4 Peaks!

If you were wondering what it means when I tell you each Thanksgiving we go to 4 Peaks...just count the peaks on the mountain behind us...The Arnett Family Tradition that has been going on since my memories began.

Clyde and Sr

Walter & Monte

Seth, Jack, Sr, Clyde

Mom and Seth

Sr and Clyde

Me and Jack

ThAnKs!!

ThAnKs to my neighbor, Annie (well not technically my neighbor but my neighbor none-the-less. If you've known me long enough, you know EXACTLY who I'm talking about.) for coming over for HoUrS today while I finished my Christmas shopping! You read right...Finished! Anne you are the BEST, your kids are gorgeous and you are a great friend! Even though we go years between actual visits...I guess that's OK when you'll always be neighbors, right?

"Meet you between the two trees!!"

long awaited update!

Everyone keeps asking, "How is Jack doing?" and instead of talking a lot about it, I've been trying to deal with it. Now that I've got a bit of a routine back in our lives here is the

long awaited update!

Jackson is happy as can be, a real trooper. Actually the truth is it makes you feel even worse that he is so nice about his immobility. If he would cry and mumble all the time you could relate to him more but he is, in fact, so nice about it, it kind-of breaks your heart.

We can wash the bodice with rubbing alcohol and that has made a world of difference. We also spend an hour each morning and evening with the hair dryer. Drying out moisture from various sources...Just recently though he has taken to putting things down into the cast so I have to be diligent in keeping things out. If they make it into the legs we are goners!

The cast comes off December 16. The Doctor says there is a small chance his leg won't be ready by then, but I think he just has to say that so moms like me don't go berserk on the off chance that happens. I swear he is getting heavier and more awkward for me to carry every day.

His brothers, Dad and Mom spoil him rotten and I fear that we will have ruined our easy independent boy child. The real problem is that the more frustrated he is becoming with his cast the more tired and impatient I am becoming with him.

Nights are still by far the worst. Monte and I are both desperate for real sleep. We take turns with him over night. He still is not very comfortable and tries to shift in his bed. Then he gets very frustrated to be woken up even if it is he who has woken himself. Basically a no win situation.

Still we are happy to be not hurting anymore and have routine back in our lives. Now that we know how to do things it is easier to get out and about. I don't go out very often but at least the things I have to do can get accomplished. A sweet girl from the ward comes over every afternoon to sit while I pick up the older boys from school. That is probably my biggest life saver.

After the cast is off we've been told he won't be walking for "a month or so." He'll do his own physical therapy...crawling, pulling himself up, toddling. And even then he'll walk with a limp for "quite a while"

Update complete...

Now...how to get the Christmas shopping done?

Our tooth fairy is rich and apparently very, very BLOND!

UMMMM...our tooth fairy (the male version) forgot last night. The female version was up with Jackson all night and didn't even know that the tooth (and the promisary note for the one that had been lost somewhere in the carpet) had been placed under the pillow. Jack is finally doing better around 2am and I'm thinking that sleep for me is coming when Clyde comes in with a bad dream around 3am. By 4am I finally get him settled in bed with me and am drifting into much needed sleep myself when Seth comes in with the dreaded..."Mommy, the tooth fairy forgot!" Oh crap "Oh sweetie," I say, "she was probably just crazy busy last night." By 5am he is done hitting the bed and squirming around, while Clyde and his nasty night breath are snoring next to me, and I drift off into sleep. Ahh sweet sleep. Around 6am, the male tooth fairy emerges from his upstairs sleeping chambers to shower and get ready for work. I mention the tooth fairy scenario and since Seth is still sleeping next to me he goes to take care of it. Around 7am "MOM!! I got $5 for my two teeth!" Seriously? That's all the tooth fairy had in his wallet? I've got quarters stashed all over this house! "Oh baby that is SO AWESOME!" 7:30am "Guys, go make your beds and clean up your rooms it's about time to get to school." "WoW Mom the tooth fairy forgot my tooth and I still got $5!!!!" "What?" "I found it under my bed! She forgot it!" Geesh! So now Monte Birk has given Seth a quarter for the tooth and has it in his own baggie with you guessed it! HIS name on the bag. He's going to put it under his pillow tonight because "Geeze Mom, this tooth fairy isn't too smart. She won't even notice!"

Told you so!

