A new day!

Of course after I posted yesterday, Owen had a messy diaper and has been happy ever since!!! That's our Owen, he likes to keep us on our toes!!

Owen still smiles

I promised updates and I haven't been great. Sometimes it is hard to know what to write and how. Today has not been the greatest for Owen. He hasn't been himself. He has given a few smiles but I had to work for them.
Last weekend I had to drop his feeding rate again. He seems to be much happier at a slower rate. He has lost a little over a pound since we cut his food amount. I was happy with only a pound, I feared he would lose weight faster than that.

Last week his therapists came and brought some new toys. I am really excited and hope I can get him to use them on one of his good days. I will for sure document and share. The day they came he had a terrible day due to a faulty trach, which has since been discarded!! I felt so bad for Owen, after they left I changed his trach and put him down for a nap and he slept from around 3-9:30 p.m.. He was so exhausted and I felt terrible that I hadn't caught the problem earlier. He re-covered though. He doesn't have the reserve that he used too. It is hard to face that reality. But for now, Owen still smiles! I have often said, "as long as he has his eyes and smiles we can deal with anything." Thankfully he has been blessed with strong facial muscles to provide that.

Abby turns 8!

Abby turned eight! She is pretty excited about growing up. I am sure she is the only one though. Lenn tried convincing her to skip her birthday and stay 7 but she wasn't going for that. She is quite the girl, she sure adds to our family. She has a huge heart and already tries to serve others. Today was her first day at Achievement Day. She has been counting down to this day. I asked her what they did and she told me they washed windows, folded laundry and read books to little kids. She was so excited to do these acts of service. This is Abby's Owen doll. When he was a baby she named him Owen so she could hold him and take care of him while her baby brother was in the hospital.

She wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday so the day before we got them pierced. She was so excited. I took my camera in but she was not about to have it documented. She did let me take a picture after the fact.

This is her unicorn cake. She wanted white for eight and being baptized. Then she drew me a picture of what she wanted her cake to look like and picked pink and yellow to go with it.

Things Abby loves: sugar, horses, animals, family, dolls, being outside, cooking, clogging and anything social.

March 2011

Bentley wrestled in March. He did great and we are happy he found success. At the end of the practices the High School wrestling coach was playing a game with them where one wrestler tries to get the other one on his back. The coach could not get Bentley on his back. I think that made Bentley's mind up about wrestling or basketball!

It was also the Pinewood derby, again he did great. He couldn't have done it without a pretty great Dad who LOVES to make these cars.

Owen and his treats from story hour. He absolutely loves this little bear. He wanted to look at it all that day.

We still had so much snow until the last week, Bentley decided to go make a 'snow Bentley'. It was so cute. He, Abby and a cousin went out to make this and when we looked out the window it was only to the waist and it was as tall as Bentley already. As I went to get the camera it fell over while Bentley was trying to add an arm. Lenn yelled out and told him to stay there and he would come help him fix it. This is how it turned out.

Landry's birthday was also in March, it wasn't as emotional as I thought it would be but we tried to stay busy. It was sad and different celebrating a child's birthday when that child is no longer with you, but we want to celebrate to keep his sweet spirit alive and with us.

Owen

This is one of Owen's therapists, Dallas. Owen has loved this guy from the first day they met. Owen would close his eyes as though he was done with everyone. Dallas would say 'Owen' and Owen's eyes would pop open. He is the only one Owen would do that for for a long time. Since we have been home and he has a regular scdehule he doesn't try to block people out so much . Whenever we know Dallas is coming to visit I dress Owen in a Wyoming shirt, because Dallas is a huge BYU fan. He tells us it is child abuse to dress a child like that!! Owen is doing better than expected. The new formula has been a great change and we are grateful to have found it. He still seems to be slowing down but since the new formula we have not had to increase his medicines at all. He can't digest as much food as fast as he used to so we have cut the amount and the rate (time) for him. He is still happy but seems sleepy more often. He still loves being held and all the other things he has always loved.