Ultrasound

So I went in for another ultrasound to make sure that everything was still going smoothly. It is. This time the baby was big enough to get a good picture in 4D. Baby did not want to cooperate that is for sure. It took forever to get a picture of the face, it kept burying its face into the placenta and would not turn. Finally, baby turned just enough to get this one. It turned out so great! You can see the cleft on the one side, the other one is still hidden. I have another ultrasound at the end of February and so hopefully we can get a shot of both sides and the inside of the mouth. There was no luck with that this time.

Primary Children's

So on Friday we went and met with the Cleft Repair director at Primary Childrens. It was very informative and she is fantastic! She is pretty much the parent's advocate when it comes to anything. She went over feeding and gave us the nipples and bottles we will need to use and explained how they work. She went over the basic anatomy of the mouth and palate and of course what to expect. She showed us pictures from the most minor cleft to the most serious, trying to prepare us for what we may see. Since we won't know what we are dealing with until the baby was born, it was good to see every possible scenario. She also gave us a basic timeline which is something like this:

Day one - 6 weeks: fitted for prosthetic palate

6-12 weeks: First surgery on the lip and nose, placement of prosthetic hard palate (The time of surgery depends on how well baby is gaining weight)

8-12 months: Surgery of the soft palate, Prosthetic is still left in

2-4 years: Surgery of hard palate (They wait this long because they want the palate to fuse together on its own as much as possible making it less of a hole to fix.)

There may possibly be another surgery between 6-7 years depending on whether or not there is bone in the gums. If not, they will do a bone graft.

We have another ultrasound tomorrow to make sure everything is still going good in there. Cross your fingers that baby will open it's mouth to get a better look.

Our Holiday in a Nutshell

This is probably going to be a long post. This has been a crazy Christmas holiday. A great one but we have been going and going. We kicked off the holiday season with our annual Burrup Christmas Party with all of Darren's brother's (at least the ones that were in town. We were only missing one brother. We missed you Cam and Lori) As usual we had a fantastic dinner and presents with grandma and grandpa.

All of the kids in their matching pajamas. Notice there are only two girls. We were only missing two girls and two boys.

Brinley enjoying the blanket that grandma made for her. She loves what she calls her pillow blanket.

I could not get Beckham to look at the camera for anything. He was too absorbed in all the presents.

There are too many pictures to post from that party, we were seriously spoiled. Stockings and all. Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Next was the annual Christmas Eve party with Darren's mom and his brothers as well. We had a really nice program with the kids singing Christmas songs and some great stories. We were really grateful to have Darren's grandpa there and he shared some memories of his of a Christmas he spent in Germany during the war and a journal page from Darren's grandma that she wrote before she passed away. A very special Christmas treat.

Darren and Beckham watching football probably. Everytime football comes on Beckham will yell out "touchdown!" So funny!

Brinley opening her Christmas pajamas the kids always get on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning was SO much fun. Brinley woke up excited that Santa had come. Beckham went crazy when he saw all the presents wrapped under the tree. Brinley would say "just what I always wanted" after almost every present she opened.

This is Brinley's big present from Santa. She LOVES to do hair like her mommy. Whenever I am doing Darren's hair she will get a little stool out and make Beckham sit on it, cover him with a blanket like a cape and "cut" his hair too. So we thought this was a great present for her. Turns out we were right. She sits there every morning to do her hair and throughout the day when her hair gets "all crazy" Thankfully my grandpa was there to help put it all together. Who would have thought there would have been a TON of little pieces to put together.

Beckham and his stocking goodies, well most of that is stocking (not all of it though, we aren't THAT crazy with gifts) Again, too absorbed in gifts to look at the camera. He was just excited about everything he opened.

Next we headed to Preston, ID to go to Darren's grandma's 90th birthday celebration. It was a great turnout and we were happy to be a part of it. Happy Birthday Grandma! We hope to spend many more birthdays with you!

Brinley sharing her birthday cake with Beckham. I love it when little kids feed each other. Notice her mouth? She has to make the face too.

Braden, Aaron, Grandma, and Darren. Only three of the boys were able to make it, but it was fun all the same.

Here we are sledding and having snowball fights out in the backyard. The kids loved the sled. Every time they made it to the bottom of the hill, Beckham would say "again".

Darren told Brinley he found a big hill to go sledding on and of course we haven't heard the end of it. So today after a couple of phone calls to daddy asking him to take her on "the big mountain hill" Darren took them when he got home from work this afternoon. Again they loved it, the bigger the hill the better.

