December Catch Up!

We've been fighting through the sickness that has been going through our family, and getting ready for Christmas!

Parks loves playing out of the back deck..

We kept to our tradition of decorating the tree on December 1st...the kids were so excited, Grace would just stuff the balls into the tree, but Parks was really good at actually hanging them...they were all in one area on the tree but its progress:)

All done the tree and looking so cute with their cheesy smiles:) lol

There it is! After Momma put her finishing touches;)

The kids and I on a good day:)

This is our official 2011 Family Christmas picture that we sent out in Christmas cards...it turned out pretty good considering..

and this was the not so official 2011 Family Christmas picture that was sent out only to a select few;)

Matt and Parks built this huge Fireman Snowman;)in our front yard...who has since lost his head due to the mild weather..so Parks and Daddy pushed him down in preparation for the next big snowfall!

The kids were so pumped to make sugar cookies...it was messy but so worth the kids being so proud of themselves!

Parks and his cousin Anderson collided into each other and because Parks doesn't have his 2 front teeth...his lip took a beating and swelled up instantly...:(

He was tough..and got to eat lots of freezies, the swelling lasted 2 days

Hunting Season is OVER!

I'm really late posting this post...Matt had a great hunting season this year, we bought a new freezer and it is full!  All of September, October and November...I get to hear about elk, deer and moose AND the pesky coyotes...unfortunately the elk weren't around to much this year, so Matt has yet to shoot an elk EVER.  Mid October he got a small bull moose and in early November he got a nice white tail 6x6 buck scoring 145 gross.  He also started a new tradition of pheasent hunting with his Dad and Cam on Cook's property.  All and All he can NOT complain...with lots of opportunities to hunt and having a week of hunting at the beginning of November while I was away and than close to a week again at the end of November with his brother Paul and some family friends...

Grace at 18 months old!

My little baby girl is not a baby anymore:( I dont know when it happened, but I look at her and she is a little toddler now...We had to move her out of Parks' room about a month or two ago, she was waking up way too much at night time because of endless colds, an ear infection and lets not forget the first problem, beaver fever...that I swear lowered her immune system so much hence why she keeps getting so sick!! She weighes 24 lbs...which means she hasn't been gaining much weight from having endless diahhrea for the past 3 months.  Looking back to the last time I weighed her which was at 13 months old (somehow I missed 16 months old) she weighed 23lbs 11oz...5 months later only 24lbs:(  It hurts my heart so much to see her always having some sort of sickness...and yes she is a little toddler and yes I know they always get sick, but really enough is enough!  We have been home from Utah now for 2 1/2 weeks and Grace has been sick that whole time (granted we all have been really sick with whatever we caught out there...and it has been horrible ever since we left...trying to get better, but it just always seems like we all get better and Gracie is the one still stuggling).  So I've decided to take matters into my own hands...with the diahhrea situation.  I've googled a lot of things... and after discussing it with our Doctor, she suggested putting her on a lactose free diet (well mostly just switching her 2 bottles of homo milk to soy milk...there is a good possibility that from the beaver fever and having diahhrea for so long that her digestive system may be finding it too hard to deal with the lactose/dairy. BUT I've heard soy milk @120 cals. is not all that healthy for you and I dont think it has nearly enough fats in it for Grace (who needs a few more pounds on her...that's why I like Homo with160 cals).  I'm also trying to cut back sugar and processed foods from her diet since apparently sugar feeds the bad bacteria in your body.  Lastly I'm giving her probiotic drops everyday (aswell as plain yogurt which she hates)...this will help her to feed the good bacteria in her body and hopefully be rid of diahhrea!!!  This is probably very boring to most people reading this, but it is very important for me to journal and remember.  PLUS I am stumped on what to do for my poor little girl...I'm thinking we will get her stool retested again for the 2nd time just incase and maybe do bloodwork.  I just have this motherly gut feeling that something isn't right...on a good note though...last night was the first night that Grace didn't wake up with a cough attack:)  I think after almost 3 weeks she is finally getting over this cold!!!

