Flahes of Hope

I am in LOVE with the pictures we just got from Flashes of Hope from Dance Marathon this past February. They are AWESOME, AMAZING, SWEET, STRONG-PERFECT!!!

I LOVE so many of them that I'll post quite a few of them.

Our litle Gymnest

This year we signed Ammon up for a preschool gymnastics class at the Gymnest. This was the 1st year holding the class for 4-5 year olds. After talking with the lady I figured we'd give it a shot-the rec center classes were not what we expected and I wanted to try something new and fun for him.
Well he LOVES the class. They meet Tuesday from 9:45 -11:30, and parents leave! So not only does Ammon get to have an awesome time at his class mom gets some shopping time on the other side of town-where all the fun stores are!
They start in a big open gym room where they have "lesson time". They have a different letter, color or shape and large body movement for each class. Then they move into the other gym room upstairs and have a gymnastics lesson, they then come downstairs have snack and craft time. They end the class in the big gym working more on thier motor skill.
I like to get there early to watch Ammon in the gym (and feed Rebecca). One week they were doing an obstacle course. Ammon started by holding onto the hanging rings, then he pulled his body up and over and did a backwards sumersault on the rings all by himself!! I was so impressed at his upper body strength. He also does perfect formed sumersaults on the floor.

Showing me the hanging rings he can sumersault backwards on.

When he started the class he didn't know anyone. A few weeks into the class he wore a Star Wars shirt. Tommy came up and said "You like Star Wards-so do I!" Instant friendship. I love how kids can find one common thing and they are friends. As soon as we get there Tommy runs up to him and they hang out until class starts. Ammon is becoming so good at making friends. When I watch him in the gym he is running around with a handful of boys smiling and having such a GREAT time.


Getting ready to jump into the big foam pit!


At the beginning of the year he'd jump into the pit and wouldn't come out for a really long time. (I got worried one time he took so long coming out.) He was having so much fun pretending to be stuck that he'd stay in the pit longer.

He only has a few more weeks left of class and we'll be sad to be done with it. He has made some good friends, strengthened muscles and learned so much in the class.


Lunch bunch-Jonas (came for lunch bunch), Ammon, Rebecca (loving sitting between 4 boys!), Tommy and another of his friends from class.

From 11:30-12:30 evey day they have a group called lunch bunch. The kids can play in the gym. The kids can play on all the equipment they want but are supervised. Ammon had been wanting to stay and do lunch bunch for a while, but preschool starts at 12:30 and it takes us nearly 30 minutes to drive there, so we've never been able to stay. We stayed one time with some friends from MOMS Club and he had such a great time. I was also able to go into the gym and take some pictures of him in action.

Caps for Sale...

50c a Cap

One of our favorite books is Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. It's about a peddler who wears a high pile of hats on his head. He can't sell any caps in town so he walks to the country. He stops under a tree to take a nap. When we wakes up he feels his head and his caps are gone. He looks into the tree and sees monkeys each with a hat on it's head. Everything he does, the monkeys do, but they won't give him back his hats. He gets really mad and throws his hat off, and the monkeys throw down thier hats. He puts them back on his head and walks back to town calling: "Caps for sale, 50c a cap."

Today

This afternoon after dropping Ammon off at preschool a lady walked by and said "Oh I'd love to look at that face all day. She's beautiful!"

Oh how I feel the same. I'm so in love with this little angel!
(I'm in love with them all they just didn't get the comment directed at them today!)

Chicago-Sunday

Today we headed to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We've gone to the Brookfield a few times, so we thought we'd try out the Lincoln park Zoo this time. It's free to get into the zoo, but parking is pricey!

The park is right on the lake, and with it only being 48 degrees when we got there combined with the breeze off the lake, we were a bit cold. Luckily they have lots of indoor areas we could go into to see the animals until it warmed up.

We started at the Tiger. Rebecca loved watching it walk around. Inside the exhibit hall there was a leopard that she was so fascinated by. Rebecca hasn't has alot of experience with animals but one she is familiar with is a cat and fish. Is was really fun to see her recognize that tigers and lions were like the cats in the neighborhood just alot bigger.
When we went into the small mammal and reptile house. She was in heaven. There were some sand cats, that looked just like the cats she knows only with bigger ears. One was walking right in front of her and she watched it such intent. We got to see alligators and lots of fish. Another thing Rebecca loved was the fish. She'd sit or stand at the tanks just staring at them. Ammon was so sweet. He sat right by her, put his arm around her and told her about the fish.

