Audrey and Nathan Clements

 I also got some stickers out.

 I gave Hannah paint dots instead of real paint and she had a lot of fun painting the table and herself.  This entertained the kids for over an hour while I worked in the kitchen. However, when dinner was ready, our table wasn't dry so we had a picnic on the floor which the kids enjoyed a lot. Their "master piece" stayed on the table for a few days until it could handle any more spills.
 Another fun activity was shaving cream paint in the bath tub.
 Each kid had a wall or a sliding door to paint. It worked out really well and there was hardly any fighting. I mentioned that they could also paint their bodies if they wanted to. Hailey really liked that idea.
After the bath, Robert and I were talking about the paints and I asked him if he liked painting his skin. He looked right at me (which is rare for him to have good eye contact) and said "Oh no, mom, we don't paint our bodies. It makes Jesus sad." He had me there for a minute because he was right. I try to explain the difference between washable and perment but I think he won the argument. At least I don't have to worry about peer pressure or a tattoo with that kid.

It's been a week and we are still holding strong. They do get more computer time now because it's just easier that way but it's usually only 20 minutes per person or until someone starts fighting. I don't get as many things done as I used to but over all I think our home is more peaceful (and the downstairs cleaner).

 Hailey and Robert were very excited about this when it was first presented. Robert got dressed into PJs all by myself without constant reminders or supervision. Hailey ate most of her food and cleared up her place at the table.
I should talk to them more about making bad choices and good choice instead of demanding things my way.

The other thing that Primary is doing is having the kids earn stickers to get a CTR ring.  Robert has to get three stickers since he is three years old and Hailey has to earn five.

You get a sticker by:
*having a CTR hero picture
*memorizing the month's scripture
*learning the month's song
*coming to church for a whole month
*preparing your talk or scripture before hand when asked.
*each Sunday the president picks one or two kids who were the most reverent and involved

I know Hailey can memorize the articles of faith so I decided to make a little sign that has the month's scripture on it so she can read it and memorize it. She loves this. She even wanted to find where the scripture is in her Book of Mormon.

Speaking about scriptures, last year the primary theme was "I know the Scriptures are True". So in her old primary they gave out stickers for who brought their scriptures every week.  So Hailey has her own Book of Mormon (it's actually a triple since that's what they had that day) and it has her name engraved on it. Since then I decided that once the kid started going to Primary, they get their own Book of Mormon. This will help them learn how to take good care of them and not lose them. Then when they are baptized they will get a nice, full set of scriptures and a scripture bag. I still have my scriptures from when I was baptized and it is still the only hard bond set I have received. So today, we got Robert's Book of Mormon with his name engraved. He is very excited about it. I just need to decorate a book for it.

The other thing we have started as a family is reading out of the Book of Mormon itself. Up until this point we read from the picture scripture readers so the kids can learn the people and stories better. Since the ward is doing a big push to have everyone read the Book of Mormon this year and since Hailey is starting to read, we decided it is the best time to switch to the actual book. Hailey likes to start reading and she does about a verse or two with help. It's fun to have a reader in the family. I'm excited for the kids to grow older and being able to do more with them. Though I will miss the cuteness of tiny babies and just being able to snuggle them all the time. I'll also miss the baby stage of them not moving and not talking back and fighting with each other. I guess I'm a little torn and am just trying to appreciate each stage that we are in.

 I love this a for apples outfit. It has a matching pink sweater also.
 Hailey was the only one who got full use of this birdy mat. Whenever we bring it out, the other kids take it as an invitation to play with it too. Hannah is playing with Rachel on the mat. Babies do grow up very fast.

Robert loves Rachel and is constantly around her. He has a tendency to sit on her lap, so we have to watch him closely. Just the other day he was pulling on her tongue. However, he does it out of love and because Rachel was hanging out of the couch upside down, he wanted to join her too.

So January 13th, Nate and I took Hannah and Rachel to Utah. Hailey had went to school like normal and was picked up my Edmund's mom Jamie who was also watching Robert for the day.  We ended up picking them up pretty late (around 9) and the kids were bummed since they wanted a sleep over.

Since my mom was still in Utah we picked her up so she could go to the appointment with us. We saw Dr. Barkan which was little stressful since it's tough to update what was been going to since our last appointment in May. We should have meet in Aug/September but there was hardly any seizure activity so we didn't schedule an appointment.  She said it reflected poorly on her for us to not follow her directions which makes since. Also we've been giving Hannah calcium which the specialist said didn't have a connection with seizures. However, her blood level says she's low on calcium. But overall it was a good appointment and besides the full up EEG that we did that day, we are to have three appointments in the future. First, we are going to see Paula Peterson during spring break to talk about a diet change either a modified Atkins diet or ketogenic diet. We also talked about how Hannah is delayed in speech and the Dr. was even wondering if she was delayed in other development abilities. She's not as stable on her feet as a normal 2 year old would be.  We are going through the Infant and Toddler Program in pocatello to work on these areas. According to their tests, Hannah is pretty normal in all aspects except speech. She tested low on her emotional/social well being but that was in connection to not being able to vocalize her needs and wants.  So there will be a speech therapist coming to our home every other week to teach Nathan and I how to encourage her to talk more.  The third appointment is with Genetics. The earliest they can get us in is the middle of July.  I'm very interested in how that appointment will be like and what information they will be able to get.

