Friday Pizza Night

We love pizza but because of Enoch's celiacs we don't eat it unless he is gone. Well I decided to do something fun as a family. We all made personal pan pizza's. I made Enoch his own pizza dough and then us one that we would enjoy. The kids rolled out their own pizzas as well. We had tons of toppings and and cheese's and we just let everybody do what they wanted. We had this amazing pizza sauce from one of my new favorite cooking blogs. It came from Our Best bites. Below I will add the pizza sauce recipe. So fantastic. We had so much fun making them and then eating them. I loved how many toppings everybody did. Kaelen's favorite part was eating olives. He is definitely related to his sister Rachel. Those two will eat a can of olives together. Kaelen loves to put them on his finger and then pop them off into his mouth. It is so funny to see how big his cheeks get when he has them all in his mouth. It was so much fun doing this as a family. It was a lot of work on my part but I enjoyed hearing the kids talk while making and eating their pizzas.

Best Pizza sauce ever:

Pizza Sauce

1 6-oz. can tomato paste
6 oz. water (just use the empty tomato paste can)
3 Tbsp. garlic bread seasoning
1 Tbsp. sugar or honey
3/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)

Empty tomato paste into a bowl and add water a few tablespoons at a time, stirring constantly until combined. Add remaining ingredients, stir to combine, and allow to stand until ready to use. Covers two average-sized pizza; freezes extremely well.

I used garlic salt and powder instead of garlic bread seasoning because I didn't have any and I used sugar instead of honey. We also put in about 1/8 tsp. of red pepper flakes. I froze the pizza sauce as well with the left over gluten free crusts. When we do pizza night again I don't have to make Enoch's crusts. Yay.

Many visitors

Jacob has had many visitors and friends come over since he has gotten his cast on. We had my friend DeAun's girls come over with another girl from the ward. They all made him cards. They came the night we got home from SLC.

The next day Lindsay, Josh and Lucy showed up. Jacob really liked that. Every time anybody came over they signed his cast. It didn't take long for his cast of be full of signatures.

Our Relief Society president came over with Candy bars and a cute card to go a long with the candy bars. She even brought enough for all the kids.

Rachael, Carter and Collin brought Jacob and I spy book and came a played the wii with him. He really loves having his family come over to play with him.

Mark his therapist brought fuze art. Fuze art are these beads that you place on this board to make a design and then you iron them and they melt together to form what you made. He was so excited about that. The kids have wanted them forever and so it was really nice to get them. Mark came with his kids as well. We are really good friends with his family. They live just around the corner from us and are in our ward.

Two girls Siena and Olivia from down the street came over and brought him a balloon that ended up being Kaelen's favorite toy. They brought a large coloring poster and a shark that grows 600% more than it's original size. Then they made these amazing peanut butter rice krispie squares with chocolate on top. We loved that part. They were so excited to come and see him. They came in the evening one night just the two of them. It was so sweet.

We had lots of people in the ward stop by and drop off treats or just see how he was doing. I think his favorite person was his girlfriend Makenna. Well she isn't really because she is 16 years old. She and Jacob are good buds. Jacob will go to her house and play the wii with her. At church he always stops to talk to her or will draw her a picture at church and give it to her. For his birthday she stopped by and gave him a present. Well she stopped by and gave him a box of 20 Valentine fruit roll ups. He loved it. She also brought two other friends. He was in heaven to be getting attention from 3 girls 10 years older. If it was up to Jacob he would marry her. We really like MaKenna. She is always so nice to Jacob. Today she stopped by as well and played the wii with him for almost an hour. It was so nice of her to take time out of her day to see him and do something that he loves to do with her.

We feel really blessed to live where we do with such great neighbor and friends.

Jacob has been doing really great. He went back to school a week after surgery for half days and then eventually full days. That has been a bit of a struggle not because of pain or anything but because he wants to go and then he doesn't want to. We fight most mornings to get him out of the door and then once he is there is he happy.

Jacob has done fantastic with his casts on despite not being able to put any weight on them. There have been many times where he got off of stuff and on things and us wondering how he did it with out putting weight on it. Jacob has figured out how to climb off and on the kitchen chairs, go up the stairs and move around the house with out putting weight in his legs. I am impressed with how well he has adapted to it all.

Jacob enjoys his wheel chair and almost too much. The first and only time we took him to the store was crazy. He was pushing himself all over the store, running into things and then running out the door. After that we decided he would stay at home.

When I go and pick Jacob up after school Kaelen is always with me and having to get both of them out to the car and almost impossible so Kaelen now will climb on top of Jacob's lap and I push them both down the hall and out the door together. They both love it and I think it's the cutest thing ever. Kaelen does it now as well when we go to church. We stop at nursery to drop off Kaelen and then Jacob heads to church.

