Find the energy.....

That is my goal! I have been so worn down to even get on the computer, actually this is only the 2nd time in 2 weeks. I've been sicker than sick with a low grade temp that lasted everyday for 4 weeks due to a bad sinus infection that just wouldnt go away. It wiped me out couldnt pick my head up off the couch lots of headaches. They tried me out on 3 different meds and several shots all pregnancy safe to help knock it out. I stayed super stressed out thinking what these meds where doing to the baby, but I had to keep in mind that a temp wasnt safe either. But thankfully we finally found one that worked. I had one good day of feeling good then got the phone call that the strongest man I knew, my grandfather had passed away! Such a wonderful man he was I miss him so much! That same morning before I got that phone call I had the worst pain in my right upper side and back and chest pain it went on all night so I called the OB and they had me come in to check me out this was on Friday. Turned out I couldnt get a ultrasound right away because I had eaten so I had to wait till I got back from out of town. We took the long 9.5 hour trip to my moms in Louisiana for the funeral. I was so thankful that I got to be there with my family, lots of faces I havent seen since I was little. It was also a much needed love that I needed from my family I miss them so much I hate being so far from them, tears me to pieces not being able to see my neices grow or just hang out with my mom or sisters. Sadly we couldnt stay long had to get the kids back to school we came back on Wednesday and had them back to school On Thursday. Caleb was so upset he loves his school he also missed out on his bowling school trip but was very understanding. Such a great little guy he is. He was so great when I got upset at the funeral he would come up and pat my back and say mommy I'm so sorry your sad its ok! He did it over and over....God love him hes the greatest and most caring child, always concerned! Cami on the other hand did not handle the change well at all, she pitched fits pretty much that whole trip. She loved being at my moms house but anywhere else she screamed and cried she did take change well at all! Her schedule was wiped out with late late nights, no naps, lots of unfamiliar faces and a go go go schedule....understandbly hard for her! Poor gal Thanks to my hubby for taking care of her so I could be there for my family!

When we returned I headed to my ultrasound appt to have my gallbladder looked at and during the mist of the scan the tech lady says well how nice of you to bring your jewlery with you...pearls that is! Yep you guessed it gallstones and some very large ones at that! We are talking half dollar size. She said one good thing they arent little ones which are more painful. She said with the big ones they every once in awhile float down and get stuck when the gallbladder drains. Bad thing is they cant touch it till after the pregnancy. I have an appt set to see a Gallbladder specialist to tell me how I can better control the pain. Which I'm sure means no fatty foods. I tell ya I've already found out that I have gestational diabetes so no sugars. Before long I'll be down to bread and water alone.....good bye pregnancy cravings.....LOL! Actually that part hasnt been to bad I've found some good diet drinks that I enjoy and then of course lots of water. I go back to the Dr to hear the heart beat again this week I heard it last week still sounding good and strong! I'm a little over 14 weeks. Now enough about me I'll update you some on the kids. 1st start with Caleb, full of energy and breaking the tooth fairy with all these teeth he keeps losing. No fears anymore that thing gets lose hes begging his daddy to pull it out. Hes lost 6! Now Cami we are trying to get her back on schedule she didnt do to well at school after being out for 3 days on top of her weekend. Girl needs to keep a rountine. She has made huge progress in her speech she is really putting those sentences together. Mama I want tea, I want to eat, I want to go outside, I want to swing, I want ride bike, Thank-you mama, Thank-you dada, lots of sweet sweet words! She is really doing good at expressing her needs and wants. I'll post her IEP soon. She has a GI appt this week and its much needed she is still having major problems in that area even with the daily murilax we are only getting 1weeklys out of her its horrible. She also has her Developmental Evaluations coming up one in April then the big test in May. This is to evaluate her to see about the Autism again. So we shall see how that goes.
Well thats about it the kids are on Spring Break for the next 2 weeks. Next week we are headed to the Great Smoky Mountains to camp for the first time this year. I cant wait to relax and hear that creek run all day.
I'm sorry for lacking in the blogging world, I have fallen way behind on everyones updates and I apologize. I hope you guys are doing ok and I'm on a mission to catch up on your little angels!
(((Hugs)))
P.s We did finally get our big snow we had been waiting for 8 inches here in our year it fell and the kids loved it and YES Cami included. I'll have to pull the pics soon for ya! Until then here is one in memory of my grandfather. These where taken Thanksgiving last year! Love you Pawpaw!


