Welcome to the 30 Club!!

One of my dear friends, Stephanie Poage, turned 30 last Thursday. Stephanie and I have been friends for 5 years and I have grown as a friend, a mother and a woman of God because of her. She has forgiven me a LOT of faults and has loved me through the toughest days of the last 5 years. She has been the second person I've told that I was pregnant all 3 times and has held both of my children the day they were born (even if it meant driving from her nephews birth to see Will!). Here are some pictures of Stephanie and I that didn't make her memory board for the party!

4th in One Year

Another seizure. Ella had her 4th seizure in the last 10 months. I can't believe that we've managed through 4 of these and that Ella is no worse for the wear. Last Wednesday morning, February 17th, Joe woke up a little after 5am to the sound of Ella coughing and he went in to check on her. It took him a second and then realized that a seizure was starting and by the time we got her emergency meds pushed in her she hadn't been seizing for longer than 10 mins. I'm so greatful that the Lord prompted Joe to wake up when He did. Ella and I traveled by ambulance and our wonderful neighbor came over until Kristie took over for the day. Usually I ride in the front of the ambulance, but this time they had me hold her on the stretcher in the back...not the safest mode of transport...oddly. Ella's seizure never reactivated after we gave her the Diastat and I'm SO greatful that they didn't have to use any of the sedatives on her. They couldn't find ANY infection and Ella never had a fever...so I got us released about 12 hours after arriving.

I know, lots of question.

Answers...in walks Dr. Daniel Nale, our WONDERFUL pediatrician. Dr. Nale LOVES the Lord and as been so amazing with Ella since day one. We don't always see eye to eye (tubes for Will's ears) but he really is great with my kids. Dr. Nale found an ear infection in one of Ella's ears and fluid in the other and determined that the infection lowered her threshold for the seizure. We are greatful to be on good meds and have wonderful doctors. Here are some pictures of Joe and Ella in Dr. Nale's office the say after the seizure getting all checked out!


Get Back on the Horse


And she did and she LOVES it still!!! Equest in Wylie, TX has always been so much fun and when we end this semester Ella will have been a horse rider for over a year. I love that she has two very tall men for "side walkers" and she talks to them both the whole time. This is her horse, Stren, whom she loves...she buries her face in his mane when she first gets on...and she loves to scratch his back. I'm so greatful for this program!!

Olympic Training

Our Young Married's ministry at church (First Baptist Dallas) decided that we all needed to practice our short track and ice dancing so they got a whole bunch of us together and we headed to the Plaza of the America's and went ice skating. I realize that there are only pictures of myself and some of my girlfriends, but I really wish I'd gotten pictures of Joe and Jennifer Misemer racing around the rink...that was the best!!

Dallas Snow

I know everyone North of the Red River thinks we are nuts when our city freaks over a lot of snow, but this is the first time I can remember ever having this much snow...that sticks, for days. It was fun to watch, but our city isn't prepared so we totally shut down (I mean, why would we prepare for something that happens every 30 years?). Here are some of our photos:

Read!!!

Audrey LOVES to read! All day, everyday she brings us a book (or sometimes the same book over and over) and asks us to read it to her. Most times she just points to the pictures she knows, says what they are and then tries to turn the page. Occasionally she lets us read the whole book to her, but this is rare. I have tried a few times to take her to a reading time, but I think she is still too young for that. She gets upset when she can't turn the pages or has to sit still. It usually ends with me carrying a very upset Audrey out of the room. Oh well, maybe in a few months!
Here are a few pictures of Audrey helping us read. They are a few months old, but it's all I got!
Enjoy!







Snow Fun!

What an exciting week last week! According to Dallas weather-people, we had a record breaking snow. Apparently the last time this happened was 32 years ago. Now, when I lived in Arkansas you were guaranteed to see snow like this at least 2-3 times a year. So I enjoyed it alot. All the kids in our neighborhood REALLY enjoyed it. You could hear kids' laughter all day long, see snowmen, snow forts (I should have gotten a picture of that) and snow animals. It was fun to see all the creativity in people's yards. So, hear are some pictures from our yard. Enjoy!

Backyard/pool area

side of house

my friend's car (she was i Cambodia on a mission trip and missed all the fun)
trees.....

.... snapping under pressure

my hubby's a little sad about this. He had just trimmed the trees exactly the way he wanted them last summer and now he has to chop off more then he would like to.

In my hubby's words: stupid snow!


before you shriek at me for taking my daughter outside w/o a coat, please know that she refused to put her coat on, but insisted on screaming to go outside. I'm all about learning life's lessons, so off she went w/o a coat.

she was not a fan


see... lesson learned. She gave me no problems in putting on her coat the 2nd time around!


likes it better on the sidewalk, probably b/c her feet stayed more dry!


she had fun saying SNOW! over and over again.


Good times!

more fun!

a little distracted by the kids playing in the snow

my sweet little angel!

18 month check-up

Well time surely does fly by! I took Audrey in for her 18 month check-up. I just can't believe she is already 1 1/2 yrs old! She actually turned 18 month Jan 25th, but for some reason I scheduled her check-up later. Probably b/c her 1 year check up was late. Anyway, she is a healthy, happy and super smart little girl. She played and talked while in the doctor's office and then screamed for all she was worth when she got her shots. It was not pretty. Thankfully she is done with shots until she is 4... I think. She'll have flu shots of course and she might need 1 more hep shot, but I can't remember. Although I hear the 4 year shots are brutal. I'm thinking daddy can take Audrey to that appointment!

