Back at Home!!

First we want to say thank you to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers for our family throughout this trying time. Hannah was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. The doctors never officially diagnosed her, but they feel it was a combination of her tooth and an infection in her lymph nodes. She still has to take antibiotics for 7 days. She is so happy to be back home playing with her brother and sister! She missed them so much!! And of course it's great to have things back to normal. Back to work tomorrow!!

Oh, yeah... Hannah turns the big FOUR on Tuesday!!

Update & Snow

Update: Hannah's temperature did not go up last night and her face looks SO much better today! She is definitely feeling better, too!! She is feeding herself breakfast after 4 days. I feel very confident her pediatrician will let us go home today!! YAY!!

Now...the "SNOW" part of the title!! I woke up to the nurse saying it was snowing outside!! I had to stop and ask myself if I were dreaming!! It hasn't snowed here in YEARS!! So long I can't even remember! But it really IS snowing!! It's not sticking, but, hey, it's Mississippi!

I will post an update later, from HOME hopefully!!!

Update on Hannah

It's been a LONG week...Many of you may know our youngest daughter, Hannah, is in the hospital. I just realized last night I could bring the computer to the hospital (I have really been out there!) so I wanted to update everyone on what has been going on this week. Here is a timeline of everything:

Tuesday 1/15:

When I got home from work a little after 5, I saw the girls and went to help Alan finish dinner. About 5:30, we sat down to eat and I noticed Hannah's left cheek was big. I jokingly told her to stop holding food in her cheek like a chipmunk. She opened her mouth and was like, Mom there's nothing in there. So I started freaking out. The left side of her face was enlarged and all the lymph nodes were swollen. I immediately got her dressed and we headed to the ER. If you know where we live, you know the closest hospital to us. I would rather not mention the name because we will NEVER go back there. She had a temp of 102 when we got there. They even tried to give her two doses of Motrin because the time the first dose was given was written incorrectly in her chart. Needless to say they told us it could be one of several things: abscessed tooth, lymphadenitis, and the nurse said, "Oh, it looks like mumps". They gave us a prescription for Amoxil and said to follow up with our Pediatrician in 2 days and he could do bloodwork because they didn't feel the need to do it. I was so mad, but went home with those orders. He was a dr. right? Just to show you what we were dealing with, here is a picture of her face on Tuesday night.

Wednesday 1/16:

About 5 am I woke up to Hannah burning up with a temperature! I took her temp and it was around 103 and her face was double the size it was the night before. Our Pediatrician's office didn't open until 8 so those 3 hours were tough having to wait! He was able to see us a 8:30. Let's just say by 9:00, he had bloodwork done and was telling us we were headed to the hospital to be admitted. It was that serious! Her face had swollen so much he was worried it would start to block her airways and affect her breathing. He thought it could from her tooth but wasn't sure. We were admitted to the Children's Hospital at UMC because they have the dental clinic on the 6th floor if it was a dental issue and it could be taken care of while we were in the hospital. They started her on antibiotics and the dentist came in to see her. They came back a little later in the afternoon with like 4 doctors to look again and said it could be an abscessed tooth (her back molar) and it could be draining into the pocket under her chin. Ultimately her tooth was going to have to come out but they wanted to wait until the swelling went down a little bit. Hopefully Thursday, but no later than Friday. The entire time I just didn't think this was the problem. I have had an abscessed tooth and I remember the pain I was in. She hadn't been complaining about her tooth and she had still been eating on that side. But her tooth did look strange (it was split and looked like two separate teeth) so I just put my instincts to the side and let them make the decisions. Here is Hannah on Wednesday. You can see how much it swelled basically over night.

Thursday 1/17:

Her temp spiked at 104.4 early Thursday morning. There were no signs of the swelling decreasing so the dentist decided around 10 to take the tooth out to remove the source of infection. She went into surgery around 3 and lasted a lot longer than expected. Her tooth has some abnormalities (sorta like hooks on the roots holding it to the mouth) so they were confident it needed to be out, but they weren't sure it was the cause of the infection. An ENT would be called in to do a consult and we were going to continue antibiotics until they could determine what else might be going on.

Friday 1/18:

So today is Friday, we are still here at the hospital, waiting on the ENT to come by, waiting on another CVC (bloodwork), but the good news is the swelling has went down some. Her temp only got to 101.5 so that was good too. She slept most of the night and ate breakfast this morning. Hopefully we will know more this afternoon, but as of right now we probably won't be going home today. :(

Thanks to everyone for all of the prayers. It's difficult because no one really knows whats going on. We pray that the doctors find some answers and the swelling continues to go down as well as her temperature.

