Sweet 16 Surprise for Kayla

Kayla will be turning 16 at the end of next month.  This has been the hardest birthday ever to wait for. We knew there would be some drawbacks to having her skip a grade when she was younger....and this was one of them.   But she made it through.  She is such an amazing young women.  Full of love and kindness.  Wise and witty beyond her years. And  brings so much joy to our family.   With this long wait, we wanted to do something really special for her 16th Birthday.  Here is the revealing of her special gift.  

                                                                  Opening the bag to find..

                                                                  another box,  to find

tissue paper covering a snow globe, to find

a note attached to the Mickey Mouse snow globe reading: 

So glad you can celebrate your 16th Birthday with me at

    DISNEYLAND

We nailed it!  She was surprised and over joyed!!!

This girl would live at Disneyland if she could.  That is her favorite place to be

 (with any beach a close 2nd)  but this truly is a .......Dream Come True!

From the sadness of Aubrey leaving, to the joy of Kayla's big trip - it has been quite a day.  

MIRACLES - BYU Bound

After spending most of the day Saturday sleeping and feeling absolutely horrible, we were getting a little worried about Aubs making it down to BYU to start classes on Monday.  Saturday night, we decided to start a Family Fast on her behalf.

Since the time of Adam, God’s people have fasted to help them draw near to Him and to worship Him. Jesus showed the importance of fasting by His own example (see Luke 4:1–4). Through latter-day revelation we learn that the Lord still expects His people to fast and pray often (see D&C 88:76).

To fast is to go without food and drink voluntarily for a certain time.   Fasting, combined with sincere prayer, can help prepare yourself and others to receive God's blessings.

We firmly believe in the power of fasting and prayer, and desired to call upon the powers of heaven to help Aubs to heal and be able to move forward with starting school on time.  Uniting together as a family to fast brings a tremendous spirit to our hearts and home and we could feel the love of the Lord for our family and we sought His help in this matter.  

We all arrived home about 3:30 Sunday afternoon to pray together and conclude our Fast.  I can testify that the Lord heard our prayers and blessed Aubrey physically as well as spiritually, enabling her to say her final Goodbye's and for us to drive her down to her new home.  

Here She Is - less than 4 days post surgery with Advil as her only medication source.  It was time to say her Final Goodbye's and head out!

In the short time we have been dealing with Aubrey's shoulder, we have seen countless tender mercies and miracles wrought by the hand of the Lord.  I know that to be true.  I know that with every fiber of my being, as we have seen doors open, appointments take place that should taken takes weeks or months to occur, nurses and doctors placed in her path that could specifically bless and strengthen her.  We have seen healing and comfort take place beyond what is normally possible.

We know that the Lord lives.  That he knows each of us individually and loves each of us unconditionally.  Prayers are answered and miracles have not ceased.

  We love this girl and are excited for the new adventures that await her - for the goodness, light, and love she can share with others and the growth and learning that will take place as she begins this new phase of life.

Surgery Time

     Final preparations before she headed in. All Smiles!

The surgeon was anticipating about an hour and a half in the operating room.  After about 2 1/2 hours, I started to get a little worried, but eventually he brought Nic and I into the Consult Room to discuss how everything went.  He thought there may be more damaged that what he could see from the MRI, but he didn't realize the full extent until he was actually in there. For as well as she was functioning, he did not anticipate needing to do 3 full procedures and use every anchor available in the operating room.  

Dr. Beck had the surgery recorded and while she was in recovery, had it made into a 30 minute highlight video for us to watch as well as a multi page picture album showing the surgery progression chronologically.  This picture shows some of the separation that was occurring in her shoulder.  There should be NO gap here versus the 2 cm one he found once he got in there.

She spent a few hours in recovery resting and fighting the oxygen tube in her nose, as no one in our family seems to come out of anesthesia well.

Headed home

To spent time in one of these two locations.... But hoping for a quick recovery, as her first day of classes at BYU was now less than 5 days away.  There were lots of prayers offered on her behalf.   

Kayla - 11th Grade

First day of school for this high school junior.  Aubrey used her right shoulder one more time to straighten Kayla's amazing hair.

Such a beautiful girl - Ready to go take on the new school year

Love you Kay!  You're a Rock Star - You'll be awesome!

Surgery Countdown - 22 hours

Today has been CRAZY.  It's Tuesday.  Aubrey's MRI results are in and surgery is the only option on the table.  They had originally scheduled her for Sept. 24th, but through a not so small miracle, she is going in tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow morning!  Being that it has only been a few days since her initial appointment with her pediatrician to look at her shoulder, we are amazed how quickly everything happened.  There have been a lot of tender mercies along this path, but this day would prove to be full of even more.  

