A Decade

(Photo Credit: Jessica Greenfield Photography)

My Dearest Maddie,

Today you are 10. What a day to celebrate! You have lived a decade...and boy have you lived. I am so proud of you and the strong, kind, silly, spunky, and tough young lady that you are. You are loyal and sincere, loving and accepting those around you well. I wish that I had your patience, your sheer determination, and especially your ability to "not sweat the small stuff". Though you're only 10, you are oh so wise. Your perspective on life, on the little things, is one to be desired. I learn from you each day and thank God for you Maddie. I love that we have each other in our house filled with boys!

I'm so grateful to be your mom, and though it is going by much too fast, I will choose not to be sad about it. I cherish each day with you and consider it such a gift. You have taught me to not take anything for granted. Watching you grow and cheering you on from the sideline has been such a gift and when I look back on my life someday, being your mom is one of my greatest blessings. I adore you my sweet girl and I couldn't have dreamt up a more perfect daughter than you! I pray you will continue to love the Lord with all of your heart, and may He lead you each step of the way. Your eyes sparkle with love and light, keep shining Maddie Moo...

Happy 10th Birthday my sweet girl.

I love you, Mom

Maddie's 5!

Miss Maddie turned 5 on March 13th! Yes, it was a month ago and here I am, finally sharing about it. RSV left almost as quickly as it had come on with our girl. She spent a week low-key, at home and on oxygen when needed. She also ended up with an ear infection following the virus, 10 days of amoxicillin cleared that up. As of now, she's healthy and back to her norm :)

A Dora Guitar from Grandma A! Just what she wanted!

She was so excited about her new saddle! My folks found this adorable saddle and surprised us all with it! She's looking forward to riding her Sparky Boy a lot this spring...now if we just had some cooperative spring weather. The boys are pumped about it too. What a fabulous hobby for her and easy on her heart. She told me recently that she'd like to grow up to be a rodeo queen. Cute but we'll see. Not really this mama's thing!

She looks so grown up in this picture. She has had a tremendous growth spurt since her Fontan...putting her in the 90th percentile on the growth charts now! I never would have guessed this in a million years during her first couple years of life, she was so petite and little. At her well-child exam, she weighed 50 lbs & was 45.7" tall! I registered her for Kindergarten this past week...she's sooo excited, me on the other hand, that's another story.

Maddie with her girl cousins at her family birthday dinner...they're all such pretty girls!

 

 

The following day, she had her first "friend" birthday party...8 little girls under the age of 5! It was a blast! She chose a mermaid theme...so they swam in the 'mermaid lagoon' and I worked a couple of late nights sewing mermaid tales. I shouldn't wait until the last minute...

 

They wound down at the end of the birthday party with a Barbie and the Mermaid Tale movie!

And last but not least, our celebration at preschool included one of her fave's...icecream! I'd say we celebrated turning 5!

the boy's birthdays

Jace turned 9 in August!

 So our family of 6 went bowling & to the archade which was super fun and for his first time bowling, Jace was pretty darn good!

 Sam enjoying his "ride" at the bowling ally

 His birthday theme was a movie party, watching "The Three Stooges"...which is funny to some, particularly 9 year olds

 He also had a family party this year and added a few buddies to the mix, fun times!

 While the big kids watched the movie, these three little girlie cousins gave each other make-overs!

 Happy 9th Birthday to an awesome, fun-loving boy! Happiness just leaks out of this guy. His smile is surely contagious...We love you Jacers and are very proud of you!

Then we celebrated Daddy's birthday at Grandma & Grandpa Allred's. A few days later, Bryan and I were able to get away for the afternoon and attend the Monday night Seahawks v. Packers game with Mike & Lesa. Bryan's been a Seahawk fan for 35 years. Yes, he's very loyal.

 At the end of September, Cade turned 7. Jace just wants world-peace in every picture!

