Our amazing child!

She continues to amaze me! Man I love this girl!

Kalyssa slept great last night! I was completely surprised because from the time she was put out at around 10 am yesterday until 4 pm she was awake for maybe a compbined total of an hour. Then at 7:45 she asked to go to bed and slept straight through until a little after 6 am. That's her usual time to wake up, much to my chagrin as I am not a morning person by nature. I'm having to learn to be though. Today she's awake, alert, happy but not rambuncious at all. She's having a jammie day and watching movies and playing paper dolls. She great about not rubbing her eyes, even though she really, really wants to. She goes and gets a cold, wet wash cloth all by herself whenever her eyes feel too itchy. I would totally do it for her since I have willingly become her slave for the day but she's being really independant for the most part today. I've offered her Tylenol like the doctor suggested but she insists that she doesn't need it. I'm truly amazed with how grown-up and responsible she's being. Her mood is so good too! Lately we've been having some issues with rudeness and attitude (mainly just with us - she's always polite to others) but today she is pleasant and polite and completely wonderful! Not one moment of trouble from her at all! It's incredible!

It's probably too much to hope that she stay this way for the rest of forever so I'm just going to gobble up every ounce of this perfect child that I can while it lasts!

Excuse me now ... it's time to go back to my role as voluntary slave. The princess must be hungry by now. :o) (At least I hope so ... she hasn't eaten a whole lot yet.) Maybe a mini tea party might be in order.

So proud of our girl!

Well, we're home! (Actually we've been home for a couple of hours ... sorry for the delay, I know some of you who aren't on facebook have been waiting. And why aren't you on facebook? You'd get updates much more frequently/quickly if you were! ;-) )

Kalyssa was AMAZING! She truly was! And it's not just her parents who think so. She had all the staff smiling and saying what a brave and sweet girl she is. We could tell she was a little bit "off" because she was quieter than usual. Normally she's a non-stop talker but today there were a few breaths taken between sentences. Not much different but enough that we could tell she was a little nervous.

While we were in the pre-op room we played a whole bunch of Crazy 8's, Slap Jack and we had started a game of Go Fish. She made sure to tell the surgeon that she didn't get to finish her game so I guess we'll have to do that soon. :-) She was very brave when they took her to the operating room. I cried. But only a little. And she didn't see me do it. That was really hard! She definitely did better than I/we did! We are SO proud of her!

As soon as she woke up in recovery she looked at the nurse and very sweetly said, "Hi." This took the nurse by surprise, I guess. She's used to cranky or scared kids, rightfully so. When we were brought to her she was already awake and cuddling on the nurse's lap. It was a very sweet little sight. I snatched her up pretty quick though. I couldn't bear to have her out of my arms for one more second! She still had the IV in but she was very brave when they took it out. Not even a wince out of her.

They had given her some sort of medicinal cocktail through her IV with pain medicine and something to take away any nausea. It also makes her sleepy. She slept the entire 2 hour drive home (including a stop at Culver's. Have you ever tried them? Sinful!) She woke up long enough to give hugs to Mema and Kaden and eat a piece of toast and then off to La-La Land again ... where she remains. I'm wondering how long this will last actually. She's been asleep most of the day since 10 am. It's nice but is tonight going to be sleepless? I wonder!

As far as the surgery goes ... she remembers quite a bit of her experience while she was awake. They had told us she probably wouldn't remember anything. She remembers the OR and the flavor of the gas they put her out with (bubblegum), everything. No crying though. She didn't feel so great after but a cracker and some apple juice helped that. She's mostly just tired. Her eye's are not nearly as swollen as I expected them to be. Just a tad bit puffy on the lids. The inside corners when her eyes are open are bright red. We expected at least that. Although I thought more of her eyes would be red. We haven't tried putting the ointment in her eyes yet, but only because they've been closed all day. I expect she'll handle that like everything else ... like a champ!

Now we wait and see. We can expect to still see some drifting of her eye/s because her brain doesn't know how to make her eyes work together so it needs to relearn how to do it. She might have to patch again, but maybe not. We'll probably have to get her a different prescription for her glasses. We'll know more after our follow-up appointment. I'll be calling them soon to schedule that for in a week or two.

