Trunk or Treat

My MIL's church hosted a really fun trunk or treat Sunday evening. They had a hay rack ride, pony rides, a kiddie maze, and Lo's favorite, a bounce house. We could barely pull Leighton away from the bounce house to trunk or treat or even ride a pony. Silly girl. I thought it was a great event and small kid Halloween activity.

Micah went as Charlie Brown. I had no idea what costume to do with him. I don't like to spend money on costumes. Growing up my mom always made our costumes or we put something together. Then the other night Lo and I watched the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and it hit me Micah looked just like him. I was pretty proud of myself for throwing this together just mere hours before we had to leave. I sure thought he was cute.

Lo was Cinderella. We just picked one of her dress up costumes. I was surprised how into Cinderella she was, probably all that Toddlers and Tiaras we have been watching. :/ Note: I don't let her see the naughty girls. And did anyone catch that spoof Regis and Kelly did on it?! Hilarious!
With her bodyguard. :)

Bounce House. Need I say more.

I thought this was the best trunk or treat car! It is a guy dressed up as Dorothy with Toto complete with a yellow brick road. Awesome.

Trunk or Treating. We had a bit of an attitude because she was pulled from the bounce house. The grandmas took Micah to get candy, like we needed that! HA!
The maze. All the kids obviously went through it so easily, but not Lo the first time through she just didn't get it. They were proud they stumped a two year old! She had a blast being a nut in there.


Finally Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin.



Tonight we went out with the neighbors and had a blast trick or treating with them. I love having such awesome neighbors to do this stuff with.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from the prettiest princess and cutest Charlie Brown I know!

Last night we did a fun trunk or treat at my MIL's church. More pics to come. Lo is ready to hit the town already tonight. I think we will break our 5 house record from last year! HA! Have a safe and Happy Halloween.

Do You See a Difference?

This is the question I have been asked by everyone since about 2 minutes after Micah came out of surgery. It is pretty crazy that it has nearly been a week since that day. In some ways it feels like we just got home yesterday and in other ways if feels as if it was months ago.

Back to the question. I am not sure I see a difference yet.

I haven't seen any spit-up in a week. I walk around the house and find burp cloths and just stare at them, thinking do I need these any more? This isn't the first time Micah has been spit-up free for a week, so I am still sort of hesitant; I think after it has been 3-4 weeks of no spit-up it might finally sink in that all this was for something.

Micah still struggles a bit with his feeds. I think he gets so hungry he over-eats his oatmeal and then you can see he is struggling like his body wants to puke but can't. Makes me sad for him.

The biggest difference I see is that we are going through 2x the amount of diapers than pre-surgery. We use to go through 4ish diapers per day. He just hardly ever peed and #2 was a rarity. Sort of makes me feel bad that I didn't realize that he wasn't hydrated enough because he was always puking up all his feeds. I thought he was just peeing out all his IV fluids still, but obviously that can't still be the case, it is he is actually keeping his feeds down. We even are getting more regular too.

He is also very happy. I can't tell if he is happier than pre-surgery, but he is happy and that is all that matters when you see that cute little boy smile.

Finally, while we still aren't sleeping through the night he is napping better and longer, most likely due to staying full.

Stats: 14# 10z. He has yet to gain. He is actually down 2z from his 9 month well baby check, but the same wt as his pre-surgery wt. So no improvement yet?!? So there will be a few more weekly weight checks in our future.

I am so glad all of this is behind us and it can just fade into a distance memory. Again I can't say thank you enough to everyone who prayed and encouraged us along this long road.

Leighton's Scrapbook: caught up for the moment

Well my final push to get everyone's scrapbook caught up before month's end is coming to fruition. Yay! Of course as all good scrappers know you only ever caught up for the moment, if it is even possible. I just have a few pages left for our family album, but those seem less important than the kids' albums for whatever reason. But know that I am "caught up" I hope to stay that way and do the pages as they happen as opposed to waiting 6+ months. HA! We shall see.

Here is a look at Lo's through {almost} all of September.

{July}

{August}
{September}

Just a little Memory or two

Leighton has been bouncing around in her room for over an hour and a half. At 145p I go in and tell her to lay down and sleep. She told me "NO! Don't want to." I said well you have 15 more minutes before I am letting you up. {mostly because I wanted to finish OLTL in peace. HA!} I asked her if I should set the beep beep or just trust me. She ALWAYS replies "just trust ju." I love the trust she puts in me and I work hard not to betray it.

It's quiet now. I go up to release her as promised and she is cashed out. Priceless.

