I found out not too long ago that I am prego yet again. I’m due on August 13th. I had my first appointment last week, and they also did an ultrasound. It was really cool seeing the baby on the ultrasound. I’m not sure I’ve seen the others when they were that small. It looked like it had plenty of room to roam around and it seemed very active. Everybody keeps asking me what we want, and I’m totally fine with a boy or a girl, but seeing that baby on the ultrasound, it really reminded me of my other boys. I swear it was jumping rope with the umbilical cord. So, my prediction is another crazy, active little boy. We find out in two months what it is.

PARKER NEWS: We also went to an appointment for Parker, which I really enjoyed…Mostly because they built a new hospital that is much closer to our house so now we only have to drive 15 minutes to see the rheumatologist. How lucky are we?! The appointment went really good. The doctor said the arthritis in his joints is in remission. His left knee has been a tiny bit stiff since he’s had the arthritis, but at this appointment he could fully extend and bend his leg. That was so exciting to hear. As for the bad part of the visit….I guess there’s always good and bad, but not too long ago Parker’s cheeks on his jawline became very sore and swollen. It hurt him if I even touched it. We took him into the instacare, and the doctor said it was a salivary gland infection. Well, we told the rheumatologist about it, and she said it’s very rare for a kid his age to have a salivary infection, so they decided to do some extra lab work besides what he already has to get….she named about 3 different diseases it could be associated with, and I can’t even remember the names, and I’m not sure I want to. I guess if he has any of them we will deal with it one step at a time, but for now I haven’t even heard back on the lab results, so we are just waiting. I asked her if they would do anything differently if he did have any of the diseases, but they would still follow the same path they are on, so it’s not that big of a deal. I guess they just want to know, because in the future it could maybe cause some problems….who knows? I guess we’ll see how it all comes out. As for his eyes, they are still, clear, too, but the plan is to keep him on the MTX for at least 2 years, so it will be fun doing the shots for 2 more years. Oh well, it could be a lot worse. At least he has some positive things happening, so I will just hold on to that and be happy for the good news.

So, Scott and I have been trying to read to the kids from the scriptures every night before they go to bed. I used to read a chapter to them every night, but lately they seemed to be bored and would start playing with their toys instead of listening. So, we decided we would just read a couple of verses and then discuss them with the kids. Last night Scott was reading out of the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi, where Nephi quotes Isaiah. It was talking about men being prideful or as the scriptures say, the loftiness of men and how they will be made low and the lord alone will be exalted. So, we are discussing this, and Scott is trying to teach the kids that it’s not good to be prideful. Well, Jaxon and Parker started coming up with some ideas of what not to do:

Jaxon: “It wouldn’t be good to walk up to someone and say, ‘You’re lame.’ That would be bad.”

Jaxon sits there thinking for a while and then says, “It wouldn’t be good to walk up to someone and say, ‘You’re hideous.’

Parker: “It wouldn’t be good to walk up to someone and say, ‘You’re stupid.’ Or it wouldn’t be good to walk up to someone and punch them in the face.”

Somehow they also talked about not acting like they are cooler than everyone else either. So, then this morning this is what happened:

Keaton: “I’m cool. I’m cool.”

Jaxon: “You’re lofty. You will be cut down.”

Keaton: “I’m cool.”

Jaxon: “Nobody’s cool. I’m awesome. Nobody can be cool.”

Wow, I’m so glad they understood what we were trying to say! Of course nobody can be cool, they can only be awesome. But, then something else happened just a few minutes ago.

I found a lost DVD, and Keaton got all excited about it.

Keaton: “Wait to go mom. You did it! You found the movie! You’re awwwww……(he trailed off and didn’t finish what he was going to say)”

Me: “I’m awesome!”

Keaton: “No you’re not awesome. Jesus will cut you open.”

So, yeah, explaining the scriptures as we go is apparently working out really well!! We are such cool….errrr….awesome….errrr…..well some kind of parents.

