After a Day of learning

So I've joined a great Yahoo group for Spina Bifida Moms and Dads and it has been so helpful. I've been contacted by so many already that I feel really encouraged.

I've taken yesterday and all day today till our consultation today to think and absorb all the things I can learn from the Internet and peoples comments. I was thinking the worst. Not knowing anything about SB. And what I've learned is that it is not as bad as I was thinking. She will have some problems and probably lots of doctor visits but she will still be our little angel from heaven.

One of the comments I got from a mom of a child with SB was that 'if she would have known how wonderful life would be with her child, she wouldn't have been so scared. ' I'll take that as the best advice I could get and think about how wonderful it's going to be.




I learned more about my options if I don't use the MOM's trial. It sounds just as good or maybe better. I wouldn't have to leave the state for 12 weeks and live in a hospital living center.

The first day was definitely the hard part. But after two days of absorbing what our little girl will be like, I can't wait to learn what I as her mother can do for her. To see how much love and hope I can have for her. To see how Kathryn will be the best big sister ever. To see her grow and develop and become the best person she can be.

Spina Bifida

I should have known something could be wrong as you never should have to go to another office for an ultra sound. I didn't think anything of it. I was just excited to get video of this one. I was hoping for some 3d images too. The only one I got was of the defect in our little girl.

Baby girl #2 has Spina Bifida. Spina bifida can adversely affect many body systems including the nervous system, the bones and muscles as well as the kidneys and bladder.

We were told that the opening was low so that is a good sign. There is a clinical trial that we will most likely try to be apart of to be either one to have Prenatal surgery to close up the hole. Or be part of the post surgery trial. They have 3 locations for this. San Fransisco, Philadelphia and Nashville.

This sort of changes my plans of leaving for Virginia because if I get chosen for the prenatal surgery It has to be done by the 25th week and I have to stay at the center until delivery at 37 weeks.

I've read about this and have lots of emotions going on right now. My parents have some friends that have a son with this and he's married and has a job but has had a lot of surgery's and has to have leg braces and wear a catheter and diaper all the time. I know it's going to be a difficult ride but I'm positive that we are going to be stronger for this. I'm so grateful for Kathryn. I'm sure she is going to be a great big sister and be able to help out as they grow up together.

If any of you have information or know someone close to you who has this I would like to talk with them or find some kind of support group to learn more about this.

Thanks for all your love and support.

It's a GIRL!!

We had our ultrasound today. Kathryn is going to be a big sister to a baby girl!!

We are so excited. This little girl was being stubborn for our ultrasound tech so I have to go in tomorrow to get another one for all the measurements. I get to take a DVD to get it recorded. I'll see if I can post that tomorrow.

So far names for a girl
Liselle and Adara

We'll see...


This keeps the Turley grandkid's even again. 7 boys and 7 girls!

Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma Weir

We decided kind of last minute to go to Snowflake for Christmas. Matthew wanted to spend some time with his family since he will be off to Virginia on the 4th for quite some time.
We left Wednesday night and got there around 9. Their parents and mine we're quite worried cause of the snow and ice. We were fine except for a phantom in the car that turned on the windshield wipers and wouldn't let us turn them off. They turned on just outside Heber and stayed on till we turned on to Matthew's parents street.
There still was snow on the ground in Snowflake when we got there. It doesn't usually snow or stay on the ground in Snowflake so this was a treat. Kathryn loved crunching in the snow the next morning. Every night was like 14 degree's so the last day we were there Kathryn got to do a little Ice Skating and Matthew even dared to get out on the ice. It held him up fine. He only went out like 3 feet from the edge though. I was really nervous for him.