In the Children's zoo the kids got some climbing time. The climbing structure seemed really tight and high, but all the kids (including Corrine with her cast) went into it. Alot of the Children's zoo is outside and with it still being so cold, we didn't stay long.

We didn't realize until later that we were there on earth day. In some of the animals
exhibits they had "save the planet" balls and boxes with the recycle symbol on them.
One of those recycled labeled boxes was in the gorilla enclosure. Johann was the only one to see this. One of the big gorillas went inside of the box which was towards the top of a small hill. The gorilla was inside for a little bit before the box started rolling down the hill. He said the gorilla popped out of the box tearing it apart and was totally freaked out. The boys were laying on the marble stairs soaking up some warmth while the girls were in the bathroom.
The polar bear was so fun to watch. We were at the glass looking under the water into it's tank. It was jumping and swimming all over. It was coming right up to the glass and one time it pushed off right in front of Corrine's face. It's paw was huge and it was so close. Then it went up to the land area and got it's barrel to play with. It was playing with it in the water making huge air bubble areas, when it got stuck under a ledge. It worked so hard to get it out. We went up top to watch it and it jumped and swatted and bit at it until it finally got it out from under the ledge. All the effort must have worn him out because he went back into his den after that.


We really liked the zoo. Later this summer they are opening a new nature boardwalk which looked really neat. This is a zoo we'd like to come back and see again.
When we left the zoo we stopped to take a picture by the zoo sign. Simeon got to hold Rebecca which made Corrine upset, so she pulled her hat over her face, and Ammon was playing with the sign not ready to smile.

While Johann got things into the van the kids and mom played and ran around on the grass. The kids started playing hide and go seek. Corrine thought a good place to hide was behind a skinny tree. Too bad you could see her bright pink cast around it. Rebecca and mom went to go meet some geese that became too friendly and close to us.

We stopped at Red Robin for dinner. This was a restaurant that Johann and I liked to go to in Utah before we moved to Iowa. We then stopped for Jamba Juice and the kids each got to get their own. They have a love of smoothies just like their mom and dad.

We had such a great time on a short vacation. It was nice to get away and just have time for us. Next time the Sears Tower will be on the agenda, and maybe a boat ride on the Lake.

Chicago-Saturday

Today we went started the day by going to the field museum. We bought a pass to the science station in Cedar Rapids so we didn't have to pay to get into the museum itself, but we did pay to go into the Mammoths and Mastodon exhibit.

Simeon had been asking to go by Wrigley Field so we could take a picture of him there. When we were driving to the Field Museum Johann told him that Soldier Field was right next door. We took a picture of the boys by the sign and that filled the need to get a picture at Wrigley field. The 2nd picture I just love of Ammon. It wasn't very warm in Chicago (low to mid 50's) even with the bright sun shinning. When the boys stood by the wall with the Soldier Field sign, the wall was warm, so Ammon turned around and plastered himself against the warmth of the wall. Then told us we "had to come feel it!" He was right it was nice and warm.



The kids have been wanting to come here (especially Simeon) for years to see Sue-the T-rex. Right when you walk in you can see Sue at the other end of the main floor. She was huge-just her head alone was massive. Her real skull is upstairs in a glass case, but the rest of her skeleton on the main floor is hers.

In the Mammoth and Mastodon exhibit they had Luna the worlds most preserved and smallest mammoth ever found. They think she died when she feel into a watering hole and got mud into her mouth and nose. They have been able to learn so much from her being so well preserved. We also got to stand by a life sized mammoth. It was HUGE!

Ammon really liked playing with the "hundreds of corn" in the discovery area. Rebecca liked it too because she got to crawl around and explore things. It's a neat area made for kids that has some of the exhibits upstairs only on a kid's size and more hands on. Ammon made a friend as they worked together to fill the pot with all the corn. Then we played dinosaur in the giant nests. There were dinosaurs bones to dig up and lots of other fun things to do.







By the time we left we were all exhausted. We saw maybe half of the museum. It was HUGE. Each of the exhibit halls go on and on and on. Some of them to see one area you'd have to walk through different areas to get there. We were so surprised at all that was in the museum. Ammon really liked the Egypt exhibit, while Simeon couldn't stand to be in it.