And here is Jaxon with his globe he got for Christmas (pre broken collar bone). And, yes he really asked for a globe for christmas. Anyways, I was going to put a post on here about how he broke his collar bone. I don’t think we have pictures of him when he broke it, so I put this pic up. We went up the canyon with Scott’s family which we do this pretty much every year and we go sledding. Well, just to back up a little, we had also gone sledding in Beaver and I think I about had a heart attack. Kids were flying all over the place and by the time it was over, I was SO ornery, because I was so uptight that someone was going to get hurt. So as you can imagine I wasn’t too excited to take the kids sledding again, but we went and the kids usually have fun up there. The hills at this place are smaller than the ones in Beaver, so I thought it wouldn’t be so bad. I purposely tried not to watch what was going and let Scott take charge of the kids and help them sled. I knew if I watched them all I would be doing was hyperventilating and being extremely stressed out. Well, lo and behold not long after they were sledding I hear some of Scott’s cousins and family saying someone is hurt. We were sitting in a cabin where you could see outside the window where they were sledding and I looked out the window to see Jaxon lying on the ground and people huddling around him. This is so bad, but I didn’t even get up to go check on him. When I saw him laying on the ground and he wouldn’t get up, I totally knew something was wrong. When he gets hurt he usually gets right back up. For him to lay on the ground and not move was a very bad sign, and plus I didn’t think I could handle going out there and seeing him in pain. Well, I finally worked up the courage to go see what was wrong and he was grabbing his left shoulder area by his collar bone, and I thought for sure he broke it. Well, they gently loaded him on a tube and we took him to the van. When they were putting him in the van he started screaming and yelling and crying really loud. I felt bad for him. Every bump we went over was painful for him and we had to take him clear down the mountain and find an ER. When we were about 2 blocks from the hospital, Jaxon told us his arm was feeling better. He broke his arm just about 6 months earlier and really hated getting the x rays, because of how much it hurt. So, yeah he tells us, he’s okay, but I told him he really didn’t have a choice and he had to go see the doctor. His voice got all shakey and he said, “I don’t want to get x-rays.” Well, somehow he made it through the x-rays, and yes his collar bone was broken. He snapped it in two. The doc said they really don’t do much with collar bones, just put a sling on and let it heal. Most of the time it will go back to how it’s supposed to be without even setting it or anything. He’s doing much better now, but had some really rough days. I think the pain is finally starting to go away, so that is good. And, I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping my kids don’t have anymore accidents for a long time!

Parker also had an appointment this week. We went to see the eye doc. I always get nervous at this appointment, because if they find anything in his eyes, they will have to put him on even more meds. Right now he is on his weekly methotrexate (chemo) shot, which he completely hates. If they ever do have to do the other meds, it would also be an injection that stings. It already hard enough holding him down for his shot that doesn’t sting. But, the appointment was good, and Parker’s eyes were completely CLEAR! Yay! So, we just have to keep up on the metho for the next 2 years and go to the eye appointments every 3 months, and hopefully get this all under control….and for those who might be looking at our blog for the first time, Parker has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis along with the fun uveitis (eye disease) that comes with it sometimes. So between his appointments, and Keaton’s appointments sometimes it’s hard not to go crazy. But we are hanging in there. Good news always helps.

We celebrated Keaton’s bday at my parent’s house this year, since his birthday is so close to Christmas. He insisted on having a pinata. I think he had a lot of fun with all his cousins there to share his birthday with him. Keaton is now 4 years old, and is very excited to be 4. Keaton has already had a pretty rough life, but you wouldn’t be able to tell because of how happy he is. His story is a pretty crazy one. When he was 5 months old I noticed he wouldn’t use his left hand….hence the picture where is only swinging at the pinata with his right hand. After seeing way too many doctors and a lot of stress we found out he had a cyst on the right side of his brain, which his neurologist seemed to think was caused by a stroke before he was born. He has left hemiplegia/cerebral palsy. He is always going to the physical/occupational therapy and he sees tons of other doctors, too. But, so far everyone seems to be happy with how well he is doing. He runs and plays and wrestles his brothers, and is just as crazy as any other little boy I’ve ever seen. He just had some more appointments after the Christmas break, and they were all good. Before we went to these appointments his eye doctor thought he was going to need eye surgery again, but they tried another prescription in his glasses and so far his glasses are working, so that was really good news. Then, his physical therapist was becoming alarmed at how tight his little ankle was getting, so she sent us to see an orthopedic specialist, and he told us he doesn’t need surgery yet and we are supposed to help him strengthen the muscles on the outside of his leg. So, we asked how we could do that, and the doctor told us lots of hiking….which isn’t really possible right now or he told us the Wii has some games with this balance board that would help strengthen that part of his leg. So, we ended up getting a Wii, and we are finding games that will help him strengthen his leg. All in all, the appointments turned out to be good….mostly because I wanted a Wii anyways….ha ha ha. But, this summer hopefully we can go on lots of hikes, and help him. If he can get his leg stronger, he might be able to avoid surgery. I guess we’ll see what happens. This specialist did tell us we might want to go to see another doctor about Keaton’s hand. His hand is also pretty tight, but I just can’t even think about more doc appointments right now. Maybe in a few months when I’m not so burned out on doctor’s offices. We will go see the ortho again in a year just to see how Keaton is doing. The ortho even told us he doesn’t need to wear his brace during the day. He just said at night he really needs to wear his leg brace to keep his foot from pointing downwards. So yeah, it all sounded pretty good to me. Now the plan is to work with Keaton as much as possible to strengthen his leg and arm. And, sadly this is a lot of Keaton’s life. Sometimes he really hates all the appointments we go to, and lately he’s been getting really mad about it. I don’t blame him. But, he is a trooper, and a fun little kid to be around. He’s our little super hero. He loves wearing his superman cape, and I love it, too. He flies all over our house protecting us from all the “bad guys.”

