Ryan's Prayer

Each night Tim prays with the kids right before bed. He asks Bekah & Joey what each of them thought was the best part of the day, then they thank God for that thing/person/whatever. He just started trying to incorporate Ryan into this too. Here was their conversation a few nights ago:

Tim: Bekah, what was your favorite part of the day?
Bekah: Spending time with Aunt Laura.
Tim: Okay, why don't you thank God for such a nice Aunt Laura that you get to be with so frequently.
Bekah: Okay. Dear God, thank you for a nice Aunt Laura and all the nice things we do with her.
Tim: Okay Joey...
(Repeat similar to above)
Tim: Okay, Ryan, Say "God, thank you for a fun day."
Ryan: You're welcome.

Hmm... we might need to work on that.

I'm back!

Apparently whatever problem I was having has resolved itself. But apparently I can only upload one picture per post. I'll take what I can get.

So... an update. Tim's been playing with the kids a lot more recently as he got a new position at work!! Yippie. We've been hoping and praying for about a year for a job change. He stayed with the same company, but switched departments. His new spot doesn't require evenings & weekends & overtime like his old spot did, so we're seeing a lot more of him. Praise God. He heard he got the job 2 days before Thanksgiving and started there on 12/15.

I'm doing well, for the most part... I ended up getting the stomach flu in mid-November, and then again on Thanksgiving. T-day is my most favorite day of the year, so it was quite upsetting to be so sick for it. I didn't even get any turkey :-( Baby remained fine though, so I can handle that! Things are pretty much normal with me for now. I'm in the third trimester now and am getting so excited about meeting #4.

The kids are doing well too. Crafts are the daily excitement around here. Bekah & Joey are always looking for a new craft to do. Ryan spends his days looking for mischief to get himself into, usually with great success.

We're looking forward to Christmas. The kids are very concerned because we keep going to buy gifts for other people, but they haven't seen us buy any for them. I keep assuring them that we buy them when they're not around so it'll be a surprise. It should be a fun morning! They're very excited for Jesus' birthday and want to sing Happy Birthday to Him. I'm glad they at least sort of understand the true meaning of Christmas.

Happy Early Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving - everything about it. I get so excited when it is time to make Thanksgiving themed crafts. Here are the kids turkeys. 

Joey did not want his picture taken with his turkey.  He also didn't want yellow hand-feathers or a gobblet part. I'm not sure if you can see too well in this picture, but he wrote the J and the Y in his name. Too cute.

Ryan was so excited about getting his picture taken that he wouldn't hold his turkey. It was stealing his spotlight. So Bekah was the helper and held it for him. Ryan had a *bit* more help than the other two... as evidenced by the placement of things and the ability to distinguish what the eyes are. He did do some mighty nice coloring by himself though.
Bekah is very excited about her turkey. The eyes are slightly below the beak and those pink circles are cheeks. Turkeys must have cheeks. 
This was a great craft as they are really into anything involving markers or a stapler. The older two did cut out some of the hands by themselves (with assistance) too. I'm so glad that they're into crafts. It's one of my favorite things!

(I'm having problems with blogger - hence my infrequent posts... I can't seem to upload pictures on my home computer. It tells me there's a server problem. No idea what's going on with that!)

Welcome home, Houndy

Wendell has been at my parents' house for the last little while as we worked on our kitchen. He wasn't so fond of the demolition, so instead he vacationed in Fredonia. We were glad to see that it didn't take him long to adjust to life here. At least he didn't forget where his spot on the couch is. He is, however, slightly frighted of the fridge when the ice maker makes noise.

I may need to start a second blog just to catalog Ryan's accidents. Today he split open his eyelid. Fortunately, we avoided stitches this time. It's very tough to be the Ry.

Happy Halloween from Sesame Street

Most of the night was slightly happier than this moment for Ryan... though he wasn't too fond of the hood part of the costume. 1 1/2 year olds will, however, put up with almost anything for the promise of receiving candy. That's their cousin, Joshua, in the penguin suit. He's way too cute.

A real update...

