Merry Christmas

Merry CHRISTmas!! Love to you all!!

Mike, Kandis & Karlee

At the NECKU

I am blogging about this for my own memory but it is also an adorably cute story on Karlee to share!!

After I picked Karlee up from daycare today, we were heading to Costco!! All of a sudden, she says to me, "Mom, you need to buy 2 baby beds." I asked why to which she replied, "Cause I have 2 babies in my NECK and they are coming soon". I then said, "In your neck? Are babies usually in your neck?" To which she replied, "Sometimes they are! Michele & Melissa (daycare gals) have them in their necks sometimes". Okay then....I didn't ask anymore but decided to ask her more about it when she got up from her nap!!

I asked her if she had her babies yet and she said "No..on the 14th when I am bigger!!" I then asked her how they were going to get out to which she replied with the funniest answer I have ever heard.................

She says, "I don't know...at the NECKU!! Like how you had me at the NECKU!! I need to go to the NECKU with you and have my babies!!"

It was all I could do to keep a straight face....she was completely serious about delivering babies in your NECK at the NECKU!! I guess when she hears us saying NICU, she thinks we are saying NECKU!!

Out of the mouth of babes!!!

10 Years Ago

....10 years ago today my dad was given the GIFT OF LIFE

....a kidney and a pancreas transplant

....10 years ago today some amazing family said goodbye to their dad & their son and gave my dad another chance at life

...THANK YOU

....Thank you for giving me my dad back and for allowing my daughter to know her grandfather

**Here is a poem that I had read at my wedding and then made this to give to the donor family!! Sorry for the poor quality!!

When I was a little girl

I used to run around and play

And wonder in my own way

What would come about the next day.

Then....................

As I grew older and became more aware

Mom would always say

(Daddy's gonna be okay).

Years went by and I would always pray

Becuase Daddy was still sick eveyday.

Then....................

All at once when hope was thin

God reached down

And gave Daddy his life back again.

Mom was right as all Mothers are

(Daddy is okay)

And he is here to give me away

On this, my wedding day.

Author Unknown

Amazing Giveaway

Tracy at Just Another Mommy Blog is having an amazing giveaway on her giveaway/review blog!! Check it out the giveaway here and be sure and get entered for your chance to win!! Good luck!!

Halloween 2009

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!

3 Years Ago

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog hiatus for this very special post (sorry, hopefully life will let me get back to blogging soon)........

3 Years Ago today after 6 LONG weeks of bedrest, 6 VERY LONG weeks (40 days to be exact...reminiscent of the time Jesus spent in the desert) in the NICU, we were FINALLY able to bring our precious miracle home!! It was the best day of my life...I was finally being able to walk through those hospital doors with a baby in my arms and not with empty arms and a heavy heart!! She weighed a whopping 5lbs 2 oz when we left the hospital and now today weighs close to 28lbs...the kid likes to eat!! It was very scary to think that she was home and no longer had all those monitors hooked to her so I knew if she forgot to breathe, to know if her heart was beating to slow, etc. but it was also very JOYFUL!!

Pictures taken right before we left and taken right after we got home!!

Our time in the NICU was great (if you can say that about having to be there)!! The nurses were absolutely wonderful as were the doctors that took care of me and Karlee!! It is very hard to be on the NICU roller coaster as it is called!! I literally LIVED there....got there for her 9:00 a.m. cares and left at about 1:00 a.m. after her midnight cares!! While I was there, I had lots of support from my friends and family and thankfully I didn't have any other kids at home as I don't know how I would have done it!! There is a new website that was just started for caring individuals to register to help a family that has a child(ren) in the NICU!! It is called Survival Mode Parent (the name could not be more fitting...I was/am often asked how I did it and my response always was that Survival Mode kicked in and you just do what you got to do) and it is for individuals to sign up to help provide the basic needs of parents with kids in the NICU!! Please visit their website and sign up to be a volunteer in your area!! You can have the opportunity to make a families life a little easier during a very difficult time. It can be providing something so simple as a meal at the hospital (I would have given anything to have a home cooked meal brought to me vs. having to always eat cafeteria food) to helping with childcare for the other kids the family may have at home!! Please, if you are able, visit the site and sign up as there are lots of families out there that need help!!

