4 staples

Jake had to have staples in his head yet once again. We kept waiting for something to happen, and I really thought it would have been Crew this time around because he is CRAZY, but I should not have been surprised that it was once again, Jake that ended up in the ER. I am not sure why he is there all the time. Accident prone is the only word that comes to mind. Let me give you the rundown with the kid from the time he was 14 months old. CT scan (fell and hit his head and had two seizures), stitches above his eye, three staples in his head, glue on his chin, a sprained arm, leukemia, and now, four staples on his head. We have gotten use to the fact that we will always be in the ER with him. Love the kid. Life is not boring when we have him in the house.

How did it happen this time, you ask? Well, it started on the 24th of July and we were doing fireworks at the neighbors house. Boys will be boys and a bigger kid decided to tease the smaller ones. He pulled Jake's arm and threw him on the ground. He couldn't just hit the grass... no, he had to hit the the metal water meter which in turn sliced his head open. So at 1:30 in the morning, after being put into a straight jacket and screaming at the doctors and nurses, "I hope you all DIE!" and then telling Jeff on the way home that he wants to go to heaven where no one can hurt him anymore, he was finally at home, in bed, asleep. It was a great 24th! One that will be remembered always!

It's My Party!!!

Ahhhh. The long awaited birthday post. I am only about a month and a half late, but who is counting? So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE-TRAIN! I cannot believe he is five. It is depressing, so I just won't think about it and continue to tell people that he is four still. Which I do pretty often actually. I can't get into my head that he is growing up because he is still my baby! We love this kid like crazy. He is so much fun to have around the house. He is a huge tease, which can sometimes be a problem (ie. steriod weeks), but for the most part, it makes life so much fun. He thinks he is hilarious. (hmmm could that be his father in him? I don't know) Which he actually is really very funny. He has taken up calling me Mrs. Peanuts. Don't ask me where it came from because I don't have the slightest clue. All I know is that every time he says it we both giggle like crazy because it is hilarious. He loves his brothers and has the sweetest most tender heart of all my boys. He is very timid and can get his feelings hurt easily if you are not careful. He HATES being the center of attention. (this one does not come from his father!) He sticks his tongue out and looks down and will barely talk if he is being paid attention too by a lot of people. He loves to shop. (yeah for me!) Since I will never have a girl, Cole gets to be my shopping buddy. He picks things out for me to buy and always tells me what he likes and doesn't. He has his own little sense of style... his tiger t-shirt, swim trunks, his new tennis shoes with no socks. We love this kid like crazy if you cannot tell.

We ended up celebrating his birthday a day early because I had to leave for girls camp on his birthday. We had a family party and then me and Jeff took him on his own date. He wanted to eat at Wendy's and then go look at bikes. He has been saving his money to buy a brand new one. It took him about 20 minutes at Wendy's for him to start talking to me and Jeff... sounds awful I know, but he really does not like to be the center of attention. Once he started talking, he wouldn't shut up the rest of the afternoon which was great!

(notice the tongue sticking out... we are all paying attention to him...)

And... ta-da! Look what grandpa got Cole for his birthday! Just what he has been wanting! We have tried for months to get him to take those training wheels off, but he will not have it! He is one of those kids that will do it as soon as he is ready and not a second earlier!

For his birthday party, he wanted a carnival water party. We got one of those big blow up water slides and let the kids have at it. We had hotdogs and popcorn and snowcones. It was probably the easiest party we have ever done and the kids loved it!

I think that Crew got into the birthday cake no less than five times. After Cole had blown out the candles, we put it up on the rock because Crew kept trying to get into it while Cole was opening presents. We turn around five seconds later and this is what we find. The little stink had managed to get up there and was eating the cake. I swear, the kid loves to eat. All day.

Since I cannot seem to keep things in order or stay on top of this blogging thing... here are a couple of the random things I mentioned we have done this summer...

