Catch up

SO I am way behind, but here are a few things that have been happening around here
        In June Kinley had her tonsils and adenoids and tubes done.  She has really grown SO much since then.  We had her hearing and verbal skills retested since she was behind when we went to her 18 month check and her follow up the doctor expressed some concern also.  She was borderline so they came to our house and did some more extensive tests.  We were pretty surprised when we got her results back.  She was actually right where she should be with her communication it just seemed so behind because she was testing at atleast a 26-39 month level for everything else.  As of late her speech has really picked up and is talking a lot more and has a very large vocabulary for a almost 22 month old.  We were told she was smart since she was small but her ears and tonsils were interfering with her communication.  We are so thankful for medical technology that is allowing our sweet girls to be healthy.
    Madison has been her busy crazy self.  She has SO much energy and we needed another outlet besides mom and sisters, so we put her in a dance and gymnastics class.  She can be super shy and I was worried that she would just stand and watch or cry, but the first class she jumped right in and did everything they asked.  She was really doing great.  She was doing so great and I loved watching her do gymnastics.  She was doing almost everything they asked her too.  She was learning cartwheels and doing great on beam and bars.  This last month she really wanted to take a break and do swimming lessons.  I wasn't going to let her since she would have had to do parent child which she had already passed 3 times, but we got a call saying they would let her to the preschool level so we agreed to let her, but she had to choose dance/gymnastics or gymnastics or swimming, she picked swimming.  A couple weeks ago we were at a church activity and the gymnastics couch asked why madison wasn't doing gymnastics, told her she wanted to do swimming and take a little break and she said she hoped madison would be back in January since she shows real promise, and has a lot of natural talent.  She is loving preschool and is just our wild crazy funny girly girl tom boy.  She loves to wear dresses and skirts and go play in the dirt while wearing them.  She LOVES all things pink, and Merida(Brave).
  Ava is LOVING kindergarten and doing pretty good.  She wants to be friends with everyone and gets sad if they don't want to be friends with her.  Right after school started she let grandpa pull out her first wiggly tooth.  She has had a wiggly tooth since February, but didn't really wiggle it.  Then in july or august her cousin got his first wiggly tooth and Ava wanted to loose hers first.  She was better about wiggling it then.  Then the day came, and her cousin had grandpa pull his out first, and then a couple minutes later Ava let grandpa pull hers out.  She cried about it for a while until it came out and then everything was perfect and was SO excited that she lost it.  She got $1 from grandpa, a $1 from the tooth fairy and a stuffed cat since it was her very first tooth.  Her other teeth were wiggly but not wiggly enough.  Grandpa had to go back to north dakota and her top front tooth was getting very wiggly.  She could wiggle it with her tongue, but she only wanted grandpa to pull it.  the first weekend of november we went to jackson (more on that later) and grandpa pulled that wiggly tooth right out.  Now she has 2 holes right above the other, although it was last long since her bottom adult tooth is coming in.  She loves swimming lessons and doing well.  She also did gymnastics, oh and she LOVES being  .
    Seth and I have been really busy too.  Seth got a promotion at work and a new calling too.  He is the new 2nd Counselor in the young men and the new scout master.  They haven't offically called him to scout master since they have to get the back ground check first.  Seth and my dad drew out for jackson/ grand teton national park for hunting.  We went the 1st weekend of November the last day they saw some that they could shoot at but missed them all.  turns our seth's gun was way off and there was a momma and 3 cub grizzlies where they were and decied after  shots they better go.  So after thanksgiving they went back up and didn't see anything they could shoot.  It ends saturday and you have to have 2 so they didn't get anything this year, it has been too warm and mild for the elk to move, there had been some movement but they in was too calm and the elk just stayed put.  The yellowstone heard hasn't even moved yet. I have been crafting my buns off.  I have done several things to sell online in my etsy shop.  I haven't had anyone buy anything yet but one day.  I am also making my nieces baptism dress.  It is what she will wear to be confirmed in since it is crochet and has pearls and would be very very heavy all wet.  We have had lots of adventures since june.  We got 2 kittens, they were abandoned by their mom or moms, and were hand raised, there were 10 kittens.  and we took 2.  We had a black one and a tiger tabby one.  the tiger one was the runt and TINY.  she was just so small and didn't have enough left in her and she passed away.  We still have our black cat and he is CRAZY.  his name is Twilight, after the pony not the vampire series.  she stalks and plays all the time.  Loki thinks he's crazy and usually ends up getting the brunt to twilights focus.  In july we added 3 chickens to our 4.  We know have 4, 3 of ours and 1 that is/was my sisters.  one was attacked and killed by two dogs.  They got one but the other is still running around and we have seen him trying to get into our yard and to our chickens atleast 2 more times.  Then one of my sisters chickens was killed by another dog.  We don't really know what happened but we are pretty sure they same dog got a hold of one of our little chickens since she went missing the same time and we have not seen a feather of ehr since.  We got my sisters back and burried her.  So we now are back to 4.  We love getting the fresh eggs from them too. 
      Otherwise we are just trying to keep up with the kids and get things done.

