California Coast

I keep trying to play catch up with our summer adventures and be better at blogging!  Since it is 2:30 AM and I can't sleep and everyone else can, I figure now is the perfect time.  It has been one of those days with lots of screaming and crying - Isabelle only wanting daddy, Eli wanting specific things and throwing tantrums when he didn't get them, and me wanting to drive in the car to Mexico and come back in a week (or two), tan, relaxed and happy.  Instead, I will take a 2AM break from my family and enjoy the Tillamook yogurt I finally found in Arizona!  Ahhh, Tillamook yogurt, so good!

Back to June and pictures that remind me that it is not all stressful days and screaming kids.  My favorite part of California was the beach.  Eli LOVES the beach, doesn't care if the water is cold, makes tons of friends and has the time of his life every time we go.  Izzy on the other hand hates the beach!  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that she cant wear her leg braces because of all the sand and water and sand is really hard to walk in even when you are a good walker, much less an unstable walker with low muscle tone.  So she is a trooper when we go and one of us has to be pretty one-on-one with her, trying to get her to warm up to the sand and water.

Eli is pretty much doing this from the minute we get there and scouting the beach for his new best friends.  That kid can make friends with anyone.  I love it.

We eventually got Isabelle walking though (that day).  We spent a lot of time trying to put her on the sand and her hanging from her arms, lifting her legs as high in the air as she could to not touch the sand, screaming as though she was being tortured.  By the way, are those chubby thighs not the cutest thing ever?

We spent 2 days on Balboa Island, going to the beach and enjoying the cute little town.  I loved the town and next time we go I want to spend more time there and rent bikes.

We didn't have as much time on the beach that day and trying to warm Isabelle up to it didn't work as well, so she sat in the stroller or on the beach towel.  

I love the beach.  It made me miss BYU-Hawaii so much and all the time we got to spend on the beach, in the ocean, scuba diving, snorkeling and just living with the ocean and beach in our backyard (literally - the house we rented had it's own walkway to the beach.  Sigh).  I am so glad I got to travel a ton before having kids, because traveling with kids is a whole different kind of traveling.  Still good, but entirely different!

Check Out My Girl!

So my cute little Izzy was featured on This Little Miggy!  If your unfamiliar with this blog, you should get familiar!  I was actually introduced to it by a friend who knew the writer.  It was right about the time Isabelle was diagnosed with Kabuki Syndrome and my friend told me I should start reading the blog.  She said there was a lot of writing about Miggy's daughter, Lamp, who has limb reduction complex.  While what she is facing is totally different, she is still in the same world where she is readjusting to a life with her family which is very different than the one she expected.  She writes about the ups and downs of having a child with special needs and every Friday features a Special Needs family.

This Friday was Isabelle.  If you want to read the article, go here.

I'm so glad Ann Marie introduced me to the blog and I was glad to write a little more about my girl and share some info on Kabuki Syndrome, since it is so rare.

On a side note, we had visitors for Labor Day weekend and the kids loved getting to spend time with their MeMaw/Pops or Grandma/Grandpa (depending on which kid is talking).

We went to Patagonia Lake, which was nice - I mean it was nothing compared to the lakes in Oregon, but it was ok for Arizona:)

And just because she's so cute, here's a few more pictures to brighten your day!

The Holland Family

This post is going to be a little different than normal.  I wanted to let everyone know about some fundraising the MOMS group in my town is doing.  One of the first things I did when we moved to Sierra Vista was join a MOPS group – Moms of Preschoolers.  This has been an amazing group of woman to get to know.  After we’d been here only a few weeks last September, Isaac was in a horrible car accident on the way to Isabelle’s surgery in Phoenix.  I was overwhelmed with a hurt husband, a daughter recovering from surgery, a car accident that wasn’t covered by insurance and living in a new area, far away from everyone I knew.  This MOPS group came and helped us in so many ways, even though we didn’t know any of them well yet.  Meals were brought to us for weeks, prayers for our family were said, and offers to help in any way possible were given.  I was so grateful for this group and all their help.

Since then I’ve gotten to know these amazing moms and they’ve become my first friends here in Sierra Vista.  2 weeks ago one of the children in our group, McKenna, was diagnosed with leukemia.  She is Isabelle’s age.  McKenna’s mom, Jamie, is a friend from this group who had a baby recently and also has a son in Elementary school.  McKenna has had to stay in the hospital and Jamie has been staying there with her and the baby while she began chemotherapy and other treatments. 

Their story hits me not only because I know Jamie, but also because I know the struggle of having a child with heartbreaking health problems.  I know how it feels to go back and forth to Tucson, being torn between your children at home and your child at the hospital.  Driving back and forth constantly, worrying non-stop, trying to have faith in Heavenly Father to get you through the unknown days ahead and on top of everything, having the financial strain of all the hospital bills on top of everything is a huge trial for anyone. 

