I've been busy!

After I made Shayna's water bottle holder for her field trip I decided I wanted one for me. I go walking every morning and I am always carrying my water and cell phone. It's annoying....so I thought I would make myself a water bottle holder and put a pocket on it for my cell phone. GENIUS!! It works so good, I LOVE it!

After I made mine I thought there has got to be an easier, less time consuming way to do the pockets and this is what I came up with......

I think they turned out pretty darn cute. I sent these to my Mom and Ty's Mom for mothers day.
Britton has since decided that he wanted one as well. We go hiking a lot and this is an easier way for the kids to carry their water. He designed it himself.

Now I am currently making one for my Grandma! Yay!

Mothers Day Weekend.....

We had a fun weekend! Friday Tyler's buddy's took him out to dinner and then to play pool for a little going away party. Since he was out playing I thought it would be fun to take the kids to do something. We went to the movies. We saw the Avengers. I was so not excited about going to see this movie, but the kids wanted to so I gave in. I'm so glad I did, we all loved this movie. It is action packed and very funny!
Saturday Tyler wasn't feeling very well so we stuck around the house and that evening we watched RSL. We are still HUGE fans!
Sunday was a blast!
I always love Mothers Day but this one was my FAVORITE!  The kids spoiled me with hand made prizes. Shayna made me a card and decorated it so cute.

 

She Wrote.....Dear Mom,

 Happy Mother's Day!

I love you very much!

Thank you for everything you do for me. 

I like the way you take good care of me!

I love the way you tickle me.

I love the way you make me laugh.

Your Daughter,

Shayna

 

Britton also made me a card. It says....

  

Helps me with homework

always listens to me 

patient, kind and caring

perfect combination

you are awesome

Mother of awesomeness,

or the coolest Mom

the total mother of greatness

heck of a mother

in every pleasant way

raw awesomeness

sometimes weird

Dandy

awesome Mom

Yay, It's Mother's Day!

That kid seriously makes me laugh! He also gave me some  coupons to use. I can use them so that he will clean his room. He will also help Shayna clean her room and he will help me with the dishes. Most of the coupons say "I will TRY to be nice to Shayna for one full day". I better hurry and use them though because they expire on May 20th. I have the cutest, funniest kids ever! No wonder I love Mother's Day!!

We left our house Sunday morning and headed for Sedona. Sedona is only about and hour and a half drive from our house. We took the scenic route and went through Jerome. Jerome is a little mining town that reminded me so much of a mix between Eureka and the old neighborhoods of down town Park City, Utah.

 

Remember the weird cactus I posted about that is in our neighborhood. They are all over in Jereome and Sedona. 

 

They are called the Century Plant (Agave Parryi). They grow a tall stalk that sports bright yellow and orange flowers. So the red part that you see above is the bud. They will soon turn into blooms. 

 Sedona is beautiful. Lot's of red rock that reminds me a lot of Moab. I don't think it is as amazing as Moab though. Once we got to Sedona we wanted to go for a hike so we drove up Coconino National Forest.

It was perfect weather to play in the water. We all started getting hungry so Ty took us all to a restaurant at the airport that he always flies into. It is such a nice little airport with beautiful views. I felt a little under dressed but it was OK. The food was delicious and they even gave me a pretty carnation for Mother's Day.

After lunch we headed back home so Tyler wouldn't miss his playoff games. They won the first game and lost the second game. Next week they will be playing to see who takes first or second place. Tyler won't be there though because he will be starting his new job in Henderson!

Nobody felt like cooking dinner after our long day so we had a Mother's Day dinner at Wendy's. It doesn't get any better then that.

Tyler and the kids got  me the best present ever! I have been wanting a new RSL jersey for years. I have the very first one that came out and I wanted one a little more updated.

Cute Huh

Happy Mother's Day!!

How cool am I?

Shayna's class went on a field trip today. They were told to bring a bottle of water and tie a string around it to wear around their neck so their hands could be free. OUCH! Is all I could think. Could you imagine having a string with the weight of a water bottle hanging around your neck for 3 hours. I was trying to come up with ideas to make it comfortable for her. After many hours of debate I thought to myself, Brittney, you know how to crochet, just make her something. So I started googeling how to crochet a water bottle holder. This is what I came up with.......

None of the water bottle holders I found had flowers on it but I thought it would be really cute! I have made these flowers a bunch of times and knew I could quickly whip one up. I think it turned out really cute.

