Saturday, September 27, 2008

What A Big Help!

Tonight I was on the computer for a while and Kensi was playing right near me. I 'smelled' that I needed to change her so I said, " Kensi, go get me a diaper." I was on Facebook reading my messages (Facebook somehow always sucks me in for longer than it should :), not even paying attention to her. When I finally looked up from it, I saw how much my sweet goose had helped me out...

Down the hall....

And a pile right by me feet!

She even was so kind as to pick out some options for what she might wear to bed. How thoughtful! She also had wreaked some kind of havoc on my room and Maddie's room. Lets just say she picked out clothes for us for, say, the next week or so. :)(thats what I get for paying more attention to FB than my kids).

I finally had to resort to 'pinning' her up while I try to put things back together. I love that innocent look on her little rascally face!




Thursday, September 25, 2008

Hey there!

Remember me? Sorry for that long, aukward silence. Things have been so busy around here and I just haven't had time to write. And really, I have no time now to write either because at any minute Kensi will announce that nap time is officially over by belting out 'MAMAAAAAAAaa', which then in turn will wake up the other 3 babies! Nice.

But just wanted to check in and say hi and that I will be back with lots of posts soon. I am so far behind...erg!!! Oh well. I have lots of pictures to post here in my 'scrapbook' of my 30 bday party, Maddie's Party and my main man Kobe turning 8yrs old !!!!!!!!!! And we got some super cute pics of his party and all his cool friends gettin down to 'The Cha-cha.' :) Stay tuned.

And there she is now paging me. Gotta go. Talk soon. :)


Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Happy Birthday Princess


My dear, sweet Maddie is 6 years old today. I feel a lump in my throat even as I type that. My baby girl is growing up so fast. It seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago that we spent those months in the NICU with our precious baby girl just praying that she would make it. Those days seemed endless back then. She was so tiny and helpless. But it was love at first sight. We were smitten from the first minute. She was so beautiful even with all her cords and masks. She was a quiet baby, but so strong and had such fight in her to keep getting better. Those hours and days are truely some of the hardest times Aaron and I have ever had. But what a gift. Every day was a new gift. So many lessons learned, a faith deepened to new levels, praying, begging and pleading with the Lord and over time seeing those prayers answered, and a never-ending love for this little girl.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Maddie in the NICU. She was in her incubator under some lights, and she just propped her hands behind her head and rested her feet on the glass at the end. (See, she was posing even back then.) :) What a spunky little spirit she has. It was as if she was saying, "life is good, you guys need to chill out."

It has been incredible to watch her get stronger and stronger from her 'rough beginning' and to watch as she grew into a healthy, chubby little baby and now into a beautiful little girl. She is so full of life and energy. She truely is a gift chosen just for Aaron and I.


Maddie, you are such a treasure to me. A priceless gift that I am forever thankful for. Life with you is such an adventure. I love you more deeply than I ever thought possible and feel so honored to be your mom. You are so beautiful on the outside, but more importantly your heart is beautiful.You have a kind, sharing heart.Always keep a soft heart towards others and the Lord. Thats so important, Maddie. You make me laugh so much. I see so much of myself in you. I remember being a little girl with that wild, untamed spirit you have. I love it. Even when it frustrates me, challenges me and keeps me on my knees. You have a strong spirit and my heart's prayer is that you use it for the Lord. That you continue to be captivated by Him more and more every day. He has a huge plan for your life, Maddie. Never lose sight of that. His Hand has been upon you from the beginning and He has blessed you with life. Abundant life. Seek Him with all your heart, go hard after Him.

You are the perfect daughter for me. I love being on this journey with you. I love the simple, every-day moments with you. How you randomly hug me and tell me how much you love me. Or how you always try and 'trick' us. I love the moments (some days they are few and far between : ) ) I see you and Kobe really having fun together and enjoying each other or when you play dolls in your room with Kensi and teach her "the correct way to play." :)

You, my precious daughter, are simply fantastic! Never a dull moment with you. You are such an important part to our family and we all love you so much.

Happy 6th Birthday, Maddie.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Not to worry...

...the goose got right back to her goosey ways unpacking my desk. She is definitely feeling back to normal. :)



Monday, September 1, 2008

My Crazy Day

What a long, crazy day its been. Its been one of those days where you think back to what you did this morning and have to wonder, " was that really today?" , because it seems like so long ago. Am I the only one that has these days? :)

So this is how it started out. These two playing, having a good ole time with a box.
Who knew a box of Huggies could be so fun and entertaining?! These two little bugs ran around all morning with Kobe pushing this little princess in her chariot while she hung on for dear life, giggling away. He is such a fun, big brother.


So about 10:00 Aaron's mom calls to ask if she could come and get Kobe and Maddie and take them out for the day. Uh, yeah...that would be great! So she came and picked them up and they were off. I was excited to have a day to spend with Kensi. So me and Kensi played for a while and then folded some laundry. Or I should more accurately say, I folded the laundry and she unfolded every piece I folded and then laughed as she did it. She's an incredibly big help! :) Such a big help that I thought she may need a rest since she had so tirelessly worked on the clothes with me. So I layed her down for a nap. This is where the normalness of the day ended and the crazy began.

