More wedding Pics

Here are more wedding pics for those of you that can't see the close to 200 that I put on Facebook.

Fall Festivities

Fall is upon us! I love Fall, it is my favorite time of year. I love the cheesy Halloween decorations, the TV specials, the crispness is the air, and the early nightfall that means Linda will fall asleep sooner and stay asleep longer. Jake and I always try to go all out with family events during this time of year. The Scottish Festival, Fall Festival for Rosehill, the pumpkin patch, the nature center, family Halloween movie nights, pumpkin carving, and cider making. Fall is just the best time of year for making memories.

Of course Fall means Halloween, and Halloween means costumes. This year the babies costumes are being given to us so they are being a caterpiller bug for Noah, and a lady-bug for Mina courtesy of Dianne and Jordan. Free is always awesomne as laid off people just do not have money floating around. Jamie has said he wants to be Luke Skywalker, and Linda has surprisingly enough decided she wants to be a wrestler. There is still plenty of time for them to change their mind.

In other news, the babies are really making strides into turning into toddlers. They are eating many grown-up foods, although cheese and yogurt drops are their favorites. Their vocabulary includes Momma, Dadda, uh-oh, and hi. They are pulling up on everything and furniture cruising. They are also interacting more with each other. They will have times where Noah will scream and Mina will laugh, and then Mina screams and Noah laughs and this goes on and on and on. They also wrestle, and already fight sometimes.

Linda's face has all healed. She has a little pink scarring that you can see in the sun, but other than that it looks great. It could have been much worse. She is still making great improvements in school. I am so proud of her. Jamie has made great progress in school and is all boy at home. He is always trying to figure out some new stunt to do on his bike or scooter. We are just going to enjoy this weather while it lasts.

Mmmmmm, Cheerios!

Who is that pretty girl?

Linda's face all healed up.

Santa Baby my Foot

Day 3 post op and I am mostly feeling great. Yesterday Jake had to work so we had a gal from church come over and help out. We have used her to babysit before and she is great with the kiddos. I had a reaction to the adhesives so I had to take Benedryl on top of the pain pills. With her there to take care of the kiddos, I went and laid down and woke up four hours later! I haven't had a nap like that since before the babies were born. The only problem is that it made me wound for sound that night, but that was ok because Jake's cousin Kimmie came over and brought a tub of old photos that we went through. There were pictures from the 70's in this tub. I had a good time laughing at all the hair and outfits, and oohing over how pretty Jake's aunt's looked. Then we finally found some of Jake when he was little. He was so cute! I am posting one of my favorite pictures, the look on Jake's face while he is sitting on Santa's lap if priceless.

The saga continues

I had my D & C today. It went well I guess. I came out of anesthesia weeping for Mason. That has happened to me every time I have had a procedure since his passing. Kimmie was there to help calm me down and I don't remember most of it, but it was the uncontrollable weeping of the broken hearted. Kimmie went and got the babies early from a church friend so I could snuggle them and heal a little.

The doctor found some things in my uterus that concern him. He sent them to pathology to be analyzed. He said he is not optimistic that this will fix the problem and believes I may need a hysterectomy. I go back in two weeks. I am not upset about the hysterectomy, I have been told I can't carry any more babies anyways. He would leave my ovaries so it would judt mean no more periods ever. That does not sound bad to me at all.

Just an FYI, several readers have complained about not being able to post comments on here. I have no idea what is wrong. Please just contimue to leave me comments on facebook, the IC forum, or e-mail and I will respond there. I welcome any of your anesthesia stories. Does anybody else seem to have weird reactions?

Fixer Uppers

In the next week, Jake and I both are having minor surgeries. I will be having a DNC tomorrow to help resolve some issues I have retained from the pregnancy. Jake has been having problems with bleeding out of places he shouldn't. He has already had a scope that went up, and now he has to have a scope that goes down his throat into his stomach. He has also been bruising really easily. He gets these giant bruises that he has no idea where they came from. He also gets blinding stomach pain right before the bleeds begin. Ulcer medicine has done no good and I am very worried for him. I will keep everyone posted on the results. We are just praying for easy fixes.

The Little Nippers

Both babies are cutting more teeth. Noah has two bottom and is cutting his two top teeth. Mina has two bottom teeth and is cutting another bottom tooth. Out of order I know, but my mom says I cut my molars first. I guess we just like to be different.

Along with new teeth come new foods to try. They are getting to where they want big people food instead of baby food. This week they have sampled cheese, yogurt drops, ham, turkey, noodles, and mashed potatoes. Noah very much likes the meat and potatoes, while Mina likes the noodles and sweet foods. They have also had small tastes of Jake's ice cream. I am happy to announce that there does not seem to be any problems with milk products with these two yet. We have been watching because there are two other kiddos in Jake's family that do, although their cousin Zach only seems to have a problem with straight milk.

