Purple!!!

Purple is a word heard about 100 times a day in our house. Hazel has become obsessed with purple. If she had her way, everything in the world would be purple. Converstations like this are very common in our house - Me: "Hazel, what do you want for dinner?" Hazel: "Ummm, purple dinner!" or "Not that one! I want purple!" My personal favorite is when something isn't purple she will use/eat/wear it but not without reminding you "(Color) isn't my favorite. Purple is my favorite!"
She has a purple petticoat that Mike's mom gave her for her first birthday. If we let her she would wear it 24/7. As it is, she wears it to bed over her pj's every night. When we insist over tears that it's dirty and needs to be washed, she'll settle for wearing the purple tutu I made her. If that's dirty too she will pretend that other skirts are purple! It's cute to watch her growing up and forming her own opinions about things.

Here are the girls in their matching Christmas shirts from the North Pole. Of course Hazel is wearing her purple skirt, a purple necklace, and purple bow! Purple and red aren't my favorite combination of colors, but they look super cute anyways! I love how Hazel's holding Eliza's hand:)

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving. My parents were in Utah but we still drove up to Denver and spent the day with my Dad's side of the family. Normally there's at least 20 people there, but this year was a small group. I actually enjoyed it even more because I felt like I actually got to visit with everyone without being pulled in a million directions. Hazel had a blast with her second cousin Max. They played and played!
Max's younger sister Josie is 2 months younger than Eliza so she had someone to hang out with too. This picture gives you an idea of how tiny Eliza is. Don't they look like they are the same age? Haha. Cute babies!
The food was wonderful (as always). Hazel was in heaven between the mashed potatoes and the pie. She ate this entire piece of pie! (I love how she's posing in this picture too)
I had a 5 day weekend which was wonderful! We got the house decorated, did all the Christmas shopping, got everything wrapped, and spent time playing with the girls. I even started packing a bit. It was a great holiday. We have so much to be thankful for!

Also, just before Thanksgiving the results from Eliza's ultrasound came back. Her spinal cord isn't tethered so she won't need surgery!!!!

Mike's Implant - One Year Later

As this blog doubles as a family journal, I wanted to do a quick post about Mike's implant now that he's had it for a full year. Keep in mind this is all from my perspective so who knows if what I'm writing is even true (maybe Mike will do a follow up post in his own words - we'll see).

Overall Mike's implant has been a wonderful blessing both for him and for our family. He adjusted amazing well to it with very little extra work on his part (by extra work I mean specialized "listening" therapy and practice). The only practice he did was listening to me and others in normal conversation and asking me what he was hearing any time he couldn't pin-point where a sound was coming from. The audiologist has been floored by his progress as she's never seen an adult adjust so quickly or hear as well as he does. He's just awesome that way! At his last mapping in June his hearing test showed he was hearing at an average of 10 decibels across all frequencies (which is within normal range. Before that ear was 110 decibels!)

I've been amazed too! Essentially Mike can hear almost anything I can. He hears and understands Hazel as well as I do; he hears Eliza crying from the next room; he understands conversations without needing to lip-read; he hears things that are quiet like a clock ticking and things that are far away like an ambulances; he hears well enough to follow conversations in groups most of the time. Even after a year he is still discovering new sounds. Last night he thought he heard someone knocking but it was actually water dripping from the faucet in to our metal kitchen sink. He has tried talking on the phone some to his family and I thought he did really well. I think if he practiced more he could hold conversations with unfamiliar people on the phone, but he hasn't shown much interest in gaining that skill because he's comfortable not talking on the phone.

Now, that being said I don't want this to read like the implant has completely restored him to normal hearing. He is still very much deaf (and glad to be so at times!) and the implant certainly has its limitations. It doesn't pick up sounds as well in large rooms/outside and because Mike only has one implant he may not hear a sound depending on the direction its coming from. And while he is able to hear so many things, it is still work to make sense of what he is hearing. Mike still prefers watching movies with the captions on so he can just enjoy them and doesn't miss anything. He still has interpreters for all of his classes so he can focus on learning the material without having to "think" about understanding what is being said. For church, Mike still prefers having interpreters for the same reason (although, one week at my parent's ward without an interpreter he felt like he understood about 80% of what was said in Sacrament which is a huge improvement of 0% before). He still prefers to sign. As a family I will say that we sign less now than we used to. With two kids it's often easier for both of us since our hands our tied up and we can't always be within sight. But, when it's just the two of us I think we sign about as often as we did before the implant.

