~Blessings~

I am horrible about keeping a journal, in fact I dug out my last journal and not surprisingly my last entry was from 2 years ago with a promise to "write more often" Ummmmm yeah, I have since quit lying to myself. Nevertheless I have a strong desire to record my blessings and my experiences with listening to the still small voice. Not only my children to someday read, but also for myself. So that when life does get harder than it has been (which I am sure it will!) I can look back and be reminded of how very blessed I truly am.

The first experience I wanted to record was one that has carried us through these last couple of years, and taught me to be ever more prayerful and attentive to promptings.

It was the spring of 2008...

I don't have just one set instance, but the feeling that I needed to work on our food storage was very strong, and it kept coming over, and over, and over again.
At that time I had what I considered an "OK" storage with a couple shelves in the basement with extra cereal, some extra cans of soup and noodles, and just little things that didn't really add up to anything. I didn't really know how to go about getting our food storage but I just knew that at that moment that is what I needed to be working on. Thankfully the means came in the form of the stimulus package that President Obama had passed. (I am in no way stating what my political beliefs are, just that I am thankful for the money at the time). With some of that money and the help of my ever handy husband to build shelves, I was able to make lists of what I wanted in the way of food storage, what we needed, cut a TON of coupons and turn what was once a couple shelves of odds and ends, into an actual food storage that I am proud of!

Fast forward to February of 2009. Matt lost his job.

I firmly believe that the Lord knows us. Our Father in Heaven knows us each personally, and wants us to succeed in this life. That is why he guides us and uses the Holy Ghost to prompt us in the things we need to be doing.
I am so very thankful for those promptings from the Holy Ghost. I am thankful that I was wise enough to listen. And I am so very thankful for that food storage that has sustained us through these last couple of years. With out the help of the Lord, I would not have been prepared to feed my family the way I needed to and that is a scary thought.

~I am just THANKFUL~

UPDATES!!!!

It is about time!

I finally feel like I'm at a place now where I have some breathing room and can actually think through things and put them down here. The last couple of months have been the craziest of my life. Honestly.

Since my last post was about Brooke, I will update on her first.
Brooke has done a lot better since her visit with the gastroenterologist. We switched her formula and she seemed to be feeling better, and her facial rash went away! That was until the end of June when I made a TON of strawberry jam.....Whole body rash. seriously. Head to toe. I took her to her doctor, who told me that Brooke was allergic to strawberries and to not even allow Brooke to get near one with out being within two miles of a hospital. She also told me to give Brooke an oral steroid and to keep slathering her in lotion. So I did. I slathered her in Aveeno. (This part of the story is key).
Well as Brooke was aproaching 6 mos and the age of tackling solids, I was a nervous wreck. What is I fed her something that she would react to!? SO I pushed for an apointment with an allergist. We had the RAST test done to check for Milk, Soy, Egg, and Strawberry allergies and to my surprise and delight everything came back negetive! I was given the ok to start Brooke on basic fruits and veggies and to bring her back to allergist in a couple weeks for follow up skin testing. The basic baby foods were a very tasty success. Until I tried peas. After a couple bites, Brookes face started to get really red, and she broke out in little bumps around her mouth. AHHH!!! it was my nightmare coming true! Thankfully a little benedryl took care of it, and her apointment with the allergist was only a couple days away. So at Brookes allergist apointment I mentioned the reaction to the peas, and the very wise doctor told me that it was very unlikely that Brooke was allergic to the peas, but consented to test her for it anyways. They tested for Milk, Soy, Eggs, and peas this time.
Guess what?
She's allergic to SOY and PEAS! It all makes sense now....The reaction to the soy formula, the rash that didn't get better even after drowning the poor baby in lotion. Ugh, insert the mom guilt right here >GUILT< The Aveeno has SOY in it, and I had no idea. I was actually making my poor baby sick!
So we are now the proud owners of Epi-pens and we carry them and Benedryl with us at ALL times. Sadly there is also a very high chance that Brooke is allergic to Peanuts since she is already allergic to two lesser legumes. On the upside, if we avoid ALL Soy, peas, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish until she's 3 she might outgrow her allergies!! The only downside is that Soy in one shape or form is in just about everything. Bread? Soy flour. Crisco? Soy. Veggie oil? Soy oil. Anything commercially prepared or processed? Soy oil, Soy lecithin, Soy flour, soy protein, SOY! But that's OK.....it just means that I do a lot more baking and cooking, and that we will all hopefully be eating better.

