MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Santa was good to all, Katie loved her Dora vanity (good experience if she wants to work in an Arizona hair salon...didn't you always want to learn the spanish word for crimper?)

We spent Christmas day at Nana and Papa's with the clan...they got so much there it seemed that Santa came twice!
Andy didn't really care about opening presents, once he found his cars racers and his train, he was content. My pictures of Andy didnt turn out great as it was so bright in that room...but here's a little video of them both..

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Yes, Yes I am a bad parent for wrapping my child's feet in plastic bags! You will be happy to know we got Katie snowboots saturday night....she now can play in style!
Kare n: )

IT'S SNOWING!!!!

Our first real snowstorm! Of course it is on a weekend we have 3 holiday parties to attend, isn't that always the way? Andy and Katie experienced fun in the snow for the first time...Katie and Andy even got their first sled ride! And, of course, Jeff gets to shovel. Dang, I wanted to wrap that shovel up for a christmas present! Enjoy the warmth all you Phoenix people!

Karen

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Here's our bathroom boogie. Katie is providing the drums in the background.....Sorry it's sideways I changed it but it keeps turning up like this....

Here's some halloween pictures..

We went to our cleft team appointment at St Louis Children's hospital on friday. It was awesome to see everyone on a team at once and to have all concerns that are possible addressed in one morning. We saw dentistry, plastic surgery, psychology, audiology, ent, and speech. The team seems great, the plastic surgeon is recommending the same thing our PS did in phoenix, a surgery before kindergarten to revise the lip surgery and corrective surgery on the nose. The speech told us we needed to be a lot more dumb around andy and make him work to make sounds for what he wants. She said if he wasn't making p and b sounds in a few months then we need to do more regular therapy. And to encourage him to make sounds with all requests, not just signs and definately not just pointing (his favorite thing to do is point and say uuuhhh? when he wants something). He communicates very well, just not with words. The audiologist said that Andy has sufficient hearing in at least one ear, he wouldnt tolerate testing to evaluate each ear. But they said that was typical for his age.
So everything was good, nothing too exciting right now, just work on the speech. It's hard not to respond in the way that we are used to....because he is able to make his needs known, we really have to stop and think not to respond to his pointing.
The other exciting thing right now is that Andy came down with pneumonia....and asthma like symptoms. The fun never ends....
Must go, children tearing up the house..... :)
KAren

Sharing the results of our professional pictures....



Pretty Cute, eh?
Karen

Fun with Grandparents!!!

Grandma C came into town to see the kids and the new house. We had a great time! Of course our camera is still being fixed (I think I can pick it up tomorrow...) so I have no pics with Grandma C, but thankfully she took some cute pics!

Katie went on her first fishing outing with Papa
Katie showing her artistic side!
Andy has decided that he can do ANYTHING his sister can....

Just a cutie!

That's all, things are going well here, kids are doing great. Nothing worth rambling about, I'll just let the pics show you how things are...

Karen : )

This is Andy's smile for ANY camera. Precious, isnt it! : )

The childproofing thing isn't going well. Andy figured out if he bangs the door really hard when it is open the child proof doorknobs come off. Nice.

Also, Andy made another attempt at escape. The gate didn't get fully latched when my sister was watching them, and again, andy got into the garage to play with Daddy's tools. A broom ended up in the street so I know he made it out there too.

Counting the grey hairs.....

Karen

Happy Birthday Katie!!!!!
The clan..Andy, Claire, Katie and Rachel

Andy posing for pictures (What a ham!)
Andy being a cheerleader

It's hard to believe she's three. But then again, I have a hard time remembering life without her. Funny how that is.

Katie had a princess birthday party. Complete with princess dresses, tiaras, hair, wands, necklaces, shoes and all everything else a princess could want.

It was a small affair, only my family with her two cousins. But that was enough. Actually at times it was pretty chaotic. Andy tends to play on his own right now, he really entertains himself well. He entertains himself so well that no one noticed that he opened the door to the garage all by himself and was playing with daddy's tools and in the street out on the side of our house. I really don't know how long he was out there and I dont wnat to think about it too much. The next day we got child proof coverings on the door knobs. Phew he is going to be a handful.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, I still don' t have my camera back. My patience is wearing thin...we had to use a crappy disposable camera.

Everything else is going fine...job is good, Jeff is travelling a whole lot, but it isnt so bad with family around. Andy's first cleft team appt is in the middle of october, it will be exciting to meet his new team at St Louis Children's hospital. I am really looking forward to the speech evaluation as all he is saying now is mama and UH UH (for uh-oh) and EEE for please. He is signing well so I know he understands, and he insists on me labeling everything he plays with . He holds out a toy and says uh uh uh until I say "train". Boy he has me trained well...

Thanks for checking in!

Karen

So sorry all you non Illinois people....
I have been so busy! And my camera is still broken (but being fixed) so I havent had any pics to post. That's what usually keeps me posting.
The trip across country was fine. Leaving the house was not. We both freaked out when we left. We were exhausted, hungry and over emotional. Was not pretty. We drove 3 days, had some nice kid free quiet time.... : )
We stayed with my parents for a week until the house closed. Jeff traveled for work a bit to lessen the family overload. I shopped that week. I bought a TV, a fridge, a car, a bedroom set for Katie.....the list goes on and on. My credit cards are not happy now....
The house closed and the pods showed up, late of course, but they showed. It was so nice having family to move us in. Jeff and I did the whole thing ourselves on the move out, and it was very exhausting.
It has taken a week, but the kids are adjusting well. Katie is sooo excited she gets to see her cousins at daycare. I got to go to an extended family bar crawl....it may sound silly but I was so happy I wanted to cry. I finally get to attend the family events that I used to hear about on the phone. For thoes of you who don't know, I have a HUGE and very fun extended family.
Jeff's birthday was sunday and I had my family over to celebrate. Very low key....was nice to have family around.
I met the OT/PT gals I am going to work with on monay and I officially start next tuesday. They seem like a fun bunch!
Other than the fact that it's hotter here than in phoenix, things have gone really well. I will post pics of the kids/house when I borrow my mom's camera this weekend.
Oh yeah...the big news... OUR HOUSE SOLD! It closed yesterday. What a load off our shoulders! Things just seem to be going our way right now...which is really really nice!
So sorry for the lapse in communication, I am sure you all will understand!
Karen

