The Moss Family

Jayden's Birthday

2012-01-30T17:19:00.002-07:00

Watch out world!! This 16 year old now has her drivers liscence!! I can't believe I have a 16 year old...where does the time go? Some things I love about my 16 year old Jayden:
1. Her love for her family. As some of you may know Jayden recently connected with her birth dad and his wife and two boys. The love she shows for her sisters and brother and now her new brothers is incredible.
2. Her values. Jayden has thought through many of the trials that face young people today and has already made up her mind on what she will do and won't do. This has made it easier for her to leave a situation when she doesn't feel comfortable. Several times she has called me to tell me to pick her up when the people she is with are doing things she doesn't approve of.
3. I also love the relationship we have and that we can talk somewhat openly about the troubles facing her. I hope she knows that I am here to love her unconditionally and that I will always be her biggest supporter.
4, Her testimony. Jayden has had a rough year with her health but this has helped her to see what is truly important in life. This year has made her rely upon the Lord for so much. It has been amazing to watch her blossom.
5. Her heartfelt prayers. I love listening to her pray about both the small and big things in her life.

While I am talking about Jayden I'll update on her health. We still have no answers and very few leads. Everything we have talked about with the doctor seems to end in a dead end. This is very frustrating for Jayden and actually all of us. We were "treating the symptoms" for awhile and we were ok with that "answer" until treating the symptoms stopped working. Her headaches have gotten worse and her vision continues to go blurry at least weekly. She wakes up every morning with her hands and face numb. She randomly gets sharp nerve pain in different areas of her body at random times of the day. Sometimes these sharp pains last only seconds, sometimes they last for a few hours or a few days or a few weeks. These last few weeks have been especially hard for her and we have changed medications again to see if that will help. So far there has been no relief but we are gradually increasing her dosage. She has been on a similar drug called gabapentin that didn't work very well for her but we are hoping that this drug will be better tolerated. As of now there are no tests to run that haven't already been run, there are no doctors to see that we have not already seen. I am hopeful that one day we will have an answer and that hopefully we don't need to wait too long for those answers!

Coleman

2012-01-30T17:17:00.003-07:00

So this fine fellow is the winner of the 2012 Spelling Bee for Rosecrest Elementary!

The best Christmas present EVER

2012-01-30T17:13:00.003-07:00

Last year our dog, Maisy died a few days after Christmas. I swore I would never have another dog again. This year every one of the kids had written a dog on their Christmas list. I didn't think much of it at first but I started thinking that given what the kids were going through right now, a puppy that unconditionally loves them might be a good idea. I researched out a few breeds and ended up with this darling Yorkie Poo. She is seriously the sweetest puppy ever. So cuddley and fun!! I fell in love with her the minute I saw her and so did the kids!!

Thanksgiving

2012-01-30T17:10:00.002-07:00

I wish I had taken the time to take pictures but I didn't. This Thanksgiving we had dinner at Mark and Holli's. The best part of this Thanksgiving is that Mike and his kids came! It has been about a year since we had seen them so it was so fun to spend a few days with them! We had a big cousin sleepover the night before and I went with Mike and his kids to see a movie on Thanksgiving afternoon. It has been so neat to watch Mike change and be such an awesome uncle and dad. I haven't had a chance to get to really talk with Mike for a few years so it was so wonderful to be able to spend a few days with him!

Halloween 2011

2012-01-30T17:08:00.002-07:00

This Halloween the girls both wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood and I'm not sure what we called Coleman....chicken man?

2012-01-30T16:29:00.003-07:00

Wow...I'm such a loser at this blogging stuff. I have wonderful ideas and just not enough time to actually get it done! Ill start with what I can remember and work my way back to the present. I hope my kids will understand one day why I didn't document everything the way I wanted too!!
First I'll start with what has been happening in our lives. In October, after much turmoil, Trent and I seperated. It has been an adjustment for everyone but a much needed seperation for everyone. I want to make sure that whatever decision is made (divorce or reuniting) that we know it is the right thing for our family. I don't want to be an "intact" family for the sake of being together. I don't want a "broken" family because I feel like there is something better out there. I want to be able to say at the end of the road that I did what needed to be done and I feel good about my decision. The kids have been going to counseling for a few months to be able to talk about their feelings without hurting my feelings or Trent's feelings. Trent and I have been going to marriage counseling too and what I can say definitively that no matter what our family is the top priority.

Sweetest Boy Ever

2011-10-08T17:35:00.002-06:00

I don't blog enough about this sweet boy. He is truly the sweetest boy I have ever met. Let me give you a run down of yesterday with this awesome guy. In the morning I leave at 7:15 to take Jayden to school. I leave the girls home with Coleman and then come back at about 7:35 to finish getting the girls ready and then take Coleman and Chloe to school. I came home at the usual 7:35 to find Coleman unloading the dishwasher. Completely on his own. It was early day out and I am teaching on Friday afternoons so he rides his scooter to my school. He got to my school and then immediately got to work helping set out centers, getting Chloe ready for gymnastics and just being generally helpful. Later on, he was at his friend's house and I was picking him up. He took off my shoe and started to rub my feet!! I mean seriously, what 11 year old boy does that? After we got home, I was watching tv in my room and he came in to ask if I wanted a back rub while I was going to bed. Seriously the sweetest boy ever!!! I think I'll keep him :)

New Day....New Doctor

2011-10-03T16:21:00.002-06:00

Today we met with Dr. Zalinski, the neurologist we saw last time Jayden was inpatient at Primary's. I liked him then, and I like him even more after today!
First of all, we didn't realize our appointment was at the Riverton hospital. We drove up to the main campus like we always do and I didn't think twice. We got to the clinic and then they told us that our appointment was at Riverton....oops! They called down to the Riverton clinic to say we were on our way. We got to our appointment about 15 minutes late and Dr. Zalinski came in almost immediately. What I love about him is that he LISTENS to everything I say. With Dr. Sakonju I felt like she had made up her mind about what the problem was long before we even got into the room. Dr. Zalinski listened, and pondered, and asked a few more questions, and listened some more.
We didn't come out with any miraculous answers but I just felt as if he actually heard what we were saying and agreed with us that it wasn't just Jayden being "crazy". He made recommendations but ultimately left the decision up to us and our doctor.
For now....we are going off the trileptal. He said he has never seen success with trileptal for neuropathy. (Nerve problems.) He said there are far better drugs for what we need. He suggested taking lots of time to really research and understand what each drug's effect is on Jayden. He suggested writing down how she is feeling each day (which I pretty much already do.) If after a few weeks there is no change, he suggests putting her back on the amnitriplyne. This drug should help Jaydee in a few different ways. First, it works well for neuropathy, second it works well for gastroparesis, third, it can help with her headache prevention, and last it will make her sleepy for bed. We tried this drug before but always with the combination of multiple other drugs.
If after a few weeks the amnitryptline isn't working enough, he suggested putting her on pregabalin as well. This has the same effect as the gabapentin without the side effects she had before.
He felt like the next step for us is to see a rheumatologist. I have felt that for some time but was told that without a postive test result that indicated this was rheumatology based that the doctor would not see us. Dr. Zalinski assured us that was not the case, and if our doc wouldn't give the referral that he would.
He also told us that the headaches Jaydee has been having he does not believe are migraines but are part of whatever she has. By giving her migraine meds with out the common migraine (and most likely she is having complex migraines) we are putting her at a strong risk for a stroke. That was news to me!! Needless to say,I will not be giving her any maxalt any time soon.
Like I said, nothing fantastic happened today but for once I felt like we were trying something new and that someone was listening to me. I haven't felt that for a few months so it was nice to feel like someone was willing to take another chance on her!

Homecoming Dance

2011-09-21T09:48:00.002-06:00

This past weekend was Homecoming. Jayden was asked by a boy named James. Besides being sick, they had a pretty good time. They went to the Asian Star for dinner, then went to the dance, and then went bowling. We only spent 3 full days looking for shoes and 2 full days looking for jewelry but the end product was beautiful!

Mini Cheer camp

2011-09-14T20:44:00.002-06:00

One of the greatest things about having a big sister cheerleader is mini cheer! Twice a year each high school does mini cheer camp as a fundraiser. This year Chloe and Annabelle were so excited to be cheering at half time during a televised game!! (Unfortunately, the camera crew didn't pick up on the best part of the football game) My girls banded together and invited a few of their friends to cheer with them. This lead to 14 excited little girls to cheer with Jayden. I think she was the cheerleader who had the most girls signed up for cheer camp. We can't wait to do it again during basketball season!

First Day of School

2011-08-22T14:03:00.002-06:00

I can't believe that summer is over! I have had every intention to document our summer fun with this blog but alas I have failed again. One day, I will keep this thing caught up!
Today was a bitter sweet day with the start of school. Although I am excited to have a routine again, I miss having my kids home all the time.

Chloe was super excited to start 2nd grade. She has Mrs. Hardy and I hope it will be a good year for her. Several of her BFF's are in her class so hopefully she won't get into too much trouble for talking!

Coleman started 6th grade and has a great teacher, Mrs. Sharp. Unfortunately, she will be having a baby any day now so he will have a substitute for the next 6 weeks.

Jayden started high school. I'm not sure when I became old enough to have a child who is taking driver's ed!!

