Great News

I had to take Annaliese into the dr. today as she started running a fever last night, and while there they let me know that they have finally found her genetic testing results. It has only been 6 months, but they showed that she does NOT have a genetic mutation. She most likely has autoimmune which will self resolve. So we sit and wait for it to happen. She has already showed so much improvement. We started giving her shots three times a week and now we are at every seven days. This is her first fever since June when she was admitted in the hospital. She is doing great except for the darn diaper rash that she seems to like so much. This darn rash is a pain in her butt (no pun intended). It is not a flaming red I need meds kinda rash just a red bottom all the time. I guess I need to potty train her and that will help but hey she is not even two yet.

Taylor's allergy testing

Today I took Taylor in for allergy testing as his zyrtec is not working well anymore. Well we were quite surprised with the results. I know Tara has seen how they allergy test but if you havent been there for it, it was something else. They had him lay on his back and marked a grid of dots with a purple pen then next to each dot they "pricked" his with a needle with an allergen inside. Total in all was somewhere between 36-40 pricks. You then wait 15 minutes and see if he develops a wheal or a spot that looks like a mosquito bite on top of a red welt or hive. Well he had reactions to 3/4 of the all the shots. I tried to get a picture for you all but didnt have much luck with my camera. Anyways the verdict is that he is allergic to almost all of the trees, grasses, and weeds. He is NOT allergic to inside allergens (cat, dog, cockroach, dust mites), molds or foods. We are testing him with blood to check his pineapple reaction as he has had bad reactions to eating it. That poor child had hives all over his back and he was NOT allowed to scratch them. He will begin getting allergy shots now as his allergies all ranked 3 or 4. (4 is the worst reaction). He is also taking zyrtec, two different nasal sprays, and patanol (for his eyes), in addition to the allergy shots he will get upto twice a week. He also was given an epipen for his pineapple allergy as his reactions have been bad in the past. He has one the epipens for school as well because he likes to eat school lunches and they serve pineapple. Bryan thinks we should take Taylor and Annaliese and put them in a big bubble and leave them there.

Some great news

We had Annaliese's hemo appt today and we were surprised with an ANC of 2200. She had her shot schedule revised about two weeks ago and now we are giving then every 5 days instead of Mon and Thur. Today we fully expected her to be at 0 as she has not had a shot for 5 days (she is due tonight) but she has a great ANC. When I questioned the dr whether or not this was meds and her adjusting I was told NO THIS IS HER OWN BODY, meaning it is working without the meds. YEAH!!!! If this trend continues then it is very likely that she has autoimmune neutropenia and she may be on the road to recovery. We couldn't be happier right now. We go back in three weeks and if she is still maintaining her ANC on her low points then we will space her injections out even more until she doesn't need them anymore. We are so excited about this prospect. On the other hand she is now being tested for a blood disorder called Von Willebrande (VWB). She has had bruising up and down her spine and across her lower back off and on for quite a while now. She gets bruises on her body that we can not explain and so they are checking into it as the dr was concerned this last time we saw him. Now let me add that I am sure you are thinking cancer as this is a BIG sign of leukemia BUT her platelet counts are great (even very high at points) so this is NOT a concern. If you search VWB then it will explain what it is but is something her ped. mentioned even when she was a newborn. They did the work up today on her and we should now the results in about a month. Just a little funny about our appt today... Annaliese has viens that are very small and love to roll. I have the same problem and am a VERY HARD stick because of it. They normally have to stick her twice (on a good day, more most often) to get the one tube we need for her CBC. However today they needed four tubes to get the workup done. Our hemo has their own blood drawing staff and we always have the same lady (I can never remember her name though) and when they told her that they need four tubes today she started to cry. She came in and kept telling me she didnt think she could get it. She just kept repeating "You want four tubes from Annaliese Malcolm and I am lucky to even get one each time." over and over. It was quite funny but after two pokes and TONS of proding with the needle they were able to get blood from her hand.

