Happy Halloween

Love,

Batman

Gabriella

and the littlest Rock Star

I had to add this picture. It cracks me up. She's getting pretty good at standing on her own and balancing, but she looks so unsure of herself.

Fall Picture Overload

Lila had to ruin it for everyone :)

The only picture I got of all three of them looking at the camera at the same time.

Lila was too busy eating and crawling in the nasty leaves to have her picture taken.

Always a poser.

It is so fun taking pictures of Sunny. She's gotten to where I don't have to tell her what to do. She really looks like a real little model. She does all these poses and then changes them just a bit. Like, she'll tip her head, or look away. It's so cute.

It's officially been a year since she cut her hair. It's finally getting long again.

Sisters.

One smile. That's it. Out of 50 pictures of so.

Eating more leaves.

My big boy. Love the huge scratch on his face. He was playing with his friend jumping into piles of leaves and apparently a stick got him in the face. Oh well, at least it missed his eye :)

He won't admit it, but I think he enjoyed this little photo shoot.

This is how it all ended up. She'd had enough.

This article was in the BYU newspaper. Kinda cool, except they didn't interview me. The article gives a good description of what we are trying to do for people at Deseret Industries
Ryan

ZOO

Mom and I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. Unfortunately my camera still isn't working, so no pictures. But, if you really want to know what it looked like, it was just like all the other times we've ever been except that Lila was there :)

The kids really enjoyed it. They haven't been since Jax was 4 and Sunny was 2 1/2, so it was a new adventure. They liked the Elephant show the best, and also the tiger and cougar.

I had a fun time too, but noticed something that I hadn't before. Some of those poor animals have the worst cages/enclosures I have ever seen. The poor cougar lived on concrete, as did the bears. The penguins also had all concrete and a small pool. The tiger had a nice enough place, but it was small and he was pacing and growling the whole time. Actually several animals were pacing and seemed unhappy. I felt really bad for many of the animals, and that means a lot coming from me. I am not an animal person at all.

Anyway, all in all it was a fun day and if you're interested, vote for proposition 2 to help the zoo!

For Gracie

We've been praying for Baby Gracie every night for almost 7 months now. It's almost as if she has become a part of our family. She is going through another set of complications, and preparing for her second surgery right now. We don't know if her Mom will ever see our blog or not, but if she does we wanted her to see Jackson, hear his story, and know what is possible for sweet Gracie.



This first picture is one taken by a nurse before Jackson went up to Primary Children's. It's the only thing I had of him while I was still in the hospital, unable to see him. I remember how proud I was of him and how cute he was, even with all the tubes and wires. Jax was blue when he was born. The doctor thought it was because he was 4 1/2 weeks early and his lungs weren't developed enough. Soon enough we discovered that was not the case. The doctors at Utah Valley couldn't tell us what was wrong. Only that it was his heart and they had already called Life Flight. He ended up going to Primary Children's in an ambulance b/c all the helicopters were grounded due to weather.

Jax was quickly diagnosed with Transposition of the Great Arteries and went in for his heart cath. That went well and we were told surgery would come at five days old. They would've like to have done it sooner, but b/c he was small they wanted to give him a couple of days to grow and rest.

After surgery. Five days old. This is in the PICU. We weren't able to hold him, and could barely touch him b/c it seemed to irritate him. He looks a lot bigger in these pictures than he was in real life. He was only about 5 1/2 pounds, but was very swollen from the surgery.

They slowly weaned him off the meds that kept him asleep. It was so sad when he opened his eyes. He looked so scared. At that point I didn't know what the future held for him. I hoped he would recover and be perfectly healthy, but I was too scared to really let myself even think about it. He is about a week old here.

After he graduated to his private room on the third floor I had hopes he would come home quickly. He ended up staying there for another 2 weeks (which is not nearly as long as sweet Gracie had to stay the first time), which seemed like an eternity to me. This is him doing the car seat oxygen test. It is the best picture I could find to show his scar. This is probably a day or two before he went home, so about 3 weeks old.

In the end, Jax stayed for just over 3 weeks at the hospital. It took him about 6 months after coming home from the hospital to become a "normal" baby and stop looking so scared and upset all the time. I didn't care. I would have taken him any way I could get him.

This of course is him now. His scar is almost invisible to those who don't know it's there. I didn't believe it would ever look this good, but it does. He does have a big knot on his sternum where his ribs fused back together. They say it happens in about 10% of open heart surgery cases. It's pretty prominent b/c he is such a skinny guy. I wish I could have known then what I know now... It doesn't matter. Not one bit. I couldn't care less. Actually I kinda like it. It's his cool battle scar, and a reminder of what a special kid he is.

