The Lombardi Trophy

My friend Teresa works at Centurylink Field.  As a thankyou to all the employees  that work there, the Seahawks allowed them to have their picture taken with the NFC championship trophy and the Lombardi trophy.  

Every employee got a plus one, and Teresa was gracious enough to let me (and Kinsley of course) be her guest. 

It was fun to have a morning of just me and Kinsley (even if she cried every time she was in the car).  It was pretty cool to see the trophies (even though they are a lot smaller than I thought they were). 

It was also cool to see parts of the stadium I didn't know existed.  Did you know there were end zone suites?  Me neither.  Thanks Teresa! 

We're back

It has been a long three weeks for Ephraim since his ear surgery.  The doctor asked that he not do any contact activities for awhile.  Tonight is his first basketball practice since the surgery.  These two are entertaining themselves by crawling across the gym and back. 

13 on 13

It is only the second month of the year and I have already missed taking pictures on the tenth.  So I took them on the 13th instead.  

Early morning snuggles in my bed. 

The kids have been enthralled with the Olympics.  Here is some morning figure skating. 

10:30 AM and just now getting to eat my breakfast of coffee and cinnamon sugar toast. 

School.  Reading lessons. 

My instructions this afternoon were to get dressed we are going to Costco. Apparently Selah believes that means formal attire  

Selah's view of me. 

Dreaming of my mom's river while at Costco. 

A trip to the post office.  Good grief I hate taking three kids in there. 

Folding laundry in the afternoon while Kinsley shows off her pulling up to standing trick. 

Bananas and puffs for dinner.  

Bedtime stories.  

She couldn't make it to 8 to watch some Olympics. 

The table is ready for valentines breakfast.  

A little high school basketball

My second cousin Jacob is 16 and was playing a basketball game in Cle Elum on February 1st.  It is over snoqualmie pass, but only a little over an hour for us, so we packed up the kids and met Dennis and Mindy for some dinner before the game.  

Ephraim and Selah did a great job watching the game. We actually ended up watching  most of the girls game too.  Dennis treated them to candy in between games and that kept them pretty happy. 

Selah and Dennis dancing during the boys warmups. 

Jacob is the tall blond by the hoop.  Ki

Kinsley was content to sit in the bleachers and play with toys.  

It was lots of fun to see Jacob play and they won!  

6 month stats

Even though she is now 8 months old. :)

Head circumference: 16 3/4 in (50th percentile) 

Weight: 21 pounds 14 ounces (100th percentile) 

Height: 27 1/2 inches (96th percentile) 

Snow

All last week I was jealous of all the snow our friends in Portland were getting. Finally on Sunday morning we had about an inch of snow. Ephraim isn't allowed to get his ear wet at all, so we had to be creative to let him play in the snow. 

Suddenly I wasn't so jealous.  

Ear Surgery. Third times the charm?

On February 3rd, Ephraim, Kinsley, Forrest and I made an early morning trek down to Tacoma so that Ephraim could have a tympanoplasty done.  In September he had a stubborn ear tube removed and that hole never closed - so he needed to have it repaired.  

We were the first surgery of the morning at the short stay surgery center at Mary Bridge so we had the play room to ourselves.  

Watching a movie with Daddy. 

They moved us back to our room around 7:30 so they could give Eph some medicine.  He was given some Tylenol with oxycodone for pain and an anti-anxiety medicine.  He had been playing Mario kart and during his second race he became super loopy and started driving in circles and we then realized that the medicine was kicking in.  :)

By the time they took him back into surgery at 8 he was really relaxed and saying some pretty funny things.  

His surgery lasted for an hour.  The doctor made an incision behind his ear to get a piece of the sheath of the muscle.  The doc then placed "mini marshmallows" through the hole in his ear drum to fill the cavity and then put the piece of muscle sheath through the hole so that the marshmallows are holding it tight against the existing drum.  The hope is that the blood vessels will grow into the patch and make it a seamless.  In about a month the marshmallows will dissolve.

After an hour in recovery, he was wheeled back to his room.  We are thankful eph has handled coming out of anesthesia very well every time. He had to keep the cup on his ear for 24 hours.   We also had strict instructions to not let his ear get wet inside or outside for a week.  He can't play basketball for two weeks or do anything that could cause the patch to dislodge. He can't blow his nose or have anything to eat that is too chewy.  

My mom stayed with Selah while we were gone.  After we got home she tied a bowl to her head so that Ephraim wouldn't feel alone.  

Eph's recovery has been going well.  We've had our struggles with keeping him less active than he wants to be - but are thankful that he is not having any pain or discomfort.