Tyler's appointment, Christmas and Jill's 9 months

Okie dokie, this post will be all over the map;
Wednesday December 22 was the long awaited nuerology appointment. And it was a total fail. The guy is looking at the MRI as we walk by to the room, then comes in, does your basic exam stuff (stand on one foot, follow my finger, that kind of stuff) then tells us that the cyst is not causing any pressure therefore is not the problem. Then he asks us if we've been seeing a neurologist (?!!) We said, we thought that's what we were here for, and he says all snotty like, "No, I'm a neuroSURGEON, I only deal with things that require surgery, a nuerologist deals with all the other stuff that doesn't need surgery" So basically, we waited two and a half months for the WRONG doctor. And we sent that MRI down to him before he'd even let us get an appointment to "make sure we don't waste his time or yours" so if he actually looked at it (doubtful) then why didn't he call and say, the cyst isn't your problem, look elsewhere? Tyler has had to deal with this horrible pain and dizzyness for 4 months now, and it could have been taken care of by the time we all sat around on our butts waiting for the WRONG doctor to do absolutely nothing. Annoying.
Anyway, on to happier things, Christmas was great. Tyler got me some pearls, I love them. I feel so grown up. lol! Kari had a whole pile of presents, I think we went a little overboard. But Jill quite a few things too. lol! The kids woke up at about 8:30 and then we opened presents (which took forever because the kids kept getting distracted) by the time we'd opened everything, then got everything out of the packaging to throw all the garbage away and put together whatever needed "some assembly" it was about 12, an hour later we all went to this year's Christmas in Ice and had our picture taken with Mr and Mrs Claus (the REAL Santa) I told him he should take a nap and he says, "oh hoho! When?" :) Funny guy. We didn't really do Christmas dinner. We had home made chicken soup (yum) instead because with all the stress and stuff with Tyler's issues I didn't really feel like doing a big huge production.
The next day was Jillian's 9 month day. It's crazy to think that it's already been 9 months. Here are some things about Jill:
She has been sleeping through the night for almost a month (yay!!)
She will NOT take a bottle, she will steal Kari's sippy cup though and drink whatever is in it.
The ONLY baby food she will eat is sweet potatoes, everything else we feed her is big people food.
She thinks that she can walk, and ends up biffing it often because of that thought.
She'll pull herself up to her knees and then just sit there kneeling, I have never seen a baby do that, and both my mother and my mother-in-law agree with that observation.
Kari is her favorite person in the world
She finally loves baths
She get's knocked over or stepped on or whatever by Kari a lot (by accident usually) but she'll only cry about it if it really hurts. She's a tough kiddo
She did NOT like going out in the cold and being all bundled up, but she did like going down the ice slides with me.
She GROWLS for her food
She's growing like a weed and I love every second!!







In Santa's ice sleigh at Christmas in Ice (and yes, those are authentic Alaskan fashion fur hats, we're stylin')














Jill being not happy














But so cute










Kari opening presents














Our picture with the REAL Santa











Jill's growling "feed me" face














Kari's smile at grandma face













Kari and her bff Caroline













Jill on Christmas morning.

Just a chatty update

So what can I say? We're sitting around waiting for a call that may or may not come about Tyler's heart echo and monitor results. Christmas is ten days away and I am nowhere NEAR ready, and Kari is going to be heart broken when the tree comes down and the snow melts. She LOVES it. The snow, the lights, the tree, the "sparkles", the music, and especially the Nutcracker. We watch the Barbie Nutcracker pretty much every day and I've got a little wooden Nutcracker that has a music box in the base. She calls it "wonderful" and wants him to sing all the time. It's pretty much her best friend and she'll probably cry when it's time to put "wonderful" away. Is it just me that thinks that this particular holiday season has gone too fast? With all the worrying and tests, and doctors appointments that we've been having/waiting for it seems that I've focused very little on Christmas, which is very unlike me. I did finally get (most) of my cards out, and I'm just waiting on something in the mail to get to me so I can send the last thing out. It will probably be late, I'm just going to say that now. lol! This is the first year that I wasn't completely and totally done by now. I don't like the feeling and it's costing me an arm and leg in shipping since everything costs more/takes longer to ship from up here.
A little about my kiddos, Jill will be NINE months the day after Christmas!!! Seriously, NINE months. I don't know when she did it, but she's grown up. She's crawling all over the place, eats everything in sight (even things that are not food items) I have to sweep/vacume about twice a day because Kari leaves a mess that Jill trys to eat. Yuck. She also learned how to sit up by herself. It's actually pretty funny looking. And the other day she tried to stand up! I told her she's much too young to be trying to walk. Although, her being farther from the floor does have it's benifits........
Kari is such a little princess, but the nice kind, not the snobby kind. She's usually very helpful and adores her little sister. She's not really great at sharing right now though. She'll come up to Jill, take whatever she has that hasn't been designated as "baby's" and throw it behind her. Little booger. We're working on that one. I was working on a project the other day and she wanted to see it and feel it. Go figure, my two year old knows "velvet" and "mink" lol! I think she might be a little seamstress when she gets a little older. And she wants to be a ballerina. All I hear all day is her wanting to see the "pretty dancers" then she'll put her arms above her head and go around in circles (while saying 'cicle, cicle, cicle") So when she's three I'm going to put her in the local dance school. Kid could use some grace if you know what I'm saying. Poor thing definately takes after her momma. Klutz.
Anyway, I'll let you all know if something comes up about Tyler's heart. Until then I think I'm going to eat, drink (hot chocolate) and be merry. :P