After the Field Museum we headed out to Shaumburg which is where we were staying and to the Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament. Ammon wore his Narnia knight outfit with sword and shield and Simeon wore his helmet and carried his sword and shield. Corrine had a pretty dress to wear, but it was alittle cold to put it on. When we got to the Castle we were put into the Yellow Knights section. That meant that we wanted to cheer for him and help him to win the tournament. Before you go in, they have a knight presentation where people can pay to be knighted by the King of the Tournament.
Inside of the arena we sat near the top of the yellow section. They brought us Dragon Blood Soup (Tomato Bisque), a baby dragon (half chicken), dragon tail (rib), potato half, biscuit and apple turnover. There are NO utensils, but the ten attached to your hands!! The kids had such a blast eating the food with thier hands. They watched the tournament so intently the entire time. We bought them each a yellow flag to wave. Ammon sat on his knees starring at the tournament and waving his flag. He said he LOVED the dragon blood soup and wanted me to make it at home. Corrine and Simeon were on the end and we hardly heard from them. Rebecca was wiggly, but was happy the entire time (nearly 2 hours). She watched the horses and sword fighting and also really liked the soup.
The story of the tournament is: The Prince is taken captive by the green knights gaurds. The King is having a tournament and has invited 5 knights to come. A treaty has been reached with the green knight and he is also invited to come to the touranment. When the tournament starts, the green knight betrays them and says that he did not get the treaty and he is not going to join them but fight them. They have different games: horse showmenship, horse competitions where the riders try to get rings on their jousting poles, jousting and then sword fighting where the knights are slowly defeated. Our strong yellow Knight won his 1st jousting and sword fight, but after a tiring 2nd battle with the green knight he fell. In the end the red knight won and the prince was freed.

Back at the hotel Simeon and Johann went swimming. Simeon thought it was sneaky when he pretended to be 10 so he could go into the hot tub. No one else was in the pool area anyways, but just in case he was 10 for the night.

Chicago-Friday

Each year when tax season gets over we go or do something to celebrate. This year we had even more to celebrate-Simeon finished chemo. We didn't do anything big when he finished, so we combined the 2 celebrations into one amazing weekend.

Friday we went to the Children's Museum on the Navy Pier. Getting there was interesting as the map we printed out didn't realize that a major road we needed to take was CLOSED. We had a GPS, but since I prefer maps and I was the navigator I used a trusty map and got us where we needed to go. We had to drive under buildings for what seemed like 10 minutes. The kids were really curious why we were under buildings, and actually weren't so thrilled with it.

The 1st thing we saw at the museum was a huge firetruck. The boys were in firefighter heaven. The had real jackets and boots to put on, a fire truck with ladder to climb on and a bedroom you could practive crawling through.
Then the boys climbed up in the pirate ship. It took some encouragement to get Simeon to keep climbing, but once he conquered his fear he climbed it a few more times. Ammon our no-fear man climbed right up like it was nothing. Corrine with her cast had to stay on the land with mom and dad!
We then headed upstairs. Rebecca found a room made just for her, so mom and Rebecca played in the baby sanctuary while Johann took the big kids around. They played in the water room, dug for dinosaurs and played a huge game of checkers. In the bug room the kids got to hold butterflies-well kind of. They stood behind a screen and when you put your hand up, the butterflies would land on them. It was really neat. Simeon got to pretend to be a bug and fly through the city.
We took Rebecca into the water room. Just as I was about to take a picture of her all cute in her rain jacket a bucket was dumped and she got wet. She wasn't too sure about it. Ammon and Simeon really enjoyed using the ropes and making water buckets go up and dump, and changing the water flow in the river.
The very last thing we did was take part in a Skyscraper challenge. We constructed a skyscraper while the computer was taking pictures of us along the way. After we built it we sat down and made it into a story.
One thing I really liked about the museum is that almost every room had a baby area. There was always a safe and fun place for Rebecca to play while the big kids enjoyed the exhibits.











After the museum we walked down to the end of Navy Pier. I am so glad we packed jackets and pants. Man was it windy and cold. It was so beautiful at the end of the pier, but so cold and windy that the kids just wanted to leave. Ammon is into pirates right now so we had to pose with the pirate statue, and Simeon so wanted to go to the top of the Sear Towers (I know that's not it's name anymore) and was excited to get a picture with and the super tall buildings behind him.




Of course when ever we go to Chicago we HAVE TO GO to White Castles. They are little square hamburgers with onions cooked on them. Johann LOVES them, the kids like them and I'm still warming up to them. I prefer the chicken sandwiches.


We finished the night swimming at our hotel, or at least trying to swim. The boys enjoyed the water with dad, but it was too much for Rebecca (there were other kids and they were splashing) and we were worried about Corrine's arm getting wet. I took the girls back up to the room, where we popped popcorn and watched a movie when the boys got back.

And it begins...

Baseball season that is.

Rebecca loves to be outside, so she supervised Johann and Simeon playing catch one afternoon.

