Elijah's Day

Elijah is getting over a very bad cold but today he was much better...today he only cried on my lap one time rather than all day long so I was very grateful. He had some great moments so I'm glad I grabbed my camera when I did. Elijah LOVES to color. At good times we get him to color in his coloring books and at bad times he will draw on anything. The latest have been walls, books, measuring cups and a dish.

While Elijah was feeling sick Jayd brought up her "comfy chair" and let Elijah use it while watching video's in his room. He loves to snuggle with a blanket and a stuffed animal when he is in "his chair" which is what he calls it now. I'm sure Jayd is going to have to fight him for it in order to get it back.

After school today Jayd had track. The mom who picked her up stopped and got the girls an ice cream. Of course when she got home Elijah was sure it was for him. She was nice enough to share with him and he definitely enjoyed it.

My First Decorated Cake

My good friend Shauni Snow is a cake decorator and makes such beautiful cakes. Shauni has been so kind to make birthday cakes for Abe and myself so because her birthday was coming up I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and try and decorate a cake for her. I picked a cake from the Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1 book and went for it. There were a ton of little flowers to make for this cake and Elijah and Abe enjoyed helping me make the icing and then eating it too of course. I still have so much to learn but it was a fun project and most of all fun to make it for Shauni.

Orme Family Visit

Last weekend we were delighted to have my sister Jenn and her family come for a couple day visit. They arrived last Friday night so Saturday all the kids were excited to see each other and start playing. Jenn took the girls running (Jenn is training for a race) and Chancey, Lilah and Olivia were able to go almost a mile with her. GREAT job girls. Jayd and Jenn then continued and did a total of 4 1/2 miles. Jayd has joined the schools track team so the run was good for her. Later that day Bruno and his kids came for a visit. Drostan and Bruno then took all the kids to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. They had a great time there. We were sure glad that the Orme family stayed with us and can't wait for them to come visit again. (It's too bad all the kids were not outside when I grabbed my camera.)

Jayd Playing Basketball

Jayd was on her church girls basketball team this year. She really enjoyed playing but we think it was the scoring of the boys basketball game after hers that she was really there for. :) Jayd's team got to the first round of regionals but unfortunately they lost. She did great at that game and I got a couple pictures of her as she played. Unfortunately my flash did not work very well but you can get the idea of how cute she was while she was playing.

Sharing A Swing

The children are really enjoying the new outside play sets that we put in the backyard. One of their favorite is definitely the swing set. With only 3 swings this means the kids need to share. Yes, mom said share. :) Jayd found a great way that she could swing at the same time as Elijah. She hooked the baby seat in higher so that she could still sit on the regular seat at the same time. Elijah now loves to swing with Jayd. Yes, Elijah is also eating "fishy crackers" at the same time as enjoying his ride.

Imaginary Friends Shirt

Thank you Mariah for reading about Elijah's imaginary friends and then sending him a shirt about imaginary friends. One of the pictures below looks like he is drugged...but we thought it was so funny that we had to include it. :-)

Our New Backyard Toys

Now that we know we are staying in our home here in Layton we have decided to get some fun things for the kids in the backyard. We already had the trampoline so we decided to get a swing set and a playground set. They installed them about a week ago and the kids are having so much fun with it. The playground has 2 towers with a 10' bridge connecting them. One tower has a ladder up to it and then a great slide coming down. The other tower has a rock wall up to it, a fireman pole and monkey bars. Under the play set was a planting area that we are taking the rocks, dirt and plants out of and filling it with sand. We are still working on that area. The swing set has 3 swings and is metal so that it will be strong enough for even the big kids. I took the pictures below yesterday. I took so many pictures that I had to make 2 slide shows. The kids were having such a great time together playing.

The Adventures of Abe & Elijah

Abe was sick last week with the stomach flu. I set up a little "bed" for Abe so he could watch TV and have his "bucket" next to him. Elijah of course wanted his own bed...so here is a picture of them together as they are watching TV.

Our sweet neighbor brought in dinner one night last week after 3 of us had the flu in just 24 hrs (Lilah, Justin and Cayr). Elijah loved the dessert so much that he kept asking for more and more. I had told him no but that was not the right answer to him. Once I left the kitchen, Elijah pulled a chair up to the cabinet and snuck the dessert. I found him hiding it from me as he was trying to eat it. See that innocent face.

Abe's pre-school is doing a month about farms. They have had eggs in an incubator for the past 3 weeks and yesterday the eggs started to hatch. I took Elijah into the pre-school and we were able to see 2 chicks that had hatched within the past 2 hours. Today we went back and there were 5 more hatched. We got there just in time to see egg number 6 hatch. It was so fun for the two boys to see it happening. The teacher took pictures of the boys holding one of the chicks that had hatched yesterday and I will post it as soon as I get a copy of it. Here is a picture of Abe and Elijah sitting in front of the "chick house" with the warmer keeping the new chicks safe and happy. It was so fun to watch the boys be so excited about this process.

Justin Factoring Elijah

It's Justin's turn to factor Elijah. He mixed the factor and did absolutely perfect on putting the needle into Elijah's port. We were so impressed with how well he did. Justin was a little nervous at first but he once he did it he realized it was something he could do again without a problem. Again, we are so very grateful for Justin and Jayd for wanting to learn how to give the infusions of factor to Elijah. We will continue to have Justin and Jayd trade off on Saturdays doing this so that they keep this skill up.

Crazy Hair Day

On Friday it was Crazy Hair Day and Olivia wanted to join in on the fun with her class. Doesn't she look beautiful!!!