Thank you so much for your prayers! They were felt! And they are definitely appreciated! We're still praying that it worked perfectly but I'm afraid to get my hopes up. I'm sure this road to recovery has some more bends in it. Hopefully not too many more though. :o)

Hugs to all!

Eye Surgery for my little girl ...

I was reminded today how rude I was to not tell everyone (well, at least my sister) that our sweet little girl is going in for eye muscle surgery tomorrow morning. I'm not sure how it escaped my mind to blog about it because we can certainly use the prayers. It's a completely routine surgery and it'll be done quickly ... that's not what we're worried about. Kalyssa is being extremely brave as well so we're not worried about that either. (Actually she's excited about it because it means she won't need to wear a patch anymore.) Basically, KC and I are a little bit on the over-protective side. I know! That doesn't sound like us at all! LOL! We've left our kids with a very select few people (mostly family) and nobody other than the two of us have ever driven them anywhere. (Well, my mom and sister did once but I was in the car - half blind and sick as a dog but I was still there.) So the hardest part of this whole ordeal is handing over our baby, whom we waited so long for to begin with, to complete strangers with drugs and very sharp instruments. Don't get me wrong ... we are a very faithful, God loving family and we KNOW He's got this. That brings us a lot of comfort but it's still hard, ya know.

On another level, there is no guarantee that she won't need another surgery. This one has to work absolutely, completely perfectly in order to avoid another one. Who wants to hand over their child once, much less two or three times? I don't know anyone who would raise their hands to that. I certainly don't! And this one surgery is going to cost us more than $3,000. The likelihood of a second surgery taking place prior to our deductible resetting to zero would be a miracle. In this troubled economy, well, you get the picture I'm sure. So I'm going to beg you for prayers that this surgery will be the 100%, absolutely, completely perfect surgery we need it to be. And while you're praying could you please add that Kalyssa not catch this nasty cold that KC and I both have? We sure would appreciate it!

So this is how this whole thing is going down ...

• KC, Kalyssa and I will be leaving this evening after dinner to head to the big city and stay with family. Kaden is being lovingly watched after by Mema (KC's mom - thank you so much Susan!) and I expect they will have a fantastic time together, just the two of them!
• We need to check Kalyssa in to the pediatric out-patient surgery center (we've heard great things about this facility and their staff/anesthesiologists) by 7:45 in the morning. She can't eat or drink anything after midnight tonight.
• There will be lots of sitting around, snuggling, comforting, card games, etc. for approximately 2 hours.
• At 9:45(ish) she'll be taken from us to the OR. They will put her out with gas. They may or may not need to give her an IV. If they do they will take it out before she wakes up. Surgery will be performed on both of her eyes and it's expected to take 15-20 minutes. (Just in case you're wondering, because we did, they will work from the front of her eyes, pulling back her eyelids. It's not nearly as scary as my preinformed brain was making it out to be.) Her surgeon has performed over 6000 of these surgeries and we're very comfortable with him.
• After her surgery she will be taken to recovery where we will be waiting for her. She will not have patches on her eyes (our doctor doesn't do that because it's very scary for the children.) We will be there for about 30 minutes or so while she recovers. (Longer if necessary.) Then we will make the 1 1/2 hour drive home with me sitting in the back holding a barf bucket and Kalyssa's hand and feeding her apple juice and crackers to her little hearts content.
• We expect her to have very red eyes for 2-3 weeks. Her eyelids will be pretty swollen for a couple of days and we'll have to put an ointment in her eyes 3 times a day for a little while. We'll have a follow-up appointment with her doctor in about a week, I think.

So there you go. That's the story and you have all been update. Better late than never, right?

Thanks for the prayers! They are felt and greatly appreciated!!

Givaway

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I DID IT!!!

