My sister is here from Michigan

This is my sweet little sister Tobey Roos with her daughter, Addie Roos and of course are sweet baby Kate. Tobey lives in Michigan where her husband is going to medical school. She came with her two kids and visited for a month. Her baby is Noah and he is 9 months old. Kaitrynn had so.. much fun with him. He is bigger than her, but we had to try to teach Kiatrynn to be soft with the baby. That was a little hard for her to understand. We will miss them until we see them again this summer.

Accidents Do Happen ?????

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Happy Valentines Day!

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Way Cheap Food Storage Ideas

My fiend emailed this to me. I think this is really a fun idea. I thought I would share it with those of you that are interested. I am going to try it. Some of the items you can get at the dollar store. Good Luck


"The Noah Project"
Jan. 5-10: $10--placed in a safe location
Jan. 12-17: salt--4 containers
Jan. 19-24: Jello--4 large boxes
Jan. 26-30: flashlights and batteries
Feb. 2-7: $10--placed in a safe location
Feb. 9-14: tuna fish--12 cans
Feb. 16-21: can opener
Feb. 23-28: water, 14 gal/person
March 2-7: $10--placed in a safe location
March 9-14: Milk evap. or powder
March 16-21: split peas--2 lbs./person
March 30-April 4: toilet paper--24 rolls per person
April 6-11: 4 bars soap
April 13-18: $10--placed in a safe location
April 20-25: Banana slices
April 27-May 2: baby wipes--2 containers
May 4-9: 12 cans meat
May 11-16: $10--placed in a safe location
May 18-23: fruit juices
May 25-30: matches--2 boxes
June 1-6: peanut butter 5 jars
June 8-13: $100--placed in a safe location
June 15-20: storage boxes
June 22-27: crackers--6 boxes
June 29-July 4: granola
July 6-11: $10--placed in a safe location
July 13-18: plastic utensils
July 20-25: powdered eggs
July 27-31: spaghetti sauce
Aug. 3-8: $10--placed in a safe location
Aug. 10-15: multivitamins
Aug. 17-22: disinfectants
Aug. 24-29: paper plates
Aug. 31-Sept. 5: $10--placed in a safe location
Sept. 7-12: shortening 2 cans
Sept. 14-19: baking soda and powder
Sept. 21-26: salsa 64 oz.
Sept. 28-Oct. 3: personal supplies, diapers,
feminine supplies
Oct. 5-10: $10--placed in a safe location
Oct. 12-17: onions dried
Oct. 19-24: toothbrush and paste
Oct. 26-31: raisins
Nov. 2-7: $10--placed in a safe location
Nov. 9-14: popcorn
Nov. 16-21: paper cups
Nov. 23-28: chocolate chips
Dec. 1-5: aluminum foil
Dec. 7-12: cereal 5-6 boxes
Dec. 14-19: cooking oil
Dec. 21-26: paper towels

"The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal
salvation as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of
Noah."--Pres. Ezra Taft Benson

D&C 38:30: "If you are prepared, ye shall not fear."

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Weekend Fun At Chucky Cheese

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Look What I Saw when I walked Into the Living Room

Kaitrynn is so into baby dolls. You can always find her hugging her baby doll. This was like 2:00 in the afternoon and she had not had her nap yet. I walked into the living room and saw this. I had to get it on camera.

I took Kait to Cookie Cutters this last week and got her first official Hair Cut. She did really well. She loved the balloon when she was done .

A Girl With A Special Heart

When a child is diagnosed with GROUP STEP B there are some other factors that can come into play. After Kaitrynn came home from spending a week in the hospital she came home on a PICC line. This is like an IV that is placed in the arm and then the top of the line is sitting right above the heart. This way when medication (Gyntamisian and Ampicillian) is administered through the IV it can go right to the areas that is needed. Kaitrynn came home from the hospital October28, 2007. It looked like a Pharmacy at our house. I was to give her the drugs 4 times a day through her PICC line. I was so scared and nervous at first to give my child drugs through a IV, let alone knowing that it was right on top of her heart. I would have to draw the Drugs up through a syringe and then waste it until it was the right dose for Kaitrynn. I was most scared for the 2 am dose when I was still half asleep. The first night I had my neighbor Rose who is a nurse come watch over my shoulder to see if I did it right. Of course I had :). Just when I was feeling like this was old hat Kaitrynn started to projectile vomit. Needless to say we were readmitted to PMCH on Halloween 2007. Yes Kaitrynn spent her first Halloween in the Emergency Room.
The next morning they came in and took her to have an ECHO Cardiogram done. Some children that have Group Step B the infection attacks the heart. How it does this is the infection is in chains in the body. The chains attack the heart and wrap it self around the heart,making it much more difficult for the drugs to fight the infection. She was given Rosephen through her PICC line once we were stabilized in her room. The echo cardiogram is an ultra sound of the heart. I was able to go with her as she had the test done. It was fun to see her little heart beating away. It took about an hour for them to ultra sound the areas of the heart that may have been affected by this infection. They finished the test and we were back up in our room in no time. I have to admit it was fun to be back with the same nurses we had a week before. If you are going to go through something like this it is great to have their great support team. Maryanne was one of my favorite nurses along with Meredith who is my neighbor. One of the Nurses that helped put the Picc line in was also in my ward. that was nice to feel like I had support all around me.

