Crew's First Grade Awards Assembly

Crew had to miss a lot of school toward the end of the year due to doctor appointments for his broken arm and he was really worried that he was going to fail 1st grade. It didn't help that we got a letter from the school discussing his absences. He was so relieved when he got his Certificate of Promotion. He also got an award for the Accelerated Reader program and "A" Honor Roll. I recorded the ceremony but I barely know how to use our camera so I can't put the little poem they recited or song they sung on the blog. You will just have to imagine how adorable it was. Way to go Cruzzer, you're in 2nd grade now!

Gracie's Preschool Graduation

I am so proud of how hard Gracie has worked to graduate; all the projects, test, and papers she has diligently done. Really, her graduation ceremony was cute but I find it kinda humorous that there are ceremonies and certificates for preschool. She does love to perform and had a great time singing all the songs and helping the kids around her to execute all the moves right. She is so ready for kindergarten and can't wait to go to school everyday. I am so glad that our school still has half day kindergarten.

Mrs Pike, Gracie, and Miss Sarah. They are such amazing teachers. They were so fabulous and did so many wonderful things with the kids throughout the year.
Our new graduate with the certificate to prove it. Layla could barely wait to get on the stage! We had to get a picture with the proud siblings too.

2 week check up

On Tuesday we had to go back to Dr Yu and see how Crew was healing and make sure that the pin sites weren't infected. Crew's cast was cut off and we got more x-rays. His bones are healing well and surprisingly fast. Finally some good news. The pin sites are doing fine too.

Crew was intrigued by seeing the pins sticking out of his arm and he couldn't stop looking at them. I had to snap a few pictures on my phone; how often do you get to see pins sticking out of your child's arm? I am hoping this is the only time.

Father and Sons/Girl's night out

This year during father and sons our ward hosted an activity for the girls. I had so much fun with Gracie and Layla. We made our own lipgloss which was a huge hit with Layla who has a major lipgloss obsession. We also decorated flip flops. I did have to help tie on the ribbons but the girls did the rest and had a blast gluing on pom-poms and jewels. We even got to roast our own hot dogs. I think Gracie's favorite part was swimming in her clothes with her friend Paige. I didn't realize that there was a pool there and so came unprepared. But not having swimsuits didn't hold my girls back. I do wish that I had brought my camera to get some pictures of all the fun. But Gracie wanted to make sure that everyone got to see her amazing flip flops. She is so proud that she decorated them herself.

No surprise that at father and sons Crew caught a creature. That boy finds pets everywhere he goes. Aaron emailed this picture to me from his phone. This little pet toad didn't get a name though because he was only a pet for one night. I guess Crew has some pet protocols.

Bedhead!

Poor Layla has the worst bedhead that I have ever seen. These pictures just don't capture what a mess her hair is every morning. I hope that it is a bad hair phase that she will outgrow.

We are so LUCKY ......

to have such a fabulous family. To help Cruzzer feel better about the whole broken arm situation, Aunt Katie and Aunt Karly made him this awesome poster with treats included. Although the candy has already been enjoyed he still has the poster hanging up in his room. Katie also made him a crayon roll that he has really enjoyed using with the cool Star Wars activity book Grannybird gave him. Gigi has given him some awesome Lego sets that he has been sitting still to do and Grammy also sent him a package with some fun things to keep him busy. Aunt Kerry sent him some fun Ed Emberly books too. Thanks to all of you for the love and support. I appreciate the help. It hasn't been easy to keep him occupied so his arm can heal.

It's Hard to Pin Down Crew

We went in to get Crew's cast on Tuesday but his bones had shifted and rotated. Dr. Yu, the orthopedic surgeon, was very surprised with this outcome. I guess I didn't keep Crew mellow enough, also apparently with the severity of Crew's break and the amount of swelling he had, it is common to have shifting. That is part of the reason we had to wait so long to get a cast. The rotation however is just a fluke. So once again we left the office with NO CAST! Instead we had an appointment for surgery. Dr. Yu made an incision on the inside of his wrist and moved the bones and put in some pins to hold the big bone in place (you would think by now I could remember which bone was the Radius and which was the Ulna, but I can't) . The little bone seemed to be stable enough that they didn't have to pin it at all. After the surgery he finally got a cast. They just put a cast right over the pins. He has been in some pain but doing pretty good. We have a follow up appointment May 19th where Dr. Yu will cut off this cast and look at the pins and then re-cast. I am hoping that the pins will come out then but that will only happen if Crew is a very fast healer so I guess we will see. I had no idea that a broken arm could be such a hassle

Good Bye Splint, Hello Cast!

