Nothing new.... just random happenings

Oh this time of year seems to just drag on and on and on.... We have been good, but just having some major cabin fever. I am looking forward to the weather warming up so I actually want to leave my house again.
It seems like this month was awareness month for everything. It seems like everything on my facebook feed was all about some sort of awareness week. We were wearing red in the picture for wear red day for heart disease awareness and it was also congentital heart defect awareness week, which Laynie had 3 heart defects and many of her CHARGE friends have very severe heart defects. This is something we are very grateful for that Laynie's heart defects have been mild and have not affected her in major ways and we hope it stays that way. It was also feeding tube awareness week and it is rare disease day or week coming up. It seems like since Laynie is sooooo complicated and affected by so many medical conditions we need to support a lot of causes:)

Most of these pictures were shared on my instagram, but I like to put them on here also because I print out my blog for our family journal/scrapbook.
Laynie was soooooo sad that her blankies were getting washed. I usually sneak them in the washer, but she caught me putting them in the dryer. It is so hard being 3 sometimes!!!

This was one wild playgroup!!! Drake has such GOOD friends. I love it! It is so fun watching and listening to them play. He also has a HUGE crush on a girl at school. It is pretty funny to watch him blush when we ask him about her. I heard he even tries to hold her hand at school. Oh boy, girl crazy already!!!!

I really don't like selfie pregnancy photos, but I swear I don't hardly have any of me pregnant with Laynie and it bothers me that I don't have anything to compare or look back on. So this was me a week ago at 23 weeks.

Daddy and Laynie kisses. Melts my heart!!! She is pretty sweet about giving us kisses!

Laynie insisted on getting her hair done too! I just put some foils in her hair and she thought she was hot stuff!!!

I feel so sorry for my dogs. My kids love them way too much!!!

Valentine's Day 2014

Me and my Valentine went out to dinner the night before to Texas Roadhouse. I didn't get any pictures, but I sure love my Valentine!!!

Here are my Valentine's all ready for my 3 favorite people...

She was as cute as can be in her Valentine outfit!!!

Drake had a party at school and came home with a whole bunch of goodies. He brought oreos and a Valentine straw and it said, "We go together like milk and cookies Valentine!" He was pretty excited about his Valentines! After opening up his Valentine gift from Trevor and I he said, "I love you mommy. Will you be my Valentine?" It was super sweet. He knows how to melt his mamma's heart!

We had a festive heart-shaped pizza for dinner

And made these beauties!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Snow Day!!!

Little updates....

I went for an appointment to the maternal fetal medicine doctor yesterday and had a good long look at baby girl #3. She was sucking her fingers the whole time and was just a wiggly wild girl. You can see her sucking her fingers in the picture below, but it is sideways!!! It was so cute. I had a detailed ultrascan and modified fetal echocardiogram and everything looked good. The ultrasound tech had researched CHARGE syndrome and knew what to look for in the exam. I know that even if everything looks great on ultrasound that it cannot rule out CHARGE, but I am feeling pretty good that everything is just fine! I just enjoyed laying there watching her for over an hour kick, yawn, sqirm, suck, and be super cute!

We were ready for the Superbowl and cheering for Denver, but it was a very disappointing game. At least we enjoyed all the food:)

Drake is continuing to be a little pro at skiing. I am hoping I can go up next time and watch from the lodge. He loves it. Last weekend, they saw his preschool teacher and Trevor says Drake was trying to show off the whole time. They rode the main lift and went down face all night. Drake loved the snowboarding park!!! Trevor got a blister so they had to leave a little early and Drake was so sad!

Laynie has a MAJOR obsession. I have never seen anything like it. Her love for The Fresh Beat Band is soooooo intense. She uses the sign "dance" to ask for them. She will ask for them first thing in the morning.... before I can get her out of her crib. She would watch it all day if I would let her. When it was time to turn on the Superbowl she through the biggest fit I have ever seen because we wouldn't let her watch it. They have a live concert and I checked to see if they went to Salt Lake because it would be her dream come true, but sadly.... the closest place was California. Maybe next year!

Kiddos

It seems like I haven't had much to blog about lately. I have been bad about taking pictures, so today I whipped out my camera for a little while. These kids are getting so big and looking so grown up lately. They had fun playing with play dough today that they got from Christmas. Laynie hasn't played with play dough much, and she had a hard time understanding not to put it in her mouth! Sometimes days being home as a mom are so long, especially this time of year, but I am so grateful I get to be home and hang out with these two munchkins every day!!!

