Calling all Runners!

This Saturday is London's Run. There is a 1/2 marathon, 10k, and 2 mile run/walk. They will also have a yummy breakfast and BBQ before and after the run. There will be so many fun things for the kids to do, a silent auction, and a blood drive, so really, you don't have to be a runner to come out and participate. All the proceeds are going to my nephew Troy Wendt, who is undergoing Chemo treatments for Leukemia. To find out more info. go to www.londonsrun.org/
It's going to be a very special day and I am so excited to be there! I'll be at water station #4 handing out water to the runners! I'll be cheering you on! See you there!

Feliz Cumpleanos a Mi Amor

Today is Noah's 28th Birthday!! Hope you have a fabulous one. Thanks for making our lives so fun and enjoyable! We love you.

Just call me CRAZY!!!

On Fri. I took Sadie to have her follow up apt. with the surgeon (everything looked great and we are totally home free...YAY) so after I thought I would run to the mall and try to find some maternity jeans. Not a big deal right? Wrong! Guess who forgot a stroller? Not even a little umbrella one! I thought about not going in, but since I was already there and getting the kids out of the car, I thought what the heck, how bad could it be. BAD!! WE started off eating lunch there, which was not too bad, but by the time we go to Gap they were done! I tried on so many jeans and had to keep going back to get different sizes and every time they would run out of the dressing room and try to hide in the clothes racks! I really wanted to scream! I just kept bribing them with the play place that they love to go to. It actually ended up being a great day to be at Gap because they were having an amazing sale and with my discount it made it even better! I got this really cute maternity dress for 7 dollars! And I found a really cute pair of jeans and got them for half off! It really made up for the way my kids were acting!

So we then headed over to the play place. After being there for 5 min. they closed it to clean it. Just my luck huh? I was so mad! I promised them they could play and really didn't want to wait the half an hour! So I got them Slurpee's to make up for it!
Then we went to Nordstrom to buy a Bella Band, which I guess they only sale online...dumb! Do any of you have one? Let me know if you like them. I can't decide if I am going to like it.
I learned a great lesson that day...don't ever leave home without a stroller!

Christmas recap

Christmas came and went so fast this year! I mean is it not mid January already?!

We started off by going around the town looking at all the Christmas lights with Noah's family. It's such a fun tradition, and I hope my kids never get to old for it. Later that night we put out our cookies and milk for Santa and spread Brody's reindeer food out on the grass. They loved all that stuff this year.

Christmas morning was so fun. I went to wake the kids up at 7 and when I walked in Brody's room he popped his head up and asked if it's time! It was so cute! I was so excited for the kids to open their luggage to see the "homemade" Disneyland tickets, but they didn't think it was that great. I was a little bummed, but I'm sure when we actually go they will act a little different.

Then we headed off to my parents to open gifts and have the breakfast I wait all year for. I don't know about you, but growing up my Mom and Dad always said every year that they were not going to have a big Christmas and it always ended up being the best ever! Well they totally still to that. They act like they are not really doing anything, but yet we come home with a car full of the best, well thought out gifts! They totally outdo themselves every year.

We then went over to Noah's parents. We all got to talk to his brother Justin serving a mission in Africa. That was definitely the highlight for us! It was so good to hear how good he is doing and hear how he has matured. He sounded so much older! Then it was on to opening more presents! I have never seen so many presents at one time. I guess that is what happens when you have 9 kids, 8 in laws and 20 grandkids! I don't know how Jeanne buys for everyone. She amazes us at all the fun things she thinks up every year!

One of my favorite presents was from my brother Justin. It was a Nike+. I was so excited and had no clue. Then I remembered how big and pregnant I was and was bummed I wouldn't be using it a lot. But come April, hopefully I will be a pro at using it.

All in all it was a fabulous Christmas and now I'm so excited for summer!

The week and a 1/2 I do not wish upon anyone...

Many of you know that Sadie just spent 10 days in the Hospital. It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but she is home now, and doing great!!
It all started the day after Christmas....she woke up and started throwing up, and it didn't stop for three days. At first I just thought she had the 24 hour bug everyone was getting, but when she was not pooping for three days and we were not getting sick, I knew something was wrong. On the Fri. after Christmas we took her to the ER because she was beyond dehydrated and was totally non responsive. They immediately put her on and IV to start hydrating her. After a couple hours of that her stomach and chest started to get really big, so that meant that something was not letting her intestines and stomach do thier job. So they ended up doing a Colonoscopy so see what was casuing the blockage. They could not see anything, so we spent the night there while her stomach got bigger by the hour and was in so much pain. That was probably one of the worst nights of my life. Seeing your child in so much pain, and not being able to do anything about it is the worst thing you have to go through! So the next day they were going to do a Cat Scan to see what was going on, but before then, the Surgeons assistant came in to see her and after seeing how bad her stomach looked and how she was totally non responsive, the Surgeon decided to do surgery right away. That was really the hardest thing I have had to do. There's something about seeing your child being wheeled away by doctors and not really knowing what is going on is pure torture. I was a wreck! Thankfully most of Noah's brothers and sisters and Mom and Dad came to the rescue and kept us company while we sat and waited for the surgery to be over. After about three hours, the surgeon came in and told us the surgery went great! He found a "congenital band", something that she had been born with, around the bowel part of her intestines that had been totally closed shut, causing her to get all backed up, and a part that was about to erupt because of the pressure. It had actually started infecting other things inside because it was dead intestines(yea, I know, this sounds crazy but it really happened!). He said if he would have waited another day he was almost sure in would have erupted and caused all that "crap" to be everywhere in her stomach and it would have been "really bad"! He also took out her appendix because it was right there and he didn't want any other problems going on in that spot down the road. What a relief that was! The surgeon was amazing! We really owe so much to him.
After surgery she spent about 4 days in the PICU, recovering. She was hooked up to just about every tube you can think of. She had 4 IVs going into her, a breathing tube, a tube going into her nose to her stomach pumping all the bile stuff out, and a catheter. That's a total of seven tubes and 4 sensors all working at once. Yea, she had a lot going on. It was pretty hard to see her like that, but I knew that the problem had been fixed and she was on the road to recovery! Slowly but surly they started pulling tubes out of her.

(This pic is in the PICU after they had removed a few of her tubes) After the 4 days in the PICU she spent about 4 days in the regular pediatrics unit. On about day 7 is when she started talking to us a little and was able to get out of bed and walk around a little. Then slowly she was able to have drinks and then food. The last couple days were really hard, because she was so ready to go home, but they had to see that she could keep food down and then be able to poop it out. On the day they were going to take her nose tube out, she actually pulled it out herself! I didn't even know she had done it! It actually was better that way I think!

So now we are home and all doing great! We want to thank everyone who helped, prayed for us, called, even thought of us! We really have realized that we have the best families and friends in the world! We've been able to realize how much we were blessed throughout this whole ordeal. It stinks that you have to go through things like this to make you realize how greatful you are for good health.

(This is right before we went home. She totally lost weight, as you can see.)