We have been going to a lot of birthday parties lately! Here was another fun one! Gavin is 7 already! I can't believe he is growing so fast! He is all boy but yet very caring too! Casey and Nate rented the Phelps Youth Pavilion in Waterloo so we got to do some exploring and miniature golfing and they had a craft for the kids to do. There was cake and ice cream of course too! The miniature golf was a new thing since the last time I was there and Austin and I had a little friendly competition! The balls were like a nerf ball and the clubs were pretty light but it was fun anyway! Happy Birthday to my sweet nephew!
Ethan is 6 on August 7th and Alanna is 2 on July 30th. Since their birthdays are so close, we celebrated them together at the UNI wellness pool. It was so much fun! They rented it for 2 hours and were able to bring in pizza and cake to celebrate! Ethan was really hesitant to go down the slide but eventually did (especially after he saw Alanna doing it!). I don't know if Bennett ever did! Keziah and Adah did it and loved it too. Of course, they all had to go down with an adult!
Here we are in a group photo. This is pretty much everyone! I think Adam's parents had already left at this point but we did good to get this many! It was such a great time!
Adah and I coming down the slide together! She LOVED it!
Eden enjoyed the water too and Kezzie is getting so comfortable with her face in the water!
Emily and Alanna coming down the slide together! It was easier getting her to go down then her big brother Ethan, but he eventually went too!
Keziah and I coming down the slide together. She also LOVED it!
Big girl Alanna is a walking pro these days! I had to share her newest skill since she is 2 now!!
Happy 3rd Birthday Rylan! It was such a cute party. There were buckets of sand for the kids to dig through and find bugs, there were bug masks, a bouncy house and each kid even got to bring home a bug catcher and net with some bugs in them!
I can't believe Rylan is already three...he's growing so fast!
Starting at the top left: Ethan is digging, Eden and I, Eden and Emily, My mom and Arianna (Rylan's sister), Ethan in his bug mask, Adah in hers, and Keziah in her mask, Rylan opening gifts, more digging, Rylan and his cupcake and candle, another gift to open and last is Rylan with a gift and his Aunt Crystal and Jamie.
Our Wednesday routine has changed a bit...Brian and I have started a class called Growing Kids God's Way. The girls have been staying with Austin (just Kez and Adah) and they have been having quite the time together. While sitting in our first class we got a phone call from Austin. I was so worried...he was just wondering where the sprinkles were!! Austin set up an ice cream buffet and the girls got to pick their toppings. Have I ever mentioned what a great and awesome big brother he is?
Our class is so amazing...I am enjoying time with Brian and other couples talking about the trials and joys of parenting. I get to bring Eden along too and enjoy some one on one time with her. We start out with dinner (made by one of the 6 couples) and conversation then watch the video and then dessert to follow. I am so excited to see what this 16 week study is going to do for our kids. There's nothing better then growing our kids the way God wants us to!
A friend of mine and her family rented a house on Clear Lake for a week. They came back home to work for a couple days but one of the days my friend had off work and her husband didn't so she invited the kids and I to come hang out and swim for the day. The house was so perfect and we had a lot of fun on the beach. The kids loved it! Austin and I even got to play a game of bean bags! The kids got a little nap in too! Keziah was having trouble falling asleep in the same room with Adah so we brought her downstairs and set up a little 'bed' in the corner of the living room. We told her to close her eyes for 20 minutes and then she could get up. She ended up falling asleep even with all our jabbering! Eden napped well in her stroller for one of her naps. I love that her leg is reclined! She was definitely relaxed! Thanks Epperly family for spending the day with us!
We arrived at the Eugene Mahoney State Park after a pretty uneventful drive to Nebraska. The girls took naps the second half of the drive so by the time they woke, we were almost there. We arrived in time to get settled into our rooms and then head to the meeting area for supper and fellowship. I don't think the girls were in bed until about 10 that night but they were loving the environment!
