My Easter Bunnies

Happy Easter Jack!

Happy Easter Sweet Presley Jane!

Good Morning Stella Girl!

Easter Money from the Easter Bunny for Maximus

Handsome Fella

I love her smiles!

Trying to get a picture of all four of them is futile...

Sunshine Girl

How Stella feels about pictures

Beautiful Big Sister

If you are from Edmond this is classic Taylor Made Senior Picture!

My little Bulldog!

Happy Easter!

Stella's Heart Surgery

Last Tuesday Stella had her long awaited heart repair.

Stella has PDA, which is basically a hole in the heart. In most babies it closes while they are still in the womb or within a few weeks of birth. Stella's was discovered still open at 10 months old when we heard a loud heart murmur. She was monitored for a year to allow her to gain weight but when we recently found that the left side of her heart was starting to enlarge we knew it was time to repair it.

Essentially they put in a metal coil mesh type plug into the hole which allows the blood and tissue surrounding it to clot and form around the device and close the hole. It's called an Amplatzer Duct Occluder.

So last Tuesday we woke up early and headed to Childrens Hospital. Everyone was super friendly from check-in to our nurses, the Child Life Specialist and especially our Pediatric Cardiology team including our doctor and the anesthesiologist. Stella was SUPER tired by the time we got close to surgery so I got to hold her while they gave her strawberry scented gas and she passed smooth out. After she was under they prepped her, did her iv and another echo to measure the size and shape of the PDA. Then they made three tiny incisions in her upper groin/hip area and used a catheter to do the repair. She was in surgery for about 2 hours and then went into recovery.

She had a rough time in recovery but once we got her some anti-nausea medicine and juice she calmed down and rested. Within a few hours she was shoveling in a plate of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, applesauce and pudding and we were released so she could sleep in her own bed that night.

By the next afternoon she was RUNNING around and acting totally fine. We changed out her large bandage for one tiny Dora bandaid and she was good to go. Praise Jesus for modern medicine and the wonderful team at Childrens! Stella's heart is now fixed and should stay that way for good!

Everything Medical

To say we have a lot going on right now is an understatement!

Just a small update on everyone's medical stuff.

First things first, Max has an EEG scheduled for Monday March 7th to check out his brain activity and see if there is anything abnormal that could be related to his last fall and crazy body reaction. It should be LOADS of fun since we have to restrict him to 3 hours of sleep and restrict liquids. We are praying that everything comes out clean although that will still leave us without an answer as to why his body reacts so severely sometimes. After the EEG we will have a neuro appt to discuss the results.

Tues March 27th is the scheduled date for Stella's heart surgery. We go to the hospital at 8:30AM to check in and her procedure is at 10AM. We will be at Childrens hospital with 2 great doctors so we have full faith it will be an easy surgery. She will stay overnight at the least and MAYBE 2 days at the most. My dad and stepmom are coming up to help us out all week which is a HUGE blessing! If you are unsure what I am talking about, Stella has PDA and while the hole in her heart is not growing the left part of her heart is starting to enlarge so we have to repair it!

First week of April Rob will be scheduled for his THIRD surgery on the same shoulder! He has a recurrent labral tear, a large cyst, arthiritis in the joint and something else I cannot remember. The doctor is one of the best in the state, even working on OU football players and he said its a "unique case" and they won't know what they are getting into until they get in there. Hopefully they can do a GOOD repair this time and help heal the pain that Rob is dealing with.

So that's it in medical news. The twins are teething but other than that they are perfectly healthy and we are so thankful for that! Of course Mama is hanging tough, just dealing with everyone else and their appts and ailments! Please pray for all of my sweet family that they will all go through their procedures easily and get full healing!

Tip Someone!

What a great first and second day of our month of Thankfulness!

Yesterday was our first day and we started by Turkey'ing *yes I made that word up* our neighbors! It was a fun way to show a little neighborly appreciation and Max really liked it. He has started saying we are celebrating Nicegiving this month.