Just a little memory that I want to remember...and perhaps a note to self that nap time should be moved back closer to 2p. :)


Micah's surgery was so rough on all of us. But you know what the best part was? Yes, there is always a best part to every situation, sometimes you just have to look for it, but it is there. The best part was the little snuggle bear he was. Micah is always a love bug, but lately he just so busy, he doesn't want to cuddle long. However, for the entire stay at the hospital and even today he has been nothing but snuggly and cuddly. We could just hold him and rock for hours. It was bliss.

These are the moments you wish could just last forever.

Home Sweet Home

We are home and it feels so good and weird. I am really having a hard time just processing all my thoughts and emotions about all that has occurred. I know to some it was no big deal, but whenever it is your baby at stake, I think it is always a big deal. I spent a lot of time wondering the halls with Micah and would read all these poems kids in the past wrote about why they were there. They were so sad. I just would pray for all the families that had kids in hospitals with serious diseases and ailments. I KNEW we would be going home and all would be well, but for so many that is not the case.

It is also weird being home because while we were only there for 2.5 days it felt like an eternity. Friday felt like a week all in itself. We were expected to stay through Monday, but Micah was a rock star and earned the right to come home today {Sunday}. He did really well only requiring one more dose of morphine to get through Saturday night and by Sunday morning he was doing well on just tylenol. Saturday night went better than I thought. I can't stress how awesome our night nurse was. She was so flexible and left us alone most of the night!
Micah was doing so well by Sunday morning we tried some solids, but those came back up :(. However, the Dr. M said that he was probably still swollen in the tummy and we should go easy on those, she then gave her discharge orders and we could hit the road. I packed up the room in record time. HA! And by 440p we were out the doors.

We have been through a lot with Micah and I am hoping that maybe we will be on the upswing finally. His pregnancy was less than stellar. Matter of fact nearly year-to-date we found out in our sono that Micah had those cysts and calcium deposits on his heart, causing me stress and pre-term labor.

Micah is loving being at home. He got so fussy at around 2p, nothing we did made him happy. You could tell he was tired and frustrated and maybe in pain? But as soon as we got home he was just so happy to be here. He crawled all over, giggled and played with sissy. Home really was the best medicine.

{Pics from the hospital}

Getting ready for surgery. My mom got him this onesie that said "This shirt was clean this morning" HA!

All gowned up and waiting for us to be called to surgery. We were slated for 10a. When we got to the room at 9a the RN said they were already calling for him. We were pretty excited we were going sooner, only because of the no eating and about to get fussy thing. However, they never did call us until 1130a! Let's just say there were 3 unhappy campers.

In the recovery room. I couldn't wait to get my hands on that sweet boy. He was so out of it, I just about lost it. But I stayed strong for Micah.

Bless his heart, he was so out of it for the rest of the afternoon and night. He barely even moved.

This was Micah by Saturday...just being his goofy self.

The procedure was laparoscopic. He had 5 tiny incisions.
We told him chicks dig scars...so we are working on a good story. HA!

Micah was doing so good Saturday that the nurse said we could take him out to get some fresh air. He really liked the buggy ride.
GOING HOME!
Micah loved the wheel chair ride. He was so happy. It was as if he knew we were going home.

I can't even imagine a life without massive amounts of spit-up and weekly weight checks. If we don't see the inside of a hospital or doctor's office for another year it will be too soon.

Thank you all again for your prayers and support. It was felt.

Surgery for MW {Recovery}

{Friday @ 245p}

Dr. M just came out! He is out of surgery and she is very pleased with how things went. Evidently, they missed placed/lost some sort of surgery instrument that was integral to Micah's surgery, thus causing a 45 minute delay.

Micah is expected to be groggy and sleepy for the rest of the day. He is doped up on lots of pain meds. He isn't allowed to feed until around 7am Saturday, so pray that he won't be "hungry fussy." I am just so ready to get my hands on my little boy. I have been just an internal wreck this whole time.

Ok time for us to go back to recovery.

{Friday PM}

When we finally got back to our room Micah was just so groggy, he just slept on my chest and then would wake up and cry out in pain. Bless his heart. One of his five lapo incisions was bleeding {nothing major, just needed a fresh band-aide and gauze} and he had pulled out his IV. Great. When the IV team came to placed the IV I was so nervous. Micah is strong and a fighter, but they managed and he didn't seem to mind to much, thankfully they numbed the area up pretty well beforehand. I kept telling him this is where the good drugs come from. HA!

{Saturday AM}

Well, I got so caught up in taking care of my baby bear, I never hit the post button.

