Sunday, November 26, 2006

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family in Farmington/Kaysville. We realized that these pictures are probably going to be the last ones we'll get of Tasha with a normal sized tummy (since we're now expecting another kid, Kaya has been prepping to be a "mommy". It's fun to hear how she thinks she'll give the new baby a bottle, rock her to sleep, and put her to sleep. She realizes what a new baby does though...she says the new baby will "drink a lot and poop a lot".)

Memorable moments of Thanksgiving:
1. First time a Bigler family picture has been taken in a long, long while.
2. Lots of good food (I redeemed myself from a previous Thanksgiving mashed potatoe mishap...this time they were delicious)
3. Sleepless night with kids
4. Red Vine Licorice
5. BYU 33, Utah 31 - one of the best rivalry games of all time!

Post-cast bath

Pabla?

Ang would have killed me if I didn't publish this pic. Paul's going to kill me when he sees it. I guess I'm more scared of what Ang will do than Paul... :)

Cast

Dr Stott said that the greatest trial any parent would ever endure is for a 3 1/2 year old to have a hip cast for one month or more...he was right.This surgery resulted because of Kaya's hip dispacia, a condition where the hip joint doesn't wrap completely around the ball of the femur. The extra wear and tear that this creates makes a future hip replacement innevitable. For Kaya, that would have occured in her late twenties had we not done this surgery.

So, as with every surgery, we prepared Kaya by bringing her doll Emily with her, so she could have the same "surgery". The doctors raised their eyebrows when we requested them to put a cast on Kaya's doll, but they did it.

The first cast soon became a nightmare. With Kaya's vesicostomy and feeding tube, they had to be very creative with the cast around her abdomen. With the cast originally around on two legs, the urine from her vesicostomy soon began eating away her skin. It was terrible...probably the worst skin break-down we've ever had. Only 1.5 days after the cast, we decided to take the cast off the right leg and leave it on the left. We are very glad because the bar between the legs was removed and Kaya's mobility increased substantially.

Still, we had to adjust everyday activities; eating and bathing were the biggest changes for Kaya.
At first Kaya's movement was pretty much nothing. She always wanted to be carried. And talk about HEAVY. We have no idea what a regular 4 yr old feels like. The extra 10 lbs was a workout!!! (Or I'm just getting soft).






All in all, we're glad it's off...although it was fun to carry her by the cast and twirl her around in circles on the new wood floors. So far, so good though. Her leg is a little tender, so walking is still a little slow. But for the most part, she's doing good.




Happy Halloween

Little BoPeep, who found her sheep:
BoPeep Dress: $0 (Sandra Smith's mom)
Pumpkins: $.50
Candycane Staff: $5 (will soon be given to Grandparent's dog as a chew bone toy)
Cast (under the dress): $2,000 (from Dr. Stott, Orthopedic doctor at Primary Childrens)
Smile: PRICELESS



Wood Floors and Tile

Many hands make light work. With my family, it's not hard to make a big job seem small. My original estimate to wood-floor completion was one day...but it was soon apparent that if I didn't have more help, I'd never get it done. So, thanks to my Dad, sisters, brothers, in-laws, and friends, we finally got it done!Five hundred sq ft of floor doesn't seem to big when it's all in boxes. But when you start unloading each box and moving across the floor only 3.5 inches at a time, the task becomes daunting. The first line of the wood floor was the most difficult...if it was off at all, then the rest of the floor would be off. After much calculation, we determined the straitest line possible and began to lay the floor. And just as we began finding a rythum, laying the floor quicker than Billy the Kid's draw on a hot summer day, we'd run into a weird angle or a corner, or some other distraction that took one hour to figure out. It turned out that most of the difficulty was in the hallway--and thanks to Ryan C's and Matthew A's expertise, they finished the really difficult stuff while, Dad, Ann, Nate, and I finished the office and began on the dining room: by this time we had almost reached perfection in floor laying. Our system was too good. We finished in 10 minutes. ha, ha, ha. While Ann and I picked what boards were to be laid in what order, Matthew and Nathan would pound the boards into place and staple them down. Meahwhile, Dad was taking measurements and making strategic cuts with the mitre saw. All said and done, all wood floor contractors would be proud...and worried.

Dad promised to stay to the "bitter end". The end didn't come until later that night, about 10pm to be precise. But oh, what a finish! It looks so good, and was the bowling alley for Kaya while she was in her cast. She really liked being pushed across the floor and spun in dizzying circles.

Now, we like to get up early in the morning just to look at the floors :).
















These hardwood floors are just so much better than the subfloor particle board substitute we were living with.



















The next adventure took place the next weekend with the tile. Again, the Andreasen's came and helped, as well as Tasha's parents from Durango, Colorado.


We finished grouting and tiling in one day and were able to call it quits early evening. We certainly live in the "projects"...but since everybody's help, we are able to call our house a home.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Remodel update and Kaya's surgery

Where to begin...

Oh yeah, the remodel...it always begins with the remodel. We have come a long, long way.


After mudding sheetrock for the first time (which I highly recommend not ever doing again for anyone interested in keeping their sanity) we called a sheetrock guy over to give us an idea of what kind of texture to do on our walls (orange peel vs. smooth and holey "old world").

After seeing the work we had done, he recommended that we do the old world texturing (keword: we). We wanted him to do whatever seemed best--that is, until we found out what our walls would look like thousands of dollars later. It's funny how thousands of dollars instantly makes me think: "well, maybe we can do this ourselves".

So, against our better judgement, we decided to not only texture the walls, but rip off the chair railing, floor boards, sand the ceiling and walls,
rent a paint sprayer, prime the entire house (including both bedrooms) from floor to ceiling, and paint...ALL IN THE SAME WEEK OF KAYA'S G-TUBE SURGERY!!!!!

