Wii in our undies!

A glimpse into the summer on this lazy Sunday afternoon:) 

Hilton Stay

Pogo Pass gave me a complimentary stay at the Hilton, so I decided to surprise Matt for his birthday before the baby was born! Well, I had planned on having my boys spend the night at my moms, but she ended up having plans that weekend, so I opted not to cancel and just make it a family getaway! We went to Freddy's for dinner and then I didn't tell the boys where we were going and headed to a hotel in Scottsdale! When we pulled up, I asked if they wanted to go swimming and sleep here! They were very concerned they didn't have their swimsuits and pillows and blankets, but when they discovered that I had packed them all without them knowing, they got on board quickly!:) We checked in, changed into swim suits and headed to the pool for a swim! The boys thought it was fun to sleep at a hotel and the next morning we headed to Denny's for a birthday breakfast, before heading home!  It was a fun getaway with my boys! :) 

Last day of preschool!

Ryler went to his last day of preschool on Friday! He enjoyed a year of the Apple program at the Red Mt Center. It was a program held once a week, on Fridays, specifically for Speech Articulation. It was often a struggle to get him to go, as he is a home body...but I honestly believe it was really good for him and saw a lot of improvements over the year. Most importantly his speech pathologist is the one who suggested getting his tonsils/adenoids out, which has been a blessing, so I am extra grateful he did this program. 

ASU Grad Party

Elizabeth Huber graduated from ASU with a degree in Elementary Education and my mom hosted her grad party in her backyard! My brother Jeff also graduated same day with his masters so we had a double celebration!!! And it was Heidi's birthday, so lots of reasons to party!!! 

Creepy Crawlers

A blast from the past! Out of the blue, Matt was reminiscing about his childhood toy, creepy crawlers and before I knew it, he was looking up where he could buy one online "to help Ryler recover after surgery". Well this boy LOVES them!!! He wants to make them non stop and is having so much fun creating new bugs every day! This toy is a keeper!

Heidi's Birthday

We enjoyed brunch at Kneaders for Heidi's birthday! It was fun celebrating with her, despite my crazy boys that don't know how to sit still in public:) Luckily nobody kicked us out and we had a fun time! 

Birthday Boy

The boys were excited to decorate for daddy and surprise him when he got home from work on his birthday! We then went to dinner as a family at Matt's favorite place, Xavier's and then headed to Mesa Frozen Yogurt for dessert! And to too his birthday off, we headed home and put the kids to bed and then he was off to play basketball!!:) A fun way to spend his 31st birthday!

Food Allergies

We have started this boy on drops for emvironmental allergies, which seem to actually be worsening his skin rashes, but  we decided to go back and have him tested for food allergies to find out if there is something we could be avoiding to help him...well, there was more than just something, there were several things! We are going to take it in steps and remove his highest 3 allergies which are lemons, garlic and tomatoes and see if things improve. He has so many food allergies, we are going to do food drops for him once his environmental drops are done. I hope this can help this boy! It's so weird that Ryler was growing out of all of his at this age and he is just starting his!?! I just hope we can help him, because he is ALWAYS itching and it seems unbearable! 

Madison Peter Piper Pizza

We went to support a Madison fundraiser at Peter Piper Pizza and had a great time with our friends/neighbors the Millers:)

Recovery

Lots of icecream and Popsicles and spending time at home with this boy as he recovered post surgery!:)

Tonsils and Adenoids no more!

Scariest and best decision we have made! We decided to have Ryler's tonsils and adenoids removed and while I was VERY HESITANT, I felt good about the decision and we really felt like it could help his breathing and congestion and possibly speech in the future. His speech pathologist was actually the first to suggest it, because she could tell from her experiment that he spoke as if he had enlarged adenoids. The ENT we saw, Dr. Mancuso said the same thing within minutes of our first visit. An x-ray confirmed both of their suspicions and we tried some steroid nose spray for awhile that didn't seem like a good long term solution, besides the fact that he HATED it! The actual surgery went really well and Ryler was a trooper through it all, but it was so hard to see him wake up in pain and wonder if it was the right choice. He had a lot of visitors at the hospital to keep him distracted and he continually smiled through the pain. We would laugh because he would look so miserable and I would go to take a picture and he would always smile for me:) we had to stay the night because he was young, so they could monitor him and even though I didn't sleep a wink on the hospital couch, he did pretty good that first night, except he woke up in a tremendous amount of pain!:( they told me mornings would be the worst and they were right! We got released to go home that next morning and I couldn't have been more happy to get out of there, but when I got home, I realized we had a LONG week ahead of us! His recovery seemed to get better each day from days 1-4 and then day 5-8 were terrible with no sleep at night. I was exhausted after a week of no sleep,trying to take care of a very cranky and miserable boy that was always starving and in pain, but wouldn't eat a thing and of course have energy for my 2 year old and let's not forget, I am 8 months pregnant;) Luckily by day 10, he was FINALLY starting to feel like himself again and eating food other than Popsicles! I knew it would be hard watching him go through surgery and recovery, but what I wasn't expecting was how quickly we would start seeing positive results! Within the first couple of days, he kept asking why we were all talking so loud(hearing improved!!!), from the first night on, he has had no snoring(better sleeping habits!!!) and his constant congested/runny nose that he was always wiping on his shirt was gone(clear nasal passages!!!) His speech of course is the same, in fact for the first week it was a lot worse, because his poor throat/tongue were so swollen, but I can hear less nasal speech already and have high hopes with improved hearing, his speech will process much better from here on out! I am so thankful that all went well and that we went through with it, even though I didn't want him to have to have surgery! I am thankful for a great surgeon and for the results we are seeing!