6 years

So this is a little late because I couldn't figure out how to add a new blog since the tool bar at the top that says new post doesn't want to show up, but after some trying and figuring I FINALLY got to where I could put up a new post!  SO Sunday was Ava's 6th birthday!  She was SO excited and could not wait until it was 2-5 HER birthday!  We went the day before for a BIG birthday lunch with all my family.  We have 4 birthdays within a month starting 11/11 ending 12/10.  We went to Taggarts after Seth and my dad got back from hunting.  We enjoyed GREAT food and SUPER good desserts.  Ava got to open her presents from Cameron and Kayla and my mom and dad, and one from us.  My sister and her family stopped by on her birthday and had cake with us. 
    She was SO excited with her presents, she got a new 18" doll that has curly hair like her, a new mermaid cabbage patch doll, 2 new my little ponies, an art case, a diary, 2 new books, a new outfit, 2 new birthday dresses, and a guitar.  It was horribly out of tune when we opened it, but thanks to dad and uncle kevin it is now in tune.  Ava has been playing it every minute she can.  She loves to play it and make up new songs, we could have the next taylor swift if she keeps it up.
   Here are 6 things about Ava on her 6th birthday
    1.  She has lost 2 teeth and has 3 more that are wiggly
      2.  She loves to sing and make up new songs
        3. She such a sweet hearted girl and wants everyone to be everyone's friend
          4. She is an AWESOME big sister and loves to help them
            5. She LOVES swimming
               6. She LOVES school.



We love our Ava Boo and couldn't imagine our lifes without her

16 Months

  Kinley is 16 months old today and life is so crazy and busy!  She is super funny and a pill too.  She has her days when she only like one person and other days she likes a lot of people, she almost always loves and wants grandma but she has her days where she doesn't too.  SHe has taken to making some of the funniest faces I have seen from a little kid.  She is going to Primary Childrens on the 12th and then back on the 18th so we can hopefully get her tonsils and ears taken care of.  She had her developmental screening today and past with flying colors on all but one area which she almost failed.  That was her speech and language, which I was not surprised by.  She doesn't really talk and has had atleast 2 ear infections the latest a MRSA in the last 4 months and that is with the tubes in.  They are almost 100% sure it has to do with the ears and tonsils, but if she is not doing better with her communication by fall we should have her reevaluated.  She is a handful and SUPER fun.  Here are some fun facts about Kinley
  Ava calles her KinKin
  She has only 4 teeth
  She weighs about 19 lbs. 
  She knows several signs and we use them to know what she wants
  She likes to sit on the potty
  She LOVES to climb
  She s DEEPLY attatched to her blankie, which she stole from me
  She LOVES to cuddle.
  She has an ATTITUDE!
  She is Funny and loves to make you laugh
  Aunt Gina likes to laugh at Kinley's top teeth because she says they are HUGE, they are bigger then her bottom.
   She loves to brush her hair and put on and take off hair things, and like to take yours and put them on you too
 We LOVE having her in our family, and can't wait to see how she is once she is actually healthy and all healed up

....

