ok 2 post in one day - but this one has pictures....

I know that I'm pretty grumpy today and I promise when I explain it all you will know to but for now lets just enjoy the pics: Here is Miss Kinlee Fayth born Tuesday 4/28/09 at 3:15 Pm weighing 7 pounds 10 ounces, and 18 inches long... Out of all my parents grand kids she weighed the most at birth, and is the shortest, has the most hair, and was 4 days late!!! Kinlee thats how you get noticed being the 4th. She is a cutie!I thought that it would be fun to share the stats to all the kids, and something cool about them today! So here we go Oh, Ethan my angel, my first born (this is the title he gave himself and he recites it about 10 times a day)too funny! Ethan born on 11/12 weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long, he was 3 weeks early! And Tuesday HE LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH!! Tuesday WAS A GREAT DAY!!!

Khloe, Miss Khloe she i posing in a newborn bassinet at the hospital, she layed here almost a year ago herself, My she has grown.LOL She was born on 5/16/08 and she weighed 5 pounds 14 ounces and 20 inches long, and was 4 weeks early.... This week, she is saying HI and blowing kisses!!!!

Oh my sweet Brayden, he was born with the most drama, so that says alot for him, he was born on 10/22 his Nana's birthday, weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces but quickly lost down to 5 pounds 2 ounces my little man, and was 20 inches long. He was born 6 weeks early, and I tell ya He is a mommy's boy... What a guy!

Just had to show off alllllll the kids, and with Kinlee being born this week, it has made me happy that my husband and I still agree, we still want more kids! So as soon as he gets home from Iraq we will ( God willing) have another baby. I know Ill have to wait 2 more years, but I'm so happy with that choice, I hope by then Brayden will be in a good school routine, according to Ethan he will be driving a car,LOL and who knows what all will be going on. But I can tell you no matter what happens in this world, I LOVE being a mother, to all the babies.

Just feeling yucky....

Today for some reason I am feeling yucky, physically and mentally. I really have been exhausted for 2 weeks, and I think for the first time in forever my body just told me it was time to stop, and it made me soo sick last night and it made me feel like I have never felt before, my eyes were so blurry, my head was pounding so hard, I do have migraines but last night it didnt feel like it, this head ache has lasted ALLLL day long, pounding pressure head ache, and I have a cold, sore throat. Man oh man, and on top of all of this my sister had her new baby and I really feel like I should be there for her, but instead im at home feeling yucky. On a mental note, I am at a point that I feel like I try and try to make everyone happy and im sure that I fail at that, but in one situation that I need to leave vague for the moment, I have put my heart and soul into a something and now it has back fired and turning around and making me look like Im a terrible person for it. Ill let it pass a few more days then Ill share it all with you, I'm hoping its hormones talking but time will tell soon, just remember that peoples words can hurt...Im hurt tonight beyond words. But im going to bed and im going to pray hard about this entire situation and hope all gets better tomorrow. If not I have to wash my hands and move on....

TOMORROW IS THE DAY

Wow what a day it has been, its been a very, very long day after about maybe 3 hours of sleep I went and volunteered at Ethans school, let me take a second and tell it was such a sweet and simple blessing be there today, the school has raised enough money for each child in the school to get a new book from our school book fair and today while I was there to watch those sweet little kids get their new books, it was awesome, you could tell some of those children have never been able to purchase a book before, so to have a BRAND new book that THEY chose and could KEEP forever, they were thrilled and I was truly blessed to see that.
Then back to the hectic part of the day that for some reason has stressed me to a part that has made me sick, between that and being simple exhausted, but trying to line up baby sitters and school pick ups and Im helping with a school awards day on Thursday life is beyond hectic and I wanted to get all of this done and in bed by 10 (Hello, Im late) whats new? We have to get up at 3 and head to the hospital so that my sister can be induced with her baby girl, that is already 5 days late... So please be in prayer for her, for her to snap into motherhood, she is a single mom and with the help and support from her family it will be ok.... So if I have the energy Ill post tomorrow night of baby Kinlee. But for now I MUST GET SLEEP

This is how we ROLL...

