Changes are happening

We have some changes coming to our family this year. Sierra has been diagnosed with Plagiocephaly. Which sounds a WHOLE lot worse than it is. Basically, she has a misshapen head. She prefers to lay on her right side and so her head has become flattened on that side as well has her forehead has been pushed forward a little and her ears are not symmetrical. Now, no ones head is ever really exactly round. Most people only have a difference of less than 7cm. What that means is they measured her head from the from right to the back left and then the front left to the back right. There was a 17cm difference. They then measured from her nose to her left ear which was about 90cm and her nose to her right ear which was about 97. A huge difference. And would make it difficult to wear glasses. Because she lays on one side of her head, she also has a stiff neck. Some would call it Torticollis. But she didn't have ALL the symptoms of torticollis. The pediatrician felt that her stiff neck was more from laying on one side. We are stretching her neck and repositioning her head. It has come to the point though where repositioning isn't enough. She moves too much and even will wake up when we try and turn her head to lay on her left side.

Because of the significant difference in dimensions and the lack of success when repositioning her head we have made the decision to have her wear a helmet. This helmet will be worn 23 hours a day for three months. It puts pressure on the parts of the head that they don't want to grow and leaves room for the head to grow in other places. After 3 months her head will not be perfect but it will be SO much better. A blessing for us is her easy going personality. She fusses for a minute getting her helmet on and getting it off. She just doesn't really like to be messed with. We have had it for 3 days now. She hasn't had to wear it for 23 hours yet....we're still in the getting used to it stage. Last night she slept all night with it for the first time and did OK. I was really worried that it would be a long night. Thankfully it wasn't and when she did wake up at 4:30 Bob got up with her.

The BEST part was when the boys first saw her with her helmet. The first thing Ben said was "Pretty helmet! your so pretty with your helmet!" Melted my heart. Andrew was just as loving to her. They had never gone to a DR appt and so they didn't know what to expect. I couldn't have asked for a better reaction.

June

At the end of June, Bob's grandma passes away which meant a trip to Hemet for a memorial service. This just the day after we has seen Jen and her kids in Los Banos and Connor march with the Troopers in Clovis. That's right after a late night Friday night, we got back in the car and drove down to Hemet to pay our respects to Grandma Phyllis Borland. This of course meant a visit from Bob's parents!! We were lucky enough too to have them then drive the 2 hours up to Bakersfield to spend Sunday and Monday with us.

Sunday was spent lounging and playing games with a concert given to us by Andrew. He's been taking piano lessons and it actually really good!

Monday was spent lounging by the pool and enjoying the sunshine. And OF COURSE riding the waves that daddy loves to make in the pool. Sierra enjoys just floating around in her floaty and soaking up the fresh air.

Andrew and Ben wanted to show off what they had learned in swimming lessons. Andrew had to show that that he could now jump from the side of the pool! NOT something he would do when they had been here just a month before. He was also thrilled to shoe them that he was OK with putting his face in the water, ANOTHER huge accomplishment.

We sure love having family come and visit. It was an unfortunate situation but we know that Grandma is happy now and is with Grandpa.
Friends and family are ALWAYS welcome at our house we LOVE having visitors!!

'Camping'

Our campsite this year was FULL of ammenities! We had the PERFECT spot! A pool and nice cushy chairs to sit on around the camp fire. Who wouldn't want to camp where we were!!!

Sierra even relaxed in the hammock She was pretty content until she tried to sit up and almost flipped out. No worries daddy was standing next to her.

I think next time though, we'll head to the beach or the mountains. It was too easy to just go inside. Which did end up happening for a few of us. By the time the night was over, Andrew was the only one who spent the whole night in the tent. We did have fun though, the boys can't wait to do it again.

