New Update

We have the most AMAZING primary care doctor! Throughout this whole process he has been fantastic about reassuring Jayden that he understands what she is going through and that he wants to get to the bottom of it all. When the neurologist at primary children's told us that they felt all of Jayden's symptoms were just anxiety, he went to bat for us. He called and talked to the neurologist several times until she agreed to try Jayden on anti seizure medication to at least TRY something until we had more symptoms.
This last week we saw a new neurologist who is equally amazing. She works with our primary care doctor so they are able to talk alot. She ordered a new battery of tests including a new full panel blood work up, a bubble study test, a new MRI, and an EEG.
The bubble study test came back positive, which is indicitive of a PFO. (or a hole in her heart.) The theory at the moment is that Jayden has been having mini strokes and that closing the PFO will help her to become "normal" again. Our awesome doctor called in a favor and Jayden is seeing the most renowen PFO closure specialist who normally doesn't see pediatrics. We are waiting to see that doctor who will confirm the PFO and proceed from there.
We are taking Jayden's braces off a few weeks early so that we can have the MRI done again before the year is over. (Since we have met our out of pocket maximum.) The MRI will also hopefully confirm the PFO diagnosis.
I can't tell you how grateful I am for our Heavenly Father who has been watching over us. When we went to the chiropractor, he wanted to do some chiropractic work on Jayden and I just had a really bad feeling about it. Turns out, that with this PFO stuff if she would have had the chiropractic work done, she has a significantly higher risk of blood clotting that would end in stroke or worse! I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost that helped me to know what the best thing for Jayden.

Update

Well, there really isn't anything to update except that we have tried everything under the sun to find out what is going on with our Jaydee Bug. So far.... Brain MRI, Spine MRI, 5 blood draws, 13 trips to different doctors (including chiropractors, neurologists, emergency room visits, pediatricians, and psychiatrists.) Every doctor has a different diagnosis, not one that seems to ring true in my gut. So far, we are sticking with our pediatrican who knows Jayden pretty well. Because her MRI scans are coming back "mostly" clear, our pediatrican is trying Jayden on an anti convulsant called trileptal. Although I don't think that's the right answer, at least it is something that we are trying instead of just waiting for more symptoms to manifest.
One thing we are looking into is called brain mapping or QEEG. Although Jayden has had EEG's in the past, the neurologist doensn't seem to think that the EGG will be helpful information at this point unless it can catch an episode during the test. A QEEG is a more complex EEG. It can measure even the smallest of electrical disturbances. The downside of this QEEG? I can only find ONE person in the entire state who does this kind of testing. His name is Dr. Cory Hammond and apparently he is fantastic. The other downside? He doesn't take insurance. His cost to run and read the scan is $900. Our insurance will reimburse but only at 70%. Before we fork out all that money right before Christmas I wanted to talk with our pediatrican again. We see him again right after thanksgiving and Dr. Hammond has openings within a week. Hopefully we can get whatever testing we need done by the end of the year seeing as how we have met our out of pocket maximum for Jayden this year!

Stressful times at our house

It has been a stressful time at our house as of late. A few weeks ago, Jayden woke up one morning just acting really weird. She had a blank expression on her face and was just being weird. It took her about 2 minutes to process something we had said to her. I just chalked it up thinking that she probably had a seizure that morning. (For those of you who don't know, Jayden has a form of epilepsy that causes her to have seizures in her sleep.) She went to school as normal and she was playing in the semi final championship soccer game after school. She said during school it felt like she was getting a migraine except for seeing spots before the headache came, everything went dark and fuzzy. The headache came and then she took some ibprofen. During the game she started freaking out, her arm was going numb. By the end of the game both arms were numb and "tingling" and within an hour both of her legs were numb and tingling too. Over the course of the next 3 days we went to 3 different doctors who told us 3 different things. As the week wore on, Jayden's muscle strenth was diminshed and she became more and more lethargic. Her mood swings were all over the place. By Friday we had an MRI done and the following Thursday we had an appointment with a fantastic neurologist at Primary Childrens. The neurologist doesn't feel like these symptoms were the cause of a complex migraine (the er doctor's diagnosis) or lingering effects from a seizure (the instacare doctor's theory.) Although she is taking things slow, her initial diagnosis is MS. She is giving Jayden 2 weeks to see if the numbness and tingling stops. If they don't, our next step is an MRI of the spine and a possible spinal tap. We have started on a vitamin D supplement and hope that this is all the medication we will need to take for quite a while. Although we are all scared, we trust the neurologist completely. She is a very smart lady who really takes her time and doesn't want to rush into anything. The course of treatment would not change regardless of the diagnosis.
In a few short days we went from this:

To this:


We know that our Heavenly Father is aware of our family at this time and we feel his love so abundantly. Thank you to all of our friends and family who have been so supportive of us!

