Then and Now

Yesterday's Advent Activity was inspired by a project that my Husband did in 1974 or 1975 during preschool

December 10 - Make Toilet Paper roll Santa's.

A few kids came over today to make the craft. I have to admit this was also a little more than a 3-4 year old can handle on their own so there was a lot of "helping". I hope that Sarah has her Santa as long as John has had his. Can you guess which one is Antique?

On Stage....

December 9th - Christmas Program at School -
It was time for Sarah's Christmas Program at School. She was so excited to "get up on stage" and sing her song. Each class performed 2 songs with props/movement etc. It was ADORABLE! Keep in mind each class is either a 3 or a 4 year old class so it is pretty impressive to see them "act". The entire sanctuary was FULL and it is a pretty big church. man those kids were brave! Sarah's class sang Little Drummer Boy and Looking for a King

She was SO proud and really serious about her bow.

Too many crafts

I am not sure that there is such a thing.. but I think over half of my Advent boxes are filled with crafts!

December 8th - Do a Christmas craft.. pretty vague, right?.. originally yesterday's was to decorate the tree.. but we did that earlier in the month and I had forgotten to put a new activity in yesterday's slot. While Sarah was eating breakfast, I slyly switched it to Christmas Craft. At that point I had no idea what we would do.. . I decided to go with the basics, some paper and cotton balls... a Santa in the making. This was Sarah's creation - don't you love the stray cotton ball on the one cheek? Sometimes 4 years olds are so easy to please (notice I said SOMETIMES!)

Daddy Daughter fun

John totally got ripped off on helping make the Gingerbread house but yesterday's activity was ALL a daddy-daughter deal:

December 7th - Hang Christmas Lights outside

We picked up one strand of LED lights to hang in our hibiscus outside as well as some snowflake stakes for the front yard area. John and Sarah unpacked the packages and got to work. The results are fun!

Good enough to eat

Yesterday Sarah was on the road to recovery.. but not well enough to go anywhere. So it was a PJ day and we had a great time just the same!

December 6th - Put together a Gingerbread House

A month or so ago I picked up a great Gingerbread House at Sams Club and Sarah has been so excited to break into the box. Yesterday was finally the day! I forgot how messy it is icing a Gingerbread house. It was a fun project. John was the official photographer since Sarah had her ideas of exactly how things needed to be. Fun Christmas memories

Yesterday I had to totally improvise what the Advent activity was. In the morning Sarah was still pretty lethargic and yucky so we stayed in the resort in our PJ's until it looked like she was feeling better. When we thought she had started to get better, we decided to head to Downtown Disney:

December 5th - Trip to downtown Disney

For a little while Sarah was fine.. enjoying "checking out the scenes"of the Lego Store, the Princess statues and the sites and sounds of the themed restaurants.

Around 1:30pm We were starved so we decided on Rainforest Cafe. Up to that point Sarah had only eaten 2 Ritz crackers all day. We got seated and Sarah went down hill quickly. All she wanted to do was go back to the hotel so we got up and left. She fell asleep on the 5 minute drive back and slept for 2 hours. When she woke up we drove back to Tampa. Our Disney weekend was a bust. Sarah was NOT happy when we went home. You gotta do what you gotta do to take care of your little ones :).

Flexibility is key

I am a planner.. if you know me you know that. I have all 25 days of the Advent box planned out, written on my calendar and in the Advent box. Then life throws you a curve ball.

December 4th - Pick out a new ornament for the tree -

I knew we were headed to Orlando for the weekend so I figured we would go to Downtown Disney last night and she could pick out an ornament. Things didn't work out that way. Sarah came down with a stomach bug our first evening there so no shopping was done.... Poor thing. Needless to say we are back in Tampa after a short but LONG 24 hour trip. No Disney for us this weekend (so more changes to the Advent calendar).

The Advent calendar activities for the rest of the weekend will be by the seat of our pants, based on how Sarah is feeling. Good thing I am flexible!

