Cakes!!!

I am finally woring on getting a blog up for cakes, and while it's just in the beginning stages you can still check out my progress even though it isn't much! Feedback would be great too if ya have any. I mean it, really. I love feedback, and would love to know what I could do to add to the blog to make it more appealing or more interesting to those looking for a cake for their special events or occasions. So, check it out here, and let me know what you think! Thanks a bunch. :-)

I am losing my mind....

Ha so I just posted yesterday, and made a comment at the bottom that I can't believe Bri is going to be 8 months in just a few days. Wanna know how forgetful I really am?? Ha, yesterday was the day she turned 8 months old. I have no idea why I didn't realize it, and why I didn't realize oh today is the 8th, her birthday is October 8th, so she's 8 months today!

It is starting to become clear that I'm getting older, and my brain isn't quite what it used to be lol. Oh well, Happy 8 months yesterday Brianna!! That was a FAST 8 months!

(And for the record, this is probably a record for posting, I don't know if I've ever posted 2 times in one month! And I think I have 3 this month and we're only 9 days in!....Yay for me!)

So, quick update, three weeks ago we decided to make a trip to Seattle. For two reasons...one, to enjoy time with family and take the boys to see what we love about Seattle. And two: to make lots of freezer meals for the most amazing friend who just welcomed twin girls into the world 2 days ago!

The boys looking out at the water, something we don't see much of here in Idaho. Oh and those flowers in Ryan's hand? Some beautiful flowers we picked up at Pike Place Market for his Mom, it was fun to visit her at her work and let the boys give her the flowers. Such a fun day!

This is something I want to try to make. Marshmallows covered with caramel, and coated with mini M&M's. The boys LOVED these!

Tanner and Candan hanging out at Grandma's and playing a video game. I love when the cousins can get together and play.

Brianna and her cousin Duncan, who is actually a month younger! He's so big! And she really loved trying to hug him and play with his ears, it was adorable!

Tasha!! She's just 3 weeks away from having twin girls in this picture. And since I couldn't be up there to help when they are born...(which I am really bummed about) I wanted to make a trip up to help make her a ton of freezer meals, just to try to make her life a little easier once babies arrive. Because on top of twin girls she also has a toddler and pre-teen and hubby to take care of! Hopefully the 30 meals will help her out for a while! Love that girl, she's an amazing friend. Seriously, I am really lucky to have such a great friend.

And, our new favorite thing this summer so far?? The trampoline! The boys spend hours out there at a time, I am so glad we invested in a trampoline, because the kids absolutely love it, and I love that it wears them out ;-)

STATIC! :-) So cute

Dog pile on Dad!!!


Cheese!! He has lost 5 teeth in the last couple months! It's kind of silly looking, but I love this kid and his goofy smile!!


And Brianna is going to be 8 months, yes EIGHT months in just a few days. Sad :( But at the same time, she is at such a fun age! I love how smiley she is, and she loves to smile at EVERYONE seriously. Unless you try and hold her, or take her from Mommy, then she won't be smiling. She can't crawl but scoots on her bum quite a bit. She hate baby food so we are feeding her lots of crackers, cereal and fruit. I wish she ate baby food though, maybe she wouldn't want to nurse so stinkin' much! Oh well, she is such a joy and her brothers just absolutely adore her! Sometimes a little too much, at least on Joshua's part. I am constantly telling him to get his finger out of her mouth, or get out of her face. But really she loves him just as much because everytime he gets in front of her she just gets giggly, smiley and kicks her legs in excitement. Oh I love my kids, they are so much fun! I am so blessed.

First of many

So, tomorrow is Ryan's first appointment at the Diabetes Center tomorrow. I say Ryan's but we're both going. I know it's Ryan that has diabetes but it is our trial, not just his, and I feel it's important for me to be there with him every step of the way. So, we have no idea what to expect tomorrow, but we'll find out tomorrow! We had an appointment earlier this week with our family doc. and he felt the best thing for Ryan would be to get him on an insulin pump, sooner rather than later is what it sounded like. We had originally thought it would take a while, like a few months, to get sugars stabalized before putting him on a pump, but not sure it'll be that long.

