Breelyn's New Skills

Last Friday, Aaron and I were just relaxing/watching tv when all of the sudden Bree came charging into our room. Aaron looked at her and asked me, "What's all over her face?" I looked at her. There was something brown all over her face and down the front of her shirt. My first thought was that she'd been finger painting. Not with paint, but well ...you can imagine what. Aaron quickly picked her up and I started to peel off her clothes. Bree had found my acrylic paints that I store in the basement! Aaron helped Bree get into the tub, and I ran downstairs and assessed the damage. -Luckily, Bree had only opened one bottle of paint. There was a little bit of paint on the floor and a little paint on Brody's clothes. We cleaned up the mess and helped Brody and Bree get into their pajamas. I put some boxes around my paint to prevent Bree from future exploration.

About a half hour later, (Just after Aaron and I started to relax again), we heard a scream from the basement. I ran over to the stairs and found Abby (My little mother) helping Bree. Bree had gotten into my paints AGAIN. This time, she was covered with purple paint. I wanted to cry. My husband just started laughing and my oldest son Andrew kept saying, "Mom, we should send a video of Bree into America's Funniest Home Videos."

Bree the 2nd time we had to put her in the tub!

Master piece #2

Master piece #1

Blessings

Last Thursday I received a phone call from my insurance company, MedCorp. Medcorp reconsidered and approved my IVIG treatments! I received my first treatment yesterday. A nurse (Kathy) came to my home at 9:45 am and was there til 4:00 pm. -It was a long day for both of us, but I'm so thankful. I didn't feel any side effects. -Hopefully, my little girl's platelets will increase. Thank you everyone for all of your prayers!

A Little Stressed

This past Tuesday I got results back from my amniocentesis. The results weren't good. For those of you who don't know, I have a genetic disease called N.A.I.T. N.A.I.T. is very similar to RH Factor, only with N.A.I.T., the mother's body attacks the baby's blood platelets. Also, with N.A.I.T. the baby is affected while it's inside the womb. I found out that I had N.A.I.T. after my second son was born. We had a lot of blood work done following his birth, and we found out that our children have a 50% chance of being affected, depending on what antigen Aaron gives them. Both of my daughters (Abby and Bree) weren't affected; however, our new baby girl that I'm now carrying is. I've been so emotional the past 2 days. I'm suppose to be starting some weakly IV treatments called IVIG. Apparently the IVIG treatments are about $10,000 each, so I can't begin until my insurance approves them. -So much on my mind right now. Here's a better defenition of N.A.I.T. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonatal_alloimmune_thrombocytopenia

Wild Animals At The Zoo!

Aaron went to California this weekend for a seminar. We'd talked about going to California as a family and maybe going to Disney Land, but we just can't afford it right now. Any how, I still wanted to do something fun with our kids, so this am I made the decision to go to Hogle Zoo. I called up some family, and luckily my parents and my brother's family were able to go with us. All of us had a great time. The weather was perfect, and it wasn't too crowded. Also, Hogle Zoo has made a lot of improvements. If you haven't been there for a while, you should go. There are a lot of new exhibits and they have a new carousel! Here are some pics from the day.

Ryan, Hayden, Grandma, Bree, Adrienne, and Parker riding the new carousel!

Brody rode on a gorilla and Andrew rode on a frog!

Who's the biggest monkey of all? ...Is it Brody?

Is it Abby?

Or is it Andrew?

(I think Andrew's the winner)

The wildest animals at the zoo!

Cookie monster

Alla peanut butter sandwiches

Isn't Brody a handsome little dude? I love it when he looks into the camera.

All of my kiddos (Brody, Abby, Andrew, and Bree)

Macaroni and Cheeses

On Monday afternoon, we went grocery shopping as a family. Grocery shopping at our house is usually done by just Aaron or I because my kids can get "A little out of control." Any how, to help our children be their very best, Aaron bribed them and told them that if they were good, we would go to Chuck-e Cheese for dinner. Abby (Our 3rd child) was so excited. She probably asked us twenty times, "Are we still going to Macaroni and Cheeses?" -Aaron and I just laughed. Our kids were pretty good at the store, so we decided we'd better follow up. We made it to Chuck-e Cheese and had a wonderful time. Here are some pics from the evening. Chuck-e, Bree, and Dad
Abby was so afraid of Chuck-e. We sat at a table near the stage thinking that the kids would like it. (Bad idea)

Grandma and Grandpa Walker joined us for dinner. Brody loved playing skeeball and shooting the basketball into the hoop!

Happy Valentines!

I hope that everyone had a happy Valentines day! We really enjoyed Valentines this year. My husband surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of roses, and my kids gave me some of the cutest cards ever. We had a yummy dinner which included steamed crab legs, baked potatoes, and chicken nuggets (For those who didn't care for the crab legs).

All of my kids enjoyed drinking out of these Valentines goblets. They also had fun playing swords with the crab claws!
I was going to buy sparkling cider or grape juice for the goblets, but Aaron prefers good old Mountain Dew

Abby's my little poser. In the background you can see the roses Aaron gave me. -So pretty! And the flowers are too :)

The sweet little cards Brody and Andrew made for us

Leftovers from dinner

Birthdays Are So Much Fun!

Last week we went to a birthday party for my nephew Parker. Parker turned 2 years old! He shares his birthday with his dad (My older brother Ryan). The party was so much fun. They had a lot of friends and family over. They fed us pizza, along with cake and ice cream. My brother and his wife gave Parker a "Wall-e" cake. It was one of the cutest cakes I've ever seen. Here are some pictures from the evening.

Brody and Aaron singing Happy Birthday
My nephew Parker opening his giftsBrody lovin the ice cream

My adorable niece Kate

My brother-in-law (Dave) and Grandpa Nelson

My brother Shane and his wife Svetlana

My brother (Ryan), his son (Parker), and my sister-in-law (Adrienne)

Andrew

My hot husband

Parker downing his B-day cake