Monday we wanted to scope things out and get a plan for the week so we kept the day low key. Plus we wanted to give the girls a chance to have a good nap to start the week out with. It was SUPER hot outside so we opted to do something indoors. The campground has their own activity center so that's where we headed. It was a lot of fun for all of us! It was a big jungle gym basically. It had a ball area too that Adah just loved! After spending a couple hours there it was almost time for us to eat supper. Dad was helping prepare supper at the chuck wagon down by our meeting area which is in the campground and just as we were getting our shoes back on at the activity center he called to say he was locked out of his hotel room. It was easily at least a mile, very hilly walk back to the lodge from where my dad was at. We were surprised to even hear from him and I was worried about what his attitude would be like once we got back to him with the key. If it were me I would be grumpy that I walked all that way in almost 100 degree temps only to be locked out of the room, but we came down the stairs leading to our room and turned the corner and there he stood by the door with the biggest smile on his face as he watched his family come down the hall. I won't forget that. He definitely showed me what love is in that moment! Our group sessions at night were great. I only wish we could have been a part of them a little more. I think we got to go twice out of four nights. I am sure as the kids get older in future years this will change though. We also had morning sessions that were great too. I enjoyed them a lot because the kids got to go to their own group sessions while the adults stayed back and had small groups and got to talk about things that were a little more personal.
On Tuesday we went to the parks water park. I let Adah and Kez skip their naps that day and Brian stayed back at the lodge with Eden. I think dad had some good quiet time in his room too! It was convenient because the water park was basically a two minute drive from the lodge so when Eden needed to eat I just came over to the lodge and fed her and then put her down for a nap. She wasn't even awake by the time we got back so Brian had it pretty easy!
Wednesday was our free day meaning there were no morning and evening sessions, and no supper being prepared that day. We had breakfast a little earlier then usual and then packed our sack lunches like usual and headed for the Omaha Zoo! It was so much fun! If you ask Keziah what her favorite thing was she will start listing off every animal she saw and then realize that it ALL was her favorite! Adah will talk about the monkeys with the pink butts (I will try to get video of that!). It is pretty hilarious. She uses her hands to tell the story and gets really worked up and excited. She is telling about the monkeys that have bare pink butts...you know what I'm talking about! Although this was a very good experience for her, for some reason she ended up having a nightmare about it which I will tell you about in a little bit. At the zoo she will also tell you about the tiger that was playing with his bouncy ball and box. He really liked carrying around his box! She will also tell you about the really loud monkeys. I'm not sure of the actual kind but when they talk to each other it is super loud. She did not like that at all! And you could hear it from pretty far away even. She kept her hands over her ears until we were far enough away and couldn't hear them. So back to her nightmare...on the last night of our stay we decided to have the girls sleep in with Brian and I and Austin slept in with Gma and Gpa. This wasn't how we did it all week because we would put the girls to be in one room and then hang out in Brian and my room. However, earlier in the day they had napped in our room so they had their pillows and blankies all in our room and also with it being so late we decided to just put them to bed in our room. Anyway, in the middle of the night Adah wakes up screaming with her ears covered. She claimed the monkeys with the pink buts were coming to eat her ears. I assured her that it was fine, no need to worry and to go back to sleep. About 15 minutes later she started screaming again (thankfully through this all she never woke Eden in the pack-n-play next to me). So I go talk to her again. I tell her she's fine, nothing to be afraid of and she insists again that the monkeys with the pink butts are going to eat her ears. Again, 15 minutes later she is screaming scared so I get into bed with her and rub her back to see if I can help her fall asleep that way. After laying there a bit I look up at her to find her eyes wide open looking around. She softly says to me, "mommy, what is that noise?" That's when it hit me...daddy's snoring was scaring her!!! She thought it was the monkeys with the pink butts coming to get her! Poor girl! So I said, it's ok Adah. That's just daddy. I'm going to get up and just go tell him to stop. She insisted that I not get up because she was so scared. I finally convinced her I would be right back. I went over to Brian to tell him to roll over and she instantly popped up and exclaimed (loudly), "It's ok! It stopped, mommy!" She went right to sleep and I didn't hear from her again the rest of the night! She told us about her nightmare several times the next day!
So where was I? The zoo was a great time. It was hot but we took our time and saw everything we wanted to see. The girls were exhausted as it was day two with no naps. Adah did end up crashing on grandma while we waited on a park bench for grandpa and Austin to get off the sky lift. I am really glad we had the stroller and the wagon. It was nice to have somewhere for Eden to nap separate from where the girls needed to rest. Eden was a trooper the whole day too! We headed back to the lodge for some supper. They had a really nice restaurant right there. The girls slept all the way back from the zoo! I think I might have too!
