Happy and Sad

I have been neglecting the blog and I am working on catch up posts but I had to post this today.

I have been following a blog http://stakerzxposed.blogspot.com/ everyday, even refreshing more than once a day, to see the progress of baby Bronson (15 months). He Drowned in the bathtub while his mom walked away to get something in the other room, he was with his older brother about 2.5 at the time and the water got turned back on after mom left (most all of us mothers have left at one point or another, what a reminder) and he slipped under. He has had a long week struggle but finally today he turned around and came back to his family! Such a wonderful story, go back to Feb 1st to read it all.

Then the past few days I also have been following the story of a Layton family who had a pest control company come out to their home to take care of some voles and incorrectly used (well they are still working on proving it) the toxic pebbles and the toxins seeped into the house making the whole family sick the next day. The carbon monoxide detectors went off and the fire department said it was fine, the family was checked out at the hospital but released a little while later. Their 4yr old daughter got worse and they too her back and she died with in a few hours on Saturday. Then on Monday their 15 month old daughter also was admitted to the hospital with the same symptoms and after a heroic battle the Dr's were unable to save her, she was also 15months old and at the same hospital as Baby Bronson.

So a 4yr old and 15 month old gone, another 15 month old miraculously saved. I have been praying so hard for both families I have never met. I can't imagine the heart ache of having a child so ill in the hospital let alone loosing one, or in this case two! I don't think i am strong enough to loose any one of my children, they all are so special and important in their own distinct way. This whole past week i have been watching my children closer (not in a paranoid way but instead a get to know you better type of way) and hugging them tighter. Laughing at their little funny quirks and admiring the little daily things they do each day.

I pray for love and peace for these two families I've never met, and I thank them for the reality check we all need once in a while to remember how fragile life can be. I also am so grateful for the Gospel that the families also share, to know where those precious girls are and to know of the great mercy and love of Christ and our Father in Heaven that is also shown each and every day.

These are My kids!

Haircut

So I have been needing a Haircut badly but was waiting till after the Gala so I could have an updo. Finally I got it and here it is, it's easier to do than I thought it would be.

Before

After

and two weeks later

Gala

I attended a Gala for the Epilepsy Assoc of UT which I worked at doing pictures and computer work. I still had fun with the dress standards, formal black tie affair, updo, manicure, it was pure torture ;o) here are a couple pictures from the night. Unfortunately I got sick at the end, but made it home before it was too awful.

My friends and I, yep I'm the shorty!

The special guests of the evening, Susan Axlerod, an amazing woman, and Orrin Hatch being given an award for his help passing the bill to help those with disabilities that are under control still be protected. Before this they weren't' protected if they had a problem like a seizure at work if it had previously been under control like in the case of a person working for a company over 6 years and never having one, then fired for it and the ADA couldn't help because it was controlled. That will no longer happen!

Carli goes back to the hospital....

On Sunday CarliAnn was doing fine, and acting pretty normal along with her normal pain from the surgery. In the afternoon she was complaining about her tummy hurting, this isn't the first time and we figured it is because of the Loratab she is on so we haven't worried and we've made sure she gets something to eat along with the medicine. Well she was really complaining more than she had the past few days and we have learned that she gets really whiny like that when she is pain, so we got some medicine in her disguised in rootbeer, she knows it's in there but it helps a ton with the taste, though she may swear off rootbeer by the time this is all over :o). And then I took her to my room and laid down with her for a short nap before the home teachers came. About 45 min into the nap she woke up and threw up all over my bed! As if that wasn't bad enough to throw up after tonsil surgery, OUCH, it was totally brown like chocolate syrup! I thought back to what she had eaten all day and it was Popsicles, skittles (tropical kind with turquoise, pink, yellow) and some oatmeal for breakfast, nothing brown aside from 1 oz of rootbeer to mix with her Lora tab.

By the time I got her bathed and into clean clothes the new Home Teachers knocked on the door. So she sat on my lap still miserable so i let her hold a bucket, she lost it again while they were here so I took her in the bathroom, it wasn't much this time. After they left I she was feeling better and had fallen asleep on my lap, I laid her down and went to wash the bedding, when I did I found a little red streaking, that worried me so to be on the safe side I called the ENT on call at Primary children's. They had me look at her throat, where there should 2 white scabs, one was white and the other ugly black like a scab you might see on your knee. The ENT wanted to see her right away, so Jarin go home from his Stake choir practice and ran her up there. He didn't like it, had another Dr look, they gagged her with the tongue depressor making he loose it again poor girl. They decided they wanted her to stay overnight for observation with nothing in her mouth at all so the blood clot wouldn't dislodge causing more bleeding (it was also near a bad artery) and check it in the morning. They gave her an IV, Jarin said he had her look at him, away from the needle, he said he could tell in her eyes it hurt but she didn't cry. He asked if she was mad at him for it, she shook her head no then quietly said "I love you". She knows how to melt your heart!

