chris & ash kenna + zai + avie J.

CALIFORNIA

2011-09-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

We took Kenna to California for her 5th birthday and she had so much fun! It was really nice being able to spend quality time with just her and treat her like a princess! We hung out at the beach, went to Legoland, Sea World and Disneyland. It was a jam packed week, but worth every sore muscle! I LOVE this little girl more than anything!!!

THE BEACH

LEGOLAND

SEA WORLD

DISNEYLAND

My Mom..

2011-08-22T19:23:00.000-07:00

My Mom and Dad came home for a week because my brother and his wife had their beautiful new baby girl. It was so wonderful to see them and have them around again! I really miss being able to see them every day (whether they like it or not!). Now, I LOVE my Daddy more than anything, but I really want to talk about my Mom. She is an amazing woman. I would honestly be lost without her. When I was in the hospital, she stayed with me EVERY day for a month! She slept on a tiny (I'm sure very uncomfortable) cot right next to me. She watched Days of Our Lives with me. She helped me put together puzzles, thought of crafts that I could do in bed and went and got me non-hospital food. I'm sure it was the most boring month of her life, but she never complained. Not once did she ever make me feel like she wanted to be anywhere else then right there with me. When they told me I had to have an emergency C-Section and I had about 6 seconds to prepare myself, I was more scared then I have ever been in my entire life. Chris was 3 hours away and wasn't going to be able to be there with me but I looked over and there was my Mom. I knew everything would be o.k. She held my hand the entire time. When Zaiah was in the hospital, I had to stay out at the Ronald McDonald House for 6 months. She came and stayed with me as much as she could. She is always willing to watch my kids when I need help. I know that they are sometimes wild and crazy and a pain in the butt, but even knowing this, she has them all over for sleepovers and little play dates. She is the best Grandmother in the world! She always has new crafts and activities for them to do. They LOVE her so much! She has this crazy ability to know when I am having a horrible day and feeling like the worst mother and wife that has ever existed, and sends me texts saying that she is proud of me and how wonderful she thinks I am. She is a fantastic wife. She takes such great care of my Dad. I could go on and on and on about how amazing my Mom is, but to make this simple and short...

When I think of the woman that I want to become and that I hope someday I will be, I always picture my Mothers face. I love you Mom. More then you will ever know.

My other beautiful babies!

2011-07-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

I decided that Kenna's pictures turned out so cute that I should take some up to date ones of my other two rugrats. Zai was actually quite the little poser where as Averie was her usual busy body self and wouldn't sit still for more then 12 seconds!

My little supermodel..

2011-07-06T18:26:00.000-07:00

Kennedie is turning 5 in a few weeks, so I decided to take a few pictures of her to put on her birthday invitations. She was such a great model! Seeing them just made me realize that she is definitely not my baby anymore! She looks SOO big! I aways new she was an adorable girl, but man.. she is GORGEOUS! I'm a little worried for when she turns 16!! Anyways, here is my little supermodel!

Maui!!

2011-02-19T10:34:00.000-08:00

We went to Oahu, Hawaii a couple of years ago and I wasn't very impressed. I had this entirely different image of Hawaii in my mind. Although we had fun, I didn't really want to go back. When we decided to plan our vacation this time, Christopher said he wanted to go to Maui. I was a little hesitant, but of course...gave in! Let me tell you that I am SOO glad I did! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! It is completely different than Oahu! I had so much fun on this trip! We asked my parents to come with us and it was so much fun hanging out with them! The first day we were there we hung out at the beach mostly. The next day we did the infamous drive to Hana. It was way pretty, but really, REALLY long and the roads were really twisty. It was worth it though. We went to the seven sacred pools, the red sand beach (which we almost died trying to hike to!) and saw a lot of whales along the way! The next day we walked along the shops and hit the beach again. We were planning on going whale watching the next day, but low and behold...Christopher got food poisoning! He was so sick all day! My parents decided to fly to Oahu for the night so they could spend valentines Day over there and visit my Great, Great Grandpas grave and so I was left with sicky! On valentines Day, Chris was feeling much better which was a good thing because we had already made arrangements to go on a helicopter tour of the island! We originally were going to go on a 30 min. tour but the company needed two thinner people for a 1 hour flight and we were the big winners! It was one of the coolest things I have done! Maui is AMAZING! Afterwards we went snorkeling and body surfing and then cleaned up and went to a luau. The food there was so yummy! I had such a great time and the weather was so perfect that I didn't want to leave! It was nice coming home and seeing my babies though! Here are some of many pictures that we took.

This is part of the seven sacred pools. It was so pretty!

I LOVE this picture of my parents!

This is part of the crazy cliff we had to hike to get to..

The red sand beach

VIEWS FROM THE SKY!!

I DO!!!

2010-11-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

After 8 years, we FINALY took wedding photos!! Ash was nice enough to shoot a few pics of us in our wedding attire and I think they turned out great! As I was editing some of them, I noticed something... We look EXACTLY the same!! I thought that we would actually look like adults at this point in our lives, but I guess in another 8 years we might stop getting i.d. for rated R movies!! I guess I'll soak it up while I can!!

This is one of my favorites!

I absolutely LOVE this photo! It reminds me of an old school movie!

Halloween

2010-10-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

We had a department Halloween party and did a murder mystery so everyone had to dress up like storybook characters. We thought we would switch it up a bit, so I went as Peter Pan and Chris was a good sport and went as Tinkerbell!

Here are a few pics from the kids Halloween. Unfortunately, I'm a terrible mother and didn't take very many! Isn't she the most beautiful 4 year old in the world!?

Zaiah makes a pretty cute vampire.. He already has the pale white skin so we didn't need to do much!!

My beautiful bald bumble bee!

Bahamas Baby!

2010-09-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

My parents were soo generously took all of us to the Bahamas for Christmas. It was such a fun trip! I'm not going to lie, it was a little stressful with all of the kids, but worth every hair that was pulled out! Kennedie and I swam with the dolphins, Zai actually got some sun on his Albino skin, and Averie ate a LOT of sand! It was a great family vacation. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to experience such a beautiful place with my entire family!

My little mermaid!

Candlelight Serenade

2010-09-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we had the awesome opportunity to shoot for Candlelight Serenade, a benefit for child rescue. We were asked to be the photographers for the backstage meet and greet and it was so much fun!! There were some great bands that came including one of my favorites... Third Eye Blind!! Oh Steven Jenkins!! Anyways, I had a blast and it was such a great experience!

THIRD EYE BLIND

STEEL TRAIN

SHERWOOD

NEON TREES

CHRIS CARRABBA OF DASHBOARD CONFESSIONALS

ALLRED

NICK HEXUM OF 311

Vacation

2010-06-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

We had the most AMAZING trip i have ever been on! We first started out in London then made our way to Scotland and ended in Ireland. It was so much fun! We were on the go non stop and with the drastic time change we were quite exhausted, but that didn't stop us one bit! We saw so many incredible things!
London was crazy! It was very busy and fast paced. It was very different then i thought it would be. Everything closed at 6:00 or 7:00 at night and house keeping came to clean the room between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning! For some CRAZY reason, they don't use Ice in their drinks, so it was really hard getting use to drinking warm beverages! The sites were really cool though. They more then made up for the cultural differences!
Scotland was just how I imagined. It was like going back in time! everything was much slower and more quaint. Everyone called the towns villages and they had narrow cobble stoned streets. All of the buildings and homes were very old and even the newer ones were built to look like they had been there for centuries. It was the most beautiful place I have ever been. Everywhere you looked, it was the most stunning view! It did have it's flaws though, like London, it was very hard to find a cold beverage!
Ireland seemed like a combination of London and Scotland. It was beautiful, but more fast paced. There were some old buildings but some new looking ones as well. It made me laugh every time I heard someone speak because I LOVE their accent, but they spoke so fast and it was SOO thick we had no clue what they were saying!
I am so glad i was able to experience all of these places. I did miss my babies though and was very glad to come home!
Don't worry, I only put up a few pics from each place!

