Everyday is a New Day

January 2011

2011-01-23T21:58:00.000-08:00

It was a cooking party at our house! The West kids are so much fun to have around! What great sub-siblings for Scarlet. They have been so wonderful to the girls! Love you guys! Logan and Jess were the pizza dough makers and Hunter made banana bread practically all by himself and it was really good! Scarlet doesn't like getting her hands dirty, but we're working on that. Thanks for the fun night!

This was just too cute, I had to get a picture of Scarlet and her cousin Peyton half in and out of Scarlet's tent watching, I don't remember what, completely absorbed. What's really cute is that Peyton is smiling because of the show, I couldn't get their attention if I yelled "fire."

Scarlet's "Pa" (grandpa Len) was going on a work trip and she was going with grandma to take him to the airport. I told her she needed to get dressed to go and then I went to nurse Ginger. I kept hearing this rustling and called to her from my room asking her what she was doing. She then told me that she was packing. I asked her for what and she said her trip with Pa. I had to see what she was doing, so I went in there and saw that she had packed.

She packed every pair of underwear she owns, all of her shirts (no pants) her books, stuffed animals, and a couple of blankets. It was so darn cute. I laughed and asked her where she was going and for how long and she told me about the airplane and that she would be far away. I was so amused by her packing, but it was sad to have to explain to her that she wasn't going on the airplane, only to take him and that he would be back in a few days. She got over it and we cleaned up together. She has a learning globe that has lots of geographical features and one is a volcano and she asked if we could go there someday on an airplane. Count on it! Hawaii here we come! Well, someday anyway.

January 2011

2011-01-23T21:40:00.000-08:00

Lots of smiles after a fun day at Red Robin's and a trip to Walla Walla park to feed the ducks ( not geese) and see a kid fall in through the ice! -Not any of our kids, thankfully. Those cheeks are so kissable! Love that baby!

Scarlet's new thing is to pretend to be a kitty cat. This is what this little kitty wants for breakfast now: cheetos and a bowl of water. (it was so cute, I had to let her have it just once!) You should have seen her try to eat the cheetos out of the bowl with her mouth; she tried a few times and then gave up and used her hands!

A 9am tea party with pink frosted strawberry shaped brownies with sprinkles on top and warm chocolate milk. It was so precious! They even called me "sir" and ate like little ladies and used their manners. I don't know if I've ever been called sir before. :)

Goodbye, uncle Sonny!!!! This was taken the night of his ordaining. He was supposed to leave the next morning but a snow storm delayed him an extra day and forced them to drive to Spokane. Charlie sure loves his brother and I really can't blame him. What a great kid!

PS: Sonny will be serving in the Belo Horizonte, Brazil mission. He's at the MTC in provo until March. You can check him out at Missionsite.net and type in his name and it will give you his mission info.

more Christmas

2011-01-20T08:20:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Such a smiley little babe! Even after the Christmas Eve program that was a little long for her.

I did so much baking and cleaning my hands kept splitting, so i went to wearing gloves and Scarlet was my little helper.

At our ward Christmas party, sweet little Ginger sleeping with her daddy.

With Santa after a fun night of caroling.

Don't know what this was all about...Silly boys!

Ginger practicing for her big appearance as baby Jesus in the ward Nativity. She lasted all of 2 minutes in the cradle until I had to get up and snatch her for fear she would start screaming and ruin it. :)

. Our first trip to see Santa with the cousins at the City Hall lighting. Scarlet was so excited and ready to ask for a Snow White movie, which she got.

Ginger is just precious, what a sweet little snowbaby!

Christmas!

2011-01-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

Our family gingerbread train. Turned out pretty cute and lots of fun to decorate and eat later!

Scarlet meant to lick the frosting and licked the lid to the food coloring...Isn't she so beautiful? :)She's a funny helper sometimes.

One of our favorite family traditions is going across the street to the church nativity. They have lots of things for kids to do like color, play puppets and the nativity scene complete with dress up gear...

Scarlet was the entire Nativity all by herself!

My favorite, the sweet little angel and the baby Jesus.

November

2010-11-11T15:34:00.000-08:00

Check out this cutie! Scarlet in her very first halloween costume. Size 3-6 months! She still loves putting this on!

The massive pine trees are no more. I asked Charlie to trim the maple in the back...and this is what I get.

Brother Johnson was kind enough to come and help out!

Love this kid!

October

2010-11-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

Our little Sweet Pea!
Having so much fun!

With the finished work. My inspiration came from all of those Futurama episodes lately.

Scarlet at the birthday party having so much fun!

Cake

2010-11-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

Cousin Dorians' birthday cake that I made. I was a little stressed it wouldn't turn out, especially since I didn't have a doll cake pan and had to cut it to shape it. Love it!
My little helpers!

October

2010-11-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

Jessie and Scarlet at the fire house.
Having so much fun together!

Bedtime for the little sweeties!

What cute kids!

October

2010-11-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

Having fun at the hay maze!

Ginger loves her duckie bath!

Just hangin around...

Helping out in the garage.

Ginger's blessing

2010-08-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

We had Ginger blessed on July 25, which happened to also be our 7th year wedding anniversary. I decided sometime this past Winter that I would be especially awesome and make her dress as well as matching one for Scarlet. Ginger's dress was amazing. I said a lot of prayers that I wouldn't mess it up and that it would be something she would want to keep forever.

After many long days and nights, I was finally finished with all of the sewing at 3:30am the morning of the blessing.

She looked angelic. I beamed everytime I saw her. I'm so grateful for my sweet little Ginger. I have such a blessed life because I have my two daughters and my amazing husband, Charlie.

On our way to church, I think we were almost late getting there! It was so nice having so much family for the blessing. My parents, My sister Tori and her family from Utah, Davi & Carly, Anni, Randy, Erik & his family, Michael, Sonny, Debbie & Papa, Amy & Dorian, and Grandma Daisy. The blessing was given by Charlie and it was so sweet. I remember really feeling the spirit and my favorite part of the blessing was about Ginger's smile. She smiles so much; it's so awesome. I love having a smiley baby.

I was so grateful that Aunt Kellie brought her the white headband and I found this clip-on flower at Jo-Ann's for super cheap. It looked awesome with her dress.

Erik Burns took more pictures of Ginger that I'll post when he puts them online. We went to Rocky Reach Dam (where Charlie and I were married) that evening and he came out and took pics. of the girls.

Getting Ginger into her blessing dress.

Scarlet in her dress with her Papa John. She looked very sweet, too. I wish I wasn't the one who made the dress because I was constantly evaluating it. The material we used was very difficult to work with. I wouldn't use it again for a dress. But I absolutely loved it for Ginger's dress, so I would do that again. I wouldn't ever make a matching dress again until I get better at sewing.

Too expensive to make and too many mistakes made.

I love this girl's hair. People used to comment on my hair when I was little and say how much they liked it, blah, blah. I never believed it, but looking at Scarlet's hair, I believe it now. It's so pretty.

Ginger's dress in the works.

This is how I spent many days and nights. Not usually smiling, but grungy with no make-up.

I'm soooo glad this is over!!

4th of July!

2010-07-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

The 4th was a lot of fun this year. We had a lot of friends and our family at the house to celebrate. You can't beat having fun people over and great food! (Scarlet thought the fireworks were too loud and spent most of the evening like this...

And this. Thanks to Jessie for holding her ears for her! :)

I did mention the food was great, right? Here's the delicious strawberry pie right next to Athena's amazing cheesecake that stole the show! My stars are a little off but you get the idea, right?

There's a great dad for ya!

Scarlet loved the turtle firework. She and Jessie both had one to play with.

What a big girl! It was a little difficult for me to stand by and watch her do this on her own. She did good for awhile but then chickened out later anyway, so I really didn't need to worry too much, she's like me and does it on her own.

We had the West and Macauley families over for the 4th. It was so much fun!

Luckily Charlie remembered to get some fireworks Saturday night so we had a few things for the kids to light-off.

Ginger and Pa. What a sweet little girl!

Meeting Scarlet's Bone Marrow Donor

2010-06-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

Scarlet had her BMT on September 18, 2007; She was just 5 1/2 months old. It really doesn't seem that long ago that we were together at Children's awaiting the life-saving marrow. It's amazing what our bodies can do...but, it's even more amazing what our Father in Heaven can do. We owe the life of our little girl to Him and Ralf, our German hero, and of course all the doctors and nurses who cared and continue to care for Scarlet.

It was an exciting weekend when Ralf came to visit. It was kind of funny because somehow I thought he was coming on the 23rd and when that weekend came and went with no-show we were worried. We finally made contact and he told me that he was actually coming memorial day weekend. Kind of funny now. We ended up having 2 barbeques, 2 weekends in a row; we really broke in the BBQ for this summer.

Scarlet took to Ralf almost immediately. We'd been talking to her about him for sometime before he came, trying to explain to her who he was and what he did for her and our family. I would tell her that Ralf made it so she wasn't "sickie" anymore and now she gets to be here with her family and do lots of fun things. By the time he came she understood that, "Ralf made me sickie."

(Scarlet on Uncle Dan's 442 getting prepped for Apple Blossom. I think Ked's and a princess dress will definitely be in when she's old enough. )

I was anxious to learn exactly how Ralf had become a donor. I had been told by someone that all German's were required to be registered donors. Not true. Ralf is a rescue helicopter pilot in the German Navy and a soldier needed a BMT and he and others decided to register to see if they were a match. He unfortunately wasn't able to help his friend, but because of him he was able to help Scarlet.

(Aunt Amy holding baby Ginger at our Family BBQ to meet Ralf. Uncle Sonny looking very handsome in his Church clothes.)

Ralf has 3 kids: 2 boys and a girl. You could tell that he was a dad because he was very kind and gentle with Scarlet and even held Ginger for awhile when she was fussy. We got to learn a lot about him in a short time. He, unfortunately, came 4 weeks after Ginger was born and I was still half-zombie from lack of sleep but I tried very hard to stay awake and learn all about him.

(Charlie in his fab Spidey apron and his mom Debbie. We had a lot of family come over to meet Ralf that day, it was great!)

Ralf came to church with us that Sunday. We weren't really sure how he'd feel about us going and leaving for 3 hours while he was only there for such a short visit, but he said he'd go. He wore his "Blues", I'm not really sure what you call the nice pilot outfit of a German Navy officer.

Ralf sang a song for RockBand Saturday night and he made it pretty clear he doesn't like to sing, but he sang all the hymns in the sacrament meeting and even held Scarlet on his lap while they sang the closing song. It was so sweet. I was really impressed with his willingness to give anything a try even if it made him a little uncomfortable. Scarlet dragged him with her to nursery and then Charlie took him around with him for the rest of church.

My dad came over for the evening to meet Ralf. It was great because my dad flew helicopters in the Army and had a lot to talk with Ralf about that sort of stuff. Len, Charlie's dad, was a submariner and they had lots to talk about, too. It was really neat.

Just a cute picture of Charlie and Scarlet.

Ralf , Uncle Dan, and Scarlet in front of his 442.

I didn't realize how cold Ginger looked after her shower...

Playing RockBand, our family's favorite pastime.

Ralf and Scarlet watching "Strawberry Cake" and sitting on a giant Dolphin that Ralf brought back from Seaworld for Scarlet.

Scarlet loves trains and she and Ralf agreed to come with us to let her ride on a mini-train.

It was a good time followed by dinner at Red Robin, Scarlet's favorite place to eat.

Not looking too happy, this was her first meeting with Ralf and I think she was a little shy at first. It didn't last too long, she was grabbing him by the hand and yanking him around shortly after meeting.

Thanks for coming to visit us Ralf!! We had a great time!

2010-06-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

This big girl loves riding her bike! Charlie cleared the garage so now she has enough space to ride seeing that we live on a busy street and it terrifies me to have her riding in the driveway. When we had our house painted a couple years ago the painter parked his car next to the sidewalk and it ended up totally getting slammed by a driver who wasn't paying attention to the road. So, you just never know. I think we'll start going over to the church parking lot and riding there this summer.

Debbie took Scarlet to the park and brought these pictures home. I got a little wide-eyed when I saw that my little 3 year old was going up the ladder without someone behind her. I guess it's a good thing that she went with grandma and was allowed a little room to grow up. I might be a tad too over protective sometimes...

How cute is this? Theses two are becoming good buddies and I think that's great. They kind of have a love-hate relationship, but they are mostly ok together. Hopefully Scarlet will start feeling more inclined to potty on the potty chair and get into pre-school with him.

2010-05-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Scarlet is starting to come around with Ginger. She doesn't kiss her very often though, so getting this picture was awesome!
This was Ginger's first Sunday at church (sacrament, anyway) May 23, 2010

We heard a lot of "I hate Ginger" or "I hate baby" and have been working really hard with her to show her how important she is in Ginger's life as well as our own. It was hard for the first few weeks but things are really starting to brighten and I think Scarlet is going to be an awesome big sis!

She's asking to hold her a lot now but if she cries it's all over and she wants to give her back.

Great Grandpa Larry and Grandma Shirley came over for a visit with the new babe.

Scarlet likes the swing more than the baby!

With her new bippity-boppity from Uncle Dan. I think that probably eased the pain of not getting to blow out the candles on Peyton's cupcake.

