9 x 2 = Happy Birthday Lauren & Mackenzie!

Nine years ago today, I saw these 2 sweet faces for the very first time (Lauren on left, Mackenzie on right). This was just a couple hours after they were born: May 25, 2000.

And this morning I saw these beautiful 9-year-olds! Happy Birthday Lauren and Mackenzie!

Because I see them every day, it's hard to notice the changes as they take place. So I grabbed a picture from every year of their life (most were taken on or around their birthday). So here they are ... Lauren and Mackenzie 2000-2008. (See above for 2009.)

I remember the day they told us it was twins: January 19, 2000. Some of the craziest news I have ever heard. I mean, we had 2 very young children at home (Nick was 2 and Austin was 1) and I was 5 months pregnant and they told us it was twins! I remember clearly when they put the ultrasound wand on my belly. I knew how ultrasounds went and I knew that I usually couldn't tell what was what. But the first image that popped up on that screen was very clearly 2 circles and the nurse smiled and I said that it looked like 2 heads. And she said that was exactly what it was (so either we were having a 2-headed baby ... or it was twins!). Marty was pale as a ghost and then we just laughed. What could you do at that point? We were nervous and we were scared but that was truly one of the best moments of my life! I could not imagine life without them. :)

They have grown up so fast and I am so proud of them. And although they are twins and will always share that bond, they have both developed into unique little people that are so cool as individuals. And now I'm getting all philosophical and teary when all I really wanted to do is wish them the best birthday ever! We're off to the Mexican Inn and Build-A-Bear by request of the birthday kiddos.

Here are some videos of Mackenzie and Lauren 2 days ago at their school luau. They were the coolest kids at the party!

And here is some music for ya! Colin Raye: One Boy, One Girl.

Happy New Year! ... and a Trip To Terabithia

Today was a great start to 2009. It was a very fun, productive day. Marty and I spent a couple of hours taking down Christmas decorations (that's why I'm not doing a Christmas post today ... I'm all Christmased out ... but I promise the pictures are coming soon.) It was a beautiful, sunny day and about 70°.

We live right by a lake and there is a finger of the lake that comes behind the houses and you can hike around the woods. It's pretty muddy and the kids always come home filthy but they love it. They call the spot Terabithia. (Like the book/movie Bridge to Terabithia.) Lauren came home today with a tadpole. I asked if she would take me to Terabithia and she was so excited so I put on my boots and we headed out the door. We went with one of her friends and the boys all wanted to go with us but I had told Lauren it was just going to be the girls. But while I was putting on my boots, the boys left and I was pretty sure we would be seeing them!

Lauren was so sweet. She kept asking if I wanted to go the long or the short way? ... The easy or the hard way? ... The muddy or the rocky way? (There are many ways to get to Terabithia apparently.) But I told her that I was going to follow her whichever way she wanted to go. So we went through the creek. Here are Lauren and her friend Mackenzie in the creek.

I knew it wouldn't be long before we ran into one of the boys. We heard some rustling in the bushes and out popped my son Mackenzie!

So we asked him to take a picture of the three of us and then we were on our way again. The boys went their separate way.

And then we made it to Terabithia. This is the first picture I took. The sunshine makes it look magical ... just like in the book!

We spent a good hour or more walking around the woods and by the lake. I was really glad I had worn rubber boots. Lauren weighs about 43 pounds and does not sink in the mud. I am a different story! Here are some miscellaneous pictures of Terabithia.

And then we saw them again ... BOYS! I think they were spying on us the whole time. But this time we decided to stay together and head over to the bridge. My son Mackenzie had gone home. Nick told me that Mackenzie had found some trash and said he wanted to clean it up like WALL-E (Mackenzie has a slight WALL-E fascination at the moment). The boys in the picture are Nick in the glasses and our neighbor Jonathan (Lauren's friend Mackenzie's brother).

