D-Man and random tid bits

This boy is the sweetest little 4 year old boy I know!!! He has a little addiction problem with the TV, so we had a day with no TV this week. It went pretty good and he didn't really complain too much and we did a bunch of fun activities!!! I feel so guilty for letting him watch TV so much, so we are working on limiting TV time a little. I admire all those moms who don't have TV because I can admit, I could never do it. Some days those cartoons save my life, but we will definitely be working on reducing TV time.

 I am amazed at how smart he is getting. He can trace all of his letters and numbers. He still doesn't know all of the letters, but we are working on it. He does know all of the numbers.

He told me he wanted to marry me the other day and I thought that was so sweet. And he tells us he loves us everyday. Tonight he was watching a Rug Rat movie and Chucky doesn't have a mom and Chucky was sad. Drake started crying because he felt so bad for Chucky. He is definitely my tender-hearted boy. He takes after his mamma! I have only cried 2 times during the super bowl tonight haha. Once when the Sandy Hook kids were singing and another during a military commercial:)
But then he has a wild-crazy-boy side. He is loving transformers and super heroes lately. I love listening to him pretend play with all of his little action figures.

He is getting so big and I just love watching him grow. He sure makes me proud!!!

This little lady is a tom-boy. She doesn't like dolls, but she loves balls and trucks. She actually has a good arm on her. She is pretty athletic!!! She will grab one of Drake's toys from him then throw it really far. We can't help but laugh, but it makes Drake really mad!!!

Just because this is kind of funny......

This too..... She gets so mad if you lock her out of somewhere!!!! She will find you wherever you are:)

Trevor and I got to go on a date night this weekend. We had Holly (our nurse) watch Laynie and her daughter watched Drake. It was our first paid babysitter. Drake had a great time. He was pretty excited about having a babysitter and mom and dad were excited to have a nice kid-free dinner!!!

 

We stayed home for the super bowl and made lots of yummy food. 

We had a rough month of January and are very excited to say SO LONG to it. We are happy to be starting off a new month healthy!!! I am happy to welcome the new month- the month of LOVE!!!!xoxo

Pneumonia and our Star Student...

We've got our girl back!!! We got the chest x-ray results back and she did have pneumonia. She is doing so much better now!!!! This is the 4th time she has had pneumonia:(

 She has looked like this for the past 2 weeks...........

But now she looks like this.............. So glad to have our happy girl back!!! Now we are crossing our fingers we can keep her healthy for awhile!!!

 Drake is the STAR STUDENT this week in preschool. He gets to be the special helper and he brings treats! He also gets to wear a special sticker. He was very excited to be the star student this week:)

*Snow*

Her view...... she adores her brother and daddy!!! We sat here the entire time they were shoveling the driveway and playing in the snow. She loved it!!! She is still battling this latest sickness though. She went to the doctor today and got a chest x-ray tonight. We will know the results in the morning. Her doctor thinks it is RSV, pneumonia, or a really bad cold. Have I mentioned that I am sick of our family being sick?!?!?!?! Her cochlear implant surgery was scheduled for this Friday and I stressed so bad about moving it to April. She wouldn't have been able to have her surgery anyways because she has been so sick. I am so glad I changed the date:) A mother knows best!!! hehe 

He loves playing in the snow. It snowed so much today that all the schools got cancelled and Trevor got stuck in our neighborhood on his way home from work. I used to love snow days when I was a kid:)

Hibernation STRIKE and hitting the jackpot

I had to give a talk at a church activity yesterday about perspective and gratitude. It really made me realize how lucky I am. I feel like I hit the jackpot in life!!!
 

We have been on extreme hibernation mode since after Christmas. We have been trying to avoid getting sick and especially Laynie getting sick. It is not working!!! We have had so much sickness at our house. Laynie is sick once again. She has only left our house two times in the past 2 weeks. Once to go to dinner at Trevor's parents and once to go to dinner at my parents. We wash our hands, take off our shoes, and a lot of times change our clothes when we get home. These germs are driving me crazy. We decided to go on a hibernation strike today, since clearly it is not working. And it felt OHHHH SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!! Also instead of being -5 it was 34 degrees today. It felt so warm (that is so sad). We went to Target to get organizing bins because someone else talked about organization last night, and now I am totally inspired to organize!!!! It made me feel a little better today!!!

