Tyler continues to recover.

Yesterday, Tyler was moved from the cardiac ICU to the "floor." He still has his drainage tubes and can get uncomfortable when his pain medication wears off, but overall he is doing quite well. This evening, especially he was giggling and playing - huge progress. We are hopeful he will have his drainage tubes removed soon so we can get that much closer to bringing him home.

Fortunately and unfortunately, his brothers and sisters won't be around when he comes home. His grandparents are taking them to California to stay for a couple of weeks. While we will miss them immensely, it will really help Tyler to have Jamie be able to focus on him during his recovery.

Again, we are immensely blessed that he is recovering so quickly. It hasn't all been perfect. There have certainly been some scares, but his overall progress has been so much greater than what we expected prior to the surgery. We give much credit to all you that have fasted and prayed for our little guy. Heavenly Father has listened to and answered those prayers. Thank you so much for your support.

UPDATE

Sunday morning and we learned that Tyler will have his chest tubes and pacer lines out tomorrow morning. Although it's probably not going to happen, there is a chance he could go home tomorrow night. That would be awesome!

Way too long between posts!

It's been well over a year since our last post. Most (if not all) of you follow Jamie and/or me on Facebook, so it was easy to fall in the habit of letting "status updates" suffice. It's a lot harder to share all of your thoughts and feelings that way. We need to get back to blogging to provide the kind of detail that the important moments in life deserve.

As many of you know, our youngest son Tyler just went through heart surgery once again. This was the third of three surgeries to provide a palliative "fix" to his heart defect Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. This surgery was the Fontan procedure. I don't have all the medical and anatomical terminology down pat to explain it. Essentially, they built a wall to keep the red and blue blood from mixing, and they put in a larger shunt to allow better blood flow as he grows. Hopefully, this allow his heart to last into adulthood.

Tyler is recovering well and is even a little ahead of schedule, We are so grateful for all your prayers on his behalf. We know our Father in Heaven is looking out for this special boy. We have truly seen miracles from above.

I hope to update more frequently. I apologize for not having any pictures, but the wi-fi spot isn't great where we're at now.

KAYLIN

After a four month sabbatical we are finally updating our blog again. Instead of trying to catch up on what's been going on, we decided to continue with our "spotlight" series. Next on the list is our wonderful four-year old Kaylin.

Born in March 2006, Kaylin has filled our lives with lots of laughs. She never ceases to amaze us with the things she learns. For instance, today I found out she wants "to be a billionaire so freakin' bad." Other than Steven's spontaneous bursts of opera singing, Kaylin is easily the most vocally apt of the children. She loves to sing church songs and to sing along to the radio. It's always fun to catch her when she doesn't realize anyone is listening.

Jamie really appreciates Kaylin for all the help she gives around the house and taking care of Tyler while the kids are in school. Jamie has loved the alone time she gets with Kaylin. Although she's still over a year away, Kaylin is looking forward to the day she starts kindergarten.

Now that summer vacation is back in session, Kaylin has started gymnastics (or "tenastics," as she likes to call it). Today was her first day and she thoroughly enjoyed it. She is very excited to go back next week.

Kaylin is the ultimate girl. She loves dressing up, painting her nails, putting on make up and all those other things that girls like to do. She is definitely "mommy's little girl." Fortunately, she does like to play catch with dad, too.

We are very excited to see Kaylin continue to grow up. She is a blessing to our lives with her wonderful and happy personality.

Celebrate Life

Jamie and I went to the Paul Cardall "Celebrate Life" concert in Salt Lake City for V-day this year. Paul is a local musician with a congenital heart defect. After a year+ on the waiting list, he had a heart transplant in September last year ( His surgeon is the same one that performed both of Tyler's surgeries.). This was his first public performance since the transplant. He is an excellent pianist and Jamie and I had a great time.


We doubled with some friends in our ward who recently found out that their baby is going to have HLHS, like Tyler. It's amazing how many people CHD's affect, but it's even more amazing that medicine has progressed so far that these conditions are treatable. Now if my brother Mike, who is a biomedical engineer, would just invent a cure for Tyler's condition :)

Only negative from the evening - We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner beforehand and then topped the evening off with cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory afterward. It was great in the moment, but I ate way too much and had horrible indigestion throughout the night and the next day. I guess it's another sign I'm starting to get old.

