It's Great to Be Eight!

Luke has been looking forward to his Baptism for months! It's hard to believe he is 8. I remember arriving at the hospital to deliver this sweet boy, experiencing all of the anxiety, stress, pains, and love that come with celebrating the birth of a child and, after months of anticipating his arrival, finally getting to hold and cuddle this cute little boy. He has always been sweet and kind. It has been amazing to watch him grow, watch the things he is interested in, and see him develop into the cute little boy that he is. Now he is 8 and I can't believe how quickly time has flown by.
Luke said he wanted a suit when he turned 8...he wanted to go to church dressed like his Dad on Sunday. So, Nanu and Grandpa took him shopping for a suit and, boy, did he look handsome! The Bishop kept referring to him as a missionary because he looked as such.
That morning, I was a bit frazzled as I arrived to the church. Every one had gone ahead and I entered the chapel just as it was time to start the meeting. As soon as I sat down, I could feel the spirit. It was as if we were in the Temple and the spirit testified to me of the importance of that day for Luke and, once again, testified to me of its truthfulness. When it was Luke's turn to enter the font, you could see how proud he was of his decision to be baptized and how happy he felt. When he came up from the water, he kept his eyes closed and wouldn't open them to look at anyone or anything. Later on he told me the water made his eyes sting. However, he was happy the water was warm and he said it "felt like he was in a hot tub."
It was so great to have sets of Grandparents, as well as, Luke's Great Grandparents (from my mom's side) in attendance. Our parents always make it a priority to be at these special functions and we feel extremely blessed.
These are all of the priesthood holders who participated in Luke's confirmation that day...Devon, Grandpa Roush, Grandpa DowDell, Grandpa Johnson, Grandpa Hand, and Bishop Larsen.
We have such a wonderful family and we are so blessed to have so many terrific role models/relatives for our children to look up to.

One Year...Jack's 1st Birthday!

As I sit here today, and write, my heart is full! One year ago, October 3, 2010, our lives changed forever when this sweet boy entered the world. Unaware that he would be born with Down Syndrome, unsure of how to express my emotions, my thoughts, my fears, and, yet, this precious little boy immediately stole our hearts all the while looking up at us with his innocent eyes as if saying, "I know I'm not what you expected, but please love me!"

There are no words and no doubt to how much we love this little guy!

It has been an exhausting week...reliving memories, fears, times, and places of a life once lived one year ago and, yet, here we are...survivors of emotional triumph, physical triumph for Jack, and more sure than ever that miracles still happen, God truly loves us, and his mercy is Great!
I look back at this picture (above) and remember the tears and see the exhaustion and worry through my tear-stained face and puffy eyes.

So, this year is a celebration...celebrating Jack, the miracle of his life, the JOY he has brought into our home, and the celebration of family and friends who have shared their love, given us strength, and empowered us each step of the way!

It is difficult and painful to remember where we were one year ago, but so joyful to see where we have arrived...it is such a good place to be--very full circle!
We felt it was ever-so appropriate to Celebrate all of the Super Hero's in our/Jack's life and feel Jack is quite the "Super" himself! Having survived 2 weeks of near-starvation, 2 surgeries, 45 days at PCMC, pneumonia, a partially collapsed lung, Pulmonary Hypertension, it is a miracle he is still here and our family and friends are our Hero's who helped saved our year!
Several friends helped me make these adorable "Super Hero" cookies as party favors. Each cookie, we attached a message that said : "Super Jack thanks you for being one of our Super Hero's and for Saving our Year."

And, of course, his own miniature tiered cake to dive into...
My parents flew in from Nashville for the party...two of my greatest Hero's! They have lived and breathed every moment with us. Words cannot express the love and gratitude we feel towards these two amazing people!

If only Devon's parents could have been here to celebrate with us as well...we never would have made it through those first few months without them! We love them and missed having them at the party!
I went a little overboard and invited every friend and family we have in the area. We were lucky enough to take a few pictures...Grandpa and Grandma visited Jack and I several times at the hospital, brought me lunch, and shared stories.
We had somewhere around 65 people attend Jack's party...the moment that everyone gathered to sing Happy Birthday was emotional!
We truly have the most AMAZING family and friends!
Little Jack-Jack! He has brought feelings of joy, peace, love, and inspiration into our home that we never thought possible! Happy Birthday, sweet baby boy! We love you so much!