While the big kids were at school we were at home baking yummy cookies for them to come home too. I love my Belle!!!

Let's hope this school year is a good one!

San Diego

2011-07-31T21:56:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago we went to Sunny California. We pretty much did nothing but sit on the beach and hang out. We met up with friends and Aunt Sherry. We caught sand crabs and boogie boarded. It was heaven!! While we were there we decided that we need to buy a beach house in Coronado. Any one want to go in with us on it? We will put up the first $100,000 and you all can do the rest ok?

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-27T18:01:00.001-06:00

Let the Rivalry Begin

2011-07-27T17:58:00.002-06:00

Jayden cheers for Skyline and Coleman plays for Olympus. Looks like we will be rooting for both teams in this house!!

The Birthday Boy

2011-07-05T19:10:00.002-06:00

I adore this kid. He is truly the world's best boy. This year Coleman turned 11. We tried to celebrate by going to Seven Peaks but the weather didn't hold up for us. Just about the time we got there the sky opened up and started to dump rain! Fortunately for us, Transformers came out on this same day so we opted to go see that in the dry movie theater instead. Coleman will be having a party with friends next week but we celebrated with Red Robin, Chik fil a, and the movie.
Some things I never want to forget about my 11 year old Coleman:
1. He is the kindest boy around. Truly, he is always thinking of others (with the exception of his little sisters)
2. He has a bit of a temper on him...he likes to slam doors and has been known to throw out the "I hate you" bit before. But this is only when he doesn't feel like he is being listened or understood. We are trying to get Coleman to understand the difference between understanding what he says and agreeing with it. Hard concept sometimes.
3. He LOVES to read books. I am pretty sure that he has read every book in his school library that interests him. He would like to write books someday!
4. He wants to go to MIT and become a reverse engineer. In his spare time he will write books and invent stuff.
5. He has an amazing testimony and absorbs information like a sponge. So many of his teachers at church tell me he asks questions they don't even know the answers too. Many times during scripture study at home he understands what we are reading far better than I do!!
6. He is a great cook and makes many a meal around here. From ramen to eggs to grilled ham and cheese to hamburgers on the grill he loves to cook and share it with those around him.
I love this kid and I'm glad if I only have one boy it's him!! Love you Coleman!

The tonsils

2011-06-10T19:10:00.005-06:00

Chloe got her tonsils and adenoids out today as well as some work on her sinuses. She was a trooper and is recovering nicely! Thank you for all the nice gifts and calls!
Before:

After:

Let's hope that she can get better before our trip this next weekend!!

Quick Update

2011-06-04T19:44:00.003-06:00

So much to blog...so little time! I am so terrible at keeping things updated. So much for the "journal" experience. A quick medical update since New York...
We had the 22 vials of blood taken and so far, nothing of significance has panned out. We saw our pediatrician who agrees with the auto immune theory. He has been in practice for about 35 years and has seen cases before of people who have symptoms years before any test results come back positive. We have switched our focus from finding answers to managing symptoms. We took her off the gabapentin and amitriptyline and put her back on the trileptal. This has helped with her memory loss and tingling. I think a lot of the newer neurological symptoms we were seeing were more medicine induced than related to her illness. She still gets the sharp shooting pain and then the swollen spots (like on her hand, both feet, the back of her leg, and her forearm) and we haven't been able to find anything to help with that. Both doctors think that it is rheumatically related but there is no test that has confirmed that. We finally found the domperidone in Canada so that it is significantly cheaper. ($38/month vs. $35/week) We switched her nausea meds to the patch so hopefully that will help. She has gained back 11 pounds since we last saw the GI doc which is good! Dr. Sorenson did another bubble test and found that her device is in place with no leaks so we are cleared for 9 more months!! I still need to call about getting the spinal MRI done...I have just been busy and haven't had a chance! We started doing biofeedback therapy and I am interested to see how it goes. The theory behind bio feedback is to retrain your brain. The therapist was telling us about some of her other patients and it was pretty interesting. She has a girl who has excruciating pain in her 3rd toe. This therapist has taught her to block the pain sensor to that toe so that she can't feel it most of the time. Interesting stuff!!!
Jayden has been going to dance and cheer and has done pretty well. She takes it a bit easy and is still really tired when she comes home but we are at least functioning!!! School is out...YAY! Every doctor says that summer is the best time to heal without the stress of everyday life. We are hoping that is true. Between cheer practice, dance performances, Disneyland, Cheer camp, Youth Conference, Girls camp, and family vacations, I hope that we have a chance to catch our breath! Yay for summer!!

New York

2011-05-10T22:15:00.002-06:00

New York was a blast! We did lots of shopping and sight seeing and mixed in a few doctor appointments as well. The short story is that we ruled out MS (which is great news) and were sent home with more tests to do in Salt Lake. Our insurance company will pay 100% in Salt Lake and only 70% in New York. The doctors in New York think it is some kind of auto immune problem but narrowing it down will only be done by trial and error. Yesterday we got the blood work done, all 22 vials of blood!! Hopefully we will be able to get the answers we need soon. Jayden was part of a research study while in New York and they would like her to come back to be part of some additional studies in the future. Looks like we will be going back in a few months.

Totally Freaking Out

2011-04-28T21:22:00.002-06:00

I am totally freaking out right now!! Not only are we going to New York in 4 days but holy cow there is going to be a big change in our lives soon. I can't really give out the details right now but I am COMPLETELY AMAZED at our Heavenly Father's love for our family at this time. I cannot believe how perfectly everything is falling into place right now, it is unbelievable. I am so grateful for both my answered and unanswered prayers. I am in awe that my Savior is so mindful of my EVERY need. This could not be happening at a better time. Amazing....pretty much sums up this experience!

Love this girl

2011-04-12T22:02:00.002-06:00

This girl makes me laugh so much! The other day she was going potty while Trent was in the shower. Trent got out to get dried off and Annabelle says while pointing to his mid section, "Uh Dad....is that your gentleman?" Awesome...

Annabelle's Birthday

2011-04-12T21:57:00.002-06:00

This year for her birthday Annabelle only asked for stickers. Totally done!! I get so sick of picking up toys that stickers were fantastic. I did feel bad if that was all she was getting so we decided that we would spend the weekend as a family and rent a hotel room. We spent the weekend swimming in the pool, eating yummy food, and having a great time!

Ski Lessons

2011-04-12T21:51:00.001-06:00

This year the kids all started ski/snowboard lessons. They all had such a great time and can't wait to go back next year!

Mr. Bundles

2011-04-12T21:45:00.002-06:00

I figured it was time to try to update a bit of what has been going on in our life besides doctors! Our elementary school had their annual production this March. This year's production was "Annie Jr." Coleman played the part of Mr. Bundles and had a great time!! Way to go Coleman...we are so proud of you!!

Our Dislike for Primary Children's

2011-04-11T09:13:00.002-06:00

I don't know if I have ever stated this before but I DESPISE PRIMARY CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL! Really, I think the hospital has a purpose for sick kids. Unfortunately for us, Primary Children's has been nothing but a headache for Jayden. Because she doesn't fit into their perfect mold of a known disease, everything she is feeling is dismissed by them. We did the EMG testing by Dr. Sakonju on Thursday. My favorite quote of the day was as she turned to the doctor in training, "Oh...this is real!" Like they had been thinking this whole time that she was just faking it! Unfortunately again, although they saw abnormailities, when they averaged all the tests together, it was "within the realm of normal". Dr. Sakonju told us to follow up with our neurologist. Um...ma'am...that would be you!! She pulled the results again and said that her parasympathetic nervous system is on hyperdrive and her autonomic nervous system is on slow mo. That we just need to get her into bio feedback counseling and then those two systems should correct themselves. Lately, Jayden has been complaining about having a sharp pain in her hand. I noticed that part of her hand was swollen but just kinda put that in the back of my head. She has been complaining about a sharp pain down her leg and I noticed that in the exact spot, her leg is swollen. It is so frustrating when as a mom I KNOW something is wrong but because she doesn't fit all the classic symptoms of any known disease her symptoms are dismissed.
We have tried everything, spending thousands of dollars on accupuncture, holistic doctors, chiropractors, vitamins, as well as any doctor we can get into! We sure are hoping that New York has some answers for us!

New Week, New Hope

2011-04-04T20:09:00.003-06:00

This week has gone by in a blur. I was in a meeting on Monday when my phone kept vibrating. I looked at my phone when I was done and I had 5 missed calls. 3 of them were from my friend Chelsea saying CALL ME BACK! So I did. Long story short, she ran into to some people who knew of another story like Jayden. I was able to get the dad's email address and emailed him all week long about our daughters. This other family is convinced that the vaccine gardasil is what caused their daughter's problems. She has been dealing with the same type of stuff for about 2 years and have yet to have any answers. He sent a bunch of links and some more detailed information. It has been eye opening for us to see what little we knew about a vaccine we gave to Jayden thinking it was for her good. Even if Jayden had no symptoms, If i knew then what I know now I never would have gotten the shots. I am not 100% convinced that gardasil is to blame but I am not ruling it out either. I will continue to fight for whatever I can to get her healthy again.
This week we got the results of her gastric emptying test back. Results were not good. If you don't know what happens during a gastric emptying test I will tell you. First you eat radio active eggs. (I know!!) Then they take a picture of your insides one hour later. The average person has 90% of the eggs left at that point. Jayden had 93% left. They take another picture at two hours and the average person has 60% of the eggs left, and Jayden had 79% left. At 4 hours the average person has 10% left and Jayden had 49% left. Basically her stomach is not emptying properly. The diagnosis given by the GI doctor is gastroparesis. This is a fancy word for a paralyzed stomach. The nerves are not telling the stomach to contract so that it can empty correctly. This goes along with the nerve disease theory but we are having an EMG test done tomorrow where they will test the rest of her nervous system.
We will see if that shows anything exciting. We are on some new meds and so far they aren't working yet. We tried to have Jayden go back to school last week but it has been really hard and draining for her. We are putting her back on home school for the rest of the year in hopes that she can get better quicker that way.

