SorensonFam

8 Months Old

2012-01-23T17:05:00.010-07:00

It is hard to believe that today is Zuri's 8 month birthday. Time really has been passing quickly. She has changed quite a bit this month and even in just the last few weeks.

On January 7th we realized that she was a full flegde unassisted sitter. She still has the occasional topple but does a pretty great job. She can even bend for toys and then go back in to a balanced sit. She has also been seen scooting forward in an army crawl type poition a few times so I think we might not be all that far off from crawling. I'm not looking forward to the new challenges that will bring us, but perhaps being able to follow me from place to place will help with the separation anxiety we've been dealing with every time I walk in to the kitchen or go to the bathroom. Another favorite trick is waving to everyone and saying "ma-ma". At this point I think "ma-ma" is really more of a sound than a refference to me, but I'll take it all the same. There have been a few "da-da" too, but there are harder to come by at this point.

A few weeks ago we tried puffs for the first time and she LOVES them and hasn't been able to get enough of them since. She can pick those little things up and throw them in her mouth pretty fast. We've offered her a sippy a few times but it hasn't clicked much yet. I like to have the kids 100% switched over around their 1st birthdays so it is something to work on. She's done pretty well with baby food and seems to be getting less and less excited about her bottle. We need to start working on introducing her to more of the soft real foods because she is desperate to have whatever the rest of us do most of the time now.

Right after the holidays we officially moved her out of the infant car seat- we were well past due with feet hanging over the edge, but I hate not having that thing for grocery carts etc. She seems to like sitting in the big carseat where she has a better view of her brother in the 3rd row making funny faces at her. Those belley laughs as we are driving down the road are pretty fun.

Zuri is still taking 2 naps a day- 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon and sleeping at night from 8pm-7am. We love our good little sleepers and are so grateful for them. We work hard when they are little to keep them on sleep track so when it is 8pm and they are all out for the night it is wonderful.

Despite starting off the new year with a double ear infection, a crummy cold/ cough thing, and the her 1st ever throw-ups she continues to be pretty sweet and smiley most of the time. It is a fun age!

*I love this shirt she is wearing. My Mom ordered it for her (and ones in different colors for my 2 cousins baby girls) for Christmas.

Dance Class for Rori

2012-01-23T16:35:00.007-07:00

Rori started a dance class today. She is super excited about it and did really well. It is going to be very cute. There are 3 other little girls from Church in the class and we had a few other familiar faces as well. The teacher has been teaching for years and is apparently VERY popular. We really debated putting Rori in the class since it means we will have to pull her out of school to do it, but it amazingly happens to be at the rec center right next to her school and is only for 1 hour every Monday. At school they normally have lunch and playground at that time so that is all she will be missing. We think it will be a great opportunity to have her be with friends that set a good speech example. Her school teacher thought it was a good idea too so we are very excited. Rori and Kai didn't have school today due to staff development so it was a nice way to start. Next week will be more interesting as I try to change her in and out of a leotard and tights, get her to eat something, and transport her back and forth in a small window- with Zuri in tow mind you. Should be fun!

Peeking Through the Glass:

Twninners Kinzie & Rori:

Dum Dum Lolipops at the End Were a Big Hit with All the Girls From Church:

Another 1 "Bites" the Dust

2012-01-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

Tooth #2 finally came out. The kids had today off school so Kai was able to get in a lot of extra wiggling on his tooth that has been loose for forever and was just barely hanging there. He's pretty thrilled about it. The look on his face the first few seconds after it came out was great- a little bit of panic combined with excitement. Next up are probably the two top front teeth which should be pretty funny. Here's hoping the tooth fairy doesn't forget about us tonight.

So Far in the New Year

2012-01-17T17:03:00.011-07:00

We're slowly but surely getting reorganized with life in the new year. New toys and gifts from Christmas have found spots to live, everyone is back in school (L just this week), the new year to do list is slowly crossing off and adding things, we have a few Valentine decorations up which means our brains are moving forward, and we've even gotten around to starting a few organizing projects around the house.

In the midst of all of that we've....

...continued to have frequent visits from Batman and Batgirl.

...watched rockets full of astronauts take off around the house.

...had dinner with my college roomie Jamie and family. They are expecting baby boy #2 any minute now so it was fun to get in a quick dinner.

...checked out another new playground they put in about 5 minutes from our house. It was a super windy day so we'll have to go back again soon, but this was my first experience with a playground with electronic built in toys????? It also looks like it will have quite the splash pad though which will be great for another option in the heat.

...battled illness. Got to love January for always bringing out the sick. So far this year we've had a double ear infection, a minor case of allergy based hives, the throw-ups, lingering drippy nose, a little bit of eye goop upon waking, and a slight fever - and we're only a few weeks in to the year. It was bound to happen. I've actually been amazed that we've been as healthy as we have with a preschooler and a kindergartner. Last week Kai and Rori had there 1st school absences due to illness. It was the 1st day for Kai from this year and last year. I knew it was coming though when he came home last Monday and vividly told me all about the kid who sits next to him puking all over his white board in class. Colds are annoying but throw-up is what I dread. Thankfully it lasted less than 24 hours for Kai, but looks like he shared it with Rori. Now we just wait to see if it hits the rest of us.

New Primary Classes

2012-01-17T16:41:00.005-07:00

We were still in UT the 1st Sunday of the new year so it wasn't until the 2nd week that the kids got to go to their new Primary classes at Church.

Kai moved up to CTR 6. He is excited to be in the oldest class in the JR Primary here. There are two classes of his age group so you always wonder about friends getting switched up, new teachers and things, but as usual no complaints from this kid. He just seemed to happily go with the change.

The big news though is Rori moved out of Nursery and in to Sunbeams. We can't imagine that she can really be old enough to go to Primary, but so far so good. She just followed Kai right in there the 1st day and never looked back. There are also 2 classes for her age group so we were thrilled to learn that she and best red headed buddy Kinzie are in the same class. Being the youngest group she gets to sit in the front row which I think she thinks is great. It is also pretty fun to get to be in there with Kai.

Zuri still gets to be with Mom and Dad until she is old enough for Nursery at 18 months. She is pleased with this as she isn't big on Mom being out of her sight lately.

Christmas 2011- SLC

2012-01-05T20:54:00.020-07:00

We had debated going or not going to SLC this year at Christmas time. We love going but wondered if it would just be too much. It is really fun having such great places (San Diego & SLC) to be at during Christmas time, but going to both means a lot of coordination and driving in a pretty small window of time. We also have a baby and a lot going on in life this particular winter, so we debated. Lance's sweet parents had volunteered to come to us in Vegas, but in the end we decided to go and we are really glad we did.

There is just something so special about SLC at Christmas time. This was a bit of a strange trip though because there was virtually no snow. The kids would have loved some to play in, but it did make the driving and overall bundling quite a bit easier which was nice. We got to be there for cousin Kennedy's 7th birthday, go to our old Church in SLC, see a few Salt Lake friends, hang out with Lance's parents and Tyler and Kimberley and the cousins, and just breathe in some mountain air. Kai and Rori also got to check out the new dinosaur museum with Grandma, Grandpa, Kennedy and Jack which sounded pretty awesome. We sure love playing with these cousins and miss living close to them.

Another big highlight was we got to have dinner and go see the Temple Lights with the Wadsworth's (who drove down from ID) and the Reed's (who were also up from Vegas). The Wadsworth's are expecting #3 very soon and it's a GIRL! We are so excited for them. It was fun to see all these buddies jump right back in to hanging out again. Man how we miss the Wadsworth's being in Vegas.

The only bad part of our trip was poor little Zuri was feeling crummy. She started to cough on the drive there from Vegas and I knew that wasn't good. The first night she was up several times thanks to the cough. The second night she never slept for more than 10 minutes at a time for the whole night. One of us had to be holding her all the time in an upright position. Poor little thing was miserable and I was confident I knew the problem since her getting up in the night and especially being fussy was highly unusual. Sure enough after a trip to Instacare the next day we were given an antibiotic for a double ear infection. The only other time we've had a kid up in the night like that was due to an ear infection so I was hoping that was the problem. I say hoping because our experience has been that medicine provides relief from ear infections pretty quickly. It did seem to help her pretty fast and we've thankfully been back on track for sleeping. Poor kid also seemed to be have 2 more teeth cutting through during all of that as well.

We were able to wait until Monday to go back so it was extra nice to have the whole day Sunday to be there and just hang out and visit at Lance's parents. Going to Salt Lake still causes us some strong homesick pangs, but we're so glad we were able to fit this trip in.

Christmas 2011 - San Diego

2012-01-05T20:37:00.028-07:00

We headed down to San Diego this year for Christmas. We hadn't been there since July so we were all extra excited to soak in a little San Diego time. The weather was perfect and everyone had a blast. In addition to the Christmas festivites we got in a trip to Sea World with the Holiday Bowl teams, some golf on the putting range, some shopping, and lots of playing with Grandma and Grandpa.

Our kids were more than spoiled with Christmas love this year from Santa and many others. It was the Christmas of Batman, Strawberry Shortcake, and a big suprise. When we got to San Diego on Thursday night they were allowed to open up one present early- an XBox Kinect. The Kinect provided tons of entertainment for eveyone over the next few days. The kids had a blast playing sports and dancing with grandma and grandpa. They would be dripping with sweat from all the exercise since you use your body instead of a controller which is pretty cool.

Zuri was at a super cute age for her 1st Christmas. She was alert enough to watch all the excitement of her siblings and enjoy some good paper tearing. She also seemed to really enjoy having someone willing and able to love on her at any time.

We all had a wonderful sunny CA Christmas which was finished off with an afternoon seashell hunt on the beach!

7 Months Old

2011-12-23T21:32:00.003-07:00

Zuri turned 7 months old today. The months have just been flying by with this little one. She is such good baby- Hooray! Most of the time she's very content just going with the flow of all the chaos around her. She is also so happy and social. This is such a cut and fun age.

On her 5 month birthday her 2 bottom teeth poked through at the same time. Then just last week we felt her top 2 teeth coming through together. She desperately wants to eat what the rest of us are eating so the teeth are a good move in that direction.

A few weeks ago we finally moved her in to her own room in the crib -we wanted to move her in with Rori, but we've been nervous about them waking each other up. So to do this Lance had to agree to share his office space with Zuri. The poor kid has been stuck in the pack-in-play in our walk-in closet up until now. Since the move she has been sleeping great so it seems like she is enjoying a little more cushion and room to stretch.

She's also rolling all over the place and sitting with minimal assistance. I think she'll have the sitting thing all by herself figured out pretty soon here. Sometimes we catch her sitting up in her bouncy seat instead of reclining which is pretty funny.

We just can't love this little girl enough. It is so much fun to watch her little personality developing. If we could pause time I think this would be one of the ages we would choose to stay on for a time.

Holiday Fun

2011-12-21T22:11:00.001-07:00

We've been enjoying getting ready for Christmas this year. Kai and Rori are so excited about everything related to Christmas which makes it all extra fun. Zuri is also big enough to enjoy the lights, songs etc. They are all at fun ages.

Our Elf on the Shelf "Elfie" has been visiting us again this year. I'm amazed that he can still find so many new places to hide all the time. My favorite this year just might be him hanging upside down out the fridge ice and water dispensor. It's quite a shock to find him like that as you enter the kitchen first thing in the morning. He had a slighly scary run in with a light bulb this year, but I'm happy to say he's lived to tell about it.

We've made and eaten different holiday treats, worked on several crafts, checked out a few light displays, studied the toy ads, visited with Santa a few times, gone to several holiday parties (2 Church, Eveyones Schools, L Work, AGBell), checked out the Christmas display at the Bellagio, read and chatted about Jesus birth, and on and on. Here are some of the photo documented activites.

AGBell Party:

*Note where Rori chose to be in this photo. She's very friendly to Santa- from a small distance.

Rori's School Party:

*Note that Rori is still not on Santa's lap. Mom and Zuri had to join in the photo to get Rori to participate.
*Also note how awesome this Santa was.

*Taken immediately after the above photo:

Bellagio:

The District:

Ethel M. Chocolate Factory Lights:

Next up....the big day!

Quick Trip To Cali

2011-12-21T21:57:00.008-07:00

Last week we made a super fast trip to LA. Lance had to make a court appearance on a Monday morning so we headed out Sunday. Our downtown hotel room looked out over a courtyard that was decorated really pretty for the holidays that we enjoyed exploring.

We got to tag along with Lance on this adventure because we had the opportunity to have an appointment at the John Tracy Clinic for Rori. This is the place that I have been taking a class from with other people here in Vegas. It is an AMAZING place so it was super cool to get to see it in person. JTC is the leading diagnostic and oral education center for young children with hearing loss.

We were super lucky that they were willing and able to get us in. We spent the first 1 1/2 hours meeting with the lady who teaches my class via sattelite. It was great to have her meet with Rori and the rest of us and really give us hands on advice and observation of Rori. None of it is brain science, but we are learning how to really think about ways we can expose Rori to language in everything that we do. Things like - it is easier for Rori to hear a high frequency sound in a word if we are close to her and whisper it. Your natural instict is to say it louder, but softer actually helps those sounds stand out more. Anyway, things like that...

