Merry Christmas

Woke up to the phone ringing. The best Christmas gift......Kim saying "Come pick me up, I have been discharged." So happy she gets to come home today. We will get to spend Christmas together at home.

Thursday

Kim continues to do well. She was not using oxygen while doing laps around the hospital. She was eating soft foods without any difficulty. She says she feels great and is ready to come home for Christmas. I hope the Dr. agrees. If not she is still doing great at trying to push herself to get out of there. We also found out that the the tumor was benign.......greatest news yet.

WED Night

Tonight I drove home to be with the kids. It is hard to leave at Stanford, but she is doing well and has a great nursing staff to help her. Before I left she took her third trip to the bathroom (walking). The doctor came in and said everything was looking good. Tomorrow she starts her liquid diet and walk laps so she can come home. we have friends taking care of her tomorrow. Looking for someone on Friday....any takers? I will drive up on Christmas with the kids and stay over night.

Out of ICU

Kim was finally put in her own room today. They took off her monitoring plugs and catheter. She also walked to bathroom on her own. She is doing awesome. The Dr. came in and said she may come home on Monday. We are also waiting for her bowels to start working so she can start eating. Hopefully thinkg will speed up now she can walk around.

WED Morning

A little frustrated, we are still waiting for a room, which is halting her progression. She needs to walk to be able to eat, however their are mandatory gadgets that have to be connected to her in the ICU vs. a regular bed. So she can't walk yet. They did however for the first time give us a time frame. They said she could go home in about 4 days. That could mean Christmas. What a great gift that would be.

Tuesday Morning

Big improvements today. She has her epidural out and on minimal pain meds. She is moving to regular room and out of the ICU She is also starting to drink small amounts of water and cranberry juice. She is a trooper. She is very positive and is motivated to get home before Christmas. Her stats are looking good.

Monday Night

Not much has changed. Kim is still in the ICU. She is doing well, just slow to recovery. She did stand up today and ask for Double Stuff Oreo cookies so she is starting to feel a little better. The Dr said she should move up to regular room tomorrow and the epidural should be removed as well.

Monday morning

Kim is little more alert this morning and wanted to start trying to walk ( a good sign). She is still having issues with her temp and pulse rate is still a little high. The Dr. thinks it could be the epidural, and they are talking about removing it and managing her pain through the IV only. Other than that it is slow going. Hopefully her pain goes down and she can start doing more to help heal her. They want her sitting up and walking, which she is unable to any of those due to the amount of meds she is on and her pulse rate.

Power of Faith and Prayer

Being that it is Sunday and the day of the Lord, I feel a strong need to share some of my feelings that I have had over the last few months. We started this journey in August and was not sure where it would lead us. Through that journey I have seen and felt blessings along the way. Although surgery was still the outcome. I feel many of the burdens lifted and felt much peace over the last couple of months. I was reading Alma and came across chapter 5 verse 13..."And they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God they were faithful until the end....." This scripture really overwhelmed me when I read it. For the first time in my life this was something I had no control over and could never change. From that moment I put all my faith and prayer into the Lord. Since then I have seen the Lord's hand and blessing in our life. We have had friends come through and step up to help us in every area of our life. The ward family has truly been supportive through all this. The most I have gotten from this trial is Love that Heavenly Father has for each of us. I have given many blessings to Kim and through those blessing, I felt the love of the savior.My testimony of priesthood has increased. I cannot even express into words the love of the savior that I have felt through giving those blessings,My faith has been strengthened through this trial. The day before the surgery Kim and I both received blessing the spirit was very strong. It kept me calm through the whole surgery. I received my answer and know she is coming home. I may not know when, but I know she will be home.

Everyone has obstacles and trials in their life. We cannot change them, but if you/we turn to the Lord in complete faith ands sincere humility, He will carry us through our pain and lighten our loads as we suffer and deal with obstacles in our life. I promise you that if you will put your faith in the Lord, he to can help you through all you need. He is always there just waiting for us to turn to him. I testify that Christ lives and loves each one of us. There is nothing in our lives that we cannot conquer we if turn to Heavenly Father. I cannot imagine how we would have made it this farwithout Him. It has been through the power of faith and prayer that has helped our family this trying time.

