Lauren

I know it's been awhile since I last posted, and I will talk about my Mom's visit out here on another day. I am going to talk about Lauren's health issues and it's going to get graphic, so if you have a weak stomach do not read. As most of you know, Lauren has had rectal bleeding since she was 15 months old. When the bleeding first started, we took her off dairy and gave her soy to see if she was allergic to dairy...still bleeding. We flushed out her system and still bleeding, then she had a bought of prolapse that scared me to death. For those of you that don't know what rectal prolapse is, it's when the rectum turns inside out and comes out of the anus. Here I am changing her diaper and there is this bulbus purple thing sticking out of her bottom. I had to muster every ounce of my being so that I wouldn't scream and scare the kids. When I lifted up her legs to remove the dirty diaper, it was gone. That was what led to our visit with the gastroenterologist at CHOC. No testing was done and we were told to put her on Miralax to keep her stools the consistency of soft serve ice cream...still bleeding, but not as frequently. At first she went for a month without bleeding, then two months, then three months, then when we moved out here she went for five months without bleeding and we actually thought that it was finally over, boy were we wrong! She had three bouts of bleeding in one day, then nothing for a month, then more bleeding. Her bleeding was becoming more frequent until Thanksgiving when she had a bowel movement and started screaming because of the pain. She wouldn't let Kevin touch her so I had to check her out. She told me that there was blood and when she got off the toilet, blood was dripping onto her leg. I grabbed the toilet paper and starting wiping it up. I asked her to bend over so that I could check her tooshie and there it was staring at me, but this time I had to push it back in. Not fun people, not fun at all. The next day more bleeding and prolapse. I also have to say that whenever she had bleeding in the past, it was just a little bit and it was more pink than red, but since Thanksgiving, it's been bright red and a lot of it. The Monday after Thanksgiving, I called her pediatrician and let him know what was going on and he gave us the name and number of a doctor to call and schedule with right away. Well, when I looked up the doctor online, I discovered that it was a surgeon. That totally freaked me out! So last week, we got her in with the surgeon and he examined her. The doctor had to put his finger in her anus to check how things felt in there and I must say Lauren did so well. She did everything that he asked her to do and she didn't make a peep. We were so proud of her! So the surgeon tells us that everything feels nice and tight and where it should be and he didn't think that she would need surgery. He did agree that since the bleeding has been going on for so long to have a scope done, so he said that he would talk with his colleagues and they would call us to schedule. The next day we got a call saying that Lauren would need an xray and would be seeing the gastroenterologist after. Now that brings us to today. We took her in for the xray and she did wonderful! We got to the doctors office and the fun began. The doctor said that Lauren has some calcification in her appendix and has a lot of stool in her bowels. So tomorrow, we flush out her system with a whole bottle of Miralax and a liquid diet. The doctor was very upset that no testing has been done on her, so we had to take her to the lab for lots of bloodwork. I went in with her and when she saw the needle, she just started shaking and saying, "No shots, Mommy. Please no shots!" Then she started crying... I so wanted to cry with her, but I had to be strong for her. They took out a lot of blood...poor thing :( Lauren needs to come back on January 4th to have a sweat test done to check for Cystic Fibrosis. This test will take an hour and she will have electrodes on her and some kind of device to collect her sweat. That is not going to be fun. She will see the doctor afterwards to go over the lab results and to discuss the colonoscopy in detail. She may also get another xray to see if the stone is gone. We are so thankful that testing is finally being done, but it is so hard to watch her go through this. I would love to just take this from her and bear the burden myself. Today was a little overwhelming and I'm still trying to process it all. Prayers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

First Snow Day

Today, we here in the Frozen Tundra, had our first snow fall of the season. The kids have been waiting for this since the leaves starting falling. Everyday Curtis has been asking if it's going to snow and he gets sad when it doesn't. So yesterday, before the kids went to bed we told them that it was supposed to snow today. So when Curtis got up this morning, I could here him lift up the blinds to look out the window, then say in a quiet voice, to not wake up his sisters, "It's snowing!" Remember, the kids have never seen snow on the ground until we moved out here in March and today was the first time they have ever seen snow falling from the sky! It was like Christmas morning around our place today! When Lauren woke up about 20 minutes later, Curtis must have told her that it was snowing because I heard her lifting up the blinds to look outside. Then she exclaimed, "It's snowing!!" and came running into our room, "Mommy, it's snowing, it's snowing!!"