Me and my sisters with my Pawpaw!

Cami loved his ears she would just rub and rub them and he got the biggest kick out of it! Miss that smile and laugh!


2 Handsome guys!

Dragging my feet....

Ok so like said I'm way behind here. Just lots going on around this household....kids are busy! So in the past couple of weeks Cami has really taken off its like a growth spurt of words. She is learning names and her new one is Kelli but she says LeL-e-e(she really draws it out...thats a southern girl for ya;). My sister was thrilled to finally hear her say it. She has been singing well its really just the perfect tune who needs words any way. But to hear my girl hummmm Twinkly Twinkle Little star will melt your heart in bits. She says Lalalala Lala lala the whole way through then claps for herself at the end! Then there is her ABC song we've been working on this trying to get her to repeat the letters back to us. Well she has the A and B E and D down pretty good. Now when she sings it its all A A A A A A A A A the whole way through it is too cute.....Sweet Sweet Tunes my girl!

Her birthday went over fantastic. She got all she could have dreamed of and more. She even tried to blow out her own candles. She was really into opening those gifts this year and let me tell ya that girl loves clothes and shoes so we heard lots of ewwws and awwws out of her. We got her a new pair of shoes and she had to get in them right then and pulled her old ones off and put the new ones on before moving on to the next gift....LOL! That girl loves shoes, anything that makes loud noises thrills her she loves to make them clack on the floors! Good stuff, heres some pics!







Then of course this last green bag gift was a surprise for all! Cant be a party without one! Heres the reactions from the loved ones, I will treasure this picture forever!

Just what was so exciting in that bag?
Well it was this shirt:




Took a few people a minute to catch on but it was a great surprise! Thats right we are expecting another little miracle. Coming soon in September! We've already heard the heartbeat and things are looking good at 10 weeks. I've had my fair share of morning sickness and lots of sinus problems resulting in lots of mild temps, coughs, runny noses and pure exhaustion. But hopefully that will all soon be a thing of the past. We are thrilled, Caleb at first thought it was weird but now I find him asking questions all the time. Like what do you think it will be a boy or a girl? What do you think we will name it? Where will it sleep? He cant wait to feed it the list goes on and on....so curious he is. And Cami she has no clue all she knows is that she got a cute shirt out of it....LOL! But she does have a new word and thats Baby and she says it all the time. It will be a sweet sweet thing, we cant wait!

So I hope this news was worth the wait :)
We are still waiting patiently for the Spring weather so we can start our camping season. Lots of memories to make!

New info on Zonegran

Ok so I've not looked into this fully but someone just posted this on Myspace stating that she just found out from their Nurse and then confirmed from their Neuro that Zonegran will no longer be manufactured and they will for now on just carry the generic form only called: Zonisamide.

Many Drs know how important it is to use the real deal med for Epilepsy. So why pull the name brand? In this above persons case her son had been on the Generic Form with no seizure relief so they decided to try the actual Zonegran and he became seziure free now she fears the worse when they run out of the name brand! This is horrible!Anyone else heard of this med being pulled?

Coming soon...

Ok so I know I'm lacking big time in the blogging department! Its been an exhausting past few weeks with our big girl turning 4, Dentist appts, 4 year check-up and then on came the illnesses. She did have a great party so those pics are to come soon. I'll post them mid next week after her Belly Dr appt along with some updates!
Hope everyone is doing well we have really enjoyed the spring like weather but it seems its short lived since the cold is coming back tomorrow. Come on Spring we are ready for the Camping to begin!!!!