A breakthrough

2011-03-25T20:52:00.002-06:00

So last weekend I was pretty upset. I felt like we had exhausted all of our resources and yet we still had no answers. After I calmed down, a thought came to me. Back in early December, before we knew about Jayden's ASD doctors had talked about the potential of an MS diagnosis. I researched everything I could about MS and found out that there are 6 Pediatric MS centers in the United States. I emailed every one I could and waited to hear back from them. In late December, I heard back from one and we kept missing communication. The center would call me and leave a message, then I would call back and leave a message. Eventually, I thought her problems were heart related so I just stopped trying to get a hold of anyone. In early February, a different center emailed me back saying they had switched over their email server and just barely retrieved my email. She said to get in contact with her if I still needed assistance. I just felt like her problems were all related to her heart so I didn't respond, but I didn't erase the email. Last weekend I thought, I should just try and see if they have anything to offer us. I emailed her late Friday night and didn't think I would hear anything for awhile. Well, to my surprise the social worker emailed me first thing on Monday morning. I was completely shocked. Whats more, is that within a few hours of that email, I was on the phone with her doing their 1 1/2 hour intake interview. I figured because all her MRI's were coming back clear and no one has mentioned MS for a while I figured they would tell me there was nothing they could do. She told me she would take our information to the board and get back with me on Wednesday. Well Wednesday came and she called me back. The board decided they would like to take on her case and assigned her to a neurologist named....Ann Yeh. (pronounced YAY!) Seriously? Is this a sign? It was all I could do not to burst out in song! Although we are going in through the MS clinic, we are being seen at the Jacob's Neurological Institute. They deal with all sorts or neurological disorders. We scheduled her clinic day to be May 5 and hung up for the day. I started looking at flights and places to stay. Well, Mary, the social worker, called me back on Thursday saying that she had been approached by the research team and they would like to have Jayden be seen in a research study. This means ALL of her testing (new MRI, etc.) is covered by the study. (They are an out of network provider for us, so even though we have met our out of pocket maximum we would still need to pay 20% of all testing while there.) What's more, they are setting us up at the Ronald McDonald house AND getting our flights for $50. I feel like we are finally going to see a neurologist who really wants to get to the bottom of all this AND is skilled in complex cases.
We did see a homeopathy doctor this week as well. He had some pretty interesting things to say and $550 later we felt like he might be onto something. Unfortunately 4 days later we haven't seen any progress. (He told us by day 3 she would be tons better.) We continue to take all the nasty pills and tinctures he gave us but we don't hold out as much hope as we did after leaving his office. He was really cool and did say some pretty cool things. Oh well, at least we have the good news about NY!!

Here we are...again

2011-03-18T20:43:00.002-06:00

Well, here we are again at yet another brick wall. We are so upset and puzzled as to what is going on with Jayden. We had another x ray done (to verify that she wasn't constipated) which surprise surprise came back normal. They did a CT scan that showed nothing of significance. They had us talk to psych (saying they felt she was just anxious), neurology (which said they think it might be a nerve problem but follow up in a month or so with the neurologist), GI (which has run every single test they can think of), Rehab (who suggested PT and OT), and we asked to talk to the integrated medical team (a holistic doctor.) They ran some vitamin level tests and did the CT scan and xray, couldn't find anything and sent us on our merry way. In their hurry to send us out the door, we didn't see the integrated medicine team, actually get any PT or OT or even get anything but one dose of the new medicine they prescribed. To say we are frustrated is a bit of an understatement. When I found out they were discharging us without even letting us finish our consults or meet our "pain goals", I called our primary care doctor in tears. He was so wonderful about trying to calm me down and offered a few suggestions. He is talking with some friends of his at the Mayo Clinic in hopes that we can get a consult down there soon. Although I am so beyond frustration with Primary's and the entire 7 month experience, I have hope that we will someday find answers!

Change of Plan

2011-03-17T15:12:00.002-06:00

So we've had a bit of a change of plans. After seeing a few surgeons we just haven't felt real good about having the gall bladder out. Most of the surgeons have said that they aren't confident that the gall bladder removal will help the situation. After talking with different people and praying we really felt like that wasn't the solution. So she was admitted to the hospital yesterday with GI, neurology, pysch, cardiology, and the rehab team all on consult. Hopefully we can find some answers. So far no answers yet and we kinda took a step backwards by having to rule out a bunch of silly stuff out again. (Like constipation) Hopefully we can get some answers soon!

The Verdict...I think?

2011-03-09T21:35:00.003-07:00

So this week we have seen both our pediatrician and Dr. Karnam (the GI doctor). The consensus of the two is that we should see a surgeon about getting her gall bladder out. They both said it's "conceivable", even with no definitive test results to say that the gall bladder is definitely the cause of her problems. Jayden's HIDA scan results were at 63% which is in the realm of normal for an adult but were low for an adolescent. We switched a few of her meds around, but still no changes in her pain levels. The problem with surgery is obviously her blood thinners so we are still waiting to hear if Dr. Sorensen is willing to allow her to use an injectable blood thinner that is used before surgery. We meet with a surgeon on Monday to talk a bit more about that option. We are a bit leary about if it will work but we are willing to try anything at this point!

Another Day...Another Doctor

2011-03-05T22:53:00.002-07:00

I used to read blogs with people who had sick kids and I would think, "what about the rest of their family? Don't they have anything positive or non sick kid related to blog about?" I am eating my thoughts these days. I have so much I would like to blog about but it seems as this has taken over our lives. So much of every part of my day is spent researching, calling new doctors, getting advice from others, or doctor visit, doctor calls, or procedures.
Once we see a new doctor, I leave with a pretty good feeling but then I start to over think things and want answers immediately. I know those answers don't come until after everything else has been eliminated but I would have thought that by now they have done every test imaginable...yet still no answers.
On Thursday we had the endoscopy done. At this visit Jayden was down to 102 pounds. I was hoping that it would show there was an ulcer, they would cauterize it and we would be on our way to getting better. Unfortunately, that was not the case. She did have two small tears in the stomach but he didn't quite classify them as ulcers yet. That would not be the cause of her pain. The only information we gained from the EGD was that her stomach is not emptying properly. The last time she ate was 19 hours before her scope and her stomach was still full of bile. Potentially that could still be a gall bladder function problem, but with the test results being "subjective", it doesn't really make a good case for gall bladder removal. He did take some biopsy's but I am guessing they will come back normal, just like every test or blood test has so far.
I happened to have one of my parents of a child this year be a pediatrician and he suggested that we meet with our pediatrician again. He said that given the little information he has, he would make the assumption that the neurological stuff and the GI stuff are related. There are apparently a few more rare childhood diseases that affect both. His suggestion was to try and get our pediatrician to admit her as an inpatient so that the neurological team and the GI team can "pow wow" together to try to find out what is going on.
To date:
Loss of 32 pounds
Hair falling out
"sallow" skin look
bloated
gets chills, but no fever. Like literally her teeth are chattering.
NONE of the 6 medications they have put her on have worked. Not even the zofran.
Tried reglan, anti spasm medication, dexilant (like a suped up prilosec), anti nausea. None of them work.
Bruising (which is typical for being on blood thinners) but with pea size lumps underneath the bruise. I don't know what that is all about.
Her pain is the worst when she wakes up, and stays for hours.
She has pain as soon as she has eaten about 3 or 4 bites, but forces herself to eat more. Then the pain continues for about an hour after eating.
Pain starts in the upper abdomen and radiates out both sides and through her back. Lately it has even been moving past her belly button to her lower abdomen.
Pretty much if she is awake, she is in pain.
Any other suggestions? I feel like we are trying all we can to get answers and are meeting a brick wall at every place we turn!

