Monday, July 4, 2011

new kiddos funnies~

J's new way of saying furniture is finature. EX, Mommy is the table finature? Is the wall finature? Are clothes finature? She is tryig to find out what exactly she is allowed to color on and put stickers on. Needless to say, all of the above questions were NO's!
Tonight at dinner both girls broke out singing different STYX song choruses, we had Too Much Time on my Hands, Come Sail Away, and Mr Roboto. The last was teh funniest because neither of them can say Domo arigato, Mr, Roboto. It came out as domo rerrigato mr roboto! And that is all they could sing. I was doing all I could not to crack up laughing at them. I was also a little proud that my girls know STYX!

We are in daily arguements over the littlest things. I can only see these disagreements getting worse as they get older. Oh how I am dreading the teen years . . .

Now to convince them that it IS time for bed, even though it isn't dark out yet (darn summer!) and that they only get 1 book each for bedtime, even though they picked out 4 each (different ones of course!)

~Amanda

Friday, June 10, 2011

I love my 3 year old, I love my 3 year old, I love my 3 year old . . ..

now if I can keep chanting that all day, it might sink in, right?? Don't get me wrong, I really do love J but this morning less than 10 minutes after she woke up she was already in more trouble than she has been in ALL week!!
The girls were watching Super Why and I was in the bedroom trying some stretches to help my back. For some reason it is easier to get up from being on a bed than the floor when you are 24 weeks pregnant!
A comes into the bedroom carrying a very small pair of scissors. 'Mom, J just cut one of the cords to the TV with these!' REALLY!!! And I know you are wondering what she cut, well, lets just say that we wont be using the WII any time soon. She cut the cord that leads from the console to the sensor bar. Pretty much makes the system completely useless!
I sent her to ther room and got the whole story from A. It turns out that A was the one who got the scissors out in the first place and left them where J could find them. AAAUUUGGGGHHHH Children!!!!
I am pretty impressed that I didn't even raise my voice at either of them during the whole exchange. Right after A told me what happened, I sent J to her room, walked in the living room, turned off the TV, and thought for a minute. I then went to the girls room and explained that there would be no more TV today and they would be doing chores to cover the cost of replacing the sensor bar (found for only $7.50 plus shipping and tax) but $14 to a 5 year old and 3 year old is a lot of money and I have a feeling that they will be doing a LOT of chores! Maybe we will get the whole house cleaned up!

~Amanda

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Time marches on . .

and isn't making the day to day any easier! So much has happened since January. We found out that baby Doucet #3 will be making a grand enterance in late September! A and J are thrilled! They keep talking to my belly and asking when the baby will come out.

February was pretty uneventful except for the exhaustion I had from this pregnancy, I remeber being tired with the girls but nothing like this!

We went house hunting in early March. I was away from the girls for 10 days!!! it seemed like and eternity, I dont know how K manages it for weeks at a time! We found a house that will be perfect for our expanding family, now to find financing for it or get the house in Enid sold quick!
We had a garage sale the weekend before the movers came, and it went pretty well! We didnt run an ad in the newspaper but still had pretty steady traffic. ZGot rid of a bunch of stuff that we didn't want to deal with!
Movers came and were too fast for their own good! They were only here for 2 days but we ere still trying to sort as they packed. They probably could have taken quite a bit more but I just didnt have the time or energy to figure out what went and what stayed.
K left for AL at the begining of April and mom and Uncle Brad trekked down to Enid and helped me do some major work on the house. I really wish we would have dons a few of these things 3 years ago . . . oh well, we will do it to the next house! I learned a ton from Uncle Brad, from things in the past to the proper way to paint a rooam and lay tile! I am pretty proud of my newfound handy-mom skills! The girls love having Brad here and I think he enjoyed playing with them too!


We finally saw the pediatric urologist on April 15. J has VUR (vesicoureteral reflux) which is a pretty common issue. It is graded from 1-5 with 5 being the most severe. The problem occurs when she gets bladder infections. With the VUR, there is a reflux of urine from the bladder to the kidney, which isnt a problem if there is no infection present. When there is an infection, the infected urine is heading back up to the kidney and can cause kidney infections and lead to kidney damage. J is currently at a stage 3 bordering on 4. The Dr. gave us 3 options,
1) antibiotics for a year followed by a VCUG to see if the condition has changed, if there is no change, she would have to be on antibiotics for another year followed by another VCUG (this is the bad option)
2) deflux/sting procedure. It is done in the office laporoscopicaly, a bluking gel would be inplanted under the valve that isnt working that would help the valve close properly. This one is done in about 20 minutes and J would be sedated. This has a 80% success rate. (worse option)
3) full blown surgery to reimplant the ureters into the bladder. It would involve a hospital stay of several days and a recovery time of a few weeks but has a 98% success rate. (worst option)

We are currently trying to decide what the best route will be but it is so hard! I dont want my 3 year old to have to go through any of this. I want to move the clock back 6 months to before we knew there was a problem. As of right now J has been on antibiotics for almost 3 months and it is a daily fight to get her to take them. Not sure we can handle another 9 months! Please keep us in your prayers, I am not sure how much more I can take~


~Amanda

Monday, January 31, 2011

Of course it can't be simple!!