Thursday we weren't really sure what to do. It was another hot day but being that it was our last we wanted to do something. We ended up taking some much needed good naps and then heading over to the miniature golf course right there in the park. Adah was done after just a couple holes (so was I), but the rest of them enjoyed it. I joined back in somewhere along the way and even got a hole in one! Keziah is at a fun age where she doesn't really remember doing this kind of stuff in previous years so she is sort of doing it for the first time. She really had a lot of fun! We ended the day with nice cool baths and some air conditioning!! Mom and dad were a little burnt out so they decided it would be alright for me to put Eden to bed and go back to the evening session with the other two girls. I knew it would be a late night for them but since it was the last night I wanted to make the most of it! We talked about where the next trip would take us and some things we should do different/same. We will see where the next trip takes us!
Friday we headed down to the camp for some continental breakfast. They went into Omaha and got Panara bread bagels and some donuts. We were free to stick around the camp and do whatever but we were ready to get on the road. We went back to the lodge and packed up all our stuff. We stopped in Omaha at The Pizza Machine (highly recommend) to eat lunch and let the kids run off some energy before the long drive back home. I have a video down below of the girls riding one of the rides. Austin had a lot of fun doing go carts and playing different games. He had a card that allowed him to play any games as much as he wanted for 90 minutes. We ate lunch first and then got down to business! For the girls we just bought some tokens to play. There is an entire area made for just Kezzie and Adah's age. It was a good way to end the week! And after a good nursing for Eden, we all piled in the car for naps and headed back to mom and dad's!
I have a few things that stuck out to me through the week. One was watching Keziah get so excited to share with others. My mom bought a 6 or 8 pack of bubbles when they stopped at the store early in the week. She thought the girls would enjoy them while we were sitting at the meeting area. Kezzie asked her if she could share them. My mom obliged. Keziah was so excited! No, I mean, she was super excited! She got them all out of their packages. She organized them by color. She put them back in the sack. She would get them back out and at one point attempted to open them all and take off the seal under the cap. She could not wait to hand them out. We let her take them with to supper and told her after supper she could hand them out. She almost forgot to keep one for herself! It was so sweet to see her giving to others and being so excited about it!
Another moment I don't want to forget is when we first got there on Sunday and were sitting in our lawn chairs after supper just talking to people and waiting for our group session to start (@ 7:45ish) a lady named Kristeen came up to me. She knew me somehow but I wasn't really sure of who she was and she saw me holding Eden. She got down at eye level with Eden and very intentionally looked at her and told her how beautiful she is and wonderful and how much God loves her and how much she has been praying for her. It brought tears to my eyes. I am so amazed and so thankful for all the people who have and are still praying for her. It meant so much to me to have someone come tell Eden that.
I had a proud moment too when a women making conversation with Keziah was asking her name and how old she was and then said, "Wow, you have beautiful eyelashes. Who do you get those eyelashes from? Your mommy? Or your daddy?" Kezzie replied by acting like both of those questions were ridiculous saying, "No, I get my eyelashes from God (you silly)!"
I don't have much to say about Austin other than God has had His hand on him all summer and especially on this trip. I always worry about Austin having fun and not feeling like everything is for the younger kids. There were many kids his age on the trip. He made some really good friendships. I hardly saw him every night because he played baseball with his friends every chance he got. He even got asked to hang out by the campfire with a family one night. He had a really good time! And I am so thankful!
Here is a video one of the guys put together after requesting pictures from everyone who attended. It turned out really well (unlike me, he actually puts music to his videos)! There was a kiddie parade one of the nights we missed the evening group. I guess it was a pretty big deal! You will get a glimpse of that in this video! It was just such a neat thing to be around other believers of Christ, just doing life and having fun together! I can't wait to see where we go in another 2 years! I am also posting my own video of pictures from the week and then also a video of our trip to the zoo if you would like to see that!
The kids had a blast at the zoo...I took so many pictures basically just so they can look at them over and over. Don't feel like you have to watch through this one but the animals are really neat to look at!