Championship indoor football game

We went to the championship football game that Tyler was being the ref for. I think the girls had fun.


























Jill exploring the "grass"

Kari randomly lays down everywhere. It's strange. lol!

Kid pics

Well hey, with all the gloom and doom that is currently my life I haven't been posting cute pictures of my cuter kiddos. Guess I should fix that huh? :D




Jill's first time actually liking her bath!!!!! :D



















Proof that I'm behind in getting "baby" stuff put away. No she's not sleeping, just playing around.














Jill being cute.



















So I was trying to get a cute picture of the girls in holiday dresses by the tree.....



















At least one is smiling at me right?

















Kari helping decorate the tree

















Or rather, daddy helping Kari help decorate the tree. lol!




















Jill is interested....

















oooooo, shiny



















Love this picture. The first thing Kari wants me to do in the morning is turn the tree on. They both play by it every day. It'll be sad when it has to come down.

Tyler's cardiologist appointment

So here's what we learned today;
Tyler has a slow heart, and there is something that is weird with the electrical "wiring". It could be that his heart is a little bigger, it could be that the nerves that is connected to his brain are being "depressed" by the brain cyst, it could be that this particular nerve is hyperactive. Because Tyler is not fainting or having black out episodes, we have time to do more tests, which is what we're doing. Tyler got blood drawn for 5 different tests including cholesterol and thyroid. He has an echo (an ultrasound) appointment for his heart on monday, he will also be getting a heart moniter that he'll wear and record his activities for 24 hours so they can see just how low his heartbeat gets and also if his heart rate will actually get up to where it needs to be when he exercises. If there is anything alarming, they will call us in, if not we have a follow-up with the cardiologist on Jan. 14 When he's done with the heart moniter he is going to try a patch that is supposed to calm down the hyperactive nerve, so Tyler wearing it will let us know if that is the problem since he'll feel less dizzy, light-headed, ect. Until then we're just hanging out. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. We've been suprised with all the support we've been given. We love you all! Thanks again.

Update on Tyler

It's been quite the last couple of months. I haven't been blogging much because I just don't really feel up to dealing with anything. In August Tyler was having really bad headaches, and they started getting really bad. Eventually when it was so bad he couldn't focus on anything I dragged him to the ER. The doctors hmmm'd and haaaa'd and said that he was dehydrated (wrong) the next day things were even worse so we took him back. They did two CT scans and didn't find anything. Fast forward a month, Tyler goes in for a follow up. He's still having constant head aches. They never go away. Some days are worse, but no days are better (and this is coming from the guy that cracked three ribs and didn't want to go to the doctor because "it doesn't hurt that bad") So the doctor got him an MRI. They found an Arachnoid Cyst on his brain. Freaky. So we get referred over to a neurologist in Anchorage, but he is only in one day a week (the rest of the time he's cutting heads open at the hospital) so the appointment is not until December 22nd so we're just sitting on our hands worrying and waiting. Then last wednesday Tyler goes in with his primary care doctor to talk about how things are and pain management and they take his vitals and his heartbeats per minute is only 41 (to put things clearer, "normal" is anywhere from 60 to 100, so 41 is way low. He's a walking zombie) so they did a cardiograph or a EKG and they didn't say anything about it, his doctor immediately called a cardiologist in Fairbanks and got him an appointment for this coming up wednesday. Normally the doctor sends your info to the referral office, and they deal with it. The fact that the doctor did this himself is very worrying to me. So now we're doubly freaking out. The two most important organs in the human body is the brain and the heart, and Tyler might be needing surgery on both. And the sad fact is, only one of those surgeries would have the Air Force looking into medical retirement, having two is almost a guarentee that we'd be out. Needless to say, our future is most uncertain. Tyler was feeling okay about the cyst but for some reason he's really freaking out about the heart, which has got me very scared. I know that whatever happens will be what is supposed to happen and our lives, literally, are in the Lord's hands. It's hard to wait and not know what's going to happen but we'll deal with it. We appreciate all the prayers and fasts that have been going on for us and we know that the Lord is blessing us. Thank you friends and family. We love you all.

