A few weeks ago the doctors botoxed Keaton’s arm and leg.  They botox the muscles that are always flexed and temporarily paralyze those muscles in hopes that it will force him to use the muscles that he never uses.  Well, after he got the botox this time, he started holding his thumb in.  I guess I would say it’s almost like he was holding up four fingers, but all the time, even when he was trying to grab toys, he couldn’t get his thumb out.  I started getting worried.  I didn’t realize the botox could make his hand do that.  So, I took him in to see the OT, and she said that will happen with the kids sometimes after they receive botox.  And, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.  It’s just that the muscles that he is used to using and working are all paralyzed, so he has to try and figure out how to use the other muscles.  It’s just a matter of working with him and helping him develop those muscles.  But, to help him keep his thumb out the OT gave me this little splint thing and then we have to wrap the flexi-bandage over it to keep it on.  Of course the first couple of times I put it on him, he threw a fit and would take it off.  I tried to get him to keep it on, but one time he took it off and then he came up to me, and if you look in the above picture, Keaton is holding his left thumb out with his right hand, and so yeah, he was doing that same thing, only with the splint off and he said this to me. “See, I keep my thumb open.”

In other words, he was telling me he didn’t need the silly old splint.  It was so cute how he said it, and the look on his face, that I really didn’t want to put the splint back on, but I did.  And, I had to put his cast on his other hand so he wouldn’t keep taking it off.  So, Keaton’s had it kind of rough lately.  I have been working with him as much as I can, so I can help him build up those little muscles before the botox wears off.  The little ball that Parker is holding in the picture is a squishy ball that I got for Keaton.  That’s what we mostly do, is practice squishing that, so he can build up his muscles.  I know this is all good for him, but it’s been hard, too, because I feel like we are starting all over again.  Keaton can’t even pick up small toys anymore,  because he hasn’t figured out how to use his hand.  He was doing so good, and was even putting those beads on the shoelace, but now that is pretty much impossible.  But, it will be good.  Hopefully he can get his arm and leg good and strong.

Another thing they have talked about doing is something called a rhizotomy.  They think it might be a good thing for Keaton.  We are going to get another opinion from a doctor at Primary Children’s and go from there.  It involves clipping some of his nerves in his spinal cord.  They said they’ve done it on a few other kids, and have had really good results.  So, it’s an option, but I still want to  research it some more.  But, I have tried looking up info about in on the internet and the best thing I could find was on this hospital’s website:

http://www.gillettechildrens.org/default.cfm?PID=1.7.33.1

So, it sounds pretty intense, but I guess we’ll see what we end up doing.

So, yesterday I had just gotten done feeding the kids lunch and went into my room when I heard Keaton yelling that there was a fire.  They always say there is a fire when there isn’t, so I didn’t believe him.  I thought he must just be seeing smoke coming out of a chimney of a house or something.  Parker and Jaxon heard Keaton yelling about the fire, so they went to check it out and then they were all yelling and telling me to come look.  I went and looked out our window and sure enough there was a big huge black plume of smoke.  It was coming in the direction of where Jaxon’s school is located, so I made all the kids get in the van, because I wanted to go see if Jaxon’s school was on fire.  Well, it wasn’t his school.  It was a machine shop across the street from his school.  I took a couple of pictures that didn’t turn out great, but by the time we got by the fire, the smoke didn’t look nearly as bad, but it still looked like it was a pretty bad fire.  I was just glad Jaxon was already out of school, because they had everything blocked off to the school.  I think they loaded all the kids up in buses and got them out of the school.  Well, the really sad, terrible news about this is that a man from our ward was in that fire, and didn’t make it out.  I feel terrible for his wife and family, and just hope and pray for the best for them.  He was a good man….I just really hope his family is doing okay.

If you are interested, here is a link to the news story about the fire:   http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5647556

Scott built a snowman with the kids the other day.  If Scott ever says he’s going to build a snowman, he doesn’t mean the simple way that most people make snowmen.  He will end up doing some big snow sculpture.  Well, the kids were all helping him and he started doing the snow sculpture, and I think he had to force himself to let the kids help him.    He’s such a perfectionist with everything….including snowmen, so it was funny to watch.  The snowman would have been much more elaborate than this, but the kids were watching Scott, and they decided they needed to try and do some sculpting just like daddy, and this is how the snowman ended up.  Jaxon made his own little “snow baby” that he insisted on setting it on the snowman’s lap.  A couple hours after they made the snowman, Parker went out and got a stick, and knocked it all down. 

