We Made it!

We made it to Idaho Falls after a very long drive we got in at 10:30pm Friday night. I am so glad we can stay til next Friday. It looks like we made it in between storms and were lucky that we only saw rough road for about 30 minutes outside of Idaho Falls, Yeah! The Children were thrilled that Santa has already been here and riped into their presents as soon as Grandma said go. Awesome! So we will be here for a week and I will update after that. Happy New Year!!!

Hospital

It all started this past weekend, well it started before that, 2 weeks before, but who is counting.
The weekend;
I was trying to be pro-active for our trip to Idaho Falls for Christmas I had gotten all the laundry done and decided that it may be a good idea to just go ahead and pack the kids bags... It just seemed easier even though we were not suppose to be leaving until the 23rd. Saturday night we got together with some friends and had a "Hawaiian haystacks" buffet Christmas party. I ate very little knowing that eating, no matter what it is hurts. I had a very bad night that night and by 11:00 am Sunday was in a great deal of pain with nothing helping, no amount of pain meds were going to break this up.
Sunday;
I called the Doctor on call and was so happy that is was my doctor. She told me to go to the ER and that she would call ahead so that I could get right in and get some iv pain meds on board. Since it was Church time it was nuts to get someone to come be with the children while Trent took me in. Our friend Genesha luckily had forgotten to turn off her phone while she was teaching primary and so we got lucky. She found someone to take over her class and had her spouse Dave drive her over to our home so we could go.
I got right in to the ER and although it took 4 tries to get an IV started on me, due to dehydration (I had been throwing up a good part of the night as well) Needless to say getting the pain meds on board was so nice!! Because it was a Sunday and there was not signs of infection at this point, and the weather outside had taken a turn for the worse (12 to 16 inches of new snow fell that night) The surgeon decided to admit me to get re hydrated and and get wonderful pain and nausea meds, and do the surgery the next day, Monday Morning. Threw all of this I had not yet seen my surgeon.
Monday;
He came in to meet with me Monday morning and after talking about the test that had been run the last few weeks and where the pain was he decided to put off the surgery until Tuesday to make sure I did not have an ulcer. So I had an scope put down my throat to check things out instead. There was a lot of wear on my throat along with a rash and they did take a sample to see what it was but there was not ulcers. ( Results were that it looks like I am allergic to the Ibuprofen family)
Tuesday;
I had laproscoptic Surgery at 730am. It took more time than it should of because my gall-bladder was not in its typical place. It was hiding. But I new where it was because that was were all the pain was. the surgeon almost did not do the surgery because he kept telling me that was not were the gall-bladder "lived". He was wrong. I stayed one more day and night in the hospital and thankfully I am home now. I am very very sore and love pain medications.
We were suppose to be heading out to Idaho falls for Christmas but instead decided I need some more recovery time and pushed our departure off til this Friday. It was a very hard decision because all of the children's Christmas is down there, all I had for them here are pjs and slippers. We talked with the two older children that we new would be wondering what happened when Christmas came and nothing they had asked for was here. I gave my my friends some money and asked them to buy one gift for each of the children so they had something to open Christmas morning. I only had 80 dollars so it had to stretch. The children were fine when we explained what was going to happen and assured them that Santa would be taking care of their Christmas when we got to Grandma and Grandpa Winders home, Christmas was going to come on Saturday.
Wednesday (Christmas Eve)
I am excited in some ways that we get to have a humble Christmas on the morning of Christ's birth. It has open the opportunity to really remember the reason for the season. We have been blessed so much with help and comfort through these times of illness.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas

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Sick

For the past two weeks I have been rather sick. It started with one really bad night... I was in so much pain, I thought I was in labor but in the wrong area for the pain, and no more babies. I went to our clinics quick care and got checked out, The doctor was thinking gall stones and wanted the flare up to subside before doing an ultrasound, so an appt. was made for the first part of the week.
I was suppose to start feeling better that afternoon, but no. I have constant ache and can not eat anything.. I mean yogurt hurts! I kept thinking this was not right. I had the ultrasound and it showed a mass in my gallbladder and no stones. This is why the pain will not go away and is brought on with any eating. I had two more test; a CT scan and some other one I can not spell that consists of putting a radioactive substance in me and watching my gall bladder perform, and then they stimulated it with a hormone to really see it work.. oh it worked and I was crying! So for Christmas this year I get to have my gall bladder removed. I know, Merry Christmas! I get to meet with the surgeon on Monday afternoon, he will either want to take it out Tuesday morning ( yeah this Tuesday before we drive to the Leanna's and Bill's) or take it out after Christmas the 30th or 31st. I am not sure what will be worse... recovering while in a car or not being able to eat anything good for Christmas day! We will still be coming to Idaho falls, it would crush the children.. I will have good medication, doctor's promise, so I can handle the trip. It sounds like the surgery is fairly minor, and done lap-ro-scopt-icly (spelling not sure), so recover time is fast. We are trying to fit the surgery in before the new year and new deductibles need to be met again, Hannah took care of our max out of pocket this year so now is the time!
Please just take a sec and say a prayer for me... I would love to be able to have this taken care of before our trip.. I will have everything ready to go just in case so packing up the car will be relatively easy for Trent, good thing all the present are at Bill and Leanna's home... I hope they do not mind wrapping them, maybe Traci can help after her basement is done :)
Oh and I also want to say how grateful I am for all the help I have been getting from our ward and our friends! they have been wonderful to bring in meals on bad days and take the kiddos while I have had testing done and doctor appts. I love the wonderful people that have given of their time to help us out! I am also thankful for Bill and Leanna, Steve and Julie, My mom and dad and our awesome Relief society President for their help this Christmas, May Jesus bless your generosity this year!