This was my first Christmas away from my family. I missed them but it was really fun to be with Matthew's Parents and one of his Brothers families. I asked about their traditions and for Christmas Eve they all get in the car and go look at the Christmas lights and then back to the parents house for hot chocolate and a reading of Luke 2. We even got to sing some Christmas Carols. Chelsea sang a solo for us. She is quite the singer. She also got out her violin and played one number for us as well.
My families tradition is to read Luke 2 as well but we open up our one gift, Pajamas. So I did that for Kathryn and I. Matthew didn't want any. Christmas morning we slept in and opened presents. Kathryn had so much fun unwrapping the presents. Then after that we had the Weir traditional Cheesy Bacon Waffles. My favorite!! Sorry Shelley no 'eggs al a golden rod'. You're home made bread would have been great to have as toast though.
We just relaxed a lot and I got to take a lot of Naps. It's nice to have built in babysitters with Chelsea around and grandparents who don't get to see their grandchild nearly enough. We got to go see Avatar in 3D in Showlow. It was a great movie. I'm not so sure I like 3D the glasses give me head aches. Maybe if I had contacts instead of having to put the glasses over my own.
Over all it was a great holiday. I'd glad we got to spend so much time with family.

We did my families Christmas on Sunday night. Kathryn got a Kitchen set that I didn't realize had to be put together. Matthew spent about an hour putting it together. She's going to have a lot of fun with it though.

Thank you all for the gifts and fun! We love you!

Merry Christmas!

For all those who I didn't get a card out to... We love you all and hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

We're on our way to Snowflake tonight! It's going to be fun in the snow!

Christmas Fender Bender

We were on our way to drop Kathryn off and Grandma & Grandpa Turley's home so that we could go watch the new Avatar movie in 3D. Unfortunately we got rearended on our way. This video shows the results of the collision. Our presents are still locked inside the trunk! Oh no!!

Famous things in Virginia and outlaying areas

The wonderful East coast has so much to offer anyone in love with history both American and Church History. It is now most famous in my family for being the place Matthew gets to go and be the best programmer he can be for 3 months.

Matthew leaves the great WARM state of Arizona on January 3rd for 3 months. While I get to stay here and pack up the house and get ready for a big family move at the end of those three months. Hopefully that 3 months will turn into a full year's worth of work so that Kathryn and I can move out there with him and enjoy the wonders of East Coast life.

I've recently been told that all the museums in DC area are all free. I can't wait to go to the Smithsonian and take Kathryn to see Lincoln and well all the great American History places to see. I want her to have a love of her country and history unlike her father. Matthew keeps getting told that VA is such a great place to live because of all the great history every where, in which he laughs and says that is not the selling point here guys. It is for me. And because it's green and something new and exciting to experience.

I'm hoping I'll get to come out there a few times in that 3 months. but we'll see. Maybe I'll even find a month to month lease there that will let us come for 2 months for Feb and Mar and then we'll move all our things. we'll see. So as you can see I'm going to be needing lots of friends this coming few months and lots of fun things to do with Kathryn to keep me busy and not thinking of how much longer Matthew is going to be away. My sister's advice to me who has had her husband work out of town before was to keep yourself busy in service. So I think I'm going to take her word for it. I also thought since watching that movie Julie and Julia I'd learn to cook better. Anyone want to have dinner sometime...

Kash and Kathryn

Cousins so close in age. I got to watch Kash this last week because my sister is in CNA school and I got to watch him for a week. It wore me out watching two toddlers. I could hardly keep up. And with all that is going on this coming weeks, I was exhausted each night. I think we went to bed by 9 each night. One night I think I put Matthew in charge of Kathryn and I went to bed like at 7:30.

They were actually really cute together most of the time. There were those moments of jealousy and that's mine and don't touch me, but other then those few times it was fun to have a playmate for Kathryn. One morning Kathryn was awake before he got here and the first thing she said coming out of her room was 'Kash, Kash' where are you'. She was disappointed he wasn't there to play with right at the get go.

I do have to confess though that I am so glad I do not have twins. or multiples of any kind. I guess you would grow into having two at the same age but man One is enough for me. Thinking I wanted to have twins at first.. ha ha not a chance. There is so much of Kathryn to love, how can you spread it around.

