Baby James Was Here

Our best friends were in town for about a month, and we were so lucky to get to spend lots of time with them, and of course I did not take enough pictures. We played at the house, went out to dinner, went shopping at the mall, and even tried the petting zoo one day. Rylee is not a fan of animals, but the boys were loving it. James and Nolan were loving petting the goats, the baby lamb, and checking out all the other animals. We had even bought them each a pony ride, but out of no where a huge thunderstorm blew in and we decided to pack in up and head out to lunch instead.
Rylee absolutely loves Baby James, who is actually bigger than her weight wise, hahaha!! She loved taking care of him and playing with him so much, and she asks about him, Uncle Dan and Aunt Lauren every day. We are excited for them to start their new adventure in Panama, and we are even hoping to get to visit them, but we will miss them.\

Fruit Loop Monsters

One day I was cleaning and I heard Rylee say she was getting a snack, so I figured she was getting some gold fish or fruit snacks out, well I was wrong. I heard a little more commotion then I thought was necessary, so when I went and looked I found them fixing a bag of Fruit Loops for each of them. They were most proud of themselves, and Rylee did a good job making snack bags for each of them. When she does something like this it makes me realize how old she is getting and how smart she is. She got everything out, made sacks for both of them, and even put everything away, so a good big sister.

Nolan's First Ice Cream Cone

While we were in California Grandma and Papa took the kids to Dairy Queen and I made the mistake of thinking Nolan would prefer and ice cream bar not an ice cream cone, well I was very wrong. Rylee was being so sweet and sharing a few licks with Nolan, but after a few times Nolan decided to not give the ice cream cone back. So, Grandma so nicely went and bought Rylee another cone so they could each have an ice cream cone. Nolan absolutely loved the ice cream cone and surprisingly did not make too big of a mess with it either.

Fairy Tale Town and Funderland

We were so lucky that for the last part of our trip Daddy came out and played with us. We spent an entire day in Downtown Sacramento at a children's adventure land and amusement park. The first stopped we made was a Fairy Tale Town. Everything in the entire place is themed after Fairy Tale's, so we rode the Little Engine that could, saw Charlotte's Web and the 3 Little Pigs, and even rode in Cinderella's Carriage, plus many more. After a full morning of climbing and being silly we went over to Funderland where they have little kid roller coasters and rides to go on. Both kids got an unlimited ride pass and spent the entire afternoon running from ride to ride. Their favorite ride was the cars, because they could both go on them by themselves or together. After a long day we were all very tired and spent the entire next day relaxing.

Face Paint

While in California we went to a fun children's amusement park and Rylee saw a face painter and decided she wanted her face painted. I was hesitant to do it, because the only other time we have done it she freaked out. Luckily, this time was different. First she picked out a ladybug for her cheek, then she decided she needed the other cheek painted and the lady painted Tinkerbell for her. Once her cheeks were done she looked at the lady and said, "Now can you do my forehead?" Silly girl! That evening when we had to wash it off she was a little sad, but for the day I think she lucked pretty cute with her face painted.

Slip and Slide Fun

Aunt Caity brought Rylee her birthday present the other day and it was a slip and slide. When we took the kids out first they were a little timid, but when Daddy took them out they were doing this:

Getting Her Nails Done

When we got home from California Hallie was at her Grandma's house so we headed over that morning to play. The girls played for close to six hours together with literally only one very small melt down, it is so fun to see them play and have fun together. When we got there Hallie wanted to paint Rylee's nails, so I figured why not. I was actually pretty impressed with the job she did on Rylee's fingers, however the toes did get a little messy, but who cares they had fun! After nails and some playing in the toy room it was time for a little rest, sadly this rest only lasted about ten minutes.

Baby Austin

Travis and Tarah welcomed their third baby boy yesterday, Austin Travis. He was 6 lbs. 11 oz and 19 1/2 inches. Both Mom and baby are doing great, and we sure wish we were still in California to hold this sweet, adorable little boy.

Rylee's ABR Test

Rylee's test really began on Thursday evening because we had to keep her up three hours after her normal bed time. So, she and Daddy went and got an ice cream cone and some fun things at the store. To top off having to keep her up three hours late, we then had to wake her up three hours earlier than normal. She and I spent the morning watching cartoons, playing games, reading books, and mostly trying to stay awake. We then headed to the hospital to get Rylee's hearing test done.
The first thing the nurses did was just get Rylee's IV going, because she was fearing it so they just did it to get it over with. Then we went to the procedure room to start running the test and sedate her. Once she was sedated the audiologist hooked Rylee up with the testing machine and began the test. The test lasted roughly 2 1/2 hours and then she was moved into recovery to wait for her to wake up and then we could go home.

