OOPS

John joined a city league basketball team and even if he won't admit it, he's very excited to be doing something fun and athletic. This is the warm-up session before the game. They were all very limber after this. (Note the shoes Drew and Alexis, even though you can't see hers, are wearing, they have huge feet!)

John's team warming up. They didn't win, but they sure did try. They only had five guys there and the other team was filled with really big guys. They didn't lose by a whole lot though, so that was nice.

As you can see from the picture, we were all really excited to go to Disney on Ice. I bought tickets earlier this week, and we got VIP seats. That means I paid a lot of money to watch people dressed up skate around an ice rink. Anyway, the kids were all excited. I left my morning class early so that John could take off half a day of work to come home and help us get ready to go. All day the kids talked about it, we even borrowed a cape for Drew so he could be a Prince and Alexis could be the Princess. I started dinner in the crock pot so that when we came home we would have a nice hot dinner and we could relax the rest of the night. We left two hours early so that I could take a quiz at school and then stop by the Disney store to get Drew some Mickey ears. FYI - the Disney store does not sell Mickey ears, you have to call Disneyland and order them, how silly is that? Anyway, finally we were on the road. On the way up, John and I were talking about how I think it is more important to give your kids experiences than things, IE excessive toys. When we got there, we found some cheap parking, a block and a half away, and we unloaded everyone, coats, diaper bag, well you get the point. We walked to the Energy Solutions Arena and it was dark. Yes, the only people we saw were janitors. So, we looked at each other for a minute and John remembers that there is a Jazz game tonight, obviously it's going to be hard to watch people ice skating on a basketball floor. John runs to the car to see what our confirmation slip says, and he calls me and says: "You are a special spirit, boy have you done it this time." I'm thinking great, we're supposed to be at the E Center and now we aren't going to make it on time. Lo and behold, I have the wrong day. Yes, it's NEXT Friday. How special can one person get? Remember how I was telling John about experiences being important. Well, his next question is: "Since we're already here, can we go to the Jazz game?" How can you say no after that discussion? We ended up having to go buy Alexis a new shirt so that she didn't have to wear her princess dress to the game. I had Steph turn off our dinner, we went to a food court instead, and then we took them to their first Jazz game. They did really well. I think Madison liked it the best, she was so enthralled with all the sounds, colors and movements going on. Alexis and Drew loved the blow up bear that was knocking the refs on the head. Overall it was fun and exciting, but not exactly what we had planned for!

Halloween

We took the kids to Steph's work for trick or treating. They got some great candy, thanks Steph.

Alexis and Drew loved painting their pumpkins. Alexis was concentrating the entire time, it had to be just right. Drew in his Diego underwear, yes he's potty trained finally!!



Grandma Hakes taught Alexis how to head bang. Well, kind of. After we taught her how to dance while she was head banging, this is what we got. We found it hilarious!

Growing

Madison is getting so big. She is sitting in her little chair and she is can turn the little dial to make music and fun sounds. It's amazing that at only four months old she can be this cognizant of things around her. She also really wants to just sit, she just doesn't like being on her back anymore. Oh how quickly they grow.

Drew has an infection like thing on his leg that he doesn't like so much. The poor kid, he's such a trooper though. He loves to pick the movie that we are going to watch and is getting really good at saying "Jungle Book, Ariel, Pongo (101 Dalmations) and Baby Einstein, he can even give the name of which one he wants, Mozart, Animals, etc.

Alexis loves to say family prayer and she does such a good job. Tonight her prayer went something like this: I love girl scouts, I love boy scouts, thank you for today, I love Grandma, I love Stephanie, thank you for today, I love princesses & barbies, I love boys, thank you for today and so forth. It is so hard not to bust up laughing when she's praying. And when she's done, she says "I did a great prayer, huh? It was a long one!" It's fun to see them growing.

BYU Game & Well Child check-ups

John's Dad buys three season tickets to the BYU football games every year. This week was John's turn to go. His Mom & Dad went to Logan and weren't going to be back in time for the game so they gave all three tickets to John. Since we have two under two, they were free, which means we all were able to go!! We figured it was a once in a lifetime type of thing. It wasn't too bad, they were really good, not really entertained by the football itself much though. They were excited for the cotton candy and Alexis loved the band. Her favorite part was the drums. Drew's favorite part was probably the BYU song, he would clap along and roll his hands. Maddie Jo did well, she slept through the loud cheering and was happy when she was awake.


This is the face Alexis kept making. She kept asking if it was over.



Thursday we had Drew's two year and Madison's four month check-up. You know you've been at the Dr's too often when you don't have any questions for the Dr. and he doesn't have any for you!

