Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas



Greetings from beautiful Colorado!!! After spending the previous week in the hospital with Kaya (dealing with some post-surgery issues among other things...), we finally got released from Primary Children's on Thursay. We made sure Kaya was OK on Friday, then made the trek to Colorado Saturday. As I've said plenty of times before, this is the most beautiful place!!! I'm very jealous of all the people who live here.

This is the first Christmas with Maleah, so she provided many fun times. Her reaction to most things is to touch them with her tongue, but since the Christmas tree was a little too far reach...she reached it with her fingers:
Kaya insisted that we act out the nativity scene, so as Mary, she made us all dress up as nativity characters in her play. Any play writer would have been proud of the 5 minute script and improv that occurred throughout the play.

After the pre-Christmas festivities, we all retired for a long, cozy night's rest...well, at least it was the thought that counts. Lately, we've felt like we've had twins. Kaya and Maleah trade off with their issues during the night, and eventually we get worn out and just bring them into bed with us (this is probably their real motive if they were honest about it). But fitting all of us into a full sized bed becomes a little squishy, and promotes insomnia (for proof, just look at the newly formed bags under our eyes).

After realizing my plight with all the women that surround me in my home, I was delighted to see the new semi-masculine gift: Maleah in camo (just ignore the pink roses spattered across the PJ's):

One of the best smiles ever to come across Kaya's face was when she saw the Supreme Collection of eight pairs of Princess shoes (each shoe represents a Princess from a Disney film--and I'm sure this collection didn't leave any out) and when she saw her new bike sitting by the tree:Later Christmas day, the family went hiking the mountains in Saul's Creek. I was told that it was a test of endurance. The hike was a 1.5 hour journey, and Maleah loved it (while Kaya and I were catching up on some shut-eye). Although looking at Maleah's thighs and cheeks would suggest no bundling was needed, we bundled her with extra layers.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

The Best of Times

1. Kaya recently said: "Mommy, I love Jesus" and then after a little pause she said, "I love Jesus' hair too". What a girl!!!!

2. Tasha was trying to take a picture of Maleah, but Kaya was blocking her shot. Tasha kept telling Kaya to duck. After a few times of saying that, Kaya was in front of Maleah's face saying: "quack, quack...quack, quack"

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Michelangelo

Admit it...these should be in the Sistine Chapel

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Pilgrim girl

Happy Halloween

Kaya: Princess (of course)
Maleah: well fed bunny
Grant: sick patient (food poisoning from Brick Oven)
Tasha: doctor, taking care of me

Surgery #13

We just survived another surgery...hopefully the last one we'll have for about 10 years. This was a bladder surgery. The pre-surgery was not very pleasant...we had to have Kaya on a liquid diet for more than 24 hours. Then we checked into the hospital and for about 12 hours she could have anything to eat or drink. That's when I had to be really creative in ways I could distract her. One of them was to put Maleah in her hospital bed and watch her attempt to grab every tube she could find.
Kaya made good friends with the nurses before the surgery...but afterwards she hated everyone equally (mimicking Google :). The nurse on duty right before surgery, whose duty it was to help us give with the enemas, had a wake up call. He asked Kaya if she was ready, and Kaya said: "maybe we should practice on Emily first." "Who's Emily?" he asked. (not knowing that Emily is Kaya's medical doll we bring to all surgeries to help her feel more comfortable with the procedures.) Tasha held up Maleah as if she was Emily...the nurse freaked out! "Oh...so you want to do the enema on your other daughter before we give Kaya one????" We all had a good laugh.At the end of the day, the surgery on her bladder was very successful. She had a ureter replaced (the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder), and we took a little small intestine to make a fake ureter that leads from her bladder to the surface of her skin. This will enable her to catheter her bladder about every 2 hours a day and control when she goes potty...a BIG step in getting her in panties. Until now, she had no bladder control, b/c she was urinating through her vesicostomy (a small hole that leaked from her bladder to her diaper).

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MANY OF YOU FOR YOUR THOUGHTS, PRAYERS, AND ASSISTANCE!!!! We are very blessed to have awesome family and friends.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Maleah aka "Jimmy Neutron" Pic @ 4 months


Aaron Thompson, a friend in our ward, took this pic and many others. Maleah almost looks like a Porcelain doll...way too cute!! This dress was made for Tasha's Mom (Roseanne) when she was a baby, Roseanne took a picture of Tasha in it, and now we have one with Maleah. She is starting to giggle and she's exploring her new voice, and we love it!!! Kaya loves it too, and often shows it by giving many hugs and kisses, sometimes a little too much, but what else can we do, right???

