Yes, we are still here!

I can't believe it has taken me this long to post, but we have had an unbelievably hectic week. I'll try to re-cap, I'll probably type too much, and I probably posted too many pictures, but oh well. As I mentioned in the last post, Kanyon had his first cold. I felt so sorry for him. He just felt so crummy. As if this week wasn't going to be hard enough, this came down on us. Luckily we had our 1 year well check already scheduled, so we were able to let Dr. Chris listen to him. His lungs sounded good and clear (THANK YOU!) so we just had to get through the cold. More about that later, but as you know, this was birthday week. Definitely an interesting range of emotions in our house. It seems kind of crazy to celebrate the worst day of my life, but we have a sweet little boy who is with us and that is what we celebrated...Kanyon!! We are so proud of him and how hard he has and is working to get stronger. I have to say that we have once again been floored by how generous and thoughtful our friends are. We received so many cards in the mail, flowers, emails, phone calls, etc. reminding us that there were people thinking about us and praying for us this week. I just can't believe the love we've felt. Thank you. Ok...on to pictures.

Here is Kanyon on his birthday talking to PawPaw (my dad). He called to tell him Happy Birthday. They chatted for a bit, but since Kanyon was puny, they kept it pretty quick.
The same people who were poking and prodding on Kanyon 1 year ago poked and prodded on him Wednesday. Dr. Chris and Amanda (who was a NICU nurse and is now in practitioner school) checked him out. That also means he got 4 shots and blood drawn...that in turn led to a sleepless night...well, I went to bed at 5:45 when mom came and relieved me. Sick + shots=fussy baby. He's never reacted to shots AT ALL, so this came out of nowhere. I think it was just too much. He was over it by the next afternoon. Here we are opening his first Birthday present from Cousin Sayler, Uncle Clint, and Aunt Sydni. He loved the shoes and took the time to read his basketball card!
My first birthday cake in the works. Thankfully my mom was here to help me and help with Kanyon. The poor baby had a rough week..I wish he would pick his times to be sick a little better. Like not during his birthday when I have a gajillion cupcakes to make and a party to have. It would've been IMPOSSIBLE without my mom. Not to mention she is the pro cake decorator who helped me know what to do.

Clay and Mo got there in time for Mo to help me put the finishing touches on the table. My future niece or nephew was there too as you can see in that beautiful round belly!
Here is the cake. I felt kind of lame just putting a bug on the top, but there was NO way I was going to try and draw one. And I whouldn't have done it green because every bug in the world is green and didn't show up...oh well.
Mom the birthday party sick baby helper of the YEAR!!!!!!!!!

I tried to keep the bugs manly...NO LADY BUGS!!!!!!!!!!! I did the cake, some dirt dessert, and lots of different cupcakes.

Here is the all too easy and non-creative Caterpillar. With our circumstances I ended up doing a few more caterpillars than I planned...green icing-one face-pretty easy.

Here is one of the beetles. I intended to have more of these, but they took FOREVER. I got them from Martha Stewart..that woman makes me mad. I think she is fake..her stuff doesn't even look real. Her beetles looked PERFECT and well...this was as good as mine got!
A bumble bee
Another beetle
A pic of the table..bugs bugs everywhere!!

Speaking of bugs...2 bugs showed up! Aubrey and LoLo came dressed for a bug party!! They have always been 2 of Kanyon's most thoughtful and talented friends. They made this awesome picture of Kanyon the tooth bug and came dressed with bug shirts and antennas! Thanks girls!

Here is the birthday boy himself. About 2 hours before the party he started to smile a little and act like he felt better. I wasn't sure how he would handle the party healthy, much less sick. He did great. That was BY FAR the most noise and stimulation he's had in his life. He did so great! We took his bouncy seat of course and he bounced away as happy as can be!
That is all the pics I have of the party..I got busy talking and didn't take any...OOPS!
We took this after the party..I was wiped out! And somehow I never cut the cake. Don't ask me how that happened. It wasn't like he was going to eat it anyways. We took care of it this weekend.