The last 3 hours or so we had the opportunity to have Rori's hearing tested by the incredible audiologist at the John Tracy Clinic. This was such a huge blessing that they were willing to fit us in. They tested Rori without her hearing aids, with her hearing aids, and generally checked her hearing aids. There were 2 people working with her at a time and it was a well oiled machine. They worked quickly but super efficiently and had lots of games to keep Rori perfectly on task. Rori was a superstar and I was so pleased because I knew that that meant they were really getting accurate results.

We learned a ton from those results. Most significantly:
1) Rori's hearing at the low frequencies is at a fairly normal level. That means she hears most things pretty well which is great. Her hearing at the high frequecies is where the issue is and that cause the clarity issues on lots of words as she is trying to pronounce them. We knew that the high frequecies were the issue going in, but what we learned at this test was precisely where the issues are. The loss of those sounds is more of a severe to profound loss which is more than we had been told previously. What that means is she has been doing pretty awesome compensating.

2)Especially since.....Rori's hearing aids hadn't previously been set at a level that was really doing much of anything for her. We had sort of suspected this, but it still was super annoying to have this confirmed. Big thanks to the school district audiologist for screwing that up royaly. I wonder how many other kids she's been so wrong on that don't have parents able to seek out other resources. So basically the hearing aids were making those low frequency sounds a bit louder for her (the ones she hears well to start with), and not doing anything for the high frequency sounds that she needs the help with. Awesome, huh?

So the good news from that bad news is Rori has really taken off over the last few months with her speech. Now we clearly know that this doesn't have much to do with the hearing aids, but is likely more due to school, getting older, and us gaining knowledge about things. So, that makes me even more excited for her to have her hearing aids actually doing something to see what that does for her.

Unfortunatley, the John Tracy Clinic couldn't re-set her brand of hearing aids that day, but they sent us back to Vegas with the test results so someone here could. 2 days later I got her in to someone and he reset them. A few things were off at that appointment though and I left feeling a little uneasy. Fast forward to the weekend and Rori keeps complaining about the hearing aids which normally she doesn't do at all. We're not sure if it is just because they've changed the settings, or??? F

Finally, I call another local audiologist that some kids in her school class go to and they thankfully agree to get Rori in today. Keep in mind that this is the 4th audiologist and that isn't counting ENT's etc. End conclusion of today was the 1st guy last week didn't do it correclty. The lady today adjusted them and then gave Rori a mini test with them on and then adjusted them a bit more. So the rest of today she's seemed ok with them. We'll be keeping a close eye on her and seeing if they seem ok. I'll be curious to see what her teacher thinks after the break.

So the lessons learned from all of this are:
1) Listen to your parent instinct.
2) Be determined and thurough even when others might start to think that you are neurotic
3) Come to grips with the fact that with all the technology that we have in this world today that hearing evaluation and hearing aid setting are so archaic.

The journey continues...it has already been long and twisted...undoubtedly there is much ahead...sometimes it is horribly frustrating...and sometimes it is encouraging and inspiring...but it is leading us to new amazing people and experiences and growth...and today we know more...and knowledge is power that feels good and strong...and now we finally feel like we are getting somewhere and that is such a relief.

*Here is a cool article about a JTC alum.

1st Fieldtrip

2011-12-07T22:23:00.005-07:00

Rori had her 1st school fieldtrip. They went to a place called Spring Preserve. The most exciting part may have just been riding the bus. They had a lot of fun despite that it was a super cold day.

Getting Ready to Go:

Who Knew Buses Have Seat Belts for Preschoolers?:

Christmas Is Coming Rapidly

2011-12-07T21:59:00.013-07:00

Christmas seems to be flying towards us. We're already well in to the throws of Holiday parties, crafts, music etc. We put up the decorations last week and then got the tree up this past weekend. Kai and Rori put up all the ornaments themselves this year. This largely explains why 1 side of the tree is a little more heavily decorated at about waist level. They did a good job though and really loved each and every ornament. Almost all the ornaments on our tree have some special meaning and I love that. We have a lots of picture ornaments (1 from the year we got married and 1 for every year since Kai was born of the kdis). These are by far all of our favorites. The kids think it is super fun to look back at themselves when they were little. We had a sudden cold spell here in Vegas which has helped to make it even feel a little more like Christmas. This has allowed Zuri to sport the famous snowman Chirstmas sweater that Kai and Rori both also wore for their first Christmas.

Z with Teddis

2011-12-07T21:50:00.003-07:00

Teddis was Lance's Teddy Bear growing up. He currently lives in Kai's room. Zuri thought he was pretty funny. Those 2 teeth popped out together on her 5 month birthday.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-24T22:24:00.002-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Grandma, Grandpa, and Whitney came to visit us for Thanksgiving. It has been fun to give them a peak at the kids schools and soak in some quality time together. There has been lots of dress up, pretend play, borrowing of the IPad, yummy meal.....

Lance was the official Turkey cooker again this year and he did a great job. The house smelled so good leading up to our mid afternoon meal. After eating, and a little rest we took everyone on a quick trip over to the Bellagio to check out the garden and the water show. I think everyone really enjoyed it.

We have much to be thankful for from the past 12 months- especially things like Miss Zuri coming to our family, greater clarity in the Rori story and particularly her school, Kai's experience in full day K, Lance's work and school working together well, and really so many other wonderful gifts.

6 Months Old

2011-11-23T21:44:00.001-07:00

We can't believe that Zuri is 6 months old. She is such a sweet little thing. In the last few weeks she has been so easy going and happy. She grins at everyone she sees, is so patient when she is being lugged around from thing to thing, and has been a lot more content about playing on her own for longer spells. She's had a few later than usual bedtimes lately because she is just too much fun and cute when we are making her laugh and babble away. This past month she has tried out a lot more new tastes and is starting to take off more on food. She is also much more aware of things around her. She adores Kai and Rori and can often be heard laughing with them in the back of the car. This age is soooo much fun! We just can't kiss her enough!

Happy Birthday to Lance

2011-11-22T21:57:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to a great Daddy and Husband! Lance is doing a pretty amazing job balancing lots of different hats these days. We are very proud of him and grateful for all that he does for our family. We love you Lance!

November Get Away

2011-11-14T22:57:00.018-07:00

The kids had school off last Thursday and Friday so we decided that we should take a little get away before things get crazy again with school finals and holiday activities. We debated what to do and finally happily agreed to meet up in St. George with Lance's parents for a few days. They were so nice to drive down and spend some time with us. We had a great time being with them and having a little time away. My history with St. George is passing through on the way to SLC and Easter where we have our traditional things we like to do. So, this was a fun trip because we got to do a few new things along with hitting a few of our regular favorites. The kids had a blast swimming in the indoor pool, checking out real dinosaur foot prints, doing a mini hike in beautiful fall colored Zion to Weeping Wall, playing with Grandpa's new Ipad, checking out some historic sights, hitting some golf balls with grandpa and Dad, and just getting lots of love and attention from grandma and grandpa. An added plus was we got to see the Wilkinsons who had just gotten in to town for a quick lunch on our way out of St. George. It was fun to catch a glimpse of baby Connor who is now 3 months old. We had a great time and are looking forward to our next trip there already. It is amazing how we can drive for 1 1/2 hours and be in such a different place.

On Our Dinosaur Prints Hunt:

*Rori looking a little concerned that me might encounter an actual dinosaur.

*Kai's left hand is in one of the prints.

Checking Out an Old Historic Fort:

Zion Extra Beautiful with the Fall Colors:

On the Way Home

2011-11-14T22:50:00.003-07:00

This is what I saw when I looked back in the car the other day on the way home from school. She has hot lunch most days but we pack her a lunch box with a few snacks that usually get eaten on the way home. This girl sure makes me laugh.

Soccer 2011

2011-11-14T22:04:00.006-07:00

We just wrapped up another season of soccer for Kai. He had a good time and really seemed to like the kids on his team. Every year we debate if we should sign him up or not since soccer can be rather dominating of time, but I'm glad we did.

This year was sort of a different experience. They place kids on teams based on their birthdays so Kai was one of the youngest on a team made up of 6 year olds (by the end of September), 7 year olds, and even some 8 year olds who had birthdays during the season I guess). That seemed like a HUGE age difference to me. Some of the kids just looked and seemd SOOO much older. With that said when the lined up by height to pass out jerseys Kai was 2nd to tallest on his team so he probably looks older to most people anyway.

Despite being one of the younger ones Kai did really well. For most of the season he and the tallest/ oldest kid in the team picture were the only ones who scored goals. This was really a change for Kai from past seasons where he might occasionally score but for the most part seemed to be more of a defensivly minded player. It was fun seeing this light switch turn on in him with this new offensive determination. It was also interesting to look over at the field next to his and see some kids in his school class born after September playing on a smaller field at a much different level of play. It seems like if he wants to play sports later on in life in school this has the opportunity to be a large confidence booster for him which we think is great.

As you can see he was back on a red jersey team this year. So far he's been on 2 red teams and 2 orange teams. There are several other colors in the leagues he's played in but for some reason he's always ended up with one of these. This year he was on the team named "The Mini-Rebels".

It was super hot, and then super cold and windy, and then just about right the last 2games. So it goes in Vegas. Lance spent most of the games watching from the sides while kicking an extra ball back and forth with Rori. She has already gotten quite good at dribbling the ball while running at full speed. I spent most of the games trying to shield Zuri from the sun or the wind. Zuri seemed to enjoy the games though- or maybe it was just all the people cheering, kids running, and this stuff called grass that we don't see much of here in Vegas.

Our good camera ended up being in the shop most of soccer season so these are taken at picture day before practice one night with our dinky old camera. Here is Kai with a few buddies from the team.

Sam and Kai are in the same Primary class together at Church. They just moved in so we got to know them at soccer which was fun. On a random side note his Mom works full time as a sign language interpretor. We've had some interesting talks about hearing at practices as you might imagine. Funny how you get certain people placed in your life at precise times.

This picture is of Kai with his new friend Lucas. We had never met Lucas before but after the boys hit it off at practice we came to learn that his family also meets in our Church building but at another time. We're going to have to get the boys together sometime to play because Lucas was very sweet.

So all in all I think Kai had a good experience, developled some more skills in soccer, and made some new friends. Now we will happily welcome back some soccer free Saturdays (and practice nights) for a time.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T22:53:00.025-06:00

We've had another fun marathon Halloween. Highlights this year included the school Fall Festival, Ward Trunk or Treating, Mom and Zuri helping out in Rori's Monster Bowl Halloween activity at school, Mom and Zuri helping out in Kai's school Halloween party day, Dad attending Rori's Halloween pizza and treat party, and finally doing a little trick or treating in our own neighborhood. We are grateful that for Lance's class tonight they had them turn in their papers and then let them have the night off. Now if only we can manage enough energy to get through the rest of the week- silly having Halloween on a Monday. I'm all for Halloween getting switched to be the last Saturday of October every year.

Astronaut (there has been lots of talk about space and NASA at out house for months):

Cupcake (she picked it and stuck to it never wavering):

Butterfly (Our 2nd baby girl to use this costume):

AGBell Bowling

2011-10-31T21:46:00.011-06:00

I've been attending some meetings for parents of preschoolers with the NV chapter of AGBell to get more ideas about ways we can better be on top of things with Rori and her hearing. AGBell stands for the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. I've started attending this night class with them that is every other week and is broadcast from the John Tracy Clinic in Los Angeles. It is pretty amazing to be able to teleconference and directly ask questions and talk with an expert there. Technology is pretty incredible. I'm learning how to better be an advocate for Rori and getting some better understanding about the correlation between hearing and receptive and expressive language. It also gives me an opportunity to be with other parents (a few are even other parents from Rori's class). The ongoing struggle for us is figuring out what applies to us and thus where we fit since Rori's hearing loss is not severe. I think this will be an ongoing balance throughout this journey.

This past Saturday AGBell held a bowling fundraiser that we attended as a family. Rori was one of the recipients of her very own bowling ball and bag that she got to pick out a week ago which was so nice. She and Kai LOVED the bowling and had a blast. It was nice to meet some more families and to get to meet kids of all ages that have varying degrees of hearing issues. Throughout my life with my sister I've witnessed that other parents are one of the biggest and best resources for guidance and advice. I know that you can learn so much from those who have been through it before you. So we are glad to support AGBell and have them as a wonderful resource.

Rori and Lance with her ball and bag that she picked out.

Rori being filmed by a local news channel doing a piece on the event. She wasn't nearly as concerned about taking turns or which lane she was supposed to be on as say her brother.

Kai was very serious and dedicated to his bowling game. :)

This is Rori and her buddy from school Peyton. They just moved back to Henderson from UT. Peyton's Mom, Ashlie and I have become friends as we get to chat everyday at school pick-up. Peyton is just a couple of months older than Rori. He and his older brother Jack both have cochlear implants. Their older sister Addy and Zuri also share the same birthday which is fun. As you can see Peyton is super cute.

