THE RESULTS ARE IN . . .

Got a call from the Doctor today and the results from Rhett's testing came back all clear with no abnormalties ... cannot even begin to express the amount of relief I feel and the weight that has been lifted off my shoulders. Now its just a matter of taking it day by day to try and figure out what is causing the headache's. One step at a time!!

Thank you again to everyone who has had us in their thoughts & prayers ... we are very blessed to have all the positive support surrounding us.

RHETT'S MRI and MRV . . .

Yesterday we took Rhett Man in for his MRI& MRV appt at Phoenix Children's Hospital. The night before I helped him pack his backpack with some books & toys just in case we had some down time in the waiting room and he wanted to bring his "shawk"(shark) book, even though it wouldn't fit in his backpack he told me "its ok, I can just cawwy(carry) it". He did such an awesome job and was so brave, we are so very proud of him!! The doctors and nurses there were amazing and made everything fun and exciting for him as well as very patient and informative to Clay and I, answering ALL of our questions (which trust me I had plenty)and making us feel very confident that he was in good hands & they would take good care of him. We got to go back with him as they gave him the anesthia to put him to sleep and then we were kicked out to the waiting room during the testing which took a good hour or so. I'm not going to lie, even though they warned us of what to expect while he was going to sleep, it was not easy for me to watch and definitely teared me up pretty good.

As soon as he started wakeing up from the anesthia they came and got us so we could be with him and let me tell ya he was not the happiest little guy, woke up a total little grump butt!! I informed the nurse that he is not much of a morning person and pretty much never enjoy's wakeing up!! Eventually we got him woke up, he got some goody's to bring home and we were on our way! As soon as we got in the truck he wanted the bandage from his IV off (not my kid or anything!!) and wasn't going to give up until I took it off, so I made sure it was done bleeding and pulled it off. When he saw the blood on the bandage he asked me "momma how come they had to make me bleed"! Hahaaa!!

They told us to expect the results from his pediatrician by Thursday afternoon. Being my normal anxious self, I actually called Dr. Gutman (his pediatrician) on the way home to let her know that he had the testing done and that she should be expecting the results by Thursday. She told me that its a good sign that they let us walk out of there and that she would let me know as soon as she hears anything.

CELEBRATING THE BIG "5"

Amazingly enough, we celebrated Rhett's 5th birthday yesterday and I know I say this with every birthday but I cant believe my little dude is officially 5 years old. 5 is a big one for me, as it brings with it so many milestones and changes like starting kindergarten & sports, beginning to read, learning much more independence and reaching a whole different level of maturity. We are constantly teasing all of our kids that we are going to put them in a shoe box so that they cant grow anymore, but the truth is that although it is sad for us parents to let go of our babies, we also couldn't be anymore proud to see them growing up into the little people that they are with so much personality, confidence and knowledge and becoming their own person in this world!!! Rhett's official birthday party is yet to come but this past weekend we went up to Munds Park to celebrate Grandma's birthday (post to follow) so we couldn't help but celebrate Rhett's too with cake, a present from Mom & Dad, and we even did a little fishing on Sunday which is what he really wanted to do for his birthday!!!

Tow Mater Legos ... I have never seen Rhett more attached to anything in my entire life!! From the moment he opened this present from Clay & I, he didn't put it down and there is no exaggeration there!! He litterally held it under his arm any and everywhere he went for the rest of Saturday night and all day Sunday, even playing out in the woods with all his cousins!!

Rhett @ 5:

* is very passionate about what he does and believes in, whether it be coloring, music, building legos, etc ...

* loves fire trucks and says he wants to be a fireman when he grows up

* still say's his "R's" like "W's" which is one of the cutest things ever to listen too

* loves getting his tool box out and working with daddy in the garage.

* a music man and total Jason Aldean fan!! Always asking us to "tuwrn it up" when we are jamming tunes!!

* the "lazy bones" of the group who will sleep in til 9 - 10 o'clock in the morning if I let him!! In fact I end up singing him the lazy bones song as a wake up call probably 4 or 5 days a week!!

* loves one on one time and especially loves having stories read to him.

* is very proud of his lego collection and can follow the step by step directions like a champ!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUNSY!!!

