Hip Hip Hooray for William!!!!!

Shout out loud, Hip Hip Hooray for William. NO SURGERY FOR WILLIAM!!!!! We had his appointment at the burn unit this morning and he checked out ok. He is healing perfectly and will not need any type of surgery or skin graphing. It truly is amazing how much better he looks every day. His face is nearly perfect. I know I keep saying it but the power of prayer is amazing. The doctors kept saying, "lets wait a couple more days" and here we are. We are so thankful to God for all of his blessings and his healing hands on William. Thank you so much to everyone for praying for him and keeping him in your thoughts.

William has had a few rough nights with recovering. He actually ripped out his shield a couple nights ago. After today's check up, he doesn't have to wear the shield anymore. We have to put Vitamin E on it 7-8 times a day and we have to protect him from the sun for a full year. The sun can cause that skin to discolor if we are not careful. Other than that, hopefully he will not even have any scars from this. We are beyond ecstatic.

Grandma Archer has been here helping us with the boys. All of us are so happy to have her here and thankful that she is able to help us during this tough time.

"Lets wait....."

Ahh to see a smile out of William again is such a beautiful thing. It took him a few days but now he is running and playing again. He still hurts and wants to be held a lot but he is more active now. Last night was a rough night. He slept with us most of the night and cried. He kept scratching at his chest. His doctor said that was good though. It means it is itching and healing. We went back into the burn unit today. We heard great news. They said his face looks fantastic and that we were doing a great job at cleaning it and keeping the ointment on. It should heal just fine. As for his neck and chest, it is doing well too. The shield is doing a great job. I think I wrote in my last post about it but it has silicone and silver in it that helps promote the healing process. It is working better than they thought. So today they said they wanted to wait a little bit longer and see if a new shield would help it heal more. So he got bandaged up again and we couldn't be happier to hear "lets wait." He goes back on Monday. There is still concern for the area that has white spots in it. Those areas are the deepest. If they do not look better by Monday, he will be scheduled for surgery Tuesday and again on Friday. Tuesday, they will either sand down the skin or sliced the skin down to an area where there are healthy skin cells. Then they would add cadaver skin on top to help stimulate the new skin cells. Then bandage him up again. Then he would go back on Friday for his own skin graphing. They would take skin from William's scalp to put on his chest. Taking it from his scalp allows new hair to grow over where they take it and you wouldn't be able to tell in the future. Again, our fingers are crossed and we are praying for no surgery and for God to heal him naturally.

The power of prayer is truly amazing and he is doing so well and healing great. As you can tell by his pictures, he is healing very well. I took these before they bandaged him back up so he wasn't very happy at that moment. He is such a trooper! You can kind of see the white spots if you look closely.

Thank you for your continued prayers for William. I will update you on Monday.

William update

First of all, I want to thank everyone for praying for William. We appreciate it so much. William went back to the burn center today and was quite the little trooper. He didn't cry until they cleaned him which was to be expected but the doctors and nurse were so impressed that was the only time he cried. And then when he was all done he thank them and clapped :) So they took his bandages off and we are at a waiting period. Out of the 3 things I said would happen, it was number 2. He had a more advanced dressing applied today and has ointment for his face because now it is blistering. The good news is that it is too early to tell if he needs surgery which is good because if they would know today, it would have been really bad. The bad news is that there are two places where the burns are very deep and we have to wait until Thursday to see how this dressing works. They warned us that it looks like he will need skin graphing in those two places on Thursday. But the good news (if there is any) is that it would probably be only those two places. We will see. We are in a waiting stage right now. Please continue to keep him in your prayers and hopefully he wont need anything but new dressing on Thursday.

So just to continue this post...when it rains, it pours is our phrase for today. Our main concern right now is William but the day just keeps bringing us hiccups. This morning I woke up to a fish tank where the heater malfunctioned and killing the fish. Salt water fish are not cheap! Anyway, 5 died and hopefully that is all. I couldn't really do anything with the tank today for obvious reasons. But just as if that was all, the hospital called and said that we were not covered and that if we brought William in that it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars!!!! So Scott, myself and several of Scott's co-workers were on the phones with our insurance, several hospitals and burn centers. After hours of frustrations and feeling more vulnerable that can be imagined, Scott managed to get things worked out. So lets hope it does. Then on the way home from the hospital, our check engine light came on. Then after picking Harrison up, he threw up on me and started coughing really bad. I think he may have an ear infection so Scott just took him to the doctor now. It is just one thing after another.

