Children Are A Gift!

Our church had their baby dedication today and we were one of seven couples dedicating children to the Lord! It was Chloe's special day as we dedicated her and committed ourselves to raise her up in the way that the Lord desires, under His direction and instruction. I pray that God would help us be the parents that we should be to each of our beautiful children.

 Chloe Before Church

All the couples dedicating their children 

Our family 

Chloes' grandparents were all able to come! 

Some of our dear friends came too!

Celebration Weekend!

We're on the downhill slide of a fun family filled celebration weekend! We celebrated Kieran's birthday with family on Saturday and then had Chloe's baby dedication at church today! It was a great weekend with family and friends and we have so much to celebrate!!

Chloe's ready for the birthday party!

 Kieran opening gifts on grandma Shelia's lap

The cousins eating at the kids table.

 Cupcakes!!

2 Months Old!

Chloe had her 2 month check-up on Monday and she's doing great! She weighs 10 lbs. 15 oz.! Whoah! I have never had a child that weighed that much at 2 months!!

She is a very happy baby, loves to smile and talk to you and I'm happy to say that she's sleeping 8-9 hours a night!

 She loves it when Kieran comes around--she gives him lots of smiles!

 Check out those blonde roots!! We'll see if she keeps her blue eyes or not...

She is so precious!

Kieran is 5 Years Old!  

Kieran with his Spiderman Birthday Cake!!

Kieran's Birthday gift from us! He wanted "something with a remote" for his birthday!



Hard to believe our little man will be going to kindergarten this fall!! He had his school physical on Monday and he did such a great job (much better compared to our other dr. visits!) and I was so proud of him! He's learning so much at preschool and Sunday School-- I just love watching him write his letters, sing songs he knows, use his imagination and learn and "grow up" every day! I just know I'm going to be very emotional when that 1st day of kindergarten comes and my firstborn goes off to school!





Wordless (KU) Wednesday!

Easter Egg Hunt!

The boys enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt at my grandparents house!

Kiptyn was very excited to find JUICE in his Easter gift!

Cousins Eating Ice Cream!

Playing around in the big wagon!

Easter Family Blessings

We traveled back to Kansas over Easter Weekend so my family could meet Chloe for the first time! We saw lots of family, stayed with some friends and enjoyed an Easter dinner and egg hunt! We attended church with my parents on Sunday and saw an awesome Easter drama about the last days of Jesus' life--it was very good!

Chloe with her great-grandpa (Poppy) Kester
My cousin Rachel holding my nephew Kaegen and Chloe--and her baby bump in the middle!

The Seems Family

Chloe with her great-grandpa Seems

My grandparents with their great-grandkids!

Chloe with her great-great grandma Loree

Grandma Shelia

Chloe in her Easter dress

My kids on Easter morning--trying to get a decent picture! ha! This was my 1st trip packing for 3 kids and I forgot Kiptyn's khaki pants--I guess we were doing good if that's all I forgot!!

Easter Morning

I am a Nurse...Sort of

What did you want to be when you grew up? I can remember when I was a young girl and I wanted to be a nurse. I'm pretty sure that every girl in my class wanted to be a nurse or a teacher, probably because we looked up to our teachers so much and because we got to tour the hospital for school and put on nurses caps and use all the cool instruments! I never had the desire to be a teacher and that is still true for me today, but I never went into the nursing field either--at least not officially!

It's been almost 12 years ago that I was diagnosed with my Crohn's Disease and I'm thankful that with the help of Remicade IV infusions, my disease is in remission! But, having a chronic illness that is immune sytem related (Crohn's causes my body to attack itself), it has brought on other "issues" such as psoriosis and an immune deficiency disorder that has to be treated with medicine also. My Remicade infusions have to be given in a vein every 10 weeks and I get to go spend 6 hours at the hospital for that. However, I've begun a new adventure with my immune deficiency treatments--I now do it at home instead of going to the doctor's office every 4 weeks. (See above photo taken in my living room)

Instead of trying to fit another doctor's office visit into my life (which would take 3 hours) and leave all the kids with my husband, I took the home infusion route and it's not too bad. An infusion company sends all the supplies to me at the beginning of the month and each week I draw up the medicine, stick 4 little tiny needles in my stomach, put the syringe in a pump and let it do its thing for an hour. I'm actually "infusing" myself as I type this!

The infusion nurse that came to our house to teach me how to do this was very impressed at how fast I caught on and how well I did with all of it. I guess that is because I've watched many nurses do similiar things in front of me for so many years that I just learned from watching them. Before I was diagnosed with my Crohn's Disease, I had a catheter in my chest for meds and a feeding tube and I had to eventually learn how to draw up the meds for that also. (That catheter was eventually taken out after my diagnosis and once I could eat again without pain.)

This is definitely a new adventure for me and most likely a lifelong one at that. So, I guess you could say that my childhood dream of becoming a nurse has come true--I am my own nurse. Too bad I don't get paid a nurse's salary!

Shopping 101

I remember the fear well. The fear I had of taking 2 kids into a store at the same time! Kiptyn was almost 2 months old before I was brave enough to take both him and his older brother into a store--alone! And now, here I am taking 3 kids to the store--alone! What was I thinking?!

Those were my thoughts as I experienced my first Wal-Mart shopping trip with all 3 kids last week! The biggest reason we went was to buy some new formula for Chloe as she had to start Nutramigen formula--and thank goodness we did too! No more 3 hour crying and screaming episodes for mommy---I mean baby!

So, back to our shopping experience. I had a can of the "old" formula that I was returning so I could purchase the new, much more expensive formula. I didn't have a receipt but I figured that wouldn't be a problem--they could just give me in store credit and I could apply it to the Nutramigen. Well, wouldn't you know it--you can't return formula without a receipt! Bummer!

I had a few other items to purchase too--just a few--at least I am smart enough to know that I cannot do a BIG shopping trip with 3 kids in tow! We bought Chuck some coffee beans and Kiptyn ended up spilling 1/3 of the bag all over the floor, they were out of our favorite cereal and I had to repeat, "No, we are not buying that today" on every aisle, but at least the bread didn't get smashed!

It was a slow shopping trip and my patience was running a bit thin trying to keep track of the 2 year old and quiet a fussy baby--all while pushing a shopping cart and checking out! But, we made it, got in the car and were on our way to get some lunch--in a drive thru of course!

The 2 oldest kids are hungry and we need to get some quick lunch, get home, put away the groceries and get Kieran to preschool--oh, and try to quiet Chloe who is fussing again too! Well, in the midst of all of that, I realized I had lost my debit card while I was paying and trying to get everyone to the car--and trying to keep the bread from getting smashed--because I hate smashed bread!

I called the bank and they informed me that it would be a $5 fee to close the card, but they could put a temporary hold on it if I wanted to look for it! What?! Yes, lady, please let me take 3 children BACK to Wal-Mart to look for a debit card---not in my game plan!! I was happy to pay the $5 and move on with my day at that point! At one point in my conversation with the bank lady, she says, "Oh, someone is not happy." She was referring to Chloe screaming in the background--need I say more about why I am choosing NOT to return to Wal-Mart at this time?!

Overall, the experience could have been much worse and it was well worth it because the new formula has done amazing things for this sweet baby girl:

And I received the new debit card in the mail today....time to go shopping.....alone!

Wordless Wednesday!