you for our blessings and for our family. Thank you that I could see Blair tonight- she's my sister and my friend. Please bless that the doctors can take care of her and make her better. Please bless that she can come home and play with me because she's been gone a long, long, time and I love her....Amen."

What a little cutie pie. I'm sure the part about the doctors taking care of her came from something he's discussed with grandparents, but I love all of his other thoughtful little comments. Those two kids will be so happy when they can play together at home again.

Day 15: She's Doing Better

2011-02-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Blair slept most of the day. She didn't go pee for 14 hours yesterday even with the medication that is supposed to help with that. She's been potty trained for a while now and they've taken out the catheter, so it takes some serious convincing to get her to go in a diaper. She's done it for Spence a couple of times, but she wouldn't go for the life of her yesterday. She finally went last night and I think she felt better, but they were on the verge of putting another catheter in her if she wouldn't go. Between being told to go potty a million times yesterday and the usual things that bug her at the hospital (suctioning her tube, changing her positions, listening to her chest, and more poking and prodding) she was pretty ticked off. All day yesterday, when Blair was clearly awake and the nurse would talk to her, she would hurry and close her eyes and pretend she was sleeping. She also gave awesome glares anytime the nurse put her gloves on and Blair saw something coming. It was really pretty funny. She was so mad that her face went pretty red. It looked a little better than the total lack of color she'd been sporting for a while.

Last night she was pretty awake and a little more like herself. It was good to see her playing with her toys again and trying to move around a little more. She was playing with her baby and stuffed animals and I got out my camera and took a picture. She held up her hand to tell me to stop and then she turned all of them around so I could see their faces in the pictures. That's my girl- a little closer to normal. At home, she'd want everyone posed for sure. Blair watched three movies in a row and stayed awake for all of them which was a big accomplishment. She hasn't been that awake the whole time she's been in the hospital. She finally went to sleep around midnight last night.

This morning when the doctors came for rounds, they decided she was doing well enough that they'd try weaning her peep down to a 6 from a 9. She tolerated it pretty well and she's passed three breathing trials today. She changed so much from Monday night to tonight- she's doing a million times better. The current plan is to try to re-extubate her again tomorrow! Monday night and Tuesday morning we were planning on this happening on the weekend sometime, so tomorrow will be awesome if all goes well and she can breathe fine without the respirator. She has been on steroids since Monday afternoon to help the airway heal and get the swelling to go down, so hopefully that won't be a problem again.

They have also been decreasing her "drips" (the majorly addictive sedation drugs) and increasing the medication that will help her come off the drips easier. She's tolerated it pretty well and only had to have a few extra doses in the last day when normally she has the full strength medications and a few extra doses every couple of hours. The one downer of the last day or so is that Blair has started getting fevers again. They come down well with Tylenol and Motrin, but she's not likely getting the fevers from RSV this late in the game, so she may in fact have another bug. Another little downer, she has still thrown up a few times since the feeding tube was replaced. Poor girl.

Today Blair stayed awake from 9am until 3pm- another long stretch. She played a lot and was pretty good holding on to her toys instead of pulling at all of her tubes. It takes constant reminding, but this morning seemed a little better. This afternoon she had some intense breathing therapy and took a good long nap. Hopefully she can sleep well tonight so she's even more ready for tomorrow.

Tonight I am home with Davis for a little while and I'll head back to the hospital tomorrow morning after Grandma Erickson picks up Davis. Spence said Blair is still doing well and everything is in place to pull the ventilator again tomorrow. Wish us luck. It's a little scary to think that there is always a chance that they'll have to put it in again. Our little Blair is completely ticked off about everything attached to her and it's taken non-stop work to keep her from pulling it all off. Hopefully, we'll be down a couple of tubes by tomorrow night.

Watching a movie with her baby. Check out her right cheek- the poor thing is so sore from the tape from the first feeding tube.

Posing all of her toys for the picture.

On Wednesdays at the hospital they play Bingo. We've never gone to it, but they bring a prize to each kid in the hospital every time. Last week Blair got leg warmers and today she got a Zhu Zhu Pet. She was so determined to open that thing by herself. She made it clear that she didn't need Dad's help and she spent nearly 15 minutes working with it. Maybe she just wanted something else to pass the time...

Blair was playing with Dad this morning and doing all of the things she does for him at home- stones, peace, high fives, thumps up, and "congratulations" (they shake his hand). Doesn't she look so much better in this picture than she did yesterday? That's our little girl.

The Bingo prize finally opened.

More movies with her baby and she's sitting all the way up without a major coughing fit.

This whole thing has been such a roller coaster and we've still got a long way to go, but we're feeling better today and looking forward to our little girl being herself again.

Day 14: Going Backwards Again

2011-02-15T12:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon was fairly uneventful- just how we like it. That was no longer the case when evening came. Blair has been having so many secretions suctioned out of her tube lately, but last night, she began throwing up stuff too. Throwing up is not part of the plan. There were a few occurrences of large amounts of green and yellow bile and things coming up. It was so sad to watch. Her little face was bright red and tears were coming down her face.

Last night Blair lost all color in her face and her eyes were dark and sunken in. Our poor little girl looks as sick now as she did the day she came. They also had to increase her peep from a 5 to a 9 and they increased her O2 percentage from 25 percent to 60 to 80 percent. Even with the increases in her respirator settings, Blair wasn't getting good oxygen saturation.

They did a few x-rays last night to see if her feeding tube had moved and was no longer in the right place and to see if she has aspirated anything in her lungs. This morning they decided to get a new feeding tube because it was right on the edge of where it should be and they hope that will help her stop throwing up. As far as the aspiration goes, they couldn't see anything on the x-ray, but they said sometimes it takes a couple of days to see it better.

Blair woke up off and on all last night and Spence stayed up until 5:30am because he was so worried about her and he wanted to hear the results of all of her tests. Nothing was very conclusive though. She may have just had a big setback due to the extubation and re-intubation that happened yesterday.

