Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year

This year has been such a wonderful year for our family, I can't even begin to describe how blessed we truly are...

My children are both healthy and happy and thriving, which is a blessing in itself!

Gerrad and I were able to make a life changing decision for me to stay home with the girls. Sometimes I struggle and miss working, but I wouldn't change a minute of staying home for the world.

My marriage has grown immensely thanks to God. We have become very involved in our church, instead of just occasionally attending and being 'back seat believers' so to speak. Gerrad and I are closer than ever and our family of 4 couldn't be stronger.

Our families are all happy and healthy without too many major changes aside from my aunt passing away this year.

We have said goodbye to some friendships as doors opened up for new friendships. Relationships have changed with some and grown with others. For all the changes, good or bad, I'm still grateful. When one door closes, another one opens- I'm really going to try to tell myself that constantly in the new year.

We've done small improvements to our home and yard, nothing too major but still there were definitely projects that tested our marriage- ha ha! Working together with your spouse on various types of projects is sometimes a hard task, can I get an amen on that one? ;)

We've been surrounded by so many loving friends and family and have seen some precious new lives brought into the world this year!

Everything is not always perfect and rosie in our world, but we are beyond blessed and I couldn't really ask for more!

Here's to hoping all of you have a wonderful New Years Eve night, and a long and prosperous 2010! I can't wait to see what this New Year has in store for our family!

Much Love!


Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Photo Shoot

I did my first little photo shoot with the girls with my brand new camera, I thought the pictures turned out pretty darn cute so I wanted to share them. Its hard to get bad pictures though when your subjects are as cute as mine ;)


I put them in their KU Jayhawk gear for the pictures. Addaline kept saying 'Gooooooooooo Jayhawks' over and over, so cute! Their daddy will not be pleased that they aren't in burnt orange and white for the Texas Longhorns, whoops!





I could just eat these dimples up with a spoon!!



Not too bad for my first time huh?
I've got TONS of Christmas pictures and lots to tell you all but I'll save that for tomorrow or Thursday. Hope everyone had a GREAT holiday and has a safe and Happy New Year!



Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Macie's School Christmas Party

This week seems to just be flying by for some reason... I'm not sure if its because I took the week off for vacation (3 vacation days, 2 holidays) or what. Since Gerrad and I were off yesterday together we took Addaline with us and went to hang out with Macie for her class Christmas party at school. She was SO excited to have the 3 of us there, it was so cute. My camera has officially crapped out so these pictures are from my blackberry, hence the amazing quality (little sarcasm). Off the topic, but I'm really hoping for a new camera for Christmas!

Macie just adores school and has a blast with all her little friends and absolutely gets a huge kick out of showing off her little sister to her friends in class. Gerrad and I had a wonderful time just sitting back and enjoying our oldest thrive in one of her favorite environments. The room parents do SUCH a great job with planning the parties. They played a cute game and made Snowman thermometers that were super cute as well. Here are a few pics from the party...


Macie and her 2nd grade teacher Ms. T (I don't want to put her full name since I didn't ask permission ;) )

I love it when Addaline wears this hat, although it cracks me up it squishes her little face and eyes when she smiles

Addaline enjoying that mommy is actually letting her drink juice, its a rare occurrence

Macie showing off some of her goodies. Her teacher gave her a Santa hat full of goodies, she loved it!

Showing off the Snowman that she I made

Macie and Gerrad


Macie's friend from class invited her and another little girl to go to a movie with her and her mom so Macie was gone all evening last night. They went to see 'The Princess and the Frog' and Macie came home just raving about it, she had a blast. Gerrad and I finished up some Christmas shopping with Addaline and enjoyed a yummy dinner at Johnny Carino's.

I'll blog about The Nutcracker and church Christmas programs later this week as well. Hope you all are doing well and ready for Christmas. We're pretty much done, just need a few last minute things.


Tuesday, December 15, 2009

One Year Ago...

One year ago... a simple would-be headache changed our lives forever...

