Meme fairy

Well, Chloe is officially a big girl. She really lost her meme (pacifier) yesterday which is perfect because we have been telling her that when she turns three the meme fairy was going to come and take the meme's and leave some candy! So, the meme fairy has visited, just waiting for her to wake up! Now we just hope she doesn't find the lost meme, we've looked everywhere but those things have a way of just showing up!! I can't believe my baby girl is three today! She brings so much joy to our lives! She's sassy, she's sweet, she's bossy, she's super loving, she's fancy, she's likes to get dirty, she's our sunshine on a cloudy day, she's our Chloe!!! I blame it on her red hair, the many personalities! Love love love her!!!!

Blessed today!

So thankful for many things today... Thankful for Austin's x ray showing that there was not any damage to his growth plate; therefore, today was his last visit to Children's hospital. Thankful for the doctors up there!
Thankful that we made out of St Louis just in time to beat the traffic!
Also, the memories we made today with Chloe, her bubs (as she calls them) and aunt Danielle! Chloe loves her early birthday present... A hello kitty build a bear! Fun times, even Austin and Preston had fun helping her make it!
Finally, thankful my antibiotics for my pink eye and sinus infection, starting to feel better already! So thankful for all of these blessings!

Thankful

Well, I say it every time.... where does the time go??? It just amazes me how fast time really does fly by the older you get! Maybe it's called having a full time job, being a momma, and a wife! I absolutely love all of my roles and can't imagine it any other way! At 11:30 at night I should be sleeping but thanks to my wonderful friends' awesome sweet tea I may be up awhile...so
20 things I'm thankful for:
1. God's grace, forever thankful, that our God saves!
2. My husband who is also my best friend to share this life with!
3. Three amazing children that God has given to Jeff and I to raise to know and serve
him!
4. A job that I love! Love my 24 "other kiddos"!!! My first graders that is! It's so awesome to have a job so rewarding!
5. A warm, safe place we call home! It's definitely hard to keep it as clean as I would like but I've gotten better at accepting that "it's lived in"!
6. Thankful everyday that we have food to nourish our body!
7. A wonderful church that helps me grow spiritually every weekend!
8. That being said, thankful for sat. night service for when our Sunday mornings are spent at the soccer field.
9. So thankful for our health!
10. Our family and great friends to make so many memories with!
11. Boating at the lake and camping! Again so many fantastic memories are made every summer!
12. Laughter and giggles of a two year old, oh how I love, my sweet Chloe's giggle! (OK, yes she is a little stinker sometimes but her cuteness makes up for it all)
13. The silly things Preston says! He loves to make me smile!
14. Austin, our classic first born. Organized, worrier, takes care of everyone, wants everyone to be happy! So proud of each of my children!
15. Coffee, my only addiction! Gotta have it to get movin! Oh, and sweet tea!!
16. Music and dancing with my kids at the end of the day!
17. Trampolines, also great stress re-leaser with kids! Yes, I still love to jump, too!
18. Modern medicine, something we often take for granted! Yet, we experienced first hand this summer that it saved our Austin from becoming even more sick!
19. Vacations
20. Summer vacation, love all the time with my kids in the summer!

summer fun and a visit to children's hospital...

Well, it's been almost two months already and I can't believe I'm already thinking about what I have to do to get my room ready for the first day of school! This summer has been almost a blur! The first month we were busy going to the park or parks, had a picnic lunch or two (I"m sure Austin will not forget the picnic under the tree when a bird, well, pooped on his sandwich-UGGGHHH), went swimming, had Preston's birthday party, went to the movies, had sleepovers, boating and camping, visited the nature center and went on a hike...then June 17th was the day our summmer would be turned upside down for awhile! Austin came down with high fever and at this time there was a fever virus going around so we thought that was it, went to a Cardinal game that sunday assuming since it was a virus his fever surely broke the night before since it was 104.4! He was fine all the way to St. Louis and no sooner then we got out of the car and to our seat did he spike the fever of 104.4 again. We left obviously and gave him motrin and an hour later he was good to go again! This continued and Monday morning was the same, high fever, bad headache, even threw up! By this time we hadn't really slept in several days because austin was sick with the stomach aches and headaches and the high fever was very concerning to me! So, I got him to Dr as soon as possible! Fortunately, my sister was still in town and came to stay with Chloe and Preston! Strep was negative so they ran blood work. Finally, after returning to dr on Tuesday for chest xray (to rule out pneumonia, he also had strange random cough) and a x-ray on Wednesday, dr called up to childrens hospital when he got a positive staph result in austin's blood work! For some reason we went to southeast hospital, I guess because the dr was confident they could treat it here. However, when we woke up Thursday at southeast and dr had to call to st.louis to see what to do, we requested Austin be sent to Children's! I could not have been more impressed with the doctors! The team of doctors! They were AwEsOME!! So, we found out it was MRSA in his blood which is basically an antibiotic resistant staph which only a few antibiotics work! Fortunately, austin was able to take the iv antibiotics and finally got a negative blood culture 3 days into it! However, in the meantime he was still running fever and blood work was positive and Children's didnt have the images of the MRI from southeast because they forgot to send them with us on the ambulance ride (which by the way was awful, the driver and EMT were not very nice people, I felt so sorry for Austin to be stuck with them the whole way there~no one even talked to him) I couldn't ride with him either, had to follow! So, southeast hospital couldn't even get the MRI images fed x over night so eventually, after two days of waiting on it, the poor kid had to get another MRI because the infectious disease doctor needed to see if there was puss on the bone which would have meant surgery to drain it out! So, this time Austin knew what to expect and as very nervous so they let me go with him and I held his hand as he went into the MRI machine, I wished so bad that I could take his place! That machine is scary but Austin was a brave young man throughout the entire week, a CAT scan, two MRI's, blood work everyday, two IV's, being put to sleep to have picc line in which brings me to another nurse story, Austin was told the medicine would help him relax when they put the picc line in. So, 4 a.m comes and he wants a drink, the tech says, oh you can't have anything to eat or drink when you are going to be put to sleep!! OMG seriously, well needless to say, we were up the rest of the morning, in and out of bed to take him to the bathroom, his stomach was upset to begin with because of the medicine, now he was so nervous! Eventually, we convinced him he had to do it so we could get back home, the doctor was great and really calmed him down. They talked about baseball and within 30 minutes I was back in the room with him and he kept saying, that was fun! Pretty crazy what medicine can do, I didn't like seeing Austin like that, very strange! 10 or 15 minutes later he was back to himself! His dream while sleeping.. he and Albert Pujols were flying through the hospital on a baseball! I think he was trying to escape! haha
So, even is 10th birthday was spent in the hospital! It did get him an ipod touch though! Thanks to uncle adam for pulling it off, picked it up for us and even downloaded music and movies! This little gadget was a lifesaver, it was stuck to palm of austin's had over the next few days! He even had visitors! Our wonderful friends came to see him on his birthday and unfortunately, Parker and Hailey couldn't come up to see him (we didn't realize kids weren't aloud under 15 unless siblings)! So, Steve and heather took turns visiting with Austin while I visited with them in the lobby! We tried to get a hold of jess to tell her about the visitor rule but didn't get in touch so we did the same thing! I know Austin was happy to see everyone and the kids all made video messages to share with each other, thanks to our i phones! We had cake with danielle and adam! We just tried to make it as special as possible! The days to follow would consist of .... to be continued