This morning when the doctors came for rounds, they were still unsure what was causing all of the problems. They are planning to try to wean down her O2 and peep as they can, but so far that isn't working at all. Her little body won't tolerate it. Spence thinks she may have gotten another bug, maybe the flu or something, that is making her so sick again and it wouldn't surprise me at all. She really looks sick again despite the fact that her chest x-rays this morning looked like they were still getting better. Waiting and wondering is so hard. It is comforting to know that she has her very own nurse 24 hours a day though, so they'll watch for anything that comes up. With everything that has happened in the last 24 hours, it isn't likely that they'll try to re-extubate her anytime soon unless a major miraculous recovery happens. It looks like the best we can hope for at this point is sometime this weekend.

One good thing happened last night though. They moved Blair to a different room. For the last two weeks, we've been in a room with no windows and only curtains separating us from another patient. In the middle of the night they moved Blair to what feels like a suite. It has windows on two walls and a lot more space. Her TV also has a DVD player now which will make it easier to watch movies. We've been trying to prop our laptop on her bed so she could see it when she wanted to watch something. Another plus- the bathroom is right outside her door. If we're going to be here for a month, (which it feels like at this point) at least we're a little more comfortable now.

Blair is getting used to the drill here. She has figured out that if she bites down as hard as she can, the nurses can't suction her tube out. It takes some serious persuasion to get her to open. Yesterday she also learned how to take her arm restraints off. Bad news. She did look pretty pleased with herself when it happened though. She's so sneaky that if one person is turning their back for even a second, they always have to make sure someone else has an eye on her.

Last night- the picture doesn't look near as bad as real life did. It was such a scary crazy night.
This morning she has slept a lot. Hopefully her little body is recovering from everything that has happened lately.

Her respirator settings this morning. Back to a high peep.

More friends and neighbors have sent stuff over (for both kids- so thoughtful) and Blair has enjoyed looking at all of the balloons. She can't really move enough to see the posters and cards on her wall yet, but she'll love them when she can see them.

The kids from Joy School sent this poster and some valentines for both Blair and Davis.

Yesterday and today have been pretty stressful and emotional. I think I've cried about a hundred times in the last day or so. It is so hard to see our baby look so sick and be so uncomfortable, but we really appreciate all of your prayers, calls, emails, and comments. We feel so blessed to have such a great support system.

Day 13: Failed Attempt

2011-02-14T12:31:00.000-08:00

This morning when the doctors did their rounds, they decided they would extubate Blair around mid-day. They started her on some medication to help her deal with coming off of the medications she's been on for two weeks and they got prepared to take out the tube.

A couple of hours later the respiratory therapist came and suctioned her and her tape was pulling off her mouth, so they began getting ready to extubate her soon. They warned us a couple of times that there was a 5 percent chance that she'd have to be re-intubated. I wasn't worried though- certainly we weren't that 5 percent.

When they pulled the tube out, they immediately put a nasal cannula on her to get her some additional oxygen. She desaturated a little, but nothing to worry about. Soon after pulling out the tube, her little chest began jerking and working super hard to breathe. The doctors listened to her and decided her airway was closing off. This happens because of the irritation in her throat from the tube that has been in her for two weeks. Her lungs were healthy enough to breathe on their own, but her airways were so closed off that it was as if she was breathing through a coffee straw.

They decided that she needed to be re-intubated. This time they used a smaller tube because her lungs are healthier and they began steroids so that her airway can heal. They will leave the new tube in for a couple of days and then give it another try.

Watching my little girl go through this was really hard. I was sitting in the chair so I couldn't see everything and Spence was standing by her when they pulled out her tube. It was a couple of minutes between pulling out the first tube and deciding to do another and when I saw her little body going nuts, I had to leave the room. My poor mom probably couldn't understand a thing I said when I called crying like crazy during the whole thing. Spence said they added another fast-acting paralytic before they re-intubated her and it went smoothly.

Blair is sleeping now and back to her higher doses of sedation. Hopefully they can help her be pretty comfortable this afternoon. Her respirator settings are still super low and she's saturating well- all we need is an open airway. We appreciate all prayers as we wait to try this again later this week.

Day 12

2011-02-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

Early this morning, they lowered Blair's peep from a 9 to an 8. She did so good. When the doctors came for rounds, they said the x-ray looked so much better and she was doing so great that they were going to try moving her down from an 8 to a 5. We were totally pumped. That is the magic number; 5 is a low as they have to go on the peep.

She's been at a 5 now for about five hours and she's doing okay. She has desaturated a few times, but she's been able to recover within a few minutes. Having her peep at a 5 allows her to cough up more of the junk in her lungs, so she's been suctioned out a number of times today. Suctioning is super uncomfortable, so she's been pretty mad about that, but the more stuff they can get out of her lungs, the better.

Her oxygen percentage has been moved up from 40 percent to 50 or 60 percent. If she can move that number back down to 30 or 40 percent, she will be able to do what they call a "spontaneous trial" tonight or in the morning. When it's time for a spontaneous trial, they leave the tube in place but they stop breathing for her. The respirator is turned to a different mode where she does all of the work, but they give her a little pressure support to compensate for having to breathe through a tube. In order to pass the trial, she has to be able to do all the work herself for a couple of hours while maintaining her high saturation levels and not breathing too fast. In addition to those things, they watch her chest to make sure her muscles aren't working like crazy to help her breathe.

If she's able to pass this spontaneous trial they will extubate her; so cross your fingers for her. She's been pretty awake for most of the day today and she's getting pretty ticked about everything she's got hooked up to her little body. We sit by her most of the time so she doesn't have to have the arm restraints on, but she's pretty sly and fast when it comes to grabbing at her tube and everything else stuck to her. She's gotten to the point where she'll push our hand away or hit at us when we are trying to stop her from grabbing something. It is easy to tell by her facial expressions that she's pretty upset about the whole thing. She also gets really frustrated and cries when she's trying to talk to us. She obviously can't talk with a tube in her mouth and it's so upsetting for her when she's trying to communicate with us.

