Our summer in Borger

For our time in Borger this summer we stayed busy.  However, we also spent a lot of days at home playing, goofing off, and just being together!  I loved this season of life and the kids ages.  They really do great together and enjoy being with one another!  The little ones loved having Gavin home from school.  

Here's some highlights of our time in Borger:

- 4th of July fun (see other post all about our fun day)

- We bought a blow up pool to have on hot summer days, which was a HUGE hit with the kids!  

- The kids found a turtle wandering the neighborhood so he came and lived in our backyard for a week or two, until one day we came home and he was gone.  They loved looking for "Foxy" and generally found him walking the fence daily. 

-  Naptime meant alone time with Gavin, which I realized how much I've missed that while he was in school!

- Lazy mornings meant fixing your own breakfast.. check out Brooklyn's willingness to pour her own bowl of cereal.

- MILES spent time teaching Brooklyn the ends and outs of timeout and the need to obey mommy's words (I think he's had lots of practice)

- The kids took swimming lessons and did an amazing job learning important skills.  Besides the water being freezing-- they loved it!

Our church had VBX and we had an awesome turn out.  It was held in the evenings and an absolute blast.  Brooks signed he and I up to be in charge of and work the games portion of VBX!  That meant we saw ALL the kids and got to play with each one of them!  The best part was that Brooks didn't realize he had business meetings in Houston that week and unfortunately he missed out on a few evenings!  This picture describes me after one of those nights... I sent this to him via phone without a caption!  While I was exhausted and it was hard word, it was a BLAST and we loved living our old camp days together playing with all the kids!

A few times we needed to go to Amarillo so I made sure to let the kids have some fun!  I'd bring a baby sitter with us and we'd go to Chucky Cheese in between running errands.  The kids would have a blast and would be exhausted on our way home!  

We potty trained Brooklyn, which wasn't THAT hard, except trying to teach her only boys teetee outside standing up!  She still hasn't figured that out!

The weather was gorgeous and Brooks had a few weekends opened for us to work on our landscaping.  I'll be completely honest... other then going and picking out plants and buying the soil and mulch, Brooks did it ALL!  He has a better vision and idea for it all and gardening has NEVER been my thing so I let him have at it!  It all looks awesome!

Something I did do was unpack our LAST box from our shipment from August 2013.  We've had our shed out back full of junk and odds and ends that had no where to go and didn't need any immediate attention.  I pretty much neglected it all since it was out of sight out of mind, but Brooks was ready to build cabinets in the garage and we needed to move some of that stuff into the shed, which required it to get some attention.  It felt GREAT getting that taken care of and to feel like we were officially moved in... after a year of living here!

Over all, it was a great summer in Borger.  

Easter Parties

Miles and Brooklyn's mothers day out program had an Easter celebration, which I had the privilege of heading it up and it was so much fun!   We made each child their own personalized bucket and did a MASSIVE Easter Egg Hunt at the church.  The kids were ecstatic and had a blast running around to get as many eggs as they could!  After the egg hunt, several parents made sweet treats and fixed up a big table for the kids and it was perfect for the kids.    

Miles' other school had a smaller Easter Party that parents were invited to.  They searched for eggs, had snacks, and played special games.  It was really cute to watch all of them together!

Miles illness

If you follow our blog, then you've probably noticed more times then not that Miles (and Brooklyn) have struggled with stomach issues over the past 10 months.  Remember all 3 of our kids had the Cyclosporias parasite last summer?  Well, over time and after monthly episodes/outbreaks as I call them, I started realizing getting fed up with how much our little ones were sick, the severity of their sickness, I was completely over the long nights of vomiting (because that never seemed to occur during the day) as well as the continuos bathroom trips because our sweet kids couldn't control their bowels.  Sorry if that's TMI, but it's true and has been our real life.  We spend every month at the doctors office and a few months I contributed their sickness to a family stomach bug because if one got sick the other would get sick.  Then, symptoms started escalating-- each were different for Miles and Brooklyn but we just had enough.  I knew it wasn't healthy for them, I knew that we couldn't keep doing this every single month so it was time to get some answers.  All the parasite, bacteria, normal tests kept coming back negative not really explaining what was wrong with them.  However, one set of tests showed an elevation in Miles blood count letting us know there was some form of infection, we just didn't know where.  Soooo.. off we went to a Pediatric Gastroenterologist. 

