My Pinterest Garden

Tonight I had a little ah-ha moment. After I put Carter to bed and looked though the pictures of the day, I realized I will want to remember this tender moment I had with my little man tonight.

 The last couple weeks i've been staring at the seedlings I started about a month ago. I needed to really get those in my garden. But, I've lost all hope in that garden. I fight the weeds, the neighbors cat poop, the diseases, and literally end up with one carrot in the end. And now, I fight Carter. He thinks its the best place to hang out, leaving all the plants smashed and half dead. Tonight I put Brighton to bed and headed out back with Carter to watch him drive his tractor and stare at my garden that needed attention. Then I had this weird, crazy, idea.

Why not make it Carters garden? He LOVES to help me do whatever I'm doing, and its not like we need the garden to feed our family. Its just a hobby garden, might as well make it something he could learn from. He may be a little young but oh well.  I grabbed the seedlings, a kitchen spoon and called Carter over. He was a little nervous to jump in with me since there has been a lot of scoldings lately whenever he's near it. I asked him to help dig and thats all the convincing he needed...shocking, really.  We "tilled" the area with our spoons and then leveled the dirt. He was so excited and yelled "DID IT!" over and over. I then taught him how to dig a little hole, pull the seedling out and stick them in the ground. Then we covered it, did a little pat pat pat and moved on to the next. The garden looks horrible. The plants are in super uneven rows, 90% of the seedlings were damaged in the process and the already planted lettuce may be smashed flat by Carter oh so cute but oh so wild jumping bean feet.  We headed to get the watering can, filled it with fertilizer and I handed it to Carter to feed his plants, 1 of them was lucky enough to get the whole watering jug, the rest were left to fend for themselves.

It turns out it planing with Carter totally refreshed my outlook on parenting, yet again this kid taught me something pretty great, he's pretty good at that.  I did something simple, and Carter loved it. He learned to say plant, carrot, and even maybe learned how to be a little softer (kid is freaking rough). I learned that its ok to not have a everything perfect. Pinterest gardens got nothing on this Carter version. Some things dont matter, some things do. Tonight I spent some one on one time with my bug and my garden was finally planted. Win, win, win.  

Been a Minute!

Well hello world!


It's been a little while. As many of you know I have been trying to decide what to do as far as writing publicly. The long (try to make it short) story is this: When I started the writing about Brighton thing blog started to get a lot of followers. I was getting anywhere from 1-2k hits each time I posted something new, which is great. I started to write a little more because, you know, positive reinforcement. But then decided to step back and decide if I really wanted to write in that way. I wasn't sure i wanted to share my families story so publicly.  And my conclusion is that I dont. My reasoning for this is that I dont feel its my place to share this story, to share such a personal fight that our baby is going though. The thing is I've started to notice that she is already starting to be labeled as "Brighton, the one with heart problems" and I know I'm to blame for that with all my   #ourcardiobaby #littlemiracle  hashtags I have going on. But I don't want that to be what she's
known for. When she gets older and if she decides she wants to share her story, we will support her 100%. I think its nice for people to read some good things now and then. But for me to write about it, to share my personal feelings, her personal struggles and accomplishments feels like i'm invading her privacy. BUT that being said. I will still update the world on how she is doing via this blog and the other social media sites. But i'm not going to push the "Cardio Mom" story any more. I still write, I've come to love it. But they've all stayed in the draft folder.

Please please don't take this as me not wanting her support system to know how she's doing. Its not that at all. I just decided that this blog will go back to the monthly family updates, instead of the weekly random thoughts of Syd. We are truly SO thankful for each of you, even if we never met you, the emails, messages, comments, all of it have been a major blessing. And I did love getting the email from someone I've never met saying that my post touched them some how.  So thank you, thank you!



Moving on to the update!!!!!!

The last couple months have been crazy. I think the kiddos kicked it up a notch and have had me quite busy. I think I'll write a more detailed post about our time traveling, it was pretty fun, quite the adventure but still fun. We packed up the week before thanksgiving and headed to Mexico with my family. Came back for a short 24 hours to get Brighton her medication then flew out again to Reno, NV. From there we headed to Las Vegas, Jackson Hole (WY), Logan Utah and then landed in Roosevelt to spend Christmas with Shaun's family. Something fun that Shaun and I were able to do was ditch the kids so we could spend a couple days together in Vegas at the rodeo. You probably all know by now but AGCO, specifically Hesston is a pretty big sponsor of the NFR, and since Shaun is the marketing guy for Hesston we get to go! We get pretty spoiled while were there. This year we decided to stay for a week and loved every second.  After the Rodeo we split up and I went to Jackson Hole to meet up with the kids at my parents place and then like I said earlier, we met back up with Shaun a few weeks later in Roosevelt.

