Good morning...

Hi, it's me. Hannah. I get up early. Momma says she's exhausted and really wants me to sleep later. But, if you are an early bird, momma says I look really cute in the morning. This is my hair. My smile. My toys. My fuzzy jammie.

Oh..and yeah. Brother gets up right after me cuz I cry when momma changes my diaper.

Basically, momma says it's a good thing I'm cute cuz she's really tired a lot.

Ok..I call these pictures "Good morning". Love, Hannah

p.s. this hammer and ball....I slam it together really loud. Time: 6:04am.

Must blog!

Seriously...I'm blogging to just blog! I realized it's been a week.

So..if you're not on facebook...then you missed this! My little brother!

Isn't he adorable???!!!

Love you JOSHY!

Did this just really happen to me?

Hi family, yes, I call the following story: "this really happened"

So, here's the rundown.

My phone broke. Literally...I was walking into the kitchen and my slippery hands dropped it.

So, now. Huge problem. It works..but I can't see the incoming callers. Umm, not good. Especially for me since I'm a self confessed screener.

And, to top it off, I can't see my numbers to call and therefore required me to open my phone, seek out the name and then memorize the contact number for 3 seconds. Trust me...a lot harder than it sounds.

So, day 2. Need Iphone. Call Verizon...get out of contract...and just take the jump.

In route to Mall to the Apple store 1 hour later post verizon call.

Lisa Allen takes the challenge and goes with me. Well..she was at my house, she didn't have a choice.

So..here's the "this really happened to me" story.

Now, this is where I say "this is my life". Jonathan (my beloved) says "you can go to the apple store but I'm not watching Hannah". Ugh..(sigh)
My life.

Luke is alseep. (for the next 2 hours mind you) And, he wants us to take Hannah. I'm seriously annoyed. This type of thing absolutely maddens me.

So, Hannah just had her bottle and me/Lisa leave out quickly because I know she's on a 3 hour window and I wanted to get back to feed her.

Ok. Get in car....fast. Drive to Mall.

Drive into the parking lot.

We hear Hannah go "grunt, grunt, grunt, grunt". Not good.
Smell and all.

At that very moment...I realize. Oh crap!! (edited version here) "I FORGOT HER DIAPER BAG LISA!".

Lisa is exasperated and repulsed by smell. Me..well, I'm freaking out on how to deal with this.

Immediately, we look in the backseat and realize there are LUKE SIZE diapers. Size 6. She's a size 3. OH GOOD! Manageable..right.

Then! I found a box of wipes in the backseat as well. YAY! The day is saved.

Get Hannah out of car seat, note: Happy baby....and smiling. And lay her down in the backseat to change the blowout.

Note again: Why is it that when you are on the go like this it's always the WORST POO EVER?! What's up with that moms?

Ok..back to point. Feeling excited we have it all and then I open the wipe box.

SOLID FROZEN WIPES. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? Better yet...will this ever happen again in TEXAS?!! LOL! Unbelievable.

Lisa dies laughing and I'm freaking out.

Turn on car heater.

I scream at Lisa to tear some apart from the ice block and DE-THAW THEM at the vent. She complies.

30 minutes later!!! We get this mess cleaned up. Note..Happy baby still in a size 6 diaper now.
Remarkably, ONSIE JAMMY SET IN TACT.

So, then. I'm relieved but seriously need to wash my hands. I've got 3 DIAPERS that helped out with the the clean up + semi frozen wipes.

Lisa finds a chick-filet bag with old soiled fast food in my car and we put those diapers and bad diaper in the bag. Must find trash can.

Then, I sling Hannah because we didn't bring the stoller either. Again..this was supposed to be a 30minute gig in TOTAL!

We start out and hit the APPLE STORE 45 minutes later than anticipated.

Get there..Buy IPHONE (which is a dream BTW) and head out. (p.s. My apple clerk was named Stefon and about 20 years younger and seriously hot) GAWD?! What's wrong with me!?! I'm getting old.

Go to car. Open car door. VOOOOM. SMELL.

We FORGOT THE CHICK FILET BAG OF BAD POO DIAPERS IN THE CAR.

Note: Lisa is still repulsed and somewhat regurgitating.

I die laughing and hold my nose.

Confession: We littered. I couldn't take it anymore and Lisa threw it out of the car right in the Nordstroms parking lot. I'm so sorry the state of Texas and Nordstroms and potentially some poor random civilian. Please don't judge. It was the moment from hell at the moment and it was unbearable at the time in the car. Now I have this huge guilt. I hate litterbugs. Ugh. (sigh)

Drive home.