We had our follow up appointment this morning with the perinatologist (high risk pregnancy doctor). Since this morning was their first morning in a new building, things were running exceptionally slowly, even at 8:00 am. Nothing like dragging out the waiting! It was easy to see immediately that the heart rhythm looked normal. We watched it for a while on the ultrasound and saw that both the atriums and ventricles were beating at exactly the same rate (around 158). Praise God. But of course, we were still not certain that there wasn't a problem, and had to wait for quite a while longer (see a pattern here? maybe God's trying to teach me something!) to see the doctor, who had my blood work results. Thank God, my blood work came back completely normal for the 2 antibodies we were concerned about. It was barely positive for my ability to carry those 2 antibodies, so it is something I may deal with later on (negative is anything less than 20, mine measured at 20). The doctor was stunned. He told us that seeing an abnormal heartbeat like what we saw last week was explainable for a few minutes, but said that he reviewed our scan from last week which documented the irregular activity for 50 minutes. He said he has no medical explanation for this, and even said it just had to be a higher power. We certainly think so!! The doctor said he considered writing a paper on the situation... this just does not happen. I will continue to see the high risk doctor for the duration of the pregnancy. I will have a non-stress test next Wednesday in which they chart the heart beat for a while to check it. I'll go back a week later for a regular appointment and back for an ultrasound 2 weeks after that. If everything is still looking fine at that point, I'll be considered "normal" (there's a first for everything!). We know that God orchestrated all of this for our little sweetie. We know that He is the only way we can explain away this medical abnormality. We certainly thank all of you for praying for this during this time and appreciate them continuing. We'll continue to keep you updated as we learn more.

Not much of any update...

I called my doctor's office (as instructed by my doctor on Monday) this morning to try to get my test results. Come to find out, yesterday and today their office is moving to another building. No one bothered to tell me that last Monday when I made an appointment for this coming Monday. I'm glad I found out or I would have shown up at the wrong place! 

Anyway, I was told that they would not take a message and that I could not speak with the doctor on call as it wasn't an emergency. I guess it's not an emergency, but it is pretty important in my life! So I have to wait until Monday to find out. The waiting is really difficult.  I haven't been sleeping well at all. It's not so much that I'm upset or anxious... I just can't get my mind to slow down when I need to go to sleep. It's been an exhausting week. 

I have another ultrasound on Monday, so I assume I'll find out the results then. I'll post when I know more. We really do appreciate all the prayers we know are being made on behalf of this little sweetie.

On a lighter note, here's a conversation with my 3 year old sweeties that we had tonight while snuggling on the couch. Bekah and I were sitting together and Joey came over to join us.

Joey: Where can I sit?

Bekah: I skootched. You can sit next to me.

After Joey sat down...

Bekah: I'm in the middle!

Me: Are you the monkey in the middle?

Bekah: YES!!!

Joey: I'm the bear on the left.

He really enjoys the grizzly at the zoo.

Baby Update - Please Pray

I had my ultrasound this morning. They discovered a heart problem with the baby called congenital heart block. The ventricles are not receiving the correct stimulus, so it's setting its own rate, about 70 beats per minute (should be around 140). It's still pumping enough blood to the rest of the baby, but has to work a lot harder to do so. We watched it for around 15 minutes at the ultrasound, then the doctor sent us upstairs to a specialist (praise God, she had a cancellation and could fit us in immediately). When we got there, it was like looking at a different heart - it beat perfectly, so the problem was either a fluke, or is in beginning stages and is having difficulty intermittently. 

Congenital heart block is caused by an antibody that I produce. So they sent me to the lab to have blood drawn to see if I do in fact carry the antibody. If I do, then it's congenital heart block and they'd put me on steroids for the remainder of the pregnancy to minimize the damage to the baby's heart. If I test negative for the antibody, then chances are that it was just a fluke, and we'll continue monitoring it just to be sure.

If I do test positively, the antibody is associated with auto-immune diseases, meaning I have a 50% chance of contracting one sometime in my life (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc).

If the baby has congenital heart block, there's a really high chance that the baby will be put on a pacemaker a day after birth. It's not a really invasive procedure, so the baby would just stay in the hospital a few extra days for monitoring. This would also require replacement pacemakers for the duration of his/her life. 

As you can imagine, this is quite a shock and a lot to take in for us. We are praying that I test negative for the antibodies, and that our little one just decided to play a trick on us for a few minutes.

We're praising God that the rest of the baby looks completely perfect. If there is a problem, we're very glad to have caught it early.

My blood work results should be back on Friday. I'll have another ultrasound on Monday to recheck things.

It's Hockey Night in Pittsburgh

Not too much is new with us, hence the lack of blogging. However, hockey season officially starts in Pittsburgh tonight. Tim, of course, is beyond excited. So if you happen to catch a Penguin game this season, but sure to listen for the organ in the background! 

