Hi y'all!

Obviously it has been awhile since my last post.  You'll know why once you get to the end.  It is going to be quite lengthy because there is a lot to share.

I am going to start with the less serious stuff - the kids:

Alec is doing well! He got braces in February, did amazing on his STARRS test and has grown a couple of inches so now he is starting to catch up with Brooke and Avery.

Here's a pic of Alec with his braces, notice that Brooke has them too! I love it! Twins! Ha!

Brooke is great! She is doing pretty well in school and next year she will start taking sign language which, I think, is so cool!  I taught Noah how to sign 'done' when he is done eating so, I am hoping that since she will be learning to sign that she can teach him a little too!

Avery is good!  He has all "A's" right now! He made a friend in our neighborhood, so on days when he has to walk home, he has a buddy. I am thankful for that.  He also did well on his STARRS test.  He is currently reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Noah is growing and growing!  He is walking all around the house now getting into EVERYTHING!  Driving me crazy! He is talking more and more, repeating words and phrases back at us the best he can. He dances and sings when he hears music, which is so cute to watch. Here's a little secret: Noah has a tiny addiction to chocolate chips.  If Noah hears the crinkle of the bag he rushes over to me saying "mmm."  I take absolutely no responsibility for his chocolate chip addiction. It's not my fault. Not a bit.  ;)  Anyway, while Noah, Avery and I were spending spring break with my parents, his papa bought him a 72 ounce bag of chocolate chips. The bag was literally the size of him sitting down! 

Here he is so happy, happy, happy about the chocolate chips

Here are a few more pics of the kids.  None of Avery, because now he won't look at the camera, he looks away. He thinks he is too cool, I guess. 

Now on to the serious stuff.  The stuff that has kept me from posting sooner.  

Sometime in the middle of February, my mom found out that she had breast cancer. To be honest, I was incredibly at ease (for me) after my mom told me she had it.  I cried a little and my heart broke for her. Mostly because anyone and everyone knows that cancer is its own demon and can cause suffering and I do not want anyone to suffer. Not my mom, not anyone.  I had faith, strong faith, that everything was going to be okay with my mom. The Dr suggested a mastectomy but my mom asked if she could try chemo therapy first, an effort to hopefully - not lose a boob. I am happy to share that she is doing remarkably well.  Her tumor has continued to shrink throughout her treatment.  She is able to do a lot like sewing and cooking and has felt pretty good most of the time.  That is not to say, that she hasn't felt bad at all, but so far, she has managed to not be as sick as some people get.  Her biggest complaint has been that she is tired. We learned that more than likely her cancer is genetic (her sister had it too) and so after a few months we will know exactly which kind it is so that Nell and I can be tested for it, and go from there.  

The same week I found out about my mom's breast cancer, the mother of a girl I was really close to for quite some time emailed me and told me that her daughter, my friend, had breast cancer too.  She is 28.  That news disgusted me. I instantly felt the weight of the world, and all of its nastiness, bare down on my heart.  I cried.  I shared the email with my parents, who were visiting, and they cried. It was and is just sad news.  She is also doing chemo therapy and because the first drug they gave her didn't work they have moved on to a stronger drug.  I am wishing and hoping and praying this one does.  I would love, if you are reading this, for you to do the same for her.  

