Sophia is 4!

Why does 4 sound so much older than 3? I know it's cliche to say that it feels like yesterday Sophia was born, but it really does. She weighed 8lbs, 8 oz and was alert since the second she was born. She is still very alert and aware of everything around her, which makes for some great conversations. She is sassy, but loving, is a great big sister, and fun to be around. She was so excited for her birthday. Every day she would say, "Is it my birthday?" We made a chain count down to help her keep track. We surprised her with a decorated door the morning of her birthday.

And balloons in her room (they are always a hit)!
She helped me make confetti sugar cookies on a stick for her preschool friends

For dinner we went to Red Robin to use her birthday coupon and some family joined us:)

Nama, Aunt Nancy, and Grandma/pa Brown bought some presents.

When Sophia was at Walmart with my mom one day, they walked by the fabric and Sophia immediately spotted Hello Kitty fleece and asked her to make her a new blanket. She did and even got a pillow too.

I interviewed Sophia for her birthday on the video camera and this is how it went (picture her dancing while answering the questions):

1. How old are you?----4

2. When is your birthday?----January 12

3.What's your favorite color ---- red, yellow, orange, green

4. What's your favorite thing to play outside? -----basketball

5. What's your favorite food?----broccoli (I said, "what") then she said----spaghetti

6. What's the theme of your party----Hello Kitty

7. What do you like to play the most at preschool?----Playing kitchen

8. What's your favorite song----Just Dance

9. What's your favorite thing to play----Just Dance on the Wii

10. Who loves you?----Mommy and Daddy and Kenton

11. Who's your best friend----Jackson Bergdahl

What can we say...WE LOVE HER AND ARE BLESSED TO HAVE HER AS A PART OF OUR FAMILY:)

Christmas at home

I know Christmas is over and done with, but I didn't get a chance to post about it before we left for Hawaii, so bare with me. Sophia had her annual Christmas preschool program. Just to think 3 years ago, she was scared and didn't want to leave my side so I had to hide so she couldn't see me and this year, she was standing up there proud and singing loud. My girl is growing up (it hurts my heart a little)! Her best friend is Jackson on the end (Santa)
Santa came early to our house (1 week early). I almost forgot about cookies for Santa. At about 7pm Sophia said, "Mom what about cookies for Santa?" Thank goodness for the sugar cookie mix. And she picked out the Santa mug for the milk.

Right when she woke up she asked if Santa came. At our house Santa doesn't wrap the presents, he leaves them out on the coach for the kids to see right away. Here they are checking out what they got...Aren't their PJ's cute (thanks Nama)

(oh shoot, it didn't rotate) This was her big want. She got it! A Hello Kitty clock (Hello kitty is big at our house right now).

They also got a new kitchen that fits better in our new house...Kenton had a phone call.

And Kenton got one of his favorite things....A BALL!

Then we went to my parent's house to celebrate Christmas with them. Boy did we get spoiled once again!!! Sophia was so excited. If you notice she got a high back booster seat that she can wear a seat belt with and a big girl pretty doll.

And TJ was a happy boy too...NEW CLIPPERS! He used these that night.

Kenton also got a fun car track and clothes, which he was in need of!

Sorry, none of the pictures got rotated for some reason. They showed me that they were until they got uploaded...weird! Anyway, we had another wonderful Christmas, early and all!

Kenton's Eye Update

I realized that I have not updated my blog about Kenton's eyes. In November we went to Portland to the OHSU hospital where Kenton was able to see a specialist and have a ERG (electro-retinal graph) done. OHSU was so big that it had a gondola! My dad, mom, and sister came with us. I wanted my dad there for the eye lingo, my mom for support, and sister to help play with Sophia. Anyway, it was a long day, but Kenton was a trooper. When we first got there Dr. Pennisi looked in his eyes for any discoloration and the nurse dilated his eyes and put numbing medicine on his feet to get ready for the IV. We waited about an hour (and I tried very hard to stay calm) and then they called us back. We then sat in a pitch black dark room with Kenton for 30 minutes to let his eyes rest. It was so dark that you couldn't see ANYTHING. The first 15 minutes he sat on my lap and we sang and bounced and the last 15 minutes he fell asleep. When our 30 minutes was up, the anaesthesiologist had us lay him on the table. She explained that when she gives him the medicine to fall asleep it will only take 3-5 seconds before he goes out. She said that was normal and not to be startled. Well, Mr. Kenton took about 2o seconds. He kept trying to sit up and fight it. After he went out, he was so still, which was weird to see. We left and they started the procedure. We met with the genetic specialist. She asked us about our family history in depth. The ERG took about an hour. We were there when Kenton woke back up. We had to wait a bit until he was a little more with it to feed him a bottle (he hadn't eaten since the night before). At this point I was anxious for the results. We were called back into the office and Dr. Pennisi and the genetic specialist explained the results:

