Family Home Evening--help from heaven

 Family Home Evening is on Monday nights--well at least we try and have it every Monday--we fail at this more than we should. So tonight the lesson was about staying happy, positive, and kind when things don't always go the way you want them too. ALL day today we have had sunshine, no clouds, 80 degrees of loveliness. We start bringing everything out for our FHE activity/dinner which was a hot dog roast. We start roasting as some gray clouds come out of no where and start to produce rain, not just any rain, but huge drops of rain. Everyone stayed happy and positive while they were getting wet and roasting their 'dog'. Then the kids started to sing a song about Noah(the prophet). The words they sing include, "rain, rain, rain...rain, rain, rain. OOOOHHHH Noah, Noah didn't it rain?" Then I laughed because we weren't just teaching the lesson--we were living it--we hadn't even had the proper lesson yet! Such a fabulous and fun night.
Carter also said I wasn't allowed to show these pictures to his children, because he could only find Taylor's raincoat. :)

Keeping nice and dry under the table. He was a little worried when the rain first started to fall.

London Zoo

Not everyone could be as lucky as this little man and have their own personal seat on the way to London. It was an amazing time with the family...amazingly frustrating and stressful, but I guess when the kids say they had a great time it is all worth it.

We started our journey at the end of the line of the Tube in Epping. We got on the 'train' and were having a great time zooming down the way to London. The kids thought it was fantastic and every time we stopped at a station they would say, "do we get off now?" Alas, when we got to London the true fun began. We didn't know there was a football match(soccer game for you Americans reading) at Wembley that day, but we soon learned the hard way that when West Ham plays the whole of east London(where the typical West Ham fan lives) head to the west to cheer on their team. It was a sight to see for sure, and makes me wonder just how it will be when the Olympics are here. There were fans cheering, singing, and chanting throughout the tube stations and in the tube itself. The kids thought this was a little frightening because it was very busy!!! I wanted a picture--but I also didn't want to let go of my children. Mike and I thought it was great, no one was being violent or belligerent, it was just loud and crazy! So once we conquered the tube we were walking through Regent Park to get to the London Zoo. Carter about died of excitement when he looked in the air and saw this blimp, "for REAL, for the FIRST TIME EVER, FOR REAL MOM AND DAD!!!" So I had him point to the air just right and he kept wondering what he was doing until he saw the picture and thought it was pretty cool that he was almost 'touching' the blimp. Look hard because honestly you can hardly see it in the picture.

The London Zoo was having a "Special Children's Day" event and we thought it the perfect time to go because it saved us over half the entrance cost. However, special event+regular day visitors=VERY BUSY!! It was stressful trying to make sure our children were having fun, but not getting lost. Mason was having one of his days where he wants to whine and cry the whole day through. Honestly, we are having more and more of these days as he gets older, and they seem to be triggered by large crowds, tons of noise, or a big change in our normal routine.

Taylor's favourite thing had to be a couple of owls that we saw. She has been studying owls at school, and her class adopted an owl named Taiga at a sanctuary, so she was all about that owl and needed a picture with it.

Taylor and Brennan had to have a little time out so they missed out on petting the goats, but Carter loved every second of it! He was really excited to be at the zoo-and said his favourite thing might have been the hippo's, or the monkeys.

Like I said, Mason was really crabby the whole day!! Okay, okay I admit, he was happy for about an hour--or when we were having food. So I guess the whole day is not giving him enough credit. Poor guy just couldn't seem to enjoy himself.

We thought the Pelican's were pretty neat. Mike and I both don't remember ever seeing a pelican that close and we didn't realize just how large a bird they were.

The top of the wood platform lay the lion. Taylor and Brennan had to go to the toilet just after this picture was taken and Mike was taking them while I stayed with the others. That is when the lioness and lion got up and were walking around right near the glass--it was pretty awesome. Although I wasn't able to get a picture because Mason needed one on one at the moment so he didn't run off. Just trust me that it was neat to see them moving about.

All in all it was a good day to spend as a family--even if it was stressful. We got home late, everyone crashed and apparently talked quite a bit about the fun they had during church the next day. So I suppose we can call it successful.

YES THEY ARE--A BUNCH OF MONKEYS!!