Taylor's Baptism

I just wanted to invite you all to Taylor's baptism this Saturday, 10 Oct. at 2pm (it could change to 4pm) at our church building. If you want to come just let us know so we have enough snacks and also if you need a place to stay so we have enough beds ready.

I guess life has slowed down for us because..

it has been awhile since I posted anything. I guess that is a good thing. We are doing good here. It is finally starting to cool down some. I think we were in the mid 90's this past week. The older two boys started soccer this past week and just love it. Our stake puts this program on and we just love it. They started this program this past spring with baseball. It is a great setting for the kids and the two best things about it are that it is FREE and they provide the t-shirts, and the practices and games are Thrusday nights. So we are not running all over town to different practices on different days and whatnot. I love our stake. Owyn is upset that he is not old enough yet but that doesn't get him down as he get out there and plays with the best of them. That boy will be amazing when he is old enough to play. I will have to look for the pictures we have of him playing soccer last year with casts on both legs. That shows his dedication.LOL Annaliese is doing good despite the time of year. With the boys back in school we are starting see things change a bit for the worst. The boys have been in school for a month now and she has had a UTI, two colds and woke up all snotty today. So we shall see how this winter will be with her. She is tolerating her injections great. She will fuss when she see's me draw up her med but calms right down once the shot is over. She then gets up and puts it all away. Her curls are getting tighter and more of them all over her head, before the top was pretty straight but she is starting to get them up there now. I get stopped EVERY single time I am out by someone asking me if I curl her hair like that everyday. HAHA like I would put my daughter thru that. Lets see what else has gone on here....Bryan started his last chemistry class and so far is enjoying it and even likes his instructor. He will be putting in his package to the PA program here in a couple months. We don't see much of him here at home anymore but that was all expected. Taylor had his annual eye exam yesterday and boy is that kid blind. He has been in glasses for over three years now and not once have his eyes shown any improvement. I think dont even think he will be a good candidate for the laser surgery. I hope that will change but I guess only time will tell. Speaking of eye's Owyn and I are going to be heading up to SLC here on 30 Sept for him to have his eye surgery repeated. I will post some more "pretty" pictures of that when we return. Maybe I will get a funny video of him on versaid. And I guess the last thing coming up for us is that Taylor is turning eight on 1 Oct. So that means we are in baptism mode here. With Owyn's surgery actually scheduled for Taylor's birthday we have Taylor's baptism scheduled for 10 Sept. So if anyone wants to come just let us know and we will provide beds and food for you. I will post some pictures of that after it has happened as well.

A chapter finally closes...

This is the story of a boy who decided that he wanted to be alittle different then most. He chose to come to earth with a few hardships. He has been amazing through all of his trials. However a few days ago one of them finally came to a close. See he was born with bilateral clubfeet and has had to endure many weeks of casting, heel cord surgery, and shoes connected to a bar.

He never smelled like baby powder, he always smelled like vinegar. This was how we had to soak his casts off each week. Nothing like dipping your little baby in a trash can full of warm vinegar water.

At about ten weeks old he had to have his heel cord lengthened. It was an outpatient surgery however he was kept overnight for observation. Then it was back into casts again for a couple of weeks.

After his surgery and another few weeks of casts, Owyn was able to get into the Denis Browne
Bar. It was some lovely white open toed shoes connected to a metal bar that kept his feet pointed and angled out. He has had this bar for just over 3 years. He had to wear it all the time for about six months and the he was able to only wear it at nap and bedtimes. Believe it or not he learned to crawl with that bar

on. This past week we saw his orthopaedic surgeron and we got the wonderful news that his feet are completely corrected. He has only a slight 5% chance of a relapse. As of now he has no pain in his feet and only diminished feeling. Hopefully he will not suffer much pain throughout his life because of the treatment plan that we followed. It was probably was the best news we have gotten in quite awhile.