I know that Mike has been happy with his decision to get the implant. In fact, given the opportunity he would like to have the other ear done too. Originally the plan was that he would use a hearing aid in the other ear, but after the implant he refuses. He says it sounds terrible and he can't understand anything he hears from that ear anyways. Even after the audiologist asked him to give it another try just for a week, he lasted about half a day before ripping it out again, haha. All of the goals Mike has for his implant have been realized (serve in church more, understand the kids better, etc). And honestly I can't think of anything he doesn't like about it. At first the bit of extra weight bothered him a bit, but he is used to it by now and loves now having anything in his ear canal now. Overall, we have been extremely blessed with this technology and overjoyed with the results we've seen.

Eliza's 4 months!

I don't know where the time goes, but Eliza is already 4 months old! She is growing up to be sweet as can be. At her four month check up she was a petite 10 lbs 10 oz and 23 1/2 inches. She's doing really well overall. She has had two PT appointments so far and it's going well. They've said that she is tight all the way down her right side including her neck so they're working a lot on stretching her out. They're also starting to work on her strength. Eliza hasn't even thought about rolling over yet but in a way I think it's her personality. Where Hazel is such a "go-getter" and wants to do everything right now, by herself, Eliza is much more laid back. She is perfectly content to just observe the world around her and take it all in. She watches Hazel play, watches the dog, watches her own hands and feet. She is very interested in watching us sign. Today I helped interpret part of Sacrament meeting and she didn't take her eyes off me once. She's also such a patient little girl. We love, love, love having her in our family. Her ultrasound is Tuesday and we're just praying all goes well.

Here she is watching football with Daddy...
Check out her hair:) It's all fallen out on just the one side. The strange thing is that's the side she doesn't like turning her head to so she normally lies on the other side. You'd think it would be the other way around.

Crazy Week

This past week has been a crazy one but it's also been filled with many tender mercies from the Lord.

Monday I came home to find our apartment complex surrounded by the SWAT team. When I tried to pull in the officer told me I couldn't get in the parking lot and they were in the process of evacuating one of the buildings. Ours of course. They evacuated Mike and the girls out the back side of the building because there was a standoff between a man (charged with stealing firearms) and the police on the front side. Crazy! Thankfully we have wonderful friends who not only let us crash at their house out of the cold for a few hours but also fed us an amazing dinner. In the end the man came out peacefully and didn't have any guns on him. His brother lives in our apartment complex and tipped the cops off that he would be coming over (so at least the robber guy didn't live here). The tender mercy in this situation- I was outside the complex when they closed it down. If I hadn't been, we would have been evacuated with no car and two small children in the 30 degree weather.

The next crazy point of the week was our hot water heater. Beginning last Saturday we realized it had stopped working and called maintenance. They re-lit the pilot light so at least we had hot showers for Church on Sunday. Monday morning I went to shower and there was not hot water again. They realized the problem was with the part that keeps the pilot light lit but had to order the part. The maintenance guy would periodically come by and re-light it, but essentially we never knew if we would have hot water or not from Monday until Thursday night. Tender mercy - we had hot water every time we really needed it (more on why we needed it below).

Wednesday afternoon, Hazel threw up. Not that big of a deal - she throws up a lot. She was a pukey baby and any time she gets a little cough she tends to puke still. Well Thursday night she threw up again and again. Then Eliza started. The dreaded stomach bug! Poor Eliza got the worst of it. I ended up taking her to the doctor Friday night just to make sure she wasn't too dehydrated. Thankfully she was doing okay. Tender mercies in this one - we had hot water every time baths were required, we have a washer and dryer in our apartment, I only got a very mild version of it so I was able to take care of the girls, and we've all feeling better now. Best of all, since the girls are better but couldn't go to nursary so as not to spread germs and Mike is busy with Elder's quorum stuff during third hour, I got a sub for nursary and actually went to Relief Society today!

I'm so thankful for all those little blessings that make weeks like this one bearable. I'm also thankful for an awesome husband who helped out a ton and took care of two sick, puking kiddos all day Friday.

Halloween!

Halloween this year was a blast! For the first time Hazel really understood a holiday and it was so much fun to see her enjoy everything.

Friday before Halloween we went up to the party at my parent's ward. Hazel is in a phase where she LOVES to dance. Naturally she was having a blast at the cake walk ....


