It's WORKING!!! Back Update

So I went to the doctor's on Monday, and I have a new xray picture for you. It's actually pretty cool. I mean, you can CLEARLY see the bone that they put in, as well as all of the hardware, and you can even see the bone marrow that is starting to fuse the discs together. (If you look the top and the bottom of the cadaver bone).

All I can say is that this was SUCH a good thing for me. I feel so blessed to be able to walk without pain now, and that Dr Steinmann gave me my life back. I went on a 10 mile hike about a week ago, and while my legs and cardio was screaming, my back was doing quite nicely!!!

I have my good and bad days, but at least I have good, right!!! BEST THING I'VE DONE IN YEARS!!!!

Kiya's 1st Haircut AGAIN

So clearly the 1st haircut for Kiya didn't really happen, so this was the second attempt. Of course lessons were learned. Kiya was well fed, rested and not close to her bedtime.

The shaggy look
In the chair getting ready
See how calm she is...

She did really well. She sat, they cut her hair and before you knew it...she was done!! I know it's a little anti-climatic but I didn't take a post haircut picture. I guess you will just have to come and visit us :) *not sure what is going on with my camera...all the pics are a bit out of focus*

Sea World With Gigi

Having an annual pass to Sea World is fantastic. I absolutely love going and so do the kids. This most recent trip we invited Gigi along, and she couldn't help but buy her own annual pass!! Now we can go with Gigi all year long!!!!

The kids had a blast from the touch tanks and the shows. They were really excited to have Gigi there with them.
Caiden touching a starfish
Caiden with Gigi touching a sea anemone
Kiya crying because the water was REALLY cold. Notice her wet hand :P
Caiden and I at the touch tanks. Thankfully I brought long pants along cuz it got COLD.
I love this bird's hair :P
Caiden and the bracelet that Gigi bought him
Kiya and Caiden with the curious dolphin...
Who even paused to smile for my picture :)

Flamingo feeding it's young

We have been going to Sea World for awhile, but it still seems that the kids have a ways to go until they reach the height requirements to do some of the things they wanted to do. :)

Caiden the GQ boy...
Kiya getting tired and watching a show
Just a little further and Caiden can do the dolphin encounter they have!!!
Kiya has a WAYS to go until she can go on the Artic Encounter Ride
The kids posed with the polar bear :)
Lounging around...the life of a polar bear
Kiya happy because Gigi bought her a monkey...she LOVES the tail!
She wouldn't let go of monkey no matter where we went

There were a few things that I liked, such as this Bell Tower, the sign for the Bell Tower and this beautiful tree. I thought the Bell tower was very interesting, but there was a very big sign that said not to ring the bell...Darnit that I am a rule follower because I SOOO wanted to ring the bell. I figured if I did though, someone might notice :P

Isn't this tree beautiful. Just looking at it is peaceful
Read the sign...wouldn't YOU want to ring it too???
Thank you mom for coming with us. We had so much fun!!!

Halloween 2009

Dave worked on Halloween, so it was just the kids and I running rampant around the neighborhood. I was a little nervous with my back so bad, and Kiya HATING her costume originally when she put it on (see below picture). Not to mention I am a TOTAL wuss when it comes to scary things. I mean, I am totally the type of mother who stands on the driveway at the scary houses while Dave takes the kids up to those houses. What was I to do this year?? Skip the scary houses completely, or brave it and take them myself???

She just stood and cried. She HATED it
Still crying...this was a day before Halloween
Caiden, on the other hand, was happy with his Wolverine costume

But things went pretty well. Kiya immediately took off running when I got her costume out, but I convinced her to wear it with promises of adventures and candy and glow sticks :) Caiden was busy passing out candy at our house, while I tried to wrestle Kiya into her costume, keep Flash from lunging at the trick or treaters who came to our door and ensure that Caiden was safe and in the house when the kids came to collect candy.

Kiya and Caiden ready to go trick or treating

You will be happy to know that I went up to the scary houses. Ok, ok it wasn't my choice. It seems years of Dave taking Caiden up to those houses made Caiden WANT to go. He thought the lights, and costumes, decorations and sounds were cool. Kiya took after me and cried. :p

*Well, she cried because they had live people posing as props come to life. I mean CMON people!!! I will freely admit that I used Kiya as a shield from them scaring us by saying "It's ok Kiya, Mama will keep you safe, don't be scared". It worked too. That's when the props would give me a little wave, and I gave a satisfied but totally wussy sigh.*

This was one of the scary houses. I know it doesn't look like it but the flash is bright, and the night was dark
This was one of the two locations they had adults in costumes as live props.

