Before's and hopefully afters to come soon

So I thought I would introduce everyone to our new home. We are so excited to have our own home, not just our own home but in our neighborhood, in fact right next door to the house we are currently renting! We thought it would be a good start to post some before pictures of the house. We are going to be painting the interior all week this week and then next week they will be putting in new carpet and linoleum. Then next month we are putting all new hardware in the kitchen including new faucets and maybe a new sink. Then we will be working on the hall bathroom upstairs. Then we will be working on some curb appeal items. Come spring we will be putting a tough non slip seal on both decks and refinishing the kitchen cupboards too.  We get so lost in Home Depot now. Went in for moving boxes and spent two hours wandering and making our wish lists.

Kitchen

Front room

Robert and Ian's room

Hall bathroom

Hall Bathroom

Hall Bathroom

Master bedroom

Master bath

Master bath

Master bath

Payton's room

Family room

Deck

Katie and Andie's bedroom

Basement/girls bathroom

Laundry room

Kitchen

The house

Have I said I hate moving?!

Our move day draws closer and my uneasiness grows too. I told myself that this time I would pack up early, this time I would be more than ready when the day came, no more last minute packing. HAHAHA! Yet somehow I find myself less than 2 weeks from moving day and still not ready. I look at all we have to pack and just feel overwhelmed with what needs to be accomplished in the next few weeks. We have to finish packing our home, paint the new house, and get the old house cleaned up for new renters. We packed over 20 boxes last weekend and it feels like nothing. I wonder if I am the only one who ever thinks just burn it all and we will start over?! I can't be alone in that right?? So anyway, the preparations continue for the new house. We have picked out colors for all of the rooms, started painting closet doors and trim yesterday, picked out the new carpet and linoleum, and have all the utilities and such ready to be moved. I am excited and nervous to be a home owner. I know that it changes so many things for us and it means so many things for our family. Please continue to keep us all in your prayers as we move forward with our new endeavor.

Also have to give a big mommy brag shout out to my kids. Robert finished his first football season playing for the school undefeated 6-0 :). I am so proud of him and how hard he worked this year. I love seeing him out on the field and doing what he loves so much! Katie had her first concert as an 8th grader in choir. She had a solo and it was beautiful! She also tried out for all district honor choir and made it and tried out for all state honor choir and we should know the results of that by the end of the year. So proud of her and how far she has come with her gift in two years. Andie is reading and doing so well in math that they are talking about phasing her out of special education! What a huge accomplishment for her. We know that dyslexia will be a lifetime challenge for her but I think she has learned some great tools to help her continue to grow. She has worked so hard to get to this point and I am so proud of her and getting to see all of that pay off.

Payton actually made it 10 days seizure free this month. Talk about a huge milestone. I don't remember the last time we went 10 days without an episode. Praying that next time she will make it even more. She has also started pulling herself to standing using the couch. We keep hoping by the end of the school year she will take some steps. Please keep praying for her to keep blowing the Dr's away with all of her accomplishments.

We were denied again for life insurance for Payton. We have tried everything and every way to try and get her covered and no one will let her on. We even tried adding her on to my company policy and they said no. This is a real issue for our family and we just aren't sure what we need to do next. We have been proposed the option of doing a prepay for any final expenses but for some reason that idea is very hard for me. It just makes the inevitable more concrete for us with every monthly payment we make towards that. Please pray for us in this space to that something will fall into place or for peace for me with the prepayment option.

Moving on up :)

I know I know I haven't posted since the end of June...what is my problem right?! Well things have been pretty busy but still no excuse.

We took vacation to South Dakota for the 4th of July, and it was amazing. So much fun just to get away from everything and spend some time with the kids in the great outdoors. I love camping with my family. No technology, no time constraints, just us and lots of laughs. We went to Mt Rushmore and it really is an awe inspiring thing to see in person. We also spent a day at the Crazy Horse Memorial as well. The kids actually enjoyed the day at Crazy Horse more than Rushmore. I think the fact that it is still actively under construction is really interesting and stirs up lots of questions for kids. Plus they each got a rock that was blasted off the mountain to take home :). I must say someone at the Crazy Horse is a genius. We paid money to come in and haul off their debris LOL! We also spent a gorgeous day in Custer state park. Driving the wildlife loop was amazing. I couldn't believe that the buffalo got so close you could touch them, if you would have been crazy enough to do that!

