We're Thankful!

For Grandparents: We had a fantastic Thanksgiving at my grandparents home in Southern California. We enjoyed the 80 degree weather and the beach. My grandparents had never met Brynn, so that was a treat for them. She loved following great grandpa around the garden and all over the house. Most of the time she just wanted him to hold her. It was good timing (age wise) because she is so cute trying to carry on nonsense-conversations and saying hi and wanting to give kisses all the time. My grandmother is also one of the best cooks, so you know our food was so delicious! Jenna's marshmallow salad was wonderful as well and we got to see her new(4mo)cute baby! Coleson enjoyed the mounds of Legos to play with. It was such a nice visit. My grandparents are awesome examples of serving others. Right now they have missionaries living with them and continue to get last minute calls from people who need rides or anything. They are so willing to help others even when they have people visiting. Thanks for all you do!


For cousins: We also enjoyed visiting with my cousins. We were planning to go to Legoland, however, our plans got changed. The one day out of the whole year that it hailed and poured rain in San Diego, was the day we were going. We have no complaints though because we went to the Birch Aquariums and still enjoyed the weather the rest of the time. I miss hanging with my so. cal. relatives!

For silly times: We had several days of long car rides. Brynn started entertaining herself by just going Ahhhhhh -with the motion of the car. At one hotel Coleson would walk back and forth across the sliding glass door doing silly poses and faces while we were trying to pack. Ammon likes to do shout outs when everyone else is supposed to be quiet-like in church-you can't help smiling about that one. Of course we have our silly times at home, too, but it's nice when they come at not so fun times.


For our garden: We had a good garden this year. I wasn't expecting too much because I knew I wouldn't have the time I normally do to take care of it. Every week during the summer I would make pasta with fresh basil, tomatoes, zucchini and crookneck squash. We had lots of strawberries, blackberries and some raspberries. We were able to make a lot of jam. We also had good sized bell peppers and jalapenos. Coleson brought home a bean plant in a cup from kindergarten. We planted it in the garden and got about 25 beans off of it. It was the best green bean plant we have ever had. I love cooking with fresh ingredients, so I was sad when we had, what seemed like, an early frost that killed everything. It was really hard for me to start buying tomatoes at the grocery store again.

For our abilities: We are constantly reminded of the abilities we do have. I see how Ammon struggles to eat, swallow, sit up, hold his head, communicate and its all things that come naturally to me. I am so thankful that I can do these things. Then, we are grateful for all the things Ammon can do. I go to his preschool class every month and all the kids have different challenges. One girl has a trach, oxygen tube and a feeding tube constantly. Yet, she can smile, touch and pick out objects when asked too. Another girl can walk with a walker well, crawl, sit up and handle objects well, but she also has a trach and doesn't speak and can't hold still. Ammon can breath on his own, sleep well most of the time, smile, shout out occasionally, laugh, walk with his walker, and,although he has a feeding tube, he can still eat and drink when he wants to. He still understands about going to church, going to school, who his teachers are, recognizes neighbors and talking on the phone.

For :all of our families, friends, neighbors, teachers, Brian's coworkers, his job, our home, the gospel, temples- I love to drive through so many states and see temples everywhere, Christmas coming, our car that safely drives us everywhere, two cars- I've only had my own car for the last 5 years, health-when we aren't sick...I could go on and on..

Happy Birthday Coleson!!

Coleson turned 7! Seven sounds so old, he's not my little boy anymore. I am having a hard time at letting him grow up. It has been his birthday the whole week-actually ever since Ammon's birthday was over. Every time I would ask him to do something he didn't want to, he would say "remember it's my birthday." He really does help me a lot when Brian is out of town and it's not always fun for him.
He had a Bakugan party because "that's all I want for my birthday." We thought it would be fun to "train" his cousins and a few neighbor friends in being Bakugan brawlers. I am so thankful for him and his wonderful personality. I think it's been hard for him to not get all the attention now that everything is 'how's Ammon', 'what's Brynn doing now?' Just looking back at our posts I realized he has really been blog-neglected. He gets his fair share of fun though. My extra time revolves around Coleson and trying to enrich his life with fun. I try not to make our blog into boasting about our kids, but its his birthday so here we go.

