Well, I guess it's about time I updated the ol'blog. I mean, we only had some of the most important things ever, happen to us this past year...and we are almost half way through 2014!
In a nut shell, we moved back into our house in February, loving the new pain. I found out I was pregnant in March, shocking! It was hardest on Andy who felt like we were just treading water as it was. Andy spent many many weekends with his mom who battled cancer bravely. In June she had surgery and was pronounced cancer free in August. David had his 6th open heart surgery, the Fontan, in July, and although being told to expect a hospital stay of 3-6 weeks, he was home in 1!!!We had follow up x-rays every few days, but being home was worth it! All our prayers were answered above and beyond what we dared hope for. David has since taken off physically. Luke started kindergarten in August. The highlight if the year came on November 14th, being two weeks and one day late, we welcomed Joseph Thomas Sullivan into our family, with a beautifully healing home birth. He is an amazing and good natured little man. Though I could've sworn he was gonna be a girl, I wouldn't trade him for anything! He is the perfect conclusion to our babies. The day before Thanksgiving we found out my mother-in-law has stage 4 lung cancer which she continues to fight. She has inspired all those who know her with her courage and strength. We had a wonderful Christmas and a new year full of adjustments.
Joseph is 6 mths old, starting solids, rocking on his hands and knees, smiling, cooing, shrieking, and growing a wonderful feathery, peach fuss, cap of hair. He still isnt sleeping through the night but it'll happen one of these months!
Lydia is 2 1/2. Just today Andy put her in the shower after she had gone potty alone, tried to wipe her own bum, leaving smear marks all over. Next thing we knew she was upstairs dried and naked with a shirt, shorts and panties in her hands. Andy hollered down for Caleb to go turn off the water in the shower. Well, miss independent had turned it off herself! She loves to TRY to pour milk and cereal, make sandwiches, change Joseph's clothes and diaper, put lotion and make-up on, just about anything and everything!! There are strict penalties for leaving food or other potentially disastrous thing out around here! Oh and she has recently taken to coloring on our couch and walls.
David is doing amazingly! He is down to 3 medications. We started weening his g-tube feeding in September of last year (6 weeks after his surgery). He was getting 100ml an hour for 12 hours each night. It's now May and he's been getting 10mls an hour for the last two months! We went down by 5-10 mls every 2-3 weeks if he'd maintain weight and stay healthy. He is pretty much 100% oral. If we didn't have to juggle blood sugar issues overnight we would've had him off his pump 2 months ago! for now his longest 100% oral stretch was 2 weeks ago when he went 5 days! I then got really sick and couldnt manage the checking his blood sugar 3-5 times a night and nursing JT, so we put him back on for a few days. Then after anothe short stink off the pump he got sick and his blood sugar was effected. We are so close! He can now walk up and down the stairs. He prefers holding my hand but can do it just with a spotter. We are working on him alternating legs. His favorite things are jumping on the trampoline with "my kids" and being spiderman/a power ranger ( the color changing depending on his shirt color for the day.
Luke lost his first two teeth 3 weeks ago. He is the cutest thing every and flashes me his toothless smile randomly through the day so I can faint from his cuteness! I've been reading a Chima chapter book to him each day and he wont let me forget it! Legos are his favorite by a landslide!
5/24/14
It's late, David was up coughing most of the night last night. I'm really tired and should probably be trying to get some sleep before David wakes up with another coughing fit. There is just something in my heart that wouldn't let me. I don't know what to write about and maybe I'm just procrastinating going to bed without Andy. We are still in a hotel. It will be three weeks on Thursday. We spend most of our time at the house. We let the kids ride bikes and jump on the trampoline. David spends more time inside but I think the dust has been effecting him so we have been spending more time at the hotel the past few days.
Since it took the carpet people over a week to get all their ducks in a row and we knew it would be another week after that till all the installation would be done, Andy an dI came up will a "brilliant" idea. We figured since we wouldn't be able to really use the kitchen anyway, now would be the best time to redo our kitchen cabinets. Andy is at the house tonight re-attaching all the doors and installing hardware. He really is the best.
Yesterday Andy and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Have I mentioned how much I adore my husband lately? I know these entries will end up in our family blog book and I want my children to remember what an amazing father they have. I pray with all my heart that Lydia and Jentrey will marry men who are as amazing as their father.
I met Andy when he returned home from his mission. I had briefly seen him before when my cousin had dated him. There he was in the hall of our church building, people around him, welcoming him back. My sister (Angela) and I added our welcome as we walked into our meeting. That week I left for a visit to Kansas. When I returned I was told he'd called my house asking for me. I'm ashamed to admitt how very naive I was through the early weeks of our dating. I was not looking for a guy to date. I had only a month before sent my boyfriend off on his mission. I had not promised to wait with the pure intent on serving my own mission after I got a few years of collage under my belt. I had appied to Ricks and was waiting for a reply.
Andy sorta snuck up on me. I thought I was helping him kill time with fun dates before he moved on to bigger and better things. It wasn't till I recieved my acceptance letter to Ricks that I felt a surprizeingly strong conflict of interest. I was all for going...but I didn't want to leave Andy.
