March Madness!!

Well, we began the month by hosting 10th grade boys for Disciple Now. I don't have any pictures of that except for Blake during D-Now. He got trapped under the bar stool in this picture. He was quite upset until he saw how funny I thought it was...then he found a little of the humor in it!! Adorable!Blake is watching the 10th grade boys play in the back yard! Look how big he looks standing in that window!!The next weekend, the demo began! Alan and his dad took out the entry tile and the living room carpet so that they could lay beautiful hardwood floors. This project was a BIG one!!! Blake got a front row seat to the clean up!Look at that mess! A month later, I am still cleaning up dust from this project!Making great progress...slowly getting there! Ask Alan how much he loves that glue!! Hahaha!The gorgeous finished product!While he was at it, he took down the tile surround around the fireplace and installed this beautiful tumbled marble mosaic tile.Posing for a pic on the new floors while daddy works on the trim!Can you say C-U-T-E!!!!I got the kids' Easter outfits and needed a new pic for the fireplace. The girls were angelic for this little photoshoot of mine...their brother, on the other hand, was a toot!!! We laughed so hard at all his goofiness. In this one, they are posing so pretty (with huge hopes for cookies when they get home ;) ) and he is making his get away! In these pics, I wanted them to all stand holding hands...not with this little guy!!! He thought it was hilarious to pull as hard as possible against them! Maci was laughing so hard and so were we! (Payton started not feeling well and wasn't quite as amused!)

The 3 biggest blessings ever!!! My cup runeth over!!

Just chillin!!!

Blake insists on having something random in his mouth as he crawls around the playroom. For a long time, it was puzzle pieces. If it falls out, he stops, puts it back in, then continues on his way. My little puppy dog!Look how big my baby girl is getting!!! While we weren't looking, she grew so much!Blake is 10 months old!

February 2011 continued!

Blake and I were able to go to Longview and be with my sister when she had Little Miss Kendall (as Payton has named her.) Tonya let me take a few pics while I was there! Isn't she sweet?!? Me and my favorite LARGE son!

Blake is 9 mos!!!

This and That...

Just catching up the blog with some of our latest...

There is nothing significant about this, except that he is adorable!I thought this one was funny because Blake is so big, he looks almost as big as his 4 year old sister! She looks like she's struggling to hold on to our little chunk!My big girl looks so old in her beautiful earrings!Payton is waiting (not so patiently) for a date with her Papa and Grandma!Look at those sweet chompers!!I have pics of both the girls taking a bath in the sink when they could sit up, thought I'd do the same for Blake. He LOVED it! The floor and counters were soaked! I couldn't choose between the pictures, so I made a page with them all!He thinks he is so big! Pulling up and finding the stairs...this guy is growing up way too fast!Blake has been sick for over 3 weeks and the last week of it has been pretty rough! He still feels pretty awful, but today he is dealing with it a lot better! He even had a good time playing with us!

Maci is 6!!!

Maci, my first baby, is 6 years old! That makes me feel so old. She looks every bit of 6 too. She's looking more and more like a little lady and less and less like a little baby. Her sweet cheeks are all but gone. She's so smart and so sweet. She is very giving and generous (well most of the time) She has had such a huge year. A great big kindergartner. Wow! Well, her six years have blessed us tremendously. We completely adore this beautiful little girl.

On her birthday, in true Maci fashion, she picked a girls' day with Payton and me over a big birthday party. I wasn't all that surprised, but it blessed my heart that she preferred being with me and her sister to a huge group of friends and family. I loved every minute of my time with her. We started her day with a lunch downtown with Alan. We then went over to the Galleria and got manicures and ears pierced. Maci was all alone on that one. Payton changed her mind right at the last minute. Very funny! Well, Maci was very brave, especially for her. She didn't shed a tear. Her new earrings are adorable. They make her look even older. After checking out every children's store in the galleria and having cookies, we got Alan from work and headed home for dinner. On the way home, Alan decided that we just had to have some ice cream. So, we did. Then we went home and had pizza, popcorn, and watched Bambi (Maci's pick.) After the movie we had birthday cake and then tucked our big ole 6 year old in bed. She informed us that this was the very best birthday ever. I would have to agree. It is very sweet to get to spend days like that with your family. Happy birthday to our beautiful first! Maci we love you dearly!

Manicure time

Pretty new earringsMovie partybirthday cake!!!

A wonderful day!

A few sweet pics of the kids...

Things We Take For Granted...

...our good health.

