Hannah

Hannah's teacher sent home a note asking parents to write a little note describing their child. Here is my Hannah girl in a nutshell...

If I had to sum Hannah up in one sentence; she is my sunshine! Her smile lights up any room and her giggle is contagious. She is a ball of energy, but her warmth and compassion tame that energy. She is incredibly creative and dreams of becoming an artist someday. She thrives in environments that are creative yet disciplined.

Hannah likes playing with her sisters and brother, and she is a daddy's girl through in through. Her greatest like would have to be panda bears; real or stuffed it doesn't matter, she likes them all! She also likes helping others; even it is as simple as holding the door open for them.

Dislikes. It's funny because the only thing I can think of is chili and embarrassment. The girl does not like chili. She also does not like it at all when she gets embarrassed. She wears her heart on her sleeve so hurtful words and actions bring and extra sting. I hope this brings some insight into who Hannah is. She cannot wait for this year to begin, and her daddy and I are excited to see her grow throughout this first grade year.

Daddy and Mommy love you very much Hannah!

Thursday-Ross' Scope & Abbz' Results

So this morning started out early again. Ross had to be at the office by 6:45 am for his scope. When he came back to recovery they allowed me to sit with him, and I noticed a nurse talking sort of secretively to another nurse and I suspected it was about Ross. It turns out my suspicion was correct. Apparently Ross put up quite the fight this go around. He kept trying to pull the scope out. Dr. K's exact words were, "He's a strong guy. I thought we weren't going to get it done today." He also suggested that next time we might want to scope him at the hospital so they can put him under general anesthesia. Lovely husband, just lovely. There is nothing quite like apologizing for someone who has no remembrance of their actions. Other than them having to give him a hearty dose of several sedatives he did great. He slept most of the day while Blair and I went to the mall and other stores with the girls.
The good news for the day....
Abigail PASSED her scope!!! She gets to eat grapes SAFELY!!! YEAH!!! :)

Wednesday-The Creation Museum

Today was a great day. My mom surprised us by calling the Creation Museum and told them our story to see if they would be willing to give us discounted tickets to visit the museum while we were between doctor appointments. They did even better. They blessed us more then We could have ever imagined; they gave us free guest passes for the day to the museum and planetarium. Thank you, Jessie, for this unbelievable experience! It was wonderful to not only explain but also to show the girls how the world as we know it was created; how the flood explains things such as the making of the Grand Canyon to the extinction of dinosaurs, and much more. It was very interesting and I am humbled by the fact that we had this experience so that when my children are taught evolution in school I will have educated answers that support Creation. I think the exhibit I liked the most was the one that showed a child playing next to a dinosaur...pre-flood obviously.
So tonight was date night! Ross and I were able to enjoy dinner out together while Blair stayed at the hotel with all of the kids; yes even Jonathan. It was wonderful to spend a little quality alone time with each other for a few hours. Especially with Ross' scope tomorrow.

Orthopedist and Water Park

Waffles for breakfast again then off to some stores before Abigail sees the Orthopedist. We went to big Dick's and found MG a pair of tennis shoes for school that were too good of a deal to pass up. I should probably explain...there is a big Dick's and a little Dick's Sporting Good's in Cincinnati and Ross just can't contain himself. Plus the big one is nicer. As he would say, "Size does matter." Enough of the off-color humor :).
We left Dick's and headed to see Dr. Wall about Abigail's legs. We were there for about two hours and literally 5 minutes was with the doctor, the rest of the time was spent waiting. The doctor was great though. He said that all we can do is wait and see how she does. Bracing will not help. Her legs will either correct on their own or she will need surgical intervention. The important thing he told us was that her legs will likely get worse before they get better. They should be at their worst at age 5, which is when he would like to see her again. Done with doctors for today so bring on the fun!
Kristen was so kind to ask her sister if she could get us tickets to the CoCo Key Indoor Waterpark which she was able to do. We had ALOT of fun!! Thank you so much Kristen and Carrie. Words cannot express our gratitude! It was such a blast watching and playing with the kids in the water and on the water slides. It was very age appropriate for each of the kids and us grown ups had fun too. Ross and I each road with one of the big girls on the big slides while Blair watched the little ones and then we all switched. Abbz had the best time just playing in the kiddie pool under the mushroom waterfall. After swimming for about three hours we went to Chili's for dinner and then back to the hotel to pass out from pure exhaustion.

