And a few more doctor appointments....

So many of you have been asking how Olivia is doing and I wanted to wait until we wrapped up some more doctors appointments to give a full update. Today we had a visit with her pediatric gastroentologist. He is the one who discovered Olivia cannot break down poo and has her intestines full up to her tummy, which is why she always feels full and doesn't want to eat. He is also the guy who discovered that since her food won't go down it refluxes back up and that is why her esophagus is all burned up and her back teeth are wearing down etc... So she has been on a laxative for the past three months and a special medicine to stop her reflux. We had our follow up apt three moths later (today) to see if his recommendations had made a difference. It should be noted that during these three months on a laxative and anti-reflux drug Olivia had undergone a major operation (putting her flat on her back which increases constipation due to inactivity), endured three infections post operation (again flat on her back) and had managed to squeeze in a holiday (which sitting on a plane and not getting regular sleep and junk food usually adds up to constipation even for a normal person).

So we have good news! She grew 4 cm and gained 4 lbs in 3 months. In addition, he said she would have grown more had it not been for the above complications. She is now on the charts (3-5th percentile) in both weight and height. I have noticed a difference as she has started to out grow her size 4 slim jeans that she has had since she was three- I was kind of excited! The doctor changed her laxative for the winter when kids tend to be more constipated due to less outdoor play and less water intake, and said in 3 more months we should expect to be in the 10th percentile (which is also our follow up apt time). In another year we should be up to the 25th percentile and into the 50th percentile 6 months after that. He said she will be on the laxative for at least two years and after meeting Stan he said he predicts that she will be well above the 50th percentile and that he will monitor her until she plateaus vs. stopping once she is in the normal range (50th percentile)...so this guy could be working with her even if she makes it to the 70th percentile. Who knows whats in those genes! Anyway, we will keep you posted on the progress.

In addition, she is off her preventative medicine and has no current infections so she is doing really well and happy to be off medicine after taking so much for the past three months.

Our holiday in America!

So as many of you know in Australia (or England...and probably other parts of the UK) if you do anything other than work everyone calls it your holiday. You don't got on a trip or take time off you go on HOLIDAY. So this post is about our recent holiday in America, otherwise known as home sweet home!

I could talk for about 2 hours just about the trip but all you need to know are the following bullet points followed by too many pictures!

• The flight from Australia to America is a little over 14 hours (that's just to California).
• Thomas and I got a row of 4 to ourselves and he slept the whole way!--can I say BINGO?
• From California we flew to SLC Utah where my Dad picked Thomas and I up where we stayed overnight at his house and then drove 8 hours up to Montana.
• When we got to Montana, I got about 4 hours of sleep and then ran a 5K with my siblings...my time was 30:11 which was great considering the altitude change and jet lag.
• The next day was my sisters graduation--last kid out of the house GO TENILLE
• The next day was my mom's wedding reception...classy country was the theme...isn't that an oxymoron? Here is the pix of the new bride and groom and their grand kids!
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• The following day/ Tuesday was my mom's wedding (in Idaho so we drove another 3 hours south).
• 
  My grandparents with my kids, this was their first time meeting Thomas!
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• Sarah Cabrera (one of my YW from Great falls, VA-bbsat my kids--cool hu!)
  
• After the wedding we drove down to Utah (5 more hours south) where we stopped by to visit our close friends the Toskovitches and then drove further south where we stayed with Stan's Aunt and Uncle --They hung out with us in Oxford England (which was the last time we saw them so it was great fun catching up...Sorry for keeping you up so late! :-)

• Thursday we found our good MBA friends and crashed for a morning. Mary was best friends with Millie while living in England and after we graduated their daughter came down with Leukemia. Honestly it broke my heart when I saw her!! On a positive note, she seems to be the only one without messy hair in this picture. Millie with Leukemia, Olivia who gave herself bangs, and Mary who never notices the fact that her hair is in her face!
• After seeing our friends we went over to my Sister in-laws house (the Towers) where Stan got to hang out with some family and the cousins were able to run wild through Thanksgiving Point!
  
  Colter, Bridger, Olivia, Thomas, Sadie, Jackson, Mary
  Olivia learning to ride a bike....there are some disadvantages to living in an apartment on the water. The only sidewalk is on the water so I am not too keen on having her ride on it, in case she goes off!

Thomas and Sadie (a few months apart and their first time together)!

