McKay's Therapy at Now I Can

McKay's Therapy at Now I Can

Here is a video that they put together of McKay's three weeks of therapy at Now I can. I love watching the video and seeing how hard he is working. It was incredibly hard work for him. I am incredibly grateful to Now I can. They do such a good job there and I know they are the reason that McKay is now walking. I can't believe the progress he has made just in the last 3 months since we left Now I can. He really physically is a different person.

We heart the Biebs... Justin Bieber

 So last May I heard Justin Bieber was coming in concert to Utah. I immediately called Kyle and said we should go and take Carson. At the time he was beyond obsessed with Justin Bieber. He listened to him on the I Pod all the time and had a poster in his room. He thought he was so cool. We talked to our friends the Fountaines to see if we wanted to go together, their son and Carson's best friend was also into the Biebs. So we got tickets, (thanks to James) and held onto them for months. We knew we wanted to give Carson the tickets for Christmas since the concert was right after Christmas. I was worried Carson wouldn't be as excited to go, but he was super excited. Poor Brynn who calls Justin Bieber her boyfriend was pretty sad she didn't get to go.
We took the boys to dinner at Texas Roadhouse before the concert and then headed up to Salt Lake. We walked in just after Carly Rae Jeppson had started to sing as the opening act. I made sure to record the song "Call me maybe" for Brynn. It is one of her all time favorite songs.
For some reason there was an hour in between the time Carly Rae Jeppson was done and the time Justin Bieber came on. So he didn't even get on stage until 8:30 and the boys were definitely getting tired.

 But they had a lot of fun dancing around and singing along with the Biebs. They weren't too into it when a song that they didn't recognize came on.

 I thought he put on a great concert, I was impressed. He even sounded better live than I thought he was going to. I am glad we got the tickets and were able to take Carson to go. I think he really loved it and hopefully he won't ever forget his first concert. (Oh make sure to note, Carson's purple shirt he got with the Justin Bieber tickets. Since purple is Justin Bieber's favorite color)

Hospital stay for McKay

 So I will admit we have been incredibly lucky when it comes to hospital stay's with McKay. It could be so so so much worse. Somehow he has escaped being admitted due to sickness since he was about 6 months old. Literally a miracle in itself. He has had a few admissions for surgeries, quite a few ER runs in there, and numerous hospital visits for suctioning, chest x ray and labs while sick. So I assumed this time with McKay would be the same. I know McKay well, and I know when he is sick even better. He started with a cough on New Years Eve. I knew it wasn't just a cough and would quickly take a turn for the worst. The second day of his cough it started to sound barky and he started with a fever. I took him into our doctor on Wednesday and he said he for sure had a bad case of croup. So they gave him a shot of steroids and said to call if his fever got worse or it was in his chest. On Thursday he was okay in the morning, but in the afternoon when he woke up from his nap I could not get him calmed down and he was working really hard to breath. Thankfully I have an oximeter at home so I could check his oxygen. It wasn't great, but wasn't awful. I called after hours but they said they couldn't get me in for a couple of hours. We contemplated just running him to Primary's but we gave him 10 more minutes to see if he could calm down. He did calm down and his oxygen came up a little. I decided to still take him into after hours to see if I could just get him another shot of steroids. But the doctor was concerned that he was worse after already reiceiving a shot of steroids. He wanted to give him a breathing treatment and then see how he was. He wasn't any better after the breathing treatment so he said "I really think you need to go to the hospital." I will admit I was a little surprised. The times that I go to the doctor and I think they are going to send us to the hospital they don't, the times I don't think they will they always do. Just proving why I am not a doctor.
We headed up to Primary's (Our ped told us to only go to Primary's with any problems) They checked us in and then started the night with tests, breathing treatments, medications, doctor's, x rays, and an IV. By the time we got everything done and were able to got to sleep it was 1:30 in the morning!

 They ran a virus panel, I was sure it would come back with the flu since that is what Kyle and I were currently dealing with. But they said it came back with RSV, awesome! They also did a chest and neck x ray. The good news was he did not yet have pneumonia, the bad news was his airway was so swollen from the croup they were worried it would completely close off!
 Total we were in the hospital for 2 nights and three days. I am really glad we were there. His oxygen was horrible at night and in the 80's and 70's. You are suppose to be in the high 90's. His fevers were pretty brutal too and a little hard to get control of. I also was sick as a dog while we were there, I was majorly battling the flu and have not felt that sick in a while. So I was actually glad we were there at night so the nurse's could take care of him. I literally was unable to get up out of the bed a few times at night.

