Wordless Wednesday.. Yard Work

Since Ryan's been working at night he's been up early working in the yard. We (meaning him, his dad, and Lynlee) are working on getting grass. I really thought Ryan was joking in March when I asked when we would have grass again.. His reply was August.. Now I only hope he's half right. But Lynlee loves being out there with the. Picking rock and raking. 

My belated Monday blog

I wanted to post yesterday but I've gave in and started reading the 50 shades of grey series. I couldn't put it down long enough to make myself dinner let alone blog.  I finished the first book this morning and I refuse to start the second until I get some very important things done. Regardless these pictures were taken yesterday. We had a great Monday around here.

Both kids were happy most of the day... With lots of smiles...

Labs looked great! We finally stopped the potassium medicine we'd been weaning. That makes us down to 5 meds now. I know that sounds a lot but two of them will be lifetime and one is aspirin and another iron. So it's not all that bad. We should get the EBV and the prograf level back tomorrow and Thursday. As long as they both look good we got the okay for a month repeat. I'm trying not to get excited because we've never made it that long. EVER....

Ryan started second shift yesterday which is from 2pm-11pm. His first night was good. He liked it. I don't hate it. I was worried he'd get 3rd shift which is from 10:30-7am. Then I'd be posting at like 3am  because I'm a huge baby and hate staying by myself... I think every little thing is someone breaking in robbing, murdering, etc, etc.. you know we have such a high crime rate in Elkins right.. (ha)

Good night all... Wordless Wednesday tomorrow :)

6 months.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around 6 months. 6 months. 180 days. 1/2 a year. Today makes 6 months since Lynlee's transplant. The day that really changed our lives forever. Part of me feels like it's been longer and the other part feels like it was just yesterday. I don't think I'll ever forget those first 36 hours. From the time we got the call until she was in PICU. Dr. Syndi sitting in the waiting room with us drinking his coffee after it was all said and done. Telling us how well it went and how the next 24 hours were critical. Little did we know she would do amazing. I shouldn't expect anything else from her.

I wish I had knew then what I know now. I would tell myself not to be so scared because she was going to be fine. That we were making the best decision and not to ever second guess ourselves. Maybe I would have got a little more rest that night. Maybe I would have not spent every waking moment praying as hard as I've ever prayed for the surgeons, for Lynlee, or the donor family. I would tell myself that she's going to eat and drink!! And she's going to talk.. She's going to learn and progress, and excel.

They (the doctors, the statics) say the first year post transplant is the worst. Everything’s about finding a balance etc. I'm sure we haven't had the best 6 months post transplant ever but I know it could be worse. She's definitely been more sick than she's ever been. And we have our struggles with certain labs and levels but we are getting there. We've still yet to make it past 2-3 weeks for labs and that's probably the hardest. It never gets easier holding her down for the blood work.

Ryan and I sat by the fire last night after Lynlee went to bed and a long conversation about the past 2 1/2 years. It's not been easy. It hasn't always been fun. But we are beyond blessed. We will never ever know why we or Lynlee was chosen to go through this journey. It's all part of a bigger picture we know nothing about. But I do know that with the two of them and many of you guys we will make it through anything.

I sat down last week and wrote the donor family a letter. I've wanted to do it since day one but couldn't find the words. Early one more last week I just woke up and wrote it. I felt like it was something I really needed to do. I know I may never hear from them. They may never chose to read the letter. But if they do I at least hope I could find a few small words to let them know they did make a difference..

A bigger difference than they will ever know.

Trying to catch up post..

I know! I know!! It's been forever since I blogged.. Too long. But days are crazy busy around here.  On a normal day I have Brody until 5-5:30. Ryan has been getting home around 5:30-6ish. We make dinner , clean up, play with Lynlee for a few minutes then its bath time, bed time, etc. By 9:30 2/3rds of this house is in bed and I'm enjoying bad tv and pinterest. And it's not that I'm too tired to blog all days but when I look back I don't have a whole lot to say... well nothing that would interest many of you.

Things are good.... really good. Ryan's still loving his job. He will go to a shift change next week so hopefully its still good for him? and well I change lots of diapers everyday, play with 2 or 3 little kids that mean the world to me and every now and then we take a couple pictures.

Last weekend was the first Saturday Ryan's been off (he's working as I type) so we decided to head to Blackwater for the day. We picked up some KFC for lunch and had the best time.

Sunday was Fathers Day. We took Ryan out to breakfast and headed to Lowes. We did come home with a new grill and firepit!!

(Random info: You'll see her dress again below. I totally put it on her wrong all the time. Ryan had dressed her before we went to breakfast. I told him the buttons go infront. Well I was VERY wrong. The buttons go in the back with the tag! HA)

And this week has been a lot of a blur.. Same thing different day really. We didn't have labs this week, but we do this coming week. We are still going to speech therapy every week. I'm starting to feel like Lynlee's making some real progress. She's added a few more words and different sounds to her vocabulary. She's trying to say more things too instead of just shutting down. We are trying to ignore the signs and atleast get some words for those. She is getting worse at signing. She makes up her own a lot. Her newest are yogurt and waffles.Food related of course.

 I felt like we had more social time than most this week. Erica and Adam had us up for dinner on Wednesday. We were at Ryan's parents for dinner on Thursday and last night we had my dad and everyone done for a belated Fathers Day dinner.

 (This was the picture we had taken a few weeks ago for my dads present. We made him a mug with this on it! It turned out so good. Oh and this was the first take too. SCORE )

And Ryan even got to try out the new fire pit last night.  See Lynlee's nose. She fell earlier and scrapped herself up. She looks pretty rough today. Poor kid... But she was enjoying those smores!

