Happy Halloween!

Click here for a Halloween Monster Mash Calvert Style. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Arizona. But, I do miss having seasons. The brightly colored leaves and the crisp fall air in Utah were beautiful. It really felt like fall when we were there.

One of the highlights of our fall trip was going to the Pumpkin Patch with Grammy and my cousin Whitney. Crewe especially had a blast and couldn't get enough of the hay slide and cow train.

Annual Cousins Halloween Party

Mindy and Lindsey hosted the first annual cousins Halloween Party on Friday night. Everyone came in costume. We were so glad we were in town because it ROCKED!

Colton and Jacob as Dwight Schrute and Michael Scott (Love that beet!)

Josh & Mindy as a polygamist couple. They were in character all night. Wish I had gotten a photo of the back of her hair.

Princess Laura

Josh as Barrack Obama

Marne as Hillary and cute Matthew in the corner (sorry, Matt my other photo of you was blurry!)
Chris & me. Chris really got a kick out of the fact that BYU is actually celebrating 25 years since they've won a national championship. So...he came decked out 1984 style.

Jason strutting his stuff

Love those teeth Chad!

Brian (my youngest brother) and his girlfriend Shawna.

Whitney, the cutest M&M ever!

Lindsey & Mike

Sarah makes nerdom attractive

Ash & Allie

My bro Donald gets the award for most creative costume. He's a "blessing in disguise."
The decor was so cute that I had to include a couple of photos. These fun bottles were all labeled with spooktacular halloween names.

We had soup in these adorable pumpkin bread bowls. Yum!

Where have we been?

We have spent much of the last week here...
in the beautiful valley of my ancestors aka Eden and Liberty, Utah. My amazing cousin Josh lives here and his family introduced us to a possible non-invasive treatment option for Crewe. We went to learn more about it and see if showed any promise of being effective for Crewe's condition.

Crewe underwent diagnostic testing and his first treatment on Monday. Treatments continued daily through Friday. Measuring Crewe's progress is difficult since he can't describe to us what he feels. We haven't noticed any significant change in the size of his face, but we have noticed a small reduction in the size of his tongue and an increased ability to stand for longer periods of time. It's likely that he needs more treatments in order to see the real potential of this medical approach. We are considering going to Dallas to meet with the doctor that developed the approach.

While we were in Utah we got to spend some quality time with my family and extended family. More to come on those adventures...

That Cough is...

Asthma. Cal went to see the doctor this week to make sure everything was okay after the whole hospital ICU experience last weekend, and the doctor, who has two kids with asthma, says she's quite sure our little man has asthma. She believes the cold he had a few weeks ago triggered his "respiratory event." So... that means a puff from the inhaler in the morning and a puff in the evening for the foreseeable future. We're hoping that two puffs a day keeps the asthma away.

Halloween Decor... for my mom

My mom is THE holiday queen. And you know life is good when you can be in her holiday kingdom. These photos are for her... trying to keep up the magical holiday spirit she always had in our home growing up.

Cal's Breathing Scare

Breathing is something we've learned a little bit about since Crewe was born. We never dreamed that we would need to use what we learned with Calahan.

It all started on Tuesday with an occasional cough. Cal had a little cold about a week previous so I didn't think it was any big deal. Plus, he was acting normal and didn't have a fever or any other symptoms. On Wednesday his cough grew stronger and by late Wednesday night I could hear him wheezing in his sleep. I called the pediatrician on call at 3:00 am and explained what was happening and told her I had the equipment and medicine to do a breathing treatment. She told me not to do a breathing treatment, but to put Cal in a hot shower instead.

I should have followed my instinct and given him a breathing treatment because on Thursday morning he continued to wheeze and seemed to be short of breath. I took him to the pediatrician and they did a breathing treatment with Cal kicking and screaming the whole time. The doctor wasn't satisfied with the results of the treatment and sent us to get a chest x-ray. The radiologist said that his lungs looked "junky" and suggested that the pediatrician treat it like pneumonia.

So... the pediatrician called in an antibiotic and told us to keep doing the breathing treatments and said he should be fine. That night Cal continued to wheeze and began having chest refractions. He was unresponsive to the breathing treatments so at 2:00 am I loaded him into the car and took him to the ER at Phoenix Children's.

The respiratory therapists immediately went to work, giving him industrial strength treatments and steroids. His oxygen saturation levels kept going down after the treatments so they transferred him to the intensive care unit where the treatments could continue under carefully monitoring. I almost didn't recognize my little guy with so many wires, masks and the IV connected to him. His breathing finally stabilized in the ICU at about noon. By the evening he was stable enough to move to the general floor in the hospital.