A Scope and A Birthday

We were up by 5 this morning. That wouldn't have been too bad except for the fact our bodies thought it was 4! Abigail was such a big girl. We had explained to her before she went to bed that she needed to drink one more "milky cup" because she would not be able to drink until she was all done at the doctor's. I was quite amazed because she did not ask for one drink until she was done. She is such a smart little girl. When they were getting her prepped she was so sleepy that she was fighting to keep her eyes open; so I told her that if she wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep that I would wake her before they took her back. She laid her head in my lap and did just that, sleeping through her temperature check, pulse check, and placing of the lovely hospital bracelets...she always has three or four because of all of her allergies. I woke her to give her the Versiad or " goofy juice" as we call it. That stuff literally hits her in a matter of a few short minutes. You can always tell because her body goes limp and she laughs at the funniest things. This time she cracked up when daddy inadvertently raised his eye brow while talking. Once the medicine kicks in good we carry her back to the OR where I have the luxury of holding her while they put her to sleep. She fought drifting off to sleep a little more this time; I am assuming because she is older. I say fought, but it wasn't bad at all it just took a little longer then it has in the past. Less than 15 minutes later we got the report from Dr. Putnum that she did great and that by appearance everything looked good. We will have to wait for the biopsy results to come back to know for sure. We were allowed to see her in recovery about 25 minutes after the procedure started which is about normal. They used a different anesthesia for the previous scope and it took her a very long time to wake up so they opted to go back to what they had always used prior to that scope. I am glad they listened to my concerns and adjusted appropriately because she did great with the anesthesia this time. She was still a little groggy when we left the hospital so we took her to the room and let her sleep while Blair took the big girls swimming.
After a short swim I took Blair to eat lunch for her 18th birthday. Happy Birthday Auntie Blair!! Murders (Blair's boyfriend) surprised her with another present...an Ariel (you know The Little Mermaid) crown that I promised I would make her wear all day. Which I did, and I have pictures to prove it. Ok back to the day. She wanted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory so we shared an appetizer and then each got a slice of cheesecake. YUM! It was a fun sister's lunch. Then we picked up the rest of the family took a little drive looking around and went in a few stores. Okay, now it's time to end our day with a birthday dinner. Blair wanted Italian for her so where to we go? Yep, Maggiano's it is. So for the real reason we love it so much...Chef Karl. You heard me. Chef Karl. If you have allergies the chef comes to the table to discuss them and tell you what he can do for you. He has done this from the beginning and always remembers us. He may not always remember our names but he knows exactly where we sat the very first time we ate there. They prepare Ross' Fettuccine Alfredo from scratch to ensure nothing in it would make him sick, and Hannah was able to eat pasta with rice noodles so she was happy as a clam. For dessert Chef Karl sent a free Creme Brûlée and a plate of Lemon cookies to the table for Blair. After all it was her 18th birthday. Thanks Chef Karl, you made our day!