We hope your holidays were as great and memorable as ours has been!

Merry Christmas

So I've officially decided that Christmas is a lot more fun and you anticipate Christmas morning more when you have kids. I love it. I am so excited to watch our little ones faces as they wake up in the morning to their stockings and presents. We have had a couple family Christmas parties and a couple more to go. I will post pictures of them later, but they have been so fun. It has been a blast watching the kids play with their cousins they never get to see. I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

22 weeks and an Ultrasound

On Tuesday Darren and I went into the doctor for the usual 20 week ultrasound, where we found out we are having a healthy baby. We still aren't going to find out what we are going to have (although I think its a girl) The lady doing the ultrasound made it super easy for us not to find out cause she didn't even go near that area or I may have been tempted to peek. Like I said, we have a healthy baby. There is one little thing that is going on in there which is not exactly normal. On the ultrasound they were able to see a cleft in the lip. Kind of a shock I must say. I was pretty much a wreck that day. Don't get me wrong, I am super grateful that it is something that can be fixed and that the baby is otherwise as healthy as can be, but it is still a shock to find out that anything is wrong with your own baby. So the next morning we went to meet with the high risk docs for further evaluation. That is where we found out that it is a bilateral cleft, which means there is a cleft on each side. The baby wouldn't open its mouth to have a look at the palate, but with a bilateral cleft, it is most likely that the palate is included on at least one side. Again , another shock. This time we were better prepared, so we were able to take it a little easier. We will be meeting with the cleft repair team at Primary Children's on Friday to go over the long process that will be fixing our little one's mouth. There we will pick our surgical team, look at before and after pics and deciding with the surgeon the best course of action. We are so blessed that this baby is healthy and everything is fixable. We have faith that the Lord knows what He is doing and that we will be able to get through this smoothly with His help. It will be a few months after the baby is born that the first surgery will take place, but there will probably be more to follow in the first year. We won't know exactly what is going to take place until the baby is born and we can see how extensive this cleft is. We will keep everyone updated on status as we find out information. We will be going back in for another ultrasound the beginning of January and hopefully baby will open its mouth for a better look. Like, I said, we have faith that everything is going to work out fine and are grateful to live in a time of modern medicine and to be so close to Primary Children's, where they have the means to give the best treatment possible. We are thankful for our Savior and for another healthy baby on the way!

Anniversary

Last Thursday Darren and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary. Time is a funny thing. Some days I feel like it goes by WAY to slowly and the next day I wake up wondering where the time has gone. We have had a wonderful four years together with a TON of memories. We have been blessed with two wonderful, beautiful children and are looking forward to our next addition in April. 3 kids in 4 years? WOW! See what I mean about the time thing? We have had some great vacations, spiritual experiences, sad times, followed by even more happy times. Darren is such a great husband and he is ALWAYS making me laugh. He is very patient, with me and the kids. He is always willing to serve and wondering what he can do to help those around him. But most of all he is the GREATEST husband in the world and I couldn't ask for anything more. I am truly blessed. Here is a look into the last 4 years.

Dating. We hiked to Stewart Falls

The night we got engaged. We ate at PF Changs

The wedding Day

Our first baby: Brinley

Our second baby: Beckham

Now

Thanks for the last 4 years honey, I can't wait to make more memories with you throughout the years.

Halloween

So here is our pumpkin carving. Brinley would only take the seeds out with a spoon and Beckham wouldn't even touch the stuff. I tried to put his hand in there and he about freaked.

Here are the finished pumpkins: Darrens BYU, Beckham's silly face, Ashley's castle, Brinley's Tinkerbell

The nursery down the street had a little carnival for the kids, we wrapped darren in the mummy wrapping contest and the kids wanted nothing to do with it.

Notice Brinley wouldn't even look at the camera? She was ready to bolt. She was really afraid of him until we started taking the tp off.

Beckham wouldn't even get his picture with him. He just ran.

Our cute 50's kids. Beckham's costume was a lot cuter than it looks in the pictures. Trust me.

I wish you could see his slicked hair. He was definitely stylin.

Everyone would ask Brinley what she was going to be for halloween and she would always say "a butterfly". I kept telling her no, that she was going to be a fifties girl. So the next time someone asked her she said "a fifties butterfly". Well, when the time came to dress up she was SO excited to be a fifties girl when she realized I was going to let her where makeup. What a girl!