The Hanson Family

So last week was one of the longest weeks of my life. Let me start with Sunday..... Early Sunday morning I dropped Jason off at the Lehi Armory. He was leaving for Croatia for his 2 week reserve. I was sad to see him go, but I was glad it was only for 2 weeks.
For about 3-4 days prior to Jason leaving Kambri was really sick. She has her good days and her bad. She has a fever and a nasty cough. I didn't think much of it because Justin had had it right before her and he got over it in a couple of days. Well by Monday morning she hadn't improved much, so I decided to take her to the doctor. Oh and by the way, we had just got new health insurance 5 days before this. Anyways, we went to the doctors and they did the usual, check her weight, her temperature (which was 101) and check her oxygen(which was 85%). We go in the room and our wonderful nurse practitioner comes in (the kids love her). She checks her ears, heart, and lungs. She was listening to her lungs for a really long time, and I was thinking, crap she hears something. Since Kambri has Asthma she decided to do a breathing treatment on her and see if that will bring her o2 levels back up. So we do that and they check her O2 again and it didn't change. She then tells me that she was hearing some crackling in her lungs and was concerned. She had a Doctor come in for a second opinion and he listened to her lungs and then checked her O2 levels again. No Change. So that is when they break it to me that she needs to be admitted immediately to the hospital. My heart sank. I was fighting back the tears until we left. On the way to the hospital I was having Keana call my mom and Jason's mom because I was in tears and couldn't talk. So we get her to the hospital and they do a chest x-ray and we head right on up to the Pediatric Unit,room 254. I cannot tell you the pain you go through as a mother watching your child suffer like she was. They had to start her on a I.V. because she was so dehydrated. That sucked, since she was so dehydrated they had to try it twice. Keana and I were in tears the entire time watching her scream in pain and knowing there is nothing we can do to help her. I wanted to grab her and run, run as far away as I could from there so that she didn't have to suffer anymore. After they got the I.V. in her we went into her room and she fell asleep. They had her hooked to the oximeter and her O2's dropped down into the mid to low 60's. They rushed right in and started her on oxygen. She was up to 3 liters at one time. In the meantime I was on the phone with Redcross trying to locate Jason to let him know what was going on. Since he hadn't been there for very long they couldn't find him. More tears......what am I going to do? I need Jason here? Luckily, Jason emailed me to let me know he arrived safely, so I emailed him back with the bad news. He was so worried about her, neither one of us could believe we had a child in the hospital. So there we were in the hospital, Kambri was so weak from lack of oxygen that she slept a lot. I really felt like I had a newborn again. She would stay awake for a few minutes and then fall back to sleep. That first night at the hospital was horrible, her O2 kept dropping, even with oxygen, so they had to keep increasing her O2. She has to have breathing treatments done every 3 hrs and vitals checked every 4 hrs. So someone was coming into the room all night. IT was a very scary first night. The nurse told me that if I had let this go, she may have gone to bed one night and never woke up. That was a very scary thought.
Originally we were supposed to be there until Wednesday, but since her O2's were so low and would not stay up with out a lot of oxygen, we didn't leave until Saturday. We had to go all night without oxygen before they would let us leave. Kambri is such a stubborn girl that it was a major fight getting her to keep her nasal cannula in, we tried for a day without it and just hold the oxygen to her face, but it wasn't doing the trick. So we had to hold her down and literally tape it to her face. I hated it, I would fight back the tears every time we had to do something else mean to her.
I was so grateful to have such and amazing older daughter there to help me get through this. She was my rock, I really needed her there for me and she did amazing. My mom and sisters also were a HUGE help. Trisha took a couple of days of work to keep Keana and Justin and Stefanie let them sleep over at her house every night last week. My mom was a big help too, she would come over everyday and see Kambri and bring me food other than nasty hospital food, she would bring the kids over for me to see, she would bring Kambri toys to play with. She even kicked me out of the room, with Kambri screaming her head off, and made me leave for a little while. I had been trapped in that room for 4 days. She wouldn't let anyone touch her, I couldn't even go to the bathroom without her by my side. It was so nice to be able to go home and be free from that terrible place. I now sympathize with those moms who have children with terminal diseases or newborns who are in NICU and they are literally living there. I felt so torn, my other kids needed me, but Kambri needed me too. It was so hard to do, and all with out Jason there to help. Friday night Jason emailed me and told me that his unit made an executive decision and they were flying him home to be with his family. That was such a huge relief. I knew that Kambri was going to need to stay home for a few days and still need lots of rest. Keana was going to girls camp and so I was really stressing about what I was going to do. So long story semi short, we made it home late Saturday night and Jason arrived around 1:00 Sunday morning. I am so grateful for everyone who helped me with my kids and for everyone's prayers during this scary time.
Sleeping Beauty

