Here is Jaclyn singing Soft Kitty a song from the tv show
The Big Bang Theory.
Homemade Mayonnaise
2 years ago
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
A Princess and Her Heart!!
I want to start off today by telling you that February is Heart Month which is an awareness of all heart disease and defects. As a part of Heart Month I would like to tell you about some friends of ours who’s daughter has a heart condition called a congenital heart defect. This amazing little girl is only 5 years old.
Wikipedia: A congenital heart defect (CHD) is a defect in the structure of the heart and great vessels which is present at birth. Many types of heart defects exist, most of which either obstruct blood flow in the heart or vessels near it, or cause blood to flow through the heart in an abnormal pattern. Other defects, such as long QT syndrome, affect the heart's rhythm. Heart defects are among the most common birth defects and are the leading cause of birth defect-related deaths. Approximately 9 people in 1000 are born with a congenital heart defect.[2] Many defects don't need treatment, but some complex congenital heart defects require medication or surgery.
There is a test that can be done in the hospital after you have a baby with the Pulse Oximeter which can help detect most CHD's. This test which is non-invasive and non-painful can save lives.
Lydia was diagnosed first diagnosis when she was 21 months old and she had her first open-heart surgery when she was 23 months old. Three weeks after Lydia and her parents got home her little brother was born. For a time all was “normal” for this family until when Lydia was 3 ½ they found out that she had pulmonary hypertension which is high blood pressure in her lungs. In November 2009 they found out that she needed a new heart and was listed for transplant in April 2010. On Thanksgiving Day last year (Oct 11, 2010) Lydia was playing in the back yard with her cousins when she collapsed and had slurred speech and was unable to walk. Once her parents reached her in the yard they began to make plans to get her to the hospital. She was later transferred to one of the leading hospital in Canada that deals with hearts. On October 29th 2010 she had her heart hooked up to a Berlin heart/LVAD. During this time in hospital this family of five now (Lydia now has a little brother and sister) picked up and moved to a different province. With the help from Lydia’s Grandma and other family members and friends they were able to have someone with Lydia every day.
On December 11th 2010 Lydia was given the most precious gift that she could ever be given, a second chance at life with a New Heart!!
In the days before Lydia received her new heart she was sick with an infection that the doctors where trying to discover where it was coming from. When Lydia was in her heart transplant surgery the doctors discovered where the infection was when they opened her up, they discovered that the cannulas (big tubes going into her stomach from her Berlin heart pump) were infected and full of puss. My friends were told that the infection inside of Lydia would have taken her life in two days and the only way that they would have been able to save her was buy giving her a New Heart. God perfect timing!!
Now I want to take a moment and say how much I respect the family who chose to give their child’s heart away to give another child a second chance at life. When you are in a situation where you know that your child is not going to live for one reason or another and to still make that choice to give a part of your child to someone else is a brave and heroic thing to do and I want to say a THANK YOU on behalf of Lydia’s family and those who know and have been touched by Lydia’s life.
A couple of weeks ago Lydia and her family came HOME!! Lydia is doing well in her recovery and as a family they are taking it one step at a time. I can only imagine how wonderful it would feel to be at home as a family after living in hospitals and temporary housing for almost four months.
This family I have been talking about is a part of our church here and everyone in the church and the community have been following this little girl’s story and now recovery. It has been a real blessing to see how one little girl’s life has already been such a witness to those around her in what God is capable of doing.
I have to tell you that Lydia is one of the strongest people I know and she is only 5 years old!
When we moved to this town and were starting to get to know some of the people here one of the first families we started to get to know was Lydia’s family. Lydia has two younger siblings and David and Jaclyn were happy to find some friends that just happened to be brother and sister as well that they liked to play with. David immediately liked Lydia and after she went to the hospital there wasn’t a day that went by that we didn’t pray for her to get a new heart. Than after she got a new heart David waited and waited for her to come home to play again. I think he may be a little smitten.
Then last Sunday our church wore pink to celebrate the new heart and second chance at life that Lydia was given. As a family we went out and looked for some kind of pink clothes for everyone to wear, we found a shirt for Chris, Jaclyn and I had something pink but unfortunately we were unable to find anything pink for David. At first David was sad, but then he came up with a plan all on his own about what he would where instead of pink. He then asked if he could buy Lydia a pink (real) rose and a chocolate rose. He was really cute about how much planning he put into Sunday. He started calling last Sunday “Lydia’s Sunday”.