LONDON

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

London Bridge

We walked down the London Bridge at sunset and it was SOOO Beautiful!

Stonehenge was probably my favorite part of London. I don't think Chris was as impressed as I was, but it was awesome for me. London is a very busy place and Stonehenge was 2 hours away from everything in the middle of nowhere. It was amazing to see the most famous site in the world and imagine how on Earth it was made!!

SCOTLAND

Of course, Chris couldn't visit "the land of golf" without fitting in a quick 18! He was able to get on the Championship Course where the British open was played at Turnberry. I must admit, it was the most amazing course I have ever seen!

This is just one of the amazing views from the course!

Here it is...St. Andrews golf course!! The very first course in the world. I think Chris almost peed his pants when we finally got there!

Look at him just stare in awe!! Don't you think they have come a LONG way in designing courses?! It looks more like a soccer field then a golf course!

Just one of the castles we were able to see. We had to hike like 12 miles up a mountain to get to it, but it was definitely worth the effort!!

IRELAND

We found this really cool church that had the most amazing pebble floor out front.

Why wouldn't we stumble upon a golf course?! If it is built, Chris will come!!

Family pics

2010-05-07T07:26:00.001-07:00

We FINALLY had some family pictures taken for the first time in....well for the very first time! Ashlee was great enough to take them and we both had a hand in the editing. I was a little worried as to how they would turn out because Zai was being a typical almost 2 year old and wanted to do the exact opposite of what we wanted him to do! But I think they turned out great!!

tu tu's & lollipops!

2010-04-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

The weather has been so nice lately that we decided to have a little photo shoot with our older girls and try out a few ideas we had. I think they turned out sooo cute! I bet you can guess what Kenna's favorite part was! She kept saying, "Let's take a few more pictures with the lollipops!" She was such a great model!

Happy Easter

2010-04-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

My parents had a little Easter party for the kids where they played games, made fruit loop necklaces and had an Easter egg hunt. They all had a great time. Kenna LOvED trying to find where the Easter Bunny hid all of the baskets!

Ashes to Ashes

2010-03-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, my sister-in-law Ashlee and I finally started our Photography business. It's called Ashes to Ashes Photography. We are working on getting our blog up and running, but for right now it is kinda bare! The address is ashestoashesphotography.blogspot.com. If you have a Facebook account please become a fan! We would really appreciate if you know of anyone who is looking for cute pictures of anything, to give them our info! I'm really excited to finally be doing this and i hope it all works out! Here are a couple of our portfolio pictures so you can get an idea of what we do!

don't tell me what I can't do!!

2010-03-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

Zai started walking! He just thinks he is the coolest kid ever! Whenever he walks he gets the biggest smile on his face! I am so proud of him! The doctor's said he wouldn't start walking until he was between 2 and 4 years old. He has been such a fighter all this time, of course he would prove them wrong!! I love you Zai Master!!

I love my family!

2010-02-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

My family is so amazing! I love all of them more then words can say! Before I went in for radiation, my parents brought over a goody bag full of stuff for me to do while I am in isolation. Christopher got me a bunch of movies to watch and Kenna even drew me a picture to keep with me to remember everyone! I can't express how grateful I am for having such a wonderful family. They always come together in times of need and never complain. You never have to ask for help, they are always there on your doorstep when you need a hand. I love you guys!

How awesome is this goody bag! There is no way I'm going to get bored!!

I'm so excited to watch these movies! It's not every day I get to watch chick flicks!!

How cute is this picture!? Can you see Averie in Christopher's hand? She said she is to little to stand up by herself so Daddy had to hold her! She just thinks of everything! She even drew Saki. I love you Kenna Lou!

2010-01-31T09:09:00.000-08:00

For quite a while I have been battling problems with my thyroid. In the last year, I have been up, I have been down, I have been diagnosed with Hashimotos disease, I have had a biopsy and finally given the news that radiation therapy is my last resort. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous. I have to leave my family for 3 days and be in isolation. I know that Chris will do a great job taking care of the kids and my family will be amazing and help out, but I can't help but worry. I don't really know what to expect afterwards. The idea of having to be on medication for the rest of my life is not exactly floating my boat! I am the WORST at remembering to take pills! I know that this is going to make me healthy in the long run and I am going to feel SOO much better, but I still wish I didn't have to do it! I do my first session on Wednesday to find out exactly how much radiation I need and then next week I will be given my doses and I will say goodbye for 3 days. Who knows, maybe in a few months I will be a spry young chicken again! I can only pray!!

Help my friends

2010-01-28T14:17:00.000-08:00

My friend Curtis and his wife are trying to adopt a child. They need our help to get their name and profile out to as many people as they can. I have added a button to the side of my blog that you can push to get their profile. Please read it and tell everyone you know about them and how wonderful they are. I know they will be amazing parents one day, all they need is the opportunity! If you know of anyone who knows someone or is thinking of putting their child up for adoption themselves, please have them click this button. Everyone deserves to have a child. You may just give them the chance.

beautiful babies

2010-01-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

oh my beautiful babies!!

Happy Birthday Christopher!!

2010-01-10T11:27:00.001-08:00

On Jan. 6th, Christopher turned 27 years old! Now, being the horrible wife that I am, we didn't do much! I always feel so bad for him. His birthday is right after Christmas and this year, we went on vacation right before as well. He always gets lost in the commotion! My mom did make a delicious dinner of his choosing (I told him I was going to make whatever he wanted and his response was, "Um.. I thought your mom was going to make dinner." Now I don't know how to feel about that!! On one hand, I didn't have to worry about making anything, on the other hand, I'm a crappy cook! Oh well, the food was scrumptious!) I had a very beautiful cake made for the occasion and we spent the night with family. Maybe next year will be a little better!

Every couldn't figure out who Nomie was! It really say Happy birthday HOMIE!

He thought it would be funny to put his face between the plumpers, and my dad thought it would be funny to....

put his face IN them! Happy Birthday Honey! I love you, even if you like my mother's cooking better then mine!

CHRISTMAS TIME

2010-01-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve, we tried making a snowman but our attempts were short lived. Wouldn't you know, "the best snow on Earth" was too perfectly fluffy that it wouldn't stick together!! Kenna wasn't too upset, she settled on making snow angels instead.

After we came inside, we had some surprise visitors! Kennedie was so excited that she ran and gave Santa a huge hug! She couldn't wait to tell him that she wanted him to bring her a pink camera! Zai wasn't as sure about him as she was. He just stared at him and didn't move a muscle! It was really cute! Mae and Lucy gave Kenna a huge doll that she just loved! And Ash, if you read this, that thing freaks me out EVERY time I go in her room!

Christmas morning my parents came over and watched the kids open their presents.

Kenna was SOO excited that she got the pink camera that she had been begging for for the past few months!!After we opened presents we went to my parents house for breakfast. Here is Kennedie enjoying our traditional mickey mouse pancakes!

On Saturday, we drove to SLC to spend some time with Chris' family. It was a great ending for a very stressful year! The last present for the kid's showed up a little late, but Kennedie was thrilled!! She named her new puppy Saki. Pretty clever for a three year old!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

vacation

2009-12-13T10:19:00.000-08:00

I must say, this was the best vacation I have been on! We were on the go non stop! While we were on the boat, we participated in a murder mystery dinner, had fun rolling in the chips at the casino, went to a few shows and were even picked to be on a couples game show! We had to do a bunch of seductively played games, and we would have won, but there is just something so hilarious about an elderly couple pole dancing! We didn't stand a chance! We had to settle for second place. Our first stop was in Honduras. We went hiking through the jungle and stopped at a monkey refuge where the monkeys were more then willing to jump in your arms! It was so much fun! Afterwards we hung out at the beach and had the most amazing chicken i have ever had in my life! The next stop was Belize. Here, we went hiking through the jungle and went cave tubing. This was amazing! It was so beautiful and peaceful. The last place we stopped was Mexico. we took a bus to the ruins and explored there for the day. Even though I was having such a great time, I couldn't help but think about my kids. I was definately ready to come home!

