Reece's Birthday at school

 The Rochester Public School system has a lame rule that prohibits anyone from bringing home made food to classrooms for parties and such.  So for Reece's birthday I had to buy cupcakes instead of make them.  I was FURIOUS at first because I called every place I could think of in town who makes cup cakes and no one made them without milk.  I was ready to storm the principals office and tell them that my child was going to have cupcakes on his birthday because that was the only thing he wanted--was to have his friends taste cupcakes without milk--and I didn't care what the rule was but they needed to make it happen.  But, a day before I was going to make my debut in the principals office I found a lady who makes cupcakes without milk!  She made Reece Ninjago cupcakes which he was Thrilled about!  Next year i'm bringing my own homemade cupcakes and will just put them in a Walmart bakery box! Better to ask forgiveness then permission! :)

(Reece and I made the Ninjago toppers)
p.s. It was Pajama day at school--and yes I was annoyed because I had this darling outfit picked out for him.  But I kept my mouth closed and let him wear his favorite footie pj's.

Benson wanted Reece to open his present early so after school on Friday (the day before his birthday), Reece opened Benson's present and was super excited to find a new Ninjago!

Reece's birthday was a success this year!  He was super cute and wanted to help with all the logistics.  He made the birthday cards, decided who was coming, and planned how the cupcakes and cake would look like.  He had great manners at his birthday party--was very grateful and kind to his guests, and spent a lot of time picking out each little party favor for each of his friends.  He is a very thoughtful and loving kid.  We are so lucky to have him in our family.

 5 Things that sum up Reece:

1. Genuine & Sincere

2. Pure heart--always wants to do whats right

3. Loves to learn

4. Helpful

5. Passionate about life

Reece's 7th Birthday party!

Reece had his 7th birthday party today! He is obsessed with Ninjago and so we have a Ninjago themed party! It was a total success thanks to my friend Cassi and Spencer for helping me! Here's a recap of the party!

We had a Ninjago Training camp.  And then once they completed the training camp they got to have their ninja prize--Cake and Ice Cream!  This is what it takes to become a Ninja!

Obstacle Course:

Team Kia

Team Lloyd Jay

 Started in Reece's room.  They had to crab walk down the hall to the TV.  Do 5 jumping jacks.  Run to the toy room and jump on the tramp 5 times with a Ninja move dismount.  Climb up the stairs with hands and legs.  Then put 5 heart candies into the bowel with tweezers.  Then put the Ninjago halloween costumes on and run ladders on the rug.  Then finish off with Hopscotch.

Ninjago warm up--directed by Master Sensei Wu (thanks Spence!).

They meditated, stretched, and practiced some Ninja moves.

 Ninjago Sticker puzzles

 Ninjago Bingo

Pin the Shruiken

 CAKE AND ICE CREAM

Reece and Adam are best friends.  They are two peas in a pod and we are grateful to have him as our buddy.  

And now these two are in hog heaven putting all their lego toys together from the party.  Reece got a lot of ninjagos, star wars legos, and other fun things!

Endoscopy, ER, Admitted, Discharged, ER, meltdown...comical...

QUICK VERSION:

*Monday afternoon we found out Tanner was scheduled for an endoscopy for Tuesday morning.  I quickly arranged childcare for Reece & Benson and got ready for the next morning.

*Tuesday morning 3AM: Tanner wakes up wheezing.  We give him a nebulizer treatment

*Tues. 6:20 AM: Go to St. Marys for Endoscopy

*Tues. 7:30 AM: cancelled surgery and sent to Pediatrician's office.  Tanner was in the middle of an asthma episode (attack) and so they wouldn't do the procedure.

*Tues. 8:30 AM: Neb. treatment at docs office. Somewhat responds.  Still very wheezy and breathing hard.

*Tues. 11:30 AM: Neb. treatment at home. Doesn't respond. Mom gets that panic feeling that tells me we need to visit the Emergency Room.

*Tues. 12:00 PM: In the Emergency Room getting another Neb. Treatment.

An hour later, got another Nebulizer treatment.  Tanner not responding to any treatments.  Oxygen level at 87% consistently for a couple hours despite all the neb. treatments.

*Tues. 4:00 PM: Admitted to Hospital for the night.

*Wed. 10:30 AM: Discharged from Hospital.

This is him watching me get ready for the day--only 10 minutes before his fall.  And yes, he is playing with the outlet :)

*Wed. 11:20 AM: Tanner trips and falls on the fireplace.  Opens a nice hole in his head between his eyes.  

BACK TO EMERGENCY ROOM for stitches.

*Wed. 3:40 PM: Finally leave Emergency room with 3 stitches and a very tired Mother.

