announcing......

Merry Christmas Card

Merry Christmas to all. Here is the electronic version of our Christmas card this year. Thanks to Kamon for being the photographer. Here's to happy holidays.

more photos

By request, I am putting a link to a slideshow of some pictures I have taken. Hope you enjoy them. CLICK ME

Happy Holidays!

Wow, so here's a way fun video that is bound to spark some holiday cheer. You may be among the 1.7 million times it has already been viewed.


Thank you Brooke, for sending us this one.

count down

In a week from today I have an ultrasound to check out the baby! I am praying that this kid-o will let us see if it is a boy or a girl. I am excited to rearange the bedrooms. I would love to paint the two upstairs kid rooms some fun colors. And maybe pull out the new born clothes! (how fun)So check back in a week (and a day) to see what we find out!

Lehi's Weather

So, a neighbor of ours has a wayCOOL weather monitoring setup in his yard. The best part is, anyone with internet access can check it out. It tells temperature, wind speed, barometer, solar intensity, etc. And you can see historical data. It's especially fun when you can check the wind speed from a fiercely gusty night. Anyway, check it out... They should really put a donations box on there, but they are way too kind-hearted for that.

Early Gift for Amber

Amber received her Christmas gift early this year. It was tough to keep this one a secret, so I didn't even bother. But thanks much to James D for coming over late to help us reconnect the disposal and drains. One more example of our great neighbors.




Amber's favorite part... the sink.

Cabin-time

We were lucky enough to get away for a day last week up to the family cabin. There is an old cabin behind ours. It is very photogenic. Click here for the full size picture of Sam on the front porch of the old cabin.
Cheers, ty

I will leave the Tuesday-on-the-stairs story to Amber to write. She was home to witness it. I will try and put the pictures of Sam on here tomorrow.

Thank you all

Thanks to those who said they read this! I will be bettter blogger! The last week I have had MAJOR "nesting" cravings! I love to dejunk and clean. It makes me happy to see tiddy rooms/closets. I took five trash bags to the D.I. Although, it is getting harder to do with more kids, but all is good.
Tyler and I went to the Symphony Saturday night and I fell asleep during it! Opps. It was still nice to have a date night.

anyone, anyone

So I was just wondering if anyone check this blog out? I (Amber) am not so great at posting, Tyler does most of it. So leave a comment, please...

Celine Dion Taking Chances FULL SONG

So Celine Dion continues to impress with her musical abilities.
New album coming in November.

Checkin' In

So we've taken the time to put more pictures on our PICASA album, but haven't blogged for "like, ever". So click HERE for the album of our hike on Friday (Camille and Sam opted out of this one.

Wonderful hike, if you haven't tried it. Probably the most family friendly hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon that is more than 0.5 mile. This is Willow Heights Lake Trail and it is just below Solitude Ski Resort by about 0.5 miles on the main road. There is a nice trail head marker now that is a rock with the trail name carved, which is visible from the road. Here is the google map.

In all joy and rejoicing, we should say that it is official that Amber is pregnant and expecting around May 13, 2008.

School Begins

Sam is doing great! He is standing stronger, getting in the crawling position on his own accord more often, and he is learning some sign language. And he enjoys it all, except standing for too long. Camille is past her flu bug from Sunday and is excited for gymnastics and playgroup to start up again. And Spence's first day of kindergarten is today. Wahoo! He will do just fine. It's mommy we're worried about. Really, though, Amber is excited for this big step in Spencer's life too. We will post Spencer's first day of school pictures later.

Update - Rain alas!

We thank the Lord for the rain this morning and for the delightful vegetables from the garden this year. And for the fruit we received from others.

It was Sam's 2nd birthday on Thursday, so he went to the zoo. The night before we had a get-together with family. Here is Sam with Uncle Bryce (Tyler's brother).

Here are some shots of the other kids.

Funny kid

On Friday night we went to a memorial dinner for Tyler's Grandpa. Tyler's Dad got up and wanted to tell us all something, so he stood up and said" When you are all done eating go in to the other room for a slide show". Spencer was sitting at one of the tables in front of Tyler's Dad and he called out (loudly) "Whatever you say, Grandpa!"(ha ha ha) all of Tyler's relatives were trying hard not to bust a gut. We love the candid remarks of our children... may they always be innocent in their intentions.
The night turned out to be a great remembrance of Grandpa Gerritsen.

flu

Sam started in with the flu on Sunday at 3 a.m. and is still not feeling well today. I wish that what ever this bug is that is going around our neighborhood would go away!
Other news is that Tyler's grandpa passed away early today.

Fun with photoshop

Here is Spence and 'his guy'. Family reunion today with the Gerritsens. 3rd one in history.

