I'M HOME!!

Thank you for all the prayers and for all those that called a million times to see how he was doing. Sorry to those that we did not get a chance to call back. We are home and we are so relieved that we made it home for Christmas. Tysen is doing very well and seems to be his old self (just with a little more attitude) He is still so tired but he tries so hard to play and be happy...just don't rub him the wrong way right now..lol.. The water that accumulated in his brain was a lot more than we thought. We had a chance to see the scans and it seemed that the shunt stopped working all together. But, when the Dr. was finished with his surgery he found that, basically, there was brain tissue that got sucked into the holes of the tubing on his head piece and clogged the plumbing. So he replaced some tubing and he did not have to cut his tummy this time. Tysen had to get another hair cut and his stitches look really good. We are debating weather to do a mo-hawk now that part of his head is already buzzed (your thoughts please) lol. Anyways we are home and happy. Thank you for everything. We love you and are so grateful that our Heavenly Father was there with us every step of the way. Tysen is the joy of our lives and even with wires surrounding him and a cage like crib to sleep in, he still seemed to manage a smile! He is amazing and we have been blessed by his presence. We Love you so much Tysen and we don't know how we lived without you before. You brighten our world!

We would like to tell you more but we have lots of presents to open!

Ty-man right before they took him in for surgery

Tysen almost right after surgery, having a little apple sauce...and looking quite out of it.

Santa came to the hospital and dropped off a big bag of gifts.

Grandma Carlson, Aunt Carie and Gavin also dropped off some really cool gifts for Ty.

Here is Ty's Battle scar. We would show you the gory stuff but we can't take the bandage off yet. I think Ty has won this battle in his life....it has just made him stronger for the next one.

Round #2 for Ty!

We got a call from Tysen's neurologist yesterday and he said that Ty will have to have another surgery. The doctor said that his x-rays (that we took on Monday) show that there is more swelling in brain than there was in the summer (when Ty had another CT scan). It has not gotten really bad yet but he said that this usually indicates that Ty's shunt will be failing soon, or that it is failing slowly. So, they have to go in to make sure there are no problems and, if there is, then they can fix it now before it gets worse. Tysen will be having his surgery on the day before Christmas at 9:00 in the morning. We might have to stay through Christmas so that they can monitor him. We are so blessed to have such an amazing doctor who looks closely enough to catch problems before they happen. He is great and we feel peace knowing that he is in good hands. We are also blessed to have our family and friends that continue to give our family love, prayers and support. We know that the power of prayer is strong and so we would like to ask all of you to give Tysen your prayers. We know that everything will be fine especially with our Heavenly Father by our side. We love you all and wish you the happiest of holidays!

I Don't Wanna!!!

.....So school is where my head should be at right now. I started my homework (A Book Review) and then I simply got tired of writing it and stopped to Blog. I need a break! School is so consuming...especially these online classes. They think they can give you more work just because you don't drive to the school. I am constantly trying to squeeze in the rest of my life around school and I'm simply tired and STRESSED. I know I will continue to go to school and I know that I will continue to complain but,I really enjoy learning...its when everything is due at the same time that I just feel like screaming and curling up into a ball in the corner of my dark closet. (yes, I have done this before...ask Dan)

Dan gave me a blessing though and Heavenly Father assured me that if I would just pray to him and ask for help, then he would provide a way for me to complete ALL of my work. It is hard, when I am overwhelmed, to STOP and think to get down on my knees right there and then. I always seem to wait till after I BLOW UP to reach out to my Heavenly Father. After the blessing I realized that when my heart starts pumping in a worried frenzy and my head begins to ache... I need to get down and thank my Heavenly Father for all I have. That alone makes me feel like I am able to relax and finish the work that is in front of me. I know that the major message that he sends me most of the time is ...one thing at a time! I like to change my focus a lot and it helps a lot more when I can finish one thing and then move onto the next. Another thing that I have learned is that I need a brake every once in a while during the day...taking a 10 min. brake just to tickle my little boy, seriously, juices me up for the next 5 hours that I might have to spend working on homework.

I guess I'm not really trying to make a point...I'm just taking one of my 10 min. brakes and juicing up again. I just want to complain and write down what I am feeling so that I can realize that it really isn't that bad. I have a lot more free time then a lot of moms with 5 kids and I GET to go to school! That is a blessing!

OK, I'm going to go play with my little munchkin (because he has been sitting in his highchair for, you don't want to know how long) and then I will get back to work and feel much better once my assignment is finished.

By the way, have any of you read this book (Snow Falling on Cedars)...just thought I would ask. If so, please indulge me with your opinion on it.

