The Phillips Phamily

Busy Weekend in Paris

2012-02-14T22:17:00.000-06:00

Kory's business had to work a home show last weekend, so since he was going to be working a lot, me and the boys headed to Paris. We wanted to see the fam, but we also had a few things on the agenda that we had to get done.

#1 on the list was a haircut. You see, I usually cut the boys' hair. I mean its not perfect, but its always been good enough (especially for the price!). Well, the night before we left for Montana at Christmas I decided they needed a haircut. The problem was it was dark outside and our back porch light isn't very bright AND I was in a hurry. Not good things. So, all that to say, the haircuts were bad......really bad. I knew it as soon as I saw them in the light the next day, but I'm just now getting around to actually doing something about it. We got to Paris Thursday afternoon and headed straight to the Barber shop. Butch gave both boys (and my brothers) their first haircuts so I knew he could undo the damage I'd done.

My big boy Kanyon doesn't even need to sit in Mommy's lap anymore!

He did really good, but I could tell he would get a little nervous at times and he would do his little fake, nervous laugh. It was kinda cute. Here he is right in the middle of a nervous laugh. :)

The finished product.....

Quinn was a different story. No surprise. He freaked out the second we walked in the door. He watched klp, but was still not having it. Luckily the barber shop has lots of lollipops on hand, so his fear (and tears) subsided thanks to a blue sucker.

The most crying he did was after it was all over and Butch brushed us off. He HATED it.

All is well as long as the sucker is still there.

klp wanted his picture taken (fake smile)

blue sucker= blue mouth

Next on the agenda was an official trip to the dentist. With klp's oral aversion history, going to the dentist hasn't really been possible. We couldn't even brush his teeth til he was over 3 yrs. old. We knew it wouldn't be easy, but since he's almost 5 and is at a huge risk for teeth trouble (another preemie thing) we wanted to give it a shot. Its nice to have a few in the family to make the situation as easy as possiblle. We had the office to ourselves on Friday, so Dr. Uncle Clint was the man for the job. He brought Ro Ro with him to be a good example and a little moral support for Kan Man. While Clint got everything ready, Ro and klp created some beautiful artwork.

We let Ro go first thinking it might help for him to watch her. Not so much. My dad happened to be up at the office too working on a patient so when he got through with her he came and got klp and let him play in his chair and play with all the instruments.

The play time with Paw Paw helped him get comfortable. He would at least get in the chair. He and Ro had fun playing while Clint got things ready for klp's turn. I just happened to snap this pic as Ro leaned over to give Kan a kiss. Sweet cousin.

They were cracking up at the birds outside the window.

Sweet cousins (and a patient Dentist)

As soon as it was "game time" klp wanted Ro to stay with him in the chair.

klp got to play with the air blower thing. That was by far his favorite part of the day!

Aaaaaaannnnd it pretty much went downhill after that. He was not happy and not willing to open his mouth very much. It brought back the days of trying to figure out how in the world to get him to open his mouth to take his bottle. He did open it some and Clint was able to look real good, polish them some, and put a sealer on them. Amazingly, his teeth looked pretty good. We would've liked to have gotten x rays but there was no way. We are so thankful that his teeth have been so strong. Such a blessing not to have to deal with that yet.

Here is the "ALL DONE!" picture.

....and a high five!

Walking out of the office. WHEEEEW! Glad that's over! Side note: Ro dressed herself. Hilarious. Another side note: As they were walking out holding klp's hands, Ro said, "He is getting soooo good at this!" Then she said, "Will he EVER learn to do this on his own?" Yes he will Ro!!!

My sweet Baby Marion! I got lots of good cuddle time with this girl.

Clay and Mo were out of town so we didn't get to see their girls much, but klp had fun playing with Ro and No all weekend. They really did great together. Gotta love the built in friendships of cousins!

Don't remember why, but Clint was measuring Nolan and Kanyon. They were almost EXACTLY the same height. Not sure why my kid has no pants and one sock.

Saturday afternoon, q wasn't quite ready for his nap when everyone else was, so he stayed up a little bit with us. He and Uncle Clint watched some basketball on TV.

As nap time drew nearer, Clint read him a book....

Wait a minute!! What happened here??? Clint was supposed to put QUINN to sleep. haha!

Saturday night, Mom and Dad gave the kids glow swords ("light savers" if you're Nolan) to play with in the bathtub. To say it was a hit would be an understatement.

A little movie time before bed. Ro got outvoted on the movie and went to watch a princess movie in the other room. Its not very often that the boys outnumber the girls!

Ready for church Sunday morning. The football in one hand offsets the PURSE in the other hand, RIGHT????!?!

January

2012-02-06T17:22:00.000-06:00

I used to do better at posts that had a running theme, but it seems I've evolved to pretty much "random" picture posts. Oh well. Here is our January in review.

klp wore his cowboy hat ALL DAY LONG this day. Q was a little jealous because his head is way too big to wear klp's hat.

Nothin' says "Good Morning" like a six shooter shootout in Daddy's lap.

So many things I could say about this picture and the emotion that it captures. Life is pretty good for this 2 yr. old boy with gun.

I spent the weekend in Memphis with girlfriends from college. It was our annual MLK weekend get together. How appropriate that we were in Memphis.....we are at the Civil Rights museum here in this pic which is built around the hotel where MLK was shot. I'm not really a museum person, but it was really cool. Glad we went. It was SO GREAT to be with these girls and have Kayci show us around her town and her church (and hear Josh preach) and laugh and enjoy the best friends ever. We were missing several, but so happy to be with the gals that could make it.

Beth, Kayci, Me, Kate, Mary, Leah, Kami, Sara

While I was gone, my kids were at my parents house so mom sent me lots of great pictures to let me know everyone was having fun!

Here are a few from their fun at Paw Paw and Gay Gay's:

sweet brothers....they love for Quinn to sit in Kanyon's lap.....and my mom has lots of girl PJ's at her house for the girl cousins....I think we need to get her some boy ones.....but I must say, Q would make a cute girl. :)

This was back at our house.....qsp carried his "bag" around everywhere. At least he didn't call it a purse.

This is klp's fake smile. lovely.

another pic of Q sitting in klp's lap while I read a book.

Quinn sits like this a lot and its pretty precious.

He also still LOVES the sunglasses Gram gave him for Christmas.

Playing piano at Great Aunt Mary Lynn and Uncle Steve's house. She gives them the sippy cup things her boys (who are all in college and beyond) used when they were little. My boys love them and magically get thirsty the second we walk through her door.

We've decided q has a thing for glasses. These are Mary Lynn's that he picked up off her counter. Nice.

This is still Kanyon's happy place.

My stuffed animal boy. This was on the way to Ladies Bible Class last week. Bear, monkey, dog and blanket. He takes very good care of his animals. The other day he picked up one of his bears and said, "Hey Sweetie". Haha! I have NEVER heard him say that and don't really think I say it, but I guess he learned it somewhere. I've also heard him tell his little bear "I love you the most" which is something we say to each other all the time. He'll make a good Daddy one day. :)

again...I mean really....not his "smartest" look.

Maybe I can come up with less random posts for February.

Family Pictures

2012-02-02T17:50:00.000-06:00

My cousin Paige runs a fab photog business and she was sweet enough to snap a few pictures of the 4 of us. She got to Thanksgiving before the crowd hit so we ran upstairs and threw clothes on the boys and we just wore what we had on. I probably would've done things like iron the shirts and wait til Q had his new jeans and belt, but the will do just fine. We love them. We are just glad to have a picture of us because we have.....NONE. Paige saves the day again!

If you can't tell, Q man was not in the mood. He wasn't in a BAD mood, he just wasn't in a smiley mood.

klp on the other hand had NO trouble hamming it up for the camera.

and maybe the picture of the day.....not posed...he was just "feeling big" and showing off. I love that she caught this.

She also snapped a big group shot of my fam. I love these people.

A few more December pics

2012-02-01T14:48:00.000-06:00

This was Q on his birthday morning. I had to wake him up to take klp to school. Poor baby couldn't even sleep in on his birthday! :)

But I made it all better with Birthday DONUT HOLES! He was very pleased to get to eat more than 3 (my usual limit) and even get to hold the bag.

Not sure where we were going, but they loved these lanterns in the car. I got them at the Dollar store and they were lots of light up fun in December.

Prepare to die of cute overload when you look at this picture...........Q got a new basketball from his Montana cousins and he is IN LOVE. Kory was taking his picture to send to the cousins to say thank you. I mean really.....i love this picture.

....the nasty black eye. It was a double whammy of a hit on the side (the butterfly bandages) and then a bump on the front (bruise and swelling). He's tough, he can take it.

headed in to a basketball game

ready for church....are you scared of this guy???? You should be.

in the Dr. office for Q's check up. It kinda gives me the heeby jeebies that he was sitting in only his undies in the chair, but I mean what else do we do???? He wasn't diggin' the bed thing. Oh well. I'm releasing the compulsive germ worrying.

So we have this little tracing/ABC app on klp's ipad and we've tried to show him how to use it, but he never would do it. Then one day I was putting laundry away and he was sitting on my bed playing the ipad. I happened to look over and see this......little stinker knows exactly how to do it, he just never would when we were watching!!!

Phillips Boys watercolor creations. klp prefers black and red....can you tell which ones are his? :)

So long December, I think I've posted all the pics now! :)

New Fun things!

2012-01-28T15:00:00.006-06:00

Here's a list of some new fun things we've done lately:

1. We had a big box and the boys had been playing with it for several days. Then I decided I should let them draw all over it. I thought they would like it, but I had NO IDEA how much they would LOOOOOVE this. I'm telling you, we left this thing out with the bowl of crayons on top of it for almost 3 weeks and they were still writing on it when I threw it away!

This was the first day we drew on it....

q was more of an interior decorator.

2. We've since learned that Bubba's glasses are only for him......but the picture was a MUST.

3. K's new bike.....think this might've made the blog before, but oh well.

4. The Learning Tower is a life changer. Seriously. I ran across a similar product in a magazine and thought it was neat but wasn't sure...the more I thought about it, the more I realized how perfect it was for us. I did a little research and ended up getting a different one than I originally saw. I couldn't be happier! See, standing on a stool to wash hands, help cook, play, etc. isn't an option for klp. If i stand right there with him and hold him up, its OK, but that makes it almost impossible to actually do anything. I could never stand him up and leave him even for a second. BUT NOT ANYMORE!! This thing is amazing. He can get in it on his own and stand up all on his own. He isn't locked in or strapped in or anything (so I'm not going to go too far) but the sides give him something to hold on to or just provide "insurance" if he does loose his balance. Its a life changer because of all the things he can do now that he couldn't do before. It's the difference between me trying to find something to keep him busy while I work on supper and him getting to be right there with me helping me. Its the difference between me trying to hold him up, wash his hands while he's hanging miserably and painfully because its the best I can do with one hand and him standing on his own and me helping with BOTH hands. I'm telling you its some of the best $$ I've spent. Its not made for "special needs kids" but I think its a great thing for kids at Kanyon's ability level. I took pics the first few times we used it.....

He helped me make pizza dough.....then cleaned up like a big boy. He worked so hard wiping that counter.....it was sooooooo cute.

so cute that I took too many pics! :)

That evening the boys both helped me make calzones. Yes, they both fit in it with plenty of room...another huge bonus!

q threw a fit because he couldn't eat the cheese.

5. Threading beads. I got Q these for his bday. He's not quite interested in them yet, but he plays with them some.....

but he'd rather do gymnastics.

klp however likes them and again...SOOOOO PROUD of him that he can do this 2 HANDED activity so well! He holds the bead in his left hand (it wasn't that long ago that he couldn't hold ANYTHING in his left hand) and threads the string, then switches hands and pulls it through. Its not easy, but he usually sticks with it and does so good.

SUCCESS!!!!

6. Daddy's basketball shorts.

7. Painting a box. After the success of the big box, klp got to paint a little one while q took a nap. He was being silly....

and thought he was HILARIOUS!

December Randoms

2012-01-27T15:33:00.000-06:00

There are a few pics from December need to be blogged...they're begging for it.

This was one night in the car (that's why its so dark). The reason I took this picture is because that's Kanyon behind that book....holding his book up with both hands! He has been working so hard lately using his left hand and he's been really into holding his books like this. He has to really spend a lot of time to get his fingers open and on the book, but he does it! I am so proud when I see this. Sweet sweet boy.

I feel like there's a good chance that I posted this picture already, but I'm too lazy to check my blog and see. So here's a pretty great pic of the Spencer cousins we took for my mom.

This year's Christmas ornaments. The boys were really loving penguins this year. I think it had something to do with the giant blow up penguins our next door neighbor put out. :) Q calls them ping pongs.

Sooooo we didn't officially go to see Santa. I am a Santa snob and I think the one at our mall is lame, so I wasn't going to waste the time or money to go there. BUT there is a guy in our neighborhood that does crazy Christmas lights and he sits outside for the kids to see. We drove by there and got the reactions I expected. The second we got out of the car (we were half a block away) Q was squeezing me so tight I could barely breath. He cried when I asked him if he wanted to sit in his lap, so Santa stood up for the picture. (and I stood between them to block the fear)

klp was not scared, but was for sure shy. He didn't want to sit in his lap, but I think he would have if Q wouldn't have freaked out.

