#'s 11 and 12, race for the cure a Texas visit, and two graduations

May 10th brought a new little person into our family. We are so excited to welcome little Annie into our family. She is a beautiful little girl. We didn't get to see her until she was 12 days old. This little family waited along time for her. I call her our little tender mercy baby, because she came about, the same week that we found out Des had cancer. I know that she is a blessing from up above, at that very moment in time. It has been so fun being here with them and seeing our TX family, Sharise included. :) Before we went to TX there were a few other things that took place...........................May 12th brought the Race for the Cure, we drove up the day before to prepared for this day. Sat morning we woke up early, rode the Trax in town. It was fun to be there to support Des in this cause. There was a huge crowd there. She had alot of support from family and friends running/walking in her name. The survivor walk at the end of the race was very emotional, I will just say I am glad that I had my sunglasses on because it hid the tears that were there. We are so grateful for the support, prayers and fasting in her behalf.
Because we were leaving for TX on the 22nd and Lukes B-day is the 28th we celebrated on the 20th, he wanted a Buzz lightyear cake so Brit and I decided to to Buzz cupcakes. They were kinda fun to make and did not take to long at all. Happy B-day Lukie!!
Tues the 22nd, we headed to TX, Dan, Chantelle and Haiven came with us for their family vacation. The pics below are at the airport and on the plane. She was a very good girl. You can see in the picture below that ripping up a napkin kept her pretty busy while dad caught a few ZZZZZZZ. As soon as the plane started the descent, Haiv decided she would go to sleep, after filling her diaper of coarse. The flight is 2 1/2, 3 hrs and she decides to go to sleep the last 15 min of the flight. :)
When we arrived at Danette's we had to celebrate some birthdays. Sam's was on the 12th so we let him open a present that we brought him. And that very day was Carly's so she opened presents and then we had cake and ice cream. The cake was yummy that Danette made.
AT THE LAKE

Sunday we attended church, and they decided to bless Annie while we were there. They chose to bless her in their home as they have the other two. Family was there plus a bishopric member. Love feeling the spirit where ever there is a baby blessing done. Sweet little things that just left the presence of our Heavenly Father. Then of coarse we had a wonder dinner after.

We went for a drive to the Battleship, USS Texas, on Mon. It was very interesting looking around the ship and imagining what it would have been like to live on a battleship for who knows how long. No privacy at all on these ships, unless you were very high up in the ranks.

May 17th and May 29th we had two little graduates. Raylie graduated on the 17th from her pre-school which I was home and able to go to. Carly graduated from kindergarten on the 29th and we were lucky enough to be in TX for her graduation. Carly is the one with the black top an levi skirt on the front row. I know that our little Ellie graduated from pre school as well this year but was in TX when hers took place. This is my favorite critter on the farm. This is Jack and I love to feed him carrots so I thought I would introduce Haiven to Jack and let her feed him some carrots, not sure if she was loving it like I do. She was a little timid when he approached us with those big teeth of his. And below are the new pigs added to the farm.

Some random pictures of smores night after Carly's graduation, and the kids playing.

Dan, Chantelle, Haiven, Grandpa and Grandma drove to Kemah Bay the Tues before they were to return home. The pictures below are of Haiven entertaining herself at lunch. We went to the Aquarium for lunch and it was all blue in there thus for the blue pics below, loved how they turned out all blue excpt for her pink flower.