That's my "this really happened to me story".

I think all of us moms have this outer body baby experience at times. Seriously...could it be more unorganized and crazy messy!!!

The upside is that my baby girl was a dream. Thank you Lord for such a sweet natured child. We are blessed.

Much love blog family! LOVE YOU!
Andrea

I smile..all the time!

Hi bloggies. I've decided to adopt the dinky blog post method. My friend Lori has a blog and I have always loved it. She blogs these little short and sweet blog posts. Sometimes..she'll just post a video with a one liner and they are hilarious. So...Lori, if you're reading this..you've rubbed off on me. I'm all about DINKY BLOG POSTS that say a lot! It's my new 2010 blog goal.

So..here you go: LESS the paragraph above explaining my new dinky blog post method...let's pretend I started HERE: As Luke would say...DA DA DAHHHHHH(a drum roll sound)

I call this picture: Mommy....I smile all the time. If you catch me while I'm in mid-roll...I'll stop right there and smile at you. It's my thing. I'm a smile baby. I love my little girl!!

The new year..2010

Wow. It's 2010. A new year and a new season. Happy New Year lovey dovey bloggers!

I shot some video of the kids yesterday. I realized that so many of us bloggers will post a year in review. Well, I don't have time anymore. I wished I did. As I type this...I hear baby girl on the monitor like a little dolphin stirring and waking from her morning nap. There is no time!

So, I'm posting video of my favorite accomplishments of the year. I'm thrilled about my love bugs. Luke and Hannah are progressing beautifully, perfectly and miraculously! Truly..it's miraculous.

So...my 2009 Luke/Hannah recap excitement in no particular order:

That our baby girl can crawl now. Laugh, smile and her disposition is contagious.

That our little boy is walking..gaining confidence by the day.

Luke had his 1st official carpet picnic with a sippy cup and graduate stars all by himself. I didn't have to sit with him, hold the cup, feed one star at a time. 4 years..this is huge people. Huge. The sheer joy of watching my child feed himself and take a drink himself is nothing short of thrilling for us. Even Jonathan screamed from the living room..'honey!! Luke is a big boy drinking from his sippy cup'. The little pleasures in life.

That little girl can pinpoint exactly where the red button is on her jungle toy to activate sound. Thank you Lord for this cognitive smartness! We are thrilled.

So..these are the biggies above. Huge stuff. Stuff that makes me smile. "GOOD STUFF".

Now..for the other good "STUFF".

Me/Jon. Acceptance. So key. That's our year end Marriage 2009 recap. People....blog family..strangers...this is huge. So huge in marriage. Acceptance and surrendering to prayer. God is good. Jesus in the only reason we are good parents, and good wives and husbands. In our case, I try. In Jon's case...who am I to ever judge his heart. Only God knows our hearts. I pray we can be pure in this. My heart this past year spiritually is starving for a good home church CLOSE TO HOME. We are prayerful for this....this year. But overrall...I am so utterly thankful for my husband, the father of my children and my prayer group of girls who in our 'wretchedness'....love each other where we are. We cuss, we get frustrated and at the end of the day...we cry out that God will be gracious to us in this. We are children of God period. We make messes...just like little kiddos. Lord, may we rely on you to clean up our sippy cup messes in our marriages and parenting!

Ok..my heart above. We are trucking along! And thankful for it. I love you blog family.

Oh....my goals for 2010 (simple and short):

To lose the weight and look good for my upcoming 40th birthday in May of 2011. (I have an entire year and a half to do this!) AND a Gym membership is sealed!

To please LORD find a good home church close to home for our children.

To DO YOGA WITH MY HUSBAND! YES..we are committing (trying) to do this now.

Ok...pretty simple right? LOL! There are actually more. But..this is a quick recap. I pray God helps me in all of this and I rely on Him.

Love you blog family--------------VIDEO OF THE LUKE/HANNAH GREATNESS BELOW YEAR END 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!!

Christmas morning 2009!

Merry Christmas Blog family!

We love you! Many thanks Blog family for sharing our lives with us. Your continued support and prayers bless us beyond.

The Hughes family! Hugs, Hugs!

A moderate trim...

Haircut for Luke...cute little bangs for Hannah bow. It was Hannah's first haircut and Luke's first Toys R Us salon haircut.

Ericka went with me. It's all her fault they got their haircuts. :) LOL! (inside joke with Aunt Lisa...and yes Lisa, I affirm Ericka..I lie) Love you.

