Vegas Baby

Let me quote my dear husband:

"We are having Prime Rib.  Sorry for your bad luck!"

 I'm home while the whole gang (including my parents)

are spending Spring Break in Vegas.

I had to take a business trip to Atlanta

(I had an incredible view from my hotel room)...

 and got home yesterday in time for another baby cow

to make its debut this morning.

It looks and sounds like they are having a grand time.

I'm told Kean only whined for me for the first couple of days

(he's now conveniently forgotten about me)- ha.

They spent one day hiking around one of our favorites--

Valley of Fire.

 If you haven't been, it's about 45 miles outside of Vegas.

 And has all kinds of cool historical stories (about a renegade Indian

who killed a few people and hid up in these canyons)

and lots of Indian Petroglyphs.

 They got to have dinner with my childhood best friend and her husband--

and have been living it up in the sun at Grammy and Grandpa's house.

 There's no pool but a jacuzzi is just as good.

This is the house my parents are trying to sell -- again.

In case you didn't know, they had it sold once but the

guy died three weeks before closing.

If you know of anyone... er, looking to buy, not die--

let me know!

Mommy Escape

We didn't just have a Happy Mother's Day...

we had a Happy Mother's Day Weekend.

We went up to the cabin with my parents

and can I just tell you how much I enjoyed being with my mom this weekend

(and the rest of the crew).

 What did we do, you ask?

Mostly eat too much and relax.

 On Saturday, we did go on a great adventure.

We went and explored Warm Lake (beautiful)...

 and went on a tricky little hike (my dad is legally blind)

down into some natural hot springs. 

 Kean felt good all weekend and loved, loved, loved

exploring and being out and about.

 I won't rub it in about how wonderful

and relaxing those hot springs felt.

We all looked like prunes when we were done.

But oh, was it worth it.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you.

Easter

About all I can say is we got through Easter.

Kean has been edgy all day and wasn't much into the whole

tradition thing.

The girls were all over the egg hunt at the grandparents.

 Kean?  Not so much.

 All he'd say was "candy, no!"

At least we got some good speech practice out of him.

 Actually, he had hurt his thumb- pulled all of the skin off

his knuckle about an hour before the egg hunt.

That clearly put him over the edge

and he was pretty much inconsolable

 until he finally fell asleep in my arms watching Cars.

 He missed the family dinner and the "golden egg hunt".

 My parents put five dollars in an egg for each of the

grandchildren-- and we hide them in really, really hard places

and then just laugh as the kids go crazy trying to find them.

Happy Easter everyone.  How thankful we are

for the real reason for this holiday-- the knowledge we have

that our Savior died for us and was resurrected so each of

us may have the opportunity to be made whole through Him.

What great comfort He brings-- to realize that one day

Kean's struggles will be made into strengths thanks to the Atonement.

Check Ups

What a mean mom I am-- scheduling doctor's and dentist

appointments for the girls during Spring Break so they

don't have to miss any school.

 The good news is all three girls made it in to the

"Cavity Free Club".

 Kean stayed with Grammy and Grandpa-- kicked

back and watched his Tangled.

Love these good days for all.

Mustache Man

What a Sunday!

Byron came down and got hit hard with the flu late yesterday.

Suffice it to say, he is miserable and confined (more like exiled)

to rooms away from the family, especially Kean.

Poor boy, he sees Daddy home and thinks it should be cycle ride time.

The girls have been great at keeping him entertained.

 After they got home from church, Reese and Greer

put together a one day late Valentine's Party extravaganza.

We all had to wear mustaches-- Kean's lasted point 2 seconds.

 They took over most of the upstairs-- had a fishing booth,

pin the flower on the Valentine, relay races-- you name it.

 The best was tonight though- at my parents house for Sunday dinner.

Sickie stayed home.

Kean was in fine form, taking blueberries and force feeding them 

to all in sight.

He was so tickled to be on the giving end-- instead of the receiving end.

Smooches

Ah Romeo.

He came through for the boy.

And if you had been at the arena today... you would have 

seen Pam, Candice and myself making major fools of ourselves.

We sang every horse song under the sun and even made

up plenty more.

Kean loved it!

 And check this out...

It is a fake horse outside my brother's store.

Kean didn't want to get off-- he was so at home.

(That's my nephew Derek with him).

Then this afternoon, Grandpa Bodily rode up on his lawn mower

just to say hi and to see if Kean could come out to play

(and go for a spin).

What would we do without him?

 One more bit of good news.

My folks are home after being gone for nearly a month.

Kean has been asking to go over to Grandpa's house every day!

Tonight he got his wish-- and got lots of kisses from his

beloved G and G.

(This picture is from when he was in the hospital the last time--

but he sure loves to smooch his Grandma!).

Catching Up

So I'm a little late but I didn't want to let Christmas go undocumented.

It was wonderful.

Greer and Reese woke up at some obscene hour-- so we made them go back to sleep.

Ya, right.

But it actually worked and they didn't even get up until 7 a.m.-- which is a record

for our family.

Someone was pretty sneaky and pretty great-- we found this on our front porch-- 

a basket full of treats, goodies and a gargantuan Cars night light that has it's own

remote control to get it to say such phrases as Kazaam.

Kean loves it!

So thank you to someone out there who was so kind to our family!

 Thought you'd like to see Greer's face as she saw that Santa had really come.

The man in red brought Reese a bike-- almost as big as her..

 and bean bag chairs for each of the girls...

 We were especially blessed to have my parents and our

dear, dear friend, Shannon Angus join us for the Christmas frenzy

and then breakfast.

 It was a lazy, crazy day all about family.

Here's hoping your Christmas was just as wonderful.

Mug Shots and Race Cars!

Okay, back to the blog.