More picture at Kemah

When we were headed to Kemah I received a phone call from Brit telling me about her Dr appt. she was dilated to a 5, the Dr told her that if she kept having contraction later today to go to the hospital. Now this little man was told by grandma (ME) that he was to wait until she got back home before he was to enter this world. After all he was not due until the 17th, so I figured getting home on the 8th would work out just fine. So we were keeping in touch all that day. Josh' mom was kinda on call to come help out if that day came before I returned. And yup that little guy did not listen to his grandma because he was born at 10:30 that night. He was 19 days early, now with that came some problems. Brit was 37 wks which is usually ok for babies to be born, the little man weighed in at 6lb 15oz and 19" long so not too small. But this little guy had not one, not two, not even three, but four things that usually come with being a preemie. Not to go into all the details but he stopped breathing as soon as the cord was cut, found out that he was born without surfactin which keeps the lungs inflated. Later finding out he has an ASD and a VSD (hole in arterial and ventricle) and a PPS which is a narrowing of some veins, which are all symptoms of a preemie. So needles to say when I received the phone call that he had been born and then heard first that he had stopped breathing, and they had whisked him away, it was heart breaking, Josh was with the baby and no one was with Brit, it was so hard. So my motherly instincts kicked in and I called Rons mom who happened to be in St. George at that time (on call as well) to see if she would go and be with Brittanyso she would not be alone.

I just think that us moms should be able to be where ever, whenever and in two places at once if need be. I need to get someone to work on that teleporter (you know the one from Star Trek) so that I can be here, there and everywhere when I need to be. :)

Had thought about flying home early but you know what the rate of a on the spot airline ticket would cost. And besides Ron was leaving the next day, Brit had her Mother in Law there and Grandma was there, I know she had help and support. So I stayed until my scheduled day, but I had updates continually and many pictures, even skyped with the little man. It was heart breaking to see the little guy struggle to breath. :(

Wed Ron, Dan, Chantelle and Haiven left for home, like I said above, I stayed another week to help out, not so sure I helped out so much, Danette was settled right in to being a mommy of three. But it was fun to be able to spend some more time with them and hold baby Annie more. It was fun being there for Sharise' 21st birthday. Can't believe my baby is 21. Oh well it happens right? I had a fun week holding Annie and playing with Carly and Sam. I decided on Thurs that I would try to do stand by on Fri to get an earlier flight home, so I called at 7 am and there were 10 seats open on the 11:30 flight piece of cake right? My flight was not due to leave until 5:30 so I thought I will get at the airport at 9am and would get my name on the stand by list and with 10 seats left I would be flying home early that day and be able to get home in time to go see Kaiden at the hospital. When checking in and paying the $75.00 to get on the stand by list, I was told that the 10 seats were gone. But I got all checked in and went through security and got to the gate in time for them to announce that the 11:30 flight had been delayed 2 hours. AUGGGGGG, but I was all calm and collected knowing I for sure would get on the flight. With a gate change and another announcement telling all the stand by people that this flight was full we all had been rolled over to the 2:06 flight. So with just about 15 min before that flight boarded, I started looking for my name on the stand by list (which I was #7 on the list to start with) I had been bumped down 2 names because of 2 people with higher priority than I. Now really who has higher priority than this grandma who needs to get home and see her new grand baby which happens to be in the NICU? So therefore I did not get on that flight either, so next option was my original flight of 5:30. Now remember I had been there since 9 am and it was now a little after 2, my phone had less than 1/2 the battery life and all I had was my car charger not my wall charger, I could not get my laptop to connect to the wifi in the airport, so I had to resort to the old fashion way of waiting at the airport and go buy two magazines, blaaaaaa. 5:00 comes and we start boarding the plane, plane is boarded, everyone is seated and we are all ready to take off. But oh no not yet, the co-pilot comes over the intercom and tells us that the pilot was not due in until 7:00 he was still in flight from Chicago, so OFF the plane we go and wait some more. So by the time I finally took off I had been in the airport for 8 1/2 hours. And then the long drive home from Vegas. All I can say is WHAT A DAY!!!!!

So this is how I got to see little Kaiden Saturday morning, he was release Fri night around 8 and was sent home with the lights because he was jaundice. Poor little man, but he is doing really good.

I am thankful for the many blessing our family has received this past year, we have had some really big growing experiences, and what would life be without the opportunity to grow and be stretched. I have tried really hard to be patient and calm, to lean on my Father in Heaven for comfort. I can say it hasn't been without many tears shed but that is my way of handling things. This momma and grandma LOVES her family!!!!!!!!