While in Roosevelt  we again were reminded how much we miss the country life. Carter LOVED going to uncle Levi's in his boots (had to have the boots) to see the moo's and tractors. I also found a new love for Dr. Pepper. I'm not really a pop junkie but I'm a Dr. Bomb junkie. No shame.  Dr. Pepper, cream, and raspberry flavor.... world changed. I may or may not make one every day sense then, some times two.


Shaun has been busy with work and that hay equipment. He's had a few farm shows but he's actually been home! Unfortunately thats about to change, but its ok. He just launched a new triple windrower attachment the end of last year that was pretty cool. I let you look that up if your interested, because lets be honest.... I dont know much about it. He also has some cool ideas for this year that will keep him busy all summer long, but its not all bad. A lot of that will be gathering hay samples to analyze or something like that. Sounds like a blast right? He's super excited about it.

I've been busy making lists upon lists of things I want to build and do around the house. I think its an addiction. Other than that I've just been doing my best to raise these two crazies we have.


Carter has become a full on 2 year old. Minus the fact that he's not 2 yet. He's really good at tantrums, screaming, jumping on and off everything, and yelling "no" at the top of his lungs. However he has become so much fun. He's talking a TON! I need to start recording all the funny things he's saying.  He says thank you all day every day, and will say it over and over until you say your welcome. He also decided he wants a new dog named nice. We also signed him up for gymnastics and its super cute. He's pretty good with all his physical skills so he rocks at the balance beam, bars and every other little thing she asks him to try.... if we can convince him to try.  Boy can jump, thats all we can say about it. Something not so fun is we have started to look into why he throws up so much. Sadly it went from him only throwing up when he was crying to throwing up randomly though out the day. He went back on reflux medication to see it that helps, not much yet. I think he was also getting car sick, so we turned his car seat around. Since then... no more throwing up in the car. Should have done that a few months ago.  If the reflux medicine doesn't change anything then he'll go see a GI doctor. Poor kid. Other things he loves lately are:  summersaults, spinning, running, jumping, pretty much anything that involves energy. Bubbles, popcorn, trains, hats, playing in the truck, and being a tease. Oh and, of course... his dad. One day he might love me as much. Maybe.

Brighton... oh little Brighton Kay. Goodness this girl. She is the calm in the storm. She's now crawling, climbing, and movin' all over the place. She's even ahead of the game when it comes to all her developmental stuff.  Brighton is expected to be about 2 months behind the "typical" child. But little sis is actually 3 months ahead of that!  She's a trooper! Unfortunately she sucks at cuddling, she drinks her bottle and then turns around and flops until you put her in the crib. It's quite unfortunate, really. But I guess I should be thankful for such a easy and content baby. She loves food and has the thighs to prove it. She also has a few bruises to represent Carter's love. She loves her mom and thats probably a good thing since Carter hogs dad. I get lucky some days and get those oh so rare cuddles, which of course melts me. She still sucks at sleeping through the night, but she is getting better so were at least happy about that. We don't know anything new about her heart but we'll find out on the 3rd of march. Hopefully its good news! Of course we'll let you know. Her likes right now include: dance parties, her blanket, being held by mom, food, tupperware, swinging, chasing Carter, and shoulder rides. She also has started to show us her sassy attitude. Its pretty intense. She doesn't every cry... literally ever, but she sure squawks and squeals if you dont do what she wants.


Thats the update for now, I plan on getting back to this and updating it at least once a month. It's my way of journaling :)

Happy reading folks!

I want to...

Each year we sit down and think about what we want to do. This year I actually did that. I never have been into the new year resolutions because I have new Monday resolutions all year long. Not kidding. Buuut I dot have some bigger goals that I want to keep going all year long. 

I want to work on being social again. I did this last year and did pretty good until little sis came along then I lost all desire. I'm not a super social person but Carter is and I do notice I'm happier when I am, even if I have to drag myself out of the door. So. 2 times a week I will seek out a play date or something of the like. 

I will blog more. Mostly I will journal more. Most of these I won't post on Facebook, but I will keep posting the monthly updates. 

