Holiday Fun!!!

These past couple of weeks have been a lot of fun for us. My parents took all the family to see the lights at Temple Square and a Jazz Game. It was so much fun being with everyone. It was the girls first Jazz game and they loved it. They kept their tatoos on all weekend and wouldn't wash them off. We also set up our Christmas Tree and decorations. My Mother in Law gave us some of her tree ornaments that she no longer uses and I just love them! She also gave us a santa that stands about six feet tall that Greg has always wanted. It is awesome, and the kids just love that Santa is always in our living room. Thanks Lee, we love all of it. The kids also went to Greg's parents house, Nana's and Grandpa's, to decorate Ginger Bread Houses. I was really sick so I missed out, but they had a lot of fun. Santa aka my parents, Grandma and Papa, sent a card to our girls saying that he has been watching them all year and because they have been so good, he is going to leave them a present every night till christmas. Every night my parents have been leaving a small gift on our porch for each of the girls that we leave under the tree every night for the twelve days of christmas. The kids are loving it!!! They can't wait to get out of bed to see what Santa has brought them each morning. It has been especially nice for Kiana. She hates getting up to go to school, but she has had no problem getting out of bed when I remind her that their is a gift under the tree for her. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!!!! And last but not least Kiki and Jim are in town and we love spending all the time we can with them. The girls just love Kristy. She is so good to them and is always willing to play House and barbies with them. Jim is a most excellent cook so we love it when he is in town and cooks for us, plus he has great stories that keep us all laughing! We love you all and are so lucky to have such awesome families that are so good to us and our kids. Merry Christmas!

Pictures of the Girls

We have been really busy so I haven't had time to write. I just wanted to post some really cute pictures of the girls that I took on Greg's birthday. They got all dressed up to take him to lunch. They looked so cute and were being so good I had to hurry and take some pictures in front of the house. I was surprised how well they turned out and that they were all smiling and happy at the same time! We love you Greg!!!!

Halloween Fun!

Yes I know Halloween was almost a month ago, but things have been really crazy around our house so I am a little behind. Halloween is one of our favorite holidays so I wanted to post some of the fun things we did. We went to Gardner Village, Heritage Park, Scarecrow Festival, and some Halloween Parties. Our three girls had a blast and wore different costumes to each thing. For Halloween, we were witches and Greg was a warlock.

Summer 2008

Utah vs. TCU

I just wanted to say THANKYOU to my mom and dad who gave us their tickets to the big game!!! Greg and I had so much fun. The game was awesome, especially the last half of the fourth quarter. Both of us lost our voices from cheering and yelling. GO UTES!

Flour in the air, Flour everywhere!!!!!

Before Greg and I had kids I told him that I did not want to have winy crying kids, but rather very active ones. Oh how I wish I could take that back some days! Our house is a nut house 24/7. Someone is always running, screaming, jumping off furniture, seeing how fast they can go down a flight of stairs on their blow up toys, building towers with food from the pantry, building forts with the couches, just to name a few. Kaylee my sweet little baby is turning into quite the little monster. I left her in the kitchen for only a few minutes to run to my bedroom to get my laptop, only to come back and walk into this wonderful mess. My first reaction was HOLY !@#%, I am going to kill you! Then she turned around and threw two fist fulls of flour in the air and laughed hysterically. I couldn't help but start laughing as soon as I saw her face! I grabbed the camera and took some pictures so you could all get a glimpse into my daily life. Oh how I love every chaotic moment of it.

Update on the Family!

