Notice Anything DIFFERENT???

Yep, we CUT Kaybri's hair off! I've been thinking about it for awhile, but I always seem to get talked out of it. Then I asked Justin a couple days ago if he would be mad/sad, and at first he said yes, but after I told him my reasons he agreed. Kaybri has a lot of fine, whispy hair around the frame of her face and I though it would help even things out a bit. I also thought it might help her hair thicken up (or at least look that way). Her hair seemed to be getting more curl to it and so by the end of the day her long hair was looking a little scraggly. Anyway, I asked Aunt JoJo to come over and chop it off yesterday. She cut about 4-5 inches off! It barely touches her shoulders now, and it looks sooo cute! When Kaybri saw her hair falling on the floor she kept reaching up to run her hand through her hair. Her daddy was also a little bit surprised when he first saw her after work. He didn't know I was serious I guess or that it would be done so soon, but he loves it!

And of course I documented nearly every snip. So here's the play-by-play!!

Before:

The Cut:

After:

Thanks Joni, you did great!I know it's hard, but try not to stare at her unbrushed teeth! I think she likes her new hairdo though, what do you think?

Yay Clay!!

My cute cousin, Clayton, is going on a mission to the Philippians. Last weekend he went through the temple in Mesa and there was lots of family there to support him. He is a great young man and we are so proud of him. Below is a picture of his family.


We stayed with Lamar's family (Justin's brother)...which I have no pictures of?? I never remember to get out my camera unless I see someone else taking pictures. But we did have a fun time hanging out and playing games with them, and it worked out perfectly because they live super close to my Uncle Dale's house. All of my cousins and family got together one night at my uncles to have a BBQ and swim. Kaybri loves, loves animals, and they have a parrot and a little pomeranian sp? dog, so she was in heaven. She chased poor Emmy around everywhere. We also got to see my new adorable nephew, Jackson. This is Jarom and Mel's new addition, born June 30th. He is so precious and fun to hold and look at. My kids also love babies. However, they tend to smother, squeeze, and kiss a little too hard. This is especially true for Pax. He cries because he wants to see/touch babies, but he just doesn't know his own strength! He thinks and says "soft", but in no way is it even close.

Little Firecrackers

Pax is back! My mom and dad came to celebrate the 4th with us and brought him back. He was so excited to see Kaybri and daddy, but took a little while to want to go to me. He kept wanting Grammie! What is up with that?!

Anyway, the boys went golfing early in the morning, and since we knew we would be spending the most of the day out in the sun, we decided to skip the parades this year. We had an excellent bbq that Stacie and Dave made, with lots of good company. It was a mini Animas reunion, so fun to catch up with old friends. I wish I would've taken some pictures!

Later that afternoon we let the kids play in their little pool over at Aunt JoJo's. Yes, my kids have swim suits, but they got left at our house. Paxton had a good time waving the hose around, and Kaybri had a good drink lapping up the water like a dog.

A little after 8 we headed out to go see the fireworks. On our way there, we saw a couple fireworks go off. We thought we were going to be early, but nope they had already started. I turned around to show Kaybri and Paxton the fireworks and noticed they had totally crashed out. So we ended up stopping on the side of the road and watching the fireworks from there. Overall, it was a fun but exhausting day!

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes

A girl can never have too many shoes, right? Both my kids love to put on different shoes (usually mine or Justin's) and wear them around. Lately Kaybri has been a little bit of a shoe swiper. She will take her shoes off and when she sees another little kid takes theirs off, she will go put on the new shoes. This happens quite often at nursery, but a few weeks ago we made it home with a "new" pair of shoes. They were white mary janes, just like what she wore to church that day, even the same size. She loved them though and wanted to wear them around the house everyday. I don't know how she knew they were different, I barely even noticed. And last time we went down to my parents she found some shoes that went on a doll and came prancing down the hall in them. Her toes were crammed in the little shoes and she had to tip toe to walk in them, but she wore them still for quite awhile. She went about her normal business climbing onto everything in these shoes. My mom and I were laughing so hard because she thought she was so cool and "cute". I guess maybe she's ready for stilettos?

