Robert singing

Robert and Rachel share a room together. Rachel has been having a hard time sleeping. Last night after tucking her in bed for the second time, I left as she was screaming. I heard Robert singing to Rachel for at least 10 minutes to help her calm down.

Hannah

I haven't blogged for a long time because I feel like I have to catch it up to date before I continue on. Well, I just can't catch up. Instead I am doing photo yearly books to help keep the memories.

The big thing though is that my life took the biggest turn then we could ever expect. Hannah passed away peacefully in her sleep Tuesday morning, April 2, 2013.

Talking about the fact that she passed away is much easier then writting it down for me. The autosopsy report came back and the cause of death is a seizure. At the hospital they were thinking it happened around 5:00am or 6:00am but I'll see what exactly they put down when we get her report back and her death certificate.

Dying from a seizure doesn't make sense to me, just because we have seen her go through very difficult seizures and survive. She had a cold on Sunday and Monday and I was keeping a close eye on her at home. I got to spend those sweet 2 days just cuddling with my Hannah. She wanted to take a couple of naps with me on Monday. Since I was tired and I excited to hear that and laid down with her. I closed my eyes to sleep, then Hannah pinches my nose in a teasing way. She was a very silly girl and enjoyed being silly.

We miss her a lot and I try to talk about her often especially with the kids. I'm making a photo journal of Hannah's life so that Hailey and Robert can go through the books and remember her. Our family dynamics have changed and we are still trying to adjust to it. I'm nervous about only having one kid at home when Robert goes to school in the fall.

Though we are sad and missing Hannah, we are also excited for her to have her "Jesus Time," as Robert calls it. I know that we will be with Hannah again. The hardest thing is that time passes and we have to wait until we are together again.

Hannah's Eulogy

Denver Zoo and Hannah's appointments

Due to the move, we need to get Hannah a new neurologist which is sad because I really liked Dr. Filloux. However, traveling to Utah every three months would be tough and expensive. Hannah now goes to PSL in Denver. 

Trying to figure out what to do with the other kids, Teasha and I found out that the Denver Zoo had a free day the same day as Hannah's appointment. Also the school kids didn't have school either so we decided to take them to the zoo. Denver is about 2-2 1/2 hours away. The zoo was packed and we were constantly counting the kids to make sure we had all 8. Luckily we didn't lose anyone.

 Allie, Hailey and Hinckley (in the blue shirt)

 Spencer and Allie.

 Thomas, Spencer, Hannah, Allie and Hailey.

Hannah, Allie, Hailey, and Spencer.

Then when it was time for the appointment, I left Teasha with 6 kids. The appointment went well and it was more to get Hannah in their system and caught up on her situation. I really didn't have any concerns at the moment since Hannah hasn't had a seizure for a couple of months. The main problem we are trying to figure out is Hannah's speech delay, which is most likely connected to her ear infections instead of her seizures.

The appointment didn't take long and after a few phone calls, we were able to catch up with the rest of the group at the zoo. Around 4:00 the kids were done and we went across town to find a little caesars to eat pizza on the way home. We got turned around a couple of times trying to find the highway again. It was a little crazy but I think the kids had a lot of fun and it was fun to get out of Laramie for a little while. I'm thankful that Teasha was willing to help us out a bit.

The next day, Hannah had a hearing test and it can back normal. From this point on we noticed Hannah progressing in her speech. It's kind of ironic that right as we were getting everything ready to get tubes for her, that he ear miraculously clear up after a year of ear infections. I feel like we are greatly blessed. She went from not being able to say baby before November to saying Rachel in January. July was the first time she really said mommy and daddy to get our attention. She has gone a long ways and will continue speech therapy to get completely caught up.

Halloween

We had a lot of fun on Halloween Day. After Hailey came home from school, we had snacks and changed into our costumes. Then we went to the Medical center and got tons of goodies as we went to each nurse and doctor. On the first floor is Children's Dentistry, Children's Physicians and the Women's clinic. There are more offices upstairs.

 

Nathan had a meeting until 5:00pm so when we finished at the Medical Center we played at the play ground and took pictures.

 Then Nathan changed in the car and we went to the Stake's trunk or treat which was HUGE! Nathan and I dressed up for the first time this year.

Halloween Parade

We went to Hailey's school for their Halloween parade. It seemed very organized as each class starting with 5th grade came in the gym and circled around. Hailey is Rapunzel. The other Haley is the angel.

Rachel's birthday (10-29)

My sweet little baby turned one years old!

 We had a cupcake birthday cake for her which was a lot of fun.

 

 

She wasn't too sure about the cake to begin with, then discovered that cake is really tasty.

 

Rachel wearing her birthday hat after her bath.

 She stands up a lot and is pretty stable. She crawls around but didn't start walking until Christmas time (14 months old).

 Getting presents for the 1st birthday is tough especially since we have other girls. Rachel doesn't really need anything but I did find this fun 10-1 wooden toy box.

 

 Robert really wanted to get Rachel a present, so he picked out some hair bows from the Dollar Tree for her.

Pumpkin Dunkin'

The Rec Center had a trunk or trunk type carnival in their parking lot a few days before Halloween. The kids had a lot of fun with it. We also got their a little late, so it wasn't crowded a lot. Hannah is Snow White, Hailey is Rapunzel, Robert is Spider man, and Rachel is an Elephant.

After we were done with that, we went swimming indoors. They had filled the swimming pool with pumpkins. Robert's favorite thing to do was pushing the pumpkins down the slide then following after then. It made huge splashes. Swimming went well and we had everyone in their pjammies to go home in.