Happy Birthday Preston!

I really cant believe that it has been 9 years! I remember this day like it was yesterday. Preston is truely a specail boy. We had a few scares during my pregnancy...which lead to his early arrival. He was almost 4 weeks early. (That might explain why he is such a runt!!) But I really believe that it was time for him to come. After a few tests to make sure it was okay to induce, we found out that all his organs where completely developed and even his lungs where strong enough to breathe on their own. The Doctor didn't want to wait any longer. He has been such a joy to have around.

He will come up with the darndest things (but then what child doesn't) He really keeps me on my toes and laughing most of the time. Even when I should be mad at him, he just has a way of making me laugh.

I love you so much Preston and am so proud of the kind, loving kid you are. Thank you for being such a good kid, and always being willing to help me out. Your smile brightens my day, and I am so glad that Heavenly Father loved me enough to entrust me with you.

Happy Birthday Preston...I love you!

She didn't look sick to me

I just came across this picture and I found myself looking at it in awe. This is a picture of Kailey just 5 hours before she was put in the hospital. I cant believe that she looks so normal and yet she was on her way to getting sooo sick! Sometimes I wonder what the Lord has in store for this specail little girl. She has endured soooo much in her young life. Yet she wears a smile through it all. She has such a strong, loving, wonderful spirit. What a blessing she is to have in our family. I just thought I would share my thoughts...cause I am still throughly amazed at how quick she made a turn for the worse.

Hospital Woes!

(This picture was actually when she was on the mend. Not at her worst.)

We have had one heck of a week!! Kailey has given me the scare of a lifetime! Once again she was getting sick. Just a little wheezy...enough for me to want to keep constant vigil on her. I was giving breathing treatments on top of her regular regimine of meds. On friday she was hit blind side by something that took her down with a vengince!! When it was clear that she was laboring way to hard to breathe, I took her to the Dr. office. Her oxygen levels where at 82 (which is not good!) and even after 3 breathing treatments in the office and still not getting anywhere with them, we had to admit her to the hospital. She DID NOT want to go! Sobbing in my arms, pleading with me to please not make her, I took her over to the American Fork Hospital. Well things went from bad to worse! She kept getting closer and closer to this "cliff" the Dr. liked to refer to. Meaning that all asthmatics have a cliff, usually they dont turn around when they are steadily climbing toward that cliff, and if they make it there, they WILL jump. Which means that then she would crash and they would have to intabate her. Kailey was very close to her "cliff". They where doing everything for her they possibly could. Yet she was still spiraling down quickly! They decided that they didn't have much choice but to transport her to Primary Childrens where they could give her continous albuterol. Which would hopefully help open her airways so they wouldn't have to intabate her. When they told me that the Life Flight helicopter was on their way, I about died!! She really was in a bad way, and I have no clue what triggered it. I will never forget the emotional breakdown I was ready to have when they put her up in the chopper and I had to stand back and watch it leave. My heart just sunk! There goes my baby, and there is NOTHING I can do about it!! The situation was completely out of my hands. So we have spent a week in ICU at Primary Childrens. Sometimes we think she's getting better and then just another set back. For whatever reason, she just wasn't responding to the medicines as quickly as we had all hoped. It took about 5 days for her to start responding and getting to the point to where she didn't need the continuous albuterol. Just like always, when she started to get better she improved with leaps and bounds! The Doctors where all amazed as to how quickly she recovered once she was able to get her airways opened just a little. On the 6th day, they realesed her from ICU. On the 7th day, with a lot of hesitance from the Dr, and A LOT of push from me, they let her go home. This happens to be Kaileys pattern. She gets sick, and when she is sick enough to go to the hospital, it takes her awhile to start coming back up. But, when she does, she flies!! The Drs where just concerned that after spending a whole week in ICU that it was too soon to let her go. They kept telling me that in cases like this, when they let the patient go too soon, they ALWAYS end up back in the hospital. Not my Kailey! When she starts the "getting better" process, she has never turned around immediately and got bad again. This of course was the case again this time! I really hope that we dont ever have to end up Life Flighting again!! That was soooo scary to me! But she is so stinkin brave....I am soooo proud of my baby girl. She told me that not once was she afraid. It makes me want to cry just thinking about the strength that little girl has. She is amazing!

This was the day she was released from the hospital.

(We're outta here!)

Heart troubles

Last month sometime we discovered that Austin has a heart murmur. Today we went to the cardioligist to follow up on it. Our peditrician didn't seem to be worried about it and thought it was an "innocent" heart murmur, but he wanted us to go have an ecocardiogram just to make sure. When the cardioligist came in and listened to him, she seemed to think the same. However wanted to continue with the sonagram on his heart to be 100% positive. Turns out that his heart is normal and he should out grow this murmur. I was so relieved!! I had a peacful feeling about it in the first place...like I just knew that everything was going to be fine. But now we have the Doctors stamp of approval on it. I just didn't think that with our families history with hearts I should take ANY risk! These are pictures that they gave me of his heart. I thought it was pretty cool to watch his heart beat. The top picture you can see the ventrical is closed and the bottom one, it's open. I was pretty fasinated!

Are you serious?

We woke up to sooo much snow today! It was wet, and super heavy! When I left for work there was a good 8 inches on my windsheild. There was huge branches broken off of trees all the way down our road, just from the weight of the snow. I cant believe it! Is it really the middle of April...or is someone just playing a cruel joke? Preston decided to take advantage of the oppertunity and have some fun. But still.....a snowman in April?

Happy Easter

SPRING HAS SPRUNG...or so I thought! :P

While the weather was nice and sun shiny, the kids and I took advantage of it and went to the Discovery Park. It's the kids favorite park to go to. We finally had a good chance for some long overdue play time in the nice warm sun!! Now look, we get winter weather again....YUCK! Welcome to spring in Utah!! I guess at least we got to enjoy it while we had it...just long enough to give me SPRING FEVER!! They loved spinning on these silly things til they where ready to puke!! I got sick just watching them. Sometimes they would get it going so fast that it would throw them off. I dont think I can say that I've ever had so much fun that I was ready to throw up...but they sure did!

For now, we had a great day at the park!! I cant wait until we can do it more often. It is really fun to watch kids be kids and just have fun, spinning, swinging, slideing, playing tag...just being happy. That's what it's all about for me. Knowing that my kids are happy with who they are and what they are doing.