Happy 37th Birthday Justin!

I always take the girlies and let them pick whatever they want to for Justin for his Birthday! And they always LOVE to make him cards full of fun pictures and cute sayings. Here he is with our little girlies!

And here he is with all of his girls!

This is what they chose this year for him, sunglasses. Look at the excitement on their faces while he's opening it!

And here he is sporting his new shades. Let me just tell you how much I love this man! He is my rock, my best friend, an amazing dad, a hard worker, and SO much more! Justin, you mean the world to me and we are so lucky to have you in our lives! Happy 37th Birthday Juice!

XOXO

April 15, 2010

Easter 2010

This is what the weather looked like Easter weekend this year, yes Idaho weather is the Best!

We decided to leave the snow and go spend Easter with the Draper family. That night, Paula had a cute idea to have an Easter egg hunt in the dark. The kids loved that part of it! The kids are anxiously waiting to open all the eggs they found!

Now instead of candy, Paula put puzzle pieces in them (which I think is a CUTE idea) and then they had hot chocolate! Now, you can tell that Zoe was not to crazy about this idea, in fact, she was pissed! She wanted the candy and when she found out there wasn't any she stormed off, that's why she's not pictured here!

On Easter Sunday we went to some good friend's of Jay D. and Paula's and had dinner and then the most amazing Easter egg hunt. All the kids that were there, I'm talking about 15-20 kids got a ton of prizes, plus a HUGE Easter basket full of fun stuff! Thank-you Draper family and Robert and Sue for such a fun time!

On April 1, 2010 we went to a frozen yogurt place with Grandma and Grandpa Lage called Twizzleberry. I don't know why but this is the only picture we got and I love it, look at her smile! We had a good time visiting and enjoying each other's company!

Dancing Queen

This is Trin before her first dance performance for the year, March 2010. Trin loves to dance and is such a cutie out on that dance floor. I'm so proud of her for always getting out there and doing her best, she always has the cutest smile when she performs! Lindsee, her cousin was in her class this year and also her best friend Kamryn. Dancing is something Trin is always doing, she loves to make up her own dances and has some really cute moves! We love her so much!

She also loves to strike a pose whenever she gets the chance. She's such a ham for the camera!

I Love that girl!

Zoe's Diagnosis

Warning: Long Post

So as many of you know, the end of November 2009 we started to notice that Zoe was sleeping a lot more than usual. So we took her to our Dr. and he checked her thyroid and said she needed to be on meds for it. So she started them the middle part of December. The first day she took them she fell asleep in class for a hour and a half, we went and picked her up and immediately called our Dr. to see if this was normal. He agreed that it was not and ordered a MRI for the next morning. We were scared, we knew something was wrong but just didn't know at this point what we would find. Luckily, the MRI came back clean. The Dr. told us just to continue the meds for a couple of more weeks and see what happened. Well, we did and saw no improvement.

On January 6th we went back to the Dr., now by this time Zoe was sleeping up to 16-18 hours a day and started to fall, we always had to hold her hand because she would just go down without any warning. And her behavior was out of control, she went from being this sweet little girl to completely out of control. We were telling the Dr. everything and Zoe couldn't even stay awake for the appt., we took pictures in of her that we had taken in mid November and a picture that we had taken exactly a week later, she didn't even look like the same little girl, that spark in her eye was gone! This appointment was extremely emotional for Justin and myself. Our Dr. told us he needed to make a few calls and would be right back. He came into the room and let us know that he had been talking to a Neurologist and that we needed to take Zoe to be admitted to the Hospital immediately. We were both so scared, but trying not to show it to Zoe.

The pictures above are when she was in the hospital, while there she had to have, 2 EEG's, and a Spinal Tap! She was such a little trooper. But her behavior was horrible, the nurses asked if she always acted like that. Well, everything came back clean. The Dr. came in and examined her and saw how out of control her behavior was. He told us then that he thought she had Narcolepsy, but she needed further testing to be sure. Now the crazy thing about this is that back in December between Christmas and New Year's Paula was here and we were talking about Zoe and said "wouldn't it be crazy if she had Narcolepsy?" We never thought we would be right.