Haha. She literally danced in the middle like that for about 15 minutes! I'm glad we decided to go to their party because on Saturday Hazel came down with a nasty cold. Our ward party was only outside and it was really chilly so we skipped it. By Monday it had warmed up and Hazel was feeling better so we took her trick or treating. She wanted to go to Cristy's house (our Bishop's wife) so we drove down to their neighborhood. At first she just asked for Cristy at each house but then she realized she was getting candy. After she every house she would say "Let's do one more!"

She also LOVED the fact that she got to dress up (and pretty much hasn't stopped dressing up since). For the ward party she was a 50's girl and she was a princess on Halloween. She now thinks she is a princess any time she wears a dress (which is almost daily. She even sleeps with a petti-skirt over her pjs).

All the while this cute little lady bug enjoyed the ride.

Eliza Update

Eliza's appointment with the orthopedic surgeon was Monday, but I've sort of put off blogging about it. Partially because we left the appointment with our first list of questions answered but a whole new list of questions forming. I hate not having all the answers. When she first got the diagnosis over a month ago I started learning everything I could about infantile scoliosis. I was even reading articles from orthopedic journals on the latest research. If there's one thing I've learned from my job it's that the parents who are the most informed get the best results for their children. So I was determined to be well informed. I was very glad I had done my research.

The doctor we saw was very nice. She was very thorough, took the time to listen to us, explained everything, and answered our questions. She was also knowledgeable of everything I'd learned in my research (which from reading other people's experiences is rare as most of the research has been done in the UK and the principles are sill new or unknown to many doctors here in the US). There was however one measurement, the RVAD, that she was less familiar with. This number essentially will indicate whether the curve will resolve or progress. An RVAD greater than 20 strongly suggests a progressive curve but an RVAD less than 20 suggests a resolving curve. She had only heard of taking this measurement from a standing x-ray (which we obviously don't have for Eliza) but in the research they can do them from an anterior-posterior x-ray. To my amazement she not only heard me out about what I'd read but made a copy of the article, read it, took the measurement on Eliza's x-ray, and then thanked me for educating her more! I'm SO thankful we found a good doctor!

That being said, here is what we learned from the appointment:
- Eliza has a 15 degree C-shaped curve with little to no rotation. Her RVAD was only 8 degrees. (Which is good because her curve is fairly small and not rotated)
- The doctor thinks she has a neuromuscular type of scoliosis. Essentially, her muscles are weak for some reason and that is why her spine is not straight. In this type of scoliosis the RVAD doesn't tell you much about the prognosis of the curve (drat!)
- She also diagnosed Eliza with torticollis (tight neck muscles on one side - again possibly related to some muscle imbalances)

Sorry for the poor quality of the x-ray. It's a picture of the printed copy we have.

The doctor ordered physical therapy to start correcting the torticollis and hopefully helping her gain the strength to straighten up her back. She also wants her to have an ultrasound of her spine to check for a tethered spinal cord. Your spinal cord naturally moves up your spine as you grow but sometimes it can get "tethered" in your lower back/tailbone. This can cause scoliosis (think a shorter piece of elastic inside a longer piece of fabric) and the neuromuscular symptoms. If Eliza's spinal cord is tethered they will have to surgically release it. The doctor was very optimistic though that the curve will straighten up as she gets stronger and specifically once she starts to stand. She also thinks it's unlikely that her spinal cord is tethered because all of her reflexes are testing normally. I sure hope she is right!

So, PT starts this Tuesday and the ultrasound is November 15th. More answers will come with time (but oh man I hate the waiting game). Thankfully Eliza doesn't seem bothered of any of this one bit. She is a very happy, sweet, smiley baby almost all of the time! We love you sweet girl and hope the very best for your little back!

You can see in this picture how she leans slightly to her right side.

The Girls

The girls keep getting bigger and cuter every week! It is already so much fun having two beautiful girls.

Hazel has been totally obsessed with dresses lately. Wednesday morning I managed to convince her to put on some pants for the first time in about 2 weeks. But, by 9am she had insisted on changing back in to a dress. She even wears dresses to bed at least 75% of the time. Of course because she is always in dresses she is always twirling and prancing about. She can also name the colors of every dress Giselle wears in Enchanted. Silly girl!