McKay was so happy they had smoothie's on the menu, he ate one for most meals. Smoothies and applesauce. I will say they have an amazing room service menu at Primary's. I ordered a few things for me to try and eat something and because I didn't want to leave McKay alone.

 See the red cheeks from the fever... Thank heavens for the I Pad and the bubble guppies. It literally was a lifesaver!

 McKay was nice enough to receive a balloon from one his "medically fragile" facebook friends. It was so nice of them to send it to us, we haven't even ever met them in person.

McKay was so incredibly happy to be home. We had to keep an extra close eye on him. But luckily we have so much medical equipment at our house it is easy to keep a good watch on him. He did end up getting Pneumonia after we got home, and his cough has been taking a really long time to get over. He also had a weekend of crazy high fevers and not great oxygen numbers. But we have managed to keep him from having to go back to the hospital. It has been a really really bad winter in Utah this year. I am a little terrified for what the rest of the winter will bring for us. I hope and pray that there are not a lot more hospital visits this winter for us.
Thank you for all of those who helped out with kids, carpool, and meals and those that called or sent text messages. We are for sure one loved family and we couldn't survive all of this with out our family and friends.

New Year's Eve fun

 We didn't have really big plans for New Years Eve and New Years day but I wanted to do a few fun things with the kids since Kyle had some time off and school was quickly approaching. New Years Eve morning I took McKay into the doctor, he has had a really weird crazy irritated spot above his lip and it looked horrible and was bleeding so I finally took him in. He also started with a little cough that morning, so I had him listen to his chest. He said he didn't hear anything in his lungs, but he could hear it in his throat. He said, "I'm sure you will be back later this week." Awesome, I love hearing that. More on that later...
After I got home I got McKay down for a nap and Kyle stayed home with him. We then took the kids bowling. Grandma and Grandpa Ford went with us and Uncle Jarom met us there. It was a lot of fun, we haven't been bowling in a long time. The kids loved it! I had the best game of my life, and of course Kyle wasn't there to see sometimes I can be athletic.

 Uncle Jarom showed off his skills of bowling through his legs, it was pretty cool!

 After bowling we let the kids play a few arcade games and then headed home. We watched some football and just hung out.

I got McKay and Brynn in bed and we had our yearly New Year's Eve fondue. One of my favorite meals of the year. We let Carson stay up last year to do it and he has asked when we are doing "fundue" ever since. He was so excited to stay up with the adults and do "Fundue". Afterwards we played some games. Kyle and I tried to make it to midnight, but alas we are old and didn't make it. My brother woke me up so I could see the ball drop. What a New Years!

Jr. Jazz 1st grade

 Carson played Jr. Jazz basketball with the 1st graders from October through December. I was not thrilled when I heard that they had changed the 1st graders basketball season to before Christmas. It was a little crazy the month of December, but it still was a lot o fun. Carson was able to have a few of his friends and soccer teammates on his team. Kyle was an amazing Basketball coach and had some help from some of the other players Dad's.

 Carson for sure improved a lot this season and had a much better understanding of the game. I think he had an awesome season.

 Playing with your best friends is one of the best parts.

Having your Dad coach your team is another great thing.
Carson had a great season and had a lot of baskets. He is actually playing with the 2nd graders as well starting this month. So he will have two seasons of Basketball and he is beyond excited.

Ford Christmas 2012

We had a second Christmas a few days after Christmas with all of the Ford family. It was technically an In Law year for Christmas, so Kyle's sister and her family were at the In laws for Christmas. So we re-created Christmas completely later in the week. After a dinner of yummy appetizer's we got all the kids bathed and in their jammies and then we reenacted the Christmas story with costumes. The kids love picking who they get to be and getting their costumes on. Brynn was an Angel, Carson was a sheep, and McKay was a shepherd. We were lucky enough to even have a pregnant Mary!

 I LOVE the picture of Sadie and Brynnley, they truly are best friends and love playing together. I just love their cute angel wings and giggles.

We woke up Christmas morning to a family room full of presents. We started with stockings for the adults and then dove into the presents. The kids got a lot of really fun stuff from the Grandparents, the Smith's, Great Grandpa Hubbard, and the Great Ford Grandparents. They loved everything they got!

David loved our present this year, new Ohio State slippers.

LOVE these two! Yes, they are quite a few years apart, but Carson has a special bond with Tyler and Tyler adores Carson. We found out just after Christmas Heather is having another boy!

