Santa's Helpers

My Aunt Deedee called me a few weeks and said she was coming to Arizona for a few days with her friend Lindy.  I was so excited, we don't get visitors here very often, and since I'm not going to see any of my family this year at Christmas, I was excited that my Aunt would be visiting.  This month has been crazy for us with illness, all of us getting sick, ER visits, chest Xrays, swallow study.  Deedee's visit has definitely been our  highlight.  My Aunt is a flight attendant, she and her friend Lindy arranged so that they had a layover in Arizona on their way back from China.  They were here for a day and a half.  It was such a great visit.  They watched Eli while I took Isabelle to doctor apts. and to get tests done, brought fun toys from China for the kiddos to play with and basically just made our day!  On Friday, I went to pick them up from the hotel and they were dressed like this (see the picture) standing in front of their hotel with a bag full of cleaning supplies.  They cleaned my house from top to bottom, watched Eli while I took Isabelle to get a chest Xray, watched both kiddos and sent me out to get a pedicure and took me out to dinner.  It was such a gift to me, it was so nice to come home to a clean house, to see my kids playing with Deedee and Lindy and having so much fun, getting to go out to eat, all of it was such a treat, especially when we've been so swamped with insurance drama, doctor apts, colds and the flu here.  It was my own little Christmas miracle and so nice to just relax a little (thank you pedicure lady - it was wonderful).  Eli adored Deedee and Lindy and we had so much fun with them.  Here's hoping they come back soon!

D

December Daily

I decided to do something Christmas-ey with the kids every day this month, even if it's just something small.  I got the idea from Ali Edwards, who does a scrapbook journal every year called December Daily, where she journals in her scrapbook what she does each day.  Here are some pictures from some of the things we've done so far:

 Watching Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer

 Eli and I made Christmas popcorn, with white chocolate and red and green M&M's - really yummy

Got our Advent calender started

 Went to temple lights at the Mesa Temple

The hardest part of this month is that Isaac, Isabelle and I have all been sick.  Isaac was out with a cold, I ended up in the ER this week, Isabelle has a cold she can't get rid of and has had to use a neubulizer to help with her cough (causing more insurance drama, since she can only use 1 particular medicine with the neubulizer because of her heart, and it wasn't the cheap medicine that insurance wanted to pay for).

Pictures

We had pictures taken of the kids in Oct - kind of.  The park where we took the pictures had lots of animals running around -chickens, peacocks, bunnies, etc.  So, basically we never got any pictures taken of Eli, because every time we tried Eli would see a peacock or dog or something and take off running.  So literally, every picture we have of Eli was either of his back as he ran away, or of Isaac or I trying to wrestle him into a picture.  But we got some cute ones of Isabelle.

Eli running away

 This one was just as we were walking to our car, but you can see how much she adores her dad.  He gets all the big, double-chinned smiles.

An Early Visit to Santa

We went to see Santa the week before Thanksgiving - I know, I know, Christmas stuff isn't technically supposed to start until after Thanksgiving, but Isaac and I were looking for somewhere to take the kids and randomly enough, Bass Pro Shop, this hunting/fishing store here, has all sorts of fun stuff to do in Santa's Village.  There is remote controlled cars, crafts, a fake snow machine, race cars, train tracks, a 2 story fish tank with enormous fish, and Santa to top it all off.  We'll probably go back a few times before Christmas.  There is just a lot of fun stuff to do and Eli loves it there.  

 Isabelle's belly is pretty comparable to Santas.

We're still here

I haven't posted in a few months, so I thought I'd give a quick update with a few pictures of our fall here in Arizona.  We're still here, Isaac started a job with Go Daddy 2 weeks ago (they sell domain names and help people create websites).  Isaac is working at a tech for people who are paying Go Daddy to create their website.  He walks them through anything they might be having trouble with and helps them make their website.  So far he's only a few weeks into the job but really likes it and is hopeful that he will be able to work his way up in the company.  They are good about promoting from within and creating apprenticeships for employees if they are interested in another department, so he is hoping to eventually get an apprenticeship and move to a different dept.  

Isabelle is doing well.  As of last week she is officially, for the first  time, off of all her medications.  Her heart has not continued to heal, but the blessing has been that her body is tolerating the problems in her heart a lot better, so the doctors were able to take her off all her meds and we don't have to go back to cardiology until next summer!  They are assuming that if things stay the same, they wont have to do open heart surgery on her until she is a teenager and with the new cardiology developments that are happening, they think that by then the surgery will be performed in a different way and wont be as risky or even done through an incision in the chest.  

Isabelle finally got approved for a Doc Band - we call it her football helmet.  Her head has become really flat in the back and this will help shape it into a normal ball shape again.  She's had it about a month a half now and will probably have it a few more months.  

 We went to neurology last month and since she finally had her first normal EKG, they began weaning her off her meds.  Now our lives are busy with lots of dr. apts - physical/occupational/developmental therapy weekly, helmet checkups, and lots and lots of insurance drama.  

The kids in their halloween costumes.  

We got lucky and Isabelle was approved for a special vaccine made for children with heart defects, to protect them against RSV.  It is a monthly vaccine, but it's expensive and is given first to preemies with heart defects, so we weren't sure if she would get it or if insurance would pay for it.  Luckily both pulled through, so she is getting this also.  It's good, because being sick makes her more likely to have seizures, as well as affects her heart, so hopefully this will help keep her at least protected against RSV.

Eli is busy, busy, busy.  He just got a bike as an early Christmas  present from his grandparents, and has been riding like crazy all over the apt. complex, trying to do crazy bike tricks that he sees older kids doing!  We're disappointed because we wont be going to Oregon for the Christmas season at all this year.  Normally we make it either for Christmas, or right after, but since Isaac just started work, he wont be allowed time off, so I'm going with the kiddos in Feb.  So here is our little update.  We've got lots more going on, but I'm going to be happy with posting this much for now.  We've (once again) lost all of our blog addresses for everyone, so leave your blog address please!