Libraryden.com

My uncle recently started a new website: Libraryden.com. The site basically provides a way for you to catalog your books, dvds, cds, sheet music, etc. online. You can also track items loaned out (great for music teachers!), join or create book clubs, join your friends libraries and much more. I think your first 200 books/items are free. Check it out! It's a pretty awesome site from an even more awesome uncle!

Family Picture time!

Kevin's mom took these family pictures for us... enjoy!

If you think it's hard to get your kids to smile...

My 3-year-old is not fond of photo sessions.

Suckers! Grandma came prepared!

Sugar does wonders!

Date Night

Kevin and I went on a date (yay!) tonight. Kevin's mom watched the girls and told us that we could stay out as late as we wanted. That doesn't happen often for us... so we were so excited! We decided to go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. All you HP fans know that after reading the books, the movies just don't cut it. The best part of the entire movie was Kevin trying to scare me. Whenever there was a remotely intense part - Kevin would gasp, jump in his seat, etc. just trying to get me to be scared. It had the opposite effect and we ended up laughing through a good portion of the film! We had so much fun. I love date nights with Kevin!

Normal

We just got all of Laurie's blood test results back. And the results are.... normal! Sheesh. I hate it when I worry over nothing. Now I have to decide if I really want to take her to the GI doctor. My pediatrician thinks it would be a good idea. I'm actually more inclined to think that the reason she's not gaining a whole bunch is because she was a micropreemie and she is Laurie. She doesn't go by the book. Hmmm.... I think we'll just wait and see...

A Big Bang

If you live in Utah and watch the news, you probably heard about a house that exploded today. I was in my room when all of a sudden I heard a loud "boom" and the light fixtures started to shake. At first I thought that my mom (who is visiting for a week) had fallen down the stairs. I ran down the stairs only to find my mom and Haili watching a movie. Mom hadn't heard or felt anything unusual. My next thought was that we had experienced a small earthquake. As I went back upstairs I heard several ambulances and fire engines drive down the road towards our church. I looked out the window and saw a huge cloud of smoke rising in the sky. It turns out that a house had a propane leak and exploded. No one was killed, but 2 people were injured. I'm not sure if they are in my ward, but their house is about a block from my church building. What a tragedy. I can't imagine losing everything in a matter of seconds. To view the entire story, click here http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=8404288.

A big thank you for all of your great ideas and thoughts with regards to Laurie and her weight gain issue. I really do appreciate it. This morning Laurie had physical therapy and her therapist couldn't believe how well she is progressing! This was the very first session that Laurie actually wanted to play! There are so many more activities and games that we can do now to help with her development.

After physical therapy I took her to the hospital to have her blood drawn and a sweat test completed. We were there for over two hours! Let's just say Laurie has had better days. The sweat test is for cystic fibrosis. It lasted about 40 minutes. That wasn't too bad. The blood draw however... They stuck one hand and it didn't work. Two different phlebotomists tried to locate a good vein but had no luck. They finally called a NICU nurse. She found a GREAT vein... in Laurie's scalp. Yeah, poor Laurie screamed for probably 20 minutes straight as they were drawing blood. It took quite a long time, but they got everything they needed.

I just read a post by Paul Cardall that really hit home for me. If you have a moment, please visit his blog: http://mytricuspidatresia.blogspot.com/2009/10/bike-and-answers-to-prayer.html. Paul recently received a heart transplant. A few months prior to his transplant, his younger brother was tragically killed. The following is an excerpt from his blog describing his feelings with losing his brother:

"Why Brian? Why not me? I’m the sick one. He’s thriving. He’s amazing. He has plenty of time to do many many great things.” I carried this with me until the day the call came a heart had become available. In the quiet moment of night, prior to my life-threatening surgery, came the tender impression from our Father in Heaven, which said to me, “I need him.” Comfort filled the room and my body experienced a powerful sense of peace and solace. My old heart burned and felt empowered. Then I felt another impression say to me, “I need you here.”

Ever since little Laurie was born, we have seen so many precious babies lose their battle here on earth. We became such good friends with their parents. We prayed for these sweet babies with as much faith as we did with our own Laurie. But Heavenly Father had different plans for these sweet ones. I have struggled with a type of "survivor's guilt" for some time now. It's been so hard to visit or call my friends who have lost a child. I have just felt so guilty that we have Laurie when they had to say goodbye to their perfect angel. I have often asked, "Why was Laurie's life spared? Why do so many of my friends have to go through the pain of losing their baby? It's just not fair." I hadn't received an answer until today when I read Paul's post. It brought peace to my heart. Though my heart will always ache for my friends' loss...it helped me realize that God's ways are not our ways. We don't understand everything, but He does.

Help, please!

Laurie has always struggled to gain weight... She will normally only drink 4 oz. of formula at a time. It is extremely rare for her to drink more than that. Extremely rare. We had an appointment with our pediatrician today just to follow-up with her weight gain. Here's the scoop: Laurie has gained two pounds in five months. Yes - that's right. Two pounds. Five months. Well, actually I'm rounding up. It's more like 1 lb. 13 oz. Hmmm... She's not staying on her weight gain curve - which has our ped. concerned. She gets 30 cal formula and then some (I usually make them generous scoops) and she loves to eat solids. And yet, she's in a slump. Currently she weighs 15 lbs. 1/2 oz. And I had just fed her a bottle right before she was weighed! (Is that cheating?) We're taking her to get her blood drawn to check for a myriad of potential problems... We are also going to take her to a GI specialist to figure out if she has something going on in her gut. Boy... just when you think everything is going great... I hope that this is just another case of a doctor being overly concerned... I guess we'll see soon.

Has anyone ever dealt with a similar problem with their children? Any ideas on how to help Laurie gain weight? Has anyone had to go see a GI doctor because of weight gain issues? Any input would be great!