Graceful Mckenzie

If you haven't heard the whole story yet...here it is. Mckenzie was at a Halloween party Saturday night. She was playing a drama game and she was supposed to pretend to die. If you know Mckenzie at all you know she is very dramatic. She dropped to the ground, missing the carpet and landing on the tile floor. She hit her head pretty hard, but felt ok (except for a headache). The next day her fingers felt numb, and by the evening her whole arm was tingling. Dan took her to urgent care figuring it was probably nothing but wanting to be cautious. Next thing we know they are headed for Banner Children's Hospital to meet up with the neurosurgeon. After several tests it was confirmed that she had a spinal chord injury. Now her other arm had gone numb and it was spreading to her legs. The swelling of her spinal chord was compressing the nerves in her limbs. Over the next four days she was put on steroids, given numerous tests and kept for observation to rule out a brain bleed or any other condition that may have been caused by her 'not so graceful' fall.

Though the next few months will be slow and tedious she is expected to make a full recovery. Thank you to all who visited in the hospital, bearing gifts (loved the helmet Emie!) and cheering her up. I also want to thank everyone who helped with babysitting and brought in meals. You made it so much easier to be at the hospital taking care of my 13 year old baby, knowing my other babies were taken care of at home. We are very blessed to have a wonderful extended family and a wonderful ward family. We feel truly grateful that Mckenzie was able to walk away from this, knowing that some people with this same injury never walk again. It could have been so much worse. And I thank a loving Father in Heaven for watching over and protecting my family once again from life's' little bumps (or hills, or mountains as the case may be)!

Now for the embarrassing pictures: (a mother's prerogative after her kid puts her through this kind of worry)

First day in the hospital and thrilled to be here!

Don't you love the teddy bear hospital gown! Joys of being in the pediatric unit.

Resting comfortably at home with her new Snuggie (thanks Grandpa)!

Emily's First Haircut

Emily had her first haircut this weekend! We went to see Aunt Mindi at her salon (thanks Mindi!) She got the shampoo and everything. She wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love like Mckenzie did a few years ago, so we cut it all off. She was so excited to be able to give her hair to another little girl who needed a wig. And she is especially excited to not have to deal with tangles anymore!

What A Great Weekend!

Our Family had the amazing opportunity to spend conference weekend at a good friend's beautiful cabin.We enjoyed the fabulous weather.

We played games and watched conference as a family.

We played golf...or attempted to anyway!

This is right before Ammon hit his first ball...into my shin!

There was a playground and family center with video games and computers. Our big kids loved that!

And we threw in our fishing lines at the lake while the little ones collected cat tails and crawdads.

We had a fantastic time just hanging out as a family!