This was Kanyon voicing his opinion about the Happy Birthday hat that Aunt Nancye gave him.
Totally non-birthday related: I really think his eyes work better now! Since his surgery, he's discovered that he can look up and see things. He thinks the ceiling is HILARIOUS!!! Here he is laughing at the sky light in our living room. I just think it is so cute and we are so thankful and hopeful about his eyes.
I mean look at his sweet little face.
Since Kanyon was sick on Easter I never took a picture with his basket and him all dressed up. Well, he's not dressed up, but here is his basket. He could care less. I felt like I had to at least take a picture.


I'm sure I left something out, but that should give you something to look at for a while. We are headed to Dallas Wednesday for a feeding evaluation at a special feeding clinic. The feeding is going terrible and he's not gaining enough weight. We will probably be inpatient there at the clinic (we'll find out for sure after the eval) for a while and hopefully we can get some of his issues resolved or at least managed. We're going to EATING CAMP! This is kind of our last hope before we have to take more drastic measures. Please say an extra prayer for that this week. This has been a battle from the time we brought him home and has been the source of more stress than I thought I was capable of feeling. We are desperate for some help for all of us. We're hoping this is it! We'll keep you posted.

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers last week. We are so very very blessed.

My Little Monkey Man

Monkeys have recently become a theme for Kanyon. I'm not sure how it started, but I feel like he likes monkeys. His GREAT Aunt Nancye sent him this monkey shirt, and the monkey Easter eggs. I think this is the cutest shirt ever. We almost had a monkey birthday party, but I ran out of ideas past this shirt for him to wear and having banana pudding. We're having a bug party, but that's another post. Here are some pics from our little monkey photo shoot we had the other night while Kory was gone playing basketball.

See, his eyes aren't near as red and puffy.
I love this because you can tell how excited he was to be laying there playing. He was having a great time! I also like this pic because it shows off his frog like figure.

Chatting it up with his monkey friends.
I'm not sure if he was eating this monkey or chewing him out for something.
Fav pic because there is a striking similarity between Kanyon and the monkey on his shirt. Widows peak, ears, button nose, grin....love it!
Not a monkey picture, but too good not to post. I curled his spike with my fingers when I got him out of the tub the other night.

On a little sad note, we have officially gotten sick for the first time. It all started Saturday night with me thinking he just wasn't acting right, that continued Sunday and after church Sunday he was running a little bit of a fever. He was fussy and just so sad. He seems to be feeling better today, but his nose is running more and he has more of a cough. I was mostly worried about since we just got out of surgery and the micro preemie thing makes him at high risk for complications. I talked to his Dr. today and it doesn't seem like these things are connected. We have our 1 year well visit Wed. so that will work out good. He said if he's not better by then, he'll do a lung x-ray just to make sure. Until then, I have a great excuse to hold him and rock as much as I want. I knew the first cold or sickness was coming sometime, but the competitor in me had wanted to keep it off til he was 1. missed it by 2 days, dad gum. We are praying for a quick recovery and for his body to fight strong...after all, he has a party to get ready for!

Puff Daddy

Before I get to Puff Daddy, I'll catch you up on a few pictures from last week.

Kanyon LOVES to bite Kory's fingers! As soon as it is in his mouth he squeals and pulls his legs up and is just so happy!

A few little close-ups. I love his little mouth in these pictures.
That sweet little crossed eye is a little less crossed today. :)
A nice shot of his teeth (the total is now up to 6...2 bottom, 4 top). Unfortunately it is a nice shot of his boogers too. Sorry.

This pic cracks me up. He had just woken up and I put him in the chair until I got his bottle ready. My little sleepy head.

Here we are playing while we wait for the Practitioner for Pre-Op on Monday.
They put him in a little gown for surgery. I felt bad that he was so happy and cheery...no idea what was about to happen to him. I guess that's good, I just felt guilty.
Can you tell he was hungry, couldn't eat past midnight.

