California Trip.....Successful!

We had a great trip to California Wednesday. Daniel had his breathing treatment (which we are done with next month) and his infusion for one of his anti-rejection meds (which I believe we are done with next month, too!) Anyhow, then Daniel had his ultrasound. THE URINE IS GONE IN THE KIDNEY! YEAH! We were SO happy! Again, our prayers were answered! Thursday morning we had clinicals and everything went well there. They have Daniel's 6 month biopsy scheduled for the week of Feb 10th sometime. We are hoping Amy (his nurse) can change it to the 13th. We can't believe we are already talking 6 months! We are actually 4 1/2 months right now. Anyhow, we were able to find out that there are no signs of the kidney forming anti-bodies against the prograf. We were able to decrease his magnesium, so we are hoping that Daniel's diarrhea and gas will decrease. NOT fun when we are potty training! I have gone thru a LOT of rubber gloves! Thank goodness for disposible. Anyhow, the doctor's only concern was Daniel's weight. He is growing taller, yet weight is staying the same. So we are increasing a can of pediasure to 2 per night in his feeding tube. Give him some extra calories. So, that was our trip! Beautiful and clear over Donner Summit! Blue sky, snow (in some spots!) and good roads.

Potty Training report

OK....Hate is a strong word in our house, but boy do I HATE potty training! We started 2 weeks ago today and we are seeing improvement. In fact, yesterday was wonderful! We had 2 poopy underwear (1 from each kid) and then when eating dinner they each peed. This morning about 6:15 am Sammy woke me up to tell me had to go potty! He was DRY! YIPEE! He was actually dry on other night, too! Poor little Daniel gets so pumped with liquids thru the night, it might be a while before he wakes up dry! It is already 9:30 and we have had Sammy and Daniel tell me twice they had to pee and Daniel had a poopy underwear. In his defense, he does have diarrhea from the magnessium he get in his feeds at night. Anyhow, we are seeing a small little light at the end of this stinky tunnel! YEAH!

Last Report of 2008

Well, we are all anxious around here for the new year. We are actually going to let the boys try and stay up until midnight. They are pretty excited! I don't think they will make it, but we'll see! We have made our goodies to eat all night and have already mapped out the games and Wii activities to be done.

We celebrated the twin's 3rd birthday on the 23rd.


We also started potty training. WE HATE POTTY TRAINING! We just telling ourselves that this is the last time we have to do it and that we'll save lots of money a month on diapers and wipes! I think the most underwear and pants we went thru in one day was 20! It's been over a week and we the only positive we have to report are they are telling us about 25% of the time when they have to go and we seem to go longer stretches between having to go. So that is a plus. We aren't dwelling on the negative!

Oh, Ryan wanted me to add his picture of his 1st official report with a poster and everything! It was on his favorite planet Uranus. (No, he doesn't know yet!) He cut out the letters on my Cricut machine and picked out the paper to frame the pictures. He really has a neatness gene in him! That and he's been seeing me scrapbook lately! Anyhow, he did a great job. It took him 1 1/2 hours to do it. I honestly didn't help too much! Just with the cricut machine! He was really proud of it!


Here are pictures of Christmas Eve. Daniel was helping me make some pies! Here is he rolling out his pie crusts!


For our Family Home Evening we reinacted the Nativity. This is the second take of it. Nathan is Mary. Comptyn is Joseph. Bryce is the shepherd. Ryan and Sammy are the sheep. You can't see their tales. Daniel is sitting in a chair about to fall asleep. And the star of the show.....Donald Duck as baby Jesus. We hope people won't think it's sacriledges (sp?) but we don't have baby dolls around our house! It was either Donald or the Incredible Hulk!


Christmas morning barricade in the hallway until everyone was awake!


Ryan and all his stash:


Comptyn and his stash:


Byce and his stash:


Nathan and his stash:



Daniel and his stash:


Sammy and his stash:


The boys and their Wii.


G-Pa and G-Ma Lords bought the Wii. G-Ma Stewart sent out some games and money to get a Wii Fit (but prices doubled so we are waiting until after Christmas and they come down!) And daddy and I bought Outdoor Adventure which I would highly recommend for ANY age! It's quite a work out and a LOT of fun for all ages! Even Daniel and Sammy like to do it! And also some pictures of them playing their Wii! It's hilarious to watch! If I can figure out how to download video from our camcorder, I'll put some videos on to watch! New Year's Resolution! Figure that out! SOmeone bowled a strike here:


Well, This last picture is of our family! (notice Ryan was in a BAD mood! and my face is flushed because we just got the twins dressed! It's quite a work out sometimes!) From our crazy family to yours....we hope you all have a wonderful new year!


PS About Daniel. He is doing well. His labs are coming in stable. We go back to CA next week. Infusion, breathing treatment and ultrasound on one day. We are suppose to have a clinical the next, but they can't get us in until later in the day. We can't stay that late, so we are kindof going back and forth with the nurse about getting us squeezed in or we won't be seeing them in clinicals. When we have to leave, we have to leave. Anyhow, we'll see how urgent they want to see us!

