good news is that it is not leukemia

You know how there are days that are good, and there are days that suck? Well, today is the second one.

Savvy has a really bad rash on her face. The doctor told me yesterday that it is really painful for her. That explained why she has cried so much these past few days.

So she had a bad night, and at 5am, Bill had to get up to go to work, so I was up with Savvy. WAY TOO EARLY TO BE UP! Cole was crying in his room, so we brought him into my bed. He just was not feeling well. Not sick, just not good. So I snuggled the two of them and I was just thankful that Brighton was at least sleeping happily in his bed. After trying to go back to sleep for over an hour, at 6:30 I got up to wake up Brighton. He was up and playing in his room. Great! Right??? Noooooo, not so much. I made him a breakfast sandwich and I noticed there was hairs all over his plate. hmmmmm... that is creepy. Was he playing with a puppy this morning? No.... we don't have a puppy. My next thought, and remember... I am sleep deprived.... was pure panic. I ran my fingers through his hair and a HUGE clump of hair came out. I was so panicked I almost yelled! I was certain he had leukemia. Then I started thinking... maybe it's that he is not eating any protein.... (I know!!! Seriously sleep deprived!!!) I looked a little closer to his head.

Big chunks of hair sticking up in every direction, then it hit me... and I was so relieved that he did not have leukemia that all I could do was be grateful! Brighton! Did you cut your hair with mommy's scissors? Silence... Hunnie, tell me the truth right now.

Yup...
Not a fun morning.

You Brighton Every Day!

Brighton LOVES everything military, so when his school had "decades day" I figured he would choose World War 2 and wear army clothes. As I was describing all of the era's to him, he asked what the weapons were for each time frame. I couldn't think of what to say for the Roaring 20's so I told him about the Gangster Guys who danced it up and the parties and then when the cops showed up they got out their bazooka guns. HE WAS SOLD! He insisted on being a 20's gangster.

Well, this is the best outfit I had. I couldn't believe he chose this over the army guys. Crazy. He totally kept doing these impromptu dances all morning.



It was like he had on magic shoes that would not stop dancing!
He was ADORABLE!

And the mustache! Who would have EVER thought that a kid with Sensory Autism would wear the mustache!!! I swear I gave him the choice.

Brothers

Brighton is a terrific kid. He is fun, creative and smart.

But most of all, he is genuinely sweet. He is incredibly caring. Yesterday, Cole was really sick. He was coughing that horrible cough that hurts just to hear it. He couldn't breath and he had tears streaming down his cheeks. Brighton came in and gently kissed him, then knelt down at the side of my bed and looked up at my with these beautiful eyes full of sorrow and tears. I asked him if he was saying a prayer and he nodded his head so solemnly. He proceeded to say the most beautiful prayer pleading with the Lord to please heal his baby brother, and take his pain away.

The spirit in our home with these children is amazing. We are so blessed to have them in our lives.

And for documentations sake... Cole last severe breathing illness episode was July 1. Then November 26. We had not been out and about at all! We totally relaxed on Thursday, but Friday it hit him hard. On thursday morning, I mentioned to Bill that I thought Cole was not feeling well. He was warm, and slow. His eyes seemed puffy, and he was not his usual self. But he was not at all "sick".

Then this morning, after being MISERABLE all day yesterday... here he is at 9:00am.



Man I adore these kids!

Miracles are around us every day.

Here is my sweet little Cole. He is so much fun to get to live with. He is just so different than anyone else I have ever known. He knows what he wants and how to get it. I am amazing at how "in charge" of our family he is. He is definitely the little price of Egypt!


Many of you have asked how he is with Savvy. He is FANTASTIC! Any time she is getting attention, he wants to hold her. But then he only holds her for about 10 seconds. But he never shows any anger to her. He is very sweet with her.




The first week he had TERRIBLE behavior!!! Not to Savvy, but in all other areas of his life. But after a week of us just playing it "breezy" (You can't SAY your Breezy! It totally negates the Breezy!) he kind of just gave it up on being bratty. (THANK HEAVENS!) The only big change is that 2 months ago he was totally potty trained, even at night! He had done it all himself. But now... not potty trained AT ALL! He has totally reverted back. Luckily... he is doing it to show he is in charge, and "poops" creep him out! So no "poops" accidents. It only further proves that he is doing it on purpose! When I ask him why, he smiles his funny smile and says "I don't like the big boy potty anymore". GRRRRRRRR!

But all in all, he is darling and wonderful! We are so lucky to have his AMAZING spirit in our home!

I am crazy in love with you Cole Keanu Johnson!!!

Silent Night??? Yeah Right!!!

All is calm... Well, not really, but All is Bright!