Caiden and Kiya were SOO cute. Caiden would tell his life story and introduce himself as "Wolverine and my little sister Kiya is "Monkey", but last year I was spiderman....". Kiya would say "Trick or Treat", and then say "Happy Halloween", and "Thank You". If the person did not say Thank you back she would just stare at them. If they STILL didn't say it back, she would say "Thank you" louder. If they STIIILLL didn't say "You're welcome" she would give them a hug. It was hard to drag either of them away from the doors. Caiden would talk their ears off, and Kiya was too busy hugging people and prompting them to be polite.

Kiya and Caiden passing out candy to our neighbors

Kiya would walk up and knock on the doors

The kids really liked their glow sticks
And yes that is an Easter basket. The dog ate her Halloween bag, so I had to make do

We had a lot of fun, and Caiden was amazing. He watched out for his sister and held her hand. I had given each of the kids' glow sticks, which turned out to be a good idea because I don't see very well in the dark and Kiya had dark costume on. Tired and stocked with candy, we returned home to see that Caiden's friends Derrick and Gabe had walked all the way down to our house to see Caiden on Halloween. He was BEAMING...it was so cute.

Kiya walking up our driveway

Caiden was so cute with Kiya....holding her hand
Making sure she was safe...
Gabe, Derrick and Caiden
Good friends on Halloween :)

I am glad that I took the kids around our house...we had a GREAT time. :)

Swinging Summer Fun!

With the weather turning colder, I thought it might be nice to throw in some blast from the not so distant past pictures. Here are some swinging summer pictures of the kids having fun on the playground set.

These pictures are from June and July of this year, around the time we put in the playground set and we couldn't get the kids off the playground set. :) The neighbors came over to help Caiden and Kiya to christen the swing set.

Caiden making a silly face. This is his new thing when I take out the camera
Gigi came over to play
She loves the swing set
Kiya sitting on top of the playground set (clearly awhile ago...she has a bottle here)
The neighbor kids and Caiden and Kiya. Kiya wants her milk here :p
Sliding down...Kiya's happy she got her milk :)
Kiya playing peek-a-boo
Kiya chillin on the stairs
And modeling her Elmo swimwear
Caiden making silly faces again with his little dance moves

Melissa and my Godson Gabe came over to play when Caiden was camping with his grandparents.
Gabe is so cute and he played very well with Kiya
Melissa and Gabe swinging
Gabe climbing up the rope ladder
Such a cutie :)
I love this picture of Kiya
She even played peek-a-boo with me :)

I love how much the kids enjoy playing on the swing set and in the backyard. I'm glad that I can take part in documenting their childhood memories with their friends and family.

The Alien Pumpkin

Since it's that time of year and Caiden has been home sick, we thought it would be fun to cheer him up by carving a pumpkin...an alien pumpkin that is (that's what he wanted to do).

Kiya and I taking out the innards (Caiden was still eating his dinner)
Kiya getting her hands dirty
Of course we have to use our senses and smell and feel the pumpkin seeds

After doing this for many years now we have a kind of routine. The kids and I take the pumpkin innards out, and Dave does the actual carving of the pumpkin.

Kiya and Dave inspecting the pumpkin before carving
Dave making the first cuts
They are all engrossed in the pumpkin...just for different reasons
Caiden is looking at his sliver of pumpkin, Dave's still carving and Kiya's ready to put the cap on
Caiden kept calling this his "pumpkin eye"

Now that Kiya is a bit older she was really into "experiencing" the pumpkin with all of her senses. It was quite cute.

Getting her hands dirty
And of course she had to make sure it was edible

Caiden was more excited with the pieces of pumpkin that Dave was cutting out.

This was Kiya when she looked at the pumpkin and we turned the lights off...hehe
Both kids watching the pumpkin glow...my flash is bright the lights were OFF
Kiya made this pumpkin

The kids seemed to have fun, and we have our traditional carved pumpkin now (so I don't feel so guilty on depriving them of this holiday fun).

Gigi and I and the Kids Go To The Pumpkin Patch

Gigi came over today to spend some quality time with the kids. Since we thought it would be a fun treat, we surprised the kids and went to the Pumpkin Patch. Caiden was really enthusiastic. Kiya SAID she was...until we got there then I think she was just hot and tired.