Drake is really growing up lately. He is full of back-talking and stubbornness:) Even though he a stubborn child, he has a heart of gold. He is always watching after his mom and his sister and making sure we are okay. He always tells me he is worried about me when I have to go to the hospital to delivery this baby. He is so caring! He definitely plays the role of "man of the house" when dad is at work. And when Trevor gets home he can't wait to wrestle and play with his dad. He loves to go skiing with his dad. He talks about it all the time and asks to go constantly! Trevor took him all the way to the top of Kelly Canyon last time they went and he did great skiing all the way down. He loves preschool and I can't believe he will be going to the big school next year. He is my best buddy every day and we just love him to death!

Laynie is also seeming so big lately. She still is the happiest girl on earth and I love that about her. She has a big personality and knows exactly what she wants. Even though she can't talk and has limited signs, she can let you know exactly what she wants. She is hearing well, but she doesn't understand speech still. We have taken the longest break we ever have from Primary Children's and it has been AMAZING! We don't go back until April and she will have A TON of appointments, but it is worth it to keep her out of the hospital during sick season. She is running fast now and her balance is getting better, but stairs are still a big struggle. She puts a lot of food in her mouth but still doesn't eat anything. She can take a few bites of purees but she doesn't love to. In speech therapy we are working on her vocalizing. She can make vowel sounds and it is so sweet to hear! I am nervous about her adjusting to a baby sister. She still does not like baby dolls and she is a big mamma's girl and gets jealous very easy. It should be interesting:) She likes to sit on the potty but she hasn't had any success in there yet. She still keeps Trevor and I busy, but she is such an angel and such a joy!

Our start of the year....

The start of the year hasn't been the best start. Last week was a hard week. One of my favorite little CHARGE kiddos passed away. It was so sudden and so devastating. We also found out that my grandma has lung cancer which is also so, soooo sad:(
It was just not a great start to 2014!
But like always, there is good and here are some pictures and a video to prove it.....
I love it when I slow down and take the time to snuggle my kids. We are usually in a big rush at bedtime... trying to brush teeth, put on pj's, go potty, do trach care, start Laynie's feeding, etc... but it is fun when I take the time to lay down and snuggle and laugh in bed for awhile!!! I love those moments!

Laynie is a sunbeam in primary. I can't believe it!!! She looks so big up there with all the other kids. She feels pretty cool in primary. I go with her and her teacher actually knows sign language which is so awesome!!! I think she is going to love it!

 

Our little night owl has been having a lot of parties lately. She likes to wake up for 5-6 hours straight during the night. This is her afternoon nap the next day after she woke up at 3:30am (for the day). Poor thing!

We finally got all of Drake's bedroom furniture painted. This was mine when I was younger, but we painted it for Drake. He loves it sooooo much. He thinks his little desk and man cave are the coolest. We have to take the ladder down during the day because Laynie thinks it is a little too much fun to climb on.

And just because she is so cute. She wanted to play Just Dance and I think she did pretty well. She LOVES to dance. Her new favorite show is The Fresh Beat Band because she loves to watch them dance. It's pretty cute if you ask me:)

Drake's first ski trip



Trevor took Drake skiing for the first time yesterday. I had 2 very excited boys leave our house with huge smiles and lots of ski gear! I couldn't wait to get pictures and videos since I couldn't go. Before they left, Drake said he already knew how to ski by watching an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:)
They went down the bunny hill once and then went straight to the ski lift and went on Skiers Lane the whole time. Drake did sooooooo great and LOVED it. They skied for 3 1/2 hours and Drake didn't want to stop. Trev said that Drake wanted to go down the bigger hill and he wanted to find a jump! They both came home beaming and so proud. It is so fun that they get to go do something fun together:)

 

Here is a video... I think he's a pretty darn good skier:)

It's a GIRL!!!!

We went in the day after Christmas to find out the sex of our baby. I was 16 weeks pregnant. It is a GIRL!!! We brought the kids with us and Drake got a little teary eyed and said, "It's just not fair!" He is fine now and we are all excited for our new baby girl! 

17 weeks pregnant

Our Christmas!!!

