Christmas!

I can't believe Christmas is already over! I took down the decorations today and it already feels like Christmas was months ago. Andy worked this Christmas so it was a little lonely, but the girls and I made the best of it! We had Christmas with us on the 25th, then went to my mom's house to have Christmas with them yesterday. Here's some pics!

Christmas Card Pics

My beautiful Nora

Such a sweet baby! I forgot how little they are when they're born!


Not happy about getting in the basket

Little Ella


No idea what these faces are about

Little miss thinker Abbie

Such big girls, I can't believe how fast time flies


It's that time of year! I LOVE Christmas time. This year we were a little delayed on Christmas pictures due to a new addition:) But here's some that I took before our wonderful photographer came. I'll post hers when they come!

Nora Lee

Well, it has been quite the week for the Jackson family. Last Wednesday we welcomed Nora Lee Jackson into the world at 8am weighing 7lb 4oz and 22.5in. She is beautiful and thankfully looks like mom:) Also to my great surprise has a headfull of black hair!! The surgery went well and we were able to cuddle in the recovery room. Shortly after she started showing signs of distress and trouble breathing. This quickly developed into a very serious matter and was transported to Children's Hospital in Denver. I never thought I would have to go through this experience again. Being away from my brand new baby and have her in a completely different hospital. What was a joyous day quickly turned into panic and heartache.

In the days following, Nora developed a type of pneumonia from fluid in her lungs which then promted a pneumo thorax(hole in the lung) which caused her right lung to collapse. After being ventilated, having a chest tube put in, and countless lines and IVs, Nora is on the road to recovery. Thanks to prayer and the wonderful Doctors and nurses at Children's. She came off the ventilator, chest tube and IV yesterday and today has lost her oxygen supplement. She was able to nurse this morning and has been nursing since. Her antibiotics are completed tomorrow and her last line in her little body will be out! We look to go home Thursday or Friday...fingers crossed!!

It has been such an emotional journey and heartbreaking, but God is in control and in a way has prepared us for this. It is a true miracle the birth of a child and I will never take for granted how much a healthy, perfect baby born is. Please continue to pray for Nora's recovery and health as we come to the end of this chapter. God is Good!

Few Pictures

This gross critter we found one morning in the backyard!

A favorite pastime in our house...


Watching our first snow!


Abbie wearing daddy's shoes and her favorite wardrobe accessory of late, her bib

Baby Update

Well, after a fun hospital visit last night we were able to go home to cook Nora a little bit more! I know Mike Wishard was very very relieved at this news as he was the stand in babysitter for the girls last night. As we were walking out the door he says "so, I've never changed a diaper before". Before I could panic Andy shuvs me out the door and yells back "It's pretty self explanitory man". But fortunately is was false labor and we were able to come home and Lord willing wait till Wed of next week to meet our newest little girl.

It seems God has lined up everything lately and now I'm starting to see why. Andy accepted a new job which officially starts Dec 1st. He will be in another round of training for 2 months(convenienty the time of my maternity leave). He's been in training the last 2 months which has thrown our schedule out of whack, but this round is sure to test us. He will work 6 12 hour days/nights then have 3 days off. This rotation will continue for the next 2 months!! I'll be glad to meet my husband again after that time. A trip with just the 2 of us will definitely have to be put into works. But until then it's going to be a hard 2 months:) It seems God has been bringing in sooo many changes since July, and I'm trying so hard to listen and see where He is leading us, but it's so hard. My OCD is getting pruned I believe, lol. I can't stand not being in control and knowing the outcome so this is new new new territory for me.

But I am still amazed daily at the power of prayer. As I prayed today before doing our budget and bills (and I'll openly admit I was scared to death about it because it is our first single income budget!) I asked God to please provide for us and give me peace of mind and surrender control to Him. And after I finished all the bills and budget for the next few months I was extremely encouraged to have all the numbers work out! But even better after that we received Andy's paystub in the mail and his check was double what it normally is!!! God is amazing and is faithful to provide!! We started the Dave Ramesy Total Money Makeover and God just supplied our babystep one! Though the extra money was a wonderful security, but more that was the comfort of knowing my heavenly Father cares and provided me comfort in His answer. I know these times can be so hard with Christmas and year end finances, but God taught me once again to lean on Him and give Him my worries and remain faithful and He will provide. Again we are so blessed and I hope those few of you who read this will be abundantly blessed this Christmas season!

