I love this picture of Kamryn. Once we were all done "gutting" our pumpkins, the kids started carving. Kamryn wasn't going to be left out. Greg was trying to help her and she would start yelling at him to stop, grab the pumpkin knife and start trying to carve along the lines herself. It was hilarious. So Greg grabbed another knife and was trying to help and she would shove is hand out of the way and try to block him from touching the pumpkin. She even stabbed Greg in the hand one time trying to carve and block at the same time. Good thing these pumpkin knifes aren't sharp. You can see it all in her face below. 
And here are our final creations. In years past we have used stencils to carve elaborate pumpkins, but I wasn't in the mood to get stuck carving them all because of the complexity. So this year, we just hand drew faces and the kids had a much funner time.
The night before Halloween was our elementary school's halloween carnival. Kamryn went as a ballerina and the boys went as Hulk, Spiderman, and Darth Vador. It was really crowded, not so fun for the adults, but the kids had a blast. This year we invited my brother and sister and their families as well as my parents. So it was really fun to have grandparents and cousins there with us for the games and food.
Jordyn has been such a good baby. It took about 1 week to get the breastfeeding thing down, but once she finally figured that out, things have been great! Now if I can only get her to sleep a little longer between feedings during the night. ;) The boys love having her, and Caden always wants to help with her. I have been such a germaphobe and won't let anyone get near her if they have any sign of sniffles, cough, or even look like they might not feel well. And we are going through soap like crazy always washing hands. Paranoid mother, I know, but I have also seen the sick babies being lifeflighted for something that could have been prevented if the parents would have been more strict about that. Ok, off my soapbox now. I feel great! The recovery after this delivery has been the easiest by far, with the small exception of having mysterious abdominal pain. My doctor thought it might be my gallbladder, but studies were normal and the pain has subsided since delivery and only decides to come and visit occasionally. I am really enjoying my time off of work, and will return in November. Now don't get me wrong, I miss almost all of my coworkers and their company, but enjoy being home more. 
Here is our little Daisy! Isn't she adorable?
I know, I know, I have got to be the worst blogger out there. But all with good excuses! We have had an extremely busy summer and it isn't going to slow down anytime soon. I don't have any pics to post at the moment, but will fill everyone in on what's been up at the Lemke household. And will post pics sometimes in the future, with no promise or guarantee when! In no particular order:
I'm still pregnant, but not for long, just a couple more weeks and our new little one will arrive. I am getting more excited about her coming, but also more nervous because I don't have everything ready yet. Greg has been a trooper trying to get her room ready, especially over the past couple of weeks. And it's just about finished, thanks hon! We still don't have a name picked out for our little girl, but I know something will come to us after she is born. I'm planning on trying to deliver natural (no epidural) I tried with Kamryn, but she decided to try and come out hand first, so I had to have an epidural so they could move her hand, or my other option was a c-section. I really like the idea of going natural, but don't necessarily like the idea of the unexpected time frame. It will be interesting to see how the next couple of weeks play out!
We got a new puppy! I know, I have been called, "crazy", "insane", and "gluten for punishment". But before we got her, I told Greg she was his responsibility and he would be up at night with her, while I was up with the new baby. She is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, we named her "Daisy" and she is adorable. I will post a pic as soon as I can get her to hold still long enough to get one. She is tricolor with black, tan, and white and adjusting very well to our family. The kids love her, but we have to be careful, because she is only 3 lbs. and they are sometimes a little rough, especially Kamryn, but she is getting better.
Greg finally finished school, yeah us! He now has his Master's degree in special education with a Bachelor's degree in psychology. I love having him done with school, but also now the lovely student loans are going to become due. Ugh! He is glad to be finished and excited to start a new year in his classroom. It will be interesting this year because Box Elder High School is being remodeled and it is not ready yet for school to start. But we are told it will be ready by the end of August for the first day of school. I will believe it when I see it. Greg gets a brand new huge classroom, complete with his own bathroom in the classroom and time out room. I can't wait to see how it looks completed.