Swimming Lessons

Chancey, Lilah, Olivia and Abraham have been taking swimming lessons the past 4 weeks at our city pool. They have really enjoyed it and are anxious to show everyone what they have learned. We hope to start the next classes for them soon. Here are some pictures from the last day of class. Some of the kids have life vests on due to the deepness of the area they were in and the activities they were doing.

Factoring Elijah

With Elijah's hemophilia we need to give him infusions 3x's a week. These infusions give him the clotting factor that is not made by his body. This is very important as just normal activities can make him bleed internally and can be fatal if not controlled. Elijah has a port in his chest that then has a tube that goes into his heart. This is how we inject the factor as his veins are very difficult to get at this time. Even the IV team at Primary Children's Hospital have a hard time getting a vein on Elijah.

Matt and I have been trained on mixing the factor and then infusing Elijah and we are now teaching Justin and Jayd how to do this. This has to be a very sterile procedure and they have been mixing the factor and doing the prep work now for several months but this past Saturday was the first time that Jayd used the needle to poke through his skin and into the port. She was very nervous but did a great job. Next Saturday will be Justin's first time. We are grateful that they are willing to learn this life saving procedure for their little brother.

Happy Birthday Chancey!!

Chancey turned 12 on Monday, February 23rd. She was so excited for this birthday. Some of the things Chancey got were a camera, camera case, new scriptures with her name on them, body spray, Young Women theme poster, hair things and more. Mom made her cake and she chose Fat Noodles for her birthday dinner. We sure love Chancey. She is growing up way too fast.

Justin and Jayd

Justin and Jayd had a great time last night visiting at Aunt Chrissy's house with their Lewis relatives. Uncle Philip and Maria are moving to Alaska so they were there to say goodbye to the family. The cousins all had fun playing together and sledding in the backyard. I got there about 9:30pm to pick the kids back up but I was having so much fun talking with everyone that we stayed until 11:15pm. With an hour ride home it was a late night but so much fun visiting and seeing everyone having so much fun together. Everyone said we need to get together more often...I agree!!!

Is She Serious? Yes!!

The fun thing about Jayd is that she is just so clueless. Of course we say that with lots of love but seriously...for an "A" student in school she really is quite "blond". The other day she told Matt that her password on the computer was "extinct". It took us moment but we realized that she really meant that her password had "expired".

Today we were talking about how many days were in February there were this year. She said that there were only 28 this year because it was "skip" year. I had to remind her it was called "leap" year. Her comment was, "oh ya".

Elijah's Imaginary Friend

Elijah just barely turned 2 in December and this week he created an imaginary friend. It is so hilarious to watch him. His friend is a mouse. We first noticed it when Grandma Jacqi and Elijah were sitting together and Elijah suddenly started talking about the mouse in the plant that was sitting next to them. He then started "putting" the mouse in a sack and trying to "find" it. Almost every day this week the mouse is hiding and being found by Elijah.

This morning Elijah was in bed with me talking and he suddenly picked up his dad's pillow and said "mouse in there?" Then he picked up the bed's comfortor and looked under it and said "is the mouse hiding in there?" He won't name the mouse but just wants to try and find it all the time.

This is not the first time he has created an imaginary animal. A couple weeks ago he was looking at our 8 foot tree and talking about a monkey that was in it and he mentioned it again a couple days ago. I'm looking forward to the next new animal that visits Elijah in our home.

Bye Grandma...Come Back Soon!!

Wednesday we spent a wonderful day hanging out with Grandma Jacqi. Karmen and the boys came up and we all went shopping at Sams Club, ate lunch then did some shopping for Chancey's birthday. It's so wonderful to spend time with her and we can't wait to see her the next time she can come for a visit. We miss you Grandma Jacqi already!!!
Here are a few pictures taken while Grandma was here:

Time With Grandma

Monday was a great day. Matt and all the kids were home from school so we enjoyed being a family and visiting with Grandma. Jayd had some alone time with Grandma at Target picking out a new school bag and eating Cold Stone Ice Cream. We also watched a movie together that night for family night.

It's been a hard week in that Elijah, Abe, Justin, Jayd, Chancey and Matt have all been sick since last Wednesday. Elijah's temp got up to 103.9. We had 4 days of VERY little sleep because he just struggled with feeling so bad. He was put on antibiotics today because his cold turned into an ear infection.

Tuesday Chancey stayed home to spend some time with Grandma. We also got a foot of snow so they were not out too long because the roads were really starting to get bad but they enjoyed watching a movie together when they got home. Grandma visited with Grandpa and Grandma Curtis tonight which she really enjoyed.

We're sad that Grandma is leaving tomorrow (Thursday). It's been such a great week and we can't wait to see her again soon!!!!

What we have been doing with Grandma Jacqi

SUNDAY Chancey, Lilah, and Olivia went with Grandma to Karmen's ward for church and then went to the Stanton's for dinner and to visit.

SATURDAY Today Justin and grandma went to Barns and Nobel book store together. Grandma knows how much Justin likes to read so they had a great time there walking around and talking about all the books Justin had read.

We were supposed to have a birthday party for Zeke and Chancey but we had so many people sick at our house we postponed the party for another time. Sorry guys.

FRIDAY Today Grandma and Abe went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. They met Karmen and they boys there and had a wonderful time. They boys had such a great time digging for dinosaurs in the sand!!

Lilah and grandma Jacqi

On Thursday Lilah and grandma Jacqi got to spend the day together. They met Karmen at her house and watched Joaquin and Ezekiel while Karmen had an appointment. Little Zeke was so excited when he woke to find Lilah there. He kept laughing and wanting to play with her. Once Karmen returned they all went out to lunch at the Olive Garden. They also went to WalMart and Target running errands. They had such a great day together!!!