Random Pictures

As mentioned, we went and spent some time in Nebraska! These next two or three post will all be from when we were there. And Mel, I've never used a picture collage app so you'll have to teach me if you want me to try using it :o) Anyway~ NE has a really awesome children's museum. We went a couple of times, but I didn't do pictures the other time. :oP

Our little shopper!

These next few pictures are a little show they had called dancing with a princess

 They had an amazing area ... whole bunch of balls and fun litlle contraptions you can put them in

Now he's a mechanic!! Jack of all trades

They had a carousel

And they had an awesome slide area... wish i would have gotten better pic of the whole area

My birthday

This year we spent my birthday in Nebraska. Jared's bro, Brian, and his family were able to be there to join us!! It was a blast. I won't lie started out shaky... but ended up being a blast. So ... in the morning, Breeann needed a test at the hospital that ended up taking all day. More on that later... Anyway~ When we got back from the hospital, we walked into the apartment we stayed at and saw this...

It totally made my day!! Especially since the hospital hadn't been so great. We started out by opening presents:

After presents we had lunch, put the kids down for a nap, and then Jared and I got a couple of hours to just us. We got a smoothie and just talked... it was perfect!! We went to dinner at a yummy Chinese place and then went back to the apartment for cake and ice cream

Bree had her very first ice cream!!! Brian and Tawnya were so sweet and bought her chocolate coconut milk ice cream

It was a hit!! And definitely something we'll keep around here now for her.

Thanks so incredibly much again for everything Brian, Tawnya, and girls!!! And also thank you to Jared for also making my birthday special. I've definitely been so blessed to have incredibly family and friends!!! I love you all!!!

Ayden's tooth

So yes, I am behind in blogging!! I will try to catch up... but bare with me please. Let's start with Ayden loosing his first tooth. Yes, it's odd! He's not quite three yet. So here's the story:

Jared was taking his turn in the nursery with Bree... The ward we attended in Nebraska (another post for later) only has one nursery, so Jared got to keep an eye on both kids. Anyway, I guess during singing time, Ayden all the sudden got hysterical and when Jared goes to check it out, Ayden tells Jared that his mouth hurts. Ayden opens his mouth and his tooth was all but out!! CRAZY!!! So they come get me out of Sunday School, we get a hold of a pediatric dentist... when all was said and done we pulled the tooth out and just went to see a dentist here at home in UT. Our dentist, a family in dentist, doesn't want to risk anything so he's making us see a pediatric dentist. So much for minimizing number of doctors I work with :oP Anyway~ so that's pretty much the story of how Ayden lost his first tooth.

When we told him the tooth fairy was coming, at first he did not want her to come. He was tired that day... but I think he was scared, didn't quite get what she does either. But the next morning, after she came, he was so so excited and will still ask every once in a while if she's come again. Anyway~ here's pictures from the whole ordeal.

 

Where has time gone?

Wow! Has it really been two months since I've updated?!? Crazy!! It's been a busy couple of months... and let's be honest... with two kids, life is just busy.

June was busy with lots of little things and with Breeann getting pretty sick. She lost quite a bit of weight, had a period of really bad dehydration, and the poor girl was just miserable!!!

We did squeeze in some fun things like going to a city fair

dinner during the fair

 this was taken at my sisters house, when we went to go swimming. Bree has jello in her mouth here... that she actually ate!!! this was like the beginning of her getting really sick. My sis hates this pic, but I think it's fun

 We played outside, with sidewalk chalk quite a bit too.

 At the beginning of July we celebrated Jared's birthday!! Unfortunately, Bree was inpatient on his special day, but my family was so amazing and threw together a little surprise party at the hospital for him. I can't thank them enough for doing all that. I really do have the best family EVER!!!

 This is what happens when you let a 2, almost 3, year old go painting with dad ;o)

 We've been doing a lot of this lately... I'm telling ya... this poor angel hasn't been herself.

 The kids... yes, both of them... have been asking for "slurpee party" quite a bit lately. And so we get this:

We had a week of family fun!! Ayden mainly got to be the one to enjoy it. Breeann was inpatient, I spent my time off and on at the hospital with her... and Jared either worked or was with Bree. 

That about sums us up for now. :o) I'll try to not make it so long in between updates. Love to all

Nebraska

Let me start out by saying, I may not explain things very well in this post... if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Also, I'm adding quite a few pics., so I'll just write short paragraphs in between :oP --- Breeann and I recently spent about a week in Omaha, NE. At the end of March, we found out that she only has one IV access site left. Her team in NE asked that we go back and to have her re-evaluated for an intestine transplant (she was evaluated last year).

On the plane going to NE

So an intestine transplant evaluation is an extremely long week of testing and meetings. Strong little Bree handled it like a champ... for the most part. As long as we didn't make her hold still she was okay.

Waiting for the nurse to come take some blood

In the end, her team decided to be as gracious as they could. She is NOT listed for transplant YET!

waiting for a barium enema

They decided to give us two months to increase how much she gets through her feeding tube and how much she takes through her mouth.

fell asleep during the echocardiogram

The reason they are pushing that is because... with her frequent line infections and with her now having only one IV site left... we have to get her IV out as quickly as we can. If we aren't successful at being able to take her IV out for good, that just proves her intestines are THAT bad and she needs the transplant. And with one site, we don't have much time to waste to decide.

making sure the abdominal ultrasound was okay 

Her NE team is really encouraging us to come back so Breeann can be part of a two week intensive, inpatient feeding therapy program.

just being cute

We're still doing "homework", deciding if that's what's best for her and our whole family. As I write this, we aren't sure what goals we have to meet and we also don't know what exactly they'll do for her in that program that we couldn't do here at home.

waiting to go under anesthesia... while she was under they did a colonoscopy, EGD, and MRI (which should've been a MRV, but somewhere, someone got mixed up. oh well)

Since we've been home, we have been able to increase her tube feedings by a teaspoon an hour... and ... i'm too tired to do the math... but she now gets an extra 2 ounces, 4 times a day.

upper GI

I really think our main problem is going to be getting her to eat more. I don't know if it's her strong personalty, if its because she has no hunger drive, or what... but it is harder then pulling teeth to get that girl to eat!!

fell asleep while i was eating lunch the last day of appointments

And it doesn't help that she's limited with her allergies and... so with her SBS, she can't tolerate too much sugar. Like, even almond milk has too much sugar for her.

on our way home!!

So... in short, this summer will be an interesting one for us. Hopefully it'll all work out how we want it too. But to be honest, we're prepared for her to get listed too... well, as prepared as you can be.

OOOO!!! So I end this post on a bright now... this little angel has FINALLY decided to be a full time walker!!! Every once in awhile we catch her crawling, we tell her to stand up, and she will start walking for us. She's a strong, determined little angel.