We're still here!

We're still here! Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog, life is so busy with 5 kids! I rarely have a minute to sit down, let alone update the blog. But I so enjoy reading other friends' posts and since I don't journal or scrapbook, I'd like to capture some memories of some of our life! We are so blessed with these kids and life is very full...

Jace is almost 12, how did this happen? He's heading up to a Gonzaga Basketball camp with his buddy Merit for 3 nights as I type this. I'm missing him already. Other than being our sports fanatic, he's a great big brother and just a fun kid to be around. He's worked really hard on the farm this summer, I'm proud of the responsible young man he's turning into. When we talk about the apples or cherries, he knows more than me! It's a little embarrassing. It's so fun watching him grow and mature. He had an awesome 5th grade year, loved his teacher and has great friends. He'll be a 6th grader this fall. I love our talks, his insight and perspective on things is mature. It's so nice to have his help around the house and with the little ones too. 

Jace with friends Kate & Colin at Jump Rope for Heart

Jace & his buddy Merit

these boys like cool cars

Cade is determined, focused and a go-getter around here. He never has idle hands...always building something lego, bouncing a ball, playing on my phone, or just fidgeting. He'll be taking his first pig for 4-H in just a few weeks and "Meg" is a sweet hog. He's enjoyed his pig project so far. Like Jace, he's been busy helping his dad on the farm...he's "head gopher trapper" in the orchards and says he "thinks Gopher" now! His gopher trapping stories are entertaining. He had a farm accident this spring while driving a forklift, luckily he just had to have stitches. It could have been so much worse! He had crutches for a week and his ankle has healed nicely. He's our emotional one, when he's happy its so contagious and when he's, well... you get the point. Cade is deep, thoughtful, and he has a sense of justice and loyalty that I admire! 

Scouts Pine Wood Derby

Rug Rat Nation 3 on 3...his team was the champs!

Pitching for the Royals - Spring baseball league in Moses Lake

Maddie is still in a growth spurt! This girl is T-A-L-L! She is as sweet as ever and really balances out these boys. They all adore their sister and she's the princess around here still. She likes to refer to herself as a sporty girl and tries to keep up with her brothers outside on the basketball court. She learned to ride a bike this summer, she was determined and it only took one lap with me holding the bike and chasing her for her to say "Ok, let go mom, I've got it" and she was off! I hope she'll always attack life with that mantra, "I've got it!" It's a moment I don't want to ever forget. Maddie is trying out a 6 week gymnastics camp this summer. She enjoys playing outside with her brothers, dancing and singing in the mirror, packing around Luke, and just being my side kick. I love having a daughter, she makes life so much sweeter around here. She loves to sneak into my makeup, jewelry, finger nail polish or put any ol' knick-knack in purses and bags. She's a pack rat! Maddie loves hanging out with her cousins and friends too, and I can't believe she'll be in 2nd grade. 

Maddie rockin' the 80's for dance

Maddie & cousin Jilly at Easter

Maddie & cousin Kylie before their baseball game

Sam is busy, wild, naughty, cute, smart, fast, stubborn, tender, curious, athletic, and did I say busy? Whew, he tires me out. He's done things my other 3 have never even thought of. He marches to his own beat for sure. Other than being a stinker most of the time, he's also our most loving and cuddly one. Thank goodness for his tender nature...we're still potty training...going on 8 months now. He's finally making some progress. Sam only does things on his terms. He's re-defined parenting for me. He's my patience tester for sure! I love watching him explore and learn, he's truly an amazing, bright boy and has lots of talent and more determination than I can handle most days. Now just to channel that in the right direction! We love our Sammer Jammer! He makes things pretty spicy around here. As I'm typing this, he just ran in singing "ev-wee ting is awesome, ev-wee ting is tool when you pot of a team!" Our team wouldn't be the same without this little dude on it.

Skiing at Schweitzer after Christmas. Sam enjoyed the snow-snow as we didn't get any this winter!

"gwasses like daddy" (pretend ones)

This boy loves dirt!