These boys are so crazy in love with their little sister! We all feel so blessed to have her in our home for this holiday season! She is everything we have wished for so many times!

Our little family is so happy right now. We had a perfect Thanksgiving day together. We feel so blessed to have wonderful family and friends.

My greatest blessings this year are:
My best year of marriage yet!
3 beautiful, happy and HEALTHY children!!!
A home that I absolutely LOVE!
A job that I think is wonderful.
(Thank you everyone in Kids Are Music!)

I am very thankful for such a year of great abundance!!! This has been an amazing year of harvests for me.

Thank you to my darling cousin Julia Davis for taking such beautiful pictures of my greatest treasures!

Photo shoot

(Another Guest post from Uncle Chuck)
As a baby gift, Tiffany Hodson gave Charis and Bill a free photo session. The pictures are really amazing! There were lots of great pics, but my favorite is below, because it shows my big sister being so happy with her daughter she has always wanted. To see a few of the other ones, check out Tiffany's blog.

Savvy...

She is so funny! When she is mad, she is really mad! And LOUD!! Now sure, my last baby was a mute, with paralyzed vocal chords.... but still.... this baby girl can scream!!!

She is hilarious! When she cries hard, she totally snorts!
So cute!!

Did I mention????

I have a BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!


Can someone please tell me how to fix this picture? I changed it on my computer, but Blogger is going back to the original way. Grrr!
With Big Brothers Brighton (age 6)
And Cole (age 3)

Yes, she has my hair!

We are soooo excited.

This was the first picture we took, and I LOVED it! Cole was so excited. He kept saying "taDaaaa" and putting his arm out. They both are crazy in love with Savvy.
Savvy is on a great schedule. She eats 4 ounces every 4 hours. So at 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm and 2am... that is what we are doing. It works really well for us. We put the boys to bed at 7pm, and then Bill and I go to bed at about 9pm. Bill goes to sleep and I watch a show and then during a Friends or MASH tivo'ed episode, I feed Savvy and then we both go to sleep. Bill does the 2am feeding. He says it's "his time with her" and I have ZERO complaints!!! Then he wakes up at 6am anyway, so he does that feeding. Yes, Adoption ROCKS and I married well.

Protective Big Brother Brighton

(Guest post from Charise's brother Chuck)

Evidently, Brighton is a very sweet and protective older brother. He believes that baby Savannah knows when he leaves the room, so before he leaves, he always goes over and pats he head to say good bye.

Last week, Charise's friends threw her a baby shower open house. As she was getting ready to go to the party, things were kind of hectic and Brighton came up to her and had the following conversation:

Brighton: Mom, here are the rules.
Charise: Ohhhh kay(thinking "Rules to what?")
Brighton: First, if you see anybody picking their nose, they don't get to hold Savannah for the whole night.
Charise: (laughing) Ok, that sounds like a good rule.
Brighton: Mom, stop laughing, this is serious. There are more.
Charise: Ohhh kay
Brighton: Nobody gets to hold her before they put the gush on their hands (i.e., hand sanitizer).
Charise: Well, that sounds like a good rule. Thanks.
Brighton: And don't let any girls kiss all over her face. They can only kiss her right here on her head (pointing to forehead) or on her toes.
Charise: (laughing again) All right.
Brighton: I think that's enough rules.
Charise: Sounds great.

Trick or Treat!!! Our newest family photos!!!

We had an amazing Halloween Weekend!
Here are some family photos that we took. See if you notice any big changes...

Brighton was a caveman.
Cole was Peter Pan.
Savvy was a witch.

YES!!!! WE HAVE A SAVANNAH!!! We have a baby girl!!!
On Wednesday we got a phone call from LDSFS telling us we were being considered for a baby that was born Tuesday at 5:40pm. She is totally healthy!!! 8 pounds 5 ounces. 20 inches long.

On Thursday, Oct. 29 we went and met with the birth mom, Octavia. She was ADORABLE! She was very cute and giggly and quiet. She is a beautiful girl. We had a really great visit with her. We did not get to see the baby, and it was so hard to leave the hospital without being able to at least kiss her and hold her for a minute.

On Friday morning, October 30, our LDSFS case worker, Christine, called and told us we would get to go pick up OUR BABY GIRL that evening from the hospital!!! We called Auntie Carrie Collins to see if she could come with us to the hospital because we needed someone to sit in the Lobby with Brighton and Cole while we went in and got the baby. Carrie was darling and said "Yes, of course!"

At the hospital we went and signed all of the papers for about 15 minutes and then she was legally our responsibility! We still have to wait 6 months before we can go to court... but those papers give us full rights as her parents until we go to court. The crazy thing is, we still had not ever even seen her! Not that we cared... we were just so excited to get her!