So that's basically it. We have a whole new week of adjustments coming at it. But I'll probably find more time to blog! Lucky for you ;)

Okay, Stop growing now!

Okay Lynlee you can stop growing up now.. I'm not ready for all this!

Last Spring

Today....



She's not a baby anymore. 

Wordless Wednesday... randoms

I find it hard to believe that it's Wednesday at 11pm and I'm just now finding the time to blog. The week has flew by already. I don't really have a theme of my Wordless Wednesday today.  They are pretty random. As random as my days are now. With 3 of my favorite little people.

(Really Aunt Stacy??)

Love her!

I walked in and saw Lexi reading to Lynlee.. Melted my heart a little

Forget Tummy Time.. I'll nap

Lynlee playing Brody some music.

I loved this picture. Lynlee LOVES Lexi!

The girls showing you their gloves before we make playdoh.

Week recap.

Well we finally have last week behind us. It was definitely some getting used to, but I think it went much better than expected. Ryan worked 50+ hours in his new job and loved every minute of it. I'm so glad. I think this change was a good thing for him!

And for Lynlee and I the week was good too. I was so afraid I would run out of patience by having three kids here. Well Lexi was only here on Thursday but everyday my patience level grew. I never once got frustrated with any kid.. I really enjoyed it! I really enjoy them! I somehow believe I was supposed to be a mom of many many kids, but baby sitting your nieces and nephews is almost as great.

But as I think of the week there were a few moments that stuck out above the rest.. A few moments that really make me smile...

• Lexi asking me if I made my bed that morning because she's never seen a bed made so pretty!
• Lynlee rubbing Brodys head and then bending down and kissing his cheek.
• Seeing Brody eat & smile & coo.. Babies are so fun
• Lexi asking me where I bought the chair in the living room corner.. She thinks it looks like it belongs in a hotel! Ha!
• Lynlee asking today if she could wear a dress again today. We went to a wedding yesterday and she loved wearing her dress.

And here are a few pictures that made me smile..

(It's actually taken from a few weeks ago, but I love it)

This was taken at 9:15 one night.. No joke! Even the dog went to bed on me.

Brody asleep in the bean bag after a tea party with Lynlee

Ryan holding Brody for the first time. And Lynlee being a mother hen

Lynlee ready for the wedding.

I know my blogging is few and far between these days. We don't really have much going on this week. We will have labs this week (probably Tuesday morning) and tomorrow we have Lynlee's IEP meeting for IF we decide to send her to school this fall. Just for the record we aren't leaning toward school but maybe for speech? That's a whole other blog I'll save for another day.

So have a great week.. We are planning on one!

Wordless Wednesday: Brodys 1st day here

I have to say it was nice/weird to have a baby around. I feel like I missed so much of the normal stuff when Lynlee was a baby. Everything was very scheduled due to her feeding schedule, meds, etc. When she cried she was never hungry. I've been very out of practice for the past couple years with babies, but I think we had an okay first day. I did keep looking for his button (feeding tube) all day though. Some habits die hard I guess!

Lynlee was an awesome big cousin today and helped out so much!!

I'm seriously excited for tomorrow!! Best job ever :)

Big Changes!

There a couple things changing in this household this week and I'm not just talking about Lynlee's clothes. We do go through many outfits in a day because well she is the messiest kid I've ever seen! But I'm loving every minute of it. I have pictures and pictures of her doing nothing but eating and drinking.. And it never gets old.. Not a day goes by that I don't catch myself just watching her eat and counting out blessings..

See this was her at the Children's Museum. I'm out of control I know!

But this isn't about that.. Ryan is starting a new job tomorrow. It's a huge change for our family. He has worked for the family business for 12 years and decided it was time for a change. He didn't want to own the business and have even more stress on him/us and he wanted something new...He starts at Armstrong tomorrow as a maintenance/electrician.  I'm so proud of him for stepping out to the unknown and wanting to learn/do more. I can't tell you enough how thankful we've been that hes worked for family during the first couple years of Lynlee's life. The first 7 1/2 weeks she was in NICU he was there with me every step of the way. He's only missed a handful of doctors appts and even through transplant there were maybe 2 weeks he wasn't.. We've always found a way to make it financially because of it, but everyone knows it's time to move on.  Theres no doubt its going to be a huge adjustment for everyone, but I know we will make it!

And if that wasn't enough change going on this week I've decided to add something else. Starting this week I'll be babysitting our newest family member Brody. I can't believe he's 6 weeks old and Kristies already going back to work but I'm beyond excited to take care of him while shes there. It will also be a huge adjustment but I think it will be good for us. Good for Lynlee.

So let's bring on the changes, the chaos, and the craziness!!

Our week in pictures

The last couple days we took a few days off for a small family vacation before some big changes come. (details later) We asked Lynlee where she wanted to go and all she would talk about were the elephants... So we packed up and went to Pittsburgh.. again.. We needed blood work anyway and we figured we needed to make some fun memories in that town..

So here ya go....

We checked in and ate some oreos..

Did a little swimming

On Thursday we started the morning with blood work and then went to the zoo.

That afternoon we headed to Station Square for some lunch and we rode the incline.

Did some site seeing..

Stopped for some ice cream.

Posed a little

Rode the incline back down

Got a little thirsty :)

Friday we got up and headed to the Children's museum. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect but this wasn't it..

What an amazing few days!!!