Daddy's Girls

I can't believe how fast my girls are growing!! They come up with something new every day. It's amazing how much their little minds pick up and how fast they learn it. They love to sing and love for momma to sing:) They are talking so much and love to laugh. Ella's favorite song is the "dadda song", Which she wrote herself, haha. The girls love, love, love their daddy. They love running in our room in the mornings when Andy is off and jumpin on him in the bed. It's so sweet how much they just want to cuddle with him and love on him. They definitely have daddy wrapped around their finger! I'm so incredibly blessed to have Andy as my husband and father to my kids. He is so patient and loving with the girls. His entire world is the girls and I and he is proud to tell anyone that. He is THE BEST dad i could imagine my kids growing up with. My idol is my grandpa. My whole life he has been the standard to which I compared all men to and how they should love, serve, parent and act. My Papaw is the Godliest man I know and his life is evidence of that and God molded Andy from the same cast. It's such a comfort to have his relaxed demeanor around when my OCD is in full swing. He complements me so well and we are so much alike in so many areas that it is evident God made him just for me. It's so easy throughout the day to lose sight of him as MY Andy when we're both in parent mode, but it still takes one look to give me goosebumps to my toes:) I love him so much for everything he is and everything he's becoming.

Pumkin patch pics

Iabsolutely LOVE going to the pumpkin patch and doing anything related to Halloween!! We went out with our friends today to a giant corn maze and pumpkin patch. The girls had a blast with all the animals. And of course with a dance floor we had to bust a move! Yesterday we went trick-or-treating at mom's hospital, today was the pumpkin patch. Tomorrow is our church festival then trick-or-treating in our neighborhood!! Happy Halloween!!!

Flashbacks

I've been thinking a lot about how fast time has gone! And yet how slow it seems to creep by all at the same time. I feel I've been married longer than just shy of three years, but at the same time, I can't believe I have almost 2 yr olds! I spent a few hours last night looking through all their old pictures and I can't remember them as the little babies:( They've grown so fast and change daily that I can't keep those early memories in my mind. I'm so thankful for the healthy little ladies God has blessed us with and how perfect they are when so much was working against them when they were born. I've been trying to remember the day they were born, and like all the other memories it is faded so much! I loved Lauren's story of how cutie Lily Kate was born and I thought I would share the girls story:) So if you don't have a few minutes(probably more than a few) to spare you might just want to skip over this drive down memory lane..cuz it'll be lengthy!

I'll start when I was about 26 weeks along with the girls which would have been October 2 years ago. I started having the worst chest pains ever in the middle of the night. Andy was on nights at the time so I was going over the mental debate of whether or not I should call the doctor or tough it out. About 1am I decided I couldn't handle the awful pain anymore and went to the ER by our house. After several hours of what to do's and the word "high risk pregnancy" they determined it was acid reflux and gave me this awful drink to choke down which was to immediately subside the pain. With my luck of course it did not. But I was so irritated with laying in pain in the ER for 3 hours that I said I'm leaving. I called Andy as I was driving myself home (still in horrible pain) and bawled that nothing is helping. Fortunately he called my mom and she drove the hour down to get me at 4 in the morning and took me to her hospital. After an hour there and an gastro-ultrasound later, they found I had an enormous gall stone lodged in my duct causing all the pain. 3 days and a lot of drugs later, I was able to go home. Most of the time they remove the gall bladder when you have attacks like this, but being prego with twins, my uterus was already too big to risk the surgery so it was pain management till the girls were born and then I could get it taken out. To manage the attacks I was put on a low fat, light, light, light diet (which was funny at the time since I puked my brains out everyday no matter what I ate thanks to all the estrogen pumping through my body, lol).

About 5 weeks later my water broke in the middle of the night and we raced to my hospital an hour away from the house. From there I was air lifted to a hospital in Denver with a higher level NICU just in case they weren't able to stop the labor. PRAISE GOD my leak sealed back over itself and I was put on bedrest and sent home.

