My Goodness, August was our last post?

We have been awful at updating you all on this blog. We have been all over the place and have just not made time to update everyone on how we have been doing...We Are Good! God is Good! We have been busy as the rest of you, and like I said, we just haven't made time to update you all. Here it is:

Colton:
This kid is amazing. Do you want to know something about the Colorado Rockies or about baseball in general? Call Colton. Baseball is life to him right now. When he wakes up in the morning he is asking questions about baseball and when he goes to sleep he does the same. 3rd Grade is already half over and he is showing up every expectation. His class has formed a little competition in reading minutes and he does not back down. He always wants to be the best and most of all do the best at everything he does. Again, this translates back to baseball where he wants to be the best. Today's high was in the 20's and Colton was still outside playing baseball. It is so exciting to see him develop into a boy who loves everyone and just about everything. He does not like bean or potatoes, but that is about the list of things he cannot tolerate. He is the best big brother Abby could have. The amount of help he provides is unsung and the love he shows her is pure. Being the 19 month old she is, she will slap Colton around, but he will come back with a hug of love. Nothing explains how he loves her, other than the pure love he shows everyone. This boys heart is larger than life.

Abigail:
Do I start at the terrible 2's? She isn't 2 yet, so it is hard to start there. She is definitely coming into her own. She is finding her own way and please do not get in her way. If you do, she will let you know. Like many others, the grocery check out lane is a classic as well as the refrigerator when she does not get the juice she desires. I have started off on a bad note, but Abigail's personality is not that at all. It is easy to point out her low points because they are much fewer than her high points. The morning or after nap hug she provides is enough to was wash away the fits she may produce at other times. She takes after her brother when it comes to providing this world with love. Her dance moves are original and shower us with joy and smiles everyday. Whether it be in the grocery store (before the check out line) or in our own house, her hips and shoulders are always jammin to the music her ears choose to listen to. She has learned her love of music from her brother, but has added her own flavor of dance to mix. We went to a speech and motor skill specialist the other day which was promising and a testament to Abigail's relentless attitude. She scored at, or above, her age for speech and motor skills. These scores come after she scored blazing numbers on her hearing and growth at her cleft clinic appointment. This girl is going to move more than just her body, nothing is going to stop her.

Heather:
Beautiful Wife, Loving Mother. There is really nothing else to say. She continues to work at Denver Health and keep our house grounded. Heather's love is also one of pure love and always looking out for what is best for everyone in our family. Her beauty is easy to see at face value, but she really backs it up when she wears her heart out on her sleeve. I couldn't ask for a better wife and a better mother for my children. This woman is is wife and mother of the year (with a possible bias to this one man judge).

Me:
Almost done! That is, I am almost done with my Masters degree. I cannot wait. No more, "I can't play right now because I have to write a paper." I will be done in March! Heather has told me that I have to walk with my class which will take place in May. I am happy that I have powered through this and not taken any breaks. Beyond this nothing is different other than trying every day to be a better dad and husband to the people I love the most. I cannot say enough about the family I am a part of. The growth of my kids and the wife I come home to is the highlight of my life and will be the continued story for a long while. With that I will leave you with some of the recent pictures we have taken.
WE LOVE YOU ALL! Have a very Merry CHRISTmas and a kick in the pants start of a new year.

Abby's form of a scrunchy (I used to do something like this when I was a toddler)

She definitely takes after her brother

Riding the shoulders of her tank of a cousin, Nash

She obviously has better things to do than talk to the paparazzi

Colton's latest play in fall fall ball. Kid pitch is next year!

Heather and her nieces at Grandpa's house

Colton's grand plan worked out on Thanksgiving. I don't get even, I get ahead...

I don't let things go unpunished

Colton at Denver's Zoo Lights

Finally, a family picture. I only had 2 seconds to get into the picture so this is the reason for my WIDE eyes.

Summer Review

Sauce face, yes, it is in her hair..


Happy Abby!

Already a daredevil.

Chocolate face this time.