During this week, I have made sure we get back into walking every day, and we have... So today I took the kids on a walk by myself, i put the boys in the wagon, ad Khloe in her car, and off we went after we were a mile into our walk,Darin called and couldn't find us, so we told him where we were and he came to join our family walk.. We enjoyed our nearly 90 degree weather, and planning on a wonderful weekend.. How is the weather where you are?

A THANKFUL HEART- Stif Person and Sensory Disorders-another post all over the place-are you suprised?

Earlier tonight I was reading a sweet blog about a family that has lost their 8 month old baby boy, a very healthy little boy, and now they are looking for answers and my heart breaks for that family. Many of you know that I went on bed rest while I was pregnant with Brayden, started contracting early, was having alot of complications and due to my high blood pressure I was put to bed, with early bleeding at 17 weeks, the doctor felt certain that I would miscarry I remember that Sunday night waiting for Monday morning to come, for me and Darin to go to the doctor to confirm that I was probably miscarrying, as we laid in bed praying and shaking with fear, although I had not met that baby that was growing inside of me, I was soo in love with the fact that I was pregnant with another child, Ethan was going to have a sibling and we knew my husband was leaving for Iraq very soon, and with this new baby, I would have a piece of Darin to hold in my arms, I knew that if I was loosing my baby it wasn't that far along and we could always have more babies, but me being selfish I wanted this baby... So we went to the ultrasound clinic, poor Darin was in and out of the bathroom he was so sick, we had gotten so nervous we had made our self sick, we waiting in there that morning in the waiting room for over an hour, I remember praying every few seconds, I didn't know how I was going to handle looking at that screen, and confirming that we had miscarried, after waiting, we went back and the moment they touched my belly, we saw a heartbeat! I don't think the two of us have ever cried so much.. The Radiologist, said that the baby was perfect and couldn't believe we were having problems, and said although it was a little earlier then normal for the "ultrasound" they could tell the sex, and wanted to know if we wanted to know--- yeah!!! although at that moment I really didn't care either way-- our baby was alive... It was a boy... As weeks went on I had more and more contractions going to the hospital every Monday, Thursday, and Friday other then that I was at home in bed, trying to take care of a 2 yr old, and my husband was working 90 miles away but was driving home every night...What a long story this has turned into.. I remember at 28 weeks we went into labor again and they were able to stop it this time, I was glad remembering he was so tiny, from the ultrasound and things would not be good if I delivered so I continued on with all my bed rest, we delayed our baby shower pretty scared of what was going to happen, Finally after i got to a safer 32 week time I decided we could go on and do the nursery, and at 34 weeks we did have a wonderful baby shower on that Sunday and I finally had him on that next Saturday and being put in the hospital on that Friday and being observed, we knew that at that point he had a better survival rate in the outside world better then inside I was at stroke levels and starting to have problems, and for both of our safety he had to come on. We had a very difficult delivery his heart stopped several times , they had to do CPR once he was delivered, he was an angel. He came home with little problems the normal preemie stuff, his biggest problem he could not suck. We had lots of problems with that and him loosing weight. He was born in Oct. and Darin left for Iraq in Nov. he was allowed to stay home from deployment due to the fact I was such High Risk. And in Dec. is when we started noticing Brayden was not acting right he had seizers, and then his body was sooo tight, he was always drawn up into a ball, he never opened his hands, never looked around never stretched his legs and to change a diaper we had to pull his legs so hard to get them out far enough to change him.

After talking with our PCP they really thought with the trauma at birth that he had cerebral palsy. But after meeting with the neurologist at Vanderbilt Children's. He came right in and diagnosed Brayden with Stiff Person Syndrome and had him to several meds at 3 months Brayden was taking pills that melted, he took them 3 times a day just to relax a little. The doctors don't really know the entire prognosis, its not a common disease, when I went to to the doctor they had set him up with Ester Seals and an at home Therapy service he was falling behind, not that we cared, we don't really compare him to "charts" each child is diff rent.... But we wanted him comfortable, and out of the fetal position. I didn't want my baby to hurt. and to know that he lives ever day in pain... breaks my heart. That my son doesn't even know he is in pain, for he has lived with it everyday! And all that I can say about Brayden is he is soo determined, he is to determined to be like his brother, and he tries so hard. The doctors and therapist told us he would not walk, and although he did wear leg braces my baby walks, runs, climbs, he does it all, Now not to say that he really dont get tired, he cant walk like an every day 3 year old could, and if its cold weather, well, he hurts alot more.. You know, I'M going to elaborate more in another post on "What is Stiff Person?" but tonight this post has been in my draft section for almost a month, and i really want it posted so you know how THANKFUL i am, and how proud I am of Brayden.