And we finally made it to the Bridge to Terabithia. Here it is. And the kids wanted to go under it. They are convinced that a "hobo" (Lauren's word) lives under the bridge because there's some carpet under there.

Christmas pictures are coming soon. I promise. But for now we need some music. How about a bridge song? Here's the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Under the Bridge.

An answered prayer!

O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. Psalm 30:2

I can't believe it ... after 5 years, I have finally heard the words I have been waiting to hear ... "His ears look great!" If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that my youngest son, Mackenzie, had a pretty serious ear operation last March. And at the time of the operation, we were told that he would need a second operation in 9-18 months to reconstruct what was damaged during the first operation.

For a while last year, his hearing started getting a little better but then earlier this year, it started decreasing again and we could just tell he was not hearing well. I wanted to wait until after summer (because of swimming) before I made a decision on the operation so our doctor told us to come back when school started. Well ... we just got home from the audiologist and his ENT and he can hear! In fact, the hearing in his right ear (the one that had the operation) is just minimally lower than in his left ear. The doctor even went so far as to tell me that he would perform the reconstructive surgery if I wanted but that if we do, he is doubtful that he could achieve the level of hearing that Mackenzie currently has.

This is all amazing to me because when Mackenzie had his operation, the doctor removed two of the ossicles in his ear that are necessary for hearing. So I asked the doctor how it was possible for him to be hearing so well. And he told me that we were just lucky and that every once in a while, everything just heals well and the scar tissue does something (insert a lot of big words here that I have no clue what they mean). Anyway, I don't really care about the explanation. All I care about is that my son can hear and is not going to need another operation! God must have been listening to me. And I am so happy! Our doctor still wants to check him out every year or so but for now, everything looks great!

This picture of Mackenzie was taken on our last night in California this summer after a bath. It cracks me up. That boy is so funny. And take a look at the picture and compare it with mine ... don't you think he looks like me? I have noticed that in a couple of pictures lately. I think he's the only one of the kids that resembles me at all.

And for music today, I thought I would give a little praise to God for blessing my life more than I deserve to be blessed. Third Day: God of Wonders

My little MacMiracle!

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you know that my little Mackenzie gave us quite a scare with his ear back in the beginning of the year. See this post and this post and this post and this post. He has had ear troubles since we moved to Texas in 2003. We finally had a Mastoidectomy in March and were told at that time that he would have to have one or possibly two more surgeries with the first one being in December. Well, yesterday we went for his hearing test and ENT appointment. The hearing test really surprised his doctor. Although Mackenzie's hearing was worse in his right ear (not surprising since they removed some ossicles), it was still in the "normal" range. Still, the doctor cautioned me that the cholesteatoma could return and he wanted to "open him up" again and make sure there was no re-growth. But then I reminded him that he never actually found a true cholesteatoma - just granulation tissue but he had classified it as a cholesteatoma for insurance purposes. So that was a different story. He said that even with reconstructive surgery, Mackenzie's hearing would only improve a decibel or two and instead of scheduling surgery, he scheduled a CT scan. As long as the scan is clear, I believe we are going to opt to not have surgery and that makes my little boy very happy!

Here's a silly layout I made about Mackenzie's big dreams! It's fun to imagine what this smart little guy will become.

That's all I have for today. Nick has a baseball game tonight at 8:00 so it will be a long night for him. I'll leave you with another Justin Timberlake song. Apparently the one I played yesterday was the wrong one. So sorry!! Here is Until The End Of Time.

Feeling much better!

Mackenzie woke me up at 4:30 this morning and asked me when it would be morning so he could play Playstation! Here are some pictures I took at about 7:00am. He feels much better. Austin also feels better and is playing with Mackenzie. Lauren is still asleep and poor Nick had to go to school because he's the only healthy one and he's trying for perfect attendance this year!

An Update On Mackenzie...

