Hungry and Tired Burke

We arrived at the hospital at 9am for Burke's heart catheter. He was not allowed to eat anything after 12am. So, he really didn't have anything to eat since 9pm or so when he went to bed. Luckily he sleeps all night long, but I felt so bad this morning when he woke up and was ready to eat. He was such a good boy this morning while we waited in the same day surgery waiting room. He kept close to us and held his blanket so tight. He did his usual, sucking his two fingers on his right hand, and held his blanket close to his nose and face with his left hand. It is so sweet. By the time we entered the Cath Lab, he was ready for a nap and definitely ready to be fed. So, luckily he will be under general anesthetic for the next three or four hours and will be "fed" by an IV. Anyways, we are just waiting to hear from the doctors with an update on Burke from the Lab. Here are some pictures from yesterday when we arrived in Salt Lake City and from this morning before surgery in his cute little hospital jammies.

We will have an update soon on how Burke is doing. And will let you know. Thanks for your prayers, they are so needed.

Primary Children's Here We Come!

Well, we head down to Primary Children's Medical Center tomorrow for testing on Burke's heart. He will have a heart catheter performed on him on Tuesday, June 24th, and possible heart surgery on Thursday, June 26th. The heart catheter testing will be done to check if the left branch of the pulmonary artery has grown since the last testing in April of this year. If that branch has not grown, or if it has grown but not enough, then they will do a procedure right there in the cath lab to balloon open his artery so more blood flow will be passing through that artery. The only problem is that they have to pass through his pulmonary valve which is basically a dead valve to get to the left branch of his artery. The valve is basically dead because it has never worked since his heart was formed. And because of that, it might only be a pin hole in size and they have to get the catheter through that to open it. It is very tricky. But, we are still hopeful that miracles can occur and will occur if we but have enough faith, and if it is in the Lord's plan for Burke. Burke is a miracle himself and we are grateful for his life, his spirit and everything that he has taught us and has brought to our family.

So, after the catheter, Burke will need to stay in the hospital to recover because that procedure is a surgery in and of itself. He might stay over night, we just won't know until we get there. The cardiologists and surgeons will conference both Tuesday and Wednesday and decide what needs to be done on Burke's heart from there on out. If they decide to go ahead with the surgery it will be performed on Thursday. And we also don't know how long recovery will be. We could be there up to four months. We are preparing ourselves for the long term, but it all depends on Burke's heart and body. There is a chance that they might send us home though. If so, we could be home on Wednesday, it all depends on what they find from doing the heart catheter. Needless to say, we are very anxious to get down to Utah to finally decide a course of action for our little Burke.

I just want to thank everyone for all your prayers and faith in behalf of Burke and our family. My family and Tyler's family all fasted and prayed today in a special fast before we go down for surgery. I truly felt support and love and the faith of our family tonight at the fireside held at Tyler's parents house. They usually hold a spiritual fireside the Sunday before their family reunion every year. And this year it was bumped up early, and so we were able to attend before we would need to go for testing for Burke. Anyways, tonight was a great night and I appreciate with all my heart all those who shared their thoughts in behalf of Burke. It was likewise great to hear from the younger kids about their thoughts about Burke, and to all of you, keep sharing your testimonies, that is the way it grows. And thank you for sharing your faith with me, it really boosted me.

I will try and keep everyone posted on what is going on while in Utah. If not, I know my mom
and Jan will know so call them, if you don't hear from me. Love you all and we will see you when we see you. Here are some recent pictures of the kids.





All these pictures are from father's day, we had fun pampering daddy on his day. Emma made a horse cake for daddy with the horses we used on her birthday cake last year. She was so excited to make it. Okay, this post is like two posts combined, sorry for the randomness. Enjoy!

"Burke-a-Buddy Boo"

So, every night Emma wants to say the blessing at dinner time. So, one night Tyler was helping Emma with her prayer and he said, "Please bless Burke", and without even the slightest hesitation she said, "Please bless our Burke-a-buddy-boo". We both cracked up silently during the prayer and then busted up laughing after amen. Seriously this girl is funny.

So, our Burke-a-buddy, is growing up so fast. At almost 10 months, he is 19 pounds. He sits up, pulls himself to a stand and now is officially crawling! Yeah. He acts like he want to walk more than crawl, I don't know if he doesn't like his knees because he bear crawls quite a bit on his hands and feet. But he is definitely finding his place in the family and giving Emma a run for her money. If he wants something, he will go after it until he gets it. He is a strong boy. He is the sweetest thing too. This was just taken yesterday, Burke was trying to look around the camera to find me.

Here is Burke and Katerina his cousin. My children look like they could be in her family it's crazy how similar they are.

This was cute to see them play together in the pantry. Burke is so big and he is exploring more places in our house now that he can get around.

Just an Update!

Here are some pictures of what our little kids have been up to. My child now knows how to put her own bread in the toaster to make toast. She is very independent. Her favorite part is putting the butter on the toast. Oh, yes a huge glob of it too. Yummy! But actually, she is pretty good at spreading the jelly. She was very proud of herself as was I.
Here is my poor little child, who was absolutely exhausted one evening. He rarely drinks from his bottle with other people in the room especially his very interesting big sister. One late afternoon he drank his bottle with Emma in the same room and then he fell asleep to it in my arms. It was heaven, because he rarely does this. I didn't want him to take a very long nap and so I just laid him down on the floor in the family room and he actually slept for quite awhile even with all the noise me and Emma were making. He is definitely the second child; put to sleep on the ground and then covered with any blanket in sight, which happened to be Emma's pink blanket. Our poor child. Sorry, Burke.

Here is Emma eating watermelon with her cousin Olivia at Gwamma J's house. One day I was at the store with Emma and Burke and when we started putting the food in the cart Emma commented on every single food, "Oh, I LOVE watermelon, me and my Olivia LOVE watermelon." "Oh, I love beans, me and my Oliv love beans!" (She hates beans by the way.) It had to have been the funniest thing Emma has ever said. Because she was totally serious and commented on basically every food we bought. It made be laugh out loud. So, this is her and her Oliv eating what they both love at a place we all love.

Here is the Burkers getting a bite of the action. Okay, I have to do some child picture comparing here. So, Burke here is 9 1/2 mo. old eating watermelon. The picture below is of Emma when she was 9 mo. old chowing on watermelon at the Payette Lake. Don't they look alike? Okay, so the lighting is different, and she is way more chunkier, but I thought it was fun to have such similar pictures at the same age. Burke

Emma

Okay, this is classic. Emma as you know is very independent. I mean way over the top "do it myself" kind of girl. So, as a result, she is very stubborn and rebellious when it comes to certain things. And one of those things is her bed and going to sleep in her bed. She has a trundle bed and we never put a mattress underneath the high bed because there was no need, she slept in her regular bed just fine. Until, she started coming into our bed almost every night and wanting to sleep with us. Or, she would take all her bedding and sheets and sleep right outside her door and Burke's door in the hallway. Just in spite. Major action was necessary. So, we thought to put a mattress on the pull out bed to get her to think it was way cool to have two beds in her room, and maybe, just maybe, she would actually sleep in her own bed. That lasted about three days. No, she just figured us out too quickly. And this, to Emma, is a better option than both her beds.

It was so hilarious, she was out cold. Doing the bobbing of the head and everything. Classic.