Jacob and Uncle Andrew.



A neat family picture.

Exciting News!

For those of you who do not know, Jacob had a Swallow Study done at the Children's Hospital here in Arizona this past Monday. It was the first swallow study he has had in over a year. The last one was at Primary Children's in Salt Lake. Anyways, we are very excited to announce that Jacob passed his swallow tests!! He is swallowing normally now! He did not aspirate at all. In all of his other swallow studies in the past, he would aspirate immediately after taking a drink. Brad and I have suspected for a while that he may have grown out of this mystery medical condition but we did not want to get our hopes up too high. Jacob has been asking for and chugging down drinks of water, milk and juice, usually through a straw for several months now. I had convinced myself that he was still aspirating and his body had just gotten used to having liquid in his lungs and that was why he was not getting sick anymore. However, deep inside I knew that things had finally changed for the better. So that is our exciting news! Now we just have to continually offer Jacob more and more drinks by straw and cup until he drinks enough by mouth that we don't even have to use the G-button anymore. I think I will be even more excited to announce when his G-button has been removed! I just want to thank everyone for all of your love, support and prayers over the last 2 1/2 years. I don't think this would have happened without the faith and prayers of all of our friends and family as well as our own.

Another Pregnancy Update

Well, I had my Ultrasound the other day and everything looks great. It also looks like we are having a GIRL! I am really excited but also nervous about how different it will be this time around. There was a part of me that wanted a little brother for Jacob but I think Jacob will be the perfect big brother for a girl. Also, its estimated that my due date will be September 27th, so I have a long, HOT, pregnant summer ahead of me!

Four Months Along

For those of you who don't know this yet, I am pregnant again!! I am 16 weeks and very excited about it. The first 3 1/2 months were really difficult because of morning sickness (or should I say ALL DAY sickness) and it was frustrating that NOTHING ever sounded good to eat. I am over that now though and very thankful. I am actually having my first ultrasound this week on Thursday and cannot wait. I have heard of women finding out the sex at only 16 weeks so we will see what happens. Anyways, just wanted to let you all know and I will be sure to keep you updated.

Our New Favorite Hang Out

Here are some pictures of our new favorite place to go. Its called San Tan Flats. The first time we went was on a double date with some friends. We were really glad they chose to take us there because its different than any other place we have been. Its a restaurant/bonfire/place to go to listen to live music. My sister in-law and two of her kids, Coulson and Chelsea came to visit a few weeks ago and we took them there. They have really good BBQ and every table has its own fire pit. There is also a stage with a live Country band as well as a dance floor. Most of it is outdoors but you can eat inside if you choose to. Right now the weather is so perfect that everyone wants to be outside where the fire pits and live music are. It is so fun to just hang out with friends or family here, eat good food, roast marshmallows and listen to great country music.
Here is an ok view of all the fire pits and tables outside.

Visit to Kansas

Me and my mom.
Me and Carson.
Jacob and his cute Aunt Audrey.

More Pictures of our Time in Kansas

The adorable cousins! Jacob and Carson really hit it off this time around. Last time Jacob saw my sister Audrey's son Carson was when they came to AZ for Christmas. They never really bonded the way we hoped they would. But when Jacob and I went home to Kansas a few weeks ago it was a little different. We had so much fun watching Jacob and Carson form the beginnings of a real friendship. I hope that they continue to grow closer and closer and that they are as good of friends as I was with some of my cousins growing up. This is one of the few pictures we got of them playing together. Unfortunately we did not remember to pull out our cameras until the last day or two we were there.
My sissy! I love you Audrey!
What a cute little guy! Carson is one of the most handsome little boys I know.
Jacob looks HUGE next to Carson. They are only a year apart.
This is out of order, but this is a picture I took of Jacob on the airplane on our way to Kansas. He was eating Reeces Peanut Butter Puffs. He was actually so good on the plane rides there and back. My good friend Tonya let me barrow her portable DVD player and that was definitely a life saver. But he did a really good job just sitting there looking at books and eating snacks and stuff too. All the people that we sat next to were really impressed.

Jacob Drinking!

For those of you who don't know, and I'm sure that all of you do, Jacob was born with a swallowing disorder. He has never been able to drink normally because when he does he automatically aspirates, meaning a part of the liquid always goes to his lungs causing him to get very sick with pneumonia. Well, in the last 8 or 9 months Jacob has started to drink and he is drinking more and more. We never really were able to get any answers from Doctors except that he might grow out of it someday. Well, it seems that he is growing out of it! Most recently he has been able to drink very thin liquids like water and juice without any problems, but usually to be safe we still give him thicker liquids to drink like smoothies because he handles them better and there is less risk of him aspirating thicker liquids. These are just some pictures of him enjoying one of his dads famous smoothies. As you can see he is loving it and Brad and I could not be any more happy about the fact that he is making so much progress! We have a swallow study scheduled at the hospital the first week in May and this will be able to tell us if he is truly swallowing normally and safely. We are keeping our fingers crossed!

Ostrich Festival!

These are some pictures we took at the fair which they call the Ostrich Festival when it came into town a few weeks ago. They call it the Ostrich Festival because there are Ostrich races that take place every year at this Carnival. Men actually ride the Ostriches and race them. We did not get to see this unfortunately but we made sure to make a visit to the carnival because it was only a mile from our house. We could hear the music playing from our backyard and the weather has been so beautiful we could not resist going. It was $9 a person just to get in, but Jacob was free. They also had free things to do like the petting zoo, a sea lion show and a few other things. It was just a fun atmosphere and I think Jacob had a lot of fun!
Jacob makes an adorable farmer, don't you think?
The petting zoo.
The zebra got a little too close!
This was at the sea lion show. They did some pretty neat tricks and they were very friendly too!

Arizona can be so pretty!

Just a beautiful picture taken by Brad when he was golfing with his friend Mike a few weeks ago.

My Boy

Here is Jacob enjoying a peanut butter sandwich and some goldfish. Jacob has become the pickiest eater I know. There are only a handful of things he will always eat and they include, crackers, oatmeal, baby cereal, peanut butter sandwiches and cookies. I try to give him other things all the time and he just refuses them! Even at Thanksgiving when he was offered a babies dream meal of sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, jello etc., he still refused. I do not get it!! I was pleasantly surprised though yesterday during Easter dinner when he actually ate a few little pieces of ham and some mashed potatoes! Maybe there is an end in sight to this picky eater syndrome. I will keep trying!
I am just grateful he gets a little protein when he eats his peanut butter sandwiches!
Look at that head of hair!
He definitely took after his grandpa Shelton with the bigger head size and the head of hair.