While You Were Sleeping

I'll start this post off with a cute pic of the kiddos enjoying some corn on the cob on Grandma & Grampy's back patio (just after swimming) - tough life.

While I was in the hospital, Uncle Chris & Aunt Katie were kind enough to provide accommodations for Grandma, Grampy, Bob and the kids.  I can't really tell you a whole lot about these pictures that were taken off of Grandma's phone since I wasn't present, but I'll do my best to describe who, what and where.  The cousins playing in the pool at Uncle Chris & Aunt Katie's house.

Blake & Wy-Guy running through Thunder Fountain (I think?) on the outdoor grounds of the Myriad Botanical Gardens.

 Wyatt & Collier

 Uncle Chris, Collier and Blake at Flip's

 Wyatt eating "awfuls" (waffles)...or maybe pancakes...at Chris & Katie's house

I'm pretty sure this one was taken after I got out of the hospital, but I had to include it.  Here's Wyatt fishing out of a bucket in Grandma & Grampy's driveway.

 

Of course, I still have a ton more photos to share; and the longer I wait until the next post, that's just all the more that will have accumulated.  So, I'm hoping to have another post up soon.  Hope all is well with everyone!

OK Bound & Touch-A-Truck

HELLO!!!  Yes, I am alive and doing well.  I did end up having a liver resection at Integris Baptist Medical Center in OKC and all went well.  So, now I get to play catch up with the blog.

Bob drove the kids and I down to Denver about a week and a half before my surgery, and we met my parents there.  The kids and I then drove back to Ponca with my parents, and Bob went back to Billings to continue working.  He then flew out for the surgery.  Here are some swimming pics from the hotel swimming pool.

Wy-Guy and his best friend, Grampy

 Wyatt playing on the pool steps

 Blake & Grandma goofing around

Once we got to Ponca we had a week or so to hang out before my surgery.  We were here while several tornadoes caused some major damage, but we managed to stay away from the stormy weather for the most part.  We had several nice days to enjoy some fun, outside time.  Here's Blake enjoying an outing to Pioneer Park.

My kids are absolutely fascinated with all of the wildlife at Grandma & Grampy's house.  Wyatt LOVES to pick up and then squish (sometimes with his bare hands - ewwww!) rolly pollies, snails, worms, fire flies and lady bugs.  The kids have also had a blast watching the wild turkeys (including 8 baby turkeys), deer, hawks and we even saw a raccoon the other night.  Here's Blake posing with a little snail on a leaf.

It wouldn't be a trip to Grandma & Grampy's without bubbles!  Here's Wy-Guy having some fun with the bubble machine.

We also got the chance before my surgery to go to an event at the Ponca City Library called Touch-A-Truck.  They had a bunch of large vehicles in the back parking lot of the library, and the kids got to climb up in the vehicles, honk horns and just have fun.  We stopped by City Hall before heading to the library.  I got a picture of the brick up by the fountain that has mine and my brother's names on it - kinda neat.

 Blake posing for a pic in front of City Hall

Wyatt driving the police car at the Touch-A-Truck event.  He was having a blast honking the horn and setting the sirens off.  He now likes to pretend that he's locking a key lock in front of you and will say, "Lock you in jail!"

 Grampy and the kids crammed into the bucket on a big loader they had out at the event.

 My poser, once again, this time in the ambulance.

 

Well needless to say, we've had a blast getting to hang out at Grandma & Grampy's (and are continuing to do so as I recover).  I have a lot more pictures and stories to share, so I'm sure I'll be updating the blog again soon.

Doctors, Doctors and More Doctors

First of all, I'll apologize for waiting so long in between posts. But we don't really have much for pictures to share, anyway.  We've even had a few visits from Grandpa DeCoteau, Grandma DeCoteau and Aunt Joyce.  I have been awful about taking pictures lately, and I totally spaced getting any pics while they were here :(  Here's a cute pic of the kids getting ready to read bedtime books with Daddy.

