The Gotz Gang

We are here

2011-06-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

We are still here just so busy with life that I never find time to post. Evan will be having his 7th or 8th surgery next week for his palate. Caden is still good for now but will be having more down the road. We see our team again in October. The other 2 kids are doing well, Hannah is finishing up preschool and Lincoln is starting to cruise around the room. I will post pictures and more updates later on this weekend.

It's a Boy

2010-10-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

LINCOLN MARSHALL

8 lbs 6 oz 20 1/2 inches.

Blogger puts the pictures in random order, takes too much time to fix. These are pictures of Lincoln's Birth and my baby shower was given about a month before his birth.

I was in early labor for 3 weeks and rather miserable. On the 12th I had a doctors appt and we scheduled an induction date for a week later. Around 6:30 PM I was starting to feel like it would be soon, I called Jason at work and asked him not to work to late. About 10 long minutes later I called him again and asked him to come home immediately to take me in labor was coming hard and fast. We made it to the hospital around 7:15 PM Lincoln was born at 9:09 pm. This was the shortest and fastest delivery of all 4 of my kids. But I was also recovered almost immediately after he was born.

March

2010-03-17T14:39:00.001-07:00

What a busy few weeks of March it has been already! Rather than do indvidual posts I will put them all in one. We will go backward from St. Patrick's Day because that is the order blogger puts the pictures in and I don't want to mess with rearranging them. So...

ST. Patrick's Day 2010

She wanted to buy Green High Heals but settled for her black boots

She does dress her self!
Hats they made today

The Garbage man let the boys man the control on the garbage truck

Evan mid something

We went to a friends 7th Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Maddie (in pink)

On our wayhome from the Zoo we saw a fire off the side of the freeway. A lumber yard caught on fire

Nice close up of my face

Train Ride at the Zoo

Family Time

We were able to get really cheap family passes to the Zoo for the next year. We will make many trips there I am sure. The kids enjoy going and there is a nice play area for them to play

We went on a Field Trip with friends to Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Factory. It was a beautiful day and the kids had a great time and got to play at the park

It rained one day and there was a beautiful rainbow- the kids and I enjoyed talking about God's Promise to Never Flood the Earth again. We read the story of Noah and talked about it.

Caden had the Chicken Pox and had to stay home from church 2 weeks in a row. He and I got to go outside and enjoy the sun

Hannah's 4th Birthday is this month, Jason and I took the kids to go see Disney on Ice for her birthday

Evan pretending to be surprised

Did I mention all my kids dress themselves!!!

1,2,3,4

2010-01-28T19:47:00.001-08:00

To arrive in August 2010

2009-10-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

Last month we took our first field trip and went up to Fairfield and went on a tour of the Jelly Belly Factory. It is a free tour and you learn the history of the Jelly Belly and some other facts. Plus, at each stop you get free Jelly Belly's. We had a great time, here are a few pictures from our outting.

We are alive

2009-08-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

I have dropped off the blog scene for awhile. I spend way too much time on Facebook and upload everything there. But for those of you that don't have Facebook I will try and do better.

Here is a video and some pictures of the kids swimming and a video of the kids singing Jesus Loves Me

May

2009-06-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

May was a busy month for us, Evan was sick the first part of the month with the flu followed by pneumonia. The weekend of May 15th my younger brother Kevin came down from Washington and took all of us into San Francisco and to the Giants game. The kids did amazingly well, it was very hot and we were sitting in the direct son. Then after the game we walked and walked in the city and the kids didn't complain at all. At the end of the game the lady in front of us commented to Jason how well behaved the kids were, better than most adults. We also celebrated Evan's 9th birthday that weekend. Evan had a jog a thon at school and many more things but I will do another post with those later. (I can't get my pictures to post in the order I want and every time I try to move them around it messes up even more) Evan in San Francisco

Uncle Ed and soon to be Aunt Arielle with Hannah

The boys

Isn't he cute

Jog a thon funHurry get a bite, I have a camera out. Uncle Kev and his girlfriend Madonna

The Barbee's

Happy boys

Auntie & Uncle Kevin at Evan's birthdau

Good Cake

Not even messy

Meagan

Uncle Ed and Arielle

Evan was sick on his birthday

He ran 21 laps in 25 minutes that is just a little over 2 miles

Movie Night

2009-05-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

On Fridays we try to watch a movie or play a game with the kids. This past friday night we watched Spiderman 3. This was us halfway through the movie.

Kids

2009-05-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

I had a great Mother's Day. We started out by the kids letting us sleep in until 9. Hannah woke up around 7:45 but played in her room until almost 9:00. Evan is sick and has been running a fever so he woke up at 5:50, I gave him Tylenol and he wanted to lay on the couch and watch TV but was glad to let me go back to bed. Caden woke up around 8:45 and played in his crib until 9:00 when Hannah went in to wake him up. I guess she got bored. Jason and the younger 2 kids and I went to church, Evan stayed home with my sister who is also sick. Then after church we went and got Panera and brought it home to eat. Ed & Arielle came over to have lunch with us. Evan was feeling better this evening so we went to the park to feed the ducks. Jason has done all the dishes, made the dinner, cleaned up the kids and played Scrabble with me.

Jog A Thon

2009-05-10T18:26:00.001-07:00

Evan had a jog a thon at school last Thursday. I tried to put the pictures of Evan up first but Blogger changed them all around and I can't get them right. The kids and I went out to watch and had a good time, we were very please with the 17 laps that Evan ran ( 2 miles and 1 extra lap). He was exhausted that night but really enjoyed it. Maybe next year I will have a babysitter and I can run it with him.

Evan's teacher Our Family Friend

Hannah and her friend (our neighbor)

Evan and his friends

Evan on lap 1

Wordless Wednesday

2009-05-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

First Food

2009-05-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

On March 16th Evan had a surgery called a tongue flap, they closed his palate but to do this they took tissue from his tongue to close the whole and then they sewed his tongue to the roof of his mouth for 2 weeks. He did very well with the surgery and we stayed in the hopsital over night and were able to go home the next night. But Evan could not eat for 2 weeks, everything he would eat had to be in liquid form. Evan is a picky eater so it was tough making things he likes. The first few days he ate milk shakes of ice cream, milk and bananas. By the second week he was willing to eat anything, we got pretty creative and he ate Burritos in a shake, Pizza Shake was his favorite- he didn't like Waffles, Mac N Cheese or something else but I don't remember what that is.

He had surgery on March 30th to remove the tongue from the roof of his mouth and for dinner that night we had promised him Taco Bell.

Random

2009-04-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

This rabbit followed us at the park, he got very close to us. If we would have let it, it probably would have come right up to us. It hailed this day repeatedly, if you look closely you can see the hail in the air and on the ground

Easter

2009-04-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

I am late at posting Easter pictures, we had an Easter Egg hunt at church (no pictures) and then had my sister and her family over for a quick lunch and later in the evening had my brother in law and his fiance over (no pictures). Then the next week we celebrated Easter with my in laws. My mother in law had to work on Easter so we waiting until she had a night off. She had an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids and we had some really good food.

Laundry

2009-04-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Hannah is such a helper, she always wants to help me do the dishes, fold the laundry, put daddies Pepsi in the fridge, sweep or whatever I am doing. The other night I was working on dinner but had a basket of unfolded laundry and turned around and she was folding them. The video isn't great but it shows how conscientious she is and how good at it she is.

Zoo

2009-03-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

Evan had surgery on Monday March 16 and has had to stay home from school the entire 2 weeks. He will be having surgery on Monday March 30 to remove the stitches and repair any holes in his palate. Then he should be able to go back to school. The toughest thing has been that he can't eat. He can drink everything and has to fit through a straw except he can't use a straw. I will post on some of his favorites and least favorites later.

My niece and nephew came to town from Colorado to keep him company and help with his 2nd week of missing school. We have had to stay home for the most part but yesterday we had a post op/pre op appointment in Oakland and I decided to go to the zoo before we went.

Here are some pictures of our outting. We had a great time, although Caden has been a few times before this was the first time he really recognized the animals and enjoyed watching them.

Birthday Party

2009-03-23T19:11:00.000-07:00

Evan had surgery last Monday and is having more surgery next Monday so we decided to have a small party with just family and we invited the family of the boy I babysit. She had a blast here are some pictures from the day.

Hannah's Birthday

2009-03-23T19:04:00.001-07:00

Hannah turned 3 on Saturday. We celebrated by picking her cousins up at the airport, going out to brunch and taking Hannah to the mall to get her ears pierced. Here are pictures of getting her ears pierced, she only cried for a few seconds and then was happy. It helped having her cousins there.

Outting at the park

2009-02-02T14:17:00.001-08:00

We have been having BEAUTIFUL weather so on Saturday rather than being holed up in the house all day we took the kids to a regional park not far from us that none of us had ever been to. We only saw a small part of it but we will go back and see more another weekend.

We started at the botanical garden, most of the plants were the same but we enjoyed the hike- next time we know not to bring the stroller a little too much work pushing it up the hills.

