Update On Landon

We are still going to the Dr. every week to weigh Landon. We went to get more labs done to see if maybe he was not getting enough of some vitamins, but they came out fine. His weigh in last week was a positive one as he had gained some weight. The Dr. said if his weight continues to go up and down he will probably schedule an MRI. Yikes! The problem could be his brain is not telling him that he needs to eat.

It is frustrating trying to get him to eat as he doesn't eat like his brothers did at this age. He does a good job at drinking the protein drink the Dr. recommended and that gives him a lot of calories, so I am hopeful he will continue to gain. I keep checking for more teeth to come in but he still has only two!

He still sleeps really well and that is a good sign. I'm not sure if I posted before but he was still waking up every 2-3 hrs at night and only taking 45 minute nap during the day. Now he sleeps most of the night through and takes two 1-2 hr naps during the day.

Our summer is going well... very hot! I have a lot of pictures to share from the places we've been!

Landon needs to Gain Weight!

I'm sorry for the lack of blogging. The last month or more has been kind of chaotic. I'll post about other things in life another time, but mainly about Landon today.

He has been to the Dr. a few times in the last month and the Dr. is very concerned about his weight. He is only in the 5% of kids his age... that's not really the problem I guess. The problem is that Landon hasn't gained weight in over a month. The Dr. gave me orders to stop nursing and give him whole milk and also to give him as many calories as I can. It's hard to give a kid with only 2 teeth lots of calories! Yesterday, I felt like I was giving him food non-stop. I was hopeful for today's appointment, but also knew there could be bad news. I need to back up a bit. we went to an appointment last week and the Dr. sent us to the hospital to get some blood work done It's not fun holding your screaming baby down while they take blood. We had to go back today to get the results of those tests and to weigh him again. I was thinking maybe he had gained some only to find he had lost some.

The Dr. said he may need to be admitted to the hospital an hour away and put him on a feeding tube through his nose. That doesn't sound like fun. He did call his contact at the hospital and I just got off the phone with him and the other Dr. wants to give it one more week, and she prescribe a special drink for him. So, I have to totally stop nursing (he's been eating at night still), no water, no milk, nothing but this special drink for him. Of course he can eat food also. I have to go back to the Dr. soon and pick up some of the drinks. Did I mention Landon's gag reflex and that he doesn't take too well to new things?

Please pray for weight to be put on Landon and that he likes this new drink. Also, pray for finances if the Dr. appointments get more frequent and a possible stay at the hospital.

Sorry if this post is super random, I cannot connect my thoughts well these days.

Missing Mom on Mother's Day

I have been kind of dreading Mother's Day this year. The first time I saw an ad for Mother's Day, I panicked because I hadn't even thought of what to get mom this year and then realized I didn't need to get her anything. She's on my mind quite often. As I think about her life and the things I miss, I realize that a lot of things that I miss are some of the things that also drove me crazy about her. Funny isn't it?

Here's some things about her that I miss, some recent things, some are older things from when I still lived at home. I'm sure I will think of more later, but this is what I have for now. If you have something you miss and loved about her, leave a comment, I'd love to read them.

~Her yelling my name "SUZANNE!"
~Going shopping at Joann's
~Her small feet
~Her voice
~Trying to figure out what she REALLY meant.
~Her 5 minute visits, which usually consisted of unloading whatever 5 cent box of toys she had just purchased for my children. or groceries, she would often drop off groceries with lots of sugary things.
~Her sarcasm
~Being the loudest cheerleader at my softball games
~How amazing she was at sewing. She once made me a whole summer wardrobe and it was so awesome.
~The talks we used to have when I'd get home late at night (before I was married)
~Reading while having Dr. Pepper and Cheetos, orange towel on the side of the chair
~ How she was "allergic" to cats
~Wanting to be the favorite
~Always being there
~The way she loved everybody
~Jewelry
~Love of shoes
~She loved a good bargain, even when nobody in the world needed it, if it was a million percent off, she would buy it.
~She was my "room mother" in 2nd grade and dressed like a clown for our Halloween party and I thought it was really cool.
~Joann's (Yes, I know I already said this, but it needs to be said again)
~Wanting me to be my best, even if it wasn't perfect.
~Her giving heart
~Her hairstyle that she had for as long as I can remember.
~Oakridge Boys, Statler Brothers, Lee Greenwood on the drive from Indiana to Washington (or vice versa) I love a rainy night.....
~Gingerbread houses with the kids
~Waking up every holiday to a gift on the couch when we were kids.
~That red mole thing under her eye. I have one on my arm.
~Joann's
~Joann's

I know there's so much more about her that I miss. I wish she knew how beautiful and talented she was. I'm sure she's in heaven making blankets for everyone. I'm so grateful she's with our Lord & Saviour now.

