Well after everything and waiting for awhile. The doctors came back to tell us, it would be to risky to do the surgery that we have been waiting for. Mixed emotions, nothing is a sure thing in medicine and especially surgery. I realized that along time ago. But still hard to hear there is nothing surgically the doctors can do for Kendra and Maliyah now. We do have the best doctors in the world that we work with and they have the best interest of the girls in mind.
But then I look back at everything they/we have gone through, and I can take this. It's a little bump in the road and we have a lot to be grateful for. I'm just so glad to be able to but that off our list of things to do, and work with the medicine that they have said to try.
The girls are doing better now than they have for years. They are the most healthy.
I have been really busy since the kids got back in school, volunteeingr for organ donation stuff, volunteering at the kids school and hopefully some other volunteer opportunities that will be coming my way. School for me is on hold(it already started). If everything turns out just right, I will be putting together a bike ride to raise awareness for organ donation in April. I'm very excited for that! Make sure and talk to your loved ones about there wishes, everyone can donate their organs. Look into it! :) That's my plug.
Justin and Austin just had their first belt test. They passed, and are high white belts.
Courtney is about to be a teenager. HOLY COW!! I still can't believe it.
Still can't believe summer is almost over. Only about 2 weeks left. Sometimes it's sad to think all the freedom is done and over with, but then we have such a tight schedule when school starts. I just want a happy medium. :)
Courtney 12
Courtney is really obsessed with making cakes and decorating them. So we have appeased her in getting anything that she would need. She is getting really good at it. But the clean-up is really, well hmmmmm. Enough sad. :) She is starting dance camp this next week and will be gone until Friday. Should be fun! Courtney also has a good friend Zanna that is moving to Georgia. She is really upset about that. Also all three girls have another friend Brooke that is moving to Indiana and there has been a lot of tears from it. We told Courtney she could visit Zanna, but she's doesn't want to fly alone. But Brooke will be back to visit family a lot. So they are glad about that.
Maliyah 10
Kendra 10
Kendra is having such a lazy/healthy summer, well until today. But its been since the beginning of June that she's been in the hospital, so we'll take that. Maliyah just got sick this last week as well. I'm so glad they had both gone this long without sickness. Makes me so happy!! I hope there bodies will be rested enough for the testing that is coming up. Maliyah's kidney is really holding strong. She even is being more responsible for her medicine's. She made signs, she has one on her door and the other on her head board to remind her to take it everyday. She's even doing great with drinking her water. She has to have 50-60ozs a day, everyday. She understands that is what her kidney needs to function at its best. And she wants to stay healthy. One of the things that will help them stay healthy is exercise, so they want to start taking gymnastics. Their friend Lacey has been showing them how to do back hand springs. So Maliyah especially is excited to start that. And the girls upper body strength is incredible.
Austin's go-cart accident
Austin 7
So the boys are taking karate still, to my surprise. And moving up slowly. Austin has his red and blue strip, and Justin has his blue strip. They are going 4 days a week. And I can see a difference in how responsible they are, well some days anyway.
I run 1 1/2 to 2 miles a day. And I feel really great. I'm also obsessed with making smoothies, Summer is the best time to make them too. All the fresh produce. YUMMY!!
Enjoy the rest of your Summer, if you have any left. ;)
The Summer started off really hard with the girls getting sick and being in the hospital. But so far so good (knock on wood) everyone is healthy and happy. This Summer has been by far the best we have had. I never hear the kids say they are bored. They have all been great about cleaning up after themselves and doing their chores. Maybe it's the fact that if they do extra chores I pay them. I think I broke the code to motivate my kids into doing the chores.
Courtney, Kendra and Maliyah are going to Drama Camp this summer. They love it! And more importantly they get to go all day LONG!! :)
I think I posted awhile ago about the boys going to Karate. I thought the boys were to immature at the time and never really went forward and signed them up for it. But this summer they were really pushing to start Karate again, so I took them back. They are ready for this BIG step and their sensai is really strict and great with the boys. They WANT to work hard going 4 days a week. Austin already received a blue stripe on his belt. And the next day Justin got his.
