November in Pictures

No surprise, but Tyler continues to be an endless source of entertainment for all of us... the kids love to build things for him to destroy... or to decorate him with.

At last!  Enough has fallen snow to really sled!

We're ALL excited for enough snow for skiing!

Enjoying some hot cocoa after an arduous afternoon of sledding:

With the snow comes the shoveling!

Tyler is all over the place now-  I keep a gate up that keeps him from getting past the family room, but when the kids leave the doors to the piano room open, he escapes!!

he's really wanting to conquer the stairs, but for now, doesn't quite get it yet.  

He LOVES bathtime!

Jace was so excited to finish the first book in the Harry Potter series:

Way to go Jace!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving!  We are mighty thankful around here for ALL of our blessings, especially this sweet little boy:

Do you have any idea how many tries it takes to get a good picture of him?? Ha Ha!

Thanksgiving morning, he discovered that he can stand up at the window in the family room and see the whole world out there!

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house, yum!

Tyler was ALL about the feast!

Sunday night, we set up Christmas, the kids were so excited for Tyler to experience everything 'first Christmas'...

"nom-nom, ornaments are tasty!"

Sorry Bryson... I know it's just a matter of time before you permanently dispose of this, so:

You'll forgive me someday.

Jace got to put the star on top of the tree with a little help from Bryson:

I can hardly believe that it's Christmas time!  Pretty much everyone is ready for 2020 to be over, hoping that 2021 will bring with it some normalcy... *fingers*crossed*

E I Guilton

Eli is a huge Green Bay Packers fan- much to the chagrin of his brothers.  A few weeks ago, Green Bay played the Falcons and Jace randomly dubbed Aaron Rodgers, 'E. I. Guilton'... and somehow, its become a thing in our house.  Now, whenever a quarterback fumbles or gets intercepted or whatever, he's 'E. I. Guilton'... When Jace is running and diving onto the couch to catch the football that he passed to himself, he's 'E. I. Guilton'.  According to Jace, E. I. plays for every single team.  Also, he's "really good, but he's actually the worst quarterback."  Makes sense to me!?!

Genetic Testing

Hailee, Eli and I all had to spit more than we thought possible for genetic testing for XALD.

Even though we know Eli has XALD, it still has to be confirmed genetically. Because Hailee and I are both girls, the VLCFA test isn't as accurate, so we have to do genetics as well- confirmatory for me and to determine if Hailee carries the gene or not.

My dad had his VLCFA's drawn and he was negative (so I didn't get it from him), but my mom's levels were elevated- so she had to have her genetics tested to confirm and yes, she has the faulty gene... Because the ABCD1 gene is on the x chromosome, there is a 50/50 chance a mother will give the faulty gene to each child (vs a father giving it to all of his daughters and none of his sons)... so I got the fun job of calling all of my siblings and explaining in depth the whole genetic inheritance of an 'x-linked' gene and why they need to be tested. It was so empowering to be able to tell them that while initially I was afraid of XALD, the more I've learned about it, the less I fear it. There are treatments and there is continual research... I wouldn't be surprised if maybe by the time Eli, and likely by the time Tyler has kids, there will be gene therapy to even prevent them from passing the gene on to their daughters, who knows?!?

Back to REAL (ie: in-person) School

As a freshman, Dallin finally got to start attending school in person earlier this month!  Yay!  Even though it was only 2 days a week, he was still super excited.

Lots of the protocols are frankly, really silly.  For instance, all the traffic in the hallways is "one-way."  So if you have a class that is physically 'before' the classroom you're currently in, you have to go all the way down the hall, up the stairs, down that hallway, down the {opposite} stairs and up the hallway to the class that is literally right next to the classroom you were just in.  Yikes.

A week and a half later, the rest of the high school was able to go back two days a week also, so here's Bryson's first day of school as a junior picture:

Can you feel the love?

He was actually really sad to leave Tyler:

We're all thankful for every step towards 'normal' that comes!

8 Month Update

Despite my best efforts to discourage the kids from helping Tyler learn how to crawl, just like that, he's mobile!

A very slow and deliberate crawl, half up on all fours, half army crawling, but he can officially get to where he wants to go!  The possibilities are endless!  Which makes getting his monthly pictures all the more difficult 😂

And finally...

He loves to make music (or maybe just noise??)

Such a great eater!

Ok, so TMI, I know, but one day I needed to use the bathroom, so I just put him in his little tub so I could see him.... 

It didn't entertain him for long enough...

He's pulling up on e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g!

Big day- first time in a grocery cart!  Let me just say, he was pretty amazed:

At least I think so it was his first time in a cart... Using Walmart grocery pick up is just so convenient... and with kids at home, if I need to go to Costco, I go when he's napping!  Poor kid, he's missed out on so much *wink*

With how mobile he is, I finally stopped swaddling him for naps and bedtime- thankfully he transitioned just fine and still sleeps great!

So sad...

All kids nationwide are getting free school lunches this year because of Covid. Once a week, we pick up lunches for 5 days for all 5 kids. Some of the lunches the kids like more than others... Jace just found out that Nathan ate his "school lunch" hamburger...

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

The kids had definite visions of how they wanted to carve their pumpkins this year and were almost completely independent in carving them- 

Of course, I didn't get pictures of their masterpieces until a few days later on Halloween, and by then the pumpkins were a little wilty...

Eli's was multi-sided, with a scary face on one side, and the word "Lumos" from Harry Potter on the other:

Hailee carved the King Ranalin's castle in Hayrule:

Dallin got extra creative and used wire and nuts to make his an ortho patient:

Jace carved an awesome scary face, and insisted that this was how Link would pose:

Nathan, Tyler and I went to a Halloween party the weekend before at the Helm's house- Nathan was Mr. Miyagi, Tyler was Cobra Kai Johnny and I was Daniel-son:

On actual Halloween night, we went to a family party at the Smiths- Everyone had a costume buddy!

Eli was a shark attack victim, and Tyler was Baby Shark:

 

Cutest little shark I've ever seen!

Jim and Dwight:

"I never smile if I can help it.  Showing one's teeth is a submission signal in primates.  When someone smiles at me, all I see is a chimpanzee begging for its life."      - Dwight Shrute

Jace and Hailee were Link and Princess Zelda:

(she was a princess!!)

Trick or Treating during Covid was frowned upon, but whatever- we can still go to Mimi and Papa's!

I love how the kids were all in character with their smile, or lack thereof:

We had lots of fun at the Smith's party- even though we froze our keister's off!  We had snow on the ground last week, and even though it was mostly gone at their house, it sure felt like winter!