Knee Problems

Sunday morning I noticed for like the 4th or 5th time that Emjae was limping in the morning. It seemed as if she had sprained her knee or ankle and didn't want any pressure on it. One of those mornings there was something on the bottom of her foot so I figured that was the problem. Another morning I thought she just must be sleeping on it weird and her leg is asleep, but Sunday I looked more closely at her knee and it was swollen. I didn't think anything of it because as the day would go on she would be running and putting more pressure on it and if you weren't watching the way she walked you wouldn't probably notice. She just wont or cant straighten her left knee out all the way.
We decided to take her to the Dr, because we have insurance and its better to be safe then sorry. Julie also had a really horrible diaper rash that didn't seem to want to get better so we took both of them. Apparently Julie has a yeast infection of sorts, and with the medicine being used the last two days it looks tons better already. However with Emjae the Dr, the best Dr I have ever known, Dr. LeSueur didn't know what the deal was. We went to go get X-rays and James was with her for that. I was outside listening to her cry. But then it was my turn to hold her and for James to hold Julie because they were going to draw blood. I had to hold her head and shoulders, someone had to hold her arm, and another nurse had to hold her legs so the nurse that needed to draw blood could do so. I almost cried. She was trying to kick and scream and get out. The blood work came back fine and they couldn't really tell anything with the X-rays so we were sent to a Specialist Dr. Kimball.
Dr. Kimball is a Orthopedic Surgeon. So as we had to explain the story of how we noticed it again he had her walk down the hall and watch her. We came back in and he felt her knee and noticed that it was a bit swollen and that she wouldn't straighten it even with pressure from him trying to and he came to a conclusion that it could be Discoid Lateral Meniscus. He explained it as the meniscus being a pancake instead of a half moon so that the joint can finish rotating. He set up an MRI for us.
Tuesday:
We are scheduled for a 10:30 MRI. Well we were scheduled to start her sedation at 10:30. Out comes 2 nurses and another lady with a cart full of toys. Emjae saw all the stuff and as they tried to listen to her heart she started to cry. None of the toys were calming her down until out came the BUBBLES!!!! Emjae was much happier, that is until we had to hold her down for the IV. They tried to put it in her right hand twice. And it wasn't just a quick try. We were there for about 7 minutes on that hand. Then we switched to her left and it still took a while to get it in her vein but it finally did.

The nurses had to give her some fluids and Emjae was not wanting any of that. James would hold her and they would hide behind a curtain to put them in. It took about 8 minutes before she fell asleep, but she would still whimper every once in awhile. We were able to follow her down to the door of the MRI but we couldn't go in.

It took 45 minutes before it was done. We took her back to the area that we gave her the sedation and within 20 minutes she was starting to wake up or more so drink with her eyes closed. It reminded me of a sleeping baby eating. We weren't allowed to leave until she could keep down fluids and the on site Dr wanted to talk to Dr Kimball before we left. That kind of scared us a little, and when we were ready to go the nurse called the on site Dr and he came out to us. His name was Dr. Kendall.
We were informed that Emjae had fluid in her knee and that they needed to take it out right away. They hadn't gotten a hold of Dr Kimball, but they didn't want to wait. If there was an infection we need to know as soon as possible because it could cause more problems the longer it is in her joint. So we were rushed right over to the room they would remove the fluid. by the time we got there she had probably hadn't had any fluids for almost an hour. The nurses that gave her the sedation told us that its best to wait 2 hours before we try to sedate her and give her medicine so she wont feel anything or remember it. If we didn't wait that she could possibly throw up and have it go into her lungs with out us knowing, but the risk of trying to do the procedure without the medicines would be much worse. We took the risk and gave her the meds.
We were taken out of the room and 20 minutes later they were cleaning up the mess. They had to poke her twice to get the fluid out. They got about a teaspoon of fluid and it was a good sign that there was no puss.
We were taken to the pediatric recovery and were told we would probably being staying over night.

