Wow, life has been a little crazy, but good. Here’s a few funny things the kids have said:

Random from Keaton and Berkley

Keaton: “Mom, when grandma was your son did you like qubo?” (Aug. 2010)

Berkley (while eating a banana): “Mom, I hate bananas, but I still like them.” (Aug 2010)

Keaton (while holding up a snail with a big crack in it’s shell…it was obviously dying): “Mom, I found he’s heart. I found the poop, too.” (Aug 2010)

Keaton: “Mom, I just killed a snail but it’s still alive, and I can see it’s poop. Come see it.” (Aug 2010)

A conversation with Jaxon:

Jaxon: “Mom, I’m getting really big….do you know how I know?”

Me: “How do you know?”

Jaxon: “Because, when I go pee the bubbles are really big.” (sep 2010)

As we were driving down the road the other day, the kids saw a log cabin:

Parker: “Wow, that house is made out of lincoln logs. If a car ran into it, it would just fall down.” (Sep 2010)

Between Keaton and Scott

Keaton: “Dad let’s pick a number between 1 and 20.”

Scott: “Okay, I’ll pick the number. You guess.”

Keaton: “40.” (Aug 2010)

Between Jaxon and Scott

Jaxon (wearing his white shirt and tie from church): “I’m going to wear my church clothes all day today, dad.”

Scott (thinking Jaxon was going to say a reason that is spiritual): “How come?”

Jaxon: “Because, I want to be a secret agent.” (sep 2010)

And now here are a few pictures from our summer:

For boys who claim to hate everything that is girlie, they sure love this barbie car.

Below are photos of how we spent most of our summer

And below we have Keaton who LOVES his baby sister, but before she was born, he kept saying he didn’t want a sister, and he was upset that we were having a girl. He wanted another boy, but to his surprise he has learned to love Swasey.

Parker/Keaton news:

*Parker had another eye appointment a while back and once again his eyes are all clear, and he’s doing great. So we are continuing with his meds and hoping it all keeps going good.

*Keaton went to see the OT/PT—whom when we went to these appointments both therapists said to me, “So why are you here?” Apparently he is doing so good that they don’t even know what to do with him when he comes in. However his leg continues to give him trouble. The more he grows, the stiffer his ankle is getting. So, we go back in this month to the physiotherapist to talk about a rhizotomy again and also the possibility of surgically lengthening his achilles tendon.

Also, Keaton broke yet another pair of glasses today. I guess we’ll be getting more glasses for him.

Other news:

Jaxon lost both his front teeth and Parker lost one of his front teeth. I will post pix later. The kids started school. Swasey had her 2 week appointment and cried and screamed. The doctor and the nurse both commented on her feisty temper. I’m tired and life is a blur right now.

My 3 oldest boys decided to wear white t-shirts one day. I can tell my kids apart, but Parker came walking by me with his white t-shirt on, and I just saw him out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was Jaxon, so I started talking to him like he was Jaxon. Keaton came running up and laughing and said, “That’s not Jaxon!” I looked up and there was Parker standing in front of me. Now Keaton is catching up to Parker in height, so it was funny when they all wore these white t-shirts. I felt like I had triplets.

Keaton has been trying to ride a bike with training wheels. Before he used this bike, he was riding a little tricycle. It’s pretty hard for him. Getting his left leg to work right is really difficult for him, but he’s been practicing and can now peddle by himself. He just has trouble stopping. And, his left foot slips off the peddle a lot, so Scott tried strapping his foot to the peddle. It worked pretty good. He’s taken a few spills, so it’s been hard convincing him to ride it some more. But, the therapists said if he would start riding a bike it would really strengthen his scrawny little leg, so that’s what we are trying to do.