This morning my Grandma Yashko passed away. This is a picture of her at her birthday party in 2006. She was 95 this year. She has steadily declined in the last few years, and it was time to go. She lived a long very full life. She used to tell us amazing stories (whether they were true or not, I don’t know) about driving to school when she was in grade school (she lived in a very small town), her amazing horse “Old Jimmy,” getting her pilot’s license, a pet bear, hikes and campouts and a bunch of other stuff. She served several missions later in life and was constantly serving in the temple.

I found this that she wrote in response to a question posed by the LDS church news. She actually did do a lot of the things she mentions.

How to influence your grandchildren without becoming meddlesome

Set an example

I suggest the following:

- Set an example of daily service by attending the temple, serving in the Church and going on a mission.

- Give a Book of Remembrance, life stories, pictures of ancestors, Church magazine subscriptions and other helpful material for birthdays and Christmas presents.

- Participate with them in family reunions, outings, games and family home evenings.

- Take them to visit lonely neighbors and friends at Christmas time or Sunday afternoons.

- Stay with them when their parents are out. Serve them fruit and nuts instead of candy.

- Write to each at least once a month if they are living away from you. – Ruth E. Yashko, Lehi, Utah

I’m glad that Grammy finally was able to peacefully pass on. We’ll miss her!

So maybe some of you have read the awkward family story on awkwardfamilyphotos.com that features a thanksgiving letter. Anyway, it’s a must read. We kind of have have the same thing in our family every other year when we get together with the Yashkos (my mom’s family). We have been instructed to bring a centerpiece every year since we have been married, but I think this is the first year we participated. This was our tribute to the pilgrims and the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock. It’s paper mache, and about 3 feet wide. We hoped this could end the “everyone bring a centerpiece” tradition, but it turns out everyone loved it. Next time we will have to make it bigger and more unsanitary. Maybe a 1:10 scale replica of the Mayflower complete with seasick pilgrims.