Attack of the killer.....

So apparently my washing machine protested all the laundry I do because this is what I found today:

It ATE my shirt!!!!!! It's not everyday that you have to deep clean your washing machine. I'm very afraid that my machine is holding a grudge and may lash out again. I hope the sacrifice of my three month old shirt will keep it happy for awhile.

some cute pictures

Jillian in her princess costume.





















Kari in her "Pretty witch" costume




















Kari's super curly hair after sleeping in a bun.


















The cutest reigndeer ever!!

Jillian being adorable playing with her daddy's hat.

Cute video of Jillian

Unprivatised

So due to lack of reading, because it doesn't inform anyone of new posts, I lost interest in posting, so I've decided to make this blog public again. So hello again everyone. :D It's good to be back.

Day two of binky depravation

Okay so last night went good and bad. She didn't take a nap, so she was tired and she only yelled for about 45 minutes before falling asleep, awesome! BUT she woke up at 5:30 and cried until Jill woke up at 7. So now it's nap time again. And she is upstairs crying and yelling for her binky. Hopefully she'll adjust to naps with no binkys because I'm not sure if I'm ready for her to not take naps, although, it does make putting her to bed at night easier. Anyway, that's where we're at now.

Day one of no binkies at night or bedtime

Okay, so most of you know that Kari LOVES her binky at night. And that it's a problem for me because I really don't think I should be getting up three (or more) times a night to give her back her stupid binky. So we had tried to take the binky away before but after two hours of screaming, Tyler couldn't do it anymore SO, he's out of town. He's in Florida in a 4 star hotel in 85 degree weather for a military TDY (my heart breaks for you) so I decided since he's going to be gone for 1o days, I would get most of the crying for the binky crap out of the way so I can actually get her off it. So we started last night. It actually went a lot better than I thought. She only cried/screamed/yelled until about 11:45 p.m. before she finally fell asleep. AND she did wake up once, but only whined a little bit and went back to sleep. She woke up at 7 (the downside to her not having her binky is that she won't just entertain herself quietly giving mom another hour of sleep) so we got up early. Jillian is getting an easier way off the binky. She doesn't get it during the day. Then in a couple days she won't get it at naptime, then a couple days after that she won't get it at night either. But since she's no where near as attatched as Kari is, I'm not worried about her. Anyway, so like I was saying last night was "easier" than I thought it would be. She is, however, currently upstairs for her nap, screaming for her binky. *sigh* I decided to write all this down in the blog AND my journal so other moms with binky attatched 2 year olds can make a ballpark guestimate of how long it takes a 2 year old to get used to sleeping without a binky. No one could tell me other than "oh it was really bad for a few days" which of course, could mean anything from 3-an undetermined amount of days. I don't work that way. I need to see on the calender, which of course I know is impossible since every child is different. Anyway, so this was day one. Naptime, not going so well. She did like the present that the "Binky Fairy" left her (a crown and jewelry set) and she's been walking around thus decked out. :D She also decided she wanted to sweep. It was pretty cute. Later today, making a jack o lantern. Our first! I'll try to get pictures. Later!

craft blog.

So Brianna and I have started a blog for crafts and recipes, and I have put up a post about my puff quilt, and about chicken toquitos. So if you're interested in crafts and recipes (namely MY crafts and recipes) check it out. Enjoy!!
And I wanted to say happy birthday to my childhood friend Joy. Love you chicka! I hope you had a fabulous day!

http://ourcraftycrap.blogspot.com/

OSU

So Tyler mentioned a couple weeks ago maybe going to Ohio State University, this was my response.




























