Zoo Field Trip

The first preschool field trip was to the Boise Zoo. The kids had a lot of fun!

 It was almost impossible to get all six of them in one picture, as they were always running in opposite directions -- but somehow I got one of them all in the giant nest! Back to Front: Mia, Aubrie, Jake, Drew, Lexi, Braxton and his little brother Ryker.

Sept 23, 2015

Lightning McQueen Red

A few weeks after surgery, they removed his splint and gave him, as requested, a lightning McQueen red cast. He was quite nervous having his arm unprotected for just a bit, and seeing that they actually cut into his arm, but once he got his cast on, he was okay again.

 Sept 17, 2015

Picture Day

I always try to grab a couple pictures before sending her off to picture day at school -- just in case she gives them a funny smile -- I still have one with her hair curled and a smile! I'll admit, I almost got teary eyed after I took these, realizing how old she appeared. She's growing up on me too fast! She's  my beautiful, sweet, wonderful -- with a bit of sass in her-- daughter, and I love her so much :)

Sept 9, 2015

Pre-school!

Jake's first day of Pre-school! He's been so excited for school, especially since Emma started a few weeks before him. He was counting down the days (literally) until it was his turn. We're just doing a neighbor co-op preschool with 6 kids, and while it was a bit difficult trying to write letters and such with his newly broken arm, he's been doing great and loves it!

Meanwhile, I'm at home with this little cutie. In the beginning, it was oddly quite without Jake there. Now, I'm discovering, Lucas is pure trouble, too. 

 He loves putting things where they don't go, throwing anything and everything (resulting in crying siblings), getting into toilets, pantries, tupperware, dishwasher, and EVERYTHING  else.... He also loves being with Dad when he makes popcorn.

Sept 9, 2015

Bad Break

We had just brought Lucas home from the hospital on Sunday, and on Friday we had to rush back to the ER for Jake! He and Emma were playing on the tramp, forgot to zip the enclosure, and Jake fell off backwards out of that very exact spot. His elbow looked pretty deformed. The ER said it was a really bad dislocation, and a possible break. So they set it back into place, wrapped it, and told us to follow up with the orthopedic Dr. 

 His arm was still extremely swollen, and the ortho got an x-ray at the right angle to show the break -- requiring surgery. It was right along the growth plate on the condyle of his humerus bone , so we couldn't actually see how big the break was because the piece that broke off wasn't completely all bone yet.

We came in on Sept 2 for the surgery where they placed three pins. The Dr drew on the second picture to show how big the actual bone was that broke off. Ouch.  

Jake had a hard time coming out of the anesthesia, but once it wore off, he was back to himself again.

 I've been so amazed at how tough this little dude has been through this whole experience. He never complains of pain, or how he couldn't do a lot of his favorite activities, and having to learn to use his other hand to do everything. He'd always just say, "Mom can you help with this because I have a bad arm?" It was a pretty traumatic experience, and he was one tough cookie.

August 29-Sept 7, 2015

Potty Humor

You want to know one difference between boys and girls? When Jake used to unroll the toilet paper, Emma would immediately tell him "no no" and come tattle to me. Boys? I hear a whole bunch of laughs and giggles and find this. Partners in crime. Busted.

Aug 27, 2015

Respiratory Distress

Luke had a cold and was sounding terrible, and I was up with him all night trying to get him to sleep. At 6:30 am he started retracting at his neck and under his rib cage every time he took a breath, so he and I went to the ER. They couldn't get it to stop, so we were admitted. Unluckily for us, there weren't any peds beds open, so we had to ride the ambulance to another hospital -- his second ambulance trip in his short life. 

He was so exhausted from working so hard to breathe, he just kept falling asleep. He was extremely dehydrated from all the hard work, so it took them 5 tries to finally get an IV in. It took a couple days of breathing treatments, oxygen, antibiotics, and steroids to get his lungs to bounce back enough for us to go home -- but we still had to continue oxygen at night for a few days. He was diagnosed with asthma -- which seems to be triggered by colds, plus we had red air alerts from fires at the same time, which I'm sure aggravated it. Having a newly-walking one year old stuck in a bed covered with wires and tubes was definitely not a fun experience, but so relieved he's okay and we know what's going on so we can hopefully prevent this in the future.

Aug 21-23, 2015

2nd Grade!

Emma's first day of Second grade!

We were all prepared to return to Prospect Elementary in another week, when Compass Public Charter School (that we had entered into their lottery earlier, but was #18 on their waiting list, so chances were non-existent) anyway... they called on a Thursday night and said they had an opening and that school started that Monday. Emma was surprisingly okay with it, and excited as always to start school and meet new friends. So far so good. Seems like a great school, Emma's great at making new friends, and still has some neighborhood friends from Prospect that she plays with. 

Aug 17, 2015

Random Fun

The boys love Thursdays because that's when the "lawn mower, weed wacker, and leaf blower" come. They both plaster themselves against the back door watching, and when they leave, Jake grabs any toy (regardless of size or shape) and pretends it's a faster lawn mower. 

 Luke takes any opportunity he can to be outside. He particularly likes to play in the kids' squirt gun refill bucket. He always ends up drenched, but so happy. Don't mind the toddler drowning warning placed in clear sight on the bucket.... mom fail.

 On our last visit, I was able to convince Jake to try the go-karts at Wahooz. I told him I wouldn't go too fast... I may have lied, and floored it the whole time. The things won't go that fast anyway, and he keeps asking to go back, so lying pays off sometimes. Don't tell my kids. Here's our second trip, and he wanted a turn to ride with Dad. Jake enjoys it, but I think Brad loves it.

 Us girls took a turn too -- I'll have to grab those pictures from Brad's phone later. 

Luke loves to give hugs, so when he saw Emma and Jake wrestling, he joined in for some snuggles :). Jake and Emma weren't so sure about their wrestling match being turned into a love pile.

And Luke discovers the foam pit at Jump Time. He repeatedly kept walking in every chance he could get. (Oh -- and as proof with this video, he's walking! He started probably a week or two before this.)

August 6-17, 2015

The Wight kind of Fun

I love that the kids enjoy crawling up to sit on and talk to Grandpa Bill about his gadgets and try out his guitar. Emma loves to play dominoes with Grandpa, and he always has some sort of treat ready for them when we visit.

 Lucas isn't quite there yet, but I'm sure with the next visit and mentions of ice-cream, he'll come around and Grandpa will be fully smothered. 

A quick cousin shot with the Gary Wight kids.

 And re-creation of Emma and Jonathan's Blessing day! Love it!

July 31, Aug 1, 2015

Giraffes and Butterflies

Trying to sneak in a few more family field trips before schools starts, so we headed to the zoo! The kids were able to feed the giraffes, which was pretty cool. We've had issues with whining and being sad about ridiculous things, so if we catch the kids doing it, they have to pretend to be an animal -- which usually results in laughing which changes their attitude. Jake's favorite for a while was being a giraffe -- sticking his tongue out as far as he could -- it must have made quite the impression when that big twisty tongue shot out to grab his piece of lettuce!

 None of us had ever been in a butterfly cage before, and turned out to be really fun. This and the giraffes were their favorite things. Butterflies were everywhere and kept landing on us.

 We were under strict orders not to touch the butterflies, but with a one year old that doesn't work very well... I had about three on me when taking this picture, but Luke kept trying to poke them. (No butterflies were harmed...hopefully... they all seemed to flutter off just fine...)

July 27, 2015