If you actually read my last post (instead of scanning photos ... it's perfectly okay if you do, btw) then you already know that I made myself a goal of running in a 5k race before I turn 40. Well, here's the proof ... I DID IT!!! I wasn't fast by any stretch of the imagination but I ran the whole way! And it felt amazing! Just the sense of accomplishment alone was pretty cool but to have such wonderful friends running with me really made it fun and special! Thanks girls for running with me! I think I am now addicted. I really must have gone bonkers because not only am I planning on running in 2 more 5k races (before I'm 40) but now I'm training for a 10k in January! Yup ... totally nuts! And the big Pat Tillman run (4.2 miles starting & finishing on the 42 yard line of Sun Devil Stadium) is also on the agenda in April! See ... told ya ... crazy, bonkers, nuts ... you pick the adjective!)

Here's me and my girlfriends before the race. It was the first race ever for us girls in white. We felt a little bit like we were going to the first day of school. Nervous and excited all at the same time. Lauren, the one in pink, is totally awesome! This isn't her first race. She came in 2nd in her age class and 13th overall. You ROCK Lauren! Beckie & Jessica both came in 4th in their age classes. So proud of you girls!


Here we are at the start. Lauren is already way ahead! LOL!
And here I am coming in at the finish line. I was 10th in my age group (but to my defense, it was the largest group. If I had already turned 40 I would have been first by 20 minutes!) At least I wasn't last.
I probably shouldn't mention that a 70 year old speed walker came in ahead of me by a full second. Now I can shoot for leaving him in the dust next time! LOL!

P.S. ...

As you can see ... I used up some of that non-existent free time to update the look of the blog. Hope you like it!

The pictures in the header were taken earlier this month when I took the kids to a park to play. Aren't they just so stinkin' cute???? (You know you have to say yes ... right?) ;-)

Kalyssa's First Day of School Photos! ... Finally!

I know! I know! I'm falling down on the blogging job! It's been months of practically nothing! So sorry! And yes, I am aware that my blog header is terribly outdated! I think that picture was taken almost 2 years ago! How sad is that? It's on my list of things to do ... in all my spare time! :o)

Speaking of spare time ... you'd think I'd have some now that Kalyssa is in school, wouldn't you? But alas ... I actually feel like I have less. You see, she's not home to entertain the little boy so that means I need to do it. And she's only in school half day so I feel like I drop her off and then I have to turn right around and pick her up again. Next year I should have more free time since Kaden will be in preschool 3 mornings a week. For now it's just the two of us in the mornings.

I have been trying to fill my mornings up training for a 5k though! About 2 years ago a doctor told me I'd never run again. Well, I was never a runner in the first place but that kind of irked me a little bit. So last year I had my back surgery (and wrist surgery earlier this year) and I've been feeling more capable of doing things again. I'm not pain free by any stretch of the imagination but at least vacuuming the house doesn't end up with 3 days in bed afterward anymore. So I got the crazy idea that I would try to run a 5k by the time I turn 40. I will tell you that it is not coming easy to me at all. And the heat and I do not get along either. So progress has been very slow but there is progress. I'm slow but I can now run 2.4 of the 3.1 miles in a single stretch! As hard as it is I've been really committed to it and getting a run in 3-5 days a week since mid-June. I've lost between 8-10 pounds and a full pant size so that is definitely helping to keep me motivated! I turn 40 in December and there are two races in the area before then. If the heat keeps up I might have a hard time making the one in September but I shouldn't have any trouble being ready for the race on December 4th! I will reach my goal! And hopefully by then I will actually learn to like this running thing. Right now we're more aquaintances then friends. :o) But I'm getting there and I feel great!

Now, on to the info you actually came here to see/read! Kalyssa absolutely LOVES Kindergarten! She came home from the school open house (the Friday before school started on the 9th) saying, "I am so excited to learn!" Not excited to meet new friends or have fun, but excited to learn! That was seriously a proud Mommy (and Daddy) moment! We really hope and pray that excitement lives on in her for many many years to come! Everyday she comes home ready to do her homework and frequently I catch her being the teacher to her classroom (that consists of only her brother as the student.) I love getting a glimpse into her school day while she plays. So far we are very happy with her and her teachers and from what I've heard they love her too!

Without further ado ... here is a little parade of photos from her first day!

