22 JUNE - Jaren's 2nd Birthday!!!

Today we celebrated Bear's 2nd Birthday by going to McDonald's for dinner and playing games at Chuck E. Cheese. Some of our friends came to celebrate with us as well!

Jaren and Eden

Garran and Ed takin' care of business!

Jaren taking it easy on the Ski-Ball game.

Ed shootin' some hoops.

Eden and Ollie

Porter, Jaren, Cullan and Ollie

Little Lulu

Bear with one of his gifts.

Hannah, Anne and Eden

Jaren racing his car. He LOVES cars!

Jaren in his party hat.

Pick a card... any card... pick a card...

JUNE - Primary Activity - Carnival

Elder Gillespie and Elder Thomas helping with the Primary Carnival out at the Jolley's house!

















Eden at the Ball Toss.













Water Balloon Toss













Messy ladies after the cool whip eating contest.













Eden trying her hand at a double egg race.


















"Hugs for the Hugless"













Love this pic of Eden and her rainbow face. Look at those freckles!!! :O)













Junior Primary Tug of War!













Hot Dog, chips and juice for lunch... YUM!!!

19 JUNE - Iowa City Visit - Allergy and Pulmonary

Thursday, June 18, 2009 - Iowa City Ronald McDonald House

We made reservations to stay here overnight for $20 since Jaren's appointment was first thing in the morning. Ed said, "I wonder if the Hamburglar will be jealous that I'm spending the night with Ronald tonight..." Hehehe

So, here is where we stayed for the night. Unfortunately Jaren does not sleep anywhere, but his crib so it was a LONG night for Ed! He was exhausted the next day, poor Papa!

Some different views of the room we stayed in. Since they don't have housekeepers, we were in charge of cleaning our rooms before we left for Jaren's appointment.

Jaren and I playing a little game they had there.

LOVE this pic!!! He's such a ham!

Friday, June 19, 2009 - University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics - Allergy and Pulmonary Visit - Skin Poke Test

Room 19... here we stayed in a TINY room for over 4 hours!!! Thankfully they brought in a TV and DVD's for the kids. They also had some toys for Bear to play with while he waited for his results.

They tested him for 46 different things, on his back and his arms, poor guy! If a hive formed, they measured how large it was and they also measured how large the red blotch surrounding the hive was. This tells us how severe the allergy is. As you can see in this photo, his allergy to cats and dogs is pretty bad.

They mark with a pen on his back to tell them what allergen was placed there. They place a drop of each allergen that is being tested on the skin and prick it so the allergen can enter the skin. If a hive forms, it's most likely an allergy. Not a test that I like to see my kids have to undergo! I took Oliver by myself at 18 months old and he SCREAMED for 20 minutes while I had to physically restrain him. I MADE Ed come this time and Jaren was mellow as can be! The kids didn't want to stay in the room to hear him cry so we walked a little ways to see my favorite nurse, Perla, who took care of me during my stay for my parathyroidectomy in January.

Here were the positive results: Cats & Dogs, Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, Wheat (barely visible... Ed doesn't think there was even a hive there!), Chicken (yeah... chicken... who'da thunk?!), Mold, Chinese Elm trees, Hickory trees, Pine trees.

Waiting for the results...

Jaren's new inhaler! He did really well and didn't fight using it!!!

15 & 16 JUNE - Iowa City Hospital Visits

Monday, June 15, 2009 - University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics - Visit with the Pediatric Gastroenterologist and Pediatric Swallow.

Since Jaren has troubles eating certain textures and hardly eats a thing, we finally made the decision to see a specialist for his problems. We wanted to make sure that there was nothing wrong with his esophagus.

Jaren sitting in this little chair in order to get some X-rays.

Ed and Jaren waiting for the Pediatric Swallow.

The nurse blew bubbles to pass the time while we waited.

Jaren trying to blow some bubbles. He loved it!

This is the seat they put Jaren in for the Pediatric Swallow. He didn't like it at first, but when he saw his x-ray on screen he was enthralled and stopped crying. They mixed together some various foods with different textures to see how well he could swallow them. They couldn't believe how well he did, especially since he couldn't have anything to eat for a long time.

Here's the monitor that I watched from behind a wall. It was sooooooo weird seeing him actually chew and swallow things and how it traveled down to his stomach!

Here's a tiny video of what I saw. I was taping it and then I thought...

"I wonder if I could get in trouble for videotaping this..." so I stopped.

This is what Jaren saw on a screen in the room he was in as well. It was wild to see!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 - UIHC - Children's Hospital - Center for Disabilities and Development - Food Study

Today we met with a Behavioral Psychologist and Speech Pathologist to see what we could find out about Jaren and his eating. We brought food he eats and food we'd like him to eat. We fed him while they watched in another room on a monitor. They told us it was most likely behavioral and to start swiping the food against Jaren's lips to make him at least taste the food. Ed doesn't buy it. I'm at a loss for what to do...

In the waiting room there was a child sized sectional sofa that was soooo cute. Jaren had to take a break and try it out!

After his tests, it was lunch time, so we ventured to Los Portales, a mexican restaurant in Iowa City and man was it delicious!!! We'll have to hit it again sometime when we are down there! I love this picture! Jaren is my crazy monkey!

Instead of stuffing the napkin into his shirt, he just holds it under his chin! What a funny boy!

JUNE - Live at 9 - Checker and the Bluetones

Tonight after I babysat Bella, Meg asked if I would like to join her and her family for a night of music, food and dancing!!! The weather was GORGEOUS for it! The band played strictly oldies music which I LOVED and the kids loved dancing to! I was just dying laughing! We just brought some chairs and blankets and parked it for the evening! We got some yummy food to share while listening to the music and being entertained by Ollie and Eden. Jaren danced a little bit, but not much. Meg and I stood in line forever to get a tenderloin sandwich and I am NOT lying when I say that it was as big as the paper plate we were given!!! It was really good!!! :O) I had such a fun time with Meg and my family! What a wonderful evening!!! It didn't even cost a cent to get into... but the food made up for that! We'll definitely have to do that again this summer!

Ollie and Eden shakin' their groove thang!

"Really, mom... REALLY?!?"

Taking a break...

Papa and Bear

Oliver and Eden groovin' to "Brown Eyed Girl"

JUNE - Brother & Bear