Happy New Year!!

2009 in Review...

January
- Kamryn celebrated her 9th Birthday.. sleepover style.
- Owen spent three days in ICU recovering from his 5th Cardiac Catherization and starting his IVIG treatments
- Owen spent another two days in ICU recovering from his first round of Rituxin (chemo) and came home on his 1st Birthday!!
- Owen was doing the treatments, per the UCLA transplant team request, to lower Owen's antibodies so that he could be listed for a Heart Transplant

February
-Owen spent another few days in ICU getting more Rituxin treatments
-Owen celebrated his first Birthday with a Family
-Owen took his first bath ever... he prefers showers.
-Owen spent a few more days in the hospital and this time he endured six IV's over a 36 hour period.
-Owen learned to drink from a cup

March
-Kamryn takes her first AIMS test and loves it!
- We spent lots of time outdoors
- We patiently wait to hear back from UCLA on our next steps with Owen
- Owen shows further signs of heart failure and all the antibody treatments take their toll on his little body

April
-We finally hear back from UCLA and the Cardiology team tells me "We're not sure what to do next with Owen."
- I start researching every transplant center in the nation and spent two weeks finding out that Stanford, Boston and Pittsburg were our best choices for Owen to move forward with transplant
- We schedule a trip to Stanford for May 15th, to meet with their transplant team
- Fox 10 does a special feature story on the Adorable Mister Owen and his broken heart
- Kamryn gets another report card with straight A's!!!
- We celebrated the ONE YEAR Anniversary of Owen's Glenn (his last open heart surgery)

May
-I get 10 cavities filled in one day.... good times.
- We take our trip to Stanford and meet with their transplant team. It's a perfect fit for Owen!
- We come home and start increasing his medications to superhuman doses, a little at a time, to see if we can push transplant off a little longer
- We learn that all of Owen's antibody treatments in Jan and Feb did nothing for him. Poor guy.
- Kamryn finishes 3rd grade.

June
- Carson and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary
- One week later, I turned 30!
- Carson is admitted to the hospital for a staph infection
- My sister gives birth at that same hospital on the same day
- Owen learns the art of butt-scooting and the freedom to move around

July
- Owen has two cardiology appointments where we continue to increase his medications and he pukes ALOT
- Owen has his first Pulmonologist appointment to rule out any lung issues.
- Owen starts talking

August
- Kamryn starts 4th Grade
- Owen continues to get pushed to the limits with his medications

September
- Stanford calls and notifies us that Owen needs to be fully immunized prior to transplant and he hasn't had a single immunization... the catch-up begins
- Kamryn starts Volleyball
- Owen has surgery to place a Gtube, after 20 months with the NG tube

October
-We take a well deserved vacation to Oceanside, the beach, Sea World and The American Girl Place on our way to Stanford
- Owen hasn't gained an ounce in six months, so we stay in Palo Alto for a week
- Owen has his 6th Cardiac Catherization and it turns out better than expected!!!
- Owen is allowed to come home, with the condition that he is closely monitored by Cardiology here, and that he continues to gain weight

November
-We sold our house
- Owen continues on 1300 calories a day and is gaining weight like a champ
- Owen continues to puke like a champ too :(

December
-Carson turns 33!
- We enjoy the holidays as a family
- Kamryn and I make some of our gifts for family and friends for the first time ever
- Owen continues to gain weight and energy!

This year has been wonderful in everyway. We have been so very blessed. We started out the year thinking that Owen would need a transplant right away and he had some rocky times. Here we are today and he is doing great. We are anxious to see what 2010 has in store for our family... a new home, a thriving family, a healthy daughter and hopefully another year with Owen at home! We know that it might be a trying year as well... bring it on! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

23 Months on the 28th

I can't believe that this little guy will be celebrating his 2nd Birthday next month! He is changing everyday from a baby to a toddler. I haven't weighed him in a week, but he was up to 26.6lbs last week. Naps are far and few between, but thankfully he'll sleep from 8pm-6am, most days. Owen's speech has taken off and he always has new things to say and makes up sign language for things he can't find the words for. Our favorites are...

- Hands up to his ear and he says "HeeeeRRRRoooo" when he wants to talk on the phone.

- Hugs himself with his arms across his chest when he wants to be held.

- Puts his hands up to his lips when he wants food and usually asks for "Cheesssseee?"

- Loves to pretend to put deodorant on his armpits, curl his eyelashes and put on chapstick... such a copycat!