HONDURAS

BELIZE

MEXICO

2009-11-28T16:14:00.000-08:00

Averie Jane was blessed on Saturday at my parent's home. She looked so cute, and wouldn't you know, she was even awake for part of it! My dad gave her such a wonderful blessing. I am so grateful for him and the amazing father that he is!

I had to throw this in because I thought it was such a great picture of my grandpa!

After we got home, I thought I would try and have a little photo shoot to remember how cute she looked on her special day. I only got in a few pictures before she fell asleep!

AAHH!! True Averie fashion!!

he's on the move!!

2009-11-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

Zaiah recently discovered that he can get from one place to another even if his arms are still too weak to crawl. He uses his head instead! It is hilarious! Although his forehead is usually bright red from carpet burn, it definitely does the trick. I am so proud of him!

he hears his sister in the bathroom and...

he's on the move!!

success!! look how proud he is!!

Princess' on Ice

2009-11-16T07:20:00.000-08:00

I took Kenna to Princess' on Ice Saturday night and she had such a great time! She couldn't wait for it to start. When the lights finally turned off she stood up and never sat down for the rest of the show! All the little girls freaked out when their favorite princess' came out, but my little girl lit up when the princes came out! She has a little crush on Prince Eric!

don't you love how mesmerized she looks

little ballerina

2009-11-08T15:04:00.000-08:00

Kennedie started dance class last week, and she LOVES it! She does ballet, tap, and tumbling. As soon as she got home she had to show me everything she learned! I must say, she is quite the little dancer!

2009-10-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

We went to my parents house for a little pre-Halloween pumpkin carving party. Kenna couldn't wait to carve her pumpkin, but when the time came, all she wanted to do was play with it's guts!

Hmmm... so that's what my dad would look like with hair!!

Zai didn't want to be left out of the fun, so he decided to try and look just as stylish as Pappa!

Here are the finished products of our fun. It's kinda hard to see, but you get the idea!

costumes

2009-10-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

Here are Kenna and Zai's Halloween costumes. Kenna is obsessed with the Barbie's three musketeers movie, so she decided that is what she wanted to be. She is really into the sword fighting scenes and we have to act them out daily! It's quite funny how she mimics all their moves and words! Christopher's mom made the costume that Izaiah is wearing. He looks so cute in it, and how fitting, he definitely has the heart of a lion! She also made the sweater in the bottom picture. She is quite crafty!

sittin pretty

2009-10-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

Zaiah FINALLY learned how to sit up by himself! We had been working on this for so long and he never got it, but one morning, it finally clicked! It just so happened that it clicked on the very morning that he had therapy. His therapists were so excited to see his new accomplishment! Before we know it he will be crawling! Even though I struggle with him daily and get frustrated more then I should, I am so amazed by him. I am just so proud of my son!

I know what you are thiking..... those were sooo entertaining!

2009-10-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Averie had her two week check up today. She now weighs 5 lbs 13 oz and is 19 in long. I can't believe time is going by so fast! It's kind of crazy, but it feels like she has always been a part of our family. After we had Izaiah and we made the decision that we wouldn't have any more kids, I felt strange and sad, but I knew I didn't want to put another child through what Zai went through, so I thought it was the right decision. I think I was so uneasy because deep down I always knew that our family wasn't complete. I knew Averie was waiting to come. I am so happy and so blessed that she is here and healthy. I love my family more then words can say. Now, I feel at ease.

Zai Zai turns 1!

2009-09-26T16:19:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Izaiah is 1! Maybe it's because he has only been home for about 6 months, but time sure did go by fast! We had a party planned for him on Saturday and then we had our beautiful early arrival so I was unable to do anything for it! Luckily, my mom came over and helped clean my house and get stuff a little organized and Christopher's mom came up a little early and decorated and made cupcakes. I couldn't have done it without them! I love you guys! It was a fun afternoon of BBQ and family. We tried taking pictures of all the kids, but you can imagine how well that turned out! Happy birthday baby boy! I can't wait to see how fast you grow over the next year!

This picture cracks me up! My parents wanted to get a pictures of them with all of their grandkids and you can see how well it worked! Mae is bawling, Kenna couldn't care less, Zai is so confused and the 2 babies are dead asleep! what a portrait!

averie jayne wilson

2009-09-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

She waited as long as she could, but finally gave in! Here she is, little miss Averie Jayne. Born Sept. 21 at 9:23 am. She weighed 5 lbs 8 oz and was 17 3/4 inches long. Aside from being so beautiful, she is also doing wonderful. She had no problems right after birth from being premature except having a little hard time keeping her body temp up. We just have to keep her wrapped in a couple blankets and keep a hat on her most of the time, but other then that, she is perfect! There wasn't very many pictures taken right when she was born, but here are some from the following days.

This is almost a spitting image of kennedie in her birth announcement! I'll have to see if I can post them together!

my beautiful babies!

2009-09-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

With me being on bed rest, I get a little bored and my poor children are the ones who suffer! I decided to have a photo shoot to fill the day and, if I do say so myself, some of them turned out sooo cute. It might have something to do with the fact that i have the most adorable kids in the world (no offence to everyone else) but I'm going to give my photography skills a little credit!
Doesn't she just look like a little model?

I tried taking some pictures of the two of us by myself, and as you can imagine, this is the only one that kinda turned out!

Jumping the gun!

2009-08-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

We have had an eventful (and unwanted) few days. Saturday I started feeling some contractions that were only coming like every hour or so. They were not very painful, just uncomfortable so I assumed they were braxton hicks. Sunday, they were getting a little more painful but still really far apart. I've never had braxton hicks before so I, once again, assumed it was normal. Monday, they became pretty painful, but I sucked it up and went to work. I had my boss do an ultrasound just to make sure everything was ok. With my track record I was just a little nervous! Everything looked pretty good except my uterus was contracting. We were not to concerned and decided I just needed to relax. Monday night, the contractions woke me up because they were so painful and I realized they were coming a lot closer together. I went to the doctor Tuesday morning and they hooked me up to the fetal monitors and by now my contractions were coming every 7-8 minutes. They checked my cervix and I was dilated to 3. they had to give me an injection to try and stop the contractions, but wouldn't you know it, after 3 hours it didn't work. They then had to give me a magnesium drip which is one of the worst things I have ever had! The side effects were nausea, burning, nervousness and tremors. All of this on top of the contractions! Poor Christopher probably wanted to run away! I think I was so irritating to be around! But being the great guy he is he stuck around and held my hand! 7 hours of the mag drip and it finally slowed things down. I was eventually able to go home with a pill form of the magnesium. Now It looks as though I will be on bed rest for the next 7 weeks. I guess whatever it takes to keep her cooking a little longer!

my big boy!

2009-08-27T16:20:00.001-07:00

Izaiah has been doing so great lately. he can finally sit up all by himself! I'm so excited that he has reached this milestone! He struggled for so long and now, SUCCESS!! I can't wait to see what he learns next!

Kenna sweet Kenna!