Coleson is awesome! He cracks us up. Here's a sample. We had an insulation installer come over to give us a quote a while ago. The guy was going over the numbers with me and Coleson starts asking how much is it going to be. Installer: "Well it's a lot of money." Coleson: "Well we've been spending a lot of money on our basement and my little brother because he has Down syndrome. Like we had to get him a wheelchair and it cost more money than our car. I mean, are you kidding me?! There's no A/C, no radio and it costs more than our car." Installer: "You know you are cracking me up!" Coleson: "I know, I am really funny. I am really smart too because I go to this special class where I learn different languages, like do you know how to say hi in Chinese." Installer: "No." Coleson: "Well I do, it's 'Ne how', and I can write the numbers (shows him) 5,6,8,9. Installer: "What about 7?" Coleson: "Well I forgot, so do your kids like Legos, because I am the Lego master. Oh do you have a Wii because I am so good at Mario Cart...."

I usually have to tell Coleson it's time to stop talking and go do something else. We could be at any store or place and the cashier will know our whole life story in 5 minutes. It is nice that he is so social. I am afraid that he is starting to get a little attitude though at school with his teacher because he "knows it all." Here's another example: He came home from school last week and said that he was a little late for his ALS class. Me: "Why, what happened? Coleson: well my teacher made me finish cutting out and coloring a caterpillar. I mean what's more important, coloring and pasting a caterpillar or learning how to fold a panda. Hello? Folding a panda." Me: "Yea, definitely"--trying not to laugh because he is so serious about it. A few months ago we started letting him watch cartoons on saturday mornings with the intent that we could sleep in--I forgot we have other kids who get us up earlier. He ocassionally sees a few infomercials during his cartoon time. One day I told him we were going as soon as I finished doing my hair. Coleson: "Mom, you should get a Bumpit." Me: "A what?" Coleson: "A Bumpit, your hair will look pretty in seconds and last all day long, it's comfortable and wearable all day long." He is the a pro at quoting infomercials when you really need it. Like when ever we mention how much something costs he tells us that "all we have to do is get a free envelope from "cashforgold," get our old and broken jewelery and send it in, easy fast cash probably more than the highest number we can count, like this one old lady said she got $147..."

He finished up the soccer season a few weeks ago and I actually caught him scoring a goal on my camera! He loves soccer. He plays at recess everyday and got a lot better this year.

Coleson also did swimming and baseball. He can swim now and loved jumping off the "plank board".

Coleson was on the same baseball team with kids we know in our neighborhood, so that was fun. Here is crazy hair day at school. Coleson loves Bakugans, Legos, riding bikes, and reading. He is reading chapter books and loves math! We love you Coleson!!!

Halloween Fun

We had a great Halloween. Coleson decided a long time ago that he wanted to be a Lego person. The he decided Lego Indiana Jones. So I went on a quest to find a costume-but there was none to be found. Since I have so much free time(ha ha) and with his time off track we made our own Lego costume. I could never get the legs right so we made due with a box top and shoes, and accessories. Ammon was a gecko and Brynn a Ladybug. Brian and I dressed up as a "50's Grease" couple.





We had a trial run with costumes for Ammon's Bday party, then the day before Halloween Brynn learned how to trick or treat. At Brian's work they had a party and the kids went around to all the offices and cubicles to get treats. Brynn caught on very fast how to walk pick stuff out of a bucket and put it in hers. She's already showing signs of a true girl by carrying buckets around like purses on her arm. She threw a fit when we had to stop taking things from people. So Halloween night I thought I would walk up with her to every other house. She wanted nothing to do with "every other" part. Luckily, I have some very nice neighbors who helped me push Ammon and walk up with Brynn. She would mumble something with the rest of the kids and get her candy. She is also not afraid to eat right through the paper or plastic to get the sugar-remember my Disneyworld post about eating through the poncho- plastic does not stop this girl. We were so glad it didn't snow and I took all three kids out for an hour. Ammon enjoyed being outside and getting things in his bucket. Last year Coleson was so excited he ran so fast I couldn't keep up. This year it was perfect because he had rectangle box "Lego" shoes to slow him down. Brian had fun at home passing out candy and playing games with kids to earn "bonus" candy. We also carved a lot of pumkins. Lego Indiana Jones and a ladybug for our city's pumpkin walk, R2D2 for mutual, and at the top picture you can barely see "Bob" from Monster's vs Aliens with a few monster friends. I think Coleson has taken up my passion for carving pumpkins.


Here are the monster cheese fingers from the party.

Happy Birthday Ammon!