The pumpkin patch itself was amazing!! It was HUGE! They had a corn maze, sunflower section, HUGE area where you could go out and pick your own pumpkins, a gift shop, petting zoo, plethora of bounce houses, tractor rides, hay rides, John Deere rides for the kids, Cafe, food stands, and I could go on and ON!!!

Here are some people picking their own pumpkins
One of the many tractors
Lots of different kinds and colors of pumpkins, gourds, etc..
Some bright and some bubbly...
They had cute decorations and areas to take pictures
And a cornfield maze (frankly I have no sense of direction and neither does my mom, so we opted NOT to do this this time).

It was SUPER hot so we stayed as long as we could. Kiya was NOT in the mood as she was tired, hot and don't forget, we are potty training her so I'm sure that was loads of fun for her. We first thought we would take some pictures, but Kiya was tired and that didn't go over too well. **On a side note for those of you that were wondering. Yes I dyed my hair dark brown. I thought "why must blondes have all the fun, I'm gonna switch it up". :)**

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Ok, I fully admit that I went a little overboard on posting pictures, but frankly its so rare that I get to take pictures like this with and of the kids :) I couldn't help but post so many. I wonder if there is a 12 step program for this type of problem? Well if you can always use that nifty scroll bar and scroll through them really quickly :)

Gigi and the kids on our arrival. Notice Kiya is already tired
Here is Kiya protesting taking this picture
Although later she did calm down enough to snap a few, but no smiles
Caiden, Kiya and myself

Not sure what's with our expressions, but whatever :)
The corn was about his height, the plant much taller
We tried for a corn picture, but this was about all we got
Caiden was a trooper and posed for pictures with me :)
Here he was tickling himself to make himself laugh so he would have a more "natural" smile hehe

Notice he is still trying to tickle himself
I kinda like this picture :) My boy is so handsome :)

Kiya took a liking to the sunflowers
She is unsure if she wants to participate, so she is testing it out :)
Kiya smells with her lips...it kinda looks like she is kissing the flower
And now she is examining it
This was the look we got most of the day

Next Caiden played in the bounce houses, and then we decided to go in the shade for a little while and turned corn and gourds into musical instruments. That was Kiya's first smile.

Tickets in hand, Caiden watched the sand drain so he knew when it was his turn
Caiden showing us the different pumpkins
Kiya holding my hand
And this is where Gigi and Caiden made music with the gourds. He loved it
And Kiya joined in with her musical corn

Next we went into the petting zoo which really consisted of goats and sheep. Kiya was INTENT on feeding the goats and sheep and was very aggressive about it, holding the cup of food and running around after the animals. It was very cute, especially as she would take one kernel of food out and hand it to the animal, or shove the cup in the face of an animal who was cleaning itself.

Goat way up high
Close up of the goat
Kiya contemplates her strategy
She befriends a goat
And shares. She made sure each goat got some
This one was cleaning itself and Kiya shoved the cup in its mouth. It did eat though

She would put one kernel of food in the hay at a time...
Now she started touching the sheep...so cute


This is the point where I asked Kiya if she had to go potty. She said no. I said are you sure...so she checked. Notice the hand down her pants.

Caiden took a more laid back approach and allowed animals to come to him. He would go to the animals too, but if other kids wanted to feed them as well, he would back off and share. So sweet :)
Caiden is so gentle. He was very sweet with the animals. Very calm. I just love this boy!!
Caiden showing the other little boy how to feed the animals

The animals themselves would regularly stampede partly because there was some neurotic kid chasing them, and partly because I think they wanted away from the kids hounding them. I got taken out by one of the stampedes, and Kiya got clipped in the head by a goat who jumped over her. After that I would position myself around Kiya and then brace myself for impact...those things were crazy. Caiden was smart and stayed away from the stampede :)

These darn animals would randomly stampede

This was my view right before I landed on my butt. They totally took me out!!

It was fun, but waaaaay too hot, and since Kiya was having a slow meltdown we felt it best to go and come back another day.

I'm Domesticated!!!

That's right. I am a regular June Cleaver now that I have been home for awhile. Today I made Pumpkin Bread AND Caramel Apples!! I mean, it IS the season for these types of treats RIIIGHHHT?!