So then we were referred to a Dr. at Primary Children's Hospital. We loved him, he was wonderful and took such an interest in Zoe. He got a sleep study scheduled for her in February 2010 and those are the pictures of her below. He wanted to confirm his diagnosis of Narcolepsy with not only the sleep study but ANOTHER spinal tap. So back to EIRMC we went for the second spinal tap. When they give someone a spinal tap they give them a medication that relaxes them, but with Zoe this medicine has the opposite affect. She had to take 2 doses of it and still never fell asleep, so she was awake for it! She's such a strong and brave little girl. Her spinal fluid was sent to Stanford University to test her Hypocritin levels. Hypocritin is what tells your body to stay awake, we later found out that Zoe's is so low it's almost non-existent.

Now after all that I'll tell you her final diagnosis is: Narcolepsy/Cataplexy. Narcolepsy means she is constantly fighting sleep and Cataplexy is when she is overcome with a strong emotion in her case laughter, her muscles paralyze for a second and she falls to the floor and actually goes into REM sleep for a split second. When Zoe has a Cataplexy attack it is heart-breaking. Her only sense that works when she has an attack is hearing. If you try and talk to her, her words are slurred and you can't understand her. It usually takes her anywhere from a minute to two minutes to come out of one.

We have been blessed to have such good Dr.'s to help find out what was wrong with our little ZoBug. We have had a lot of people say how sorry they are, but our response is this, it could have been a lot worse. She could have been diagnosed with something that could not be treated, even though this is something Zoe will never grow out of, it CAN be treated with the right meds.!

This has been a huge adjustment for our family. Trin is Zoe's little protector, she knows when Zoe is about to fall and helps her down to the floor very gently. A few months ago, out of nowhere Trin said "Mom, I miss Zoe's laugh." It's been so hard for Trin and Zoe not to be able to goof around, laugh, and play with each other like they use to.

We feel like now we are on the right track with her meds and are just starting to see our "old" Zoe, the little sparkle in her eyes is starting to make it's way back. We are hoping to start having some well deserved fun with our little girlies really soon!

Winter fun in our field

So every year when it snows we go sledding in our field and our neighbors usually come out to join in on the fun. I'm sure to some of you this looks a little redneck, but oh, it's so FUN! We usually end up staying out for hours and sledding until way past dark. We are all die-hards when it comes to sledding. We always have a great time, this year was hard though our little Zoe was Sooo tired and kept falling asleep. She even fell asleep when she was riding with Justin while pulling the girlies around. We ended this night with hot chocolate back at our house!

Christmas 2009

Okay, okay, I know I'm so behind on blogging. But I need to try and catch up for journaling reasons, we've had A LOT happen in the last year and a half that I need to remember! So here we go.

We spent Christmas 2009 with the Lage's this year, we stayed over on Christmas Eve and then opened presents that morning. Trin was so Excited because Santa brought her the dress form she was wanting and Zoe got the Heely's and remote control truck she wanted. We came home that afternoon and Grandpa Muehlfeit came up and opened his presents from us. It was a nice mellow Christmas. I normally do a Big family Christmas dinner, but this year we did it the day after, we missed the Draper family and I know how bummed Paula was that they weren't there. I even made place cards for them. I love Christmas time and being with family, there is nothing better!