And I'd like to give serious props to my awesome husband! He is an amazing Dad! He came to the Open House with us and he went in to work late this first day so he could be there to watch this big moment in her life! He's a very loving, fun & involved Dad with his kids! (He even makes them breakfast most every morning!) And he gives me a bunch of nights every month to get out with my girlfriends too! And (get this ... you won't believe it!) he volunteers in our church classrooms (usually the 3 year old rooms but last week it was holding babies) on Sundays and he comes to watch kids for my Mom's group twice a month! Seriously! The man is amazing! And I want him to know that I notice it all and appreciate every bit of it! Love you Honey!!!

Blessings!

KC, Shari, Kalyssa & Kaden

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Our little girl ...

Her first graduation! Pre-K and she's as serious as can be! We are so proud of our little girl. She was chosen to hold the bible during the salutes to the American flag, the Christian flag and the bible. She took her job so seriously and did a fantastic job! Of course, she was born for the stage. I say that because after every song she was the only kid taking a bow! :o)

She loves her brother so much and he was so happy to see his "Sissy" up on stage.

It wouldn't be a school function for Kalyssa without a picture of her and her best friend! These girls are positively adorable together. We are so sad that she won't be attending the same school next year but I'm sure there will be lots of play dates in our future!

It's Official! I'm a real live ARTIST!

I've never considered myself an artist. Never. My best friend says she always has because when we met in high school I would draw stuff in a sketch pad while we were at work. I guess I was fairly decent but I never considered myself good by any stretch of the imagination.

In the early part of the century (2002/2003 maybe) I started paper scrapbooking. Again, I was passable but I wouldn't say good. In 2007 I discovered digital scrapbooking. This changed my life! The paper style was so messy and actually dangerous to have around my young toddler. Still, I was passable. It's been 3 years now and I've taken many classes (at http://www.scrapgirls.com/) on design, techniques and photography. For the last 2 years I've been on the site's Welcoming Committee for their forum. I've loved my place on the team since day one and I still do. Recently they had a call for openings on the Layout Artist team. Not once did I think that I would be chosen but I figured it couldn't hurt to try, right? I had heard that they will give constructive critism and tell you how to improve your skills for the next time you apply so I thought that would be a really good thing for me. Something to work on.

About a month ago I was shocked, to say the least, that they chose me and 3 other very talented ladies out of 45+ applicants to be a Layout Artist. Since then I have been given some assignments and a few of the product designers have asked me to create layouts featuring their new products. This is a HUGE honor in my opinion!

So, I have had this title officially for a little less than a month. But today it's really official because I've had my first layout published in the Scrap Girls Newsletter! And even better ... it's in the TOP SPOT! It's the first thing you see when you open up the newsletter! It doesn't get much more exciting than that for me folks! I am totally loving my new title as Artist! Even though I never in my wildest dreams would have put that label on me!

Wanna see the newsletter? You won't have to go digging around for my layout. It' right there on top! :D

Scrap Girls Chit Chat Newsletter: May 21, 2010

♥ - Me, the Artist! (Ha Ha! I still can't believe it!)

P.S. Thanks Ang for letting me be the first to play with your new Winsome Collection!

Happy Easter!!!

I hope you had a wonderful day full of God's blessings! We sure did! Wanna see? I thought you might! So, without further ado ...

Here's the 2-page layout:

Here's the left side:

And here's the right:
Aren't those children just precious??? They love the eggs filled with confetti! It was a wonderful day full of many blessings, including gorgeous weather!

Take care! Hugs all around!!!

♥~ KC, Shari, Kalyssa & Kaden

A chance to win a Nikon D90!!

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Big Machinery!

This is a double page scrapbooking layout I made. I'll let the journaling do the talking.

Here's the left side...

And here's the right side ...
Oh yes ... I'm being reffered to a hand surgeon. I've had one MRI and we discovered ligament damage. Then X-Rays showed that some of my bones in my wrist aren't lining up right. I go in next week for another MRI with contrast dye injected. I have to make an appointment with the surgeon in the northern part of the state soon. First I have to figure out if my insurance covers him. That's really all we know so far. Hopefully we'll get more answers within the next few weeks.