As you may remember from previous posts, Wyatt has had a bit of a rough year.  He got to the point where he was puking at least once a week (in the middle of the night) for a little over 5 weeks, so we decided to have him tested for allergies.  His Great-Grandma DeCoteau is allergic to oranges, and Bob was when he was really young. Here's our little man enjoying his LeapPad while we wait for the results of the prick test that they did on his back.

Turns out Wyatt is not allergic to ANYTHING they tested him for, which was about 45 different foods/fruits, pollens, molds, pets...you name it.  So, that's good to know.  Wyatt breathes really loud sometimes.  The allergist had mentioned that since he's been so sick and clearly has something going on with the loud breathing (nothing major, though - lungs and everything check out fine) that it may be drainage causing his tummy to get upset at night.  The doctor gave us an inhaler that we have used on Wy for a few weeks now, and he has not puked again - THANKFULLY.  We'll probably use the inhaler for another month or so, and then see if he can go without it.

Wy-Guy picked some flowers out of the front flower bed for me :)

Ugh...what's a blog post without a few Blake and Wyatt stories?!  I caught Wyatt in his bedroom one morning with a garden hose sprayer in his pants.  He told me, "That mines hammer.  Name Pee-wix (Felix)."  Gotta love this goofy boy!

Wyatt definitely keeps me on my toes.  One morning, I woke up from a cold breeze to find that Wyatt was already up.  He had opened the sliding glass door, and he was using the dowel (that's supposed to help keep the door closed) as a sword.  He kept insisting that he was fighting a dragon.  After I disarmed the dragon slayer, I began to go about my morning routine.  Shortly thereafter, I heard Wyatt splashing in our back room - odd.  How does one make splashing noises on carpet?!  Wy chose the method of dumping out a small cooler of melted ice to jump up and down in and "pash" (splash).  Then while I was cleaning up the water, Wyatt climbed the book shelf to get Blake's stamp pads and ended up with rainbow-colored hands by the time I got to him.  Yep, some mornings are definitely better than others ;)

Another cute Wyatt story:  The Popsicles that the kids eat have little jokes on the stick that you can read when you've finished the Popsicle.  Well, Blake and Wyatt love to have me read the jokes when they're done.  One day I read Wy's joke to him, "What runs, but never walks?"  After he paused to think, his reply was an emphatic, "Wyatt!"  I was laughing so hard.  I think his answer was much better than the one on the stick - river.

Blake hiding during the scary parts of a Spider-Man movie that Daddy was watching.

 Meh...what's up, Doc?

Well speaking of docs, I went to see my GI in Billings.  She showed me my MRI and explained that I have a hepatic adenoma in the left lobe of my liver that is a little over 2 inches.  The next step would be to remove it.  So, she told me that she would refer me to the liver center of my choice.  It's a major surgery, so she suggested going somewhere where they do a lot of liver transplants because those are the places that are used to dealing with cutting on the liver and the post-operative care that goes along with it.  Thankfully, Integris Baptist in OKC (ranks pretty high in the nation for gastroenterology) has a transplant facility.  That is ideal, obviously, since we could stay with family, and Grandma & Grampy could take care of the kiddos and still be close by.  So, my GI sent a referral to a liver surgeon in OKC which included a disc with my MRI on it.  When that surgeon's nurse called me back, she asked why they didn't biopsy BOTH lesions.  HUH?!  I was only told there was one.  But evidently, there is also another smaller one in the right lobe of my liver.  So long story short, I'll likely be having the surgery done in OKC, but I will have to do some more tests with them to figure out exactly what we are going to do about these masses, or whatever the heck they are - surgery still seems the most likely scenario, though.  I'm sure between Bob, myself, Grandma, and Grampy you will most likely be updated in some way at some point.  But, this will probably be my last post until this is all said and done.  Any positive thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated.  Wishing you all the best as well!

Grandma!