I wanted to share a picture of David and Lydia
Sunday, February 06, 2011
My "Hobby"
I haven't been able to sit at my computer much lately, and because of that I haven't been as active blogging lately. To make up for this, I thought I would share with you some of the things I have been doing these past few weeks.
Many of you know that I love to work in my kitchen. This love, along with having two children, has led me into making a lot of cakes.
It all started a few years ago with making a cake for my son's second birthday. Then it was all the children's birthdays. Pretty soon I was making cakes for holidays, seasonally, and more often than not, just to try new ideas and techniques. This brought me to the point where I was asked to do my first wedding cake this summer, which was certainly raising the stakes but it was also a lot of fun.
Since we have moved, it soon got out that I like to make cakes. It wasn't too long until someone asked if I sold any of my cakes. (It is amazing how things move forward without you expecting it at times!)
I have to admit that I have been playing around with the idea of starting a small business out of my home making and selling cakes, so this hasn't been completely out of the blue, but still...
So, now I am starting to sell cakes, but I still haven't had a chance to write up a business plan or even make business cards yet. I am also still working out a lot of crucial details such as how much I want to add into our already busy schedules or even how much I should be charging.
All that aside, here are some the cakes I have made this last little while.
If you want to see some of the other cakes I have done over the years. I have another blog called HobbyCakes where I have posted some pictures of some of the other cakes I have done.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Buzz Lightyear and Woody
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
quiet time
For the past few weeks both my kids have decided that naps weren't needed anymore. We play all morning and by the time lunch is over both David and Jaclyn will need a down time. Most days it means sitting on the couch and watching a movie while cuddling with a blanket other days it means reading a pile of books.
Today they chose to watch a princess movie together.
I think this is great picture because of how similar there positions are.
One of those days
Do you ever have one of those days where you know you should be getting stuff done but don't want too?
Well today is one of those days for me. As I sit here this morning I know that I have approximately 5 or 6 loads of laundry to do. I also have three cakes to design and write a list of what I need to make said three cakes.
I also should vacuum my house and finish the dishes....sigh.
As I write out my list of all the things I should be doing all I can think about is what I want to be doing.
If you ask me today is a perfect day to sit on the couch with a warm blanket and read a book!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Baptizing Toys
Tonight when David was having his bath he started to line up some of his bath toys. When I asked him what he was doing he responded with "I'm baptizing them". I asked him if he had heard about baptizing lately and he told me that he remembered it from family camp with our church (four months ago) and he thought his toys were ready to be baptized like Jesus talks about in the Bible.
Last September when we were at family camp I remember talking to David a little bit about what baptism was but it hasn't come up in conversation since then. So tonight when he brought up baptizing his toys he really surprised me. I think its kinda cool how my kid thinks about conversations and processes them long after the conversation is over.
He also remembers things like "maybe we can go to Toys R Us next time we are in town". Then he reminds me the next time we are in town even if it has been 1-2 weeks.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Just Like Mom
As I sit here getting ready to have my evening cup of tea I was looking through the photos I took this past week and came across these pictures of my kids having tea.
For those of you who know me you will know that I love a good cup of hot tea. I will drink almost any type of tea but my favorite is chai. In the past (and present) the kids like to take my mug after I have finished my tea and drink the last drops. On this day however I made them each there own cup of chai (well, a kids chai anyways: 85% milk and 15% chai.) They loved it!!
I have blogged about my kids and tea a few different times over the years once here and then again here and again here. But since this was their first actual cup of tea, it deserved its own post.
Both Chris and I are also big fans of Starbucks and most of the time when the kids see a Starbucks they ask if we are going there to get "mommy her tea". Sometimes we get the kids a cookie or a special "milk tea" (chocolate milk) there which they both love especially if it is in a Starbucks cup!
This afternoon we were out running some errands and I asked Jaclyn is there was anything else she wanted to see at the store we were at and her response was "no mommy, I need my Starbucks now". I just had to laugh, because she said it so seriously.
You could say that the kids growing up with me having a cup of tea around is starting to rub off on them.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Jaclyn, Barbies and Princess movies
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Octopus Cookies
Do you ever wake up thinking today would be a good day for something fun and different?