I will be organized.

I'll go to the gym and start running again. I miss running. And shaun and I will sign up for more races together. 

I will survive what has the potential to be another hard year for the Allred crew. 

2017, I'm not scared of you. Just kidding I kinda am. 

Brighton update// What shall I do?

The last month I've been trying to decide what to do with this whole blog I have. Lately its is getting ALOT more attention then I ever planned on. If you don't know already, Shaun and I are from the west (Idaho & Utah) we moved to Georgia right after we were married so, I started this blog to give little updates to family and friends back home.  I'm really not a fan of chatting on the phone so this gave me a way to avoid that as well as have something fun to look back on and read.  Then Brighton entered our world and people came together to support us. And a lot of that was through this blog, and oddly enough its even starting to get shared around the web.

Here's my dilemma. Do I go back to this being a place where I give the monthly update and no more? Or do I keep writing and sharing the random thoughts like I have been the last couple months? Do I want Brighton's story to become more public? I dont want her or anyone else to focus on her heart defect. But people enjoy reading those things and i've even had a few emails from people I've never met saying how much it touched them or helped them get though a rough day, which is so humbling. I'm not sure what I'll do. I have come to love writing, so there is that.  It's kind of a minor decision to everyone but, to me its kind of big.

Anyways.....BRIGHTON!!!!

I posted on IG a few weeks ago that she has had a few updates. I'll go into a little more detail here.

The last few months Brighton had a lot of "pop up fevers" as I call them. She will get a low grade fever that will last 12 hours or so then it will go away. It had me quite stressed out. With her endocarditis history, fevers are a something we worry a little more about than normal. Well one day she had a fever and it didn't go away. We decided to take her in to the hospital and they did their usual tests. Everything came back negative so we headed home. The next day we got a call that she had a UTI and because of her history she needed to be admitted to the hospital  for 72 hours while they run the antibiotics. I had a minor panic attack (that place is rough) and called her pediatrician right away. Have I said how much we love that guy? He's amazing. He told me not to go yet, he was going to call and see if he could get them to allow her to be treated as an outpatient. Her heart was totally fine, so he felt it would be just as safe. Thankfully it worked and we were able get the 3 antibiotic shots in his office.

Her having an UTI is super normal and really common. Baby girls get them all the time. But..... that heart. With CHD there is usually an another abnormality somewhere else in the body. Because of this the doc ordered a full work up of tests. They tested her kidneys, did and ultrasound, and then did an x-ray. During the x-ray they found that she has reflux. Again, SUPER common. They decided to put her on an antibiotic that she will take everyday for the next year or so until she outgrows the reflux. Babies usually out grow it by about 1. Because she has the history with infection they want to look into a couple other options but so far she hasn't had any more fevers so I think they will opt to do the antibiotics rather than the little procedure. She has more testing in January to decide what the game plan is.

Her heart... We switched cardiologists to a doctor I got to know while she was in the hospital, and I REALLY like him. He was super excited to see her again since he took care of her during the infection days. He was amazed about her weight gain. I guess that for a baby that went through that intense of an infection she shouldn't have been able to gain all the weight back so fast. He obviously isn't up with her every 3 hours feeding her a bottle. I wasn't surprised at all. He also said that he is taking the "heart failure" diagnosis off her chart. SO EXCITING! There is one really scary, hard to swallow fact. Brighton will be having another surgery here in the future. Its not a 100% thing, but it is 99%. We're really hoping for that 1%, hoping like crazy.  This one is a little scary because it has such a wide range of what it could entail. With the first surgery they had a specific game plan from first look. With this, all they can say is "we dont know yet". She has a narrowing of the pulmonary artery which increases her blood pressures. The hope was that she would out grow that as her heart grew and that area stretched out. Sadly, it hasn't changed at all. I honestly have no idea what this surgery looks like. It could be super simple procedure where we are in and out with in 24 hours. Or it could be really complex, causing her to have to have multiple surgeries of the next decade. Again, we will know more the next few months as they watch her closely.

Out side of all that this girl is the best. She is a very easy baby!
- 6.5 months old!
- 2 teeth popped though this week
- She can sit unassisted
- Rolls all over the house
- Loves to feed herself, wont eat any thing on a spoon from me...but will for others. Weird.
- Sucks at sleeping at night, but its the only time she actually will let me hold her while she sleeps so I'm ok with it.
- Loves to play with Carter
- Must sleep with her blanket.
- Explosive pooper
- Lost all her hair :(
- Mommy's girl and I love it.
- Our perfect little one!

