Kate's Celebration

Bryan and I along with our families can't even begin to express how grateful we are for the outpouring of love and support we have been shown during this very hard time. We want to invite all to join in the celebration of Kate's life.

We will be holding a funeral service for Kate on Saturday, March 29 at the Cedar Hollow 5th Ward (1050 East 1900 North - Lehi, UT) at 11:00 am. There will also be a viewing Friday night at the Wing Mortuary (118 East Main Street - Lehi, UT) from 6:00 - 8:00 pm and also one prior to the services on Saturday from 9:00 - 10:30 am.

I have attached a link to the obituary. I think this is my very favorite picture of Kate:

Kate's Obituary

Sweet, Sweet Kater Bugs!

Our sweet little Kater Bugs returned home last night to be with her loving Heavenly Father. We miss her tremendously, but know that Kate fulfilled her mission here on this Earth. We feel so incredibly blessed to have had Kate as long as we did, considering her odds. We always said that Kate has the biggest heart of anyone we know.....and physically she did, but her little body couldn't compensate for it. She touched so many lives and we have felt so many prayers in her behalf. Kate brought an immense amount of joy and happiness into our lives and the lives of others and we feel so privileged to have spent the short time we had with her. She taught us so many valuable lessons that we will treasure. We are so grateful for the Plan of Salvation knowing that we are and Eternal family. We love you Princess Kate!

HAPPY EASTER!

All dressed up with no place to go!!!

I've had a hard time accepting that Easter came so early this year. It seems like we just finished celebrating Valentine's Day. I guess it goes to show that time sure flies by.

I love Easter....not because it's a sign that Spring is here or the fact that I can stock up on Mini Cadbury Eggs (however, those are just a bonus), but because it is a time to celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior. I am so grateful for Christ's atoning sacrifice for us and what a blessing the atonement has been in my life.

This Easter was a little different for our family. In years past, I have enjoyed spending time with both our families doing traditional Easter stuff. With all of Kate's new accessories, it makes it hard to go anywhere. So, Bryan and I decided to stay home this year and spend Easter just the 3 of us. We didn't start any new traditions, but I did make a mighty fine roast :) My brother and his cute fiance, Kirstin, surprised us with a visit on their way back from Fillmore, so that was nice hanging out with them.

There Must be Something in The Water.....

We are so excited that Kate was able to come home yesterday. We are definitely ready to have her out of the hospital.....and so is she. Amber (our home nurse) was able to come up and help me bring her home. We feel so lucky to have Amber. She has been such an amazing help. We actually weren't expecting Kate to come home that soon (we thought it would be closer to the weekend), so I had previously planned a night out with my girlfriends. Well, Kate was released about 4:00 yesterday afternoon and I thought this is plenty of time to get home, get Kate situated and drive back up to SLC to meet the girls for dinner at 7:00. But, there always seems to be some kind of "bump in the road." There was a pretty bad accident right before 215 and I-15 merge which caused a significant backup to about 2000 East. Needless to say, we arrived home at 6:20. Thanks to my AMAZING husband (who was home waiting for us) we got Kate all situated, I dropped Amber off at home and was at Mimi's Cafe by 7:05 (no speeding involved......well, maybe just a little).

Gina, Teresa, Me, Treo (the 4th prego girl)

I love being able to spend time with my girlfriends. It's so refreshing to get away for a few hours and just talk and laugh. I have some pretty amazing friends. Not to mention 4 of us are pregnant and due fairly close to one another....there must be something in the water???

P.S. Only 31 more days to go!!!!

Wearing O' The Green!

I wanted to share some cute pictures of Kate. The rule on St. Patrick's Day should be that if you are in a hospital and wearing GREEN, then there shouldn't be any pricks, shots or pinches. Well, at least there were no pinches today :)

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Count your MANY blessings!!!