The pic has nothing to do with this post. I just thought I would update everyone on how Keaton is doing. It’s actually been a really tough week for the little man. Last week they put a cast on his left leg. They were doing the casting along with the botox, because the botox is supposed to loosen up his leg, and then they cast him and hopefully get his leg stretched out a lot and loosened up. Well, they put the cast on him and from the minute we got home, he complained about that cast. I kept checking his toes to make sure he was getting the circulation, and it wasn’t too tight and his toes were fine, so I couldn’t figure out what his problem was. He kept telling me it was “tickling.” It turned out to be a horrible week for both of us. He cried so much and I didn’t know what to do, and he was just miserable. When it was time to take the cast off, he was super excited and after it was off, the bottom part of his shin was noticeably red, and swollen and the bottom of his foot had sores on it. So, then the next day we were supposed to take him in to get his second cast on. He was understandably upset, and was crying all the way to the appointment. In the waiting room he was still mad, but at least sat still. The therapist called Keaton’s name to go back, and I stood up and picked Keaton up, and he started punching me, and trying to get away. The therapist checked out his leg and couldn’t decide if she should put another cast on him or not. She finally decided to put another one on and put extra padding on all the sore spots. But, the bad news about all this is that Keaton’s leg is extremely tight. It hasn’t loosened up at all. The therapist said she was putting all her weight on him to try and bend his ankle, and she only got his ankle to neutral. Even with the botox, he’s still super tight. So, it’s frustrating. I don’t know what the next step is. The therapist mentioned maybe a heel cord lengthening, which involves surgery or a rhizotomy (also surgery). It was depressing. I hate the thought of having to do the whole surgery stuff. Then, earlier that day we went to Keaton’s eye appointment and that was all bad news, too. The doc asked me if his eyes were crossing with his glasses on and I told him I didn’t think they were, but then they measured his eyes with his glasses on and his eyes are crossing really bad. I felt pretty dumb, because I haven’t noticed it. How could I not notice that?? So for now they are trying a stronger prescription and if that doesn’t work???—You guessed it, eye surgery. I came home and was somewhat upset. I can’t stand the thought of them having to put Keaton out for surgery, but I guess you do what you have to. So, yeah, it’s been one of those weeks….You can’t have good news all the time I guess. It’s just another bump in the road and we’ll get through it. Just maybe keep your fingers crossed and we can avoid surgery. I’m not too hopeful though. I think we are headed straight for a looooooooooong crazy surgery road. Just wish us luck….or kiss a fish for us.

I had to tell about accident prone Berkley. I have been trying to potty train him, and he’s been doing good, but the other day, he went running in to use the bathroom and tripped on the bath mat and smacked his head on the bath tub. It left a huge bruise on his head. So, we go walking into church yesterday and on our way to sit down, a couple people commented on the bruise on his head. I hate it when my kids get hurt like that, because first of all it’s just scary and it was one of those times where you see it happen and you feel sick to your stomach, because you aren’t sure exactly how bad it is, and I also hate it, because you never know what other people are thinking when they see it. Anyways, so we make it to our seat in the chapel, and I was putting my bag down on the bench and Berkley had gone and sat on the bench in front of us. He stands up on the bench, and I looked down at my bag for just a second, and Berkley nose dived over the back of the bench onto the ground. It made a loud sound, and I ran to pick him up. He didn’t even cry. And, I don’t think it hurt him too bad, but then later Keaton needed to use the bathroom. So, I take Berkley with me, because he’s really starting to stress me out, and I was thinking I wanted to keep an eye on him, so he doesn’t fall anymore. So, we go into the bathroom and we went into the handicapped stall, since it’s big so all we can all fit in there. Well, the toilet was too tall for Keaton to stand and pee, so I had to have him stand on my feet so he could reach, and Berkley of course starts going crazy, and running back and forth in the stall. The next thing I know I hear a big crash and I turn to look and Berkley had just ran head first into the wall. I was about to cry. I think He needs a helmet. This time he cried, and there was another nice bump on his head. I grew up with 4 brothers, and I know boys can be crazy, but I swear it seems like my kids have taken it to a whole new level. One day I think I will do a blog post about all the crazy stuff my kids have done, but I don’t have time right now.

These 2 extremely cute little boys celebrated their birthdays this past week. Jaxon is 7 and Berkley is 2. After Jaxon’s birthday party, he came and told me, “Mom, now that I am 7, I can carry Berkley around.”

So, tonight I was sitting here wondering where the time goes. It seems like Jaxon was just born, and I loved becoming a mom. Nothing else even compared to it. From the moment Jaxon was born he was on the move. He crawled at 5 months old, and was walking by 7 months. At 10 months he spent a week in the PICU because he woke up one morning and couldn’t walk anymore, and not only could he not walk, but he couldn’t even hold himself up next to furniture. The doctors all suspected it was a virus called Guillan Barre virus, but the tests they ran on him weren’t conclusive enough to know for sure if that was really what he had. So, he was pretty much paralyzed for a week, and it was a horrible thing to watch. They put an IV in his head. He had 2 different spinal taps done, CT scans, MRI’s, and a bunch of other stuff. I can’t even remember all the stuff they did to him. They were about to start him on some gamma globulin (I think that’s what it was) treatments, but before they ended up starting that, he began to get the strength back in his legs and little by little he began to walk again. That was one of the most horrible weeks of my life. Jaxon became a big brother when he was only 14 months old (ha ha ha….I put 14 months old, but he was really 16 months old. I think I am going crazy), and ever since then he has had a huge responsibility. And the responsibility increased even more when we found out all the stuff that was wrong with Keaton and Parker. I remember sitting in my room on the floor crying and crying one day. I couldn’t stop crying, because I was so upset about Parker and Keaton’s health problems. It was so difficult to swallow all of that.  I was trying to accept the challenges that had been placed before our family, but that night, it all became too much for me and I just cried and cried. I didn’t know what to do, but after I had been crying for a while, little Jaxon came in my room. I think he was only 3 years old at the time, but he came over to me and put his arm around me and said, “it be okay mommy.” And he was right. Even though things weren’t turning out how I had imagined them, everything really was going to be okay. But, I remember being amazed at the huge responsibility he had. Not only was he trying to help his brothers out, but he had to take care of his extremely unstable mom.  He’s such a good boy. He can be crazy and wild like most little boys, but he really is just an amazing little boy. He can draw these amazing pictures. I think he’s going to be a little artist. He’s been such a good example for his younger brothers. I’m so glad we have him and that he’s the oldest. He helps me out a lot.

