Our oldest

Our spotlight would not be complete if I didn't share about Carter. I wanted to post pictures but I ( imagine this) can't figure out how to scan them in. Sorry. He was born Mar. 2, 1997. He was born with Down syndrome and about 40% of kids with Downs have heart problems. He had many heart surgeries. The first starting at 9 days and then 6 months, 7 months, 3 years. The 3 year surgery he had his mitral valve replaced with a titanium valve. He was very very sick for a long time and was on the ventilater for about 4 weeks. We were in Denver at the time which is an awesome childrens hospital. From there I flew to CA to live with J parents hoping we could return to CO. Well it never happened and J moved to CA. C also had eye muscle surgery, tonsils and adnoids removed, pneumonia a few times requiring hospital stays. He was on oxygen most of his life and enough meds to have a medicne cabinet with his name all over it. That is some of the depressing medical parts of his life, but he didn't know any different. He loved life and was so happy all the time. He had to have blood draws every week and he was so tough he would just put his arm out and rarely cried. He never talked so we signed to him and he signed back but he understood everything we said. I think he really understood alot more than we did about alot of things. He loved to look at the childrens friend magazine and would find the pictures of Jesus Christ and sign Jesus. He loved Primary songs. He loved cheetos and hotdogs, broccoli and water. He was tube fed for 2 years so we think that he didn't know the joy food could bring and it was a fight. And with all the meds his mouth was fried of taste buds. When he did eat it was very strong flavors, salsa, garlic, chips, lemon juice, ketchup, mustard. Well this is getting long so I will wrap it up here soon. He was happy. He loved to have J come home everynight that was the highlight. He would play and talk his jibberish and love his dad to pieces. He passed away on June 14, 2002 in my arms. We miss him but are so grateful that we got to enjoy him as long as we did. Well I guess that is all of our spotlights or is it?

our sweet D

I know that my pictures are old. I will take some new one of these days. D is almost 8. She is a great helper. She loves to "babysit" (watch other kids not her siblings while they are outside). She loves school and learning especially math and science. She is like a sponge and just absorbs it all. She likes to ride her bike, train Dora (dog), jump on the trampoline, be outside. She is agreat kid. She is a super helper to M and loves to carry her(?). Most of all I think she loves to play with friends. She is very social and loves to have people over. We love her and sure appreciate all she does.

The P man

Ok so I haven't blog for awhile. I need to finish my spotlights like I was going to do so here is one more. P is 51/2. He has a funny sense of humor. He loves to be with dad doing anything. He is very sensitive and tender, usually. One horse got out the other day while we were messing with the others and he burst into tears. "Mom mom hurry she is getting out" It is ok we are right here she is not going anywhere" But mom" He was so worried about Moe getting out. He loves to jump on the trampoline. He is very athletic and strong, but we also call him crash sometimes because if someone is going to fall, run into something, it is going to be him. He loves school. He loves to tell me about his lessons in primary and goes into great lenght to relay what he has learned. Well that is about all that I can think of. He is a great kid and a good helper and we love him.

Camping

We went camping on Friday night. We had a very long, miserable, sleepless night, hence the very asleep kids on the way home. The wind was blowing about 40 miles an hour. Wind and tents don't mix, not with sleep anyway. We had fun but will find a not so winding spot next time.