Random pics

Some random pics as of late. Emma on her birthday sleeping, the cake Ella made them, Ella and Emma at the school play ground, and finally my new fave pic of Ella. She is holding cousin Killian and made him go to sleep, what a little Momma. Don't forget to see the pics bigger all you have to do is click one!

Finally an update and Halloween pics

Please forgive my neglect of the blog recently. Not much in the blogging mood, too busy enjoying life, which has been very good to us recently. Emma is doing fabulous. No sicky icky germs as of yet, even though a few weeks ago the entire house was sick. All the kids have had the seasonal flu shots as well as the first dose of the h1n1 vaccine. No tears at all either time for any of my 3 big kids, I was so proud.

We are greatly looking forward to Thanksgiving this year, if plans go right Emma's Aunt Adam will be in town to visit. He as you know is in the Army and is stationed in Arizona right now, but will be making a trip to Afghanistan early next year as it stands right now, this after just getting back from Iraq earlier this year.

We love fall time anyway, will be looking to change the blog layout soon, so that we look more fall like.

Halloween went well. We went to Fall Fest at our wonderful church. Derek was a skeleton, Ella dressed up like Hannah Montana/Rock star and Emma wore a cute little pair of pumpkin pants and a shirt with a little girl witch on it that said "too cute to scare" it was cute. We got lots of candy, got to have fun and see our friends, and learn about Jesus.

I will be posting another post shortly with some random pics of the kids. My laptop was not working very well the last month or so, but thanks to Darren it is now, and I can post pics again!

God Bless all our dear friends, we hope fall is bringing good things to you and yours.

Birthday, flu shots, and being sick...

Derek, Ella and me (Mommy not Emma) have been passing around some sort of sick colds or something for about the last 2 weeks, which is why no updates for a while. Mommy was just too tired! Everyone is doing better, but Derek stayed home from school today. He went on a cubscout camp out this weekend, because he was feeling better and got to feeling worse from sleeping out in a cold tent. He also ran into a tree and scraped up his face pretty bad. Thank God Emma has not gotten super sick, but has been a tad bit gunkier.

Last Thur we all got seasonal flu shots, Emma did great. Ella ran a little bit and we had to chase her down and hug her tight for her shot, but in the end she never did cry over it. Derek sat down and took his shot like a man. Didn't even say ouch or anything.

Friday the girls turned 5! Can you believe it? My little miracles made it to 5 years old, there were so many days back in the NICU that 5 years seemed impossible. I am so proud of them both. They got some great gifts and love them all.

Since the first week of Oct, I have been fighting nerve pain/palsy in my left hand so typing is no fun to me. Imagine your hand feeling like its constantly asleep and when you use it, its all pins and needles. I am doing home therapy on it and trying to rest it, hopefully it will heal on its on.

Please everyone pray for Emma's Aunt Lisa aka Mimi. She was in the ER last night and her blood work came back saying gallbladder problems, she is set for an ultrasound in about 2 hours to figure out what needs to be done and how bad it is. We are hoping she doesn't have to have surgery, and praying her pain stops soon. Will update you all as I can on that.

Bless you all for hanging tight and still reading our blog, I know updates have been few and far between the last few months, I will try to change that soon.

September 22, 2009

Things have been busy recently so I have not had a chance to update. All good things happening so no worries.

Yesterday Emma got her last 3 immunizations. She did well, only cried 2 little tears. Ella went with us and she held Emma's little fisted hand and told her not to be scared, it was so cute. Afterwards we went to the dollar tree, where Emma got a stuffed doggie for her bravery and Ella got candy for her kindness to her sister.

We went to church this last sunday, it was the first time in I don't know how long. No rain and it wasn't hot so we went. It was nice to get back, and I am hoping we continue to go. But with swine flu being a big scare I am really trying to keep Emma away from crowds, so we will see. Swine flu, what a topic. It really gets me worried. Most of the children who have died from it have under lying problems like lung issues or neurological problems. Sounds a bit like Emma doesn't it? So of course that makes me worry for her. I know that Ella and Derek's teachers are doing all they can to keep the kids well, they have hand gel to use and have been teaching how to cough or sneeze into the crook of your arm and not all over your hands or out in the air. I am still iffy on the shots, I worry they might not be safe. But we will all be getting our regular flu shot on Oct 15.

Derek has joined cubscouts. He is going to the Wichita Moutains for a hike this weekend. I wish we were going with him, but Darren has to work. They will be going to the top of Mt Scott (you can google that if you aren't from OK) which is something I did when I was around Derek's age. I spent quite a bit of time down in that area, since we grew up down there and its a beautiful place. I hope he has fun.

That's the update for now. I am going to work on the blog some, I have been wanting to make a page for some time, where you can click and just get a short summary of Emma's life and what her issues are and read about how awesome she is. That way new people to the blog don't have to read all the old posts to catch up.

Prayers for a friend

To protect my friend's privacy I will not share who they are or give details (I don't even have details so please don't ask!), but I found something out this morning that I can not let go, it is weighting so heavily on my heart. I have to ask that everyone prays for this family. Their daughter is disabled, and this last week she was sexually assaulted. As you can imagine they are so very upset, scared, lost, and hurting for their daughter. Please pray that God will help them during painful time. They are wonderful friends to Emma and myself and to know they are hurting, well its just so heartbreaking.

September 11th

Anyone that knows me in person, knows that this Momma has a very soft spot for Patriot Day. Long story short, I have always been proud of my country, but 9-11-01 was a very scary day for me, never in my life up until that point have I ever been so scared or prayed so hard for people I had never even met. So scared in fact it sent me into labor with Derek, who was stubborn and spent the next 36 hours taking his time!

Remember today is not about buildings burning or planes crashing. Its not about hate and war and getting even. Its about remembering those who lost their lives. 2,966 people died that day, to many of us that is just some number we hear and remember seeing the day unfold on tv. But to 2,966 families it is the day they lost an important person in their lives. Its not just a number. It is life. Life lost due to something that I personally will never be able to forget. I still cry to this day, thinking of how I wept and cried and begged God to save people, to save all of us, to save the world. It felt like Armageddon to me that day, and 36 hours later my son came into this world and like an angel sent straight from heaven, filled my world with goodness again. Let us pray that those 2,966 families can find goodness again. Let us never forget what we lost that day.

Help someone on 9/9/09

Please help our friends raise money for Cystic Fibrosis! Nathan is looking for 99 people to donate $9 each since today is 9/9/09. If you can help please do, and tell your friends! http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/2009/09/9.html There is a link to his blog post it will tell you how you can help! You will have to copy and paste it, for some reason blogger will not allow me to post it as a clickable link (I still need to figure out why!?)

Sept 2 2009

Derek and Ella are still home from school. Doing better today, so far. Praying that holds through for the rest of the day. Still coughing but no fever yet since last night so hopefully that means school tomorrow. They are mad that I have them laying down all day. I even rented them a movie and they still find ways to complain. If they don't go back to school tomorrow, I promise I will go in their place!!

Emma's not sick so far, and I ask that prayers be said that remains true. I can't imagine her having what they have. They have been miserable. Fever is so rough on emma too. But so far so good, we have tried to keep Derek and Ella off of her and out of her face and I have used a whole can of lysol spray and we wash our hands like crazy.

Above are the praying mantis pics I promised. We found her a while back, the kids named her Gummy bear. She is getting to big for the container I have for her, so hopefully today or tomorrow I can get her something a bit more comfortable to live in.

I have been having fun with my new camera and hopefully will be posting more photos for you all to see, I got some great ones of Ella the other day, just need some of Emma to post along with them.