Austin has been having several trips to different doctors over the past several months. In February he woke up one morning limping on his right leg. We didn't think too much of it, then he started complaining of his leg hurting and would crawl around the house, rather than use his leg. We took him to the doctor, there was no injury, swelling, or bruising anywhere on his right leg. They did blood work and x-rays which showed inflammation in his body, but nothing more specific. He was put on steroids for a week and the limping went away. Everything was fine until the middle of May when he woke up one morning again limping on his right leg. And he has been limping on and off ever since then. Sometimes he complains of pain, sometimes he can bearly walk on it, and sometimes it doesn't seem to bother him at all. We again went to the doctor who repeated the lab work, which came back normal, but he referred us to a Rheumatologist at Primary Children's Hospital. It took 3 weeks to get an appointment with them. After seeing the nurse practitioner and Rheumatologist, they didn't have an answer for us, but suggested we try naproxen for 3-4 weeks and see if it gets better. Naproxen is a high dose anti-inflammatory medication used to treat arthritis. Well, after about 2 weeks it hadn't done anything. We received a call from the Rheumatologist who had been looking over his chart and had a thought about Legg-Calve-Perthes disease and wanted him to have an MRI and repeat X-rays. We were able to get the X-ray that day, which came back with a change in his right hip from the first set of x-rays. But it took 3 weeks to get an appointment for the MRI. We were able to get that done this last Monday. At 4 years of age, Primary Children's does their MRI's under conscious sedation, so it isn't as scary for the children. So Austin and I spent almost 4 hours there for them to start an IV (he didn't even say "ouch"), put him to sleep, do the MRI, and wake him back up. Austin is such a trooper, and Primary Children's Hospital is wonderful! Well, we received a phone call from the nurse practitioner the next day confirming that Austin has Legg-Calve-Perthes disease and that this is no longer a rheumatology problem, but now he needs to be evaluated by a pediatric orthopedist. So I called for that appointment and we can't be seen for 4 weeks. Here's to waiting again! So what is Legg-Calve-Perthes disease, you ask? From my research and probing different doctors minds, it is a idiopathic avascular necrosis of the femoral head, or in other words: Austin's right hip is losing it's blood supply, and there is no known cause for this. And what exactly does that mean for Austin? We won't know for sure until we meet with the orthopedist next month, but I have been told that they usually either wait and watch to see if the hip can create a new route of blood supply or surgery of some kind to help with that. But for the next 4 weeks, we get to just wait and watch and hope and pray for the best. It breaks my heart to see him limping everyday and know there is nothing at this point that I can do for him. But I also know deep down that he was meant to have this problem in his life, and he will be able to make the best of it!
The other kids are all doing great and growing like weeds! Caden is going to be in 4th grade this year, I can't believe it! Tyson is going into 2nd grade, and Austin gets to start kindergarten and go to the same school as Tyson and Caden and he is so excited to be able to walk home from school with them! We are also going to try and get Kamryn into the same special education pre-school we did for Tyson with his speech problems. We think Kamryn is heading down that same speech problem road. She is not talking like she should for an almost 3 year old, but we have to wait for her birthday the end of September to have her tested for the program. Hopefully she qualifies and can get some extra help with speech. The special ed preschool in our school district is wonderful to work with and the teachers are great. We have dealt with them over the past 5 years, 3 years with Tyson in preschool and 2 years where Austin went there as a mainstream student (A "normal" child who helps to set the example and help the other children in the class). So we know them well and hope Kamryn will fit in. I can't, however, believe that Kam is going to be 3 this year and big enough to start school. We will see how that all works out over the next month.
Well, other than everything listed above, our summer also consisted of trips to the family cabin, a vacation to Flaming Gorge (to include boat rides on grandpa's boat, and 3 blown tires), lots of rest and relaxation, reading, playing video games, watching movies, and playing outside. I hope everyone else has had a wonderful summer so far and like I said at the beginning, I will post pics as soon as I get the gumption to load them to my computer from the camera.