Yet Another Update

2011-02-24T20:54:00.002-07:00

So much more to blog about...yet this is what is constantly on our mind! Jayden had her surgery this week and everything went as planned. Her surgery was on Tuesday and we arrived at the hospital at 9. We had to get some additional blood tests run for her GI doctor so we went to the lab and then headed to the cath lab. They put in her iv and did some more blood work and then waited for them to call her up. She went into surgery at about 11:30. She was back in in our room at about 12:45. Dr Sorensen came in and talked to us about her surgery. He said he puts one type of device in about 90% of his patients. He put that device in Jayden and then didn't like the way it looked so he pulled it out and put in a helix device. Her hole was about 25 mm, which is just a little over an inch. That is a pretty substantial hole for a little heart! She has been great, a bit disappointed that her bruise isn't bigger and her leg isn't more sore. Now that we have the heart under control, we need to work on her GI problems. She has lost about 30 pounds, 15 within the last 6 weeks. Her hair is falling out, her skin is becoming "sallow", and she feels like she is going to throw up every time she eats. We have been trying to get her in to see a GI doctor and finally got her to see a great one on Monday. He ordered some more tests and we will see what those tests reveal. Hopefully we can get some answers to get her to feel better soon!
I am so grateful to all our friends and family who have been so supportive of us during this time! I can't even begin to list all the nice things people have said and done for us. It is amazing how completely true the poem "Footprints in the Sand" is. I know our Heavenly Father has carried our family through this trying time in our
lives. I know we have and are continuing to learn things that we would have not been able to learn any other way. I am so grateful that He is aware of our every need.

Another Update

2011-01-20T21:12:00.002-07:00

I know I have so much more to blog about and eventually I will try to catch up! But for now I will just update on what we have found out this week. We met with the cardiologist, Sherman Sorenson. Before we met with the doc, we had to repeat the bubble test and do some additional testing in his office. The ultrasound guy was awesome and explained everything to Jayden and I. He explained what he was looking for, what different things meant, and showed her where everything was in her heart. When we got to the agitation part, he described what was normal and abnormal before he started the test so we knew what we were looking for. Based on the results of those tests we found out that she does not have a PFO but an ASD. A PFO is something that everyone is born with that is used in utero. Within the first 2 years of life it is supposed to close. If it doesn't, it creates a small "trapdoor" to allow blood clots and unfiltered blood to pass through this hole. An ASD is a hole in the wall between the top two chambers of the heart. This defect allows "dirty" blood to bypass the lungs and go straight into the other chamber of the heart and be recirculated within the blood stream and to the brain. This "dirty" blood causes a host of neurological symptoms and migraines.
There isn't truly a large difference between the two and the surgery is exactly the same. Jayden has a severe ASD but we won't know the exact diameter until surgery. We have tenatively scheduled it for Feb. 22. She will stay overnight in the hospital and come home the next day if all goes well. It is SO nice to know that there is something wrong and she is not just "crazy", and that most if not all of her symptoms should disappear after the closure.
Last night Jayden and I were talking about how grateful we are for this diagnosis. I am sure if we had not been given different the potential MS diagnosis first it would have been much scarier. I know that we have truly been blessed to have gifted doctors who continue to search for answers. I am grateful that we have had this growing experience and everything that we have had to go through to get to this point. (There is no way I would have said the same thing 3 months ago!!)
It seems like surgery is so far away but it doesn't really bother us. We are willing to wait to have a skilled surgeon perform this amazingly simple heart surgery and are looking forward to being able to hopefully get our lives back to normal soon!

New Update

2010-12-14T21:06:00.002-07:00

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

2010-11-17T15:41:00.003-07:00

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

2010-10-23T10:23:00.002-06:00

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

2010-10-23T10:16:00.002-06:00

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

2010-10-23T09:58:00.004-06:00

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

2010-09-12T21:23:00.002-06:00

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

2010-07-13T21:36:00.005-06:00

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!

2010-05-30T17:21:00.002-06:00

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?

2010-05-22T20:23:00.002-06:00

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!

2010-05-22T20:17:00.002-06:00

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!!

2010-05-22T20:10:00.002-06:00

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

2010-05-22T20:04:00.003-06:00

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

2010-05-22T19:57:00.002-06:00

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!

2010-05-22T19:52:00.002-06:00

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

2010-04-09T08:38:00.003-06:00

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!

2010-04-09T08:36:00.001-06:00

Primary Teachers

2010-04-03T19:23:00.002-06:00

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!!!

2010-03-30T16:25:00.000-06:00

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

Middle Child Syndrome

2010-03-30T16:12:00.000-06:00

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!!

2010-03-17T17:09:00.002-06:00

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

2010-03-17T17:05:00.002-06:00

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!

2010-03-17T16:52:00.003-06:00

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?

2010-02-11T22:04:00.003-07:00

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

2010-01-10T18:32:00.002-07:00

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

2010-01-01T09:06:00.002-07:00

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?

2010-01-01T09:05:00.002-07:00

You decide!

Why I love this girl

2009-12-31T10:35:00.001-07:00

She already knows that the shoes make the outfit!!!

2009-11-24T15:46:00.002-07:00

So this isn't a thankful post...just wanted to jot this cute thing down before I forgot!
My sister, Nicole, is fostering this cute baby boy named Taedin. He is super cute and in talking to the kids about him we made mention of the fact that he was half black/half white. I stated it that way because I wasn't sure if his mom was white and dad was black or visa versa. Anyway, Chloe and I were going to babysit him this morning while Nicole went to PT. So before Taedin came Chloe said, "Even if Taedin isn't cute we are going to like him anyway, right?" I was thinking, "Where is this coming from?" But I was glad that she was thinking about the fact that she would like him regardless of what he looked like. So Taedin gets to our house and Chloe falls in love with him and is playing really cute with him. Pretty soon I saw her pull up his shirt to look at his back. I was a little confused and then she said, "Mom, you said he was half black and half white but really he is just brown all over!" Apparently Chloe was thinking quite literally but had decided she would love him regardless of if he was "half black and half white." Next time I will need to be more specific with her! Too funny!

2009-11-21T13:36:00.002-07:00

I am so not good at posting every day. It seems like there is always something that pulls me in another direction. Oh well....I am trying!
I am grateful for jobs today. It seems that so many people we know have been laid off or had their income reduced. Although my numbers are down this year I am grateful that I have enough students this year to continue to make money each month. I am grateful for Trent's job and can't be grateful enough that he works for such a large company who can withstand the recession. I am grateful for the knowledge I have that if we pay our tithing we will be blessed. I know that times can still be hard and we still might have financial struggles but I am grateful that we can be assured that we will be taken care of.
I am grateful for each of my children. I am grateful for Annabelle's expanded vocabulary. It seems like every day she is saying more and more. I am grateful that because she can verbalize what she wants a little more she is happier and not quite so grouchy.
I am grateful for my "helper" Chloe. She is such a great helper to me at school. Some might call it bossy...but she is great about taking charge and helping out. I am grateful that she is there to help me in the morning.
I am grateful for life and MY trials. I am grateful for a patient and loving Father in Heaven who knows what I need and how to help me achieve what he has in store for me.

2009-11-13T21:40:00.002-07:00

I knew it couldn't last long...alas I have failed my task of posting something grateful everyday in the first week! Oh well...I am back today.
Today I am grateful for my wonderful parents of my great school kids. We had parent teacher conferences today and I loved talking to each of them. I seriously have the best support in them. I am grateful for the chance I get to know them and their sweet children. I have enjoyed many wonderful friendships that have started with parents of students in my class.
I am grateful for Coleman. He is such a sweet and loving kid. He is always thinking of others and is so kind. Earlier this week I was kinda stressing about what needed to get done this week. Coleman just said, "Mom, do you need me to massage your back?" and proceeded to give me a great back massage/back scratch. What 9 year old boy does that for his mom? Mine does!
I am grateful for warm weather....and sad that it is coming to an end! But with that said, I am grateful for snuggly blankets and hot chocolate that will help us through the day tomorrow!

2009-11-10T13:10:00.003-07:00

Two days in a row!! Look at me!!!! I am grateful today that I remembered/had the time to post again today! I am grateful for sleeping babies (which is why I get to post in the middle of the day!!) I am grateful for my dad. We did not always see eye to eye while I was growing up...In fact I really didn't like him much to be honest. He was always so uptight and grouchy....I just didn't like being around him. That all changed when he retired. My dad is now the "mom" I always wanted. We have weekly lunch dates and today was our weekly lunch date. I love when I pulled up next to my dad's car both Chloe and Annabelle started shrieking for their "papa." I am grateful that they love him so much. I am grateful that our relationship has changed and grown into what it is today. I am grateful for his help in my life. Whether it is to come rescue me from a car that wont start to bringing me something when I am sick....I am forever grateful for our relationship. I love you "Papa!" Actually....we all do!!

2009-11-09T21:42:00.001-07:00

Call me a slacker....I know. I am a terrible blogger. I didn't even get pictures of my kids on Halloween to post. In my defense, Jayden is of the age that dressing up was not such a big deal. Chloe looked through all of our old Halloween costumes and decided to be the same poodle she was last year. Last year Chloe and Annabelle had matching poodle outfits and Chloe wanted them to be matching again this year. I figured Annabelle didn't care...so what the heck!! I guess I could just post some from last year for them.....Ha ha. Coleman actually had a pretty cool costume this year. Unfortunately for him the Monday before Halloween he came down with the flu. He was out all week...even missed his school Halloween party I planned! We thought he was better for trick or treating. He started to go with some neighborhood friends and started coughing so hard he threw up. After half a block he came home, winded and complaining he couldn't breathe. We gave him a few puffs of Trent's inhaler and took him to the doctor to find out he had pnuemonia....Needless to say not a very productive Halloween!
To get ready for the upcoming Thanksgiving/Christmas season I thought I would try to post a few things I am grateful for each day. (Try is the key word there!!!)
Today.....I am grateful for my family. I am grateful that each day Annabelle learns new things and new words. These past few weeks she puts anything to her ear and pretends its a phone. Cds, cars, even a tootbrush have been used. She is ever the jabermouth now and we love watching her grow. I am grateful for a patient family who puts up with my mood swings and nagging. I am far from perfect in any way shape or form but my family puts up with my weaknesses and helps me grow each day. I love them all for that!
I could go on and on about my family but maybe I will take one family member a day...Don't want to use all my thankfulness in one day!!

