The year of 2014

I love doing years in review. It makes me go back and reflect on what we did and what we learned. Sometimes, you don't remember everything that happened. I think it also helps you look back and say that you did a hard thing. I would rate this last year as nothing big and nothing horrible. Just a year to get through. And get through we did.

January- We decided that we would try and hit our deductible in the first few weeks and we did surgery on Tyler's eyes AND hit him up with some botox. It was a long month with those casts but we did it. It meant sponge baths and extra therapy and a really ticked of buddy, but we got through it. We learned that we can do hard things ( again) and that we can get through it ( again) and we didn't need anything but our little family, some respite and our ward family for physical help ( again), but that we needed the love and support that our extended family was willing to offer (again).

And the fun part, me and Dallas were able to go to our very first Fiesta Bowl. It was great!! We are not over the top football fans but we were able to enjoy it.

We saw Daniel Tiger, loved it and got our casts off!

Febuary- Tyler had very bad behavioral issues and we were unable to figure it out. It would take a few more months before we got someone to listen. But we got it done.

Valentines came and went and other than a few kicked out of schools, nothing happened that I can think of. ( Which is AMAZING~)

March- We found a awesome family that wanted a bike for their little Lucy, and were able to give back a gift that we had been given. It was a great experience for us.

We went to the zoo with Tyler's school and had a wonderful time. It, however, was confirmed that this is not the zoo for a visually impaired kid, but we had fun anyway. Our vision teacher went and Grayson came with us and we were able to FINALLY ride a carousel. (Meaning, that was all Tyler knew was there so he would repeat it for days on end until the day of the event!)

April-  We attended Bumble Bee Ranch, in which we were able to ride horses, bucking bronco's and play cowboy games. It was a great place for both Tyler and Grayson. Grayson LOVED the Horses and was pretty sure he would ride all day. He still talks about Bumble Bee.

May- I started my official Senior year of College. I am to the point where I only have 2 classes or so left in my major. All family therapy ( which I love!) and still have the grade point average to get into Physician assistant school. I have to update my math and science because it has been a long time since I took them, but if not, masters program for Marriage and Family therapy so I can have a job when Grayson is in school. ( EXCITED!!!) We also played because we had time off for Easter,. I am a single mom when Apple announces anything. Since Dallas company has a close relationship with apple they know when major updates and releases are coming or when the company has a final date and he lives at the office, literally. Sometimes a bed it taken. So I become mom of the house and do my life alone. We also hired a new worker. LOVE her!

June- Seizures. UGH!! We had another botox injection and he had a seizure, putting us into the adverse reaction team at PCH. It also meant no injections for six months. It was hard and devastating and very sad for us. But, we can do hard things ( again) and we can do them on our own ( again) and we will gladly accept any prayers from friends and family that they can or want to offer. ( again!)

Oh and we can't forget our Pine Wood Derby!! Sweet!

July- We had to move. Our house was being sold. I spent the better part of May, June and July looking for the perfect house. We found one that was pretty close. It was a one story, had enough bedrooms and a few other bonuses and the biggest is that it is RIGHT next door to the park. So we packed up our stuff and moved 4 roads away, into the same ward. See!! Perfection!

Grayson turned 3 and we had our Grandpa here to celebrate. He loved it. Next year a big boy party. Who knows, maybe we will celebrate in Utah! ( not to live, sorry. It will never happen. )

August- We learned a little to much about CBC's, hematocrit and Iron levels. We also learned that Grayson has Thalassemia Minor, a blood/absorbtion disorder. We also learned that we can do hard things ( again) and we can do them alone, (again) and we gladly take any prayers that our friends and family are willing to give ( again) ( see a theme here!) Oh and I grew older ( and chubbier, again!) Oh and School started for our 3rd Grader

September-  Tyler turned nine!! Yep, 9! He is in third grade and loves it. He is hitting all bench marks for his grade level. He LOVES science and loves music and Gym. He shares his time in his small class, and his typical class for all his specials and because he does really well in Science he goes with his typical class for that. He also gets some extra vision this year and FINALLY we are behaving MUCH better. ( we have still yet to grow from 55 pounds and what we were height wise at 5!)

October- I tried my first drive to Utah with the boys by myself. Yep, you guessed it, I can do hard things ( alone!!!) and we can do it as a family ( or with myself) and we can have a GREAT time! ( after we drive for 12 hours we need a hour to destress!) But we did it. We spent a great few days in Orangeville and a great few days with the other family in Salt Lake and as much time with Nicky as we could. And we had Halloween and loved it. Trick or Treating was great this year and Tyler won best costume and Grayson kept changing his mind. I can officially say, I have a great costume bucket!

