Summer Part 2...family trip

So now that the boys are back in school, I have time to sit and blog. So, back to summer vacation part 2...we took a family vacation to Tucson to see family and for my sister in laws high school graduation. It was a good time had by all. We went to her graduation, saw high school friends, and just had some family fun. Can you believe we went to Arizona in the summer and didn't go swimming at all!!

Anyway, we arrived in Tucson on the 23rd and then stayed about 2 weeks. We went to Desiree's graduation, which all the kids sat through without too many problems. Had a good time with the in-laws. Here are some pictures from Desiree's graduation, I didn't get too many because it was hard to see.

This is Kaitlyn after the ceremony waiting to see her Aunt Desiree, with her Grandma, Robert's Mom.


And one more, Robert with his sister, Desiree.

It didn't turn out the greatest, but you get the point.

While we were there we also got to go to Sabino Canyon. That's one we will have to do again once the kids are older. They need to be able to hike to get the full benefit, and we need to go when it isn't quite so HOT.

This is me and the kids at one of the trams stops on the tour.


And Robert and the kids on the tram.


And some pictures of what we saw.





And then since we love zoos, we did both the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and the Reid Park Zoo. The kids love them both and it was a fun time for all. And they got to see a baby mountain goat. He was really cute! Here are a few pictures of the Desert Museum.

The Desert Museum has an AWESOME hummingbird exhibit that I love and this is what Robert was able to catch.

You might not be able to see it real well, but enlarged you can see the hummingbird. Last year when we were there, they had a new nest with babies just born. We got some good pictures of that too...I might have to go back and try and find those and post them in another post. Anyway, more pictures...




Oh, here is the baby mountain goat...


And finally the Reid Park zoo, although it's small the kids still have a blast. This is by far their favorite animal...they will talk about these until we go back to see them again, LOL.

That's right Polar Bears. The boys could stand and what them for hours!

A close second is the opportunity to actually hand feed a Giraffe. Here are a few pictures of that.




Apparently the kids took an idea from this elephant...

Because on the way out we had to stop to play in the water...


And just for one final picture of the zoo...Michael had to have a picture of this, and he had to take it himself...


And what a better way to end a post than showing you my sleeping babies after a long day of play,

AARRGHHH!!!!

Okay, I know I have more summer stuff to talk about, but right now I need to vent.

School here starts on Tuesday, and as I'm sure all of you know the boys have been in school since last year. Well, while we were on our last vacation, installment to come, we got a message that Michael would be in the afternoon class like we had requested, and his teacher would contact us with information about his meet and greet. Well that was last week, and it's now Friday and I still don't have the information. Now, add to that, we still haven't heard anything about Patrick, who the school district told us we didn't have to do anything for him since he's on an IEP. I've tried calling both the school and the Central Enrollment Center and I can't get anyone on the phone!

This is beyond frustrating!!!!!

Summer, Part 1...Birthdays!

Michael and Patrick are now 4 and Kaitlyn is now 2!!! Where has the time gone? Does anyone remember this?




These are my babies 4 years ago!!! They have come so far and it's amazing to look at them now. Here are some recent pictures for comparison.
Michael at his birthday party.

Patrick at his birthday party.

And, we can't forget Kaitlyn. Here is my baby 2 years ago, in the NICU.

And a current one...Kaitlyn at her birthday party.


It's amazing what the years do as they pass. When the boys were in the NICU I couldn't even imagine 4 years down the road, and yet here we are today. They are thriving and in preschool, and are the light of my life! And then when Kaitlyn was born, I was crushed by the fact that I couldn't take her home with me. That was one of the worst weeks of my life, but here we are again...2 years later and she's no worse for the wear. She's a beautiful, intelligent girl and the light of my life. I couldn't imagine life without the three of them...

So Happy Birthday Babies, and here's to many more!!!!!!

Where did I go???

I'm sure some of you are wondering where did I go since April. Well the answer is summer vacation! This summer has been extremly busy to say the least. It was jam packed with 3 birthdays, 2 times at VBS, 3 Summer trips, and then just regular life! I know it won't all fit in one post, but hopefully with pics and all, I can get it in 4 or so.

So, summer vacation...part 1 will be coming soon...

Our weekend!

Well before I get to the point of my post, photobucket finally decided to get it's act together and my pictures from Easter are resized properly now. So if they looked cut off before, please know we knew it and were trying to get it fixed so check them out now.

Now, this past weekend we had great family time. We took the kids and myself fishing for the first time. I think we all had a good time, but the boys got bored really quick, and we didn't catch anything :(. Hopefully next time we go will be better. I also think we need to find a better place to go. We are talking that possibly next time we go, we will go for a weekend and try camping too.