After signing the papers we went into the NICU, not that she was sick, but just that this hospital was so tiny that the NICU is the only nursery they have. Savannah was the only baby there the entire time she was there. She is darling and perfect! Totally healthy... It is crazy! Within a few hours we went from a family of 4 to a family of 5!!
We were done at the hospital at about 5:00pm. We stopped for dinner at Olive Garden and then walked around a little bit at the mall looking for an outfit that did not have footballs, trucks or construction workers on it. AAACKKKK!!! I have a darling little girl!! We got a few big bows... because the bigger the better!














And an adorable Halloween costume....



It was my very best Halloween EVER!!!!

I can still feel it on me.

Okay.... I am obviously a Mother of SONS! I need a little girl!!

Who knew when I singed up to be a mother of boys that this was in the contract!
EEEWWWWWWW!

Seriously, I can still feel it on me. It kept slithering (uuuggghhhhhh!) up my shorts leg and it kept wrapping tighter around my neck.



So incredibly DISGUSTING!

Cole LOVED it and Brighton said it was "way, way, way cool mom" so I guess it was a good experience overall. (not) But definitely NOT one I plan on EVER repeating!


I must say, at first there was NO WAY I was going to do it... but then I thought... "well, my mother in law will be proud of me.... So could someone PLEASE make sure she watches this!!!"
Love you Mother!

This is my least favorite part of the fair.

Charise

Cole...Sick...Again

This is just for updating and keeping track purposes only.

Cole woke up at about 5am this morning with the horrible breathing problems again.

Yesterday he did not leave the house. He stayed home all day.

We did have two darling, healthy friends over to play. They have a semi-sick baby brother who was going to come but didn't, because this friend knows how fragile Cole is. (She is an amazing friend, and I am lucky to have her, and her kids in my life. Her husband is okay... but needs to learn the joys of coconut before he can be considered great.)

Friend, you know who you are, stop reading this now because it is in no way your fault and I know you will blame yourself!

Anyway... is it possible that they were fine, but just carried the germs over to Cole? Or am I way over-thinking this? But really, what else could it be? No new soap, no new cleaning supplies, no changes of any sort. No weather changes, no smokers in his area, no hay, no grass.... ARGHHH!
It is making me crazy just not knowing what causes it.

This video is AFTER his breathing treatment. I really don't think the treatments work... but what do I know? This was definitely not as bad as some are... But I want to keep of record of them. Notice the tears in his eyes at the end. I know it is terribly painful for him to cough like that for hours.


He slept very fitfully until 11:00am. I had to stay close because when he stirs and starts to wake up, he realizes he can't breathe and panics and it makes it so much worse. So I just snuggled him in bed until 2:00 today. (Rough Life, I Know!)

But now tonight, he is much better.

Flag Waiving Glorious Fourth!!!

We had such an AMAZING Fourth of July!!!!

8:30am Fresh Strawberries and Cream in Bed in our beautiful hotel room at the Marriott Fisherman's Wharf!

9:30am meet the group to catch a Cable Car up to the Cable Car Museum

10:00am Tour the Cable Car Museum and watch the penny picture shows of old town San Francisco


10:45am Ride the Cable Car to the Embarcadero Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building and perform for the crowds. (Also... eat tons of yummy fresh fruit and produce and homemade candy samples! YUMMY!)

1:00pm Boudin Bakery Performance - The entire place was packed and our kids were darling!!

1:15pm Boudin Bakery Tour - It was really neat to see such a huge bakery tour.
And to see what they can make out of the bread!

Check out this crab!

And this sourdough bread Alligator was amazing!

Then we had free time to get lunch on your own. Of course I had a sourdough bread bowl with Clam Chowder! But Bill wanted to try the crab from the street venders that were right on the water there. It was so fantastic and fresh!

You choose your crab, then he puts it in this HUGE pot of boiling salt water, and cooks it for about 3 minutes. Then he takes it out and chop chops it right there in front of you, and then you eat it. Delicious! Best $14 we spent on the entire trip!






After lunch, I took Cole back to the hotel for a nap, and Bill took Brighton to see the Cannon loading at Fort Point. I hear it was great fun.

6:30pm - Meet up with the group at the bottom of Ghirradelli Square and tour the grounds with impromptu shows! The crowds LOVED our kids!

7:30pm - Board the USS Jerimiah O'brien World War 2 Liberty War Ship.

We were the main entertainment and it was an incredible experience. We had a huge crowd who loved the patriotism of our kids, and then we got prime seating for the terrific fireworks display over the bay!
Sorry, I don't know why this picture is sideways. It refuses to stay turned around when I upload it. It is the gangplank.