Bryce's school discipline

Well, Bryce had a visit with the principal. (I never got sent to the principal's office, yet his father has! Wonder were all this 'pay back' is coming from! ;-) Just kidding!) Anyhow, Mr Hogan talked to Bryce about what happened and if it's been happened for long. As we knew before, it has. THe boy has been moved so he isn't sitting next to Bryce, too. So Bryce has lost all his recesses and lunches are to be served in the office for the rest of the week. So not too bad! He has been pretty good around here, too. Staying on his bed when the TV is on and reading.

Bryce-isn't

So usually we have Bryce-isms. But not today! Bryce, apparently, has been getting bullied at school by a boy that is 8 years old and in his class. He has been held back and has a few problems. So he is a bigger kid (obviously) for a first grader. Anyhow, we just found out yesterday that Bryce has been getting picked on by this kid. Well, Bryce couldn't take it any longer. So when this kid had Bryce literally cornered with 2 chairs Bryce pulled down his pants (and underwear) and said, "I am going to pee in your mouth if you don't leave me alone!" YEP! That's my boy! Yesterday for about the first hour it wasn't funny. In fact, I was pretty mad! But now I can't stop laughing! Some of the comments that came so sincerely and honestly out of Bryce were, "But mom! You never said we had to be modest at school!" Which, technically, he is right! We have been teaching to change clothes in different rooms at home and not to run around in just your underwear. We never have expanded outside the walls of our home! (mental note: add more to areas of modest behavior!) Then when we were asking Bryce to help us come up with a punishment for this he said (and keep in mind, Bryce doesn't eat breakfast well if it is oatmeal, craem of wheat or cracked wheat.....which is ALL we seem to eat in the winter) he said, "I think I should go without breakfast for a week." I lost it there! I started laughing so hard! I said, "You don't eat breakfast anyhow! Besides, you need to eat. We will not take away food from you." Then Bryce said, "I don't need food. Just water." I started laughing again! OH! What a day! Anyhow, Santa isn't coming for Bryce since he made the naughty list. Bryce also has no TV for 3 days and is on his bed reading for 3 days (which really isn't a punishment for him....the TV is....and Santa.) So, that is the life with 6 boys! And anyone without sons that sit at the dinner table or in the car or wherever and talk about poop, pee and boofing all the time, might not understand who funny this is after it's all said and done! He is meeting with the principal today so we will see what happens at school! We are taking Elder Wirthlin's advice to laugh at things! (But not while Bryce is around.....well, I guess that didn't work very good for me!) He wrote his letters of apology to the boy and his teacher. So, we'll see what after school brings today! I have a feeling this is just the beginning of our 'fun' school days! At least he is in 1st grade and not 10th!

Yesterday's labs

We got the initial lab results from yesterday. (Prograf won't be done until tomorrow or Thursday....our local hospital has to send those out.) Anyhow, Daniel's creatinine went down to 0.6 and we are very grateful for that! It's been staying at 0.7 and we were wondering what was going on. So we are hoping Prograf level comes down closer to 5, too. That can elevate the creatinine level in Daniel, too. Anyhow, we are doing great around here. Daniel and Sammy are getting a long better. But they have their moments of just being brothers and fighting. They are getting very excited about Christmas and Santa. It's cute! The bottom 3 feet of our tree is looking like 2 years old are playing with it! IMagine that! Tuesday is the twin's 3rd b-day! We can't believe it's been 3 years. It's gone by pretty quick...THANK GOODNESS! It's getting easier and easier! We are hoping to do a little potty training next week and get rid of diapers! Hopefully they can master it pretty quickly....save us $40-$50 a month!

Here is the latest and probably last, article our local paper did on Daniel. A few errors, but mostly correct! :-)
http://www.rgj.com/article/20081212/FALLON/812120325/1029

Well, off to clean!

Daniel's Labs

Well, we have been home for about 2 weeks now and we are settling in nicely. Daniel is having a little trouble sharing as he was an only child for 3 months, but him and Sammy are getting along better and better each day. Daniel's Prograf level is being dumb! :-) For 3 draws in a row he has been 6.9, 7.0, 7.0. So they want his level down by 5.0, therefore they keep lowering his Prograf medicine hoping it would lower the level. Not working! 9.0 was his last Prograf level. Prograf is a touchy medicine. If he doesn't get his medicine at the exact same time everyday, if he eats or drinks anything with it, if he even get 0.2 more or less than what he should, is all a factor in the level. We have been really good about being consitant but it increased. He just had labs again yesterday so we will find out in a few days what is happening on that draw. (Our local hospital has to send out the blood to be tested, so it takes a few days to get results back on Prograf.) His creatinine has been elivated because of the Prograf to 0.7. Daniel's been steady at 0.5 for a long time. So we will see. I've been told by his nurse that it isn't a sign of rejection so not to worry about that. I fretted about that all night long one night. I finally figured that if it was something super serious we would be back in CA!