Logan’s Baptism

In December, our nephew Logan Kennard was baptized.  It was a nice day and we are very proud of him!

Ahoy Matey

Well, since I am a loser mom and am catching up my blog from 2011 events, in 2012, I cannot for the life of me, remember the name of this production. Jared was, however, the lead role and he did it perfectly!  He and a girl were the two speaking parts of this musical production they performed for their music class. And yes…..he was a pirate.

Halloween 2011

Halloween came and went quickly again!  With Mason having a birthday around then, it seems to sneak up on me…..Halloween & the birthday!  This year was a pretty good one for trick-or-treating!  Unfortunately Michael was sick again, this time with strep, and wasn’t feeling too up to par.  He did emerge from his room for a few of the festivities though, and to slowly walk around the block with the kids to watch them trick-or-treat.  I did a toned down version of our traditional Ghoulish Dinner.  Still had to do the dry ice and “Witches Brew!”  This year we Gavin was Jedi (inspired by our recent Disneyland trip and the “custom made” light saber he built after Mace Windoo), Jared was Mario (Mario & Luigi, SuperMario Bros.), Scott was Toad (also SuperMario Bros. inspired), and don’t forget Mason……who was an angry pumpkin!  Angry because he was being shoved into an overstuffed hot, orange costume!  He was a pretty good sport though….as long as we left his stem off!

Precious

This almost never happens.  So, of course, we had to take pictures.

Birthday Baby

Mason turned 1!  Time really does fly by!  I keep trying to soak up these moments, bearing in mind all the time that they are fleeting and that this is likely our last time around!  Mason is walking now and even running (with a toddle).  He loves to slap your hand “five.” He really has been a very good baby. Oh, and like his father, he loves his “blankey!”

 

Mason seems to like stuffed animals and tries to snuggle them so tight and bite them; all at the same time!  So, we thought taking him to the “Build-A-Bear-Workshop” would be a great idea.  It’s simply that; you go to the store and make a stuffed animal.  He was great with the idea until it came down to stuffing the thing, at which point he freaked out completely!  Then, I’m afraid, the party was over!  I couldn’t pass up the adorable “1” year old crown, that Mason ditched at the first opportunity!

Then, we went back to our house for cake and ice cream and I think he thoroughly enjoyed his first piece of cake!

A Great Escape

I am writing this in 2012, trying to catch up blogging, so my recall may not be so great….. We had yet another health scare with Michael….actually a couple.  One that I think, happened around August 2011 and September 2011.  To make a couple really long, stressful situations short, both times we had problems with Michael running really high fevers.  The second time, he had to be hospitalized up the the U.  His fever actually reached 106.2!  It was CRAZY!  They had all sorts of theories they were following, everything from a “thyroid storm,” a condition that can occur as a result of the damage he’d previously had done to his hypothalamus when he had his Acromegaly, to just being a virus….which I had no stock in.  They ran tons of tests, only to conclude that they were confident it wasn’t life threatening, thus resulting in releasing him from the hospital and sent him on his way claiming it must therefore be viral.  That was a joke.  Even the baby was healthy.  If he had a virus, someone in our house would have it also.  This I am completely confident in.  They did manage to find, however that Michael has heart problems now.  Not only did he get lucky enough to inherit the bad bicuspid heart valve problem ( as opposed to a healthy tricuspid valve), but they also discovered that he has a dilated aortic root.  Oh, and did I mention they say his heart’s “squeeze strength” is weak.  This is not good.  It’s amazing to me that someone like Michael, could survive testicular cancer and a brain tumor and have had years and years of CT Scans, MRI’s and blood work and we are just discovering this.  It’s only further reiterated my belief that you are your strongest advocate when it comes to your health.  If a DR isn’t specifically looking for a problem, he can miss it.  So…..point being…….we had a couple scares, but I think it was a blessing that he ended up hospitalized because it helped make us aware that there are further serious health issues for Michael to deal with .  Hopefully making us aware, we will be able to stay on top of it and see to it he receives the medical care he needs to keep him healthy and strong.  The treatment conclusion……they put him on a heart med called Lisinopril, which should help shrink the dilation, and took a baseline scan which we will compare to 6 months later.  We’ve both resigned that this will unfortunately be Michael’s lot in life, but I’m so grateful we have modern medicine and we are blessed to have found these issues so we can be aware.  He’s such a strength and example to me.  He never complains.  He just rolls with the punches.

Did I say I wanted to make a long story short?  Not doing too well at that, I’m afraid!  Back to the great escape!  We had plans to take the kids to Southern California to visit their grandparents and take them to Disneyland, which had to be postponed because of all the DR appointments and scans.  We did make it in October, and the kids had  a great time!  We were able to visit the “usual” spots; the Long Beach Aquarium, and Disneyland!  I had never been to Disneyland at Halloween time.  It was fun to see  it decorated with all the jack o lanterns and to see the Haunted Mansion decked out.  I liked it better, with all its happy, vibrant colors.  It made it much less morose!  The boys also enjoyed their chance to become “Jedi’s In Training,” and battle Darth Vader.  That was the first time we were able to get to the right place on time to have them be selected and it was so cute! 

Michael always humors me and goes to Disneyland.  I appreciate it.  I love that place!  I think I have as much fun as my kids!  OK……maybe, more! Before we left we were able to spend more time with Michael’s Grandma Coleman.  She took us out to her favorite Mexican Food around the corner from her house and it was nice to see her!  We also were able to spend a little time (not as much as we had hoped) helping Michael’s parents with a few around-the-house projects.  It was a nice visit.

 

 

 

Disneyland October 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Waverunners @ Deer Creek

It’s a Brown Family tradition!  Every summer we rent waverunners over at Deer Creek for the day and take our boys out on the lake!  It was another beautiful day in the water!  I love going in August after the water has been warmed up for a bit by the hot Utah summer weather!  We only rent one and we ride back and forth rotating the boys and taking them back in.  This year we convinced my Dad and my sister Kenna and her family, to join us.  They rented one also and everyone had a great time!  Gavin had a turn at running the throttle on the machine and he’s a definite lead foot (or in the case, hand)!  He got a little crazy!  I can’t wait to go again next Summer!

Waverunning August 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Summer Fun!

 

When we moved into our neighborhood several years ago, we used to host parties in our yard.  Well, once I had more kids, that fizzled out and luckily, one of my neighbors Marsha suggested we try doing block party get-togethers again!  My nextdoor neighbor Natalie and I have open yards that our kids run between all the time, so we team hosted and it was a blast!  We had a BBQ, water balloon launching with  a slingshot down the street, water balloon volleyball, snow cones, and an outdoor movie!  I LOVE SUMMER!

2011 Block Party VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Fun In The Sun

Another Summer of swim lessons rolled around!  This year we tried something different from what we did in years past.  We have previously gone to the local Rec. Center for classes, but we heard of a lady who runs lessons out of a nearby backyard pool that we thought we would try and we loved it!  The Rec Center runs classes for half an hour each day, 9 days M-F.  This lady does one hour classes for 5.  Much preferred the latter.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve found that at the Rec. Center it takes about 10 minutes to even get the whole class in the water and warmed up before they even start working on anything.  And their instructors are often one teenager per 10 kids, and they don’t seem to always get around to working with your kid by the end of the half hour!  We saw lots of progression and Scott even put his head in the water!  Jared took regular stroke lessons and diving lessons; something else you don’t find offered at the Rec. Center either!  It was great!  No lessons for Mason this Summer, but he sure looked great in his swim duds!