This is Kai and Peyton's brother, Jack. The boys are the same age and both in Kindergarten this year. They've had fun hanging out together a few times at various things like this.

This is Rori's teacher and a few of the other kids from her class that were at the bowling event. I thought it was super cool of her teacher to give up her Saturday and attend.

Dress Up

2011-10-31T21:40:00.003-06:00

5 Months Old

2011-10-23T23:18:00.002-06:00

This last month has gone by super fast filled with busy weeks and weekends. Zuri has been pretty patient about being dragged along to all the various appointments, school drop-off's & pick-ups, soccer practices and games, and on and on.

She is this super smiley little thing that loves to flirt with everyone who gives her any attention. She is enjoying introducing some solid foods in to her diet, sitting in the bumbo chair, and immediately flipping from her stomach to her back (the back to stomach still isn't very consistent yet).

Kai and Rori just can't get enough of her and she is generally pretty thrilled by them as well. We gave her a little hair trim last week but we still get tons of comments about her long hair. Most notable about the hair recently though is how light it is starting to come in in the front. It will be fun to see what it does.

Zuri is still stirring a little earlier than we would like in the morning sometimes, but if we pop the binky back in she usually will quiet back down. I think she likes being with us (she sleeps in the walk-in master closet) and knows that if she ever settles back in to being a consistent non-waker she's getting the boot and moving in with Rori. We've never had a kid in with us this long and maybe that is part of the issue.

Our favorite thing with Zuri right now is to lay her on her back and tickle and blow rasberries on her. She just laughs and laughs which makes all the rest of us laugh. We sure love this little girl.

Let the Eating Begin

2011-10-23T21:26:00.005-06:00

Zuri enjoyed her first taste of rice cereal a couple of weeks ago and then sweet potatoes this last week.

She wasn't too sure about it that first night of rice cereal but has been gobbling it all up ever since. This little girl was way ready to start getting in to the good stuff. She watches every bite the rest of us take and even swats at our plates or food in our hands if we let her get too close. She's kind of a skinny mini these days (for being so super tall) so we're hoping it will help her chunk up a little. Next up is probably squash. Yummy!

Tooth Fairy Visit

2011-10-06T00:01:00.004-06:00

The tooth fairy was FINALLY able to make a stop at our house. Kai has been dying to lose a tooth, so when he finally got a wiggler on the bottom he was thrilled. He wiggled that tooth for all it was worth and ate as many apples as possible for weeks. Then on September 25 he was having an after dinner apple snack on the couch and that sucker popped right out. He pulled it out of his mouth and looked at me with the largest eyes you've ever seen. That night the tooth fairy came and left him some coins and a 1st lost tooth certificate. He went to school the next day proudly displaying his new gap.

Lately

2011-10-05T23:36:00.007-06:00

Somehow we've jumped in to October. I guess that is what happens when your days are busy with school drop off's and pick up's and errands and baby naps and feedings smashed in the middle. Everyone (including Lance) seem to be enjoying school. That is one of the many things I am currently very grateful for. We are also grateful that Lance's parents made a quick trip down to visit us this weekend. It was great to be with them and fun that they got to see some of Kai's 1st soccer game of the season. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of their trip or soccer due to my camera having some issues. I will be very grateful when the camera is back up and running. Before the camera issues we did get these random shots from over the last few weeks.

4 Months Old

2011-09-23T15:43:00.007-06:00

Miss Zuri turned 4 months old today. She is one cute little thing that gives us lots of big smiles and cooing. She thoroughly enjoys the attention she gathers everywhere we go when she flashes her smiles around. We also get a lot of comments on her long wisps of hair. We are in full swing of that awkward baby hair stage- short on top, long at the crown, little bit of mullet in the back. :) I need to do some trimming, but we waited so long for Rori to get any hair that it is hard to take away any of Zuri's. The long hair is dark, but the new stuff coming in looks like it might be light.

She still likes to be held and have Mommy or Daddy in site a little more than we would prefer, but we are getting a bit more breaks from the play mat, swing, and bouncy seat. She has spent quite a lot of time being shuffled around in the car seat over the last few weeks as we've been figuring out the school routine with Kai and Rori. I'm hoping this will help her learn to like the car seat a little better. Her hands are in her mouth quite a lot these days. This plus an occasional first drippy nose and lots of drooling make us wonder if the teething process is beginning.

Our great sleeper has decided to mess with Mom and Dad some over the last few weeks. We've been trying to determine if this is due to the possible beginning of teething, or due to us having to alter her nap schedule due to the other kids school, or due to the fact that she's sleeping with a binky, or due to the fact that she might be thinking about starting to try some food other than milk, or due to the fact that she seems to like to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, or due to the fact that we are still swaddling her, etc.

Fortunately the immediate solutions of popping back in the binky or a quick diaper change in the dark is all it has required. Not a huge deal unless she decides to do this several times in one night which she has done a few times. I know we have been extremely blessed by her sleeping so well up until this point, but it has been a little extra frustrating because she did do it so well for so long. Next we will try taking out her 10:30pm feed and not popping the binky back in. Then we can deal with not being swaddled, her rolling over and waking herself up, and all the other things that can mess up sleep as they come. This is one of the tricky things about the newborn stage for me. Things can so quickly go awry and figuring out why isn't always easy. Lance and I have both commented that it is hard to be frustrated with her for too long because she's really good at flashing you a huge grin- even in the middle of the night.

After one particularly long night last week I heard this song for the first time on the radio on the way to school.

It won't be like this for long applies to lots of different aspects of life. Sometimes you want to speed through parts and other times you just want to soak in the moment. Who knew Hootie sings country now? Well probably lots of people other than me. :)

We love this little one and are excited to be watching her develop more and more in to her own little personality.

Here are Zuri's 4 month stats:

Height: 26 inches; 97%

Weight: 14.3lbs; 55%
(she's dropped % quite a bit in weight to be right on target with the %'s of her siblings at a similar age.)

What Do You Think?

2011-09-03T21:54:00.004-06:00

People keep saying how much Zuri looks like Kai or Rori when they were her age? Here is a picture of each at around 3 months old.

Kai:

Rori:

Zuri:

1st Day of Preschool 2011

2011-09-02T21:00:00.004-06:00

Rori had her first day of preschool today. She has been so excited to go to school just like Kai. I wondered if her excitement would fade when it was time for me to leave, but she did great and wasn't phased at all. When I said goodbye to her she said "Bye Mom" and went skipping off hand in hand with a new friend from her class that she had just made.

This is the next big step of the Rori Story we've been on this year. When Rori turned 3 a few weeks ago she graduated out of the Early Intervention program and in to the school districts jurisdiction. In anticipation of this Rori was evaluated by several people from the district over the summer- speech therapist, nurse, school psychologist, hard of hearing coordinator, etc. Then this Tuesday we met with all of them to do her official IEP where they would tell us what services the school district would be willing to provide her based on her hearing.

We feel good about the outcome of the IEP as they accepted her in to the program that we had been hoping for. It is a language intensive preschool for kids who wear hearing aids. There are currently 7 kids in the class counting Rori (they can have up to 9) with one teacher and 1 full time aid. They also currently have 1 little girl in the class that is a "typical hearing" student who is there to be a good speech example. She is the one Rori went skipping off with. We met with the teacher yesterday and I thought she seemed great. She was enthusiastic and appeared to be very organized which speaks to me.

The good news bad news is that she will go to school M-F from 9:10 - 1:10pm. I know it is going to be so good for her, but I'm selfishly going to miss my time with her. I'm sure I'll be posting more about all the cool things she will do in this class in upcoming posts, but so far everything we've seen looks awesome. They will be academically prepping the kids just like any other preschool, but in addition the teachers are trained to specifically work with kids with hearing issues (who aren't deaf) to help expose them to as much language as possible in these early years. In addition there will also be a speech teacher that will visit the classroom a few times a week to work with the kids. We're really excited about it and hope that this will be a great thing for Rori for this first year of preschool. Assuming we follow the same August birthday wait to be an older pattern that we have done with Kai this could be the 1st of 3 years of preschool for Rori.

Thankfully the school offering this cool program is just about 10 to 15 minutes away from our house which is pretty amazing. But, it is going to be interesting figuring it all out with Kai's different school hours in the mix. Lets just say our mornings are going to be a little nuts. I am really looking forward to getting settled in to a routine though.

Hopefully Rori will continue to be excited about going. When I picked her up today she told me how much fun it was and she had done "great". Now she has a long weekend to rest up before a shorter week next week due to the holiday. Hopefully that will help ease her in. We were a little concerned about such a long day for her, but we'll see how it goes. She was super excited to get to take her own lunchbox today too like Kai.

So now I'm down to just one kid for a good portion of the day. It will be a little like going back to the Kai baby days. It will be nice to have that extra 1 on 1 time with Zuri. Maybe I'll even be able to get to some of those projects that I can never seem to find the time for. We'll see if Zuri agrees to that though since when she is awake she is probably the most demanding of the 3 at this time.

Post School Wrap Up

2011-08-29T17:12:00.003-06:00

Kai said his 1st day was "great". He and Evan posed for a photo for me on the way out.

Kai was excited about art class, lunch, and the kid in class that only speaks Spanish. We just about melted in the time it took to go to and from the car to claim him. Rori's little cheeks were bright red in the 1st 2 minutes- she gets that from me.

I'm grateful that we found a parking spot, there were no behavior meltdowns from the girls, and Kai was smiling. 1 day down.........so far so good.

1st Day of School 2011

2011-08-29T13:45:00.003-06:00

Kai was super excited for school today. Last night he kept reminding us that he needed to go to bed early- no problem with us. Not so exciting for me is the fact that school starts at 7:30am. This is quite the switch from 8:50am last year- especially when you add in Zuri to the mix also. Thus, we were lucky to get this one obligatory photo before running out the door.

It was fun to see Kai so confident about Kindergarten. He knows the drill and likes school so other than making some new friends he doesn't seem that nervous about it all. It is nice that one of the boys from his t-ball team, Evan, is in his class. Evan just had his 6th birthday too like Kai, is also left handed, and also did a 1/2 day kindergarten program last year. Plus Kai's middle name is Evan. Both of the boys think all of this is pretty awesome. We did a play date with them this Summer. Once Evan showed up this morning Kai was really good to go. Kai and Evan were the first kids to walk through the door after they lined up at the bell- no fear here and ready to lead the charge.

At this point getting to take a lunch box and eat at school is pretty fun. We hope he is having a good day. It will be fun to hear how it all went when we go to pick him up.

3 Months Old

2011-08-23T17:35:00.004-06:00

Zuri turned 3 months old today. She is such a cute little one. Most of the time she is pretty good natured- especially if she is being held or watching her siblings doing something. She continues to hate the car seat and be a little fussy around dinner time though. Zuri is very smiley and has even laughed a few times now. I think she will just get happier as time goes on and she is able to sit up and have more control of her body. We've found her flipped over in her bed a few times so I think it won't be long until she is rolling all over the place. I can't seem to kiss those cute cheeks enough.

Miss Rori

2011-08-23T17:14:00.003-06:00

Our sweet Rori girl is now the big 3. I'm a big fan of the 3 year old age so I'm pretty excited about it. Here are 3 fun facts about Rori at 3 years old:

1. Rori loves to do all things athletic. She loves swimming, jumping off of things, and dancing. She is one tough and brave girl.

2. Rori's favorite toys are her Little Family dollhouse and accessories, the Magformers, and anything Scooby Doo. She will go up in her room all by herself and play with the dollhouse for long amounts of time. I love to listen to her playing pretend having the dolls talk to each other. She continues to be a whiz at building with the Magformers- this toy has seriously provided endless hours of entertainment for the whole family. It has been the summer of Scooby for our family. Scooby movies on the IPhone or DVD player have gotten us through many of things this summer.

3. Rori seems to be getting even sweeter and cuter every day. She loves to cuddle and is especially excited to welcome home her Daddy every night. If she sees anyone being upset she is the first to try to comfort them. She constantly makes us laugh with how clever and funny she is.

We love our Rori girl very much. We anticipate this being a big year for her and are looking forward to seeing her grow and develop.

Rori's Stats at 3 Years Old:

Height: 40 inches; 97%
Weight: 33 pounds; 70% (hard to believe that % since she is such a skinny mini in person, but I guess that is super skinny for how tall she is)

Mr. Kai

2011-08-23T16:44:00.005-06:00

It is hard to believe that Kai is 6 years old. He is growing up so quick- too quick. Here are 6 fun facts about Kai at 6 years old:

1. Kai still loves to swim and can spend hours in the water without a thought about it. He also loves to ride his bike and scooter and do anything outside.

2. Kai loves stories and books. We can motivate him to do many things with the reward of reading him a few chapters out of a big kids chapter book at night- right now he really likes the Magic Tree House books that grandma Whitney is loaning him from her 2nd grade class. Getting to play games on the computer is also a big draw.

3. Kai can be a BIG talker. We've had some conversations recently about how grandparents and parents like stories with all the details but other people are ok with shorter versions.