Luke is now 10 months and taking steps! Yes, I thought I had a baby too but he's proving me wrong. He is quick to change, grow up and is reaching milestones before this mama is ready. He's in the 20th percentile for his weight, 60th for his height and 90th for his head! He's got a noggin on him! He's a dear, mellow, quiet, sweet little guy. We love having Lukie Doodles as our baby boy...he's spoiled, carried around and cuddled most of the day and is used to being on the go with his older siblings and their activities. I've "worn" him the most as I've needed free hands and have so enjoyed having him attached. I'm so thankful we decided to have a 5th and we feel so blessed with this little guy.Pukie Lukie is another name he's acquired ;)

Wearing my babe!

Easter Egg Hunt

Bananas are Luke's fave

Bryan and I are doing well, we've been together for 18 years! We'll celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary this December. He is truly my rock. He works so hard for our family and is admired by everyone in this family. I can get pretty razzed up with these kids and he knows how to handle me! We've had to go through some tough changes lately with my family and I can't imagine going through all of this without him. He's fair, honest, and exudes strength. I'm one blessed girl to have him in my life and feel so fortunate to have him as my best friend. 

Enjoying a Mariners Game with the boys! We loved sitting in the Diamond Club seating, what a treat!

 A father's day golfing excursion

Cade caught a salamander & a bull frog one morning while working with Dad on a pump. They lasted 24 hours. We need to institute a "catch & release program" for the pets these kids catch around here.

Lukie's first 4th at Derek & Carly's 

Silverwood!

Suncadia!

Cardiology Appt.

 

Maddie Moo had an appointment back in November...and I'm a month late posting about it. We've just been relishing in the fact that she had no alarms or "wait and see's" on this visit! She had a fantastic visit! I think this was the best report she's ever been given.

Her sats were the highest we've ever seen in clinic, even with her fenestration still open, the pulse ox read 93%!!! Dr. C was pleased with her echo, blood pressure and ekg. He even talked about spreading her visits out to once a year but decided we should have 1 more good appointment like this before doing that so in 6 months she'll have another cardiology appointment. She continues to grow like a weed, shocking us all with being in the 94% for height and weight. If only her brothers took after her? I joke that the extra calories we fed her to get her to grow as a a baby have finally kicked in, causing some fast growth in this girl! It just reassures us that her heart likes it's plumbing and tall genetics have kicked in.

What I took away most from this appointment other than her awesome numbers, was witnessing how grown-up and mature Maddie has become at her dr. visits. She carried on a sweet conversation with Dr. C, answering his questions and visiting about her experiences in 1st grade. One question she had for him was if she could play basketball...she was recently told by a peer at school that she "can't play because of her heart" which has bothered her. When she came to me with this, I explained that I thought she could but the best person to ask would be her Doctor. Luckily, we had an appt. the following week, so it was a perfect time for her to talk to him about it. I absolutely loved his answer... "Maddie, you can play and participate in almost any sport  I can think of" then he winked at me and whispered, "lets not take up kick boxing or anything like that." She sure puffed up when he gave her the go-ahead. She's been wanting to play basketball, like her big brothers do, and she is so excited to be doing that on Saturday mornings now. I love that my HS coach and good friend are the coaches.

As we watch Maddie grow (oh how she's grown!) and become this dear little girl, we stand amazed. Amazed at His goodness and at His provision over her life. I know I've said this a million times but we never expected life to be this good. We are so very blessed. Thank you for following her journey and for your prayers on her behalf. They have been answered!

Fontanniversary & a heart re-check

waiting after her echo to see Dr. C

Today marks 3 years since this girlie's had heart surgery. We call this her "Fontanniversary" and try to recognize it in some way as it's a special day. May 24, 2011 was the day she completed the three-staged surgical repair on her heart, having her third open-heart surgery called the Fontan. Tonight we'll celebrate with chocolate cupcakes and her choice of movie, which I've been informed is "Beauty and the Beast" (the boys will be so thrilled!) 

