Tyler's 9th birthday

Just in case you can't tell, ...it's a volcano cake.  It's what Tyler requested.  The chocolate chips are lava rocks, the green is green patches of grass on the mtn, and of course you can tell what the lava is.

Emalyn gave Tyler some candy,

Krysta gave Tyler a hot wheels racing car,

and he also received the Lego Indiana Jones Wii game and a Dagedar launcher.

I love his face here! Reminds me of a certain older brother of mine...

The candles were SUCH a disappointment.  They were supposed to be relighting candles (which I thought would be fun with the volcano cake), but as you can see, only ONE relit.  So he just thought it was a wierd fluke.  Oh well, it was fun anyway with the one candle.

Tyler is such a good boy and son to have in our family.  He is a very positive and fun guy to be around.  His enthusiasm is contagious to everyone around him, and a special blessing in our family.  He always tries to choose the right and be a good example to his younger sisters and brother.  He has done well in cub scouts-he's already earned his Wolf badge.  He has really loved reading about science this summer-you can ask him any question about the body and he knows the answer.  He retains the knowledge he's picked up from the books really well.
We're so glad he's part of our family! Tyler, we love you! Happy 9th birthday!

Russell's haircut

Okay, so I was tired of all the comments and doubts about Russell's gender...so we cut his hair today! All his beautiful curls are gone!

Here are the "before" pictures:

 Looking at them now, I have to agree somewhat, it was really long.  No wonder people couldn't get his gender right.

And the "after" pictures:

 He closed his eyes for every picture I took, because of the flash.  Or he's just really really tired...

Catching up-March 2011

Our adorable Krysta:

We went to Utah a few days before Krysta's surgery at Primary Children's hospital.  While there, we got together with Scott's family-who had a whole lot of surprises for her to open right before her surgery.

Russell, being held by Jared.  Later I found out that this was the first time Jared has held a baby-so we had to document it.  

After her surgery, Krysta had to stay in the hospital for the rest of that day, that night and the next day.  They had so many fun activities for her to do! Her Grandma Linda came and did some of the activities with her.

Doesn't she look so good for being less than 24 hours since surgery?

Krysta, outside her room, as we're getting ready to go home.

And Russell, at four months old.

Yay!!

Last weekend we had Krysta's *last* appointment in regards to her VUR.  Everything looks really good! She's doing great! They did a nuclear cystogram, and NO reflux showed in her kidneys.  So we stopped the antibiotics Sunday.  Now we just wait and see if she gets more infections.  If she gets a lot of infections, then we'll have to go back to Primary Children's again.  They told us to expect at least a few infections, because she's probably really prone to them.  But because of the surgery, they cannot spread to her kidneys and cause damage.  Unless she gets ALOT of infections, which could mean that the surgery did not work as well as it looks like it does so far.  The surgery is 98% effective the first time, so it probably worked great, and we're not worried about the what ifs.

Mirror Surprise

I don't want to go to that job today
for fear of what I might miss,
A touch of your hand, a wink of your eye,
or maybe even a kiss.

It seems such a waste of time to leave
for something as silly as money,
So when I get there, I'll sit back in my chair,
And dream of my evenings with honey.

I found the above on my mirror last Friday.  From my honey.  And it still makes me sooo happy to see it there!

Easter

Yesterday on Easter, our ward choir sang a song that is so beautiful. Emalyn recently joined the ward choir and she loves it!  I was just reading my mom's blog and she inspired me to put the song on the blog.  It is called  "Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands."  I just love the words in it.

Behold the wounds in Jesus' hands,
The marks upon His side,
Then ponder who He meant to save
When on the cross He died.
We cannot see the love of God
Which saves us from the fall,
Yet know that Christ from wood and nails
Built mansions for us all.

Behold the outstretched hands of Christ
Our God, who came to save,
Whose love and grace redeems ours souls
And lifts us from the grave.
Though bruised and battered as we stray
His guiding hands caress,
He washes and anoints with oil
Then in His arms we rest.

Behold the wounds in Jesus' hands,
Look to your Lord and live
He yearns to bless you with His love
And all your sins forgive.
Oh empty is the heart of man
When it is filled with sin.
Come open wide your broken heart
And let your Savior in.

Behold His wounded hands and feet!
Come touch and see and feel
The wounds and marks that you may know
His love for you is real.
Then as you fall to worship Him
and wash His feet in tears
Your Savior takes you in His arms
And quiets all your fears.

Your Savior takes you in His arms
And quiets all your fears.