At the end of the night, after a long day we HAD to go grocery shopping. I don't know about anyone else but we get paid 2x per month. October was a longgggggggggg month with the second half having 3 weekends! We are also attempting to honor God more with our finances so we are paying a lot extra towards our few debts and that leaves very little "extra" to go around. It's a Dave Ramsey way of thinking but it gets a little panicky when you have $3 left at the end of the month (after saving, tithing and budgeting everything else). But God IS faithful and our finances are already lightened for November which we are thankful for!

Rob stayed home with Stella, Jackson and Presley while Max and I went shopping. We loaded our cart up and spent a good chunk on groceries. We had a FULL cart and a HUGE bag of dogfood so when the young teenage boy offered to help us out (which ONLY happens at Crest, never at Target or Walmart) we accepted. His friend came up in the parking lot and helped as well. I saw the perfect opportunity to do another ROAK for our month of Thankfulness. I whispered to Max and asked if he would like to bless these young men for helping us. Of course he was excited to do so! We got out a little cash that I had in my wallet and Max tipped each of them. You could tell that they were surprised and they shut all my doors and told me to have a GREAT night (with a maam thrown in there too, sigh :))

Max was also BEGGING for a spiderman toothbrush and toothpaste so I let him pick it out IF he picked something out for Stella. We decided on a Hello Kitty toothbrush and Disney Princess toothpaste. She was in bed when we got home but he got to give it to her this morning. She LOVED it and he kept talking about how it was nice to take care of your little sister when you are a big brother. Melt my heart.

Today I am thankful for SIBLINGS and my sweet kids who are learning how to be kind to others and each other. Growing up an only child I never got that super close sibling bond until later. I am greatly blessed by all of my stepbrothers and half brother, my brother in law and sister in law and especially brothers sweet wives. It's nice to have siblings.

photo from Sarah Billheimer Photography

Always,
Jesi

Twin Talk

practicing our tummy time

hey pj!

hey jack jack!

sweet sisters

best big brother

I love you sister!

I love you too!



First Piggies

Stella finally has enough hair for some tiny little piggie tails. It makes me smile.

hair model



dressing up

The twinsies are 3 months!

I can't believe the twins are already 3 months old! Time goes by so fast, faster and faster with each kid it seems. We celebrated by getting family pictures taken with my friend Sarah again. She is SO talented and everyone just raves about each of the pictures that she does for us. So blessed by her friendship and her talent!

Here are our little owls...

presley-left, jackson-right

Mama with the babies

The Conder Crew

September 2011

maximus owen-3.75 :)

Maximus! I can't believe you are almost FOUR! Where does the time go? This picture is SO perfectly you. You are definitely crazy and a little bit, ok a lotta bit stubborn but you are also incredibly smart and funny. Daddy and I often have to hide our laughter at the things you come up with. You are still a bad sleeper dude....but you have solved the problem by sneaking into bed with us like a little ninja. We don't even know you are there until you kick Daddy 19x in 5 minutes and he gets irritated with you. We are doing preschool at home with you and your smarts astound me! You love to learn and you love Jesus and that is all that matters to us!

stella katherine-16 months

Sweet StellaBella. I can't believe you are already 16 months old. First off you are a drama queen but we love it. You throw big ol temper tantrums with real tears and ugly looks. You are feisty but gorgeous as ms. sarah says. You are a DADDYS GIRL! Half the time you just tolerate me. :) You are still our little pipsqueak but you are getting taller. We go back to check on your PDA heart stuff soon and we know you are going to be fine. You love your babies but you REALLY love Jack-Jack. We love you and adore you, our little comedian!

presley jane-3 months

PJ, your hair and eyebrows have a reddish tint and your eyes are light but not blue. I want to call you Gingersnap but you have definitely picked up PJ as a nickname. You are very chatty with your constant gooing and cooing and you already love your daddy. You are sleeping better at night and usually wake up once to eat in the early morning. You are our sweet baby girl and we love you!

jackson gage-3 months

Jackson you are 3 months old! you are so handsome! You have dark dark hair and beautiful green/brown eyes like your daddy. you have lonnnnnng dark eyelashes. You are seriously one chill baby and you are a mama's boy already. There are times when you cry and cry but if I hold you, you just fall asleep. You are definitely owning the nickname Jack-Jack and Stella is a little bit obsessed with you. We love you little man!