Thoma's first time on a horse...he waved the whole way

Mary and I petting the goats

• Olivia and Mary were fighting over who gets to mary Jackson (their cousin) Jackson (being the peace maker) said he would mary both of them! Thanx Jax!
• After visiting the Towers we stopped by our Sydneysider/ ex-pat friends (the Bennions) who headed back state-side! I know, now we are alone now. They came over to the US the same time we did so we let them borrow some suitcases and had to pick them up. Mary played with William for the last time :-( They were so cute together!! And congrats Amy and Don on the new house, we will miss you in Sydney!
• From there Stan and I hit our Alma Mater (BYU) where we were lucky enough to grab a Jamba Juice and say hello to a few professors and then Stan went and played some golf while I took the kids to bridal veil falls!

Then we drove 6 hours South to Saint George to visit Stan's parents!

• The Grandparents threw the kids an early birthday party (because seriously, who wants to mail gifts to Australia), went shopping at the outlets, swimming, saw a musical (Tarzan), had Sunday dinner more extended family (Stans other Aunt & Uncle and cousin with her kids), and almost adjusted to the USA time zone. Thank you so much, what fun we had!
  
  Thomas LOVES sharks so this was a really cool shirt!
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Hiking in the rocks...I love the pictures




The Broadway musical Tarzan, was held in this outside arena against these red rocks, it was breathtaking!

Since Stan's parents are serving a mission for our Church in Utah we got the official tour...yes, that is Thomas climbing over the antique pews :-)

Stan sitting in his great great great great? granddad's rocking chair, you can see the resemblance when Stan has a frowny face!

• From there we drove 6 more hours through Las Vegas and down to Anehiem where we did Disney Land for three days, the kids had a blast!

Mary and Ariel

Belle and the girls

Thomas utterly terrified :-)

Aroura (sp?) told Mary she had the perfect combination of purple and pink, Mary was delighted!

watching the parade

Thomas still terrified....

Cinderella and the girls...yes we saw a lot of princesses!

And the go-karts!

After a full day of Disney we got straight on a plane that night and flew back to Sydney. Jet lag is an understatement--cry!

Overall we hit 6 states in two weeks. We spent over 46.5 hours just sitting either on a plane or car. We did it in a 5 seater car with the kids car seats side to side and we averaged less than 4 hours of sleep a night (one night I got two hours of sleep --from 6-8am). Was it worth it? YES, it was so fun to see everyone and get the cousins together and make fun of mom's country themed wedding and run a 5K and stay up late playing mafia and see old friends! There was not enough time to see everyone and we literally squeezed every second we could to be with friends/ family! Maybe again in a few years hu?

• Also: My little bro is staying with us for the summer (or our winter) while he interns with PwC...so far he has done the dishes every night and said he would bbs this weekend!!!!

• Who wants to live with me next?!

Olivia's Notes

So you know how you have the one kid in your family that is the "angel, peacemaker, affectionate, empathetic, sweet heart kid etc....well that is Olivia in our family. I hope it is not just a 6 year old phase!! She is always leaving me notes (see below) and drawing me pictures. She likes to do it so much she makes me cards at school after her work time so that she can give me more cards at the end of school. This one is a classic (totally unprompted might I add), we have it hanging on our fridge.

I don't know if it is just in movies but it also seems that the "perfect kid" is the one with the hardest life. They die early or are sick or have disabilities etc... I think this last hospital stint really affected Olivia. I woke up one morning to about 8 jars of pee and a note telling me she was "saving up" for the next time we went to the hospital. A few days later she really had to go to the bathroom. I said "GO" and she said... "I can't I don't have any more sample cups!" Somehow she had gotten so used to catching a sample that she didn't think she could go without getting a sample.

We just got back from the hospital again today...She had some ultrasounds and scans to see how she is recovering. I was happy to find out that her surgery was a success. Everything healed and connected (urethra to the bladder) like it was supposed to without any blockage. She is able to fully empty her bladder (which is partly why she had UTI's before) and her latest UTI is due to not wiping correctly vs. a problem with the operation (which is a HUGE relief since she was on Amoxicillin at the time). After doing more urine test and waiting 48 hours for the urine culture we can see what kind of bacteria is causing the infections. This is important because (1) you can figure out what medicine will fix the problem (what will kill this strand of bacteria) and (2) sometime you can figure out the cause of the bacteria and try to avoid things or change behaviors to prevent it from happening again. There are all different ones which means a different treatment each time. Most of the time they are really weird unusual ones.