Home to Idaho

This is from about four days ago. Since then a lot has happened:


We came back from Utah yesterday. I was nervous about making the drive with Krysta, (especially since she'd had a slight fever the night before) but she did really well. She did get another fever and she throw up around Roy, UT, but we were able to clean it up and continue our drive without any other mishaps. We got home just in time to put the tired kids to bed and then unpack. Krysta is doing ok today. No fever, but she did throw up once so far. We've taken her off of the Lortab because I'm pretty sure that's what's making her so nauseated. So now she's taking a medicine for the bladder spasms and ibuprofen for the rest of the pain. She's doing much better and eating and drinking better. I finally figured out how to get her to drink- Capri Suns! She's drinking much better with those than with anything else we've tried. And it seems that as long as she's drinking and she doesn't overdo it, she doesn't get a fever.  It's really hard to not let her overdo it-she's constantly lifting things, running up and down the stairs, climbing things, etc.  I'm hoping that as the Lortab wears off, she stops doing things she shouldn't do because she no longer feels THAT good.  Not that I want her in pain, I just want her to keep an appropriate level of activity for her recovery.  So far she hasn't complained of pain today.
It's so nice to be home. It's always hard to leave family that we love and whose help we love to have, but it's nice to be home.  It feels like things will return to normal soon.  Yay :)  I just feel so blessed to have been the recipient of soo much help and faith and prayers. 

grandma's house

Just to clarify-we're not actually home, we're just out of the hospital.  We're staying with my mom and dad in Orem, UT.  Krysta is still doing great-we had a bit of a rough time last night when she had a bladder spasm and some other pain in the night, but she's super happy and doing great this morning. 

  For those of you who don't know what the surgery was, it was a bi-lateral ureteral re-implant for vesicoureteral reflux.  If you want to learn more about vesicoureteral reflux, click here.   If you want to learn what the surgery is, click here.

Home again ALREADY!!!

Can you believe it?  We came home from the hospital today, around 6pm.  She did so great today, with drinking and eating a bit.  She did throw up last night, but that was the only time, and she didn't have too much nausea today.  She is able to go to the bathroom on her own since this morning.  Once they got her up and walking around this morning, she didn't want to go back to bed.  She's a normally pretty active little girl, so she didn't see any need to get back in that hospital bed.
They had soooo many activities there for her to do: she made bracelets, colored, painted a green picture, could order ANY food/drink she could think of, got to play several musical instruments and sing with the music lady, watch any movie she wanted, and string foam beads into a necklace.
 I learned to love that hospital.  They were so caring and attentive to her and to us.  They tried to help and accomodate us in every way they could.  Being at that hospital also made me grateful that Krysta's surgery wasn't more serious.  There were other parents there with children in a lot more serious condition and undergoing much more serious surgeries.
I am so grateful for how well she is doing.  We have to keep reminding her to NOT jump, run, play soccer.  She really feels pretty good considering.  The only time you can tell there's some pain is when she walks.  She walks pretty slowly (which is even more strange when you see her try to run a minute later).  And then the bladder spasms seem to be pretty painful, even though she's on medication for them.  Thank you for all your prayers.  I know they have helped her and us through these last few days.
I'm exhausted.  Running back and forth between her and feeding Russell at the hotel was hard.  I'm so glad we only had to do it for two days!
I'm also grateful to my mom for staying with Russell in the hotel and to my other mother (my m-i-l), Nancy, for taking Tyler and Emalyn for the last two days and agreeing to take them for two days.  They are soooo good to us.

Update on Krysta

Krysta had her surgery today and it went really well.   It took about 2 hours and 45 min, but they said everything went smoothly.  Her ureters were big enough after the surgery that they didn't put a stint (a drainage tube) in.  They said that even with all the swelling that will occur, they won't swell so much that they close off, so urine should flow evenly from the kidneys to the bladder.  She's been eating really well, and hasn't had any nausea, so that's a really good sign.  She was REALLY sleepy, only waking up for a few minutes at a time until about 6pm tonight.  The first thing she said to me was, "Mommy...it doesn't hurt..."  That was a wonderful thing to hear.  I'd told her that after she woke up from the hospital she would have an owie on her tummy.  So she was surprised to wake up with no pain at all.  After that she had ice cream and lots of goldfish crackers.  She has a caudal block, which is similar to a spinal block, just lower down, so she is numb from the hips down.  She can't get out of bed or anything.  The most painful thing is the bladder spasms she's had a couple of -and they said she'd continue to have those for the next 3-4 days or so.  She's on a lot of pain meds besides that too.   She's loving watching Blues Clues and eating goldfish crackers.