She loves blowing out the candles (what kid doesn't?), this must have been really difficult for her. I now understand why some parents re-light the candles for the other kids to blow out. This isn't the picture I meant to post, there was another one where she looks sooo sad! I would be like those re-lighting parents and totally give in to that sad little face. I wasn't there though, so I couldn't.

Ginger at about 2 weeks, 6lbs 8 oz. Still pretty skinny looking but she was 5lbs 11 oz. at birth and in 3 weeks has chunked to a whopping 8lbs 8oz! Crazy!!

What a pretty little face!! Just loving this baby!

Our modified carseat since Tori's didn't make it to me as planned. She's got a little bit of a booster and rolled blankies to keep up and steady. Sure wish we would have gotten Tori's carseat, I'm pretty sure it would be compatible with my stroller, too! Not sure how safe this was, but we tried to keep her home mostly anyway. The nurses at the hospital were very concerned for her and made her sit through an hour long breathing test in the carseat to make sure she got enough O2, she passed with the help of the blankies.

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

My beautiful darlings!

Just a couple weeks old!

Is there anything better than being a mother??

She was so tiny!!

oops! I still haven't figured out how to delete pics...if anyone out there knows how please pass it on this way!

2010-05-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

Great Grandma Doris and Ginger meeting for the first time!

Charlie's aunt Amy, she sure loves our little baby girl!

Scarlet, Charles, and Becky, the lactation nurse who I attribute Scarlet's quick diagnosis of SCID to. Scarlet's dr. asked me to see a lactation nurse when Scarlet wasn't eating and I almost didn't go because I knew nursing wasn't the problem and that she was sick with something. I believe Heavenly Father softened my heart because I wasn't going to go and then for some reason I just changed my mind and went anyway and Becky became an advocate for Scarlet to her dr. and he finally recoginzed that she was actually sick and getting worse. Thanks, Becky!

I love this picture of Charlie and Ginger. She sure has a hold on his heart. He loves to burp her and get her to sleep...and I love it too because he does a better job than me!

Ginger!!

2010-05-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

Ginger and Pa getting to know each other.

One big happy family!

Snug as a Bug...

Sweet baby Ginger with her great grandma Daisy.

Scarlet...still unsure what to think of this little bundle.

2010-05-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun walking together...although, I could go the rest of my life without doing it again. I can't tell you how awkward it was to have people staring at you as you walk by, and not only that, but I can't tell you how many people commented on the "pregnant lady."

Scarlet and her little friend Presley loved being in the parade! Can't tell you how many people joked with me about going into labor early. Seriously though, if I went into labor because I walked .5 mph that's pretty sad.

She just needed a quiet place to read her book.

M's vs. Orioles! Happy very early Father's Day present to our papa's!

Orioles lost...

Cherry Blossoms!

2010-05-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

Grandma Debbie and Pa sure are good to miss Scarlet Rose! They love her so much and it shows!

Family pyramid...Ginger's on bottom.

Scarlet is really into climbing trees and thought she needed her picture taken in one.

More Happy Birthday Pics

2010-04-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

I finally uploaded the pics from our camera and found a few to add.

Scarlet loves blowing out candles!

Singing her Happy Birthday. For a couple weeks prior to her birthday I would catch her singing to herself, "Happy Birthday party to me!" It was so cute!

Doing the fairy princess dance!

Searching for hidden fairy treasure.

Making (eating) fairy princess Fruit Loop necklaces.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Scarlet Rose!

2010-04-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

We don't go out to eat very often and I thought it would be fun to take her out to Red Robin for some balloons and endless fries; two of her favorite things. It was awesome having the rest of the family along! Scarlet loved it when she was sang to by the workers there and clapped along for all the bizillions of birthdays there that night.

Poor uncle Michael only got part of his milkshake, Scarlet commandeered it soon after it's arrival and he surrendered willingly and was left with the extras in the silver cup.

Loving on her rootbeer...or I should say, "Oatbeer" because that's how she says it.

All the fairies together in one place, didn't happen too much that afternoon. We had fairy princesses all over the place. I needed to round them all up for the picture. They loved their tutu's too, which was awesome...but I'll probably never do anything like that again. :)

Scarlet loved her fairy princess tutu! She was so cute!!! Because she's so tiny and the tutu was so full, it was even cuter! Definitely worth the work involved.

Scarlet's big gift and it wasn't even from us. Grandma Debbie, Pa, Great Gramma Daisy and Great Uncle Dan all went in on the gift. Scarlet squealed so loud when she saw Pa walking it up the front path. She loves it! She still needs to be protected from the sun because of transplant related issues and her having such fair skin anyway, the canopy is an awesome addition!

Opening her presents. Scarlet was bombarded by fairy princesses all trying to see what she got and help her open them.

Grandma Debbie did lots of fun games for the party, like hunting for lost treasure in a bin of rice, a flower walk, making fruit loop necklaces, pass along the fairy shoe and making fairy princess wings.

3rd Birthday Cake

2010-04-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize her eyes were closed in this shot and I couldn't figure out how to cut it. Oh well, Scarlet is the big helper in the kitchen. We got her the play kitchen for Christmas so that she could pretend cook with me, nope, she wants to do it for real!

Picking Grandma Debbie and Pa up from the airport, it was a long week/s without them.

Scarlet helping out with the MMfondant for her birthday cake. Whenever she tastes something sweet, like the fondant, she smiles really big and says "mmm, this tastes good!" We made jello jigglers a week ago and after putting it into the fridge to set up and going upstairs, she comes up with blue all over her saying the exact same thing, I knew exactly what had happened. Jello was everywhere in the fridge!

Two weeks left and baby Ginger will be here! Here I am working on the MMfondant the day of her birthday party trying to salvage my mistakes. I was trying to save myself some time and only do one batch for an enormous cake- it didn't work out, so two hours before the party I'm scrambling with another batch and trying to make the masterpiece. But...I'm smiling! (Ignore the disaster kitchen)

Here it is! My work of art shown at an angle that hopefully doesn't show all of my errors. I asked Debbie how many cakes it would take to finally become a professional and she gave me some good words of wisdom. She said...and actually, I can't quote her because I can't remember exactly how she said it, and she reads this blog so I can't make it up. :) But basically, that it doesn't matter if you make mistakes as long as you know how to cover them up. Note the flower strategically placed in the corner; It's there to serve a purpose! I'll have to post on the fairy wands another time, I didn't get the pictures on my camera uploaded yet. Or maybe I won't divulge that secret, a friend and I are discussing...a plan. :)

Easter

2010-04-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

Scarlet was so excited to get to see her Easter basket. I tried explaining to her that the Easter bunny came and brought the basket...but somehow she still remembers Santa and kept saying "ho, ho brought my Easter basket."

We organized a big Easter egg hunt with some friends and used the church ball field to hide them in. It was fun seeing all the kids get so excited to find the eggs. Scarlet loved it!

She also loved finding dandelions and blowing the seeds...As long as they don't end up in our yard it's ok!

Here's most of the group of friends who joined in. I put Scarlet in her pretty Easter dress because I wanted to get some cute pictures of her. She's such a little doll.

I love this picture because it is only just recently that she has been saying "cheese" into the camera and I actually not only got a frontal of her face but she's also smiling! Wow!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!

2010-03-30T15:02:00.000-07:00

Scarlet's Aunt Kellie's Aunt Chris made her this bunny towel and it is so adorable! I just love it and so does Scarlet! She also made a blue one for baby Ginger (if that ends up her name).

Scarlet loves jumping in the shower with me; It's been an every morning thing lately. I try to talk her into a bath but she wants in with me. I'm trying to put my Americanized view on this aside and remember my days in Germany where this is no big deal, because it feels like it shouldn't be, but then it feels like it should be. I dunno, we'll see how much longer this lasts...

Scarlet and Presley playing paints together! She has so much fun playing finger paints. It's another way for her to practice getting her hands messy and getting used to the feeling of sticky mess. I've realized over the past few months at how much I dislike having anything on my hands and I'm wondering if I've subconsciously instilled that in her. I think I need to start playing whipped cream and paints now, too!

Turning each other into beautiful butterflies! It was the only thing I could think of to say to get Scarlet to explore more with it. It worked, she loved trying to be a butterfly!

2010-03-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

Scarlet and her therapist working on decreasing her messy hands anxiety. Three giant sized cans of whipped cream and an hour in the bathtub helped a lot!
She didn't want to touch it at first but after a while it got everywhere and she loved putting it all over the walls and licking it.

A word of advice if anyone out there is bored on a rainy day and wants to let their kids have some fun: clean up IMMEDIATELY after the mess and don't let them wear good clothes-or at least wash the clothes right after, too. There were grease stains on her alien shirt that I love and it was a pain in the back to scrub the whipped cream once it dried.

I couldn't clean up right after because Scarlet's second therapist showed up while I was drying her off and then I was busy the rest of the day with a meeting...and then, well, I just forgot about it.
Scarlet had a ton of fun and by the end of it she was so messy and didn't mind having her hands sticky. So it was all worth it!

Aprons

2010-03-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

I did it!! Finally! All three aprons are totally complete. They are reversible and the pockets have embellishments so, for me, that's what took so long. Oh, and the multitude of times I had to pick out stitches because for the life of me, I can't sew straight and that was an important part on the pockets where it's really noticeable. That and the embriodery took forever! My first time working with an embriodery machine and might be my last for a little while. My apron says "Mom" and Charlie's says "Spidey Dad" if you can't see it. And you'll notice, his are spiderman colors. :)

2010-03-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, so if you know me well, you know that I hate seeing recent pictures of me. I love most of my old ones, cause that's when I look back and say, "I wasn't fat at all then, I'm fat now, but I really wasn't then." So, this picture was taken a few days ago and it's difficult for me to post because I haven't had that recovery time. But, here it is anyway. I am 34 weeks pregnant and will be having my baby on April 26th at around...7:30am. That's my guess anyway. I'm scheduled for the surgery at 6:30 am and as I've learned from most hospitals and surgeries, they are never on time. As I look at this picture, I've noticed that everything has increased in size...except my rear. It's no wonder I've been having back problems, I'm surprised I can even stay upright and gravity hasn't pulled me completely to the floor!

We went to cousin Parker's birthday party this Saturday. I've been wanting for so long to take Scarlet swimming because she loves it so much and we were finally able to go. I had a nightmare a few months ago that still makes me sick to think about it, but I saw her drowned in my dream and have had massive anxiety about it since. It was one of those crying in your sleep dreams and when I woke up I had to say a prayer of gratitude that it wasn't real and she was sleeping safely in her room. Anyway, I was a little worried about taking her swimming. I have an inner confliction myself, I struggle with being logical and irrational. I find that I'm often irrational first but I have this second-self that is rational and can usually, with some thought, overcome my irrational nature. So, I thought back to my lifeguarding days and reminded myself that I am a responsible parent and would never leave her unattended and that she would be fine. And, she was. We had a great time swimming, even though it was pretty cold water and lots of splashing going on around us. I wish I could say she was eating the birthday cake, but she was just licking the frosting. She'll get there someday.

It's been a very blustery Spring...is it Spring yet? It feels like it. I've been in organizing mode and feel like I have a bizillion things to get organized before the baby comes, so we started with the front closet and we re-discovered Scarlet's kite from her birthday last year. Charlie was home for lunch so we walked across to the church and tried to fly the kite. It's poor little plastic frame was no match for the gusts of wind we were having. It seemed a couple times it was going to break into pieces. Scarlet hates the wind so much that she couldn't even enjoy the kite. It's usually a little windy here most of the time, so we'll get it out again later.

Tutu's and Chocolate Pudding

2010-03-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

Once again I've forgotten that my pictures post in reverse. Oh well, here are all the tutu's Debbie and I made for Scarlet's 3rd fairy princess birthday party. Debbie was leaving for Arizona for a couple weeks before the party and I just wanted them done because I still have other things to be working on for it. They turned out so cute! I used the tinkerbell colors...sort of... and all of them are different, which is really fun. I tried to make Scarlet's the poofiest and most adorable of them all because she's the birthday girl, but I just know all the girls will love theirs. I've made 7 so far and still have 2 more to make. I have been planning this party for months now-mostly in my head- and have been picking up fairy princess things here and there and now I feel like everything is gathered and only needs to be assembled now.

I haven't decided on whether or not to use fondant to cover her entire cake this year. I plan to use it for parts of the cake, like Tinkerbell's house and other things. I can never really plan anything too much, it just kind of comes as I'm working. I was going to venture and try using gumpaste to make flowers, but the tutu's are enough venturing for a seriously pregnant person and so I am going to use real flowers instead. This cake has to be awesome though. We have her cake as our wallpaper on the computer and every morning Scarlet comes in and talks about it and how much she likes it. I don't really care if other people think it's amazing, just so long as Scarlet does.

She just looked like such a big girl sitting at her little table coloring and trying to use scissors (child bladeless scissors!) for the first time. I just had to take a picture.

