Nine, Five and More

It's amazing how time flies, we're almost in March! It also seems like time has slowed down as well. We've kept ourselves busy but allowed us to slow down and just relax. It's been needed and I'm yet again a little behind on our blog.

Evan seems to have grown up a lot. His mind amazes us and its so fun to talk with him now that he's talking so well. I'm happy to say that he's potty training himself. I tried just about everything to train him but he wouldn't do it. His pediatrician just said I have to wait for him to make it his decision so I basically gave up and let him tell me. Sometime in December he started asking me to buy him this Lightning McQueen potty but I kept turning him down because I didn't want to buy something he wouldn't use. A month later I gave in and bought just the seat to put on the big toilet. It was on sale and sooner or later he would use it. When we got home with it he's been going potty on it ever since. There has been little to no accidents with him so I'm very proud of him. I can't really say he's potty trained completely because he still wears a diaper at night and he wont go #2 in the potty. I don't feel confident enough to let him wear underwear to bed because he still wakes up really wet. He still loves his sippy's before bed. Does anyone have any ideas to get him to stop? I don't think I can really get him to go #2 in the toilet till the diapers are gone because he just waits.
Evan is now a Sunbeam. He misses nursery so the transition has been a little tough on him but every Sunday gets a little better. He asks to go to the nursery every time we enter a church and at one point he even asked us if he can go to the Nursery at the Salt Lake Temple :). He still loves the Temple. He also loves the Gospel. He says a prayer at every meal and doesn't need help with them anymore. I loved listening to him saying the opening prayer in Primary for the first time two Sunday's ago.
The other day Matt was talking to Evan about baptism.
Dad- Evan, do you know anyone that's baptized?
Evan- Yes, Jesus!
Dad- Was Mommy baptized?
Evan- No
Dad- Am I baptized?
Evan- No
Dad- Yes I am. I got baptized when I was 8 years old.
Evan- Oh, are you 9?
Dad- No I'm 26!
Another Conversation...
Evan- I want to be baptized!
Mom- You have to wait till you're 8.
Evan- No, 3!

Alex is now 9 Months old! He's been out longer then in :). He had his 9 month check up this past week.

Weight: 18.61 18.09%
Length: 29.25 80.02%
Head Circumference: 17.25 11.69%

Evan at 9 Months

Weight: 15.52 .52%
Length: 28.25 50.29%
Head Circumference: 17.6 32.1%

Alex is so much bigger then Evan was but I think it's interesting seeing that Alex's head is bigger but is in the smaller percentile. His doctor's office must be seeing more babies.
Alex is cruising and crawling everywhere. He's working on standing all by himself and can do it for a few mins. Evan was walking with help at this point and fully walking on his own and almost running at 10 months. I don't see Alex walking for a long time. I'm fine with that but looking forward to him walking. I'm loving my new found freedom as much as Alex loves his. He's such a mommas boy but now that he can get around on his own I'm not always holding him. Him being a mommas boy makes things a little tough on other people, including Dad.

I created a monster in some ways. It's one of the big reasons why he didn't sleep well at night but we finally broke it!!!

He went from literally waking every hour to sleeping 10 + hours with training. We've been training him this past weekend and each night gets better. He wakes up less and less but he'll go to sleep on his own without me every time. It's nice having my nights back with Matt and not having to worry about when he'll wake up. Matt loves not worrying about rolling on top of him as well if I fall asleep feeding him so we're all getting sleep!

We finally got him to take solids as well. He loves it when Evan feeds him and Evan loves it as well. He loves sweet potatoes the best so anything with those and he eats it up!


We had a play date with Aaron and his Mommy Aubrey at Pizza Pie. They are literally the same size in everything so it's so fun. We're due for another play date Aubrey!
Alex loves the tub so don't let the above picture fool you.





We love our boys!!

Matt and I celebrated our big 5 year Anniversary on February 18th :).

Where has the time gone? I had no idea that at the age 26 I will be married to my best friend for 5 years and have 2 adorable boys.

It's been a dream come true and I'm so blessed finding Matt and marrying him only 6 months later.