THE BEACH

My kids are in love with the beach at daybreak. Whoever came up with that idea is a genius! We can stay for hours and not get bored between the water, the park and the sand.

Crew likes to eat the sand. And drink the water straight from the lake. It is actually pretty disgusting. I have a picture that Chels took somewhere, but I would need to find it and am too lazy at the moment! We find sand in the diaper days after we play here if you know what I mean. It is lovely.

97.1 BECOMING THE MOST FAMOUS FAMILY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

At least this is what Jake said before he went on the radio to promote the Rubber Ducky Derby for make- a- wish. (Click here to learn more about it or to sponsor a duck... if you win, you win a car!) We went over and over with him of what they were going to ask him and he did so great the night before and on the way to the station. When we got there he was slightly overcome with stage fright! Apparently a career in hosting a radio talk show is out career wise! The only thing he said was "yes" and "yeah" and nodded his head. On the radio mind you. Jeff talked too and was a champion... he claims he did his 'radio' voice and went an octave lower to sound more manly! Love him! When got back to the car, we asked Jakers why he didn't say anything and he told us that he was way to nervous with 300 thousand people listening to him. He did great and even though he got a little nervous had so much fun!

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Yes, both boys are back in school. Jake is in first grade... all day...we struggled the first week, but now seem to be doing better. He has a hard time waking up in the mornings but once he is up, he seems to really enjoy his day! Cole-train loves his teacher this year and I think may have a slight crush on her. He asks constantly when it is time to go to school... we will see how long this lasts for!

(Cole-train and his things. Whatever will we do with him. This is the 'stuff' he had to take for show and tell. Of course bear made it into the mix of things!)

OUR LITTLE BOY WHO IS SERIOUS TROUBLE!!!!

Crew. Our dear sweet child. That is always into something without fail. One day, I walk downstairs and this is what I find. Crew in his high chair eating the butter. Crew in the cereal dumped on the floor. Crew again, fully dressed in the bathtub with one of the boys. Crew digging through the hair gel and absolutley covered. Crew with bright green teeth because he decided to eat a marker. Crew in the garbage. The list goes on and on and on. He is the busiest child you have ever seen and I am not even kidding. I have two other boys so I know, but this kid for sure makes the top of the list! Love him and even though you can't take your eyes off of him, how can you resist that smile!?

I also have all of Cole's birthday to post. From a month ago. I know, I am a bad mom! I cannot believe I have not gotten it up yet! The problem is, I can't find the pictures! I have about 10 memory cards and they are full with clients pictures... soon!

The Relay

We just want to say a big thank you to all those who helped with the relay for life last friday. It was a little chilly, but the weather held out and we had so much fun! We set up our tent and tried to stay up as late as we could and are now paying for it with grumpy children, but it was well worth it! It was a great experience and one that we will definitely repeat next year!

For it being basically the first relay Riverton has done, we had a lot of survivors there. It was so cool to watch them walk around the track together knowing how difficult their fight has been...

After the survivors walked, they had the caregivers join in...

Our sweet doctor took time out of her busy schedule to come and support us and even stayed for a lot of the evening. It was fun to be able to get to know her a little bit outside of a hospital setting... like the fact she has shaved her head twice for all those cancer kids! That is dedication and a picture I will definitely be seeing!

One of the teams was very creative and made the light sabers to "fight cancer". Impressive, I know. Next year we are going to have to pick up our game a little! The boys were in heaven beating on each other all night. This is Jake and Tommy. Tommy was diagnosed with ALL in December of last year. I really think it helps for these little kiddos to have a friend their same age who has dealt with the same things they have. He is a darling little boy and has done incredibly well for all those doctors have done to him.

And of course we need to mention the competition going on between the boys. Brett's time around the track: 1 minute 15 seconds. Jeff's time: 1 minute 11 seconds. Tyler's time: 1 minute 3 seconds. Boys. Jeff said he thought he was going to throw up or pass out after he ran around that fast. Although if you ask him, I doubt he will admit it!

