what are you celebrating....?

When booking our hotel for Disney Land, the person asked if we were celebrating. So many things came to my mind, I couldn't think of just one thing. There is so many great things happening in our life right now, that we decided to celebrate them all.  Brooke is doing so well and I am starting to finally get some smiles on camera, instead of her standard scared of the camera look. 

Notice Brooke's leg kicking up in the air in the next picture, she is always kicking her feet. We also are celebrating the boys birthday by going in between their actual birthday. Justin and I are celebrating our 9th anniversary. It has been to most wonderful 9 years of my life and I am so grateful to have Justin by my side. He is the most amazing man, father and husband I know. 

We are also celebrating that for a little over a year after Justin's back surgery, his work finally accepted that it happened on the job. Justin's back is doing great and he can still work and play. We love great Neurosurgeons! We are so grateful for our little family and wanted to spend some special time in the happiest place on earth. 

It was perfect, over cast weather, being able to walk right on it almost every ride and Dallin is finally tall enough to ride all the ride. Star Wars ride was redone to be 3D, the boys were so brave. 

There were even brave enough to go  on space mountain.

They only began to get scared as we barreled down splash mountain, notice Dallin's face in the very front of the ride....

So we decided to slow it down and visit some friends...

Their faces were priceless when they met Woody (so the lady told me that was walking by right then)

Last time we went to Disney Land we took a total of 3 pictures. I was determined to not only take more pictures this time, but to actually be in some of them. 

We also had breakfast in Goofy's Kitchen. It was great having all the charaters come around to your table. 

I loved that all the characters took time to talk to Brooke and called her princess.

It was an amazing trip start to finish. 

Upon our arrival home....we couldn't find our tramp. Yes, our tramp was missing. It turned out there was 60 mph winds while we were gone. Our tramp flew up in the air, hit our roof.....

And landed on the complete opposite end of the property. I think we might need to dig a hole to put the tramp in. Just a few new tiles for the roof and it was as good as new. We were very blessed the tramp missed the windows and cars. Just add it to our list of things to celebrate. 

Happy November.....now lets recap October

October was so great, the weather has been cool and it feels so fresh outside. We went to the pumpkin patch and got some keepers. Carved them with love and set them out to rot in the nevada sun. 

Mario cart has always been fun. The boys love it too and acted the part. Parties at school and trick or treat. I love my baby Princess Peach!

Back to school and Brooke

These last couple of weeks have been crazy. I feel like my head feel off, is rolling down a hill and I am tumbling after. Lincoln started Kindergarten. Ouch, I just pinched myself and it is real. He has been counting down the days till he got to go to "big kid" school and ride the bus. He loves school and is really adjusting well. He is such a sweet boy, the fist day of school a boy was crying on the bus, so he sat by him and told him it would all be all right. I do hope that his tender heart remains that way, amidst the hard world. I love him so much, my big Kindergartner!

When he got home from school, he was so excited to show Dallin the bus and gave him a huge hug. 

Dallin was sad that he couldn't go to school with Lincoln on the bus, but he started preschool a week later and is loving it. This is his first day with his teacher. He loves it some days and other times would rather just hang out at home. The boys love to bring home their projects and give them to each other. 

Brooke has recovered very well from her first surgery. However the fluid in her head would not go down. So she had to have a shunt placed in her head. It was a scary surgery, the doctor said there was some unexpected bleeding and she had to have a blood transfusion. (her third in her very short time here on earth) She recovered very quickly and was smiling the day after surgery. She is such a true joy in our lives, she is strong and brave. I think she helps me through all of this with her sweet spirit and smiles. She is still unable to do very many physical things, but it has been nice to have her be like a little baby for so long. This surgery was one of two, so in a couple weeks we will do it all over again. I'm so grateful for the support that we have near and far. And for this angel.

Her hospital gown had pink animals on it. 

She really does smile alot, but I think she is afraid of the camera!

Also a special thank you to MawMaw and Paps for taking care of our boys so we could take care of Brooke. You eased our stress and the boys had an amazing time. Thank you!

My baby is home.... agian....

It has been such a roller coaster. We are so blessed to have our Brooke home. After spending 7 days in the  hospital, they finallly sent her home. She was taken into the Operating room on the 6th day of being there to have her tube removed and possibly a trach, if things didn't go well. I think that I was more nervous about the possiblity of a trach than I was for the original surgery. They said it would take 30 mins to take the tube out, so after an hour I really started to worry. When they finally came back with her they said that they took some extra skin off in her airway. Besides that she did great. They said she may be able to go home in a couple days. She was so hungry I had to beg them to let her eat something. She was such a trooper and downed the bottle and wanted more. she suprised everyone there with her fast recovery and was soon eating her full amount. The next morning I was so suprised when the thought of sending her home was tosssed around. I was doing everything I could to keep Brooke happy and eating. Finally they gave her the ok!! 