Although it was a crazy day in a half--we were soooo blessed to have wonderful friends helping with our children, food, and moral support.  Spencer's program was also very supportive and gave him the day off.  Not to mention, I feel like we have had an overwhelming amount of prays headed our direction and yes, they have been answered.  Tanner is doing so much better.   He has started to eat a little, he is seeing an occupational therapist who has great ideas, and I am a calm and optimistic Mother.

To complete the story, I must add my Saturday-Sunday experience.  It's pretty hilarious.

Okay, by Saturday I was exhausted.  Everything had caught up to me, and I was tired.  I was to overwhelmed to take Reece to basketball so Cassi took him (apparently he's a rockstar on the court).  We had company this weekend (our good friend Blake!) and so I spent Sat. preparing for him to visit.  I wish I didn't feel the need to have everything perfect for company--but I do--I am my Mother's child. So Saturday was a little stressful (but we did have fun digging for dinosaurs--thanks mom-- and making breakfast for dinner)

SO IT ALL CAME APART HERE: (Sunday)

-Spencer was working so I took all three kids to church solo.

-Sacrament meeting went well.  Kids only had 1 wrestling match (it was before it started so I was okay)

-20 minutes before Relief Society: I checked Bensons blood sugar so I wouldn't worry while I was teaching.  He was 380!!! Are you kidding me?  His numbers have been PERFECT lately.  He had a meltdown and so I quickly took care of that.

-5 minutes before Relief Society: I started talking to Spencer's chief resident (our friend) about Tanner's issues.  He informs me his son just went through the same deal.  I then start talking to his wife about it (who is a cardiologist) and suddenly I have a panic attack.  TERRIBLE TIMING.  I have been so calm through all this.  WHY NOW? I told her I had to get ready to teach so I needed to call her later. 

-Opening song:  I start crying and stick my head in Tanner's hair so no one can see me (totally embarrassed)

-It's now my time to teach and I pull it together and start teaching.  But, Tanner is very attached to me, even in our own home he has to be in the same room as me if Spencer isn't home.  So he is walking around my feet while I am teaching.  He's starting to get loud and I try my hardest to stay focused.  Finally a nice lady comes and picks him up (many people tried offering before but I couldn't get myself to accept because I knew he would scream for them the entire time) and as she takes him out I say, "good luck and I'm sorry I think he has a stinky diaper!"

So...my Lesson isn't going very well.  And then I start talking about all the blessings that have come in my life from the Priesthood; specifically the Temple, my Patriarchal blessing, Priesthood blessings, and the gift of the Holy Ghost.  All of a sudden I am in what I call my meltdown. All the emotions that i've been holding in escalated and I felt like a volcano erupting.  And this is what happened during the eruption:

I went through and explained how my children are alive today because while we were going to the Temple something had happened or told us to go back home and we found our children terribly sick (Reece-anaphylactic shock and Benson-ketoacidosis) and were able to get them the care they needed to save their little lives.  I then explained how important my Patriarchal blessing is in helping me find comfort and guidance, and all the many priesthood blessings that have healed my children and myself, and then the gift of the Holy Ghost and how I completely rely on him to help me with Benson's blood sugars (that is the only way I can sleep at night--I always get woken up by something that makes me check his blood sugar and allows me to give him sugar to keep him from going low).  You can imagine how the room looked at this point.  You could drop a pin on the table and you would have heard it.  No one was moving.  I had caught their attention while having my little meltdown.  Most of the people in that room had no idea the different health issues we have, and I had no intentions on pouring out these things to them, but the spirit was strong and I truly do have a testimony of the power of the Priesthood and all the many ordinances that have been restored through the priesthood.  I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the gospel in my life.  I am a happy, optimistic, and calm (for the most part) Mother as I face these challenges because the Lord has blessed us tremendously and is always taking care of us.

2 Nephi 31:20:  Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

-Juliann

Oh, did I mention on our way home from church Benson started crying because he had to go potty so bad he couldn't hold it.  So we stopped on the side of the road for him to pee in NEGATIVE 27 DEGREE WEATHER (-5 without windchill).  We looked classy!

Tanners health issues unraveling...or starting too.

1st part of story: Tanner's 1 year old appointment was the first time we met our new pediatrician.  I gave her a brief introduction to our family--we started out in true Miller style when we walked into the clinic with Tanner having a huge allergic reaction (his whole face and neck were covered in red hives) they had to call the doctor out of her appointment to give us a prescription to benadryl.  So at the appointment I had a lot of questions; 1) what can I put on my infants skin to help with his excema breakouts? 2) he has a food aversion and won't put anything in his mouth (yes, I was 99% nursing--we were lucky if we got him to eat half a jar of baby food in a day) 3) He's losing weight 4) please can we get him off my boob and onto real food!!!.

