We live!

We are alive and well! I have been "yelled" at by several friends for not updating my blog more often!! I apologize, but we have been super busy!
Since I was last here (I think), I have since started working part-time, and focusing on my photography! I am so excited that my dream is slowly, but surely coming true. I also, although I was VERY nervous that it wasn't cut out for me, am REALLY enjoying my 2 days a week with Eli and Izaak. We go out for lunches, we have been to the childrens museum a lot (I bought a membership, because the first day I took the boys and we spend almost 6 hours there and they LOVED it.....so I decided it was well worth the membership), we have been to the zoo, and we go to the mall a lot and ride the train......all kinds of fun stuff.
The boys are a blast. Eli is 3 and Izaak will be 2 in a week.  Someone once told me that God never gives you 2 alike, and boy o boy were they right. My 2 boys are so incredibly different its insane. I call Eli, "Nancy" because he is beyond sensitive. I call Izaak "Billy" (for Billy bad ass) because he is so hardcore..such an independent, tough, rotten, but adorable little man. Eli is a big rule follower and very nervous if he thinks that he has done something wrong or something that will disappoint me, but at the same time he is very stubborn. Do not get me wrong, he has his moments where he becomes a boy and doesn't give too poos about what he is doing or how it is going to effect anyone, but I would say 8.5 times out of 10 he is a pleaser. He is constantly telling Izaak how proud he is of him. Everything Izaak does, soon after you hear a "I am so proud of you Igggick. I am so proud. You are so great!" They really are the best of friends and it melts my heart. The last 2 years have been a rocky, rocky road, and I never looked ahead far enough to envision my boys being such great friends, and such a fun little crew to hang out with  :). We have a ton of fun.  :)

Here are a few pictures and I hope to be back soon with more of a specific update! :)


The boys favorite thing to do right now is feed the fish. We MUST have the green chairs and a LOT of bread to feed the fish. Its so fun :)

Coloring Easter eggs. Eli loved it. Izaak not so much. He didn't understand why he couldn't eat the eggs or drink the dye.

my boys and their dog. Izaak reaaaally loves Bruiser.

about the only decent pictures I got of the boys on easter. they spent the morning with their dad, so when they got home they were not interested in a camera in their face :)

elis birthday. yes, that was February 5th. Sorry I stink!

my sister took about 15 pictures of the boys and I and didn't get one where we are all looking and smiling. :) Happy St. Patricks day!

Goddards Easter Egg Hunt!



a day at Grandpa Pettys farm. The boys LOVE it there!

xoxo

our week in pictures #1!

Here are pictures from our week. However, they are not in any order...and I am being lazy and don't want to fix them. so deal :)

Eli getting his net. Dad won a CLOSE game for the Marion County Tourney.

Neat picture of Izaak passing me the "baketba"

getting interviewed after his win.

This kid LOVES the game. He cannot leave the house without his ball.

This is what happens when Izaak is exhausted and you take his paci out of his mouth and I'm the mom taking the picture instead of putting his paci back  :)

good morning.

cheering on poppy

ring around the rosey

After Eli had been at the dr all day and had his procedure done.....my boys cuddling watching something...probably Monsters Inc.

being interviewed after the semi final game for the county

ring around the rosey

the toughest kid I know.

a lazy saturday :)









izaak getting his net



Eli Update!

Soo. I know I haven't been around here for a while, but we have been busy and sick. So many of you have been praying for my little fam of 3 and I THANK YOU from the DEEP, down bottom of my heart. Here is whats been going on (I figure this is easier than putting it all on facebook or texting and calling everyone)

As most of you know Eli has been a sickly  kid all of his life. But the last 4-5 weeks he was waking up in the middle of the night with terribly high fevers (like 2-3 nights a week and these fevers are from 102 to 105.) He had also been complaining of his back hurting really bad often for about 3 weeks. After these weird fevers I would give him a dose of Ibproufen and he would be fine for 2 or 3 days and then we were back to a fever at 1am. So it was time for me to do something about it....the whole thing is really troublesome.

So I took him to the Pediatrician on Friday and they did some bloodwork and had to get a urine analysis (which was AWFUL....because he wouldn't pee and they had to give him a catheter and got NO pee. He screamed and his natural reaction was to push, to try to push out the catheter and he burst the little blood vessles around his eyes.) It was terrible to say the least, I was crying right along with him. The next morning he woke up and was able to pee in the potty (we are currently potty training....) and I ran his cup 'o pee up to the hospital so that they could get that going.