She's spent much of the day playing with new stuffed animals, dolls, barbies, and books. The nurse gave her a pink sponge on a stick like they use to clean out Blair's mouth and told her to brush Zoe's teeth (the only stuffed animal with a mouth that opens). She loved that.

It's hard to watch our little girl go through this. She is on so much medication, but she's still super awake and responsive. The doctor told us that if any of us adults were on that much medication, they could do surgery on us. Apparently little kids metabolize the drugs so fast and get used to them so quickly that they have to keep going up on the doses. The medications will be an issue when they extubate her. It will take a while to slowly wean her off them, so she doesn't go through withdrawals.

Another small thing- Blair got to have her catheter taken out today. She's been pretty bugged by it this morning, so I think she's pretty happy to have one thing gone. The catheter has been a pain. In the beginning, it got clogged up and she had to have it taken out and get a new one put in twice... not fun.

Overall, Blair is doing so much better and we are so grateful for all of your thoughts and prayers. Hopefully we'll have our little girl home by the end of the week.

Day 11

2011-02-12T10:58:00.000-08:00

Blair had a good night last night. She maintained a high oxygen saturation with her peep at 12 and she slept great. Yesterday evening she was pretty awake and she watched cartoons off and on for a couple of minutes before dozing off. We also read a couple of books that our ward sent over and she held one side while I held the other and she would point at the pictures. It was great to see her a little more awake and be able to interact with her. She would also respond to our questions by nodding or shaking her head. She reached for some of the stuffed animals people have sent and held on tight to a couple of them. I can't wait until the tube is out and she can talk again.

This morning, when the doctors came for rounds, they decided to wean her peep by 2 again, so she's down to a 10 now. It's only been about an hour, but she's got a 99 percent oxygen saturation level (higher than she's ever had) with her peep of 10 and 40 percent oxygen being pumped into her. That's awesome. The plan is to wean her peep down 1 every 12 hours if she'll tolerate it. Wish us luck.

She's a pretty sweaty munchkin this morning. I don't know why, but she gets this way every once in a while. She still really wants her blanket though.

Here are a couple of her x-rays. The one on the left is from today and the one on the right is from a few days ago. Cloudy gray stuff is what we need to get out of her lungs- the more black the better. Her x-ray is so much better today.

New peep of 10 and other current settings

A Little Wiggle Room

2011-02-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

Blair's nurse tonight decided it was time to move her out of a crib into a big girl bed. When Blair was being life flighted here, the hospital thought she was only a year old, so they had prepared her room with a crib. Since then, almost every nurse has commented about how she was so big in her crib, but she was never stable enough to move her before today. Dad picked her up while the nurses monitored all the cords and we pulled out the crib and rolled a big bed under her.

I think it felt pretty good to her because she stretched right out. She looks like she fits so much better now.

Day 10

2011-02-11T11:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening we pretty hard. Blair's blood pressure continued to get pretty high all night. I felt so bad for her when the doctors said her blood pressuring was increasing because she was waking up a little and realizing that she was hooked up to so many strange things and she couldn't move any part of her body. That broke my heart. She'll be fine, but I wish I didn't know that was the cause. They increased some of the sedation drugs she was receiving and she had a better night.

This morning when the doctors came to do their rounds, they decided she was doing better and they were going to decrease her peep from a 14 to a 12. This is a pretty big step, but so far she seems to be taking it well. It's been down for about an hour and a half now. The doctors also decided to discontinue her paralytic drug. She's back in the restraints that make it so she can't bend her arms, but it is so much better seeing her move a little and open her eyes for a second or two.

We're hopeful that if she continues this way, she'll have the tube out sometime toward the end of next week. We can't wait for our beautiful little girl to be able to talk and move around again.

Day 10 in the ICU
She looks totally awake here, but she really only had her eyes open for a second. We do love being able to see those pretty blue eyes though.

Her current monitor settings. I wish I took a picture of her respirator monitor every day. I'm going to do this from now on.

We're On a Roll

2011-02-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

Blair is doing great today. She had a good night last night and they weaned her peep (the amount of oxygen they have to leave in her lungs after the respirator exhales in order to keep her lungs from collapsing) down to 14 this morning. If she continues to stay stable for a while, they'll move it down again in eight hours (it has to be to a 5 for a while before she can get the tube out of her throat). If she gets her peep down low enough, they'll try stopping the paralytic she's on and see how she responds to that.

We've had a couple of boring days now and that's how we like it. Anytime there's action it usually means something bad is happening. We're glad we haven't had that for a day and a half now.

Today she finally pooped. I know many of you don't care, but it's for our records. She hasn't pooped since January 30th and they've been giving her meds to help with this for four days now. Too bad for the nurse who has her today though, she's pooped four times so far this morning.

Cross your fingers for us that things continue on this current trend.

So many of our friends and family have called, come to the hospital, or done a number of other nice things for us and Blair and we appreciate it so much. She's got a bed full of stuffed animals and her wall is covered in posters and cards from neighbors, friends, and cousins. Thank you all. She'll be thrilled when she wakes up and opens her eyes. I am so grateful for all of the wonderful people we have supporting us. We are truly blessed and we love you all.

Spence has finally decided he can read a bit now that she hasn't changed much in over 24 hours. Prior to this, he was constantly focused on the monitors watching every little change and analyzing each move she made. He's a good dad, but I'm glad he can relax a bit more- now he only has to check every couple of minutes. He still rushes to eat and hurries back in to her room every time he steps out for a second.

Time With My Little Man

2011-02-10T11:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my Dad brought Davis to the hospital and Spence and I took him to lunch. We listed a number of good places to eat and Davis said he wanted to go to Wendy's. It didn't sound that great to us, but we went there anyway. It was so much fun to see him and he was super happy. After lunch, we went to Baskin Robbins. He had a sugar cone with a little ice cream and it took him almost an hour to eat it. He was taking his time and every time we asked if he was done he said he was till eating. I think maybe he was just savoring the time he had with Mom and Dad.