November-  Oh November!! We spent an overnight stay at Cardon's children because of an accidental overdose on Lamictal. We had a nasty rash and it was bad enough our neurologist wanted us in, ASAP! We also did a sleep study for Grays and we dealt with the Nasty thalassemia rages that come with not enough iron. We lived through Thanksgiving with no extra family here and had a really great time.

December- We started off with a visit from our grandparents and we LOVED it. We had something planned every day they were here. Grayson and Tyler LOVE visitors. It was also one of the first days that we were able to go to the Lights in Mesa and not have Tyler freak out. We had a wonderful Christmas and aside from the nasty throw ups we each passed ( every 12 hours) we had a wonderful time and to end the month we had the OTHER grandparents come. My sisters kids came with them and my kids LOVED it. I have never seen Grayson cry when someone other than me, left the house. But he SOBBED when Koy was leaving.

This year we have learned that " We can do hard things. That we can do them as a 4 family. We can ask for prayers but we can't expect anything more or less unless they want to give it, and we can offer what we can. And lastly, not judge but support and love. That is what we want so that is what we will give!"

We are excited to see what 2015 brings to us. We are celebrating 10 years of this little family, we are making it COUNT!!

First December Activity

The week after Thanksgiving, Grandma and Grandpa Brown came down to help G and G "Warmer." They spent a few days there and then came here. Getting ready for Christmas and visitors was a lot. And sometimes, days are long for us! So a shopping trip and plans were made.

We had 2 very excited kids. We had high hopes of having such amazing warm weather but we really had a bit of rain.

Ok, we had a lot of rain.

The day of the big storm, I did everything in my power short of duct tape, to keep Grayson out of the park and out of the water. It didn't work. Oh and he has been potty trained for a bit now, but with visitors wouldn't use the bathroom because "Grandma might see my Pirates." So we went through LOTS of clothes. In Arizona, you don't use long pants all that often, so he doesn't have THAT many to go through. We washed A LOT!

We had planned to go to the Mesa temple lights that night and we had planned to make hot scones and hot cocoa, so the fact that it rained made it even a better night to do it all. 

We headed out to dinner and the lights. We made it to the lights to start touring and the boys LOVED it. The nativity scenes there are really beautiful and the reflection pool are done up so well. We waited for a while for our dad to come but he was really slow. ( A painful confession followed the slowness later!) 

I asked some of the Missionaries there if we could walk up close to the nativity scene so that he could see the scene. Grayson, Tyler and I were able to go right up and look. The Nativity was carved out of a specific wood in Italy. It was gorgeous and so life like. Tyler and Grayson looked at the Wise men and then did the the baby Jesus. It was so, so  cool!

After we got home we checked out our Elf, who happens to bring us a Christmas book every night instead of something I have to clean up and actually do the next day and then our Christ tree. We headed to bed and then the adults enjoyed the evening of scones and hot chocolate. 

This season has been one where I feel totally and completely blessed. We have made and done some things this year that have left us at peace. For a long time we have had to make choices that have left us some what drained. However, after making some better choices and putting up boundaries and allowing us to set our own rules and relying on each other we are definitely in a different place. 

We can't wait for the new year and to see where it brings us. 

Fall Break- Friday/Saturday

We stayed in a hotel on Thursday night. It was so so nice to have a bit of space, but more so, that the boys slept in their own bed and I didn't have to share (for most of the night any way.) The boys were so good on Friday. We woke up a bit later than I thought we would and we were planning to met up with our Grandma Brown. We had met with her for dinner the night before and she helped us get settled into our hotel.

So Friday morning we headed over to Denny's for breakfast. The boys were so good. They talked with her, watched the Frontrunner's going by and they were just great. From there we went up to the Hospital. Our Grandpa is pretty sick right now, so we needed and wanted to spend some time with him. We knew he was going to be able to get out soon but we weren't sure how long.

We got to his room and my sweet kiddo, Tyler sat on his bed and pulled up the covers and curled up in his lap and feel asleep.  His grandpa was loving every second of it, until I had to break the news that he was not just sleeping peacefully, but was actually having a seizure. Either way, he said he was going to just going pretend that he just needed his grandpa, and he laid there for almost an hour.

Tyler post seizure at his grandpa's room 

After our visit with Grandpa, we got him set up with our netflix account and his very own gifted few months of Hulu, so that he could enjoy the better part of his stay. He didn't need flowers, he needed entertainment!!

We headed from there to Aunt Crystals house. We are wanting to play with all the kids for as long as long as we could. Crystal and her family has pizza every Friday, after Noah's appointments, We were intending to go but ended up making other plans.

