Kayla's Surgery

So... many if not most of you know that Kayla was born with a kind of tumor in her face. It is basically like a water balloon under her skin that fills up with fluid. She has had surgery to remove this tumor about 3 or 4 times since she was 16 months old. The problem is that even though they keep taking the tumor out, it can always grow back. Well, guess what? About 2 months ago, it started growing back. Unfortunately, it likes to grow up into her eye socket, and once it decides to grow... it grows FAST! So just over one weekend, she went from having a little bit of tissue in her eye (which is pretty much always there) to having a huge red ball of tissue protruding from her eye... Her teachers at school were horrified to see her and they kept telling me she couldn't  be at school. (they thought she had pink eye or some kind of infection...) Even after I brought in a doctors note they kept calling me and complaining about it. In the meantime, we were taking her in to see her Ophthalmologist, who was monitoring her eye and the tumor (we were waiting b/c sometimes the fluid will slowly recede back out of her eye and it goes back to normal) but it was only getting bigger, so he referred us to an Occulo-plastic surgeon. (this is the doctor that did Kayla's first eye surgery when she was 16 months old, right before we moved to Seattle.) Brian took her in to the appointment and came home scheduled for surgery. Now if you have known us for long, you know that Kayla's first surgery was a HUGE disaster... This surgeon severed the connective tissue in her right eye lid and it has never looked right since. I was torn... I didn't want to let him do another surgery on Kayla ever again... in fact I had promised myself that we would never let him operate on her again... and here we were scheduled for surgery with him!! Just last year we had refused to let him do surgery to remove a blood clot from behind her eye. We were so adamant about staying away from this particular surgeon that we put Kayla through a craniotomy (brain surgery) instead!! So, I prayed and prayed about it... I thought and pondered and prayed some more about what I should do... You can't imagine how much pressure it is to make decisions like this for someone you love so much. I knew putting her through another brain surgery was hugely risky, that is a SERIOUS surgery!! But I worried that we would have another botched surgery if we went in through her eye... botched surgeries are bad, but when it is right in the middle of your face, its especially tough because there is no way to hide the scars! So after all my thinking and praying and pondering I couldn't deny that I felt better about going through with the eye surgery and staying away from the brain surgery. No question I had doubts... was I just being lazy not wanting to get a second opinion from her brain surgeon?? Was I just in denial?? But I stuck with what I felt was the right thing to do, and on Friday Feb 24th in she went to have surgery on her eye... It was a quick surgery and she did great (except after surgery... Kayla doesn't tolerate anesthesia very well, so she was trying her hardest to kick the nurses in the face) She's home now and I was amazed when I saw her. The surgeon didn't even make an incision!! She has 2 stitches under her eye about half way between her cheek and her eye and of course there is a lot of swelling and bruising, but the swelling is already going down a little. The first day her eye was swollen shut tight, and now there is already a small crack where you can see into her eye. It's still going to take  several weeks to heal and get back to looking normal, but she is already acting like her old self... dancing around the house singing and playing, giggling and racing with the other kids... She is our miracle!!

2 days before surgery

2 days after susrgery

Blogging Again!

OK, so I know it has been almost a year and a half since I even pulled this blog up and looked at it! When I tried to type in the address, I couldn't even remember what I had named my blog!! It took me three tries to be able to get to it!!! Pretty sad! But I a turning over a new leaf... I am starting with the most recent stuff and working my way back through my pictues... this is mosty for my benefit, but feel free to look at the pictures and read along if you want to...

Here goes nothing!!!

Disneyland

Jaden driving Donald's Boat

This year we decided to take our older two kids and head off to Southern California to Disneyland for July 4th. It was the first trip for all of us, except for Bri (he went when he was a kid) so everything was new, and we had to try everything at least once... we quickly found some crowd favorites and Kayla and I learned really fast that we didn't like the roller coasters!! Lucky for Dad, Jaden was crazy for the Matterhorn and begged to go on it again and again. Kayla and I went the first time, but Kayla said it was dumb afterward (even though she was laughing the whole time). I was very grateful cause that meant that I didn't have to get back on!! Some of Jaden's other favorites were both of the Toy Story rides, and funny enough he loved It's a Small World (I think he dragged me on that one 3 or 4 times!) Funny story about Jaden, we were in line to go on the whale ride, and Jaden started getting really antsy, and kept asking me if we could get out of the whales belly once we went into his mouth... he even made me ask the attendant before he would get on the boat... funny kid, he was almost in tears cause he thought we would be stuck forever, I guess!!

Jaden on one of the carousels

Mikayla and I spent almost one whole day at the Princess Fantasy Faire. We watched the show so many times the cast were starting to recognize us... It was sooo fun, we got to sit with Belle for story time and then we got to meet Tiana, Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel and even Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Some of her favorites were Sleeping Beauty's Castle, Finding Nemo Submarine and the Peter Pan ride. Funny about Kayla... she would beg and beg to get in line to meet the princesses and Tinker Belle, but after waiting in line for over an hour she would refuse to get anywhere near any of them... silly kid!! and both of them loved "A Bugs Land" I think we spent part of every day at the little water park and then the kids squished around in wet sneakers for the rest of the day. Lastly, we went on the giant Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel, but Jaden and Brian were the only ones brave enough to go on a swinging one!!!

Jaden with Chip and Dale

One of the rides that we all thought was soo cool was the Soarin' Over California. I was terrified to get on... I hate the signs that say "Don't ride if you get motion sick or are afraid of heights"... since I am both!!! But it was amazing... The breezes blow in your face and they spray a fine mist when you are near the ocean and you can smell the blossoms and the smell of the sea... it was by far the best ride there!!