Countdown

Well not a whole lot going on around here, no big excitements, no big outings just hanging out around home trying to stay warm. We are so ready for the Spring we had a little taste of it yesterday with temps in the lower 60's it was fantastic. Not a cloud in the sky and a warm/cool crisp breeze....ahhhhhhhh......and you guessed it we spent the whole day outside soaking it up. The kids were running our cul-de-sac out on their bikes and scooters while the hubby and I worked on cleaning the garage out. They loved being out there and not cooped up in the house. I took advantage of the day and aired out the house it was wonderful. I tell you this winter has been one of our coldest in a while so it was great to get a warm day. We've had a few snow showers here and there but still no big snows yet but we still have some winter to go!
( So Jamie I'm still waiting....send us your snow.....LOL! (Oh and my accent....teehee....I know country right, I cant help it! And yes you do have an accent, its defiently northern....LOL! But it was so great chatting with you as well!)




SO the countdown is for my Cami she will be turning the BIG 4 on Saturday the 7th. My goodness how time is flying, I cant believe how tall she has gotten. She is such a ball of energy always on the go and is the loud one of the bunch, lots of squealing, laughing, babbling and screaming. Her speech continues to get better she is really working hard on putting those sentences together. They usually go something like this: "I want bite", I want go bye bye", "Daddy go Bye Bye" "My play", and the cutest so far is "Hi Mom" she said this last week when I picked her up from school.....melted me into pieces. But such a grown up way of saying it....come on MOM wheres the momma? She has become so attatched to me lately, she had her first seperation anixety from me last Friday when I dropped her off. She has never acted up when I dropped her off at school. But this day she was not having it, she wouldnt let them take her coat off or her back pack. Running from them doing the noodle legs. And every time I tried to sneak out she would scream and run for me, so I had to stay trying to get her attention on their activities she just wasnt having it she would keep peaking over to make sure I was still standing there. And would fit if I even got near the door. Broke my heart hearing her scream Mama Mama while I walked down the hall. They said she didnt cry long they gave her some candy and she was fine....Who wouldnt be happy to have some candy?
But this behavior happens we go out if I'm near she will not have anything to do with her Daddy. SHe will throw herself down and scream if he tries to hold her hand. Oh gotta share this story. Let me first say Cameran has her ways and her strange fears. And the fears are never what you may expect. As in shower heads that are removeable you know the ones with the cords. Well these terrify her, Why we have no clue??? She screams and you have to literally drag her to the bath tub. We thought at first it was just bath tubs she wasnt use to well as it turns out their bathroom didnt have one of those shower heads just a regular one. Until recently we put the ones that come unattatched since Caleb is taking big boy showers. Well this has struck a huge fear in her. Well what does my hubby thinks will break her from it? He thinks if he uses it on her that she will overcome the fear.......WRONG! It has infact made things worse, she will no longer go in the bathroom if the shower curtain is open and she will no longer stnad in the bathroom to brush her teeth alone. And know when we ask her if she is ready for a bath we no longer get the real enthuized jump for joy instead we get a wrestling match! Ugghhhh! He ruined her....LOL and she also no longer trusts him. The other night he tried to give her a bath and she said plain as day said "Dont want Dada baba(bath)" I couldnt help but laugh! Poor gal I just dont know how to get her over this fear, might just have to come with time. Sad though because she has always enjoyed bath time.

And for Caleb hes doing great loving school gets sad when they cancel it for a "snow day" makes him mad when they cancel school for snow and it doesnt do anything! Thats happened twice now. I'd like to talk to the people who make these decisions. Come on can life not go on if there is a slight chance of snow or because its too cold outside? Its just so different than when we went to school man they didnt cancel for anything.
Anywho the current in his class is they are working on AR they have to check out a Library Book everyday on there particular reading level for him he is on a level M. They have to bring the book home read it for homework then bring it back the next day and they get tested on it. He has done really well with it making 100's and a few 80's. ANd man the books keep getting longer and longer. But he is amazing and loves to read. Doing great in school!