I tried getting video of them singing Itsy Bitsy Spider, popcorn popping and Head shoulders Knees and Toes. Here's a taste of one. After I did this I thought, dang I should have turned on some more lights, but I hope the sound is ok.

Fun with Kathryn and a Shot of what Matthew looked like for a whole weekend

Kathryn's hair is long enough now for two full pig tails. She is so cute with her hair up like this.

Isn't that a great face?

We just put up the tree and she's having fun with the ball's. Can you tell we still have to only decorate the top half?

This is what Matthew looked like the whole weekend before his last project was due for school. Such the procrastinator. I think he got like 3 hours of sleep the night before it was due. And since he was so neglecting me and Kathryn I got to go out to the movies with my friend Becky!

Now she's just playing under the table. I felt like I hadn't taken any pictures of her lately so I had to get a few even if they are under the table.

She is getting so big and grown up. I love her to pieces!!!

Need Addresses

Hi I've decided to send Christmas cards so if you want one. Please post your address and I will delete at the end of the day.

Me and Three Teenagers

Last weekend I had my foreign exchange students stay with me. Rika came Friday around 2pm and then Carolina didn't get here until after 8pm. Rika wanted to go walk around a mall. She misses the city life. She is living in Eager this school year. We went to Fiesta Mall which I should have done differently cause it's not even a good mall. But she found a sweater she wanted and then went to Old Navy to get a gift for her brother.

My neighbor was excited to meet her as he served his mission in Germany and wanted someone to speak German with. They talked for a good long time and she even got to ride on his motorcycle. I think it was her first time on a motorcycle. maybe but she was very impressed!!!
Oh yes I have to mention, see Rika's shoes. Kathryn loved her boots! When she took them off Kathryn went over and gave them back to her saying boots, boots, wanting her to put them back on.

They girls slept on an air mattress in my front room and I got them up at 6:30am the next morning to get on an airplane to San Francisco for the weekend. They had a blast! loved every bit of it. They couldn't even tell me what they liked the best cause it was all the best. They all said they'd love to live there, well there or New York City! They certainly are city kids. Funny they all ended up in tiny towns in Arizona.

They had a long plane delay on Monday cause of the Weather. They were supposed to arrive at 7:30 but didn't get in until 11:30pm. I had the girls again and Alex got to spend the night at John and Micah's. I didn't know what to do with a boy in my tiny house. I'm really glad they let him stay. And even make the Weir special waffles for us all the next morning. We almost didn't make it to take them home cause of the weather as well. Roads were blocked and it had been snowing on the rim and in Showlow all night. But thankfully, ETC paid for a 4wheel drive rental and my dad drove us up to Showlow to drop off Alex then to drop of Rika with her host uncle to go back to Eager then on to Snowflake to drop of Carolina at Brian and Julies. It was 8:00 and 25 degrees outside. I'm so glad I didn't end up staying up there this last week. Holy cow cold!! We then stopped for a chat with Mom and Dad Weir and some Pizza then headed home. I got home about 12:00 am. It worried me when I got home cause I didn't know where Matthew was. I could hear Kathryn sleeping in her room but Matthew wasn't in our room or in the front room or at the computer. He was asleep in Kathryn's room on the floor. Silly guy!

Anyway I had fun with my students and I hope they had an ok time with me as well.

Sorry about not having pictures of the other two. Next time I will be better at getting pictures of them.

Baby News

So I'm 17 weeks and getting really excited for my next appointment. I get the girl, boy ultrasound on the 28th of this month. So I have two count downs. One for Christmas and one for the baby.

I'm feeling really good. Not sick at all. Not even that tired. Sleeping is getting a little harder. I got the body pillow out last night and I think that helps but makes it hard to snuggle with Matthew cause there is a big pillow in the way.

My Doctor recommended getting the H1N1 shot, so I got one at the office. Man it's been a long time since I had a regular shot. It felt really weird. I hope I don't get sick from this shot. I hear that can happen, more times then not.

