Just like Trey

I will always remember when Emjae ate a doughnut at Monty and Kristen's. I'm pretty sure it was Kyle that said "Mom, she eats it just like Trey does."
Every time she eats a doughnut I always have to chuckle. I like to think that they are genetically alike, since they both are half Salanoa, and that's the reason why they eat their doughnuts the way they do.
No one try to tell me different :)

Baseball or Golf?

Saturday was a beautiful day!!! We were planning on going to the park and having lunch. We went to the store to get stuff for the picnic and for Sunday dinner. As we were just enjoying our stroll through Wally World we ended up going down the sports isle. Emjae saw a glove and bat and picked those things up and came to show us. The bat was a metal one so I was like NO, but we headed over to the kids toys and found a little Tee Ball set that came with two balls, a tee stand, and a bat. Of course we couldn't just have the yellow bat, so James found a pink bat. By the time we were ready to check out Julie had fallen asleep. Nap time would have to come before the park. We came home put the girls down and then James made the most amazing sandwiches ever!!!
The girls finally woke up and we headed to the park! Julie sat on a blanket and had fun playing with the small ball that came with the pink bat.

We had to show Emjae what you are suppose to do.

Then we let her try by herself

She was doing really good. Then we wanted to get a video of her playing so this is what happened.


Needless to say I think that a golf set will be our next investment :)

Julie's Mowgli Walk

Mom,
I told you about Julie and her Mowgli walk a long time ago and well I finally download my pics and video to the computer. So here it is!

Count Your Blessings

So amid the conflict, whether great or small, Do not be discouraged; God is over all.

Count your many blessings; angels will attend, Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end. Count your blessings; Name them one by one. Count your blessings; See what God hath done.

If I were to spend a whole day counting my blessings I would still need more days to finish. I have been truly blessed...wait... let me rephrase that we have been truly blessed. There are so many things to be grateful for. But being grateful isn't the only thing that I need to be. Grateful is just an adjective and describes how I feel. I need to take it to the next level and expound on that by acknowledging God for his gratefulness. It is through him that I have been blessed and if I just say I am grateful for this and this and that, then it doesn't show my thanks and appreciation to God and his love, mercy and gifts that he has bestowed upon me.
Last Friday James called me with news. His company had anywhere between 200-300 people working for them and they cut the whole office down to 30 employees. James was one of the people that still had a job. There is so much uncertainty but as the lovely song "Count Your Blessing" states "Do not be discouraged God is over all."
I truly know this to be true. I can worry and fret and panic with the uncertainty of when the company will just dissolve and we will be with out a job and income, but there is no good that can come from it. I know I am doing what God wants me to do and that when I do what is required, God will not let me fall. Whatever happens will happen and it will be for my benefit.

What do you say?

Emjae goes through these little... I don't know what you would call them...maybe episodes? Well its kind of like the potty training thing were she will tell us sometimes and other times she wont. Now its with the word "Please." James seems to think it is because she will say "please" sometimes and we will tell her "no" that she just doesn't want to use the word "please" anymore. So I was finishing up my last blog and Emjae comes around the corner with her cup in her hand saying "what do you say? what do you say?" I can't help but chuckle. I look at her and she says "Milk, what do you say?"
I will say "what do you say?" when she asks for something with out using the word "please." So she knows what I am going to say because she didn't say the word "please" and yet when I say " you need to ask "Milk, please" or "Mom, milk please" she just looks up at me and gives me that smile and says "Milk?......Apple Juice?.....Milk?"
The joys of kids and their learning process.

Emjae's Doctor Appt.