It's been a challenge too. He has only washed his hair once and so we are really looking forward to getting the casts off soon. Jacob also gets bored. He has played tons of wii. So much that I think we might just sell it. (No not really) He loves the wii because it is something that he can do easily with his casts. He also has enjoyed doing crafts but he only lasts a little bit with that. I think that he is looking forward to being able to move around a little more and watch.

Oh wow how nice will it be to see him walk with straight legs. No more replacing shoes every few months because the soles on the sides have holes in them and no more sores on his feet from his braces. So excited.

Rachel's Party with Friends

On Saturday February 13th Rachel had her birthday party with her friends. Forever I couldn't think of what to do and I wanted something with little to no work. We decided to take her and her friends to the cheap movie theater here and rent out one of their theaters. We were able to take up to 20 people and they had a movie theater reserved just for us. We also got to pick any movie that they had available. The only thing was that we had to be at the movie theater at 9:30 AM. It was an early morning party. We had all of the girls show up at 9 AM. We went then drove to the Paramount (cheap theater) where everybody was given a popcorn and drink. We watched The Princess and the Frog. It was a very cute movie. Rachel invited 12 girls from church and school. We only had 7 show up. It was a fun group though. The girls all sat in the back row. So funny. Of all the places they could sit in the theater they sat in the very back row.

Enoch had something with scouts that morning so I had my friend help me drive. Her daughter who is good friends with Jacob came as well to hang out with Jacob. Kaelen loved sitting in the theater eating popcorn and watching the movie. He was great for the first 45 minutes and then he got tired and ran around the theater the rest of the time. I loved it because he ran around and I didn't have to worry about other people being bothered by it. The girls enjoyed the movie, well the parts they sat for. At one point they were all out of the theater but 2 of them. They all seemed to have to go to the bathroom or need a drink at the same time. What is with girls.

After the movie we all came back for presents and cake. All the girls were so generous and nice. Rachel got some awesome presents. Rachel spun an empty pop bottle on the floor to see which present she would open. She loves doing that. I did it one year when she was smaller and now she wants to do it every year.

For her cake I made it look like popcorn coming out of a popcorn box. It was an amazing cake. Enoch helped me make it the night before. It was so fun. I loved it. I made the popcorn as if they were rice krispies. I made them and formed them on the top how I wanted them to sit on it. I had decided that the girls would not eat the popcorn and it would be thrown away. I was wrong. They ate all of it. Enoch helped me with the stripes and he did the writing on the cake. The stripes were made from fruit roll ups. We were supposed to use fruit by the fruit but of course Walmart didn't have plain red at the store. It turned out great though and I was so grateful for his help. All the girls loved her cake as well.

After cake most of the girls went home. A few stayed to play for a while. I loved this party because it was over by 1 PM and I had the rest of the day to get stuff done. The girls had tons of fun and we didn't even play any games at home and I had such a minimal mess to clean up. This was such a nice change for me. I love doing parties but after I am so tired. This year too I had no desire to do a party so I was really excited when we thought of this. Rachel loved it as well. For hours after she kept saying it was so fun and she loved every minute of it.

Stuff does not belong up the nose

So today while I was getting Rachel's birthday cake and stuff ready for her family party tonight Kaelen was off playing. I was just getting ready to leave to get Jacob when Kaelen came in rubbing his nose. He is really good at telling at us when he needs a tissue. I went to see if he had boogies. I looked up his nose and noticed a FuzeArt bead up his nose. FuzeArt are these beads that you put together on a tray. You make a design with it and then iron it and it melts together. It was just a little ways up there. I ran to get tweezers and laid him down to get it out. Well just him being laid down made him really mad. I left him alone and called Enoch and asked what I should do. He suggested I take him to the doctors. Kaelen kept rubbing his nose. I looked into it and noticed that i couldn't really see it anymore. I asked Enoch if I should still take him. He said yes because it could get infected if still up there. If he hadn't of kept rubbing his nose I would have assumed it had come out.

I should mention that i saw the beads on the floor and went oh I should vacuum those. I was looking at my watch wondering if I had time to do it before I went to pick Jacob up from school. I figured I did. I was going to do it after i did a few things in the bathroom. Should have vacuumed first.

Because I was just getting ready to pick up Jacob from school I had to call a friend to pick up Jacob. I was so glad for this moment to have a good friend to pick him. I called Tonya. I had to call the school before to tell them that a friend was picking Jacob up. They were going to have Jacob in the office and wanted to make sure that Jacob knew who she was. Safety precautions.

I took Kaelen to the doctors and took an extra bead with me to show them what it looked like. When I told them what I happened they told one of the doctors and then told me it would probably be a 20 minute wait. Great. It acutally only ended up being 5 minutes. I was so happy about that.