GO BUCKS!

CLASSIC Tyler and Alexis

So this is what we were going for but......






















Yeah...not so much.
















I love how he's laughing at me instead of helping me up. :P

Klutz couple!

Fall pictures!

Hey loyal fans! I know, it's been awhile. I don't even have an excuse for you. I do have a whole bunch of pictures to share and eventually I've got to post my puff quilt blog up on my crafty crap blog (correction, it's mine and Brianna's, but that's just harder to say) anyway, I'm frantically trying to put together 4 costumes for Halloween, throwing together a Visiting Teaching Conference and of course, spending lots of time with my little girls. These are just a few (9 out or 1200) of our fall pictures. My friend Emily was awesome and took them for us. Be ready for a blog overload. :D

Happy September!

I know I shouldn't be excited because it means that snow will be falling here in just a couple weeks BUT, I love september. It's football season (go Bucks!) and trees start changing colors, and the fireweed turns bright colors and hills look like they're on fire (but in a good way, not that annoying actually-on-fire way) and I start thinking about costumes for Halloween and Christmas! (Yes, I do realise that I skipped over Thanksgiving, but I haven't developed a serious attatchment to that holiday yet. Seems more like a dress rehearsal for Christmas dinner anyway) September always makes me think of high school football and long marching band practices. Ah, memories. AND Tyler's birthday is in September! Man, that boy is getting old. ;) lol! 26 on monday hon! Thank you for having your birthday on a day off. :D Anyway, apparently Kari either threw away the t.v. remote and we didn't notice before taking it out, OR it fell down the crack of no return in the couch. Seriously, the way they built this thing makes it IMPOSSIBLE to rescue anything that falls down there. A serious design flaw if you ask me. SO after dealing with dragging our butts off the couch when we want to turn off/on or change the volume on the t.v. we decided that since we were going to buy a new t.v. for Christmas anyway, we'd just bite the bullet and get it a couple months early. So we didn't get the t.v. I was saving up for but, we did get a b-e-a-utiful 40 inch super high res lcd flat screen tv. We watched the Pittsburg vs Utah game yesterday and seriously, football on this tv is heaven. I love it, everyone, be jealous! :D So happy birthday, Christmas, Valentine's day and Anniversary to us. lol!
Oh! I need to update you all about Tyler! Well, we went back to the ER the next day and they ended up doing a CT scan and after lots of waiting, and pacing, and keeping kids happy rediculously late the doctor comes in and sits down and says, and I quote, "Well, you're almost normal" and they had found a "something" that could be an anurism (sp?) and so they needed to do another CT scan with some sort of contrasting dye or whatever it is they use. By this time it was 11:20p.m. and I still had both kids so I called my friend Ruth and drove the kids home and she came over and stayed so that I could go back to the hospital to be with Tyler. Ruth is an angel and I'm blessed to have her in my life. Anyway, so I get back to the hospital and we wait for another two or three hours. Finally at like 3 I think, the doctor comes back in and tells us Tyler is fine (yes!) but for a few hours there, I seriously thought Tyler was going to need brain surgery or die and it was awful. I had all these scenarios running through my head and I was making contingency plans for each possible outcome. I was glad that he was fine. The next day Tyler's headache was a little better. I think him knowing for sure that there wasn't anything wrong with his brain relieved some of that tension.
And last saturday my grandpa Hale died. His funeral was today in Idaho, I wasn't able to go but that's okay. He's graduated and no longer in pain so I'm happy for him. I will miss him though, he was always so funny, I loved hanging out with him. I regret the most that he didn't get to meet Jillian.
My cousin had his brain surgery for his AVM (a cluster of veins that isn't normal in the brain and can cause bleeding) and he is healing very well from what I hear. I'm continuing to keep him and his poor mother in my prayers.
So, the long and the short of it was that I had a no good, very bad, terrible week last week and then this week was better. I had a couple Quarnberg angels visit me and I was surprised and touched. Love you girls. Anyway, I'm sorry, I don't have pictures this post but I will get some up next post, I just kind of felt like blabbing tonight. Love you all! Thanks for reading! :D

crappy, crappy, crappy week(s)

