Update

Jerry... is loving school. Isn't he so cute? He has a field trip today to a farm where they get to milk a cow and feed goats. I'm sure he is having the time of his life. They do have a live bee hive there and he is terrified of bees, so we'll have to see how that part turns out.

Macey... is your typical 2 year old. She gets into everything!!! I love it though. If she wasn't doing it, we would be worried. Unfortunately, she does have an MRI scheduled for October 13th. She has an occasional head tilt (torticollis) and has shaky tendencies so after being checked by a PT and eye doctor, we went to the dreaded neurologist. Her symptoms are mild, but they want to do an MRI to rule out tumors UGH!!! and nerve damage UGH!!! The doctor said it is most likely a tic disorder (like torettes (which I can't spell)) that could become worse over time, but is benign. The poor kid, she can't catch a break. I will update after the MRI and let everyone know how things went.

Laney... is getting around. She started walking around her birthday and is getting around so well now. She and Macey have been playing so much now that she is mobile. They are so cute. I am pretty sure she weighs more than Macey now and is just a few inches shorter than her. She is thinning out now that she is walking though. Those lovable thunder thighs are shrinking.

Small Town

We live in a small bedroom community in the middle of corn fields. Most of the houses are small to average. I love it here and love the quaintness as well as the strange things that happen in a small town. Our police blotter is often something you would see on Jay Leno full of things like LOST BIKES, BARKING DOGS, and NOISY KIDS FOUND PLAYING NEAR PARK. Lately, I have been walking with the kids and have seen truly what a small town is about.

I have nicknamed the lady down the street as the cat lady (I know, creative huh) because every time I pass her house there is a pile of cats laying all over her small porch.

I have to use special caution when I go out to avoid the lady next door when she is wearing her thin nightgown, knee high stockings, curlers. I have encountered this and it isn't pretty, but it is definitely worse when she isn't wearing her teeth!!!

The house two doors down we have a couple who is constantly working on their lawn... always mowing, trimming shoveling, sculpting and blowing things around their yard or their neighbor's yard. Their lawn is beautiful. With that said, I have to share a photo of their yard this morning. They do this every once in a while and just FYI, they hang all the rest of their clothes in the backyard. I don't know if you can tell, but that is a rack with underwear on it in their front yard!

And this one across the street. Love the touch of satellite in the front yard.

UGH I hate School Fundraiser Season!

Okay, I am all for raising money for the school and for extras for the kids... however, we have received FOUR books for fundraising already and it is only the third week of school!!! This last one, the kids came home all excited about, so I must post it here in case anyone would be interested. There is food, gift wrap, candy and many other items to choose from. You can order online and give credit to: Jerry Craddock, R.C. Waters Elementary, Oak Harbor, Ohio.
Here is the website: allamericanfr.com
No pressure!!! Thanks for looking!

Also, his school also saves box tops for education and campbell's soup labels, so if you have any that you are going to throw out, we would appreciate them.

Geocaching

We found a new adventure and we love it. An old friend of mine turned me on to geocaching. I know, sounds fancy huh? It is so much fun. You go online and search your area and find "treasure" as Jerry puts it. You use GPS, clues on the website or maps and hunt for hidden items. We have only been able to look for two (which we couldn't find because of wasps), but we had so much fun in the process. Here is the website if you want to try it out: http://www.geocaching.com/.

Update

Macey
Went to the immunologist earlier this week and things are better. I am hoping that she will do a lot better this winter since the vaccines have finally done their job. She is now protected against 10 out of 14 strains of pneumonia. Also, her partially collapsed lung seems to be getting better. Her voice is much stronger and she is now talking a lot more. I am just hoping for a better winter this year. She is on the growth chart (barely).

Jerry
He is excited about school. He starts a week from today. At soccer practice last night, I learned he has the "mean teacher". I am fine with this haha. From what they said, she is good as long as the kids behave. I am sure Jerry will be fine. His teacher's name is Mrs. Jenson. He keeps saying it is Mrs. Jetson... I guess he watches too much boomerang. He also went to see the pulminologist over this summer. Like Macey, he has asthma. He got some controlling meds and is doing great. He has so much more energy now.

Laney
Is too darn cute. She is starting to walk around more and more each day. She is starting to get a sense of humor and laughs a lot. She is working on getting her 1 year molars in which hasn't been too fun. She is just 4 inches shorter than Macey and weighs slightly more. The girls are just too cute together.

Congratulations Jenna & Mikee

We all had a great time at J & M's wedding. I must say we enjoyed ourselves so much! We hope they are enjoying themselves on their honeymoon! Here are a couple of pictures of the kids. I will post more when I get some. Jerry was quite handsome and did a great job as a "ring security". Macey was not very cooperative, but she was darn cute... as usual.

The zoo and tee ball... gotta love summer!

Sorry for the sideways pictures. I uploaded them and realized you can't edit them in blogger. Oh well, you get the idea. The picture of the three kids on the bench is horrible, but the best we could get.

