Where we've been... Part 1

July went by way too fast.  Dan left Aug. 2 for a six week rotation in Hawaii.  We dropped him off at the airport, then made it home in time for our 8:30 church. 

Kyson tried to drive home from the airport

The next couple of days were hard, but my sister Wende and 3 of her boys drove out here that Wednesday, so we had something to look forward to.  Thursday we woke up bright and early and drove down to Colorado Springs to visit the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. 

Kylan is on the left, then Maicee, Kyson, Riley, Stetson, and Blakely in the stroller.

Wende's boys are all about rodeos, so I think they had fun.  We grabbed a quick lunch, then headed over to Garden of the Gods.

Once we got home, we all went swimming at our pool.  Friday we woke up, went for a quick hike in the open space right behind our house, then went shopping at the outlets.  We ate lunch at Crave, then we came back and drove around the neighborhood with million dollar houses.  When we got home I finally started packing for our 2 1/2 month road trip.  We left early Saturday morning, had to make a couple of pit stops along the way, and made it to Jackson Hole by 7:30, which was good because Kylan and Riley both rode bulls in the rodeo that started at 8.

At one point, all 3 kids and Riley, who rode with me, all fell asleep

This is Riley on his bull, right before he got hung up and hurt his arm.  Jory is the clown right in front of him.

The bull never got him

And here's Kylan

Me, Wende, Stetson, and my kids left Jackson after the boys rode, and we pulled into my sister Marcie's house around 12:30.  We spent a couple of hours talking and setting up beds, then we crashed.  Sunday morning I woke up and went running.  I was going to go 6.5 miles, but I could breathe so much easier I thought it would be easy to run 8.  By the time I got back to Marcie's I was exhausted and crashed before I could take a shower or feed Blakely.  Then we went to a BBQ with some people from Marcie's ward.

Blakely enjoyed a rice crispy treat

The next morning we all woke up, and Blakely crawled for the first time!  We were all so excited.

Cute baby bum!

And then Preslee accidentally dropped Blakely, and I couldn't get her to stop crying, and she wouldn't move her right leg.  After about 1/2 hour of her crying, I called Wende and asked her if she could come take a look at her.  I woke Jordyn up and asked her to watch the kids in case I needed to take Blakely in to the dr.  Wende finally got there and she got Blakely to calm down enough to fall asleep.  We couldn't see anything wrong with her, but she refused to move her leg and would scream if anyone touched it.  I thought maybe she had dislocated her knee.  She slept for about 1/2 hour, and woke up crying.  I decide to take her in, but I tried to feed her first.  She had a habit of grabbing her toes and pulling her legs up whenever she ate.  She tried to do that, and started screaming really loud.  So I skipped the feeding and we just took her in.  By this point her leg was swollen and starting to bruise.  We took her the ER at Madison Memorial, and they got us in really quick and took her x-rays almost immediately.  The dr. came in pretty quick and told us her femur was fractured almost all the way across, and he called in an orthopedic surgeon because he wasn't sure if Blakely needed to have surgery or not.  Dr. Mills came, he said she didn't need surgery, he put a big splint on her leg, they gave her a shot of hydra codeine, and I was finally able to feed her.

Poor baby

Dr. Mills wanted her to wear the splint for a week, then he would decide if she needed a cast.
That same day, we went to Wende's so the girls could ride horses.  Maicee loved it!

Maicee on Tweek

Kyson riding the fake bull

And Jory riding the fake bull

We just relaxed for the rest of the week, and spent time with family.

Her splint couldn't keep her from making messes

We even went swimming!  Isn't Jordyn gorgeous?  I love her to pieces! 

This girl loves her brother!

Uncle Chris took Maicee fishing and she caught her first fish!  It kind of scared her.  Preslee was a pro, though!
 







This was right before she got her waterproof cast on

First day with the cast!

She even learned how to crawl with it!

We got to visit Baylee's grave for her angel day

Her brother can make her laugh harder than anyone can!

Just going for a ride with Uncle Chris

We had a lot of fun in Idaho, and even got together with some old friends.  We left Tues. the 27th for Vancouver!  Stay tuned...



