Diabetes

For those of you who aren't aware, the reason for the big gap in the posts is that we have had a lot going on here with Christopher's health. For some time he had been super dry and always drinking water/going to the bathroom. He had also dropped quite a bit of weight very quickly. I don't know if it is as obvious in these pictures (they were taken about 3 months apart) but he dropped about 30 pounds in 2 months. We went in and had his bloodwork done and he has diabetes and his thyroid is not working.
We found this out about 2 days before his 27th birthday (happy sucky birthday to you..LOL). The doctor wanted to see us right away. His numbers came back as bloodsugar 330 and his AC1 was about 14. This means we were lucky he wasn't hospitalized as his average bloodsugar over the past 3 months was around 400-450(normal is 80-100). At 600, you can slip into a coma or have a stroke. The doctor has put Christopher on 3 medications right now. Synthyroid for his thyroid, a medication to lower blood pressure and thus protect his kidneys from being damaged by such high bloodsugar, and a medication to bring down his bloodsugar. Right now, he is on the lowest possible dose of all three. However, dosages will be adjusted as needed over the following months as we get more bloodwork back. We have also drastically altered our (especially his) diet and once he is feeling better (he has been ill) we will add in exercise. Eventually, we hope to be able to control his diabetes with diet and exercise, but for now we just have to get it under control. Slowly, but surely it is coming down. When we first started testing a week ago, it was averaging about 270 and now it is averaging about 245 (with the lowest test so far at 230) We are sticking to it and hope to have more results soon. We will be meeting with the doctor again next week and hopefully at that time will be set up with a nutritionist. Unfortunately, his bloodsugar will not stabalize overnight (especially since it was so high) but he is sticking closely to a healthy diet and really tracking his health.
This has been quite a change and a lot of emotional stress for our family. We are still going through some emotional adjustments and would appreciate support. However, we are quite sensitive right now to unsolicited advice and criticism(however well intentioned) Please know that we will try to keep you all informed and we are doing everything within our power (and that of our doctors) to make positive changes and to ensure Christopher has a long and healthy life and (God-willing) to ensure that our children will not be the 5th generation of diabetics.

Midnight Snack

This actually happened on Easter at bedtime, but it was so funny that I thought it deserved its own post.
Lately, Dallin has insisted on having the light on when he goes to bed. He actually "reads" for about an hour and then goes to sleep. I am not sure if this is very good or very bad. He flips through his books and sometimes "tells the stories" the way he remembers them. Either way it is very cute.
Sometimes he gets bored and climbs into Kate's crib and jumps or talks to her or wakes her up in an unkind way. So after all of the Easter festivities, we put the kiddos to bed and left the light on. Kate was asleep, but a little while later, we heard Dallin talking with her. We usually give him some time to see if he will go back to bed on his own without us going in and putting him back in bed. So we waited for a while and then the giggling started. Lots and lots of laughing, talking, and giggling coming from the kids' room. Finally at 9:30 we decided we needed to re-tuck our children. Christopher went in and then he yelled for me to come and see. I walked in and perhaps I should have been mad, but what I saw was so funny and cute that I started laughing, then I grabbed the camera and took a picture.
Dallin had snuck a box of his Easter animal crackers into his room and he climbed into Kate's bed, opened the box, and they were having a late night snack--giggling and chatting. It really was precious (even if it was a little naughty). Dallin did not have to share the cookies. Kate can not get out of the bed, but I was actually touched that he climbed in and shared with her and they were having such a good "bonding" time together. Perhaps we should have been angry. Perhaps they should have been punished, but instead we shut the door and let them have their moment. It really made my day, and I hope that they are always close(although perhaps a bit less sneaky! LOL)

Happy Easter Bunny!

Happy Easter Bunny! (This was Dallin's Easter greeting). I thought Easter deserved one more good post since the kids were so adorable. We went to a sacrament farewell earlier in the day and the kids were rotten. I did not think we were going to make it through. After it was over, Dallin insisted that he hadn't been bad enough for the Easter bunny to not come. LOL Apparently he was right and the bunny made his appearance during naptime.

He made quite a mess--leaving a trail of half-eaten carrots from the kids' room to the Easter baskets upstairs. Kate woke up first and to my surprise was actually super excited about her stash.


She started yelling and pointing from across the room. She played and played with her Elmo doll--loved him, hugged him, and laughed with him. Dallin woke up later and picked up EVERY SINGLE carrots on his way upstairs. He was so into it, he got all the way to the chair before he noticed there was anything in it. He LOVED his Mickey Mouse characters, of course, and he and Kate fought over them for the rest of the day. He was also excited about the kites and can't wait to try them. He went out with Uncle Willie and Daddy and tried out the soccer ball right away. It was great fun. Will and Tammy came over and we had a delicious and healthy ham dinner. Then it was time to open all of Nana's Easter Madness! Easter Bunny eat your heart out! Nana sent clothes for all the kids even Madison(Dallin insisted on wearing 3 of his t-shirts all at the same time--they had dinosaurs and Mickey...he is so into clothes it is funny). Nana also sent lots of Easter goodies (100 calorie packs and little snacks for our kids) and some candy! We sent Dallin downstairs and "hid" his Easter eggs and snacks in plain site around the living room. He raced upstairs and picked everything up as fast as he could. Kate actually put things in her basket too. Then the big people opened all of their Easter eggs--yeah for money and candy! Thanks Nana! Candy was all over the place since some of the eggs had burst and Kate was hoovering as fast as she could. She had jelly bean or chocolate drool for the evening. Every time we thought we got it all, she somehow had more. It is funny because I was so opposite with Dallin...he never tasted sugar until he was a year old, but here Kate is at 11 months with her jelly bean drippings prooving once and for all that my mothering skills are indeed slipping. LOL (but isn't she cute!?)







































Our Easter was great and hope all of yours were the same!