Yesterday was a good day for us. We were able to finally have a doctor tell us a diagnoses and what the steps we will be taking are.
They diagnosed Emjae with Oligoarticular JIA. It's no longer called JRA, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, because it has nothing to do with Rheumatoid Arthritis which is seen in older people. JIA stands for Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. The Juvenile is because she is a juvenile and the idiopathic is because they have yet to figure out the cause of the arthritis. 80-90 per 100,000 kids get arthritis and of that 50% get the type that Emjae has. It is very prevalent in females under the age of 6.
We were given a prescription of Naproxen to help control the inflammation. With too much inflammation the joint can start to grow at a much faster pace then the other joint which can cause a different in leg growth. Some of the side effects could cause some gastric discomfort. They will also do urine test once a year to make sure that it is not causing any damage to her liver or kidneys. If the Naproxen does not seem to be helping with her joint we will then have to go and get injections into her knee. But we will deal with that if and when it becomes necessary.
Emjae will be going to the doctors every two months to begin with and hopefully over time the length between visits will grow longer. She will continue to take the medicine until the Arthritis is no longer there, which has a 25% chance that she will grow out of it. On top of these doctor visits we will be visiting an Ophthalmologist every 3 months.
With the Oligoarticular JIA the blood work will usually show positive for Antinuclear antibodies. Emjae did test positive for this and as such is put at a high risk of developing Chronic Iridocyclitis. For short they call this Iritis which is inflammation of the eye. Children with other forms of JIA have a 5% chance of developing this. With the type Emjae has it jumps to a 20% chance. Now because she tested positive on the blood work it puts her into another higher risk category. The inflammation in the eye if left untreated can lead to blindness. If by the chance the arthritis goes away she is still considered a high risk for Iritis. There are no symptoms except for red eyes or pain and by then it may be too damaged. Hence the reason for the visits to the Ophthalmologist.
As far as us stopping her from doing to much activity or anything like that the doctor recommended us to not prohibit any. If Emjae's knee is bothering her she will stop herself and in fact they like to encourage physical activity to ensure that the muscles and joints are still being used and are functioning.
Some of the things that were told to us may seem scary, but the doctor seemed to think that Emjae would be one of the lucky ones that grows out of it because we caught it early and because it is only in one joint as of now. We were given some websites and reading information so we can learn more about it.

Potty Training

We have started to try and Potty Train Emjae. There has been moments of happiness and frustration. We started mid last month when we were in Vegas and it was going well until we got home. We got home and she didn't want to go any more. Then she started to use the big toilet instead. Now we are at a point where she tells us sometimes when she has to go and at other times when we ask her she will usually go. She says "no" all the time but that doesn't mean anything usually when she says it. We will ask her "do you need to go potty?" as she sits on the toilet. Her reply is "no" and then a few seconds later she is peeing. But ever since yesterday she has decided that when she needs to go she just takes her own diaper off and then comes to us. Well we had missionaries over last night and every so often she would be running out naked into the front room. One of the times James saw it first since he was in the kitchen cutting hair, but the second time she did it we were sitting at the table and one of the elders says "oh, she's naked again." O just couldn't help but laugh and say sorry.
Now if only she would learn you take your diaper off in the bathroom and to tell us every time. She understands it and she knows when she is going, she just doesn't always tell us. The Joys and Frustrations.

*Hint Hint

I was hinted the other day that I don't blog anymore. Well Mrs. Dora you don't either :P
I know it's been awhile since I have gotten on, it just takes for ever for my computer to download pictures and since I don't have pictures to go with my stories I haven't blogged. But I have now uploaded pictures so here is February in Review.
I started the month off with doing 14 days of Valentines for James. The first day was a long rope of suckers that said "I am a Sucker for You." Day 2 was pink chocolate chip pancakes and eggs for breakfast.

Day 3 was an anchor I had sewed out of Heart print Fabric and a song that talked about our love is like an anchor. That was also the night that we left to make our trip to California for Makai's baby blessing. Thursday morning we stopped and spent the day in Vegas. It was also the 4th so I gave James a big heart shaped pillow and a quote that said "Love may not make the world go round, but I must admit that it makes the ride worthwhile." Friday the 5th we were at Monty and Kristin's and Mom's. Monty took the day off and so we were able to spend the day with everyone. I must admit that I do enjoy spending time with them. I also filled up around 45 balloons and put them in the car. James had woken up while I was getting ready to go out, but I told him I was getting our bags. I came inside with most of them and then asked him to go get the rest. All the balloons ended up inside and got plenty of play time with Kory, Trey, Emjae and even Julie.

