We have internet

Sorry it has been a while since I have posted anything, but I am sure you can imagine things have been pretty busy. We have been busy trying to unpack and get the move all settled, and we just got our internet installed. We are really enjoying the new house, lots of room. ------------------------- Levi just got off of field training and is now on his own with the Highway Partol. He really loves it and I must say I love it too. Everyone he works with is amazing and they have been such a tremendous help through this entire situation that we have been through. They were so wonderful to work with us and if I ever needed Levi for anything, they would make sure he was there, so thank you to UHP, all of you are amazing.----------------------- I have been doing ok for the most part. I have just been trying to find a good schedule that works for all of us. Our days are very busy between doctor trips to Salt Lake, physical therapy at home, taking care of his wounds, trying to find some time to get school in, unpacking and getting organized, and all the other things you do as a wife and mom. I am not complaining in anyway, but it is just really busy but I am so thankful I have a family to do it all for. Baby Blakeli is doing good and I can start feeling her move a lot more. I have three more months exactly from today until my due date. Not sure how a newborn is going to fit in with all that is going on but we are excited for her to come and will somehow make it work.------------------------- Tanna is going a little bit crazy but is having fun being at home. I had to take her out of her favorite thing, pre-school at the Peak. I had to for the first little while because if Tayton gets even a cold or cough he could end up in the hospital again. She misses it but she understands. The Peak is so great and we do go pick up her homework and she does it at home. Hopefully next month Taytons little immune system will be stronger so she can go back. I just get to worried with the flu and all the other sicknesses around, it would be to much for Tayton. She loves playing with her brother and they have fun together and a few fights.------------------- Tayton is doing great but still has a long road ahead. I am not going to pretend like everything is back to normal and things are just going perfect. I don't think we will ever be the same, how can you with everything that has happened. How do you go back to normal when you were that close to loosing your boy. He and myself are definitely having some issues, but we will get through them. I have been trying to decide if I should post some of these pictures or not, but I think you need to see them to get a glimpse of what he has been through. If you see a picture of him right now, you think wow he looks good and what is the big deal. He looks normal except he wears gloves. I'm not putting these pictures up so people will feel sorry for us or anything like that, I just want more people to be aware of burns so no one else has to go through this. And also if you see someone who has been burned don't ask them stupid questions please. Some people are so nice, yet others can be so mean and it is hard as a mother to not want go off on someone when they treat your son rude. It is hard on Tayton and he doesn't even want to talk to me about the fire, but complete strangers come up to him and ask him crazy questions and it is hard on him. I still won't put pictures up of his face because it is still to fresh to me and they are even harder to look at then these pictures of his hands. Just trust me, if you don't like looking at them, don't read my blog. This is our life now and I just want people to be aware of what burn can do. If you were like me before you just think put some burn cream on. I know I had no idea that burns could effect someone like this.

These first two pictures of his hands before he had skin graphs. Basically all the white is dead skin.

This is about a week or two after the skin graphs.

This is what it looked like about a week before Christmas.

This is what his right hand looks like right now. As you can tell it is so much better. It is really tender and it feels weird to him when anyone touches it. He has to wear his gloves or have it wrapped for 23 1/2 hours a day. If you have ever wondered why you have to wear burn gloves it is to help with scarring. Sometimes with burns you skin rises up and it is bumpy, it is especially bad by his wrists. The compression bandages will help even out the bumps as best as they can and help with scarring. He will have to wear his sleeves and gloves for 1-2 years.

Here is a picture of his left hand. He still has some open soars but they are getting a lot better. Therapy is just really hard because his skin is so tight, especially in both wrist areas right now. He hates therapy but he knows it is good for him. It is hard because he yells at me and takes it out (in the moment) he tries to hit me, kick me, bite me, anything he can to get me to stop. I know he doesn't mean to physically hurt me, he just wants me to stop. Trust me I want to stop too, but I know it is going to be so much better for him in the long run if we can just get through therapy these next couple of months.

This picture is where they took his skin from to do the skin graphs. They call it "the donor sight." It is on his thighs. This is a couple of weeks after the surgery. They had to take skin from both thighs, but it looks the exact same on the other side.

This is what his donor sight looks like right now. It really itches him like crazy but he tries his best not to scratch it.

This is him having a light saber fight with his buddy. Even with everything he has been through he is still one happy kid. He tries his best every day. I am so proud to be his mom.

I am trying my best to be the best mother I can be. And right now I think what he needs most is to try to get back to normal. I think the best thing for him is going to be that people don't treat him different or act strange when they are around him, and that is why I am sharing these pictures. He still has breathing problems and has another surgery scheduled the beginning of February. They are going to remove some scar tissue in his throat at Primary Chrildrens. He sounds like he ran a mile just with his normal breathing. I hope it will help him. We still have a long way to go with therapy and everything else, but I would take this any day over not having him here with us. He is so amazing and continues to get better every day. Thanks again for all your understanding and support