Let it snow, snow- and then be nutty cold!

Yeah snow.. Emy

Micah, want a snowball mom?

The Kids were so excited for the first snow of the year. It brought about 3-4 inches, but then it got really really cold, we're talking - at night. Here are some pics of Micah and Emeline enjoying it while it was falling. I was not ready for Cassie or Hannah to be out in it, not really sure Hannah will see much of the outside during the winter.. but she does not mind eating it off the rug when the children all come in.. yuck!

Hannah's appts' in Spokane

Monday, My friend and I journeyed to Spokane Washington, about 1.45 hours away with our youngest children for Hannah's appointments with two specialists, One is for her eyes and one is for her Asthma. I have a hard time making the trip on my own so Genesha and her little ones came along to keep us company and help out. she also needed to finish her Christmas shopping so it worked well.

Hannah's first appt was with her pediatric opthomologist. her eyes are looking good so far and we were given the OK to stop the drops to dialate the one eye. her right eye is look OK at this point so we are going to give her left eye a break from the drops. Next visit will be in three months and we will be dilating her eyes and looking at her retina and such to make sure the inner eye is looking good still.

Hannah's second appointment was with an allergy asthma specialist. normally we would see Dr. Drain in Pullman- she comes down four times a month to a clinic set up at Pullman Hospital, but Hannah was in the hospital sick when she was scheduled to be seen and so we had to go up to Spokane to fit her in before the new year and our deductibles reset. The visit went well and we talked about a plan to take care of her lungs during the cold and flu season. Besides the normal washing hands and asking those that have colds not to visit. It is nice to have a plan.
I have been so happy to learn that Hannah will also receive the synagis shot, a shot to stop RSV. This shot is reserved for those that meet the guide lines set and are under 2 years old. Hannah qualified for another round this year and I am stoked! I was very worried. It is a very spendy drug. (about 3000$ a shot) good thing insurance will cover all of it. She will get 5 shots, once a month for the five months of RSV season. This will not stop her from getting common colds. She also got the Flu shot this year, so we are praying that she will not see the hospital this winter. We are trying to plan for it, if it happens with building up Trent's vacations leave so that we are prepared. We figure better to be safe than sorry. There is still a high change that even all that we are doing she will still end up in the Hospital with Pneumonia and will need oxygen and meds. So if you live around or are thinking of a visit, if you have been sick, were around someone that was sick in the last 48 hours or are not feeling "right" be kind and stay away!
Otherwise all is good. I have three dresses to sew in the next week or so and then to get ready for our trip to Grandma Leanna and Grandpa Bills house for Christmas in Idaho Falls. we will be there for a week from the 23 to the 30th. We are so excited and the children are counting down.

Silly little girl!!!

So proud of herself!

I love those BIG brown eyes!

Hannah is into everything, more so than any of our other children. She just figured out how to climb up onto the table in the kitchen, she loved to pull things out of the cupboards and drawers in my kitchen and loves to climb into things.. like the toy bin.
It was bath night last night and after a small run in with the tub.. notice the band-aid, we were letting her play in our room while the other children got washed. She discovered our dresser and well.. the pictures tell the rest.
She is so silly and was so very proud of herself!!

Our favorite things!!!

Cassie loves this globe my parents bought me a 4 years ago.. it is beautiful. actually Micah figured out how to turn it on to make it glow and move the sparkles 2 years ago, until then we just looked at it..

One of my favorite crafts I made it at a Super Saturday in our new ward last year.. I love it because we do not have a fireplace and it is perfect!

Hannah loved this baby... takes it with her everywhere lately!

Emeline loved the computer, she came home and sat in front of it after doing her chores...

Cassie loves my collection of Hallmark Snowmen, It is something Trent started 4 years ago and every year I get the new one out.. I love them and so do the children. if you look behind Cassie you can see Micah doing his favorite thing, but he did not want me to take his picture.. he was focusing on his game... little nerd in the making!