2009-07-31T14:01:00.000-07:00

My beautiful baby girl turned 3 this weekend and for months she has been begging me for a castle cake. Seeing her cute face (and wonderful acting job) I couldn't say no and I looked everywhere for someone to make the perfect one. Of course, I was unsuccessful, unless I wanted to spend $200.00. Now call me cheap, but I figured I could make one just as good as theirs for a lot less money! After about 4 hours of perfecting my masterpiece, I was finally done! I must say i was pretty proud of myself. I thought it looked great! As soon as I was finished, I had Christopher put it in the fridge. NOW I could relax! OH NO!! Why would anything go that smoothly for me?? Kenna, sweet Kenna. I shake my head and laugh even now just thinking of it! Kennedie decided she wanted some juice and went to the fridge to get it. Now, mind you that she has been getting her own juice for quite a long time and NEVER a problem! For some wonderful reason, today was the day it would all come crashing down. LITERALLY! She knocked everything off the shelf right onto the cake! The entire back end was ripped off! I'm pregnant so of course the first thing I wanted to do was cry, but Kenna, bless her heart, had the saddest face of remorse! She kept saying "sorry mommy it was an accident", over and over. Just hearing her call me mommy again was enough to melt my heart, so what could I do. I doctored up the rear and called it a day! The rest of the day was VERY eventful! She started off by playing in her pool with her cousin alex until the rest of Christopher's family arrived. Then we went to the park and met the rest of her party guests for lunch and cake. She opened her presents, broke her pinata (well dad did) and ran through the sprinklers, then we ventured to the splash park. After that Papa Dave and Nana Pam took us out on the lake for more water fun! Kennedie had a blast on the boat! She and her dad road the tube and were having such a great time until...DISASTER! They tipped over! I, of course, went into panic mode and was on the verge of jumping in to rescue her, when I decided that, in my condition, I would probably just sink like a rock and someone would have to jump in to rescue me! Well, needless to say, she was fine. Just a little shaken up, but being the big girl that she is now, she got right back on and went for another ride! I was so proud of her! It was a very fun filled, LONG day, but I think Kenna loved every second of it. Happy birthday baby girl. MOMMY loves you!

My dad has always made mickey and minnie mouse pancakes on our birthdays. He thought he would keep the tradition alive with the grandkids but, of course, Kennedie has to be different! She decided that she wanted a chocolate chip elephant! Here is the outcome. Way to go dad!

YUMMY!

2009-07-22T14:25:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would share zaiah's funny new habit! Instead of sucking his thumb or using a binky, he prefers his big toe! Whatever makes him happy!

C.P

2009-07-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

Today Izaiah had a doctors appointment. for his 9 month check up and to discuss some problems that we were having with him. His therapist was a little concerned because he still can not sit on his own and he thrusts his body every time he tries. We just needed to express this to his doctor and make sure everything was ok. I was not prepared for the results. Izaiah has Cerebral Palsy. Now that i know, it is so obvious when you look at him. How did i not know? In the back of my mind, I always thought there was something not quite right, but there was always an excuse for my worries. He is behind on his development. He barely started holding his head up all the way and he can not sit up by himself. Everyone chalked it up to prematurity. He has had these weird indentations on his legs ever since he was born and he could never straighten his legs all the way. i brought my concerns up to numerous doctors and they all said not to worry his muscles were just fused to his bone but he shouldn't have any problems with it. The body thrusting was a new development within the last couple of weeks. This is what drew some red flags. We have an appointment. with his therapist on Thursday to find out what type of new therapy he will have to do, but the doctor told us some things that we will need to do. Along with continual muscle stretches and massage, we have to lay him on his belly and let him try and work his upper body muscles. The hard thing about this is he screams bloody murder when he does it. He has no upper body strength and so this position is very difficult and stressful for him. The only was for him to acquire the strength is to just let him cry and work his muscles. It is so hard for me to sit and listen to my baby scream! I feel so helpless. I know that Zai is going to fight through this disease like he has fought through everything else, but I can't help being sad and angry. I love my son so much and my heart breaks every time I hear him cry. I know he is in pain and he is so tired, but there is not one thing I can do but sit back and watch. He is such an amazing child, and I know this will only make him stronger, but i would give anything to take this away.

happy 4th

2009-07-05T14:39:00.001-07:00

We went to Flaming Gorge on Friday and they had a little festival going on. They had hose rides, a petting zoo, a huge inflatable slide, car show and more. kenna had so much fun. i must say that my baby is growing up so fast! She use to be a little scared to do some things by herself, but now she is little miss dare devil! Zai even sat on a little pony!

On Saturday, Chris got a weird itch and decided that we should drive to Colorado. We chose to go to Steamboat springs because neither of us had ever been there. We rented a condo and prayed that there would be something to do when we got there! Steamboat is such a beautiful place! Even if we couldn't have found anything to do, it would have been worth the drive just for the scenery. Luckily, we found things to do. We played mini golf, and wouldn't you know it, Kenna beat the both of us! I gracefully took second place and Mr. Golf himself took last! It was really fun. In the morning we walked through town to look at all the shops that were there and the streets were lined with people! We found out that they had a traditional running of the bulls! We figured that it was going to be amazing because there were A LOT of people that had been waiting forever! When they finally came down Main street, it was just that, a bunch of cattle running down the road! UMM... This is exciting?? It kinda made me miss Kamas though! HA! HA! anyway, I took a picture just in case it is really exciting to you!

FLAMING GORGE

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DAY, ZAIAH WAS PRETTY HAPPY TO BE OUT AND ABOUT!

BY THE END OF THE DAY, HE LOOKED A LITTLE BORED!

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

7 years

2009-06-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today Christopher and I have been married for 7 years. WOW...7 years! Sometimes I think, "Holy crap! It feels like we have been together FOREVER!" Then sometimes I think back and it seems like only yesterday we were a couple of teenagers with no idea what was in store for us. I woke up this morning and went into my sons room. i just stood there for a moment and looked at him while he slept. He looked just like his father. I was startled by Kenna calling Mom. (yes, my baby is gone! I'm no longer mommy, I'm mom!) I went in to her room and she was hiding under the covers waiting for me to discover her. When I pulled back the comforter she shouted, "MORNING!" Sometimes she is so cute I want to cry! I know our lives have been so unpredictable and we have had to weather a few storms, but my life is exactly how i wanted it to be. I wouldn't change a single thing. I have 2 of the most unbelievable children with, I'm sure, another amazing one on the way. I have a husband, that is a wonderful father, great provider, horrible liar and a little bit of a shopaholic, but even after 7 years, i still love everything about him. Even his crazy obsession with golf! So here is to my husband.... Thank you. Thank you for thinking of me when you are at the store and bring me home random things like straws and orange tic tacs. Thank you for having lunch with me almost every day. Thank you for telling me i look beautiful when i haven't worn makeup in days and we both know i look like the walking dead! Thank you for remembering my favorite flowers. Thank you for running a mile in 20 degree weather to get help when the truck broke down and I was in labor! Thank you for loving me in the crazy way that you do. Thank you for every little thing that you have done in the past 7 years. I can't wait to see what the next 7 bring.

NAME

2009-06-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

I had a ultrasound done and of course she was being a stinker! She would not cooperate at all! These were the best pictures we could get. I will have another one done in a couple of weeks and hopefully she will be in the mood to play along!

Now, about her name. I know most of you liked the name Olivia the best, but recently I have had a couple of friends decide on that name for there little girls, so we decided that we are going to name her Averie Jayne Wilson.

2009-06-07T15:21:00.001-07:00

I know it has been a REALLY long time since I've written anything, but my computer is still broken and the other one I have takes such a long time to do anything, that by the time I've finally gotten to the Internet I want to scratch my eyeballs out! So for the sake of my sight, I've slacked!

Recently, Kennedie was the flower girl in my uncles wedding and she looked so cute! Even though we thought she might choke in front of all those people, she did a really good job walking down the isle. After she had been standing up there with everyone for a while, she decided she had enough fun and came to sit down with mom and dad. She made it half way and noticed that the flowers she had thrown were still on the floor and proceeded to pick them up! Yes, she was cleaning the isle right in the middle of the ceremony! It was hysterical! I'm so proud of her though. It was a great night. Now Chris was in charge of the camera because I had to help her before the wedding and he SLACKED big time. We have about 3 pictures! enjoy!

Baby names...AAHH!!

