anaphlyaxis, huh?

yesterday i took A to her follow up appointment with an allergy doctor after our ER visit. the allergist said the hospital ER did NOT treat her properly. he said they should have given her an epipen immediately rather than waiting on her symptoms to clear. he handed me a sheet on anaphlyaxis and said this is what she did. as i read in my mind i was putting a check mark next to each item on the page. she did all of those things. the more i read, the more scared i became. it leads up to the fact that the next step would have been anaphylactic shock!! i thought that was just something scary that people did in movies or people talked about. oh no, it was all to much a reality to know that my baby girl could have started the shock symptoms! she was so close. the one small dose of benadryl is what may have kept her from going into shock. i am so thankful that the Lord lead me to the benadryl just minutes after her lips started to swell. the doctor explained that the ER just treated her symptoms and not the reaction. he told me if it happens again we need to get her to Cook Children's as quickly as possible. he told me that epipen dose will last 15-20 minutes that is why it is so important to rush her to the ER. if we were ever in this situation we are supposed to do the epipen then a dose of benadryl to help give us a little more time to get to the ER. he did order a blood test to test for food allergies. We will get those results on Dec. 28th. The moral of the story, until we are certain please do NOT let A have any shellfish or fish unless you are prepared with an epipen and know the route to the nearest ER.

how's the house?

i took these on saturday 11/14. they started the brick and stone and should have it all finished up. here's one of the oustide and the bottom pic is my ventahood/cooktop area in the kitchen. more pictures to come soon.

trick or treat is over, thank goodness

TREAT...i still haven't blogged about our Halloween. here's a quick recap of the very eventful weekend. Friday night we went out with friends for my hubs birthday. we ate downtown and then went to Legends Fest in Sundance Square. he was excited to see Shenandoah and eddy raven was the headliner. you know you're at a "legends fest" when the headliner is done by 10:30 pm... LOL. eddy raven was great. so great that after the show, we were walking out and went down the sidewalk that was behind the stage. we asked him to take a picture with the birthday boy. what a fun night!

TREAT...we were able to trick or treat in our new hood with all our new neighborhoods. I'm so excited to live around these folks. they have a ton of fun. it was 3 flatbeds with hay pulling the kids the 2 mile loop around the neighborhood. Chris and i didn't get the memo that all the parents dress up as well...look out for next year. all 3 of our kiddos had a ball. we started at 6:30 and finished up about 9:30 then went to the after party at our new neighbor's house, Chris and Jen. Ha!
TRICK...it was a great night until Brady peed in his spiderman costume. poor guy was busy playing trains and the bathrooms were all taken up. he said "mom i told them to hurry up and i was waiting, but then i just went." when you gotta go, you gotta go!

TREAT...Sunday night was going to be the birthday boy dinner from Chris's parents. he wanted to have fish and shrimp this year. sherry made the kids a plate and i told her to give them some fish and shrimp since they have had it before.
TRICK...we sat down about 7 pm to enjoy the fried goodness and Anna said "ouch! my lip mommy." i thought it was a bone, but she seems OK. a few sec later, she said it again and i noticed it starting to swell. within a matter of seconds her lip had doubled in size. she started saying she was sick. i gave her benadryl right away due to the size of the fat upper lip. she was quickly getting worse and not better so we hopped in the car and headed to the weatherford ER. she continued to get worse on the car ride over...not fun for mommy or anna. turns our she is highly allergic to fish/shellfish. i'm not sure yet since she hasn't had a formal allergy test done yet. her throat was starting to swell, but the benadryl was able to slow it down. A had to have an IV with her meds to help speed up the healing process. the nurse started her once in her arm and lost the vein and had to do it again in her hand. it broke our hearts! she cried and screamed, but we held it together for her. so far she has been fine. we now have our epipen in case it happens again.

riding on the hay ride with daddy

trick or treat


birthday boy, eddy raven and big bro

house progress

i've been terrible about posting the progress of our house. since the rain finally stopped, they have been able to really get back on track. here is what it looked like on oct. 28th. since then they have all the windows put in, fireplace in the house and back patio, electrical, secondary tubs and the roof! there are probably other things, but i don't know all the technical stuff. i am very excited because the brick and stone goes on tomorrow!! i will be out there tomorrow taking a few pictures. can't wait to see what it will look like. yay!!

happy halloween

We had a wonderful halloween with out little trick or treaters. It was spooktacular with Spiderman, Care Bear and our little flower. More pictures to come soon.

