Hole

Livee has had this tooth dangling in her mouth for about 2 weeks.  Everyone has been bugging her to let them pull it out.  Yesterday she finally got it out.  She was so excited to finally have if out and to have the tooth fairy come.  She got $2 from her tooth.  She now loves to stick her tongue in her tooth hole. 

Sewing

The last 2 weeks have been filled with sewing.  The gal that most people have called for prom dress alterations is in the middle of 2 houses and just couldn't do it this year.  I told one girl and then a few others heard rumor.  I altered 8 prom dresses.  Some things were hems, straps added, one needed the zipper taken out and a corsette back put in, 1 needed a jacket, 2 of them wanted sleeves added, one needed a back and cleavage cover.  Plus I hemmed 3 pants and turned a tie into a bowtie plus made Livee and Aleena a dress for Easter. Oh and it is a mask Prom theme so we glittered and decorated 2 masks.  And Sunday was Lexey's birthday and the girls wanted to decorate by them selves.  They love Cake Boss.  Needless to say, not much cooking and very minimal cleaning and laundry has been done for the last bit.  I have really liked it.  So far everyone has been pleased.  I have 2 more to come pick up. 
The kids have been very patient with me.  I let Livee and Aleena sew lines on some paper the other day.  Livee thinks that is the funnest thing ever now.  She even wrote me a special note tonight.  It says something about how she loves mom so much because she lets me sew paper.  And then she drew her at the sewing machine and paper and all the little slashes are all the strings on the floor.  It was too cute.  My back needs a bit of a break from sewing so I am taking the weekend off but have the bug to make a few things.  

Young Women Recognition Night

Last night we attended Young Women Recognition Night.  It is a night to honor and support those girls that have completed their Personal Progress, which is a program where they do so many service projects and set goals.  They really learn skills that they will need to be on their own and a mother plus build their testimony at the same time.  They had some great speakers.  The theme was "Becoming a greater you".  We are here to do and become greatness.  The best part was the musical number.  Savanna was asked to sing.  They were requested something that would maybe fit the theme.  I searched and searched and finally felt strongly about this one song.  It is titled "Happily Ever After".  When she started singing, you just fill the spirit fill the room.  It was a tingly arm hair, silent except her moment.  One of Savanna's friend said her mom cried through the whole song and then cried later when talking about it.  It ended up being the perfect song, and Savanna was a trooper and learned it very quickly because of lack of time.  She is a rock star.   After, they served yummy yummy cinnamon rolls with raspberry or lemon filling in them.  It was just a great event. 

We have been asked to not record religious ceremonies but I only recorded her singing, so hopefully I didn't break any rules.  I tried to be very discreet about it and that is why the video isn't that great, but it is the sound you want to hear.  I owe a huge thank you to Jill Nilsen for always being there to play the piano whenever I need it and willing to rehearse whenever.  She is awesome.

It was FREEZING in there, that is why she kept her jacket on. 

Valentine's Day

Years ago, Brad and I decided that Valentine's would be a family holiday instead of a couple's holiday.  It was just too hard to get out with the little ones.  It was actually on a friday night this year.  I own a heart shaped waffle iron.  Story behind that- we got it for our wedding.  We used it quite a bit.  When we decided to move here, we were selling our stuff to downsize and make some dollars, so I sold the waffle iron.  I knew my mom had a waffle iron, not hearts, but a waffle iron.  About 6 months after the fact, I was making waffles and Brad learned of this news.  He could not believe I would sell the heart waffle iron.  He says it doesn't taste the same.  So I hunted one down on the internet and replaced it.  Anyways,  we have done heart waffles with strawberries, fot fudge and whipped cream in the past and I had planned to do it this year.  Well, Savanna ended up going to Declo to watch a basketball game.  Aleena and Livee went over to Addie Mitton's to watch movies at the last minute.  Hallie went to a friends to a party.  And I can't remember where Jase was.  I didn't even plan to have an empty house, but that is how it worked out.  So we never did waffles.  But I did make them each a little card and got them some treats to go in a cup with their initial on it.  This will help with the cup clutter that we get at our house.  And I accidentally bought dark chocolate hearts.  Totally bummed.  They were nasty.  I love my kids and my honey. 