In Memory of Jacqueline Hill

On November 15, 2011 my beautiful, fun loving sister-in-law passed away.  She was only 37 years old.  She became a quadripelic 4 1/2 years ago while doing long boarding.  She picked up too much speed going down a big hill and jumped off the board...she broke her neck and life would never be the same for her.  She and Paul (Matt's brother) have 6 amazing children all before her accident...Rylee 17, Calvin 15, Seth 12, Megan 10, Lance 8 and Jake 6.  Jacquie was so cool and I looked up to her a lot.  I remember how awesome she was at wakeboarding (for a girl:)) she was throwing backflips and getting so close at actually landing them!  I was inspired by her.  She was fearless.  Her smile and personality was something you always wanted to be around.  She sincerely always wanted to hear about what I was up to and what my thoughts were about things.  She loved to cook and was one of the best when it came to making yummy desserts.  Even after her accident, although I'm sure it wasn't easy, she stayed positive and selfless.  She still would always want to hear about what I was doing.  I wish she didn't live in Utah because I would have loved to be able to hang out with her more, but I will never forget the way she was when we were together.  Her kids were everything to her...and I can relate to that.  As well Paul is a Fire Fighter... and a hunter...Jac and I loved having Fire Fighter husbands but the Hunter Husband we both agreed sucked:)  Nobody fully can understand what she had to endure as a quadripelic and why she did some of things she did.  I know she is smiling down on us all and watching over her children...until we meet again Jacquie.  You will forever be in my heart.  I love you.

Jacquie recently started her own blog and really expressed herself well in it...if anyone wants to read feel free, she loved sharing it   http://quadriplegicmotherofsix.blogspot.com aswell there was a website created rememberjacquie.com where people who knew her can share stories.

Ottawa Trip!

The kids and I spent 10 wonderful days back home in Ottawa...sadly our trip had to be cut short by a week because my sister-in-law Jacquie passed away suddenly.  I know that Jacquie would have dropped anything to be there for me, so it was a no brainer when I found out the news.  She was a quadriplegic and had some major complications when her bladder got punctured...her body wasn't strong enough to fight.  I'm so thankful to my wonderful parents for understanding and having to let us go when it felt like our visit just started...the last minute plane ticket was crazy expensive and if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to go to the funeral out in Utah.  The kids were so excited to see Nana and Papa!  The plane ride there wasn't full so we were able to get 4 seats all to ourselves...here are a few pics of the trip, it went by so fast..

Gracie didn't play strange with Papa at all.

This picture had so much potential! It is soooo hard to get them all looking and smiling...this was as close as we got Robyn;) Thanks for taking the pictures by the way

Nana and Papa are so good to sit and read books to their grand kids...the girls especially loved this attention:)

There are so many leaves in Ottawa...so many huge trees...the kids had fun

Nana has a few dress up dresses that Grace was very excited about, so here is the little princess:)

At the mall...we visited the pet store and of course had to go on the helicopter ride

The kids and I went to the Kanata Santa Claus Parade with Brock and Christina, Ava and Hunter...froze our little bums off but it was worth Parks seeing Santa on top of a fire truck!

Cutie cousins playing in the basement in their special fort!

It doesn't get much cuter than this:)

Oh wait! soooo cute!

Thankfully I did get to see some extended family...we had my Great Aunt Marlene and Uncle Ken, as well as Aunt Helene and my cousin Jennifer with her son Kevin over for dinner. It was so nice to visit with them:)

I also had over a long lost best friend of mine, Veronica with her 2 kids. It was so nice to see her and talk about life and remember great memories. I'm grateful to have her back in my life. xo wish we could of got a pic of us...but here are our youngest kids together:)

 ...and Keegan with Parks and Grace

Nana and Grace at the park...Grace showing off her sliding skills all by herself:)

Panda is such a good dog. He definitely got a lot of attention this trip...and is still lazy as ever.

The kids had a bath with Papa pretty much every night...while Nana entertains them...this night it was all bubbles!

Our last day was spent at Uncle Jeffy and Auntie Robyn's house. We spent most of it outside enjoying the mild weather.

Here they are! I love you all more than I could ever explain. I cherish the time we spend together and I cant wait to see you all in another few months:) xo

and back on the airplane...here the kids are squished together watching their movie...it didn't last long but they looked like perfect little passengers...lol

"Grace is sick"