I thought this looked realy neat the way the trees cris-crossedI said several times how pretty everything was and when Hannah walked by this dead tree she stopped, stared and said how beautiful it was!
The kids were at the top of a stair case leading to a little nursery. Evan came down a little quick and Hannah took off after him, if I had not been at the bottom and caught her about 3 steps up she would have "Bit the Dust" as she said
There was a little farm with Goats, Cows, Chickens, Roosters, Hens a turkey and sheep. Next time we will bring celery and lettuce so the kids can feed them.

All 3 kids enjoyed playing on this play structure for a few minutes at the end of our day

A Doctor

2009-01-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a conversation between Hannah & I today

me: stop picking your nose

Hannah: why

me: do you want a husband

Hannah: No, I want a doctor

When I asked her why she said she could sleep with him (in the same bed) and she could work with him.

Ya' think we spend too much time at the doctors??? She has named one of her male barbie dolls after our doctor.

At play

2009-01-14T20:27:00.000-08:00

I figured I better get some pictures posted, I start watching an 8 month old baby tomorrow so my free time is no longer going to be free. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks, we had a camp out in the livingroom of course, played potato head, had tea parties and just danced around to The Wiggles. WIth my new camera came an editing program, I started playing around with it on a few of the pictures but haven't taken much time to do it.

I do what she says

2009-01-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

Hannah walks around with an authoritative voice at times andfor the most part Caden does what she tells him to. The other day I was going to change his diaper and she asked if she could do it, so I let her help. She told him to lay down and he did, most of the time for

Here she is getting him all ready, he is even smiling and having fun

look how long my hair is getting!

She did it mostly by herself, she even knows how to use the baby wipes on him and she then washes her hands with soap and water when she is done. My replacement I tell you!

Christmas Morning

2008-12-29T14:52:00.000-08:00

Blogger does not always put the pictures in the order I want them, rather then moving them all around I may have to skip a litlte in story and go back.

For me growing up it was a big deal to get the kids reaction on Christmas morning with all the presents out under the tree, another tradition was getting up super early. We have changed that tradition a little over the years and what use to be super early (5 or 6 AM) when I was a kid has been changed to 9 or 10 for my kids. I am blessed to have them sleep in so why start waking them up early :-) The plan was to have breakfast at 9:30 with my sister & her family and Uncle Ed then to open gifts. We didn't wake up until 9:30 so we were already off to a late start. Everyone arrived by 10 and Jason had breakfast made and ready to go. We started opening gifts around 10:15 and were done by 11:45 at the latest. Everyone enjoyed what they got and I will post pictures later of my kids playing with their favorite presents. Uncle Ed must have pictures of the kids opening their presents, I will have to check and see. This is what was taken with my cameras. Yes, I got a new user friendly digital camera at the very end of opening the presents! So watch out for more video and pictures on here.

Evan amusing mom by giving her a shocked look

Hannah noticing her unwrapped present under the treeNot quite awake Caden looking at the treeHannah checking out her stroller Caden checking out the presents

Cody playing his new guitar and Jason checking out Evan's new DS

Meagan happy about all her lootCody making sure nothing gets left

Opening presents with Grandpa Robert & Gramma Jewel

At Aunties house for dinner

Rare pictures of Uncle Ed, he is normally the one behind the camera

daddy setting up Hannah's Barbie Camper (1st time around, had to take exchange and we still haven't put together # 2)

Now when I get the kids to leave we have added twins to our load and they have to be dressed, diaper bag packed and buckled into the car before Hannah is ready to leave.

other than my camera and a few other things this is what I got for Christmas
Jason and I were going to his mom's to cook the potatoes since the roast was taking longer than expected. On the way out the door I somehoe slipped on the metal door frame and as I was falling twisted my body so that Caden would not hit his head on the brick step (I was holding him) and during this I twisted and sprained my ankle. You can see it is still pretty swollen and bruised.

Cookie Decorating

2008-12-29T14:42:00.000-08:00

Last week we had some friends over to decorate cookies. It was pretty crazy with a 12, 9,8,3 year old AND 5 2 year olds and 1 one year old. I thought there were less cookies in a pack and ended up with 60 cookies, the kids only deocrated one each so that left ALOT of left over cookies. There goes my extra baggage added at Christmas! The sprinkles were a big hit, I think more ended up on the plates than did the cookies but the kids loved it.

yummy pink frosting on the hand

Tree Decorating

2008-12-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

We decorated the tree tonight it took a little longer than expected because we would put the ornaments on and Caden would follow behind us and take them off and put them back on the table. I think I hung the same dog ornament 4 or 5 times. Blogger does not organize the pictures the way I want them, I was wanting to tell a story but everytime I try and change them they all rearrange.

obviously Jason had his mind other place, this would have been a really cute picture of Hannah if only he had made her the center of attention.

Caden did not want to sit and get his picture taken

Christmas Program

2008-12-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

Evan had his Christmans Program at school last Thursday, here are a few pictures from the night. For some reason anytime we take pictures in the Sanctuary they turn out with a yellow tint.

Monster Boy

2008-12-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

He was so easy just 18 months ago
Starting to cause trouble

Don't let the dumbfounded look fool you

Caden is showing signs of hitting the terrible twos already! He is climibing on everything and into everything. The other night Hannah left the bathroom door open and Caden went and climbed into the bathtub, the tub was just wet enough that he soaked his jammies. Then he has been biting Hannah & Evan and throwing tantrums. I am not sure what I was thinking with only 14 months between Hannah & Caden!!

Arts & Crafts

2008-12-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

The babies and I made Snowman Puppets today, I didn't have white bags so we made brown. When we were all done I found a pattern for reindeer puppets on a brown bag... oh well!

Lock up your shorts....

2008-12-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

The other morning I got Hannah dressed in warm clothes and like every other day if she gets into the boys room she changes. It has been in the 30's when we wake up and immediately she runs for the shorts drawer (I keep shorts to put under hear dresses) and she takes her socks off as soon as I put them on. I think I found a trick today though, putting a sweatshirt on over her feet jammies and she can't take the off yet...

This is how she started the morning out

After we dropped the kids off at school

Final outfit of the morning

Reflections

2008-12-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

I do not think I will ever forget December 4, 2007. It started as a normal busy day taking Evan to school and getting the kids ready for my in-laws to come babysit. I had a routine doctors appointment, everything had been going well and seemed normal just like with the other 3 pregnancies. I didn't have to wait long and I was excited to hear the babies heartbeat. When the doctor came in and was running the ultrasound I knew there was a problem. I have seen enough ultrasounds to know where to look for the baby and the heartbeat. I saw the baby but did not see a heartbeat. He sent me upstairs immediately for a formal ultrasound but I already knew... My baby had died. The next couple of weeks are a blur, I know I was very upset but I also tried to be strong because Evan was hurting and didn't understand what all was going on. We opted for me to miscarry naturally rather than have the DNC. There was a lady from church that had gone through several miscarriages and she came over and offered support and knew what to say and what not to say. I am very thankful that she was there and avaliable for me, although I am sorry she had to go through it too.

On December 15th I woke up with severe pain in my abdomen and assumed that the miscarriage had started but after 3 1/2 hours of severe pain (and nothing like labor much worse) Jason took me to the ER. Becasue of the severe pain they took me right in and gave me a morphine base pain med that worked almost immediatly, good thing it did because we then had to sit for several hours waiting too be seen. When the doctor checked me out I had not started the process and it was determined that I was either passing a gall stone or a Kidney stone. I was very inflammed that they couldn't decipher where it was coming from. They kept me in the hopsital over night and sent me home late the next afternoon. Then on Monday December 17 I had to go back to the ER because I had miscarried the baby.

I can't say that I understand and don't think I ever fully will why my baby had to die but I am glad I can find rest and comfort in my Creator, my Shepard, my Protector , My Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ.

Pictures

2008-12-03T18:46:00.000-08:00

I know it has been forever since I posted anything. We have been busy. Many doctors appointments and then we had family in town for Thanksgiving.

Quick update

Caden had his 2nd set of tubes put in on the 21st of November and they did an ABR sedated hearing test at that same time. Shortly after they sedated him his throat closed up, I don't know all the details because they didn't tell me too much other than that. I know it was pretty scary in there (from the Audiologist) and from the way he was when I saw him in the recovery room. After several hours he did start breathing better and was looking better. They kept us the night for observation. Hannah and Evan got to spend 2 nights at Aunties during this and really enjoyed that. On the Friday Jason dropped some clothes off for them and Hannah informed him that she was not leaving with him, she was going to spend the night again.

The next week my brothers and dad arrived from Washington on Monday morning and on Tuesday Night my mom and my niece and nephews from Colorado arrived. We all enjoyed having them and stayed up way too late every night, but thankfully my kids slept in and when they didn't Uncle Jim was here to get up with them.

This week we started right back in with doctors appointments. On Monday we went and met with the Audiologist since I didn't get to meet with her the day of the ABR. Caden has moderate hearing loss in his right ear but his left ear is within the normal range. We are not sure why he has the hearing loss but she is pretty sure it is the permanant kind and can't be fixed. We had him measured for a hearing aid and are thankful that our insurance should cover most of it.

