Trey ready for the NBA...

Trey showing off his stuff....
Makenna and Jayden just want to play with the Camera...LOL

Makenna, Makenna, Makenna

Makenna is known in these parts as "Queen Flip a Switch!" one moment she is the cutest thing in the world and then she "flips that switch" and becomes 110% 2 year old girl... LOL

Trey is our social bug...

Trey loves to be with someone and outdoors. He is such a great kid....

Noah now 9 months old and weighs almost 30 lbs.

I can't believe how fast time goes but here is our "BRUTE" He is growing like a weed or should I say stump!!!

Newest picture of Jayden

Jayden loves the dirt. Here he is playing with cousins at Grandma's house....

Jayden's and how his brain works.

Hey everyone, as you know we have been testing Jayden for Autism and have found out that he has Autism Spectrum Disorder. I found this analogy about the disorder. ...

Imagine a huge office building with the CEO on the top floor. The CEO directs everything and in a normal functioning brain he communicates with the other departments. Accounting, Sales, Support staff, Customer Service, etc... All of these departments work together to handle the day to day activity of the company. In an Autistic brain, none of the departments talk to one another, or don't do it in an effective way. Jayden may understand something( we are told 10-15% of the time) but he can't get it out. 30-40% of the time he is mimicking things that he has already heard or experienced. Imagine running a company in the same large building without the use of phones, email or Instant Messaging. With children with Autism Spectrum Disorder do not display the kinds of things that a child with classic Autism (i.e. "Rain Man", who was also a Savant) Jayden's diagnosis is that he has a good chance of having his speech become normal around the age of 10. He will be in speech therapy, occupational therapy and specialized school settings as long as needed until we feel like he is caught up. Also there is a chance that he will progress to a point where he stops and that is all he can gain with his brain. The percentage of kids like Jayden that can live a "normal life" is 70-80%. We hope and pray Jayden can understand and conceptualize what is being presented to him as he goes through this process. I know and understand that we all go through trials and problems and by no means do we want people to feel sorry for us... Jayden ROCKS and that is all that is needed to be said. We do have more sympathy for those we hear of going through tough times. Please know we understand! For those of you who want to learn more about this here are some web pages.

www.autism.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

http://youtube.com/watch?v=46ycu3JFRrA (this is a 5 part YouTube article on Temple Grandin)

Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you all and we hope that you all are doing well. Thanks for everything you all have brought to our lives...

With Love,
Kristin, Sterling, Trey, Jayden, Makenna and Noah

Letter concerning Jayden from Kristin

For some this may be a duplicate ...

Well we got through today! This has been a long awaited appointment. First of all, I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for your thoughts and prayers you offered in Jayden's behalf. I can't tell how you strongly we felt the power of our Heavenly Father in this process and I know it was because of all of you. What a testimony builder for both Sterling and me!!! Thank you again for your love and support for our family and especially for sweet Jayden.

We met with a psychologist today and got a diagnosis for Jayden. He has been officially diagnosed with autism. He is considered "high functioning" which means he can and will be able to function pretty close to "normal". We were told that he will need some extra occupational therapy to help with his sensory issues and a couple of things regarding his schooling that will help. But for the most part we found out that we can do a lot of stuff with him at home each day. We learned so much today! We had a lot of "oh, that's why" moments and a lot of "well that explains why..." moments as well. I can't even tell you how wonderful today was for all of us. The most important thing was that we got to better understand how and why Jayden is the way he is. We have quickly gained that much more love and respect for Jayden and the hardships he is going through. We have learned more of how to deal with him and what we need to do to help him progress towards where he needs/wants to be. He has a long road ahead of him but we already feel so much more equipped to handle what is ahead. Sterling and I still have so much to learn and are willing and wanting to learn all that we can to help him. I could go on and on about what we learned so feel free to ask if you are interested. There are things that anyone and everyone can and should know regarding how to deal with Jayden and we're more than willing to explain if you would like.

Thanks again for all of your support. As I said, we still have a long road ahead and lots to teach Jayden and help him with but with patience and love we will get through it!! Love you all!!

Kristin

Jayden's testing went wonderfully well.

Jayden, Jayden, Jayden, what can you say about the kid! He is full of life (and ENERGY) We had testing done last Wednesday and had some awesome results. The doctor watched and poked and talked to him for about 2 hours. She felt like the results were in the Autism spectrum. They are categorized by the same problems with the brain function of allowing information to be interpreted. We are possibly looking at one of the following. (1) Autism, with the remaining identified as (2) Rett syndrome, (3) Childhood disintegrative disorder, (4) Asperger syndrome, and (5) Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (or PDD-NOS).

If Autism, it is a mild high functioning for of Autism. We are hoping for the best and letting everyone know that he is recieving the diagnosis on Wednesday the 16th of July. Please put him in your prayers as we know many have. Thanks for everything

Information on Dallas....

So it has been a week and the support from everyone has been amazing. Here is an update... Not a lot is changing in his swelling in his brain. They are treating the swelling with alot less medication but for the doctors to feel comfortable to start to try and wake him up he needs to be able to manage the swelling much better for 48 hours by himself. When not on the heavy amounts of meds he moves his arms, legs and shoulders. This is a great sign but doesn't tell us a ton yet about possible long term affects. These movements maybe voluntary or involuntary, we are unable to determine at what percentage that is... My wife and I spoke to a nurse and after explaining that to us, he said watch this... This is voluntary. He proceeded to pinch his right index finger and Dallas pulled away from the pain.. He said "that is voluntary" he then pinched his big toe and Dallas pulled his foot away from the pain. The nurse explained that this was a high level brain activity. His temperature is still a little high, which is normal with brain trauma. Also he is dealing with blood clots in his legs and pnuemonia is setting in... Both of these are common given the situation. Just continue to pray and we appreciate your thoughts and well wishes... I know Dallas would feel humbled by all the love... I also know Dallas is dying for a pizza, so we are trying to find a way to get that into the tiny feeding tube... Thanks for all your support and hope all of you are blessed.....

Sterling

These shoes have 2 purposes...

First purpose is to make sure the achilles tendons are in the right position so that they won't become soft and in an incorrect position. Second and most important they give us all a great reason to give him crap when he comes to because if he were awake, we all know he wouldn't be seen in public with them...

Dallas has been in an accident

As many of you know Dallas Griffiths has been in an accident. This is what we know... He was long boarding in Snow Canyon (St. George) We was with Josh Featherstone. It was told that he passed Josh and when Josh caught up to him, Dallas had already fallen. After trying to revive him the medical staff at Dixie Regional decided to Life Flight him to IMC... in Salt Lake. He arrived on Tuesday the 12th and then under went test and it was found he was ok to have a surgery to stabilize the brain. He is still unresponsive and and still under sedation..(we would call it a medically induced comma) The swelling in his face has gone down but the Neuro Surgeon's have said that little improvement on the swelling in his brain as of Friday the 15th. These are picture that I have taken from my cell phone... Please forward this to anyone you think might want to see the link... I am sorry it includes my family photos but this is the best forum to get the photos to everyone....

Thanks

Love
The family of Dallas...