Is it even possible?

I woke up this morning thinking, "Can she really be FIVE?" Then it hit me, yes, she IS FIVE! Where has all the time gone? It seems like just yesterday it was this...

It was 5:55 pm on March 24, 2003 that my beautiful first daughter was born. After 12 hours of laboring she finally came and was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. She has brought me so much joy, pride, love, and a new understanding of what TRUE LOVE is. She has made me so proud and I look forward to all the years to come. She is growing into such a beautiful liitle girl. It all started like this

Only an hour old to...

One Year old to...

Two Years old to...

Three Years Old to...


Becoming the Best BIG SISTER ever to...

Four Years Old to...

and finally where we are today...FIVE.
Madeline Paige,
You have made me and your daddy so proud in so many ways. You bring such a sunlight in our lives. I thank God daily for you. I look forward to forever with you watching you grow into a young lady, young woman, and finally an adult. But for now, lets keep the promise we made years ago, You quit growing and stay just as you are. I love you my beautiful blue eyed girl. Happy Birthday Sweet Girl.

Love,
Mommy

We had a Great TIme!!

We are back from our Spring break vacation with our neighbors. We all had a great time together. We left last Saturday morning (early) and headed for Jasper, Texas. This is where are neighbors moved from. I went back in October with Kristie so I knew what to expect. It is a very small town. It just so happened to be the weekend of the annual Azala festival so of course we had to go. They had lots of booths, bounce houses, petting zoo, etc. We then spent the rest of the weekend at Kristie's dads house. They live on a lot of land and have horses and cows. The kids played outside the entire weekend. All was great until Sunday. Kristie and I took her youngest daughter Rachel to the ER because she broke her arm. She had a bicycle accident and got her arm ran over by another bike. She got put into a half cast and was told to take it easy.
We then headed for Galveston on Monday morning. We got there at about noon. We got to ride the ferry over to the island. The kids always love this because they get to feed the seagulls bread. We had a great time while in Galveston. We spent Tuesday at Schlitterbauhn and had a blast. We spent Wednesday in Kemah, Texas. It was a really neat area. They have a huge boardwalk that has rides, games, tons of food, etc. We were exhausted after spending 6 hours there. We got some bad news from Brad's mother this night. One of the Muellers dearest friends, Sue McCauley passed away unexpectedly. Sue was a very dear lady. She threw us a shower when Brad and I got married, and when I was pregnant with Madeline. She was always getting neat things for the girls. She will be dearly missed. Thursday, my neighbor, her two oldest kids, her mother in law, and I went to Houston to go shopping ALL DAY. We left all the little ones with the men to fly kites on the beach, build sand castles, and splash in the water. When we got home that evening Madeline was so sun burned but had a great day. Friday all the men and kids (minus Macy) went and played mini golf and had an Easter egg hunt. Kristie, Macy, and I went shopping again. We packed up Saturday morning and drove the 5hours back home. It was so good to be home. We had so much fun and enjoyed every minute of our vacation but it's always good to be home too. Thanks to Steve and Rayla for keeping the dogs until Wed. and then Kasey for keeping them the rest of the time. I'm thinking about you Rayla.
We had a great Easter. It was just us so we went to church and then came home and Kristie and I cooked a lunch and then the kids hunted more eggs. It was fun to get to have Easter this year. Last year, I had just gotten home from spending 4 days in the hospital with my gall bladder surgery. This is going to be another big week. Madeline's birthday party is this weekend. Lots of preparing to do for that. Here are a few pictures from our vacation.

Our Family on the Ferry Ride to Galvston.

All the kids( minus Macy) in Kemah on the boardwalk.

Our Family in Kemah.

Two beach bums.

Beach View in Galveston.

Madeline and Macy before church Easter morning.

2 calls later here's what we know...

My doctor and Macy's doctor called within 5 minutes of each other. They must have known I was getting antsy. My doctor said that the cat scan showed that I have mild maxillary sinus disease with partial obstruction of the left side. So what does this mean? That I will be on an potent antibiotic that is usually prescribed for 5 days and I will be taking it for 14 days. If you know me, I'm not good at taking medicine everyday but I will to get rid of this constant pressure in my head. I will then check back with my doctor to see how I am feeling. If no relief or little relief I will come back in and decide what step we will be taking next. Hopefully this medicine will do it's job and that will be it.
Now for Macy girl. They have gotten all but one test back, her urine culture test. The preliminary test showed no white blood cells which in turn means no infection. All her stool samples came back negative and normal. The blood test all came back normal and the celiac test was negative too. They did a malabsorption test and it was negative as well. So what are we going to do? I told her that Macy refused to drink the next step formula so she said to continue with the regular soy milk. In 2 weeks she wants me to try to put her on whole milk again with supplementing 2 pediasures during the day. She wants to see how she will tolerate that this time. I hope it goes well. Also she goes to the doctor in a month and a half for her 2 year check up and we will of course check her weight again then. If she still is not gaining we will go see a Gastrointeroligist and have a sweat test done to try to determine what is going on. So please continue to pray that she is healthy even if she isn't growing. I wouldn't mind having a petite child. Not that Madeline is huge by ANY MEANS. So that's what we know. I'm now off to continue packing but before I do I will post some pics of my sweet girls. Enjoy and enjoy this lovely weather we are having.