Hazel also continues to say the craziest things sometimes. Sometimes she says something that leaves Mike and I looking at each other thinking "Where does she learn these things?" Some of the cute ones recently include: "Mom, will you get the crying out of my eyes?" and "I need a bath - I smell like dirty. I need to be clean - I smell like stink!"

Eliza is now 3 1/2 months! She's starting to show her personality more each day. She's such a calm, sweet baby. She is starting to coo and giggle. It melts my heart! Mike already has her attached to an elephant lovey. She wrings it in her hands as she falls asleep. I was skeptical when he told me she sleeps better with it, but she actually does!
Love those cute girls!

Lovey Sunday

It was a calm, relaxed morning and we made it to church on time! I've only been trying since Eliza was born to get us there one time. Success! We even had time to snap these pictures before we left. I love these three:)

Sweet Sweet Girls

Hazel and Eliza are already becoming best buds. I can't get over how sweet they are to each other. Hazel loves helping us take care of Eliza. She throws away diapers, gives her the paci, help Mike feed her while I'm at work, dances and sings for her, etc. Hazel is also full of reassuring words for Eliza, "It's okay sweetie" or "Don't cry. We're just driving." Today we heard a loud motorcycle and Hazel said, "Don't be scared Eliza. It's just a motorcycle." The best part is, Eliza eats it up. She smiles and coos at all of Hazel's little antics. Too cute!




I hate leaving them every morning to go to work. Hazel has really struggled ever since I went back after my maternity leave and frequently says "I don't want Mommy to go to work." But, at least it's only for about 3 more months! Only three months before the big move, yikes! I'm not going to lie it worries me sometimes. We've planned and saved and I felt good about things even if Mike didn't find a job immediately, but then Eliza was diagnosed with the scoliosis. Now, we have the added pressure of keep her insured without any lapses in coverage to worry me.

Thankfully General Conference last week was just what I needed. All of the talks were so wonderful and I learned so much (and found so many things I need to work on). The talk which touched me the most was President Monson's talk from Sunday morning (read it here). He shared a story about dedicating the Frankfurt Germany temple. He felt inspired that a specific Dutch brother needed to be the opening speaker at one of the dedicatory sessions. When he arrived at the temple, President Monson searched for this man only to learn that he was not in the temple that day and didn't plan to attend the session. Nevertheless, as President Monson stood up to begin the meeting, he felt inspired again to call this man to speak following the opening prayer and choir number (remember, he KNOWS this man is not in the temple!) Sure enough, the man walked in the temple immediately following the choir number and took his place at the pulpit. Wow!

This story touched me in so many ways. First of all, if President Monson can trust the whisperings of the Spirit enough to call a man to speak 5 minutes later when he KNOWS he is not in the building, I can trust the Spirit too. We know we are supposed to move to Utah, period. Second, if the Lord inspires us to do something through the Spirit, He will make everything work out even if logic says it is impossible. However, this does not mean he will show us the entire path for miles. The speaker in President Monson's talk showed up literally at the last possible second. I need to keep reminding myself that not to worry about having everything planned out. The Lord will provide.

So it is with anticipation that I count down these last few months in Colorado. I plan to fully enjoy them while they last and then embrace all that our new life in Utah brings.

A Mother's Intuition...

The great thing about a mother's intuition is that it's nearly always right. The bad thing is that it's nearly always right too. Allow me to explain...

When Eliza was 6 weeks old I started to notice that she always seemed to slouch to only one side when she was in the car seat or swing. When I told Mike he brushed it off saying she's use just a floppy little baby and maybe she was that way in the womb. I wasn't convinced but I brushed it off and told myself to stop being so paranoid.

A few weeks passed and she was getting stronger, but still always seemed to lean to only one side. I also noticed that she only liked lying on my left leg but had to be held over my right shoulder. When she was flat on the floor her feet always pointed slightly to her right. To me her back looked slightly curved, but then again I thought I was just being paranoid.

At Eliza's 2 month checkup I mentioned it to the doctor and got a look like "I highly doubt it but I'll check it out to make you happy." His face changed when he started examining her back. Remember that mother's intuition? Unfortunately, this time it was right.

The doctor sent us for x-rays last week and they confirmed that Eliza has scoliosis. They measured a 15 degree curve in her back. The good news is that they didn't find any bone abnormalities that are causing the curve (if that was the cause she would definitely need surgery at some point). The bad news is that there's a high probability that as she grows the curve will rapidly increase. Right now that's really all we know. Eliza has an appointment with a specialist but it's not until October 24th. We will hopefully know more what her treatment will be like then.