Hallie's Eye diagnosis

Back in November-ish of last year,  Hallie started playing the violin more.  While holding the violin and playing, she would look down at her bow where it touches the strings.  Everytime she did this, she complained that it really hurt her left eye.  After a couple times of really complaining about it, I decided I would make her an eye appointment.  I thought maybe she was having some vision problems with up close things.
We finally got to the eye doctor in January.   She has an eye turn and he think she needs to go see a specialist.  There are prism glasses that can help, there is a surgery, there is vision therapy or we can do nothing.  Her brain is only seeing out one eye and she doesn't have any depth perception. 

So we decided to go see the specialist.  He does a free 30 min consult, he was in Boise, and we were going there anyway for Sprink Break.  Our insurance does not cover vision therapy, but we were hoping to just get some more answers. 
Hallie was a bit freaked out right after this initial diagnosis.  "I am not having surgery on my eye"  I can't blame her.  It is a bit freaky.  So I tried to just keep it on the down low until we heard from the specialist. 
I was a bit skeptical about the idea of the Vision Therapy specialist.  My first thoughts were that this is about making  money.  One doctor diagnosis and then makes money off the therapist.  My neighbor is taking 2 of her boys to Boise once a week for vision therapy.  Seemed to unreal. 

We got to the appointment.  He was so super nice and very informative.  No sales pitch or anything. 

So I will try to explain better what is happening in her eyes and brain.  He drew a picture to help us understand. 

 

So the circles are her eyeballs.  The picture is like you are looking down through the top of her head.  So to see an image normally, the right eye sees the image and the image hits the back of our eyeball.  The left eye sees the image and it hits the back of our eyeball.  The image then goes to our brain and our brain turns it into one image.  In order for that to happen, the image has to hit the back of the eyeball at the place where there are 2 little red cirlces.  And you can see that there is a triangle.  The point of the triangle is where the image is where the image should hit the back of the eyeball.  Hallie's left eye doesn't recieve the image on the red circle but to the left on that mark.  And as you can see it makes the image look over to the right.  So her brain has learned how to rewire the signal so that it doesn't cause double vision.  The brain knows how to see only one image at a time.  But the crazy thing is that her brain sometimes sees the left image and sometimes the right image.  For example, when she reads.  She looks to the left to start the line.  She starts reading with her left eye, and half way through the line, her brain switches and sees out the right eye. I found it so interesting that some kids that are diagnosed with learning disabilities have this same eye problem.  It is just exhausting to always have your brain correcting this problem and it can make them very irritable or even diagnosed with ADD.  Hallie doesn't have any of those issues thank goodness.

 

In the video, there is an image on the back wall that she is looking at.  You can see her eyes transfer side ways to see the image. 

 

If you have questions, I will try to answer it the best I can.  It is kind of hard to explain in words.

 

How do they fix it?  That is where Vision Therapy comes into play.  It could help fix it to where the eye turn isn't so far.  She is at a 16-D.  Which is right in the middle of the scale.  It is an hour once a week and takes about a year to complete.  There is not any garantee that it will fix it.  It probably won't get any worse, but it will never get better by itself.  It is $168/hr.  I did the math on it and about had a heart attack.  Of course, hardly any insurance covers this.   That would be $8736.  That doesn't include any expenses to drive there once a week, which would be about $5000.  So for now, we are going to have to wait.  There is just no way we can do this.  I am hoping in the future a Vision Therapist will come to Twin Falls.  And maybe insurance will cover it in the future.  If it started to affect her daily life, we would for sure do whatever it took to  help her, but she doesn't notice it very often. 