Next year...

We'll have one more kid to pose on this bench. We're very excited about adding Priano #4 to our family, expected arrival: early March 2009.

Happy Birthday, Timmy!

Today is Tim's 29th birthday.

I'm so thankful to have such a great husband who is a FANTASTIC daddy.

(Not to mention, incredibly strong as shown above.)

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Sorry for the delay in posting...

We've had some computer trouble lately, but I'm happy to report that we've become a Mac family. It's nice to have a computer that turns on when you push the on button. 

We recently returned from a very nice family vacation in Ocean City, NJ. My aunt has a home there and is kind enough to let us use it each year.

Bekah really enjoyed the pool this year.

Joey made a lot of progress with his bike riding skills.

And Ryan was just happy to have some leisure time, what with his hectic schedule and all.

You should see the other guy...

For those of you who are squeamish, you might not want to scroll down. For those of you who like medical gore, if you click on the pictures, they get bigger.
Poor, sweet Ryan had his first trip to the emergency room on Friday night. Actually, it's our first trip there at all. I've always thought that Ryan would be our "ER kid" as he's pretty daring and fearless.

Ryan somehow crushed a glass between his hands. Tim was outside and I was upstairs. When I came down, he was covered in blood, sitting on the floor, completely calm. Kids are amazing. So off we rushed to the ER. He handled the whole thing really well. I was very impressed. He cried pretty much only when someone was bothering him as it was really late at night and he was tired. He has 8 stitches in his left hand (nasty), and they were able to glue together his right hand (sounds worse than it is). He's done really well with the bandages... he ripped his stitched hand bandages off the next morning during his nap, but since then has been fine. We say he looks like a little boxer.

Tomorrow morning we'll take him to the doctor to have them checked. The stitches will come out in 7-10 days. They told me he'd probably always have a scar, but hey, chicks dig scars, right?

We changed the bandages tonight. Here's some gross pictures.
(The cut goes across his palm... those two vertical flecks toward the pinky side are blades of grass that made their way into the gauze. You can't exactly expect an 18 month old to stay inside and clean all day!)


Tim and I have pondered the circumstances over and over in our heads... it could have been so much worse - what if he had fallen on the glass or put it in his mouth? We're so thankful that God protected Ryan and that we have the medical care we do so that he can be taken care of even more. While this situation went really well, all things considered, we're really hoping that we don't have more trips to the ER.

A new toy...

A while back I posted about how much laundry I do... well, apparently my washing machine agreed that it was too much, and decided to quit working. Last weekend we purchased this new beauty. I can actually watch my laundry, thanks to the clear lid. It's fantastic. So much for multi-tasking. I just want to spend my day watching the washing machine!

The Zoo - Again

Tim had to work this Saturday. I decided to take the kids to the zoo as I couldn't figure out anything else that would be fun for them to do at home. Sometimes going out is way less difficult than staying home! I'm so thankful for a zoo membership. It's great to know we can go anytime without having to pay extra. Though, it is MUCH more fun to go when Tim can go too.

Bekah is a big fan of bugs (well, at least until today when she was stung by a wasp). Here she is with a large preying mantis art type thing at the zoo.

I never seem to get a good rhino picture. They're always hiding. But not this time! Here it is for your viewing enjoyment:


One thing I was surprised/impressed by was how much my kids remember from our last trip to the zoo... they remembered the order of the animals. Bekah remembered that after the rhino was the "baby frocodiles". I didn't even remember that they had frocodiles!

Ryan hadn't napped yet, so it wasn't long before he was getting restless. Nothing a picture couldn't cure. Later in the day, I pulled out the camera and Ryan started yelling "CHEESE" over and over. (I was attempting to take a picture of an animal, not him.) This lady next to me commented that she'd never seen a child that small be so excited to have his picture taken. He's a nut!

Not long after this picture, he looked like this:


I got an email on Thursday that one of the elephants had a baby! We waited in line for quite some time to catch a glimpse of 3 day old Angelina. She's 3'-7". There's another baby expected any day. Elephants are pregnant for 22 months. I'm certainly thankful that God didn't decide to make it that long for humans too! Maybe that's why elephants don't have many babies. Here's "little" Angelina. The picture isn't so good since they were behind glass.

Joey really liked the grizzly bear last time as he was playing in the water a lot and was really fun to watch. This time it was almost 90 degrees outside and all of the bears looked pretty much like this:


Don't worry though, it's wasn't too hot for the dear. This is Melvin and he's 17 years old. They told us that dear in the wild rarely make it to age 5, but that dear in captivity can live to be upwards of 20. I'm guessing at this point in time, Melvin was wondering if they had returned him to the wild.