2009-04-24T09:17:00.001-07:00

Christopher and I have very different taste when it comes to names! We actually agreed on two, but can't agree on which one to use! Tell me what you think. Even if you don't like either, let me know! I'm a big girl, I can handle it! We are trying to be prepared this time. Our last bundle of joy came unexpectedly and we were not ready, so better safe then sorry!! By the way, I'm due October 22, but will have her at least one week early because I have to have a c-section due to the emergency c-section I had last time. It has something to do with the way they had to cut me. Not really sure, I'm just along for the ride!

And the winner is......

2009-04-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

I had an ultrasound and drum roll please................. It's a..................... GIRL!! I'm really excited, but not as excited as Kenna! For the first time, we are having what everyone else is having! When we had Kennedie, all of our friends had boys! When we had Izaiah, all of our friends had girls! Now we are having a girl like my brother! His baby is due only six weeks before ours, so it will be fun having the two girls so close together! I only have a couple of pictures cause she was flipping around like a crazy lady! My next ultrasound I will be able to have some 4D pictures so stay tuned for those! These pictures scare the crap out of me!! They look like devilish aliens!

New pics

2009-04-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures that have been taken since Zai has been home. Oddly enough, I haven't taken very many. I guess things are a lot busier now that he is home! Most of these pictures are from Easter.

I think Izaiah looks like my dad in this picture!

Doesn't she look like she's having sooo much fun!?

what do you think??

2009-04-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

I would like to know what everyone thinks the new baby is going to be. If you want to make Kennedie happy, vote girl! If you want Christopher to be right, vote boy! Let's see in a couple weeks who is right!

technical difficulties!

2009-04-14T09:22:00.001-07:00

ok, so I am awesome and broke my computer! That is why i didn't put any coming home pics on the last post! Hopefully I can get it fixed soon so we can be up and running again!

Izaiah's journey

2009-04-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

After 188 LONG days, Izaiah is finally home! I have been praying and waiting for this moment for so long, and now that it is here, I am scared out of my mind! My emotions are running me ragged! I don't know if it's just the pregnancy hormones or what, but I giggle like a school girl one second, and bawl my eyes out the next! I'm SO excited that my son is home. We are finally going to be a normal family! Kennedie will get to see her brother everyday (whether she wants to or not!) She will be able to love him, play with him, and try and give him away like a typical big sister! I'll be able to hear my son cry in the middle of the night and know that he is depending on ME, not a stranger. I'll be able to try and make up for the past 6 months. Try and make him glad that he came to this crazy place! Give him the comfort that no one is going to poke him, prod him, cut him open, or hook him up to a million machines. We are just going to love him like we have loved him since the day he was born. Here is a little glimpse at Zai's journey.

The BIG move

2009-03-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

We had a VERY big weekend! Saturday morning I was given a call from Izaiah's doctor and they told me he was going to be moved from NICU to the regular infant unit. It was such a huge surprise! They moved him to his new room (he has a room all to himself!!) and Kennedie was finally able to hang out with her brother!! It was such a great day. There is a t.v. in his room so Christopher was able to sit him on his lap and watch basketball with him. This is something he has been waiting for since the day he was born! We took a family picture, which was well over due, but it was all so sudden none of us were really prepared to be photographed! To top off the weekend, the doctor told us that he will be coming home this weekend!!! He has to come home with a feeding tube, but besides that, he is perfect! Now that he is moved from NICU, he is able to have visitors without having a parent in the room. So, anybody that wants to go and visit him before he comes home is more then welcome! I would love to know if you go and see him, so please let me know!

2009-03-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

I was given the LONG awaited news about Izaiah. The way things are going right now, he is expected to come home in 3 or 4 weeks! Yah! He is doing so good, and is so cute! He is the biggest flirt! He loves all the girl nurses and according to Grandma Shauna, he giggled for the first time today! I miss him so much and hate missing all of his "firsts"! I hope the next month goes by really fast!

Hawaii

2009-02-26T13:29:00.000-08:00

Christopher and I decided that we were in a desperate need for a vacation! With everything that has taken place in the last year, from Izaiah, to remodeling a house, to the new baby, we are both a little stressed out! My parents were great enough to take Kennedie for the week, so just the two of us could have a little R & R in Oahu. I must say, it was exactly what we needed! Although my kids were on my mind the ENTIRE time, I managed to have a little bit of fun! Ha Ha! Hawaii was wonderful, windy but wonderful! Here are a few pictures, but I must warn you, most of them look the same because it was just the two of us so you can only get so far away with your arm extended as far as it can go! We managed to wrangle a couple of people into taking our picture so we had a little bit of different views!

These were the crazy sting rays that were in our hotel. Some of them were huge!

Of course Christopher had to take his golf clubs! What's Hawaii without golf?!I must say, this is quite a pretty shot! Look at that arm extension! Beautiful!I definitely think that the Temple was in the prettiest spot in Hawaii! It was up North Shore and is sitting on the top of a hill. It was so beautiful!This was probably the coolest thing we got to do! We we able to visit my great great grandpas grave. It was crazy! His headstone is so old! It was a great feeling to be one of the few that has been able to see it!This was the largest swap meet I have ever seen! It wrapped around the Aloha Stadium with 3 levels! It was really fun!

miracles

2009-02-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

Let me start off by saying I believe everything happens for a reason. God has a plan for us and we need to have faith that everything will turn out alright in the end. just like many people, we have had many struggles and trying times, but looking back, most of them have been blessings in disguise. When Izaiah was born so early, I was angry. I wondered what he had done to deserve all the pain he was going through. Now, I see the big picture. If he hadn't been born so prematurely then he wouldn't have been so sick and needed surgery. If he hadn't had surgery, then we never would have known he had the birth defect malrotation of the intestines. Years down the road, we could have lost him in an instant. We were given a miracle. My family is another blessing. I love my family. I love everything about them, but it was a very long and emotional process to get where we are. It took 4 years and many rounds of fertility to get pregnant with Kennedie. And it took 2 years and many more rounds of fertility to get pregnant With Izaiah. I would sit and watch my friends and family decide to have a baby and in a few months they were pregnant. Although I was so happy for them, I was so sad it didn't work that way for me. But looking back, if I hadn't had the trouble that I had then I wouldn't feel the way I feel right now. Like I have been given another miracle. I'm pregnant! No fertility, no years of waiting. Just like that! I'm not going to lie to you, when I found out I cried! I cried because I just had a baby! I cried because i have a 5 month old son still in the hospital, I cried because I am terrified if my body can handle another pregnancy, but I cried the most because it is such a miracle! All of my fears aside, I'm so excited! I know it sounds crazy, but i feel that it was meant to be. I excepted the fact that we would only have 2 children. We were so blessed to have them. But it goes to show, God does have a plan for me. So I rest in his arms. For now, I am happy, healthy, and blessed once again!

all smiles

2009-02-20T10:53:00.000-08:00

Izaiah is doing much better now! It is amazing how different he acts when he is not sick! For the first time, he is smiling, flirting and being a real baby! He lost most of his fluid weight and is down to 8 pounds 3 ounces. Now he can start gaining healthy weight! He is starting to eat a little better, but he has severe reflux, so it makes it a little difficult when he keeps throwing up! But all in all, I couldn't be happier! Right now, all we are waiting for is for Zai to eat all of his feeds through a bottle, then he can come home!!! It is getting so real now! He may be home in a few weeks! AAAHHH!!

Private blogs

2009-02-15T21:09:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of friends and family members out there that have private blogs. I am all for them and think it is a great idea. The only problem I have, is no one EVER invites me to view them! I really am interested in what is happening in your lives, especially if you live far away. I would love to keep in touch and see how your family's are growing. So, if you have a private blog and wouldn't mind me taking a peak, my e-mail address is amw3256@yahoo.com. Don't worry, if you don't want to invite me, I won't be offended! Also. if you have a public blog and I am just not aware of it, please fill me in!