Macy in all her jewelry.

Madeline teaching Macy the lacing cards

What a great sister. They play so well together, for the most part.

This is Madeline being snow white.

Straight from the bath...I love a clean baby.

Love the blue eyes...Can you tell she's yelling, CHEESE at me?

Madeline trying to be all cute and has no idea she has a sponge animal on her head.
Hope you all have a great Spring Break. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures from our vacation to share when we get back.

A Whirlwind of a week and it's already Thursday?

Wow...I can't believe it is already Thursday. We are leaving in 1 day for a week long vacation and I still have NO ONE packed. I have however, started doing the laundry. It has been a VERY BUSY week. I felt like most of my time has been spent sitting in a doctors office waiting room, in an exam room, in a lab, oh wait...that's exactly what it has been. UGH!! I'm so ready for a vacation, even though the girls and I just got back from a mini vacation to Oklahoma. I think we are going to have a blast in Galveston. Even though the water is too cold to get in we can still play in the sand, go sightseeing, etc. We are going to Schlitterbaun one day so that should be lots of fun. Now for the real reason you came here...My sweet baby Macy,even though she's not much of a baby anymore I still like to think of her as one. I was FINALLY able to get all the stool samples needed to do the tests. I will be happy to not have to do that again...EVER!! I took her in yesterday afternoon and they catheterized her, which she was not happy about at all. She was a trooper and even got to get the puple (aka purple) sucker. They had also gotten back some of the blood tests from the day before. My doctors colleauge came in and went over the results with me (my doctor doesn't work on Weds.) and said everything came back normal but there was one that was a little high. Her BUN test, for those of you that know your medical stuff you may know what that is. I'm not real sure but she said my doctor would get with me when all the test came in and talk them over with me which I am hoping will be tomorrow since it wasn't today. They had not gotten the celiac test back and 1 of the fecal tests back. They did test her stools for blood and they all came back negative. Sorry for those of you who don't like hearing about poop tests. So we'll continue to wait. Macy was doing a lot better as of yesterday with her diarrhea and then today it all was back and her poor bottom is red and VERY irritated. I hope we figure something out soon because this poor child has been through enough the past two weeks with her poor bottom. As for me, I have not heard anything back on my cat scan. I called the doctor today and she had not gotten the results back. Like I said before we wait and hopefully hear something tomorrow. I'm off to fold the clothes in the dryer that just buzzed. Good Night!

What we know so far....

We went yesterday morning and had the blood test done on Macy. TWO sticks later, they THINK they got enough blood to do the tests and if not they will call me back to come back in...GREAT! I then headed to my cat scan appointment. I went to the doctor Monday night because I have been having SEVERE headaches and lots of sinus pressure in my head and in my ears. I thought I had an infection but turns out that everything was clear but she could see and feel the pressure. She decided to send me to get the cat scan to see why my sinuses aren't draining and to see if there are any polyps in there. I don't know what that means but I guess they will call me and let me know. I then took the urine sample we got from Macy the night before and took it the doctors office. Her pediatrician called back to tell me that there were white blood cells in her urine and that they wanted me to bring her in today to get a catheter put it to get a clean sample to test again. She said children that have frequent Urinary Tract Infections (Macy has had none that we know of) but anyhow, that can alter their growth. Ok, but it still isn't explaining the diarrhea. I asked her when we would hear something back on her blood test and she said maybe tomorrow but that she would check back with me on Thursday for sure. I will let you all know as soon as I know something. Keep praying for us. I'm still having a lot of my back pain too. I am going tomorrow to get a message so hopefully that will help relieve some of the discomfort I am having. I still need to start packing and getting us ready for our vacation that we all need. Check back for an update...

What's wrong with Macy?