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone. It is such a fun-filled time of year and our Christmas celebrations were wonderful!!!

We started our night at my mom and Leonard's house. We had dinner and opened gifts and then we went to the Petersen's for the Nativity and to open our pajamas! Above is Mary riding her donkey. They both loved the Nativity! And here is Trevor and Jordan as Wise Men!!!

Laynie and Grandma Debbie. I forgot my memory card for my camera so I had to take pictures with my phone so most of these pictures are a little bit blurry.


Waiting to go out and see if Santa stopped at our house. This is such a magical time for the kids. Drake was soooooo excited and he was so much fun this year. He had to wait about 30 minutes for Laynie to wake up and he was very patient considering how excited he was:)

Laynie had a kitchen waiting for her and she LOVED it! This was the first time she was actually excited about opening presents and really enjoyed all her toys:) She was so cute!!!



Nurse Laynie

Drake asked Santa for a Ninja Turtle Tower. This thing is huge and he LOVES it! This was definitely the year of the Ninja Turtles for Drake.



We gave Trevor's parents a really cute picture of all their grandkids and they LOVED it!

As usual, the boxes always provide the best entertainment!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!! I am so grateful for the gift of our Savior and for my wonderful family!!!! We are very blessed and we were so spoiled. Trevor surprised me with a beautiful necklace that matched the ring he got me a few years ago. I am one lucky and blessed lady...

Not so "CHEERY"

I wanted to share this blog post. Another CHARGE mom wrote it and it is about the mortality rate in kids with CHARGE. I think she did a great job in being real and honest. It's not a CHEERY post and it is something that I hate to even think about, but it is real and when we lose kids in our "CHARGE family" it literally breaks my heart! The mortality rate in kids 5 and under is 15-20%, that is 1 in every 5-6 kids! I wanted to share this so our friends and family know why we are so paranoid about Laynie getting sick and why we wash our hands so much they bleed:) Thanks for taking a minute to read it!!!

http://allthathathlife.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/1-in-6/

Exciting news...

Big changes are coming to our family. We are happy to announce that baby #3 will be joining our family in early June!!! We are excited and nervous for this new adventure.

We are ready for another little baby and we are happy about the timing. After Laynie was born, we had a lot of big challenges and I questioned if I could handle another child. After awhile, it was clear that there was definitely another one waiting to join our family, but we needed some time to get Laynie's medical conditions under control. We wanted to wait until she no longer had a trach. Then we came to the realization that her medical concerns will never be fully under control and it was just time!!!!

A lot of people have asked me what are the chances of this child having CHARGE syndrome. The chances are not high, it's about a 2% chance, but we know quite a few families that is has randomly happened to so it is a possibility. But at least we would be pros if it happened again and we are ready and willing to accept whatever is in store for us!!!

I am feeling better lately and we are looking forward to finding out the gender:) I feel like I knew the gender with my other kids, and this time I keep going back and forth. I will be surprised either way!

Lately...

We got some snow awhile back and Drake was begging to go outside by 8am. He had a blast playing with his dad and the neighbors in the snow!!

He had a Thanksgiving program at preschool. He did a great job and he said "I am thankful for my dogs!"

Yummy, yummy... our favorite Christmas treat is back:)

We are all ready for Christmas and I love it!!!

Laynie got a hair cut. You can't really tell, but her hair was a lot longer but just super thin and stringy. It looks much better. It is so thin on the top from rubber bands tearing out her hair, so we are trying or best to give her hair a little break from rubber bands so she has a chance to grow some hair back!

Awe.... my favorite view at night!!!!

Love these cute kids!!!

Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving as usual. We decided not to have 2 dinners this year (since both of our families live in town) and we decided to do dinner at one house and dessert at the other!
We went to my families house for dinner. We had plenty of delicious food, fun company, and lots of little kids running around like wild turkeys!
Laynie looked so festive and cute in her turkey outfit that Grandma Maureen got for her:)

Me and the hubs<3 p="">

All the grandkids

The head chef Debbie and her assistants

After dinner we headed over to the Petersen's for dessert. We had many pies and goodies to choose from and we filled ourselves completely full!!!

The kids had sooooo much fun playing in this box all night!

 

Our Thanksgiving was great. We got to spend it with our families and are soooo incredibly blessed and thankful for all of our blessings!!!!