They took us back where they weighed Kaelen (with only a diaper on ) . He was 25 lbs. 4ox. Yahoo. For a kid that seems to only ever want to drink milk I was so impressed. The doctor came in and had me hold his arms while she laid his head on her lap. We were both sitting on a bench and Kaelen was mostly on me. He screamed the minute she laid him down. At first she couldn't find the bead but I noticed it and was able to tell her where it was. It was so far up there that you could only see the edge of it. It was perfectly straight up in the nose. Once she spotted it she brought out the little tool with a small rounded end to it. She put it up into his nose and pulled on the bead. Kaelen was kicking and screaming at this point. I was starting to sweat trying to keep him still and calm. Once the bead came out blood just came out everywhere. So we had to still keep him calm to get the bleeding stopped. It took about 5 minutes to get the bleeding stopped.

Kaelen was so sad. Even after the doctor was done and I was holding him he still cried. We left the doctors office with him crying. The doctor mentioned that we needed to keep an eye on him because once kids put stuff up their noses they are likely to do it again. Nice thought. We met Jacob at home. I was so grateful to Tonya for picking him up. Kaelen was still so sad and I had to call Enoch to help me figure out how to help him. Lately Kaelen has loved racing down the hall. He will stand at the end of the hall with you next to him and then we'll say ready set go and he takes off. Enoch suggested I do that. It took me 2 times of running with him in my arms for him to start laughing and want to be set down and run with me. I was so happy to see him happy.

This incident caused me to run behind and so I decided that if the house wasn't perfect when people came over for Rachel's birthday I didn't care. What an ordeal we had today. I am glad that it wasn't worst and I am glad that I saw the bead when I did. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we didn't see it. Yuck. So poor little Kaelen had a tough afternoon and we learned that things don't belong up the nose.

Here is what the FuzeArt looks like. He put up just one of these small beads up his nose.

Rachel turns 11

So today Rachel turned 11. I can't believe how time flies. I can't believe that she is already 11. Wow. Today Rachel went to school and in her lunch got a colorful note (she gets a note in her lunch everyday by mom or Dad, she keeps them all too and eventually be put into a book) wishing her a happy birthday and a pizza lunch-able. I spent most of the morning cleaning and figuring out what her cake will be. Thank you Heather for helping me with that. We decided on a book because of how much she loves to read. The day went by way fast too fast. We bought Rachel a writing table/desk for her birthday and so I set it up in her room so when she got home she would see it. About ten minutes before I had to pick up Jacob from school Kaelen decided to put a bead ( a fuze art) into his nose. I had to call a friend to go pick Jacob up from school so I could take Kaelen to the doctors. Read my other post "things don't go up the nose" to find out more details about that. Once Kaelen was fine and we were all home Rachel got home. It took her a while to notice her desk in her room but once she did she started screaming and freaking out. It was so fun to see her react the way she did.

I had to rush and get her cake done and try to get some things cleaned in the house. We were going out for dinner as a family and then later in the evening we were having family over for cake and presents. We were late leaving to eat because of trying to finish the cake. Rachel wanted to go to Chuck a Rama for dinner. It was fun to eat what ever we wanted.

I had to leave early from dinner because one of my primary kids was getting baptized. I want to try to make it to all of their baptisms. I was really appreciative of Rachel for not being sad that I was going to go to the baptism. I asked her a few days before if I could go and if she would be sad. She was totally fine with it. What a good girl.

Once I got home we opened presents and had cake. Rachael, Collin, Carter, Lindsay and Gregorie came over to celebrate with us. Grandma Heileson was in Alaska watching Angie and Brett's kids for a week and Grandpa Heileson was in Boise. Rachel was so excited about all of her presents. From Carter, Collin, Rachael and Joseph she got a flashlight/ laser. They have one and she told them a month ago that she would love one for her birthday. She was very excited to get that.

Jacob got her the new Hannah Montana 3 CD. Kaelen bought her a new littlest pet shop turtle. He fed it to the dog during Christmas and so we figured it would be appropriate for him to get her a new one. She was very excited about that. I bought her a new series of books. It's the Princess and the Frog series. There are 5 books in the series. From her Dad she got a new waterproof watch. She was very excited to get a new watch. Enoch picked it out himself as well. We also bought her a warm sweater, a sweater for church and a pull over shawl. She was very pleased with her gifts.

After presents we sang Happy Birthday and had cake and ice cream. I was very happy with how her book cake turned out but I realized the next day that I forgot to put her fruit by the foot book mark in it. I went to the store in the morning just to get fruit by the foot and I was so busy earlier that I forgot to put it on the cake. Oh well. Rachel loved that cake and that is what is important. So for her cake on one side I put a little story about Rachel's life and then on the next page it said Happy Birthday Rachel. Here is what I wrote on the side.

