Pumpkin Patch 2013!

We continued our tradition of going to the Pumpkin Patch and this time we had another little cutie to join in the fun. Last year at this time Izzy was in my belly and a few weeks away from being born. It is crazy how fast the year went and how much both kids have changed. I compared London's 3 trips to the pumpkin patch and he's such a big kid now, it's crazy! We had a fun day of hay riding, playing in pumpkins, eating ice cream, and checking out some animals. London was afraid of the hayride at first but finally went on after some bribing. Then he felt brave and wanted his face painted. We waited in line for 30 minutes only to have him freak and refuse to get it done. It wasn't a total loss because we had the lady paint a pumpkin on Izzy's cheek as she tried to eat the paint brush...haha. It was a fun Fall day. Plus, I got lots of cute pictures.

I'm Back!!!

I have been thinking about my blog for months and I feel guilty and overwhelmed because a lot has happened and I haven't been documenting it. I decided that instead of trying to catch up and post about all the stuff that has happened over the past 3 months I am going to jump right in to where we are now. Life is crazy but I am going to try my hardest to blog at least every 2 weeks.

So, here is where we are now...it's a wonderfully busy and crazy place, but I have never been happier.

Over the past 3 months we have bought a house and both kids have grown like crazy!

Izzy is now 11 months and is on the verge of talking, walking, and is becoming a real person...ha. She is a total maniac and has a temper that can tear a wall down with one scream. She has this cute raspy voice and thinks London is the funniest human alive. She is about 20lbs but still seems like such a peanut compared to GIANT baby London. She is a HUGE eater and loves fruit, tofu, mac n cheese, tofurky slices, applesauce, crackers, etc. The girl can eat! Her chubby thighs and cheeks are the cutest! I am still going strong with breastfeeding and SUPER proud of that. It is not easy to do while working full time.

London is now officially 3 years old! Crazy! He is back in preschool and doing fantastic. He has managed to become potty trained in about 3 weeks. He now can stay dry most of the day and pees standing up. He had his fourth surgery over the summer and everything is healed and ready to go...haha. He is so articulate, funny, and can be a total smartass when provoked. There are so many hilarious things that come out of his mouth I can only imagine what he'll say as a teenager. He is back to sleeping in his bed after almost 2 years of sleeping with us. He still runs in now and then in the middle of the night but decided now that he is 3 it's time to be a big boy.

Kary is super busy at work and has been getting quite a few tattoos. I am loving my job and having a really fun school year. I will be sure to post later about the house buying process (although brief) and London's 3rd birthday. For now I am going to go and squeeze my tiny people.

Heart: It's a BIG Deal!

When you tell people you are having something done to your heart the reactions are quite extreme. Most people make a shocked face and say they will pray for me. I was the same at first, but now I just think of it as another organ, a quite fascinating one actually. 

Friday, June 14th I went in for a heart ablation (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cardiac-ablation/my00706) to hopefully get rid of my Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) (http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/tc/supraventricular-tachycardia-overview). When I was first introduced to the idea of an ablation I was like, "no way! anything near my heart would be terrifying! I'll just live with it." Then after about a year of living with it I was so ready to give it a try. I actually had the procedure scheduled for April 13, 2012 but my plans were put on hold when sweet Izzy came along and I got that positive pregnancy test on March 3rd.
Being pregnant with SVT was the worst (well I'm sure there are worse things but it sure sucked) I was having episodes (bad ones) about every 2 weeks. A coworker had to call me an ambulance when I was about 6 weeks pregnant and on my birthday I had to be rushed to the hospital because it was so bad. I decided then it was time to get it taken care of.
I got an echocardiogram and multiple EKGs and some blood work and met with the Dr who would do the procedure:

Dr William Boch~ this dude hung out in my heart

He explained how it would work and gave me some brochures. He was super cool and laid back but also very intelligent. I kept staring at his hands and thinking...I hope those hands don't kill me! haha

My sister Marisa came the night before to watch the kids so Kary and I could leave super early to make it to the Pineville Hospital almost an hour away.
The morning of the procedure I was pretty chill. I was actually more concerned about Izzy because she was not feeling well. I wore a bright pink wife beater and some sweats (straightened my hair and put on full face of makeup...ha) and we were off.
When we got there they called me back to patient registration right away. The lady was nice and got all my info and gave me my hospital bracelet. We sat in the waiting room a few minutes and then they took me back.
I put on a hospital gown and they started an IV and hooked me up to a bunch of monitors. It was nice to be in a comfy bed with no one demanding things and I love their warmed blankets.
Kary came back and it was now about 7am. My procedure was scheduled for 8am so I was hoping to move things along. As they were prepping to take me back, a nurse popped her head in and said that they were going to have to push my procedure back 2 hours due to an emergency case. I was, of course, understanding but the emergency part was kind of unsettling. Apparently, the guy had an ablation the day before and they had to "go back in." Yikes.
We sat for what seemed like forever and finally it was my turn. I said goodbye to Kary and my "bartender" who reminded me a lot of ellen took me down a very long hallway. I saw doctors and nurses looking at me and they all looked kind of surprised that I wasn't 80..ha.
When I got in the room I was transferred to a very hard skinny plank. It looked pretty much exactly like this:

not me or Dr. Boch but exactly what I remember except they were flat screen monitors not like these 1990 ones...ha