Here he is riding by himself. He’s doing soooooo good. Just about a week and a half ago he got another round of botox in his leg. And, yesterday they casted him. The botox seems to be working a little better this time, so that’s good. Scott took him to get his cast on. Keaton has been following Scott around lately….he’s Scott’s little shadow. So, I had Scott take him to get the cast on, because when I take him he always ends up trying to kick the therapist, and screams and cries. But, Scott said he did really good. He just sat there while they put the cast on. I think it was fun for him to have time with just Scott. After he got the cast on, Scott took him to get some ice cream bars. He seemed pretty happy when he got home. So far he’s doing pretty good with the cast. He has asked me to take it off a few times, but he’s been a lot milder than he ever has been. At his appointment with the therapist before he had the botox, the therapist was amazed again at how well he’s doing. He just gets around so well, and doesn’t let anything stop him, which is good, but I think the therapist doesn’t know what to do with him anymore. I think it’s kind of pointless for us to take him to physical therapy. He does his own therapy at home by wrestling, playing baseball, playing soccer, and lots of other stuff. So, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. I guess maybe take him every 6 months or so to make sure he’s still doing good.

The hard thing with Keaton lately has been all his questions. I expected him to question his differences at some point, but not this soon. For a few days he kept coming up to me and saying, “Mommy, why am I different?” I was surprised and didn’t really know what to say. And, now with his cast, he has been asking me, “Why do I have a cast?” He wants to know why he has to have a cast and his brothers and friends don’t. So other than answering his hard questions he really is doing great.

And here are his broken glasses. He had these for approximately one month. He’s so hard on his glasses. I really don’t know what to do anymore. If anyone knows of any “Keaton proof” glasses, please let me know!!

Parker had to make a leprechaun trap this year. He was way excited about it. I let him decide how to do it. He drew the rainbow himself, and then he told me how he wanted to make it so the leprechaun would fall through the hole in the middle of the trap. It turned out really good. While I was helping him put it all together, Keaton disappeared for a long time in the other room. Just as I was about to glue the rainbow onto Parker’s trap, Keaton came and showed me a rainbow he had drawn, and told me he really needed a trap, too. It was really cute and funny. I didn’t have time to make Keaton’s trap right then, so for the next two days after that, that’s all he could talk about. I finally gathered up some materials and helped him make a trap, too. By the time we took the pictures of the traps, Keaton’s latter had been broken into pieces. I never did get around to getting it fixed. But, he was still happy with it. It was lots of fun doing these traps with both these two super cute boys. Sadly, the leprechaun outsmarted us, and we weren’t able to catch a leprechaun.

I found these pictures yesterday when I downloaded the pictures of Keaton climbing the bunk beds.

Berkley loves food!!

1st pic: Berkley had eaten pancakes with apricot syrup. He really enjoyed them. I’m not sure how he got the syrup to spread so evenly over his nose.

Jaxon’s many inventions….

A rocket ship and I’m not sure what the 2nd one is….All I know is, you are supposed to look through the little ring thing he taped on it.

A castle and Jaxon made his very own compass

Here Jaxon has something made out of paperclips, and the last one is him showing off his lost teeth.

(Below)Halloween Pix:

Ninja Turtle, Ghost

Power Ranger and Bumblebee

4 cute little boys celebrating Jaxon’s bday….

Little K has been working hard to learn how to climb up on Jaxon’s bed. He’s been trying ever since we bought the bunk beds, but he always tries to do it with only the right side of his body. I have tried quite a few times to help him learn, but pretty much I ended up pushing him up the stairs most of the way. The other night after we read scriptures with the kids, Keaton decided once again to give the ladder a try. It was good having Scott there, because he was able to show Keaton some simple things to do with his left hand to climb up the ladder. Well, after 5 minutes of practicing, he got it down. It was really exciting for him. He was so happy. Berkley learned how to climb up that ladder quite a while ago, and I think it really bothered Keaton. I actually feel bad for him sometimes. Berkley is starting to pass him in a few things. Berkley can get all his clothes off by himself and Keaton can’t. There are a few other things, too that Berkley can do, but Keaton can’t. Even when we were teaching Keaton how to climb the ladder, in between one of Keaton’s breaks, Berkley quickly climbed up the ladder and sat on the bed. Then, when Keaton went to try again Berkley sat at the top of the bed saying, “Come on, Keaton. Climb.” It was funny, cute and a little sad all at the same time. Not only can Keaton climb up, but he can also get down by himself, which Berkley doesn’t know how to get down, so I guess that’s good. It was just good to finally see him conquer that ladder.