As you can see Brooke and her needs have pretty much consumed us over the last couple of months. But on to the rest of us!
Matt is almost done with school! can you tell I'm excited? Ugh, it seems like forever ago that he had a job and was making actual, what's it called? Oh that's right....$MONEY$. But who needs that right? All joking aside, I am SO thankful for these last two years. They have been the hardest, most frustrating, eye opening, blessed years of my life. I can see the Lords hand in every decision and step, and I am truly thankful for his love and watchful care. Matt has been applying for Law enforcement jobs and we have yet to hear anything back, but even if these opportunities fall through, I just keep reminding myself that something bigger and better will come along.

On a lighter note. I started my own business! Since Brooke was born I needed a hobby, something to do to keep my mind off of things. So I started making hair bows for infants and girls. One thing led to another, and I started getting orders for them! I just set up a blog and face book fan page for my bows. It's called PeachFuzz Decor. I put a link on the side of this page. It's still a work in progress but check it out and let me know what you think!

I think that's it for us. I always say that I'll post more regularly, but we know how well that's turned out in the past!

Irritated....

*WARNING!*
The following post contains pitiful dialogue.........



You know when you have one of those days when nothing goes right? Well I've had almost 3 months of it and I'm tired!
Brookes birth was such a wonderful event for our family, we love her to death and wouldn't trade her for anything. BUT.....Brooke was born with her own set of frusterating trials. Brooke entered the world with a heart murmer that has now resolved itself, for the last three months she has vomited EVERYTHING she eats, broken out in rashes, had terribly painful baby gas, been extreemly irritable, and just been plain miserable! I feel bad for her!
After numerous apointments with her doctor and some hard pushing I finally got a referal to a gastroenterologist, and after a month of waiting, Brooke finally had her apointment on monday. I'm glad I pushed for this apointment.
We now have a game plan.......
Brooke was diagnosed with GERD (gastroesophogeal reflux disease) so we doubled her reflux meds, upped her to twice a day and are giving her maalox in between. She also has a "probable" milk/soy allergy. (The specialist says that she has all the signs but doesn't want to test her because of her age.) So we switched her from soy to the hypoallergenic, super expensive formula. The doctor even wrote up a prescription for it! Needless to say...... our insurance wont cover it. :( We qualify for WIC, but now I have to jump through even more hoops to try and get them to cover it.
I know in the end everything will work out, and that we are givin trials to strenghthen us. But right now? Right now I want to everything to go my way.
Right now all I want to do is go back to bed.

More pictures of Brooke!

I love tiny baby toes!


Aww they love their sister



Such a good sleeper




I think she lookes A LOT like Shawn


This is how Brooke likes to sleep in her swing!

I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since we welcomed Brooke. She is such a good baby. Seriously, she NEVER cries! I hope that keeps up! She fits in with the other kids so well it almost feels like she's been here all along. I was worried that the newness of a baby would wear off after a week or two and that Abby and Shawn would start to get tired of all the attention that goes along with a baby, but surprisingly they have adjusted really well. Abby still loves to help whenever she can, and Shawn has shifted his focus from me to Matt, but that's ok. I understand that this is hard on him, and if Daddy can give him the attention he needs, I'm all for it.
I am getting really restless being home. 3 weeks is long enough! I need to get back to church and start seeing people!!! That being said, I'm also terrified to take Brooke out too much for fear that she will catch something and get sick. What to do!? I guess I'll just keep praying for winter and germ season to end soon.

Brooke Lynn Lewis

Brooke 1 day old


The PROUD big sister!



The big brother! he didn't really know what to think


Brooke was born with red hair! it's still kind of
strawberry but has faded a lot


Welcome to the world!


Big Girl!


So happy to finally meet you!



Brooke Lynn Lewis is finally here!
I feel like I had been pregnant FOREVER. Maybe it's because I was more tired and sore this time around and was just ready to be done, but I don't remember my other two taking this long.
My entire pregnancy Matt said that I wouldn't make it past Valentines day (my originaly due date was March 3rd) and I was caustiously hoping he would be right. AND HE WAS!!! Brooke arrived 3 weeks early on February 9th. I had been having contractions on and off for 3-4 days and Tuesday morning they got progressivly worse. Matt came home from school and I made an appointment with my regualar OB just to go and get checked out. My dr. hooked me up to the monitors and lo and behold I was contracting every 2 minutes! She said that as soon as matt could make it to the hospital she would do the C-section and we would meet our baby that day! I called Matt who was still at home with Abby, Shawn and my two daycare girls, and told him to call the grandparents to come and sit with the kids. Matt made it to the hospital about an hour later, and as soon as he walked in the nurse handed him scrubs and we were off to the delivery room. 20 minutes later, our beautiful baby girl was born weighing in at a whopping 7lb 10oz!!! It's a good thing she decided to come early because they estimate that if she had waited to come until her due date she would have weighed over 9lbs!
Brooke is absolutly perfect for being 3 weeks early. She was a little jaundiced, and had a slight heart murmer, but everything seems to be healing nicely. We LOVE having her with us.