Drew Madison
Height 34 in - 25% 26 in - 90%
Weight 24.6 lbs - 10% 16.6 lbs - 95%

All in all the visit wasn't too bad. Drew cried for a few seconds with each shot (3) and Madison only cried for a couple of minutes.

As a side note, John's fantasy basketball draft went really well, he's very excited.

More Drew

I got so busy on Tuesday and it hasn't slowed down so I forgot to post the new fun info. Tuesday afternoon Drew started whining again, like he always does. I wondered if maybe ALL his little whining episodes had to do with blood in his urine, so I ran him down to have it tested again. Lo and behold, there was blood again. Ah ha, this is why he is ALWAYS whining. So, we were referred to a urologist, who in turn referred us to a nephrologist (kidney dr.). We are still waiting for the nephrologist to call us to even set up an appointment, it's ridiculous all the hoops that you have to jump through just to get your kid into a specialist. Eric Hogenson, who is our regular Dr., doesn't have any clue why he would have this. However, I wonder if he has some ideas and just doesn't want to worry me with them. Anyway, we'll update you when we know more.

Drew's Cardiologist

We saw Dr. Day, a Cardiologist this morning and we have such wonderful news! Drew's heart is not what is causing any of his problems. He has PFO, Patent Foramen Ovale. When you're still in the womb you have a hole in your heart between the two upper chambers, when you're born, the hole closes, usually. Drew's foramen ovale is not open, but has a flap. This means that blood can switch sides, it increases his chances of having migraines, and if he has a blood clot it increases his chances of having a stroke. PFO is fixable, obviously it is heart surgery, which in and of itself has risks. There is no need to close the hole until or unless there are problems. It could still close on it's own but if it doesn't, 18% of the soldier aged population has a flap and they do just fine. Now we just have to figure out why he's getting blood in his urine and we should be good!!

Playing at the farm

Cheryl & Ryan invited us to go to a farm with them that was free admission. Who can argue with free? Well, it was free admission but if you wanted to pet the animals, ride the animals or anything else, it cost money. It was still fun and the kids loved it. I didn't get any pictures of them painting their ceramics, but they both painted a cute little ceramic that I'm hoping I can throw in the garbage before it gets smashed into my carpet.

This older gentleman had made a "train" for the kids to ride in. The only problem with it being called a train is that he was towing them behind a semi truck (picture below shows it) instead of an engine. It was adorable, and the kids loved it.


They had a petting zoo. It consisted of a tiny enclosed area with a newborn calf, some chickens, a couple of tiny goats and a couple of rabbits. Drew was more into touching things and getting up close and personal. Alexis is a little more cautious, however she loved the rabbit, too bad it didn't like the kids as much.


Alexis loved riding the pony and wanted to do it again. Too bad John and I aren't really into taking care of animals that big, she'd love to own one.

Whenever we want to get a picture of Drew looking at the camera I ask him "where's mommy's nose?" and he dutifully points. So, that is why he is pointing in this picture and a lot of other pictures that we haven't posted.

Drew LOVED the bees. They had them in this glass enclosure so you could see what they were doing, and Drew loved to point at them and say "bees, bzzzz". The lady thought it was cute that they were getting right up there next to them and enjoying, they weren't afraid at all.

Alexis was intrigued with the bees as well, but she had a healthier dose of apprehension than Drew did.

Drew decided that after his birthday he was done with pull-ups, he wanted to be a big boy and wear underwear. He's only had a few accidents this week, which is great and one night he woke up to go pee and then he peed when he woke up for the morning, so he had dry pants for one night!! Today he had another episode of screaming, which makes me think he had blood in his urine again, but I wasn't about to run to a hospital to find out that I was right and then have nothing done about it. Tuesday we go to the Cardiologist and then on Thursday he gets his last immunizations until Kindergarten. Hopefully somebody will give us something so that he doesn't have to keep suffering.
Madison is trying valiantly to roll-over. I'm so excited for her, but don't actually want her to do it yet because I know my life will completely end when she becomes mobile!
Alexis is loving preschool and missing Grandma Hakes, who moved to South Dakota last week. I don't know that she fully understands how far away it is even though we looked it up on map quest. Alexis has also gotten a serious attitude problem the last couple of weeks. She wants to be the boss and tell everyone what they should and shouldn't be doing and if they don't she gets mad and bops them one. Honestly, I don't know where she gets the hitting part, the attitude I'm sure we can all safely assume comes from her mom, oops! We still love her though, and she can be a big helper and sweetheart, especially if there is something in it for her.