GREAT NEWS!!!!

These are Addy's original x-rays from the ER the night she broke her arm.

Clearly you can see how bad the breaks are..

After 8 1/2 weeks, 3 hard casts, 2 soft casts, 6 bone resets & manipulation (with only being under pain killers twice), and about 6 different doctors,

we are happy to say that

Addy got her cast off!!!

She was pretty nervous at her appointment yesterday, but both mommy and daddy were

there to comfort her so that always helps. At one point, a new doctor came in and grabbed her arm. UGH. Addy flipped out. I intervened and informed him she was traumatized. He understood the look on my face, luckily and backed off.  He then proceeded to have Addy touch her own arm and tell him if it hurt. She liked this much better.  He asked her to squeeze his fingers with both fists so that he could see if she had any strength in that arm, which she didn't have much of.

They took more x-rays and one view seemed absolutely perfect but I was not completely happy with the other view. Her bones still look bent to me. I brought my concern to the doctors attention and 

more than one doctor came in to reassure me that they would straighten with growth.

I am still not convinced, but Nate said he feels good about it.

I have a few things I was unhappy about throughout this situation.  First off, I really feel that it was unnecessary to continue re-breaking and re-setting her bones.  She is 4 years old and they should have done surgery. This is my personal opinion and also the opinion of other doctors I have talked to about it.

Second, one of the times they re-set her bones, her doctor had an intern do it.. now, if this was an adult, with the adults consent, go ahead and TRY to re-set it without much experience. But on a 4 year old??? Who already is traumatized?  Besides, it didn't work. He wasn't able to get it in place, so that was a complete failure with my daughter left in excruciating pain.

Once seeing that her bones kept slipping, they should have sent us to a specialist. Again, my opinion and I probably should have just done it regardless, but this was our first bone issue and we didn't know any better. 

After talking around and getting info, I wish I would have listened to myself and done something different.

There's nothing I can do now and we'll just have to hope an pray that she doesn't end up with chronic pain in her arm any time the weather changes or she's playing sports, or writing long essays in college or whatever.

I hope Nate's feelings about this are spot on and that she's going to be okay.

I do tend to be over-reactive at times. I guess time will tell.

Her pour arm had this lizzard-like skin on it. Grandma Johnson helped her get it all off that afternoon. Her little arm seems so fragile right now. I'm just glad that she can start using it again. It's been long overdue.

I'm really worried about it. But we'll see....

Toothless...

The Tooth Fairy got to visit our house for the first time ever last night.  Hailey was ecstatic. Addy, however was pretty nervous and scared.

A week and a half ago, Hailey came to us telling us she was super excited because she had a loose tooth.  We all got our chance to wiggle it a bit and confirm that indeed, it was loose.  She's been telling EVERYONE all about it and day by day, would ask Nate how many more days till it came out.  A couple days ago, she woke up and that thing was hanging on by a thread.  She wouldn't let anybody touch it though. She was too afraid that it would hurt.  Every chance she got, she was playing with it though.

Yesterday, I dedicated my day to cleaning with a small gym break.  The girls had finished cleaning their playroom and their bedroom and were watching me hang a few things on the walls. Hailey sat down in front of a mirror I had propped up against the wall on our upstairs landing and was playing with her tooth. Next thing I know, she turns around and says in a very serious voice, "my tooth just came out." Then, she screamed, grabbed Addy, gave her a HUGE hug and started jumping up and down.  Her reaction was quite hilarious. She is such an animated child, I love it.  Addy caught on to the excitement and pretty soon, both of them were jumping up and down and running in circles with each other chanting "I have a window in my mouth" over and over.  

Last night, after getting ready for bed, I thought that I should check her tooth next to that one and sure enough, it's loose!! Hailey is on her way to being toothless and she's super excited about it....

Passing on a love for reading

This last year, I've spent a lot of time reading. Reading to myself, reading to my girls, reading with Hailey, teaching Hailey to read, etc.  I've told Nate how I really want them to love to read.  So far, we are doing pretty good with it.  Hailey is really good at reading and Addy LOVES to be read to.  I decided a while ago to start reading chapter books to them.  I was really excited about starting this new journey. I've always looked forward to this point in my parenting and i'm excited to see where it goes.

The first book we tackled was The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  I was a little worried about this because it's been SO long since I've read this myself and I didn't remember details.  I decided to just go with it and see what happened.