It's Fall!

2009-10-03T22:33:00.003-06:00

Last Sunday we took a drive to see the leaves changing colors. It was the perfect fall day. First we drove up East Canyon. It was BEAUTIFUL! The view from the top was amazing. We took a little hike and then decided we wanted to see more of our beautiful mountains.

After we drove down East Canyon we went to East Millcreek. Although the leaves weren't quite so pretty, there was more places to stop and enjoy our beautiful mountains and the fresh air.

Although we are not ready for snow... Fall is a great time of year!

2009-09-10T13:12:00.002-06:00

No pictures to go along with this post but yesterday was Jayden's first soccer game with Evergreen's soccer team. She was able to score 1 goal and had several assists. Too bad we missed it. Jayden didn't think she was going to get to play so she told me not to come. When I found out not only had she played but she scored I was kinda peeved. I guess the lesson learned is that we need to come to all her games regardless of if she thinks she is playing or not! While I am posting about Jayden I might as well tell you what else is going on with that busy girl!
Jayden plays on two soccer teams (school and a rec team) dances two days a week with a studio and also at school, goes to young womens, and hangs out with friends. It is miraculous but we do get to see her occasionally too. Although she didn't make dance company this year she was voted to be a chorographer for advanced dance. She has been busy chorographing an awesome dance for the fall rectital.
Coleman has recently discovered The Lightening Theif series. He read the first one in a few days and finished the seccond one in only one day. He is still doing kung fu with a belt test in a few short weeks. He is also busy with scouts and is excited for basketball season to start.
Chloe loves kindergarten! She is a little obsessed with the principal's office. She is constantly telling me things she will get sent to the principal's office for. No matter that the principal is actually quite nice and grandmotherly but apparently she has watched too much tv that tells her the principal's office is a bad thing.
Annabelle is doing better. Two trips to the drs office since our release from the hospital has not found anything new yet. White blood cell count is still higher than it should be and she is still tired with a low grade fever and not feeling great but way better than before.
Influenza has hit our house with myself, Chloe, Jayden, and possibly Annabelle sick. Fortunately Chloe Annabelle and I are on our way to feeling better. Let's hope that Jayden gets better in a few days and that no one else gets it!!

2009-08-30T22:29:00.002-06:00

We knew it would have to happen at some point in time but I don't think a parent is ever prepared for what we just went through. Brace yourselves, this will be a long post. Annabelle has had rotten luck with her kidneys for about a year now. She had her first UTI when she was 5 months old and has had more UTIs than I can count now. (At least 8 that I can think of.) Her signs are always the same. High fever, lethargic and wants to be held constantly. I always know when she gets a fever she will have a UTI. On Sunday August 14 I noticed that Annabelle had a low grade fever. I figured she was getting some teeth and didn't really think about it. She had been pretty whiney lately but I just chalked it up to being a youngest child and almost 2. Each day I noticed her fever was getting a little higher but it didn't really concern me that much. Once it reached 102 i figured we better go to get the urine sample. Went to the dr and they didn't want to do the catheter. We put the bad on and waited....and waited....and waited. 2 1/2 hours later they were getting ready to leave and still Annabelle wouldn't pee in the bag. They sent us to Primary's and I decided there was no way I was going to go there at 9:30 at night. I decided to go to Kids Care who will do a cath. So on we went. Her intial urine came back postive for UTI so we got the antibiotic and went on our merry way. Next day rolls around and still Annabelle is not feeling good. By this point in time her fever is varying between 102-104 and she is needing to be held 24/7 no exaggeration. Thursday comes and goes and still no sign of improvement. We go back to the dr. on Friday who looked at her urine culture and sees that no growth is happening with the culture. By this point in time her fever is hovering around 105. She is a sick little girl. She had stopped eating or drinking and was terribly upset all the time. Nothing would soothe her and she was just miserable. The dr looked at her and said, "I can run a whole bunch of tests here but if I find anything unusual I will have to send her to primarys and they will run the same tests all over again. Lets save some time and tears and send you up now." So on we went to the ER. The resident who came in to see us was a joke. First she thought that it was "just a virus". Fever for 5 days now and just a virus. Then she looked in her mouth and said, "Oh it looks like she is cutting teeth, I think we have found the source of the fever." Um really? 105 fever with teething? Finally they do a CBC which shows her white blood cell count to be over 20000. (Extremely high for a small child) They do a CT scan of her neck and find swollen lymph nodes. The resident comes back and says oh it looks like she has tonsilitis. Switches antibiotics and sends us home after 8 hours. Says to follow up with our dr the next day. So we do. Even after the switch of anti biotics she is still worse. (i know hard to believe) By this point in time she is really no more than a bump on a log. She is hardly moving and sleeping pretty much non stop. Fever is 105 and just generally she is miserable. Not eating or drinking at all. The dr looks at her and questions why the ER didn't admit her. He tells us that this is the kind of thing he sends kids to the hospital for...not the other way around! He sends us back up, hoping they will admit us this time.
Fortunately for us they do. They do some more blood work hook her to some iv fluids and anti biotics and start asking us questions. They originally thought she had something called Kawasaki Disease. In a nutshell it causes heart disease in young children if not caught in time. It felt like we were in a rush against the clock. After some more blood work and lots of prayers we found out that she did not have all the markers necissary for the diagnosis. By this point in time she was starting to respond to the antibiotics. Her fever had broken and she was starting to act a little better. She was still not eating or drinking but was starting to smile (we hadn't seen that for over a week.) and be awake for longer periods of time. By day 5 in the hospital they decided that she wasn't going to eat or drink normally at the hospital. The threat of a feeding tube loomed over us but fortunately the drs took pity on her and let her come home. We still don't know what made our baby girl so sick but we are grateful for antibiotics and the availablility we have to them. Thank heavens it was only a nasty infection that caused all this drama and not something more life threatening. We are glad to have our sweet Annabelle back. She is still a little tired but no more fevers and she is back (almost) to her normal self.

I couldn't bring myself to bring up my camera until after she was responding to the anti biotics. She was hooked up to too many machines and ivs and I didn't want to remember her that way!

This picture is on the day we left. She still has her iv in (but not hooked up) but other than that she was free to run around. She loved the play room and by this day she didn't want to stay in her room. If we even came close to the door she would start to freak out. She knew drs and nurses would poke her and mess with her in there!

2009-08-30T22:10:00.003-06:00

So I am just oing to post what I can right now. Later I might post about our summer...but for now I thought I would get the first day of school pictures up! This year our first day of school was a bit different. After an awful lot of thinking it was decided that Trent was going to stay up at the hospital with Annabelle and I would sleep at home with the kids and get them off to school on time. It was a little weird but everyone got up on time and was excited to start the new year. Jayden was glad not to be a "sevie" anymore. Coleman was excited to be in the same class with a lot of his friends and Chloe spent the first day doing an assessment with her teacher, Mrs. Neely. She was very excited to be going to school with the kids too although she doesn't really start until next week.

Jayden with her lunch and the much stressed about first day of school outfit...

What do you do to get ready for school? Play nintendo dsi of course!

Chloe ready to meet her new teacher. She is SO excited to go to kindergarten.

All three kids ready for school....just one missing :(

Just Coleman and Jayden.

2009-08-15T17:19:00.003-06:00

I am a terrible blogger I know! I want to blog about a ton of stuff that has happened recently but I have yet to get the camera hooked up to the computer. Lame excuse I know but its the truth! One of these days soon I will post what we have been up to this summer!

A few of my favorite pictures....

2009-07-05T14:21:00.003-06:00

Annabelle is in love with necterines. I think she eats 2 or 3 each day. I am happy to see that she likes something healthy because her other favorite foods are cheetos, chocolate, goldfish, and diet coke.
So we were out late one night and Chloe fell asleep on the way home. I had her sit on the potty before we put her in bed. I left the bathroom and then came back to find this....She was full on asleep!!!
So you can't see this one so well but I love this picture for a few reasons. First, her hair is sticking up all over! Second, this is her favorite car! It belongs to our sweet neighbors who let her borrow it frequently. I need to get her one! Last but not least, she is folding her arms. Something she does randomly all day long. I love this girl!!

2009-07-02T09:43:00.003-06:00

Happy Birthday Coleman! I can't believe that Coleman is 9 now! We are trying to teach Coleman the value of a dollar. (Trying is the key word there...it's not working out so well.) So this year we gave Coleman a dollar amount of what we were going to spend and let him figure out how he wanted to spend it. He decided that he wanted to buy a DSi. (We have already had two DS and lost them both but whatever....) He was very patient when it didn't come in the mail on his actual birthday. But was very excited when it came yesterday. I don't think he has put it down except for to sleep. (Although I did catch him trying to sneak it into bed...) Some things I love about Coleman are:
* He is always thinking of others.
* He loves to cuddle.
* He is always trying to figure out how things work.
* He loves to be different. I think thats why he loves his mohawk so much...
* He is very tender hearted.
* Things roll off his back quickly.
* He is determined. Some people call it stubborn...I call it determination.
* He makes us laugh.