 I think that the ride we all agreed was not the best was the Grizzly River Run, but I think that was because we waited too long to get on, and we ended up soaking wet just before dark, so we were freezing!! Jaden was pretty proud of himself... he said he was the only one in the boat not screaming (although, I am pretty sure Brian wasn't screaming either!) I know for a fact that I was screaming my head off... especially when our boat drew the short straw and went through the geyser that only goes off about once ever 10 boats!!

Jaden at Mickey's House

Unfortunately there were drawbacks as well... as is customary for us!! Kayla had a pretty hard time with the crowds and the long lines. Almost every day we were at the Park, she had a seizure, which kind of made it hard to enjoy the day after that... either Brian or I would have to take her back to the hotel and stay with her. We didn't learn until we got back home that if your child (or anyone in your group) has a medical condition you can just go up to the front of the line and get on!!! now THAT would have been good info to have!! But all in all we had a great time, and the kids (yes, even Kayla) ask all the time when we are going back!!!

P.S. thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Turley for taking Addy and Jax so we could have more fun!!!
P.S.S. the pictures are all of Jaden... I found these on our video camera, all the other ones are on our forever broken old computer...

Mikayla is 8!!

Mikayla at the present table

FINALLY!! Mommy remembered to buy her some blendy pens!!

She still loves princesses... especially ARIEL!

Kayla had such a fun birthday this year... we gave her the choice of a "girl party" or going to Jump On It... yep, if you know our girl, then you know we ended up at Jump On It!! We had a great time of course... and Kayla is amazing on the trampoline now! She was doing flips and big jumps... It was awesome!!

Still no plans for a baptism... Kayla is not showing any interest and with the results from her doctors (see later post!) we think that she is just not ready... But we will let you all know when we get her there!!! We love you SO SO much Kayla... you are the sweetest darling in the whole world!!!

Videos of Addy

So, one of the bad things about getting so far behind on the blog, is that I am not sure when I took this video... I think it was in May, so Addy was about 3 months old...

Funny how I intend to get a video of Addy, and it always ends up being about Jax!! the kid cracks me up, I can't help putting the camera on him! Can you beleive I have an almost red head?!? CRAZY!! And speaking of hair... I miss Kayla's!!

Got a little more of Addy on this one... naturally the other kids can't seem to stay out of the spotlight!!

So, I let one be just about the big kids. then... photo shoot over due to a leaky diaper... darn reality!!

A Day on The Farm

For Jaden's last week of school, we got to do one last field trip. Mrs. Tawny took us to the Thanksgiving Point Petting Zoo... we had so much fun running around looking at the animals, and feeding them corn. The horses were so big and the peacocks were awesome with big huge tails full of feathers. Jaden thought it was hilarious that the turkeys we saw are what he eats for Thanksgiving!! We got to go on a wagon ride pulled by big old horses!! It was tons of fun, and a great way to top off his last year of preschool!!

Musical Hospitals

About two months after Addy was born, I got this huge horrible pain in my abdomen... I was in so much pain, that all I could do was lay on my bed crying... My poor kids! It was just me and the two babies at home... Jaden was off playing at the neighbors, and Kayla and Brian were both at school... Addy was screaming, but I couldn't pick her up... Jax was crying because Addy and I were crying... it was a mess!! I finally got to my cell and called and called Brian till he answered (in the middle of class in OREM!!) So he left class and came home and took me to the ER... Turns out that it was my gallbladder... and yep, it needed to come out. It was full of stones and already full of infection. Luckily, my mom was able to come and help out and take care of everyone while all this was going on... I literally think she saved our lives!! I know she saved mine!! I was in the ER the day before Kayla went in for her diabetes, so we put my surgery off for a week while we took care of Kayla at the Children's Hospital. As soon as she came home, I went in... I had my gallbladder removed the day after we got home with Kayla. Luckily it was a same day surgery, and I was home right away, but honestly... not feeling great!!

The reason I hurried and rushed into having my surgery was because Kayla was scheduled for a craniotomy (brain surgery) the week after and I knew I would need to be back on my feet for that!! Six days after my surgery we were back at Children's for Kayla's brain surgery. She had some kind of tumor behind her eye that was pushing her eyeball out of her head... Once the surgery was over, the neurosurgeon told us it was a massive blood clot that was pressing down on her optic nerve and pushing so hard on her eyeball... It was so hard to see her back in for surgery... Before this year we had been having quite a run of good luck... it had been 4 years since her last brain surgery and she had been doing great!! I can't even describe how hard it is to walk into the PICU and see your little girl with tubes and IV's all over her little body, with her head all cut into and swollen!! It was terrible! But we could see right away that the surgery had been a success!! And she is such a little fighter, once we got most of her IV's out and pulled the drain out of her head, she bounced back like she always does... we went home only 3 1/2 days after her brain surgery!!

Needless to say, it's been a fairly rough year for us, medically, so far!! ER for me, ER for Kayla, 3 day hospital stay for Kayla, surgery for me, surgery and 3 day hospital stay for Kayla... all in a 3 week period!!!But here we are 3 months later with no major hospital stays, and all of us on the mend and doing better than we probably deserve!! Whew!! What a year we are having... I'm exhausted just writing about it!

**Sorry no pictures of any of this.. it was all I could do to keep up, I never even thought about a camera!!**