Confidence

Tonight some of my girl friends were talking about how confident I am. I have always had a lot of confidence about myself and my life. I attribute most of that to my parents, but I have to say that these ladies helped me more than they will know. Every single one of these beautiful women (and the two that aren't in the picture) oozes with confidence and pride in who they are. Growing up with these women of strength only strengthened my own confidence and I thank them for it. You are some of the best women I know. I think about you all the time and love you every day.
I find it so sad that there are so many women that don't know just how amazing they are! I urge everyone to start saying thank you to compliments and spend some time to really reflect on the things that make you wonderful.

Our Big Big Day!!

What a great day yesterday was!!!

Evan and I took off to the Children's Hospital. First we met up with respiratory to finally pick up his cough assist machine. We had been telling Evan how exciting it was going to be and he was so excited to use his "coughing machine". Now I was pretty sure he would change his mind once he actually used the machine that forced air into his lungs and sucked it out again ... boy was I wrong!! He thought it was hysterical!!!!! He kept wanting to do it all day yesterday and keeps asking to do it today! The hospital also gave us an adult mask so Justin and I could try it and Evan can see that it isn't too bad. This morning Evan wanted me to try it. Let me tell you ... what a weird feeling that is!! If I keep around an adult mask I could really improve my lung capacity. It may even help my running and oboe playing :-)

From respiratory we went downstairs to the seating clinic and got our new chair!!! When we were filling out the application I fought hard for an elevating seat. After quite a bit of research they found a chair that was covered with an elevating seat! Evan was so excited about the elevating seat and kept zipping up and down the hallway superfast!! While watching him with this huge smile on his face I was the typical mom standing there crying tears of joy! The thing that makes me laugh is that of everything my silly boy was most excited about the horn :-)

This morning he spent his time going around and around the kitchen grabbing things off the counter and bringing them to me. He is so happy about his new mobility and it makes my heart smile to see him so excited!! He is still enthralled with his horn. When it was time to come upstairs he parked his chair, turned it off and said: "One minute Mama" he then turned the chair on again, honked the horn, turned off the chair and said "Ok, now we go."

As we are getting ready to leave the hospital with all of our new stuff!

Evan checking out his elevation at home

Lots of family came over last night to eat and check out Evan's new equipment. This is Auntie Kelley checking out Landon's walking skills. Check out Landon's cankles!!

Had to put this picture in because it makes me smile :-) My Dad would do this with all of us kids and it displays just how strong my handsome husband is. He is holding up a 22 lb. moose with one arm ... impressive!

I don't know how to get the videos off of my camera, but when Justin comes home from work I will download a video of Evan using his new chair :-)

My opinion is ....

There was a discussion that I had to leave the other day.

If I could get pregnant I could never abort a child regardless of any problems that I knew the baby would face. I completely understand if someone doesn't want to live a life with a handicap ... it is hard ... I know. My opinion is that if you choose to make a baby you no longer have the right to decide if the baby lives or not. If you decide that the life will be too difficult for you place the baby with a family that will welcome that child for the special person they are. I know that I take it very personally because I have a baby that many would have aborted. I can't imagine my life without my sweet Evan!! I think everyone is entitled to an opinion and this is my opinion.

Justin's sister is in town right now and her birthday was this week. We took her and Hans to the hockey game to celebrate her birthday. It was sooo cool because it was the first game since the Olympic games. Now I have to say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Olympics!!! Three of the Flames players won medals. They brought out all of the medal winners in a special ceremony. Me and all of Calgary love Jerome Iginla and he had the assist to the winning goal on the Canada team (Gold Winners :-) So cool to hear the 2010 theme song, and watch the players and medals on the ice.
Canada Gold!!!

I told Justin that I was going to stop retaking pictures if he was going to purposely look stupid when we take them ... this one is the start of my threat.

Harvey the Hound

The next day we went to the Calgary Zoo with everyone visiting. Evan loves the zoo and we love going with him because he can move around independently. It was our first time visiting the re-vamped dinosaur park. The dinos actually move and roar! The first one that Evan was looking at started to roar and move and he did a bee-line in his chair and started crying. It was so sad and soo cute at the same time. I explained to him that they were robots and not real. Now he keeps talking about the dinosaur robots.
imagine these life size dinos roaring and moving!!! No wonder Evan was scared at first!

my sweet nephew who is visiting. I sure wish he liked me!

had to include this picture because if I could make my house like this indoor rain forest I would!!! Also ... I really like my coat! The weather is starting to warm up and I feel cute again. All of my cute coats are for fall/spring weather.

