Taevin's medical procedures / surgery

Taevin has been having a lot of medical stuff going on in the last several months.

* In September he had a sleep study to find out if he has sleep apnea. He was hooked up to about 20 different tubes or wires. It was a very long night with very little sleep for either of us.

9/1/11

Test results show that he does have obstructive sleep apnea which causes him to stop breathing.

* The next test he had was to measure the severity of his reflux. They put a probe down his nose and monitored him for 23 hours. It was another very long day with very little sleep and lots of pushing him in the stroller to keep him happy.

Results showed an increased amount of non acid reflux. Next step will be to see if it is causing damage to his throat or vocal cords.

* The next procedure was a catheterization for his heart. His pulmonary arteries are not growing well and he needed two stents placed to expand them. It's amazing to me that they can do this procedure without opening him up.

10/3/11

By doing this procedure it increased his blood flow by 40%. This should help postpone open heart surgery for a while longer.

* The next thing was surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids along with looking at his airway, vocal cords, throat and stomach. The tonsils and adenoids were removed to help/stop his sleep apnea. They also did a biopsy to check for damage from the reflux.

11/7/11

They did not find any damage from the reflux, thank goodness, but they did find that his airway has not grown much and is narrowed by 65%. They also found another problem that might require surgery in the next 6 months to 1 year. As for the sleep apnea we will have to wait and see if the surgery helped.

He did start to bleed a week later from his incision site and they needed to go back in to stop the bleeding so it might be a while before we know much.

I'm praying this is all for a while. It has been a very long and stressful 3 months and I think we are all due for a break, especially Taevin.

Areya's 8th Birthday!

September 23, 2003

Happy 8th Birthday Areya!!!

It's amazing how fast they grow. It feels like just a few years ago my sweet baby girl was placed in my arms. Now she is my crazy, non stop, sweet, helpful, loving little monster.

Here are a few things she loves:

* Her brother and sister

* School

* Playing with friends

* Pop corn

* Watching movies

* Make up

* Vanilla ice cream with sprinkles

* Waffels

1 day old

4 months old

Lake Michigan

Before the weather turned cold we took the girls to Lake Michigan for a little picnic. The girls loved playing in the water I and enjoyed spending some much needed down time reading on the beach.

Taevin's first hair cut and tooth

I finally took Taevin in for a hair cut. The poor kids hair was butchered, I tried to fix it but there wasn't much I could do. Thank goodness his hair grows fast.

He also finally, at 17 months, got his first tooth. He now has 6!

First day of school 2011

Areya started 2nd grade and Aniela started preschool at the community preschool. They both love school and look forward to going each day. Aniela goes Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9:00 to 11:00. She has a little boyfriend named Brennen who gives her hugs and kisses. She tells me that he is not her boyfriend but the teacher told me that they sit by each other and talk non stop.

Meet Jumpy, Hopper and Frogger

Here froggy, froggy, froggy! Not quite as much fun as a dog but my kids still love watching their new pets. We found these cute little guys in our garden this summer and the girls wanted to keep them, so we made them a nice new home.

They have been pretty fun pets. We googled tree frogs and found out all about how to care for them, what they eat and their life cycle. We catch crickets, flies and moths to feed them. The kids love watching them eat and climb the walls with their sticky feet.

Horse back riding

Areya loves horses and begs me to take her riding all the time. So when we found a groupon for a place close to us I was super excited to surprise her with a Mommy/Areya day.

Areya riding Cloud

Here we are riding down the trail.

You can see the head of my horse Hammer in this picture. I also love horses and so this was a lot of fun for both of us. Can't wait for our next horse back riding trip.

Christmas in July

Merry Christmas!

Well at least it was at our house. We found a ready great deal on a trampoline and went halfsies on it with Matt. The girls love it and have already gotten lots of use out of it. We even gave it a try (what a great reminder that we're not as young as we use to be) and had a good time jumping with the kids.

Merry Christmas girls, I hope you love your present!

Taking the boat out

We bought a boat early spring. It was a fixer upper and needed some TLC. So after Damian and his dad finally got it running well we took the girls out for a ride and a little fishing.

They love going out and after we get her (the boat) in tip top shape we will have to try out a few water sports like tubbing and maybe water skiing, but don't get you hopes up on the last one. (Bad memories)

Our Garden

We planted a garden again this year. Starting the seeds way back in March. Since we get so much wildlife in our yard we had to fence in the garden in order to keep all the critters out.

We got lots and lots of fresh veggies out of it this year. So many that we were able to bless many other families with fresh veggies as well.

This is a very small portion of what came out of the garden.

We were able to can and dry lots of stuff for the winter. I also made several loafs of Zucchini Bread which we froze.

Bright Blocks

We had these block growing up and had so much fun making all sorts of cool things. I remember spending hours building stuff with my brothers.

My girls also love building with these blocks and I hope they end up with as many great memories as I have.

While Areya was at school Princess Aniela and I made a castle for her and Prince Taevin.

Here's my little princess!

Prince Taevin

This is the house Areya made. She did a really good job and only needed a little help on the roof. I think she was making a dog house for "Monster" the little dog we found. Guess it worked well for our other little monster too.

August 2011

So you may ask what we did this summer?

Well we played in the water.........

Went to the beach and played in the water some more........

Went to the splash park and you guessed it, played in the water.

We pretty much spent every hot day playing in the water! Oh how I love summer!!!

July 4th 2011

For the 4th of July this year we went to the McMillan's for a BBQ and swimming. Yummy food and lots of fun had by all. Thanks for the invite guys!!!

Damian, Aniela and I decided to go see the big fireworks that night in Round Lake. They put on a pretty good show.

After the big fireworks were finished we went home and watched the boys (Matt and Damian) set off the $200+ fireworks they got up in Wisconsin.

I am so grateful to live in this land which allows us so many freedoms. Thank you to all the men and woman who give of themselves to allow us those freedoms! God Bless America!

Missing Areya

Having Areya gone for that week made our house really quiet and left Aniela with "nothing to do" (it's funny that when they are together all they do is fight but when they are apart all they want is each other) So Aniela got to go to the park and got a special treat at the store with (soon to be) Aunt Amanda while I took Taevin to one of his many doctors appointments.

And so she didn't feel left out we took her and her friend Avery to the Milwaukee Zoo. We ended up getting lost on the way there and on the way back home but we still managed to have a good time.