This is what it looked like when we woke up.

Claire, our little snow bunny!

Curtis catching snowflakes on his tongue.

Lauren making a snow angel and tasting snow flakes.

The Final Catch Up

So, this post should catch you all up on what is happening in our lives. Curtis is doing good in school. He is growing and maturing so much. Kevin and I are just amazed at how much he has changed since starting school. Lauren is now potty trained and she did it all on her own! She wants to go to school so bad and knows that she can't go if she is not potty trained. It is so nice to have only one child in diapers :) Claire is now 17 months old and is saying words like no tomorrow. It's like deja vu with Curtis all over again! Curtis and Claire are buddies, it is so awesome to see. Claire will just come up to him and hug him and give him kisses and Curtis in turn will protect her. Lauren just picks on both of them, but she can also be so gentle and kind. Claire has the best personality. She is so silly and sure of herself, I mean she will make faces or do something silly just to get us to laugh. She loves her books, just like the other two. I am so thankful that my children love to read books. Kevin is still not working :( He had a couple of leads, but they didn't go anywhere. We are now just waiting on the Lord. A few weeks ago, Kevin was approached by his brothers with a job prospect...two Christian gentlemen are trying to start a company selling musical instruments and accessories. These two gentlemen are already selling guitars and some other stuff from their garage, but want to expand. Kevin's younger brother is already working on the website and if sales escalate to where the company can expand, then Kevin and his two brothers will be co-owners in this company, with Kevin being in charge of warehouse inventory and guitar set up. We would need to move to North Carolina. I know, when Kevin first told me, I was like "What!?! We just moved out here." Now I am very open to it if that is where the Lord is calling us to go. We have found a church that we like and a Christian school out there. We are excited to see the Lord move and work in this. Kevin and I were talking the other day that the Lord has been closing doors for us out here. We had been looking at houses and everyone we liked was either being closed on or the realtors wouldn't call us back. Then when we went to get a home loan, we were told that we can't get one because I don't have the two year work history. She did tell us that once Kevin gets a job, then we can get the loan started. That sounds good, but Kevin is having a hard time finding a job. So we wait to see what the Lord has in store for us. Finally, we had our pictures taken by Ali Feldman a couple weeks ago. We planned on wearing white turtlenecks, so that we wouldn't take away from the beautiful fall colors. Well, it was so hot!! It was around 85 degrees and we were in our turtlenecks outside and Claire was super grouchy. Ali was so patient with us and did get some great pictures. I can only put a couple on here because we are having difficulty viewing the pictures from our computer.

Aren't the colors beautiful? Uh, not sure what Lauren is doing and don't really want to know :)

Our beautiful family

Curtis playing in the leaves

So I had to throw this one in so you could see that Claire wasn't a happy camper.

Catching Up: Part 4

Alrighty, so today I'm going to talk about this cool celebration that our city has called the Fire Muster. They have this celebration every September with a fire truck parade on Saturday and the community parade on Sunday. We went on Saturday and let me tell you, the fire truck parade was so cool! I felt like a kid getting all giddy with excitement waiting for the parade to start. I think I was more excited than the kids at one point :) What an awesome parade!! I've never seen so many fire trucks in one place in my whole life. I took about 100 pictures, just of the fire trucks. After the parade, we went to the civic center to look at the trucks up close and see the demonstrations. The kids got to play on some of the trucks and try on the fire fighting gear. They even got to pick out their own fire hat to take home. Here are some pictures of that awesome day!

Here they come!!

This is a truck that goes into buildings that are unstable.

The mobile command unit

The hook and ladder truck

Old fashioned fire engine

Old fashioned ladder truck. This was Kevin's favorite.

The auto extraction demonstration

This is one of my favorites of the kids.

The kids shooting water from the fire hose.

Catching Up: Part 3

Labor Day weekend we took the kids to the Minnesota State Fair and of course the day we went, the attendance record was broken. Thankfully we got there early and we left early because we could barely walk around it was so crowded. The kids loved every minute of it and that's all that matters. Next year though, I think we are going to do the county fairs instead. So here are some pictures.