It has been amazing to have her home. She is really uncomfortable most of the time and needs lots of love. It is like having a newborn all over agian. We are hoping that she will feel better soon. Her head will be very lumpy, bumpy for a year while all the plates and screws they put in her head desolve. She looks beautiful and now looks just like Dallin when he was little. We are greatful for the power of prayer and blessing. Plus the amazing amount of support that we have recieved. We are especially greatful to our family for watching the boys and taking such good care of them. I dont know what I would do without them. Your the best and we love you so much.  

Brooke getting lots of attention from her daddy and drolling all over his shirt. 

Brooke asleep in her swing 15 days after surgery.

Brooke's Surgery....

  It feels like only yesterday that Brooke was in the NICU and only a couple weeks old. Now here we are again back in the hospital. Let me start at the beginning. When Brooke was born, it was very obvious that her head was not the right shape or size. The doctors informed us that she has metopic craniosynostosis, meaning that her forehead fused somewhere around 20 weeks old and can therefore not grow as she ages. This condition resulted in Brooke's forehead having a large ridge down the center of it, and caused her head to grow straight upward. Although we think she couldn't get any more beautifull just the way she was, there is a very serious medical concern with  fused skull bones. Her brain was becoming compressed and actually pushing so hard upward to grow that it was thinning out other skull bones at an alarming rate. This condition is seen alot in children with Gorlin's Syndrom, which Brooke has. We were told that we would have to wait until Brooke was 6 months old before we could have the surgery because so much blood is lost during this type of surgery. So we have been waiting and waiting. Finally the time came to get CTs done and see what the doctors thought; they did not like what they saw. The date was set and the doctors appointments made. She would have two doctors for the surgery. A neurosurgeon to remove the necessary bone and  protect the brain, and a plastic surgeon to put things back to their proper place.

     So on July 5th after the Fireworks had faded. We got up extra early....5:00, and headed into the hospital. Brooke was such a flirt, won over all the nurses. She was an angel until about 20 minutes past the time when they were supposed to start surgery. Justin calmed her down with her pacifier and his famous back pats. They finally took her back and we waited the 4 hours till she was finished. We couldn't wait to see her, but it took another hour of waiting till we could actually see her. Towards the end of the surgery she started to wake up, so they had to quickly give her a huge dose of sedative drugs. This resulted in them not being able to remove her breathing tube immediately after surgery. Now here is the deja vu part: Now that the tube has stayed in this long, it has resulted in swelling of her already delicate larynx and trachea (wind pipe) and now they dont want to take her breathing tube out.This was the exact reason we were in the NICU for so long when she was first born. Its been almost 4 days since the surgery and the tube in still in....

 Brooke looks like a brand new baby.  Her forehead is so flat. I barely recognize her. She is so swollen and they say it will only get worse, but she looks great.

We are by her bedside almost every hour of the day. Justin watches for any sign of distress or pain and immediately notifies her nurse that "Brooke needs another dose of Morphine right away please", and they listen. 
Please continue to keep Brooke in your thoughts and prays as she starts this long journey of recovery. We love you all !!!

I've caught the bug....

The crafting bug, that is. I feel like there are not enough hours in the day for all the things I want to do. I have been wanting bunkbeds for the boys for some time now. Justin said that he want to build them some. So I thought, if that is the only way that I am going to get some, I'll go get some wood. Well it ended up being my project and turned out better than I thought. I wasn't sure how much of it I would be able to do on my own. The boys LOVE them and call them Bonkbeds. However, now that I have that done, I feel like I need to finish the whole room. But for now this is it. 

It has been warming up here in Nevada and everytime I take Brooke in the car somewhere she ends up sweating up a storm. The fabric in her car seat was not breathable. So I finaly decided that her car seat needed to be recovered with some light fabric. So after hours and hours, here is my sweetie enjoying her cool ride. 

Brooke is doing really well. She is eating and growing up so fast. She is having surgery on her head in a month or two. They are going to break apart the fused skull bone and try to put it all were it should be. We got her CT done and she was such a good girl. She is so brave, almost like she is much much older and wiser than her body would show.  she is a true example to me. 

6 and 2...

Six weeks old!

Brooke has been alive for 6 weeks, 2 of which have been at home with us! It has been amazing. She is a newborn... so she sleeps alot, but she is finally finding her voice and loves to be held. Her eyes are still very blue and she loves to watch the butterflys on her swing. We have been to 2 of the 8 specialist appiontments that she has coming up.  We have been quite busy making appiontments and going to them.

She has been eating so well and growing big. she is almost 9 lbs now. 

We have all been alittle tired. 

Some of us for different reasons then others.

I feel so blessed to have a home full of love and noise.