{ Look WHOO's ONE }

HaPPy BiRThDaY CeCe BeaR!

A couple weeks ago we celebrated CeCe’s 1st birthday with a owl themed birthday party.  We ordered cute invitations from Aunt Sandra's website [Sandra Deesigns]  and cupcake toppers.  She also made us a banner and we totally forgot to put it up. 

Grant, Drew and Frankie really went all out with the decorations.

 Grandpa did great with the pictures and capturing the moments of this great party!
 Cheyenne got lots of gifts. She got money from great grandparents, toys, clothes, crochet owl beanie made by aunt Pinky, she got an Owl backpack for her feeding tube stuff from daddy, a crochet owl, fabric owl made by Frankie and a very creative owl toy made by Drew.

 

With the help of the kids we made this cake with fondant (not too bad for my first time) and owl cupcakes.

We had owl beanbags for each child which we used to play a game with later on.

A pool filled up with balloons and balls which Cheyenne, Landen and Maya all enjoyed.

The kids made their own owl party favor pillow box and added their own creativity to them.

Speaking of creative...it was interesting to see everyone get very creative in playing the drop the owl in the nest game. I don't know who could do the splits better, Maddy or uncle Julio.

 

 Afterwards we sang Happy Birthday and CeCe loved it!

The best part was having many of our friends and family over to celebrate this day with us.

We are so happy and blessed with the great progress CeCe has had this year.
We are often grateful for being somewhat ignorant with how fragile she is. With 3 surgeries in her first year of her life and many more coming, we know that there are many challenges to come, however we know that she has such a strong spirit that she will preserver; help us along the way.

This past General Conference we were deeply touched by Elder Rasband's talk on Sunday morning.
One of our favorite quotes is

"Some of the sweetest spirits are housed in frail frames."

Here is a little bit of  his talk:

“For reasons usually unknown, some people are born with physical limitations. Specific parts of the body may be abnormal. Regulatory systems may be out of balance. And all of our bodies are subject to disease and death. Nevertheless, the gift of a physical body is priceless. As described in Mosiah, we have witnessed the Savior’s pure love given to Paxton’s family, which love is available to all: “And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.”


He also mentioned "silent administering angels".  We are grateful for all of YOU! We could have not been able to do this without all of you and the kindness that everyone sows to her.  People have been so kind and compassionate. It is often when we are out in public and strangers come over just to meet Cheyenne. We are grateful we live in a society where those with special needs are cherished and there are so many great programs and resources for them. Also for Insurance that helps with such a large portion of her care.

We love you CeCe bear! You are such a happy and loving little girl. We are so grateful you are a part of our family!
Updates:

CeCe is now She is speed crawling. It's so cute to chase her. She is so fast!
She is still using her right fist to crawl.  It is so cute.
She is standing and letting go.  Soon, she'll be walking I'm sure!
She is crawling up the stairs and practicing on going down them safely.
She is making even more noises through trach and mimiques sounds we make. 
She has been smacking her lips which is a great sign of her verbal development.
She loves playing Patty Cake with her babies.

Medical Updates:

Results of the CT scan showed that Cheyenne does not have the RAMUS section of her jaw on the right side of her jaw. This means she will not be able to get a jaw extractions (which is what I was hoping for).  Instead doctors want to wait until she is 4 years old which then they will transplant a bone from her leg or mabe her rib to replace that bone.



This means she won't get her trach out until after that.  Meanwhile, we have decided to get some help for her to start learning English Sign Language.  Yesterday I met with the lady that will be coming to teach us.  I didn't realize that there was so many different types of sign languages.  Cheyenne will be learning the English Sign Language which seems to follow grammar rules.  I guess the regular ASL does not 'transalate' exactly as we speak.  Since Cheyenne can hear and will eventually be able to speak, we want her to learn the proper way to speak. 


In about a month Cheyenne will be having her 4th surgery. This one is minor compared to what future surgeries.  This one will correct the corners of her mouth so that she can control her food or liquid inside her mouth.  When she was little and she would drink her bottle, she couldn't quite seal her lips around the nipple and most of it would drible down the side of her mouth.  It was always tricky and messy. 
During this surgery they will also caterize around her stoma for her trach and her G-tube.  With time, scar tissue and granulation grows around it and so this will just clean it up a bit.

She weighs a whole 17 lbs!

Other News:

I have started to work for Jet Blue.  Will be working part time, and from home. FREE flights for everyone we know anywhere you want to go! Just kidding no such luck.