Easter Clothes!

Here are some pictures of my beautiful kiddos in their Easter clothes before church (notice how clean they are!) Dallin keeps making funny faces because he is saying "Cheese!" LOL He is so handsome in blue. Kate loves to play peek-a-boo with her big puffy dress! Doesn't she look like a princess?

Dinosaur in the Sun

This week has been so busy and jam packed full of adorable, funny, and downright gross things the kids did. Overall, I would say it was definitely a week I was enamored with my children and a starry eyed adoring mother loving every minute of it :) (I LIVE for those weeks!)
DALLIN: This week Dallin had a fabulous time at gymnastics. I am telling you, that boy has TALENT! He was listening so much better and really doing well at the activities. Next week we are going twice (once for a makeup lesson). He is talking all the time now (mostly funny). Today he got in the fridge and when I asked him if he wanted leftover meatloaf he said "no, it's old". LOL OK so if any of you know me, you know I am not crazy about leftovers but I still eat them....LOL He bursts into spontaneous rounds of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" that sound like this "Tinkle Tinkle little staw. Uppa sky. Uppa sky. Uppa sky. Uppa sky. Uppa sky. Uppa sky. Tinkle Tinkle little staw. Uppa sky uppa sky." He gets this faraway look when he is singing it...and points to the sky like he is really into the music (too bad he sounds like my tone deaf dad...LOL) I love it hearing his little songs. He also is way into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He asks to watch it all the time. They have this little animated mickey ear thing on there called Tootles. Tootles carries Mousekatools and helps them complete their missions or what they are trying to do. So every time they get stuck they call "Oh Tootles!" and Tootles flies in with his theme music and gives them a Mouse ka tool. So the point of that was that Dallin will do things now and if he runs into trouble he will yell "Oh Tootles". Soooo funny. Sometimes I will appease him and sing the little theme music while I help him out pretending I'm Tootles. The artwork on this post is courtesy of Dallin as well. It is his first actual picture of SOMETHING! Not just scribbles. For those of you not artistically inclined, it is a Dinosaur in the Sun...hence the name "Dinosaur in the Sun". He was so proud of it, he even put some red glitter on it. It took over 24 hours to dry since he painted it Van Gogh style and when I tried to hang it on the fridge to dry big globs of paint started moving so it dried flat on the counter. Also, Thursday night Dallin decided the dark was super scary and got all hysterical when I turned the light off. I'm not sure why the change, but there it was. So I had to put him in bed with the light on. Then he got all hysterical and said he was scared because there was a man in his room. So I had to check under his bed and in his closet...nope....no man. He was satisfied with my check and fell asleep with the light on. Strange...but it only lasted 2 nights so ok. Finally, we started potty training tonight. Well, I don't know if you can say started really when he didn't go in the toilet once and I ended up with 5 pair of "accident" underpants. Although his first accident was the most interesting. He climbed into my kitchen cupboard and peed into one of my pots. Excellent. He climbed out and said "it's gwoss in there" Hmmm...wonder why? I am really hoping we show some kind of success tomorrow.
KATE: Kate has 6 teeth now (and 2 are on the bottom! Yippee!). Every week I think she'll start walking, but she hasn't gotten brave enough yet. She is so very expressive. It leaves very little doubt what she wants and when she wants it. She climbed the stairs this week. I coaxed her up the first flight with a toy while I was right behind her. With her becoming more mobile, I would rather her know how to get up and down the stairs without taking a tumble. So I am having her "practice" with me right there rather than the "trial and error on her own" method. She has decided she LOVES our Hokey Pokey Elmo doll(that was a yard sale dollar well spent) and will watch him over and over and over again. She gets really excited and starts yelling "Elmo Elmo!" That's right, she can say, "Mama" "Dada" and "Elmo" the 3 most important words in the universe. LOL She is getting really feisty and I had to break up a "fight" between her and Dallin this week. Someone (and I don't know who) threw the first punch and they kept hitting each other back and forth back and forth and yelling. I broke it up and made them apologize. They were back to loving on each other in no time. LOL If only adult fights were so simple. This week Kate learned that if she sucks really hard on an empty bottle it will make a squealing sound. She does this over and over and laughs every time. She also learned that she can unload our bookshelf (or at least the bottom two shelves) in under a minute. So much fun! We started playing roll the ball with her this week. She has GREAT hand-eye coordination. She caught on right away and loved to catch the ball and THROW it back to you. Rolling is for babies! LOL That's my girl! What a super star!

Professional Pictures!- Kate 9 months old

Here they are. Kate's 9 month professional pictures. We went to Wal-Mart (mainly for the bathtub ones so they would match Dallin's) and JCPenney! Hope you like 'em! All of her outfits are from Nana's House of Style (thanks Nana!)
Wal-Mart Pictures



Wal-Mart Bath Pictures




JC Penney Pictures

Congratulations Uncle Michael!

My youngest brother Michael, 16, was awarded his eagle tonight in a court of honor. We are so very proud of him. We were sad that we were not able to go, but we heard it was awesome. We definitely sent our best wishes, and the kids even colored Uncle Michael a special eagle picture! Way to go Michael! We LOVE you!