11 years ago to this day we welcomed a beautiful little girl into the world. She was so small and so cute. In the first 2 minutes of being born she rolled over and grabbed the blanket she was laying on and held on to it to help keep her warm. We all knew then that she was special. When this little girl got a little older she was so fun to be around. She talked so well and made us all laugh. She used to escape from the house and so the only way to keep her in (and deadbolts and chains did not stop her) was to put the couch in front of the door. She also loved vacuums. When you pushed it she would ride on the front of it. She was such a good help. She also would take the tools from the vacuum and they would become her swords. Her swords went all over the place with her. She also loved to watch Jurassic Park. She watched it with her Uncle and would laugh at all the scary parts. A few years later she was so excited to get a new little brother and when asking her what we should call him she yelled out “shoe”. He was not named that. This little girl loved to dance and at a young age, she could really groove with the music. We laughed all the time at that. She was and is such a great big sister. She can always make her brothers laugh. As she got older and started school she always did well in her studies. She is so bright. She also in the last few years has learned to love reading. She reads all the time. We can’t get her to get to bed early because she always wants to read one more page. This little girl has now turned into a bright young woman with a wonderful spirit. She is such an important part in our family and we can’t imagine it with out her. We love you Rachel. Happy Birthday.

I typed this out and printed it on paper and then stuck it to her cake. One day I will try the edible paper but it is so expensive to buy here. Maybe on line I can get it for cheaper.

Grandpa and Grandma Heileson gave her tons of molding clay a few days before her birthday when they came over before they both left. She has been asking for molding clay for a while now so she can finish molding her family. She was ecstatic about getting it.

Grandpa and Grandma Fisher got her some earrings to match the necklace she got at Christmas. She also got a watering can and shovel. She can water her little garden she has in the backyard with it in the spring. She will like that.

Rachel also got cards from Lopez's, Gehmlich's, Knechtel's (she loves the key chain), Daniels, and Longs. Thank you all for the gift cards and money. Rachel is saving up for a Nintendo DSI and is more than half way there for it. You guys are all so generous and awesome.

Thank you also for everybody that called to wish her a happy birthday. We are so grateful for family and the support you all are. You all make our kids feel so loved and special.

Jacob's surgery January 27th, 2010

So I have decided that instead of writing everything I would just post the emails I sent in the past while about Jacob's surgery and the updates I sent. So here goes.

January 26th 5:15 PM (Jacob's surgery)

So I just wanted to fill you all in on Jacob's surgery tomorrow. We are leaving here around 6 to SLC. We are spending the night at the University Guest Suite near the hospital. We are happy to be so close so we don't have far to drive. Surgery is not when we thought that it would be. We have to be at the hospital at 11 am and then surgery is about 12:15. I forgot to ask how long it will be. I will let you know tomorrow how long it should last.

Jacob can't eat after midnight and then no clear liquid after 9:30 in the morning. I am happy he can drink juice in the morning. Once we get to the hospital we meet with the nurses, the anesthesiologist and surgeon. He is considered day surgery so after surgery and recovery they take him to a room in the day surgery area. He is actually never admitted to the hospital. I will spend the night at the hospital with him while Enoch spends the night at the hotel. Somebody has to sleep well so one of us can drive home the next day. I was thinking that he would be released in the later day from the hospital but they said that we should be released around 7:30 in the morning on Thursday. Wow early. I am thinking that Enoch can take us back to the hotel where Jacob can sleep some more and I can shower before we head home. We should be home pretty early in the day it looks like.

Many of you have mentioned fasting for him and we really appreciate that. Those of you that would like to fast on Wednesday for Jacob would be nice. If you are unable to fast your prayers for him would be wonderful. We feel so good about his surgery. He also got a really nice blessing on Sunday from his Grandpa Heileson and Dad. Jacob is very nervous though. He mentioned today that he was scared to do it. We continually talk about what will happen for him and how it will be, it helps his fears a bit but he is still scared. He needs our prayers of comfort today and tomorrow.

I will send updates tomorrow. I will send a quick email once he goes into surgery and after in is out of the recovery room and stable.

You are more than welcome to email us. I can get email on my phone and we will have our computer with us.

Thank you all for your love and support.

Angelene


January 27, 1:04 PM (Surgery)

Jacob is in surgery right now. When we got to the hospital we were taken back to see the nurses to get vitals and changed into a gown. We then went to the surgical waiting room where he played for a bit and then got to make a surgical buddy to take with him. It's a stuffed person with no face and just in a gown. Rachel made one when Jacob was born and in the hospital. He had fun making it. He made it look like Obama. It was so cute. All the nurses loved it. He also got to play the Wii.

He was given medicine to make him loopy. It took about 10 minutes for it to kick in. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. There was a nurse talking to him about the stuff they will use and Jacob was just staring at her in a dazed look. At one point he said he was tired and his head just drooped down fast and he layed in his chair.
When the doctor came in to talk to us we spent half the time laughing at Jacob. His doctor is so awesome. I feel so good having him work on Jacob. We would ask Jacob some questions and he would answer them mumbling and wispering or he would just stare at the doctor in a daze. I filmed it.

Jacob's surgery is supposed to be 3 hours but his Doctor, Dr. Klatts said that he has amazing help and so it should take about 2 hours. They said that they would call us after about an hour and tell us how things are going.
Jacob is getting a blue and orange cast. The doctor said that he would make sure to find those colors for him.