Today I Didn't Fail

#momlife can be crazy wild. I'm not even going to pretend i'm the busiest mom out there. I mean, I only have 2 kids! Yes, the are a little close in age, but i've seen worse. But today.... whoa.
every mom has those days where they crawl into bed and think "welp, that sucked" but today I crawl into bed and think "........." I'm blank, I'm fried.

Today started out great, the kids slept till 8! This never happens, my kids were blessed with Shaun's morning person personality and are ready to rip and 6:30am. Anyway, we got up I played with Brighton for a few then heard carter starting to chat in his room. I threw on my sweats the headed in to get him. He was in a great mood. jumping like a wild man in his crib and reaching out to give Brighton kisses and hugs over and over. These are the mornings I like, they usually mean its going to be an awesome day. THHHHHEEEENNN it happened.

Brighton went from giggly to hysterical in 1.2 seconds. I went and picked her up off the floor and realized her head was burning up. She has had a fever for a couple days. I went into grab the tylenol where i left it... gone. I searched and searched and searched. Gone. Now Carter was crying. I left him in his crib. No cool mom. I went and pulled him out with my free arm and headed down stairs to try and find the tylenol. Brighton was livid now. I went to put carter on the couch, no go he wanted to be held. I started to get aggravated with him. "Carter, your fine. Just sit here for a minute" I set him down and he starts to run giggling and squealing. ha, you bipolar child. I finally find the tylenol give it to Brighton and start to bounce a little to calm her down. After a few minutes I grab a bottle, turn on a cartoon for carter and feed Brighton. We're good, that type of stuff happens daily. I text Shaun who's on his way to the airport to tell him that Brighton still has a fever. We decided we better take her in. I call the doctor and set up an appointment for later that day. Because i called while I was holding Brighton she is now awake again and hysterical. I decide to go up to the room and rock her. I turn on another episode for Carter and head up to her room. 20 minutes pass and she's still screaming. finally after 45 minutes she falls asleep and i put her in her crib. I walk down stairs look at the clock and realize i still haven't got Carter breakfast. He's now following me around the kitchen whining telling me he wants food. I throw a muffin and some milk on his tray to hold him over while i make some pancakes. Just as I start I  hear Brighton crying again.  I throw Carter another muffin and head up to check on her. She had a blow out. SIIICCCKK. I clean her up go back down stair and realize i hadn't changed Carters diaper yet today. He now was covered in pee from overflow. I change his diaper turn on another show, refill the bottle and head up stairs to comfort Brighton again.

The day goes on and more of the same pattern happens, Brighton is miserable...Carter gets neglected
Finally Brighton is under control and sleeping so i head down to play with carter. We run around out side and roll around in the dying grass. He was covered and thought it was so funny. I then get a call that i needed to take Brighton in right away. She has a UTI (we spent some time in the hospital earlier to get her looked at) and  she needed to be treated right away or it could spread to her heart. So I go get dressed, get the kids dressed and we head into see our pediatrician. He's an awesome man who takes SUCH good care of my kiddos. He truly cares and its so so nice. He come is tells me about the infection the says "we also are going to need to have more tests" uhh ok... why? He then draws me the anatomy and tells me about how Brighton's may be a little messed up. Because she has CHD it is extremely common for them to have other conditions as well. So far things have checked out good but whenever a problem arises we have to look at it in every which way to make sure its not more serious. Thats the thing with my kiddo, normally they give little girls a shot and send them on their way, the UTI clears up and no one thinks a thing about it. Brighton is different, we have to consider if she needs to be admitted so we can make sure the UTI doesn't spread to the heart. Today the "team" (cardiologist, surgeon, infection disease, and her pediatrician) decided she could be monitored from home. Thank goodness. But now i'm stressed. We ended up being at the pediatrician office for 3 hours talking about all that was going on and giving her the antibiotic, checking her blood pressure and watching her carefully for a bad reaction. Were then sent on our way and I head strait to Walmart to get her prescription . while there i make a couple calls while we wait for the prescription, 7:30 rolls around and I finally have her prescription. We head out to the truck  and I load up the kids, Brighton is screaming so I make her a bottle and prop it up on a blanket while I get Carter in his seat. Carter sees the bottle and started bawling. I again, get frustrated put him in his seat and he becomes hysterical. I ask whats wrong and he tell me he's hungry. My heart sinks. Its 7:45 (past bedtime) and Carter hasn't had lunch or dinner! And all he had for breakfast was 2 chocolate muffins. I'm so sorry buddy. I load them up and run to arby's to get him some chicken fingers and me some mozzarella sticks.