Thank you again to everyone for their prayers. They have worked so far. Mackenzie's operation went very smoothly today. In fact, the doctor now isn't sure if Mackenzie had a cholesteatoma at all. It may have just been some sort of "granulation tissue" that has formed in his ear. In any case, he sent it to the pathology lab to have it tested out. Also, he had hoped to be able to do everything through the ear canal but that did not happen so he did have to do the mastoidectomy and ended up removing the malleus and part of the stapes (these are ear ossicles). This will leave Mackenzie with significant hearing loss until he has his second operation in 6-12 months to reconstruct everything. Here are a couple of hospital pictures. The first one is a shot of our cutie all bandaged up and sleeping right after surgery. The second is his alligator all ready for surgery.

We ended up staying at the hospital a lot longer than we thought we would. We went in at 7:30 this morning and weren't discharged until after 7:00pm. The reason for this was that Mackenzie wouldn't wake up! And the few times he did, he was in pretty bad pain so we gave him more medicine that made him fall back to sleep. Poor little guy! He is going to sleep with me tonight (Daddy gets the boot!).

More Sick Kids!

Right after Marty left to go pick up Lauren from school, I received a call from Austin's teacher that he was sick. So Marty picked him up, too and he has the flu or something. He can't hold anything down but has no fever. Then tonight, I was about to give Lauren a bath and noticed that she was burning up. I took her temperature and, sure enough, it was almost 102. But Nick is healthy!! LOL! Hopefully he will stay that way. Or else we will have a repeat of a night I would rather forget. I did a layout on that evening:

The journaling reads: This was the sickest you all have ever been at the same time. On this particular evening, you all had a temperature over 104 degrees and no one was moving at all! This was a very long night for Mommy because Daddy was out of town. I took you all to the doctor and she said that you all had the flu. She prescribed Nick and Austin some flu medicine but Lauren and Mackenzie had already had it too long. I hope we don’t have many more episodes like this. It’s just so sad to see you all this sick. You were all just miserable.

Well, hopefully all of the medical posts will stop soon and I can get back to scrapping. I have a couple of almost-complete kits sitting on my hard drive just waiting for finishing touches so hopefully I will get those finished up in the next few weeks.

Tomorrow ... 8am sharp.

My little Mackie gets his ear surgery in the morning. I have been a nervous wreck all day. One of the moms at the gym today said she will be praying for strength for Mackenzie and courage for me and Marty. And that is exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks Kathryn! And thank you to everyone else who has sent such kind words and well wishes. The surgery starts at 8am and will last anywhere from 2-4 hours. I will give an update as soon as I can.

Here is a layout I created a couple of days ago to try to put some of the feelings I was having into a layout. The three tacks in a row form 'dot, dot, dot' which means I Love You.

I thought this Winnie the Pooh quote was perfect:

"If the person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear."

Journaling reads: Just look at this cutie! Mackenzie and I were at Pizza Hut. I let him choose the restaurant. We had just come from Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth where he had a CAT scan that confirmed there is a cholesteatoma in Mackenzie’s right ear. It is a small growth in his middle ear caused by recurrent ear infections over the years. Luckily the doctor caught it while it is still small and has not caused any permanent damage. However, this small growth is the reason for a big operation. On March 6th, Mackenzie is going to have his first of two surgeries. This one is called a Mastoidectomy and basically involves drilling through the mastoid bone into the inner ear. This will damage the mastoid bone and the doctor will have to remove one or more of the ossicles in Mackenzie’s ear to get to the cholesteatoma. After the surgery, Mackenzie will have significant hearing loss in his right ear. This will be corrected with a second surgery in 6-12 months. In the second surgery, the doctor will check to make sure the cholesteatoma is 100% gone and then begin reconstruction of the mastoid bone. He will either use Mackenzie’s own bone or a prosthesis. Of course there are many risks with this type of surgery, but the risk of not doing the surgery is far greater. All of these medical terms above were unknown to me about a month ago. It’s amazing how much you learn when something like this affects your child. We are lucky that this is not more serious than it is but it is still hard not to worry. Mackenzie means the world to us and we just want to do whatever we have to do to keep him healthy. ~Robyn 2.27.2007

Credits: Paper by Michelle Coleman (Color Happy paper set), Tea stain overlay and happy border by Nancie Rowe-Janitz. Date stamp: Amber Clegg. Frame Denise Docherty. Alpha, tacks and staples - Iron Orchid Designs. All from Scrap Artist. Ear diagram and Pooh Bear images from the Internet. Fonts are Antique Type (Hope Wallace) and Century Gothic. Created in Photoshop CS2.

