Hoping......

I am hoping that 2009 is a healthier year for our family. I have been adding some things up for our 2008 tax return and here is what i have come up with:

20 trips to Le Mars for Dylan O.T.

14 Trips to Sioux Falls for various doctor appointments for Jackson and Dylan

5 trips to the E.R.-All Jackson

1 Hospital stay for 3 days....again, Jackson.

10 Trips to the doctor in Hull for Jackson.

Several misc trips to doctor, dentist, eye doctor involving the entire family

Total miles this year for medical=3786.00

No wonder it seems like i am never at work...because i am not!!

So far things seem to be improving for Jackson. Still no official diagnosis for what he has. Most likely its Asthma and Reflux. The common cold usually knocks him on his little butt and he get pneumonia. Well we have changed a few medications and since Dec. he has really been fairly healthy (knocking on wood!!) Now he did get a cold a few days ago, but so far seems to be ok (again knocking on wood!) We shall see if he gets over this and needs to be taken to the doctor to have his lungs checked. His next appointment is mid February in Sioux Falls. They will be doing x-rays to check on his lungs at that time and then seeing if his medication needs to be changed.

Despite it all he remains a happy and opinionated red head:)

New Van

There was a time not so long ago, that i swore i would never drive a mini van, it just wasn't my style. Well two kids later i had to admit that cramming them in the car was not the best idea either. So five years ago we bought our first mini van, and i hate to admit it, but i loved it. Well that van was great for our growing family, but 2 more kids and 75,000 miles later we decided it was time for another van.

My problem was trying to find a van that had low miles but would also be one that my family could grow in. I figure we buy i new van i want to drive it for the next 5-6 years, well that puts my oldest at 14 (GASP!!) and with 3 growing boys i know i am going to need room. The other concern for me was finding a van was finding one that would help Dylan. When we bought out first van Dylan had just been diagnosed with CP and was still very small, we never really thought that the van would be a problem. Well he is now 6 years old, and just a big kid. He is about the size of 9 year old versus a six year old. Then you add in his weakness on his right side and creates another problem. See Dylan sits in way back with Morgan, so that the younger two can be closer to me. Well the walk way between the middle seats in mini vans are very narrow, especially when they have cup holders attached to the side of the middle seat. So Dylan would trip over the cup holder, fall, and land in this VERY narrow space and get stuck. It was just frustrating for both of us, he would panic because he was stuck and really two weak to maneuver himself out of the tight narrow spot, and i am not really strong enough, nor was there enough room for me to climb back there and try to get him out either. So after this happened 4 or 5 times i mentioned my frustrations to Brian and we decided it was time for something different.

Well the problem was we noticed that most mini vans have the narrow walk way with the cup holders on the sides. We just could not find something that was wider without having to go to like a Tahoe, or a suburban. So we finally decided on a new Uplander. Its very similar to the Montana before, but its has far less miles, and we also removed the cup holders making at least 6 inches more room on the center aisle (i am hoping this is enough room). Hopefully in the next 2 years or so we can move the younger two, to the back seat and put Dylan in the middle and that should hopefully fix any remaining problems.

So i am enjoying my new van (and trying to avoid snowbanks-long story) and today is the first day i actually was able to drive it. Brian was not sharing yesterday and thought HE had to drive it everywhere...men! The kids love it because it has the dvd system, they think its great and yesterday on the way to church it was the quietest ride we have had since we started having kids:)

So if you see a metallic brown van around town it might be me, feel free to wave, i will try to wave back but i am learning that both hands on the steering wheel is best for me:)

Steph

Dancing on a Friday night

Happy New Year!

You know what i love about the new year? It means we are getting closer to spring!!

We survived Christmas. It always amazes me how it can take me 2+ hours to wrap everything and my kids can tear it all open in less then 10 minutes!! Then Brian and i spend another 2 hours trying to get everything out of the boxes!

Christmas Eve the kids had a program at church, they all had lines to say and they all did very well!! Morgan had a huge line to read this year and i really thought she would be nervous about it, but she did a great job. After the program we came back home and the kids were SO happy to see that Santa had come while they were at their program. Not sure how much longer Morgan will really believe that there is a Santa, she is starting to loose faith in the tooth fairy (she keeps forgetting) and i am afraid Santa will be next.

Yesterday was New Years day and we really didn't do much. I took down our Christmas tree, and we made a trip to Wal-Mart.

I am just really ready for a normal schedule again. I just keep thinking that things will slow down soon...yet it just never happens. Looking ahead to the next couple of months we have a lot going on again, its exhausting just thinking about it!