Baby Kiersten was 4 months old on Oct. 4th. She is such a little joy. I thought I would log some milestones. Maybe it will help me remember some things for her baby book once it gets unpacked. hmm.

To my little Kiersten, we could not have asked for a more healthy happy baby. Here are some of your new milestones:

• reaches out and grabs at things
• can roll from tummy to back and you're trying really hard to go from back to tummy
• when you are playing on your tummy, you are able to push your arms out and hold up your whole torso. we've even caught you trying to rock back on your knees! you do move around on the floor while playing, especially backwards
• you started trying out rice cereal the week you turned 4 months. within a matter of days, you were up to eating 2 tbsp. mixed with 2 oz breast or formual, whatever is on hand
• we are still nursing! during the week you get your bottles that are mixed with breast and formula. we nurse every morning around 6 am and then we nurse in the late afternoon and then evening after cereal, but sometimes you don't want to you are ready for bed. on the weekends, we nurse the whole time formula free.
• you sleep through the night!! ahh. you've done this for a good while now, but here lately i don't even have to get up to pop the pacy to you. on the weekends when you don't have to be up by 6 am, you sleep a full 10-12 hours without crying, wimpering, eating, etc. i love my sleep!
• you weighed exactly 17 lbs and 14 oz. i think its safe to round that to 18 lbs after your cereal or a feeding. :) and you were 27 inches long! you've grown 3 inches in 2 months.
• you have been wearing a size 3 diaper since you were 3 months old. i recently had to bump all your clothes to size 6-9 months. i think you will be able to wear all of Anna's 12 month sleepers this winter that Anna wore at 12 months, not 6 months!!
• you are awesome in the car. you usually just fall right to sleep. most of the time its like you are not even in the car with us.
• you are really trying to sit up all by yourself. last week you started pulling your head up while in your car seat. and now you prefer to be straight up in a sitting position rather than kicked back. and when you sit up tall all of your little rolls pop out. it's so darn cute!
• you love to goo-goo gah-gah at us and you especially love your big brother and sister. it is so sweet to watch them play and sing to you. you stare at them in amazement and then grin at them. they love you so!! our family is so blessed to always have the sound of children's laughter in the background...or Anna crying. j/k Anna. we love you too!

hanging with the big bro

eating up some yummy rice cereal

chillin at the church bizarre with family--look at you sitting up in the stroller!

there is a slab!!

I wanted to add these to the bottom of my previous blog, but it won't let me move the pictures again. It used to let me! If anyone out there knows what trick I can do, please help this lost person. Thanks.

So...while the kids and I spent the day with family from H town, Daddy-O was making sure the foundation was getting prepped for the slab. Here are a few highlights.

not sure what is going on here, but it looks different. more wire and stuff added.

big fancy truck with go-go gadget arm!

this was Tuesday evening. we went to go see our slab. this cracks me up...A with her pant leg in one boot!

Everything was set and ready to start some framework Wednesday morning before the afternoon rain arrived. However, when we woke up this morning it was already raining! I am praying that the rain is done for today and they can start the frame Thursday.

Jak Se Mas

Sunday was another day of sunshine before more rain comes our way. I took the kids to meet my dad, stepmom, aunt and uncle at my Busha and Ja-Ja's. The annual church bizarre was going on so there was something to do in their itty bitty town. Here are some highlights of the trip.

My driving/photography skills of the Fightin Texas Aggie roadside landmark outside of Reagen. The good news is that even though they widened Highway 6, they safely moved the barn! Gig 'Em Aggies!

Baby K and her Great Ja-Ja

Who is that lady? Yep, its me. I'm never in the pictures, but this really nice random lady on the hayride snapped this one for me. Baby K decided to just ride in the stroller and not on the hayride.

A and Grandma trying to win some toys!

B and his Ja-Ja. B just won and picked out some safari animal toys, just more for mommy to pick up!

Where is the big daddy? He stayed at home and got the crews working on the house...on a sunday! We had to let some things dry out from all the rain and then there is more prep work to do on the ground before the slab goes down. It should be ready for the slab on Tuesday.

big green tractor

its bugging me that this pictures are out of order, but i can't get it to let me move them around. it used to let me.

Here they are in the big green tractor on the road to the farm.

turning off of FM 5

with their Papaw leaving our lot headed back to the farm...about a 10 minute drive by car

this land is OUR land

Here's Papaw working on getting our lot smoothed out.