Kiana started school and absolutely loves it. She is excited about all the things she is learning and all the friends she is making!!! She and Kennedy are always inviting the neighborhood kids over so our house is always crazy with kids. Kennedy had a hard time for the first couple of weeks when Kiana would leave, but she is doing better now and loves to wait outside for Kiana to come home on the bus. Kaylee is all over the place and into everything. At her 15 month check-up she weighed a whopping 17 pounds. At the rate she's growing, she'll be in her infant car seat till she is three! Greg is busy at work trying to get everything running smoothly at the Utah Pet Center and the Pavillion Inn. He is working about 60 hours a week. He has also had to do a lot of traveling to trade shows the past couple of months. The kids, and me especially, love it when he is home and can't wait till things slow down at work. As for me, I am doing much better, and hope I never get that sick again. A lot of people have asked what happened so here is the jist of it. I had been sick with a Sinus infection for about three weeks. My doctor put me on an anitbiotic, which didn't work, so she switched me to a different one. During that time, I had to go in for a colonoscopy (they are so wonderful). For those of you that don't know, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colotis when I was 21, so I have to go in for these wonderful colonoscopies about every 5 years. Wednesday October 17th was the day of my Colonoscopy. They took some biopsies during the procedure. Everything went fine, and there was no problems. That Friday I went to bed early because I was very tired. When I woke up Saturday morning I could hardly get out of bed. I had a fever and I felt like I had been beaten with a metal bat all over my body. Greg wanted to take me to the ER, but it was my Great Grandmas funeral that day and I wasn't going to miss it. We went to the funeral that morning, I had to hold on to Greg to even walk. On our way home, my hands and feet started going numb. He again wanted to go to the ER but I said no just take me to an insta care. When we got to the insta care they took me right back took my vitals and said your going to St Marks ER we have called them and they are waiting for you. By time we got the the ER I was in so much pain I could barely walk. They took me right back and started running all kinds of tests. They thought maybe my sinus infection had gone into my brain so they did a CT Scan on my head, which came back fine. Then they thought maybe I had an infection in my chest so they took an x ray and that was fine. During all of this, they also got a urine sample, which was fine, tested me for influenza, also negative, and drew more blood than I knew I had, which showed I was definately sick with something they just couldn't figure out what. While all this testing was going on they had me on iv fluids and started injecting me with Terridol, which is like ibuprophen x 1000. It did not help with the pain one bit so they started me on Morphine through my IV. It helped take the edge off, but I was still in a lot of pain. Towards the end of all this I started to have diarreah, yes they got a sample of that as well. As they sent that test off, the Doctor came into the room to tell me I had all of them baffeled. He said they were going to let me go home, but I had to come back tomorrow to follow up with him and make sure I wasn't getting worse. I asked him if I could have some more morphine before I left because I was still in so much pain, he said no problem, I will go get the nurse and have him put it in your IV before he takes it out. He left and by the time the nurse walked in my heart started racing and my blood pressure dropped to 74/30. The nurse said I can't give you this and ran out and grabbed the doctor. Next thing I know I am not going home, but being admitted to the PCU floor. I was told that had that not have happened and they had sent me home, I probably would have died that night. Once in my room, they started hooking me up to all kinds of monitors. During all of this the results of the poop sample came back showing I had a bacteria called C-Diff. From what the doctor told me, C-diff is usually caused by taking antibiotics, and rarely causes problems with the exception of some diarreah. With me they figure I got the C-diff from the antibiotics I had been on for the sinus infection, and when I had the biopsies taken during my colonoscopy, they c-diff toxins got into my system and that is what caused all the problems. Needless to say I was on a liquid diet for 4 days, had to have iv antibiotics every 6 hours, had to have magniesium and Potasium by IV several times a day, also had to take potasium pills 3 times a day, and have blood drawn twice a day. During all of this, I was so nausiated, they gave me an anti-nausea drug by IV called Phengran. I did not know I was allergic to it, but quickly found out when I instantly started uncontrollably jerking. They had to give me two doses of IV benadryl which knocked me out for almost 24 hours. After three days in the PCU, the doc. said I was stable enough to move up onto the regular floor, WHOOPEE!!!! After one day on that floor and no problems, they finally released me! HALLELUJAH!!!!! Two weeks and $13,000 later (we have great insurance so it only cost us $50) I am feeling better and very very happy to be alive! This experience made me realize how quickly your life can change and possibly end. I make sure to tell my family every day how much I love them, and enjoy life even more.

