Hopekids fundraiser

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.

another school years is coming to a close

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.   :)  

Have a great day!

Love,

The Herrin's

San Diego Vacation

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!!  

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.

Have a great day!
Love,
The Herrin's

Been getting a lot of sweet emails from people wondering how Maliyah is doing. She is doing great, but she will have more blood work done tomorrow or Saturday.

The kids have school out next week until next year. Weird to think we have just gotten through another year. For the most part this year was great. We got to do a lot of fun things as a family. But most importantly we are still going strong as a family! We are very blessed to have Maliyah's kidney still working well.

This school year started out great for the kids. Kendra and Maliyah love school, Courtney is on the fence about if she likes it or not. She's had a lot of big changes this year. Austin is finally catching on and working really hard. Justin was having a very hard year, especially when Kendra or Maliyah are in the hospital. I have some pretty great kids. Regardless of the fighting and arguing I know that they love each other a lot!! Love this quote, "Having one child makes you a parent, but having two makes you a referee".. It's so true! Wonder what 5 make?!?!

The more time in the hospital we spend, the more I realize how grateful I am for modern medicine. Little things like IV fluid is a life saver. I'm getting a lot more careful about the medicine the doctors are allowed to give my children. Unless it's a must have. And the girls are feeling the same way. Every drug has a side effect that aren't very fun. Maliyah learned this again. She was put on a drug to help with her c-diff, and the medicine was causing extreme itching, just because we changed from the liquid to a pill form. Basically she scream for 3ish hours because it hurt so bad, she was even bleeding from where she was itching.

When we were struggling with Justin for so long, we learned that he has a hard time express how he is feeling so it would make him act out. Now we are handling that better. We just need to get him to eat more. He was playing at his friend Joe's house yesterday, he told Joe's mom that, "if you play to many video games you can get fat and die". He's so clever!! It's been really good for us to have him as one of the challenges. But we can really tell that he is growing up and slowing moving to another faze of his life.

Austin is one of the easiest children we have. He is also so sweet! This last weekend him and Courtney were sick with the stomach bug. Austin would setup throw up and tell us and go right back to sleep. He missed the bucket once and he profusely apologized. Broke my heart! That's just how he is.

Courtney is defiantly a tween with how sassy she can be, but she still loves to be with her family.

OH MY!! Kendra is just Kendra. We were driving to get the boys from their friends house, she was telling me how to drive. I just laughed. She is a self motivator and gets stuff done when she needs too. A great quality to have.

The worse part about being a parent is the discipline. Maliyah didn't do her book report, so she wasn't able to go to her best friends birthday party. Not sure who it was harder for, Jake and I or Maliyah. My bet would be us. When I was little my parents use to say the same thing to me, but I never understood it completely until this happened with Maliyah.

Jake and I had such a great year together. We go out on a date once a week. We both look forward to it. And it's not something big each time either. Maybe ice cream or a drive. Just being together. It's so great to have a great relationship with Jake. And to be a great example for our children. Eternity isn't long enough to be with him!!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and if I don't post before New Years. Have a Great New Year's as well.

Love,
The Herrin's

What a FREAKIN' week/month we have had.

Started out not to bad, but by the end we've had enough. I swear whenever the kids get flu shots they all seem to get a lot more sick. I really hate them, but this year I let the doctor talk me into them. Oh Boy!! Was I wrong, and that never happens ;) (wink mean J/K ).

Let start with the easy little man first. Austin had been having strep a lot these last several months. His tonsils were very swollen they were almost touching and his airway was being obstructed. So he went in for surgery at PCMC. He is by far my easiest child, I thank God for him everyday, well for all of them. But he is such a sweet child. More to come about that later. Austin was very nervous about the surgery as anyone would be. He was sad most because he was giving up his title of the only person that has never had surgery in our family. He cried some before we left for the hospital. So we went a little early to visit Kendra and watch some TV with her. It was finally his turn to walk down to the 2ND floor, I HATE that floor so much!! This is where the ICU is and the OR rooms. Can't go around some parts of that place without having a flashback or something. We got Austin all registered for the surgery, Mary Anne the Child Life specialist came to do some hospital play with him. She was so sweet with him, calmed his nerves. And when she left he came over and told me "I like this place". I laughed and wondered if he would think that after the surgery was over. He still liked the place after. LOL Austin is recoving very well right now. Just praying he doesn't get the bug we are all coming down with.

We were all setting around playing with the dog last night and talking about what to give Jesus for Christmas. Austin comes over to give me a hug and says, mom I know what you want for Christmas, decorations for the house or a new house. Well he was telling me all that he was rubbing my shoulders. He is so sweet! But little does he know, I want nothing for Christmas but a healthy family. :) To much to ask for??

