Our Growing Family

2017 continued.....

GWEN

We have had a lot of challenges with Gwen since my last post (we'll get to that later), but we've had a few enjoyable moments as well.  Miss Cassie, Gwen and I tried out some charcoal facemasks (which did nothing).  Maren loves to interrupt Gwen's speech therapy especially when Gwen should be working on her iPad. Gwen loves to swing, dress-up (this was national cupcake day), chill with her cousin Kenzie, and chew on bacon (it's just a baby chewy)!

QUINTEN

Quinten is doing very well in school.  His favorite subject is recess, he is learning to read (but he prefers being read to), his mind races a mile a minute and he enjoys staying busy...but through it all he remains our sweet sensitive boy!

MAREN

Maren is still a diva, a daddy's girl, a tease, a jokester, and most recent a nurturer.  She loves to play "mommy" feeding her babies, rocking her babies, and walking her babies (high heels and pantless of course)! 

LOGEN

September 12th at 6:24am, Logen James McDonald was born via c-section weighing 6lb, 15oz., 19 inches long, and a GIANT "L" on his forehead! Let it be known, we had picked out the name Logen no matter the gender....this just solidified it!

OCTOBER

Having four children keeps us very busy and I don't want Quinten and Gwen to feel lost in the mix, so Miss Cassie and I took them to the Arizona Science Center for a fun afternoon.  Halloween snuck up on me and my imagination failed miserably and the kids just got store bought costumes this year. Wah wah wahhhhhhhh :(

NOVEMBER

We planned a very spontaneous weekend trip to Houston, Texas to visit Jesse's brother Jon, his wife Chandra and new niece Lilly!  The flights to and from were horrible thanks to a screaming toddler with an ear infection, but our time on land was very fun!

Jesse's company sponsored "THE BIG DIG", a family event for families in construction to see and do all things construction!  Hey Gwen, don't get squished by the giant tire!

We enjoyed our beautiful Arizona weather and drove south to Rooster Coburn's Ostrich Ranch with our family and Uncle Kevin's family.  It's so nice for us to do things that Gwen can also enjoy, like feeding birds, goats, ostriches, and riding in a really big accessible MONSTER TRUCK!!  We learned everything there is to know about ostriches and the kids had a blast!

DECEMBER

Quinten was so proud to share his first handwritten Christmas list with Santa!

Santa also made a special visit to our house ;)

   

JANUARY

Besides the birth of Logen, 2017 was a very difficult year for our family.  Gwen had major back surgery in February and Grandma Linda passed away in March.  From May thru December Gwen kept us up screaming all hours of the night.  We initially thought her discomfort stemmed from the wound opening on her back, but after that surgery (June)...nothing improved.  I kept a running log of her medications, her moods, and her sleep for months.  After countless visits to doctors, specialists, and numerous rounds of antibiotics, our pediatrician concluded Gwen was suffering from recurrent sinus infections.  On December 1st (via CT scan), we learned that Gwen's right maxillary sinus was completely occluded.  There was no option for us other than surgery (January 2nd) to clean out and drain the area.  Unfortunately, along with this surgery came weeks of bloody noses. 

About two weeks post sinus surgery, Gwen seemed to be feeling much better so we celebrated Papa and Gwen's (9th) birthdays together.  The local siblings and spouses took Papa to an Escape Room and we played a live action game where we all dressed up as characters in the game trying to figure out "Who Shot the Sheriff". Then we came back and enjoyed cake with everyone!

 

(Of course) Nothing ever goes smooth with Gwen and her irritability sparked back up again.  This time I felt a "bump" on Gwen's left lower back.  One the brackets holding the screw to her pelvis had slowly sloughed off over the past year and was nearly piercing through her skin!  

On the day of surgery (January 18th) we finally got some smiles as Gwen's always happy to see her favorite Great Uncle Dave!

    

LEFT PICTURE: The left side x-ray (April 2017) shows the lower left bracket centered in the screw and the right side x-ray (January 2018) shows that same bracket fallen off the screw.  

RIGHT PICTURE: Her post surgery incision. 

 

Fast forward four days (January 22nd) and we were admitted back to the hospital for three days for fever, not having a bowel movement for 8 days due to the narcotics and surgery, another sinus infection, and a respiratory virus she had contracted from Lord knows where!  

So far 2018 has been miserable!!!  We are hopeful to have happy Gwen back and healthy soon!