Update on my Brother

Hey, this is to update you on Corey's status. Yesterday he had a 90 day Care Plan, we talked about how he is doing on dialysis, his diet, blood pressure/medication changes and transplant.

Dialysis is going well. His attitude towards being on dialysis has dramatically improved, he is making the best of his time there and has even seen positive benefits other than feeling better. They spend every day he is there doing social interaction games, educating him on his situation, problem solving for current and future issues...

We talked about his blood pressure. He has mild hypertrophy in the heart wall and ventricular septum. They are rearranging the way he takes his meds for now and are looking at increasing his Amlodipine and Enalapril if he continues to have high blood pressure.

He has started epogen shots for his anemia, they do this during dialysis so he does not need to be poked. He is currently at 10.8 for his Hgb

He continues to eat a restricted diet. They are still monitoring his sodium, potassium and phosphorous. He is doing well and no binders are needed at this time.

They are continuing to monitor the risk of renal bone disease. He is on supplements and meds via catheter to control renal osteodystrophy.

Dr Johnson, the psychologist who evaluates all transplant kids talked about the possibility of revisiting ADD meds to help with his concentration at school. He is still sleeping during class and has a very short attention span. It is hard enough for him to do well with his illness, having ADD on top of that makes it almost impossible.

Corey's transplant was discussed. My dad was found to be a blood type match, we are now waiting to see how many antigen matches he has. From what they could tell, My dad and and older brother are very similar. This will more than likely disqualify one of them in the future if the other donates. Corey would build up antibodies to the same antigens if my dad and older brother are the same. I had expressed interest in being tested hopefully on Monday... We will wait to see if Im a candidate and what my antigen markers show. The next step will be determining the best choice for the transplant. This will be based on blood type, number of antigen matches,social issues (babies and jobs) health of donor and willingness to donate.
Please Continue to pray for wisdom in the doctors and that I could be match so Corey does not have to go the National Donor list.

Sweet lovely

My sweet baby girl and little man are getting so big....

here are some recent pics:

Christmas Cards

Its almost that time again....

Christmas card time!

I look forward to getting the mail everyday in December in anticipation on getting those adorable pictures from friends and family.

I love looking at all the pictures and hanging them up but I am always sad when Christmas is over and I have to take them down...

So I decided to keep them in Photo Album I really enjoy looking back through all the years and see how kids have grown and changed.

I cut out the picture(s) then slide them in a photo album (A couple of years ago I bought a bunch after Christmas Sale)

This is a fun way to save all those precious picture

Monster Party

For Jeffrey's 3rd birthday I decided to do a "Monster Theme Party"

recently he had become obsessed with Monsters Inc. Well its been a awhile since the movie has been out... I knew I was going to have a hard time finding items for this party. So I went with "Monster bash party" I had a lot of fun researching ideas for the party so many great ideas out there. Since I was on a tight budget I made a lot of the decor myself and used all my resources wisely.

First I started out by making my own cupcake toppers. I had found monster invitations at Walmart for only $.97 for a pack of 6 that was I deal I couldn't pass up. The plates, napkins and table cover were also $.97 each my kind of bargain.

So for the cupcake toppers I used the extra invitations I had and cut out the monsters.

After I cut out the monster I found some extra card stock I had laying around and cut them into squares to use as the background. Then I used my trusty glue gun and started my project. I had tons on tooth picks laying around the house so I then glued them to the back of the card stock square, then to finish it off a little scrap paper to cover up the tooth pick.

Then they were ready to go....

I really enjoyed making my own Monster cupcake toppers they were super easy, very cheap and matched the other decor perfectly

I also made all the "signs" for all the food and drinks, I used Halloween paper again at Walmart I think the pack of 6 different types of paper was around $1.00. I then cut the paper to make a tee pee affect and got creative I used things like "Monster Eyes" (meatballs) "Green Slime" (green punch) etc.... It really added some uniqueness to the food and drinks.

I used the same paper pattern to make my own "happy birthday" garland. I traced a triangle out and then wrote "happy birthday" I taped the back to some string I had around house then hung it up

Next I decided to make my own monster party hats... I found this cute idea on a blog during my research.... http://hiphiphoorayblog.com/2011/01/little-monster-party/

so I went and bought some felt... with no pattern for the party hats I kind of did a trial and error.

First I measured on Jeffrey's head what size would be best, then I found a item around the house that had the perfect circle shape for the eye. After I had traced the eyes out in white I then did the same in black. With the black felt I cut in a circular motion to make the smaller inner eye, with the extra felt in between each eye that I cut out I noticed it made a great monster mouth so I used that as the mouth, then with the scrap white I cut mini triangles for the fangs.

With my trusty glue gun again I glued it all together and... I think they turned out great!

