Hearing loss.... and girlfriends!

On Friday, we took Adalie to Primary's for her hearing tests. They did about 4 tests, all of which she was a champ!! The first 2 tests consisted of her sitting on my lap with these earplugs in. She had to hold extremely still for them to get an accurate reading. I have never seen anyone hold that still before!!! On the second test, she had to hold still and not make any noise!! She did great on the first ear, and on the second ear, it was so funny.... she looks over at Tony and says "Dad, what time is it?" Everyone quickly put their fingers up to their mouth with the "Shhhh" face! It was just so cute, and such a random question seeing as how she has never asked that before!!

For the last 2 tests, Adalie and I were in a small sound proof room. There was one of those windows that Adalie and I couldn't see through, but they could see us from the other side. Tony and the Audiologist were on the other side. They hooked her up to a few different ear pieces, boxes and wires. Then, another Audiologist would hand her a little plastic toy, and have her hold it to her cheek. They would play a few different noises in her ear piece, and as soon as she heard the noise, she would throw the plastic toy in a bucket. It was incredibly frustrating for me to be able to hear those noises through her ear pieces and have her just sit there because she couldn't hear it!

These 2 pictures are of Adalie in the sound proof room all hooked up!! The pictures didn't turn out very well because Tony took them through that weird window. The second picture he tried to use the flash.. but that didn't work either!!... but you can get the idea!
Diagnosis: The hearing loss she has thus far is permanent. They are anxious to find out what is causing it, so now she has to go have a Genetic Screening done and an MRI. Since they want her to have an MRI, I figured.. when Carson has his MRI tomorrow.. I'm just going to have them look for the same thing they are going to look for with Adalie!! Couldn't hurt...right?!

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I am such an idiot for not using my camera this weekend! I did however, get a few pictures of Val and Anne-Marie. We had such a great weekend!! We had two Citrine gigs... one Friday night, downtown, and the other on Saturday, down at the Payson Scottish Festival! Anne-Marie patiently waiting for our name to be called for dinner!!

Anne-Marie & Val

Memories!

Memory Lane...I got this from a friend's blog. I thought it would be fun! I hope you will play along. Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

Citrine!

Many of you have asked me about the group I am in called Citrine. I thought I would let all of you know of our upcoming show this weekend! We will be performing at the Brigham Young Historical Park (Concert in the Park) this Friday the 11th @ 8:00pm. The park is located on the southeast corner of State Street and North Temple. It is going to be a lot of fun.... and its free!!!

4th of July!

Every year for the 4th of July we have my dads family over to swim.  

Adalie was a fish this year and did NOT want to get out!!.....

.... except for a delicious chocolate chip cookie!

Adalie with her Great-Grandparents Clayton

Even Giddion (the paralyzed chihuahua) was dressed for the occasion!

The bubble blower was a huge hit this year.

Nana jumped right in with the Snapper fun!

This was Carson's reaction to his first firework!  Although you might not be able to tell by this picture, his face is pure excitement! He loved them!

This, however, was Adalie's reaction.  For some reason the fireworks really scared her!

She did like the sparklers though!

This was Adalie in an argument with Tony.  The argument was that we were going to do one more firework for Carson before he went to bed.  Adalie felt that the fireworks should just be for her.... even though she doesn't even like them!! So Tony told her we weren't going to do any fireworks if that is how she was going to act!

This was Adalie's reaction to that comment!

Sweet Carsy boy!

So cute!

My Addie Grace Bug!

My sweet little Addie Grace Bug!  I wanted to share a few quick things about Addie.  Last night we went to Blockbuster.  She HAD to rent Micky Mouse Musketeers!  As soon as the movie was over, she came running around the house in this lovely Musketeer get-up! 

She had on everything from gloves, a cape, a hat...WITH feather and her sword!

I wanted to throw in these pictures because they are so cute!! On Sunday Adalie let me curl her hair.  She sits incredibly still and always tells me "I look beautiful don't I Mom"

Now we just need to work on that posed smile!

Now for her update.  We went back to the ENT today.  There was some good news and some not so good news.  The good news is, her tonsils looked much better.  As of now we do not need to remove them!  The not so good news.... her hearing has gotten even worse.  So we are off to Primary Children's!!  Does anyone have a daily supply of Valium they could share with me?!  No, I'm just kidding.  I'm just feeling like it is one thing after another!!!  However, it could be much worse, so i should be grateful!

8 Years!

So, I know I am a day late, but I didn't have any of these photos with me yesterday! Although we no longer "celebrate" it, yesterday was our 8 year anniversary of being together! Not married... but when we started dating. I especially wanted to post these pictures because we look like we are 13 years old and I think they are hysterical!!! We were 18 and 19 years old when we started dating.
We dated long distance for 6 months, seeing each other twice in that time period. Then, Tony came home for Christmas and we packed up my little Saturn and I made the move to San Diego! We got engaged on our 1 year anniversary and married 4 months later!
There is no doubt that we have had our ups and some very dramatic downs, but we always manage to pull through. We have been given something very special!
I love you Tony!