Not only does he have stiff person syndrome, and developmentally delayed, he has sensory integration disorder, he will be going for more in depth study for autism, they feel he is on the spectrum, and people I am fine with that, I love autistic children, and we love special needs children, as a matter of fact after we have one more bio child we plan to adopt another special needs child, so we love them so no one get offended when I say this,,, we wanted to wait and have Brayden tested for autism after the age of 3, when I talked to the teachers of his class, the Behavioral clinic at Vandy and others, they say its better after they are 3, we had a few doctors that wanted to go on and Label Brayden as autistic, and I feel that people are so quick now to "Label" kids and when they are labled often times they are looked at differently, If a child don't pay attention in school--- he must have ADD - put him on meds, instead of perhaps the child is HYPER. Medicine is great, and please know that we would not be where we are today if we didn't have the excellent medical attention that we have, and we have been in therapy since he was 3 months old, so we have been treating him, not like we have neglected him or anything.. we want him to have the best life, and Ill do anything to make that happen. Moving on...
The above picture is a sensory blanket, to help Brayden know where he is in space, he feels very comfortable when in this blanket, he went for a few months without making a sound and one day his Occupational Therapist put him in this , and he started"Talking" so I think he feels very safe.

Another milestone he is working on is getting off the ground, he has had large fears of this but now, with alot of work, he is doing better.

Yes he actually climbed the wall and jumped ( or forcefully dragged) down but he loved it once it was over... LOL

Texture - is another thing he has to over come so they will get him like this in a diaper and make him play in shaving cream, this was a challenge but he is getting better

And climbing in between these, he is still leery, he is really unsure where he is.
I know this is a long post and trust me I'm going to do more post( I Know you cant wait) on Stiff Person, and sensory integration, i want people to be aware of what our kids go thru, and how proud and thankful I am to be a mommy to a special little angel....

OK so who really needs sleep

Let me just say it is almost to the point of funny about 4 days ago Khloe started not feeling well since going to the dr we now know she still has yucky ear infections but anyway she has not slept well for days and get s up every few hours, and me just not sleeping well, so by last night at 7:00 i was so tired I was so ill, I couldn't even stand myself.... So I got my dad and my sister to take 2 out of the 3 kids. And after I watched a recorded version of Biggest Loser I was in bed and asleep by 10:30 ish, so I'm sleeping and at 11:15 or so I get a text my sister who is 39 weeks pregnant says she is hurting and thinks she is in labor, I was like no your not just take a warm bath go back to bed you go to the dr Thursday at 1 just hang in there,, Man that was selfish, but come on people..I'M EXHAUSTED! so at 11:45 she text back, NO Tiffany something is wrong I have to go to the hospital, I'M like OK we will go... LONG story short, we go to the hospital she was having contractions and was dilated to 2 but they we monitor for a little bit and if nothing worse they would send her on. They determined maybe she was dehydrated and need an IV so they did that and her contractions kept coming.. So at 6:00 this morning they check her again still no progress at 6:30 we get discharged and I get home just in time to get the kids off to school and Khloe was already up and going she wakes up at 5:15 people!!This is why I'm soo tired, so my already over exhausted self got about 2 hours of sleep since Tuesday, I snuck a little nap with Khloe today, and then after I got the kids today, my dad and sister watched all 3 outside while I came in to nap for another hour, sooooooooo I'M off to go to bed, I hope I get noooo phone calls tonight, I NEED SLEEP.

Its off to the Doctor we will go!!!

