Valentine's Day 2014

We had a little party at our house for Valentine's Day. We decorated sugar cookies, made valentine's, and visited. It was a little crazy, but we had so much fun! Clara and Gray were sure to situate themselves as close to the food table as possible. I swear, no matter what I did, Clara always found a stray sugar cookie another child had left out. Because of this, I stayed in the kitchen a lot of the time to keep my littles out of the food. I felt bad I didn't get to socialize with some of our guests in the front room as long as I would have liked. Next time, we'll put the food at big table to keep small hands away. ;)

I had fun decorating for Vday (and the party.) I made a couple more garlands this year. Why do I always feel the need to make Valentine's decor? Every year I get sucked in. We didn't do as well at putting love notes in our mailboxes this year. But we gave it a good effort for a few days. Jackson loved seeing the flag on his mailbox up. He treasured every note.

Also included are some pictures of Clara and Gray reading their Valentine's cards from Grandma and Grandpa Barneck. My kids looove getting cards in the mail. They were lucky to get Valentine's from G&G Bushman too.

Troy got me a box of chocolates for Valentine's. Bless him. He knows what I like. :) He has been working super long hours this month, so we spent a quiet evening at home for Valentine's Day. We ate Cafe Rio. It was a good day. I sure love my four Valentines.

Gaven and Aubri Pickering.

Brooklyn Garza (in the corner), Clara, Mykelle Taylor, Bailey Runyan, Zoe and Aaron Butikofer, Gaven Pickering.

Hailey Taylor.

I came downstairs to find four girls huddling around the batman house. Upon closer inspection, they had lined all the Little People princesses in there. :)

Seth & Sariah Wagner with Gray.

Clara, Bailey & Mykyla Runyan and Jackson. (Mykyla and Jackson have SO much fun together. They are great buddies.)

I inherited this funny statue from my Grandparents when they moved into a rest home. Apparently my Dad used to buy these (there were many of them ;) for his parents for gifts. I can remember playing with them at Grandma Barneck's house. It makes me smile every time I see this quirky decoration. So corny and funny.

Baby Gray: 10 months

Lately, when I look at Gray I have one recurring thought: "How did he get so big?" He has grown and changed so much over the last couple months. These pictures were taken at about 9.5 months. He is 10 months on Friday! I can't believe it. Here is a little about Gray:

-He is very close to walking. He cruises around all the furniture and when he's feeling brave and/or excited, he'll take a couple 1.5 steps before he face plants it. He can stand on his own for a quite a few seconds before he falls down.

-When I set him on the floor, he can keep his legs steady enough that I can set him down standing. I feel like that makes him more on the toddler side of things. How did this happen?!

-At his 9 month appointment: Weight: 22.1 lbs. (75%) Height: 30.3 inches (96%) Head: 18.5 inches (91%)

-He is a thick kid. Not so much roly-poly as muscely and dense. He is super strong. If he kicks me in the stomach while I'm changing his diaper, it hurts.

-He is still having in-home physical therapy visits for torticollis. He's been having those visits since October and we've seen little progress. His neck is tilted to the left, and his muscles are SO tight on that side. Our therapist is trying to stretch that out as much as possible before he starts walking as that tends to exacerbate the problem. Right now we have appointments to see an ophthalmologist and an orthopedist to rule out other anomalies that might be causing the head tilt.

-He loves his daddy. He gets so excited to see Troy when he gets home from work.

-He has the biggest grin/smirk. I love it. Also, he has the most awesome thunder thighs. They are thick (as mentioned above.) I swear I could eat him up sometimes.

-He loves anything with buttons. If a laptop, ipad, or cell phone are within his reach, he can think of nothing else but to get to that device as soon as possible. When we take them away, he sobs uncontrolably. All our 10 month old ever wanted in his life was a cell phone and a laptop. We are such mean parents. Ha.

-He knows how to turn Siri on my iphone on. He clicks the circle button until the screen lights up and it says, "What can I help you with?" I put the phone back to sleep and he turns it right back on. Too smart for his own good.

-He is Clara's best playmate. They go everywhere together, usually trying to play with the same toy. They take out all the pans from the drawer together. Race cars on the fireplace being as loud as possible together. They are kind of like our twins. They are almost the same size and they do most of the same things.

-Gray wears 18 month pajamas (Clara wears the same size :). He is wearing 12 months clothes otherwise for the most part. He is wearing holes in the knees of his pants from his vigorous crawling.

-Gray has started some serious separation anxiety. If I leave the room, he falls apart. Like, even if all I've done is go from the family room to the kitchen right next door. If I go downstairs to switch a load of laundry, he is redfaced faced, screaming mad by the time I get back. But, the moment he sees me, he breaks into a huge grin, laughs and is so happy to see me! Kind of nice being so loved. ;)

I sure can't imagine our house without Gray. He has been my little side-kick from the beginning. We love you baby Gray, even if you aren't such a baby anymore. ;( Stop growing.

Clara Lately

Oh Miss Clara. How we love her. She is learning so much right now. I wanted to document what Clara is doing right now. Things I want to remember about Clara:

-When I get her out of bed, she gives me a huge hug and then pats me on the back several times. This is my most favorite thing in all the world, and THE BEST way to start my day.

-Clara loves to be sung to. (Is that correct grammar? I don't really know...) She has always loved music. She is fascinated with looking at my mouth while I sing. I think once she learns she'll be rocking out every waking moment of the day.

