Neo-Natal Appointment

Well we survived another day of the Neo-Natal round robbin of doctors yesterday. In one sense I absolutely dread those appointments because they wear me and the boys out. It was a good 4 hr ordeal by the time we left home and got back. Our two main concerns for them was 1) Austin's eyes and 2) Colby's speech/ ears.

1) Austin's eye exam was good. He gets them checked every 6 months to make sure his brain bleed and hydrocephalus hasn't caused any vision problems. The doctor said his optic nerve looked fine, his eyes are straight and he doesn't see anything that should concern us.

2) As you may know Colby is not as advanced in speech as Austin. Granted Austin is just a chatterbox and if I didn't have him to compare Colby too, I probably wouldn't be worried. Colby does talk but not near as much as Austin and his words are not as clear either. When I mentioned this to the speech physician and also that he has had several ear infections she asked if I wanted to do a hearing test. I said yes, because it makes sense to me that if he has had several ear infections, everything he hears is like he is under water. He passed his hearing test in Sept with no problem but he did fail yesterday. They also did a test to check for inner ear fluid and the left ear showed fluid. So we sent the report to our pediatrician and I am waiting to hear back on what we do next.

Overall the physicians were extremely impressed with their development, motor skills, speech and growth. Austin weighed 24 pounds and Colby weighed 21 pounds. They are actually on the chart now, granted only in the 3% percentile on weight but height was higher.

Here's a funny from yesterday.....boys!

We were leaving one of the offices to go back into the playroom and Austin told the Dr. bye and See ya. Then he said something else. I knew what he said and hoped the Dr. didn't hear it. As luck would have it the Dr. said, what did you say? Austin very loudly and clearly said as he walked out the door, I toot!

Austin is starting to put words together like, "She'll be back, or Sean will be back, Where's Tolby (Colby), Let me out, I want it, Come on, I love you.

Colby is learning Itsy, Bitsy Spider. He is so darn cute when he does his hands. He likes these particular words spout, out, sun. He ALWAYS claps for himself at the end of every song.

They both are very much into The Backyardigans and the Wiggles. It's so funny when they start dancing and clowning around. For those of you with small kids you can relate to the cold spaghetti, hot potatoe and mashed bannanas dances.

Oh how life changes when you have kids.

Outside Easter Pictures

The Easter Bunny Came To See Us

Easter Egg Hunt

March is O'Leary month....and what a month we are having!

March is always our holiday month with Luck of the Irish. It's also very special because it is Natalie's and Sean's birthdays as well. Sean just turned 10 on Friday the 14th. Pat and I took doughnuts and juice to Sean's class that morning and made sure we sang Happy Birthday followed by a good ole birthday spanking by me. The kids thought it was great. He has such a wonderful teacher, Meredith, who allows us to do special things like that for the class. Sean and I also decorated the teacher's door for the month of March. We had such a good time doing it and believe it or not it turned out cute, but I am glad they do not have door contests.


Natalie turned 14 on Sunday. We decided not to embarrass her at school so we didn't do anything at the Jr. High, I am sure she is very thankful. We did take the family out to dinner on Friday night and on Sunday we celebrated with friends, BBQ, cake and gifts. Here are few pics.
Natalie is very much into spiderman for some reason so we surprised her with a spiderman theme and cake. I know for sure Lou Lou could have done a much better cake but I gave it my best shot.

Let's see also this weekend, the 15th was my LAST official day in the U.S. Army. It's a weird feeling but it did help that I had saved up so many vacation days to help with the transition. I am now an officer in the U.S. Army Reserves. My first drill weekend will be in April. I am excited that we figured out a way for me not to throw away almost 18 years of Military service. I'll get an Army retirement even if I do have to wait a few years for it. I know at that point I will be glad I joined the Reserves to finish out my time. We are still working on Pat getting into the Reserves as well but since he totally separated his process is not as easy as mine but it can be done. I am actually meeting with the Reserves tomorrow to do some final paperwork and start some in-processing so at least I'll get paid in April. My medical insurance for our whole family is through the Reserves too and that has also saved us quite a bit of money to which we are both grateful.