One Sunday night Macie was complaining of a headache. We didn't think a whole lot of it, I gave her some children's tylenol and we waited a while. She started screaming in agonizing pain and was saying the pain was coming and going, kind of like a wave. We immediately became worried and took her in to the ER since it was a Sunday evening and nothing else was open. They performed a CT Scan and assured us it was probably just a migraine, gave her 2 doses or morphine and sent us on our way. The next morning she was fine, until she started puking from all the morphine they gave her, so she stayed home from school for obvious reasons. The next day she was great, went to school and came home acting ok. She went downstairs to play and ended up falling asleep on the floor watching TV waiting for dinner. I woke her up to eat and she started acting really funny. She said she didn't feel right, we were watching her like a hawk and noticed immediately she could not gain control over her left hand/arm to eat dinner (she's left handed). She started slurring her words together and it scared us to death, we called our mom's for advice and took her back into the ER.

Once we got there the Dr decided almost instantly that he didn't want us being treated here as there is no pediatric neurologist in our town and the closest one was at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. So away Macie and Gerrad went in an ambulance with my father in law and I following directly behind. We weren't sure what was going on and had NO idea what the Dr thought it could be. All he told us is that he did not want to perform another CT Scan on her, too much radiation, so he wanted us to be seen by the experts. Gerrad was my rock, he stayed calm and reassured Macie everything was going to be OK. Me on the other hand, I was a hysterical mess. I had all these terrible thoughts running through my head and couldn't control them, I just kept praying, begging God to protect my first born.

We arrived at Children's Mercy late at night, around 11 or midnight and got Macie situated in a room in the ER. She was acting better but couldn't walk too well and still said she felt a little 'funny'. They examined her and decided they wanted to do another CT Scan, this time I went back with her and stayed by her side, I had pulled it together by then. They didn't find anything on the scan this time again and weren't too sure how they wanted to proceed from there. They decided to admit us and perform more tests on her the next day since we were well into the middle of the night. They gave us a room and made us a comfortable as possible. Thankfully my mom volunteered to stay with Addaline at our house so we didn't have to worry about who was taking care of her for the next few days.

Wednesday they performed an EEG on Macie to check and see if they could tell anything from that. They were able to give us an answer about the headaches... she had mild seizures, which would explain all her other correlating symptoms followed by the 'headaches'. They explained to us the area of activity in the brain that this was taking place was one that controlled her fine motor skills (why she couldn't control her fork to her mouth that night), her behavior and her speech. We only noticed one specific time in the hospital where we thought she had another small seizure, my mother in law, sister in law, Macie and I were sitting down to play a game of Hi Ho Cherry-O and Macie could not seem to grasp the cherries and put them in her bucket. It broke my heart to see my daughter like that. They explained to us that afternoon that they wanted to perform an MRI to make sure there was nothing causing the seizures, as there are many cases where children have an underlying issues causing them to seize (brain tumor). We Spent the next 24-48 hours praying that God would protect our daughter during this test and all would come out OK.

They performed the MRI Thursday evening and weren't able to give us the report until rounds on Friday morning. Thursday evening Gerrad and I just needed to get away for an hour or so, we went down to the cafeteria at the hospital and just cried together. We heard the words brain tumor and couldn't get them out of our minds. We knew we would get through it no matter the outcome, we just needed a little time to break down, away from our daughter. We pulled it together and headed back up to hang out and play games with Macie. They gave us the report the next morning... and all was great, there were no underlying issues causing the seizures! They put Macie on medication and gave us LOTS of instructions, and things to watch for. Her seizures were not pronounced, such as a grand mal seizure is, so we had more specific things to watch for. They gave us the idea to write down any suspicious behavior that we saw so we could go over the notes at her follow up appointment 3 months later.

I'm SO happy to report that we have NOT had to write ANYTHING down in the 'seizure notebook' and Macie is doing wonderfully! We had her follow up appointment in February of this year and said she is doing great, no symptoms or problems we had to discuss so we were pretty much in and out. She has to stay on the medication for 2 years as maintenance, and then we can revisit the idea of going off the medicine and seeing how she does. Every day when I give her medicine in the morning and at night, I'm reminded just how lucky we are that was all that was wrong with our daughter one year ago. There were so many children there who weren't as lucky as Macie. We were so lucky to have the love and support of our wonderful families and friends to help get us through that, THANKS again every one, we will never forget how much you mean to us! Now our 7 year old daughter is a growing, caring, compassionate, loving little thing with a side of sassy-ness to go with it, and I wouldn't trade her for the world!!




Thursday, December 10, 2009

Just Some Sweet Pictures

Nothing new is happening in our world today so I thought I'd just blog some cute pictures that I've taken recently, of my best girls of course!



