Getting back into the groove!

I'm Baaaack! It's been something like five weeks that I've taken off. This is the first time in my life that I've felt comfortable just taking it easy and flying by the seat of my pants.

We had company here to help out for at least four weeks!!! Then we took one week to ourselves. The girls and I swam in our pool, did a little shopping, took in a movie, got our hair done, and just had fun.


It took us one whole day to pack and prepare, then we headed to South Dakota for a family reunion. I had not seen this side of my family for 10 years. We drove five hours and stopped for a short layover in Kansas at mom and dad's. We finally introduced Abigail to Great Grandma and Grandpa and our favorite not blood related sister, Katie.

We then bravely headed to SD. Five little girls and me in a minivan, WOW - many of you said. We drove for 8 hours the first day and 4 to 5 the next day. It was a great time and we are so happy we went. I made two sets of tshirts that had each girls name on it so that everyone would know which one was which. Ammorae learned how to play poker and bochy ball. We all karaoked and enjoyed the BEST food. We pretty much had the same drive back, but stayed in Kiowa a bit longer.


We visited in Kiowa for 4 days and when we got there Leo and Brent were eagerly awaiting us. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. We also got to see one of our favorite friends Lois, who ended up in the hospital for several days and we stayed just to visit with her.

On Friday mom loaded up with us and the whole crew went to OKC to stay the weekend. We had a small birthday party for Ava before coming home to see a daddy whole was going through MAJOR withdrawl.


The trip home from OKC was the most eventfull ever. We drove directly behind the worst double semi accident I ever saw. After that we stumbled upon a large family walking in over 100 degree heat on hwy 44. We stopped and offered to help and insisted that they allow us to give them a ride somewhere to get them out of the heat. They had been stranded on this busy highway for over an hour and a half and NO ONE bothered to stop and aid them. They were dehydrated and sunburnt. There was a mom and a dad and six children, they had blown their transmission. We insisted driving them to a cool spot where they could await help. We PACKED 14 people in my minivan!!! Can you even imagine. It was a miracle for sure! I paid the same toll three times trying to get them where they needed to be, but it was well worth it. All I could think of, was what if that was me and my girls!

Anyway, we are home, after two weeks! HOME SWEET HOME! Home to a daddy who missed us SOOO much! Back to laundry and dishes and friends coming to stay the night.

By the way, I MUST mention that I feel like a new woman!!! I have lost over 30 lbs and have a great desire to keep improving. The new hair do has helped too. With the help of my mom and sisters I shopped in the "normal peoples" section and things fit and I feel so much better!

We did ALL of our school shopping and are ready to go, and to be able to relax the the remainder of the summer. I'm back and ready to get back to blogging, I've got so much to share with you, I hope you're ready. Recipes, crafts, decorating, and so much more!

Coming home!

I just got a call from the nursery, and if Abigail does good tonight SHE GETS TO COME HOME TOMORROW!!!!

I have been there three times today feeding her and am going back in half an hour to do it again and again at 8pm. Whew! What a day, but it's definately all worth it.

Landon and Sonya headed home and Cindy (Jeff's mom) is somewhere on the road coming here. Tamara is supposed to be coming again soon too! I will have the BEST baby and family pix!!!

I imagine that the girls and I will be busy re-doing the baby bag and picking out her "coming home" clothes. Aydan thinks we need to have a party, and she's probably right.

Abigail's 1st week

Abigail's first week in life was a little CRAZY! She been through a lot, but has made great strides!

As of today, she still has the feeding tube in, but I did get to breastfeed her twice today. YEAH!!! She also is still on the nasal canula, but is being weened down each day.

She has shed so many tubes and such and it's allowed us to hold her. Today Ammorae, Landon, and Sonya got to hold her. They also, allowed us to unhook her long enough to walk to the nursery window and let Aydan, Addy, and Ava see their baby sister for the first time! I'm pretty sure that they were wondering if she even existed. Actually, I was recording her each day and taking pix of her and then when I came home I share that with them, so they were involved and it would be easier to process.

What a blessing the nurses and Dr.'s have been. I haven't met one yet that wasn't sweet and compassionate. It's been such a comforting place to be in this situation.

I do have to say that Abigail fits PERFECTLY in my arms and I couldn't quit kissing her! Of course, I'm sure I felt that way with all my girls, but I can't wait to get her home.