On the way home from South Dakota, we heard the kids laughing and turned around to see Abby sticking pretzel sticks up her nose!

Mount Rushmore.

Flower girl.

Colton, Molly and Emily on ATV at Taylor Reservoir.

This is what hail and wind does to your house and trees in Colorado.

Hi Everyone! Summer has flown by so fast but we had so much fun. Sorry it has been so long since our last post, it has just been crazy busy. Peter is still working on his master's degree and really busy at work. With Colton back at school, I've taken this opportunity to catch everyone up. Colton started the summer off by going to Disneyland, he had a great time. We all went to South Dakota for a Jenson family reunion. We had so much fun there seeing Mount Rushmore, swimming at water parks and just hanging out with family. Abby has been growing leaps and bounds. She runs, not walks, or dances :) everywhere she goes. We were so excited the other day when she drank out of a straw, after struggling with sucking for such a long time, this was great to see! She is starting to say some words; Momma, hot, dad, moo(for milk), and today I swore she said bubbles in the tub. She is just as crazy as she's always been and a joy to watch grow. In the middle of the summer, we had a really bad hail storm. Pete actually called me at work that night because he thought a tornado had gone over the house, pretty terrifying. We also had a great 4th of July celebration and went to Elitch's and Waterworld last week just for that last bit of summer fun. To add to the fun, we welcomed a new cousin/nephew to our family, WELCOME Daniel! Well, I think that about sums it up. Thanks for checking in on Abby and our family!
Love Heather

We're Home!!!

Abigail is truly AMAZING! Everyone's prayers worked and God made His presence known. Abigail woke up this morning not even thinking she had surgery yesterday. She is completely back to herself and you would not even know her mouth is lined with stitches. Abigail is doing great and she thanks everyone for their prayers and every single thought you had about her.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we had her surgeon pierce her ears while she was under. The pictures below is of her already playing with her car and of her on our couch at home with her new earings. We again want everyone to know that we appreciate every thought and prayer you sent our way. We have felt the warmth from everyone. We love you and will try our best to keep you up to date on anything that is happening.

Rest At Ease

Everyone can rest at ease. Our little Abby is back in good spirits. She is obviously still sore, but she is smiling and goofing around like she usually does. Colton brought her a balloon with a stuffed dog attached to it which she loves playing with. We cannot be happier right now knowing that she is doing better. We owe it to your prayers and a God that shines through once again. He is truly amazing and we thank Him for everything He has done for us today. We also thank all of you for what you have for us today. Even one thought was heard and appreciated. Below might not be the best picture because Abigail's mouth is still a little bloody but it is when she was playing with her balloon. She is now more cleaned up and resting in Mom's arms. Thanks again to everyone.

Post Op Scare...To a Good End

What a day! First off I have to give it to Children's Hospital of Denver for taking care of everything in a way which makes us feel like we are the only ones here. Also, our surgeon, Dr. Allen is a complete God send. He is one of those Doctors who doesn't really know he is a doctor. Everyone can see is love for these kids by just looking at how he treats them.

Dr. Allen told us the surgery went really well. Everything went as planned including the ear piercing we asked him to do. Yeah, that's right, we asked him to pierce Abigail's ears when she was under. They look beautiful. It will be hard to mistake her for a boy now.

