Happy Birthday Andres!

Nine Years Old!!!

Wow Great things are happening. How our boy is growing up! October 30th Andres turned 9 years old. He had a friend over for his birthday for the first time and it all went great. I fretted about it but they had a blast!

 Birthday boy and

best friend Calvin!

 Cant leave Aaliyah out!

 

Andres is maturing so much in such a short time. He surprised us this year when we had his IEP the teacher told us he is on the TOP of his class for reading!!! This is the boy that in Oregon was in a self contained classroom. Now in a regular classroom and only gets some resource room help. Our second grader is a master with reading. He struggles with his numbers but you cant master everything :)

He is such a sweet young man. He is actually learning how to regulate his behaviors some by reading or playing with his legos. Yes there's a few bad days here and there but its a difference of night and day from when he first moved from Oregon.

He's going to join a Lego club which is a small group of kids putting Legos together once a week. He is very excited about this.

The day after his birthday we ventured out and went trick or treating...

They reaped the harvest with the candy! Then we went next door the the Neighbors and had a pizza party. They love their cousins!

This year has been a trying one. Started out very sad with mom unexpectedly passing then the Doctors telling us Aaliyah most likely needing brain surgery ASAP.

Finally I can say its all in the past. Surgery is over after a long fight with insurance to approve Milwaukee. Our hearts are healing with mom always on our minds. This side of the year is proving to be much better and happier! Aaliyah survived surgery without any stroke. She continues to heal. School is a huge struggle right now. The doctors hope as she continues to heal and blood flow improves this may improve. Till then school is really good at providing increased assistance for her.

Dan celebrated his 50th in September. We Celebrated our 10th Anniversary October 1st.

Then David and Laura were blessed with a bouncing baby boy October 2nd!!

My baby Nephew!!! Trevor Paul!!

Mom, Dad and Paul are Dancing in Heaven!

 

 

 

Pictures!

Dan took Pictures of the kids on the farm just over a week before we went to Milwaukee. I haven't had time to post them in a blog yet.

 And once again I remind you...NeVaeh hates her picture taken...LOL Its a big challenge but makes for great conversation pieces in the end ;)

 These two got Baptised the sunday before we went to Milwaukee

Happy Birthday!!!

All is well with little Miss Aaliyah.

She is a trooper! After her surgery we came home and other than the first day home she has been feeling well.

We have to remind her she cant run and jump off things as she would love to do.

But her Spark and Sas is back big time!!

She is I believe proud of her battle scar. She told me ..."Mom, I showed my friends my head!"

Asking her what they thought she giggles and says "Freaky!"

On September 2nd was FireCrackers 7th Birthday!!

What a blessing! Our little spark just went through a surgery that placed her in a high risk for stroke and now the risk is continuing to lower as the year progresses...till one year then should be to normal.

We won't know the success of her surgery till her angiogram at one year.

 Andres loved wrapping presents! He is feeling a bit left out. Yes he didn't have surgery but he missed out on mommy time for the over a week and a half I was gone and now its her Birthday. He and NeVaeh got to start school with just Daddy at home! His behaviors were so good while we were gone!! Now just wait my son Your birthdays coming the day before Halloween so you don't have long to wait!! :)

NeVaeh got a good surprise that she was approved funding for a new bike and that arrived last week! Now she gets to work on learning how to pedal. She was excited to see this when she came home from school!



Milwaukee....brain surgery

We finally made it to Milwaukee for Aaliyah s surgery to treat her Moyamoya. It's been quite the challenge just to get here and now I'm a bundle of nerves. Miss Aaliyah has been ok  with the idea of it up to this point though I'm not sure she understood all what it entailed other than she would have part of her head shaved and have some head aches when it was over. She was not ok with going to school before her hair grows back but I assured her we would find fun hats to wear.
Now that were here...it ended up scheduling kind of goofed so the surgery ended up the day before school started. I had to go with her by myself. Dan is at home with the other two getting them started at school for a new school year this fall.
The trip here was crazy..interstate all the way should be easy...Not. lots of Orange barrels. Some area closer to Madison and Milwaukee actually come to complete stops in the middle of the interstate. I drove on Sunday thinking traffic would be less but it seemed like lots of people out there doing their Sunday drive....bumper to bumper to be exact lol.
Aaliyah had surgery on Tuesday... it took four hours. It's a long time to wait all by myself but thank you Facebook friends for keeping sending prayers. Thankfully a sweet volunteer took me under her wings when I broke down in tears. Long long day. Finally almost 4:30 before I could see my baby. It went well the doctor said. Tough little girl!!

Took most the evening to get headaches and throwing up under control but by 1am she was good.by 4am woke up watching cartoons.
Wednesday morning took awhile to get headaches under control but finally they seemed to be doing well. By 10 pm was a chatty Kathy.
Today (Thursday ..right?)  She woke up at 5:30 with a bad headache..oral med either didn't control head or caused tummy upset as threw up at 6:30. Head each then got worse. She had moments today of being good but headaches not very good under control. Neuro checks are all good. She did sit on the edge of the bed for a short period with OT but shortly after bad headache started again. IV pain med and call to the Dr. If fluids were turned down but increased again because just not eating or drinking much of anything. Hoping this bump quickly smoothes out. Peanut is resting at the moment.

Monday