Maverick's Checkup and a Trip to the ER

We took Maverick in for his 15 month appointment. He had been teething all week and had a runny nose and was not feeling very well. He got a couple shots but fortunately didn't get the flu shot since they were out of his dosage! 

Maverick Glen

Weight: 19 pounds 14 ounce (9th percentile)

Height: 30 inches (9th percentile)

Head Circumference: 46 1/2 cm (38th percentile)

He is still a lightweight, but he's gaining on the percentage scale, so I'll take it! 

So his shots were on Wednesday. Thursday was a hard day for him with a fever and such and Friday wasn't any better. Friday evening we laid him down for bed and about 2 hours later he woke up screaming. We checked on him and he was burning up. We took his temp about 10 times and it read anywhere from 104 to 107. Being convinced that it was way higher than I was comfortable with, I rushed him to the Emergency Room. They got us right into triage and they checked his temp. It was 104 even. (I think I need a new thermometer.)  They gave him some Motrin and after awhile got admitted to a room. He was sooo miserable. He hated the pulse/ox thing wrapped around his toe, and getting poked and prodded. He was screaming for a good hour. I finally got him calmed down just in time for them to check on him again. It was a hard night for him!

After another dosage of Tylenol, he finally calmed down and went to sleep. The doctor came in and checked him out. Ears, lungs, throat, stomach, heart, eyes. The doctor couldn't identify anything wrong and encouraged us to keep him on the Motrin and Tylenol until the fever went away. The doctor thinks that he was more than just "teething sick" when he got his shots and his immune system was just too weak to deal with it. Lesson learned! Postpone shots if they are under the weather at all!

After 2.5 hours in the ER we finally were able to come home. It took a few days for him to fully recover but he is healthy now and I'm so grateful that it didn't turn into anything bigger!

NAIT Babies

While I was going through my NAIT junk with Maverick, there was another girl in the area going through the same stuff. We found out in our facebook group that we both lived in the Portland area, then through more conversations found out we had the same doctor and were getting infusions at the same place! One of our infusions happened to overlap and we got to hang out for a day sitting in recliners next to each other. We talked and got to know each other a little bit. You can't go through something like this and not bond with others that are going through the same thing. It is such a rare thing that no one really quite understand what you are going through. Except April! She gets it! We kept in touch and finally, more than a year after our babies were born, we met up again! We met up at the Pirate Park and it was so fun getting our kids together. She also has a son in kindergarten, so it was fun for the Asher and Everett to have someone to play with too. 

Maverick and Anna

Zoo with Heidi!

A couple weeks ago, Heidi and I took our younger kids to the zoo. It was weird being at the zoo with only two kids! Heidi brought Aaron and the two neighbor boys, who are practically cousins to us too! 

The lorakeets *loved* Heidi! At one point she had four birds on her. It was so cool to see!

The birds were particularly friendly that day!

Everett, Eli, McKay, Aaron

My view for the day. He is such a great kid! 

Eli and Everett are only a couple days apart in age. It's so fun when they get together.

Heidi spoiled the boys and bought a couple of elephant ears to split. They were so good that day, they earned that treat!

I am so grateful that we live so close to family. It is such a huge blessing in our lives. We are really going to miss them when we move away!

Asher is Six!

Asher Briggs. Crash. Brigadier. You are six! How in the world?? You, my son, are beautiful. You have such a beautiful heart and soul. You love adventure and seek out a thrill every chance you get. Yet you can sit still at a table and create for hours with paper, scissors, glue, tape and your imagination. Your laughter is infectious. Your smile is contagious.

You have done a lot of growing up this year. You were a very difficult young child. You hit your "terrible twos" at about 18 months and they didn't seem to fade even a little until after you turned five. This last year though, we have made great strides. Cutting out red dyes made a huge difference. Working constantly on appropriate behaviors, although slow, was definitely rewarding.  You went to speech this year with Teacher Mike from February to September. You learned how to properly enunciate about 8 new sounds including ch, sh, k, j and the most noteworthy one was R! You have one sound left that you are trying to perfect and that is S. You are so close and say it sometimes but it isn't completely natural for you yet. You're going to be there in no time. Going to speech with Teacher Mike is something that you really looked forward to every single week. You got to play games, have fun, have special attention, and learn all at the same time. Perfect combination for you! It helps that Mike is awesome, and really was an incredible and patient teacher. We'll go back in January (when insurance kicks back in) and finish up your S's, if you haven't mastered them on your own by then!

You are in kindergarten! You love going to school. You love your teachers. On Friday you proudly came home showing me that you could count to 13 in Spanish, and Monday (two days ago) you came home counting to 20! You are a sponge and are soaking in all of the information your little brain can take in. Your teacher, (same teacher that Brayden had in kinder), Mrs. Martinez, is super nice and says that you are a great little student. We went to a "Meet the Teacher" night last week and she had nothing but praise for you. This is a testament to how much "growing up" you've done. You are so ready to be in kindergarten! It is your happy place. You are making new friends daily and come home with a smile on your face and a bump in your step. 