Jacob is going to take a bit to come out of it all when it is over. He will be groggy for a while. They have slurpees for him they have said that he can have after and then later tonight he gets food. He will have his own room with a TV. When he was being wheeled on and loopy he was mumbling that he wanted to play the wii. They said that they would make sure tonight that he could.

We are feeling good. It is strange to think that he is being worked on right now. I sure love him. He was telling us this morning that tomorrow he is excited to walk on the treadmill with Mark. I had to explain to him again that he won't be walking on it for 5 weeks. He is cute. He really thinks that he'll be great after surgery and right a way. I wish that it was that fast.

I want to thank you all for your prayers and fasting. He loved reading all of your emails. He would read them and say how nice they were. We feel so blessed to have such great friends and family supporting us. Thank you for all of your prayers, fasts, and support.

I will send updates when we get them

Love, Angelene and Enoch.

We are going to eat right now but if any of you want to call you are more than welcome to. We don't have details yet so we don't know anything about that but if you want to talk call.

Here is a video of Jacob after they have given him the stuff to make him sleepy before surgery.

January 27, 4:04 PM (Surgery is done:))

Jacob's surgery is all done. It took over 2 1/2 hours for it. The doctor said that everything went really well. The bone was cut and the pins were put in. They also moved tendins in his ankles to help keep his feet in the correct position. I didn't know that they were doing that as well until this morning. Both procedures will help him walk straight and will help him not have as many problems. The doctor gave us xrays of his ankles with the pins in. Pretty cool looking. So we had an appointment set up for 3 weeks from now but the doctor said that he wanted to wait for 4 weeks. We were going to see the doctor at Spina Bifida clinic but he wants us to just come to his office on a Friday get xrays and remove the pins. if things look good after four weeks they might just use a removable cast. They will see how things are in 4 weeks. They might just put hard casts on again. We'll see.

When I got to go back to the post op room he was very groggy and looked as if he was going to cry. He kept waking up when ever somebody talked or moved anything near him. He was happy to see me but I could tell that he was very tired. The nurse said that in surgery he was given stuff to keep him from throwing up twice but when he was in post op he threw up so he was given more stuff. It makes him very sleepy. It is used to help the stomach but also sedate you. He is definitely sedated. He is sleeping now and has not even woken up to see Enoch or when he was moved to a new room he never woke up at all. We are in a small room right now with a TV,VCR and DVD player. When he wakes up I am sure that he will want something to eat and drink. I am thinking he won't be up anytime soon. He hasn't moved at all in the last 20 minutes. When he was in post op they kept trying to have him lay on his back but he would right a way move to his side. They have pillows under his casts and in between his legs. His feet have to be elevated for the next 3-4 days. He should be on pain killers anywhere from a week to two weeks.

He is so cute. He is just sleeping so deeply right now. We have our door open and our room is right next to the nurses station. It is pretty loud in the hall and he has not moved at all. When they came in to get his vitals he didn't move either. He is out. I am happy though because the best thing for him right now is to rest.

I just love this little boy. It is hard to see your kids struggle but it sure makes me happy to know that life will now be a little easier for him and that he'll walk better because of this. What a blessing to live now in life. We are so fortunate medically now.

Thanks again for your wonderful emails. I have loved hearing my phone beep all afternoon and reading all of your emails. You are all so wonderful.

Love,
Angelene and Enoch

He is sleeping with his Obama doll. So funny.



January 27, 6:20 PM (Awake)

Jacob is now a wake. He rolled over about 15 minutes ago and looked at us. Within a few minutes he was talking and sitting up. He is having a Slurpee right now and loving it. He is extremely happy. I am so gald. I was worried that he would be really sad when he woke up. Not at all. the doctor just came in as well and said that things were good and that Jacob looked good. Jacob is so funny. Everybody loves him already. He is always joking with them and he loves the attention.

I can't believe how happy he is. He asked as well if he has only been sleeping for 10 minutes. We told him almost 5 hours and he was shocked. He was sure it had only been 10 minutes.

The doctor will come back in the morning to check on him again.

Our cell phones don't have great reception so if you want to call we can be reached at (801) 662-2855 and then ask for room 18. It goes to the front desk.

Love you all.

Angelene

January 28, 10:04 AM



We are leaving the hospital and heading to the hotel to check out. Jacob is doing

ok. His legs hurt a bit but he seems good.





Angelene

Thursday January 28 8:01 PM

We are driving home. Jacob was doing good till he said his tummy hurt and then threw up all over

himself in the car.  He is all cleaned up now and says he feels good. I sure hope so. It was a lot.  

I am hoping he will sleep the rest of the way home.  He was up at 5:30 this morning asking if it was

time to get up.  He also kept waking up wondering if he could get up and also get his IV out.  He

was sure glad when he got it out before we left.  He has eaten so much too which I am sure doesn’t

help him with his stomach. He went almost 24 hrs without solid food and now can't stop eating. Last

night and this morning when he started eating he went crazy eating everything. 