The closest one that was recommended to us was in Lubbock, but that didn't bother us.  We were able to get an appointment fairly quickly and drove the 3 hours one morning just Brooks, Miles and I.  For starters... it was so wonderful to get some one on one time with Miles.  He is a sweet kid and enjoys just hanging out.  We loved talking with him and listening to him share things with us one on one!  Truly a gift to have so much alone time together, no distractions, and no one interrupting him!  We had a consultation with the doctor who agreed that Miles monthly sickness didn't make sense and shouldn't be happening based on all that we had done to try and control things so he ordered a colonoscopy an upper GI scope.  Before we headed back to Borger we stopped at a Starbucks to grab a coffee and a sweet man paid for our drinks and Miles got his own cake pop for being so brave at the doctors office!  He was pumped it was all his!!  

We were given explicit instructions on how to flush Miles out so that his body would be nice and ready for the procedures.  If you've ever wondered what it's like to keep a 3 year old from eating for 24 hours and only being allowed to drink a blue liquid in 12 hours that contains enough laxatives to last an adult 2 weeks... it's not fun!!!  And if you think a 3 year old would be all about eating as many popsicles and frozen ices.... you can expect them to get tired of it by the 4th or 5th one in 6 hours.  None the less, Miles pushed through and we survived once the laxatives made it through his body around 8pm that night.    He really is a trooper!  We had some gracious friends who were willing to take Brooklyn and Gavin the night before and let them spend the night since we had to get up at 4am to drive back to Lubbock for Miles' procedures.  

I was pretty anxious the entire drive to Lubbock, I prayed a lot that we would get some answers and something would be brought to light.  I prayed for Miles that the entire experience would be "easy" for him, he wouldn't be nervous or scared and I'm happy to say our prayers were answered.   The hospital was wonderful and did a great job catering to our little guy.  They brought him colors and books, a handmade pillow with dogs as a gift to take into the operating room, and even let him decorate his "sleeping mask".  He put blue stickers all around it!  Miles had to get an enema, which I had to give him and you talk about heartbreaking to see his face and hear the words.. "mommy, you hurt me."  He eventually got over it, but from that point forward he was MUCH more quiet and reserved through the process as he waited.  We were eventually brought to a waiting area where we sat with other patients who were before us.  It was there that Miles fell asleep while coloring.  Talk about an answered prayer!  It was wonderful.  It allowed Brooks and I a little down time and prevented us from having to keep Miles laying in his bed while we waited.  

The anesthesiologist was WONDERFUL and when he came to talk to us and saw Miles sleeping he told all the nurses to leave him alone and not prep him before going in.  They ended up taking him back while he was still sleeping, put him to sleep, AND THEN set all the wires up on his body.  The procedure lasted only 25 minutes, and Miles was wheeled out to us.  It took him about 20 minutes before he woke up and he never knew anything happened!!!  What he did know was that he was hungry!!  He was also very curious about all the wires stuck to him and why so many people were watching him when he woke up!  We had to stay at least an hour to make sure he didn't react to the anesthesia and then were given the all clear to go home.  The pedi GI shared with us some images from Miles stomach and that he found 3 areas of infection.  They took a biopsy of those 3 areas and it would be a week before we were given the results!  

 

Once we left the hospital we were all starving since we had been up since 4am and it was now a little after noon.  We asked Miles what he wanted to eat and he said Chick Fil A so we found the nearest one and got him his food.  Brooks and I went to an Italian restaurant that was recommended to us and Miles was so hungry that he even ate my salad.  The kid NEVER eats salad, but I guess he was just that hungry.  The ride home was pretty quiet for the most part.  He slept a little, we guess from the meds and then watched a movie.  Brooks and I were relieved that aspect of the testing was over and it was just time to wait.

