Coming Home...

This is a photo of what I see about 50% of the time when I come home during dinner time. Coleson has become quite the master chef over the years. When it comes to stir fry or some type of noodle dish, on a more frequent basis Summer informs me that Coleson made dinner tonight.

I'm coming home tonight from an out of town trip and I'm so excited to see everyone. Summer sent me a picture of Brynn and even though it's only been a week she looks so much older to me (but just as cute). I've got to give a shout out to everyone. This week has been one of those incredibly uplifting weeks when it comes to the immense service I've seen people perform on our behalf. Everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner there have been people in our neighborhood come over and do exercises, play with, and feed Ammon (Summer is still on the lifting restrictions). Coleson has done a great job lifting Ammon in and out of bed for nighttime sleep and naps. I've mentioned before that in public and around other people Ammon ocassionally has a difficult time being interactive. But we've been praying extra hard that he would open himself up more to these wonderful people and allow them to serve him in a fun way, and they in return would receive some type of blessing for their service. I can only report on one side of this request, and Summer has informed me that Ammon has done a great job. So many of his personal helpers have indicated that they never knew how much he smiled, laughed, and simply moved around. He's made alot of new friends and fans this week. It's been awesome to hear these fun reports every night. Thank you again, we are humbled by your service and example, and hope to someday return the blessing.

Brynn and Ammon...

Brynn continues to do well and we are figuring out her schedule more and more day by day. She sleeps a lot, and her relatively brief fussy time is from about 10 to 12 at night. This is great Daddy daughter time, because I don’t mind staying up late and Brynn isn’t upset if someone is holding her.

Couple of other things that we didn’t initially expect or think of with this wonderful addition to our family. With Summer having a C-section delivery she is limited in what she can lift, and our not-so-little Ammon is off the lifting list for six weeks (two weeks already done). Summer is recovering so much better this time, and knowing the type of person she is, if it weren’t for doctors orders I’m sure she’d be carrying Ammon and Brynn around already. So to prepare for this lack of carrying I turned Ammon’s crib into a day bed, so it is only about a foot off the floor with a partial guard rail. Ammon slept in it for the first time Sunday night and about 3 a.m. woke up crying because the lower half of his body had fallen out of the bed (yeah, they call me the master craftsman for a reason). After strategically stuffing a few pillows in the opening and calming him down he slept fine the rest of the night.

Here’s our expected routine for the next little while. I’m in town this week so I get Ammon up and fed before I go to work, with the expectation that I’ll make it home in time to feed him at night, do his exercises, and get him to bed. Turns out we have some phenomenal neighbors (I think I’ve mentioned that several times before, we live with some awesome people). The neighborhood has organized to have someone come over during lunch and nap time to lift, play, and do exercises with Ammon until Summer gets the okay to do this on her own. I can only hope that those people that are sacrificing so much to come over are blessed immensely by the spirit of this not-so-little guy. Necana came over Monday and helped feed Ammon and put him down to a nap, she did a great job. This is all new for Ammon too, so I’m hoping his spirit and personality will allow people to serve him in this regard, and help him to open up a little more in public and strive to be more physically independent with his mobility. After nap it was big brother Coleson’s job to lift Ammon out of his bed, put him on the exercise mat, and pull him into the living room. Big brother used his muscles and did not disappoint. I’ll keep you posted on how this whole process goes.

Ammon’s personal nursery teacher was released from her calling last week. Robin has done a great job with Ammon, and we are going to miss her so much. She gladly endured multiple crumb and drool messes on the shoulder, with occasional spit ups on her nice Sunday dresses. She was Ammon’s first teacher, and we will always remember her as such. We are grateful for her willingness to color, sing, and play with Ammon, but most especially we are grateful for her teaching him, loving him, and accepting him.

One more item. This past Friday we went down to Grandma and Grandpa Hutchings home and they took us all to the Sizzler for dinner (the Sizzler rocks, especially before 5 o’clock). After a wonderful meal, Grandma and Grandpa took the lead and were leaving shortly before us to head home. We were all waving and saying good-bye and I looked down at Ammon and he was waving his whole arm. I quickly got Summer’s attention and we just watched in amazement as Ammon continued to wave bye all on his own. Then on Monday morning as I left to work he waved bye to me again. It probably sounds silly to get so excited and emotional over something so common, but we are sure proud of him. I attribute it all to two solid weeks of fun interactive times with Maga, she has been such a blessing in Ammon’s life yet again. We miss you Maga!