Then, we have Berkley. I got pregnant with Berkley right after we found out Parker had arthritis, and Keaton had cerebral palsy. I was sooooooooooo stressed out about everything with him. The tiniest little thing that didn’t seem right, I would pretty much panic. Mostly with Berkley I just remember being scared about everything. I think before he came down here to be with our family he was plotting against me in heaven. I think he thought it would be fun to scare me a little. Right after he was born he got an infection in his umbilical cord stump. It wasn’t bad, but I of course panicked. Wow, did I get stressed out about every little thing. Then, when he was 2 months old, he got sick with bronchiolitis, but I was so sure he had RSV. I kept taking him back into the doctor. I think I didn’t sleep at all for 2 whole days. I was so scared he was going to stop breathing in the night and I wouldn’t know, so I sat up with him and did what I could to help him. Then, when he was 4 months old I couldn’t get him to push on his legs or use his legs at all. After seeing what happened with Keaton, I totally convinced myself that he had cerebral palsy and couldn’t use his legs. He never did stand on his legs until he was 7 months old, and I can’t tell you how much I worried and panicked about that. I would take Berkley with me to Keaton’s PT appointments and have the PT look at him and see what she thought. And, the PT did think it was weird that he wouldn’t use his legs. I think he was just super laid back and was happy to lay on the floor. But, I would lay awake at night so convinced that there was something wrong with him, and I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. And, on top of all of that, when we went in for his well child check-ups, his head began to start measuring unusually large. It just kept getting bigger and bigger and the doctor seemed pretty concerned, so I asked him to please tell me what it meant and why it was such a big concern. He mentioned things like hydrocephaly (I think that’s what it’s called) and that it might be a tumor, so they would need to do a CT scan to see if there was something wrong. So of course, once again I completely lost it and panicked. We got the CT scan done, and the results came back normal. I remember I didn’t even know how to react when the doctor called to tell me everything looked good. I thought for sure they were going to say something was wrong, and I kept waiting for them to call me back to tell me they got Berkley’s scan mixed up with someone else’s and there actually was something wrong. With each of my kids I have gotten pretty stressed out when they got sick or they got hurt, but Berkley was a whole new level. I’m surprised I didn’t have a heart attack. I took him into the doctor for EVERYTHING. After he turned 1, I think I finally started to calm down a little bit. But wow, that was all so stressful. Mostly that’s what I remember about him as a baby…..pretty sad, I know. There was one good thing about him as a baby though, and that was how cuddly he was (and still is). Sometimes he just wants me to hold him and he’ll sit and cuddle with me on the couch. He’s such a cutie. He’s already talking in sentences, and not just short 1 or 2 word sentences, but long sentences. Today he was playing with his brothers and cousins downstairs and for some reason they all decided to go upstairs, and Berkley stood up and said, “Hey guys, wait for me!” He also will come say to me, “I want to watch (a) TV show.” Anyways, even though I was extremely tense when Berkley was born, he was really good for me. It’s kind of ironic, but when I would get so upset and scared about everything, the only thing that could calm me down was to go pick up Berkley and just hold him in my arms. Here I was so stressed over this little baby, but at the same time holding him in my arms was exactly what I needed to keep me somewhat sane. I’m so glad we have him. I really can’t imagine our family without him.