The whole family

Thank you God for blessing me with an amazing husband and beautiful healthy children.

Check out more of Sarah's work HERE!

N is for Nana

This little lady says NaNa now! Add it to her list of growing words. She is a spitfire but she isn't feeling good this Monday. Praying she feels better soon!

Chocolate is for Kids

Chocolate is for KIDS MOM!

making chocolate cake for daddy

such a good helper

taste tester

but NOT for babies MOM!

Funny Moments with Max

"school" this week at home has been interesting to say the least.

One aspect of our preschool work is singing. This week I introduced Max to the song "This little light of mine" Sadly mama is NOT a singer because he told me that was a horrible song. He also started singing the words opposite, so he wants to hide his light under a basket and blow it out. Not thinking he learned the lesson with that song!

Since we are studying L I decided to get him a small pack of legos. This was the first time he got them and he was SO excited and telling me over and over again that 2 year olds can't have legos but 3 year olds can!

Workboxes! We went to Mardel to get workboxes to start using next week. After chasing Stella around the store, requiring help out of the store and trying to buckle everyone in, Stella locked me out! She locked me out of the car and was in the front seat pretending to drive. Thank you to our police department who sent out a very nice officer to help us. He rescued us for sure! Thankfully the air was running and she didn't drive off.

Max's weather predictions....

Just another week in crazy town!
Always,
Jesi

Pudding Party

Instant Pudding

+

Random Kitchen Utensils

+

Permission to Make a Mess

=

Happy Kids

The joy of teaching kids ANYTHING is that they learn through play!
Always,
Jesi

Chit Chat

This little lady is starting to repeat a lot more words!

 

Some of her words at 15 months

Mama
DaDa
Ma for Max
Yum Yum
Mine
Baba for Bottle
Ja JA for Jack Jack
Mmmmm
Uh Oh
Nigh Nigh
Hiiiiiiiiiiii with a distinctive southern twang
GRO for Gross
YUuuuu for Yuck
Sti Sti for Stinky
(are you noticing a pattern?)
Bebe for Baby
Bye Bye

We love you Stella!

Survival Mode

Back in the saddle againnnnnnnnnnnnnn....

It's Army time. Well the Army called and my amazing husband is spending some time finishing some needed trainings. God willing they will allow him to be promoted which would be a big blessing! Both to him and his dedication to his military service and financially as well.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, we are in survival mode. Well newborn + toddler = new routine, tired mama, postpartum emotional breakdowns survival mode. It's been a crazy two weeks since Stella joined our family and so far she has proven herself to be much easier than her big brother. And the thought of Rob leaving for training didn't really phase me too much. After all he will only be gone for a very short amount of time compared to our previous deployments. And he will be home super soon. And he got to spend more time with us before he left than he did when Max was born. And...it still hit me harder than I thought.

I know LOGICALLY that this is NOT a deployment. I know logically he will be home soon and not gone for a year and we don't have to worry about his safety or foreign countries or readjustment, but dang! It's still hard to be a momma to a VERY VERY energetic 2.5 year old and a 2 week old. It's a bit much to get out of bed 7 times in less than 7 hours. It's just a lot to take in and a lot of it is emotionally trying because I feel myself reliving the experience I had when Max was born and Rob DID deploy.

So survival mode is now in place. Just like when he left when Max was 10 days old and I had to escape the house everyday for my own sanity we are going to be doing the SAME thing, this time with two in tow. Expect a lot more posts in the coming weeks, its my own form of escapism to blog and it's a great way for Rob to stay inside my head when we are seperated by the miles.

Tomorrow's survival plan
~Shopping for craft supplies for a super cool GROUP project I am a part of
   (curtailed from todays plans by the wicked hail storm we had here!)
~Stopping by Mardel to pick up the book "Five in a Row" and to let Max play with the train table.
~On the homefront-dishes and putting away the clean laundry in preparation to DO the dirty laundry

Figuring it out!
Jesi

April Showers bring May Flowers

But I like April Flowers too!