Today Khloe had to go back to the doctor today for a 2 week check up on her ear's. This is like the 10 month of ear infections and for some reason they are JUST now sending her to an ENT doctor for tubes, although i really don't know how well the tubes are. Brayden has had 2 sets and poor thing still has tons of ear infections and the thing about it they seem to hurt him more when they are infected... Anyway lets keep our fingers cross and hope this all works out. Also today she weighed in an 22 pounds 2 ounces not bad... She will officially be 11 months old tomorrow... Oh my goodness one more month and she will be 1--- scream! I am off to bed early tonight, I'M beyond exhausted the last 3 or 4 days I have felt like I was reliving the colic with Brayden and Brayden has had the worse colic out of any of these kids. But khloe has screamed her heard off for days..... not her normal I'm spoiled hold me all day, it s a very whiny scream, and I'm going to bed so I can attempt to get 8 hours of sleep, my sister has Khloe, and Ethan so I'm going to cuddle with Brayden and rest

Post full of lots of pictures-- this one is all over the place....

Well since it has been a few days and I still have not posted the solider party yet, that will take a little time I wanted to share a few pics from the last few weeks, so that I don't forget..... While my dad was in the hospital one morning I left over there to go see Brayden have his awards day at school, I know that this is bragging and well, yeah I'm going to and I would have pics to go with it if I had not been so into watching my little guy, I GOT NO PICS... Brayden did get "super spinner" to be honest I think that I already posted that but what I have not shared is he also got "Student of the month " for the month of April... This is a picture of his picture in the case in the front of his school, I'M so proud of my fake smiling little guy! Way to go Brayden!!! I do have lots of pictures from Easter Sunday but Blogger being a little crazy and I took forever just uploading these , so another day coming soon but here are a few pictures of the kids at an egg hunt at my grandfathers house... They hunted over 600 eggs!!!

Khloe just got down on the ground in the baby area and loved playing with the eggs

The boys stopped for a break after reloading their "baskets"

Whoops! These pics are out of order my peace child and Brayden waiting in line for the egg hunt to begin..

The Easter bunny came to visit while we hunted.....

Wow! Really out of order Tiffany! This is a not-so good picture of Khloe getting ready for church after church we took more and I hope they turned out better..

OH! Did I mention the kids finally got their new swing set, its huge! and I love it... We are going to have a great summer outside playing!

And the last few days we have had terrible storms today my mom and I had to go to an art show in Murfreesboro. and this is what the sky looked like when we came out , we were all under tornando watch until 8 pm tonight, scary!!!! I'm glad I'm home, safe my kids were safe, and the weather has somewhat calmed down.... Now I'm off to bed, I have to go "proctor" a TCAP test in the morning at Ethan's school, sounds fun my friends!!!!

Tornado

Well today on Good Friday-- we were really blessed that we were protected from some horrible weather, unfortunately in the surrounding towns and even one in our own county 12 miles from here a tornado damaged hundreds of home s injured over 40 people and so far 2 deaths unfortunately in was a mom and her 9 week old baby girl-- so sad, tonight we are giving God praise for keeping us safe, and praying for those who lost everything, and the families that lost someone or injured, GOD be near.... This is the part that is yucky about living in TN, tornado weather... They can pop up and here for a few hours on a beautiful day, then have bad weather destroy lives and back onto a beautiful day, with hurricanes you have days to prepare, with tornado's you don't...

PLEASE PRAY

I just sat in my kitchen with my aunt and my cousin and did the part that I hate about the military, having to say GOOD BYE- its soo hard to do, its hard for everyone involved, in the morning my cousin will get on the plane and fly to Korea, please pray for a safe trip, pray that she remains safe while there,Pray for her mom... I cant imagine how you feel telling her child good bye and send them across the country not to see them for 6 months or a year,I know when my husband left last time for Iraq, my mother in law, couldn't even come and say good bye to her son and send him off to war and I was so upset with her, but things have changed and i really cant imagine doing that... Keep this sweet family safe, and at peace, Lord my heart hurts for them...

Our Soilder's Party, part 1

In our family, we are so lucky to have 3 soldiers and unfortunately they are all going to be deployed this year, so while we had all 3 of them here and together we had a great party in all of their honor, to pray for them, and show them our support and our thankfulness. I don't have all the pictures but should get them tomorrow so I will share them tomorrow if all goes as planned, and we get them back. This party was amazing we ended up having nearly 50 family and friends, we really missed having Darin's family here, but understandably that they are in California so, at another time maybe. This wonderful sign was donated by a sign man in our town, we loved. Also a bit of exciting news the local paper came and took pictures and it should be in the paper on TUESDAY!!!! Also, during the party all the soldiers, were given a beautiful picture from my Aunt, her daughter is Cora Beth and she is leaving on Wed. for Korea.

