Still finding memories...

Have you ever had a bad day and then come across something you had forgotten or thought was lost that brightened your day? Tony, my computer & electronic genius of a husband, was transferring the pictures from my old phone to my new one... and amongst them was a picture taken early last year of Papa Murphy holding Bethanie for the first time. Here it is, a little over a month since we lost him, and I'm still finding memories of the time I was lucky enough to spend with him. And, after a rather busy weekend and work day today, seeing that picture is a wonderful thing to me:)

Papa Murphy holding Bethanie (with Nanny's help)

A family is God's way of surrounding us with Love!

Shelia

Basketball & Swimsuits!

Alright, as promised.... this is the post I've been working on before all of Bethanie's excitement hit us earlier in the week. It actually worked out well, because Dalton's last basketball game was today so I was able to add a few more things to his show!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'm getting sadder as the year moves on... Dalton's last little league basketball game, Devin getting closer to his Senior year of High School, Emmalie in preschool. I feel REALLY OLD right about now! However, Emmalie & Bethanie are keeping life interesting.

Last Sunday I was looking online at different swimsuit options for the girls this summer. As all mothers know, you have to start this early or the good stuff is gone before you know it. Well..... Emmalie picked out one online she said she "needed really bad to take to the Y" (our winter swimming hole:). Best thing is it was available locally ON SALE! Even though I wasn't looking to buy anything right away, the sale ended Monday and they were really too cheap to pass up. (Yes sisters, I can be cheap when I have to!). So the girls and I high-tailed it up to the store and ended up with these...

Emmalie, none too happy about being
told to take her swimsuit OFF!

She really tried to push her point...

Bethanie in polka dots & butterflies

Don't forget the bow & stripes!

That is the latest & greatest words of life from this part of the world. May everyone enjoy your weekend. More to come...

Let the Good New Roll...

Thank you all for your prayers and well-wishes. Bethanie made it through her surgery very well. The worst part of the experience was trying to entertain a 1-yr-old who had totally convinced herself we were trying to starve her. Bethie tried half a dozen times to steal her sippy cup out of the diaper bag and sneak a drink... and the fit she pitched when she realized it wasn't going to happen was almost enough to make me postpone things, literally!

Another less than favorable part of the experience was (for lack of a better way to put it)... the "baby gas" after the procedure. For those of you that are not familiar with GI scopes, the doctors have to inject air into the intestines, etc. in order to expand them and visualize without damaging them. Since they did an "upper and lower" scope on Bethanie, she had double the air injected. She came out of the anesthesia burping like she had chugged a Coke... AND, farting enough to rumble the rocking chair! The poor old lady next to us was chuckling by the time the nurse signed Bethie out... HOW EMBARRASSING:0

The best thing about today was the news: Bethanie's reflux is strictly physiologic, no physical/structural abnormalities or esophagitis or other bad erosions. They did do a couple of biopsies for more comprehensive allergy testing, but it appears like she will more than likely pass those tests. What does this mean for Bethie? Well, she'll have six more months on the Prevacid and can't come off of the Next Step toddler formula for the time being. BUT... this also means she has a great likelihood of growing out of her reflux once she actually puts some meat on those bones of hers. We couldn't be more thrilled with how things turned out.

Of course, I had to get some pictures for her baby book..! We've included some from the scope itself... don't worry though, I left the one full of pooh off:)

Bethie after her "feed me" fit (Pre-Surgery)

15-minutes into the Recovery Room phase
(Bethanie woofed down those crackers)

EGD Pic 1: Esophageal sphincter
(The red tint is some irritation from her reflux)

EGD Pic 2: The Stomach, all pretty and clean.

EGD Pic 3: The Pyloric Sphincter
(Stomach still looks good here... minus the acid foam!)

Coming Soon... Swimsuits & Basketball

Say a Little Prayer.... For Bethanie

First off, I want to note that I feel real bad about this post. I was just about ready to get the weekend basketball and new swimsuit post out when a new developing story in our rather eventful life came about.