Here is the Pizza Machine video. We went a couple years ago before Adah was born and we had a lot of fun so we wanted to go before heading home. In this video my mom and I couldn't stop laughing because Adah was screaming just because everyone else was but she wouldn't do it when everyone else did she would do it a second later. And it wasn't like a regular scream, it was like a bird chirping scream...it was just hilarious! One of those things where you had to be there!
Eden is growing so much! She had some major growth spurts this month in length especially! Eden is able to roll over from her back to her tummy over her left shoulder. She can continue onto her back from tummy rolling over her right shoulder. She can't seem to get it going the other way though. If she tries she just ends up scooting herself and you can tell that frustrates her! She isn't able to sit up yet but definitely has the trunk support needed for it. She doesn't panic when she starts to tip over meaning she doesn't put her hands down to catch herself. We haven't started any other solids yet but are really thinking about it as Eden is not a happy camper if we are sitting at the table eating and she isn't. She is watching our every bite and I can tell she wants to do what we are doing! Eden is sleeping through the night and still getting 6 nursings a day with her last being right before I go to bed (I am still waking her for a dream feed). She wakes between 6 and 7, takes a nap by 9, sleeps for an hour or two and then up until 1ish. She will then sleep sometimes 3-3.5 hours for her afternoon nap. She is able to stay up until bedtime at 7:30. It is so nice to have her on a schedule, especially when you have other little ones in the house. Speaking of the other littles (and big boy), Eden absolutely ADORES her siblings. She squawks and squeals at them with the biggest smile every time. I love it! She will turn her head and instantly stop nursing if she can even hear their voice from anywhere in the house. That can sometimes be a bit frustrating!
Eden continues to be healthy and seizure free. More updates on that in other posts. God is good! Enjoy the pictures!
Eden enjoying a little bouncing at Gma and Gpa Uglum's house! She can't get enough of these bouncers. All smiles!
We started Eden on cereal 6-30-12 She wasn't sure at first but did better as the days went on. Now two weeks later we have backed off as she is showing less interest. I think we are going to try veggies soon.
I don't talk much about Eden's physical therapy, but here goes...
Here is Eden in her fashionable 'hip helpers'. They are basically just shorts that have a seam sewn down the center to keep the hips together. She surprisingly doesn't mind them. They are helpful when she is both on her back and tummy but mostly when she is on her tummy. They help her use other muscles while she is moving around and playing. She is still able to roll in them too. And the obvious is that it helps keep her legs from going into that frog leg position which is a huge problem for her! We love our physical and occupational therapy ladies. Whenever we are scheduled for a visit the girls know them not by their names but by calling them 'the ladies'. They are so good with Eden and always have a positive and uplifting attitude. Not to mention that they are excellent at what they do. They do a great job of teaching me ways to work with her (besides being tolerant of being bombarded by Kez and Adah!). We are currently working on Eden putting weight on her arms, sitting up, tummy time and lifting up on her arms, a side sit position, reaching for things, and of course learning to roll to the other side and not just the one side. We are finding that Eden is comfortable reaching over her body with her right hand and that is why she is able to roll over that way but she doesn't like to reach over with her left. I would be surprised if Eden became a lefty someday! Eden is also more comfortable when she has support. She is very strong but is scared. If she can feel your touch and know you are there to catch her if she falls then she will do so much more then if you have her try to do it herself. Sitting up, for example, feels so scary to her and she will wobble all over if you don't have your hands by her because she is almost shaking with fear but if you put your touch on her hips or under her arms she will reach out for toys and sit up tall and strong. Same with on her belly. She isn't comfortable with voluntarily getting up on her hands but will do it with your hands under her chest or even just on her sides. She is amazing and it is so fun to watch her learn. I think her success will come when we learn how she learns best. For now occupational therapy comes with physical therapy once a month but physical therapy is coming twice a month. I am so thankful that we have these services offered to us as not everyone does. They both come because of the diagnosis of Agenisis of the Corpus Collosum. I will try to post more on her progress as the months go on!
We had a great day celebrating dad and all his accomplishments throughout the last many years! He is an amazingly hard worker and never complains! I love my daddy to pieces! Soooo happy he doesn't have to go to work in a factory anymore! Happy Retirement dad!