I am closing with one of the most amazing pictures of GOD's work I have ever seen! I took this picture of Karlee at just a mere 5 days old! I kept this picture with me the whole time she was in the NICU to remind me that if she can be smiling while going through it, so can I!!

SMILE, GOD loves you!!

Where Dreams Come True....

Here are a few pictures from our Disneyland trip!! It was an amazing, once in a life time trip!! Karlee had the most amazing time and really was a very lucky little girl!! She got to go to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and get her hair, nails and makeup done like a princess for her birthday!! She also got to have a birthday party with Pat-E-Cake!! The day of her birthday, we met an angel named Cheryl that absolutely fell in LOVE with Karlee!! We saw her various times through out the day with the characters!! The next day after Karlee's birthday we went to Toon Town's morning madness!! As soon as we entered the gates, the first person we saw was Cheryl again!! Her and Karlee had a little reunion hug and then Cheryl completely made our whole trip...she asked us if we would want to be in that mornings show!! What that meant was that we would get brought on stage and get a certificate from Mickey making us the Honorary Family of the day!! It was AMAZING!! The fun didn't stop there for Karlee though!! Amazing Cheryl had some more tricks up her sleeve and Karlee ended up getting to hold Pluto's hand and then Donald's hand and walk across the park and then....the icing on the cake.....she got to hold her Mickey's hand and walk through his house with him!! HOW AMAZING!!! We were truly blessed to have met Cheryl and thank her for the great care she took of us and the great things she did for us!!

We are already planning our next trip back!! Next trip will be in October so we can go Trick-R-Treating there!!! We are already counting the days!!

Karlee's Birthday/Disneyland

We are home from our Disneyland trip and will hoepfully be posting pictures soon! It was an amazingly MAGICAL trip with LOTS of great memories!! I am waiting on my CD of pictures of Disney to edit all my photos but will be posting them as soon as it arrives!! Till then, here is a sneak peak into our trip!!

Not My Child

Did you almost die of embarrassment when your child pulled their own pants down at the library? Want to scream bloody murder when your toddler took a pair of scissors to the dog's fur? Feel like a terrible mother when your kid said a four-letter-word at a back to school event? Well don't! Mothers aren't perfect and neither are children. Let's 'fess up today because it's Not my child! Monday!
Sound liberating? Then let's get going!
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Karlee did NOT through such a tantrum in the Dollar Store this week that Mike did NOT have to take her out to the car kicking and screaming!! I mean, she is well behaved enough that she can be told NO and not go into a tantrum!! Nope, Not My Child...she is an angel!! (Side note...not sure who deserved the time out more...Karlee or Daddy!! Daddy handed her a toy to look at and then attempted to pry it from her hands!! He learned a valuable lesson...don't give it to her if you don't plan on buying it!!)

Karlee most certainly did NOT stuff a doll necklace up her nose to the point that it was not visible which did NOT force me to have to get out the tweezers and remove said necklace from said nose!! Nope, Not My Child...she would never do such a thing!!

Karlee is NOT turning 3 years old this Sunday!! There is absolutely no way that is happy...I mean, I just gave birth to her yesterday...my baby CAN'T be growing up....I forbid it when she was born!! No, Not My Child...she is staying a baby forever!! SNIFF, SNIFF!! :-)

Hope everyone has a great week and weekend!! 4 days till we leave for Disneyland!!

Not Me Monday (on Thursday)

Welcome to Not Me Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

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Things have been a little hectic and so I am finally getting my Not Me Monday done today...better late than never!!

This past week we most certainly did not make 3 trips to the fair just so that I could indulge myself in the not so good for you fair food!! My mouth is watering right now thinking about how good it tasted...fried pickles, strawberry kabob, greasy french fries, corn dogs...I mean watering THINKING about how good they would have tasted had we actually went cause I would never go to such a dirty, germ infested place to eat such unhealthy food nor would I subject Karlee to that...No, Not me!!

