Alex talking

We've been really trying to figure out what to do for Alex. We definitely want him to speak well, which we have been assured can happen. However, there is quite a difference of opinion out there on the use of sign language. We've decided to learn sign language for now--it'll be practical for when he can not wear hearing aids, and it will be good for the rest of us to learn another language. (Although I'm feeling intimidated by it.) Meanwhile, it is FUN to see that Alex is enjoying hearing his voice. He now laughs and smiles and carries on baby conversations with you. (Enjoy the video!) The hearing aids were a nightmare at first because of ill-fitting molds. It's slightly better now, but I still don't think that we have a great fit on the molds--so they make that very annoying whistling sound. The other kids didn't know how to hold him at first--I struggled too --because you didn't want to make the hearing aids squeal or squish into his head. We're all getting more used to them now. My hats off to Alex, he's putting up with all of this with extremely good humor.

Christmas is Coming!

I was NOT feeling in a hurry to get out all of the Christmas decorations, but what do you know, the whole family helped put them up on Saturday. It looks great, and I'm especially enjoying the lights that Spencer designed outside. I took this picture at dusk so that you could see the lights--as well as the flowers still blooming in December! I am looking forward to Christmas, and I know it's time to kick it up a notch to get everything done by the 25th. Happy Holidays!

Alex

Alex is smiling and cooing at us now. What a cute guy! Lance is a GREAT babysitter. He can sit and talk to Alex and keep him entertained while I do dishes, laundry, etc. We received very disappointing results on Alex's hearing last week. The audiologist and ENT now call his loss severe to profound. He is on the borderline for if hearing aids will help him or not. If not, we hope he will be a candidate for a cochlear implant. This has been a very emotional time for our family. We were advised to learn sign language for his beginning development. Today I called the State School of the Deaf about loaner hearing aids and they signed me up with the State's early intervention program. Those are things that I never imagined doing. Thankfully, such programs exist. Having a child with a disability is completely overwhelming. I'm glad there's help out there. The doctors want us to do genetic testing and a EKG to determine the cause of his hearing loss and rule out other possible problems. Alex is in for a lot more testing and our family is in for lots more time in waiting rooms.
We're excited for him to get his hearing aids so that he can get to know our voices and the noisy and mostly happy sounds of our family. We shyed away from the blue hearing aids and went with the modest translucent ones. Fun to have a color choice in your hearing aids!

Halloween!
All dressed up and ready to go!

Fun at the park with Granddad and Grandmother

We've been enjoying a great visit with Spencer's Grandparents. Today was beautiful and we enjoyed a trip to the park. We tried feeding the ducks, but they weren't too cooperative. Adam and Lance loved climbing up this giant tree.

Fun with Sandi

Sandi and Mannix came to help us out and meet Alex last week. We kept Sandi busy, busy, busy! Thanks to her, Anna's 4-H demo happened, peaches were canned, and the baby clothes were sorted. It was fun to see how much Mannix had grown. He's quite a cute and happy guy. The peaches in the background of the photo were chosen on purpose--beauties!

Short Hair

I love my haircut! I debated for months if I should get another perm or get my hair chopped off. Spencer voted on a new look, so I had my friend Angie cut it last week. I love it! The kids were very lukewarm about it, but then they always have to adjust to Mom looking different. So, for the benefit of my sisters--here's a photo of me and my new 'do.

Spencer in the spotlight

In the last 6 months, Spencer has received two big awards. I finally got pictures of him to show them off! The first was a college award. He was selected by his department to get the distinguished faculty award for 2006-2007. Then, this fall the university awarded him the Young Scholars Award. Go Spencer!

Kindergarten!

Adam is enjoying being a Kindergartner. He loves his teacher and loves being at school with his big sister. He already has his eye on a girl--Kate. He likes playing with her at recess and says that she is "cute."

That's A Pass!

"That's a pass!" Those were the best words that Alex and I have ever heard. Today his right ear passed the hearing test. Alex failed hearing tests in the hospital and also the re-screening at 3 weeks. In fact, his flat-line response in both ears at the 3 week test made the audiologist sound quite concerned--which threw me into a panic. I spent several days crying and then some time on the computer looking up whatever I could find about hearing loss. It was very reassuring to learn of the miracles of cochlear implants. However, it is still such a huge relief to know that we won't have to go down that road. The audiologist believes that the problem resulted from amniotic fluid or wax (from the waxy coating that newborns have) that needed to dry out. The left ear showed some slight improvement today, so we are assuming that it just needs more time to dry out. We will have another screening in two weeks. Yeah Alex!

Alex Peter!

We are thrilled that Alex Peter came to our family on August 27. He was 6 pounds 14 ounces and 18 1/2 inches long. He has brown hair and several in our family swear he has dimples, although I have not seen them yet. He is well loved, and we are all having lots of fun with him. Spencer was a great labor coach, but he is one tired Daddy! He is still not recovered from the meningitis, but he is doing his best to help out. I'm completely worn out myself, so we are glad that the kids enjoy helping out with their new brother. As luck would have it, several of the
kids also ended up with sniffly noses this week--hence, the face mask pictures.

First Day of School

Here we go again! The kids were ready to go back, but I wasn't! It seems like school started WAY too early this year (Aug. 18th). Anyway, they both love their teachers and had a great first day. Adam starts kindergarten this week. He can hardly stand it. He's planning to wear his new Lightning McQueen shirt on his first day. They are growing up too quickly!