Evan:
The other day I was in the other room grabbing clothes for my boys and I hear Evan yelling at Landon: "Landon stop that. Landon stop that!! Landon I am getting very mad!"
about 5 minutes later he says: "Landon you have played with it 4 times now. You are going on time out!!"

Today we opted to take the boys home after sacrament meeting at church. The last two days he has shown the first signs of getting sick again (high fever, difficulty breathing). Since he has a really lengthy doctors appointment tomorrow we opted to give him his normal nap rather than push him. Maybe we can kick this illness in the bud before it gets bad again (we do this by giving him lots of sleep, lots of water, and lots of bee pollen). Anyway ... when we were leaving the church Evan was crying so loudly "I want to go to nursery!!" At least he has his priorities straight :-)

Because he hasn't been feeling 100% I asked him tonight how he was feeling. He looks up at me with a smile and he says: "I feel really better"

these two pics display the only problem of having too much time with Mama. Evan always wants to wear my makeup, and jewelry. It makes sense ... he sees me put it on everyday (ok, almost every day :-)

I love play time!!!

Landon:

Landon now has 6 teeth!!

My baby is starting to look less like a baby and more like a little boy.

When I said before that Landon is a dream baby I really meant it! Landon is such a GOOD BABY! He is just turning into the cutest this you have ever seen! Everyone stops me and tells me how cute he is and he always returns the favor with BIG smiles, hugs and lots of cooing.

Now having said that he is a really happy baby I just can't help laugh at him when he is mad. When Landon is angry he screams a loud high pitch scream! When I put him down on the ground for any reason when he is angry he lies there face up or face down, doesn't move at all and kicks his legs like mad. My written description isn't doing justice so I will try and video it sometime.

Growing up!!!!

The weather is really starting to be very nice again. Today it was 58' and I thought I had died and gone to heaven!! I went to church without a coat on! Thank heavens I live somewhere where there is at least the hope of spring/summer ... it could be a lot worse!

Great Report

Well we had an appointment for Evan at the Children's Hospital. We haven't had a PT/OT appointment for a while and oh was it good to see our friends "Andewa" (Angela) and Tami. It was such a wonderful appointment and I am feeling so good right now! Evan is doing REALLY well and has even gotten a little stronger in his arms and torso. There were some moves that he started doing that I pointed out to them and some new moves that they pointed out to me. We developed some new therapy skills for me to use at home.

I just keep replaying their faces of excitement and joy as they watched Evan raise his arm higher than they have ever seen and hurl the solid ball farther than they have ever seen him throw.

I am feeling like all of our hard work is paying off. I am feeling like all of the difficult moments that Evan and I go through sometimes (painful stretching, difficult physical "encouragement") are all paying off. Most of all the pride that I am feeling for my little man is oozing from me!!! I just want everyone to know how absolutely amazing my dear sweet Evan is!

I can't even imagine how Monday is going to feel when we pick up his wheel chair and ........ cough assist machine. Yes folks you read that correctly. The long awaited arrival of two essential pieces of equipment are coming on Monday!!!!!!

How wonderful is our life??!!!

I was running errands today. One of our stops was at the Dollar Store. When we are at the Dollar Store I usually let Evan wander in his chair. It is a pretty small store and he really enjoys the exploration. Today he speeds up to me holding up some AA batteries screaming with delight:

"Mama, Mama ... look look look. Batteries for my wheel chair. You buy them for me and my wheel chair! Here put them in the cart."

I wish I could write his inflection down on paper, but he was just sooooo cute and I just burst out laughing in the store! :-)

Evan-ism: "Gummy Gums" = "Gummy candy that are not the fruit snacks he recognizes"

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Landon now has 5 teeth. He got a front tooth yesterday and another one today (he was NOT a happy camper today). It is crazy that all of his teeth are coming in at the same time.

Landon is FINALLY sleeping!! He has been sleeping almost a week now. It is amazing what a good set of ear plugs can do for a tired Mama and a stubborn baby. Landon is happier now that he is sleeping and an unexpected result of sleeping at night is that Landon is now even napping better during the day.

All I have to say is "hallelujah!!!!"

The disappearance of Chelsea King has really disturbed me and I can't stop thinking about it. There are too many similarities to my family and it is eerie. She is even from the same area that I grew up in. It reminds me that the world is not always safe and we really need to be on our guard. My heart aches for her family and I hope that they will be able to get some closure soon. No parent should have to endure something like this.