Our Idaho Redneck Vacation Rocked!

The Falls on the South Fork of the Snake River.
Lucas LOVED the falls, I swear he entered like a Zen state whenever we got close (we went twice) and he cried when we left.



Tyson loved "helping" with everything to do with the boat. He also helped daddy fish.
Jim's Charlie's Angles pose...
Have you ever shot a 44 Mag? It's like shooting a cannon, not my favorite gun, but Jim likes it.
I'm shooting an AR-15. I liked it. I also happen to be a bulls eye shot from 40 yards out (bettcha didn't know I'm like freaking Annie Oakley), my favorite though is a Glock, which I also can hit bulls eye's with. Jim says this is why he made me quit playing Grand Theft Auto, something about transference...
We also did some 4-wheeling...

It was a really fun vacation. We had a lot of rain and it was MUCH cooler than vegas, but we all thrived, something about being in the mountains, in the fresh air, is well, refreshing. We loved our redneck vacation and can't wait to go again!

BREAK THROUGH!!!!

So we had a MAJOR break through with Lucas this weekend. We have been having a speech therapist come to the house for 6 or 7 weeks now to work with him. We are not yet working on actual speech, but rather the idea of communication. It sounds a little weird, but we have to teach him the very basic ideas of communication, for example: teaching him to make eye contact with us, look at the thing he wants and then look back at us. Along with this we have been trying to teach him the sign for "more", so he will understand that you have the power to do something (sign) and then you get your desired result. We're hoping that once understands that, we can progress to sounds, and eventually words. SO, after like 6 weeks of working on the sign "more", it clicked! We were in the pool and I was twirling him around. Then I would stop, and say more, show him the sign, and then wait. I SWEAR I saw the light turn on in his head, he grinned and then did the sign all by himself. All I can say it that the neighbors must have thought we had won the freaking lottery or something, we were jumping and screaming. Of course we did it again and again. Then I pretended that I was ignoring him and would look away, he would grab my face and turn it so I was looking at him (THIS IS MAJOR by the way) and then again show me the sign for more. Seriously I can not find the words (how ironic) to describe how awesome this was for us. He got to show his speech therapist this morning and she was thrilled as well. An all around great day for Lucas (and us). Everyone, put your finger tips together for more, more, more!

Oh yeah, we moved...

Apparently there are a few who didn't know we were moving, we moved a whopping 1.2 miles away, but are LOVING our new home! Maybe we'll start looking for that camera...

busy

We're still smack dab in the middle of our move. It's hard to convince the boys to go back to the old house for yet another load when the swimmin' pool is calling their name.

My Grandpa got married a week and a half ago in Provo, (we left the day after we moved the big stuff in) it was AWESOME, we're super happy for him.

Lukey has been having a speech therapist at the house every week(Insurance won't cover it). He has an MRI scheduled for this Friday. We'll meet back with the neurologist after the MRI to go over the results of that and the blood tests. We've been put in contact with a pediatric neuropsychologist (the one and only in southern Nevada) who is supposed to be amazing. She doesn't take insurance (surprise) unless it's military. He turns 2 TOMORROW (oh crap, we have NOTHING planned for him), still not one word or sign. We do find it incredible, that although he had no words for us, his smile,personality, and love, leave US speechless in ways to describe the joy he brings us. 

Tyson is loving life. For him there's not much better than the new pool and "Wall-E's Nemo" you know the little robot looking vacuum thing that cleans the bottom of the pool, Wall-E's Nemo, duh. 

Jim and I are just trying to survive it all with a smile. Life is busy crazy but good. No, I don't have any pictures to post. Who knows where the camera is, "probably in that box over there..."

Happy Easter!

Note to self: It is difficult to get little boys to hold still together for a picture in an of it self, next time to not try taking pictures after 3 hours of church and right in the middle of nap time. Poor Luke, he's so tired. (oh and B, I know you're wanting to know, my skirt was bright, hot, fushia pink and the boys had white shorts on :) Happy Easter! 