SUNDAY AM

They moved back to the ICU. Nothing major just the issues from last night. The Dr. ordered a scan and it came back normal. The Dr. believes that it is her body responding to the surgery and it should get better on it's own. The goal is to move her back to a normal room tomorrow. He was being cautious and wanted to make sure she is doing better. This morning she seemed to talk more and be little more coherent. He pain level is down as well.

A long Sat.night

Kim had a few issues tonight. The pain meds wouldn't work right. She was in a lot of pain. They finally got it right but it caused her blood pressure to drop. SO they took her off one med. She also spiked a 102 fever which can be sign of infection. Blood test came back ok. She also has a pulse rate a little high. All this over three hour period.The doctors says nothing is standing out right now. I am praying this all part of her body reacting to the operation.

SAT AM

Everything continues to go well. Kim had a little rough night with pain, but they switched her meds and feels better. She is still in the ICU but should go to a regular room sometime today. Her spirits are strong.From a dead sleep she popped off with " I want to walk" She is pretty attached to the bed with all of her wires IVs. However she was able to sit up on the edge of the bed for a minute which is a huge step. Thank you for everyone's help and prayers. It help carry through all of this.

Recovery

The Dr. just came and talked with us. Kim is in recovery and doing well. They did not have to take a vein from her leg. He also only had to take around 20% of her pancreas out. The retested a sample of the tumor and reconfirmed that it looked non-cancerous. She will be in ICU overnight and hopefully move to a regular room in the morning.

Friday 2:00 PM

One of the Doctors came out and said Kim was doing well. Everything was going smoothly. They are pretty sure they can remove it with out taking a vein from her leg. We still have another 3-4 hours of surgery. May know something around 6ish.

Friday Morning

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 AM to check in. Kim was doing well considering. They took her back at 7:30 and now we wait. The Dr. said it could be 8-10 hours depending on what the tumor or pancreas looked like. The procedure is called the Whipple. The other issue she may have is that a main vein is stuck to the pancreas and the Dr. may need to cut the vein and use one from her leg to replace it. The Dr. would not know until we was in there. Hopefully the can also figure out exactly what it is.

Friday

We have had many BIG days in the life we have shared together....engagement, wedding, temple sealing, baby 1, baby 2 and baby 3, and yet this one doesn't sound quite as fun as the others. Friday is surgery day, after several months of tests, needles, invasive procedures (picture seeing your insides on a 72 inch HD plasma, no good), our fabulous doctor decided it was time to take out part of my pancreas. We still do not have a definitive diagnosis yet as to what "it" is that has taken up home in my pancreas, and for that reason it needs to go.
As freaked out as I can be at times, overall I feel a peacefulness that this is what needs to happen, and that Heavenly Father is truly leading this path.
In my moments of panic, I rely on my kids who fill my heart beyond belief or measure. They are amazing in ways that I can not describe. We have prepared as much as we can and look forward to moving on and putting this in the past.
The out pour of love and support has been overwhelming. My gratitude is far greater than my fear. Through this trial we have endured, we have learned how to unite as a family, rely on our higher maker and learned the innate good in so many people.
Surgery is at 730 Friday am. Scott will update the blog throughout the day, in lew of fielding a bunch of phone calls. That night I will be in ICU and hopefully in a regular bed by Saturday. I anticipate lots of pain, and look forward to the spinal tap with meds freely flowing. If all goes well I will be home within in 7-10days. Please keep our family your prayers, they truly work.

Catch up...or Catch a Fish?

This is a totally old post, but is So worth it. Scott and I have know each other 13 years. And in those 13 years we have done much camping AND fishing. Scott mostly doing the fishing. He swears that there are NO fish in the river up at camp. So one weekend towards the end of the summer, we needed a break from the kiddos and headed to the mountains. And we got to fish, with our sensae....Steve Pauley. Three minutes into I caught my first fish in MANY MANY years!

I was a mixture of excited and pretty freaked out by all the flopping it was doing.

There he is.....

Just a few minutes later Scott caught his fish, he was pretty stoked

However, he had a really hard time putting it out of it's misery

The poor fish got smacked over and over again on the side of its head, bleeding all over the place and still flopping. I was pretty traumatized.

Don't be fooled the fish is still ALIVE

Isn't this the most beautiful place in the world?!

My dad made me gut the fish myself, it was pretty gross, apparently entertaining for him

Pretty FANTASTIC!

Our trip was a quick one, but fun. Thanks husband, SO glad you got your fish!