I feel like I have been saying "Grace is sick" for the past 3 months with brief breaks throughout:(  So I thought I'd blog about it!  SO at the end of August we went hiking with our friends Julie and Kendall in the Kananaskis area..a few of us took sips of the river, at least I did...and I cant 100% remember if we gave Grace a slurp or if she just licked her fingers when she was splashing around playing.  It was super cold water, so we weren't swimming in it or anything.  Anyways all of September and October she had diarrhea that was progressively getting worse, but some days hardly at all.  There was a bad virus going around that we all got...with the throwing up etc so we just assumed that's what Grace had, but we all got better. Poor little Graie still had this awful diarrhea..she had a runny nose too, SO than I thought it was just teething...she was getting her two eye teeth on the bottom.  Meanwhile she was sleeping HORRIBLY at night...crying out and just so uncomfortable...I was so exhausted with her getting up.  On October 24th I decided to go into Urgent Care...she didn't want to eat and still had this horrible smelling diarrhea.  I brought in a stool sample and the Doctor on call that day was an absolute idiot and so rude...he assured me that her stool didn't need to be tested because this is clearly just a 'virus' and 'no antibiotics can be giving for a virus'...I told him I wanted it tested anyways just to be sure...so he hesitantly agreed.  The very next day I got a call from a different Doctor telling me that Grace has Giardia lamblia known as beaver fever.  I sooo wish the Doctor I dealt with was the one who called me because I would have given him a piece of my mind!  Anyways:)  I'm not positive Grace got it from the water out in the mountains, but its pretty likely because apparently this parasite can live in your small intestine for a few months before you figure out what it is...the diarrhea would calm down when they weren't reproducing or doing whatever they do...gross, I know.  She was put on some absolutely horrible tasting antibiotics...that she had to take 3 times a day for 7 days:(  She puked and spit it out the first 2-3 doses but than decided she'd tolerate it with chocolate syrup and while watching her favorite show.  After the 7 days of antibiotics her poops were hardening up and she was eating better!!! YAY!  Than one day later (3 days before my Ottawa trip) she was screaming her head off all night and just NOT feeling good again...back to Urgent Care we go...I got her poop retested (came back negative!!) had a super nice Doctor this time.  Turns out she had horrible ear infections and possible strep throat.  Back on some antibiotics again...at least this stuff was banana flavor.  so back to 3 times a day for 7 days...the day before my flight I had to go back to Urgent Care again (in case your wondering why I don't just see Matt's Dad...its because he was away hunting or just not available those days).  The Dr. checked her ears and said they were still red...and than told me to just drug her up with children's benedryl and Advil for the plane ride.  Only problem is it may make her really hyper instead of really sleepy.  I just didn't have the energy or time to test that benedryl out....The next morning we were all packed up and ready to fly to Ottawa, only to find out that my flight was scheduled for the previous day!?!  It was sad. and totally a misprint by areoplan, but none the less we missed that flight.  It was kind of a mixed blessing though because we got a flight for the very next day which gave Grace one extra day to get her ears better....she had a great flight and only needed Advil.  She slowly got healthier while in Ottawa (we only stayed for half our trip due to my sister-in-law Jacquie passing away in Utah).  I have never been more excited to see a hard poop in her diaper!!  We were on our way home after 10 short days in Ottawa, so that the very next day we could start our 14 hour drive to Utah...we stayed there for 7 days (which I will blog about later) and sadly, very sadly...despite washing my kids hands and making sure Grace, especially, stayed away from one of her very sick cousins....but towards the end of our trip, Grace caught her cousins chest cold...and is now sick again!  She has a deep scary cough..mostly throughout the night (of course), runny nose and diarrhea...again:( 
I'm starting to realize though that this just happens, she is almost 18 months old and puts everything in her mouth still...I was becoming a germaphobe, washing their hands all the time and not wanting to go out anywhere because it would be too 'germy'.  I now know that it is just that time of the year and that I cant control germs ...well I'm still gonna wash their hands often...but its definitely not worth getting an anxiety attack over (which I had by the way, in Ottawa...had to go to the hospital and everything
...kinda funny now looking back at it).  Life goes on and sleep...well sleep is something I will get lots of when we're done having kids...when they are grown up, when they no longer need their Mommy...and I'm definitely NOT ready for that yet:)

Halloween!!

The kids were excited for Halloween...Grace loves dressing up and Parks loves candy;)  My good friend Julie had a little Halloween party at her house just before Halloween.  The kids had so much fun...the games were really cute, it was a really fun time.  Thanks again Julie for spoiling all those kids:)
We spent Halloween night with the Byam's this year...Parks just loves hanging out with Nash and Drew, so it worked out perfectly.  It was so cute seeing them run up to each house together:)  A BIG change from last year...having to hold Parks' hand (because he was so scared of everything).  Brandon and Olivia showed up with Vida a little later while we were going door to door...it was a nice night and glad we could spend it with good friends:)

At Julie's house...missing 2 little ones, but you get the idea:)

Tinker Bell

Fireman

They were ready to GO! and so cute all dressed up!

Brandon with Vida...both girls were fairies:)