Benson birthday party!

So the pictures are all scrambled, but you get the point.  We had a fun ninjago birthday party with a million-zillion children! We had a combined party with his buddy, Carson.  Their birthdays are 5 days apart so we thought it would be fun to combine them.  They have TONS of boys their age in their primary class so the party was huge.  I think we had around 16 kids.

Our theme was "Ninjago training camp".  We started out with Sensei Wu (ME) leading the children in stretches and ninja move training.  Then we exercised our minds with Ninjago Bingo.  Then we had prepared our bodies with an obstacle course through our house (which included hop-scotch, jumping on the mini-tramp, jumping jacks, & putting on ninja outfits and running ladders). We then had cake and Ice cream and opened presents.  We ended the party watching a ninjago cartoon clip.  It was a lot of fun and the kids were darling.

And another reaction....

 Tanner has had a rough couple months.  5 days after his last Anaphylactic episode he had another one. The night before it happened he was having an asthma attack.  Luckily we were able to control it at home.  That next morning he was on his way out of the attack so I decided to take him visiting teaching. While we were visiting one of our sisters, Tanner suddenly went pale and his lips turned dark.  He started breathing funny and so I quickly left and headed to the ER.  I first checked his body to see if he was having an anaphylactic but I didn't see any signs and so I didn't give him the Epi-Pen.  By the time we were at the ER (10 minutes later) he was in critical condition.  Luckily Spencer was working at St. Mary's and came into the ER just after we did.  He said he could hear him struggling to breath from the hallway.  This was one of the most frightening episodes we have had (and we have had many).  They gave him an epi-pen and then epinephrine through the nebulizer, oxygen, benadryl, and something else which I can't remember at the moment.  It took 3 hours before we could take him off the oxygen without his stats falling below 90%.  We still aren't sure what caused the reaction--Spencer and I think it was a combination of allergy and asthma combined.  We had to stay the night again for observation and his did great once he was stable.

Tanner was pretty cute in the hospital.  He knows exactly where he wants to be--and that is out of his room and into the playroom.  He plays for hours with the toy vacuums and loves to ride in the cart.  It's hard keeping him controlled in the room because he knows the playroom is so close.  I also like to be in the playroom, but it can be emotional.  Each of our hospital visits makes me feel grateful for what we have.  There are so many darling children who live in the hospital with cancers and other ailments that are much more difficult to handle.  It's a humbling experience.  Just like our 2 visits before this one, the Lord was merciful and blessed us tremendously.  We had great doctors, staff, and the extra help we needed to survive.  We are very grateful to have Tanner home and healthy.  He is a sweet little boy.

Happy Easter!

  We LOVE using the self-timer on our camera.  Happy Easter!

Start of the Easter egg hunt.  There is STILL SNOW outside in our backyard so we decided to do our egg hunt inside this year.  It was fun!

I was so proud of Benson!! He was organizing the contents in his eggs!  Glad to pass on the gene--good job buddy!

So we had a wonderful Easter here in Minnesota.  I played the organ and accompanied a girl on the flute.  Our ward is CRAZY and was super loud today.  I think all the children were wired on sugar. But my usual stay in the nursing lounge with the ladies during sunday school was fun and entertaining as always, and then it was the 5th sunday so I got to sit with Spencer----so fun!

We came home, ate lunch, and took a nap.  Well, the rest of the family did--I made some bread, jello jigglers, angel food cake, and got everything ready for the party at Cassi and Nick Ormes house.  The boys were of course thrilled to spend Easter night at Adam's house.  It was crazy and fun.

Oh, before we went to the Orme's house we had an Easter egg hunt and then took family pictures with our self timer.  That's always fun!  After the Orme's house we told the kids to go downstairs and get their pj's on.  While they were doing that Tanner got super hyper and was running around the upstairs being so dang cute!! He is in the best stage--he's happy, funny, and just plain adorable.  The boys are turning into boys.  They tease, talk potty-talk (which I HATE and am trying to get rid of), say funny things that make us laugh, and are just plain awesome.  Anyway, the boys are in bed and we are exhausted!  Happy Easter!

Snow, Hospital visit, and more snow

FIRST OFF....SNOW

We have yet to reach 40 degrees and it's March 17th!  

These pictures were taken last week.

