Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our home (Katlyn's hospital room) to yours. Byron and the kids are on their way home to prep for Santa. Katlyn and I are still in the hospital. Here's hoping and praying we can go home at some point tomorrow.
Our Christmas has certainly been put in perspective this year. Even the kids have a muted enthusiasm for presents-- I think we are all feeling the need to be together more than anything else.
We hope you and yours have a wonderful and blessed Christmas.
Love,
The Peacock Family
Byron, Kristin, and Monkeys

Third Time's the Charm?

We are back home tonight after another week in the hospital with Katlyn. And sadly--home with a sick baby and sick Mama.This is our last ditch effort to get her to gain without IV feeds and we will be taking it on a day by day basis. She is on the highest caloric density they can put her on and feel we are really pushing the envelope on volume as well.
Her swallow study showed that she has not lost the ability to swallow, but has a serious aversion to bottles and baby food. We will be working with a speech therapist to help her overcome these issues, but they feel it will probably be a slow process. Sweat chloride test came back negative, so no CF (cystic fibrosis)--yeah!  EKG and Echo looked good except a possibility of an enlarged heart--but it could also be just a numbers issue given how tiny she is. We tried to do an indirect calorie something or other test (didn't that sound technical), but they determined they couldn't do it because it may not be accurate on someone so small.

So we sit around, still not knowing what is going on with her little body, and just praying that she'll fatten up on the new regimen. If not, it's back to the hospital for a PICC Line and we'd really like to try and avoid that.
We will be having a family fast for Katlyn on Sunday and would appreciate any and all who want to fast and pray on her behalf.

Thankful

We are Blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving---a couple days late!

Happy Anniversary to Us

Happy 12 years to Mrs.Peacock and Colonel Mustard. We spent the day celebrating by freezing out butts off at a soccer tournament all day---Good times!!

Love you babe-- I've thoroughly enjoyed the last 12 years and hope it hasn't been too bad for you!

Seven

Today was Ethan's seventh Birthday. I would say he is no longer a little kid, but those two front baby teeth are hanging on--discolored (because they are dead) and should have fallen out six months ago, but they are still hanging on and only slightly loose. I think it is one of those tender mercies for Mom who hates to see him grow up so fast.
Ethan is in First grade and is too smart for his own good! We have discovered recently that he is a great writer and can even properly punctuate conversation in his writing--in my book that's a pretty awesome skill for a first grader.
Ethan has some real class clown potential and we've started to see a little bit of his genuinely funny side this past year. Sometimes I have to go somewhere and laugh so he doesn't know how funny (and inappropriate sometimes) he is!

For Ethan's Birthday, He picked Angry Birds. We made Angry Bird cookies for school.

Angry Bird balloons.

And Angry Bird Cake!

Opening his presents. 

Ethan even talked the Missionaries AND Grandma Dixie into coming for his Birthday! ( and talked a couple of cookies out of the lady at Zaxby's tonight-- not sure if I should be proud or worried about his potential to woo. Maybe he should be a politician when he grows up--or not)
Happy Birthday to out Sweet Ethan . You are such a fun little guy and we adore having you as part of our family!

And the Winner is...

The West Jackson Knights!!

Ethan's little baseball team won the Championship!! It was so exciting and such a fun year of ball! Remember when I said I hated watching baseball--it was boring?? Well, I take it all back this year. I have absolutely loved watching him play this year. The rec department was nice and allowed him to play with the 7 and 8 year olds because there was no rookie league in the fall. Because of that, Ethan got to really learn the game with some boys who have been playing for a bit longer than he has--and he did awesome and loved it.

The tournament was brutal-- played in very cold temps. and relentless wind. And Ethan played the second to the last game after throwing up all day--what a trooper- he didn't want his team to have to forfeit the game--and they beat an undefeated team in overtime that night! Ethan was awarded the game ball for his efforts and he was more than proud of that!

Now all that's left to do is to have a party!! Way to go boys!

Halloween

A little late posting, but my camera wouldn't download pictures for some reason.So here we are--can you guess this year's theme??

Yes, Cat in the Hat!!

Andrew- Cat in the Hat

Ethan-Conrad

Ava-Sally

Allison-Thing 1

Katlyn- Thing 2 

(too cold this year to show off their costumes on Halloween)

Redneck Pumpkin Carving

Come on--Did you really want that crap all over their nice school shirts??