Here is the side/front view of our new land. Yep, we're on another corner.

Here's a back view of our acre. We were able to keep several of our mesquite trees.

This was a sunset on the way back from our lot to the farm. I was waiting to get a picture of Brady and Anna with Papaw. They rode with him in the tractor all the way back to the farm. They thought they were big shots getting to ride on FM 5 in the tractor.

Rockport 09

the water was really pretty. we stood knee deep and you could clearly see your toes. A didn't want to get in this time around.

the only pic i have of father & son this trip. they stayed in the water and played pretty rough. me and my girls stayed on the beach and soaked up some rays.

Baby K napping on the back porch while the big kids played in the little pool right beside her.

the trip killer--no it isn't Clark W. Griswold after they strolled through the slums of St. Louis. its my lovely flat, but not really a flat. it was the sensor in the valve that was leaking.


kids in the little pool. copano bay in the background...insert randy rogers song here. :)


very tired kids after a few hours at port A beach.

the sisters livin it up beach style. looks like they're throwin some signs.

rollin over at the beach!

takin it all in.

it was a fun little trip. our final goodbye to summertime. i will miss you dearly. we were able to hang out with old college friends and meet their kids. Kyle & Tiffani have a beautiful bay house on Copano Bay in Rockport. Our kids got along great and had fun playing! The men of course thought they were big bad fisherman, but notice...were there any pictures of some big redfish or any fish at all? ahh, no. They did catch 2 keepers, but that's it. Of course, it was all the weathers fault right. Have to wait and see whats in store for next year!

we are here

K's last pic with the sign. Their last night in our house. K helping us pack the last day.

We got one, but could have used 20!! The proud men that loaded the attic.

it's been almost a month! wow how our lives have changed. i missed several chances to blog, so let me catch you all up...

-Baby K is a chunk! at her 2 month check up she was 14 lbs, 12 oz!! i couldn't believe it. i knew she could fill out a diaper like her mom used to fill out the Rocky Mountain jeans! She was 24.5 inches long too. Needless to say it put her off the charts, over the 100th percentile in both categories. I was delighted since B&A were always somewhere between the 50th and 75th percentile. I tried weighing her at home just this week and she was just over 15 lbs. Other than not missing a meal, she is doing great. I had to start her in daycare full time just after my last blog. I cried. like a baby. for a while. But I had to do it in order to get our house packed up, plus I was already in my inservice week at school. She loves her teachers and we love them. Ms. Nelda is the best thing any mother could ask for. All of the ladies in her infant room are wonderful. I think they all secretly like Baby K the most, but I won't tell. She rarely cries...big sister still cries waaaaaaaaaaay more than Baby K has ever thought about crying. Tomorrow she will be 3 months old already. some of her milestones thus far: coos and talks to us all the time, starting to reach out for your face or objects in front of her, grasps onto her clothes/blanket and cuddles with it, blows lots of bubbles/drool, excellent head control, loves to practice sitting in her bumbo seat, sleeps and eats like a champ!

Baby K on August 6--2 months and 2 days old.

I took these on our front porch. It was the first time I put her in the bumbo to try it out. She did an exceptional job with her head. See...I was doing this kind of stuff and NOT packing like I should have been doing!

-C and I thought we had the whole move thing figured out. We thought it wouldn't take long to pack the rest of the house at the last minute. Boy were we WRONG! Thanking my lucky stars, the night before, my Dad had called to see what our moving plans were. He mentioned they might come help, but I didn't want to ask for his help. Neither of us wanted to ask for our parents help, WE are the grown-ups now and thought we totally had it under control. HA!! Thank God that Friday morning the door bell rang and there they were to help. I think we would still be packing had my Dad and Cindy not showed up. And I am very thankful for the loyal framer Chris has used during his time as a builder...Manuel. He and a few friends helped us carry and move tons of stuff. I am so thankful for them.

-it feels weird to be living in my inlaws house without them here. i feel like our stuff is everywhere and it kind of is. we've got tons of stuff in our Mobile Attic unit (they are much cheaper than pods), in the garage and dining room at my inlaws. For the first week, I had no clue where anything was. K needed a manicure, but she had to wait for a week until I could find the clippers for her! There have been several stories like that. In the meantime I thought I was going to lose my mind. Going back to work full time with a newborn, pumping schedules, nursing, crying Anna, big brother talking my ear off, laundry, dinner, cleaning, getting used to driving 35 mins one way to get to work and digging in boxes for a week--you think i'd be down at Betty Ford. Somehow I'm not. My mom came up the next weekend and occupied the kids so we could bring some peace to the boxes. I was able to do that, but still have my moments from time to time.

