Summer Fun!

We have been having as much summer fun as you can possible squeeze into three weeks. The medium boys went back to school this week.

      We were able to go to Seven Peaks for the Horsley Orthodontist summer party. Luke was the winner of the grand prize! We were all so excited for him!

   

I had to have my Mom and Sister come help me do something with all the apricots that I had, so we made apricot jam. It turned out so yummy!

     The first thing Miles said when he got home from Scout Camp was "Did you make any fruit leathers with the apricots?" A family that Mark Home teaches happens to make fruit leathers with their apricots. They offered to share their apricots and teach us how to make fruit leathers.

   Cole is now 5 months old. He is doing very well. He acts like a 3 month old, which is to be expected. He is hitting all the milestones for a 3 month old so we are very excited about that. We went in at his two week post MRI and everything was looking good to the Dr. We will be going to the Spina Bifida Clinic this Friday. So I will update about it on Friday evening. 

We were able to go to my Mom's cabin over the 24th. The kids had a blast! We were able to see wild life up close.

We had a great time at Lagoon. Cole was such a good baby.

Gabe was so excited to take Cole on his first ever train ride. He held him the whole ride. Can't wait for Cole to get a little bigger. I know he is going to love trying to keep up with his big brother Gabe.

We were finally able to get family pictures done. 

The boys enjoyed the guns and I don't think Tay minded the money!

Catch Up!

 The last week and half have been busy. Mark and I were able to go on a trip down to St. George for our Anniversary that was in April. We weren't sure if we going to be able to go but with Cole's MRI looking good we were able to. We had a great time celebrating our marriage.Thanks to everyone that watched our little people so we could have a little alone time.

The day before we went to St. George we took the kids to my Mom's swimming pool. Everyone had a great time. Thanks Mom!

The big brothers got their football equipment this weekend. All of them were very excited. 

This week has been pretty busy. We had Boy Scout Camp (Miles and Mark), Cub Scout Camp (Luke and Drew) and Summer Dance Camp (Tay).

We had therapy this week. Our therapist said Cole was doing well and gave us some rolling over exercise to do.

Yesterday we were able to go to my friend Annice Osmond's house, to pick some apricots.  The kids had a blast! Plus they have chickens. What a fun morning.  Big thanks to the Osmond family for sharing!

Attie Update

  Many people have asked me  how my friend Heidi is doing. With all the craziness I haven't had a chance to update on her. But with the great news that Heidi shared with me yesterday I wanted to share it with you. They had clinic yesterday. Attie turned up the charm and showed off for the doctors. She was cooing and smiling more than she every has before. All the doctors were so impressed. She got a good report on her head. Although her right ventricle is slightly larger than 5 weeks ago, they are not too worried and will be watching it. Plus her head is beautiful shaped and shows no outward signs of having Hydrocephalus.  She did get a cast put on this last week to help with her tight tendon, she is tolerating is very well. She is doing amazing! Heidi and I have talked about how we feel the Lord has truly blessing our little ones.

Cole's Blessing Day

    Although this week as been busy and stressful, we were able to have one of the most precious experiences. Mark was able to bless Cole this last Sunday. Mark did a wonderful job at preparing himself. The blessing that was giving was beautiful. We are so grateful to all those that were able to come and share this special day with us.

Cole's MRI

  We are so excited about our hospital visit yesterday. It's never a bad visit when the Dr. comes in to talk to you and says " Do you want the good news or the good news." He told us that Cole did not need a shunt right away. (like today) But he did feel like we need to watch him closely. He said that he scheduled the surgery for today because he thought for sure he would need it. But after looking and measuring everything looks stable and we will just watch for symptoms. The other good news is that if he were to have to have surgery his head is a good candidate for doing a EVT. Which is a one time surgery unlike a shunt that has to be watched and repaired the rest of their lives. Another thing that he told us, that is such a blessing, is that the Chiari has improved. Which is one of the things that can happen because of having fetal surgery. :-) We feel truly blessed with all the information that we have learned.

    Here is a picture of Chiari so you can have a visual of what it is. It's were the cerebellum is pulled down into the spinal column, because of the spinal cord being pulled through the hole of the back.

MRI Update

Cole did good for the MRI. We just met with the doctor. His head is stable for now. So no action needed for now, they will just continue to watch him and have another check up in a month. Thank you for your prayers.

Happy 4th of July!

   July is always an exciting time of the year for our family because we get to celebrate on of our favorite brothers, Miles! This year is a big one. He is now a teenager! We are so blessed to have him in our family!

Tay was at EFY having so much fun. The rest of the family had a fun time celebrating the holiday.

                      We went to the parade.

                         Played water games.

                 And did fireworks!

Bigger Update

     My Pediatrician was very concerned so he made sure that last Friday that one of the Neurosurgeon looked at Cole's ultrasound. He was concern and wants us to get a MRI next Monday and then meet with him afterward. I thought that would be a great idea. Even if nothing is wrong it would be nice to have a record of what his head looks like, to compare with in the future.  I did get a little overwhelmed as I was making the appointment with the appointment lady. I was asking if we could met with the same Neurosurgeon as we have in the past. She said " Sorry I don't know if you can. I was just handed a piece of paper that said to schedule a MRI on Monday and surgery on Tuesday." We haven't even see the Dr. yet and he is planning surgery. He didn't even compare our old ultrasound to the newest one. With Cole having no symptoms at all, minus his head growth. I think we are moving a little fast! So after many phone calls. I clamed down and decided that we would meet with him, but we would get a second opinion if we didn't agree with him. And would watch Cole closely and take him in if he had any symptoms of throwing up or very sleepy/ hard to wake up.

                                                    Cole's ventricles


    Life goes on...

Luke and Drew had their baseball games. Luke's team didn't move on in the tournament, but he had a great game himself.

Drew's team moved on and won. It was very exciting, because Drew stole home base to win the game.

Aunt Shanna's Easter hat came in the mail! We love it. Thank you Shanna!

Taylor is at EFY this week and is LOVING it!

Track Meet!