-She has learned so many signs lately. Some of her favorites are: "cold," "snow," "outside," and "cracker." I am so grateful my friend Melissa introduced us to Baby Signing Time. Those DVDs have made all the difference. I'm grateful for the ability to communicate with our little princess.

-Clara requests songs by doing signs. Her favorite songs are from the Baby Signing DVDS. When Troy comes from work she will often start throwing out all sorts of signs to request songs from him. She gets really frustrated if he doesn't figure them out quickly. Ha.

-She also loves the song "Popcorn Popping." Seeing her little pointer figure wave at "It wasn't really so," is adorable. 

-Troy has taught Clara how to do Patty-cake. It's their thing. She loooves it. I need to make a video of all these cute songs she can do.

-Clara now says (not signs, but actually speaks) "Bye-bye." We are so proud. And she is too. Super exciting to hear her speak.

-Clara loves to tease. She runs away when she knows I want to change her diaper.

-She loves to experiment with sound. For example, she likes to take my pans out of the drawer and hit them on various surfaces to see what sounds they make. She goes from the linoleum to the carpet and back to the linoleum. Her personal favorite is the loudest option: the fireplace. :)

-Clara now feeds herself her entire lunch at school. This is huge news. Self feeding at home is going a little slower. I think the peer pressure at school helps her. We are very proud of her improvements.

-Clara loooves school. She grins and claps when I tell her it's time to go to school. When we walk in she can't wait to get to circle time and sing songs. If we arrive late and they've already started (which might happen a lot of the time... :) she is so antsy like she is sad she's missing out. I'm so glad she likes school so much!

-Clara loves hugs. Sometimes I can tell she just needs me to hold her and hug her for a minute or two. Then she's ready to run around and play as usual.

We sure love this special girl in our home. Love you Clara babe.

Regan

One day towards the end of January, Troy came home from work to tell me his brother Regan had had a ruptured aneurysm which had turned into a sub-arachnoid bleed. Regan isn't quite 26. I couldn't believe what he was saying.

Apparently he was in class when his arm started to feel funny and it became difficult to write. He left his class and one of his friends happened to walk by and noticed Regan's speech was slurring. School medics told him he should hurry to the hospital. Troy's sister Ashley was also at class at UVU, so she rushed him to the ER at Orem Community Hospital. They sent him to the University of Utah hospital via ambulance. This is when Troy started looking things up on Sub-arachnoid bleeds. Bad idea. The outcomes are incredibly poor. The death rate is significant. Those who survive often stay in comas. We finally decided we didn't want to know anymore. It felt like FOREVER until we heard that Regan had arrived at the U. The whole situation felt very surreal since we were so far away.

He was in the Neuro ICU for several days. He couldn't use his right hand and had some slurred speech during that time. They did a slew of tests and were unable to determine where the bleed had originated. Isn't that interesting? Perhaps the priesthood blessing he received took care of that.

After the ICU he was transferred to the Rehab floor. The very floor Troy will work next year when he starts his Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency at the U in July. Troy's family met some of the doctors he will be working with next year. It was cool that they were able to see first hand what Troy will do.

I talked to Regan earlier this week. Miraculously, almost all of the function has been restored to his right hand after only a few weeks of therapy. His speech has returned to normal. So many blessings. Troy and I sometimes know too much in situations like these. We are grateful our prayers were answered and he is doing so well.

This experience was scary for us. It felt bizarre to be so far away when something so unexpected and traumatic was happening to our family. We were so worried about Regan! And we felt helpless being so far away. Another one of the many reasons I am excited to live close to family gain. I felt antsy sitting at home waiting for updates on Regan's condition. So the kids and I took some pictures and made a video to cheer him up. 

We love you Regan and are so glad you are feeling much better.

Get Well Uncle Regan from Brooke Bushman on Vimeo.

A Snow Storm that turned into a Snow Fort

We had a week at the beginning of February that it snowed everyday. Our deck had several inches one evening, so when Troy got home from work, he built Jackson a snow fort. Jackson was elated. Bless Troy for going outside to do that with him after his 11 work day. Clara and Gray watched from the sliding door and wished they could be outside too. They knew something epic was happening. It turns out my husband my husband should have been an Eskimo or something, because his snow fort totally rocked! It lasted for a good week until we had a freak 48 degree day and it finally melted enough to meet its demise. 

That week, Clara had her first experience playing in the snow. She was so excited at first. I bundled her up in her snow gear and kept talking/signing about going outside to play in the snow. She couldn't wait. When she walked out onto the deck, Troy came up to get here and she put her arms out to her sides as if to say, "can you believe it?! I'm here!" So cute. She lasted for about 10 minutes. She wasn't happy about falling in the snow, or walking in the snow. Troy had to hold her the whole time. When she came back inside, she hugged me for a looong time as if she'd been through a stressful situation. Poor girl isn't a big snow fan at this point. Maybe she'll like it better next year. 

Also of note, Gray trying to get outside to play in the snow. :) and Jackson's play date with our neighbor Carsen. They played in the snow and had hot chocolate and cupcakes. Cute little buddies. And lastly, the ice that accumulated INSIDE our sliding door during the cold snap. Holy cow. The door was frozen shut. We just didn't go outside for a couple days. There was also a frostbite warning that day. Craziness. Living in Arizona has made us complete wimps.