Now for the scare of a lifetime...She came out of her sleep ok, but she was showing that she was in pain so they began by giving her a little morphine. This is very common, and was done in the PACU where they can monitor her very closely. She was still showing she was in pain so they continued with more morphine. Again, they were monitoring her closely and she was not reacting in any bad ways. I don't know how many doses they gave her but through her continuing to show pain they completely exhausted the morphine treatment. She then calmed down enough for them to release her from the PACU and send her upstairs to the post-op floor. She continued to do a little better. She faded in and out of being asleep and awake. During one of her awake moments Heather tried to give her some apple juice. When Heather did this it made Abby upset which ended up sending her into a respiratory arrest; she couldn't breath or essentially she stopped breathing. I have been through a lot of difficult times in my life, but there is nothing that compares to the feeling I had during this time. Abby turned completely blue. Heather and our Awesome nurse, Ellen, reacted quickly and put Abby on her bed. Abigail continued not to breath. By this time Ellen had yelled for help and ripped the "bag mask" off the wall and put it to Abby's face. A bag mask is what you see on TV where they are squeezing the bag in order to breath for people who cannot do it on their own. My heart really began to pop out of my chest when they told someone to call the core team. A core team is a team that is specialized in rehabilitating people. Nurses and doctors began pooring into our room. Everyone was asking what happened, doctors were giving orders and everyone was trying to help. It was very chaotic to me, but they had everything down like clockwork and were on top of everything. With my heart all buy stopped, Abby began to come back after about 30 seconds. This seems like a short amount of time, but by now she had not taken a breath in over a minute and a half by herself. This also seems like a short amount of time, but while this was happening my concept of time had come to a screeching halt. It felt like hours had gone by. To give a happy ending to all of this, she came "back to" with a loud cry. The ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) team, who had also been called was now in the room and began to take care of everything. Dr. Allen suctioned out her mouth and Abby began to fall back asleep. This is, by far, the worst feeling I have ever had, but I thank God for watching over our Abigail and providing her with an extra Angel to be there to help out. She has spent the rest of the day being fairly restless, but finally she was able to fall asleep for about 30 minutes. When she woke up, big brother Colton came to visit and was able to make her smile and laugh. Finally my heart came out of my stomach as I saw this. The bond those two kids have is also something from God. As soon as she saw him, it was like she felt no pain. He is the greatest big brother Abigail could ever ask for. We are truly blessed.

We want to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts. Yes, this was very scary, but we are past it and have moved on to recovery. Our God is so great and we love Him for what He has provided us. I am even more thankful for God giving me such a strong and caring wife, a beautiful and resilient daughter, and a son who has a heart of gold. Furthermore, God has provided us with a hospital staff who reacted in such a way that saved our little one. How can one not praise a God who has given us so much. We are just so thankful. We love you all and again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Abigail Turns 1!!!!!

Abigail's party was a blast. We had such a good time and want to thank everyone for coming. Enjoy a picture story of her party!
Abigail was helping us get ready for her party by playing in the balloons

She loved the static balloons

Abby had plenty of help opening her presents. Thank you to everyone who brought presents. Abigail is one who loves to play with everything and she already has. Her mother is also good at putting all of her clothes to good use. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

For Abigail's party we wanted to cut down on the amount of toys Abigail would never play with so we gave people the option to bring presents or to help with a donation to Operation Smile. We are so thankful for what people gave. We feel so blessed to have good insurance and to live in a country where we have doctors and surgeons to help fix Abby's cleft. The following picture represents part of what everyone gave. During Abigail's party we were able to raise enough money for one and a half surgeries. That is one full surgery for a child who could not afford it themselves, and half the money for another. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Yes our daughter is crazy

Abby's new favorite doll. She is trying to kiss it through the packaging

Abigail and her cousin Molly

Abby's lady bug cake

Am I really allowed to be doing this?

Here Mom, we can share

Licking it is so much easier

Mmmmm....Cake

This was not at her party but a picture that captures her fun loving spirit. She is crazy!


This past weekend we went to my sister-in-law's sister's wedding reception. We had a great time and so did the kids.
This is (from right to left) the Sister-in-law, Dana and her little one, Emily. The Mother-in-law, my mom, Mima, and Heather and Abby.

Our little beauty show off her pretty dress to everyone

Our little one getting down to the music. We are going to have our hands full as she gets older

Again, we want to thank everyone who donated money toward surgeries for other children who are in need. It really means a lot to Heather and I to help bless other people for we are blessed beyond what we could have ever imagined. We feel this way going into Abigail's second surgery and pray everything goes as well as the first one. Thank You everyone for your thoughts and prayers. I will keep you updated on Tuesday as to how everything went. Abby also sends her love to ALL of You!!!

