It starts with a kiss, and ends with a crash :).

And here’s Asher finishing up reading to Beck. Asher loves learning new words and working on his reading. We work on sight words often, and he’s constantly spelling words. It’s so fun to see him begin this new stage.

It’s impossible to not smile watching this. This is what they do, and I know it’s only going to get more fun :).

One of my favorites.  When he lays on his back and plays with his feet.  It’s the best…except when you’re trying to change his diaper, and he’s trying to play with his toes, then that’s not the best.  But it’s still stinkin’ cute :).

Baby robes.  A complete waste.  Although, I’ll give it to them, they’re cute for the pictures, but seriously who wants an icy baby.

He’s getting so big.  He’s such a great helper with Beck too.  He loves his brother so much…I truly think the bond is unbreakable.

This video is too much fun not to share…

Nap time for Punkers, rain storm for me and my big man.  Although we couldn’t just enjoy the rain storm, it was all about slicing the rain.

With.

The.

CUTENESS!!!

And this is Asher, constantly taking videos and pictures of his brother.  It’s so sweet how excited he is with all things Beck.

And, of course, there’s some of this, ha!

I get to munch on these all day.  Num, Num, Num!

We had an awesome time visiting family and friends in Manvel!  I didn’t get a ton of pictures on this trip, but this video pretty much sums up how we felt after our time (thanks, youtube, for trying to fix our video, ha!)…

We did a lot of hanging out as a family, riding the four wheeler, and visiting Grandma Hoverson.  Asher asked a couple of times to walk over to Grandma Hoverson’s house by himself  so he could hang out with her.  The one time we went to pick him up after awhile, he had just finished some jello and was hanging out dancing around Grandma’s living room.  So sweet for Jeremy to see, since he has a lifetime of these memories with his Grandma.  I’m bummed I didn’t get a picture of Grandma with the boys, but I do have one of Beck sleeping on her lap getting some special cuddle times.

One of the most memorable days was being able to be a part of “Manvel Days” which was a day full of fun activities around the little town we grew up in.  Auntie Shannon spent endless hours making an “American Superheros” float for Isaac, Gracie, Rush, Micah, and Asher to ride in the Kiddie Parade down main street.  All we did was spend endless hours talking with Asher about being in the parade leading up to the parade :).  Asher “Optimus Prime” Olimb was super excited to ride on his first float with his cousins, and chuck candy at all the other kiddos.  Beck “Spiderman” Olimb cheered for his big brother on the sidelines with Grandma Olimb.  Thank you so much, Shanny, for all you did to make an out of this world float for our kids to ride!

We had just left Dent Days where Asher had won 2nd Place in the Tractor Races, and traveled to Manvel Days where he landed himself another 2nd Place in the Tractor Pull!  He’s the boss!!!!  Major annoying voice alert in these videos.  I’m proud, but it’s super annoying, so be sure to mute if you dare to watch, lol!

And, Asher has missed his buddy Rush this summer.  Here they are reunited.

Beck’s first sink bath :).

Grandpa Olimb made sure to buy some fun fireworks for us to set off on a beautiful evening!

Grandma Olimb had this beautiful scale that she used to weigh her kids, and her mom used to use it to weigh her kids as well.  Years and years of baby weighing, and all of that is completely priceless in my book!  Of course we had to have a little photo shoot.  And, a special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for mailing the scale to me as a gift, I’m in love :).

Let me first start off with these two photos…for no other reason than I could look at them all. day. long.

I thought I would take a post to give a medical update on the boys.  This blog is primarily used as a keepsake for the boys and for Jeremy and I to forever hold on to the memories we’ve built as a family.  But, another component of it is to keep a bit of a medical journal (we do use other sources) on how the boys are doing, and to live this journey of having Cystic Fibrosis in front of people to bring awareness and to share the real ugly of this disease.  I feel like I’m helping my boys by sharing.  There is power in awareness.

It’s easy, even for me, to get lost in the cute faces of Asher and Beck, and forget about the untamed beast of a disease called Cystic Fibrosis.  You would never guess that they do hours of treatments a day (that’s when they’re feeling well), and they take almost 1,500 pills a month to fight this battle.  I want to forget that they have cf most days.  And, honestly, I think that’s good for all of us that we do.  We do treatments, we take pills, we live in our normal, and we’re determined for this disease not to rob our boys of the joys that life has to offer.  But, yesterday made it hard to forget the all out battle we’re in.