SO thats all our excitement! No pictures to share I've got a few but they are still sitting on the camera but I will definelty post some from her upcoming birthday party! Oh and Happy birthday to Jens boys Ben and Connor who share the special day with Cameran!

Cold Outside....

So cold that they canceled school! I've never heard of a school doing that. But it is a freezin season right now! Woke up to temps of 2 and felt below 0 sad there is no snow to go with it. Of course Caleb was sad he loves school and Cami shes been very moody today so perhaps she misses going to school too. This was their first week back to school since being out 3 weeks on their Christmas Break. Cami didnt get to go back till Tuesday because she had her MRI. Which she did amazing such a pro my girl! Not one fuss out of her and the I.V she didnt even flinch just kept sucking that thumb. Going into the MRI room Jason went in with her this time and she sat up looked at me while they inserted the sleep stuff and she said Mama Bye Bye and her head went forward and she was out! That stuff is quick it just breaks my heart everytime, I hate these tests. But 45 minutes we got the page that she was done went back and saw her 10 minutes later she was awake and ready to go home! Quick and Easy. The results came in yesterday and it said the lesion is stable. SO great news! They said to have a repeat in a year.




When Cameran returned to school this week my girl was so excited, she couldnt get in there fast enough. She ran in and joined her friends in circle time where they where enjoying music and she jumped right in. With her coat and backpack on...LOL! The next day when I dropped her off they where in the center reading and she ran over again. Her friends where saying Hi Cameran hi Cameran and Cami kept saying Hi Hello Hi Hello it was the cutest. I told her Bye and she ran over grabbed her bags from me and said Bye wanting me to leave.....oh how fast they grow up!

Not much else going on just trying to stay warm. Since no school today it means a 4 day weekend and I'm liable to lose my mind with all the fighting and arguing they have been doing. Caleb screaming at Cami saying she won't share, Cami screaming back saying mine! Oh the joy of it all I'm just glad she can hollar and communicate back ;)

New Things in a New Year...

Seems Cami is in for a change this year. My girl is really picking up words left and right. She mimics our sounds and she loves to copy everything her brother does...Monkey see Monkey Do! We have to keep reminding him of that because when he climbs or jumps off something he is not suppose to, she is right behind him doing the same. Of course he thinks its hilarious, can you say T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

Trouble written all over his sweet lil face...huh!

But her knew sounds are way cute, some new words this week are Bowl, Gean(green), LelloLello(yellow), hello, HOHOHO(for santa), I need, I d want(for I dont want), my mine, hmmmmm Up(for clean up) and more, all those words in just the past 2 week. She is also saying something we havent figured out yet but she'll say GoGo agee GoGo agee and points to nothing in particular pretty much everything....any ideas...LOL!


Some words shes been saying for a while: car, no, UhhhhOhhhh(when she drops something), go go, byebye, ball, awwwite(alright) mawmaw, nannie, daddy, mommy, bubba, I want, bbball(basketball)and I think she is saying NeNe for Cami because she says it when she sees a picture of herself. We do hear lots of other sounds its just lots of babble that we dont understand yet but man what a great way to start this year.
I think this year she will be able to blow out her birthday candles as well. We have been working really hard on that one and I think she has it down just not sure if she does it hard enough to get them out but hey atleast she knows what it means to blow them out. And can you believe it she will be 4 years old in one month from today! Makes me so sad seeing her grow up so fast!




We are also quickly approaching her 2 year seizure freedom mark. We think we may have seen some absence seizures in November and possibly one in her sleep too but we think it was because she was so sick. We discussed it with her Neuro last week at her appt and he thinks it was possible it was just related to her being sick. I had also just given her some cough medicine which he said could have counteracted with her Depakote said we have to be careful with some meds. But all in all he thought she looked great. He got to hear her talk for the first time when he saw her back in October she wasnt saying anything but mama and dada and she didnt even say that around him. The week after that appt she just started talking! He asked about her sleep we said its been great without anything, he was shocked that it just got better, seems once her belly issues got straightened out her sleep got better and then the talking started....ALL in one weeks time!

