Audrey and Nathan Clements: January 2013

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Denver Zoo and Hannah's appointments

Due to the move, we need to get Hannah a new neurologist which is sad because I really liked Dr. Filloux. However, traveling to Utah every three months would be tough and expensive. Hannah now goes to PSL in Denver.

Trying to figure out what to do with the other kids, Teasha and I found out that the Denver Zoo had a free day the same day as Hannah's appointment. Also the school kids didn't have school either so we decided to take them to the zoo. Denver is about 2-2 1/2 hours away. The zoo was packed and we were constantly counting the kids to make sure we had all 8. Luckily we didn't lose anyone.

Allie, Hailey and Hinckley (in the blue shirt)

Spencer and Allie.

Thomas, Spencer, Hannah, Allie and Hailey.

Hannah, Allie, Hailey, and Spencer.

Then when it was time for the appointment, I left Teasha with 6 kids. The appointment went well and it was more to get Hannah in their system and caught up on her situation. I really didn't have any concerns at the moment since Hannah hasn't had a seizure for a couple of months. The main problem we are trying to figure out is Hannah's speech delay, which is most likely connected to her ear infections instead of her seizures.

The appointment didn't take long and after a few phone calls, we were able to catch up with the rest of the group at the zoo. Around 4:00 the kids were done and we went across town to find a little caesars to eat pizza on the way home. We got turned around a couple of times trying to find the highway again. It was a little crazy but I think the kids had a lot of fun and it was fun to get out of Laramie for a little while. I'm thankful that Teasha was willing to help us out a bit.

The next day, Hannah had a hearing test and it can back normal. From this point on we noticed Hannah progressing in her speech. It's kind of ironic that right as we were getting everything ready to get tubes for her, that he ear miraculously clear up after a year of ear infections. I feel like we are greatly blessed. She went from not being able to say baby before November to saying Rachel in January. July was the first time she really said mommy and daddy to get our attention. She has gone a long ways and will continue speech therapy to get completely caught up.

Halloween

We had a lot of fun on Halloween Day. After Hailey came home from school, we had snacks and changed into our costumes. Then we went to the Medical center and got tons of goodies as we went to each nurse and doctor. On the first floor is Children's Dentistry, Children's Physicians and the Women's clinic. There are more offices upstairs.

Nathan had a meeting until 5:00pm so when we finished at the Medical Center we played at the play ground and took pictures.

Then Nathan changed in the car and we went to the Stake's trunk or treat which was HUGE! Nathan and I dressed up for the first time this year.

Halloween Parade

We went to Hailey's school for their Halloween parade. It seemed very organized as each class starting with 5th grade came in the gym and circled around. Hailey is Rapunzel. The other Haley is the angel.

Rachel's birthday (10-29)

My sweet little baby turned one years old!

We had a cupcake birthday cake for her which was a lot of fun.

She wasn't too sure about the cake to begin with, then discovered that cake is really tasty.

Rachel wearing her birthday hat after her bath.

She stands up a lot and is pretty stable. She crawls around but didn't start walking until Christmas time (14 months old).

Getting presents for the 1st birthday is tough especially since we have other girls. Rachel doesn't really need anything but I did find this fun 10-1 wooden toy box.

Robert really wanted to get Rachel a present, so he picked out some hair bows from the Dollar Tree for her.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Pumpkin Dunkin'

The Rec Center had a trunk or trunk type carnival in their parking lot a few days before Halloween. The kids had a lot of fun with it. We also got their a little late, so it wasn't crowded a lot. Hannah is Snow White, Hailey is Rapunzel, Robert is Spider man, and Rachel is an Elephant.