Puffy puffy puffy

2009-02-11T13:33:00.000-08:00

Zai is slowly getting better. He was finally taken off of the oscillator and put on a regular ventilator. He gained almost 4 pounds in a few days so they have been giving him medicine to help him try and lose all of the fluid weight. He looks HUGE! the poor baby couldn't even move his head because his neck was so big. His belly was so distended that it was shiny and almost see through. The medicine has helped a little and he has lost about 1 1/2 pounds. He is still on a lot of pain medicine so they are trying to slowly wean him off so they can place a feeding tube and see how well he does digesting. Hopefully in a week or so, he will be able to come off of the ventilator! Things are just happening really REALLY slowly. so it may take a while for anything to change. As of now, he is hanging in there!

Collapsed lungs

2009-02-06T16:05:00.000-08:00

Of course, good news doesn't last for long! This morning at about 5:00 am, the doctor called me and told me that Izaiah had taken a turn for the worse. He wasn't breathing (even with the ventilator) and so they did some x-rays and saw that both of his lungs had collapsed. They immediately put him on the oscillator to completely keep his lungs open. He had a lot of fluid in the pockets of his lungs, so they needed to do a thorocentisis to remove it. They stuck a needle in between his rib cage and tapped the lung to pull out the fluid. He received his 9th blood transfusion and had more blood cultures sent off to see if he had grown another type of infection. He is going to be monitored very closely for the next little while to make sure nothing else occurs and hopefully everything turns out OK. Most of the test results won't be back for about 24 hours, but I thought I would update everyone while I had the chance.

FINALLY!

2009-02-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

Izaiah was scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday, but, of course, our little man does things his own way! His electrolyte levels and CO2 level combination was just so that if they were to operate on him he would go into cardiac arrest! Once again we waited. No one was more upset to hear this news then Kennedie! For days, I had been telling her she would finally be able to see her brother! She picked out a pretty dress, and actually sat still to get her hair done! This was going to be the best day of her life! Now, let me tell you how awful I felt having to tell her she would have to wait! She bawled and she bawled! All she wanted to do was kiss her brother! It's RSV season, so she is not allowed to go into the NICU. She has not seen him for 4 months! This is not an easy thing for a 2 year old to understand! However, over the night, they were able to stabilize the levels and he was put back on the schedule for Wednesday. When they wheeled him out and Kenna got a glimpse of him, she SQUEALED!! I'm not joking you, she sounded like a pig!! She laughed and she giggled and the first thing she said was, "My brother is so cute!" The whole way to the operating room, she kept saying over and over! "That's my brother! He is CUTE!" She kissed him on the forehead before they took him in, and that was the best I have felt in months! After about an hour I received the call that they were closing him up and he was just fine! The surgeon came out about 45 min. later and told us the great news! Izaiah's blockage was just from his stoma being sucked in and all of the rest of his problems were just because his body was ready to be put back together! That's it! No more surgery! (hopefully) My beautiful boy is FINALLY on the road to coming home! Zai is doing pretty well after surgery. He was in a tremendous amount of pain so they have to keep upping his medicine and in result he is still on the ventilator. He was given his 8Th blood transfusion today, but everything else looks great! After about 1 week they will try and start feeding him and see how he does. Once he tolerates full feedings and has no problem digesting or throwing up, he can come home! He can COME HOME! AAAHHH!! Let's pray for only about 4 to 6 more weeks! So what can I say, FINALLY SOME GOOD NEWS!!!!

Now, I know this is kind of a sad picture, but look how beautiful he is even after surgery! And look, NO BAG! What an amazing baby boy!

surgery

2009-02-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

So quite a bit has happened since the last time I wrote about Izaiah. Because he was so sick, they had to keep him on a lot of antibiotics, take his blood often and give him TPN for nutrition. The plan was to give him a pic line because he didn't have anymore veins that were good for IV's. The IV team came over and tried for hours to place the pic line but were unsuccessful. They said that the back up team would be in the next day and they would be able to get it in. The next day the back up IV team tried for hours and were also unsuccessful. By this point, Zai had to be sedated because he was in so much pain from the attempts. He was taken to surgery so they could place a central line. They made an incision in his neck and ran a tube down and out through another incision made in his chest. Now they can take all of his blood and give him his antibiotics through this one tube. After that was over, we thought he was in the clear. However, he became very ill again and his belly was so tender he would cry every time it was touched. They did a lab work up and it came back that he had inflammation in his belly. They didn't think too much of it because he just had surgery and they figured it was from that. After a couple of days, he was still in so much pain that he had to be sedated most of the time. Then his stoma sucked into his abdomen and so they had to place a tube in his belly to suck the stool out. He has been given enemas through the tube ever 6 hours for 2 days. When they realized that the surgery wasn't the cause they put him on a ton of antibiotics, placed an anderson tube down his throat to suck out his stomach and have been taking x-rays and labs everyday to see if they can figure out what is wrong. All in all, they think he may have another stricture or obstruction. He is going to have exploratory surgery tomorrow to see if that is what it is. They are very unsure of what they may find, but if it is in fact a stricture, depending on how bad it is, they will have to cut and reconnect the bowel, or connect another ostimy bag. If they are able to reconnect the bowel, they will do his "take down" at the same time and he will then be ostimy free! The surgery will take a minimum if 2 hours and we won't know until he comes out if he will have 2 ostimy bags, no ostimy bags, or something completely different! These will be the longest 2 hours of my life!

GO JAZZ!

2009-01-29T10:31:00.000-08:00

We had the amazing opportunity to meet the Jazz and hang out on the floor while they warmed up for their game against the Spurs. It was such a fun night! (Except for the fact that we lost) We got autographs and pictures and... oh yeah, I touched Kyle Korver! The boys were so excited! I don't think Coby knew what to do first, either pee his pants or pass out! We were all like 4 kids in a candy store! I loved every second of it! GO JAZZ!

Millsap got a little signature happy and flipped me around to sign my jersey, my Korver jersey!! I didn't want him to do it, but what do you say..."Um.. excuse me Paul, no thanks. The one autograph is enough." I don't think so! So now my Korver jersey has a random Millsap signature on it! Not cool Paul!

Yes, it's Kyle Korver! just so you know, he gave me a little tush squeeze! Don't tell Chris!

Jerry even came over to pose for a photo! I think we were all afraid he would beat the crap out of us if we asked, but he was actually really nice. He even cracked a joke when he left! Who knew he had a sense of humor!

Koufos is probably the funniest player on the team! The entire time during warm ups he was making jokes and wandering around aimlessly! what a goon!

Hey Okur, are you true blue Jazz fan??

"SPECIAL K"

2009-01-29T09:59:00.000-08:00

The boys came up with the nickname "special k" for Kyle Korver, and it suits him quite well. I mean, I wouldn't mind going on the special k diet!! He is my favorite player on the Jazz. I know what you are thinking and no it's not only because he is freaking hott, but that didn't hurt his chances! I went a little crazy with the Korver pics, but what can I say, "I love me some special k!"

So Christopher told me to point to this side of my jersey, but as you can tell, the signiture is on the other side. I don't think he has a future in directing! He better stick with appraisals!

??