The kids at the Lil Farm Hands exhibit. This exhibit was so cool. The kids got a pail and an apron and had to go to these stations around the exhibit. They got a baggie of corn to feed the chickens, when they fed the chickens they got to put an egg in their pail. Then they went to ride around in a pedal tractor, then plant a vegetable and harvest a vegetable to put in their pail. Then they fed a sheep and got some wool to put in their pail. Next, they fed a cow and milked the cow and got a carton of milk to put in their pail. Then, they picked an apple to put in their pail and went to market to sell their wares. They received a play doller to buy one item in the store and they both chose an apple :)

Curtis planting some potatoes at the Lil Farm Hands exhibit.

Lauren riding a John Deere tractor at the Lil Farm Hands exhibit.

The kids raking cranberries.

Catching Up: Part 2

As you all know Curtis started kindergarten this year. This post is going to be about his Jump Start class and his first day of school. We put Curtis in a kindergarten jump start class to help him get ready for kindergarten. It was a three week class and he loved every minute of it! He was so sad when the class was over because he wouldn't get to see his friends again. That was very hard. Then he started school and now he is fine. I took the day off so that I could be with him on his special day. I held off the tears until he got onto the bus and then the floodgates opened. My baby is growing up, too fast I'm afraid. So, onto the pictures!

Curtis' jump start class showing the parents what they have learned.

Curtis looking at Grace. She liked him and would follow him around. Puppy love!!

Curtis and his friend Abdallahi. They were inseprable.

In front of his class.

Curtis on his way to school. I was very nervous about him riding the bus to school, but he begged and pleaded to ride the bus.

All lined up and ready to go to class. They are waving bye to the parents before heading inside.

Last week, was teacher confrences and his teacher told us that he is above average in the letters that he knows. He knows 23 of the 26 letters and she was very impressed that he knows the sounds that letters make. He does know how to spell a few words, so he is well on his way.

Catching Up: Part 1

Alright, since I have a lot to talk about, I'm going to write a little at a time. Today, I'm going to talk about our Chuck E. Cheese day. Since, Curtis and Lauren's birthday's are two weeks apart and I was super busy at work in August, so we decided to celebrate both birthday's at Chuck E. Cheese with their cousins. The kids had so much fun!

Claire had fun riding in the cars. She didn't want to leave.

Curtis and his cousin Levi.

The girls on the carousel.

Having fun!!

Lead Me

Boy, it sure has been awhile since I've posted anything. I have a lot to post, but that will have to wait for another day. Today I want to share with you an awesome song that just moves me to tears every time I hear it. The song is called Lead Me by the band Sanctus Real.

I look around and see my wonderful life

Almost perfect from the outside

In picture frames I see my beautiful wife

Always smiling

But on the inside, I can hear her saying...

“Lead me with strong hands

Stand up when I can't

Don't leave me hungry for love

Chasing dreams, what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight

That I'm still the love of your life

I know we call this our home

But I still feel alone”

I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes

They're just children from the outside

I'm working hard, I tell myself they'll be fine

They're independent

But on the inside, I can hear them saying...

“Lead me with strong hands

Stand up when I can't

Don't leave me hungry for love

Chasing dreams, but what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight

That I'm still the love of your life

I know we call this our home

But I still feel alone”

So Father, give me the strength

To be everything I'm called to be

Oh, Father, show me the way

To lead them

Won't You lead me?

To lead them with strong hands

To stand up when they can't

Don't want to leave them hungry for love,

Chasing things that I could give up

I'll show them I'm willing to fight

And give them the best of my life

So we can call this our home

Lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone

Father, lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone

Happy Birthday, Curtis!!

So today my little man turns five and I am happy and sad at the same time. He will be going to school in a couple of weeks and I am having a hard time letting go. Part of me wishes he was still a baby, but I love watching him grow and seeing how sweet and compassionate he can be. I love talking to him about Jesus and we have great conversations together. In honor of his birthday, I will be telling his birth story.

