Hello everyone,
We wanted to give a quick update on Elijah. Some of you already know that Elijah is in the hospital as of Christmas day. What kind of a Christmas would it be for us if we weren't in the hospital??? We woke up on Christmas day and had a great morning of opening presents and watching the kids be amazed at what Santa brought them. It was great, but right after we got done opening presents Elijah said he was tired and wanted to go and lay down. Levi came back in the other room where we all were and asked me if I wanted to go and feel his head. I said, NO!!! He better not have a fever!" Well he did and so I called the doctor. We were able to give him some Tylenol and not have to take him in right away. His fever broke for awhile but after a few hours it was back and we had to take him in. We went to the ER hoping that his counts would be high enough to just give him some antibiotics and send him home. Dr Al-Zein saw him in the ER and I was a little pushy to have him discharge us. His counts weren't great (ANC was around 800), but Dr agreed to send us home if we would follow up in the clinic the next day. We went home and at about 5am Elijah woke up with a fever of 103 and hives all over his body. I knew that we were headed back to the hospital for admission at that point. We have been in the hospital ever since (which is why I have time to update our blog). Elijah's counts dropped over the first couple of days to around 400 ANC. They had stopped his chemo until his counts recovered. On Monday his counts were back up to 950, but he was still having the fevers and hives. Dr. Woods (new partner to the group) said that she had thought about sending us home since his counts had recovered, but she was baffled as to why he was still having fevers. They have thought all along that he has some virus because none of the cultures have grown bacteria. She told us that she wanted to give him one more day of antibiotics but she would probably let us go the next day. Then, because Elijah is Elijah and he can't be normal in any kind of way, he had two of the highest fevers he has had since he was admitted lat night (Monday night into Tuesday morning). One of them got to 104. She apologised this morning when she came to see him that she had told us that we might be going home, because he was going to be staying. Not only did he have those two really high fevers, but his counts that had recovered have now started falling again. Since Dr. Woods is new to the group I had to inform her of Elijah and his non-normalcy. I told her if she was thinking that he would do something then he would do the exact opposite. She decided to order a CT scan from head to toe to look for a source of infection, and really to start ruling things out. She said when he is on his 5th day of fevers, you have to start running tests to rule things out and not just rely on him having a virus. Elijah has had a couple more fevers throughout the day today and we haven't heard anything back on the CT scan yet. At this point it's hard to know what to think or what to expect as far as going home. Woody and Melissa (Levi's older brother and sister-in-law) have willingly taken the girls once again and we are so grateful to them for doing that. They have four of their own, so adding 3 more isn't an easy task. A HUGE thank-you to them for being so great!!! That's all for now, hope all of you had a great Christmas and have a happy New Year!! I'm starting to think that we will be ringing in the new year the same as we did last year, from our hospital room. Well, I do have to say that we are in much better shape than we were last year at this time and we are defiantly grateful for that. When we were admitted, Dr. Al-Zein told us that he was on his way to sign a DNR (do not resuscitate) order with a family whose little one was not going to make it. As sad as I was about being back in the hospital on Christmas, it put into perspective how lucky we were to just be in the hospital with a fever. We love all of you and hope you all have happy holidays!!
Love, Levi, Amanda, Michelle, Elijah, Alivia and Tysa

We're alive

I know you are wondering if we have dropped off the planet or are in witness protection. That is that we are all ok and have been very busy. We will be on in the next couple of days to give you an exciting, detail filled, riveting look at what we have been up to in the last month and a half. Thanks.