We rush home and I run in to set up Carters dinner before I get them both out of their seats. I open the bag and... they forgot the chicken fingers. I literally have no food and my little boy is starving. I throw some cheerios in a bowl notice his chair is filthy still from the muffins, I sit the bowl on the floor and run out to get him. After setting him on the floor with his lame dinner I run back out to get Brighton, who of course is crying. I walk back in to see my perfect little boy sitting on the floor eating his cereal in a house that is a disaster. My heat breaks as I think about how bad I failed him today. He got 5 minutes of attention and not much else. He sitting on the the kitchen floor alone, trying his hardest to fish cheerios out of a bowl. I sit down next to him and help him catch his food until he stopped asking for more. I then went up and rocked Brighton and left Carter to finish off what ever he had left. After Brighton was asleep I grabbed Carter and changed him for bed. While sitting on the floor I tell him how sorry I am. Today was a bad day. I'm so sorry you had to take care of yourself all day and your only one! I'm sorry we didn't play more and didn't hold you like you wanted. I'm sorry I failed you, tomorrow will be better. We stand up and I hold him and ask if he wants to say prayers. He folds his arms and I begin to say our nightly prayer. In the middle he wraps his arms around my neck and kisses me on the cheek then smiles. My broken heart and down spirit melt and I begin to tear up. He doesn't think I failed, he knows I did my best. He doesn't care that the house is a disaster and that he had cheerios for dinner. He got 5 minutes of my time running and playing today and it was great. He also got 3 hours of non stop attention from nurses who let him do what ever he wanted while I talked to the doctors about Brighton. He got to run around, pretend like he was an airplane and put on a show for all that watched. He also got to eat his favorite food for breakfast and dinner. He doesn't see today as a failure at all.  I didn't fail him.

Mom's we have some really rough days. Some days we go to bed beat up and wore out. Some days we feel like we completely failed. But we didn't. We did good. We probably even did really good. So our house is dirty, so our kids ate crap. Our kids are happy and healthy. And most importantly they are loved. It may have not been my best day today but I did pretty good.

Point is, stop thinking about all the things your "failing" at each day. C
hances are you doing freaking awesome. Chances are your nailing this whole mom gig.

Modern Day Miracles

First off, let me say that I am a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS)  and one of the blessings of being an LDS member is to have access to the power of the priesthood. You don't have to be a member to partake of the blessing but, you do have to be a worthy man in order to perform priesthood blessings. You can read in James 5:14-15 "(14) Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elder of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the lord. (15) And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him."

There are multiple areas of the priesthood but the one that is extremely close to my heart is the power to heal.

Growing up I didn't always believe in God, or in the LDS teachings. In fact, for a long time I did everything I could to not take any part in it. But my dad was a great example to me, and one of the ways he was an example was to be willing and worthy to provide priesthood blessings.  I dont remember much about the day but I do remember that my grandpa had received some scary news about his health. He use to be a smoker and it looked like it had caught up to him. He isn't a member of the LDS church butI  remember him coming to my house and my dad taking him into the office asking if he believed in the power of god, and that he could be healed, and if so would be be willing to receive a priesthood blessing.  He must have said yes because a family friend came by and I watched him and my dad offer a blessing by placing their hand on his head. A few days later my dad sat us down to tell us that the mass the doctors had previously found had disappeared since the week prior. I was young and tried to play it off as a "no big deal" situation but I thought about it often, and obviously still do.

The next experience I had with the priesthood that made an impact on my life was when I had to have my tonsils out. It wasn't a big deal, but I was still nervous. My older brother had just returned from his 2 year mission and came home from college to be there so he and my dad could give me a blessing before the surgery. I remember we were at the hospital my dad came to me and said "were going to give you a blessing". That was it, it wasn't do you want a blessing it was, you will have a blessing.  I remember thinking about how that showed how much my dad trusted in its healing power. It was also something that brought me closer to my older brother. It was simple, it was minor, but it meant the world to my simple unbelieving heart.

Fast forward 10 years and a lot of growing up, I decided that I personally do believe in the gospel and that I DO believe in priesthood power. And the last 4 months, my love for the Priesthood has grown more than I could have ever imagined.