Gram (Kory's Mom) sends a package at the beginning of Dec. full of fun little boxes for the boys to open every day. They had lots of fun with these and the little colored finger lights were a HIT!!!

I leave paper and stuff out all the time because both boys LOVE writing. They'll sometimes just walk by and doodle a little, then other times they will sit and work at it for a long time. I just think its cute how much paper we go through with all their lovely work.

This was in Paris after our Christmas celebration, I stayed a few extra days. Here we are taking over Taco Delite again.

We rode the wagon through the great Christmas lights at the Western store in town.

Christmas 2

2012-01-25T21:36:00.000-06:00

This was our Montana year so we were very excited. The weeks leading up the boys would talk about going to MONTANA! We realized once we got there that Quinn must think Montana is the Phillips' house because every time we pulled in the driveway, he would yell "MONTANA!!" :)

We did the usual of driving to Dallas Friday night after work and staying in an airport hotel so we can catch our early flight the next morning. Here is a rundown of our schedule.

11:00 arrive at our hotel

1:00 am the first time both boys are quiet

3:15 am-wake up to catch the shuttle to the airport.

nice.

Here are the wild ya-hoos playing on the bed in the hotel.

We made the trip great and the awesome thing about flying so early is that we are there before lunch time so we don't waste the day traveling. Neither of the boys slept on the plane rides, but crashed the whole 2 hr. drive home from the airport.

That night was Christmas Eve. Sweet boys ready for bed.

q TOTALLY busted stealing Santa's cookies.

Santa was going to leave the boys this race track, but once we set it up, it was TERRIBLE. Tye and Kory tried to figure it out, but we figure we just got ripped off. Oh well. Thats the beauty of young children. They don't care. They never knew it was coming so they never missed it.

Opening the gifts Santa left

q showing Chief his "guy"

klp pumped about his flashlight.

Clint, Sydni, Sayler, and Hayven got there that afternoon so we were SOOOO happy to all be together. The kids got to open their gift from Chief and Gram which was this awesome Jeep! They all had so much fun on it!!

We were especially glad to have Sayler and her responsible driving abilities.

q waiting his turn...not so sure of Cooper.

Then he realized Cooper is sweet so they were buddies the rest of the week. Yes sweat pants and boots. Don't judge.

Hayven, Cooper, and qsp

Opening presents with the whole gang was fun. Here is uncle Tye helping klp with his new boa constrictor slap bracelet.......while wearing his new shades.

This is q's "seriously cool" face. He makes this face when he puts on the glasses.

I love the crazy-ness of all the toys, laughing, and wrapping paper! Of course, while watching the bball game! I have no clue why KLP has a shirt covering his head. Weird-o!

Hayven got a camera and I think it was EVERYONE'S favorite toy!

klp was pumped about the cattle trailer Uncle Tye got the boys. They are still loving this thing.

I may or may not have managed to get my hubby a pair of the Jordans that came out just before Christmas. Yes, the ones you heard about on the news where people were waiting hours and breaking doors off the hinges, etc. My cousin Jay was the elf that pulled through, as well as the random guy in Toys R Us who told us about a pre-release a store in a nearby town was doing. I was so glad he got them because this man NEVER wants ANYTHING. EVER.

KLP got me a pair of shoes too but he didn't have to risk his life to get them.

The Phillips brothers got to play in a bball tournament the day after Christmas in a nearby town. It was fun to watch all 3 play together and the kids had fun watching them. It was a day full of games for them but they won the tourney so it was worth it.

q and Hayven playing on the bed. They all played on the bed the whole time. Jumping and pretending to sleep (for 2 seconds) and then jumping some more. It was so fun to watch them play together.

Sweet cousins

More coolness in the shades.

The highlight of the trip was getting to feed the cows every morning so that is what most of these pictures are of.....

klp took his new flashlight with him EVERYWHERE. I guess you never know when you'll need it.

klp and Chief cutting the net wrap.

It wasn't too cold, so klp got to ride on the back of the truck a few times

Fun times on the Jeep. Not sure why they both have horrible looks on their faces.

Back to feeding cows......

qsp was probably trying to tell Chief where to go

Daddy and klp cutting

I just really like the cows when they're eating. I can't help but take pics.

q decided to lend a helping hand...

....while klp and Chief stayed in the warm pick up.

Uncle Tye's elk antlers...nice

I love these next few pics.....

tough guy klp workin' in the shop.

...but not too tough to still put his hand on Daddy's shoulder.

I wish I had a video of this because qsp was at the gate looking at this heifer and feeling all brave and stuff.....then she started walking over to the gate....

and he turned away saying "bye bye cow....I be right back."

haha. My sweet little fraidy cat.

Silly pic

We went bowing one of our last nights there. It was really fun!

Uncle Tye and klp

Gram, Daddy, and Q. I feel like I have NO PICS OF GRAM. SHEESH. I really didn't do a very good job with the pics...I missed a bunch.

Chief's finishing touch on one of his turns.

The whole bowling gang. Contrary to the look on my face, there was not a ghost behind the camera. Sheesh! Whats wrong with me??

In the Denver airport on the way home.

The boys were troopers on the plane rides. They did great. And crashed again as soon as we got in the car to head home.

It was a GREAT Christmas!

Christmas 1

2012-01-24T21:13:00.000-06:00

Its crazy how long its been since I've blogged, but here I am. I will attempt to do Christmas in 2 posts and then move on with more current stuff. This post's pictures are in backwards order, but I'm choosing to be OK with that for the sake of FINALLY getting a blog done.

This was our year to be in Montana for Christmas so we celebrated with the Spencer Fam the weekend before.......

klp and Paw Paw getting ready for the day

Aunt Mo brought a fun drawing game over for the kids to play.....actually, I think this pic was from Thanksgiving, but I'm going to pretend its not.

me and Q with "Baby Mare" as he calls sweet Baby Marion. For a while every baby he saw was Baby Mare. Then Christmas came along and Baby Mare had to take turns with Baby Jesus....or more often, Jesus Baby. :)

A favorite treat at Gay Gay's house is to eat breakfast (and maybe lunch if you're lucky) while watching cartoons on her little kitchen TV. Here are 6 out of the 8 little ones piled in catching up on Word World or something.

These 2 are very VERY silly (and I'm thinking Thanksgiving again since Ro has her cast on....)

klp loves to play in this closet and he usually recruits Ro to play with him. They were pretty annoyed that I opened the door, but they were sweet to give me a smile.

q and Mal Mal rocking

We were actually quite pleased with the group picture we got. I guess Ro holding Marion inspired klp to hold a stray doll...

These are some SWEET kids. Quinn, Nolan, Landry, Kanyon, Roselyn holding Marion, Avery, and Mallory

My parents gave klp his very own rocking chair. There is not a more perfect gift for that boy. Q got a little "bike" but we had to take it back, it kept tumping over. We're now on the hunt for a replacement.

Mallory got a fun little nursery....Quinn was trying out the baby bed while she fed him yogurt melts.

We had a great time and the kids had a blast. I think it just gets more fun (and CRAZY) every year, but you just can't beat it.

Now pretend like this part was BEFORE the Paris part.

We sort of have a little tradition of getting Christmas trees with some the Spencers, Fords, and Bowers. We ate a yummy dinner at the Bowers then headed to Home Depot to pick out the perfect trees. Except we don't get our tree there, we just go for the company. This year the Owens joined us in going along for the ride but forgoing the actual tree buying. The kids had a blast while the parents argued....I mean carefully considered all of the qualities of each tree. Here's Drayton, Quinn, Kanyon, and Jed playing on the cart.

The next day, our little family headed to the tree farm to find our tree. This year the drought hit the farm pretty bad so it was slim pickins but we found a good one....

Here are the boys in front of the one we picked. qsp was waving at the tractor passing by.

The boys were lots of help cutting it down....especially Quinn.

Sheesh! What would Daddy do without his helpers??!!

klp got his turn to cut...

then q had his turn.

headed to pay for our tree

Again, q provided valuable help

while klp observed and shouted orders.

We really had fun with all the Christmas stuff this year. This was the first year that Kanyon has really paid any sort of attention to any of it and Quinn was old enough to enjoy it too. FUN FUN!

Stay tuned for our Montana Christmas.

Quinn's "Bear Party"

2011-12-15T14:50:00.000-06:00

We celebrated our Q man last Friday night and had a great time. The theme was Camping/Bear. Quinn has a bear that he LOVES, so we somehow settled on a "bear party" but for fear of it becoming a baby-ish teddy bear party....(no baby stuff for this big boy!) We went the camping/bear route. The days leading up to the party, he just kept saying "bear party" all the time. And now he calls all cakes "bear cakes" or, as he often said, "cake bears". My fam came in to town and our cousins/aunt and uncle that live here came over and we had a great time. The weather was PERFECT so the outdoor camping thing worked great!

He's holding "THE BEAR" that started all of this in the picture.

Helping paw paw get the fire started. We borrowed my aunt and uncle's fire pit, set up a tent, and roasted hot dogs and s'mores. It was fun.

Cousins in the wagon. Sucker Paw Paw pulling them all over the yard.

This was the first time I've ever done any sort of treat or favor (I guess I'm a lame party thrower). But I saw these ideas online and thought they were too cute. Little s'more treat bags. Marshmallows, Golden Grahams, and Chocolate Chips. The favors were flashlights (what kid doesn't LOVE flashights) and bear shadow puppets. I saw the shadow puppet idea somewhere and had to search a little bit to find a good bear to use for the cutouts. They had fun doing the puppets in the tent and of course the flashlights were a hit. And, again, the beloved bear is in the picture.

Singing to the Birthday Boy! He was bashful but thrilled with the singing! :)

He did great trying to blow out the fire/candles, but after a little drool dripped on the cake....

I decided I better help him. :)

Big Brother was loving all the cousin fun and since the boy could live outside, he was in heaven. More on the butterfly bandages later.... :(

My little fit thrower. SHHHEEEEESH! He didn't want his picture taken. That only made me take more.

hahahaha!!!

The marshmallow and chocolate/ketchup face only adds to the greatness!

Paw Paw, klp, and KLP chillin' by the fire. I think they were the last ones to come in....somewhere around 10:00!!

When we all got in, the cousins that had to drive back to Paris got their PJ's on and we opened presents they brought. Its always funny and cute to watch them ALL be SOOOOO EXITED! We got Quinn a baseball tee, so we're excited for him to get to hit the ball off of the tee instead of KLP's hand!

I wish I had a picture of his face! He would open his mouth real wide and gasp when he tore the paper open. He could barely even see the present in the crowd of excited "helpers" but he's definitely got the exaggerated reaction down!

Gay Gay and Paw Paw got him a new belt buckle just like klp's to go with his new boots Gram and Chief got him. He's been in between sizes in boots, etc. for a while, so he's excited to have them again!

All the girl cousins have matching PJ's and we were trying to get a picture. Mom took a picture of us trying to get them to look and smile. Aren't we sooooo cool and funny. Sheesh....embarrassing.

It was a great night....in fact, so great that it was 11:30 before my kids went to bed! :) Happy Birthday Quinn!

Quinn is 2!

2011-12-13T14:39:00.000-06:00

December 8th our Quinn Man turned 2. He's been cheating and saying he's 2 for a few weeks because he started making a 2 with his hands so I went with it. Of course, since turning 2, he only makes a 1 or a 3 with his fingers. Oh dear.

He's talking more and more and it is cracking us up! We love hearing things just pop out of his mouth that we had no clue he said. He's done awesome with the Potty training and in the last 2-3 weeks, I'd say he just about has it 100%. We still have our moments, but they are few and far between. He's healthy, strong, and energetic....all the things a little boy should be. He can spot an airplane or a pump jack (what a good little East Texas boy) from a long ways away and loves to identify sports fields. He's relatively obedient, but doesn't take NO for an answer (at least not with a good attitude). He's hilarious, wild, loud, and cautious. He's the best 2 year old I know :)

Here he is the morning of his birthday showing (and saying) "tattoo" and pointing to his tattoo Gram sent him.

He may be big now that he's 2, but his Fruit of the Looms are still baggy and Daddy's boots are still too big!

Trying to give me the stink eye, but cracking a smile instead.

It seems silly to try to describe how great I think he is because he's too great for words. Instead I'll share a COUPLE (get it....2) things about him

Favorite Books:
Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?
Here Comes Santa Claus

Favorite Food:
Fruit (particularly "chawbees"/strawberries and "Oor"/Oranges
Sweets...ANYTHING sweet.

Favorite activities:
"writing"
playing with any kind of ball

Funniest words:
Unnerwear (underwear)
I would say Buttball (football) but he DOESN'T SAY IT ANYMORE!!! BOOOO!!!

