Halloween

We had a really fun time this Halloween. We decided, mostly I decided, that we should be pirates. This is Tyler getting ready to go to the Halloween party at his school. They go all out at his school. They decorate the whole school, inside and out! They have all kinds of things for the kids to touch and smell and eat. They had brains, a heart, all kinds of goo for them to put their hands in. They also had their multipurpose room all decked out with all kinds of buttons and switches for the kids to push and then there are things that play music or laugh or blink lights etc. It was a lot of fun!!

At his school they had a pirate section so of course I had to take of picture of him with the other pirates!! They also had a ship that was pretty cool.
This is Tyler at our ward trunk-or-treat. He was a hit!! Everyone loved his ship and of course his costume. Everyone said that he won the costume contest for sure!! Although there was not a contest. We had fun hanging out with our friends though!
This is the whole pirate family. I think we looked pretty cute. One of my friends said we should get professional pictures done but Mike didn't think that was necessary.

We hope you all had a Happy Halloween!! We sure did.

Tyler's hospital stay

So I thought I would post some pictures from Tyler's hospital stay. We were there for TWELVE days. It was a long stay!! I am so thankful that we have family and a great ward near by that were all willing to help how ever they could!! I had several friends that came by each morning for a couple hours so I could go home and shower and family that brought by meals often so I didn't have to eat too much hospital food. Here is an example of the hospital food but the funny thing is this was for Tyler so it was ALL pureed!! They shaped it into "real food" after they pureed it all up. I thought it was funny so I had to take a picture.

He was there with pneumonia so they were doing breathing treatments every four hours at first then it went to every six hours after about a week. This is a vest that they would put on him and it fills up with air and then it shakes. They would do this with almost every breathing treatment. It was supposed to help break up the gook in his lungs and help him cough it out. Some days it worked better then others, but I think the idea is good. They also sent us home with one of these so hopefully we will not end up in the hospital in that condition again!! It was pretty scary the first three or four days!!

This is a bi-pap machine that they used for three nights. It is like a c-pap used for sleep apnea. It would force the air into Tyler's lungs when he took a breath. Luckily they only used it at night and it was torture on his poor little face as you will see in a minute. This REALLY helped Tyler heal!!! After the second night he was doing much better. He was able to come off the oxygen and we were able to leave the room for the first time in a week. It was nice.
This is Tyler getting his hair washed the day after the surgery to put in the g-tube. This fun little cap goes over the hair and then you just massage it around and like magic your hair is "washed". I am not sure how well it cleans but it probably felt good to have his head massaged!
This is him after the hair wash, but before the rest of his bath. All the red on his face is from the bipap machine and the tape that they had used to hold the ng-tube in place before the g-tube was placed. He looked really bad for a couple days, but we put lotion on it and it cleared up pretty fast. Notice his "kiss" mark and other red marks on his chest. They are from the pads that they use to monitor vital signs. So what we learned from this hospital stay is that Tyler has VERY sensitive skin and IF we ever have to do this again we will be more careful about how we care for him. We will make sure they move the pads often and put duoderm under tape!
We are very thankful to be home and Tyler is doing much better!! After almost a month out of school he will be going back on Wednesday. It will be nice to get back into a routine. It has been hard not having one to follow. I tend to do nothing if I have nothing to do!!

Chicken Salsa Verde Bake

Mike and I tried a new recipe last night that we thought was really good so I thought I would share. It is a Rachael Ray recipe. It is a little spicy so it may not be too good for little ones.

2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 1/4 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 16 oz jars salsa verde
1 15oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup sour cream
3 cups crushed tortilla chips
1 8 oz bag shredded Mexican-style cheese

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add chicken and cook, turning once, until cooked through, 10-12 mins. Let stand until cook, then shred the meat into a large bowl. Stir in kidney beans, salsa, onion and sour cream.

2. Preheat oven to 375. Grease 9x13 in baking dish, scatter 1 cup tortilla chips on bottom and top with half of the chicken mixture and half of the cheese. Repeat the layers and cover with remaining 1 cup tortilla chips. Bake until the cheese is bubbly, about 30 minutes.

Can also be made with 3 cups of sautéed veggies, such as bell peppers, zucchini, corn and mushrooms, instead of chicken if you would like.

Servings: 6
Prep time: 25 minutes
Bake time: 30 minutes

Try it and let me know what you think!!

Weekend project

Mike and I are getting ready for Halloween next week. We spent Saturday getting Tyler's costume together. This is what his chair looks like...

We think it turned out pretty cute although not quite as cute as the race car a couple years ago!!

Tyler's home

Well we FINALLY made it home from the hospital Tuesday night!! Sunday afternoon/evening Tyler started having a lot of seizures so they kept us there an extra day to do an EEG and get the seizures under control. The dr said the seizures were probably caused by the stress of the pneumonia and the antibiotics that he was on. The seizures did come under control and are back to normal now. Tyler was SOOO happy to come home- so was I!!! He was so smiley and happy and laughing as soon as the dr said we could go home and was laughing quite a bit in the car on the way home. It was really cute!

Tyler update

Hi all, I thought I would write a little note so all my friends out there that don't know would know and could help with prayers... Tyler is in the hospital with pneumonia. He has been there for almost a week now. He is getting better slowly, but not as fast as I would like. I stay there with him most of the day. I get out for a couple hours in the morning to shower and get lunch and again in the evening for dinner. Mike's family, and friends that we have here in our ward have been GREAT to help out so Tyler is not there alone.

He is doing better today! He was out of bed and in his wheelchair and they even let me take him outside for a little while to get some fresh air-when we weren't around the smokers anyway! They will do a swallow study tomorrow to make sure it is safe for him to eat by mouth and then we will see what road we take to recovery, the one we are on or the one with a g-tube for feeding. Keep him in your prayers!! And I will keep you posted.

We finally started our Yard work!!!

So Mike and I finally decided to do something about the tree in our front yard!

Here is what it looked like before we started...

This is what our front yard looked like after Mike climbed up the tree and cut down all the branches. It was very messy but well worth it!!
This is Mike, standing on a ladder, putting every last branch in his truck. He only wanted to make one trip to the dump and he was determined that that is how it was going to be.
This is the truck as Mike got ready to head to the dump. There was a lot of tree in that truck!! Mike's sister called a little while after he left and said that she was a couple cars behind him and it was quite funny looking seeing the "tree" roll down the road. Luckily Mike made it the dump before they closed and they were not full for the day so he was able to dump.
This is how the front yard looks now. I think you would agree that it looks A LOT better. Now we just need to work on getting the huge bushes out of there and replaced with something nice.

It is nice to have this new tree because we can sit on the couch and look out the front window and actually see the sky and the road instead of that big, out of control, tree. This morning we do have some confused birds though. I think they will adjust to the new tree in no time!
Remember if you are ever in town, give us a call we would love to have you stop by and visit!!