THE STEPHENSON'S

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Update

CALIFORNIA!!!!
Well, we went to Disneyland the second week of March. It was soooo much FUN! We stayed for a whole week. Went to Disneyland the first two days. The third day we went to the Acquarium of the Pacific and to the Queen Mary. Then Disneyland that last two days. We hadn't been for 3 years, so it was a like a whole new thing for the girls. Of course Corbin thought it was great too, but he won't remember any of it. One of these days when my computer gets working better, I'll blog some pictures so you can all see what fun we had. It was a well deserved, well needed break. We were able to stay in the Aneheim condos which are part of the timeshare we bought 2 years ago. Yeah, we finally got to use our timeshare!!! It was like a home away from home. FUN! FUN! FUN! My girls are already asking me when we can go back. We probably won't go back until Corbin's 3 or so. He was an absolute joy. We had a lot of people ask us what we were doing with him while we were gone, and when we said we were taking him with us, they couldn't believe it. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I'm one of those people that like my whole clan together. Some of the funniest things that happened on our trip had to do with Chloee. When we went to the Acquarium of the Pacific, as we were waiting outside to get out tickets, I thought I seen something fall from the sky. I asked Mike to see if something landed in Chloee's hair. YEP! sure enough, a bird had pooped in her hair. It was all I could do to hold the laughter in. I tried to get it out the best I could and stir her attention away from it, but her sisters just kept rubbing it in. It really was FUNNY! Then, the last day we were there, Chloee wouldn't get out of bed. I told her if she didn't hurry, she'd have to stay home all alone. Finally, she got up and got dressed. Shayley came in and said mom--I think Chloee's putting on CORBIN'S clothes...I said no, they wouldn't fit her. So, I proceeded to the bedroom to see, and YEP sure enough, she had some how put CORBIN'S clothes on. It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. She was all bundled up in a corner like someone had hog tied her. I said what are you doing with CORBIN'S clothes on. She said well you told me to put the clothes on that were on the dresser. Apparently her clothes had gotten moved and the only ones left on the dresser were CORBIN'S. She couldn't get them off. She said she was "Choking"!!! Mike had to help her cause I was laughing so hard I had to pee. My makeup was running off my face. It was the highlight of the trip.

MY DAD!
We were on our way home when I was informed that my dad was being life flighted to Salt Lake City. His blood pressure was 80/40 and they couldn't stabilize him in Cedar so off he went...My mom's first airplane ride. She wasn't going to go, but I knew she'd be a nervous wreck if she had to be in a car driving up there. I finally got her talked into going on the plane with my dad. She made it. She said it wasn't that bad. She's ready to go to Hawaii now. Anyway, they found out my dad has a pnemonia which is called legionnaire's disease. It's not a very common pnemoniua, but he has it. They put him on 3 weeks of an antibiotic and it seems to be helping. The spot on the brain is not active at this point, which is a good thing, but the Dr. seems to think it will come back. We'll see. I wish they'd put him on the antibiotic way back...I think that would've solved the problem. I could be totally wrong, but hope I'm not. He's been home since March 21st and seems to be doing prety good. He goes back to Salt Lake on May 4th for another MRI to see if anything shows up and I think they plan on doing another bone marrow test to see if there's anything there. I pray there won't be and he'll just continue to get better. I'll keep you posted.

KIDS!!!
My kids are almost out of SCHOOL! Can't believe another whole year has come and gone. Lexie's going to be in 6th grade next year. Her first year of Junior High. Can't believe how fast she's grown up. What a girl. She's playing softball and loving it. She's anxious to get her lambs and start raising them for the liftstock show. Shayley's grown about 5 inches this year. She doesn't look like an 8 year old. What a beautiful girl she is. She's looking forward to starting soccer in August. She's such a big help to me with her little brother. She's always packing him around. Reminds me of me when I was her age. I still love the BABIES! Chloee's almost ready to graduate from Kindergarten. Yep! she's almost in 1st grade. Where does the time go??? I remember just giving birth to Lex! She has a fun personality and is always up to something. She's a funny kid. Then there's Corbin. He's 8 months old already. He's a joy to have around. He's teething right now. He has one tooth and is getting another (both on the bottom). He goes to work with me Tuesday through Thursday, and makes work a little more enjoyable. He is loved so much, he won't know what to do with all of it.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Well, here we are March, and still don't know any more than I did before. We know what he (my dad) doesn't have...which we pretty much already knew. He spent a week in the hospital in St. George in February, they thought he had some diesease or fungus, but didn't find anything that way. He did have pnemonia and is being treated for that... SO, the Dr. finally gave up and sent him to a Neuro Oncologist in Salt Lake, who just deals with the brain. He took one look at the MRI and said "um, we need a biopsy". Well hello, DUH! These Dr's have pretty much been wasting precious time. If we'd had a biopsy from the beginning, before the steroids, we would know by now what we're facing. So, the plan is now, to take him off the steroids, (which we knew, but the Dr. in St. George put him back on), within the next 10 days, and then he'll be off of them for 2 weeks. That'll be the challenge. He can't function very well without them. Once he's off the steroids for the 2 weeks, they'll do another MRI, and probably schedule him for the biopsy. We're hoping that we know something by the 1st of April. It's been so sad to watch him go down hill so fast. He's such a sweet guy, he doesn't deserve this. He'll probably never be the man we've all come to love, but hopefully he'll still be the one we cherish. We can deal with short term memory loss and him being forgetful, we just hope that he'll still be VAN. I'll post when I know more.....