There is no good way to title this post there are so many emotions I have right now relief, happiness, amazement, sadness, grief, guilt.  Now this probally sounds crazy but they all are about my baby Kinley.  She is almost 16 months old and i don't think she has really ever know what it is like to be healthy, atleast not completely anyway.  She was born very bruised and developed jaundice and had to be on the buli light and then started the reflux and then the ear infections.  Tonsilitis more often then most adults i know.  She had fluid in her ears for probally 5 months, and got tubes at 7 months, until then she had a hard time staying up when sitting up, when she would try and crawl she would fall over, she only said aa aa aa nothing else, she had am earinfecton for over a month, then after the tubes, the runny noses and sore throats and reflux really kicked up.  Now this might seem odd, but be NEVER knew she had an ear infection unless we happened to be going into the dr for something else.  She never showed regular symptoms, she never pulled her ears never refused to eat slept and played never ran a fever, all the basic things to look for she never did, she would also randomly break out in a rash and within minutes it was gone.  She got those tubes and within a a week she was crawling and sitting up and pretty soon we heard mama.  I was relieved that she could hear, but she was still very small, after her 4th sinus infection and the dr hearing her breath she thought we needed to go back to the ent, this is also after the 6th strep test in 4 to 6 months.  So back to the ENT we go and found out that yes her tonsils are on the side and not on the back like normal, all my kids and mine sat there.  After he got looking he realized she could not breath through her nose.  We got into surgery and took out the adenoids and thinned out the membraines in her nostrils so she could breath.  Well her adenoids were infected inside and out, they were really large and now she can breath better but still has issues.  Then we found out at our follow up her tube in her right ear migrated up, and wasn't where it was draining like it should, and did I mention that when she had her adenoids out she had apnea pauses with the breathing tube in?  We knew she had apnea pauses before but figured she wouldn't with the tube in.  So we knew at 11 months she would have to have her tonsils out,  but we had to wait for her to get bigger.  So we went for her follow up in april after 2 more strep test in april alone and knew after FLordia we would get the plan set out fro when they would come out, well the day we left for Florida her ear was draining but we didn't realize til we got there and her ear was really draining, but other then the draining you would not know she had an infection, she was happy and cuddley and ate as much as ever, she slept and we still hd fun, the first full day we were home we went to the dr and found out she had a sinus infection ear infection, and something else, amd lots of medicine to take, but a few days later when we came back for her check it wasn't much better and they decided that a culture was in order and guess what it is a MRSA in her ear!  After 17 days on antibiotics it started draining again, and after another strep test 2 in 2 weeks it is the MRSA still fighting, so now the dr thinks things need to happen NOW and not later, so we call our AMAZING ENT and find out she will have to stay over night, well our hosptial in town is for proft and EXPENSIVE!  I mean we have paid atleast $10,000 out of pocket after insurance and with a discount for paying in full, The insurance has asked that we stop using the hospital here if possble because they refuse to adjust their prices to make them more competitive.  So we got a referral to Primary Children's.  I Love our ENT and he has done amazing on all of us and I wanted to use him, but the price of our hospital is prohibitive.  I know Primary Children's is Amazing but it isn't our ENT.
   So now why I am amazed, Kinley is SO resilient.  She is happy and determined and does things I can't beleve she can do at almost 16 months.  We took her in since we knew she has a MRSA and her ear was draining again, and she had a temp 97.1 no fever so Happy and busy and smart, she doesn't talk much and I think her throat and ears are part of that plus her sisters talk for her.  I am amazed at how well she has grown and developed and the funny crazy girl she is.  I also feel bad that she has had to go through all these things.  No parent wants to see their child hurt sick or in pain and it seems that is all she has had.  I know things could be much worse and she could have more problems.  I am greatful that they are all things that can be treated and or cured  We love her and can not wait to see who she grows to be and how different she will be where we get her issues taken care of.
        So here are a few facts about why we are doing it now, 16 or so Strep tests all negitive, 6 plus ear infections 2 surgeries 7 months and 11 months 1 MRSA and more antibiotics then  I can count 

Summertime!

