St. Patty's Day, Another Cardiology Visit, Scary Toilets, Pigeons, Articles of Faith, Bills, MOA

St. Patrick's Day came up pretty fast for me this year.  The morning of the kids were asking me how we were going to celebrate it.  I told them it was going to be a surprise mostly because I hadn't even thought about it by that point--whoops.  Anyway we didn't do much just had a green dinner.  We had green eggs (colored with food coloring and blended up kale), bacon and a green smoothie.  It wasn't very appetizing to look at, but the kids liked it so I guess that's all that mattered, right?!  As you can see Noah thoroughly enjoyed his green smoothie as evidenced by his dripping green smoothie leftovers all over his face:

Aaron and his Elder's Quorum presidency got to speak in church yesterday.  All of them did a really good job.  However, with Aaron speaking that meant I was going to have to wrestle all five kids alone during Sacrament meeting which would not be a pretty sight.  Luckily G&G T were able to come up and give me a hand which I desperately needed!!  Thanks!!  I needed extra help because we had had some friends over the night before which was lots of fun, but none of the kids got to bed before 11:30 pm.  That meant that they were all a little more bit of stinkers than usual at church.  However, the night was fun and worth it.  Thanks for coming over Einzingers!!

The kids had picture day a few weeks ago.  I don't usually buy pictures from the school because I like to take my own, but here's how they turned out this spring:

I think Josh hid his from me because I can't find them.  Oh well, what can you do?!  Since I didn't order any I have to return these, but I snapped a pic before they get turned back in.

Sarah had her fourth echocardiogram and (what I thought was her last) cardiology appointment this past week.  And wouldn't you know it as soon as we walked in the door Noah HAD to go potty.  I took him and Sarah to the potty, but it was the automatic flush ones.  Noah had never had the flush before you're done peeing experience before.  When the toilet flushed it scared him so bad he jumped off the toilet mid stream (he was sitting down) and refused to get back on to finish.  Poor boy!  He could only hold it for about 30 minutes longer before he HAD to go again.  Luckily that time I was able to find non automatic toilets and Noah made sure before he would even sit down to go potty.  It still makes me laugh when I think of his poor face as the toilet unexpectedly flushed before he was finished.  He jumped off of it with his pants still around his ankles and tried to run away.  Poor boy, but it sure was funny.  Anyway, Sarah's echocardiogram turned out perfect again--phew!!  She was in the tv zone the whole time getting her echo done.  Good thing for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on tv, however, I still have the theme song stuck in my head--M-I-C-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E it's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse come inside it's fun inside.......

As they were getting the echo set up she made sure the tech knew that she would need a prize at the end.   She kept saying, "Remember, I get a prize at the end and so does Noah."  It was a little embarrassing, but the tech didn't forget and Noah to pick out a Hotwheels car and Sarah got another coloring book with crayons.  They also got quite a few stickers as you can see all over Noah's hands:

 He loves his car:

 Sarah spent the whole time coloring.  It was nice because there was no fighting!!  Sa-weet!!

 The cardiologist came in and said her echo looked great.  However, he did say that some research is starting to show that kids who've have had Kawasaki disease are getting heart disease earlier in life.  Because of that he wanted to see Sarah again in a year, and then every five years afterward just to check up on her and to let us know about any new information that has come out about it.  Other than that it was good news.  She gets to stop taking the daily baby aspirin and go about things just like before.  Glad that whole thing is mostly behind us!!  On the way out the doctor asked if I had any questions.  I said no, but Noah said, "I have a question!"  However, by the time Noah said that the doctor was out of the room.  I asked Noah what his question was and he said, "Oh it's just about cars, Mom."  Well alrighty then funny boy!

Speaking of all that over the weekend we finally got her hospital bill.  Holy cow there are so many other places I would rather spend $27,5xx than for a week long 'pseudo vacation' at the hospital.