I also would have never taken a picture of said delicious fair food had we gone just to be able to remember how good it was!! Of course I didn't, cause of course we didn't go to the fair!!

I also didn't almost have a panic attack walking into the Wal-Mart that Mike works at for the first time after an employee was shot there by another employee!! No, not me...I am always calm, cool and collected...never over-react!! I mean my husband is perfectly safe going to work every day cause I mean who would bring a gun to work at Wal-Mart anyway!!

Lastly, I am not counting down the days till we leave for Disneyland like a 2 year-old. I am an adult and don't need to count down such things! No, I am not counting...but if I was, we leave in 8 DAYS!!! :-)

Hope you all join in the fun!! If you want to know the rules and the ins and outs, check out this blog post on MckMama's blog!!

Not Me Monday

I decided to participate in Not Me Monday for the first time....sooo here goes!!....

Welcome to Not Me Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

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This weekend we most certainly didn't make 2 back to back trips to Chuck E Cheese after having already been there just a week prior to that as well! No not me...I wouldn't let my child play at such a place!!

While leaving from the last said Chuck E Cheese visit, I didn't say that it would be the last time I was there for quite some time only to come home and have Karlee finally poop in her potty chair which means she will be getting to go to said location soon to have a celebration party!! (I bribed her months ago with a celebration party at said Chuck E Cheese if she started using her potty chair to you know, go to the bathroom instead of her diaper. She has gladly potty all this time in her potty chair but wouldn't go poop...until today just to make me have to go back to Chuck E Cheese again soon) No, not me...I wouldn't ever make such a statement cause I am smart enough to know that such statement will bite me in the butt as soon as I say it!!

Yesterday, I didn't let my daughter miss her nap only so that I knew she would go to bed extra early being so tired so that I could catch up on some blog reading and get some Farmtown and Farkle played on Facebook last night! No, not me...I wouldn't do such a thing as making my daughter miss her nap to later benefit me, Not me!!

I am not completely on the edge of my seat wondering where MckMama and her family went on her ohhh so secretive trip!! No, Not me, I wouldn't ever been so concerned with a strangers family as to care where they went on a trip and why all of us blog readers weren't told in advance....No, Not ME!!

Well that wasn't tooo bad! Hope you all join in the fun!! If you want to know the rules and the ins and outs, check out this blog post on MckMama's blog!!

Bugs BITE!!!

So 2 weeks ago on Saturday morning, we set off for Yellowstone with Mike's brother, his partner Eddie, & Eddie's nephew Tommy!! We had planned to drive the Beartooth Pass, enter Yellowstone at Cooke City, spend the day in Yellowstone, exit at Gardiner and spend the night in Livingston. Well about part way up the pass, I noticed that Karlee's ankle was a little swollen and figured she had a bug bite and that we were repeating the reactions that she had last year!! Little did I know that she was repeating the reaction and that it was going to be even worse!! Within a couple hours more, it was really swollen and had started to blister with those blisters popping, draining and reblistering (it was so bad that one time I was holding Karlee while stopped to look at a waterfall & a lady started freaking out saying, "OMG...have you seen her ankle??)!! I had no children's benedryl with me and we were in the middle of Yellowstone!! We made it to Old Faithful and I was able to get some adult benedryl and gave her half a tablet till we could get to Livingston. We arrived back in Livingston late that night and by that point her, foot, ankle and leg up to her knee was three times the size of her other leg (poor kid looked like she was 9 months pregnant) so we took her to the ER! They said she had and infected bug bit and gave us an antibiotic and some children's benedryl. Well throughout the next day, the bite proceeded to keep swelling, keep blistering (getting new blisters) and turn bright red...it was pretty scary as then I was afraid she had a poisonous spider bite. Well, (trying to shorten the very long story) by about Thursday, it had started to look lots better and we only had a few open spots where the blisters had been and a small tinge of purple left!! The pictures below are from the bite and the subsequent days following!!

