Doctors appointments

Yesterday the youngest two had doctors appointments for well child checks.

Braxton is 3 and weighs in at 32 lbs and 37 inches tall. He is doing great developmentally. The only concern with his the poop issues. We are going to test him for the Giardia this week. I have to take stool samples to the lab. If that comes back negative we will see what is the next step. The doctor talked to us about Crohn's Disease and Celiac Disease. The more I read the less I think Crohn's is possible and the more likely that the Celiac Disease is. He has some of the stuff that it says kids with Celiac disease have. We will wait and see. The easiest would be the Giardia...a couple doses of antibiotics and things would be good.

Arianna is weighing in at 15lbs 15 oz and 26 inches long. She is in the 5th percentile for weight and height...our little peanut. She is doing great developmentally. No concerns with her. We do go back in 6 weeks for a weight check to make sure she stays on the growth chart. The doctor was shocked when I said she was eating 4 meals and still nursing 4 times a day yet she wasn't gaining much. Arianna is a busy little girl. She crawls and rolls all over the house. If we leave the room she will crawl right behind us to see where we are going. She can also pull up next to things. Nothing is safe in the house anymore.

A Birthday and a Wedding

We had a busy weekend. We celebrated Braxton's 3rd birthday and we also had a wedding to attend. On Friday we did cake and presents for Braxton because he just could not wait any longer. He was going crazy. I will post some pictures of his celebration.

On Saturday we had a wedding to attend. My best friend's little sister got married. I have a few pictures of the kids at the wedding with my best friend and her fiance.

Tractor cake


Presents
Kenzi bought him a tool box



Wedding Pictures
B all dressed up

My kiddos are growing up!

On Sunday Braxton Charles Adam will be 3 years old and Arianna Mary will be 9 months old. That is crazy. I can't believe how big they are getting. Today I took the youngest two for pictures. They turned out great. I am very excited to show them when I get them back.

Here are so pictures of the kids.

Arianna minutes after birth.


6 months old


9 months


Braxton minutes after birth


Braxton is a happy baby

1 year old

Half life picture

Closet on of being almost 3 years old that I have in photobucket.

My fears

There are lots of jobs out there where the wife/husband fear their loved one not to come home. I never used to have that fear until my husband became an Over the Road truck driver. Even then I was able to control that fear because I trust my husband..just not the other people on the road that don't drive carefully. I knew there were lots of risks in his job. I mean lets be real...my husband is on the road driving half the day 5 days a week in a tractor trailer in all weather conditions. I always figured icy roads, snow covered roads, rain were the worst conditions. Well I have now added one condition to that list and it is wind. I hate wind.

My husband is fine and wasn't even the one involved but it has made me realize no matter how good of a driver or what the conditions are things can happen.

Scott drives for Werner Enterprises on a Staples account along with lots of other drivers. These drivers become friends of Scott and a lot like family because he sees them a lot more than his family. So when something happens to one of them it is like hitting us personally.

Scott's friend Jeremy was involved in an accident lastnight. Jeremy only received minor injuries but unfortunately the driver of the other vehicle lost his life instantly. Ohio had wind gusts from 60-70 mph. Jeremy was headed south and the other vehicle was headed north. Just as they were passing a wind gust came and toppled the tractor trailer over onto the other vehicle killing this young man. His trailer was empty but still being empty weighs at least 18,000 lbs. My heart goes out to this young man's family who is having to deal with the loss. My heart also goes out to Jeremy and his wife as they deal with this accident and come to terms that it was just an accident and that Jeremy did everything he could. One paper wrote it right...another second, another few feet and it would have never happened. The Lt. on the scene said it best, there was nothing Jeremy could have done..it was an act of God.

I pray that every Over the Road trucker can make it home to their family safely and that nobody else is injured. I pray that no wife/husband ever gets that call saying that their significant other has passed away or has been in a serious accident. I pray that my husband makes it home safely tomorrow morning. No matter what your profession is I hope and pray everybody makes it home safe and sound to be with their loved ones.

This has hit me hard because it could have easily have happened to my own husband. He drove that same road last night just one hour earlier. He was also traveling with an empty trailer. It will take me a long time to get over the fact that it can happen so easily. Today I refused to pass the semi I was behind because it was windy and I couldn't tell if he was loaded or not. It put a fear in me that I have never had before and I am not sure how to get over that fear.

My prayers are with Jeremy and also with the family of Stephen.

