Tis the Season

This month brings many exciting events and such. First, and foremost, we celebrate the birth of our King's birth.  Happy Birthday, Jesus!  We put up our Christmas tree, this year decorating with all sorts of bright colors for the girls to enjoy, topped with our trusty friend, Frosty.  Lexi was dazzled by the lights and has already gotten into the presents under the tree. Of course, Kaylee has noted that the biggest present under the tree is for her!  Little does she know, Santa will be bringing her a MUCH bigger present in a few weeks!

Second, this month I remember my son, Kyle as his 10th birthday approaches on December 24th.  Happy Birthday my sweet boy.  I love you and miss you so terribly much. I ache for you every second of every day.

Over the past few weeks, we have started seeing a change in the weather and enjoying being outside in the bright skies and cool air.  Kaylee, Ryan, Lexi and I are certainly enjoying the togetherness that the season is bringing our way.

We also will be welcoming Lexi into her 11 month of life, yet another miracle!  These past weeks, Lexi has learned to get on all fours and try to crawl. She is getting all over the place and in to everything. She is eating from a spoon. She is loving playing with her sister and Sam.  She has reached 17.6 pounds and is as beautiful as ever.  This month we also brough Lexi to church for the first time.  She was so pretty in her dress that her Gran bought for her before she was born.  I have taken the time this past month to reflect on where she came from, and how far she has come.  I have much to be thankful for this year, because I know that this holiday season just would not be the same without her. We are fortunate that this month the Shriner's accepted our application to their facilities for therapy on Lexi's cerebral palsy.  We are also blessed that we are going to begin in home therapy with the assistance of Early Steps.  That should start in the next few weeks.  Our goal is to have Lexi eating solids independently and crawling to scooting to pulling up, scaling the couch within the next 6 months.  Fingers crossed everybody!

Momma loves her little miracle !

Good tidings to you all during this Christmas Season. From our family to yours, Merry Christmas.  We hope you receive an abundance of blessings and everything for which you wish.  

A New Chapter......

I thought that I would take a little time today to write about all of the new and happy things happening in our home, because they have made me so very happy.  

Lexi, our little miracle, has transformed over the past week into a smiling, babbling baby girl.  If you could only see her! She laughs all day, chuckles until she tickles herself and then laughs some more.  It becomes a laugh-fest because I start laughing, which makes her laugh even more!  Her eyes just light up when she is happy.  She is so very beautiful!  She is rolling over back and forth, Miss Teeter Totter.  She is getting up on all fours in an attempt to crawl, which has not proven successful, yet.  Hopefully within the next couple of weeks she will get the hang of it.  She has become SO active.  We have discovered that she LOVES the color "yellow".  She gravitates towards anything that is yellow.  She also said her first words, or at least, the first words that she means ......  You guessed it!  She says "Da Da".  She says it over and over and over, enunciating every Duhhhh sound.  She is so proud of herself. She gets so excited when she is talking, smiling ear to ear.  When Ryan walks up to her, she says "Heeeeey Da Da!"   It is so awesome!

Kaylee, our Big Fry, is making amazing grades in school.  She is so beautiful.  We discovered this week that her two front teeth are loose!  Uh oh! She is so excited to loose them and see what the Tooth Fairy has in store for her!

Lastly, we just brought home the newest member of our family, Sam.  My boss, Mr. Miciotto, had to let go of his family pets and was so nice to offer us one of their dogs.  Sam is a Maltese and is so, so cute and cuddly.  He came home fitting right in to the flow of our life and instantly bonded with both girls.  

As we prepare for the holidays, we are excited to have such a full and happy home.  We wish you and yours an amazing holiday season.

Trusting.....

My lil' sunshine has a fever today, and despite all that ails her little soul, she still manages to smile and coo. Sometimes, just sometimes, it takes the spirit of a fighter like Lexi to show us all that whatever we are going through, there is always someone that is worse off. And to see those people be the examples of true happiness and joy should surely teach us all a little something about life itself. Thanks, Lexi, for teaching me so much.  Love you, my little miracle.

She Found Her Toesies!

Black Clouds

Over the past two weeks or so, my life, my spirit, my everything has been tested to the max. Work has been busy, divorce on the rise, people fighting in the true holiday spirit.  Sometimes, I just sit back and wonder we choose to be miserable during such a wonderful time of the year.  I am guilty myself.  My ex-husband, who after the writing of this blog will never be discussed or mentioned again, filed four separate lawsuits against me and various other people including litigation in Texas (where he lives), in the Federal Court, in the Court of Appeal and in the Bossier Parish Court.  This all stems from the fact that he finally was forced to pay support for a child he has had nothing to do with since birth. When his paycheck got popped, he went nuts. After a two week long fest of fighting, we reached the agreement that he would terminate his parental rights.  After all, he never was her dad, so why start now? Ryan, on the other hand, has been Lexi's father since before she was ever discharged from the hospital, and will always be her one and only daddy.  Anyway, Jason filed all these suits in an effort to drive me mad, and it worked. No amount of child support can take the place of the stress and madness he has caused in my life.  I would rather just move forward and never look back.  In a series of almost 200 emails over the course or three or four days, it all came down to the fact that he did not want to pay child support.  He never asked about her, never really spoke of her....just his paycheck. What a man. Needless to say, we are better off.  Now, with his parental rights terminated, Ryan can adopt Lexi and we can live happily ever after. 

