Baby Shower

Two other ladies in my ward are expecting little boys this summer - Gwen is due with her second boy a month before me in July, and Sara is due with kiddo #4 at the end of August. Technically we have all had boys before and shouldn't fall under the baby shower category but thanks to Anna, April, Lizzie and everyone else, all three of us ladies got a triple baby shower together! It was so fun talking with everyone and eating all the yummy food. The get-to-know-you game was a little embarrassing for me personally, but the ladies seemed to get a kick out of it! ;)

Pictures of everyone at the party would be much more entertaining, but sadly I forgot my camera. So, I'm settling for a "loot" picture and one showing off the diaper cakes that both April and Sara made us (Jake got to Sara's before I could put it up high and my pathetic recreation doesn't do her justice). Thanks again everyone, it was a blast! :)

Daddy Time

Jeremy heads to New Orleans tonight and will be gone all week so I thought I'd share some of our special Daddy pictures. Hurry back Daddy!

Blood Flow

This last Tuesday (6/3), the cardiologist from OHSU traveled down to Eugene and gave us our latest echo. Right away she noticed a small amount of blood flow on the left side of our son's heart. When I heard this news, my hopes shot through the roof. Previously the doctors told us his heart wasn't growing due to lack of blood flow on that left side, and we've been praying for blood flow ever since.

Well . . . apparently blood flow can be a bad thing in our situation, if you can believe that! If both valves on the left side are completely closed off, that's "ok." If both valves are slightly open, that's "ok" too. But, if one is open and one is completely closed off then it can either signify or create (sorry I can't remember which) blockages in other coronary arteries. At our last echo our baby had both slightly open but since then the aortic valve has closed off completely. She said that since it closed at such a late stage that it might me nothing, or it might mean everything.

If he does in fact have blockages in other coronary arteries, he will definitely need a heart transplant because the surgeries would not repair the blocked coronary arteries. Before this news, we have been feeling pretty confident in our decision to stay at Doernbechers for the 3 surgeries, but they don't do heart transplants. In fact, Oregon does not have a pediatric heart transplant facility at all so if we end up needing a heart transplant then we would be shipped off to Loma Linda in California.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to know for sure whether there really are other blockages until he is born and they can do a cardiac catheterization. The cardiologist said that even with a catheterization we might miss blockages that would put him at a higher risk during and after the surgeries.

So, for now we are seriously researching hospitals that deal with pediatric transplants and trying to decide if delivering at Doernbechers is still the best choice. I know the Lord has a plan for our son and our family and pray He will direct us.

Two of Jake's Favorite People

Last weekend, Uncle Travis drove his motorcycle down from Washington for a visit. Jake has become quite obsessed with his "uncle spiderman" and was elated to have him at "Jakey's house." The big highlight came when Jake got to ride along on the motorcycle.




Another person Jake looks forward to seeing is his gymnastic's coach. Coach looks a lot like Eric from Survivor and whenever we watched an episode Jake would root for his "coach." Today coach had the day off from gymnastics and Jake was pretty upset that he didn't get to see him. So, we are posting a picture for him to look at instead.











Edited: I felt bad leaving Julie out of the post and then I remembered her favorite "person." We recently had to buy a replacement pig because her original was suffering from too much love (think: smelly even after washing it). Of course when we got back from the toy store she found her original and carried around two until she fell asleep. For some reason the old one's been missing ever since. ;)

Letters and Ouchies

Jake has been interested in learning letters for quite awhile now, but I just had to share his latest project. He received letter flashcards for his birthday, and last week all on his own initiative he matched the cards with his magnetic letters. I got a kick out of watching him make sure the letters all lined up and you could see the letter on each card. I wonder where he gets his organization skills from because it's definitely not from me!


Julie wasn't having a very good day - she got hives. Apparently she's allergic to the antibiotics we gave her for an ear infection. Poor baby!

Florida Trip

Jeremy and I recently came back from a trip to Florida he won by being in the top 10% of sales rep for Eli Lilly in 2007! Great job going above and beyond your duty as bread winner for the fam. ;) We had a great time for 4 days on Sanibel Island and Captiva Island - if you ever get the chance, we highly recommend it. Uncle Lilly (our nick name for Jeremy's company) paid for a private fishing excursion. We only caught small stuff (no sharks like some other boats!) but we still had a blast. Our personal favorite past time was napping on the beach, but we also loved watching all the water fowl and even "adopted" a few. It wouldn't have been possible without the help of Nanna and Bumpa (who made a special trip down from Seattle to watch the kids) as well as Grandma Terri and Grandpa John once again. It was nice to just hop in the car and go somewhere without packing kids around, but we were both in agreement that there was something missing because we couldn't share the experience with them. It was so nice to come home and see their cute little faces there waiting for us!

Showing off our sunburns.

One of the few birds we actually saw at the wildlife preserve.

Just woke up from a nap.

Still has energy after his workout on the beach!


Poor little Julie's head is too big to fit into her out fit we brought back from Florida!

2 Months & Counting

Uncle Brian comes home from his mission in a little less than 2 months. What started out as a very neat and organized activity has recently taken on a style all its own. It's hard to see but the first year or so Jake and I were very diligent to make sure we put our star sticker on every day. I even made a cute rainbow pattern out of the stars - until they ran out. Now, for the past several months we've used more stickers on the kids than the chart! Can you guess which stickers Julie has helped put on all by herself? :) One of my first blog posts was about how much Jake loved stickers and I guess Julie is following in his footsteps!