The lady with the cart of toys and goodies came by and checked on us again. All the nurses were calling her sleeping beauty and well we were given a dress up sleeping beauty dress. After the initial labs came back from the fluid it didn't show any signs of high white blood cell counts so they decided to send us home. We ended up going home with a tutu, a crown, a baby doll, bubbles, a dress, a coupon for free ice cream, and a black back.
When we got home Emjae seemed to be walking again. She woke up this morning with the usual walk she has been doing for awhile and it doesn't seem anything has changed. We went to the drs and they wanted to see us back on friday. By then they will have the results from the rest of the tests and if everything shows up negative then our next things are to figure out what caused this. There is a possibility of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, but we will have to go to a different specialist for that. Our appt is with our family doctor, and we will probably be having another appt Monday with Dr. Kimball the one who set up the MRI.
This is what her knee looks like right now. There are two dots and thats were they went in to draw out the fluid.

It looks really really swollen here but its not as swollen as this picture makes it seem. Its only because her knee is bent.
There are many unknowns, but we are not to scared. We have concerns and hope all is well, but we know that everything will be okay no matter what. We have done all that we can and we are doing all that the Lord is asking of us. It is in his hands and he has our best interest at heart. Thank you everyone for your prayers and your thoughts. Thank you grandma for watching Julie and for Amy coming down to help. I don't know what we would do with out a place to crash and people to help us out. Thank you.

All about James

Thanks Dora for tagging me. Besides my kids this would be a top contender for my favorite things to talk about. So I dedicate this blog to my wonderful husband James.

1. Where did you meet your husband?
   We met dancing at Club Vortex. I was with my friend Crystal and he wasn't around anyone but he came with a couple girls, one of whom was madly in love with him.
   
2. How long did you date before you got married? Almost a year to the date from when he asked me to be his girlfriend
3. How long have you been married? 2 years and 6 months
4. What does he do to surprise you? Well some nights he gets off work early with out letting me know, other times he will do the dishes on a day that's not his, he'll clean up the house with out me asking and sometimes he'll come home with something I wanted but wouldn't buy myself.
   
5. What is your favorite feature of his? I would have to agree with Dora. My mans hair. I think he looks good with long hair. His momma and my momma don't care for it, but oh well because he's mine and not theirs :)
   
6. What is your favorite quality? His personality and dance moves. We are always having a fun time laughing and moving together, that's how we met. So why would we change our groove?
   
7. Does he have a nickname for you? He calls me Mom, since we have the two little girls and when we call each other hun Emjae tries to call us hun too.
   
8. What is his favorite food? His mom's Blueberry Torte, or meatballs and rice, baby back ribs from the outback, or my Chicken Alfredo, oh I can't forget chocolate chip cookies.
   
9. What is his favorite sport? UCLA and Steelers football. Huge football fan, but loves playing basketball as well.
10. When and where did you first kiss? March 2006 I think. It was the night before he was leaving to go to Cali. And it was on Temple Square in Salt Lake.
    
11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? We like to watch movies, play with the girls and we love to have our night time bed talks.
    
12. Do you have children? Emjae and Julie our new loves.
    
13. Does he have any hidden talents? He sings so good and he plays the guitar, he has a really good ear to catch and listen to a song and then be able to play it.
    
14. How old is he? 27. He'll be 28 in 4 1/2 months.
    
15. Who said I love you first? We disagree on this. I say he did and he says I did. It was a mutual thing.
    
16. What is his favorite music? True Hip Hop is his favorite. He loves Mos Def and then Musiq. He is up to listen to any type of music.
    
17. What do you admire most about him? Is ability to work hard and still come home and be an amazing husband, father, priesthood holder, and my best friend.
    
18. What is his favorite color? If you ask him he wont give you a straight answer. It would be something like Red on me and Black on cars.
19. Will he read this? Not unless I ask him to go on and look at it.
    
20. People I tag? Since I have so many on lookers I would have to say AMY!!! Go get a sis, when you have the time of course.
    