Hannah has been her typical busy body self and cracks me up. One day last week she had changed her clothes for the 3rd time already and put shorts and a tank top on. It was probably aobut 55 degrees outside. When I told her to go get her pants back on she said "my mom Actually my new mom Karen Isbury told me to wear these". I read books by Christian Author named Karen Kingsbury and I am sure this is who Hannah is talking about. Karen Isbury was here for a few hours that day but she went away until yesterdy when I had Hannah dressed in her warm clothes with socks and tennis shoes on. She went in her room to put her jammies on her bed and came back out in what else her sweather and shorts and high heal shoes then she told me Karen Isbury is in her room babysitting her dolls and wants her to wear these clothes.

Picture Fun

2008-11-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

My Birthday Pictures

2008-11-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

We went to my sisters to celebrate my birthday last Sunday and got some pretty good pictures of everyone.

Auntie bought this for Hannah to play dress up in, she loved it as she told us several times

Best Friends

2008-10-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

I hope my kids have the friendship with each other that I have with my siblings. Next to Jason and my mom my brothers and sisters are my best friends. We had brotherly/sisterly fights growing up but are still close.

New Jammies

2008-10-28T13:26:00.001-07:00

Grandma bought the kids some new Jammies and they wanted to show them off.

WUKI

2008-10-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

Last week was a busy week between doctors appointments, the babies & I go to school "play group" two days a week, the school went to the pumpkin farm one day and we puppy sat Luki (or Wuki as Hannah says) my niece Meagan's new puppy. I think he is 12 weeks old so he requires alot of attention. Here are pictures from the week: Caden & Ms. Darla
She picked the biggest Pumpkin she could find

at the barnyard show

Throwing a tantrum- at one point I had Hannah, Caden and the dog all "crying" and wanting my attention. That was an early nap day.

She loves Dogs

Playing ball with Luki

Luki

Happy holding the dog

playing ball with Luki

I'm Never Alone

2008-10-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

Evan has been writing songs of all the songs he has written we consider this one to be his hit

I'm Never Alone

By Evan Dodd

Verse 1: When I'm walking down my street I feel lonely but I just remember that I am not alone, Jesus thank you for being in my heart. I know you are with me

Chorus: Jesus Thank you O Lord, Jesus is in my heart, yeah My only Lord.

Verse 2: When I get home and I'm doing stuff, I call my friends and ask them if they want to come over, they say sorry. Then I start to get homesick but then I remember I'm never alone.

Chorus: Jesus Thank you O Lord, Jesus is in my heart, yeah My only Lord.

Verse 3: Come join me in this song, come join me in this song, come help me get more Chrisitans in this world, for I am never alone, yeah.

Weekly Post

2008-10-14T16:36:00.000-07:00

Caught climbing
Evan lost a tooth today and was mighty proud of it

Hannah use to fall asleep every lunch time, now Caden is following in her foot steps. She heard me coming and was pretending to be asleep (she does wear shirts just not at lunch time)

I went in to check on her at naptime found that she had fallen asleep talking on her play cell phone (I couldn't pass up the photo op)

2008-10-06T23:35:00.000-07:00

Here are a few random pics left over from our weekend- Caden got a haircut doesn't he look older?

Puppy Days

2008-10-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

My niece Meagan and my sister Jodi drove about 8 hours away (left on Friday and came home on Saturday) to pick up a puppy that Meagan bought herself with money she earned doing babysitting and other odd jobs. On Sunday she brought him over to show us, the kids absolutely loved him.

Hard working

2008-10-06T23:30:00.000-07:00

Evan had a book report poster due today, he worked really hard on it and did a great job. When we get it back I will scan it in and post here are a few pictures of him working on it.

Sharing

2008-10-06T23:23:00.000-07:00

The other day I was doing dishes and the kids were having a midmorning snack, Hannah was having a carmel apple lolipop (special treat) and Caden was having animal cookies! Or was he......

Sugar Shock

Rearranging

2008-10-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend Jason was home and we spent the entire weekend cleaning and rearranging rooms. We converted the playroom back into bedroom and moved Hannah into there we moved Caden out of our bedroom into Evan's room and our livingroom is no longer Toys R Us it is a livingroom. On Sunday Hannah was fighting a cold so we kept her home from church. She informed that she does not like her new room and that I ruined her life by moving her out of her room! Here are pictures from the weekend, we are not completely done with the house but it is looking good.

The kids couldn't play in the playroom, it was too messy so all the toys ended up in the livingroom behind the couch

on the wall

A few weeks ago the kids decided to pull all the stuffed animals out of the nets in the playroom along with half a dozen toys

Jason and I worked hard organizing, sorting and purging this is now what the playroom looks like. It was so nice to have the kids playing in the bedroom and not having to wade through toys to walk in the livingroom

And for the first time in 8 years I do not have a child sleeping in my room!

We have a walker

2008-10-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

I knew it was going to happen, Caden has slowly been doing more and more walking. Today I don't think I saw him crawl more than 3 crawls and he has walked the rest of the day and is more stable. It is going to be difficult to put shoes on him, he kicks, cries and screams whenever I do. He is nothing like Hannah who had an entire shoe collection by 14 months and she would accoust you at the door to take your shoes. (she still does that).

I will post pictures of my walker, my shoe girl and my big boy tomorrow or over the weekend.

Where have I been

2008-09-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

I think my last post was right after we came home from the hospital from Caden's Surgery. He did great and had very minimal pain. The worst of it came a few days later when he developed double ear infections and thrush in his mouth. We were able to get him treated quickly enough and you would never know that he had surgery. I know that we are all miracles from God but when I look at my children, my boys in particular I can see the miracles God has done in their lives. Evan went from an infant with repiratory issues and not sure he would survive his first year to a happy, healthy eight year old boy. We were just talking about it the other night and he still remember the night a little over 2 years ago when he got saved. I have seen God working through him and know that he is going to do great things with him. Evan is a compasionate person and desires to please our Lord. Hannah enjoys our family devotion times each night and in a way she holds Jason and I accountable. She is very strongwilled (I am still trying to figure out who that came from) and will not go to bed until we have done Bible & Prayer. We always finish our devotion time singing a few songs. All three kids love to sing, clap and dance around to the songs. Caden has come from the little boy that was on life support the first few weeks of his life to a happy, active 15 1/2 month old boy. He is doing new things every day and enjoys jabbering and singing songs (not that we understand him) he does say a version of mama, dada, yes (and shakes his head), Hannah, Evan and we are pretty sure we heard a thanks the other morning when Jason picked him up out of bed.

Anyway back to what he have been up to these past few weeks, my husband has asked several times why I haven't blogged so here it goes.

We laid low the first week we came home from the hospital to help Caden recover and because he had the ear infections and thrush. At the end of that week our neighbors moved and the kids enjoyed watching them load up the moving van. The next morning the neigbors came back to do some cleaning and I heard Hannah yelling out the door to them telling them "You don't live there anymore" she is such a crack up and the things that come out of her mouth sometimes are hilarious. The other day as Jason drove by our house to turn around she hollered out to him "your house is over here". She is constantly trying to convince me she is older than 2 1/2 and is dying to drive the car and she wishes she could sit in the front seat. The other morning we were getting ready to take Evan to school and she told me she would stay home and when I told her she couldn't stay by herself she told me she wouldn't Caden would be there and she could watch him. Don't worry, she went with me.

The next week was filled with doctors appointments (post op, speech and so on) and we went to Costco a few times. I have managed to do some cleaning, dishes, laundry, floors (looking at my house right this second you wouldn't think so).

Then this past weekend the neighbors (who don't live there anymore) had a garage sale, it was nice weather so I decided to throw a few things out to sell. I spent 4 hours out and made $12.00 but then I spent $6.00 across the street so I ended up with $6.00. It was a really good deal what I bought, they were selling an entire bin of Barbies, clothes and accessories for $1.00 (for the bin and all) then they were selling a Barbie house for $5.00 (in another bin) the bins alone are worth more than what I spent on them. Now with the barbies that Meagan handed down and these Hannah will be more than set with them. I have been letting here play with part of the house and with some of the barbies, she really has had fun.

I have been spending alot of time with Evan doing homework, he has a book report coming up in the next few weeks. God provided a good portion of his tuition so we decided to reenroll him back at the Christian School.

Yesterday the new Karen Kingsbury book came out, the last in the Baxter family. I bought it and stayed up until 1:00 AM and finished the whole book. Jason doesn't quite understand how someone can read an entire book in one sitting, hey all my work was done and the kids were in bed! I have another book to read but will wait a few days so I don't over do it!

Here are some pictures from the last 3 weeks, the batter died in the camera while we were at Caden's surgery and I just charged it yesterday. You will notice I don't have any pictures of Jason, we hardly get to see him anymore. God has provided continual work for him, it was to a point he was told they had little work and he has gone to working full blown. PRAISE GOD

Right after they gave Caden the Happy Juice

This is about 3 hours post-op. He was already wanting to drink juice from a cup. We spent two days in this bed.