-big bro and sis are adjusting well. B gets it. We took him out to where the new house will be and he seems to understand that daddy is building us a new house and we cannot go back to his old house. he did have a short day or so where he seemed down, but he's ok now. after the second or third night at the inlaws, A cried and wanted to go home. she did it a few more times, but shes good now. their new dog Kopper is out at the farm and thats all she cares about...that and her new pink cowgirl boots.

yay for pictures

kiersten enjoying her spa treatments. she's 7 wks in this picture at 13 lbs.

this cracks me up! she's enjoying some time at the pool. look at that lytle hair line! i think she's going to favor chris and his family.

little miss drama enjoying the kiddie pool

two crazy kids in the bath! brady wearing his home depot safety goggles just in case he needs to build something in the tub.

brady showing off his mad swimming skills

where is summer?

so much has been going on. i don't have much time to blog these days. let me give a quick run down and then i gotta hit the sack.

-we sold our house in less than 3 wks. yay. but there have been hiccups with the buyers however we are set to close on aug. 18th
-i go back to work on monday aug 17th--boo!
-we are going to pack up and move out by aug. 15th so we can try to unpack at our new temporary home--my in laws house
-they are packing up and temporarily moving into their little farm house. Thank you Lord for allowing them to be so giving and gracious to us. we are taking over their home while we build our new one.

somehow in the midst of it all i am trying to get all of these things done....
-get the house packed as much as possible by august 14th
-get my classroom ready for Meet the Teacher on august 20th...when i go "back to work" as a teacher that means three full days of workshops and trainings. then you get one 8 hour day to prep your room for Meet the Teacher--that is after being off all summer long. so if you read between the lines that means you have to go in during your own free time to actually get a good head start on work. not to mention summer school was at my campus so all my stuff is packed up high and put away. lucky me.
-prepare for first day/week of school starting august 24th
-continue to have enough milk (aka pump as much as possible) to supply her habit. yep her habit is a 6 ouncer of breastmilk (shaken, not stirred LOL) every 4 hours or so
-put my baby K in day care/school! insert a crying mommy here--that's me
-i'd love to finish reading twilight--people you can put the book down when you've got 3 kids interrupting you every 5 minutes!
-i'd also love to start reading my teacher book that i said i would get to this summer. ha!
-K goes for a check up next week. will post details at some point. btw...i weighed her last week at the breastfeeding center and she was a hefty 13 lbs at 7 weeks.

i'm rambling now. just wanted to let you know i am trying to blog and i have some pictures to post, but just not there yet...

first smile

i had to come blog this rather quickly. just a while ago i fed Kiersten and was doing the whole mommy thing--talking to her and being all googly-eyed to her. all of a sudden she cracked the sweetest smile and a bit of a giggle/coo. it was the sweetest face and sound. i wish i could capture that sound and face and keep it forever. i feel so blessed to get to hear those soft, joyful little coo's one more time. she has been cooing for quite a while and somewhat smiling, but this was a true reaction to me. YAY! if i can get it rigged up, i'll try to get a video of it for the grandmas out there.

Ozark has come to an end

We came back from Galveston on a Sunday. That evening a couple looked at our home. On Tuesday we received their very nice offer for our home. By Thursday a deal had been agreed upon. And Friday the option period began meaning it will be a done deal in one week. Now, the inspection is complete and we wait for this Friday to come. Once the option period is over, I don't think they can back out. Well, I don't see them doing so. She came by to measure for rugs and window treatments...already getting fabrics. WOW. We will close Aug. 18, my second day back to work.

I can't help but reminisce for a moment about our home. Chris and I were so lucky and blessed to have built this home together while planning our wedding. Just after our wedding, we were able to move in. It is the home that he carried me over the threshold and we looked forward to many good years here. Good years here is exactly what we have had. We had lots of parties with our close family and friends. Lots of memories can be made in 6 short years. I will never forget getting our home ready to welcome our first born. We were so excited to welcome our son. Shortly after, we were so blessed to welcome home our daughter. The 4 of us have had lots of laughs, giggles, tears, scrapes, bumps, hugs and kisses shared in this home. Finally we completed our family here by welcoming our second daughter to the family. She will not know of this home nor the good times we've had here. I do know she will hear lots of stories and see lots of pictures (on the computer) of the times we've had.