Sweet mice

December 3rd Advent - Candy Cane Mice craft at Diane's:

We went to a friend Diane's house to make Candy cane mice. Aren't they the cutest things? All the kids could think about was eating the candy canes :) It's okay though, I had a great time doing the craft!!!!!!! It took Sarah almost an hour to eat one candy cane! My niece Emma now she can down a candy cane in minutes. They enjoyed them down to the last lick!

More adventures and a giveaway

Our Advent Adventures continue. Yesterday's was especially fun for the whole family:


December 2nd: Decorate the Christmas Tree
Sarah was dying to decorate her pink tree in her room before John got home from work so she meticulously placed her mini-ornament on her mini tree (who doesn't LOVE mini anything!). Don't you LOVE how the pink tree is wrapped in beautiful sparkly plastic wrap stuff at the bottom (yea RIGHT). Anyways, she had a great time!

Once John got home we moved onto our regular tree... Years ago we switched to a artificial tree (much to John's dismay) because of destructive pets. Our pets aren't here anymore but I LOVE not having to water the tree and clean the dead needles. This year John's mom was gracious enough to give us her GORGEOUS tree from Ballard design that is prelit and has pine cones on it. I did not know how STRESS FREE putting up a tree could be. Usually I FIGHT with the lights and it always took forever to get them put on. Not this year.... Easy as PIE!!!!! LOVE IT!


I love unwrapping the ornaments every year and remembering who gave them to us or when they were made. My tree is adorned with beautiful Christopher Radko Ornaments that my Dad and Step mom have given us. On or around Thanksgiving every year, they give us a Christmas decoration, years ago the decoration changed into Christopher Radko ornaments. What a fun and generous tradition! Now that we have Sarah she LOVES seeing what ornament will be inside the box! Another favorite is all of the Ornament that John's Nana and Grandaddy had given him over the years. Nana always somehow put a date on the ornament so it is neat to look at them. Lots of other awesome handmade and photo ornaments hang from our tree.

I love our tree and all of the wonderful memories and holiday's past that it represents! I hope that you and your family have as much fun decorating your tree as we did ours!

CHEERS!

Also check out the giveaway on my sister's blog! FUN!

Life is good

What a tough year 2008 has been! Since my last post we lost John's dear Grandaddy. He was a very special and amazing man. We will miss him dearly - although we know that he and God are having a great time up there!

That said... life is good! We have been enjoying the beginning of the holiday season, thinking about all of the fun events we have coming up. Talented Kelly N. took AMAZING holiday photos of mine and my sister's family this weekend. Here are a few SILLY ones, I will post some not so silly ones another day:

Tonight I filled our Advent box with the Daily Holiday Activities.. Hey.. that just inspired me.. I will blog everyday with a report on our Advent fun! I don't have any pictures from today's event but I will try to take some for the upcoming days.

December 1st - Write Letters to Santa (CHARITY) - Jen, a friend of mine, hosted a Letters to Santa charity event today. Macy's is donating a $1 to the Make a Wish foundation for every letter that is written to Santa and placed in the mail box at Macy's. You can read more about the charity here. After the kids "wrote their letters", they cut out pictures of toys from catalogs and glued them to their picture "wish list". One of the things Sarah cut out was a Gumball machine - Um - yea NO. I don't think Santa will be bringing that - I will tell her that Gumballs were recalled for lead in the food coloring (LOL). Thanks Jen for a fun time, the kids enjoyed themselves!

It's good to be back in the blogging world!! I will see you tomorrow with an Advent Update!

Sweet Sarah

Today we had Sarah's 4th birthday party at my sisters. On the way there she said to John:
"Daddy, it was nice of God to give us a baby for a little while".
- She is right :)

Sad news to report....

Our sweet little miracle baby that we never got to meet was taken to heaven. The baby only made it to 6 weeks and a few days, although I was officially 10 weeks when we found out that the baby had died.

We know that more than likely there was something wrong with the baby... but it is still difficult to understand WHY this is happening to us.

We have tried hard to expand our lovely little family and give our love to another child. I guess God has other plans for us right now. Why in the WORLD can't God's plans and our plans be the same?

We would love your continued prayers though this difficult time.