Bens poor thumb

In the past 10 months Ben has smashed his finger in a car door and had the fingernail fall off, had all of his fingers caught in a car door (luckily that time he was holding a corndog and it got the brunt of the damage.) He then slamed his thumb in the car door, then a few weeks later he slamed it in the sliding door. It was looking a little red and it was pretty tender, he then was playing with a truck and it flipped back and caught the same thumb at the cuticle. It turned BLACK and just this last week the new nail grew in and the old one fell off. Poor Ben:( Tough kid though!! We'll see how long we can go WITHOUT losing another fingernail!

Andrew anecdote

So, a few months ago Andrew was sitting next to Sierra on the couch and started to look a little worried. I asked him what was up and he said that he was darker than Sierra. I told him of course! He'd been outside more than her. He proceeded to tell me (in so many words) that he thought he was darker because he was naughty. WHAT?!?!?! I asked him where he got that idea and he said that he had learned it in primary. That he had learned that when you do something wrong you get darker. WHAT?!?!? I'm in primary and I didn't remember a lesson about that. Bob and I let him know that he was NOT darker than Sierra because he had been naughty. I later talked to Sister Peterson (who had given the lesson) and come to find out it was the lesson about the Holy Ghost and a penny. And how when we don't stay close to the spirit and do REALLY bad things, our spirit darkens. She had shown them a dirty penny representing our spirits and then put in ketchup and garlic to clean it, representing repentance. We got a kick out of what he actually got out of the lesson. If you're naughty your skin darkens. Maybe I shouldn't have corrected him and just let him get darker and darker over the summer and see what happened. I love you Andrew, you take things so literally. We sure have fun with you!

Now that's what I call AWESOME!!!!

This year for the 4th we stayed home and spent the day with friends. After dinner we still had PLENTY of time before it got dark enough to light off any fireworks. So, the kids found things to entertain themselves....cheesing for the camera, playing games, and even Abby and Ashlan giving piggy back rides. We adults even got ourselves a few rousing games of hand and foot going. And Sierra and Austin decided to take a nap.

FINALLY it was time for the fireworks! while Bob was setting out the MANY fountains, the kids played with the sparklers.

Then it was on to the "big" stuff. Well, as big as you can legally get here. We were definitely reminiscing about WA where we could light off just about anything we wanted. But, alas, at least we could do something. We had A LOT of fountains and so we got to decide which were our favorites. I think I enjoyed the cactus the best.

Andrew really enjoyed himself too and kept saying "Now that's what I call AWESOME!!!" Sierra was SO tired but was just mesmerized my the whole thing...Ben, well, he was falling asleep.

Good times though were had by all. Can't wait for next year!!

COUSINS!!!

Friday June 25th we were able to head up to Los Banos to visit Jen and her kids. They were in Los Banos visiting her parents. We figured that since they were only an hour or so away we would make the trip. As you can see, the kids had a BLAST playing with their cousins.

Upper right we have all of them...Ben, Sierra, Andrew, Hazel, Seth and Dylan. It was hard to get them to sit still they were having so much fun.

Sierra and Seth. Seth is about 4 months older than Sierra and a VERY happy boy. He had a smile on his face the whole time we were there. He and Sierra just kept smiling at each other. It was obvious they recognized each other, As soon as they saw each other they had a look of "Oh! There you are!" I lOVED it !

Then it was time to go, it was actually hard to get them to leave. At least we were heading off to see more cousins! This time we were headed to Clovis to see Connor march with the Wyoming Troopers!!!

We were pretty high up and with their uniforms on it was hard to see who was who. I think I found him though. They were AMAZING!!! I'm so proud of him he's worked really hard to be able to march with a drum corps. Great Job Connor. the trumpets ROCKED!!! We were able to see him for a few minutes when the whole thing was over. It was late and our kiddos were tired. They had so much fun watching all the drum corps. Andrew informed us that he now wants to march too. Sierra fell asleep right before Connor marched and then woke up right after. She was mesmerized by all the music and marching. I hope they come back next year so we can go and see them again.