I heard her crying in her bed about a hour after I layed her down. So I went up to get her up and noticed she was breathing weird. I figured she was probably just upset and would settle down. The problem was, her breathing never settled. I waited and listened for a whole hour and it stayed the same. It kind of reminded me of someone who was having an asthma attack. She just couldn't get a deep enough breath...like a hiccup breathing. It was weird. Very weird. She was working really hard to get a breath. Her abdomen kept going in and out really fast and hard. I tried several things to see if it would calm her and help her breathe easier, but nothing helped. I was trying to think what it could be because she hasn't been sick. I was afraid maybe I fed her something and she was allergic to it or maybe had suddenly got asthma....ugh...i was so scared. So I panicked and called the doctor. I always have this inner struggle with calling the doctor on his day off because part of me says I am just being a panicky mom and she is fine and the other part of me says CALL HIM NOW something bad is happening. So I went with my gut and called him and explained everything to him. After talking for a while, he said to take her into the ER to get a chest xray. That even though she has had no signs of being sick, sometimes in babies they can suddenly develope pneumonia (no idea how to spell that, but you get the idea:) ).

So I grabbed the diaper bag and ran out the door. I am such a worrier. I know that I shouldn't be and I tell myself over and over that God is in control. He has us in His hands, praying healing on her little body... and I still just have to fight that urge to break down and cry and make everything better. I hate seeing my kids sick or hurt. I just want to make it go away NOW. I want them to always be ok. And to make it worse Aaron was at work. He is the calm one in these situations, not me...my role is drama queen. So I had to put on my big girl pants and stay calm.

We got to the hospital, she is still doing the crazy breathing. And let me just say she was in no mood to be messed with. Not only did she pull out the death stare at each and every hospital staff member who looked her way, she also screamed as though her arm was being cut off when they tried to put the bracelet around her ankle. She pulled the little clip off her foot every time they tried to get her blood pressure, all the while screaming her head off at the sheer audacity they had to try and touch her. Yep. She was in rare form. It always seems to take forever before they call you back. Meanwhile, I can't understand why everyone isn't as panicked as I am that she obviously isn't breathing right. I am trying really hard to care about the woman with the broken arm, but clearly a baby that has been struggling to breathe for 2 hours is more important, right? I am having flashbacks of when Maddie was little and had struggled with breathing...my mind was running wild. See, I told you I get dramatic. :)

Finally they called us back. They took her temperature and it was 102...it came on so suddenly.They listened to her chest. Got her dressed in the sweetest, saddest - looking little yellow gown. And then we waited some more. The doctor decided to do a chest xray so he could see what was going on in her lungs. The xray in itself was so sad. As you can imagine, she was not happy. They put her in this chair contraption and put a plastic case around her body with her hands above her head so she couldn't move at all. I stood right there with her talking in her ear to try and calm her. It was awful. It makes me teary-eyed just thinking about it. Her little eyes were so wide and scared and she was hysterically screaming and saying, "dada, dada, dada". Talk about wanting to just sit down and cry. Ugh. That was horrible. But necessary to make sure her little lungs were ok.

Ok. I am rambling. Long story short, her lungs were clear, but her airways were "thickened" and there was a virus. Nothing major, just a common cold virus. The doctor said the airways in a baby are so tiny anyway, so when that extra mucous builds up in them, it makes them start doing that labored breathing because for the most part babies only breathe thru their nose. None of my babies have ever done "labored breathing" like that even when they are congested. So this was new to me. Oh yeah, and she has fluid behind her right ear causing an ear infection, but hopefully that will clear up on its own. But after the places I had gone in my mind, I was happy to hear thats all it was! Told you I can be a drama queen. :)

She has been so pitiful. And snugggly! Thats the nice part. She fell asleep and I layed her down for another nap. Aaron came home and took over 'Kensi duty', so I could run out and get Maddie some tennis shoes for gym class. We had found a cute pair last night at a store, but couldn't find it in her size, so I was planning to go out today and get it, but obviously plans changed. So, at 6:00 me and Maddie run out to some stores. I was already exhausted so I just wanted to find a pair and get home. We went to 4, thats right 4 stores before we finally ended up back at the store we were at last night. I asked an employee if they knew if they had any in the back because these were the onese we really liked (they are so cute...white, pink and gray!), and that sweet, wonderful employ found her size a few feet down from where we were looking last night. Frustrating! But happy to have found some that fit. I just wanted to pay for them and get home. But Maddie felt the need to try on every pair of shoes in the store. (I think she is going to be a shoe girl. Personally , I am a bag girl, but whatever). Finally at long last we got home.

It was late, but my super hubby had dinner all made and on the table for us. what a man. I think I'm in love. And of all days, Kobe picked today to suddenly let us know how much he missed our dog Bentley who we gave away OVER A YEAR AGO! He sat at the dinner table and just cried and cried. It was so sad. I wanted to join him. He has such a tender heart. Aaron cleaned up dinner, I got the kids clothes ready for the week, packed lunches while he had devotions with him. And we got the kids to bed only an hour later than their bed time. Not bad.

I am so thankful that my precious baby is ok. I am thankful to have Jesus to lean on and trust in no matter what goes on. I am thankful for doctors and xrays and modern medicine. I am thankful that we got Maddie a pair of shoes, and ones that are super cute on top of it all. I am thankful for the really good food Aaron made. And I am so thankful that sweet Kensi is sleeping peacefully right now.

This picture just makes me want to crawl in that crib and curl up to her. What a precious girl...


So now, I am so tired I can't see straight. I want to go to bed, but am kind of worried to go to sleep just in case she needs me. What I really want to do is go put her in bed with us so I will sleep better, but I know she will sleep better in her crib. So instead I just sit here and type about this endless day and can't believe that it was this morning Kobe and her were playing in that box. It seems like that was at least 2 days ago. So I think I am going to go to bed now. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more layed back. :) Night.