Writing Memories Worth Reading on KSL

A few months ago, my sister wrote a very heartfelt story about our sweet Baby Jack.

Today, her friend, Katie, featured this story on KSL as series on their show titled "Writing Memories Worth Reading."

It's amazing to look back on our journey, thus far, see where we are today, and how much we have grown in faith and love. How is it possible to experience so much heart ache and, in turn, watch that heart ache turn into unimaginable feelings of love and happiness! We are so thankful for this little boy and how he has forever changed our lives and for all the people who have been there for us, lifted us up, blessed us, given us hope, and shown us so much love! We are truly blessed!

Thank you, Katie, for sharing our story!

Jack's Favorite Toy

You would think with all that Jack has been through, he would be one unhappy, fussy baby. He is just the opposite. Jack is all smiles, he hardly ever is unhappy. He is not fussy, and is just a pleasure to have around. His smile lights up a room and your heart.

So last Sunday when Jack just broke out into a very sad loud cry at Church, I looked over at Kimberly who was holding him with a look of what did you do to him! She just looked back at me with a puzzled look. She had no idea why he was crying so passionately. Taylor picked up a toy Jack had dropped on the ground. She put the toy back in Jack's hand, and the crying stopped. Kimberly and I looked at each other and smiled. Then a few minutes later the toy dropped and Jack let out his passionate cry again.

Kimberly and I just looked at each other and laughed. He was crying because his toy fell out of his hands. It was just really cute. We put the toy back in his hand, and he just was as happy as can be. This happened a couple more times, and it was just so much fun to watch. Jack has a favorite toy! Taylor's first love of a toy were these little Care bear Miniatures, and a Christmas light bulb dressed up as Rudolph the Reindeer. Taylor took that light bulb everywhere we went. Rudolph meet a very sad ending to his life at a Target shopping center in June, 2003... when he hit the hard tile floor head on. I am sure the Target employee that had to pick up the mess, was wondering how a Christmas light came to break in the middle of the store in June.

So our kids have been passionate about their first toys before. Jacks devotion has fell upon a little toy we call bunny(seen above). It's funny to say your son playing with a silly toy makes you happy. To see Jack with this toy, would bring a smile to anyones face.

As Good As It Gets

Earlier this month, due to much congestion, Jack returned to the doctors office. It turned out that Jack has Pneumonia and a partially collapsed lung. Since Jack's birth, we have read numerous cases where children with Down Syndrome have often died with complications of pneumonia. So to say the word "pneumonia" scared us was an understatement! Then, to top it off, the doctor noticed that Jack's liver felt enlarged and is worried about congestive heart failure. Of course, Kim left the doctor's office distraught with worry and in tears. After much discussion with the doctor, he decided that he would allow us to do outpatient therapy with Jack. Luckily for us, we avoided returning to the hospital...Kim was thrilled! Since our previous hospital stay, we still had oxygen at home, and, therefore, the doctor allowed us to treat Jack from home. Otherwise, he would have definitely returned to the hospital for another long-term visit. The doctor put us on a strict schedule of outpatient respiratory clinic visits, for suctioning, antibiotics, daily doctor visits either by phone or office (he even gave us his cell phone), and nebulizor treatments every 4 hours. We had treatments we had to do around the clock. During this time, the boys had Baseball practice and games, I had to get up for work at 5:45am, and Kimberly had Zumba she had to get up for and stay late doing almost everyday.

Oxygen containers, Oxygen condensors, tubes, medicine, nebulizors were all over the house. I was just exhausted. I looked over at my poor wife, I could tell she was so exhausted too. I said to Kimberly.... "I feel like Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets." Kimberly smiled and laughed. She said she was thinking the same thing the night before and it was so funny I thought it too. If you haven't seen As Good As It Gets it is a movie from 1997 with Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, and Cuba Gooding Jr. In the movie, Helen Hunts character, has a sick son, she is worn out from all the late nights helping him get better, and she is afraid of anything that might come into the house that could set off an episode that lands her young son in the hospital. I thought Helen Hunt did a great job acting, in that movie, but I thought it was a little over the top with how she was with her sick kid. Now, I think she was dead on!