Curtis was my worst pregnancy and birth of the three. Kevin and I think it was in part because I got pregnant with him six weeks after the end of my miscarriage. I got sick as soon as I got pregnant and started bleeding at eight weeks and continued bleeding all throughout the pregnancy. Between the bleeding, bedrest, and throwing up, it made for a very long pregnancy. At 29 weeks, I went into labor and thankfully the doctors were able to stop the contractions. That was also when we found out we were having a boy. At 35 weeks, I went into labor again, but asked to be sent home because they couldn't induce since I wasn't 37 weeks and wasn't progressing. Then he ended up being five days late. At 2:45 the morning of August 29th, I got up to go to the bathroom and as soon as I got into the bathroom, this gush of water came out. I was like, "Oh man, I just peed myself." So I changed my clothes and went back to bed. A short time later, it happened again and I knew that I couldn't have wet myself again. I woke up Kevin and told him that my water broke, but he didn't believe me and went back to sleep. I lied down and tried to go back to sleep, but 15 minutes later I started getting these really bad contractions that just radiated from my spine all the way around my belly. I started timing them and they were seven minutes apart. I lied there for about half an hour then I decided to get up and walk around to see if they would stop. Kevin came out to check on me and I told him about the contractions, but he still wanted to wait and see what happened. So when walking around didn't help the contractions, I sat down and watched a little t.v. That didn't help either, so I told Kevin that this was the real deal and we were gonna need to go to the hospital. Kevin putzed around for awhile then decided to take a shower and I went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. As soon as I reached the kitchen a contraction hit me so hard, it brought me to my knees. So when it was over, I went into the bathroom and told Kevin that we needed to go to the hospital NOW!! Again he just kind of blew me off and took his time getting ready. My contractions were now four minutes apart and getting stronger. We finally headed to the hospital around 4:45 and my contractions kept stopping me in my tracks. Kevin took his sweet time driving to the hospital, he didn't even reach the speed limit! I will be honest, I wanted to rip his head off. I still give him a hard time about the drive to the hospital. Once we got there, I thought he was going to drop me off at the ER entrance while he parked the car...no, he drove around looking for a parking spot and found one quite a distance from the entrance. Thankfully, the security guard saw me wobbling around and grunting, so he ran inside and grabbed a wheelchair and ran out to me. When we got to the L & D floor, I got put into the triage unit so that they could check me out before they put me in a room. The nurse confirmed that my water had indeed broken and I was 6 cm dilated, so they got me into a room. The contractions were so bad and my blood pressure was getting high, so we decided to have an epidural. Once I had been given the epidural, which was around 6 a.m., the nurse checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to push, so she called my doctor and we waited. He got in around 6:30, so I started pushing. Two hours later, I was still pushing and he wouldn't come out. The doctor gave me an episiotomy and was trying to pull him out, but he was stuck. The doctor determined that his head was stuck on my tailbone and tried to wiggle him out, but it didn't work and he started getting distressed. The look on the doctors face when he told us that and that we needed to get him out asap was so frightening and I was so tired, I didn't know if I could push anymore. I prayed that God would give me the strength to push this baby out and that the baby would be okay. The doctor asked me if he could use vacuum extraction to get the baby out and I told him that he needed to do whatever necessary to get the baby out safely. The next part I don't remember because I was so focused on pushing, but Kevin told me that the first attempt at the vacuum extraction didn't work, so the doctor had to pull it off and readjust it on Curtis' head. The second attempt worked and Curtis came out at 8:39 a.m. screaming and flailing his arms. Ooohh was he mad, but he was so beautiful and perfect and I was so thankful that he was okay. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 4 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long with red hair. Thank you Lord for blessing us with Curtis, we are honored to be his parents.

Life Is But A Vapor

This is Joey Balistreri who was killed in a horrendous car accident just a few blocks from us exactly one month ago. He was laid to rest last Friday since his dad was in the hospital with serious injuries. We do not know this family, but Kevin and I have been effected greatly by this accident. Part of it because we would have been right there when it happened. We were grocery shopping and it was past the kids' bedtime and I was trying to get Kevin to hurry up so we could get home. Curtis and Lauren kept having to go to the bathroom and then Claire dropped her Care Bear and I had to search half the store looking for it. I wasn't very happy at the time, but now I can see that God kept us from being involved in that accident. When we came upon the accident about 15-20 minutes after it happened, I just knew that there were fatalities (as it turned out, the only fatality was Joey). I started crying and praying and have been for this family ever since. The mom Pam has been keeping an amazing online journal at www.caringbridge.org/visit/geoffbalistreri I really encourage you to read it and see how God's grace, mercy, and love is shining through in this tragedy. Last Thursday, when we put the kids to bed, we all prayed for the family and then sang worship/Bible songs. I always have the kids pick the songs that we sing and the first song that they wanted to sing was Jesus Loves Me, so I told them that we should sing it for Joey. The second song they picked was Jesus Loves The Little Children which Curtis said we were singing for Joey's family. We sang a couple more songs then I asked Curtis to pick out the last song and he chose He Has Made Me Glad. So I start singing and Curtis says, "Mom we need to sing this loud for Joey, he's with Jesus." I lost it and couldn't stop crying. My son is so sweet and I am so thankful to have been blessed with him. Just remember that life is a vapor, here one minute and gone the next, so make the most of each day.

