BB has a blog....

BB wanted to start his own blog as part of our recent family goal to do things other then Minecraft. My boys are so obsessed with that game, it's all they want to do :)

So here it is, he wrote his first post tonight all about an army battle!

http://braydenhill.blogspot.com

Thyroid Update

Blah my thyroid. Who knew that something so little could cause so many problems! I've had a rough time since my last pregnancy getting on the right dose, I've been hyper then hypo and then back again. Silly thyroid needs to get a clue and stop being a drama queen!

I went back to my doctor today, I love her by they way. Maybe even more then the one I had in Dallas (don't get me started on how awful the doctors were in Tampa...I could go on for days). Anyway, she broke it down for me and we discussed my labwork, which again came back not normal. I am overmedicated right now so it's making me hyperthyroid again (how I was when I had Graves). Not fun and it explains a lot about how I have been feeling lately. She wanted to run a few more tests with my blood--luckily labcorp keeps it for 7 days so I didn't have to get poked again. I'm just grateful she is trying so hard to help me figure it out and hopefully I'll be closer to normal soon or if the stars align, finally normal. It's hard when I have to be on a dose of synthroid for 3 months before I can do labs and see how it is. It's making this a slow process for sure. But I'm staying positive and I'm just glad I have a good doctor here.

As far as my eyes go, I do have thyroid eye disease. During my last pregnancy it got really bad, but it has improved some since then. Still not perfect but the double vision and pain in my left eye is not as bad as it was. Apparently when you have Graves Disease, you can treat the thyroid with radio iodine (what I did), but the graves antibodies are still active in your body. And once your thyroid is gone, they for whatever reason sometimes choose to attack your eyes. Lovely. Luckily, my case is pretty mild...it is terrifying to google it and see the extreme cases with bulging eyes etc. My eyes have shifted though and I am getting measurements and tests on them every 3 months to see if I am still in the active moving phase. Once we have confirmed that that phase is over, we can decide on surgery and discuss it more. I try not to think about it because it scares me a little, but as of now it seems as though my left eye is the only one that might need it. Only time will tell :)

Note from BB's Teacher

BB's teacher sent me this email tonight. He made this for her all on his own. What a cute boy!

Brayden made this today during math tubs and it melted my heart.  He knew I needed a warm fuzzy. I love your boy! :)

P.S. Good job, mom and dad. Your son is so precious. 

Hugs!

--
Niki Mitchell
1st Grade Teacher
    

Blizzard Sunday

Well I thought it was our biggest snow a few days ago, but I was wrong. It literally snowed all Saturday night and all day Sunday here and we ended up with 13 inches of fresh snow. I loved it!  February has been our snowiest month here this year (so far) because we have hardly had any until now. I was beginning to wonder if it ever really snowed in Denver!

Church was canceled so we just relaxed all day. Guy went to the church at 3 and met up with a lot of the men to go shovel other people's driveways for an hour or two.  And we all went out and played in it and shoveled our own driveway for a bit, but it was too windy and snowy to really enjoy being out there. I enjoyed sitting inside and looking at it out the window much more.

Brady is such a hard worker and helped dad shovel the driveway and sidewalk. It was a lot of snow and it was a lot of work!

Ty shoveled the driveway with a spoon he found in the garage and lounged in the chairs eating snow. Gotta love that kid! 

 The next morning, school was delayed so I walked BB to the bus stop at 10. I wish it was that late every day! The sky was blue and the sun was shining so the snow was already starting to melt quick. The sun is always so warm here since the elevation is so high. By next weekend we are supposed to be back in the 50's!

We sure had fun walking in the winter wonderland outside. There is honestly nothing better then running through fresh snow that no one has messed up yet!

We are having so much fun in Colorado this winter. Maybe we are so excited about snow since we have lived in the South so long? Every time it snows Ty gets so excited and yells "MOM, SNOOOOWW! We love snow don't we? It is beautiful!" And I totally agree because snow just makes everything gorgeous!

Evergreen Lake Ice Skating

 Ice skating on a lake in the mountains. It was pretty awesome and definitely a first for all of us. I found a groupon deal for skating in Evergreen awhile ago and thought it might be fun to try. My boys have never been ice skating before and I honestly haven't been since my middle school days at the chiller. That was definitely the cool thing to do in middle school. Honestly when I first stepped on the ice today I was scared I was going to be falling all over the place, but I got the hang of it again. Just like riding a bike :)

We weren't going to have Ty try and skate, but he really wanted to so we gave in and let him. He was hilarious. I was totally expecting him to cry and hate it, but he just laughed the whole time. Even when he fell, which if you know Tyler, that is HUGE! He obviously couldn't do it on his own and when I held him under each arm, he put no weight on his feet so it was exhausting. I was literally bending over and carrying him around the ice so he only skated for a little bit. But I just have to add that tiny hockey skates are pretty much adorable. I was dying of cuteness as I put them on him!