Missionaries

 This week brought on two missionary farewell's for our family. Above, is Elder Machen and his parents with the family(plus our extra addition of little Justice). Elder Machen was here two years ago and was such a great missionary who was full of service and love for the whole family. He is headed home from his mission and we were so touched and grateful that he came through the area to say good-bye. The kids were all very excited and it was a great time to reminisce about great times and fun memories we have with Elder Machen! *as a funny*-you might notice that Cameron is foaming at the mouth and Mason is looking sideways all crazy like--the one time we do only one shot. I had a good laugh that no one noticed the baby had spit up.
We also said good-bye to Elder Day(on the left) who was only here in our area for a short time, but was a great Scotsman that we were sad to see go. You know how much we love Scotland--and that includes the people from there.

Blessings

These three kiddos had a day out of the house with daddy when he got back from Germany. They had a great time doing something fun instead of being at home taking care of Mason again. :) They are good sports when Mason is poorly and they have to step up to the plate. These guys are great.

This was the only picture of Mason we got while he was feeling so bad. The sister from our ward at church who brought dinner one night also brought this bear for Mason. He didn't cuddle with it long, but he gave it a little cuddle and had a little grin on his face.
*As an update*
Mason was chewing on his tongue again this week and tearing it apart quickly. So after prayers and talking with the group of parents on the Angelman Facebook group the idea that maybe his teeth were bothering him came up and as a result that is why he was chewing his tongue. Went to the dentist today and it took about 5-10 seconds for the dentist to look in, grab the loose molar and pull it out. Mind you I had tried to pull that thing out quite a bit yesterday, so I was shocked and oddly impressed! I think I made the dentist blush with my never ending praise! Mason has since stopped chewing his tongue and also stopped grabbing anything around him to chew on as well, so we are hoping the mystery is solved!

This last week

 We had the Elders over for dinner and they had a great lesson for the kids. They put a marshmallow in front of the kids and told them if they didn't eat it for 5 minutes they would get a surprise at the end of the 5 minutes. Carter thought this was a great plan and was determined not to eat his marshmallow. Out came the mask and Elder M was so funny trying to get the kids to eat their marshmallow. Justice and Taylor didn't last long at all. Carter was a big driving force in telling Brennan not to eat his. It was a great little lesson about temptation. The boys were excited to finish the whole bag of marshmallow's for their surprise.

 These pictures pretty much need no words to go with them. The kids learned about a 'cup' and Brennan wanted to make sure he had a little fun with said contraption.

 Enjoying some of the Popsicle's now that Mason is better and they aren't just for him.

 Cameron is 2 months old already. He loves to lay out and smile at us and also at the imaginary things in the air. Cameron has also mastered his thumb and uses it to put himself to sleep. He is sleeping through the night, which is glorious, he is such a lovely laid back kind of guy.

More Gems that have been hidden on the phone*

 Taylor's picture of her first lost tooth. She was so nervous to get it pulled and we had to do the door/string moment to get her to be calm about it. She was so excited when the tooth came flying out. She has now lost two teeth with a couple wobbly ones waiting for their turn to fall out.

 I turned 30 this last year! I didn't even realize that we took a picture. I was so sick on my actual birthday day that we celebrated a couple days later when I could feel well enough to eat my cake!

 Brennan loves to help in the kitchen--what child doesn't? They tell you that letting your children help cook the food will inspire them to eat it as well. With Brennan, that is not the case. He still wouldn't try the salsa, but he had fun making it.

 He loves to smell everything! He always walks out of the car and will sniff the air, sometimes he doesn't say anything, other times he wants to know what is cooking or what is stinking that he can smell.

BeWILDerwood

Such a fun family day out!! We decided we needed a day of playing before Mike left for Germany, and I forgot to post these because I had other stuff going on, and they were on Mike's phone. This was such a fun place for the kids to get all their energy out. I'm not really sure if it was the slides or the zip line that were a favorite with the kids, but they were constantly going the whole time we were there.

 They had little houses set up for all the Boggles, Twiggles and Crocklebogs who lived in the forest and apparently come out and party when all us visitors leave.

 Mike, Mason, and Taylor on the large hanging bridge.

 Taylor, Carter, and Brennan

This slide was so fast!! It was really steep and Mike even had Brennan convince mom she should go as well. I'm not going to lie--it was pretty freaky!

