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.

Jack, Back in the Hospital!

Well the second week of March brought us back to Primary Childrens Hospital. If you ever have a small child with some health issues, and you don't go to a "Childrens Hospital", your crazy! If I knew what I know now... I would have driven Kimberly up to Primary Childrens Hospital for the baby birth. Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake is incredible!

Well a cold, just the common cold sent us to the hospital with Jack. It just makes you want to say, ENOUGH ALREADY.... he's just a baby! We walked into the Hospital like we owned the place. We threw our bags on the floor, turned on the TV, and put our feet up. The place, sadly, was a home away from home to us.

Having Down Syndrome, Jack has an extra Chromosome in every cell of his body. These cells help make up every organ and tissue he has. Our bodies are just not made to run off an extra Chromosome. This extra Chromosome brings a higher risk of just about everything including, heart murmur, congestive heart faillar, and leukemia... just to name a few. These health worries were knew to Kimberly and I.
Kimberly was having a little panic attack being back in the hospital. The last time she walked into this place, she ended up spending two months inside. The kids on the other hand, could not wait to get to the Forever Young Play Zone at the hospital. This is a fun place, and the arts and crafts can't be beat. The kids helped get Jack settled, then ran off to play at the zone. Above is the jet packs they made, and wore proudly all through the hospital.

Two days later, we left the hospital. Jack was on Oxygen, but we were out. The worries of a long stay behind us, we took jack home. A week later he was playing above and in great shape. He is just the coolest little dude you have ever met!

Angry Birds Birthday Party

Kimberly's Cell phone broke down last July. We looked around at phones and options for a while. I did not want to get back into a two year contract again. Looking around was not such a hot Idea, Kimberly found this phone, and just fell in love with it. The Samsung Galaxy S smart phone. So a huge data plan bill later, we walked out of a Radio Shack with a new phone in September... Right before I left for Chicago. Well, if you can over look the cost, the phone has been awesome. It saved Kim's life in the hospital while she streamed netflicks from it. It makes the gadgets on Star Trek look like children toys. It probably has enough computer power to have ran the Apollo missions to the moon. Best of all, we downloaded Angry Birds! Well not only am I addicted to Angry Birds, but so is Luke, Blake, and even Taylor.

So this year for Luke's Birthday. He did not want a Power Ranger, Lego, or Star Wars party. He did not even want a Transformer birthday party..... He only wanted an Angry Birds Birthday Party! Kimberly got the cake tools out, and went to work. She had a very cool cake, and the party was off the hook. Luke loved every minute of it. That little red angry bird tasted great on top of the cake.
Angry Birds seems to be to Smart Phones, what Pac-Man was to the Arcade. I don't know if we will know what Angry Birds is Ten years from now. Luke though loved the Birthday Party, and I am sure this will be a fun story years from now one way or another!

First Bike Ride X2

We got the above red bike from a friend that was moving. They did not have enough room for it in their moving truck. So Devon brought the bike home with him. Luke and Taylor's bikes both still had train wheels at the time. We had taken Taylor's training wheels off a little over a year before, with disastrous results. Devon had given up taking the training wheels off, just to put them right back on an hour later. Luke saw the new bike and said he was going to ride it. So Devon took him outside, held the bike up while Luke got on top, then with a little help Luke was off riding on his first try. The picture above was taken shortly after.

Well Taylor decided that was not acceptable! Taylor came out and demanded a try on the new bike, and with a little help she was off on her own. Seeing Luke ride free, was just to hard to watch.



We don't think Taylor would have ever learned how to ride a bike.... If luke did not learn first. Their sibling rivalry lead her to get over her fear of crashing. In the end it was great, they have been riding every dry day since. Both their bikes have the training wheels off now. They play little bike games, and get some great exercise, away from the wii.


Posted by Devo

Jack is AMAZING!

I have to say, Jack is pretty adorable!! Having Jack is like having a first child all over again. Because of his low muscle tone (common in Down Syndrome) it is taking him longer to hold his head up and support any weight in his legs. Every little milestone we celebrate and are ecstatic about! He has recently begun to pick up his head on his own and is gaining more trunk control. He is the happiest and sweetest little guy!! Devon captured this video of him the other night on my phone and I thought I would share.

As you can see, he is healthy, happy, and strong! Months ago, I never thought we would be experiencing moments like this and here we are...YAY, Jack-Jack!

Final Days at PCMC

I can't ever remember being so exhausted in all my life.

In the hospital, Halloween passed (my birthday), the first of November passed, and now we were nearing the middle of November. I watched the seasons change through hospital windows. When Jack was born, I arrived at the hospital in capris and flip-flops. When we were transported to PCMC, I remember noticing how beautiful the leaves on the trees in the mountains were and it was still warm outside. By the middle of November, I had watched it snow outside, heard others complain about the cold, but hadn't really experienced it myself. Occasionally, I would go outside and feel the bite of the cold weather, but it never really occurred to me that the seasons were changing, time was really passing by, and winter had officially begun.

