"Bracie" Part II- The Good Part

Maddy's journey with her palate expander (nicknamed "Bracie") is coming to an end! As of yesterday afternoon, we are officially done turning it! We turned that sucker as far as it could possibly be turned. Like so far, it stopped turning. Couldn't possibly go any farther. She was SO excited to finally get that news at the dentist yesterday. The dentist is extremely pleased with the job it has done. It has successfully corrected her crossbite and fixed her jaw shift. You can see the difference here. Pretty amazing how quickly that thing worked.
If you look closely in the top picture you can see how narrow her upper jaw was and how she shifted her teeth to the right to line at least one side causing her jaw to shift to the left. Now when she bites down, her teeth and jaw line up perfect. If you notice that she can't literally touch her teeth together it's because she has a bonded expander (as opposed to a banded one) that is bonded to her back teeth with acrylic. Once the expander is out, she will obviously be able to bite down all the way. You may also have noticed the nice, large gap in her front teeth. That will close in soon and be ultimately fixed with braces later on. Her poor little mouth has gotten so big (he purposefully over expanded it because things will "settle in" when he removes it). But her sweet face looks like it actually has some meat to it and it has made her mouth so big it's hard for her to smile around the expander because her cheeks just won't stretch anymore. Here is a better look at the lovely-ness to better understand just why her cheeks are so stretched out (scroll down quick if you have a weak stomach)
Now does that not look uncomfortable or what?! Bless her heart. She has never complained about it. She has gotten so used to it that when it has broken away from her teeth a few times and we have had to go in to have it re-cemented on, when the dentist takes it all the way off to clean it out, she said it feels really weird not to have it in.

Right now, we are just happy that these lovely tools no longer have to be shoved in her mouth each day to crank her poor jaw apart! Along with a big celebration, there may be a burial service for the "keys" and expander when it comes out. :)

So, now she is in part II of the expander's job. To sit in her mouth and acts as a retainer, allowing the bone to start forming in it's new position. At the beginning of August, he will take it out for good and put in a "real" (and much smaller) retainer that will stay in for awhile. I bet her mouth will feel so big and roomy then!

Field Trip

Yesterday I had the privilege of being a chaperon on Maddy's field trip to the Botanical Gardens. We (meaning our family) have only been there once before and that was at Christmastime to see the lights. Obviously it was totally different going this time of year. It was beautiful! Maddy has now decided she wants our backyard to look like that. Yeah, that would be nice! The kids had a great time going on a nature walk through the garden, learning about different flowers. After our little tour we headed over to the park to eat lunch. Thanks Kelly for taking care of Bryson and Ethan! I am so thankful I am able to be a part of Maddy's class like this!

The Batcave Masterpiece

It was a quiet Friday morning. Just Bryson and I. We were taking it slow. He decided he wanted to play with his batcave and while most of the ensemble was together, there were a few accessories missing. We gathered those and he was entertained. I broke myself away from the bat house long enough to shower. As soon as he heard me stirring in the bathroom he hurried in to come get me to reveal his surprise. I smiled inside as it was such a surprise that he had his bedroom door closed. He flung the door open with much pride and there awaited...drum roll please-
I about died laughing. Inside of course. All Bryson heard was "oh Bryson, that is awesome!!! Really cool! You did a great job!"... Inside I am thinking "That is pretty funny, I have to get a picture of it". He had worked hard on it and was so proud of himself. It was the details though that made me laugh the most.

1. Jeff's old wrestling trophy. Note the broken left arm on the ref. He has been carrying around this trophy since Friday now. (oops...it's really a baseball trophy) :D
2. The half eaten sucker and spiderman sticker. He was sure not to leave an empty space.
3. Money. He feels so rich when he has a pocket full of change.

Oh and I can't forget the neighborhood pool key dangling from the side.

I also loved that Maddy's little coin thingy was being held ransom in the lower left corner (see main pic above) and that his "bottle of super powers", a.k.a antibacterial soap, was close on hand.

That kid makes me laugh.