2009-01-19T20:48:00.000-08:00

As you know, Izaiah was scheduled for surgery tomorrow. Unfortunately he will not be able to have that done because he is very ill. When Christopher and I arrived to the hospital on Saturday, he didn't look like himself. He was crying a lot, not eating and throwing up. I had an uneasy feeling, but after talking to the nurse placed my worries to the back of my mind and chalked it up to reflux. Late that night, the doctor called me and told me he had gotten progressively worse and they needed to take blood and give him a spinal tap to figure out what was wrong. The next day we were told he had some sort of infection because his white blood cell count was very elevated as well as his inflammation count. He was put back on oxygen, given two IVs to start three antibiotics and his feedings were stopped. They acted as if they were not too concerned about it and he would be better in a couple of days. A couple of days passed and he was still sick and his count wasn't going down. I finally was able to speak with the nurse practitioner and she nonchalantly mentioned to me that he had E Coli. E COLI!! My first thought was how the hell does an infant in the ICU contract E Coli? Then I thought. why wasn't I told about this the moment they found out? Did they not want to raise any questions? Did they know they were at fault? I kind of freaked out and asked the obvious question and here was her response... "Sometimes, when you change a baby's diaper, some of the stool can get up through the urethra and can cause E Coli." I sat in silence for a moment and asked myself, "Did she really just say that?" My son has an ostimy bag!! There is no stool in his diaper to get to his urethra to cause the infection! I explained this to her and she had nothing to say! I asked several nurses that work at Primary Children's and they told me they have never heard of a baby contracting E Coli in the ICU. My son has E Coli. What happened? Were the nurses hands not washed? Was his ostimy bag not changed when it was suppose to be? What happened? Izaiah is very ill! Not only is he in pain, but he is that much further away from coming home. Could it have been prevented? I am 3 hours away, and have no idea if my son is being taken care of. Is he being neglected? He is at the best children's hospital, but has something like this happen to him. What do I do? I have to stay here and work so they don't take away my insurance, but my son needs me! I need piece of mind that he is being cared for when I am not there, but how do I get that when something like this happens? What do I do? How do I live with myself, as a mother, knowing my son hurting and there is nothing I can do?

one step forward, two steps back

2009-01-14T14:20:00.000-08:00

Well, It's been a little while since I have updated you on Izaiah so here is a little info. Zai was taken off oxygen (yeah!) and is doing so great breathing on his own! He has tried figuring out how to eat from a bottle and does fairly well, but still gets a little too tired and has to be fed through his tube. I am reluctant in feeling optimistic about his progress because he is scheduled to have his "take down" surgery on Tuesday, and his last surgery experience was a little on the rough side! Although I am beyond thrilled about him getting rid of his ostimy bag, I am terrified on how the surgery will effect all of the progress he has made. I know he is such a strong little boy, and they say one step forward and two steps back, but I can't help but worry. I'm a mother, that's what we do!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

My parents came down to see Izaiah on New Years Eve, so we decided to have a little New Years celebration "Kenna style"! We wore princess crowns and danced around the hotel room. Kennedie painted my dad's nails, dolled him up with makeup and blew noise makers with my mom. I must say, it was a pretty eventful evening. Kenna is a hoot to watch when she is all hopped up on sugar! It makes me laugh thinking about the things that make me happy now. Who would have thought spending this night like I did would have been so much fun! I am looking forward to a new year. I am excited for a new beginning with my family. For everyone that reads this, I hope 2009 is everything you want it to be! I hope you have a year filled with wonderful surprises and beautiful moments! This year try and stick with your resolutions! One year isn't that long! It goes by in the blink of an eye! Happy New Years!!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-30T12:52:00.000-08:00

Kenna had so much fun on Christmas day! She was so excited that Santa Clause came twice! She was so funny when she opened her "Princess" dress as she calls it. She had to put it on immediately! And her Grandparents gave her a dollhouse that, of course, had to be put together right away. I can't wait until we take it home. Doll furniture from one end of the house to the other. Yeah! Between that and her kitchen, I don't think we will ever see her again!

You want me to do what!?!

2008-12-23T16:53:00.000-08:00

Izaiah was taken off of the ventilator and moved to an open crib! Yeah! He is starting to bottle feed, but is having a lot of trouble keeping his food down. He is addicted to his pain medication because he has been on such high doses for so long, so he is going through withdrawals as they try to wean him off. He twitches and shakes a lot, but aside from that and all the vomiting, he is sooo stinking cute! Today, the ostomy team came over and gave me a rundown on how to change his ostomy bag and care for his stoma. Can I just tell you that I am terrified to take him home and do that by myself! It took me FOREVER to get it right! When they told me what I had to do I kept thinking, "You want me to do what?? Uh Uh! I don't think so!" They say it gets easier the more you practice, but I don't think that applies to me. A blind monkey could have done a better job! On a better note, Zai was so cute today. He was awake for more then 2 1/2 hours just looking around and checking out the world! Here are some pictures and a little video. I know... it is so exciting watching a baby! Bare with me, I'm a proud mom!

Santa's here already?

2008-12-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

We were unsure of what would be taking place with Zai in the next couple of weeks, so we decided to have "Christmas" a little early. I really wanted to be there when Kenna opened her "prizes" (that's what she calls presents) This year she was actually aware of what was going on so it was sooo much fun! She had a blast opening Izaiah's presents too! Here are a few pictures of the fun day! Merry Christmas!

crazy 8's

2008-12-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I guess we'll see how this goes! It really isn't easy picking 8 of some of these things!

8 favorite shows: Well this one is tough. I have such an exciting life that t.v is pretty high in my priority list! Of course, The office, The king of queens, Everybody loves Raymond, Reba and Two and a half men. These I have no problem admitting I watch. Now brace yourselves for the rest of the list! I have to watch Days of our lives everyday (thanks to grandma Shirley!), The new 90210 every Tuesday (how embarrassing!), and The golden girls, yes you heard me, The golden girls! Now none of you will be able to look at me the same way ever again!

8 favorite movies: I must say that I love Pretty woman! There is just something about a hooker being loved that makes me wanna cry! The burbs, Disturbia ( I love me some Shia!) The other sister, Father of the bride 2, 50 first dates, That thing you do, and The sandlot.

8 favorite restaurants: This should be easy because I'm not much of a cook so we eat out A LOT! But I can't think of 8 places! I live in Vernal! Not much to choose from, but I love The olive garden (ooh bread sticks and Alfredo sauce!) TGI Fridays, Texas Roadhouse, IHOP (I could eat pancakes all day everyday) and I'm sure there are 4 other great places but I'm drawing a blank!

8 things that happened yesterday: Izaiah opened his eyes and looked at me for the first time since his surgery! I went across the bridge and said hello to our old primary nurses at the U. (so sad we won't have them anymore!) ventured to Wal-mart, drove back to Dino-Land (YEAH!!) hugged my little girl for the first time in a while, wrapped way to0 many presents! Made fun of Christopher for picking brown grout (honestly, who does that!) and slept in "my own" bed!

8 things I'm looking forward to: Zai coming home, watching Kenna open her Christmas presents, taking a family picture with all 4 of us, finally moving into our house, going to Jamaica, going back to work ( I know that sounds crazy, but I really do miss it!) eating a home cooked meal, and a new year!

8 things on my wish list: My wish list is simple. I wish that Izaiah would be healthy and home, I wish Kennedie would lose her fears of being left behind, I wish Christopher wouldn't have to worry so much about going back and forth and trying to watch Kenna while he is attempting to work, I wish I could wake up everyday and hear Kenna say "Morning!", I wish I could get rid of my birthing hips, I wish there were some more restaurants and places to shop in vernal, I wish I knew how to style my hair, and I wish I would never throw up again!

8 things I love about Winter: Love is a strong word, and so is hate! I HATE Winter! So here are 8 things I hate about Winter. I hate driving on icy roads, I hate icicle boogers, I hate the fro I get when my hair gets snowed on, I hate not being able to feel my toes, I hate when you take a deep breath it burns your lungs, I hate looking like Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, I hate having to scrape off my car, and as Christopher knows, I HATE being half wet!

8 people I tagged: Well I guess everyone I have a blog site for! if you read this, TAG you're it!

12 hour delay

2008-12-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

Well, as I said, Zai did really well right after surgery. The next day was a different story. He had what they call 12 hour delay post surgery. His body finally caught up to what had taken place and he had a little trouble. His right lung collapsed and his blood levels went way down. He was put on an oscillator to help blow up his lung and given his sixth blood transfusion. His lung is looking like it is getting better slowly but surely. And he is trying to breath on his own here and there. Hopefully he will be able to be removed from the oscillator in a few days. His blood levels went down again so they gave him another transfusion. (#7) He is extremely puffy, but he looks so adorable! He is still on a lot of pain medication but he woke up for the first time and looked at me for a few seconds. That was such a great feeling!