Scarlet LOVES to help me in the kitchen. I try to let her help when she asks to, but sometimes I have to shoo her away. We decided to cook together and make chocolate pudding. Scarlet is a funny girl sometimes. I feel like she is torn within herself. Like, sometimes she is so stinking independent and refuses help and then other times she is completely helpless and wants me to do everything.
This night she was Miss Independent and needed to stir all by herself. So she did, and she did a great job of keeping everything in the bowl, except what needed to go into her mouth. She was still pretty sick with her cough at this point so,...she had the whole bowl to herself.

I love seeing her in her apron. Mine has been done for awhile, but poor Charlie's isn't finished yet. I kinda put it on the backburner. I bet it would only take me an hour to finish it.

Ok, my official goal for this week is to finish his apron and post it by Saturday night.

February Days

2010-03-05T21:24:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day was a lot of fun this year. Scarlet was a helper in the kitchen with her pretty pink apron I made for her. She got a rose from her Papa and a chocolate card from her Daddy. She insisted on wearing this "Kate&Ellie" dress even though it was a 4t! I had to pin up the straps so she could wear it to church and not look like an orphan. It took a lot of talking to get her to put an undershirt on...we had our first talk together about modesty. I think the only thing she really got out of it though was, "No boobies at church."

She loves flowers. Well, she loves to smell them and then destroy them. They were going to die soon anyway, I guess she may as well have some fun with it.

I love my family! Such precious moments...

Scarlet dressed herself that day...in the latest fashion of "Kate&Ellie" clothes. Athena brought us a bin of outgrown clothes and Scarlet put on as much at once as she possbly could. I just love this kid.

2010-02-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

She gets it from her dad.

We went for a Sunday walk on the loop a couple Sundays ago and Scarlet had a blast throwing rocks into the water. She's surprisingly strong and has a pretty good arm.

Scarlet loves playing RockBand with the Uncles, Dad, and Pa.

Our little fairy princess spreading the love.

She's a great little elf helper, too! Stockings originally went on your feet, right?

It wasn't nearly as much fun putting the decorations away as it was putting them up.

Good thing we had Scarlet helping to make it a little more fun and a lot more interesting!

Sledding

2010-02-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

Scarlet and her friend Presley, sledding downt the hill together. I wish we had some more snow to play in! Scarlet now calls all snow, snowman, it's pretty funny. Especially when she says, "I want to walk on snowman."

Snow days, or what we've had of them

2010-01-31T14:10:00.000-08:00

Scarlet had so much fun sledding and building a snowman with Uncle Clayton and Sonny. We just went over to the church to the field and went sledding there. It really wasn't much, but it was perfect for Scarlet...and if I'm being really honest, it was perfect for me too!

A work of art!

Making snow angels.

And of course...eating lots of snow. That girl loves to eat snow, no matter what I do to stop her. I caught her laying face down in the snow licking it like a little puppy dog. It was the funniest thing!

2009-12-31T18:10:00.000-08:00

Brother's working hard in the kitchen after Christmas Eve dinner. Thanks, guys!

We went caroling with Santa this year. Here he is with the Smith family.

We all chose a family, or 3, to carol to. We had a really neat experience at one home, the people we sang to asked if we would go across the street to a man who lost his wife 2 days prior. I could hardly sing the songs, because the man and his daughter were getting teary -eyed and just knowing of his loss was overwhelming. That was the best house we went to, I hope we were able to bring him a little Christmas cheer during his time of grief.

Scarlet and Clayton in front of...well, I don't know whose house it is. I just know that it's the house Scarlet and I look out her window at every night and sing Christmas songs. She loves seeing Santa and watching the lights before I put her down. It's going to be a sad night when they turn them off until next year.

2009-12-31T17:53:00.000-08:00

Scarlet was a big helper with making carmel corn for the Young Women group. They all love our recipe...but they don't know that the secret ingredient is having Scarlet as a helper!

She loves "pop-pop", even the plain stuff. Yuck!

Scarlet is a chocolate milk fiend lately, which is awesome! Tons of calories, fat, and protein to help her grow a little faster. I've been too nervous to try regular milk since she seems to have a sensitivity to it. It's been about a year since I've tried and when we did...let's just say, I'm not ready to do that much cleaning again yet.

Debbie and I left Charlie with Scarlet during one of our many Seattle trips while she was getting infused. I was a little nervous because Charlie just can't get up and leave to use the bathroom or anything and leave her alone and the nurses said they wouldn't be able to come and stay with her if he needed to leave for any reason. But, it all turned out great and I got to go and get some awesome U district Thai food.

Scarlet is so used to her routine when we go for her infusions that she goes right to the scale and wall to measure her height. She knows that her feet need to be close together and her head touching the wall. She's a pro!

2009-12-28T12:09:00.000-08:00

Scarlet and her musical talents!

Random December pics

2009-12-28T11:59:00.001-08:00

Putting together gingerbread houses with friends.

We had a lot of fun...after they were all made. I was getting pretty frustrated with my lack of success with measurements, etc. We ended up making 7 altogether, mostly to give away.

Sometimes being laid off really isn't so bad. Lots of morning cartoons with Scarlet.

Random December pics

2009-12-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

Not happy with me, while sitting on Santa's lap. She didn't cry or anything...but she came pretty close. It was her uncle Michael who dressed as Santa and even after telling her who it was and even after her actually seeing Michael put the suit on she was still scared.

Scarlet just looked especially cute one Sunday before church. She usually watches a movie while we get ready and was kinda zoning out a bit.

Another scared Scarlet picture. I don't know if Michael even got to ask her what she wanted for Christmas...

Beat that cousin Star! :) Sonny got the whole nativity on his face.

Watching Pa sing at the Christmas lighting in Leavenworth.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-11T15:29:00.000-08:00

Scarlet with her goods after trick or treating. This was actually the following day but she wanted to dress up again. She ended up being a witch again this year even though I actually bought her a lion costume. She threw the biggest fit because she didn't want to wear it. We were late meeting up with her cousins so I finally decided to put on her princess dress and make her a witch. She loved it and that's what matters, right?

Here they all are right before take-off. Scarlet was terrified of Darth Vader and wouldn't sit for a picture. Her face looks so scared. She was fine once cousin Parker put the visor up and she could see his face, but as soon as it was down she would run away. She had a great time trying to catch up with cousins and saying "Trick, Treat", she was so cute lots of people gave her extras...we even got 3 full-size candy bars from one house. I didn't like any of them, but you still feel like a winner when you get 3 big bars!

Fall Fun

2009-11-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken before Charles tossed leaves at her, she ran away after that. She still likes to play in them but is a little more cautious around Charlie. She even has her very own rake to help with the leaves. This year was just training, next year she'll be raking the leaves by herself. j/k

Scarlet doesn't like getting her hands messy especially with pumpkin guts, so she watched as Charlie did the gutting. We toast the pumpkin seeds every year and every year no one ever eats them. hmmm...

Scarlet picked out her very own pumpkin at the hay maze down the street and got to use paint to decorate it. She loves the color pink!

Happy 2nd Transplant Day! Sept. 18th

2009-11-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe it's been 2 years since her transplant. I can still feel the anxiety that came along with it and waiting for the marrow to arrive. She also had her only dose of radiation that morning. I remember carrying her to the room and holding her until the sleepy medicine kicked in and then I was whisked away quickly so they could work. It was hard for me not to cry because the room looked so alien-like. There was this giant machine and gadgets everywhere and lots of workers in the room that made me feel fearful of leaving her. I was grateful that Scarlet was put to sleep so quickly and didn't have a chance to look around much. But, really, she was only 5 1/2 months old and probably wouldn't notice if machines looked scary or not. It was just me being a scared mom.

Anyway, we are so grateful for her to be here with us so we celebrate with a BBQ,Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake and lots of family and friends. We are lucky to have so many people close by to celebrate our happy day with.

I asked for red balloons, to symbolize the red marrow she was given. The kids all loved them and they all got a small gift, too. Thanks Amy and Debbie for working that all out. I'm still really bad about doing that.

Scarlet was watching Looney Tunes a bit at the time, I think Charlie has some ulterior motives about making her a cartoon/comic junkie like he was as a kid. I'm on it though, I counteract with lots of princess movies, stories, dresses, and dolls.

Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate our special day with Scarlet Rose.

A giant thank you to Ralf, her donor, for providing for our family and allowing us to still have her in our lives. We are forever grateful and are excited to meet him someday.

More Sommer fun in Salmon

2009-10-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

I should have done this update sooner. I've been trying to upload Jodi and Juleah's song, but it's been failing every time. So here is the intro to the Salmon Idol Competition and I can't remember what song they were singing in their 80's costumes. Jodi did a good job finding the costumes for most of the people performing in the intro. Way to go Jodi, it looked awesome!

I think Jodi said something about looking fat....Are you Crazy!?!??

Jodi and Juleah sang a song from "Wicked" and got 2nd place. I'm not a fan of Wicked at all, but they did a great job singing. For those of you who just love Wicked, I did try to like it, but I just don't. Sorry.

Liberty and Riley after the show, I couldn't catch Josi and McClay. I love this picture of them, they are so cute.

On stage after their performance and receiving their roses. They were asked a lot fo really weird random questions while up there. Like, "What planet would you be?" I swear the kid MC-ing was on some crazy pills. I think Josi was the only one who could answer that question.

2009-10-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

The Vonn-Sommers family in the Salmon Idol, Jr. competition. They didn't place, but they were awfully cute! This cute little bunch belongs to my older sister, Jodi. She sewed all the kids outfits out of old curtains from their thrift store so they would look totally true to the musical. She also didn't use a pattern, when she told me that I thought for sure they would turn out awful, but to my surprise they were really nice.

2009-10-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Scarlet in her princess dress from Grandma Vicki. She has worn that dress everyday for 3 weeks now. It used to have lots of glitter on it and now there is practically none, all the glitter is on everything else now. But, she still loves her dress and feels like Sleeping Beauty in it. She sings, "I know you...I know you" and dances in her pretty dress. We need to start working on the rest of the words with her. I love having a little princess.

Slidewaters

2009-10-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

A day at the waterpark in Chelan. We went with Aunt Amy and her kids, Aunt Kellie and Star, Grandma Debbie, and 2 fun babysitters for the older kids to go down the slides with.

Scarlet had so much fun in the kiddie pool, she never wanted to leave but I was getting bored after awhile and took her on the medium slides with me. She liked those too, and even went down a few times alone and of course Grandma was at the bottom to catch her.

Kellie and Amber went down the big slide...I was too scared. Besides, someone needed to video this, right?

We had an awesome day. Thanks Amy!

2009-08-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

Scarlet inherited this slide from her cousins. There is finally something for her to do in the backyard now! She wasn't into her sandbox until this summer, so really, she does have that to play with too.

I made some jello jigglers for Scarlet to "cook" with the other week. She had a lot of fun cutting out the shapes and I think a little even made it into her mouth!

Our 6th wedding anniversary. Wow! It's gone by fast! We are so blessed to have one another.

Scarlet wanted to get "beautiful" too.

Family, Smallwood's, & Leavenworth

2009-08-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun at Smallwood farms. I'm so glad there is something around here with animals for kids to see. They gave us a bag of feed since it was the end of the day and I didn't bring enough cash inside for any extras. I'm terrified of feeding animals, don't like the thought of my fingers being tasted. I warmed up after a little while and only fed the ones with small mouths. Scarlet wasn't as interested in the animals as I thought she would be, they have kid bikes around and swings that caught her eye more.

Scarlet really liked the rooster and needed to take a ride on him. After Smallwood's we were off to Leavenworth for Cold Stone ice cream and music in the park. Scarlet was really diggin' the german music and danced a little with me in the circle. It was so much fun being together as a family and doing "normal" family things. I don't think I'll ever take that for granted.

Down at Grandpa Larry's and Grandma Shirley's for a quick visit before Smallwood farms and Leavenworth.

Scarlet got to meet Shamra, Grandma Shirley's horse.

Teach them while they're young, right? I thought this was a pretty classic shot; Saturday morning playing video games with dad in her spider-man jammies.

Gotta love Summer

2009-08-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

3rd annual Father's Day Mariners game. Mariners took on the Orioles and lost. Lots of people left in the bottom of the 8th, probably thinking the Mariners had it in the bag. The Orioles may not have won if the Mariners didn't make so many mistakes in those last 2 innings, but it made for an exciting game. Happy Father's Day, Dad! (He's the one in the Orange)

Nanny Anni stayed awhile with us for awhile in June and most of July. One of those days we went out to Lincoln Rock Park while Charlie helped bring in canoes for the scouts. We had a lot of fun and Scarlet loved playing in the water and seeing all the dogs. Her and Anni are resting in the shade here.

Cheetos and Rootbeer...Does it get any better?

July 4th

2009-07-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

My parent's, Micah and Anni along with the Anderson family were over for the 4th. This is actually the 5th, but we still had lots of food to cook up so the party continued.

One of the perks to living across the street from the church is that there is a giant parking lot perfect for lighting off "legal" fireworks. Not sure if that's really allowed or not, but it felt safer than the street or out tiny driveway. I had to put quotations around "legal" because there was a fire at the church this year from "illegal" fireworks. It was a group in the back of the church who were setting off some kind of mortars and it knocked over and set the bushes on fire which consequently set the people behind the churchs' tree on fire, getting all too close to their home. It was crazy how many people saw the thick smoke and drove from the street into the lot to watch the firefighters doing their job. It was the happenin' thing that night. Of course, we were already there, but I'm sure if I wasn't there then I would have at least gotten close enough to see what was happening. Anyway, fire was put out, girl and friends were caught, and the home was not affected by the fire...except for the tree and the churchs' bushes. Lesson learned: Don't kick over your mortars near bushes...or don't light illegal fireworks in the church parking lot.