THE MAGIC OF MINNIE MOUSE . . .

Last Thursday when I told Rilyn it was time to get her suit on for swim lessons, of course I got her typical response of "no" and absolutely no cooperation ... that was until I pulled out her Minnie Mouse swim suit that my mom had gotten her a while back (i just recently cleaned out her closet and found it) that fits her now. As soon as she set eye's on it, she was immediately so excited to put it on and believe it or not I couldn't hardly get her out the door and in the truck quick enough to go to swim!! Once we arrived she walked right up to the edge of the pool and began telling Mrs. Brooke all about minnie mouse on her swim suit!! Brooke immediately caught on and played it up to the fullest, asking Rilyn if Minnie was going to help her swim today and the whole nine ... hahaaaa ... Rilyn responded with a very enthusiastic "uh huh" and was in the pool ready to start her lesson with a smile, yes I said with a smile you did read that right!! And now for the kicker ... she didn't just start her lesson with a smile ... she didn't shed one whine, tear, scream, nothing for the entire lesson ... so we finished with a smile too!! If only I would have known 4 weeks ago that Minnie Mouse was the magic we needed for a tear free swim lesson ... my oh my!!! I'm pretty positive that I'm not going to get any other swim suit on this little lady for the remainder of the summer!!

Here is the proof ... 1st smile in 4 weeks!! I dont know who was more shocked & excited, me or Brooke!!

POSITIVE THOUGHTS & PRAYERS . . .

For those of you who don't know, our little Rhett Man has been complaining about getting headache's for a few months now. So last week I decided to call his Doctor to find out if this was normal (which I was pretty positive it wasn't, as I didn't think a 4yr. old should even know what a headache is) and she of course said no and lets get him in so I can check it out. The next afternoon we went to see Dr. Gutman, who did an exam on him, checked his eye's .. which he has 20/20 vision and could see the chart better than me with my glasses on (hahaa), and she said that she thought it was probably a migraine thing which some kids can develop around his age, but just to be safe and take every precaution she wanted us to get a CT scan to make sure everything was good. So we scheduled an appt and on Monday afternoon Clay & I took him to get a CT scan. He did such an awesome job holding still and was very brave!! They told us to give it 48 to 72 hours and they would send the results to his Doctor who would then contact us.


For all his bravery, we stopped on the way home and let him pick out something special from the store, which he chose Cars 2 Legos (I know big surprise)!!!

So on Tuesday morning when my phone rang at 10am (not even 24hrs after his appt) and I saw that it was the Dr. office's # I knew it wasn't good ... the Doctor informed me that the radiologist had called the night before after hours and the results of the scan are showing some sort of dark, dense spot (she said it almost looks like bone, but until they get a better picture of it they cant really tell) that we need to look further into and they want to schedule him to get an MRI ... at this point I pretty much went numb and although I heard the rest of what she said, I dont think I completely heard it if you know what I mean. So now we are just waiting to hear from the office that is going to do the MRI to schedule an appt for further testing. At this point we are just saying lots and lots of prayers and trying our best to stay positive and strong. Thank you so much to all of our friends and family for all the support and extra prayers ... we need all the positive thoughts and prayers we can get.

DUST STORM . . .

We missed the 1st dust storm that hit a couple weeks ago, that is until the next morning when we saw the layer of dirt that covered EVERYTHING, hahaaa, but for the 2nd one that hit on Monday evening we saw the whole thing and I even got to capture a couple pretty cool pictures of it!! We were at my mom & norm's house and my mom & I were actually walking with the kiddos to go see the baby cows by her house when we saw this heading towards us and moving pretty quick!! Needless to say we turned around and headed back for the house, in fact Trey immediately took off running, and we decided to save seeing the cows for another day!!!




I was standing in their driveway for this one!!
Crazy, wild stuff .... pretty cool to see!!

ISR WEEK 4

By the end of week 4 (which is actually more like week 3 and a half for Rilyn because of a few missed days) she is totally passing her float test and we are now working on turning over and swimming from her float. Here are a couple of video's of her in action and as you can tell she is not loving her swim lessons anymore now than she did when we started, as she still cries and yells "noooo" & "I want out" hahaaaa!!!

Float Test!!


Flipping over and swimming from her float!!