Feeding the Ducks!

Last Saturday because the sun was finally out and we had been couped up enough this winter we decided to head over to Bountiful Lake and see if there were any ducks to feed. Emma loves to point out every single duck in her books and makes a really quack noise. When we arrived we noticed most of the lake was still frozen but there was one small section of water where people were fishing. However we only saw a few ducks and they were not in place we could get to due to mud, I did try by only ended caking my shoes with mud. So we walked around a bit and let Emma look from afar. She was so cute. She would point and say quack-quack.

Finally one goose came close enough that we fed it some bread and Emma was so excited. Daddy was the one throwing the bread and Emma was watching him so we handed her a piece to throw too. Well you can probably guess that that piece of bread did not end up in the gooses belly but in Emma's. So it was one piece for the goose one piece for Emma and so on.

We did have a great time enjoying the sun and can't wait to go back soon.

Mud caked shoes!

The Ducks from afar.

Pictures of Emma!

Sorry it has been so long since our last post about Emma so here are some photos from the last few weeks:

I thought Emma might be ready to try coloring, but she's not. She still wants to eat everything.

Fun with Bubbles!

Emma loves to climb the stairs, she hates to go down even though she can.

With her Teddy Bear.

Emma loves stuffed animals.

Her pig is one of her favorites.

It used to be her mom's.

This toy ended up on Emma's toes and she left it there and continued playing and walking around the room with it.

Emma loves her baths.

She also still loves to be naked. She fightes me everytime we change a diaper and have to get dressed again.

This is an Emma sandwich, they are Quinn's favorite.

Emma loves to stack and unstack everything. DVD's are perfect.

And so are cups.

Happy Presidents' Day

I hope everyone out there who

a) has a cushy government job or


b) or works for a company that believes in honoring our presidents (and Martin Luther King, for that matter) or

c) works for a company who appreciates its employees enough to give them a paid holiday sometime between New Years and Memorial Day

is having a great Presidents' Day.



The rest of us have to work today, so pardon us if we don't share your enthusiasm.

I heard you're not supposed to use Q-Tips in your ear, but I've never heard anything about a rag taped to the end of a mop handle.

Quinn

Tagged!

Quinn was tagged by a friend to open up our picture file and go to the 6th folder and the 6th picture and blog about it. Here is the picture:

Jessica, Brooke, Lauralee, Melissa

This is a picture of me (Lauralee) with my closest friends in May of 2007. We had this idea in high school that after we all were married we should get together and take some fun pictures of us in our wedding dresses. Well the last one was married in Dec. 2006 and so we hurried and did it before my dress really wouldn't fit. I was 3 months pregnant at the time and I'll admit could not zip my dress all the way. We had so much fun doing this and it gave us a chance to wear our dresses again. I'm so glad that I'm still so close to my friends from high school, they are the best a girl could ask for. I love you all.

Tragedy in Salt Lake City

If you haven't heard the horrible news yet, here it is:


Salt Lake woman with longest fingernails, loses nails in crash
By Pat Reavy
Deseret News
Published: Friday, Feb. 13, 2009 1:54 a.m. MST

A Salt Lake woman holding the current Guinness Book record for the longest fingernails survived being ejected from a vehicle after an accident involving four cars on Tuesday but her record-setting nails were broken off during the incident, according to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office.

Injuries to Lee Redmond were serious but not life threatening, according to police.

Redmond gained notoriety for her fingernails, which were approximately 33 inches long and had not been cut since 1979. She has been featured on TV in episodes of "Guinness Book of World Records" and "Ripley's Believe It or Not."

On Tuesday, the SUV Redmond was a passenger in, hit the side of another vehicle in the intersection of 2300 East and 6200 South about 1:30 p.m., said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Don Hutson. The impact of that collision caused the second vehicle to hit a third vehicle, and propel the SUV onto the sidewalk, through a chain-link fence and back onto the road where it hit a fourth vehicle, Hutson said.

Redmond, who was in the passenger seat, was ejected from the SUV. The man driving the vehicle was pinned and suffered a broken ankle. Both were transported to area hospitals, she in serious condition and the driver in critical condition, Hutson said.

The cause of the accident was still under investigation Thursday.

A family member said Redmond was still in the hospital Thursday night but was expected to be OK.

I'm curious to know how someone goes about deciding to grow the longest fingernails on the planet. It has motivated me, however, to do something better with my life. I'm just sitting here, not enjoying any notoriety for anything. Well, today that ends! I'm on a quest to get into the Guiness Book of World Records. Here are my ideas so far:

• World's largest pancreas
• Most dishonest driver's licence height and weight
• Longest amount of time taken to hang a picture in the living room
• World's most unproductive work day
• Most Star Wars references in a sacrament meeting talk
• World's largest banana sticker collection
• Most pirate jokes told in a 60-second span

Well, what do you think? Do I stand a chance?

Quinn

Happy Birthday to Quinn!

Quinn turned 30 on Monday, Feb. 2nd. Also Happy Ground Hog Day. We celebrated his birthday with his family the Saturday before with good food, cake and ice cream, presents and by letting Emma's cousins entertain and play with her all night. She followed her cousins around all evening and had the best time. She wished she could walk faster or even run. She did however learn how to come down the stairs. She was a little upset when the cousins at one point locked her out the room they were playing in because they were getting a little ruff and didn't want her to get hurt. She stood outside the door and knocked to be let back in. It was so cute and anytime the door opened she bee-lined it to see if she could get back in before it shut again.