I know I have blogged about my amazing boy Coleman before but he is truely the world's sweetest boy. Even when he was a baby my aunt said he was an "old soul" in a tiny body. It is so true. The day we went to the neurologist I picked up the kids from school. Coleman immediately got in the car and asked how Jayden was doing. I explained that they weren't sure but that it was potentially a disease that affected her nervous system. He held my hand and said, "How are you doing with all this mom? You must be devistated." Are you kidding me? What 10 year old boy says these kind of things. It was all I could do to not to break down right there. He is SO SWEET! We talked a bit about other diseases that could be so much worse and that we were really lucky in so many ways. He is amazing and I love that boy so much!

Coleman Lacrosse

I think it is important that kids are involved in something. I don't believe in overscheduling (You might think differently if you knew what our schedule was) but I think that kids need time to explore different interests. We have tried with little sucess to find an outside interest that Coleman is passionate about. We have tried soccer, basketball, baseball, golf (which he likes), guitar, and now lacrosse. Coleman LOVES lacrosse. He had a great time learning the sport this year. Next year we will try a different league that will help him become an even better player! Way to go Coleman!

Fall Fun

I love the fall! When I was younger, I thought I liked the fall because that's when my birthday is. As I have become older, and birthdays are far less important I have appreciated fall even more. I love the vibrant colors and the crisp smells. I love the excitement of a holiday that I don't have to stress over so much (unlike Christmas!) This year we went to Wheeler Farm pumpkin patch. It was alot of fun! The kids got to pick out a pumpkin, go through a mini corn maze and do a wagon ride! Coleman and Jayden tolerated this outing well. (It didn't hurt that we went out to dinner after) Annabelle and Chloe loved it!







We also went to Gardner Village with some good friends of ours. We went on a witch hunt to earn a cookie prize. Note to self: NEVER do this again on a beautiful UEA weekend! I think that every child who was not in school was there. It was nuts!

First Day of School Pictures

I am just barely getting to the first day of school. Still have all of summer to blog about but I thought I would get to this one while I had a minute! This year we have 3 kids going to school all day! Jayden is in 9th grade at Churchill and LOVES it! She is a bit overwhelmed at the moment with keeping up with her accelerated classes, being a cheerleader, dance 4 times a week, young women's, and being on the soccer team at school. But she is doing great and is a great role model.
Coleman is in 5th grade and has an awesome teacher. She is great to help Coleman exceed and not just keep him on grade level work. In fact, the second day of school she gave a test and Coleman got 100%! His teacher told me that had never happened with any of her students. Leave it to Coleman to defy all odds academically! Coleman is trying his hand at lacrosse this fall.
Chloe is in 1st grade and has one of my all time favorite teachers. She is a complete social butterfly and LOVES being with her friends. She is reading quite well and is trying to figure out how to spell everything!
Here's to a great year!

Coleman's Birthday

Although it has been two weeks since Coleman's birthday I wanted to blog about how awesome he is! This year we went to Raging Waters for Coleman's big day. He had an awesome time with his friends and fam! We went to Bonsai for dinner after and our favorite cupcake place Sweet Tooth Fairy. YUM!
Some things I don't want to forget about my 10 year old Coleman:
1. He is such a mamma's boy. Not in a bad way but he loves his mom.
2. He is terribly thoughtful to everyone (with the exception of his sisters who he loves to torture.) He hates it when people are upset...especially with him.
3. He LOVES to read. In any given week he reads over 1000 pages. The school librarian is not sure she even has any books in the library that he hasn't read!
4. He is always thinking of ways to make things better. He has great ideas for new inventions.
5. He loves to "tinker". He loves projects. He loves helping our sweet neighbors or his dad with any project. The more tools the better!
6. He is a fantastic artist. He draws better than I can ever hope to.
7. He has had a very bad temper in the past but has learned very well to control it. He is awesome about catching himself before he gets too wound up.
8. He loves anything electronic...including his new Ipod touch.
9. He is just plain AWESOME!
We love you Coleman! Happy Birthday!

