Good news!!

The final verdict today from the doctors is that no skin grafts will be needed on Isaac's leg! He will need to stay bandaged for a week or more till it fully heals, but after that, just some cut off tights to keep pressure on the scar while it forms. Hopefully they have some that aren't pink...

When we were leaving the hospital, Isaac said, "Mom, isn't that great that I don't have to have skin grafts! (pause) What's a skin graft?" I told him that they would take some skin from his bum and put it on his leg where the skin wasn't healing. To that he replied, "That's disgusting mom!" Oh the things kids say!

We are on cloud 9 and feeling SO incredibly blessed. It has only been reiterated that God does listen and answer prayers, even from little families like ours. Thank YOU for your prayers that joined with ours and helped make a miracle happen.





**what's up with Photobucket? I have lots of storage left.

Eight years

Thank you for always "giving me wings to fly". I love you.










*photos by Mark Holladay photography

The Lamberts

I had the pleasure of photographing this family who was in Utah for a family reunion, all the way from New York City! (I can't help saying that like the old salsa commercial still). They requested nature shots as it's few and far between where they are. The darling mom even got to see her first deer while we were out tromping around! And would you believe it, after talking a while, yep, we have mutual friends. Never ceases to amaze me the connections that can be made. Thank you Lambert family for letting me spend a bit of time with you!

The Smith family

Did you know you can find me via Google? Neither did I, but this family from Washington did. What a treat, and what a coincidence because we ended up having mutual friends. The Smith family was such a treat to photograph, and their baby? I've never meet a happier 7 month old.

Update

We had our appointment at the Burn Unit in SLC today. Geoff has been out of town for the week so my brother came with me. Good thing he did because I almost fainted. I have learned that I don't do well with seeing people I love being in pain. I've seen the wound lots obviously, but when they were touching it and he was hurting, I got lightheaded.

Their assessment was not quite as positive as I was hoping for, though they did say that much of it is healing well. Parts of it are deeper than they originally thought, so skin grafts are still a possibility unfortunately. They told us to keep our routine up for the next two weeks and then they'd decide at that point. Walter, the nice physical therapist, made Isaac a splint for us to put on the back of Isaac's leg at night to encourage his knee to straighten since it's in a slight bent position right currently.

I am certainly grateful to have Geoff back! Did I mention that I lost my wallet at Thanksgiving Point on Tuesday? Let's just say it's been a long week.

Official Girls Camp post

Being the Young Women's President at our church allows me the awesome opportunity to work with all the 12-18 year olds in my area. I love it!! Camp this year was my favorite year so far. Mia Shalom is beautiful and though the weather after the first day was less than desirable, we had an great time. Our theme was "Standards are timeless." We were assigned the standard of "friends" and the time period of Greeks and Romans. The girls made laurel wreath headbands and we wore togas to the group activities.








I came up with the idea to make buttons (NOT an easy task I tell you) for all the girls to earn when they'd do certain tasks. All were fun and light hearted and really helped bring the girls together and had us laughing the whole time. Most of the crazy pictures below are from button earning sessions.

At the lake.



Coloring our shirts made by the talented Elisha.



Eating an ant for a button.



Who said you can't pick your friend's nose! Another button activity.



Service project. All the girls, plus two extras who somehow snuck in there!



This was NOT a button earning event! Don't ask.



Arts and crafts with pens and rubbing alcohol.



Trust falls for a button.



Some of our entertainment. These girls are so talented!




I am SO lucky to get to hang out with these girls! They are amazing and so inspiring. All in all, camp was a success: fun, CRAZY, spiritual and uplifting.

Hanging in there

Today we saw significant improvement in Isaac. He startled me this morning when he came down the stairs...without me carrying him. I about jumped for joy! His thigh is looking much better, while his knee appears to be the worst still since it's the location of the deepest part of the burn. I'm anxious for our Friday appointment.

I'm overwhelmed with so many kind words and acts from so many of you, my friends. I know that he is being watched over and that your prayers are working. Thank you!




And we can't forget about this little angel.

Good times, bad times

I had a wonderful time at Girls Camp (pictures to come soon), but came home to some sadness. Thursday night, Isaac and Geoff were making homemade popcorn and Isaac reached for the pot with hot oil in it, spilling it on his upper thigh to below his knee. Geoff reacted quickly, pulling his pjs off and putting him in the sink with cold water. He went to our pediatrician who sent him to the Burn Unit up in Salt Lake City where they scrapped off the burned skin and bandaged him. Imagine coming home and seeing your little boy like this! I was a definitely a mess for a couple days. It breaks my heart that Geoff had to go through it alone, but I'm so grateful for him and the loving and tender daddy that he is. He was able to comfort Isaac and take care of him so wonderfully.

Isaac has been so brave through the whole ordeal. We have experienced many miracles already. We change the bandages twice a day and bathe him at night, cleaning the burn area to ward off infection. Not much is worse to me than this, putting my child in pain. He is very stiff in the morning and not able to move his leg. He uses Lucy's baby stroller as a "walker" until he is able to walk on his own. I've been reminded over this ordeal what a sweet, sweet boy he is and what a tender spirit he has.

I will be taking him to the Burn Unit again on Friday where they will assess the burn and determine if he will need skin grafts and how much longer he'll need to stay bandaged. We are praying for a positive diagnosis.

Here is a picture of his leg wrapped. I decided not-wrapped was a little too graphic.

At the lake

I didn't take my camera with me on the boat, so I don't have any shots of me jumping 10 feet in the air while I was wakeboarding. So you'll never know if I'm lying or not.

Here are some shots from the beach though. We had a "private beach" that came with the cabin we rented which was just perfect for our large crowd. The water was cool, but pleasant and the weather was lovely almost the entire time.

Playing horseshoes.


















Isaac playing Frisbee.



Lucy LOVES the sand and water.



Collecting shells.

We are a family

All the grandkids.



Everyone.



Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids. Obviously Lucy was done with Bear Lake.