We are officially insane (not that you didn't know that already). Kaya's the greatest! Amid all the turmoil at home, she was a trooper. Wednesday Tasha and Kaya operated on Emily (Kaya's doll). They surgically drilled a hole (Kaya didn't see how the hole was drilled for fear of trauma...even though the Makita cordless did a great job, I hope that's not what they use in Primary Children's) and implanted Emily's G-tube, ie "button".Wednesday night was Kaya's last supper, Thursday afternoon was her last drink, and by Thursday at 3pm she went in the OR, with Dr. Downey at the helm. One hour later, we found out the surgery went great. Kaya had a hard time at the hospital and didn't want anyone to touch her tummy. But many toys later, she warmed up to the hospital environment, where all the nurses mysteriously schedule their check ups in the middle of naps. We walked around the hospital with a wagon, colored with crayons, and met some of the other patients, including Emma Sorensen who was recovering from surgery on her elbow. We were finally released Saturday evening. That night Mom and Kaya came home to a painted house. They really liked it.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Summer of '06

Ok...we're really not shirking our blogger duty, we just like to have a few months transpire before updating our blog. So, we'll start this post a couple months ago: July 4th.

Kaya loved the parade...probably because she was in it~!!! While "patiently" waiting for the horses to come (that's what Kaya was most excited to see), Cindy Richards (council woman for Provo) came by. She asked the driver to pull over so she could say hi to her friends Sherrie and Martina. While doing so, Nina brought Kaya up to Cindy's car to say hi, and the next thing we know, the car made a fast get-a-way with our daughter. Three years old and already wanting to be in a parade...we're in trouble!

Later that month, the Bigler family met up in the high Uinta mountains to hold our annual family reunion. It was so beautiful!!!
We camped right next a lake, swatted more flies than ever thought possible, ate delicious dutch oven meals, played on 4 wheelers, played games, orchestrated my Dad's new 5th wheel "taj mahal" trailer in a precarious camping spot, and otherwise had a ton of fun!

July also marked one of the saddest days of my life: softball season came to a close. I really those sacred months...


but am looking forward to more bruises next year, more double plays, more triples, and definitely a lot more wins.





During all this time, we were working with our remodel project. With the lava rock off the fireplace we could install the fireplace and begin framing around it. We also tore out the office wall and began framing the office and leveling the floor (it was 1.5 inches lower than the rest of the house floor, so we laid 2X4's sideways and put a 1/2 inch piece of plywood over those).
August sped by. After convincing Andrea to come help take care of Kaya, we flew with the Barkers to LA. It was a BLAST!!! After barely making to the Dodgers v. Giants game (our
minivan was on empty and the driver--Paul and navigator--Tasha, took us on a detour through ritzy Beverly Hills.) But I digress. We made it in the fourth inning, ate $50 of dinner, a most expensive heart attack meal consisting in 1 Dodger dog, 1 small pizza, 1 nacho, 1 bottled water, and 1 soda. Barry Bonds was just below us and was receiving the worst night of his life from the crowd (I actually felt a little simpathy for the man). Dodgers ended up winning and Paul went home crying...along with a rental minivan with a door that had been key'd (someone must have seen Paul with his Giants shirt on).
The beach was a riot.
Paul brought his skim boards and we tired ourselves out running up and down the beach trying to stylishly slide onto these slick boards and make a graceful attemt at riding the waves.

Kaya loved the beach too (although we have no proof of that because we only selfishly took pictures of us--we are terrible parents sometimes!!! :)

There's nothing like having In-n-Out on the beach, riding the waves, and just having a grand old time. Tasha and Andrea took a crack at the skim boards too.

We have video's of them...in case anyone needs good blackmail clips. We also paid a visit to Tasha's aunt Jeanie.

She just adores Kaya. She fed us delicious pizza, and her favorite Haagen Dazs ice cream.

Kaya really liked playing with Jeannie's stuff, including her stuffed pillow.



While in LA, we went to the Acquarium. There were a lot of
sharks, sea lions,
sting rays (which were very slimy), and two very tired kiddies (Davis and Kaya).

While in LA, we visited Kaya's surgeon and took Kaya's BM program to the next level. We're glad to know people who have gone through exactly what we are.


I only show the next picture to remind us that during these summer months, the only other consistent occurence in our life, other than our constant remodel project in our house, was the constant remodel project on the left unit in our duplex. It caused me to leave some Owlz games early...a very sad day.


Then we went to the Tim and Faith concert.
I had a friend at Zions who sold us his floor tickets. It was fun to be so close.
...I thought football games were loud!!! People in SLC could have just
opened their windows to hear it.


Now you see me...now I see you even better!!!

I had Lasik surgery in August and, after denying the offer for a calming drug (later I was wishing I took it)





Two weeks after Lasik, we headed to Colorado for a vacation at Navajo Lake (Colorado's version of Lake Powell, and in my opinion (even though Tasha thinks I'm crazy), a lot more fun). We camped next to the lake in "Cocaine Cove". The water was very refreshing, the kayaking was fun, the mud baths even funner, and iwth our neew 3 inch sleeping mattress, our sleep was fantastic! My goggles...are you laughing at my cool goggles? I had to wear them b/c my Lasik doctor told me not to leave the house without them.






As for Kaya...well, she liked playing in the water more without her swimsuit than with it on.









We couldn't resist another picture underneath another pine tree. :)

Last but not least, I leave you with the story of our life...and hopefully a chapter that will close soon.

We have the lighting in, the ceiling is half way textured, all the mudding and sheetrock is complete. So, next step is finighing the texturing, sanding and painting the ceiling, prepping and painting the walls, ripping up the carpet, laying wood floors and carpet...then we're finished for now. Yeahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!