If you are anything like me when you hear the word cow you invision something similiar to this:



Well as of a few weeks ago I was informed there was a different cow. The C.O.W. to be precise. This is an abbreviation of the Churchill Officer Winners....only the most important assembly in the mind of any middle school student at Churchill Junior High. This is a huge deal, planning with for months with everything shrouded in secrecy. No one but the current student body officers and their parents were to know this big secret. Every C.O.W. has a theme, and this year the secret theme revealed this Friday was the COWer of terror. I was amazed at the amount of time and effort put into this assembly. Well another secret revealed at this assembly: Jayden was completely shocked to find out that she was voted head cheerleader!!! After the initial shock wore off...I am left to wonder, how in the world are we going to pull off another amazing assembly next year?

I love this girl! She makes my heart melt. She is such a cuddle bug even now. A few weeks ago she was dead asleep. In her sleep she says, "Mom....I wanna nuggle (snuggle) you!" Her other favorite thing to say is, "Guess what?" and after you say "What" she says, "I love you sooo much!" Ahh...they are so cute at this age!

Coleman asked me the other day if we were going on a vacation this summer. I told him I wasn't sure but we would talk about it with the family. (We are going on a few small camping trips and one week long "vacay" with Trent's family.) This is a recap of our conversation:
Coleman;"I know where we could go on a vacation this summer!"
Me: "Where?"
Coleman: "Europe."
Me; "That would be awesome although we would have to save up for a few years for that."
Coleman;"Well then we could go on an African Safari!"
Me: "That would probably cost our family $30000."
Coleman: "So pretty much I am limited to the US?"
Me: Pretty much.
I didn't have the heart to tell him we were pretty much limited to the state of Utah for this year. It stinks having cousins who have flight benefits!!

Apparently our family likes these beauties! Just when I thought I would never see one of these again.... Jayden tried out for cheer this year and while performing for the school she totally fell out of the blue and hurt her foot. She was kind of in trouble last week so she didn't say a whole lot about it hurting. Finally after her complaining a bit more about it this week I took her to the dr. An xray confirmed that she has a small hairline fracture in her left foot. Hopefully she can stay off it so that she can have it off in 4 weeks. I am not sure how well that will work...considering she played in her soccer game today and plans on dancing in her dance concert next week!

My Chloe

Holy Cow! Chloe turned 6 on May 14. Here I am just now posting about it! I could give you many reasons why but basically I am just a procrastinator!
I love my Chloe girl. She is so full of spunk and sass, she is a person you meet and never forget. Somethings I love about my 6 year old Chloe:
1. She is 6 going on 14. Sometimes that is a good thing and sometimes its not so good.
2. She is HILARIOUS without knowing it. My sister is in the process of adopting a darling little boy. Long story short the mom got pregnant again and now my sister has the baby brother too. My sister found out about this on Chloe's birthday so she sent me a picture of the baby. I showed Chloe the picture of this new babe and she said, "Oh my gosh mom! I didn't even know Nicki was pregnant!"
3. She is the sweetest big sister. She loves Annabelle and Annabelle loves her too. It warms my heart to hear them giggle. All Chloe has to do is look at Annabelle and she will burst out in laughter.
4. She can read quite well but is not so self confident about it. As she practices a bit more she gets so excited. "I AM REALLY READING MOM!!!"
5. She is so kind to all the older ladies in our neighborhood. We had a "grandma" get diagnosed with bone marrow cancer a few months ago and she has prayed for this woman every time she says a prayer. She makes cards and books for these ladies and loves to meet them as she rides her bike.
6. She is a take charge kind of girl.
7. She loves to be with friends and wants to play with at least one daily. She is constantly coming home from school saying so and so is going to call because we set up a play date today.
I love you Chloe! You rock our world!!!

World's Sweetest Son

I have the world's sweetest son. On top of using his own allowance to buy me a mother's day gift and card I came downstairs to see this beauty:


Man he is going to make some lucky girl very happy one day!

Say hello to the newest Churchill Junior High Cheerleader! Let the fun begin!

Chloe has been nervous to take her training wheels off her bike. Finally yesterday she relented and let Trent take them off. She kept saying, "Dad, don't let go until I say so." Trent helped her get started and then just let go. "Dad, don't let go until I say." Trent started laughing and showed her that she had been riding by herself all that time! She rode until it got dark last night and then wanted to get up early to ride her bike this morning. Hopefully the newness will wear off soon!!! Way to go Chloe!!

The tooth fairy came again!