The last of the serious stuff I have to share is about Scott.  Last year after his gallbladder removal, he was fine for a few months and then all of a sudden he started getting sick and sicker and sicker.  His GI, kept assuring him that he was fine, kept prescribing him medications that would help him for a little while but would not ultimately keep him well.  While I was pregnant with Noah, he was in the hospital every month.  I am not kidding.  So far, 2013 had started out the same.  This year he has been in the hospital somewhere between 8-10 times.  I don't even know how many, its been so much. It really could be more.  In March, he had to go to the hospital while we were down visiting my parents.  He was well enough to drive home to only have to go to another hospital as soon as we got here.  That is what began our 2 month journey to where we are now.  We heard everything, from it could be this cancer or that one, to Scott was just a drug addict addicted to the pain medication they give at the hospital, to its stress, its diet, its what-ever-you-would-like-to-throw-in-there as a reason as to why he was getting sick again. Words like maddening to frustrating don't even begin to cover the emotional toll him being so sick AGAIN had on both of us.  He was getting to the point where he was convinced he was going to die and he was trying to get everything in order just in case he did.  Last weekend he was in pretty bad shape.  I had not seen him so bad since before his gallbladder had been removed.  He kept telling me "something is really wrong, I know it."  He was hesitant to go the hospital. Again. Because well, who wants to be told the same thing. Again?!?  He tried to tough it out but on Sunday morning I was like you need to go, you have to.  I took him in and the Dr told me before I left to bring Noah home, that he would find out and fix whatever was wrong with Scott.  This Dr was so nice, so compassionate and genuinely cared about what was wrong with Scott and wanting to fix it. I actually left believing that, that would happen, he would help Scott. On Monday they ran tests - all kinds of tests, they prepared Scott for the worst.  The whole this cancer, that cancer, this thing or that story he had become used to. Scott was just emotionally and physically worn out. This time, Scott's test results came back showing that the artery that runs near his intestines, was choking off his intestines and basically, killing him. His liver was failing, his kidneys were too. He was hooked up to all kinds of things to help get the two healthier, healthy enough for surgery.  The surgery, the Dr originally proposed, was separating the artery from the intestine, but after another MRI they decided that doing that surgery would be too risky. What Scott has is called Wilkie's Syndrome. It is VERY rare.  Only 500 people have ever been documented as having it and most of those were/are usually diagnosed with it after they have died.  During an autopsy. Pretty scary. Scott saw a new GI while in the hospital, who IS HIS NEW GI by the way, and together they decided that it would be best that Scott be on a feeding tube for at least the next month to "fatten him up" and see if that will help loosen his artery from his intestine. You see, most people have a layer of fat that protects their intestines, Scott does not.  He doesn't because he has been so sick that his body ate it away.  Kind of like an anorexic. His Dr is also talking about putting a stint in to keep his intestines open.  Scott has a follow up appointment in two weeks so good news should come then.  As of right now, he is doing fine, annoyed with his feeding tube, but he feels so much better and he is home. He is happy to be home.  He is also happy that he knows now what is/was wrong with him and now he has a plan. He is also very thankful.

Here are some pictures of Scott's intestines so you can see what I am talking about

Here is a normal free flowing part of his intestines:

Here is the obstructed one. If you look at the black, sliver-like thing under the 1974/2013 area that runs from the top of the photo to the bottom that is ALL the room he had open in his lower intestine.  All the bulge to the right, that is his choked off, swollen intestine. It looks like SO much fun, right!?

Before I end this I have to say, that my little Noah turned the BIG ONE! I am freaking out about this. He is not a baby anymore. He's a toddler. EEEEKK! We ended up celebrating Noah's first birthday at the hospital with Scott.  I took all the kids and brought ice cream because Scott could have some too. It was really sweet. Noah had a blast. We will probably have a very late party when things are more back to normal for us.

Alright friends that's what we've been up to.

Lots of love to you!

crawling is just the beginning

Hi All,

We are all doing well!  Noah started crawling (I'm posting a video), he started feeding himself, and he has started to pull himself up on to his feet. He is obviously determined to get up and go! To be honest, we were not surprised that as soon as he started crawling that he'd try to be up on his feet as much as he could since he has had the desire to be on his feet for months!  I expect him to be walking very soon!

Here is the video I posted on facebook of him crawling! Once again, I do not know if it will work on idevices.

The older kids are all well! One of Brooke's best friends moved into the house next door - which is so cool and she is super super excited about that!  Alec is doing great!  He drew Scott a picture and it looked so realistic!  He is such a talented artist! Avery is good too!  He made the honor roll and Tuesday night he and I tentatively planned out his HIGH SCHOOL schedule.  I want to cry re-reading that sentence. Ah! 

Scott and I are well, he is busy trying to meet some deadlines for March and I am busy with Noah. I am attempting to teach him sign language because he has a little bit of a temper. Sometimes a little bit of a big one. The idea behind teaching him to sign is that, I would like to help him communicate his wants and needs better and avoid the fits altogether. But I haven't had much luck yet mostly because he would rather look at me like I am crazy than copy the signs. 

Here are some pictures of our past few weeks:

Feeding himself peas and carrots

Playing in his new toy from Aunt Audrey and Uncle Nick! 

Just being cute! 

Getting into his books in his bedroom

I will from now on try to get more pictures of the older kids on here, but it can be harder sometimes as they are not too willing to have pictures taken! 

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, as for us, here goes! 

Christmas was SO fun! We actually had a white Christmas!  It was awesome! Noah was totally interested in the snow (which was great!) and we went outside a few times so he could look at it and touch it. Scott even let him taste a tiny bit.  He loved it, but he likes ice, so how could he not?!

Here is Noah in the snow, my happy little bee

And here is the view from our back door, so white, so peaceful, I love the way outside smells and how quiet it gets when there is snow/when it is snowing.  Scott got the kids and I hot chocolate from Starbucks which made the day perfect! 

