Animals and Fish

We decided it was time to take Merik to the zoo, he loves animals and was very funny there. We thought he'd be so excited and he was but it took a while for him to realize that the animals were real. He was definatley confused why the things he sees in books were huge and moving!

His absolute favorite animal was the Penguins. We had to watch them for 20 minutes because he just couldn't take his eyes off of them. They seemed to like him to. He would watch them jump onto the rock and he would begin counting 1-2-3 over and over until they jumped off again. He totally thought they were listening to him! It was hilarious!

We took the kids swimming one afternoon and had a great time! Darling little Karma was sporting her little bikini but HATED any water but the hot tub water. We don't disturb her comfort level or she lets us hear about it! Hmmmm I wonder if that will be a trait we see in her teenage years?
Merik loved swimming, especially going down the slide with Pat! He is a fish and forgets he can't swim so we had to watch him very closely.

Ahhh strut your stuff little one!
Pat is such a great dad and was so patient exploring every corner of the pool with Merik.

Summer Fun!

We got to go to Pat's Great-Uncle's house for some UNBELIEVEABLE food! Merik became uncle Richard's best friend because he was handing out "tastes" of amazing smoked beef and pork that were the size of a steak! Merik also became obsessed with watermelon, and probably half of one! There's nothing better than a watermelon face!!!

Our friends from california, Lindsey and Aaron and their darling little kids, Grace and Ethan came for a little visit! We really miss them and had so much fun! Merik got to have his very first slumber party with Grace and they had a blast!

We went to the fountains by the Arvad Library with Jan, Carson, and Baby Brody. Carson hated the water and took some encouraging by Merik! There best buds!

AHHH the two little ones Karma and Brody!
Two-year olds love water balloons!

We have had a great summer and have did lots of fun things!

Karma's Blessing Day

Last sunday we finally blessed Karma Sue Berry! It was a great experience except for the fact that I didn't hear my own daughters blessing! Supposedly it was beautiful blessing but they couldn't find the microphone and the chapel isn't really sound friendly, so annoying! All of Pat's family were there which really meant alot to us and hopefully they could hear more than I could sitting on the other side of the chapel; Joslin and Dusty also came down and just by chance my cousin Cardon and his wife Whitney, and my cousin Mekelle and her husband Jake were all in town also! But comparing notes with Joslin, Mekelle, and Pat she was blessed with a strong body and mind, a strong sense of the spirit, and that she would be a beacon of light to those around her and an example of the gospel. Im so excited to get to know this wonderful little girl that Heavenly Father obviously has big plans for! Its such an odd feeling to think of your little infant as getting married and having children of her own, but it also brings her life into reality and the fact that she is Heavenly Father's daughter and it is only my job to raise her as He would. What a wonderful day! Ok so the outfit....adorable if I do say so myself! Grandma Karma wanted to buy her blessing dress-symbolic don't you think? She actually bought 3 and then pat and I picked this one as our favorite! I made her little head band because I couldn't find anything that was obnoxious enough for my taste and then made her a little bracelet to match. So cute! It was a great experience and I can't believe I've blessed my 2nd child...I'm so old!

Jackson!

We got to go to Jackson, Wy to visit Joslin and Dusty! It was a blast, a lot of driving, but lots of fun!! We went to Yellowstone National Park and saw "old faithful" and some of the hot pots. Those hot pots were so inviting and so scarey all at the same time. And the most common question, "did we see any cool animals there?" NO! I know no one believes us, but I think they heard Merik's screams and ran for safety because we never saw anything. Actually the kids did pretty good in the car. Merik had quite the setup with his little DVD player, but I'm pretty sure no one in my family ever wants to hear another Wiggles song again! We also got to go bird banding at the private school Joslin works. What is bird banding you ask...we helped environmentalists tag birds they caught to track their nesting and breeding to eventually help see the affects of development on the environment. Ok really, we're not the granola type but it was actually fun. The funniest thing was how they weighed them, they turned them upside down and stuck their heads in a piece of pvc pipe. Our only real involvement was letting the birds go. We also went rafting down the river behind Joslin and Dusty's apartment in little tubes we bought at KMart. I was really fun and obviously we looked quite goofy! Pat's tube completely deflated around him and Joslin did get her rump high centered on a rock-HILARIOUS! We had a great time in Jackson and it was beautiful! The Grand Teton is in a class all in its own!

