Somebody is Sick :(

Addy woke up this morning with a temp of 102 and had vomited in her bed. She hasn't thrown up anymore but her temp is staying at least 99 and is going back up to 102. She has only peed once today, please pray for my sweet girl. Check out her shirt, it was Jarika's and it has been on all of my kids :) Under her hand it says "she".

Happy Birthday Jake!

Jake was pretty excited about his birthday today! He got to have his big cast taken off this morning and is now sporting a new shorter cast! He's pretty thrilled that he can straighten his arm, however, his elbow is pretty tender. You can see how irritated his skin is at the elbow, it started bleeding when the cast came off :(


This day nine years ago my precious Avery Jacob entered the world! It was a little stressful, we showed up at the hospital for our scheduled C-Section at 10 and we were told to go to the waiting room and maybe someone would come and get us! Scott is so funny he turned to me and said "Well I was hoping for something a little more than "maybe"!" I was prepped in the recovery room for the surgery! Surgery went well, Avery came out peeing and screaming! I couldn't believe how little he was! The nurse said "He's good size, at least eight pounds." Cooper was 9lbs and 7oz so my little 8lb 6oz baby definitely looked tiny! The little stink nursed quickly after birth and would have nothing to do with eating for 9 hours! The nurse had to give him a bottle at that point, but two hours later he decided mom was okay! The day of discharge the nurse came and told me we couldn't bring him home because his bilirubin was 19.6 and he most likely needed a blood transfusion (I was told that usually happens if the levels hit 20). Fortunately the pediatrician (ironically the same one that let Addy's formula and weight issues go to the wayside) told us to go ahead and take him home, quit nursing, supplement with formula and put him in the sun. We did just that and went to Springfield every two days for a heel stick. His level consistently dropped and he had no problems with his jaundice! My dad always told me don't have more than two kids, you'll be outnumbered. He also HATED the name Avery since there was a punk kid in town named Avery! I LOVED his name, unfortunately he doesn't feel the same and goes by Jake now for the past several months, but that's okay, he's still my Avery! This child of mine is definitely my challenging child, he's strong willed, argumentative, onery, stubborn, ALL BOY and the most intelligent, loving and sensitive child I have ever met! God knew that his brother needed him to get through some of his challenges and he would have a baby sister that would adore him. Happy Birthday Avery Jacob we love you!

The Monkey Princess Room

I FINALLY got Addy's new room finished! She has been in the master with us since we brought her home at 9 months. She was hooked up to so many things overnight that it was much easier to tend to alarms and problems if she was close. We only have 4 bedrooms and there was no way we were putting the boys back together, they are too different! Jake graciously gave up his room so his little sister could now have a room of her own! He is moved downstairs into an area of the basement. It's not a room but he definitely has his own space and he loves it! The pix aren't very good, the lighting was not right but I wanted to post pix before I forgot! Addy's baby stuff was princess so I wanted to keep that. We decided on a Princess theme since my dad always called me his Princess and I knew if he were still living Addy would take on that roll! Addy also LOVES monkeys! She signs monkey all of the time and it was one of the first animals that she could recognize in books and pictures. Ironically she now signs "monkey" when she wants to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks but close enough huh? So she now has a purple monkey/princess room that is too cute for words!

Her Bed:

Her shelf with things from her birth family and other princess things

My parents gave Jarika this rocking chair when she turned a year old. She thought Addy would enjoy it! The monkey on it was a present from our friend Loriell and the tiara was made by Addy and one of her nurses, Kim! The pillow is covered in a monkey/princess fabric that matches her valance.

Addy's dresser with her monkey princess piggy bank, stuffed animal, princess lamp and an adorable personalized canvas! The knobs are pink and purple and have monkeys on them with glittery tails :)

This is Addy's changing table with her mirror above it. She LOVES her mirror!

Her sock monkey with an outfit that matches her pillowcase and valance.

Her name with monkey princesses blowing bubbles. They even have tiaras on but they are hard to see. I may have to spice them up a bit!

Her Legacy of an Adopted Child poem.

Random monkey princesses around her room.

Her wall hanging over her door.

Her closet.

This is what happens

This is what happens when you puppy sit for a weekend:

You end up with a new puppy! Meet Sophie Marie, she is 9 weeks old and is part Japanese Chin and part Dachshund. Our other dogs which a full blooded Dachshund and her puppy (well, she's 4 years old but still her puppy!) that is part toy poodle seem to enjoy her. They run everywhere! I tried getting pix but the dogs were just too fast!

Playing Outside

I finally got some outside pix loaded. Addy's favorite thing!

I'm thinking she's a lefty.

Escaping around the corner!

Addy has come very far when it comes to tactile defensiveness. However, grass is still not her thing! At least she's touching it voluntarily now!

She cracks me up! Signing laugh as she's laughing. I guess she thinks that I don't know what she's doing!

Change in Addy

Many people have commented about how much Addy has grown lately. It is so awesome! These first two pix are from last April and the bottom one is from last week. The change in the arms and legs is amazing! Her Elecare formula is obviously doing the trick for her. She is getting enough calories and proper nutrition to grow and thrive! Yeah! I took her to the doctor today but they didn't weigh her, I'm sure she's at least 26 pounds now. Last April she was 17. She was 18 when we finally found the correct formula for her in Sept! I took her to the doc today because she has a little rash on her stomach and was running a low grade fever last night. Cooper was running 103! I took him to his doc here in Marshfield this morning for a strep test and it was positive so I thought Addy better be checked. Her strep test was negative (she doesn't have tonsils but she could still get strep). He also cultured her stoma site since it is all red and inflamed. It almost always is but it doesn't hurt to check. He thinks her rash is either a staph infection or impetigo. I call on Friday for the results so I guess we'll see!

Texting and Driving

This is what happens when you text and drive:
This is my good friend's son's truck. A couple of days ago he was reaching for his phone, was looking down and when he looked up he was crossing over the center line into the path of another car. They may have been over the center too, it was on a really bad road. Anyway, instead of hitting the other car head on he swerved into the ditch. Yes he landed like this in the tree. He was NOT wearing a seatbelt (dumb, dumb, dumb!) but obviously the airbag did deploy. He broke his neck (C4), fortunately it looks like he is going to be okay. There weren't any other serious injuries that I know of, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE NEVER TEXT AND DRIVE!