Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day was great. Jason woke up early to play football with his buddies which is a tradition for him. He calls Thanksgiving Football day instead of Turkey day! Our good friend Victor is in a band that was playing in town the night before, so Jason went to see him, then brought him back to our house to spend the night since he was invited to Jason's parents house for Thanksgiving. It was only 18 degrees here in Chicago, too cold for me but it didn't stop them.

They left pretty early in the morning around eight, to play at our near by park. Pretty silly if you ask me, but the guys love it! The girls didn't wake up until after the guys left. I gave them breakfast and we ate while we watched the Thanksgiving day parade on TV.

When we walked into my mother and father in-law's house it smelled sooooooooooooo good. I just love the smell of Thanksgiving. The house was filled with food, and we ate, let me tell you. Appetizers of all sorts. Grama's Turkey came out great, she made sure not to dry it out this year, because last year it was a little dry. For the first Thanksgiving in her life she bought a meat thermometer to make sure she didn't over cook it.

The Turkey is done!

Papa carves the Turkey

And like you don't get full up enough on the actually Thanksgiving dinner and the appetizers you eat before it, there was dessert too. I felt like I was going to blow up.

Mary and Grama had gone shopping the week before. Mary picked up a nutcracker for Anna because since Mary's grandparents took Mary to see The Nutcracker Ballet last year and got a souvenir for her (her very own Nutcracker) Anna had been admiring Mary's. So, Mary gave that to Anna as a gift for Thanksgiving. This was very thoughtful of Mary, and Anna was so appreciative of it. It made my heart melt to see how very much these girls love each other.


I don't know if you can see from the picture above but Anna must have eaten something that she has a slight allergy to because all of the sudden her face broke out, and she was very itchy. I had to go home to get some benadril. Of course this made her sleepy and she passed out on the couch for a little while with uncle victor. And of course Alex was the most tired. After a day filled with bottles, crawling, and pulling herself up on everything, who wouldn't be tired. And Daddy played with Victors guitar.





After we all stuffed ourselves to the max we all settled down to watch The Polar Express. I would recommend this movie to anyone. It's one of those kid/adult movies. It is filled with Christmas spirit, the perfect movie to watch on Thanksgiving, right up there with Miracle on 34th street (the original of course.)


There are so many things to be thankful for. The most obvious is my family. My girls, Jason, my in-laws, our health and our friends who are always their for us. We have a roof over our heads and food on the table. I'm thinking of Anna's liver buddy, Annika, and her family who could not be together on this day. Annika is in the hospital right now for a bleed that she had last week, and is now waiting to go into surgery next week. Please say a little prayer for this family.

They grow too fast!

These children of mine are just getting so big, and their personality's are so much older. First of all, Mary has been asking for months to get her hair cut. Then Anna started asking as well. I have been fine with the idea, but Jason had been having a hard time giving into them. Finally, last week, we did it. We took them both to great clips. They didn't get it all chopped off, I wanted to keep it long. They both had their hair down to their waists. Anna had about 5 inches cut off, with some layers. Mary had 7 inches cut off, with layers put in as well. They both look great, but I am a little sad. Anna's curls got cut off, and I cried the other day. I thought that she would still have them, and that they would show up better with her hair shorter, but they are long gone. Here are some pictures of their new does:

The first cut on Anna's hair, then after it's done


I didn't get a picture of Mary getting her hair cut, but here is how it turned out:
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Daddy and Alex waiting at the Hair salon.


In Alexandria news: She has learned to pull her self up to a standing position. I was at the grocery store last night doing some last minute shopping for thanksgiving when I got a call for Jason. He asked if I had put Alex to bed. I started to freak out, "why, is she not there?"
"No, she is here, did you lay her down?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I was just wondering if you lied her down because she is not laying down, she is standing up!"
I could not believe this. Isn't this a bit early? I didn't think she was even close to pulling herself up to a standing position. Then I thought maybe Jason had lied about it, but why would he lie about that? When I got home he had her up, playing with her at ten in the evening. So, I put her down. Ten minutes later I walked in and sure enough she was standing. I startled her, and she fell to the side and hit her head, poor thing. It took her forever to get to bed that night. I think her reasoning behind it was that she didn't want to forget what she had learned that day.

Jason was quick and got a picture for me. The first time she pulled her self up.




Anna's friend Delta was over today. They played dress up with Alexandria, Mary was at a friend's house.


I know I posted a lot of pictures, but I can't help it. They are my pride and joy and we need to capture them in these young years because before we know it they will be in high school, college, having boyfriends, having babies themselves.....