Hope your Summer is going well!
Love,
The Herrin's
We are trying to raise money for Hopekids, which is a group we belong to that puts on activities and events for children with special needs and life threatening illnesses. It is a wonderful organization that allows us to do many things that we and others like us would not be able to do otherwise. Please help us raise as much money as possible for this wonderful organization, any amount would be greatly appreciated. You can donate by going tohttp://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/herrintwins/hopekids-wasatch-adventure-2012 Thank you so very much.
Well time just is going fast...
Courtney is finishing up her 6th grade year. I've learned a lot this year about her. I knew that Courtney was responsible with school, but this year with 10 different classes she has really shined. She tried out again for the Bella Me dance company at school and made it.
We are so proud of her hard work. I always tell my children, "nothing worth doing is ever easy". This wasn't easy. She had to learn a dance the night before and perform it the next day at try-outs in front of the judges. She had to learn another dance and perform that one as well, on the spot. She said the first time she messed up, but then got a call back and NAILED IT!! I'm sure there is no way that I could do the things she does. And she also gets excellent grades.
Kendra is a CHAMP!! She went through a lot this past couple of months. The expansion surgery really made her doubt herself and her abilities. She's had a hard time returning back to school. And I made the appointment for her BIG surgery on June 4th. She really let me have it, she told me that she wasn't going to have the surgery and it was going to mess up her whole summer. She wouldn't even look at me and tears were streaming down her face. The thing that hit me the hardest was when she said she was so sick of having surgery and asked me why she needed it so much. I had to explain to her after she calmed down about how important it was to keep her safe and her body safe as well. We came up with a better plan that she feels good about. We are scheduling her surgery for the Fall, when everyone is returning back to school. That was the time she felt best about. And we are going to a pain doctor to help better manage her pain.
Maliyah made major progress this school year. Her reading jumped 30+ words per minute in reading. She's kicking butt!! It helps that she has hardly missed school this year and her health has been fantastic.
Justin and Austin at their Art Extravaganza. Justin was having such a great time singing. There were parents that came up to us after to say how funny Justin was and how they tried to watch their own child, but he was too funny. That is my son. :)
Justin also loves snakes right now. He wants to be a Snake-Man when he grows-up. The kids were getting ready for the Solar Eclipse by making a fort. Alli started barking like crazy. Courtney went over to see what was wrong and there was a gopher snake hiding under the wagon. Jake was able to catch it and let him and Austin play with it for a little while. Then they let it go. Justin was in heaven.
Sweet boy Austin. He loves flag football. Jake is their coach. He's made touchdowns and had a interception. In first grade they have an Opera. He's going to be a robber. :)
Jake and I just celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. :)
I'm very excited about the new design for our family's page. It's going to be a work in progress but eventually it will all be done.:) I've been working on this for several month now. Everything will be updated, especially because so much has changed. Kids are getting older, but their parents are still very young. :) So since I haven't updated for several months there is so much to talk about. Let's get started...
The girls have been working really hard on a new show called Four Scales. They produce, edit and write everything by themselves. I do have to approve things before they post them. But they have made about 2 episodes so far. The show is about the life of mermaids because that is what the girls are into right now. They even got mermaid tails for Christmas.
It's neat to see how close the girls are getting.
Courtney just finished her dance concert for Bella Me, her school dance team. She has worked so hard. She is also going to be making a movie for her dance banquet that is coming up. (I will post that when she is done) Courtney is the Historian for the dance team. That made me really nervous at first, but it turned out great. There are some parents on the dance team that have been helping out with pictures.