Bethanie had her check-up with the Pediatric Gastrointerologist this afternoon. She turned 16-months-old on the 7th, and still only weighs in at 18 lbs, 5 oz. (For those of you who have been following Bethanie's saga... YES, that's only a 2 oz gain in roughly 6 weeks). To make a long story short, her gain is stagnent and her continuous refusal to eat has the doctor concerned. Soooooooooo...

On Thursday morning (yes, this Thursday), Bethanie goes in for surgery. It is a simple 5-10 minute EGD to scope her esophagus and stomach. We hope to only find that the muscles in her stomach are a little too relaxed, because that should cure itself over time. There is the slight chance that they may have to take some biopsies though. I'm still freaking out because it's my baby girl and anesthetic and an invasive procedure, etc, etc. I hate having to do this to her... not to mention being an old OR/PACU nurse means I've seen the good & the bad.

Bethanie sitting at the "big" table to eat!

Please say a little prayer for Bethanie. She can use all of them she can get... after all, it's hard for a 1-year-old to go without eating from midnight to 9:00am! I promise an update after everything is done, along with the original basketball/swimsuit post I've been preparing. Until then....

A Tribute to My One & Only...

Happy Valentine's Day... I can only hope everyone has as great of a group to Love & Share with as I do. For this rather romantic type of day, I have made a special movie tribute to my one, my only.... the love of my life, adoring husband and wonderful father... My TONY!

Shelia

Busy Little Bees

Okay... it's been busy around here. The weather has been GREAT, so we've been spending a lot of time outdoors and very little time in near the computer. It's been like having four busy little bees movin' around to soak up every ounce of sun before another snow hits! Now... since I'm ready to stop my cell & home phones from ringing for news... :)

Here is the Haag News Update

Bethanie is finally feeling better and, as of today, eating again... WHOO-HOO! She may gain some weight yet.

We have had the wonderful opportunity to take the kids to the zoo two weekends in a row! It was so much fun to get out and see the kids enjoy themselves... yes, even Dalton came along on Saturday, too! We took Bethanie's pink & purple "push buggy car" and I received a lot of strange comments about it. (Like nobody had ever seen a one-year-old try to steer a toy car before!).

Bethanie posed by the Chimp statue for a picture

Emmalie has finally become accustomed to her new hairdo... which wasn't that hard. We have played with curling it and styling it so many ways in the past week. AND... she is very excited about the fact that she still has enough hair for one big pigtail in the back! I guarentee she will think twice about scissors + hair next time around (well, at least HER OWN HAIR!).

Emmalie- Still our smily little 'Princess' girl

Parent-Teacher conferences were the end of last week...! (I know, I bit my nails the whole drive up to the schools). I pinched myself a couple of times and had to make sure they had the right boys. Neither one recevied a bad report and their grades are commendable. All I can say is that Tony & I couldn't be prouder of Devin & Dalton for the efforts they both are putting forth in school.

The girls & I closed the weekend designing their Valentine's Day cards. NO, Kamie, I'm not that cheap!... I just hate the self-tearing, repeated designs on the ones they sell at the stores. And any of you creative-minded mothers know, it's much more fun to come up with something unique and memorable for your kids, RIGHT!? So... Emmalie picked out the background paper & ribbon, along with noting that they "had to have hearts too". Bethanie helped glue (which was definitely not my brightest moment!). And, wha-la...

Now for the Birthday roll....

A belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes to MaMa Teri (I won't tell everyone how young you are:)

Another belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes to my lovely neice Bennette who turned 4 yrs old yesterday:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderfully charming brother-in-law Johnny tomorrow (though, if I give his age I'm also giving mine away here... so not:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mom Haag on Friday the 13th (I won't tell how young you are either:)

Coming up.... Family photos for the church directory are this Saturday. Those of you who recall the time we had getting the boys to take family pictures at Christmas know that Tony & I have our work cut out for us. It should make for a great story... Wish us luck!