Personality Traits:
Nurturing and sweet (he pats, rocks, kisses, etc. all his stuffed animals)
Fussy and LOUD (he cries LOUD at the drop of a hat. Work in Progress. WORK.IN.PROGRESS)

Quirks:
He still kicks his legs when he's going to sleep. He's literally done this his whole life
He knows where the Donut shop is and says "Don Don" every time we pass it. Oops.

Favorite Songs:
Take Heart (from Seeds of Worship series)
"Jesus" not sure what specific song he's talking about, but every night when I'm rocking him he tells me to sing "Jesus". So i just think of a song with Jesus in it.

Size info:
95% for both height and weight.
Maybe this size is what contributes to this, but he is the OPPOSITE OF NIMBLE. I'm not sure what he word is, but he is SO NOT NIMBLE. He makes everything he does look so hard. Like climbing, stepping up, rolling over something, ANYTHING. He just isn't smooth and quick like that. Its funny to watch him around other kids his age because he's bigger than a lot of them, but they would beat him in an obstacle course for sure! hahaha! Its pretty funny!

Favorite People:
Daddy
Paw Paw
(sure, he loves me, but if either of those 2 are around they are #1 choice)

Biggest Joys:
Singing (he gets in his own world and sings loud all the time. He's gonna be that kid in Kindergarten that goes to the bathroom and forgets everyone can hear him and just belts out singing in the bathroom)
Reading (he loves for me to read to him. He goes and picks out a book, sits in my lap, reads, then goes and gets another one....over and over and over.

Biggest *ahhheem* Challenges:
CRYING
Deleting the word "no" from his vocabulary. He says it because it gets a reaction out of Kanyon....so he keeps saying it. Oh dear.

Favorite animals:
"ping pong" (penguin)
bear

Nick Names:
Cheeky Bull (that goes all the way back to his newborn days)
Bubba (said a million bajillion times by Kanyon)

We love him to pieces and we're so proud of him. Happy Birthday Quinn Spencer!

Kanyon's new bike

2011-12-05T16:15:00.000-06:00

I mentioned it before, but klp just got a new bike! He had outgrown his first one, so his PT brought us a bigger one. This one is a little different and it is so great. Best of all, klp can do most of the work himself. We live on a hill so our driveway and our street is slanted. That makes it harder, but he LOVES his new bike. He says, "I wanna ride me bike" all the time!! Here he is the first time he took it for a spin. His PT was holding on with a dog leash, but we have since added a bar to hold.

Budding Rock Stars

2011-12-03T16:09:00.002-06:00

I never thought I'd be the parent of rock stars, but I've recently learned otherwise. We have these magnet toys that the boys were playing with and KLP showed them how to use them like a microphone (first he announced the "basketball team" then he sang the national anthem). The microphone thing really took off with these two and they've been "building" microphones and rockin' out ever since.

This picture kills me...it looks like klp is soooo IN TO his song.

And here's a little clip of the insanity..... I mean concert.

Good Morning!

2011-12-02T07:00:00.001-06:00

qsp wakes up happy! He always has and I just love it. This particular morning he was going BONKERS and I tried to catch some of it on video on the monitor. Its kinda boring, but its kinda funny when you consider this was him immediately after he woke up :)

November so far....

2011-11-30T16:01:00.000-06:00

I lied...the first two pictures are from the week Q was potty training back in October. I felt like we were doing so much "bonding" that we needed a self photo.....

I was able to coax his thumb out of his mouth with a "CHEEEESE!"

Poor klp. Sometimes he just gives up on keeping his pants up when he's scooting around. We were playing at a friend's house the other day, we looked in playroom and busily playing in the kitchen was Kanyon with his pants at his ankles.

This pic makes me laugh out loud. He lookes like a grown man doing the Reader's Digest crossword puzzle.

I usually save the boys' "MOOMEE" (movie) time til I'm cooking dinner. They watch a little Praise Baby or Sesame Street (they think all movies are only 20 min!!). I just think they are so cute watching TV. I mean on the one hand, I'm saying its cute that they're brains are turning to mush (haha...I'm being dramatic) but on the other hand, its just so sweet that they are so tuned in to it.

q man lounging in his unders. These are NOT boxer briefs, they are just undies that are TOO BIG! heee heee

klp had an eye Dr. check up the other day and he sat in the chair all by himself while the tech did the exam. He was so brave :) Look at this big boy...

waiting on the Dr....playing with the phone....

While we were at the eye Dr., Quinn played at Chandler's house. When I drove up, they were playing out in the drizzle and he was sporting this sweet lady bug raincoat! :) So cute...maybe not his manliest look, but I about melted right then and there.....

klp, Quinn, and Chandler all on the tricycle.

Our friends Cole and Ryan let Quinn borrow some cowboy boots until he gets his for his birthday. He was SOOOOOO SOOOO proud to have these on. He was lovin' it!

KLP was hiding behind the counter the other night when he got in from work and couldn't make it til supper without some Cheetos. I said, "You BETTER NOT let those boys see you eating those!" So this was his solution. He hideout worked.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T00:23:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving from the Phillips Phamily!!

Big Boy Quinn

2011-11-16T21:58:00.000-06:00

I took the plunge with Quinn! I NEVER thought I would potty train my kids by 2. I just wasn't in a hurry and thought it would be way harder than waiting til they were older. But for some reason a few weeks ago, I just thought to myself, "I really think Quinn could potty train". So the last week in October I decided to give it a shot. I wasn't dead set on it working, I just thought I'd give it a good try and if it didn't work that was fine, I'd wait til later. No pressure at all. The first couple of days it was accident after accident but he got better and better. He still has some accidents and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little potty trained too....meaning I have to watch how long its been and take him sometimes because he doesn't always tell us until about 1 second before he REALLY needs to go! :) All in all I'm really proud of him! Not having to buy him diapers is not the only great thing about being potty trained....here are the other things I love about it...

His unders sticking out of the top of his pants....

whitey tighties and a wife beater....maybe my favorite combo ever! (he's jumping off the couch, thats why he's blury!)

whitey tighties on little ones may be the CUTEST THING EVER! The big belly and thumb/blanket never hurts the cute factor.

I have an embarrassing amount of pictures of him on the toilet because of the random things he takes with him to the bathroom. He cracked me up sitting there with his gun!

underwear wedgies!

We also LOVE LOVE LOVE how he says "underwear". I have GOT to get it on video...if I do, I'll put it up for you to hear because it will make you melt.

**I hesitate to say potty trainED. I think he's still potty trainING.** We don't have 100% trust in him yet and I think I'll have to trust him a little more before I say potty TRAINED.

We've been busy

2011-11-16T14:55:00.000-06:00

We've been pretty busy around here. Busy doing lots of things:

Like playing with our hand me down train set that we LOVE.

sweet sweet brothers

klp has been busy reading.

And at any given point, one of these boys is busy "writing". They take it very seriously!

We've been busy eating with friends!

And eating the tops off of cupcakes!

We love being busy with our friends! I love this picture of Mindi swinging with Kanyon AND Trent! Contrary to what it looks like in the pic, klp was NOT choking little Trent.

Kanyon has been busy riding his new BIKE!!!! He outgrew his other one and he is loving his new one. It is a little bit different, but still an Amtryke. We are thankful for their generosity! We passed our old one on to hopefully find a good home with a little one ready for their first bike! :) He is good at pedaling it and is even learning to steer it pretty good.

We don't have the bar yet for us to hold, so Celia (our PT) used the dog leash! I'm tellin' ya, these home therapists are creative and resourceful!

Busy busy tending to our loved ones.....brushing bear's teeth.

And we have been busy lately building lots of cool towers!

We're never too busy to have an Oreo! (this was qsp's first one ever and he LOVED IT!)

Quinn was too busy riding his alligator to even look at the camera. Notice the little one beside him? Right after I took this picture, he moved and tried to sit on top of the little one. hee hee. Silly boy.

Herman and Marion

2011-11-15T21:52:00.000-06:00

I have some new family members that I'm very proud to introduce you to! They are both new to me thanks to my brother Clint and SIL Rachel.

This is Herman the squirrel! Growing up we had a pet squirrel for about 10 years. It was lots of fun, and one of those things that I didn't realize was weird until I left home and married someone who makes fun of me for all the crazy animals we had in our home growing up. This little squirrel literally came to Clint and my Dad one day when they were out at the land hunting (not squirrel hunting). He probably fell out of his nest and was in need of some HELP. AND he was at the perfect age for raising. They fed him 'round the clock for a while and that is what we were doing here the first time I met the little guy. His name is Herman because that is what Roselyn and Nolan keep calling him. I'm not sure if its official, but thats what he's called most of the time.

Herman was cute and all, but he's not the best, coolest, or cutest addition to our family!....(or the only thing Clint and Rachel are feeding every couple of hours around the clock)

Meet MARION JAYNE SPENCER!!!!!

Man oh man I have another niece!!!! And my awesome sister in law knows my obsession with childbirth and how fascinating it is to me. It really was heartbreaking to me that my experience was so critical and emergency, and therefore changed the way I'll be able to deliver from now on. SOOOO since I'll never have any more children without a C-Section, Rachel invited me in to the delivery room!!!! I was BEYOND excited! She decided to labor all night long and then have the baby at about 6:30 am so we were sleepless and food-less but it was ALL WORTH IT!! It was INCREDIBLE and AMAZING and so MIRACULOUS!!! I loved hearing that sweet cry and just being a part of the buzz of a delivery room. I will NEVER forget it and I get teary just writing this. Rachel was a total trooper and managed to make it look easy, like she does everything. Funny thing is I didn't end up holding Marion until way later that day (after we went home and took a nap) so I actually ended up holding Herman the squirrel first. Haha. We are thankful for another healthy baby to love!

Its time...

2011-11-15T15:13:00.000-06:00

It's time to get new shoes for Kanyon. Seriously, I'm embarrassed that I left him in these for so long. These are the low tops he wears when he wears his AFO's (leg braces). I think its safe to say he wore these out. He now has a new pair and I decided to change things up a bit and steer away from our usual black and I went with gray for his low tops. I like the new look.

Its time....to get Quinn some shoes of his own. I was planning on just giving him klp's hand me downs, but after putting these on Q for a few weeks, I started feeling a little bad that they were holey and falling apart. So, I got qsp his own shoes! Of course, I stuck with our tried and true black high top chucks. I just think its so cute on little boys. So classic little boy.

Its time to see Quinn in the Montana hoodie! Yeah! Some hand me downs are spared from the torture of klp's scooting.

It's time for HOT WEATHER TO END! Not just because I'm tired of sweating, but because klp is running out of shorts!!! He's scooting through them all. I took a picture of these because they were favorites, but I've thrown away at least 3 other pairs. SHEESH. Its time to start scooting through some pants! :)

Its also time to update the blog! So I'll be posting a lot the next few days. :)

ps. i realize i'm an overly sentimental person when I take pictures of worn out clothes but I just can't help it. I try to throw away most things, but sometimes my heart can't bear to let go of things they've worn so much. I like to think I'm a healthy mix of hoarder and minimalist.....leaning more towards hoarder....way more towards hoarder. :)

Halloween

2011-11-01T19:40:00.000-05:00

Don't miss the post below...there's a pretty sweet little voice on it :)

Ok, so here is this year's Phillips Phamily Halloween:

A Cowboy (and his trusty steed) and an Indian!!!

I wanted to get a pic of Cowboy Kanyon off of his horse so that we could see his whole get-up, chaps and all......we had no idea there was an Indian creeping up behind us!!!

Q with his bow doing his best war cry

....and still doing the war cry!

klp leaving our first trick or treat house. We dropped by a friend from church's house that lives in our neighborhood then we went on to visit a couple of houses.

We made our first stop at Gary and Sharon's house. We love them so much and wanted the boys to get to show off their costumes. Q was a little "overwhelmed" when they answered the door and were so excited to see them!! haha. We had to explain Indians don't cry, they are BRAVE! haha!

We LOVE the Sanders!

Gary playing on the stairs with the boys

and having some Indian fun with Q

These 2 are two peas in a pod! Kanyon gets so excited around him!

Then we stopped at my aunt and uncle's house....Q was reverting to his squat and "cheese" pose.

Yeah for Great Uncle Steve and Aunt Mary Lynn!! (and the blind Indian and the horse with the broken neck)

and finished the night with 50 cent corny dogs from Sonic at their house.

It was a fun night for these little boys....and their parents too!

About the costumes:
Cowboy and Indian was one of my ideas when I found out I was having twins (boy cowboy girl Indian). Not sure what got us thinking that again, but we just decided that might be a fun classic and not too hard to make. THEN I thought of the horse thing and that sealed the deal. I can't take total credit for that because last year, my friend Jodi dressed her daughter (who was using a walker at the time....NOT ANY MORE) as Bullseye and her other daughter was Jessi. It was so cute. So.....I figured I could come up with some way to make the walker into a horse. All I did was drape fabric over the walker and duck tape it where you couldn't see it. The neck and head is out of padded poster board that I just happened to have in the garage. I drew and cut out the head and then covered it with the same fabric as the body. I ended up running out of fabric so I didn't get to cover the inside of the neck which I hated because the masking tape I used on that part was totally visible. The mane is felt and the tail is yarn. All rigged somehow on to the walker. The hooves are felt wrapped around the legs of the walker. The cowboy already had just about everything. We did buy the cowboy hat which probably otherwise would've been a Christmas presents, but we HAD to have it. We knew he would love it since he's so in to hats right now. I also bought the belt, but we've been looking for one for a while anyways. I made the chaps out of that plasticy fabric that is soft on the back. I just cut the shape out and cut the fringe, then added a little star "coin" thing on the side. I cut slits in the stop so they would just loop through his belt. I planned on putting straps on the back and ended up not doing it. I should've because they flapped around when he scooted. It wouldn't been way better to have them secured down to his legs.