Gunnison

So we just got back from back to back vacations with each family! With pat's family we got to go down to Gunnison, Colorado. It was a blast. It was the best "camping" i've ever done...we stayed in a cabin! it was fun though because we got to do the whole camp fire thing and fishing and being dirty, and then we could shower and sleep in a bed. The kids did really good and Merik was in heaven, he spent the entire week outside. He went fishing for his first time and had so much fun because he caught a fish every time he cast (there was a darling little red fish attached to his line). It was so cute to see him and pat doing that together! He also got to sit on one of his new favorite things, "twaaacters". Pat, Steve, Bill, and I got to go on an incredible hike down into a canyon. Pat carried Merik in a back pack we have and he did pretty well and loved the amazing lake we found at the bottom. It was unbelievable georgous and luckily worth the massive hike back up-yeah I thought I was going to die! We had a great time!

Update

Ok I know you're all mad but i'm just not very good at this regular blogging thing! We're all doing well, just busy. Karma is 2 months old and I can't believe it!! She's huge...yes huge! 10lbs 3 oz huge to be exact! That's 4 lbs she's gained in 6 weeks. She's just trying to keep up with the weight gain of her mommy, but she has a way to go. Merik is doing great and is as active and busy as ever. He still loves Karma but understands she's not going away. Today he was mad at me and hit her. Naughty-yeah he was in the corner for that one! He also is in the habbit of calling us by our first names. Its so funny, he'll ask for something from mom and when I say know he asks "tan-tae" and he's constantly asking for "pat". We're having fun as you can tell. I will be starting a new job soon and am very excited about it! I will be taking pricing calls for the mortuary my uncle works for. It is such a blessing as it will allow me to work from home! We just can't believe it! Life is good but busy!

Check out my Slide Show!

Karma Sue Berry

Little Karma entered this tough world June 4, 2008 at 5:29am weighed 6lbs and was 19" long. My water broke the night before and 6 hours later, she was here. We were so excited to have her but unfortunately she wasn't quite ready and coming 4 weeks early her lungs weren't quite developed. They let me hold her for a few minutes and then Pat carried her to the NICU. The first day she was under a hood that blew oxygen around her. They thought she'd only need that for a day or two, but she had other plans!
Day 2 she was put on CPAP which blows a certain percentage of oxygen directly into her nose and mouth. She wasn't being fed at this time but she was hungry based on the way she devoured the pacifier! By the end of day 2 she couldn't breath on her own anymore even with the help of the CPAP so the morning of the third day she had to be intubated (put on a ventilator). It was very sad and scary knowing that this was the worse case scenario they had given us on day 1. They diagnosed her with premature lung disease and a surfactant deficiency. Surfactant is a lipid rich layer that coats the lungs and acts as a lubricant during the oxygen transfer into the blood stream. Infants make surfactant in the last weeks of pregnancy and hopefully make enough to last them the aprox. 3 days it takes for their bodies to trigger the production of it on a regular basis. Because she was early she had not made enough and by day 2 she couldn't breath anymore. They gave her a synthetic version of surfactant and immediately she began to improve. We did have a scary experience when her tube became clogged by the surfactant and we watched as the nurses rushed to save her. She turned completely blue and flat lined. It was horrible but we were blessed to have wonderful nurses that were experienced, knowledgeable, and calm and everything ended up fine.
Pat was able to extubate her (take the breathing tube out) on day 5 and she spent the next few days learning how to eat, gaining weight, and slowly requiring less and less oxygen. She was finally able to come home after 9 days in the NICU! She is still on oxygen and probably will be for a while. She's on almost the smallest amount possible but is very attached to it. We were sent home with a monitor that she wears at night that warns us if her oxygen levels or heart rate become dangerous. We are so grateful for nurses and doctors that took such good care of her. It was a very scary, sad, and long week and a half but we are so grateful to our Heavenly Father to have our beautiful baby girl home and healthy. We are very grateful also for all of the prayers and support we received! We couldn't ask for better family and friends!
Merik is totally in love and takes very good care of her! He is always asking about her and wanting to check on her! I expected him to not really care about her but he adores her! He has been pretty cranky and clingy but it could be worse. She has had a toothbrush and a ball thrown at her head but they were deflected and she was saved.
We're so excited to have our little family and can't wait to see her grow up!