Day of Christmas Fun

This past Saturday the Aunites came and brought the Christmas spirit with them. We packed our day full of Christmas fun, from start to finish.

I'm pretty sure it was the reindeer ears that brought the cheer.

Our first stop was breafast with Santa, we met the Davidson's there and everyone got to sit on Santa's lap.

I'm pretty sure we were the only family there wearing the reindeer ears...cuz we rock like that.

Santa was not taking requests for Christmas, so the kids had to go make their list and turn them in.

After breakfast we did some Christmas dress shopping to get ready for the girls singing at the Nativity Festival. Grace and Hannah sang and our friend Lew played the guitar.

They did an AMAZING job. Preparing them to sing was painful, and I was really wondering how they were going to pull it off. I think when we walked in the Spirit took over, and they were so inspiring to listen to. I was so proud of my girlies. I didn't think that Grace would follow thorugh with it and she did. LOVE these girls, they LIGHT my life up!

So thankful for all of our family that came to watch the girls and support them.

Kids----> Done having their pics taken.

Not sure where Landon went on this one.

Our friends the Segallas came to watch the girls also.

After the Nativity Festival we hit the streets of down town Mo town for the Christmas parade.

The parade was pretty wet and rainy but the kids had so much fun.

We met up with Davidons and Segallas claiming some territory.... This is me and Jordan (Justin Bieber). I can't believe he smiled.

Creepy???? I thought so but wanted to include it.

We had so much fun. We didn't stay until the very end, we were pretty wet and Landon wanted to leave. We had such a great day. With our holiday time limited this year, it was fun to have a day full of the Christmas spirit

So much to be thankful for

This year has been one of many challenges. Through it all we as a family have tried to stay focused on the positive, the blessings in our lives and all that we are thankful for. I asked the kids what they are thankful for:

Grace is thankful for: "I am thankful for the whole wide world. I am thankful for my mommy and daddy, for my sister Hannah, for Thanksgiving, my brother Landon, for my doggie that we used to have, Rex and Santa Claus!"

Hannah is thankful for: " I am thankful for Jesus, God, my family, the Earth and I am thankful for my house. I am thankful for my food, medicine, doctors, my Papa U and Grandma U and for my cousins and my Auntie Kim and Uncle Cameron. And most of all, I am thankful for my mommy and daddy".

Landon is thankful for: "Mommy and daddy, Papa and Grandma U, for pumpkins and hot dogs! And Shaggy and Scooby, Hannah and Gracie. AND MUSTARD!"

I am SO thankful for these amazing children. When I want to bury myself in bed and not get back out, these guys keep me moving. I am thankful for their positive attitudes and the way that they have learned to accept disappointment with grace beyond their years. I am thankful for friends and family that keep us afloat and reach out to us in our difficult times. I am SO thankful for the good times that we cherish and appreciate and constantly reflect back on, as our constant reminder that, This too shall pass. I am thankful for the amazing power of prayer and the guidance and peace that comes from our Savior.

I have a rock of a husband who just gets me...He gets me in a way that I can not explain. He knows what I am thinking before I can voice it, he knows my fears before the tears come, and he knows how to comfort me, providing a safety net when I feel like I an falling. With a heart so full of gratitude it makes it hard to dwell on all that is not well and not right. I love this time of year and the peace that comes with it. Happy Thanksgiving.

My soccer girl

This was Grace's first year playing soccer, Scott was pretty bummed that he got side lined as the coach when Grace requested that I coach her. Keep in mind that I have never played soccer and hadn't even watched a game until last year. I took the challenge and had so much fun coaching her, despite not really knowing what I was doing. How cute is she?

Landon had to entertain himself during the games, pushing the ice chest around was one of the ways he kept busy.

We were so excited that our friend Mia could come watch one of Gracie's games! "Mama Mia" as Landon calls her.

So Grace played her little heart out all season, tongue out the side of her mouth, set on making a goal. However, it never quite happened. The last game she ALMOST made a goal, if only the net was a few inches wider. We cheered SO hard for her. I was seriously so proud. She loved playing and can't wait until next year to play. And bonus....Scott will be coaching her.

Our last game afterwards we went to Funworks to celebrate, great time!

Grace and her cute friend Kyah rocked it on Guitar Hero!

Good job Ladybugs! You all rocked!