Her Glowing Toe from the oximeter

I.V. in her arm

Semi-Happy girl

It has been awhile since I have had the time to sit down and update out blog. I know, I pretty much suck. Since the kids are playing quietly, which won't last long, I thought I would update my blog for anyone who cares.
This year has been crazy so far. We have been insanely busy. Jason got a new route at work and he is now gone 2 nights a week so we pretty much never see him. When he is home, he is so exhausted that he doesn't want to go any where and the kids and I are ready to get out of the house. So needless to say, it has been very hard on us all.
Dance competition season has started for Keana. So for the next few months our Saturdays will be spent taking her all over the state to compete with her dance team. She is a great dancer though, and I love every minute of it. She is not too far away from turning the big 12. I have been having her babysit for me every now and then and she does great with the kids. I am sure that soon others will be call for her to babysit and then I will have to raise my pay to keep her around. I can't believe that she will be in Junior High next year. I remember when I was in Junior High, I HATED it! I hope she had better success than I did. She has a great personality and makes friends so quickly that I am sure it won't be a problem for her. I don't know how I have managed to raise such a amazing daughter so far, but I hope it continues. I really think I just got lucky with her. (:
Justin is Justin, he is a hoot. He is in kindergarten this year and I cannot believe how quickly and easily he picks things up. He is reading and writing really well. I have to admit, I was really concerned about him but I have since learned I had nothing to worry about. He is such a character, he says some of the funniest things. He will keep you laughing for days. There are moments where I want to lock him up because he is making me crazy, but then he comes over and gives me a big hug and kiss and tells me how much he loves me. It melts my heart. There is something about a bond between a son and a mother and I am glad I am able to experience that with him.
Kambri is my baby. She is spoiled rotten and I did it. I created a monster. She is so stinkin' cute that I just can't resist her when she wants something. I vowed to never have a child like her and I do. It is all my doing though. I think it is because she is my baby and I am sad that she is growing up, so I just give in to her. She just had tubes put in her ears a few weeks ago and has been a whole different person. She is sleeping all night now and she is talking even more than she was before. At first she had a hard time with them because she could actually hear again and it was strange to her, but now she is great. When Keana and Justin sit down to do their homework, she is right there with them asking me how you spell certain words. She loves to be like her big brother and sister and I am so glad that she has them to teach her.
As for me, I am training to run the Ragnar in June. I am really nervous about it. I am lucky to have a large group of ladies to push me to go further and faster. 2-3 times a week we all get together and go running. We get up long before the sun decides to get up and we run together and chat away. It has been so much fun. I only hope I can run my legs on the Ragnar with out all of them running beside me.
Oh yea and we SOLD our house. We are scheduled to move out in 10 days!!! I am so excited to start a new chapter in our lives. I am also very nervous about the unknown. Jason and I are talking very seriously about moving to Idaho, where he is from, and raising our family there. But, we are unsure right now what will happen. That is what scares me the most. I like stability, and everything right now is far from that. For now we are moving in with Jason's mom. She has a little mother in law type of apt in her basement, so she has been kind enough to let us stay there for a few months until we know for sure what we are doing. It is going to be a hard adjustment for me, but I know things will work out. Oddly enough, I am not as worried about it as I thought I would be, I am worried, but I am also pretty calm and excited about it. That is so not my personality. Usually something like this has me stressed beyond stressed, so maybe my calmness is a good sign that we are doing the right thing.
Anyways.......sorry for the long post. Hope you enjoy reading our family update.