So, here are some pictures from fishing...






And some swimming pictures from the same day,






And a cute shot of the boys watching tv...




That's all for today!

HAPPY EASTER

All is quiet around here, for the first time all day. The kids are in bed and I finally have a few free moments to set and think about what I want to type.

EASTER!!!!!! It was a wonderful day. Some much needed calm, quiet family time. Easter weekend started off Friday with a trip to the Easter Bunny, and much to every one's surprise (At least I thought so), Patrick actually sat in his lap WITHOUT crying or having Mommy int he picture too. Here is the shot Robert got....he's not smiling, but at least he's not screaming.



After that on Saturday we colored Easter Eggs. That gets to be hard when you are the only one who can help, but we actually pulled it off. The kids LOVED decorating Easter Eggs this year, and while it was messy, it was so fun to watch their faces light up. Just take a look at these pictures...







And then of course, Kaitlyn didn't last too long.


And here are a few more from Easter Sunday. Don't they all look so cute all dressed up!! Too bad it didn't last long, but it's always nice to see them all dressed up.








This one I used the timer on, don't mind the mess.


And finally, this is what Kaitlyn decided to do with one of the boys' baskets.




We hope everyone had a great day and that we didn't bore you too much with the ton of pictues. I hate choosing favorites and I'd much rather share more that not enough, LOL.

Walk America

Well, we are doing Walk America this year. I've wanting to do it since the boys were born, but every time the walk would come up it would conflict with something else. Either Robert would be deployed or we were planning our vacation or what not. Well this year we finally have the opportunity! For those that might not know, I have three preemies. Here are their stories...

Michael and Patrick are fraternal twins born at 31 weeks. They were born early due to a placental abruption. On May 13th, I was feeling well that evening. I was up most of the night with pain in my back and major cramping. By 6am things started to get better so I thought it was just nothing and decided to get some sleep. I went to bed and slept until 12pm and decided I was hungry and got up to get some lunch. Around 2pm, I decided to go lay back down and get another nap, as I still didn't feel quite right. Around 4pm, I got up and was walking to the bathroom, when all of the sudden, I felt a gush and was soaked from the waist down. My water broke, and I was only 31 weeks pregnant. I got to the bathroom and screamed for my little sister to bring me the phone. She was mad as she came down the stairs until so saw what was going on. She ran to find the numbers we needed. What freaked her out the most, wasn't the fact that my water had broke, but it was full of blood and she knew that wasn't normal.

As we called everyone we needed to I began to have contractions. My first call was to my Mom to get her to come home and take me to the hospital. In hind sight, I should have had my sister drive me, but I wasn't thinking clearly. At 4:15pm, my Mom arrived home to take us to the hospital. At 4:30pm, I was in the ER and being wheeled up to Labor and Delivery. I was told I would need an emergency c-section and they didn't know if my OB would make it in time. Just as they were wheeling me into the OR my OB arrived and scrubbed in for an emergency delivery. At 5:40pm Michael was welcomed into the world and blue followed by Patrick at 5:41pm. Michael weighed 3 lbs 13 oz and was 16 3/4 inches and Patrick was 3 lbs 11 oz and 17 inches. I was told later that Michael was a very lucky little boy to be alive. He is documented in the operative report as an unsurvivable infant. The next 25 days were a roller coaster of emotions. It was one step forward two steps back for a long time, but now the are almost 4!! And you wouldn't know they were preemies unless you know their story.

Kaitlyn is a whole different story. I had problems with her pregnancy from about 20 weeks. I was having contractions and while they didn't seem to be doing much they were constant. I was put on procardia around 24 weeks and we waited. In March, I ended up in the hospital for a few hours with constant contractions that weren't stopping. They did finally get them to stop with three doses of terbutaline, fluids, and my normal dose of procardia. After that my procardia was increased and I was seeing my OB weekly, plus getting a biophysical profile every week and non stress tests twice a week. Two days before Mother's Day the OB didn't like the results of my non stress test. I was told to come in on Sunday and have another, if the results were good, Kaitlyn could stay put, but if not they would deliver her. Well the results came back great. On May 14th, at 36 weeks exactly I was taken off procardia and told if I went into labor they would deliver her. I was still scheduled for a c-section on May 25th, if I made it that far.

The evening of May 15th, I could feel the contractions starting. I was hoping they would just stay like they had been, but they were intense at times. Around 5am May 16th, I woke Robert up and told him I didn't think he would be going to work. He asked if my water had broke and I told him no, but the contractions were getting stronger and didn't seem to be stopping at all. I told him to go back to sleep and I was going to go in the living room and find something to do. At 7am I woke him and told him he needed to get up and get the kids some breakfast we needed to go to the hospital. Around 8am, we were heading to the hospital and the contractions were getting harder and harder on the way there. We arrived at the hospital around 8:45am, and told the desk I was having contractions. I was put into a room and placed on a monitor. They couldn't find any contractions on the monitor, but my OB happened to be there so they paged her and she came to check me out.

