A Little Catch Up Post

The weekend before Liam went into the hospital my amazing Grandmother came over from Utah. She has two sisters that live in the Richmond area and was on her way to go spend some time with them. It was so much fun having her here! I love when you hug some one and they still smell the same as they did when you were little!!! It brought back so many good memories.

Liam LOVED her!! He ate the best for her and loved it when she would rock him and play with the left over Valentine balloons.





This is a huge thing of home made candy from Gram!!!! She makes the best turtles and toffee that I have ever eaten! I know all you family members that read our blog are soooo jealous right now!



We then drove her to Richmond on Sunday to see her sisters and was able to see some family I haven't seen in years. Thursday My Dad and my "other Mother":0) came out to see us! Unfortunately very early Friday morning is when Liam ended up in the hospital again :( They were such great sports hanging out with the kids while Jared and I would trade off being at the hospital. Come that Sunday we all drove back to Richmond to pick up Grandma and then off to the airport to drop off Dad and Carrie. I miss them so much and so do the kids. I can't wait to see them this summer!

Here are some pictures of their time here and Liam's time in the hospital.



















Dad,Carrie, and Grandma, thank you so much for all your help, love, and understanding. Having a child in the hospital is never easy. I feel so blessed to have the family that I do and also our ward and friends. Thank you for everything!

Some Stuff

Yesterday we cleaned and went to the grocery store ...... which made for some not so happy kids. Once we were done I wanted to reward them for all their help. So we had a picnic at the park and blew bubbles! Thank goodness they are still little and bubbles and the park work!







Liam is standing!!!! He has to hold on to something, but he is STANDING!!!!!! He is working so hard to strengthen his little hips and what stomach muscles he has. I am so proud of him!!!

Match Day!!!!!!!!!

Today is Match day. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's where all the fourth year medical students get together and open up their envelopes to see where they will be training for the next four years. It was crazy!!! Hundreds of people were there, champaign toasts, laughing, and the bright flashes of cameras were everywhere. The kids sat patiently waiting for our envelope.




Finally we all got our envelopes, the room was buzzing with anticipation. One minute to go...........30 seconds to go........finally they announced "Open those envelopes!! All that could be heard was the clean tear of paper!



After that there were two sounds that could be heard, either the excited screaming of "happy matchers" or the terrified shrieks of not so "happy matchers"". I am excited to say that our screams were of pure joy!!!!! We got our #1!!



Yes, San Antonio here we come!!!!!!! Good bye crazy snowpocalypse days in DC, Good bye nasty traffic, and good bye crazy high cost of living!!!!! Hello palm trees and heat!!! Don't get me wrong there is a very long list of things I will miss here in Virgina. After the match they had a BBQ. It was nice to sit with most of our great friends and chat while our kids ran anround the table!



It has been a long afternoon and we are all ready to jump into the "Bat mobile" and cruise home for a nap!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today was so nice out side so off to the park we went! Avery was so cute and when she was getting ready for school she asked me to paint a green clover on her face. I love that girl, she LOVES to get all done up in her own way and it's great! We were able to get a family picture so I was pretty excited, even with the awesome look on Linc's face. Liam is back and doing so so much better. He is sleeping through the night for the first time in over a year and eating more than he has ever eaten. I am so thankful that he is doing better. We get his kidney's scanned next month and see his Urologist. Other than that it's just normal check up visits. All in all it was a wonderful St. Patty's Day!

Couldn't Have Said It Better!

"Welcome to Holland"

By Emily Perl Kingsley, 1987. All rights reserved.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Back In The Hospital

Friday morning, after a long wake full night, Liam had an awful fever so we took him back to the ER. They ran all the tests and tried 7 Times to get an IV and decided that the infection did not go away. Poor Liam was shaking by the time they poked him the seventh time, it broke my heart. Ill save you all the other tests you don't want to hear and get to what is going on. His infection is still there and they have decided to keep him for 3 to 5 days before they will let him come home. He keeps spiking fevers so they are trying to stay on top of that and give him his antibiotics. Keep your fingers crossed that this takes care of the issue and that his kidneys are ok. Keep him in your prayers:0) Ill post some pictures later and try to keep everyone updated.

My First Dress

So I LOVE to sew and am teaching myself with the help of all my relatives that sew too! I have been wanting to make a dress for Ave since that is the only thing that she will wear. Oh and it has to be "fluffy" according to Ave! I have decided that that means that it has to twirl. I found this way cute corduroy fabric and an easy pattern to begin with. My only worry was the zipper up the back. My mother in law helped me pin the pattern to the fabric while she was here and taught me a few more tricks. I worked on it when the kids were asleep or when Liam was napping, Ave was at school, and Linc would play the wii. I finally finished it and I think it turned out way cute!!! Thank goodness Avery Loves it and wants to wear it all the time. I had some scraps left over so I made her a cute clip to match! Hmmmm what to make next????

Avery is holding her Valentine bag that she made at school. She was so excited to show me all her Valentine's! I love this girl!!

Lemon Meringue Pie

I have been wanting to make a Lemon Meringue Pie for a while now. My cute friend Kim and I get together once a week and we each pick something that we have wanted to try and just haven't for whatever reason. This week I picked Lemon Meringue and it turned out sooo good!!!! I added a little extra lemon juice just because I like things a little more on the tart side. I will defiantly be making this again!

Home

Liam was able to come home yesterday and was very happy to be here. He still isn't feeling the best, but he is on the mend. Hopefully he will sleep better tonight. We are still waiting for the results of his stool samples to come back. He is so tired during the day and fell asleep in his high chair, priceless! Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes as they are always good things to have :0)