Shayna was comfortable while walking around and all of her friends were jealous! Not to mention in pain. Poor kids.

Puppy sitting

This weekend we took care of our friends dog while he enjoyed a weekend playing in Vegas. My kids love Koda so much! She is such a good dog! She is great with the kids too, she loves them as much as they love her.

 

  

Tyler and I have decided once we get moved and settled in we are going to get ourselves a dog. We are a much healthier family when we have a dog. I took Koda for walks every morning and we went on bike rides every night so she could run and we went hiking. We hiked from our neighborhood to Fain Park. We wanted to see how far it was from our house. It's crazy but it really takes us longer to drive to the lake then it does to walk to it.

 

The cacti are all blooming. It is so beautiful here right now.

Even this very strange cactus is pretty. I have no idea what it is but it is right here in our neighborhood. I wish I had a better picture of it, my I Phone doesn't do it justice. It is green and cactusie on the bottom and the long shoot that is coming out of it is a deep red. Very weird looking! I could never get a good shot of it from the car so I decided to walk to it. I saw a lot of fun critters on my walk this time. Lizards, Rabbits, Road runners and a big Crane swooped in by the fountains and landed near the water. It was really cool to see but it landed to far away for my phone to get a good pic.

We also got our flowers planted this weekend. We wanted to make this area a salsa garden but when we found out we were moving I didn't want to put all the work into it so we just added some flowers.

I'm looking forward to the next few weekends. We have a LOT going on!

A little update on Dad. He had a Dr. Appointment yesterday and they were able to adjust his night time medication so that he (and Mom) can get more sleep. His blood pressure was still high so another medication was added. He will be going back to that Dr. in a week. He has therapy everyday this week. I talked to him on the phone and asked him how he is doing. He told me 110%. Can't beat that! Even if he was being sarcastic :)

Updates are slowing down....

I don't really have much to report on Dad anymore. Now that he is home things will be very routine. He will have his therapy, but other then that things will be "normal". Of course if there is anything I will post it but from here on out your going to have to mostly read about me again. Dang it! Sorry.......

We have a very busy month ahead of us so there will be no lack of posts I'm sure.

Thank you everybody who has shared this journey with us. You are all very much appreciated and I/we LOVE YOU ALL!!

On his way home!!!!

Dad is on his way home right now!! They have to stop at the pharmacy to pick up all of his medication and then they will be home. YAY! They have some people that will be coming by this afternoon to get him all set up with his C-PAP machine and he will start outpatient therapy as soon as they can get it scheduled.

Today he just wants to sit on the back porch in the nice fresh air with his dog.

It's good to be home......wish I was there.

Going home tomorrow!

Dad was able to get his feeding tube out today. At 5:00 this morning to be exact. I think he thought he would be able to talk better without it in so when it was taken out and nothing changed he was a bit discouraged. However he is still very excited that he doesn't have it anymore. And because of that he can go home TOMORROW!!
Today Dad has a lot of therapy. In each of his therapy sessions they are going to show him what he can do at home to keep on exercising. They are going to be getting him enrolled in therapy classes in Bountiful so Mom and Dad won't have to drive so far for daily therapy. The Dr.s are going to have a meeting today at 12:00 and then will meet with Mom and Dad so I will let everyone know what is said at that meeting.
Dad's Dr told him that with all of therapy he is doing and how well he is improving he should be able to drive again in about 30-40 days. Exciting!!!.....or Scary?? No, I think he will do great and of course the Dr.s wouldn't let him drive if he wasn't ready.
I think the speech therapy is going to be the hardest and longest lasting. But he will get through it, look how far he's come already!

This morning I talked to Dad on the phone.....

And I understood everything he said. It was GREAT! He told me he was eating ice chips, I said they needed to put some flavoring in it like an icy and he told me the liquid has to be thick and it tastes like shit. You know my Dad, you know those were his exact words. Haha!
He had another sleep study last night. They are trying to fine tune a C-PAP machine for him, one that can go to the Mountains. This morning the speech therapist watched Dad eat his breakfast to see how he is doing with everything. It looks hopeful that he could get his feeding tube out today!
They were able to take Dad off of one of his medications. The blood thinner. So that is great news, but they are still trying to get his blood pressure under control. It's all over the place. Like a roller coaster.
That's all I know this morning. I won't hear anything else until after his therapy which will be done in late afternoon.