In August we went to Chicago for the Aicardi Syndrome Family Conference. This is one of the most amazing weekends we get to be a part of. I wish we could do these more than just once every two years. The time we get to spend with other families who are walking through this same journey is priceless. I love meeting all of the girls and getting to talk to the parents. The internet is great for connecting the families but there is nothing like getting to speak face to face and share those hugs and smiles together. We also took home some great information and new ideas from the classes and seminars. Nothing like learning from parents who have been there and done that. Of course we made our way to downtown Chicago for an afternoon and enjoyed some real Chicago style pizza and of course the kids had to go to the park to see the Cloud sculpture (or the big bean as the kids called it). I have never see kids more excited to see a sculpture. They said it wasn't a trip to Chicago if they didn't.

So the school year has already started and with that comes lots of new friends, activities and of course stress. Football season started at the end of August and that means lots of running around and hard work for Robert. Weeknight games now mean staying up until 10:30 just to get homework finished, but he knows bad grades means no sports.  So far we have had an undefeated season, but our toughest team is still to come. Robert is the starting right tackle and really rocking it this year. He has found his strength and his spot on the team and continues to get better with every game.

My beautiful Katie has continued to grow into such a beautiful young lady. She has been working so hard to achieve nothing but straight A's this year. She has made a promise to herself to receive the highest honor roll award at the end of the year this year and is well on her way. She toured the Colorado Springs Early College Program campus this fall and has decided that is where she would like to attend High School next year. I can't believe I am a year away from having a freshman in High School! She has also asked to start taking archery lessons. Not sure where I am going to find that at but I will keep looking until I do.

Andie has moved on to 5th grade and is excelling! She is doing so well in conquering Dyslexia. I am so proud of the hard work she puts in and the progress she is making. She has not quite hit her grade level at this point but I know she will before the end of her fifth grade year. She has made so many new friends in the neighborhood and I love watching all of them grow together. It brings me so much joy to watch our house fill with her friends that she is getting to grow with and learn with. These are the connections that she will hopefully have for a lifetime. Which brings me to some really big news.....

We are buying a house!!! We have decided to buy the house next door to us!! After our dear neighbor Ron passed away his wife Joni decided to sell the house. We prayed on it and asked God for direction and feel that He has placed this blessing before us. The house is bigger than the one we are in now and of course the best part it keeps us in the neighborhood we love and lets the kids go to the schools they love. It feels so wonderful to know that they will not have to move again, that they can grow up in this neighborhood. We will be moving in on November 1st, after new carpet and linoleum are installed and we paint the interior. Thank you God for the abundant blessings you continue to pour out on our family.

One thing leads to another :) And a birthday too!

Can you believe that this last week our beautiful little girl turned 4! Seems like it was just yesterday she was born. These last four years have been a roller coaster ride to say the least but not a ride I would trade for the world. She has blessed us all, and anyone who is lucky enough to know her in so many ways. Happy Birthday to my sweet princess warrior Payton!

We are going to be spending lots of the month of July on vacations. We are heading to Mount Rushmore to go camping next week (shhhhhhhh the kids don't know :) ). Then on July 24 we will be heading to the Aicardi Family Conference in Chicago. Thanks to the generosity of so many friends and family that have helped to make this trip a reality for our family. It just makes me want to cry thinking about it. 

Payton also has lots of Dr's appointments and tests coming up. She has to go back to the orthopedic Dr since her scoliosis has gotten worse in the last year. So much so that it is causing a lump in her back. Hopefully we can get her fitted for a brace and get her straightened back out. We are working on standing more with her in hopes that will straighten her out too. She is also going to have a sleep study done. They believe that Payton has apnea and we need to figure out what kind she has and how bad it is. We also got the Dr to write out a prescription for diapers for Payton. Now that she is 4 insurance will pay for her diapers. That will be so nice not to have that expense every month. They also wrote out a prescription/recommendation for a sleep safe bed for Payton. Insurance should pick up the cost for that as well since it is the safest option for Payton. Typical twin size beds are not safe for her and a hospital bed is an even worse idea. We see the cardiologist next week for the narrowing that they found in her pulmonary artery as well as the CT scan revealed that the stricture in her throat is several blood vessels wrapping around her esophagus and squeezing in on it. The cardiologist might be able to fix this for her but we won't know until next week. 