My handsome 8 year old

She must not be getting her way

oh look she is happy again

He is starting to walk more and more on those "chicken legs"

This is the bin of stuff I bought for a dollar, filled to the top!

Hospital Stay Day 1

2008-09-05T01:05:00.000-07:00

It is 1 AM and the baby in in the bed next to us has been crying for at least 45 minutes. He is 19 days old and it is starting to ware on us. Jason has to be up for work in about 5 hours and is trying to be patient.

Caden is doing well, he has not required alot of pain medicine and he seems to be doing good on tylenol with Codeine instead of the morphine. He drank a cup of apple juice but has not had much interest in another cup. We will probably start some solids in the morning if he will tolerate them. My prayer is that we will be able to go home tomorrow but I expect to be here another night. The surgeon said she got alot of the palate put together and he does have a small gap but that is expected. When he has his bone graft in 7 or 8 years they will close the rest up.

Please continue to pray for his healing.

Caden's Surgery

2008-09-03T21:41:00.001-07:00

Please pray for Caden's Cleft Palate surgery on Thursday September 4 at 11:45 AM. I will update when I can.

My replacement

2008-08-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

Not that I am expecting anything to happen to me but if it did, I know who will take my place. Hannah is already trying to be the mother, not only with Evan and Caden but with every day matters.

We went to Costco the other day and I must have run down my list with her because she reminded me of everything on my list and when I was headed up to pay she said " Mom what about dish soap" she knew my list and knew what I forgot.

When we went to the doctors for Caden's Pre-Op and the first person asked me what he was having surgery for Hannah chimed in and said "for his cleft Palate' and she opend her mouth and showed where the palate was. Then they asked if he had any dentures or things that go in his mouth and she said "yes, he has an obturator".

Today we were buying some supplies at Staples and she saw a roladex and asked what it was, when I told her for phone numbers she said you mean ########## and rattled off 7 or 8 numbers. Man is she good!

There are many days they will get quiet and I check on them and she is changing Caden's diaper (now often I just got done changing him) The thing that gets me is he lays still and doesn't move around for her but when Jason or I do it he is squirming, trying to roll over and grabbing for any and everything.

She has recently started helping me with the dishes and she loves this job. When I tell her she can help she grabs a chair and starts pushing it over to the sink. She needs a new change of clothes after but oh well, she has fun.

Two Year Old Mind

2008-08-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

My kids want a dog and Hannah asks every day where her doggy is. I thought at first she was talking about her doggy purse or maybe grandma's or aunt Kristen's dog. But she was talking about her dog and when I have told her I don't know where he is she tells me "Evan says its not born yet" , either that or she will ask me when she can get a dog.

Today we were driving home from running errands and the neighbors dog was out in the front lawn- she said " Mommy if we lived over there we would have a dog" she was pointing to the neighbors house. I guess she thinks the dog comes with the house. If you see how she is holding the dog you will see one of the reasons we don't have one. Those poor dogs Misha in particular (grandma's dog) needed therapy after we were there. Hannah would chase after the dog and then if she caught it, Hannah would grab her neck and try and carry her with her legs hanging down. One of the last nights we were there Hannah was sleeping in grandma's bed and I went in to check on her and Misha had climbed up on the bed with her. I guess she felt safe as long as Hannah was sleeping

2008-08-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from our Marathon Pre-Op appointment yesterday. Yes, Caden was wearing clothes we were waiting for the doctor to come in and check him out. Plus, we were in a room that had no air circulating around and it was hot.

Double Trouble

2008-08-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

This morning I was checking my email and the kids were playing in the livingroom right by the gate. It got very quiet and I went to check, they were playing nicely. So I went to finish up and they got quiet again, I went in to check on them and they were gone. I started back to the playroom and Caden was sitting in the hallway as soon as he saw me he jumped. I knew that Hannah was doing something she wasn't suppose to be doing. Caden was sort of the look out, I go in and Hannah had climbed up on the toy box and was trying to get her ABC game (a puzzle) down. I had told her I would play with her after we cleaned up all the toys in the livingroom- she couldn't wait that long. I tried to get a picture without her noticing so I used my cell phone. The quality of this phone is not as good as the one that went swimming in the toilet.

Pre-Op

2008-08-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

The babies and I got up and out of the house by 8:30 (early if you know me) and were headed down to the hospital for Caden's Pre-Op. Oh how much I don't miss traffic, what should have taken us 30 minutes took about an hour. We got to the appointment a little early, why I don't know. We sat and sat and sat some more, we did see the anesthesiaologist, the admitting and a nurse but most of the time we sat in the waiting room waiting for all of them. When we were down in admitting (a tiny closet) an alarm came over the loudspeak and then one of the staff on the loudspeaker was mentioning a person had kidnapped a baby and was last seen leaving the 5th floor and they described the individual and the baby. My heartstopped and I immediatley made Hannah sit in the stroller instead of walk. The admiting clerk told us to stay in the office with the door shut and she had to take her post. It seemed like hours but was probably more like 5 minutes she came back in and they made an announcement over the loudspeaker that it was just a drill. Drill or no drill it made me edgy- I was there alone with my two children in a not so safe city. When I had to walk over to the medical offices from the hospital I was more aware than I normally would have been and Hannah was being pushed in the stroller even though she wanted to walk.

The appointments went well and Caden is scheduled for Surgery on the 4th of September. He is still to young to understand, but Hannah who is not yet 2 1/2 seems like she understands and can carry a pretty good conversation about Caden's palate being fixed. She is a character and I have a few stories to post from out 4 hour trip but I am too tired now.

Caden Pre-Surgery Prayer

2008-08-26T21:08:00.001-07:00

Caden Birth
Caden 4 months old
Caden 1 day post op cleft lip (with Big Brother Evan)
Caden 6 weeks post op
Caden 4 months post op cleft lip 2 weeks before cleft palate repair
In the morning the kids and I will be heading to the hospital for Caden's Pre-Surgery appointment. Caden will be having his cleft palate surgery on September 4th. We ask that you pray along with us for his health from now until then and for his safety during surgery and then his recovery period. If things go like they did with Evan than the surgery will last around 4 hours and we will be in the hospital for 2 days. The other kids will stay with my sister and one of the girls from church is going to help out babysitting during the day. Hannah is excited that she will get to spend the night at Aunties again, every time Evan goes she asks when it is her turn.
We are also asking for prayer for a little girl named Drew that will also be having cleft palate surgery on the same day, at the same hospital, with the same surgeon.

Hip, Hip, Hippopotamus

2008-08-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

Hannah has a favorite video that she will semi watch but wants it on constantly. It is a Mary Rice Hopkins (kids christian singer) that has a lot of fun songs about God and God's love. My sister sang one of the songs with the 3-5 year olds during VBS at church and since Jason and I were teaching we brought Hannah in with us. She loved doing the motions and will sing Hip, Hip, Hippopotamus and hit some of the words. Anyway I found out that she was going to put on a show at a christian school up in Sacramento. Jason has been working 14 hour days but decided to take Friday evening off to go with us so.... Jason, Evan, Hannah, Caden, my niece Meagan and I all started out to Sac at 4:30 (for a 7:00 show). Hannah had picked out a pretty dress, and that took forever, every dress I held up was not pretty enough. I mapquested a map and we were off. Someone should tell mapquest that Elk Grove is now a very populated city and that some of the roads your are really suppose to turn left not right! We followed our directions exactly and ended up lost! After a few phone calls and pulling over to ask for directions we found our destination 10 minutes late. We rush in, all needing to use the restroom and the show had just started. We only missed one song- Hannah had a great time but as the show was nearing an end she still had not heard Hip, Hip, Hippopotamus- Mary said she was going to do one last song and it wasn't "Hannah's song" I had been praying thorughout the show that we would get to hear that song. I was so afraid that we missed it! Anyway just before Mary closed she said I think I will do one more song and GUESS WHICH ONE IT WAS. Hannah was so excited to hear the music and she started dancing and spinning in circles doing the hand motions- it was worth the entire 2+ hour drive there and 1 1/2 drive home (we took a "short cut"). I will try and get a video of her dancing and singing to our video (no video's allowed at the show)

Caden

2008-08-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

Caden is starting to have a little personallity and it has been fun watching this develop. He has started playing with Jason when he comes home from work. Jason will walk in the door, Caden will get his attention and start crawling away so Jason will chase him, then he turns and looks and starts giggling. So much fun.

Here are some pictures of him while Evan was doing school and Hannah was playing dress up (pictures of both in posts below).

Every time I aimed the camera at him he smiled

He is throwing a fit because I didn't pick him up

Dress Up

2008-08-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

Hannah can now dress and undress herself enough to be dangerous. Today by noon she had gone through 3 or 4 outfits, she had to have a different outfit for whatever she was playing. If she was swimming she had her bathing suit on, if she was going to the doctor she had a different outfit, if she was going to get her husband (she thinks husband can be interchanged with friend) she had a different outfit and when she played water fight (she thinks water fight is chase). I think she changed those outfits at least 6 or 7 times each and was doing great.