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Heidi's Home!

Tasha's sister came home from her mission in Milwaukee, WI. She's glad to be back in warm Colorado. Tasha and Kaya had fun time welcoming her in the airport. When Heidi came through the gate, Kaya gave her a hug and wouldn't let her go...so she's in a lot of pictures.

She has joined her brother and sister...yep, you guessed it: in our basement.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Bigler Campout


LOCATION: Kilgore, ID
POPULATION: whatever it was, the Biglers doubled it
MISSION: hold your feet in ice cold mountain streams to see who's crazy enough to stay there the longest...I think I was the craziest one.

We attempted to go fishing, but the flies were so bad that we spent our time hunting instead. (I think I killed a hundred of 'em). When we got to our fishing hole, we unloaded, hooked some worms on the line and dropped them in the stream. About 3 minutes later, after no action, Kendall (Joe's boy) says: "How long is this gonna take???"
While there, we had a big peanut scare. Kaya asked us if she could have a cookie. Since there wasn't a label on the box, we rubbed the cookie on her skin. Usually we can wait for a couple minutes and her skin will have a hive if she's allergic. Since we didn't see a hive, we allowed her to eat the cookie. About 10 minutes later, she had labored breathing and was itching everywhere, including in her throat. Thankfully she pulled through without us having to rush her to the hospital (which was over 1 hour away!!--a scary thought, especially considering the epi-pen is only good for about 30 min).

My little brother


Maleah, Kaya, and Riley (my brother Matthew's little girl)
My brother Matthew came down to Nephi recently to help fuel the fire-fighting airplanes. Since we are the furthest Bigler south of Idaho (Dwight doesn't count b/c he's in Texas), we don't get family visitors very often...but it was fun to see my little bro. When I was little, I remember saying: "I can't wait for my little brother to grow up so I can play with him..." Well, now he's not so little anymore, and he's a lot of fun to hang with.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Maleah Ella Bigler


Born: May 18, 2007
12:23 pm
American Fork Hospital
7 lbs 15 oz
18 inches

She is a chunky monkey...and has a lot of blonde hair. We know now what Kaya would have looked like if she doubled her weight at birth.


Tasha is my hero. She did awesome. The labor was primarily in Tasha's back, which required me to push on her sacrum (to create some counter-pressure and relief). Contractions began late Wednesday, and by Thursday afternoon they were consistent (10 min apart) and by Friday morning we were at the hospital at 7am with contractions about 5 min apart. 10:30am they had to break her water b/c the contractions weren't "strong" enough (I thought they were plenty strong). By noon, her contractions became very "strong" and 25 minutes of good pushing and Maleah arrived.

How did Kaya react? She is very hyper about having a little sister, and very fascinated with all her little features. Kaya thought we were having a boy, so when she found out we had a girl she said: "I didn't get my little brother...I think he's lost." Well, maybe next time. :)

Kaya is already being very motherly and helping with EVERYTHING!!! We have to give boundaries or she will completely maul her with love.


Oh, yeah, I had my time in the bed too. :) My take on this birthing experience is: 1. It is truly a miracle. 2. After pushing on Tasha's sacrum steadily for 9 hours, I felt like I went to the gym and never put the weights down. My arms and shoulders hurt so bad!! But, of course I couldn't say anything because what I had to endure was weak sauce, compared to my hero, Tasha.

Proud Grandpa Cusick

Kaya's first "pony"

Well, she finally did it. We woke up one morning and Kaya had a pony tail. She makes her parent's proud!!!

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Siding

As if we don't have enough to do before the baby comes...we are now working full steam ahead on our exterior. We hired a guy that recently moved here from Ohio and is starting his siding business back up. He was recommended to us by a neighbor, and so far so good. We are very excited about possibility of transforming our Smurf Blue house to something a little more palatable. But just in case you thought our house couldn't get any more ugly, just look at it without our blue cedar shakes:
Completion date is expected in one more week. I'm sure our neighbors will be just as glad as we will be to have it done--we had a neighborhood cleanup project last Saturday, where everyone helps each other with yard work. We most help the elderly and try to steer clear of the houses like ours that would occupy the rest of our lives with work if we let it. But nonetheless, we still managed to clear out all the railroad ties from our backyard.