We got the call that Beck has Pseudomonas.  Instant tears.  We know what this bacteria means for our boy, because Asher has it as well.  People with Cystic Fibrosis share lung bacteria with one another, so when we found out about Beck having CF, we knew it was inevitable that he would contract it as well.  It didn’t make the call any easier though.  This bacteria freaks me out.  I’ve shared this before on the blog, but I’m going to do it again because it’s really the most simple explanation and illustration…

Pseudomonas aeruginosa settles into the thick mucus trapped in the airways. Once it sets up house in the respiratory tract, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is hard to get rid of. Respiratory failure caused by the infection is often the ultimate cause of death in many people with CF.  Here is a illustration that gives a clearer picture of how it transforms and really truly turns into a monster!

The first picture is where the dr.’s try to catch PA.  Once it reaches phase 3/4 it goes crazy!  And, by phase 5 it is sending new feeders out voraciously trying to acquire new territory in the lungs and destroying every part it can.  There are currently only a couple of antibiotics that work against it.  The CF person’s PA is very likely to become resistant at some point to these antibiotics because of high use (every other month).  The problem for a CF person is not only becoming resistant to the drugs, but the antibiotics are so harsh that it also ends up destroying the liver, kidneys, and/or the heart.

Asher was 11 months old when we got the call about him having Pseudomonas, and it’s been an on and off again battle trying to keep this ferocious bacteria at bay.  It makes our hearts hurt that we have to fight this same, yet unpredictable bacteria with Beck who is about 4.5 months old.  It means adding an antibiotic, Tobi, that takes about 20 minutes to administer, twice a day for 28 days.  Tobi has proven to be really hard for Asher to tolerate, so I’m not sure how a little 4.5 month old will react.  It makes me sad to have to put him on it…but we’re thankful we have something to fight this bacteria.  So we roll up our sleeves.

Speaking of treatments.  We got a vest for Beck.  We were nervous about whether or not Beck would be approved by our insurance since he’s so little, and we weren’t sure how much we would have to pay for it since it’s a $20,000 machine.  We got the call and our rep from the vest company said, “Your insurance company paid for a portion, and Obama passed a law that covered the rest of it.”  Absolutely amazing.  We thank the Lord for making this all happen.  And, the best part about it is that Jeremy and I were prepared for Beck to lose his mind when we turned on the machine (because Asher did) and instead he fell asleep.  The shaking lulls him to sleep!  That is of course after we’re finished with his nebulizers.  He turns into psycho, freak out baby during his nebulizers.  But, we’re 1/2 way there.  The happy vest experience has been a huge blessing!

Current Meds for Beck:  Elecare formula (Beck has a dairy allergy); Culturelle twice a day; 6 Zenpep 3,000 with each bottle; 1/8 tsp salt; Prevacid twice daily; antibiotic to treat E Coli (from meconium ileus and reflux); Vitamax; 6 treatments of Xopenex daily (inhaled treatment); Pulmozyme daily (inhaled treatment); Hypertonic Saline daily (inhaled treatment); Tobi (inhaled treatment).

Current Meds for Asher:  5 Zenpep 10,000 with each meal; Zantac twice a day; Prevacid once a day; Culturelle once a day; Azithromycin three times a week; Vitamin D daily; Multivitamin; Albuterol twice daily (inhaled treatment); Hypertonic Saline twice daily (inhaled treatment); Pulmozyme once daily (inhaled treatment); extremely high fat diet

Between keeping up on the medicine orders, cleaning and sanitizing breathing equipment, doing treatments, frequent doctor appointments, cooking up something salty and fatty, finding organizations and seeking grants to help with expenses, dealing with insurance companies, keeping medical bills organized, doing research to make sure we are taking care of them the best we can…it can be a bit all consuming, and honestly, it can be overwhelming.  I’m truly not complaining, I love taking care of my boys, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy disease to manage.  Some days the heaviness of cf and the reality that things will only get more complicated for them as it progresses can be crushing.  Some days it can be hard to find joy in the boys having Cystic Fibrosis.  We work hard to not let them feel any of these emotions, but secretly pray like mad men for the Lord to make it all go away.

Asher is doing his treatment so the background noise is a little loud, but I just had to share what most of our days are filled with…

…and we are blessed. We are fueled and energized to be their caregivers and cheerleaders.  And, we pray.  Thank you, Lord, for making us their Daddy and Mommy.  We come to you begging you to share the wisdom with the pharmaceutical industry so our boys no longer have to be warriors in this CF battle.

We would be so honored to have you join us for the 5th Annual teamASHER + BECK Silent Auction on Saturday, February 23rd from 4:00-6:00pm at Redemption Church Gilbert.