After lunch and ice cream, we dropped Spence off at the hospital and Davis and I went to Target. He picked a couple of books for Blair when she's awake and he picked a Lightning McQueen book for himself. When I asked Davis what he wanted to do next, he said he wanted to go to the movie theater. We ended up seeing Yogi Bear. I had to laugh though when he told the lady we needed a big popcorn and a root beer. I thought maybe we could go for a smaller popcorn because we didn't have Dad and Blair, but he said he wanted A LOT of popcorn. We ended up with a big popcorn and he ate of ton. Needless to say he wasn't too hungry for dinner.

It was nice to be home for a little bit and I loved seeing my little man in his own bed. I almost forgot to give him his medicine though. I woke him up a few minutes after I put him in bed and he sat up and took it well. After medicine, he looked at me and said "Mom, I want more sleep". No kidding, 30 minutes isn't enough.

This morning around 10:30, we came to the hospital and he left with Grandpa Davis. Hopefully, he's a happy camper for the next week or so.

Enjoying a little ice cream

Davis on the way home from the movie- he told me again and again "that was sure a fun movie". I didn't think it was so great, but he laughed his head off the whole time.

My little man in his own bed- I checked him a million times last night.

Yesterday, Davis was talking about Blair so we showed him a picture of her in the hospital. We thought that maybe he'd wonder about all the tubes and everything hooked up to her, but he didn't worry about that. His response, "Hey, she got a new teddy bear." He wasn't worried though. He told us she was good at sharing with him.

After a Week...

2011-02-09T09:06:00.001-08:00

Things seem a little more stable. Blair had a good night last night. She stayed at a peep of 16 and got her oxygen down to 40 percent. This morning, she only desaturated once and it was only down to the 70s. When the doctors did rounds this morning, they decided to move her peep down to 15. She's desaturated a little with that, but she's still in the 80s. Hopefully she'll respond well to this and we can say goodbye to a peep of 16 forever. We've still got a long way to go until we reach the 5 she's supposed to have though.

She's doing well with the three sedation drugs and they've added a paralytic. Hopefully her lungs can rest and begin to heal. We've been here since last Wednesday and we're missing our active little girl.

Thank you all for your love and support. We've really appreciated all of you. Thanks to the great people at JDC for keeping things running smoothly. Spence would be a mess if he had to go to work while Blair was here.

Yesterday, the nurse was using a couple of stuffed animals she's received to prop her arms up. The bear is from the tax team at JD Clark and the pink pig is from Taylor (my cousin) & Katie and their cute kids. Thanks for thinking of her. She'll be thrilled when she wakes up.
Blair loves balloons so I decided to take a picture of the ones she's received since I think they won't last until she wakes up. The one above came from our friends David and Lisa Safeer with a cute teddy bear. The princes one below came with the bear from the tax team at JD Clark.

If I can remember, I'm going to grab a real camera when I go home today. These pictures from my phone are terrible.

This afternoon my Dad is going to bring us Davis and Spence and I are going to take him to lunch and hang out for a while and my dad will sit with Blair. After lunch, I'm going to take Davis home and play and hang out and keep him overnight. I'm sure missing my little guy. Normally I'm tired of reading to him after about 20 books but I think I'll read him every one of the bookcase today. I'm excited to have time to hang out with him.

A Few More Steps Backward

2011-02-08T09:10:00.001-08:00

Blair had a pretty good night last night. The nurse gave her a bath and put Valentine's Day bows in her hair. She'd be happy about that if she wasn't totally sedated. She stayed at a peep of 12, but her oxygen was reduced to 40 percent and she was getting good saturation.

This morning has been a total different story. She started desaturating again and wouldn't come up. The doctors and the respiratory therapist came to check her out and decided to move her to a peep of 16. They also had to have her on 100 percent oxygen for about an hour. Three hours later, the oxygen is at 80 percent, so she's doing a little better. They had started muscle relaxers to help her lungs stop working so hard and hopefully they can work on healing.

They are going to get rid of her current IVs and put in a PICC line instead. This is an IV type thing that has a catheter running from her elbow up her arm and into her chest to the large vein that goes into her heart. IVs have a life span of just a few days (they've already had to move them once) and the PICC line is put in place for long term patients. It will deliver all of her meds now. They are also going to put in an arterial line. This will monitor her blood pressure on a continuous basis instead of using the cuff that just takes blood pressure once per hour. It will also allow them to draw blood easier for all of the tests that need to be run. These two things are being done because she's getting so much worse and the doctors think she'll still be here for a pretty long time.

The respirator she's on can only go to a peep of 20 and they usually don't like to let it go that high. If they can't get her under control with this respirator, they'll switch her out to a different kind.

Just Right

2011-02-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

Davis is having a blast with grandparents, but he's worried about his sister. He knows she's at the hospital and she's "very very very sick". Don't worry though, he's "just right sick".

I personally wouldn't call RSV and a little pnuemonia "just right".

Today's Update

2011-02-07T17:13:00.000-08:00

This journey has had a lot of ups and downs. Last night they had gotten her sedation to a perfect level by adding one more drug and increasing the other two. She slept pretty well and they never ended up increasing her Peep from an 8 to a 9. She was getting about 40-45 percent oxygen pumped into her and she was doing well.

This morning, her oxygen saturation levels began decreasing and they couldn't get it under control. They just increased the oxygen percentage for a while and watched her. They ordered another chest x-ray and couldn't tell why she wasn't responding to the increased oxygen. Four doctors came over and checked her and they did what they call a "bag and suction" where they use a bag to pump oxygen into her and see if they can suction more out of her lungs that way. They got some good secretions out, but she still had a low oxygen saturation level. They decided to increase her peep to 10 and then they all watched her for a while. They couldn't get her oxygen saturation level to a good spot without having her at 90-100 percent oxygen pumped into her, so they increased her peep to a 12 which is higher than it was when we first came.

They were going to do the bag and suction every four hours, but they have decided not to because she's on such a high peep and her lungs will deflate too much if they do.