The treatments and steroids continued on the floor until he needed them just every four hours. The little man started acting like himself again complete with singing and jumping on the hospital bed. With a promise to keep up the treatments every four hours, the hospital let us take him home late yesterday afternoon. He's still doing well 24 hours later.

The cause of his breathing issues are a mystery. He's never had a breathing problem before and he tested negative for the flu, RSV, and all of the other viruses they test for at the hospital. He still has not had a fever. The doctors think it could be the beginnings of asthma. Apparently a child has to be a little older and have several respiratory events for asthma to be diagnosed. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this is a one-time event.

We are really proud of the way the Calaman handled everything. Hospitals are scary to me as a grownup so I can only imagine how scary it felt to Cal. He got to the point that whenever he saw someone wearing scrubs and a mask he would say "NO like it" as loud has he could. He was so excited to get out of his hospital room that he left running and didn't slow down as he emphatically yelled "BYE-BYE hospital."

Good Bye Soy, Hello Hemp

We bid farewell to soy milk last week after learning about the many dangers that soy formula and soy milk pose for infants and toddlers. Frankly, after reading much of the easily accessible research on the topic, I cannot understand how soy formula is even allowed to be on the market -- especially for baby boys.

Trying to feed a little guy with so many food allergies is harder than taking care of a baby with a trach. After trying many different "milk" products and dietary changes, we finally found a milk that Crewe actually likes AND gives him the hydration and nutrition that he needs. Hemp it is! Hemp Vanilla, to be exact.

Until a few weeks ago, I hadn't even heard of hemp milk. I was amazed to learn how much nutrition is packed into the seeds of the hemp plant (a distant cousin to the marijuana plant). It has some of the fat that a 1 year old needs, a fair amount of protein and more calcium than cow's milk.

For those interested in the soy issue, here are just a few of the disturbing things I found in my research:

Soy formula/milk:

• contains toxic amounts of the metal mangenese. The excess metal does not work its way out of the body, but collects in the brain and can alter the way the brain directs traffic. It has been linked to autism and aggressive behavior later in life.
• blocks the absorption of iron, calcium and zinc
  
• contains estrogen-like compounds that depress thyroid function and can alter growth patterns, inhibit the effects of male hormones, and cause sterility (soy formula is the equivalent of 5 birth control pills each day)

Don't take my word for it, just do some simple google searches and you'll see for yourself.

Tomorrow's Oprah Show

A good friend introduced me to a blog a couple of years ago that has now become one of my favorites because it is so inspirational. It's the story of Stephanie Nielsen, a devoted LDS mother of four, who survived a near fatal airplane crash along with her husband just over a year ago. Stephanie and her story will be the subject of tomorrow's Oprah show. I'm sure it will be worth watching.

Fall is in the Air {finally}

After five days in a row under 100, I think it's finally safe to say that Fall is in the air. October is definitely one of my most favorite months. The weekend was a great start to the season: lots of playtime outside, our town's 25th Anniversary Celebration, and General Conference.

Hitting golf balls into the wash by our house has become an evening tradition
Mostly a spectator sport for Creweton
Mr. Social makes himself at home with the freshman boys hanging out next door. He now wants a skateboard.
Carefree celebrated their 25th anniversary on Saturday with a bunch of fun events like a car show and tour of the new fire station. I took the photo above at the car show for my brother Brian, connoisseur of fine automobiles.
Cal went straight for the driver's seat.
He had to see how it all works. He's just like his dad.
Again, going for the driver's seat.
Checking out the ambulance.

There's something wonderful about watching conference together in our PJs. I always look forward to conference as my "battery recharge" and this fall's conference was just what I needed. One of my favorite family moments during conference was hearing Cal spontaneously and proudly announce "da proffet, Prezdnt Mausun" upon seeing him at the pulpit for the first time on Saturday.

Halloween Project

While making a return last week at Dillards, I passed the holiday section and saw this fun Halloween "book" decoration.
It was $20, and I thought "I can save myself the $20 and make something fun like that at home." I guess six years of no crafting is catching up with me! So, when my mom came into town last weekend we went shopping for supplies and went to work.

First, we stopped by my local library and picked up these used books for $1 each.
Then, with a few scrapbook papers and fun fonts downloaded from here, we named and covered the books to come up with these:Jack O. Lantern, The Biography, is my favorite. I'm still working on another one called Witchful Thinking. They will be a nice update to our Halloween decor.