Brooke noticed that Avery is now as tall as her and we got a picture of the exact moment when she realized it - hilarious! 

All four kids are all well, enjoyed their break from school and got tons of gifts that they loved! Such lucky kids! 

Noah, Avery and I stayed with my parents for about a week and a half and we had a blast!  Old friends and family visited and we spent some much needed time with Papa and Mamoo! 

Here's Noah playing with Zoe and Kalista, they are the daughters of a girl I have known since 8th grade! 

LOVING on Julia, but in all honesty, who doesn't love her?!

Snuggling with cousin Hope

Playing with GG

Practicing crawling with Papa

The deer my mom and I started feeding which lead to more deer showing up to be fed, and now there are somewhere between 15-20 that now sit and wait to be fed, peering through the gate. Starving. With their babies. Making us feel like total jerks because there was only so much deer appropriate food in the house  we could give them. And believe me they stared.

Avery and his baby kitty!  She had to go back to my parent's house because Noah is allergic, actually, we all are.  But I am such a cat person, I'll suffer through it for the sake of having one.  However, it isn't an option right now until Noah gets bigger.  Bella (the cat) followed Avery around for 2 days after we got there and the first night did not move from the pillow next to him.

Noah with his uncle Al, holding a Mexican Coke with a big smile, because, Mexican Coke is the BEST Coke, duh. 

Playing under the Christmas tree.  Too cute! 

Visiting Papa at work pretending to be the boss 

That was pretty much the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 for us!  Here is hoping and praying that this year is awesome!  We have a lot to look forward to! 

OH! Noah got his first tooth New Year's day.  Then he got his second tooth, the next day. Um, yeah.  Big things are surely in store for us this year!  He is also, crawling in a one two pattern then stopping.  I think he is scared a little about going further. I don't think it'll be long until he's off getting into things.  

Scott and I are well too!  Other than trying to be better about staying in touch with our family (my goal), we both are going to try to live out the wisdom of 1 Corinthians 13 4-7.  Its a few verses that I am sure everyone knows but living them, that's the tricky part. Wish us luck! 

Well friends and family that's it for now!  Lots of love to you!

figuring out how to spell column for this post was hard

I'm not kidding, I tried spelling it ten times, and I used the dictionary on my iphone and still could not figure it out!  I even asked Scott who has the super strength of being a decent speller and he tried three times and then said I don't know.  Finally I typed how I thought it was spelled into google and the predictive psychic genius that it is, knew what I meant. Yay google!  Google's psychic powers never disappoint, sneaky sneaky!

I hope everyone had a lovely and happy Thanksgiving, yes, I know it was like a month ago, but I still mean it!

Our Thanksgiving was great!  Everything went according to plan, no disasters, no drama.  Thank God!  I of course planned and planned so that I would not have to stress out because I do so very easily.  The entire family helped cook, my momma decorated and my mother in law cooked the turkey.  You have NO idea how much this made me happy.  I'm a vegetarian. The thought of having to touch raw turkey parts was not only super intimidating to me but also made me want to gag.  I am not kidding when I say I prayed several times hoping that I would not have to cook it.  Let me be clear - if I HAD to do so, I would have. I just did NOT WANT to.  I am super THANKFUL I didn't have to.  Noah got to play with his little cousin Essie and it was funny to see Noah's reaction to her playing with his toys.  I think he got a little jealous.

Here's Noah attempting to take his toy from her. Ugh.

All three of the older kids are doing well.  Avery cut off all his hair before Thanksgiving and Brooke had some dental work done to help pull a tooth up that wasn't coming up on its own.  Alec is continuing to work super hard in school to stay on the A-B honor roll.  

I found this little armadillo bobble head thing in a gift bag with all our wedding cards, that Scott bought each of the kids when we went to San Antonio together and it made me think about how Brooke, Alec and Avery have all grown up so much and changed so much since Scott and I first met.  They were all in elementary school.  Next year they will all be in high school. 

Here they are, literally, the day they met one another

And right before Halloween

I love them all so much! 

Noah's aunt Ginny bought him a pacifier with a mustache. Although Noah hasn't taken well to having a pacifier at all, he does like to stick it in his mouth of a few seconds and then spit it out.  I think he looks really cute with it! 

Okay so Avery and I enjoy memes, a lot.  Sometimes he and I will copy them just for fun.  One night we decided to put a piece of bread on our family cat, Bella, and of course she was completely dissatisfied with what he and I had done to her.  We thought it was funny though.

We put up our Christmas tree and Noah was super interested in it!  Here he is inspecting it!