That total is not even including all the echocardiograms, radiology and doctors fees which are slowly trickling in every day.  Anyway, thankfully Sarah is now healthy and we have pretty decent insurance.  The IVIG alone was $4,500--YIKES!  So far we are only roughly about $1,500 out of pocket that we have to pay, but that total keeps going up because not everything has been processed yet.  Thankfully the out of pocket cap for Sarah is $4,000 so that's the most we will have to pay--minus the copays and coinsurance payments because for whatever reason those don't count under the out of pocket max which is stupid in my opinion.  Oh well at least it's better than getting stuck with the entire bill!!  We are hoping the total out of pocket won't get up to $4,000, though.  Now let the 'Fight with Insurance' games begin!!  Good thing I love that little girl is all I can say!!

Saturday we finally made it down to BYU Museum of Art's Sacred Gifts exhibit.  I have been wanting to see this exhibit for a while, but something has always come up.  I was glad to finally make it this last Saturday, though.  The exhibit showcases the original paintings of Christ's Life by the artists' Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann and Frans Schwartz on loan from different churches/religions from around the world.  It was really neat to see the familiar paintings of Christ.  They wouldn't let you take pictures inside the gallery, but here are a few of the paintings we got to see (these are images I found from the web not the exhibit):

Anyway it was really neat to see them on loan just for this exhibit.  This is the first time some of the paintings have ever left the church they have been displayed in Germany, Denmark and New York.  Another bonus is that it was free to see.  I don't think the kids appreciated it as much as Aaron and I did, but nonetheless it was still neat to see.  While waiting for the 10 minute movie explaining about the paintings to begin we got to see one of the 'LOVE' sculptures that was not part of the Sacred Gifts exhibit we could take pics in front of:

 Here's the one picture in the lobby you could take pics of so here we all are.  At about this time Aaron and I are a little flustered with trying to keep all the kids together and quiet during the whole exhibit and were glad to see the end.  Trying to keep 5 kids quiet and entertained while you are trying to see and read about something you are interested in was pretty crazy--that's probably why we look a little frazzled.  Besides that I am glad we went.  Josh and Daniel were the most interested in the exhibit.

 Two weeks ago Josh memorized and passed off all his Articles of Faith in his primary class.  After passing them off each kid gets a big bonus present.  His primary teachers brought his present by yesterday.  It was a microwave popcorn bucket filled with a big pack of Skittles, Snickers candy bars, a big pack of gum and a two liter of Root beer.

Way to go Josh!!  Needless to say Josh was pretty popular with Sarah and Noah all day yesterday.  Sarah and Noah were little stinkers today, though.  They waited until Josh went to school and then went into his bedroom and ate the rest of the leftover candy this afternoon.  Josh was not happy about that when he found out when he got home from school, though.  Sigh--gotta love your siblings, right?!  To make up for that I guess I will have to get an extra treat for him the next time I go to the store.  Sarah and Noah can be stinkers sometimes!

The other day I went outside to get the mail when I was surprised with a pigeon flying right in front of me as it flew away.  Upon closer inspection there are four pigeons who have taken up residence in the eaves of our roof.  I was hoping they would just go somewhere else, but the longer they hang around the more settled in they're getting--stupid birds.  I wasn't too bothered by it until they decided the window above my front door was the best place to sit.

This morning as my kids were leaving to go to school they had to step around tons of bird poop all over the front porch.  YUCK!!

 I guess I will be needing a new welcome mat...Aaron has a plan for taking care of them tonight, though.  I don't really want to know the details because I am a bit of a bleeding heart.  Hopefully we won't have them hanging around too much longer...

Noah loves lining things up.  If he weren't so socially appropriate I would worry, but that's just one of his quirks.  He got out all of his cars this afternoon and lined them all up along the family room.  If I tried to move any of them, he would get quite upset at me.  What a stinker!