When it rains...it pours with our Mason

Mason has been through the ringer this last week, and I just wanted to document and update those that still follow this blog with the whole story. These things always happen when Mike is away, he was in Germany for some training classes he needed.
Mason's story starts April 27th. I woke up to the scariest sight I have ever woken up too, Mason covered in blood. He was screaming at about 5am and I ran in there because it is the kind of scream that puts your hair on end. I found blood all over him, the bed, the pillow etc..and had no idea what happened or how it happened. After the blood subsided and he settled down a bit I was able to figure out that the blood was from his tongue which had a bite mark and was swollen. The bite mark was far in the back and very hard to see. He settled down with a movie and ate some frozen yogurt tubes and seemed to feel much better. He headed out the door when his taxi came for school, and I thought to myself, "I'm glad he wanted to go and also that the tongue wasn't as bad as the blood lead me to believe."
Unfortunately I got a call from the school telling me Mason was crying and wouldn't settle down with anything. So I went, got him, and took him the ER to see what was going on. His tongue had become so swollen that it was sitting over his teeth on the left side and he was just screaming in pain. They let me know there wasn't much they could do for tongue lacerations and that he could take Tylenol/Motrin rotating and it should heal quite quickly. So we went home, he took the meds and we had Popsicles heaven going on in our home. I bought many Popsicles, but he wouldn't eat very many of those. So Saturday came, the 28th, and he was moaning and sad, but ate a Popsicle and the swelling had gone down quite a bit. At this point the doctors and myself were suspecting that he had a seizure and that is how he damaged his tongue so badly. Although this wasn't confirmed, we didn't know how else he could have hurt it as badly as it was.
The following Tuesday he actually ate some rice for dinner and we thought we were headed for recovery. Thursday we took a turn for the worse, he came home from school and was back to moaning and not eating anything at all. He was chewing on towels and was in pain with the tongue again. So I gave him meds and we did the best we could to make him happy. He didn't sleep a wink Thursday night because he would fall asleep and then startle awake because his tongue touched his teeth or moved a bit. Friday morning he was crying and couldn't be comforted, the meds doing nothing for him. I took him back to the ER to hopefully have them look at it, and give him stronger pain meds. Mason was seen by the worst bedside manner, least caring doctor I have ever met, and I've met a lot of doctors. As a side note, he was not military, but was a civilian they sometimes hire to fill positions. I just didn't want our military docs getting a bad rep. He sat during our visit with Mason, who was crying in pain, glanced in his tongue while he was crying and said yes, it is hurt. He then looked at me and said, "this is just going to be a trial of patience for you." NEVER tell a mom that has had about an average of 3 hours of sleep, none the night before that she is being tested in patience--just don't do that. We got sent home with Tylenol/Codeine and the instruction to eat as many Popsicles as he wanted etc.. Mason came home and was eating one Popsicle after another and chewing on towels, but even the heavier meds were not helping. He was still bleeding and had been since 9am. However, until he is bleeding 'cups' of blood with no identification of drool mixed in then they don't worry.
Hours of crying, drooling, bleeding, and at our wits end I called and spoke with a brother in our ward who is also a doctor. We finally concluded that the only way to get Mason to stop chewing on his tongue (which he wouldn't stop doing) was to sedate him as best we could. So I gave Mason some of his emergency seizure meds to knock him out. That with the codeine, and his melatonin he finally fell asleep.
At this point I had been able to see his tongue and realized that he was chewing a hole through the top and was actually concerned that he would chew it off if given enough time. Mason fell asleep at 8:30pm on that Friday night and woke up at 1am moaning in pain again. The codeine could be given every 4-6 hours, so I went to get more and see if that would help. When I touched Mason to give him his meds I realized with a start that we had a more serious problem on our hands. I got his temp, and when 105 degrees popped up there I knew we were headed back to the hospital. Luckily I have wonderful caring friends and someone was able to come and be with the kids.
We got to the ER and Mason was herded right in and an IV started with some fluids to help with dehydration. They tried with all their might to see his tongue, but he wouldn't open his mouth wide enough for them to see if that was our source of infection. His blood work had come back and we knew there was infection somewhere. They suspected that the tongue had got infected somehow and were going off of that to start some antibiotics. We were being admitted to start the antibiotics because I knew that taking Mason home was not going to work and if we were dealing with fevers I wanted him at the hospital in case seizures started.
When they went to do his vitals one last time in the ER before moving him upstairs his O2 levels were very low. This was a new development and they didn't understand why that was the case. They tried different fingers to get the oxygen levels read, but he was staying at 82/83--which is not good. So they started him on oxygen and were able to get him up to 95 with the oxygen blowing at 15 ltrs. (which is as much as they can give you) With this problem they came and listened to his lungs again and then decided a chest x-ray was needed. Mason was so out of it, so weak that he was allowing the oxygen mask, and allowed us to move him around while they did the x-ray. This is what worried me the most, he wasn't fighting us anymore. When they got the x-ray back they found he had pneumonia from aspiration. The doctors normally see this kind of thing in drunks who have vomited and swallowed that down into their lungs--apparently it is very rare to see this in children. Leave it to Mason to get something rare--he always does!
We were moved upstairs and they were keeping him on oxygen and he was pretty much just laying there sleeping the whole day. They sedated him somewhat so that they could get into his mouth and have a good look at the tongue to see if there was anything that needed to be done. The dentist, oral surgeon, and pediatrician were there during this. I got a good look at the tongue at this time and just felt sick and so sad for my little man who had this horrible hole in the the top of his tongue and an ulcer that had developed and was about the size of a dime on the side and into the bottom of his tongue. They literally can do nothing for this thing and just have to let it heal on its own. They gave us some mouth wash to help with the build up of dead cells and he was placed on a 'no chewing' diet. Saturday night went okay and Mason was finally aware enough to fight having his oxygen mask on. Luckily he was keeping his O2 levels up to 93 at this point, and they were happy with him leaving the mask off. He was throwing up a lot of mucus that night-which was a good sign to the pneumonia clearing out of his system. He was released on Sunday night with the hope that he would eat better and move around a bit more at home.
Today Mason is doing much better than he was, he is slowly but surely getting back to himself. Mike was able to come home on a medical emergency early release. Mason actually ate some real food while we were at the base today for his follow-up appt and that alone makes me smile!! He also laughed as he was watching a movie--which is also a sure sign that he is getting better.
A HUGE thank you to all those who stayed with my other kids, came to save me in the middle of the night, have brought meals, food and helped out with school runs/pick-ups etc. The amount of help has been amazing and I am so grateful for a wonderful support system!!