He is starting off his retirement with a week long vacation planned starting tomorrow with my family! I am pretty sure he already has plans to head to the river when he returns too!
Today was a long day...
We took the kids to CF for my mom to watch them. Brian's parents were out of town so they weren't able to do it this time. We got the girls to mom and dad's by 10ish. I nursed Eden and then we hopped in the car for our long drive. I think the day just felt that much longer since we had to run south before going back north, but it was worth it! I love and appreciate both sets of our parents for the help they provide in times such as these. It allows us to just focus on Eden completely! We were trying to leave in time to plan for stops to nurse Eden and to feed ourselves. We ended up arriving an hour early so we found where we needed to go and then went back to a home depot we saw on our way that was just a couple minutes away (big purchase-some lawn chairs!). Our appointment was at 3:45 and I think we walked out of there shortly before 5:30. We had so many questions and she never made us feel like we were wasting her time. Dr. Debbie Song told us in her opinion it would be ok to wait on the surgery. She said her brain tissue doesn't appear to be under any pressure right now. She showed us Eden's scans and said that if the tissue was under pressure it would just be flat, there wouldn't be any hills and valleys like we see on the scan. Her ventricles are very large, however, so she did say that it would be pretty impossible for her to get through life with ventricles that large, meaning she will need a shunt eventually. One of them is quite a bit larger then the other and the brain tissue is very minimal around it. It looks scary...I'm not going to lie. But I still feel like God is still telling me to hold off doing the surgery. Dr. Song's suggestion to us was to do another MRI in 6 months just to watch everything and make sure it's staying stable, but that we wouldn't necessarily say that it was time even after that. I really liked it when she walked in (us having been in the car for so long we kind of took over the room and just spread out Eden and myself on the floor playing with toys all around) and right away saw one of Eden's toys and said, "Oh, a sofi the giraffe...we know all about that one at our house!" I just felt like she could relate to us better than our other doctor. And when she said, "if it were my daughter...this is what I would do", I believed her. I felt overjoyed to be there and so thankful for her and her kindness. She said there isn't ever really going to be a time we decide is the best time for surgery. It is just going to be best to get her a little older. But at the same time we can't ignore that she has enlarged ventricles, we need to be monitoring it by doing periodic MRIs. I haven't mentioned anything about what she said about the cyst that is in there. This seemed to be a pretty big concern of Dr. Menezes (our first opinion). I think he was just being cautious in saying that if that cyst would need to be removed then there can't be any pressure from the ventricles on the brain tissue. He said the brain tissue needs to be lax so he can lift it out of the way to get to the cyst. Dr. Song said that type of cyst is really hard to get to and is rarely rarely removed. It's not growing so she said it will not need removed unless it would start causing seizures that we could tell were being caused by that cyst. She didn't want to tell us what to do and said we are welcome to come back to her if we decide our other doctor isn't a good fit. She was very clear in saying that we need to like our neurosurgeon because if/when she has the surgery we are going to get to know our surgeon very well and have a close relationship with them. I am not comfortable with Dr. Menezes but he is the best that we have found and I think he would do the best job at it. We are just trying to take it one day at a time. I find myself praying the Lord's prayer several times a day. In that prayer it says, "Give us this day our daily bread." meaning, give me just what I need for this day, Lord. I find so much peace in that and am able to enjoy Eden much more when I am not worrying about the things I have no control over anyway! God is so good to have put Dr. Song in our lives! We'll keep you posted on what Brian and I actually end up agreeing to do (since Brian still isn't convinced he wants to cancel Eden's surgery). Pray that God's will is done!
Isn't she such a little doll! I must say that the middle picture is a little deceiving because she isn't quite sitting up on her own yet. I was able to get her steady enough to snap the picture though!
We didn't have our lovely Austin around this year so we decided not to participate in any fireworks display, but we did get invited to our neighbors house (the neighbor in our back yard) for a backyard bbq last night. It was a really hot evening but a lot of fun. They had a little baby pool set up so we walked over with the kids in their suits. It was pretty convenient too since Eden goes to bed by 7:30. I was able to go home and nurse her and put her to bed and then bring the baby monitor outside with me. The other two were up much later then usual but they had fun playing with the other kids there and slept like a rock. Thanks for having us over Staci and Nick! Happy Fourth of July!