Starting Off Good

So far the year is starting off good. But then again its only been 5 days. :) I am being optimistic and I know that attitude effects everything.

New Years Day we were going to try and go bowling as a family, but when you live in a town called Ephraim everything is closed all the time. So instead we all went to the church and watched James play basketball. Usually Julie sleeps the whole time we are there and Emjae takes her nap afterwards, but that's when he plays around 10 or 11. This time they played at 3. Julie was awake and Emjae was playing on the stage. She found a microphone on a stand that was all the way down and I don't know if she just remembered from christmas day when we played rock band, but she was holding on to it trying to reach up so she can sing into it. It was the cutest thing ever.
Julie was having fun rolling around on the stage. She has started the scooting back stage so probably in another month or two she will be crawling. But we had fun taking pictures with Emjae's sun glasses just as long as she didn't see.

When we got home Emjae just crashed on the couch.

Lately we have all been sleeping in until 9 which has been heaven and the other day both girls were sleeping on the bed and I had gotten up, James was on the couch sleeping. No, he wasn't in trouble :) Emjae decided to wake up at 5 in the morning and she was wide awake, so James and her went to the front to watch a movie. James fell asleep and Emjae was running around and then finally got into bed with me and fell asleep. Anyways, so I started to hear Julie stir but didn't get up because she does good just laying in bed for awhile. I then heard Emjae laughing every once in awhile and when I went in to check on them I had to hurry back out and get my camera.

I am just so happy that Emjae is playing more and more with Julie.
I find myself just enjoying and smiling at all the things they do. Who knew I could find such contentment in watching my girls.
We also are starting Julie on solids. Her first meal:


Okay it didn't look like this and we didn't give her the potatoes but this is what it looked like

My mom started telling me that I shouldn't give her so many things all at once and so now I have just taken up some oats and ground them up in my baby food grinder and we are feeding her oatmeal. She seems to be doing good with it and she hasn't spit any of it up yet. Julie is also holding her bottle by herself, so I am thinking of starting her on a sippy cup. We will just wait and see.

Year in Review

Lets just first start out by saying thank you to all our families. With out there help and support James and I would not be where we are now.
We started this year at Uncle John's and Aunt Lisa's.

At the middle sort of end of February we had moved out and came back to Utah. James had gotten a job at Iworks and was living in Ephraim for a couple of months while Emjae and I were at Oma and Opa Greats house.
In May we found an apartment. It came with furniture which was nice since we only had beds. It also came with an amazing ward and bishopric. We moved in after Emjaes birthday in Las Vegas.

We also went camping with my side of the family and lets just say that was one rainy, stormy camping trip that we will never forget.

June was James birthday and he finally got his coal grill that he's wanted.

The 4th of July was spent up at Oma and Opa greats in Spanish Fork.

We finally had Julie after trying to be induced once before with her in July.

In August we got rid of the mazda and became proud owners of a 1991 chevy cavalier with help from our family and with guidance from our Bishop. Oh ya I can't forget that Trevor finally got a woman. Trevor and Kate were sealed for time and all eternity in Las Vegas.

That next day we blessed Julie.

I had to switch from breast milk to formula in september or october which in reality was better for both me and Julie.
October was my birthday and James surprised me by taking me to the Tournament of the Kings at the Excalibur.

We also got all dressed up to take the girls trunk or treating.

November we had thanksgiving dinner at my grandparents house and I braved the crazy shoppers and did the day after thanksgiving day sales early in the morning. We also had Amy's baby shower and then I got sick with strep throat for almost a week.

James and I got our own first Christmas Tree and had such a wonderful time trying to keep it standing up. Amy and Alex finally had Erick "Peanut" Loa.

For Christmas we were able to have my parents come and visit as well as Helene and Jeremy.


