Celebrating Rylee

We had been trying to come up with a way to help Rylee understand the significance of her hearing surgeries, and we decided to throw her a little party with some friends.  Last night we invited a few friends over who have helped us the most along the way with her surgeries.  The night was fabulous.  We really think it helped Rylee realized this is a lot bigger deal than she had originally thought.  We had delicious desserts to celebrate the evening with great friends.  We were even able to plan it so Grandma Michelle was able to join us!  After everyone had left we were able to give Rylee a gift that we had gotten her.  She absolutely loves listening to music, but her hearing aids often hinder her ability to wear head phones comfortably and we would all get to listen to her rock out!  So, we got her an iPod and a nice new pair of headphones, she is in heaven!!

 The Treats

 Rylee and her party table

 Rylee and her best friend Maddie

 Rylee with Kenlie and Tiffany

 Rylee's new headphones

Rylee's new iPod Touch

No More Hearing Aids, Ever!

Rylee had her last hearing test after surgery, and her surgeon cleared her to never wear hearing aids again!  When we started all of this her hearing averaged around 50 decibels, normal is under 25, and at certain pitches she was as low as 75 decibels.  At yesterdays appointment she tested at 13 decibels!  Her hearing is even better than normal!  We couldn't be more excited and grateful with these results.  The life long affects of this are not even comprehensible for Rylee, but we know that they are enormous.  This will have an impact on every aspect of her life, and we cannot even put into words the gratitude we have for the miracle.  Rylee has been such a trooper through all of this.  We know there is a long road ahead of her to adjust to hearing so much, but how amazing is it that we have to worry about her hearing too much now!  There are a lot of things that make people think there are not miracles anymore, but this is truly a miracle!  It is truly truly a miracle that our sweet little girl can have normal/perfect hearing now!

October 2010, Her First Surgery

December 2012, Her Last Surgery (Hopefully)

Her celebratory Cheesecake, April 2013

No More Hearing Aids

Too much to catch up on, so Easter

Easter was a blast this year! The kids were all about the Easter Bunny and finding the eggs! We did an Easter Egg hunt at the Country Club and they were did great! We told them to run to the back and get the eggs there, Nolan did, Rylee go too tempted to pick up the first eggs!

The Easter Bunny brought the kids each a swim suit, treats and a few other things! They did great finding the 60 eggs hidden in the back and are now enjoying the candy!!

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Nolan's Birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's

Nolan celebrated his 4th birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  He got to have Cousin Trevor have a sleepover for his birthday, and they had so much fun together.  When Nolan woke up he opened his presents from Grandma and Grandpa, Jake and the Neverland Pirates Toys!  Later that night all the family came over for dinner, presents and cake!  Everyone got Nolan cute Jake toys, and then we had a pirate cake.  Nolan was so excited to celebrate his birthday with his cousins!

Rylee's 2nd Surgery

Rylee had surgery on her right ear on December 17th.  Dr. Shelton performed the surgery again and it was another tremendous success.  Rylee was a little anxious about the surgery this time, because she remembers still remembers the last one.  She did great getting checked in a ready for her surgery and we only had a few tears when they took her back for the surgery.  When she woke up from surgery we had a scare with her facial nerve.  They have to move the facial nerve when doing this surgery and when she woke up the entire right side of her face was paralyzed.  We called the doctor back in and he checked a few things out and helped us relax a bit and told us it is most likely the local they had to give her and it will wear off shortly, within a few hour.  He said we had to wait at the hospital until her smile was equal on both sides.  It was a very anxious time until after about 2 hour we saw her face start to move a little.  In the end, everything ended up being fine, but we were scared for a little bit.  She had a lot of energy for the recovery, but between me and Grandma Michelle we did our best to keep her under control!

 All Changed Into Hospital Jammies

 Playing Games While She Waited To Go Back

 Mommy and Rylee Playing Matching

A Perfect Smile Again

Nolan's 4th Birthday Party

So I am a blog slacker again and I need to get caught up.  Nolan's 4th birthday was on December 23rd, but we had his party on the 12th at Airborne Trampoline Arena.  He was so excited for it to finally be his birthday, he had it planned for months in advance.  His friends and him had a blast jumping on the trampolines and in the foam pits.  We had a pizza and cake at the party too, and then Nolan opened presents.  It was truly a wonderful birthday party for our little guy.  Since we were going to be out of town on his birthday we gave him the presents from us early as well, and he was spoiled.  We got him a Jake and the Neverland Pirates outfit and a train table.  Caity got him a Jake and the Neverland tent.  We got some birthday shots done, and when we get them back I will post those and do a little write up about our special boy.

Opening his presents, wearing his new Jake outfit

 His Jake tent from Caity

 His train table

 Playing Trains

 Getting Bounced By His Friends

Playing

Nolan's Cake

Getting Ready To Blow Out Candles

The Party Guests

 Opening Presents

 Nolan and his friend Lizzy

The Cute Group

Temple Square with Cousins

Last weekend Uncle Travis and family came to visit, and it was the coldest weekend of the year! We tried our best to make the most of it, despite the freezing temperatures. Saturday night we made it to Temple Square and had a fun time walking, quickly, around the temple. The kids thought it was great even though we were all freezing, it was 5 degrees out!

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Frosty the Snowman

This morning we woke up to a bit of snow, not too much, but just enough that we could build a little snowman.  The kids wanted so bad to go out and play, so after breakfast we bundled up and built a snowman.  They were so good to help gather snow and help build the snowman.  Rylee went in the hosue and found a carrot so we had a nose, Nolan helped my find sticks for the arms and rocks for the nose.  They were both bothered I hadn't given him a mouth, so I had to make one out of a stick.  We started taking a picture and Nolan thought Frosty needed a hat, so he donated his to Frosty.  We had a great time.

Festival of Trees

We made our annual trip to Festival of Trees last Friday! The kids are normally more excited to see Grammy Valerie then they are the trees, but luckily they let me look for a few minutes. We went with our best friends again this year and had fun! The gingerbread houses were a huge hit with the kids, and my kids really liked seeing the tree decorated for a soccer player they know. To end our fun time we made a stop to see Santa!

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