4th of July

We had our first official family reunion with my family over the 4th of July weekend. What a great time we had together! We drove out Thursday to Utah and the very next day we went to spend the day at Deer Creek with a boat and 2 wave runners. The kids just LOVED the wave runners and the boat was very busy all day with wake boarders and kids on the banana. I was sooo incredibly sore the rest of our stay. My body used muscles that I didn't even know I had while I was wake boarding. I think next time we go to the lake at the end of our stay, or I get in shape. One or the other will do. We stayed with Elli this trip. What a great host she and Dewayne are! They gave us their Master Bedroom, toothbrushes, lotion, a bag for our dirty clothes, unlimited amounts of cereal, fresh baked cookies when we first walked in from our long drive, bought all the meet for our BBQ on the 4th, made fantastic chicken salad sandwiches for the lake
and also gave me a bottle of Bath and Body lotion to take home, which I absolutely love! I couldn't have asked for a better time or stay! Thanks Elli for making our trip so memorable.

So after a day at the lake, we spend time with my parents. Then on Sunday we went to visit Jamie's sister Lisa in Logan. Pictures of the rest of our trip will follow.


Summer and Lili. Summer is such a fun niece! She is always so willing to help and LOVES baby Lili!On our drive to Utah. Going on a trip is always so much fun. The way back....not so much.
Christian is getting so big. He was in love with the wave runners. Jamie secretly let him drive one and he was on cloud nine! He kept asking us if he could tell people he drove one because we told him not to tell so the other kids wouldn't want to drive a wave runner as well.
Poor Izzy had a broken "egg" (that is what she says). She spent the time either on the boat, wave runner or next to McKynlee playing in the water or watching a movie. Look at how cute McKynlee's swimsuit is!
Lili is always such a happy camper! She started to dislike her car seat on this trip. The count down to turning her around has begun!
Me and my baby. I can't get enough of her!
Ooooh my! I love this chunky baby. I got her these cute shades online to protect her eyes. She looks so stinkin' cute.
Kids waiting for boat rides. Fun time with cousins!
And of course a pic of my sister Elisa and I. Elisa looks tan because she has actually gotten to go to the pool this summer. I on the other hand have stayed inside with a baby and a 2 year old with a broken leg. At least Izzy got a water proof cast after two weeks with a whole leg cast....that was torture.
Me oh my! Look at my cute nephew Caleb. If I was holding Lili or anybody else, he would want to come over and be held. It didn't matter that we hardly saw each other, he just wanted that one on one attention. Love this little guy!


Lili with her Tia Sandee! Sandee organized and planned pretty much the whole reunion. I love having her in our family. She is a great sister and so much fun....wait till you see her new kitchen! Oh my, she is one talented lady.
Izzy learned to say "punch it!" while riding the wave runner. She still talks about riding on it to this day. So much fun.
A Brazilian, Argentinian and American at the grill. No make shift BBQ or Asado or Churrasco could have been better. Around 5 pm, we were having so much fun, we decided to stay rather than go home. So, Andres took our new friend Ricardo (from Brazil), bought some meet and coals and an hour later we had yummy chicken, sausage and steak. Yumm!
Izzy and her Papa. There are no two more happy people on the planet when this photo was taken.

It's Been a While...

It's been a while since I have blogged. Don't even know where to begin. I'm waiting for the site for my school to come back up, so I thought I'd take a minute to update. Lili is doing so good! She is growing and doing so many things. At her last Doctors Appt she weighed 17 lbs putting her in the 25% for weight and 10% for height. She is very compact! Izzy broke her leg a bit over a week ago and has been nothing short of a pill. I am her legs, fun and entertainment, so my days are Loooooong. She will get a new cast next Monday that will allow her to walk, yipee!


This is the day after she broke her leg. She is wearing a soft cast. Monday she got a super cool sparkly orange cast. She keeps saying "my egg is broken"!
Christian LOVES to hold Lili. Look how big they both look here. How fun this baby is! We all love her.


The boys took a fly fishing class with Jamie last Saturday and had such a great time. They can't wait to go fly fishing again. How fun they can do stuff like that in Colorado!