Brighton came along and then came the diagnosis. With things looking so grim we were really worried about what the outcome would be. Shaun went to visit a friend and he mentioned that we needed to give Brighton a name and a blessing, something that is typically done months after the child is born. I hated that we were doing that as an "in case she doesn't make it", but I knew he was right. Brighton needed it. The exact same day I was sitting down with my younger brother at the hospital explaining everything and he stopped me mid sentence and said "Syd, you need to have Shaun give her a blessing. I know she will be ok if you do" I almost cried. My little brother was showing me up, and thinking of things I hadn't. Why hadn't I thought to ask for Brighton to be blessed? Since she was in the ICU they have very strict rules to how many people can be at her bedside at a time. Luckily we had a great nurse who did everything she could to make it happen for us. I walked in told her what we wanted to do and she immediately jumped into action going to the linen room to find the best blankets she could. I told her "oh its ok, you dont need to do that" and her response was, "I want her to have the best we have for her blessing, she needs to look perfect" Again... I cried. Thank you. Our bishop came down to the hospital and we took the crew in to the ICU. There was 10 of us (The ICU only allows 2 at a time)! We all crowded around her bed and Shaun and some of our family members laid their hands on their head and blessed her with the best blessing I have ever heard. "by the power of the priesthood.... we give a name and a blessing... the name which she will be called is Brighton Kay Allred". He then went on to bless her to heal well, that the surgeons hands would be steady. That she would have no residual issues after the surgery. After we all stood around her crying and talking about how beautiful she was. We all were so scared but we could feel the spirit in that curtained off area. Our heavenly father had her, he was going to take care of her. We asked for a specific blessing and thats all we had to do. He wants to give us the miracles, but we have to ask.

The next day Brighton came out from the surgery with out a hitch. Everything went perfect. And she was able to be closed 24 hours later, which is EXTREMELY rare. She then was discharged a week later on 1 medication!  That 1 medications was then weened off 2 weeks later. It truly is a miracle, and I KNOW its because of that priesthood blessing.

A few weeks later Brighton came down with a fever. We thought we might loose her. Things in the ER got really scary. The doctors were really worried. I asked Shaun to give her another blessing. We asked a member of our ward to come down to the hospital to do so with Shaun and simply put they blessed her to be healed. The next day her oxygen was normal and her heat rate was just fine. We found out about the infection but her heart was totally fine. Something we weren't so sure about the night before. The doctors were able to pinpoint the infection quickly and she become a baby we hadn't ever seen before. She was happy, bright eyed, and perfect.

3 weeks later, Brighton was sick again. And they couldn't find the cause. EVERYTHING pointed to bacterial meningitis. We were devastated. She was getting worse and Shaun was out of town, so I asked 2 members of our ward (church congregation" to come down to give Brighton, yet again another healing blessing. They came down right away. The next morning we decided to do a lumbar puncture, and waited patiently for the results. While waiting I noticed Brighton was acting hungry, I gave her a bottle and for the first time in 3 days, she ate! She ate ALOT! I then took her temp and it was gone. I figured that the nurse must have gave her Tylenol that I didn't notice but, she hadn't! I told the doctors and they came in to take a look. Obviously they were extremely pleased, and the one doctor said. "I dont think i'm going to even look at the results, she is obviously just fine!" Of course they looked and like he thought, she was fine!

I know that modern day miracles are true. My little girl is a living, breathing miracle. I am so so thankful to Shaun and the other family members and ward members who hold their priesthood at a high priority and are worthy to give those blessing to Brighton. I know without a doubt that things wouldn't have gone near as smoothly or perfect with out the priesthood power. My baby girl is ahead of the game in her physical development and her heart is so good she is only being seen every 4 months! To have this perfect of an outcome with her complicated situation is truly the most amazing blessing and miracle I could have ever asked for.

I believe with everything I have that the healing power of the priesthood is true. Just like Jesus healed the blind, and fed the multitude, the priesthood has been restored on this earth. Because of this, our baby girl is here, healthy, and beating every odd. She is my miracle.

A real NORMAL update!

So its been awhile... a long while since I updated everyone of the happenings of our family!

We are all doing great!