Grandma was nice enough to come visit us during her Spring Break.  The kids were super excited, as always.  So, we decided to make signs and wait for her at the airport.  I didn't manage to get a picture of Blake with her sign, but here's Wyatt.

The kids had all sorts of fun with Grandma here.  They took walks, played in the back yard and Blake even picked lunch in Billings twice - Buffalo Wild Wings...both times :)  I didn't have much of a chance to get many pictures (more on that in a bit), but here are a couple I did capture.

Well, you might remember a few posts ago that I had mentioned that I'd been dealing with some sort of recurrent UTI since November.  I'm not 100% sure what the heck is going on; but when I finally got my hands on all the lab results from these supposed UTI's, I noticed that only a couple actually showed bacteria in my urine (what I thought the definition of a UTI was).  So, I still went in to see a urologist and he agreed that these episodes (which mainly consisted of nausea, occasional headache and some flank pain - I don't get the typical UTI symptoms even when I really do have one) were probably not all true UTI's.  He still went ahead and ordered a CT of my kidneys just to check things out.  Turns out the kidneys are fine, but he found a "spot" on my liver that he thought needed further investigation.  So, he got ahold of my GP who ordered an abdominal ultrasound.  The ultrasound results showed the spot as well, but it was inconclusive - still needed further investigation.  My GP then ordered a MRI with contrast which I had scheduled for when my mom was here to help.  When I called to get those results (literally minutes after having my face biopsied - don't ask...it'll just make this long story even longer), he said that we needed to do a biopsy because it did not look like a cyst or a hemangioma, which were the options we were hoping for - both benign.  The other option was a tumor, which could still be benign, but also ran the risk of being cancer.  My mom was nice enough to reschedule her flight home and stuck around to help out while Bob took me in to have a liver biopsy done.  Good news is that it's a hepatic adenoma (benign), but the radiologist who read my MRI happened to be the same doc that did the biopsy.  Before doing the biopsy he told me that he thought it was a hepatic adenoma, that it was 5 cm (close to 2 inches) and that removing it would likely be the next step.  They can spontaneously rupture, and from what I've read, they run a small risk of becoming malignant.  Anyway, I'll go chat with my gastroenterologist soon; and I should know the final verdict at that point.  I just thought I'd give everyone an update now that we seem to have a solid answer as to what it is.  Seriously, rarely a dull moment around here these days.

With Grandma here to hang out, the kids could have cared less if I was in the hospital or not - thankfully.  They were thoroughly entertained and had plenty of popsicles :)

We also managed to dye some Easter eggs. The kids had a blast.

 HAPPY EASTER!!!

Miscellaneous March

I'm still playing a little catch up here, so this post should get us caught up on most of March. Blake and Wyatt have this new little game where they create their own "swimming pool" in our living room.  The pool consists of taking couch cushions off the couch, placing them on the floor and covering them with a blue quilt. The kiddos jump off of the diving boards (AKA the couch and/or chairs).  Here's Wy-Guy right after a belly flop off of the chair.

 Blake prefers to jump off of the couch.

Daddy took the kids out to the park one day and snapped this cute pic.  It's been pretty windy around here lately.

Poor Wy-Guy has had a rough year.  His tally for the year is now up to four different episodes of being puking sick, an ear infection, croup twice, survived norovirus and we've recently discovered that he's probably allergic to oranges (his Great-Grandma is allergic to them and Bob was when he was little).  During our fun with the norovirus, Wyatt would get diarrhea so bad (and for weeks at a time).  So, I would try to let him wear his big boy uns, or "Man panties" as he calls them, to give his raw bum a chance to air out a bit. I couldn't resist posting a pic of my little man in his underwear :)

 Two tuckered out kiddos recovering from sickness

At least the kids bounce back fairly quickly.  As soon as the sickness was over, they were quick to convert their "puke buckets" into helmets.

 Maybe Blake should have worn her helmet longer...

