Merry Christmas

We are very blessed this Christmas with wonderful Family, Friends and a community of people around us.

We had a wonderful Christmas again this year. Friday I was able to sneak out for a little while and go to a Christmas Party at a very near and dear friends of ours. It is there annual party. Then off to Church, which is my favorite service of the year. I look forward to this service every year. Our Pastors do such a great job.

Then we laid low with the family and opened gifts.Saturday it was off to Minnesota to see my Family. It was so nice to catch up with everyone. As we all get older it is not often we can all get together, although we were missing one cousin as she was on her honeymoon.

Today was a day to recoup and open all the toy boxes and tomorrow is back to work after being on vacation for 2 weeks. Where does time go?

And of course.. some pictures

Callie playing in the packing peanuts.

 Zak says ME TOO!

A bow finally fits in her hair.. and her favorite thing to do with her mouth.

 Christmas Dress.. Tights finally fit this year.

Callie has been standing well with just hands to help.

 Rolling around and stopping to take a look.

Watching all the gifts come out.. YIPPIE!

 Dancing with Santa.

Look my New Watch.. now I don't need to take everyone else's.

Updates from the clinic

Callie had Clinic appointments all day on Thursday. Things were ok, nothing great other than her weight. They were very happy with that.

As for her heart, it is the same. Which is great news as it has not got worse. However she will most likely need surgery at some point. Hopefully we can still wait a few years, but each time we go in we will learn more. She does not see the heart doctor for 6 months again. Basically the pulmonary valve us thicker creating a heart murmur. She also has the hole in her heart from birth that is not closing. They will continue to watch the structure of her heart, at this point both chambers are functioning equally.

We also saw the ear Nose and Throat doctor as there has been some concern with her having fluid in her ears that has not gone away. Chris has been concerned with hear hearing as well. They did determine she does have a lot of fluid in her ears where the ear drum is not even moving so she will be needing ear tubes. We are scheduled for Jan 11^th. We will have to spend the night in the ICU as they are worried about her breathing and apnea spells since she is always on oxygen when she sleeps. 

This Tuesday they are going to do a barium test to see where the food is going when she is fed through the g-tube. She gags a lot and sometimes (more often than not) she gets food up into her mouth and she should not be able to since she had stomach surgery. After the test we will meet with the doctor to see what exactly may be going on.

We are still working on the apnea and oxygen issues. We are not sure yet what the next step will be. As soon as we know we will be sure to post.

This week Zak also goes in for Special Needs clinic where they evaluate all his skills and determine if additional equipment will be needed.

Santa

Santa came to the house on Saturday. We invited the nurses kids to join us as well. Santa brought all of the kids coloring books and crayons. Most of the kids liked Santa. We are very grateful that Santa comes to visit us at the house every year

Zak was not to happy this year, but he did well

Callie was very into Santa.. She loved his beard

 Mrs. Clause telling Callie secrets.

 The Golbach Family. Gracie was not to sure of Santa this year

 Santa and Baby Claire - She was keeping a close eye on Mom

 Kolton was not to sure of Santa, but later warmed up

 Dylan was VERY excited to see Santa!

Dawson and his new baby brother Sawyer. 

Baby Aspen

Zak was checking out the snow flakes

And Sammi Too!

The last piece of siding

The siding on the house was completed on Friday!! I was able to be there for the last 3 pieces, how exciting! We had several volunteers helping with the siding in the freezing cold weather. A HUGE thank you to each on of them for making this happen. They did a great job.

This was the last 3 pieces.

 The Very LAST piece

Cutting the last piece to fit

 

 The last 5 standing. The habitat for humanity crew!

Thank you again to each volunteer that worked on the house!

Pictures

Chris had a busy weekend plowing snow most of the weekend. We will definitely be having a white Christmas this year. We did go out and battle the weather to look at flooring and cabinets. Things with the house are moving along. Most of the house is sided.

Here is the house prior to the snow.. the volunteers are working on the siding.

This was Zak today after his bath. We are trying to get his hair to grow a little, but he definitely has his dads hair so we tried a little gel and were playing around.

And another style :) How Cute is he.  

Callie was not to enthused, but how cute. I could not resist. See what happens when Mom does not go to work for a week. Way to much fun staying at home. We have been having a blast!

This was Sunday for the packers game. She is pushing up so nicely. Crawling really is not far off.

Zak at Pool Therapy on Monday. He was swimming here. He loves the water. Leslie works him hard. When he is not wanting to work he gets really cranky at her. He is so cute. This week he was a little angel loving the water. 

Yesterday was the BIG check presentation with the Grand Lodge and VFW. Ellie and Jenn were also able to make the presentation. We are very Gratefully to have such an amazing community. We are now about half way to our goal of $100,000 for the community room.

The check.. Close up!  $20,141 

Tomorrow will be a big day for Callie. She has her follow up for her Heart appointment. This time she will be sedated as she is moving way to much to get good images. She also has her Thyroid, GI, hearing and Dietitian appointments. Watch for follow ups!

