NO SCHOOL TODAY!

Today was a teacher improvement day so the kids were home from school and daddy was at work. So we called up our dear friends the Youles and planned a trip to our state capitol of Carson City. We heard that there was a fun children's museum, so that is where we headed. So here is our day in Carson City:

Ryan had fun on the musical instruments. They had this xylophone, a keyboard that was really decked out with drums and all kinds of beat and a floor piano (which I can't believe I didn't get a picture of) like the one Tom Hanks slid across in "Big".

Comptyn was trying to win a game to tic-tac-toe with this computer. He never won.

Nathan (missing his engineer hat...it was on the floor) is driving this train. It made whistle noises and was a lot of fun!

This mini space shuttle had just a little joy stick like thing in teh front spot. But back here where Sammy is jumping out, had a flight simulator one. The kids had a LOT of fun in this!

Of course Daniel spent a LOT of time playing with teh trains!

They had a cute section that was a grocery store and kitchen area. The fake food selection was AMAZING! Shrimp. lobster, crab, clams, pineapple, just about anything you could think of!

They had a sheriff department section where the kids (Comptyn, Joshua Youles, and Nathan) were in jail. And you could do some tests on your fingerprints.

Govenor Comptyn is on a VERY important phone call with Pizza Hut! He was hungry!

Bryce had fun in all the dress up clothes they had: Firefigther Bryce.

Cowboy Bryce.....stick em' up!

They had a section that was set up as a patients room. Dr. Nathan had fun with x-rays and shots.

Dr. Sammy had fun using the stethascope and the 'look in the eyes, ears, and down the throat' thingy! :-) You'd think I would know the name of it. I honestly don't really care! :-)

Dr. Daniel had fun with the broken stethascope and the 'owie' maker (needle). Now it was HIS turn to inflict pain on people! I got my share of shots!

Then one of our kid's favorites...the treadmill rock wall. As you climb up it, the wall moved down adn the kids would keep climbing. I was pretty neat! I got dizzy doing it! I couldn't get very far on it! Here is Comptyn.

Ryan....with Bryce looking on....he never did try it.

And Nathan. I had one of Daniel, but forgot to upload it. And speaking of Daniel. After about 2 hours of being there, he decides to poop his underwear. Just an egg shaped, hard poop. (THANK GOODNESS!) So we dumped it in the toilet and cleaned and went commando! Then about an hour later, Ashley Youles said to me, "I think Daniel pooped his pants." Well, actually it didn't stay in his pants....it slid down his legs (BOTH OF THEM!) and landed in 2 piles next to the outside of his feet! So Denise (mom Youles) watched guard of the poop piles while I ran out to the van and cleaned Daniel up, put him in a diaper (I found one under a seat....didn't think about packing any!) and ran back inside to clean up and sanitize the floor! UGH! After I was all done, I thougth about taking a picture! Wouldn't you have LOVED that?!?!

We then drove down the road to the state capitol and had a fun picnic on the side lawn. Bryce said, "I hope we see the President!" Ashley then said, "We aren't in Washington D.C." But Bryce wasn't too disappointed.

We went to a little museum they have upstairs in the capitol. We didnt' know each county has their own flag. This is Churchill County's flag. Not too exciting! But these are the run rats Denise and I drag around all day! Gotta love them! (Notice Daniel with no pants!)

Part of the museum had this desk like something the Speaker of the House would sit at. It was a little higher and so the kids climbed up there. Comptyn said to me, "Mom, take a picture of my serious face." Comptyn NEVER has serious faces........

So I did!...................What do you think?

Daniel found a desk and had to 'read' his brochure about the Sarah Winnemucca statue in the lobby of the capitol building. She was an indian princess and that is who Kevin's hometown was named after. (Winnemucca.....not Sarah!)

Here is Bryce at the speaker of the house table. He slammed his fist down and right here is saying, "You are guilty!"

It was a fun day! We decided that during these teacher improvement days we are going to do this with the kids. Also, a day in June since daddy still works a few weeks after kids are out. We are going to look into some ghost towns are here for next time!

Also, check back tomorrow night for some news Kevin is going to share! That is all I can say for now!

Calling all recipes!

I have been asked to do a little class in May on food preparation. More specifically obtaining and using a 3 month supply of food. What I would like (and you can email them to me at amylords@gmail.com) are recipes that use no perishables. No fresh meat (can be canned or TVP) and no veggies or fruit (unless dehydrated). For example, my taco soup is all from cans: beans, corn, tomatoes. I can add hamburger, but in this case would either leave it out or use TVP. So, if I could get some recipes by April 18th, that is a Saturday, that would be great! What we are trying to do is have a collection of things for people to try and collect to build the 3 month reserve of food we have been asked to by our church leaders today. I would be willing to share them, too, if you would like a copy! Thanks!