Coleman thinks very differently than I do. I have had to struggle to understand what is going on inside that head of his sometimes. But he is the kindest boy I know and I think that my stuggle to understand him as helped me to love him more and more each day! We love you Coleman. Happy Birthday a few days late!

2009-07-02T09:31:00.004-06:00

Once again I have been a total slacker. I keep thinking I am waiting to upload pictures so I will post when I upload. Then time slips away from me and I don't do it. So I figured I would post a few things that have been happening and post the pictures later.
Our sassy Chloe....what can I say about her? Oh man we are in for it with her! She is going to give us a run for our money. Last week our cute neighbor told us that he saw Chloe walking down the street in a baseball hat. Here is the conversation that followed:
"Hi Chloe."
In a deep(er) voice: "I'm not Chloe. I am her brother Zach."
"Where's Chloe?"
"Oh she got in trouble, she's in time out."
So if you see "Zach" you will know that Chloe is probably in big trouble!

Same sassy pants had a friend over and wasn't sharing very well. I had her come upstairs so I could give her the talk. I said, "Chloe, look at me." And went in on my schpell about how the guest gets to chose what we do and ya da da. I finished my lecture and Chloe says, "I didn't even look at you...I looked at the ceiling! And turned and walked off! I tell you...we are in for it with her!!!

We had some sad news in our family these past few weeks. Our beloved dog, Duke has left us. After several years of trying to get his allergies under control we were forced with the decision to either take him to get allergy testing and shots or put him down. We had tried special shampoos, special diets, and many a trip to the vet all to no avail. Sadly we opted for the humane society with the hope that someone could help him to get better. Cute Coleman said, "I wish they had dog fax...you know like carfax for dogs?" We wished they had that too!!!

Do not mess with a sleeping child!

2009-05-31T14:19:00.002-06:00

2009-05-31T14:17:00.000-06:00

Do you think it is time for a diaper change?

Chocolate anyone?

2009-05-31T14:15:00.001-06:00

Serious chocolate fiend!!!

Chloe's birthday

2009-05-31T13:25:00.009-06:00

Chloe will always remember her 5th birthday....just not for the reasons I would hope. She will always remember that her mom didn't take enough pictures, didn't make the day quite as special as it should have been. Alas the birthday celebrations were crippled by a mom who had to rely heavily on everyone else to make it happen. Sorry Chloe, next year will be better I promise!
Here are the few pictures of the birthday party. Chloe decided that she wanted a make over party. She wanted to have a nail salon, make up station, and hair styling. For party favors we found some cute purses and filled them with mirrors, lip gloss, and nail polish for all 15 girls.

Chloe with her birthday friends:

The new bike. Funny story #1. All of Chloe's presents (with the exception of the bike) were wrapped by Trent's chair. Chloe walked past... then turned back around when it dawned on her that those were HER presents. "Mom, you forgot to wrap one!!" Hmmm... I wonder why?

One of Chloe's favorite presents was her own bottle of perfume! She has been saving her money for her own bottle of perfume. By the day's end...half the bottle was gone. Needless to say she loved it!

Funny story #2. There is a yummy snow cone place by our house called Surf Shack. Sadly every September we say goodbye to Surf Shack goodness and anxiously await its summer arrival. This year Surf Shack opened early (May 15th). We could hardly wait and talked about it often with our friends. One such friend, Tabi, loves Surf Shack too and gave Chloe aSurf Shack gift certificate for her birthday present. This picture was taken upon opening the gift certificate. She was a little excited about it!

If it ain't broke....but it is

2009-05-20T21:32:00.002-06:00

May 14 was a momentous day in the Moss household. First and foremost Chloe turned 5 years old. I can't believe that all 31 pounds of her is that old! She would have preferred to jump from 4 to 14 but alas that could not happen. She was very excited to wake up and find her very own 2 wheeler as well as some other fun presents. Unfortunately that bike had to be taken back and a new one purchased but she was still excited to see it sitting in the front room when she awoke.
After a yummy breakfast and taking the kids to school we came back home to get ready for the day. We were planning on taking the bike back to Toys R Us and getting a new one, picking up one of Chloe's best friends and then going to lunch with my dad and sister. After getting the bike and Annabelle in the car I ran inside to get something else from inside. ( I don't even remember what it was now.) I was hustling down the front stairs when suddenly I was on the ground! I apparently forgot how to walk down the stairs. After sitting on the stairs for a minute I thought I was okay. We hobbled to Toys R Us, picked up Tabi, and met my dad at Chili's. By the time we got to Chili's I was in severe pain. We figured it was time to go get an x ray and low and behold I broke my foot in 3 places. One of the breaks is borderline for needing surgery. They will re x ray it in 4 weeks to find out for sure. I am supposed to be completely non weight bearing for that wohle 4 weeks. What great way to start our summer!!!! Everyone (especially Trent) has been AWESOME about picking up the slack. We have even had people bringing us dinner for the past week! Maybe I could break the other one too.....I could get used to all this pampering!

2009-04-25T22:27:00.003-06:00

Last but not least I thought I would share our final San Diego story. Our flight did not leave until 4:00. We got up and got packed and headed south to the airport. We wanted to find someplace to eat lunch and then go to the temple but we ended up finding the temple first. We didn't have a map and I wasn't sure what was right around the temple and I didn't want to get lost. We decided to head down the i-5 and see what we could find. Pretty soon we came upon Old Town. I thought, "Oh this will be fun. We can walk around for a minute and get some great mexican food." The kids thought, "Mexican? We don't want Mexican!!" We were all a little beyond hungry and were just looking for some place to eat. Burger King, Wendy's, McDonald's were top on the list of kids choices. Chipotle was on the adults list but we settled on IHOP. We sat down, ordered our food, and then I happened to look out the window. Larry Flint's Hustler Club logo was staring right back at me. Good thing it was one o'clock in the afternoon....WRONG! Not more than 5 minutes later two "hoochie mammas" came walking out of the club carrying signs that read "Tax relief inside. Get your extention here." (It was April 15.) Chloe was completely amazed by the "real life barbie doll" who was standing in front of our window! Coleman kept looking over at her. We were trying to get everyone to hurry and eat so we could get out of there. After the 3rd time I told Coleman just not to look over. "But I am just trying to read the sign, mom." I am sure that if I ever find a play boy he will tell me "I am just reading the articles, mom."

Last Vacation post

2009-04-25T21:57:00.006-06:00

Just a few random pictures from San Diego. The kids liked to dance in Sherrie's living room. They were dancing to the soundtrack of Mamma Mia in these pictures.

Annabelle is a chocoholic....
Jayden was way excited to go to In n Out burger, although it wasn't all it was cracked up to be...
At the airport...Chloe could be considered carryon! Why did we buy her a ticket again?
Jayden and Sherrie looking for sea shells...
Chloe in my sunglasses....
Chloe found this bear at Sherries. She carried it around with her every where she went for a few days. I was very greatful we didn't lose it!
Annabelle trying to wake up Trent...
Annabelle trying to put on my sunglasses...

Trent and Coleman outside of the San Diego temple...
Our family outside of the temple...
Sweet Annabelle giving Sherrie a kiss... (She is very stingy with those kisses.)
Giving daddy loves...

Sea World

2009-04-25T21:38:00.004-06:00

Sea world was fun. We saw the Shamu show and much to Coleman's dismay did not get very wet, even though we were sitting in the "soak zone". We touched star fish, saw dolphins, and went on a few rides. The high light of everyone's day was definately Dine with Shamu. (Yes we did fork out THAT much money to eat dinner at Sea World.) It was really cool to be that close to a killer whale.

After the dinner some sea gulls wanted to clean up. They were waiting very patiently on the ledge for us to leave. Cheap help I guess!
While I was desperately trying to get some good pictures of the whale, Annabelle was desperately trying to get my dessert. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we were both successful!

Easter Fun

2009-04-25T21:10:00.004-06:00

I started to realize that if I posted all the pictures I wanted....I would be posting about this trip for the next 5 months. It might not seem like it but I am trying to be selective in my pictures to post.
Easter was a great day in San Diego. It was the first day that it was sunny all day long. We started the morning by having an easter egg hunt for the kids. Sherrie has an awesome yard for hiding eggs...some were hidden so well we almost didn't find them!
Jayden being a dork finding her eggs....
Coleman with his easter goodies. Some of the eggs that were hidden had clues that led to a few little easter goodies.
Chloe with some of her Easter goodies....
The girls in their easter dresses....
Chloe looking for her eggs....
Coleman looking for his eggs....

Annabelle (aka awesome bedhed) and Trent looking for eggs....
After the easter egg hunt we went to the beach with Travis. Sherrie stayed home to cook a yummy Easter dinner. Thanks Sherrie and Travis for helping us feel at home!

The Beach

2009-04-22T22:12:00.006-06:00

So the weather wasn't fantastic for the beach but we made a go of it anyway. The first day we tried the beach only Coleman and Chloe were brave enough to put on their suits and head into the water. It was freezing but they didn't seem to mind too much. The second day we hit the beach we were able to go with Trent's cousin, Travis. It was fun to spend some time with him, Trent only sees him every few years.
I love this picture...such a classic bum shot....
Jayden can't even put that phone down when she is in the ocean!!