So we thought we were good to go and the infection was clearing up!! On Friday of last week, Karlee and I headed to Baker for our annual Knipp Family get together and to celebrate my Grandpa Everett's 80th birthday!! We spent the entire day out at my Aunt Karen's house with family on Saturday. That night, I noticed that the inside of Karlee's foot was swollen and so I thought that even though she still had one more day of the antibiotic left that the infection must not be getting better (wow..was I wrong). Karlee had a horrible time sleeping that night as she was itching all night and by morning, she was a wreck from the mosquito bites! The inside of her foot was swollen again cause she got a new bite and was reacting to that along with a bite between her eyes that was welted and 3 bites on her arm that was causing her wrist to swell. Long story short, by the time I got back to Billings with her on Sunday night, her eyes were almost swollen shut, her foot was soo swollen she couldn't wear her shoes and her little wrist was swollen!! We took her to the ER here and they gave us a steroid for the swelling and gave us another week of antibiotics. These pictures are the progression of those bites!!


After watching these bites, I decided to get her into her pediatrician cause it is SOOOO miserable for her when she gets these mosquito bites! Her pediatrician only works Wed, Thurs, & Fri and so she hadn't seen her when she had a horrible bite. I printed off all the pictures of her last 2 bites and also the pictures from her reactions last year (3 rounds of antibiotics to heal bites last year) to show that the reactions were getting worse and that we needed to figure something out. She looked at Karlee and the pictures and determined that Karlee is severely allergic to mosquitos. She said that she has only had 3 patients like that in all her years of practicing. She prescribed an EPI pen for us to carry, Zyrtec to give her everyday and then a steroid to use if she gets a bite that swells badly. We are going to try the Zyrtec for now and see how things go and how her reactions to the bites are. If they don't improve, then I will take her to an Allergist and see what else we can do.

I feel soooooo bad as you can't KEEP a kid away from mosquitos cause you can't lock them in the house all summer. I have tried every bug spray out there with her and she still gets bit and bit lots!! I hope the Zyrtec works and if not, I am scared to see what her reactions will progress to!!

Pray for Stellan

You may recall me asking for prayers for Stellan before but he needs them more then ever right now. Things have taken a turn for worse and Stellan is very sick! Please pray for him, his family and his doctors for all the right choices to be made! You can read about Stellan's story & get updates on his condition here! Thanks!!

Favorite Recipe

Welcome Blog Hoppers!

This week's MckLinky Blog Hop theme is favorite recipes, so here's mine:

Taco Soup

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds Hamburger
1 Onion
1 Green Pepper (optional)
1 can pinto beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 can great northern beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can diced Tomatoes (Rotel)
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
1 pkg. taco mix
3 or 4 cups water

Directions:
Brown Hamburger, onion, and green pepper. Drain. In a large pot combine hamburger, pinto beans (juice and all), kidney beans (juice and all), northern beans (juice and all), corn (drain), tomatoes, ranch dressing mix, taco mix, water, and salt & pepper to taste. Simmer about 45 minutes. Serve with grated cheese and fritos, tostitos tortilla chips (crumbled).

Reminder: SEND YOUR RECIPES so that a MckLinky Recipe Book can be created, FREE for all the blog hoppers! Submit your recipe here: http://www.mcklinky.com/recipes.asp

Not My Child

MckMama is changing up Not Me Monday with Not My Child Monday so I thought I would play along!! If you would like to play along as well, hop on over to MckMama's blog to find out how!!

So here goes.......

Karlee certainly didn't fight with her cousin Fayth over her imaginary baby while at the zoo!! No, not my child!! First of all, my child wouldn't fight with any kids and especially not over the fact that she thinks another child may have picked up her imaginary baby and secondly, my child wouldn't have an imaginary baby!!

Karlee didn't have to go into timeout a mere 2 minutes after we arrived at Reading Rocks today!! No, not my child...she is well behaved and never needs timeout!!