Cousin Star and Scarlet have so much fun together. I thought this picture was really cute, the two of them trying to put on sunglasses at the same time.

Those kids had so much fun getting dirty together. When I gave Scarlet her bath that night chunks of sand were just coming out of her diaper area...kind of reminds me of Hawaii.

They are just too sweet. I really hope they get to stay close together growing up. I haven't even seen some of my cousins since I was 10 and I want my kids to know theirs. It's fun seeing those 2 play together. Star has such a spunky, fun personality; they play really well together.

Splish, Splash

2009-07-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

Scarlet's first experience at a public swimming pool. She loved it! I thought for sure she would be a natural chicken like me (but I actually love the water) but she was all about the swimming pool.
Dad got to come the second time around and we all had even more fun than the first time. We love hanging out with Charlie.
I love her whole get-up. I thought for sure she wouldn't get sunburned with all of this on, but her little exposed arms were a bit bright when we got home.
I love this picture of Charlie and Scarlet, they are at the Japanese garden near our home.
A little sun-blurred, but still pretty cute. She needed to have her shades and pink purse for the outing.

What a week...

2009-07-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in the last blog that Scarlet had a week of procedures and appointments. Here she is on Monday for the 9 hour visit at Children's Hospital. She was having another kidney test called an Iothalamate. It requires fasting from solid foods and milk, all she could eat or drink were clear liquids and jello. She doesn't like Jello so even though she couldn't eat anything she still only ate maybe one container of Jello all day. It also required 4 finger pokes. The first one she had she fussed and cried a little and then she tilted her head and watched as they juiced her finger to fill the 2 vials ( it really wasn't a lot of blood, but it seems that way when they milk your finger forever). They couldn't draw from her port because the medicine was infusing there and they needed a separate blood source to get accurate results. It took a week and a half to get the results back and they are excellent! She had a GFR Kidney function rate of 58% last year and her kidney function is now at 86%, much better! The doctor said on the message that he couldn't explain the good results but that they are very happy she is improving so much.
Thanks for all the prayers!

We had appointments everyday following and each became more and more difficult. Scarlet had a bone marrow biopsy on Wednesday and I was 9 minutes late because we were coming from Lakewood and still had to check in and park, etc. They made us wait 2 hours with Scarlet fasting for a 15 minute procedure. I kept checking with the desk and they kept saying 20 more minutes and finally I asked the receptionist to get someone to come and talk to me and tell me what the heck was taking forever. The lady that came was a family rep and she told me this blah blah story about us being 9 minutes late and so we got bumped and had to wait. I kind of had a little melt-down because this was our 3rd day of driving back and forth from Lakewood to Seattle and being at the hospital all day. The day before we waited for 2 hours for the kidney doctor appt and Scarlet was a mess by the time we finally got to see her and then now we had to wait another 2 hours and she was fasting. So, I got emotional and told her that she couldn't use us being late by 9 minutes as a reason to bump us because last time I was an hour early (I got my times mixed up) and they still made us wait an extra hour. I told her that it wasn't right to make a little girl fast for so much longer than was really needed for a 15 minute procedure. I didn't win my case, but we did get in 30 minutes later...it could have been longer if I hadn't talked to her, I dunno. That was the first time I've ever lost it at an appointment. Anyway, the marrow results came back amazing! If you can remember the first draw they did last year came back with cancer-like cells, the second draw in December looked like there were still abnormal chromosomes but not cancerous and now there are NO abnormal chromosomes to be found. We are so blessed! I'm grateful everyday for how well she is doing.
So, after the long week of appts. we went to the Zoo and my mom paid for us to ride the camel.

That was pretty cool, except I was hanging on for dear life to Scarlet because I was afraid the camel may do something unpredictable and she fall on her head.

We also got to go to a Mariner's game on Father's day as part of Seattle Kid's day,the Gift of Immunity guild hosted it. We got lots of fun stuff, ate BBQ while the team warmed up, and best of all we were able to meet a family whose daughter had the same diagnoses as Scarlet and had her transplant only a month after her. Her name is Madison, and she is doing really well too. Her donor was a sibling, so that's the best you can get.

I told you it was a long week... :) This was actually before the week started...but I was getting ready for the long week.

My sweet little princess is doing so well. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts over the past 2 years. Not a day ever goes by without us giving heartfelt thanks to our Father in Heaven for our little miracle.

Summer Fun

2009-07-13T22:37:00.000-07:00

I wasn't able to catch many pictures of Scarlet because my camera is getting slower and she is getting faster. Someday I will have that sweet camera that takes amazing shots everytime...

We got to go to the temple a couple weeks ago before Scarlet's big procedures. I haven't done a session since I was pregnant with Scarlet. It was such a wonderful time to really feel close to Heavenly Father and pray for her to have good results and get through the miserable week of appointments.

I got to go to girls camp this year as a leader. I haven't been since I was 15 or 16 and felt sick with anxiety for weeks about leaving Scarlet. My sister Anni, stayed at home with her so I could go. It was the most fun I've had all year...and maybe more fun than I've had in a couple years. I felt like I haven't laughed as hard or been so relaxed in, I can't remember how long. It was so much fun!!

I've never rock climbed before this. I was so excited when I learned that they had a rockwall at camp. It has always looked pretty easy, so I expected to crawl up like a spider...which I could have if all of the rocks were big enough to get my troll hands on. Some of the rocks were so itty-bitty I thought for sure I couldn't make it to the top. I did eventually, and then again because it was such a rush. I can't wait to do it again. I also got to swing on a rope swing, canoe on a lake, and go down the giant slip-n-slide. We got to make crafts, eat food that I didn't have to cook (except foil dinners) and build fires...roast marshmallows and starburst...so much fun.

3rd year girl's camp hikers. We hiked somewhere near snoqualmie pass, seemed like a mile straight up. It was such a beautiful hike, I really miss hiking. It was so fun being at girl's camp. It was awesome getting to know the girls better, even though I'm no longer a leader. We stayed up late every night until 1 or 2 am playing psychiatrist and mafia and getting yelled at by leaders to go to bed; so much fun! The whole 3 days was like being a kid again and I actually had a blast even though I was away from Scarlet the whole time. I want to go to girls camp every year. :)

Charlie, Clayton, and Sonny hanging out on the deck after dinner. Gotta love summer and gotta love awesome family!

Happy 28th "Bird-Day"

2009-07-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Scarlet and Nanny-Anni on the deck. Scarlet loved picking the carnation flowers from the front yard and putting them in her hair.

Every Birthday needs a little RockBand.

The missionaries even came to the party! Unlce Clayton entertained them with his Finland mission stories.

We had a Luau themed BBQ birthday party. Charlie and his Dad, Len, did the cooking in their Aloha shirts to make it taste extra "Ono."

Great-Grandma Doris was able to come and party with us. She sure loves Charlie and Scarlet!

Cousin Starla and Scarlet eating Dum-Dums and watching a movie; too precious!

This picture reminds me of Christmas morning. She was so excited to get a trike, although, she can't quite reach the pedals well enough to move it.

She's a superstar!

Memorial day campout

2009-07-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

Our first time camping together with the Anderson Family. Scarlet got soooo dirty but she had a blast! -Yes, she is in a snow suit and snow coat; it was freezing!!

Our Campsite at Ida Creek.

Sonny and Scarlet warming up by the fire.

The mountains are so beautiful. What a great place to relax and enjoy nature and still have a toilet and running water.

We had a dessert contest. It was Charlie, Len and Kellie against me, Erik and Sonny. We won. :)

Family

2009-06-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

We were able to make a trip to Idaho a few weeks ago now to visit my family and see some family friends. It was the first time we've taken Scarlet out of the state and the first time we went on a family trip together that didn't involve a doctor appt. or hospital stay.
Here is Scarlet with her Great Aunt Pam and Great Uncle Steve. We had a really nice time seeing them, it's been a few years for me and never for Charlie and Scarlet. Thanks Aunt Pam and Uncle Steve!

Here are Charlie and Scarlet with my grandma Nora at Pam & Steve's place. Charlie hadn't met my grandma yet either so it was awesome for them to finally meet. Charlie has such a gentle spirit that it was easy for them to love each other right away.

My cousin, Amy,was around when we got to Pam & Steve's as well my brother Davi and his wife Carly and my sister Tori and her 4 kids. I was so excited to finally get to see the twins! Here is Scarlet with her 2nd cousin Amy and 1st cousins Noah and Chloe.

My dad's 1st cousin Ron and his wife Bon, were on their way to an Alaskan cruise and decided to stay a few days with my parents. They all took a day and drove out to our house to spend an evening with us. It was Awesome! I hadn't seen Ron and Bon since I was in kindergarten in Maryland. They are the funniest people, it was a laugh the whole time. They live in Pennsylvania and we were planning a trip out there next year with Charlie's dad (crossing my fingers) so it will be really neat to see them again next year.

Lilacs & Mother's Day

2009-06-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Scarlet has been more willing to give hugs lately. She doesn't mind doing it once, but is I ask her to do it again sometimes she doesn't want to. I had to move fast to get this shot.
I didn't get a lot of great shots with Scarlet in front of the Dogwood tree this year. Like the cherry blossoms, I like to do this every year. I love my little girl and I can't believe how lucky I am to be her mother.

Scarlet and Starla had fun yanking the lilacs off the branches and giggling like crazy together.

Scarlet loves to smell flowers! Lilacs are so nice to have in the yard because they are so fragrant and are so pretty too. I love the Spring!

Good times

2009-06-11T07:26:00.000-07:00

Scarlet and Starla getting a ride from Grandpa at Grandma Daisy's house.

Scarlet loves dogs; especially little ones like Bear here.

Scarlet is growing up so fast. It feels like I can hardly remember her as a baby now. She's saying more words now and even some sentences like, "Where'd it go?" or "Where's Daddy?"

I came home from church one Sunday not too long ago and found Scarlet at the bottom of the stairs in her monkey costume (3-6month size), wearing her daddy's father's day tie, tearing apart my mother's day rose. It was pretty comical to find my munchkin dressed pretty crazy and concentrating so hard on ripping all the petals off the rose.

She's into this phase now where she likes to do or wear whatever I wear and do and sometimes what Charlie wears...like his ties. :)

April Fun

2009-05-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

Charlie had a meeting with a man in Plain on Saturday. The scouts in our ward are going to do a fund-raiser of sorts up there to earn money for their canoe trip this summer. I guess we took the long way just before we reached Leavenworth. The road was narrow and curvy; made me pretty motionsick (not like that's hard to do). Plain is a tiny town in the mountains and is actually pretty cute if you ignore all the trailers with junk everywhere. It's also not too far from Lake Wenatchee. I'd never been there and I've always wanted to go. We went and hung out climbing on old logs, finding pretty rocks, and letting Scarlet play on the kids toys there.

I really need to wear more make-up. :) I pretty much stopped when we moved to Hawaii. Seemed I could never stop sweating long enough to put any on and now I'm just starting to get back into it...just not on Saturday.

Every year we take pictures in front of Grandma Debbie's Cherry Blossom tree. Charlie and I have been doing that since we were dating, with the exception of when we were in Hawaii for 3 years.

They are so beautiful! I love it when they are fully bloomed and are just about to fall off. I like to shake the branches and have the petals fall like snow.

Trying to teach Scarlet how to put a fower behind your ear; these are no hibiscus and I think she is putting it toward my right ear...does that mean I'm single again??

We had a lot of fun lifting Scarlet into the blossoms...ok, Charlie had a lot of fun lifting her. I had a lot of fun watching her and hearing her giggles.

Family Totem pole. Check out Scarlet's death grip on Charlie's hair. I need that to stay there a few years longer!!

Scarlet with her superstar sunglasses and wearing her Easter dress a week late.

She loves her cousin Starla. You should hear they way they giggle around each other. Star is a year younger than Scarlet. I hope they are good friends when they get older.

Dad and Scarlet right after church. It's a pretty nice shot of our house right behind them too. We sure love our home.

Party Time!

2009-05-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

My pictures are all scattered again because I still haven't figured out how to move them...I used to be able to and then something changed. Anyway, one of the games we had for the party was an easter egg hunt. The kids had a lot of fun with it.
Here they are after the easter egg hunt counting their eggs.

Here's a shot of the the deck Charlie just finished. Jim B., his wife, Len and Sonny came over the morning of the party and finished the railing and steps. It's so nice to finally have the deck completed. We are excited about the addition to the home, now we're going to start working on the lawn...it never really ends, does it?

Grandpa Williams drove over from Lakewood for the party and Easter. It was fun having my dad there, Thanks Dad!

Scarlet is wearing one of the party hats that I got for all the kids. Oriental Trading co. has some fun things for pretty cheap. She loved the hats! The kids also got a zoo treat box with stickers, bubbles, and crackers in them and a balloon attached. I think they all liked it.

