Birtdhday, ballet and Halloween?

Kara is Alice in Wonderland

Aidan as a vampire and Georgia as a butterfly

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to post, but we have been so busy around here. The girls have been sick for 1 1/2 months and of course the holidays.

D.C. Trip

Georgia misses Car-Car

Everybody headed to the park

Dinosaurs!

We are such city girls!

Shannon, Josie, Aidan and Spencer

The Price family has finally ventured to D.C., I know we have been in the area over a year, but we've never managed to get there. We spent the weekend with our friend's the Baldwins (they have 3 kiddos too). We had a blast and Georgia and Aidan miss Car-Car and Spencer loads, and little Josie too.

We took it easy and just went to the Museum of Natural History, all of the kids loved and it, and all of the adults were pretty exhausted afterwards. Riding the metro was a highlight. Us parents all took turns watching each others kids, Aidan seemed to really like holding Shannon's hand a lot and Spencer (the Baldwins oldest), seemed to like holding my hand.We also hung out in the park Sunday morning before we went back home. It was pretty funny that both Adam and I felt it was the easiest trip we have ever been on (at least with kids) because we didn't have to worry about our kids destroying anything or terrorizing anyone, it is so nice to stay with friends with 3 kids too!'

Fall

So I know it technically isn't fall yet, but I am really feeling fall right now, between the cooler weather, pumpkin spice lattes and my kids constantly asking "how many days until halloween?" Seriously we should have a count down like people do for Christmas.
School started last week and while Georgia wishes she could go everyday, all day, Aidan wishes he didn't have to go at all. I am not sure how I feel about him being in a regular class room. His teacher seems wonderful she was after all the teacher of the year last year, but even she knows Aidan needs more than what she can give him. I have already spoken to the counselor and will probably start looking into some accomodations for Aidan with our first meeting at the end of the month. We are working on his behavior and that got better as the week progressed, he just doesn't want to do the work. Georgia is loving pk3 and her ballet lessons. Now I am just trying to get her busy on her no school days. Kara is a cruising fool and is talking constantly, especially moma, moma all day just to get me to respond to her and that she starts yapping away, don't know what she is saying, but she looks real serious about it.
Since my days have slowly revolved into a constant stream of diapers, peanut butter and jelly and stop touching your brother/sister, I am actually trying to go back to school in the spring. I am not quite ready yet to return to work full time, so hoping the school thing works out and I will get either my teacher certification or that with a masters.
Adam is busy with work and traveling every once in awhile. Of course he is also busy with the kids and doing some things around the house, wow we are really parents!

Birthdays, Digging Potatoes and Chickens

Sorry I haven't posted lately, but we have been a traveling. We finally made it to LA, after a weekend here with my parents and nieces celebrating Aidan's birthday (party #2). Aidan headed back with my family and enjoyed a week of spoiling from his g-parents without having to share them with his sisters. Needless to say he didn't want to call home and was not to pleased to see me, Adam and the girls show up at my parents house ruining his plans of never coming home.

While at my parents Aidan took up the job of feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, which he took very seriously, even foregoing a sleepover at his cousins house in order to be at maw-maw and paw-paw's house to take care of the chickens. In fact he had a plan to bring at least one home with us, that is of course if he would indeed agree to come back home with us. I think it was only the excitement of getting to fly in an airplane again that lead him to willingly come home!

Of course paw paw also took him fishing on old paw paw's boat and he now has aspirations of opening a fish restaurant, of course he has jobs for us all, Adam is to catch the fish, I am to cook it and he of course gets to drive the boat.

We also got to spend a few days with Adam's parents and to see some of our friends in Bossier City. We miss you Fenner's!

The week with my family ended with another bday party for Aidan (party # 3), Kara, and my nieces Hailee and Emma. It was so great to see everyone, especially family we haven't seen in a few years.

Ballerina Georgia

Georgia took her first ballet lessons last week, really it was more like tumbling, but of course I didn't tell her that. She loved it and it gave her an even bigger head. She know she is pretty, smart and a princess and now she knows she is a ballet dancer! She will have two more weeks of classes this summer and then will take it once a week once she starts prek3 in the fall. She is a little young for prek3, but she is potty trained and too big for her britches, she likes to be with the older kids, because she gets spoiled! I don't know where she gets that from, because I am never spoiled!

