The Lyon's Den

4th of July weekend we had a family reunion with my side of the family. We had a great time and it was a good distraction for me a lot of the time. We went to Soda Springs which is about an hour and a half east of here; up in the mountains. We mainly did a lot of hanging out, but had some games in there too. Our family reunions kind of remind of the movie Dan in Real Life. Except I couldn't convince everyone to go outside and do Yoga. We did however stand in a circle holding hands, passing a hula hoop all the way around without ever letting go of eachother. When the music stopped, whoever had the hula hoop on their person got to go eat dinner. Thanks for the idea Donna; it worked great! My dad made a homemade rocket launcher and each family had to design a rocket and we timed them. Ours didn't get the fastest but it was still good fun. They occasionally launched Water balloons too. :) One of the two houses was right on the lake and had a trampoline in the backyard that the boys loved playing on. At night we would sometimes play games or watch a movie and just relax. On the morning of the 4th most of us went to a parade in Truckee. Candy was thrown, the kids got free necklaces and stickers and we all got sprayed by squirt guns and a hose from a fire truck. Oh and I can't forget about our talent show. My family along with my brother Jared's family did a dance to Cotton Eyed Joe. It was hilarious and great fun. It was so nice to be able to hang out with family and laugh a lot. I can't wait until we have our next one; which I'm sure will have even more family members by the time it happens. At the reunion we learned of at least one more addition that will be coming to the family. Congrats Josh and Courtney!
I want to thank Jared and Debbie for coming and supporting me; and staying for such a long time. I know that had to of been difficult to be away from their home for so long but it meant so much to me. It was so great of them constantly checking on me and doing anything I needed from them; including Debbie making me rolls one day because it was the only thing that sounded good. My boys, especially Kelman, will miss their cousin Hannah. He was just telling me today how much he loves her. And I will miss that "not so" little Ben!!! He always made me smile. Thanks again guys!!

Kelman feeding his newest cousin Lacey

Our Cotton Eyed Joe dance

Brechin playing darts with his cousin Jackson

Carter and Brechin jumping on one of the bunk beds in the loft. They were also chucking books out the window, which was three stories high.

The whole family. We had to draw stick figures on our backs for each member of our own family.

Things have slowly been getting back to normal at the Lyon household. I finally have the kids to myself, except for days that Jared decides to come over and help out for a bit. I'm back to cooking and shopping again which is a tad of an adjustment. I went to Walmart today for the first time in about 2 months. I must say I didn't do it alone; Jared and Debbie helped with my kids so I wouldn't go insane while doing it. It was a huge help. I'm so glad to have them here right now. They have been so fun to hang out with and a good distraction for me as well.

Life has defintately been a huge adjustment for me and will probably continue to be for a while. I thought I would breeze right through the hard parts after losing Gianna but I guess I was wrong. I thought I did quite well, considering, the first two weeks but it seems to have gotten worse. I'm hoping that once I feel completely recovered from surgery that I will feel better all around. We'll just have to wait and see and take things slowly. I'm really looking forward to our family reunion next week; it will be so much fun.

Now onto some more fun things we've done in the last week or so. We have gotten to play with the Stubblefields quite a bit and the boys and I have loved it. My brother Jared and his family have been here ever since Gianna's funeral and are here until after the reunion. We've gotten together to play games, go out to lunch, and have FHE together. Last monday they taught us how to make Flubber for FHE and the boys had so much fun. Then last thursday we went to Ikea, Fairtytale Town, and Funderland with the my sister Andrea's family and Jared and Debbie, with their kids. It was a very long day for me but I think everyone had a great time.

Grandpa Stubblefield with half of his grandchildren on Father's Day.

Kelman with his cousin Hannah. He begs to play with her every single day since they've been here. He does torment her at times but loves her to pieces.

Carter being thrown in the air by his uncle Jared. The boys now know uncle Jared as the wild uncle who roughs them up. Whenever he comes over they get their pillows ready for throwing.

Kelman playing with Flubber...our new found concoction thanks to the Stubblefields!

The boys and their cousins at Fairytale town. They're all pulling Cinderella's carriage.

Me and the boys at Fairytale Town. It was difficult to get them to pose with me. :(

Carter riding his pony Cheyenne.

Brechin on his pony named Rocky.

Kelman and his pony whose name he can't remember.

The boys and their cousins on their ponies and horses outside of Funderland.