We chose red and gold ornaments this year because red is my favorite color and red and gold happen to be the team colors for Scott's favorite football team.  Ten points in the cool wife column for me!

My parents will be here Saturday and we will begin celebrating Christmas, I am excited about that! I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful holiday!  

Lots of love to y'all! 

a little of everything

Hi guys!

I am sorry I haven't updated in FOREVER, but I honestly haven't felt like getting on my computer.  See, all my online activity happens from either my iphone or ipad, and when I update my blog I have to get on my laptop and sometimes, rather, most of the time, I am just too dang lazy to do so! Sad, but true.

Here's what we have been up to:

ACL - The Austin City Limits Music Festival - Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE music! I love live music and I always look forward to going to ACL. Last year I was a few weeks pregnant with Noah and if you did not know, I had the worst morning sickness - ever!  Not even two weeks after Noah was conceived I started getting sick which led to 4 months of round the clock throwing up.  I could not do anything. I spent 4 months in bed, hating life, because no one likes throwing up and I am oh so dramatic.  Anyway, I was lucky I got to go to ACL last year because I was so sick. And I had a great time. I was really looking forward to going this year simply because I would not be sick and I could go all day and stay all day and it would be delightful. The thought never crossed my mind that me going all day or at all really wouldn't even be possible because I was breastfeeding Noah. See, if you haven't noticed I live in my own little world.  Its a tiny problem if you ask me but this tiny problem sometimes leads to big uh-ohs. Just ask Scott.  He'd know.  So,  Scott and my dad went all three days and both thought maybe, just maybe, I could go and bring Noah for 1 hour on Sunday to see one person perform and then leave right after.  They saw lots of other kids and babies of different ages and figured it would be fine. Reluctantly, I agreed.  We took every precaution to make sure Noah would be comfortable and have all the things he would need and headed to Austin.  We walked into the gates and Noah instantly got excited, started cooing and kicking and I thought okay, this will be fine, one hour and he will be fine.  We ended up staying 20 minutes.  Noah got a little anxious with all the people which made me anxious and then we got stuck in a crowd of people and I was like I am done, Noah and I need to leave.  I apologized to my dad like a bazillion times and we headed back to my parents house.

Pumpkin Patch - Going to the pumpkin patch was so fun! I was so excited about going and all three of the older kids were such great sports about going and participating in taking pictures which was like SO AWESOME of them! Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day:

Avery turned the big 13! He is just growing up so fast!  Its so funny hearing him share his opinions on things because I am constantly blown away by what comes out of his mouth.   I am always thinking "oh hey, you're not the little guy I think of you as."

He is forever in my mind this guy:

Halloween - Because we live on a street that only has one side, we got like 5 trick-or-treaters.  This meant that even after promising my sister I would send some kit-kat bars down with my parents for her, I ate the WHOLE bag in TWO days. I ate them with breakfast, while making breakfast, for snack, just because, and whatever other perfectly logical reason I could come up with to have another. Whatever.  

Here are the kids in their costumes:

Brooke and Taylor - cute kitties, duh! 

Avery, Alec, Evan and Austin - Nerds (such a stretch), Brian from family guy (the peanut butter jelly song) and the grim reaper

Noah - A happy little Skeleton 

Noah is doing great!  Growing and growing and learning and learning!  I think something new happens everyday! He can say mum, da, and he makes a weird noise at the cat!  I think it's his version of a meow.  If placed on the floor he will roll and roll all over the place and even across the room!  He is getting the basics down to start crawling.  He knows how his legs should move when placed on all fours, and he can stay on all fours for quite a while before falling.  He just does not have the arm strength yet, but we are working on it!  Noah is also becoming a little independent.  He is perfectly fine sitting on a blanket playing with his toys.  In fact, he will try to wiggle out of my arms if he wants to be on the floor and if I try to play with his toys too he looks at me like "no, you had better stop and move away."  I ordered a play pen for him which should be here any day and I am excited for that!  I know he will be too!  

Everyone else is doing great too!  Alec made the honor roll which is a huge huge HUGE deal because he's dyslexic and everyone couldn't be happier for him!

Scott and I are hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner and we are both looking forward to it!  We will have a house full of family and we love that! 

I will post again after the holiday! 

I hope your Thanksgiving is lovely!

feeling MEXcellent

Hi guys!

