Coming Out of the Fog...

Wow, what a February and March we have had!  February is a very fun and busy month for our family, but March has been riddled with illness. Someone in our house has been ill with fever, headache, horrible chest congestion and non-stop coughing for the past 4 weeks. Kaylie faired the worst developing pneumonia with asthma complications, and needed to be admitted to the hospital for treatment.  The fevers for all three kids lasted between 5 and 7 days, and were only brought down from the high 103s with Motrin or Tylenol. Crazy ugly illnesses!

February started off with a TON of fun as we celebrated Chinese New Year, Dan's birthday, Sam's birthday, and Kaylie's Forever Family Day!

As has become tradition for our family, we decorated the house and made our homemade Chinese food for Chinese New Year! Kaylie is very thrilled with this tradition, and smiles non-stop for days when the decorations go up!  Here are a few shots of our celebration and homemade dumplings and egg rolls - just a few of our treats we are trying to master!  The children also get Lai See (decorated red envelopes) with money in them - always a BIG hit! I also received a new recipe for a traditional steamed fish from our friend Cosine Wong, but we didn't have a chance to try it this year - definitely on the menu for next year!!

  

  

In the middle of the festivities, Kaylie decided to lose not one, not two, but THREE of her teeth!  Both front teeth and the bottom left tooth.  She was a trooper and didn't complain at all about getting the loose teeth out.

We had a terrific time celebrating Dan's birthday - he's catching up to me!  :)  The kids were thrilled to give Dad a new IPOD Nano to use when he is running those 5Ks this summer!

Sam was thrilled that he finally got his new skateboard and all the gear for his Birthday. Kendra made him his own Birthday hat, which he suprisingly wore for his birthday celebration! As usual, he was spoiled rotten by family and friends!

In between all the partying, we had fun helping Kaylie and Kendra design and make the traditional Robot Project for their Kindergarten class!  The girls and I shopped for all the pieces at a local craft shop, then spent an afternoon with dad and I helping them put the creations together. They were very excited about the end product!

Shortly after all the fun of February, Kaylie was the first one in the family to start getting sick. Next was Sam, then Dan, and finally Kendra.  Many sleepless nights and days filled with worries as they each suffered through the illness.  Thankfully I managed somehow to remain unscathed, and was able to care for everyone as they each got sick.  There were certainly some tough moments. The hardest for me was when Kaylie was in the hospital and I had to worry about Sam and Kendra at home. Dan had everything under control, but it was very difficult being away from them. Sam and Kendra were not too concerned about Kaylie until she was admitted to the hospital - even they realize that that is a big deal these days with so much treatment taking place in home and the era of outpatient surgeries and treatment.  It made me realize that I will need to learn better coping skills when Kaylie's kidneys begin to fail and we are moving through the ordeal of the liver and kidney transplant.  Hopefully the kids will be older and more self-sufficient by then, but I know it will be a tough time for all of us.

Today was our first time out as a family in over a month. We spent an absolutely glorious day at a local zoo.  Even though it was a little chilly - it was a perfect day at the zoo with a lot of the animals in their indoor habitats. A day of fun for us that was much overdue!

~Ali

Our Journey to Fuya

Today is Forever Family Day! Two years ago today, we watched as our daughter Kaylie walked into a room to meet us. I can't even describe all the thoughts and emotions that were going through our minds and bodies. I can tell you that even two years later, I can watch this video and it is if I am standing in that room on that very day, and I feel the rush of emotion as if we were meeting her for the first time. I will forever admire the grace and strength it took for our daughter to accept this change in her life, and I have been forever changed by witnessing the courage she displayed as she has learned to trust and love us unconditionally.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One Proud Aunt!!!

It is impossible for me to imagine being more proud of my nephews!!! This post is dedicated to the first TWO of FIVE little boys to enter my life and steal my heart! Long before my own kids were brought into this world, my first nephews were born, just 8 months apart. How cool was it for me to see BOTH my sisters pregnant at the same time with what would soon be my first nephews! I was in college, and despite being a bit caught up in my own world, I had to be the most excited aunt-to-be on earth!  First came Luke, and 8 months later, Tyler entered the world. From the moment they entered this world, they have held a special place in my heart. Hard to imagine that those two little sweet babies will soon be GRADUATING high school in the class of 2011!!!

Not only graduating, but moving on to spectacular careers as well! I am so very proud of both of them! Luke was recently accepted into a prestigeous branch of the military - the United States Air Force!  Little did we know just what a battle it would be for him to be accepted!  Being naive as I am, I figured they would pretty much take anyone these days that wanted to join!  WRONG!  Luke can attest to all the screening that he had to go through - from entrance exams, to GPA requirements, to the rigorous physical exams required to be accepted.  We soon learned what a true HONOR it is to be accepted into the USAF! Luke will report for basic training in Texas this summer.