 This morning while I was busy doing something I heard the bar stool get scooted across the floor.  I couldn't see what Noah was doing, but I knew it couldn't be good.  Over the weekend I had bought a bag of gummy bears and Noah LOVES gummy bears.  I walked over to find him like this:

 I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Oh just checking out the pantry, Mom."  Hmmm in other words he was trying to find the bag of gummy bears because all of Josh's candy he had eaten that morning had not satiated his candy craving I guess....what a stinker!

After Sarah got home from school today she was working on her homework.  Noah wanted to work on his homework, too even though he is not even in school right now.  I wrote out his name and he was trying to trace it.  The funny thing is is he is just like his dad.  When he has to concentrate hard his tongue comes out--just like Aaron and Josh who do the exact same thing.  No paternity test needed here!

 Noah made sure Baby, his pillowpet, got a turn, too.  He held the pencil for baby to trace Baby's name, too.

IEP Meeting, Flash Mob, Allergist, Field Trip, Soccer

This week we had an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting for Matthew.  It had been a year since the last one and we needed to review it.  His Learning Center teacher, the Vice Principal, regular education teacher and the speech teacher were all in attendance.  I really love Matthew's teacher this year.  I am really glad he will hopefully have her for the next three years because she really seems to want the best for Matthew.  I say hopefully because I just learned they are going to put in a second learning center classroom at his Jr. High school so there is a chance Matthew might end up with a different teacher :(.  I hope not, but I will cross that bridge at a later time.  Anyway, Matthew is falling behind his peers even more in school.  That is no big surprise.  His teacher feels that he would benefit from attending one class a day with the functional skills class (the kids with mental handicaps that are worse off than Matthew).  She feels he would benefit from learning basic life skills that would help him like cooking, grocery shopping, dealing with people in the community, etc. more at this point in his life than going through the motions of a regular education.  As much as I don't want to face this reality I really do think it is best for Matthew as well.  By attending the functional skills class one period a day he will be able to participate in their weekly field trips in the community.  He was able to go on his first official one yesterday.  I gave him a grocery list with two items on it as well as a few dollars to buy it with and a few dollars more to order lunch with.  The functional skills class went to McDonald's for lunch to practice how to order and pay for their food according to how much money they have.  Matthew ordered a Happy Meal just because it came with a toy.  They then to the grocery store to find and buy their grocery list items as independently as they could.  Then they are given the assignment to bring home those items and make a dinner with them with help and then report back how it went.  Matthew picked up two packages of hot dogs and two packages of buns to go with them.  He was so excited to cook dinner for us yesterday. It's a good thing he bought two packages of each since he ate 6 hot dogs with buns all by himself for dinner.  HOLY COW!!   Can you tell that kid LOVES hot dogs?!  I think these skills will be good for Matthew to practice and learn so I am glad for that.  The rest of the IEP meeting went pretty well.  They are going to evaluate Matthew for occupational therapy to help strengthen his hand muscles which will hopefully help with his handwriting.

Speaking of Matthew he can be so sweet and so frustrating at times.  The other morning he came upstairs wearing a pair of pants that were way too big.  They kept slipping off his hips with each step.  I asked him to go and change into some different pants that fit him.  He did not like that and immediately went into humongous tantrum mode.  It was bad.  He finally changed into a different pair of pants, but they were too short.  I was afraid to ask him to change again so I let him rock the Man-pris (Capri's pants for boys) all day at school.  It was about time for his bus to come and he was still throwing a huge tantrum.  Because he was still screaming and yelling I made him wait outside on the porch for his bus.  His bus came three minutes later and we had some peace for a few minutes until my doorbell rang.  It was my neighbor who lives two houses down from me (I haven't even met her yet).  She was asking if everything was ok since she heard all the commotion from Matthew on the porch.  I was embarrassed by his behavior, but what can you do?!  She was nice enough to come and check on us to which I explained that he was autistic and was having a huge meltdown that morning.  Hopefully she believed me....Matthew can be really sweet as well.  Wednesday morning I was still in bed when I heard him open my bedroom door and yell surprise.  I then heard a big liquidy splash all over my carpet and bed.  Matthew was trying to surprise me with breakfast in bed with a big bowl of cereal with milk already in it and a big, full glass of milk, but in opening my bedroom door he lost his grip on it all and it all spilled on to my carpeted bedroom floor.  I was upset for the first 10 seconds, but then I realized what he was trying to do and appreciated the gesture.  I helped him clean it all up and then I got to carpet clean my bedroom that morning.  Matthew can certainly be sweet sometimes.

