Haning around the Marshall house

Neil wanted to teach Kate to sleep in the tent so he set it up in the living room.  They did good until bed time! Neil is a good Dad!

 Neil taking Kate on rides around the family room, she loved it until she'd fall off and Carter would think that was funny and keep running.

 During the summer we take the tramp down and did a needed yard day and got things back to par and Kate has learned to love the swim.  Enjoying our ice-cream cones on the swing with Sydney. 

Mothers Day

For Mothers Day the kids have to be sweet to me and Neil tries also so I took advantage of taking pictures since they had to be pleasant and not complain!

 Neil saw these shoes in Kates closet and was not happy we hadn't used them yet.  They just started fitting her and its summer.  But that didn't stop him, so those were her church shoes that day and he loved every minute! They just fit her little personality!

Happy Birthday Sydney!

I can't believe Sydney is 6!!  

What a wild six years it's been, but what an amazing blessing, we'll take many more!!

We had a little birthday party with a couple of Sydneys friends, they jumped on the tramp with water and had a blast!

I

 We have waited a long time for her to get her ice cream cone, she got it and loved it!!!  We had the small little cones and they were perfect!!

Kate Tubes

Kate got tubes in her ears.  She was so funny, she wasn't nervoue, she was cracking up the nurses because she was overly polite with thank your and pleases every time they left the room.  

Sydney Tests

Sydney went in for her EGD, still not sure what that stands for, but her GI, Pulmonologist, and ENT were all going in to check out her chest, lungs, throat and all that fun stuff and take some biopsies and look around with a camera.  They were also going to put a PH probe in for a couple days to measure her acid movement.  It kind of like an NG tube with little computers all over it that read things.  

The EGD showed she had gunk in her lungs that will be treated with meds.  They biopsied her esophagus and a couple weeks later was diagnosed with EE Eosinophilic Esophagitis.  It took me an entire day to be able to say that one.  She from what I understand is allergic to certain food and it is hurting her esophagus.  While they were in there rather than doing the PH probe they took out her tonsils.  

The next day she had an MRI to see if the things we thought were seizures maybe were strokes.  But due to the double day sedation she had some breathing difficulties during that, but they were able to finish the test.  No strokes.  Good to know, but were hoping that would explain the regression in skills.

This was really tough on her!!!  She had had tubes in and out of her throat and then the tonsils so they were double sore.  She didn't understand why she was hurting and wouldn't eat anything by mouth to sooth it.  She did a lot of crying and the best remedy was snuggling.  Carter was sweet with her.  About a week and a half later she started perking up!!! Glad that one is all done!

Thats my Kate

At a photography class the teacher talked about different kinds of pictures.  One of those kinds being those things that you want to get mad at your kids for doing that one day you will maybe miss when they are grown. I have tried to do that.  Her are a couple for fun.  

While updating the blog, I thought I was good for at least 10 min.  Kate had her oatmeal and strapped in to her chair and watching Elmo.  Came back 5 min. later and she had oatmeal all over her hair.  She does this all the time and it is so smooched into her hair I have to give her a bath and comb it out.  Gotta love it!!

Kate pulling all my can food out rolling it on the floor all over.  Luckily this has been good practice on how to "clean up" and she does good.  It isn't organized but it works!

Kate putting all the toilet paper in the toilet and plunging it and then pulling it out onto the floor of the newly cleaned bathroom.

Swallow Study Sydney Update

This was the beginning.  It was observed that Sydney had had a cough since early Jan/ Feb.  Also skills were digressing. She was acting sporadically and her behavior was impulsive.  Her talking was regressing and we were hearing random babbling and she was using more signs.  Rather than reading a book she would pound it on the floor or wall, or little sister walking by.  Same with toys, she just needed serious body input.  She was off, her attention, her frustration  and  our concurs were elevating.  All of the above.  So, we called her army of Drs and things started rolling.  We were sent for a swallow study. Then we were to meet with a rotation of her GI, ENT, and Pulmonogist one day and the next go and be admitted for what ever tests they  needed.  Which is great to not have to wait weeks for scheduling.  Nuro ordered an MRI to check to see if maybe her seizures in Jan/Feb were really strokes.  

Here is Sydney having her swallow study, they have her drink different thicknesses of barium and watch on the x-ray as it goes down to see if she is aspirating into her lungs.  They start with water thinness then nectar and then move to honey then double honey and finally pudding thickness.  We left having the safe thickness of double honey, nothing thinner.  Which makes cup and sippy drinking tricky.  She also showed severe reflux.  We have had issues with both of those things years early but not since.  

Easter

 Easter

Sydney loved the egg Grandma got her that talked!

 

That is my baby!

In our house whenever you hear Carter laughing like crazy you know something is going on that probably shouldn't be. This is what I found Carter and Neil doing to Kate. She LOVED it!

Cute Girl

We started the application process for Sydney to get a canine assistant dog and they needed a picture. She is so good natured when I make her do a photo shoot. Since they were all dressed for church I thought we'd try one with Carter, too bad Kate was still asleep.

Cheshire Chase 5K

The neighborhood does a 5K on Thanksgiving morning. It is so fun for everyone to do. Neil and Carter did it for the first time this year. Neither of them have ever run that far!

Sydney loved noticing she had a number pinned to her like everyone else. She was the biggest cheerleader as we followed the boys with the stroller just in case!
Neils goal was to not stop and he did it, so proud! Maybe next year I can get him to do Ragnar!

Carter ran for the first half strait and then worked every three light poles after that. He and his friend Tyler did Awesome!!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. We had dinner at my Aunt Marci's house. It was a mellow but so fun night! Sydney as you can see has a different Thanksgiving dinner than most. Her meal consisted of a half banana, a peanut butter & butter mixture, and for an off limits treat two peanut butter crackers. She was so excited!!

The rest of us enjoyed a wonderful assortment of wonderfulness! We had a good time visiting with cousins.
This year rather than old and young tables we did boy & girl tables. I have to admit it was quite nice!
Playing off the dinner is always a fun party of the night.

I kept trying to get a picture of Kate, but she would just run!

I am so grateful for my kiddos!

. . . and Neil