Random Cuteness....

Anyone dying to see random pictures of my darling kids....

"I need you"

In this picture, Karleigh was tired and just wanted me to come get her and not take anymore pictures. I was taking pictures of her in a beautiful dress her wonderful Aunt Kim made. I still remember everything about that little impromptu photo shoot. She was super happy for a most of the pictures, but when she had had enough, she just wanted to be held and loved. She just needed her Mom. I stopped the picture taking and scooped her up.

I went through some old pictures of my sweet girl tonight and this one stood out to me. It depicted how I felt as I remembered, longed and ached for my darling girl. As I stare at this picture and look in her eyes, I am reminded of what she was saying to me that day. "Mom, come get me. I need you."

Tonight, I think the roles are reversed. I think I am saying the same thing to my Heavenly Angel. "Be close tonight. I need you. Someday I will be with you again my sweet girl and will hold you and won't let you go."

Welcome little buddy!!

My sister, Amy, just had her first baby!! Welcome Baby Caleb and good job AMY (and Ray)!! Love you lots!!
Caleb John Lambert

Born: 6/8/09 3:50 PM

Weight: 8 lb 12 oz

Length: 21.5"

Head:13.5"

Which viewpoint are we focusing on?

"We were sent to this earth to gain a body and be tested. The world thinks that our body is the test."

Talents...

Lately, before the kids go to bed, we pile on Chloe's bed (she has the guest bed, so it is a queen size) and read a story from The Friend magazine. (I am going to have to check out this website later. I didn't know they put so many fun things on it!) It has been a good way to get the kids calmed down, plus spend a little extra time with them. I am really enjoying snuggling next to them. Zach and Chloe take turns being next to me. Anyway, tonight's story was called Smiles to Share from the June 2009 magazine. Right when I looked at the picture, I saw a little girl in a wheelchair and I immediately thought of Karleigh. But I didn't say anything to Zach until after we were done reading. We both commented afterwards how in this story we could replace Lauren's name with Karleigh and it would fit perfectly! She was exactly like this. The story is pretty short, so I will type it on here.

Smiles to Share

by: C.J. Gedmundson (based on a true story about Lauren Trenna Jenkins)

"What did you learn in Primary today, Sasha?" Mom asked as they drove home from church.

"Sister Duffy taught us about special gifts called talents," Sasha said. "She said Heavenly Father gave us all talents so we can help others. She said when we share our talents, it makes people happy."

"That's right," Mom said. "Jesus taught that we should use our talents to serve others."

Sasha sat quietly for a moment, staring out the window. "But, Mom, what about Lauren?" she asked.

"What about her?" Mom asked.

"Well, she can't talk, and she's in a wheelchair. What kinds of talents does she have that can help others?"

"What is the first thing you notice about Lauren when you see her?" Mom asked.

Sasha thought for a minute and then said, "Her smile. Lauren is always smiling."

"She's always laughing. Especially when we sing or she hears the piano. She always gets so excited. And she loves to blow kisses to people."

"How do you feel when you are with Lauren?" Mom asked.

"Happy. I always feel happy when I'm around Lauren," Sasha said.

"Me too," Mom said. "That is one of Lauren's talents. She shares love and happiness with everyone around her. That is one of the most special talents of all."

Were they really here?.....

It came and went SO quick! We anticipated this reunion for over 5 months, and it was over in a blink of an eye! I have been meaning to get this posted, but have been holding off because the it makes the missing come back in full force. But.....I am SO grateful we had the time together that we did, so I want to make sure to record it down.

Back in this post, I mentioned 2 wonderful and fabulous friends that I was so sad to move away from. I miss both of these dear friends terribly. TJ is from this area where we are living, so we knew that we would be able to see each other every so often when she came back to visit her family. That day finally came! Last week, we were privileged to have the Pini family grace our presence for a few hours!! Oh, the anticipation!!! Oh, the excitement!!!!! Oh, the shock !!!!!

Old friends reunited again!! (sorry Ryan....had to put this one in here!! love it!)

Adorable Evan....Chloe's future hubby!!
We had so much fun being together again and basking in their beauty! These guys mean so much to us! They are fabulous! While the kids played toys and outside on the swingset (look at Chloe go!), we adults chit-chatted like old times as we put together food for our bbq reuniting celebration (is there really such a thing?).