Tomarow is Thanksgiving, we will be going to Jason's parents house. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

4 years ago.......

Well, yesterday marks the four year anniversary for Anna's first surgery, the Kasai. I can't believe it has been four years already, she has come such a long way. At the time I don't know if I really knew what was going on. It all seems like a blur to me. I think I was still in shock during this time. I know that some of my readers know exactly what I'm talking about. It was at seven weeks old when Anna's regular pediatrician became concerned with Anna's still being jaundice. I had talked to a family member the day before that told me I should get her checked out, "she may need to be put under bili lights", she said. Oh how horrible. I thought it sounded horrible to have to bring her to the hospital for a few hours to be put under bili lights. The very next day we went to visit our pediatrician, who hadn't seen Anna since she was about three or four weeks old. He told me it wasn't right that she was still jaundice, and that he would like to send us to a specialist at Children's Memorial Hospital, he also mentioned something about blocked bile ducts. My first thought was, ok, so you they'll give her some medication that unblocks them. I didn't even know where bile ducts were. On his referral, from what I could make out, he had written down ?biliary atresia?. That was the first time I had seen that word. Looking back I can't believe how very little I knew about all of this. I didn't even know why babies got jaundiced, or that it had anything to do with the liver. You can imagine my shock when our Dr. Whitington told us that he was sure it was Biliary Atresia, Anna was to be admitted that day to run further tests to be sure including a liver biopsy, and that if it was indeed Biliary Astresia she would need a procedure called the kasai and eventually at some point in her life she would need a liver transplant. It hit us like a ton of bricks. It took hours, days, for it to all register. Anna seemed fine besides her yellow color, is what I thought then. Looking back I know better, she was anything but fine. She was crabby all the time, barely slept, and had major feeding problems. I was in denial, I know that now. Only three days after we came to Children's Anna had her Kasai. She was just 2 days short of 8 weeks old. Those seven hours in the waiting room were miserable. Our 7 week old baby was having major surgery, I was scared about what the days following would be like, heck, what the years following would be like. It's unbelievable now. Anna is doing so well. It seemed like years while Anna was sick. It's hard to believe now that she had the kasai, 2 bouts of cholingitis, a month in the PICU, and her liver transplant all before she was 6 months old. Now, Alexandria is 7 months old, and it seems that she was just born yesterday. The time has flown by with Alex. By the time Anna was 7 months old she was home from the hospital and doing very well, it seemed like 7 years then, not 7 months. It's hard to explain the way I feel about all of this, and I am not great at getting my feeling out in writing. This was a bitter sweet day for us.

Now at seven months old Alexandria is getting growing up very fast. She has a tooth! She is crawling, and she does so big! You know, "How big is Alex?" Then when you say, "So big" she puts her arms up. She even tries to say it, but it sounds more like "AHHHH, AHHHH!" She is brilliant. Poor thing has been sick though. For a couple weeks now she has had a cold. One night last week she was up almost all night. In an attempt to calm her down I laid her next to me with her sleeping on her stomach and I was stroking the back of her head. As I was doing this I noticed a little lump on the back of her neck. This naturally freaked me out. I woke up Jason to make him feel it, but he didn't think it was anything. After I finally got her to go to sleep I put her down in her crib and tried to get some sleep myself, but you can imagine the thoughts going through my head. This could very well be nothing, but it could very well be something. After Anna and all she went through I don't take anything lightly. So, I got up and did a little research on my trusty computer, (well not so trusty lately, but that could be a whole other post) I came to the conclusion that it was probably just a swollen lymph node which was very possible because she had been sick. That put my mind at ease enough to be able to sleep until I cold call my ped the next morning. I got her in and he thought it felt like what I thought it was. He checked her out and asked me if she had been pulling on her ears, but aside from being stuffy and sneezy she had been pretty happy besides that restless night before. She had an ear infection in both ears, poor thing. I wouldn't have brought her in if it wasn't for that lump I felt, but I am glad I did. He was surprised that she didn't act like she was in more pain. My strong little girl, she takes after her big sister Anna.

I wouldn't feel right unless I included a couple pictures in this post. In an attempt to get a picture of Alexandria's tooth, this is what I got. It isn't big enough yet to see in a picture, but I like this picture anyway


Here she is doing SO BIG!


And crawling

Halloween Fun!

Sorry for the delay in posts everyone. My computer has not been working correctly and I will be lucky if I can finish this post and publish it. This post will be mostly pictures and of Halloween. The girls had a lot of fun. Mary went as a Zombie Cheerleader, Anna was Cinderella and Alexandria was a flower. It was perfect Halloween weather here, gloomy with some drizzle. Enjoy the pictures!