...and the winner in the loose tooth competition is...SeTh! (just as I predicted). As a side note, yesterday we were driving home from cousins house and he pulled the lower tooth as well! Now he's got a hole on the top and a hole on the bottom. Clyde is a little jealous, but if you know Clyde at all he pretty much goes with the flow...WhaTeVer is his mantra.

twins just being twins

Clyde has had 2 loose teeth on the top for a month now. He keeps asking when they will fall out but he's too scared to wiggle them around. (Don't know why, he's already lost two on the bottom.) The other night, while I was out, he decided it would be fun if Seth had a lose tooth as well. So...while they were watching TV together Clyde reached into Seth's mouth and yanked one of his top front teeth forward. Seth did NOT have a loose tooth at the time, mind you, but when I got home that evening Seth's tooth was sticking straight forward out of his mouth. I now call him my snaggle tooth boy. He is a born tooth wiggler though, so his is sure to come out before either ONE of Clyde's!

Definition

Spica cast: A spica cast (also called a hip cast or body cast) immobilizes the hips and thighs so that bones or tendons can heal properly. It is usually put on in surgery while the child is sleeping.

There are several types of spica casts. They begin at the chest and may extend down to cover one leg, both legs, or the leg on one side and down to the hip or knee of the other side. The doctor will decide what type of spica cast your child needs.

Guess which one we needed!

(Tell me that's not gonna stink-literally-in less than a weeks time...I dare ya!)

You don't actually put a diaper on him. The cast is somewhat like I'd image a chastity belt (without the key.) You get a small diaper, size 2 or 3, and sort of tuck it into the cast around his crotch. We got a cool new car seat today to transport him around in. I'm going out to buy a big gardening wagon to fill with pillows to get us through the holidays. He's got to wear it 6 weeks- hopefully it will come off the week before Christmas...sorry all if our scent begins to offend...) The cast is slightly bent at the waist maybe 20 degrees so he will be able to sort-of sit up The bean bags at home will come in very handy the next few weeks. I'm also moving his bed to my room to avoid the stairs. Seeing his brothers today helped a TON but he's staying in the hospital tonight again because of concern for his heart rate. It's been above 135 for 3 days straight. They anticipated it going down when his pain was lessened, but it went UP instead towering around 166. (Ideally it should be low 90's or under.) It also stays uncomfortably high while he is asleep which is abnormal as well.

Looks like he's coming home tomorrow though so...

Wish us Luck!!

This photo was taken at the end of the day today once he was weaned off the heavy meds and had a clearer head. He still spikes with pain every so often but it is FAR more managable. Thanks for the prayers...please keep them coming!

Morphine anyone?

They upped his timing so he can get the morphine evey hour instead of evey two hours. That wasn't quite covering it. The problemb is the morphine gives him BIG body twitches. The "feel like you're falling" kind you sometimes get right before you fall aslep. They jerk his leg and even with the drugs he cries out. He's just done...I can't blame him. Last night stunk.

calling all prayers!!

Did you know hospitals have internet access? I wish I didn't know. Jackson was with a sitter this afternoon and he broke his femur. It's been a long, very dificult and horribly painful 8 hours from ER to Ambulance to Children's Hospital. Morphine has helped and mommy's singing worked for many of those hours. Tomorrow at 10am he will be having surgery. Start praying now for him to get through this aweful night & the next week...pretty please!

Monte Sr is in Utah with Seth and Clyde, coming home tomorrow, Monte Jr is with cousins (he's not actually too upset this being his first sleep over.) Mom? Well, I'm at the hospital no toothbrush, no pj's no soap, no...you get the picture. Who thinks a trip to the ER will result in a week at the hospital?

He cries out in pain every few minutes in his sleep. 15 more minutes and he can have more morphine. It is breaking my heart to see my brave little tough guy go through this.

worms

At parent pick-up on Tuesday Monte Birk asked me, "Mom, do worms have citizenship?" Me: "No Monte Birk, I don't think so. Why do you ask?" Monte Birk: "They do such great things for us it seems like it would only be fair." Me: "What do you mean kiddo?" Monte Birk: "Well, they loosen the soil and help plants grow and fertilize the ground. You know mom, we owe the worms a lot." Try keeping a straight face having that conversation with a serious 8 year old!

What would you do?

You call your neighbor to have her 3 year olds over to play. She says no, she's going to the AZ State Fair, "It's deodorant day." You say "huh?" Bring in deodorant get in free! Of course it's 1/2 day at school for the kids anyway...SO...what would YOU DO?!

The brethren prefer the games to the rides. (Games and rides all $1 yesterday.) MB won his bear early on in the afternoon and carried him around the fair grounds like this all day.

Ingenious!!

...and I quote "TWAINS mom TWAINS!" He would have been happy at this stop all day long.

Jack was too short for most of the rides...including this one. I've learned that if I carry him into the ride they never actually see his height!! Is that sneaky or smart?

They have an exibit this year of life sized dinosaurs. Very loud, pretty darn scary and not for the faint of heart child. I'd roll Jacks stroller close to the ones with big ol teeth and he'd scream until I'd roll him away again. Back and forth, back and forth...I've got it on video.