So today I was thinking a lot about some of my favorite things. I absolutely love Christmas. I love all the lights, the music and then decorations for the season. I love that it is the one time that all over the world people are worshiping Christ in some form.
I asked the children what their favorite things are today and then I took pictures of them doing what they love. Micah was a bit camera shy but I will try to catch him and will post it soon!

picture.. opps!

Children piling on Dave... they were having so much fun!

We had just eaten.. and were letting the food settle... and watching the dogs and children play.

Hannah

Emeline is making an attempt at doing the splits.. in jeans.

This was a project at the Crook Reunion that we missed this past year. The Theme was Christmas in July. See look I did do it.. It was so fun to do this, thanks for sending me the stuff!

food, fun and friends...

We had a great Thanksgiving here in Moscow. We celebrated with our friends-that-should-be-family, and it was great! We had lots of tasty food and fun. Since I know everyone enjoys a few good photos here we go...

Challenging all moms!

In the wake of the coming holidays I am putting a challenge out to all the women I know out there that do so much for their families, spouses, Children and various other activities... Take some time for yourself! I have been so busy this last months that I noticed I had not taken a shower for longer than 5 minutes. I had not done my hair or make-up all month (unless you count a ponytail). My nails were nice and long and healthy for the first time in years but they were not painted. I know these sound like such little things but when I took a minute to do it, It made me feel better.
I went to do the paper-route Trent does, and took a friend Saturday night, the papers were not there yet so on a whim my friend Genesha and I decided to see if we could catch the last showing of the night of Twilight. We thought for sure it would be sold out, but decided with all the students leaving for the week, due to the holidays we might get lucky... we did! The theater was about half full.
It was a good movie, it had some funny parts, but it was a good reminder that this movie was for adolescents and not necessarily adults. It was fun to see how they all played their parts and I really liked who they cast for the characters.
I did however have two complaints and it was not due to the movie.. It was common movie edict. It was a late showing 9:40 and there was a two year old that was there with his mom. He was tired and kept crying, she would not take him out and kept telling him to "shut up" I was very frustrated with how she was treating her son and also how she would not take him out. true.. I try very hard not to be critical of parenting styles.. but get a sitter! Second, I understand this was a chick flick but, for those men that we kind enough to go... be polite. One guy there talked on his phone for a good 20 minutes right behind us.. after several glares from me and other watchers he finally hung up. I mean really, leave the theater to talk on the phone!
all in all a good break and something fun I did with a friend. Trent was more than happy to be home with the children playing on the computer.
With all the hussle and bussle of the season it is so easy to forget what we, as women need. There is so much focus put elsewhere. so while the turkey is cooking, lock the bathroom door and take a long shower, do your hair and make-up and brush your teeth! You deserve it!

woohoo!

I normally do not shop at this odd store here in town.. they carry everything from hunting gear, winter gear to kitchen appliances.. It is the worlds most interesting store called Tri-State. So I got an impression to go and look at the boots that they might carry... at last, I found some goods boots more in my price range, who would have thought to go there, they are usually over priced on most things! Hooray! they had Emeline's and Micah's size... I am looking into finding boots for Casie now and I will be set. thank heaven for those small promptings!
We are doing fine otherwise, Trent had a head cold and decided he should share it with me... Hannah, somewhere in the mix pick it up as well. so far it is just really stuffy noses and lots of nose wiping! Her breathing has remained good and I have not needed to treat beyond a stuffy nose. I hope we are all doing great in the next few days so that we can enjoy Thanksgiving week! I am so excited for lots of turkey and leftovers....

Price Check on boots

The Children have grown so much this last year that I have need to purchase new sizes of winter clothing. I have found some great deal and for the most part the two younger girls are doing well with hand me downs. Our boots however did not fair well and I find myself buy three pairs of boots. After looking at several of the local stores including Goodwill I have come up empty. I am not sure what happened to the boot industry but the cost of boots are ridiculous! For the piece-of-garbage-walmart-payless-brand that last half of the winter with my children they are 17- 20 dollars. of course the nicer boots are 30 dollars and up. I remember buying boots and I promise It was not that much last year... So I am putting a shout out for anyone that can find me a good deal on boots or have some laying around that are in decent shape..ie no holes.. fairly sturdy.
I am not asking for anyone to buy them for me... I will buy them. But any good ideas or a great deal that I can pay you back for would be awesome.. for some reason my children are very hard on shoes so the sturdier the better. Shoe sizes are boy 2-3youth, girl 13-1, girl 9-10. Thank you. I am so limited here in Moscow I am hoping this may help lower the blow to the wallet.
We will be in Idaho Falls for Christmas, and usually the big snow fall is there after.. cross my fingers...
thank you!