What a long week...

we have had. We were able to go up to Utah for a quick visit along with an eye appt. for Owyn. This was his four month check up from his surgery and well we knew going in that we were probably facing another surgery. His left eye has not improved and now instead of two droppy eyes he now has two uneven eyes as his right eye has taken well to the surgery. So he is set to have surgery again on Oct. 1 (Happy Birthay to Taylor). I bet he wont be very happy to have to share his day.LOL While we were up in Utah Trystan and I decided that it was the best time to get sick and both of us ended up with strep throat. Fun Fun, as Annaliese is still having her ups and downs with her meds we both ended up wearing masks while in her presence. Lucky for us she still has not gotten the strep, in a few days we should be in the clear. As for her her numbers are still all over the place. In the last four weeks (with her neupogen shots on Mon and Thrus) her numbers have been 98, 89, 1079, and now 849. So as you can tell she is still not stable by any means but there really is nothing they can do because if they adjust her meds then we end up way to high. We are still waiting on her genetic testing (good thing we are not in any hurry to have those results) and for the time being she is not having to go in weekly but monthly right now. She is as stable as she is going to get at least for the time being. On Tuesday we took Owyn into the dentist to have some cavities filled (this is what happens when you have a kid who has taste and texture issues) and found out that he is already starting to get more so we were informed that he needs to have cleanings every three months instead of just twice a year. They are putting in on flouride tablets to see if they can help keep his sugar bugs at a minimum. We have not had much luck with that kid lately and I actually am dreading taking him in for a feet check up, with the way things are going it will be our luck that he will leave with casts again.LOL And on that same day he has a yearly eye exam, so we will just assume that we will leave with a prescription for glasses as well. As you can tell we are not very optimistic right now.

On a good note though they boys are getting excited about school starting up in a few weeks. I think they are just excited to not have to go the anymore dr. appts. They have been great sports all summer with the pain of all of Annaliese's appts but I still feel very sorry for them. I think school with help them recover this horrible summer. Bryan starts school on 1 Sept and this is his final class before he is able to apply for the PA program with the military. We are very hopeful that next year sometime we will be heading to TX for him to go to school. We will let you all know how that goes when he hears back from the military board.

So much for the good news

It seems as if we are not entitled to good news unless the bad comes along. We had our weekly appt on Friday and this time the dr. was speechless. Never a good thing. Annaliese has been suffering diaper rashes for about 2 weeks. She has never had a problem before and we have not changed anything in the diapering dept. The dr. said that it could be from the heat (it has been 112 here lately) and that is couldnt be from her neutropenia (more side effects) because her levels are so high. They gave her some nystan (sp) to help her. After we did her blood draw, and much to our dismay, her neutrophil level is at zero again. The dr. didnt have a clue why as they expected her to still have at least 7000 neutrophils. She now has defied everything they have perdicted of her. She is NOT a textbook case and now they are not sure what to do with her. So we have resumed her neupogen and put into place our "bubble baby" rules again. We are hopeful that things will start to get better for her as we need to have things figured out before the boys start back to school. We all know what happens when the kiddos go back to school. I cringe to think about it. Also, her genetic testing has gone missing. Yes missing. The dr never recieved her results and so they have requested them from the hospital STAT and well as far as I know they have not recieved them. I went in last week to get copies of her records that would have included these results only to be told Friday that they havent even started to copy her chart yet. To say the least we are very fed up with everything right now and would just love to get some good news.

18 month Stats

Annaliese had her 18 month check up today and she is doing great, besides the neutropenia. She was 7 lbs 6 oz at birth and now weighed in at a whooping 22 lbs 6 oz (25%), 31 inches long (just above 25%), and her head is 47 cm (i dont know what % that was but he said normal). She is doing good with her growth and the doctor is pleased despite everything she has gone thru. Unless we get sick she doesnt have to go back until she turns two. YEAH!! Finally an ALL GOOD NEWS DOCTOR APPT.