Sonny and Jim finishing the stairs.

Scarlet's homecare nurse Michelle, came over after the party and brought Scarlet a monkey quilt she had made for her. It is so cute!! She is so awesome, we love you Michelle!

Eating birthday cake...everyone but Scarlet. She wasn't feeling well enough to eat any.

Even though she wasn't feeling well (we didn't really know it at the time, sometimes she doesn't feel well and it isn't because a virus...but this ended up being a virus after all. Sorry to everyone who came over!!!)

Here's the hippo head that Charlie and I made together. The game was called "Feed the Hippo" and we used bean bags made out of leftover fabric scraps as the food. Scarlet has just recently learned how to really throw something so she had fun with Hippo. Everytime I try to take it out to the garage for storage she whines and so it has a semi-permanent home against the wall in the family room, for now.

Thanks to everyone who came. We hope you had a great time!

Birthday Cake

2009-05-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

I keep forgetting that my pictures post in reverse. Oh well, so here's the finished project. Scarlet's 2nd birthday party had a Zoo theme. I got hats and different Zoo themed giveaways from Oriental Trading co. online and found some Little people animals for the Zoo cake.

I had been thinking about her cake for a week or so before I made it and couldn't decide how I wanted to do it. I looked around online for some ideas and like the waterfall idea and decided to make a square and a round cake on top. The top cake weighed 5 lbs and so I got some wooden dowels, cleaned and cut them up (Charlie did that for me) and poked them into the bottom cake for support. I don't know a whole lot about cake making, but you can figure that such a heavy top cake would crush the bottom cake for sure.

I used marshmallow fondant, which is super easy to make, but takes a lot of kneading and arm work, especially when mixing in colors. It also tastes pretty good, unlike regular fondant. There is raspberry cream frosting under the fondant also (it's also really easy to make) and layers of chocolate and silver cake (Betty Crocker recipe, it isn't really silver).

I wasn't sure how long everything would take to make, so I prepared the cakes a couple days before the party, crumb coated them and stuck them into the fridge. Not sure if I would do that again. It would be better to call a couple of late nights because the cake was a little dry. Also, I put a raspberry jam as a layer and even though the cake had a crumb coating, it still soaked through; definitely wouldn't do that again, especially since the cake was so heavy. Don;t get me wrong it still tasted good, but for all that work I honestly was expecting it to taste amazing. :)

I had an awesome time creating the cake. Thanks to my helpers: Athena and Debbie! You were great!

Diaper Change Barbie

2009-05-03T07:56:00.000-07:00

This is so funny! She started changing Barbie's diaper with no help from any of us (this was like the 5th time, so I was familiar with the routine). Pretty cute!

I.V.I.G & Bone Marrow transplant

2009-04-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

I noticed sometime ago that I get a lot of hits from people I assume are searching the internet for results for I.V.I.G or I.G.G. I've been meaning to post a little more about it and transplant in general but found that I wanted to be really specific and it turned out to be a novel instead of a blog. So, instead of me rambling on about transplant, side effects, I.V.I.G, etc. Please feel free to comment with any questions or comments, my email is listed also if you prefer.

I remember going through transplant with Scarlet and searching desperately for any information, especially related to survival and life after transplant. I would love to share any information I can with you. The thing about transplants though, is that they are all different. I've learned that there are just so many variables that affect the outcomes of transplants that you can't rely on another persons experience and expect the same results for yourself or loved one.
There are different protocols for different hospitals as well, which in my opinion, also affect transplant outcomes. With all that said, it is still comforting to hear from transplant survivors and I would like to reach out and help anyone who is need of some guidance.

I started this blog shortly prior to Scarlet's transplant and have posted irregularly since then, you can skim through and check out how she's done. There is much more to transplant that I don't believe I've posted about, enough I felt I could write a book about, but haven't and probably won't. Mostly because the medical field changes so quickly, I figured by the time I even finished writing the book there would have been more breakthroughs and changes and I would have been little help to anyone.
So, please comment or email if you have questions about anything related to bone marrow transplant and I will help as best I can.

It's POTTY TIME!!

2009-03-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

Scarlet was reading a potty training book yesterday and when she was done she started pointing to her bum so I asked her if she needed a diaper change. She shook her head no and started climbing the stairs. I couldn't figure out what it was she was wanting with her bum-bum, so I kept asking her, in different ways, if she wanted to be changed. She kept saying "No" and continued to climb the stairs and then I finally made the connection between the book and her bum-bum and asked her if she wanted on the potty. She smiled and said, "yeah." Like, "You finally caught on".

She's caught me many times using the bathroom in my room and likes to get me toilet paper and watch as I do my thing. I hope that's not weird. If it is, oh well, because she wants on the potty like mommy and has the whole thing pretty much figured out, except for the actual "deed", we're not quite there. She sat there on the toilet for a long time, finally I started offering her, her bath toys for some entertainment and then I had to get the camera and take pictures of this new milestone.

Hooray for more pictures!

2009-03-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

Scarlet and I took a quick trip to visit my parents a weekend or so ago. We were able to catch a ride over with Athena and her kids which was really nice, although Scarlet still cried for a good bit of the time. It's hard being stuck in a carseat for so long! The weather was great in Lakewood, so Grandma Vicki and Scarlet picked up in the yard a bit. Scarlet was such a good helper. She saw Gramma picking up sticks and putting them into the recycling container and went and found some too. She catches on to things so quickly; smart kid.

Grandma helped her find some dandelions in the yard. Scarlet will have millions of those in our yard here pretty soon. Our neighbors will probably come over and spray for us just so they don't get the seed blown into theirs.

Scarlet keeping Starla company while she cried for her mom upstairs.

Uncle Clayton getting his first piano lesson from Scarlet. I've caught her a few tims playing and singing at the same time. She even looks up at the sheet music like she knows what she's looking at. I'm glad I finally got a picture of her!

This is just a stinkin' cute picture. She loves her chocolate pudding!

So, I almost got a new camera out of Charlie because I had "lost" mine. I finally got around to cleaning the van out and found it hidden under the captain's seat. It wasn't actually hidden...if I really would have taken more than 5 minutes to look for it, it was in plain sight. :) Oops.

Charlie told me he almost got me the nikon camera I wanted until I found the old one.

Darn it!

Catching up on Firsts!

2009-03-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

Our first Family Home Evening activity. We got the new nursery handbook and did one of the lessons in there with Scarlet. Of course we had to hang the finished work on the fridge...a first for that too.

Scarlet getting her first portacatheter poke. This was a while ago but I thought I would post it anyway.

Her first time having friends over that weren't family. Ellie and Kate are Scarlet's best friends, well, as best as friends go at that age. :)

I thought I would post this as Scarlet's first sad-pouty face. Yes, she's thrown fits before, was sad and cried before, but this was a new face to us. The picture was taken on Christmas Eve and we really haven't seen her make the face again. I think what happened was she wasn't allowed to help someone open their presents or something like that.

Check out Charlie's Chops! That only lasted a day!

2009-02-01T12:39:00.000-08:00

I seem to have misplaced my camera, I had it for our last trip to Seattle and haven't seen it since. I wanted to update the blog today and will just have to use some older photos.
Here is uncle Clayton and Scarlet together on Christmas eve. She's either helping him or he's helping her open a gift. We were able to go to the candlelight service at grandpa Len's Lutheran church for Christmas Eve. It was a very nice service and Scarlet especially liked helping blow out the candles at the end.
Her great uncle Dan bought these Santa hat's for Scarlet and Starla...they are so cute!
They were able to play together awhile before we left for the service.
This year we decided as an Anderson family to go Christmas caroling to some friends and afterward we went to Great Grandma Doris's house for hot chocolate, treats, presents, and more caroling. Thanks Grandma Dor for the awesome time and fun presents!!
Charlie and Len both have recently taken an exam and both found out on the same day that they passed. Len passed his P.E. (physical engineering?) and Charlie the first of 4 CPA tests. Congrats!

It's been awhile...

2009-01-22T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here's the last picture of Scarlet with her Hickman line right after her very last bath with her line. Hooray!
Scarlet blowing me kisses before her surgery. It's always hard when babies have to have surgery because they are required to fast for such a long time. So what do you do for a kid who's hungry, tired, and stuck in a small room for hours? Give them sticky sticks.
She loves peeling them and sticking them on her tummy.
Scarlet with her home care nurse Michelle. She no longer gets to come every week and draw labs, etc. since the lines been removed. It's really sad. We've come to love Michelle and miss seeing her every Monday. Scarlet now has a portAcatheter which I'll show a picture of another time. I thought I got one in here. They put it in the same time they removed her lines. The surgeon who placed it however, put one in that was 2-3 inches too long that went all the way into her atrial valve. When the nurses tried to draw blood it would suction to the wall of the atrium and no blood return would come. We had it fixed last Thursday and it draws beautifully now. The unfortunate thing is that while there in the hospital, Scarlet picked up a stomach bug and has been in and out of the hospital this past week (that's what I think anyway). She is there right now with Grandma Debbie while I get some R&R from being up all night. I don't miss those long months with her at Children's hospital, I rarely got sleep for 6 months.
She should hopefully get to come home tonight or tomorrow. It was pretty worrisome for awhile but she is hopefully at the end of the virus and is doing a lot better.

Just for Mom

2008-12-16T08:30:00.000-08:00

Davi and Carly's Wedding

2008-12-15T08:41:00.000-08:00

The Wedding Party right to left: Anni (my sister), Stacey, Julie, Carly, Davi, Randy, Jon, and Micah (my brother)

Randy picking up his sweetheart

Our family together.

Grandpa taking Scarlet for a little stroll around the temple grounds.

I loved this tree, I thought there was something antiquish about the moss covered branches and the blossom buds.

Davi and Carly getting their wedding pictures taken. I got a lot of side shots because the angle I was at but sometimes that turns out to be a good thing. I think they look great together.

I realize now that I had some better shots of Charles and Scarlet but the icons were so small when I was choosing...oh well, I love the way Charlie smiles at Scarlet. He's such a great dad; couldn't ask for better.

Athena's mom hooked us up with a reduced price hotel for part of the time we were there staying with the family. They gave us a suite for 25 bucks a night! Scarlet found the alarm clock right away, she loves pushing buttons on anything electronic. We had a great time and it was so nice to have a place to crash without worrying about Scarlet getting too close to the other kids there. Thanks Athena and Athena's mom!!!!

Thanksgiving Dresses

2008-12-15T08:29:00.000-08:00

I decided to make Scarlet a Thanksgiving dress since I successfully made the Halloween dress, then I decided I only needed a little more fabric and a zipper and I could make one for cousin Starla too. It was a ton of work, but they were so cute it was worth it.

They are both excellent baby models. Here is the view from the front and from behind.

Great job girls!

Thanksgiving is a time to remember all that you are thankful for and we as a family have so much to be grateful for this year. Scarlet is doing well, we are healthy, Charlie has a great job and we have a beautiful home, and great friends and family. Thank you all who have constantly been there for us; we are grateful for all the prayers and support you've given.

Nanny Anni

2008-11-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

My sister Anni came to stay with us for a couple weeks recently and was an amazing help with Scarlet. She's the youngest sister and has kind of been forced to watch all of our kids at some time or another and I've appropriately named her "Nanny Anni". Scarlet really loved having her around and I have to agree. It was so nice to have someone to talk to during the days and she also watched Scarlet for me so I could work a few days which was really helpful.

Scarlet loves getting into the shoes. She found mine recently and tried them on for size...still a little big for ya!

Deciding which shoes she'll try on next.

Scarlet found Nanny Anni's IPod and was jamming to some music. She figured out how to use the head phones from watching Anni and tried putting them in her ears by herself.

I love the precious moments that come everyday in simple ways, they make all the work of motherhood a joy and just so much fun!

Fun Times

2008-11-21T15:24:00.000-08:00

Just some pre-bathtime fun!

Trick or Treating!

2008-11-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

For some reason whenever I upload my pics they end up being in reverse order...I don't know if it's something I've done to my page or Blogger has made some kind of weird update to their site.
Anyway, here's Charlie and Scarlet while we were out trick or treating last Friday. She was a leopard that night because my mom got it for her last year and it was too big then and bonus it was really warm for such a chilly night.

We walked around Amy's block with Scarlet's cousins and a couple of their friends. I haven't been trick or treating in a long time so it was really fun. I felt a little awkward because people would ask,"What can she eat?" and I really didn't know how to respond to that. So I just said chocolate, I ended up with a lot of M&M's and snickers bars. I don't want to give her M&M's because of the choking factor and Snickers has nuts that I'm not introducing to her for atleast another year. So...I guess we have to eat them for her. :)

Here Charlie and Scarlet are with the gang right before we headed out to trick or treat. Parker, Dorian, and Peyton love Pirates of the Carribean and decided to all dress up as pirates. They were really cute.

Scarlet had her regular monthly Seattle infusion appt. last Thursday and an eye appt. on Halloween. She was a witch for her appt. Most of the hospital staff wore costumes and a lot of the kids as well.

We found a cute witch hat that looked great with her dress, which I made, by the way. Grandma Debbie directed me throughout which helped, but it still took a long time!