One thing I want to add...Everyone here at the Blair E. Batson Hospital has been wonderful! So helpful and understanding. They have playrooms with toys and even volunteers that come around and read stories. We are so thankful to have this hospital to come to. As you may know, it's the only hospital in Mississippi designed specifically for children. I've always heard radio-thons and different fundraisers for the hospital and never once thought we would ever be here so I didn't second guess not donating. But after this experience, we plan on changing that.

It's Finished!

Thanks to my wonderful husband for finishing Ethan's room today!! And he managed to get it done all while taking care of THREE kids!! I love how the border came out...hard to get some good pictures but it is AWESOME in person!!

Another good picture of Ethan LOVIN his new bed!!

Baby Update!!

May I introduce...Katelynn Marie

She is absolutely ADORABLE!! And no, I'm not just partial, she REALLY is!!!

Proud Daddy!

Ten little fingers, Ten little toes,
The sweetest of smiles and a cute little nose
All these add up To a very special thing...
A baby... The greatest of gifts
That life can bring.

My sister isn't feeling well...nauseated from the pain meds. Please keep her in your prayers! Thank You!!

Southern Belle T-Shirts

This will be the 2nd order for the Southern Belle "Autism Awareness" T-shirts. I ordered one last time and they are adorable! And they are for a good cause! If you want one, mail the order form below by FEBRUARY 16, 2008.

The t-shirts will be available in youth and adult sizes, long and short sleeve. They will be chocolate and teal on a pink shirt! TOO CUTE!! Here's the back of the t-shirt:

Katelynn Marie is HERE!!

After an emergency c-section (because Katelynn's arm was above her head & she couldn't be delivered naturally) she was born at 11:21 a.m. and was 5 lbs. 13 oz. and 18.5 inches long!

Please pray for my sister. I'm sure it's devastating when you plan a birth one way and unexpectedly things change. Within a 30 minute period she went from 5 centimeters to 9 centimeters and then the news of having to have a c-section was pretty overwhelming I'm sure.

I wasn't able to get a good picture, so I will post later this evening!

She is sooo cute and sooo little!!

Please Pray!

My younger sister, Brittany, is in labor at Baptist about to give birth! She wasn't due until 1/25 but her doctor scheduled to induce her this morning. She just had an epidural and is about 5 cent. dialated! Hopefully around lunch, Katelynn Marie will be here!! Please pray her labor goes smoothly & as painless as possible and they have a healthy baby girl in the end!!

We love you Brittany & J.R.!!

Ethan's NEW Room

We have been debating for the past few weeks whether or not to retire the baby bed (FOREVER!!) and get Ethan a toddler bed, but I was worried he wasn't quite ready...WELL, after he decided to CLIMB out of his baby bed, we immediately went to get his new BIG BOY BED! He loves the movie Cars, so we decided to go with that theme! We found the bed, bedding, kid's chair, & lamp and we bought paint and stickers to do the walls. We took down the baby bed and put up the new one last week & we finally had time this weekend to start on the painting. I helped a little bit, but Alan did the majority of it all!! He painted the mural on the wall & added the stickers. We still have to finish the other walls. I couldn't find a border I liked so we decided to paint red between the blue and brown and add more stickers to make our own border. It's SO cute! Here are a few pictures of the mural. You can see Ethan pointing to the cars!

I hope he enjoys his new room...from the looks of it...I think he does already!!

She Did It...She Did It!!

Over, Under, Around the Tree,

Swing past the bunny hole,

Pull & See!!

She FINALLY did it!!
We have been working on this for a few weeks now and TODAY Morgan finally tied her shoes...
ALL BY HERSELF!!
I am so proud of her! She is really growing up! TOO Fast may I add!!

Sweet Baby Boy

Little boys are amazing! I have learned since Ethan was born that boys are SO different from girls. Bumps, bruises, running, tumbling, falling down and getting right back up is the way he works. The girls fall and get hurt and its like the whole world stops! Mine are so dramatic when something like this happens; I run to get ice packs and bo-bo strips (as Hannah calls them) and Ethan, he just keeps on going! I try to console him and he fights to do it all over again! I remember one time in particular he climbed in a plastic chair and stood up and tumbled over, fell into the wall and busted his lip. I cleaned him up and let him back down. What did he do? Went right back over to the chair and did it again!! He has so much energy! Someone gave me a plaque when he was born that I have hanging in his room that reads, "Mothers of boys work from son up to son down. I couldn't put it in better words if I tried!