As a MOMS group, we are doing some fundraisers to try and help the family with their upcoming financial costs.   One thing we are doing is organizing parties through home-based businesses (pampered chef, sentsy, etc), where the consultants have agreed to give what would normally be their salary for the party (usually 20% of what the party earns) to the Holland family.   The virtual catalog parties we have going are:

Online catalog parties for McKenna:

Sept. 1-14 Perfectly Post, Thirty-one, Beachbody

Sept. 15-29 Tastefully Simple, Pampered Chef, Usana

Oct. 1-14 Scentsy, Thirty-one,

Oct. 15-30 Longaberger 

Nov. 1-14 Willow Tree, Mary Kay, Usana

The facebook page with the links to these parties is here:

If you decide to purchase something, a portion of the fees will go to the Holland family.  If you’re not interested in ordering anything (which, being honest, I don’t normally do these parties so I am unfamiliar with most of these companies), we also have a donation page, where donations go directly to the Holland families PayPal account, here:

 I just wanted to share this with as many people as possible.  Like I said, this story really hits home to me. If you have any friends or family that may want to purchase something on the online parties, please share these links with them.  

In the last 2 ½ years since Isabelle was born, we have dealt with the very real stress and hardship of the financial burdens of having a sick child and I know how incredibly hard and how much additional worry it can add to a family.  Anything you can do can help.  If all you can do is remember the Holland family in your prayers that is amazing!  I saw from Isabelle the incredible power of prayer and watching Eli pray for McKenna and ask Heavenly Father to help her has been one of the sweetest experiences we’ve had as a family. 

Thanks to all of you!  I sincerely believe what Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  I believe that because I saw it happen in my family's lives as we were so blessed by our small community in Mesa that reached out to us after Isabelle was born, many of whom we barely knew at the time.  From meals that were brought to us,  diapers that were dropped off and left on our door, small children at church telling me they were praying for our family, a friend who came to our house from midnight to 3 AM and stayed up with my baby so I could get some sleep, another mom who made special play dates with Eli weekly, for more than a year, knowing that amidst all of the appointments, hospital stays and surgeries, my son wasn't getting as much special one-on-one time as he used too.  I saw so many of our prayers answered through the people around us, so many times where someones kind hand reaching out to me is what got me through the day.  I know a small group of people can change the world, because they changed my world and lifted me up through days where it seemed there was no end in sight.  Now I hope the Holland family can feel the same thing.

Here are some pictures of sweet McKenna.

 This is McKenna and her mom, Jamie.  This picture is so familiar to me, having sat by Isabelle's side through tests, surgeries and so many appointments, trying to provide her with love and comfort.

 Playing Barbies and being a kid - what she should be doing right now!

Please share this post and let people know how they can help out!  Thanks everyone!

Backtracking

We all know I am months behind on this blog.  Oh well, what can you do?  For now, I'm trying to play catch-up.  In July we went to Oregon for 3 weeks (already miss it so much!) and my mom and nephew flew back with us for a week.  We crammed every kid related activity that we could into that week and wore ourselves out by the end of every day.  Expect for the kids, who apparently, never wear out.  Twice we took the kids to our community pool and they impressed me by not being afraid and wanting to jump off the high board (which is 10 feet up by the way).  My job was to jump into the water right after they jumped in and drag them to the edge of the pool, since the Life Guards wouldst let anyone else jump in until the previous person was out.  

 I love this picture of Eli with the clouds behind him.

 We got sun burnt, had fun and already miss Nanny and Kaden.

 On a side note, this is what a 3 year old Halloween costume looks like on a 5 year old.  Eli found this in his closet (when he was supposed to be sleeping) and came out in the middle of the night, strutting his stuff.  Love that a good 3 inches of belly is hanging out.  

 On another side note, this is why I think it is pointless to clean my windows.  On the bright side, from about 3 feet up, they look great!

When Did This Happen?

It feels like just the other day Isaac was driving me to the hospital and five hours later this little boy entered our lives.  How has 5 years passed?  For so long we had a baby, then a toddler and now we have a little boy and it seems like he should still be my baby!  But in the midst of the busy-ness and chaos and doctor appointments and life, this little guy turned 5 with gusto.  And a harmonica.  Which may go down in history as the worst gift ever!  I have had 4 AM wake up calls to this harmonica recently, as well as Eli playing for me to "help your headache".  Just in case your wondering, harmonicas do not help a headache go away.  Just in case your wondering.

Not only did Eli turn 5, but Preschool started this week (Thanks goodness!).  We opted for Eli to do another year of preschool rather than start kindergarten as the youngest in his class.  Coming from girl who was the youngest in her class, it's not that great.  Also we felt he wasn't ready for all day kindergarten and could use one more year by mom's side before we send him off to spend the  majority of his day away from us.  While it would be actually easier on me (with all of our appointments) if he was in all day kindergarten, I feel  like we made the right decision for our little guy. 

 The first day of school pictures - he brought his harmonica for show-and-tell (I'm sure his teacher was thanking me for that one.)

 Eli had a SpiderMan birthday party, filled with water fun (since it is still in the high 90's here).  I am certain that somewhere I have this exact same picture of me, my sister, Christine Kadell and the Scheie girls, sliding down a slip-n-slide on one of our birthdays.  Glad to keep the tradition alive.  

 Happy Birthday Eli!