 And this one was a blizzard last week when I picked Reece up from school.

Welcome to Minnesota!

 For Benson's preschool, I have to take these parenting classes.  They provide childcare while I take these classes (they are in the room next to ours so I can hear them playing the whole time!).  This time Tanner fell asleep on the floor.  They said, "you must have a loud home because they playing loud with legos and cars all around him and he never woke up!".  Welcome to the Miller home!

 Tanner was back in the Hospital this week.  He had an anaphylactic reaction--we aren't sure what he reacted to so we will get further testing in three weeks.  It ended up being a good experience because I got to give him the Epi-Pen in the ER so now I feel very comfortable with it.  It was a great learning experience and Tanner is now doing well.

 We are getting a little stir crazy in our home so yesterday we found some snow hills and let the boys play on them.

 Dance party with home-made maracas!

 Benson is always giving Tanner loves!

 And yes, HE'S EATING!!! Well, at least 5 different foods! Yea!

IPhone memories--(Jan.-Feb.)

Spencer got me an IPhone and one of the best things about it is the camera!  It's so easy to take pictures.  I finally downloaded them onto our computer and thought i'd give a little history of the last two months through pictures off my IPhone.

BREAD! This is my Grandma Lloyds famous bread.  I've perfected her recipe and our family is loving the fresh bread--we easily eat both these loaves within a day. 

This picture of Tanner is HILARIOUS (pic. on left)!  He kind of looks homeless--but it captures him in January.  The only food we could always count on him eating was cereal.  His hair has a weird texture because he doesn't get all the nutrition he needs and his excema on his face was super bad last month.  We are happy to report he is doing much better as of today--March 3rd!

(pic. oAnd this was Tanner to a "T" in January.  Wouldn't eat anything--would throw massive fits in his chair--all I would have to do it show him food and he would freak out.  It's so funny looking at these pictures because I never thought we'd get food in him.  But, after 2 months of therapy we can now get at least 1-2 jars of baby food, lots of cereal, and about an ounce of formula each day! Slow and steady wins the race! 

                                   

We are happy to report he is doing much better as of today--March 3rd!

The boys have pen-pals so we sent them "Bee Mine" valentine packages!  Reece's pen-pal is Isobel Estaban, a girl from his kindergarten class at Maple Grove Elementary.  Benon's pen-pal is Lauren Weston, the daughter of our friends from medical school.  

And yes...Reece is still in his snow bibs.  He has to wear them to and from school--he likes to keep them on in the house because it keeps him warm. On our way to church today the kids were so excited because it felt like spring--it was 34 degrees!!  Welcome to Minnesota!

BENSON:

Pic on left: him picking out a pencil after registering for Kindergarten! He is so excited to attend Elementary school.  He does homework every day to get ready for next year! He's pretty cute about it.  

Pic on right: He LOVES his froggy pillow pet.  Sleeps on it every night.

Tanner is a major Daddy's boy.  He follows him around the house whenever he is home.  Spencer has to sneak inside the house when he gets home so he can change his clothes and use the restroom before Tanner freaks out about him being home!

But Tanner still loves his mommy--of course he does--I'm his main food source! :)

We went to a hill in our neighborhood and watched the boys sled while we stayed warm in the car.  It was hilarious because Reece and Benson's best buddy Adam came with us and whenever they are together they talk non-stop--literally.  Except, after we visit the bookmobile!  We ran to the bookmobile before sledding and on the way they were talking non-stop and after the bookmobile it was silent. Classic Reece and Adam.

I'm pretty sure Reece's diet includes Noodles, Rice and Beans, and ice cream.  That's all folks!

So one fine day after we got dumped on with tons of snow--I decided to use the snow blower!  I started out looking cute with curly hair and literally ended up ringing water out of my hair at the end.  The wind was crazy and I was quite incompetent with the snow blower and so I literally blew snow all over the place--my neighbors yard on both sides, the street, back onto my driveway, inside my garage...you name it--I got it!  I looked so ridiculous that my neighbor across the street said she was laughing out loud watching me and her daycare kids asked why she was laughing and she replied, "oh, I'm just watching my neighbor try to snow blow her driveway"!  I told her next time she should pull out the popcorn and I'll give her kids a good show!

I'm loving the Tie!