Up the street from our house is a little mini petting zoo. We decided to take a quick trip up there to let the kids feed the animals, even though it was a hot and sweaty day. (we are learning quick that most days here in AZ are hot and sweaty days!) I decided it was much better to be the photographer and Parker's buddy than to possibly get nasty, slimy animal spit all over my hands! Luckily they had little shovels for the animals to get their food from.

After we were done at the zoo, we came back home to get ready to say goodbye. Even though I protested and cried, they still had the nerve to drive away!!!

We love you, Pini family and can't wait to see you again!!! Thank you for coming to see us!! It was so much fun!

Good Morning....

Good morning to my 3 darlings!

Phone Ears

Chloe excitedly told me today....

"Hey Mom,

I have to wear my phone ears when Dad does the mow lawner and the weed blacker so that they don't hurt my ears!!"

Congrats Little Bro!!

Elder Clay - Called to serve in the Omaha, Nebraska Mission. Reporting to the Missionary Training Center on August 12th! Congrats B-dog!! You are going to make a fabulous missionary! Many lives will be blessed by your service! Love you!

Memorial Day fun....

The kids and I had our own fun Memorial day celebration. Chris is in Canada on buisness this week and couldn't be here. We missed him a lot, but decided to have our own little party. We headed to the store to get a little pool and a slip-n-slide for the kids! They had a blast in the backyard. (It is amazing to me how much fun a dinky little pool can be for kids! I used to always love them when I was a kid too! The water always got so full of grass clippings!) Afterwards, we made some yummy watermelon snowcones for a treat! It was a good day - beautiful and sunny and fun just hanging out with my kids!

Amazing little girl....

I often will read on Hilary Weeks blog. I love her music and love the uplifting things she has to say. She recently posted about a little girl that is struggling with a brain stem tumor. I clicked on her blog and started reading. Oh, such a sweet little girl and such a wonderful family! When you have time, I encourage you to check out their blog. This little girl is beautiful.

"Hope Ya Know, We Had a Hard Time"

This video is very wonderful and is only a few minutes long. Enjoy.

"I didn't know it sounded like that!"

Have you ever really stopped and given thought to what your life would be like if you didn't have one of your senses? Have you ever really, really contimplated how things would be different? Have you ever really thought about how many different things you take for granted on a daily basis?

These questions have gone through my head many, many times as I have watched my husband struggle in different situations, as well as watching Karleigh go through difficulties. I have often thought about whether or not I would be as accepting and driven as they have been through their circumstances. I am not quite sure I would be.

Chris's hearing loss has been since birth. Being a mother of a child with disabilities, I can somewhat understand what his parents felt as they learned that their first son would never hear normal. Their next son would also suffer a hearing loss. I know what a challenge it is to accept the disability and then move on and do everything in your power to try to make your child succeed in everything they can. Chris's parents amaze me with the support they gave their boys in learning to live with a hearing loss. They got hearing aids for them early on in their life, drove the long distance from the family farm in Idaho to let them attend a school for the deaf, found Chris's hearing aids many times out in the farm fields, learned sign language to help communicate easier,....the list could go on and on. I am grateful to Chris's parents that they instilled a desire to learn and grow and be happy despite his circumstances. Chris is a VERY driven individual and has never let his hearing stop him from achieving what he wants in life. I have often told him that I think it is more a blessing to him than a hinderance. That is not true with everything, since I know he would love to hear a bird sing or hear his children better. But it has served him very well when there is a lot of commotion around and he just wants to go to sleep. He simply turns off his "ears" (that's what I call it =) and then he is fast asleep! He goes to sleep faster than anyone I know!

The time has come that Chris was able to get a Cochlear Implant put in on his left ear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmNpP2fr57A His hearing has gone down and down over the years and his left ear is the worst off, so they decided to do it on that ear first. He went through many tests and scans to make sure he was a good match for the implant. On April 28th, he went in for surgery. That was quite a long day, but a day that we are hopeful will be the start of something great!!!

