Friends from Afar

While I was growing up my family had exchange students from other countries that lived with us for a year at a time. Lars is from Denmark and lived with us while I was in elementary school, I think maybe 4th grade. He moved to the US several years ago but we had lost touch along the way. Thanks to the wonder of facebook we all reconnected. Lars, along with his 3-year-old son Tristan, came and spent the weekend with our family 2 weeks ago. We had so much fun and the kids got along perfectly! We ate lots of yummy food, watched Josh play some baseball, went to the St. Patrick's Day parade and even roasted marshmellows over the fire pit at Papa & Granny's house. We are all looking forward to many more visits with the two of them! Here are some pics of our fun times:

Matthew MRI Update

Matthew had his MRI on February 25th at Lucile Packard (Stanford). It went very well...he tolerated the anesthesia much better than last time. We were suppose to meet with his doctor the next day but, fortunately, he met with us in the recovery room afterwards. The spot they had found on his rib with the last MRI is stable, meaning it has not changed at all. This was very good news since we don't know what that spot is. The doctor said if it were going to grow he would have expected it to do so by now. The area where they removed the vascular malformation last June did have some changes. There are two areas where the malformation has begun to grow back. The surgeon wasn't completely surprised to see this. He said that one of the areas is near a nerve root that he didn't want to try and manipulate with the surgery. The other is between two vertebrae where they avoided removing any bone and only shaved the surface to cut off blood supply. Both spots are very small, less than 1 cm, and not causing a problem at this point. We will monitor him for any symptoms and do another MRI in a year. Worst case scenario would be he would need surgery again to remove these growths. But the doctor was very optimistic that this wouldn't be necessary. He doesn't expect them to grow very much more if at all. My feeling is...at least we know what these are and why they are there. It was much better than to have seen the rib lesion growing - we don't know what that is. So, for now, we thank God for the good news and the good doctor he provided us with. And we are prayerful and hopeful that things will stabilize and no other surgery will be needed. Thank you to all who continue to pray for Matthew and send their love our way!!

February Catch Up

Gotta love February...Valentine's Day! It was a big occassion for Sami this year. The festivities began on February 13th with her kindergarten class party. She, of course, picked High School Musical cards and we had made goodie bags for each of the kids. They inhaled candy, cupcakes and juice like you wouldn't believe! After school we met Joey (her "boyfriend" from pre-school), his Mommy and little sister at Red Robin for lunch. The two love birds exchanged little gifts and lots of giggles as they played and ate. These two are hysterical when they are together - they picked up right where they left off! Next Sami and I went for pedicures and she got her fingernails done in preparation for the big night ahead! Cory took Sami to the Father-Daughter Dance at the convention center. She wore her fancy dress from the Espi's fashion show, we curled her hair all up and even put on a little lip gloss. Cory got her flowers and a new bracelet to wear. They went to Henry Salazar's for dinner with some other daddies and daughters. Then they finished off the night with lots of dancing and fun! I am sure this was a night she will remember for a very long time! The next day (the 14th) we had our heart shaped pancakes, sandwiches and candy to top off our Valentine's celebration! Funny how this day becomes less about our spouses and more about our kids as time goes by...how did that happen?!

This weekend was wonderful. We were able to go out to Uncle Carl and Aunt Shelley's house in Tipton and spend the day with family. It was one of the best days we've had in a long, long time. Sami actually milked a cow in the milking barn. Uncle Carl answered her million questions about milking the cow, where the milk goes, who takes it from here and on and on and on. After that we got to ride cousin Sydnie's horse Milo. We all loved it but Sami was IN love with it. She could have stayed on that horse all day if she had her way. Matthew's favorite thing was "driving" the truck and cart. He thought he was such a big boy. How lucky we are to have such a wonderful family...it was a day we will cherish for a long time to come!

My Big Boy

Mommy's heart is breaking! Even with RSV and an ear infection, Matthew is hitting milestones. He is asleep for the very first time in his "big boy" toddler bed! We started processing the idea of moving him out of the crib a couple of weeks ago. He has figured out just how to climb over that rail perfectly! Also, he keeps getting his feet stuck in the slats and then complains his foot hurts. I knew it was time - after all, Sami was in a toddler bed at 18 months. But I just wanted to hang on to that baby phase as long as I could. Never again will I have a crib up in my house and a baby in my arms. This is a big deal! I am perfectly content and blessed with my 2 children and I know (when I think about it logically and not emotionally) that we should leave our family as a family of 4. But my heart breaks to think this is it! My wonderful hubby is right though - he always tells me it wouldn't matter if we had 2 kids or 10, at some point I would feel the same way. So...when a friend a mine offered up her toddler bed for free we decided to go for it. Sick or not, heartbroken or not. The time had come for Matthew to be a "big boy"... but he will ALWAYS be my baby no matter what bed he sleeps in!

Sorry, no other way to say it - RSV Sucks!

The Reeder household is a sick household yet again! It started 2 weeks ago with Sami. She came down with the flu - chills, aches, fever, sinus congestion, cough - the whole thing. She stayed home from school for 3 days and then we had a 3 day weekend. By that weekend, Matthew started with a low-grade fever and runny nose. By this last Monday Sami was improving and Matthew was about the same. But, I had the day off and figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and take them both to the doctor. I really felt silly for making an appointment. Well we ended up leaving with 4 prescriptions! Sami had an ear infection and she had not complained about her ear at all! So she was given an antibiotic and cleared to go back to school the next day. Matthew was a different story! One of his ear tubes has come out and that ear is infected. Then they tested his nasal discharge and, sure enough, he has RSV. Also she officially diagnosed him with asthma. He was given an antibiotic for the ear, a nebulizer and 2 different medications for the nebulizer. By the next day, the RSV was in full force. Even with the 2 medications, he was still wheezing and having trouble moving air. So, the doctor increased his breathing treatments to every 2 hours and that has finally helped. Finally, 6 days later he is really improving. We are weaning down the breathing treatments and no fever for about 4 days now. So even though he is getting better, the rest of the family is a mess. Cory now has a horrible head cold and last night, around 11pm, Sami started puking!!! Are you kidding me?! Fortunately, it was a one time thing and she has been fine today. No more puking, plenty of eating! But what is left is one EXHAUSTED mommy! I am ready for a healthy house!

Snow & Fashion Show

Once again..playing catch up! We took the kids to Badger Pass for the first time this month. We rented a loft condo and took my parents, brother, his girlfriend and my nephew along. It was absolutely beautiful and the kids had a blast. We went sledding, played in the snow and even went ice skating one night. Sami was a champ and was skating with only a little help by the end of the night. Matthew was not happy that he had to just sit by the fire and watch - poor little guy! The next day we went skiing...well Sami went skiing anyway. I am not a skier in any way, shape or form so I took pictures and watched as she had her very own lesson. She did awesome, only falling a couple of times. She went down the bunny hill for the next hour and loved every minute of it. Once again, Matthew was not a happy camper and said over and over, "I ski Mommy? Pweease??". He was finally content throwing snow balls as Sami went by on the bunny hill! Cory tried snow boarding for the first time and hated it! By the time Sami was done with the bunny hill, Cory was ready to go too. So we let the rest of the gang ski and took a drive to through Yosemite before heading home. A long weekend, but very fun!

A couple of weeks ago Sami did a fashion show for Espi's at a luncheon. She absolutely fell in love with the idea but when the moment came to do the walk...the anxiety was a bit much. She got through it with Mommy holding her hand and says she can't wait to do it again...we'll see! So here are some pics of our latest adventures - enjoy!