I call this picture of Luke: Bobblehead.

I call this picture of Hannah: Baby girl got bangs

watch this!!

Baby girl loves her music!!

Many thanks everyone for the sweet, sweet comments on Lukester. It's amazing isn't it? Last night Jonathan was working at his desk and all the sudden Luke just walked past him. LOL!! Totally cracked us up!

This said, had to post missy pop and her love of music. Luke is really starting to love baby girl. We can tell in little ways. He's getting somewhat protective of her. It's really cute!!

Enjoy!

Words cannot express

Both Jonathan and I have cried this week. Words will never,ever express the gratitude we have for God and the blessing this child has been to us. We are in tears about it and can't thank everyone enough for praying for our Luke. God is faithful..in every way. We love you Lord. We love you our sweet Luke. We are crazy and desperate in love with you sweetheart. Love, Mom and Dad

I call this video "WALKING".

Test shot

So, Jonathan buys me a wide angle lens for Christmas.

Does anyone see anything remotely wrong with this test shot?

I call this picture: "No. I am not pregnant!!"

Participation

Jonathan and I woke up yesterday morning and just freaked out on the toys in our house. It's ridiculous. Seriously. We've gotten to a point where we just can't stand the mess. It's taken us over.

So, between feeding the kids breakfast...we just freaked out and started dumping toys in trash bags saying "does he play with this?".."no"...."does baby girl need this"..."no"...."what about this one?...." "yeah, he plays with that". Ok, repeat the above 105x.

After 1 hour, we pretty much wiped them all out. We can see our floor again and we can breathe.
In the midst of this chaos, I got sick of little Hannah's hair in her eyes. (no, I will not cut it) :)

So..here you go: I call these pictures "Cleaning house".

p.s. Where was Luke? He was jumping on the bed!! I have an entire birthday post coming this week of our sweet boy! I feel like lately little Luke has been neglected on my bloggie. But, I have taken thousands of pictures for Luke!! And not many pics of Hannah! I have to catch up! She's changing by the day!

Oh! ONE MORE THING: YES!! You are correct...there is a picture below where Hannah is in crawling position!! We are SOOO CLOSE!! Video coming of this as well! So cute!

Thankful...

Hi lovey's. It's me....Andrea. How are you? Good? Miss you.

Ok....well, it's Thanksgiving and here we are with a baby girl this year!! and a big boy that is almost walking! Wow...so much to be thankful for.

It's been a crazy year. Seriously. Crazy year. So much to say and so little time to say it. But..nevertheless..here are few things and I pray you are doing well. Much love, A

Thankful for....(ok..the big stuff first)

• My husband and my heart. Things are so good right now and things are so God in that. Thank you Jesus. (and my prayer girls!)
• Our sweet Luke. He's perfection. What else can I say? We are in love my sweet Lukester..you rock our world.
• Our baby girl. Hannah bow. A cherub. A slice of Heaven....a true privilege and so very blessed. Thank you Lord..you say *all* children are a gift from *You*. We've opened this gift up and we are mesmerized, enchanted, in love, protective and so very grateful.
• My friends. God..I'm so blessed in this. So very, very, very, very blessed in this. Thank you again Jesus. (sorry to repeat..but gotta give credit where credit is due)
• My business. My clients! Lord, you've answered my prayers from 20 years ago in reference to this. Prayers and hopes I prayed before I even knew You. Prayers I prayed when I knew You. And now...they are answered. Love you.
• Our home and the obnoxious holiday decorations.
• My neighbors who accept us for what we are and continue to show us sweetness.
• my prayer girls..you know whom you are. (ugh..need you!)
• facebook. Kidding. (not really) I'm addicted and love it.
• My dinky blog. I know I don't blog much..but history will prove I was here through my bloggie! LOL

Dinky thankfulness stuff:

• my 85 lens.
• Dvr
• Estee Lauder makeup.
• coffee (medium) My Kcup machine..Larry..you will never know the impact this has on my network of friends! LOL
• my paid off car.
• my nursing and nannie...not sure what I would do without the help I have. (note: move this up to big stuff..sorry..just thought of this!!!)
• my Clark shoes..warmly called My geriatric shoes.
• my manicurist.
• my occasional pedi's.
• my occasional girl outtings. Gawd I love these.

I could go on and on. But just a short glimpse.

Love you bloggies. Happy Thanksgiving. Have a great, great, great day.

Hugs,

A

Preparing for Hannah's 1st Birthday

Ok....so, I know...guess what?! It's HERE!!!!!