Change of Plans

Well nothing ever stays the same...things are constantly changing. I was once told though when things stop changing things are dead so I guess change is good. Anyway onto the change. Scott will not be doing the run he has been doing for several months. He will now be going to Lansing 3 days a week and doing this old run 2 days a week. His brother will be coming onto the account and taking Scott's old run. So they will actually be splitting the two runs it sounds like. The splitting is questionable still. He needs to talk to his supervisor. If they don't split it Scott will be making less money and he doesn't want to take a pay cut..I mean really who does. So that is the update.

A little of Everything

Well I will start off with Werner/Staples news. Scott did not get the local run. Another guy (actually that I went to school with) got it. He has a family at home too and he has been on the account longer than Scott so it is only fair. This has meant changes though. Since his run opened another guy that was going to Grand Rapids took his run, then a guy that was going to Lansing moved the GR run. If we lived by Lansing Scott would take that run and be home every day but where we are at it won't work. That is ok though since Scott has a good run. He will stay where he is at and hope in the future the local run will open up again. Scott's brother is driving for Werner on another account right now and is doing well. He is home every day on that account so that is a wonderful blessing for his wife and kids. We will miss having Scott home on occassion during the week but it was starting to mess the kids' schedules up so back to reality.

We took the kids sledding again on Friday. We had a few crashes. It always adds excitment to the trip. My mom, my sister in laws, Scott, and myself took the 8 children. It was quite the adventure. They are 8 months, 1 year, 2, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. It started well until my niece (2) had a potty accident...luckly we had another snow suit and I had extra clothes for Braxton along. Then my nephew (3) went down the hill, through the fence and into the trees. Then Braxton went down the hill on took out another child and rolled the sled multiple times. We came out with only scratches so that was good but man it was eventful. It was so a nice day for sledding.

Makenzi is doing very well in Preschool. She wants to learn to read so bad. We have been working on it so we will see how it goes. We do pre-registration for kindergarten on the 23rd of this month. She is very excited about riding the school bus and going all day. Hopefully I can get her in full day kindergarten.

Braxton is Braxton. He is wild and crazy and starting to hit that terrible three stage. I can't believe my little boy will be 3 in 1 week. He is growing up so fast.

Arianna is almost 9 months old and growing fast. She does the army crawl all over the place now and loves to get into stuff. She can say mama, dada, hi. She has no teeth yet which doesn't surprise me since her brother was 13 months before he got one. She has no interest in pulling up to things yet.

I am going to go back to school. I am still looking for the right school and the right program. Certain programs/schools have such long wait list for clinical s. It is crazy. Oh well I am sure I will find the right program at the right school. Time will tell.

What is that?

Well I posted awhile ago about a mouse in the house. Well the stupid thing was smart. He would eat the stuff off the trap without setting it, he could run like crazy when spotted. The darn thing was starting to tick me off...especially since I am terrified of them. I finally convinced Scott to set Decon out. He is leary because they move the stuff and we didn't want the kids to get. So the last several days I hadn't seen it so I figured it was gone. Well maybe not.

This morning my mom was here (Thank the lord) doing our cleaning day. She went to grab something from under the sink and there laid the dead mouse...or was it not a mouse? This was the question of the morning. I finally grabbed the computer and started researching what this rodent was. Well we finally determined it wasn't a mouse. It was either a shrew or a baby ground mole. My first thought was how many things do we have in this house and how the hell did they get in. My mom wanted to show my dad so she bottled it up. As soon as my dad seen it he knew it was a shrew. We are hoping it was the only one.

Here is a picture of a shrew in case you are wondering what one is.
http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/photos/andera/common-shrew-3806.jpg

Check out that nose.

Our Super Fun Weekend

We had a weekend full of fun. Saturday evening we took the kids swimming. Makenzi's school district was offering a free swim night. The kids had a lot of fun. I only have a couple pictures of Arianna before we left with her in her swimsuit. Arianna loved the water...she giggled as soon as she hit the water. Braxton wasn't so sure but he did ok. Makenzi was super comfortable in the water.


Today we took the kids sledding. My mom and my niece and nephew were there too. We had a lot of fun. We would hit the bottom and Braxton would squeal "lets go again". We stayed over an hour and a half. Here are some pictures of the day. Even Arianna loved to sled. She would giggle all the way down the hill. It was such a perfect day...not windy or to cold.
On top of the hill

My mom and Kenzi at the bottom

Climbing the hill

Scott, B and Arianna going down the hill.




We had a great weekend and are looking forward to going again.

Pictures!!

Well I have a link that will take you to 76 pictures of the kids. We had their pictures taken a lit bit ago and got them back yesterday. I am so happy with how they turned out. Tiffany (our photographer) did an awesome job. Tell me what you think and if you have a favorite. I am having a hard time choosing which ones I really like. I will be getting a cd of all of them so then I can get them printed off. Enjoy looking at them.

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thum...aspx?e=4477903