The girls are so similar they get mostly the same thing, they got some princess sticker books they couldn't wait to dive into.

McKay got a few new toys and some clothes, and the best gift of all some more dottera essential oils to help keep him healthy! The Smith's also got him a stuffed Gil from Bubble Guppies. Secretly I hoped he would love the stuffed bubble guppies, but they didn't get quite the reaction I was hoping for.

The girls got Barbie and the Popstar Barbie's from Great Grandpa and Grandma Ford. The girls immediately begged to open then. They then spent the next 5 minutes dancing around with their barbies and singing with them. To say they loved the present is an understatement.

Grandma Hubbard knows Carson well and got him 30 "monies" for Christmas. It is always one of Carson's favorite gifts!

We had breakfast together and everyone played with their toys. We also took the Smith's over to the awesome sledding hill and did some more sledding. The weekend was filled with fun, laughter, yummy food, and lots of fun family memories.

Christmas day sledding

 Santa brought the kids new sleds for Christmas and they were dying to try them out. It was very helpful we had a huge snow storm come through on Christmas eve. So we had all of this great snow and a nice sunny day on Christmas. We found a great sledding hill very close to the house and the kids loved it. Brynn wasn't a huge fan after she ran into the one tiny tree on the entire hill. She was pretty content to sit on the ground and eat the snow after that. Carson went up and down as many times as he could. He loved it!  We had a lot of fun and have already been back out sledding. It was a perfect Christmas day family activity.

Christmas 2012

We had an amazing Christmas this year! Our Christmas Eve was pretty low key. Kyle had to work in the morning so we spent the morning cleaning and I did some of our Christmas day baking. After Kyle got home I quickly headed to the hospital to see my brand new little niece Lucy Ada Kelly. She was so adorable and for sure worth driving through the crazy snow storm.
When I got home we watched the movie Elf together, had some dinner and then drove around to look at the Christmas lights. We came home and opened our new Christmas PJ's and books and talked about the Christmas story. The kids were anxious to get to bed and couldn't wait for Santa to come. Carson had asked in his letter to Santa what kind of cookies he wanted and he requested Chocolate chip cookies. We left carrots for the reindeer this year, Carson thought they might like that better than oats.

Santa and his elves had put wrapping paper on the doorways into the basement family room so that the sneaky kids couldn't get in before mom and dad could. The kids actually slept in until 7, I don't know if they knew they could get up early or if they were just really sleepy.

The kids loved all of their presents. I love watching every single reaction to each present. Brynnley always gives an awesome amazing reaction, but Carson had some pretty good faces this year too.
Last year Christmas morning was super overwhelming for McKay so we took a different approach. We had the I pad ready and he got 3 boxes of animal cookies in his stocking. He watched the Bubble Guppies and ate his cookies and was very content. He maybe looked at a couple of his presents, mainly those that had anything to do with Bubble Guppies. He did also really like the hat Kyle got.

Brynnley got her American Girl honey dog, her Tinkerbell fairy house and a giant cardboard house that she loves along with lots of other fun stuff. The picture of her with the dollar is a dollar bill from Carson. Carson announced 3 days before Christmas that he really wanted some slippers for Christmas and whomever gave him slippers, he would give them a dollar. Luckily after 4 stores Brynnley and I found some for him. So Carson opened the slippers and ran right into his room to get a dollar for Brynn.
Carson got a lot of new books (He is really into reading right now and can now read chapter books on his own), a motor scooter, walkie talkies, some games and tickets to the Justin Bieber concert. I think the pictures tell you he was happy with his haul

Harrison got a few new toys and a new bone. He was pretty content to leave us all alone once he opened his bone. I got Kyle some new shoes, a new hat, some Ohio State clothes, a VERY exciting car emergency care kit, and I also made him a desk calendar with pictures of the kids for his desk at work.
Somehow we don't have single picture of me, I was taking them all. But Kyle got me some new boots, some new clothes, and a new backpack and other fun stuff.
We had a fabulous time opening presents. I think the kids got everything they wanted and loved everything they got.

Letter's to Santa

Carson had a homework assignment to write a letter to Santa. I really tried to let him write it on his own so it came straight from him. His spelling is not the best but has been improving with his reading skills. Here is what it says
Dear Santa,
Does your sleigh have rocket boosters? I would like a new chapter book.  Mario Kart 7 DS. Smash brothers for the Wii. What kind of cookies do you like?
Love, Carson

He also received a personalized letter back (once again, his teacher is amazing!)