Tonsillectomy!

Janine has had P-fapa since she was 2 years old! Less than 5% of the population gets this. Nobody knows what causes it or how you come to get it. Once we moved to Salem, Stephanie was able to find a pediatrician that would actually listen to her and tried to figure out what was going on with Janine. The Doctor officially diagnosed Janine with P-fapa saying that he's 90% sure that is what she has. We had just been monitoring Janine every time she would get the fevers and see if any new symptoms came or showed up, or if the fevers were getting worse. So we monitored her for 6 more months after we found Dr. Fullmer. Well we thought Janine was getting better and maybe even starting to grow out of this. Her last two episodes came two weeks in a row but only lasted 48 hours and her fever never spiked above 104. She even went 5 weeks without an episode! Usually these come like clockwork. Every 4 weeks. However, this last episode it all came back with a vengence. Janine did spike above 104 and that is when she starts puking and is like a rag doll. just limp. She was getting bloody noses. We were very concerned and Stephanie took Janine back to the doctor the next day where they drew blood from Janine to see if there was anything going on. Blood work was fine except for the two tests we knew would come back abnormal. 70% of kids with P-fapa who get their tonsils out are completely P-fapa free or reduces the reoccurance of these fevers drastically. 30% it does nothing. So Instead of giving Janine a steroid every time she gets the fevers we decided to get her tonsils out. We pray that this will work. If it doesn't work she could have it between 6-8 years from the time she got it! So Janine could be between 8 & 10 years old before she would grow out of this! So we pray taking out the tonsils will work!
Janine was a very brave girl. we bought her a lala loopsy doll whos name is Crumbs Sugar Cookie. we had enough time to even play with her a little bit before hand.

After the surgery she did great. she sucked on a popsicle for us and drank juice and had some jello. Then that night she even had mashed potatoes and fish! The doctor said after a week is when kids usually start having soft foods because of the pain. Not Janine. we could tell that she was in pain alot of times but 1. Janine hates the pain medicine, 2. She doesn't like a bunch of attention on her, so wouldn't ever ask for the medicine. Usually Stephanie and eric would have to start counting to 5 for her to take it otherwise dad would have to come hold her down....It never did come to that. Janine can just handle pain very well. The hardest part with Janine getting out her tonsils is trying to keep her down. She just wants to run and wrestle with her brothers and we are trying to have her watch tv and movies, or just color and draw. Janine did get Balloons and a stuffed animal from Grandma and Papa Powell and she was so excited to get those. She also got balloons and some stamps from the Primary Presidency. This is a very loved girl. Tomorrow it will have been a full week since she had her tonsils out and Janine is great.

Dance & Piano Recital

Janine had her first Dance Recital this month and Stefan had his first Piano Recital this month! Quite the month for our children to be doing things for the first time. First Janine was so excited for her recital. Stephanie and Janine pulled up the routine that her teacher posted online and practiced the dance together to help her remember it better. Eric and Stephanie weren't sure how she would do performing in front of a lot of people, but when that music came on she was one of the only girls doing the right moves at the right time. She did great! Janine wanted to stay the whole time and watch the other dancers. As the other groups performed Janine would lean over to Stephanie and say, "look mom they are doing mot bots." or, "looks mom I can do leaps too!" Janine takes dance very seriously. After her performance she did ask her mom when she could start tumbling. That made stephanie happy! so next month Janine will start tumbling. We only live 10 minutes from where Janine performed and she was dead asleep when we got home. we would have let her sleep in her costume if it wasn't so scratchy and itchy. She did great.



Stefan also had his first Piano Recital this month. It was the weekend after Janine's performance. He wasn't nervous at all. He played all of his songs very well. He did a great job. Stefan has a natural talent for the piano. We hope he will always love the piano and work hard to become as good as his Grandpa Allan. There is another little girl at the recital with Stefan. She is our neighbor so it was nice that the two of them knew each other. Stefan and Janine both want to learn to play the guitar, but first they have to learn the piano and then they can learn other instruments. by the time Uncle Sean gets home from his mission Stefan might be ready for lessons. We know Stephanie will be! If she doesn't break down and by a guitar first.

Weekend Getaway!

We decided to take a little family trip to the Park City area. We know that since we are opening up a new store in March we won't be able to take a family vacation for spring break. It has been a very dry winter this year with hardly any to no snow. We stayed at the Zermott Resort in Midway and eric gave the kids permission to jump on the beds and they were so excited. Stephanie had to finally say no more after it started to get a little out of control! We went on a carriage ride which was supposed to be a sleigh ride but again since there wasn't snow it was a carriage ride. It was really fun. The kids enjoyed themselves too. Eric enjoyed how peaceful it was and relaxing. We also went Tubing at Soldier Hollow. The only place with snow because they make their own! Tubing was such a blast. We couldn't believe how fast you go down this hill! The first time we went down we were like, "Oh my gosh!" Janine hunkered down in the hole of her tube and you wouldn't see her again until you were stopped! Hilarious. Stefan kept going and going and going. This kids had a blast. Jacoby was a year to small to go on the big hill but they did have a little kid one that we would try and sling shot him as hard as we could so he could have a fun ride! Oh and he did. so much in fact that he fell asleep!

At the end of our trip we went over to the Olympic Park and Eric did the skeleton sled. Its the sport where the olympians lie on their stomachs and fly down the track on a little sled, 2-3 inches off the ice! So crazy! The picture of jacoby where he is sitting on the black sled is the same kind that eric went on! Out of 20 people he took 2nd! Going 49.4 MPH! He was flying! He had a blast. There wasn't time for Stephanie to do it so one of our next dates will be going back to Olympic Park and both of us doing it together!