The next day, Sunday, when the Bishop realized there were some big piles of green waste that needed to be removed from our street, he mentioned we would need helping hands to help with the project. And then he specifically requested that the owners of the green waste be there to participate as well (I'm sure he had me in mind--looking at a pile of railroad ties weighing in at a mere 200lbs/each make any good man think about the easier road to remodeling a 30 year old house: arson...any kind).

Noah's Ark in my basement

Alright...who opened the umbrella in our basement??? This flood couldn't have happened just because we live in a 30 year old house...it had to be something else right? Well, Noah only has one edge on me: My flood didn't require me to live in a self contained zoo for 40 days (although sometimes it feels like that around here :) The culprit was our outside faucet. It's funny...everytime I talk to someone about what caused our flood, they say, "You didn't unscrew your hose before winter, huh." Sometimes I wonder why I'm always in the dark on these important subjects, and why I always have to learn as I go. I'm liking the idea of "preventative maintenance".The quick story is this: Ryan (Tasha's brother) was outside washing his truck...noticing that he had low water pressure. After about 30 minutes he went inside to get something from his room. That's when he noticed the water coming in his shoes. Tasha and I were in Provo showing our duplex, and got the call that something was wrong. We hurried back, and 4 wet/dry vacs and 5 hours later, we got about all the water up we could.
You know when something happens that creates a domino effect...well, that was this flood. Now that the carpet is out, we can do what we were wanting to: texture the walls (old world style), replace baseboards and trim, tile--you know, simple stuff that only takes a minute. We are in the process now, and hope to be finished before the baby comes.

Easter

We spent Easter in Kaysville with my fam (which coincidentally almost equalls the total population of Tasha's home town :). My nephew got baptized, so we all went up to celebrate...and talk about an Easter egg hunt! For a while I thought we hired a young army to find all the loot. Kids were everywhere!! It took us 30 minutes to hide the candy, and they found it in 10. It was a blast.All the little kids paired up with a bigger kid so the candy would be equally distributed (I promise we don't practice Marxism!!!...but sometimes you have to equally distribute the wealth or the little kids just get trampled). The best part about Easter (aside from all the candy)? Seeing all the parental styles adjust to the influx of sugar in their kid's bloodstream.

Hiking


Sometimes little legs go real fast...sometimes not. Kaya has been feeling so good lately that when we hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls, she was outpacing the pregnant women and fatty daddy. At least she walked all the way up (with little coaxing). The way down however was another story. Thank goodness for all the people running the trail with their dogs! It was enough of a distraction that Kaya took her mind off "how long and boring" the hike down was turning out to be. It has been so nice to see Kaya with so much energy!

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Build-A-Bear

We took Kaya to the Build-A-Bear shop in Orem...she had a blast.

The first 20 minutes were spent helping Kaya decide on only one bear. Naturally she liked every choice, and wanted all twenty options. We finally narrowed the selection and moved to the next station, where she was stuffed and where Kaya could put in the bear's heart. After the bear was "alive", Kaya had to give her a bath. Then came choosing the new bear's clothes (yet again, another 20 minute decision). We added an accessory backpack to the mix and then chose the new bear's name: Becca.

Kaya was so excited to have another friend (we can't wait until May when her brother/sister comes to be her new friend...she really needs a friend that moves--and cries, and sleeps and poops :).

Sticker monster!!


I think we forgot to lock the desk drawer...

Tasha's Tummy


29 Weeks along...we are getting a lot closer (and Tasha is feeling a lot fatter)!!!

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Kaya's BIG 4

This is a really LATE post (Kaya will kill me later when she's a teenager), but hey, 1.5 months later is better than never! Kaya and Tasha were in Arizona visiting Tasha's grandparents on Kaya's b-day, then we had another party when she got back here. So she really had two birthday parties. In Arizona she went on a merry-go-round, went shopping, playing in the swimming pool (while we were freeeeeeezing in Utah), and to the circus. In Utah, we had all her cousins over for a big party(Thanks to Caitlin Nibly for these pics)

They really liked these glow in the dark sticks...it got dangerous in the dark. I think my eye almost got poked out.

It's fun to see Kaya growing older (I wish she was growing taller and heavier...she's probably the lightest 4 year old--21 lbs). Opening presents is fun (she actually likes her toys and clothes), she actually blows out candles, and she eats her cake (at least a couple bites).
We are hoping for 30 lbs next B-day, but 1st Quarter results are a little disappointing and we need to make up ground in the 2nd Quarter. Otherwise, the shareholders (Tash, me, all of you) will be in an uproar.