Introducing...Leo Sheffield Keller

Leo is the cutest little guy! He is the product of thousands of prayers and a whole lot of faith on the part of his parents (Jon and Tanya Keller). We are thrilled to have this sweet little addition to our family!

I'm getting a new sister (in Law)!!!!

I am so thrilled to be getting such an amazing new sister-in-law. We met Brittani for the first time at a shower that we had for her at Ali's house. She is so wonderful! She is smart, kind, beautiful, and best of all she adores Adam (just as much as he adores her), they are both service oriented and great missionaries, they are perfect for each other!!!! We had such a great time getting to know her and her sweet family at the shower!

Crazy is good right?

Today was a crazy day for me... in the morning Wesley hurt Keller for messing up a lego construction he had been working on for a long time. After scolding Wesley for hurting Keller, Wesley announced that since I was so rude and terrible that he was running away. He said he would stay on the street forever. He thought he would either get hit by a car, or starve to death. Fortunately, just then I got a phone call, so I was occupied during all of his drama so I didn't respond in the way he wanted me to. Later I took the kids to the Summer movie, but because we couldn't find our passes we were super late. After only a few minutes Keller decided he didn't like the show, I also remembered that he didn't have a diaper on, so I was back and forth between the movie and the bathroom several times. During one bathroom trip my hair dipped into the toilet as I was trying to help Keller pull down his pants. Then Keller lost one of his shoes, and David refilled his drink with out paying and yelled out that I had told him he could (when I had really told him he could fill it with water). After the show I was carrying Keller who had only one shoe and David ran so far ahead and was almost hit by a car. A kind onlooker helped get him back to me. We then went to the park where our credit union was having their annual family picnic with games and food. After parking both cars (Derek met us there), we were told by a bitter Salon owner that we needed to move our cars or be towed. It was very close to closing time for them and it was obvious there were only a couple of customers there anyway, but Derek moved both cars while I got in an incredibly long line for dinner. We had scarcely eaten when David and I had to head to his soccer game. He was unable to claim his ice cream desert or do any of the activities I had been getting them excited about. Halfway through David's game Wesley came to the field with Keller so that he and Derek could go to his soccer game with Baby Adam which they had to be on time for since Derek is the coach. I then met Derek at the other field to watch Wesley's team, but spent most of my time at the nearby splash park where Keller and David ended up (Keller getting lost for a while which was another scare!) My really close friend who has 11 children told me that you should never make important decisions (about your family) on bad days. This is such Wisdom! There were moments today when I was sure there would never be another Jensen child born to our family. Now that we are home from our crazy day and the kids are in bed, I am realizing that there were so many sweet gems about today as well that just melted my heart like seeing David's little thumb pop up in pride when his team scored a goal, or seeing how crazy excited Keller got to be in the splash park even though it was getting cold by the time they got over there. I also loved watching Derek with his clipboard getting so excited about the plays Wesley's team mates made and hearing them call him "coach". I need to remember that even on the crazy days, life is wonderful and we are so blessed to have for amazing little guys in our life. How I cherish them....especially when they are asleep!

Our brave little boy!

When Keller was about 18 months old he developed a lump under his chin. The pediatrician said it was a hematoma (a bruise) which would go away in time. Instead of going away, it broke up into two smaller lumps, which became inflamed and one day burst open. The next time the doctor saw Keller, he immediately put him on a strong antibiotic and made an appointment with a dermatologyst. The antibiotics didn't have any effect (except for making him weak and giving him severe diareah).
The dermatologyst was baffled by the large red bumps on Keller's face. She poked them open, extracted a sample of the fluid inside and shot some steroids into the wound. She also wanted to put him on an antibiotic, but I asked her if there was any way that we could forego more medication, since it had only had an adverse effect before. She agreed if I would promise to change the dressings and keep out any infection. We went to see the dermatologyst a few more times. Once she asked Keller to be the subject of a "Jounrnal night" where other dermatologysts gathered to examine rare skin cases. The others were equally baffled by his condition.

We later took Keller to see a family doctor who said that whatever Keller's problem was, it needed to be taken care of urgently so as not to become worse. Our dermatologyst had connections with a physician at Primary Children's Hospital, and she agreed to make arraingements for us to visit with a pediatric plastic surgeon see if we could remove the bumps surgically.
Upon visiting with the plastic surgeon, he said he could not remove the lumps unless he knew what they were. He then ordered an MRI. Keller got the MRI at our hospital here in Rexburg and the results were sent to Priomary Chilren's Hospital. The plastic surgeon's office informed us that the lumps were enlarged lymph nodes and that they would need to be biopsied before they could be removed and before the scar revision could be done. He said that he would need to be seen by an Ear Nose and Throat specialist.
I got the information for the Ear Nose and Throat specialist and began calling to make an appointment. They had an outdated answering machine (telling me they were out of the office for the Thanksgiving Holdiay in December), which then hung up. I tried calling various other numbers only to be transferred to other extensions and left a message (which they said would be returned within 24 hours) and didn't hear back from them for several days. When I finally reached a human voice I was thrilled, only they refused to make an appointment for me with out a referral. I told them the name of the doctor who had referred me, but they needed written proof. I then called back the surgeon's office who promised to send the referral. The referral did not get sent that day. This went on for weeks. We finally scheduled a double surgery; removal of the lymph nodes and scar revision. Only when we got down there the ENT had not been given a copy of the MRI results and didn't want to perform the surgery since the lymph nodes were dangerously close to some major facial nerves. Long story somewhat shorter, the ENT decided to put him under and do a fine needle aspirator test on him to do a biopsy. Several weeks later he determinded that the surgery had to be done anyway. With a lot of fasting and prayer, we took him in knowing that his face could be paralyzed by removing the lymph nodes. Fortunatley with special process called "nerve mapping" the ENT was able to disect his nerve for the procedure with out severing it. For now his smile is crooked due to the trauma on his nerve, but we are hopeful that his nerves will fully recover and that his wounds will also heal properly. this ordeal has been an adventure (almost 2 years long)! To date Keller has been seen by a pediatrician, our family practitioner, 3 dermatologists, a plastic surgeon, an Ear Nose and Throat specialist, and a Neurologist. He has been put under for an MRI and a fine needle aspirator test as well as a 3-hour opperationin his short life time (he turned 3 in February). We love you Keller!!!!!