Perspective

I've been in a serious funk lately.  I haven't been wanting to do anything.  And on top of that, I'm feeling like a huge failure.  Disclaimer:  I'm not telling you this because I want sympathy or words of encouragement, I just want you to know my perspective.  We have been taking Kyson to various appointments to be evaluated, Maicee will soon be evaluated for ADHD, so yes, I'm feeling like a failure as a mother.  I can't seem to stay on top of housework lately, Dan has been cleaning and doing dishes to try to make up for my lack of motivation, which isn't fair for him.  I was completely bummed yesterday for no reason!  We had an awesome morning with Dan's brother Jared and his wife Tracie.  We took our kids to a neat little splash pad and awesome park that is super close to both of us, then we had lunch at Chick-fil-a.  Aunt Tracie was nice enough to give Maicee Colton's kids meal prize, which was a little book titled "My Favorite Things".  After we left them and went home, I realized I would not be taking my kids to see fireworks for the 4th of July (fireworks were cancelled again this year because of fire hazards), there was no parade in the morning, basically I felt like I was letting my kids down because they didn't get the normal 4th of July traditions.  We still had a fun day yesterday, even with my gloomy mood.  Then, this morning, I found Maicee's "My Favorite Things" book, which her friend Rhianna helped her to fill out.  The beginning was filled with things like who her favorite friend is (Rhianna was her answer), what her favorite thing to do is (play with Rhianna), etc.  Then I got to the end of the book, and it asked what her favorite day was.  Her answer was: today, the 4th of July, because we made red, white and blue popsicles, and red, white, and blue drinks.  My sweet little 4 year old doesn't care about big parades or firework shows, she likes doing fun things with her family.  So I need to get my priorities in order and realize the good stuff that I have around me.  I'm so grateful for this sweet little girl and the big impact she has on my life.  I love her so much!
Okay, enough with the sappiness.  A quick update on us.  Dan is busy studying for his Board 2 exams (I think that's what they're called).  He gets a week off after he takes them, and then he's off to Hawaii for 6 weeks.  Me and the kids are planning on spending a couple of weeks in Idaho while he's gone, then we get to wait patiently for him to get back.  He'll be back for a week or two, then he's off to Tacoma for 4 weeks.  If I can handle the drive, I will hopefully spend a couple of weeks in Vancouver with his parents, because Tacoma and Vancouver are only about an hour and a half apart.  Maicee just finished up soccer again, and is still enjoying every minute of gymnastics.  She is excited to start pre-K this fall.  Kyson still isn't talking, we took him in about 2 weeks ago to get his hearing tested, and his results were normal.  We are taking him in on Monday to a speech therapist.  I'm not too worried about him not talking, but there are some behaviors his pediatrician is worried about, but he hasn't told us what.  This boy is constantly on the go.  He loves kicking soccer balls and jumping.  Either on the couch, or on the ground.  At his 2 year appointment, he only gained a couple of ounces since his last visit weighing in at 23 lbs. 14 oz, (3rd %), but jumped to 60% for height at 34 3/4 inches.  Blakely is my little bundle of joy.  She is still sleeping through the night (she started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks but I didn't want to jinx anything by announcing it).  At her 6 month check up she weighed 15 lbs. 7 oz. (48 %) and is 27 1/4 inches tall (95%).  She is always smiling and giggling and she just loves everything about life.  She makes me so happy.  And her siblings just adore her.  Maicee is always wanting to kiss her or hug her, or make her laugh.  Kyson gets upset when she cries and piles her with toys, or minkies, or binkies.  She is almost sitting up, and lifts herself up off the floor on all fours when she is on her belly.  Oh, I ran a half marathon last Saturday.  It was pretty awesome!  A girl in my ward had been trying to talk me into it, and I've been doing long runs with a group of women in my ward who were training for the half.  I jumped in the week they ran 7 miles, and felt pretty good, so I just kept training with them.  About 2 weeks  before the race I realized I was feeling pretty amazing on the runs, so I registered for it and ran the race!  Juliann, the girl who talked me into it, has my running pace, so we would always run together.  Our goal was to finish under 3 hours.  We barely missed our goal and finished in 3 hours, 4 minutes.  But we did it!  I'm feeling pretty amazing since I've been on this gluten free diet.  There are a lot of things I can't eat, but my energy is back!!!  It took about 3 1/2 months of being on the diet to get my energy back.  I wouldn't trade any taste in the world for my energy!
Sorry there are no pictures with this post.  Maicee set a cup of water down on our ottoman, which turned into a puddle of water, right where our nice, expensive camera was sitting.  That was about 2 months ago, and we are still hoping it dries and and starts working again.  I will hopefully be posting soon about Kyson's 2nd birthday. Oooh, I just figured out how to get pictures off my new i-phone, so here ya go!

