Farm Life

New Baby

Tuesday I finally got to go see my sisters new baby!! She is so precious and her big brothers just adore her. (Her mom is quite proud too!!) They named her Fallon Hope. I got to snap a few pics while I was there and can't wait to take some more:)

New Baby

And here is my baby:)

Misc.

We spent last Saturday in Jerome with Jordan, Barb and their kids.

This is the result of one of the wrestling matches . . . one more missing tooth!!!

Awww, how sweet!!

I love this one. Baby Ella with Barbara's sister Dana and Trey-ler.

Kase giving me the "I finally got the firetruck so BACK OFF LADY" look!!


We had a great time in Jerome. We went for Rylee's baptism and I didn't even get one pic of the superstar! Anyhow, we are so proud of you Rylee!!

Matti started senior primary this year. Aaaahhhhh!!

Time is flying by.

The faces of Trey. I love this KID!!

He is trying to do his Pee-Wee Herman impression "I say we let him go".

I say it's pretty good!!

Rockin' New Years

Brought the New Year in right with Rob, Holly, and girls!!

Can't beat RockBand!!

Shelb, Matti, Syd (I think)

Intense!!

Kase, the womanizer!!

Christmas '09

Christmas Eve in new jamma's from Gramma! Thanks Grandma - they were perfect!

Christmas Eve @ Grandma-Greats. Grandpa is just trying to live up to the family joke "If Santa Were My Daddy, I'd Be Gay . . . every single day of the year" (I seriously forget how the real song goes now!!) So glad Grandpa is willing to have such a good time with the kids:)

Mad-ness sporting her new tunes. Grandpa-Great gifted her this hat. Wish you could see the feathers on it. They are classic. I Love IT!!!

Kael wants a guitar so bad so he improvises by playing the 'Rock Band' guitar. Here he is singing Uncle Wade's wedding song.

T can't wait to get outside to ride!

Kase didn't want anything to do with unwrapping for the first hour and
then it got real intense!!

Where's Trey??

Matt got some new music toys this year. I would tell you about them but I don't know a whole lot. I do love singing into that big round thing though . . . feels like your in a recording studio!!

As for me . . . Matt got me a new camera!! It has been a lot

of fun but I have so much to learn about it!!

Hope you all had a Very Merry at your house!!

I am anxious to see what the New Year will bring for us. (I'm trying to decide what kind of resolutions I wan't to get myself into!!)

All tuckered out!! What a great day:)

WHILE YOU ARE . . .

de-junking, whether it be before or after the holidays, please keep in mind we will be doing another YARD SALE for Team Leak. Obviously we wont be hosting it for a while so if you are short on space, bring it by my house and we will throw it in the little white trailer.
I know this is a little premature but I'm just trying to think ahead so my summer doesn't start in February!!!

Love you all and hope you have the very best Christmas and happiest New Year ever!!! I'm so excited!!!!

it's COLD people!!!

WARNING * CAUTION * WARNING * CAUTION

Hasn't exactly been a heat wave here in the Cache Valley. I am sure a lot of you are experiencing the same cold though. My brother Wade stopped by on Monday after delivering hay to a guy here in the valley. He said he wasn't prepared for it to be so COLD!!

I'm already sick of breaking ice and unthawing hoses. It's going to be a long winter!

I worry about our babies and the cold. I hope we can keep them healthy.

#71

Loni

Mego

On a warmer note . . . Aunt 'Sissy' came up on Black Friday so we could finish her baby crib quilt (so, so cute! she did an awesome job!). While she was waiting for me she took these pics of the kids. Kase was sleeping so he didn't get in on the action. I love how they turned out! Thanks Sis!

Counting down the days 'til our annual Yellowstone vaca!! Wohoo:)

Number FOUR

just turned TWO!!! Yikes!

He had a great time opening his gifts -

and blowing out his candles!!

So cute, so fun:)


There are so many things I love about my Kase:

his kisses

when he calls me Lena

how he says each of our names

that he calls Aunt Merr "Grandma"

the way he insists that he is as big as the other kids

his smile

how much he loves animals

his animal/tractor noises

his ability to produce a mess everywhere he goes :)

. . . and so much more!!

WE LOVE YOU KASE!!