And well for tonight, New Year's Eve we are having Brolin and Steffanie over. The plan is to eat and play games. I'm sure it will be fun.
Looking back on this year there is no way that I could not be grateful for every one that has been a support and help. I know that we have been truly blessed and we have so much to be grateful for. I know that as we live our lives the way Christ would want us to that he will continue to pour out blessings on me and my family. I pray as we start this new year that we will try to put Christ plan for us as our guide. May we forget the things of the world that take up our time from Christ and his work.
I love all of my family and I truly mean that. I hope the best for everyone this new year and can't wait to see everyone, hopefully sooner than later.

The Joy of Holidays

I would like to think that our first Christmas in our own place this year went pretty well.
We were lucky enough to have Helene and Jeremy come to visit as well as have my parents here a few days before Helene got her and then on Christmas morning (thank heavens).
We didn't do any Christmas eve present opening, but we did do scones and honey butter. MMMMMM!!!!! It was so delicious. I'm glad James had the idea to do that for our Christmas Eve tradition.
Christmas morning as Emjae, Julie and I waited for my parents to arrive we got to open our Christmas Stockings. Note to self for next year: Not as many chocolates for Emjae. She just loved pulling everything out and then putting it back in. Around 9:15 Mom and Dad got here just as we were finishing pulling out and putting back everything from our stockings.

Mom helped hold Julie while I helped unwrap everything I wrapped, while James handed out the presents. Emjae did pretty well not opening any presents until Christmas morning. We had all the presents out for almost 2 weeks. Emjae opened a few presents and then she just wanted to play with the ones she had opened and forgot about the rest, until we opened and set up her table and chairs.




Julie tried to open the first one but she only ripped the paper as far as needed to get it to her mouth.


After we finished opening presents

James and I made breakfast burritos for everyone.
We also had pumpkin roll and almond rolls and muddy buddy's and another kind of corn chex mix that was given to us. Probably not the healthiest to eat all those things, but hey its the holidays.
The rest of the day consisted of playing Rock Band, playing Halo ODST, watching the Lakers get there butts kicked and just relaxing.


Poor Emjae and Julie are both sick though. Julie has a congested cough and runny nose. Emjae on the other hand has high fevers, runny nose, congested cough and difficulty breathing at night. We were up at 2:30 last night with her. I feel so horrible. It's the first time Emjae has been sick. It feels so horrible when you have done everything you can and you don't know what else to do.
We just gave her a blessing and doped her up on medicine and about 20 to 30 minutes later she was feeling better enough to want to get up and pick out a movie to watch. I figured go ahead, you will be able to relax and hopefully fall back asleep. James stayed up with her and they both fell asleep on the couch. The love of a dad!

A Few Minutes in the Salanoa Home

The first video gets more brighter as it goes on. We dont have an amazing camera. hope you enjoy.

The Weather outside is Frightful

Oh my oh my oh my. Oh how I do not like the snow!!! And oh how I do not like the snow when I have to go somewhere with both girls by myself.
Monday was the night of our ward Christmas party because its finals week and we are in a college ward and they decided to have it sooner than latter. Monday was also the day of snow. It snowed sunday night all through Monday morning, Monday afternoon, and Monday night. James of course had work and so I was lucky enough to go to the party with the girls by myself. I get to the building and get Emjae out of the car, carry her over to the passenger side and put her in the front seat so that I can get Julies car seat out, then pick Emjae back up to go to our building where there is a note that says the party has been moved to another location. AWWWWW!!!!! I was lucky enough to do it all over again. The party was nice and the food was good and of course Emjae made a scene and clapped and said ya in the middle of peoples performances, but not much I can do about that.
Tuesday was a better day, there was no snowing. James and I needed to go shopping though so we got the girls ready and took them outside. I was hoping that Emjae wouldn't play in the snow since she just had jeans on and they would get wet and we were still headed somewhere, but dad's have different ideas in their heads then moms. When we got back Emjae played in the snow, well walked in the snow for a little bit. James would kick the snow and make a sound and so Emjae figured that's what you do to snow and did the same thing.

I guess I can't say I hate the snow because there are fun things to do in it, but I just really can't stand driving the Ephraim unplowed roads in it and trying to carry two kids in it.