Yes, REAL horses!

I mentioned Kanyon getting to start his therapeutic riding/hippo therapy in a previous post and had several people comment/ask/email about if I meant actual horses. Yes! How cool is that? I didn't know much about his stuff before our PT started telling us about it, so it was kinda hard for me to believe too. Friday he had his first ride. He did so good! He got on and within the first minutes, he was leaning forward patting the horse's neck! He was a little dazed and kinda taking in the surroundings, but he was calm and enjoyed it. As far as "what do they do?" I don't really know. I'm not in the arena, I'm sitting on a bench watching so I can't always see up close. Basically the riding strengthens his core/trunk helps him shift weight, bear weight, and balance. It just uses muscles and stuff that he otherwise wouldn't use. They position him differently throughout the ride and they obviously have a reason for it....probably to make him bear weight and use the exact muscles they want him to. They're smart, I'm not. I just watch! I am just so glad there are things like this. I know he doesn't totally appreciate the whole "I'm riding a horse!" thing, but it is a change of scenery and kind of a distraction from the fact that he's working. Whereas during regular therapy, he's VERY aware of the fact that he's working and he shows his dislike! I think especially for older kids, they're just so excited to be on a horse that they don't even know it it helping them! It is an incredible facility and it just opens my eyes to how aware other people are of how they can use things/hobbies they have to help other people.

Here are the pics of the little rider. Notice the riding helmets are a little better than the pokemon lookin' helmet we "practiced" with.


His horse's name was Hope, this was the very first steps of the ride.

I know this is little, but look close and you'll see he's sideways. He was so good that they let him trick ride!

Then he took it to the next level of trick riding and turned backwards. He laughed when the horse started walking and he was backwards!

Then he just laid down! Who knows why, I guess he just felt really close to Ms. Hope and decided to give her a hug. Or maybe he was tired.

After like 30-40 min. he got off and got to pet her. Of course he had to use his left hand. Therapy never ends!

Here are a few videos. This first one is just him on the first lap around the arena. I love it because towards the end another little girl goes cruising in front of him and she's backwards, it just made me laugh. One second I thought he looked tiny up on the big horse then the next I thought he looked like such a big boy sitting up there. It was about the cutest thing in the world. I couldn't stop smiling!



Here he is sideways.


And backwards!

Watch out PRCA!!!! Hand this boy a rope and he may be in the NFR 2030!

The Other Side of Kanyon

There is a side of the Grand Kanyon that I have failed to fully expose, so maybe these videos will help.

On this first one, I did the unthinkable.....I told him "no". AND it was bedtime. Bad combo. At the end, I ask him to sign his newest word "dog". We've been practicing for a long time, but this was the first time he's ever done it when I ask him on the spot. He usually pats more than just once, but that's after practice, so I was happy that he did this well out of the blue.




This one is pitiful then turns gross/hilarious. He was ready to get out of his standing frame and he wanted to whine a little as if to beg us to let him out. Then he discovered something very interesting.




I can't include my crying baby without this video. All of our NICU nurses that still read will appreciate this. This was the first time he ever gave us a real cry. It was Father's Day of '07. It was oh so wimpy. But we were kinda happy, ya know. The whole time he was on the ventilator, he couldn't make a sound, then after that he would sometimes make a noise that sounded like a squeak. Then he graduated to this and I can't say that we heard it all that much. He's never been one to cry that much. I remember the nurses teasing us the day we took this video saying when their NICU babies start to cry that means its time to GO HOME!! We weren't far away. The funny thing is that this looks like him, ya know. Its the same bottom lip and the little sound is still little. Maybe it was the preemie lungs, but he never has cried very loud.



So there you have our little crybaby! :)

**Disclaimers**
It was dark in the first 2 and I'm sorry. I just did this with my little camera, so they are dark.

In the 2nd video you hear the ranting of a wife on wife swap. I hate it /can't stop watching that show if I ever see it on. I wish it wasn't blaring in the background while Kanyon picked his nose. I wish I would've never seen the first 5 min. so then I had to watch the whole show.

I can't figure out how to get the related videos to stop popping up after the videos. Sydni...I obviously can't do it right??? what is my problem?!!!

New Gear

Kanyon has gotten some new gear in the last week or 2, so here it is.

