Wishes do come true!

It's official! In 34 days we will be on one of these...

We will be headed here...

to make Kyson's wish come true.  

His wish was to meet

and 

We just got word that we will be going from June 5th-June 12th!  Not only that, but we get to go with the Warner Foundation!!!  Kurt Warner and his family (he has seven kids) spend the week with 10 wish families at all the parks in Disney World.  
Click here to learn about Kurt Warner, his family, and his foundation called First Things First.


I am so excited and humbled by this opportunity.  One year ago Kyson was going on five weeks in the hospital recovering from his third surgery.  Now, in just a few short weeks he gets to experience a trip of a lifetime because of the generosity of so many amazing people.  I am so excited to spend this time together as a family.  I know memories will be made that we will NEVER forget!

Easter celebrations

This year Easter was a special time for me. There were two things on my mind constantly as we celebrated this special day. I was so grateful to watch Kyson run around playing with cousins and being a normal, happy boy after spending last Easter in the hospital. I was also so grateful to have Brooklyn a part of our family this Easter. She has brought a lot of joy to our family. The week before Easter we all caught a nasty flu bug and were quite sick. Thankfully by Saturday we were all healthy again so we were able to enjoy all of the Easter activities we had planned. Saturday afternoon we headed out to Queen Creek to my Grandma's house. As I have mentioned before my boys love it there. I love it too because they just run around and play with cousins the whole time and never get bored! It's great! Here are the kids all full of anticipation for the Easter egg hunt.
Ready. Set. GO!!!!!

Fontan anniversary

This was Kyson one year ago today...

This was the beginning of a LONG 5 1/2 weeks for our family but we made it through it! I look at Kyson today and I am so proud of how far he has come. We have been extremely blessed to have him doing so well.

I am so grateful that this year instead of doing this for Easter...

Kyson gets to run around at my Grandma's house and participate in a real Easter egg hunt today! Last year he was NPO for Easter (meaning he couldn't eat or drink anything) so all he got was stickers in his Easter eggs. I'm excited for him to be able to get a little candy this year:)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! I am deeply grateful for the true meaning of Easter and although we definitely won't skip out on the "fun" Easter traditions, I will try to focus my thoughts on my Savior. What a special time of year this is!

Two special weeks

I have been wanting to sit down and write down some thoughts I've had. Feel free to just skip to the pictures if you prefer not to read my ramblings:)

Today Brooklyn is two weeks old. It truly feels like she has been a part of our family for longer than that. I am so grateful for the past two weeks. It has been more wonderful then I ever dreamed it could be. During my pregnancy I often stressed and worried about what it would be like to have a newborn again. My last experience with a newborn was Kyson and lets be honest...it was HARD. There was so much stress and anxiety involved and thoughts of "what if I have to do that again?" would creep into my mind. I also was concerned that I would worry about every little thing that Brooklyn did...every grunt, every cry, every everything...and I would not be able to enjoy her. Well, the complete opposite has happened. She has brought so much joy into my life and I have enjoyed her so much. Despite everything being so difficult with Kyson, he has taught me so much about life and living in the moment. That is what I have tried to do with Brooklyn. Although waking up every two hours all night long isn't my favorite thing to do, I have been able to enjoy that time with my sweet baby. This stage just doesn't last very long and I'm not going to wish away a second of it! Although she is only two weeks old, she is already changing. She eats constantly and I can see her already filling out. In a way it makes me sad because the newborn stage is going to be gone so fast but I am also excited to see her grow and see her personality develop.

Here are some pictures I've taken over the past two weeks.

Three days old. In Daddy's arms...







One week old...wearing the beanie Aunt Allison made her. Love it!






A little glimpse of her smile.


Thirteen days old...snuggling with "Yellow." This bunny was given to Kyson by his Uncle Reed and Aunt Melissa when he was in the hospital last Easter and he named it Yellow.


Can you believe I'm a mother of three? I have certainly been blessed!

Four years old!

Guess who turns four years old tomorrow?


Yep...our Mr. Kyson! Birthdays are such big milestones for any kid, but for Kyson it seems more to me than a big milestone. It is a MIRACLE!

Kyson has been looking forward to this birthday for a long time. I often told him his birthday was about the same time as when I had our baby. He came to the hospital to see Brooklyn and he asked, "Mom...is it my birthday now?!?" Ha! I sure do love that kid.

I really hope to make tomorrow special for Kyson. With having a newborn and still recovering from labor and delivery and Jared being quite sick, we aren't going to be able to do too much, but I still hope to make it special! A HUGE thanks goes to my sister who is going to take him to do something fun tomorrow since I'm not willing to leave the house with Brooklyn yet.

Happy Birthday Kyson!!! I hope you know how much you are LOVED!

Brooklyn Alice Gunnell

Thursday, March 8th our sweet baby girl entered this world and here is her story.

