Summer starts with a bang!

Bentley and Abby play softball in June and they love it!! Abby usually starts counting down to June in January! This year Bentley started out with a great game, he hit two home runs in the first game!! He was so excited and we were too. Tonight he hit two more.Abby did great too. This is her first year with the pitching machine. She is still learning but is catching on fast. Owen has even made it to all the games so far. He hasn't made it out of the van, but he is there. That means that Lenn and I are both there too. Bentley and Abby get excited when we can all go to their games. As for an update on Owen: he is still happy and smiling but he has lost weight. Not exciting. He did so well holding his weight for a long time but I knew it couldn't last too long. We have cut his calories as I have mentioned before. He used to get 18 oz. 3 times a day and now he is only tolerating 11 oz. 3 times a day. He has lost about 4 pounds, which doesn't seem like a whole lot but when talking about a three year old it is quite a bit. He still has his chubby cheeks though.

On a good note, his speech therapist is great! She made some colors and shapes for him to learn. It is so fun! We hold up one shape or color and tell him what it is and then another. Then we hold up both and ask him to use his eyes to tell us which one we are asking for. He does really well with his shapes but with his colors he doesn't like to pick the colors that are not his favorite. He is a funny boy! For awhile he didn't like yellow so he literally would not look at it. He loves blue, black, and brown.
His OT/PT always brings tastes or new toys for him, one of the favorites is sour spray candy. Go figure! It makes my lips pucker just thinking about it.
He loves all three of this therapists. When I tell him they are coming he smiles. They are all so good to him and with him. We have been fortunate to have good ones we all like.

Our first taste of summer

FINALLY, we got a little bit of summer. We didn't get much spring so we were ready for something a bit warmer than what we had.
We broke out the hot dogs and smores. We love our campfire dinners and we were ready for them this year. What a long winter!!
Lenn's fancy grill he made worked perfect to melt the chocolate for the smores.Yummy!! I had a perfect picture of Abby after her smore but she said no way to it going on the blog.

Memorial Weekend

The weekend was stormy pretty much the whole weekend. We took decorations up Friday but the weather was too bad to get Owen out so it was a quick visit. We went again Sunday afternoon, it was stormy again but not long after we got there the sun came out and was nice for awhile. A lot of Lenn's family lives near so they met us there to decorate their grandparent's graves and then Landry's. They brought some cute things to add to the decor and it turned out nice.

Owen enjoyed getting out even though this picture doesn't show it. He loves to watch the tractor wheels turn in the wind.

It is heart breaking to have a child's grave to decorate but we try to make the most of it and some how celebrate having Landry in our eternal family.

This is how we ended May!

Misc. May 2011

This post is a random catch up of most of May!
Abby is growing up so fast and it getting into hair and looks. It is a little scary, she is eight! She loves to change her earrings several times a day but I think the newness will fade and she won't have to change them to go feed the lambs!! She loves playing with the camera and taking pictures of herself and whatever else comes along.

Bentley is doing 4-H again this year. He got two lambs, just in case, but he can only show and sell one. So.....introducing... Jimmer and Fredette! We were big Jimmer fans this year and Bentley thinks he is wonderful so he decided those would be perfect names for his lambs this year! Just for clarification, he is not a BYU fan just a Jimmer fan. Bentley and his class played their recorders at the Jr. High Band Concert. They did great. I have to share this picture because when he sat down he made sure he was behind his music stand.

These are daffodils from my flower bed, they are beautiful this year. I love them. They remind me of a great service that was done for us the year we brought Owen home. We had to move to SLC until we got everything in order with equipment to bring him home. We moved home in July and needless to say the yard was more than a mess!! A youth group from the SLC area were coming up for youth conference and had asked around for a service they could do. Somehow we were chosen. One of the leaders brought these daffodils to plant for us and each year that they come up I am reminded of that great love and service in our behalf.

Bentley is published!! I know a lot of kids were probably chosen for the book of poems but I am still proud of Bentley. He is a good student and can do just about anything he sets his mind too.

Wild Horses

Wild and free they run.

Through the shrubs and past the trees.

They eat mild green grass.

Colorful as they run past.

They run like speeding lightning.

And then there is Owen. He looks so old when I cut his hair, but he has to stay lookin' sharp. We are still able to help control his comfort (a huge blessing). He has his days though and last week he had more than his share. Once I adjusted his feeding again he was better. I am thankful he is still able to take in some calories.

Abby's Field Trip

This year I went with Abby's class on their field trip to:The Geyser at Soda Springs,The hot pools in Lava Hot Springs andthe Pocatello zoo. In the past I had often wondered why they try to fit so many things into one day, but after going with them I understood it perfectly. We weren't even to Soda Springs yet, (about an hour away), when we were already getting the question "are we there yet?".
Each and every person that works patiently in the school system should have all of our respect. It was so cold that day, but it didn't dampen their spirits at all.

Owen's Appointments at Primary's

Here is another angel that we have been so blessed to have in our lives since Owen. This is Dr. Murphy. WE LOVE HER!! She is absolutely amazing to us and Owen. I finally remembered to get a picture with her.
Owen's appointments went well. His weight hadn't changed much at that time, which was great. Dr. Murphy was amazed at how well his bowels were working because of how slow they sounded. Every doctor is always amazed at how well Owen has done. They give us the credit, but for me the credit all goes to our Heavenly Father.

Here is another little angel, her name is Lauren. She and Owen were in the NICU together and we were able to meet her and her parents, Keith and Rushell, when we were making the big decision of whether to trach Owen or not. When we met this little girl we knew it would be okay. She still has her trach but is only on the vent at night. Her parents were great support to us and have cheered us on. I have even called Rushell for quick emergency advice and the calls end with "I will say a prayer for you". Such a sweet family. We are so grateful we were able to meet such great people like them and others through this journey we now call life!! We wanted to get a cute picture with Lauren and Owen but it wasn't going to happen. One of the doctors had just changed Owen's breath rate for a trial run and he did NOT like it at all. Of course that is when we had our visitors. As soon as it was changed back and we were out of that room Owen was back to being himself again.
After his appointments we went upstairs to meet another NICU Mom going through the same decision about to trach or not. While we were there we were able to see a lot of our 'NICU family'. It was great to see them, in the hallway just for a visit! After we left there I realized I didn't take one picture of any of them, I was so sad. But we love them all!