This picture is just because.......... I think he is cute being a handy man. Drill in one hand, hammer in the other:)

Blue Monday

Supposedly today is the most depressing day of the year. It is called "Blue Monday". It is because of the cold gloomy weather, holiday bills, and failed New Years Resolutions!!! The stomach flu is running around our house, but the kids were not about to let "Blue Monday" get the best of them....
Drake decided to turn his room into a movie theatre. He pulled his mattress and blankets off his bed and made a nice seat for him and Laynie to sit on and watch T.V. Next he asked for some popcorn and ate it and fed it to his stuffed animals. Then he read a few books to Laynie. He once again managed to melt his mother's heart!!!

Horray for the weekend...

 I took some cute pictures of my kids today. We have been soooooo bored this week. It has been in the negatives all week and has been freezing. Then Laynie got really sick, so it was a long week! SO glad it's Friday:) She is finally feeling better and the weekend is ahead of us, so we are all HAPPY now!!! I guess we didn't escape the crazy germs at Primary Children's. This poor girl catches everything!!!! Operation lockdown is in full force and we are already sick of it. Germs go away!!!

We had a mini photo shoot today!

 Sassy girl in her furry boots!!!

This boy is quite a funny dude. After taking this picture while I was trying to put Laynie down for a nap, he decided to get the food coloring out and play with it! His mouth and hands are still green. He has been my little mischievous boy ever since he was a baby! He sure is handsome though.

I am loving Laynie having more hair..... I have always dreamt of fixing my little girl's hair all cute:)

Brrrrrr....... it has been so cold outside!!!!

This poor girl laid on the couch for two full days. I still don't know what she had, but she was pretty sick. She also loves to scare her parents and she succeeded one night. She had been coughing really hard all day and she was asleep and on her ventilator. She kept coughing and setting off the alarms about every 5 minutes. I kept going in to silence the alarm and suction her. One time I went in and I saw blood coming out of her mouth and it was all down her cheek. It was just pure blood!!! I panicked and called Trevor in and I said we need to take her to the E.R. She was still sleeping and seemed to be doing well though. I HATE taking her into the E.R. because they literally torture her. It always takes EIRMC at least 5 tries for an IV and I feel like they know nothing about a child with a trach and about her. I seriously feel like I know more than some of the doctors. I know, it sounds mean, but we haven't had the best experiences with our home town hospital. We also didn't want to expose her to any more illness since so much is going around right now. Anyways, we decided to stay home and watch her really close. I felt bad because I even woke my mom up to come over to stay with Drake. She never vomited blood again and had a fairly decent night. Luckily her nurse was here to watch her all night!!! She seemed a lot better in the morning!!! I am so glad we didn't wake her up and have a horrible night!!! And I am so glad she is feeling better too!!!

Finger painting...

Just because this cute face can bring a smile to my face any day!!!

Checking out Furby!!!

Drake calls Elmer his snuggle buddy. Elmer snuggles him every night as he goes to sleep. It is pretty cute. They are good buddies:)

Yay for the weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tickle monster...

I love watching moments like this. These kids love their daddy!!!

Just because...

This video isn't super cool to most people, but it is to me. Holy moly, she just learned to walk a few weeks ago. She is now dancing... in the middle of the room... on her feet!!! I just love these two!!! 

I have to give huge credit to Drake for her development. I think he does more for her than me, or Trevor, or any therapist. She adores him and wants to do everything he does. She is happy following him around and trying her best to play with his toys. He pushes her without even knowing it. The love they have for each other is so sweet.

They are snuggling in bed.... My heart is melting as I type this!!!!

Little Laynie Bug loves Blues Clues. She asks for it 100 times a day. She has a certain sign for it. There is something about this blue dog and strange man that she just adores:) 

Trach/Vent Clinic...

Laynie had some appointments at Primary Children's Medical Center yesterday. My mom was able to drive us and come with us this time. Drake stayed home with Grandma Maureen. Trevor and I have the BEST moms!!!! Thank you for always helping us. My mom had a coat on when she got in the car and then later down the road she took it off and we realized we were wearing the same shirt. So embarrassing!!!! We met my sister and her family at Rubio's (most delicious place ever) before the appointments and they just laughed at us!!! I guess we should stop going shopping together.

She had a CT scan under general anesthesia scheduled because she needed it before her cochlear implant surgery, but we postponed the cochlear implant surgery to April 5th. I was a nervous wreck about all the sickness and flu going around right now, so I just felt better rescheduling. Anyways, we also rescheduled the CT scan.

So all she had was the trach/vent clinic. In this clinic she met with a pulmonologist, an ENT doctor, a special care pediatrician, the trach/vent coordinator, a nurse practitioner, and a social worker. It was a 4 hour appointment!!!!!!!