Scarlet had a terrible time at her eye appt. They put stinky dilation drops in her eyes again and 3 doctors looked at them which meant she was held down and her eyes forced open 3 different times. It was awful for her and for me and grandma because we had to hold her. (It turns out that her eyes have not been damaged from the medicine she is on like they thought. Yea!!)

She also had an accident in between dr's. She fell from grandmas shoulders to the bench and cart-wheeled onto the floor and landed on her head. I panicked and screamed, the assisstant must have heard because she came in to help. Scarlet was fine, but I was traumatized. It was awful watching her fall and being too far away to help. Charlie always puts her on his shoulders and now when he does that my stomach gets knotted and I'm uncomfortable the whole time.

Anyway, Halloween was much better by the end of the day. Scarlet wouldn't wear the witches hat for more than a few seconds but after he eyes were dilated she didn't want it off. Poor baby!

She is such a trooper. A terrible day at the drs' and a long drive home in her carseat and she didn't fuss at all. Amazing!

I said I would post some ghost stories for Halloween and ended up being far too busy.

So here's a few.

When I was in the 3rd grade we lived in the house my parents have now. All of my sisters and I shared one of the rooms upstairs and one night I woke up and saw figures walking in a row out of the attic door across the room. They were dressed in western attire. There was a man, a woman , and a little girl. I pulled the blanket up to my nose and felt completely paralzyed. They got to the corner of my bed and dissipated. I thought I had made it up in my head but awhile later my sisters were talking about it and it turns out they had seen the same thing on different occasions.

Same house, more recently; my brother was asleep in his room (which happened to be the room across from where I used to sleep as a child) with the light on and he awoke to an old man dressed in a hooded black cape at the corner of his bed. He said he had blind man eyes, kind of cloudy; I asked him what he did and he said they just stared at each other for several minutes and then he pulled his blanket over his head and went to sleep.

Same house, a few years ago; My dad was asleep in his bed in the same room that my brother was in (rooms change a lot at my house) and he said he awoke to a man in a suit and the foot of his bed. He told me he jumped up and got his gun out of the closet and when he turned around the man was gone.

Are any of you convinced yet that my parent's house is a ghost portal???

My brother in law said that once while outside he saw a woman in an old style dress looking out the window. There have been many other experiences, mostly that creepy ghosty feeling.

Nearly all my years living there I could never stay home alone or sleep in a room by myself. There is this strong strange feeling that I just can't describe in any other way than spooky. You can feel there are spirits close to you.

I believe that some people are more sensitive to spirits than others and maybe that's why my family has been visited so many times and we can feel them so often. I think I'm starting to sound a little crazy, so I'll stop.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving FHE

2008-11-06T16:06:00.000-08:00

For Family Home Evening we decided it would be fun to carve pumpkins. Grandpa Len and Charles carved the two big ones and I helped Scarlet with her small one. I thought by picking the smaller one I was getting off a little easy but the small little suckers are so hard to carve!

Scarlet did pretty well with the pumpkin guts, she helped grandpa Len de-gut hers.

Charles decided to use a skull stencil on his pumpkin. It turned out pretty great. I tried putting the picture of the finished pumpkins at the end but for some reason I can't move my pictures around as easily. Anyway, I have more pumpkin pictures coming, I've been really tired lately and just haven't found the time to post.

Clayton's 21st Birthday

2008-11-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Clayton! For some of you who don't know, Clayton is on a church mission in Finland and has been there for almost 2 years now. He will be coming home December 16th at 9 pm here and at 4pm in Seattle; that's how his mom likes to tell it. :)
(I just needed to add that we've been teaching Scarlet where some of her body parts are. Recently, I've started asking her where her "Daddy ears" are...this is a good picture to compare them in. Yep, definitely daddy's ears.)
Since Clayton is in Finland we decided to celebrate without him with Abby's Pizza and Dairy Queen ice cream cake, a family birthday favorite. Charlie isn't flashing gang signs by the way, he's making a 21.

Happy Birthday Clayton!

Flowers to the Brim

2008-10-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Scarlet and I had lunch with Charlie today and afterward we decided to go to Flowers to the Brim and check out their hay maze and pumpkins. We were the only ones there so I let Scarlet run around and play. I heard something about that particular store giving half the pumpkin proceeds to Children's Hospital so we had to buy one there. I love any opportunity to give back

to Children's because they really do care about their patients and do so much good for so many families.

This video is pretty funny. I had to put her in the maze because she really didn't want to do it. She needs a second to get started...she has to stand still when she poops :)

Scarlet got a push out to the car from the lady who worked there. She was really sweet and Scarlet enjoyed the ride!

We had a great day together and hope yours was just as fun!

Sunday Snack

2008-10-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

Scarlet got a goodie bag from Dorian's birthday party filled with lollipops and after sacrament meeting on Sunday Charlie gave her her first lollipop.
She got more in her hair than in her mouth. (She looks pretty bored in this picture. I guess it wasn't as exciting as we thought it would be.) She was especially cute so I had to take pictures to post.

Halloween Fun

2008-10-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

Since I've been able to take Scarlet out to the store with me I make it a point to let her have some fun so we are sure to walk through the holiday sections of every store we go to.
Costco has this creepy display of a skeleton raising itself out of the ground and making scary noises in front of this big blow-up thing. I was a little hesitant to bring her by it at all because I didn't want to scare her but as soon as she saw it she started pointing and yelling. So I took her over there, a little embarrassed, and let her stare at the skeleton and listen to the spooky music.
Now everytime we go there she has to see it. I'm always looking over my shoulder for people I may recognize because I'm worried they'll think I'm a bad mom.

Scarlet also loves to see the lights and decorations at people's homes so last night we went on a walk up the street to a home right across from the cemetery that is completely decked out with scary Halloween stuff (people in East Wenatchee will know what I'm talking about) and she loved it. She didn't notice all the bones, vampires, and grimm reapers; she noticed the bright coloful lights of some of the other decorations.

These pictures were taken up at her Aunt Amy's house after cousin Dorian's family birthday party.

Steilacoom

2008-10-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

After sacrament meeting on Sunday we took a quick drive to Steilacoom. It holds a lot of memories for me, some good and some bad. I loved jogging around this area because it is so quaint and beautiful. It's hard to believe a tiny town so historic and lovely is surrounded by ghetto Lakewood.
Scarlet had a lot of fun running around in the grass and on the stage. I remember going to a few summer concerts here. People would bring their blankets, find a good spot, and listen to blue grass or whoever was playing whatever.
Uncle Sonny helping Scarlet down the steps.
Scarlet loves to be chased by her daddy. The face she is making is classic. What a cutie!
Ok, so I really don't like this picture of me. I'm not a very photogenic person not to mention I felt like a little kid being photographed by her mother on the first day of school, but I'm posting it anyway because I'm standing in front of E.R. Rogers restaurant.
It is a pretty well known place because supposedly there is a lady ghost who resides there and shows up every now and then to the staff and visitors. Please, if you want to see ghost's go to my parents house. Everyone who has lived there (I'm talking about my family) has had an encounter with a ghost at one time or another. I swear it's a spirit portal. I'll write more about it on Halloween! That will be a fun post.

WEEZER

2008-10-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

Me, Charlie, Sonny, Carly, and Davi at the WEEZER concert. I hate being the first person in the row for pictures but you get a good shot of my new shirt. It glows in the dark! Athena wasn't in the picture because she was taking it and she brought her friend Rachel along who also wasn't in the shot.
They had a trampoline that they would occasionally bounce on while playing and they had a ball they would kick around. Pretty random, but still entertaining.

The lead singer came out with this head thing, pretty much for no reason at all. He walked around the stage a lot like an old man too, weird guy, but really funny!

What a fun concert! We had a great time seeing WEEZER in Seattle. I love all of their albums and they played a good mix which was a lot of fun. The only bummer part was right before the concert began we were informed that pictures and video were not allowed. All of the pictures taken had to be on the sly. The quality was definitely affected because I am a super chicken and hate getting in trouble. I used my good buddy Athena most of the time to block me from the usher was used his flashlight to spot shot and video takers.

Zoo pictures

2008-10-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

I forgot all about our Zoo excursions. This was the first time we went to the Zoo with Scarlet. The doctors said it was ok if we go at a time that is slow and she doesn't touch the animals. I'm an idiot and didn't realize that labor day weekend wouldn't be the best time to take her. It was packed full of people. She primarily stayed on Charlie's shoulders and no one touched her or anything. She had a lot of fun. I think at first though it may have been overstimulating because she seemed as if she just didn't know what to make of all the people and animals.

The petting Zoo was last and she loved it so much. She wanted so badly to touch those goats. I think it was hard for her to see other people touching them and not being able to herself. But, at least she was there. These were taken at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. Leaving my parents house to head for Seattle. Scarlet has learned how to "High 5" from uncle Micah. She sure loves him!

We had some fun at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle too. They have a butterfly exhibit right now and if you can't tell Scarlet is a caterpillar here...

And is now a beautiful butterfly.

Miracle!

2008-09-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry it's taken me a few days to get this post out. These last couple days I've accepted subbing assignments 2 days in a row and then I have a bread making class on that I signed up for on Tuesdays awhile ago and young women's duties, so my days and nights have been packed full. I was subbing on Tuesday when I got a call from Dr. Sanders (after me calling several times that morning asking about the results). She told me that the results of the test were shown to 2 different cytogeneticists with Phd's in that area and they both said that the abnormal chromosomes were not pre-cancerous. They will still be on guard in case anything changes and they are scheduling another bone marrow biopsy for December.

Scarlet's pediatrician called me last night saying that he had received some notes from the Immunologist who specialized in this area. He told me that when they did the first draw they saw some cells that were cloned which would possibly indicate leukemia but on the second draw there were no cloned cells.

If you've ever doubted miracles, doubt no more. I know it was because of fasting and prayers that she no longer has any signs of cellular cloning. Heavenly Father has once more blessed our family with a miracle. I owe everything to Him. Charlie gave Scarlet a blessing on Sunday and in the blessing he told her that she would get through any trials she may face that her body would be strong, etc. I was really struggling to have faith and immediately after his blessing I felt awesome peace and knew that what he said was true and that it was Heavenly Father's will that she live. I feel badly for ever doubting in the first place. I know all you parents can empathize with me; the thought of losing your child is overwhelming.

I need to thank all of you for your kinds words and your prayers for Scarlet. It helped so much to read the messages you sent me. You are all such good friends. It is such a blessing to have family and friends who are there to support you, and pray, cry, and laugh with you.

Thank you all again for being willing to fast and pray for Scarlet.

I was writing in my journal to Scarlet the other day and I told her about fasting and it made me think back a couple years ago when I was pregnant with her. I was the Beehive advisor and one Sunday I was supposed to teach the lesson on fasting and I didn't prepare very much because I thought "How hard could it really be?" It was during the lesson while I was stumbling on my words and not really saying anything very supportive of fasting that I realized that I didn't have a testimony of fasting at all. Before that time, I struggled with fasting entirely and never appreciated its power and effectiveness at bringing you closer to the Savior. I love the peace and the spirit that comes when you take the time to really study and pray while you are fasting. I have a very strong testimony of fasting now, it has been an amazing aid and comfort while enduring everything with Scarlet. I've learned so much over the last 2 years and I love every lesson I've had to learn, it's made me a better person and a better servant of the Lord.

Thank You All So Much!!!!

September 18th

2008-09-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

It was a year ago September 18th that Scarlet had her transplant. I would have blogged on this sooner but a lot has been going on. To celebrate her 1year mark we took her to Sears to have her pictures taken. It was a lot of work trying to get some of them to turn out well and for her to cooperate with us, but as you can see they turned out pretty cute!

Scarlet loves her monkeys. She must have at least 4 of them and most go to bed with her at night. She loves giving them kisses and hugs.
I have been substitute teaching again and I am amazed at how many kids have their own cell phones...Scarlet thinks she needs one too. :) I gave her mine in a desperate ploy to get her to smile; it worked.

I hope we have many more years to celebrate her transplant day. I am starting to feel sick with anxiety waiting for the results to come back. I'm trying so hard not to give up hope and to have enough to faith to get through this.

Scarlet is our sweet angel and I can't imagine not having her with us. While in the hospital with Scarlet, I remembered seeing a mother in one of the small rooms with her son Christian, who was about 17. As I was walking in the halls one day, I remember seeing her crying, and the transplant doctor with her who looked very solemn, talking softly outside their room. I couldn't hear what they were saying and honestly I really didn't want to, at that time Scarlet was still waiting for transplant. It was a little after Thanksgiving and Scarlet and I were at the Ronald McDonald house, when I heard a lot of commotion out in the halls (anybody in the halls altogether was unusual) the family next door was packing up their belongings in big boxes. I watched them load all of their things into their truck and I noticed one in particular that said, "Christian's memories" and it had a smiley face on the box. I can see the box in my mind and it reminds me to make everyday a memory for Scarlet despite my grief and fear.

I am struggling to maintain hope. It is my greatest desire that the doctors call with good news. I keep reading more on myelodsyplastic syndrome and it isn't something that can be supported for very long. Once they start getting blasts (cells that retard good cells) in their blood the chance for survival is very minimal and life expectancy is only months. I talked with Rhonda again on Friday and she told me that there were no blasts in her blood, which is reason to have hope. I'm so afraid for Scarlet.