Once the test was done, here is what we learned from it:

She has normal hearing with High Pitches, but is on the border of normal and moderate loss at 30 dB. Normal hearing is anywhere between 0-30dB.

She has moderate hearing loss at mid-range pitches, a 40-60 dB loss.

She has a severe hearing loss at low-pitches, an 80 dB loss.

- The catch to this is that having tubes can also affect a child's ability to hear low-pitches, so the true hearing loss at low pitches is still unknown.

The plan of attack:

The Audiologist has asked us to bring her back for a sound booth hearing test so that she can compare the results of the ABR from today with the sound booth test she will be doing. Once she compares them she will decide when to order a second ABR test. She wants to continue to have do tests to monitor the hearing with the tubes as her ear adjust to the tubes to see if there is change in the hearing.

Our EN&T will now start to look for the causation of the hearing loss, since the Audiologist has narrowed down where the hearing loss is coming from. The EN&T will most likely order a MRI and/or CT Scan to look at the structure of the ear to see where the problem is coming from.

The possible outcomes:

Tubes fall out next year, hearing improves (unlikely, but possible)

The MRI shows damage to the structure of the ear that can be surgically fixed, and this will help improve and fix the hearing.

The results remain consistent and she will get fitted for hearing aids and be monitored routinely by the Audiology team at Primary's.

The type of hearing loss she was diagnosed with is conductive hearing loss.

Just after getting her IV

Feeling better and making funny faces at me

Ready to start the test

Trying to wake up in recovery

Nolan Realizing Bubbles Do Not Taste Good

Nolan Getting Sprayed

When the whole family would come over for dinner there would be 10 grandkids at my parents house. So, with that being said we would put the grandkids outside to eat dinner and then Grandma would house off the patio instead of mopping the house. The first time the kids ate out there Grandma wen to clean the patio and Nolan followed, so she sprayed his little feet. Well he proceeded to walk right into the water and scream with joy. It was so cute, he could have stayed out there forever getting sprayed. A few nights later she needed to clean the patio again, so she asked Nolan if he wanted to come out again. Nolan screamed "Ya!" in excitement and sprinted to the door to play with her. It is funny how little things are so exciting to kids.

Picnic at the Pool

The kids loved swimming at the pool and spending as much time as possible there. Well one evening we had not made it to the pool yet that day, so we went over and had a dinner and let the kids swim. Grandma spent some time helping Rylee learn how to kick until another little boy came and Rylee and him became best friends. Nolan had more fun eating and then playing with the ice in his cup of water. Once Nolan decided to get in Rylee helped him play "ring around the rosie" in the little kid pool.

On the golf cart ride home from the pool we chased the geese and fed them some bread. Rylee was a little timid about the geese, but Nolan ran right out in the middle of them to throw them some bread.

Grandma and Rylee practicing her kicks

Nolan and Papa having dinner

Nolan enjoying every bite

Giving me a smile while playing with his cup of ice

Playing together in the pool

Rylee was starting to get cold

Nolan feeding the geese

Splash Park

The first few days at Grandma's house were very warm, so we spent a lot of time in the water. On Monday's the swimming pool at the golf course is closed, so we found a splash park near Grandma's house and let the kids play. We were there for over an hour and they had a blast. The water was not quite as cold as the Splash Parks at home, plus the park itself was really great. Nolan and Rylee both had a great time running through all the features and getting blasted by water.

Nolan getting soaked

Rylee running through the spray fountains

Nolan just seconds before getting blasted in the face,

which he thought was hilarious and did over and over again.

Helping Hallie Golf Tournament

When we planned our trip to Grandma and Papa's house, we made our plans so we could help with Hallie's golf tournament. Hallie is a friend of the family and she and Rylee are "practically sisters" as they informed me yesterday! Hallie has many medical problems and the golf tournament was a fund raiser for her and her expenses, and we had a great time. Grandma, Papa, Uncle Travis, and Daddy played in the golf tournament and won the golf tournament, while the kids played and I helped set things up and get things ready. The kids had so much fun running around and playing together. Nolan had some friends his age to play with and Rylee and Hallie had the best time together. These two girls are so fun together and cute, you would never know that it had been months since they had seen each other, it is as though they play every day!! We are glad we were able to make it to the tournament, it was a blast.

** For more information on Hallie please click on the Helping Hallie link on the side of my blog.

Hallie and Rylee

Valeria, aka Grammy, with a cart full of kids

Nolan sound asleep

The winning golf group

Peeking around the post to say hi!