Hospital Pics of Lili's Birth

This may be a snoozer to some, but it's for my own documentation and family history. I have been wanting to document Lili's birth. So here we go. I woke up on 9/11 to another gorgeous day in Colorado. I asked Jamie if I could go get a pedicure that morning before it got crazy with moving the boys room downstairs and finishing trim work. So off I went. I sat in the message chair and noticed I was having contractions regularly, but they weren't very hard. I went home helped with the moving of some items downstairs. Aunt Roni came over with Sheridan and helped get stuff moved. I noticed that I needed to stop for contractions because they were getting hard. Roni told me the story of one of her births that went so quickly, she didn't have time for an epidural. By 5 pm I got nervous and thought that I really wanted that epidural so I wasn't going to take any chances. Jamie drove as fast as he could (he was so excited about this) to the Parker Hospital. We got there around 5:30 and I was dialated to a 4. Not much, but i knew that if I transitioned quickly like I did with Izzy, the baby wasn't too far off. The nurse had to check with the doctor before I got admitted, but said if he said 'yes', I could get my epidural right away. Well, the anesthesiologist came and started my epidural around 6:30. It took him until 8 pm, to get it in right because the first time he put it in, it didn't work and he kept asking me if I could feel my contractions, which I totally could. During this time, the on call Doctor comes to break my water. Thinking I have my epidural all set, he procedes to break my water-very unpleasant experience. When he's done he asks me if I was sure that my water didn't break at home. I tell him no. So, he tries one more time and says, "strange, I'm pretty sure I broke your water, but nothing has come out." I don't think much of this and continue with the Anesthesiologist. The Anesthesiologist thinks there must be a kink in the tube going into my spine, so he pulls it out a bit. Well, that doesn't work either, so he pulls out the whole thing and does it again. The second time around didn't hurt as bad going in, so I knew it would work. It did and I was one happy pregnant lady. Well, all that moving around and stress must have slowed my labor, so I got pitocin started at a 1. I called Elisa, told her I was on my way, and she decided to stop by with Hallie and Summer to visit. I asked for a foot rub, which feels totally funky when you are numb from the waist down. By 10:00 pm I begin to feel like I'm going to pass out, so Elisa leaves knowing that I'm getting close. I tell the nurse and she checks me to find I'm only 5 centimeters dialated. She tells me to switch sides, that may help. I do, but it doesn't, so about 15 min later I tell her I still don't feel good, so she checks me again and low and behold, I'm almost 9 centimeters, so she runs out to call the Doctor. So, we wait for the doctor who shows up around 10:00ish. I push a bunch of times and Liliana is born at 10:38. As she is being born, the doctor says "wow, I haven't seen this much meconium in a LONG time." I don't know what to think of this, all I know is that this means my baby is going to be swept away right away in order to make sure she doesn't asperate the meconium. This is the reason why no amniotic fluid. Poor Lili was COVERED in her own poop. I remember looking at her as she is being taken to her crib and thinking "wow, she is covered in black/green poop". All doctors and nurses were saying how chubby she was. Everyone in the room was taking bets on her weight-none under 8 pounds, I thought for sure she would be at least 8 if not 9 pounds. Nope, she came in at 7 lbs 1.8 oz and 19 inches long. She was just so swollen!
Lili was born at 10:38 pm. By 6:00 a.m she was in the NICU. I got to hold her and have her in my room for a little over 7 hours before she turned blue. I remember that first night with Lili she was fussy. I couldn't get her to calm down enough to sleep. I had fed her 3 times in 7 hours and by 5:00 a.m. I was exhausted so I called a nurse and asked her to take Lili for a couple hours so I could get some sleep. That was heavenly intervention and a tender mercy I will never forget. I will say that the Parker Hospital has a room in policy where they don't have a nursery, only a NICU. They expect all moms to have the babies in their rooms over night. My nurse was so kind to take Lili and sit with her in the NICU. She was holding Lili when she turned so blue, she later told me she was almost "black". The nurse holding her was talking to another nurse who pointed out how blue Lili had turned. They were already in the NICU so she was rushed to a bed and placed on a warmer, given oxygen and hooked up to a machine to check her vitals. The sweet nurse came to tell me at around 5:40 a.m. and that is the moment my whole world changed.

I don't like to think about what would have happened had I not asked for Lili to be taken or if the Nurse had not taken her. I would have put her back to sleep for the fourth time that night and woken up to a completely different scenario. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for my sweet precious baby. We all have a purpose here on earth and I know Lili has much yet to accomplish. I just hope as Parents, Jamie and I will be able to give her what she needs spiritually and physically.



Her first couple hours in the NICU. She was such a good NICU baby! I loved her from the first moment. It's amazing how you can feel such a connection to such a little person you just met for the first time on this earth. I love her!