Last time we were at the zoo, we some how managed to miss the reptile house (yeah, I wasn't THAT sad). This time I made sure we found it as I think it's important for me not to pass on my irrational fear of snakes to the kids. I did shiver at one point while trying to force myself to look at the rattlesnake, but other than that it went pretty well. Here they are in the meercat habitat.

When we went to the zoo with the cousins last fall, we took a picture of Ryan by the naked mole rats as he had managed to poopsplode and no longer had a shirt... kind of resembling a naked mole rat. I tried to take a picture of him there this time too, but it's up in a wall, so I had to somehow hold Ryan up there and take the picture... so yeah, no naked mole rats present.
Here's a link to last fall at the zoo.

They have a misting station near the end of the zoo. I vote they install several more. We spent a while here cooling off.

Right before leaving, the kids rode on the carousel. Joey went by himself, and Bekah & Ryan rode together. For any of you who argue with me that Ryan looks more like Joey than like Bekah, I rest my case!

Oh okay, one animal bum picture... but only because you asked. How could I resist this one - these zebras were asking for it. Two for the price of one!

Blue Puppy

Anyone who spends much time with us knows that we are actually a family of 7: Tim, Mandie, Bekah, Joey, Ryan, Blue Puppy and Purple Puppy.

Tim's Aunt Karen (a frequent commenter on my blog) gave Bekah & Joey stuffed puppies when she came to visit us when they were about a week old. Shortly after, Joey claimed both puppies as his (Bekah has never minded). They have affectionately been named Blue Puppy and Purple Puppy. Here's an early picture of Joey (6 months) with cousin Jay (3 1/2). You can see a sliver of Blue Puppy all shiny and new in the corner.

Here's a sliver of shiny Purple Puppy about a month later:

Well, 3 years later, suffice it to say, Blue Puppy has seen better days. Just last week he suffered an almost life threatening tear. Just this morning I spent a good bit of time performing major surgery - a stuffingectomy and transplant, followed by major rattle repair, ending with a large suture across his belly. He also received a much needed bath. Sure, he's not exactly "good as new", but I'm happy to report he'll be with us for many more years.

I'm amazed at how attached I've become to these little guys. Joey has never wanted any other stuffed animals or toys - just always his puppies. I'm so glad that I'm able to keep in shape - sort of. haha. I worked on them for about 45 minutes. It's all worth it for this reaction:

What a face!

Ryan loves to have his picture taken. He yells CHEESE anytime he sees a camera. (This is quite the opposite of my other two at this age).

This one is midway through a very excited CHEESE.

Now, I understand that I'm biased, but how could anyone not think that Ryan has just the cutest face - even with a slightly black eye?

Hans & Tami's Wedding

We went to my sister's house this weekend to attend her sister-in-law Tami's wedding. Andi and I were able to do a lot of things for the wedding, which we thoroughly enjoyed doing together. We also had a LOT of help from Andi's friend Sara Garms. While I don't get to spend a lot of time with Sara, I thoroughly enjoy every time we get together.

I made Julia's dress to match the one that Hannah already had. Julia may just be the cutest little flower girl ever.

We also had the pleasure of making the cake. Despite never having used fondant before, the cake turned out beautifully. The roses are real. You can also see the Superman cake in the background that Andi made for Hans as the groom's cake.

My nephews Jay & Daniel (the middle two) handed out programs.


We also arranged the flowers. Here's my beautiful sister Andrea with her bouquet. I did learn through all of this that wrist corsages are not my friend.

Hannah had the fun job of escorting little Olivia down the aisle. Too cute.
Tami looked just beautiful.

I was surprised to see that Bekah was quite the dance machine. First she just slow danced with her daddy, but then decided that fast dances, and something that sort of resembled break dancing, was more her thing.
Joey joined in too, though he's a little more Pilgrimesque in his dancing than Bekah is.
My brother-in-law Johnny is quite the dance machine too. He was trying to get my sister to dance. Slim chance. Pilgrims don't boogie so much. Johnny performed the ceremony. He did a wonderful job. He was much better at that than he was at getting Andi to dance.


Ryan just wore himself out with all of the excitement.

So did Julia.

We had such a great time at the wedding. Thank you Hans & Tami for letting us be a part of your day.