Tyler did get someone to pay 2-3 dollars for every lap he ran around the track. He ran 25 in a row and that doesn't count for a few others that he ran around. Bet that guy is not too thrilled at the moment! Moral of the story: Know who you are betting against and what they can do before you bet... like don't bet a guy that just ran in the Boston Marathon and came in at about three hours.

It was a fun night... the boys have already started planning next years! It is just like a big party and will be even bigger next year!

97.1 ZHT

If anyone is interested in listening to the radio in the morning, you may hear a cute little boy's voice named Jakers on there!  Jake has been asked to do some publicity for Make-a-wish's Rubber Ducky Derby and will be on channel 97.1 ZHT tomorrow morning live at 8 am!  We are a little nervous and worried he will be shy and scared... but he is so excited!  So tune in!

Busy busy summa'

How lazy are we at this blogging thing lately!?  I think that this has been probably the busiest summer we have ever had.  A few highlites, that I will eventually get to posting have been:  the fourth, girls camp, a run to the ER for a 103 degree fever with Jake, swim lessons, froze to death in 100 degree weather at Cowabunga, the flu bug making its way around the fam, editing pictures, staples in Jake's head, the 24th, youth conference, work, more editing, Jake's bff Kate coming into town, Crew learning to ask for 'cake' all day long, an 'upped' steroid dosage, which in turn means lots of 'roid rage, Cole's birthday, and now, the beginning of first grade.  Those are just a few of the things off the top of my head, so I know that there is more... isn't summer supposed to be relaxing and lazy!?  I feel like we have been running a marathon this last month and it won't be over until Saturday when the relay for life is over.  And that is the reason for the neglect on the blog!  Today, we will go back to the fourth and show pictures from then and hopefully I will be caught up sometime this week....

We went to TWO parades, the Riiverton one and the one in Murray because my little brother and sister were in the one in Murray. The boys got enough candy to last them a year and luckily Cole made it through the events without getting run over by a fire engine or a big tank. (Although a few times, we had a couple of close calls. He just HAD to get that smashed piece of candy on the other side of the car.)

We swam at Pa Randy's and Grams house and had a yummy bar-b-que.

And of course had fireworks which Crew was slightly petrified of in the beginning, but then learned to clap when the noise was through. He did enjoy trying to grab the sparklers which gave me a mild heart attack a couple of times, (I have been so SURE that he would be our next ER victim.)

It was a very fun and relaxing fourth....

On to the next week...

Jake's favorite friend, Kate came into town with her family. I don't know if you remember Kate, but she is the one that we met on our make-a-wish trip. She was diagnosed with leukemia a couple of years ago and just finished treatments last month. (Yeah! Congratulations Miss Kate) We had known they were coming in town since we left the cruise ship and my child was honestly counting down the days until they got here. People would ask what things he had done this summer and his response was always "My friend Kate is coming to see me". Every time. Nothing about Lake Powell, or swimming, or anything else. Just Kate. I think there is a mild crush going on here, which I think we are okay with! She is an awfully cute little thing. We took them swimming and then came and played and had dinner at our house. The kids had a blast together... here are a couple of pictures from that day of Jakers and Kate:

That is all for now folks! Maybe sometime this next month I can get to a couple of other things on my list to blog about!!

(an update on Jake for those of you who keep asking. He is doing as well as well can be! His chemo dosage had been dropped to 25% of a normal child's dosage because for some reason, his body does not take to it very well. This last appointment, we were able to raise it a little bit because his counts are a little too high! Crazy stuff! We did start on steriods this week, always our favorite thing which has been more difficult than usual for some reason. They did raise his dosage on that last month so maybe that had something to do with it, but he has been much more irritable than usual. His clinic day did not go well at all. In fact, it was downright awful. He kicked and screamed and yelled through the whole port accessing thing and then yelled at me the whole way home because I had to hold him down. It was surprising because he has not done this for long time. Other than that things are going well! He is as healthy as can be for right now!)