Spring Break 2014

We had a great Spring Break.  We started it out Thursday, March 20.  Hallie had an appointment in Boise with a Vision Therapy Doctor that afternoon.  She has been diagnosed with an eye turn and so we went to get some more information.  I will post about that on its own. 
After her appointment, we had to run over to Dr Tom's office (back brace dr.).  Her brace lost a screw on the velcro the night before so it needed some fixing.  We lucked out to be coming to town around the same time.  He had sent us some new velcro in the mail and said it was easy to put on but we had screws fall out a couple times, so they were able to get it all fixed up for her. 
The kids were starving and sick of the car by now from waiting for doctor appointments so we headed over to McDonald's to grab some lunch.  Normally we load up on snack and treats in the car for our trip but this decided not too, so they were actually hungry for lunch and amazingly they all finished their food.
Kids were still in school, so we decided to hit Gordman's.  We love that store and we just get excited when we see something other than Walmart.  Savanna needed to shop for some summer clothes and a Prom dress.  She is headed to Disneyland with her choir.
After shopping for a bit, we headed out to Linden and Michelle's.  Their kids had school and they were finally out and home. 
Friday,  Hallie spent the day with the littles at the house.  She volunteered.  She loves her little cousins, plus she really wanted this dress we saw at Gordman's so I think she was looking for some bonus points.  It worked.  Savanna and I headed out to shop.  Her goal was to come home with her prom dress, shoes and accessories.  It was quite an adventure.  Half way through the day, we picked up Savanna's friend Kyanna.  She is from Oakley.  It was State Drill Team in Boise that day and they were finished and so she came and stayed with us.  By 5 o'clock we had hit most dress shops.  She had found quite a few that she liked but were not in her budget.  She jokingly said "Nice moms would buy this dress".  I know it is hard to stick to a budget but she had a pretty good attitude about it.  We had to wait to hit a couple shops that were only open on Saturday.  So we called it night and headed back to the house. 
The kids survived with Hallie.  She is a fun babysitter.  Saturday Linden and Michelle had 2 kids with soccer games, so they played ball and we headed back out for somemore dress shopping.  It was getting to be about 4 o clock and we had seen every shop.  We headed back to the house.  Linden was getting a weiny roast ready for the kids.  After dinner Savanna wanted to go back to the mall and try on 2 dresses again that she saw at The Deb.  She took Kyanna, Kayla and her friend, and Hallie and Lexey.  I was a bit nervous having her drive to the mall in my beast car but they got their and back alive.  And she found a dress at the Deb in her size, which they didn't have the day before, so she bought it and the shoes and got earrings.  Hurray.  And she only went over her budget by $10, but that included 2 perfumes she got for $2 each because she spent so much in the store. 
The weiny roast went awesome.  The kids love throwing things in the fire.  The boys had some air soft gun wars, and Linden got his BB gun out and the littles got a turn shooting cans.
Sunday we went to church with their family.  It was nice visiting a different ward.  Michelle had to give the Relief Society lesson.  She did a fabulous job.  The kids were surprisingly quiet during Sacrament.  It tends to be a bit noisy when we are all together. 
We made a yummy Ham/ mashed potatoe/homemade rolls dinner.  Everyone filled their bellies and then we just chilled and caught up with each other. 
We had to head out Monday morning.  We did a little kids swapping.  Hallie stayed and babysat Linden and Michelle's kids so that they didn't have to go to daycare which made her some $$.  So I took Livee and Kaisey, Jase and Tyler and Savanna home.  Hallie stayed to babysit and Aleena stayed to play with Zane and Selena (Michelle's neice) and Broxton.  Lexey actually caught a ride to Boise with her Grama so she could stay with Hallie and babysit.
Savanna headed out Tuesday morning at 3:30.  Her choir was headed out to Disneyland.  They went Tuesday and came back yesterday, Monday evening.  I am sure I will be hearing stories for days to come.  They hit Hollywood, the beach, Disneyland, St George-Dixie College.
So Tuesday - Friday was pretty quiet at my house.  Livee and Kaisey just played and Jase and Tyler did their thing.  Jase and Tyler had a scout campout on Tuesday night so I took Livee and Kaisey to the $2 movie of The Nut Job.  Kell and Kaydee and their kids met up with us.  And then they all came and stayed at my house for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Saturday was our kid exchange day.  Our original plan was to meet in Twin Falls and go to the temple together and exchange kids but the temple was closing after the 9 am session and that was to early for Linden and Michelle.  I dropped the kids off at Kd's to hang and Dad and I still went to the temple.  I hate to admit this but it has been over a year since I have been.  It was nice, peaceful and refreshing.  We met up with Kell, KD and Linden and Michelle after and all went to lunch at Cafe Rio.  It was a great way to end the week.  I am so blessed to have my brothers and sisters as best friends and that our kids are friends.  I hope it stays that way forever.

I had to sneak a picture of Hallie.  This is at lunch.  We LOVE Cafe Rio

Tyler and Jase.  These are shirtless always.  It isn't a super warm day out.

 

These two crashed on my bed watching a movie.  They played hard.

 

Oakley park. 

 

 

 

Oakley's Got Talent

One of the Seniors put together an Oakley's Got Talent Night for his Senior project.  Savanna and Aleena participated.  It was such a fun night.  Savanna and Levi ended up tieing for 3rd and won $20.  I can see it becoming an annual tradition around here.