Swasey has become a pro at giving us the stink eye. If she doesn’t like what you are doing she will give you “the look!” Yikes, watch out!

A lot of stuff happened at the end of the year. I just wanted to put a bunch of pictures on here of what we were up to.

I started walking the kids to school a lot. It’s been really fun. I actually look forward to the short walk to the school. In the pic above, Berkley kept trying to ride his scooter way ahead of me, and then he would lay on the ground and pretend like he had wrecked and he was unconscious. It was pretty funny, but I’m not sure what the people driving by thought about it.

Jaxon did a report on Nikola Tesla. If you haven’t heard of him, you should look him up on google. He was an amazing guy. For part of his project he was supposed to dress up as Nikola Tesla and the kids pretended they were in a wax museum while the parents walked by. I can’t believe how still those 3rd graders stood. It was amazing. Also, for part of the museum, the kids each had a paper in front of them that they were supposed to write 3 facts about the person they did the report on. In the book Jaxon read about Tesla, it talked about how Tesla really liked this female pigeon and he’d always go to the park and feed it and take care of it. The chapter did seem a little weird, but for some reason Jaxon became kept talking about this pigeon and how really wanted to write about that in his report. Tesla invented so many cool things, but one of the facts Jaxon wrote on his paper for the museum was “Tesla loved a female pigeon.” I was dying when I read it. I wanted to hurry and erase it and put something else. For the rest of the day all I could do was laugh. I still wonder what all the other parents thought about that as they read his little fact sheet….

Berkley learned some awesome dance moves

Scott made us an awesome Christmas tree. This has been my favorite tree so far. He made it out of some branches from another tree. It was perfect for our super small house. I definitely want a tree like this again next year.

Swasey has insisted on feeding herself, and she can take her bibs off. She has ruined tons of clothes. I guess I just need to get her down to her diaper everytime she eats.

Keaton had a dental check up and insisted on getting a mustache as his prize. I think he wanted to be like Jaxon, when Jaxon was Nikola Tesla.

Swasey didn’t want to be left out of the mustache contest. She kept trying to stick the mustache onto her lip, but the sticky stuff wasn’t working anymore, so this was the best picture I got of her.

Just some super cute little boys.

Swasey got a rocking chair for christmas. She likes to sit and read books in it.

Not sure what’s going on with the pic size, but the sad news for the end of the year was Parker. The doctors took him off his meds in October since he was doing so good. His eyes had been clear for 2 years, and his joints had been fine for even longer. By about Thanksgiving, Parker was running around in some shorts. I glanced at his knee, and thought wow, his knee is huge. I didn’t say anything to him. He acted fine, like it didn’t hurt, so I decided just to wait and see if he ended up complaining about it. A couple of weeks later he came home from school and said his knee was hurting, and his knee still looked swollen. He was still running and playing on it at that point. Right before christmas break it was obvious that his knee was getting worse, so I made an appointment with the rheumatologist for right after christmas break was over. He also saw the eye doctor that same day. And, not only was his knee swollen, but he had cells/inflammation in his eyes, and also precipitate in his eyes. It was a sad depressing day. Parker is now back on having shots weekly and this time the dose is double what he was on last time. For this month he has to have eye drops twice a day, and he’s also taking a steroid. We go back and see the eye doc the first part of February. The eye problem can be serious, because if they are unable to get his eye inflammation under control he will go blind, so when he is having flare ups, we have to go see the eye doc a lot. So, that’s where we are at now. I guess there has been one thing good come out of this. I have always felt like Parker never really understood why he had to have shots. He just knew every week we had to do it. But, now he’s old enough that’s he’s recognizing if he doesn’t have his medicine his body has problems. I really feel like he now understands why he has to have all the crazy medicines. Anyways, so that’s where we are with the little man. Hopefully the meds help and soon he’ll be feeling better.

Other than Parker’s problems 2011 was a pretty good year. Keaton is still doing awesome with all his rhizotomy stuff.

I hope everyone had a happy new year!!

Keaton said for his birthday he wanted to go to the park and shoot off more rockets. It turned out to be a lot of fun. I even caught a picture of Keaton right as he shot the rocket off. We spent a couple of hours doing this. The rockets actually lasted for a long time. By the end they were looking pretty ragged.

This was the last run for Parker’s rocket. It finally exploded.

Keaton getting ready to launch the rocket

One of Jaxon’s rockets after it had landed. As long as they didn’t get a hole in the rocket, we could just straighten them out and keep shooting them off.

Jaxon retrieving his rocket.

Keaton said he had a fun birthday. I even had lots of fun watching the rockets. They went so high in the air. I kept trying to get a video of how high they were going, but I never was able to point my camera in the right direction. I did get a video of one of the rockets almost hitting me. It fell inches away from my feet. I’ll have to put that video on here later.

I think this has been one of my favorite christmases. Scott’s present idea for the kids was perfect. I think he will be more involved in getting gifts at christmas from now on.

Scott actually got involved in getting christmas presents for the kids this year. His present turned out awesome. He found instructions on how to build a rocket launcher. The kids can make the rockets out of cardstock. I didn’t expect it to work this good, but the kids love it, and so do I. So cool! Scott is so creative. I love it.

Watch close. The rocket goes so high and makes it hard to see it in the air. But, seriously this is so cool.

And, here’s a couple more videos for your enjoyment.

Keaton is still going strong. I know I have blogged a lot about Keaton this year. Some of you are probably wondering if I realize I have other kids. Yep, I do. I guess I really wanted to document all of Keaton’s success after his surgery this year. At the end of January it will be one year since he had the rhizotomy. Pretty crazy, but I’m extremely happy with the results. This video is from a while ago, but for Keaton to walk on this balance beam is so awesome. Before the rhizotomy there was no way he could do this. But here’s the video:

We’ve been super grateful for all the therapists and doctors that are around us, and that have helped Keaton out.