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Happy New Year!

This year has started off with a BANG! Already at the end of January...Where does the time go. We’ve had a lot to deal with this month already. On the 2nd we found out that my Dad had some brain tumors and thought the Dr. was going to remove them on the 10th. We prepared ourselves for the surgery and then we received a call that the Dr’s. weren’t sure if they were in fact tumors. They needed to do some more testing to see if they could determine if they were in fact tumors. So, since the 22nd, my Mom and Dad have been in Las Vegas. They’ve done numerous tests on my Dad and we still don’t know the answers. They are leaning toward lymphoma, and hopefully they can treat that here so they won’t have to hang out in Las Vegas. We’re still playing the waiting game. Mike and I went to Las Vegas for his big banquet that Schwan’s does every year. It was held at the Wynn. It was very elaborate and we had a lot of fun. Our one time of the year that we get to get away, just the two of us. I missed my little baby though. Mike’s sister-in-law watched all 4 of them, which was very nice. I didn’t worry TOOOO much! No, really they had a great time and she was soooo good to them. I’ll get back to this and fill you in as much as I can when I know something NEW!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Christmas!!!

Christmas!!!! what a wonderful time of year...We've been so busy this past few months, with the new baby and all, so I'm a bit behind in the blogging thing, as you probably can tell. The girls danced at a craft fair and also danced at the Heritage Center. They're are doing so well. Lexie and Shayley are in the same class, which makes it nice for me. Last year we had to stay for 3 hours so each girl could be in different classes. With Corbin in the picture this year, I just decided I couldn't do that again. It's working out nicely. Shayley's had to step it up a bit, because this class is so much faster than the one last year, but she's doing a great job! Can't believe it's Christmas already. Seems like I just had my baby. I think the time goes by much faster these days. We had our family pictures done in November. They turned out pretty cute. Boy have the girls grown up. Not much happening right now that's too exciting. We're all feeling well and doing well, and that's really all we could ask for.

Shayley, Chloee, Lexie & Corbin

Lexie

Shayley

Corbin James

Chloee

Friday, October 24, 2008

Shayley

WHAT A GREAT DAY THIS WAS! Shayley was baptized by her dad on October 11, 2008. She looked so pretty. Grammie took her to the mall in St. George and let her pick out her dress. What a pretty dress it was. She looked like a princess. She picked out a real frilly dress & Shoes that looked like Cinderella's. Her dad was so proud to get the chance to baptize another one of his daughters. What a wonderful experience for the two of them. We had a lot of family come to support her, which was nice. After her baptism, we came home and a nice dinner with the family.

We had a lot of family come for Shayley's Baptism

Shayley with Mom and Dad.
Doesn't she look like a princess!!!

Shayley and her Dad. . . Doesn't he look proud!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Corbin's Birth

CORBIN'S BIRTH

Our sweet little boy was born on August 11th, 2008 @ 3:09 p.m. It was a long labor (11 hours). I thought it would be a breeze, mean as when I had Chloee I was only in labor for 3 hours. Whatever!!! He decided to take his time entering this world. . . A typical STEPHENSON, does what he wants when he wants. . . He's a little doll (literally-my girls think that I had him just for them). My girls are the best little helpers ever. When they're home I don't have to do much. They fight over who is going to take care of him. He's a good baby. Since we came home from the hospital, he has gone to bed at 10:30 p.m., wakes up between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m., and is back down by 5:00 and up at 7:00 a.m. to get ready for the day. He and I stayed home until he was 4 weeks old and then we went back to work. That's right "We". He gets to go to work with me. What a trooper he is. We hardly even know he's there. He brings a new light to work, which is a good thing. He's 7 weeks old now (I'll get new pictures one here one of these days). He weighs 11.5 pounds already. He's gonna be a BIG BOY!!! Seems like that's all he wants to do is EAT. . .