Okay so it isn't summer yet, but we are getting excited.  A couple weeks ago we went to Florida with my whole family and went to Disney World and Sea World,  It was A LOT of fun and REALLY busy!  We went to a park everyday and went went went but made some AMAZING memories.  The one negative was that Kinley got an ear infect and we are still treating it 2 weeks later,  Turns out is was an MSA or MRSA infection.  She has tubes but the one in her right ear has migrated to the top of her ear and apparently allows fluid to build up behind it.   This along with the 15 strep tests (I wish i was exaggerating on that) and the sleep apnea pauses our little 15 month old with be having her tonsils out and the tube replaced.  She already had her adenoids  removed and 10 1/2 months.
  Ava has one more preschool classes and an end of the year picnic and she is done with preschool.  It is hard to believe that she will be in kindergarten this fall.  Madison is now old enough to go to preschool and we are hoping she will be in the same preschool ava will be leaving.  She is one crazy monkey girl who loves to climb and jump and bounce and play pretend, and can be super shy still.  Ava LOVES to dance and hopes we let her do dance classes and swim lessons, it turns out they are both little fishes and skipped up to levels above kids their age.      
  These days there are lots of fun and busy things going on at our house.  We planted our garden on our NEW GARDEN AREA IN OUR NEW HOUSE!  We will also be adding 4 (if they are all girls) chickens to the garden area. The girls have wanted chicks for a long time and now we can really keep them so we said why not!  Everyone but Kinley got to name them and their names are Cracker sometimes Popcorn (Madison named) Dancer (Ava named) Feather Head (seth's) and Sprocket (mine),  it will be nice to have the eggs and not have to buy them, the girls LOVE eggs.
         We are going to go camping and hopefully some more fun stuff, we are going to be getting the girls ready for school in the fall and hopefully i can get some good crafts stuff done.  i am WAY behind but here is a little update atleast

Madison's Stats!

So I took Madison in to the Dr tuesday ( I know it is almost a week later) and she didn't have to get any shots and did pretty good. She hates to have her ears looked at and had a hard time when the dr wanted to look at them. We have to watch atleast one of her tubes because it is coming out funny and if it doesn't come out right they have to go in and remove it surgically. Anyway she is our wild little monkey! She is climbing and spinning and jumping and all over, she has always been small weight wise, but taller. Since she was about 2 months old she has not been on the charts for her weight, well that finally changed! She now weighs 26 lbs and is in the 0-5% for her weight, and is 36 1/8 i think inches tall and is in the 50-75th for height, so she looks more like a long string bean. We love her crazy sillyness. She is funny makes everyday an adventure. I can't imagine our life without our fun spunky smart crazy three year old. We like to say in some ways she is 3 going on 17! She always is doing or saying something funny or silly and keeps us on our toes!

3 YEARS AGO

3 years ago our family changed forever. We welcomed miss Madison into our family. She has always done things HER way even before she was born. She refused to let us know what she was so we were excited to find out when she was born that she was a girl! We have had lots of "adventures" with her, she has had liquid stitches which she ripped out, actual stitches on the same wound and 17 months on her head, she walked at 8 1/2 months crawled at 5 and never stopped moving! She is crazy fun, and adventurous, as long as she is around people she is comfortable with.
She can be SO shy, but don't let that fool you, once she has gotten comfortable she is going NONSTOP! She has the funniest little things she says and does, she LOVES to dance and climb and swing on anything she can. She loves to swim and go to gymnastic classes, and is actually really good, but that is no surprise to us since we watch her swing and flip on everything, and she is tiny making her light and easy to flip and balance. We love her fun little smile and how she says I lub you! WE couldn't imagine our lives or family without our sweet mad-i-bug!
Here are 3 things about Madison you may not know
1 she LOVES Pinkie Pie and all things pink
2 She may be small but that little girl is just like dynamite!
3 She says so many funny things, and has a HUGE imagination!
there are just a few things about our wild crazy funny silly busy loving adventurous Madison Jade!

Year Stats!