I asked about my weight gain and he said it's been good and we checked what I was with Kathryn at 16 weeks and I am exactly the same weight now as I was then. So I guess I'm on track. This lets me know I need to be careful for the next 5 months cause I don't want to gain as much as I did with Kathryn.

We're so excited to be adding a baby to the family and well 5 months seems like so long to wait. Oh and we get to deliver at the new Gateway Hospital. Sounds good to me as I got to see the rooms when Rachel had Caleb and well it's just a really nice facility. And Matthew will get to play games on the TV the whole time. He'll like being there for a change. Plus the daily cookie!!

Anyway things are going great and am counting down the days to find out if we're having a little boy or our little LaSelle.

My Nativity Collection

One of my favorite things about Christmas is that I get to add to my Nativity collection every year. I have 13 different sets. I think I might start next year with getting a piece or a really nice one and add to that for subsequent years. I'm getting to the point of not having storage for them and places to put them that are baby friendly. I have a few that are Kathryn friendly but most are glass that I don't want broken.

Here is my collection. I added the Faith one this year. I really like that one!

This one Matthew's dad made in school.

My Aunt and Uncle make porcelain dolls. I got this one 3 years ago at a family reunion.

Thanksgiving in Arkansas

I have now met all, I mean all of Matthew's family!

We went to Arkansas on Tuesday night to have Thanksgiving with Steve and Amy and their two very exciting boys. I haven't ever met Amy or their boys.

I was very worried about Kathryn and the plane ride but she did wonderfully. The way there she colored, played with the magnadoodle, thanks Rachel, and watched a movie without sound. We had ear phones but she didn't want them on her ears. Two hours was just the right amount of time. Which made me start worrying about the way home cause it was 3 hours home.

We arrived in Tulsa, OK at 9:30 pm and got a ride with Steve to their home in Bentonville, AK. We didn't get there till like 12:00 am. They had a bed waiting for us and Kathryn in their guest room. Wednesday morning was just a day of getting know each other and letting the boys get used to Kathryn. Ben has a bird in his room that Kathryn liked looking at and Mike has two rats, Scabbers and Stripes. Kathryn really liked playing with the Rats when Mike was willing to have them out. Matthew made Lop for dinner, a huge success for Steve and not so much for Amy. We then put the kids to bed and watched a movie.

Thursday, Thanksgiving day was not something I was used to. We didn't have our feast until dinner time, because Steve went Duck hunting that morning and wanted to help cook the meal. We just played games and watched Dawn of the Dinosaurs with the kids. It was a fun movie. Dinner was nice and small. Not anything I'm used to. We usually have loads of people there and loads of more food then anyone can eat. So it was different having just enough to make you full and a nice piece of pie.

Friday we went on a walk in their neighborhood. Steve and Amy live in a very nice place. They have little walking paths all throughout the neighborhoods. No beautiful even in the winter. I'll bet the summer there would be breath taking with all the tree's and vines and greenery everywhere. We went bowling Friday afternoon and got Ice cream at Braums. One of the best ice cream places I've been to. Steve and Matthew tied winning bowling and I won out of the girls. My first time bowling with bumpers. It really does help your score. To bad we didn't put those in earlier in the game. We got to help or rather observe them put up their Christmas tree. It was fun to see the boys get excited about this and think about when Kathryn will get the idea of decorating and be excited like they were.

The boys had a lot of fun taking pictures any time they could so some of the pictures may be a little off but they had fun.

We left at 5am Sat morning to catch an 8:00 flight. Kathryn slept for more then half the flight home. And it came in early so it wasn't a full 3 hours.

I'm so thankful that we were able to go and visit with Matthew's brother. Mike even cried the night we were leaving and wanted Kathryn to stay. They had so much fun together. Their boys were great baby sitters. Ben just watched and helped Kathryn the whole time.

We'll see them in July for the Weir family reunion.