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!"