If you dislike someone . . . tell them!

Trey informed me he called Satan the other day and let him know that he is allergic to him!!! That was it, that was the whole conversation.

Holidaze . . .

I am fighting off the urge to get a Christmas background! (FYI I have been listening to Christmas music since the last week in Oct. and it has really put me in the Holiday spirit!)

November has cooked up to be a busy month for us. Matt took me on a little vaca last Mon-Wed to Vegas. He had meetings and wanted me to come so bad he called my mom and asked her to come stay with the kids so I could go. So grateful for a persistant husband and a loving, devoted mother (I believe Dad had a little something to do with it to0 so thanks DADDY)! It was so nice to get away! Thanks MOM and Matt!!

Last Saturday we had Matt's work Holiday party at Maddox! mmmmmmm. Yea, it was that good!! Never fail, it snowed like mad.

We are in Layton the next few days for Farm Bureau meetings. Saturday we get up bright and early to head to Manti for a sealing (so happy) and have turkey dinner with my family (so excited). Then back to Corny-Town for Sunday meetings and back to Salt Lake on Monday for a backpoke. (Just-in-case you were wondering what I am up to!!)

I am so THANKFUL for this time of year and being surrounded by such wonderful FAMILY and FRIENDS. I am learning to find JOY in the SIMPLE things, counting my BLESSINGS, increasing my FAITH, strengthening my TESTIMONY, and just sitting back and ENJOYing all that I have been BLESSED with.

Today, hold your little one's a little closer and chrerish your friendships, you never know what tomorrow will bring.

zzzzzzz . . .

-Kayson is trying wean himself from naps. I am not a fan of this. One night I was out doing chores and made Matti and Kael watch him. He snuck outside and when they brought him in he was screaming. They said he disappeared a few minutes later and this is how they found him. Six o'clock nap time really doesn't work for me. He stayed up until 1:00.

-Matti's bad hair day at school. It is suppose to be a birds nest. I put plastic eggs in the top. It was all her idea!! Love it!

-Kael's oral antibiotics (given 3x/day) is sick, gross, and disgusting. I have tasted all his chemo's, steroids, septra and what-have-ya and nothing is as gross as this stuff! I would put it in the same category as battery acid, if that is even possible. He takes this stuff without complaining. I am such a wimp.

-Home health came last Tuesday to de-access and re-acess his port (the needle can only be in for 7 days). Terrible experience. After poking him twice and pushing saline in (painful for Kael) - she still wasn't in so I politely told her I would take him into infusion and have them put a new one in. Two hours later, disaster averted.

- Saturday we had plans to leave for Twin Falls so we could trick-or-treat with Jordan and Barb and their kids. Long story short, Kael's line came out so we had to re-access it. The home health nurse was so helpful, we ended up doing it ourselves. Matt did a great job and I now believe we can do just about everything without the home health nurses:) (No offense to any of you nurses out there, we have just had one bad experience after another with home health this go-round). My mom said she lost quite a bit of sleep over Matt and I doing this ourselves. Sorry to worry you mom and thanks for the prayers!! We were not able to trick-or-treat but had a great time on Sunday with family. Baby Ella is adorable and I enjoyed holding her much of the day:) There's just something about baby girls!!!

-Spent about 40 minutes in the principles office today. Thankfully it wasn't because anyone was in trouble, that day is coming. I made Kael go back to school (3 weeks out) so had to take his meds to him. The principal met me at the door, called Kael over the intercom and had us chilaxin' in his office while his IV was going. Pretty funny. The thing is, I don't think this guy could be mean if he wanted to. However, I just want to stay on his good side should Trey and Kays think of something crazy to do!!

-Trey's Birthday was celebrated with Ella's blessing. With cousins to play with and Halloween the day before, it couldn't have been any better! Another funny thing Trey said this past week was "Mom, am I awergic to Satan?" Was it naughty of me to tell him that he is??

-Tommorrow we celebrate the last day of ANTIBIOTICS. YEEHAW!!!! These past three weeks have really made me realize again how tough this whole cancer thing can be on a family. But more importantly how tough it is on Kael. His strength is simply amazing. I love you buddy!

the latest from Trey

"Mom, you wook wike you dussed calved!"
(Matt says Trey is the only one that could say this and get away with it)

Mom: Trey, what do you want for your birthday?