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

So today our Lauren turns three. Time is just going by way too fast! I made her a Strawberry Shortcake cake and we brought it to church and everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. We will be taking Curtis and Lauren to Chuck E. Cheese next weekend to celebrate their birthday's. In honor of Lauren's birthday, I will be writing her birth story...We decided to induce a week early because the doctor was saying that Lauren was going to be bigger than Curtis and after what happened with Curtis we were trying to avoid a c-section. So on Tuesday, August 14th, when I had gone in for my doctor's appointment we decided to induce the next day since I was already 4 cm dilated. Now let me just say that Lauren was my best and easiest pregnancy. I didn't have any morning sickness and had a lot of energy. In hindsight, we shouldn't have induced because it didn't work and Lauren was our smallest baby. Oh me of little faith! Anyway, we got to the hospital at 7:30 a.m. so that they could start the Pitocin at 8 a.m. When they checked my cervix, I was 5 cm so we thought things would go rather quickly. Wrong!! At 10 a.m. when the doctor came in to see how I was doing, I still hadn't progressed any. They were going to give me until noon since he had to do a couple c-sections and if I hadn't progressed then they would break my water. So noon rolls around and I'm now 6 cm, so he breaks my water to a pop and a big gush. That was a very weird feeling. So we just wait. About 1:20 p.m. the doctor comes back in to see how I am doing and it's progressed a little, so he leaves and asks them to page him if anything changes. Not long after that I started to feel a lot of pressure and felt like I needed to push so we called the nurse and she came in to check me and sure enough the head was crowning and I was told not to push until the doctor got there. That's a lot easier said than done! So the nurses pages the doctor and he doesn't answer the page so she tries again and he still doesn't answer. She calls his office and he's not there, so she comes in to me to make sure I'm not pushing and let me know that they can't find the doctor. Are you kidding me!! This baby is coming with or without him. After about 5 minutes they finally found him and told him to get to my room asap. He shows up about 5 minutes later to my relief and we get things going. After two pushes, Lauren slid right out and we were in love. Our little peanut was 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. So Happy 3rd Birthday Lauren, we love you!!

14 Months

I can't believe that our youngest is 14 months old. My baby is gone and toddlerhood is in full swing. She runs all over the place and climbs on everything. She is our little monkey. She is a little spitfire and loves to throw tantrums with the best. She is also so sure of herself and will walk around with her hands behind her back like she is inspecting things. She loves to talk and I think we have another Curtis on our hands. She has an amazing sense of humor that keeps Kevin and I laughing. We look forward to watching her grow. Here are some of her 1 year pictures that I haven't had a chance to post yet, so enjoy!

God Gave Me You

On July 20, 2002 I married the man of my dreams and life hasn't been the same since:) There is a song that our Christian radio station plays called God Gave Me You and that song just rings true for me. My favorite part is the chorus and it goes like this:

God gave me you for the ups and downs

God gave me you for the days of doubt

For when I think I've lost my way

There are no words left to say, it's true

God gave me you

Kevin and I have been through so much in our eight years of marriage and I'm so thankful that I've been able to go through these ups and downs with him. I'm one blessed girl. Happy Anniversary, honey, I love you.

Family Reunion

So this past weekend, Kevin's family had their family reunion and we headed up north to hang out with the fam. It was a very eventful weekend to say the least with hail and a supposed tornado a few miles away. Here are some pictures from the weekend.
Here we are at a park down the street from the motel that we stayed at.

Here is Lauren with the big Viking she named "Susan." For those of you that don't know, Lauren's favorite movie is Monsters vs. Aliens and the 50 ft woman is Susan, hence the viking is also Susan.

Our little Claire Bear.

Lauren is our dancing queen. She was just itching to get up on the stage and dance, so when they invited the kids to come up on stage, Lauren ran. She danced for 3-4 songs, I can't remember I was too busy taking pictures. After every song, she would run over to me and say, "Mommy, I'm dancing!" It was precious. We tried to get Curtis to go up with her, but he was too shy.

Well, I hope you all have a great rest of the week. TTFN