Lauren's accident

This picture was taken morning before leaving for church. This is the hair style that we have used for the past week. Everyone is pretty amazed that I can cover the bald spot this well. I think it helps that Lauren has such long and thick hair.

Looking very pretty, as always.

Lauren's bald spot.

Last Monday, Lauren and I were making cupcakes. Lauren was using the hand mixer and I was getting the pan ready. Lauren started to scream and looked at her and her hair had gotten caught in the beaters of the mixer. I quick unplugged the mixer but the damage was already done.

We made a trip to doctor who gave Lauren some pain medicine and just checked it over. The doctor stated that it should grown back but might take some time. The skin was not damaged in any way (other then a small bruise where the mixer hit her head). There was no blood. The hair was just pulled out clean.

Lauren had a rough few days and still says that she wants her old hair back. When she fell asleep I played with it for a little while and saw that we could do a comb over and hide some of it. She has been so comfortable with the comb over that she has not worn any of the hats that we bought.

She still will not look at it in the mirror. I have to do her hair in the bedroom and then she goes in the bathroom to brush her teeth after I have put it in a barrette. However, she was just looking at the pictures of the bald spot and she told me it "does not freak me out." We will see if she will stand in the bathroom tomorrow when I do her hair.

I am going to talk to a hair specialist tomorrow about what can be done until it grows back. She says she has some options. I am interested in hearing about them.

I feel so bad about it. I know it must have hurt so bad. She is a trooper. I have shared the picture with a few people and everyone that sees it is so amazed that that could happen. But all say what a trooper and brave girl she is. I agree!!!!

5 1/2

I can't believe that this summer my little girl is turning 6. Lauren is invited to a lot of friends birthday parties and they are all turning 6. It kills Lauren that she is still 5 so now she started to tell me she is 5 1/2. ( She did turn 5 1/2 at the end of December.)

I love having a 5 1/2 year old but she loves to test and see how far she can go.

She can be a handful and sometimes she can drive me up the wall but I love this girl so much.

Today the weather was so nice. Sunny and 70. This is why we suffer through the summers. Lauren was headed to another birthday party and I decided to try to get a few pictures before we left.

She has that funny fake smile. I can't wait until that goes away. When she is laughing her smile is so fun. These fake smiles look painful.

I love to experiment with the light from the sun. There are times when the shadows and/or the brightness of the light make the pictures so interesting. Other times they turn out so bad. But it is fun to see how they will turn out. I love digital pictures, if they are bad, delete!!

2009

I love this little girl so much. She amazes me more and more every day. I hope that 2009 is a fun year for her.

HAPPY 2009!!!

I love new starts. I love the beginning of the year. It is so much fun to think about what the year may hold for both Lauren and I. I hope this year is a wonderful year.

With all that is going on in the world it can be very stressful. I just hope I remember that time passes so quickly and that I need enjoy and live in the moment. That is my main goal for the year!!

New Year's Eve

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Lauren and I went to my brother's house to celebrate the New Year. It was very fun and Lauren and Sammie has a great time. Lauren does not understand that it turned 2009 at midnight so when the ball drops in New York we scream and yell and have fun. We then go home and Lauren is in bed well before it really turns 2009 in Arizona. I wonder how much longer I can play this little game with her.

Her favorite part of the night is always the silly string. We have done it every year with her and she just loves it. All night she kept asking if it was time to do the silly string. Sammie had a great time with it this year also. It is so much fun to see these two playing with each other. I am so glad that Lauren has cousins that are both older and younger then her.

Jacob Mathew

Lauren with Jacob (and a little too much eyeshadow!!!!)






Jacob not looking very happy.







Jacob was born the Saturday after Thanksgiving. A few days later we found out that Jacob has some health problems. One of those problems was a rare disease called Pompe. Only a few thousand people have this disease in the United States. This was not what we hoped for or thought would even be possible. But it has and now we are learning a lot about Pompe disease. Pompe disease is a rare neuromuscular genetic disease. People with Pompe disease are missing or do not have enough of an enzyme.

Brian and Diane took Jacob to the doctor today to talk about what treatment is out there for Jacob. We are lucky that we are in a time that a drug company has come up with a treatment. First they have to test to see if Jacob is missing the enzyme or if he just does not have enough of this enzyme. We are hoping that it is just not enough. If that is what is happening than Jacob can get a treatment of this enzyme every few weeks and hopefully live a full life. There is a boy out there that has been living with this treatment since he was a baby and is now almost 10 years old. There has only been one death with this treatment and it was because of some other issues. We are so hopeful. If Jacob does not have this enzyme that he will need to have drugs for his body not to reject the enzyme first. Either way we are so happy that medicine has advanced so much that Jacob will have a chance at a normal life. He still needs a lot of prayers while he starts this treatment.

Christmas Night

Our Christmas Blessing.

Ready for the evening.

Having fun.

Playing with the girls.

Acting goofy while I "try" to get some pictures.

All the cousins after a long evening (including a trip to the park after the rain!)

Opening more gifts.

Playing with Sammie.

Christmas evening we went over to Brian's home for Christmas dinner and to open the last of the family gifts. Before heading over to him home I tried to get some pictures of Lauren. She was acting crazy and of course driving me up the wall. She was just excited from the whole day.

The evening was fun and it was a great way to end Christmas 2008. One of the special blessings for 2008 was my new nephew, Jacob. Jacob is just a few weeks old but has had a rough going. He was in ICU for about a week after he was born. He has an enlarged heart and he has some other issues related to that. We are hopeful with a new treatment that he can live a long and healthy life. He is our Christmas blessing and we thank God everyday for such a sweet little guy. Please keep him in your prayers.

Christmas Morning

Waking up to a stocking full of goodies and a room full of presents.

Unpacking the stocking.

A new Webkinz animal.

Opening Santa gifts.

Lauren's favorite gift. (It better have been!!)

Playing with her new computer.

Trying out her new skates.

Christmas morning is at my home. Santa delivers all the gifts to my home. However, Santa fills the kids stockings at their own home. After looking through their stockings, they come over to my house to open Santa gifts and eat breakfast.

Lauren got up at 4:00am and let me know that Santa had been there. I made her back to sleep but she was so excited that by 6:30 am she could not wait any longer. I let her go and open her stocking. She also opened kitty's stocking. I then got breakfast ready and we waited for everyone to get to our house.

Once everyone arrived the kids opened the Santa gifts. Us parents decided a few years ago that Santa would bring the kids 3 gifts each. This makes it great for us because we all know that each child is only going to get three gifts and we don't have to worry about one kid getting a ton of gifts from Santa and another only gets a few.

Lauren's favorite gift was a new computer. I spent more money then I had planned but I hope this will last until she is in high school. I needed to get her one so that she could load her games on that computer and not mine. She thought it was great. Uncle Brian set it up for her that morning. We went the next day and got a computer desk and chair but for Christmas she just used a little side table and a stool.

Our Christmas breakfast has included crepes with cheese filling since we started the Christmas breakfasts. They are great and everyone looks forward this meal. I like having people at my house I just wish I had a little bigger house. I move the furniture around so that we have as much room as possible but it is still a bit crowded.

Once everyone left we had time to clean up and rest for the evening at Uncle Brian's home.