So...now we come to Feb 12, 2009. I was headed to the doctor early in the AM for a routine weekly checkup (one of the perks of being knocked up with twins...you get to go the doctor once a week starting at 28 weeks :-/). We had our ultrasound first at 7:30am and went to the waiting room to wait for my appointment at 9am. It was about 8:45 by now and Andy forgot his phone in the truck so he went downstairs to get it. My doctor just got there so they brought me back while Andy was gone. Everything was going routine as it had for the last 6 weeks of these. My doc was saying (I kid you not) if anybody can make it to 38weeks you're gonna be the one! So he laid me back to check me as usual and started asking me what we were doing for the weekend. After he measured my uterus growth as 42 weeks (I was 34 weeks) I was chattering off what we would be doing for Valentines Day. He said in an oh so casual voice, well you're not going to make it to 38 weeks after all we're having babies today. I started laughing and said, "yeah sure" . He sat me up and said I'll call your mom ( who was the charge nurse that day on the OB floor). I said, wait wait wait...are you serious. He said "Sarah...you're 5 cm dilated. I'm sending you over and I'll be over in a little bit to get you delivered." At this point I started bawling and the nurse was trying her best to comfort me and she ran out to get Andy from the waiting room. So Andy comes in to me bawling and Dr. Crane trying to convince my mother on the phone that yes, Sarah is in labor.

We head over to the hospital which is in the same building as the Dr. office. I am still crying at this point as Andy walks with me(because I refused the wheelchair..I was still in denial that I was having these babies much less in labor. I felt completely normal. No pain, nothing changed) to the OB ward. I call Josh and Suzan and tell them that they're sending me over to monitor me no big deal. Suzan wants to rush over, and I tell her there's no need it's not a big deal. One of the nurses meets us at the door and we go into the triage room where my mom is frantically getting monitors, drugs and everything else lined up to stick in me. They strip me and hook me up to a gazillion things and start shooting steroids into my thighs(which is not entirely comfortable). I have to say one of the weirdest drugs is Turb. It's supposed to slow down labor and contractions(which I kept saying I'm not having any). But one of the side effects is shivering, lol. My teeth and whole body was shivering uncontrollably. 3 more nurses come in to help mom and their eyes bug out at the contraction reader. Apparently I'm busting out huge contractions a few seconds apart, which I feel none of. Amidst all the chaos, I'm trying to tell mom that I need to go to the bathroom. She kind of ignores me while putting in an iv and all the other stuff. I tell her again a little more forceful and under my breath, "Mom I really have to go bad if you know what I mean". I start to get up to go to the potty and she says "Oh no you don't!" Hikes my legs up in the air and checks me. I'm now at 7.5cm. It's been a whole 20 minutes since Dr. Crane checked me at 5cm. Josh calls now and asks how things are going. I tell him we're good they're just monitoring me. At this point mom takes the phone and tells him he needs to get here ASAP because we're about to go to the OR. So now all the nurses go into overdrive. I'm getting gowned, and one of the nurses takes Andy out to get him suited up.

We get up and start walking to the OR (I refused the wheelchair again...yes I hate them!). Suzan comes flying in the door with the video camera and she gets suited up. I'm taken back and they do their thing of numbing and hooking me up to all sorts of stuff while Andy and Suzan are waiting outside the OR. As soon as they lay me back I get super nausea and throw up, while I'm doing this Dr. Crane comes in and grabs a knife and starts cutting. By the time I get done puking I ask if they've started cutting yet...Dr. Crane laughs and says, we're about to get Ella out. 10 minutes later, we've got 2 beautiful baby girls. Since they were 34 weeks we spent a month in the hospital with Ella having to go to a different hospital that very night to be put on a ventilator for 7 days.

And now we've got the two crazy toddlers running around perfect! Now we are waiting the arrival of little Nora in a bout a month. Praying she stays in there till then, knowing how crucial it is for them to not be born early.

Rain rain...

It seems everybody today is whining about the rain today. However it was a nice thing to wake up to! I love how a good rain mellows out the mood and "cleans" everything. It's almost like a new beginning. The slate gets wiped clean and it's time to start over. Kind of perfect actually for this time in our lives!