Saturday afternoon the pediatrician called me and told me that Eli's lab results did come back pretty off and abnormal. The main concern was that his white blood cell count was rather low(along with 5 other labs they sent), which is a big concern. But it explains why Eli isnt able to fight whatever it is that is taking over his little 29lb body. So he told me that he would talk to a Hemotologist on Monday morning and he would call me back and we would go from there. So imagine the stress and "freak out" I had when the Hemotologist/Oncologist (cancer dr) called me AT WORK on Monday morning and wanted to see Eli right then. I needed to take a deep breath and figure out what in the world was going on. The Pediatrician had told me not to panic and that I would hear from him and I was hearing the word cancer and was freaking out. So after crying for a few hours and with the help of some amazing family members and friends, I calmed down and was ready to attack whatever answer I was going to get about Eli, on Wednesday.  (today) ((And please believe I had some words for that Dr. that told me not to panic and then once I heard that Eli could have Luekemia, I had every reason in the world to panic. Lets just say, after the experience I have had with them lately, I do believe I will be looking for a new pediatrician in the near future.))

Rewind to today.On 465 at 7:45am, on our way to Riley at IU Med North (we will get to how AMAZING they were/are)  Thank God for my Nana going with us, because I had no idea what I was in store for. When we got there we walked in and they had a little door for Eli to walk through and a normal door for adults, he just thought that was the bees knees, for sure! When we walked in he said "this isn't a Doctors office Mommy, this is a fun place, like an inside park." So I knew we were going to be ok. It was weird, I found myself leaning on my 2 year old for strength. They put a "magic" lotion on his arm, to numb it so that he wouldn't feel a prick when they had to draw more blood. And after talking to the doctor and giving Eli's history and the problems that he has been having with his back and all of the "fevers of unknown origin" they decided to do a BONE MARROW. That was uber scary to hear that they really thought he could possibly have cancer. I know they had said it on the phone the other day, and that was scary enough, but when you are sitting in front of a doctor actually telling you this is a possibility......yeah......not fun at all.

So they had already given Eli his "magic lotion" to numb his arm, so they drew the blood and inserted his IV. He never cried one time through any of the day. Not once. I was impressed...and thankful. So after they took his blood, he was exhausted...and starving, but he still couldn't eat. He was so weak, he just fell asleep. Then they administered the medicine to offically knock him out so they could get the bone marrow to test it. That was kinda painful for me...the noises you hear are not the most pleasant sounds. It was sad for me (and for Nana) After that Eli woke up, peacefully and happily and asked for Peanut Butter and Jelly and Doritios....whatever you want kid, you get! The nurses also had a Sprite for Eli. He was pretty happy about all of that. He has complained that his back hurts, but he has a little hole in it, so I don't say that I blame him much.

After that procedure, they sent us right downstairs for a CT Scan and a Chest XRay to see if there were any issues with his Lungs or his Sinuses. He was a gem---never cried, he was a perfect little boy. The tech even asked me if he was ok because he was so calm.

So At the end of the day these are the findings...

Bone Marrow-looks perfect, no signs of Luekemia or Cancer that they were worried about. Thank GOD!!!

His Sinuses are fine....no problem with those.

His lungs were kinda .......weird. Eli has seen a Pulmonologist and is being treated for Asthsma....but they don't technically diagnose them with it until they are 4 years old....which is STUPID if you ask me. But anyways....the Doctor compared a chest xray from 2010 to today and it showed some differences and basically a decrease in his air flow in his lungs. So we are going to go with that and see about a possible CT scan on his lungs to see if this is what is causing the problems. Because of the lack of air in his lung, apparently it could be shutting down his system, which is causing him to get fevers that he can't kick because he doesn't have enough white blood cells to fight the infection. Phew...thats a lot of info. But all I know is my baby boy doesn't have Cancer, and anything else we can handle and is managable. It is obvious that he has some sort of immune difficiency, we just have to figure out what it is. So in 2 weeks we go back for yet another set of labs. But I'm ok with that all. And Eli said he can't wait to go back. "Eberyone was soooo nice to Eli" he said.

So I know that was a TON of info...if you even made it this far, but thank you so much for all of your prayers and amazingly kind words. Riley Hospital left me speechless today. I have seen commercials. I have heard its wonderful, but today I experienced it first hand and I am forever grateful for their kindness and patience with Eli and myself! If you ever have a few dollars laying around....donate it...games, movies, anything. I know I will.