Smarty Pants

Matt will hate me once he finds out that I posted this....
Matt had been working VERY hard at finishing his degree in Law Enforcement.
We never thought that he would be layed off from construction and have to make such a life altering decision.
We have been extreemly proud of the choices he has made to support his family, and to top it all off........Matt Made the Deans List and Honors Program!!!!
Matt of course thinks it no big deal and as exicting as graduating from clown college. What he doesn't see is that it is a big deal. He has worked his tail off to finish a two year degree in ONE year, AND to have the grades good enough to make the deans list and honors program just shows how truly amazing he is. We LOVE him so much and are truly thankful to have him as amazing husband and daddy!

Christmas!

Thanks to friends of ours in Texas who introduced the tradition of the Christmas Eve Elf, who always brings new jammies on Christmas Eve!


Shawn in is Super cool Batman outfit. Thanks Auntie Gen!
He also got a Super Why costume.


Ahhh the power of teamwork! Sometimes it takes two people to make quick work of all that wrapping paper!

Abby recieved an abundance of Little Pet Shop animals and accesories.

We had an awesome christmas! We are so lucky to have so much family around to spend the holidays with. This year we spread the festivities out over two days and celebrated Christmas Eve with my mom in St. Cloud and then Christmas day with Matts family in New Hope. We ate ourselves into a nice food coma, and let the grandparents spoil the kids. The best part was being able to talk to Matts brother Jeff who is serving a mission in Oklahoma. We miss him!

Fall Harvest Orchard

Fall is my favorite season. I love the colors, the tastes and cozy evenings spent with family. We took our annual trip to Fall Harvest Orchard in Delano, in October and LOVED it. When we went last year it was 80 degrees, and we were all sweating to death. Not this year. This year it was crisp and chilly and in my opinion it made the tractor ride and the apple picking even better!

I am FINALLY posting pictures!!! I have a couple of months worth to catch up on so bear with me.

These first ones are from September when I was able to go home to Alexandria and visit my bestfriend from high school who just had a baby. I took the kids to one of my all time favorite parks. Noonans Park! I loved this park growing up, and I am thrilled that I have the oportunity to share all the great things I loved as a kid with them.

Lost No More!

After a weekend of cleaning the basement, I am proud to say that I finally found my camera cord!!! Hopefully I will be posting pictures soon!

A Very late post, but No pictures.

For all of you out there that enjoy reading our blog and being kept updated about the kids, let me say I am sorry! I ignored posting over the summer because I was busy with quiting Walmart, getting daycare started, having Matt go back to school, and lets not forget running around after two kids while preparing for a third!
I'm pretty sure everyone knows, I mean how can you not? Just take a look at me! we are expecting our third baby in February! Baby number 3, is going to be a baby girl named Brooke Lynn Lewis. No, not Brooklyn, which is actually what Abby and Shawn call her :) Brooke, because we liked the name, and then Lynn after Matts dad.
Abby is over the moon excited about having a sister. I guess we will see when Brooke gets here how excited Abby stays, but she claims that she will sing Brooke lullabys when she crys at night.
Shawn took a little while longer to warm up to the idea of another girl in the house. The poor guy is surrounded by women (I do daycare for two little girls)! Shawn is being a trooper and showing his true boy colors but fighting everything and insisting on being called "Super Shawner Boy!"
Matt is doing GREAT with school. Hopefully he only has one semester left and then will be post training eligable. After that it's on to look for a job! We would love to stay in the area, but have heard that Minnesota is one of the hardest places to find a job in law enforcement right now. Who knows, maybe Montana, or Texas is in our future!?
Sorry about not posting pictures, I have million cute ones, but I can't find the cord to my camera ANYWHERE.

Fargo

Our thursday afternoon efforts! The "small" river

It's hard to see, but the river was already 1/2 way up the trees!