So pretty!

Dan and I were talking one day, looked over at Blakely and saw this.  I don't know how she managed this.

She was pretty happy though!

One of the many fires that were burning in Colorado.  This one was about 30 miles from us, but there were several mountains and hills, and a highway seperating it from us.

I love these guys!

Maicee finally decided to get her hair cut!  She got 9 inches chopped off!

Her new haircut

I love this guy!

No Excuses...

I'm such a bum!  I wish I had an incredible excuse for not blogging.  Maybe I've been super busy de-cluttering and cleaning my house.  Maybe I've been working out so much I don't have much time for my computer.  Maybe I've been super mom and playing with my kids so much I just haven't even though about it.  Sadly, none of these excuses apply to me (I did start de-cluttering, but that only lasted about 2 days.  I do try to work out, but only get to it 2-3 times a week.  And every time I spend the day focused on my kids, I realize it's impossible to do it full-time).  So yes, I am a slacker.  But I'm doing it now, doesn't that count for something?  So what has happened since I blogged last?  Blakely got her ears pierced, she turned 3 months old (and is about to turn 4 months old), she has started laughing and is growing like a pesky weed!  Kyson just gets cuter every day.  He still refuses to talk, but learns new dancing skills everyday.  He loves playing with cars and any type of sport ball.  Maicee has started (and loves) gymnastics, will start soccer this week (again, but her friend Ava is on her team and I'm hoping this motivates her to do better), and suffered her first heart-ache when her close friend Serenity moved away.  Dan is done with his internal-medicine rotation- Hallelujah!  He did a month with his favorite family medicine doctor, again, and just today started his month long OB-GYN rotation.  After this rotation, his life and schedule will calm down, and he may get to move back home again!  We were super spoiled over spring break because he had almost 2 weeks off with us!  We haven't spent that much time with him since this whole process started almost 3 years ago!  And me, well, I'm as boring as ever.  I try to do new things, but just don't have the energy or motivation to stick with anything.  I have been on a gluten-free diet since the beginning of February, and it slowly seems to be making a difference.  This means I no longer get to eat bread, pasta, or most sweets.  Some days this makes for a really grumpy mom.  But the kids seem to be dealing with it well.
Our spring break didn't start out too well. Dan, Kyson, Blakely and I all had a really bad cold, and Maicee was throwing up and sleeping the whole day away for 4 days.  It took her 2 full days to recover after that.  We did go to an Easter egg hunt here it town.  A helicopter even dropped eggs out of it for the kids to go hunt.  Maicee liked the helicopter, Kyson didn't.  And we had a good Easter.  Oh, and my sister Wende came to visit for a couple of days a few weeks ago.  The kids loved having her here, and it was super nice for me to have another adult to talk to.
Enough with the boring chit chat, here are pictures that are pretty self explanatory.  Enjoy!

Blakely's pierced ears

Oh, I made matching tutu's for the girl's, and Dan thought it would be funny to put Maicee's on Kyson

Blakely really does love her sister!  This is the day she turned 3 months.

Maicee, Aunt Wende, and Kyson

Isn't he so handsome?!

This is one of Kyson's new dance moves- he lifts his legs up really high, and does it really fast.  So fast, sometimes he falls flat on his bum!

Kyson loves his Aunt Wende

Maicee and Serenity

Luke and Kaila "Tebowing"

That's not very lady-like Blakely!

She is so stinkin' cute!

Maicee and Kyson were snuggled up together, but when Dan grabbed the camera Kyson bolted!

Dan thought it was cute Blakely was asleep with her thumb in her mouth

At the Easter egg hunt

Kys kept trying to run away

Yeah, the kids had to climb over a huge pile of snow, but at least it was warm!

Maicee dying eggs, me texting

Deep in thought

And one of the only pictures I took on Easter, I'm so lame!  Next time they wear their Easter outfits, I will take a picture.

Ahh, this is the good life!