Kenton has idiopathic infantile nystagmus. Dr. Pennisi said that this type is a milder type of nystagmus and is a genetic type. He said that Kenton's retina's look healthy (phew!). He saw NO NO discoloration, NO degeneration, or retinal detachment (yay!). He said most likely his eyes will improve or stay the same, but not get worse. There is no way of knowing if he'll need glasses until he gets a little older. His eyes do still move back and forth but not nearly as much as they did a few months ago. He told us to watch for head tilting because sometimes people with nystagmus do that to compensate for it. We asked if there was a specific gene linked to nystagmus and they said that there was not at this point.

A few days after his appointment, the genetic specialist called us. She said that after we left, they did more research and felt that there could be a specific gene linked to nystagmus. She wanted to know if she could use Kenton in a study (they already took his blood, so she could use that). Usually a research study costs thousands of dollars, but she said she could do it for $350. I thought that it was weird that we had to pay, but I know there is a lot of people and time that put a lot of work into such studies. How could we say no if it could possibly help Kenton down the road and other nystagmus patients? There was no guarantee of any new information being found, but we were willing to risk it.

A few days ago, the genetic specialist called and said they found a specific gene linked to nystagmus! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? It is the FRMD7 gene. Every one has the gene, but for those with nystagmus, the gene has a mutation. There is nothing that changes for Kenton right now. The gene cannot be removed, but having this new research finding can possibly help in the future. Sophia can choose to be tested for this gene when she is 18years old to see if she is a carrier. I think that it's pretty neat that because of Kenton, it inspired these doctors to look more closely at nystagmus and that Kenton was a part of new findings. His eyes are not perfect, but they are healthy and I'm grateful for that!

Really..Did that happen?

Based on a true story:

Once upon a time there were 2 girls. One was named Anna and the other was named Hollie. There was also a boy named TJ. They all were all in Maui together. One morning Anna got hungry so she borrowed a frying pan from TJ's parent's room. She made her eggs, washed her pan and placed it on the counter. Later TJ was going to his parents room so to be kind his wife handed him the pan to take back for Anna. As he was walking, he was swinging the pan. Meanwhile, Hollie was walking to TJ's parents room at the same time as TJ. TJ is a funny boy, so he decided to pretend to smack Hollie with the pan. All of a sudden, the pan handle flew off the pan which caused the pan to fly in the air and hit the windshield of the wicked witch of the D condos.

THE END!.........................................

Well it really wasn't the end of the story, but I had to write it like a fictional story because it was so comical and dumb that it happened. It was one of those moments that I wish we could rewind. The owners of this car have not been happy with us the whole trip and have made complaints about us. Apparently they don't like kids, scooters, or laughter and go to bed at 7:30pm, so this was like the icing on the cake.

TJ was responsible and let the owners know right away what happened. She was mad and was blaming TJ for this. He was like, "Yes lady, I got a pan and threw it at your windshield because I thought it would be fun...SERIOUSLY LADY?" She also told TJ that we have not been considerate and he responded with, "We are just enjoying our vacation and if I wasn't considerate I would not have come and told you." TJ is really good at staying calm, but firm with his words. Anyway, TJ got on the phone right away, set up a place to fix their windshield ($500 later for us). They then saw a dent in the car and wanted to file with our insurance so we canceled the windshield. They were trying to claim it like a car accident and called the cops too. The cops were laughing at them! To end the story, our homeowners insurance is taking care of it! My sister-n-law said this whole situation is like one of those All-State commercials. Hahaha!
After that fiasco, we went to the beach. The waves weren't too bad, so Sophia got on the boogie board and took a wave. It almost swallowed her (look closely, she is on the board), so one ride was enough, ha!

This made my day! Sophia was holding Kenton in the kid pool and bounced him up and down. Every time she tried to give him back to me, he jumped toward Sophia and hung on to her:)

Hula

We wanted to take Sophia to a Luau, but she didn't seem totally excited about it so we didn't want to spend the money if she wasn't going to enjoy it all. At the same time, we wanted her to see hula dancers, so we went to a free show at the Cannery Mall. We took Mollie with us of course. The show was absolutely perfect. It was free. We got front row seats. It was an hour long and they went through the different dances.

Sophia told me when to take a picture
He was so cute and really good. On one of the dances he was suppose to have a serious face, but he couldn't help but cheese it up.

There were 2 other ladies dancing, but of course Sophia asked me to take a picture of the purple and pink girls.