Blog Silence and Baby update

I know it has been WEEKS since I have posted, but I have been a little "pre-occupied" trying to get my emotions in check about my pregnancy. When I found out that I was pregnant, My HCG (pregnancy Hormone) was 319. A few days later is was supposed to double but it was a few numbers shy of doubling. Then a few days later it was a few hundred from doubling. Really, I was scared and questioning if I was going to remain pregnancy. I was trying to keep a positive attitude and remain hopeful but I was just stressed and Cranky! I was waiting for today to come to give me a piece of mind.. the Ultrasound!

We saw one baby (more like a mini peanut) with a heartbeat! YEA, so thrilled. No twins, which is okay - but it leaves me wondering about the little Embryo that didn't make it. I have been SO super stressed, but now I feel much better and actually believe that I am pregnant :) I have another U/S next Tuesday.

My right Ovary is SUPER HUGE so it was kind of getting in the way, that is why they are doing a second U/S. Because of that, there is a chance that it could twist cutting off blood supply. That would cause a lot of pain and the need for surgery to either save or remove the ovary. This of coarse is the worst case scenario. I am on "restricted Activity" (No lifting exercise, sex etc...) until the next U/S when they will determine it's size.

Here is a picture of our baby - get out your magnified glass:

More good news.. I don't have to take my daily progesterone injections.. instead I switch to vaginal suppositories for the next 6 weeks (FUN!) You all have been so nice and supportive. Keep the prayers coming for a healthy pregnancy!

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Almost there

A few more hours... I should know by 3pm or 4pm............................

Funny stuff

To pass the time during these 2 Looooong weeks of waiting (6 days to go), I have stepped up the scrapbooking. I just find these pictures SOOOOOOOOO super funny and I wanted to share!

I hope everyone is having a great week!

On my Mind

* My daughter has a boyfriend at 3 years old… (wait until you hear the
latest)
* I have 2 embryos attaching themselves to my uterus lining as we
speak (I am thinking positively here.)
* In 12 days I find out if I am pregnant
* Sure wish I was a speed scrapbooking, instead I am a perfectionist!
* The DAILY progesterone injections sure make my hips hurt!

In regards to #1 – Sarah wanted to send her “boyfriend" Jackson an email.
She dictated, I typed word for word:
Love Jackson from Sarah and Love from I love you so much pretty as a rose so much as a rose and i love you so much as marry. Teeth fall out when you're bigger and i love you so much as a rose and i love you so much Jackson. i love you and you boyfriend me Sarah. Sarah Jackson love you so much. And I'm going to marry you so much and lollipop. Sent mail to you once long ago. Mail me some mail for Sarah. The frogs are jumping on the lilly pad and the birdies are singing on the breeze.
I can't wait to see you Jackson.

This was Jackson’s response:
"i'm going to school tomorrow. i made a friend. if i played with ship w/andrew and then brady's coming with a humidifier. i love you so as a froggy and i love you as a rose. thank you for sending me a letter and thank you for coming. i haven't sent you a long letter but why did you whack my choo choo track down? but i can't believe i love you as a froggy. i wanna come to the zoo w/you sometime. the best thing that you want to do is come to my house and write. i love you as a rose. thank you. that's it!"

Jackson's mom, Kelly just posted on her blog too with another cute pic of them!

HOW FUNNY ARE THESE. Now that is entertainment!

On a Scrap Note
Here is one of the layouts I've completed. Notice this picture is from Oct 2006.. think I am a little behind? You can see more on my Two peas in a bucket gallery

Want a Peek??

My embryo transfer went off without a hitch. We transferred 2 Grade 1 (A) 6 cell embies this morning. It was so exciting.. we got to watch the procedure on Ultrasound. and saw one of the embies in there!. Another thing that was "cute" (as John said) was they wheeled the Embryos into the room in a incubator like you see in NICU. They did that because the entire process in temperature regulated. They gave us a picture of the little ones that was taken an hour or so before the transfer. Here is our baby(ies) first portrait.

Now the 2 week wait begins! I go back for a pregnancy test two weeks from today. Thanks for looking and following our journey!