It was a stressful day, but she's getting closer to a good place with her saturation levels and she's at about 75-85 percent oxygen. My Dad came up for a few hours this afternoon and we had a good visit even though her bad days really make him nervous. Davis happily played with Aunt Miranda today while Grandma Erickson worked for a little while and he's enjoying being the king of the house there.

Blair this morning- She opened her eyes this morning for a while and watched cartoons before she began to go nuts on us.
The child life people had us fill out a paper about her today and they made her this cute poster.

This picture was taken just a few minutes ago. Two nights ago we gave her a bath and washed her hair. It looked pretty cute, but she promptly began moving like crazy and going down on her oxygen levels so now she's looking a little crazy. We don't care as long as she works on getting better though.

This Morning's Update

2011-02-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

All of last night and this morning, Blair has been super restless. Her sedation wasn't working well and she'd be sleeping and resting when all of the sudden she'd try to sit up and move like crazy. Spence says it was like Frankenstein and all of the sudden "She's Alive". Spence stayed up most of the night helping the nurse hold her arms down so she didn't rip of the ventilator tube and trying to keep her from moving her head around too much. This morning they have changed her sedation to a different kind of drug and increased the amount she's getting. She had to have a number of boluses (an extra amount of the sedation drug when she's extra wiggly) and they weren't really helping until the last five or ten minutes. In addition to the arm restraints, they've put things on her arms that make it so she can't bend her elbows so she can't reach her tube.

When the respiratory therapist came around this morning, we looked at her X-rays for the last few days and it looks like her right lung is significantly worse now then when she came in. It is, however, a little tiny bit better than it was yesterday. She also has a little fluid in the top of her right lung that isn't supposed to be there. It's not too much to worry about yet though.

Two days ago, they decided to reduce her "Peep" (the amount of air that needs to stay in her lungs to keep them inflated after the ventilator breathes for her). This morning, the RT thinks that she needs to go back up on her Peep again. They will decide this for sure when the doctor comes around a little later. The peep (and a few other things) has to be down significantly from the 8 she's on and the 9 they're moving her to before she's ready to be on her own.

Right now, they've got her on her left side trying to help out the right lung. She's finally holding still a little better and we'll update further when something else changes.

A Crazy Few Days

2011-02-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

Blair and Davis had a cough on Sunday morning so Spence stayed home from church with them. When I got home from teaching primary, they were both asleep and Blair had a fever. Monday Blair didn't get any better and was pretty sleepy and breathing really fast. That night, Spence took her to Insta-Care and they said she probably had the flu and she'd be fine. They also listened to her lungs and said she sounded fine. She didn't get better and she hadn't eaten anything since Sunday morning so we decided to take her in Wednesday. My pediatrician wasn't in so I took her back to Insta-Care. Upon arrival they checked her oxygen saturation levels (they were 74 and they're supposed to be in the high 90s) and immediately got her on oxygen. She was also having 95 respiration's per minute and she's supposed to be somewhere around 15-20 per minute.

They called the ambulance to take her the two blocks to the hospital and we got super worried. When we got to Davis hospital, she was getting better on her oxygen saturation levels, but her little body was working way too hard to breathe. After our pediatrician and the ER doc talked they thought they should send her to Primary Children's Hospital in case she got worse. They have better children's equipment and doctors so we were happy about that.

When they were preparing to get her in the ambulance to take her to Salt Lake, the doctor at Primary's wanted one more test before she came. When they got the test results back, they decided to send her on Life Flight with a pediatric crew in case she needed to be put on a respirator in transport.

When we arrived at Primary Children's we expected her to be in a regular room, and were shocked when they showed us to the Pediatric ICU. When we first saw her they were taking X-rays and she already had a respirator in place. It was pretty scary seeing her like that for the first time.

We got here on Wednesday night and we'll likely be here for many days to come. Blair is stable and letting her body heal while the respirator breathes for her. Spence and I sit and worry and watch our pretty baby girl. Spence is becoming a total pro a all things respiratory. He has asked a million questions and gotten everything figured out and he can explain what everything means in great detail. We're lucky to have great people at Spence's office that can keep everything rolling for him while he's here with his girlie.

Davis has been with Grandpa Davis since this all happened and he's having a ball. Last night he was breathing really fast and his fever wouldn't go down so my dad brought him to the ER at Primary's. They found out that Davis had two ear infections and they said he for sure had RSV because he's been hanging out with Blair. When they listened to his lungs they thought he sounded okay but they did a chest X-ray and found out he had pneumonia too. They offered to keep him if we were worried, but they thought he could safely go home on medication. This morning, my parents took him to our pediatrician and he said he's looking okay and we could just watch for changes for the worse.

Grandma and Grandpa Erickson have picked him up this afternoon and they'll have him until Tuesday night when he'll go back to Grandma and Grandpa Davis. Because I'm a paranoid mom now, I told all grandparents to bring him to the ER at Primary's at the first sign of something getting worse, but he should be fine.

We appreciate all three sets of grandparents for their help, love, and concern and all of our friends and neighbors for their offers to help. Right now we're in the middle of a super long waiting game.

The pictures below are pretty poor quality- I took them all on my Blackberry.

Blair in the ambulance from Insta Care to Davis Hospital
ICU at Primary Children's Hospital- Our little girl who was potty trained before she was two would die if she knew she was wearing a diaper... She would, however, be please to know I had done her hair and painted her nails. She loves being fancy- the hospital is no exception.

Davis at his ER checkup at Primary Children's Hospital

Davis hanging out watching Scooby on Grandpa Davis' iPad

Sick Kids

2011-02-04T22:06:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, our little Blair is in the ICU at Primary Children's Hospital with RSV and Pneumonia. She's on a respirator and stable now, but we're in for a long wait as her body heals. Davis has the same things, but he's not near as bad and he's home with Grandpa Davis and some medicine. Thanks to all of our friends and family for your concern. We really appreciate it.

Nativity Mastered

2010-12-14T12:27:00.000-08:00

My kids have been having so much fun with Christmas activities this year. They were thrilled when the decorations went up and they've been loving every moment since. They are always telling us that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and reminding us of the story of His birth.