Really we have no idea haha, we don't know what the appointment tomorrow is for, or what they'll do, but it sounds like he'll be getting on a pump soon so that should be good (I think?). What we do know is that it is just the first appointment at the Diabetes Center of what I am sure are many to come in our future.

It still seems strange that Ryan has diabetes. Having gone through gestational diabetes 3 times already, twice diagnosed, and having to test sugars all the time and change the way I had to eat, I hated it. And now Ryan has to do this life long. I guess I'm glad that I have the knowledge that I do from having had gestational diabetes, because it actually is coming in very handy, helping Ryan and changing our diet as a family and what not. Crazy who would have thought huh?

Oh and it is definitely type 1 diabetes. He had a TON of bloodwork done, and one of the tests showed a particular antibody was very high, which to the doc. proved type 1. To us meant nothing until he explained that this is because the antibody is what caused his own immune system to attack itself, in particular the pancreas. Among tests he also had his A1c test done, which shows what his sugar levels have been over the last 3 months. I am still learning all about this but basically the percent it should be at is under 7%. Anything above 7 is high, and anything above 10% is very high. His was 13.9% which means that over the last 3 months his sugars have been extremely high, which explains a LOT. Particularly the tremendous amount of weight lost over 2-3 months time.

Anyway, so we are gradually learning things, and hopefully tomorrow we will learn a lot more! I am so grateful we have great friends around here to take the kids for us so that we can go to these appointments together without the distraction, and without having to pay a babysitter everytime. So, if you're reading this and you are one of those friends THANK YOU SO MUCH!

On a side note: Bri is turning 8 months in a week!!! Where did the time go?? And in August I'll have two kids in school, so crazy how fast the time goes!!

trials and life changes

So, I'm not sure that anyone actually reads this blog anymore, but either way I look at it as a way to journal for my family. So, the happenings of this last week are for sure things I want to remember, not because of how great things have been, but so that looking back later in life I can remember how things came about.

Last Saturday night, May 14th, Ryan and I had enjoyed dinner at a friends house with a couple families, it was great! After getting home, Ryan was tired (as had been typical for the last month or so) and still very thirsty, which had also been typical as of late. So, I thought (for probably the tenth time this month) let me find my glucose monitor and you can check your sugar. He kind of though ok whatever, but wasn't too convinced it was necessary. So, he checked his sugar and the reading came back "HI". I had never seen that before, so I checked my blood sugar, it was 113. So, I made him check his again, and again it said HI. My parents happened to be in town just to visit for the weekend, so after they got back from the grocery store I made them check theirs too. I know, probably a bit much, but I wanted to be certain it was his sugar and not something wrong with the monitor. Both my parents fell in the low 100's perfectly normal. So, I googled the User Guide for the monitor and learned that a reading of "HI" meant that the sugar level was above 600. SERIOUSLY!??? Yeah, so we went into the ER that night, my parents stayed with the boys...just another simple blessing that someone was here to watch the boys because it was around midnight when we went in.

So, after getting to the ER they at first appeared to not think anything of it, and maybe we were over-reacting. So, they take his blood-sugar level and THEIR monitor also reads HI. So, at that point everyone gets moving. They come draw blood, take urine samples, get an IV started, and then we wait for results. His sugar comes back at 641. And so the doc comes in and asks LOTS of questions. After answering and speaking with him, he told us it was Type 1 Diabetes. We were a little shocked, but knew something was up so not too shocked. We asked "So, we need to see his doc next week and confirm a diagnosis?" And the ER doc just looked at us and said, no you have Type 1 Diabetes, and you need to see your doc Monday morning, it's crucial. So, that was surprising. Looking back, we should have gotten in to the doctor sooner, but I guess we didn't really put ALL his symptoms together till that night, and I had my monitor to confirm suspicions. Several people have asked "well what tipped you off?" The first things I noticed were his extreme thirst, and dry mouth...for the past few weeks he had complained of his mouth being dry often and was always wanting something to drink. The second clue was his tiredness. After reading through symptoms of diabetes I thought yeah he's been tired a lot. All of these symptoms we had attributed to his work schedule of working graveyard and having been sick a lot recently. And then he told me how much he weighed when he went into the doc 5 days earlier for sinus pain. I was pretty shocked. I mean I knew he was thinner, but he had lost 30 pounds in about 2 months, that's crazy! And then 5 days later when we went into the ER he had lost another SIX pounds. He was almost starving, because the sugar was not being taken from the blood stream for energy, it was taking it from his fat storage (which isn't much to begin with).