I then used a hole puncher and pipe cleaners to finish them off. I had them right at the front door so as kids came into the party they could put them on right away. However getting toddlers to wear anything is a challenge so most of the party they didn't wear them but all in all a fun project.

For a fun game I had wanted to do "Pin the eyes on the monster" My mom and her husband Steve were visiting and asked if I needed help with anything for the party I said yes! I need a artist to draw a monster on poster board. So Steve did, he looked at the invitations then drew a monster free hand... it turned out perfectly :) So for the kids to play I cut out strips of cardboard then glue wiggle eyes to them and when it was their turn we put tape on the cardboard and they placed it where they thought it might go. It was a simple and fun game for some of the older kids.

I love doing crafts for little kids so I had set up a table for the kiddos to make their own goody bags. I found some awesome monster crafts on Orientaltrading.com the kids really enjoyed making their own bags and then later on they had something to hold all their candy from the pinta. I had some credit to Oriental trading from making previous purchases (I am firm believer in signing up for "rewards programs" in any company)I found tons of monster favors everything matched very well.

Those were just a few of the ideas I used for the MONSTER party on a budget :)

The final party came together very well and kids had a great time

Jeffrey's 3rd Birthday

Wow time has flown by........ my little man turned 3! I would say I was in denial about it only because 3 means preschool soon then kindergarten and before I know it high school graduation :( People always told me "enjoy every moment it goes by so fast" I truly believe it! I used to be able to hold my little boy in my arms and he would fall asleep to the sound of my voice singing a sweet lullaby... now I have to use all my strength to lift him and sometimes he doesn't want me to sing :( But now we start a new chapter in our lives which I am excited for, Jeffrey is potty trained yah! (only took about a year), he is learning all his colors, numbers, recognizing shapes and talks a lot. He loves to build puzzles, legos and towers to destroy (typical boy)

Well heres to the next chapter....

Jeffrey from birth to 3

oh how life changes so quickly

Wow where do I begin.... since my last post was in January so much to catch up on.So we sold our house January and moved out in 2 week

s. It was quite stressful trying to pack so fast but we had a cash offer that we couldn't refuse.

Joel and I really wanted to buy another house but I didn't want to rush the process just so we could "have a house" so we decided to move in with my mom in Chandler. It was very tight living space with all three of us and oh I was PREGNANT. :)

We found out in January that we were having another baby I was so excited and thought it was perfect timing since Jeffrey was 2 1/2.

So we lived with my mom for about 4 months, in those months we both worked like crazy and tried to figure out our next step.

During those months my mom met her future husband ( I was a little skeptical at first) but I am so happy for her! My mom got married in June and moved to Kansas City, MO with Corey they love it there, although I miss them greatly. So with my mom moving away we decided to look for a place to stay... and we found a great house in Queen Creek area that we are renting. I was totally against renting for the longest time but now I really like it because if something breaks I call the landlord and they fix it.

During that time Joel was still working for the school district as a bus driver but he was ready to move on from it.... he worked a security job for a couple of months then the Army offered him a full time job doing construction for some barracks the

y were building in Florence. He took the job and loved it, the benefits were awesom

e. Very cheap heath care which was perfect since we were having a baby soon :) After the job finished Joel applied to be Corrections Officer and he got it! He started his 6 week training last week and so far is really enjoying it.

During the summer I worked my tail off..... I was the VBS director for our church again this year and I worked full time at Starbucks. I had many long and overwhelming days, but it is always worth to see 500 kids get excited about learning about God!

After the summer past it was time to focus on our baby GIRL :) I was beyond excited to find out we were having a girl and mostly in shock I had them check numerous times at the ultra sound.

My pregnancy went very well, I did have few signs of high blood pressure so they kept a close eye on me.

My due date was September 14th ( I assumed I was going to be a week late like I was with Jeffrey)

We had her named picked out to be Liberty Bettina Page. Bettina is family name and my middle name, since Jeffrey has Joel's middle name we thought it would be perfect for her to have mine.

I had decided to work up pretty much to my due date, my last day of work was September 10th... I was excited to take off 12 weeks and enjoy some down time until the baby arrived. Well....

our little love decided to come a little early :) On 9/11/11 our sweet baby Liberty was born at 9:30am 7lbs 7oz and 20 1/2 inches long she was perfect!

My labor went very smooth and fast I was sad that

my mom wasn't able to make it out but I can't wait for her to come visit in just a few short days :)

So wow a lot to catch up on... I love being on leave I have become quite crafty and enjoy spending time with my babies :)

Next week Jeffrey will be turing 3! Im so not ready for it, I wish he could stay little forever.

So there is a quick ( sort of ) update of our lives.... I hope to get better about updating :)

pumpkin pie

Tried this for the first time...

It was Delicious!

A cheap and easy way to make Pumpkin Pie under 30 minutes