Please keep praying for her to be ok.

Uncertain News

2008-09-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

So...a couple weeks ago was Scarlet's 1 year post-transplant appts. and as I mentioned before they did a bone marrow aspiration to look at chimerisms, chromosomes, and ADA enzyme function. The chromosomes test takes a little over a week and so the results weren't back by the time we had our exit conference with Dr. Sanders. I received a phone call from Rhonda, the attending PA at the SCCA last Friday and she told me that the results of the chromosome test were very strange and that they would like to draw again, which we will do on Wednesday. I should have known then that it wasn't good, because like I've said before it's never good news if one of the PA's or DR's call. I was worried but didn't know what to think because I really didn't understand anything she was telling me. I had a chance to talk to her again on Monday and ask her to explain it to me more thoroughly because I didn't have a clue as to what she was talking about. She pulled out the sheets with the results and showed me the results from her first draw that was taken before transplant and the one that was taken recently. The first one she explained to me was normal, it had the karyotype XX (sex chromosome) and 19 chromosomes...which maybe for babies is normal, she told me it was. The new result showed that her karyotype is still XX which was surprising since her donor was male they expected it to be XY. But that wasn't the real concern. What was concerning is that her chromosomes have translocated which means they have been altered at some point and now are considered abnormal. Which leads me to the worst of it all...it appears that Scarlet may have myelodysplastic syndrome which is caused by abnormal chromosomes. It can affect the red blood cells, absolute neutraphil counts, and/or platelets usually causing signficant drops in whatever area it affects. This would explain her fluctuating ANC.
Myelodysplasia is also known as the precursor to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) which is the worst form of leukemia. From what I've gathered myelodysplasia can be treated with therapy and in Scarlet's case she would continue to get GCSF (hormone shot to boost ANC). It can however, progress to AML and if it did it would be even more difficult to treat. The prognosis appears to be very grimm if she were to indeed have MDS and then progress into AML. I'm still not 100% on anything with this and only started researching last night through massive hysterical tears, so I could be wrong.
I found an article from the Oncology Journal that talked about transplant patients who got MDS(myelodysplastic syndrome) post transplant. Out of 400 patients 7% got MDS and all of them ended up dying either from MDS or from infection during a second transplant.
It is said that MDS can occur from radiotherapy, chemo associated medicines, and even prednisone. Scarlet had total body radiation and has been on prednisone since December. The radiation was considered a very small dose as well as her prednisone...the Immunologist we saw today said that in her 10 years working with transplant patients she has never seen anything like this especially in patients her age and also with her type of SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency).
I was pretty emotional yesterday and I felt like all was lost, again. This is the 5th time that I've felt this hopelessness since Scarlet has been born. Completely devastated, wanting to give up and die, all of that. But...this is the 5th time that Heavenly Father has given me the comfort and strength I've needed to endure. He's shown me that He has been there for us all along and after a long good cry and much deep contemplation I am ready once more to put everything in His hands. I can't explain to you the peace I felt, as if He was there with me, letting me know that everything would be ok. I prayed that He would help me to feel peace and even though I felt like all was lost and I wanted to wallow in my misery, I was blessed with that incredible feeling where I couldn't, even though I wanted to.
I talked awhile with Charlie and he is second best to God. He is amazing, he always knows exactly what to say and how to say it. I am still afraid of what might happen to Scarlet and what this means for her future. She has already endured so much in her short life, I hate to think about what else she may have to go through if they find that it is MDS.
I know that all will be well and that Scarlet is amazlingly strong and will give her all to overcome this and anything else she may be faced with.
It's fast Sunday this weekend and I'm asking my fellow LDS friends and family(and anyone else who would) to include Scarlet in their fasts once again.
We will know the results of the new marrow draw in a little over a week and all the Dr's will confer with another and let us know as soon as they can about what is going on inside and what we can expect.
By the way, the Immunologist today told me that Scarlet is actually still her original blood type and that she has not engrafted the donor's red blood cells which explains her XX karyotype.
She did talk about a few other things concerning her results but I need to end this and get back to playing with Scarlet.
We had a fun day at the Woodland Park Zoo today, sorry no pictures, I forgot my camera at home. She is having a good time here at Grandma and Grandpa Williams house.

Thanks for your prayers for Scarlet, please continue to pray for her.

Scarlet Update

2008-09-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken last Thursday near Pike's Place in Seattle. We decided it would be fun to go on a walk since we were so close to downtown Seattle and still had a wait before our next and most exciting appt. at the SCCA.
A friendly old man on a tour offered to take our picture. I immediately said "yes" because looking around I wouldn't have trusted anyone else to take it for us. There were a lot of iffy people there. It was such a beautiful day in Seattle!
Scarlet really liked the seagulls and watching people. It's always such fun watching her learn new things and take in new experiences.

As to her "exciting" appt. We had a meeting with her Continuing Care transplant doctor Jean Sanders and nurse Denise who has followed Scarlet's care for a long time now. Scarlet and Grandma were in the playroom on the floor below having a great time so we could concentrate on what they would be telling us. I would never have allowed Scarlet to play in a "playroom" except at SCCA because everything is cleaned in between patients and only one family is allowed at a time. I wanted to add that just in case you were wondering about her and germs, etc.

Dr. Sanders had most of the test results with her and reviewed them before giving us any answers to our questions. They have drawn lots of Scarlet's blood over the past month and can tell alot from a little. She also had the results of the bone marrow draw and skin biopsy which showed little to no GVHD in the skin. Her bone marrow results were pretty close to being exactly as the last draw. She has 97% donor in her CD-3 ( T-cells) and only 6% donor in her CD-33(B-cells, granulocytes). They are pleased with her T-cells and are ok with her B-cells being only 6 percent donor. They say that is pretty common and not necessary like with the T-cells. Scarlet's ANC (absolute neutrophil count) has been fluctuating strangely over the past several months and their response to that is "She's just being Scarlet" they can't tell us why one day her ANC is 800 and the next 7,000. A normal ANC is 4,000-7,000 if her counts get lower than 500 she could make herself sick and create sepsis in the body from her own flora.
Her overall T-cell function is still weak and they expected that because she is on so many immune suppressant drugs and expect that she will go up in numbers when the doses taper and she is finally free of immune supressing medicines.
We went berry picking while staying with the Quimby family in Seattle for our appts. They brought me the sacrament nearly every Sunday while in the hospital with Scarlet. Mandy and Tom have become great friends and helped me so much while going through transplant with Scarlet.

The plan is to keep weekly blood draws to test her ANC, CMV (cytomegalovirus-which has been negative for 3 weeks now! Yea!) , etc. She will be having her hickman line removed in October and replaced with a portacatheter, the scheduled date is for October 30 and she'll be seen for an eye appt. the following day, so we'll be spending Halloween at the hospital just like last year which is actually great because they have an awesome Halloween party for all the kids on the SCCA floor at Children's and I'm sure they will love to have Scarlet there.

I was a little nervous about removing her hickman line because she would still be having the weekly blood draws and will still be getting IVIG each month which is an intravenous infusion that takes several hours. I was worried they would have to put an IV in each time for that and poke veins for blood draws. Scarlet's had enough of that in her life and they had difficulty getting veins and would have to poke several times, it's awful, I would have rather kept the hickman.
But the port sounds great. It will be in the same spot as her hickman line and all they will do is poke where it is and have access to a vein. So, she will still be getting poked but they said they can numb her first which works for me. I'm excited to give her a bath and not worry about her lines falling in the tub or her tugging on them and then needing another repair...which is another story in itself and I will certainly blog on that later!

Mandy and Tom with their baby Finley on our way to the berries on the Gilman trail nearby.

Back to her results. The doctor said she is ok to go to the store with me now and even to church and the park too! We will always have to be cautious about the sun and UV rays with her skin because she will always be susceptible to skin GVHD (graft vs. host disease). We'll still need to keep her away from sick kids or kids who haven't been immunized atleast until she has been. Which is also news to us. We swear they told us she would never get live immunizations but now they are saying they will immunize her next year some time. They plan to give her some non-live immunizations next month after we talk with the immunologist. We have an appt. with them in a week or so and will know more then. I'm a little freaked out about giving her immunizations period. I've always been afraid of autism, which, I know isn't as bad as having your kid die from the disease.

Grandma Debbie bought Scarlet a monkey backpack. Scarlet LOVES Monkeys!!

So, if she gets a cold she'll be ok, if she gets the flu even, she'll be ok...hopefully. Even normal healthy kids can die from the flu. With all of this in mind we are still supposed to be very careful with her especially until she has tapered completely off her medicines.

I can't think of anything else Dr. Sanders may have told us, but we did meet with her Kidney doctor, Dr. Hingarani on Wednesday. She said she didn't find any proteins in her last urine test. That they will do another one in 3-6 months and will plan to do another Iothalamate test (check the archives for details) next year. She still has chronic kidney disease and she doesn't know if it will reverse she is more concerned about stopping it's progress into stage 4. They stopped the medicine, foscarnet, that was the culprit causing the kidney disease, in May. Dr. Sanders said that most kids recover but Dr. Hingarani, the kidney specialist, can't give us any guarantees. We are torn in what to believe but are certain Heavenly Father will continue to take care of her. She also reminded us that kids with kidney disease often have growth issues and that they will continue to monitor her growth and if needed they will give her a growth hormone. However, Dr. Sanders was actually really pleased with Scarlet's growth, she called it "Catch up growth". She is now in 12 month clothes which for us is exciting. I've loved having my tiny baby stay small for so long but it is time for her to grow.

Scarlet also had the misfortune of seeing the Ophthalmologist at Children's. I say that because she had to have yellow drops put in her eyes to test for dryness associated with GVHD and then have her eyes dilated. She hated both. Dr. B noticed Scarlet had some pseudopapilladema in her eyes. It is nerve swelling that can cause permanent eye damage. This time the cause is from her FK-506, Tacrolimus drug. She wants to see her again, and that is the appt on Halloween. I haven't had a chance to read up on papilladema yet and if you met the Dr. she is great but a little out there and didn't get that I didn't understand a whole lot of what she was saying and wasn't following her as she expected I should be. Scarlet also had a visual acuity test done the next day to test her vision clarity. Supposedly it is ok, which is great! So after the re-test they will talk with her Transplant dr. about whether or not to taper the medicine quicker to spare her eyesight. More on that later.

She also saw the SCCA (Seattle Cancer Care Alliance) Dentist. She was a German woman from Berlin. She told us that she often finds kids with kidney disease have bad teeth which explains the slight graying in Scarlet's top teeth. She also told us we need to start flossing her teeth and getting her to start brushing with an actual toothbrush and not the little finger one. She said that before she tried looking into Scarlet's teeth then she learned it's nearly impossible. We do brush her teeth every night, but flossing too? Yeah, right! We'll try, but I doubt she'll let us near her with floss.
Our busy week included getting X-rays for Scarlet too. They did a chest X-Ray and then they did something called a bone age where they check the growth of her bones. They only needed a shot of her hand which is pretty interesting.

One last thing, if you can remember, Scarlet's cause for having SCID was due to the lack of the ADA enzyme which created a toxicity killing off all of her infection fighting cells. They checked her for her ADA enzyme (which is in every cell in the body) and there were some strange results. The transplant doctor deferred to the Immunologist, who we will be seeing in a week or so. The normal on one of the scales was approx. 40-60 and Scarlet was only .8. She didn't know what this meant, if it was normal or not. In going through the transplant with Scarlet you come across a lot of deferring and we have become used to waiting to hear more. I'm a little worried at what this might mean and whether or not it has anything to do with the fluctuating ANC cells. We just don't know yet and hopefully they will. More on that later.

Just another funny video!

Today is Sunday and Scarlet's 2nd time going to church. We took her to Sacrament meeting like they told us we could. It was wonderful and difficult bringing her with us. We kept passing her around to each other to keep her distracted, she's getting really good at the "back bend and slip out of your parent's hands" thing. She was fascinated with the piano playing. She watched her play nearly throughout the entire choir song. She loves playing the piano, before it was slamming her hands on the keys but now she carefully touches each key and it is really beautiful to me, probably because I'm her mommy.

She's gone to the store a few times with us. We of course lysol the shopping cart and are careful not to let her put her hands in her mouth, we also are sure to carry hand sanitizer with us. I am reluctant to use it too frequently because I've heard babies and kids have tested positive for alcohol in their blood from overuse, just in case you were worried. But, keeping her safe from germs is most important to us so we use it when it's needed.

Looking over this blog-turned novel, you really are a true friend if you've endured it's length.
Thank you for your prayers for Scarlet. Can you believe how well she has come out of this??
I believe in miracles and for us she is proof enough.

