Wednesday, March 31, 2010

80 degrees

We hit 80 degrees today for the first time in 164 days.  We celebrated the occasion by spending all day outside.  I even let the kids stay out late this evening (that was part for me, it was so hot in the house, but beautiful outside!)
We pulled the baby swing back out again tonight for Katelyn to use.  She loved it and as always had plenty of help being pushed.

Of course all this pushing can sometimes mean things get out of control.  I ran into the house for just a minute and heard a scream, by the time I got out she wasn't crying but a big knot above her right eye.  Apparently, Jackson was pushing her so high and swung her into the swingset pole- Nice!














Apparently she was tired of all the pictures!
What a wonderful day- can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Rootbeer Floats

Nothing better than a rootbeer float on a spring day!


















The boys agree!

Random








































Spring?

So it's the first weekend of spring here I swear!  You have to love the weather here in the midwest.  So we woke up last Saturday morning to 7 inches of snow on the ground.  The good wet snowman building snow!  The boys went out and made this snowman on their own.

And then my biggest kid came out and made this snowman!  My husband is the most popular Dad on the block (and not just for his lifesize snowmen!)

Also for his snowforts!


Thursday, March 18, 2010

Sweet Cheeks

This is one of my favorite pics of Katelyn, it shows her beautiful blue eyes and chubby cheeks- my two favorite features!  She is such a happy baby and looks so healthy, it was hard for us to believe what the cardiologist told us this week.  My baby girl needs open heart surgery.  She was born with a hole in her heart and was seen by a cardiologist several times for echos to track the progress of the hole.  Last summer, we were told the hole was nearly closed and we didn't need to worry anymore.  At her 1 year visit, our pediatrician decided to send us back to have her looked at again because she has been congested all winter and she feared a problem with her heart.  I took this visit very lightly as I never dreamed there were any problems.

We saw Dr. Swanson at Children's Mercy Hospital and she saw something new on the echo this time.  A muscle mass, referred to as a subaortic ridge has developed over this hole and is causing difficulty for the blood to get into the aorta valve causing damage to the valve.  Her aorta valve has now developed a leak, catagorized as a 50-55 leak (compared to a trivial leak of 0-10).  The solution is to remove this muscle mass to avoid any further damage to her aorta valve.  We are so thankful our pediatrician sent us back because we never would have suspected any heart problems and this could have been much worse had it have gone unnoticed. 

So now we wait.  All 13 cardiologist will review her case next Wednesday and at that time they will discuss if they agree with the recommendation for surgery.  After that, her case will then be reviewed with the 2 cardiosurgeons, anesthesiologist and the cardiologist to get another confirmation that this is the correct move.  I love Children's Mercy Hospital and know she is in the best possible care there is here.  And even more comforting is knowing that she rests safely in God's arms even in situations that are out of our control.  Not only does she have a loving Heavenly Father protecting her she also has a special angel we call Grandma watching over her. 

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Should have known better!

Katelyn loves to stand at the edge of the bathtub while Jackson takes his bath and plays with all his toys.  She adores him and could play with him for hours!  I should have known this isn't a good idea considering how wild Jackson gets in the bathtub.  But, she was happy and I was doing laundry and so why ruin a good thing right? 

Well tonight she went from this


To this...............















She was drenched and was smiling through it all!  (She's learning to comb her own hair!)

Growing up

Hayden has decided recently that he no longer wants any of us to call him Bubba.  He did however make an exception to this for Katelyn.  But as for the rest of us, he wants to be called Hayden.  I am really struggling with this because for 5 1/2 years we have called him Bubba.  I expected this to happen, but never dreamed it would be this early.  It has been strange for me to hear Jack call him Hayden.  I honestly don't think that since Jackson learned to talk he has ever called him Hayden.  It catches me off guard everytime I hear it.  And makes me a little sad, my boy is growing up!  I mean what is next- I can't hug him in public!

I have news for you little man, you will always be my Bubba!

4 years old

Four years ago today, we rushed to the hospital at 5:30am after a sleepness night for Mommy.  And 20 minutes after arriving at the hospital, you came into this world.  We were so excited to meet you.  You are such an onery little boy.  You are definately the clown in the family, always making us laugh.  You can be such a sweet boy and yet test our patience all in the same day.  Life would not be the same without you, Jackson.

