Jan 2016 ... and big news

So far 2016 hasn't started out how I expected.

We had our normal playing... Ayden really getting into coloring

Braving the snow... Jared and Ayden made that little snowman in our neighbor's yard

Jared changed our kitchen light, and the kids loved playing on the ladder

Once again Jared! :o) He made the kids a hammock, bought himself a hammock and they have had a blast playing in them

So this is really where the craziness begins!!

On Jan. 11, Bree ended up getting admitted. This was only about a 24 hour stay and ended up being a respiratory bug. Side note: 6 months and no line infection!!!! *knock on wood* our record!!! 

On the 13th, we got a foster baby! Yes, you read that right. We are back in the game. More on that at the bottom of this post :o)

On the 15th I got knocked down with strep throat, got officially diagnosed with it on the 16th!

On the 26th, Ayden started early intervention, public school preschool!! He really can use the help with his behaviors. So far it's been great and he's already got 3 or 4 friends he talks non-stop about lol. i love it. He gets to ride the bus too! LOVE it and so does he. How is he old enough to do all this though?

So, with all the craziness of the month, both kids have been struggling. We've been trying to do quality time stuff with them... easier said then done, but we're trying. Jared decided Ayden needed to make dinner one night. Ayden did great! I was proud

Momma and Breeann snuggles... 

So ... about our foster baby.  On the 12th, as I was discharging Bree from the hospital, our foster care caseworker sends me a text asking if we were ready for placements (I had mentioned to her in like Oct. that we might be in Jan.) ... I told her unless it was urgent, I'd talk to Jared that night and get back to her. Her response was something to the effect of nothing too urgent yet, but they did have a drug exposed infant possibly coming into care that they really wanted us to consider. Jared and I talked that night, decided we would open our file, but wanted to know more before we accept the case she mentioned. When I texted her that Wed., the 13th, morning she said she'd have them call me if the baby came into care. No joke, 15 mins. later, I got a call with a little more info., asking what we thought. Called Jared, we decided to take it. This was about 10:30 am. When I called back, saying we'd accept, they said that court was at 4 p.m., they'd know more then and call us about 5. At 2 p.m., I get a call from another caseworker saying "baby" would be ready for us to pick up in the NICU at 5 p.m. Yeah, craziness! Not to mention, Jared had scouts that night, that he couldn't miss!! Thankfully for some incredible neighbors and friends, it all worked out and we had "baby" home by 8 p.m. Wedn. night. So yes, 36 hours from getting that original "are you ready" text, we had a baby.

Now let me please remind you all, I cannot talk about specifics of the case and I cannot post pics of "baby". If I don't post as many pics for a bit, you now know why. Please feel free to privately ask any questions, but be understanding if we tell you we cannot talk about it. We are excited to have "baby" (That will be the online name i decided :oP ) but definitely relearning the ropes.

Love to all and hope this finds you all doing as well as we are

December 2015

December, overall, was a lot more fun!! Only thing that was missing was Jared... for the first half. He had to go back to UT for work, while the kids and I stayed in Omaha, NE. My amazing, beautiful mom came and stayed a week with us in Omaha to help with the kids.

We had a lot of fun doing play-doh, coloring, museum, and a bunch of other stuff with her. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated her being there and how much she did.

A couple days after my mom left, Jared's mom, our sister in law, and nieces came to play with us a week, week and a half.

We had a lot of fun doing manicures, swimming, a few things at the hospital, and just playing around at the house. It was a blast having them. I am so incredibly grateful they came out. They did so much to help too. It was so much appreciated.

On Dec. 15, so 4 weeks after getting there/surgery, we got the clearance to go back to UT! We left Omaha on Dec. 17, got to UT on the 18th. Even Buddy was tired of the car

We had an awesome time putting together a ginger bread house that a sweet friend sent us.

I am total wimp for the snow, but my family sure enjoys it! This one is Ayden going sledding by himself

This is Jared and Bree sledding

Christmas Eve, Day we got a lot of snow. Jared was a hero and made a snowman with/for Ayden.

We spent time with Jared's side Christmas Eve and Day. This was Christmas Day, cousins playing in the snow. Ayden had just fallen of the sled he was riding with his cousin.

Dec. 28 was mine and Jared's 9th wedding anniversary. How he has stuck with me that long, I don't know, but sure glad he has. Anyway~ we got my sis. to baby-sit while we went to lunch, spent the afternoon just being together, and we also went out to dinner. She took this pic of my cute kids

We had a couple days of my niece coming to play with us. She dressed Tayla and me up.

Awesome, right? lol

As you can tell, we definitely had a much better, relaxing, more fun December. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season!!! 

November, you will not be missed

November was a long, hard month for us. Going to need to refresh your memories on stuff before I can get into Nov...

Back in June, we found out that Breeann had some dilated intestines. This dilation made it so she could not absorb or move her formula/food very easily at all. Here's where I first, publicly, told about the dilation. Anyway, so then end of Aug., Bree and I made a trip out to Omaha, NE to see what her team would be able to do to help her dilation. OH MY! I just realized I never blogged about what happened out there!! Just mentioned it in another post. SO, summary of that trip was... her drs. were not able to say what they could do. They couldn't do all the testing they needed/wanted because during one of the test, they found Bree had some pneumoatosis... air pockets in her intestinal lining. We ended up being in NE for a week and a half because of it. It was a miserable trip! Anyway, after that trip, we didn't hear any from NE until first week of Oct. Bree's dr. here in UT emailed us saying NE agreed to do another STEP procedure on her. Here's a YouTube video for those of you, like me, who think that stuff cool! Breeann has had this surgery 3 times already... once before we got her. I want to say she was about a month old from what I was told (Oct. 2012). Her second one was when she was 6 months old (March 2013) and she was still in the foster care system. Her third one was right after we finalized her adoption, July 2013. Okay, I think that's enough of refresh... on to Nov. :oP

Nov. was busy preparing and getting out to NE for Bree's surgery. We arrived in Omaha on Nov. 16. Gave us a day to settle in and do a day of appointments. We knew after surgery, we wouldn't be able to "play" for a bit, so we went to the Mormon Trail Center

 And the Kainesville Tabernacle, but I didn't get pics there apparently.