He got a gait trainer to help him start to learn to stand up and take steps. He is a long ways from doing it, but we're letting him just explore it.

As far as he's concerned he got a new chair with some awesome velcro to chew. He pretty much just sits on the seat, he's not ready to stand up on his own and take steps.

Check out these babies!!! He had outgrown is other AFO's. These are actually less bulky than the others, not to mention the toughness of the flames. Next comes a leather jacket.

He got a new brace for his hand. This one keeps his thumb and pointer finger out and ideally, his hand open. We may also start attaching the strap that wraps up his arm to keep his arm supinated because I think it really helped. We'll see. They also made him one to sleep in at night to keep his hand open, but his hands are open at night already, so I don't know. We'll see.

Ok, here's the story on these pics. On Friday, Kanyon will start hippotherapy (Therapy on horses). He has to wear a helmet and he's never really worn stuff like that before. So, Celia brought out a helmet (not exactly the ones he'll be wearing) to practice wearing it so that he won't freak out his first time he has to wear one. This helmet was clearly too big, and he ended up not even really freaking out, but I was laughing so hard I was crying. Oh man he looked so funny. So, go ahead and look at these pictures and try not to smile!!!

I think is feelings were hurt that I was laughing so hard at him.

Just found this picture. It would've been better for my last blog. He just loves to do this.

Here he is under the table in our living room. He just sits there.

That's all for now!

Total Randomness

I have lots of catching up to do and lots of things I want to post. There will be more soon. Don't know if I should say "I'm Sorry" or "Your Welcome!" Probably "sorry" unless you're a grandma.

This is Emily, Kanyon's Speech Therapist (feeding). We are SOOOO sad that she is gone now, but we're happy she's getting married!! We seem to make major life changes happen. We lost our awesome OT Angela when she had a sweet little baby and now we've lost Emily to marriage! Now our Nutritionist is pregnant, so we'll see if she stays. Emily has been so very patient with Kanyon (and his mother) and we are so thankful for all of her hard work with Kanyon.

Here is Kanyon and his buddy Christian chillin with the youth group a few Wed. nights ago. David and Kory aren't in the youth group....

This is a tribute to our most faithful friend. I could write a letter to this thing, but I'll spare us all. I did have to put Kanyon in the bouncy seat one more time before we put it in the attic. It was time.

He still LOVED bouncing in it. You can see on his face how hard he's bouncing!

This little boy has actually been taking more bites lately. They're tiny, but at least he's taking them. Not enough to amount to anything meal/calorie wise, but at least he's taking them!!! He was having a little chocolate pudding the other day...

He makes this face when the food get in his mouth. I think he's trying to figure out the taste and whether or not he wants to swallow. I think it looks funny.

All of my Hemphill cousins were in town for Easter so we went over there to play Wii Mario Kart and chill by the fire.

I love this little series:

klp things KLP is SOOOOOOOO funny!

"What did you say, mom? Give him a kiss?"

sweet boy.

The next few pics are of Kanyon's favorite toys lately.

My clothes drying rack. I would drag this all over and flip it and turn it and have a big time with it. I think it only pinched him once and not that bad. I finally got tired of stepping over it so I put it back up.

This goes on the bottom part of the fridge. If he gets near the fridge, goes straight for it, pulls it off and then plays with it. I refuse to put it back on again. I couldn't get a picture of him playing. He kept stopping and looking up when he heard the camera or saw the red light.

I have a better picture of this, but I can't find it. klp loves to play by the back door window. Especially when Ollie is out there. Ollie was outside looking at him in this pic, I just didn't get it. Bad angle.

Under the table. He also likes to get under the little sofa/buffet table in our living room. He goes to the same corner of the kitchen table and just sits under there. And licks the chair legs. And licks the floor. yucky.

These 2 are almost too much.

There you have it. I have a few more pics so maybe I'll do another post to come up tomorrow. We're headed to Dallas.

