Visitors!!!

We had some fantastic visitors tonight!!!

There was a whole lotta hugging going on!!! The Turpin family came for a visit while they were passing through on their way back home to Texas :) I have followed Bella's story since she was a wee little baby and now she is one spunky four-year-old!!! We had a great time hanging out with four little ones with Down syndrome!! Major cuteness I tell ya!!! Joy truly lives up to her name! What a face she has! Pure Joy radiates out of her! What a major doll!!!

It was already Addy's bedtime when they arrived so she wasn't completely herself :( She's also rubbed her face raw and looks pitiful! She hasn't had any eye or sinus issues in days but she's definitely rubbing her face still! So sorry she looks a little worn!

How wonderful to meet families that we have followed for so long :) Bella just had her trach removed at the end of September, she is one tough cookie!!! So beautiful!!! What a blessing tonight was!! Who wants to come visit next???

Meaningful Christmas

This Christmas was pretty amazing. Scott has worked so hard this year and we were able to give our kids a really nice Christmas :) We were also able to help others which truly makes my heart happy!

This Christmas was full of so many emotions. Since I work in a school, Sandy Hook really hit close to home. Not to mention the fact that I had this precious six-year-old to celebrate with.

I couldn't help but think of the twenty families that don't have their little ones to celebrate with this year :( I absolutely cannot imagine. I have so many "friends" that have lost little ones this year too and it breaks my heart that so many are not here this year. Others have little ones so sick that they have to be in the hospital on Christmas :( That's where Addy spent her first Christmas as well. I wish I knew her then.

We were also sooo blessed to celebrate Little Man's first Christmas. As I was watching him pull off paper (and put it in his mouth of course lol) pull bows and check out new toys, it really made me think about what his life would be like right now if he wasn't with us this year. I thought about his mom. What are her feelings on this first Christmas for this precious little boy? I know she's made poor choices (he wouldn't be in foster care otherwise) but she still carried this baby and gave birth to him. I pray that she knows that he is loved and cared for and we are so thankful that he is here. He's also extremely spoiled but that's besides the point :)


My "BIG" kids were spoiled as well and I loved how Jake always is so appreciative that Jesus shares his birthday so he can get presents :) Scott spoiled me as well :) We are going to go on a real date with no kids! What an extremely rare occurrence :) The kids got me a beautiful cross pendant that I can't wait to wear! Unfortunately the clasp broke so I've got to get that fixed first lol.

Heading down the stairs :)

They are all getting way to big :( I can't believe Jarika is going to be 21 next month. It's bizarre to think that two weeks before I turned 21 I had her. She would NEVER have a child at this time in her life lol. The fact that she's holding Little Man is pretty phenomenal!  Babies are not her thing but she's pretty impressed with this little guy :)

I hope everyone had a very blessed Christmas and a fantastic New Year celebration. I'm hoping for a snowstorm, I enjoy being home with my little blessings!

Christmas party

We had a great time at our Down Syndrome Group of the Ozarks Christmas party yesterday. I didn't get very many pix that don't have Little Man in them too but you can tell Addy had fun :)

Thankful Thanksgiving

We had a great time at our Thanksgiving gathering once again this year :) We all went to my sister-in-laws parents house. They are always so gracious to let all of us invade on them :) I'm pretty sure they are the coolest grandparents ever! We had an amazing meal with all of the goodies of course and the weather was unseasonably warm so the kids played outside all afternoon! Jake was in heaven of course!

Addy spend time with her favorite person, her cousin John :) Poor boy, she would not leave his side!

Fortunately, Mama took over and entertained her with some singing at the piano :)

She also had a fantastic time tackling and rough housing on the bed with her cousins :) They thought it was pretty funny that she was being the aggressive one!