Shaun is working like a crazy man. Its been a really rough year on him as far as the stress of work goes. He is the Marketing Manager for Hay equipment which is AGCO's top products. And he feels the pressure. He's finally getting the hang of it (thanks Dean) and feels much more comfortable. He is back to traveling and usually is home Friday then heads back out Sunday or Monday. Needless to day, Saturday is our FAVORITE day.  But he does enjoy it most of the time  so we dont complain. Even though he's gone and pulling crazy hours when he is here, I love seeing him happy about work. At work he is launching a few new products and gets (or in his opinion has to, with complete disgust) to do interviews to announce them to the media. I recorded one interview... see HERE.



For me, i'm just running this chaos crazed house. Mostly its the choas of Carter. People thought I was crazy for intentionally having my kids only 13 months apart but I absolutely love it! I love how busy it is, how things can go from calm and collected to all hell breaking loose in a matter of seconds. It might not be the best parenting tactic but I secretly love when they both randomly start crying together. What the heck? It makes no sense, and I find it all pretty funny. Something I  learned while in the hospital is to savor every minute you get to spend with the kiddos. Being apart from them was the hardest thing. So now, my house is a lot messier than I would like and we dont eat the most gourmet meals, but I am playing and rolling around with Carter on the floor all day, snuggling Brighton every chance I get and literally thanking heaven above that i have the opportunity to be home,  to have them both with me at all times! Its the best!


Carter. Gosh we love this kid. He has started to finally say a few words, his favorite is no. or NO NO NO.  I think he's actually trying to say Oh No but getting a little hung up. He also says dad (dada) mom (mam), Baby (brighton), Bye (baba), eyes(eyes) nose (nose) and wait for it..... TRACTOR! He loves to climb, run away, and do the hokey pokey. Every morning when I get him out of his crib he puts his finger to his lip and blows out, like you do when when you say shhhh. This is his way of saying where's Brighton? We then walk into the room and he squeals as if he hasn't seen her for years, usually causing her to jump off the bed in fear. Especially since most of the time she is asleep. He LOVES his sister. He wants to hold her all day and walks up every couple minutes to kiss her on the head. I've had to work with him on being soft but he's actually picking it up pretty fast. He does really good with her. Other than dragging her by her feet, flipping her over, or bending her legs up so she does a back roll.... like I said, he's doing great. Ha.  Carter is also our fish. He jumps in the water with no fear and drinks gallons of water since he's dunking his face in so much. We's been working on teaching him to swim and he needs a little work on those arm motions but he will kick like a mad man. Surprised? Me either. Those legs never stop moving.

Brighton... baby Brighton. Is doing good too. We are watching her close because she has a rash that just wont go away. Normally thats not a big deal but with cardio babies EVERYTHING is a big deal. Other than that weird thing she is rocking this life thing. She is only the tiniest bit behind physically so we only have to go once a month. She is suppose to still do feeding and speech therapy but the speech... I dont get. 4 months folks, not much speech going on. So we need to talk about that one a little more. The feeding therapy I think is just a precaution in case she has another surgery soon.  She has started to roll and I think its all thanks to Carter. Hes always pushing her on to her sides and that forces her to work those muscles. The surgeon was really excited when he found out we had Carter. He said that since they are so close in age she will pretty much have a rope tied to her forcing her to move forward progress. Its true she is forced thats for sure. We also hit the month mark of being home! I have a weird perception of time when it comes to Brighton. I think because we were were in the hospital so much I still see her as a newborn. I kind of worry I'm holding her back a little because I dont expect her to do the things that are developmentally appropriate for her age. I was shocked at PT the other day when he said we need to start working toward  her eating solid foods, and sitting up this next month. I also was super excited that she was laughing, I was telling a friend that is crazy she is already, she is way ahead in that way.... then she said "wait isn't she 4 months old?" ha..... riiiight.... I forgot.  Overall she is doing GREAT!

A sad thing, we gave away our Toby Joe :( :( With everything that happened and the unknowns of the future we didn't feel we could take care of him like he would like/ demand. when things were wild I didn't miss the psycho one bit not now, I'm feeling it. My puppy! But the good news is we gave him to our neighbors and members of our ward so they let me take him anytime I want. She came over the other day and said, we dont want to hog Toby so we thought you might like some time with him! Right now were in a joint custody situation ;)

We cant begin to tell you how thankful we are for all your love and support the last few months. I received notes from people I haven't talked to in years, and sometimes never met at all wishing us well. Going though the last few months with out all of you would have been MUCH MUCH harder. I am so thankful that we had a village standing behind us when we needed it most. You had our backs, and we are so glad! THANK YOU!