Our new little one

Sophia Isabell Born November 27th she weighed 7lbs. 9oz. We have had a few doctor visits every few days, because she was a bit jaundiced. Also after loosing some weight as babies do. (They like them to be back to birth weight at two weeks). Instead Sophia lost weight and got down to 7lbs. she struggled to gain back at first, we think because of the jaundice she slept A LOT. It is difficult to get her to stay awake long enough to eat much. And now what she does eat, could possibly be thrown up... She has reflux too. She has turned a corner now and is slowly gaining. We had to wait awhile for the rights to our hospital pictures, so we've been relatively quiet on facebook and blogspot just getting to know our Sophia. She is by far our most quiet mello baby! A great blessing to us. And most importantly she is a healthy baby!!!

Baby

Jared and I decided to take along the entire family to the "big" ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. I don't normally take all of my kids, well anywhere. They are a handful for anyone. After explaining the importance to each child of quiet and good behavior they were promised a trip to get ice cream afterwards. All of the kids were SO silent the ultrasound tech commented on how well behaved my children were. The one child that decided to not cooperate, the unborn one! We didn't get a good view to let us know if the babe is a he or she. What they were able to look at was more important. They did count four chambers in the heart and saw the stomach. Size was just over a pound. The doctor raised the possibility of delivering two possibly three weeks early. That surprised me as well, I've always been induced, but only by a week. So, this baby could possibly be hear very near Thanksgiving! Either that or Jared's birthday (Dec 3) We'll see. Well, another three weeks wait for the next ultrasound.

Ours is near the worst now

So... I can only imagine what our neighbors think of our yard now! A couple of weeks ago we had a big electric storm come through, and lightening struck directly in front of our house in the street. It killed our router to our computer, which we bought a new one and got a better surge protector. It also killed our sprinkler system. We've already called and complained about a broken line. Now the lawn has had NO water, and with no hose bib on the front of the house (how dumb?) I can't even hand water it. So, the grass is dead too. They did come to check it out and commented on how dumb it was that we have two sprinkler systems (we agree) And said they will be getting us one box with one system to run the whole thing (Yay!) Maybe next year we'll have better lawn in the front yard.