This swimming suit just makes me want to break out in song..."It was an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini..."Annabelle did not like the sand unless we were close to the water. I think it was hard for her to walk in it and she didn't like to feel it between her toes. Finally after a few hours at the beach she decided that sand wasn't so bad...We had to leave like 10 minutes later. Good thing our entire play area in the backyard is covered in sand.
Coleman had a blast in the sand. He built sand castle after sand castle, dug in the sand, and just entertained himself for hours. Too bad we don't live closer to a beach... my life would be a whole lot easier with him!

So right after we got to the beach of course Chloe had to go the potty. Trent told her to go in the ocean. She ran to the ocean, got into the water up to her ankles and started to pee. It was hilarious! We finally convinced her to "wash off" by sitting in the water.
When we were at Pacific Beach the birds were EVERYWHERE! They would come right up to you to try to get food. Chloe and Annabelle were both facinated by them.

Chloe and Jayden on the beach...making sand pies....

Catching some rays...
Freezing cold...but happy.....

Annabelle trying to make "sand pies" too...

Legoland

2009-04-18T19:41:00.004-06:00

Legoland was a blast. It was a little cold that day and it threatened to rain all day. The good news was that it wasn't very crowded because of the rain. Yay for us!
Here was Jayden's boyfriend...she liked his chest hair....

Chloe and Jayden wrote "I LOVE MOM!" How sweet.....

Coleman and Trent with the Legoland father and son....

The older kids with legoland mom and baby....

I was trying to get a picture of all the kids and Coleman and Chloe were fighting as usual about who would sit where. As the picture might show, Coleman got the coveted spot of the moment. Check out the lip on Chloe....
Trent was awesome about going on the rides with the kids, seeing as how my motion sickness would make me sick on any of them! On this ride each person had a water gun to squirt other boats or people that were standing around. They had a fun time squirting a sleeping Annabelle...

Coleman tried his hand at building a car to race down a ramp...
Chloe and her "boyfriend" Bob...
Chloe with the Legoland princess...
We ended up spending way more time than I thought we would so obviously they had a great time. Mini land and the driving course were the highlights of the day.

Our first day in San Diego

2009-04-17T16:12:00.005-06:00

Man was everyone excited to get out of Salt Lake and the snow! The kids were so excited to be at the airport and were oh so ansy to get on the plane. We arrived at the airport in PLENTY of time thanks to my dad who was at our house almost three hours before our flight was scheduled to take off. Fortunately we had plenty of snacks and fun things to do in our bag...that helped curb the excitement a little bit. Coleman and Chloe also met some friends at the airport. (I don't know if these "friends" helped the excitement or made it worse.) Because it had been several years since I had been on a plane, I had forgotten how much worse my motion sickness is getting over the years. I have never been so sure I was going to throw up on the plane!! After a quick stop to calm my stomach, wegot our luggage, got our car and headed for Sherrie's house. We hadn't even left the parking lot of the car rental place I looked in the back seat and saw Chloe like this:
We made it on the I-5 just in time for rush hour traffic, yay! After about an hour we made it to Sherries. She made a nice lasagna dinner (don't tell Coleman it was Marie Calendars...), and we settled in for the night. I use the term "settled" loosely:

Welcome Home!

2009-04-17T16:06:00.002-06:00

Last week we spent the week in (mostly) sunny San Diego. We had such a fun time! So fun in fact that I am going to post in like 50 different posts to get all the pictures I want on. We came home to...SNOW, a dead battery in our car, and a clogged drain in the basement. WELCOME HOME!! Can we go back now?

2009-04-03T13:54:00.002-06:00

I was busy trying to get ready yesterday when I heard laughter coming from the kids room. Annabelle laughs whenever Chloe does. Annabelle's laughter makes Chloe laugh which starts the cycle all over again. It is truly a heavenly sound to hear the two of them laughing. Anyhow I went in to see what all the laughter was about and found Annabelle had climbed (without help) into the laundry basket and thought she was the coolest thing ever!

Belt Testing

2009-04-01T22:34:00.003-06:00

So Coleman has been trying his hand at kung fu for a few months now. They had a belt test last Monday and this week he received his yellow belt in a special ceremony! Because his kung fu happens to fall on a day that I teach Trent is usually the one that takes Coleman to practice. It was fun for me to see him with his class instead of seeing him at home showing me his moves. Great job Dude!

2009-03-30T23:01:00.002-06:00

Saturday March 28
Sunday March 29
Only in Utah, right? Welcome back to winter!

Peter Pan

2009-03-28T22:49:00.004-06:00

Evergreen is well known for their drama department. (Which is one of the reasons Jayden decided to go there.) Every spring they have an awesome production and this year was no exception! This year's production was Peter Pan complete with flying Peter, Wendy, Michael, and John. It was truly exciting even though my child wasn't on until the second act. Jayden was an indian dancer and had a great time. She made many new friends and loved every minute of being on stage. She loves to perform. I need to look into voice lessons for her again. She informed me this week that she was going to try out for America's Got Talent. We will see how that goes.
These are just a few pictures of her in her costume after her last performance.
This is what Jayden looked like at the end of a performance:
This is what Coleman looked like after a performance:
Apparently not his thing?

2009-03-22T11:14:00.002-06:00

Don't ask me how this happened but my child will not let me put bows in her hair anymore! MY CHILD? This girl has had a bow or flower in her hair since the day she was born! I put one in...she takes it out. I put one in...she takes it out. This goes on for a few minutes until I finally give up! On the rare occasion that she allows me to put one in within an hour it is out. I thought it was a phase but its been several months! I don't know what to do with myself! After a few minutes of screaming she let me put this pony in. At least it looks like I tried!

Coleman St. Pattys

2009-03-22T11:09:00.003-06:00

So Coleman wanted to wear head to toe green. . .apparently he was a little concerned that someone might miss the hat, the shirt, the shorts, the socks, or the shoes. If you put them all together there is no way that anyone will miss them, right? The little girls had matching green outfits but alas I did not get a picture of them. Jayden and I had a fun day shopping for a swimming suit for San Diego! Unfortunately our shopping for swim suits was not very successful (finding cute modest swimsuits is a full time job!) but she did find some other clothes. I am grateful that we had some "girl time".

Budding Photog

2009-03-22T10:50:00.004-06:00

We have a budding photographer on our hands. Chloe is LOVING the camera. She used to love to be in front of the camera but as of late she now loves to be behind the camera. Sometimes we get pictures like this:

And sometimes we get pictures like this:

She thinks she has a future in photography......Awesome!

Draper Open House Catastrophe

2009-03-09T21:24:00.002-06:00

Sorry....still no pictures. Trent "fixed" the computer (that wasn't broken...) and I am having difficulties uploading pictures. Saved for yet another post.
So we finally went to the Draper Temple open house on Friday. The kids were out of school so we figured it was the perfect day to go. We had known for a few months that we were going but last week Jayden got invited to a birthday party in Deer Valley so she wasn't going to be able to go. I was kinda bummed but I figured I would still take the other kids. So the night before Coleman was up half the night complaining that his stomach hurt. Coleman is the king of crying wolf. I never know when to believe him or not. For whatever reason my children have decided lately that our basement is a scary place to be by themselves. My children (although they each have their own bed) all sleep in Jayden's bed every night together. I figured Coleman was just being scared because Jayden wasn't downstairs with them. Well he woke up Friday morning saying his stomach still hurt. I asked him if he still wanted to go to the open house and he said he did. We got there and no sooner did we sit down for the movie at the wardhouse then he told me his stomach was hurting again. I knew it probably hurt a little but figured he would be okay. He was fine on the bus ride to the temple but started complaining again when we got to the baptismal font. I was thinking to myself, "I didn't drive all the way out here for nothing...we are going to see the temple gosh dang it!" We continued on with Coleman complaining and my consoling him telling him it wouldn't be much longer. We got to the ordinance rooms and I could tell he didn't feel good. I told him we would wait until we saw the next volunteer and then we would ask if there was another way out. Coleman's face was white as a ghost while I asked the nice woman for the fast track out. She informed me that if we made it past the turn there was an elevator that we could use to get down to the first floor again. We made it to the turn when Coleman couldn't hold it any more. Vomit came out of his mouth..he was trying so hard to keep it in. He started to throw up on the pamphlet and then it just couldn't hold it all. Fortunately we were on the plastic covering so it didn't stain anything. The nice volunteer went to go get something to clean him and the floor up while probably a hundred people walked by. One woman had the nerve to ask me to clean it up with Annabelle's blanket!!! I couldn't believe it! Seriously? Poor Coleman had tears rolling down his checks he was totally embarrased! (And so was I!) Lesson learned I guess...for both of us! Needless to say...we didn't get any pictures of us at the temple that day!

