Decorating for Christmas

Yesterday we put up our Christmas tree -- this is the only picture I have of everyone helping. I don't really know why Olivia only had her diaper on, except that she is almost 3 and likes to take off her clothes. Right now she is running around without her shirt on.

Jolie, of course, immediately starting un-decorating the tree. Now she has figured out how to put the ornaments back on and she does her "I did it" dance when she is successful.

Kids are sooo entertaining!!!

Thanksgiving Week

Happy Happy Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

We are having a wonderfully quiet week.

Jolie helping me make pancakes for dinner earlier this week-- I'm getting too many cooks in the kitchen!!Austin reading
Nyah and Olivia painting- I leave the room for one minute right?
Nyah was actually mad at Jolie for stealing ponies, even though she's smiling in this picture.

Jolie and her favorite person in the whole world.

Video of Olivia getting back to normal-- playing "cooking show" with Nyah. One of those rare moments this week when they were playing nicely together. All three girls are driving each other nuts-- wanting whatever some else is playing with, taking it away, hitting each other, yelling and fake crying-- I'm going crazy too.

Olivia is much better. She is up and playing most of the time. She gets tired quicker and is hit with headaches throughout the day, but that is to be expected and overall she is doing good. As long as her mom isn't trying to cram her head into a bike helmet-- in my defense she asked me to help her put it on so she could ride her bike around the house, but I really did fail to think about possible consequences before popping it on. Total mental lapse.

Olivia Update

Though Olivia has spent most of her time resting, she's had a few times when she decided to get up and about. Here she is investigating the tool box -- Since getting home from the hospital we've had 3 door knobs fall off and several of the poles of our banister fell out. I'm glad Kurt was home to take care of it all. Hiding under her blanket when she saw the camera out -- She also does this when she is tired of being asked if she wants something to eat (she's living off green beans and apples) or if she's okay or when people stop by to visit her.

And after starting today at 5 a.m. with a headache, she really perked up by 8 a.m. She walked to the kitchen when she saw what was for breakfast-- Captain Crunch. How did we end up with Captain Crunch? A neighbor came by while I was at the hospital to see if she could grab anything at the store for my mom, and the kids told her they wanted Captain Crunch cereal. I about died laughing when I heard -- "when Mom's away."

After breakfast she sat up and colored for a while.

And when she was ready ro rest and watch a movie, I caught her singing at the beginning of Bolt.

She's peacefully napping now- she decided to walk to her bedroom and ended up falling over some toys and being picked on by Jolie while she was down. Jolie has turned into a little destructo-bully this week, for attention I guess, but I'm getting tired of cleaning up all the books she pulls off the bookshelves, and its completely baffling how she can try to hit Olivia with one hand and places her other hand on her own head and says "owie."

Miss Olivia

Olivia keeps trying to do more than she's really ready for. As a friend said, "Stop being 2 for a minute!" but it just isn't possible!! We've had a couple times where she practically jumps up from the couch to go somewhere or get something, and she turns really pale and has to be carried back to the couch where she lays down and puts her blanket over her head for a while. Today she was looking at books and coloring with her sisters. It will be a loooong time before I get tired of seeing her do regular things.

Miss Olivia

Olivia is doing good today. She has pretty much been in the same spot on the couch all day- watching movies and napping. She's been acting like her head is really hurting her and I decided it was partly because she wasn't getting enough tylenol. The amount the nurse in the hospital told me to give her is about half of the recommended dose shown on the tylenol bottle. So I've boosted the amount and hopefully that will make a difference in how her head feels. Obviously she is going to be out of sorts for a while, but we want to do what we can to help her.

Olivia is Home!!

Just to review since I last blogged:

Olivia's diagnoses: SKULL fracture (I just noticed I had typed brain- oy) and a subdural hematoma (small bleed). This is on the right side of her head, in the area above her ear.

Olivia had the intubation tube removed early Tuesday morning (Kurt had to put up a fight to get them to do it).

Tuesday morning she had x-rays to make sure her neck was okay, they did some clinical tests to check her back, everything was okay, and they removed the neck brace.

Early afternoon she was moved out of ICU to the trauma floor. They took her off her IV, gave her Tylenol for her headache, and by late afternoon she was sitting up, drinking, eating whatever she wanted (Cheetos, ice cream, and chocolate chip cookies), and happily watching her favorite movies.

Early Wednesday morning they took out the IV lead they weren't using (she had one in each arm).

One thing about hospitals that has always driven me crazy is once you get to sleep, or in this case once Olivia would get to sleep, someone would come in to bug her. By this morning when doctors started showing up she just put her blanket over her head or averted her eyes and ignored them whenever they tried to talk to her. It also didn't help that she had a headache again this morning, with a little dizziness and nausea.

We did a follow-up CT scan around 8:30, talked the results over with a doctor by 10:30 (improvement and stable), and they had us out the door around noon. Traveling home was a little tricky- she gets car sick anyways, but she waited until she was home before she threw up. She is likely to have headaches with some dizziness and nausea for the next few days. For the next 6 weeks we are supposed to only let her walk and do walking-paced activities. I see how this is possible for a week or so, but once she is feeling better I don't know how we'll be able to limit her -- she is a 2 year old who thought she could climb out of a shopping cart by herself and has been doing wild things like jumping off the kitchen counter.