Luke 2011





Next it was Tyler's turn for planning for his future! Tyler applied for and was accepted at NDSU and will be making his way into the Architecture program there.  Another remarkable acheivement as NDSU is a school with a great reputation and competitive Architecture program. Without a doubt, this is a career that is well suited to Tyler. Tyler has amazing artistic abilities, as demonstrated below.  The first is a charcoal drawing he did of Bob Marley, the second a first-ever snow sculpture he did as an amatuer that won him $100 on the spot!  From someone who struggles to draw stick people, I truly admire his artistic skills! In all seriousness, he did not get the talent from me - my kids often tell me that my drawings of pigs, cows, horses, dogs and cats ALL look the same, save a different tail or ears!  :)  Definitely not an area of talent for me!!

Tyler 2011

Bob Marley - charcoal

Mom Wolf and Baby

It struck me recently as Luke was going through his Air Force training and Tyler made the decision to try his hand at carving a sculpture starting from a 4x4x7 foot block of snow without any training or guidance at all, that these boys really are ready for the BIG world!  In my mind, I think they will always be the toddlers that I chased after with out-stretched arms trying to protect them against a fall!  But in my heart I know they are well prepared to face their futures. I beam with pride just thinking about it - I can't imagine how my sisters must feel.  To think that my own little ones will someday be following in their footsteps just blows me away! I can only hope that they will be as prepared, mature, and extremely talented as the "first" boys in my life have become.

Luke and Tyler - I love you with all my heart, and although it is hard to let you go into that big world out there, I know that you are ready for whatever may come your way!  Know that I will be here cheering you on at every step, and that I am always just a phone call away! I love you!!!!

~Ali

Winter Fun!

We had the BEST family day yesterday!  Started with dance class and a basketball game for Sam, then we bundled up for some winter fun!  A nature center near our house was having a "Snow Fun" day, so we headed there after lunch. We spent the afternoon riding kick sleds down a hill, snowshoeing through the deep snow, ice fishing, cooking s'mores over an open fire, and attending an animal show inside the center where the kids got to see and touch Chinchillas, hedgehogs, scorpions, a desert fox, raccoon, snow gliders, and a red-tailed hawk. It was a great afternoon to be outside in the winter air enjoying the fresh snow and getting some outside exercise!

Life otherwise has been busy with school for the kids and Dan, work for me, and all the various activities.  Sam is LOVING playing basketball his first year, and can't wait to get on the court for each practice and game. Piano is still going well, and the girls are still going to dance several times a week.

Kendra had her poet-op visit to the ENT this week. Things are healing well with her tympanoplasty, and there are no signs of rejection as of yet. She was able to recover a good amount of hearing in the higher tones with the surgery, but still has some trouble hearing in the lower tones. Her ENT believes this might be permanent, but at this time, she does not require additional hearing aids.  He was actually very pleased with the amount of hearing that she has recovered so far, as he told us this week that he didn't believe she would recover enough of her hearing to be able to function without hearing aids.  He was very happy that things are going as well as they are, and so are we! After talking with him more this week, we realized even more how fortunate she is. 

Kendra will be having more surgeries down the road to maintain her current level of hearing. The tubes that were put in place this time are for long-term use, and not designed to fall out.  She will have surgery at a later date to remove them and replace them.  The hope is to give her eardrum time to heal and to prevent more frequent surgeries to replace them. So far, so good!

~Ali

One Tough Cookie....

The picture below is typical of what we see from our daughter Kendra....lots of laughs and smiles as she plays with her sister and brother.  You can always count on Kendra to do or say something witty and spontaneious to break up any tough situation!

I joke all the time that she acts well beyond her years, as usually she is concerned about things in life that most little girls don't think about. She can be deep and reflective one moment, and the next, she can be running through the yard just to feel the air run through her hair. Since she has started talking, many have described her as being "an old soul" - someone that seems to just know what life is about without having to think too much about it.

But this last week certainly reminded me, that at times, she is still just a little girl. A girl who just needs to be held and told that everything will be alright.

Kendra has had a rough couple of months fighting a really bad ear infection. Despite multiple trips to the doctor for new and different antibiotics, we have not been able to cure the pesky ear infection that started in October.  Yet she hasn't let it get her down, and bounces into each doctor appointment sure that this time they will be able to make it better.  Finally the infection got so bad in late December that her eardrum burst due to pressure in her inner ear. We would not have even known had we not had a follow-up appointment to check the progress of the new antibiotic.  So, off it was to an emergency visit with the ENT on New Year's Eve day, with surgery scheduled for the following Tuesday.  Unfortunately, the first attempt at doing the surgery while Kendra was awake was not successful.  There was just too much pain despite the local anesthetic to complete the surgery.