You definately have more of your Dad's personality.  You keep to yourself in places you aren't comfortable.  You get shy around kids you don't know.  You get mad when Mommy tells you you are handsome. You love to have your feet tickled- and not just anyway, you give specific instructions on how to rub your feet!  You have a great imagination and can play for hours with your action figures.  You are very into superheros right now, Batman and Spiderman are your favorites. 

Happy 4th Birthday Jackson Robert.


Busy Birthday

Well your 4th birthday sure was a busy one, Jackson.  You requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast, so we started the day with singing happy birthday with candles in your cinnamon rolls.














Then it was off to school with your birthday treats, where you got to where this cool crown all morning long!














After school, we picked up Gabe and took you guys to McDonalds for lunch and then bowling.  You guys all had so much fun. 



And finally, we finished your birthday at home where you opened your gift from us.  You were so excited to get a Batcave.  You and Hayden played with it all evening.  For your birthday dinner, you chose chocolate chip pancakes and then requested we put candles in them and sing to you again. And so we did!  Wow what a busy day and full of lots of sugar!  Hope you had a fabulous birthday sweet boy.


Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Katelyn's First Birthday

We celebrated your first birthday with family here at our house.  You definately preferred the cake over the gifts. You ate your entire cupcake all by yourself.





























Mommy made your cake- it was a giant cupcake with pink icing.


















All the excitement was too much for you by mid afternoon and you fell asleep snuggled up with Grandma.














Katelyn it is hard to believe it has been a year.  Your sweet smile lights up our home and your beautiful blue eyes make my heart melt.  I love you so much baby girl.  I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you.

Dad

Well our trip home this weekend did not go exactly as planned.  While we were driving home I got a call from my sister saying that Dad was on his way to the emergency room because a tree had fallen on him while he was cutting wood.  We met him at the ER and found out he had a compound fracture in his ankle.  He was in a lot of pain, but continued to keep his sense of humor.  He was really upset that the nurses had cut his "good" jeans and his boot off!  He was transported to Manhattan where he underwent surgery Saturday night and they put a plate and screws in his ankle.  He was released on Sunday but remains in a lot of pain.

He is still getting the hang of walking with crutches and it makes him very mad that he has to wear sweatpants, he is on a mission to find jeans he can wear!  Opening day of turkey season is April 14th and he is determined to get a turkey this year on his property.  He has even asked my stepmom to put camo on his crutches so he can out and watch the turkeys to see their path (or something like that!)   This would be even funnier if I thought he wasn't serious about it!

He is on crutches for 4-6 weeks and will then be in a walking cast.  It is his right leg so it will be quite a while before he should be driving. Please keep him in your prayers.  Depending on other people to help him out is driving him crazy.  He has never been down like this before and is determined this is not going to keep him down.  I pray that his leg will heal quickly and that he will listen to what the doctors tell him to do.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Princess

So last night the boys were looking through pictures of Katelyn's birthday party.  Hayden asked me "Mom, why did we have a princess party?" To which I respond "Well she's our princess, that's why!"  Hayden then says, "But Mom, you are our princess! I guess we have two princesses now!" 

Hayden, you always know what to say!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

One Year Old

It's so hard to believe my baby girl is one year old.  It has been so exciting to watch you grow this past year.  You are such a special part of our family.  You still aren't walking, but then again when you have two brothers who will carry you anywhere you need to go, I doubt you see much of a need to walk!  You are still my little cuddle bug and love when Mommy holds you.  You are eating table food so well and are officially done with formula- Yeah!  You have so many girl toys, but you are still drawn to the hotwheel cars.  Your favorite book is "That's Not My Fairy" and you get so excited when you see it.  You weigh 18 lbs and are 26" long- only 3% of height and 11% of weight.  You have one of the biggest smiles for a little girl!  We love you baby girl.

So with all the rush of the birthday party, Mom didn't get any good birthday pics and even forgot your cute birthday hat! So I decided to try and get some the following day, but you were not having it.  This was the only picture of you smiling.



















The progressively got worse...........


















And most of them looked like this..............


















Mommy has plans to take you to get profressional one year pics done- lets hope you cooperate better on that day!