Pass or Fail?

My Embie stats as of today are:

* 2 embies are GRADE A (or 1) 4 cell - PERFECT

* 1 embie is GRADE C (or 3)

* 1 embie is GRADE D (or 4)

Tomorrow they will be transferring the 2 highest quality embies back into my uterus. The quality of all of them could change by morning so we will have a better idea by then.

Then we wait.... 2 weeks to find out if we are Prego. I am so excited I can barely stand it!

Did they make it?

John and I have literally been a nervous wreck ALL MORNING waiting for the Dr. office to call with how many of our 4 eggs fertilized. we got the call at 11:45am. The news was PERFECT. We had 100% fertilization!!!!! 4 little fertilized eggs!

Tomorrow we will wait for another call to see how many survived the cell division stage. they will also tell us what day transfer will be (they will be transferring the 2 best quality ones). It will probably be Tuesday just because of the low number of eggs that were retrieved.
Looks like everyone's thoughts and prayers are working! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Four is a lonely number

Okay so the procedure was fine... I was home by 10:30am. I ate breakfast and was in bed by 11:30am. I woke up at 3pm.... boy was I groggy from the anesthesia and pain meds. I would say the pain level was probably a 5 out of 10.

The good news is that I had eggs.. the bad news only 4! That is a really low number. I keep trying to remember that it only takes 1, but boy our odds have gone down tremendously. I will be waiting impatiently for the call tomorrow to see how many eggs actually fertilized. We are thinking positively and know that what ever happens is what is supposed to happen.... But I have to say it is really tough when you want something so bad!

All the wonderful details!!

I feel like my life has been revolved around trying to have a baby for almost 3 years.. it has been a long journey. John and I have been doing such a great job at remaining positive and not letting this adversity interfere with the joys of our everyday life or our wonderful daughter Sarah.


We got the call... My stats were as follows:
*Estrogen:1525
*Follicles: 25,22,19,13,13,13,12,12,12,11

WE ARE READY!!! What does that mean you ask? Last night at 8:10pm John gave me my HCG trigger shot, which will get my body ready to ovulate (which is one with the BIG NEEDLE in the muscle in my hip). We were both a nervous wreck! John did such a great job that I did not feel a thing!!! Seriously, I could not believe it. My muscle is a little sore today but no biggie - Phew - that part is over

Saturday we have to be at the Surgery Center at 7:10am. My procedure will be at 8:10am (exactly 36 hours after my HCG shot). I will be under anaesthesia while they aspirate my eggs out of my follicles. Yes with a needle and YES through my girl parts (as we like to call them!). Then John does his "Business" and they put my eggs and his sperm in a dish and hope for the best :). They will tell us how many eggs they retrieved before we leave. That day I need to rest. Here is a picture of the procedure (the blue thing is the ultrasound probe so they can see what they are doing):


Sunday: The Dr. office will call and tell us how many eggs fertilized.


Monday: They will call and tell us the Quality of the fertilized eggs and also tell us if we will have a 3 or 5 day embryo transfer


Tuesday OR Thursday: Embryo Transfer is a piece of cake. I am catheterized through my cervix and they place the embryos in my uterus. It is up to those little babies to implant in my uterus on their own. No anesthesia is required and I will take just a minute or so. I will also need to rest all day. Then we WAIT for 2 weeks to find out if I am Prego.

SO, please say your prayers, do the baby dance... send some baby dust or whatever you think will help us in this fantastic journey that we are about to embark on.

Quick little update

Time for Preschool

Sarah Starts preschool tomorrow. She is excited. She has been asking me for a year when she was going to school.. I just kept saying August.. Every day she would say "Is tomorrow August".. I can't believe that is IS August... really? Where in the world did the year go.

Stats from Dr appt today:

Estrogen Level 1000

Follicles: 19, 18, 17, 13, 13, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11

Meds again tonight.. Dr again in the morning (do you realize that I have to leave my house at 6:20am every time I have to go to the Dr.)

