Idaho Falls - Day 4

Sunday - We went to church for Michael's homecoming talk, came back to the house for a fabulous dinner, stopped to feed the ducks on our way out of town, thankfully realized we had forgotten the little girls' "blankie's" which would have been super disastrous, stopped by to pick them up and headed home. We had an interesting experience on the way home involving Olivia having to go to the bathroom NOW, a toddler potty, and at least she wasn't soaked and it wasn't all over her carseat. Use your imagination.

Jolie playing with Jesse's shoes before church

At the river feeding the birds, who surprisingly weren't all that interested in eating, but the kids had fun throwing bread anyways.

Going home

Idaho Falls - Day 3

It was a rainy day so we spent most of our time hanging out inside.

During a break in the rain I tried going for a walk with my 3 girls

The girls were fascinated with the worms.

Then it started to rain - Nyah lent Jolie her mask

Idaho Falls - Day 2

Hanging out on Friday - lots of soccer, conversation, yummy food, and spending time together.

Idaho Falls - Day 1 - Michael's Home!!

Traveling must be nicer with your toes in your mouth!Michael's Here!! His flight came in at 10:30pm so Kurt stayed at my parents with all the sleeping kids - thanks Sweetie!

Oh goody! The obnoxious little brother is back! (Just kidding Michael :) )

SUPER DUPER FABULOUS GREAT WONDERFUL TERRIFIC NEWS

I heard from Olivia's NF1 specialist yesterday to go over what was discussed at the Tumor Board. It was SUPER DUPER FABULOUS GREAT WONDERFUL TERRIFIC news.

The 2 main points discussed:

1. The recent MRI - at the meeting the radiologist said there wasn't obvious progression of the tumors. I pulled out my copy of the MRI report and it says the right optic nerve has a slight enlargement (4.1mm to 6.3mm now) and the left optic nerve is stable. So the radiologist wasn't convinced this was "progression" of the tumors.

2. The eye exams - the NF1 specialist said they obviously couldn't count the results of Olivia's May 3rd eye exam as visual regression (results were left eye 20/80 and right eye 20/40), because her May 19th eye exam were so drastically different (results were left eye 20/40 and right eye 20/30). So they have to assume the May 3rd exam results were because she's 3 and all the challenges that go with giving an eye exam to a 3 year old. She calls the picture of the telephone a chair, the cake is called candles, she mixes up the cake and the hand, the bird is sometimes called a duck, and she guesses when she doesn't know - add in she isn't always the clearest speaker, she doesn't like going to the doctor's, we always have to wait around and get bored, and you can see how her results might be a bit like a roller coaster. Here is a link to the pictures she uses in her exams. I think if we took her to 5 more eye appointments we would end up with 5 different results - but maybe that would give us a median idea of what her vision really is.

Despite all that, there still seems to be a slight worsening of her vision, which means we have to keep plugging forward. Everyone at the Tumor Board agrees there isn't enough evidence to jump into chemotherapy, but we do need to keep a close eye on her eyes and vision. It is horribly ironic that had the oncologists had their way Olivia would have had her port surgery and first round of chemotherapy today. Well, they wanted to do it last week, but Kurt and I put them off a week for more tests. So it was scheduled for today.

And that's what our future holds: more tests!

So on June 17th she will have an MRI at 6:30am, the Visually Evoked Potential Test at 2pm (supposed to last an hour), followed up with another eye exam at 4:30. I have no idea why they think she is going to perform well with the eye exam after a long day of being poked and prodded, and under anesthesia and recovering, and staring at a screen for an hour, and sitting in the car and waiting rooms. After all, she will still be 3 in a month.

Which week? Oh, that week

While I was outside with my kids today I came upon two of my neighbor's discussing (complaining? whining? ranting?) about their "monthly week." All adults out there should know which "week" I am referring to - have a visit with your mom if you don't.

So we joked about how I don't have to worry about that for 6 more weeks, and then I'll get the mother-of-all-weeks for 6 weeks. And no matter what, my regular "week" starts a couple weeks after that. Lovely to find out about me, huh?

Anywho (because I'm sure your wondering why this is even important information to share, which really its not but this is my blog and I can share what I want), coincidentally I came across this blog post at Mormon Mommy Blogs called ".... and don't let the tent flap hit you on the way out" and laughed hysterically. Which I need a lot of lately. So, enjoy!!

Summer for a day

I didn't expect these two to be so excited about filling up the kiddie pool. The water was freezing and last year they were big pansies about getting into cold water. But before I even had the hose in the pool these two were naked and running around the yard (sorry if you happened to be passing).

It was a beautiful day!

Bye-Bye Toys

My children think I'm crazy. And I am. Only I can call it "nesting" because I'm pregnant.

What's missing from these bedrooms?

My actions today prompted statements such as the following from my kids: "Mom your mean!" "I hate you!" "You can't do that!" "That's not fair."

And all I did was take away all the toys and moved them into the basement. Which has a lock on the door. :) At least I didn't throw them all out.
Lets just say I was tired of competing with toys, cleaning up toys, tripping over toys, listening to fighting over toys, finding toys in every nook and cranny from the top of the house to the bottom of the house, and on and on and on. Now my kids have to check toys out from the basement like checking out books from the library. Only they have to do school and chores first, and they can only have one toy or set at a time, and it has to be completely cleaned up before they can get a new one.

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, which of course means disgrunted children.

And can you believe how many toys are down there now? I feel a thrift store run coming up, and of course, more unhappiness from the little people.

Lamb & Wool Festival, Olivia Update

Kurt was out of town over the weekend and by Saturday I was a little stir-crazy so I made the crazy decision to take the kids to the Lamb & Wool Festival at Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country. I also forgot to load a stroller so I spent most of the time trying to chase 4 kids in 4 different directions through the crowds. In spite of all that we had a fun time. I didn't have my hands free very often, but still managed to take a few pictures.

Checking out the freshly shorn sheep.

Feeling the cut wool.
Pony ride

Watching the sheep dogs herding sheep, well, at least Austin was. :)

My kids favorite place at the Farm is the soil room. The cards have different fruits or vegetables pictured on them. They "grow" in these tires or hanging from a peg on trees and then the kids "harvest" them and take them to market.

There are also a couple interactive bug panels that they really like.

And what toddler can resist a tractor?

In my last post about Olivia I mentioned the eye doctor wanted to postpone chemo and do more testing in a month. Well, the next day the NF1 specialist called and said he wasn't sure that was the best plan, but he and the other doctors involved were going to the have a Tumor Board and would discuss Olivia's case and get back to us. I wanted to be able to post an update with their recommendation today but I'm still waiting to hear from someone. Will post when I do :)