Bryce's 'after school' activiy

Yesterday I went to pick up the kids from school. Comptyn was right out. Ryan rode the bus to a friend's house. Bryce, well, we waited for Bryce. About 10 minutes later we went in the school. He usually forgets something somewhere in the school, like his coat or lunch box. So we walked down to his class room....not there. We walked to the cafeteria....not there. We when walked around the playground.....not there. So I went to the office and had them page him and told him to come to the office. By now it has been about 20 minutes. So I waited about 2 minutes or so. No Bryce. I start getting a little panicky. I envisioned someone taking Bryce and more horrible things. Then this lady who has a son in Bryce's class, pulled up in front of the school and said, "Are you looking for Bryce?" I said, "yes" She said, "He is about 4 blocks away and said he is walking home. I told him to walk back to the school because you are here." We live 6 miles from the school. (He refused to get in her truck, so I have to give him thumbs up for that!) We all load up and drove to meet him. I asked him what he was doing and he shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's a nice day out. I thought I'd walk home." He said is so cute! Just like, "DUH Mom!" The day in the life of a child! I definately said a prayer of thanks that he was safe!

A few pics and a few funnies

OK, so I am behind on my blog! Here are a few pictures of the twins on St. Patty's Day. I picked the kids up at school wearing the glasses. Comptyn wasn't very impressed. Nathan wore the wig to school, or I would have worn that, too.

Last night Bryce was complaining about dinner. (Stir fry and sweet and sour!) Anyhow, at one point about 30 minutes after he started whining he yelled, "I'd rather eat a tire!" Lucky for him, Kevin had just changed the tubes in Comptyn's bike tires!

Then last night the Make-A-Wish representatives came by to do all the paperwork for Daniel. We have been 'training' Daniel to say what he wants for his wish. (Which obviously we decided as a family.) We decided to ask to meet Thomas S. Monson. For those that do not know him, he is the President of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and the only living Prophet on the earth right now. So for months we have been saying 'Daniel, who do you want to go visit?' He has been saying, "President Monson!" He recognizes him when we watch church videos and sees him in our church magazines. Anyhow, last night, Mr. Dave (as we called him) asked, "Daniel, who would you like to go see?" Daniel shouts out SO excitedly, "SANTA CLAUS!" It was really funny! Never have we heard Santa as a pick! It was funny! So then we have to have a back up wish in case the first falls thru. So we asked for a camper. So when asked what he would like if he can't see President Monson Daniel says, "A Santa camper!" I don't know where Santa came from, but he apparently was in the Santa frame of mind last night.

(Here is our little disclaimer. We have had many people tell us what a 'waste' of a wish this was, or that we should ask for something else. If you agree with them, we don't want to hear about it! No offense, but when you get to make a wish for your family....wish away! You can pick anything your heart desires. Our heart desires for our family to meet the Prophet. We can always buy a camper. Thanks for reading!)

So then when he had to draw a picture of what he wanted, this is what he drew:



Can you see the "Wish I could meet?" is a picture of President Monson (as good as a 3 year old gets) and the "Wish I could have" is a camper....see the tires? We don't know what "wish I could be" or "wish I could go" are. Anyhow, we thought it was great!

Here are some truly old pictures

I have been scanning and sharing pictures of family. Want to preserve them and also sharing them. Anyhow, here are a few old ones I absolutely love!

The one on the left is a 4 generation picture. The baby is my grandma, Maxine Arnold. Her mother is holding her, Mabel Elsie Cota Arnold. Mabel's mother, Jennie Mae Smith Cota, is in teh black dress and Jennie's mother, Anna Williametta Dutcher Smith, is in the middle. Picture taken in 1925.

The picture on the right is of Anna Williametta Dutcher Smith and I believe it's taken in 1918. I'd have to pull the original, but I think that is what is written on it.

This is a picture of the 4 Cota children. Mabel Elsie Cota that was above and her siblings. So from left to right is: Harold, Olive, Mable and Willis Cota. Picture taken about 1911. Fun, huh? How did they get their kids to hold so still and look forward at the camera? If you look back a few blog entries, of all 6 of my boys, I think only half are looking at the camera.....and that was the BEST picture taken! :-)

LOVE old pictures!

OK, so this one isn't in black and white or even sepia, like many of the old pictures I have, but his is of my grandpa, James Sofoulis, Jr. It's from 1954 and he is dancing with his cousin-in-law at a New Years Eve Party. (Hence the crazy hat!) Anyhow, I LOVE the shirt! That is the style right now! At least my style! I love argyle! My second cousin, once removed sent this to me. We have been working on our common line together. Thanks Steve!