The Indian wore $3 sweat pants and a $3 tshirt. They didn't have his size so I got one in klp's size so at least SOMEONE could wear it again. I bought some fringe at Hobby Lobby and safety pinned it on the clothes. I didn't want to sew them because I wanted to be able to use the clothes. I know....cheap. The headdress was a bargain deal at our western store and we would've NEVER guessed that he would wear it but he wore it all night. I was going to be happy with just long enough for a picture. I just painted the little lines on his face as the finishing touch. I REALLY wanted it to be warm enough for him to go without a shirt so I could paint his belly, but that was not the case. My dad made him the bow and we had a cool little quiver that the Kerbys let us borrow, but he was scared of it. Yes, scared of it. I wasn't going to push it since he was happy with the headdress. I didn't want to loose it all!

This was by far the best Halloween. Both old enough to have fun and enjoy the excitement. We didn't do a lot of door to door trick or treating since its quite the ordeal to do the whole carseat, walker, in and out thing so we just made a few stops to visit people. It was perfect and fun!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T17:48:00.002-05:00

For your Halloween pleasure, I'll show you a couple of videos of our favorite "Quinnism". Our next door neighbor has a blow up jack-o-lantern and Quinn LOVES it so much....once he got over his initial fear of course. He now can spot a Jack-o-Lantern anywhere and we love it because he says, "Ja-Ju-Wa!!!!" We aren't sure how he got that out of Jack-o-Lantern but we pretty much love it.

Here he is one morning after we dropped klp off at school. He gets out of the car and immediately goes to talk to it.

and here he is one night when we were pulling in the driveway.

Happy Halloween!!!!!

The Zoo

2011-10-28T20:38:00.000-05:00

A couple of Saturdays ago, we decided to take the boys to the zoo in Tyler. Q has never been and klp was really young when he went, so we thought they might enjoy it. Plus it was finally not unbearably, so my husband wouldn't melt (That Montana blood gets hot with anything above 75!).

We had a good day together. klp walked in his walker most of the way so we were glad he got to use his walking. Overall, I'd say the boys were UNDERwhelmed by the whole experience. They didn't spaz out and love it like I thought they might, but I also think they expected the animals to do more. I mean a lion is cool and all, but aren't they supposed to ROAR?? Not just lay there, ya know? Here we go with a few pictures:

klp and KLP checking out the flamingos (I think) .

The mountain lion was my favorite of the day. He was pacing right by the window it was SOOO COOL. Q was a little scared at first (shocker) but eventually made his way up to the window as the mountain lion walked away.

klp facing off with the mountain lion. Even in a situation like this, we weren't sure if he was actually seeing the animal or not. Its kind of a mystery sometimes.

There's a cool little bird place you go in to where there are tons of parakeet type birds flying around. We found some sticks with birdseed to feed the birds with (lucky us, we didn't have to buy any) and klp loved feeding them. qsp on the other hand, would drop the stick as soon as the bird came close.

They did both seem to enjoy this snake. It was moving, so I think that helped them see it and enjoy it. I really love this picture.

klp making his way! GOOD BOY!

This is q saying "CHOMP CHOMP" and chomping his hands together. He was SOOO EXCITED about seeing the alligator. He just kept "chomping" all day until we finally got to see it. I'm pretty sure he wanted to say, "Really? This is it?" because the alligator was just laying in the grass way far away form the bridge where we could barely see it. The other one was in the water hiding. Sorry to disappoint ya, Quinn Man.

klp trying to make an escape from the picture. qsp continues to be my best model.

Sure wish q wasn't scratching his ear. Its such a great picture of my boys.

Of course, when Kanyon got tired of walking, Quinn was more than happy to take the walker and boogie.

self photo while we waited for Dad and Q to catch up with us.

I think the penguins were their favorite animal of the day. Q loved watching them swim around. He was LOVING IT!

Cheesing by the penguins

This was taken at the very end....can you tell? :) Done. They were done.

A Few Questions???

2011-10-27T09:36:00.000-05:00

How much will he pay me to NEVER show these to his friends when he's 16???

Doesn't Rebekah look like SUCH a good teacher??? (thats really a joke. She's my friend who got her teaching degree but hated it and never planned/plans on using it, so I like to tease her about being a teacher)

Is it just ASKING for an injury when I let Q push klp?

Why can I still not resist sand box pictures? And why does klp STILL say "cat poop" when we talk about the sand box even though it was 6 months ago that I found some cat poop in the sand box????? SHEESH!!!

Could he be any cuter?

Why will he not keep a hat on without me tricking him into it? (I told him to show me his hand so i could get this pic in his Central Montana CoOp hat....a Wes Phillips wardrobe staple)

What happens when your mom has a garage sale with a couple of her friends???

(you play with your friends' old toys)

How can you beat $5 for Blake's old train set??!!!

Who woulda thunk qsp's treasure would've been the hangers??!

Did you know klp can walk his new puppy (another garage sale trade with Amy)????

You rootin' for the Rangers too?

You scared?

"How do you like my shoes?" (klp was THRILLED to be wearing Nolan's old shoes)

Can you look at klp's school pic without saying "ahhhhhhhh"?

Can you tell he's saying Cheeeeese?

How do you like THAT for a "random picture" post without calling it that??

Back in the Saddle

2011-10-26T11:31:00.000-05:00

After the usual summer off from Hippotherapy and the unexpected September off due to CRAZY HOT weather, Kan man is finally back in the saddle!!! He was SOOOOOO excited. He kept saying, "I RIEEEE I RIEEEEE" (I ride I ride!). He and Kandy picked up right where they left off. This first day, Kanyon aslo said Chris and Debbie's names (his side walker and leader). He also said "POOP" When he was patting the back end of the horse. Celia said, "Is that his rump?" and klp answered with an emphatic "POOOO!" Laughter followed which is of course, why potty humor is so fun. I have a sneaky suspicion I have a lifetime of that ahead.

At the end of the ride, klp got to walk and "lead" Kandy. He was very excited and kept saying "rope!". Fun times.

Here he is showing me his rope! Can you see that THRILLED face??!!

Q's New Favorite Sport

2011-10-19T14:36:00.000-05:00

In his short life, Quinn has already fallen in love with most major sports. Currently it's football. Or as he says, "butt ball". Nice. Especially when we were leaving a restaurant Sunday afternoon and as he walked through the middle of the place and spotted the TV with a football game on it, he yelled, "BUTT BALL DADDY BUTT BALL!!!" Oh dear.

This is more like a blooper reel.

I can't say that his current skills give me hope that he'll be in the NFL, but thats Ok. We're not really big football people anyways. :)

Random Pictures

2011-10-18T14:40:00.000-05:00

I'll let the pictures do the talking....with my captions, of course! :)

q after dropping off Kanyon at school. Killer sleepy face.

klp wearing Daddy's cowboy hat. This may or may not be a little hint at their Halloween costumes

q and Chandler sitting in a bucket...k-i-s-s-i-n-g. Not really. They were just both sitting there and being so cute.

We had PT at the park one day. It was lots of fun! Our PT, Celia, is a part of the Ambucs club that helped build this all access park. We LOVE IT!

Swinging....shocker.

klp with his crutches (or "sticks" as we call them). They are very new and he still needs 100% help. They are just starting to work on the rhythm of stepping and putting the crutch down, etc. Not to mention, the balance, and holding on part. We are hoping his left hand will allow him to use both crutches, but we may end up having to just use one if that left arm has too much trouble. Either way, its fun to see him working on the next step (pardon the pun). I remember when they ordered his gait trainer thinking there was NO WAY he was going to be able to walk in that. They started working on it and it wasn't long before he was figuring it out! Same thing with the bigger gait trainer and then the walker. The stakes are a little higher with the crutches because he has to learn how to fall correctly so as not to hurt himself on the crutches. The crutches will also mean more falls in general. So far, everything he's used has offered a lot of support so the falls have been minimal. We have a lot of work to do, strength to build, and just time with this, but I know he'll do great.

he loves hand rails, so he loves getting to hold them and walk. Here he is walking down the stairs.

peek-a-boo Quinny boy!

That's a nice way to end a post, huh???

Self photos with Kanyon

2011-10-16T14:41:00.000-05:00

It doesn't come up much on the blog, but I have mentioned it a few times. Kanyon is legally blind. He's been receiving vision therapy since he was 2. Along with having very very near sighted vision, he has some other factors with his neurological damage and development that make the whole vision thing a little tricky. He compensates really well, but the older he gets, the more I realize just how much the visual/neurological difficulties affect him and the things he wants/tries to do. All that to say, he was given an iPad from an organization that was giving them out to children with visual impairments. We were totally shocked, as we don't really deal a lot with that organization, but we were really excited. He really loves it and I am finding more and more apps that he can do independently and with our help. We joke a lot about it, but we really are thankful for it. It really has helped him and we feel like the older he gets the more it will help him.

One day we were playing around with the camera. I was trying to get a self photo. Between him being obsessed with other parts of the screen, the 3-2-1 countdown, and getting him to look at the right part of the screen, we had a hard time getting a good shot.......

he could NOT stop laughing. He thought it was all so funny!

Since the straight on self photos weren't working, I told him to give me a kiss....here he is going straight for my MOUTH!

I redirected him to my cheek and WE GOT IT!

Boys

2011-10-14T14:39:00.000-05:00

There are so many fun things about having boys. Sometimes I see them doing something that just makes me think, "That is SUCH a boy!" One of my favorites is watching them play with their trucks and stuff. One night last week they were both busy doing "BOY STUFF" so I got my camera out.

I was trying to get a picture of q pushing his truck, but every time he saw me with the camera he would stop, squat down, and CHEESE!

Finally I got a few. He loves this truck. Its traveled many miles in our house and outside. Sticking out that tongue for extra concentration!

aaaaand he spotted me with the camera....stop. squat. CHEESE!

Meanwhile, klp and his John Deere were chuggin' right along.

and just when I thought we were enjoying life as a Boy to the fullest, q busted out with the granddaddy of them all.....He held up the trailor (it goes with the tractor) and started making gun noises.

here he is shooting me. I'm tellin' ya, they're born with it! :)

YEAH FOR BOYS!!!!

Nolan's Birthday Party

2011-10-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

Nolan turned 3 at the end of September, so we headed to Paris to celebrate Nolan and his current skateboard obsession. We met at the skate park and got to watch some "Big Skateboarders" (they were maybe 15 yrs. old) and let the kids do a little skating of their own.

Is anyone shocked that klp was a natural at this?????

The Birthday boy was in HEAVEN!

qsp has noticed the camera. He will randomly decide to CHEESE when he see me taking a picture of him....

and more often than not, he squats down. Not sure why.

This kid was having a BLAST! I'm sure he was wondering why in the world no one had given him a skateboard before. That could've saved lots of torn up pants!

up the ramp

he never made it all the way up, but he tried with all his might!

Kase and Kanyon on the ramp.

The kids: Landry, Kellan, Avery, Parker, Quinn, Kanyon, Roselyn, and Nolan. We were so happy the Davidsons were in town for the party. They are here from Peru and it was SO GREAT to see them.

oh man...these pictures crack me up. What a crew.

Nolan looks depressed, Landry looks mad, Ro looks totally annoyed, and Kanyon is bored so he's looking under his board. Avery and Kellan are still holdin' steady with the smiles!

klp and Nolan

They were so sweet playing with Nolan's new skateboard ramp. I can't explain how my heart explodes when I see Kanyon playing with his cousin. Oh man.

q wanting to take the wagon for a spin

klp and Ro were dying laughing because Nolan was trying to blow out his candles and the last one wouldn't blow out. It really was funny, he just kept blowing and blowing (and spitting and spitting) and everyone was laughing so hard. Finally he got some help and we were able to enjoy the yummy cake.

Rachel's mom always does a puppet show and the kids are just mesmerized! Mallory and Q had to get as close as possible.

After the show was over, klp got behind the puppet stage and had a blast playing with the puppets.

Then all the kids got back there and had a little show!

"backstage photo"

We ended the night back and my parent's house with a devotional. Not really. Q loves big books, ya know and brought KLP this bible to read. He's totally concentrating, huh?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOLAN!!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Funny Stuff

2011-10-07T13:28:00.000-05:00

My Aunt and Uncle have a tree in their front yard that drops big acorns. The boys picked up a bunch one night and loved playing with them while we were at their house. They took them with them to the bathtub and everything. They had so much fun!