Jacob loved being in the hospital and like I said before he loved the attention.  He really enjoyed his

Doctor too.  We all really like him. He was so good to Jacob.  When the attending doctor came in this

morning Jacob was sad it wasn't Dr. Klatt.  An hour later his doctor showed up to check on him

as he came into work.  He still had his coat on.  Every time he checked on Jacob he would joke and

say that if his feet didn't look good Jacob's mom would be mad.  He only does what I say.  He's nice. 

He treats everybody great and he jokes around with everybody including the staff.  

I heard many times while in the hospital about how cute and funny Jacob was. Last night he was

watching honey I blew up the kid and he was laughing so hard that the nurses were all laughing. They

said that they never hear kids laughing in the area of the hospital we were in. Most kids cry and we heard

 a lot of it. We had to keep our doors closed most of the time.  Kids came to where we were after surgery and stayed

till they were stable enough to be released or taken to their rooms and were admitted. Kids have a hard time coming out of

anesthesia.  We were the only ones all night in our area except for those that came through for emergency surgeries. 

We didn't hear anything all night.



This morning the nurses said to Dr. Klatt how cute Jacob was and Dr. Klatt right away said that he

just loved Jacob and loved talking and joking with him.   Jacob sure has a sweet spirit and everybody

around him knows it.



I want to thank you all again for your prayers and fast.  When I think about it I get emotional knowing

what you all did for us. I felt such peace yesterday and truly feel blessed. We were watched over greatly

yesterday. I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for taking such good care of us and also my kids who

were home. 



Thank you everybody.



Love,

Angelene





February 3, 4:54 PM



I have been meaning for days now to send an update on how Jacob is doing.  He is doing fantastic. 

He is doing so great that he actually went to half of school today.  I was so impressed that he wanted to go. 



We have really only had a couple of times where he was in pain.  The first night was not the greatest.  He kept saying that

he didn't want any pain killers.  Well about 5 AM he woke up just screaming in pain and with a fever.  He already

doesn't have much feeling in his ankles and so I knew that it was bad when he woke up like that.  We gave him both his pain

killers and Enoch slept with him the rest of the night.  Poor Jacob.  After that I told Jacob that he would take his medicine

when I told him even if he didn't want to take it and didn't have any pain.  He has had a couple of other times at

night when we were getting him ready for bed where he would get the chills and shake.  



He also has been getting nose bleeds in the middle of the night because of his Ibuprofen that he is taking. After this early

mornings bloody nose I have decided that we will stop and give him Tylenol instead.  I am thinking though that he really

doesn't need anything anymore.  He has only been taking anything just before bed and nothing else during the day. 



Jacob has enjoyed being at home because he gets to watch movies all day and play the wii.  He has colored too and done

homework but for the most part he plays the wii.  I think that he has lost millions of brains cells from that. 



I keep asking if he is board and he never says that he is.  I am sure he has  been because Monday he kept saying that he

wanted to go to school.  I was not sure if I was ready for him to go because he still has to have his feet up or his feet start

to turn purple and they swell up.   Today I finally let him go.  He like I said above only went for a half day and will go

half days the rest of the week.  Next week if he is ready he can start going full days.  He has his wheel chair with leg rests

on it so he can keep his feet elevated all day. 



Today when he went to school half way there he decided that he didn't want to go because school was boring.  I told

him that I was sure it was because he was nervous and not board.  I told him to try today out and if he didn't want to go

back then he didn't have too till he was feeling up to it.  Once we got him into the school and near his classroom all the

kids started running out saying "it's Jacob, Jacob's back".  When Jacob went into his classroom they all surrounded him

asking questions, joking with him and helping him get settled.  Jacob is sitting on the side of his desk so he can reach

into his desk to grab stuff.  He has a large clip board that sits on his lap for writing.  All of the kids love to help him. 

They fight over helping him.  I knew then that he was going to like school and be happy.  Today was the 100th day of

school so Jacob was excited to be there to celebrate it. 



After when we were leaving school so many teachers stopped and asked how he was and commented on how he was

such a great kid and example to everybody and that they worried about him and were so happy to see him back so soon. 

His P.E teacher talked to me for 20 minutes about Jacob is the greatest student.  She said that he never complains,

tries everything and runs so hard.  If he falls he gets right back up.  She said that if all of her students were

like him her job would be so easy.  She said that she is always going home and talking to her husband about him.  It made

me feel really special and proud to be his mom.  Jacob is loved by everybody.  He is a great kid. 



We thought that we were going to have to leave him upstairs all the time and that he would lay down all day.  He acutally

isn't too heavy to carry up and down the stairs.  It isn't too bad at all.  He sits up a lot of the day and will also sit in his wheel

chair.  He is same old Jacob but just can't put any weight on his ankles.



Kaelen and Rachel love his wheel chair.  They are always in it.  Kaelen loves to sit in with Rachel and have her wheel it

around or just sit in it and have her push him around.  All the kids have loved the wheel chair.