A few hours later Dr. Petco the Pediatric Cardiologist came in to give me the report on the ECHO. He said that the test came back normal that the infection had not gotten to the heart. Again I was most thankful and was confident that this admission they would get the infection under control. BUT was the next word out of his mouth. I them thought my baby can't have a heart problem? Yep she does. She has what is called Bicuspid Aortic Stynosis. What this means in a nut shell is that Kaitrynn is missing one blood vessel in her left aortic valve. You are suppose to have 3,but she only had two. What does this mean? Well her right side of her heart has to work a lot harder then her left side. He explained it to me this way. When you look at the left aortic valve it looks like the top of the Mercedes symbol is missing in her heart. Therefore it looks like a fish breathing when the heart is pumping. There is a scale that they measure to see if and when they need to do surgery on this valve. The range is 0 - 60. That day the level of her heart was 55. If if gets above 60 they would just take her to the heart cath lab and have the valve blown out, so the valve wouldn't have to work as hard. He said she was at a stable number and as time goes on this number could get lower. He said to treat her like a normal child with normal child activities with regards to sports etc. He said he would like to see her in 3 months from that visit. I felt very educated when he left. He took the time to make sure that it wasn't my fault. They are pretty sure that this condition happens around the 8Th week of pregnancy. They said there is no cure for it, but what this heart valve may wear out by the time she is 50 years of age and they would just do a heart valve replacement. Through this whole ordeal with Kaitrynn my faith has really been tested. I have been given two priesthood blessings from two different people. They have said that I will raise my DAUGHTERS until adulthood. I have felt such peace and comfort from those blessings.

Today Kaitrynn's heart is doing well. The photo above is from the last heart check up. Her EKG came back normal, so no ECHO was done. The last time she had an ECHO the number was down to 26. We felt grateful that it had come from 55 to 26. We continue to see the heart doctor every 6 to 9 months. This number can fluctuate at anytime. We just have to keep in the back of our minds that she may have to one day go to the heart cath lab, but until them she is doing well with her heart and continues to grow and thrive. I am grateful for all that I have learned through this experience. I have gained a wealth of knowledge. I have been able to help a friend with her child in a similar situation after I was through the toughest part with Kaitrynn. I am grateful for the chance I have to be the Mom of these 2 special girls. I love them dearly and hope the best for them both.

October 21,2007 (Blurb.com)

I am a historian fanatic the older I get. I don't want to miss any part of my Kids lives great or small. Kaitrynn had a rough start with life. I am grateful that she is still with us, and that I get a chance to love her and teach her is a blessing in and of itself. I am at a point through this whole process that I have been able to stop and think about the whole ordeal. Why I am writing this on my blog is there is a website blurb.com, where you can take your blogpsot entries and make them into a book. This is what I would like to do for Kaitrynn. I hope one day that she will cherish this book and appreciate all my hard work and detail I have put into this.
October 22, 2007 is a day that I will never forget. I had put Kaitrynn down to sleep at 1:30 am that morning after nursing her. She slept right by my bed in her swing do to reflux. Her and I slept until that morning at 7:30 am. I was alarmed when I awoke and realized that she had slept that long with out waking up. I immediately got up and lifted her out of her swing. This 4 1/2 week old infant lay Lisle's in my arms. I immediately called my Mom and expressed my concern for Kaitrynn. She said to call the Dr. as soon as they open. That hour seemed like forever as this child just laid in my arms with no emotions or real life in her. I got on the phone and spoke with Debbie at Dr. Coombs office and expressed my concerns. She said to bring her immediately in and see Lisa. I had been to that office since Kaitrynn was 10 days old, but had never seen Lisa before. I went that day with the intentions of getting to the bottom of the problem. By this time in her life she has already been treated at that office for severe reflux( which turned out to be GERD later on). She was going to the Doctors office daily to get poked to see what her Jaundice count was. I had had enough up to this point. Little did I know what was ahead of me that day and what I would be facing the next few months. Lisa finally comes into the room and I explain to her my concerns. Kaitrynn had no life in her when I picked her up this morning out of her swing. We are still dealing with the Jaundice issue. The reflux doesn't seem to be getting better. They came in and did a test on your heart. They wanted to see how high your heart rate was. It was a little high. I expressed again my concern of the Jaundice not going away at this point, as of the 18Th of October it was 9.8. Could she have a bowl obstruction? She isn't a normal newborn I expressed. Here I had never seen Lisa before I didn't want her to think that I was some Psycho Mom with issues. I really had concerns and deep down I knew there was something terrible wrong with my new baby. Lisa came in and said that she didn't think that Kaitrynn was stable enough to be taken by car to Primary Children's Hospital Emergency Room in Salt Lake. I felt some since of relief okay we are going to get to the bottom of this. Within minutes Kaitrynn and I were out the door. First thing I did was called Brennen and gave him the update. The worst news any parent or love one would want to hear. I then called my Mom and told her and asked her if she would get Brooklynn from school. Here I was trying to recover from a C-section and take care of a very sick baby and the rest of the family. My Mom agreed to get Brook and to call her as soon as I had information. Kaitrynn and I were off the Primary Children's.