 

This is where Ty ended up and he was ok with it :)

 BB on the other hand did awesome! At first he struggled and I would say he probably fell 50 times (no joke), but he just kept getting back up and trying again. Love that attitude! He would hold my right hand and we would go around the loop and occasionally he would tell me to let go so he could do it by himself. His skate was more of a walk then a glide, but for 6 years old and your first time on the ice, he did pretty dang good!

We lucked out on some great weather while we were there. It was blue sky, sunny and we were all getting hot in all our winter clothes. People were skating without coats!

Guy walked around one side of the lake pulling these 2 crazy boys while BB and I had our fun (he wasn't ice skating, just in normal shoes). They loved it and I would have to agree it does look pretty relaxing!

Basically it was just fun and I loved trying something new with the kids. Perk to skating outdoors with beautiful scenery around you...you have a view of pretty blue sky when you fall flat on your back on the ice :) We will definitely come back next year!

He can SKI!

Guy decided to take BB up skiing this morning for a bit of practice.  I stayed home with the little ones. They went to Loveland ski resort since Guy's friend is a ski instructor there and gives them free passes. Huge lifesaver since skiing is so dang expensive! I've noticed a lot of resorts here are having deals this time of year like 2 for 1 at copper mountain if you fill up at shell and 2 for 1 at winter park if you eat at smashburger. So you can find deals, but it's still pricy and who knows if we will be able to afford it someday when our kids are older. I guess we'll have to save up! 

Guy said BB did so awesome. The first time up, it took him a few times to get the hang of it but by the end he was cruising down greens and even a few blue! So awesome! He still needs to work on turning a bit more, but the great thing about Brady is that when he falls he gets right back up. He doesn't let himself get discouraged.




                   











Hope I can see him in action sometime this year, it's hard with little kids and no one to watch them. But I've seen all the videos Guy has sent and he is doing great. So proud of you buddy!

Mr. Smarty Pants, age 6

Well I am admitting it, our 6 year old is smarter then us. He always has been I feel like, ever since he was just a little tot . He just has a brain that remembers everything...which isn't so great for us sometimes! He'll ask me if I remember going somewhere like 3 years ago and he will then explain it in detail including things we said, what we did, what he wore. I mean it's just crazy! I need to be on my best mommy behavior cause this kid isn't going to forget....ever!!!

Anyway, at dinner last night we were talking with the kids about our spring break coming up and if they wanted to go to Estes Park or Mount Rushmore for it. Instantly BB got so excited and yelled "Mount Rushmore, I've been learning about it in school!!!" He then went on to tell us EVERYTHING about Mt. Rushmore that he remembered: the presidents who are on it, the mans name who carved it, where it is, when it was built, how long it took, and so many other random facts about it. Guy and I just sat there with our mouths wide open and then I got out my phone and googled all his facts because let's be real, I honestly did not know. Well all true my friends, even down to the exact name of the person who sculpted it. We were in awe! Maybe he has a photographic memory or something because even when I was in school, there's no way I could remember all of that at his age.

Another thing about mr. smarty pants right now is he is doing so well in math at school. His teacher sent him home a harder math book for homework and he informed me that last week his teacher had him explain how to do something in math to the class and then he walked around and helped the other kids figure it out. I don't know why this is so funny to me, maybe because I was soo awful at math in school. Well who am I kidding, I still am awful at math but luckily my life only requires addition and subtraction.  I guess I should just be glad I have a kid who gets it so I don't have to try to explain it :)

**UPDATE** To add that BB's favorite Mt. Rushmore fact is that when they had finished it, everyone thought that Thomas Jefferson was George Washington's wife. He thinks that is hilarious.

SNOW

It snowed last night! I would say that this was our first big snow of the winter here in Denver. So far it really hasn't snowed much and it always melts by the next day...totally not what I thought it would be like here at all. But it makes me like the snow because I know it's not going to stick around forever! The boys and I went out around 10:30 to play in it for a little bit and had a fun time. Ty HATES being cold so he kept running into the garage to get warm and then coming back out. But he loves the snow and is an awesome helper when it comes to shoveling driveways...he spends most of his time shoveling off the bushes and trees :)

 Very first time playing in snow...not so happy about it at first. 

 We solved it by pulling him around in the little red sled. He loved that I think...not much of an expression on his face the whole time, but he was happy and when I tried to take him back inside, he wanted to get back in the sled. I think that's a good sign he liked it!

Ok I've had enough Mom!