As I'm calling around to make sure these appointments get scheduled, one of the nurses said that Dr. Barkan wants Hannah to have a second opinion on her epilepsy and will have that done on the same day during Spring Break.  The concern came from her third EEG result. During the testing they want some testing while she's awake and then some while she's asleep. We couldn't get her to sleep even though she was very tired. She hated the wires attached to her head and kept pulling at them. At the end of the testing they flashed her with strobe lights. Nothing had an affect on her. She had normal brain activity which is completely different from her second EEG which Dr. Barkan called it World War III. However, with that one her body was convulsing and she went into a seizure within an hour or two of the test.  We talked about doing an over night EEG study but haven't done anything for set that up yet.

Ever appointment we have about Hannah, I learn new things. We showed her a video of Hannah in a seizure and the doctor asked if Hannah's eyes always goes to the right. That's not something I noticed but will try to pay attention to next time.

So Tuesday was the dance recital and my mom left that Wednesday to spend time with her sisters-in-law in Utah. So Thursday started out typical. Nathan got up with the kids and got breakfast for them. Then around 8:30-9, I took Robert. Hannah, and Rachel to the gym so I could exercise. After that we planned on going to the library for story time. 

It was a very cold day and Hannah seemed to have a harder time with the cold then usually and wanted her blanket in the car. She also carried it to the gym. I don't like her special blankets to leave the house because they get that much more dirty and she has to have them to sleep with. 

As we were leaving the gym, I was carrying Rachel and holding onto Hannah's hand to help her across the parking lot. She kept tripping a lot which is a little frustrating but I thought it was because her was tripping over the blanket. We were about three cars away from our car, when Hannah went completely slack on me. I looked down at her and saw that she was really in a seizure since her eyes were rolling. I knelt down to help support her weight but since it was so cold, I didn't want her to really be laying on the floor. Now I am completely stuck because I am still holding Rachel and can't get them both to the car. Luckily, I was an older couple leaving the gym and I called out to them. The lady held Rachel while the man helped open up the car for us.  The seizure was more of an abstance seizure since there was no shaking and lasted close to 2 minutes. I was able to get everyone in the car and then we went straight home instead of going to the library. 

I worry about other people seeing her in a seizure because it's a hard thing to watch. The couple that helped me actually had a son or a close friend who was epileptic. This is also the first seizure that Robert has really been aware of. So I tried to explain that Hannah's brain is sick and it makes her fall down and shake.  I wanted him to understand the situation and that he needs to tell me if he sees Hannah in a seizure.  He seems okay with it for the most part and when we went back to the gym the next day, Robert told me that that is where Hannah had her seizure.

I called Nathan to tell him what happened and to make sure that he gave Hannah her medicine that morning.  He actually didn't have the chance to give it to her. So about 3 hours after she normally gets her medicine, she had a seizure. Since she was sleeping in her bed, I decided I'll just give it to her when she wakes up. She slept for about two hours until it was lunch time. I'm pretty sure I had her take an afternoon nap but I'm not sure when or how long it lasted. 

That afternoon, Hailey had a doctor's appointment at 3:40pm to get evaluated for speech due to her stuttering. Long story short, we waited an hour before we got called to go back to the rooms, then waited another 30 minutes before the doctor was able to see us.  Hailey actually stopped stuttering a couple of days before the appointment and the doctor wasn't able to hear the problem.  Her stuttering is more of a fluency problem because it accures whenever she starts a sentence and is excited about what she wants to say. At the very end, I mentioned that he 2 year old sister has no speech, and he told me to get Hannah some help.

So, finally we are done with the doctor's and we left to eat at McDonalds.  After we ate our food and the kids were all playing, Hannah came back for some water. She started walking away with her cup after we told her to stay by the table. So I got up, with Rachel in my arms, to get the cup back. She thought it was a game and started running away from me laughing. After just a few steps, she started jerking and was in a seizure right before she hit the floor. It was quite horrible to watch. It was a grand mal seizure that lasted a minute. What made it even worse is that once again we forgot her medicine. She usually gets a dose at dinner but we weren't home and wasn't originally planning on eating out so we didn't have it with us. Also, I never gave her a dose after she woke up from her early nap that day.  Both seizures she had today was our fault.

I told Robert and Hailey that was had to go because Hannah had a seizure. I told them again that a seizure is when her brain acts funny and she falls down without crying and she usually shakes.  So, to make sure they understand what is going on, I asked them why we were leaving. They both answer "Hannah had a Caesar!" It's cute to hear them say it and Hannah's seizures doesn't scare them like I thought they would.

So moral of the story...NEVER EVER FORGET HER MEDICINE!!!

Hannah enjoys being there and was constantly moving. There is also the big climbing toy there which Hannah can climb up with her shoes on. However, she either doesn't want to come down or has a hard time finding the exit, and I usually have to climb up there to get her down.