4. Kai has a huge imagination and can often be found directing some play scene or coming up with a plan to build or make something. I'm sure that the fact that he loves Phineas and Ferb may have some influence on this. Recently there seem to be some battle scenes thrown in the mix- crazy to see the boy in him coming out that way as we've been able to avoid much of that up to this point.

5. Kai is really great with his sisters. He likes to hold Zuri and is very close buddies with Rori.

6. Kai is sweet and loving and kind. Other kids seem to gravitate to him and I think that is why.

Kai is excited for all day kindergarten this year. I will miss him while he is gone but he will do great.

Kai's Stats at 6 Years Old:

Height: 49 inches; 95%
Weight: 47 pounds; 60%

Birthdays, Boating & Best Cousins

2011-08-22T22:28:00.037-06:00

We finished up our UT trip with one last big adventure of summer. We headed down to Lake Powell to spend a few days with Lance's whole small family. We had a great time being with everyone and enjoying lots of time in the water and on the boat. Kai and Rori loved celebrating their 3rd and 6th birthdays with all their cousins. Zuri did really well which was especially great since with the heat, sun, and being trapped in a small space it could have been tough- most would say we were crazy to even try such an adventure. She's already had quite the life at 2 1/2 months old.

We had a great time and want to say thank you to everyone who made it all possible. I had been worried about keeping Kai and Rori busy this summer with a new baby. I think I can confidentaly say that they had a wonderful fun filled summer.

*Lance and Dave planned in advance to order their Molcajete.

Cousins 2011

2011-08-22T17:16:00.021-06:00

We got in a little cousins photo shoot right before leaving Salt Lake. The truck was Lance's grandpa's and is now owned by Lance's parents. Isn't it so fun? I loved the color and was excited when the others seemed to buy in to using it. Lance's Mom and my 2 sister in laws were in charge of kid wrangling while I snapped the photos. My SIL Kimberley found the outfits - one of her talents that I do not posess. With so many little ones the group shots are pretty tough but they still turned out fun. I think the individuals and smaller groups are my favorites though. So maybe someday I will actually try to learn what I'm doing with the camera and figure out how to do some editing as these are totally not touched up. It sure is fun to have this group all together.

Jake- 8 Years Old:

Kennedy- 6 Years Old:

Emme- 6 Years Old:

Kai- 6 Years Old:

Jack- 4 Years Old:

Kate- 3 Years Old:

Rori- 3 Years Old:

Ella- 2 Years Old:

Zuri- 2 1/2 Months Old:

Here are the sibling groups. Would you have put them in these groups from the group shot? Yes, we are very talented at all having 2 girls and 1 boy and each having a 6 year old.

Hanging Out With The Wilkinsons

2011-08-18T21:51:00.012-06:00

We tried to suck in as much time as we could with the Wilkinsons this trip. I love how we still just bounce back so comfortably in to things with them. How I wish that we still lived right up the street from them.

They invited us to this kids ride place called Jungle Jim's one day. Everyone had a ton of fun and loved the rides. We had never been there before so it was fun to be trying something new. Rori loved the fastest ride there- go figure- to the point that I had to pull her off after about 4 consecutive turns on it at the very end.

To top things off Amy was considerate enough to have Baby #3 a few days before we left so we could meet him. Baby Collin is adorable. We're excited that Zuri now has her own Wilkinson buddy of the opposite sex- too bad we've never been able to get on the same page with the same gender at the same time. We're just giving them each some good Prom options I guess.

So for those keeping track:
Kai- August 2005; Amanda- September 2005
Rori- August 2008; Matthew- May 2008
Zuri- May 2011; Collin- August 2011

Dinosaur Park

2011-08-18T21:28:00.010-06:00

We also fit in some Kai and Rori best buddy visits. The first was a day trip to Ogden one of the days to meet up with Michelle, Cooper, and Pace at a Dinosaur Park. We thought it was so cool of them to drive down from Idaho to see us. We had a blast checking out the cool dinosaurs, having lunch, visiting, and playing. Man how we miss them in Vegas! They have lots of exciting things happening in their lives right now so it was extra fun to catch up. It was also their first time meeting Zuri since the last time we saw them was the week before she was born. Thanks for coming to see us and hang out guys!

Non-stop Fun

2011-08-18T20:45:00.015-06:00

We spent the next 2 weekends and weeks trying to fit in as much outside summer activities as possible. We had Lance for the 1st weekend and then he flew back to Vegas to get back to work and a few school projects.

Kai and Rori took swim lessons with Kennedy, Jack, Amanda and Matthew:

*Rori did great the 1st class. The 2nd class it rained which meant they took them to the deep indoor pool. That meant that she wanted nothing to do with swim lessons for the next few classes. Gradually she got back in to it and by the end she was doing great again.

We headed up past Oakley to visit with some old familiar faces:

The kids and I got Our 1st Flat Tire the morning after Lance went back to Vegas:

*BIG thanks to Lance's Dad that helped us get the spare on in the pouring rain.

Kai made it to a Bees Game with the T. Sorensons:

We had a playdate with Andrew at his house, but I was apparently too busy catching up with Rochelle to take any pictures. We miss them like crazy too!

Blessing Zuri

2011-08-18T18:25:00.011-06:00

Since both sets of our parents were in SLC we decided that it would be nice to bless Zuri while we were all together. It was a fun experience to do it in such an intimate setting at Lance's parents home. This was the first time my parents and Whitney were at a blessing so that was also really neat. Our good friend and Bishop from our SLC ward, Matt Wirthlin, came and conducted for us. Lance gave a beautiful blessing. He has a great gift for those sorts of things. Zuri was quite cooperative and didn't make a sound the entire blessing. She wore the same dress that we blessed Rori in. Afterwards we all enjoyed some ice cream in the backyard. It was a special night and great to have Zuri surrounded by people who love her.

Angelman Conference 2011

2011-08-18T17:26:00.013-06:00

After Bear Lake we headed back to SLC just in time time to gear up for the 2011 Angelman Syndrome Conference. This conference happens every 2 years and this year it just happened to be being held in Salt Lake City. Our family has been involved with the AS Foundation for over 20 years so these are somewhat like family reunions for us.

This year Mom and I were both presenters. Mom's session was for 1st timers and my session was for siblings. We've both done these before and really enjoy them. One of the siblings who helped me with my session has helped me before. Lesley and I were young teenagers when we first met and this conference she brought her own little boy with her. It is so strange for us to realize that we are now the age of some of the parents with young AS kids. Our questions and concerns are different now as adult siblings than they used to be and that is neat all in itslef. Lesley is super nice and outgoing and very hands on with her own AS sibling. We've only ever seen each other every few years for a few days at a time, but it is incredible to be around someone that really understands what it is like to have an AS sibling. During the sibling session we try to bring that feeling to the other siblings. It is a unique bond that I struggle to accurately express in words. The other sibling that helped happened to be from Vegas which was neat. We had them play an AS trivia game, play a just for fun mixer game, and break in to age appropriate discussion groups. The young siblings have such great wisdom and insight beyond their years. Some of their sweet and honest answers make you laugh outloud and some make you tear up.

We had a great time being involved with the conference and thought it was so fun to have it in Salt Lake. At the end of the week we were able to add a few adventures on with Mom, Dad, and Whitney.

We were able to take them out on Lance's parents boat which Whitney seemed to really enjoy.

We also were able to have an early birthday dinner for Kai and Rori with both sets of grandparents. We made friends with a group of firefighters sitting at the table next to us, so after dinner they invited the kids to check-out their fire truck and even go on a ride. It was awesome!

Utah Summer Adventure 2011

2011-08-17T17:15:00.019-06:00

We just got back from a 3+ week trip to UT. We had the best time and were more than happy to escape the Vegas heat for awhile. I knew this summer would be tough for us with a brand new baby and the extreme heat. I was worried about Kai and Rori being trapped inside all summer so I made a plan to escape to UT. Things fell in to place beautifully which made for a grand adventure for us.

It all began with Lance driving to SLC with the kids and I one night after work. It was late when we arrived but the night driving meant that Zuri slept most of the way which is key since she hates the carseat still. We slept in and hung out a little the next day and then got in the car again and headed up to the Cabin at Bear Lake for a super fun long weekend. We went boating, rode on the 4 wheelers, hung out in the hot tub, painted and hung bird houses, played with cousins, went on a hike with grandma and grandpa and on and on. Like always it was so beautiful and fun at the Cabin. It really is quite a retreat.

A Sunday in July

2011-08-17T17:00:00.006-06:00

We're back with LOTS of posts to catch up on. These are from a Sunday in mid July.

Miss Rori is wearing a HI dress from Grandma Utah that we love- the color is fun with her hair and it is twirly. Have I mentioned how much this little girl loves her Daddy. We gets lots of comments on how much both girls resemble Lance these days. She's pretty sweet to her Mom too though.

Kai and Lance put together this model airplane that day. With Church at 12:30pm this year we end up with lots of time to fill in the mornings.

Mt. Charleston - Mary Jane Falls

2011-08-03T14:26:00.015-06:00

A few weeks ago, I took the two older yahoos to Mt. Charleston (to beat the heat) while Ashleigh and Zuri stayed inside with the A/C on (to beat the heat). Mt. Charleston stays about 30 degrees cooler than Las Vegas, and it's only 45 minutes away. So we got that going for us, which is nice.

Before I post a few pictures, let me write down the memorable quotes from Kai:

"It's good to see nature again."

"Even the boy scouts are taking a rest."

"I'm so out of breath, I almost can't talk." (ed., What a tragedy that would have been; he talked for 3 1/2 hours straight.)

2 Months Old

2011-07-23T23:36:00.004-06:00

Zuri is 2 months old today. We went to her 2 month check up on Wednesday and everything seemed to be good. Her 2 month stats are:

Weight - 12.6lbs - 78%
Height - 24 1/2 in - 99.6%
Head - 15 1/2 in - 85%

She had to get a few shots and has been a little more on edge ever since. She continues to be a great little sleeper and is pretty much on the little routine we like to follow now.

She is giving us lots of grins these days and is starting to coo and carry on little conversations with us at times which is fun. She is still fairly fussy a lot of the time when she is awake and not eating though, so we're trying to figure that out. It seems like our kids all go through this for the first few months of their lives so maybe it is more about time.

Zuri still has bright blue eyes and a bunch of dark and somewhat curly hair in the back. I think I am starting to see some lighter new hair beginning to come through though. It will be fun to see what it does.

Kai and Rori continue to love her tons. Kai likes to hold her in the mornings for me when I am trying to get things together to start the day. Rori likes to point out that Zuri and Daddy currently have similar hair. Rori also is heard saying multiple times a day in reference to Zuri "Awww... cute".

We're so grateful to have Zuri. It is exciting to see her little personality developing.

Staying Cool

2011-07-17T22:48:00.006-06:00

We've been feeling really grateful that the heat hasn't been too bad so far this summer. This week the forecast is all above 100, but the last few weeks we've been mostly in the 90's. We've got some hot months still ahead of us no doubt, but thankfully it has held off for a little while. Even in the 90's you've still got to find ways to stay cool though and we've been doing just that.

For Zuri this means putting to use really light blankets and not wearing nearly as many onesies under outfits as the other kids did- we love those 1 piece outfits that have a front skirt attached for little girls.

This past week we stayed cool by meeting up with friends at a playground splash pad, attending a pool party, and going to an indoor kids play/ exercise place called JumpFit Kids with the Swenson's. I only have pictures at the pool party because I'm still figuring out how to lug all the things I need around for 3 kids and not forget the camera.

For record sake- Rori spent almost the entire 2 hours going down the water slide with her best red headed buddy from Nursery Kinzie. They basically only stopped for a quick lunch and the popsicle in the picture.

And lastly this picture cracks us up. Zuri is the baby on the right and on the left is Ashlyn who was born 4 days after Zuri. In Zuri's defense Ashlyn was born a few weeks early and is teeny- but still look how long Zuri is!

Guest Blogger - Kai Sorenson - Trip to Illinois

2011-07-17T19:56:00.024-06:00

Last Thursday, I flew to Illinois with Grandma Whitney. Aunt Peg and Great-Grandpa and Grandma Illinois picked us up at the airport in Bloomington and we drove to LeRoy. The next day, I went on the tractor and semi-truck with Mom's cousin Matt. I also went to the dollar store and Great Grandma bought me cool toys. That night, we ate pizza at Aunt Peg and Uncle Brud's house. We went on the Gator and I got to drive it. The following day, I went golfing with Matt, Brud and Michael while the girls were at the baby shower for Stacy. The bigger boys would hit their ball onto the green and then I would put my ball on the green and hit it into the hole. We played nine holes. When we got back to Peg and Brud's house, we rode on the Gator - AGAIN. I dumped Michael off the back (all the way) three times!!! That night, while Grandma was at a high school reunion, I went to McDonalds with Great-Grandma to Grandpa. Then I went to Matt, Amy, and cute baby Quinn's house to play WII. I hit two home-runs over 560 feet!! The next day (Sunday), Peg came over for breakfast, then she left. Then Michael and Matt came over and they said goodbye to us. Then we had lunch at a restaurant by the airport. We flew on the airplance to Dallas. Then we flew to Las Vegas where I live. Then Grandma stayed the night with us. The next day, she left to San Diego very early in the morning.

