My Christmas Letter (if I had one)

I didn't have time to get a Christmas letter out this year. Who am I kidding? I have NEVER had time to put out a Christmas letter! Have I? I vaguely remember, possibly having one, but Brandi would be the only one who would know....Brandi? (Isn't it nice to have friends who can be your memory for you??? LOL Brandi has been my friend basically my whole adult life, so I can just rely on HER memory! But wait, she's had more kids so she has less brain cells...hmmmm this might not work!)

ANYWHO.... I was going to try my hand at a Christmas blog/letter this year! However, I am re-dubbing it our New Year's Letter. :-)

(And, although I started this days ago, I got the idea for the format this morning from another blog I love to read.)

This has been a very exciting year for us...let's see how much I can remember...

January 2006:
We got a new puppy...a boston terrier that Michael named Shooky Doo. I had forgotten how much I don't like puppies, but, trust me, I have since remembered. ;-)

February 2006:
February wasn't very exciting for us except we had good friends over on Superbowl Sunday and Kaedra took her first steps that day.

March 2006:
-March was very exciting because we got a pool! We were so excited to get one and so blessed to get one. We enjoyed it so much during the summer and had GREAT family time in it!
-One of our nurses quit and that eased some of the stress we had been having with her around.
-We went to the zoo with the Donathans and Sherria. We used to go to the zoo a lot, but hadn't been for a long time. (Emily didn't even remember it) We had a great time.

April 2006:
-We got in our pool for the first time! YAH for Oklahoma weather where you can swim in April! :-)
-Mercy, my beloved cat died after 17 years of being my companion.
-My dearest friend's baby went to be with Jesus - Zoe we rejoice in being reunited with you someday.

May 2006:
-Emily turned 5! It was an exciting day for her...she had a Dora party complete with a map and a treasure at the end. (Brittany even played Swiper) Michael and I missed the party when he had chest pains and ended up in the hospital overnight.
-The biggest thing that happened in May is Kaedra had her second surgery. Kaedy was very unhappy being confined to a crib for so long and we had a really bad experience in San Antonio where they didn't have the room ready and Kaedra de-satted the lowest she had ever been. Most of the experience in San Antonio was awful, but it did go quicker this time.

June 2006:
-Our church opened it's new site. It is beautiful and large and very close to our house. We loved our church in the strip mall setting and we love it even more now! :-)
-Kaedy was off of her vent for a few hours at a time and off of oxygen completely.
-Kaedra started coming to church. I stayed in the nursery with her, but it was so nice to go as a whole family.
-Kaedy is also putting food in her mouth and getting closer to eating.
-We found out I am pregnant! We had decided about 2 months ago it was time to have another one. The timing seemed right with Kaedra almost off of the vent. I took the pregnancy test on Father's day...so it was an especially nice Father's Day for Michael. :-)


July 2006:
-We got rid of our daytime nurse. Although it was difficult adjusting, it has been wonderful to have Kaedy "all to ourselves" everyday. We spent the first few months of no-nursing in her room almost all day long.
-We had a big setback. Kaedra got 5th's disease (which is usually no big deal for kids) but she pretty much laid in her crib for 6 weeks. She had to go back on oxygen, back on her vent all day, didn't talk much in sign or verbally and refused food (orally) altogether.

August 2006:
-I did some home improvement projects including putting a much-needed fan in the den. (which also provided overhead light, which we hadn't had)
-Kaedy came out of her 5th disease funk. She ended up regressing on everything but gross motor skills. She got right up out of the crib and started running around. We had to start at the beginning with weaning her off of the vent, getting her off of oxygen, eating orally and speaking again.
-Brittany turned 11 and we had a great party! It was at Incredible Pizza and had 13 girls. It was a lot of fun for everyone. Britty is SUCH a big help at home and such a young lady. She is a delight to be around.
-Emily started Kindergarten. (of course at home with us.) She was so excited!
-We noticed Kaedra had a large curve in her spine (that hadn't been there at the end of May)


September 2006:
-Our nursing was cut down to 12 hours. We decided to use them from 8pm-8am.
-We started working harder on getting Kaedra out of her room a few hours a day.
-We decided to change Kaedy's surgery location to Kansas City. We got approved to go there for an evaluation.
-Britty had a colored pencil drawing in the Wagoner County fair and won 2nd place!
-We got a new cat - a Maine Coon we named Zoegirl.