Last night was pretty good considering. We had the.best.night.nurse. She recognized the need for him to rest and recover, so she checked on him minimally. She was still in and out every 1-2 hours to run vitals, but she was so stealth about it, sometimes I barely woke up when she came in.

I was so worried about the not eating thing, but he didn't seem to mind too much until 5a, his usually morning nurse time. We doped him up again on morphine and that seemed to help his pain and made him groggy. About an hour later just as I was about to doze off for my 10th cat nap, I heard Micah talking. I look over and he is just sitting up in his bed like all was well! That did my heart good. We rocked, played and dozed on and off for about and hour and half. Finally Dr. M came in and gave the orders to nurse! Hip hip horray. He did phenomenal. So far no problems.

He has been fairly happy boy this morning and just trying to do his normal Micah thing. Although, you can tell when he is starting to over do it, which doesn't take more than 20 minutes at this point.

Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We so appreciate it!

Surgery for MW

I sit here in the waiting room waiting for my son to come out of surgery. Writing is my outlet. It is the hardest thing to watch your baby be wheeled away from you screaming and crying. Our hearts are so sad. I have been trying to stay as brave as I can, but it isn't easy.

The surgery is suppose to be about 2 hours, we will see. They are already 2 hours behind what we were told. It has been a long morning and Micah was a trooper right up until about 930a and then it went downhill fast. Nothing made him happy. All he wanted was to nurse and sleep, but couldn't. We kept thinking any minute they were going to come get us, because that is what we were told...of course it was another hour and half right as Micah FINALLY fell asleep.

Then another 30 minutes in pre-op. We kissed our boy and put him in God's hands.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We feel them.

Surgery for MW {the BIG day}

Tomorrow is the big day. If you aren't up to speed on why my baby bear is having surgery you can get caught up here.

I can barely get my breath just thinking about it, so I try not to think about it. Over the past month the idea has been fairly abstract to me. I ranged from not wanting to go through with it to "he IS getting this surgery, I am so sick of all the vomitting!" But now that this week is here I find myself feeling crushed by the idea of my baby having surgery. It isn't so much the surgery itself, I understand it, this is the surgeon's day job and she does it everyday, it is just all the unknown. That is what always frightens me about life. Not knowing what tomorrow will bring. It can just be gripping. I keep reciting these verses in my head and just praying over and over for God to take this fear from me.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:33-34

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

I know God does not call us to have a spirit of fear, but one of faith and courage. God put that precious baby boy in my arms and I know He will be holding him the hold time. As hard as it is to imagine God loves Micah way more than I do. So I will rest in that today.


If we cross your mind tomorrow around 10a I would ask if you would pray for us. I will do my best to update here about how he is doing.

Things Lo Says

The other day I was off doing something important I am sure and left Micah in the living room to play. Of course this was unacceptable and he began crying, loudly. Lo is eating breakfast and I hear her shout:

Lo: MICAH! What's your pobem {problem}. Mommy NOT here!
GOSH!!

This are here puppy dog ears. I think they are cute.
And I love the attitude...

I have no idea where this stuff comes from. ;)

Four Years

Picking up right where we left off...4 years ago. Only now there are 5 kids between us.

Summer 2005

NYE 2005

Fall 2011

Sorry April I "stole" your photo. ;)

We spent this past Saturday with our bestest friends from college. It was sad when life took us all in different directions, but so amazing that {other than the five kids} it was like nothing changed when we reunited four years later. I hope we do this more often!

PS my math isn't off. We last saw one another at one of the couple's wedding in 2007, I just don't have any group shots of that. :)

29.

On the 11th I turned 29.
I decided the reason I dread 30 is that I think that makes me a real adult. Not a young adult, a "crazy" 20 year old, but old enough to "know better."
I thought being a grown-up, married and kids would be so cool. And it is, but it is also a lot of work and responsibility. HA!


To celebrate my MIL took us to the Children's Garden to play and then out to Abeulos. Yum!
Then on Sunday my mom made me one of my favorite dishes and my birthday brownies.
We did forewarn the fire department. :)


We were suppose to then head out to a local pumpkin patch, but it rained all day Saturday and Sunday putting a stop to those plans.


So we improvised and carved pumpkins instead.

My pumpkin, I prefer paint to carving.


Daddy and Lo's pumpkin.

Lo was under the impression it was her birthday and she was the princess. We were all to wait on her hand and foot. She insisted dinner be taken on the veranda. Papa was her dinner companion and was to get her whatever she needed. Wow! She is a mess some days. HA!

And this sweet boy napped the party away. Of course if we were at home he would have slept all of 20 minutes. Happy Birthday to me. ;)