April 2014

The rest of April not already featured. Jackson and his buddy Pax pretending to be Olaf from Frozen. Only Pax decided to use cauliflower for a nose. :) Jackson with his first color-by-number picture. He asked me to take a picture to send to Grandma so she could see. Story time with Dad. Clara's favorite thing. Making cookies with the kids... which turned into a big mess of cinnamon-sugar on the floor and all over Clara. Good times. Gray's favorite thing is the broom. He pulls it out of the cupboard at least ten times a day. In fact, I'm not sure why we ever put it away.

General Conference. You can see how the words of the prophets solicit such happy expressions from Troy and Jackson. Ha. Not sure what was being said at that time, but it makes for a funny picture. Also, general conference was rouuuugh this year. I swear I heard about one talk the whole weekend. Thank heavens they put them up on LDS Library so quickly.

Conference pictures are followed by random pictures of Gray making faces for the camera, Jackson on a bike ride with Troy, and Clara and Gray playing in the firetruck. Now on with other April business...

I took Jackson in to get an x-ray of his hurt wrist. He has been complaining about it hurting for a couple months now. I started to feel guilty that it actually might be a legitimate injury. So we got an x-ray. Jackson thought getting an x-ray was the coolest thing ever. He was sooo excited. He was jumping up and down with excitement, actually. "I can't wait to see my bones!!! I've never seen my bones before!" And he told everyone in the waiting room he was getting an x-ray and then showed him it was because he couldn't clench his left hand and would provide a demonstration of said injury. Ha. He wasn't the least bit scared. (I was grateful for this as Clara was having a neck x-ray at the same time and was NOT excited about it. Jackson chatted away with the X-ray techs while I wrestled and coaxed Clara to hold still while singing any Frozen song I could think of. Phew. We survived!)

Jackson's x-ray came back clean. He must have some muscular injury that is taking some time to heal. The nurse practitioner made him a copy of his x-ray to take home. This became his pride and joy for the remainder of the week. He took it with him everywhere and showed it to all his friends.  He also took to drawing x-rays for the rest of us. You can see the x-rays he drew of Clara's head and hand below.

We can't forget Gymnastics. It's just so adorable that I can't stop taking pictures. Ha. Clara has been jumping in with the younger class on occasion. This is why we did a neck x-ray. Individuals with Down syndrome tend to have a very unstable C1-C2 vertebral joint. Meaning, they break their necks much more easily than the average person. Not good, obviously. This is the cervical spine at the base of the skull. The instability becomes even worse when the head is down, like when doing a forward roll, or even when jumping on the trampoline. Soooo ANYWAY, we had Clara x-rayed and it turns out her neck is NOT unstable. Hallelujah. Knowing this takes lots of stress of me. Clara is a crazy in gymnastics. She loves it, but she won't hold still and sit with the class for anything. Silly girl.

I included a random picture of Jackson in front of some beautiful Spokane photography we found at the mall one day. He recognized Riverfront park right away.

And lastly, we have had so so many appointments lately. I'm starting to feel the pressure of following up with all our doctors before moving. Thus we scheduled in a bunch of check-ups over the last few weeks. You guys, we love going to the doctor, so it's no big deal. ;) So grateful for good insurance right now. And for good old Sacred Heart Medical Center who not only provides Clara with all her specialists, but sends us our pay checks too. How about that?

Easter 2014

Easter Sunday started off with Jackson waking early and Troy and I deciding to wake the younger two. Clara was not having it. It took her about a half hour to wake up. Ha. She was uninterested in eggs or her basket. She just lounged across Troy like the first picture below. Super funny. I don't think the Easter bunny took into account that Clara and Gray may not care about the eggs at all. Thus there were about 30 too many eggs hidden in our home. Hmm. Whoops. Ha. Jackson didn't complain though. He scooped up every one of those eggs. Once Gray realized there were jelly beans inside he started popping them open. He got really quiet and we found him in the corner eating them as fast as he could. Ha. Once Clara woke up, she was happy about the candy too. She also loved her new little baby doll. She gave her several hugs and kisses when she found her in the basket. So sweet.

After we were all ready for church, I wanted to get a "quick" picture. Is it too much to ask to get a holiday family photo? Yes, yes it is. My friend Ashley says taking pictures with kids counts as exercise. I think I'd have to agree with her. First of all, no one wanted to sit still for the picture. Not too surprising. What was surprising was how completely debilitating the sun was to Jackson's eyes. "The sun is TOO bright! It's BURNing my EYES!" You can see how dramatic this whole thing was in our series of awesome Easter photos. Our scenery was less than sub-par, but that's our yard folks! Ha. None of the pictures are magazine worthy, but they sure are funny. I'm glad I subjected my family to a photo shoot via force. ;)

We were invited to the McKluskie's home for Easter dinner. The McKluskie's are a cute family in our ward. Katrina is the Primary president, so I've gotten to know her pretty well. They have 4 girls who are sooo cute. And they are so cute with my kids. Clara and Gray were completely terrified of their dog, but the girls kept them happy and playing despite their phobia. It was so nice to have somewhere to go for dinner. And we loved visiting with them. We've met some great people here in Spokane.