As promised!

As promised here are the pictures from our fantastic family reunion! Abigail just loves her daddy more than anything! Michelle just loves having her daddy home and let me tell you I love having him home too! Shawn Jr and James are doing great since his return! My house has never been more chaotic.

Well tomorrow it may be! James turned 5 on tuesday and Miss Michelle turns 3 on Tuesday! 3! I cannot believe it! I can't believe James is 5! We are having a birthday party tomorrow for the both of them and Michelle starts school on the 20th! Im taking her to school that day. I just have to be there for her. I just need it!

Abigail is just thriving so much! She has finally tipped the scales at 10 pounds 6 ounces. Poor thing got very sick last Wednesday. So badly that we had to take her to the ER and they did everything all the way down to a spinal tap. That is just a horrific sight. After all of that they couldn't find anything so they sent her home. My mommy alarms just told me something was not right so I took her to her Peds office. Thankfully they are open past 5 because they saw her right away and the doctor just listened to what I told her and she admitted her straight into Children's hospital here in San Diego.

That was the most emotional 2 days I have had in a while. Shawn had just gotten home. Abigail was sick and the kids missed me so much. Thankfully my mom was here because I was supposed to get my tubes tied Wednesday but something the night before told me to cancel because she was starting to not feel well. Im just so glad that I did.

She is way better now and all she turned out to have was a VERY bad virus. I couldn't believe it. My friends little girl was admitted the day prior to Abigail and she had the same thing. It's amazing that germs can spread no matter how much of a clean/germ freak you are! Everything gets soaked in lysol every night because I am so afraid of one of my kids having to stay in the hospital. Ever since Michelle got Meningitis even though it was from a surgery I am still freaked out by it.

Well I am going to go to sleep because tomorrow I am going to be a busy mommy! Im so excited though. James invited a ton of friends from school! My next post I will have to tell you about his easter hunt at school today! Too cute!

Home..

Safe and sound back into the arms of his family!

Shawn returned home this weekend from his deployment to Iraq! Let me tell you it was so amazing handing his daughter to him so he could finally meet her. She turned 3 months old today and he got to meet her yesterday. He is definetly fascinated by her.

I woke up at 4 this morning to the 2 of them talking to each other. He doesn't let her cry and had a blast feeding her while I was catching up on some much needed sleep! Luckily the freezer is full of milk for her!

All of the kids are just so darn happy to have their daddy home. Shawn is sleeping right now he had a long three days. They got to North Carolina and boarded a plane only to be told about 30 min into the flight that they had to return to NC because and engine went out. Than they were waiting 3-4 hours for another flight and they had tornado watches... Poor guy just wanted to get home!

So finally about 11 last night he was released to us! Im still a little in shock because it feels so weird to not be doing everything myself and to be honest since my mom has been here I havent done too much other than nurse Abigail. Well im tired so im going to sleep! Ill upload pics when I get them my friend took some for me!

Banners!!!!!!!!

Well I figured I wouldn't blog about the "funny" ones.... Those are a little eh not appropriate for me to type about but I will however send you a picture if you would like to see them :) lol!

But my FAVORITE is one I came up with this morning!!!!!!!


"Starlight, starbright, first star I see tonight... No more sending daddy the sun and saying goodnight."

Now the story behind this is we always send daddy the sun and we say goodnight... Well it just POPPED into my head and I went for it! I love it and it was a mean word to trace! LOL!

Now I have 3 banners to paint and 5 to hang! He's loved can you tell???? Well im bummed because the girls dresses are not going to be here in time. So off to the mall I went to hunt down "that" outfit! Well I went to every store imaginable! Horrible..... Finally I go to Sears... Go figure... There they are cute as can be! Little butterfly dresses! So today I got the finishing touches for them! Still bummed about the others they were WAY expensive!

So by next week (i cant say dates for security reasons) my husband will be home! I will post when he gets here! Please say a prayer that his plane lands in the states with no harm! He has had a few close calls and it scares me. Until he reaches Camp Pendleton I wont sleep well! So PRAY!!! Please! lol!

On another note James and Michelle have a birthday coming up! How exciting! 5 and 3! Michelle will start school on the 20th of next month! Even more exciting! And scary at the same time! How do I do it? Ive been her teacher/mother for almost 3 years... It scares me! Im highly considering homeschooling James next year. California's teacher crisis is horrible and there is no way we can afford to send them all to private school! I wish we could but it just cannot happen! Im determined that my children will not be left behind just because the state we live in is broke! Well im off for the night!

Conversation

HUbby: Hey what are you doing?

Me: Nothing just depressing myself wanting to cry trying to fill out all this stuff for Michelle to go to school and she can't do half of it and it makes me feel like I failed her..