Trey: An Awigator

Mom: K, I'll get right on that!!

. . . and that's not all

Friday afternoon found us at our Pediatrician's office. Kael's fever had still not let up and I was determined to not go the weekend without a plan. I called Primary's and they said to take him in to our pediatrician (dr. brown) and have him listen to Kael's chest. Things checked out great but he said if the fever wasn't gone my Monday to call him back. Saturday and Sunday he ran a fever all day. He woke up this morning at 5:30 with a temp of 103. I gave him tylenol and sent him back to bed and when he got up he seemed great I was so excited and his temp actually read normal!! By noon he was back down. By 1:00 he was 102 and by 2:00 he was back to 103. I called Brown's office and he wanted a chest x-ray done. Kael was feeling a little better by the time we got there so I was sure everything was on the mend. It only took Brown about 2 seconds to read the x-ray and say "looks like he has pnuemonia". He listened to his chest again and said he still couldn't hear anything. We did a blood draw and his counts are still unbelievably high. We talked to Primary's again tonight and they seem to think the counts are high because the neutriphil or basophil (can't remember which one) #'s are way high. They also looked at the x-ray and would like us back in clinic tommorrow. Say a little prayer for our little guy!

My mom said she e-mailed Jordan and Justin this morning and mentioned that Kael was not feeling well. She got an e-mail back from Jordan saying he thought about Kael all last week. He said he couldn't get him off his mind and wondered if everything was okay. The spirit speaks to us in so many ways! I am so thankful for a little brother that listens, this little story was heaven sent today:) Thanks mom for sharing!

Bacon Bits

Just a warning - this is a long post. Probably confusing at times, good luck!