We had a great Thanksgiving with family. The day after Kendra was admitted to the hospital for dehydration. She ended up staying there for 6 days. She didn't mind one bit because she had everything she needed, a kitchen to bring her whatever her little heart desired, great nurses to help with whatever she needed, great techs that love her to pieces, but mostly the FOOD!! Kendra tested positive for a bowel infection, but now I just believe she had the same stomach bug as the rest of us were pleased to have. :) HURTS LIKE CRAZY!! Kendra got home on a Wednesday and was dying to go back to school the very next day. She gets sick VERY fast, but gets better fast, most of the time.

Jake was the next to get the nasty bug. He got sick Sunday night and Austin had surgery that Tuesday. It was a lot to handle trying to jungle everything, but once again my mother in-law helped me out. Can't even explain how lucky I am to have her. She even brought the kids dinner when I was at the hospital. Then I got sick and Jake got Kendra out of the hospital. What a crazy and hard week that was.

It was really funny because a volunteer had come to visit us when Kendra was in the hospital. I said to him that we'd be back very soon. He just laughed, thought I was kidding. Oh no!! I just know what's about to take place. LOL A "sick sense".

Well Maliyah got sick last night and was admitted to the hospital today. That is probably why I have time to update my blog. Doctors think maybe she is having an appendictis, but I'm not worried about that. The thing I'm most concerned about is her creatinine(more than doubled) and the damage the kidney may have because of this virus. Dehydration is extremely dangerous for her transplanted kidney. So we have to hurry up and wait. I tried to find the espisode about Sponge Bob's take on doctors but couldn't find it. That espisode when he gets sick and is scared to go to the doctor. Man, he is right on!!

Hope all of you are having a great holiday season.

Love,

The Herrin's :)

So far I really HATE this winter, 6 out of 7 people in our family have been sick. Jake is very lucky that he is healthy.

So I have a lot to update. There's big things that have been going on.

Austin almost hung himself with the seat belt. I had just gotten the kids from school and was just coming up our hill. Everyone was really quiet and didn't think much of it. But then I pulled into the garage and no one jumped out like normal. I opened the door to help them and Austin was hanging with the seat belt around his neck and his hand blocking the belt from cutting off his oxygen. I'm surprised how calm I was. I cut the seat belt off. And all the kids were crying. I asked them why no one told me what was going on. They didn't really reply with great answers, they just shrugged their shoulders. That was very scary to say the least!! He had a deep marker around his neck.

Kendra and Maliyah had another surgery on the 10th of October. It went fairly well. We are just having problems with the pain meds, the side affects are getting worse. Not sure why. But we change to Tylenol, ice and a lot of distractions. Seems to work really well for Maliyah, but Kendra was a lot harder to help control her pain. But it was their decisions to not have anymore pain meds.

This last Sunday Kendra was playing outside with her friends riding her big wheel. She hit a large bump and got hurt. Took her for x-rays and nothing was broken. Maybe she is just being a drama queen, hard to tell. But before school she is crying and can't get around so of course she stays home from school, during school she is getting around just fine, and the cycle starts over the next day. She said that she couldn't stand all the way up. She missed several days of school, before I finally just told her she was going, got her a stroller to help her get around. And the very next day everything was great. What a stink!!

We have been worried about Maliyah's blood levels over the last month or so. I was very worried she was rejecting her kidney, her creatinine was slowly going up and her infections were out of control. We even took her to the urologist several times, he wasn't sure what to do. So I had a great idea, and guess what? It worked like a charm!! Boy, I'm so glad things are better with Maliyah. Her creatinine is even back to it's baseline, 0.4!! Love that number!!

Justin was having a lot of problems at school, he didn't want to do his work. So we decided that if he did all his work at school and then came home and did his homework quick we would get him a new video game. He's been doing great!! The tank game worked like a charm. I was really feeling bad about him having such a hard time at school, so I searched a little about different things. I came to a site about a little boy Justin's same age and his behaviors at school. I felt a hole lot better. I'll take my little problem over that mom's HUGE one. I felt horrible for her.

Courtney and I are becoming better friends the older she gets. She really tells me everything that is going on in her life. She is almost taller than me, in a week I'm sure she will be. The boys at school notice her a lot more. Courtney had her first dance and a boy perposed to her. She said that she just ran into the bathroom. We have a rule that none of our kids can have boyfriends or girlfriends. I hope that rule does last.

As you can tell this last month or so has been crazy to say the least.

Love,

The Herrin's