Emily's 4th Birthday

Monday the 6th was Emily's 4th birthday. We weren't able to go anywhere, but we did get a cake and open presents at home. The cake was... an adventure. Mike had bought a tube of frosting to write on Hyrum's cake, but we didn't have a writing tip to put on it, so we never used it. Thinking that I had learned from his mistake, I found a section of writing tubes in the cake decorating section. No tips needed! What I didn't notice was that the set of tubes I picked up were for tinting batter and frosting, not for writing. Really, it's not my fault! I blame the stocker who grouped it in with the other icing tubes and the package designer who decided to put writing tips on the tubes. Anyhow, the box I picked had orange and green which, according to the box, should have matched the cake I picked out. I used the orange tube and tried to write Emily's name. The gel came out uneven, goopy, and red. Mike tried to fix it by tracing over the lettering with the green tube. It came out uneven, goopy, and black.

And it used to be such a cute cake too! Rats.

Since the writing was just concentrated food coloring in gel form, it dyed our mouths green.

Hyrum picked out several toys to give Emily, and finally settled on a stuffed Hello Kitty wearing a black cat costume. Emily thought it was a bat. Mike and I gave her a new pair of mittens and a Strawberry Shortcake play set. She got a Strawberry Shortcake doll last Easter, and it had a cardboard cutout of her pink polka dot cat as a decoration in the box. Emily loved it so much that she kept it and played with it, but she often said she wanted a real cat figurine. Mike and I found a sale on a cute set which included the cat. She was very excited about it.

Because of my mom's knee surgery, Emily got birthday presents from her grandma the same day that Hyrum got his. She got two pairs of "sparkly" pants and a very cute tambourine. She's very proud of her tambourine playing skills, telling everyone that she knows how to hold and play it. She calls it, "my instrument," and even pointed out another tambourine player in the symphony. She's constantly trying to get Hyrum to play a concert with her on the new recorder he got from my mom.

Here's Emily's birthday video. Credit goes to my mom for recommending that I use this song. Sadly, because of the song, youtube is posting ads on my video. Just click the x to close the ad so you can read the subtitles.

The day after Emily's birthday, Mike took her to the hospital for an imaging appointment. She has been getting frequent bladder infections for a few years, the most recent one lasting about a month and a half despite trying 3 different types of antibiotics.

Before the doctor came in to discuss the results of the imaging with us, Emily told the nurse that she needed to talk to the doctor about her hiccups. Both the nurse and doctor were great, and played along.

Nurse: "When do you usually get hiccups?"

Emily: "Every time I go to daycare."

Nurse: "Ok, I'll make sure to tell the doctor when he comes in."

Nurse: very seriously to the doctor "Emily is concerned about the hiccups she gets whenever she goes to daycare."

Emily: "Yes, and Cruz teases me because of my hiccups. Cruz is my boy at daycare."

Doctor: "Boys like to tease you at daycare?"

Emily: "Yes, they're very noisy."

Doctor: "Boys are bad news. Don't you agree, Dad?"

Mike: "Yes. Boys are very bad!"

Doctor: "You stay away from those boys and tell them to be quiet, and your hiccups will go away."

The x-rays showed a level 4 (highest level) reflux from the bladder up to the kidneys. Normally, it's a one way path from the kidneys to the bladder, but on her, the fluids were not only leaking back up from the bladder, but completely filling the left kidney. As her doctor put it, "a bladder infection is not the end of the world, but a kidney infection is." He asked us to schedule an appointment with the urologist ASAP to discuss surgery. He said that there might be an option for a new injection which has had some success in other patients. We're meeting with the urological surgeon on Wednesday to get his opinion. In the mean time, she's on suppressive antibiotics to keep her from getting a kidney infection. I don't like the idea of my little girl in surgery, but I hate how she's so sick all the time, and surgery is certainly better than kidney failure.