More of Baby Sister Brynn...

We are hopefully leaving the hospital tonight and everyone is so excited to be going home. Little Brynn is the cutest little baby and big brothers are still beside themselves whenever they are around her. Coleson can't stop holding her and asking to hold her, and Ammon still does big smiles everytime we say "baby sister." It's been kind of unusual the past few days having Brynn in the same room as us at the hospital. I honestly expected to have Brynn spend a few days in the NICU, or have machines hooked up to her, etc. I kept asking the nurses if they needed to measure Brynn's dirty diapers, check her oxygen saturation, or half dozen other things, but they just keep telling me there is no need. We really like this. It was kind of funny the other day when we were talking with Dr. Marriott about the C-section surgery. I mentioned to him, for lack of a better word at the time, that it was kind of "fun" to hear him and the other doctor talking about Wall-E, Lexus', and other things during the surgery. He quickly apologized and noted that his attention was completely on the surgery, but he does this so often that it is just natural to talk during the surgery. I told him there was no need for an apology and I hadn't really explained myself to well, it was comforting to hear him talking about these things during the surgery because I knew it was an indication everything was going exactly as it should. He noted that was exactly right, when it's quiet in the room it's usually because something unexpected is happening. He then noted that when Ammon was born it was very "quiet" during the surgery, and there was none of the comforting banter. Again, Ammon's experiences brought many wonderful miracles into our lives, but I really like Brynn's approach to joining our family. Enjoy the pictures, we are very pleased parents and therefore many more pictures are sure to follow. Also, thank you thank you thank you to everyone, it has been a tremendous support and very welcomed. Also, Grandma Debbie (Maga) has done a wonderful job with Coleson and Ammon, much better than I could have done. Thank you again.

She's Here!

At 8:08 this morning Brynn was born and joined our not so little family. She is beautiful and healthy. She came in at a whopping (at least for us) 7 pounds 5 ounces, and about 20 inches tall. Summer is doing well and appears to be making a good recovery. We are all so excited that our little girl is here. We called Coleson and Ammon shortly after Brynn arrived this morning and both were simply besides themselves. Coleson answered the phone and heard Brynn in the background and completely lost it he was so happy. "She's here, she's here!! I'm a big brother, Ammon we're big brother's!!! Yes, Yes, Yes!!" I'm doing it no justice, it was awesome to hear his enthusiam. Maga (Grandma Debbie) said Ammon was smiling the biggest smile that she has ever seen, and when it was his turn to talk he just yelled into the phone. Just like there is a special connection between Coleson and Ammon, it appears there is another special connection between Ammon and Brynn. So much more to tell, but on to some pictures first.








After we returned to our room our first nurse was Tara, and she did a great job. At the end of her shift she indicated that her Mom was coming in for the next shift. We thought that was pretty cool and asked what her Mom's name was. Turns out it was Sherry. If you've ever read "Ammon's Miracles" you'll know who Sherry is. We haven't seen her since soon after Ammon was born and we were so excited when she came in. After hugs and warm hellos we were so happy to hear that not only did she remember us, she remembered Ammon and the events of that incredibly special day over 2 1/2 years ago. And now here she was again with our new little girl. Unfortunately, after all our picture taking and video recording we realized we only got Sherry on the video recorder. So Sherry if you're ever reading this, we'd love to put a picture out here of Ammon's personal angel. Below are some other fun photos from the past few days. However, don't fret, we'll put alot more photos of Brynn out here tomorrow as we refine our picture taking skills.

We're So Glad When Daddy Comes Home...

We've been promising friends and family posts of Ammon being himself at home. Most people think that Ammon doesn't say much, because he really doesn't when he is in public. But when Ammon is at home and it's just the family he can be quite the chatterbox. It's been slightly hard to capture because whenever the camera comes out he usually keeps quiet. One sure fire way to capture "vocal" Ammon is when Daddy comes home. Believe it or not, this is one of the more low key Ammon reactions when Daddy comes home from work (you can't stage this kind of stuff). Hopefully we'll get more out here in the near future as we catch Ammon's version of dancing to the music, giving five, playing the "pat" game, and so many others. There's alot inside this wonderful little boy that is still trying to express itself and find a way out.