So after a long appointment I didn't get any of my questions answered, instead I was referred to an allergist, dietician, dermatologist, and gastroenterologist. I thought that was a little excessive. Why do I need to visit all these doctors?  Within the past 3 months I had taken Reece to a dermatologist and allergist and Benson to an endocrinologist and dietician so I thought I could handle things on my own.  So I didn't schedule any of the appointments I was asked to schedule...

2nd part of story: We had our first week of the sick bug earlier in December.  All three kids were literally on the couch, not moving, for 4 days (I got a lot done during this time plus got to hold them tons too!).  At the end of the 4 days Reece ended up with a skin infection that made him look like he had the chicken pox.  So we had to get an antibiotic from the doctor to get rid of the infection.  A couple days later, Tanner got the same skin infection (thank you excema) and so we were back at the doctors office for a prescription for him.  Well, unfortunately because Tanner has a food aversion we couldn't give him medicine because we can't get anything in his mouth.  So they got us a quick appointment with the dermatologist the next day.

3rd part of story:  So I took Tanner to the dermatologist.  As we were discussing his problems, the dermatologist (whom I love) said, "he really needs to see an allergist, dietician, and gastroenterologist".  I started to laugh and told her the pediatrician told me the same thing and I thought it was ridiculous.  But, I decided to see the gastroenterologist so I scheduled an appointment.

4th part of story:  On Wednesday, three days ago, I took Tanner to the gastroenterologist.  IT was a very helpful appointment.  They think he might have EO (eosinophilic esophagitis).  Some of the signs for EO are: excema, food aversion, throwing up when eating soy, weight loss.  We have all of the above.  Tanner hasn't gained any weight for 7 months, until a week ago he wouldn't put a thing in his mouth (toys, food, nothing), he throws up every time he eats soy, he has severe excema.  The doctor and I decided we are going to wait 2 weeks to do an endoscopy because he has made such huge improvements this week with eating foods that we don't want to stop that.  Until then, she set up an appointment for me to meet with the dietician.

5th part of story: Friday we saw the dietician.  That was super helpful.  It's all about calories at this point.  We are going to add oil to his foods, crush up vitamins for him to eat, and give him these crazy expensive formulas (as soon as he'll drink from a bottle/sippy cup/anything but ME).

MORAL OF THE STORY:  LISTEN to your DOCTOR.  Our 1st appointment was the beginning of December.  If I would have listened the first time, we would have been a month a head of schedule which could have possibly helped his weight, eating problems, and everything else.  Sometimes it's tough having a doctor in the family because they see your children and they look pretty healthy and normal compared to the ICU patients they've been dealing with so it's easy to say they will grow out of it.  It also doesn't help when you've been down this road before with your other child and so you think you know everything.

Other than that, LIFE is GOOD!

Pepper Drop--Santa's helper

Some people have an "Elf on the shelf", at the Miller home Santa sent Pepperdrop--our gingerbread man elf.  He keeps a close eye on the kiddos catching all the great things they are doing so he can give a good report to Santa for Christmas!  He was a funny gingerbread man.  He liked to watch the kids during the day and copy what they did.  Here are some pictures of things we caught him doing:

Spencer's new toy--the snow blower

Spencer's new favorite toy is his snow blower! He LOVES to use it.  He waited patiently, or not so patiently, for it to snow so he could bust it out! Even our neighbors were excited for us.  It's pretty awesome and gets the job done quickly.  The boys also like it when we use it.  They have their own shovels and help with the side walks.  Once it snows in Minnesota it sticks for the winter.  It snowed a month ago and we still have plenty of it to share.  The kids have enjoyed the toboggan slide Spencer made them that goes from the front yard--through the fence--and into the backyard!  More pictures to come...

Grandma Blo visits us!! YEA!

                                          THANK YOU MOM FOR VISITING US!!
My Mom turned 50 a month ago and on her birthday she asked to come see us--okay, the boys.  Of course my Dad couldn't say no on her 50th birthday and so we got to party with her for a whole week!! We had tons of fun shopping, and shopping, and more shopping.  We got all our christmas presents bought, snow clothes for the boys, and even had some time to play at the Mall of America.  It was so fun having her here.  It was pretty sad to see her leave--it was the first time I have been home sick since moving to Minnesota.  But I have three handsome and awesome little boys which know how to charm their grandparents--so I'm sure it won't be to long before we see her again!! Thanks for visiting.  We LOVE you!