She also had a follow up with her GI a few weeks back and she was stopped up again so we had to do another clean out and it went well. She has been put on Murilax permantely everyday for atleast a year. She said since her bowel has been so big it has really stretched it out in there so she said it will take 6-12 months to get it back to normal size so in order for that to happen we have to keep her regular for a year. We can tell when she gets backed up because she refuses to eat and her belly gets really bloated.
Anyhow her Neuros where very pleased at her progress I got a new updated picture of them all together but its on my new camera and I dont know how to get the pics on the computer yet. They think she is doing so well that come July we will attempt the wean of her Depakote. We are very excited about that!!!! I can only imagine a life for her with no meds talk about a NEW GIRL!

She goes for her yearly MRI on the 12th checking that lesion in her cerebellum making sure its not grown in size. We've not seen any off balance issues so I think we shall see good results. Now its just keeping her healthy so we can keep the appt, cant be around anybody sick since she picks up everything so easy so thankfully they dont start back to school till Monday. Sadly she will miss her first day back but I know she will be so excited to get back on Tuesday! I know Caleb is more than excited. There is only so much you can do to keep these guys intertained for 3 weeks specially with the Holidays being over. I've been bored out of my mind, we have gotten to venture out a few days when the Lord blessed us with some gorgeous fall temps Cami got to try out her new car and Caleb took off on his bike.

But this week its been nothing but a nasty rainy mess and now the cold windy temps are back. Just send me a good snow and I'll be done with the winter time! I'll update next after her MRI but for now this is all I have, I dont think anything exciting will happen in our household the remainding of this week I think we are gonna head to a local boat show this weekend to see Spongebob and that will give them the thrill of the week! A perfect way to end their Christmas break!
Heres some more pics over the break. These where taken at Opryland Hotel in Nashville. We've been going there every Christmas since Caleb was 3 months old. The kids love it and it is always so beautifully decorated inside and out, this place is HUGE! Saying that it's huge doesn't really describe it. What does kind of help you get an understanding for how big it is is that its property encompasses 35 acres of land. Yep 35. You can get hopelessly lost in there if your not careful--and I mean lost, not disoriented.

In addition to being really big the Opryland also encompases a huge atrium-like structure full of acres and acres of tropical plants and man-made rivers and waterfalls. There are walkways and bridges and overhangs all over the place. Did I mention that the rivers are also full of fish and that you can take a boat ride? All on the inside of this place. There are night clubs in there, ball rooms, hotel rooms the list just goes on and on. Its a neat place!

Here's a few of the Huge Christmas Trees in The Hotel.



One of the beautiful Murals in the Ball room! Caleb loved that one.


This is inside our Favorite Garden, its got the Waterfall that Caleb loves. Its beautiful.





A bear and Rudolph shrubs lit up...too cute!



One of the front views of the hotel!

How beautiful is that??? My favorite shot I captured it was beautiful!



No pictures of Cami outside this year while there. It was 13 degrees on this night and me and Caleb froze our tootsies off trying to get some outside shots. Needless to say 10 minutes was all we could handle, Cami and her Daddy waited in the car and when me and Caleb got in they had us some warm hot chocolate waiting, man did it hit the spot. It was a great night out.

