I'm Back!!

I know, I know....it's been quite awhile....and somehow, I'm going to try to cram an entire month and a half in one post. So this is what we've been up to:

*Early November: We were able to go visit Kaybri and Paxton's best buddies, Kinley and Kyle(their cousins in American Fork). Kaybri had a seizure within the first 5 minutes of being there, so she was asleep or grouchy for the remaining time we were there. But Paxton and Kyle got to roll around and chase each other for awhile. They are only 1 month apart, and both super cute, chunky boys.
*Thanksgiving: Cory and Dawn's family came to stay with us a few days before Thanksgiving. We had such a good time playing and visiting with them. The day before Thanksgiving we all packed up and went down to Justin's parents for the rest of the week. All of Justin's siblings were there except for his sister. We ate lots of yummy food, played games, did a little bit of black Friday shopping, shot off rockets, and the boys made race tracks to race some cars. It was lots of fun, but also a little bit of a stressful week because we had put Kaybri on a pretty restricted diet a week or two before to try to help her seizures. Of course she didn't understand why she couldn't eat the food everyone else was eating. Dieting during Thanksgiving is not recommended.
*December 3rd-11th: We went and got our Christmas tree for FHE night; it was so pretty and smelled so good. By the time we got it in the tree stand though, the kids were screaming/crying and it was time to go to bed. So we decided we'd decorate it the next night....WRONG! We found on Tuesday that there was a pretty good possibility that Kaybri could get in Wednesday (the 5th) to do a Video EEG, so I spent that night packing and trying to get everything organized for while we would be gone. They did get us in on Wednesday and we were there until the next Tuesday. The doctors wanted Kaybri to have 4-5 seizures while we were there, so they slowly took her off all her medicines. She had a lot of wires glued to her head, and then gauze wrapped all over her head. It looked like she had a major head injury. She was confined to her room the entire time and was supposed to stay in her bed the majority of the time so they could video her. That's a big challenge for a 2 (almost 3) year old. By the end of the week, Kaybri and I were both about to go crazy! She did have 3 seizures and quite a bit of abnormal spikes that showed up on the EEG. The doctors had to give her some medicine through her IV during her last seizure to make her come out of it. So after that, they decided to put her back on her meds and not risk having a seizure they couldn't control. The test should show what part of the brain her seizures start and whether they are focal or generalized, and if they are focal there is a possibility for surgery. We are so grateful that they got us in so quickly, and that the doctors are finally trying to do something besides giving her more drugs.

While we were away, Paxton stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Echols. I think he totally enjoyed having all the attention to himself! They came to visit us in the hospital a couple of times and it made our day! Kaybri and Paxton were both so excited when they saw each other.

*December 11th-Present: We were all SOOO happy to be coming home and to be together again, but that feeling has been overcome with TOTAL SICKNESS! Paxton got sick with the flu on the way home, and it got passed on to Kaybri, and now on to Justin. The kids still are not 100% better, but at least they're not throwing up anymore. Nevertheless, the tree is still not decorated and the majority of the "things to do" before Christmas are not done, but I am still semi-sane and hey, I finally got a chance to update my blog!

a Princess and her Puppy

Yesterday was a fantastic day! Kaybri has done pretty good the past couple of days, so we got to go trick or treating!!! This year was my first year for making a costume. When my mom came up to visit, I had her bring lots of the leftover tulle from past wedding decorations. We used it to make a princess-like costume. Most of you know, I'm not very crafty so it really was pretty easy, and I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Here is a picture in the beginning...
And here is a picture of it finished, minus the hat I made her (that she absolutely hated and would not wear) and her wand.Paxton got to be a puppy. He made the cutest puppy. Kaybri would point to him and say "dog" and he would reply back "woo woof". I tried and tried to get a full-body picture of him standing up, so you could see his cute tail, but he kept running towards the camera, so this is as good as it gets.
We went trick or treating to a lot of the businesses in downtown Tooele. At one of the businesses a big gorilla was passing out candy and as he reached out to give Kaybri some candy she got so scared and tried to run away. I have NEVER seen her scared of anything, so it was almost a relief to see that she is normal and gets frightened by big, scary gorillas! As we left the store, she kept looking behind her to make sure he wasn't following her. It became really busy downtown, so we went back to our neighborhood to finish up trick or treating there. It was so fun to see all of the neighborhood kids in their cool costumes. I think Halloween may be just as much fun for the parents as it is for all the kids, if not more.

Grandma Echols also came to Tooele to go trick or treating with us. What a treat!! The kids love seeing their grandma!

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!

Are you KIDDING ME???!!!

It's not even October yet and guess what??? It's SNOWING!!! I am not the biggest fan of snow, actually I can say I am not a fan at all. Sure it's pretty to look at (from inside a warm, toasty house), but when you have to go out in it...cold, wet, and yucky! I used to think snow was kinda fun, but this was when I lived in New Mexico and snow was sooo rare (and it usually melted by the end of the day). Now it's already coming in September....I am starting to freak! This may be a long winter for us. And I LOVE the fall season, surely it will come back, right?? We miss you Arizona, New Mexico, and San Diego!! So anyway, I didn't expect it to stick, so I took a few pictures of it snowing.
But then....it started sticking....and it's still snowing. Today is definitely going to be a pajama day!

Check out My Curls!

Paxton is starting to get little flippy-curls around the sides of his head. I just love it! I tried to get some of his curls in the pictures, but you still can't see them very good. When he was born he had SUPER-curly hair, and then it fell out and wasn't so curly anymore. So, now that it's getting longer, it looks like it might be a little?? Justin's hair is pretty curly and mine has a little bit of curl too, so you would think one of our kids would have curly hair. Anyway...he was being so cute today, so I took a ton of pictures of him while Kaybri was sleeping.

I don't know what he was doing in all the pictures below. He seems to be trying to talk with his hands! What a silly boy!

Wuz sup?!