After his MRI a few weeks ago at Children's, they gave him this puzzle. Its like a paper doll except magnetic. You dress the boy in different sports uniforms. Of course, klp wanted the basketball uniform. So after doing it with him a few times, he wanted to do it all by himself. This was the final product. It just cracks me up to look at things kids have done when they're playing. Not sure if that makes sense......."evidence of play" make me smile. I think its funny.

One night at supper we were trying to help Quinn finish up his meal, so we said he could have a drink of Daddy's Kool-Aid. It was a hit. We found his "currency" that night! :) He wanted to drink out of a big boy cup, so we let him. It led to quite a mess!! I LOOOOOVED the mustache! Can you tell he's asking for more....that pleading look on his face!! haha!

Messy Kool-Aid boy still carrying around the acorns from my aunt and uncle's house! :)

If this last pictures doesn't crack you up, I don't know what will!!!! Don't even know what was going on, but klp though it was HILARIOUS!!! Feast your eyes on this.........

Kanyon's First Day of School

2011-10-05T21:41:00.002-05:00

I posted one picture on klp's first day of school, but here are a few more that I took that morning. We were glad we got to enjoy a few extra weeks of summer this year, but like it or not, school came-a-knocking. I DREADED it as usual, but Kanyon does great and his teachers do great with him. Same school, same teachers, etc. so it makes the transition pretty easy. Though early bed times and waking up early are not easy for us, we are back in the swing of things. He still only goes Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, but this year instead of 11, he goes til 1:15. That means he gets to eat lunch at school and take a little nap. He's done great with both for the most part. I have had to get creative packing his lunch. He usually eats MEALS at lunch. He skipped the toddler/snacky/easy pack lunch stuff. So far its worked fine though. He's done great at naps except for one day when he and another boy got in trouble for being loud during nap time. oopsy. He's been much better since then! haha!

Our daily routine is quite shuffled up now as I wake q up to take klp to school (HATE that) and then pick him up and he's already had a nap but qsp goes down for his. We enjoy our quiet afternoons while Bubba sleeps. Quinn gets me in the mornings, Kan gets me in the afternoons. :) On the non school days klp still naps so thats nice.

Here is the big boy set to go on his first day. By the way, he requests a "Geee ruuurrr" (Green shirt) every single morning. This is the only green one we have. Lucky for me, he hasn't quite figured out what green is so he doesn't actually care if its green, he just feels the need to say it! haha!

Can't resist the backpack picture

He strolled right into his room like he never left....

he walked over to the train table and there was a phone next to it. He picked it up and said, "HELLOOO!!!" and then went right back to the trains. He's a crack up!!

This is his teacher Ms. Paulette. She is sweet and has been very gracious and flexible as we find what times, etc. work best for us. She loves Kanyon (so do his other 2 teachers) and I'm thankful we have a place where I feel good leaving him.

Green/Spencer Labor Day Insanity!!!

2011-10-01T14:32:00.000-05:00

We made our usual trip to Paris this year for Labor Day. The Greens always come to Paris for the weekend and we look forward to it ALL YEAR LONG!!! And the beauty of the Green/Spencer Labor Day is that its not JUST Greens and Spencers! The Bowers got to come for part of the time! yeah!

Here are my book worms in the car on the way there.

As soon as we got to my parents' house, klp and Ro quickly found each other and she picked up right where she always does being sweet and silly making klp laugh!

Caden played his guitar while the other kids watched and listened. Fast forward 10-15 years and the same kids will probably be hanging out together while Caden plays the guitar. It seems in this picture that klp was raising his hand for a song request.

We usually go out to our lake on Saturday, but this year for multiple reasons, the Kerby's pool was a better option. It was a blast! Q man sportin' the puddle jumpers just in case he gets brave enough to get in the water. Just kidding. He did play in the water and had fun. He just played out of the water too! :)

This was as close as we got to a group picture and I think this is everyone that was there. Minus the parents (meaning my parents and Dee and Susan and Clark and Kathy....I guess we should now call them the grandparents)

Joe David, Stefany, Jed, Adam, Caden, (Tate stayed home and slept), My crew, Clint, Rachel, Nolan, Ro, Clay, Mo, Avery, Landry, Mallory, Eric, Amber, Ayelan, Auburn, and Easton. WOW. That's a lot of kids. 13 total!

As you can imagine, the Mule was busy all weekend. Amber and I took a few kids for a spin.

Seeing all these kids eating together is one of my favorite things. They are all getting so big! And of course, it warms my heart to see my Kanyon sitting up there eating with his friends. There were times I wondered if that would ever happen!

Paw Paw with Quinn, Easton, and Auburn.

Landry, Avery, and klp watching a movie. (klp usually gets kicked out of the movie room for being too loud. He can't see the TV in there very well so he just ends up playing and getting too wound up with all the other kids. He's kind of disruptive! :)

klp shoving food in his face while Auburn smiles so sweetly.

qsp and Easton. They are only a couple of months apart. ACU roommates-- like it or not.

The gals.

Amber took these pics of my boys playing in the driveway.

This is look is sooooooo Quinn.

klp was scratching his back....funny face. They are quite dirty and I didn't even mean to have them dressed the same. Wife beaters are just the perfect shirts.

I'm pretty sure klp's shirt is on backwards. oh well. I still love this pictures.

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!!! (I have no pics of our parents, but mom and dad and Dee and Susan were there and busy working to feed everyone and help us with our wild kids....they are the best). Weekends like this only reinforce our dream of all living in some remote "communal living" place together! :)

Q enjoyed wearing Caden's helmet (backwards only)

Ahhh isn't this sweet of Ro Ro and Kan man???

Really she's just trying to get him to look at the camera! HAHA!! He was just wanting to play with her and we were trying to get a picture. Thanks for the help Ro.

Avery joined and Ro had to use 2 hands to move his head towards the camera!!!

When the big kids took off in the Mule, qsp and Nolan decided to take a ride on the ol' pony. This was ours when we were little.

Nolan thought the fake horse was boring, so he took Buddy for a ride!

klp cuddling with Aunt Rachel and baby???? (no name yet!)

Avery and klp playing in the dirt.

After the long weekend, I stayed a few more days because I had to go to Dallas with Kanyon. The boys got to cuddle with Paw Paw a little more!

3 cheers for my dad and Rachel. They kept Quinn for me so that Mom could go and help me in Dallas. We had to spend the night and had 3 different appointments. Dad was in charge of Quinn all night and then Rachel kept him the next day!! He had a blast!!!

Here is klp on our way to Dallas.....little book worm.

Rachel sent me this picture of Quinn at breakfast. Looks like he was being sweet for her.

In the mean time my stud of a son was knocking out MRI's, office visits, blood draws, etc.

We saw his neurosurgeon for his yearly checkup and everything looked great. We are always thankful for that. We also saw his Nephrologists to follow up from his hospital stay with HUS. She was VERY pleased with him and thought he looked great!

It was a long, tough day for him, but he did great. And was asleep in the car within 2 minutes of leaving.

Great weekend! Great reports from Doctors!

Splash Pad Surprise

2011-09-29T10:02:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago, we went to the park after supper. It is a fantastic completely assessable park so klp can take his walker all over it. It is a fantastic park and we are really really thankful that we have one so close to us that is this great. We played and played and played that evening and it was past dark so we headed to the car. Right by the parking lot there is a little splash pad. My boys have never seen one, so they were just walking around on it. THEN their Daddy pushed the button that makes the water come on. One boy LOVED it and one boy FREAKED out. I'll let you guess which one did which! :)

If you guessed q was the one that freaked, you are CORRECT! He just so happened to be standing in the middle of a circle where water sprays up all around it. When the water came on, none of it was splashing on him, but he was surrounded! Haha! He just stood there screaming. We tried to get him to just walk through the water and out of the circle of doom, but he couldn't get the courage to walk through the horrifying sprinkles of water. After a few pictures, we reached in and rescued him! :)

In the mean time, his brother was walking ALL OVER THAT THING. He was cracking up and squealing with excitement. He was in HEAVEN!!

He eventually talked Q in to coming a little closer, but he still wouldn't go all out splash. He stayed on the outside edge where no water could get him. But thats ok. :)

This boy was completely SOAKED from head to toe! He was also completely THRILLED!

I took a little video. Its pretty dark since it was....well....dark outside. But hopefully you can hear the squealing and listen for qsp's little "I don't know" its pretty cute.

A few things about Quinn

2011-09-23T16:07:00.000-05:00

He is reading at a 9th grade level.

He takes good care of his animals. Feeding them......

....and making sure they have plenty of water.

He is very

SILLY

and he has a mother who needs to wash her windows more often.

He has big blue eyes and a birthmark everyone always thinks is a scratch.

He's VEEEERY sneaky.

He usually starts his morning off with a banana and some milk while I get his breakfast ready. He has very puffy eyes when he wakes up. He has to carry his big blanket over his shoulders so he doesn't trip on it.

He aslo speaks other languages. Ever since he started talking, he's often put "le" in front of a lot of words. One of his first words was "ball" but according to him, it was "le ball". Along the same French influenced lines is "le Bubba", "le car", "le book". You get the idea. And just when I thought he only spoke French, I discovered another one. I went in his room to get him after his nap.and when I walked in the room, he said, with his best ITALIAN accent, "Hey maMA!!" I checked to make sure the Cake Boss wasn't in his bed, but he wasn't so it must've been Quinn channeling his inner Italiano.

If you count East Texas Twang as a language both of my boys are fluent. I hear it every time they say "Bye" (and lots of other words). It makes their daddy roll his eyes, but that's what he gets for leaving me at home to teach them to talk!! :)

He has just recently learned to run. It took him 17 months to get the courage to walk, so you can imagine that running is a little scary for this cautions one.

He is having a REALLY REALLY hard time adjusting to klp being at school. He is lost without him. Translated: he is clingy and wanting me to be with him every second of the day. He won't let me get 2 feet away! There is lots of crying and lots of whining. It ain't pretty. Its only 3 days and only til 1:15 so I'm sure he'll adjust. He better. :)

He has since stopped doing this, but he went through a little phase where he would play this "game" with us. He would say, in a very high pitched sing songy voice, "Hey Mama!!!" and I would reply in the same high pitched sing songy voice. "Hi Quinn!!!" and then he would lower his voice really low and slow and say "Heeey Mama"and I reply with a matching tone, "Hey Quinn." The game would go on a few rounds and then he would stop. We thought it was hilarious and have NO IDEA where he came up with it. He hasn't done it in a while and I never got it on video. Its not the best written story (unless you have a really good imagination) but it was a pretty cute little game.

He totally bonded with his Daddy while I was away with klp in the hospital. I have seen a big difference since then. He often chooses Daddy over me *GASP!*

All week he wakes up in the mornings and from naps clapping. At least he's happy.

When he gets ready to do a trick, i.e. throw a ball in the air, he says, "Mama, Waaaaa" (Mama, watch!)

So you don't go thinking he's nothing but a broad cultured funny boy, I'll give you some dirt. He's kind of getting mean. He will hear klp ask me to do something and then he will try to run get it first. He will hear klp tell me he wants to rock and he'll run to the rocking chair first. Not cool. Doesn't work around here. He's also started the "MINE!" thing. UGGHHHHH. I DO NOT like this.

He's sleeping soundly, but I expect to hear clapping any minute so I better go finish up a few more things. Happy Weekend!

Guess Who's Reading??!?!!

2011-09-19T15:50:00.000-05:00

Maybe reading is a bit of a stretch....MEMORIZING may be more like it.

For the last few weeks, the book "There's an Aligator Under My Bed" has been klp's book of choice every night before bed. Its true that he's probably heard it read 100 times, but that doesn't change the fact that its pretty awesome that he has it memorized! The other night I let him finish the sentences on a few pages and was shocked at how much he knew. So last night I decided to video the whole book and see what he could do. The lighting is low, the filming is bad but I was trying to read, turn pages, film, and hold him in my lap all at the same time. Hopefully you can hear it OK.

You'll notice he points out the lights. He's obsessed with lights and finds lamps, lights, street lights, flashlights, or any other form of light in every book he looks at. He also loves to look at all the toys on the floor in the boy's room.

Remember he says "lmmm" (with his tongue sticking out) for the word "eat".

"garage" is a pretty cute word coming out of his mouth! :)

He uses the same tone and inflection that we use on some of the parts.

Ignore my annoying voice.

Enjoy!

Big Help and Great Friends

2011-09-19T15:13:00.000-05:00

I try to make the boys earn their keep around here.....

so they have to HELP decorate wrapping paper for Daddy's birthday present.....

then HELP Daddy open his present........

and HELP clean up after themselves. I can't just let them stick around here for FREE!!!!! :)

When Great Aunt Nancye gave klp this frog puppet in the hospital, initially q was afraid of it (as he is most things that are new and big). But now I think its safe to say that they are GREAT FRIENDS! He's giving him a big kiss!!!

Here are the boys with Ali and Mabry. They love these girls....they are such GREAT FRIENDS!