We've had a few extremely busy-- but fun packed days.

Let me try to get caught up by starting with Christmas Eve.

One of my favorite traditions, is we all get together for a feast 

of nothing but appetizers and desserts.

Since we always do a huge dinner on Christmas Day... we gotta do 

something different and I love this!

 We also, always have the kids act out the Christmas Pageant.

It always leans a little more toward the entertainment side than the spiritual side.

But what do you expect with Byron always, always acting as the donkey.

Notice I used the word donkey instead of that other word that probably

came to your mind-- naw, never!

 Reese somehow beat out the competition to play Mary

and now that Kean has outgrown the Baby Jesus role, we used a doll.

Which was the smartest thing we could do-- since the boy

is not the most cooperative.  He and Elly were supposed to be

the Shepherds...

 Instead Kean muscled his way into the center of the Wisemen.

I think he liked their shiny baubles...

 The children also always get new pajamas from Grammy and Grandpa.

We all decided Kean's made him look like he was wearing a

penal institution issued jumpsuit.

Of course, when he grabbed the lid to the Christmas Pageant costumes--

we thought the outfit was complete!

 The best part of the night came when Grammy and Grandpa gave Kean

his gift from them.

The kids all went on a scavenger hunt that led them to the master bath--

where this was waiting!!!

I'm not sure who was more thrilled-- Keanut or all the cousins and his sisters!

I'd love to know what was going on in his mind.

He seemed in awe but also a little awe-struck.

He spent most of the night admiring the stickers, the hood and the wheels--

but wanted nothing to do with getting behind the wheel and going.

 Give him some time.
By summer, I'm guessing he'll be running down Reese on the lawn.

On A Roll...

Hurray, Grandpa and Grammy made it home safe to be with us before heading back

in a week to meet with the Cancer doc.  We'll know more then.

All I can say, is it was sure good to be with them tonight.

Today was a pretty sweet day on the milestone front.

I put on Kean's walking harness (remember the hot pink number) and

he took three steps on his own while I held the straps but not him.

Of course,

I couldn't get him to do it again-- but he walked a couple steps today!!!!!

That's huge.

He's also started calling Holland -- Holla and for Greer and Reese -- it sounds like he's saying "Sissie".

Even tonight, he was able to say the name of two of my nieces-- Morgan and Katie--

who just so happened to make a yummy cake for dessert.

He's blossoming, I tell you.  Wouldn't it be amazing if we could get him to walk by Christmas?

That's what I want!!

Mad At The World

Big sigh.

If you remember, we've had a heck of a time getting
Kean to stay on his therapy horse the past few weeks.

So this week, thanks to a most brilliant idea from his therapist,

we asked a wonderful friend -- Mari Tanner to take my place and

see if Kean wouldn't do better riding without wanting me to hold him the entire time!

And guess what?!?!?  It worked beautifully.

He stayed up (without trying to bail off) while I sat out in the car.

 He must have been feeling pretty proud of himself because 

he later rocked his Occupational Therapy session with Maureen.

 He followed through on all kinds of tasks and challenges, mimicked

a number of words and was giving us high fives and "knuckles" all over the place.

But then this afternoon, our great day just kinda fell apart.

And now I find myself a bit mad at the world.

I haven't said anything-- because we all felt like there was

no sense worrying about things until we had a reason to worry.

But my dad had a third appointment with a cancer doc today.

He had two suspicious growths on his face, had then biopsied and they came

back as cancer.

He had to go back to have them removed

and then today, he was supposed to have even more of the margins taken out.

But here's the thing, the doctor told him today, he has a form of Melanoma

that is fast moving-- deep and wide.  He has two choices:

plastic surgery to remove two big chunks of his face or radiation.

What is up with this insidious cancer and does it have to 

terrorize so many of my friends and family?

I'll tell you what makes me particularly sick-- my poor parents, especially

my mom has really suffered watching Kean go through all of this--

and now, here she is having to go through it with my dad.

Life just totally sucks sometimes-- or as it seems lately,

most of the time.

But I will say, my dad will likely go through this and be the strong one for us.

If you've never had the blessing of meeting him-- you're really missing out

on one of the kindest, most loving and giving men on this earth.

Say an extra prayer for my daddy tonight.

Yee Haw

Hopefully, you are out enjoying the Fourth's fireworks instead of reading this!

But, boy, oh boy, did we have a fun packed day.

Kean had his third horse therapy lesson and I swear, he is already a pro.

 He rode the entire session (30 minutes) and was smiling and loving every minute.

In fact, he was pushing both of us on either side of him away-- he didn't want us to hold on to him.

Our now favorite horse, Reba was perfect.  She'd snort and Kean would snort.

Watch out Special Olympics... I think we have a contender.

Kean hung out with Grammy and Grandpa while the rest of us headed to Middleton

for their country fourth of July parade.  

 One of my best friends in the world, Stacy Fuller and her family

are in visiting from Arizona.

The parade was great... lots of candy for the kids, horses, antique cars

and even fire trucks that squirted down the crowd.

 We walked around after the parade to see all the antique cars.

Then we all headed to Grandpa Bodily's to swim for a few hours.

Finally, we headed back to my folks for BBQ ribs, salmon

and all kinds of yummy food.

Joining all of us, were my parents neighbors-- we celebrated Crickett's

birthday with patriotic cupcakes made by Katy.

 This is my mom's neighbor, Janice.  We all have fallen in love with her

and her family.  She is in the throes of fighting for her life.

She has a very aggressive form of Uterine Cancer.

We all get together and swap horror stories of her meds

and Kean's meds.  Her nausea experiences and Kean's nausea experiences.

I think Kean inspires her to keep fighting.

And she certainly inspires us to keep fighting.