 There were 40 dances and since Hailey's last dance was #29 we stayed to the very end so the kids could get their metals.


 I also got the kids a rose, which made Hannah very upset!

I'm excited for them to start dance class again in the Spring.

Here is the dress rehearsal of her tap dance.

We unfortunately had one thing break after another for about a week, the same week Nathan left and my mom came.

A couple of days before Nathan left, he decided that my computer's fan was running too much and needed to be cleaned. I was pretty surprised to wake up one morning and see my computer scattered across the floor.  Unfortunately, after he cleaned it and put it together again, it didn't turn on. Eventually, Nate determined the problem was beyond his skill set and remembered that a old student of his who also serviced the Math department's computers might be able to help. Luckily, he has his own business to fix computers and was able to upgrade ours.  It took about a week and a half to order parts and fix it up. Nathan had a spare laptop that I borrowed so we could still have Internet access while he was gone. I guess the lesson to learn was stop relying on technology so much and that it's okay to get outside help when it comes to computers.

Then on Friday, after we picked up Hailey from school and finished off at a store, we went through Jimmy John's drive-through for lunch. Leaving the shopping area, I turned right onto Yellowstone, which is Pocatello/Chubbuck's main road, and we all felt a huge bump then heard air rushing out. I thought that I somehow ran over the curb and popped my tire. I was kind of embarrassed, and tried to keep going so we could pull into Grease Monkey which was right in front of us and get off of the busy street. Mom told me that I can't go anywhere and that I just have to stop.  Within seconds, the men from Grease Monkey ran out to see if they could help. Even though my hazards were on, since it was day light people had a hard time seeing them and Grease Monkey put cones behind me. They also handed my a phone book so I could call the tow truck since my tire completely fell off. The recommended two people I could take the car into. Another guy stopped by to see if he could help. After looking at it he said it was the ball joint or the axle and recommended one of the people Grease Monkey already told us about, so with two recommendations we went with Todd's Automotive. We were also able to get a tow truck to come, which was covered by my insurance ($91 saved!). I was going to have my first quilt lesson by Carol at 1:30pm so I called to cancel and instead Carol and her husband came with both cars to take us home. I was really at a loss on what to do and was very fortunate that my mom was there to help me know what the next steps were.  The kids were fine and we even had lunch for them.  Another car stopped by and offered us a ride home since she saw we had kids in the car. That was a very nice offer and I probably would have taken it if we didn't have things already arranged. The situation got handled very quick which was great because it's not good to mess with Hannah's nap. After things settled down, I even got the quilting lesson in that day too.

Our plans were to go to the Temple and have fun in Idaho Falls the next day, so having the car in the shop was a huge blow. After talking to Todd's and finding out we won't get the car back until Monday, we decided to rent a van. It was a 2012 Dodge Caravan with 3 DVD screens, automatic doors, and a backing up camera. I really liked the car though it wasn't the most friendly car for car seats since it was difficult to climb over Hannah to buckle Robert. 

Since my sewing was on the kitchen table and we had a stressful afternoon,  we got Papa Murphy's Pizza and ice cream and had a picnic downstairs while watching a little show. The kids really enjoyed that.

On Saturday, I was able to go to the Temple as planned and to the Adult session of Stake conference kid free, expect Rachel.

On Monday, we went to pick up the car. Ultimately, the ball joint just wore out and there wasn't anything I did that caused it to fall apart on me. We are pretty luckily that it happened when we were going slow instead of on the highway going to IF and causing more damage. Since it was going to happen anyways, it happened in the best way.  The mechanic also talking about how our timing belt was wearing out and needs to be replaced soon. He also looked at why our AWD light was on to make sure it wasn't anything he did. On our invoice ($250), it said they recommended getting the car realigned. Since, they didn't say anything about that in person, I just assumed that didn't do that kind of thing and we just left to get it done at Les Schwabs. They however, found another part in the front of the car that was wearing down and needed to get fixed. So that was $300 more towards the car.

On Tuesday, I decided that I wanted the belt replaced since we were going to go to Utah on Friday and I don't want the car to break down on me again. I wish I would have gotten it fix all at once but what is done is done.

Also on that Monday, my washed stopped working. Nathan was able to drain it but we need a repair guy. That was fixed on Wednesday. The problem was that Rachel's tiny sock went up and over the cloth barrel and got stuck in the pipe. So, we spent $55 to get a sock removed but that was an easy fix and cheaper then a new machine. The repairman was very nice and told me that my machine was built well and should last a long time. The washer that we have is an easy one to take apart and to fix it.

About two weeks later, the ABS (anti-lock brake system) light went on which happened because the wire was resting on the hub and was shorting out. The hub had to be replaced and we decided to get the AWD repaired at the same time. (Another $800 on the car). I hate car problems! I might scream if we have to fix another thing with this car with in the next year. By the way, we have a 2003 Chevy Venture. It's our free car that we got together and it was completely paid for within a year of us getting it. We have had it for four years now and until recent we haven't needed to do a lot for it.