Look like I will PROBABLY take my trigger shot tomorrow night and have my eggs aspirated on Saturday. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! So exciting!

Say your prayers for us!

Getting closer

I went to the Dr. yesterday AND today.... I am starting to actually be optimistic about all of this. Today My estrogen was 856 and my follicles that matter are at 19,17,15,13,13 mm. They said i am "almost there". I took more meds tonight and I go back in the morning. I am getting nervous and excited. Finally I feel like this is REALLY going to happen. Up to this point I kept thinking they were going to call me and cancel my cycle. So.. YEA!

Sarah and I did some scrapbook pages today. She was so cute, I should scan her pages and post them.... she was so proud!

Journaling reads: When you woke up on Easter morning and walked out of your room, you started jumping up and down and screaming "Look, the Easter Bunny left me a jellybean trail!" Grabbing an empty basket, collecting the jellybeans and following the path down the steps seemed to be the best part of your morning. The path started at your bedroom door and continued all the way down the steps to your Easter basket. It took you 45 minutes to make it to the anticipated basket and only 3 minutes to discover what was in it

Come on follicles.... you can do it!

I've had 2 more Dr. Appt since my last post - today being the most recent. Well..... It isn't dead in the water yet. I had 3 follicles at 13mm and 1 at 14mm. plus 5 other tiny ones. My estrogen was 226. So things are progressing at a friggin SNAILS pace. I will be on the same meds for the next 2 nights, then I will go back on Monday morning. Anyways... we will see. I am NOT a good waiter so this is eating me alive.
My friend Deanna sent me this quote and I REALLY need to keep focused:
"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on." -- Thomas Jefferson
Thank you for everyone's thoughts and prayers during all of this madness!!

Just one of those days

Today was ONE BAD DAY! Sarah lost ALL of her privileges by 9:45am... the day just got worse from there!

I had a DR. appt for an Ultrasound and bloodowork this morning. I had 10 follicles, one measuring a 13mm, endometrium was 8. Sounds good, right... Well the ART Nurse called me this afternoon to tell me my Estrogen level was only 39 (should be at least 200 at this point). UGG. My Menapor and Gonal-F (Ovary stimulation meds) were both increased. I go back on Thurs morning for another Ultrasound and Estrogen level check.

And you know what, I have the BEST husband. He is so supportive and sweet. He never gets upset with me when I am having "One of those days" (like today). I am one lucky girl!

I am praying, thinking positive and really trying to take things one step at a time and one day at a time. Tomorrow I will be saying this:

IVF Stimulation day #1 plus some Scrapping

IVF UPDATE:

I had my Baseline appointment with my RE this morning to get an ultrasound and bloodwork. I got the call and everything looks good! I start my ovary stimulation medicine tonight. I will take 3 different shots (Lupron, Menopur and Gonal-F) every night for 5 nights. Then on Tuesday I go back for more bloodowork and another ultrasound to see how my follicles are coming along, they will adjust my meds accordingly… from there we take it day by day. If my body responds appropriately, I should have my eggs aspirated around the 18th and then have the embryo transfer 3-5 days after that. Then the 2 week wait begins to find out if I am Prego.

ON A SCRAP NOTE:

I finished a fun page of Sarah and her cousin Emma at a MOTG Pirate party that a friend Deanna had in January. I found the cutest pirate paper from DCWV . The page turned out cute. Now if I could only master the art of taking pictures of my pages

What happened to my little girl?

Really.. angel-pie (or piglet - depending on my mood) is almost 4 years old. She seems so grown up. The time is flying by way faster than I could have ever imagined. She is such a doll.. how can you resist such cuteness.....

Have I told you that she has a new man??? Goodness.. it's pretty serious, I'm afraid soon she will be showing me the jewlry store ads giving me ideas of which engagement ring she wants... His name is Jackson and Sarah is completely obsessed with him! They have only know each other a short time but they really hit it off from the get-go. Read this funny story about the two of them on Kelly's (Jackson's mom) Blog - it is a MUST read hilarious account of their love for each other! Look at them!

The good news is that he is a really sweet kid and super cute! At least she has good taste!