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Now playing: Janice Kapp Perry - My Nest
via FoxyTunes

Sam has lots of energy... loves being free to roll around again and play with the other 2 kids. This morning he even was in his reclining bouncy seat (buckled in) and in an attempt to free himself, tipped over and squirmed out. He then rolled down the hallway to wake up Camille. We are still praying that he doesn't get any infections, inside or out. Thus far, the wounds are healing. Thanks again for your fasting and prayers.

Spencer is feeling much better today (back to 100%) and Camille is great so far.

Sunday morn'

It is Sunday morning... Sam is doing very well. He is still eating well and a very happy camper. When he smiles now, he shows his teeth... way cute. Sam is a little cautious of his belly, but he is still rolling around the house and playing like always. He loves to play with the kids downstairs in the playroom. He had Spencer's plastic sword yesterday and was swinging it around, hitting everything and everyone within reach... including Camille's head and Mommy and Camille's Lincoln Logs house.

Today Spencer is ill... he threw up twice last night and once this morning, but I haven't heard him complain yet; just explain to me that he can't play with friends because it is Sunday, but can't go to church since he is sick.

We will hope no one else gets his sickness.

Mommy is still sleeping due to her being the one who found Spencer sick last night and had to clean his bedding.

Home, sweet home!

Sam and Amber came home Friday afternoon! Everyone was so happy to be home and back together again. Sam is doing really well. He is drinking his bottle well and eating a little. Thank you all who prayed for Sam. we love you all.

post surgery day 1

If you click HERE, you can see the pictures of Sam's current wound. Although it may look nasty, it is in good shape and is very clean. It's about 2x2.5 cm and about 1 cm deep. He was able to drink one ounce of his soy drink, so we now wait for an hour and increase his food.



http://www.pedsurg.ucsf.edu/gastrostomy_tubes/
This is a link regarding g-tubes, to give an idea of where the fistula developed (a hole between the stomach and the skin that had to be taken down).

Had we to do this over again, we never never would have done a g tube. An NG-tube (from nose to the stomach) would have been just fine for those 2 months Sam needed feeding. In fact some people we have talked to have done the NG tube for years and it was no big deal. So much for the opinion of some doctors. One thing we have learned through all of this is that our decisions for our children's health are just that, our decisions. The doctor can help influence those decisions, and there are times to turn over their care to a surgeon, but doctors' decisions often need to be challenged by the reason of the parents. ...more to say on this later, I am sure.

All that aside, Sam is looking great this morning... throughout the night he was still quite 'drugged-up' from the anesthesia. They had him on a little bit of supplemental O2. This morning (at 2am) they replaced his IV that came out over night. And this morning the wound care team should be here to change his stomach dressing. He no longer needs the supplemental oxygen.

Sam is smiling and in great spirits. We are trying to keep on top of his pain and assess when he needs to be medicated. Now it is a matter of keeping him infection free for a month or so in order for his wounds to heal.

Surgery report: they created another entrance line in his abdomen, took the stomach away from the muscle and skin, took a small portion of the stomach tissue away and sutured it up. Then they repaired the hole in the muscle tissue where the g-tube had been, cleaned up the old sutures, and decided to leave the skin tissue to close on it's own. They debrided the skin, and now it is a matter of daily dressings and keeping it clean.

We were really glad to have Dr. Downy as his surgeon.

And thanks again for all those who have prayed and fasted for Sam and watched Spencer and Camille for us.

Surgery day

Well, we think Sam will be in surgery today. This morning around 7:15 the power went out to the hospital. The backup worked, but the OR can't function in that condition. They restored power after about an hour and then it went out one more time for a shorter period.

Sam's stomach was leaky last night, but this morning is quite dry. That makes sense though, since they stopped his feeds last night around 4am. He is on IV fluids to try and keep him hydrated prior to surgery.

The time they gave us for his surgery time was noon, originally. We are afraid it will be an hour or more later considering the power outages and unexpected other things.

The nurse will keep us informed. Sam sure has had great nurses.

The pics are Sam at 10:30am waiting for surgery, watching the Berenstain Bears. Amber didn't sleep great last night, because Sam decided to stay awake and be held until 1 this morning. He slept a long time yesterday afternoon.

Special Fast

We are asking all of our family and friends that we can reach to fast for Sam tomorrow (Wednesday). This will be surgery number 4 on his stomach and we are praying and pleading with the Lord that this will be the last, if it is His will.
Thank you for supporting us. We feel so blessed to have Sam in our family.

Sam PCMC

Sam is feeling quite well today... he is so cute waving to all the people who come in to help him out. His stomach really isn't looking well, so his surgeon has scheduled to do his surgery tomorrow (Wed) We don't have a time yet.
But we are very appreciative of the many prayers that have been offered in his behalf. He needs a blessing of healing from the Lord.

adding a picture

Welcome to my blog. This is Spencer as a "ghost". He thoroughlly enjoys Photobooth on our Mac.

Family Photo Album LINK

Click here for our family photo album.