The Spirit of Christmas

My heart is full today and I wanted to share with you why.
I've always tried to teach my little ladies that giving to others is one of the most important things, especially at Christmas time. So last week we read a beautiful Christmas story called "the Box that Christmas came in." It is about a couple who fills an apple box full of food and goodies and delivers it the week before Christmas to a young couple with newborn twins. The young couple were so grateful because they had no food in the house and didn't know what they were going to do. After we read it, we started talking about who we could help out this Christmas. Our little ladies were telling us about different kids from their school. We finally came up with a little family that we don't really know, but knew we wanted to help them out. So we loaded an apple box with a Turkey and all of the fixin's that go along with it. We also threw in a lot of extras. We tried to think of things they would need grocery wise for the week. We found an outfit and a new pair of shoes and socks for each child, and of course some fun stuff too. I had mentioned what we were doing to a certain friend at the school and she said she already has some stuff for them as well, so we decided to put what we had together.
Last night after we all got dressed in black and got some shoes on that we knew we could run in, we went to deliver it. The girlies stayed in the truck and watched because the road we delivered it on is a busy one. Justin and I sneek up to the front step with our two boxes over flowing. I take off first ( well we all know why... short, squatty= I can't run that fast) and hide behind some bushes in their yard. Justin knocks on the door and makes it behind the bushes just in time for the mom to open the door. She opened it and said "Oh my gosh!" She went and got the phone, we heard the mom say " We just got Christmas!" She was naming off everything in the box and saying "I don't know who it is,but I can see a truck parked down the street!" We sat crouched behind the bushes for about 5 minutes while she talked on the phone, we were guessing it was here husband, because at that time we noticed his car was gone. She finally drug the box full of the presents inside and shut the door, so we made a run for it. We hopped in the truck and took off, not 30 seconds down the road we passed her husband. We almost got busted, it was so fun! Then we turned around and saw all of them taking the box of food inside. As we were driving home, Justin took my hand and said "thank-you for having our family do that for them, you could tell they really appreciated it." Then the girls said "next year we think we should do two families." Justin explained that if we did that it would mean them giving up some of what they wanted for Christmas. They were like "OKAY!" I'm pretty sure they will remember this night for many years to come.
Now, I'm not sharing this story for people to say "oh that's so nice of you guys!" Instead I'm sharing this with you to remind everyone that it is Christmas time and it doesn't take much to make someone have a wonderful Christmas, who otherwise would have not. You don't have to spend a lot of money to do this for someone. You could make a plate of goodies or sew them something. I think when people just know someone is thinking of them it helps. So now I will ask you this question. Do you know a single mom, a widow, an elderly couple, or a family you could help?
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Good Puppy

So yesterday I'm back in my room getting ready and the little girlie's scream "Mom, come here we have something to show you!" I went out to the front room and this is what I saw. My nephew chillin' inside the dog kennel and the girls just laughing hysterically. I said "girls don't put him in their and they said " but he wanted to, he just crawled in!" One day when they are all grown they will look back and say " hey, do you remember when we locked you in the dog kennel?" I hope they will laugh as hard about then as they did yesterday.

Don't worry Paula I took him out immediately and told him not to get back in it again. He obeyed like any good puppy would!!!

Not until February

We went to Salt Lake on Friday because my Mom, Paula, and I were suppose to go and see Elton John and Billy Joel in concert that night. On Thursday Paula called and said they postponed it until February. We were a little ticked off, but decided to go down anyway. We went and saw the movie "The Blindside".......Excellent, I recommend everyone to see this movie. We still had fun together even though we didn't get our Crocodile Rock on!

And as a Bonus I got to bring back one of my favorite little guys. I was surprised I talked her into it. But I'm loving every minute of it. Thanks for letting us stay this weekend guys and thanks for letting me bring home the Bubbers. I'll try not to let him eat too much Chocolate!

A Snowy Day

On our first real snow fall of the season, we decided to start the day off with these yummy German pancakes that Justin loves to make for us. They were Delicious!

Then we thought it would be fun to take the kids out and pull them on the sled behind the four wheeler. Here they are below ready for the ride. Justin and I took turns in the sled with the kids. Here is Justin with our little ladies. My sisters little guy and I driving the four wheeler, I should of had Justin take a picture of us in the sled, but I forgot! He did great in the sled with "T" and I, he rode for about 10 minutes.(Not loving this picture of me, but I had to put it on because of the cute little guy I'm holding)

This was the end result of the sledding. The girls kept saying to Justin, "just take us until you dump us!" So he did, it ended with Z getting pissed because he dumped them and walking back to the house. T just laughing and saying "that was awesome!" (I do have the dumping on video, but I need to have Paula show me how to put it on my blog. I'm still a blogger idiot!)