Matt made all the special plans for the big day and kept it a secret from me and I'm proud to say I kept it a surprise. I love surprises but I have a hard time waiting. Matt made all arrangements so I didn't have to do anything but wait and be exited. That evening Grandpa Thompson came over to take Evan but watched both boys till Laura got off work to take Alex. Leanna came later. Matt made some last minute arrangements and we were off. He wanted me to guess what was happening and all I knew was dinner and he wouldn't go till I guessed the place. After a few tries I got it and he headed in that direction but confused me and went the opposite direction. He's so sneaky! He ended up pulling into the parking lot of the Marriot Hotel where we spent our wedding night. I was still confused and he said they have a great Prime Rib dinner. It was the same place we had Michael and Julie's pre-wedding dinner so I believed him but instead of going towards the restaurant we were heading to the elevators. Matt booked the same room we stayed in 5 years ago.

Dinner was waiting for us in the room. The same food we had when he proposed to me.

And the room was just as I remembered it 5 years ago.

A white rose for every year we've been married.

It was an awesome surprise and the greatest gift he could give me. A night without kids and a full nights sleep since I haven't had one for almost 2 years!
I love you Matt! Happy Anniversary and I'm looking forward to many more!

Past

There's a lot I would like to post about but first, I want to let everyone know that all is well with everyone. We really do appreciate all the love and support that was given to us this past month and continue to appreciate it. We feel your prayers and it's such a strength to us. Outside of everything with Mom, we enjoyed our holidays. We had the opportunity to listen to my parents sing a few times with the Mapleton Chorale.

They got to sing with the symphony with one of their Christmas concerts and it was amazing! We also got to listen to them in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. It reminded me of the Provo Tabernacle so it was nice just sitting in there listening. The Provo Tabernacle caught fire on Dec. 17th for those that didn't know. Here's an article about it from the LDS Church News.
It was a beautiful building. I hope it will get rebuilt.
Instead of going to Bishopric meeting at the church, they decided to take their meeting to Temple Square and take the families.

Matt's work Christmas Party was at Fat Cat's this year. It was so much fun! They reserved all the lanes and game areas for the night and we got unlimited everything. Evan LOVED it! Santa made his appearance and both boys didn't mind sitting on his lap. We forgot the camera so the picture quality is bad.

We had a lot of snow fall and I took the boys out to play. I'm very sad that the pictures I took are gone. I don't know why my memory card decided to ruin a bunch of pictures. Most of them were already saved on my computer but the ones from that day weren't. It was Alex first time in the snow too :(. Here's one of Evan from another snow fall.

He loves to eat it!
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent at our house with everyone.
Alex's first Christmas!

He looks like a cute little elf in his hat.

He loved the presents!
Evan and Alex opening their PJ's before bed.
Santa came the next morning!
I love how Alex falls back asleep as soon as Laura got him.

Alex loves his toy!

Not sure why Evan's video of him seeing his bike for the first time wouldn't load.
Stockings!



Evan opening his Car's Soundtrack. He "needs" to listen to it all the time. He can't get enough of it.

He also loves his Car's helmet. He wore it opening the rest of his presents.


Evan loves his bike. I can't wait for it to warm up so he can actually ride it.

I wish I got more pictures but other things were on my mind.


We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Family Pictures 2010

This is way past due but we got our family pictures done back in November. Leanna did them and did an awesome job!

Funeral Slideshow

Photo's taken by JaNae Lee

Mom's Obituary

Here's a link to Mom's Obituary. We wanted to share it with everyone but we're sorry if there's any spelling errors. Are minds are everywhere getting thing ready for Mom's funeral.

Mom's Funeral Plans

Here are the funeral plans for Mom:

Viewing-
Date: Thursday, Dec. 30th
Time: 6 - 8pm
Location: Walker Mortuary
187 S Main Street, Spanish Fork, Utah

Funeral-
Date: Friday, Dec. 31st
Location: Spanish Fork Canyon View Stake Center
989 South 2550 E, Spanish Fork Utah

Schedule:
- Viewing - 9:30 - 10:40 am
- Funeral Service - 11 am
- Interment at Spanish Fork Cemetery - Immediately Following the Service

Updates on Mom

We figured the easiest way to update everyone on Mom's condition was to just post updates on the blog. As we have updates, we will post them here. We appreciate everyone's love and prayers as we wait and hope for her recovery.

