St George Trip Day 1, and Fun with Locked Vans!

First of all, Asher is doing much better. We were on the verge of taking him to the ER Sunday night-for dehydration- and then at 3 am he finally decided he would drink pedialyte. By 9 am, he had taken in 9 ounces of fluids, and peed for the first time in over 24 hours! Yay! He's been drinking pretty regularly today, and is peeing regularly, so we seem to be getting over the worst of it. His tummy is still upset- but not nearly as bad as it was.

Here are some pics from our first day in St. George. We desperately needed a vacation, so we went and stayed at Adam's sister's 2nd home there for a few days. It was so nice to just have a break from everything!

Our first day there, we went to breakfast at the Bear Paw (great food- but a little pricey for breakfast!). Then, we walked around downtown, and the kids had a blast at this park in the middle of the city.

Taylor posing on the waterfall

Daddy splashing Asher. The water so shallow, it was great for Asher to splash around in.

Synchronized splashing from Tay and Jon

Adam and Tay catching some sun

Silly Jon trying to catch the water in his shorts. Goofy boy!

I love how I managed to catch Tay mid-air here!

Another neat water feature downtown, across from the Bear Paw.

After all the fun downtown, we went back to the house. The kids (and Adam!) all napped, and I did some grocery shopping. Then grilled hot dogs for a late lunch, and we just hung out for the rest of the day. I will post more about the trip as I finish editing photos.

Oh, one last thing. My adventure for today! I came home this afternoon after running errands with the kids. I brought Asher in, and Tay and Jon trailed in after. A little later I went out to the garage, and noticed a light on in the van. Hmmm.. I go to open the door to turn it off, but the door is locked. Uh Oh. Where are the keys? On the dashboard. Do we have a spare? Heavens no. After talking to the kids, I learn that Taylor locked the van as she got out, so that Jon couldn't get back in and play in it. Nice idea, if the keys hasn't been inside. So, I talked to her about never, ever locking the van, and then proceeded to try and unlock it. Not Fun. Thankfully, the passenger door wasn't shut quite all the way (thus the interior light was on), so I was able to wedge a coat hanger into the crack. Now the really fun part! Getting the little loop of the coat hanger hooked under the toggle so I can lift it up to unlock the door. After a lot of failed attempts, and giving up for awhile so I could tuck the kids in bed, success! I am proud that I was able to do it myself, but we will be getting a spare key made tomorrow!

Gardening!

Yes, I know, it's been awhile. I'll try to play catch up this week! (But don't hold your breath). We've been busy around here with gardening, a vacation to St. George, and birthdays- posts and pics soon to follow.

An update on Asher- no big news, he is standing a lot more now, and is just about ready to walk (he's taken a few steps here and there). He walks well when we just hold one of his hands, so I'm sure he'll be walking alone soon. We have switched him off of dairy and onto almond milk and- miracle!- no more ear infections and he sounds a lot less "junky" when he breathes. He STILL weighs just 18 lbs 8 oz. That is his new favorite weight. But I'm thinking it will drop now, since he is SICK. Uuggh. Poor guy has the runs, and is throwing up (but no throw up today!). He is not a happy camper at all. We are just focusing on keeping him hydrated and trying to avoid the hospital. Wish us luck!

Silly Asher digging in the garden. He seems to thoroughly enjoy eating dirt- oh well.

Batman/Jonathan trying to help remove a root from the garden.


Adam having fun with the tiller.

So the garden became quite the project this year. We tilled the whole plot, and I planted all our seeds. Then, a week later, we decided to rip down that fence with the gate in the picture above. It threatened to blow down all winter, so we decided to just get rid of it. Plus, it blocks a lot of the west sun from the garden, which is not a good thing. In hindsight, we should have taken out the fence first, because my beautiful, fluffy, planted garden got trampled in the process. Then, a week after taking out the fence, and and some neighbors decided to expand the garden west, and hand dug and removed all of the rocks, roots, plants, etc. from that area. What a project! More trampling of the garden was done, but it gave me room to plant squash, pumpkins, melons, eggplant, and more tomatoes. And the soil was so nicely aerated after all of their digging! Things are starting to sprout now in the trampled section of the garden, so I think all will be well. I'll post pics once things really get going! Okay- off to tend to sick Ash.

Update on Asher's Heart

Okay- so Asher had his Cardiac MRI done April 20th, and we saw Dr. Puchalski on the 26th for a check up and to go over the results of the MRI. We were hoping for good news- everything functioning fine, no leaks, no narrowing of arteries, etc. Well.. we didn't get that, though things are not so serious that he needs surgery right away, either.

Asher's right lung is receiving 66% of the blood from his heart, through his pulmonary artery, while his left lung is only receiving 34% of the blood. Ideally, it should be about 50/50. Why is this happening? Nothing was evident on the MRI- his cardiologist was expecting to see narrowing in the left branch of the pulmonary artery, but there is none. All of the lobes of his left lung are getting blood. So, it's possible that some of the really tiny branches of the artery are narrowing, but there is nothing they can do surgically to change it.

Asher's pulmonary valve (the one placed in his surgery at Stanford, since he didn't have one at birth) has a sever leak, about 50%. This is not good news, it means that valve is already going bad, and will need replacement sooner rather than later. We were hoping it would last at least 3 years, but that isn't going to happen. His right ventricle is also enlarged, and function is slightly down, though not to a point where surgery is required.

So, not a great appointment, though it could be worse. What this all means is that we will have another MRI done in 6 months, and see how things have changed at that point. More than likely, a surgery date will be talked about. I would be surprised if we made it over a year from now before he has surgery again. Surgery would be open heart, at Primary Children's (yay! no trip to Stanford!), and would consist of replacing the pulmonary valve, and trying to get more blood flowing through the pulmonary artery to the left lung.

Looking at Asher, you would have no clue anything was wrong. He is small for his age (his height isn't even in the charts, and he is only in the 3% for weight. No football or basketball for him!), but he looks GREAT. He is active, learning to stand and walk, and never stops moving. He babbles constantly, loves dropping things and saying "uh-oh", and calls everything he really wants (bottle, food, toys) "daddy". He has even managed to stay healthy lately! But his little heart just struggles. We are just blessed, and grateful, that they can fix his heart, and that we can stay here in Utah for the next surgery, and we are grateful that it doesn't have to happen right away.

Tulip Festival!

I have been a tad bit behind on posting, but I have decided today is catch up day! 2-3 weeks ago I went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. I brought the kiddos and met up with my parents and Grandma, and my niece Nyah. It was a bit early for the tulips, since we've had a really cold Spring, but still about 50% of them were blooming. (The pic above is Taylor and Nyah- I love it! So typical of these two when they are together.)
Asher playing with Grandma Cheryl

Taylor posing. Right after this she started bawling- I can't remember why now! Probably because I didn't like a pose she did or something.

Taylor bundled up, looking at the flowers.

Jonathan, Nyah, and Taylor. Check out all those flowers!

It was a really nice day, despite the cold. It would great to go back now that everything is actually blooming!