We had a great Day together!

"Our Veteran"

Today my little ladies had a program honoring Veterans! Last week when I received the note telling us about the program, I instantly knew who to call. My Dad.... a.k.a. Grandpa Motorcycle.

Let me tell you a little bit about my Dad. He's a Vietnam Vet, he has a very gruff exterior,but a heart of gold, and his work ethic is amazing. He rarely, I mean rarely takes a day off of work for anything. So I was surprised and excited when I called him last week and he said "Oh Sure, I'll be there!" He even called the next morning to verify the time. Having my Dad take time off to come and hear the girlies sing, meant so much to me.

I don't know if he's ever had anyone Honor him in this way, I think it meant a lot to him, when I called and said "Dad, you're our Veteran, will you come?"

He wore a shirt that said "Vets Don't Forget" and hat that says "Vietnam Veteran" it was so touching and emotional to see all of the Veterans there. My dad acknowledged the other Veterans with a firm hand shake and a "how ya doin?" He didn't even know them, but I think they all share a bond that we will never understand.

As soon as they presented the Colors and everyone said the Pledge of Allegiance together, I could feel the emotion. Then the principal asked for all of the Veterans to stand and we all applauded them, I could see how touching this was for my Dad! He sat down and got his hankie out and had to wipe away the tears. The children began to sing and he silently sat and let the tears flow. I felt very honored to have him sitting next to me. At one point in the program we stood and were suppose to sing the Star Spangled Banner together, my Dad stood there with his hat in his hand over his heart and just weeped. I couldn't even sing, I was so touched, my tears were flowing at this point too. All I could do was stand there and put my arm around my Dad and listen. Then they asked for the Veterans to stand so the children could sing them a song, my Dad stood there at attention and listened to these sweet kids sing a song honoring him. I couldn't see his face but I knew he was deeply touched by it!

Growing up my Dad always taught us kids to respect the flag, respect Veterans, and respect this Country that we are so lucky to live in. He also taught us to honor those who have lost their lives fighting for this Country. He's a very patriotic man and has passed that on to me. He was affected by Vietnam in a way that I will NEVER know, seeing him today so full of emotion and Honor is something I will never forget.

Thanks Dad for coming to this program, it meant so much to me, I'm so grateful to have you as my Dad. This will be something that I shared with you that I will never forget!
So to my Dad and all Veterans "Thank-you" for this great service you have done for our Country! You are Heroes to so many people!

( We do have another amazing Veteran in our family, my Grandpa Muehlfeit, he's a World War II Vet. We did invite him to come as well but he was sick. Sorry you couldn't make it Grandpa, we missed you!)

October 25, 2002

This day, I will never forget. I was shopping with a friend in Utah, my cell phone rang, it was my brother Danny. I could tell by the sound of his voice, it wasn't good. I immediately left my shopping cart in the store and walked out to my car to talk. I remember word for word what we said to each other:
Danny: Susie, we're headed back up to the hospital with Ashlee.

Me: Oh, no, how come, you just barely got home with her.

Danny: She's just not doing very well, it's hard for her to breath.

At that point I could tell by his silence that he knew.