My girls are positive that they've got all bases covered. Aydan says she's gonna be in charge of giving her kisses. Originally, she was going to change ALL the diapers, but evidentally she's changed her mind. Addy is going to sing to her. Ammorae wants to pick out all of her clothes. And who knows what Ava is going to do?

New Schedule

Early this morning we dropped Ammorae off at school and she headed to Little Rock for cheerleading camp. Jeff and I headed to the hospital so he could see Abigail before he went to work. Yesterday he didn't get to see her until after work and he was antsy all day.

Landon and Sonya came to take "their shift" so that mom could go home. First she took us out for lunch and then we went to visit the baby. When we got there Diane Cole was there to see her too. I had already told my mother about her and what a blessing she has been to me this year. Upon meeting her my mom agreed that she IS the sweetest lady ever! I have to admit that I did cry when my mom left. I miss her already!

After my brother settled in I headed back to the hospital to be with Abigail. We had a great day. I changed several diapers, which normally you aren't too overjoyed about, but in this case OVERJOYED is definately the word! I read and sang to her again, and while I was singing she opened one of her eyes and looked right at me! I was SOOO ecstatic and beyond excited.

She is getting much more active. She kept tugging at her lines and tubes, which isn't good, but means that she's really getting with it. She smiled several times and just, of course, captured my heart! Basically, right now they are taking time to strengthen her lungs. Eventually they will turn down her oxygen level and ween her from it. They took her off the bili light, which could go back and forth for a while. No BIG changes, but small improvements make BIG ones.

When I got home Landon was in the pool with the girls having a fun time. Ava started calling mom, Nana, it was sooo cute. She also decided to start hollering Wanon, at Uncle Landon.

All-in-all, it's been a pretty good day! Thank you Jesus, for your blessings, and putting up with me.

Abigail Brooke

It is five something in the morning and I finally had a few minutes to document and share about Abigail. Friday morning, May 28th, at 6am in the morning we went in to induce labor. We expected to have a baby around noon and of course, naively planned the entire day. With Aunt's, nephews, and Grandma and Papa we had a full house that was overwhelmed and excited to see this new baby.

I had an abnormally large amount of amniotic fluid that kept her from moving down into the birth canal and my Dr. who is formally a midwife wanted to safely wait things out to make sure of safety. Finally at 3 or 4pm she broke my water and things got to rolling and at 6:22pm we had a GORGEOUS 9# 4 oz. baby Abigail. She was round and roly poly and the most beautiful shade of pink right from the beginnning!

She looked SO healthy that we were ALL ready to snuggle her up and pass her around, just as we always do with our newborns. We pretty well have a set schedule of who gets to hold and coo first and so on and so forth. BUT that didn't happen. The nurses waited as long as they could to see if she was going to push passed the bad breathing, and she didn't, so they took her to the nursery to see the Pediatrician.

Since her sisters and family didn't get to see her and NO ONE got to hold her they tried to hold her up into the window for a moment for them to catch a glimpse, but things took a quick turn for the worse and she was whisked away. The Pediatrician handed her over to the Neonatoligist and he came to tell us what was in her near future. She needed to be sedated and put on a ventilator. They cut her ambilical chord off and feed tubes into her stomach through her belly button, and away it started.

By 10pm we were filled with such heaviness and sadness! But our family immediately rallied and insisted that she was where she needed to be and that things would be fine and wanted us to rest and have faith. Before we could even breathe one of our Pastor's from church, Clint Smith, was there to bring a burst of energy and hope with words of encouragement and love and I can NOT tell you have much that helped and meant to us! Thank you Clint and church!

Saturday morning was harder, they gave us a solemn guess about how long the process could take and told us that she was VERY sick. Seeing my baby hooked up to all of that and not being able to touch her was overwhelming and I of course broke down.

God intervened and sent Andy Goode and Ryan Blackwell with messages of love and hope and that continued on with the mass of people who started to pray for Abigail and her healing. Before the night was over her prognosis was already getting better!!! They discharged me and we went home to our girls and family, and if you don't think that was hard!!!

So many texts, fb comments, phone calls, and visitors started to appear and we felt such a love and blanket of friendship and peace that I cannot explain. Sunday morning they thought they'd try to extibate her, which meant that they would take her off the ventilation system and try to let her breathe on her own, but the Dr. decided to wait for another GOOD day for good measure. Andy Wilson came to visit and so did Doug Sarver, who has come through so much with his own son this last week and it meant a lot that he came.

