Guess what our baby has....

You guessed it. Our baby has a little pee pee. It's a Boy!!! And the best news, he is healthy with now problems. Whew. Heart looks great!! CHD week and all. I'm glad the appointment is over. He is almost one pound already! He was very energetic the tech and the DR. were getting a little frustrated with our wiggle worm. He kept moving his hands behind his back and kicking and rolling over. Ashton is excited because he thinks he is getting bunk beds. ;) Silly boy. We are excited for our new little one to join our family.

Technology, isn't it about time?

That is how I feel when I saw this article about funding for research on Ventricular assist devises for children/infants.. It's a bout time!!!!! While Elaine was awaiting her heart transplant, the one thing we heard over and over was, too bad there isn't an LVAD for kids. Well hopefully this is in the works to be a great tool to help extend life until a donor can be found. I know there have been some experimental devises (mainly from other countries), but they need to b e available to every child who needs them! As a mother of one of the "approximately 60 children younger than age 5 waiting on the heart transplant list may die before a donor organ becomes available", this hits real close to home. Come on scientists, do your stuff! Families are depending on you!

7

(5th B-day)

(1st B-day)

Violet is 7 today. Happy Birthday!!! She's off to school and she seems so grown up. Wanting to do her own hair and answering the phone. She is a little lady. Here are some cute picture of her through the years. Happy Birthday Vi vi. We love you!

(5 months)

(2 months)

(newborn)

CHD Awareness Week

(Elaine during her last hospital stay)

If you don't already know, Congenital Heart Defect Awareness (CHD) week is February 7th - 14th. It cleverly falls the same as Valentine's. Intermountain Healing Hearts has several wonderful things going on to promote awareness. There will be a table and info/banners set up at PCMC. We are hoping to get some radio time this year (fingers crossed). Paul Cardall has his wonderful concert on the 15th. To find out more, go here. And we have a great family activity that is fundraising for CHD research on the 20th at the Olympic Oval. It is going to be a blast! Plus there will be lots of awareness being spread at schools and all the Taylor Andrews' hair salons. Thanks guys!!!! I found this CHD awareness poem online and borrowed it. I hope the author doesn't mind. If you have questions about anything, or want to help out Intermountain Healing Hearts (which is a non- profit = tax deductible organization) please go to www.intermountainhealinghearts.org or contact me at melissa@intermountainhealinghearts.

Beautiful CHD Awareness Week Poem

Somewhere...someplace... today...
A family is waiting to hear...
Is something wrong with their baby?
The answers aren't quite clear...
This family has entered an unwanted world...
And they just don't know what to expect...
Somewhere...someplace... today
They first heard the words: heart defect.
And how they hoped this was not true...
And thought... this cannot be...
I too... know just how this feels...
For one day...this was me.

Somewhere...someplace...today...
A man and a woman embrace...
Their baby is in surgery...
They long to see her face...
They haven't got to hold her yet...
Without...a cord or line...
They pace the room awaiting news...
And hope she'll be just fine.
Prayers fill this busy waiting room...
And mom and dad are scared...
Somewhere...someplace..today...
The tiniest hearts are repaired.

Somewhere...someplace...today...
A child's growing fast...
Smiling,laughing,thriving...
His mom thinks...can this last?
It's almost easy...to forget...
That anything is wrong...
Somewhere...someplace..today...
Her child seems so strong.

Somewhere...someplace... today...
A little boy fights...just to live
A father holds his tiny hand...
His love...all he can give...
The doctor's are all baffled...
They fear that he might die...
Somewhere...someplace...today...
A family says goodbye...

Somewhere...someplace...each year..
More than 40,000 families will see...
What it means...when something's wrong...
They'll face a CHD.
Today...for just a moment...
Stop...remember...reflect...
Make time to tell someone you know...
"I've been changed by a heart defect".

Author - Stephanie Husted

Adversity

With little kids running around the house, it is a challenge to do seemingly easy tasks, like clean a room or fold laundry. Anything you want to go and do, as an adult and not a mommy, requires the coordinating of a babysitter. One such activity is temple attendance. You get things all arranged and planned out and then something usually comes up. That is what happened to us this weekend. We were all set to go to the temple, had the crazy babysitting stuff all arranged (which involved dropping the kids and van off and having the sitter (aka Chris & Michelle) drive the kids back to our house since they would get out of their rehearsal too late to drive to our place so I could make it up to the temple in time). Anyway, Ashton ended up being sick on Friday, and only on Friday. Murphy's law I guess, but I couldn't leave a pukey kid with a sitter. Too bad Ashton couldn't have been sick on Saturday instead. Sometimes I wonder if planning to go is even worth it, since something always happens. Maybe it's the thought that counts?

An amazing discovery

I think that it is great that life still has a few surprises for us. We go along, thinking we know for instance, all about a vehicle we have owned for several years. Then one day you world is turned upside down. We discovered, quite by accident, that our van has a built in car seat! How could we go all these years without knowing? I recall asking the previous owners about it, but they said no, it didn't have one. The owners manual did talk about it, but as an "option". Didn't know we had t hat option. It may have been found a few years too late, but hey, we can still use it! No more strapping in a car seat for one of the kids. When the baby come we will have 2 booster seats, 1 car seat (built in) and an infant carrier in our van. That's a lot of extra seats!

Baby Poll

We have a game at expectnet.com. The game name is kidnum.5 if you would like to participate in guessing the size, gender ect. of our next child. Good luck!