Primary Teachers

Wow I am thankful for great primary teachers. Let me preface this by saying we do say family prayer most nights. We do try to do family scripture study once (I know) a week. We do try for family home evening each week, although they are mostly secular activites. (i.e. getting ice cream, playing a board game, having a wii championship, etc.) Rarely we have an actual "lesson" to go along with our family home evening. With easter fast approaching we hadn't even really talked about what that meant.
Chloe and I were in the car the other day, just she and I. Highly unusual. I was kind of in my own head, thinking about some things that needed to be done, etc. Chloe without prompting says,
"Mom. Do you know what is so great about Jesus Christ?"
Me: "No Chloe. Tell me.
Chloe: " He died for us. He died so that we can have eternal life and live again. That's why we celebrate Easter."
I was pleasantly surprised. She does listen in primary! And she has awesome primary teachers who teach her all this stuff I forget to teach on a daily basis.
Then she says, "Mom quick lets think of 5 things Jesus Christ does for us."
I listed 5 simple things.
Then she says, "Ok Mom. Now tell me 5 things you do for Jesus Christ. Go."
What an awesome girl. Sometimes I worry that she gets so wrapped up in being 14 that she isn't learning or doing the things that 5 year olds need to learn and do. At times like these I know that she is learning those things. Thank heavens for primary teachers!!!

Look! The tooth fairy is coming to our house!!!

Middle Child Syndrome

What a rough life a middle child has! You sort of have to do something drastic to get attention...but don't worry, my middle chidren can find a way to get that coveted attention. Chloe has "selective hearing". She claims she can't hear well when she doesn't want to do something. Anyway, she decided a few weeks ago to stuff some kleenex down her ears. She came home from school and told us her ears were hurting and maybe some kleenex accidently got put in her ears. "Accidently" enough that we couldn't even see it in her ears and had to go to the doctor to have him take it out. "Accidently" enough that it was stuffed so far down one ear that the doctor couldn't even see it until he looked at it for the 3rd time. And mind you these pieces of kleenex were as big as the tip of my pinky!!! Apparently we were not giving her enough attention so a trip to the doctor is what was needed!!

Congrats to Coleman who is the only 4th grader in his school with a lead in the school play, "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown." He is playing the part of Linus, a part that fits him well...minus the thumb and blankie!

BRACES

Although she won't let me take a picture of her yet...its official. Jayden has braces to which I am very grateful! (She thinks she is unattractive now so maybe less boy drama?) Hopefully I will get the picture soon and post it. Thank you Oracle and your awesome dental insurance!

We have a serious Dora problem at our house. Annabelle is OBSESSED. I use this word alot I know...but with Dora and Annabelle it is total truth. As much as I hate to admit how much tv watching my 2 year old does....we watch at least 4 episodes a day. Sometimes upwards of 9 or 10. It is terrible. (I am waiting for the DSFC call.) We are starting to branch out to Diego and Max and Ruby but Dora is still the favorite. On just one tv alone we have over 35 episodes tivoed.
Anyhow...back to the reason for my post. A few mornings ago I asked Annabelle if she wanted to come wake up Chloe with me. She got very excited and started down the stairs. We got to Chloe's room when without prompting Annabelle said, "Buenos Dias Chloe!" (I don't speak anything but Dora spanish so pardon my spelling.) At least Dora is doing something for my kid, right?

Wow time flies when you're having fun....or something like that. I can't believe my baby is 2! Annabelle has truely made our lives complete. She is the child that I never knew I wanted/needed. Getting pregnant with her was a complete shock to me. We were not trying to have a baby but lo and behold I came up pregnant. I was angry for a very long time when I first found out. I thought I was finished with my family and I was ready for the next stage of life to begin (i.e all day school=heaven). I never really wanted a big family but here I was pregnant with my 4th child. But as the shock and anger wore off I became excited to have yet another girl (more hair...more pink...more clothes....I love girls!!). Two weeks after she was born my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 lymphoma. I knew without a shadow of a doubt our Heavenly Father brought her into our lives at that specific moment to help ease a very difficult time in our lives. He had a larger plan that I was obviously unaware of at the time. Now I cannot imagine life without my dear "Pickle".

Some things I never want to forget about my 2 year old Annabelle.

1. She calls herself Annie....sometimes Annie pickle. ("I Annie....or I Annie pickle.) Do not call her Belle or Bella or Anna. She will correct you. If you call her Bellie she will promptly pull up her shirt to reveal her "bellie". (And p.s. I used to dislike the name Annie...We named her Annabelle to call her Bella...it just doesn't really fit. Annie does.)