Lukey Update

We went to the neurologist last week. He has a few "theories" as to what's going on. He ordered some blood tests (which we did on thursday and were NOT fun) and an MRI. While we're waiting for the insurance to approve the MRI, we are trying to find an "affordable" speech pathologist. We fought and argued with the insurance company and they will not cover speech therapy. Dang. 

Will update when we know something that is actually factual information.

Tyson turned 3!!!!

I originally decided to not have a birthday party for Tyson, but a few days before his B-day I started feeling bad so I threw a "party" together last minute. He loves Wall-E so that was the idea behind the cake. He loved it until we lit the candles and was a little concerned why we were trying to burn Wall-E. I made the tracks/wheels out of frosted rice crispy treats, and the eyes were frosted twinkies. It was a fun little party! Oh, and can I just say it is SOOOOO WIERD that I have a 3 year old! Jim and I agree that it's been the best 3 years we've had!!!

Group Photo

Brooke,

Here's the picture of us at Shalen's. Wish you were there!

We're confused!

We had Lucas' sedated ABR today and are thrilled and confused at the same time. We have had 2 ENT's, 1 Audiologist, 1 speech therapist, and 2 tests that have ALL said that Lucas has hearing loss. The test today said otherwise. Apparently he can hear normal conversation levels and some whispers. They are concerned about his ability for low level hearing so we will be continuing with the ENT's office with testing every 3 months starting next week. 

All though this is FABULOUS news, it leaves us SO confused! The ENT suspects that although apparently he can hear what he needs to, he may have a problem processing what he hears. He explained it by saying that he may not be able to tell the difference between "noise" and what's "important" (i.e. words and speech sounds) and that everything he hears may sound like "noise". So what the freak does that mean?!?! We don't know. The next step is private speech therapy. Maybe they will have some answer's for us. We'll keep the updates coming as we get them. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

15 year anniversary weekend!

I've been GREAT friends with the same peeps since I moved to their jr. high in the middle of 8th grade. We celebrated our "15 year anniversary" with a get together in California. After a few days in Vegas, Jenny and I drove to Cali to pick up Sherry at the airport. We stayed with our buddy Shalen at his apartment in down town Hollywood and laughed a lot! The wonderful belly laughs, you know the kind!

We then drove to San Diego and saw the sights including Corodado island and the famous Hotel Del Coronado (which I LOVED!)
We thought it would be a good idea to rent bicycles to get a better view of the island, so fun! (and Sher did it 6 months pregnant!)
We had so much fun, and laughed some more!

Ate really great food! 



Played on the beach!


And...Laughed some more! It was a much needed trip. I love those kind of friends that you can get together with no matter how long it has been and pick right up, just as if you had all been together the day before. It was such a great mini vacation!!!

Jenny Came to Visit!

One of my best friends (that's I've known since 8th grade) came to visit us. She's currently a grad student at the University of Texas. We were so excited to have her here, and are diligently trying to teach the boys "hook em' horns". We love auntie Jenny!!! (and yes, Ty's finger is up his nose in that picture)

Night out on the town!

Last week Jim and I had a really fun night out. One of the first families that we met when we moved to Vegas threw the lovely redhead directly above Jim in the picture a Formal 60th Birthday Party! We had a great time and then hit the strip after the party. Of course we left our camera dang it, but were lucky enough to be sent this photo. What can I say I love an excuse to get dressed up, and love LOVE that she had a formal birthday party. 

Lucas update (mommy journal entry)

SHORT VERSION: We suspected hearing loss/impairment in Lucas, have seen 3 doctors. Tests indicated partial hearing loss. Next step, sedated ABR (auditory brainstem response) to determine where exactly hearing loss has occured, to what degree, and how to treat it. The doctor believes that he will need hearing aids, but should be able to learn to speak correctly and hear with assistance.