The list goes on and on, but these are the favorites of the month! Owen is eating like a champ... but still can't get a good quantity of food down. He loves to stuff his cheeks with any food and then he chews on it for a while, sometimes all night, until we scoop it out of his cheeks. He's got his drinking skills down perfectly and loves to blow bubbles in his milk. He still gets 100% of his feeds through his Gtube so that we can continue to keep his nutrition up. All the other foods he eats are extra calories.

Owen is still not walking, but seriously could win for Olympic Speed in butt-scooting! He is starting to pull up on furniture and he'll walk if we hold both his hands. We got his fancy Gait Trainer (walker with support) from the Healthcare company, and it was way too big for him. So we had to do an exchange and are still waiting on it. We only ordered it in September, so why would we have it any sooner than January, sigh. I don't know what I'll do when he starts walking... oxygen tanks and feeding pumps alone are going to be a chore. Also, the demands on his heart when he walks will be more. We continue to work with PT every week, we encourage him to walk throughout the day and he's getting stronger. We can't ask for anything more.

Cardiacwise (is that a word?)... Owen is doing pretty well. No puffiness, no desaturations, he's showing decent energy levels and he's gaining weight! We have an echo scheduled the end of January and I'm anxious to see what his ticker is up to. It looks like, thus far, we have found his perfect cocktail of 7 medications.

The only downside of things is tat Owen still has the pukes multiple times a day and it's NO fun. He's on a pretty hefty dose of Prevacid and it seems to be helping a little, but he still pukes multiple times a day. Not little spit-ups, but his entire feed (4oz or so) comes flooding out. It's not phasing him too much, and he goes about his business afterwards, but it makes me so sad for him every time. We go to GI in a few weeks and if they don't have any ideas, I'm switching GI docs.

Happy 23rd Month Birthday little guy!! You continue to amaze us everyday!

Christmas with Mom and Brant

We celebrated Christmas at Kathryn (Carson's Mom) and Brant's house on the 26th. Once again, everyone made it, with the exception of Janesa who had to go home to San Fransisco.

The girl's played horses, the boys played video games and these three broke out the board games.

Owen butt-scooted all around..

Grandma and Grandpa

Justin, Larissa (Carson's Sister) and Tatum

Tanner (Carson's Brother) and Luke

Daddy and Kamryn

Here's Owen imitating everything Emily and Rylee want him to say

Grandpa Brant, Grandma Kathy, Kamryn and Owen

We are so lucky to have most of our family that lives nearby. We had a great Christmas this year and this wraps up all of our Christmas posts. Onto a new and wonderful 2010!!!!

Christmas at Dad and Monicas

I am trying to do a little bloggity catch up over the next couple of days. I feel worse than aweful and just want to stay in bed, as if that is ever going to happen. So, I am lounging around the house in my pj's, watching the kids play and catching up on our Holiday adventures.

We celebrated Christmas with Todd (Carson's Dad) and Monica on the 23rd. It's always fun to get the entire family together and everyone was there this year! Monica arranged to have family pictures before dinner, this is why we are all wearing black. Once again, there is not one photo of me, because I am always behind the camera, I'll have to start photoshopping myself in. Believe it or not... I LOVE to be in front of the camera too!

After family pictures in the freezing cold... we came back to the warm house to enjoy some prime rib, ham and lots of sweets! Then the jolly ol' fella came in to surprise the kids with goodie bags full of gifts.

Daddy and Owen

Some of the cousins with Santa

Owen was skeptical of the fat man in a red suit... so he just took his present and said "da doo"

Kamryn has much more experience and had a long list of items on her list... even though she knew this wasn't the REAL Santa... she sure did play along.

Kamri (Carson's Sister) and Tony

Here's Tanner (Carson's Brother) and Aida...

Oh look... it's Karlee (our oldest neice at almost 16) and Grandma Monica

This was my attempt at getting the kids in one photo... we're missing five of them.

Justin (Bro-in-law) and Janesa (Carson's baby sister)
Don't hate me for posting this.. I love this picture!

Kamryn and Luke

And of course... Mister Owen, minding his own business on the couch. He loves hanging out with everyone and isn't afraid to push his way through the crowds of kids to fit right in. Then again.. he also likes to be up on the couch and left alone to play with Auntie Sussy's "HeeeRRRoooo" (translation: Hello... which, translated again means: iphone)

Thanks for a Great Christmas Todd and Monica!! We had a great time!! I'll be sure to post the family pictures when they come back from the photographer.