An interesting turn of events...

Annaliese had an appt today with Dr. B (although he was out of town and we ended up seeing his partner, Dr. Lisa) and well things have taken quite a turn. We started the neupogen shots two weeks ago. Last week after receiving only two shots her ANC was 5900. That was up quite a bit seeing that for a few week before that it was zero. Well today we had another blood test (after recieving six neupogen shots) and her ANC (according to the machine, we are sending it out to double check) is 29,800. Average high for her age is 6500. So the shots are working well, a little bit TOO WELL!! With numbers that high we are facing more problems so we are not going to be giving her anymore shots until her numbers get within normal ranges again. Once that happens we will probably only have to give her one shot a week. Her WBC (white blood cell) count was at 39,500 and normal high for her is 10,500. Because of these numbers she is probably experiencing extreme bone pain. Right now her bones are FULL of cells. Another thing that came up today was the mention that she may have yet a different form of neutropenia, called autoimmune neutropenia. This one would have low ANC counts because her body had developed antibodies that are fighting off her neutrophils. The good news is that this usually self resolves by the age of five. There is a blood test that they are going to run to see if she has these antibodies. We are hopeful that they are able to get it run this week with the blood that they collected but if not then they will run it next week at our next blood draw. Also, her genetic testing is back however the Dr. is out of town until Monday, so we have to wait. The results were sent to him and are probably on his desk waiting to be reviewed. Dr. Lisa was not able to get them until he gets back. So next Friday we should have those results to share. To sum up exactly what you all are thinking... Dr. Lisa said that right now Annaliese could go into Pediatric Ward at the hospital and touch everyone's face and put her hands in her mouth and not CATCH A THING!! Gross, I know, but very reassuring that at least her immune system is working. So this weekend she will be able to attend nursery for the very first time. We are so excited for her.

A hiking we will go...

This past weekend, Bryan decided to take the boys out to go hiking. They found a place in the Spring Mountains called the "The Robber's Roost," it had some caves and what not for the kids to explore. They had a blast. Annaliese and I had to sit it out as she is not allowed to go into the mountains right now, per her dr. I guess nature is not clean enough for her. LOL

They also went looking for a geocache while out there and had no luck finding it but they sure tried hard to find it.

Fun in the Sun

Because we are not able to go anywhere "fun" right now with Annaliese, we decided to bring the fun to us this summer. We went out and bought this very fun pool for the kids to enjoy at home. They have had a blast with it. Here are a few of them playing.Taylor...

Trystan...

Owyn...
And finally Bryan and Annaliese...

The best thing is it holds up to 400 lbs, so we can all enjoy it.

Sorry...

I am still trying to figure this thing out and as I just looked at my last post with pictures it looks pretty bad. At least you get to see the pictures. One day I will get "professional" with this thing. Until then take this as my apology for how this things comes out looking.

Bryan's Promotion Ceremony

This past Friday Bryan had his promotion ceremony for work. He has waited a year to put on this next stripe and boy was it a neat ceremony. This was the first one the boys and I have been to as he put on Senior Airman in Korea and Staff Sergeant in Iraq. In order to put on your new rank they have to get it "pinned" on. And the three boys were asked to do this very high honor. In order to do this the boys got to punch their dad in the upper arm. I think that the reason he asked the boys was because they don't punch that hard. In the past he has some pretty bad bruises. He will officially become a Technical Sergeant on 1 July. We are very excited and are looking forward to raise that we will get. Here are a few pictures from the ceremony. The boys had the camera so some are not very good. Enjoy!!