Thanks to everyone who made my trip so special!!

July 4th Trip 2011

2011-07-13T21:32:00.019-06:00

I will get caught up on blog posts... I will get caught up on blog posts....

We spent the 4th of July long weekend in San Diego. It was Zuri's 1st trip to San Diego and the beach. It was also my parents 1st time seeing her again since she was born. Thanks to Scooby Doo shows (which Kai and Rori have recently discovered and find hilarious) and Zuri sleeping the drive went great. We had a nice trip that basically involved the pool, the beach, some of our favorite restaurants, bike riding, baseball playing, and some fireworks over the ocean that we watched on Mom and Dad's patio. It was just the relaxed trip that we needed.

*We never used floaty type things with Kai, but we decided to try this thing out with Rori based on the fact that we knew we were going to be spending a lot of time at the pool this hot summer in Vegas with a brand new baby. Several friends here have used them and raved about them. So far it has been awesome and has given Rori complete independence in the water. It is also Coast Guard approved so it can be used on boats instead of the life jackets and it is made of styrofoam so it isn't going to pop like regular water wings. So the floaty parts are the arms and then a strip across the front. The back just has a clip and nothing floaty. I like this because it allows for a much more natural swimming position than a life jacket. Now I'm just nervous that she isn't going to love it when she can't wear it at swim lessons at the end of the month, but it is worth the risk for the added sanity it is providing me this summer.

The Rori Story...

2011-06-27T17:19:00.020-06:00

or maybe Tale, Journey, Battle, Adventure....

This post is a long time coming, but I kept thinking maybe we were getting to a conclusion along the way and thus I would wait and post when we had an ending to the story. Well, I'm now posting as the story is probably just starting. I've decided to write this now in such detail because part of the reason I keep this blog is to have a record or journal of our family. We've printed out a few blog books now and they really are such an amazing thing to have. So this is a record for Rori for someday in the future when she wants more details about this time in her life. The other main purpose of the blog to keep our families and friends updated. But occasionally I read friends' blogs or get passed on to friends of friends' blogs that address something we can relate to and it provides information, guidance, etc. So, if any part of our Rori Story can do that for another family so they can more smoothly navigate this path it is just an added bonus. So excuse the long story but it has been just that - LONG.

Back when we were leaving Salt Lake I opted to take the kids in for their annual check-ups a month early so we could get it done before the chaos of moving and get Kai all the shots he needed to register him for school in Las Vegas. At that appointment I told the pediatrician that I was a little concerned that Rori didn't have a very large vocabulary. She reassured me that she was in the normal speech range for an almost 2-year old, but said to follow-up with it later in Las Vegas if I still had concerns. I really liked that pediatrician by the way.

After a month or two of living in Las Vegas (around September) we found a pediatrician and I decided to take the kids in so we could meet him in person and establish ourselves as patients, get the kids flu shots, and check to see if Rori had any fluid in her ears. At that point I had convinced myself though the help of the Internet that Rori might have fluid in her ears that was affecting her hearing and thus affecting her speech. We met with the pediatrician and he did a test on Rori's ears (It looked like an ear thermometer) that determined that there was no fluid in her ears. We spent about 5 minutes with him and I think Rori said about 5 words the entire time. He told me her speech seemed fine for her age and to just give her time. I wasn't particularly impressed with this pediatrician and have since established another one, for the record.

I left not feeling very reassured since I wasn't sure how someone could determine that her speech was fine after just meeting her and not hearing her say very much. But I had now had 2 pediatricians tell me she was fine and to just relax about it for awhile. So that is what I tried to do for a time...

Right before Christmas I got paired with another girl from Church to work on a service assignment of sorts (she was my new Visiting Teacher companion). In our first phone conversation it came out that she is in school studying speech therapy. I told her about Rori and what the doctors had said. She told me about the Early Intervention Program here where I could take Rori to be evaluated for free by Child Development specialists including a Speech Therapist. I thought this was brilliant because if nothing else she would be seen by someone who would really know about speech that could tell me if I was being a crazy Mom or get us on the right path if there was an issue.

So after the holidays I took Rori to the Early Intervention screening. A speech therapist and a child development specialist played with her and asked me a ton of questions. After quite awhile we all sat down together and discussed what they had observed. Both agreed that Rori was on the lower end of speech for her age, but the issue was that she was still considered to be in the "normal" range. They also said that it is common for children with older siblings to be a bit slower with language because the older sibling often does most of the talking for both of them- especially if the older sibling is very verbal. Well, Kai was super verbal super early. After much discussion (and perhaps a little diplomatic persuasion on my part) it was agreed that they would qualify Rori for Early Intervention with the idea that perhaps some more aggressive speech therapy now would allow Rori to move forward faster with her language.

So starting in February Rori has been having a Speech Therapist come to our home 2 times a month and a Child Development Specialist come to our home an additional 2 times a month. They bring toys and games to play with that help Rori work on her speech and we all think it is great. They also teach me ways to make Rori use more language. Most of them are things we could think of on our own, but how often in the busy routine of life do you actually stop to think of the way you are wording your questions to your kids?

Basic Example-
Adult: Do you want a drink?
Kid: Yes

Adult: Do you want milk or water?
Kid: I want milk please.

At that early intervention evaluation I asked if it might be a good idea to have Rori's hearing evaluated again by an audiologist as well. Some may remember the story of Rori's birth where she failed the initial newborn hearing screenings a number of times. At about a month old we had taken her to an audiologist that had done a more in-depth ABR hearing test which Rori had passed. They told us that she had failed the initial newborn OAE tests due to fluid in her ears. So when we took her to the 1st pediatrician here in Las Vegas I had begun to wonder if Rori was having chronic fluid in her ears thus affecting her hearing and in return her speech. But when he determined that she didn't have fluid that went out the window. The people at early intervention said it was probably a good idea for no other reason than her history as an infant paired with the speech concerns now.

A few weeks later Rori and I visited the audiologist. She was super nice and I liked her at once. The first routine test she did was the same test the 1st Las Vegas pediatrician had done to test for fluid in Rori's ears- only with a bit higher level machine. The results came back that Rori's ears were full of fluid. Rori had had a cold a few weeks before which could cause fluid, but I wondered if we had missed the boat on the fluid back in the fall. So, at that point she didn't even want to do any further hearing testing because the fluid would alter any results. She then sent us on to see an ENT to get to the bottom of the fluid.

So about a month later we visited the ENT. We wanted to give the fluid plenty of time to go away since the cold from now almost 2 months before. The ENT looked in Rori's ears and said that not only were her ears full of fluid but that it was thick syrup like fluid that he referred to as glue ear. Because it was that consistency he believed that it had probably been there for some time and it was likely that Rori might have been having glue ear on and off much of her life. He explained that that would make it sound like she was underwater most of the time which would explain her speech being affected. The plan was to come back in another month and if it was still there at that point she would have tubes put in (which we've now learned is one of the most common and quick and easy childhood surgeries). The strange part was kids that need tubes usually have lots of ear infections and Rori has only ever had 1ear infection that we have know about.

I hated to wait a whole month more at this point but we agreed and actually set up her surgery date for the same week as her next appointment so as to not waste any more time. So a month later we went back and there was NO fluid in Rori's ears. I wanted to cry and I may have. No fluid = No surgery. Quickly we called back the original audiologist and told her that there was no longer fluid and begged to get an appointment ASAP to have Rori's hearing tested before there might be fluid again. She got us in that week and we started back at step 1.

So at that appointment she verified that the fluid was now gone. Then she gave Rori an OAE hearing test (also looks like an ear thermometer but Rori had to sit relatively still for a good few minutes). Rori was a trooper and cooperated better than I could have ever hoped for a 2-year old. Rori failed the OAE test is both ears just as she had done repeatedly as an infant. She then was taken to a hearing booth for some behavioral hearing tests. She responded well to some random sounds they played in the booth and repeated words the audiologist asked her to over a microphone spoken in to the booth. The audiologist said that due to failing the OAE she suspected Rori may have some hearing loss, but due to how well she did in the booth and just in general conversation she suspected that it was probably a slight to moderate loss. She told us that Rori needed to have another ABR test (same thing she passed as an infant). The ABR test would be able to give the most reliable reading on Rori's exact hearing. The problem is you have to be perfectly still for the ABR test with your eyes closed for quite a while. Since young kids can't do that she would have to be sedated for it at a local Children's hospital.

So, on April 6 (which happened to be my birthday) Lance and I took Rori to the hospital for the ABR test. Grandma Whitney was on Spring Break so they came up and helped get Kai to and from school which was great. Rori was once again a trooper. We stood waiting for over an hour at the check-in desk with 2 year old Rori who hadn't been allowed to eat or drink anything and an 8 month pregnant me. The first time they tried to put an IV in Rori she screamed and cried. But the 2-4th tries she just laid there as though she were accepting her fate. It was Lance and I who were highly agitated that it was taking them that many tries. Somewhere in the middle of the attempts they tried some sleepy medicine to see if they could get her to be still without an IV. It only made her a happy drunk. They finally succeeded in getting the IV in a vein in her little foot hours later. She was really a fabulous patient. They administered the test and then sent us home. It was a long day for us all and we were glad to have it done.

A few days went by and we heard nothing. I finally call the ENT's office (we had to go through them to schedule the test) to try and get the results. Finally the ENT (the same one who had seen Rori for the multiple fluid visits) called with the results. He said that the test showed that Rori had “significant hearing loss in both ears” and was “not talking” as a result. He seemed surprised when I reminded him that Rori is in fact talking and that these results seem very confusing to us because we know that there is a lot that she does hear. I was very frustrated that we had met the man twice and he obviously couldn't remember Rori. We discussed how she passed an ABR test at 6 weeks old which he had no answer for. He also went on to say that her results indicated that she might be a candidate for a cochlear implant. Thus, if Rori had been an infant we would have believed that she was deaf due to these results. He wanted us to now meet with someone in his practice who works on the other end of Las Vegas whom specializes in significant hearing loss and cochlear implants.

Fortunately I was able to get an appointment with the specialist at the end of that same week. In the first 40 seconds of the appointment he spoke with Rori asking her a few basic questions which she promptly answered. He then studied his paperwork and then looked at me and announced that the test results did not correlate at all with his observation of her. He has since sent us a letter that documents all of this. We were of course relieved but also highly frustrated that we had put Rori through all of that for nothing that provided us any new information. We were again back at step 1.

I spent the next few weeks battling the hospital where Rori had the test. I wanted a copy of the test data (not just a conclusion summary) which proved to be nearly impossible to obtain for no good reason. I wanted to see if there was anything that was accurate and helpful for our audiologist, to understand where things had gone so wrong, and to make sure that another family wasn't incorrectly told their child was deaf due to the same error. At this point we still don't have acceptable answers. The doctors can't seem to agree on the the reading of the test which doesn't help us at all. The hours of phone calls on this have been many and eventually my energy had to be placed on moving forward with Rori as this seemed to be getting us no where.

So after consulting various resources it was decided that the next step with Rori would be to go back to the audiologist and attempt a behavioral hearing test. They don't usually like to do these with kids under 3 years old because it is often difficult to get younger kids to consistently cooperate for accurate results. But Rori would be 3 at the end of the summer so we were all hopeful. She's now done the behavioral hearing testing 2 times with 2 different audiologist. They put her (and a parent for comfort) in a little sound booth and played games with her to see how she responded to sounds at different levels. They also had her repeat words that they said through a microphone.

Due to the fact that she consistently fails the OAE tests they feel that she does have hearing loss. But due to her good responses with the behavioral hearing tests they continue to believe that the loss is in the slight to moderate range. As she gets older (and more willing to cooperate) they will continue to test her and try to better determine her hearing levels. At this point we guess that she might be struggling with the higher frequency sounds. For example, it might often be hard for her to distinguish between sounds like "fun" and "sun". As a result when Rori says a word like "swim" it might sound more like "wim" because she hasn't been hearing the "S" sound.

The audiologist suggested that we try hearing aids on Rori this summer to see if that helps her with hearing those sorts of things more clearly and thus pronouncing them more clearly. She guessed that the aids would be about $2,000 to $3,000 for each ear. We have now learned that very few insurance companies (including ours which is a major one) cover hearing aids- even for kids where it may be key to their language development which has life long affects, and who will need new ones about every 3 years. We were all about trying hearing aids to see if it made a difference for Rori but that seemed like an awful lot of money for something that might help and she might or might not even be willing to wear (she is 2 after all), or could easily break. It's the kind of thing that can make you a little sick if you think about for too long.

I immediately went back to researching to see if there were any programs out there for kids that might be able to help us. I eventually had the thought to write to a Mom in our area who is part of a support group for kids with hearing issues to see what other families have done- why reinvent the wheel? She connected us with this loaner hearing aid program. We were ecstatic to be on track to get Rori a free loaner pair that we could try for the summer.