Tysen is Turning One Already!?!?!

Our Big Boy is almost one! I don't mean to make this a Tysen Blog but these pictures were just too good to pass up. My photographer sister (Melissa Jewel) took these pictures for his Birthday Announcement. They are hilarious!

And can you believe...he didn't even throw up!!! He was pretty wired though. Ya, I wouldn't recommend letting your 11 month old eat a whole cake right before bed.

Stuffing his Face

What?...

Never come between me and cake!
Angel..I'm innocent!


This is FUN!!

Just really really cute!

Yay!! Happy Birthday to me!

GET IN MY BELLY!!!

First Teethies

He is not only getting his first tooth--he is getting two first teethies! Here is a clear shot of the stubborn things that have been causing us all those wonderful late nights. Finally they broke through and they are here. Now the bottom ones are coming...yay...(no enthusiasm whatsoever).

OH NO!!! What Have We Done?

Tysen is an eating machine! Daddy was just sitting there talking to Mommy when Ty decided to swoop in and attack Daddy's ice cream.

When asked why he did it, he simply smiled really big....and that was the end of it because we can't resist that smile.

Serioulsy, what have we done?! He is not even one yet and Ty is having a ball playing daddy's X-Box with his cousin Hailey. That's it! No more electronics....(except for Mommy's computer- :-) )

5 days left! Vote Yes on 8!

Grease Lightning!

You were right Alison... I couldn't wait to blog it! lol..So sad... I know. Anyways- Dan and I were Danny Zuko and (bad) Sandy for our ward trunk-or-treat. The costumes turned out soooo good. My hair looked better in real life though. I found my "hot pants" at Ross the day before and I seriously debated whether to wear them or not. The Trunk-or-Treat was fun. Ty was a ninja but we forgot our camera so that is why I had to have Alison send me a picture of us. Ty was too busy Trick-or-Treating with Auntie Ashley (who was a cute little lady bug). Ashley had a little girl come up to her and say ..."(Gasp) Your my favorite bug!....A LADYBUG!" It was so cute. We had fun...too bad we didn't take more pictures.

My First Pumpkin Patch!

This is my first halloween and we went to the pumpkin patch. Those pumpkins really freaked me out and I did not want to sit with them. I wanted my Mom and Dad to sit with me...plus I'm teething so I was in a little bit of a bad mood. Eventually, I warmed up to these pumpkin things and I really like banging on them like drums. It was really fun and I even found a little pumpkin for myself.

This is me hugging the pumpkin

I was clapping because everyone else was clapping at me to look at the camera

Here I am in my cool Ninja outfit with my little pumpkin

I like the pumpkin patch

This was when they left me with the scary pumpkins.

First Pumpkin Patch!

We went to the Pumpkin Patch this week and it was Ty-man's first pumpkin experience. Needless to say he didn't really like the pumpkins that much. I really think they freaked him out...lol.. But he warmed up to them and we had so much fun! My sister Melissa Jewel is an awesome photographer. You can see her blog and website on my links. She came with us and snapped some cute shots of us having a good time!

I know there are a lot of pics but come on..it was his FIRST pumpkin patch and he is our first! GIVE ME A BRAKE!

Ty and Daddy and ghosts...Ty is driving!

He was pooped! It looks like he is sleeping ...lol. We put him like this for some of the shots and his feet kept slipping.
I love this picture!

He is a Ninja (thanks to Sarah and her Halloween collection)

Have you hugged a pumpkin today?

So sweet...those eyes!

He loves to clap! YAY!

Our family Photo

We sat him down with the pumpkins and he freaked...but the picture came out so cute! I love that "cry face"

Standing on the Corner...Yes on Prop 8

Tonight Dan and I went to help the fight for prop 8. We went to the corner of Winchester and Murrieta Hot Springs and held "Yes on Prop 8" signs. We got a few flip offs, a few mouth offs, and one "F' bomb. But, for the most part we got a lot of honks, smiles and thumbs ups.

A lot of us were kind of scared to stand on the corner (cough* Tracy and Jenn* cough) but, in the end we all had such a good experience that we wanted to stay longer. We even had some people ask what the "yes" was for. I think we got a lot of people to really consider voting "YES!"

Most of their faces are covered with the boards...Don't know what happened there.

Is it sad that the main reason we took a picture is so we could have something to blog?

I've Been Tagged!

This is a picture of my little Bro on his mission in Montana. As you can see he is a risk taker! He is trying to preach the word to the Catholic Church. He went right to the source. lol! What a funny kid.

