Our week

I did lighten this picture in my Picasa2 program, but for some reason it keeps coming up dark on this blog.

Hailey had a preschool field trip to the "World Wildlife Zoo" on Wednesday, which is about ten minutes from our home. I love this giraffe exhibit. You can buy food for a quarter and feed the giraffes. They stick out their very long tongues and curl them at the ends to form a cup. You then drop the food in. Hailey isn't quite tall enough, so I think she got slimed. Unfortunately, I had Thayne's work camera (which leaves much to be desired) and by the time the camera actually took the picture she was done feeding it and had walked away-- it was that slow. We ran out of quarters, so we tried to feed the giraffe Cheerios, he spit them out. Hailey is a little more brave with the animals than Kaden. Ella seemed to really enjoy them too. We went to the petting zoo as well, where you have to watch your every move. Those little goats will eat anything.

It has been a very busy week, but we haven't done anything too exciting. We watched "Pursuit of Happyness" on Friday. I really liked it. We are a little behind the times with our movie watching. Saturday, Pulte had a big grand opening for a new community, so Thayne had to go to that, and we came later in the day. They really did it up with a western theme. They gave away free food, catered from "On the Border" (although that's Mexican, not western), pony rides, broncing bull ride, western pictures, bounce houses etc, etc. I'm all for free entertainment for the kids. Thayne has spent a lot of time working on this new community. He subcontracted out all of the green belts, baseball diamonds, and parks etc.

Sunday, we all got called to repentance by our Bishop. He said, "Don't say this talk is for so and so, because it is for everyone of you!" He basically told us we would perish if we didn't have FHE, family scripture study, personal scripture study, attend the temple, go on a weekly date with your spouse, and do our home and visiting teaching. It's all stuff we've been told a thousand times, so why is it so hard to be consistent? We do pretty good with most of those things, but the one thing that stood out was the Temple. Here is my excuse. The Mesa temple is soo busy. By the time Thayne gets home from work, he gets dressed and we drive to the temple, it is too late. We got a babysitter one Friday, and were both really excited to go. We get there, only to be told sorry, we're too full, (people were lined down the halls) you'll have to come back another night. After getting a babysitter and driving an hour and a half in Friday night traffic, this was not what I wanted to hear. This has happened twice to Neil and Heather, once on a Saturday morning, the wait was soo long they couldn't stay. Heather offered to watch my kids on a weekday so I could go. I took her up on her offer and went. I thought it would probably be pretty slow at 10:30am on a Wednesday morning, but it was still pretty full. This is when all of the retired folks go to the temple. I guess the temple being full is a good thing. I just think either Tucson or West Phoenix suburbs need a small temple. OK- no more excuses. WE WILL ATTEND THE TEMPLE ONCE A MONTH.

Updates on Ella

Ella has decided it is easier to point and scream when she wants something, rather than use words. If I am in the kitchen and she is in the family room, she will do the bum-scoot, until she can see me and then stop, and point and scream. This is her way of saying, "mom come over here, pick me up, and carry me over there." She will do this for food too. Point and scream, until I walk her over to where she is pointing then she grabs what she wants. I think she has me trained. I know she can say words, it's just easier to scream. When she becomes more mobile, she probably won't have to do this as much. She knows how to say and sign "more". I think I need to learn some more baby signs- it seems to help. (I know all done, more, drink, eat, please and thank you). Here is a list of words that Ella says. This is more for my own personal record. For some reason it is easier to blog it here, then to go up to my room and get out her baby book and write it.
Mama
Dada
Kaden (usually day- d, we've heard Kaden once)
Hailey
more
hi
bye or bye bye
hello (he oh)
night night (ny ny)
ball
uh oh
water (wawer)
ow
flower
shoes
woof woof
baby
nose
no
don't (don)
car
bike (points to bike and says bi)
outside (side)
hat (ha) she doesn't like to finish her t's, I noticed
hair
eye
toes
elmo
bird
light (Li)
whats that
Andrew
cracker
drink
poo poos (my personal favorite, she laughs and says this when someone toots)
she will also randomly repeat different words or sounds that we say

She can point to her tummy, belly button, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, cheeks, and feet or toes. This is considered part of communication. She doesn't combine two words together yet, except "what's that", which I heard about ten times on one shopping trip, but haven't heard it much since. Probably about twenty of these words she says without prompting. Most of the time we will say "Do you want to go outside?" then she will say "side". Or, "Can you say Elmo?"--- "Elmo." We are considering speech therapy as well, just so she doesn't get too far behind. They say that many kids with gross motor delays, end up with speech delays too. Right now she is still on the slow side of normal. I am not too worried about it, yet. Sometimes kids will pick up a ton of words in a months period. Hailey started off slow and then picked up a bunch. And then there was Kaden, who was incredibly advanced.