Missing Pax

Last week my mom came to town and took Paxton back with her. He got sick awhile back, and became pretty clingy after that. Justin thought a good dose of Papa and Grammie time would cure that (which sounds like it has). I knew I was going to have a busy week of painting and cleaning, so I was all in favor of a break too. I can't believe how chill it is to just have 1 child at home, I'm sure all you moms out there with 4 are thinking the same thing about having just 2 kids. I'm not complaining, Paxton is a great kid, it's just so much busier with 2. Kaybri has been exceptionally good this week too. I don't know if I just have more patience, if she just needed some one on one time, or if she just is lacking her partner in crime, but things have been so different with her this week. We have been back and forth potty training Kaybri for who knows how long. She would go on the toilet ever since she was 20 months old, and she is now almost 3 1/2 years, she just will never tell me she needs to go until after the fact. We have been hitting it really hard the past few weeks and she's still pretty much the same, halfway trained. Paxton on the other hand became all interested in the process, so I began taking him too. It seemed like we spent our entire days in the bathroom, so I kind of put Paxton off and didn't take him as often so we could for sure get Kaybri done. My mom said to send some pull-ups down with her and that she would keep taking Paxton to the bathroom. Well, he is pretty much potty-trained now (at least more than Kaybri)! I guess I'm doing something wrong. Maybe I should send Kaybri to my mom's too?! I think potty-training is #1 on my "hate" list.

Anyway, I miss my little guy. He sounds so cute on the phone and like he is having a fun time out in the country. We get to see him in 2 more days! I love this picture of him. He has a toothpick in his mouth, trying to be like his daddy.

My sweet girl

Ugh...I hate the overwhelming feeling of not knowing where to begin because I have been such a slacker on posting....when am I going to learn???

So I don't know if I should include this, but this was a draft I started on June 5th--a month ago...it goes:

Kaybri has been doing EXCELLENT, and has been seizure free for 11 weeks now. It's crazy, I had to go and actually look that up on our calendar. I love that I don't think about that so much now, and that I don't worry about when her next seizure will be. She seems happier too. We can now focus more on helping her get caught up to where she should be developmentally. I love being a "normal" busy family that doesn't think it's a humongous risk to go to Mesa for the weekend and let her run around with all of her cousins in the scorching AZ heat. Of course I still get nervous, and we still are pretty strict about schedule and naps and such, but a few months ago there's no way that we would've ever thought about doing so much. We are truly blessed. I have definitely learned to be thankful for so many of the little things I think I used to take for granted.

Present time:

Kaybri had a seizure a couple weeks later. It was pretty short though and after an extremely hot day of play group at the park. I should've known better (but she had been doing so good); she had looked really flushed before we went to the park, and had a 99.3 temp. At the park she got really red, fast. We were there about 45 minutes and by the time we left she was really hot and started seizing in the car. I don't know if it contributed to the seizure or not, but it probably didn't help. Anyway, it has been 2 more weeks and she has done really good. We have been pretty worried about her lately though, but for other reasons. Ever since we started her newest medication a few months ago she has done great seizure wise, but her development has dramatically slowed and even started to regress. At first I thought, maybe I'm just over analyzing things, or looking for something to be wrong. But things that she used to do or say just a few months ago, she won't anymore. We can't get her to answer really any questions anymore, she won't say prayers or even amen, no words like "please, thank you, i love you" or any of her cute little songs. It is a fight to get her to eat anything, and she used to eat whatever I gave her. She is still very loving, cute and happy, but she was already developmentally behind and now it seems like we are losing even more of her. And because she can't communicate well, she gets very frustrated that we can't read her mind. I don't know what to do??? I think it's a lot of the medication that we put her on, but we finally found something that may be helping her seizures? We take her to a Developmental Pediatrician in August, and they're probably going to tell us she's autistic or diagnose her with something else. The doctors that she has seen, we've asked them about autism and they've all said she doesn't really do the main things they look for in autistic children, but she does do some quirky things that are often autistic characteristics. I can't believe my child that once was developing so quickly and talking more than most kids her age, is even being considered for autism. I probably shouldn't even write all this because everyone out there is going to think she's autistic. I just know the doctors that she will see will want to diagnose her with something, and it seems like autism has been the hot topic lately. I wish I knew what was going on with her. Sometimes I wonder if we ever should have medicated her, it never really helped up until 3 months ago and now look where we are. They all have had side effects like: hyperactivity, extreme drowsiness/dizziness, nausea, loss of appetite, irritability, loss for words, short term memory loss are just a few. Who knows how she's really felt, but I can tell she's had at least a few of the side effects from the way she acts.

Sorry to overload on the Kaybri saga, it just seems to always be on my mind. She hasn't been having any seizures, and that's all I ever wanted, I just didn't know/think there would be anything after that. We know so many have been praying for her and we know it has helped. Thank you all.