The Kids

Adalie's Update: We went back to the ENT last week. Her hearing in the one hear looks like it has improved slightly.. which is great news! They did a different kind of testing this time, which might not be as accurate, but still?... However, her Eustachian tubes are malfunctioning???? and her eardrums are retracted???? and her tonsils look awful! So, they put her on an anti-biotic for her tonsils to see if that will help at all and she goes back next week to have the hearing checked one more time and discuss if she needs tubes (Yes, although she has only had 1 ear infection in her life, they are "malfunctioning"????) and also see if she needs her tonsils out.. so once again, you will be getting another update next week!

Carson's Update: We went to the Neurologist up at Primary's today... by the way, if any of you need a pediatric neurologist.... Dr. Filloux is fantastic! They did a physical evaluation and said that they do not think it was an intra-utero stroke... but possibly he threw a small blood clot?? Either way, he has made many dramatic improvements over the last few weeks, so no one is overly concerned. We are going to do an MRI in 2 1/2 weeks to see if and what damage was done. All I can say is.... THANK GOODNESS FOR GOOD INSURANCE! Haha! Happy Friday!!

Fun Filled Weekend

This weekend was very packed, and very fun!  We started it on on Saturday morning attending the Highland Scotland Games at Thanksgiving Point.  It was very different from anything I had been to, and a lot of fun!  I took Addie and Carson with me.  

We went with Anne-Marie and her boys who Adalie is in love with by the way!  Her favorite thing to do was go through this blow up obstacle course.

(Adalie & Cian)

Citrine

Then Tony came and got the kids and I had a performance with Anne-Marie and Citrine.  It was great!  (pay no attention to the Ocean's Apart banner behind us!)

That night we took off to watch a Scottish Band.

(Christine and myself)

(Anne-Marie, Val & Christine)

We had an absolute blast!  I LOVE these girls!

Fathers Day

Last year we did a big surprise breakfast in the canyon for Mother's Day, and my dad was out of town.  So we decided this year we would surprise him!

Our group gift was this cool fire pit for the back yard and this incredible gift basket my sister Jenn put together!  It included: camping chairs, roasting sticks, all of the ingredients for Smores, color changing flames... etc!

I just love this picture of Caroline and Liam!

Jenn holding her paralyzed dog and Carson!

Addie & Papa sharing flowers they picked on their nature walk

Carson was making the most hilarious faces all morning!

Later that evening we went to my grandparents Smith's house. I tried to get some pictures of the kids, but they weren't going to cooperate! So here is what I got!

My baby girl and Me!
Then tonight, I went down to Lehi to spend the evening with my friends Greg & Cynthia Dean and their two kids!  Adalie and Elli were playing SO cute together!  I love this picture of them blowing bubbles in their water and laughing their heads off!! SO CUTE!

Updates (Yes, this has been the title of my last few posts!)

So, I know that I have titled my last few posts as Updates (of some sort) but that is because there are so many events in each post, that I can't really give them a specific name!

The first picture is of my darling baby girl!!! She is growing up SO fast! She is the love of my life and my absolute angel!! It is so crazy to think she will be turning 4!

This picture is pretty funny, but has a great story! So my friend Anne-Marie (she's on the far right) is a fantastic musician. She played in a concert at Carnegie Hall in NY with Bobbie McFarren and a few other talented musicians a few weeks ago. One of the musician's she met was Shola (standing next to Anne-Marie). Well.. Shola is a member of STOMP... so naturally since STOMP was in town, she called up her friend Anne-Marie. Shola came to one of our Citrine rehearsals and we got to hang out for a bit after that. So Saturday we went to the show and got to hang out with Shola and meet the cast afterwards! It was a BLAST! The other two in the photo are my sister-in-law Kami and Anne-Marie's sister Karen.



LIAM!!! Oh my word! My newest nephew Liam is 5 weeks old now and is such an adorable baby!! In fact, adorable doesn't even cut it!! You can not get any cuter than my nephews!!

The Greatest Thing Since Easy-Mac

At least that's what my kids think! This is the new play house my Mom and Dad got that the kids are obsessed with!!

Carson's Physical Therapy
How does this look? A dream come true to any 18 month old! This is Carson's physical therapy room. At first he was a bit skeptical, but by the end he was loving it! They started out checking a few different range of motions and noticed that his entire left side is significantly weaker than his right.
She did a ton of exercises with him using his left side.... including making him blow bubbles using his left hand.


My mom was really good to come with me and helped him with his exercises so I could take pictures!!

Carson LOVED the ball pit!! It really had nothing to do with his appointment today, but we let him play anyway!

Diagnosis: ... none! Don't you love how that goes! They did note that his left side, like I said before, is significantly weaker and mentioned the possibility of it being caused by an Inter-uterine Stroke (so a stroke while he was still in the womb) But we don't know for sure. We will see if and how much he improves in the next 2 weeks before his next session. If there has not been a dramatic improvement, we will go up to Primary's and see a neurologist!

Carson's Parting Gift....

This lovely new ankle brace...thingy.... haha! They noticed that he definitely rolls his ankle in when he drags his leg, so they are starting here and trying to strengthen it. He actually doesn't mind it too much and I think was walking better yesterday!!!! So here is to dramatic improvement??!!!!

Last but not least, a picture from my friend Heather Biesinger's wedding reception! In the photo... Alicia, myself, Jenn Best (I don't know her married last name) and... I actually don't know the girl on the ends name!... but it was fun!