...Wy-Guy strikes again - ugh!  Poor Blake took a hair brush to the eye courtesy of her generous little brother.  I have been working like crazy trying to tame this wild man, but he is ALL boy.  He turns everything into a weapon.  Thankfully, he is usually just pretending, but Blake's black eye is proof that he often takes "pretending" a little too far.  Needless to say, Wyatt is very familiar with the word 'sorry' and has served more than his fair share of time outs.

Catching Up on February

All right, so I am finally getting caught up with pictures from February. I also have a bunch of Wyatt stories to tell and just one for Blake, so I'll try to lace them in between the pics to make this look less wordy.

 

Wyatt really likes watching Cars and Cars 2.  The other day I was in the kitchen, and I heard Blake say, "Holy shit, well...I have a hard time saying that."  It took me a minute to realize what she meant to say was, "Holly Shiftwell (character from Cars 2).  I have a hard time saying that."

 

After we had gotten some snow, Daddy loaded the kids up in the sled he uses to haul his ice fishing gear out on the ice and took them for a ride around the back yard.  No, the kids are not overdressed.  I would say Bob is under dressed compared to the normal person :)

 

Wyatt has become quite the chatter box in the last couple months and has no problem speaking his mind.  He used to love to walk up to me, point to his rear end, and say, "Mom, big ole poop" any time he had filled his drawers.  One day, he busted out, "I'm poopy man!"  Believe me, there is never a dull moment with this kid around.

Since Wyatt had become so proud of announcing his bowel movements, I've tried letting him wear big boy underwear a few times.  He calls Spider-Man, "Man"; and he calls underwear, "panties" (he can thank his sister for that one).  So since his underwear have Spider-Man on them, he walks around pointing to his uns saying, "Man panties."

Blake & Wy-Guy playing in the sand box

Blake has been doing really well learning her letters and is even starting to try to spell words on her own.  I found a piece of paper on the floor the other day that read "Frum:  Blake" - at least she's trying.  Here's a card she made for Grandma & Grampy.  She loves drawing pictures and making cards.  Let's just say, picture messaging via phone has saved me a lot of postage.

Unfortunately (for me anyway), Wyatt is starting to show signs of inheriting his daddy's sense of humor.  I thought it was bad enough that Blake had been doing this, but I was wrong.  Wyatt is WAY worse than Blake ;)  We haven't really worked too much on animal sounds with Wyatt, but he does know that the monkey says, "ooo ooo ahhh ahhh."  I was taking muffins out of the oven the other day and Wyatt got a little close.  So, I said, "ooo hot" as I stuck my arm out to prevent him from getting too close.  He looked at me, laughed and said, "Momma, monkey.  Ooo ooo hot hot" and continued to laugh.  Ugh, my crazy little man is becoming a comedian.

Blake in her Valentine shirt from Grandma & Grampy and the skirt I made her to go with it, and her Valentine bulldog, Wyatt.

 As some of you will probably remember, Blake had quite a few words that would come out wrong until she learned to better annunciate them.  You know, britches = bitches, binoculars = knockers, and so on. Well, Wyatt has finally hit that stage.  To most, it's a 'fishing pole' but to my crazy, little Wy-Guy it's a "bitch pole".  You can imagine the fun we've had with this one:

- Pointing to a large fish - "That's big bitch, Momma"
- Pretending to 'smack' me with a fishing pole - "Mack you with my bitch pole"
- When Daddy's out fishing - "Daddy's bitchin'"
- Pointing to a picture of Daddy holding a big fish - "Daddy's big bitch"

Hahahahaha!!!  Although, I will admit; it's a little embarrassing in public.

Blake posing out at the park

 Wy-Guy's photo opp

Otherwise, we've had a pretty boring February.  So, I'll just leave you with one last Wyatt story:

I was watching TV with Wy-Guy, and he pointed to a chicken on the screen exclaiming, "Chicken!"  "What does the chicken say?" I asked.  He looked at me like I was an idiot and stated, "I eat the chicken."

Wyatt's Second Year Video

Here's Wyatt's second year video - ENJOY!!!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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