 Cade posing so sweetly for his birthday photos. He requested a "Power Miner Lego party" which was a challenge but I think I pulled it off and it met his high standards :) Caden is a super smart kiddo who adds a lot of creativity and affection to our family. This little man can build any lego set you put in front of him and creates some pretty cool creations on his own. We love you Caders!

 This was the first year Cade's had friends over for a birthday party and a fun group it was!

 We celebrated that night with a family party...yes, this family knows how to party!

Then Sam turned one in October! He started crashing walking right before he turned 11 months and has had a bruise or two on his forehead since. This boy falls more than any of our other kids, he's surely the quickest little bugger and his bumps prove it! He's independent & keeps busy cruising around and opening cupboards and drawers all. day. long.

I can't believe he's already a year old! Sam is such a sweet, loving baby...he's quiet, mostly layed back and petite, weighing 19 lbs. 11 oz and 29 inches at his 1 year appt. We sure love our little Sammy and feel so blessed to have him as our caboose! Love, love our Sam-Sam!

 We had a fun little monster themed party for him... see, there is our peace sign again!

 He wasn't that into his monster cake...just took little bites, no cake smash for this guy.

 

Flarp from the goodie bags was our entertainment for the night... these little monsters kept us giggling with their sneezes, gross noises and antics!

 

A Party for a Princess

So, our not so little girl, turned 4 back in March...she had a fabulous princess birthday party here at home with her family. Here's a few tidbits about Maddie at age four:

• She played Hoopster Tots and Soccer Tots this spring! She loved participating with her friends. She only complained a few times that her "breath hurt" (when she's winded and needs a break). I was surprised at how well she actually kept up!
• She loves to play with her kitty Cheeto, swing on the playset, have tea parties & play dress-up. She prefers to play more with little stuffed animals than her baby dolls.
• We find her singing to herself in mirrors or in a reflection of the oven or dryer...she loves to pretend that she's talking to someone, like being interviewed or has an imaginary friend she hasn't introduced us to yet...
• She is an awesome eater--no food aversions here! She eats pretty much anything we put in front of her, especially all types of pasta!
• Maddie says funny things like: "jammies ons, shoes ons, clothes ons" (to put items of clothing on, she asks this way),  she loves to eat "zert" (dessert), she can finally buckle her own "seatbelk" and enjoys going to "ballalay" (ballet) once a week.
• She writes her name but it's from right to left...have I mentioned that she's left handed as well?
• Maddie is a great sister- little & big. She is overly helpful with Sam at times! She loves to cuddle and hug him and calls him her "Little Buddy"
• She's doing well in preschool...loves the music, her coloring is beautiful and she knows quite a few of the letters!

She's four!

Thoroughly enjoying her birthday party at preschool this morning

My dearest sweet girl,
It's been four years...and what wonderful ones they've been. Instead of being sad today that you are growing up so fast, I'm so very thankful and happy. Reaching milestones has a new meaning for me through you...we're elated that you're now four, a healthy four year old. Your zest for life, your spunk and the sincere love you share with everyone brings such joy to our lives. You have a wisdom beyond your years and the compassion you have for others is such a blessing to witness. We have learned so much from you Maddie. Thank you for making our lives so full. You have taught us, inspired us and helped us become better people. We love you very much and we're so proud of you.
Love,
Mommy, Daddy and the boys

It's a...

BOY!!!

It's true, our baby was born! We welcomed Samuel Wells Allred a little early (2 1/2 weeks) on Friday, October 21st at 7:54 am by c-section. He weighed 6 lbs. 5 oz. and was 19 inches. Bryan and I had a tough time deciding on names for this guy but quickly came to the conclusion that he just looked like a Sam and it fit perfectly. His middle name is after Bryan's Grandpa Allred.