They also got to play in the bath tub that day and oh did they have fun.

Day 6 was suppose to be a heart shaped cookie....but I couldn't find one.... so.... Love Cuffs instead. Day 7 was the baby blessing and little Makai looked so cute!

It was also the day of the Super Bowl. 2 years in a row now we have watched the super bowl with Monty and Kristin. I made what some people call Black Balls for that day. But while I was making them I think I had convinced Tyler and Kory that there were ant bones in them, I tried to tell them it was broccoli and green beans and carrots and ant bones dipped in chocolate, but really it was just marshmallow creme peanut butter and rice krispies dipped in chocolate. Before Tyler would eat one he had to ask his mom if there were really any ants in it, and he said well it's protein. It was too cute. Julie wasn't too excited about the super bowl and Emjae was having fun playing with the mic she found.

That day I gave James a quote that said "What I need to live has been given to me by God. Why I need to live has been given to me by you."
We left California after the super bowl and drove to vegas. James dropped me and the girls off and headed back up to Utah. He had to go to work. I had planned for this of course so I already had things to give him while he was up in Utah and while I was in Vegas. Monday the 8th was a coupon for a full massage on my massage table. Tuesday was a Huge card that had the girls foot prints and hand prints. Needless to say that was a task all in itself to do by one person. The 10th was a box that said What Do I love Most?

When you opened it up there was a mirror inside. Day 11 was a box I had made that said To James, From Your Funny Hunny. I had put a ton of Jokes in there that had to do with Valentines and well when I talked to him later that night he hadn't even opened it. He just thought I gave him a decorated box. I laughed so hard!! He opened it the next day at work and his whole team enjoyed reading the jokes. Amy and Alex also came into town that night. The next day Kate and Trevor had come over to the house and it was there first time seeing baby Erick, but Emjae did not care. She loves holding him and just being near him. My mom handed Erick to Kate to hold and well Emjae freaked out. She started crying and would not stop. She wanted him back! I tried even sitting next to Kate with Emjae, but she didn't want to unless she was holding him. The picture is kind of small because I got it off of face book since no one sends me these pictures, but Julie is pulling Kate's hair. And Emjae is crying and looking away because she's not holding him. We decided Julie was pulling Kate's hair to get back at her for making her sister cry and Erick is just chillin because he has girls fighting over him already.
Emjae and Julie also got to take a bath with their other cousin too. It was just a week full of fun bath time memories.

The 12th was a heart shaped dish with candy.

The 13th he was driving down to Vegas for Baby Ericks blessing. He got a late start but eventually made it. I was going to do brownies with powder sugar X's and O's, but there was already too many sweets and the kitchen was being used so instead I got marshmallows and fudge stripped cookies and a bottle of Sparkling Cider and we had a little fire in the back yard with smores.
Overall our week at Oma and Opa's was just relaxing. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that Julie started crawling at Monty and Kristin's as well as getting her self up into a sitting position by herself.

Sunday was Valentines day and Erick's blessing. It was a really great sacrament. One of the speakers had cancelled and so Nate (my brother from another mother) gave a talk. A ton of Alex's family was there and they are all Catholic. His talked touched on the first discussion.
After sacrament we headed back to my parents place and had a huge dinner. Since there was so much going on that day we had planned to do something for Valentines on a later day.
My Sister in Law Kate took pictures for Amy and Alex. Here are a few that we fell in love with.

So for the final valentine day I was going to do a heart shaped pizza with soda cans that had been decorated to say love potion or something cute like that. James just wanted a home cooked meal since he hadn't gotten a good home cooked meal in awhile. So I ended up cooking him a good meal one day.
To end off the month we were able to go to Audrey's wedding. We were kinda late, but we went.

And that is the month of February in review.