Here is Anna last Thursday at her preschool parade Dressed as Cinderella!



This is the pumpkin that the girls carved with a little help from daddy. I was busy separating the seeds from the gunk to get them ready for roasting.


I'm not one to spend a lot of time decorating the house for Halloween, but we do have a year round Halloween decoration, Our big black cat Gizmo!



My Girls posing for the camera before going out for trick or treat.




Mary and Anna hitting the first house up for candy.

Five Questions

Quiz taken at the request of Laurie

5 things I plan to do before I die:
1) own a home
2) learn to Quilt
3) give birth to a boy!
4) buy a yellow mustang
5) see each of my daughters off to College (and hopefully my son!)

5 things I can do:
1) french braid
2) make the world's best pot of chili ( so I've been told)
3) make it everywhere on time with 3 kids
4) sew
5) save a lot of money using coupons

5 things I can’t do:
1) Whistle
2) bake
3) cook thanksgiving dinner (maybe I could if I was given the chance)
4) ice skate
5) Algebra (that will be daddy's job to teach the kids)

5 things that attract me to the opposite sex:
1) sense if humor
2) understanding
3) dark hair
4) nice smell
5) nice butt (sorry, have to be truthful)

5 things that I say most often:
1) "oh my God!"
2) "you go girl"
3) "sweatpea"
4) "whaz up?"
5) "yah, uh huh, right, ok!"

5 celebrity crushes:
1) Mel Gibson
2) George Clooney
3) John Travolta
4) Matthew Mchonahay
5) Nicholes Cage

5 people I want to do this:
1) Colleen
2) Becca
3) Valerie
4) Beth
5) Rowan

Gymnastics class

Observation day for Anna's gymnastics class was held last week. Parents got to go and watch what the children have learned for the past eight weeks. Anna was definitely comfortable showing off for us, which is unusual for her. When we are at home and she is dancing to music in her room she'll stop as soon as we walk in the door. Ballet class was the same last year. If she saw me peek in she would stop what she was doing right then and there and yell at me, "don't watch me!" Sounds braty I know, but that's the way she is, or was I guess. The instructers would try to help her and she would tell them, "no, I can do it myself!" After everything she did in class she stopped first to make sure we were watching (Jason, myself and Grama went) then would look directly at us as she finished with the biggest smile she could give. She was very proud of herself, and we were very proud of her. It made me mad that all of the other parents were not watching their kids, but talking to each other instead. I guess I can appreciate these things more than them. They were letting their other children do as they please, so I was trying to snap pictures and they were getting in the way, and on top of that my camera was running out of battery power so the pictures didn't come out very well.











Not much else going on here. The girls are excited about Halloween. Anna is going to be Cinderella (that was a given) Mary wanted to be something scarey, she's going as a zombie cheerleader (can't wait to see how that turns out) Alexandria is going as a flower. I have scrubs from when Anna was inpatient so I will be a nurse or doctor, and Jason got a black robe, I'm not sure what he is going as, the grim reaper or something? Your guess is as good as mine. I don't really like dressing up for Halloween, but Jason and the girls call me a party pooper if I don't. Halloween is Jason's holiday. He loves it, I like to pick through the girls candy for chocolate! Friday we are going to Six Flags Great America for frightfest. That should be fun, haunted houses and scary people walking around. We will all have a good time, except Alex, she will have fun with Grama.

Speaking of Alex, she is almost there with her crawling and is sitting up well on her own. It sure is amazing how much they change in 6 months. She went to doing nothing to doing everything. Still waiting for that first tooth to pop in though. Now that she is sitting on her own she can sit in her high chair. Look at how big she looks!

Happy Birthday Angel Sarah

My dear friend Colleen lost her beautiful baby girl Sarah when she was only a little over a year old. She was listed for a Liver and Small Bowel Transplant, but didn't receive her gift of life on time. Today would have been her fourth birthday. Although I have never met Sarah's mother Colleen, she is a dear friend to me, and was in my thoughts and prayers today as she had to deal with not being with her baby girl on her birthday. We both have had three girls at about the same time, so this got me thinking today. How very lucky I am to still have Anna with us, as well as my other girls. It is not fair that Colleen couldn't wake up happy today on Sarah's birthday. To not be able to give her a kiss. To have to go to the cemetery to visit her on her birthday. My heart goes out to you Colleen. We love you.