Last weekend my parents came.  They come visit every two weeks so if reading that gets redundant - you have been warned.  The most awesome thing about them coming other than getting to see them was that they brought my baby sitr! No, that wasn't a typo, you read that correctly, my sister and I call one another sitr and refer to one another in all we do as sitr.  We call each other that because when she was in the 3rd grade she wrote a Cinderella type fairy tale about me and since she could not spell sister correctly she spelled it "sitr."  Years and years later, we found the story and read it and laughed and started calling each other sitr.  Anyway, I was so excited that Nell came to visit! This is a big big BIG deal because she hates to travel by car on a highway or be in a car longer than 15 minutes.  Why?  Once she was run off road by a big truck and even though she was fine and her car was fine, it scared her and she has been anxious about being in a car ever since.  We had such a great time with her here.

The one thing Nell was looking forward to the most was getting to feed Noah bananas like she did with Avery.  Here she is feeding him and he loved it!

My parents bought Noah the cutest PJs that glow in the dark and I love them SO much I think they will end up being his Halloween costume while he passes out candy this year.

I am really fond of Noah's little face when he looks up and I finally got to snap a quick pic of him doing so.  I am SO in love with him! 

All of Noah's older siblings are doing well.  They all got new cell phones so they are pretty stoked.  Brooke and Avery got new iphones so the two of them are especially excited.  Alec got a way cooler phone than he had and he is excited about that! All three of them got their first progress reports and every one has either A-B or all A's so far.  We are encouraging them all to keep that up the whole year and then Scott and I are doing something huge for them!  Alec and Avery got new beds too! My parents brought the beds up with them when they visited and the boys got to put their own beds together.  A little man-training there. Ha!  My mom wanted to do all the kids' rooms and since Noah's is finished she moved on to the boys' "man-cave".  She is making all the kids' comforters, pillows and curtains.  So far everything looks AMAZING!  One day I will do a post of our house because I know some of our family wants to see it.  

Scott and I are good too.  Nothing interesting or exciting on our parts. He is mostly busy with work and I am busy with Noah.  Scott is taking me to see the native Texas butterfly exhibit at the museum this weekend that I have wanted to see since March.  I am SO excited! I am excited for Noah as well because he is starting to become aware of all kinds of  things around him, so I hope it'll be a good time for him too!  If I remember to take pictures I will post them. 

Now to the reason I titled this post "feeling mexcellent" -  The other day at lunch I made myself a bean burrito and I wondered if I could give Noah some of the re-fried beans.  I checked a website and it said he could have a little, like a taste of them and be fine.  So I let him try them.  Here is the video:  I am not sure it works on iphones or ipads, as I can't see it on either of my idevices.  Enjoy!

Lots of love to y'all 

Four month check up

Hi All

Last weekend we had a full house, something that Scott and I both love and want to be a constant in our lives.  Friday night we had Zerick (I think that's spelled correctly) and Soren over to spend the night.  They are Scott's late friend Darren's boys.  They are both SO cute and we love when they come over.  Alec and Avery love it too.  It's basically junk food, video game and computer game night when they are all together.  Or geek time in short.  My parents came up for the weekend and stayed the night Saturday and Scott's sister Ginny came and stayed the night as well.  Saturday day Scott's mom and Aunt Netti came over for a few hours. I told Netti about a recipe I found on Pinterest for mint brownies and she basically told me to make them immediately. Ha!  They were really good.  I had to modify the recipe a little because some of the desserts on Pinterest are ridiculously terrible for you.  As in, fattening to an extreme even I gag about and my friends, I LOVE fattening desserts.  

This week has gone by pretty quickly.  Noah had his 4 month check up and shots yesterday.  It went pretty well.  And by well, I mean, no panicking or freaking out for me (God does answer prayers). Although, I have to admit I was a little nervous. Noah pulled all his best tricks for the doctor - cooing at her and rolling over for her.  He did cry getting his shots and was fussy last night and has been so a little on and off today.  Poor baby. Here are Noah's stats: he is still in the 25th percentile for weight coming in at 13 1/2 pounds and is in the 95th percentile for height at 26 1/2 inches.  He is long and skinny.  Not a big surprise. Scott is long and skinny and I am long and semi-skinny, well, mostly kind of skinny.

Here is Noah getting his check up from his doctor

And here's what shots do to Noah

Brooke, Alec and Avery are all adjusted to being back in school.  However, they are not adjusted to the homework.  This year it is a lot for all three of them.  Brooke has hours of homework each night and Avery and Alec are not too far behind.  All three of them have committed to making the honor roll this year, so we are hoping that they all reach their goal.  

Some pictures of our week so far:

Noah playing in the car with Scott before taking Avery to school 

Noah helping daddy work (I think) they may really be checking football or baseball scores

These last four I took this morning - they are blurry but he was playing with his blanket and laughing and cooing at me, in other words, being SO cute!  In the last picture, please excuse and ignore my witch hand. ;D

Love to y'all