It is the little things.

Today I felt the world caving in around me. It has been a stressful week, one thing after another and I found myself getting shorter and shorter with patience. I wanted to do better, I wanted to not feel like a failure as a mother, but there I was thinking all of those things. I had to make some beds due to some accidents and was upstairs thinking about all the things we still had to accomplish before bedtime. I came downstairs and found these guys just like this. Today my kiddos made me smile, made me realize that it is okay that my house looks like a tornado went through it. That it is okay that I can't do it all, it is okay to just get the basics done sometimes. There is a time and a season for everything. My season says I shall be messy because there are more important things to do, like love and hug these bunch of cuties!

I liked it so much on the 26th

 I decided to give birth on the 27th of April as well!! Just a few years later. Taylor Mae has turned 6 years old!! When I asked Taylor what she wanted for her birthday she thought about it for a LONG time. We were in the car and then she said, "a notebook with lines, not any plain bits on it."
I replied, "really, that is it?"
Taylor said, "yes."

Easy enough my dear. Taylor is such a sweet little girl and loves to act much older than she is. She likes to know when she is making you happy by her good choices. She is obsessed with writing out her spelling words for school, and writing stories in her new notebooks. I think there is rarely a time that I don't see her with her notebooks in hand and plenty of pencils as well. Taylor loves for me to give her chores around the house, but hates to clean her room. She would rather wash windows, sweep, mop, do dishes, vacuum, dust etc.. just don't ask about her room. Taylor is becoming very helpful with Mason, and treats him so well and with so much compassion. She takes her job at being an obnoxious little sister very seriously towards Carter. Brennan loves to hang around Taylor and have her read to him. Taylor really loves Cameron to bits! She is always worried if he is crying, and forever telling me what I should be doing with him. I can't imagine our family without our Taylor Mae, firecracker that she is, in our family. We love you Taylor--Happy Birthday!