The other day, Davis called to Blair, "Hey kid."
To which Blair replied, "Don't call me 'kid'."
Davis said, "Okay Princess." (A good choice because that's usually how she likes him to refer to her.)
But Blair corrected him by saying, "Call me Mary. I'm Mary now."

A few minutes later she told me her baby was no longer a girl. The baby was a boy and his name was Jesus. When she started taking off the baby's clothes, she told me, "Jesus doesn't wear clothes. He's just naked under the blankets wrapped around him."

At my parents later that day, she still insisted that we all call her Mary and her baby Jesus. She only likes to read the Christmas books about Jesus and she prefers to listen to the Christmas music about Jesus. Anytime she's going anywhere, she pretends she's on a donkey headed to Bethlehem.

I think we've got the story mastered.

Once there was a snowman...

2010-11-29T16:32:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday it really snowed for the first time. After church, the kids raced home to get on their snow clothes and go outside with Dad to make a snowman. Dad said he would help them for a minute and they could make a small snowman. They promptly told him that the snowman must be "tall, tall, tall". When it was complete, Blair asked Spence to make it melt "small, small, small". When he told her it wouldn't happen right away and they would need to wait, she said, "Should we wait outside or inside?" I think she was a little disappointed when it didn't melt as she watched it out the window. Dad is pretty good at building a snowman, but he really needs to work on his melting skills.

More Halloween

2010-11-29T16:31:00.000-08:00

Here are more pictures of our Halloween fun. Grandma and Grandpa Davis came over to see the kids and have dinner on Halloween. They handed out candy while we went trick-or-treating for fifteen minutes. The kids were over it pretty soon due to the rain. They got way more excited to see the kids that came to our house and hand out the candy than they did about getting their own candy. We had a great night.

The kids had a great time at their little Joy School Halloween party. They had a little program when the kids were supposed to sing, but most of the kids just stood there looking at the parents. They all enjoyed the treats after though and as soon as we left they sang the Halloween songs at the top of their lungs. Go figure.

Every year, they have a party at JD Clark and the kids love it. This year, Spence did a little better on his costume than normal (he threw it together two days before instead of the morning of) and the kids thought he looked pretty cool. It turns out having a big head comes in handy if your husband needs a cowboy hat.

Cute Kids

2010-11-29T16:30:00.000-08:00

I know I take tons of pictures of my kids standing here, but I like to have pictures of them when I have just gotten them ready. And they're looking so cute. And I love this picture of Blair, she is always pulling this face lately.

Girlie Girl

2010-11-29T16:21:00.000-08:00

Blair is such a girlie girl. She loves fancy dresses and her nursery teachers say she is always concerned about her dress in class. She doesn't want to do play dough with the other kids becuase she doesn't want to mess up her dress and she doesn't want to play with some of the toys because she has to be careful with her dress and take care of her babies. What a funny little girl. These are two new dresses from Grandma Davis. When she wore the blue one, Blair came home thrilled to tell me that Sister Crawford loved her dress and sparkly tights and shoes. The second dress was a quick favorite because of the matching baby doll dress. It was also a requirement that her baby have a matching bow before she went to church (where the baby sat in the car). It is so much fun to watch my kids grow.

Discovery Gateway

2010-11-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

With the start of winter, we've been thinking of fun new things to do inside. Last week we went to Discovery Gateway. The kids had a blast and we didn't even make it upstairs. They spent hours checking out all the fun things, but they absolutely loved the grocery store. The took turns shopping and being the cashier over and over again. We'll be back there again soon.

Discovery Gateway

2010-11-16T12:50:00.000-08:00

The kids and I went to Discovery Gateway with Jen and Boston Devlin today. The kids all had a blast. There are so many fun things there that we never even made it to the second level. Davis and Blair especially loved the grocery store. They loved taking turns being "the lady" and "the guy"- the checker at the store, while the other kid shopped. I love watching my kids have so much fun. We bought discount passes online, so we still have four more. It'll be fun to see them discover the things upstairs.

3 Year Olds and a Puppy

2010-11-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

I thought it was time to update pictures since the kids turned three. Blair loves posing these days, so she was pretty good and loved hearing how cute she was. Davis, on the other hand, was a nightmare. I don't know what the issue was, but he didn't want to have his picture taken and he cried so hard that his face was blotchy and red. I didn't have many to choose from with him and it was hard to narrow down the pictures of Blair.

When we got back from taking pictures, I thought we'd take some with the puppy. Those three make quite a difficult group, but we ended up with a few cute ones.

"We turned into three!"

2010-11-09T20:14:00.001-08:00

I can't believe my babies turned three. They are so big and so much fun right now. They think they can do everything on their own and they let me know it.

They had Joy School on the morning of their birthday and they were thrilled to take Cookie Monster cookies to school. They just knew their friends would love them. When they walked into school the teacher said, "Happy Birthday Davis and Blair" and Davis said, "Yeah, we turned into three." I died laughing. What a funny little boy.

My mom came to help me frost the cakes during the day and my dad watched the kids while we worked. Grandma & Grandpa Davis gave the kids the cutest airplane teeter totter, so they enjoyed playing on that all day.

That night we had Grandma & Grandpa Erickson, Grandma & Grandpa Davis, Uncle Morgan, Aunt Mandy, Sam, Alex, and Reese over for a little birthday party. Grandma & Grandpa Olsen couldn't make it, but we celebrated with them a week earlier.

Long before the party the kids had requested a Cinderella cake for Blair and a Lightning McQueen cake for Davis. They were thrilled when we actually got to have them and they loved the giant balloons. They're still a highlight a week later.

The kids got such great presents from everyone and they were super excited about them all. This year, Spence told me he'd be in charge of the kids gift (which he never is) and not to worry about a thing. He was super excited and I was super surprised. He has always vowed that we would never have a dog, but he gave the kids a puppy. I think the fenced in back yard and the fact that the kids have never ending fun with Grandma Erickson's dogs put him over the edge.

