Dylan's 7th Birthday

Although this is not the best picture I've ever taken, it illustrates how cute Dylan was as we sang 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' to him. We'd sing "Happy Birthday to you," and he would say, 'That's me'. "Happy Birthday to you", (Dylan) 'That's me.' The whole song thru, that's how it went. He had a great day, (Dec. 22nd). We took the whole family bowling, then got happy meals at McDonalds. WOW!! I still can't believe he is now 7!!!

2008 In Review...

I know that you have probably been keeping up with my blog since I started and as time has gone by. But in the tradition of doing a yearly review of sorts, I decided to post that on my blog as well. We'll start with the bottom and go up from there.

JARED

Jared is 2 1/2 years old and never lets us forget that. His most current nickname is HLT, which stands for 'Holy Living Terror.' To say that we do the terrible twos would be an understatement. If it were not for how cute he was, he would be in trouble a lot more often. At the beginning of the year he had not been able to pass a hearing test since he was born, so he had his first set of tubes in Feb. We started speech therapy shortly there after and have seen great improvement in his speech since then. He has attended the Toddler Lab upon campus and has LOVED that!!! We found his tubes occluded recently and did a second set of tubes at the first of Dec. Nothing keeps him down, he keeps us on our toes and we really love him so much!!!

TAYLOR

Taylor is now 5 1/2 and started kindergarten in the fall. She loves school. Talking is probably her most favorite hobby and school is great to brush up on that. She loves to dance and sing and wants to preform any chance she gets. Her questions about everything and her constant desire to know more amaze me. She picks up on so much, so quickly. She loves being a sister, but she often tells me that I "should have had me first so I could tell Dylan what to do." She is growing up way too fast and I hope that I'm doing right by her. I love my little princess. (Even when she does put soap in my contact case to wash my contacts for me....YIKES!!!)

DYLAN

Dylan just turned 7 on the 22nd. He was so cute about it. He knows that next time he has a birthday he will be 8, and then he shouts HURAAY! I said, what's so great about turning 8. He then talked about a blessing with the water and he can go swimming. I think he gets the basic idea. He is in 1st grade and is integrated with his class. His MRI in Aug. came back clear and his 24 hour EEG in Oct. came back inconclusive. He is still doing speech therapy multiple times a week and as of late have seen better behavior than what we've seen in a while. We just wish we could figure out the triggers that determine good vs. tough behavior. We hope that he learns what he needs to learn, but in turn, I don't think I can teach him even a part of what he teaches me. Dylan, I love you!!!

MELISSA

I am treading water the best I can as any mom is and I just hope I'm doing what I need to for my family....I hope it is all enough. As I type this, it seems I don't do very much. I'm still working 2 nights a week as a tech on the Labor and Delivery floor. I really enjoy my job but it makes for tough days when I'm incoherent. I'm a taxi driver for my kids, their therapies, keeping up with the dishes, laundry, appointments just like all of you. I've gone back to school to work on pre-requisites for getting a nursing degree. It will take a while.

JEFF

Jeff started the year at Erickson Pontiac GMC as a part of the sales team. Times became quite difficult as gas prices sky-rocketed during the summer. So it was no huge surprise when he was laid off in October. He has been looking since then with nothing promising yet. Its been nice to hear of how crazy it is to keep up with the kids, their therapies, their appointments, their homework, keep up the house and keep everything on a fairly even keel. It almost sounds like appreciation.

We have no idea what 2009 holds in store for us, but we hope that it will bring us, and we pray that it will bring you meaningful times, a sense of success and accomplishment, and a knowledge of what is truly important and what that means individually, and more opportunities to acknowledge those around us who are so important.

May you NOT be in the Doghouse

The passing of someone special...

On Saturday December 6, Jeff's grandmother, Mildred Wright Davis Hellstrom Wall passed away.

So we headed south to Utah on Wed. the 10th. Jeff's sister Teri works at a nearby hotel and got us a fantastic rate (THANKS A TON TERI!!!) So between that and our much improved gas prices we were able to go without much problem. We went to the viewing Wed. night and I brought the kids back to the hotel early, along with their cousin Caleb to go swimming. Many thanks to Caleb. He was a life saver for me and Dylan became attached with him quite quickly.

Dylan and Caleb in a silly moment

The funeral was Thursday morning and it was really a fantastic tribute to someone who has done so much for her family. Jeff and I were the recipients of much from her especially when we first got married. She was SO generous and we know that she taught her children to be the same way!!!

Her Legacy

Stacy, Millie (Jeff's Mom), Brent, & Dorthy

Jeff said the closing prayer (and did a great job considering the closing song was a tear-jerker) and was a pall-bearer.

Jeff and his dad, Dwayne

Jeff and his sister, Staci

Taylor with Aunt Staci

Jeff and his Aunt Dorthy

After the luncheon and much persuasion, We went to see the lights on Temple Square on our way home Thursday evening. For me there is just nothing like it. Temple Square by itself is wonderful but with tens of thousands of lights, its even more special.

Jared, trying to understand what we were doing in the cold.

WOW... I just LOVE it!!!

I have the best co-workers !!!

I've worked for the last two night and they have been truly helacious nights. A good average for a night is 2-3 deliveries. Well Tues. night we had 5 and last night we had 7. We completely filled up and had to post phone the C-Section we were supposed to do this morning. Our post-partum unit holds 12 patients, our labor unit can hold 9 patients and for the first time in history (since we got our post-partum unit in April 2007) we had to move some our post-partum mom's to the Med/Surg floor. To say that it was crazy would be grossly understated!!! But I remember at one point asking my co-workers "What's the difference between tonight and Hell?" I think their response was that there was no difference but I had to differ. I explained that the difference was the people that were working together. We could have a team with weaker, less willing to participate people.....THAT would have been Hell.

I have fantastic co-workers!!!