I was asked to post a link for our new house...here it is.
http://www.lauschkerealestate.com/listings/4610LevisLane.htm
Everyone is good here. We are having a garage sale this weekend to try to get rid of some of the stuff we don't want to move. It would be really nice if we could sell the stuff, car and house all in one weekend...
One can dream, right?
We lowered our house price drastically to try to sell it before we leave. We really don't want the responsiblity of 2 houses. We'll see how the traffic goes with the lower price.
My camera is on the fritz so no new pictures or videos. So sorry.
Andy's new thing is that he loves to push his plane all over the house. It's really cute, but you'll have to take my word for it : ).
Thanks for checking in!
Karen

Hi all...
Just a quick post to let everyone know that we are officially moving to IL the last week in July. I got a great job that is exactly what I do here with flexiblity and great pay. So we bought a house. I know I said that we were going to wait, but we figured that I will make easily enough to cover the cost of the extra mortgage, but we will have to be a little frugal for a while.
We just really really really (really) want to sell this house. I am trying to be patient but it's really hard.
Please send all of your good thoughts and prayers to us selling this house. And if anyone has a good back they want to share, we will be packing July 25th or so.... : )
Karen

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!!!!!

Andy had a great birthday! Katie and mommy made a cake, Andy had his favorite mashed potatoes for dinnner, and then then PRESENTS!

By far the favorite of Andy AND Katie was the ride-on plane!

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Ok...Here's some new Andy videos....

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Had to share this....

So ask and you shall receive. My great friend Angie sent me a St. Jospeh's.... either she wants me to move back really bad or just wants to see me looking silly! : )

So we buried it!

We'll keep you posted....

Karen

HAPPY (BELATED) EASTER!

So I'm a little behind on the easter pics. Surpise, suprise! We had a nice easter, even though Andy was sick with a stomach bug AND a fever/head cold. I had to take the whole week off work because Andy was so sick. And of course, I got sick last week but had to work through it because I took the last week off, and there's only a few weeks of school left.....

No serious bites on the house yet. No one has been through in over 2 weeks. In the moment of sick kids and sick me, I didnt mind too much. But now I'm starting to get worried. I'm thinking of burying St. Joseph upside down like the supersition says. But the logical, more serious side of me can't get over how rediculous that is. So I haven't yet. But if anyone happens to have a St. Joseph they aren't using.....

k...so I have been playing with the video thing, and I didnt want to neglect Katie. But hers turned out sideways. Oh well, it's still cute....

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I have been inspired by my friend, Ann to try the video thing. PLEASE ignore my annoying voice...Andy is just too cute!

Don't you just love the hairdo?
Andy watching Tom & Jerry

The Princess...

So my mom bugged me today that people want to still see pictures of the kids even though we have nothing going on. Like I have nothing better to do than post pictures!! : )

Life is good here. Lots of giggles, lots of snots(the kids keep trading colds) and lots of noise. Andy still is stuck on MAMA and variations of the word...AAM, AMA, MA, MAMAMAMAMA. Dada isn't happy about this.

He's eating well, still not so sure about all the funny textures of food. But he will try most anything. Last night he ate asparagus. But spit the peaches out of his yogurt. Wierd child. He loves cheerios. Sometimes I just drop a handful on the small table and let him and katie and the dog go at it!

Life has been really busy lately, if you don't know yet, we put our house on the market so we could move back to St. Louis. Jeff's boss finally said he could do the same job there as he is here (he works out of the house) and I can find work easily wherever I go. So now all we have to do is sell the dang house! We already had 3 people through in less than a week so I can't complain about the traffic! Hopefully we will get a contract in the next month or so, and we can move after school is out here! Let me just let you all know, selling a house with 2 kids under 3 is not an easy feat. There must be a ghost who travels around and dumps toys out and puts big smudgy handprints on the windows. And we sent the dog to a friend's house so now I have to clean the floor when the kids throw stuff there. Fun!

Other than that, things are good. Andy has FINALLY figured out the sleep thing. He is putting himself to sleep at all naps and nightime. And he's sleeping 10hrs at night. But I'm sure he will forget how once he gets a new tooth....speaking of....we are wondering if he is going to only have 2 teeth for the rest of his life!!??! But they are cute teeth....

TROUBLE!!!

That's the only word that describes Andy today....Into EVERYTHING!

We had his post-op appointment today and things went fine...His mouth looks great but it could take another 3 weeks for the stitches to dissolve. Some of them are hanging down and they seem to irritate him when he eats. He keeps pushing his tongue out when food gets in his mouth and grabbing the food. I think he's trying to get the hanging sutures out.

Thankfully we are over a huge hump! Now we just get to be normal (whatever that is....)

HOORAY FOR CHEERIOS!

We are finally ok'd for real food again. We made it the entire 2 weeks. It got rough, as Andy decided it was more fun to eat than it was to sleep. So we got tough and are working on him not eating at night.

He had his 9 month appointment thursday. He got a few shots but otherwise uneventful. He weighs 19 lbs 3 oz. Apparently the surgery didn't have much effect on his weight gain. : )