Kiana

Kinonster the Monster

I can't believe Kiana starts school tomorrow!!! She is so excited, I on the other hand, am not. This means that I finally have to face the fact that she is and will continue growing up. Last night we let her have a friend sleep over. They had so much fun. They were laughing and playing all night. When I would go up and check on them, they would say to me, "we need alone time so we can talk about girl stuff." I thought to myself, you are only 5 & 6, what could you possibly have to talk about? Being the over protective parent that I am, I spied on them, ( yes, you read that correctly) and listened to this "girl talk". Thank goodness it only consisted of do you want to play house or barbies. I hope it stays that way for a very very very long time, like till she's 30!!!! I found a bunch of old pictures of Kiana on my computer. I am going to make a slide show and put it on this post as soon as I figure out how.

Way Behind!!!!!

Hello to all of you. I am not very good at keeping up on our family blog page but I am going to try and do better. First, to update you all on Kaylee since that is where I left off three months ago, she is doing great! She had her EEG and MRI and both came back perfect. The next step was to start running some tests on her heart, but Greg and I and her primary doctor decided that we did not want to do that unless she had another episode like this again. So far so good. The previous two episoded were 6 months apart, but we are optimistic that it is not going to happen again! Other than that she is completely heathly. She weighed 16lbs 8oz at her 1 year check up (she is very small) but she can keep up with her older sisters quite well. It is funny to watch her walk around because she is so small. We joke around that she is going to have to stay in her infant carrier till she is three, because it will probably take her that long to reach 20 pounds! Kiana starts kindergarten next week and I am ready to have a nervous breakdown!!!!! I am having a very hard time with the idea that she will not be with me all the time and that she is growing up. I think Greg will have to drop her off at school because if it is left up to me, I probably won't. I know I am crazy, but I don't care. I think I should go to the doctor's and get on some anxiety meds, but I am afraid that when I tell them why I need them they will laugh as they are kicking me out of the office!!! I just can't believe how fast five years has gone by. I know she will do great in school, she is very smart and determined. I just hope Kennedy, Kaylee, and I do as well at home without her, she is my little helper, and their best friend. I love my girls more than anything and so lucky to have three beautiful angels.

Little Kaylee Bug

I haven't posted for a long time so I figured I better update my blog so everyone know's what is going on with Kaylee. This past Monday morning I went to Kaylee out of bed because I heard her kind of whimpering. When I picked her up I noticed she looked a little pale. I took her into my other girls room so I could get a better look at her and by that time she had gone completely gray and her lips were white. She was having a hard time breathing and was awake, but looked zoned out. She was rushed up to Primary's Childrens Hospital were we spent 7 hours. The whole "spell" lasted about 20 minutes, and than she was fine, just really tired. She did this same thing when she was two months old, but actually stopped breathing twice, and I had to do rescue breathing on her to get her to start breathing on her own again. The doctors are not sure what is wrong with her. The cardiologist thinks it is something nuerological and the Nuerologist thinks it is something with her heart. I told them I really don't care what it is, I just want a doctor that is going to figure it out rather than bicker back and forth about what they think. Needless to say, we have to go back up to primary's tomorrow to see a nuerologist. I will keep you all posted as to what happens.

My sixth toe!

I hate feet!!! I think they are gross, and I can not stand people touching mine, which has made my trips to the podiatrist not very fun. I have what they say is a cyst on the top of my foot below my big toe. I have been to the Dr. three times since October to have it aspirated with a needle, but it keeps coming back. I had an appointment today where he aspirated it again. It has never been painful in the past, but today- oh my hell- I wanted to kick him! I think he hit a nerve and boy did it hurt. He told me that he wanted to try and continue treating it this way a few more times before the next step of surgically having it removed. He says he prefers not to do the surgery because the cyst is right on a bunch of nerves and it would be a painful recovery. I told him I was just fine not having the surgery, I did not like the pain when he hit a nerve today, so the idea of someone cutting with a knife down there is not that appealing to me. Needless to say, I have grown to hate my disappearing/reappearing toe.
Kennedy had her dentist appointment yesterday and did great. They had to sedate her to fill her cavities. She did not cry at all and was up and running crazy a few hours after the dental work. Kiana has her appointment next week, they are not planning on sedating her. Let's hope all goes as well. Kaylee started crawling last week and is all over the place. She also pulls herself up onto everything and will stand by herself for a few seconds. She is only nine months old, but I think she might start walking soon. I hope not though, I can barley keep up with her and her two sisters now.