This is kind of a stretch but i had to fit it in this blog.....Quinn and klp's walker are BFFs. Seriously, he loves this thing. Most kids do. We usually let qsp have a turn at some point and we're pretty sure it confuses people. It cracks us up and I'm sure it doesn't hurt for klp to get to see someone else walking in it. This picture is blurry but I couldn't snap one that wasn't blurry because he BOOGIES on this thing.

Brothers....the GREATEST FRIENDS in the world!!!

(here klp is tickling qsp....if it had sound you could hear his high pitched dededededededede that he does when he tickles. I think its from us saying tickletickletickle when we tickle him)

(notice q's fingers are crossed on this thumb sucking hand. That's his latest thing. When he sucks his thumb, he criss crosses either his first two fingers or his last two fingers)

This is so them. klp dying laughing squealing. Q/Linus with blanket and thumb. Both with crazy just-out-of-the-bath hair. And only diapers.

Hats

2011-09-18T14:31:00.000-05:00

Kanyon is REALLY into hats. He wakes up asking for his hat and tries to sleep in it. His love of hats started with this Montana State hat that his Montana cousins gave him.. He pulls it down really low over his eyes almost to the point where he can't even see! I push it up and he pushes it right back down. He knows how he likes it I guess. Though it all started with the MSU hat and its by far the one he wears the most, he has spread the love to all sorts of hats.

The fireman hat our friends gave him in the hospital has been fun! Q only wears it backwards and only for about 10 seconds. klp wearing a tiny green hat....

We went over to play at Chandler's house so his options there were a bit more.....ummm....girly. But it was a hat and thats all that matters. Plus, this is ALMOST a top hat right?? Abe Lincoln?

Then there's this hat. The Happy Camper hat aunt Nancye got him when he was a baby. It is a BABY hat!! Its TINY. But it was his favorite for a while. He didn't care that it would squeeze and then eventually pop off his head because it was too tight or that the bill was way too short for a big boy. I would try to hide it so he wouldn't see it and forget about it, but then he would ask me for "Bubba Haaaa" (Bubba's hat) I told him one time that the hat stayed in Bubba's closet because it was a baby's hat. So he just called it Bubba's hat. There was no forgetting the beloved green hat.

In efforts to trump "Bubba's hat" I offered him "Daddy's hat" and it was a hit too! Here he is proudly wearing the Phillips Bar Diamond Ranch hat.

Quinn? He's more of a glasses guy right now.

Works of Art

2011-09-16T14:19:00.002-05:00

Kanyon LOVES to paint. I think we have school to thank for that. Last year, every day when I would pick him up, I would ask him what he did at school. The conversation would go like this:

me: HEY KAN! How was school?!

klp: gooooo (good)

me: Good! What did you do?

klp: I wiiiiieeee (write) I puuuu (paint)

me: Oh fun!

klp: I owwww cakwa (I want a cracker)

And he would chow down on his goldfish in the car all the way home. So, this summer we did some painting and even let Q join the fun. One day I documented with pics.

a rare moment where klp in using a color other than black....more on that later

Q has a lot to learn about painting. Mainly that you're supposed to paint on the paper.....not your hand.

qsp would hold his water cup (which had barely any water), dip his brush in the paint, then the water...

then his hand. This required LOTS of focus and concentration.

klp noticed what his brother was doing and was kind of laughing. Then my Occupational Therapist Mommy light bulb went off (I'm not an OT, I just think like one after 4 1/2 years of being Kanyon's mommy!). I said, "Why don't you try to paint your hand!" This meant he had to open his tight hand and figure out how to get the paint in there!!! Its the story of klp's life really: even play is work. But he loved it and it was good practice opening his hand.

I put the breaks on the mouth thing. He was putting it all in his mouth. YUCK!

qsp loves all the colors and they all ended up on his hand, giving it a nice reddish brownish tint.

klp does NOT like all colors. Every single time I've painted with him, he only paints with the black. I'll show him the other colors and put them on his brush and he immediately goes back to the black. hmmmm Ansel Adams??

First Day of School

2011-09-13T08:21:00.000-05:00

Thanks to HUS we got a few more weeks of summer at our house. But today summer is officially over. Booooo!!! He walked right in and was Mr. Chatty. He headed straight for the train table and picked up a stray phone on his way and said,"hey!!". He's in the same room with the same teachers and most of the same kids. If it were up to me I'd still have him home but I have to share him 3 days a week. I know he will do great!

Peek-a-boo!

2011-09-06T10:31:00.001-05:00

PEEK

BOO!

AAAAAAND this is gonna be RANDOM

2011-08-28T13:46:00.000-05:00

Can you tell I'm trying to get caught up on blogging? Well, this is the last one I'm catching up with so its a potpourri of pictures from the last couple of months.

This was a LOUD idea Kanyon had. He was pushing the popper (LOUD) while cruising on his dump truck pushing the buttons on it that honk (LOUD) and make truck noises (LOUD). All in the hallway with a tile floor....lots of echo (LOUD). He didn't seem to be bothered by the noise.

This is a funny pic because it looks like klp is running at full speed. Really Dad was just working overtime trying to hold klp up and keep the wagon moving so klp could "pull" Bubba.

Can you say COOL?

The boy loves hot sauce. We ate at a a mexican place by our house one night and he was KILLIN' the hot sauce. SHEESH!

Headed to CDR with the Rotzlers. Chandler held her own back there with the rowdy boys!

I just really think this pictures is so sweet. Glad I snapped it when I did because q isn't occupied with "writing" (as klp calls it) for as long as his big brother is. He just wants to do it because he sees klp doing it, but that only lasts about 10 seconds. They were both busy for a few seconds and I'm glad I caught this little moment.

I think klp was a little disappointed in this box. He wanted it to be big enough for him to scoot inside it....instead he had to army crawl in and he couldn't turn around once he got in there. haha!

just a little Brother pic...

The boys have been really in to eating cereal lately. Even klp who isn't a breakfast eater will eat it. Its kinda cute.

Why are Sunday School pictures SOOOO ADORABLE??!! mine are the first 2 boys from the left. Mrs. Patti is the ANGEL who teaches them every sunday and every wednesday. I really mean angel. And yes, Kanyon is still in the nursery. It goes up to 2, but he didn't start til he was 2. Its still the best place for him. He is happy, engaged, and learning at the perfect level for him right now. I think moving him up would put him way above what he's ready for. I think he will outgrow this class soon enough and then we'll decide how we're gonna place him at church...either with kids his age or with kids at more of his developmental age. We'll just see where he is then. Until then, he's still living the good life as the reigning king of the nursery.

Mule ride in Paris. CHEESE from Kanyon!

and CHEESE from Quinn!

Takin my boys for a spin!

klp cuddling with his GREAT Aunt Mary Lynn

Our GREAT friends Trent and Karessa, and their sweet baby Paisley moved a month or so ago. We were very VERY sad to see them go. The weekend before they moved, we had them and the Gibbons over. The Gibbons brought their Rock Band game and we had a BLAST!

Q on the drums....

Peyton rockin' out!

Trent on the guitar and little Paisley chillin' on his shoulders

Oh man we were LAUGHING SO HARD!! Jordan was hilarious....the whole thing was just hilarious. Karessa was bringing the house down with her vocals!

Paisley girl got her turn to rock out too!!

Trent wins the award for the most talented because he was playing the drums while klp "helped" him. Impressive. and really nice.

The BOY BAND

Kanyon giving Peyton and squeeze!

GIRLS RULE!!!!

Here we are all normal and sweet.

...and here we are after a night of ROCK! Trent and Karessa, we hope you find other weird friends like us in Oklahoma!!!

klp lookin sweet standing up against the couch. (notice q with the novel in the background...i'm tellin' ya, he loves big books!)

I was trying to get him to look at me, so I said, "Hey! Look at my nose!!!" and this is what I got.....he touched HIS nose! He was so proud.

Our church office got the boys pillow pets when klp got home from Dallas. They have had lots of fun with them. klp climbs up on it and then it "bucks him off" and dies laughing. He's quite the Turtle Cowboy.

Our sweet friends Kinsey went to college! She's in our youth group at church and we've enjoyed her so much over the past several years. My kids love her!! So do I! She went on a trip to South America this summer and brought the boys back some really cool soccer jerseys!! We miss her, but we know she's gonna be a great Aggie!

Trying to Beat the Heat

2011-08-26T13:43:00.000-05:00

It has been a TERRIBLY HOT summer!!!! I usually don't mind the heat too much...it doesn't usually stop me from doing what I want to do. But this summer has been a different story. There has been NO RELIEF. So, we've done a few things to try and beat the heat the best we can!

WATER!!

This was my mom's idea one day when she was here. They "painted" the doghouse and the sidewalk. They loved it!

Oh man this picture kills me. Every now and then, klp's eyes get a little confused and aren't sure where to go. I caught this one right in the middle of one of those "confused" moments!! :) He was so excited to show me his paint brush!

This water table has saved us this summer. They play in it almost every day.

POPSICLES!!

klp isn't much of a fan, but Q loves them. I just mix plain yogurt, fruit, and a little juice and he gobbles it up. Before you go feeling sorry for this crying boy.....

you'll see that he turned off the tears. He can flip the switch pretty quick....when he wants to. I probably said something like, "You have to quite crying before you can have more popsicle"and BOOM no more tears....anything for more food!

SNOW CONES!!
Me and GREAT Aunt Mary Lynn went to get a snow cone one night. It was a fun summertime outing. This pic looks like q might've been sneaking a sip of ML's snow cone while she wasn't looking.

You can tell she'sexperienced! I guess I wasn't much help sitting there taking pictures while she juggled snow cones!

The surprise of the night was that klp liked it! He's tried them before and wasn't at all interested. He's not really big on sweet stuff. But, he eventually started tasting and ended up liking it! The proof is on the face... (seriously. When will the kid learn to OPEN his eyes when he says "cheese!")

It should come as no surprise that this guy had NO TROUBLE eating his snow cone (and anyone else's).

serious klp showing me his face

SWIMMING!
I spent a few days in Paris a few weeks ago (the week before klp got sick) and we went swimming at Club Kerby a couple of times.

We decided that Nolan needs to be the new spokesmodel for the Kerby's pool. Doesn't this make you want to swim there!!!

My little cautions Quinn boy is finally warming up to the water. He used to freak out and cling to be like there was no tomorrow. But now he doesn't freak. I'd say he tolerates it. He doesn't love it, and he keeps his leg or arm wrapped around whoever is holding him, and does fine. He also digs sunglasses. I dig him in sunglasses.

This boy is a water bug!!! Last summer, he still couldn't balance in his puddle jumpers, so we had to always be holding him or else he would fall forward and couldn't keep his head out of the water. He was still that way at the beginning of the summer. BUT after a few times in the pool, the boys is all over the place. He kicks and uses his arms (we have to "remind" him to use his left arm) but he does so great. I am SOOOO PROUD of him. My heart just soars when I watch him. He loves it so much and I'm so happy he can do it. I think we'll get another floating thing because the puddle jumpers restrict his arms and since he already has a hard time using both arms, we want to free them up as much as possible. I really think he'll learn to swim one of these days!

He is laughing and smiling so much in the water, we have to remind him to close his mouth so he doesn't swallow too much water!

He got such a kick out of pretending he was asleep on the float. Aunt Rachel was pulling him around and he was dying laughing (not too good at pretending to be asleep)

I think Landry is responsible for Gay Gay's sunglasses!! :) Q and Nolan stayed close.....she had the Cheetos!!

I think it goes without saying that while the cool snacks and fun water are great, we are ready to be able to be outside without melting in the heat!

Lots and Lots of Quinn

2011-08-24T14:09:00.000-05:00

It's kind of been Kanyon overload here on the blog, so here we go with LOTS OF QUINN!

He LOVES baseball. LOVES IT. klp got this blue bat for his birthday and it is by far one of q's favorite toys. Funny how that whole brother-having-a-birthday-thing works.

He is very intense about his game

and he's quite the pitcher!

It really does make him so happy to get to swing the bat and try to hit the ball. He tries to throw the ball up and hit it with his bat. Comedy. Oh man, he tries so hard and his timing is so so so off. But he is quite proud of his skills. Here's a little clip of him "batting"

Probably yelling "Baaaa" for "bat"

This is proof that KLP is a way better parent than me. I don't let q get near any part of me with that bat in his hand. KLP is not afraid.

Seriously, we need to get the kid a tee and save his daddy's hands!

A little help from dad throwing and hitting.

If qsp had it his way, he'd have a bat in each hand....

but he doesn't always have it his way. Sometimes he has to share ONE bat with his brother....and it ain't pretty....

He gets a kick out of standing in front of the fan. I get a kick out of his belly.

He cuddled up with one of KLP's shirts one day

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

I really don't think Quinn is much of a climber compared to the kids who are full on "climbers". But he's the biggest climber I've ever had. I'm new at this, so I have to keep a close eye on the little monkey.....and by close eye, I mean a camera!

He decided to do a little creative writing while he was standing on the stool. Bad boy.