So we took Kinley in for her 1 year check. She is 16 lbs and 28 inches long while she is not on the charts or very low for her height she is growing to her own curve, and everything developmentally is right on or ahead. With Kinley I would expect nothing else! She has always done things her way and I think she will continue to do things her way. She did fine getting the shots, she cried for a minute and then because she is allergic to the glue on bandaids they had to hold cottonballs on the injection sites til she was done. Because she hadn't gotten these shots before we had to wait and it was a good thing we did because she reacted to 2 of them. One was just really red and swollen and the other started with hives so they gave her benadyrl and they are looking better. We also saw the ENT for the follow up and everything is looking good. I found out her poor little nose tissues were so swollen she couldn't actually breath through it. It is still swollen but she can now breath through it. She will most likely have to get her tonsils out in 6 or so months, so her body can recoup and she can gain some more weight. We love our tiny Kinley Bug!

1 Year! What a Crazy year!

Today is Kinley's 1st birthday! I cannot believe it has already been a year since she was born. We have had an adventure since we were pregnant with her. there was morning sickness for a long time and then the problems with my back and hips and then we found out i tested positive for group b strep and since I am allergic to the -cillian family the medicine I would need to ensure that our sweet baby would get it I would have to be on the medicine 2 doses 6 hrs apart. Now I was maybe in labor with Ava for 5-6 hours and 5ish or less with Madison we knew that we needed to have an induction to ensure I could get the medication. I was already dilating so we decided sooner rather then later and so we went for the 4th since it was a friday. I got into the Hospital that morning and was like a 4 so they started the pitocin and gave me the medicine at about 7:30. They didn't want me to dilate too fast since I had to wait atleast 6 hrs for the next dose. Then my dr came in around 8:30 and talked about breaking my water but decided that we should wait til lunch and closer to the next dose since I tend to go 3-4 centimeters after you break my water. SO a while later like 11:30 ish we were talking to the nurse about who we wanted to be in the room and I said just Seth and I and the Dr and nurses of course. well about 1ish my dr comes and breaks my water and says they can turn up the pitocin up since within the next hour I would get the last dose. well after he broke my water my back labor and my hip pain really kicked in and so I asked for an epidural since my body was not working with me and I could not stand the pain anymore. They gave me my epidural and it only took on 1 side the one I didn't need. well then they gave me the last dose about 2 and and then all the sudden my hip really felt like it was ready to explode so the nurse came in and I was a ten and her head was there, now she had been high the whole time and we wondered if she was going to drop. So they called the dr and I had to sit up with my legs crossed trying really hard not to push, that was at 2:20ish and they wanted to wait a little longer to ensure all the medicine went into the iv so she would be the safest. So my Dr finally came in and said when you have a contraction push, well the contraction started then and I pushed she was out completely in one contraction. So from water breaking at 6 cm to born in just about an hour and dropped to born in 10 minutes. She was So bruised and swollen. I felt so bad. She was a busy little girl and wanted to nurse as soon as they gave her to me.
If we had known this was just the beginning crazy life with Kinley. She was a fun happy cute baby until about 1 month then she was really spitting up and cranky. It only got worse over then next 2 weeks when we went in and had to go to primary childrens to see why she was throwing up and spitting up so much. we worried it was pyloric stenosis, so we did the barium test and saw she had some pyloric stenosis but not what would need surgery, we watched her reflux so we knew she had that and then we found that she processed her food slower then normal all leading to she issues, so we started her on medicine for the reflux, she started to be better. we went in for her 2 month check and had an ear infection, no signs of one, so on antibiotics she went. then her 4 month check she had fluid and I think one ear was infected, she would randomly get rashes that would pop up and go away, we still don't know what caused that. Then 6 month check double ear infection. this was a mean ear infection, 3 medications and a trip to the ent. We found out there was still fluid in her ears. so surgery for tubes was set for that Friday, After a month of antibiotics there was still fluid and she got a horrible yeast infection, that required a oral medication. So when the tube went in at just about 7 months and said she would have gotten another one soon had we not put the tubes in, and noticed she would probably have to have her tonsils and adenoids out down the road where they sat and how small she is. well she started crawling with in a week and mama and dada and aba and 1 or 2 other words. She was pulling herself up on things and we thought we were finally going to have our happy baby back. it lasted for a little while but come November things were changing. She was getting really cranky and her nose was always running or stuffy and the snoring was getting bad. At the beginning of December we moved into our new house and she did okay for the first week but then she was screaming day and night. then we went to my grandpa's funeral and my mom saw how bad it was and said I needed to get her in well I was already taking her in so we went in and the dr was worried about how she doesn't sleep and the screaming and the nose has caused a rash on her face and they thought maybe she had strep only the 4th time they thought that in the last 10 months of her life, and said she needed to go the ENT and see about her adenoids and tonsils. So the next week we went into the ENT and he thought he needed to get the adenoids out and probably thin the nasal passages, but her tonsils will have to wait since she is SO small. She is less then 16 lbs. She has apnea pauses caused by her tonsils, and then other issues, SO the next day Kinley had her second surgery in her 11 months. She had her adenoids out which were horribly infected and they thinned her nasal tissue. We have had a very grumpy girl who has just started to get back to being happy. We had to take Madison in on Monday for a cough that was not getting any better and the Dr noticed a lazy eye on her. So into the eye dr. She has a very very minor eye turn out and could just be weak muscles so we have to do a eye patch therapy daily to ensure she is using both eyes to avoid any permanent problems. She has just started to cut her first tooth. we go for her check up for surgery and 1 year check Monday. will update on her stats then!