Can you tell how much she loves mermaids?!?! Anyway, Kendra just had surgery. It was VERY rough!! Not sure what we are going to do about pain medicine for her. It was a pretty minor surgery we thought, but turned into her missing school for a week and being in extreme pain for awhile. She needs double the amount of pain medicine but the doctors are afraid to give her the doses that she needs. She has another even larger surgery coming up in June. I have to get an appointment with the doctors and pain service and get this problem under control for the next time. Jake thinks it may have seemed worse then it was because it's been awhile since the last surgery. I have started journaling about their surgeries, so I can better keep track of them. Before I was just trying to forget about them all and move on, but that's not going to happen.
She's so cute!! Maliyah's surgery went really well. It was amazing that is took 2 days for her to recover from. Her kidney is doing really well and her infections are by far better than the have been in years!! KNOCK ON WOOD!! Everything will stay the same.
Justin is getting so much better!! This kiddo is maturing, thank heavens. He loves his tanks!! And his military man. That is what he has decided that he wants to be when he grows-up. I will have to upload his videos he makes with his armies. :)
Austin!!! One easy kid!! He's one great kid!
So now on to the thing we LOVE doing the most. TRAVELING!!! aka making as many memories with the kids as possible.
There is nothing like being in a tiny hotel room for one week to show how much everyone loves each other. LOL It was a little rough at first, but then got much better. We drove 10 hours to San Diego (should of taken 12), but we don't stop to take breaks. The first day we went to The San Diego Zoo.
The cougar was a short distance above us and he saw the kids namely the girls coming. He started getting really excited and walking really quickly back and forth in his cage. So I told everyone that we should go visit the cougar next. We went up the ramp and the cougar met the girls at the front side of his cage, pacing in the little corner of the cage watching the girls. When they moved he would move.
This view is insane!
(La Jolla Cove)
The day at the beach!
(Coronado Island)
Jake took the boys to the USS Midway. They were in heaven looking at the planes and the different parts of the Aircraft Carrier.
The girls are I stayed back so the girls could have a play-date with their friend Ashlin.
The best part of the whole trip was Sea World. I love that part! The shows are just incredible to see and the kids had such a great time. The Shamu Show was the second show that we went to. We sat in a soak zone. :) Kids and Jake's idea. As the show went on I had a very good idea what was coming up next. I ran to the top of the soak zone and saw my poor family getting soaked. Check this out.
A couple of seconds later Kendra came running up the stairs.
AFTER!!
The Animal Safari
The last day we took the kids to old town to The Whaley House. The most haunted house in America. We didn't tell the kids before hand what the house actually was. They found out from the back of the pamphlet that was given out. Kendra started crying, but everyone wanted to go back several different times to see a ghost. LOL Funny how they change their minds so quick.
We had a great trip.
Most of the posts won't be this long, but I really wanted to try this out. Hope everyone likes it and will continue to come back and read. Not every post will be about our family. Hope to bring a lot of more things to our site. But the kids will be 100% the focus of our site. So I'm going to make things creative. Have a great day!!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
What an insane last year. I'm so glad that it's over. And am nervous for another year of unknowns. But will try to stay very positive. Right now I'm trying to figure out if I should continue school or take a semester off. I'm really close to being done, but these last several months have been very difficult. Most of last year was spent with one child being home sick, hospital stays, surgeries and an overwhelming feeling of what to do. I'm in the process of doing the pros and cons in returning to school or staying home. Courtney wants to take a lot more dance, the boys are starting basketball, and the girls want to do swimming lessons. Yes, even in the winter they have them. I'm sure today's blog will help me decide on what I should do. Just writing something down will help. Anyway now on to my incredible children and what they have been up to.
Everyone had a great Christmas,winter break and New Year's. We haven't been to see a doctor for several weeks now!! Makes me very happy!
The kids are still plugging along at school. Going back was really hard for all of them. They did really nothing over the break that they didn't want to, minus chorus or course. We were very lazy, and didn't feel guilty about it. This is just a quick update. So I hope all your holiday season was enjoyable.