Slowly, over the last 5 years, I've thought less and less about his heart. At first I would go a day without thinking about it, then a week, then longer. Now I don't really think about it, except to schedule his yearly echo cardiograms and check-ups at PCMC. I know we have been extremely blessed that Jax has not had any major complications. He does have leaky heart valves and his aorta and pulmonary vein are slightly narrow. These are pretty standard and will probably never cause him a problem. If they do, it will likely be fixed by another cath. But, I choose not to think about that today. I'll think about it tomorrow.

For now, please pray for Gracie. We pray that she will have the best outcome possible for her and her family, and that one day, they will look back and think that they haven't thought about her surgery for days, or weeks, or years :)

Please take a minute and check out Gracie's blog. She could use your prayers right now :)

Family Home Evening

Tonight for Family Home Evening we roasted marshmallows in our fire pit in the backyard. We invited Brandon, Ethan, and Caden over. Ethan's marshmallow is the one on fire.
(Is it really spelled marsh "mallow"? Spell-check says it is, but I could swear it is "mellow")

It was colder than it looks in the pictures, so we had Lila all bundled up. She was pretty cozy in her snowsuit.

The kids were so excited. They've wanted to build a fire since we moved in and this is the first time we've done it.

Trying to ruin the picture with a weird face, but I think it's still pretty cute.

A rare picture of me and the kids.

A little blurry, but what a sweet baby!

Let Me Out

Lila was so bored while Jackson and Sunny were at school today. She kept staring out the window like she was looking for them.

Let me out.

She was fogging up the glass and thought it was pretty cool. She'd get it really foggy and then rub it with her hand.

If

If I could make the background disappear so you didn't know this was taken recently at our house, would you think it was Jackson?

I was taking care of Sunny this morning b/c she was sick in bed with a fever. When I finally came downstairs, Ryan had dressed Lila up and taken these pictures. Jax wore this outfit for his two year old pictures, and still wore it up until I put in in the D.I. pile a month or so ago.

I think she looks like a boy.

Jackson is so proud that his sissy looks just like him.

Sick Saturday

The older kids are still pretty sick, so we have stayed home for the last week. We are starting to go stir crazy, but yesterday the kids all spent some time playing on the floor together and they had a great time. Lila is not sick, but I'm assuming she will be soon. There is no way I can keep her away from the germs floating around. She is into everything.

The big kids loved having Lila be able to play with them. It seemed like she really got what she was supposed to do. They would build towers and she would knock them down and climb on them.

Sunny pretending to buzz Jackson's hair.

Sweet Sisters!

She loved the cheap hot wheel cars.

It was so fun to see all the kids laughing and playing together. I was so amazed at all the stuff Lila could do, and so were Jax and Sunny. She seems so much older than she is.

"Fun, but boring"

I told Jax I wrote about last night and that is his summary of the night. He says the funnest part was when he got his bracelet. That's all he can think of. Wait, let him think for a minute. No, nothing else was fun. What a silly boy?!?!?

E.R.

You all know we've spent plenty of time in the hospital and doctors office with all of our kids. Well, last night was a first for us...

Our first middle of the night emergency room visit.

Jax sleeps way down in the basement and we used to keep a baby monitor with him so we could hear if he woke up at night or needed something. Recently we haven't been using it b/c he rarely wakes up, and if he does he walks upstairs. Last night I when I went to bed I noticed it was not on. I yelled down for Ryan to turn it on. He didn't, so I went all the way back down and turned it on. This is unusual for me b/c I hate going up and down stairs, especially when Ryan was already down there, but for whatever reason I did it.

At 1:00 I heard a strange noise on the monitor. I got Ryan up and told him to go check b/c it wasn't coughing or crying, but it was something weird. Turns out Jax got croup in the middle of the night and his throat was swelling shut. He's had croup 4 other times, but we always got it under control and then got steroids the next day. This time was different. He was panicking b/c he couldn't breathe. He couldn't talk or cough or anything. I was terrified. I tried to get him outside to breathe the cool air, but he wouldn't. We finally got him to call down by telling him he could play football on the PlayStation. At that point he could breathe, but not well.

I called my mom and she came over to stay with the girls while we took him to the hospital. He was the 3rd kid there that night with croup and another little boy with it was right behind us. The gave him a cool mist breathing treatment and steroids and we had to stay there for awhile so they could monitor him. He is doing better today, but is still not as good as I'd like him to be. They say the 2nd night of croup is worse, so I'm very nervous about tonight. He has to miss school today b/c I'm worried about him having an attack there.

He is going to the doctor -not ours, he's out till Monday :( -and hopefully will get another round of steroids to help him get through the night. Croup is such a scary thing. I'm just hoping the baby doesn't get it now.