So, he was immediately put on insulin, and now comes the task of getting his body regulated with insulin shots and getting his sugars back to normal range. Eventually he will probably be on an insulin pump, and things will be a little less stressful, hopefully. I am prepared for all the changes that have to be made, and actually welcome some because it will help us to both be healthier eaters. Although he doesn't have Type 2 diabetes which can be helped, even go away with great diet and exercise, it will still be important for him to eat healthier, and differently for sure. He'll have to watch the amount of carbohydrates he eats constantly. I'm hoping that the transition will not be too challenging for us, and that we can just make lifestyle changes as a family so that it makes it easier for Ryan to get the nutrition he needs.

Right now I'm still kind of in a bit of a fog, and feel totally weighted down by the new challenge we're facing. But I know that it will wear off, and life will get easier for us, it's just a matter of time. We have both seen the effects of diabetes from those that Do take care of it and those that Don't, so we know the benefits and how full a life he can have if he/we are diligent about taking care of his diabetes.

It's also amazing to me how much I've seen the Lord's hand in things preparing us for this. We have gotten to a point in our lives where I was thinking, seriously, life is going so well for us right now there has to be a trial coming. I was almost just waiting for it, because life can't always be ups, and no downs. I just had not expected this to be the trial at all. So, when Ryan and I had decided about 2 weeks ago to take the summer off from school, it was because I felt we needed a break I guess. But what better timing to take a break. The Lord knew this time off was going to be important for us to get things under control and learn all we can about how to take care of Ryan and his diabetes, and it would have been 100 times harder if we were taking classes right now.

God knows us and he knows our needs, and he knows what we are capable of handling. While it feels like a lot right now, I know that I'll be able to handle it and Ryan will be able to handle it. He's taking everything in stride, and knows his life has changed forever. We also know that we couldn't get through it without prayer, and the Lord's help, so we rely on him when we feel overwhelmed. What a wonderful blessing it is to know that we aren't going through these trials in life alone. We truly are blessed, and we'll figure this challenge out, just like we do others. :) I have the most amazing husband ever, and while this brings new challenges for us, I married him for Eternity, and I am so grateful to have such an amazing companion by my side.

Our house!

So, this is the house we will be moving to in about two weeks! We are just waiting for the appraisal, and the grant to get approved and we will close in a week maybe two. So crazy! I can't believe that we are able to buy a house. Just a year ago we were struggling because we lived here in Idaho practically jobless for 2 years, and now we're buying a home. We actually just talked at the end of last year about not buying for another year or two, but decided in January just to look around for fun and see if we got approved for much. And it turned into a lot more than that. haha. We're excited about planting roots here in Idaho, we love it here and have enjoyed it so much for the last 3 years.

We feel very blessed, and know that we were supposed to move here for school 3 years ago. We had no idea we would love it so much and want to stick around even once we are finished with school. We'll have more pictures after we move in of course!

Spontaneous

So, Ryan and I like to be spontaneous sometimes. Case in Point: Christmas eve at around 3pm I asked Ryan what he thought about heading to his parents home (an 8 hour drive) for Christmas. We stewed on it for a bit, and decided sure why not let's suprise them. So at 6pm (we didn't stew long I guess) we were packed and ready to go out the door. Headed up and decided we better contact his sister to help us get a hotel and arrived at about 2am. Showed up Christmas morning to his other sisters house and suprised everyone! It was a blast! Short trip, but so worth it, to spend time with family!