I started having contractions Thursday evening and by 11 that night, they weren't just "Braxton Hicks" like I had been convincing myself. So since I couldn't sleep, I decided to do dishes, a load of laundry, pick up the living room, finished packing my hospital bag and then finally called the hospital. Since I was a scheduled c-section for 11-1-11 (no VBAC at our hospital) they said to come on in. By this time, they were about 7-10 minutes apart. After arriving at the hospital, my doc was called and the c-section was scheduled for 7:30 Friday morning. I was monitored through the night, given IV fluids and luckily never went into active labor so I could withstand the contractions coming 5-10 minutes through the night...was just uncomfortable and unable to rest. I've always needed the help of Pitocin to get my contractions really rolling with my other babies, so I figured they'd just stay the same and they did.

The c-section went great, I was awake for it this time (Maddie's was a crash c-section and I had been intubated & out for it) and we did really well. I was a little nervous and shaky but tried to enjoy the birth of this baby and not let what happened last time overtake me. When Sherry pulled him out, we were a little surprised...I hadn't gotten very big with this pregnancy so we'd convinced ourselves it was a girl, as did most of our family but we're THRILLED he's a boy! God knows what we needed and it was another baby boy. How I love my boys. He had great APGAR scores and his cry was so beautiful and strong...I'll never forget it.

Sam did have a little issue with keeping his respiratory rate regulated throughout the morning so the nurses monitored him in the nursery but allowed me to come in there on the stretcher to be with him. His sats were 100% and he looked wonderful with no heart murmur, so it was determined it was more of an "early baby thing" and by lunch time, he had figured it out and we were able to come back to our room as a family. Mom brought in the kids and watching them meet their new baby was so special... How lucky little Sam is to have siblings who adore him. There is never a moment this baby isn't being held around here between those 3, Bryan and I. We are relishing every minute of it and I'm afraid he's going to be pretty spoiled!

Sam & I were discharged Saturday afternoon, we like to do things quickly. It's been so nice being home, he's nursing well, his milk supply came in last night and he's waking every 3 hours on the dot to eat. The first night, I set an alarm and Bryan asked me why...I mentioned that I'd need to wake him up and he laughed. My brain is still in "heart baby mode" at times...He was right, Sam let's me know when he's hungry and so far, he hasn't missed a meal. He's already back to his birthweight today but he's a little jaundiced so we are checking his bili levels. Hopefully tomorrow we'll start to see the number go down, it was at 10.7 today and up from 5.3 on Sat. We're all very much in love with this little guy and the word blessed doesn't even begin to describe how we feel right now with our newest addition. These past few days have been incredibly healing and my heart is so full of joy.

Arrrgh matey...somebody's 6!

He's growing up too fast...Cade turned 6 a couple of weeks ago. He chose to have a Pirate Party at his Grandma & Papa Allred's pool which sure made it easy for mom!
Cade with his buddy Bennett & cousin Randi Kay

He's feeling pretty big these days, since he now needs 2 hands to show off how old he is...apparently this is the cool way to show 6 on your hands! Happy Birthday to our all-boy, talented, sweet, and amazing son. We love you Caden Larry and we're very proud of you!

it's great to be 8!

Somebody turned 8 last week...opening his Nintendo DS...I'm not a fan of video games but gave into this one...
we celebrated a day early with a "backyard camp-out theme" with just family
roasting--scorching marshmallows. These boys loved catching them on fire. Jace wanted to have a "boy-cousins only" sleepover that night so cousins Braydon and Wyatt spent the night here, camping indoors with sleeping bags. They decided that would be more fun...hey, whatever works!
quite proud of themselves after building his new Indiana Jones lego set while watching Indiana Jones, The Last Crusade, of course
On his 'real' birthday, we drove over to the west side for the Covey Run. We ate at Red Robin with friends & family and he LOVED having them sing to him! No embarrassment here...someone likes to be the center of attention.
Earlier in the week, we hit the Grant County Fair. It was the centennial celebration. The kids loved the pigs and got to see some of their Stewart cousin's 4-H animals.
while Maddie snoozed in the shade on Nany's lap, I took the boys to the carnival. Not my favorite part of the fair but they loved it, even in the heat. I love that these two are good buds.