A Whole Lot of LOVE

So, this will probably be a pretty random post because I don't have any long stories or "real" news to share. I just have a couple of pictures that make me smile everytime I see them.


I LOVE this picture because Kaybri was having such a rough day and really didn't feel good, but we got her to laugh and actually smile for a couple minutes. And, I LOVE this picture because Paxton's smiling too....and at the same time...amazing!
Kaybri and Paxton just LOVE their daddy. Their eyes light up when he comes home. He is way more fun than mom! I LOVE that he is such a great dad, and husband.
I LOVE the fact that Kaybri LOVES everyone and thing! She seriously kisses and hugs nearly everyone she sees. One afternoon we were taking some pictures outside and she had kiss the tree!

Grandparents

My grandparents came up from New Mexico last week, and we had such a good visit with them. I wish we didn't live so far away. I grew up living by them for most of my life, just a farm field in between us. They have done so much for my family.

They are my mom's parents; they raised a good, strong family. I'm sure much of who I am today is because of them. It makes me realize how important it is to have grandparents in a child's life.
Pictures with my mom before she left to go home.

All grown up

It's amazing the changes that happen within a baby's first year of life. It goes by sooo fast! I can vividly picture the night we went to the hospital to have Paxton. I rolled over on the bed and told Justin, "I think my water just broke." And then the following response, "What?? How is that possible? You're not due for like another month." It didn't matter though, Paxton said it was time.

And now, my baby is so big now, but still super-cute!

What a blessing Paxton has been in our lives. He is such a sweet, happy boy. We love him so much! I'm so glad I get to be his mom!

Paxton's life right now:

• He says mama, dada, daa (dog), woo woo (woof woof), mmm (moo), uh oh, no no, baaw (ball), baba (bottle), wa tat (what's that), na nat (knock knock) and tries to mimick other words we say to him
• He walks fairly stable now (Check out video below)
• He still loves to climb...ugh...
• He waves hi and bye
• He likes to clap to pat-a-cake and do the popcorn popping song
• He loves when you laugh at him and then he thinks he's funny and starts crinkling his nose and fake-laughing.
• He adores his big sister and wants to be into whatever she's doing
• His favorite person right now is his daddy and gets sooo excited when he comes home and really sad when he leaves

Video of Paxton walking:

Birthdays!!!

Paxton turned the big #1 on October 12th! We had a just a little family birthday party that evening. Grandpa and Grandma Echols, Grandma Ellis, Uncle Shawn and Uncle Gary came to celebrate with us. Paxton got lots of fun presents and some cute clothes. Thanks guys!
Next...it's cake time.... He's ready, and excited! Oh boy...Chocolate!!!





WHAT??!! He's crying?? Yes, those are real tears. Paxton was so excited for the cake (or maybe it was the flaming candle) that he grabbed the candle when Justin was bringing it over to him. He had a pretty good-sized blister on his finger and was inconsolable for a little bit. It was so sad, but I guess it makes for a good story to tell him when he's older. He got over it when dad started shoving frosting in his mouth! Kaybri also showed him how it's done and dug into his cake for him.


Mmmm....pretty good stuff!



My birthday was exactly a week from Paxton's, so we got to celebrate some more! I got some nice gifts, flowers delivered, and Justin took me out for dinner. My mom was still in town and babysat for us. It'd been awhile since it was just the two of us out for the night, so that was quite a treat too!

Kaybri's Surgery

As most of you know Kaybri had surgery on Monday, October 8th. The surgery she had done was called Craniotomy for Fenestration of arachnoid cyst. I knew that she would be okay, but I still was nervous that she was having surgery, and on such a major area! We got to Primary Children's Hospital at 6 a.m., checked in, talked to the doctor about the surgery, and waited around until 8:00. We took Kaybri for a wagon ride and then left her with the doctors.

They used general anesthesia during the surgery, which lasted a little over an hour. We met with Dr. Brockmeyer (her neurosurgeon) right after the surgery, and he said everything went extremely well. He said the cyst was causing a tremendous amount of pressure, and once he cut part of the bone out the cyst just shot out. gross, huh? He cut several slits into the cyst and then put the piece of bone/skull back with some tiny plates and screws. He then sewed her up, 15 stitches. He also said that during the surgery her blood pressure was pretty high, but once they relieved some of the pressure from the cyst, the blood pressure dropped right down to normal. Who knows the amount of stress the cyst was putting on her little body! Dr. Brockmeyer also said because she did so well during surgery she didn't need to go to ICU, and that she could go to a regular room in the NeuroScience Trauma Unit.

We got to see Kaybri within 30 minutes after meeting with the doctor. She was of course still asleep and stayed that way for a couple more hours. Her heart rate was high, and got really high once she started waking up. They associated it with the pain she was in, and it got a little better as long as she had drugs running through her. Her first word after surgery, "cup". She was so thirsty from having to fast! To be honest, she really didn't "look" very good because of how swollen she was, how pasty white her coloring was, and because of the big long cut on the side of her head. But she hardly ever cried while she was in the hospital, what a trooper!

Picture of the first day...
Kaybri woke up the second day even more swollen, her eye was totally swollen shut. But as the day went on she was able to open it and she acted a little more perky. She has a CT scan taken that morning, and the doctor said the cyst had already gone down quite a bit. (He didn't wait for it to deflate during the surgery).



She was bored, so we took her for a ride up to the playroom. She had fun and didn't want to go back to sitting on her bed.
Kaybri also got a lot of balloons and things to cheer her up. It worked! Thanks guys!!!!




What would we do without GRANDMAS??!! Thanks mom for coming up and helping us, and Marsha for taking care of Paxton-and the rest of us!




The Third Day....

Doesn't she look so good?? It's amazing how fast kids can recover. She was wanting to GO!! And of course, the doctors thought she looked like she could go home too.

The first few days after we got home she was so spunky and back to the old Kaybri. And then she started holding her lower back and just crying and saying "ouch!" She was very stiff in her movements and was in a lot of pain and cried more the next few days than what she ever did in the hospital. Her neurologist said it could've been from some blood getting in her spinal fluid and that it was just one of those things that had to go away on its own. So we got some more drugs for her and that helped some.


We thought she was maybe totally fixed when she went over a week without having any more seizures. It'd been months since she had gone that long. But then Wednesday afternoon (the 17th) she had her first post-surgery seizure. She also had another one later that night, and two more on Thursday. We were upset and mad that she had some more, but we've done all that we can do right now, and we just have to leave the rest up to the Lord. We still think she will grow out of them over time, we just hope the surgery will have helped some. She has done a lot better yesterday and today. She goes back for a check up and CT scan Nov. 8th.

We have had a tremendous amount of love and support from everyone around us. Thank you all so much. We know there have been countless prayers made on Kaybri's behalf. We couldn't have made it or held it together without you guys!

Family

It's been FOREVER since I last posted, and I keep putting it off because I have SOOOO much I wanted to post. Anyway, I don't know how much I'll get done, but I have to start sometime, right?!

We had family come up Conference weekend, and we had a lot of fun with them. The boys played the Wii all day and night, and the girls talked while Joni did our hair! We also were very busy keeping an "eagle eye" on Kaybri. She had 9 seizures in just a couple days....we were so ready to get the surgery done. I love my family and am so sad I don't get to see them more often. Thanks for coming up to Utah guys!