Taylor's Dental Visits

Taylor has had to see the dentist twice this month, once for a cleaning and they ended up having to pull a tooth (the adult tooth was coming in behind the stubborn baby tooth) and the second time to have his mouth fit for a space maintainer. A few months ago he cracked a canine in half and those babys dont come in for a few more years. While we were at the second visit the dentist realized that in order to put the maintainer in he would have to pull yet another tooth. And upon further examination decided that two more had to come out, not due to the space maintainer but because they were growing in funny and he didn't want the adult teeth to follow suit. So in two weeks poor Taylor has had to have FOUR teeth pulled and that is not counting the canine that came out a few months ago.LOL He looks quite funny right now as he is missing the top front two and three of the bottom front. He can't eat much as he has no teeth to bite with. And to think we go back on 6 July to put the maintainer in...I wonder if he will decide to pull some more. Don't worry we love our dentist and he not out for the money as he has been giving us some deep discounts on the kids dental work. YEAH for an honest dentist. The tooth fairy paid him well...I guess when you get mulitiple teeth pulled you get an award.

Diagnosis...maybe?

I am a little late in posting about our visit this week. We took her in on Tuesday to get her checked again as her ANC was zero for the second week in a row. Dr. B. told us that she either has Kostmann Syndrome (otherwise know as severe congential neutropenia or SCN) or cyclic neutropenia. The only difference in the two, is that SCN your neutrophil levels never make it over 500 and with cyclic she would have a roller coaster neutrophil levels. Both conditions are life long. Treatment for both is the same. Neupogen shots for life. Dr. B has sent away for genetic testing to determine which of the two it is. There are mutations that would identify each. From what we have read and researched we believe that she has Kostmanns but do not know for sure yet. But either way she will be recieving neupogen shots at least three times a week right now. We are hopeful that she will beable to get down to once or twice a week as the neupogen shot have some bad side effects. However the benefit outweighs the side effects. So right now I am practicing on oranges so that I am able to administer her shots to her. Fun, Fun. When we get her genetic testing back we will let you know.

Unbelievely ANGRY.....

I just got a call from our Dr. about Annaliese's ANC count. At the appt last week they said it was 1300 and I asked (alright I TOLD her) to run a manual because I didnt believe that number and I guess I had every right to believe it as her ANC is ZERO!!!!!!!I am so mad I could hit something. Once again we took her to church thinking we were in an okay zone to do this but I guess I was wrong again. We have another appt. tomorrow at 1045 and boy will the you know what hit the fan when I see the dr. this time. I will update tomorrow and I better have an idea of what is going on or at least a game plan to figure it out.

Today's Visit with Dr. B

We had our follow up with Dr. B today and we found out that her hemoglobin in going up we are now at 9.5 so that is a step in the right direction. Her neutrophil (if the machine is accurate) was at 1300 but because of past experiences we are not to confident in that number. I dont think I posted about what happened with that. June 2 they drew her blood and told us that her ANC (absolute neutrophil count) was 2300 and they ordered a manual differential (another blood test where a person actually reads the same blood) only to find that her ANC was 107. Yes you read that right 107!!! Thus resulting in her hospital stay. So you can understand why we are hestiant to believe that number. We didnt get anymore information than that today. We are scheduling an appt with our Peds dr. to discuss what information we are not getting from Dr. B and hopefully can resolve some of our concerns. We have quite a few and are getting conflicting replies. When we know more we will let you know.