The animals won by the end of the evening!

OH! Did mention the fact that the mini van's radiator cracked just after picking up the boys from school on the way to the fair? We were crammed in the van with our friends the Hamms. Monte saved us from the freeway on ramp, we transfered all of the strollers and car seats to his car, left him with a few kids, transfered everything into the Hams Jeep, went back to pick up the rest of the kids, left Monte with the Mess of a mini-van on the side of the road (not stranded, he had his car back.)...and were on our way! We could've stayed home after the hour long delay on the side of the road. But...life's what you make it...right?

school party-round 1

I was a bit of a Scrooge for the trunk or treat. Today I made up for it by donning a sporting costume and surpising the kids at their school parties.

'Barefoot and in the kitchen'...frightening!

it's a custume people...don't get any ideas

Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest!

We've hosted this at our home for the nieghborhood for 9 years now. Doesn't matter where we live, we invite our neighbors and a few other friends and carve! Home made caramel apples for category prizes and T-shirts of the Over-All best in each age group.

This is serious business!

The Judds were the only representatives from the neighborhood this year. Hmmmm, maybe we're scary neighbors?

Monte's best friend Jonah came as well as the Judds, the Reidheads and the Simmons families

OK...he couldn't have been happier cutting away on his own! No wait, when we lit up the fire pit and brought out the marshmellows that added a bit.

trunk or treat

Don't get me wrong, I love Halloween, I really do, I'm just wondering when it became the biggest and busiest of all of the holidays in the year! Ward parties, School parties, Work parties, Neighborhood parties...with costumes and make-up at each one!

Fall Break

The Park, the Zoo, cousins, play dates, hangin' with nothin' to do...PerFeCt!

Seth

JackMB

Clyde

MiLeSToNEs

Yesterday was a special milestone for Monte Birk.

He was baptized into

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It was a very Special Day for us all.

Grandma Gardiner and Grandpa Arnett

Aunt Margot, Ryan and Lindsay flew in from Utah, as did Grandma Gardiner. Uncle Bill and his family drove in from Pinetop Lakeside. Grandpa was there with his gift of new scriptures with Monte's name engraved on them (this was a real highlight for Monte Birk.) Aunt Tiffany and Aunt Brindy were there with their kids and our good friends Jillian, Tristan and the Judds came. What a wonderful support network we have in our family. Thank you all for your love and support and taking the time and effort to share this special day with us!

bay leaf?

I was cooking the pork butt for MB's baptism lunch...outside

(the raw meat stinks...didn't know that...now I do...)
And while I was placing the seasonings in, Jack-et ran off, "I GOT IT, MOM, I GOT IT!!!" huh? A few seconds later there was yet another spice in the pot, right next to the bay leaf...

not quite Jack...keep trying...

ScOuTS

Excited (yet nervous) but still...Excited

The nerves conspicuously disappeared when he was welcomed to the troop with a twinkie eating contest with the other new boy. Monte is so competitive that he almost threw up shoving it in his mouth so fast. Just look at the excitement on his face in that first shot. Scouts is going to be a really big hit at our house!

1 week

We did it! We left the kids in the care of Stephen and Brindy for 1 week and took a trip! (Thanks guys!) We weren't sure where we were going until the night before...just found the most open flights for us "stand-by" passengers...and the winner was...FRANCE! It was my 3rd time and Monte's 2nd to the city so we only did the city at night. For those of you that have been there you know that the city is just a city. The days were reserved for Normandy, Versailles and riding bicycles in the country. I'll spare you the 300 photo's I took and give you the city. (Please no judgement on the self photo's...my arm is only so long...)

below is quite literally the view from our hotel, for us it was free (vouchers...gotta love 'em) for others $600 a night - OUCH! Notre Dame

Arch of Triumph



we did ride to the top of the Eiffel tower (and got rained on in the process), we did see the opera house (while were were wandering the city..not lost...wandering), we did NOT go into the Louvre (you can get lost in there, I know from experience) we did eat pastries (chocolate croissants are my faves), omelets (we stay over night by the monastery where they were invented) and crepes...wouldn't YOU?
My favorite highlight...other than the food
We spent one night in Normandy in the first town that the American soldiers liberated. I wish we had more time to spend there. The history alone of standing on Omaha Beach. It is difficult to find the words for such a sacred place. Awe inspiring is not quite right, reverent covers it better, and yet not, Miraculous seems better. Combine all three and that should cover it. To actually see the 5 miles of beach head lying before a hill with cliffs that were spattered with German soldiers. To know that so many boys and men, fathers and children died there. And to marvel that they ever got off that beach at all. I realised that it was a blessing for those of the Promised Land that they were protected. That the main part of the German forces were elsewhere. If they had been there at the beach the Americans would never had made it to dry land.