This is when the show took a turn. The teacher of the dancers explained that in their culture they scream or laugh when they are stressed. On one of the dances, they screamed a lot, so the girls covered their ears.

This was the New Zealand dance (the war dance). The guys came out with paint on their face, loud voices, hitting their bodies, and their tongues sticking out. This guy got right in TJ's face with his tongue out and a scowl on his face. I'm not gonna lie...he was scary!!! After this dance, Sophia came over and said, "I want to sit on your lap." I don't blame her though.

Like I said before, it was perfect for the girls and they got to experience the different types dancing.

Black Rock

We hung out at the Black Rock beach all day. It was a beautiful and probably one of the hottest days and of course this is the day I forgot my camera...ugh! Thank goodness Janice took some pictures so I borrowed from her. Sophia said she wanted to swim out to black rock and jump off the lower part. TJ and I were shocked that she said that, so of course we had to do it. She swam out with TJ, climbed up on the lower part of the rock, but once she got up there she wasn't so sure. TJ kept counting to 3, but she was not ready. The line behind them was backing up so TJ counted to 3, held her hand, and pulled her out to jump. The jump looked really good. Once they both came up, Sophia screamed bloody murder and whacked TJ over the head. SHE WAS SO MAD! I guess she wasn't ready to jump! Although she wasn't happy about it, I told her I was proud of her to try and do something that was scary.

After the jump, Sophia spent some time playing on the beach. Her and Jackson dug a hole.
I love how Janice got this candid shot. Kenton was belly laughing at both of us.

Uncle Zac joined them in the sand fun

This beach was quite calm so it was good for swimming and snorkeling. We saw some pretty fish and some saw a turtle (look at Zac's face behind TJ).

I had to post this one too because now look at Zac. He totally knew the picture was being taken and it made me laugh when I saw it. Very funny Zac!

After the beach, we did some shopping at Whaler's Village. Hollie opened a pearl and got a silver pearl. Since I got my pearl, TJ has been wanting to get Sophia one, so she picked out her oyster and it had a yellowish shell.

She was a little nervous about hitting it 3 times and saying aloha (notice her hugging my leg), so I helped her out.

Waiting to see...She got a white pearl which means happiness and purity! That's the color TJ wanted her to get:)

She picked out a fish cage to put it in and wear as a necklace, so that way when she gets older, she can pick a setting for it to be put in. VERY SPECIAL:)

This is a random picture, but got a laugh out of it. Caleb was messing with Kenton:) Our kids sure to love him.

Friday

We spent our day swimming. It is amazing the amount of confidence Sophia has gotten while being here and swimming everyday. Putting her face in the water was not her favorite thing and now she's a little fish and does not like to wear her life jacket.

She comes up for a breath and then keeps on going. This motivates me to put her back in swim lessons when we get home. I don't want her to lose what she has gained here.
And for Mr. Kenton...Every time we go past the pool or ocean, he tries to dive bomb out of my arms to get to the water. One night the kids went swimming and I just took Kenton to watch and he was so mad. So now he is always in his swim suit and ready too!

Later that night we went out with Kevin, Hollie, Caleb, and Anna. Zac and Janice were kind enough to watch our kids. We ate dinner at Bubba Gumps...You know, "Run Forrest, Run!"It's a pretty restaurant right on the water. I had soup and salad and TJ finally got to eat some seafood (since I don't eat it).

TJ played golf one day with his brother, which was one of his "big" things, so I thought about what I wanted to do or buy for my "big" thing. I watched someone open an oyster and decided that's what I wanted to do. I wanted a pearl and wanted to pick a setting for it. Once I decided that, finding a setting was a little more tricky. I love rings so I knew I wanted a ring, but all the settings had thin bands or were like $400 (and I wasn't going THAT big). A man at the Pearl Factory was SO nice. He took a pearl off a setting I liked, so I could set it with the pearl I picked. Sorry about my face in the next picture, but that's seriously how I felt. Everyone watching kept saying, "Pick a good one" and once I did, they said, "Are you sure?" MAN, talk about pressure...

I had no strategy other than finding a fat one

I went with my original choice and felt good about it, but was still extremely nervous. My heart was beating hard and I was sweaty, hahaha. I mean come on, I wanted a good one, especially because the setting I picked needed a big one:)

I got to tap on it 3 times and say, "ALOHA!" as the man rang a bell

And the moment arrived...It was a big one and gold color, which meant prosperity. TJ was happy too because I guess he was fist pumping behind me.

The last thing I got to do was make a wish!

I'm glad I did it and love my ring (sorry I forgot to take a picture of it mounted and complete).