Karlee most certainly didn't call some driver in front of us while stopped in road construction on the way to the zoo a F&^*ing slow driver!! No, not my child!! My child always uses appropriate language and if my child had said such a word, I certainly would have disciplined her instead of laughing like a 5th grade school boy!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week!!

Fingerprint Friday

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:

I can see the fingerprints of god
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of god
And I know its true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of god

So look around you and see where YOU can see God's fingerprints. Is it in nature? Kids? Animals? Where do you see them? Here's how to join in.

1. Blog with your interpretation of God's fingerprints. Be sure to link back here so others can find the entire list of participants!

2. After you've posted your blog, sign the Mr. Linky below. Have fun exploring the other links as well! Please only sign in if you're participating. Hopefully this will make us look at things through fresh eyes throughout the week!

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God's fingerprint is all over this picture!!

A Favorite

MckLinky is having a blog hop featuring favorite photos!! This is one of my faovorite photos of Karlee! It was taking at 5 days old and it was like she was telling me...."Stop worrying mommy, God is taking good care of me & isn't going to let anything happen to me". It also was very much an indicator of the type of personality that Karlee was going to have...always smiling and always enjoying life!!

4th of July Festivities

I decided that instead of trying to catch up (I will add some posts later to do that), that I would just forge ahead with what is happening now!! We had a GREAT 4th of July and I had soooo much fun watching Karlee enjoy the holiday. She is finally getting to an age where she gets what holidays are and I can honestly say that because she is getting older, I think this has been her favorite holiday so far.

Mike had to work for part of the day so Karlee & I ventured to Laurel to watch the parade. My Uncle Jeff & his wife Dawn ended up meeting us over there as well and we all had so much fun watching Karlee figure out what a parade is all about.....CANDY!! She would ask the floats as they came by, "Please, can I have some candy"!! It was tooo CUTE!! She waved her flag and was even blowing kisses sometimes to the floats. We ended up being there for about 3 hours and she was engrossed the whole time which is no small feat to entertain a 2-year old with the same activity for 3 hours. As soon as we got in the car and started driving home, she right away said, "I had fun at the parade with you Mommy" so I knew she had really enjoyed it!!

After the parade, we headed home to take a nap so that we wouldn't be grouchy staying up late for fireworks!! After nap time, Mike made it home and then Mike's bother Dustin & his friend Eddie came over. We bbq'ed and did a few fireworks (sparklers, snakes and blooming flowers). Karlee loved doing the sparklers and was a little disappointed she couldn't light the snakes herself!!

After lighting our fireworks, we all headed over the Laurel to watch their fireworks display. This was the first year that Karlee stayed up to see the fireworks and I wasn't sure how she would do with the loud booms! She was a little worried when they first started that they would fall on us but after she realized they wouldn't she loved them!! It was sooooo fun to watch her face react to the fireworks and see how much she enjoyed them.


It was a good time had by all of us and I can't wait for many more 4ths to make even more memories. I hope everyone else had a great 4th of July and also remembered to thank the Service Men/Women who protect our freedoms.

P.S. After the fireworks, Eddie received a call that his niece, her boyfriend and their baby had been hit by a drunk driver and that she was hurt pretty badly (the boyfriend & their baby and the drunk driver were uninjured). Please keep her in your prayers for a speedy recovery. The guy who hit her already has 3 DUI's and unfortunately was out on the roads to be able to drink and drive again and hurt another person.

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July and thanks to all those that have fought for us to have our freedom!!!

MckLinky

There’s a great new “linky” service available and I wanted to let you know about it. It’s called MckLinky – http://www.mcklinky.com/. After realizing the need for a new, reliable linky capability, Brent Riggs and MckMama got together to create a free, easy to use linky service for all their blog friends.

MckLinky is a free link list feature that allows you to do include lists of other blog links like MckMama does on Not Me! Monday. You can use MckLinky any time you want your blog readers to leave a list of links on your blog. It’s simple, reliable, free...and loads of MckFun!

