So much fun and so exciting with every new day!

I never forgot how much I love having a baby, if I wouldn't get any older and if I had endless amounts of money I would have lots of babies. I just can't think of anything in the world that brings me more joy, I love all babies. But, I can't even think of a way ot express just how much I love and adore my own baby girls, all three of them. Right now, with all the new things Lindsey is doing and as exciting as it is I just can't help but think years down the road how crazy she would think I was if she was able to remember how neat I think it is with all the little things she does now. Right now she is pulling herself up so that she is sitting straight up in her high chair and plays with toys on the tray. I just started feeding her some first foods (applesauce, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, green beans and her favorite banannas) and it amazes me how she just started eating it as if she had been eating forever. She never gagged or pushed it out of her mouth because of the new texture, etc. She just loves her food! The last couple days she has decided she wants to eat her food twice a day so that is what she gets. My other two didn't eat solids until closer to 6 months and it was something we had to ease into so this is kind of a new experience. Also, would you believe she is already waking up with a dry diapy? I think she will probably be an easy potty trainer. Carley was the same way, but I didn't notice that she didn't wet her diaper until she was about 6 months. Both the older girls were pretty easy to potty train and we did it relatively early - Carley just before she turned 1 and Emily at about 13 months. Hopefully it will be the same with Lindsey and I think it will. :) I am also shocked at how fast this little girls is growing. I mean I realize the grow quick, but she is already growing out of her size 6 month clothes! The main thing I am the most thankful for right now is that she is not showing any signs of the CF and I am just hoping it continues that way for the rest of her long life! So, yeah I'm a little giddy over my girls, but that's my job and my whole reason for living so accept me for me. :) hahahaha

Happy New Year everyone!

Where does the time go?

I had so many plans to get things finished up over this Christmas vacation or more politicaly correct "Winter Break" from school. We are working around the house whenever we are home, of course I don't get as much as I would like to do done between the babies, making meals, etc. but I'm trying. :) I just don't get enough done to be satisfied at the end of the day with my accomplishments. I have decided I'm going to start making myself a list to work from - I know I'm slow at catching on to stuff like that!LOL I received an ipod touch for Christmas (I love it!) and I am just going to put my list right on there and starting using it daily. There has to be some way for me to be more organized in getting stuff done that "needs" to be done instead of always just catching up and settling for how I want things done. Maybe with my new habit of keeping and following a list of things to do I will actually end up with some time to play in my craft room a little more often. So, I guess since it's so close to the new year you could say that's my New Years Resolution. I don't usually make a resolution at the new year because I never follow through. But, I am going to. With the baby, the kids and their school, sports, friends, and so on I have got to be more organized.

That's sums it up, my New Years Resolution is to keep a list and work from it AND to find more time to play with my crafting goodies- holding my sweet baby is the most relaxing to me but I think a little "paper craft therapy" will do me some good. Let's face it the "retail therapy" I love so just isn't a good idea right now.

What's your New Years Resolution(s)? Do you usually stick to it if you make one?

Merry Christmas!!!

Stampin Up Valentine's Special coming up...

Well, I know how quickly Christmas has arrived for me, I'm sure Valentine's day will arrive even quicker! Stampin' Up has a new set and a special bundle price (20% savings) for a Valentine set, available to order December 23- January 31. If you would like to view it, click here If you would like to order on December 23 or after please click here and choose order product then go to "promotions" or enter item 2045483 in the search field.

Also, Gift Certificates now available!

One little girls wish...

This article was brought to my attention on a post at pccrafter and it really touched my heart. I can't imagine being here and it is my biggest fear in my life - one of my kids getting so ill. This is the only thing I could imagine when Lindsey was diagnosed with CF, fortunately and with all the hope & faith I can have she will never get so sick. With the way she is thriving now, and from what little they know about the disease we have every hope that she will lead a long and normal life...

Please, if you have a minute or two and a stamp to spare then make or buy a card to send this little girl and say a prayer for her and her family. Then give your baby(s) a snuggle and be grateful for their health--no matter how big they are.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28302834/

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Isn't she getting big?

Lindsey is already 3 1/2 months old! She is just an amazing little human being and I can't imagine starting my dy without her presious smile and cute little coos, I even love all her bubbly drool!