2009-03-03T22:09:00.002-07:00

Wow today I have alot to be grateful for. (well everyday I do but today I am much more appreciative of what I have.)
First and formost I am so completely grateful for four healthy children. For anyone who has been following Gracie's blog knows that she was welcomed back into her Heavenly Father's arms yesterday. Although I have never met her or her family I have not been able to get them out of my mind. I think I originally found their story so endering because Annabelle and Gracie were so close in age and the youngest of four children. I can not stop thinking about what if that was my child. Could I be as brave in the face of adversity as this courageous family? I'd like to think so but I am pretty sure my answer is no. This mom is an amazing source of strength and faith. It is unbelievable to me how she survives! Here I am sitting on my pitty pot of Annabelle being sick...and this mom is dealing with the impending death of her almost one year old. I cannot even fathome her faith. But as I sit and ponder about this family, I have renewed gratitude for the plan of salvation. I am grateful that we can be together again after this life. I would be heartbroken if one of my children passed away in this life before me but I am grateful for the knowledge that I know I will see them again. How tragic it would be if I did not know these things. I keep thinking of when I was pregnant with Jayden my mom was teaching first grade. She had a girl in her class who had an anyerism (i know i spelled that wrong.) in her sleep and died. In Jewish custom they believe that the last mitzvah (kind thing) you can do for your loved ones is to bury them with your own hands. Instead of having the cemetery personnal move the dirt back on the coffin, each person at the funeral takes part in shoveling the dirt on their loved one. Also Jews do not believe in an after life. They believe that this life is all you get. I was at the funeral of this sweet innocent 6 year old. To hear the first shovel full of dirt drop on the coffin is still the most haunting hollow sound I have ever heard in my life. I can still 14 years later remember with sadness the heartwrenching sound. I hope I will never have to bury one of my children but I cannot imagine burying my child thinking I would never see them again. I am grateful for each day I have with my children. Because of Grace I will be a little more kind, a little more patient, give a few more hugs and a little less judgement. I have been reminded again how fragile life is. I am trying to live each day to the fullest.

Amazing Faith

2009-02-28T22:19:00.003-07:00

So these past few weeks with Annabelle being so sick I have been sort of feeling overwhelmed by the amount of care she has been needing. I have felt like I haven't been able to stay on top of anything...laundry....housework....school stuff...even keeping up with what the other kids need. I came across this blog today and realized I have NOTHING to complain about. I have four children who are healthy (for the most part) and all I can say is wow.....unbelievable the amount of faith this family has!
http://thegledhillfamily.blogspot.com/2009/02/bad-dream.html

Poor baby!!

2009-02-23T22:15:00.002-07:00

So in my last post I said I thought Annabelle was so tired at her party...it turns out she was just sick! She started running a low grade fever that night and by tuesday it had spiked to 103. Tuesday afternoon I decided to take her in to be seen because she was acting the way she does with her uti. They put in a catheter and pulled a urine sample. The preliminary came back postive so they sent me on my way with some antibiotics. She started doing better but somehow the bottle spilled on my bed (don't ask how) and so I called to get the prescription filled again. They said the culture came back clean so there was no need for another prescription. In the mean time poor Annabelle kept getting sicker and sicker. She didn't want anything except for to be held 24/7. (No exaggeration!!) I set her down so I could take a shower on Thursday, terrible mother, and she was throwing such a fit she chipped her tooth on the side of the bathtub. An emergency trip to the dentist later that day turned into a disaster. Me holding her as still as I can while screaming bloody murder. The dentist trying desperately to bond a filling in the chipped spot. All to no avail....the filling came out seconds after we finished. By Friday poor baby had a fever of 105.7. Even alternating the tylenol and motrin didn't bring her fever down much so onto the dr we went yet again. This time he thought she might have roseola so she should be better in a few days. If not, come back in. The weekend went terrible. Fever up and down but NO sleep whatsoever...for any of us. Finally I took her back to the doctor today and...she has pnemonia....poor baby!!!! Hopefully the new medication will work wonders quickly because we are all wishing she was back to her happy Annabelle self!

Birthdays and more birthdays

2009-02-16T22:22:00.003-07:00

For Annabelles birthday we weren't really going to do anything. We opened her presents at our house on her birthday. (A new carseat and tons of new clothes.) I thought we might just celebrate by having my parents over for Sunday dinner as usual. Then we thought that Trent's parents might like to come. I have a very dear friend who watches Annabelle while I teach and I thought that we should probably invite her and her two boys. (These boys are her brothers from her other mother.) From there it just kind of ballooned to aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Fortunately we were able to talk to Heather at the gym and get a great deal on renting it. The kids (and parents) had a blast. The kids made a huge tower of mats probably 10 feet tall and took turns jumping into the pit. Chloe followed Kenzie and her friends around the whole night. (Sorry Kenz!) All in all everyone had a great time and it was fun to get everyone together. So much better than having everyone squished in our tiny house!

Annabelle in checking out her new carseat. She was so over the rear facing seat and is in heaven now in the car. For the first couple of car rides all I heard was laughter. She thought she was getting away with something huge! Oh PS we have a budding photographer on our hands. Chloe started taking pictures while Annabelle was opening presents and wouldn't give the camera back. We have great pictures of the wall, a hand, or even Coleman's nose but not too many of Annabelle opening her presents!
Annabelle and her new shoes. She carried them around all night. Thats my girl!!

Annabelle and her big sis Jayden.
This was the look she had through most of the party. She was sooooo tired but was a trooper!
This is how Annabelle spent most of the evening....being carried by someone. Who am I kidding? This is how she spends the majority of her life!!
Annabelle and her "other mother", Stephanie. Thanks Steph for being so good to our pickle!
!

2009-02-11T22:43:00.003-07:00

I should probably wait to update until I have pictures but oh well....I am updating! So last week we started registration for my preschool. Monday was our first day of registration and it was CRAZY! I got there at 8 and there were already six cars waiting for me. Jenny got there at 8:30 with all the registration stuff and she got to work. (Thanks for that by the way!!) I continued to get my stuff ready for the day and then realized I left a few things in the car. I walked outside to find shattered glass EVERYWHERE!!! Both mine and Jenny's cars had the windows smashed out and bags taken. Fortunately for us...nothing too valuable was taken. My "cute" pink camera was in a bag that was taken as well as Chloe's dance bag (go figure...). Jenny's bag was turned into a police station a few hours later but alas my stuff has yet to be found. :( On the upside....we learned we have fantastic insurance. They came to my school and replaced my window and cleaned up the glass. (Which was good because I couldn't have even taken the girls in the car to get the car cleaned there was so much glass everywhere!!) On top of that they will replace everything in the car that was taken. I was able to find my camera on amazon.com for $70 cheaper than what the insurance is giving us! I was also able to find the cutest purse in the world to replace the bag that was stolen that had my camera in it!
This week is a week full of birthdays. Trent turned 29 for the 5th straight year on Tuesday. One of my young women had a birthday this week too as well as Annabelle. We decided to go to Bonsai for dinner to celebrate all three of their birthdays. Annie (my young woman) had never been so she had a great time. Annabelle sacked out half way through dinner and slept the rest of the time! Trent as usual loved the samarai special...salmon, shrimp, and steak. Who could ask for more?
I will update with some pictures later this week. I have been camera-less for a few weeks so I need to get back in the swing of taking pictures of all this junk!

Coleman hair

2009-01-29T17:16:00.005-07:00

So Trent feels that hair is an expression of who you are. (Not that I totally disagree with him but he has taken a more extreme view of this.) Coleman has taken that freedom and created many looks for himself. These past few weeks we have gone from this:(Yes his hair is long enough to put into pony tails...and it only took him about 4 months to grow it that long....)
To this:

I actually didn't get a picture of the finished mohawk...it was a whole lot shorter. To finally (and thankfully) this:
I think I have him convinced of a "cute" boy haircut next. Hopefully I can continue convincing him of that!!! Thank you Ruthie for cutting it the way he wanted!
Today Coleman was doing his homework and I noticed him rubbing his hair (or fuzz) alot. I asked him about it and he said, "oh ya... I rub my head when I am trying to think."

My sweet teenager

2009-01-24T15:55:00.003-07:00

So here is a post to my sweet teenager. I know that many parents of teenagers (including myself) don't usually use the words sweet and teenager in the same sentance. But today I will!! Even with this picture of her pants hanging too low!! I know Jayden is still young and we still have a lot of rough years ahead of us. But I am so grateful for the sweet girl she is. Jayden has two very different groups of friends at school. (Who as a side note hate each other.) One group of friends she has know for most of elementary school but don't have the best moral background. The other group of girls she knows from soccer. Yesterday she was invited to go to a surprise party of one of the girls that hangs out with the elementary school group. (Are you following? It's a little confusing.) I texted her about two hours after I dropperd her off asking how things were going. Usually when she is with her friends her reply is Great!!!!. This time her reply was good. I knew something was wrong but didn't push the issue at the time...thinking we would just talk about it when she got home. A few minutes later I got a text saying you need to pick me up soon. I texted back saying: Like when? Jayden texted back saying um....soon. So I hopped in the car and told her I was on my way. I was fully expecting her to be in tears or something when I picked her up. She got in the car and seemed totally fine. We started talking and she told me the reason she wanted to come home was because the people at the party were doing things that she didn't agree with morally. I am so proud of her that instead of staying somewhere that she felt uncomfortable she was strong enough to leave the situation. I love you Jayden!!! I hope you continue to make good choices and listen to the holy ghost that prompts you to do what you know is right.