Harvest Time...

For the first time since we have been at school here, we went to the annual harvest festival and the pumpkin patch!  We barely missed the hayride, but the girls had a great time picking out their pumpkins and playing.

 

Welcome Fall...we love you.

First Injections...

Lyss and I made the trip to Seattle at the end of September for her to get joint injections in 4 (ended up being 5) joints.  Jeff had a surgery he had to do and we both decided it would be ok for me to take her on my own.  My sweet friend Laurel watched Little Miss for us and it helped so much to know that she would be happy and safe while we were gone.  Lyss did amazing.  Jeff gave her a blessing that she would be calm and feel peace and I know she did.  She wasn't nervous at all and allowed the doctors to do everything they needed to do without getting upset.  The only time she got a little irritated was after the procedure when I kept taking pictures...thus the "pout" picture.

 

The pass ended up being closed for blasting when we were going to head home, so I stayed with my cousin-in-law's family and they were wonderful to Lyss and me.  We had a great visit and headed out at 4am the next morning.  The trip was definitely a success and she seems to be getting some relief which is great news!

Seattle

Well, we took our first trip to Seattle on September 6th and we had a great time!  First, we met with the rheumatologist who diagnosed Lyss with Oligoarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis...which means she has four joints affected by the disease right now, but they are assuming she will have more joints become involved as time goes on since she has had four inflame in such a short time.  He gave us the treatment options and just talked to us about the nature of the disease and how there isn't a cure, just the hope for remission.  The treatments are all intended to control the symptoms as much as possible, but since they don't know what causes it, they haven't been able to find a cure for it.  It was a really overwhelming and emotional visit, but Jeff and I, through lots of prayer and priesthood blessings, feel very at peace.  We know this trial will strengthen our family and we know we will see the miracles of the Lord in our life through it.  We love our little family and look forward to the journey we have together!

While we were in Seattle, we decided we better play tourist since my parents were sweet enough to send us some fun money for our trip:)  We went on the Seattle Great Wheel and to the Aquarium.  The girls loved all of it and Jeff and I enjoyed just getting to spend some family time together, since his clinical schedule this year doesn't allow for much.  We just enjoyed being together and let all the stresses of life go for a little while.

 

Seattle is beautiful.  And it's good we like it because it looks like we will be making regular visits for the next little while:)