catching up....again

So, as usual life is busy and there is not enough time to blog! Actually, I am trying something new... each kiddo has a journal and I'm trying to personalize it to each of them with the silly things they do and say! Today I would have to write in Austin's about what a great big brother he was trying to teach Preston how to swim underwater without holding his nose! He was so sweet and even went behind him in the pool, put his arms around Preston's and showed him to move his arms underwater! Definitely a kodak moment! However, a few minutes later the attempt to go under without holding nose was unsuccessful! I think he held his breathe too long before he went under and ended up inhaling!

snow, swimming, basketball, good friends, and sweet tea

Wow, what a busy day! Since soccer ended awhile back, our lives have been a bit less busy (which we like); however, today...well, we woke up to snow! Slowly, the kids woke up and stumbled into bed with us. Nothing like snuggling with the whole family on a snowy Saturday morning! Next, a quick breakfast and then we suited up and headed out to sled before it melted. A few snowballs later, we headed back in to warm up and get ready for Kali's birthday party at the pool! Every kids Saturday dream...playing in snow and swimming! Chloe and Destanie were so cute in the baby pool! I'm pretty sure they had a great time together! Austin loved jumping off the high dive and Preston was a good big brother and played with Chloe! Then, off to another birthday party at SEMO rec. center where the boys played basketball and football for nearly two hours! And the night would't be complete without a stop at the Fisher's! FUN! FUN! FUN day! So one would think I would be exhausted like the rest of the family but no I had to have not one glass of double sweet tea but TWO. Thanks girl! Haha! Well at least some of the cleaning is now done and laundry is going! Perhaps, I will actually rest on the Lord's day! Something I rarely ever do and am working on! So thankful for this family fun filled day!

Heaven

Talking about favorite things at dinner and when I asked Preston, "If you could visit one place in the whole world, where would it be?" Preston thought for only a second and answered " Heaven!" Wow, words from a 6 year old! This brought a tear to my eye! I mean how cool is that, 6 years old and already knows how awesome it will be in heaven! My children are amazing and they make me smile everyday! They are my sunshine!

Cloud Nine

It seems as though work and the busyness of everyday life has kept me from journaling! However, I'm going to try to do better this year! The kids are always saying something funny or doing something silly and I just dont want to forget these moments! Chloe repeats everything she hears and just cracks us up! She is getting a little bossy lately! Austin is on cloud nine today because he found out he will be in Alert! He was super nervous about this! We are so very proud of him! Preston is following in his footsteps already reading on 1st grade level! Tonight we made a poster using 100 Popsicle sticks for the 100th day of school with Preston. Good family times, hot gluing, creating, and cleaning up Chloe's mess. We had out play dough, scissors, papers, markers, stickers, and who knows what else before the night was over. Before that we spent some time outside swingin. We had our snow to play in last week so now bring on spring! Chloe's big news...she's been potty trained completely for over a week now! No pull-ups or anything! Yeah, for no more diapers! She loves to run around naked, it's hard to keep her dressed even when its cold in here! We did bribe her with any pretty panties she wanted if she would go on the potty and it worked! She has minnie mouse ones, princess ones, and dora panties! Hey, whatever works!
Last week we had two snow days! The boys were super excited to play out in the 2 to 3 inches of snow we got! Chloe liked sledding, only by herself though! Austin loved trying to snow board, he was pretty good at it, too. Preston liked sledding down the hill on his belly like a penguin he says (his sled is a penguin)! Too funny! We spent the night with my sis and bro in law on Friday and got to play in their 10 inches snow! Good times with the family! The kids loved staying the night with their aunt and uncle!