Happy Birthday Brenden!!!!!

Happy Birthday Brenden!!!!!!!

Wow! You are 5.....Amazing!!!!!

Kate's Home!!!

Yes!!! It's true! She is finally home! We brought her home last Thursday, July 17th.

Yay! They took out the feeding tube! Good job Kate!

Doesn't she look so cute without the tube???

We are all excited to have her home. And the kids think it's great that they can feed her bottles.

Brenden holding Kate

Big Sis loves her little sister. She is a very good helper and it is all we can do to protect Kate from the loves and kisses.

We did a photo shoot two days ago, on the 22nd. She looked so cute. And we still don't know where all her hair came from!

Welcome home Baby Kate!!!!! We love you and are so glad to have you home!!!

THANK YOU so much to everyone for all your help, love, support, prayers, and everything else you have done to help us!! Thanks to our families, friends, ward members, and especially to the medical staff who worked so hard to help us bring her home. Thanks for taking care of our baby, and helping us bring her home! We are in debt to a lot of people. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!! Thanks to all of you we have a beautiful healthy baby and a happy taken care of family. We are so blessed!!!!!!!!

Kate Update

Her first bath!!!!

The little tub she was in was 16 inches long, and she had lots of extra room. Crazy!!

My favorite nurses are the ones who put her in cute outfits, do her hair, and put a bow in. She looked so cute here!!!

This was yesterday. She is lying on my lap and fits just fine. She now weighs 5 pounds and 1 ounce (fatty=). She just needs to keep staying awake to eat, and eating her full feedings. She is doing better, but still gets a tube feeding once in awhile.

It's hard to get good pics when she is on your lap and with all the tubes and everything connected, but here are her beautiful eyes.

TJ T-Ball

TJ had a great time playing t-ball and did a great job!!! Way to go TJ!!!! And he got to play with his cousin Logan (khaki shorts, in front), how fun, way to go guys!!!!!

Look At My New Home!!!

When I walked in this morning I was so excited!!! She was out of the incubator and in the open cradle!!! Yay! AND, No more IV in her head!!! YAY!!!

Look at my open eyes and my cute pink clothes!!! And no more IV in my head!!!

Mom is so excited to have her out of the incubator!

She is still really little, but we love her!!!!

Baby Kate

Well, so much for the countdown!!!!!!! Did anyone notice what it said on Wednesday??? Oh, just 37 days!!! Well, it should have said 0. Yes, Kate Hanks surprised and scared us by coming 5 1/2 weeks early on Wed. July 2nd. My water broke at about 6:00pm and it was total panic. I was stuffing stuff in my bag, Justin was calling someone to watch the kids (thanks to Melissa next door and especially to April and Jason!!), and the kids were wondering what was going on. I was in complete panic mode. I know that once my water breaks I go really fast and so we were trying hurrying as fast as possible. We even forgot to pack the camera =(. Luckily my sister Trisha made it in time with her camera, thanks Trish!!!! Anyway, by 9:00pm we had cute Baby Kate. It was really fast and really painful. The doctor barely made it. I jumped from a 7 to a 10 in two contractions and about 5 minutes. It was crazy. And not knowing if we would have a healthy baby was the scariest part. After she was born Justin was with her when they put all the ventilator tubes and everything in her and it scared him to death. I couldn't see any of that, and it's probably a good thing.

When I went to see her the following morning, they had taken her off the ventilator and I was so happy and thankful. That is a huge step and she did it in one night. We are really blessed that she is so healthy. She weighed 4 pounds 14 ounces and was 17.5 inches long. Other than needing to keep her temp. constant by herself, keep her jaundice down, and learn how to eat normally (not through her feeding tube), she is healthy and perfect. She will most likely need to be in the NICU for at least two weeks, maybe three. Let's pray for two!!!

I almost cried the first time I saw her in the incubator with all the tubes and cords and everything. I have totally taken for granted the fact that we were able to take all our other kids home from the hospital with us. Leaving her there was (is) torture. At least we live in a time of doctors, nurses, and technology. And at least we weren't in Colter Bay!!! Thank goodness for those two days we were home!!!



Look how big the binkie is compared to her face. It covers about half of her nose. But she likes it and I think it's cute when she is sucking on it.

Proud Mama!

Proud Daddy. Don't you think she looks even smaller when Justin is holding her??? It's so cute when he is holding her.

Look at that hair!!!! Where in the world did it come from??? It is so darling!

Thank goodness for great kids!!! They have done really well. TJ and Brenden pray for her in every prayer and draw her pictures and ask if they can go see her. Alyssa was pretty jealous at first, but once she got to hold Kate's hand and touch her toes she seemed to lose a lot of it and has done a lot better.

The girls!!!!

TJ's cute pics for Baby Kate. He's so cute!!!

So, there's our story. We now have a baby and no more countdown. Kind of a shocker, but we are adjusting. Thanks again for everyone helping, especially April and Jason for taking our kids for two days. You guys are livesavers!!!! And thanks for all the calls and check-ups by our families. Having a support system makes a world of difference. Thanks so much!!! And thanks in advance for all those who will be needed to help in the coming weeks!!!

Colter Bay

We usually go to Colter Bay later in the year, but this year with the baby coming I wasn't going to go that close to my due date. So I begged everyone to go early with me. Luckily there were some takers, and we had a fabulous time!!!!! We haven't ever been there that early and so we weren't expecting all the snow in the beautiful Tetons and the wildflowers were gorgeous!!!! I haven't ever seen wildflowers there in such abundance. There are usually a few here and there, but they were everywhere, it was great!!!

Brenden became Mister Tree Climber while we were there. This is at the beach and he just kept climbing and climbing. It was so cute, but did make me a little worried when he got really high. And of course, all the other kids started following him, so we had lots of tree climbers.

Alyssa loved swimming in the frrrreeeezzzziiiinnnngggg lake and playing in the dirt. Last year I couldn't keep her clean for more than 10 seconds, but this year she didn't want any dirt on her at all, so funny.....such a girl!!!

And what was TJ's favorite part???? Fishing, of course!!!!! Yes, he got a new pole, and he and Justin caught around 10 trout. We ended up keeping five and cooking them up for dinner. They were very good, and TJ had that grin on his face the entire day!

As I said, the lake is very, very cold, but it didn't seem to deter the kids! We couldn't get them out, and when we did, they wanted to go right back in. I remember being that way when I was younger, but.....now I'm a wimp.

Needless to say, we had a great time and I am so glad I didn't miss out this year. Thanks to Justin's parents for letting us borrow their tent trailer, it was so nice to have! We may have to get one for ourselves sometime. And I am so glad my family was there! We missed Nathan and Abby and Tyson and Lyndsey and Dustin, but hopefully they'll be able to make it next year (all except Dustin who will still be in Guatemala)! Our kids love playing with their cousins, and it wouldn't be Colter Bay without cousins and family!!!!!