They are getting very self sufficiant at feeding themselves. It is so funny to watch them. They eat these poofs that are Gerber first foods and we will put some yogurt drops on their tray as well. They will study their tray, pick out all of the yogurt drops and eat them first. It is so cute. However, as the title of this blog states, if you put it in their mouth, it becomes fair game. This includes mom and dad's fingers.

A long, long blog update

Whew, we are back from Missourri after a 4 day whirlwind weekend. I am going to be posting a lot of pictures so I will not be labeling them all. I will try to describe the weekend in the blog so I don't have to label them. We left on Thursday afternoon and arrived late Thursday night. Friday morning, Linda was riding my sister's razor scooter and totally wiped out. She is not used to the hills and got going downhill too fast and flipped over the top of the scooter. She ended up stopping herself...with her face. She skinned her face from her top lip to her forehead. Her lip and nose swelled up and her face just oozed. It makes for interesting wedding photos. Friday evening was the rehearsal dinner and the bachelorette party. (Don't worry, we kept it tame). Jake's brother Jeremiah is at Fort Leonard Wood which is about 45 minutes from my parents house. He drove up Friday night and stayed in my parent's fifth wheel with us for the weekend. It was awesome for Jake to get to spend so much time with his brother, and he was so helpful with the kids. He kept the babies during the rehearsal and pictures during the actual ceremony. He was able to come to both the rehearsal dinner, and the wedding as well. Friday night Jake and Jeremiah bought X-Men and watched it at my parent's house while I was off with the bride.

Saturday was wedding day. The wedding was beautiful. Karen was the most beautiful bride. The whole ceremony from the service, to the decorations were so lovely. The wedding went off without a hitch. We got some awesome shots of the whole family. I also sang great without mistakes, woohoo. My whole family cleaned up so nice. Jake looked very handsome as a groomsman, and the kiddos made adorable ringbearer and flower girl. My SIL Dianne's parents also came up Saturday and spent time with us at my parents house as well. We really enjoyed getting to spend time with Dave and Frieda and getting to introduce them to my family. Frieda especially enjoyed loving on Noah and Mina, I know she misses Jeremiah and Dianne's son Zach who is very close in age. Jeremiah had gifts for all of the kiddos and they proudly showed them off. Jamie is especially enthralled with his uncle the soldier.

Saturday night Jeremiah and Jake went out to the movies and the kiddos and I tried to recover from the day's events. The got back late and after a long talk we crashed. Sunday they were supposed to go out on the four wheelers, but it rained so much it was too muddy. Jake and Jeremiah took Jamie and Linda bowling instead. It was just a great weekend. I was so glad Jake got to spend so many days with his brother since it may be awhile until he sees him again. Here are a lot of pics from the weekend so enjoy.

A short update

Sorry for the delay in posting. I did finally finish my paper, woohoo! I also finished another class and now I just have one more until I have my Master's. I will be so glad to be done. The babies are both pulling themselves up and are into everything. My day is so much more hectic.



In other news, I am still applying for jobs out of state, but we have also looked at a house here in Kansas. We are kind of waiting to see what happens with this house before we make a decision. This house is so beautiful and has so much room. It is a 4 bedroom, 3 bath (we have been surviving with one). It has a formal dining room, living room, family room, a huge kitchen, a 2 car garage, a full basement, and a backyard about 3 times as big as ours. It is in the most beautiful neighborhood full of trees. The bedrooms in this house are huge, all of them. The house is so big that it has two airconditioning units. (Bad for electric though). It is one of the prettiest houses that I have ever seen.



The wedding countdown is on. Everything is coming together except I couldn't find black suspenders for Jamie. I went everywhere Sears, Atwoods, Dandales, David's Bridal, Burlington Coat Factory, Men's Wearhouse, Vanderbilts, Target, Wal-Mart, and more. I could find red, plaid, and Tan, no black. I have also been rehearsing my sonf constantly.

That's it for now, next time I will post pics.

Labor (or lack there-of) Day

What a nice, relaxing three day weekend we had. We drove to Newton to the Carter's baby outlet, played lots of guitar hero, and cleaned Jamie and Linda's rooms. My friends Melissa and Cody are having a garage sale so we went through lots of stuff to prepare for that. The elderly lady next door's daughter has moved back in with them. They have a 10 year old boy and an eight year old girl. They are a little intense, but Jamie and Linda have fun playing with them. They spent every free minute outside playing. We of course had Wii nights and I got some cute pics out of them. I tried to get pics of Jamie and Linda, but they were always in motion so they came out blurry. Here are some pics of our holiday weekend.