Then, I got a phone call from someone else I had spoken to earlier in my quest. She told me that a hearing aid company was coming to Las Vegas and wanted to give away 100 hearing aids to kids through their foundation- the Starkey Foundation. She asked if we might be interested in being one of them- Ummmm..............YES!!!!! So we filled out paperwork, had another evaluation done, and had ear molds taken as quickly as possible in the 2 weeks before Zuri was born. They told us that the hearing aids would be available on June 18 and they would be in contact for the details. It was a huge relief to have that all taken care of in time to focus on having a baby. So we took a break from it all for a few weeks which was wonderful.

The week before June 18 we hadn't heard anything yet about where or when to go for the hearing aids, so I ended up calling and following up with a message. A day later I got a call with instructions. We were to be at the Las Vegas Hilton at 9am and should expect to be there until mid afternoon which was a bit surprising. There would be lunch served and a special program. Not what we were expecting but ok.

The big day finally came and the whole family took off for the Hilton. Zuri was just almost 4 weeks old so I couldn't really be away from her for most of the day. As we walked in the hotel there were 2 directional signs. One was for the Starkey Foundation and the other was for the Daytime Emmy's. We laughed at how Vegas we were at the Hilton on the Strip with the Daytime Emmy people. We ended up waiting in a fairly long line to check Rori in with lots of other families. Then we were sent to a huge ballroom where, due to Rori's paperwork, we were directed to sit in the second row from the front. I think they may have had the kids who were getting hearing aids for the first time sit up there. The room was decked out with balloons and huge photos from other places they have done such donation trips all around the world. So there we sat and waited...and waited...and waited. Did I mention that we had a 4 week old, a 2 year old, and a 5 year old. The kids were actually troopers but it was a long hour + of sitting there waiting. Thank goodness for the IPhone movies once again.

So finally what appears to be news crew and other various media type people start appearing in the room. Not just a few, but quite a large crowd. Then the room starts to buzz as a group of people was brought in on the other section of the front row seats. Apparently, some of the big names from the Daytime Emmy's (maybe 20 people) had come to be part of the Starkey event. A large portion were Soap Opera stars, but there were a few faces from other shows that I even recognized like Marlee Matlin, Wayne Brady, Sherri Shephard (the View), Susan Lucci, Ace Young (American Idol)and Kyle and Chris Massey (Disney/ Dancing with the Stars). Here is a link to the Press Release: http://www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/content/files/June2011/phpFQwEoU.PDF

There were some speakers who shared things like:
-Hearing loss affects 1 in 10 Americans, and 70 million children worldwide, yet many do not have access to the hearing devices that can help.

-The Starkey Foundation now delivers approximately 100,000 hearing aids annually through hearing missions in countries stretching from the U.S. to Vietnam.

-Since 2000, the Foundation has supplied more than 500,000 hearing aids to people in
need and is striving to achieve its goal of distributing over one million free hearing aids in this decade.

Then they started calling the kids up by the numbers they had been assigned. On Rori's turn she was directed to sit in this leather barstool and we as a family gathered around as they put the hearing aids they had made for her on her. While doing this each of the families were greeted by some of the "famous" people who would come over and meet us and ask questions about Rori. While this was going on the mass of media people were calling out instructions about where to look, stand etc. as 5,000 flashes went off. Rori seemed to be a popular target as she was one of the youngest kids recieving aids that day. So we got to meet Marlee Matlin, Sherri Sheppard, and Christian LeBlanc (The Young and the Restless). I had a nice talk with Sherri Sheppard who seemed genuinely interested in Rori. She even left the flashing cameras to take a peek at Zuri in her stroller and tell me about how she is currenlty undergoing infertility treatments. I'm still trying to track down a better picture of Rori with her, but here is a really bad one from Lance's dying camera phone. The other pictures are from the Starkey website and are from right after they first put the hearing aids on her. Kai is such a cheeseball in these but the media people were encouraging him. :)

We went to two more staions after that where they fine tuned the hearing aids and taught us about how to put them in and care for them. At the second station Christian LeBlanc (The Young and the Restless) was assigned to us.

He was chatting it up with Lance as I was attempting to focus on what the foundation people were teaching us about the hearing aids. All of the sudden I hear Lance say to him "So..I guess you are one of the famous people then?" And I hear him laugh and respond "I'm on the Young and the Restless". I had to look the other way and try not to laugh out loud. Later we learned that he's been on that show for many years and has apparently won a bunch of daytime emmy's. Sorry Mr. LeBlanc - you were very nice and we are grateful that you are using your fame to promote a good cause.

Rori did start to complain about the hearing aids at one point but the lady with us at the time said that it was a horrible environment to get hearing aids with the huge loud room. Plus we learned that sometimes their little ears have to get used to the molds being in there. Fortunately, shortly after Rori started to complain we were directed to the final table which was full of build-a-bears. Rori got to pick which one she wanted and was once again happy from that point on. The cutest part about the bears were they each came with their own hearing aid. Here are 2 pictures of Rori happy as can be with the cheerleader bear she chose. She is wearing the hearing aids in these and her bear is wearing its aid in the second picture as well.

Rori has had the hearing aids for 3 weeks now and so far so good. She hasn't really complained about them again and goes around showing everyone her "pretty ears". Truthfully you can barely see them when they are in because they are mostly clear which from a vanity standpoint is kind of nice.

She does seem to be saying some things more clearly as time goes on which is super exciting but we expect that it is going to take some time. We suspect that she will need to hear things better for awhile and then learn how to say some sounds that are new to her. It will also probably mean breaking some habits that she has formed. We're excited to keep pushing forward with speech therapy and see if the aids really do make a difference. Mostly we are very grateful to the Starkey Foundation for giving us this opportunity to try out hearing aids on Rori. Really what an amazing gift to give kids the opportunity to have sound and thus language opened up to them. So now we finally move on to the next chapter of the Rori Story and we're excited to see where it goes from here.

1 Month Stats

2011-06-23T23:10:00.002-06:00

Happy 1 month birthday to Zuri today! We had her 1 month check-up and here are her stats:

Height: 22.5 inches - 98%

Weight: 11.15 pounds - 97%

Head: 15 inches - 95%

The Dr. said "based on her size, her sleeping, and the way she is holding up her head I would guess that she was a 2 month old".

All else was well with Zuri. We suspect that she may be having a little reflux causing some of her fussiness, but the doctor wants to wait it out and see if she outgrows it on her own over the next month. I suspect that children that we make just need a few months to adjust to being in this world- they seem to come out bothered that they aren't able to control their own bodies. Kai was relieved that Zuri didn't need any shots this appointment. I was relieved that it was a quick appointment since I had all 3 kids.

10 Years

2011-06-22T17:20:00.003-06:00

It has been a pretty incredible 10 years:

-3 kids
-Lived in 2 countries and 3 states
-Made it through Law School, 5 years of a Law Firm, and now 1 year of Grad School
-Been on lots of amazing trips
-Bought our 1st house
-Several Church Callings
-New friends made and old friends enjoyed
-Lots of laughing and incredible memories

And now looking forward to what the next 10 years brings.

4 Weeks

2011-06-20T22:33:00.003-06:00

It seems crazy that Zuri has been with us for 4 weeks now. It has been a long 4 weeks in some ways but in other ways it really has gone by fast. On Thursday we will go to her 1 month appointment and report back on her official stats.

Zuri continues to be a pretty good sleeper and eater. She's only been getting up 1 time a night since about the fist week which is awesome. The only problem is we sometimes struggle to get her back to sleep after that feed- a few nights it has stretched to an hour or 2 after eating. I attempted to start her on the baby routine we use for our kids today so hopefully that will help us get her going from 10:30pm ish to 7am ish sooner vs later.

Part of the reason I'm motivated to get going on the routine is she seems to be getting more and more fussy over the last week. It appears that none of our kids enjoy being a newborn much. I wonder about reflux or if they are just mad that they can't control their little bodies like they want to. Like most babies it sometimes seems to take off more in the evening so one of the beautiful things about the routine is they are asleep from 7pm-10:30pm ish. Tonight I've been able to help with baths & bed with the other kids and bust out some blog posts unlike the other nights of the last few weeks where I had to be holding her non-stop.

Kai and Rori seem to be adjusting well to having a new baby. Rori likes to inform us when she is crying- like when we are all in the car together. "Baby crying!" The other night when Zuri was fussing Lance noted that Rori immediately ran and tried to find a way to comfort her (binky, bottle, blankie etc.) while Kai just ignored it and continued to play some car racing thing right next to her. Kai is actually very caring for both his sisters, but it is interesting to note the natural mothering instinct in Rori.

Zuri Gets A Bath

2011-06-20T22:24:00.005-06:00

Zuri's bellly button finally came off the day we were heading home from UT. So on Monday after swim lessons Kai and Rori got to help Lance give Zuri her 1st official bath. Lance has given each of the kids their 1st bath which is kind of fun. Zuri didn't seem sure what to make of it all, but Kai and Rori thought it was great.

Swimming Lessons

2011-06-20T21:59:00.008-06:00

*I think this is one of my new favorite pictures*

Kai and Rori started swim lessons right after we got back from UT. The lessons are M-Th for 2 weeks at the indoor section of the neighborhood pool by our house. We opted for indoors because that is where the evening lessons were being held. Rori isn't old enough to be in lessons by herself yet so she is loving having Lance take her and do all the activities with her in her class. She seems to especially enjoy the one where the parents throw them up as high as they can in the air- you can get some serious air when your Dad is so tall to start with. When we originally signed up the kids before Zuri was born we thought this might be a good activity for them post baby that Lance could take them to and especially give Rori some 1 on 1 attention. Kai did 1 lesson at this pool last summer right after we moved. He was excited to be moved up from level 2 to level 3 this summer. You have to be at least 5 to be in Levels 1-3 so he thinks it is cool to be in the highest younger kid level while he is still 5 years old. Both kids love the water and are thrilled to go each night. We anticipate lots of water activities this summer so hopefully this is a good warm-up.

A Quick Trip

2011-06-20T17:25:00.014-06:00

Weekend before last we deicded to make a quick trip up to Salt Lake. We thought we might be crazy to be taking a 3 week old on such a road trip, but she actually did great. Maybe it is the time to travel when they still sleep away most of the day. We'll be doing some more road trips later in the summer when she is a little older so we'll have a good comparison I guess.

We had a few reasons for going but the two most significant were Lance's cousin Shalese was getting married and we were switching renters in our house in SLC and wanted to do some in person meeting and house work. SUPER big thanks to Lance's parents for all their work in helping with the transition from one set of renters to the other. It is hard not to be there in person to deal with the all the things that come up with these sorts of things so they have been lifesavers. Next time someone moves in or out of that house we promise to not have just had a baby and to have atleast one of us there. Shalese was extra beautiful and it was fun to see Lance's grandparents backyard all decked out for the reception and get to introduce Zuri to many family members.

Other added bonuses of the trip were that Lance's sister Kirsten was in town for the wedding, it was our SIL Kimberley's birthday, and Kimberley and Tyler had just moved in to their new beautiful house that we got to see. Everything was green and beautiful and cool in UT which made our pangs of homsickness for Salt Lake call a tiny bit stronger.

The trip was non-stop with to house to do's, UT errands, wedding festivities, a quick lunch with the Wilkinson's, and soaking in a little family time. The combination of all of that with newborn sleeping nights didn't do much for my remembering to take pictures, but here are a few. Thankfully we have a longer trip later in the summer where I will try to do better.

Thanks for having us!!!!

Presents from Aunt Peg

2011-06-16T23:27:00.005-06:00

My Aunt Peg sent this way cute car seat canopy and super soft blanket for Zuri that she made. I had been desperately wanting a canopy and was so excited when she agreed to make me one. It is one of those brilliant baby items that makes me say to myself: "why did I not think of that?". I love that it keeps the baby out of the elements more and away from strangers and children's germy hands and coughs. With the other kids we would throw a blanket over, but it was always falling off. She put silky tabs on the blanket for Zuri to play with too. It is so cozy. Thank you so much Aunt Peg!!!!

End of the Year Program

2011-06-16T22:52:00.010-06:00

Kai had his school end of the year program last Wednesday. He was SUPER excited about it as they had been practicing for weeks. They did a great job and were super cute. The program consisted of lots of singing, dancing, some sign language, and each student reading in to the microphone while displaying a picture they had drawn about what they want to be when they grow up- Kai picked a pilot. The teacher also called each student up individually and gave them a candy that represented something about them. Kai was given the Mr. Goodbar. :)

The last official day of school was Thursday. Kai was excited about summer starting but a little sad to say goodbye to his classmates. Picking him up that last day I felt a little teary myslef. It is strange when you can clearly see big life chapters coming to a close. We are excited for full day kindergarten next year, but this has been a good year. We are so grateful that he ended up with such good friends in his class this year. The 3 boys standing to Kai's left in the program were all great buddies this year (all he needed was to stick Cooper in there too- we've missed him these last few months). It has been nice to have a more flexible schedule this week, but I will have to get it more together here soon before the boredom sets in.