Also, during the party, another one of my Aunts, Cody's mom, which he will be leaving in March of '10 for Afghanistan, she wrote and presented them with this beautiful poem, I want to share it with you all, and for all of our family in Utah and Cali, I'm mailing you all copies of the poem, and pics from the party, and the newspaper, Darin was saying that it was so important ti thank all of his family for such amazing support. And with out the prayers, and family it would be impossible to do what it is that he does. but until tomorrow,

Our Very Own Soldiers

Darin, Cody, Cora Beth

The decorations are up and all the people came

We are here to recognize, such precious fame.

As we stand here in laughter with warm hearts in cheer

It's because of our soldiers we have nothing to fear.

We go through our lives from day to day

Never stop to think, as our kids play.

Just how lucky we are and how this can be

It's because of our soldiers, that we stand here free.

In our little family, we have too many that give

And they do it with pride, so we can all live.

So when you see a soldier go shake their hand

you're never so lucky, to know each woman and man

they give more then you know and id it everyday

When you are lost for words, bow your head and pray.

Ask God to carry them and bring them all home

We need our Family so we are never alone

Our hearts will break but together stand strong

"Dear God end this war" so this won't take long.

Speak to their hearts, their hearts and their minds

Let them know we're here and never far behind.

While we don't wear boots, ruck, or shoot guns

We will all be here praying until it's all done

April 4 2009

*** Pray for all of these amazing soldiers, hopefully pictures tomorrow

Dad is home from the hospital!!

We have had an a very busy Saturday and ill update more on the fun stuff when I have the energy... It was amazing.. But on to dad, we finally was discharged and didn't leave the hospital until 10:20 PM i think that is sooo late to be discharged, but they couldn't get his bp down, and that is very important very a stroke patient. Its important for anyone, but especially a stroke patient, we got all his meds and from previous and new meds he is on 14 meds, most 2-3 times a day, poor guy. He is breathing better, but still having inhalers and we are waiting for a biopsy to come back and should know Thursday, when they went in to clean out his lungs, they also found a patch of stuff, and wanted to send it off but only got a little sample, due to the fact he is on blood thinner they didn't want to change any bleeding. But for now the breathing and coughing are some better, his left lung sounds yucky, but in time it should get better. And the other thing that is a huge concern while he was in the hospital over this week he has put on 13 pounds in fluid!!! Scary- and my poor dad didn't realize when the Dr's were telling him that he had chronic Kidney disease, that it was meaning that his kidneys are failing, sooo please pray some special prayers that he will be ok with the news, and that all test will come back good, and that the find a great way to treat him. He is a really amazing dad and i love him to death, want him to live a wonderful life and enjoy all these grand babies. He deserves to be happy and as healthy as he can. We love him so special prayers for a good plan for the future in his medical conditions.

So another day at the hospital---

Today was a pretty ok day, his new treatments seem to be working some, although not enough his airways are still yucky, so we will fix that tomorrow--- they ae going to go in and clean all that yucky out of his lungs... Please pray for him tonight as he goes to nothing by mouth and that his sugars stay ok, being a diabetic all this can be very tricky... His fluid is still not doing well, he is still gaining weight daily due to fluid, and not enough out take and due to kidney functions that have not been able to take any fluid off yet. We are hopeful this will start tomorrow... And,speaking of kidneys- today they got results back from his renal ultrasound, and it just confirmed more chronic kidney disease due to diabetes, and that he had a cyst on his kidney that they are not going to biopsy now. We are going to be in close contact with his Nephrologist. Be in prayer for his blood pressure to come down, when I left at 8 it was 199/114 too high for anyone especially one who has had strokes, yikes... Stay in prayer for a safe night, and wonderful outcome from the procedure tomorrow... God is Good-- we are so lucky to have all these wonderful Dr's, and medical knowledge to treat people , and help to improve their quality of life, we are so fortunate to have this as Americans!