Finger lickin' good!

The other day I was making brownies and had to leave the room to help Lucas with something. When I came back this is what I found. Ty had pushed a step-stool over and helped him self to some finger lickin' good brownie batter. This confirms it, he is indeed my child.

Nursery Success!

Lukey had 2 count them TWO weeks in a row of nursery success! We are so happy and proud of him! The reason for the photo's - no reason I just thought they were cute. I came home one night and Jim had got Luke ready for bed, in the jammies I was saving for Halloween. Ah well, who cares if they are totally out of season, daddy made the effort to help me out and I love him for it!

4th of July Yankee Doodle Dandies!

Jim and Luke - cheesin' for the camera pool side...
Fillmore Fam - Kaycee, Stu, & Audrey...
Jim- "stealth mode" on his way to squirt an unsuspecting pool-go-er...
Cute Katelyn posing before she digs into the watermelon...

Daisy and Danny crackin up...
Audrey enjoying some watermelon as well...

My buddy Kaycee looking so gorgeous...

Tyson doing his patriotic flag waving duty, even in the hot tub...
Lukey and his flag...he is still carrying it around.

We had a super fun 4th of July party at our house! We did the traditional BBQ, pool party, and firework watching. We had a great turn out of people, great food, and great fun!!! All the Station Casino's around vegas did the fire work shows, and we had an AMAZING view of the Aliante Station's firework show, from our back deck. It was all we could do to get the kiddo's out of the pool at 9:30 for the show, it's safe to say that all of the kids slept well that night. All in all we had a great time, and felt like true Yankee Doodle Dandies on the 4th of July!!!

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!!!