There are a few things you have to do to prep for a surgery like this, beyond just fasting the night before.  We learned she needed to be seen at the Main Hospital for lab work, get pre-registered at the Orthopedic Hospital for surgery, be fitted for a shoulder pad thing they would place over the bandages immediately after surgery, rent an ice machine (which required an appointment and was way far away) 

as well as fill out piles of paperwork.  Oh, and since you are starting college Monday morning (in 6 days) maybe we should call the University and see if we can pay a fee to move you in early .....meaning TODAY before your surgery in the morning, so you'll be situated whenever you are ABLE to make it down to college.  And yes, Dad is out of town this week, running his company's annual convention in Los Angeles, but hey....we are still SMILING!!!!

Move In Afternoon

As if the whirlwind of this morning hadn't been enough, we then drove down to Provo for an 'early' move -in.    Most students wouldn't be arriving on campus for another day or two, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which also meant, we pretty much had no guidance on what we were doing or how to get that stupid bed raised so she could put stuff underneath it.  

 The task seemed simple enough, but man did we struggle.  Oh, did we struggle with that thing.  It's amazing we didn't break anything or kill ourselves trying to balance and move this huge unit around so we could use the allen wrench we had checked out from the other building to try to adjust and screw the legs into place.  It was frustratingly hilarious as we striped one of the screws on the back of the bed and just had to laugh at how this crazy day was going.

 Cute decorations on the door welcoming she and her roommate Amy.









Then to the task of fitting all her clothes into this tiny closet.  Nic arrived on site after about 2 hours of our futile attempts, to help us with the bed.   Once that was situated, the AE jeans expert went right to work folding her zillions of shirts, sweatshirts, and jeans.  Somehow he got almost everything to fit, and I took the leftovers back home to add to my closet.

Her comfy new bed.  I think she'll always appreciate it after having to put it together.

Here she is...official BYU student outside her dorm, with her room key hanging from her lanyard

Bye David John Hall.  It's been nice meeting you.....now it's time to head back to Salt Lake for shoulder surgery.  

One Last Lani's

With the girls completing their 1st full day of school, and Aubrey getting ready to start her pre-surgery fast, we decided to make one more pit stop for some Lani's Shaved Ice, before calling it a night.   

Middle School Buddies

These 2 girls are headed off together for their first day of 7th (Emily) and 9th (Lindsay) grades. 

Emi is not too nervous about the whole middle school thing.   She visited the school a few times to find her locker and all her classes.  She does think she'll be getting quite a bit of exercise this year going back and forth across campus for her classes.                                                                                                                                                          This year she is taking:                                                                        8th Honors Math, (Robert's genes)  Honors Reading, Utah Studies, College and Career Awareness, Choir, Science, and Language arts.   She's looking forward to making new friends and enjoying life as a 'Sevie'.

This beautiful girl is now a 9th grader.  She is looking forward to a fun year with her friends as the oldest and kindest class at the Middle School.  We love that 9th grade is still housed in the middle school here as she is able to start AP and college prep courses in the comfort and security she has felt these past few years at SoJo.   This will be a great year for Lindz!  Love you girl!

Packing Up & Moving Out

We've always known Aubrey would move out and go away to college.  In fact, for the past 5 months, we've even known exactly where she would be moving away to.....but that doesn't make it any easier.

When she started taking everything down from her walls and packing stuff in boxes, it started to feel a little weird.

There was some initial excitement.....

followed by some emotional moments.  Life has been good here.  She has had so many great experiences and opportunities, and has been surrounded by so many great people.  It was when she started going through the piles of notes and cards and memorabilia that has meant so much to her over the few years, that this next big step in life became very real.  

She is ready.  So ready, but recognizes that once she packs up her room, and hands it over to Lindsay, life will never be quite the same again.  

One last Dr Visit?

Within Aubrey's college move-in date, less than 2 weeks away, we decided to make one last quick visit to her pediatrician, Dr. Johnson.  Aubrey was actually one of his 1st patients when he opened his practice 15 years ago, and she's been having some shoulder issues, so we thought she'd better get it checked before she left.  As you can see from the pic above, the quick visit quickly turned into something more.  When he saw how much movement she had in her shoulder, meaning it comes in and out of the socket with any slight movement of her arm and shoulder, he quickly got in her to an Orthopedic Specialist and a MRI.  

Prior to the MRI, they numbed up her entire shoulder so they could inject dye into that area to help them see any tears or dislocations.  Her shoulder had not felt THIS GOOD in about 2 years, and she was loving it.  

Her shoulder started bothering her back when she was a Sophomore and cheering at Bingham.  It's bothered her on and off since then, but never to a point where she felt she couldn't function or perform at the level she wanted to (being that she was the last-cut as this years BYU Cheer Tryouts, she was still functioning at a very high level)  But over the summer the pain gradually increased to the point where she was losing her mobility and could not extend her right arm up over her head anymore.  Time for an MRI to see what was going on in there.