I do and today was one of those days. I decided today we would make Octopus Cookies!
Both David and Jaclyn were really excited to make them and so they both helped me in the kitchen with the mixing and the measuring and of course putting the eyes on (with some taste testing of course)
Here are a few of the finished product
I am going to go and cuddle with my kids now as we eat our octopus cookies and watch a movie.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Dog-pile!
Over the past few months the kids have started this new thing where they will dog-pile one another or
anyone else who happens to be on the floor.
anyone else who happens to be on the floor.
For example, when David is sitting on the floor reading a book, doing a puzzle or even playing with toys, Jaclyn will come up and lay on top of his back and pretend to sleep. Sometimes David does the same type of thing to Jaclyn but more often then not it is Jaclyn who "sleeps" on David.
The morning this was taken, David had just put together a large puzzle on the floor. After it was done, Jaclyn said to him "lay down so we can see who's bigger" and of course he agreed. Then as soon as he laid down she jumped down on him and pretended to sleep on him, sneaky little girl. I managed to get a picture of this interaction and then they both started to act even sillier because I was taking pictures!
The kids are so funny sometimes I just have to laugh!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Ice Cream Maker
One of the things that we got for Christmas was an Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Sorbet & Ice Cream Maker. All four of us were excited about getting it for different reasons. The kids now think that we can make ice cream anytime which means they can have ice cream cones all the time. They also wanted to learn how ice cream was made. Chris and I were looking forward to experimenting with different recipes and hopefully perfect a gelato recipe and blizzards (because who doesn't want a ice cream blizzard in the summer)
We made a lemon sorbet! It was really easy to make. The machine comes with a recipe book and most (if not all) of the recipes are really simple. As well as the machine is easy to put together, just one piece to fit into the middle and then a lid! Once all the ingredients were in the machine we turned it on and put the timer on for 25 minutes and waited. The kids stood on chairs almost the whole time watching it get thicker and turn into ice. David called me over many times to see how it changed and was starting to look like ice cream!
I didn't manage to get any pictures of the kids watching the us make our first batch of sorbet, however I did manage to get a picture of their first bite of it.
As you can see David thought it was sour but still really enjoyed it.
Jaclyn's facial impression was priceless. This was the first and only bit she ate of the sorbet it was just to sour for her.
I along with the rest of my family are looking forward to trying many new ice treat recipes. In fact today we bought some vanilla bean to make a vanilla bean gelato recipe that Chris found.....yummy!
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Toilet Tales
My oh so dependent daughter tonight had a bit of a fall.....into the toilet.
This evening when she was getting ready for her bath she striped down and sat on the toilet to pee.
Something I have always felt as a good practice for my kids to do before bath time, after all who wants to have a bath with pee.
OK back to my story, after Jaclyn was done peeing I asked her if she wanted some help off the toilet and into the bath. Her response was "I do it myself". Somehow, while getting off the toilet, her one foot slipped and she was in the toilet up to her chest.I have no idea how she managed it, even after watching it happen...
I should also tell you that within seconds I picked her up and put her into the bath. Once in the bath she said to me "mommy, I fell in the toilet, I have pee on me I need to wash it off".
So maybe the whole no pee in the bathtub plan didn't quite work this time...oh well.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Happy New Year!!
Yesterday afternoon David and I were reading a book about holidays, when it came to New Years he asked if that was the holiday we were just having.
Earlier that morning we had changed over our calendar and we had talked about starting a new year now.
He was even more curious why in the book they were wearing party hats and hanging a banner for
New Years and we hadn't done any yet today, it was 2pm in the afternoon.
So I looked at him and then to Chris and said well then we better get ready for our New Years party. We pulled out some paper and started making party hats and then we made a banner, blew up some balloons. Then we made a pudding pie (because you can't have a party without dessert), and of course, both had to change into "party outfits." Then, after we were all ready, the party began.
We played some fun music and danced around for quite a while until the kids started to get tired, so we had snacks in the living room and finished off our party with pudding pie and tacos. Both David and Jaclyn told us multiple times that this was the best New Years day party ever!!