Deep Thoughts...by Andrew

Mom says (referring to "free" school stuff), "We pay enough taxes to kill a horse."

Andrew says, "Well I've never seen a horse eat taxes, so I don't see how they could kill a horse!"

Picture Thoughts

"Busy Day"

"Sittin' Pretty"

"Daddy's Big Little Girl"

Apples All Around"

"Queen of the Remote"

"I'm with the Band"

"The Root Beer Belongs to Me!"

"First Field Trip"

"My Entourage"

"Ummmmmm....????"

"Ummmmm.....immitators??!!"

"Snuggle Sisters"

"Mommy's Helper"

"Little Pumpkins"

Deep Thoughts....by Ethan

Addressing his parents at 10:00pm, as Dad puts a DVD on.

"Uhhhh.....No fair! ...You're watching a movie!?.... You guys are so lame."
(As he rolls his eyes at Mom)

Six Months

Last week the girls turned 6 months. A couple days ago, my Mom sent some pictures to me and there were a couple of me holding the babes the week after they were born. It is crazy how fast babies change and how much they looked alike then compared to now.

Allison is our happy during the day, screamer at night girl. She smiles and laughs all the time--except when it's time to go to bed-- then she is mean!! She loves to play with toys, is very curious, and demands a lot of attention, however she can get it! She reminds us so much of Andrew in all her mannerisms and has also garnered the same nickname "Booby Bandit" for her incessant need to nurse--all night long!

Allison's Stats:

11 lbs. even

24 inches long (maybe- crappy measuring)

Katlyn is our mellow content girl--which is and isn't good. As long as she has her binky, she is pretty content to observe what is going on around her. She is not nearly as active as she used to be as a newborn, and this is somewhat concerning, but we just try to remember that her body only has energy right now to grow her brain and that is where we'd like her to focus her energy. She loves to snuggle and always has a blanket up over her face--it's really cute. She is doing well the last couple weeks gaining weight, so we are making some progress.

Katlyn's Stats:

8lbs. 5 oz.

22 inches long

And after months of screaming, they both finally like to take a bath!

Happy Half Birthday to Allison and Katlyn--they'll be getting in trouble before you know it!

First Food

Allison tried her first food today....Paper!

And Guess what?

She's not allergic to it! HAHA! 

Home Again, Home Again

After nine long days back in the hospital, we are finally back home tonight. 

A week and a half ago, we had to call in a weekly weight check to the GI. We got a nice return phone call back that basically consisted of, "pack your crap and report for your prison sentence."

So we did. The babies and I had an extended stay in our not so luxurious "vacation suite" while Colonel Mustard did an amazing job at home as Mr. Mom and house keeper--Me thinks I'll hire him permanently.

Allison chillin'

Happy Katlyn

The very condensed version of the last nine days:
During our stay in the pokey, we fed Katlyn, fed her some more, and fed her some more. She decided to begin projectile vomiting at us. We fed her less. She did better. She pooped. She pooped some more--but never the same way twice. It smelled really bad-- like clear the room bad. She gained weight, She gained more weight, lost some and gained some more. We had her scoped. The scope showed even after 5+ weeks with no food, there was obvious damage to the esophagus and the stomach. We will await biopsy results--which may or may not mean anything given the amount of time with no protein exposure. We ran blood work, peed in a cup again, and came home- finally breaking the 8 pound mark (good thing-- she will be 6 months on Friday and psychologically, I needed her to be at least 8 lbs by then or I thought I may lose my mind.)

The kids- getting to visit.

Allison happy to see the crazies again.

That's it in a nutshell. I'm grateful for her doctors and especially all the wonderful staff at Children's. I hope we can get to the bottom of her problems soon and get her all straightened out. For now, we will enjoy being back home together as a family and be thankful for our problems--I met so many others who are in a far worse predicament than us.

 Be grateful for your mouthy, obnoxious, whiny, needy, fighting, disobedient, HEALTHY children.

The Cutest Thing

This might just be the cutest thing I have ever seen. Ava on the way to her first Ballet/Tap class. 

She was so excited and had so much fun. 

You know how those mothers sit outside the room and secretly think to themselves that their little girl is the cutest ballerina in the room? Well, sorry ladies..mine actually was the cutest little ballerina in the room!!

No bias...no bias at all...I'm just her mother, but I promise I'm right this time!!