The love of ketchup my Dad has, has been passed down to Matthew!  There's no doubt he is a Terry!  Just a few days ago we had chicken noodle soup and he asked if he could put ketchup on it.  We really go through ketchup because Sarah and Noah like it as well.  Funny kids!

 Matthew goes to a few regular education classes throughout the day.  He is in PE and art this semester.  He actually brought home this water color painting of tree stumps the other day.  I was impressed:

 Tuesday was Daniel's semiannual visit to the allergist.  They checked his height (50 inches), weight (53 pounds) and lung function because of his asthma and it was great.

 They also checked for lower lung inflammation which looked good (no inflammation) YAY!

 Then they took us back to a room.  Sarah went and sat on the bed.  I had to tell her that this appointment wasn't actually for her this time and to get off the bed.

 Let the skin prick test begin.  Here's the before:

 Dripping the allergens on his back:

 Two minutes after scratching each allergen into his skin:

 After the test was over:

 He still quite allergic to milk and tree nuts so I need to get another Epi Pen refill.  However, his peanut allergy (peanuts are legumes not tree nuts) are barely showing any reaction.  That coupled with his blood test 6 months ago show that he may have outgrown his peanut allergy.  YAY!  To make sure we get to try an in office oral challenge.  I get to bring some peanut butter and they will feed it to him bigger and bigger amounts every 15 minutes over the space of three hours to see if he will react.  If he doesn't we don't have to avoid peanuts anymore.  YAY!!  Peanut butter cake, cookies, pie, etc. here we come.  I'm so excited!!

Yesterday I was able to go on a field trip with Daniel and a buddy, Shawn.  The whole second grade rode Frontrunner and Trax over to the Clark Planetarium.  There were so many parent volunteers that there was at least one parent per two kids which were much needed odds to make sure everyone got the right connections.  Here is me, Daniel and Shawn on the Frontrunner down to Salt Lake.

 We only had about 20 minutes to explore the planetarium before our star movie started in the Dome theater. We checked out the cloud machine:

 The tornado machine:

 The HUGE perpetual marble machine:

 The mock Mars landscape:

 The moon rock:

 The scale which showed what your weight would be on all the different planets:

 Then we watched our Star constellation show and then headed back to school after eating a quick sack lunch.  It was a fun day.  I was glad G&G T were able to come up and watch Sarah and Noah for me so I could go along with Daniel.

Josh and Daniel have started the spring soccer season.  Josh begged me to take a picture of him in his soccer uniform so here it is:

What a handsome guy!  I will get Daniel's picture later.....hopefully I will remember :).

Today at the Jr. High they had a school wide talent show.  They got the special needs kids involved, too.  Aaron and I were able to go and watch Matthew and his classmates perform a flash mob dance first with a few student body officers and then it spread to the whole school.  It was really fun to watch and Matthew got so excited about it.  It was pretty awesome!!

Matthew had a lot of fun doing it.