Well okay, so I haven't been on here for awhile because, well frankly I've been having a pity party. I'm not really a fun person to be around right now and I fully understand and accept that. My grandpa is dying, and my cousin is in the hospital with bleeding in his brain. And the worst thing is Tyler is having the same symptoms and we took him to the ER last night and they said, "It sounds like a combination of muscle tension and dehydration" which is not right because Tyler is always drinking water or power ade or juice or something, I cannot accept the dehydration theory. The muscle tension is a little easier to swallow because he does sit at his desk all day and let's face it, most chairs and desks aren't built for a guy as tall as him. Anyway, so they gave him two liters of saline to "rehydrate" him, and put some benadryl and a couple other medicines in there. It didn't help his migrane (that has been constant for two weeks straight) and it made him MORE dizzy and MORE nauseous. So the final answer is this, we went to the ER, they didn't do anything but make things worse, I'm sitting here assuming the worst, that he's got a brain tumor or bleeding in his brain and I'm going to lose him too. I know that it's not that likely, but with everything else that's going on, it's hard not to think the worst. So I'm trying to talk Tyler into going back to the ER and INSISTING on an MRI. He's barely functioning right now, I can't BELIEVE his office hasn't sent him home, or to the ER. I will let you all know when we find out what's going on. But I do have some good news, most of you already know, that Tyler is now a Staff Sergent select. Meaning, he passed the test and now he's waiting for his pin-on date which will be probably May or June. You see, in the Air Force, when they're promoting people, they go by date in service NOT score. So even though Tyler scored really high, the people who FAILED their tests for a couple years in a row get to be promoted first. Sound backwards? Yeah, I feel that way too. BUT hey its the military, they're not known for being overly intelligent. Anyway, that's my little bit of good news in the midst of all the crap. Again, I'll try to keep this thing up-to-date and I'll let you know about Tyler when I know about Tyler. Later!

Attention: My blog is going private!!

So something happened last week that freaked me out so I'm not feeling very secure right now (for those of you who know about the Bailey story, he found me again after 5 years) so...I've decided to make my blog private. I am going to start a new blog for crafty stuff and recipes since I've got a whole bunch of projects that I want to do or are currently doing over the long, dreary winter. And that will be open to the public. There will be no pictures of kiddos, me or the hubby and no personal information on that blog. I'm not too keen on people like this guy being able to find me and I especially don't want him knowing where I live, or what my family looks like. So what does that mean to you? It means if you want to keep reading my blog, I need you to send me your e-mail address. Whether you get it to me over the phone, or on facebook or through my hotmail account, it doesn't matter, just get it to me. I realise there are a few of you who actually don't have any of that. So you can send me your addresses at lovelyalexis@gmail.com, I will not only add you to my blog, but I will send you my main e-mail address as well, I don't feel comfortable putting here so that's why I'm putting the other address. Thank you all for understanding but my family's safety comes first. I've actually been contemplating deleting facebook too but I haven't decided yet. For those of you whose e-mail address I already have, I will e-mail you the invite to my blog, for everyone else, SEND ME YOUR ADDRESS IF YOU WISH TO READ MY BLOG. Okie dokie? Alrighty then. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Fair, and lots of pictures!!!!

So we went to the fair. And we saw animals, or as Kari was saying "Aminals" So cute.





























We looked at cows...

















And horses...









And fed the horses....















I think she loves horses! :D












Petted some goats...














And a bunny. She did so well that we went on some rides...












And she didn't like them as much. The farris wheel...












A mini roller coaster...
















The elephant spiny thing...












We looked at bonsaiis...














And flowers...











Jillian just hung out with me of course.

Daddy won Kari a HUGE bear on a putting green game.

I think she's in love.

Jillian being her usual happy self.

My 5th boy diaper cake.

This morning the B-2 was on display. Coolest plane E-V-E-R.

Look at those sleek lines.









I know I'm behind on the gratitude thing but I'm gonna be honest with you. Everyday I'm grateful for the same things. My girls, my husband, my family (blood and in-laws) and my friends. Especially Brianna. Everyday I think about how lucky I am to have all these people in my life. I'm grateful for the gospel and the blessings it brings to my life. I'm grateful that I have an eternal family so that I can see my daughter again in the next life. I'm grateful for the military. It has it's ups and downs, but it's made it possible for us to live comfortablywhile Tyler goes to school for free. I'm thankful for sooo many things. I love you all so much. And I miss you all sorely. :D