Christmas Eve and Day

We had a wonderful Christmas at home, surrounded by family! It was perfect in every way! On Christmas Eve, we baked cookies, watch "A Christmas Story" and went to bed early. Nothing beats freshly bathed kids in their new pj's.....
Owen surprised us when he got up on all fours....
is he actually going to crawl???
Of course not.... he sat back up and butt scooted away.
Christmas morning started bright and early at 6am! Owen was fully aware of Christmas this year and was SO excited with every present he opened. He got a remote control train set, a new shiny red car, lots of puzzles and books.
Kamryn got a new hot pink DSI, games, books and a bunch of American Girl stuff. This was just the Santa loot. I have no idea where I'm going to put everything!!

I spent the morning Christmas Eve, making these little plaques for all the Grandparents. Larissa found them online and I borrowed the idea for my family. They were fun to make with Kamryn and she loved handing them out.
We spent the rest of our Christmas morning lounging around... Kamryn on her DSI, Carson and Owen napped, and I finished up the baking for the day.
My family came over around noon, and we had a delicious lunch/dinner. We opened more presents and played some games. Kamryn got the WII fit she was dying to have!
Owen played with the bows and paper off of all the presents.
Then he jumped on his bounce and spin pony, which is actally a big hit!
I wish I would have taken more pictures of the adults, but I was busy taking out the trash, cooking, cleaning, assembling toys, playing with the kids and enjoying myself. I have another Christmas party to post about, but first.. we have one more Christmas party in an hour.

Christmas Card

These are the last minute cards I made and sent out this year.

We want to wish you all a very, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Stay warm, stay healthy, and enjoy time with your families!!

Family Photos!!

Back in August, while at the Phoenix Mended Little Hearts photoshoot, Ingrid from Codina Photography took these pictures of Owen. Owen was the lucky winner of a FREE future photoshoot, which we had taken a few weeks back.
He has grown up SO much in just a few months, it's crazy! I'm not sure what his hair was doing.. but enjoy....
This one is my favorite... I love that Owen is watching Kamryn thinking "what is so funny.. should I be laughing too??"
We only got about 45 minutes into our session before it started pouring rain. It rarely rains in the desert and so we were happy to see the drizzles, even if we did have to cut the session short. Carson and the kids were thrilled to be done early... and then we went for ice cream sundaes.

Roadtrip to Tucson

It was a perfect day to take a little roadtrip to Tucson to visit with Grandpa and Grandma Simmons (Carson's Grandparents). We know that our time with them is probably limited and so we jumped at the chance to visit with them. I'm pretty sure it made their Sunday wonderful to see a bunch of their Great Grandkids and how they've grown over the past few months.

(Connor, Kamryn, Grandma Emily, Owen, Rylee and Tatum... Grandpa wasn't feeling very well so we didn't get any pictures with him. Maybe next time.)

The kids always look forward to playing in Grandma and Grandpa's fabulous backyard.

Owen especially liked the porch swing while the girls made up cheers. It was a great day and Owen only puked twice!! It was fun to visit with everyone and we even indulged ourselves in a little Lucky Wishbone... gotta love deep fried steak fingers with garlic toast for lunch!

Our photographer just finished our family pictures, I'll post those tomorrow.

Turtle Pretzels

We dropped by Larissa's (my sister-in-law) house after school a couple days ago and the kids were munching on these little delights of pretzels and chocolate. Nothing is quite as delightful as sweet and salty combined. She told me how easy they were to make, and I didn't stop at home, but rather to the store to buy the ingredients.

Kamryn wanted to make a big batch, put them in cellophane bags and give them to her friends as a Christmas treat! Try them out... they are SO simple that kids can do them (mostly) by themselves. Beware... you can't eat just a one!!

Turtle Pretzels

What you'll need:

A bag of regular ol' pretzels

A bag of Rolo candies

M&M's or Pecans

White Chocolate Chips (or other meltable chocolate) **optional**

Parchment Paper

A 350 degree oven

Here's what you do:

Lay out a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet

Spread out a bunch of pretzels

Unwrap the Rolos and place one Rolo in the center of the pretzel

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 3-5 minutes, just until the chocolate become glossy. Don't totally melt the chocolate, even though this would still taste delicious.

When you take the pretzels out of the oven, go ahead and press a M&M or a Pecan, like the original recipe calls for (if your kids like nuts), in the center.

This could complete the turtles, but Larissa's were decorated with white chocolate and so Kamryn wanted them to be "just like hers".

Melt your chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double boiler.

Pour the melted chocolate into a ziplock baggie and cut off the corner a little bit.

Squeeze the baggie while drizzling chocolate over the turtle pretzels (don't squeeze too hard or the chocolate will come out the top of the baggie and you'll have to lick ALL the chocolate off your fingers).

Let them cool for a little bit and then eat em' all up!! They are so yummy!!