All for now! Love and hugs from the Payne's!

Snow Much Fun!!!

Here in our little neck of the woods we usually don't get much snow. When we do it either doesn't stick or melts pretty darn quick. Every once in awhile though we get a pretty nice snow storm that allows us to play a little. This last week we had lots of snow. The first day we got about 6 inches and it stayed all day. The problem was that it rained on the snow all day too so no playing. Thankfully we kept getting snow and it stuck around long enough on a nice day to play! Yay! Usually these kinds of fun snow days end up being on a weekday too so KC doesn't get to play with us. (And the number of pictures I get are limited.) This time our play day was on Saturday and oh boy did we play! Woowee!!! Wanna see? I could literally show you about 250 pictures (because I literally took that many) but I just picked a few of my most favorite ones to share.

On with the snow, er, I mean, SHOW! :o)

We had snowball fights - built a snow fort and everything!

KC got a little carried away ...

Who knew how much fun a snowy trampoline could be? The kids loved it when Daddy would "pop" the snow up from the bottom!

We used anything and everything we could find to use as a sled. I'll say, Daddy got a TON of exercise pulling everyone around on "sleds" - including me! (Sorry, no pictures of him pulling me ... I was too busy being pulled!) :o) When we weren't being pulled we were sliding down the handicap ramp at my mom's house. I'll tell you ... having a big backyard is a really great thing in times like these!

Mr. Engineer had to see if a shovel would make a better slide than the "Ice Comet." It didn't. ;-)

And, of course, there were snowmen! (Who knew you could use cake decorating supplies to decorate snow? LOL!)

This is KC's idea of a snowman ...

After all that play we were all tuckered out!

And there you have it! A totally awesome fun family day in the snow! I'm so glad Daddy could play with us this time. Is was way more fun having him play with us! I hope we get one or two more this winter! (It was good exercise too!)

So what's your favorite picture? Leave a comment (I think I have that feature fixed - and you shouldn't have to register or anything ... I hope) and let us know what you think!

Blessings!
KC, Shari, Kalyssa and Kaden

Merry New Year!

Yes, I know that I am probably the world's worst blogger. Not a single post since JUNE! I'm terribly sorry! I guess I had so many pictures that I got a little overwhelmed with all the editing/posting time involved. And since I'm working hard to reprioritze my life and actually get some things done and spend more time with my kids (meaning less time with my computer) that meant blogging got put on the back burner. So, I have decided that I will try to blog again but I'm not going to stress about getting all of those events I never posted (even though many of the photos are waiting in a folder to be uploaded) blogged and just start from scratch. Okay?

You also may have noticed that your mailbox did not receive, yet again, a Christmas card from us. I had a better excuse last year for not getting one done than I do this year. I won't try to make one up so I'll just apologize and hope that I can manage to get one done next year. No worries though, we did manage to take a family photo. Although getting everyone looking the same direction and smiling is practically impossible! Here's the family photo ... Aren't we cute? :-)

And then a few of my favorites of the kids. I think I might be getting better at this photography thing. All of these are taken using the manual settings on my camera in natural light. Would you believe I took these in our playroom? Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Of course, it helps to have unbelievably gorgeous children to shoot!

If you just come to see the pictures you can stop here. If you are curious about our year then continue on. :-)

Most everyone knows that our year started out with the birth of our 2nd daughter Kelsey and all that came with that. The other kids still talk about her from time to time but we are are healing well and gain much comfort knowing that not only is she with Jesus but that we will be with her again someday.

The end of March brought us a new travel trailer. We've really enjoyed it when we've been able to use it. We really hope to bring it out much more, even if just for local camping, in 2010. The kids love it as much as we do so we hope to be able to see more of our home state.

One of the reasons we didn't camp as much as would have liked is that I had Spinal Fusion surgery in June. I felt improvement immediately! Now, if I can just discipline myself to stretch and exercise on a more regular basis I'm sure I'll continue to feel good.