Scissors + Preschool Girl = 1 BIG Mess

YES! Before we even get too far... Emmalie found a pair of scissors (more like hunted them down because they were "hidden" in the back of a tall dresser drawer) today. I hate to take too much time up, but I want you all to feel my pain here!

Today was one of Tony's days off for the week... and while I'm sitting at work first thing this morning he calls me with a cross between panic and fear in his voice. And my husband is never in panic mode. Right off the bat I'm thinking one of the girls is going to be coming to visit me in the ER as a trauma patient. Tony proceeds (with caution) to tell me that, while he left Emmalie in our bedroom watching Disney this morning to make Bethanie some cereal, Emmalie found a pair of scissors and has "cut at least 6-inches off of one side of her hair". For once in my life I was speechless!

He went on to tell me that Emmalie couldn't have been out of his sight for more than 5-minutes (which is plenty long for our Miss Priss to get into mischief... those of you who have the joy of knowing her are probably shaking your head "yes" right about now!). Emmalie was crying and upset about getting in trouble by her Daddy (and she must have seen herself in the mirror, poor baby girl!). So.... I had Tony take pictures & email them to me at work so I wouldn't be in total shock when I got home. Of course I was then freaking out because I didn't know how we were going to fix her hair. (The guys in my office at work were cracking up, too).

Well to make a long story shorter... when I got off of work I took Emmalie to see one of my hair dressers. Boy! Was Annie wonderful at getting Emmalie's mess cleaned up! I was prepared for a boxy little bob or such. But she was able to keep alot of Emmalie's length. It was a great ending to a l-o-n-g day of anticipating the worst.

The 1st photo Tony sent me at work!
I think they heard me scream down the hall!

One pissed off Little Lady!

Emmalie was so good for Annie
(This was Annie's 2nd "3-yr-old scissor fix" this week)

AND... (drum-roll please).... Emmalie sporting her "new" hairstyle:

I almost forgot.... this was also Emmalie's FIRST HAIRCUT (other than trimming the bangs a few times, which I have never counted as a "cut").

Hope you all are having a wonderful week! And I really hope my next post has less exciting words of our crazy life!

Baby Blues

I'm sure the title might seem a little misleading.... NO! I don't have the baby blues... but the latest snapshots of the girls have them showing their sparkling blue eyes! See...

Emmalie can't decide whether to laugh or not here!

Bethanie loves to wear a hat

I'm glad to report that within 24-hours of antibiotics (a first ever for Bethanie), she was doing WONDERFUL. Bethanie's nose is no longer the image of a dripping faucet... and her cough is all but gone (the cough is what led me to believe she had an ear infection). We were even able to take advantage of the 70-degree day and made it to the zoo! We ran into a whole lot of people we knew at the zoo... Crystal & the triplets (by the way, her new hairdo looks beautiful), Monica & the family, Lyn & her babe, and even Tara & her girls. The parking lot when we left was absolutely packed... I'm so glad we went when we did!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Does anyone have any thoughts on how I can get Bethanie to eat better? The other three have always been great eaters. But Bethanie is such a picky eater (she hates most meat) and she's still not gaining weight (not so much as an ounce since her 15-month visit three weeks ago). Since she's again on her Prevacid and was only feeling "under the weather" for a couple of days, she should be eating better. Any ideas are greatly appreciated. I keep track of her gain on my favorite site from work (http://www.medcalc.com/). If you look closely at the red "dots", you'll see where Bethanie is.

Still not on the weight chart:(

I need to ask everyone to say a prayer for my friend Nikki. She had made it through kidney cancer and, last week, they found out she has new masses throughout her chest. We are pulling for her and really hope that the biopsies bring back good news. She isn't even 40 yet and has four kids at home from 11-17 yrs. Nikki can use everyone's prayers right now... THANK YOU!

That's all the words from the land of ladybugs & bulldogs for now. More to come...