Crew's arm was too swollen to put a cast on so he had to have a splint instead. He ended up having the splint on for 2 1/2 weeks but now it is finally time to go in a get a real cast. I am excited for him to get a cast with more protection. It has been really stressful trying to limit his activity. Crew wants a green cast if not green then blue, if they are out of blue then red and if there isn't any red then yellow. He has everything all planned out.

Our First Broken Bones

The long anticipated event has finally occurred; Crew broke something. I always say if you are going to do something you should do it well and Crew followed that advice. He broke both bones in his arm about an inch above his wrist and they were offset about an inch. What finally did him in? He was playing tag at recess. While on the slide he decided it would be better to jump off than be tagged and so he did. He wasn't tagged but he broke his arm. I got the call from the school nurse while Gracie was in dance class. The nurse said, "I am not a Dr. so I can't say but your son broke his arm and you need to come pick him up." When I got to the school Crew was amazingly pale and in a lot of pain. I was not prepared to see his arm looking so freaky. I was sure it was broken too. His wrist was off center and hanging down really weird and massively swollen. It really grossed me out.

Here is what his arm looked like when he tried to lay it flat on the exam table. There is something definitely wrong!
Here is one of the x-rays. That bottom bone had to be yanked back in place to meet up with the wrist and you can't really see from this picture how off center the top bone is. I was sure glad that Aaron was there for the resetting process since I couldn't even look at his wrist without feeling sick. Aaron is the emergency room parent. I don't know when I became so queazy, but I sure don't handle medical issues very well. Friday he will get his cast and hopefully things will only get better after that! Gigi took him to Target today to get him something to do with only one hand. He of course got a Lego set and is doing amazingly well putting it together with one hand. We also had to pick up some elastic waistband shorts. He can't button his pants with one hand and it's not cool when you're 7 to have your mom help you when you go to the bathroom.

Anderson Dairy revisited

I don't know what our obsession with Anderson Dairy is? Although, it might have something to do with their ice cream. While Daddy was golfing with Richard (which was probably the highlight of his trip) the rest of us headed to the dairy. Gracie has been so excited to take Grammy to Anderson Dairy because when Grammy was a little girl she lived on a farm and because we like the ice cream they give you. The tour was fun for the kids but getting their picture taken was not.

Hoover Dam

For my sister's Spring Break she and my parents came out for a visit. We were so excited to see them since it's been over 7 months. One of the things we did while they were here was go on the Hoover Dam tour. We were planning on going on Monday but dad was a little jet lagged from Japan and we decided to go to Mesquite to visit some family instead. Our much anticipated tour was rescheduled till Wednesday. I have been to Vegas many times and have now lived here for over a year and have not been on the tour yet; I don't know why.

Here we are with the generators that create the hydro-electric power. It was amazing how many they had and how gigantic they were. Crew was so inspired that after we got home he built a replica out of Legos. It was pretty impressive until Layla, in one of her tantrums, destroyed it.

Crew was also pretty intrigued by the construction of the freeway overpass. Finally they are building a road across the canyon so traffic doesn't have to go over the dam. I can't tell you the number of hours we have waisted waiting in traffic crawling across the dam in only two lanes and stopping for pedestrians all the time.
By the end of the trip though, we were all ready to go home. Thanks Dad! It was really amazing!

Decorating Eggs

I don't know where the weird tradition of decorating eggs came from, but kids love it. Our kids enjoyed it even more so this year because they got to decorate with their cousins.

Here are Crew and Rex with their eggs. Crew named the egg in his left hand George Washington.
All the kids got a little crazy and forgot that they were supposed to be decorating the eggs!
Here are Gracie's eggs, a lot of sparkles (which you can't really see in this picture), pink and purple .... basically what I would expect from Gracie

The Springs Preserve

One of my kid's favorite places to go in Vegas is the Springs Preserve. It has walking trails and desert animals plus hands-on museum exhibits. We were there over spring break and so many cacti were blooming. The kids thought it was so beautiful.

Egg Hunt

What could be more fun than searching for eggs full of candy with friends. We have a really fun playgroup and we all got together for an Easter Egg Hunt.

May the Force Be With You

Crew is the proud owner of the only bearded dragon that is also a Jedi. I came in his room and this is what I found; Skooter with a light saber.