A Blessed Day At Last!!!!

March 27, 2011 Reggie Was Finally Blessed:) It seemed like this day took forever to get here but, through much trial and tribulation it DID! He looked very handsome in his little satin tux, he was quiet through the blessing, and he didn't wiggle away. Which at six months old I was a little nervous about. He is doing SOOOO good. Cory with the Lord's help I am sure did a wonderful job. I was filled with an overwhelming amount of emotion seeing my husband and my family encircle my little boy. It was a very emotional day for all of us. I feel very humbled that the Lord has entrusted this special spirit to me to raise. I hope that I can make him proud and that even in times when Reggie is getting into eggs, or baby powder, or throwing temper tantrums I will always remember how glad that I am that he came into our lives to stay. I love him very much. Reggie with Grandpa and Grandma Slade Reggie with Grandpa and Grandma Russell

The man of the day with Great Grandpa Collins. He is my mother's father my last living grand parent at the young age of 91.

Sorry I didn't know how to flip the picture but it was too cute. This is Reggies cousin Ella. She wouldn't eat the yummy food but, she did like this treat:)

I know I know there isn't a picture of us with him or with his family in the craziness of the day I didn't get any. These pictures were taken by my sis-in-law. So I am glad I got these.

Officially HOME!!!!!!!!

My sweet baby boy finally was able to come home on December 3, 2010. He was at Primary Childrens one day shy of two months. We are thrilled beyond words to have him home getting to know his family. I love this smile:) He did come home with one tube still in his stomach to feed him but, he is so wonderful he didn't use it once. He has been able to take everything by mouth. It is a special diet but he will probably have that his whole life. That is the easy part. One month after he came home he was able to get that tube out. The Doctors said the hole in his stomach would leak for a few days and would heal within two weeks most likely. If it didn't it would have to be closed by surgery. It leaked when the tube was removed but not a bit after that. It closed almost immediately. Just another miracle of many we have received.

As you can see he is just as beautiful as my three other kids. I may be a little bias but I don't think so:)

I thought this is so cute. It was him showing his "gun show"

I don't know for sure but I think he is giving us a krusty for taking a picture of his tube. I wanted it for memory sake.

He has been home a month and a half now and is thriving. He is eating great, tube free, and is now off all his meds other than vitamins and special fats and formula. He smiles all the time, is cuing, starting to grab the toys on his mobiles, kicking, gets excited, laughs, and poops alot (you know all the normal three month old things). Now brace yourself I am going to get cheesy. We have been so very blessed since this little guy has come into our lives. I personally have learn huge lessons. I have learned how much my Heavenly Father loves me and my family, and how much others love me. I have gained leaps and bounds in my testimony. About the comfort of the Holy Ghost, about Faith, the strength of the Priesthood, service, PRAYER, and about the gospel as a whole. I know that Reggie had Angels looking out for him. We had so many doctors say that they were surprised at how well he has done. We had our bad days but overall his body mended and healed so wonderfully. Before we knew what was wrong with Reggie we were scared and Cory gave him a blessing and in that blessing it said that he would grow and develope to be a normal little boy. That gave me comfort through this process. I had Faith in that. I knew that he would be ok even though I wasn't sure what road we would have to take to get there. I have had huge blessings, seen amazing miracles, felt a great deal of love, and have a beautiful baby boy. So i think even though the last few months have been the some of the hardest of my life they have been some of the most rewarding.

Modern Day Miracles

Surgery number three is done and hopfully it is the last. Reggie did so great. They found out that the blockage was from scar tissue. The tissue from the second surgery wasn't healed enough so it scared and constricted. So they did have to take out some more of my little guys intestine. That is the bad news but, the really amazing thing is they found 40cm more. They told us that the intestine will not regenerate but it can grow a little with how small he is. They were talking like 10cm and Reggie grew 40cm!! We trully believe that it was do to all the prayers on his behalf. I prayed for a miracle and the Lord did bless me greatly with one, who my kinding with many. Since then he has progressed remarkable well. He has been able to do more in the last week than he has in the last month. He is finally taking milk out of a bottle(only a very small amount not even an ounce yet) and pooping! Yes poop is very exciting when you have lost a huge portion of you intestines. He gives lots of smiles,wants to play, kicks, checks out is environment, is very alert, and all those normal baby things. They are slowly increasing his feeds every day and monitoring him to see how he does. It is a slow process but it is now going forward. That is the update in a very small nut shell but it is late and I am very tired. I will keep the updates coming. This is a picture before his third surgery and he no longer has that nasty nose tube.
I wanted to get a picture of his war wound for his baby book. Sorry I don't have a current picture my battery died on my camera.

Halloween

Holy insanity Halloween was so crazy!! The night was stressful for me but fun for the kids and that is the most important. It was go go go and then crash. Cory was with Reggie so it was just me and the other three. They were candy monsters and just didn't want to quit. I was very glad that the rain let up for the perfect amount of time to get in some great trick or treating. Did I mention that Jordyn loves Mini Mouse:) This is her doing the "Hot Dog Dance".
My hard core boys.

Me, my kids, Tiffany, and her kids always get together if only for a moment or two. Tiff is a much cooler mom than me she gets dressed up and what a cute Dora she made (even though she was freezing because she said a coat didn't go with the costume).

Happy Birthday Jordyn

Ok ok my baby girls birthday was over a month ago and I am just getting to this but I do feel like I have a good excuse. Even though we have been busy I still wanted to show how much Jordyn enjoyed her fifteen minute party.Very Excited!!!!

Making her wish with her Tinker Belle cupcake

Yes she is her mothers daughter she loves sugar

She is officially two and a true two year old at that. She cries and throws temper tantrums when ever you tell her no, she says "back off", gets into everything, and doesn't like you one minute and adores you the next. She is a charmer also so the bad things don't seem so bad. She loves and I mean loves Mickey and Mini Mouse. She is already like her mother trying to keep up with her brothers playing karate, and anything else that is rough housing. She is one of the most polite two year olds I have ever seen. She says "excuse me" when she burps, "no thank you" if she doesn't want something, "your welcome", and "please" with a big grin when she does want something. Jordyn is my joy I adore her so very much and am so blessed to have her for my daughter.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!

Family Road Trips (life part 3)

All set to go to our family reunion

Cory was getting ready to take Jordyn on a canoe ride and she hated this life jacket. We all were laughing so hard at her waddle.

Who doesn't love ice cream

Is this a really big chair or did my children shrink?

Finally we caught Fish (life part 2)

We have tried on a number of occasion to go fishing and after many tries we finally caught some. It did take a stocked pond made for kids but, hey you got to start somewhere

Jordyn loved eating the velveeta more than the actual fishing

Ashton showing off his catch(Jordyn was so proud of him)

This is how Jordyn fished