Thank you

Thank you to all of you who donated to the March of Dimes March for Babies. All together, we raised $285 to help premature babies. This year was fun, although Jerry, Macey and Laney had to stay home because they were sick. Our team had 9 walkers (if you include all the kids). We plan on walking again next year and hopefully everyone will be well this time.

March of Dimes

The March of Dimes walk for babies is just a couple weeks away. So please, help us out... your donation will be used by the March of Dimes to help fund research targeted at prevention of premature birth, and toward improving the care and long term outcomes for premature babies in the future. Research done in the past helped us bring our little miracle home. To donate, go to the website at http://www.marchforbabies.org/TeamMacey or contact us.

If you are interested in joining us, you can also sign up at http://www.marchforbabies.org/TeamMacey. Details are available there as well, in regards to date, time, and place.

Thank you! This is a cause that is obviously close to our heart.

Obsession

For those of you who are around me a lot, you know I am somewhat of an addict. For those who aren't, I have the proof to share with you. I will come out of my bargain stash closet (no room left in there anyway) and say I am a bargain/coupon shopper addict. This is good for the pocket book, but at times scares people. I will warn you, if you shop with me, you will not leave the store without me saying "I have a coupon for that" while digging through my giant coupon bag. My coupon bag is bigger than my diaper bag... and I have two in diapers!

I have to laugh at myself and this time, I feel I may have gone a bit overboard... but it was free!!! Anyway, here is my latest shopping binge. In all, I had 41 cookie mixes. They were all free after coupon at Kroger, so I could not help myself. I had to laugh when my bagger looked over at the other bagger as I was leaving and said "she paid $1.18 for all that stuff"... I must admit that was my fourth trip to Kroger and cookie mix was not the only thing I got for free... just the most exciting for Jerry.

Jerry looked at all the cookie mixes and said "OH MY GOSH!!!" and proceeded to tell me that we were going to make cookies whenever he wanted to. The good thing is that they don't expire until next year, so if you want to have a bake sale, I'll bring the cookies!!!

Back from the Doctor

Went to the immunologist today. Apparently Macey is not protected against pneumonia at all from the vaccine she received. The immunologist said more of the vaccine should do the trick. She will get a shot in the next few days, another shot in a month, then tested again in August. Hopefully this will work and she will not get pneumonia anymore. It is nice to have answers.

Pneumonia again??

Macey got really sick in March. She had a double ear infection and what they thought was pneumonia. We were in the Emergency room two times and our doctor's office two times. We avoided admitting her to the hospital this time!! After going to the pulminologist (lung doctor), we found out that the pneumonia diagnosis may have been wrong and she may have a partially collapsed lung. UGH!!! We will go back in a few months and get a new x-ray and see what it looks like, then she MAY have to have a CT scan to find out what is going on. They are trying to be careful with the amount of radiation she is receiving because she has had a lot of x-rays!!!

On another note, tomorrow we are taking her to an immunologist to find out why she gets SO sick. Every time she gets sick, it sets her back in weight and delays her development. She can't really afford either!! They were worried she may have a problem with her immune system and need monthly shots. I THINK her tests for that came back okay, but we are still going to see the new doctor. Hopefully we will get some answers.

Jerry is going to kindergarten round up in a couple of weeks. I can't believe my little guy will be in school soon! I think he will do really well. He is already getting the hang of spelling and reading simple words and he is really good at math. He amazes me. He may have a problem keeping his mouth shut in class though. Mr. Social butterfly.

Laney is getting her teeth, which makes her miserable. There has been a large amount of tylenol dispensed at our house lately. Otherwise, she is growing (same weight as macey) and eating lots of different things and sitting up on her own. She has changed quite a bit in the last few months. She hasn't really shown interest in crawling though. We will see. She may be a lazy one!!!

Baptism

Here are a few pictures from Laney's baptism and Macey's affirmation of baptism. Laney's godparents are Adam and Jenny (friends of ours) and Macey's godparents are Grandma & Grandpa Q. Macey was baptized in the NICU when she was born, so we wanted to have an official recognition with the adorable white dress and all!!! The other pictures are from February, but I thought they were cute. I need to get my newer pictures off my camera.

Back at the Hospital

Macey has been at the hospital since Wednesday. We have all had bug in the past few weeks, but hers has stuck around the longest. Wednesday, she started breathing funny, so off to the doctor we went. They sent us for a chest x-ray and low and behold... pneumonia...yuck!!! Anyway, we went to our usual hospital and they admitted her. She is getting better and hopefully will get to go home in the next few days. Today she was running around and being her typical self. It was good to see!

New Pictures

Well, we officially had our first battle of the germs this winter. We all got a nasty cough which is sticking around. Our house sounds like a smoker's convention. Poor little Macey has had a rough couple of weeks. She lost a pound...I was very sad. It took her almost 2 years to get to 21.5 pounds... she is currently 20 pounds. Here are some more current pictures of the girls.