YAAAAAAAY!

It's finally here!!!

Join us tonight.

WHYYY??

because it is going to be crazy fun

because we have been bustin' our booties to put it all together

it will REALLY help little Karson

I AM AUCTIONING OFF A BIG FATTY PHOTO PACKAGE

there is plenty, and I do mean PLENTY

of other good shiz to bid on if you no likey the pictures I take

the music will be AWESOME!!

I will be there, and I am awesome.

I will hug and kiss you on both cheeks (you know, like the Europeans)

I will be super thankful. 

They will be super happy to see you.

You will be super glad you listened to me.

info HERE

and YES it is after the b-y- freaking -u game. 

the next person to ask will promptly be punched in the face following my response.

consida yaself warned.

COUNT DOWN TO SATURDAY!

I can't believe the concert is almost here! I can't wait for it to finally happen after MONTHS of planning. Most of you already know the situation from my previous posts about him, but in a nutshell, Danny and I have been on a committe to plan a benefit concert and auction for our little love Karson Riggs, who has SPINAL MUCULAR ATROPHY type I  

PLEASE come to this amazing evening! You don't have to personally know the Riggs to come bid on our MANY fun items (more to come on that..) or just enjoy a concert put on by the amazing Brenn Hill!

For pre-sale tickets, call 

MAREE COTTAM at  801.791.2281

Also, it's not too late to donate ANYTHING to the auction!

Everything helps!

contact me at jesslkettle@yahoo.com if you're feeling generous (and I hope you are).

and here's one more link

www.karsonskause.blogspot.com

home.

{sister}

I just got home from Seattle yesterday and it's so nice to be home! Max and Danny got home from Rexburg this morning and I was so happy to see them! I missed my boys so much. It's nice to get back into the swing of things, even though I have so much work to catch up on my head is spinning!

Karson update: Mr. Karson Riggs is coming HOME today!!! We are SO 

excited for him to get back into the swing of things too. =)

BABY KARSON UPDATE!!

Just wanted to give a little update on my visit with Karson today! We needed some good news, and today we got some!

A few days ago, Karson was taken off the ventilator. Many of the doctors and nurses thought it was a bad idea and were pushing Darren and Jody to either give him a tracheotomy and vent him permanently or take him home to pass with his family.

Thankfully, Darren and Jody are prayerful people and felt like they were making the right decision. With the help of a couple of amazing doctors and nurses, they were able to take him off the vent and get him through the first 48 hours (which are crucial to determining how a patient will do once taken off a ventilator). Again, most of the MD's thought he should just be intubated again, but this little guy is a fighter!

Karson had remained on his bi-pap constantly (another much less invasive breathing machine) and was unable to keep his stats up when it was taken off, and things were not looking optimistic for the little guy.

Until today.

Karson was able to go off his bi-pap for thirty minute increments THREE TIMES TODAY!!!! This is amazing news and a huge step in the right direction. He still has a long way to go before he can come home, but this is HUGE! I am so happy that this also happened to be a day I came in for a visit/photo shoot. He needed some new pics, especially since he is going to be spotlighted at the Real SOCCER GAME this saturday!!!! yipee!

Thank you blog buddies for all of your kind words and support. The Riggs (and us) have been amazed by the outpoor of kindness by so many people who have never even met them. Jody felt very impressed that Karson was able to come off his vent because of the many people praying for him. So THANK YOU and keep those prayers coming! We are hoping for a few more miracles. =)

Here are a few pics from today. We were pretty limited being in a hospital room and needing to keep K hooked up to his monitors and iv's and all. But I think we got some pretty dang cute ones!

my FAVORITE. I can not put into words how happy I was to see the little guy with no tubes or anything on his face. It has been MONTHS. I just kept saying how happy I was to see him like this and keeping his stats up like such a good boy! It was amazing to see this after struggling for so long. I just couldn't get over it. We were all ecstatic!

Karson and Hadley. Gee, do you think they look alike??

She is SUCH a sweet and loving big sister. Can you believe the EYES on these two??

All done! Karson was pretty annoyed with us for moving him around and changing his clothes so much (he hasn't even worn clothes in quite a while!). But we got him all comfy and back on his bi-pap. =) I love this shot because it shows him moving his arm a little!

little fighter

We were visiting this little man on Saturday with two of our BEST FRIENDS, who just so happen to be his parents. His mom Jodi bent down to give her little fighter Karson a kiss goodnight as we were leaving. The lights were off, everything was quiet, and luckily I hadn't put my camera away just yet. She didn't realize I had taken the picture and later she told me that she had whispered in his ear that she loved him, right at that moment. I think we both cried when we first saw this shot.