About a week and a half ago Matt and I had the Opportunity to go to Fargo and help with the sandbagging there. For those of you that may not know, the Red River Valley area is having the worst flood in over a hundred years!

We left thursday morning and jumped right into action that afternoon. We went to a church where they were busing the volunteers to the areas where they needed help. Matt and I spent the afternoon and evening in a residential area that had a previously small river running behind the houses. The small river had turned into a BIG river and the levels kept rising. They had a sandbag wall already built but the reports of how high the river would crest kept rising so we had to keep adding sandbags to make the wall higher. It was HARD work! I didn't expect those sandbags to weigh so much! After a couple of hours of moving sandbags around we were finally done and head back to the hotel for the night. The only problem was that most of the roads around us were flooded so they shut them down. Our group of about 50 volunteers stood outside in 20 degree weather for 2 hours waiting for the buses to find a way to come back and pick us up! Some of the people who lived in the area where very grateful for our service and opened up their garages for us to stay warm and even made hot chocolate and sandwhiches!

Friday, after a good nights sleep we were ready to get back to work. Most of the roads were closed so we couldn't be bused out anymore so we headed to the Fargodome to help fill the sandbags. That was amazing! There were huge trucks bringing in the sand and just dumping it on the floor so that people could grab shovels and start filling the sandbags. Once a sandbag was filled you passed it onto the next person who tied it up, and then down the line of people who then stacked them onto pallets. There were 3 MILLION sandbags filled!!! Matt and I only stayed a couple of hours there because there were so many people we were stepping on each other. After that we headed home and it was a good thing we left when we did, the police had shut down I-94 between Fargo and Moorhead and were using it as an evacuation route only. It was fun trying to navigate our way home using back roads.

I was truly grateful for this experience. Our family has already been blessed because of it. I am also truly grateful for all of you who have reached out to Matt and I since he has been layed off. We love each and every one of you!

Tough Guy

Maybe it's the age (almost 2) or maybe it's just because he's a boy, maybe it's none of these, but instead a completly unknown reason. My cuddly little mommys boy has turned into a tough guy!

Shawn lately has been big into play fighting, wrestling, detroying things, and shooting everything. It's really funny and cute, but I miss my sweet little man!

Girls Night!

A couple of weeks ago Matt had to go on a overnight campout with the Boys Scouts. I decided that Abby and I needed a little Mommy-Abby time so we broke out the Nail polish and facial stuff! I didn't think Abby would like the face mask because of how hard it gets on your face, but being my daughter and the girly girl that she is, she was in heavan!

Family Home Evening

Dinner at Long John Silvers


River City Bowl and Arcade






the kids and daddy with their prizes: Candy



and nerf guns!








We won over a thousand tickets!









Shawns favorite games are the shooting games!



(I wonder where he gets it?!)










Daddy and Shawn











Abby shooting








We aren't very good about having Family Home Evening every week and when we do have it, it doesn't usually include a lesson. It's on my todo list of things to be better at. Going to the Arcade is one of the kids favorite things to do, so we usually just count that as FHE.

The Dentist

Abby had her first trip to the dentist! I also had an appointment, so I went first so she could see everything they were going to do. I couldn't believe how interested she was in everything. When it was her turn she jumped right up there and let them count her teeth, do the xrays, brush and do the flouride treatment. The hygenist said that it's extreemly rare for a first timer to let them do everything. Abby earned herself two prizes for being so great!

~Santa~

Every year we take the kids to see the jolly ol' man himself. In fact we usually see two or three Santas! I've been blessed in the fact that I dont have very shy children, they love going and sitting on his lap and telling what they want for Christmas, of course it helps that they usually get candy afterwards! This last year Abby was especially funny, when we went and saw our third Santa, she actually said, "I already told you what I want for christmas, dont you remember!?" She's a smart one! I have a feeling she might learn the truth waaayyy to early. I wish I could keep them small forever~

Christmas in February!

I'm FINALLY getting around to posting our christmas pictures, better late than never right?

I thought it would be fun to make gingerbread (or in this case grahm cracker) houses with the kids. I thought it would be so easy to slap a little house together and then let the kids loose to decorate. Boy was I wrong! Matt and I each made a house, Matt thought his through and made a plan, he had interior walls, windows, and even roof trusses to make sure his house was structurally sound. Mine was the complete opposite! Never in my entire life did I think making a tiny house would be so frusterating! Next year I'm going to buy the kit where the house is already put together.