Thank you again for your continued prayers for William. We will keep you posted.

Please pray for William

The weekend did not end the way we thought it would. We thought that we would wake up today and get some exercise by taking the boys and Belle to the park to play. That is not at all how today started. Scott poured himself a cup of coffee and went to the pantry to get some sugar. William wanted the cup and reach up (it was far back on the counter) and pulled it off. There was no milk/creamer in it to cool it down and it had just been poured not allowing anytime for it to have cooled down. William was looking up so most of it hit his neck and went down his chest. Our hearts broke listening to his cry as soon as it happened. The skin started peeling as soon as his shirt came off and I took him straight to the emergency room. He went in right ahead of everyone else there and was given morphine. After examining him, the doctors thought it was too severe for them to treat. He was transferred by ambulance to another hospital who specializes in burns and had a burn unit E.R. there. So the worst feeling a parent could have is seeing their baby with a morphine drip on a stretcher in an ambulance. I am crying as I type this. It turns out that he has first degree burns on his face and second and possible third degree burns on his chin, neck and chest.
We will find out more tomorrow. They didn't admit him today because they said he would probably be more comfortable at home and we would know what we needed to after 24 hours. He has to go back to the burn unit tomorrow to find out 1 of 3 things. 1. He may be doing ok and just need to be redressed each day (the dressing is a special dressing for burn victims). 2. He may need another dressing that helps promote the healing process and he will keep it on for 5-6 days before removing and having to go back to step 1. Or 3. he will have to have surgery to have it clean and possible skin graph. So we ask you to please pray for William that he does not have to have surgery tomorrow and that he has a speedy recovery. He is in a lot of pain. A lot of his skin is burnt off or blistered. On a cuter note if there is one, everyone there thought he was the cutest baby ever. And after he was dressed, he was called a "fencer, astronaut, a scuba diver, a skier, etc). You can see why in the pics.
It will be a long night as both Scott and I are worried about William so we ask that you please pray for him that everything will turn out ok.

Is this possible?

Could you eat:

A BBQ Beef sandwich with coleslaw and beans
Corn on the cob
A Funnel cake
A basket of home made fried chips
Fudge
A fried snickers bar
Fried vegetables (zucchini, artichoke hearts and mushrooms)
A Fried twinke
Cotton Candy
A Texas style turkey leg (huge)
I think that is it.

Well we did. In just a 5 hour time span, Scott and I shared the mentioned above. We took the boys to the LA County Fair Saturday. We tried every fair food possible I think. And no it is not possible. I did get sick last night. I blame it on my medicine that I have to take with food at bedtime. I obviously couldn't eat anymore so I didn't take it with food. Well two hours later I woke up with the worst nauseating feeling ever and barely made it to the bathroom to taste everything all over again- yuck!!!!

On a good note, the fair was fun. We were there for 5 hours and I don't think we saw half of it. We even got lost a couple times. I guess that is why they call it the largest fair.

Here is William at the petting zoo. He was not scared at all. He was chasing all of the animals down to pet them and play with them. It was so cute. We had to drag him out of there. I think he could have stayed in there all night. He is not scared of animals at all. On Friday we were getting ready to leave the house and the yellow lab next door ran right up to William and they were nose to nose and Spike (the dog) barked in his face. Will wasn't scared at all. Me, on the other hand, ran and picked up Will worried that the dog may bite him being that aggressive towards him. Plus Will hits Belle when she makes him mad so I didn't want him to hit Spike.
And here is what Harrison was doing while Will played :) They also had a children's museum there so William played with some of the exhibits. Here he is playing with the Tonka trucks. Oh and yes, he did have to see what the sand tasted like :)

Time flies

Wow, how time flies by. William turned 20 months this week and Harrison will be 8 months old next week. And now I am starting to realize there will be less time for me to get anything done. Harrison is crawling everywhere which makes it twice as hard to clean the house with two of them on the loose. Today as I was vacuuming, Harrison was pulling on the cord and William was turning the power switch on and off. What should have taken 5 minutes took about 20.