Thursday, we met with Hyrum's teachers about updating his IEP. We've been frustrated with the lack of communication from his school. They didn't even have a parent/teacher conference at the end of the trimester! They finally got around to getting him in the appropriate classes when his IEP expired and he was up for reevaluation. After lots of testing and paperwork, they arrived at the same diagnosis as the psychologist -- PDD-NOS. They told us that he is a bit of a dilemma for them because he is miles ahead of his class academically. They said that he is ridiculously smart and talented. No matter how often his teachers tell me that, I still love to hear it! The problem is, he no longer qualifies for an IEP based on developmental delay or academic difficulties, but he really does still need special help. Luckily, they were able to qualify him based on a lack of problem solving language skills and social behavior. Basically what that means is that he is unable to communicate his frustration and work out problems when things don't go his way, and he cries a lot in class. They decided to continue giving him speech therapy and add behavioral counseling with social skills groups. A lot of my doubts and fears about the attention he's been getting in school were alleviated in our meeting, but I still wish his teachers communicated with us better.

That's all the news from Pocatello for now. I'm planning to put up a video of us decorating our house for Christmas, but that will probably have to wait until after finals week. Until then, I hope you enjoy the pictures and video from Emily's birthday!

Hyrum's 7th Birthday

November 17th was Hyrum's 7th birthday. I can hardly believe that he'll be baptized in only one year! We had planned to go bowling with my mom and step-dad the following weekend, but a large snow storm changed those plans for us. Instead, we stayed in Pocatello and took the kids to the skating rink. They had a blast! Hyrum goes to the rink with his school about once a month, but I think he usually plays on the playground equipment and arcade. This time, we made him skate. Emily was adorable. Whenever she fell down, she'd just jump back up, smile, and say, "I really need to practice more!" We probably would have never been able to drag them home if the rink hadn't ended their skate session.

Hyrum thought this was a very funny cake. So did a lot of other people who stopped by our table at the rink.

Among Hyrum's presents was a watch from us. He loves it! We also gave him a flashlight which you can see around his neck in the videos. Emily picked out a ball with Buzz Lightyear, a green alien, and glitter floating in it to give him.

Here's a video of the kids skating. The limbo was so cute. There was no rule about staying on your skates as long as you didn't touch the bar. Hyrum came in second by crawling on his belly. He had everyone cracking up. The girl who won stayed on her skates the whole time. She was incredible!

After the skate session is over, they have the kids put on their regular shoes and dance to this song. You can tell the older kids know the routine quite well. I put some clips of his dance in the previous video, but I wanted to post the whole dancing video just because it makes me smile.

Boise State College Game Day

Last time I posted the summer and fall update, I completely forgot to post about our trip to Boise State when ESPN's College Game Day was there. I realized my mistake when I was clearing out space on my camera's memory card. So here ya go!

Boise State had just won their first game against Virginia Tech in Washington D.C. and was up against Oregon State at home in Boise. After years of promising to do it, ESPN finally brought their College Game Day show to Boise, and Mike and I were there for it. We had a lot of fun meeting with some of Mike's online friends for a tailgate. We also met a lot of Oregon State fans and plenty of fans from other schools who were in Boise to cheer on the Broncos. One guy--a Michigan fan--had specifically come because it was his birthday, and he asked his wife to take him to see the blue field in lieu of a birthday present. Here are the pictures and videos.

This was the basic set up from where we were sitting. The tier above us was full too. They told us that we had either tied or beaten the record attendance for College Game Day. Not bad for 7:00 am. And that was with half the city attending a marathon that same morning!

The tent had the cameras and desk where the commentators sit, and the screen next to it showed us what was happening on the camera since their backs were to us.

One of my favorite signs (and sign holder) down on the field.

Mark May is a commentator who is well known as being overly critical of Boise State, TCU, Utah, and all other non automatic qualifying teams. He is also well known for not being able to take any criticism. So much so, that they won't allow any anti Mark May signs in the Game Day crowd, no matter how harmless. Our friend Tyler swiped this confiscated sign as we left the stadium and posted it outside of our tailgate tent.

The kids getting ready for the game.

Kids pulling silly faces.

Emily dancing at the tailgate.

This was the color scheme at the game. We were in one of the orange sections. I'm always surprised at how well the color coordination works out.

The view from our seats during the game.

The morning after the game, we took the kids swimming at our hotel pool. It was the first time we were able to get them in the water without screaming. We had a harder time getting them out again when it was time to go home!