Tuesday, May 19th at 8AM

We got a phone call from Abigail's scheduler and she told us that Abby is first to go on the 19th. Her surgery will begin at 8Am and will last about three hours. Again the feelings of a bitter sweet feeling have come. Abby has really taken to eating solid foods and now we have to have to go back to a liquid diet for two weeks. Overall, we are more excited than anything. After this surgery we will be done for a few years. Furthermore, we should be done with inpatient surgeries. Everything after Tuesday will be touch-ups and a couple of reconstructions, which are not as major.
We feel so blessed. The support we have from everyone and the God we trust in to watch over us is more than we could ever ask for. Abby is such a great baby and a great joy to be around. We really thank God for everything he has given us.
Abby did turn 1 year old on Saturday, May 9th? I am sorry we do not have the pictures off of our camera yet, but I plan on doing that this weekend. I will have them posted shortly. We are also sorry for not posting in the last few months. I have been out of the country and Heather has been trying to keep the house on the ground. We really appreciate every ones help while I was gone. Aunt Sue and Papa really saved our behinds with watching the kids, so thank you for that.
More will come this weekend, and I will leave you with a message from Abigail,
njjnmnb nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn bbbbb bnnnnn

May 19th

So we are now on the schedule for May 19th. Our doctor has told us that they give her cold a full 4 weeks to clear up. They do not want anything extra to deal with when doing this surgery. Abigail has also been put on the cancellation list, which means, anytime after April 28th, she can fill in a spot where someone else has had to cancel. We are little concerned that her speech will be more affected now that her surgery is after she turns one, so if there are any words of experience from other cleft families that would be great. It is only 10 days after her first birthday, but still, who doesn't want to hit that optimum time for their kids? We can only do our best to lean on God and know that He has Abigail in His hands. We don't know why things happen when and how they do, but we have faith that this is all in His plan. Maybe May 19th is the optimal day for Abigail's surgery. Thank You to everyone for your prayers and thoughts. We have such a great support group and would not know what do with out any of you. Thank you so much.

The Mostly Ups and This is a Down

Abigail's surgery had to be cancelled today:( We woke her up early this morning to feed her for the last time before her surgery and she had a stuffy nose and a little cough. When they do these surgeries they don't want our little troopers to be sick at all. When they are sick it can really affect how well they heal. If there is any chance they won't heal the way they are suppose to they won't do the surgery. We have to give her four weeks to fully get over this and we will try again. This is hard to take because of everything that is put into planning for this: emotionally, schedule, and just preparing. We thank everyone for their prayers.

Abby Update

Where has time gone? It wouldn't be a normal post if I didn't mention how busy our life is. I can only imagine that sometime life will slow down, but as many of you know, it doesn't. I have been out of the country for three weeks and only to return for three weeks to turn around and be gone for another three. Heather, of course, is holding down the fort and taking care of everything on the home front. This is all being done while still working. We have to thank everyone that has helped out so far and everyone that is has signed up to help when I leave again: Aurora Jenson's, Mima, Papa, Sue, and "The Girls" (All of Heather's friends). Colton and Abby have been wonderful with the adversity of me being gone and others taking care of them. It is too bad that I came home with a cold and have recently shared it with Colton; who is home from school today with it.
Abby has seemed to miss catching it, which is a blessing, since her palate surgery is on Tuesday (tomorrow). She is one of the most energetic babies I have seen. Of course, I don't see very many other babies within their home, but even when we are out and about, she looking around, looking for friends, flirting with other boys (which I do not approve of), and just being a fun baby. Yesterday, I took her to church and let her spend the service with the childcare and they said she just played the entire time. I was a little nervous during the service, but they said she did great. We thank God for such a great baby, and furthermore, such a great family.
Like I said before, her palate surgery is tomorrow, Tuesday, March 17, St. Patrick's Day, at 11:30. We have faith that she will do just as good as she did with her lip surgery. God has blessed us with a great surgeon and we pray that God will have His hand over everything tomorrow. We thank everyone ahead of time for your thoughts, prayers, and their help with everything you provide. Below are some pictures to catch you all up and a little video of Abby learning some of Beyonce's moves.
Once again, we keep everyone updated as soon as we can on Tuesday. As soon as we have moved to our hospital room, I will post an update. The surgery is about 3 hours so I suspect I will get an update on here around 4:00 Mountain Time. Love you all and talk to you soon.
Abigail loves her blankets

Like my new do?