My family has always been very healthy. We have had our fair share of the occasional cold, cough, ear infection, stomach bug, etc, but, overall we have been a pretty healthy crew. This Fall Blake has been sick pretty much since Maci started kindergarten. His colds all turned to wheezing coughs and ear infections. In fact we spent 40 of the last 60 days with him on back to back antibiotics for 4 consecutive ear infections and also have been put on a daily medicine to keep him from coughing and wheezing. SERIOUSLY!! His ears were finally clear for the first time this week since October. Poor baby boy. We were incredibly relieved to hear that we won't have to do tubes for him, at least not immediately. What an answered prayer.

Well, in the middle of all of that, we took Payton to the doctor for her 4 year well check. This was her first dr's appointment since her 3 year well-check, and we had changed doctors earlier in the year. Well, when this new doctor was evaluating her charts, he was not happy with the difference between her height percentile last year and her percentile this year. He was concerned about a possible thyroid issue because of her apparent lack of growth and decided to do bloodwork and a urinalysis. When I got home, I looked at Payton's stats in my books and discovered that the other doctor actually just plotted Payton's height incorrectly on the growth chart, so I was no longer worried about a thyroid problem because it was just a mix-up that alarmed our new doctor. I decided I would let him know when he called with our results. After a few days, the doctor called himself. He said that all her levels were pretty normal, but that he was very surprised to have found a UTI. He was surprised because she has NO symptoms of a UTI at all. NONE. Anyway, he put her on an antibiotic to clear it up and had us schedule a re-check for it.
At her re-check 2 weeks later, he found that not only did her infection not clear up, but it got a whole lot worse. She still had no symptoms to speak of. This alarmed our doctor. He had us make an appointment at Texas Children's to have a procedure called a VCUG and an ultrasound done to see what was going on inside our Payton. Her appointment was Dec. 30th and it was horrible. Poor little girl was a bit traumatized. While we were there, we were able to hear from a doctor that she has VUR, which is a reflux of the kidneys. Her grade of reflux, when we spoke with our doctor on our way home, was a grade 2 out of 5 on one side, and a grade 4 out of 5 on the other. He informed us that because of the level 4, she would be having surgery to correct the problem. Unreal. Two weeks ago, we had never even heard of this, and now our seemingly perfectly healthy baby girl will have to have a pretty intense surgery to correct a pretty serious problem. She has no idea there is anything even wrong with her. It pretty much breaks my heart.
It also looks like we will have to test the other two kiddos for this because there is a chance they could have it too. WOW!!!

I have always prayed daily for my children. I pray for their salvation, I pray for their protection from all sorts of evils, I pray for their future mates, I pray for their relationships, I pray for their talents and temperaments, I pray for their future, I pray for their safety. I daily pray for my children. I will tell you that their health is something I have always taken for granted. Why would you just assume your children will be healthy, how silly. Why did I over-look that one??? Not saying I think that I could have done anything to change what is going on in our sweet family right now. I do not think any of this is happening because I overlooked it. I'm not that big. I just took it for granted that we'd always be healthy. I will tell you this, the little things like the health of my family, will be in my prayers too from now on.

We will meet with Payton's urologist in a few weeks and find out more about her VUR and the surgery to correct it. We are praying that it is easily fixed and that she will be completely free of it once the surgery is complete. We are also praying that Maci and Blake do not have it as well. We are praying that Blake's little ears stay clear and that his immune system will protect him from getting so many colds. We are praying that our children are healed from all that ails them. We are praying that our children have good health from here on out.

We are praying that we don't take God's blessings and His protection for granted.

December at a Glance (in no particular order)

Christmas Date 2010 with my sweet family of five!!
One of our favorite gifts Blake got were thses awesome shoes from his Aunt Sherry and Uncle Monte. A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!! Ignore the quote, its from a b-ball player and Alan and I thought it was funny!Christmas morning while the girls were opening presents, Blake decided that hiding under the tree was more fun.

Payton's favorite gift...a real Cinderella wedding dress

Maci loved her skateboard from Santa.

Before Christmas the kids and I went to Austin for a few days. Ice Skating was a highlight of our trip.

Handsome baby boy Christmas morning at Papa and Grandma's

My beautiful children!!!

Grandma and her sweeties!

"Twas the Night Before Christmas" with daddy Christmas Eve night. So Sweet!

Blake learned to army crawl at the beginning of this month!

All dolled up for Alan's company Christmas Party!

Payton's favorite ornament

Maci's favorite ornament

Baby's first Christmas!!!

Mom and Dad's Christmas card picture this year.

Thanksgiving in Austin. (oops, I said this was December at a glance...guess I was more behind than I thought.)