Dec. 26 - 12:45 pm
We said are goodbyes to Mom earlier this morning and she offically passed on at 12:45 pm today. The test that was run this morning confirmed that there was no blood flow to brain due to swelling. We want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. We will post information regarding the funeral on the blog as we finalize the plans.

Dec. 26 - 8:30 am
They've run the test. We're just waiting for the Doctors to review the results. They will be talking to us around noon. Mom is still holding stable with machines and meds.

Dec. 25 - 9 pm
The status is unchanged at this point. The machines and medicine are what are keeping her alive. Tomorrow morning a test is scheduled to determine the extent of any brain damage that has occured. We will update her condition again sometime mid morning. Thank you all for your prayers and support, we trully feel the love and support and it is a great comfort to us.

Dec. 25 - 5 pm
Mom just took a turn for the worse. The swelling is increasing and her blood pressure has dropped. They are working hard right now to get her blood pressure up high enough to continue getting her brain enough blood. Things are very critical at this point. We are all gathered around her bedside and probably will be for a while.

Dec. 25 - 9:30 am
Mom is still holding stable this morning. All her vitals are good and the pressure has come down just a little bit. They monitor her Inner Cranial Pressure(ICP) and yesterday it was up to around 28-29, now it is down to around 24-26. This is a slight improvement, so we are hoping that maybe the swelling has peaked, but we will not know till they check the ICP throughout the day. The doctors and nurses are satisfied with the progress, but continue to remind us that it could take a while. At this point, as long as things progress as they have been the last day or so, we will just post updates 3 times a day. Once in the morning, once in the late afternoon and then once at night. If there are any other changes outside of just the basic status update, we will post as soon as possible. We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas morning.

Dec. 24 - 10 pm
Mom had another catscan around 7pm tonight to check on the condition of the swelling. The catscan was very similar to the one they took early this morning. This means that the swelling seems to have stopped getting worse, at least for now. All her vitals are still stable. Thanks for all your prayers and support. May you all have a Merry Christmas tomorrow as we celebrate the birth of the Savior. What a comfort it is to know that He lives and that He has made it possible for us to live again together as families. May we all take time tomorrow to ponder the many blessings that are afforded each of us because the Savior was born and sacraficed so much for us.

Dec. 24 -
We have been warned by Mom's kidney doctor that we need to be able to tell them Mom's favorite Christmas song tomorrow. So we wanted to let all of you have input on this. So what is Elaine's favorite Christmas song? Let us know what you think by either posting a comment to the blog or send us an email at mthompson@broadweave.net.

Dec.24--5pm
Sorry that we were delayed in posting additional information since 9am this morning. We know alot of you have been checking the blog on a regular basis(every 2-3 hrs) for updates. We appreciate all your continued prayers and support.

Nothing much has changed since this morning. She is still experiencing the swelling, and the ICU staff is monitoring that closely. They have scheduled another CAT scan for 7pm this evening, so we hope to have results by 9pm (MST). We did learn today that sometimes it takes up to 4-5 days after surgery for the swelling to peak. Until the swelling goes down, she will remain in the state she is currently in.

Her vitals signs all remain good and stable. She also reacts (moves)to the stress tests whenever they pinch her fingers and toes on both hands and feet. At this time we ask that you specifically ask that the swelling will subside when offering prayers on her behalf.

Dec. 24 - 9 am
We didn't receive any phone calls through the night, so things stayed stable. There is no real change in the swelling. They are planning on increasing the dosage of medicine to help with the swelling from every 8 hours to every 4. We are awaiting a visit from the doctor this morning for more details on her condition. She is still really unresponsive with just occasional movement in her arms.