The creativity and fun ended pretty quick. He was pretty disappointed and didn't seem to see the danger in it!! haha!

wearing one of Daddy's Montana Grizzlies tshirts. I could gush here about how cute he looks in this picture, but I won't.

My mom got him some flip flops last year on clearance. They are his size this year, so he's been trying to wear them. But they blow. his. mind. He is so intrigued and confused by them. He walks funny and looks down at them the whole time.

Fascinating. Who knew???

Having a smoothie like his big brother. He thinks he's big stuff when he gets to drink from a straw.

Contrary to what the following photos show, he is actually quite good at feeding himself. This day he was having a little too much fun with his yogurt and toast.

ROCK N ROLL eating face!!

oh this look......he's holding out on me. I was trying to get him to smile.

All that eating sure makes a guy thirsty! Really? The cup IN the bowl?

The past few weeks he has been cracking us up with this little quirk. He loves big thick books. He will go find one in our room and sit and look at it for the longest time. He will sometimes ask us so to read it but that usually doesn't last long. He gets bored with parenting/religious books pretty quickly. BUT it sure makes him look smart.

CHEESE!!!!!

and...finally.....someone pulled his pants up a LITTLE too high. Oh well. Him and his Hummer didn't seem to mind.

Yeah for Quinn!

The Sick Story in Pictures Part 2

2011-08-23T16:05:00.000-05:00

I think I left off my last post with the delivery of the fun signs for our room....that was Friday morning.

Friday afternoon, I was laying beside klp in his bed (we were both sleeping) and I heard a familiar, "MAMA!!!" and I looked up and my Quinny boy was looking in the window! My parents and Quinn were finally here!

He happily played with the room full of balloons and was pretty excited to see klp. He kept saying, "Bubba!" and patting him. klp on the other hand didn't show him much attention. Maybe he was kind of liking life as an only child!! haha!

When qsp saw the poster below (hospital decor) he said "DADA!!" we joked that it had been TOO LONG since he'd seen his daddy if he thought this was a picture of him!! haha!!

This Friday afternoon was the big turnaround. He perked up, would talk some and even play some. It was a totally different kid than what we'd seen even the night before! For the weeks before, I'd compared him to a newborn. He would sleep, wake up for a few minutes to eat (we fed him...he didn't pick any food up) or look around, then he was back asleep again. Friday, he was still sleepier than usual, but he was alert and that little spark was coming back in his eye! YEAH! (this is the day I blogged the video!). My parents had had lots of bonding time with q the past week, so they were happy to get to see klp! He and Gay Gay in the rocker.

As you can imagine, qsp was pretty restless trapped in a tiny hospital room, so we had to entertain him. Luckily we were in a Children's hospital, so they have lots of cool things to entertain kids with. He liked playing in these lights.

Our friends, the Bookers, brought this balloon and he LOOOOVED it (and still does....its barely floating in our living room as I type this). We were so happy to be PLAYING with Kanyon again! Later that evening, Susan took Quinn back to her sister's house to eat and go to bed. My parents stayed in the room with Kanyon and Kory and I went to a nearby Italian place and had a nice yummy meal.

When we got back, we asked if we could just take klp for a walk outside. He was still on contact isolation since he'd had e coli, but they let us take him out. He was SOOO happy to be out and strolling around.

he liked the lights and mirrors in the elevator.

Luckily it was night time so we could stand to be outside. Its only 98 at night instead of 110!!! haha, i'm only SORT OF exaggerating.

I went to Frieda and Richard's house to spend the night so I could be with Quinn when he woke up the next morning. I visited with them some and then headed back up to the hospital. That Saturday morning he had dialysis and that was the last one he ever had. He ended up having 6 I think. Not too bad. His kidneys actually kicked in gear pretty quick.

Q enjoyed the fire hat! My friends from Paris, Kimberly and Cathy, brought this and they LOOOOOVED it! Still do!

klp lovin' the fire hat! See....the smile is coming back!

The better he felt, the less we were in the room. We strolled him all over the place. We went out to the playground thats in the shade and let Q play while we walked around.

I think this pic is hilarious. What an old soul sitting there with his arms crossed and his neck pillow!

I spent Saturday night with Quinn again...big shout out to Kory for taking the hospital shift both nights. We spent some time at the hospital on Sunday, then Susan, Kory, and Quinn headed back to Longview so q could be in his own bed for a while.

By Monday, klp had discovered the bench in the room (or as he called it, "mama's bed") and liked to play on it. His numbers were continuing to fall and his blood was improving with every day! YEAH! We were beginning to see an end in sight.

My mom came back on Tuesday to help me during the days. She stayed at some friends' house nearby and was Kanyon's number 1 stroller driver! And book reader....

One day...I'm thinking maybe Tuesday (my memory is foggy) we were out in the main lobby visiting with Jodi and Brooklyn. I looked up and saw Nurse Jim. He was the nurse for the twins their very first day in the NICU. He was also the one that insisted on my holding klp the day that I did and he took such good care of us the whole time we were there. BUT he was a traveling nurse, so he didn't stay at our hospital. When we left, I had no idea where he went. I have tried to find him several times...but its kinda hard since I didn't know his last name. He was just Nurse Jim!! Haha! Every year when we send christmas cards, I want to send him one to let him see Kanyon, but we've never been able to! We were all so shocked to see each other and it was so much fun. He was there for a class that day and was on his way out when I spotted him. I wish he could see klp in true form, but I was just so happy we ran in to him.

Balloons+Fireman Hat+Glow wand= Happy Kanyon

playing with his cars and frogs on "mama's bed" Notice the "hospital hair" was going strong.

loving the dry erase crayons our MT cousins sent us.

Wednesday was the day of the surgery. If you remember, that day was LOOONG. We were supposed to go to surgery at 2, but they wanted him to have a transfusion, so that delayed it, then it just kept getting later and later. With no food or water, we were all BEYOND READY to have this done. Finally around 8 or 9 they came to get us. HORAY!!!

I took this as they were wheeling us down the hallway.

mom took this of our luxurious ride to the OR

Me and klp went back to get ready while Mom and Aunt Nancye waited in the waiting room. Once we got back there, we just waited some more....talked to a nurse that went to ACU in the 70's and 80's. Go Wildcats.

The surgery was quick and he came out STARVING. So at 11 pm we were feeding him goldfish and applesause. He was a little fussy, but settled in and slept good that night.

The next day, Thursday, the Drs wanted to send him home, but I wanted one more day of blood checks. Since he'd had to have the transfusion the day before, I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to dip down again. So we spent Thursday cruising around the hospital since we pretty much had no reason to be in the room. The E Coli was long gone so we weren't on contact isolation anymore.

Here he is showing off his motorcycle GREAT Aunt Gwen Ann and Uncle Pee Wee got him.

And of course faithful Aunt Nancye was there to bring us food, toys, and good company!!

Friday finally came and we were headed home. Kory worked half a day then came to pick us up. We were happy to be on the road HOME!!

We got home and our friends Gary and Sharon had stayed at our house with Quinn. They had us a FULL DINNER cooked, gifts for the boys and a clean house!! It was awesome!! Within about 5 min. of being home, klp was asking to swing, SWING WE DID!!! Then we played in the water table...just like normal!

my happy boys is BACK!!!

and I don't have to be away from this cutie ANY MORE!!!

and we finished the night off with a ride in the wagon!!! YEAH!!! HOME SWEET HOME!!

I have several closing thoughts here that will only make this post longer, but I want to get them out. In no particular order:

-We don't know how in the world Kanyon got E Coli. UGHH. The chances of it turning into HUS are VERY VERY VERY SLIM. The Dr. in the ICU told us that most pediatricians work their whole careers and never see a kid get HUS. Well well well, we managed to make sure our pedi got to see a case of it! klp was a textbook case. They even said that it seems like for some reason blonde hair and blue eyes get it more. hmmm. It has nothing to do with his prematurity or the possibility that his immune system might be weaker. "Its just bad luck" the Dr. told us. Not sure if that made us feel better or worse, but my Kan Man drew the short straw on this one. It could've just as easily been any other kid.

-Having a kid besides the one in the hospital significantly complicated the situation. WOW. I was so thankful that our parents were able to trade off and watch Q and still be able to help me at the hospital too. It was so great to know that Quinn was happy where he was and I didn't have to worry about him. He got to go from one grandma to another, so I'm pretty sure he didn't mind. :)

-At first thought, it almost sort of made sense that I was in the hospital with klp. I mean, I felt like I'd done it so many times before. BUT the truth is, I haven't. The only other time he's been in the hospital after the NICU was for feeding. Those were LONG stays, but it wasn't a typical hospital, and it most importantly, he wasn't sick. AND THAT IS VERY DIFFERENT. This was so much harder in so many ways. He's older, talking, and SICK. Hearing him cry and seeing him scared was heart wrenching. Terrible. Almost more than I could handle at times. He was so good though, and I was so proud of him. But maybe more than any other time in his life, Kory and I just wished so bad we could take the pain for him. Swap places so that he didn't have to go through it anymore. It is so hard to watch your kid be so sick and we were so thankful to see that light back in his eyes.

-On a selfish note: Kory and I had a vacation planned with 2 of our couple friends. We'd been talking about having a vacation together (with no kids) for years. FINALLY this year no one was pregnant or nursing or on bed rest so we planned it months ahead of time and were SO EXCITED. New swimsuit (me, not Kory), new sundress (again, me not kory). SO EXCITED. Aaaaaand we missed it. It was during our hospital stay. Bad timing to say the least. I was really upset. As in--I wanna kick and scream and throw a tantrum and scream IT'S NOT FAIR!. I didn't. I'm sure we can make the vacation work some other time, but it just kinda stinks.

-It was hard for me to get too discouraged in that hospital. This time, more than any other time, I was so aware of how SICK other peoples' kids are. We were stressed, tired, and annoyed at the situation, but we weren't in fear of his life. And SO MANY PARENTS are. When we got there and they talked to us, they told us to expect to walk out of here with no problems or future problems. A lot of parents don't get that kind of prognosis. I just can't imagine. I was so thankful that we had such a "mild" problem compared to what so many people deal with. It really put things in perspective. As bad as it was for Kanyon and for us and as sick as he was, we knew we could look forward to "normal" again. Even the day we came home, I just couldn't stop thinking about how many people WEREN'T going home. Or how many had just received bad news that day and were just STARTING a hospital stay. Its humbling.

-We are surrounded by incredible people. That thought was never NOT on my mind the whole time I was in Dallas. I wanted so bad to try to articulate it in the middle of everything, but I didn't have the time to put it all in words. I really feel like we have THE BEST FRIENDS in the universe. Our church family here in Longview, both of our church families from home, friends here, co workers, neighbors, family here, family at our homes, friends that live in the metroplex, friends of our friends who reached out, blog friends, I could go on and on and on and on and on. The support and love was absolutely overwhelming. We felt SOO COVERED with love and prayers and support. And when tough times come, there is NOTHING better than being surrounded by the body of Christ. It seems like we've been able to see that Body work in our lives on several occasions, and while we wish that didn't mean it was because we'd been through hard times, we feel so blessed to have experienced Jesus in the flesh. Really. I know that so many people go through things like this (and worse) without that and it breaks my heart. The worst thing in a hard time is to feel like you're alone and we have NEVER felt alone. I wish everyone could experience this, because we all have times in our lives where we need to be surrounded. So, even though Thank You seems to small, we THANK YOU for everything you've done for us. AGAIN. It really does change us forever. It changes the way we look at situations and at other peoples' situations and it makes us better people. We are learning how to be the body of Christ from YOU! I wish I could list everything people did for us. It was really unbelievable. It made me realize how much i DON'T do for other people. SHEESH!! People brought food, gift cards, toys, snacks, drinks, balloons, blankets, lap tops, our favorite cookies, books, magazines,....they sent us texts telling us what their young kids said about kanyon in their prayers, sent pictures their kids drew for Kanyon, left messages, sent us things to make us laugh, sent cards, left comments, emails, texts, it just never ends Mindi and Christy COMPLETELY DISINFECTED OUR WHOLE HOUSE. THE WHOLE THING. What an unbelievable relief it was to know that when Quinn got there it would be clean and safe. They did this without even asking or having to be asked. They just thought about it and did it. AMAZING! It was just incredible. Things like that matter so much. I was not able to come close to thanking people like I wanted to, return emails, texts, or calls like I wanted to, but I knew we were loved and being prayed for and that was EXACTLY what we needed. I love to see how each person does things differently. Love is shown in so many ways and it was fun to see everyone's personalities show! :) We really do consider this support system one of this life's greatest blessings and we thank GOD every single day. I really could go on and on about this, but I'll stop.