She went to check me and as she did a contraction registered on the monitor. They figured out if they wanted to get contractions, they couldn't keep Kaitlyn's heart beat on the monitor and vise versa. So my OB looked at me and said, I think we are having a baby today. She gave me some terb to try and make me comfortable while I waited for my time to have a c-section. The nice thing this time around was it wasn't an emergency. I was awake during the surgery and was able to hear Kaitlyn's first cry and see her following her birth. Kaitlyn entered this world screaming at 1:02pm weighing 5 lbs 12 oz and 17 inches long. She was assessed by neonataolgist and found be still be needing some assistance so she was taken to the NICU. I was able to see her later that day in the NICU.

While her stay in the NICU wasn't near as long as the boys it was still a roller coaster ride. Kaitlyn spent 7 days in the NICU before joining us at home. Now she is a healthy, wonderful toddler who will soon celebrate her 2nd birthday.

These are our 3 reasons for supporting the March of Dimes. While not all of us are touched by prematurity, all of us can find a way to support those who are. One of those ways is giving to the March of Dimes at this time. We are doing the walk to remember how fortunate we are this year and all the time, without the research about preemies our children might not be here. Please think about this when considering a donation to the Baker Bunch team. If you are moved by this story, please consider donating here, http://www.walkamerica.org/threepreemies. You never know how your donation might help save the life of someones child.

The worst year!

Okay, it hasn't all been this year, but since October, this has been the worst year. My Grandmother passed away in October, my Grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent surgery (we almost lost him during the surgery), in December my family was fighting with each other and that lasted until January and is still being dealt with to this day, in February we lost my cousin in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, and to bring us up to date, my Father had a heart attack and underwent cardiac bypass surgery this last week. I'm hoping this is the end of our "emergencies" because I don't know how many more I can take. I think I've spent more time of the road than at home recently.

My little sister was here for her spring break and all was going well. We took the boys to school on Thursday March 15th like nothing was going on. We decided to go out to Burger King and get some breakfast to kill some time before going to buy our zoo passes. As we are leaving Burger King my sister's cell phone rings. It's my Mom, she really upset and tells me sister that my Dad has been admitted to the hospital and they think he's had a heart attack. Well, after the year we've had so far we are ready to pack up , get the kids from school, and hit the road back to Kansas City. My mom tells us not to pull the kids form school yet since we don't know what is going on, but just keep the cell phone ready so as we get information she can call us.

Well, but noon, we are really beginning to wonder since we haven't heard form Mom. About the time we were ready to call her, she finally calls. Dad will have bypass surgery, but we aren't sure when. So we decide to wait and see if she know more later that night. We spend the rest of the day worried and debating what we should do. Around 6pm, we hear from Mom again. The surgeon is full for Friday and since he is stable and they are planning on waiting for Monday for the surgery. After talking with Mom we decided that we will stay here and go on with our weekend plans for two reasons, one I don't think the stress of having the kids in the hospital room all that time will be good on them or Dad and two, Dad says he doesn't want us to mess with our plans when we've already told the kids. So we decided to leave Sunday morning.

Our weekend plans went well. We went to the zoo and the Omniplex, and had a great time, but I have to admit, I felt really bad. Thinking about my Dad laying in a hospital bed while we were out enjoying stuff just put a small damper on the days. He was glad we went, but I still felt like I shouldn't be enjoying myself.

Anyway, fast forward to Sunday...we leave and make it to Kansas City, with only one casualty. Patrick's red Clifford Doggie, went MIA. I think we know where he got lost, but needless to say he didn't make it to my parent's house with us. We arrived in plenty of time to see my Dad and go to dinner with everyone.

We get up around 5:00am Monday morning to make it to the hospital to see Dad before surgery. We were told a nurse would be in contact with us during the surgery to let us know how things progress. We were told he is having 3 bypasses and surgery should be over around 1:00pm. Well, about 1-1 1/2 hours into the surgery the nurse comes out and talks to us. She says, Did you say he was having 3 bypasses done? We told her yes, she proceeded to tell us that has changed...it's going to be 5 possibly 6! We were shocked! Needless to say that added time to the surgery. He finally go out of surgery at around 2pm. We were able to see him around 3pm for a few minutes and then not again until visiting hours in the ICU.