Mike and a friend from the ward gave her a blessing on Monday night and I've been much more at peace since. There have been lots of advances in the treatment for scoliosis in babies in recent years. There is a special method of casting that has effectively cured many cases in the UK but it is very new to the US. There are only a handful of doctors in the whole country that can do it. (We don't know if Eliza will be a candidate for this type of treatment yet, but if she is Denver and Salt Lake BOTH have doctors trained in this method. Can you say blessings?)

So for now it's just a waiting game until we see the specialist. We'd love this little peanut even if she is a bit crooked right now:)

2 months!

Eliza is over two months old already! I can't believe how time flies. I've been back to work for a few weeks already. Thanks to my wonderful husband who takes such good care of the girls and helps me out with the house, working full time hasn't been as hard as I was expecting it to be. Since I passed by certification test I got a promotion and work and have some new job responsibilities. I'm really enjoying it! It's still hard to leave the girls, but at least I like my job.

Eliza is now 9 lbs 8 oz and 21 1/2" long. I'm pretty sure Hazel was over 11 lbs at this point and was that longs when she was born, haha. Eliza is just a petite little thing. She is still a very sweet baby and we love having her around. She is starting to smile. I forgot how those little baby smiles can just melt your heart.

Another Lovie Addict in the Making?

Football Fans...

This is how Mike and the girls spent Saturday afternoon.....


Too cute! I'm sure come this Saturday Mike will be wearing a red shirt instead. Not to worry, Hazel will be in her BYU shirt and I've had her practicing - "GO Cougars!"

Too Cute not to Share

Everything about this girl is adorable but especially some of the things she has said lately.....

"Kiara, stop licking me! That's gross!"

She has been really interested in fingerspelling lately so we're teaching her to spell basic things that don't have a sign (fly, pen, tub, etc). Well she has memorized how to spell these words but forgets which spellings go with which word. So we frequently hear things like "P-E-N. Fly!"

She uses "either" and "instead" frequently when there is only one option. For example, "I don't want yogurt either" (when I hadn't offered her anything else) or "I want juice instead" (when she is simply asking for juice).

"Don't touch my hair. It's blond."

State Fair!

Yesterday my Dad came down and we all headed to the State Fair in Pueblo. I don't remember ever going to a state fair so it was a blast! Unfortunately I didn't take enough pictures, but here are a few highlights....

The Bean Sandbox!
Hazel loved playing in the beans (you can tell how hot it was from Hazel's face in this picture)

Even Eliza got in on the fun:)

Here we are chillin' before the pig races (yes, pig races - they were a hoot)

Of course we enjoyed some good fair food...

Hazel's favorite part of the whole day was the splash fountain. I was amazed how she just went for it. Even when she got a mouth full of water from one of the jets she wasn't phased. She played in here while I fed Eliza and we still had to drag her out.

(Notice how she's losing her skirt in this one. If I would have known she'd love it so much I would have packed a suit)

I wish I had some pictures of my Dad and Mike, but you'll just have to trust me they were there. After the fair my dad had yet another train for Hazel to ride in the City Park. It was a great day!

Farewell to Summer

It's been a wonderful summer for us! Sadly life starts up again tomorrow as I go back to work tomorrow and Mike starts Fall semester. I am not looking forward to going back to work at all. Thankfully, I know it's only for 4 1/2 months until we move to Utah:) I'm also thankful that Mike will have the girls everyday except for Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons when they'll go to Ms. Judy's house (She runs a home daycare where Hazel's been going for about a year when Mike's in class. She loves it!).

Here are some glimpses of our summer....

Tiny Town (again)

Visits from family

Plenty of time to play and have fun

Trips to the dog park (Hazel LOVED the dirt!)

Flying W Ranch

Plus tons more. It was a great (and exhausting) time!

Gotta Love the Hair....

Eliza gets more compliments on her hair than anyone I've ever known (and rightfully so)....

3 weeks

4 weeks

5 weeks

Eliza's Blessing

Eliza's blessing was on August 6th. There were a total of four baby blessing that day! What is this, a BYU married ward? The blessing that Mike gave her was absolutely beautiful and all of our immediate family were able to come (except for my brother who is on his mission). Thanks to all our friends and family for your support!