But after all of this, the love a little boy has for his mother is far more amazing! I walked through the door after a long day of work and he is the first to greet me...MAMA MAMA MAMA!! and he wants me to pick him up! He wraps his arms around me and its an indescribable feeling! After a hard day of playing, he gets sleepy, grabs his blankie, and says "Night Night"!! Yes, an 18 month old asking to go to bed!

Hard to believe but thats my Ethan! Once he's down I sneak in to check on him and I realize he really still is my sweet baby boy! He always will be! I know once he's grown, he will always come back back to me. Now, it may be to wash his laundry or eat some of mom's cooking, but that will be ok! We have the special bond that I know will only grow stronger as the years past. I took this picture a few nights ago when I did my nightly "peek" on him and I started to tear up! He may be rough and tough on the outside, but when it's all said and done, he is and will always be MY BABY!!

Just one more reason I thank God EVERYDAY

for what he has blessed me with!

YOU pick the cup

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old high school teacher, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When they all had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, 'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups...and then you began eyeing each other's cups.Now consider this: Life is the coffee; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. God makes the coffee, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.
And enjoy your coffee!'

New Year, New Me

2008 is HERE!!! I decided I needed a little change last week, so what do I do?? Color my hair, of course!! I decided to go dark again! My hair was this color this time last year...but it was also light brown, a little blonde, red, and dark brown so black was the next best choice!! I'm asked all the time why I change the color of my hair and I really don't know why. It's one of the few things in my life I have complete control over...Well, I say I have complete control but more and more a few gray hairs have snuck up on me! Let's just hope I don't get that from my dad's side of the family; I think all of my aunts and uncles, even my grandmother, was completely gray by the time they were 30! Clariol will be rich before I let those little suckers be seen on me! So with a new style, I thought it would be good to make a list of my resolutions for 2008. Here's a few I will share, but there are a few other personal resolutions I will be working on along with these:

1. Grow spiritually, read my Bible more, and start each day with a morning devotion
2. Be more organized (I started out today at work! Still need to start at home)
3. Wake up earlier...be 10-15 minutes early for everything (With 4 kids, this will be hard, but if I start earlier in the day, hopefully I can be on time at least!)
4. Stay away from fast food and cook more meals for the family
5. Lose 10-15 lbs. (ties in with #3 and I'm still trying to get all the baby weight off 18 months later!)
6. Sew more (Once again, with 4 kids, finding time will be hard, but I really want to use this talent I have been given!)
7. Let my hair grow out and donate it to Locks of Love (I am really hoping to accomplish this, but my hair is short so I don't know!) I will be donating in honor of this precious angel.

I will also be starting the book "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. Well, restarting I guess you could say. I have attempted to start this book 3 times, but I plan on getting through it this time. Lately I have really been asking myself so many questions...Why am I here, What is God's purpose for my life, and What do I need to do to live my life the way He wants me to? I want to look back on this year on January 2, 2009 and know that I have come so far and I am living the life God planned for me. So here's to the New Year and the New Me!!

Christmas Photos!

OK! After much anticipation (from those few readers out there!)...Here's how The Youngs celebrated Christmas this year!!!

I was lucky enough to have the week of Christmas off!! And I needed it! We had dinner and exchange gifts at my mom's Sunday before Christmas and Alan's parents came in that night from Florida. Monday, I did a little last minute shopping (YES, I was one of the crazy last minute shoppers!) and last minute wrapping! I think I was wrapping presents in the car on the way to my Grandmother's Christmas Eve!! It's our tradition to eat and exchange gifts with my dad's side of the family Christmas Eve. We let the kids see lights on the way home and once we got home we arrived to this...

No...Santa did not come early to The Youngs House...It's presents from Grammie and Poppy!! We let the kids open presents from them and a few from mom and dad. I always get the kids pajamas to wear Christmas Eve...not really what they want to open, but Mommy likes 'em! They all look alike and cute for Christmas morning pictures! After the kids FINALLY went to bed, Santa came!!

Out of the chaos on Christmas morning, this was the only picture I seemed to get of the kids seeing their presents for the first time. Morgan WAS not happy as you can see!! Hannah came in and wanted to get up and play then went in to wake Morgan up way before she was ready! She would have rather celebrated Christmas afternoon!! Not my morning child!! They really liked all of the presents! When Bella came home Christmas night, she had a blast as well!! Next year she will be with us for Christmas Eve! Yay!!