Despite it all...

Heading out to Grandma J's with her backpack like Dora!

For those of you who have been wondering, Tyler is doing well. We are headed down the road of recovery. We're maybe not moving at the fastest speed but each day Tyler is overcoming another step and doing great. He is the probably the oldest baby in the NICU due to the fact that he would have gone to the PICU if it weren't for the heart bypass machine he needed for a few days. The nurses all find him to be quite entertaining and quite busy. I tried to tell them but I don't think they really believed me until they took him off the sedation medication. We're currently on the waiting list for the PICU due to the fact that they are filled to the brim. Meanwhile, he will continue to progress happily in the NICU and keep the nurses entertained with his little antics. (Blowing raspberries, trying to pull on anything he can wrap his fingers around, and attempting to wiggle out of his bed which he is almost too big for!)
Carly continues to amaze me each day through all of this. She seems unaffected for the most part. We talk about Tyler every day and how he is still at the doctors getting better. She informed me the other day that she needed to go wash her hands so she could go see Tyler. It was sad to have to explain to her that they only let mamas and dadas into where Tyler is. Last night she asked me where we were going to go next, "Grandma B's, Grandma J's or KK's?" It came out as just a general question like it was normal life that she would go play some where while I went and saw Tyler. And in the middle of this, she is picking up some spanish from watching Dora the Explorer. Yesterday, while playing at McDonalds, she announced to her two new friends, "Vamanos! Arriba!" She keeps me quite entertained and I'm pretty sure she's the smartest 2 1/2 year old around!
Thanks to everyone for their prayers! We have seen and felt the impact they have had on our current situation. Love you all!

Where do I begin?

Last Friday night we sat outside the PICU waiting for Tyler to come down the hall from the operating room. We'd gotten fabulous news that his surgery went better than expected and the doctors were very happy with the results. Just then a doctor approached us and said the two words no parent ever wants to hear. "Bad news." She told us that everything went great for about an hour after closing Tyler's chest and then his blood pressure dropped. To make a really long story as short as possible, the surgeon and doctors don't know what happened but Tyler's little heart was working fine and then just got tired. They put him on a heart bypass machine and sent him to the NICU instead of the PICU. For three days, we waited, watched and prayed. Yesterday we got the great news that Tyler's heart had gotten the rest it needed and they were able to take him off the bypass. Whew! Today he did great! His vitals are all good, the doctors are lowering his medications, and now it's talk about when he gets to move to a less intensive unit.
This has been a week that I will remember for the rest of my life and yet want to forget. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts,prayers, and phone calls. Despite the situation, I did feel a lot of comfort that everything would turn out okay in the end. We love our little boy so much and are thankful that he has so much love and support from family and friends.

Tomorrow's the big day!

I'm sorry to all of you who are finding this out for the first time on such short notice. I meant to post this earlier and well, time got away from me.
Tomorrow we are taking Tyler in for his heart surgery! After 5 and half months of waiting, it's finally here. Just to recap, Tyler has an A/V septal defect which has to be corrected by open heart surgery or he will eventually have heart failure. Scary! So the poor little guy gets to go in for a 6 hour surgery and then spend between 7 to 14 days in the hospital recovering.
Today we spent 5 hours at the hospital doing all the pre-op work from drawing blood to an x-ray to meeting with the surgeon. It was a long day and Tyler did great! We got the go ahead for surgery tomorrow.
Despite how scary all of this sounds, I have really good feeling about this. I know it is something that has to be done and I've had 5 months to prepare myself. I do feel at peace about it. It's a great hospital with wonderful nurses, doctors, secretaries, etc.
I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. We feel so loved and so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends in our life.
We'll keep you updated!

The True American Hero

Last Sunday started up the new season of 24!!! We love 24! And like every season, we were reminded once again, that Jack Bauer is the MAN! The true American! He not only has amazing skills but he is SMARTER than anyone else in the government, in the U.S. no, the world! If we cloned Jack Bauer and created an army, we could take over the world. We are left with just one question. Where is the real Jack Bauer? Where is that guy that can save our government from itself? So here's to another 20 hours of Jack Bauer. May he kick some butt, blow off some knee caps, go where no man has gone before!!!

Happy New Year!

Whilst I was enjoying one of my hobbies of blog surfing, I noticed a lot of people posting about their memorable moments of 2008 and their resolutions for 2009. I thought it would be fun to join in, and maybe, just maybe, it will help me stay committed to my New Year's resolutions. We'll see...