CHD Awareness Week!

This week is congenital heart defect awareness week. I still can not believe that my family has been affected by this terrible disease. Every day I have hope for my sweet little Tyler who was born with a severe heart defect. Just to give you a better idea of how many kids are affected by heart defects here are some statistics:

*Every fifteen minutes a baby is born with a CHD.

*Congenital heart defects are America’s #1 birth defect. Nearly one of every 125 babies is born with a CHD (almost 1% of all children born each year!).

*Congenital heart defects are the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths. 1 in 3 children who die from a birth defect have a congenital heart defect.

*This year almost 40,000 babies will be born with a congenital heart defect.

*In the U.S. twice as many children die from congenital heart defects each year than from all forms of childhood cancer combined. Yet funding for research of pediatric cancer is 5 times greater.

*From 1993 to 2003 death rates for congenital heart defects have declined by 31% due to advances made through research!

*There is not yet a preventative cure for any type of congenital heart defect.

*Of every dollar the government spends on medical funding, only a fraction of a penny is directed toward congenital heart defect research.

Hopefully by helping to bring awareness we might be able to find cures and give new hope to all of the sweet babies who have to fight and struggle so hard to live.

Here are a few pics of our heart baby over the last 11 months of his precious life!! We love you!

Tyler - March 6 ,2009, just a couple of hours after he was born.

March 9, 2009 - First open heart surgery, the Norwood Procedure

Recovering from the Norwood in the ICU

Our little blueberry - post Norwood. Feeling good!!


July 29, 2009 Tyler had his Glenn Procedure. Poor little guy - trying to recover.


Happy to be back home with no surgeries for a while.

Our sweet little Tyler at 10 months - happy as can be!!

Just a little update

Everything has been going so good here in the moffitt household! By good, I mean that we have been staying away from the germs! All of the kids have been pretty healthy so far this winter season. Steven had some asthma trouble and a weird infection in his neck, but other than that we have all been well. I keep my fingers crossed every day that we don't bring anything horrible in this house so that we can keep our little Tyler as healthy as possible. I think a few prayers and some blessings have helped as well! The kids still love school and are doing great! kaylin loves going to the library for "story time", they also do singing and some activities and give homework. I do this once a week and try to keep Tyler away from the kids. I think it has been going well so far. Tyler has been doing so much better since our last post. He is eating better, but still hasn't gained any weight, over all he is doing so good!! I am so grateful every day, grateful for all that I have and thankful for all that we have been blessed with!!

The latest on Tyler

As some of you already know, Tyler went to the UCLA Hospital while we were on vacation in California. He has been having problems with periodically throwing up over the last week or so. In conjunction, he also hasn't been eating well. It started the Saturday after Christmas, but Tuesday was the worst day for him - he drank only a four oz. bottle in the morning and nothing else. Obviously, that was quite concerning to us. Oddly, except for him not eating as well, he seems fine between his episodes of vomiting. There are no other symptoms of an illness. If any other "heart moms" are reading this and have experienced something similar, please share any thoughts on this with us.

Tyler seems like he is doing better now, but he still doesn't quite have his normal appetite. We will definitely be in touch with his docs this week. Other than these recent concerns, he has been doing very well overall and keeping us very busy.

KYLIE

Today we will be spotlighting Kylie!!! She was born on March 13, 2004 in the Jordan valley hospital. She was our one and only child to be born with a head full of hair!! Kylie was a great baby who has 2 great big brothers to watch over her! Kylie is one of the sweetest little girls I know! She loves to dance and sing and especially loves to color!! She loves everything princess! Kylie recently told me that she has decided not to be a dancer for BYU so she can stay home to be a mom! That was a happy moment for me!! I did tell her she could dance until she did have children to take care of!!

Kylie is currently in kindergarten and loves school so much! She said that her favorite part of school was recess and that she likes to play chase with the boys, she said the girls have to run and scare the boys!!!

Kylie's favorite color is pink. Her favorite food is pizza and anything chocolate! When kylie grows up she wants to be a mom! Something you may not know about her is that she may appear to be very shy, but once she warms up she loves to crack jokes and act like a crazy goofball!

