ICE CREAM

I posted this on Facebook but wanted to share it here also, it's too cute!

NO MORE HELMET!

Melody is helmet free now! She was such a fast healer, she wore the helmet only about 4ish months! (The bad thing is, we should have talked better between our 2 doctors. We had just paid $2080 for a second helmet because she was outgrowing the first. If we had talked to the doctor that gets to say when she is done with the helmet first, then we wouldn't have needed to get the second helmet in the first place.)

I can now have her wear headbands more often! 

She is perfect!

Kendra's Funeral 1/9/15

Yesterday was Kendra's funeral up in Pocatello.

Josh's parents drove Aidan and Lucas up with them (and Josh's cello) so that Josh and I just had to take Melody in our Cobalt to save on gas.

We drove through some nasty air quality. This was about Ogden:

This was around Brigham City:

At one point on the drive, I hopped in the back to feed Melody. Then I started to sing to her and this picture is while I was singing. 

This was somewhere in Idaho on the way back home. This time it was fog instead of smog. It was coming up through the mountains:

Josh and his mom played a musical number for the service. It was "Our Savior's Love", it was very beautiful.
Emily (Kendra's mom) and DeAnn (Emily's mom) sang a beautiful song called All of Me by Matt Hammitt.

The opening song for the service was "I Am A Child of God". I found myself unable to sing the last verse "I am a child of God, rich blessings are in store, If I but learn to do His will, I'll live with him once more". I was so overcome with the Spirit and was crying too hard! I am a little embarrassed to admit, but this is probably the first time that I have had an experience that made me say "I KNOW this church is true". In a way I've always known, but it has never been witnessed to me so strongly!

I am so grateful for the Gospel and all the blessings that it brings us. I KNOW that families are forever and I KNOW that we will see Kendra again! 

Linda said it great when she posted on her blog....Most of us came to this Earth to learn and to be tested. Not Kendra. She came here to be a teacher; our teacher.

I will be forever grateful for the lesson that she had taught me. I can now say for sure that the gospel is true!

A Year in Review 2014

March:

We got ourselves a second vehicle to fit us all in! (Once the third kid comes)

Our Durango

April:

We found out that baby #3 was going to be A GIRL! We were beyond excited to finally get a girl :)

Yay! Another girl in the family :)

July:

This month brought the 1 year birthday of Lucas and my brother in law David getting married to Joy!

I was a bridesmaid and Josh played in a quartet.

Lucas enjoying his cake!

Jon wanted a picture of me and my pregnant sister and decided to join too!

August:

This month brought about Lucas starting to walk (@13 months...sooner than Aidan did), Aidan starting his first full year of preschool, and the birth of our daughter Melody!

August 14 we had our baby!

second day August 15

We are at home!

Sept:

This month I turned 32. We also had Lucas go in for a tear duct surgery. So glad that was done because now we no longer have to worry about goopy eyes from him!

Nov:

This month brought us Melody's surgery to correct her skull (which had been growing front to back, but not side to side. Josh's cousin Emily's baby Kendra had her heart surgery the day before Melody's head surgery.

It also brought me my third nephew, Aaron, who is Mindee's second child.

Waiting to go into surgery. Josh took her in at 7:45 and we didn't get into surgery until about 11:30.

Just after surgery....pretty drugged out, but so adorable!

Scars from the surgery

Sweet Kendra recovering from her heart surgery. I couldn't hold her, but I got to see her!

This month I also was rear ended in our Durango with all 3 kids in the car. Since it was the other person's fault, we got our car fixed and paid for by her insurance.

Dec:

We had received a very generous anonymous Christmas present on our doorstep the last week of November. This helped us get some additional Christmas gifts that we wouldn't have been able to get without.

Emily's daughter Kendra returned back to heaven this month. What a sweet spirit that was with us for a short 5 1/2 months! I only got  to meet her twice (they live in Idaho) but I loved her. She was so sweet! We will miss her!

 May you keep watch over your family and be wrapped in your Heavenly Father's arms!

Just a few happenings...

After my crash, we were spoiled with this for a week and a half while the Durango was getting repaired.

Got the Durango back today:

They repaired the back bumper and the rubber part below the trunk.

Melody got her helmet last Thursday and now has to wear it 23 hours a day with one hour off to take a bath/wash hair.

She had her 4 month checkup today. She is 13.8 lbs in the 50%. Her head has gone down a bit since the surgery, she's down to the 90%.

While waiting for our turn with the doctor, I put her down on her tummy. Right before the doctor came in, she rolled over for the first time ever to her back! I wish I had taken video, but I did get a picture of tummy time:

Look at that awesome head hold!

Also, because of the generous Christmas surprise we received, we were able to buy ourselves a little something (besides helping out with Christmas gift purchases) was this set. We needed a new soup pot but these extras are awesome! (plus it was half off which was an awesome deal!) 

:

Car Crash

I don't really want to remember this day so I'll make it short. Wednesday afternoon, I was on the way to take Melody to an appt to get measurements for her helmet that she will need to wear. I was turning into a parking lot and was rear ended by a 20 year old girl.

Dealing with both insurance companies the next morning, giving my statements to both insurances, and all that "fun" stuff. Around noon, I get a call from the other girl's insurance company saying that they are taking full responsibility and paying to get my car repaired and also paying for a rental for the time until I get my vehicle back.

Here are the photos of the damage my car sustained.

Melody's Surgery

Wednesday, November 19th, 2014

Melody went into Primary's Medical Center for her surgery. She had a strip craniectomy. Her skull had fused together too early in the middle of her skull. This was allowing her head to grow back to front, but not side to side. So her skull was getting elongated. So they took out a 1 inch strip in her skull and reshaped the skull to allow for normal growth. She will have to wear one of those baby helmets for about 7-8 months, but she won't get it for at least a week. She stayed overnight in the hospital and will probably need to stay one more night. Hopefully not more!

Here are some pictures and a video that I have taken over the course of the last 2 days....

Josh took her early for a blood draw and this is when I came to the hospital...still awaiting surgery.

got tired while waiting for our plastic surgeon to get started with the surgery

They had to shave part of her head for the surgery :(

she might lose more hair with the helmet on anyway

This was after I went to dinner the first night, she's all drugged out at this point.

This is from this morning (Nov 20th)....still drugged out a bit, but wanted to keep looking at me.

After finally having a wet diaper and getting 2 ounces of formula in her. She also has an IV fluid in right now to get her to get wet diapers because she isn't eating much.

I had to sneak in a picture of this beautiful angel!

This is Emily's (Josh's cousin) baby Kendra. She has Down Syndrome and had heart surgery the day before Melody so we had both of our families at Primary's. (they have been here and will be here longer than Melody will have to be)