April In The Burbs

Is this normal? When pregnant with Johnny? I SWORE I only wanted one. When he was 3 months old, I decided then that we would have another. Then I was sure we were done after Dottie. I keep saying that we are done, but in my heart I feel like I could and want to continue having more. Is it hormones, or baby fever or something? How can I be fully sure I am done? Realistically, I am busier than I've ever been in my entire life, and with Dottie's medical needs, I can't imagine being a really good mother to more at this time in my life. Does anyone else struggle with being done having babies? 🏡💘😔  

Last week Johnny, Nana and I had the pleasure of visiting Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls, Tx which is about an hour outside of Austin.  Johnny took to strawberry picking like he'd been doing it all his life, and we had so much fun!  Sweet Berry Farms provide you with a cardboard basket for .50 to put your picked strawberries in, and once you've finished picking you pay for your berries by the pound.  We went mainly for the experience, not the berries, but we came home with a little over a pound of berries for $4.  Sweet Berry Farm also offer pumpkin picking in the Fall, among other fruits and veggies depending on the season.  There's also tons of activities for your little ones like feeding the goats, scarecrow making, flower picking and hayrides in the Fall, among tons of other family friendly things.  Follow them on Facebook for up to the minute updates on the weather, crop and mud conditions. They're absolutely great about keeping on top of those upda...

I've recently (as of last week) learned that most of her specialists believe that Dottie has an undiagnosed genetic disorder. Obviously this has been heartbreaking news to me.  A microarray was ran on her in the NICU, which is a genetic that looks for any obvious genetic abnormalities like Down Syndrome, which she doesn't have, and that microarray came back normal.  At that point I thought that we were out of the woods concerning a genetic disorder, and I've come to find out that we are not.  Her geneticist wants to run a couple of tests that she believes our insurance will pay for (still pending, so it's not 100% they will be covered), but the test her geneticist REALLY wants to run is the most detailed one that can be done. The microarray basically told us that Dottie has all of the correct books or genes, the test insurance won't cover looks at the sentences in those books, so to speak. This test is not currently covered by health insurance, and runs about 8-10 g...

Hey guys! This is something I've been wanting to do for a while, so I thought I just share a tiny little home project with you. I wanted to turn this very awesome Dr Pepper metal cooler into a planter to go with our vintage themed furniture on our front porch. So here's how I did it. 1. First I gathered all of my supplies.  My vintage a Dr Pepper metal cooler, a piece  of wood that I had Lowe's cut up for me at various links, and my plants that I just bought the garden center at Walmart. 2. I took the various lengths of wood and layered them inside of the metal cooler to lift the pots that the plants are in.  And that's pretty much it!  I did end up realizing that I needed more wood to make the base inside the cooler a bit more stable. I bought a piece of wood for about $2.17 at Lowes and had them cut it for me - super cheap!     

Johnny, Nana and I were invited to go see  Sesame Street Live "Let's Dance"  today at the Frank Erwin Center here in Austin, and you know we couldn't pass that up!  The show was so great, all of our favorites were there! Elmo, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, The Count and a host of others.  The coolest thing about the show, is that you are completely encouraged to get up out of your seat and dance, dance, dance! Several of the characters even come down off the stage to dance with you and your littles, who could imagine a better time!? This show is great for all ages. I can guarantee that you will find yourself dancing and singing along with your kiddos. Dancing is a great physical activity for kids and adults, and it's fun - that's what I call a win-win.  Johnny loved the show and had a great time dancing and singing along with some of his favorite songs like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Wheels On The Bus".  Be sure to check out Sesame Street Live ...

One of the biggest changes of having Dorothy home from the hospital, has been all of her at home therapy sessions. Mondays and Wednesdays Sally who is an occupational therapist comes to work with Dorothy.  Dottie hugging up Peggy, her PT.  Tuesdays and Wednesdays Peggy, our physical therapist, comes to work with her. Working on her rolling!  And Marina, who is our speech therapist,  is working on getting Dottieto eat orally instead of 100% via her G-tube, comes on Fridays. Then you add in all of Dotties specialist appointments like her G.I. specialist, her Endo specialist, her surgical specialist, and regular pediatrician appointments and you have one busy girl! We are hopeful that as she gets older, a few of these things will drop off. Eventually one day she will probably eat orally completely, so will no longer have to worry about her surgical specialist or speech therapy.  Until then, we continue to be two busy ladies and I actually enjoy our hectic schedule ...

Every year around spring time here in Texas, it's a tradition for families to take pictures in huge fields filled with our state flower, the Bluebonnet. Darren and I did this together the first year that we had our dog Sailor, and I took pictures of John last year in the bluebonnets and this year it was all of us except for Sailor.  Since our little family is 100% complete, I'd really love to get bluebonnet pictures from here on out every year with ourselves and our babies.  Here are a few of my favorites from this year. Does your family have any fun spring time traditions?      

  Since this is John's second birthday week, we're taking him to do several fun things on the days that our nurse is here to watch Dorothy.  Today we took him to the Austin Zoo, which is actually a sanctuary for a injured and animals and surrendered animals.  1. Wear comfortable walking shoes. The paths are not paved and are mostly large gravel and some are slopes, so you need comfortable and sturdy shoes. 2. Pack and bring your lunch and snacks. The zoo actually encourages you to bring your own food which is awesome and there are plenty of handwashing stations near the picnic area to use before and after lunch. 3. Enjoy the free range peacocks, but I would keep your distance from the roosters. One of them thought John was holding food in his hand (which was actually a rock), and flew up to get John. Thankfully he was not injured but I just thought I'd let you guys know to be aware of the roosters LOL. 4. When you get tired of walking, take the train ride! It's a fun l...