It took me a minute to try and catch my breath after we hung up, I just couldn't imagine life without our precious little Sissy. Then I called Paula at work, told her we needed to leave immediately and get to Danny and Lisa. We drove, for what seemed like forever and made it to the hospital. When we got there, we witnessed something so special, that I will never forget it....Before all of the family and friends arrived it was just Danny, Lisa, Paula, and I in the room with Sissy. We breathed Ashlee's every little smell in, took off her little socks and played with her adorable little feet, took her sweet little hands and stroked them down our faces, and told her how much we loved her. I've never felt more close to my family than in that moment. I am so grateful for that experience with Danny and Lisa. I have never seen more devoted parents. The rest of the family and close friends arrived at the hospital shortly, at 12:20 a.m October 26,2002 our precious angel left this earth. It felt like it wasn't happening. Then we saw, what I consider to be the most precious thing I've ever seen. Danny picking up Ashlee and dancing with her.
The next few days seem to run together, there were trips back and forth from Salt Lake for me and Paula. We knew Ashlee was already watching over us because we were following behind a semi hauling huge hay bails and Trin started to throw up, so I pulled over attended to her and then we got back on the road. Not 2 miles down the road that semi was tipped over and all the hay bails were all over the road. We called Danny and the three of us knew she was already watching over us. Danny said "that's my Ash!"
On a very snowy and cold day October 30,2002 we laid her to rest. I will admit, I hated the fact that is was snowing, but Lisa said "Ash sent it to Bud (Austin) because she knows how much he loves it!" After that the snow didn't seem so bad.

I will never forget this time with my family, it is something I treasure.

As for our sweet little Ashlee, I miss her everyday. I miss the way she would bring up her precious little hand and caress our faces, her feet, her stinky breath, the way she would jabber to us, having races with her and the little kids in her wheel chair, her squeal when we would take her legs and have her run, her laughing with Bud, feeding her thru her button, and most of all I miss her presence and her sweet little spirit.

Sissy, I'm so incredibly grateful for what you taught me. I never knew someone so little could have such an impact on my life. I miss you everyday and long to feel your sweet little hand caress my face. I love you and you are forever in my heart! Love Always, Aunt Susie

Danny and Lisa, Thank-you for bringing such a precious gift into this world. You are both amazing people and I'm so grateful for you guys. I'm thinking of you both today! I love you!

We got him!

We finally caught this character. We think this is what killed the chickens, we've been trying to catch him for a while. We had 3 traps set, he destroyed the first one, ripped the back of it completely off, the second one ended up catching a skunk. Third one worked like a charm. A raccoon just can't resist eggs, bread with jam (thanks for the tip Mere.), and a donut.
I heard the trap go off last night at about midnight, so Justin walked out and checked it, he was so glad to see that we finally caught him. He is pretty cute, but a very big pain in the butt.

Oh and as for the post below about having a badger, just ignore it. It was just what we thought it was at first which was a Big Ass Rock Chuck, we've seen them in the field next to us. I looked up Idaho Badgers online and they don't look anything like each other.....and Yes, I do feel like an idiot. I think I will get crap for this one for years to come!

Fun Times

Here are the kids pushing Elliott around in Zoe's shoe container, they had a ball doing this!
We woke up this morning hoping to go to the park and eat lunch and play, but in true Idaho fashion it has to blow like a MUTHA outside. So the kids colored, played with play-dough, watched a movie, and played with their baby dolls.

When Justin got home tonight, he loaded up the kids and went to his parents house to drop off a part. Justin bought Elliott a bug juice for the ride and said Elliott burped the entire ride out there and then would just laugh. Once they got there, Gretchen and Grandpa Lage asked if he wanted a little Snicker's candy bar. He denied it at first, but then grabbed it up quick once Justin told him it was Chocolate. The only nap he had today was about 10 minutes, then after that he got his second wind. But he was really good and just played a lot. After dinner tonight we gave the kids some chocolate ice cream. This kid LOVES chocolate! Here he is drinking the ice cream that had melted. You would be so proud of him, he ate his dinner so good tonight. He liked it when we did the choo-choo and airplane, then he even made up a few of his own....the rhino, the tractor, and the race car. He is pure entertainment for us! We love him so much.
I gave him a bath after dinner and while I was drying him off he started to pee everywhere. He just giggled, so I stuck him back in the bath. This is the only way he would let me put his underwear on him today was on the outside of his jammie bottoms. But the best part of the night with him was when I was pulling up his pants and he just hugs me and says " I wub you Susie!" This kid can melt your heart and people wonder why he has me wrapped around his finger!