So, the following Monday, we went about things the old fashioned way and she had surgery at the hospital with general anesthetic.  It was an emotional week at our house as Kendra did not want to be put under for the surgery, and was not happy with herself at all for not being able to endure the procedure the Tuesday before.  After her 3rd doctor appointment in 4 days, she was cleared for surgery.  We laid awake all night worried about what the next day would bring, knowing that Kendra was reaching her limit with all the tests, appointments and procedures.

I am thrilled to say that surgery day could not have went any better!  She was an angel when I woke her up at 5am to go to the hospital, played nicely in the waiting rooms through pre-surgery check-in and exams, and when the time came to walk back to the operating room with the doctors and nurses, she bravely held the new little kitten they gave her at the hospital and walked right into the operating room.

Surgery was about an hour, and all went well. There were a few speeds bumps during surgery, but her ENT was very happy with how things went. Her ear was still badly infected, but they were able to drain the fluid, do a cadaver skin graft to close the hole in her eardrum, and place a new tube in the ear.  She woke up well, albeit a bit slow, and has been recovering very well since.

In another week or so we will be back to the ENT for her post-op exam. We are hoping the surgery was successful in restoring her hearing, that the infection will finally be gone, and that things are healing well. 

We continue to be grateful that God has blessed us with such a brave and happy little girl. She brings joy to our lives every day, and teaches us how to be strong when life throws you a curve ball or two!

~Ali

6 going on 16??

So, tonight during our nighttime routine, the conversation goes like this:

 

Kendra - "So, mom, today I got invited to my first BOY party"

Mom - "Oh yeah, whose birthday is it?"

Kendra - "Well, it isn't a birthday party"

Mom - "Oh?"

Kendra - "Yeah, it is for Brian.  He is the one that wants to be a paleontologist like me."

Mom - "Did you get an invitation?"

Kendra - "No, he is going to give it to me tomorrow."

Mom - "Is Kaylie invited too?"

Kendra - "No, it is just a party for me and Brian to celebrate being paleontologists"

Kendra - "Mom, he is really nice. Sometimes I hold his hand when he gets scared"

Mom - "Oh? He knows that you can't date until you are 17, right?"

Kendra - "Yes, he knows that.  We are just friends for now."

 

Mom - rolls eyes, takes a deep breath, and another, and another, kisses Kendra good night, then goes to take blood pressure medication......

 

YIKES!!

 

Not quite sure where she gets this precociousness. Certainly not from me?  A Paleontologist?  Really?

 

~Ali

Christmas 2010

The Holiday Season continues to roll along! Kendra had her Christmas dance program at the dance studio, and she did very well in her ballet and tap dances that they performed for the parents and grandparents.  Very fun to see how much all the girls have improved in just a few short years! After the program, we headed to a local restaurant with two friends in her class and their families and had a great time hanging out with friends.

My parents arrived safely from North Carolina on December 18th.  They spent the first 5 days with our family, then headed out to spend time with my sisters. We are hoping to get them back here before they leave after the New Year!

We had a great Christmas Eve celebration with my family, and then were able to spend Christmas Day with Dan's family.  Dan's parents and Aunt Darlene arrived from Park Rapids on Christmas morning, and we had a wonderful visit with them at Dan's brother's house.  The kids were spoiled rotten once again, and we spent the next few days opening packages, assembling toys, and just playing! Here are a few photos from the present opening:

I also received a very special present from my parents:

An incredible handmade quilt that my mom made for us!  Dan's grandmother had made him a flag quilt when he went into the Navy but it was stolen from his foot locker. When we remodeled our bedroom, I found a flag quilt that I loved for our queen size bed. When we upgraded to a king, I couldn't find a quilt that I liked anywhere. My mom took a photo of our queen quilt and recreated it for us by hand for our king size bed!  It is absolutely gorgeous, and we will treasure it always!  There are a ton of peices on the quilt, and even more impressive that she was able to make it without a pattern!  Matter of fact, it was so impressive that a man in the quilt shop where she was quilting with the long arm sewing machine offered her $1000 on the spot to buy it from her!  We are very glad she politely turned down the offer!!  She also made two equally stunning quilts for my sisters, so she has been very busy sewing this year! Each of our quilts are very different, reflecting the differences in our tastes.  Amazing how well she knows each of us to be able to pick the perfect colors and patterns for each of us!

Looking forward to 2011!  Happy Holidays to all!

~ Ali