Jake trying to get Mina to sleep.

Mina and her new hat.

The Little Drummer Boy.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Waiting on Daddy

The babies seem to have an internal clock that lets them know when it time for Daddy to be home. They crawl to the front door and sit and start out the glass until they see Daddy walk up. Then they are all grins and giggles while they kick their feet and clap their hands in excitement. It is so cute to watch. The day I rushed Mina to the doctor, Kimmie was here and took the cutest picture of Noah. It is so cute, I had to share it. Here is Noah "Waiting on Daddy".

Addressing a Leak

Well, word has been leaked (mostly thanks to Jake) that I have applied for teaching positions at two out of state universities. This is true, however, it should be noted that these are a long shot and not real likely to happen. The first problem being money. I would probably be started out as a part-time teacher and have to work my up to a tenured position. I am not sure how much it would pay. However, should the job come through and the money then we are off.

We had a realtor come look at out our house and estimate what we should list it at. We are looking at making around $30, 000 on the sale of our house if it sells anywhere close to what it appraises for. That will help with the money part of a move. But, in an interesting turn of fate, a local house that I have loved since I was a little girl has the potential to be an option. It is a big, beautiful house with too many anmenities to name. It is the perfect home to raise a family. It is one of those homes that you can see all decked out with white Christmas lights and a Christmas tree shining through the front windows. It is also in a gorgeous neighborhood with lots of big houses and big trees. In fact, the whole street is almost shaded as you drive down it. It is the house I have always dreamed of.

So what to do, what to do. For right now, it looks like pray...hard. We will see what direction God points us in.

A Few More Gray Hairs

Well Mina gave me one of the many scares I am sure I will have in my raising of children. The babies have slept in our room in their bassinet parts of the pack n plays since they came home from the hospital. Every time we thought about moving them into their own room, they just seemed so little we couldn't do it. However, they have officially outgrown the bassinet part, and the playpen part seems really uncomfortable so I decided to try the transition to the crib today. I should note that both babies pulled themselves up to standing for the first time today.

Well I decided to try the cribs during naptime. I laid them down, kissed them goodnight and crept out of the room. Not 1 minute later I hear a thud followed by silence. I sprint back to the room to find Mina on the floor trying to cry. I think she had the wind knocked out of her. Once she caught her breath she began screaming this horrible scream that is usually only reserved for shots. I snatched her up and began looking for battle wounds. I couldn't see any, but she was still crying so I loaded her into the car and rushed her to the doctor. An hour later she is all smiles because she got to see Daddy, get lots of attention from the nurses, and is just fine. Kimmie had rushed over to stay with the other kiddos so she had a rare moment of Mommy and Daddy alone time. She really hammed it up for the nurses who tell me everytime they see her how beautiful of a baby she is, just stunning.It could have been a really bad fall because their room is hard wood floor. However, I had taken the crib bumper out of her bed and put it on the floor (they say to for SIDS), and I think she landed on that. We think she was able to use her mobile that attaches to the crib as a step and that is how she got over the side. No more mobiles, they never even got used, I guess that is another item for Craigslist.

Finally!

After years of trying other alternatives to no avail, we were finally able to get Linda into the Special Education program at her school. She will have a special education instructor sit with her for two and a half hours during the day, primarily during math and reading which are the areas she tested lowest in. Their primary job will be to keep her on task, repeat anything she may have missed, and help her focus during tests. I really think she will thrive under this because she craves adult attention and strives to please during one on one time.

I am anxious to see the results because I have said all along that Linda knows more than her tests show. I firmly believe that if she could be verbally tested, she would do so much better. I am curious to see how she will do on a test with somebody right there to keep her on task. Right now her math and reading levels are testing on a beginning first grade level, which is not great considering she is in second grade, but we held her back so it should be third grade.

On a positive note, the school social worker had some really positive things to say. She said when Linda first started kindergarten she showed very little emotion, and almost no empathy for others. The past few years she showed emotion, but it seemed faked, like she knew she should be sad so she would over dramatize crying. This year the social worker says she sees genuine emotion, and Linda has shown large amounts of empathy for other students in trouble. That is very encouraging to us. I know that Linda is incredibly sweet and tender with the babies. I have never seen her be anything but sweet and loving to them. She loves to sing and talk to them and they grin everytime they see her.

I am really encouraged and I pray that we continue to see positive changes in Linda. We still continue to see a family counselor to help guide us in raising her and I feel that he has made a difference as well. I will keep you posted on her progress.

