Awesome Dad

Ashley had her orchestra concert last Thursday at USU Kent Concert Hall.  She did a great job and has really enjoyed playing the viloin.  Her sweet father gave her flowers following the concert and she beamed from ear to ear.

Alyssa's Surgery

Wednesday, May 9, 2012, Alyssa had her tonsils and adenoids removed by Dr. Wood at the Cache Valley Hospital.  I knew her adenoids were large, but was not planning on having her tonsils removed.  When Dr. Wood examined her throat, he said they were huge, touching each other in the back of her throat.  He didn't think her speech would improve much unless he removed them also.  I trusted him, and concented to have them out.  Alyssa also had a hemangioma on her posterior head that would be removed while she was asleep.  Wednesday morning we had to be at the hospital at 8:15.  Allen took the other girls to school and stayed home with Joslynn.  Alyssa was a little nervous, but was given a blessing the night before, which calmed her fears and mine.  Dr. Wood films his surgeries and allows the parents to watch as he performs the surgery.  The hospital has a room with closed circuit TV to view the surgery.  I wanted to be in the operating room, but that is not allowed at the hospital.  I watched the surgery and Dr. Wood talked through it and explained what he was doing.  Alyssa's tonsils were huge and one of them was infected.  When grabbed with the instruments, pus came oozing out.  She had large blood vessels to both tonsils and Dr. Wood explained that her body was compensating with extra blood supply to the tonsils to keep them alive.  (She does not have a history of tonsilitis)  When he pulled the uvula back to see the adenoids, he was blown away.  They were "HUGE"!  They had started to grow into her nasal passageway and were occluding her nose.  I am really glad we had the surgery done and she is recovering well.  She has enjoyed her creamies, popsicles, ice cream and yogurt.  Yesterday was her check-up and everything looked good.  Dr. Wood suctioned off some of the scabs because they were thick, which could lead to another infection.  The growth on her head was sent to pathology and was a hemangioma, so no concerns.  She will have her stitches out next week.

Waiting for surgery

Alyssa did alot of this for a couple of days.  Following surgery she was really upset to her stomach.  We couldn't keep anything in her.  She would eat a popsicle and 5 minutes later it would be coming up.  I finally called Dr. Wood's nurse to see if I could get some Zofran for her.  She thought it was just related to the anesethsia and wanted to wait.  By 5 pm Alyssa was still nauseated with emesis so the nurse called in a prescription.  By 9 pm she finally was keeping liquids down.  It was a rough first day.  Alyssa's favorite color is pink, so she chose pink coban to wrap her hand when the IV was removed.  I talked with the nurse that took care of her in recovery.  The anesthesiologist brought her in and said she fell asleep fast and was very cooperative, held her mask on herself.  When Alyssa woke up she was MAD.  She was yelling "I want my mom" and keeping her feet and thrashing her arms.  I could hear her yelling and knew the minute she woke up.  Once they brought her to me she calmed down and was even better after she received some pain meds.  The nurse said she was a fiesty one!

Little Miss Joslynn

I have decided to take pictures of Joslynn's anticks, so that I can go back and laugh and find humor some day.  I need to learn patience and some days love, for this little bundle of energy and spunk.  I do love her, but she is by far the most challenging child at her age. 

tortilla chips all over the floor

Breakfast sitting on the table, she looks so comfy!

As you can tell, she is not very happy I made her clean up the mess.  I put myself in timeout!

the unhappy face before the attack

I thought I better include a happy Joslynn to show her good side.  I do love her.  Some days are more challenging than others.  That is the same with all the kids though.

Ashley's Happenings

Ashley has been involved with a lot of school activites.  She is involved with orchestra, playing the violin, and jumprope club.  Both of the activites meet before school and she loves both of them.  She has her final orchestra concert this week.  Last Thursday her jumprope club performed for the school.  It was fun to watch and we are very proud of her accomplishments.

Becky Krusi and Ashley before school concert.

Ashley is becoming quite the cook - the cookies are YUMMY!

Misc Happenings

For Christmas the children recieved a trampoline.  They have waited all winter to get it out and Allen put it together a couple weeks ago.  All the kids have LOVED it and it is fun to hear the laughter when they are bouncing.  I wasn't going to have the net placed on, but was persuaded to and am VERY glad that we did.  We would have lost some children over the side had it not been there.  I must admit that I have enjoyed getting on also.  My legs sure get tired though and I can tell that I have had a few children!  (My bladder is not quite the same).  Alyssa gets frustrated when I tell her I have to use the restroom - she replies with "again"!   

Allen, Ashley, Kaylynn and my brother, Dennis are on a fast roadtrip this week-end to North Dakota.  Allen's brother, Doug, moved there in January with his family.  A long story made short - Doug's suburban that was towing his loaded enclosed trailer died near DuBois, ID.  A college friend of mine lives close to wear they broke down and was nice to come and get the trailer and suburban and store it for a couple of months.  Allen went to get his Dad, who was driving it, and brought him back home.  There was nothing in the trailer that Doug's family needed immediately, so plans were made to bring it to him when weather was nice.  We have really been dreading the loooong trip, but knew Doug really wanted his stuff, so they left this week-end.  Allen has never pulled anything before, so my brother was extremely nice and offered to do it.  They left friday at 5:30 and planned to get to Billings, Montana and spend the night.  When they arrived in the middle of the night in Billings, there were no hotel rooms available. (a rodea was in town).  So - on they trudged!!  They drove all night and arrived this afternoon, tired and wanting sleep.  Ashley and Kaylynn were excited to have extra time with there cousins and they slept well in the truck, so they didn't mind going all night.  They plan on leaving early tomorrow morning for the trek back.  Dennis is very excited to not have the trailer attached and is planning on passing people, instead of the one being passed.  Pulling the trailor averaged 7 miles a gallon!

It is very quiet and peaceful in the house right now.  I figured with the extra time I would catch up on the blog.  The younger girls are asleep and Tyler is at a friends house watching the Jazz game.