Huckleberry Heaven

One of the fond memories of growing up in the England house was huckleberry syrup over pancakes, waffles or french toast. We used to take camping trips up to Idaho and pick buckets full. Picking huckleberries is pretty time consuming, but with 6 other siblings and my parents all working together we were able to gleen a pretty good harvest.

This last weekend we had a family reunion up in Idaho. We all picked a bunch of huckleberries just like old times, except with a bunch of grandkids helping too. There was a lot of great food, a spectacular jumping contest with Spence's "not quite mint" Honda Trail 70 and well, Josh was there. You can pretty much count on Josh to liven things up whether it's with a potato gun, a Three Little Pigs pyrotecnics performance, or seeing him walk out of the forest wearing daisy dukes and aviator glasses - I'd explain more, but there just aren't words to describe it.

Unfortunately, Stacie wasn't able to come because she had just broken her arm and being pregnant didn't feel like camping. As a result at our first meal time I realized all I brought was 4 bags of chips, some powdered doughnuts, licorice and lots of Shasta (cause what's camping without Shasta). I left all of the actual meal food at home. But, Grandma pulled through like she always does and we ate well. We missed Stacie and the Texas Englands a whole lot.

Hike

Rhen and I went for a hike the other day. It's fun to see the difference bewteen boys and girls, even at just a year and a half. He makes driving noises for cars, noodles, corn and anything else he can push across a surface. He loves motorcycle rides, riding in the bike trailer, driving in the mountains and hikes. Here are a couple pictures from a little hike we took the other morning. I couldn't see him behind me so it was difficult getting a good pic, but i finally snapped a couple of cute ones that weren't blurry.

A Year

With Stacie's recent flower watering accident, she is unable to type. So i guess I'll have to post up some pics of whats been going on.

This is Chloe last year on the way home from our weekly onc. clinic visit. She and I like to take a shortcut through the mountains on the way home. Takes a few minutes longer, but it's better scenery and by then we can't wait to get out of the traffic.

This last week we decided to take the same picture so we could see what changed in a year. Her hair is getting long and silky now and she feels much better than she did last year. The biggest change for her is that she gets to go to school. She is soooo excited for that. Some things though, never change. She still never finishes the drink she is sooo thirsty for on the way there, and always wants the Noodle Company take out on the way back. She loves noodles of pretty much any kind - which is how she got Noodle as one of her many nicknames.

Stacie and I were filling up her meds the other night and couldn't beleive she is down to so few pills each week. So we had to take a pic. I guess we should have taken one last year so there was something visual to compare against. She used to take a lot more and finally gets off Prograff on Wendsday! That's a milestone for her to finally get off that drug. It will be nice when she is down to the flintstones vitamin only, but for now we're stoked about the progress.

broken bones

Monday morning while watering the flowers Stacie stood on our planter box to reach her hanging pots. On the way back down she lost her balance and her arm cushioned the fall to the concrete. Despite the pain, she's been handling it like a champ. Can't slow a mom down with a broken arm I guess. Luckily the baby is ok and she didn't need any hardware to put her bones back together. We went to the bone doc this afternoon and she is now sporting a shiny new red cast.

finally at 18 weeks...

I haven't been sick this whole week! (knock on wood) I even felt good enough to clean the basement, toys and all and conquer the girls bathroom, AND after eating dinner I felt good enough to give my man a haircut, which took years off (sorry Jake, embrace your grey, or we could always dye it that cool pinkish, purple old men sometimes wear).
Chloe is down to once a month for clinic! It is about stinkin time. She ran in the door yesterday and that is the first thing she said. She looks good they say, just drink, drink, drink. Her prograff pills are down to one pill a day instead of 12 pills a day! They are keeping her on a small dose of steriods for a while to see how she handles no prograff. Progress feels good

Camping in WY

Over the weekend we went camping up in WY. We haven't been able to go for a couple of years so we were pretty excited that Chlo could finally go. All of the girls have been begging to go for quite a while. It was also Rhen's first campout and he loved it. We'll have to remember next time not to give him a jolly rancher because he quickly became a dirt magnet.

Rhen wouldn't eat his breakfast, but when i opened the cooler and he saw the left over hot dog from the night before he was pretty excited. Yeah, i let him eat it raw. And he washed it down with orange juice. It was probably as gross as it sounds, but he was a happy camper.