Saturday afternoon Kael started fevering and complaining of his legs hurting. Throughout the evening his temp kept getting increasingly higher but we were able to keep it under control by giving him Motrin. His fever finally broke just after we put him to bed so when I went and checked on him he was drenched in sweat. Gross. Sunday came, it was the Primary Program and I was looking forward to him doing his part. He had it all memorized and was ready to go but I knew he couldn't go. So sad for me. (Matti and Trey did well though.) Anyway, we fought a fever all day Sunday and Monday morning I called clinic to see what they wanted me to do. Of course all the dr's and nurses are in their morning meeting but because he had a fever i was told "Bring him down right away, keep a mask on him, we will room him as soon as you get here". So two hours later we walk into clinic. Everything is going well. His fever was gone because of the tylenol I had given him before we left the house and he was acting great - which he always does while in clinic. The nurse comes in and draws blood, sends cultures off to see what they will grow, ect., ect. Then the PA comes in to examine him. He immediately jumps my case for not calling/coming down as soon as he started with the fever (so I immediately take offense). My reasoning for not calling was fear of recieving this answer, "Give him some tylenol and if he still has a fever on Monday, call us" or my justification that he is on his 'maintenance' doses' and I am sure clinic is packed with other sick kids, higher on the list than we are. Anyhow, the PA continues with the exam and he just can't believe how good he looks and is acting. "It is just a virus" he says but lets see what his counts are and we will decide from there. So we wait for counts to come back and they are awesome!!! His ANC is 3.0 (they don't want leukemia patients to be that high but since he has had a problem in the past with meds and his counts, they are leaving them be.) They take his temp and he is fevering again so they give him more Tylenol. At this point I am told not to give him Motrin because it lowers his platelets (so much to remember!!). The PA prescribes him some Rocephin (antibiotic) that has to be given there in clinic. So after that is administered we are free to go. His temp is taken again and it is higher than before the Tylenol. "If he gets any worse, get him to the ER or get back down here". I calmly tell the PA that we have had terrible luck in the Logan ER and that they (Logan) will not call Primary's as instructed. He doesn't have an answer and really gives me no hope in his ability to do anything. I am quite upset as I leave the clinic and am wondering why I never got to see a DR. So on my drive home I start asking myself all sorts of questions like "how will I know if he needs to go back in?", "how many days do I give this "virus" before I call or go back in?" and then I think back to when the PA was given me the old "why didn't you bring him in" lecture and I thought to myself "wouldn't that be a bad deal if he got after me for not bringing him in and then when I did, he didn't get the neccesary care/treatments that he needed". I had worked myself into a pretty good mad but by the time I got home the other kids needed me, we had chores to do, life must go on. I started dinner and headed out to do chores. When I got back in and checked on him he was to 105. I gave him more Tylenol and put cold washclothes on him and calmly called Primary's. Of course it is after clinic hours so I wait for the on-call DR. (which happened to be another PA) to come to the phone. She preceeds to ask why Lucas (the PA I saw in clinic) didn't take a viral panal and start him on Tamiflu. I explained to her how unhappy I was about the way things were handled in the clinic but I just need to know what to do now. She told me to go to the ER and be stern with them until they called Primary's. Then she happily said "my shift ends right now but I will give this info to the next on-call Dr. Let me see who it is . . . (pause) and then I hear her laughing) your not going to believe who it is!! It's Lucas." Just great! So I load Kael up and head to the ER. On the way in I decided to call our Pediatricians office to see which Dr. was on-call in his office. Maybe, just maybe, I would luck out and get Dr. Brown. I lucked out!! He was in his office doing Kids Kare until 9:00 so I decided I would just go there. I was the stoplight away from the hospital when the nurse from Dr. Brown's office called back and said he had just been called out for a delivery and wasn't sure when he would be back. All hopes dashed, so I took him to the ER. Things actually went quite smoothly at the ER. Again, we saw another PA. He tried talking me out of having the viral panel done because if a kid walks in with a fever, they are calling it H1N1, treating them, and sending them on their way. That is great bud but call Primary's and see what my favorite friend (lots of sarcasm) Lucas' says. So we finally get what we want. The nurse comes in and does a nasal flush (awful, awful) and they have to call a curiour to take it to a lab in Salt Lake. They give us Tamaflu and send us home. What a day!
I was suppose to check back in with the clinic the next day to let them know how he was doing. It was afternoon before I called them because I wanted to make sure they had the results of the viral panel. Still no results. However, I am informed that because he is still fevering he needs to go back to the ER for another dose of Rocephin. The blood cultures are not growing anything but as a precautionary thing, that is what we have to do. So I wait for Matti to get off the bus, load the kids up and drop them off at Merr's while we have a sweet round #2 at the ER. Thankfully the lady at the desk was the same but she gave me quite the look when she realized we were there the night before. We saw the same PA and the nurse that came in to do his temp looked at us like she was having a spell of deja-vu. At least that was funny:) Anyway, we get another round of Rocephin and head home. Next day I call - no results to be found. I didn't much care though because I figured he had been treated with either treatment, viral or bacterial. The nurse called me later and confirmed that it was Influenza A or H1N1. So we haven't really changed anything. No more Rocephin and we are off oral chemo for a few days. He is feeling pretty good right now but I will not be sending him back to school until next week. So far so good for the other kids. It's been an eventful week so far around here but I am still thankful for my blessings and grateful it is just the Swine Flu:) I feel like sausage!

I have to say a big THANKS to Matt. He kept Trey and Kays all day Monday, worked on the phone/computer, and it was his day for chores on the farm - not easy to do with a 3 and 1 year old!! Anyhow, THANKS honey and a BIG thankyou to our neighbors and good friends, Brad and Joni. We called them at 11 o'clock Monday night because we were out of Tylenol. Not only did they have tylenol, she sent a dozen homemade pumpkin/chocolate chip muffins!! Lovely. Also, Joni picked up a few groceries for me and has insisted that she drive this week, even though it is my turn to take kids for the carpool! I am so grateful for great friends and family. THANKS EVERYONE!!!

Grandpa's Birthday

(This is a very rare photo. Gwampa Shauna is not on his list of favorites at this time. As we all know, Matti wasn't either for about 2 years and now you can see where she rates herself!!)

(front of card)

I'm still

Farming

and I'm

57!

(inside)

Dear Teasing to Death Grandpa,

I am maybe happy about your 57th Birthday and I will not eat your cake if it has black licorice on it. Happy Birthday

love your favorite granddaughter Matti

(gotta love the honesty! written all by herself and the illustrations were awesome!!)