Harrison does not like to nap. Now I know that William had a rough time napping because he liked to be cuddled. Harrison, on the other hand, doesn't think he needs to nap. He is so wired and does not settle down. Sometimes I think Scott puts coffee in his morning bottle :) Last year at this time, I had a job and was able to work from home with William. There is absolutely no way I would be able to pull that off now. It is fun to watch Harrison because he follows Will everywhere. It is nice at times because they will play together in William's room. Now Harrison also likes to antagonize Will and Belle by chasing them in his walker. He grabs onto Belles tail and he also likes to knock William down. But he does it with a cute smile every time and he squeals in delight!

William is having a hard time with hitting and sharing right now. And he doesn't seem to understand me when I tell him that is mean. I don't know where he got his temper. But he does seem to understand when Harrison is doing something wrong (example: Harrison was playing with the child safety latch on the fireplace and William was shaking his finger at him saying "no baby no baby.") William is very good at sign language right now. He loves to sign especially when it is time to go to bed and he needs to show off.

Well it has been a long week and I am so happy it is the weekend. Scott has been working late all week so I know he is ready too. Have a great weekend.

Too cute not to share

You would think I would have a hard time trying to keep Harrison still but that is not the case at all. I actuall have a lot of pictures of Harrison sitting with Miss Belle. William, on the other hand, was bribed to sit next to his brother. He is eating a cooking while he sits there. :) I just thought they looked so cute in their matching shirts.

Growing up way too fast!

He's crawling EVEYWHERE and now he is pulling himself up. As you can see by this picture (above), he pulled himself up to play with his table. And now it is time to lower the crib and take off the bumpers because he keeps standing in the crib now. And he doesn't like to sleep. Now it is more fun for him to stand up and look around.

The bottom picture is from this morning. I was making breakfast and I came back out to see this. Williams brought out a pillow and sat behind Harrison and was playing with him.

What a fantastic day!

Saturday was such a perfect day. I couldn't have asked for anything better. First we had a nice big breakfast and then I was off to a day at the spa. It was so relaxing and nice. I had 5 and a half hours of pure bliss :) I had a massage, a facial, eye brow arch, private manicure and pedicure and a hair treatment. It was so nice. Afterwards I went to lunch by myself (yes I enjoyed that). I went shopping at the mall. Well I should say shopping at the Coach store. I bought myself a nice purse and perfume. Then I went home to get ready for dinner. Scott took me a to very nice steakhouse where we ate way too much. All in all, it was such a relaxing day. Probably not so relaxing for Scott though since he had to play Mr. Mom all day while I was getting pampered.

Happy Birthday to ME :)

Well yesterday was my birthday. Yes, 9/11 for those of you that didn't know. And it has more meaning than just being my birthday or 9/11 for me. I received my middle name, Sophia, from my grandmother who died on 9/11 10 years before my birthday (wierd, huh?). Just a little tid bit of information on me :) Anyway, it was a good day yesterday. We had our typical day with breakfast and then going to the gym followed by lunch. What was really nice is that both boys decided to take a nap at the same time yesterday so I got to take a nap. That is big!!!! Great present from my boys. Scott brought home dinner from an Italian restaurant. William and Harrison helped decorate my birthday cake (hence the handprints in it) :)
Afterwards the boys helped me open up presents. All I asked for was a Swiffer wet jet. Yes, that must be a sign of getting older when you ask for a mop. Of-course Scott pulled through and made that birthday wish come true. I also recieved a pair of pjs. I am obsessed with pajamas. And some work out clothes. No Scott doesn't think I am fat. He knows I like to work out. Then he sent me on a scavenger hunt around the house which was fun. With each clue was a present for Saturday. Saturday is going to be so nice. We are starting the day with breakfast at this cute little restaurant by our house. Then I am off to the spa for a day of beauty. Seriously the WHOLE day. I am so excited. I probable won't have time but there was a gift certificate to the mall and the last present is a nice dinner with a babysitter for the night! Woo hoo.
Just playing with my camera but I took a fun little picture of one of my flowers.