The ladies attached about 100 (no joke) sticker heart monitors to me. One woman was giving me a hard time saying I needed to fatten up and didn't have enough surface area to place all the monitors...ha. It took a long time to prep me and then finally I got some drugs. I could feel the cool stuff go through my IV and immediately felt calm. (although I really wasn't very scared..it was weird) During the procedure I went in and out of consciousness. I felt TONS of rapid heart palpitations. Every time I was shot with adrenaline my heart would go CRAZY. It went on for 4 hours. Finally, I came to and the nurse told me that we were just waiting to see if my heart had any other places that would beat rapidly...Finally, I was done and it was time to go to recovery.
In recovery I had a grilled cheese sandwich (hospital style...ick) and hung out with Kary. We had to stay 4 hours and I was not allowed to lift my head (much harder than it sounds) I watched crappy tv and tried to enjoy some time when I didn't have kids demanding things but was still bored and antsy. Finally at about 7:20pm we started getting ready for discharge. The nurse came in and said we'd actually have to wait until 9pm. We were both like WHAAAT???! I had to pee so bad and hadn't gone since about 8am so the nurse (who said we had to stay til 9) kicked Kary out and I got to experience a bed pan...gross but pretty convenient. Then the nurse came back in to inform us that oops, she miscalculated and we could go home now and then apologized for making me pee in a bucket when I really could have gotten up and went in the toilet...eh. The nurse put on my clothes, shoes, pushed me in a wheelchair, and even buckled my seat belt (she was slightly stalkerish) and were we finally on our way home.
About 2 days later I started getting really bad flutters and skipped heartbeats. It was BAD. Kary called off and we went to see Dr. Boch. He did an EKG and said I sounded perfect. He hooked me up with a heart monitor to catch them for the next week and assured me that this is normal after the procedure and they should slow down. They have :-) I am done with the monitor tomorrow and then we will see what exactly was/is going on. For now, I am remaining positive that it worked and my quality of life will be much better. I am sick of being worried every time I bend down. Here's to a happy, healthy heart! <3 br="">

Izzy 7 Months

 

Izzy turned 7 months a few weeks ago and she is really taking off! Over the past few days she has learned to crawl (army), she claps all the time, and even waves when you wave to her (but not always) She sits up totally on her own and can play for quite a while by herself (although her play usually just involves shoving everything in her mouth) She laughs when you smile at her and can devour a jar of sweet potatoes like nobody's business!

During our usual monthly photo shoot she was hilarious. She instantly ripped off the sticker and was yelling and squealing as I snapped shots. She is known to squeal for about 20 minutes straight while in her bouncer. She loves her brother and gets so happy when London plays with her. He is mostly gentle with her but he's looking forward to when she can wrestle. She is pretty tolerant but will get pretty pissed if he messes with her too much. We just love our chunky little Izzy belle <3 br=""> 
7 month stats: 17lbs, 4 oz and 25 inches long

self portrait

first attempt at sippy cup...milk everywhere...she splashed

on the move...pro at army crawl and going backwards

Izzy 6 Months!

Life has been so busy and I have tried so many times to post but between teaching full time and having 2 kids and 2 dogs, my time has been occupied almost 99% of my day.

Izzy has grown up so much over the past month. She is quickly approaching 7 months and now has 2 bottom teeth, a top tooth coming in, and starting to experiment with crawling. She is pretty helpless on her belly but when she's sitting she teeters forward and scoots to reach a toy. 

She is eating baby food full time and her ultimate favorites are sweet potatoes and apple blueberry. She is still exclusively breastfeeding (yay me!) but unfortunately, she is starting back to wanting to eat every 4 hours so she is not sleeping through the night. I actually don't mind getting up with her to cuddle and the entire process lasts only about 12 minutes.

Izzy is the queen of DROOL! I have never seen a kid drool like this one. She requires a bib at all times and can soak a shirt or any object near her in seconds. She's ticklish, has the cutest laugh, and so happy and full of energy. She is really getting a little personality. Here are a few pictures taken over the the past 7 weeks.  

6 month stats: 16 lbs 24.5 inches....average in weight, shorty in height~ which is weird for our family!

posing in the mirror

chilling in the backseat at Lazy Five Ranch

very indecisive about bath time...either hates or loves it

hanging with brother and friends Dexter and Winter

screaming contest with Dexter

a few hot nights when our shitty landlord didn't pay to have it fixed

cranial tech evaluation~ we decided to not go through with it

sunny beautiful day with family

mommy/baby skinny jeans

playing at the dealership

no longer sleeping like a newborn

evil villain face

busy girl

6 month shoot

first month she's able to take it off and eat it

girl buddies