2. I can't believe I am admitting this in public but Annabelle loves "that". If you don't know what "that" is, I will spare you the details. Just know that we now fall in to the category of "wierdos" that I once referred to. Maybe by the time she graduates from college she will have given up on "that". I don't see it coming any time soon.

3. She is such a snuggler.

4. Along with #3, she is a HUGE mama's girl. I LOVE IT! (Most of the time...)

5. I think she will grow up to be a dentist one day. She is obsessed with teeth. Actually she is obsessed with sticking her hand in our mouths and feeling our teeth. I think she likes the ridges on the tops. No denying it...this girl is unique.

6. She has the best cheesy grin. She will randomly throughout the day squint her eyes and flash that large cheesy grin.

7. She loves Dora, Diego, Max and Ruby, Franklin, and Little Bear. They are on tivo at our house and constantly playing.

8. She has been my sickliest child. 8 kidney infections, 2 cases of pnemonia, 1 hospital stay, anemia, as well as the occasional ear infection or virus. When she is sick...she goes all out.

9. She loves our family to be together. She cries most mornings when we take the kids to school and asks all day long where they are. ("Chloe...school? Bubba...school? Jaydie...school?)

10. My favorite thing she says right now. "Where did _____ go? Fill in the blank with Bubba, sissy, maisy, etc. Then she will say I don't know? But she says it so cute you just want to eat her up. She is talking so much now.

11. I love that she doesn't want to grow up. She wants to be the baby. That's just the way I want it for now!!!!

I will upload some more pictures when I get them on my computer...I am a slacker!

My 14 year old Jayden

This is a week late but....Yikes! Has it really been that long? It seems like yesterday I brought her home from the hospital... There was so much drama surrounding her birth. My dear sweet grandma passed away the day before Jayden was due. Although she was living with us at the time her funeral was in Arkansas. Of course everyone in my family was heading for the funeral. Everyone that is but me. I was not allowed to attend. I was terrified that I would go into labor while my parents were gone and I would be left alone to deliever Jayden by myself. But instead the very day my parents came home I went into labor. I ended up being in labor for a very long time and had her early in the morning on January 3. The next day we came home with a voicemail message letting us know that my mom's oldest sister passed away. My mom left again and went to her funeral as well. My grandma was such an inspirational person in my life and I truely believe that she and Jayden spent that 10 extra days in heaven together. Jayden's birth could not have had a better timeline and I know that our Heavenly Father sent her at that exact moment.

Sometimes it is hard to remember all the good things about a teenager but some things I don't want to forget about my 14 year old Jayden:

1. She is full of life. Anyone who knows her knows that she is bubbly, boisterious, and the life of the party. You always know when she walks into the room. To know Jayden is to love her. She has an infectious laugh and uses it often.

2. She puts everyone at ease. She is great about helping people feel comfortable.

3. She has a wacky sense of style. She can wear zebra, with polka dots, and bright pink and still pull it off.

4. She makes friends easily. (See both one and two.)

5. She has a great smile and laughs constantly. She laughs constantly even in the face of adversity. She has learned to fake a smile until it becomes real.

6. She is a great example to her siblings. She is a great peace maker. She is constantly helping me referee fights between Coleman and Chloe.

7. She is a great example of faith. She goes faithfully to church each Sunday. Even though there are very few young women in our ward she goes to all her meetings even if she is the only one.

8. She wants to do what is right. Her testimony is growing so rapidly and it is so heartwarming to listen to her testimony as she shares bits and pieces with me or her friends or her siblings.

9. On that same note, she is willing to take her problems to the Lord. She is willing to truely pray and fast about problems or questions she has and do all that she can to find the answer to that which she is seeking.

10. She almost always does what she is asked and without too much grumbling.

11. She talks freely to me about friends, boyfriends, school, etc. I know she doesn't tell me everything but I appreciate that she does talk to me about most things. I like that we have a fairly open line of communication.

I love Jayden with all my heart. Without her, I would not be the person I am today. I look back at who I was when I was pregnant and who I am today and they are two totally different people. We are so similiar in so many ways and many times I catch myself feeling like she is the better version of me. I pray that as she grows we will continue to remain close. Happy Birthday to the best 14 year old on the planet!!!

Sledding Fun

Alas, I am resigned to the fact that I am a terrible blogger. I am not even going to make it a new years resolution to be better. Many times I even forget to bring my camera places and I am forced to use the camera on my phone. (Hence the blurry pictures above.) Oh well....even if it is not documented fantastically we had fun!

Future make up artist? Or Kiss fan?

You decide!