Simeon is on the same team as last year-The Cardinals, in the pitching machine league. This year dad is the coach!!!



The kids were all excited to go to the park for the 1st practice. Corrine and Ammon have such a fun time at the baseball park. This was a 1st for Rebecca since she was born the week after last years season got over. She loved it-since she loves to be outside.

I thought Ammon looked so cute laying watching the kids practice. His leg already covered with chalk!


Simeon is one of the oldest on the team, and is excited to not be the shortest!

Pinewood Derby

Today was Simeon's 1st pinewood Derby with Cub Scouts. Having it during tax season makes it hard for Johann and Simeon to be able to work on it together much. Next year we'll be better prepared with a heavier car that will hopefully be a bit faster.

Even though Simeon's car wasn't the fastest, he still had a great time racing it and watching the other boys race their cars.

So Tired

This afternoon Rebecca wouldn't take a nap for anything. While I was making dinner she was having a snack. She was so tired she finally crashed in her highchair. I love her seat that it can recline, so I reclined the seat back and she slept in the kitchen while we ate dinner.

It's so sweet when kids fall asleep in their highchair.

Our latest adventure

Remember in Toy Story when Buzz finds out that he's not a toy and he still thinks that he's real, so he jumps off the stair rail to fly out the window and prove that he is real. Well Corrine did something similar yesterday. She thought she could fly off the swing at it's highest point. Remember how Buzz falls to the ground and his arm falls off-well Corrine got to keep her arm-but she did brake the bone.

She broke the radius about 1 1/2" down from her elbow. They didn't want to cast it for a few days because it is so swollen. The ER dtr (not an ortho dtr) didn't think it broke the growth plate. We go see an ortho dtr in a few days, and hopefully we'll know more. We were told 6-8 weeks in a high arm cast. So that pretty much brings us to the end of school, since we have 8 weeks left.

So how did this happen you ask:
She was out back swinging with Ammon and our neighbor Rachael. Johann said he saw her jump off the swing at the highest point. She actually fell off the swing, landed on her feet first, then went down hard on her right elbow. She came in crying hard a few minutes later. She cried hard for half hour then calmed down. She wouldn't eat dinner so we just sat and talked. I convinced her to take a bath with Rebecca and get her hair washed and that I'd be extra careful of her arm. She then went to bed favoring her arm. We decided that if it was still hurting in the morning we'd take her to the ER for x-rays. She slept for an hour or so, when Johann moved her to Ammon's bed (she was in ours) and she woke up shortly after crying hard again. You could tell she was in ALOT of pain. At 10:30 we decided we needed to get it x-rayed now. It was really swollen and we could tell it really hurt.

At the ER they took 3 very painful x-rays. She sat perfectly still with tears rolling down her cheeks during the x-rays. The put a splint on it and told us to call the ortho dtr Monday morning.
After we left she called Nani and Papa to tell them about our newest excitement, then we stopped at Wendy'd for a much deserved chocolate frosty. Finally at 2am, she fell asleep for the night.

So far this morning she is feeling good. We've offered Tylenol, but she doesn't want it and her arm doesn't seem to be hurting to bad, but she won't eat which tells me she is in some pain. She is very tired though (so is mom). We told her she's going to be a celebrity at school this week. I'm not sure she's excited about that.

Easter

Easter morning didn't dawn as we had expected. Only going to bed 5 hours earlier the Easter bunny was too tired to do anything fun. Ammon went to find his basket and disappointingly said "It's empty!" I told him to get his eggs and I'd fill them and hide them for him.

Simeon told me he wanted his eggs hid hard-so I did as he asked. Corrine needed hers easy to get to since she couldn't use her right arm (she had it splinted late lastnight because she broke her elbow) and Ammon just wanted to find his eggs and open them up to get treats! Rebecca got a few eggs in the house to play with that had some yummy treats in them.


The kids hunted for eggs outside, then we came in and tried our best to listen to conference. We were not very successful. Between the sessions of conference we sat down to eat and Ammon had a major meltdown-which is very out of character for him.
We sent him to lay down and figured out the reason for the tantrum-he had a 101* temp.
So Johann took Simeon, Corrine and Rebecca to his parents for dinner, while Ammon and I stayed home to cuddle.
They came home with a goodie bag for Ammon which perked him up for a little bit.

(Writing this after the fact-I'll add it took another 4 days and many temps reaching 102-104* for Ammon to fully recover. We're pretty sure he had something similar to what I had 2 weeks earlier minus the little lime sized lymph nodes I had with my high fevers.)