New Year

Okay so I am slacking again, but atleast I have a good reason. We moved last month into our new house and are still trying to get it all set up while still trying to keep up a normal life. on the 23rd of December my grandpa passed away from the affects of a long battle with Alzheimer's. His Funeral was the 28th of December. He had a beautiful service and since he was a WWII vet he was buried with Military honors and a gun salute. We are all wondering how long my grandma has. Sadly she also suffers from Alzheimer's and hers set in more quickly and progressed much faster so we know that she may not have as long as my grandpa did, until then we are taking time to visit her.
We started the oldest 2 girls in swimming lessons, we decieded it was a good idea since we got one of the best Christmas presents ever from my parents, WE ARE ALL GOING TO DISNEYWORLD! And I mean everyone, my family my brother and his wife and my sister and her family and my parents. We are renting a house that has a pool and thought it was a good idea if they could swim. Now here is the real reason why I have been slacking, one word Kinley. Since the middle of December she has decided that she doesn't want to sleep but instead she wants to SCREAM all day and night. She began having apnea pauses and is SUPER grumpy. The girls and I went with my mom to my grandpa's funeral and had to be there the night before so we stayed the night, well neither my mom or I slept much or our neighbors since she screamed for nights on end, which wasn't the 1st night but rather the 10th or so. Well it wasn't really stopped we have maybe one or two nights where she will actually sleep.
So the first of the year I had to take her in to get the booster of her flu shot and had to get her weighed to see if she had gained enough weight since she is pretty tiny not even 16 lbs and was 11 months, well she had a rash on her face and her nose was either stuffed or running all the time and always sounds stuffy, she is an open mouth breather. Well her dr decided that she needed to see the ENT to see if her adenoids where a problem. So the next Thursday we went to Dr Haack(hawk is how it pronounced) and he realized she had 3 problems, and only 2 could be fixed right now, So the next day she had surgery. She had her adenoids taken out and they were horribly infected, which makes me wonder just how bad they would have been had she not been on antibiotics for 8 days before for the rash on her face, and they took a laser and thinned out the tissues in her nose so maybe she could breathe better. Now the 3rd problem was and is still her tonsils. She was having apnea pauses with the breathing tube in and so we had to stay at the hospital longer to make sure she would be okay. She is too small to take them out yet. So in the past 11 days she has been just as miserable and grumpy and still doesn't really sleep. She has been running a low grade fever this entire time, and just acts like she doesn't feel good. Seth took her into the dr for me so i could keep my massage time (which I was ready to give up). They said it was normal and could take up to 4 more weeks for her to feel better, so not much we can do until then but try and keep our sanity.
So we know that in a few months like 7 or so we will be back in the operating room to take out those blasted tonsils and maybe we can have a happy healthy child again.