Kanyon's First Run-In With The Law

Friday night we had to call the police on Kanyon. Yes, he's already out of control. Here's the story. The plan was to run to the mall real quick so I could return something. Kory took Kanyon to load him in the car. The next thing I hear is a little *beep* and then a chuckle from KLP. I look out the back door and Kory says, "Hand me my spare set of keys, Kanyon just locked himself in the car." KLP had let klp have the keys while he was buckling him in and when he got him in, KLP was going to walk around and get in the car when klp's little ever curious mouth takes hold of the keyless entry thing and the next thing we hear is the *beep*. We laughed and then I reached up to the key hook thing to grab the spare set of keys. Gone. Hmmmm...so we start the search. Meanwhile, klp is chillin' in his carseat chewing on the keys. We heard several *beeps* but never the *beep beep* of the UNLOCK. We turned our house upside down and never did find the spare set of keys. We called the non emergency police line to see if they could send someone out. They said they would....send a FIRE TRUCK!!! UGGHH!!! We keep looking for the keys and klp keeps chillin' in the car. After a few minutes, the fire truck got there (no lights and siren, thank goodness) and then said they would have to call the Locksmith because they couldn't get into our kind of car. Oh boy. So the Locksmith gets there and he was so nice. He pulled in the driveway and barrelled out of his truck and ran up the driveway. I'm sure he thought the kid was in distress or in danger. He was neither. Maybe confused as to why I kept shining the flashlight in there to check on him. He had long since moved from the keys to the velcro on his boots as he waited patiently for some company in the car. It took the locksmith like 5 seconds to get it open and it was a free service. Though we did give him a tip. Next time (if there is one which we hope there is not) we will just go straight to the Locksmith. We were glad that it stayed funny and that Kanyon never started flipping out or anything and VERY glad it wasn't HOT. A time we are SERIOUSLY thankful for our laid back little boy.


This was after at least 30 min. He was a little thrown off by the flashlight shining in on him.

Here he is right after it happened chewing on the keys.....unfortunately, never the unlock button.

I didn't want to take a picture of the fire truck because I didn't want them to think we thought this was a total joke and then we'd have CPS at the house too, but I did snap this one of the Locksmith working and the Firemen looking on.

There you have it. Not bad for a wild and crazy Friday night! Who says life stops after you have kids??!!

Easter Sunday

Sunday was a big day for Mr. Kanyon! He got to go to the nursery at church!! Our preemie Dr. in Dallas had suggested us keeping him out of childcare for his first 2 years (and winters...which happens to all end at the same time for us). So he made his Alpine Nursery debut Sunday. The ladies were so sweet. They were ready for him with his name on his cubby and everything. I am so very thankful for the set up at our church. It is BRAND NEW and everything is so clean. They work really hard to keep it clean and healthy for all of the little ones. No shoes and they clorox tables and toys every time after the kids leave. There are 2 sides (baby baby/non walkers) and bigger babies. We'll keep klp on the little side for a while so as not to get plowed by the big kids even though he's twice the age of some of his nursery pals! When I dropped him off I sat him in his chair and he was just kinda taking it all in next to his friend Elizabeth. He did great! They said he cried once when someone took his car away, but ya know, all of this "being around other kids" thing is new so he'll just have to get over that! :) He went again on Wed. and they combine the kids so he was in there with a bigger group. He cried a little at first and when I looked through the window (double sided so they can't see you....see...told you it was a good set up) he was sitting up at the table playing with his car just like the rest of the gang. I just feel like this was such a huge deal! He did great and I'm so glad he's going to get to play with his friends more now!! I'm trying to ignore when they kids "share" slobbery toys. This is all new to me too! It will be fine, I just have to wean myself off of my house arrest mindset I've had for 2 years.

Here he is ignoring the teacher trying to sing to him.....he was slightly overwhelmed.


Chillin' with Lizzie while the teacher sings to the other side of the table.

We went from church to what has become a little Phillips Pham tradition. 3 Easters ago (wow) was our first time to go to church after the babies were born. Kory's mom was with us and we went to worship and needed to eat something fast because we had a little one pounder waiting on us at the hospital. So, we went to the Taco Bueno right by the hospital. We kinda laughed at how not fancy that was for a little holiday dinner. Then last year it only felt right to eat it again. So this year there was no question! The Briscoes joined us this year and we were so happy! This was little Addison's (a fellow x-one pounder) first time to go to church so it was a big day all around. Here they are enjoying lunch!