Jack's second surgery went extremely well. His surgeon arrived to our room at midnight, the night of surgery, to check on Jack. He was so concerned and baffled as to what had happened and wanted to make sure both Jack and I were doing ok. My love and appreciation for this dear man grew each day. He became, somewhat, a surrogate grandpa or dad in a way to Jack and I. He made us feel like we were more than just his patients and truly showed and expressed how much he cared. He made it a point to visit every day.

During the following week, Devon arrived home for good and we decided it was time to give our little Jack a name and a blessing. Normally, we make a big deal of this occasion and invite friends, extended family, and so on. This time, the setting was much smaller. Jack's room was only large enough for a few selected family members to attend. We invited my parents, Devon's parents, My sister and her family, and our Bishop and his wife. Jack looked even tinier than he was as all of these giant men lifted him into their hands as they blessed him. The spirit surrounding all of us that day was emotional and uplifting. Devon gave Jack a very sweet and heartfelt blessing. Similar, but different than our other childrens blessings. This time there was no promise of marriage or fatherhood, but simple and sweet blessings and promises of health, passion for life, and the good that will come from his life as it touches others. I am so thankful that we were allowed to bless him there and the sweet experience that we shared together that day.

A day or two after surgery, our surgeon told me that we would be more cautious this time around and would do an Upper GI one week post surgery to ensure that Jack was "open." He told me that if I heard Jack "fart" that was a good sign. Yes, even distinguished surgeons use the word "fart"--that was so funny to me! On the 6th day, post surgery, I was giddy with excitement. You would have thought it was Christmas Eve and I was awaiting Christmas morning to arrive. That night, I couldn't sleep. I was too excited about the Upper GI the following morning and just knew everything was going to be "open" and ready to move things through. I prayed all night. I prayed that the Upper GI would go well in the morning and that Jack would be able to start eating, hold down his food, and be able to go home soon. I knew that once he started to eat, they would start talking about when they could send us home.

Finally, morning arrived and we rolled Jack down to the first floor for his Upper GI. Rather than drinking contrast, this time, they did an old fashioned x-ray to see if there were any air bubbles forming in his intestines. Air is a good sign. They took the pictures and rolled Jack back up to his room. Approximately, 2 minutes later, our surgeon arrived with excitement in his eyes and told me that Jack was "open!" That was the best news ever!

By this time, we were 1 days away from Thanksgiving. He looked at me and told me he was considering putting Jack "on gravity," which meant removing Jack's Anderson tube and watching to see if his intestines could handle the fluids on their own. I begged, pleaded, and convinced him to do it. He didn't want to do it for a couple more days, but I just knew that Jack would be fine. After pleading and begging, the surgeon agreed and told the nurse to pull out the tube.

Jack was still on TPN and Lipids and would remain on those until the end of his stay. The next day, the surgical team arrived and informed me that we were going to start feeding Jack. This time, we were going to start by feeding him 5cc's of gatorade (which is 1 tsp) and up that 10cc's every 10 hours. If he could handle that, then we would start feeding him breastmilk the following day.

It was Thanksgiving day, Devon had finally finished his training, my parents, my brother and his wife, and my sister and kids were all together to celebrate this marvelous day!

My family and I discussed where we should have Thanksgiving and wondered if I would be willing to take time off from the hospital and spend it at my sisters house. I told them that I didn't care about being anywhere else, I wanted to be at the hospital with Jack and if that meant eating cafeteria food--I didn't care. They understood and told me they really wanted to be with us and wanted to cook dinner and bring it to the hospital. I thought they were crazy and tried to convince them otherwise, but they had their minds set. With permission from the nurses, they allowed us to use their 4th room Conference Room to eat. My family arrived, as promised, and loaded up wagons from the first floor to carry all of their home made goods. They even came prepared with cute decorations for the table and all. Just as we were about ready to eat, the nurse told me that Jack could go too! We unhooked a few of his wires, other than his TPN and Lipids and CARRIED him to the conference room. Of course, his TPN and Lipids were attached and rolled behind us, but it was so great that he got to come and be with us. All of us were together, for the first time and it was amazing!!

It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The expression of love and gratitude from my family was incredible! The fact that they were willing to sacrifice their own Thanksgiving dinner and bring it to the hospital was so touching! It was so great because we were all able to sit and visit and eat without me feeling rushed to get back to the hospital to be with Jack. The kids even got to play in the playroom (which is amazing in itself) and we got to just be...I loved every minute of it! Jack even got to eat his own Thanksgiving meal...10cc's of gatorade!

It's amazing how one small little baby can bond a family together. We thought we were close before, but Jack has shown us how much we need each other and has taught us how important and precious life truly is.

Jack ate extremely well. There was no vomit and we were able to steadily increase his feeds. The goal was for him to be able to eat and hold down 20z. I thought the goal seemed extremely high and couldn't imagine Jack ever being able to eat that much. Somehow he did and the following Tuesday, after Thanksgiving, Jack was released from the hospital and sent home.

The joy and fear of being allowed to take Jack home was immense! We packed up all of our belongings and emptied out room 4320, said a few tearful goodbyes to our loving nurses, put Jack in his car seat, rode down the elevator, walked out the hospital doors, walked to the car, loaded up our things, and drove home!