After naptime she was back to the same thing, I was trying to take a picture of her and she looked up at me and said "we don't have time for pictures" and took off running. I wanted to show you the ecclectic outfit she was playing in, I wasn't paying attention and when Auntie called and was ready to go to Target, I loaded the kids up and went and she ended up in this outfit. A red, white & blue sun dress, with an orange shirt underneath and had black flip flops (several sizes to big) with these black, white and blue things sticking out. Thankfully, we had different flip flops in the car. This dress by the way was her "bathing suit" when she was playing today.

First Day of School

2008-08-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

Today was Evan's first day of school. He didn't have far to travel (from his bed to the Kitchen). I set up his desk last night while he was sleeping and as time goes by we will add what he needs. The day went great at first, he was excited and very cooperative, after we took a break he was down and dragged Math out for at least 45 minutes. Just about the time we finished I stopped him and we talked a little about how he was feeling and I told him I understand that he will miss his friends but we will try and stay in contact with them. I have a few field trips planned with some friends that also homeschool and I hope to meet more families. Then we prayed and about 15 minutes after we prayed I noticed his attitude improve and he flew through the rest of the day. Uncle Ed even brought a special first day of school lunch (Mc Donalds) and then he and I played the WII while the babies napped. I had also told him that I would take him to Target and let him pick out a little treat in the dollar section. We met Auntie and Uncle Ed there and Auntie bought him a movie to watch tomorrow after his work is done. I told him that he was not going to get something everyday but we would have rewards off an on throught the year. Here are a few pictures of his first day- this is the first year since Kindergarten that he has not cried and tried to reach out to me so that I would stay and not leave him...

Evan found a place he can set his toys up where the babies won't get it

2008-08-18T12:24:00.001-07:00

You know it is going to be a long day when:

1. Your kids wake up an hour earlier(and you still went to bed at the same late hour)

2. You only let your 2 1/2 year old try on 2 pairs of flip flops at Target and she wanted to try them all on.

3. That same 2 1/2 year old thinks you forgot to get her an Icee at Target and won't let you forget.

4. Your nephew, who babysat last Friday, forgot to take the kids out to play and you are still hearing about it.

5. Your 1 & 2 year old fell asleep the last 5 minutes of a 30 minute car ride and are not going down for a nap (and you need one).

6. Your 1 year old has emptied the toy bins for the 4th time today

7. Your 2 1/2 year old has informed you and continues to inform you that your dinner in the crock pot smells gross and can't be chicken.

8. Your husband will not be home until 8 or 9 at night.

9. You have run through who is NOT coming over today for the 100th time today (can't someone PLEASE come visit today)

10. You have to pick your 8 year old up from a playdate that only took you 30 minutes to drop him off and will take at least an hour and a half to pick him up. While you are stuck in traffic with the same 2 1/2 year old that won't let you forget about the Icee, that Cody didn't take her outside, that she wants to try on more flip flops at Target and with two kids that already fell asleep in at 10:00. The only good news is you won't be home to hear how gross your dinner smells.

He walked!

2008-08-17T23:57:00.000-07:00

He was a mean, lean (and I mean lean), walking machine. Caden was taking steps and walking out from things all night long. Did I have my camera NOOOOOO! It is now charged are ready to go, hopefully I will get some pictures tomorrow. I knew he could do it and knew he was holding back. I just was not expecting him to let me see it so soon. I caught a glimpse of him doing it when he thought nobody was looking , when he made eye contact with me he sat down and started crawling!

PICTURES AND/OR VIDEO TO COME!!

Midnight Snack

2008-08-15T01:31:00.000-07:00

Evan and I stayed up to watch the Women's All Around Gymnastics competition. It didn't start until after 11:00 PM but we took naps and we were ready. Evan was far more interested in the midnight snack than he was for the gymnastics and he wanted to say he stayed up that late (even though he did it many nights at Christmas when we had our marathon game nights with my entire family). Starting from about 11:15 he asked every few mintues what time it was, at five to twelve he got his snack and was ready to eat as soon as the clock struck twelve...

Here he is 1 hours later

While we watched tv they did this

and he tried to until the flash from the camera woke him up.

My Climber

2008-08-14T12:03:00.001-07:00

Caden loves to climb, we find him sitting on the couch, in the chair or on the kids table. He is always so proud of himself. He is refusing to walk (hmm stubborn I wonder who he takes after) but will cruise along furniture and when he thinks you aren't looking he will take a little step or two. I don't know why I am getting anxious, I can only imagine how crazy it will be when he heads one way and Hannah the other.

Brothers

2008-08-14T11:59:00.000-07:00

I was trying to get the kids to sit down so I could take pictures of them. Caden was not happy with this!
Caden loves to play Peek-A- Boo at the start of the game he always misses his eyes and covers his ears to play. Then after one or two times he starts getting them over his eyes.

At play

2008-08-14T11:55:00.001-07:00

The kids and I took some time from our housecleaning to relax, blow some bubbles and watch Hannah's favorite video- Mary Rice Hopkins.

2008-08-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

God has really been dealing with me lately that I don't read my Bible enough and that if I did it would be easier to be content with where I am at and to deal with minor things that come up. It seems when the big things come up I am right there in the middle of His word daily and praying out to Him sometimes hourly. So why not when I am going about every day things. I get lazy that is why.

It will help me to be a better, wife, mother and teacher to my children. We will be starting to homeschool in the next few weeks and if I don't spend more time with my Saviour in prayer and in His word how am I going to be able to make it through when the stressful times come. Plus, Caden will be having his second surgery in a few weeks. I am going to start today in his Word every day, I do seem to have countless hours to waste on the computer, have time to talk on the phone, watch tv and the list can go on and on. I would rather make Him the priority in my life again than to wait until something comes up and not be strong!

All Grown Up

2008-08-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

To some of you this will probably sound strange because I still have a baby but...

Hannah is growing up way too fast, she is talking fluently and using things in the right context.
Yesterday she told me that There is no reason for Hannah to take a nap, she has told me probably not when I asked her if I was going to get a kiss and I can't remember all the phrases she has used in the past day and a half. She goes in and uses the potty when she needs to and wants to write and draw all the time. She has succesfully changed Caden's diaper (and done a good job). Tonight she lost on of the cutest words she has used she no longer calls herself Nana she is now pronouncing HANNAH.

When she hits these milestones it makes me sadder than normal. She is the only one of the kids that does not have a cleft so she is hitting all the vocal milestones that Evan did not and that Caden most likely will not. I love my boys and love they way they talk and as Evan grew out of phrases and sounds I missed those too but there is just something different!

I will post some pictures of the kids tomorrow, Jason is finishing up the last few days of 14 hour days. He will take a few days off then go back. I am looking forward to at least a few days of being a normal family again!

House

2008-08-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

The kids have been playing house nicely together today. Hannah is the mommy and has taken her baby (Evan) everywhere. Just a little bit ago I heard her dropping him off in the nursery at church, she has such a good imagination. At dinner time they came to a "restaurant" for dinner. She did not like it when Evan kept calling me mom, she would kindly remind him that she is the mom not me. Here are a few pictures from the day

Hair Cut

2008-08-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

Caden had his first big boy hair cut today. No more curls :-(

Shoes

2008-07-29T23:10:00.000-07:00

Jason experienced his first "Real" shopping experience with Hannah. We were getting her a new pair of shoes and she definately knew what ones she wanted. When Jason put a pair in the cart, not the ones she wanted, she started to cry real tears. Well.....

These are the shoes Hannah wanted

These are the shoes Jason wanted to get

and these are the ones we ended up with

Colorado Rain

2008-07-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

When we were in Colorado it would start out a bright sunny day and by afternoon the Clouds would be dark and there would be thunder, lightening and a few times pour down rain. I took this video from my phone (that is not static you hear it is the rain). The kids, my mom, my sister in law and I all went out to eat our last Friday evening in town and just as we pulled into the parking lot the rain came and poured and poured. I drove up to the door, they didn't have an awning so I unloaded the kids and my mom took them all inside. Then I drove over parked the car and ran into the restaurant. I was soaked, we sat immediately down at a table and I looked outside it was sunny and the rain had stopped! This picture was taken the same night as the video was done.

Swimming in Colorado

2008-07-24T16:51:00.000-07:00

Over the next few days I will be adding some blogs about our trip to Colorado. We had a great time and the kids are missing it already. Most of these pictures were taken with the camera on my phone so they didn't always turn out the greatest.

2008-07-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

The kids and I have been staying with my mom for the past few nights. On Saturday morning my mom got up with them and let me sleep in. I came out of the bedroom to Evan singing Hallelulia, Hallelulia, Hallelulia and Hannah singing Diahrea, Diahrea, Diahrea. She was trying to copy him but that is how she pronounces it!

Our trip is coming to an end so we took the kids to the Zoo today! It was hot and the kids got tired fast. We did see alot of animals, besides the children we brought.