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.”

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.

Pictures by: Parker–Top left: A komodo dragon….I think Parker is fascinated with komodo dragons. He loves drawing pictures of them. Top Right: A picture Parker came home with from church. I really like this picture of him and Jesus. Bottom: A pirate picture….He’s really starting to draw good. For a long time he wouldn’t draw anything. I think after we gave Jaxon so much praise for his pictures, Parker really felt like he couldn’t draw as good, so he would always insist that either Jaxon or I draw pictures for him. But, I thought his pirate picture was really good and cute.

By: Keaton–A horse. He’s finally starting to draw actual images. I’m not sure what’s below the horse, but at the top is his first picture of a horse.

Jaxon’s “invention”. Jaxon always tells me he’s going to invent something, then he disappears into a room for hours. The above picture is a bird house he invented. He even hung it in the tree and then put grapes in the bird house to try and get birds to come to it.

Here’s a Zebra Jaxon thought up all by himself. Another invention.

I’m not sure if there is a name for the bent up paperclip with the little shell on it, but Jaxon was quite proud of this invention. The picture next to it was my mother’s day gift.

Here are some more pictures drawn by Jaxon. In the first picture he was trying to write, “The hooj (huge) elephant.” He didn’t know how to spell elephant, so he only made it to the “e.” The second picture is a picture he drew for me, so I could use it in the preschool I have been doing. I am doing a preschool with some other moms and we each take turns teaching. Jaxon drew some Kangaroos, and wrote the letter “K”. But, he also wanted the preschool kids to know that the letter C makes the same sound as K.

Here are some more komodo dragons dragon by Parker.

Little K-man here had another appointment this week. We met with the physiotherapist (I think that’s what she’s called) and the occupational therapist and the physical therapist. They originally planned on doing botox on his leg, since his ankle/leg are so tight. They were going to do the shots while he was awake which obviously kids don’t like shots, but he usually handles stuff like that okay. But, we got there and when the doc evaluated the K-man, she decided he would need to have some muscles injected that are down deeper in the leg, which would be very painful, so we are going to have to wait until they can sedate him to do the botox. Then 10 days after they smooth out his leg with the botox, they will cast his leg for 3 weeks. Which last time they casted him, he was extremely angry, and even figured out how to peel the cast off. So we will see how he does this time.

The doc asked Keaton to walk across the room so she could watch how his foot looked when he was walking…..well, K-man here didn’t want anything to do with walking. He ran and did these super hero jumps and kicks. They kept asking him to walk, but he refused. I think he was trying to show off for everyone. He has told me a number of times he is a super hero. The room we were in is a pretty big room, and the whole time the doc was there Keaton was running from one corner to the other. He even tripped one time and almost slammed into the mirror. There was a gasp of horror from everyone, but luckily he missed the mirror. The doc can’t believe how well he gets around and how good he does. So for now, it’s still a no-go with the rhizotomy, which is good for me, I think. I think if they end up doing the rhizotomy I will mostly cry. The doc said she can’t believe how coordinated Keaton is….and her suggestion for OT and PT was to have him keep playing with his older brothers. I guess it’s working wonders for him. From my point of view K always seems to be doing pretty good, but I really don’t know what to compare him to, so I never know if he’s behind, doing good, or ahead of where he should be. I wish I could sit in on other people’s appointments and see how their kids are doing. It just seems like every time we go to an appointment the doctors/therapists are always in awe about how good K is doing. I’m not sure what they are comparing him to. Anyways, the best part of the appointment was when the doc asked me how many kids we have, and if they were all as active as K. She was wondering what our house must be like. She couldn’t imagine 4 boys as active as Keaton. At least it makes me feel better. I should get those comments recorded on their charts just so everyone knows how energetic and active my 4 monsters really are. So yeah he’s doing good. My plan is to just encourage all the boys to keep on wrestling, fighting, playing sports, etc, because it’s all obviously helping K-man.