A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear. Unlike hearing aids, the cochlear implant does not amplify sound, but works by directly stimulating any functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlea with an electric field. External components of the cochlear implant include a microphone, speech processor and an RF transducer or primary headpiece coil. A secondary coil is implanted beneath the skull's skin and inductively coupled to the primary headpiece coil. The headpiece coil has a magnet by which it attaches to another magnet placed on the secondary coil often beside the cochlear implant. The implant relays the incoming signal to the implanted electrodes in the cochlea. The speech processor allows an individual to adjust the sensitivity of the device. The implant gives recipients additional auditory information, which may include sound discrimination fine enough to understand speech in quiet environments. Post-implantation rehabilitative therapy is often critical to ensuring successful outcomes.
Approximately 150,000 people worldwide have received cochlear implants, with recipients split almost evenly between children and adults.[1] The vast majority are in developed countries due to the high cost of the device, surgery and post-implantation therapy. A small but growing segment of recipients have bilateral implants (one implant in each cochlea).[2]

Almost ready to go back for surgery

This is what it looked like right after surgery. He only had to wear this cup thing for a day.

This is what it looked like all stapled up. They buzzed his hair all around his ear, so I finished it off and gave him a pretty short haircut so he wouldn't look so strange. (also so he wouldn't go with his bright idea to shave his head or go with a mohawk!!)

In just a couple weeks, the incision is looking so much better and the swelling has gone down!

Monday, May 18th 2009

Activation day!!! After a few weeks of healing, the time has come to turn the implant on and put on the external device. Dr. Oakley is testing the device to make sure everything is working. Then she will go through each electrode to see what sound level Chris can tolerate. It will take a few different appointments and a couple weeks to get it adjusted. The first day was pretty difficult because his brain was just going nuts trying to figure out what everything was. The next day he went back in to have the sound levels readjusted and he was already tolerating it better. It is not the most attractive thing, but if it helps Chris hear better....who really cares! The staring eyes have already started. It is something most people have probably never even seen. Stares just go with the territory. Hopefully people will be understanding and not rude.

The first night after getting it turned on was pretty rough. Chris wasn't used to all the noise, his brain wasn't processing it all into sounds (just jumbled noises) and it made Chris very irritable. (this is all totally normal) He said that as he shuffled through papers on his desk, the sound just drove him nuts. He didn't know shuffling papers had a sound! We played legos with the kids for our Family Night activity on Monday and the clinking of the legos drove him nuts. On Tuesday, Dr. Oakley took out a plastic bag and started crinkling it. That was funny to watch his expression as he has never really heard that sound before either (or at least not since he was little, I am not sure which). He now understands why it drives me nuts when we are on a long road trip, Chris is driving and everyone is asleep and he decides he is hungry. He starts getting into a bag of food and crinkles the bag SO loudly that it wakes people (mainly me) up over and over! He never knew that it was so loud and annoying!! Funny !!(unless your the one trying to sleep! =) =)

We are excited and hopeful that this new implant is going to improve Chris's life tremendously and give him even more wonderful experiences, and in turn bless our family. We just need to remember that it will take a while to retrain the brain to accept the new stimuli and process it the way it needs to be.

I am proud of my wonderful husband for all he has accomplished despite the lot in life he has been handed. He is an inspiration to me and so many others. I am grateful that he has the courage to perservere and get through the challenges he has because of his hearing loss. I hope that I will remember to not take my hearing for granted. Birds chirping and children's voices are beautiful things....even crinkling plastic bags!!!

These video clips are from the first day of activation. He did really good for the first day. I tried to get more videos to upload, but they wouldn't. So...I will have to try again on a different post!

Show me some squish!!

I keep getting requests for updated pictures of Parker, so I am finally getting around to posting some! I thought I would share some of his squish with you! I love it!!!! He is such a darling little guy! I will see if I can get a video to upload too! These were all taken today - so they are up to date with his actual size and cuteness!

Sorry this video is sideways. I held the camera wrong while videoing and don't know how to fix it.

My little people...

These little people make me so happy! I am so grateful to be their mother! Each one of them teaches me something new and helps me grow. I truly have the best job in the world. Hard - yes! Worth it - YES!! Thanks for a great Mother's day! I love you!