How about now?

Abby being happy as usual

Colton after eating some pizza

Colton and Papa playing dart tag

Learning Beyonce Moves:

A long time coming Update

I cannot believe we are already in February. We are really sorry that we have not kept up on blogging and keeping people up to date. Work is going to be sending me over seas for 20 days coming up here in the middle of February and then again in April, so I have been over my head in work. On top of that, I have been trying to keep up with school. Having to write a paper a week has kept me more than busy. I pretty much get home from work around 6 or 7, eat, and either write some of my paper or crash on the couch. Heather has been picking up for my slack around the house. The amount of time Heather puts into our family and works on top of that and keeps our house in order on top of that, she really is amazing.
Abby is doing great. She is such an Awesome Baby. Her lip is healing really well and she finally has A tooth. Yes that is an 'A' as in one tooth. We think she might be getting some more because she has been a little cranky lately, but she has also had a little bit of a cold. Besides all of this, she is cruising around the house like she has places to go and people to meet. As you will see in the pictures below, she loves our kitchen chairs. She has also learned how to wave "Hi" and "Bye" (that video is below). Abby's next surgery is also coming up here in March. We are excited for it, but yet again a little nervous. She will again stay the night for at least one night in the hospital. She will be on a liquid diet for two weeks. Our surgeon has told us that it is still ok to use the Haberman bottle for her feedings. This is good because she has not had anything else. She is not big advocate of baby food. In fact, she doesn't really eat it at all. She will eat maybe two bites and then fight the rest of the time. We still try, but we have yet to really get anywhere. Abby will eat a hole box of Cheerios if she had the time.
Colton is also doing really well. He is now a Yellow Belt in Tae Kwon Do. He loves Tae Kwon Do and it has really been good for him. He is such a big kid that it has realy helped with his balance. The last check up we had for him, the doctor said that if he stays on the track he is on, he will be 6' 2" 215 pounds. I have already began to work out again so I can try and hang with him when he is that big. He is so in love with his sister and his sister is so in love with him. Even if she is screaming her lungs out, he can make her smile. That 215 pounds will come in handy when Abigail gets her first boyfriend (at the age of 21)!!!
We have also found a new Church that we are really liking; Foothills Community Church. God has really helped us through so much in this past year and He has really helped us find this new church. The credit really goes to my Mom for visiting Foothills and then recommending it to us. Colton is also really loving it and today he asked me if he could have a Bible. This was great. I love watching him grow into his own relationship with Jesus. This is really all I have time for right now but here are a bunch of pictures to make you all smile:
Getting Bundled For a Cold Day (Like the Christmas Story)

One of Abigail's favorites is to jump in her Jumpy

It makes me tired just watching her jump

She does love french fries

But does not like baby food

And does not mind food coming out of her nose

This is how we found Abby one night when she was suppose to be sleeping. Yeah the crib got lowered that night

Abigail loved Molly's birthday party

Abby and her Cousin, Molly

Abigail's new favorite game Peak-a-Boo. She does it to us now

Abby's favorite place in our house; under the kitchen chairs


She is already a crazy woman behind the wheel

This pictures even shows you how crazy she intends to be

This sweet little girl can't ever be crazy?!?! Just look at her smile

And the cutest thing ever for last. Abigail Saying Hi and Bye to all of her friends. We love you all and thank you all for all of your comments, support, thoughts, help, etc. We really can't express our appreciation enough. A special thanks to Mima for helping out on the days we needed.

I would also like to send out a prayer request for my cousin, Eric, who is being deployed to Iraq. Him and the men and women who do this for our country truly deserve some special praise. I admire them all for what they do. Eric, our thoughts and prayers are with you.