I am not entirely sure this will be her birthday picture yet..we had a bad shoot and she was very distracted and hungry. However, I managed to get one smile from her but picky momma wants that perfect Hannah smile she sees daily! (it's a momma thing)

So...we plan to go back out and take some more. In the meantime....I could NOT RESIST!! Is this not the most amazing dress you've ever seen on a child!!! LOL!!

It's over the top! And..the dang thing is so huge and fluffy..we put her in her bumbo and you can't even tell!! LOL.. Her ruffles cover it up!

I love my baby girl!

I call this picture: "My Gawd...she's adorable!!".

The following and I'm afraid you can't really see is the mock up of her 1 year birthday cake! Can you tell I'm really into this? I'm a crazy momma here.

It's the one that is on the far right with her name written. My cake lady sent me a few cake designs to show me her strawberry designs as we wanted strawberries and bows. We did this because we call her "Hannah Bow" and "Our little strawberry patch". LOL. (all from Daddy)

So, my cake lady is going to make this MASSIVE BOW wrapping around the cake! The top layer is Hannah's fun cake and it's going to be lemon. The bottom layer will be strawberry!!

I cannot wait! All the princess decor is in and of course Luke's stuff is already ordered and he's set too. I'll blog Luke's on a seperate blog and it's so hilarious and funny as well. I loved this process.

Ok...enjoy loved ones! Must run. I'm overwhelmed with photoshoots right now. Gotta get my images out to my clients end of week. Love you!!



Another sneak peek with balloons! again..we are going to try again!

A few things

1) Please pray for my mimi. She's not doing all that great and my mom is having to take care of her. Please pray that she'll get better super duper quickly.

2) The kids birthdays are coming up.

Cakes are ordered and clothes are officially picked out!

All I'm going to say is the following picture is what I ordered for Hannah.

I call this purchase "but, she's my only girl".

More to come. Hugs and thanks for praying! Love you, A

Please read...we need serious help for BABY RB

Fight to keep your child!! FIGHT!

see link: click here

These children with CMS are wonderfully made by GOD. The hospital or no authority should ever dictate if a child's life is worthy of living.

GOD DECIDES.

These children need time to get stronger!! They will GET STRONGER!!

CONTACT the MAYO CLINIC in Rochester, MN in the USA....they see more CMS patients throughout the USA and they will tell you how smart these children are!!

PLEASE READ THE LEFT COLUMN OF MY BLOG...this will show you Luke's progression and status. He's doing great!

You must FIGHT! ANYONE READING THIS...I BEG YOU to advocate for BABY RB.

See my SON BELOW? HE's amazing!! Watch his video story on the side bar...see his struggles as an infant and KNOW THIS>....THEY ARE STRONG CHILDREN! They are SMART AND AMAZING!

I BEG YOU to the person that does not agree......please know that God is the one that protects life and chooses life. It is up to us to NOT BE GOD...and allow the technology that God has put on this earth for us to USE for our provision.

If BABY RB needs a trach....give it to him,! Let him go HOME with his FATHER!!

From a desperate mother from Texas that is raising a CMS CHILD with love and adoration.

THIS CHILD IS WORTHY! I beg you Lord....advocate for this child with your mighty hand.

In Jesus name,
Amen

Happy Halloween 2009

Well...we did it! Another Halloween full of decor and more decor! As some of you know, my dear husband loves this holiday. I personally have never liked it. And, to be very honest here, I would be almost bitter about it while he would put so much effort into decorating every year. I would think "Gawd....can't he put more effort into other things besides this scary holiday that doesn't edify the Lord?".

yes..my self righteous me. I cringe now. God has shown me that my husband loves holidays and decorates and that's ok. I have great peace about it now and found that this holiday was our best yet. We had a great time with the kids, our grandkids and Luke/Hannah loved all the action. So...to my husband: Love you honey....you do such a great job for the kids on the street and when Luke/Hannah realize how crazy their dad is when it comes to decorating..they will love it!!

Ok..As you can see, our little Hannah was a fairy princess and Luke was a HOBO. Chandler and Delilah (our grandkids) were a pirate princess and a fireman! So cute!!

I cooked over the top Chili (I put italian sausage in it and that's the secret ingredient!)and everyone loved it.

I just felt a great sense of family and love on Saturday! What a blast!

Pictures below! Enjoy. P.S. Lisa decided to put on Hannah's Tutu on her head! LOL! I call that picture: freak! LOL!

Happy Halloween !! Enjoy!

Our little Hobo....Isn't this Adorable!