Hubby: Well u didn't fail her look at how much more she can do than others she is a girl she is smart..

Me: I know I know.... But stilll... (interrupted)

Hubby: Ummm do you think you could pick someone up on the grinder (place where they come back and leave from when going on deployment) in a couple of weeks...

Me: Yea sure who and how far do they have to go? Do you think they would mind riding in the van with a bunch of kids??

Hubby: Me

Me: DROPS THE FREAKING PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!! lol!

So there you have it over 30 days early my hubby is coming home from Iraq!!!!!!!! Im very excited and cannot wait!

Calling for a change!!!

I absolutely LOVE my blog layout however sometimes you just get a little bored with them! So if anyone has a good layout site let me know!

Everyone here is doing FANTASTIC!!!!!! Im glad to say I survived Sea World with 4 kids! Hehehehehe! :) It was such an amazing day! Look for a blog of pictures here very soon! I have been so super busy I am lucky to even talk to my husband everyday!

We have Michelle's IEP coming up next week to get her enrolled in school! Way excited! We met the Adaptive PE teacher today along with the Ocupational therapist for the school! Last week we met a possible teacher for Michelle she is just as sweet as can be! She has the most beacutiful class of special children!

Abigail is growing like a weed! For being premature she sure is just as smart as can be! She smiles, gets upset when she wants attention. I can distinguish what cry means what now. Excepts when she dirties her diapers because it is the same as when she is tired. So I check first and then put her down for a nap! She is currently napping in her swing because she had 3 huge blowouts this morning so im sure she is pretty exhausted from those!

James decided to color his mouth purple earlier today. Which unfortunetly for him bought him a nice round of being grounded for the rest of the day. If he wants to do anything its read a book or color with crayons. No more markers for him! I cannot believe he did that! He knows wayyyyyy better than that!

Shawn Jr. is currently passed out on the couch. Oh well I have classes tonight so he is going to daycare so he will be tired when we get home. He is starting to get to that ansy 4 year old stage which tells me he is almost ready for school! YAY!!!!!! But booo at the same time! It has been very nice having him home with me during the day!

My husband is bored as heck and is ready to come home! Im praying that they are going to be able to come home early! I would love to have him home sooner rather than later! Although I understand that if his unit needs to stay they need to stay. It is our way of life. He will have plenty of time to get to know his baby when he comes home! It's definetly going to be very different for him because when he left there were only 3 now there are 4 and one crys alot! lol!

Oh how I am counting down the days until I see him! Not too much longer! I have to say I am one very proud Marine wife! Im just one proud wife! He has come so far in the 6 years that we have been together. Further than most even know. We have both faced some horrible challenges and we have jumped those hurdles higher than I think either of us thought! Im just very grateful that we have such a circle of people that we can trust and count on whenever we need them!

As for me well im having surgery April 1st! Im having my tubes tied. Now before someone gets on their highhorse wondering why please here me out... Michelle has been a HUGE challenge emotionally and physically. Batteling postpartum depression is very hard. Battleing it while pregnant is even harder. I could never go through what I have gone through ever again. Next time may be my breaking point. Im lucky that Abigail was not my breaking point. I love my children but I have decided that if I truely want to have another child what about all the children who are looking for homes??? There are so many in orphanages that truely need someone! So wish me luck! Im very nervous about this surgery!

Well thats all I have time for today! Let me know about those blogsites!

We are standing!!!!!

No offense intended to ANYONE!

Kiss my ass Dr. Yoder! My instincts were right all along!

Ok so you may be wondering standing??? Well Michelle PULLED HERSELF UP TO STAND!!!!

She also had to have her face glued back together because of this! She hit right under her lip on the bookcase and instead of stitches we did glue. Looks like she cut herself! But she is better now! But she is standing!

I was sitting on the couch nursing Abigail and she just pulled herself up to get the tv remote! I am so very proud of her! She is so amazing! She cannot sit but she can pull herself up and crawl..

My advice to any and all of you with a special needs child... Take everything thing they say with a grain of salt, listen to what they have to say, ask questions, do research! NEVER JUST TAKE WHAT THEY SAY FOR THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!

So with that said I totally orered the girls coming home dresses for when their daddy comes home! Im going to get the boys sometime this week! And I ordered his sign tonight! Both of them are going to be here by March. Now I just have to get the rest of the house together! Im working on it!

Hope all is well with everyone!

PS> Kristen! When they mold Cayman's cranial band again tell them to take an exact mold of her shunt and then make sure that they shave VERY well when they fit her again! It will work! That's what they did for Michelle!

Are you ready for some football????!!!!!!!

I may be from AZ but I would love nothing more than to see the Steelers whoop the Cardinals all the way back to Arizona!!!!


GO STEELERS!!!!!!