Halloween 2012

The weekend before Halloween we had a spooky dinner party with The Jensen's.  Lisa, who is one amazing creative woman, made some fabulous Halloween themed food and decorations!  We ate dinner, watched a movie and carved pumpkins together.  I think we have carved pumpkins with them for the past 4 or 5 years!  Later we put all the kids to bed and watched a non animated movie :)  Love Halloween traditions!

Since I flew down to CA on Halloween, costume and trick-or-treating duties fell to John.  He came through big time!  He did a better job with the make up than I could have ever done! Jackson was a skeleton and Baron was a pirate.

Colby's Brain Surgery

Less than 2 weeks after John started back at Vestas and just a few days before Halloween we got a phone call from my dad at night.  He told me he was on the way to the hospital because they had just found a big tumor the size of a peach in Colby's brain.  WHAT???  That is something you NEVER expect to hear.  It was totally out of the blue, completely unexpected. This is a perfectly healthy and active almost 16 year old boy.  They weren't sure what type of tumor or much of anything that night, but would be doing an intense surgery the next morning.  That night was the most sleepless night I think I have ever had.  Between all the worrying and praying and still getting up to nurse a 4 month old a few times, I hardly slept at all.  I'm not even sure how I was able to get up, get ready and get Jackson to school the next morning.  I definitely felt like I was in a state of shock.  On the way home from dropping Jackson off, I stopped at my really close friend, Kim's house.  She knows me so well and could tell something was seriously wrong.  She sat me down and listened while I cried.  Then she did the best thing ever.  She hugged me and told me that I needed to go down to CA to be with my family and that she would watch my boys and take care of everything back here.  She even right then and there found and helped me buy my flight and make the needed phone calls to everyone.  I don't know what I would have done without her! I needed a steady mind and hand that morning to help me figure it all out.

The next day, Halloween, I found myself and Morgan on a flight to California.  My older sister Shannon picked me up from the airport and we went straight to the hospital where Colby was recovering from surgery from the day before.  The surgery went as best as it could have gone! When they got in there they discovered it was a cavernous angioma and not a tumor.  They were able to remove it all just in time.  He is expected to make a full recovery.  He came so close to dying, but he is going to be just fine, thanks to many prayers, fasting and divine intervention.  I won't go into too many details about what he had and his recovery here because while I was down there I started a blog for just that:

colbybaron.blogspot.com

I am so grateful I was able to go down there and be with him.  All of my siblings were able to make it down there within a day of his surgery and be together.  It was a difficult, yet miraculous time.  It was such a blessing to be able to witness the outpouring of love and support from all of our family and friends as well as the miracles that aided in his recovery.  I will never forget that week I spent down there.

Colby really enjoyed seeing Morgan in the hospital.  He brightened right up when he saw her and wanted to hold her, even if he had a hard time remembering her name at first.  This is my favorite picture I was able to capture during the visit:

We are all feeling so happy and blessed that Colby is now doing so well!!

Pumpkin Patch 2012

I love Fall in Oregon.  It is so beautiful!  We especially look forward every Fall to the pumpkin patches. They are always a blast and this year was no exception.  We went with the Janeways this year as in year's past and had a great time!

John's Job Situation

Just wanted to get this down in our family journal to remember and explain.  The company John works for, Vestas, is based out of Denmark.  The European economy crashed big time this last year and Vestas has not been doing so well ever since.  They have made a TON of cuts every few months.  Sept. 27th they cut a whole floor full of people- enough to have to lease out part of their brand new building they just renovated.  We were so grateful to make it through all the cuts the other months, especially with a baby coming soon and with all of John's health concerns and testing going on.  We got all our major medical bills and tests and hospital trips in just in time too.  On the 27th, John was finally let go.  His boss had fought hard to keep him, but the big heads in Denmark said someone in their department had to go (there is only 3 in the tax department- John has been there the least amount of time, so they axe fell on him).  We were obviously devastated and very freaked out right at first.  I could not stop shaking for a few hours.  John was heartbroken.  But then, we both felt that quite peace and confirmation that this was all for a reason and that everything was going to work out for the best, and soon.  After just 3 stressful weeks of job searching and interviewing, it all did work out, for the time being at least.  His former co-worker at Vestas decided just 2 weeks after they let John go, that she no longer wanted to stick around and went ahead and accepted a job offer from another company.  That very day she put in her 2 weeks notice, John's boss from Vestas called him up and told him he wanted him back.  He even offered him a promotion in both pay and title.  We both felt like this was a good solution for the here and now- probably not for long term, but to keep that paycheck coming in again for a little while until we can figure out what we really want for our family.  It has been a tremendous blessing to have those paychecks as well as the health insurance and we are very grateful things did indeed work out so quickly.  Unfortunately, John has worked far too many stressful hours since he has been back.  He is the only one doing all the grunt work that has to be done now.  He even had to work through most of our Christmas vacation in California. So, while we appreciate the work, we are hoping to make some positive changes for our family in the near future.  And that about sums it up!