As one chapter closes, we new one must begin. Chris and I are thankful for this home and all of our family and friends that have shared a moment here with us. Now, we must build a new home for us to raise our 3 sweet children and welcome even more friends and family. We are looking forward to our new home and community to raise our children. I tear up as I think of leaving, but can't help but smile knowing what is yet to come.

Summer Vacations (109 photos), by Jenny Lytle

First came the pictures, now the actually words since all 3 kids are napping. for the 4th this year we decided to head up north to OK to see Mike and Christy's baby bump! yep, if I haven't told you yet they are expecting Baby Allen coming this January 14th (or some time around there). Mike and Chris were in desperate need for therapy. Their therapy is golf with beer. They were able to squeeze in 2 games while we were there! Christy, the kids and I just hung out at the house. There isn't much a girl can do with 2 crazy kids and a 4 week old. The kids loved playing with Lexi, hope she did too. We were able to meet some of their new found friends in OK as well. If you see the pictures, you can see that B and A were also in need of an Aunt Christy and Uncle Mike fix as well. And yes, B did get to show off his new golf clubs and his skills to Uncle Mike. Our last stop was an awesome Italian restaurant. It was the best Italian food I've ever had. I think I will need to go there every time I visit. While we were there, we received an offer on our house. It was our first decent offer too! We began the back and forth game only to have them withdraw a week later. It was a good deal, but not a great deal. I knew something better would come along.

Shortly after the OK trip, I decided I could pull it together and take K to Galveston. She is a wonderful baby! She sleeps anywhere, any place and rarely cries. I knew she would be good for us so why not go. I am so glad we did. The kids just love the beach. B would jump waves all day long and A would play in the sand all day if we let them. K slept all day long on the beach or in the back of the Acadia. There's pictures in the album (click the link). We went to the beach everyday for some low-key fun. One night we got dressed and went for the annual Rainforest Cafe trip. It is a fun place. We did our usual--River Adventure Ride. This was the first year that B was a scaredy-cat! He was in my lap burying his head most of the ride. The previous 2 years he wasn't scared at all. A was a little skittish, but not like her brother. And K well, she slept through the ride.

The kids had their first crab hunting night. They all had little flashlights and tried to hunt for the little transparent baby crabs. They had fun for maybe 10 minutes. It stopped when we spotted our first jellyfish. Several had washed up on shore that evening. We scooped them up and put them in the trash, but the kids we still worried about them. Then, they wanted to fight over the flashlights, someone looked at someone wrong, etc. etc. The typical fights of a 5 yr. old, 2-4 yr. old and a 2 yr old...there's always next year and more crab hunting!



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National Lampoon's NKOTB concert

Why the title? Here's why...
-everyone was running late, traffic was horrible
-shan, rachel and natalie had to get the car seats out of the Jeep (my rental) because I forgot and had to get dressed
-go to back out Jeep and CRREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAK! WTH? for some reason the garage door decided to not go up all the way and it hit the luggage rack thingy on top of the Jeep. no harm done.
-traffic, but it wasn't bad
-dinner at restaurant was excellent, our server not so much. how many times did he have to re-ring our tickets? i think it took longer to get our bills corrected than it did to actually eat. i know there were 8 smokin' hot ladies at the table, but geeesh!
-find our way nicely to the venue, found our seats in front of the NKOTB crazy chicks--they had a flask!
-wonderful, awesome concert. donnie got really close to me. i'm pretty sure he tried to sweep me up with him, but i told him i couldn't go. it was great to have my long time NKOTB lovin fool, my cousin Jamie there to rock out with. it was even more fun to share all the songs with the 7 other girls that we were all with!!
-easily made it out of packed parking lot, score!
-dead locked interstates in Big D, so i try a short cut. we have a GPS...oh wait, the battery just died and no charger! DOH!
-couple of right turns and we made it to where we needed to be. no long drastic detours, thank GOD.
-girls need to potty on the way home. stop at the fabulous whataburger.
-back in the car, Jeep ready to go and WHAM! WTH, again? Oops. While backing up then trying to put it in Drive, it went to PARK. and the Coke (or pop, for you Christy) splashed on Christy's Coach! OMG!! and the Jeep, but who cares. How it went into Park, no clue.
-finally made it home safely and the garage door went all the way up this time. WHEW!


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