Very Willful!!!

So, Greg and I have decided that we have spoiled Kaylee a bit too much when it comes to her bottle and sleep time. Since she is our youngest and probably our last child, we have allowed her to have her bottle to fall asleep with at nights, and have given her one every time she wakes during the night, which is a lot! Last Friday we agreed that we would not put her down with a bottle or give her one when she wakes at night anymore, instead we would let her scream it out until she fell back to sleep. That first night was so hard. We gave her a bottle and than laid her down after she finished it. To our surprise she fell right asleep. We thought to ourselves, this is awesome, we rock! Unfortunately, she woke up about an hour later and screamed for two hours (not exaggerating here)!!!!!!!!! Greg and I took turns going in and checking on her. After she finally gave up and went to sleep, my husband said to me, "well you gotta hand it to her, she is very willful." I just thought to myself, I am glad you're able to put it so positively, because nothing like that came to my mind, all of my thoughts were well, not that nice. Each night she does a little better. It really sucks right now, but I know it will be better for her and us in the long run. As for Kiana and Kennedy, they are very good about telling anybody that comes to our house that Kaylee can't have a bottle when she sleeps anymore because, "we just let her scream now." Thank goodness most everyone that comes to our house knows what my kids are talking about, otherwise DCFS would be on my front porch! Those two come up with some of the funniest things I have ever heard. The other day Kennedy was singing a "princess concert" for me. I started singing with her and boy she did not like that. She stopped and looked at me and with all the frustration the little two year old could muster up she said, "You make me so angwry mom. You can't go to gamma's house anymore, do you undewstand me?" I tried so hard to keep a straight face, but I just couldn't. I busted out laughing. Kennedy just looked at me and marched off. I went and found her and apologized for singing with her during her concert. Needless to say, she was fine and finished her "concert" for me.

Ear Tubes

Kaylee had tubes put in her ears yesterday and everything went great! We were really nervous about her receiving anesthsia, because I do not do well with it, but she had no problems! The surgery itself only took 20 minutes, but we were up at Primary's for half the day due to the pre-op and the recovery. Kiana and Kennedy got to spend the day with their cousin Cohen and aunt Jen and Uncle Seth. They had a blast and did not want to leave. I am so greatful that everything went as well as it did and am glad that it is over. It was pretty nerve racking leading up to it.

First trip to the Dentist!

So today was Kiana and Kennedy's first dentist visit, and they did surprisingly well. Kiana was very cooperative and let them do everything without any fuss. I think she was excited because she got to watch a movie on the ceiling while they cleaned her teeth, and she knew that the dentist was going to give her a surprise if she was good, and boy was she! Bribary is an amazing thing. Kennedy however, would not let them take x-rays with their "funny" camera and cried for just a minute, until she realized they were not going to hurt her and she was going to get pink floss, she loves pink! Unfortunately, they both have cavities, which means their next visit is not going to be as much fun. They said that they think Kiana will do fine with just a little bit of laughing gas, however Kennedy, is going to have to be sedated because she is only two, and won't sit still for that long without crying. I absolutely loved the Dentist and his staff! In anyone is in need of a good pediatric dentist, I highly recommend him. His name is Nathan Stevenson. On a side note, tomorrow is Kaylee's big day. She is having surgery up at Primary's to have tubes put in her ears. The poor little thing is only 9 months old, but has had an ear infection every month since September of last year. I am very nervous about tomorrow, and hope everything goes great. Surgery was our last resort. The doctors that we have seen, which has been a couple of them, all strongly suggest we put the tubes in now before she has any permanent hearing loss and her speech is delayed. Even though I am nervous about the surgery, it will be so nice for her not to have to be on antibiotics anymore and for her to hopefully stop with all the ear infections.