A little frustrated after many attempts to thread the cap onto the threads. This kept him occupied for a while.

Close-up of dinner, dirt, and Rhen.

Our early riser trying to see what was making the noise in the woods.

Beating up Moose.

Trying to block the paybacks from Moose.

Relaxing with Mom by the fire.

Elsie - the queen of marshmellow cooking. If she torches the outer shell, she cooks it for a second try.

Elsie riding around the place. Chloe spent the whole time riding around on her bike and exploring in the woods so we only have a couple of pics of her. She had so much fun and was sad to leave.

Chlo-pants. Finally caught her by a tree and took a pic. I think this girl is more excited to go to school than any kid I have ever met.

Addie. She's blowing out the flame.

I asked Addie to make a really serious, annoyed with her dorky dad face. I think she nailed it.

This was Elsie's attempt at being annoyed with me. She keeps telling us all about the things she will do when she is a teenager. It has us a bit worried. Maybe she should focus on the now.

summer fun

Rhen's gotta go shirtless when he drinks. It gets pretty intense.

Rhen and his long lost buddy Ben - surveying the popsicle in a cup situation.

Donuts and 4th of July fingernails.

Cousin Jill demolishing the donut in one swoop.

Jacy showing the powdered mini who's boss.

space balls away

( pic #1)Finally, we can throw these bad boys away. No more flushes, no more hook ups, no more chloe draging her meds around for an hour and a half a day AND no more dressing changes for her. ( i hate to say it but that there is 2,000 dollars of meds in the trash)

(pic #2) Chloe has many scars from the many picc lines, port and broviac. This is her newest one. It is out and gone and all that is left there are the marks and the fond memories :).

can't say no to that...

Yesterday was clinic. On monday we were eating dinner and Chloe said she was 89% sure she was going to be able to go to school. Jake asked you are? And chloe replied, I just feel good about it. At clinic I asked about school, and chloe butted in saying she already got her school clothes (yes I did it online and we are done, and boy, 3 girls are pricey). The doctor said well we can't say no if you already have all your clothes. After two years of not being able to go to school, she has gotten the ok to go!! So then on the way home chloe said, now I am 100% sure I can go!! And if she can go to school she can go to church, which she is pretty excited about that. It was a happy day!!
Her kidney's are struggling, so she needs to drink, drink, drink. She will have to take a bottle of water or something to school, and we hope her teacher won't mind, because it is doctors orders. So that is our focus, to get her to drink.

Today was my doctors appointment and the heartbeat was strong and a few weeks ago I could feel it move. Pretty cool. Although the doctor looked at my chart and said, "your up two pounds, that's ok." what does that even mean? I didn't think to ask him if it were bad or good. Now I am all nervous, should I eat more or less? I have only gained 7 pounds, is that too much? Well I do know that I gain more in the begining cause I don't gain alot in the end, but still, I wished I would have asked. My sick days only come every two days now (yay). Even though I love the end result of pregnancy, some days it is hard getting there.

Addie is 11!

I swear everytime Addie wakes up in the morning, she is an inch taller. She is growing so fast, and can now share my clothing. We had fun celebrating both hers and Elsie's. It gets crazy having them 5 days apart, and I didn't have tons of energy this year so it was low key. We take them to eat with just mom and dad to the restaraunt of their choice. Elsie, to my surprise choose Chilli's and Addie choose Olive Garden ( which she doesn't need the kids meal anymore). It is fun to just spend time with them alone. Elsie's we celebrated in Wyoming and had some cousins there which was fun. Addie's they spent jumping on the new tramp which they all got for their birthday present.
Last year I started the tradition of the birthday hat which they wear opening presents and eating cake and each year we add something new to it. I love birthdays! I love to think of them, and tell stories of them when they were first born and all the funny things they did when they were little. Is is so fun to remember, cause they grow up so stinkin' fast!


ps if you look closely to the right of the picture that is chloe, and she got her picc line taken out her arm is red and swollen from the dressing changes and such so hallalooya, Happy day that is is gone! She has agreed that getting poked every 3 weeks isn't as bad as dressing changes twice a week and having to be hooked up to the space ball (more pictures to come)! Another step to her feeling like a normal kid!