Back at Aunt Nancye's, we did a lot of cuddling...poor baby. Watching him wake up and be so uncomfortable was so hard. I hated it. I know there are people who have been through this more than us and worse surgeries than us, but no matter what, it is hard to watch your baby hurt.

Here is our little Puff Daddy. The inside corners of his eyes are totally red and he was pretty puffy all over. He had a little blood draining, but that has stopped. He looks much better today.

They told me that when he would try to open his eyes it would feel like they were full of sand. Yuck.

Despite the discomfort, he had a few smiles for his Great Aunt Nancye who took very good care of us.

Here he is today on the way back to Longview. You can see that his eyes are still puffy, but not near as bad. I took this because he decided to suck on his thummy sideways. Whatever P-Diddy.
I just took this about 1 minute ago. His cute little hiney was high in the air.
Thank you again for your prayers yesterday. I am just so relieved that it is over. We can already see improvement in his eyes and we're praying that they will be nice and straight and that this will help him with his overall visual development.

Surgery is OVER!

Hello blog world. It has taken me all day to get to a computer, but here I am. Kanyon had his eye surgery this morning about 9:15. The surgery didn't last very long at all and then we spent the rest of the day recovering. He thankfully did great during the surgery with the anesthesia and all. He was groggy and cranky for a while, then just got sleepy. They released us at about 3:30, but we decided to stay here in Dallas with my aunt. He is still pretty uncomfortable so I didn't think getting in a car for 3 hours was the best idea....and with all the crazy weather too! We're taking it easy eating and just taking it easy in general. His eyes are really red and puffy and there is a little blood. He is hoarse when he cries and it is just pitiful. If you've ever heard him cry, its pretty wimpy when its full force. It is such a tiny whimper, but the bottom lip is doing its pouty thing 100%! We hope this is our last surgery for a very very very very VERY long time. Maybe forever! Thank you for praying for him today (and us). This kind of thing is always scary to parents even when it is as "routine" as this was. We will head back to Longview in the morning and settle in at home. Thanks again for your prayers today.

Spike

I am about to do a post almost completely about hair, but I can't help it. That seems to be the theme the past few days. Like all of us, Kanyon has good hair days and bad hair days. I can't decide if an extra high spike is a good or bad hair day....I think good...at least until he gets older. Last week he had some unusually CRAZY HIGH SPIKE days. I couldn't help but take a few pictures.


I mean seriously, can you believe how high that is??
This is not the spike, but when I went to get him out of the car I found this. He'd fallen asleep chewing on his bandanna. So cute.

Nice shot of the spike and of the slobber on his bandanna.
The other night Kory wet the spike and it curled. This was the best picture I could get, but it doesn't do it justice.
I've mentioned before that he likes to twirl my hair. Well, he's recently found his own hair. He twirls his spike while he eats.
This has nothing to do with hair, but I thought it was funny. He was playing very aggressively on his mat and he pulled it down. I missed how it happened, I just turned around and found this. He didn't seem to mind, he liked playing burrito.