OK. The time has come again for me to update the blog. I had a slightly one-sided conversation with Amanda about whose turn it was (you'll find it's kind of the same conversation as when I tell her it's her TURN to change the diaper) to do the update. It went something like this. "Babe, it's your turn to update the blog." Arched eyebrow, no response. Again "Babe, you look great, it's your turn to update the blog." Smirk, no response. Again "Babe, you're the apple of my eye, it's your turn to update the blog." Small smile and BOOOM. "Sweety, why don't we count how many times I have updated, count how many times you've updated, subtract your number from my number, wait until your number actually reaches my number, and then it'll be my turn to update the blog." Ouch. Usually I win our verbal forays which probably explains why all my completely innocent remarks are usually greeted with silence. With that in mind, it looks like you guys are going to have to here from me approximately 39 more times until you here from Amanda. Weeeelllllll, on to the family business. I'll start with me and work our way down by age (feel free to enter a joke about the age difference between amanda and I because I had a couple go through my head). I am still working 7 bagillion hours at work every week. That still remains absolutely great. I recently had a stint of doctor visits because I thought I was having a heart attack. It turns out that I have an irregularity in my EKG that the doctor just want to "have checked out to eliminat any questions." She then proceeded to schedule it two weeks later. I'm thinking to myself, what if I have a heart attack while doing something totally normal? All who know me know what that is really code for, and if that happens, how is Amanda going to get out from under me??? Sorry mom, I know that is tacky but that is what I thought. I don't know the results yet, but I'll keep you posted. On to another topic that mom will love, it turns out I have hemmorhoids. Nice. I can tell you that the doctor owes me dinner after that appointment (and I watched her wash her hands). Other then those two things, life is pretty ok aside from the mild stress about the economy and owning my own business. One thing of note, I have learned a hard lesson on how I should control my temper. I was carrying a basket of clothes upstairs (barefoot) and stepped on a toy in the hallway by our bathroom. I was quite angry that toys had not been put away and promptly punched a hole in the bathroom door. I turned around and saw all the kids with wide eyes and fearful looks. Thats the last time I will let my temper out of control. Amanda is doing well for a person that has 4 kids, a slighty off-kilter husband and 2 dogs. I don't know how she stays sane becasue everytime I hear two kids crying, it is like someone is cutting my brain with glass shards. She has been on a kick of trying to get me healthy for some reason, but I constantly thwart her intentions. Michelle is doing well. I still have a hard time actually having a child that has reasoning of her own that sometimes might actually be right. I still have the trump card though "Becasue I'm the dad and I said so." YEAH. She is doing well and enjoys school. She is also in dance and seems to like that as well. Elijah is doing good. He was able to make a wish with the Make a Wish Foundation and he decided he wanted to go to sea world to see the animals, and kiss a dolphin, and watch some SHARKS. We are really excited to go and I think they are going to spoil him rotten. We still have the pleasure of giving him 3-5 medications every night, but he is getting better taking them. The doctor told Amanda that they want to increase the chemo dosage becasue it is not knocking his counts down far enough, but they have kindly consented to wait until after we get back from Florida. He also is still on steroids once a month, but it is a lower dosage so we don't get the I love you/I shall kill you looks 1/2 second apart anymore which shows something about me that I look back and kind of miss that. Alivia is doing great and gets more firey as the days pass. She is starting to spit out semi-recognizable words like juice (which happens to be jhoooo), Michelle (which happens to be shheeooooowww) and Elijah (which happens to be Yih-yaahh). She is a sweety and manages to smile and laugh while smacking her siblings. I think it's hilarious when I hear SMACK "Stop it Alivia!" Once again my thoughts turn to my own childhood. Tysa is doing excellent. She is sort of chunky, but we don't seam to have kids any other way. I'm convinced that if we had gotten Michelle while she was young, she would have started out chubby. Tysa is smiling alot, she learned how to suck her thumb, and is overall a very contect baby. For all who would like to come, we are having her sealed to us Thanksgiving weekend at the Temple in Omaha, Ne. With us will be a lot of the birth mom's family (my cousin Bridgette), so it will be wonderful for us to have them there to support us as we do this. Thanks to Bridgette for sharing this wonderful girl with us, and thanks to her family for supporting us as we go through this together. That is all the news that I have for now, for a more detailed and, let's be honest, accurate description of any points brought up in the preceding words, it's probably best to talk to Amanda. Thanks for all you love and prayers in our behalf! We truly can't explain how much you all mean to us, and how we are thankful for all the love and support we get. Love you.

