Catching up...

I wish I could say I've been busy doing good things and that is why I haven't really posted for a while. I guess keeping everyone healthy and happy is a good thing, but I don't feel like I've accomplished much else as of late. If you care to know what we've been doing here it is. 0


Rachel's Birthday:



Rachel had a great day. I still can't believe she's 11. What a great girl she is. She didn't have a party this year...we're trying to do the "even years only" thing. She was fine with that. We did take the family to see "Horton Hears a Who"--VERY CUTE. I loved it. A few days later Luke said, "They should really make a book out of that movie!"





Rachel's BIG present was a cello. She has decided that she wants to play the cello in the orchestra for her music elective next year. Her dad's dream come true! We found a nice used one on Craig's List. She is in love and can hardly wait to start taking lessons.




















I love this picture of Jared giving a cello demonstration...I was making fun of him sharing his "expertise" with the kids...















She got an outfit for Ruthie...her diabetic teddy bear she got when we moved to Houston.


Some books...which she finished in about 3 days.

A new swim suit...do you know how hard it is to find a modest swim suit these days? I finally found this cute one at Kohl's. I kept finding myself looking at the cute one's at Target--in the little girl section--with cherries and ruffles. I really wish they came in a 12...although I don't know that Rachel would be so happy with it anymore! Anyway, the one I found was a Speedo and will be great for swim team which starts in June.


I love her face in the picture where she opened her bow. The cute thing was that I think she thought we had just got her her own bow...initially I don't think she realized there was a whole cello to go with it!

The next night we had Grandma & Grandpa Hansen, Matt & Suzanne & their 4 kids, Angela & Roy and their 3 kids and Annie and Travis over for cake and ice cream.


Rachel and I (mostly I) decided a "R" cake would be perfect for this year. I generally leave the cake decorating to Jared, however, he was busy with some projects and I just don't find joy in spending my whole day decorating a cake that will be devoured in minutes. Rachel was happy with the "R". I baked it and cut it and she decorated it. Another perk to having an 11 year old. I highly recommend it!






Jared left the next Monday morning for San Diego. Back in February he found out that he was selected as a finalist for the Circle Award at HP--a marketing award within the company. The finalist's (from all over the world) gathered in CA for a week of speakers and fun. He had a great time, AND at the awards ceremony he found out HE WON! Needless to say we are so proud of him! Way to go babe!


Jonah has been kidnapped by aliens...sometime in the last few months. The child will not stop reading! I even had to threaten to take away his book the other morning because he wasn't getting his shoes on for school. Weird! He cleaned up shop on his ISAT's! We are so proud of him. It is amazing...they are computerized now, so they get their scores immediately when they finish the test.



Yesterday we had a birthday picnic for Grandpa Hansen...it was great and as always Jonah had a fun time with his Uncle Roy...here they are trying to knock each other off the balance beam.

We went on a walk on the greenbelt--it was a beautiful day. I am going to take Jonah into the doctor this week-whether he likes it or not-he fell off his scooter last Saturday and hurt his wrist. He's been trying to convince me all week it's fine, but I'm finding it isn't. We'll see...


Luke had his last flag football game on Saturday. He had a lot of fun playing. He played center, which was a great spot for him right now. He's still having a lot of seizures and so he is often not quite sure what is going on around him. His coach was very patient with him and helped him stay on track when he was supposed to snap the ball.


We had another Neurology appointment a week or so ago. We determined that the Kepra was not going to work. This was the last medication on the list for Absence Epilepsy. So now we are in experimentation mode. We started a new one Zonegran...to early to tell if it is doing anything. He is on his full dose as of Friday, and has been VERY emotional. We'll wait another week to determine if the medication has anything to do with it.



If the Zonegran doesn't work then we will be heading up to Portland/Seattle to see a Pediatric Epileptologist. At that point we can determine what steps to take. Because Absent Epilepsy only counts for about 10% of epilepsy and Luke is now in the 5-10% who are resistant to medication there's not a lot of info on what to try.


Other than that he's doing great! We have signed him up for swim team along with Rachel and Jonah. Over Spring break they got to do a lot of swimming and he seemed to do okay. When he had seizures in the water he would instinctively tread water until it was over. So we think he'll be fine, we'll just have to stay close in case he needs help.

So what about Seth?


I could probably start a whole new blog just on him. Here are some photos of the latest...



The father of a boy in his preschool class flew his Apache Helicopter to the school for the kids to see! How cool is that?! Seth was in heaven. I kept hearing him say, "This is SO COOL! I want to fly in one of these!" He was also quite fascinated by the big bullet he got to hold.


I have to say it was one of my favorite preschool "field trips". We didn't have to go anywhere and it was really interesting. Watching it take off was the best part! I convinced Suzanne to bring her kids over to watch. I think they had a good time too. It was amazing to watch it hover as it warmed up.


Seth has become quite interested in my things lately. He keeps getting into my "jewels" as he calls them. I guess I should probably hide anything that's worth anything.


He's also decided to take a try at my make-up. Here he's done his eyebrows--with my mascara, and you can't really see, but he's got on some lipstick as well. I also caught him coloring his toe nails with a purple marker the other day because "boys toe nails ARE purple!"

Last night we had the Adult Meeting for Stake Conference. Our Apostle Elder Bednar was here to reorganize our Stake Presidency. It was a great meeting, as was today's. Jared bumped into Tom and Ruby Chandler at the temple on Saturday morning. They were in our congregation in Tomball for a year. Their daughter and son-in-law are good friends of ours (and Janalen was Rachel's piano teacher). Tom was Jared's secretary in the Young Men's for a while as well. Anyway, Janalen is in town with the girls so Tom and Ruby invited us over for dinner tonight. It was so fun to be with them. We love their family.


That's all for now...we'll see what I can get accomplished this week!