The Minnesota History Museum's Prohabition

The Minnesota History Museum had a Prohibition while there we decide to get our picture taken with some famous outlaws . . .

survival

We took a wilderness survival class with some of our friends today.  The kids loved it.  Geoffrey's only complaint was that it had to end.  First the kids built fire without matches and then they built shelters.  We learned so much and loved it.  Well, I don't know if Ella loved it so much.  Look at her poor cold red nose and goose bumpy cheeks.  I think after this we need to start reading Hatchet.

HALOWEEN!!!!!!

This is Kieva. I wanted to share our hoween pictures.  Happy Haloween!!

If you didn't guess I am a tree nymph, Zak is James Bond, Geoff is Commander Rex, Ella is an ELLAphant, and Mom is going as a pregnant woman, Dad is just going as Jason Foutz. 

Happy Haloween!!

Geoffrey

Geoffrey has started reading and spelling a little. He loves to take my phone and write messages in the notes section. We have made it a family game to take his notes and decipher them. I thought I would share a recent one. This is exactly how it looks on my phone.

Win a jetfliso

vr

mei

runawa

It took me a little bit to figure it out. See below Geoff's picture for the answer.

When a jet flies over me I run away.

Surgery update

We are now one week past surgery and Ella is doing amazingly well. Since the surgery was done through her nostrils there is no wound care. By looking at her you wouldn't know she just had surgery. She is now almost back to normal. Now the plan is to just wait for a few months for the new airway to heal. Then we will spend a night in the hospital with a cap on her trach to see how she handles breathing without the trach. If all goes well, we will take the trach out. One of the best things will be to hear Ella's voice. Now we can see her laughing, but we can't hear it. Of course there are sometimes benefits to your child not making any noise and I will miss a few of those conveniences, but I can't wait for her to hear her own voice. No trach will also mean about half the equipment we have now. The doctors won't take a trach out in the winter months so we hope for sometime in April! Yeah!

Surgery

I would really like to start posting again, so today I thought about what I could even say. Then it donned on me that some people might want to know that our sweet little Ella will be having surgery on Monday. The doctors will be repairing the airway in her nose. The hope is in a few months she won't need the trach anymore and life will be a little better for her.

Laughing

I know that is has been forever since we posted last. I have no excuse. We are in the planning stages of getting the blog updated on a regular basis, thanks to a great idea from family.

The reason this is getting posted on the blog is because I could not get it to attach in email.

Since coming to Minnesota, Ella has been getting AMAZING care. This state really knows how to treat its special kids. We recently received a prescription for a Passy Muir valve (Passy). For those that are unfamiliar with trach's, it is a one-way valve that allows the individual to breathe in through the valve, but to exhale, it has to go through the mouth or nose. In doing this, the air passes the voice box and the person can make noise. In case you haven't guessed where I am going with this, Ella can be quit noise with the valve on.

And now the rest of the story,

In school, the kids have been learning the elements and yesterday was Helium. Sandy bought some balloons at the store and brought them home. They only served the purpose of inhaling and talking funny. When Sandy got home with them, the balloons were brought into the family room where Ella was playing on the floor. After getting ahold of one the the balloon's ribbons, Ella started to laugh. She didn't have her valve on so it wasn't really audible, but you could tell it was a laugh.

So being the good parents we are, we took the balloons away. Put on the Passy. Turned on the camera and started to record.

By the way, I am no photographer, but here is a clip of it. Enjoy.

There are a couple of spots that the balloon hits the camera and it is quite loud. I apologize for the blown speakers.