SOOOO, Margaret and Tamara and their boys went home, and now dad, Landon and Sonya will be heading out today. My mom is staying for a day or two and family is rallying and making plans to come help for awhile so that I can be at the hospital with Abigail, Jeff can go back to work, the girls have someone (since they cannot come to the NICU)and we can find some kind of schedule or normal for this situation for awhile.

Thank you for your prayers and comments. I KNOW she will heal and that we will bring her home, but being a human and a female hopped up on emotion and pain I still ask for your diligence in praying for her and your friendship so that I don't allow satan to grab me when I have SO much to attend to right now.

My husband the ARTIST

I just had to share this with you! Many of you don't know that Jeff is an artist. He was raised in a very artistic family, which explains the eccentric spirit that he has. (not always easy to live with, but I'm not either)

This was his first portrait, and of course it's of me, and this was done right after high school. It is hanging in our bedroom. He's improved so much since then. He's done several famous and celebrity people. He even did a portrait for Martina McBride. Cool hu! For awhile it was a full time job for him to try to keep up with the demand. People LOVE to give gifts like this to their loved ones. (then he quit for many years)

Last year for his bday the girls and I refreshed his supplies and urged him to pick it up again. So he chose to do a beautiful piece of my dad wearing his Fez. (Shrine hat) It was a gorgeous depiction and resemblence of him and was very emotional.

After doing that one he decided that he was going to branch out and try something more stationary. He started a 3' or 4' canvas of the Washington Monument draped in the United States Flag. Of course with his new job and the HEAVY hours he hasn't been able to finish it, but it's on display in our family/craft room, waiting for him.

He has an amazing talent and love for doing this. I pray that someday he'll do one for each one of his daughter's. What a priceless gift. We love you babe!

Summer Fun

Here are a few things that are MUST HAVES for the summer and some ideas for you to have some fun with your little ones!

Bubble machine - My little girls love to blow bubbles! They are so fascinated by it, but I saw this and KNOW that it'll be the NEW FUN THING for awhile.

Ice cream machine- You can buy these ANYWHERE! They come in all sizes and prices, from simple (my vote) to fancy. I remember taking my turn hand cranking on my Grandma's porch. Who doesn't LOVE the taste of FRESH old fashioned ice cream? The flavor possibilities are endless and it can be made well in advance. Who needs the Orange Mango, when you can do it at home and have fun.

Chorelist- Yes, you read correctly. All of my kids will be in charge of certain things over their "summer break" It's a PERFECT time to teach responsibility and help out mom. It can be a very overwhelming time for parents in the summer to keep the house clean and the kids busy, so they don't get BORED and make things even more difficult.

Book time- We either pull out a pile of books that we haven't read or we each go buy a new book to kick off the summer. At some point during the day the tv goes off and we all relax with a book. Sometimes Ammorae reads to the little girls, or they "pretend" read to each other and I get an opportunity to finally have some good catch up reading time too.

Baby you can read- I received this program for Christmas and it's REALLY working. It uses dvd's that show pictures and repetitive speaking and motions to teach even your 1 yr old how to read. I will advance my kids to the next step and maybe even introduce one of the foreign languages. Go to half.com, ebay, or craigslist to buy them less expensive or used. Buying them this way you can gradually build your library and collection. I wonder if Game Exchange has it?

Here are some fun things you can do with your kiddos that are inexpensive and frugal;

Library time- my kids LOVE this! Most of the time you get to do a craft as well as hear some good stories. There is even a baby bookworm, this is my favorite, we get to sing, dance, and play musical instruments.

Dollar Movie Day- The Razorback Cinema has a $2.00 movie day each week and we went everytime last summer.


If you haven't done either of these make it a point- have a Lemonade stand and make homemade play-doh. Make sure that gma & gpa and friends will "casually" stop by to buy the lemonade. I have the BEST play- doh recipe that's last forever and smells great too.

Go bowling- The bumper lanes make it easy for success and during the afternoon it's less likely to be busy.

Water balloon day- We work all morning filling a laundry basket with water balloons and after nap time we all particpate in a crazy water fight.

Well, I don't want to overwhelm you, so look for somemore ideas next week! I can't wait to have my girls at home with me for all this fun! If you have good ideas, PLEASE pass them my way!!! I will be posting some GREAT recipes as well!