Eternal Family!!!

Saturday June 4Th 2011 was one of the most amazing days that our family will remember forever. We were all able to go to the Manti Temple and be sealed as family. The day was so beautiful, but it was also a very emotional day. I have waited for this day for my whole life, but I always pictured it a lot different, don't get me wrong besides my wedding day and the birth of my children it was the most memorable day I have ever had, the only thing that wasn't perfect was the fact that one very important person wasn't there. Mom, I know you were there in spirit, but it was always my dream to have you there by my side. The sealing was amazing and of course I cried the whole time. We had a lot of friends and family that came down and supported us and without them it just wouldn't have been the same.


The most beautiful part of the sealing was after me and Josh were sealed they brought the 4 kids in, and that was when I got really emotional. They looked like little angels in all white!!!

Our Forever Family.......it's hard to believe in a few months we'll be a family of 7







After we were all changed we came out to do a few more pictures, being over 6 months pregnant, and taking pictures in the heat was exhausting so we didn't take to many pictures!!!!
After the sealing we came back to our house and had a luncheon, but of course I didn't take pictures. Thank you to everyone who drove to Manti and supported our family, we couldn't have asked for a better day, and for better family and friends to celebrate with!!!

Our VERY sick little monkey!!!

February 17th Logan became very sick. I had taken him to the Dr. the day before and she told me he had a slight case of croup and started him on a steroid. Later that night he got really sick and could hardly breath. We thought about taking him to the emergency room but decided to wait it out till morning. Logan would not wake up at all on Thursday morning and had not eaten or had anything to drink for 24 hours, by 12:00pm Thursday afternoon I decided that I was going to take him back to the Dr. I got ready and by 1:00 was at the Dr. office and they had him hooked up to a monitor that was registering his heart rate and oxygen and his heart rate was so high that they were worried he was going to go into cardiac arrest(normal is around 90 and his was 200), so they started him on oxygen and gave him some Tylenol because his fever was 103 and immediately called an ambulance and with lights and sirens took him to Utah Valley. Once there they gave him an epi treatment which is just an oxygen treatment with steroids to help open up his lungs. Within 30 minutes of having his epi treatment he was needing another one to help with his breathing, so they gave him another treatment and decided that it would be best to have him transferred to Timp hospital for insurance purposes(my insurance doesn't cover Utah Valley) and have him admitted in the pediatric unit. So another ambulance ride and we were in the pediatric unit receiving oxygen and another epi treatment. Logan was SO dehydrated that they could hardly draw blood or start an IV. After 9 pokes he finally was receiving fluid. Within a few hours his blood work came back and his white blood cells were so critically low that his body was producing premature white blood cells. They took his temp again and he was still at 103 even after receiving 2 doses of Advil. The Dr. thought that maybe he might have Meningitis because his fevers were so high but she didn't want to do a spinal tap just yet because he didn't have all the sign of it. An hour later they took his Temp again and it was up to 106. She then decided that he needed to be life flighted up to Primary Children's hospital. I called Josh and my dad and they came up to the hospital and my dad gave Logan a blessing and within 15 minutes Logan was on life flight on his way to the pediatric ICU at Primary's. We spent 10 days there trying to recover from severe croup, Influenza B, and Laryngitis. It was so hard to watch him be so sick and know that there was nothing that I could do to help him except to hold him and comfort him the best I could. Thank you everyone who prayed for Logan during this very scary time and for all the meals that were brought into my family.

Life flight getting ready to take off with my very sick little boy. I had a video of life flight but it wouldn't load on my blog!!!


Logan receiving some oxygen before life flight came to pick him up.

Logan broke out with this rash all over his body and they couldn't figure out why. They tested him for every virus out there and all of them except the croup and influenza came back negative.
Logan hated the breathing treatments so we tried to do them while he was asleep.

Logan slept a lot the first 4 days
His oxygen kept dropping so they had to give him oxygen and he hated it, he would only keep it in while he was asleep.
Logan was so sick he didn't know what was going on most of the time. If you look close at his arms you can see all the bruises from all the IV's and blood tests they had to do. He was poked over 25 times and they finally said if he needed another IV he would have to be sedated and a PIC line would have to be put in.
He was so sick of being there and was so miserable.
DAD!!!! I want to come home, come and get me!!!! This was the morning we got to go home Logan looked so much better but still had really bad laryngitis and still had a little bit of croup.
I don't have a picture of it, but on his 6th night I believe, Logan's heart rate dropped really low and they couldn't get it to come back up so they had cardiology come and do an EKG to make sure he wasn't going into heart failure from all this. He had 12 different leads on his tiny little chest. Thankfully the EKG came back normal and everything was fine with his heart.

NEVER leave a 19 month old unsupervised!!!

Why do you ask?? Because they will do stuff like this.



Logan was playing in my room today and it got really quite, when I went to check on him (He had only been up there for about 2 minutes) this is how I found him. Logan loves lotion and gets it put on him everyday so of course it is always just sitting around and he found it and decided to put it on himself. When I grabbed my camera he sat there and said "cheese". Luckily I found him before he had emptied the whole bottle(30oz).

Morning Zombie

Logan's hair is getting so long that he is often mistaken for a girl. Almost daily we hear comments like "your girl is so cute" or " your little girls eyes are so adorable", or "oh she is such a doll" I guess he's just a really adorable little boy. Even if he wakes up looking like a zombie, he has the craziest hair when he gets up. But even though people think he's a girl and he has crazy morning hair we still love him, and couldn't imagine life without him.