Elementary School Shooting

I have so so so many blog posts to catch up on.  I plan to do that over our Christmas break when every minute of the day is not taken up by work and our crazy life.  But for now, I just had to document the happenings of today.

Today there was a shooting at an Elementary School of all places in Connecticut.  20 kids and 6 adults were shot and killed.  Horrifying. Absolutely horrifying.  There have been way too many shootings in general lately, including one at a mall just over the river here in Portland a few days ago.  It is scary the world we live in today. So much good, but also so so much evil surrounds us.  This shooting was by far one of the worst.  The gunman, a 20 year old man, went into the school and shot and killed the principal, the school psychologist, then went into the kindergarten and first grade rooms and killed a few teachers and 20 children. 26 victims in all.  He also shot and killed his mother at their home before hand, and killed himself at the school. Jackson is in kindergarten right now.  I have been so heart broken and emotional over this today, as I'm sure many parents and anyone with a heart has been over the past few hours.  I watched the news in horror and in tears and counted down the minutes until Jackson got home so I could hold him and Baron and Morgan tight.  I cannot even imagine the pain and shock the parents of the victims are going through.  It is 10 days before Christmas.  There will be way too many unopened presents under those families trees and a huge void in their lives during the holidays.

The boys had a Dr. appointment today for their 4 and 6 year old checkups.  I have been feeling extremely overwhelmed lately with all of Baron's food allergy issues.  It has increased our monthly expenses drastically with all the special and expensive cheeses, milks, GF bread and special vitamins and pro-biotics.  There are days where I am just at a loss on how to keep up on it all with such a busy life.  After the shootings today though, I feel so blessed to have my children still here with me, that I will gladly take on any challenge they may come with! We were at Costco this afternoon and there was a kind lady we kept bumping into around the store and checked out right behind.  Then as we got to our car, we noticed she was parked right next to us as well! I laughed and made a funny remark about her not being able to get rid of us.  She responded that it was a pleasure to see such a happy cute little family.  She told me how good the boys seemed to be and how happy of a mom I was around them.  She then offered to take my cart back and we exchanged Holiday Greetings.  I am usually so sensitive about how others perceive me as a mom because of my age.  I get tired of the whole, "Who's kids are those?  Yours?? But you look so young!"  It was such a joy to have this women, a mother of a now 24 year old, share her insight to what we really looked like together.  She never once mentioned my age or questioned my ability therefore to be in charge of these 3 young kids. What she saw was our happiness and that we have it together just fine.  I needed that today.  It reminded me how blessed I am to be a mother and how much joy it brings me each and everyday to learn and grow and be together.

I am so grateful for all that I have! I know I hugged my whole family tight tonight as I am sure many others around the country have as well.  May the Lord comfort and bless those families affected by the shootings today. I hope they can find peace and feel of the Lord's love for their sweet children and loved ones.  And may all these crazy shootings stop.  I want my children to feel safe in this world!!


Cannot get enough of this little blue eyed bug

Or this smoothie mustache/bearded face

And this excited big boy

 who drew me this the other day, of which I am going to frame

And can't forget this good looking guy who's been working his buns off for us!

LOVE THEM ALL!!

First Soccer Team

This Fall I officially became a soccer mom!  Jackson's had his first real soccer season.  He's done a few of the classes at the local parks and rec department previously, but since he is now school-age, we decided to sign him up for the real deal!  It was a short (due to a few rained out games) but fun season! Jackson has always been a sports guy, just like his mom and dad, so he was in heaven.  He gets so into the games and absolutely loves every minute.  We think he is going to be a good goalie or defensive player.  He had some pretty sweet goal blocks and played some intense defense the whole season long.  He will be the perfect goalie with his big, but fast hands and height.  We are looking foward to the next season already!

 Jackson was #8, just like his Uncle Colby.  His team was the Aloha Dragons.

Jackson and his buddy Brayden

The cheer squad on the sidelines:

Baron and his buddy Asher

Our First Kindergartener!!!

I can't believe we have a kindergartener! I feel like Jackson was just born a few years ago- not enough time for him to now be in school, but it has really happened.  My first born has begun his school years and BOY is he excited!! He had absolutely no fears or qualms about starting school.  In fact, he was bummed it was only going to be 2 1/2 hours long each day.  As his parents, we were just as excited for him to go! Of course we had some reservations about all the new exposure to the world that we wouldn't be able to control as easily, but I am not one to blubber and cry that my baby is growing up.  I didn't think I would cry at all since he would only be gone a few hours each day and I did NOT break down crying his first day of school.  What got to me was when John gave him his first father's blessing the night before.  That's when it hit me how fast this kid is growing.  I have truly enjoyed having him with me almost 24/7 as a helper and buddy for the past 5 years.  I know that he is going to do great things with his life though and will excel in school with his love for learning and always trying to be older than he is =)