Happy Father's Day!!

I know I have been very absent from the blog!! I promise a real post soon but wanted to share Mike's Father's Day present!! I go the idea from Beki!! I printed it off and framed it for him and am hoping he loves it!! Happy Father's Day to everyone!!

Albertson Family Happenings

It has been a while since I last updated.....sorry for that!! Here are a few pictures since the last update!!

Karlee wasn't sure at all of the parade when we first got there!! She is such a chicken and at first was afraid she was going to see something that was scary!! Once the parade got going and she realized there was candy involved, it was all over!! She had fun hauling in the candy and in the end, had way more candy than she needed!!

We took Karlee to the Shrine Circus!! When we told her that the circus was going to be here and that we were taking her, right away she said, "I have to get my hair done". I was like, "WHAT?" She said again, "I have to get my hair done for the Circus Town Whoop-De-Do ". I was LMAO....There is a JoJo Circus episode where JoJo's lion Goliath gets his hair done for the Circus Town Whoop-De-Do so as soon as Karlee heard Circus, that is all she could think of!! Needless to say, I had to get her hair done after that so the day of the Circus, I took and had her hair braided! She was sooo excited to have her hair done for the Whoop-De-Do. When we got to the Circus, she right away started whining being afraid of the clowns and 5 minutes after sitting down, she told Mike and I that it was time to go Bye-Bye!! Once the Circus started and I got her to realize that the clowns weren't going to come over to her, she started to relax and by the end of the night was clapping and having a great time!!

My parents, sister and niece came for Easter!! Karlee waited till Tay-Tay was here to dye eggs! As soon as they got here, Karlee was ready to start dying and was not going to wait any longer!!

We had a great Easter!! The Easter bunny, Grandma & Grandpa & Aunt Kodi majorly spoiled Karlee with toys and candy!! After all the eggs were found and mommy had all the candy hid, we had Easter lunch at our house! Mike's 2 brothers and their families joined us along with my parents, my sister, my niece and my mom's brother, Jeff and his family!! It was great having all the family over!!

The Easter Bunny brought Karlee a water table!! It was a BIG hit and she is loving washing her dishes and even her hair!! :-)

My baby is growing up way toooo FAST!! It is amazing to me how her imagination works!! She picks up the craziest things and imagines them as something!! This is a plastic Christmas Light holder that she found outside yesterday when we were doing yard work!! She right away started carrying it around calling it her baby!! I went in the house to start dinner while she kept helping Mike outside!! All at once, I heard screaming and crying and ran outside thinking that she was hurt!! When I got out there, she is crying and starts saying, "I can't find my baby"!! She was hysterical because she had lost her baby (plastic Christmas light holder) and couldn't find it! THANK goodness Daddy came to the rescue and was able to find it!! I just love watching her grow and learn new things but at the same time it makes me sooo sad!!

The next few week for the Albertson Family are very busy!! Work is busy for me.......we have the Parade of Homes this weekend and next weekend that I will be working!! Then on Sunday, May 3, Mike and I fly to Las Vegas for 4 days to celebrate our 5 year anniversary!! This will be the first time that Karlee has stayed without me and Mike both!! She stayed once overnight without me but Mike was here!! My parents are coming up and staying here with her so hopefully it won't be too hard on her since she will be at home!! Say a prayer for Mike and I though that we will actually enjoy our trip and not spend the whole time missing Karlee and worrying about her!!

Lastly, I would ask that you all be in prayer for Baby Stellan. I have posted before about Stellan and he is still in need of prayer! He had heart surgery today and they were not able to do everything that they needed to do to repair his heart!! The next few days will be very telling for of the path God has chosen for this precious baby boy!! Please visit MckMama's blog to update yourself on his story and to also leave your thoughts and prayers for him and his family!! I can't imagine Karlee ever being sick and having to go through that!! Kiss your kids and be very THANKFUL for their health!!

This has turned into a very long post and I apologize for that! I hope that everyone is loving the summer weather we are having and are all doing well!!