Nov. 18 was the day of surgery

She didn't fully wake up until the next morning. She was miserable and out of it! She didn't feel good at all for a few days, but in no time was back to her spunky, cute self

She was only inpatient for a week... got out the day for Thanksgiving!! Luckily, just in time to be able to have fun with Dad and decorate for Christmas before Jared had to go back to UT. 

 This was, I believe, her first time eating after surgery... all she now will eat is yogurt.

 This year, we had a very special visitor join us!!! Her name is Christina Marie :) Thanks so much Aunt Jeni!!!

That really does sum up our Nov. Not a totally fun one, but ended up good :o)

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts

We all know I'm not the best with words, so bear with me here. I've been working on this post for a while :P but I just can't seem to find the right words, so here ya go, with my attempt.

I just have such an immense amount of gratitude for all of you, our loved ones. With Bree's health recently back on the roller coaster (more on that later too), there has been so many people that have helped us! Watching Ayden, calls/text, letting me vent/talk, a meal or two, etc. We received a few awesome packages, letters in the mail... Just a outpouring of love from everyone! It was just a huge reminder of how extremely blessed we are. I try to show that appreciation by paying it forward/back or at the very minimum sending a thank you message. But it just seems so completely inadequate for the love and service that has been rendered to us. Please know it is all sincerely appreciated and noticed.

Frequently I get asked, commented to that people don't know how we do it. Honestly, our success is, first and for most, is Heavenly Father. Our prayers and fasting, as well as the prayers and fasting of you all, are definitely heard, have been answered, and felt. No question in my mind that Breeann wouldn't be here and we couldn't make it through without all our faith. Secondly, our success is also you guys, our loved one. We couldn't do it without the help you guys give by your help of lifting our burdens. So thank you a million times over, for everything!!! We love and appreciate you all so very very much... even if we aren't the greatest at expressing it.

I wanted to add a couple of music videos because... music. lol Music is how I best express myself, feel closed to Heavenly Father, and stress relief. I wish there was a thank you video, but I couldn't find one that I liked :P Anyway~ this first video is how I feel about our situation.

Not easy, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Breeann is such a huge blessing to all those who know her and I consider her our "beautiful heartbreak". I know we'll make it through.

This next one... I think is more to help remind me that Breeann, and everyone for that matter, really is in Heavenly Father's hands.

We have our "mountains" in life, but He is aware of all, and in charge. He may not answer our prayers how we want it to, but He will answer them according to His will/plan. 

Thanks for baring though this post. You guys really are awesome!!! Love, and appreciate, each one of you!!! 

Our October

Our October was both hard and fun

We got to see both birth mom's! I need to get the other pics off Jared's phone :oP

One of Ayden's new favorite things is mattress slides! Or as he calls them, pillow slide.

We got to play a fair amount at Thanksgiving Point! My poor children are having a hard time getting Thanksgiving Point and the actual holiday of Thanksgiving.

Now comes the not so fun part. On the 12th Bree's IV started getting really hard to push medications into. By the 14th it was like impossible. Her specialist was the one on call, he said to bring her in and they'll work on it.

Well, after an extremely long night for both her and I, the outcome was that there was no saving the line and we needed to replace it! 

Poor baby woke up extremely miserable. She use to wake up just fine, but not anymore. Anyway~ there was a couple good outcomes of that visit! One is we got to see Dr. Downey!

He's the surgeon who took care of Breeann the whole time she was NICU, so the first 4 months of her life. He did her original bowel resection (cut out all the bad intestines, making her short bowel), he put in her feeding tub, several of her IVs, and has done a couple of what's called STEP procedures on her. I personally think we have him, as well as her specialist, to thank for our miracle still being here. 

The other good outcome is ... we found out one of Bree's IV sites has opened!!! As you may, or may not, remember, she was down to one site!! We were so panicked and worried about her IV access site. But in June we found out one had opened, and we just found out a second opened! So of the 4 sites, she now has 3!!!

After all the hospital stuff settled, we had fun watching Jared carve pumpkins

And make a scarecrow. 

My amazing hubby carved 4 pumpkins and made a scarecrow just to make Ayden happy. Isn't Jared the best?!?!

We play dress up quite a bit these days... which is perfect for Halloween!! 

Yes, the kids are still both going to preschool. :o) They absolutely love it and momma loves the break. hehehe

For the church trunk or treat and school the kids dressed up as cowgirl and captain america!

But when it came to going trick or treating on Halloween, Breeann decided she wanted to be spider girl. I should have gotten a forward facing pic. Oh well.

Honestly though, my kids had so much more fun passing out candy, then going trick or treating. They were both so thrilled every time someone came to our house and they loved putting the candy into the bags.

Overall, I'd say Oct. was an alright month to us. Hope it was the same to all of you as well! :o) Love to all