Now, I am tagging:

Kristen

Kim

Annie

Tracy

The deal is that you have to go to your files and post the fouth picture in the fourth file and explain it. Then tag four more people. Good luck!

New Presidential Candidate... It's someone we know!

Hi,

There's an effort to elect an unknown random person as President... and it's someone we know! See this news website about the surprising new nominee:

http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=357563&altf=Ebo1&altl=Dbsmtpo

Jot back a note to let me know what you think!

Yes...I'm Bragging

Yesterday was our actual 3 year anniversary and my sweet husband sent me three dozen roses for the three years we have been married. Then today I got the most amazing chocolate covered strawberries that came to my door. He also bought me a full message on our trip! I am soooo spoiled!

Messier and Cuter at the Same Time

Our sweet baby boy is 10 1/2 months already! He will be a year at the end of next month and I don't know how to take it. Ty doesn't have teeth yet, but he sure thinks that he does. He eats table food pretty well (he gums it to death). He is getting so big and everything he does is messier than before, but somehow cuter. He had raviolis last night and most of them where in his diaper..(HOW THE???) I think the food tastes better when it's messier.

Ty also got his hair cut yesterday...It looks so cute with his Ninja costume for Halloween

Fin-a-lly!

So I think I started these curtains like in the beginningof last year and I finally finished them! My sis Shelley helped me a lot because before this I had no idea how to sew. She showed me how to read a pattern, work a sewing machine and put pretty curtains together like these. There were many complications that held me back from finishing. We ran out of material and it took forever to order more, we didn't have time to work on them, and I got prego in the middle of construction. Now, they are finished and I am very proud of my little curtains! They look way better in person, by the way.

MEXICO...10 dolla...ok 5 dolla...ok ok 50 cent!

For our third anniversary we took a cruise! I am deathly afraid of drowning and being in the water with fish, so I was a bit FREAKED! But, I played it cool and tried to rely on Heavenly Father to protect me from the fish.

Day 1:

We sailed the sea and got used to the boat. Poor Dan got a little queasy and we laid low for a little while. The ship had food galore (I must have gained like 10 pounds... no joke).
Day 2: Cabo!

We have more pics of Cabo but they are on our Underwater Camera and I have not developed that yet.

We ported in Cobo and went snorkeling. It was so pretty and we could swim right to the beach to hang out. The water was a little murky because there was a hurricane down the coast but there were still a lot of freaky fish. It took me a while to actually look down with the mask. Every little thing that touched me made me scream bloody murder. Dan was trying to play it cool by acting like he didn't know me..Lol. We walked around Cabo and looked at some shops, but it was soooooo HOT! Dan decided at the moment that Mexico was not his thing.

Day3: At Sea



We relaxed on the boat all day. It was fun because they always had something going on. There were shows, live bands, the pool, dancing, karaoke, and much more. Later that night we had a formal night and had fun seeing the improv show. The comedian was a HOOT!

Day 4: Ensenada

They had a tower of desserts going like 24/7. Here you see me eating like three desserts at a time...So Good!

I am a sucker for sweets. We also played BINGO before the hypnotist show (and lost).

Ok so I know that Ensenada is a dump,but we actually ended up having a lot of fun there. We took a tour around Ensenada and to the Blow Whole. There are only three huge Blow Wholes in the world and one of them is in Ensenada. It was really cool to see. Then we went down the street of shops and were bombarded by bartering Mexicans. (hence, the reason for my title). It was funny at first and then it got just plain annoying. We got really cool souvenirs for our family and headed back to the ship.

When the sun set over the water it was really amazing.

We had some more fun on the ship! They had a hypnotist show (Which was not convincing...but really funny) and we were presented with a Happy Anniversary dessert at dinner. We drank hot chocolate on the deck and watched the sun set (the ocean is a little freaky at night).

Say Goodbye:


We got to San Diego the next morning and I was jumping out of my seat because I was so anxious to see our little baby boy. (Yes, we are crazy for leaving him behind for 5 days) Thank you Grandma, Aunt Carie and Gavin for watching him while we were away. He had so much fun with you guys! It was so hard to leave him but I knew that he was is good hands.

All in all, it was an awesome vacation and we would definitely cruise again. I don't know about Mexico though. Next time we will probably try the Caribbean and we will definitely bring Tysen with us...It was too hard not to see him everyday.

I don't remember what night this was but I ate snail! I know really nasty! But I wanted to prove it to some people so here it is! Dan, of course would not even look at the stuff. The snail was surprisingly not as bad as I thought it would be.