Miss you Mom!

Yikes! It's May!

I haven't even been to my own blog in a long time. I knew it had been awhile since I posted, but I didn't realize it's been over a month! The longer it gets between blogs, the harder it is to want to blog because so much happens and updating is difficult. I just need to blog more often.

I'm busy being a mom, business owner and now a softball player. Yes, I play softball. I have encountered quite a few people who are surprised by the fact that 1) I play softball and actually know what I'm doing 2) That I run and 3) I don't know #3 but I'm sure there's something. I played softball for a number of years in the olden days. It's a bit harder these days because I'm older and 3 kids in the background to distract me.

There's not a lot of day to day change with Weston & Logan. They are super funny and we've been having a lot of good conversations lately. Some of them theological, and the rest about Star Wars. They love Jesus and Star Wars and that's about it. They are very different learners. Weston is a very logical thinker whereas Logan has an artist's creative mind.

Landon has changed a lot. He's 10 months which means he'll be walking soon. He waves, does a bit of sign language, doesn't sleep well at all, loves his big brothers, laughs a lot, eats paper, crawls lightning fast (especially when chasing his brothers), loves when people talk to him.

I will try to do better at blogging more. The pictures are from the last month or so. I snuck in a couple of the die cuts I've designed for you to see.

Orange, Blue & Brown!

Those (orange, blue and brown) are the colors I searched high and low for when I was registering for baby stuff when I was pregnant. I looked at Wal-mart for fabric, and Joann Fabrics for fabric. Nobody had it. People would look at me funny when I would say those were the colors I wanted Landon's room. I look every time I go to Target. Well, today I was triumphant! I was getting stuff there and I stopped in the baby section when the new stuff caught my eye. It was blue, brown and orange!! The pattern is airplanes. It's the new Dwell Studio stuff at Target. There was also a set in the big boy stuff that had the same colors, but with cars instead of airplanes. I just bought the blanket, and I'll hopefully be able to save for the rest before they discontinue it!


Yay for Target!

Our trip to California

I found my camera cord!! I realize after looking at all my pictures that I still have a lot to learn about my camera so some of the picture quality is bad.

Day 1 of the Trip- Pretty much consisted of driving and more driving. The weather was very scary! My brother Rob had told me it was an easy drive, it's not. We had lots of rain, hail and snow! The big semi trucks were passing me, even uphill, that's how slow I was driving. But, we made it and it was totally worth it.

Day 2- Hmm, I'm thinking I don't really know what we did which days because we mostly just hung out. It was so nice! I think Day 2 was just hanging out at Jenny's. The kids played so well together. Kacia and Weston got a long really well. It was so cute.

Day 3- I think this is the day that Breanna came over for a bit. Jenny picked up Breanna's son Alex from school and so he played with the kids for awhile. We also went to In-N-Out because I had never been there before. It was pretty good. We took our food and went to play at the park.

Day 4- Another day to hang out. I think we went to the Indoor gymnastics place this day, maybe. It took some time for my kids to see how cool it was, but they had a blast! Breanna's older 2 kids watch our kids while us women went out to dinner- all by ourselves. No kids. Not even Landon, which was a first! Tracey, a friend from Washington was also their visiting so it was good to see her again also!

Day 5- Pack up and leave. More driving. We ran into some rain, but by then we were out of the many mountains so it wasn't a big deal.

A Quick Update

I have been putting off blogging because I keep thinking I will find my camera cord! No luck yet. I have lots of pictures to post I promise!

The last month has been busy, but fun.

We spent a week in California visiting my best friend Jenny. It was sooo good to see her and have our kids interact. It had been many years since we had shared late night conversation and ice cream together. It was doubly good because Breanna (Jenny's sister) lives there too and we spent some time with her. I didn't get to see Breanna as much as I would've liked but it was good to be able to go out to dinner with everyone! I spent a lot of time at their house growing up and I am so glad that we stay in touch!

I totally organized the boys's room. I have before and after pictures, but of course, the missing camera cord would help you visualize. I also bought bunk beds for them. They were gone when I (well Rob did the bunkbeds!) set it up and they were really surprised! Logan has only fallen out of bed once. He's a roller!

School is going great with the boys. I was looking at the curriculum to buy for next year and I couldn't believe I was looking at 2nd grade stuff! I will have a 2nd grader next year! And Logan will be in Kindergarten.

In business news, I decided to resign from my designing job. So now I am back full swing in designing scrapbooking page kits and die cuts. I'm gonna do a shameless plug and here's my site- TheMemoryCafe.Etsy.com. I don't have a lot there right now. I'm working on designing a few more. This kind of work is where my main talent lies and I am excited!