Our Weekend

Wow, it's only been two days but it seems like it's been a whole week! Starting Friday night we started getting ready to leave early in the morning Saturday down to Santa Ynez for Carley's soccer tournament. After school I had to rush around and get Carley some sweats (she's outgrown all of the ones she had), buy stuff for a macaroni salad that I had a feeling was a waste but did what the "team mom" asked of us - I hope she is never on another one of our soccer teams and I knew that within the first few minutes after we met her at the beginning of the season. Anyway, we were going to head down Friday night so that Carley could get a good nights rest before her games. But, once we were home and preparing we knew she'd get more rest here at home...

Okay, Saturday arrives bright and early in the morning! Luckily everone wakes up in a good mood. We are on our way and arrive about an hour early, that's okay though because I hate being late to anything. We get out and walk around a bit to check the place out and it doesn't take long to figure out it is waaay too cold for the baby, it might not have been so bad had there not been that icy cold wind. So, I take the baby back to the car and about 1/2 hour later Emily joined us, feet soaked and freezing! Cris comes back between games and I asked him to take us to our hotel to check in and of course he wasn't happy, but I did mention it might be better for me and the two girls to stay home since it was suppose to rain anyway. So we head to Buellton where our reservations were and decide as we are going through Solvang that it would be way nicer to stay there so we spotted a cute little hotel "The Royal Copenhagen Inn". I checked us in and Cris dropped us off and headed back to the soccer fields. Unfortunately the girls lost all three of their games and so they didn't have to play on Sunday. The whole pot luck deal that the team mom/manager planned out was a total waste just like I thought it would be. I could just kick myself for worrying about it and not just buying a cheap container of macaroni salad! She went way out on a limb and brough bread! Some people brought lunch meats another Mom made some spaghetti --nobody brought eating utensils or condiments to put on the sandwiches! I almost brought mayo, mustard, and cheese because I didn't recall seeing it on the list and I thought about bringing plates and utensils too but decided since this lady has tried to micromanage the way everyone comes to games and leaves that she had it covered!LOL NOT!!! So, 1/4 of the macaroni salad was eaten - did I mention she said to make sure there was enough for 30-40 people? Nobody put it back in the cool bag or on ice or anything so it just went to waste. Again, she said to bring enough tomatoes for 30-40 people - this time I didn't listen to her and I only cut up 3 tomatoes. They also went to waste! It's probably a good thing I couldn't stick around because I probably wouldn't have been able to bite my toungue as I have done all season. I had already planned on bringing our own food, I should have just opted out of her "pot luck" and followed through with my plans. It would have cost me less and Carley would have eaten better than she did I'm sure. We ended up heading back home around 9:00 p.m. Saturday night because Emily wasn't feeling good. I think she's getting indigestion or something because her tummy hurts and then her throat hurts -sometimes she throws up too. She seems fine soon if I give her a tums or after she gets sick. We have an appointment at the pediatrician on Friday for this problem...

Sunday, we went and seen Santa! Lindsey has started wanting only me to hold her and definately not wanting Strangers to hold her. She loves everyone and smiles at everyone but fusses when someone else holds her now and then. But, she seemed to like Santa. Carley handed her to him and she just layed her little head down and I thought she was going to go to sleep!lol Emily sat on his lap and chatted with him for a few minutes--all she asked for was a new Nintendo DS w/ a camera on it or a Gameboy! She sure makes Santa's job tough! He told her he thought he was out of those already but if he could find one at his toy shop he would definately leave one for her. Good answer Santa! I made Carley sit on his lap too and she jsut giggled that giddy little girl laugh and blushed a ton because everyone in line was watching her.

I think we also finished up our Christmas shopping, just gotta get some stocking stuffers and that's it. :) Oh yeah, I bought Lindsey a new pair of shoes today - they are so cute! Here's a picture of her new shoes and a pic of the girls with Santa... Have a great week everyone!

My new job!

Well kinda... I just signed up to be a demonstrator for Stampin Up! I'm so excited about this and ready to give it as much time as I can, it's something I love and my goal is to help supplement our household income. If you love rubberstamping or scrapbooking or if you are looking for a new hobby right now would be a great time to shop with Stampin Up as they have a promotion going on that includes FREE SHIPPING on orders over $70 plus they also have 10% off retiring stamps. If you want to check out the great products, please visit my new website
http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/mommystamps ...

I do remember how to use my Cricut!