Raise the Roof Event

We had the Raise the roof event on December 2nd at the Grand Lodge. We are very grateful for the people that made this event happen. The staff at Grand Lodge was amazing to work with. We cannot say enough great things about the Staff and there dedication not only to the guests, but to a community. They welcomed us as part of there Grand opening and donated all proceed from the Raise the Roof event to Build from the Heart. They raised $20,000 for Build from the heart!!!!!!!!!!
With the help of the help of the VFW they raffled off a 2011 Harley, many other Raffle items and silent auction items. I tell everyone the event was like a wedding. There are so many people and you really only know half of them, there is never enough time to talk to everyone you wish you could, the night is amazing, you cannot go to sleep when you get home and you will talk about it forever. I truly just cannot say enough great things.

Some pictures with the kids and the animals at the event. Zak loved the talking moose and was really interested in the mouth. What is in there???

The Holidays are already here?

Where on earth has time gone. I remember growing up wishing time would pass quicker and the school year would be over. Now I can only wish the days would slow down. I honestly have no idea where the past week and a half went.

Two Sundays ago my church Saint Andrew Lutheran did a soup dinner fundraiser for the 'Build from the Heart' Project. We are so grateful to belong to such an amazing congregation. We anticipated raising around $3,000. I recall looking around the room one hour into the event and it seemed like life was going in slow motion and I could not hear a thing. The room was packed, not an empty seat to be seen. This is for our family and the community room that will be added onto the house. All of these people are here to support us. We are so thankful for such a wonderful community. Once I got home I received a phone call from Church telling me they raised over $6,500. I was so excited I don't think I slept much that night.

Tuesday night we met with the Cabinet designer and picked out the wood and color for the kitchen cabinets. Definitely an exciting point in building. The floors are almost all picked out and then onto paint colors. Plumbing fixtures have been arriving and we just got the call appliances are in. So exciting.

Chris left for hunting last Thursday with his father and uncle. Although they had a good time - they did not come home with any deer. They got home late Monday night and will continue to hunt around here. The kids and I just hung out all weekend. It was so nice just to be with them and not worry about anything else. It is the first time in a long time I have actually been able to do that. Zak helped me set up the tree.. and by help I mean pulling on it . It was very cute as he would crawl under the tree and pull. Callie was sleeping while I set it up. When she woke up and the lights were in I don't think she knew what to think. She just stared at it for a few minutes. Now I just need to decorate it.

Unfortunately once again Callie is sick. Another cold and she has shared with Chris and I this time. The doctor put her on oral steroids even earlier this time to see if it would help avoid the near line hospital visit again. It has already been a long winter for her and it really has not even started. We go to the clinic on Friday so I am  hoping for a good report on weight gain.

Front Page

Our family was on the front page of our local news paper today!!!

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20101113/WDH0101/11130500/Community-rallies-for-family

PALs

I went to a conference this weekend for Parents as Leaders (PALs) with children that have special needs. What an amazing group of people I was able to meet. All of the families have such touching stories and are all so compassionate.  Jenn, one of my close friends was able to come with as well so it was nice just to catch up on our lives. One thing we learned.. don't talk too much in the car when you have no idea where you are going, you forget to look at directions. Needless to say we were still on time. Chris stayed home with the kids and had some Daddy bonding time.

The purpose of PALs is to create a community project and be a leader. The project is your choice. I have been thinking of going to PALs for a few years now. The timing just never seemed to work with the kids and I could not make the commitment. This was the year I finally decided it was time. What a perfect fit too as we will be starting up the community room. We will meet 4 weekends over the course of 9 months. While we are at the meetings we lean different skills to help up with our projects. I can not wait to see what the next weekend together will bring.

Breathe

One of my friends always reminds me to Breathe.. this past week was a week I needed to be reminded several times. People often ask how we do it and the answer is simple.. we do it because of those around us. The kids went Trick-or-Treating last Sunday. Callie was a caterpillar and Zak was a bug catcher.

Right after trick-or-treating Chris had to head out of town for work and did not come back home until Thursday. 
Monday I met with the interior Design team and we were able to see the cabinet design. We also saw the floor sample for the Community Room! That was exciting to see our first piece of flooring. 

Monday evening Callie spiked a fever of 102 degrees, but the nurse was able to get her fever down by morning. Tuesday she seemed a little better, but we could tell a cold was on the way, By Wednesday it was time to take her in as her breathing was betting worse. The doctor gave her meds, but did not do an x-ray as she has c-diff and antibiotics only will make it worse. We had to up her oxygen slightly, but by Thursday she was better again. Thursday night she took a turn again and Friday was back to the clinic. She was on a significant amount of oxygen. They did an x-ray and treated her for pneumonia. They gave her an injection at the clinic and another nebulizer treatments. They did let us go home with strict orders on when to admit her to the hospital. Thankfully God was watching over her and by 6pm she was starting to do a little better.  Today Callie is doing much better, she is no longer on oxygen when she is awake. Hopefully this week she will get back to "normal". Needless to say the whole week was a roller coaster ride, not knowing what she would do.

Thursday I went to Marshfield with one of the kids Nurse. We went to a meeting about special needs and the medical world. We talked about insurance and things too look for. Different benefit and being an advocate. It was a very informative session.

So after a week of craziness I am ready to move onto next week and hope for a healthy week.

Junion Photography

Junion Photography is doing a fund raiser for the "Build from the Heart" project. It will be running the week of November 15. Cost is $100 for a 20 minute session and you will receive a 10in print. The whole $100 will be donated! Call 715-355-1228 to make an appointment.

Dave has an amazing talent and takes wonderful pictures! We just received a few today as a preview!