Well, we decided to do it again only this time something completely different. Usually we plan any major decisions in our life well. When to have a baby, where to live etc...we take at least some time to plan. So back in November we had to decide if we were going to sign another year lease on the house we've been renting for a few years. We figured yeah we'll sign another year we still have 2 years of school, and plan on sticking around anyway. So we signed away!

In January I sort of just out of the blue said to Ryan "do you want to see what we'd get approved for if we were to buy right now?" He said sure and away we went. Not fully recognizing the housing market at the time (because we didn't really pay attention) we went in. Got pre-approved and started looking because we got approved for a considerable amount more than anticipated! This was less than a month ago. Here we are a few weeks later, and we are in the process of closing on a house that we should be moved into (if all goes according to plan) by the end of March! Crazy!! I can't believe how everything has turned out from my moment of being spontaneous and wanting to know if we'd even qualify for a home.

We looked at MANY homes, and never felt great about them even some homes that we really loved. We went back to a home that we've actually really liked since moving to Idaho almost 3 years ago. When we first were moving to Idaho we talked about buying in this neighborhood, that is just a few blocks from where we are, but decided against it. Thank heavens we didn't buy then! So, we are buying a brand new home in this neighborhood, in the same ward, Tanner will go to the same school, and we are so excited! We are still waiting on the final go ahead on financing, so I guess it still technically could fall through, but have been told it is highly unlikely.

I'll post pics later. Sometimes it really pays to be spontaneous!

Oh and by the way, the owner of the home we are renting has agreed to let us out of the lease, and is not asking us to clean carpets, paint, or anything. Will allow us to get our deposit back and has no problems with us breaking contract with 8 months still left on it. We really lucked out when we moved into this house, the owner has been fantastic!

this and that

So, as I mentioned in the previous post I'd try to get one done the next night but couldn't guarantee it. That's because I know myself too well haha. I have a tendency to want to get things done but not because of distractions of one kind or another. Usually the kids are my distraction but as of late it's been a number of things.

We talked about buying a house, got pre-approved (the prices are SO great around here) but decided against it for now after seeing TONS of homes, and not feeling like it was the right thing for us right now. So, we'll wait it out a few months and maybe look again who knows.

Joshua also had a birthday, he's 3 I can't believe it! He is so big too, he's very tall and built big, he'd make a great football player. Because of his size, and Jordan being very small for his age, they wear the same size clothes and are often mistaken for twins. I love him to pieces, and he is definitely the peacemaker of the home which helps out in stressful moments because he is so willing to share, and make sure everyone is happy.

Ryan also changed schedules at work making our lives SO much easier. He now works 12 hour shifts instead of 8, and instead of working 6 on 2 off he works Mon, Tue, Wed, and every other Thur. 7pm-7am. Although right now there is a lot of overtime so he's working every Thursday.

We've also both started back to school for the semester, each taking 2 classes one on campus and one online. We'll see how that goes with work and kids but for now we're managing pretty well I think.

Brianna is growing like crazy although pretty petite just like Tanner and Jordan were. She's so much fun and the boys love her like crazy! They know just how to make her smile! She giggles now too but you can only get one or two giggles out of her before she gets the hiccups and can't giggle anymore it's pretty funny. She is still not sleeping well at night but we're working on that and her daytime routine is getting better.

This spring is sure to bring lots of busy, crazy fun to our house as we're going to school, Ryan's working, we're signing Tanner up for basketball, and trying to plan a trip to Disneyland for the boys birthdays in April, but it'll be a lot of fun too so we're looking forward to it all! Here's a few pictures just for fun...

This last one by the way, Tanner and Jordan were trying to do P90 X with me it was pretty funny. I have great kids, and I sure do love them!!