The cousins played and played. Alice and Maddie are so cute and Grayson loved playing with them. Emery played with the three of them but preferred a iPad and Noah was playing video games and was showing Tyer how cool they are Tyler was in an out of the house and so was Grayson. All were happy as could be.

Me, Grandma, Crystal and Sheena hung out in the sun chatting for several hours and sharing alive for our favorite pregnant girl! And just life in general. We decided that we wanted to let Crystal and her kids have pizza and finally go get a decent non traveled food. So we headed on over for dinner.

My boys did fabulous and we were ready to turn into our hotel early!

Saturday the boys slept in even more than we did on Friday. So by the time we checked out we were heading eat breakfast with grandma AND Grandpa. We were meeting up with Aunt Sheena to ride the train for a few hours. It was fabulous. We have the best photos of the train!!

Checking out of our hotel before our festivities! 

After we left Aunt Sheena and the train we went to Aunt Nicky's and went to a park to let the kids play before we headed to dinner.

Dinner was a nightmare. Poor Grayson had the worst time. He was so upset. the service was really crappy too. But he was almost sold to the lowest bidder. I didn't know what was going on with him. But he seemed to chill once we left and headed to Nicky's.

My best friend Amy came over to see us and we chatted and hung out. I LOVE Amy so so much. She is a mom that gets it. I get her. She was friends with Dallas before friends with me. But I am glad either way that I have her. She is amazing.

Nicky and the boys got ready for bed, Oreo again, sat on the boys faces to makes sure they were safe. Nicky was nice enough to help us get our stuff out the door for the morning and to get us on our way. Sunday was the day that we were making our journey home. And it was a journey.

The trip was great and wonderful and all of those things. We were so thankful that we chose to come. It was not planned as just a go and have fun, it was originally planned to do some stuff with Tyler's legs but that was postponed. So we figured we would need to figure out how to do the drive on our own. make it once and we will be able to make it on other times we need to drive up there.

It was fabulous to be home in our own ed. An even better to be back with our dad. We had wonderful time and saw all the people that we love and loves us ! We will have to think about going back in April. Or maybe a shorter road trip and go to San Diego!

Fall Break- Wednesday /Thursday

With a bit of discussion with Grandpa, we decided to go spend the rest of the afternoon with Aunt Titi in Salt Lake so that we could spend some time with Dallas' family. We were going to spend time with them anyway, but not until later Thursday. But what is one day with Aunt Titi.

Aunt Nicky didn't get much alone time and she is pretty cool, so we went up and met her at Toys R Us. We had promised Tyler a movie and he did SO so Good at being disappointed. So we ended up spending way to much money at the stupid toy store. But all in good spirits. 

We hung out, got pizza and I finished my school test! We got the boys set up and they slept on the same bed and they loved it. Oreo also decided that he was going to protect my kids and hung out on their heads. There was zero complaints from them. 

Early Thursday we took Nicky to work and dropped off her car to get a fix and spend the morning with our Aunt Sheena. WE LOVE AUNT SHEENA!! 

Not sure if we have mentioned just how much we LOVE Aunt Sheena, but we do. I love her! I loved having her live with me. I love her just like a sister. I also LOVE her baby. And I love we get to have another one soon. 

We decided to met up at Gardner village and check out the Witches. We didn't have a ton of time and we weren't sure what was there, but we did see a lot of cool witches and did a few events. 

Our favorite Witch was the pooping witch! It was in the outhouse and we LOVED it and we all giggled. Because Ty can't see we went into the exhibits. We didn't ask and we didn't get in trouble either . 

And the best part, dancing with the witches. Ty loved it. And we let him go at it. 

Grayson is the best at following and enjoying the stuff that his brother does. Our Cousin Emery was dancing with us and we LOVED it. It was so much fun. 

After Gardner Village we headed to my Best Friend Stephanie's. We opted to play at a park. We played at the park for 3 hours. Yes, three whole hours of them playing. it was amazing. I miss her so much that I was so thankful to talk to someone who I totally just get, that I just wanted to be with her. WE watched the kids go nuts at the park and  we had them -playing till their heart was content.

We ran up to get Nicky because we had dropped her off. Then we went ahead and took her home and head with our Grandma to a hotel with them.

Grandma got us checked into a great hotel, after a dashing and fab dinner at Chick fil A :)

Getting in a hotel, was like heavenly. two beds. Me in my own. Grandma just to hang with. We loved it.

We got our plans for the next  day. Friday was going to be spent visiting out papa in the hospital in hopes he gets to go home and then an afternoon with all of our cousins again!!


It was a good day. We enjoyed our trip to this far!!