We got a yellow lab puppy that was eight weeks old and all the gear to go along with it. (Side note: After buying all this stuff myself I understand why my dad was always so ticked when we left our dog stuff on the ground. I think growing up I didn't think it was expensive.) The puppy's name is Sully and the kids couldn't have been happier. We had them open gifts that had a collar and a leash and dog bowls and a toy before Spence brought in the puppy. They knew the things were for dogs and they said, "Oh no; we don't have a dog." Were they ever excited when "Dad found one in the garage." (Funny story- The dog stuff that we wrapped for Davis was in a Simms box and when Davis opened it he said "fishing boots" and pushed it aside before opening the box. Dad was definitely more excited when he got the box.)

Sully is an outside dog all the way, but we let him in for the party. That night we talked about how Sully wasn't going to come in our house any more and we would play with him out back. The next morning I heard Davis coming upstairs from his room and the back door open. He went right out to play with Sully before anything else. (Anyone who knows him well knows that he must be pretty excited if he went to play with Sully before he ate breakfast. That kid loves breakfast.) After a couple of minutes I heard the back door open again and Davis say, "Come inside Sully; it's cold out there." I came down with some shoes and a jacket and took care of that. That morning the kids didn't come inside at all from 8 until 11:30.

Since then, they've had hours of fun outside in the sun, pouring rain, and snow. They love that dog and they're always reminding me that they need to go outside because "Sully loves us and wants to play."

Dad did a great job. I'm glad they had such a happy birthday. It was so fun this year.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-11-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Today we went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch with Joy School. We had planned to go before Halloween, but it was so super rainy that they closed the patch for a few days. The kids had a great time though. They took us on a wagon ride out to the pumpkins and the kids LOVED picking out their own pumpkins. After the wagon ride, we went over to the play area. They had a giant blow up bounce house shaped like a pumpkin, a train behind a four-wheeler, and a giant slide along with other things. The kids played in the bounce house and on the slide forever. They loved the slide once they figured out how to climb up the back of the straw- the steps were pretty big for little kids. We had a blast though and we will definitely go back next year.

Not So Great Family Picture

2010-10-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

We attempted family pictures today. I had my mom come and use my camera to take some, but I failed to have someone come to get the kids attention while she took the picture. This picture is the only decent one we got. We'll have to give it a try again soon. The problem is, not only do the kids hate it, but Spence isn't so cooperative either.

Halloween is FINALLY Here!!!

2010-10-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

My kids were beyond thrilled this morning when they got to wear their Halloween costumes to Joy School for a party. They think they've waited forever and every day they ask, "How many more days until Halloween?" We woke up early to get them all ready before preschool, but they didn't mind. They love their costumes. I do, however, wonder if Blair will be disappointed in hers once she realizes that many of the other girls at school are dressed like princesses. Maybe next year I'll take it easy and not worry if they don't look like they go together....

Lucky for us we have a preschool party today, a party at Dad's work tomorrow, and trick-or-treating on Saturday. It's going to be a fun filled weekend with lots of scrubbing off makeup and washing out hair.

"Look outside Mom!"

2010-10-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

I work in the afternoons while my kids are taking a nap. Today on the monitor I have been hearing lots of noise - not the quiet hum I hear when I have two sleeping kids. As I walked downstairs to check my kiddos, I saw Davis peek his head out from behind the couch (one of their favorite places to play). When I asked what he was doing he replied, "I'm checking to see if it's dark and I'm really supposed to be in bed." As he opened the back door he said, "Look outside, Mom. It's time to play, not sleep. It's a nice day. Let's go outside."

What could I say to that? He's outside playing right now.

Cabin Weekend

2010-10-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

We went to the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa Erickson last weekend. We had a blast. Spence and Grandpa spent some time fishing while the girls and the kids went shopping in Jackson Hole. We played on the four-wheelers, hung out, and had a great time. We also floated the river in the canoes one day. After the kids had gotten out of our canoe, Spence totally stopped steering the canoe and tipped us over. It was so stinking cold. I was not happy at all.

On the drive to the cabin, we stopped a Tin Cup Creek so Spence could test out his new waders. While he fished for a while, the kids ran around. Here are a few pictures I took of them while they played.

Random

2010-10-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Just some random cute pictures of the kids... It makes me laugh so hard that Davis is so mad that I'm taking his picture and Blair is posing like crazy. I love these two.

What???!!!

2010-10-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

Blair was downstairs playing today and I had check on her a couple of times and everything was fine. I checked on her again to find her with her scissors (that were on the highest shelf in our top cupboards) and some hair on the floor of the kitchen. Luckily she had her hair braided the day before so there was only a little out of the braid that she could cut off. It was such a small amount I couldn't even tell where it was the next day, but we moved the scissors to a harder place for sure.

The Circus

2010-09-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

One day on our little "vacation" we ended up at the Gateway to see a movie because we couldn't find a good one in Park City. When we were at the movie, we realized that the circus opened that day, so we decided to go. It was so much fun. There was always a lot going on and the kids loved the animals. They each picked a toy and they've loved playing with them ever since.

Heber Creeper

2010-09-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

We bought tickets and took a ride on the Heber Creeper one day. The kids love trains and were super excited to ride on this. They sat inside for a minute, but it was such a beautiful day that we took advantage of the outside car for most of the ride. It was a pretty long train ride, but the kids were never bored. They were thrilled to be on the train and check everything out that we passed. This was so much fun.

Park City

2010-09-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

We had a blast on our little vacation. Each day we woke up and went straight to the pool and most nights we went swimming again before bed. It was so much fun to hang out just the four of us after we'd been missing Spence for so long. We went out to eat most of the time, but one night we decided to order pizza and watch a movie in our room. We chose the wrong night for that- the power went out 20 minutes into the movie, so we went swimming in the dark instead. The kids got so much better at putting their faces in the water on this trip.

When we got to the hotel, the kids were thrilled. We've stayed in a number of hotels before, but this one had two rooms, a kitchen, a balcony, and two TVs. The kids were in heaven. The immediately began running all over and checking things out. For the rest of the trip they called it our "hotel house".