Andy had understood me from day one. I felt like he could see my heart and I didn't have to worry about how I came across. Starting out with the conviction that he had no intrest in me left my "shy under pressure" self, acting totally normal! By the time I figured out I liked him it was too late to alter my image.
We spent more and more time together. We unintentionally took the same Spanish class. Lucky or not the teacher ended up being crazy and we finally dropped the class along with 2/3 of the other students. We had the same History teacher and would spend time at my house on our trampoline studying for tests. He would always ace the map tests (I'm not gifted with geograohy) but she always seemed to like my writing assignments better.
I also started heading up our young single adult group from church and he would usually call me the day of and ask if I needed help setting up. Naive as I was I said no the first few times but finally realized that if I said yes he would come over early!
It's weird to think about him then. I knew so little about him compare to the 12 years of understanding I can claim now. It's terrifying to think I had only known him a few months when we married. Things could've turned out so badly! Luckily I had an amazing feeling of peace every time I was with him. He made me want to be better than I was, kinder, more compassionate, more giving with my time. I wanted to be everything for him.
Fast forward, he has seen me through so many ups and downs. I remember feeling like I hit rock bottom and there he was. He still loved me and believed in me. How did I get so blessed..a silly 19 year old girl, marrying the most unconditionally loving and compassionate man. He works so hard, not just at work. Andy thinks of little things all the time, trying to make my life easier. He agonizes over having to go out of town or leave me is a bind. He helps with the laundry, the cooking, the shopping. He helps brain storm chore and dicipline ideas for the kids. He listens to my rants and research, and he pushes me out the door when I need time alone. He shows the kids how to work hard and love each other.
As a little girl, when I imagined my husband, he was an elusive man who cam e home at night to a perfect house and sweet composed children. Andy has been there for me through my great fall to reality and I realize this life though abundantly more challenging, is even more abundantly sweet.
Since it took the carpet people over a week to get all their ducks in a row and we knew it would be another week after that till all the installation would be done, Andy an dI came up will a "brilliant" idea. We figured since we wouldn't be able to really use the kitchen anyway, now would be the best time to redo our kitchen cabinets. Andy is at the house tonight re-attaching all the doors and installing hardware. He really is the best.
Yesterday Andy and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Have I mentioned how much I adore my husband lately? I know these entries will end up in our family blog book and I want my children to remember what an amazing father they have. I pray with all my heart that Lydia and Jentrey will marry men who are as amazing as their father.
I met Andy when he returned home from his mission. I had briefly seen him before when my cousin had dated him. There he was in the hall of our church building, people around him, welcoming him back. My sister (Angela) and I added our welcome as we walked into our meeting. That week I left for a visit to Kansas. When I returned I was told he'd called my house asking for me. I'm ashamed to admitt how very naive I was through the early weeks of our dating. I was not looking for a guy to date. I had only a month before sent my boyfriend off on his mission. I had not promised to wait with the pure intent on serving my own mission after I got a few years of collage under my belt. I had appied to Ricks and was waiting for a reply.
Andy sorta snuck up on me. I thought I was helping him kill time with fun dates before he moved on to bigger and better things. It wasn't till I recieved my acceptance letter to Ricks that I felt a surprizeingly strong conflict of interest. I was all for going...but I didn't want to leave Andy.
Andy had understood me from day one. I felt like he could see my heart and I didn't have to worry about how I came across. Starting out with the conviction that he had no intrest in me left my "shy under pressure" self, acting totally normal! By the time I figured out I liked him it was too late to alter my image.
We spent more and more time together. We unintentionally took the same Spanish class. Lucky or not the teacher ended up being crazy and we finally dropped the class along with 2/3 of the other students. We had the same History teacher and would spend time at my house on our trampoline studying for tests. He would always ace the map tests (I'm not gifted with geograohy) but she always seemed to like my writing assignments better.
I also started heading up our young single adult group from church and he would usually call me the day of and ask if I needed help setting up. Naive as I was I said no the first few times but finally realized that if I said yes he would come over early!
It's weird to think about him then. I knew so little about him compare to the 12 years of understanding I can claim now. It's terrifying to think I had only known him a few months when we married. Things could've turned out so badly! Luckily I had an amazing feeling of peace every time I was with him. He made me want to be better than I was, kinder, more compassionate, more giving with my time. I wanted to be everything for him.
Fast forward, he has seen me through so many ups and downs. I remember feeling like I hit rock bottom and there he was. He still loved me and believed in me. How did I get so blessed..a silly 19 year old girl, marrying the most unconditionally loving and compassionate man. He works so hard, not just at work. Andy thinks of little things all the time, trying to make my life easier. He agonizes over having to go out of town or leave me is a bind. He helps with the laundry, the cooking, the shopping. He helps brain storm chore and dicipline ideas for the kids. He listens to my rants and research, and he pushes me out the door when I need time alone. He shows the kids how to work hard and love each other.
As a little girl, when I imagined my husband, he was an elusive man who cam e home at night to a perfect house and sweet composed children. Andy has been there for me through my great fall to reality and I realize this life though abundantly more challenging, is even more abundantly sweet.
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