My little trooper

2008-12-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

As you know, Izaiah has been very sick and in a lot of pain. He finally decided that he fought as long as he could and was too tired to do it anymore. His body shut down. He completely stopped breathing and had no ambition to start. They had to bag him and breath for him for quite a while and they finally were able to intubate him. The doctors decided that something needed to be done (finally) because he has been too sick for too long and it was only getting worse. He had an ultrasound done on his abdomen to see if maybe he had an abscess. The ultrasound showed nothing but air. They decided he needed to have a cat scan to get a better look. They are unable to do those at the university so the life flight team came over, loaded him up and we made our way to Primary's. When the doctor looked at the results he determined he had a perforation of the bowel somewhere and he needed to go to surgery right away. In about an hour and a half he was taken to the operating room and we were sent to wait. We waited for a little over two hours and the surgeon finally came to tell us what had been done. He found some strictures on his left side where he had had "nec" and removed about 5 cm of dead bowel. He thought the perforation was on his right side so he cut the area and inserted a colostomy bag. (which he will need another surgery in 6-8 weeks to remove and re close the bowel) He also found something that nobody anticipated. Zai had Malrotation of the intestines. Malrotation is a birth defect where the intestines don't rotate and twist like they are suppose to and the appendix is not located where it should be. The surgeon fixed what he could and had to remove his appendix as well. We are so lucky that he had surgery and they found out he had Malrotation because if they would have left everything like it was and he got appendicitis when he was older he would have died. He was given his fifth blood transfusion and sent to recovery. We now make our home at the Primary Children's Hospital. He is doing so much better already! He is still sedated but even so, he looks wonderful! This morning we found out that the doctors are a little concerned about his liver. His levels look suspicious for possible liver failure, which is the result of not eating for so long and having medicated fluids being fed through an IV. We won't know how severe it is until they start feeding him again. Once they start, his liver will either get better or get worse. Hopefully it repairs itself. Worse case scenario, Christopher or I will give him a part of our liver. For the time being, he is comfortable and in no pain. That's all I could ask for!

BUMMER

2008-12-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

Zai had a very rough weekend. He became ill on Friday so they stopped his feedings and put an Anderson tube into his stomach to suck everything out. His belly was so tender and distended that you couldn't touch him without him squirming in agony. They took fluid from his spine and sent off a urine culture. His blood level was low again so he needed to have a fourth blood transfusion. He started having A's and B's (when his heart and oxygen drops significantly) again, which we were doing very well without! The doctors believe he has developed some type of a stricture in his bowel that will need to be removed. They were planning on doing a barium enema this afternoon to see where the stricture is, if in fact he has one. After they prove for sure that he has a blockage they will send him to Primary Children's for surgery. Now, everyone that knows Izaiah probably knows by now he likes to keep everyone on their toes! If you say one thing, he does another! The urine culture came back today and it showed he has a very bad urinary tract infection. He is not able to have any procedures done until he is treated for 7-10 days with antibiotics. So, what exactly does this mean? A week and a half of waiting, barium enema, possible surgery, two weeks or so of recovery, and then start all over again! Our dreams of us being home together as a family for Christmas are slipping further and further away. It looks as though we need to shoot for another mark. Maybe Christopher's birthday. That would be a great gift!

Brrr... it's cold in here!

2008-11-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

Zai decided he didn't like life out in the open. He was unable to keep his body temperature up on his own, so back to the incubator he went! Hopefully he will be able to try again soon. He is so adorable in his little clothes!

Crib life

2008-11-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

Check out my new home!

Budah-licious!!

2008-11-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Ronald Mcdonald House Charitys 20th anniversary. Fox 13 news did a segment on families that have to stay there and I was asked to give an interview with Big Budah about my story. We did a mock interview of how everything would go so I knew what to expect and what questions he would ask. The whole interview would take about 2 1/2 minutes. I was all ready. No big deal. Apparently they were running behind and nobody thought to mention it to me! So there I was, sitting in my chair like we practiced, all calm and collected and all of the sudden here comes Big Budah, running in and babbling something, in what might have well been jiberish, and looking at me for my answer! All I could think was, "This isn't what we rehersed!" and "Don't say um!" I spit out a few words, (wouldn't you know the first one was UMMMM...) hopefully answering the foriegn questions, and cut! There was my 10 seconds of fame! Um... can we do another take?? Don't you just love live T.V.!

Zai's breaking out!

2008-11-19T15:20:00.000-08:00

................................Doesn't he look happy? He just heard the news! He will be trying to adjust to life in an open crib! We were able to put clothes on him this afternoon, for the first time, and hopefully tomorrow he will be breathing the "fresh air" and telling himself, "I wish my mom would put me down!" I am so excited to hold him whenever I want and see him in some of the cute outfits that we bought! Only one more day! Yeah!

Disney on Ice

2008-11-18T07:12:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I took Kenna to Disney on Ice. She was mesmerized! I have never seen her sit in one spot for so long! She usually says I am Cinderella or Bell, but wouldn't you know, when the beautiful creature came out in her red polka dot dress she instantly made the connection between her and I! Yes, my daughter thinks I look like Minnie Mouse! The picture is really dark because it was taken with my phone while the lights were off!

Izaiah

2008-11-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

Everyone has been wondering about Izaiah and how he is doing so I decided to start this blog to keep everyone updated! Here he is! Our handsome "tiny" bundle of joy! Izaiah was born 3 months early on September 30Th. He weighed a staggering 2 pounds 1 ounce! He has been in the NBICU at the University of Utah for 7 long weeks and will hopefully only have to be there for 5 more! He is such a little trooper! He was diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis (a gastrointestinal disease that kills your bowels and intestines) when he was 2 weeks old and the doctor gave him a 50/50 chance of survival. The surgeon said he was guaranteed to have surgery due to how severe the "nec" was. Izaiah proved everyone wrong and recovered without a scratch! Unfortunately it has returned and who knows if luck will strike twice. Surgery may be in his future. On a better note. he is gaining weight like crazy and is up to 4 pounds 4 ounces! Once he is able to maintain his body temperature on his own he will be moved from the incubator to an open crib! Once he is in the open crib we will be able to hold him whenever we want! Yeah! I just want to thank everyone for all of your love and support! I am so blessed to have such an amazing family and such wonderful friends!

*********chris & ash********* kenna + zai + avie J.

CALIFORNIA

My Mom..

My other beautiful babies!

My little supermodel..

Maui!!

I DO!!!

Halloween

Bahamas Baby!

Candlelight Serenade

Vacation

Family pics

tu tu's & lollipops!

Happy Easter

Ashes to Ashes

don't tell me what I can't do!!

I love my family!

Help my friends

beautiful babies

Happy Birthday Christopher!!

CHRISTMAS TIME

vacation

he's on the move!!

Princess' on Ice

little ballerina

costumes

sittin pretty

Zai Zai turns 1!

averie jayne wilson

my beautiful babies!

Jumping the gun!

my big boy!

Kenna sweet Kenna!

YUMMY!

C.P

happy 4th

7 years

NAME

Baby names...AAHH!!

And the winner is......

New pics

what do you think??

technical difficulties!

Izaiah's journey

The BIG move

Hawaii

miracles

all smiles

Private blogs

Puffy puffy puffy

Collapsed lungs

FINALLY!

surgery

GO JAZZ!

"SPECIAL K"

??

one step forward, two steps back

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

You want me to do what!?!

Santa's here already?

crazy 8's

12 hour delay

My little trooper

BUMMER

Brrr... it's cold in here!

Crib life

Budah-licious!!

Zai's breaking out!

Disney on Ice

Izaiah

chris & ash kenna + zai + avie J.