They were all absolutely amazed with how AWESOME she is. They couldn't believe how dang cute she was and how sweet her personality is. They were also so impressed that she is walking and thriving. She weighed 25lbs which completely shocked me. Last time I weighed her about 1 month ago she was almost 23lbs. She had tons of attitude and didn't want to get out of her stroller. She thinks if she stays in there then she is safe.

ALL of the doctors agreed with me to cancel her cochlear implant surgery. It is too risky of a surgery for her to get really sick right after. It made me feel good because the implant surgeon didn't want me to cancel, but something in my mamma heart was telling me to reschedule. I listened to my heart, but I didn't know if I was just being paranoid, or if it was because I am SOOOOO nervous for this surgery and just wanted to put it off. I feel better now that 3 other doctors agreed with me. The special care pediatrician says she is not an advocate of hibernating, that she thinks we should still live our lives, but be very careful. Then, she said, "Right now..... I suggested hibernation. Use as much sanitizer as you can and be as cautious as possible." She said that there are some really nasty things out there right now, especially the flu.

The pulmonologist really thinks that she just needs to get bigger and stronger before her oxygen needs will improve. He doesn't think there is something serious going on with her lungs. He did say that during her last x-ray her lungs looked a little small, so she just doesn't have a very large lung capacity. She has been doing well without oxygen for a little bit though. We are going to keep testing her with her pulse ox and see how she does. She has had no oxygen for a big part of the day lately!!! SO EXCITING!!!!

The ENT tried a speaking valve with no oxygen port and she could not use it. She wasn't able to breathe with it on. He was surprised that it wouldn't work and he was thinking she may have some narrowing of her upper airway. No suggestions were made, but it was a little interesting.

EVERYTHING else went great and we got home safe!!!! We had a really long and much needed break of no appointments in Salt Lake over the holiday's. That break is over, but I am glad she is doing well.

Now we are crossing our fingers that we escaped all the sickness while we were in the hospital. I was a sanitizing fool while we were there!!!

Here is us in our lovely matching outfits.

Top 10 of 2012

10. We went on a few family vacations. St. George in May and a family reunion in Island Park in August...

 

 

09. Trevor competed in his first triathlon in September in Ogden, UT

 

08. We celebrated 7 wonderful years of marriage in May!!!!

 

07. We hosted Flat Charlie and were on the Utah News with my sister and her gLockets. We fundraised and raised awareness about CHARGE syndrome.

 

06. Our kids became friends!!!

 

05. Laynie had a couple of surgeries. One in June and another in October. She completed her 13th surgery in 2012 and had an awesome year. She stayed fairly healthy all year which is a huge accomplishment and blessing!!!

 

04. Drake started preschool. He is doing great and loves going to school. Our little boy grew up so much over the past year!!!!

 

03. Laynie turned 2!!! She made huge leaps of improvements in 2012!

 

 

02. Drake turned 4!!! He is turning into such a sweet and funny little boy!!!

 

01. Our little girl learned to walk!!! It was a great end to 2012. She decided to walk right before Christmas. She has had to work so hard and overcome so much to reach this goal. We are so proud of her. We can't wait to see what she shows us next!!!

 

Overall, 2012 was an AWESOME year!!! 2011 was the hardest year of my life and I am so happy to say that 2012 was one of the best years of my life.... still hard, but soooooo much good came in 2012:)

I can't wait to see what 2013 brings our way. Our year is starting off with a scary yet exciting new adventure... Laynie is getting her cochlear implant the first of February. This will start our weekly trips to Salt Lake City for a few months. It should be interesting, but we are excited to give Laynie a chance to hear!!!

 

HAPPY 2013!!!!

New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve at our neighbor's (The Denning's) house. We had a great time eating tons of food and playing games. The kids all had a great time playing together!!! We stayed out late and had so much fun!!!! Thanks for having us over Denning's!!!

Drake and Mason

Laynie and Brynlee

Me and Kristie

Happy 2013!!!!!

See ya later Charlie

We had a great time during Charlie's visit to Idaho!!! He was a perfect guest:)

We are sending him on his way to the next family today. He spent the holidays with us, visited our hometown, and even got to be on T.V. We will see him again at the CHARGE conference in July in Arizona. If you would like to donate in honor of Laynie to the CHARGE syndrome foundation you can use this link: http://FifthAnnualCIFC.kintera.org/laynieflatcharlie

Thank you so much!!!

See ya later Flat Charlie!!!!

Have fun CHARGing on!!!!!!!!!!