Please keep this little one and his family in your prayers right now, he can use some extras this week.

karson's newborn pictures. he is SO sweet! look at those lips!

Karson was born on April 12, 2008 and seemed to be a happy, healthy, serene newborn. However, by the time he was six weeks old, Jody was somewhat concerned that he didn’t seem to be building the strength that he should. On June 2nd, at his two month check up, the Riggs family received devastating news with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) type I. SMA is a genetic disease that is the number one genetic killer of children under the age of 2. Basically it is the infant form of Lou Gehrig’s disease that affects the infant’s muscles. While mentally he is a perfectly healthy, curious, alert baby, his condition weakens his muscles to the point of being unable to move his limbs much or support the weight of his own head. Particularly devastating is that he lacks the strength to breath well or cough which makes even the tiniest respiratory infection life threatening. Currently, our little buddy is admitted at Primary Children’s in Salt Lake, fighting to just keep breathing.
Darren and Jody believe that our Father in Heaven has a plan for their son, for their family. We all believe that he is on the earth and a part of the Riggs Family for a reason. We have learned so much from him and he has touched many lives in just 4 months already. His patience, his strength and his courage is inspiring. You can not hold this beautiful baby or look in his eyes withought feeling his sweet, calming presence. We believe that someday, after this life, we will see Karson again, in his perfect state.

Karson and Hadley on his blessing day, the day before he was diagnosed. We couldn't wake him up for ANYTHING! haha!

Facing the eminant loss of a child is something I cannot even begin to comprehend. The sadness I feel as an "aunt" is overwheling, so as a parent it must be 100 fold. Furthermore, Darren is a full time student at Weber State University and up until this point, Jody has been working full time and was the primary bread winner. Because of Karson's need for constant care and since the time Darren and Jody have with their son will be very limited here on earth, Jody has not yet been able to go back to work. As you can imagine, the expenses of having a baby in the hospital for weeks at a time and the need to be with him constantly are emotionally and financially devestating.

First and foremost, we ask for your thoughts and prayers on behalf of the Riggs family. If you would like to make a financial contribution to Karson's support fund, click this button on my sidebar. Our hope is that we may lighten the load for our friends in any small way possible, especially if it means we can help maximize the amount of time Jody, Darren, Karson and his proud big sister Hadley can spend together as a family.

Hadlee is such a good big sister.

Words cannot express how much I love the Riggs family and baby Karson- they are family to us. We were so excited for him to get here, I already had him dubbed Max's future best friend and partner in crime before he was born(still is!). The night we found out about his diagnosis and sat together in the hospital is a night I will never forget. I realize that I just barely posted about Nie Nie and encouraged everyone to get involved with contrubuting to her cause. Obviously this is out of the ordinary, but because of the recent turn of events with Karson's current hospitalization (he was life flighted last week to Primary's), I felt that this could NOT wait. Any form of support would be greatly appreciated. Thank you SO much.

Stay updated on Karson by checking in periodically on this blog or the Riggs Family Blog
We will also be doing a MAJOR fund raiser closer to the holidays. MORE INFO NEXT WEEK!
Learn more about SMA here

Karson and Jody. (photo courtesy of Darren Riggs)

nice to meet you.

Tonight Danny, Max and I went to Ogden to visit our dear friends Darren and Jody and their brand new baby Carson (or Karson). This little man is just the sweetest thing. He's so tiny (6.14, 20 inches) and I think he looks just like his big sister Hadley!  Carson was three weeks early and had a little NICU sleep over last night so he could hang out under the heat lamps and stay nice and toasty. Mom and baby are doing great though and will both be released tomorrow! Yay! It was cool going to the NICU, it brought back lots of memories! We even scrubbed in with the exact same little sponges that they had at Saddleback.  It made me want to shrink up my own big baby and rewind to that new baby time of my life with new baby smells and new baby clothes and new baby fingernails. I even missed our three long weeks of trips to the NICU. Sigh.

The lights were off in the NICU and no flash is allowed, so I couldn't get the best pics. DON'T WORRY. More to come next week! For the meantime, here is our little buddy, who was fast asleep with a little scowl on his face. We think he was having a bad dream. =) Congratulations on the newest addition Darren, Jody and Hadee!