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

We are still on vacation without a place to download pictures. Not that I have taken many though.

We are really enjoying ourselves, Jason arrived on Wendesday and has played little basketball, went for a swim, went for a drive.

Hannah torments the dogs and Caden loves getting around and int everything.

Just wanted to wish you all a HAPPY 4th of JULY. We get back in a week :(

Colorado

2008-06-26T20:51:00.001-07:00

The kids and I are having a great time, my sisters house is HUGE and is like staying in a mansion. We have the entire basement to ourselves. Tonight Evan is staying the night with Grandma and the babies are here with me. We are looking forward to daddy joining us next week. I can't upload my pictures but will when we get home.

Jealousy

2008-06-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

I don't often think about it but with 3 kids there tends to be jealousy over spending time with mom. It hit me today when Caden and I were sitting in the chair playing PEEK A BOO and I suddenly found myself playing wtih my 8, 2 & 1 year old all of them competing for mommy to take their hands off of their face and then they would all giggle with glee.

I am not sure how much I will post over the next few weeks, the kids and I will be going on vacation to Colorado for 3 weeks. Unfortunately Jason can't come out the whole time but he will join us for a few days.

Finger Painting

2008-06-15T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hannah had her first experience finger painting today and I think she had alot of fun. She was very proud of herself, maybe it was a Father's Day Gift for Daddy. Did I mention that it was

A) Suppose to be naptime and
B) she painted her tummy with POOP!

Bite

2008-06-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

The kids were playing this morning and for no aparent reason and without provoking Hannah took a huge chunk out of Evan's arm. Here is the damage only seconds after it was done (I took a picture to send to daddy on the phone).

Caden's 1st year

2008-06-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

It took a few days before I could sit down to do this. This past year The Lord has carried us through so many trials, I am thankful that he was there to do that with us. I could not imagine how we would have gotten through those times. When things would get rough and I didn't think I could go on He would either send me someone to comfort me or he would remind me through scripture that He was there and I was not alone!

October 2006

I was excited to find out that we were going to be adding a 3rd child to our family.

November 3, 2006

I started having some spotting and spent the evening in the ER- they were unable to detect a heartbeat on the baby. They want me to wait a week and return to my doctor on the 13 of November.

November 13, 2006

We have a doctors appointment at 11:30, Jason came home from work to go with me. The doctor can not detect my uterus he sent me upstairs for a formal Ultrasound. We went home and I drank a ton of water to be back at 1:30 for a formal ultrasound. We showed up and the technician didn't have a problem finding the baby or the heartbeat.

January 31, 2007

I am 19 1/2 weeks pregnant we have our formal ultrasound to determine the sex of the baby. I have been praying for the past several months that I will have the baby that will be best for Evan. I was a little worried about jealousy with him having multiple siblings so close together.

The technician tells us that she detects possible a cleft lip & palate on the baby but it could just be a blurry picture. The baby is a boy. They will call to schedule a level 2 ultrasound just to make sure.

February 16 ,2007

Down for a formal ultrasound and the technician is being very careful to get a ton of pictures. She calls in the radiologist that does another ultrasound and gives us the results. The baby definitely have Bilateral Cleft Lip (can not tell about the palate), the baby has what looks like to be Hypo plastic left heart and I have a short cervix. We had to walk over the genetics and meet with them. They are not very hopeful that the baby is going to live his heart does not look good. The will schedule appointments for me with a Pediatric Cardiologist that will do an ECHO on the baby. My cervix is short and I will need to be put on immediate bed rest. They are pretty booked so I will have to go see the perinatologist a week from Tuesday- the earliest they can get me in.

Over the next several months we saw the Cardiologist a few times and he said it is possible that something is wrong with the heart but he didn't think it was hypo plastic left heart. I also saw the perinatologist and he said I needed bed rest but didn't have to be on complete I could go to the kitchen, the restroom and sit up in shifts. I continued watching Hannah & Josiah but had help frequently. Because I was high risk I had to be at the doctors every 2 weeks and from week 28 on I had to twice one time for an exam and the other for a non-stress test. Time passed slowly and we had Hannah's first birthday. From about the 28 week point on I had frequent contractions, at times painful but nothing extremely bad. It was determined that it would be safer if the baby was to be born by C-Section. We scheduled this for the 13th of June, the doctor was surprised that we didn't mind having a baby born on the 13th of a month, she even suggested that we pic the 14th or 15th instead.

I went off of bed rest around the 10th of May and was able to start driving Evan to and from school again. After basically 16 weeks of being confined to my house I was pleased to be out. I was given the clearance to resume normal activity around the 25th of May. I then started getting ready for the baby and doing all the things I would have taken the past 16 weeks to do. My sister Kristen, my niece Cassie and my nephew Brandon drove out from Colorado and arrived on the 31st of May. Over the next few days we went to dinner a few times, we cleaned the house and I even drove up to Covelo (about 4 hours away) to pick Jason up. A gentleman from church gave us a car since Jason's had died a few weeks back. Jason and David drove up to Covelo and Jason was going to drive his new truck home. They were about an hour out and I talked to Jason and he found out the car was manual. Problem- Jason doesn't know how to drive it and he can't learn on a mountain road. Cassie was supposed to spend the night with me but instead I took Evan and Cassie to meet Kristen, Meagan & Brandon (niece & nephew) at the mall. The took Evan & Cassie to the hotel to stay the night. Hannah and I drove to Covelo and about 2 hours into it I noticed that I had and was still having regular contractions every 10 minutes. Thankfully the didn't get closer and I made it up and back without any problems. Jason learned to drive his truck pretty quickly and we were thankful to get one.

Two days later on the 4th of June I was starting to figure out that I was in labor. Cassie was spending the night with us, we were having dinner then going to their hotel for the kids to swim and then we were going back to our house. We got back to our house around 8:30, got the kids down for a nap and I noticed that I was having spotting. I called Kaiser and even though I didn't have any other symptoms other than the contractions that I had been having for 10 weeks they still wanted to check me. Ed, Meagan & Brandon came over to watch the other kids and Jason and I went in. Jason was not happy that he had to get up and go for what we thought would be a wasted night. The examined me and monitored me to see what kind of contractions I was having. The problem I had most of my later pregnancy was I would have bad contractions and they wouldn't show up on the monitor, but the technician could feel them with her hand. This happened on this night and the nurse thought she would be sending me home, when the doctor came in he examined me again and it was determined that I was staying.

We alerted the media, well with my big family that's what it felt like. Anyway Ed and Kristen came down and stayed at the hospital until Caden was born. I am pleased to say that it was the easiest labor I had with any of my children and from about 11:00 on the 4th of June until 5:30 on the 5th of June I had mild to moderate pain and it was all manageable without anything. Finally they were done with emergency C-sections and they could do mine. It took them over an hour to get the numbing in the spine (I can't remember the name, it was not an epidural). Anyway one hour, two nurses and a doctor later I could not feel anything and they brought Jason in. Caden was born at approximately 7:15 in the morning and weighed 6 lbs 4 ounces. I wanted to hold him but when the doctor showed him to me all I could fixate on was how blue he was and was getting worse.

I got to give him a kiss and then the whisked him away to the NICU. For most of that day I was out of it and had to spend 12 hours in bed after the CSection. I would send Jason down to the NICU to check on Caden. He was on the ventilator and was having trouble breathing on his own. Jason stayed in the hospital with me, the next morning I sent Jason down right away to check on him and he came back and told me he was not doing good. They had hooked him up to a new machine and it really shook him bad. I went down to see him and left in tears. A little later on my mother in law came down and we went back, she had not seen him but a second the day before. I was able to talk to the doctor and she said they were not equipped to care for him, one of the nurses told me it was not good he might need the full heart/lung bypass. A little while later another doctor came to our room and told us they would have to seen him down to UCSF children's hospital where they could care for him. I wanted to check myself out but the doctors advised I wait until morning. We called several times over the night down at UCSF to check on him. First thing in the morning on the 7th the doctors discharged me and Jason and I headed down to UCSF.

The first several days down there in the NICU it was not looking good for him. Thankfully he never had to go on the heart/lung bypass, he was extremely close. It was very rough traveling back and forth the hour and a half drive down there but we made it every day. On Saturday the 9th of June we made the 2 complete round trips. All of my family was in town for my nephew Cody's High School graduation, so several of my family that was leaving the next day to go home came in and saw him. Then during the week I brought the rest of them down to see him. We were thankful to God when He stabilized Caden enough to be transferred back to our local hospital (where my car goes on autopilot). So many days I would look at my precious baby and cry because I couldn't hold him and do all the things I should be doing for him. I cried when they finally let me change his diaper and when finally it was lifted that I could hold him. Jason and I prayed for so many of the other families and babies that were there. The night before we left UCSF a baby came in that was born at 28 weeks, I sometimes wonder if that little girl made it. She could have fit into the palm of my hand, she weighed a little over a lb. Such heartaches.