-I am SOOOO thankful to people who spend their lives making advances in medicine and caring for sick kids. Why in the world someone would choose to be a Pediatric Nephrologist, I don't know, but I am SO GLAD. We have such amazing care and I owe so much to the people that spend their lives learning how to take care of sick people. The whole dialysis thing was pretty incredible. I watched a machine take blood out, filter it and run it back into his body. I watched a machine be a kidney!!! WHHAAAAT????!!! I was asking the Dr. some questions about it. She said the machine only does about 10% of what the body can do. While I'm BEYOND thankful that it does (dialysis saves LIVES every single day), it kinda made me smile too. No matter how smart people are, they can't redesign what THE CREATOR did first. They just can't match it. She also said that they've only been doing dialysis on kids since the 80's. Before that, HUS killed the kids that got it. It shut their kidneys down and there was nothing they could do. Do the math on that....that means I would've very likely died from this very thing if I would've gotten it when I was young. I am SOOO glad someone decided to figure out a way to make a plastic kidney machine! We were VERY pleased with our Drs and nurses. I got a little annoyed in the mornings when at least 8 people came in one after the other to do reports. Its a teaching hospital so you have residents, students, fellows, and attendings that all do rounds. EXHAUSTING! But, like I said, I'm glad they've decided to spend their lives doing something that will help sick ones! It takes on a whole new level of gratitude when that sick one is your baby!! :)

-It really is ridiculous how long this is, so I'll stop, but I can't promise that I won't have more thoughts to share on this subject. Kanyon is feeling good and getting more energy every day. We go back to the Dr. Sept. 8 for a checkup and I'm expecting her to clear him to go to school, etc. She told us it may take a couple of months for his hemoglobin (red blood cells) to get back to normal...so he may be lower on energy. We've laid low these first couple of weeks but will be staring to get back in the swing of things soon. He's pretty weak since he just laid still for 3 weeks, so I can tell that physically, its going to take a while before he's as strong as he was. Walking on his walker is SO MUCH HARDER than it was before. So, we will have some catching up to do. He's still not so sure about being with Quinn 24/7 but I figure we have at least 14 more years for that to work its way out!

Thanks again to our Phillips Phamily Phollowers!!!!!

*this will be posted with no proof reading. its TOO LONG.

The Sick Story in Pictures Part 1

2011-08-22T14:44:00.000-05:00

I was able to post some pictures while we were in the hospital, but I have lots more. So I will do a post or two retelling this whole crazy story. By the way, we are doing great at home adjusting and getting back to our normal life!

Sunday, we spent the day at CDR for middle Sunday but had to leave early because QUINN started running a fever. So we headed home and the boys got good naps. Kanyon and I went to a birthday party Sunday night and he was feeling normal and having a BLAST! That night as we were putting him to bed he had a sort of yucky diaper. He has a pretty complicated "system" as far as that is concerned, but I will choose not to talk about it on the world wide web!! haha!! So Sunday night all the through the night he woke up cramping and having diarrhea. He got VERY LITTLE sleep. Between getting up with him and getting up to give Q his Motrin, I was up most of the night. By the next morning, Quinn's fever was still high and Kanyon was very lethargic and sleepy but his stomach cramps kept him from sleeping. It was very very painful. I called the Dr and was waiting for them to call me back. We weren't really worried because he was drinking a lot so we were hoping it was just a bug. By late morning, the diapers were VERY VERY bad...as in blood. Nothing but blood. Needless to say we headed to the Dr quicker than we expected. Luckily my aunt hadn't gone back to school yet, so she went with me to take them both to the Dr. Not sure what qsp had...just a little virus I guess. They cultured what they could from klp's diaper and started him on antibiotics. They gave me some for q in case he started having the same symptoms. We spent the rest of the day in the chair. All he did was lay in my lap or lay in the chair. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen. Q wasn't really feeling well either so in between changing diapers and clothes, I was holding one of them while the other one slept or just lay there.

This was what he did if I wasn't holding him

Q perked up after about 3 days but klp never did. I just kept waiting to see a sign of him getting better but it just wasn't happening. I talked to the Dr. and they said that the bacteria that the culture showed was Shigella and that it made kids really sick so they weren't surprised he was still feeling so bad. He was still drinking fine, so we felt comfortable with that. Every now and then he would ask to go swing so we would try that. This was usually the most alert he was and it was not very alert.

After about 3 days, the diarrhea slowed down but he still had no energy and felt horrible. At this point he hadn't really eaten all week so we were thinking maybe he was just weak from no food. He tried to eat a couple of times, but threw it up. Then, one morning, maybe wed. or thurs. q woke up dragging. I thought, "OH great. Now he's gonna get this"

This is what the scene was that morning:

NOT TYPICAL QUINN

klp tried to eat some applesause and kept down some but I could still tell he was a SICK BOY

Kory would call or email from work wanting an update.....I sent him this picture as our "morning report"

I tried to perk klp up by getting him to play basketball.....he lay on the floor and fell asleep.

INSERT GOOD NEWS HERE: Quinn never did get it. Not sure why he was dragging so much that morning. Maybe he just thought it was the cool thing to do. Thankfully, he didn't get the yuck.

At this point, maybe Wednesday, he was sleeping longer at night. The first 2-3 nights he was up every 15 min. cramping and crying. Since he started sleeping better at night, I was hoping he was getting better. Then Thursday came. He went from asking for drinks and drinking plenty to refusing to drink ANYTHING. And since the diarrhea let up, we could now tell that his diapers weren't wet at all. By the time KLP got home from work I was really worried. As I've mentioned before, our Pediatrician is the same Dr. that was klp's neonatologist in the hospital. He has literally been our Dr. since DAY 1. He is so kind and generous with his time. He had been checking in on us all week. When I talked to him Thursday, we decided we needed to head to the ER and get fluids. So...my aunt rescued us again. I put qsp to bed (which would end up being the last time I would see him for more than a week!) and she stayed at our house while we took klp to the ER. We were fully expecting to get a bag of fluids and come home. Maybe spend the night if he needed lots of fluid.

Here we are in the ER at probably 1-2 am. klp was a trooper and we weren't really super worried. We were mostly just thankful we live in a place where its that easy to get care for our sick boy. Other than his arms being covered in sticks and pokes, he was ok and gonna get better quick, wet thought.

Finally at about 2 am he crashed. They ended up moving us to a regular room around 3. They said his numbers showed that he was more dehydrated than we thought so he was going to need another round of fluids. I did the math on the amount they were giving him and how long it would take and I remember making the statement..."Well, this is going to turn out to be longer than we thought. We'll be here until at least 4 pm." hahaha little did I know.

The next few hours were really crazy. Numbers stayed really really REALLY OFF, lots of people NOT being able to get his veins to draw blood, lots of laying there by a sick boy, and throw in the high heartrate/ possible seizure spell complete with EEG and EKG, and we had a very busy day. By lunch time Friday we were pretty sure we were headed to Dallas. It was clear that his numbers weren't headed in the right direction and we needed to be somewhere where we could see a kidney specialist. Late that afternoon, our Dr. came back and had a funny look on his face. He said some things had changed. It was then that the culture we had done on Monday had completed and they called him to tell him that it was NOT shigella, it was E Coli! WHAAAAAT??!! It some ways it didn't change anything. Our plan would stay the same, but our Dr. felt like it helped make sense of what was going on. Previously, he couldn't figure out why Shigella was causing his kidney function to slow/stop and why his blood numbers were so off. BUT there is this thing called Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome (HUS). He explained to us how it starts as E Coli, but the toxins work their way into the blood (causing low platelets, which causes the red blood cells to break down) and the kidneys (they quit working and the toxins build up in his body).....google it for more info. SOOOO that explained why all of his numbers looked the way they did. And just so you know, they were bad. His BUN (which is sort of tells you how much toxins are in his body was over 100....its supposed to be in the teens) his creatinin which is another kidney element they look at was as high as 5. its supposed to be .5 His platelet count was extremely low and that causes the cycle of breaking down the red blood cells. So between an incredible amount of toxin build up in his body plus low red blood cells, the poor boy had NO ENERGY. UGHH.

Though our ETD was 7pm, it was midnight before we left Longview. Kory went ahead and drove so he would be there when we got there. Children's sends their own transport team to come pick us up. We had done this dance once before when he was in the NICU here and had to have his heart and shunt surgery there in their NICU. So it was familiar but very different with a big boy. He handled it great and managed to talk a little and enjoy the lights.

We landed in Dallas around 1am the flight was seriously 30 min. (about what it took us to drive from the hospital to the Longview airport ) and then the ambulance took us over to Childrens. I am always impressed with their transport teams and was again this time. Here is klp on getting out of the jet.

We got settled in to his ICU room and Kory and I managed to sleep on the same couch/bed thing for a couple of hours. The IV team gave him his toy truck after he got his IV and he held on to it for days. He didn't have the energy to play with it, but he held on tight to it! The Dr.s started rounding early that morning (like 5am) so we could get him in and ready for the surgery. They flip flopped on the decision to do the catheter in his abdomen and did the one in his neck. I was fine with that since they know what they're doing. After that surgery he was pretty fussy and groggy but they wanted to do the first dialysis treatment ASAP so they got it going very quickly after the surgery.

Here he is (and you can see part of the machine) with is mask on. When they access that catheter, everyone in the room as to wear a mask. They have to use sterile procedures since the thing is a direct line to his blood and heart. Don't really wanna get that thing infected! He was very fussy and uncomfortable from the surgery and required a LOT of entertaining/soothing for the hour and a half treatment. But once it was over, he settled in and did Ok. He was asking to eat and drink, so they did't have to do TPN (IV nourishment). That was Saturday. We spent Saturday night in the ICU again and they moved us to a regular room Sunday morning/afternoon.

We fed him fries until he didn't want any more!

He was on fluid restriction because he still hadn't peed yet (YET) and they were trying to get fluid OFF of him. But he was SO THIRSTY. It was heartbreaking to have to take the straw away from him. He peed 24 hrs. after his first dialysis so each day his fluid restriction was less and less until he could drink as much as he wanted.

He was really sore and didn't even move much, but after a few days we were able to pick him up. He'd been asking to rock for several days, so we were glad when we finally could! Gram came in from Montana on Sunday night or was it Monday???? She spent the days with me at the hospital and was so much help and good company! Below is klp's attempt at a CHEESE smile.

Thursday night klp actually tried to play with a toy for the first time. I had not seen him make an intentional movement with his arms in DAAAAAYS. so we were happy! This was the toy!

more cuddles and songs with Gram

They usually came in our room to do the dialysis and he would just lay in his bed and sleep through the whole thing. But one day they took us to another room to do it. They made him wear this oxygen mask. He didn't need it, but they made him wear it. Not cool. Annoying. So I put it up on his forehead. Muuuch better.

We had so many wonderful visitors and I did not even come close to getting pictures of them all. Cousin Paige got to come hold him for a while. She is such a faithful friend (cousin) to Kanyon and our whole family.

Aunt Freida was so great. She and Uncle Richard were our home base. Susan stayed there (its her sister), they brought us food, visited, and several of their friends that we don't even know sent stuff and came by. They are so great.

Thursday night he wanted to play with another light toy so I let him. I was so happy he had the energy to play even if it was just pushing a button and staring! He didn't want to let it go. He was supposed to be going to bed, but instead our room looked like a disco club with the spinning lights. The light would stop as he would doze off, but then he would wake up and push the button again and the THE DISCO CLUB WAS OPEN!!! haha!! He finally fell asleep for good......His nights were full of people in and out doing stuff and early morning blood draws that really really REALLY made it hard to sleep good.

On Friday, Eric and Jean delivered the signs the high school youth group made us. Eric is the Youth minister and we do a lot with these high schoolers. Those kids are so sweet to Kanyon and Quinn and were so sweet to make these signs for his room. He was the talk of the hospital! They were impressed with the decor!! I took pictures of them...so great!!! some of them were hilarious.

I'll end this part with klp eating a french fry. He seriously ate them at every meal. The food there is good and according to klp, it all goes great with french fries!!

On our way home!

2011-08-12T15:19:00.000-05:00

We are checked out and on the road!

Home Eve

2011-08-11T22:38:00.000-05:00

We are spending our last night in the hospital!! The Dr.s were all ready to let him go home today, but I told them I'd feel better with one more day of checking his blood. His numbers were all GREAT today, so they thought I was crazy! :)

We have spent the day pushing him in his stoller all over the hospital. He does NOT want to stay in the room. But, when we do force him to come back in the room he has a good time with his toys. He's quite wired tonight, giggling and squealing. I just took this picture a few minutes ago of his set up as he colored in his coloring book by the light of his book light....backwards in his bed.

We are both looking forward to being home in our own beds (without someone coming in every hour) with our whole family and thankful beyond words for everyone that has prayed for us and done so much for us. GOD has provided everything that we've needed (physcially, emotionally, spiritually, financially....) to get us through this time. Showing us again his faithfulness.

Next time you hear from me, it will be from HOME!!! YEAH!!!!

Out of surgery

2011-08-10T22:57:00.000-05:00

He is out. I'm in recovery with him until they are ready to take us back to our room. He's pretty fussy but we have been watching Michael Jordan videos on YouTube to help distract him. Thanks MJ.

Not sure what tonight will look like so keep us in your prayers (in your dreams I guess).

Thanks again Phillips Phamily Phollowers!!!

Sent from my iPhone

2011-08-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

FINALLY!!!! They just took klp back. Should be done in 45 min to 1 hr.

Here we are waiting to wheel back.

Pray for it to go as simple as they think it should.