I decided Sunday night at about 9:30 that I want to turn our office into Nora's room. Originally I was going to have all three girls share a room, but after sitting in the vacant bedroom(as the girls were with Nanna that night). I decided it would be too crowded for three cribs to be in there. So I went and sat in the office and began to execute my plan for the remodel. Andy was not so thrilled until I told him he could move the deer head downstairs if he gave up the office(keeping in mind he never uses the office, but for whatever man-territory claims he believes he had on it he was ok relinquishing it).

So the next morning I went to Lowes and picked out paint and came home and went to work. First off, ya'll should know how much I LOATHE painting. So taking this on I credit 100% to pregnancy hormones. Secondly the office was acting as a storage area for everything I wanted to get rid of, but Andy refused to get rid of so what I was going to do with all the jink was beyond me. I compacted as much stuff as I could into a box to take to Goodwill while only labeling the box with a "general" term as not to give too much detail to the dear husband:) After weeding through a lot of the mess and shoving what I couldn't make a decision on back into the closet to deal with later, I got the entire room coated twice by lunch when I had to go pick up the ladies. I still need to do one more coat to ensure no bleed through, but It looks 100 times better already.

So today as I am going to try and get the last coat on before I do the lower border of the room, I find out the girls are sick:( They both are coughing and throwing up and snotty. They had this about 2 weeks ago when we found out they had ear and sinus infections and after a few days on Amoxicillin they were all cleared up. But after the amoxicillin was over, it all came back so I'm guessing that they might have the same run down again. But thankfully Andy is off the next 3 days so he can help and hopefully get the house and room cleaned up so the girls don't do a little decorating of their own! My poor little ladies though...they are such good troopers even though they are sick. Just a little whiney, but still sleep and play like normal. I just worry about their appetites which have diminished to nothing. I know that it's normal, but I still feel so bad for them.

Well today was a complete rambling day! But this is what a blog is for right? I hope everyone has a fantastic Tuesday!

Changes...

I love fall!! I don't think I can get enough of the cooler weather, with the changing leaves and cool nights with nippy mornings!! I love it! This year along with the changing season for fall, our lives are making some pretty major changes as well. First off a new baby around Thanksgiving will change the dynamic of our lives forever. I'm nervous to handle it all, but I rest comforted that God doesn't give us more than we can handle. I'm so thankful Mark and Cindy will be coming out Thanksgiving day and staying a week to keep the girls while Andy and I are in the hospital. And after they go back home my mom will take time off to come down and help.

Another big change is Andy's job. He accepted a new position at the Hudson plant closer to our house. All this in result of the "Green Colorado" bill passed by our ridiculous mayor which requires the elimination of all coal plants in Colorado in the next 7 years. Anticipating the required job transfer, Andy went ahead and put in for this plant. He starts training in November and will be at the new plant in November. He's excited as am I, but I know there will be a few adjustments to be made along the way.

The last big change for us is my job. I have LOVED where I have worked the past 2.5 years. The company has been amazing to work for and I love their mission. However, they will be moving further away this spring. Which would make for an extremely long commute. So in light of that and the new addition to our family, we've decided to become a single income family....SCARY!!! I've been praying for God to help us make the transition and bless our efforts as we remain faithful and listen to His instruction. There's something scary about leaving your job..I'm sure is is fear of income loss(which is always scary no matter who you are), but mostly I think it's fear of security. Just having that second job for insurance/back up purposes was a security blanket for me. I've never NOT worked so this will be an entirely new territory. Don't get me wrong, I'm so thrilled to be able to stay at home with the kids as a full-time mommy. I'm just struggling with my worrying tendencies. I rest assured God was not taken by surprise with any of this and I know He promised to be never leave us and watch over us. It's just telling myself that over and over and over so it will coat all my worries with His peace:)

Pumpkin Patch and Festival

We had a blast this weekend with the in-laws! We went to Four Mile Park in Denver for their festival. There was horse and carraige rides, a pumpkin patch, and all sorts of farm animals. The girls had so much fun. All they could do was run full speed and point out everything they saw. Just wanted to post some pics for my few followers:)