We even managed to get a picture of Chris and I together
Happy New Year Everyone!!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Christmas Morning
This is a few days late however I still wanted to share a little about our Christmas morning this year.
Because the kids and I got sick the week of Christmas our morning started around 8:30am with the kids waking up and then we went to the living room.
Opening stockings
David was really excited for Jaclyn to open the gift that he picked out for her. It was a Toy Story Barbie!
David checking out the Toy Story 3 Lego that Jaclyn got him.
Jaclyn was so sick that we had to stop opening gifts for awhile so that she could just cuddle and both the kids rested for a bit before starting up again.
Here is Jaclyn at then end of the morning half sleeping on the couch watching their new Tinkerbell movie.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
my sick little girl
My little girl has had a long week. On Monday I saw the signs of a cold coming on and then by Tuesday it was full blown. On Tuesday evening after I put Jaclyn to bed she woke up within 30 minutes of falling asleep. She was crying and having a hard time breathing.
Over the next two hours she slept very little and was coughing and wheezing.
Jaclyn has had asthma for some time and when she is sick it acts up even more. At one point after I had settled her and she was sleeping again. I was sitting in her room with my hand on her chest praying over her when I felt her stop breathing three different times. I have never seen her do this before so I called my husband (who was at a meeting) and told him I needed to take Jaclyn into the hospital to find out why she was having difficulty breathing. He came straight home and my girlfriend arrived at the same time to sit with David.
After getting to the hospital we waited for about an hour and a half before we saw the doctor and by then her breathing had started to settle back to normal. After seeing the doctor we found out that she needed a stronger inhaler to add to the first inhaler that she was already on. Her asthma gets really bad when she is sick and right now with her cold her asthma is bad. I guess I should get use to with two kids with asthma.
I got her home that night and we started right away on the secondary inhaler which helped with her breathing almost immediately.
Unfortunately, this isn't the end of the story, because since Tuesday night, she has had a fever that has been getting worse over the last few days. Last night her fever got as high as 103.2 F. I managed to get her fever down to somewhere between 100 F and 101 F with a cool bath. Today when I was getting her ready for another bath she had a rash on her lower back and hips so I again took her into the doctor to get her checked out. It turns out that she now has a ear infection that is the cause of her high fevers. So now she is on a medication that should help her feel better soon.
Hopefully Jaclyn will be able feel better now that she is on the right medications and be able to enjoy Christmas in two days.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Toilet Training Up-Date
Well as I wrote in a previous post call Last Diaper I was starting down the path of potty training my daughter. I thought now was a good time to give an update on how it is going.
On the day that I started her training she was a little grumpy to start, which I thought was because she was just not in the mood to go on the toilet. It turned out that she was getting one of her two year molars. I was however not going to put her back in diapers. For one thing I like the idea of once they are in underwear then they don't go back into diapers and second I had No more diapers, so she had to wear underwear.
By the end of that first day I had done two loads of laundry and Jaclyn had not once gone on the toilet.
This in fact went on for the first 10 days of her toilet training.
One thing I do in the initial stages of toilet training is I set up a toilet station in my living room. I find that I am able to get them comfortable on the toilet while watching a movie or reading books and then relax enough to go. That just wasn't the case for Jaclyn. She would sit on her toilet for an entire movie and then get up without doing anything.
I would remind her to tell me when she has to go pee and I would take her again. But NO, what she would do is come into the kitchen after sitting on the toilet for over an hour (I should say that it was her choice not to get up off her toilet for a break during the movie, I always offered) and tell me that she was peeing. Yes not that she had to go pee but that she was in the process of peeing. So I would clean up my daughter, my floor and get ready for another load of laundry. Did I mention that this was on going for the first 10 days, not once did she go on the toilet.
There were points where I was really frustrated with how stubborn she was being. When I would talk to my mom about how Jaclyn was acting my mom would just laugh and say "she sounds just like you". Then my husband would say things like she does have control over her body. When she is ready she will be ready.
While I am HAPPY to say that she woke up one day and when I said "OK Jaclyn, its time to go on the toilet" she didn't argue instead she went right away and has been every day for the last 13 days. She has been accident free throughout the days and most of the nights.
Yes, I understand that most parents who read this will just shake their heads at me and say 10 days in nothing. But for me when my son was so easy this drove me crazy.
Yay for no more diapers!!
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