We got to the hospital at 5am. We got settled into my delivery room around 5:30 and the nurses got started with everything. Soon I had my IV in and all the paperwork filled out. The pitocin was started about 7am. For the next two hours I just tried to relax and not think about the inevitable. Around 9am my doctor came and broke my water. That definitely did the trick because I began to feel hard contractions right away. About 10:15 I got an epidural. Once it kicked in I was excited to be able to relax for a while. Well, that wasn't happening because about fifteen minutes after the nurse left she came back in saying she was seeing signs on the monitor that the baby was pushing down ready to go. I was shocked. She checked me and sure enough, the doctor needed to be called. He got there about fifteen minutes later. He suited up and within three pushes she was here!


As soon as she was out they put her on me. I just cried as I held her tiny hand and was amazed.

After a couple minutes they took her from me and examined her and cleaned her up. Then I got her back:)


Then Daddy had a quick turn holding her.


Everyone kept asking us what her name was...well, that was still undecided!

She was acting hungry so I fed her for the first time. I was excited that she latched on right away and ate for about 45 minutes. She has been the BEST little eater and we haven't had any problems in that area which I am very grateful for!

Once she was done eating, the nurse was ready to move us to our new room where we would spend the next day and a half getting to know one another. I examined every little part of her body and thought about how much she looks like my other babies. I personally see a little more Kyson than Caleb in her, but they all look a lot alike.


Her first visitor was my sister Natalie. Sadly I didn't take any pictures of her holding her. She left and came back a couple hours later with my boys and dinner.

My boys were not quite sure what to think at first. Caleb was concerned seeing me in the hospital bed. I know he has a phobia of them after seeing Kyson so sick in them. One of Caleb's first questions to me was, "Mom, can you get out of that bed?"

I asked Caleb if he wanted to hold Brooklyn and at first he said no. I convinced him that it would be ok so he sat down on the couch and held her.


Kyson was actually more excited to hold her than I thought he would be. I love the look on his face in this picture.


The boys didn't want to but we convinced them to get a few family pictures.



I'm pretty sure that the child most excited to see the new baby was Natalie's little girl, Claire. She was very cute with her:)


Soon it was late and they had to leave. All of my sisters (except my littlest sister who doesn't live here) came to visit that night. Thank you for the love and support Jamie, Natalie, Christy, and Katie! I have such amazing sisters!

As soon as all of our visitors left we tried settling in for the night. It turned in to a long night as Brooklyn didn't want to sleep and wanted to be held all night long. I didn't mind, I just kept falling asleep holding her and the nurses didn't like that too much.

Friday was just a day full of getting everything ready to go. I got Brooklyn dressed in her first little outfit while Jared was gone to go get our boys.


Jared came back with the boys and we spent about an hour together. Caleb was much more like himself this time and was constantly wanting to hold Brooklyn. I hope he is as good of a big brother as I think he will be!


Here Brooklyn is just before we buckled her up to leave...



The boys couldn't get enough of her this time:)


After leaving the hospital we stopped by Jared's parents house to leave the boys with them. Jared's Mom was headed up to the cabin so she took the boys to Show Low to stay with my Mom for the weekend. I am so grateful for my Mom for taking them for a couple days. It has been the best thing ever. I really enjoyed coming home and being able to just recover and sleep and spend time with Brooklyn. It has been absolutely wonderful!

I spent a little time trying to take some pictures of Brooklyn this morning. I didn't get very much I like because the lighting is awful in our house and she wasn't being cooperative but here's one I like...


I love the feeling of having a newborn. It is indescribable. The newborn stage ends so quickly...I am trying to soak it all in and love every moment of it. I am just so grateful she is here and she is HEALTHY. AMAZING!!!!!!!

Ethan's Run and ER visit

Saturday was the 3rd annual Ethan's Run.  It was so great to be there again this year.  Kyson was one of the special "mile markers" with his buddy Mark Wright.  He wasn't really a fan of me taking a picture of him next to it but we tried:)


Here are two of Kyson's uncles (Jason and Dallas) and Aunt Katie getting ready to go run the 10k.  I'm a little disappointed I couldn't run with them this year. 

Here they are as they are just beginning the race...



After the 10k began, the fun run/walk started.  

Caleb had fun running ahead with Aunt Natalie.  There was just no running for me being 36 weeks pregnant.  Even walking the mile was hard for me:(


Here's my little bro (Uncle Jason) crossing the finish line.  I was so impressed by how fast he ran it!  He got 3rd place in his age division!


Right behind Jason came Dallas.  He also got third in his age division.  Amazing to me!


Soon after we were finished cheering Jason and Dallas on, I got a call from Jared who was playing with our boys on the bounce houses.  He said Kyson had more than likely broke his finger going down the slide and he had to go to the Emergency Room.   I was so disappointed to have to leave.  The boys were having so much fun and I was really enjoying talking to the people I knew.

Anyway, our fun and beautiful day outside soon turned into an afternoon at the hospital. 

Here's Jared trying to entertain Kyson while we waited...

A close up of his finger.

Finally after x-rays, a few hours of waiting, a lot of tears (and Kyson telling a few people how much he DID NOT LIKE THEM when they touched his arm:), he got his finger splinted and we were on our way.  I was able to sneak in a small little smile from our sad little boy before we left.
 

On Thursday Kyson will go see the doctor who saw him in the hospital to make sure everything is ok.  I'm really hoping he will just splint it again and send him on his way.  Kyson doesn't need any more pain in his short life!!!