Our latest photo op

"Temple Song"

It's a long time joke in my family that I never know any of the lyrics to songs. I usually pretend that I do and it tends to be come out really funny. (Heathie, remember "Leap frog don't bother me in Catch Phrase?) Well here is Kaylin with her rendition of "I love to see the Temple" and unfortunately she has inherited some of my "making up random words to the song" habit. She does great though most of the song. Oh and I love how in the video she is interrupted by Zachary crying so she just starts over again. True Diva!

A Few things I'd like to share

Here are a few random things that I've been up to lately:

1. Reading books. I've started keeping track of all the books I've read this year so that I can look back and see that I've accomplished something besides load the dishwasher for the 100th time or clean toilets for the 300th time (I clean them all the time). After college I went through a major reading drought, with the exeption being Harry Potter. After reading so many textbooks, it's hard to try to read anything else. Now I'm feeling inspired to read again. I've read all the twilight books, which we awesome, and now I'm starting to get back into reading other books as well. If anyone has any good book ideas, please share!

2. Keeping a weekly schedule.

I bought this at Office Depot two weeks ago (thank you Shirley for the idea) and have been loving it! Phil doesn't like my regular yearly calendar because I bought it for 0.99 at Walmart and there are very funny wildlife pictures on it. Each week, I put up what is going on and some goals for each day. It has been great...except when Phil gets ahold of the dry erase markers and puts little comments on it. I wonder what kind of things HE writes as "goals." MEN! :)

3. Cooking and eating.

The other day I made this sticky lemon chicken compliments of chef Ramsey on the Rachel Ray show. It was very tasty! I also made a Chinese chicken salad yesterday that was very good.

4. Exercise. Phil has been getting home and making me go exercise at the clubhouse across the street. I do 30 minutes on the treadmill. I tried the elliptical machine last time for about 3 minutes and though my thighs were going to fall off. I think I'll get in better shape before I try that again! I can't say I love it yet, but at least I'm making the attempt.

5. Preschool with Kaylin. We are having so much fun doing little workbooks and activities. I have two preschool workbooks and then we do a gluing activity (usually gluing circles on paper or some other shape we are learning about). Kaylin always asks if we can do school. It's been fun to do while Zachary is napping in the morning because we can have some one on one time. Hopefully in the fall, we are going to get a homeschool curriculum for her to do preschool (Preschools here and everywhere are so expensive). I think I'll order the one from Calvert School (the same school I homeschooled from in Brazil during 6-8th grade). They have an awesome program.

The Kaylin health update

Many have asked how Kaylin is doing and what we have found out since her colonoscopy, so I will give you all an update. About 2 weeks ago, we visited the head of Pediatric Gastroenterology at one of the Stanford University children's hospitals. Our GI doctor had referred us there to get a second opinion and also some other medical treatment options. Here's what we know so far:

• Nothing...We are no where closer to a diagnosis than we were a year ago. But, that being said, we did discover that she has inflammation throughout her colon and some in her ileum (the last little part of your small intestine). Normally, that would indicate that she has Crohn's Disease, but since she is so young, they are not thinking that it is Crohns (the doctor called it backsplash ileitis). It still could be allergy related (she's already allergic to milk and egg whites), an immunology issue (immune system problem), it could be bacterial, and the list goes on. We have done several tests and I'm sure we'll do many more in her lifetime.


• The doctor at Stanford gave us some promising treatment options. Right now she's on an antibiotic called vancomyacin (which is $1500 for a two week supply! Thank goodness for insurance) which may or may not work. She also is taking probiotics (which are under a lot of research right now because they can be very beneficial for the gut) and we also order PREbiotics called Healthy Track which work with the PRObiotics to restore those beneficial bacteria in the gut. We will try this and see if it works. The website (I added the link) has a lot of different amazing natural products and comes very highly recommended by her doctor. Because Healthy Track is a natural soluble fiber, I'm going to just put the whole family, including Zachary, on it.

After the appointment in Stanford, Phil and I left feeling optimistic and hopeful that there are more available options for treatment. We also feel like this is a journey, not a very fun one, but a journey nonetheless. On this journey, there will be highs and lows, but I feel like if we stay positive and pray more fervently, we will find a medicine that works for her. Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts for Kaylin. We do feel so much love and support.

Zachary- 20 lbs 3 oz.

We finally took Zachary to the pediatricians this week. We had to wait 5 months to get health insurance through Phil's work, so it is nice to finally be able to have Zachary covered! The doctor just loved Zachary. He's getting to be so big! I always say that I don't need to ever do weight training (I'm sure Michelle would disagree) because I'm constantly carting around 20 lbs everywhere I go. Here are the latest pictures...

Look at what he can do...