Final Bone Marrow Draw

2008-09-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

You may already know that we spent last week in Seattle for Scarlet's 1 year post-transplant appts. In the above shot Scarlet and Daddy are playing together while we wait for her bone marrow aspiration and skin biopsy at Children's hospital. I remember when we first came to Children's she would wear those blue baby robes which fit her well now but swallowed her before. I wish I could have one to keep. It opens a floodgate of memories seeing them and being in the hospital. Scarlet was a trooper. Babies get anaesthesia before bone marrow draws so she had to be fasting for the procedure. She did so good. Our appt. was for 9am but when we got there they told us 9:30am and we weren't even seen until a little after 10am. Little baby was hungry!
Scarlet had a bone marrow draw a few months ago and she had the same nurse again which was really fun. I like it when they remember Scarlet and play with her. I feel better about leaving her with them. The lady in blue is the anaesthsiologist and you can see her preparing to inject what we call "sleepy milk" into Scarlet's hickman line.
It only takes a few seconds before she falls into a deep sleep. I was able to hold her until she did. They let me take a quick picture and then we needed to leave the room.
We waited in the room next door until they wheeled her tiny sleeping body in. We watched her sleep and Charlie petted her head. A nurse was called in to do vitals every 5 minutes until she woke up. I thought it was a great chance to finally clip her nails! I got one hand done and as soon as I was ready for the second she jumped awake. The nurse warned me about that and cautioned me about clipping her nails and accidentally cutting her if she awoke suddenly. I guess I didn't really believe her. Either way, she was fine, but I only got one hand done.
Each time they do a draw and biopsy it is always on her right bum-cheek. She has a constellation of little scars now which get bigger as she grows. I should have told them to do them in a flower or a heart shape like a little carebear. :)

Oasis Concert

2008-09-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

This has been a summer of concerts for us. This was my third this summer! We are kind of making up for last summer and a whole year of feeling trapped. This first picture is of Matt something or other, I'll fill it in when I ask Charlie who he is. He sounds a lot like a country Jack Johnson. Maybe some of you think Jack Johnson sounds country...but I don't think so, I think he sounds Haole Local Islandish-that really isn't a word or actual description, but I think it kinda fits. This guy was the first opening band for Oasis. I wasn't expecting a second opening band which leads me to Ryan Adams in the picture below...

They were great too! There was something a little weird about them, but they were cool at the same time. I couldn't help staring at the guitarist who looked like he was 50 and barely moved around at all. The lead singer, I guess his name is Ryan, was all over the place which balanced them out; he was pretty fun to watch. I was sure glad they had 2 opening acts for Oasis because Oasis definitely disappointed.
I remember first listening to them in the 9th grade. I would blast Wonderwall and daydream about the many guys I had crushes on. I was so excited to finally get to see them in concert. Looking around at what kind of people were there with me, I realized how old I actually am and that 9th grade was a looooonnngg time ago. As I mentioned before I was disapointed and I'll tell you why.
Liam, I think that's his name, was so BORING! And not only that but whenever he sang (which really wasn't very much) he looked like a little boy who had to use the bathroom as you can see in the picture. When he wasn't singing he was yelling at the hidden sound crew to bump up the mic, walking off and on the stage, or staring down the crowd. The most exciting part of the concert was when he yelled at someone in the audience. I couldn't make out what he was saying exactly but he seemed pretty angry. His brother Noel is the writer of most if not all the songs they sing and whenever Liam decided to ditch he would sing in his place. In all actuality, I liked him a lot better. He sings great and is a super talented musician. I was put off by Liam bad attitude and whiny behavior, but who knows, maybe he was just having a bad day. I still love Oasis music even though the concert kinda stank. We have one last concert of our Summer of Concerts, Weezer!!! Another band I remember from my junior high years. Some things just don't go out of style. Stay tuned!

Salsa Disaster

2008-09-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

I've appropriately entitled this blog Salsa Disaster, as you can see from the picture above it was a pretty successful mess! My sister-in-law Kellie and I decided we would make some spicy salsa. It was my idea to use the food processor to chop the ingredients but I failed to tell Kellie to pulse it and not fully blend it. So, we ended up with salsa smoothie which wasn't so great as a salsa but actually ended up being really useful. I used it in my chimichanga mixture and for something else, I can't remember.
We were really hoping for some good salsa that day especially since we had so much fresh stuff to go in it. Sorry Kellie!

Scarlet and Starla

2008-09-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

Scarlet was finally able to meet her cousin Starla for the first time a couple weeks ago. Erik, Charlie's brother graduated from college and they came home for a week to visit. Scarlet really hasn't been around many kids, she has been around her 2nd cousins a few times but when they are together they never touch or get too close, so seeing Starla so frequently was a new thing for her. She really wasn't sure what to make of her. I tried to get her to touch Starla's hand but she pulled her hand away and didn't want anything to do with touching her. Starla used a few of Scarlet's things that she has outgrown, like the bumbo and excersaucer, Scarlet isn't used to sharing so it was funny watching her new-found interest in her old things once Starla was using them.
Starla is such a cutie. You really can't tell in pictures but she does have red hair and her head is fuzzy like a peach, it's a lot of fun to rub. :)
Here is Scarlet after she sat herself in the old bumbo because she saw Starla in there and then she couldn't get back out.
Erik celebrated his 26th birthday while he was here so we had an outdoor get together at the Smith home. Scarlet got to see fireworks again, somebody found some huge sparklers at the Anderson house and brought them up for the kids to see. It was a fun night of playing and eating yummy cheesecake.

Just for fun...

2008-08-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

I took this quiz, and I rarely take online quizzes, but I had to do this one because I love Jane Austen books so much. I don't know if I'm exactly like Marianne Dashwood...Athena lent me the movie (because it's my favorite!) anyway, I'll watch it again and see if it's right.

Just Scarlet

2008-08-15T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here she is sitting on the sweet blanket a lady made for her for the Run for the Border fund raiser. I don't know her name, but she embroidered Scarlet's name and the date of the fund raiser on the blanket. It was so thoughtful of her.

Scarlet is always the big helper. I opened the freezer door for a second and there she was helping me unload it and then sneaked off with her treasures. :)
She is a very strong kiddo too. Scarlet has discovered that she can climb the playpen to get to her mass of toys inside. Danger child.

Yum, yum, food!

2008-08-12T08:01:00.001-07:00

Scarlet sure enjoyed her watermelon last night! She must have eaten 4 entire pieces! Usually when she eats she'll take a bite and spit it out then throw whatever it was on the floor. Her biggest problem has been chewing and swallowing which is pretty much eating altogether, but she is starting to get a lot better. Typically, if the food isn't a smooth consistency she will gag and make herself throw up and not only what she just put in her mouth but everything from a few hours ago as well.
So, eating has been a struggle her entire life and it is so relieving to me that she is progressing significantly. I was browsing through old hospital photos remembering how tiny she was and everything we experienced together and I have forgotten just how difficult getting her to eat at all had been for so long. She started off almost immediately with an NG tube (nasal-gastro) and we got her off of that after month or so and then shortly thereafter she got so sick again and the Dr's opted for her to be fed intravaneously through her hickman line. I fought and fought to get her off of that.
Some of the Dr's couldn't understand why I was so persistent but my nephew was on a Gastro fedding tube and has had difficulty eating his whole life as well and I didn't want Scarlet to go through that. So, when her respiratory rate was down enough to eat without aspirating, I had a bottle for her all the time. Sometimes I couldn't even get her to eat an ounce at a time and some days she only ate several ounces the entire day and supplemented IV. I feel a little emotional just writing about this because I am so proud of her with all that she has gone through. I'm glad I endured and got her off the tubes, I feel like she is better for it and has progressed well. She's no where near a normal kid yet but she is doing so much better.
Here is little Scarlet and the disposable hospital bottles that are all too familiar to us. I remember taking this shot, if you can see Scarlet is holding the end of the bottle. She is in her foam wedge that I still have because it was amazing! I plan on putting all my babies in them while they sleep.
I don't know if I've blogged about them before but they are cut in triangle form and at maybe a 45 degree angle. They have a little seat like deal that keeps them from slipping down and side bars with straps attached. Amazing. She slept so good in it and I never had to worry about her throwing up and choking, or SIDS. I also got to sleep next to her in the big hospital bed and she didn't need to stay in a crib which was really nice. I always tried to be awake whenever the nurses came in at night, especially during blood draws and this was nice because I was sure to wake up when they came.

Scarlet has a feeding therapy scheduled this month and I'm really looking forward to it. I think a lot of her problems come from being a little delayed due to the long periods of time she wasn't eating orally and time is a lot of what she needs but I'm sure they will help get her to be more comfortable chewing and swallowing.

A Trip Down Memory Lane...

2008-08-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

So, Charlie is on a Scout campout and took the camera with him so I have no new pictures to blog about. I've been reminiscing a lot lately, I like to remember the fun times of my past and decided to blog today about the most amazing trip I've ever been on. 5 years ago Charlie and I went with a couple of my good friends that I met in Germany as an au pair and traveled as much of Europe as we could in a 2 1/2 week period.

We actually started off in California where we met up with Sandra and Herman. I was able to go to Disneyland for the first time which was really fun. Then we were off to Munich, Germany, where Herman is originally from. We stayed a couple days with his parents there, Anita and Karl-Heinz. Charles and Karl-Heinz had the funniest relationship. Charlie doesn't speak german and Karl-Heinz doesn't speak english but somehow they had a friendship going through their hand gestures and smiles. We are seriously thinking about naming one of our kids Karl-Heinz. :)

Our next stop from there was Amsterdam. We went on a bike tour there and saw how they made the wooden clogs, we were able to see an authentic windmill, and of course see all of inner city Amsterdam. Which leads me to my next picture...
Charlie and Herman posing for me in front of the "Red Light" district. I'd never heard of this before but became very familiar with it as our hostel was right next to it. We had to walk through the alley where all the action was to get to where we were staying. I'll be honest and tell you that I looked. I felt so sad for the women there, putting themselves up on display while men stand outside and bid the best price. Pathetic.
I don't have a very high opinion of Amsterdam, but the Netherlands apart from the city is breathtaking. Our next destination was France and it just so happened the day we were leaving Amsterdam there was a massive strike so we had to take a detour and headed off for Zurich, Switzerland which meant we sat in the train station for 5 hours trying to get a ticket out of Amsterdam.
We did a lot of train sleeping. I'll throw out a little free information on the transit system in Europe, if you are planning to backpack make sure you understand your train tickets. We paid a lot of money for 1st class tickets and ended up only being able to sit 1st class twice and one of those times we got booted because even though we had 1st class seats on that specific train (in Italy, of course) you had to pay extra for 1st class. Sneaky. We almost always sat 2nd class because that's all the trains had, so paying for 1st class is a big waste of money.
Sandra and I posing in Zurich. I loved it there. If I could become any other nationality, I think it would be Swiss. I don't really know a lot about politics there or anything, but it is so beautiful and so clean and it was refreshing to meet people who spoke German but were actually really nice!
We had a lot of fun staying in Hostels. Especially in Rome, the toilet kept clogging so you had to wipe and put the paper in a massive trash can and try and get it to flush and the showers flooded so you had to wade through tons of water not to mention the bathrooms and showers were gender shared.
There were some hostels that were actually pretty decent, but you can't expect a whole lot from them when you don't have to pay a lot to stay.

We jumped the ropes for a quick shot in the pillars at the Colosseum in Rome.
It was really hard to imagine people watching other people being slaughtered here. I felt this creepy feeling as I put it all into perspective. I kept picturing the Gladiator and crowds cheering and wondering how many people died for entertainment there. It was however, an amazing structure considering the time it was built.
What we didn't know that going to the Sistine chapel and museum you have to be dressed according to standard, meaning shorts go to the knee and no sleeveless shirts. Not any different than LDS standards. At the Vatican there were even stricter rules, men can't wear shorts at all. Here is Herman trying to find some pants to wear to be able to enter the Vatican.
Outside the Vatican I saw this cute little Italian girl feeding the birds. The old man, who was a stranger, kept giving her bird feed. It was really sweet and she was so cute.
This is the balcony in Venice where Charlie proposed to me on my birthday. Super romantic.
I thought this was pretty cool. A gas station on the water.

Rome was our least favorite city in Italy. Mostly, because there was a lot of sneaky business going on and it was kind of dirty. But we did get to the older parts of Rome where it was just so beautiful.
We went to lots of museums and saw countless statues; here's a funny one of Charlie. Yeah, we could have probably gotten kicked out for that.

We loved being in Florence , that was definitely our favorite . Here we are all together enjoying our one night stay there.
For Charlie's birthday we went to Austria since it was on the way back to Germany. Sandra and the others left us and we were on our own to navigate back. I speak German but for some reason talking to people in German is really hard for me, I get focused on my grammar not being correct and freak myself out. This is Charlie after we got lost several times because I wouldn't ask for directions. It wasn't funny then but we laugh about it now.
This fountain was made in the 1800's and it is still functioning today. I loved being in Vienna, there is something magical about that city, maybe it's the history of music there or the Wienerschnitzel, I don't know but I love it.
Our trip ended in Germany, but we had one more adventure before we headed back home,
Castle Neuschwanstein. I've been there several times on several occasions and still don't know exactly what city it's in. I just remember it was a long drive to get there. It's definitely a fairy tale castle.

I know this all happened 5 years ago but it was fun remembering those weeks traveling together. I'm really missing Charlie right now and I thought this would help me not miss him as much but I miss him even more now and can't wait for him to come home already.
I'll post again soon on much more recent events.