Cold, Snow,Sleds, Hot Chocolate = Family Memories!!!

Josh loves this time of year and all the wildlife that our great state has. On our way up to the cabin, we saw over 300 elk, about 50 deer, 2 turkeys, and 1 moose, but Josh loves this picture of an Elk that we saw on our way home from the cabin, he was way up on the top of this ridge but it was so amazing to watch him try to walk in all that snow.Logan actually is in this picture but with all the snow you can't see him, he really loved sledding until M'Tali blasted him in the face with snow then he was done.
Dallin loves to sled and spent about 8 hours outside. By the time he came in his gloves were frozen solid.
Dakoda is so proud of this picture and will show it to anyone that will look at it. He is such a snowboarder, and has been since he was about 4. He wants his own snowboard and passes next year. He thought he was so cool when I showed him this picture.

See, Logan really did love sledding. The smile on his face just makes me laugh. He kept wanting to go up and down up and down as long as someone pulled him up in the sled. Luckily he has a really nice sister and cousin that was so willing to make sure he had a good time. M'Tali is such a good sister she took him up and down for about an hour. Logan is at such a fun age, everything that he does is something new and makes us laugh. He is so entertaining.
We love being able to create these memories with our kids and hope that these traditions are passed down to their kids. We love to talk about the things we've done in the past years!!!

Christmas Day

We all had a wonderful Christmas this year. Last year after mom died we decided to have my dad move in with us, so this was the first year having him here for Christmas and we all love that he was able to spend Christmas morning with our family. The kids got a ton of stuff for Christmas.




M'Tali got a new camera and a laptop, of course I don't have a picture of her with her laptop, but it is way cute and she loves it. She also got some softball gear, a new hoodie, a new skateboard, and some pajamas.
Dallin got a new shot gun, I was a little apprehensive about getting this for him because I thought he was way to young to get a gun, but Josh talked me into it and he loves it he also got some WII games, some new shoes and a new skateboard. Now Josh can take him bird hunting. Both him and M'Tali are getting ready to take Hunter's safety class since M'Tali will be able to hunt deer this year and Dallin will be able to hunt next year.
Dakoda got a guitar and 2 lessons, he is so excited we can hardly get him to put the guitar away, he also got a new skateboard and a new rip stick that also has scooter handles on it, he also got some new WII games.
Logan got a new trike, blocks, toys, and coloring stuff since he loves to color.
* here is a glimpse of M'Tali's laptop

I think the kids got really spoiled this year since they got almost everything on their Christmas list. After we opened present we got ready and headed to Josh's parents house to open more gifts. They bought us a new Blend Tec blender as a family gift and I LOVE it. After spending a few hours there we headed down to AJ's house to have dinner. I love this time of year and love being able to spend it with so many close family and friends.

Mom's Christmas

This is the second Christmas without mom here, and it wasn't any easier this year then it was last year. We love to be able to include her in on all the celebrations. We love that we all live so close and can bring Christmas to her. Mom's most favorite holiday was Christmas, she always made it so special for all of us, so of course we try to make it just as special for her. Christmas Eve we took the kids up and they each put a luminary on her grave. We miss her SO much and we wish that she was here to celebrate with us.

Potty training

Logan thinks that anything that gets him attention is funny. Last week I was down stairs folding laundry, and I asked M'Tali if she would go find Logan for me because I hadn't heard him for awhile. She went upstairs and told me to come look at him, and this is how we found him. He thought he was so funny he started splashing and jumping around, I thought it was so disgusting but luckily I had just cleaned the toilet. Of course we put him in the tub and got him all clean.
Hopefully this will be a sign that he is easy to potty train, and that he'll sit on the toilet and not in it!!!
Logan has so much personality and is always making us laugh!!!

SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!

These are some pictures that my friend took for their achievement days activity.
M'Tali is growing up to be such a beautiful young lady, it's hard to believe that in just a few short weeks she will be going into Young Women's. She is such an amazing, beautiful daughter!!!!

LOGAN'S FIRST SURGERY :( :(

Today Logan went in for his surgery to get his tubes in his ears. Overall I think the surgery went really well, a lot better then I thought it would. It was so hard for me to hand him over to the doctor, and have him walk away from me with Logan in his arms, Logan never cried when they took him out of my arms, but he had a look on his face that said "where am I going without my mom"!!! He watched us the whole time they walked down the hallway till we were out of sight,after that I'm not sure if he cried, I didn't ask because I didn't want to think about him crying, wanting me and his daddy. The surgery only took about 25 minutes but it seemed like eternity!!! I'm hoping this will help with his ear infections. I'm also hoping that it will help him eat better. Logan does NOT like anything that has texture to it. His diet consists of Baby food(YES, at almost 16 months he STILL LOVES baby food), yogurt, applesauce, peaches, jello, bananas"NANAS"(that's what he calls them), and some fruit purees that I found. Very rarely will eat anything else.

This is before surgery, he was so happy, he kept smiling and waving at everyone!!!





After surgery....He was really groggy and wasn't sure where he was at, he kept looking around trying to figure it out. He did so well, that within about an hour he was up and running around, no one would have ever guessed he had just had surgery, but later tonight he started getting really fussy and clingy and was asleep by 8:30. Thank you for all the prayers that were offered on Logan's behalf. Dad thank you for the wonderful blessing that you gave Logan.









I promise this week I will update from our whole summer. We had a wonderful summer with lots of fun activities. I got a little behind but I'll do better!!!