We had a great time fishing with Asher…probably because we were actually catching fish and it was exciting.  Thanks to Grandpa for adding new hooks and weights, taking fish off, putting worms on, pulling lines out of weeds, re-positioning the pontoon…seriously, that sport isn’t that relaxing, ha!  It was a blast watching Asher catch fish though.  He was so excited every time he pulled one up.  He had a ruler on the top of his tackle box and had to measure the fish or guess the length every time we had a live one in the pontoon!  We had both caught a decent sized fish and I told him that I wanted to show him how to filet a fish that night.  Well, I put them in the fish basket and forgot to pull the lid shut before I threw it in the water.  Sheesh.  Sorry, buddy, next time.

Asher.  You spent an obscene amount of time in the water with Grandpa and Grandma.  Splashing, swimming, playing catch, and helping your grandparents move rocks and pick weeds.  I think you like the lake.  A lot.

Beck.  Grandpa Necas kept telling you what a good baby you were, and he was great at making sure you were always ok :).

Enjoying a cold, rainy morning.

We spent a fun afternoon at this little amusement park riding bumper boats, playing mini golf, and racing go-karts.  And, Beck’s “all business” look in the picture with my dad and Jeremy cracks me up!!!

Thanks for all the fun memories Grandpa and Grandma!

Finally got to take Asher to the Turtle Races!  He was excited to be a part of it because I had been talking to him about how I used to go to the turtle races every week in the Summer when I was little.  He was curious about how it all worked, and was all in when it was time to go and pick out his turtle (times have changed, we used to go turtle hunting and bring in our own wild champions to the races :)).  Grandpa and Asher put up a fight, but their turtle sort of stalled in the middle of the track, ha!

I had kept my old turtle racin’ shirt from ’85, and got a huge kick out of seeing Asher sporting it.

We were blessed to be able to go and visit the Grandma and Grandpas’ and family and friends these last few weeks up north.  Asher absolutely ate up all the time he could running around outside.  It was so nice for all of us to be able to ditch the heat for awhile.  We started our trip out at Grandma and Grandpa Necas’ house at “The Lake”.  I have so many memories growing up at the lake, so it’s super sweet for me to be able to share in the memories with the boys.  The first morning we were there Asher was out of bed for about 10 minutes before he was playing in the lake in his jammies.  And Beck, well he soaked in the essence of the lake by enjoying lakeside bottles and playing with his toys with the wind blowing through his hair.  While we’re on the topic of Beck, I just have to say he wins Best Baby award.  He was a super awesome traveling buddy who didn’t cry once on the plane ride there and back, and was such a happy baby hanging out with family.

We happened to be there again for the famous Dent Days.  It’s such a cute, little town event.  We got to enjoy a parade, some carnival games, and a kiddie tractor race of which Asher won 2nd place.  He won two heats that landed him in the championship race off, but the dreaded turn ripped him of the gold, ha!  It was so fun cheering him on!

Asher hates loud noises.  So much so that he will sacrifice candy for the sake of plugging his ears.  He was anxious for the firetrucks and ambulances to roll through the parade, ha!

These two things were a total crack up.  Watching the guy across the street collect candy with the kids, and watching this little tike drive his tractor behind his daddy.  It was like his daddy said to him, “you better stay close to me or else” because there was either a one inch gap in between them, or the little boy was ramming into his dad’s back end.  He wasn’t waving at all, he was so focused on not getting into trouble, ha!  It was hilarious and totally blog-worthy.

One of Asher’s favorite lake activities was driving the pontoon.  He took it very seriously.  I’ll never forget him saying, “Mommy, can I take you for a ride?”

We were so thankful to be able to have the Grandma and Grandpa Olimb and Auntie Dana join us for a day at the lake.  We were blessed with a beautiful day and had a wonderful time hanging out and tearing up the lake.

Asher and Beck, your parents are not boring.  Just remember that :).

Tubing.  Just plain fun.  It was Asher’s first time out on the lake, and he loved it…as long he didn’t go too fast :).  And, Grandpa Olimb wins the award for Best Wipe Out!

Love him.

Punkers had some lake time too.  He neither smiled nor cried, so the jury is out, ha!

And, these pics are primarily for Uncle Lance.  Apparently this thing was resurrected from your childhood, and based on the looks on their faces, it doesn’t work like it used to, ha!

It’s so sweet the way Beck lights up when he sees or hears Asher.  The boy can do no wrong in his eyes.  We love watching the two of them together, and I know the times will only get sweeter.

Can’t even begin to explain how much I love this.