Dear Neighbors,

My name is Lisa Quan. I'm sorry I haven't introduced myself, life moves quickly and there is always something going on. I live at 6894 Adventure way. There are a row of homes near me that are all rental homes in this neighborhood. And by the response and sometimes lack thereof I have come to the conclusion that the home owners are not very pleased with this situation in their neighborhood. I really wish that people would at least come to know someone before passing judgment... I thought I'd send out this note to all to open up and let you know of my family and how things are going for us so far. In so doing this I only ask for a bit more understanding, perhaps a bit more cheering for good rather than complaints, for I am not complaining about my life.
I am happily married to my best friend, Jared Quan for 12 years this July. We have four kids, two boys and two girls and one surprise on the way this December. We also have my brother in law living with us Jacob. He works for the Royal bank of Scotland and my husband for a computer company called Centarus Marketing. I am a stay at home mom, I also home school my two oldest, through Utah Virtual Academy.
My Eldest son, Duncan was born with TEF/w Atresia; meaning his throat wasn't connected to his stomach. He had emergency surgery at birth. He has other medical conditions that have afflicted him, making it easier to home school him. He just finished up 5th grade and has opted to take a summer math class.
Jack is our next child, he was the biggest handful of our brood. He was born with a CHD (HLHS) double inlet double outlet, left-ventricle with a coarchtation. Basically half a heart. He has undergone three open heart surgeries among other procedures. He was developmentally delayed and has hyper-active ADHD and is in the autism spectrum. After our Jack was born we were extensively tested and saw a geneticist. Anyone walking on the street had the same chances of having a child born to them with these problems, it's not from genes or lifestyle. Plus the two conditions from both boys are not related, meaning we won the jack-pot (per se) too bad we don't win those odds at Vegas. But I don't gamble.
Lindsay is our first daughter, she is finishing up her last week of kindergarten at Falcon Ridge. She is a princess, very smart. She avoided major medical issues.
Ruby is our youngest she is our humor, she keeps us laughing. She is three and was potty trained for a moment. She is still having issues with number 2. She is still deciding whether or not she is excited about being a first time big sister, she likes being the baby. She has seen the doctor the least, she is perfectly healthy. (YAY)
Ironically while I was pregnant with Ruby, I was the one that started up with a bunch of medical issues and it placed me in a high risk category. I am again faced with similar struggles.
I discovered this pregnancy while working on the "Healthy Lifestyle Challenge" My husband's work began. My husband has since lost 27lbs. I was working just as hard and not loosing anything. Since that I have lost 16lbs. (which is monitored by a dr. and okay for a pregnant woman if she's overweight like I am). I'm still battling gestational diabetes and high blood pressure. I also managed to come down with the flu the other day, luckily with no fever or I could have ended up in the hospital. I have opted to cloth diaper this up and coming babe, wish me luck.
My Mom lost her battle with breast cancer three years ago Easter morning. I mention this now because I have struggled a lot with depression since that time and I miss her terribly. I will go through this pregnancy and have to remind myself when I'm sick and want to complain and want so badly to just talk to my Mom that I am the MOM!
We moved into our neighborhood over a year ago at Christmas time, about three days before Christmas. I don't recommend it, if it can be avoided. In our case, it was forced upon us. We are one of the many families they talk about in this economy, that have had issue with Bank of America had a run around and lost paperwork then had our home foreclosed on. Jared was able to transfer his job, working at Walmart at the time. About a month or two after having moved in, Jared was laid off... Even though he had worked very hard and done so much for the company, they used the excuse first hired first fired, they counted the transfer as a new hire.
Thankfully Jared was able to find gainful good employment at Centarus. He really enjoys the work and people there. He will be in the near future transferring to Vlcom. If you are a Jazz fan or watch any of the games you'll see their logo on the backs of the laptops of the commentators at halftime. They also repair and supply the laptops for Stephen Henager College. When Jared worked for Walmart he was under a lot of stress, not to mention getting the run-around with the Bank. He would have gout flare up after gout flare up. His last was a year ago! I hope this trend of no gout continues, for it is a debilitating, painful, awful disease. We have other medical trials, I won't get into because it get's just too unbelievable after a while, plus to see them all listed in one place would frighten me, I like to attempt to ignore most of them in a rotation, so as not to be too overwhelmed.
What prompted this lengthy explanation? Our first winter here we had no one welcome us, (With the exception of the wonderfully awesome helping hands from the ward that helped move our boxes in.) understandable, it was Christmas time. What we did receive was a posted note on our door underlined in red ink the rules of no parking on the road in the wintertime. We had a garage full of loads of boxes. Our old house was bigger than this one. Plus we had three vehicles. Not much of a choice. We have been working on it. And to give you an idea of how much purging of over 10 years of accumulation we have, I first gave us one year to empty the garage. We didn't make it. However we are closer to accomplishing it. We did manage to unload and donate ALL our baby stuff before we discovered this pregnancy, such is our luck.
Jared has severe allergies, one of the main triggers is June grass. When we first moved in, and the first spring, he fertilized the lawn and he broke out in hives. We hired a lawn company, that charged a lot for doing very little. He opted to do it himself this season. It wasn't the best choice, so when we had some young boys ask if they could do it for a lot less. They didn't edge very well and over mowed one spot. They left a jacket behind and didn't return. We are one week behind on mowing and we get reported by some neighbor of our unsightly lawn. Ah yes... then there is the dry spot in front that I think truly looks awful. But that is not our fault, the sprinklers at that spot don't work and we don't have a hose bib in the front to even water it by hand. We've reported this last year and this, with no one fixing it. This is a rental home and all we can do is complain. Since our neighbors have complained instead of coming and talking to us, the rental company has an automatic response that gets sent out and they are coming to do an inspection on the whole house, tomorrow. (I was sick with the flu just yesterday.) Thank you kindly complaining unknown neighbor for making me feel so welcomed to this neighborhood. I had visiting teaching tomorrow I was looking forward to, but now I have to be here, waiting to see if we'll get booted out. Which is extreme, the lady that sent the notice said she didn't even see the "problems" with the yard as bad as was complained about. She herself is putting in the order to fix the sprinkler. I really don't need this. So, while I understand to an extent some complaints some people have (we have them as well) I also believe in locating the problem and trying to find out more before turning things into major hassles for others. So, apparently I needed to vent my frustrations into a letter that I have no intention of actually sending out to all my neighbors. I'm quite confident I can pinpoint who complained. And I know they don't understand our situation, nor do they wish to. So... rather than deleting I will post it on my blog. If you made it through reading all of it, I'm impressed, and thank you! I am ever trying to be a good neighbor to all those around me. Please don't judge me if I sin differently than you! (used a lot lately, but it's good).

Sincerely,
Frustrated Me.

PS. The homes down the road... there are at least five far worse than ours. (dirt yards and many weeds)

Missing

I was intending on finishing up and posting my family newsletter for the holiday season. Half way finished before Christmas and I managed to loose my camera and all pictures that were on it. I was hopeful that we would come across it in time for the New Year, with no such luck. So, I will just post this for now...
WAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!