On another happy note Ryan will be starting his CNA class on June 30th! This means that he will finish by the end of July and should begin receiving pay for taking care of Payton in August. So glad that the state we live in has this program for families like ours. It has been a struggle being a single income family for the last four years since one of us has to be home to be with Payton. This will take so much pressure off of us and allow us some breathing room with our finances and best of all the option to start saving again :). 

OOOOOHHHH I almost forgot I am so proud of my wonderful son Robert! He has been chosen to be an ambassador at his school for the coming school year. This means he has to go back a few days before his friends and he will be showing the incoming 6th graders around and making sure that they are doing well the first few weeks and mentor them through the transition from elementary to middle school. He is so excited to get to do this for these kids. I love the heart of service that God has given him. He is always ready to be there for others. What a blessing he is!

Testing 1...2...3

Next week I will be out of town in San Francisco for a conference for most of the week, I have never been away from the family by myself for so long before. It's going to be a challenge for me but I know it's going to be good too! I have never been to S.F. so this will be quite the adventure! Hopefully the city can handle me :).

We have gotten Payton's CT scan scheduled for the morning of June 3rd at 6:30 am. I guess they don't typically do CT scans with anesthesia but that is what the Dr ordered for Payton and that made the scheduling a little tricky. Payton has to have a high risk anesthesiologist and those take a little longer to get in with. It's got me a little nervous since we have had quite a roller coaster ride about this whole thing so far. There is part of me that just is ready to get a good and final answer and hopefully this is the last test they will need for that. Please keep us in prayer as we head into the procedure on that morning that the Dr's will get what they need and we don't have to do any more testing.

Flea Market Game?!

Oh Boy! We had so much fun today! We took the kids to the Flea Market and decided to play the Flea Market Game. I found this idea on Pinterest (yes I am an addict, there needs to be a 12 step program with all the details on Pinterest!!) Everyone was given only $10 to make the best deals of the day. The kids learned what a good price was and how to barter/haggle a little bit to get the better price. We decided everyone was a winner with all of our great finds and that all winners need Dairy Queen blizzards! What a great way to spend our day, plus we had some great friends join us. Then we headed over to the library and got some books to get us through the next few weeks, of course the kids will be ready to take theirs back in 2 days. Got home and has some brats, with sauerkraut of course. Now it's time to chill with a drink in my hand and watch a movie with my amazing husband. These kinds of days where we can just be like any other family for just a few hours are priceless. For more great ideas on fun things to do with the family and great meal ideas follow me on Pinterest @ http://www.pinterest.com/tanyaj122/ . We are at a crossroads in our lives and to just take the time to enjoy these little moments is an awesome gift from an amazing God.

Guess everyone makes mistakes

So after Payton had her upper GI done I had told you all that the Dr had said that he didn't see the growth in Paytons throat and that it wasn't vascular. Sadly we received a phone call yesterday evening from the GI saying that they made a mistake and that they believe it to be a vascular anomaly. This means that the steps we had planned on going forward to dialate her throat are right now a no go. She is schedule to have a CT scan done in the next few weeks and we will see what that looks like. This should give the Dr's a better idea of what it is connecting to. If that test comes back that it is vascular than we cannot dialate or remove it since that is just to dangerous. That would mean some more testing to see if this is something that is growing and changing. If it is obviously we would have to start looking at some other options for her as far as feeding goes. We were told when Payton was very small that children born with her type of heart condition often have other issues with arteries and vessels but you just have to wait to find them most of the time. Looks like we have made our first discovery.

I have to admit I was pretty upset yesterday evening. I know that Dr's are only human and just as capable of making mistakes as I am. I am just struggling right now with the roller coaster ride of ups and downs we have had in the last few weeks. I know that He has this all in His capable hands. I have prayed for God to take this away from her, but also that not my will but His will be done through all of this. I ask that you please continue to pray for all of us and for the Dr's as we go forward from here.