This is the best I could do of both of them together, talk about difficult, sheesh!

My 7 year old beauty queen, I am NOT looking forward to the teenage years with either of the girls. Start praying for me now, ha ha!

Addaline and her Grandpa Don (my dad) playing at Macie's school Christmas program. They're so sweet together. Addaline loves her Grandma's both don't get me wrong, but this girl adores her Grandpa's!




Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Dishing Divas December

This past weekend we decided to have a 'dip' theme for Dishing Divas so we all brought our favorite dips. We had a good combination of sweet and salty, it was perfect. We also decided to play games this month as well so we each brought some our favorite games, that was a BLAST!! We played Catch Phrase, Taboo, The Wrong Game and laughed until we cried.

Its so fun to just put your comfy clothes on and hang out with some of your best girlfriends and laugh the night away. I love these gals to pieces!!

Most of us girls... Jenna, Lindsey, Kela, me and Katie. We were missing our prego momma friend Chelsey because she was sick :(

Me, Jenna and Katie

Kela and I

Me and Linds (don't kill me for posting this pic sister :)~ )

Playing taboo, Kela and I were kicking some butt!

Katie and Jenna

Jenna and Lindsey




Friday, December 4, 2009

Show Us Your Life- Christmas Tree

Today over at Kelly's Korner is Show Us Your Life- Christmas Tree edition. This year I only have 2 trees up. Last year I had 3 but have yet to get the smaller one out of the shed, I'm not quite sure why?! This first tree is the one that I have in the kitchen. Its a 4 ft tree and matches my kitchen colors perfectly, LOVE it!


Since I took these pictures I've finally added a tree skirt, still keep forgetting to get a tree topper so I can quit using one of Addaline's hair clips, ha ha!



Here is our big tree that is in the family room in the basement. I don't really have much of a theme here. I tried to go with the red and silver theme, but we have a hodge podge of ornaments that I just adore so its kind of a mixed up tree. If you're noticing that the top of the tree is not lit up, you'd be correct. I cannot figure out why the top portion will not light up, and I haven't been able to get my husband to look at it either.

Loving the zebra ribbon on the tree this year. I would like to get a LOT more carried away will frilly tree decorations but I think I'll wait and see what I can find the day after Christmas on SALE!
One of the many ornaments on our tree hand made by Macie! This year I will add some hand made by Miss Addaline as well.

The topper is pretty simple but I LOVE it and have had it for about 8 years now. It just a plain glittery, silver star.


Thanks for stopping by today! Hope everyone has a great weekend!



Thursday, December 3, 2009

Some of My Favorite Things

Today I feel like sharing some of my current favorite things. Not that any of you care, but read on anyway ;)


Obviously this picture below is not me, but it shows what I have been doing a LOT lately. I love crafting! It is a wonderful outlet for me and gives me something to do.

I'm loving this purse but haven't been able to bring myself to buying it... maybe my husband will read this and think about getting it for me for Christmas... HINT HINT!

I have been living in my boots lately because they are so nice and warm, and comfy as well. They pretty much go with anything and look adorable with your jeans rolled slightly or with your jeans completely tucked into them.
I L.O.V.E looking at Christmas lights. NO this is not my house, I just found the picture and thought it was a good example, a LOT little overboard maybe. I especially love looking at lights with Addaline in the car. She is in such awe at the lights its the most adorable thing I've ever heard... everything is 'Mommy WOOK, Mommy WOOK, Mommy WOOK!'

I'm borderline obsessed with the new season of 90210. Every Tuesday night it's a MUST watch for me. Do any of you like it as much as I do??
I'm loving Bath and Body Works 'Midnight Pomegranate' scent right now. It smells SOOO good! If you haven't smelled it, I suggest you try it out!
I have loved Yankee Candle Christmas Cookie scent for a LONG time. It makes the house smell wonderful and like I've actually been baking when we all know I don't!
So do any of you like any of these products as much as I do??
The week is almost over! Tomorrow is FRIDAY, YAY! I have Dishing Diva's night tomorrow night and I'm super excited. I'll make sure to take lots of pics this time, I failed at that task last time! We have Macie's school Christmas program tonight, I'm SUPER excited for it and will make sure to take lots of pics of that as well!