Sorry for the delay

Just wanted to drop a quick note and let everyone know that we are doing ok. We have been VERY busy and also had to have Isaac re-set the password since they were the ones that set this blog up for us when we were in the hospital. I promise we will get on in the next couple of days and give a detailed and complete update. Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Just a quick note......We got some family pictures taken and wanted to share some of them with all of you. I was really happy with how they turned out. I thought it would be massive chaos to take them all for pictures, but all of them really did well and were cooperative with the photographers. It's still a little strange to look at our family picture and see how much we have grown in the last three and a half years. I really thought three and a half years ago we would never have kids. This is awesome, even with the chaos, I am having sooooo much fun. I love it and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Once again, we have been remiss in updating the blog. I will therefore endeavor to write what has been happening with a semblance of accuracy. I promise that my imagination will not contribute. I also promise that I will leave at least half of the information out since that is what I do, my calling as a man, my station in life. Poor Amanda married down heh heh. Anyway, we have had a good couple of weeks. Elijah is off of the steroids and his actions and emotions are much less of a roller coaster. He also has thinned down again because the steroids made him gain quite a bit of weight. He was eating for awhile during the steroid regimen, but that was as short lived as the steroids themselves. It did think it was pretty funny that Elijah, while he was puffed up and chubby, had a rather large belly. We were swimming and he looked at his tummy and looked up to me and said "I have a big belly like Dad's." How tender and sweet! We are almost done with the most intense phase of his steroids and will soon be going to the doctor only once a month. We did find out that he would be taking a low dose chemo every day in pill form for the next 3 years. We foolishly hoped that we would not have to keep giving him medicine every day but alas, that is not the case. Michelle is doing very well and getting ready to start school. We went and bought school supplies for her and I felt like an old man. I kept saying "This isn't how things were in my day. Why, in my day all we needed was a pencil box, some pencils and paper." Apparently I also walked to school uphill both ways in the snow carrying all of my siblings. She is pretty excited and I must say that I am so happy that we were able to get her a Hannah Montana folder for her. Oh joy. Hallelujah. Yippee. She was also excited that she was able to buy a backpack. It is kind of a luggage piece because it has wheels on the bottom and you can pull it. It seems to me that they should be able to carry their stuff, otherwise they might get fat (says the fat dad to the skinny hyper youth). I must confess that I was also pretty excited to get my first eye roll from Michelle and I could see the thought flashing across her face "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard and will not dignify that with a response." At least she is smart enough not to actually say that. All kidding aside, she is excited to go to school and we love having her as a part of our family. Alivia is still doing well. She is the one that we might have to worry about when she is older. I find it mildly amusing (very mildly) that if you try and grab her hand to lead her where she wants to go, then she will jerk her hand out of yours and sort of run away. It is hilarious when she does it to Michelle, not so hilarious when she does it to us. We are still unsure as to what to do with her since our other children are all mellow. I always come home and am prepared to see her walking around the kitchen, right arm swinging wildly, going for Elijah or Michelle to annoy them in some way. It is kind of fun also to watch her grab Elijah's blanket, juice, toy, food, or anything else he might have and look up at him to see how long it will take him to yell at her. She does it with a smirk on her face, and all I can think of when I see that is "My poor parents.". How fun it must have been for them to see me antagonize Isaac until he smacked me full force in the back with a broom handle. Or watching me push Zach around because he was too skinny to hurt me. Or watch me put Angela in my movie for school and call her a serving wench. Or watch me make Melanie cry because I told her that she was faking her vibrato when she sang. Or watching me slap the glasses off of Jenny's face (she got the best of that one, she can punch reeeeeeallly hard). Or watching me convince Jordan that it was ok to slide off of the roof on a saucer because the 6 inches of snow would pad his fall (this was a failure because I went off first with Zach and couldn't hide the pain when I thought I pushed my coccyx into my throat). Or . . . I couldn't do anything to Woody because he as an evil imagination and would win. Period. I digress. The point is, I shall reap what I have sown as a youth and am not looking forward to the harvest. Tysa is doing very well. She is finally sleeping through the night which is great! For Amanda. I must confess that I didn't get up very often, but I think I commiserated well her when she told me about it. She is a cutie and we love her. Also, a big thanks and a large hug to our friends the Hancocks who moved to Idaho this week. Bill (Beeeaal) and Georgia are our long lost (he would say bastard) southern brother and sister. It is hard to describe how much they meant to us and how we will miss them. Bill was so very thoughtful and did Elijah's adoption pro-bono when he first starting out as an attorney. He is a spiritual giant and we will miss his sense of humor, his humility, and his love for god and the gospel. He would tell us about how the lord had to make do with him in the callings that he was in, but everyone who knew him knew that there wasn't another person as diligent, as kind, and as thoughtful as Bill. Georgia was always next to Bill with a twinkle in her eye and a smile on her face. I will always admit that my wife is the one who does all the work and makes me who I am, and I know that Bill feels the same way about Georgia. She is a great woman. Bill and Georgia, we love you more than we can ever express and hope to see you soon. Also, thanks to all of you who are too numerous to name that have helped us. All of my family (and I mean all, even those that I am not able to talk to much) thank you for everything you do. All of Amanda's family. All of our friends. Thanks for all the help, the prayers, the thoughts, the calls to see if we are ok. Thank you from the bottom of our heart. I am going to stop before I start crying (all who know me very well know that it is a distinct possibility, especially if there is an opossum who is dying). We love you all.

Well....Amanda has been very busy and so it is my turn to create the blog. I know that many of you are ecstatic that I get to wax poetic about how things are going with our family, but try to contain your amazement at my mastery of the english language and sit back to enjoy this verbal feast. Things have been going well with our family. First and foremost, we were able to go to the temple and have Alivia sealed to us. Poor girl is stuck with us as parents for eternity! AAAAAAHHHHHHH! Oh well. She'll have to make do. All joking aside, we are thrilled that it is finally done. Thanks to all who helped us through the heartache of thinking we would lose her. Elijah is doing well, he went through a round of chemo that included steroid treatments. Yikes! We lovingly like to call him Mr. Angry during this process because the steroids made him freak out at the smallest provocation. Amanda has two pictures that were taken about 25-30 seconds apart and in one he is smiling, and in the other he is yelling. Fantastic! We also added another to our family. We welcomed a young lady named Michelle to our household. She just turned 10 and is fitting in very well with us. She is remarkably helpful and is a sweet girl who is happy to laugh and have fun. She especially loves all of her new cousins like Isabelle, Ava, Tia, and Abby. Tysa is doing well but still eating every two hours. She must be related to all of my thin relatives because she doesn't seem overly big. She is starting to get a little chub though. Amanda is not yet bald from pulling her hair out, but I think it might happen in the near future. I try to ease her burden by antagonizing her (only in order to make her laugh. Oddly, she doesn't seem to laugh as much as I do. HHHmmmm). She is a great mom and wife and we all appreciate her. I am sure that she will update you all soon with more information but in the meantime, thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We would not make it without that. Thank you also for your willingness to drop what you are doing and help out when we are in the hospital with Elijah for a week (especially Woody and Melissa who took all of our kids for 3 days. YIKES that is 7 kids 10 and under!!). We love you all.