Last week Ammon turned 4! We had a fun family halloween party for him. I thought I had some fun healthy halloween food, but this year it bombed. Monster fingers-string cheese with green bellpepper nails-the kids said they looked too gross especially with that green thing-I didn't think I could go wrong with string cheese. Monster slime punch-grape jello with sprite, lemonade and gummy worm ice cubes-okay I'll admit when you drink it, it's slimy and as Brian calls it "a chunky drink", but I thought the kids would like it, but no way it was too slimy. Monster mouths, sliced apples with strawberry cream cheese and slivered almonds as the teeth-they did not get touched, I think they are actually a really yummy combination. The party was great though, and we're so glad so many family members could come celebrate with us!

Back to Ammon. I wish we could start over and turn three again. In a way we are back to where we were a year ago, actually worse. However, I don't want to focus on the negatives about this year and just focus on how far we have come. We really are grateful for Ammon's abilities and sometimes have to remind ourselves that when he was born the doctors told us he might be blind, he might be deaf, he might never move and to take him home and just love him (thank heavens for journals). Sometimes you just see and hear all the miracles from others lives and think of all the posibilities and if they overcame that, we might be able to also. The thing that is most frustrating is that Ammon has lost what little ability he had to speak and hold his body up.

The good: He is starting to gain a little weight, he can roll and roll, he can yell and laugh, he can smile, he can see and look at you, he knows who is familiar and still understands a lot of what we say. I was beginning to think that Brynn had passed him up on understanding and communicating, but there are still some things that I say to Ammon and know that he knows that I would not tell to Brynn. Ammon still knows his name, even though he hasn't said it for a long time. He loves to play with paper and balls and noisy shakers. He loves to turn pages on books when you read to him. He loves helium balloons. He tries so hard to walk. If I had nothing else to do, I would walk him around all day. Ammon could probably walk a 5K and enjoy every minute of it, he just needs me to hold him up. I can't remember if we mentioned that he had botox injections in his legs-that has really helped him to walk straight. We know he still has desires to do so much, so the possibility of him walking some day is still there. He just has to learn how to support and use his upper trunk muscles. He can hold his head up when he walks, so there are abilities there. He loves to go to school and ride the bus. He loves to take baths. Tonight he was splashing tons and kicking like crazy until he rolled over-that was scary. I told him you can't get carried away in the bathtub.

The down side: we are still trying to figure out his seizure medication. The EEG from last week showed that he has abnormal patterns all the time and he has been doing these myloconic jerks more frequently the last few weeks, so something is wrong. His reflux had gotten worse, so half the nutrition that we put in his feeding tube is coming back out. The doctors have suggestions of what to do, but don't know for sure. I usually don't cry when I go to his appointments and just try to be strong and get what needs to be done, accomplished. This week I broke down near the end of Ammon's most recent doctor visit (gratefully Ammon has a very understanding doctor). So it's been a frustrating few weeks where we just want solutions and answers, but those need to wait for another time. I don't know why things like this fall on his birthday where we just want to celebrate and have fun. I kind of felt like this summer we figured out what was wrong and got all the treatments we could and now we are ready to move on and build up his strength, but the summer is already well into fall and we are still trying to figure some things out.

With all that said we love our Ammon, he inspires great hope and faith, and he is a miracle boy that has blessed our family and friends eternally!! Most people can't help but feel better about life and the eternities just by being near Ammon.

One of Ammon's first homes:

One of the first times Brian held Ammon (we usually only got to hold him while he was being fed):

Coleson's first time seeing and holding Ammon when he came home in December (Ammon was a whopping four pounds!):

Ammon three days old with the "bili lights" on (he was around 2.5 pounds here; we didn't know much about him yet other than we loved him and wanted him to live and come home):

Ammon and his best brother Coleson in their "younger" years:

Ammon loves to walk. When I hold him he can walk forever...

Our Sweet Brynn

Wasn't conference wonderful! I just love feeling the spirit and being grateful for my family and just feeling love and joy for life. We have a Heavenly Father and Savior who love us. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. So, This week Brynn was really cute to Ammon. I love these sweet moments. Instead of crawling over him, or sitting on him and smooshing him, she actually now crawls/walks around him and gets him toys. Sometimes she even tries to roll him over or move his head-like she sees me do. So one day this week I was feeding Ammon and then I went to go get something and I hear Brynn sliding a chair and thought, oh great what is she going to do, I was about to grab her, but then realized what she was doing. Usually she gets into trouble when she pushes a chair and climbs up on the table or wherever, but this time she was just trying to help feed him and then she signs thank you.


Wednesday was a "sick day" for everyone-the kids all had random fevers. So for the rest of the week I have stayed home with the kids inside-it got really cold this week in Utah. We've had a lot of fun together. I think because of our extra time together Brynn started to walk!!