Kate has been doing much better the past couple of days. Things are looking like she will be coming home one day this week. Since Kate was so sick, her kidney function has decreased slightly but the neuphrologist thinks that this will heal on its own with some time. ....whew! So far she has shown improvement. They want to observe her over the next couple of days and make sure her electrolytes are staying balanced. Also, tomorrow is the last round of Synagis (her RSV shot). It's been such a relief knowing that Kate has been somewhat prevented from getting RSV. She has to have 1 shot a month during the season (November - March). We have been so blessed that she has not gotten this nasty virus........especially considering 1/3 of the patients are here because of RSV. Adios RSV season!

On a different note.....Bryan has been working hard trying to get the odd and end things done on our basement. We have the carpet layers coming tomorrow to lay the carpet, so he has been trying to get all the painting and trim done. I sometimes think we are a little bit crazy adding more and more madness to our lives. However, I must admit that it will be so nice to have our basement finished, especially before the baby gets here. I'm happy to say that I have only 5.....yes count them.....5-weeks left. We are so excited for this new little addition to our family.

Normalcy.....What's Normalcy?

As sad as it is for me to say....we had to make the much dreaded trip back to Primary's. We have had a stressful week. It first started last Saturday when Kate spiked a fever. No big deal....just give her some Tylenol and let her rest. Well, that seemed to work until the Tylenol wore off. This continued to be the trend the rest of the week. On Tuesday, we took her in for some blood work at AF Hospital. Well, everything came back pretty normal except her white blood cell count was really high. With Kate's symptoms, they thought she may have mono. So, they did further testing and the mono test came back negative. So, we just kept doing what we were doing. It wasn't until yesterday that we became VERY concerned. Bryan and I woke up yesterday morning around 3:00 am and Kate was burning up.....she was running a temp of 104 degrees. But, the crazy thing was all of her extremities were ice cold and her heart rate was around 170, when it's normally around 120-130. So, we stayed up with her to try and break her fever. We weren't having much luck. Around noon, she spiked a fever of 106 degrees. Finally, after doing all we could do at home we made the decision to take her to the ER. I'm so glad we did.

Kate was really sick. Upon arriving, things moved so quickly. They immediately started taking blood samples to test for all viral and bacterial infections. It turns out that Kate tested positive for a staph infection in her blood. The most frustrating thing is that the test results came back last Wednesday that Kate had this infection, but through lack of communication, we were never notified. Basically, it was causing Kate's little body to shut down. Her heart was pumping so hard to keep her internal organs functioning, that she wasn't getting any blood flow to her arms or legs. Kate had a pretty rough night last night. We were concerned that this infection was compromising her heart function. After doing an echo of her heart today, we found that her heart is functioning well. This was a HUGE relief, as we thought that her heart was in serious failure.

So, here we are AGAIN!!! Kate is doing so much better today. She's currently on a strong antibiotic and there are still more tests pending, but as of now she is comfortable and doing fairly well. I'm so grateful for inspiration and "mother's intuition" because we have been told by numerous people that if we didn't bring her in when we did, she probably wouldn't have made it through the night. We love Kate so much and feel so lucky to have been blessed with such a little fighter. We're just hoping that this stay won't be an extended one......

2 Reasons why I LOVE being pregnant....

Reason # 1

I just keep growing and growing and growing.....

As sad as it is to say, I think I just had my last spinning session last night :( Spinning has been a life saver for my sanity during this pregnancy. However, I must have grown significantly this past week because I went to class last Monday night and didn't have any problems. Well, it was a little different scenario this week......I couldn't quite adjust my bike just right so that my knees didn't jab me in the tummy every time my legs turned. I have come to grips that I am probably done with spinning until after this baby is born and I think the baby girl will thank me!

Reason #2
People say the dumbest things.....

So the other day, I had this insatiable craving for one of those cookies from Maverick....you know the big sugar cookies with the pink frosting? Yes.....I wanted one really bad!! Well, I gave into my craving and headed to Maverick. As I proceeded to check out, the clerk asked me how far along I was. I told her I was due in April. Her eyes widened and she said, "Oh, so you are expecting twins?" Ahhhh!!! What I really wanted to say was, "No, I'm actually expecting triplets."

Only 7 more weeks to go. I actually really do love being pregnant, but I think I am ready to be done and have this sweet baby here already!