Recap

Seven weeks ago Annaliese got sick and had to be hospitalized for dehydration, while there she has some blood work done. We found out that she didnt have an immune system due to the lack of neutrophils. We were told that if she was to run a fever that we HAD to take her to the ER immediately. A fever and neutropenia are not compatible. A fever could cause her to go septic and could kill her if not treated within just a few hours. We had been lucky that she had not had a fever, when you consider she has not had an immune system to fight any bug, well our worst fear came true this past Friday. She started to run a fever and had to be taken to the ER where she was put in isolation. Everyone that came into contact with her had to wear gowns, gloves, and masks. When she is fevering she has to have every test run because they have to find the infection. She had blood drawn, urine samples, x-rays, and was started immediately on IV antibotics. We talked to our hematologist/oncologist (Dr. B) and he wanted her transfered downtown to the Children's Hospital right away. She was taken by ambulance to the Children's Hospital where she was admitted onto the oncology floor. We met with Dr. B and it was decided that she would have a bone marrow aspiration done first thing in the morning. Bryan stayed with her during the procedure (ask him when you talk to him how that was) and then the waiting started. We got our results this afternoon and there is NO CANCERS at all. Her bone marrow is clean and shows no signs of being abnormal. Dr. B is now convinced that she has cyclic neutropenia and has done some genetic blood testing to see if this is long term or something she will outgrow. We will have the results back in 4-6 weeks. The treatment depends on her cycle and how low she will go. It could include preventative antibotics or nuepagen (spelled wrong I am sure) shots. Until then we are to continue to monitor her for fevers and if she gets them we have to take her to the ER to get her levels checked. We are hopeful she will outgrow this as we dont want to have anymore 4 day hospital stays. Here is Annaliese right after we got to the childrens hospital and another picture taken right before we left the hospital. Aside from the fun described above, we are also keeping an eye on Annaliese's hemoglobin levels which is slowly dropping. Today her hemoglobin level was 8.4 and normal is between 11 and 13.

Dont know what to think about yesterdays visit

The title tells you just about as much as have figured out. Our hematologist is not very forth coming with information UNLESS you ask the right questions. If we had any clue what was going on our questions would be much better than they have been. This week her hemogoblin was still at 8.9 (normal is at least 11) and her hemacrit was even lower than last week. Her neutraphil level was higher than last Thrusday, however the doc. doesnt think it was accurate. So he is running another test to make sure it was right, if so she is now at 2300. Which would indicate that she no longer has neutrapenia, HOWEVER the dr. thinks she might have cyclic neutrapenia (meaning that every 3 weeks her neutraphil levels will bottom out for the rest of her life). He has said that depending on her blood results next Tues. (our next appt.) we may have to have her blood drawn 2 times a week for 6-8 weeks to figure out what kind of pattern she has. He also mentioned possibly doing a bone marrow biospy. So once again we will be waiting to find out. The only plus is that they draw and run their own blood right there (a CBC anyways) and we have the results within minutes. What we can't figure out is why he would put her threw so much blood work when her blood level is so low right now. So if you are confused, join the club, we will update again next Tuesday when we HOPEFULLY know some more. Thanks for everyone who has kept her in your prayers.

Memorial Day weekend

We decided since we had a long weekend we would take the kids camping. We didnt find it very appealing to camp in the desert so we drove up to Panguitch Utah (outside of Cedar City). It was beautiful and green (hey we dont have very much green down here). Anywho, we had a blast despite the almost constant rain and cold. It got down into the 30's and well we werent prepared for that as when we left home it was just under 100. But the campsite was so nice. We camped right along the stream which proved to be trying with the kids. All the kids had wet shoes the whole weekend. Here a few pictures from our weekend. If you get a chance check out this campsite it was very nice.

We have neutraphils....but

she now has another issue going on. Her hemogoblin and hemacrit are very low. Meaning basically that her blood volume is down and they dont have an idea how or why. So we return on Tuesday for more blood work (this girl has had more blood drawn than I have had in all four of my pregnancies) and hopefully her levels are up. If not we are not sure what they will do but we they have mentioned a blood transfusion. Scary stuff. I am going to start posting updates on here so you all get them quicker than when we are trying to call everyone.

I am so excited...

You are all going to laugh at me but I had to share. For the last couple of months Old Navy has been putting out some very good coupons on a site called oldnavyweekly.com. They have been as good as $75 off a $100 purchase, well we have been trying to snag one to get the kids some summer clothes but to no avail. Well tonight must have been my lucky night because I was able to get a $50 off a $100 purchase, (I was to slow get the $75 dollar one). I am so excited. Owyn, Annaliese and I are heading to Old Navy tomorrow and getting some new clothes. I can't wait.