We really wanted to go to the Drive-In, but the wind didn't cooperate. So after it died down a little we strapped him into his stroller and went for a walk down the lane. Then Jacque was throwing him up in the air, he loved it and just kept giggling and saying "again, again!" He didn't go to sleep as well as the night before, but finally dropped at about 11:35 p.m. and is still asleep right now. Hopefully the Drive-In works out tonight. I will keep you posted.

S'more of What!

Hey Paula, since you were so good about blogging about what you did with my girls, let me return the favor!
Here's your Bubba after eating a S'more!
After you left on Sunday, we chilled for a little bit and then went down to Sunni's pool (sorry no pictures). We all only lasted about 30 minutes in the pool, Elliott thought it was fun to ride that big dolphin. He kept saying "Elliott ride Shark" I would say "No, not right now Trin is on it" He would say so cute "Yes, I cannn!" You can hear him saying that right? Well, he rode it a lot, but then it just got way too cold. So we came home and ate lunch and then he took about a hour long nap. We played inside after he woke up because this crazy wind storm was going on outside. Then we ate dinner, he was excited about having bacon, Justin made a fire and we made S'mores. He thought the fire was pretty exciting, he thought it was awesome when I would let him throw something into it.

When Trin got up he would run into her spot, so we decided the best spot for him was in the middle of the girls. He loved it! I think he felt like such a big boy!
This is were Elliott ended up staying until we went inside, he snuggled up to Justin. I think he would have fallen asleep here, if we would of stayed out longer.

It turned out to be a really good day! He went to sleep good and slept for 10 1/2 hours. Thank you for letting us keep him for the week. We're having lots of fun with him.

More 4th of July Posts soon!

Utah adventures

Zoe on the little green machine

We went to Utah for the 4th of July, here's how we started the weekend off. We're in the church parking lot letting the kids ride the motorcycle and Jeep (Yes, I am the type of Mom who dresses her kids in the same thing...I think it's cute!)

Paula and I posing for a picture, Me trying to camouflage my muffin top ( I think it kinda works!)

Jay D. and Elliott in their work boots. Elliott always has to wear these when he goes to work with Jay D.

Elliott in his Jeep looking all cool with his sunglasses on.

Me on Paula's scooter

Trin riding the little motorcycle

Paula on her scooter pulling Zoe and Elliott.We had a good time until Zoe almost went into oncoming traffic, luckily she fell before she got to the road. All of our hearts were beating pretty fast when that happened. The little adventure ended after Trin rode the motorcycle on the grass through dog poo. She was riding and said "Ooh, I smell poop!" then we noticed and called it a day! We went back to Paula and Jay D.'s for some yummy enchiladas.

SISTERS

This is how the girls fell asleep on our way to Utah for the 4th of July! My mom always told me someday that my sisters would be my best friend, I thought she was full of it. Now I know she was right! But now that's what I tell my girls too, I think they think I'm full of it!

Country Living (Scary!!)

So Here's what I saw last Thursday when I opened my curtains at about 9:30 a.m.

BADGERHow Freaky is this?
I mean really, I don't need these freaky ass mean animals in my yard.

At first, we thought it was just a big-ass Rock Chuck. Oh...No, it was confirmed last night that it was a Badger. My good friend Jacque was over last night, her husband is a big time hunter and taxidermist and I showed her the pics. She said "Oh that's a Badger Susie, not a Rock Chuck!" Let me tell ya, I was...am still really freaked out by this. Then as we are sitting here looking at the pictures, we look out on our deck and realize that a Big-Ass Raccoon is right by our door. What the hell animals... stay away! Oh did I mention in true Red-Neck fashion we had chickens for about a month, well when something killed 2 of the 13 chickens we had, we decided to get rid of them. Now I'm guessing either one of the giant rodent things killed them. So needless to say Justin is setting traps tonight to get them! Sometimes Country living Bites!

Oh, Paula PLEASE don't let this sway you from letting the Bubba stay with us!