Ok, so we went to the doctor today to have Macy's weight checked and she weighed 23.5 lbs. Not much at all, I know. I think my 8 month old nephew has already outgrown her. She had lost weight since her last check. It's very frustrating because you try to do all these things right and she still isn't gaining. Another problem we have been facing with her is bouts with diarrhea. She has been having them off and on for several months. It's no wonder she doesn't gain. I mentioned these concerns along with a few others with my doctor and she has decided to run a number of tests on Macy. First we are in the process of trying to collect a urine sample, I have to get about 4 different stool samples (not my favortie thing to do..AT ALL), and then they are going to run a series of blood work tests on her. They are going to test her thyroid, test her for celiac (since it runs in Brad's family), a metabolic tests, and a few others. We will go get this done tomorrow and hopefully hear something back before we leave on vacation this weekend. I'll keep you posted. Her doctor has also told me to put her back on infant formula (Next-Step Soy) for now at a 24cal count. Hopefully doing all of these things we will figure something out. If we don't find something out through these tests and the diarrhea continues we will be sent to a GI specialist for further testing. Please pray that it is something minor (like she's just going to be petite but healthy) or that it's something we can fix easily. I know that God is in control. I'll keep you all posted with the test results as soon as I hear something back. Till then.....

It was a beautiful spring.....SNOW!!!

Yes, you are seeing that right. We got snow in Texas yesterday. Four inches where we live. The day started gloomy and sprinkling. I took the girls to school and started running my errands. I was at Grapevine Mills Mall when about 11:30 Brad calls and said it was snowing at home...Neat, I thought. When much to my surprise about an hour later I come to the exit at the mall to see that it is sleeting and snowing...OH, WOW!! I jump in the car and head to pick up the girls early before it gets any worse out. I have to say, I'm glad we don't get this kind of weather very often because Texas drivers cannot drive on it. It took me almost hour to get to the girls school and it's only a 15 minute drive from the mall normally. UGH!! I made it, picked them up, and dropped them off at home with Brad. I then took my neighbor, she is too scared to drive on this, to pick up all her kids at school. We made it home in one piece and the kids were dying to get out and play. I found Macy sitting at the window saying Snow, Snow! So we got them all bundled up and ventured out to play. I still don't understand how I enjoyed playing in the snow for so long when I was a kid. It was freezing and wet. We had a snow ball fight with the neighbors kids, made snow angels, and of course, built a snowman. Macy enjoyed watching us all play while she sat with her snowball and ate. We played for about 30 minutes and then the whining, "I'm cold, I'm wet, I want to go in." started. So we peeled off the layers and sat by the fire to warm up. Macy however, did not want to take her snow stuff off, especially the gloves. We had a good time. Here are some pictures of our fun day in the snow and a few from today.


Madeline's ready to go.

Sweet Macy could hardly move.


Our "blizzard" like conditions.

Madeline playing.

Macy putting her feet in the snow for the first time, ever.

Ready, Set, Go!!

Side view of the snow man Colby (neighbors son, Madeline, and I built)

This is from this morning. When I went and got Macy up this morning and opened her blinds and she saw the snow still. She held her hands up like to put the gloves on and said, Mae, Mae bite. She wanted to go out and get more snow to eat.
Madeline has already asked to go play in the snow this morning. It's such a mess with all the wet clothes, and the layers and layers you have to put on them. Now I know how my mom felt. Maybe this afternoon when it warms up she can go out and play. Off to start cleaning and organizing closets. Brad is actually going to attempt to go into work today. He seems to finally be feeling better. See you all soon....

We're back!!!

We made it back to Texas yesterday. For those of you who don't know, the girls and I went to Oklahoma for a little "get away". We were there for 10 days. We had such a great time. We spent half of the time with Brad's family and the other half with mine. We were busy the entire time we were there. We brought Brad's cousins little girl, Brooklin, who is 3 back with us to Oklahoma. She was visiting her MeMe (Brad's aunt) in Temple, Texas and her family lives in Tulsa so I brought her back with me. I got a taste of what it'd be like to have three kids, girls at that...OH MY!! We had fun. We took all the girls to the Jasmine Moran Children's Musuem in Seminole, Oklahoma. It was a lot of fun. Madeline was the pro because she had been there before. We spent lots of time shopping, playing with my nephew Austen, and playing with all the family. We also got to go to the Tuttle Tiger Safari. Another very fun place to go. Madeline had a blast and even held a baby alligator. She thought she was big stuff. Macy loved feeding the big turtles lettuce and petting the baby kangaroo telling it, "Night, Night!" Brad came down this past weekend and went to the OSU/Nebraska game with his dad. He fell ill on Sat. evening and spent most of Sunday in bed. I made him go to the doctor this morning to find out he has the flu. UGH!! I've have baracaded him into the bedroom and follow behind him with a can of lysol. The doctor and the girls pediatrician gave us all prescriptions for Tamaflu. Hopefully the rest of us don't come down with it. Hope you all are healthy and staying warm. Where did all that nice 70 degree weather go? Sorry no pics this time. I'll post some with the next post. I'm tired and lazy.