Christmas 08

Well I finally got one camera of pics downloaded of our Christmas. So this year we flipped it up a little, we decided to let the kids open a few gifts on Christmas Eve. Those being gifts from my oldest sister and then the gifts Caleb and Cameran picked out for each other. Then the hubby gave me a gift from the kids so I passed him his from them as well. So here are those pics first in a neat little slideshow, thanks to it Cameran can now say HOHOHO:




Now for the rest. I tell ya Caleb was so excited about Santa coming, we set out cookies and milk in his room and a cookie in Camerans room to make sure he left her a gift too. We also sprinkled the lawn with mashed up ritz crackers since we where out of pop-corn for the reindeer. Surprisingly it was gone in the morning.....thanks to the neighboorhood animals....LOL! Anywho I didnt think Caleb would ever fall asleep every time I would go in there he would pop up. I dont think Santa made it till around 2:30, man it gets harder every year!

But Santa brought Caleb what he asked for and that was buildings. He got a wood house to build and some blocks so he can make the tallest buildings he could imagine.
Caleb and his buildings!


And Cameran she got a Basketball goal and ball, her favorite sport. I think this is the last year he comes to their room, Cameran woke up during the middle of the night saying BBBall-for basketball....ugghhh!
Cami and her basketball goal


Then of course Caleb got up during the middle of the night and went to the bathroom and saw one of the gifts we had got him. Making me hate the layout of our house even more! Anyhow come Christmas morning we woke them up at 7am to get our long jammed pack day started. Neither one of them wanted to get up, imagine that!
Big yawns on our Christmas morning!


But once the looked at their Santa gifts it was off to the Living Room for the gifts from mama and daddy. You see we only allow them to pick their ONE thing they want the most to be from Santa the rest comes from us. There is a strategy behind that....It want be so dissapointing when they do find out the truth!

Anyhow the big item Caleb saw was his desk we got him! He said mommy I saw that last night but I didnt know it was mine that is soooo cool!

He was ready to pull his Christmas tree down in his room so he could put it in his room. He got lots of desk items and Cami lots of girly girly things that she just loved. So they had a great Christmas! At 1:00 we headed to Jasons grandmothers to do our gathering with all the cousins we had a wonderful dinner and visit their we do the name draw gift exchange between the little ones. Caleb got some neat art supplies and Cami another baby she takes everywhere, she adores the ones that talk and babble.
At 7:00 we moved our gathering over to my hubbys parents house. It consists of just his sisters and their families. The kids went wild like they do every year. The 2 main big things they got was...Cami got a new car that we can control by remote but she still feels big like she is doing it by herself. Then Caleb got the dog named Biscuit. That thing looks so real and follows commands, shaking hands, sitting, lie down, sit up and begging for a bone.....man that thing is cool, the stuff they can come up with I tell ya...thats some amazing technology. The kids both have fell in love with it. I tell ya though I wish we would have had that thing last July when Caleb and Jason decided to bring home a real puppy he turned into to being a BIG ol bear hes huge and digs holes like you wouldnt believe.....



So anyone looking for a dog that you dont have to feed or clean up after Biscuit is the one for you....LOL! Heres some of my fav pics from that morning!

Caleb's room Christmas morning:


We put Cami in bed with him to wake him up.



Arent they sweet!











Stocking Time:




Cameran with her Pegasis Horse. She loves this thing but of course she thought she could ride on it. Here you see her fixing to sit on that thing and try to ride it...LOL, silly silly girl!



I'll have to post a picture of her soon. Its hilarious, she brought me her baby Dora's shoe and mind you this is a small doll. Well she wanted to wear Dora's shoe so she gave it to me and stuck her foot up on my lap I said baby girl it wont fit and she grabbed it stuck it on her big toe and was walking around with it on. Funny thing is that she was walking around with her big toe pointed up, she is a nut, but my girl LOVES shoes no matter what size!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas I know I did, my hubby spoiled me a little, I was shocked at how well he did this year!


I guess spoiled is the word this year for Christmas. Gosh I remember when I was lucky to get underwear for Christmas. Which that does bring up a funny story. Jason had mentioned needing some new undies so I thought hey a good stocking stuffer. Well when Jason opened them up out of his stocking Caleb busted out laughing and said Daddy you must of not been very good this year....Laughed my butt off! Love my kids they are so great.
Warm Wishes to everyone!