4-H Day at the County Fair

Last Saturday I took the kids to the County Fair. We were excited to see their projects decorated with ribbons. Adam and Leah received all green ribbons for their projects. Anna had a bunch of blue ribbons, one red, and one project go on to the State Fair. She also won two trophies that day--one for talent and one for modeling her flip flops in the Decorate Your Duds contest. Leah also received a medal for her modeling and talent. We had a great time!

New Dining Room Chairs

I've been wanting to recover my dining room chairs forever, and they finally got done this week, thanks to my Aunt Judy. She came over with her staple gun and whipped out the whole project with me. They look great! I'm really enjoying looking over to the dining room set and seeing these brand-new looking chairs. We won't be eating spaghetti over there!

waiting for baby!

Here's my profile picture at 9 months. I can hardly wait for this baby to come! Spencer is now on the mend--finally, so I've been able to think about having this baby again. We are all excited and hope that he shows up this week. Unfortunately, all the kids except Anna started in with sniffly noses today. It seems like that is much more easily dealt with than meningitis, but I'm still passing zinc lozenges all around.

Not such happy news

Well, it turns out that Spencer was not on the mend. I took him yesterday to the emergency room because his fever spiked to almost 104 and his neck was stiff and his throat was killing him. And, they finally diagnosed his virus--viral meningitis or encephalitis. They are testing to see if it is from West Nile Virus. The only good news was that they said he is not contagious. Also, it is finally nice to have a name to put to the misery he's been in. We're hoping that since he's already been in the battle for a month that it won't be much longer. Meanwhile, I'm hoping that our little boy won't make his debut until Spencer will be well enough to attend his delivery!

Summer photos

Our family has been busy, busy, busy with 4-H projects. One of our favorites has been photography. It's been fun to use my new digital camera and figure out the macro feature. The kids took some great photos. I was lucky to also get this shot of a hummingbird at my Aunt's home.

One last summer fling

We had an unscheduled Tuesday this week, so we took the opportunity to visit my cousin in her new home and to visit the dinosaur museum on $2 Tuesday. We had a fabulous time at both spots--it felt like an extra vacation we snuck in. We loved seeing Marilyn's designer home and wonderful neighborhood. Adam was glad to see his friend Abraham again. We hadn't been to the dinosaur museum for awhile, so it was a real treat. By the way, there are 88 teeth on the bottom of the shark--and probably 88 on the top. Munch!

Spencer on the mend

Spencer is feeling much better. He is still not 100%, but he is getting there. Hurray! He did not test positive for mono or meningitis, and the doctor didn't believe that he had West Nile Virus. So, he had some unknown virus. It's been very hard on him, but I think the worst is over. He even went on a field project today with his students, although he came home totally exhausted.

Sick!

Spencer has been sick, sick, sick since Monday. We all thought he had a sinus infection--including the doctor. However, he just got worse and worse. Yesterday he was tested for meningitis and mono. The results for meningitis are already back--he doesn't have that. However, we won't know on the mono until tomorrow. There's also a possibility of West Nile Virus. Time will tell. Meanwhile, this is not that much fun!

Summer Vacation

We had a fabulous time in Logan, Yellowstone, and Island Park. We enjoyed seeing friends and family in Logan. It was especially fun to see my happy and newly-married friend Jenni and her husband Mike. Then, we headed north and met up with Spencer's family. We enjoyed 4-wheeling in Island Park, braved the rapids (or so I called them) on the Snake River, and Yellowstone was an entire day of adventure and beauty. We were especially excited to see two bears (from a safe distance). The whole area up there was covered in wildflowers. We enjoyed so many breathtaking sites that no one minded too much that we ran out of time to go see Old Faithful! Oh well, we'll just have to go back...

Happy Birthday Nana!

Happy Birthday to Nana! We were lucky to be coming home from our Yellowstone trip on Nana's birthday, so I was able to take some flowers to the cemetery in this morning. I was thrilled to find that there was one Tropicana rosebud waiting for her at my Dad's house. We, of course, also took flowers over to Mom's grave. Love you both! We arrived in Provo at 1 pm, and I couldn't resist making a lemon meringue pie in honor of Nana--in spite of the suitcases and piles of dirty clothes I needed to tackle. We sang and enjoyed a delicious dessert. What a nice birthday Nana--100!

4-H Day Camp

We just got back from 4-H day camp up the canyon. We had a wonderful time--all of us. When we pulled into the parking lot and saw how tall the rock climbing apparatus was, we all said, "No way!" However, everyone ended up trying it except me! They even had a harness Lance's size, and he willing went up a little ways. Anna almost made it to the top. We also made hats (just as Leah had demonstrated back in March), made survival kits, sang, did obstacle courses and made star maps. The kids had a great time. We left a little early because Lance and I were totally worn out. I'm starting to really feel 7 months pregnant!

Leah's Baptism

Leah was baptized on Saturday. She has been so excited all month! I know that she invited two teachers from school to attend--and one of them came. We enjoyed visits from lots of family on her special day. She was very sweet all dressed in white. Just before the baptism, she said that her stomach hurt, but she braved it all very well--even going under the water. It is easy to tell that she is happy to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Last Day of School

The girls celebrated the last day of school with the school dance festival. They did a great job. It was a day of mixed emotions--nice to complete a year, but they do love school.