The Family Party:

Any ways back to Quinn the birthday boy - or as we like to call him - the "Old Man". On his actual birthday we went to dinner at Quinn's favorite restaurant thanks to gift certificate he had received from his parents and also open more presents. Quinn received a Boba Fett bobble head(star wars character for those of you who don't speak nerd), a book of more trivia so he can kick our butts at Trivial Pursuit even faster, the movie Get Smart, a insulated mug for work, a game for the Wii and some new car mats. Yeah, so exciting. Well Emma and I hope you still had a great day and we love you very much.

Super Emma!

This is Emma "Teddy" that we hope she is now attached to and will help her sleep in new places.

It's official:

30 Rock is officially funnier than The Office. What happened to you, Office? You used to be cool.

Habitually funny.

Sporadically funny.

Quinn

One of the reasons I like working where I do

Besides the fact that they pay me more than I used to make...ahem...I really like working for Edwards Lifesciences because we make products that help save lives. The story below is a wonderful case-in-point. I've been meaning to post this for awhile now. Last month, Good Morning America featured a story about one of our products that is really a medical breakthrough. I've pasted the article below, but you can also click on the following links to see video and pictures at the GMA website, if you'd prefer.

video: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6593075

article: http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=6589797&page=1

The heart valve in this story is manufactured in Irvine, California, but all of the auxilliary equipment -- the stent, the catheter, and the gizmo that compresses the valve -- are made here in Salt Lake. This product is already approved in Europe and is undergoing clinical trials in the U.S. right now. Once approved, this valve and procedure will open up the doors of heart surgery to hundreds of thousands of people who currently couldn't have the life-prolonging surgery.

It really does make me feel good to see patients benefitting from product that I help make. Or that I help make sure that people make correctly.

Quinn

Doctors Excited About 'Breakthrough' Heart-Valve Procedure

Noninvasive Procedure in Clinical Trials With People Who Can't Have Open-Heart Surgery

By THEA TRACHTENBERG and JONANN BRADY

Jan. 7, 2009

A potentially groundbreaking new development in cardiac care has the top doctors in the field genuinely excited and hopeful that it could change the lives of more than 120,000 heart patients.

Sister Thomas Duggan recently underwent the experimental procedure at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, where a team of doctors are leading a clinical trial to replace valves in a new, less invasive way.

Sister Thomas spent a lifetime teaching and serving others at the Dominican Convent in New York City. Still active at 91, she spends her days on the computer and tutoring young people. To her nieces, she is like a second mother.

"You just loved being around her. She's a warm person. But a few months ago, her health was starting to fail," her niece Marie Marzec said.

About six months ago, doctors had told Sister Thomas that her heart was faltering.
"That's what caused me to be exhausted and not able to sleep," she said.

Doctors diagnosed her with aortic stenosis. A heart valve with stenosis is narrowed and blocks blood flow.

Dr. Martin Leon, a heart specialist at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, said the health of a patient with aortic stenosis deteriorates very rapidly.

"When the valve doesn't open normally, pressure builds up in the heart. Patients get short of breath because the pressures in the lungs are now elevated and they accumulate fluid in the lungs. But they can also develop chest pains, lightheadedness and fainting as well," Leon said.
Leon said Sister Thomas needed a new heart valve, but that meant open-heart surgery, an operation she was likely too frail to survive. Eight years ago, her sister died from aortic stenosis and it seemed she was looking at the same fate.

"She's very dear to us and our whole family, so it was scary," Marzec said.

Experimental Procedure a Success

But there was hope in an experimental procedure that replaces heart valves in a less invasive way.

The operation involves no open-heart surgery and no daunting recuperation. A replacement heart valve is sewn into a stent. The stent is attached to a catheter, then through an artery in the leg, the catheter is carefully threaded up to the heart valve. The stent expands and the new valve unfolds and does its job.

At the end of October, Sister Thomas became one of only a few hundred people in this country to have the new procedure.

The procedure is so groundbreaking, even the most experienced doctors are excited about it.
"In my career , this is probably the biggest thing to come along since heart transplants, which is now quite a few years ago in my career," said Dr. Craig Smith, a heart specialist at Columbia Presbyterian.

One month later, Sister Thomas was back for a checkup and feeling great. In fact, she said she felt well a day after the operation.

"I could tell the difference the night after...in terms of the breathlessness," Thomas said.
A few weeks before, she couldn't take a few steps without getting out of breath; now she zips around the convent.

She is hoping to start tutoring again soon. For her family, the procedure and her recovery have been a holiday gift like no other.

"And it paid off, it paid off, her braveness. And she's helping to pave the way for other people. That's the best part," said her niece Shelley Moran.

In the clinical trials at Columbia Presbyterian, doctors are confining the heart-valve procedure to people who can't have open-chest surgery, which includes putting a patient on a heart-lung machine and involves a long recovery process.

But ABC News' medical editor Dr. Tim Johnson says that eventually the heart-valve procedure will start replacing traditional surgery.

"That means, probably, well over 100,000 people a year in this country will have this relatively simple procedure," Johnson said.

Sister Thomas Duggan, 91, had a speedy recovery after she underwent an experimental, non-invasive heart-valve repair procedure.