Boing, boing, boing...

These pictures are just for you Tanya..

Anyone have any ideas how to calm those curls? We have gone thru probably three bottles of the Johnson and Johnson detangler spray and yet everytime her head is put against something they frizz out. Oh by the way I could only get her to stand still if she had something to throw away. I really don't let her play in the garbage.

We are home

Annaliese had her tubes placed yesterday and lets just say we have not noticed a difference. So much for hopeful thinking. The doctor said she didnt have an infection when they placed the tubes but had some fluid in there. He said that she would be ornery for a few days while she adjusted to the new "normal" noise level. Apparently she is hearing everything at a whole new level today and she does not like it very much.

The surgery went well. She was given versaid (because of her recent hospital stay, she was not happy about anyone in uniform, who can blame her) and she is funny just like the rest of my kids. She usually is a pretty quiet girl (like her dad) unless she is mad at someone or crying. On the versaid she didnt stop babbling to everyone. She was so talkative it was funny. I dont have a video of her as I could hold her limp body up and take a video (Bryan stayed home to get the boys off to school and watch Owyn). The doctors said that they way they feel on this drug is how they feel while drunk...I am glad we dont drink but at least I know what to expect if they ever experiment with it. Trystan is a funny drunk, Owyn a "I love you man" kinda drunk, and Annaliese is a talkative drunk. From what I see I am only lacking an angry drunk, so I suppose that is what Taylor will be like. Kinda funny to think about. It gives you a whole view of your children. After the surgery they gave Annaliese some morfin ( I still dont know why they did this) but she didnt wake up angry like the boys do. It took her almost 2 hours to wake up from anethesia. She also didnt throw up like Owyn does. Thank goodness. All in all it was a pretty good procedure.

Annaliese is getting her tubes on

Monday morning at 07:15 and I am so GLAD!!! This girl has struggled with ear infections since early Dec 08 and has had if I counted right at least 8 since then. And most of those were treated with antibotics (thankgoodness we have good pharmacy benefits), we can not wait to not have to deal with the antibotics or even the doctor for that matter. Once she has tubes we dont have to run to the doctor for infections anymore. They will give us ear drops when we leave the hospital and if she has drainage we treat it at home. YEAH!!! No more weekly doctor appts. I will let you all know how the surgery goes. She will only be under general for about 5 minutes, so hopefully she recovers quickly from that. I have to say this is the first time I have ever been excited to have one of my child in surgery.

Our kiddos are sick yet again, UGH...

can't it just leave our house for good. This year seems to have been a pretty bad one in the way of sickness. Our kids have had a just about everything that has gone around. We have had kids in and out of the doctors probably at least twice a month. I like my dr. but not that much.LOL She has come to know when Owyn was having his eye surgery, when Annaliese is due to have tubes, and lets not mention that the nurse has stopped asking me the all to familiar questions and just puts in what he knows is wrong. I hate seeing them suffer and not able to do anything about it.

We had Annaliese in the hospital Thrusday for dehydration from rotovirus (which sucks if you havent had it). I am glad I had stocked up on diapers and wipes when I came across a good sale because we are going thru a pack every couple days. I have made it a mission for this coming week to lysol my entire house. Maybe just maybe this will be the last of the sickness we shall see. I hope that your households have had a better year than we have had.

Girls will be girls

Having three boys we never had a clue what a little girl would bring to our house. Lately Annaliese has been becoming a little "girlie girl." We took her shopping and gave her a few books to look at but she wanted the pink fairy book, one that we didnt even think to pick up. She threw a fit until we handed her that book and then had to wait until she went to bed to get it back from her. Bryan took her shopping while I had the boys hair cut, and won't you know it when she walked back in with tons of necklaces around her neck. Bryan claims she asked for them. Yeah right, can you say wrapped around her finger. And just last week Bryan gave her a highlighter with little page markers in it. Well she thought that the page markers were "prettys" for her hair. She decorated her head with every last one of them.