Today the girls and I decided to give Sarah a little something on her birthday. We flew up 4 pink (Anna thought she would like pink) balloons for the little Angel in heaven with love notes written on two of them, and on the others the girls drew smiley faces. Happy Birthday Little Angel Sarah, We Love You!

Half Birthday's!

Today Alexandria turns 6 months old, in another half year we will be celebrating her first birthday, but for today we will celebrate her half year birthday!

Some people think this is weird, but we always celebrate our baby's 6 month birthday. The story behind it: When Mary turned 6 months old my in-laws, who we lived with at the time, came home with half a birthday cake and a couple small presents for her. I didn't think much of her turning 6 months old that day, but her Gama and Papa sure did. Mary was their first and only grandchild since Jason is an only child, so they made a big deal out of everything and spoiled her rotten. It turned out to be a sweet day, and it was fun to celebrate something in the month of March which is a pretty boring month anyway.

Today I was trying to remember if we had a party for Anna for her 6 month birthday. I was going through some pictures and came across these:

Here is the cake and a sign Anna's nurses made for her!
Daddy giving Anna a taste of cake



After seeing these I remembered that I wasn't there with her for her 6 month birthday. It had been only one week since her liver transplant. Anna was still in the hospital and I was home recovering my operation. I didn't listen to the doctors when they told to take it easy. I wanted to be at the hospital with her as much as I could, and it wore me out to the point that I could not go on that day. I was in too much pain from being there with Anna those first few days after being discharged from the hospital myself. Leaning over the crib, feeding her, and anything else I could do for her. I felt so guilty for not being there with her during her transplant, and those critical hours afterwards, I guess I felt I had to make up for it. I didn't remember missing the party, until I saw these pictures. I think Jason kept it on the down low so that I wouldn't feel bad and make myself go when I knew I needed to rest.

Today I will go to the grocery store and try to find a half cake, for Alexandria. Maybe get her a little something. Thank you Dad and Mom for making half birthday's special!
Alexandria on HER special day, cake comes later tonight!

Long September

Sorry for the delay in entries, things have been busy here. The girls are all doing well. Mary had her 8th birthday last week. We went to her favorite place, the all you can eat Chinese buffet (I have no clue why she likes it there so much) and came home to have cake and open presents. Buying presents for an eight year old is a lot different than it was in all the past years. It used to be toys, and disappointment when she opened a box with clothes in it, and then more toys. This year she loved the clothes (especially her Hillary Duff shirt), and she got a few CD's that she asked for (Hillary Duff again), a pair of roller blades, and a round comfy chair to read in. That was it, and she loved it. Thank goodness, I wouldn't know where to put anymore junk in their room!




Anna is adjusting well to school, although I think she would like to go more often. She wants to be able to get up in the morning everyday and get dropped off at school along with Mary. It's hard to explain to her why that is not a possibility. I guess twice a week for two hours each day is not enough for her. I'm thinking of signing her up for Ballet again to give her something else to do. That would mean two dance recitals because Mary is in Hip Hop dance, but that could be cool. Anna is still in gymnastics, and is still loving it.

We went to the Make a Wish 20th anniversary celebration last weekend. It was nice, they had good food, and fun for the kids. I ended up going with my friend Jenny and her son Brandon because Jason couldn't get the day off. The celebration took place in my old High School, this is were Jenny and I met and became friends. We were very excited about this, it has been a while since we stepped foot inside. We kept telling the kids about how we went to school here and they seemed to ignore the fact. Finally I asked, "did you here us, we went to school here!" They all looked at us funny and Brandon replied with, "we heard you, you told us too many times!" LOL!!! I guess it's not all that interesting. So, our first stop was to see Mickey Mouse. Anna was so happy that he was there, all the way from Disney World! Silly girl, she acted as though he came all the way up here to see her. As we were waiting in line, Mickey waved at Anna. "See, he does remember me!" was her response. She acted as though her and Mickey were tight, old buddies, you know? Too funny. After Mickey Anna got her face painted, Mary got her hair done, and they both had their nails done. While they were doing that Brandon went to listen to a story that a little boy wrote. This little boy wished to write a book, that's what he wished for. They had his book for sale there, but all the proceeds go to the Make a Wish foundation upon his request. I could cry. After that, and after lunch they had Kevin Sharp come out to sing a few songs, one was called Make a Wish. It was a nice day.






This weekend we have Anna's cousin Samantha's birthday party, and that should be it for our busy September. Now the holidays will start up. I'm not ready for that, I need to recover from the past couple months!