I love this picture below!!
Baby girl....yes, I know..over the top adorable!

Attempt to take a family picture inside....yes, here we are!

Our fun house!! Jon did a great job!

Lisa! Freak!!

Delilah and Chandler (our grandkiddies) Over the top cute!

Daddy and Hannah

A classic picture! From left to right..youngest to oldest!

I look amazing below. LOL! My fav. pic to date!

Lexie/Jonathan and the kids. (for those whom don't know...Jonathan is my husband's oldest Son) This is Lexie (his wife..my nannie) and the kids!

I saw this on facebook

I saw this on facebook. It's so funny to me to read things like this. I honestly don't get mad anymore when people act the way they do towards my kiddos. Sometimes..'they know not what they do'.

However, I wanted to post this to give you a glimpse of what the reality is when having special children. Sadly, so much of it is true. It may seem as if the person that wrote this is bitter in some way. Not the case. I think it's just reality and how they learned to cope. Who are we to judge?

Here you go!
Written by Ellen S. Ellen can be found at To The Max.

A Bill of Rights For Parents of Kids With Special Needs We, the parents, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure tranquility (and sanity) and promote the general welfare of our families, do ordain and establish this Bill of Rights.
* We have the right to expect our kids to be seen for who they are as individuals, not as labels or diagnoses.
* We have a right to trust our instincts about our kids and realize that experts don't always know best.
* We have a right to ignore the remarks, questions and stares and not give explanations or excuses for why our children are the way they are.
* We have a right to choose alternative therapies for our kids.
* We have a right to roll our eyes straight out of our heads when we encounter certain mothers who brag nonstop that their kids are the smartest students/best athletes ever.
* We have a right to wonder "What if…" every so often. * We have a right to play aimlessly with our children. Not for therapeutic or educational purposes—just for fun.
* We have a right to blast Bruce Springsteen/ Tom Petty/Any Rocker, down a glass of Pinot Grigio, get a pedicure, go out with the girls or do all of the aforementioned at once if that's what it takes to avoid burnout.
* We have a right to react to people's ignorance in whatever way we feel necessary.
* We have a right to not always have our child be the poster child for his/her disability and some days be just a child.
* We have a right to go through the grieving process and realize we may never quite be "over it." * We have the right to give our kids chores. Even better if they can learn to make breakfast in bed for us.
* We have a right to stretch the truth when we fail to do the exercises the therapist asked us to do this week because we were too darn tired or overwhelmed.
* We have a right to have yet more Pinot Grigio.
* We have a right to fire any doctor or therapist who's negative, unsupportive or who generally says suck-y things.
* We have a right to tell family and friends that everything may not be OK—at least not how they mean it, anyway.
* We have a right to hope for an empty playground so we don't have to look into another child's eyes and answer the question, "What's wrong with him?"
* We have a right to bawl on the way back from the playground, the birthday party, the mall or anyplace where our children's challenges become glaringly obvious in the face of all the other kids doing their typical-development things.
* We have the right to give our children consequences for their behavior. They may be "special" but they can still be a royal pain in the ass.
* We have a right to take a break from Googling therapies, procedures, medicine and treatments for our kids to research upcoming concerts, exotic teas or anything not related to our child's disabilities.
* We have a right to talk about how great our kids are when people don't get it.
* We have the right to not always behave as inspirational icons who never complain or gripe about the sometimes awful realities of raising a child with special needs.
* We have a right to expect quality services for our children not just when they're infants, preschoolers and elementary school age, but when they're in older grades and adults, too.
* We have a right to adequate funding for those services and to not have to kick, scream or endure a wait for them.
* We have a right to get tired of people saying, as they give that sympathy stare, "I don't know how you do it."
* We have a right to wish that sometimes things could be easier.
* We have a right to cheer like crazy anytime our children amaze us—or weep like lunatics.
* We have a right to push, push and push some more to make sure our children are treated fairly by the world.

This is really bad.

Rough night last night for me. Pray all is ok for me and Luke.

I hate this flu. It's really a kicker. Hadn't had a flu like this since 2000. I think think it's been that long. Debbie...it's the one you gave me ..remember that? (lol)

At any rate, I am praying Luke has a good day. So far..good night.

Love you,
A

p.s.Thank you: Debbie(for Mimi); Lulu (for Hannah); Lisa (temporary custody);Darci (chick.noodle); Kelly B (Electrolytes!);Ericka (king ranch);and all the prayer warriors!! Day 3..still temp. Hoping for a better day for me/Luke. love you all, A