Little Man had a great time being entertained by everyone as well, unfortunately I can't show you that but I think it's safe to show this:

I brought the little kids home and Scott and Jarika headed out to do some shopping. Scott has been the master so far this season! I'm pretty impressed with his mad shopping/deal skills! I've done some shopping online, I MUCH prefer it! I despise shopping most of the time! He went out some through the night to get some staggered deals while I stayed snug as a bug in bed :)

Yesterday we braved the 41 degree weather to have some family pictures made. I can't wait to see them but unfortunately won't be able to share them since Little Man is part of our family right now :) Jarika and I went to see Twilight last night and hope to get some of our Christmas decorations up this morning. I have a Thirty-One party this afternoon, I love helping people get some great Christmas gifts!

I hope everyone had a very blessed Thanksgiving! Now onto celebrating the birth of our King!

Angel Tree Time

I have been meaning to put this post together for two weeks and things have been crazy but the time is now! Once again I am a Christmas Warrior for a precious orphan overseas who has Down syndrome. This beautiful little girl needs a family to love and cherish her just as we love and cherish Addy. Corinne is almost three years old and has spent her life in an orphanage with no mama and daddy to love her :( You however can help her! International adoption is very costly and Reece's Rainbow is an international adoption ministry which provides grants for families to be able to bring these precious angels home. My dream is to adopt through RR someday. If it will happen, I don't know, however, I do know that I can share about RR and about beautiful little Corinne who deserves a family. Any donation amount is greatly appreciated, however, for a tax deductible donation of $35 you will get a beautiful ornament with Corinne's picture on it. You will be able to see her beautiful face on your tree and know that you have done something to try to help her family find her and bring her home! I have donated to the angel tree every year since it began and jsut about every child that hangs on my tree is now home with their forever family decorating their own tree with a family that loves them. My angel from last year, Ashlyn, now has a family working hard to go and get her :) Click HERE for your tax deductible donation!

Hoping it gets better!

The past month has been full of activities and illness and I am more than ready for things to get better! I was home with Addy on Thursday since she was sick. It was amazing all I got done with just the two of us at home :) I feel like I'm always coming and going around here! We have things every night of the week that I'm running someone to at some point, that Thursday I wanted to be a stay at home mom, it was so nice to know that I had things finished that I wouldn't have to do after working all day :)  I went to Bunco Friday night, I needed to get away for a little bit for a break. I was super tired since I had been up with Addy the night before with her vomiting :( Well, I should have known it was coming, I had to leave Bunco because I got sick :( It hit hard and fast I didn't get out of bed yesterday until late afternoon to soak in the tub to get my fever down. Little Man was so fussy too, poor Scott, must have been a very long day for him!

I had Addy and Little Man back to the doctor on Friday morning for re-checks and both have been RE-referred to the pulmonologist because I haven't received appointment times yet. I didn't get a chance to call their office Friday afternoon (I was back at work) so I will try to call tomorrow after school if I don't hear anything during the day. Our ped decided to go ahead and continue nebs morning and night until pulmonology has a different plan. She went ahead and gave Addy her flu shot too. She wasn't sure she was going to since she was still a little puny from her stomach bug but since it had been over 24 hours since she had thrown up or had a fever they went ahead. Addy had been sick A LOT this school year already and we will be in for a very long winter if this continues. I had to give Addy's doc a hard time about being in Hawaii while Addy and Little Man BOTH had pneumonia, she's never allowed to leave again! It's never good for us around here!

I have been better today, still not 100% by any means but I'm out of bed and able to keep things down :) Now I pray that no one else gets this nasty bug!

Lungs :(

If you have followed my blog for awhile you know that Addy has significant issues with her lungs. She was born with pulmonary hypertension and chronic lung disease. She has had pneumonia more times than I can remember. She's had it three times in 2012. Last week she had multi-focal pneumonia, it affected all four lobes of her lungs. Thankfully she responded extremely well to Rocephin and stayed out of the hospital and she hasn't coughed or wheezed in at least four days :)

I can't really discuss Little Man but let me just say I was really hoping we weren't following the same path but he's wanting to follow suit :( pneumonia hasn't changed for the past month following three rounds of antibiotics so we get to visit our pulmonologist soon. What's the deal with my kiddos and their lungs???