So on New Years Day, Jason decided to take Justin icefishing. He decided to take him somewhere that he has never been before. They made the long drive to Pineview Reservoir in Ogden Canyon. After only being there for a few minutes Jason had a bite on his line. He thought at first it was just a Carp because he could tell it was big, but couldn't see much more. As he struggled to pull this big fish out of the ice hole he realized it was a Tiger Muskie!! He was so excited, all his life he has wanted to catch one of these fish, but has never succeeded. After he got it out of the water he measured it and it was around 37" long and weighed about 15-18lbs. He was so mad that he didn't have anyone else with him to take the picture of him with his big catch, so he had Justin pose for him while he took the picture. Poor Justin could barely hold this giant monster. It was nearly as big as he was. But he so proud of his dad. He made me print out the picture so he could take it to school and church to show all his teachers and friends. After their first big catch of the day, they continued fishing and caught a ton of perch. Jason said that Justin caught just as many perch as he did. Jason called me later and told me that this was a sign that this year is going to be a good year. I hope he is right about that.

We took the kids to see Santa last night. I am really surprised that Kambri didn't cry. She has never sat on his lap and I really thought she would freak out. She told him that for Christmas she wanted a birthday cake. Keana wants a pillow pet, the turtle and Justin wants Nerf Blaster. I certainly hope Santa comes through for them this year.

So this is Jason's famous video. I posted it on Facebook a couple of months ago and the other day we discovered someone posted it on "YouTube" as well. My poor Jason, he found out while he was away to basic training that he had finally drew the deer tag he had been waiting for. He was so excited and made me call his best friend to let him know. Well, not too long after he had returned home from AIT the hunts started. He took time off work and off he went. He had his best friend Casey with him and a last minute decision they decided to take the video camera with them. Good thing they did because I don't think this story would have been believable otherwise. I didn't believe him until I saw the footage. Jason had seen this deer just eating away, the deer had no idea Jason was even there. Jason was so excited to see this monster deer. He inched in slowly and got as close as he could before he dared take a shot. He was around 40 yards away, he knew for sure he could nail it and bring home his trophy. He stood up took his shot and well the rest speaks for itself. Jason was so upset, he called me and told me what had happened and the following week Casey has shown me the video. I was laughing hysterically, until I saw Jason's face, then I felt a little bad. It was really sad because he has been wanting to shoot a deer this size all his life and when he had the opportunity he missed. The only thing he and his friend can figure out why he missed is because there just happen to be a branch in the way that Jason didn't see. Well, now he has a good story to tell and the video to prove it. He did end up getting a deer, sadly not that one but he at least did fill the tag. Oh well, there is always next year. :)

So I have been following this blog for sometime now. It is about a little boy Skyler who is at Primary Children's hospital. His grandma is a good friend and a old co-worker of mine. This little boy has been through so much in his short life. When he was just a baby his dad passed away and now he has been diagnosed with Leukemia and has been in ICU for weeks now. He keeps getting infections after infections. Every time I read this blog it makes me cry. He is about the same age as Justin and I just cannot imagine watching him go through something like that. His mom has got to be the strongest person I know. She is amazing. His grandma sold her cabin in AF canyon to help pay for medical expenses. She is a great example to me, she has also had a lot of terrible things happen in her life and she is always more concerned for others than for herself. I just have to say that I am so grateful for my family and my beautiful children. I am so grateful that they are healthy and that they continue to grow and be strong. I encourage you all to read this blog as well, it is on my list of friends, titled "Skyler's Story"

I can't believe that Jason and I have been married for 7 years. It feels like just yesterday that we met. We have had a lot of ups and downs through out our marriage but we always pull through them. Jason is a really good listener and is really good at helping me work things out when I am having a hard time with something. We have always worked together on every decision we make. I am so grateful to be married to such a hard worker who always puts his family first. He is such an amazing person. I love you baby.