Random stuff...

Cassie and her self portrait..

Emeline did such a good job on this paper mache' of the earth for her class..

my ham :)

they really do love each other.. I promise :)

this is Remmy's favorite place to be when the sun is out... 

Besides being sick with this and that.. things here are moving along. Emeline turns 9 next week and she is so very excited. I do not feel old enough to have such old children :) We have our spring break and are planing on doing fun things around Moscow. I am hopeful that it will not snow and maybe we can go on a short hike somewhere close. School is going well for me and the kids. My classes are more of a challenge this semester but Trent has been great with helping out and I am so grateful for that. Emeline has found a book series that she likes and is enjoying reading for the first time, we are so excited! Cassie has decided she wanted to read and is taking off.. her teacher is amazed with how far she has come. Hannah is doing well. her surgery was a HUGE success. she is using her inhaler half as much as before and has not had pneumonia again since before the surgery.. which is a BIG step in the right direction. She has also been sleeping through the night ever since the surgery.. I love it!! It is amazing what happens when she is not choking on her stomach content all night. We are looking forward to seeing her grow now that she can keep her food down :) Micah is starting to test the waters in babysitting. Once a week I go upstairs and do my school work and he takes care of the kids. He does such a great job and I am excited for the first time that he can watch the kids so we can go out on a date. :) 

well that is life in a nut shell. hope all is well everywhere else. We are counting down the weeks until summer is here and we can go camping..

Cheer!!!

Emeline and Cassie love to dance and do gymnastics.. so I sighed them up for a three day after-school cheer camp.. they loved it!! I think I have a couple naturals. Don't worry Linsey.. Emeline wants to try volleyball next year :)

Cassie is in the left front, behind the cheerleader off and on. Emeline is in the back right and is the farthest lift, she was part of the base.. she loved it!

she is a bit of a cheese.. I think I have a little actress on my hands! she is posing here!

not the best picture but you can see Cassie night next to the front left cheerleader and Emy is in the back right.

the snow came back.. It was so pretty, but it does not make me any less jealous when my sister in law posts pictures of them in the sun down in Arizona :)

IN a nut shell...

We had such a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas this year, Ashtynn got along great with our kids. we love cousins!

not too early in the morning.. and everyone was happy with what they got, that does not happen often!

these two girls were great together, like they were best friends :) I loved it!

waiting for dinner..

Remmy, he is our newest family member. we got him for Christmas, he was by far the best gift we got!

gotta love ball

our little climber, even with snow boats on :) she reached the top many times!

Climbing a rock with snow boots, not our greatest moment but both kids did it!

Hannah had her Nissin Procedure and it went so well. She recover fast and is back to her active little self minus the barfing and reflux. I am so very happy to say that for the first time in months Hannah is now sleeping through the night ( because she is no longer choking on her regurgitation) she is on a soft food diet for the next few weeks and hates it! I still have to say I am very happy with the results thus far...

bless the Ipad.. it saved us while Hannah was in the hospital, she felt good the next day after the surgery but could not go home right away... 

That was our last month in a nut shell. we had a great time and enjoyed seeing everyone. School has started for everyone but Hannah and she is more than ready to go, just a few more days! Cassie, in particular is very excited for the Crook Family Reunion this year, she can not wait to see Brent again. I am not sure what you did Brent but you made a new best friend in less than 2 hours :) I wish I had pictures of Cassie snuggling you :)

a moment for a Hannah update

I took Hannah to see the pediatric surgeon in Spokane yesterday and we are going to go ahead and do the surgery to fix her reflex. The procedure is called "Nissen fundoplication". the hope is that it will help stop her from refluxing and give her lungs the chance they need to get a bit stronger. There is always the chance that it will not change anything and we will just have to continue to deal with it all but the success rate is 80% it will work and for that, I am willing to try it. Hannah surgery is scheduled for January 7, 2011. a few days after we return from our winter vacation in eastern Idaho. We have a great surgeon and I feel confident that this will help her. we have chosen to wait until after the holidays because it is recommended that Hannah stick to a very soft diet the first month after the surgery, I do not want to sadden her holiday eating of goodies so we will fit it in before school starts for me. She will be at Providence Children's Hospital in Spokane Washington (formally know as sacred heart) for two or three days.
we are all very excited to be heading to Idaho Falls in just a few days. We hope we can see everyone that is in town and lives around there during our stay!!

Happy Halloween.. a little late :)

Some looked scarier than others this year...

here are our HUGE pumpkins.. they maxed out the poor scales at Winco, Hannah fit in the the last one on the left. Ownership from left to right; Micah, Hannah, Cassie, and Emy.

both Trent and I got in and got yucky... Hannah was not interested in touching the stuff inside what so ever! the kids designed the faces for their pumpkins using an app on my ipod.. it was so nice and easy :)

Micah cleaned out all of his pumpkin.. he designed the face and I carved it.

A beautiful princess..

A little devil.. oh and she loved it!

Rosemary from the tinkerbell movie.. she went around telling everyone she was a fairy called "hannah-fairy"

Micah wanted to look scary.. I think he got it!

 

 

 

 

results..

I am so Happy to tell everyone.. they were able to retrieve the data off the box!!! Hannah test came back and even with the medication they gave her during the procedure to calm her stomach the results came back mild to moderate reflex associated with registered pain. a small explanation: I had told Hannah about the box and explained what the buttons meant and when I need to push them. through the study Hannah kept pushing the button and I had to repeatedly get after for it. I put a note in the papers that i was recording on that she was doing this and apologized that it may show inconsistencies. It turns out that Hannah knew what she was doing and that when she pushed the button she was refluxing.
This shows that she is feeling it and is in some pain. with all of this and no sign of disease we are choosing to push through and get a referral for a pediatric surgeon to look at her case and see if surgery is a good idea. Hopefully a plan will be in place by the end of the year, we have an appointment as we head out of town just before Christmas to talk to Hannah's GI doctor. If surgery is needed or advised we will aim for the beginning of January before my classes start and after the holidays. Thank you to anyone that has been praying that we can get this data. I was horrified at the thought of putting her through this all again and had come to the conclusion that if they could not get the data I was going to hold off to test again until after cold and flu season, which is a rough time for Hannah regardless.

Update with Hannah

Hannah was a trooper through it all and we were able to get the scope and the PH study done. the scope came back that there was visable inflamation in the upper stomach but after taking samples she tested negitive for any diseases.. which I was counting on. The inflamation is thought to be from her throwing up and reflex problems at this point.
I just heard back from the doctor's office on the PH study and I am left frustrated. It appears there was a problem with the hardware that collected the data and they were not able to retrieve it. They have sent the hardware to the manufacture to see if they can retrieve the data. I hope that they can. I am not really feeling willing to do it all over again. while Hannah was off her meds to a month, in preparations for the test she aspiration at least three different times that cause her to get infections in her lungs and it sent her asthma all over the place. I am hopeful that one of two things happen. they are able to retrieve the data and we see what we have been dealing with for years or they decided we do not have to do the test again because she had so many problems off the medication that they are going to use that as proof. At this point I do not feel willing to put Hannah through all of that again... I pray it all works out. I am not a fan of picking on Children, especially when it is my own.

here is a picture of Hannah with the tube in and the box that was attached. she is in a better mood in this pic because she knows we are waiting for someone to come and take it out :)