Yesterday's labs

Daniel's BUN came back at 22. That is what they determine how hydrated he is. It's a great number! I was nervous about that considering he's had diarrhea and not just his normal diarrhea. We are talking it sounds like he is peeing diarrhea. Also his creatinine came back at 0.4 which is great. 0.3-0.5 is the range they want and he has been steady at 0.5 lately. So those numbers are good! In fact, all the other numbers are good! So that is wonderful! We'll find out, hopefully by Friday, what the BK Viral and Prograf levels are. I'll let you know when I find out.
And just a side note, we had ride last night for dinner, Daniel slept all night until 5:30! WOW! Can't tell you the last time we had 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep!

Daniel's Lab results

Well, I have good news and bad news. Let's start with the good. I took Daniel to the eye doctor and his eyes are perfect! There were some small 'crusties' around his eye lids that we need to clear. (like so small we don't see them well) They might be scratching his eye.
Bad news: Daniel's urine test for one of hte viruses BK also known as JC Virus, tested positive. So now they will track it in his blood. If he tests positive in his blood then we have to adjust his anti-rejection meds so his body can fight it off. (Possibly causing damage to the kidney.) If the JC Virus passes into the central nervous system and into the brain we are in trouble. Then he will develop the progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The symptoms of PML are the result of an infection that causes the loss of white matter (which is made up of myelin, a substance the surrounds and protects nerve fibers) in multiple areas of the brain. Without the protection of myelin, nerve signals can’t travel successfully from the brain to the rest of the body. This is fatal. SOOOOOO, to curtail any of this from going beyond even the blood testing positive, please pray Daniel's labs are good. I am having them drawn tomorrow. Results will be back middle of next week. I'll let you know. Thank you! (Don't you LOVE the medical classes you get to take for FREE on my blog?)

Our California Trip Yesterday

Well, it was LONG day! It's actually been a LONG week! Friday night Comptyn started throwing up. Sunday night was Sammy's turn, Tuesday was Bryce's turn, Wednesday was Ryan's, 1 am Thursday was Daniel, 3 pm was Nathan and 5 pm was Kevin as we were driving down 1-80 in Sacramento, CA! Kevin's parents were here with the kids and so mom started at 2 am this morning (Friday!) ....Sorry mom! Anyhow, we were REALLY nervous about Daniel because when he threw up, his tube, of course, came up. We just took it out and let him sleep. But he was up again at 3 am throwing up some more. That is why we didn't put it back in.....we knew more was on the way! Anyhow, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep WEdnesday night as we had our ward temple trip and then Ryan started throwing up about 11:30 pm. Anyhow, we got up at 5 am and left by 6 for our appointments. Daniel threw up at 6:30 and 8:30 on the road, but we took a barf bucket with us. So it was contained! Anyhow, about 11:30 he started drinking and eating alittle. I was REALLY nervous they would want to do labs and stick him in the hospital for dehydration. His kidney hadn't gotten any liquids for 12 hours! But his systolic blood pressure was 91! I was really happy about that. They want it high 90's, low 100s but 91 was better than I thought it would be! So, we met with nephrology first. (kidney doctors) I talked to them about how he complains about his tummy hurting. And it's not just when he is hungry. I had a theory that it might be stomach acid. Sure enough, they agreed. with the feeding tube down there, the valve doesn't close all the way. I realized we were feeding him just before he goes to bed and then he lays down adn that acid is probably just sliding right up his tube into his esophagus. Anyhow, we have a script for an antacid. He complains that his right eye always hurts. We were to ask the ENT if there is anything with his tonsils that would be effecting his eye. Daniel's labs were good this week. His creatinine was still at 0.5 so we were happy. His magnessium was at 2.1 and it can range from 1.4-2.2. That is what causes his diarrhea, which is actually better since they last time the lowered the dose.....ANYHOW...they lowered his dose again. So I am excited for that. The only thing that was brought up about his little intestinal flu he has is to repeat labs to make sure he isn't dehydrated. Prayers were answered! Thank you! I know mom emailed some of you to keep Daniel in your prayers. So I am taking him in tomorrow morning. We were given a script for an antacid for Daniel. He complains that his stomach hurts all the time. Tube down into stomach means flap isn't closing. So anyhow, I am hoping that helps with the reflux.
We then went and met Dr. Chang. He is Daniel's ENT. And, YEAH! We are having tonsils out April 15th. He will have to stay one night in the hospital at least. If there are other concerns it may be longer. There is something called PTLD which stands for Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder. They will analize the tissues when they remove the tonsils and adnoids. He might have tubes put in, too. It, in a nutshell, means that the EBV (Epstein Barr Virus a.k.a. mononucleosis) that is present in 95% of Americans and they have been monitoring in Daniel (Kelle carried it and so far Daniel has been testing negative for it) comes to 'life' and starts going thru his system. It can create malignant lymphomas so cancers like Hodgkin's Disease and lymph node cancer are common the first few years post transplant. It decreases after the first year quite a bit. It's from the immunosuppresants he is on. If it isn't one thing, it's another, huh? :-) ANYHOW, we will pray everything is fine and go from there. Daniel's eye pain has nothing to do the the tonsils or adnoids. So we are going to the eye doctor today to see what has been causing that. It's always the right eye. My mind has gone wild with possibilities, but no use worrying until they check it out! So that is how our trip went. We got home about 11:30 pm. I think. I don't even remember. We were exhausted. Kevin slept most of the last 3 hours home. He didn't go to work today because still was throwing up thru the night. FUN! FUN! Anyone want to come and visit? :-)