Gianna's memorial service turned out very nice. If you'd like to read more about it and see pictures, you can visit my mom's blog.
"http://mapastubz.blogspot.com"

I don't have the stomach to write about the whole heart wrenching process right now, but I wanted to share some pictures and a brief rundown of our last moments with our sweet baby girl. Gianna Rae Lyon was born May 29th at 5:46pm. She was 2 lbs 7oz and 14 inches long. Gianna was only 30 weeks gestation when she was born. I was at the hospital for a routine Non Stress Test to make sure everything was going okay and Gianna's heartrate indicated that she might have been struggling. After further monitoring, her heart rate began to get worse and the doctors decided to do an emergency c-section. My parents were able to make it in time and be in the room with me, but Aaron arrived about 10 minutes after our baby girl was born. She had many problems and we had to make a very difficult decision saturday May 31st. We decided to take Gianna off of all the machines. I couldn't bear standing there watching my baby girl look so weak and hear all of the machines constantly beeping, indicating something was wrong. We finally got to just hold our little butterfly and she passed in my arms after about an hour. We enjoyed our time with her and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. She is so precious to us and we cherish her presence in our lives. Our lives and testimonies will forever be altered for good because of this little angel. I didn't get to share Gianna with many people because she didn't live very long so I'd like to share a few pictures with all of you.

After 6 full long days at the hospital I am now home and on strict bedrest. I need to keep this brief cause I need to get back to laying down. The doctor released me but I have to stay down and continue taking the meds to stop contractions every 4 hours (even through the night). I go back to the doctor on monday for another ultrasound and also to the pediatric cardiologist. I start my non stress tests twice a week next week as well. That's all for now and I'll keep you updated. Thanks everyone for the thoughts, prayers, and phone calls!!

So I thought I would give everyone updates from my hospital bed now that I am connected to the outside world with the laptop my parent's brought me today. I really don't know a whole lot about how long I'm going to be here; we just have to take one day at a time.
For those of you who haven't heard, I decided to go to the hospital on saturday evening because I was having some mild but regular contractions. The ER docs decided to call my Dr in Sacramento to see what they should do. They decided to transfer me to Sutter Memorial in downtown Sac by amblance. Code 3 with the flashing lights and sirens. It was kind of nerve racking and the ride was not nearly as smooth as I had expected. Then the contractions got worse and was put on three different meds to stop the contractions. So here I am at day four and I'm still on all the meds and the doc has no idea if and when he will send me home. Every day we just wait and see if anything new changes. My cervix doesn't appear to be changing which is very good. The baby seems to be doing very well other than measuring really small. I have been given both steroid shots to develop her lungs and they will be in effect by tonight. I'm feeling very positive about the abilities of this hospital and all the doctors. The hospital has about 6 or 7 floors (not that I've seen the outside because I was brought in by ambulance). When I first got here there were 58 babies in the NICU. I've met with a neonatologist who will be taking care of my baby when she's here. He was very reassuring. It's just kind of a wait and see game here for us. Aaron returned to work yesterday and mom and dad have had the kids during the day; Aaron kinda takes over at night. I just got a visit from the boys and it was very nice to see them. I've feel pretty isolated here but it should be getting better. Let me just tell you, daytime television is awful. If anyone cares to make a visit or give a call I'm at Sutter Memorial room 222B. I'll keep ya posted.

Yesterday was a very full day and I have sunburns on my calves and arms to show for it. We started the day with the local Run Drugs Out of Town 5K. Aaron hasn't done a fun run in almost five years and thought it was about time. He didn't get to do a whole lot of training beforehand...maybe got out with the jogging stroller twice a week for a couple weeks. He ended up doing very well, and lots better than he thought he could do. Aaron ran a mile around the Tierra Buena track not too long ago and could only pull it off in about 8 and a half minutes and was kinda disappointed. Well yesterday he managed to average just under 7 minutes a mile for the whole 5K. He came in 4th in his age category (20-29) and he'll be 29 in just a couple of weeks. Not too shabby I say! It was pretty well organized and they even had games and a bounce house set up for the kids. And some raffles that we didn't win. :(

As soon as we got home and got Aaron cleaned up from the run, we headed to Woodland to the Scottish Highland games. I think that is where most of the sun damage happened. It was pretty interesting watching all the men in skirts and the events that went on. IE: caber toss, hammer throw and highland dance competition. I think the kids' favorite part was visiting the Scottish animals. I personally thought the Scottish cow was beautiful. The dogs were the boys' favorites though and got to play with little Scottie dogs the most. All in all it was a good day and everyone seemed to have a good time. Oh, and I must not forget to mention tasting Scottish Pasties (meat pies) and Haggis (you don't want to know, but it involves sheep stomach, heart liver and lungs).