Fun!

Here is Cohen heading in for his first day of pre-school! He has so much fun while he is there.


Here is Aja hanging out with Aunt Chalee'. My kids LOVE their aunt and uncle and I think the feeling is mutual. We can't wait until their baby is here so we can love on it!


First taste of whipped cream!


And here is a picture of my new venture. I've always wanted to learn how to make cakes and my friend is teaching me. This is my first one. I'm pretty darn proud of it. Anyway, I need all the practice I can get so if you want a specialty cake for any type of event, please let me know! I will do them for FREE!!


Another view.


I feel bad because I hardly ever have any pics of Peyton or Anessa on here. I had some good ones I was going to take while up in Idaho this last weekend, but it was so windy they would have turned out terrible.

Yes.

Yes, Aja is one of those to recieve the shunt that has been recalled. We are going down to SLC next week for a CT scan to make sure the tubing is not detaching.

There is a little tube that hangs down in Aja's brain, or ventricles if you will, and that is where the fluid is "sucked" out. That tube is what is detaching. It's kind of a big deal because it's right in there in your brain so if it wiggles around or shifts it can poke your brain a bit and cause damage. There you have it. I will let you know what they say.

I'm How Big??

Aja had her 9-month visit yesterday and our stats are:

Weight: 14.8 lbs = 1% (yes, you read that correctly)
Height: 26.5 in. = 13%
Head: 16.9 in = 19%.

The above face is what she has been pulling a lot of lately. It cracks me up every single time. Here is a close-up for the full effect.



Some things that Aja is doing: Says "mamamamamamama" all. the. time., Pulls herself up onto her knees, it looks like she is trying to wave to people she knows, when I say Aja's hair she touches her hair, and melts heart every single day. We are so thankful that she came into our lives. We love you Aja!

La-Di-Da

Aja HATES getting her feet tickled. So being the meanie mom that I am, had to get a picture.


Sensory play day! Aja had her first encounter with powdered sugar..Do you think she liked it? Cohen could spend hours playing with his colored rice that I made him. He loves to dig around and find the things I have hidden in there. This was such a proud moment for me. He actually was pretending by himself! That is a HUGE step for him because it's usually me that has to initiate everything. Way to go!




Sweetness has learned to get into a little bit of trouble.


On Thursday we went to the Draper Temple open house. It is such a beautiful Temple! My kids were so good during the whole thing and were very, very reverent. I'm so proud of them. Of course we couldn't complete the trip without a family picture. And what family picture of ours wouldn't be complete without: Anessa folding her arms, Peyton making a weird face, and Cohen and Aja looking away.


Cohen..What can I say. He is a constant crack-up! We went to a friends house after the open house and he got into the play clothes.


There are no words. Your guess is as good as mine.


Uh..I don't think any more is going to fit in there, buddy! Yes, my house is a mess. When Mitch is home, I could care less. I would rather spend time with him than cleaning. Please ignore it.


I wish I could have gotten a picture of this, but Peyton was playing outside and in August we put my cat to sleep, and she is buried in the front yard. Mitch went out and found him saying a "blessing" over the cat's grave! How cute!

A few random pics:

So when Aja woke up for her mid-evening meal before going to sleep we noticed that she had quite the hair style going on.


We also had some friends over last night and I guess Cohen got a little tuckered out from all the playing he did. I just love his cutie red cheeks! He is totally the master spit-bubble maker when he's completely out. However, he had sucked them all back in by this point.


So, you remember when I said that Aja had tiny feet. Here is your proof. These Robeez are a size 6-12 months. Yes, I know Aja isn't quite 12 months yet, but I don't think she's going to fit into them anytime soon! I tried them with socks and they folded over the sides of her feet and were still way too big!


It's been quite a busy few weeks at our house. We still haven't gotten Anessa's results. We should be getting them next week after the USU's furlo is over.

Peyton is good. He's been such a good helper. He's doing awesome in gymnastics! I'm very proud of our guy.

Cohen had his six month evaluation with the Up-to-3 program. He graduated from Occupational therapy and only has behavioral therapy once a month! Yay! However, he's been placed into a group called LEAP Frogs. It's called Learn to Eat And Play. Basically, Cohen has a lot of food aversions. He's showing a trend of eating things that are crunchy and that is about it. SOMETIMES I can get him to eat softer foods but not very often. So hopefully this helps him and me (the frustrated mom) out. He is also going to start pre-school with the Little Aggies program. This is kind of what I've been waiting for. He goes for 2 hours twice a week AND I DON'T have to be there! I will have one kid for 4 hours every week! I'm excited. This will also help him to socialize with other children. So we are hoping that maybe Cohen will start to play with other children instead of avoiding them.

Aja is back into the Up-to-3 program. She's being evaluated by a physical therapist and nurse this next week. She is showing some delays, and as I have said before, she isn't using her left leg. Our occupational therapist checked her out and we are suspecting a condition called: Spina Bifida Occulta. Here is a quickie thing on it.

Occulta is Latin for "hidden." This is one of the mildest forms of spina bifida although the degree of disability can vary depending upon the location of the lesion.[5]

In occulta there is no opening of the back, but the outer part of some of the vertebrae are not completely closed.[4] The split in the vertebrae is so small that the spinal cord does not protrude. The skin at the site of the lesion may be normal, or it may have some hair growing from it; there may be a dimple in the skin, a lipoma, a dermal sinus or a birthmark.[6]

In order to find this out we are going to have to get an MRI done. This will mean sedating Aja so that they can do it. She has her 9 month visit in about 2 weeks. So I will keep you updated on that one.

Mitch and I are doing well. Just dealing with the day to day trials of being apart and missing eachother terribly, but somehow we get through it. We have been very blessed to have wonderful supportive friends and family!