Building Forts

Emeline's master piece

Hey

I think I have an engineer on my hands :)

gotta copy BIG sister

I remember as a child building amazing forts that my mother was nice enough to leave up for a few days. I do not have nearly enough space to allow it to stay up for too long but none the less I have taught my children how to build them. they had a great time and it kept them occupied while it has been very rainy and gross outside!

oops! forgot Halloween!

Our sick little Hannah.. She did not get to go.. too sick!

A witch, an army guy and a Vampire

So I just realized that I did not post Halloween Pictures. It was a crazy day in this house with Hannah still being sick. A costume that I had bought a month earlier did not fit Cassie any longer and so we improvised with clothing on hand. I thought it was not half bad.. way to use Christmas dresses from last year! We did not go far because of the rain.. but we had Chilli at home waiting for us to warm us back up!

Keeping the link

So I am going to keep the link to Hannah's website. I think I will post to it from time to time just about Hannah mostly. I have friends that we made from the NICU in Spokane and from the Ronald McDonald house that only know that one. I also belong to some support groups that I have mentioned and have sent a few people to it to see the road, and that it does get better!

Preemies

I have recently joined several preemie support groups, and there are a lot of them. I am baffled every time on how many babies are born early (36weeks or sooner). I am currently praying for a little girl who was born at 1.1 pound, she is 4 months old now and just had major open heart surgery to correct a problem. She has been such a strong little girl and pull through the surgery with amazing colors!!! The family is not LDS but amazingly dedicated Christens and through all that they have endure.. 100% show thanks to God. I love that. I love that no matter what the religion that God matters! They have such amazing faith and trust when it comes to their little girl. Trent and I have been so blessed with Hannah! Our family is better for having her. I am so amazed with how well she does every day. I can not believe sometimes that she came into this world so small. We have these little hiccups in our life and I forget how little it all is in the mix of this life. There is a beautiful song called "So Small" sung By Carrie Underwood. I listen to it and just think about Hannah and last summer. This was just a grain of sand.
I think about all the Love and support our family received. I think about all the people that prayed for our little girl. I think about the wonderful, amazing nurses that loved my daughter and took such wonderful care of her. The awesome Doctors and specialists that took tender care after her and helped her to stay on this earth. I am absolutely thrilled that my sister in law, Traci is going to be a NICU nurse. I am so touched that she is willing to do such a hard, and I do mean hard job. It can be joyous one day in there and so sorrowful the next. I know she will be strong enough to do it.
I also have some friends who's babies have not been able to handle this life and were taken back to heaven. One that I have meet recently through one of the support groups just lost her baby. my heart goes out to her and her husband this is the 2nd baby they have lost. I am so grateful that we got to keep our little Hannah, but new that it was by the grace of God and her will to live that she is with us.

Finding Ground

Do you ever feel like you are just trying to find some sort of ground in your home. A piece of the house that is clean and clear of mess and toys. That was once my bedroom, but, something happened and it has become the "I-do-not-know-where-it-goes-so-put-it-in-mom-&-dad's-room" place. It drives me nuts. I like having a clean and orderly home. I have been teased by some of my friends saying I have OCD.. Trent says I have CDO.. because it has to be in the right order. Our home has taken a turn for the worse the last week since we have had the stomach flu and then Hannah in the hospital and now I have to recover. I have been cleaning for what feels like days and I still feel like there is so much to do. I guess one room at a time.. but my bedroom is the first to be fixed!
We are all doing well and looking pretty healthy at this point. I hope to see Hannah's chubby cheeks return soon!
I am doing a homemade sort of Christmas for the kids from me and Trent this year... meaning I make it and Trent gets to have his name on it. I am making dresses for the girls and PJ's for the family. I just hope I can get it all done before Christmas!

Thank you for your prayers!

Hannah came home this evening. She is still very weak and tired. She has stopped vomiting at this point and we hope it stays that way. Now to get her back to happy Hannah again! Thank you so much for all the prayers, I know they were heard!

Hannah is in the hospital

After a 5 day fight with the stomach flu Hannah went into the hospital for re-hydration on Monday morning. we were hopeful that it would just be for the day, but unfortunately it has become several. She is still in the hospital due to the fact that she is still barfing and we would had to have to re admit her latter if she were to be sent home still sick. I ask for all your prays tonight that Hannah can come home soon!!!

Hannah

Cassie

Emeline

Micah

What cute kids we have!

So I am thinking of switching our family over to blog spot. I am trying it out for now. I kind of want to get away from What our family went through last year with Hannah, although we love here and are so happy she is hear with us, I go to the website and see the old picture and want to move on from it. We are here and now. 

We currently live in moscow where Trent works for the University of Idaho IBEST program as a Computer Scientist. I am a Mother. I take care of our home and our family. Micah is in the 2nd grade, Emeline is in the 1st grade, Cassie is my entertainment and comic relief during the day and Hannah is curious and into everything she can get into.