Yet ANOTHER Bryce-ism!

OK, as many of you know, Bryce just cracks us up with all the funny things he comes up with. We have to make note of them because there are those times where he drives us nuts...as any 6 almost 7 year old with 5 other brothers would do to anyone!

So a few nights ago Kevin and I were up at the church getting out temple recommends renewed. We were just about to leave and Bryce grabs one bum cheek with each hand, eyes wide open and as serious as can be yells, "POOP ALERT ACTIVATED! I'VE GOTTA FIND A BATHROOM!" Where I proceed to burst out laughing! He then scurried down the hall and found a bathroom. Where that boys comes up with these things, I'll never know!

A few little tidbits!

Here are a few things that have happened lately in our home:

Ryan fell in love with a puppy. OK....all of us did. Check out his blog to see pictures of him and Tootsie. www.ryanlords.blogspot.com

Bryce got glasses. Ryan & Comptyn are showing off their new ones, too. So now 5 out of 8 in our family a visually challenged! Bryce was SO excited to get his. He said everything looks bigger and the floor slopes up. I think Comptyn said the same thing when he got his.




Daniel has discovered combing his own hair. Styling hair is not in his future!



After stake conference on Sunday we took some pictures with our boys! Aren't they all cute?





Daddy and the twins took a nap later in the day. Here are the twins:

Our famous little Daniel

There was a brochure mailed out to anyone that is a member of the National Pediatric Medical Association. They went out ALL over the United States and parts of Canada. Well, paste the below link and check on page 2 for our little Daniel! One day we were in clinicals and Daniel was playing in the hall while we were waiting for the doctors to come into the room. He went by the room where they were taking some pictures of patients and I heard this lady say, "Where is this boy's parents?" I thought I was in trouble! NOPE! She fell in love with Daniel and wanted to take some pictures of him. She said he was the cutest kid she had seen so far. (Didn't surprise me!) So we spent an extra hour up there. They took some of just Daniel, some with Daniel and I, and then a bunch with Daniel and one of his nephrologists.....Dr. Grimm. That is who you will see in the picture with Daniel. Our pediatrician here in Fallon got a copy of it! She was pretty excited, too.

http://www.lpch.org/pdf/cmeBrochures/cme17thAnnualPediatricUpdate.pdf



I just LOVE the orange background....how about you? :-)

Daniel & Sammy

OK...this is another bragging email of how cute my boys are! Can I help it?

Last night for dinner I made some rolls. Daniel grabbed one and said, "Look mom! A Goofy hat!" Sure enough! They look like Goofy hats! Makes my heart proud that they 'see Disney' in life around them! :-)



Then, of course, Sammy had to put what was left of his roll on his head and have his picture taken too! Can't be left out!



The other night the twins were playing on the ground coloring. Had to take some pictures! They were just so cute!

Ryan the Scout

Ryan is really enjoying cub scouts. These pictures are from the Blue & Gold Banquet we had last month. He got his Bobcat (a little late) and Wolf badges. Also 2 silver arrows. This his him pinning the Bobcat and Wolf pins on my shirt.

His Wolf den did a little skit, which is this picture. For those of you who know how shy Ryan is, this was incredible for him to get up there on stage and do this!

The fathers and sons had to decorate a cake for judging. Ryan and Kevin won "Best Den Cake". They had fun doing it! (I think Ryan more than Kevin!)

He is now in his Bear den and has a great den mother who has the kids doing lots of crafty things, which Ryan loves to do! He can still ride the bus to scouts, too. That he was sad about leaving when he left the Wolf den.

Here he is with all his badges sewn on his uniform. He is pretty excited that he just earned his Religious Knot badge that our church gives out for completing certain things in his Faith in God booklet. It is quite a bit of work and we are proud of him for doing that.

Comptyn turns 8 in June and is really chomping at the bit to get his scout book and uniform! I better start looking for shirts! Next year Bryce joins, too!