12 Years Together

As of today, Jake and I have been together for 12 years. It seems like forever, so many changes have happened in our journey together. 12 years ago we were Juniors in High School. We were both working at Rosehill IGA when we re-met. We actually knew each other when we were little through a mutual friend, but it had been years since we had seen each other. Here is a list of things we have seen in our journey:

-Jake became saved

-High School Homecomings, Proms, and Winter Formals

-High School Graduation

-My first place

-Jake became certified as an EMT and moved to Iola to join the Fire Department

-Our Engagement

-We got married and I joined Jake in Iola

-We began foster care. We were devastated to have to let two of the children in particular go named Choncie and Octavia.

-We moved back to Wichita and Jake took a job with the American Red Cross

-We adopted Jamie and Linda

-I got a job at Cessna

-My college graduation for my Bachelor's

-The death of my Aunt Jill who was very close to both of us

-Our first purchased home

-The death of our son Mason

-Jake left the Red Cross for a job at a research facility

-The birth of Noah and Mina

Wow, that is a lot of milestones together and that list does not cover everything. I am excited to see where our journey will take us next and I look forward to many more years together.

-

9 months and counting...(warning, adult content)

We went this week for the babies 9 month well baby check-up. It went well with just a few minor things. Mina is still not babbling or imitating people. She is however, my best crawler, and the best with major motor skills. The doctor is not concerned yet as she was a preemie and therefore may do some things a little behind. With her being right on track with everything else, plus alert, happy, and cooing, he is not too concerned. She weighed 19.7 lbs. and is 27 and 3/4 inches long.

Noah's check went very well with him doing great on all milestones. He is crawling, so not as speedy as Mina. The only concern was for his poor little winky. He was circumcised at around 3 months. They could not not do it immediately after birth because of weight issues. They needed him to gain weight before because the procedure can make them lose their appetite. I had been noticing that it seemed like some of the foreskin had reattached itself. Jake told me I just worry too much. It turns out I was right. The doctor had to fix it, so he basically just pulled down on the foreskin until it ripped away from the head and gave it back that nice little ring. Ouch! Noah only cried for a few seconds, but it looks just awful now. It has a red, raw, ring all around the head. Poor little guy. Now we just have to make sure we pull it way down, and slather it with Vaseline every time we change him until it heals. Noah weighed in at 20.12 lbs and was 27 and 3/4 inches. What a chunky monkey!

In other news, the kids are doing ok in school. James is doing great, but it is becoming painfully obvious that Linda is way behind the other kids. We are having a meeting next week to discuss a Special Education program for her. The kids both want to join scouts and we are discussing that.

Jake has been very busy at work and it only looks to get busier. Thank goodness for job security. He spends the weekend with his family just trying to relax whether its video games with Mike, or movies with his cousins. Oh, and speaking of family, a special thank you to Aunt Dianne for the boxes of stuff for the kiddos all the way from Hawaii. Thank you Aunt Dianne!

Life Changes

Well the countdown to the wedding is in full swing. Time is running short. I am trying to plan a bachelorette party from an entire state away. The music for the wedding should arrive and then I need to practice, practice, practice.

The babies are now everywhere. They surely keep us on our toes. Jamie and Linda are back in school. Jamie is doing great, Linda is struggling again. Even though we have held her back once so she should be in third grade, I would say her abilities seem to be late kindergarten/early first grade level. We are meeting with the school to discuss putting her into special education.

I am so close to finishing my thesis. Than this 40 page nightmare can finally be behind me. All I have left to do is write about the statute from which the Federal Regulation came from, what it is suppoed to do, who has regulatory authority to enforce it, and its Congressional history. After this I have a break before my final class. I should be done and degree in hand by February .

We have been talking about moving for several years now. My job, my school, and my church home has been a big part of what is holding us back. Well come February, two of those things will be gone. Jake and I are really praying about it now. There are a couple of things that would have to fall into place, but it is looking like it might be a possibility. One of the things I want to do is teach at a University level and that would allow Jake to go to school for free. Just something we are praying about. I will keep you posted.

Busy, Busy

Sorry for the delay in blogging, my life is way more busy now that both babies are crawling. Yes, crawling and there is no toy better than the things in this house that they shouldn't get into. Codrs, papers, threads, ect. To make it harder, there are two of them, and they often go in different directions. Yikes!

Jamie and Linda started school this week. Poor kids, it has rained everyday. They do like to go play in the rain and the puddles afterwards. They have so much fun and it is hilarious to watch.

The other day Jake was laying on his back on the floor and Noah was sitting on his belly. Jake started laughing which made his belly shake, which made Noah crack up, which made Jake laugh harder, and on and on, it was adorable. Here are some pictures from the past week, I hope you enjoy.