We love our silly little kylie! She has brought so much joy to our family and also so much laughter! Our family just wouldn't be the same without her! I will never forget one special night when I was pregnant with her and Brandon said in our family prayer, "Please send us a baby sister"!! I am so thankful our Father in heaven answered his prayer and sent us our beautiful daughter!! Kylie is also such a great little mommy and helper for Tyler! He loves her so much! We all love her and are greatful for everything she does to make our family happy!!

Family Spotlight - Steven

STEVEN

Little Steven James was born January 5, 2003. He is the only one out of all the children to be born in California - in fact, in the same hospital as Jon. Always happy and content, Steven can enjoy himself doing almost anything. He's progressed from being a fan of Barney to Thomas the Train, to now being a big BYU and Lakers fan, much to Jon's delight.

Steven enjoys school and is currently the top reader in his first grade class (the picture above shows him holding his very first "chapter" book). He loves to learn and insists he knows how to do everything by himself, which doesn't always go well with trying to help him with his homework.

His favorite color is blue and his favorite thing to do is to go outside and ride his bike, which he learned how to do without training wheels this past summer. When we are inside, his favorite game to play is Lego Star Wars for the Wii, but he also enjoys a good game of Trouble. He is very competitive - definitely an attribute he got from his father. When he grows up, he wants to be an astronaut.

Something you may not know about Steven is that he loves to sing (and sing, and sing). He especially loves to sing to his baby brother Tyler, who he loves so much.

We are so glad that Steven is part of our family. He is a great big brother and is very sensitive to other people's feelings and does not like it when others are upset. We love him so much.

Family Spotlight - Brandon

I decided that I wanted to begin spotlighting each one of the kids. I just got to thinking how important each one of them is and wanted share a little bit about them and how special they are to our family. Since Brandon is the oldest, he gets to be first.

BRANDON

Brandon is now ten years old and in the fifth grade. It is amazing how much he has grown over the years. He enjoys school and loves to play sports. He recently played flag football over the summer and is looking forward to playing basketball this winter. He has also been such a great help with his baby brother Tyler, who he loves so much. He even said he would give Tyler his heart if he could.

His favorite colors are red, black and blue. Brazilian chicken, pizza and buttermilk chocolate cake are some of his favorite foods. When he grows up he wants to be a basketball player, an astronaut, or a lawyer. Something you may not know about Brandon is that he is a good artist and writer, but he's very private about his work. :)

We love having him in our family. He is a great big brother and a great son. We look forward to watching him grow in to the wonderful young man we know he will be.

Busy day today

Errands to run in the morning, BYU football game in the afternoon. I got see my friend Blair, his wife Jenny and Blair's parents as they were gracious enough to watch Tyler while I went to a portion of the game. Thanks to Blair for letting me use his tickets as well.

In the mean time, Jamie was out with the kids seeing A Christmas Carol. Apparently, it's pretty frightening for kids. Kylie said she would never, ever (repeat ever 15 times) see it again. The kids were interested to learn that I once played Jacob Marley's ghost in my 5th grade class play. Do you remember that, Mom? I digress (as usual).

After I got home from the game (and some brief Christmas shopping), Jamie went off with the housewives of the neighborhood to see New Moon. I took the kids to Wally World to get some milk and baby wipes. Jamie's not home yet. I'm sure she'll be drooling all over Jacob's abs when she gets in. Everyone else on Facebook is, anyway. Good thing I'm working on mine. Oh Yeah! (You gotta say that in the Randy Savage voice from the old Slim Jim jerky commercials).

After the kids went down, Brandon I stayed up and watched GI Joe. Silly, mindlessly entertaining flick. Probably wouldn't watch it again, but worth one viewing, I suppose. Unfortunately, probably the most interesting thing for me was seeing which LOST and 24 characters were in the movie. I counted 3, but there could have been more. Dennis Quaid totally mailed that flick in, but I digress again.

Sorry, no pics today. I thought about putting a Christmas Carol image on here, but then I started thinking about copyright laws and yada, yada, yada. So ya'll are out of luck. Peace.