I am so impressed with how fantastic Jacob is doing and I have your prayers and fasts to thank for that. Now we just need

him to be healed enough that when we go back on the 24th everything is healed enough to take the hard casts off and

put on removable ones on.  If he gets that then he is able to start to put weight on his ankles.   I guess though that if he has

to have the hard cast on again then it is only for a few more weeks and I would rather have him better than hurt himself.

Thank you though for all of your prayers.  We have felt them so much.



We love you all.



Love,

Angelene



Jacob loves phone calls so call anytime. 

Kaelen playing blocks

Kaelen is so good at everything his does it seems. He can kick a ball so far. When he throws a football it is a spiral throw. Other than playing balls his other favorite thing to do is play with blocks and build things. He loves to take the Janga blocks out and build trains or towers. He is very accurate as well with how he places them. They are perfectly lined up or stacked. After he builds stuff though he always destroys his tower or train and then throws the blocks around the room or down the stairs. I love watching him play. When ever he plays with toys he lines them up. He loves to take his cars and line them up front to back. I am so amazed by him all the time. He is a smart little boy with amazing fine and gross motor skills.

Kaelen reading

Kaelen loves to read. He will run to his room and come back with a book for you to read to him. If his light is off he will grab your hand and have bring him to his room so you can turn a light on for him so he can grab a book. He will run to his room pulling you behind him. For Christmas Grace gave him some fun board books as well as flash cards. He loves them. He is always reading them. When I came into his room the other day he was sitting in front of his book shelf reading. He was still in his pajamas and his hair was a big mess. He was so happy. He was pointing at all of the pictures in the book saying what they were. I just love watching him do things and play. His favorite thing right now is to find 'nuns" (suns) in books. He knows which of his books have those in them as well as fish and moons. I love this age so much.

Playing in the snow

There was no school today because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and so I took the kids outside and we built a snowman. He all had so much fun building it. It was hard to put the middle on the bottom because it was so big and heavy. Every time we would almost get it up it would fall and break. We eventually got our snowman finished. Kaelen LOVES snowmen and he was so excited about ours. A few years ago at a birthday party Jacob got a snowman making kit as a thank you gift at the party. We love it. It has real coal and a real corn cob nose.

After making the snowman we had a little snow ball fight. Kaelen loved that. He loved throwing the snow at us. He took his gloves off at one point. He didn't mind the cold.

A little later Rachel and Jacob's friends came over to play in the snow. All the kids played in the back yard. Jacob's friend Olivia put Kaelen in the swing. Kaelen loved it. A few times it looked like he was fast asleep on it. Rachel and her friend Siena played on the trampoline. They spent most of the time though taking of this huge ice block that probably weighed over 150 lbs. It was so big. It took them over a half hour to push it off. The tramp was so slippery as well that they kept just sliding around. It was so funny to watch. I knew when they got it off because from inside the house I could hear them screaming.

I really enjoyed spending time with my kids today out in the snow. I loved watching them play together as well. It was nice and warm out and so it was really fun.

Snow Sledding

Tonight (January 16) we took Kaelen snow sledding for the first time. He did go last year actually but he didn't really like it. He lasted 2 minutes before. This year was such the opposite. We went snow sledding at Grandpa and Grandma Heileson's house. He loved it so much. He would go down the hill laughing the whole way. Enoch actually had him go down himself as well. Kaelen would jump on the sled, lay down and Enoch would push him down. Kaelen would laugh the whole time. It was so amazing. At one point his gloves were soaking wet and so we took him in the house to get new ones. I came by the front door and he had his face plastered to the window screaming and crying. He didn't want to come in at all. He was freaking out. He was so happy to finally come back out. We snow sledded for well over an hour. I thought that it was going to be shorter than that. Kaelen was actually the last to come in and he laid on the floor and cried. He loves the snow. He stands at the window in the house and yells "snow, snow." It is so cute. We all had so much fun snow sledding. I can't wait to take Kaelen sledding again.

Rachel and Jacob had so much fun as well. Rachel seemed to stuck to the tree at the bottom of the hill. She would slide under it all the time. That is what one of the pictures are of. Jacob loves going down with everybody. He enjoys going himself but really loves going with somebody else. We all had a lot of fun together.

Rachel's braces

Today Rachel got her braces on. She was so excited and so nervous. She has lost all of her teeth and they have all come in. She is so young to have lost all of her teeth like that. Her 12 year old molars are about to come in too so once they come in they will band those. She is supposed to have her braces on for 18 months. They should come off just before she starts Junior High. Pretty cool. Her appointment took about 3 hours from start to finish. She did really well. We really like her orthodontist. They are all so nice and he was really awesome and gave us a deal on them. Rachel sounds different too. They have to put blocks on her top front teeth on the backsides of them to keep her from biting off her bottom braces. She is going to take a while getting used to those.