After we were done with that, we went swimming indoors. They had filled the swimming pool with pumpkins. Robert's favorite thing to do was pushing the pumpkins down the slide then following after then. It made huge splashes. Swimming went well and we had everyone in their pjammies to go home in.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Big Brother

Robert loves his baby sister a lot, and shows it by sitting on her, rolling on her, taking things away from her and teasing her. So I was happy to see this sweet moment of Robert sharing with Rachel. He really is a nice boy who wants to be good but just doesn't know how to act. I am reading Easy to Love, Difficult to Disciple. It focuses on seven powers of self-control, which leads to seven basic disciple skills, which teach seven values for living. It really focuses on the parent having these skills to model for the children. It is hard to change but I really enjoy the concepts behind it and hope I can be a parent parent as I implement them.

Something Borrowed

We had dinner and games at the Crawford house when an unfortunate event happened. Allie got a plastic popsicle dog toy easier in the week to play jokes with it. Sipsy (their dog) doesn't like that toy. Hailey wanted to play with Sipsy and pushed the toy into her mouth. I heard the dog yelp and then Hailey started crying. Sipsy bit Hailey in defense. No one is to blame for the situation, Sipsy has never bitten anyone before and Hailey just doesn't know how to interact with a dog.

I didn't want Hailey to be afraid of dogs because that might cause more incidents. So for FHE, we borrowed Sipsy and I taught the kids basic things to know about a dog and how to take care of one. I hope to have a dog of our own some day (when our baby turns five years old), but we aren't ready yet. With the winters here getting below 0, we will need an inside dog.

The kids had a lot of fun with Sipsy, even Hailey.

Preschool Fun Day

One of the lessons I did was on the Joy of Spontaneous Delight. So we ice skated with shaving cream. The kids did have a lot of fun with it.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Jump Rope Accident

Friday Sept 28th, Hailey had a tough day. She came out of school very sad which is not like her. She told me that during recess, she was running to get a jump rope and fell down. She went to the nurse and got band aids on her knees. She also has scrapes on her knuckles. I'm sure her teacher would have noticed there was something wrong but there was a substitute teacher that day. That night she feel asleep at 6:00pm which is not like her at all. Even though bed time is at 7:00pm she usually stays awake until 8:00pm.

On Saturday she still complained about her arm hurting (I thought she meant her scraped knuckles). Finally at lunch time, Nathan pointed out that Hailey was pointing to her wrist. It was swollen but we thought it was just twisted and there's nothing anyone can do about it. On Sunday, I noticed that Hailey would not use her right hand at all, which is her dominant hand.

Since it still hurt on Monday (Oct 1st), I sent her to school and called the doctors. We got into them around 9:30am. The doctor said it seems broken but we need x-rays. So we ran to the hospital and got x rays done.

While waiting for the results, we went to McDonalds. Finally, we were called and told that she has a buckle fracture. The two bones just below her wrist, squeezed together and broke. Luckily, they did not move at out of place and did not need to be set. Hailey was able to get into the bone and joint doctor that day for a cast. Luckily, Teasha was able to watch the other kids so I could just focus on Hailey. She was so brave and happy to get a pink cast. She never complained about the difficulties that the cast caused.

Two weeks later, we got another x ray and a week after that she went into a splint for just a week. I think she liked the attention that she received from having a cast. It was fun for her to have her classmates sign her cast.

Preschool Field Trip

For our first field trip, we went to the Laramie Airport. It is a very small airport that is run by 5 people. There is only commercial flights to Denver. But there seems to be a good number of private planes that use the airport. It is also a training area for the military. We saw two of their helicopters touch down and take back off again.

Here is Hannah in the HUGE firetruck.

Laramie was also a training center during the WWII and that had a small plane from the time period.

October's field trip was to Albertson and they talked about healthy foods and the different food groups.

November's field trip was to the fire station but I had Hannah home with the stomach flu so we missed that trip.

December's field trip was to the art museum. Since we have been talking about sharing and service, we looked at a picture of ice skaters who were helping one another and sharing a good time. Then they got to use nice water colors to color a postcard that they can share with another person. Then our tour guide shared a story, Mouse Colors. It was a nice little trip and I'm sad I didn't get pictures of any of it.

Audrey and Nathan Clements