To my surprise, they absolutely loved the first chapter and were asking me to read 'just one more chapter' EVERY night.  Every night, they would get their extra pillows set up on the bed, snuggle in their blankets and get all ready to read. Their favorite, was when Nate would join us and he would snuggle right in the middle of them. 

I was surprised at how much they got out of the book.  Even the little details I didn't think were very important, they would giggle at and repeat or they would ask questions about them.  I was loving this.  

When I was little, I LOVED books. With time, I grew apart from my love of reading because I felt I had more important things to get done. I forgot what reading can really do for your mind, and for your imagination and for your life.

I have some really old school books that I held on to from when I was little and it's really fun to have them.  I do have a slight problem as an adult though.  A couple years ago when Hailey started preschool, she started bringing home scholastic book orders.  I was so excited because this was my favorite thing about elementary school... well almost.  I remember studying those book orders in and out before making that important decision of what to order.  This time it's a little different. The difference is, I buy more than one... on EVERY order.  The girls have this book case that I bought for their room and it's huge. It use to be that the bottom shelf and half of the next one was what had books on it. Now, the entire 5 shelf book case is pretty full.  I can't help but keep adding to their collection.

The rules at night are that they can each choose 2 books to take to bed with them. It's the cutest thing to see them page through the books or read to eachother, or make up stories that go along with pictures when they think i'm not watching or listening.  I love listening to them bust out in laughter over something they saw in a book. It's the cutest thing.

Once we finished reading The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, we watched the movie as a family. There were a few parts that were pretty scary, but the girls loved watching a story that they new so well in their minds.  I'm excited for all the others that are on my list to come and so are they.

Here's to passing on a love for reading....

A little catching up.

Addy had another appointment for her arm last week and i'm happy to report that the x-rays looked great compared to the previous ones.  She freaked out a bit when the doctor came in the room but as soon as she realized everything was ok, she was great.  She still clung to me like a monkey in a tree, however, the tears were minimal this time. Thank goodness.  She opted for pink with sparkles for her new short cast since they were out of the colorful camo that she loves.  Also, she was able to get a waterproof one this time which is SO great.

Addy waited ALL day for dad to get home. She wanted him to be the first to sign her 3rd cast. :-)

It has taken her an entire week to straighten her arm. We were getting a bit worried when she would refuse to straighten it. I has been in a 90 degree angle for 5 weeks now, so she was VERY nervous to try.

She has 3 more weeks to go with this new cast, then more x-rays.  These last x-rays showed that the bones are still broke all the way through, but there are calluses that are forming which help keep the bones in place. We'll know more in 3 weeks as to when she doesn't have to be in a cast anymore. Once we hit that appointment, it will have been 8 1/2 weeks since she broke her arm. UGH!

New Haircut!!

We had been playing with the idea of Hailey getting a short haircut. 

She was VERY excited and it turned out quite cute.

Softball

We just ended the Provo season with a championship!

The guys worked their tails off the night of the double elimination.

They played a team that was undefeated and they beat them both games right in a row.

The first game was awesome. The guys FOUGHT quite a bit to beat this team. Then, in the second game, Nate made one of the most beautiful hits I've ever seen and the ball just soared. Now, to brag a little, i'm quite use to Nate's homeruns. Over the years, he is just MR. HOMERUN. In park, out of park, it doesn't matter, he's just so good at the game, it's ridiculous.  This particular hit left a lot of people in the stands with their mouths open. Especially when it shattered the back window of a new SUV in the parking lot. YIKES.  It almost seemed like a slow motion hit. Nate knew it was a good hit the minute it left the bat and he was jogging to first base, knowing there was no need to rush.  As he crept up on first base, the window shattered and Nate put his fist to him mouth as if to say "crap".  He felt terrible about the window.  The guy who owned the SUV was on the opposing team AND the first baseman. Nate apologized and the guy replied saying it wasn't his fault and that it was a really good hit. :-) He then got mad at his wife for parking there. :-) It's always the wife's fault.

Aside from this, Nate played an amazing game. He had some pretty sweet catches in the outfield as usual. 

K, i'm done bragging about my super hot and talented husband.. until next time.

Provo City Champions Fall 2012

Nate Johnson, Dave Schwitzer, Chet Shelley John Berry, Carson Watkins, (not sure), David Lake

Josh Dyches, Troy Dyches, Dan Hall, Brady Hoffman