Jaxon got his cast off on Wednesday last week, and on Saturday we were at Scott’s family’s reunion. Parker and his brothers and cousins were in the back of a pickup truck, and Parker went to get out of the truck and tripped on something and fell to the ground. I was even on my way over to help the kids get out, and I got there in time to see Parker fall and hear the “thud.” To make it worse, Jaxon had just gotten out of the truck and started walking but didn’t see Parker on the ground and he ended up tripping over Parker and falling on top of him. So, as you can see in the picture he broke his arm. He had a long sleeved shirt on, so I didn’t actually see his arm until we got to the hospital. When I saw it, I thought I was going to pass out. It looked horrible. And, I was in shock, because Jaxon had finally gotten his cast off, and then 3 days later Parker had his accident. We took him to the ER in Panguitch, but the doctor couldn’t get his arm back to straight. He did what he could and then told us to call an orthopedic office on Monday. I called them, and they said they saw Parker’s x-rays, and that we would just have to take him to the ER here and have them straighten his arm out the rest of the way. In order to get his arm straight again, they had to break it some more so they could put it back how it was supposed to be. They explained it like this—his bones were bent kind of like how when you try to break a green tree branch. Instead of making a clean break, they kind of bend. So, his bones weren’t completely broken, but in order to get them aligned where they were supposed to be they had to break them the rest of the way and then put them back into position. They obviously had to put him to sleep for it. Anyways, we are home now and he seems to be doing good. He’s even been running and playing a little. I think I am still in shock. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else happens this summer. He will have his cast on for 6-8 weeks. We find out exactly how long it will be next week. But, wow! What a crazy life we have!

*So I had to put up a different picture of Parker on here. The one of his arm looked too yucky, and it makes me want to cry every time I see it. So here’s a much happier picture of Parker.

Here is Keaton going on the slippy slide with the help of Daddy. Keaton couldn’t quite figure out the slippy slide. He kept running and jumping straight up in the air, and would land in the same spot on his bottom and wouldn’t slide at all. So, Scott decided to help him. Keaton has been wearing a Superman cape that Gma Davis made him. He won’t let that thing out of his sight and he’s been wearing it to bed, too. I kept calling him superman and one time he got mad at me, and said, “I am not superman! I am superman boy!” So, superman boy had an OT appointment yesterday, and he is doing SO good. He even opened a can of play-dough by himself, which probably doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but for him that was amazing! He’s starting to be able to turn his left arm over a little more. He can’t turn his hand over without help, but he is getting it farther than he used to. And, he’s just been fun to watch. He’s been playing basketball and baseball, and I think all of that has helped him to use his left arm a lot better. I even put his bi-valve cast on him the other day and he didn’t even cry. He was eating marshmallows and chocolate chips with his left hand, which again is huge for him. He’s learning the pincher grab, but it’s been so fun to watch him and see him succeed. Hopefully he keeps his good attitude and keeps working on making his arm and leg better throughout his life.

This summer has been a little hard for Jaxon. He’s not supposed to ride his bike, jump on the trampoline, and we aren’t supposed to go to the park. So, he’s been pretty restricted and he’s going insane. He’s excited to get his cast off. Once he gets his cast off, I’m sure he’s going to go straight to the trampoline. He’s cried a few times, because we won’t let him jump. Then, we have Parker–he’s doing good. He just had an eye appointment not too long ago, and his eyes are clear of any inflammation! That was such good news to hear. I really didn’t expect to hear that. I was sure they were going to say his eyes still had a lot of inflammation and we would have to add another shot. Right now he is on the methotrexate. The other shot they talked about giving him if his eyes didn’t clear up is a medicine that stings as it goes in, so I was really nervous at his appointment. For awhile it got really bad when we gave him his shots. He would start kicking us and punching us and doing anything he could to get away, so we made a chart for him, and he gets to put a sticker on it every time he gets a shot. So after he’s done getting six week of shots we told him he could go to the store and choose out something he’d really like. He already chose what he wants—a fishing pole! Ever since we started the chart he has been so good! He still whimpers a little but he will just lay there and say “ouch” as we give him the shot, but then he gets really excited to put a sticker on the chart. Now he only has one more sticker to get. He’s pretty excited, and he obviously is expecting to go fishing, so I guess we will be taking a fishing trip. The bad thing with Parker’s shot is that he gets sick easy, so he got sick all last week. He had a fever from tuesday until saturday. I finally took him into the pediatrician and found out he has strep throat. Once they put him on the antibiotics he started doing better. So, for the most part, Parker is doing really good. I’m just so glad his body is responding to the methotrexate (MTX). I really hope it continues and we don’t have to add any other meds to his list.

We celebrated the 4th with Scott’s parents. They set up the slip and slide—as shown in one of the posts below. And we had fireworks. The kids had a lot of fun.

The corn plants the kids are standing by were grown from popcorn seeds. We got a “Kitchen Science” book from the library and we did an experiment with the popcorn seeds, and the seeds grew so good, so we ended up planting them outside in our garden. The kids check on their corn plants everyday and are getting excited because the plants are now taller than they are. Also in this picture you can see Jaxon’s lovely cast. He gets it off next week. He’s pretty excited. He’s tried pulling it off himself a couple of times, but so far he hasn’t gotten it off.

Grandpa Davis put together a pretty sweet slippy slide for the 4th of July BBQ. Amazingly no one went to the emergency room, and Jaxon even managed to keep his cast relatively dry. (It was in a plastic bag). The slide was definitely the best part, way better than the legal in Utah fireworks that we lit off later. You can see some more photos by clicking here if you want.