Caden continued to grow stronger and after 3 weeks we started the bottle, it was extremely difficult for him since he had been on the vent a little over 2 weeks and did not have the sucking reflux. The doctors at UCSF determined that he was about 6 weeks early not the 3 weeks we thought. He didn't have anything major wrong with his heart but he does have an SVT that could be caused from being on several high doses of medicine or he could have a minor heart problem. He is on medication for this and is being followed by the heart doctor. He also was born with Bilateral Cleft Lip & Palate.

It took a little convincing but on July 3rd I was able to bring Caden home from the hospital, exactly 4 weeks from the day he was born. There are some things that I chose not to share because they are either memories that I want to keep to myself and then there are some heartaches that God got me through and I don't want to relive them. I hope you enjoy looking at pictures from Caden's 1st year

1st weeks in the NICU

Brittany, Jason & Meagan

1st time holding him

Getting better

2nd day home & 1st forth of July

Brothers

4 months8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months

Happy Birthday!

2008-06-05T20:15:00.001-07:00

Today my baby turned 1 and my "big boy" turned 35. We had Jodi, Kevin, Cody & Meagan over for dinner and a birthday cake for my boys. (pictures from Caden's 1st year to come later)

Quarentine Lifted

2008-06-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

What a mom does at night when the kids & Jason are asleep.

Ugly Blond women (don't worry just a wig)

What does a family do on quarentine? Spend one morning in bed and then clean the house- we were on quarentine not vacation! I was able to get all of my laundry done that normally takes Mnday & Tuesday- all I had left today was on load of whites, Jason's work clothes and 2 dresses of Hannah's that needed to be washed sepreratly.

We did go to the doctors (for the 3rd time) and our pediactrician thinks that it probably was a staph infection and the antibiotics will clear it up. HURRAY Quarentine is lifted, we can go back to our normal routine- wait isn't that staying home and cleaning?

Kids

2008-05-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

I love my kids!

Last night after we came home from Caden's hearing test I was changing his diaper and noticed that he had a blister on his leg. We were concerned but since it was the only one didn't think much about it and thought that maybe it was a bug bite. Except when 5 minutes later Evan came in and said "Mom does this look like Caden's". Evan had a smiliar one on his arm. With all those people coming to celebrate Evan's 8th, Caden's 1st and Jason's 35th birthday we decided to take them to the doctors. The doctor reassured me they didn't have the chicken pox and he was absolutely positive that they had a staph infection and needed to be put on antibiotics. He said that all the kids needed to be treated but Jason and I didn't. After getting home and talking to Jason, Kristen and my mom we were doubting the staph infection. Kristen & my mom saw pictures of it via the cell phone and said it looked a lot like chicken pox to them. We woke up this morning and Caden had a few more, we were still unsettled with the diagnosis the doctor gave him the night before so we all went back to Kaiser today. This doctor was almost positive it was not a staph infection, didn't think it was chicken pox and said it was probably not contagious. We went from one extreme to the other, one doctor telling us to seclude ourselves for a few days to a doctor today telling us to put our children in the church nursery even though we don't know what they have. We are opting out of this option and I will take Caden to our regular pediatrician on Monday afternoon. In the meantime whatever it is has multiplied and our children have been cooped up in the house. I trust our pedi and have not have a misdiagnosis from him yet. I will let you know what he has.

Did I mention we then had to call all those people last night and tell them the party was postponed, I then also had to call everyone that we were with this week and keep going over the story and the symptoms to watch for, because as the doctor told me last night if it went untreated it could be fatal. I couldn't get ahold of a few people thankfully only 2 showed up for the party. It was cute long after they left and Evan prayed for dinner he was thankful that he had a little party and a few people showed up.

The blisters look like this, anyone want to try and diagnosis?

WII

NO CADEN Look this way

2008-05-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

I misplaced the camera for a few days so I don't have any new pictures but I have found it and will get some current ones up soon- we are having a multiperson birthday party tomorrow. The kids are doing great, Evan is finishing up school only a few more days- he is looking forward to the summer and a special vacation that we may be taking soon. Hannah is your typical two year old girl, talks nonstop and lets you know if you are not doing things right. She is pretty much a bully to Caden and at times to Evan. She is still learning that everything does not go her way and that she does not always get what she wants and no matter what she does she can not change things to go her way. It takes alot of people years and years to learn this, hopefully it won't take her that long.
Caden will be 1 next week, I can't belive it. He is starting to express his wants and has learned that he can cry and change his tone to let you know when he really does not like something. He enjoys being with the older kids and will follow as fast as his little hands and knees will take him. I have found a new addiction and it keeps me in the way of house work, thanks alot Kev for introducing me to Pathwords on Facebook! I can't really blame anyone else, nobody forces me to play I just do and Kev and I have an ongoing competition going on.

Medically we are all holding our own, Evan and I completed allergy testing and are pretty much allergic to all environmental things. Not really a shock to me but now we can get allergy shots and hopefully won't suffer as much as we do. I had a follow up to my ER visit and everything is looking good, all my blood work came back better still not normal but has come way down so it appears that I had some sort of infection and that was causing the irregular liver levels. Evan's asthma still comes and goes but we are able to maintain it without the constanst steroids. He is in the process of having his vision checked so we will see what that holds. Hannah and Caden will be going in for allergy testing next week and we will see what that brings. Probably it will turn out that Caden has bad allergies and poor Hannah has nothing so yet again she will get left out when we all go to the doctors for allergy shots :) Caden completed his vision test and seems to be seeing fine, we are still working on getting a reliable reading for a hearing test but we think he has at least on good ear. His next surgery will be schedule in the near future. Jason has allergies but seems to be getting better. I think that he is relieved that he works all day and doesn't have to go from doctors office to doctors office.

8 years in the making

2008-05-22T23:23:00.000-07:00

I sat down to do a slide show of Evan. I have so many pictures that I had a hard time deciding, so I started with this and will add more when I can. I hope you enjoy watching him grow as much as I have

8 years in the making

2008-05-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

ER Visit

2008-05-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

I received emails from some of you asking why I was in the ER on Saturday. I was having severe abdomen pains and went to the doctors they did some blood work. By the time I got home some of the results were in and my liver count was higher than normal. They sent me to the ER for more tests. We still do not know anything but are hoping it is something simple like my gall bladder. I had a flare up of this in December and that is the most logical explanation to what is going on. I go in next week for an ultrasound of my abdomen and we will be doing more blood work. The good news is that all the other tests have come back normal and the only thing elevated is the liver and it is not overly elevated.

Please be praying that we will get quick, accurate results and that everything will be okay.

8 years ago today

2008-05-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN!!!!!

Eight years ago today, I gave birth to my first born Evan! I had hoped to have a slideshow ready but spent the day in the ER yesterday so I don't have it but it is coming this week hopefully.

Sale

2008-05-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for months for my skirt to go on sale at JcPenny's. I could not imagine spending $70.00 on a skirt, when I have 3 kids to clothe and feed. We went to penny's to get me some new shorts and they had one skirt left and it was my size. Then we get to the cashier and it didn't have a tag on it so she sold it to me even cheaper than it was online for. Now I want to go back and get matching shorts for the boys, they even have some in Jason's size and then get a matching skirt or dress for Hannah. The problem is Jason said that he and his boys will never plaid!

http://www2.jcpenney.com/jcp/Products.aspx?ItemID=1399a8f&ItemTyp=G&GrpTyp=PRD&ShowMenu=T&ShopBy=0&SearchString=American+Classic+Skirt&RefPage=SearchDepartment.aspx&CmCatId=SearchResults&Search1Prod=True

BLAH

2008-05-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

The kids and I have been sick for the past week with Respiratory infections. Three kids and one mom sick is not fun, Jason has managed to escape most of it. I took on a new job title, which I have actually had for almost 8 years now but never realized it. I am a pharmacist- And again poor Hannah gets the raw end of the deal and she only gets to take only one medicine one time a day, where the rest of us have to take ours multiple times a day.

Hannah, Evan (boxes & meds on left), Dawn, Caden (boxes & meds on right)

The boxes represent the breathing treatments, they each get both kinds between two and four times a day.

Patriotic Performance

2008-05-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a video from Evan's Patriotic Performance at School this week. He really enjoyed himself!

Play Time

2008-05-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

What is this, three posts in one day!

Spaghetti

2008-05-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Jason and the kids love it when I make Spaghetti with Meat Ball.

He helps clean uphe does the dishesWell not everyone enjoyes the spaghetti

Pictures from Washington

2008-05-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from out trip to Washington, I only have Ed's pictures but the rest of you could send yours to me. If you want to see all the pictures visit my shutterfly account at:
gotz.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8AaN2ThizbOGL4

The Play (the main reason we all went)

The "Dodd" Clan (minus one)

Mother & Daughters

Ed & Brittany

Kristen

And this is only half the family!

Caden enjoyed the one on one mom time

Caden & Uncle Ron

The Tour Director AKA Jim

The Oldest & The Youngest

Together Again!

What trip is complete without a self portrait!