Big Brother Update

Ok, YES I AM OBSESSED! Ok so I got to thinking about it more and Memphis is either a really stupid player or brilliant. If he let Dan say that after Keesha was evicted for their alliance, it is stupid because he knows that he loses Keesha's vote in the jury house and she can sway some other votes (Renny's..even though she doesn't like Memphis anyway). On the other hand, Jerry thinks that his alliance with Memphis is real and also thinks Dan will take him to the end. Therefore he won't try as hard on the HOH competition. We all know that Jerry will not win the 1st round seeing he doesn't have the endurance Dan and Memphis do. But if one of them are against him in round 2 and he thinks their alliance is solid, Jerry may throw that round ultimately letting the "Renegades" win the competition. If that is the case, Memphis is smart if he can pull it off. The only catch would be whoever wins part 3 has to evict Jerry and they will lose his vote. Memphis may lose a vote or two for voting Keesha out but he also locked himself into the final two by letting Dan get Keesha's vote. Just my thoughts.

Big Brother 10

(If you don't watch Big Brother 10, you can skip over this post). Ok I am a reality show junky. Big Brother has always been one of my favorites. And I am so happy Dan and Memphis are in the final 3. I don't think that either one of them could have beaten Keesha in the end. BUT I can't stand Jerry. He talked trash on everyone and would jump to any alliance that would take him. I will be so upset if he makes it to the final 2. Anyway, what I don't get was when Keesha was evicted tonight, why did Dan tell Memphis he wouldn't take him to the end? Is it a "Renegade" show? If it is, I don't see how Memphis would benefit anything out of Dan making that comment? Dan truly is a great game player. I thought all of his antics would get him evicted at some point but I am glad to see he made it.

Harrison crawling

Here is a little clip of Harrison crawling.

Problem Sharing?

Now that Harrison is crawling really good, he likes to get into all of the toys. And of-course all of those toys are William's, right? William loves his hats and I put one of them on Harrison. Harrison thought it was great (pictured above). Will did not (pictured below) :)
I have finally upgraded Harrison from the car seat to the stroller seat attachment. I think he was much more comfortable this morning on our stroll because he could see everything. Here are both them watching Miss Belle run in the park.

And yesterday was the first time they were mistaken for twins. It was a nice relaxing weekend. We laid around a lot and rested. Saturday Harrison and I went shopping and bought some new salt water fish. We bought a Yellow Tang and a Figi Puffer. I am a little afraid of the Puffer as he is a suicide jumper. He jumped out of the tank as I was buying him. I think our tank is a bit more covered so we should be ok.

It was really nice Saturday night. Usually after the boys go to sleep, we are trying to get caught up on things we normally can't. Scott and I actually sat down and watched two movies while eating ice cream. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal to most people but after moving and having tons of things to do around the house, it was such a nice change of pace to just relax at night and spend quality time together. Yesterday we took the boys to the mall and just shopped for a while. Not a very eventful weekend but relaxing.

You know you are an Archer when......

Mom says you are too young for stage 3 baby food BUT....Dad says you are old enough for ice cream! Can you say "Sugar Rush?!" And he followed Scott around wanting more.

Do you ever just have one of those days?

Lately I just feel lazy and tired (hence the reason for the lack of posts this week). I had a procedure done on Thursday (TMI to share on a blog) and I realize I don't take good care of myself. So this morning Scott took the boys out shopping while I stayed in bed until 10:30am :) Plus all of us had colds this week so it was a pretty lazy week for doing anything. Just like when we first moved to Utah and I was missing Missouri, I find myself missing Utah now. Don't get me wrong, I STILL miss Missouri and always will. I just miss our house and friends in Utah right now. The good thing is that we honestly probably do more family things here than we ever have. It is nice to explore our new surroundings. I think we will be making our way to the county fair either this weekend or next. We always plan some event for the weekend but I think we may just be lazy this weekend. Here are some pictures of Will helping dad mow the lawn :) Pretty boring post but I thought I would just catch up on the blog :) Hope everyone is having a good weekend.