Hello Monday.

January has been a change of pace from the holidays and we are still so busy.  It's always hard to get back into the swing of things the first of the year.  Kam is back to school and can't wait to graduate in a few months!  Owen has a great homebound teacher, finally, and he is cruising right along in school.  Logi is playing so well independently and it's fun to watch him break out Owen's old superhero toys.  I'll start this semester of school as soon as I get my high school transcripts and I am so close to getting my nursing application turned in.

 

Last weekend, Kam and I had the opportunity to attend the temple together for the first time.  It was such a great experience and I'm pretty sure we were both smiling ear to ear.  Gigi came with us and my parents were volunteering so my dad was able to perform the baptisms for all of us.  The missionaries came to share our experience with us.. it was a great day.

 

Owen was ready for new glasses and he picked out these adorable frames.  I could just squeeze those cheeks all day long!  We are just starting to wean off steroids a bit and those cheeks are going to be gone soon.

We have spent way too much time at the lab lately, but Owen's levels have been all over the place.

This boy... keeping it real.

This weekend was Liv's baptism.  Her day was so special and the kids loved spending time surrounded by their cousins.

There was so much more excitement this week that I didn't capture in photos.  Life is good. Not a day goes by when I don't wake up and feel so blessed for all we have.  There is sadness, hard times and life is far from perfect... but there is always GOOD and so much happiness around us.

Winter Break

Winter break was so wonderful!!  I got a break from school and the kids were so excited to stay up and sleep in.  Today we were back to the early morning grind and back to the lab.  Owen had labs a few times over winter break and we are just trying to adjust and get his levels right.  He had transplant clinic with Dr Zangwill and his echo looks good.  He still has the gradient in his SVC, but we will deal with that when we have to.  They ran an immunology test when he was there to have his gtube stoma closed, and it showed his T cells are pretty active.  This explains the rejection episodes but he is already on a lot of steroids and high levels of antirejection medications so I guess we just pray that his next biopsy in February looks good.  I'm just a tad on edge about it and cautiously weaning his steroids ever so slowly.

While at Phoenix Children's we found the MLH of Phoenix calendar and this little cutie is representing CHD Awareness month for February.  I need to get my hands on one of these.

The kids begged me to take them to Pitch Perfect 3 and we walked out like "Huh."  It was entertaining but our favorite movie was The Greatest Showman.  I think we have the soundtrack memorized and my kids are begging to go back for a round 2.

We made it back to the Mesa Temple lights and the kids loved walking around and talking.  I love sharing where my parents were married a billion years ago with them. 

We spent a few evenings at my parent's house enjoying Hot Cocoa by the fire pit and jumping on the trampoline.  The kids love it so much! 

Grandpa Todd and Grandma Monica bought all the grandkids IFly giftcards for Christmas.  It was seriously so fun!  Logan was SO excited to "fly like Owlette" but was terrified once it was his turn.  We did get a phenomenal video of him grabbing on to the trainer's manhood for dear life.  Owen kinda hated the flying experience but was such a good sport about it.  Kam LOVED it and I'm sure she will be back for more.  Nothing is better than making memories with family.. it's so much better than opening a gift that they will never play with again.

With the start of the New Year, comes the start of a new church schedule, and we got the late time slot this year.  Logi also started Primary since he just turned 3 at the end of the year.  He was so excited to go to singing time and to make friends in class.  It was just a little too much for him and he was such a zombie when Kam and I picked him up.  Owen bore his testimony in Sacrament and it was the sweetest thing to hear.  Then he went home early with Carson because it sounds like a symphony of germs this time of year.

I am so excited to see what 2018 has in store for our little family.  It's going to be a year of change and growth for all of us.  Happy Monday!

Happy 18 Years!!

We had such a great time celebrating the New Year and are happy to welcome 2018!  Kam and Owen actually stayed up past midnight to ring in the New Year.  Three days later, Kam turned 18!!!!  I can't believe my first born is 18 already and it happened so fast.  She is the smart, beautiful, artistic and keeps me laughing all day.  She only has one semester left until she graduates High School and we finished up all her college applications this week.  (insert tears here) It goes by so quickly, but I couldn't be more proud of her!

We kicked off the day with breakfast and a shopping trip to Deseret Book with my parents. 

Joe's Farm Grill for a free birthday meal for lunch...

Pizza and her favorite chocolate cake for dessert.  Carson sent her a beautiful bouquet of flowers and balloons and we celebrated together at night.

This girl of mine... she is going to do BIG things!!!