During our 11 trailer trip to CA in May we bought annual passes to Disneyland since Kaden will be free until he turns 3 this coming May. We've been able to enjoy them on a couple of trips in September and November. We stayed in hotels both times and we're learning the ropes and tricks and all those other little things you only know from being a frequent visitor. Kalyssa is a roller coaster freak. The faster it goes the more she likes it. And she loves "the scary house" too! Kaden's favorite ride is the rockets on the edge of Tomorrowland. I get dizzy extremely easy so I can't go on those spinning rides. Poor KC gets to ride the rockets at least 5-6 times a day. And we usually go for 3-4 days per trip! Kaden is less of a roller coaster nut at this point but I see that changing as he gets older. He loves Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Gadget's Go Coaster. He'll go on Matterhorn too but only if we take him on the rockets first.

For Kalyssa's 5th birthday trip to Disney she was able to get all dolled up at the Bibbiy Bobbity Boutique. We spent about 2 hours shopping and having hair and makeup done and then a full photo shoot in a beautifully painted fairy tale room with Cinderella's coach in it. She was gorgeous and I actually teared up at how beautiful she was. Once she became her chosen princess (Sleeping Beauty) she really "became" a Princess with a capital "P!" She couldn't really lean back in the stroller so she sat up straight as a board the entire day. She even has the Princess Wave down! I felt like I was pushing true royalty around all day long!

In September Kalyssa started preschool two afternoon's a week. She really loves it. And I really hope she still feels the same way about school a few years from now. She has proven to have my theatrical tendencies. At the end of her Christmas program she curtied and bowed and blew kisses over and over to the crowd. I think we just might have an honest to goodness drama queen on our hands!

Kaden has grown by leaps and bounds. Just in the last two months of the year he added an inch to his little frame. He's still a bean pole and on the very low side of the growth charts in weight but he eats well so I don't worry about him. He's just got my Dad's tall/skinny build. He's growing in his speach as well. He's gone from speaking just a few words at the beginning of the year to speaking full (and loooooonnnnnggggg) sentences every second of the day. Many (way too many) nights he's in his room talking/singing for a good hour or more after being put to bed. He knows the words to many songs and can almost complete the alphabet song. He can count to at least 10, sometimes 12 if he's in the mood. He's also a little troublemaker who loves to see just what he can get away with. Just yesterday he stole 2 lollipops while we were at Kalyssa's gymnastics class. And the other day he grabbed a flashlight while Daddy wasn't looking and went running after he said a resounding "Ah Ha!"

Speaking of trouble, I must tell you all about Kaden's Christmas present! This is definitely a story that has, and will continue to be retold for many years to come! Kaden's big gift this year was a new Lightening McQueen racecar bed from my Dad. (I almost think it was more for Daddy than son but we'll just move on, shall we?) Anywho, on Christmas Eve we put both kids down to bed in our room (that was a process ... too excited to sleep, you all know how that is, I'm sure!) Then KC and my Dad put together the bed in Kaden's room. After all the toys were put together and the stockings stuffed with care we finally decided to go to bed at about 2am. We gently put Kaden in his new bed, figuring he'd sleep until 7 or so. (Most days he gets up anywhere from 7 to 9am.) At about 4am (yes, only 2 short hours later) KC noticed the livingroom light was on. Kalyssa and I were still sleeping soundly next to him so there was only one suspect remaining. KC goes out and notices that most of the lights in the house are on. (Kaden has to stand on something to turn most light switches on.) Then he noticed that the lid to a storebought coffee cake was sitting on the coffee table. He goes down the hall, looks into Kaden's room and sees this ...

He'd eaten the centers out of at least 3 of those rolls before we were able to catch the little stinker! Now when we tell him to get in bed (although he's not actually sleeping in it yet since he gets put in the crib every time he gets out of his big boy bed) he says, "gonna go get food" with this sheepish grin on is face. I'm telling you, we've got our hands FULL with this one!

Now that you've gotten a quick update (yes, that was quick ... I honestly could have gone on for hours!) I will leave with with heartfelt prayers for a blessed 2010 for you and your families!

Here's hoping I can keep up more than every 6 - 7 months!

Many hugs from us to you!

♥ The Payne's