Kara is doing great, she turned one on Friday, it as been such an hectic year, that I can't believe she one already! We will have her official part at my sister's house in August when we finally head to LA to visit the family! We will also celebrate Aidan's, and my nieces Hailee and Emma's bdays as well, poor Georgia the only winter baby, she loves all of the attention, so I know she wouldn't want to share he big day!

Kara update

Kara is doing great! Sometimes I can't believe she has had open heart surgery, today is actually 3 weeks since the surgery and she is acting like nothing has happened. The only real reminder is her healing incesion site, the motrin and lasix she has to take and the fact that we still can't pick her up under her arms. Other than that there is no difference. I think she might pull up soon to standing, she is starting to try. She loves to play on the floor with her brother and sister, and they are very good at being careful with her bo-bo on her tummy!

Right now the only thing the doctor is watching is her weight gain (we finally found something she likes to drink other than breast milk, vital jr (which is like pediasure for the lactose intolerant) she will drink rice milk as well, but vital jr has twice the amount of calories. Also the doctor is keeping a close eye on any fluid retention, she does have a small pleural effusion (which is fluid accumalation around the lungs) they are not too concern with it, but they are monitoring it closely, that is why she is on the lasix to help get rid of the excess fluid.

Aidan tured 6 this week, I can't believe it, we has small party with just us and will have his big party when his maw-maw, paw-paw and cousing Hailee and Emma come to visit in July. Georgia is well Georgia, she is a little ball of attitude. She know what she wants, when she wants it and doesn't care if we think she doesn't need. It hasn't helped that has been excessively spoiled by her maw-maw Pam, then Aunt Patty and now Aunt Laurie over the past month!

Kara update (Pictures of incision site)

It is almost a week since Kara's surgery, tomorrow will be a complete week, and I can't get over how fast she is recovering. Every day she eats a little bit more, plays a little more and sleep a little bit less (during the day at least). She is already crawling again and go after her toys, she does get tired very easily, but she is laughing, crying and talking, which is all very good for her recovery.

On another note, I am sorry you received some spam from my email account, I am not sure what happened, but now I can't send any email, I may have to get a new account!

Kara update

Kara is home. She is resting in her bed, it is so great to have her home!

Kara update

Today Kara's chest tubes came out and she ate 4 ounces of rice milk. I had to bribe her by putting jar pears on the nipple of the bottle to get her to eat it, but she ate and is doing really well. We are hoping she will be able to come home tomorrow.

Today at Occupational Therapy Aidan wrote her a letter and it says "I love you Kara. Come home soon. You are a cute baby. I miss you so much. Love, Aidan"

He is so sweet and misses her so much. He asks every day to go to the hospital and see her, but they don't let kids in the PICU, well at least not as a visitor!

Kara update

Day 2 of recovery. Kara is stil doing excellent, she has moved down to the step down service, which means their is a ratio 1 nurse to 2/3 patients, so that is very good! She is not eating to great since yesterday initial bottle and jar food, she got sick after her chest xray last night from all of the moving around. She has been in some pain this morning, but they gave her some pain meds and now she is resting comfortably. I have stopped nursing, she was weaning herself before the surgery and my supply is way down. It was a hard decision, but the right one for the circumstances. Right now we are trying rice milk, but may need to put her own formulas, however this morning she hasn't wanted anything.
The on call resident said that she will probably moving services (not location) from PICU to cardiology, which is another step towards her coming home, Aidan and Georgia miss her so much, Aidan keeps asking to go see her, unfortunately they don't let people under 18 in the PICU, so he can't.
Thanks again for all of the prayers and wel wishes!

Kara update

From today.

Kara update

She is moving right along, arterial line, central line and catheter came out this morning. She took a bottle of breastmilk this morning, so far so good. She may get babyfood today as well. She has been a little fussy off and on, but is sleeping again now. I got to hold her and slept in my arms too, it was so great to hold even though she still has few tubes still hooked up to her.