Jaxon’s soon to be “snow baby.”

This was Keaton’s contribution to the snowman.  He just wanted to shovel the snow and then go throw the snow on the snowman.  He was so proud of himself for shoveling the snow on the driveway.

Keaton has started walking on his tiptoe, which the therapists have been trying to prevent that.  Hemiplegia kids have a tendency to walk tiptoe…I’m not sure all the reasoning behind it.  But, I haven’t been as good lately about making him wear his brace.  So, as I watched him walk tonight, I decided to break out the old brace, and he wasn’t happy at all.  He has learned how to take the brace off with his good hand, so I told him if he didn’t leave it on, I would have to get his cast out, too.  Well, he kept trying to take it off, so I got his cast out and strapped him in, and he was extremely mad.  He started running around the house crying and trying to hit me with his cast.  I finally got him to settle down and we read a book.  I’m sure he’ll thank me for it some day. 

I have been going through some of the pictures on the computer and found these.  I loved them and wanted to post them.  This is from last summer.

I love these pictures of Jaxon and Parker.  Sometimes I call them my twins.  They are a year and four months apart in age, but these two are inseparable.  I don’t know what they would do without each other.

Nothing funner than fire.

For his first year of life, Berkley always had a really scared look on his face.    I think he was scared of his three older rougher brothers.  Every once in a while he would smile, but only if mom or dad was holding him….he had to be in a safe place.

The super models!!!

Little Popeye…..:)

Going down to the river.

Crossing the stream to get to the Weber River

Funny faces

I love Peoa…and yes, it’s really named Peoa.    This was my Grandpa’s land.  It’s an awesome place.

Jaxon in the grass. And the awesome view of Peoa.

Cute pictures of the nephews

Plenty of room to run!!

An egg-eating dinosaur and a “long-neck” dinosaur.

1st pic:  Jaxon, Parker and Berkley.  2nd pic:  Jaxon, Parker, and Keaton

A self portrait

I have been excited lately, because Parker is finally drawing his own pictures.  He used to ask me or Jaxon to draw him pictures, and pretty much refused to try drawing by himself.  I think he felt intimidated.  I have always loved Jaxon’s little pictures, so when I would praise Jaxon so much for how good he could draw, I think Parker just didn’t think he could draw that good.  Plus, if he ever did try to draw something, Jaxon would sit right by him and start saying stuff like, “No that’s not how you do it…Let me show you!”  One time I finally got him to try and draw a picture of himself, and when he did I kept talking about how good it was….and it was super cute, and we put the picture up on our fridge, and since then he’s finally done a few things on his own.  Right now he really likes to draw dinosaurs.  They are so dang cute.    I never knew I would get this excited about my kids’ drawings.

Here is Jaxon’s picture all colored.  This picture is definitely a keeper. 

Hey everyone check out Scott’s super yummy bread!

http://scott.sphotographs.com/blog/

It tastes so good—-I think I am going to have a piece of the bread with some honey.  Delicious.

After church today, Jaxon came and showed me his picture he drew.  I couldn’t believe how good it was.  It’s a picture of the first vision.  He brought it home and colored it, and now I need to take another picture of it all colored….Pretty cool.  He’s artistic just like his dad.

Parker is also quite the little artist.  This is a T-rex he drew.  I love their art.  I keep most all the pictures they draw.  I want to make a book out of them.  I have really enjoyed all the pictures and artwork they have done.  It’s so cute.  I think one of the things I enjoy most about being a mom is all the pictures they draw for me.

Awhile back if I ever tried to comb any of the boys hair, they would all tell me to give them dinosaur hair.  But, as soon as Jaxon started going to school, he said he didn’t want dinosaur hair anymore.  Now the only one who likes dinosaur hair is Keaton.  He looked so cute, I decided to take a picture of his “dinosaur hair.”