As for my last post, it probably sounded like I don’t think I need to do OT/PT with Keaton anymore, but I still strongly believe he needs that. I still try to take one hour each day and do exercises or have him play with toys that use both hands. I guess it all gets confusing when different people say different things, but in the end one thing is the same….”use it or lose it.” I know if Keaton doesn’t use the left side of his body, he can lose function of that side of his body, so we still try to encourage him to use the left side as much as possible.  We made “oobleck” the other day. That was a really good two-handed activity.

Fun with oobleck.

Berkley wanted red oobleck, but it turned out pink. He was ok with it though. He still wanted to play with it.

And, now I must sign off. It’s time to get the kiddos from school!

Keaton loves the swing scott made for him. All the kids love it. But, it really has been helpful. When Scott first put it up, Keaton had a hard time on it, but he is already getting better. For him to hang like this with no one helping him…that is pretty amazing. I wanted him to be able to do this at some point, but I never thought he master it so soon. Pretty awesome!

We went hiking. This was the ending point of our hike. The kids all wanted to climb on the bridge. Keaton hates to be left out, so he had to do what his brothers were doing and climb on the wrong side of the bridge. And, I have to admit, I was thinking there was no way he would make it to the other side of the bridge, but he proved me wrong.

Slowly, but surely…

still going….

He made it to the end! Way to go little dude!

And, here is at PT

They also have the swing thing at PT. Here is Keaton trying to kick the dummy.

This soft little incline and stairs used to be quite challenging for the k-man, but the therapist got it set up, and Keaton was practically running through it like it was nothing. He really is doing amazing.

And, one of Berkley just because he’s so cute!

I told Swasey to smile for the picture and this is what she did. Yep, she definitely belongs to our family!

My boys all decided they wanted to be pirates for halloween. Parker and Jaxon wanted to be “skeleton pirates.” I think they wanted to be like the pirates on Pirates of the Caribbean. Keaton was a regular old pirate, and Berkley decided spiderman was way cooler than pirates. I tried to get Jaxon to have his face painted like Parker’s, but he said he can’t stand having make-up on his face, so he was sort of a “skeleton pirate.” I guess it all worked out. They were happy just getting candy.

Swasey hated her costume. This was the only picture I got of her. I think I might try and put her costume back on her and get at least one picture…oh and she was supposed to be a monkey.

Close up of the cute little pirate

Tough guy Spiderman.

We went to the kids school halloween parade. This picture of Jaxon was super funny, because when it was his classes turn to leave, I kept watching for him, but I never saw him go by. I figured I must have just not seen him go by. Well, a couple of minutes later all the sudden here comes Jaxon running out of the gym. Yep, that’s right. Jaxon somehow got distracted and totally missed the cue of when his class was supposed to go back to their classroom. I’m not sure how he missed his entire class standing up and going back to class, but he managed to do it. It’s the same at home. In the mornings I will tell Jaxon to get ready. He is very easily distracted, so he’s always the last one ready, and usually by the time we are supposed to be leaving for school at least one of us is crying. I really got to find a way to help him stay focused.

At least Parker left when he was supposed to.

I have a ton of pictures I’ve been wanting to put on here. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I’ll just pick one and start from there.

Keaton had an assignment to make a little book about himself for Kindergarten. On one page he was supposed to draw his family…..well, whenever anyone sees this drawing, they all ask the same question, “How come you drew a beard on your mom?” He really wasn’t drawing a beard. He was trying to draw my long hair. But, I have to admit, it does look like I have a beard. He also messed up on Scott’s nose, and then tried to scribble out his mistake, so that’s what it ended up looking like. For the most part the drawings really do look like us.

We went fishing with Grandpa a little while ago. It was a lot of fun, and I even caught a fish. Here grandpa is holding the fish Jaxon caught (really grandpa caught it, but he gave Jaxon the fishing pole at the end so Jaxon bragged and bragged all night about his fish).

Swasey learned how to jump on the trampoline. And she got a little bit of static electricity. She started jumping on the tramp before she learned how to walk.

I started doing preschool with Berkley. This is his apple he painted, and he’s demonstrating how his finger is the worm.

Parker and Jaxon do this at least 20 times a day. It drives me crazy, but they think they are so cool. One day they’ll stop doing it….I think.

Jaxon wrote a story.

Keaton is supposed to play hopscotch to practice jumping on his left leg. He didn’t like the hopscotch I drew on the driveway so he drew his own.

I have been so involved in trying to take pix of Keaton’s progress that I think Berkley has been feeling left out. He came and asked me to take a picture of him playing hopscotch, too. The poor little bugger. I know he feels left out sometimes.

Keaton has been working extra hard on the swing, and has come a long ways. Look how awesome he is doing!

Keaton had a follow up visit with the physiotherapist a few days ago. She suggested making a “trapeze bar” to help strengthen and stretch Keaton’s arm. So, my handy dandy husband went to home depot and bought some supplies and came up with this:

Keaton has been practicing his hanging and gliding skills

And, some ninja skills

And, his trapeze act

Of course Parker had to get in on the action

I know it’s blurry, but it’s the only shot I got of the full trapeze hook-up. You can see how it’s hooked into the ceiling.

Jaxon had to show off how good he can do pull-ups. He’s a strong little bugger. He did 8 pull-ups in a row.

I know you are all jealous you can’t have a trapeze right in your own home. It’s actually been a little scary, but I guess we are doing it for a good cause. Hopefully this won’t cause any broken bones or anything like that.