Love,

US!

Here is Mr. Eli after he woke up from his procedure and had a little lunch. He was happy...and a little out of it! But happy nontheless!

Vote for "OuR LiFe..." :)

 

Thank you again for all of your prayers and help. You will never know how grateful I (and Eli) am. It has helped so much!

Mamas Boys

Hello friends. It has been quite a while! Forgive me! I have been crazy busy with picture taking and the boys of course!! There is a lot going on...good and interesting.....but I won't go into all that right now! Here are some pictures of the boys if you haven't been on my other blog :)

Izaak heard a train coming...this was his response :)

So beautiful. So blessed.

Having a serious coversation about rocks.

I have trained him well. At 2 1/2 years old, he sits down and says "I'm ready for you to take my picture Mommy" :) Love him.

Silly!

I.Love.These.Boys.

The boys with Poppy and YaYa

Happy Halloween. My little Pirates!



Mamas Little Pumpkin Patch!
A wonderful little experiment that I tried and I think it turned out pretty darn cute!! A friend of mine sent me a picture from Pinterest (if you haven't been there, go there now!) and I was destine on trying it out! You should have seen Eli's face when I asked him if I could paint his butt. But they let me and we had fun with it! It took about 3 minutes and no children were harmed in the making of this picture. hahaha!

 I hope that all is well with everyone! And I swear I will be back soon to let you in on all the crazy parts of life that are happenin these days! :) Some good and some....well....interesting.

Better things ahead......I pray.

Hello all! I hope this finds you well! The boys are finally healthy. We were good for months...with the exception of Izaaks random ear infections..then all of the sudden BAM. Izaak kept getting sick. I finally made the decision that he needed the dreaded tubest for his ears, so we can help him with these chronic ear infections. He had 13 ear infections in 5 months. Can we say...OVER IT?! So I finally scheduled the appointment and to no ones surprise that morning he had a fever and an ear infection....but the surgeon said it should be fine...so we went ahead with the procedure. From August 22nd (the day he got the tubes) until 2 days ago his ears GUSHED nasty, nasty "stuff" out of them, that had to be cleaned out about every 30 minutes or so. he was also suffering from a terrible cough. It was effecting his hearing and he just didn't feel well at all. I finally took him to the surgeon on Thursday and they got him on a high dose of antibiotics, nasal spray and different ear drops. . .she also taught me a different, more efficient way of getting the gunk out of his ears. I felt sorry for him.....and me. They haven't drained at all since Friday afternoon. (Which was nice, because he was puking all day Friday....some sort of 24 hour bug I guess.)
Eli is doing well. The last time I talked about him, I think I was begging for advice on what do with his tantrums. Well oddly enough......and I am one to talk badly (or aboue how I think its pish-posh)about people who freak about diet/behavior issues....I cut out Apple Juice and he is a COMPLETELY different child. I do have a hard time "reprogramming" him when he comes back from his dads house, because of the difference in parenting (we will just leave it at that....if you catch my drift), but even then it isn't that bad. So hopefully we are on the right track. Eli is a great big brother for the most part, and CONSTANTLY tells Izaak, "I love you, buddy."

We went to an awesome invent in town called "Art in the Park" It was a ton of fun!

Eli excited about the business card he got.

playing some tunes on some pianos!

My parents just had their kitchen redone and we picked this little piece up from one of the vendors, who just so happens to be a friend of mine from school. It is a bit sentimental to us...my mom ALWAYS sang "You are my Sunshine" to us, and now its my boys favorite song. :) Find Kelly here!

I am pretty positive I will never get a good picture with the 2 of them.

 Payton and her friends before homecoming

love this rotten little boy!

I can't believe how big he is getting!

My dream photography business is taking off and I am ELATED. Photography and capturing peoples memories is so important to me and I am actually proud of something I am doing (besides my boys, I haven't found much pride in anything in the last couple of years). Check out my photography blog HeRe. Email me at TaylorLensPhotography@gmail.com if you are interested in pricing information. I am just so excited about whats ahead for me and the boys! This is really helping us out...and hopefully we can get a place of our own sooner rather than later!! :) Lord knows we need it! (I need it!)

<3

After a long time in the bathtub, Eli got out and said "What is THAT?!" (in reference to his pruney fingers) Love it!

we love the colts...even if they are 0-2!!

:)

Vote for "OuR LiFe..." :)