On a side note, the e.r. trip was priceless. There was a man who was obviously on some kind of drug that kept trying to escape his room. At first it was funny and the nurses were just pulling him back in. Eventually he became agitated and the had to get two male nurses and security to wrangle him back to his room and keep him in. It was entertaining, but he made me a little nervous. I think I've watched too many episodes of E.R.

So Proud

Today was my first ever parent-teacher conference. Well, my first one as the parent anyway. I'll have to admit I was a little nervous. Obviously I think Jackson is an awesome kid. I think he is smart and funny and obedient and everything else wonderful. I was just hoping that his teacher would come to the same conclusion.

The verdict is :

He is wonderful, perfect, super-smart, awesome, etc, etc, etc. Told you!

Mrs. Chapman said Jackson is doing great. He is one of her favorite kids. She said he is hardworking, a good listener, participates often, and is generally just a really fun kid.

They give you a list of things the kids need to work on. She said she had to go back in his file and pull out all his stuff to try to find something he needed to work on b/c there just wasn't anything she could think of. She finally decided he needed to work on his handwriting, but she said that was a bit of a stretch. Really she just had to put something on there.

I asked if he was shy and she said no. She said she can tell that he is a quiet kid, but that he loves to answer questions and talk in front of the class, and that he gets along great with the other kids.

Sorry I'm bragging so much about him, but I'm just so proud. We've always known he was a special kid, but it's so nice to hear it from his teacher.

Good Morning

This is what I wake up to every morning and after nap time every day. Picture her standing up, clinging to the crib rail, holding on for dear life, and yelling "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma".

So cute, yet not so cute.

Story #1

I think I've mentioned before that Jax walks home from school with the two boys next door. School gets out at 3:30, and he is usually home around 3:45. On Monday's I have to pick up Sunny from preschool so if the garage is shut he is supposed to go home with the boys until I get there. Usually though, I get home from picking up Sunny as he is walking down the street, so pretty much I am there.

On to today. Jax doesn't come home. I look out across the street and don't see the other boys either. At this point I'm thinking they must have left something at school and gone back to get it, or maybe one of them was talking to a teacher. So I wait till almost 4 and then I'm about to freak out. I've been looking outside constantly and never saw any of them. I get dressed (b/c I'm still in my p.j.'s) and grab Lila and the keys.

I should add that the mother of the boys who live next door isn't always home. She is a nurse and works some days. So, I didn't know if she was home or not, but her garage was shut. I decide to go knock on the door before driving over to the school. Well, he was there. I walked in their door and hollered at him to get upstairs. Then I decided I didn't want to embarrass him so I said, "Why didn't you come home first and ask if you could play." He said, "the garage was shut so I knew you weren't home."

True it was shut, but it has been shut other days and he just comes in the front door. So, I said "Next time ask me first," and then I let him keep playing. I walked home like it was no big deal and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The only reason I wasn't completely freaked out is b/c I knew he was with Ethan and that he would take care of Jax and make sure he was safe. He is such a great kid.

What am I gonna do when they are teenagers? I think I'm going to have to be heavily medicated to have my kids out of my sight, driving around in cars, and dating. I think I might actually feel a little bit bad about all the stuff I put my parents through in my crazy teenage years :)

Story #2

For Aunt (which she does not pronounce "ant" but the other way) Jess.

This is a conversation between me and Sunny today.

me: Who do you love mostest in the whole world.

Sunny: -Thinking hard-

me: You know, who is your bestest friend ever.

Sunny: Oh, that's easy. Aunt Jess.

me: But what about Mommy?

Sunny: Sorry, but I love Aunt Jess the most.

me: Why?

Sunny: Because she loves me the most of all :)


A few minutes later...

Sunny: You know, Uncle Joshy must have cut the blonde out of her black hair.

me: -Thinking to myself, not the hair thing again- Wow, that's neat.

Sunny: He used scissors and a razor, the buzzing kind. I know it. Look at my hair, it is turning to black. See this piece, it is black. I can't wait until it all turns black. The me and Jess will have the same hair.

Sunny: Hopefully my eyebrows will turn black like hers too.


This kid cracks me up. She has such a special bond with Aunt Jess (though so does Jax after what I saw him doing at Pizza Factory). I can't imagine what we ever did without Aunt Jess.

p.s. She wants to spend the night soon.

The Impossible

I convinced him to let me take his picture. He is in desperate need of a haircut (hint hint Uncle Josh). He is wearing the oldest, scroungiest (is that a word?) clothes he could find, and his face is dirty. But, I'll take what I can get.