Silas, Kai, Andrew, Noah, Kimgee, and Jack:

Kai's Teacher Mrs. Sligar:

3 Weeks

2011-06-13T23:12:00.005-06:00

This last week has been packed with lots of big things. We'll have lots of posts and pictures to come, but for now here is sweet Zuri at 3 weeks old. She's doing well and giving us longer stretches between feeds and still sleeping away most of the 24 hour period. In between dinner and bed we do seem to be getting some fussy time in, but it hasn't been too bad yet. We wonder if she might be having a litle reflux going on sometimes, but it is so hard to tell with babies. Both Kai and Rori did the same thing from what we can remember. She continues to love to be held, to have big but spread out feeds, and to stun us with her black hair (with a few blonde highlights) and bright blue eyes.

2 Weeks

2011-06-06T23:20:00.011-06:00

We made it to the 2 week mark with Zuri today. We are feeling much more back in to the swing of things at this point. The middle of the night feeds are an adjustment to get used to again but Zuri has actually been pretty cooperative about them so far. She's been giving us lots of 4 hour night stretches which has been awesome. She's been doing a lot of eating and sleeping. So far she seems to like the motion of the car and will give us small bursts of time when we put her in the swing we found on Craigslist. She hasn't been a super huge binky or swaddle fan but we're working on both of those things as we find them to be saving graces. She does love to cuddle.

The nursing has been the biggest challenge once again. I saw the lactation people 3 times in the hospital and 2 times since we've been home. Zuri latched on well in the beginning but the pain is awful for me. When my milk came in she started having latching issues on top of the horrid pain. After a miserable week of nursing I began pumping and have been giving her pumped milk in a bottle. It is a lot of work and time to feed her, pump, and clean everything all the time but I'm thinking of every bottle she gets of pumped milk as a victory at this point. If she was our first I'm sure I could keep it up longer, but I want to be fair to Kai and Rori too with time so it is one day at a time. The ease of formula is highly tempting- just not so much the cost.

A large part of why we are feeling more adjusted is the fact that Lance's parents and Aunt Grandma Wendy came and helped us this past week. It was so great to have them here. Grandma and Wendy drove down on Monday. Then, on Wednesday morning Grandpa flew down and traded places with Wendy who flew back home in the afternoon. There was lots of spoiling- yummy meals, older kids being entertained and taken back and forth to school, help with doctor visits, and extra hands always willing to hold Zuri who really likes to be held.

Lance's parents left on Saturday morning so we decided to take the kids to the local park splash pad to let them run off some energy later in the day. It was a nice day, but thankfully the temperatures haven't gotten too hot still. We have been dreading the heat coming so this has been a nice gift.

Today was the first day on my own with all grandparents gone and Lance at work. I'm happy to say we got Kai to school on time, made it to my 2 weeks doctor appointment, and even got in a quick trip to Costco. The hardest part is just getting out the door in the morning so once we did that we were good.

So, now we're on to week 3!

1 Week Old

2011-05-30T23:00:00.004-06:00

Today was Zuri's official due date. We're glad to have made it through the first week instead. These 3 have been enjoying each other quite a bit. There is lots of conversation about whose turn it is to hold her.

The Hospital Story

2011-05-28T20:12:00.028-06:00

We were scheduled to arrive at the hospital at 5:30am on May 23 for the scheduled C-section. The night before when we went to bed I started to wonder if I might be having some contractions. I laid there for a few hours watching the clock and evaluating the pain. Not being an expert on contractions (my water broke with Kai and I had 1 never ending contraction and Rori was scheduled) I finally decided to wake up Lance as I was feeling pretty uncomfortable. After he helped me evaluate for awhile we decided to give Labor and Delivery a call. I was feeling a little silly as we were now just hours away from the scheduled check in, but..... So after a quick chat with them we were told to make our way in ASAP.

We quickly got checked in and set up on a monitor which showed that I was having pretty good contractions pretty regularly. They gave me a shot of something to try and slow it all down to make it to the scheduled 7:30am surgery. It worked some but I was still having pretty hard contractions every 8-10 minutes or so for those last 2 hours. I was a little bummed that I was having to agonize through contractions while waiting for a c-section. That is one of the few benefits of a planned c-section. :) Anyway, we held out until just a little before the the 7:30am scheduled time and Zuri entered the world at 7:39am. Moral of the story seems to be that she was coming on May 23 one way or the other.

The c-section went really well. I felt pretty gross and light headed on the table immediately after the spinal with everything sounding very far away(it was like that with Rori too) but felt ok again after a few minutes. Once again I got a little sick to my stomach hours later after they wheeled me up to the room we would stay in the rest of the stay but it was only then and it was quick. As far as c-sections go this one has probably had the easiest recovery so far which is great.

My parents and Whitney brought the kids to the hospital in the morning and Lance used the signs to tell all of them that it was a baby girl. Kai called Grandma and Grandma Utah just after that to share the news with them and as he was talking to them they walked in the door. They had surprised all of us and made the LONG trip down to meet our new addition. They left mid day the next day but will be coming down again on Monday to spend more time with us. It was an awesome surprise and I am still blown away that they went to all that effort.

That night was Kai's last tee ball game so Kai got to have 3 out of 4 grandparents, Lance, Rori, and Aunt Whitney attend that as well (my Mom stayed with Zuri and I). My parents stayed until Thursday and entertained, fed, loved, did homework and on and on with Kai and Rori. The kids loved it and we were all sad to see them go. Our kids have 2 amazing sets of grandparents!

Zuri is super cute and has a good amount of black hair. We think she looks an awful lot like Kai did when he was a baby. It will be fun to see what happens with the hair color. For weighing so much we don't think she actually looks very big or chubby in person. We haven't seen her next to other brand new babies though. Two other baby girls have been born to friends of ours here in the last few days though so we will get that chance. :)

Overall I think we feel that we had a good hospital experience. It was a nice and newer hospital that isn't very far from our house. One night they brought us a "celebration dinner" of shrimp and steak which was fun. Everyone treated us well. They don't have a nursery which was a little different but worked out fine. With that said though we were super happy to be discharged and sent on our way home.

So here are some more of our other favorite shots from the week:

It's A....

2011-05-26T21:49:00.003-06:00

GIRL!!!

Zuri Rae Sorenson
a teeny 9lbs 4oz
21 inches
Born May 23, 2011 at 7:39am

We've made it home and everyone is doing well. Lots more pictures to come.

Almost Made It

2011-05-21T16:07:00.003-06:00

We've almost made it. The baby is scheduled to come Monday morning bright and early. I'm not super excited about the c-section and recovery, but I am pretty excited to meet this little person.

I think my body is about ready to be done at this point. Sleeping has somewhat gone out the window due to a combo of heartburn and itching and now I seem to have also come down with a cold which is adding to the struggle. Mom, Dad, and Whit will head here tomorrow and then we will really be good to go with them here to watch Kai and Rori. Lance's parents are going to come the next week so it is going to be an exciting time around these parts.

Not knowing if it is going to be a boy or girl is making things pretty fun around now. I continue to get opinions from all sorts of random people. We're still working on names some so if anyone is holding out on a fabulous name now is the time to share........

Angelman Walk A Thon 2011

2011-05-21T15:50:00.009-06:00

This morning we made it to the last big thing on our pre new baby list. Today was the annual Angelman Syndrome National Walk A Thon. It was fun to get to go in Las Vegas this year and add to our locations we've attended over the years. Mom, Dad, and Whit were busy helping with the one in San Diego so we're glad the baby cooperated by staying in and allowing them to attend down there. Kai and Rori had a blast at the walk because there were tons of fun kids things to do. It was a nice morning! Apparently snow cones are highly motivating for making it through the walk by the way.

Working Our Way Down the List

2011-05-21T15:17:00.010-06:00

We've been BUSY trying to fit in some things before the baby comes. Here are a few highlights.

Kai got in some playdates with his buddies. Noah and Andrew came over after school one day and they all had a blast. Later Cooper and Pace came back for a visit and their Dad's graduation. Kai has been so lucky to find such great friends here:

Keeping up the Tradition of making the Baby its own bear from Build A Bear:

Got My Hair Done:

Kai and Lance Attended the Father & Son Campout (that day was also Field Day at school and Kai said it may have been the best day ever):

Happy Mother's Day...

2011-05-08T22:45:00.008-06:00

... to all the wonderful women in our lives. We're especially grateful for our 2 great Mom's. Hope you had a good day!

A very pregnant me with 2 weeks left to go before the scheduled C on May 23:

-Crazy that I'll soon be a Mom to 3. Being a Mom is the best. I feel so lucky to have the oppotunity to raise them.
-Still feeling pretty good despite some heart burn and SUPER annoying itching.
-Really want this kid to stay in until May 23 because we've still got a few items to make it through, wrap up on the get ready list, and things to attend.
-Still have not decided on a boy OR a girl name- seriously. Need help here people- send your suggestions on over ASAP. Just thinking about it stresses me out.

Mother's Day Treasures From Church Today:(they go all out for Mother's Day in this Ward it seems- paper flowers, hand made gifts from the kids, chocolate covered strawberries, little ribbbon decorated waters, and huge Great Harvest Cookies):

I was spoiled with lots of love and yummy food from my sweet husband and kids today. Lance has his last final this week which is a most wonderful Mother's Day gift. Now we're on to another busy week.........

Much postings, just keep scrolling

2011-04-24T23:44:00.000-06:00

Happy Easter!!

2011-04-24T22:40:00.044-06:00

"Did you have a good Easter, like me?"

We packed a lot into one weekend. At one point, I looked in our trunk and saw golf clubs, a fishing pole, a dutch oven and assorted other items. It's nice that St. George is now only an hour and a half away, instead of almost five. We enjoyed renewing our relationships with family members, and remembering, on Easter weekend, who makes the renewing of life possible.

Never too early to prepare for retirement by playing golf in St. George.

Rori got in some of her own practice at the "driving" range.

After golf, we tried our hand at a little fishing. Not much success, but still had fun.

Zion's National Park: The hike to the first emerald pool was fun. We rode the tram up the canyon as far as it would go (and back).

Rori was getting a little grouchy until we stopped at this place along the way:

Grandma's hat was a big hit.

Tram ride back to the car. Pictures of or annual trip to the Bit n' Spur in Springdale do not exist, but we did go, and had a great time, and ate too much, as usual.

St. George Kiwanis Club Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday:

The St. George temple glistens in the sunlight: Thanks to mom and dad for watching the kids while Ashleigh and I went to the temple early Saturday morning.

St. George Arts festival: Ashleigh and I go mainly for the food, but the kids seem to enjoy the face painting and balloons. Oh, and they have art there, too.

Happy campers: Our annual Saturday night dutch oven dinner at Red Cliffs. It spills over to Easter morning.

Horsing around with (second) cousins: (Red mud and red hair go well together)

Flynn family dutch oven cook-off: Good variety this year. My traditional enchiladas went down well, but the real hits were the curry dinner dish and the peach crepes breakfast. Kai hunting:

Rori's successful hunt:

My grandparents and their five children:

We had a wonderful time. Thanks so much to mom and dad for having us!

Kai at the bat

2011-04-24T22:33:00.005-06:00

T-ball is in full swing. Kai's team, the Bandits, wear all black. This will be fun as the temps start pushing past 90. Kai's having a great time. His loudest cheerleader, Rori, insists on wearing her baseball cap to all the practices and games.

Sorenson's 4 (and 8/9) at the Bellagio

2011-04-24T22:22:00.007-06:00

We, of course, want our kids to have the perfect "Vegas" experience while we live here. We took a trip to the Bellagio. I can't tell you everything we did; what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, after all. But here is a glimpse. In addition to the fountains, they had an impressive botanical garden.

Rock Star/Crazy Hair Day in Kindergarten

2011-04-24T22:18:00.003-06:00

Guys' Trip to Seattle

2011-04-24T21:34:00.028-06:00

Two weeks ago, Kai's cousin Jake was baptized. Jake lives in Seattle. Kai and I made a quick weekend trip to the great northwest while Ashleigh stayed home and worked with Rori on potty awareness. Unfortunately, no photos of the man of the hour, Jake, made it back with us. Also, no photos of swimming or a couple hours worth of (Microsoft) Kinect competition. But here is a flavor.

Waiting for our flight:

Breakfast at the hotel with uncle Tyler and cousin Kennedy before the baptism:

Kai's photo of cousins Kennedy and Emme:
Kai's photo of uncle Tyler:

Celebratory lunch after at Hawaiian bbq:

Ride back to the airport:

Thanks to Kirsten and Dave for having us. We had a fun spending time with them and their kids, Tyler and Kennedy, Grandma and Grandpa, and many of Dave's family.