As for her gross motor development----Thayne and I have really been working hard with Ella. We have been trying to get her to stand a lot more. We need to help her to gain balance and strength in her upper body. The therapist calls this proprioception. She is very scared to fall or lose her balance. We are supposed to buy an exercise ball and bounce her on it, and make her fall to the sides and catch herself. We also take her to the park and swing her or slide her down the slides. She is continuing to make progress. We have gotten her to take steps. She was extremely scared about this at first, but is now getting used to it. Thayne is better at this than I. I don't like to see her crying so hard, but I know it is for her own good.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Y'all! (The kids are a little squinty, and I didn't realize Hailey's dress was so loose on top- whoops).

I just thought this was cute so I had to post it. ( Pretty dresses--Costco only $15).

We had a great Easter. Church was great- I loved all of the lessons and talks on Christ. We hosted Easter dinner at our house and we all gorged ourselves. Wish you all could be here. Neil and Heather, Rich and Crystal, and Darrin came. Darrin announced that Donae is pregnant, which we kind of figured out since she has been sooo sick lately. She was home vomiting- poor thing. Congrats to them- we are very excited for them!

We watched "The Testaments". The ending always makes me cry. I love it when I see my kids feel the spirit. (Although Hailey kept whispering to me, "That doesn't look like Jesus." I somewhat agree with her- I picture him more manly looking than the actor who played him).

We had a little night time Easter egg hunt. Of course Kaden had about twenty eggs in his basket, whereas Aubree had three. Last year they were each assigned a color so it was more even. Kaden was going to give up some of his eggs, but I don't think anyone cared at that point-- the girls were candied out. Andrew, however, has a sweet tooth like Kaden.

Yesterday, Thayne took Kaden and Hailey to the city Easter egg hunt, while Ella napped. I had to get up at 5am for a YW camp hike, so I was tired too. Later, we made sugar cookies and dyed some eggs as well. Fun times.

Have a great week!

Ella's MRI

I meant to blog earlier, but have been waiting to see if I could get a picture of Ella in the hospital, off of my camera phone. For some reason, the computer won't let me download. Oh well, it is kind of a sad picture anyway because she is hooked up to I.V.'s.
The MRI went well. We had to get up early- so Hailey spent the night at Aubree's and Kaden went to a friends house at 6AM. Ella was a little crabby-- she was probably still tired and hungry. We ended up waiting for the anesthesiologist for a while. It turned out to be the same anesthesiologist that did her eye surgery. He's either Austrailian or British (sad that we couldn't tell- I say Australian, Thayne thought British- I see a bet coming on). Anyways, this guy is real friendly, pats your back, gives Ella kisses- acts like he really cares, very nice guy. For both the surgery and this, we gave Ella a kiss good bye and off she went. We went and ate breakfast and then we waited in a waiting room. It's obviously pretty hard to start an I.V. on Ella, because she ends up with all these bruises on her arms from where they tried. For her surgery they ended up putting one in her foot, this time it ended up in her neck! Poor baby! When I went into the post surgery room, she was kind of laying her head on it, so I moved her head the other way and noticed the I.V. was all bloody. Anyways, I think it is more traumatic for me than for Ella. She doesn't seem to remember. She ended up sleeping until 5pm that day. I finally woke her so that she would eat.
As for the results, we just got a call today and.... everything looks perfectly normal!! Yeah! We are very glad for this result. I think I do want to take her back to the eye doctor and ask some more questions (she is due for an appointment anyways). In the future we can do some genetic testing. I think we will just really work on getting her to move more. Now that she can get herself into sitting position from laying down, the second I put her on her stomach, she sits back up. She absolutely will not crawl. She does scoot herself on her bum. I personally would rather just go for the walking. The therapists say that crawling is where they build their arm muscles, but I just don't think she is going to do it. Other mothers have told me their kids never crawled and went straight to walking and they were fine. Anyways, keep her in your prayers. It would be nice to get her walking by two.... for me and for her (my shoulder is messed up from carrying her everywhere).