Work is going really well for us. We completed a Floyd Wickman training course today and Pat was one of the top producers over the past 6 weeks so he actually got an individual trophy. He is out 3 nights this week on appointments and hopefully he'll get all 3 listings.

The boys are doing great and currently healthy. We had ear infections and colds but for the most part I think I have been the sickest with sinus and upper respiratory issues. None of us are currently on any medications...yeah.


Here are some pictures of the family drawing. Colby gets very serious when he is drawing and he doesn't like to work in one corner but right in the middle of the mat which totally frustrates Austin.

Austin is very proud of his master piece and has announced he is done.

Austin is learning to put words together to make phrases...not quite sentences yet. I was taking him out of the room the other morning and he turned to Pat and said "bye bye Daddy" and when I left for work that morning he told me "luv you Momma". He is out little chatter box. He talks non-stop. Some of his favorite quotes are "oh man", "oh my goodness", "who is it", "come in", "no bite" (wonder why he says that one), he is still counting to 10. Colby is starting to talk a lot more than he use too. He can count when he wants too, and can say things like luv you, bye bye, night-night, help, park, outside, swing and many more that I can't remember right now.

We enrolled them in the Bountiful Montessori school last week. Their first day will be July 1st. I am already planning to not work that day....I hope I actually leave the parking lot. Heather will be with us through June and after she returns from her course she'll be here to help with the boys when we need her. She has been such a blessing to our family and the boys love her so much. They are really going to miss spending time with her each day. On weekends when we first come downstairs in the morning they say "Heddah" and look to see if she is here. I guess they get so use to seeing her Monday through Friday that Saturday and Sunday they expect to see her.
Yes, Austin is still wearing his Halloween bucket as a hat. I tell ya, it's the best .87 cents I've spent.


We hope you are each doing well and getting ready for spring. We can't wait for spring here in Utah. It has been a long winter with a LOT of snow and personally I am counting the days until we leave for Cancun in June.

Farewell Mam-maw till we meet again.....

What a wonderful Mam-maw we will all truly miss. There is no one who could cook, quilt and love like our Mam-maw.





Let me begin by saying thank you to all of you for your prayers during the loss of my Mam-maw (grandmother). She passed away last week after coming out of surgery for colon cancer. She lived such a blessed life for 92 years. She had 6 children, 12 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren. She was a strong Christian lady who today is up in heaven with her husband, Pap-paw, her son Jerry and her daughter,my mom, Joyce. What a reunion they are having. My Uncle Mike and I were talking and we said we can never remember her saying a bad thing about anyone or we never heard her say one curse word....what a Christian lady. I wish I could be half the woman, mom, wife, sister, Mam-maw that she has been. She has touched so many lives and it's wonderful to know pieces of her remain in all of us.



We flew out last Thursday as a family and came home on Monday. It was great to see all my family even though the circumstances weren't the best. We did our best to celebrate her life. I can just remember having every Sunday lunch after church at her house and loving her fried chicken meal, sweet tea topped with coconut pie....what a meal. No one could cook like her. I only wish I had paid better attention because there are things that she cooked that you can't find in a cookbook.

She also use to hand quilt quilts and I am so grateful she finished the quilt Mom and I had started right before Mom died.




The boys are doing great even though Colby managed to bring home a double ear infection. We went to the doctor yesterday and he is currently on antibiotics.

Austin is now counting to 10 and it's the cutest thing. He is also repeating EVERYTHING he hears, so we have to be very careful. I whispered to him on the plane to stop playing with the tray on the seat and he very loudly said "no you stop it" the whole plane started laughing. He is also saying "hello darlin" as Natalie taught him.


We had a heat wave today here in Utah as we hit a big whopping 50 degrees. We took the boys to the park for about 45 minutes and they loved it. They really loved the slide and I see us spending many many hours at the park this summer.





Austin decided out of the blue to go head first and he thought it was so funny.


We hope everyone is doing well and we just want you to know we miss you and love you.
Alexa and family.