I also started watching a couple of kids in the evening. They are the same age as Weston and Logan and they get along pretty good.

Hopefully it won't be another month before I find my camera cord!

The Magazine Article

For those of you who didn't get to see the magazine article yet, here it is!

The article is about Lace Cardstock, which has recently become popular in scrapbooking. We call ours Intricacies.

It doesn't say my name, but the company I work for now.It's a product I designed and it's selling very well. The card was made by a designer from the magazine using the Intricacy.

Sorry the scans came out crooked. Click on the pictures to see them better.

(this is just the cover of the magazine, it doesn't have anything on it that I did)

The one I designed is the 2nd one- the white flowers.

The last couple of weeks...

Most of you who read Robyn's blog have already heard of my mom's passing. It is still sinking in and well, it's just plain weird that she's gone. Most of the blankets in my house were made by her, the burp rags and receiving blankets for Landon were all made by her and when I look in the mirror, I see her. Going through old pictures made me realize once again how much I look like her. Even my handwriting is similar to hers. I miss her. I want to hug her and hear her voice just one last time. If I had known a month ago that it was the last time I would get to see her, I would have stayed longer or hugged her longer. I'm sad that Landon won't know her.

Logan asked if Jesus made her alive in heaven. Weston asked if Grandma remembered to put her phone in her pocket so we could still talk to her while she's in heaven. When they talk about her, they don't say she died, they say "When grandma went to heaven..."

Shelly and Chuck were gracious enough to let us stay at their house for the week. They had more than a full house and plus the boys and I were sick and we were nice enough to share it with everyone. Sorry everyone! It was so nice to be around them and the kids again. I used to spend a lot of time with them before I was married and I realized how much I miss that.

Carmin stopped by one day to bring me a camera that was mom's. I now am the proud owner of a Canon somethin or other. It's a nice camera and I just need to get a memory card and batteries for it and then I will take lots and lots of pictures!

There is a slide show on Robyn's blog that was made for the service. I have found some pictures here that I will put into a small slide show and post it sometime soon. We were in such a rush to drive up there, that I didn't have time to grab pictures and I found some really good ones.

On a different note.....

Landon is crawling and getting into everything. He started crawling the morning mom passed so he practiced at Aunt Shelly's and can go pretty fast.

I am still looking for a part time job. I applied to one today and so we'll see. If that doesn't work out, I may just apply to work at Target again just so I can have something.

Awhile back I posted about a product of mine being featured in a magazine. I finally found the magazin at Fred Meyer after looking for it at a couple of other stores! I'm not sure if it's still on the shelves, it's the Feb issue of Creating Keepsakes, page 49. Maybe I'll scan it in for those of you who'd like to see it without buying it.

Enjoy your day.

Landon is 7 Months!

I know, I know- bad blogger! I'm just on quick to put up some pictures that I sent from my phone to my computer to see the quality. Not bad I guess.

He's growing quickly! He's pretty much crawling and getting everywhere. He's starting to realize there is more to our apartment then just the living room. Now I'm waiting for him to sit up.

The first one is the 4 of us (duh) . It's not easy getting us all in on the screen! It took a few times and this was the best one.

Have a joyful day!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year {Belated}

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. Ours was, well, interesting. We ended up not being able to travel over Christmas because of the snow. We still had a wonderful Christmas with Rob & Robyn and their kiddos. We spent a week up north this last week to visit family and especially my mom, who has been in the hospital.

Landon is doing great. The burn is healing wonderfully. It's pretty much just scabs now. I can tell that most of it will be a scar. He is such a happy baby. He loves it when people talk to him and usually greets them with the cutest smile. There's nothing like a smile from a cute little baby! He rolls all over the place and I'm pretty sure crawling will follow soon.

Logan is now 5 years old. On the morning of his birthday he came to me and asked if he was 5 now. I told him yes. Then Weston looked at him and said "Logan, you look so big today!" Logan scootched himself up to Weston to see how tall he'd gotten, then ran upstairs to show Leeann and Titus how big he'd gotten. Now that he's 5 he can do all sorts of things he couldn't do when he was 4. He was looking at a coloring book and said " I colored these when I was 4." As in, not even 24 hours before. It was so cute.

Weston will be 7 in a couple of weeks. Am I old enough to have a 7 year old? I'm only 20, right?

]I am doing well. A little stressed out about some stuff, but I am choosing to trust the Lord in his plan for my life. I will probably be getting a part-time job soon to help with finances.

We've taken a couple of weeks off of school for Christmas and New Year's. I'm anxious to get back at it. I love it. I love homeschooling them. They learn so quickly and are doing really great! My dream is to have a room or part of a room for school instead of doing it at the kitchen table. Someday.

Blessings to all of you for 2009!