it's been a while...

I haven't posted in forever.  So much has been occupying my time lately.  

So here's a quick look at our March.

We broke ground on our new house. 

We're sad and excited all at once. 

Brother has officially started baseball season

Which means between baseball and dance we have been spending 

a lot of time in the car. 

Leighton swallowed a penny a few Sundays ago and we ended up having to have her transported to Primary's to get it removed. 

We thought this year we wouldn't hit our max out of pocket again. Well just kidding we now have the 10,000 dollar penny incident of 2013! 

It was really sad and scary but all is well with her now. 

We have been enjoying some nice weather this month and we traveled  for a baseball tournament so the kids even got to swim. 

-JS

split..

I don’t know if I can explain this well, but sometimes I walk out of group therapy sad.  It’s not because Leighton isn’t doing well, or it isn't fun. She is, and it is.  I go because she loves it. I mean when I leave the building she reaches to go back in. I say did you have fun today and she nods and says yah! Every week I don’t want to go.  I don’t want to see what I see.  It’s hard on my heart.  It’s hard sitting there and watching these children and wondering to myself why?  Why do they have to struggle so hard?  Why do they have to have all these surgeries, medicines, and/or oxygen?  It’s the WHY’S.  Why do some parents have to get a diagnosis there child is going to slowly die, and there’s nothing they can do! How do they even process that?  Maybe it would help if the kids weren’t so lovable.  There are kids with brain injuries. Their prognosis is they will basically be able to do nothing.  I don’t mean have a job, or play sports, or go to regular school. They may never even sit up or be able to eat. These kids are aware of the world though. They feel joy, pain, and understand. One hears his name and he smiles, and moves his eyes to the sound.  I see beautiful children, such kind parents, and I know their struggles aren’t the same as most.  They aren’t wondering about the unfairness of their boy sitting on the bench or their daughter not getting invited to a party.  They might wonder at the unfairness that their child will never be able to feed themselves, sit on there own, or even communicate.  Sometimes I feel like I’m a middle parent, one that’s witnessing both sides of parenting. I look at the “regular” parents especially when they’re angry at some miner injustice and think what you worry about is so unimportant, and even I find myself there sometimes too.  Obviously I know how it feels to hurt for your children over these minor things, and I know how it feels to hurt for your child for major things.  I have to remind myself still that this thing that feels so big and unfair, it really is unimportant.   It’s hard to be grateful to God for your blessings, and struggle with the ungratefulness you feel for those struggling even worse then you. I'm always wondering WHY?  Sometimes I feel like my heart is split, and sometimes it's worse after therapy.

-JS

this week...

This week in pictures 

 

-JS

Play

Playing Baby..

Also Leighton can walk.  She started stepping on her own and is up to 6 steps. Now I didn't say she's a walker...because its stand up walk 2-4 steps and then speed crawl away.  She doesn't think walking is fast enough. Here is a little video of her walking to Grandma. I keep waiting to get a better one but I'm not fast enough. Our little family is really excited by this. Every time she does it she gets a huge applause.

-JS

a new update available...

I have been really bad at posting this month. I blame it on that freezing weather we had. Plus the lack of sunshine.  So how about an update. We have been trying to keep Leighton away from crowds as much as possible. It has been a really harsh winter with weather and people getting sick.

It feels like Leighton has decided shes growing up. 

Its weird a shift happened and she has taken off. She is free standing 

and walking with assistance (pushing strollers, walker, even the dog bowl, and holding my hand) a lot. She has been feeding herself with utensils pretty well too. 

She loves watching signing time and signs at least a handful of things and talks too. We have been going to group therapy really consistently and she loves it.

This shift has been hard. I know it's so good. It's hard to be the one helping, and pushing (therapies)  her to develop and the whole time battling yourself because it really is just going to fast.  She is just too fun.
-JS

Hawaii

 Leights, Hubs, and I started the New Year in Hawaii.  We left the 1st at 4:30 in the morning and flew into Maui. We had a great time, but didn't get to explore Maui much because we had a lot of scheduled events in the mornings and evenings and it takes forever to get around there because they basically have one road, and the speed limit is 35 mph. 

The hotels Private beach 

(it would have been amazing if it wasn't raining we probably would have stayed there the whole trip, Leights was nervous of the ocean that first time)

Hyundai was so awesome. We flew first class on every flight. They paid for all our meals and hotel in Maui, and all our activities. 

The tournament, Our Hotel Room View, & the Jennifer Hudson private dinner 

(some of the PGA guys, and Hyundai Koreans had the dance Moves at her concert. They were all drunk and we weren't so we got to laugh at them ;)

The Climate on Maui was insane. It had all different weather every 10 minutes you would drive. So we did pay to rent a car because our hotel was in Kapalua. It is a spot that rains more then anywhere else on the Island.  It seriously rained at our hotel the whole time we were in Maui. Then we would drive 10 minutes and it would be sunny. We drove to a part of Maui that was called Lahaina (land of the endless sun). Lahaina had the funnest stores to shop at. We hit a beach there recommended for us called Baby beach.

Baby Beach..

Leights go really dirty here!

Hubs decided to skip golfing in the ProAm with a pro because of the weather, and he was so glad. The wind and rain made it so hard for them to golf and that was the day we got to see twin falls.  Because of hubs mission to Chuuk, He knew what all the plants were in Hawaii. We had our own plant guide.

Twin Falls..

We also went Whale watching, and saw 3 whales. One was a baby that was only 1 week old.

Whale Watching..

Then we flew to Oahu for 2 days.  We had to rush through everything we wanted to do because we didn't have enough time, and basically everything but Waikiki closes at 5.  Thank goodness for the Google Map App because the roads were crazy. We also ended up hitting the beach in Waikiki because it was sunny, and close to our hotel.  Leights loves loves the beach!

Waikiki

(She was so cute when she would go down to the beach she would slide backwards on her tummy like she goes down the stairs it was the cutest thing)

Polynesian Cultural Center.

(we only had time for the Fire Dance show)

The LDS temple

The Dole Factory, and Pearl Harbor

 It was such a fun trip. 

We all missed the other two kids like crazy so we were so happy to get home. 

-JS

first half...

It's been a busy month and I finally feel like it just might be slowing down. The first half of the month Sister has had a lot of dance things going on.  She had two performances.  I just love watching her dance, she's pretty dang cute.  Sister also has her birthday coming and Hubs and I had our anniversary (12 years). Add the Christmas parties in there, school things, plus Leights therapy and this month has been jam packed. The first day of December we made candy cane cupcakes.  They were a huge mess, but pretty fun to decorate.

We finally got our Christmas tree up last week.  We started a tradition with our ornaments on our honeymoon.  We went to New York City, and it was 2 weeks before Christmas. So obviously we needed some ornaments, and we were pretty poor. We bought a few ornaments there as souvenirs.  We got one in a little store by Rockefeller center next to the tree.

It was pretty fun, and it started a tradition that whenever we go on vacation we pick out an ornament or two for our tree.  So obviously we have a lot from Disneyland, but it really is fun to unpack them and remember the trips we took.  For example I have 2 from San Diego when Leights did the photo shoot with Kelle Hampton. It's so fun to remember where and why we got them all. We have new ones this year from Scottsdale, San Fransisco, Boston, and Disneyland (we would have New Orleans too, but hubs broke that on the plane home).  Anyway it's been a fun thing for our family to do.  Yes our tree is a tacky looking thing, but we love it.  Hopefully the month can slow down now.

The last two weeks in instagrams...

-JS