You have an incredible bond with Maverick. You dote on him so much, and he adores you for it. You two are inseparable. If you ever get a chance to push him in the stroller, or play with him, or get him out of his crib after his nap, you jump at the opportunity. It makes my life easier :) but mostly, I'm just so grateful that you two have each other. You get along great with your other brothers too, but there is definitely something special between you and Mack. Let's just hope that sticks! 

You are obsessed with ninjas right now. Aunt Natalie bought you some ninjas from her store and you play with them all of the time. I find them hiding in random places, protecting things like the books on the bookshelf, or the doorway. You even set up a "tight rope" across the "lava river" and had ninjas hanging from the rope. Your imagination is incredible, Bud! 

For your birthday you got a remote control car. You had been begging for one, and you couldn't have been happier with the one you got. You played with it after dinner until the battery ran down and had a huge smile on your face the entire time. We had aebelskiver for dinner, with chocolate chips in them! We'll do cake and ice cream this weekend when Jamie is in town, and you get to have a sleep over at Aaron's on Friday night. You sure do love your cousins!

Asher, I am so proud of you. Daddy and I both are. You are caring, smart, funny, (you have a wit that exceeds almost anyone I know) creative, energetic, happy and curious. You love life and aren't afraid to live it to its fullest. You have a big heart and a sweet testimony, and I am so grateful for the example that you are to me. I love you Briggs. I hope your 6th year is full of laughter, making memories, and lots of your little art projects hanging on my walls. 

Girls' Weekend at Cannon Beach

For the past two years, Mom and all of her daughters/daughter in law got together and went to Time Out For Women. We all loved TOFW but felt that after the weekend was over, we hadn't really had much bonding time. We had spent most of two days together but we hadn't even been able to catch up! This year however, we decided to go a different route. We decided that we'd spend the same amount of money that we'd spent in years past, but get a house in Cannon Beach for the weekend instead. We'd eat good food, have a couple devotionals, do a service project, and enjoy each other's company and the beauty that we were surrounded by.

We couldn't have picked a better weekend. We were there Thursday through Saturday and the weather was absolutely PERFECT the entire time. We couldn't have asked nor expected anything better. Last minute Jenny wasn't able to make it, and we were all pretty bummed. We missed her being there so much! Heather brougth Hex with her, and he was absolutely perfect the entire time. You know when a kid smiles at you and you think "I know, I'm so your favorite." Well, Hendrix did that to every single one of us, all day long. We are all his favorite! 

We spent a lot of time on the beach, looking at tide pools. We spent most of our days in the house though working on Family History. Scanning pictures, writing down stories, organizing and labeling pictures. It was so fun to be able to reminisce and look at slides and make a memory while preserving others. We did eat good food. (Heather planned a killer menu!) We wandered shops. Mom, Lisa and Natalie went for a morning run/walk. I was bummed that I couldn't go because of my knee injury! But I got to stay home with Heather and Hendrix and that was definitely worth it! 

The weekend was full of little surprises. Mom and Lisa (right? Or was it all Mom?) went on a little surprising frenzy and bought us all gifts unbeknownst to us. Natalie got a bowl for the table in her new entry, Hendrix got an adorable little octopus, and I got sunglasses that I was coveting! We also all pitched in and got Jenny a seaglass neckless. We really missed her being there!

Now for the pictures...

As soon as we got there, Heather went straight to the water. It was like a magnetic pull. You couldn't have stopped her if you tried!

We watched the sunset from the beach both nights we were there.  It was so perfect I couldn't resist doing cartwheels. 

 

Proof that we did family history. 

I couldn't stop taking pictures of the sunset. The pictures didn't do it any justice at all but still...it was incredible.

Like my new sunglasses? Thanks Mama!

Heather had brought cookies in a cookie jar.  As we were packing up we filled it with the rest of the homemade pizza. We had our last lunch on the sand and I thought it was so funny that we had this glass cookie jar full of pizza on the sand. I couldn't resist a picture. 

Heather dropped me back off at my house on her way back to La Grande. Maverick and Hendrix are 10 months apart, and it was so fun seeing them scope each other out. They are going to be great buddies someday!

As Heather left for La Grande, we decided super spontaneously that Sean should go with her. We called Dylan and he confirmed that he wasn't doing anything but playing all week (the last week before the semester started for both Sean and Dylan) so Sean tagged along. I figured after Sean watched the kids for a couple weekends in a row while I played that he could have his fun too! They went hiking, hunting, slacklining, they did wood working, watched youtube videos, and I'm sure lots of other stuff. I'm glad Sean was able to get a little retreat before hitting the the books again!