Girls Weekend

2011-04-11T11:59:00.005-06:00

Rori and I had a girls weekend this past weekend. The boys flew to Seattle to help cousin Jake celebrate his 8th birthday and baptism. I'll let them post more about their weekend later. Rori and I were super sad to miss it, but tickets to Seattle at Spring Break time were super pricey so it was decided that just the boys would get to go on this trip. It sounds like they had a great time and we are happy that they are back home again safe and sound. I'm also grateful that the baby decided to stay put and not create any issues while they were gone. It is still way too early, but in the back of my brain I didn't want to think of Rori being the only one around on the trip to the hospital.

So, on our girls weekend we decided that we would celebrate "Potty Awareness". On one of Lance's calls home to check on us he asked me how potty training was going and I quickly reminded him that we weren't potty training. We were simply doing potty awareness. Apparently my MIL and SIL overheard this and thought it was quite funny. My logic was that my end goal for the weekend wasn't to have Rori potty trained (although that would be wonderful), but rather to have her more willing to use and be observant of the potty.

Rori is a funny little girl. She's so sweet and cuddly at times and sassy as can be at other times. She's the kind of kid that you could have a huge battle of the wills with if you allow yourself to get in to the battle. I know with potty training that if I force her it isn't going to go well- it needs to be on her terms. So this weekend I attempted to help her realize that it is something she wants to do and I think we did fairly well.

On a side note- After Christmas we laid down the law with Rori letting her only have her binky (pacifier) at night. The kid had a serious addiction and since she wasn't talking up a storm we knew it had to be done. But as I said before she has her sassy moments where a binky made life so much more pleasant for the rest of us. Then when we made our trip to CA/ Disneyland I realized that I had forgotten to bring a binky. We debated what to do but decided to just try to go without. Well she never looked back. It didn't even come up at the hotel and when we got back home she asked for it at bedtime and we told her it had gone to the babies and it was over. I was shocked and knew that I hadn't given her enough credit. *For the record Kai had a binky at night about 3 or 4 months longer and has always been a huge talker. We traded him a binky for a 3-wheel scooter and he had one 1/2 hour of crying before never looking back.

So getting this girl potty trained is probably more like that. We've put it off because of my dread- not wanting to battle her, having to find every bathroom everywhere you go, carrying around extra clothes, dealing with messes, and on and on.

So Saturday we got up and put on mini mouse and sesame street big girl pants instead of diapers or pull-ups. I had gathered salty foods, new drinks (our kids drink water and milk 99% of the time at home), and some treat and game incentives to try and make things more exciting. The salty food was to make her thirsty with the idea that that would make her want to drink, which in turn would make her have to go. I figured the more she had to go the more opportunities to learn. In the end mini marshmallows, and mini slow drip Popsicles seemed to have been the best motivators. I don't tell her to go but I do remind her every now that if she would like a Popsicle, marshmallow etc. she needs to go. Letting it be her choice seems to be working much better. I've been also keeping the marshmallows visible.

For quite some time now Rori has told us after she goes, found places to hide when working on her business, applauded others on their successes etc. but refused to sit herself for more than 10 seconds at a time without a battle. We have had successes but they have been hit or miss and mostly only when I caught them. This weekend she was choosing to sit (granted with hope for the prize) which in my opinion was great steps forward. Over the weekend we only had 2 1/2 accidents and many successes. We are using a diaper for naps and night still so I don't count that.

So far so good this morning as well. The challenge is taking the show on the road out of the house and getting her to continue going. Anyone have any great tips on how to make that transition? Kai with his easy going demeanor was never one to battle about such things, but his struggle was remembering to stop playing and go before it was too late at this stage.

So our girls weekend wasn't really all that exciting but I think it was fairly productive. It did feel a little like house arrest. Now if we can only keep things moving in the right direction. Meaning if only I can stay motivated to keep her motivated. So seriously any tips out there?

33

2011-04-11T11:18:00.012-06:00

Last week I turned 33. Mom, Dad, and Whit made a quick trip to visit us and it was nice to have them. Mom was on Spring Break but Kai wasn't yet, so it was great that they were able to come. Rori had a doctor appointment on my birthday morning so Kai was thrilled to have them take and pick him up from school. We hit some of our favorite restaurants here, played with new toys, and enjoyed just hanging out. Grandma and grandpa are very good at building things, giving horse rides to your baby doll, playing at the park, reading books etc.

Kai was very excited about my birthday. He put up homemade signs for me all around the house, gave Lance guidance on my gift, and planned party games- like home drawn pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, find the hidden bandana etc. He also made very sure that the server knew it was my birthday at dinner. Kids do make birthdays more fun as you get older.

So, I'm pretty excited about my 33 year of life. 3 has always been my favorite number and double 3 is even better. Growing up I always picked 3 or 33 for my sports jersey numbers when possible. 33 was my basketball number which has lots of great memories associated with it. So this year it turns out I'll be 33 and having my 3rd kid. Today also happens to mark week 33 in the pregnancy and we just got word that if this baby cooperates its scheduled birthday will be May 23. Do you think I am crazy yet? So here is hoping for a year of good things- maybe in 3's. :)

31 Weeks

2011-03-30T11:45:00.004-06:00

We're at 31 weeks and a few days of this pregnancy which means that we are getting pretty close to welcoming our new little family member. I'm feeling pretty good at this point and actually feeling a little like the time has been going by pretty quick. The end stretch is bound to be long, but we've got lots going on and several things on the "do before the baby comes" list that should help with that. Here are a few random thoughts about this pregnancy:

-I felt pretty green for the 1st 10 weeks or so of this pregnancy, but continued my streak of not ever really getting sick. This is something I am very thankful for. I don't know how people do it that are sick the whole time.

-In the beginning I overdosed of honey wheat pretzels as it was all that was appealing. Since then I've been pretty good with most foods although some things just haven't tasted as good as I remember them usually tasting. Most recently I've noticed a desire for soda- slurpees sound quite delicious, but they usually do to me.

-I had some fairly wicked sinus issues for a few weeks mid pregnancy that weren't too fun. I guess sinus stuff is pretty common in pregnancy, but this was a first for me. I've wondered if things were further aggrevated by being in a new climate with new potential things to be allergic to. It didn't last too long though, and since then I've been extra grateful to be able to breathe through my nose on a regular basis.

-My only current complaint is due to acid reflux. This is something I have experienced with each pregnancy. I am currently sleeping with 4 pillows- 3 under my head and one body pillow (I'm sure Lance is grateful that we have a large bed). I've also made friends with some Pepcid and Tums in an attempt to avoid finding myself sitting straight up in bed in the middle of the night with my throat on fire. The combination seems to be working pretty well recently so that has also been good.

-We are still thinking that it is pretty fun to not know the sex of #3. There are just a few new things I'm wishing for for this baby where it would be helpful to know the sex, but overall not knowing is making the actual birth day pretty exciting. Going in for a 3rd c-section isn't the most fun so it is nice to have that as a distraction. If we didn't already have boy and girl stuff I'm not sure I could handle it, but in our situation it is pretty neat.

-Kai is guessing boy although he points out that Lance's siblings each have 2 girls and 1 boy, Rori says girl but she may just be telling us that she is a girl, most of our family seems to be guessing boy, a random man came up to me and told me it was a boy- which was strange, the Wilkinson's are having a boy which makes us wonder if for once we will have the same sex at the same time or keep up the trend of going opposites, I felt more green at the beginning like I did with Rori, Lance will only guess that it will be a baby, and the tech who did the ultrasound claimed that she didn't look either so really nobody knows.

-We still need to focus on coming up with names. We are really struggling this time around and it stresses me out just looking for names. We've gone away from it for a time, but I suppose we better get going on it again sometime here soon. Ideas anyone?

-Lance and I went and did the hospital tour Monday night so now we know where to go and have a better idea of the place. So that was a good thing to check off the list.

-We'll probably get the c-section date set in the next few weeks which is exciting and will make it really seem like it is happening so soon. We'll keep everyone updated!

Letters and Pictures

2011-03-30T11:07:00.008-06:00

One of the unexpected things that we have come to really like about our house here is that it has an area downstairs in the thick of things that we have made in to a downstairs office/ homework area for the kids and I. Lance uses one of the upstairs bedrooms with a door for his office so he is happy with this arrangement as well since it means that we rarely feel the need to disturb his office. It may not be the most beautiful area usuage for a home, but it really has made it a place that we actually use a lot.

It is not my natural instinct to do art projects with my kids, so this has been a good thing for all of us. Both kids love having easy access to art supplies and a big desk. Since I got the huge desk and a bookshelf at a garage sale for $25 total I don't worry too much about damage to it which also really helps. It is holding up quite well so far though I must say.

We go through a lot of paper but have been attempting to work on a huge stack of scrap paper that was on its way to being recycled that Dad brought home. I've been shocked by how long Rori can entertain herself with coloring. Kai loves making crafts and with the help of school this year he has also really taken off with his writing. Almost everyday he brings us projects and letters he's made in "his office". I love that he is having fun being creative. Plus it is no neat to see him wanting to write and trying to figure out how to spell things. We hope this is just the beginning of developing a love of writing and reading throughout his life.

So, for memory sake here are a few of our recent favorite works of Kai:

Love Letters:

Inspired by President's Day: (I really like the self addition at the end and the pictures)

Left for Lance on the Counter:

Found on My Side of the Bathroom Sink One Morning (he usually rides the bus):

Our Days...

2011-03-29T22:26:00.012-06:00

...have been kind of full lately.

Days seem to be getting filled with school, gymnastics, doctor appointments and on and on.

Kai also started Tee Ball and is loving it. A mom is his coach and she is awesome. There are 12 kids on the team and she keeps all of them busy the entire time doing really good and fresh drills. A Dad or two helps out as an assistant, but she is for sure running the show. She knew all of the kids names after the first practice and is all about them really learning and encouraging each other. I find all of the above impressive, but this woman also has 5 kids. The first 3 are triplet girls that are probably about 8 years old, then she has her son on the team that is 6 years old, and then she has a baby boy that is probably under 1. This lady is volunteering to be the coach and she usually has 3 or 4 of the kids with her. Makes you think- what makes me feel like my life is so busy. I volunteered to make and coordinate the snack sign-up- it was the least I could do. :) Oh, and Rori has to wear a baseball hat to every practice as well.

Kai has worn shorts to school so far this week for the first time since the Fall. We only wish it would just stay like this for as long as possible. I'm dreading the heat coming. But it does make for good scooter riding.

We said goodbye to the Wadsworth's who moved back to Idaho. This is very tragic for us for lots and lots of reasons. Our kids love Cooper and Pace and have spent much of our time here in Vegas with them which made our adjustment here so much better. Every morning Rori and Pace would play when we would drop off Kai and Cooper at school. Pace loves toy cars so it was the ultimate sign of friendship that he would often bring her her own car to play with. The two of them could be quite ornery together at times, but it was hard to be very mad at them with their super cute grins and giggles. Cooper and Kai were in school together, on the same soccer team, in the same class at Church, and really buddies. And well Michelle was an instant and natural friend for me here when I really needed one. Their family introduced us to almost everyone we know, provided us countless ideas for things to do here in Vegas, and were our emergency go to's for just about anything. We are excited for them to be taking the next step in their life adventure and wish them all the best. We're trying to get over our loss. :)

*Not great expressions because I was trying to get the picture in the middle of them watching a movie.

*Cooper's last day of school.

As the weather is getting nicer we're busting out some of our Spring clothes. I love this dress Rori wore to Church on Sunday that she got from my parents.

Kai pulled out his scriptures in church and said ...

2011-03-13T23:14:00.002-06:00

"I'll just read the last page and see how it ends."

Pebbles

2011-03-13T23:07:00.001-06:00

Gone Fishing

2011-03-07T15:10:00.011-07:00

Kai has been begging us to go fishing for FOREVER now. Problem is we live in the Vegas desert now and aren't real familiar with local spots for fishing. Last weekend they were all set to go and then the weather didn't cooperate. So despite the fact that we all went and picked up Lance at the airport after 1am on Friday night (due to a 4+ hr. delayed flight from a business trip) we didn't really feel like we could put Kai off again Saturday morning when he appeared in our room at 7:30am in full fishing gear.

Thanks to a tip from the Wadsworth's we ventured out to a local park where they have a stocked fishing pond. It was late morning by the time we got ourselves together and there so the fishing experience was more about learning to cast and checking out the spot for the future. It was a nice day and a kid friendly spot that we will likely return to someday in the early morning or dinner time. Rori enjoyed exploring the area, taking a turn holding the fishing pole, and doing a little rock climbing. I had fun playing a little with my camera. Lance was no doubt exhausted and needing to be writing a paper for school but he put together a fun little adventure that earned him big Dad points.

This Made Me Laugh...

2011-03-07T14:02:00.006-07:00

...when I figured it out.

I also recently found written on a random piece of construction paper: Mathue and Micule. My cousins that Kai adores are Matthew and Michael.

I bet Matt (who really does farm) wishes you could buy a farm for $100. Matt is the new Daddy to a super cute baby girl. We are thrilled for Matt and Amy and can't wait to meet baby Quinn.

The Golden's (and their farming) obviously made a big impact on Kai this last summer. :)