Giggling girls....

Hannah celebrated her 10th brithday in true girlie-girl fashion!  She had a roller skating party with 10 friends and family.  It was complete with the limbo, hokie pokie, pizza, and of course, cake and ice cream!  She really had a fun time.  It is so nice to see her laughing and having the time of her life.

Taking a break from skating and having lunch....

Singing Happy Birthday to Hannah....

  Once we left the skating rink, 6 girls headed back to our house to spend the night!  Whew!!  They were all really good girls and we only had a couple "tiffs", so I think we faired well.  The girls played games, watched movies, ate more cake, and did LOTS OF GIGGLING!!!!   I am not sure how late it was until they actually  went to sleep.  I fell asleep before they did!  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

opening presents....(a karioke machine from mom and dad!!)

Look at all those smiles!!!!

Having a blast... and believe it or not, no one got hurt!!!!

how cute are they?????

10 YEARS OLD!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET GIRL!!!! 

I can't believe I have a ten year old child!!  The old saying is so true.....  Time flies.  It seems like she should still be a toddler.  Most days I really long to have those days back again.  (and some days, ......... I don't!)  I am so proud of her and all she has accomplished already in her life.  She is a nurturer and always the peace maker amongst her friends.  She has to work harder than the average 10 year old, especially in school.  Yet, she LOVES school.  She is eager to go in the morning and gets her books out as soon as she gets home....I am so, so proud and love her so much.

She is having a roller skating party, with all the fixins, this year.  About 11 children are joining in the fun at Skate World.  6 of those girls are coming back to the house for a slumber party!!!!!!  And I am bracing myself.....  This will be the first sleep over of this magnitude.  Pray for me...lol

Next weekend, we are having a family party at my parents house.  Always a fun time with all the cousins!  I will have lots of pics to share later.....


I am also keeping the Chapman familyin my thoughts and prayers today.  They are saying their final good-byes to their sweet girl, Hannah.  I can't imagine the pain they are exeriencing.  They trust in God and His infinite wisdom and know that Hannah is happy and whole.

In the arms of Jesus....

The 4 Paws family lost one of their own today. 8 yr old Hannah passed away at 5:15 pm today. Please keep her parents, brothers and loyal service dog Koolio in your prayers. Our hearts go out to the Chapman family tonight.

prayers for a friend...

A friend of ours, Hannah, is very critically ill. Yesterday she started having a seizure that turned status.  She was care flighted and is still intubated today.  During her 2 1/2 hour seizure, she aspirated and now has pneumonia.  As of about an hour ago, Hannah is still unresponsive.  They are hoping this is due to all the medications they gave her to stop the seizure.  Please pray for her and her family.  They need a miracle.  Here is a a link to her blog.  She got her service dog, Koolio, in March of last year....

http://www.hannahstory.blogspot.com/

This deployment is OVER!!!

Well, we safely brought daddy home last week.  What a week it was....Josiah woke up Monday morning screaming with ear pain.  I took him in, medication on board...We woke up Tuesday, absolutely buzzing with excitement.  We left home at 10 am allowing us enough time to get there.  Gary's Welcome Home Ceremony was at St. John's Arena on the Ohio State campus.  Talk about pomp and circumstance!!!  The guys flew into Columbus and then they loaded them into charter buses, with full police escort to the arena.  All of the families, friends, employers, and LOTS of media were waiting there with intense anticipation....
While we waited, a tv channel in Columbus, started interviewing us, mostly Josiah.  The cameras stayed on us (I have no idea why, other than I have really cute kids!!!)  They reunion was AMAZING!  We were able to go right up to the buses as the troops unloaded.  Hugs and kisses all around....  Then the tv cameras interviewed Gary.  
We were on tv that night in Columbus!!!  Here is a link to the news video.....

http://www.abc6onyourside.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wsyx_vid_1898.shtml

After that, we headed inside and started the ceremony.  Let me tell you, it is quite a sight to see 400 soldiers marching in with everyone going nuts!!!  It still gives me chills.  After hearing lots of dignitaries speak, the troops were FREE!!!  It felt so good to have him in our arms knowing he was coming home with us. 
On the way home, we stopped at a Bob Evans to eat dinner.  (wild kids and all!) While we were at our table, the waitress came over and said someone saw our van and wanted to thank us (I had a window decal put on the back window of the van that said "Look out! We're on our way to pick up OUR DADDY!  Our HERO is back from Iraq!!)  This person had purchased a $50 Bob Evans gift card for us!!!!  A perfect stranger; not even sticking around for us to thank them....  There are still nice people in the world.......

This past week has been time to catch up...The kids are home from school on break and eating all of daddy's attention up!!!  Christmas was wonderful.  It was just us.  We stayed in our jammies all day!  I can't remember a better Christmas, ever.....

Hannah has been fairly stable.  We have been having less Blitzen alerts (actually going a couple days with NO alerts!)  The seizures that she has had, haven't been too bad.  For that, I am grateful...  We are looking forward to 2010.  Wishing you all a great new year!!!

CHRISTMAS GIFT!!

DADDY IS GOING TO BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!  We are all jumping for joy!! 

Gary is back in the United States...debriefing.  He will be flying home on December 22nd.  They will be having a coming home ceremony at St. John's Arena on the OSU campus.  And then we will be heading home.  Wow.  What a fantastic Christmas gift!!! 

Daddy asked the kids what special activity they wanted to do when he got home....(he is spending a special day with each child).
Hannah: "I want to go roller skating at Skateworld!!"
Josiah:  "I want to go do paintballs!!"
Eli:  "Um, instead of paintballs, can we buy squirt guns and spray each other????"  (I think Josiah told him it can hurt).  so cute....

Full Circle....

Feel like I am walking down memory lane this evening....Hannah officially started Depakote tonight.  This was her very first seizure medication when she was 4 years old.  Wow.  Almost 6 years ago.  I still remember EXACTLY where I was when I was told she was having seizures.  The day our lives changed. Her wonderful pediatrician called me from her home on her day off....I was driving.  I pulled over in a church parking lot and listened in disbelief.  We finally had an answer as to what was wrong, but I felt so blindsided.  The wind knocked out of me.....I had no idea, at the time, what a rollercoaster we were about to go on....good thing too.  I could not have handled it.

So, because we have only two medications left to try and both have a very little chance of helping, we are trying Depakote again.  Six years ago, this drug had very little side affects (if any), but never controlled her seizures.  Her seizures were very different then.  So, we will see if it controls her better now.  We have come full circle..... We are going to wean onto Depakote and in two weeks, start weaning off of Diazepam.  Hopefully, with the holidays and daddy's return from Iraq, we will have a smooth transition of meds.  Faith and Hope.....