Update on our little Tyler

Tyler turned 8 months last week and I just can't believe it! He is getting so big and for the most part doing well. He had a cardiology appointment last week. Dr. Everett said that he is looking really good. He was able to come off of his lasix (his medicine to help with fluid overload). But he did have to go up on his blood pressure medicine. I was really hoping she was going to take him off of it, but his blood pressures are still high, hopefully we can get it under control. Other than that he is in good over all health and I hope and pray he will stay that way!! The kids continue to love and spoil him, he is so lucky to have so many little mommies around!! Anyway, lets all hope everything will continue to stay nice and calm around here!

UPDATE: We just found out Tyler cut his third tooth. He's been fussing all day - that must be why.

Halloween!

I can't believe October will be over in a couple of hours. This month has just flown by. A lot has happened and we've been slacking a the blog. Jamie and the kids went to Disneyland and the beach last week and had a blast. Work has been busy for me. I think Facebook is the biggest culprit though.

The kids were very excited to go trick-or-treating tonight. Brandon was a Blues Brother, Kaylin and Kylie were ballerina's (Jamie made the tu-tu's herself), Steven was the Sith Lord himself, Darth Vader, and Tyler was a firefighter. Jamie and I went as Adam and Eve, fig leaves and all. Just kidding. Neither of us had a costume for the occasion.

Here are some pics of the kids.

The camera was tricked by the reflective parts of Tyler's costume.



The kids and their cousins.


Tyler really wanted some candy.


Christmas is already just around the corner.

Temple in Concepcion, Chile

President Monson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced yesterday that the church would be constructing a temple in Concepcion, Chile - where I served my mission from 1996-1998. I am extremely excited for the members of the church down there. During my mission, church leaders were looking for the right spot for a temple. So this announcement has been in the works for at least a decade.

Here's a view of Concepcion. You can click here if you want to learn more about the city (and I know you do).

I can't wait to see what it's going to look like. I've told Jamie that we're going to go there some day.

Here's a picture of the Santiago Temple - the only other Temple in Chile.

Confession

Okay, so we don't really have a friend in the ward that does wax sculptures. That picture below is really of Tyler. It just turned out so he looked rather fake. For those that fell for it (cough, Angela, cough), ha ha ha. I mean - sorry for the joke.

Oh, and to Anonymous (James), you're brain has a shell on it.

Wax replica of Tyler; Jon and the kids

This guy in our ward does wax sculptures and offered to do one of Tyler. He made him look very happy. We put the sculpture in the high chair and took this picture. Pretty realistic, huh?



Jamie took this picture of me, Steven, Kylie, and Kaylin during "halftime" of our football game in the back yard.

Til we meet again

This week was tough for Jamie and I. Our friend Brittney Drakulich passed away on Wednesday after a long struggle with cancer. As her husband, Steven said, however, cancer didn't beat her; she beat cancer. She was an inspiration to many lives and her gentle spirit touched all those around her until her last earthly moments. She will be greatly missed.

I can't comprehend what Steven is going through. The strength he has shown throughout this trial is amazing. Fortunately, our loving Father in Heaven has made it possible for families to be eternal. We know that Britt is not gone forever, but is waiting for Steven and their children while in the Savior's presence.

Happy 32nd!

Yes, this is a little self-serving, but I did have a birthday this past week. I guess one positive about 32 is that it's one of the best pro athlete numbers. Magic Johnson, Shaq, Sandy Koufax, Jim Brown, Marcus Allen - just to name a few.
It was a great birthday and Jamie did an excellent cake, implementing some techniques she learned from Cake Boss (great show, by the way). It tasted as good as it looks and no trademarks were infringed upon. Sorry it's sideways. I was too lazy to rotate it. If you want to see it vertical, you can click on it, save it and rotate it all by yourself. Ha!

Recap of Tyler's 2nd surgery

Thanks to Jamie'd dad for putting this together yesterday. Enjoy!

Three down, two to go!

Our little Kylie started kindergarten this morning. It seems like yesterday she was a 6 month old with Elvis sideburns and little hair on the back of her head. She's growing up into such a beautiful girl. She had a great time and even said she wants to go back tomorrow. Always a good sign!