I wanted to post about Stella's showers, one in late March and the second in April. Our flower is due May 7th but I am beyond A-OK if she decides to be an April baby instead. After all diamonds ARE a girls best friend and the birthstone of April. The only tricky part would be WHO she ended up sharing a birthday with! Both Rob and I were incredibly close to our grandmothers who have since passed away and they both had April birthdays. My DAD's birthday is also at the end of April but I don't think he would mind sharing his birthday with a very special little girl.

Back to the "April Showers"

My first shower for Stella was planned for March 20th. Some of my good friends were hosting it together and we all have crazy schedules and this was the one day that worked for everyone. So of course lovely Oklahoma had to have a BLIZZARD. Yes at the end of March. I know that might be the norm for northern states but on Friday of that weekend it was 70 degrees and sunny. Saturday morning we woke up to blowing snow, terrible roads and ice everywhere.

Needless to say it was a BIT stressful when my phone started blowing up with all the people telling me they couldn't make it because of the roads. But alas we decided to keep the shower on because there just wasn't another date that would work for us all. And it ended up going perfectly! My friends and family are so wonderful and we are so blessed to be surrounded by them. Stella Katherine or SK as I like to call her, has so many strong, smart, funny, women of God in her life to look up to as role models and that makes my heart sing.

The gorgeous sign that says Stella Kate over the fireplace. My amazingly talented friend Elizabeth made it, she was one of the hostesses but her and her hubs were out of the country because they are awesome travelers like that!

The beautiful food table. My sweet friend Summer made that cake and it was SO good. Coconut cake! We also had bruschetta, spinach artichoke dip, baguette, fettucini alfredo, mini cupcakes, fruit kabobs and this awesome spinach and fruit salad that my sweet momma makes with balsamic dressing. It's one of my favorites and I ate two plates of it. LOL!

Me and my gorgeous momma. I love her and she is going to be an amazing Nana to Stella. My grandmother and I were very close and sadly she passed away after a fight with cancer when I was in 6th grade. There is an incredible bond and love that exists between my Grandma Marcie, my Mom and me even though she is gone. I cannot wait to share that with Stella.

 
 
 
 


This is my precious sister in law. Auntie D or D as Max calls her. I am super proud of who she is becoming in Christ and love her like a true sister.

Rob's Mom and Sister. Grammy Pooh and D as the kiddos call them.

My stepmom Julia. She is always a rock of faith and I love her dearly. Grandma JuJu is her given name from Max and I know Stella will love her just as much as he does.

My nearest and dearest, this is my best friend Savanah. We have been blessed to be friends 15 years this year!! Savanah was incredibly instrumental in helping me become the woman I am in God and I STILL to this day call her first when I need advice or I hit crisis mode. No one else shows such care for me and unconditional open love. I adore her!

Again with my crazy talented friend Elizabeth. She made this for SK's room and I LOVE it! Isn't she amazing!

These are my gorgeous friends who hosted the shower for me. Amazingly I met all these lovely ladies in college and we are sorority sisters. But I am so thankful we are more than that and our friendship has continued and developed past those silly college days. Kera Don, Summer (aka Catherine Summer being the confirmation for SK's middle name to be Katherine) and Kalee. I love these gals!

My bestest military mommy friend. We understand eachother in a way that most people will never understand! I am so thrilled that her husband will be home soon but I am dreadfully sad about them moving. Dang Army!

These hilarious ladies are my friend Codie who I refer to as my twin and her momma Kim. They filled the shower with laughter. I love them!

I think it's funny that I am red faced and sweaty at this lovely shower. In the middle of a blizzard! What can I do but blame it on the pregnancy hormones?!

Then just this past weekend we had another shower at the dance studio that I work at/teach at. My boss's wife is having their 3rd and much prayed for child and so the moms at dance threw us a small joint shower. It was super cute and all our dance kiddos and parents blessed us with many gifts, gift cards and clothes for the new babies. We cannot wait to meet baby Dominic and it's been really fun to commiserate with Katrina on the woes of motherhood and pregnancy. She is incredibly wise but also super sweet and I loved getting to celebrate with her.

So those are the April Showers, May flowers are great and all but I'm perfectly open to SK showing up early and claiming a diamond as her birthstone. I'm just sayin!

Always,
Jesi