Rachel's braces are a new type of brace. The wires to the work instead of the elastics. She only has to get her braces tightened every 6-8 weeks. There is less pain this way. I am happy and so is she about that. I remember my braces being tightened every 4 weeks and having to deal with the pain for 4 days after. She won't have to experience it like that.

****
Saturday January 16th.

Rachel is in a lot of pain right now. Poor girl. She is on lots of pain killers for it. She should hurt for a few more days. Poor her. She is handling the pain very well. She once in a while will shriek because she has bitten down on her teeth and they hurt.

I can't wait to see how her teeth change over the next while. Her gap in her front will be gone and she has a few teeth that are really crooked. Those will be straight as well. She will really love having straight teeth. I am excited for her. It will also be nice for Enoch and I to have a long break between braces as well. Jacob has not lost one tooth and doesn't have any loose either so it will be a real long time between braces. Nice to not be broke over braces.

San Diego Day 5

January 5th. Our last day of our trip. We flew out of Pheonix around 9 AM. We made it through security pretty fast and so we were able to go and eat breakfast in the airport before we flew out. It was really good. We ate at this restaurant that had some awesome breakfast choices. It was amazing to see all the Fiesta Bowl shirts with the score already on them in all of the gift shops. They had to of printed those the minute the game was over so they could have them out by the next morning. I was so glad that we were not flying back to Boise or anything like that because wow the lines at the ticket booths for everybody was so long. There were probably 100 people in line all wearing blue and orange.

It was so nice to fly back into San Diego. I love San Diego. Once we got there we had a 3 hour layover before our flight home. We booked it this way because at first we were planning on just staying in San Diego and we wanted to be able to sleep in. It ended up that we went to Pheonix and now had a long layover. We were flying home with Delta and if we wanted an earlier flight we would of had to pay $50 each to change the flight. That was not a hard decision for us. We checked our bags and then we took the bus back to the bay and walked around. We went to this area with some cool shops and restaurants. We looked at some stores and then just found some nice grass in a park and sat around. It was so nice and warm. I read and loved it. Enoch once again slept. I think that Enoch could sleep all the time if you let him.

We hung out on the pier and in the park for a while before we headed back to catch the bus back to the airport. We looked into renting a car for a few hours but it would have been $35 instead of the $10 it cost for the bus. I really loved just being able to relax in the sun one last time before heading home. I honestly had no desire to go home. I wasn't missing my kids too much because I knew they were safe and happy. I could have spent another week away. I was so sad to leave San Diego and go home.

When we got on the plane to go home the flight attendant mentioned the weather in SLC, it was 25 degrees outside and then said that he thought that we should just skip Salt Lake and head to Alcopoco. I really loved that idea. We had 3 missionaries heading home and I was tempted to yell out give the missionaries parachutes and drop them off over Salt Lake and fl y us somewhere warm. It was so sad to fly over the ocean and the beaches and an hour later fly into the snow. Oh so sad. I am a warm blooded person who likes to be warm in the winter.

When we landed we found out that not only were the missionaries going home but they were also being filmed for a movie the church was making. They had film crews following them through the airport and then filming them as they saw their families. We walked in front of the camera and behind the missionaries intentionally a couple of time. Maybe we'll be in the movie. (Probably not and who know what the movie even is).

Our drive home from SLC went well. I was still so sad to be home. We arrived home around 7:30 PM. The kids were not home yet from Collin's birthday party. When they got home they were excited to see us. Kaelen was not very sure. He smiled at me and then ran to Enoch. I was surprised about that. While we were gone he started calling Grandma "mama." He really didn't miss us. His first night a way from us was hard but after that he slept through the night. Now Kaelen has never really slept through the night. Once we left he slept 12-13 hours a night. I couldn't believe it. I wish that we had left him sooner. Leaving was just the best thing that we did for him.

He now sleeps through the night all the time and also he is no longer afraid to go to nursery. He used to scream and cry and we would never leave him. Now he might cry if he does for 2 minutes and then he is happy the rest of the time. He also will go to peoples houses with me and not cling to me for dear life. He will actually run off and play. I just can't believe the change in him. It is so nice. Thank you Gloria and Chuck for helping make this happen. It has been so nice for Enoch and I.

Okay I was happy to see our kids and it didn't take long till Kaelen didn't want us to put him down. He will wrap his legs around you and hold on so tight that you can't let him down. It is nice to feel so loved. The kdis loved their presents as well. We bought Rachel a pink fleece sweater that says SD on a corner, Jacob got this awesome air plane that attaches to this base where you pull the string and the airplanes flies around, and Kaelen got a USS Midway mini soccer ball. All the kids loved what they got.

This trip was so amazing. I loved spending time just with Enoch and doing some amazing things. It was so good on our relationship and marriage. We just seem happier. We were not having problems at all but we just our so much closer now. We are already talking about needing to go away soon again. We need to make sure that we plan a trip every year together. Everybody needs to do it and I suggest you all go to San Diego.