Soooo, in a couple weeks we go back for some follow-up stuff- an MRI and follow-ups for that. It has been a crazy week.

Olivia in the Hospital

Okay-

Finished shopping at costco, getting pizza for kids, Olivia tries to climb out of cart and falls on her head. She didn't go unconscious, but was stunned. I held her while the other kids ate- she kept wanting to fall asleep so wepacked up and headed for the car. I figured a concussion. Called mom and husband, headed for hospital. At hospital in ten minutes, taken back right away, have to leave other three kids alone in waiting room with triage nurses promise to keep an eye on them, doctor there in minutes, ct scan in 10 minutes- she has a skull fracture and a subdermal (?) bleed so they are lifeflighting her to primary children's.

At this point it occurs to me that this is real and really scary and I want to freak out, but have to deal with details first- start calling neighbors.

Kurt arrives, they prep her for the helicopter- give her an intubation tube in case something goes wrong in the air, she's given a priesthood blessing, Kurt takes off for primary's, I start making more calls, helicopter leaves. Head to waiting room and get other kids vending machine lunches (ho-hos and such). Friend arrives and takes other kids to her house, I head for primary's.

She has pretty much been sleeping the whole time we've been here. She had a second CT scan, which pretty much looks the same as the first, so no more bleeding, no increased pressure on the brain. They gave me the impression they were going to remove her intubation tube, but then they did shift changes and the new nurses/doctors don't feel like she is waking up enough. She wakes up, can recognize us, her blankie, teddy, etc. but can't stay awake on her own, which is what they are waiting for. She only had sedation earlier before life flight, a little at the 2nd ct scan, and hasn't had any since then- she's sleeping because of the head injury and they think she'll get to a point when she's ready to be awake and have the tube out.

So the situation is improved??? A little bit anyways- we are in intensive care for the night, hopefully by morning she will be waking up and have the tube removed and we'll be moved out of ICU. My mom came down from Idaho, she has the kids now so they are well taken care of. Kurt and I will be at the hospital tonight, and we can't have our phones on. You can contact my mom or our ward compassionate service leader for updates. I'll try to update here as I have the opportunity.

Thank you to everyone for prayers, well wishes, phone calls & messages!!

And HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSE!!! meant to call, but you know, life gets complicated.

I'm home!!

Ha. You probably didn't even know I was gone. Kurt had a work trip in Las Vegas and St. George and my mom was able to come watch our kids, so I went with him. We stayed at the Bellagio, maids came twice a day to clean up, we ate out, saw the Cirque de Soleil "O" show, I had a nap every day, and lots of adult conversation -- I had a wonderfully lazy time. Most of my pictures/videos were of things to show my kids like the guiness certified world's largest chocolate fountain, talking trees, decorative blown-glass leaves, giant fish, sting rays, 800+ pound pumpkins, Santa Claus flying a candy plane, etc. So if anyone is interested let me know and I'll post some of those.

If a toddler is suddenly quiet....

....know you will find her someplace she shouldn't be, such as on top of your piano, casually drawing in your piano lesson notebook.

Fun at the Park

Jolie just wanted to swing, so for a whole hour I pushed her in the swing.

Snip Snip Snip

After finding scissors in the bathroom along with a chunk of hair, I figured someone had a new haircut, and I knew instantly who it would be. In fact, exactly one year ago I blogged about a certain girl of mine who promised she wouldn't cut her hair ever again. It was by far the worse hack job she has ever done, so I made an appointment with a neighbor who is a hairdresser because I didn't want to deal with it. Well, by the time she came home from playing with friends all afternoon (and hearing lots of comments about it no doubt) she was embarassed and didn't want anyone to see her because she was sure they would all laugh at her.

So I swallowed my laziness and cut her hair. I didn't want to cut it really short, so there are a few places that are much shorter than the rest and the part has to be in just the right place to keep some gaps covered, but it turned out fairly well. And hair grows. And I think this is a good excuse for me to be able to do her hair every day, instead of just letting her brush it out by herself.

Halloween 2009

My Halloween morning started at the crack of dawn with my children staring down at me in bed cheerfully greeting me "Happy Halloween Mom!" They were so excited for the day.

At breakfast Austin carved his pancakes into jack-o-lanterns.

Austin and Nyah had decided all the kids would be vampires. They looked darling together. After I did the makeup for the older two, Olivia told me she wanted some so she could scare Jolie, so I put a litte on for her.

This was Jolie's first Halloween trick-or-treating, and she quickly became a pro, and probably thought this was the most magical thing in the world- free candy for saying a few words and showing everyone her charming smile. She even got to do one of her favorite activities, and open and close the front door every time someone knocked .

And what do you do with a sugar high? Turn circles!!

Weekend Videos

Jolie and Olivia love shoes! So its never a surprise when they are raiding closets, but it is truly adorable!

Jolie was apparently done with dinner, and decided to put the rest of it into her cup. It reminds me of watching chimpanzees using sticks on a termite mound. She's using tools!!