Dec. 23 - 11:30 pm
Mom is stable and resting. We are all at our homes now to get some rest. Dad is spending the night here at our place in Provo, which is just 10 blocks from the hospital. We are all sleeping with our cell phones next to our pillows. The nurse said as we left the hospital tonight that "no news is good news". We are hoping that will be the case tonight.

Dec. 23 - 10 pm
The results from the 9 pm catscan showed just a small increase in swelling, but nothing abnormal. All her vital signs are still very stable, we just have to continue to wait for the swelling to go down. This could potential be a day or so before it finally goes down.

Dec. 23 - 7 pm
They have stabalized Mom's swelling at this point but she now has a fever. She is scheduled for another catscan at 9 pm. Things at this point are still very critical. She has not fully awaken since surgery and the doctors are still watching her very closely to keep her stable. Some additional information that we have learned is that this morning when the bleeding got worse, she had actually stopped breathing for a little bit. Her heart never stopped during that time, but her breathing stopped until she was hooked up to the ventilation machine. We are still very faithful that all will be well, but she is still in critical condition. Her movement is off and on at this point.

Dec. 23 - 3:30 pm
Additional Information about the 3:30 post - When the nurses tried to wake her they were able to get her to open her eyes and hold up two fingers and wiggle her feet. She then when back to sleep. The key right now is getting the swelling to go down so she can progress with recovery.

We had left the hospital to get lunch and relax for a little bit. Got a call from the hospital from the nurses saying that they had tried to awake her. In the process they noticed that one of her pupils was larger than the other. They took her down for another catscan, but the catscan looked similar to the one right after surgery. They did determine that there was some swelling occuring and that her blood pressure was elevated again. They believe the sweilling is what is causing her to not be able to awake as quickly. They have given her meds to help with the swelling.

Dec. 23 - 1:20 pm
Just wanted to check in with everyone. There are no real changes to report. She is still asleep.

Dec. 23 - 9:43 am
Post Surgery catscan looked good. The doctor said there is slight bruising of the brain. Still waiting for her to wake from surgery. She is breathing on her own, but they still have the ventilator in just in case.

Dec. 23 - 9 am
The surgery is over. Everything went as well as it could. They were able to succesfully clip the Anuerysm. There wasn't much swelling so that lessend the risks of the surgery. They are going to run some more scans to check everything out. It is now a waiting game to see what type of damage has been done to the brain from the bleeding. All vital signs are still good.

Dec. 23 - 8 am
Just got an update from the nurse. All she said is that there is at a minimum 1 plus hour to go. All her vital signs are stable.

Dec. 23 - 4:30 am
We received a call from the hospital that Mom had gotten worse and that they were preping her for surgery. Matt, Laura and Leanna were able to make it to the hospital before they took her in for surgery. When they got there the doctors explained that she had been getting progressively harder to wakeup throughout the night. They moved up the presurgery catscan and found that the bleeding had gotten worse. They were then planning on putting a drain in prior to the actual surgery of clipping the anuersym. They took her into the operating room at about 5:10 am. Michael, Julie, Dad and Elise all arrived at the hospital shortly after she had gone into surgery. We are just hoping and praying that the doctors will be able to succesfully complete the things they need to do.

Dec. 22 - 4:30 pm
We all saw mom shortly before 5 pm and were able to communicate with her. She was heavily sedated so she was only able to really acknowledge our presence. Dad came back after 7 pm and stayed with her for a little bit, but she was still very sedated and out of it.

Dec. 22 - Early Afternoon
The doctors confirmed that there was an Anuersym and that mom would need to undergo surgery to stop the bleeding. At this point the doctors where 90% confident that all would go well without any lasting side effects.

Dec. 22 - Morning
They ran a catscan and found that their was bleeding on the brain. They later ran more tests to determine where the bleeding was and how bad it was.

Dec. 22 - 6 am
Mom was admitted to the ER and quickly hooked up to monitors to find out what was causing the severe headaches. Dad took her in and Matt wasn't far behind to assit in a blessing.

Dec. 22 - 5:30 am
Matt went to pick Mom, Dad and Laura up at the train station in Provo. When he arrived Mom was in severe pain and was vomiting. They quickly got in the car and went to our house.