Very First Field Trip

Abby Grace just had her very first field trip and oh my word, she was PUMPED!!! Our district has a really cool facility called the Outdoor Learning Center, where the FFA students house their farm animals, but it also has a pond, and a nature trail that is home to all kinds of creatures and plants. The elementary age kids go there and become scientists for the day and explore what is there. It's not far from the school and doesn't cost anything to go there..............total bonus.

Not only was she excited to go there, but it was her very first time on a school bus!! I'm not sure what she was most excited about!

Here are pictures from the trip.










It was such a fun trip!! We are blessed to be in a district that knows it is important to get the kids out of the classroom to learn!

Kindergarten Update

Now that the year is almost half over, (NOT SURE HOW THAT EVEN HAPPENED!!) I figured I would update on how Abby Grace is doing in school and post a few pictures of some recent activities.

As far as comprehension, Abby Grace is really catching on with reading and writing. Things were hard at first, as she is left handed and seemed to be so backwards with everything. She was consistently reading and writing from right to left (she wrote her name ybba instead of abby). All of her letters were almost mirror image from what they should be. However, her teacher has been an amazing support and with lots of practice, all of those issues seem to be SO much better!!! She can read all of her sight words fairly quickly and can point them out in other books. I am so proud of her.

She is however, having a hard time with her energy and being excessively tired from the school day. We are working with her team of doctors and trying to figure out the best way to handle the situation and improve her energy levels. Poor baby girl, it just breaks my heart at how exhausted she truly is. When she comes home from school she eats a snack, and 3 out of 5 days will ALWAYS take a nap until almost dinner time. We eat dinner by 5:30 and she is in the bath after right that. 6:00-6:15 is bedtime and I will read to her for about 20-25 minutes. She is sound asleep by 6:45 every night, 7 at the absolute latest....and then I wake her up for school at 6:45am to get ready for the day. That is not enough time to spend with her every day! I think that has been the hardest part of this whole school thing. I miss her, and that's just all there is to it.

From a medical standpoint, she is so exhausted from all of the central apnea she continues to have. During the night she still stops breathing about 80-90 times. The doctors are not sure what is causing her central apnea and honestly there isn't anything they can really do to improve it, other than keep her on a strict schedule. Every time her brain doesn't send the signal to her body to breathe, she has an apnic spell and her body arouses itself as an effort to "rescue" itself. Mind you the spells are short in length, but when they happen so frequently, her body cannot get a restful sleep at night.

The original thought was that Abby's central apnea was a result of the damage from her Chiari, however now that we have 2 children (Abby and Owen) with unresolved central sleep apnea they are leaning towards some genetic issue that we have not been able to diagnose. So for now, we will just keep her on the schedule and try to keep her as rested as we can. Prayerfully, we will find a solution that doesn't require giving her a med, which I do not want to do.

I didn't mean to elaborate on that for so long, but that is our life for now so kudos to you if you are still reading!

Here are some pictures from fun stuff that has been happening at school!

Mrs Miller's Class
First Trip to the library. Abby Grace was SO excited!!



Pajama Day!!

Thanksgiving Feast

Seriously, how precious is that Pilgrim? Although she was less than thrilled with the style choices of the pilgrims!! HA!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

I have been seriously slacking in the picture taking department and these kiddos are growing faster than I can keep up with! So the kids were out of school for a teacher workday and I thought I would take them to the pumpkin patch to try amd get a few pictures. I told them on the way there that my goal was to get a really good picture of each of them alone, and a picture of all of them together and we were not leavign until it was done. The faster they cooperate the faster we could be finished. Seems easy enough right???

HA!!!!!! If my 5 year old diva didn't insist on fighting with me about the outfit I chose for her then the day would have been easy peasy. There was definately some drama over her clothes, however I won the battle and even got a few smiles from her. It really breaks my heart that she doesn't want to have all the ruffles and frill that I am used to putting her in. But I guess I should be thankful that I got at least 5 years out of her!! HA!

I really tried to be relaxed and not fuss at the kiddos the whole time I was trying to get their pictures. As mom it is really easy to do that, or maybe it's just me! Anyway, here is the result of our no fuss fall pictures! I am in love with them, the pictures AND the kids!!!


















Looking at their beautiful faces just melts my heart!!! I am so blessed to be their momma and I cannot wait to see how little Charlie is going to fit in the chaos!

My 4 Little Nerds!!!

This Halloween was my favorite one EVER as far as costumes are concerned!!! I try not to get too wrapped up in the kids being all matchy because they are so spread out in age......however this year it all worked out!! Kayli and Ty both wanted to be nerds and then Abby Grace would not hear of any other suggestion except a nerd!!! (I think our days of princesses and fairies my be long gone with this girl) So, since I was already going to have 3 nerds, I may as well have 4, right??? I seriously could not have pictured how precious they would be!! Go ahead and see for yourself!!
















I told you they were SO PRECIOUS!!!! How in the world am I going to top that next year when we have 5 kids???

Race For The Cure

Yes, I know October is WAY over, but I am catching up this morning so feel free to skip along to the current events if you must. I promised myself to do a better job of scrapbooking our life, thus the not-so-current events post!

My MIL is a breast cancer survivor and I have participated in the Race For the Cure almost every year since David and I have been dating............with the exception of the years I was having babies and raising newborns! She had cancer a couple of years before David and I met, but I count it a HUGE blessing to be able to walk as a way to honor her every year.

I love her dearly and I am so thankful that her fight ended in survival. It always proves to be a very emotional time to walk through the mass crowds of people whose lives have been so deeply touched by such an aweful illness, and be in the presence of so many survivors. Love you so much Mom and I am so thankful for you!!!

Neurology Appointment

Agghh!!! This post is from October and I just realized I never posted it. There is another update after this, however I am going to do a seperate post for my sake.




Please excuse the tiny blogging break. It was not intended, and I guess life just "happened" and blogging didn't. You know how it goes.......

Today Owen had an appointment with our neurologist, whom I just happen to be super thankful for. Dr. H has been seeing Abby Grace for over 2 1/2 years now and when it was clear Owen would require neurology as well, I wanted Dr. H to be the one to see him.

At our last appointment (a few months ago) Dr. H was still not satisfied with where Owen was developmentallly and for almost a year now we have not been able to find a "medical" cause for his various issues. All of our genetic testing has continued to come back normal among other clear test results, THANK GOD. However, she has been perplexed to say the least. I absolutely could not wait for her to see Owen today and all his new tricks!

Dr. H walked into our room completely prepared to push (in a loving way of course) for the muscle biopsy that she thought might help give us some insight to this "delay". She even brought paperwork with information, because she knew I would be full of questions and not agree without some serious conversation. Needless to say, those papers went in the trash and the conversation never even took place. Why, you may say??? BECAUSE MY GOD IS BIG LIKE THAT!!!!!

Owen Bear was putting on a show let me just say. He followed simple command from Dr. H: "Owen can you please open your mouth?" I could not believe he did it for her!!! He also proceeded to climb in the chair to look out the window and say "truck, truck!" It was so precious. He covered his own eyes and played peek a boo with her, all on his own!!! I was so proud of my boy!! He was signing for "more please" when he ran out of strawberries. Mind you, when he is with me he would much rather grunt for more than to sign for it. Needless to say, she was stunned and more than pleasantly surprised at Owen's progress.

Developmentally, Owen is right on target for his age. His speech is actually advanced and I am convinced that is because of the other kiddos at home. We don't have to go back for, are you ready? SIX MONTHS!!!! She wants to "leave him alone" for a while. Can you say AMEN??????