An update on Mackenzie

I mentioned a few weeks ago about the ear troubles my son, Mackenzie, is having. Well, he is scheduled for surgery next week. It will be on Tuesday, March 6th. Yesterday we went for our pre-op appointment and I realized this will be a bigger deal than I had originally thought. Mackenzie has a cholesteatoma. It is a small growth in his middle ear. It is just a small piece of skin but if left untreated will continue to grow and cause serious problems including hearing loss and possible meningitis and other complications. So, the doctor wants to do the surgery right away. This is a two (or possibly 3) surgery process. The first surgery is called a mastoidectomy and will cause Mackenzie to have significant hearing loss in his right ear. The second surgery will check to make sure the cholesteatoma is completely gone and then reconstruct everything. During the first surgery, the mastoid bone will be damaged and he will be removing one or more ossicles. When he does the reconstruction, he hopes to be able to use Mackenzie's actual bone but may use some type of prosthesis. There will be about 6-12 months between surgeries so when he does return to school, the doctor has suggested that he sit with his left ear facing the teacher.

He will have to miss a week of school after surgery and then our Spring Break starts so he will have a good 2 weeks to recover. However, when he does return, he will not be able to participate in PE or recess for 4-6 weeks. No strenuous physical exercise. This is a bit sad because Mackenzie was signed up for T-ball and we are going to pull him out of that because he would pretty much miss the whole season. He will also be restricted from flying for several months.

As you can probably guess, we are a bit nervous about this whole thing but the benefits far outweigh the risks and if we left it alone, he would almost certainly have permanent hearing loss. But the good news is that it was caught early and the prognosis is very good. I took this picture of little Mackie when we were at the hospital getting his CAT scan a few weeks ago. He takes "Allie" (the alligator) with him to all of his appointments!

Please keep Mackenzie in your prayers next week.

Thanks for the prayers!

Thank you to everyone who expressed concern about Mackenzie. His surgery yesterday went well. They just cleaned out his very clogged ears and he did not have to get tubes again and that is a VERY good thing for a boy who wants to swim this summer. However, the doctor ordered a CAT scan because he thinks Mackenzie might have something called a cholesteatoma. This is a small growth in the ear which, if left untreated, could cause serious problems including permanent hearing loss. So we're just going to wait for the results of the CAT scan and go from there. The doctor didn't give me any reason to believe this was a huge deal but that it can turn into one if we ignore it, so we are thankful that he has recommended the CAT scan so we will know what we are dealing with. We go on Friday to the Children's Hospital for the scan.

I loved having all of those layouts of Mackenzie in one post so I thought I would do that for each of my children. Most of you know that I have a daughter because she makes frequent (too frequent!) appearances in my layouts. But, I also have 3 sons. After putting all of their layouts in individual folders, I realize that I need to stop doing Lauren layouts and focus on the boys for a while! Today, I am going to show off my layouts of Nick. He's our oldest and the one most like me. I have a hard time believing he will be 10 this year. How did that happen? Nick is such a special boy and we are so lucky to have him. All his life, he has struggled with his shyness and it's so nice to see him starting to come out of it a little. I was the same way and didn't really get very outgoing until high school. I bet he will follow a similar pattern. But enough philosophizing (Is that even a word? If not ... I like it anyway!) ... here are some layouts of Nick. Click on the thumbnails if you would like to see larger images.