In other things Aaron became pretty impatient with waiting for Daniel's oral peanut butter challenge.  He didn't want to wait until next Monday so Saturday we bought a big tub of peanut butter.  We then came home and gave him a huge spoonful.  He liked it.  We waited a few minutes and then gave him another huge spoonful with chocolate chips on top.  He liked that even more.  I guess he can now eat peanut butter.  YAY!!  Aaron's impatience has now saved us a $30 copay and three hours of sitting around in the doctor's office while trying to entertain Noah who has become quite the stinker as of late!  I am alright with this :).  Here's the momentous occasion of Daniel eating his very first bite of peanut butter (what you can't see is Aaron and me jumping for joy in the background!):

 Here's Daniel eating his very first peanut butter and jam sandwich.  He actually like it, too.  To mark the occasion I even made peanut butter cookies tonight.  This is going to be fun!

As for now I think I am all caught up on the blog.  I really need to stay caught up because catching up is hard because trying to remember everything is not easy.

Sickness, Swans, Breakfast in Bed, Exploring

I am really behind so I will try to catch up within the next two posts.  Three weeks ago Sarah started running a fever.  It started on a Wednesday and stayed around.  I was a little concerned, but not too much since it was only around 101 degrees.  However, that Saturday morning it jumped up to 104.2 and her eyes were bloodshot, she had a rash all over, her fingers were puffy and her lips were also red and peeling.  That scared me because all those symptoms were the same symptoms she had before with Kawasaki Disease.  We called the pediatrician and explained her history and her symptoms and they told us to just go straight down to Primary Children's ER so that's how Sarah and I spent the majority of our day.  Doesn't she just look terrible!:

 I HATE high fevers!  They are so scary!!

With her history of Kawasaki Disease they decided to do an echocardiogram and to draw blood.  Thankfully, everything still looked normal on the echocardiogram.  Can't you see how excited she is to do this again?:

 After reviewing her bloodwork, it showed one inflammatory marker was still pretty high, but the others had gone down.  They didn't think it was Kawasaki Disease again so after a long day in the ER they sent us home and told me to keep an eye on her.  Sunday evening her fever broke and Monday morning she woke up with a temp of 99 which is good enough for school.  She went to school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, however, when she came home Wednesday afternoon she spiked another 103 degree fever.  Bleh!! Poor thing:

I don't know what to do with this girl!!  She is making me nervous.  However, the fever stayed around through Friday night.  Saturday morning Aaron I were woken up by a nice surprise (not so nice since it was 6:30 am on a Saturday morning) but it was still sweet.  Josh, Daniel and Matthew had made us breakfast in bed.  We had bowls of cereal and zucchini bread--yum.

 It even came with this sweet note:

 The inside said, "From Josh and Daniel.  Thank you for taking care of us.  We really like it.  We will always love you no matter what."

After breakfast I went and checked on Sarah, who thankfully, was fever free.  She stayed fever free all morning so we decided to head out for a fun family day.  The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge was having a Swan day.  We decided to go and check it out.  It was a nice day.  It was 55 degrees outside.  Josh thought it was a heatwave and insisted on wearing shorts--crazy boy!

 They had different displays set up and then they also had a window corner you could look at the birds on the refuge with binoculars.

 We checked out the museum and measured the kids arm length against different birds' wingspans.  In looking at Matthew's picture he is getting so tall:

Noah was just trying to do everything Daniel did.  There were quite a few birds to see.

 They had a nature walk with a backpack you could check out to go on the walk with you.  Inside the backpack was a pair of binoculars, two nets, two magnifying glasses and a information sheet on the different types of clouds.  It was fun.  Daniel loved the binoculars:

 Noah loved the magnifying glass:

 Aaron even caught a fish with the net.

 It was a tiny fish, but he caught it nonetheless which he was pretty proud of.  We put it inside the magnifying box so the kids could check it out.  Afterward we let it go back in the water and, yes, it was still alive.

 After checking everything out we went on the refuge drive to see the migratory swans.  There were a bunch of them, but they were all far away from the road.  I tried to take a picture, but they didn't show up in it.  However, they were there.

I am glad to say Sarah has not had a high fever for 5 days which has to be some kind of record as of late!!  Hopefully, it stays that way.  Like I said, I really don't know what to do with that girl!!