Kaitlyn and Owen Medical Updates

On Thursday before we left for Easter, Kaitlyn's endocrinologist called with the results of her Glucose Monitor that she wore for 4 days. The good news was that only one of her 200+ blood sugars were over 200 (which is diabetic range). The only problem was that her morning sugars were still too high. She said that most likely she has MODY (maturity onset diabetes of youth) which is a genetic form of diabetes. She does not need insulin at this point but may in the future.

On Monday of this week she started an oral medication to help her body produce more insulin on it's own. Unfortunately she is going to have to have the Glucose Monitor repeated in a couple of weeks and now her three times daily blood sugars checks are here to stay. She's doing a great job with it and has not once complained!! What a trooper!

On Tuesday of this week, Owen saw his urologist for his 6 week post-op check up. The Dr. said Owen is doing great! Everything is completely healed and he doesn't need to go back for a year! Yay!!!
I know Owen is excited to be done with all those Orlando appointments :)

Bye Bye Tree

Just before Owen was born last summer one of the trees in our backyard was hit by lightening. It was the loudest noise I have ever heard!!! Over the last couple of months we noticed that the tree is dying and dropping a lot of limbs and branches. And over this past month we've had a lot of storms and have watched the tree sway more and more!

Unfortunately this tree provides most of the shade in our backyard as well being the tire swing tree! :( Today the tree people came and took our tree away!!!

Here are the girls watching the action! They were so captivated by all the machinery!

It was like an invasion!!! It was actually pretty impressive. We all stood and watched for a while! Mike came home on his lunch break just to see it!

And these are the after pictures! It looks so different now! And it's so sunny :) But the girls are excited to have a new climbing thing in their backyard. I am just kind of sad that Owen won't have ever gotten to ride the tire swing. Oh what hours of enjoyment my kids have gotten out of it over the last 4 years!!!! Goodbye old friend!!

Easter in South Carolina Part 2

After a long day at the Egg Hunt, the Zoo, and Lake Murray the girls decided to take advantage of the sprinkler system testing while Jack and Mike attempted to figure out the programming.

After a yummy dinner on the grill, the kids relaxed in the tub and were off to bed :)

The kids woke up Easter morning to four little baskets by the fire place. The boys were up first and they dug right in!

Owen got some snacks, socks, and a new truck. Sadly after trying one of his new snacks, he gagged and threw up right into his basket :( If you know my son, you know this is a pretty normal event! Sad news about the basket though!

Next up were the girls and they decided to get some revenge on Daddy for all the rude awakenings that happen at our house!

After that, it was on to the baskets!!! Savannah got a nice little surprise in hers - Mike and Jack caught her an inch worm and put it in a plastic egg!! Man was she excited!

Before heading to church we were able to get a few good family pictures.

Carrie and Jack's church had a nice Sunday Easter service and then we came back to Carrie's and she made a yummy ham lunch for us! After we ate, it was time to get in the car and head back home :( It was a quick trip, but it was a nice time together and we can't wait to go back and visit again!!!

On the drive home, Mike insisted on making a pit stop in Georgia and loading up on some fireworks. Oh my.....

Easter in South Carolina Part 1

This year for Easter our family along with my Dad went up to visit my sister Carrie and her family in South Carolina. We left Thursday night after work and drove to Savannah GA. I really wanted to get a good picture of Savannah with a big ole sign in downtown Savannah but we were staying about 15 miles outside the area and it was just too late to do any additional sightseeing! So this pic of her at the hotel will have to suffice until we can get to Savannah again :)

Friday morning we got up and drove the remainder of the trip and got to Carrie's just in time for a horrible rain storm! We spent most of Friday eating and hanging out. We gave Chase (my nephew) his 1st birthday present!

The girls dyed Easter eggs and did some crafts to pass the time. They also explored the woods behind Carrie and Jack's house once the rain cleared out :)

Saturday we took some pictures of the kiddos in their matching Easter Egg Hunt attire and then were off to the church to hunt eggs!

The kids were grouped according to age and Savannah got the upper hand! She went with the group 3 and under and seeing as she's about a month shy of being 4, she swiped up an entire basket full of eggs in no time at all!

Poor Owen, he was strapped into the stroller the entire hunt. When you have three kids, someone has to sacrifice!!! That day, it was him :)

Kaitlyn had her hunt in a wooded area and she battled with scratchy bushes to get her eggs! What a tough chick!

After the hunt we dumped out all our candy and surveyed the goodies! Meanwhile, Chase was interested in a toy far bigger than Easter Eggs :)

Then it was off to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. Unfortunately it was a Saturday afternoon and was also Spring Break for the schools in the area so it was packed!! But we saw as much as four children would allow us to see and we all enjoyed it.

Poor Chase didn't see too much of the zoo! He was pooped!

After the zoo, we checked out Lake Murray. It was so hot that we didn't stay too long but it was really pretty!

Owen was so sweaty that I was able to give him a new hair style :)

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the trip!! We had so much fun, I couldn't get it all in one posting! :)