Kara update

We finally saw Kara about 4:00, she looked great, just lots of stuff hooked up to her. We left about 5:30, she still hadn't woke up yet, but we are going to try to get some sleep tonight. Just talked to the nurse, her breathing tube is out and she is doing great, all of her stats are good, she is still out, opened eyes twice, but is sleeping comfortably and looks good.
More tomorrow.

Kara update

She is out of surgery. We will see her soon! She is doing great.

Kara update

Kara's in surgery. She is doing well. They made the incesion about 9:15 eastern time. Will post updates.

Kara update

Kara is finally crawling just in time for her surgery tomorrow. Looks like it will really happen this time. We go in tomorrow at 5:30 a.m.

Things I have learned from being milk and soy free

Most of you know, well I think at least, that I have really enjoyed cooking ever since Adam and I got married, mainly because he seemed to have forgotten how. It started off with the cookbook my maw maw Carol made for me full of family recipes, and one day I do plan on making everything in there, I am still a little afraid of the tamales. Then I moved on to Betty Crocker and for a short time Deceptively Delicious (which I may need to pick back up since Georgia refuses to eat any veggies and most proteing as well), lately I have concentrated on Weight Watchers recipes (see favorite blog list) and have managed to loose all of the combined baby weight, in fact I weigh 5 pounds less then what I did when I got pregnant with Kara. However lately I owe the weight loss manly to stress, forgetting to eat and being milk and soy free (thanks Kara, I love you but I miss chocolate and pizza!). Kara is of course milk and soy free, which has limited a little of what she can, read those baby food labels! However, being milk and soy free has made me really pay attention to all of the food and beverages that I put into my mouth and I think has made a little more aware of all of the junk I usually eat! Here are some things I learned:
- Milk and soy is in almost everything at restaurants and fast food, especially the good stuff (aka the stuff that is bad for you), most fast food places have soy in there meat, even the chicken, so even if you try to go healthy and get a salad, still can't have it. It is even harder at sit down restaurants, even nicer ones aren't that accomadating. So far one of the pluses has been that I can still have Wendy's which is good for two reasons, it is my favorite, but it is Adam's least favorite so I won't eat there often.
-Must prepackaged stuff has milk or soy, or both, so now almost everything I make is from scratch, especially desserts, which means I am less likely to something junky every day and if I do I eat less, because then I have to cook more often.
-Coffee is pretty good black, well at least if there is sugar in it, but I much rather black coffee than non dairy creamer, yuck after taste.
-There are a few places you can order premade desserts on line, I haven't tried it yet, kind of expensive, but at least there are choices. Babycakes bakery, the one on Food Network, has a wide variety of not only milk and soy free, but also gluten, and the rest of the 8 main allergies free.
-However the most important thing is that Kara is healthy, so it is worth it. As soon as I am finished nursing though I going to enjoy a big gooey, cheesey pizza and 7 layer chocolate cake, I probably won't eat the whole thing, but you get my drift.
-

Kara update

Kara has a cold, so does Georgia, so her surgery has been postponed until June 4th.

Aidan's 1st T-ball game and fun around the house

Aidan had his first t-ball game today and actually did pretty good. No whining at all and hit the ball pretty well each time at bat. He even stopped a few balls, didn't know what to do with it then, like everyone else, but he tried. He was a little slow moving at the end, we need to make him run laps everyday maybe.

Here some pics from a little water gun fight we had last weekend and some flowers Adam sent me just because, those are the best kind.

Family Pictures

So we ventured early Saturday morning over to Sears Portrait Studio to attempt to get family pictures, that including all of us, hopefully smiling. Well with our long standing family tradition of one of us not cooperating it was now Kara's turn to look at the camera as if it was one her many doctors or nurses trying to do some sort of test on her, however we got some where she was screaming and Georgia actually smiled this time.

Here are some of them.

We then went to lunch, because Adam and I are gluttons for punishment, but the kids did well, it was fun trying to figure something I could eat without milk or soy, other than that it went as smooth as we could expect.

Kara has to have another endoscopy Wednesday to make sure she is completely prepared for surgery on the 10th, pray everthing is clear to procedure.