Sunday- Movie, Friends, & Food

Today was another day of fun. We started the day with Belgian waffles from the continental breakfast...yum...a great way to start the day. After breakfast we drove over the bridge into Kentucky to watch a movie. We all enjoyed watching Toy Story 3; poor Blair had already seen like 4 times, but it worked to our advantage when Abbz had to potty half way through. Ross nor I had to miss anything for a change ;). After the movie we grabbed a snack and headed to Mike and Ramona's. They were sweet to allow our whole family to infiltrate their home. Connor and Abigail always play well together, but this time was especially fun because they are both older and at the age where they can interact more. Plus with that many kids there couldn't possibly be a dull moment! Honestly they all played with one another better then I have seen four children play together. While we were there Mike made a bracelet for Ross' Medic Alert charm. It's more rugged then his last bracelet and more work appropriate. Plus, if we are in a pinch we have 12 feet of rope as long as Ross is wearing that bracelet! Thanks Mike, Ross really does like it a lot, and thank Mike and Mona for opening your home to us. We miss you guys already! We said our good byes and went back to the hotel to clean up a little before heading to Maggiano's for dinner. Maggiano's is our favorite restaurant in Cincinnati. Besides the fact that the food is delicious they are extremely conscientious about food allergies and more than willing to prepare something safe for you to eat. It doesn't get much better than ending the day with a little Italian food!

Saturday

Today was a relaxing day to recover. The kids slept in this morning which was a welcomed surprise. We got up around 10:30, got ready and headed to the hospital to show Mary Grace and Hannah where their little sister has all of her procedures. Abigail was so cute showing the girls around. Hannah told her to get off the stairs and she turned around and said, "This is my hospital." Then she started to cry because she wanted to in her words, "show them my room." Once we left the hospital we ate lunch at the mall where Blair had the privilege of trying Cincinnti chili from our chain of choice, Gold Star Chili.
We were planning on eating dinner at The Cheesecake Factory but the wait was going to be over an hour so we decided to take it back to the hotel. This turned out to be a great idea. We had a make-shift picnic, and when we were done Ross took the girls swimming while Blair and I fed Jonathan and got him ready for bed. Once the kids were in bed, Ross, Blair and I piled up in bed, ate cheesecake and chatted for a while until we all got tired. And so ends another day.

Trip to Cincy

Oh my! That's what I have to say about Friday. We left the house about 4:20 am and about 5 minutes outside of Siloam we heard a terrible noise coming from the front passenger side of the car, towards the wheel. The noise sound much like when you hit the ripple strip (you know the strip that tells you to wake up, you're running off the road), only the sound wasn't quit that loud. Ross pulled over and checked all of the tires but there didn't seem to be a problem so we started driving again. Everything seemed fine until we reached 65 mph. For some reason this was the magic speed for instigating the noise. Strangely if we slowed to 60 or sped up to 70 mph the noise went away. We pulled over for the second time at Wal Mart in Lowell (off the Pleasant Grove exit). We called my parents to see if Daddy had any ideas of what could be causing such a noise, and in his wisdom he suggested it could be weight. Of coarse none of believed that the van was overloaded with weight, but decided it could be the way it was distributed so there we were at 5:30 in the morning unpacking and rearranging the luggage in hopes that it would help. The one good thing about having to stop there is that by the time we were done Starbucks was open! It was really quite the sight. The "trunk" was pretty well loaded to the top of the backseat, two suitcases were shoved between Jonathan's seat and the door; you know the place where you step into the car to get to your seat. Needless to say every time we stopped we had to move the big suitcase to let the girls in and out of the backseats. It was a hassle but worth it because the redistribution of weight made the noise cease. The best part of the arrangement was what we lovingly referred to as the "Redneck Airbag," which was the foam mattress that fits in the bottom of the playpen. It was crammed between Blair's seat and the door. It really was quite a sight! After everything was re-situated we were on our way.
St. Louis is our halfway point so we stopped at the mall for lunch and headed to the Gateway Arch when we were done eating. You can see the Arch for miles before you actually get to it so I asked the girls if they wanted to get out and look at it up close and touch it. Hannah had the best response ever! She said (in her giggly voice), "No. I want to slide down it!" Only my Hannah girl. ;)
After spending a couple of hours eating, stretching, and sight seeing we were on our way...again. Other than having to make a few stops everything went well. We could not have asked for the kids to be any better. Especially considering it took 16 hours to get there. Normally it only takes about 12 hours but our difficult start and extended stop in St. Louis made it longer than normal.