This past week, while dealing with all of that drama, I fell very sick.  I got what the doctors' assumed was H1N1, or some other form of flu, which quickly turned in to "spastic bronchitis".  That was turning in to pneumonia.  I tried to work through it, but just simply could not. I ended up at LSU twice in a matter of two days, each time getting new medicines to try.  While enduring that, tornadoes decided to rip through Haughton, where I live, and caused massive damage and flooding.  Thankfully, no one got hurt.  We are still extremely concerned about flooding, which they say is eminent.  So for the last week, I have been unable to make it to work, less the one and a half days I was there, and now have no paycheck.  To top that ALL off, my brand new car decided to bite the dust yesterday leaving me, Ryan and Lexi stranded on North Market.  My amazing boyfriend, Ryan, walked to get a new starter and sat there all day replacing the starter, only for that to not be the problem. So, after all of that, we had to have the car towed.  In the middle of all of this, I am calling the people who sold me the car screaming at them.  See, three days after I drove off the lot, my check engine light came on.  I called them and they told me it was the gas cap. So....I replaced it.  It was still on. I called several more times and they tell me nothing is wrong with the car. Really?  Is that why I am broke down now?  So I call from the side of the road and ask them what to do.... You know what they tell me? "I don't know."   They go on to tell me that they are not responsible for any mechanical damages/failures and also basically that my warranty is useless.  So I am stuck, with a brand new car that does not work, and no way to work. Great. I also was unable to go pay on Kaylee's layaway that I put her Christmas on, so I am going to lose that. Loosing my job next?  

What's next on the block? Oh yeah. I was feeling better...but now I have relapsed.  Been sick and up all night...coughing, hacking, choking...AND...to top it all off, Lexi now has a 102 fever.  Does it ever end? 

But, through it all, I must be grateful because God has gotten me this far, I am sure He is right next to me now and this is all some huge lesson I am supposed to be learning.  I have a great boyfriend, two beautiful daughters, and great family and maybe a friend or two here and there. I have a home. I have a job, that I know of. I am alive and it is a beautiful day.  I guess things could be worse.

Lexi at 9 Months

Lil Bit will hit the big "9" this week.  Her accomplishments have been great over this past month as she grows into her bouncing personality.  Over this month, Lexi has learned to roll over on to her tummy and lift her upper body.  She tends to get really excited about that, but quickly gets bored and aggravated.  Lexi has gained great strength in her legs. Although we have to stand her up and hold her, she has learned to place her feet flat on the ground and stand straight, which is one step closer to standing on her own.  She is definitely getting to where she is tired of laying around, but would rather be mobile.

This month we battled the worst thing possible...the Swine Flu.  After a week long battle with the H1N1 yuck, we loaded LuLu up in her carseat and took a ride out to the country to visit the pumpkin patch. She had a blast!

We went through the Corn Field Maize, rode the hayride out to the pumpkin patch where we picked out three perfect pumpkins. 

Over this past month, Lexi has truly discovered her voice, learning to coo, shout, express her likes and dislikes, etc.  We have started learning to eat from a spoon and are doing very well with that! Her favorite is peaches and sweet taters.  Lexi has also grown very fond of her  big sister...sometimes big sister is the only person who can make her smile :)  I hope they grow to be the best of friends when they are older.

Lexi loves her bath-time, too!  Some nice lavender bubbles makes all of her troubles disappear!  We are trying to teach her to sit up on her own now, but are having a tad bit of trouble due to her Cerebral Palsy, which pulls her to the left.  Our solution was to buy the Bumbo chair.  She is doing so well in it. It has definitely helped with the feedings. It has a little tray that we can put toys on, but she has learned to dismantle it, too.  She is very inquisitive. She is always taking things apart to see how they work. On the other side of the difficulties this past month has presented, we have had some very good times. We have discovered Lexi's tickle box. She is so ticklish in so many places.  It is such a joy to see her laughing so hard!  It makes all of the tough times seem so insignificant.   

So, this month, we are starting to stand, rolling over, eating from a spoon, laughing, and on our way to sitting up.  So many goals have been accomplished, leaving way for more to be set.  We are so very proud of this big girl. Despite the everyday challenges, we are keeping our heads held high, thankful for this beautiful gift.