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.”