Cowgirl Party

 Kaylee's friend Gretchen had a cowgirl party. It was a lot of fun since they have a ranch...

 They both loved the pony ride

 Kaylee rode the big horse but Brooke decided to just stick with the pony.

 They finished off with a hay ride.

Best Friends

We went to the Stock show last week and invited Brooke's best friend Karli and her mom.

 We enjoyed all the usual animals and the petting zoo. The goats make Brooke a little nervous, but she loved the bunnies.

I put Austin down and he wanted right back up. The goats were a little too friendly and scary.

I think the highlight of the stock show were these ponycycles. They were so much fun! I even got to ride one. Maybe grandma will get us one for Christmas? :)

We went to the Zoo with our friends Friday since there was no school. It's so fun to go with the Smathers since their kids are the same age and gender as our kids. The girls tell each other "you're my best friend." It's cute.

phone pictures

Here are some random pictures from my phone....

 

 All the kids brushing their teeth.

Cruisin' at Costco

 Playing at the library

Kaylee is the Wall of Honor student at school

Playing in the leaves. They made nests. It brought back childhood memories of me and my brothers making nests in our backyard.

Austin woke up one morning a few weeks back with a rash on his body and some on his face. At first we thought it was an allergic reaction to a new soap the girls had used in the bathtub the night before. The next day however his cheeks looked like this...bright red. I remembered from nursing school there was a childhood rash/illness called "slapped cheek disease" so I did a little google research (my nursing education wasn't wasted after all :) ). His picture matched the pictures online and after reading up on "slapped cheek disease" or "fifth disease" as it is also commonly known I decided there was no reason to take him to the doctor. He got darker than this but I didn't take another picture. We really had no problems except itching...

 

The poor boy would wake up during the night crying and holding his foot. I would scratch it and he would stop crying. As soon as I stopped he would cry again and grab my hand and put it back on his foot. I spent many hours scratching feet over the next few days/nights. We were both so relieved when he cleared up. The good news- he should never get this again!  

Now onto our other health challenge. Many people don't know Kaylee was born with Microtia. It is a birth defect causing small/unformed ears. Usually it is accompanied with Atrasia (which means no ear canal) but after a CAT scan we learned  luckily Kaylee has an ear canal (although it is small.) She failed the newborn hearing test in that ear and also failed an additional hearing test with an audiologist.  Her left ear was fine and so we knew she would be able to get along fine for a while.

We tried some additional hearing tests when she was older but she has always hated going to the doctor and would not cooperate for the hearing tests. She seemed to be doing fine though.
She had told me that she could hear a little bit out of her small ear and last year she passed her hearing test at her yearly check up so we didn't worry about her hearing until recently...

In November Kaylee got her first ear infection. It was in her left ear so between that and her microtia she had a hard time hearing for about a week.

During Christmas break I started to become concerned. She didn't respond unless we talked louder. She needed the t.v. up louder so she could hear it. I scheduled a doctor appointment the beginning of January and they tested her hearing. She didn't hear anything in her right ear and had a little trouble in her left. She had an ear infection again and her ear is full of fluid. She also had swollen nasal canals (so plugged she could hardly breath out her nose.) She is currently on a antibiotic and a nasal steroid. Hopefully this will clear up her ears and nose so she can hear better again. If not the doctor thought she might possibly need her adenoids removed since her tonsils were slightly swollen. Swollen adenoids could be causing the blocked nasal passage and cause some block up into the ears/

We head back to the doctor in a week for another hearing test. I hope everything gets back to normal so she can avoid surgery. It would be very traumatic for her because of her fear of doctors/hospitals. We're praying for a full recovery!!