In fitting fashion, we made a trip over to Seattle yesterday for a quick heart "re-check"...over the past couple weeks she's been extra tired, her sats have fluctuated between the upper 70's-mid 80's and we've noticed more blueness than we have in a long time. I'm glad she and I made the trip over. After an echo, Dr. C commented that she's developed more collateral vessels and when they can be seen on echo, they're usually quite significant (or we just got lucky) but they're also tricky to figure out where they're robbing blood flow from/or dumping it in. She's struggled with growing collateral's in the past, the question remains do we do something about them as he believes they'll just continue to grow. Some kids just grow them, Maddie is one of those kids. Her sats were 87-89% in his office, which is great & within her norm, so as of now, he'd like to wait. If she begins to trend down and stay down with her O2 saturation's, then she'll have to have it addressed in the cath lab and hopefully they'll plug her fenestration while in there. She still has some mixing of unoxygenated/oxygenated blood which causes her sats to be lower than if she didn't have a hole in her Fontan conduit. The best part of the day yesterday was just spending time one-on-one time with my girl-chatting during the drive, shopping at the outlets in North Bend, and having a nice lunch at one of our favorite places.

Subbing in Maddie's Kindergarten Class!

Little did I know that this girl would teach me so much...Having a child with a life-threatening condition has changed, stretched and strengthened me. It hasn't happened over night, accepting the unknowns of Maddie's future is difficult, but it has thankfully brought me closer to God than anything else I've experienced. I'm incredibly, eternally grateful. 

Happy Fontanniversary Maddie, you continue to amaze me each and every day! I love you so much!

First Day of School!

3/4 of our kids are busy at school! Jace (4th grade) & Caden (2nd grade) started school on August 28th while Miss Maddie had an interview with her teacher that day but didn't begin her days at Red Rock until Sept. 3rd. Sam's really missing his big brothers and sister.

The boys are enjoying school and doing well! We jumped right into a busy schedule of activities...Grid kids football for Jace and Soccer for Cade. Their first games are tomorrow, at the same time, different cities. Go figure. 

How can this little girl be in Kindergarten already? When she was a baby, this was something I never let myself think about. Kindergarten seemed worlds away and it felt impossible that I'd send her to school someday. We're here now. It's humbling, amazing and such a blessing to be at this point.

 She LOVED her first week of school and has been so excited to go each day... I've shed my share of tears, just accepting this change and letting go. Luckily, we're "easing" her into the full-day of Kindergarten so I've been able to pick her up at 11:30 each day this week and still get some quality time with her in the afternoons. She has napped the past two afternoons and woke up stuffy this morning, she's getting more congested as the day goes on. Yucky germs already :( 

Maddie with Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Raigoza. These two are awesome and have been so helpful in accomodating our girl and making this transition as easy as possible on all of us!

Cousin Jilly and Maddie on their first day of Kinder! I'm so excited these girlies are in the same class.

Her favorite part of school so far is "going outside" (aka: recess)...she comes home each day sharing that she has a "new best friend" but can't remember her name. Cute. She's also so excited when she sees Cade in the lunch room, always excitedly sharing every detail..."he yells to me, Maddie! and comes to my table and gives me a big hug." I've loved picking her up each day as she chats all the way home about her day, giving me Kindergarten low-down! She's growing up!



Our preschool graduate

 

 

 

 

Our last day of preschool was a water field day & BBQ!

 

Maddie-girl is officially a Kindergartner now...she (as well as 11 other students) graduated from Preschool on June 5th. Not only did Maddie finish preschool but so did I...I'm stepping down from teaching and welcoming the much needed time I'll have without running a preschool in my home! Having four kids and all of their activities, being a farm wife, and the PTO President is going to keep me busy enough!

 

Maddie is so ready for school this fall. I had a meeting with our school nurses and we developed her 504 Emergency Care Plan. After going through that meeting, I had a harder time with it all than I'd anticipated...just another way that it "hits me" that she lives daily with a miraculous, little half-heart. Our life is in such a great place right now and we're so blessed Maddie's doing so well that I don't dwell on it much. I love the staff and do feel good about her starting all-day Kinder but I'm going to miss my little girl so much and I do have some anxiety about this next step for her. Not being with her 24/7 is the hardest. Trust, guidance & reliance fill my prayers when I pray over my girl. I can't help but be excited for her though...she is ecstatic about this change! Oh, to be 5 again, without a worry in the world. I'm learning so much through this sweetheart.

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!