All in all he came through surgery fine. He is now at home as of March 24th and seems to be doing well. Hopefully this will continue. This has been a wake up call for my family, and we know some things are going to change.

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers during this time.

Home again...finally

I feel like we've been gone for a while, but I know it really hasn't been that long. My sister is in town now too so I don't know how often updates will be for the next week either. Let's see...we took our trip to Washington DC for my cousin's funeral and stayed an extra day for sight seeing. We stayed at my parent's house for one day and then back home. Really it was a fast trip, but I'm glad we did it. I felt like saying good bye and thank you for giving his life for our country was an honor. While the kids don't understand...it will be something to tell them when they are older. May he rest in peace and know that his job on Earth was done, and we will all see him again someday.

We stayed an extra day in DC and did some sight seeing. We were able to go see pretty much everything we wanted. I think the boys favorite was either the Lincoln Memorial or as they put it, "The Big Pencil". For the most part they all did really well in the car. I will post some pictures soon.

Other than that, life is getting back to normal. The boys went back to school on Thursday for the one day and then will get back into things this week. They seem to be happier with school again.

Since I have time...here are some pictures...

This is in front of the Washington Monument.


At the World War II Memorial.


I think this is the only picture I have of Kaitlyn alone this trip.


Me and the kids at Arlington National Cemetery.


Okay, that's all I have online right now. I'll have to get some others loaded, but I will post those later.

Unexpected news

Okay, I know it's been about a month, but life has so gotten in the way recently. I don't even remember the last thing I wrote about, so I should go check before I can too much farther. Be right back.....

Okay, that didn't take long. I guess it was when everyone was sick. Both the boys finally got over their ear infections and life finally seemed to be better until over President's Day weekend. Here is a quick run down of the weekend. We decided to go to Kansas City to help my Mom with her computer that weekend. Michael had a hearing test that morning at 8:30 am. Well we get there about 8:00am and the lady working registration is late. We were told we had to be registered at least 15 minutes prior to the appointment time...needless to say we were late.

We finally head down for the hearing test around 8:30am. And Patrick and Kaitlyn are just being obnoxious so Robert decides to take them back to the car and watch a movie, while Michael and I go to his appointment. Michael did GREAT! He does have what looks like some possible hearing loss or damage, but nothing that should affect his speech!!! WOOHOO, that is great news! We were told just to keep an eye on it and if we start having anymore problems to come back.

Great news, we got to breakfast and finally hi the road to Kansas City around 11am. So we spend the rest of the day in the car. When we are about an hour from KC, it starts to snow. Not to big a deal since we've dealt with that before, but it's coming down pretty good so we have to take it slow and it adds another half hour to the trip. Anyway, we finally get in and then weather is pretty good the rest of the time we are there. We got her computer up and working and everything.

Well everything went down hill Sunday morning. We were getting ready for church and the phone rings. We missed the call, but listened to the message and it doesn't sound good. It's one of my uncles and he sounds pretty upset. My Mom calls him back only to get the news that my cousin, 32 years old, has died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. We are all devastated.

It's so surreal. I mean you never expect it to happen to your family, and when it does you really don't know how to take it. Since this war on terrorism began we've been waiting for it to touch our family somehow and now it has. And while I know I can take comfort in the fact that the Lord doesn't make mistakes, it's still not easy to understand why he died so young. I mean his life was great. He got married like two years ago and just had a little girl in October! He will miss all of her life. And she loses out on one of the greatest blessing in life...her father raising her.

It really made me think about all the blessing God has given me in my life and how thankful I am for everyday I spend here. I hope we all remember to tell those we love, "I love you today". Because we never know when they might be taken from us.

Hug your little ones tight and give them extra hugs and kisses tonight.

Why can't I get a break???

Well we went to the Dr yesterday and guess what???? Patrick now has an ear infection. Big surprise there huh? It's just frustrating how ears can go from not infected one day to totally inflamed the next. Anyway, he's on antibiotics now for 10 days and seems to be feeling better already. You can always tell when he is really sick because he won't take meds or at least you have to fight with him to, but yesterday and today he wanted to take his "pink medicine". Anyway, they will all be back in school today. He's still coughing a lot, but the Dr said it's just a virus and what gave him the fever is the ear infection. Anyway, thank goodness they are all on the mend again.

We took the boys to their first basketball practice yesterday. They had so much fun once we got them into it. Patrick didn't want to do anything the first 30 minutes, but after I played with him a bit, he did great. He was trying to pass the ball, and really enjoyed shooting. I guess next week we will be working on proper technique for shooting and really starting to see where the kids are at to know how to help them better. Here is the only picture I got...



They seem to have fun...hopefully next week we won't have to fight Patrick so much.