We are home

2008-05-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday Caden and I flew up to Washington to see my niece Brittany in her school play. It was a lot of firsts- the first time Caden flew on a plane, first time Caden went on Vacation, the first time I went on vacation without the kids, the first time Jason watched the kids for more than a few hours and the first time my family saw Cadens new face.

My inlaws came over Thursday at 10:30 (of course I was not packed yet!) and we left for the airport at 11:00. We arrived 2 hours before our departure time, I bought an expensive meal at Oakland airport and we hung out for a little while. We arrived in Seattle at 3:45, we were supposed to meet my sisters, two nieces and my mom (all coming in from Colorado) at4:30. Thanks to a freak snow storm in Colorado, on May 1st, they didn't take off before I landed in Seattle, Caden and I had another 2 hour wait at the Seattle Airport. This time I didn't spend $15.00 on a nasty meal. Our luggage was already waiting for us and we headed for the 1 1/2 drive to Olympia. Jodi, Meagan, Caden and I stayed at my brother Jim's house- Kristen, Cassie and my mom stayed at my aunt Noelle's house on the lake.

On Friday, Ed (Brian's brother) and Brian (Kristen's husband) arrived and Kev drove down from Bellevue- Ed took the train up and I guess he walked too much, he wasn't in town for more than a few hours and had to head over to the local ER for an infected blister on his foot. Brian went along for the ride! Friday was spent hanging out with my brothers, sisters, mom and dad. We saw all of my aunts and uncles a few of them came down to Olympia the entire time we were there.

Saturday was the play, it took some work but we arranged for 17 people to meet at the play and minus a few flashes (Ed) of the camera during the play it was uneventful. Brittany did fantastic, as usual. It was the first play of hers I actually got to see live, not on video! Saturday night my mom and all of her brothers and sister went to an auction that my uncle coordinated for The Knights of the Roundtable. My cousin and her family came over and the rest of us stayed at Aunt Noelle's and played games and visited. Kev organized the games so you all know we played some strange but fun games- and since it was Kev everyone played.

Sunday we drove to Bellevue for a BBQ- alot of my cousins came out of the woodwork and we had a Mini Family Reunion I guess the "DODD" Clan needs to head up more often- uneventful except Jim thought Ed & Brian let the air out of his tire but later found a nail in it!

I enjoyed my time away and the kids & Jason did well too. There were no major catastophe's, the only phone call I got other than to say Hi was one from Evan's school on Friday. His Asthma was out of control and he had been in the office 5 times by 2:00 for his inhaler. I was able to make the arrangements, they got him in and treated and he was still able to make it to a birthday party at 4:00.

Now I am back to my responsibilities as a mother and wife- You know I was almost childless the entire trip- all those relatives wanted to hold Caden and it seemed like every time the car with Caden was going one way, I was in the other car headed the opposite direction.

Most of the trip was going from here to there to see reletives, there were alot of people to squeeze in and many we didn't see. My brother Jim and Aunt Noelle arranged a "tour" for us to go on! I will post pictures as soon as I get some from Ed.

LOOK OUT WASHINGTON OR WORSHINGTON AS MY DAD LIKES TO SAY THE ENTIRE "DODD" CLAN ALONG WITH SPOUSES AND CHILDREN( all 20 of us) WILL BE UP IN 2009 FOR BRITTANY'S HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION.

NAPTIME

2008-04-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

DON'T LET HER PEACEFUL STATE FOOL YOU!!!!!!

Wasn't I just saying that Naptime is going great. Well....

I put the kids to bed, Hannah was falling asleep in her high chair and was pretty much out when I put her in bed. I came out to the computer/fish room until Caden fell asleep. He was in the kitchen and I didn't want to keep him awake. I went to go check on the kids and Hannah’s door was locked, I tried calling her she didn’t answer, I went outside to make sure that the window had not been pried open (yes, I have watched to many movies) and tried looking in on her but with the blinds shut I couldn’t see. I panicked- I called Jason to see if we had a key he didn’t know of one- he told me to either wait until she woke up or to call Merle (grandpa). I was not going to wait 2 hours to find out something had happened to my daughter. I called Grandpa to see if he could come help me and he said he would get dressed and be right over. In the meantime I called Jodi (for someone to talk to) and she talked me through, trying to keep me calm but was concerned herself. Anyway, I pounded on the door again and called

me: Hannah, Hannah

Hannah: - What,

me: Is anyone in there with you

Hannah: - no answer -

me: is Mommy there-

Hannah: NO

me: is Evan

Hannah: NO

me: is Daddy

Hannah: Yes (okay my imagination runs wild and I thought maybe someone is in there with her)

so I asked again and she said NO, I said who’s in there Nana (what she calles herself) and Dolly (her baby doll).

I had her unlock the door and I checked the room to make sure she was alone. I hung up from Jodi and called Grandpa not to come over and took the door handle off.

I then asked Hannah why she locked the door and she said because she wanted to play!

She must have woken up right when I put her in bed, got up locked the door and went to the closet to play!

2008-04-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

I was sitting her thinking today how blessed we are with the children that God has given to us. We have faced our many challenges with these children but God has gotten us through those times. I hear horror stories from other parents on teething, nap time and transitioning their baby's to new beds and we have had very few problems. None of my kids had horrible teething issues where they would wake up screaming and have a hard time going back to sleep night after night. We may have had a night here or a night there but nothing that too impressionable. I was dreading putting Hannah in her big girl bed because she is very independent and I thought she would constantly get up and out and bedtime and nap time would be a struggle. She has been in her "Big Girl Bed" for a little over a week and with the exception of naptime on Saturday she has not had a single issue. I think the only reason she had a problem on Saturday was because Evan had a friend over and she didn't want to miss anything. Up until last week Caden slept in a swing, to keep his head elevated, we put him in Hannah's crib and only the first night did he stand and cry for 30 minutes, but now we put him in bed he rolls over to his tummy and cries for a few minutes but goes to sleep. Hannah, Caden and Josiah (the boy I babysit) all take long naps in the afternoon and do not put up a fight for it. Which it is nap time so I should be getting something done.

Men & Diapers

2008-04-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

Jason works with paint fumes and chemicals all day I don't understand why he can't handle an occasional messy diaper. As I was working on this a friend of mine sent me the video that went right along with this post.

Plumber

2008-04-22T10:40:00.001-07:00

We have are own plumber here. I was so proud that Hannah went in and went potty by herself today, I went in to check on her and this is want I found (that is a plunger in her hand)

Goldfish

2008-04-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Ed and I took the kids to the carnival at the local high school while Jason went fishing. There was not a whole lot Hannah could do but we let the kids play one of those carnival games where you throw the ball into the fishbowl and you win a fish if you do it. It was pretty windy out but we managed to get a ball in the bowl. Evan spent the night at aunties and played video games with Uncle Ed and that babies and I came home. I should have waited for Jason ( the keeper of our many fish tanks) but I didn't I decided to transfer the fish to a bowl like I had seen Jason do many times into the tank, well I must have missed a step because I killed the fish. I guess fish don't like too warm of water! When I saw Evan at church this morning he was teary and sad about the fish. Jason told him we can go get another one (I won't touch it this time) but the kids REALLY want a puppy instead!

Friday Evan & Flashback Friday

2008-04-18T17:14:00.001-07:00

I haven't forgotten either one of these. Evan is at aunties (where he went after school) and I am working on the other.

Enjoy Friday Hannah & Caden.

Friday Hannah

2008-04-18T16:50:00.001-07:00

Hannah has anxiously been waiting three things today, the first was to take Caden to the doctor the second is to go to Aunties for dinner. She has her shirt picked out, the Tinkerbell one Meagan bought her for her birthday. And the third is tonight is her first night sleeping in the big girl bed. Evan will sleep on the top bunk, unless he spends the night at aunties (hint hint) and she will sleep on the bottom. I am sure I will have an update on that after we spend a few nights with her free and able to escape. Look out baby gate here comes trouble.

All day can be along time for a 2 year old- she passed time by either empting half of a roll of toilet paper in the toilet (sorry no picture) , climbing on the toilet to get the tooth paste (again no picture) or sitting out and watching Daddy clean out his paint equipment. On most days this is the excitement of the day unless of course we are going to the doctors (you think I am kidding but ask Auntie).

Friday Caden

2008-04-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought about how hard it is to look for something like this?

IN HERE

OR HERE

AND ON OCCASION IN HERE?

You ask "What am I looking and and why is that room so messy"?

Answer: You are looking at pictures of Caden's Obturator, mouth piece like a retainer that helps keep his mouth from collapsing. The top two pictures are the livingroom and the bottom is the playroom that I have not been able to get in and clean this week because I have either been on a field trip with Evan or like today taking Caden to the doctors for his post op and yesterday I was just plum tired after my darling daughter decided to wake the household up at 6:30.

Anyway, Caden is very talented and takes his obturator out of his mouth and carries it around with him. When you go to throw a diaper away, do the dishes or make a potty run is about the time he decides it is time to come out and then we are on a mad dash looking for it. And pray that Hannah and Josiah did not decide to pick it up.