The next week, Miles had a few more tests run that we were able to have done in Amarillo at a hospital about an hour from us.  This test was a little more difficult since it required Miles to drink this awful, chalky, radioactive stuff.  He didn't want to have anything to do with it.  The nurses and I tried everything we could to get him to drink even a few ounces.  The tricky part was he had to do it within a certain time frame from his initial images they took when we arrived.  Eventually, he drank enough to show up in the scans and then we just waited and took x-rays every 35 minutes to see if there were any blockages in his intestines or any reflux, etc.  Those scans came back clear giving us room to breathe and knowing that area of his body was causing his sickness.  Again, Miles was such a trooper and did really well hanging in with all the tests.  He kept saying, "mommy, why won't they take a picture of my face instead of my tummy?... my face is cuter!!"

A week later we received the results from Miles colonoscopy and it showed that he had 3 areas of acid inflammation.  There was no bacteria or parasites or allergy cells in those areas of inflammation so their cause is unknown.  They could be from 10 months of vomiting or they could be the cause of his sickness.  The GI isn't too sure, but at least we know there wasn't anything else.  And we're okay with that!  Miles is on an acid reducer med for 3 months and we will see how things go.  I've also started using Essential Oils on him when he was getting outbreaks and they greatly reduce the length and severity of his outbreaks.  We're hoping, praying, and believing that is all behind us and we're moving forward to better health and our kids being healed!!  

February

February was a BUSY month for us.  Our daily lives seem hectic and chaotic and sometimes non stop--  but we manage to have fun and enjoy whatever we're doing together!  

We celebrated Valentines Day and made it as special as could be!  Our morning started with the traditional heart shaped choc chip pancakes that the kids helped me make.  I took a few cake orders for some friends and donated 1 cake to an auction event our church was having that evening!  These are just a couple of the cakes I made.  

Gavins class had a valentines party that I was in charge of (since I'm the room mom) and it was a lot of fun.  The kids played musical chairs and did the chicken dance for half the the party.  Parents helped out and brought sweets for the kids to enjoy and they had a lot of fun.

We got a few special packages from grandparents on Valentines Day so the kids got to enjoy some cake pops and new puzzles!!

Valentine's Night our church youth group hosted an event called Second Chance Prom to raise money for summer camps.  Our group of friends decided it would be fun to all go together, dress up, and party it up at the dance.  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!  We had a catered meal, tasteful music to dance to, silent auctions where we bid on a few items, and just had a GREAT time celebrating Valentine's Day!!!  

Gavins school hosted Dr. Seuss day the week before his bday and the kids were encouraged to dress up as a character from one of his books.  Gavin and his buddy, Jeven decided they wanted to be Thing 1 and Thing 2.  The only problem was they told me 2 days before the dress up day.  I frantically searched our town for red t-shirts, but ended up driving to Target in Amarillo where I found some and then decided to use printable, iron on transfer paper to make the shirts.  I found the images on google and 30 minutes later had 2 shirts made just in time for the boys to have the next day at school!  Gavin and I met Jeven and his mom at McDonalds before school started and got the boys into full costume-- blue spray painted hair, white faces, and bold eyebrows!  They truly were in character from that moment on.  The school had special activities all day and we went to the book reading that afternoon.  Miles and Brooklyn were grateful to participate and even got to see The Cat in the Hat perform!

February was our coldest month yet and I don't think we've adjusted to such cold weather.  When I say cold.... I mean COLD!!  What makes it even tougher is the wind that generally accompanies us daily making the air feel even colder!!  Snow days are still fun and the kids enjoy playing in the backyard making snow angels, snowmen, and having snowball fights!

Miles has been sick and we're still battling monthly episodes or outbreaks as I call them.  I started monitoring his food intake, took fast food out of his diet along with most dairy products and he was still getting sick so our doctors here agreed it was time to run some more tests and pursue other options to get his body healed.  He did really good for getting pricked 3 times and having multiple pokes.  He was brave and only cried a short time.  His favorite color is blue-- like, he's almost obsessed with anything blue, so the moment they started putting a blue bandage on him he was fixated on that!  His results showed us his body had some form of infection so we were encouraged to see a Pediatric Gastroenterologist to get a better idea of what was going on.

Gavin lost his 5th tooth, which was one of his front teeth and he was so excited that it finally came out.  We tried pulling it off and on for days but it never would come out.  He ended up losing it at school during PE when he jumped for a ball and fell to the ground!  I'm pretty sure he loved that 1000x more then having us pull it.  He said all his friends thought it was so cool how it came out!  Our little boy is growing up!