Dr. Update

Yes, that's right..another Dr. Update...we don't usually go much more than a week!! We started our day very early this morning (there at 6:30 am) for Kanyon to have an MRI done on his spine. I have been dreading this because he had to be put to sleep for the procedure. I was mostly dreading the fact that he would have to be intubated (breathing tube/vent) which I HATE and got plenty of in our NICU days. But, it was the safest way to do it. When I went to get him in recovery, the Dr. said that they didn't have to use the breathing tube..he breathed great the whole time on his own!!! YEAH!!!! Look at those chronic lungs doing their thing!! :) The only down side was that it took them 45 minutes and an UNREAL amount of tries to get an IV in him. Luckily he was already asleep, but his arms and legs are covered with "attempts". He woke up great and was back to his normal self very soon. We are so thankful. We met with the Neurosurgeon this afternoon to check in and get the results. The MRI came back normal. There is nothing wrong with his spine! That doesn't help us in the mystery of the crooked foot , but we are glad to not be dealing with the spine. I was actually more worried about the "getting put to sleep" think than the actual results and all of it went really well. I was reminded once again today that Kanyon is quite a trooper. This would all be so much more stressful if he wasn't so laid back and quick to bounce back from all the comotion. We will head back to Dallas on Monday to get ready for his eye surgery on Tuesday. Another "put to sleep thing" so keep the whole procedure in your prayers. I guess the biggest thing that we ask you to pray for right now is his head. It is measuring small and not growing much. The Dr. said that was common with shunted babies, but we want to ditch this! Obviously we need it to grow, so we are praying specifically for that. Thanks for coming along with us! And thanks for the sweet encouragement since my last post. I have some cute pics..I'll have to post them when I get back to Longview (I'm in Paris). Thanks again!

This time last year

Every year my family goes to Austin for the Boys High School State Basketball Tournament. Kory and I didn't quite make it this year (it is going on right now) and we are really sad we're not there. So we've been calling my parents and my brothers to hear about all of the games. I've thought a lot about that this week because I was there last year and I knew it would probably be my last for a while.....what crazy lady would take 9 month old twins to sit and watch basketball for 14 hours a day. Last year on Thursday afternoon I had what would be my last sonogram. My mom and Rachel were here and we were going to meet the boys in Austin who had left the day before. Of course while my mom was here she took a few pictures...this was the last picture of my big belly. I can't believe I'm posting it because its very "bald" and out there, so if you are offended by a raised up shirt exposing a preggy belly, don't look. I was starting to get to the point where every day I felt like I had added 5 more pounds to the belly. I loved it. I loved being pregnant. I think back on this time last year and those were really the most exciting days of my life. Kory and I were living a dream. We thought we were the luckiest people on the planet to get to have a baby and then to find out we got to have 2!!! A boy and a girl!!! I really have never felt better and more excited about my life. I walked around so proud and felt like I should tell the whole world that I was having a girl AND a boy!!! It was so fun being pregnant while teaching my 2nd graders. They loved those babies and gave me lots of great ideas for names, etc. I will say when they found out it was a boy and a girl, some were disappointed. Several said, "I thought you were having twins!" They were slightly confused. They were very good to me as I was getting to the point where bending over wasn't as easy as it used to be. My fellow teachers were so fun giving them lots of names like Bonnie and Clyde, Old Dan and Little Ann (I think that was actually from my brother Clay), I can't even remember any more right now, but there were new ones every day. To me and Kory they were usually A and B. I would leave Kory notes in the house or in his car and would sign them Jaymie, Pick, and Roll (if you don't know basketball that's not funny to you). I just can't even put into words all that we were thinking. We would joke about the craziness of having 2 babies but honestly never for a second doubted that we could do it. Granted I might have freaked out later on, but up to this point we were thrilled at the idea of 2 of everything and twice the lack of sleep! The instant family of 4. This was the week I consulted with my friend Lana (twin mom) and my friend Kara (she was pregnant with twins at the time too) and registered for the little ones. That was fun. Anyways, I'll stop now. My thoughts are scattered, unorganized, and not well written. I am not real sure why I'm even going into all of this on my blog..I try to keep things light and fun around here. Here are the pictures taken this time last year. I was about 2 1/2-3 weeks away from meeting them. That is Jayde's sweet little face I'm looking at on the screen.
Roselyn was there. Here she is taking a peek at her cousins.
Ok, that is really all. These pictures resemble so many things to me and hold such a unique meaning. It is bitter sweet to look at them because I know now that that was the purest joy I will ever feel. I don't know that I'll ever completely feel that way again. I had no idea what was about to slam into us. I guess thats how it works, we don't get to know. But, as I always say..here we are.