2008
January - The year started off with a bang when we found out we were pregnant with baby number 2! A bit early than originally planned but welcomed none the less.
February - We celebrated our 6th year wedding anniversary. Wahoo! And I was spending a lot of time praying to the porcelain goddess.
March - Nothing big comes to mind, still praying to the porcelain goddess and counting the weeks until week 14 when the praying can stop! :)
April - My mom, sister and I took a fun road trip to Vegas to visit my other sister.
May - Brandon turned the big 2-9. (Nope, not 30 yet) The Jergensens gathered together in Palm Springs for some family fun!
June - Brandon's little brother, Jason, left on his mission to Leeds, England! And is doing wonderful!
July - Carly turned the big 2! We had a fun, Elmo themed, pool party. My sisters came in town to help celebrate.
August - I had lovely surgery on the day the Olympics started. Later in the month I celebrated my 27th birthday.
September - The 1st day of the month, our sweet little boy entered the world.
October - Again, nothing big, just enjoying our new little baby and getting use to being a family of four. :)
November - The Belnaps gathered together in Hawaii for some family fun during the week of Thanksgiving.
December - A month full of Christmas fun. We had lots of family come into town to visit and we tried to squeeze in as much celebrating as we could. I think I gained 10 pounds from all the baking!

2009
What I'd like to accomplish this year...
1. I'd really like to lose the rest of my baby weight and even more if possible! (No weird diets!)
2. I want to finally get down to business and do our food storage. I thought about doing it slowly but I think it's time to just do it quickly and call it a day! (Thanks Aarean for inspiring me!)
3. I want to start doing family home evening on a regular basis.
4. I want to plan a family vacation for our little family and make it a yearly tradition.

And I think that's about it! I'd love to hear other New Year Resolutions if anyone wants to share!

Hawaii!

For Thanksgiving we went with my family to Hawaii. I know, I know, these pictures are a bit late since it's almost Christmas but hey, better late than never! I decided to do something a little different this time for our pictures. I'm going to give you the behind the scenes look at our trip. Enjoy!

Carly and Brandon having fun!

Just hanging around!

My sister Jessica and her um, husband Ben. Why is it that guys can't just smile?

Our little encampment by the pool for the day, including baby tent! The pool was great, complete with water slides, pirate ship, and waterfalls.

Tyler snoozing by the pool.

Here's Brandon pretending he's Bear Gryllis from "Man vs. Wild"!

The rest of us chose to stay on the shore and throw rocks in the water. Carly thought it was great fun!

Here's the girls hang out on the beach, enjoying the sunset.

Here's Brandon trying to push over the IOA Needle. This was our second trip b/c the first time we went, it was closed off due to rain!

Carly had a great time running around while waiting for Brandon to finish his bet with Natalie. He had to run up and down the stairs to the look out 7 times for $20! There were 133 steps. No comment.

We made Brandon a little tunnel to run through when he was finished. Definitely not worth $20!

Our second day in Hawaii, we took the advice of a local and took the scenic route back to the resort. It was a long, narrow, windy road and we all wanted to throw ourselves off the cliff about half way through.

Carly and I spent most of the drive asleep after realizing the views weren't really that great!

We went to dinner at Cheeseburgers in Paradise. Brandon decided to buy Carly a real lei. It only cost $11!!!! And she wouldn't wear it even for the picture!


Thanks Mom and Dad for the wonderful trip! We had a lot of fun and it was nice to take a break from the everyday!

I WIN!!!!!!

I'm wiling to admit that I'm stubborn, many times very stubborn to be exact. And of course, in all fairness to my mom and dad, I ended up with an often stubborn child. Today stubborn mama and stubborn daughter went head to head.

It was an average morning. Carly was sitting in her high chair, eating peaches and watching her favorite cartoon, Max and Ruby. And like every morning, instead of telling me when she is finished, she dumps the remaining peaches out of her bowl and onto her tray. Well, I've gotten tired of cleaning up the dumped food which usually is just on her tray but sometimes ends up on the floor as well if I'm not paying good enough attention. I asked her to help me put the peaches back in the bowl. I put most of them back in the bowl while she sat and watched so I told her to put the remaining peaches back in the bowl and then she could get down and watch some more Max and Ruby. To which she replied, "No, you pick them up." And thus the battle began.

Forty-five minutes later, Carly was still sitting in her high chair, crying and occasionally screaming and thrashing about but still refusing to put the peaches back in the bowl. And I was still sitting nearby on the couch telling her to put the peaches in the bowl and then she could get down.

After another half an hour, most of which was spent in time out in her room, Carly finally gave it up and put the peaches back in her bowl. I won!!! And despite how frustrated I was, I kept my cool and didn't yell. I think my magazine I was reading on the couch helped. :) In conclusion, I guess I still win for being the most stubborn!