Thank you to Auntie Nancye and Cousin Morgan for providing the Easter shirt this year. It has some super cute shorts to go with it, but it was a little too chilly for them. I didn't go all out and I'm seeing all the pics of the little boys in their smocked rompers or suit and ties and I'm feeling a little sad. But not too sad because look how cute he is!!!

The Easter bunny brought a tiny little bubble set like the ones they have at the clinic. The Easter bunny was pretty lame because he couldn't even find a basket or eggs that he could have sworn he knew where they were. Good thing klp has no clue.

This is his Nanny Betty Easter Bunny. This was my grandmas and she always had it out at Easter. It has one of her ceramic eggs inside that she painted. This stays in klp's room all the time, but I wanted to take his pic with it on Easter. He just wanted to eat the ears.

The Pruitt's came in for a visit and boy were we glad to see them! Sheeeeesh!! We went to eat with the whole Pruitt crew Sunday night and had lots of fun. Coop and Kanyon are still best friends. Here are the girls.

And the boys

Well, that sums up our Easter. It was a fun weekend as long as I don't bring up the fact that I had to miss my little niece Landry's birthday party. Just don't bring it up.

While we were out....

Before I get to the pictures Mom and Dad took while we were on vacation, I wanted to share these that Rachel sent me from the weekend of the birthday party.

If you know our family, you know we're never in a hurry to leave church...we usually shut the place down. Well, while we waited on whoever was still talking, Clint started playing with Kanyon....

then rosie and avery joined the fun.....

its all fun and games til somebody gets hurt! (take a close look at klp....he wasn't hurt, just a little overwhelmed by Rosies JUMP on his Uncle Clint.)

Rach took these at the party...Roselyn went to see Kanyon and when they stared at each other.....

He reached out and hugged her all on his own!!! He was so happy to see his cousin!

More fun times on the Po-Knee...Avery was having fun, she just wasn't quite ready to let everyone know. She tried to pout for a second, but you can only pout so long when you're riding a Po-Knee!!!

After the party, we all went to Jucy's for a good burger. We sat boys and girls and I LOVE this picture...Kanyon was feeling his new 2...he looks so big!

My Montana boys

THESE ARE PICS TAKEN BY MY PARENTS WHILE THEY WERE KEEPING KANYON

I'm narrating based on my mom's tellings of the weekend events. Kanyon and Mr. Bird bonded.

Great Auntie Nancye came to town for some fun!

I think Paw Paw and Kanyon did lots of this! klp had a couple of nights of bad sleep and my dear ol' dad took very good care of him (so did my mom, but she had the camera!)

He learned to feed the fish

He likes the fish food....dad said he kept trying to put it in his mouth.....hmmm..wonder how many calories fish food has??? Maybe I could try fish food?????

Mr. Bird pecked klp one day and it hurt his feelings, so he was a little shy. Mom had to get him warmed back up to his feathered friend.

UGHH!! Annoying blogger out of order picture feeding the fish.

This is Buddy, my parents' (or as my dad says, my MOM'S) nappy dog. He is a stray mutt we've had for years. While he's not too easy on the eyes, the kids LOVE him! He is so sweet and rolls over any time you get near him. So he's fun for them to pet.

Mom says this was a favorite spot in her kitchen.

Clint and Rachel had sick kids while Kanyon was there, so they weren't around much. But Clay and his crew came over one day. By the look on my dad's face, Avery is VERY scary.

Sometimes the cousins just have to chat with each other.

Aunt Mo tickling Kanyon....I can just hear his laugh in this picture!

I love this picture. For so long we had to keep Kanyon away from his cousins and now he can play with them! YEAH!! Thanks to his lightning fast booty scoot, he keeps up pretty good.

Isn't Mo so pretty in this picture?? I hate her. haha

My mom had a couple of little appointments that she couldn't reschedule, so Kanyon got to spend a little time with Carolyn. She has worked for my dad forever and is seriously one of the most kind, giving, and sweetest people we know. Kanyon LOVED playing with her and wanted to thank Hooper for sharing his Nana with him!! Thank you so much Carolyn!!!

According to mom, klp decided he no longer wants to sit in your lap while on the swing, he needs his own seat THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

BLOGGER IS MY ENEMY!!! Another sweet pic with Carolyn.

So, there you have it.......it looks like fun was had by all!!! More posts coming soon..I have lots of catching up to do.