After a sleepless night stay for Jarin and for me, I wanted to be there but with a nursing baby it just wasn't the best option, our ENT stopped by in the morning and said it looked way better and was white scabbed over again and she could eat and go home! Yay! What a scary night, but she is home and better, so glad! We've never had a complication from the Tonsils surgery and she is our 3rd to have it done, I hope to never have complications again! I think I blame it on how well she has eaten, way better than the others ever did!

Cute pics!

Alison picked out this dress and loves it so I of course had to take a picture of her in it. :o) I can't believe how fast she is growing! She is such an amazing girl, so talented and beautiful, somedays I look at her and think, she can't possibly belong to me! I am such a lucky mom to have the great kids I got, and she is such a special person, I can't wait to see the fun and wonderful things she does with her life! I am so proud to be her mom and her friend!

CarlAnn was enjoying a popsicle and had fun sharing with Nathan, too cute! (not sure why the pics are sideways, I tried to fix it, I will try again later but until then, you'll have to tilt your head to the left :o) Sorry!)

CarliAnn gets her tonsils out.

The day finally came for CarliAnn to get her tonsils and adenoids out, she is our 3rd child to have to have this done, Tyler at 3.5 half (same age about as her) and Alison at 8. Both Tyler and Carli have had sleep issues, Alison had repeated monthly Strep.

I am just amazed at how well she did, I have been bracing myself for months for the crying and pain and she didn't even cry after the surgery!! I remember poor little Tyler after they let me see him crying and saying "take them out, they hurt!" and me telling him they were already out, poor little guy. But none of that for Carli! Here are a few pictures....

Look at that trust in her eyes as the nurse warms her cold hands so the heart monitor will pick up her heart beat correctly.

She was so happy I was worried that it was all a game to her and she was going to be so mad at us afterwards. It seemed like it was a fun game to her to play Dr and such and she was loving all the attention. Cute Hospital jammies!

Here she is ready to walk of with the Anesthesiologist to the operating room, the place we cannot go. A nurse in post-op commented "oh she was the little girl I saw holding her doll and skipping down the hall to the operating room" Yep, that's our happy girl!

While we waited we had a snack, of chips and a soda, Nathan was playing with the chips and when I wasn't looking he decided to taste one, I caught him sucking on it LOL, He then proceeded to want some soda, luckily he doesn't know how to get the lid off! He kept us pretty entertained while waiting, along with Jarin watching TV on his phone.

Then he fell asleep.

Jarin went back to see Carli first, that was hard for me to let him, I had gone back with the other kids, but I knew she is a daddy's girl and he could calm her crying. Only there wasn't any, she fell back asleep when he got to her, and woke up without a tear!

When they took her to post op 2 and I could go back this is how I first saw her, just staring at the TV.

Then a smile when I called her name, I was shocked she was doing so well and sat down to relax, the stress was going away!

The hardest part was taking the IV out so she could get dressed to go home, that didn't last long though.

Just 2 hours after Surgery we were on our way home.

Then she fell asleep with her mouth wide open, when we were almost home she woke up (I was hoping we would make it home) and the pain of the dry sores hurt and she finally cried.

But after some cuddles and more pain meds she was fine and fell asleep for a couple hours, so cute!

Christmas Eve

Of course we started with the traditional reading fro Luke! Tyler is so cute as a shepard.

Ali burned her finer making Peanut butter cookies for Santa. She had Jarin help play that hand on the piano.

Getting ready to sing songs.

Great Grandma Nieslena and Tyson.

Bryen stealing Nathan, he loves the Babies!

We had Tony and Del for Christmas, Tony suggested something scrapbook like of their Facebook pictures. I decided to make them a collage of Tyson from Birth to now, complete with Steaking him away and getting pictures done of him at Sears! They loved it! I told them I have a matching frome to make a family one of them too as soon as we can get some family pics of them.

The cousins Tyson and Nathan in matching outfits, they are one year apart!

Opening Christmas Eve PJ's, Alison was so excited to match Carli like the boys always match!