October 2006:
-Emily, Brittany and I went to Livesay orchard and had a very nice afternoon picking apples and playing in the corn mazes. Later in the month we went to a large corn maze at night with Brittany's friend Alison. It wasn't as much fun, but part of it was because Emmy was a little scared.
-Brittany, Michael, Kaedra and I headed up to Kansas City for her evaluation. She got approved to be in their program and they scheduled surgery for November 17th.
-We found out our insurance was changing as of January 1st which threw us into a tizzy. Our new insurance does not cover nursing at all and hardly covers supplies. We started our trek into looking into every other available option.
-I went on bedrest for a week for bleeding and cramping. I got an ultrasound to make sure all was well with the baby - which it was - and we found out that we are having a boy.
-Kaedra started coming off of her vent for a little while at a time (at first 20 minutes, by the end of the month almost all day)
-With her newfound freedom, we have some challenges. Silly mommy had the curling iron on in the bathroom and Kaedra walked up behind me and grabbed it. She finished out October with her hand wrapped in dressing.
-My friend, Tarry, who came to be one of our nurses, went back to the hospital (where they would pay her nearly 2X as much!!) So I ended up having Kaedra overnights by myself on Wednesday and Sunday nights.

November 2006:
-Kaedy had her second birthday. It was a GREAT time. And since her birthday and Christmas are so close, she hadn't gotten any presents for awhile. She loved all of her new things!
-Kaedra had her surgery. Brittany, Sherria, Kaedra and I went to KC on Wednesday. We all stayed in the Ronald McDonald House. Britty and Sherria came back Thursday night and Michael came up that night. Kaedy had her surgery on Friday morning (ribs and tubes in her ears) and Michael and I stayed until Saturday when Kaedra was released from the hospital. She was able to stay off of the vent after surgery and is still off of it all day long.
-My parents came up from Albuquerque for Thanksgiving.
-Kaedra had her first trip to a park.
-Michael started working crazy hours in his usual retail holiday season rush.
-Kaedy started putting food in her mouth again.

December 2006:
-We decorated for Christmas which was a lot of fun.
-We started Kaedra off of the vent for 1 hour at a time during sleep. She is also taking her naps without her vent.
-I went Christmas shopping a few times with Sherria which was also fun...hard work! but fun! LOL
-We got the girls dressed up (at the same time) and sitting (occassionally in the same place) for an attempt at Christmas pictures.
-Brittany and I went to a sweet cookie exchange. (not the same one I have done the past few years)
-We went to church on Christmas Eve morning, but couldn't go Christmas eve night when Kaedy got a high fever. (it was just from some shots she had gotten the day before)
-We had a very nice Christmas morning.
-Michael and I switched room upstairs with Brittany. (we are still dealing with the aftermath of that. Hopefully we will be all done today)
-We had a very nice New Year's Eve. We went to church, came home and made up finger foods, played games and then watched the ball drop. Ria came over and hung out with us that night, too.

Well, that's pretty much our year. Unfortunately, I will probably remember that this was the year I was mostly sick with Ethan's pregnancy. It hasn't been much fun, but I am trying to concentrate on the positive aspects! (Soon I'll have baby Ethan in my arms and it will be much easier to remember the positive side! :-))

2007 will be the year that Ethan is born, Kaedra gets off her vent (and hopefully gets rid of her trach - depending on Dr. Carey's philosophy on that), Kaedra eats orally, Brittany's first mission trip, Emily learns to read, Michael gets a new car, Sherria meets her future husband and lots of other wonderful memories I can't wait to experience!