I couldn't wait to eat the pumpkin bread, so there it is incomplete in this picture

Caiden and I made the caramel apples, with an occasional assist from Dave. It was fun and they taste delicious!!!
The chosen apples
Notice the tool that Dave uses to remove the stems

I show Caiden how to cover the apples with Caramel
Then he does it himself :)
The finished product :)

Ok so it's not rocket science or anything, but admit it, you are a little impressed aren't you? :P Oh, and just in case you were gonna ask...the laundry is already in the dryer :)

Redecorating Rooms - Making Progress

You have already seen Kiya's new room (formerly the guest room), well now let us unveil the new and improved GUEST ROOM!!!! (drum roll pleeeeeaaassseee).

This is our "Travel" theme room as it contains things that we have collected or have been given to us from around the world. This room still needs some finishing touches, but for now (and until we have money to travel to collect more "collectibles" it is done).

These are bottles of wine that we have collected from our travels that are MADE in the country that we are at (sounds simple but we have some stories on how we got these)

The globe is from Asia and I love it (Thank you Katie and Lisa)

Here is the bed made with pillows. This bed is actually our crib converted to a full bed. :)

I have to say Dave did most of the work here. He painted the room, hung the shelves, put the bed together. I helped put on the new box sprint (more guided it), new mattress, put the sheets on and then added all of the details and moved the clothes into the closet.

We also made some modifications to the playroom. We got rid of the Armoire, got a new TV (we sold Dave's PC laptop), and added more storage space for toys. It really opens up the space. We even did a once over on the toys and weeded out some "unused ones".

It's so nice to finally make some progress on our house. I mean after all, it's only been THREE years. :)

Finishing Touches to Kiya's room

Since I have been home and Dave has had some time off we have finished Kiya's room. We finally have her moved over OFFICIALLY!!! Her closet has now been double hung, clothes moved over, and drawers filled with her things.

If you look closely there are two purple butterflies next to the "A"

There is a fairy sitting on the dragon picture my sister made (needlepoint)

Dave put the shelves up, and her name and some more finishing fairy touches. It is a wonderland, and a place that Kiya has peaceful dreams...just check her out :)

Can you believe I got this picture in the complete dark WITHOUT waking her up :P

Update on Matt

Thank you everyone for all of your prayers and thoughts. I wanted to give everyone an update on Matt's progress. The Drs are pretty positive that Matt will be a paraplegic for the rest of his life. They are going to release him from the hospital soon to a rehab center for the next 6 weeks where the emphasis will be on Matt learning how to live his life in a wheelchair rather than strengthening his legs.

We are still praying and hoping for a miracle and that Matt will be able to walk again. He is a 10 year old very active boy that loves to play hockey and run. If it is not in God's plan for Matt to walk than the focus will be on helping Matt understand that he can still do things that he wants, he will just have wheels instead of feet.

As always your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated.

Prayers Needed & Warning About Undercooked Food

As some of you already know my stepbrother's son, Matt has fallen ill quite unexpectedly. This past Friday, Matt was taken to the ER. He had told his parents that he had some back pain so they set an appointment with an orthopedic doctor for that week, however Matt never made it. He awoke early Friday morning and was unable to move his legs.

At the ER, he was x-rayed and they did a spinal puncture. He was seen by a number of doctors and an MRI was done, and he was admitted to the hospital. The MRI revealed that a mass was growing in his back near the T4/T5 area (mid back). The neurosurgeon did not believe it was cancerous, but indicated that it needed to come out. Matt had surgery early Saturday morning.

The surgery went well and fast and the mass that was removed literally popped out when they went to remove it. It was 1-1/4 inch by 1 inch. They are testing it to determine what it is, however the neurosurgeon believes that is a parasite called Taenia Solium (AKA Pork Tapeworm). The disease this parasite caused is cysticercosis. The neurosurgeon described his case as bizarre.

Regardless the mass applied pressure for a small time t his spinal cord. That pressure has left him unable to move from the waist down. The neurosurgeon indicated that he had blood flow on both sides of his spinal cord and there was no damage or cuts to the spinal cord which is good. Matt now has some feeling in his upper legs when deep pressure is applied. He is set to begin physical therapy to help determine his prognosis and to get things working again. The doctors are not giving any guarantees at this time. He is only 10 years old. When he is released from the hospital he will have to go to a rehab center for over a month (he will live there while he is recouping).

This was very fast acting. Again he only described some back pain, and then all of a sudden he could not feel his legs. Please keep Matt in your thoughts and prayers. This next week will be crucial for him. We are hoping in time he will recover and be running around again.

Also, please take this as a reminder to ensure that you nor your children do not consume undercooked food.