Last night I decided I would just see if I even remembered how to use my Cricut... I'm getting warmed up, and really need to get in the groove of things. I made a couple little cards and a couple bandaid tins. They are kinda plain jane but it's a sstart and I enjoyed myself while making them. Just thought I would share... I got a request from Em to make a couple more bandaid tins for the school librarian and the cafeteria ladies so I will try to get that done in the next couple days as well, or maybe get her to help me. :)

Lindsey Ann

I think we may have a little red head on our hands! Lindsey's roots looked very light blonde like Emily's hair color but as she gets more hair it's looking like she will be a little red head. I think it's cute, she's just in her jammies here as she was hanging out in her high chair while I made breakfast this morning. I also tried to give her salt in a bottle of breast milk but she just wasn't having it! I don't know what I'm going to do, I guess just keep trying. I hate to just rub salt on her gums several times a day until we get 1/8 tsp into her but we may have to seeing as salt is medicine to her. Any suggestions are welcome!

A visit to Michaels for the first time in a loooong time

I hesitated to go in because I didn't print out a coupon - I hate that you have to print their coupons now! But, I went in anyway because I wanted to look for some paper for cards-- As if the two 5 gallon totes full of paper that are sitting in my craft room aren't enough.lol Well, it was my lucky day! scrapbook paper was 40% off and stamp supplies were 30% off so I bought a few more ink pad colors. I wish I could have spent more but like most people, we have had to cut back dramaticly and I probably shouldn't have been in there at all. After I take Lindsey to the pediatrician tomorrow I am going to come home and finish painting my bathroom and then I'm headed to the craft room... I may not make it there until Saturday but I will make it there.hehehe

Have a great weekend everyone!

What a day... It wasn't too bad

We had our second visit to the childrens hospital and it wasn't too bad. For being a place I would rather not go to, it really is a nice place full of very nice people who you can tell really care about their jobs and what they do.

We seen a different doctor this time and while he didn't give us any great news (I was still hoping for some kind of miracle) he didn't give us bad news either. Right now Lindsey looks great and everyone that came in to meet her and the rest of the family were very happy to see how healthy she is. They all had to look at her growth chart and comment how well she is doing. We met the dietician, one of the social workers, both CF nurses, physical therapist and another lady who works in another therapy lab where Lindsey will go to first before the CF clinic to check her breathing. That wont start happening until she is a little older though since she can't follow their instructions. So, we met most of the people we will see at each CF clinic visit. We will go back in two months...

We learned how to do the physio therapy with a little soft cup thing that you hold between your fingers and pat on Lindsey different places on her chest and back. We don't have to do it regular as of right now, but they wanted us to know how to do it in case she gets a cold or other respirtory infection. We talked with the dietician and learned that even if she still isn't showing any symptoms when she begins eating solid foods she will still need a high calorie diet. We will also continue to give her salt everyday. She will have another sweat test either at her next visit in February or in between that visit and the following one. Hopefully she will continue doing great and the doctor said if that is the case after she turns 1 we may only have to go to the clinic once a year, but they want to see her a minimum of 6 times until she turns 1 or more if she gets any infections, etc. It is all looking good right now though. Right now our goal is to keep her growth above the 50th percentile and stay on top of our doctor visits so if anything does develop they will catch it right away.

Carley & Emily were very well behaved during the whole visit. I think it's important for them to be involved in the visits so they can learn with us and be reassured that their baby sister is doing good and has a bright future ahead of her.

Thanks for being a part of our life and thank you a million times over for your prayers for our sweet girl.

This upsets me...

I have been trying to stay positive about this whole cystic fibrosis with my baby girl but you know, something as tiny as a few words sure can get me sick to my stomach very quickly! Everyday I am searching for information, resources, education, anything that will help me understand this disease more. I don't think I will ever understand it, or why it's happening to my sweet girl! I signed up for a newsletter from a website that is informative and even helps with checklists to print out to help know what questions to ask our cf specialist. I can't read enough about cf, even though some of it is repeated over and over again I still learn something new everyday. Today in that newsletter it said this in the midst of the information I was reading about why it's so important to start early treatments, "you should know that cystic fibrosis can harm the lungs even if few or no symptoms are apparent. This is because the cycle of cystic fibrosis progression may have already begun before cystic fibrosis symptoms are noticed, and damage could possibly occur even though it is not seen or felt."... Now that is the words that really upset me tonight. Obviously this is what they have been getting at with our doctor visits. This also raises the question again about whether or not we need to have the other girls tested. Well, actually it gives me the answer - but I don't feel like I can handle doing that right now.

I have convinced myself that if Lindsey has no signs or symptoms then she is just fine. Now I am worried that destruction is going on in her sweet little body that we don't even know about. I guess, as I have said before I am just so scared for her future. But, at the same time with all that I am learning I am sure she can/will have a very normal life. And if they start treatments on her early it will just be life as she knows it, right? So, I guess what I'm hoping is that this journey is harder on me than it is on her.

Calgon take me away...