Airplane Museum

2010-09-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

After Fall busy season, we planned a little "vacation". We didn't really want to go anywhere far because we are driving to the lake soon, so we decided to take the kids and go to Park City. The first day, we went to the Air Force Museum in Roy before we headed up. I thought the kids would like it, but I totally underestimated how much Davis would love it. He thought it was the coolest thing ever and now whenever we pass it on the freeway, he asks if we can go there again soon.

Joy School

2010-09-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of Joy School for the kids. There are six other kids in our neighborhood in the group. We're only doing it once a week for two hours. I've been pretty worried about the kids going, or mostly just Davis going, because I don't want them to be a distraction to all of the other kids. They are some of the youngest in the group and sometimes Davis just doesn't care what he's being told to do. He isn't grouchy about it, he just ignores the person talking to him or says "Just a sec", but then continues on doing what he was doing.

We've spent the last few days talking about rules for school and how we are supposed to behave. When I picked them up today, the mom that was teaching said they did really well and even participated. Hopefully this continues. If not, no big deal; they don't go to kindergarten for three years...

Wedding Fun

2010-09-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

My little brother Morgan got married on August 21st. It was a great day and we're excited to have Kristi in our family. Davis and Blair had a great weekend playing with cousins and we liked seeing Brady and Em too.

All four kids thought it was pretty great to have flowers like the adults.
Grandma and her girls

Daddy and his princess

Ivory was just hanging out like this. Doesn't it look like she posed? What a beautiful little girl.

Best Buddies

Davis was not thrilled to have his picture taken that night.

This was the favorite spot for all of the kids.

My gorgeous girl

When Kristi threw her bouquet, Blair tried to catch it with the other girls. When someone else got it, Blair burst into tears big time and cried, "I didn't catch the flowers". She was devastated. Em, Tara (Kristi's sis) and I all had small bouquets, so Kristi gave Blair mine and she was totally thrilled. We had the bouquet on our table for a few days and she continued to tell me how pretty her flowers were.

Morgan totally had it coming on his car. When Spence and I got married they trashed our car two days in a row at each of our receptions. Spence came up with the stellar ideas, I did the shopping, and we had lots of helpers. We did the usual car chalk (which Brady made rated R of course), but then we filled the car to the top with packing peanuts. Morg has a sun roof so it was easy to get it full. We had to clean it all up afterwards, but it was totally worth the $65 and the clean up job.

Rodeo

2010-09-09T18:00:00.001-07:00

The kids were thrilled to have new boots, Wrangler's, and cowboy belts. I think they look stinkin' cute.

Cowboys

2010-09-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

The kids have been wanting cowboy boots for a while so we bought them some and they wore them to watch Aunt Kayla in the Cache Valley Rodeo. We had a great time and Kayla did awesome. She was almost as good as the girls doing the pro rodeo. That weekend at the Cache Valley fair Grandma Erickson bought them cowboy hats. They love wearing their boots and hats no matter what else they're wearing.

I'll post a picture of them in their boots and wranglers soon. That's a little better look...

Trout & Berry Days

2010-09-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago was Trout & Berry Days in Paradise. We drove up to spend the day with Grandma & Grandpa Erickson, aunts and uncles, and cousins. The kids had a great time on the toys, but weren't sure what to think about the trout scramble. Both kids ended up with a fish, but Davis was ticked about Spence putting him in the water. Grandma Erickson won a gift certificate for a night at the Anniversary Inn in the "Mothers of Paradise" trout scramble. After Trout & Berry Days, we had a fun afternoon at the Roundy's pond. Thanks for the great day Grandma!

Camping

2010-08-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

We went camping at Vernon Reservoir with Erin and Riki Graybill earlier this month. Spence was super excited to show the kids all the fun to be had fishing, so he stopped at Sportsman's Warehouse and got them each a pole and all the gear needed.

It rained most of the day Friday, but we went anyway and we were glad because it cleared up. After dinner they gave fishing a try, but it didn't go so well. We tried again in the morning, but it was so windy that casting was almost impossible and the lines got blown to the shore right after they were casted. I think Spence decided he'd break out the poles again next summer. Maybe they just need to be a little bit older. Davis was more into the rocks around and Blair just wanted to sit in her princess chair.

We had a great time with the Graybills though as always and can't wait to go with them again.

New Pictures

2010-07-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated pictures of the kids for a while, so while Spence and my dad were fishing in Idaho, my mom and I took the kids to Union Station and got some new pictures. I can't pick just a few. I love them all. I think they both look way too big to be my kids..

Fun in the Sun!

2010-07-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

We went to seven Peaks with Paul and Ashley Giddings and their kids. It was so much fun. We had a great time visiting Paul and Ashley and our kids loved every minute of it. They loved the kid slides and didn't want any help when they went down and they didn't want us to stand at the bottom to catch them. They're getting so independent. They liked the wave pool too, but for sure their favorite part was the big slides. They were super into them and not scared at all and we went down them over and over. It was a great day that we'll do again soon.

Seven Peaks

2010-07-15T13:10:00.000-07:00

We went to Seven Peaks with our friends Paul and Ashley Giddings and their kids Brooklynn and Maylee yesterday. I thought the kids would like it, but I had NO IDEA how much. They were in heaven. They loved to go down the kid slides by themselves and Blair didn't want anyone at the bottom to catch her - she was too big for that. They also loved all of the big slides. They wanted to go non-stop and they were thoroughly worn out at the end of the day. We need to make the trip there at least once each summer.

Sleepers

2010-07-13T21:03:00.001-07:00

Spence and Blair are the exact same when it comes to sleeping. If you have to wake either one up in the morning, they'll moan and pull the blanket over their head. They both like to sleep in longer than me and Davis and they both often stay up later than they should. Last Sunday morning, Blair had made her way to our bed just before I got up to take a shower. While getting ready, I made a noise that made both Blair and Spence roll over and I couldn't stop laughing when they ended up in the exact same position. I love my two cute sleepyheads.