It is a very interesting sight to walk into a store with a baby that is all hooked up to oxygen. It feels as if you are wheeling in an old grandma (sorry Grandma Hand :) . First, you have the air container on a little dolly that you are pulling behind you, but instead of the air being attached to your old grandma, the air tubing leads up to a little six month old baby. You get a lot of very curious, yet sad looks. Well, five days later, the doctor decided we should try to wean Jack off of the oxygen and so we did. He was doing much better and seemed to be getting better everyday. The doctor said it could take up to two to three weeks to get over the Pneumonia. Jack is constantly all smiles! His smile seems to tell his worried Mother and Father," don't worry about me, guys, I am just fine"... all with his adorable smile.


Then, this last week, Jack began waking up during the middle of the night with constant coughing fits and congestion! Kim would wake up, suction his nose, give him a nebulizor treatment, and refill the humidifier. After a couple days of severe congestion and constant coughing, Kim decided to take him to the doctor. When he arrived, they tested his oxygen and he was measuring at about 75%. The doctor listened to his chest...there was still much wheezing! Long story, short, the doctor is concerned that Jack has asthma, but also wants us to have him tested for Cystic Fibrosis. Now, we have to worry about Congestive Heart Failure and Cystic Fibrosis!! If it's not one thing, it's another! In the meantime, we are giving him an oral steroid to help with the inflammation of his lungs, an inhaler (twice a day), 2 different nebulizor treatments, reflux medication, and he is back on constant oxygen. Again, luckily, we had the oxygen at home to treat him. I guess the one positive thing that came out of this is that we get to park in handicapped parking whenever Jack is in the car. This keeps us from having to trek his oxygen tank all the way across the parking lot when we are at the store or going to church.

We are praying and hoping for good news at the end of the week! All in all, Jack is happy, cute, and so much fun to interact and play with. It's amazing how content a little guy can be who doesn't feel good most of the time. But, we feel he is going to pull through this and are keeping positive thoughts!

Taylor's Zumba Birthday Party

As you might know, Kimberly has been teaching Zumba for over two years now. Kimberly got some Zumba clothes this year, and Taylor just loves them. When I get home from work, Taylor will run down the stairs to give me a hug. She will have a Zumba tank top, and Zumba pants on with her sneakers. After she gives me a hug, off she runs back up stairs and closes the door behind her. Then I can hear dancing and loud music, as she Zumbas like her Mom in her room.

Well for Taylor's Birthday, I told Kimberly we should get her some Zumba clothes. So a couple weeks ago we ordered her an outfit online. With the purchase still a birthday secret, Taylor told Kimberly she wanted a Zumba birthday party. She wanted the Blacklights and Dance lights set up in the living room. She wanted to dance and party with cake and ice cream.

We thought that was a great idea, especially with our present for her. Robyn and Joe came over with their kids and we rocked to the Latin music while Robyn, Taylor, and Kimberly Zumba'd.... the rest of us did something we called Zumba, but was a little like a Saturday night live sketch. Taylor had a blast, and said it was the best Birthday party ever! It was a lot of fun.

Luke's A Dodger

We signed Luke and Blake up for Baseball this year. Ever since Luke saw the movie Sand Lot, he has said Baseball is his favorite sport. Last spring, we thought we were going to have a job offer in Salt Lake, and would not be around for the Baseball season in Cedar City. So we did not sign Luke up for the season. It would have been his first season without a tee, with live pitching. I ended up not starting a job until late September, and Luke ended up not getting to play.

Luke was put on the Dodgers this year. I told Luke that the Dodgers are my favorite baseball team. He frowned, then said I thought BYU was your favorite team Dad. I laughed, then said...the Dodgers are my favorite Professional team. BYU is my favorite college team though.

Luke's first game, he realized that the pitchers were not that good. He figured out that all he had to do was not swing, and they would walk him. He thought getting walked and being on base was the best thing ever. He got to steel every base, and loved it. Then came Saturday with the machine pitch. The Machine throws a strike every time. Luke still thought his strategy was sound against the machine. He just stood there strikeout after strikeout. After the first game I had to let him know that the machine was throwing strikes and he had to swing. We practiced a couple hits with the wiffle ball, and were off to the next game a couple hours later. This time he took his swings and got a couple hits. The excitement on his face as he hit the ball and ran to first base, was a lot of fun to watch.