LONG VERSION: Lucas is 22 months in about a week. He is not able to say 1 single word. A couple of months ago it began to really bother me that he wasn't on "schedule" with his speech. So of course I started researching causes of speech delay and found out that speech delay can be an idication of hearing loss/impairment. As soon as I thought about that, something clicked and as I thought back on things realized that Lukey being so "focused" (at least that's what we called it) on everything he did might have a different explination. So we started doing little tests, calling his name when his back was turned, talking to him from another room, making other sounds when he wasn't looking, etc. We weren't getting any response. I by-passed our doctor and just made an appoinment with an ENT (ear nose and throat specialist). At this point in time I'm freaking out, wondering if we have a deaf kid, wondering how he's supposed to hear the snap count on the line of scrimage, and wondering why the crap I did the 'Signing Time' DVD's with Tyson, but dropped the ball on the whole baby signing thing with Luke. We go to the appointment (Jim's flying) and I explain to the Dr. my concerns, show him (by clapping behind Luke's head) that he doesn't really respond to sound, and he says to me "Maybe he's just deaf." Nice doc, just the conforting words I want to hear, how about we do a test or something. He did 2 tests, one to check and see if there is fluid on his ears (if that was the case then the problem could most likely be fixed with tubes-it wasn't) and another test that was a pass/fail type of thing. You could either score a normal or an abnormal. If you score an abnormal it indicates hearing loss. Luke got an abnormal. Freak. The next step was to do an ABR, the doctor mentioned that it should be a sedated ABR because of his age. When I called to schedule it, I found out that the Audiologist they referred us to, did not do sedated ABR's (In fact there is only 1 specialist in all of Las Vegas that does do them, other wise you just have to go to the tech's at the hospital). Called the dr's office back, told them this, they said that we'll have to do a "sleep deprived ABR" and that he'd have to fall asleep and stay asleep for the whole 60-90 minutes. Yeah right, he's almost 2, he's not going to stay asleep while they poke and prod his head and ears. I told them this, they told me I had to try the sleep deprived one first. It was a joke, I could get him to fall asleep, but couldn't get him to stay asleep. There was good things about that visit to the audiologist though. She did a few more tests, one of which he passed, the other he failed. One of the tests she did was pretty cool and reminded me of a test they would do with monkeys or lab rats. Anyway, you go in this little box size room. There's a speaker on the left and a speaker on the right. Both have boxes below them. The room is dark and the audiologist is outside the room. The idea is that when she speeks through one of the speakers and the child turns toward the speaker that the sound comes out of, the box below lights up and shows the child a toy. Luke failed that test. He sometimes acknowledged when there was sound but he would just look up at me. He wasn't able to actually localize where the sound was coming from. When our attempt at the ABR failed she gave us 2 options, one was to schedule with the tech's at the hospital, the other was to become a patient of the 1 doctor in town that actually does the sedated ABR. She told us that if it were her kid she would go to the other doctor because sometimes the tech's could produce false results. So we started the process ALL OVER AGAIN! Today was our appointment with the new doc, Dr. NG. We REALLY REALLY liked him. I brought all of the test results from the other docs into him and after going over those, talking to us, and seeing Luke's lack of response to sound he thought as well that the sedated ABR is the best plan of attack. He also believes that the hearing loss is partial and can be corrected with hearing aids. One of the things I really liked about him was the fact that he actually asked us what we thought, he said "you're his parents, you're around him, tell me what you think". Anyway, the test will be done at the hospital on the 23rd of this month. An anesthesiologist, audiologist, and Dr. Ng will all be there to perform the test. And then we'll be able to determine our course of action.

What do we think about all of this? Initial reaction was that this SUCKED! Will he be able to speak normally? Will kids make fun of him? Will we go to jail for kicking the butts of the kids that might possibly make fun of him? Will he be able to hear? Will we have to learn sign language? If it's a problem with the cochlea, how the crap will we come up with $80k for cochlear implants? etc, etc, etc.

Then, guilt. There are so many kids that are facing much more difficult problems than partial hearing loss and wearing hearing aids. Lukey is happy, healthy, and vivacious, what are we feeling bad about, we really are so lucky, but...

Then relief after the appointment today, it is most likely only partial, it most likely can be fixed with hearing aids, he most likely will be able to speak normally.

Now, anxious anticipation to get this test done and get the ball rolling.

So that folks, in a nutshell is the Lukey update. I'll write more after the 23rd. It is a lengthy post, but you know how everyone is using their blogs as sort of a journal? Yeah, me too.