Anyone who knows my family knows that we do it the hard way. Things that happen to us are strange/unexplainable and sometime just pain weird. The health issues J has had are no exception.
Starting around this time last year, J started running a really high temp, by high I am talking 104-ish, that would stick around for about 5 days and then it was gone. No other symptoms and A never came down with it. So she continues on with the fevers about 1 time every 6-8 weeks. I finally stopped even bothering with the Dr's because a mom can only hear "If there are no other symptoms, it must be a virus and needs to run its course" before she wants to kick a Dr in the teeth.
We finally got a diagnosis for PFAPA which stands for Periodic Fever Adenitis Pharyngitis Aphthous Ulcer Syndrome. If you would like to know more about this crazy thing, go here
We were given a list of blood work that needed to be done the next time here fever spiked. Of course she hasn't had a fever in 3 months now. Yay but I want to know if this is going to be a problem!

So now onto the current issue that is plaguing our family. A and J have both been having recurring bladder infections. Since June each of them has had 4. If you have never had a bladder infection or a UTI, consider yourself very lucky! They are extremely miserable and much worse for little girls. Back in Sept A was scheduled for a VCUG. We got to the hospital ready to go and found out that the test couldn't be done since she had an infection at the time. Fast forward to last Thursday, J goes in for hers and we find out the she does indeed have a reflux issue, out of the 5 levels of severity, J is at a level 4. At level 5, she would have to have surgery to correct the problem. She now has to be on antibiotics indefinitely.
We got through the procedure ( I felt like the worst mother in the world making her go through the VCUG - it is not a pleasant procedure and she cried for about 20 min straight) and Saturday she spiked a fever of 102 that would go away a little with medicine but not completely.
So off to the ER we went. She had to have blood work run and IV fluids because she was dehydrated. They let us go home with a new antibiotic prescription and said to follow up with the base paediatrician. She woke up this morning with yet another fever! Off to the base clinic we went to have another round of blood work and another UA done. My poor little girl has been through the ringer in the last week!
Basically we are waiting to see if the UA grows the bacteria that causes a bladder infection. Any prayers for J would be greatly appreciated!

~Amanda

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Thursday Fun!

The girls and I made a trip to Leonardo's! It was a lot more fun now that they are older and will at least pretend that they are listening to me. I remember wanting to pull my hair the first time we went. A was 2 and a half and J had just turned 1.
t was a mommy nightmare (probably explains why we didn't go much for the past 3 years!) one kid going 1 way the other hiding in one of the rooms and only 1 mommy to make sure that they were both safe!
Today consisted of LOTS of painting, a little climbing, some grocery shopping and 2 very sad girls when t was time to go home!


After we got home J informed me that she wanted help making a list. Here is how the conversation went . .
J-mommy I want to make a list
Me- What do you want to make a list of?
J- a birthday list for you mommy!
Me- and what do you think I want to put on my birthday lis?
A- STRING!
Me- And why do you think I want string honey?
A- so that you can make beautiful baby bows out of it!

LOVE my girls!!

~Amanda

Friday, January 7, 2011

How cool is this?

I was looking for pictures to use for a header for the blog and came across these pictures . .






This is an 'elephant walk'. The images were taken at McConnell AFB while we were stationed there. I asked K about it and he wasn't 100% positive if he was in the line up but confirmed that he had been a part of one while we were there.
www.af.mil summarized the images as 'Six KC-135 Stratotankers demonstrate the elephant walk formation as they taxi down a runway right behind each other during a generation exercise Aug. 5 at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. The exercise showcased McConnell AFB aircrews' capability to prepare a flight and take off within minutes of being notified of a mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Laura Suttles)'

Pretty impressive, right?

~Amanda

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Where did 2010 go?!?!

Holy Cow!! It is January 5, 2011?!?!? What on earth did I do in 2010 that made it go by in fast forward?

I have an uncle who put the fast forward feeling into perspective for me. (right before he turned 50) When we are younger, say 10 for example, 1 year is 1/10th of our life. At 50, 1 year is 1 /50th of our life. Looking back at the past year at age 10, it seems like much less time has passed because there are only 10 years to look back on (if you can remember back that far) but at 50, you are seeing things from a few more years and it seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye!

Maybe this year I should make a resolution to blink less and maybe I can make time go slower that way??
Every blink brings the kids doing something else, not always a GOOD something else but something just the same!

As we were driving home from school this morning, the girls were in the backseat of the truck playing 'store' (not 100% sure how that was being accomplished from different sides of the truck and strapped into car seats but whatever). I overheard J asking if she could 'buy' something. A informed her that she could and that there was a military discount.
Anyone wonder what I ask at every store we go to???

Here is a look at my favorite images from 2010!




K getting his Masters degree!!


Memorial Celebration for Dad. (Thanks to Megan for the balloon idea)


A and J on J's first day of school at Lighthouse (A started the day before)




Girls on their bikes


K getting A and J ready to Trick or Treat




At the Wing Kids Christmas Party



~Amanda