Pictures of Lili

Our Baby #4. I think we finally got it right on the fourth try. I love that Izzy has a sister and the boys are just in love with her. She is lucky. She has so many people that love her. I couldn't be happier with the pics. I'm also enjoying the newborn stage. She eats ALL THE TIME and goes right back to sleep after waking for a feeding. This time will go by so quickly. Before I know it she will be running around the house saying "Basta!" I hope that is not too soon.

Lili Update

Liliana is home and we are enjoying her so much. It's been quite a trying time for our family and we are so thankful for all the prayers on her behalf. I am convinced she has already been blessed. My friend Lisa Rentz took some pics of little Lili the other day and I love these pictures so much. I need to figure out how to make these picstures bigger and then I'll post more.

Lili has been such a huge blessing in our lives. It has made me stop and think of the most important things in this life. I still struggle with her little eye, but I know she chose to come to our family under these conditions and she still picked our family and came to us. I love her for this and hope that we can give her all she will need in this life. Lili has coloboma and micropthalmia in her right eye, which means her eye didn't develop correctly, so doctors have told us she will not see out of that eye. We are blessed because so far her left eye looks normal and well. How greatful we are for this. Her condition is a red flag for other other health issues and so she has been undergoing test after test to make sure everything else developed correctly. So far, the doctors have found nothing other than a slight trachial malasia (this may be what caused her to turn blue that first night and also what may have caused her inability to eat for the first 3 to 4 days). Doctors believe she will outgrow this. We pray she does and also keep praying that she will continue to grow healthy and strong. I can't help but think that had she been born during pioneer times, she probably would not have lived. How blessed we are that she is with us!

We still have more testing to complete, but we are optimistic that nothing else will be found. We will keep praying for her and ask for you to do the same. I have felt the power of prayer through this whole experience and am so thankful for a Heavenly Father who hears our prayers and a Savior who suffered so much for us so that we can feel comfort in his sacrifice and also know that he has felt our pain and more. Again, thanks to everyone who has brought food, prayed, stopped by, brought gifts...we are so greatfull!

Suprise! She's home!

Doesn't she look like a little person already!! She is so beautiful!!! These pictures were taken only at a few days old.

Notice something different about me??? no more Oxygen!!

Lili seemed to progress rapidly. She was off of Oxegyn by the 16th and home by the 17th! Abu says Lili is such a peaceful baby, sleeping most of the day, yet waking every 3 hours to eat and go back to sleep. Everyone suspects Lili will soon out weigh Isabella! There is much that we don't know about Lili... In time we will find out. She will be tested for CHARGE syndrome. Carolina is as expected...very tired. She pumps every 3 hours, while Abu feeds Lili a bottle. Carolina and Lili recently had a consultation with the lactation specialist, as her oral anatomy and difficulty swallowing make breast feeding a challenge.

Thoughts from a sister....

In reflection, how grateful we all are for the gospel. It's times like these that really push us to regain our close relationship with our Heavenly Father. And it's times like these that reveal the purpose of the antonement and the power that Jesus Christ has to perfect us, and ease our burdens. The Lord loves Carolina and Jamie so much that he is trying to perfect them through Lili, and what an honor that truley is!!! Lili will teach these two more about Christ than anyone ever could or ever will. There is no doubt in my mind that these two parents have more than enough unconditional love and patience to meet Lili's emotional, physical and spiritual needs. They truley are amazing disciples.

Thank you for all of your prayers! Jamie and Caro...pressforward with a steadfastness in Christ. Let the atonement take care of the rest. You have many people praying for you, and waiting to offer their love and support. We love you!

A Better Day!

Yesterday Lili had a Naso Gastric (NG) tube placed because she has not yet perfected swallowing. The tube inserts at the nose and ends in her stomach. Carolina says her droop is getting better. Lili had to get a new IV placed in her head to continue receiving nutrition through her veing. For some reason Lili's sodium levels are low. The NG tube and IV nutrition are helping bring those up. The eye specialist has not yet seen Lili, hopefully he/she will come sometime this week. Lili had an Ultra Sound of her brain, and it looks like the brain is well developed, Carolia says "that's a big releif." The 48 hour blood work came back as negative, and the antibiotics were stopped, Yeah!! Carolina is doing well, she 's very grateful for all the love and support from friends and family! Thank you so much for your prayers and your thoughts!

A very special thanks to Katie Smith for scrubbing the house top to bottom! the second Carolina walked in the house and smelled the sentsy, she got very emotional. On her behalf I feel it safe to say she feels so blessed living near close friends who recognize her needs and who are so willing to help fulfill those needs. It's also comforting knowing that Elisa is there too! Carolina couldn't ask for a better sister (other than me, haha). Thanks for taking Isabella!