We are back....

We got home from SLC on Friday and wanted to post some pictures of Owyn's surgery for you all to see. I am not sure how many of you have seen a child on versaid (sp) but it makes them very loopy. It relaxes them so they don't care what is going on around them. I thought you might enjoy this little clip of Owyn right before surgery....

His surgery only took just over an hour and we were on our way home within an hour of that. Owyn was pretty out of it. I took this picture on our way home.....this picture is not pretty...I have nicknamed this one the "morgue" picture..

To make the picture worse, that the night before in the hotel, Owyn fell out of the bed and hit the nightstand. He got a bloody nose, scratched under his nose, and had a rug burn on his forehead. He looked bad going to in and came out even worse.LOL But just a few hours later you would never know he had surgery if you didn't look at him. He was running around and playing like nothing ever happened.

He is still getting better, he actually never was more swollen than in this picture. He has some black eyes but otherwise he looks pretty good. We have to put drops in his eyes around 12-14 times a day and medicine on his incision line 2 times a day. We will not know how his eyes will look for at about 6 months. He will have swelling and puffiness for a while because of all the stitches (he has 40-50 in there). It went very well considering and am thankful for all the prayers on his behalf.

Prayers needed..please

Owyn is going in for surgery one week from today and we are starting to get nervous. We are excited for him to see the whole world, LOL, but as with any surgery nervous about the outcome. Here is a picture we found the other day and it makes us feel very good about this whole thing...

We are hopeful that this surgery will go well and that we will not experience any complications. If you would please keep Owyn in your prayers next week. Thank you all and I will post some before and after pictures once we have them.

DEAL ALERT LADIES!!!

I wanted to let you guys know of a deal that I got today and thought you all might benefit from it. If you go to target.com and scroll to the bottom and click on the grocery coupon link you will find a coupon for $1.00 off of the Market Pantry fruit snacks (target brand) you can print as many as you want. At my target today the mixed fruit ones were $1.36 (the other flavors were $1.52). I got these for .36 cents a box. Some of them expired in Sept 09 and the rest in Feb 10. Your cashier may make you do separate transactions for each box but still very worth the hassle. Mine let me do all 6 boxes in one even though the coupon states one per transaction. So if you are in need of fruit snacks for lunch boxes or snacks Target has a deal for you.

Hi, my name is Shannon and I am a......

coupon geek.LOL Seriously, I have the binder to prove it. I carry my coupon binder everywhere I go because I never know what I might find. Sad I know, however, you wouldn't believe the savings I have been getting. Today I went to Vons (Safeway) to check out a deal that I had heard of....and well lets just say I am the proud owner of EVERY AQUAPOD (water) that they had in stock (112 bottles) for a whooping $6.00. And I have a coupon for $2.00 off my next shopping trip. And if you didnt guess I will be going back to do this more as soon as they get a shipment in. I have been trying to see how little I can spend to get our storage up. As of right now I have at least a years worth of toiletries, poptarts (.25 a box), mac-n-cheese (.39 a box) and canned veggies (.35 a can). I am so excited and just need to find a few more cupboards to hide them in. Sorry I am not bragging but needed to share my excitement with someone other than Bryan, as he is tired to seeing me bring in more to store.LOL

Getting Started...Finally

I suppose it is time to stop putting this off, we are officially going to start a blog. You all know who we are and where we live, so this is going to be to keep you all up to date on the things going on in our lives. Lets start with some important days coming up in our household...Owyn will be have eye surgery on April 7th to correct his congential ptosis. Annaliese is will be having tubes put in her ears on April 27th to help her get rid of the massive amount of ear infections she has had. The rest of our household is doing well and are HEATHLY(oh man, did I just say that. Better go and find some wood to knock.)