We got there and It was so nice. Lisa had called them,so they new to look for us. They got us right in. I didn't want her sitting in that ER waiting room with all the other sick kids,let a lone we were going into the RSV season. I am so thankful that we live so close to the best Children's Hospital in the Western United States. When we got there they told me that they respected my Doctors orders, but when anyone comes into the ER they start from scratch. For that I am so.. grateful for. I soon found myself with nurses,Doctors and Techs flooding the room. They asked me 101 questions about her. Brennen ended up leaving work and coming to be with me in the ER. I was grateful that he was able to do that. I needed him for emotional support. They came in and took her blood and ran a CBC. This will tell us what the blood count is etc. It will tell them the direction that they need to go. It didn't take long before we had the test back. The Dr.came in with a not so, good look on his face. My stomach dropped for a moment. He informed me that Kaitrynn has a white count of 27. Normal is 12to 18. He said that it looked like we had a very.... sick baby on our hands. It looked like she had come down with GROUP STREP B. This is something that most women carry in their bodies. It effects the babies when they come through the birth canal. How did she contact this awful infection when I had her C-section. Had it already gotten to her brain. This awful infection gets in the spinal fluid and then travels to the brain and basically it leaves children as vegetables. The children that I know that have had the effects of this infection have not been well after. They informed me that in order to see if the infection had gotten in the spinal fluid, they would have to do a spinal tap. Brennen had a spinal Tap when he had his brain tumor. It was an awful experience for me to see. I left the room while she had the spinal tap. Brennen stayed with her. I just couldn't bear to see my infant go through that pain. I went outside and called my sister Kelly who is a Nurse Practitioner. She was at work that day,I didn't want to make her upset by telling her the news, but I really just wanted to talk to my sister at this time. I called her secretary and explained that I needed to talk to Kelly. I tried to keep my composure as I was on the phone with her. I said "Kelly something is really wrong with my baby." "Kelly something is wrong with my baby." "Tami what is wrong?" and where are you." I informed her that I was at Primary Children's Hospital in the ER. That she had a white count of 27 and that they were doing a spinal tap. I asked her if Kaitrynn could die with a white count at 27. She said she easily could, but that she is in the best place she can be and that they will take very good care of her. I was grateful for Kelly, she was able to put me a little bit at ease and I gained my composure and went back into the ER. I walked into the room and there Kaitrynn lay with an IV in her little body. She continued to lay there like there was no life in her. She was so little laying on the huge hospital bed. I walked over to the bed and went down on my hands and spoke softly to her. " I told her how much I loved her and that I didn't want her to leave me". I continued to tell her to not leave me that I wanted to raise her in this life." I told her once again and she began to cry. Then I cried because she was still in there as sick as she was. She could still hear and feel her mother's emotions. I was grateful for that alone time we had together. That will always be a special moment for her and I. Brennen came back into the room with his lunch and I asked him how the spinal tap went. He said that she didn't even cry. The Doctor said she is so.. sick she doesn't really feel much or has the strength to cry, great I said. The Doctors came back in and took some of the blood from the blood drawl and put it in 2 bottles that looked like taco sauce bottles. They would leave these bottles for 24 to 48 hours to see if any other infections grow like spinal meningitis, bacterial meningitis etc. We were then told that she would have to be admitted to the hospital. I thought a lot about this day. The decision had already been made by our Heavenly Father if she was going to live or die. I am grateful that he gave me the chance to raise her as a normal child. Later that day we found out that the Spinal Tap came back normal. We had caught the infection in time that it was unable to get into the spinal fluid and effect the brain. I was so relieved and felt at that point that I could handle anything coming my way. We were there a week and I am so grateful to all the Doctors and Nurses for their love and care for Kaitrynn. I am grateful to have shared this experience with her.
Today Kaitrynn continues to thrive and grow. She just pulled her self up in her crib yesterday and she can now go up the stairs. I am grateful we don't have them :). I am grateful for my Father In Heaven for his love and his faith in me to raise Kaitrynn up in righteousness . I love you sweet baby Kait.