Audrey is tall and skinny... like her daddy. She weighed in at 22 1/2 lbs. (25th %) -- she eats like a horse, but is constantly moving around and she is 32 1/2 inches tall (75th %). It is so frustrating b/c 18 month pants are loose on her, but way too short and 24 month pants are a little long, but way to wide.
I can't complain because she is a healthy child and such a blessing. I love, love, love that girl! I don't have pictures this time... way to much drama! Hopefully next time.

Waiting...

I feel like I wait around a lot...wait for therapy to work, wait for insurance to approve something, wait for something to get ordered or reordered, wait for a call back from our social worker, and yesterday it was waiting on a doctor (not the first time).

As many of you know, Ella has chronic urinary tract infections (UTI). If you will remember, it was the reason for her first two seizure episodes (April and August of 2009). These infections grab a hold of Ella's body and cause havoc to all of her systems.

We have been seeing the "best" urologist for children in Dallas since Ella first started having UTIs and then we saw the same doctor when Will needed surgery to perform his circumcision...I love the doctor, but his office is less than wonderful...heck, they are less than acceptable.

I hate to go into ALL the ways that I've been disappointed by this office over the last 9 months, but yesterday was the last straw (and last visit from us).

Our appointment was for 3:45pm and I called at 3:35pm to let them know that we were running about 5 minutes behind (mainly because I knew that it would take me extra time to get her chair out of the car because it's heavy and just takes me a second to organize to lift). So, we arrive, sign in...and wait. We waited for 45 minutes to even get into an exam room.

SIDENOTE: (This has nothing to do directly with the office, but added to my irritation of the appointment.) As we arrived and settled into our waiting area we were greeted by a darling 2-year-old. How do I know her age? Well, she kept calling Ella a "baby"..."hey mommy, look at the baby", "what's your baby's name?"...BABY?!!? GRRR. So I asked this child how old she was (figured around E's age) and her mother told me she was 2 1/2. First off, she had great vocabulary...speaking in full sentences which I totally understood. But as she kept calling Ella a baby and I started to explain that Ella was older than her and not a baby and had difficulties, Ella started to get VERY upset. Anyone that knows Ella knows that it takes a LOT to get her upset, and this girl must have hit her buttons. The mom was doing NOTHING as this little girl was insulting my child. I wouldn't normally think that Ella understands when we explain her "condition", but I think yesterday proved me wrong. Finally the little girl got called back and Ella was perfectly fine to watch a Chipmunk movie and watch a true little baby across the room. And we waited...

When we got called back I was asked a question "do you cath her or is she potty trained?"...this irritates me. We have cathed her EVERY time we've ever come into the office. {In fact, one time the lady said that I needed to sit her on the potty and see if she would give them a sample that way...ever tried holding a 3o lb sack of dead weight over a toilet while trying to convince it to pee...and all the while trying not to touch anything in the bathroom...frustrating.} So, I said that they would need to cath her if they wanted a sample. Then the nurse asked if I thought she had a UTI (if I did then I would have made an appointment based on that!) so they decided not to test her urine because they don't like to cath if they don't have to. Actually, I wasn't terribly bummed about this because it's the one place that can't seem to ever cath her on the first (or 5th) try...and Ella is VERY uncomfortable every time. You would think that a Pediatric Urology office could cath a child...geez.

So, we get to the room and they tell us that it's not the room that we need to be in because it doesn't have a sono machine, so we just sit there and wait......no one EVER says anything about the fact that they are now running an hour behind! Finally the Nurse Practitioner comes in (the whole reason I made THIS appointment was to see the DOCTOR, because I was tired to talking to someone who knows nothing about our case). So, I walked out without seeing the doctor, they never tested her urine OR did a sonogram, I'm pretty sure they gave me a the wrong meds on the prescription and I needed to get out of there quickly so I didn't even wait for all of our receipts to print out.

Tired of waiting on medical professionals to have Ella's best interests at heart...how do I explain that I don't really care what else is going on in their office...when my daughter gets there I expect to be treated with respect and like my time and daughter matter.

Boot Scootin'

Our Young Marrieds deparment at church decided to have a GREAT Boot Scoot on Friday night. There were around 100 people who decided to come out for some amazing BBQ (thanks Spearmans!), some roping lessons and some dance lessons...so much fun!! Notice I'm watching my feet the whole time...gotta make sure and the get steps right! The group shot is just our Sunday School class...we had a BLAST!!







Picture of Stephanie, Andrea and Caroline

2 Years Old!!

Will turned 2 on Friday the 29th. Here are some pictures of our big boy and his stats:
Weight: 32#, 4oz @ 90th%
Height: 38 1/8" @ +95th%
Head: 20 1/16" @ 95th%...his head is almost as big as Joe's...makes us laugh












Will post birthday party pictures as soon as some friends upload them...my camera died after only two pictures!!

Ella will eat anything


Will had left some cracker pieces on the floor (also known as leaving crumbs everywhere) and Ella crawled as fast as she could to try and eat them off the floor. Not because we starve her, but because she really loves to eat whatever Will is eating and saw an opportunity to eat crunchy foods (which we don't give her). She's getting MUCH better at chewing and swallowing, so soon she'll have her own crackers. Thought it was funny that she made a bee-line for this little treat.

Ella and Avery

Ella and Avery are only 2 days apart (and Avery's mom, Maggie, and I have been friends for almost 10 years!). It's fun when Avery's Grandmother (who is also Ella's school nurse and sitter) comes and brings Avery to play!!


Aren't They Precious?