A Fun and Quite Memorable Trip to the Zoo

Kelly decided this morning to take her kids on a mystery trip to the zoo and asked if we wanted to come along. I had already told Bryson we could go to the park but knew he would much rather go on the mystery trip so we of course accepted the invitation!

As we got closer to the zoo, Kelly started giving the kids clues as to where we were going. Bryson guessed it after a few clues. Totally surprised me because he has only been to this zoo one other time which was last year.

We were quite surprised to see the rest of the Valley there and once we found a parking spot past the paddle boats we began the hike over. The zoo was crowded with daycares and pre-schools but not so bad that it wasn't fun. And, by 12:00 it was like a ghost town.




The giraffes were quite hard to find today. Once we finally found them the kids were not so interested.It was much more entertaining to have a fake elephant pretend to sneeze on you.

I love this next picture although it was right before "the main event" that made this day so memorable. I let Kelly explain what that means.

Bryson's favorite animal exhibit is this large turtle/tortoise and it's the one thing he wanted to see. Last year it had got stuck on a rock and it was quite entertaining to all of us to watch him climb over it.

Maleigha was hilarious with the penguins. She'd back away like it was coming after her every time it came close.

Thanks Kelly for taking pictures. Not sure how my camera didn't make it in our bag but I am glad yours did! It was a fun morning...for the most part :)

Mother's Day{S}

Yes, dayS. Mother's day spilled over into Saturday this year too. And, I must say, I love how it was planned.

Saturday morning started with my sisters, mom and I browsing through the Nampa Farmers Market. Take no offensive anyone but, it is by far better than the Meridian Farmers Market. I was quite turned off by farmers markets when I went to my first one last summer (Meridian Farmers Market). But, my opinion has totally changed this weekend. I want to bring Jeff and the kids back to the Nampa one.

Next we stopped by the Harringtons for their fundraiser yard sale. They were raising money to help with their trip to Ethiopia when they bring their little girl home. I had special privilege of a pre-sale (yes dad, PRE sale) on Thursday and Friday night but both Kim and Kelly were able to find a few treasures.

It was then to lunch at the delicious Souper Salad. I had never been there before but quickly decided that would not be my last time. I loved it! Thanks mom for treating us to a yummy lunch!! After lunch we ran over to Hobby Lobby where we bought our mom a shelf thingy she wanted. Lastly we wandered the aisles of Target for a bit and then went home.

It was a fun day. Kelly brought her camera along but sadly it did not get used. I made up for that on Sunday :)


Sunday I woke up to two little kiddos very excited to give me a special gift. With a little help from daddy, they picked out some perfume for me. It has been years since I have owned a bottle of perfume. It was a nice gift! We had gone to church Saturday night as a family but Jeff still had to go to the second service on Sunday to video. So, while he was at church the kids and I packed a picnic lunch. Actually the kids did most of it. I just made the sandwiches. We then met Jeff up at the park to eat. After lunch we walked down to the river. The kids had a blast throwing rocks into the river and trying to learn how to skip them.

Their attempts at skipping rocks resulted like this-

But we were quite impressed that daddy could skip a rock across the entire river.

After playing in the water for quite some time we walked over to the boat house and did the battle boats. They are always fun to do but my back is paying for it today. I don't know why but it always leaves me feeling like I have one big bruise going down my entire spine. Ok maybe it's because you lean against metal bars but it always seems that I am the only one affected. Anyways, it's worth it for the fun.

Maddy's feet don't reach the peddles while sitting on the seat so she decided to use her hands.

After our exercise (yes, those are exercise!) we headed home. But, not before enjoying my free ice cream cone from TCBY!

Yum!

Maddy kept saying throughout the day "this is the best Mother's day!" It was a fantastic day! Thank you Jeff, Maddy and Bryson for making it such a special day! You three fill my heart with happiness. I love you guys SO much!

Oh you poor, neglected blog...

...I promise to spend time with you soon. Until then there is a house to dust, bathrooms to clean, a kitchen to clean, a little boy to be played with and Teacher Appreciation gifts to finish making.

I promise though, I will be back soon :D